Da Mammamia Pizzeria

This place was occupied by Dune cafe before and now it turns to Italian Ristorante. It is located in Kiulap just opposite Escapade Sushi.

The spaghetti was nice and not too watery like in Country Patch but I do agree with our friend about the sauce taste; it tasted like the ready made sauce that you can get from the grocery store as compared to Country Patch spaghetti sauce, it has fresh tomatoes taste. However, the herb taste is there and proportionate and importantly, the ingredients are fresh.

Personally, I like the pizza base; it was dry and thin. The filling was average not that satisfying and we had chicken pizza.

Thank you to our friend for ordering this dessert and it's worth a try. I forgot what is it call now but it was rolled pizza dough with nutella. Mamma Mia! It was yummy; eat it while it's warm and we are definitely going to have it again in future.

Charcoal & Grill - Beef Wellington

Had dinner in Charcoal & Grill and opted for one of the new menu item. We have 2 options. The Beef Wellington @ 19.90 or the Seafood Salad @ 11.90.




Since there we not that many people the food arrived fairly quick.




The presentation was not that great but it was not bad either. the roasted vege looked a little lifeless but edible and had some taste to it. The beef was sandwich between two layers of puff pastry and under the pastry was a layer of potato gratin. I was hoping the potatoes would be crispier but my expectations were unfortunately not met.

The beef was succulent and cooked to perfection. The mushroom and chicken liver pate' went well with the beef. overall it was an ok meal.

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Bijan revisit with Food Lurver...

Just about a month ago, Food Fan wrote a review on Bijan restaurant and now here me again going to write something about it. I must say Food fan's mental note is quite powerful and this restaurant has been included in our "must go" list.

If I were not around during placing the order, I might not know this is Otak-Otak because I was expecting it to be wrapped in banana leaves. To eat it as it is, it was salty but bearable, can tell that the fish is fresh and the spices are just nice. Spread it on the toasted bread and have a go...eemmm... much better...

In the menu, it has stated red snapper but it did not taste like it... maybe it was not fresh and thus, totally lack of fishy taste... and what worse is the spices for this Ikan Percik was abit bland and therefore it did not satisfy my palate.

Of all, this is the dish of the night... Rusuk panggang or the grilled beef ribs. It was served with sambal belacan and soy sauce mixed with cut onions, chillies and lime juice (same dip for grilled fish). Well, I am pretty puzzled; grilled beef dip into sambal belacan, never try it before but seriously it did not goes well. Yes.. I am not meat fan except for chicken meat, to eat the meat as it is...emmm... can't take it much but when I dipped it into the soy sauce..oh yes...instantly I can taste it like canned cornbeef (but still can't eat it alot either because I am quite full). From a person who is not a meat lover, I do recommend this one... the meat is sweet and juicy...

There is abit of twist for this dish; Pucuk paku goreng tahi minyak or wild fern fried with caramelised coconut. Very creative and daring of mixing caramelised coconut to the vegetable but the richness of the coconut did not blend well, the vegetable was tasteless if you don't add the caramelised coconut together whereas simple stir fried pucuk paku with belacan or anchovies, you can leave out the anchovies but yet the taste of it still remains with the vegetable.

Little Penang in KLCC

The Char kway teow at Little Penang was recommended to us by someone before we left for Kuala Lumpur. The difference about this noodle is it was mixed with real crab meat (the white meat on top of the noodle) and clams. In the photo the Char kway teow may look ok but honestly, it was not and the taste is not that great either. The noodle texture is too soft, the crab meat was not fresh and abit oily.

Food Fan - We noticed that a lot of people ordered the same Char Kway Teow and from what we heard it is a must have.  Maybe the chef was off his/her game that day or maybe they just had a bad noodle day.  What was disappointing to me was the portion.  The picture does not do it justice.  From the top it looked as if it was a mini mountain of noddles when it fact the noodles were (at least in my very humble opinion) spread out around the plate thus it was more a valley then a mountain. 

This is my "all-time" favourite nyonya kuih; Pie Tee, first time I had it was during Chinese New Year ages ago and since then, this is a "must serve" dish for me if I visit my friend's house. Oh yes... home-made Pie Tee by my friend's mum who is a Baba Nyonya descendant, really love it...

Generally, the Pie Tee in Little Penang is good enough if you can't get a home-made one, the filling was tasty, it has cut prawns, tofu, sweet turnips and carrots but it was too oily and it was definitely the filling not the top hats cases. And personally, I would prefer the filling to be mixed with mushrooms.

Food Fan - I never had Pie Tee and was pleasantly surprise by the taste and texture.  Once again, the oil spoilt the meal for me but the texture and the combination of the ingrediants managed to overcome the oily feeling.. for a while.

Oh...this is a gorgeous drink; Ice Barley with lime, cooling down and refreshing. This is a must try drink!...

Chakri Palace

Food fan and I were really on "restaurant hopping", started from Nasi Lemak Adik for lunch, Nandos grilled chicken (it was my plan to have Nandos chicken and thanks to Food fan for helping me out eating some of the portion), Little Penang for 'heavy' hi-tea then desserts at Imperial Chakri Palace and not forget to mention our takeaway from Sudanese restaurant few doors before Chakri Palace...

Not much to comment about the dessert, I had Chakri Fruity Sago; fresh melon, honeydew, mango, sweetcorn, sago and red ruby in coconut milk. It was served chilled, adequate sweetness and the coconut milk was not too rich which was fine with me.

Food Fan  -  I had the mango and jelly.  The jelly was a very hard and did not feel like jelly.  The mango was really nice but I suspect it had more to do with nature than the chef itself.

We did not order any of the other dishes because by that time we were stuffed... and we were preparing ourselves for a big meal that night.

The Nasi Lemak Quest

Initially we planned to write up every review as we go along but we had problems accessing the blog.  Anyway we started our day with a good old fashion unhealthy malay breakfast. (If anyone can argue that Nasi Lemak is healthy, please post your arguments)

Techinically it was not really breakfast.. more like brunch.  Had nasi lemak from the Nasi Lemak Adik stall at the Signatures Food Court in KLCC.
 


We decided on a plate of Nasi Lemak Rendang ayam.  You get the usual condiments ie kacang & ikan bilis (a.k.a pusu), sambal (chilli paste), slices of cucumber, the rendang ayam (chicken rendang) itself and ofcourse the nasi lemak. (coconut rice). One additional ingredient was also given.. ie oil.. lots of it.

The stall offered an array of dishes to go with the nasi lemak which we did not manage to get a picture off because there were a lot of people queing to get their orders in.  We decided in adding 3 more side dishes to go with the nasi lemak.  Paru (a.k.a ati buyah), rendang daging (beef rendang) and sambal sotong (squid sambal)

In general it was not as great as we thought it was going to be.  The rice lacked the 'lemak' factor which is key when it comes to nasi lemak.  The sambal was not as hot or as tasty as I hoped it would be. It tasted like those sambals you can get in tinned cans at cornershops or the supermarket.  The abundance of oil was an issue for both of us and it really spoilt the meal.

From the 3 side dishes we ordered, the squid sambal tasted really good.  I believe it could have tasted even better without the extra oil.  The spices were well blended and not too hot.  Of all the dishes I felt the squid sambal went well with the rice.

The beef rendang and chicken rendang tasted the same so the only difference was the texture of the meat.  The coconut and the spices fully enveloped the meat and although it tasted ok, I am unable to describe how good it was then which leads me to believe that it was not memorable.

The paru was seasoned and fried and in some cases friend too dry, but since Food Lover managed to gobble a few I suppose it was good. (Food Lover is not a big beef, lamb, meat - except for chicken - fan)

In general it could have tasted better.  I like the fact that you can get a lot of dishes to go with your nasi lemak instead of the normal, egg, chicken and beef option. 

The squid sambal was a nice surprise spoilt only by the sea of oil floating under the rice and the other dishes.

This is part of our on going quest of finding the best nasi lemak in Brunei and possibly in Malaysia (ie if we are unable to find one in Brunei) so expect more nasi lemak reviews

O'Briens Sandwich

Food Lover and I are on an eating expedition in KL this weekend.  We have a long list of restaurants which we would like to visit but only have 24 hours to do so.  Can we do it?  We can sure try!  Will we be stuffed with food at the end of the day?  Heck Yeah!  Will it spoil my diet?  Hell Yeah!

Anyway, we arrived last night and made a brief stop to O'Briens in the airport for a sandwich.  O'Briens is located not far from Burger King so most Bruneians will be able to find it. 

We had the Smoked Salmon Sandwich with cream cheese on wholemeal bread.  Both pieces of bread were lightly coated with cream cheese. The salmon was carefully arranged and topped up with generous amounts of lettuce. The bread was soft and neither thin or thick in other words.. simply yummy.  The Salmon and cream cheese was not over powering but instead complimented each other.  The sandwich was "distributed proportionately" as you can taste each ingredient and the combination worked well.  Will definitely attempt to try out the rest of the menu....maybe not this weekend but on some other trip.  

Surprise...surprise...surprise...

It may look ok but...

This is what we found in the veg... a snail (well, don't know exactly the specific name of the snail).

Well, I am not sure to share this thing but then on second thought, why not...

Maybe some of you will be able to guess that this food was served in a hospital as the cover of the food container has the diabetic label. Yes... this food was served in RIPAS which was cooked by Royal Brunei Catering (RBC).

Lucky enough my grandaunt has spotted the snail at her spoon before it went into her mouth. This shows that they have not been careful enough during cutting up and washing the vegetables. Sadly, this happened to patients in a hospital where cleanliness is highly expected and important.

Revisit... Country Patch

No plan to do review Country Patch during the visit but as usual, we never stick to original plan...

Very short review from me, basically on that day all of us stay positive. For me, it is not that the food was under expectation but it is just right and we see as more to "healthy way" but definitely not totally especially my lunch; chicken chop with fries.

Personally, I found the spaghetti is lack of the herbs flavour and in my case, I like basil and oregano; smells nice and makes the sauce tasty too.

The chicken chop with black pepper sauce, although it is deep fried but it is not too oily...

Food fan enjoy Bangers & Mash and I like the mashed potato as our friend said it has buttery flavour...yeahh...

This is the dish of the day... Calamari...yesss... it is not chewy as most other places would have serve. Highly recommended to calamari lovers...

At last, gorgeous chocolate fudge cake (if I am not wrong with "the fudge" but definitely sure chocolate cake) as a dessert... once in awhile treat.