Two Hands @ Qliq Hotel, Damansara Perdana

Fabulous Superfood

It’s been 8 months since Two Hands came to our dining scene in Damansara Perdana and yet, many have yet to discover this amazing restaurant serving wholesome superfood dishes. Headed by Chef Vicneswara Thenamirtham (better known as Chef Vic to his regulars), Two Hands denotes the partnership of producers and consumers.

Located in Qliq Hotel in Empire Damansara, Two Hands serves Chef Vic’s signatures of comfort food set in a beautiful and minimalist restaurant. The restaurant caters to Qliq Hotel guests hence its open as early as 7am till 12 midnight daily.

We adored the simple but beautiful ambiance of the industrial vibe décor from its shades of dark blue walls contrasting to the off-white brick wall as well as the open red pipes and various modern lightings. Everything is in sight from its open bar to the open kitchen, what you see is what you get. A corner filled with old knick-knacks add charm to this comfortable ambiance.

The menu is filled with assorted dishes from all over the world. Not limited to anything, Chef Vic focuses on dishes that warms the tummy and soul, food that is comforting yet healthy and nutritious. He assures diners that no MSG is used and uses locally source ingredients from local producers as much as possible to ensure freshness. He also includes gluten-free and vegan-friendly dishes to cater to health-conscious eaters.

Anytime is a good time for cocktails! That said, one must try Two Hands’s list of unique and delicious cocktails. From Jack Jean Paul (RM44), Coffee Chanel (RM31) to Coconut Coach (RM32) and Cucumber Chloe (RM37), we enjoyed them all. Each one with their own refreshing flavours, these will guarantee a good evening of relaxation along with a yummy meal. My personal favorite was the Cucumber Chloe and Jack Jean Paul!

Our first starter was a pretty and colourful plate of Hummus 3 Ways (RM28). Nutty and garlicky Tahini, tangy Beetroot and creamy sweet Pumpkin, the trio of hummus are sublime. Served with bread of the day, the hummus are great starters with bold punchy flavours to whet the appetite for more to come.

The dish to rave at Two Hands is the Crispy Parmesan Cauliflower (RM22). Piled high on a bed of dill yoghurt sauce, local organic cauliflower florets is lightly battered in a mixture of chickpea, tapioca and rice flour.

Gluten free and vegan-friendly, the golden crispy florets is amazingly light with a creamy soft center. The flavours are moreish and tasty, enhanced by the blanket of Parmesan cheese and smoked paprika. Best savored hot, the cauliflower is still really yum when its cool down to room temperate. This dish is so simple but is superb in every bite!

We also tried the Apple & Walnut Salad (RM21), a light and crisp gluten free and vegan green salad tossed with Greek Yoghurt and organic honey. Easy on the palate, a healthy plate of greens to enjoy.

More sharing starters as we shared the Salted Egg Custard Prawns (RM28) and Smoked Albondigas & Cinnamon Rolls (RM31).

The Salted Egg Custard Prawns is unctuously creamy, a luscious concoction with prawns. Chef Vic serves his dish with homemade croissant. Unusual but the buttery French croissant added a lovely aroma to our local favorite dish.

The Smoked Albondigas & Cinnamon Rolls turned out even better in terms of pairing. It was odd at sight to see the delicious lamb meatballs served with cinnamon rolls. However, after savoring them together, the pair turned to be a match made in heaven in terms of flavours. The tender and juicy lamb meatballs in tangy tomato sauce was already very tasty on its own but when savored with the flaky cinnamon pastry, the combo was really scrumptious in flavours. The cinnamon really worked well in enhancing the flavours of the tomato sauce along with the other spices in the smoky meatball.

One can’t go wrong with rice and chicken, especially a flavourful one as the Grilled Portuguese Chicken & Dirty Rice (RM58). A whole Maryland seasoned with spices, is beautifully grilled and served on dirty rice. A hodgepodge concoction of liver and other spices, the dirty rice was fluffy and tasty, Served on a hot plate, the charred bits of the rice was sublime while the chicken was moist, tender and deliciously flavoured.

A sharing plate of 4-Hours Beef Short Ribs (RM112) proved that good food should be shared. Salt baked slowly for 4 hours, the beef rib has that beautiful melt-in-the-mouth texture plus delicious tasty notes. Served on a generous bed of creamy garlic and veggie mashed potatoes with a finishing of chicken floss, the beef is one dish that not only taste yummy but is packed with all the goodness of well-balanced meal. Portion is generous enough to share with at least two hearty eaters.

The Pulled Beef Pasta (RM57) faired decent with good notes of pasta cooked al dente in hearty savory and moreish sauce. Generously studded with pulled tender beef, brined carrots, asparagus and cheese, the pasta has that familiar comfort flavours that one can enjoy often…

Two Hands also has a special lunch menu. Slashes for Lunch offer diners a choice of main dish that comes with a choice of Americano or Fruit Juice. Available from 11am to 3pm on Mondays to Fridays, we tried their Thai Green Curry (RM18) served in tiffin for that extra touch. Chef Vic puts his own spin on his Thai Green Curry. Its milder than the classic version but has a delicate richness of herbs and spices that one can enjoy with rice and fried egg without feeling heavy.

We finished our meal with their house made Strawberry Jelly Cheese Cake (RM14) and Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream. Both desserts are gluten free and vegan friendly too.

The Strawberry Jelly Cheese Cake is a very moist and dense cake made from cream cheese and toasted desiccated coconut, topped with strawberry jelly and chocolate shavings. Its superb and not overly sweet, perfect to enjoy without the guilt!

Two Hands certainly won brownie points for showcasing a lovely superfood menu that is great for those who are health-conscious and yet enjoy the delicious flavours of Chef Vic’s creations. It also is a great place to enjoy a beautiful meal in its lovely ambiance. This place warrants a few returns…

TWO HANDS

Jalan PJU 8/8,

Damansara Perdana,

47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Tel: 012-424 1194

Facebook: www.facebook.com/twohandsrestaurant/

Epic Fit Meals Co. @ Damansara Perdana

Made by Day, Gone by Night … Eat Healthy with Epic Delivery!

It’s hard to eat Healthy! At least for me, balancing family time with my full-time work and blogging leaves me little time to cook as often as I like. I try to eat healthier at times but when you are just short of time, dining out is the easiest and fastest option at times. Then a friend introduced me to Epic Fit Meals Co. recently.

Epic Fit Meals Co. proud themselves by their concept of healthy and affordable food with epic delivery services. Located at Damansara Perdana, one can dine at their limited dining space at their shop or simply order a take-out. Epic Fit Meals Co. is owned by three partners who shared the passion for serving healthy food fast to their customers. Opened for 6 months, they have two main focus of serving healthy food and the best delivery services possible. While many tend to focus on the food, Epic Fit Meals Co. has set their goals in their food concept, the packaging, the food quality and the delivery.

One of the partners had lived in Melbourne for 6 years and has always enjoyed healthy simple and comfort food. When such concept in mind, Epic Fit Meals Co. pays tribute to their concept by using fresh ingredients bought daily and cook everything from scratch so that their diners enjoy real homemade healthy dishes.

There are many food services also provided healthy food concepts but at Epic Fit Meals Co., one does not need to pre-order their food. One just needs to put in an order and they should get their order within 45 minutes with delivery services in their listed areas of delivery. If the delivery coverage is out of area, then a long wait may be required. Another plus point for Epic Fit Meals Co. is that delivery services is free and prices are net as GST is already included into the prices so one knows how much they are going to be paying for the meal upfront with no extra hidden costs. They may not have halal certification but we were ensured that their ingredients used are from halal certified suppliers and all their staff are local workers.

The menu at Epic Fit Meals Co. is surprisingly quite long with good variations of Epic Chicken with various Sauces, Epic Artisan Wrapper, Gourmet Flying Pizza, Epic Classic, Side dishes, Epic Salads and Juices. Every dish is carefully measured and the portion with calories are listed in the menu as well. Watch out for promotional sets during festive seasons.

From the Epic Chicken, there are two choices of chicken served. Simply choose from Grilled Chicken or ‘Fried’ Chicken Schnitzel and then select one of the seven choices of sauces available.

We started with Epic Grilled Chicken with Apple Salsa (RM12.80) - 25 kcals per serving. The grilled chicken was moist and tender and I really enjoyed the tangy fruity apple salsa on the chook. Vibrant and fruity flavours from the apple salsa is very enjoyable. The dish also doesn’t leave a heavy note after savoring it.

‘Fried’ Chicken Schnitzel with Country Gravy (RM13.80) - 52 kcal per serving is technically not deep fried. Instead, one gets lean chicken meat breaded in breadcrumbs, herbs and spices and then is oven baked ‘fried’ till crispy. The country gravy is a homemade brown gravy that decent in taste. If you prefer the sauce to be serve separately, do make sure to specify this and let the ordering team know else all sauces are poured over the chicken unless specified.

From the Epic Artisan Wrapper section, we tried their Good Ol’ Breakie (RM12.80) - 415 kcal per serving and Zesty Thai (RM12.80) - 391 kcal per serving. Good Ol’ Breakie has a filling of grilled chicken fillet with pico de gallo, scrambled egg and sour cream wrapped in flour tortilla wrappers before being finished on the Panini pressed to toast them up. Zesty Thai has Thai flavoured minced chicken paired with lettuce, carrot and sour cream. While one echoed breakfast flavours, the second had more of a spice heated flavours. Both are nicely tangy from the sour cream used.

I really like their pizzas. Served thin crust style, we went for their fusioned flavour of Gourmet ‘Flying’ Pizza of 3A: Apple, Ayam & Api (RM19.80) - 545 kcal per serving and a classic one of Gourmet ‘Flying’ Pizza of Pollo Supremo (RM19.80) - 565 kcal per serving. The 3A: Apple, Ayam & Api is spicy in heat with its combo of minced chicken, apple, chili, onion and mozzarella cheese. I like the kick of heat as it boosted the flavours of pizza to our Malaysian flavours. The Pollo Supremo was not too bad with its spiced lean chicken paired with mushrooms, bell peppers and mozzarella cheese but if you like spicy heat flavours, go for the 3A pizza.

There are Sides and there are Epic Sides! From Epic Sides, we had their Crunchy Fire Chookies (RM5.80) - 233 kcal per serving, Epic’s Cauli-Rice (RM5.80) - 134 kcal per serving and Mashed Sweet Potatoes (RM5.80) - 271 kcal per serving.

I must say that one should definitely order their Epic Sides. The Crunchy Fire Chookies has chicken breast breaded and oven baked. I like how crispy the chicken is plus how juicy the meat is. Armed with a spicy flavour, these little nuggets are quite addictive. Good chicken nuggets and definitely must order…

The Epic Cauli-Rice is perfect for Paleo diet diners as one can enjoy the delicate flavours of the minced cauliflower seasoned with a secret blend of herbs and spices while the Mashed Sweet Potatoes has steamed Japanese sweet potato mashed and served with its skin too for extra vitamins.

Irish Colcannon (RM4.80) – 122 kcal per serving, caught my attention from the Side menu. It’s basically mashed potato with cabbage and leeks, a classic dish taken from Irish cuisine. There is a brown gravy served with it. I cannot taste the cabbage and leeks as the brown gravy seemed to have masked the vegetables.

Choices of beverage are very minimal and Epic Fit Meals Co. only has four types of Juices. We tried all four juices of Agua Mello Smoothie (RM8.80) - 61 kcal, Classic Trifecta (RM7.80) - 78 kcal, Red Apple Honey Smoothie (RM8.80) - 79 kcal and Coolie Beauty (RM7.80) - 41 kcal. My favorite of the lot was the Coolie Beauty with its combination of cucumber, apple, celery, ginger and lemon. They have also added Vitamin Water to the menu recently.

It’s great to be able to order and enjoy healthy food for a change. With many now having busy work schedules, it’s great to have Epic Fit Meals Co. nearby so we can at least try to eat healthier without the hassle of cooking on some days!

EPIC FIT MEALS CO.

E-105, Grounfd Floor,

Metropolitant Square,

Damansara Perdana, Selangor

Tel: 03 7733 3375

Website: www.epicfmco.com.my

Facebook: www.facebook.com/epicfmco

Business Hours: 11am to 11pm (Last order at 10.30pm)

Boat Noodle @ Empire Damansara

9 New Dishes to Tempt You!

Our culinary industry has really been boosted by many international cuisine around the world in this era. With many being able to travel and with let’s not forget the speed and power of social media, the choices of cuisine available in our country is really mind-boggling. I am not complaining, in fact, I am happy as can be as one really need not travel far to get a taste of other cuisines in the world.

When Boat Noodle hit the F&B scene, the founder Mr. Tony Lim, also Executive Director, didn’t expect such a big welcome by Malaysians’ taking a huge interest in boat noodles or kuai tiao ruea. It is certainly not new to our country as these noodles are a national dish in our neighboring country Thailand.

The Thais also shares the same passion as we Malaysians in the food scene. Said to be have been served since 1942 according to Wikipedia, these noodles were served from vendors who lives along the Bangkok canals and uses their boat as their vehicle to travel. It is indeed a challenging task to sell noodles in a boat but I think the Thais have years of practice and has mastered the art of single handedly maneuvering the river currents and whipping up bowls after bowls of noodles.

Getting back to Boat Noodle, the menu started with basics of the boat noodles served in mini proportions. The concept to dare Malaysians on how many bowls of noodles one can eat seemed to have taken the nation by storm. Eager foodies like me would queue in long queues when Boat Noodles first open its first outlet Empire Damansara. As one waited in queue, the aromatic spices of meaty soups are tempting foodies and convincing them it’s worth the wait.

After more than a year, Boat Noodle still has it going for many. Visiting the original outlet in Empire Damansara, the place was still packed. Though the queue is not as long as before, business is still really buzzing. Wait staff scurrying around balancing trays of boat noodles as many are seen eagerly waiting and chatting. The air in the restaurant smells wonderfully comforting. We were here for a taste of their new menu. After months of sorting out the operations of Boat Noodles, this eatery has now grown to a staggering 9 outlets within a year’s operations and is also now able to offer diners more choices of Thai dishes.

As Boat Noodle import quite a fair ingredients from Thailand for authenticity, I was told that quite a few items were not available in their drink menu. I was still pleased though as there is a new beverage of Iced Blended Coconut added to the menu recently. The icy creamy smoothie is pretty amazing with its rich aromatic coconut flavour. It can be filling but I am not complaining… yum!

Before we hit the new dishes, we savored the signature boat noodles of course! Basically there are four variations of boat noodles served with two main soup broths of Pathumthani and Ayutthaya.

If asked to choose between beef or chicken, I seemed to gravitate more towards the beef for its richer and robust beef notes of the beef and its spices. I also prefer the Ayutthaya for its extra creaminess in the broth. I don’t mind the rest as I think they were all good on their own flavours.

A bowl of noodle is barely two mouthfuls but it is indeed fun to see how many bowls can one slurp up! I heard the record of the most bowls of noodles consumed at one go was 77 bowls for men and 74 bowls for women. That’s insane… especially for the women… whoever you both may be, my utter respect and salute to you!

The Pathumthani Beef Thai Rice Noodle (RM1.90) and Ayutthaya Beef Thai Rice Noodle (RM1.90) is a bowl bursting with earthy rich notes of beefy flavours spiced up. The broths are both laced with aromatics such as star anise and cinnamon and one is creamy while the other is not. There is an edge of tangy flavours in the broth as well. The noodles are thin and smooth so slurping them is delicious. There bits of minced beef and half a beef ball in the noodles too. Chopped water spinach stalks and fried garlic added textures.

The Pathumthani Chicken Thai Rice Noodle (RM1.90) and Ayutthaya Chicken Thai Rice Noodle (RM1.90) was also good but the broth was lighter since its chicken. It still has got a good kick of the spices. There are some shredded chicken meat on the noodles together with the water spinach stalks and fried garlic.

Besides slurping bowls after bowls of noodles, one can now order other new dishes such as Thai Popeye’s Tempura (RM6.90), its water spinach leaves or kangkung in a light tempura batter fried till golden and served with Soot-Yot dip. Soot-Yot means awesome and indeed the sauce is pretty fabulous. It’s got a good hit of heat and is lightly tangy and moreish. I love the sauce so much I actually put it on my other dishes.

Next up, Kra-Pow Chicken Rice (RM11.90) is my all-time-favorite Thai comfort food. Its minced chicken stir fried with Thai Basil leaves and is served with rice and fried egg. It’s very common and can be seen almost everywhere in the streets of Thailand. The version here is pretty yum. It has a nice balance of savory flavours but it is the unique basil leaves that makes this dish unique.

I like simplicity in food because flavours tend to be more distinctive from its ingredients. Do try the Bangkok Ommelette with Sood Yot Sauce Rice (RM11.90) as it is a basic dish of fluffy golden ommelette enveloping steamed rice and served with the fabulous spicy piquant Soot-Yot sauce again. Simple but satisfying for me…

The skinny Chicken Wings (RM4.90) that arrive may look a bit sad in portion but it is delicious in flavours. It is well-seasoned and crispy. I didn’t think it needed any sauce and this is great for snacking… now give me 10 bowls of this lah…

Grilled Beef Meat Ball (RM5.90) and Grilled Chicken Meatball (RM4.90) are decent but nothing to shout about. Its good as fillers and great for those who loves meatballs.

Yum Mama (RM8.50), Yum Woon Sen (RM13.00) and Yum Meatball (RM8.90) are three new Thai salads introduced recently. Yum Mama features the classic Thai instant noodles salad studded with chicken sausage, crab sticks, onions and green vegetables dressing in lime dressing. Yum Woon Sen very spicy and has vermicelli noodles tossed with shrimp, crab stick, lots of onions and vegetable in the similar tangy dressing. Yum Meatball has meatball as the main ingredient of the salad in the same tangy dressing.

I really love their Thai Fruit Salad (RM6.90). The fruit salad is super spicy and is a vibrant bowl of fresh fruity flavours. Grapes, cherry tomatoes, corn and peanuts are some of the ingredients in the salad. It was so good, we had to order a second bowl!

If you are hankering for something sweet and light then the new dish of Sangkaya may be your cake. Steamed fluffy bread is served with Boat Noodle’s kaya, a thinner consistency egg custard that the Thais enjoy.

Another Thai dessert available at Boat Noodle is Ka Num Tuay (RM1 for 2 pieces), a lightly sweet and cream custard made from rice flour, coconut milk, pandan leaves and sugar.

It’s a nice touch to introduce more dishes to Boat Noodle fans as I am sure many will appreciate the more variety concept here. Malaysians do love varieties and the more choices the better for us I guess.

Boat Noodle has 9 locations now in Empire Damansara, The School at Jaya One, Ikon Cheras, Berjaya Times Square, Publika, Sutera Mall (JB), Gamuda Walk (Kota Kemuning), Klang Parade and D’Pulze Cyberjaya.

BOAT NOODLE

G3A, Heritage Lane,

Empire Damansara,

Damansara Perdana,

47820 Petaling Jaya

Tel: +6019-477 3119 / +6016-330 4762 / +6019-675 6138

Facebook: www.facebook.com/meesampan

Business Hours:

Daily 11.00am till 9.00pm