Taste Enclave, Avenue K : Xi Qing Seafood and Grandeur Teppanyaki

Round Two with Mini Restaurants!

Back here again, this time for a taste of their mini restaurants at Taste Enclave, located at Avenue K. The last time I was here, I only managed to try one dish. Now that we have round up more foodies, this round we feast on more dishes at their mini restaurants.

Since I have discovered Taste Enclave, I have been back several times with my family. I really enjoyed the Heun Kee Claypot Rice and Roti Prata from Jalan Kayu Prata a lot. The ambience is pretty comfortable for a food atrium and the ventilation is good. So whenever I am in the city, I tend to favor a trip to Taste Enclave for a bite.

A little bird told us about the Asam Curry Steamed Fish at Xi Qing Seafood! So the few of us gathered our empty stomach and had a yummy dinner there one evening. As usual, our eyes are bigger than our stomach, a lot of the dishes sounded really yum on the menu. Since we were going to go for rice, we also order some dishes from Grandeur Teppanyaki as well.

First up steamy and fiery looking Asam Curry Steamed Fish looked so inviting. As we were taking photo, we all commented how good this smells…

A whole tilapia is smothered in a pool of liquid rich and creamy curry. Though pale and yellow, the curry is so flavorful and robust. The strong flavors of sourness balanced with the spicy creaminess beautifully. Thick and luscious, I drenched my rice and also happily drank the curry sauce spoonful after spoonful.

The curry is also studded with loads of vegetables like lady fingers, eggplant, long beans, tomato and onions. I tasted lots of spices and herbs like lemongrass, ginger torch and curry leaves besides the usual spice paste. Though the curry is bold in flavors, it doesn’t overwhelm the sweet firm flesh of the tilapia. This is indeed a winner… I would be happy just devouring this Asam Curry Steamed Fish with white rice!

Who doesn’t love a good braised porcine? This one is loaded with layers of plump tender dark meat with layers of gelatinous skin. Stewed Pork Trotter is braised in a solid robust brown sauce. Plus points for this dish goes to the fact that the sauce is not overly thicken as sometimes most tend to be and it is loaded up with lot of vegetables and mushrooms to lighten up the heavy meat. The sauce is a wee bit too sweet for me but no one else shared the same point of view with me so maybe it’s just me.

I had the Chicken with Salted Egg in my first round and loved it. This round equally satisfied my taste bud. Look at the golden salted egg sauce coating the crisp fried chicken and tell me this dish doesn’t do it for you… hehehe.

It is a very rich dish but hey, its dishes like this that gives me pure satisfaction. The crispy chicken still has a good crispiness and the sauce, the delectable salty creamy sauce is such an indulgence. It is spiked up with lots of curry leaves and chili to aromatized and add more depth of flavors to the dish. Word of advice, eat this while hot for the best flavor. Love it!

On a personal note, I like bean curd, in any form for that matter. The soy bean cake can really take on any flavors of savory, sweet, sour and spicy. Our Golden Mushroom Beancurd is comfort food. Housemade beancurd is soft inside and crisp outside. A standard savory egg sauce with lots of chopped up vegetables with prawns provided the comfort flavors while the crispy golden fried mushrooms crown the beancurd.

We also had Three Various Eggs with Vegetables, another hearty and simply comfort dish that never fails to please many. Spinach is cooked in a light stock filled with eggs, three types to be exact. You get the regular soft egg, the fabulous salted egg and the wobbly century egg. Flavors are pretty delicate but I don’t mind as I have always enjoyed soft cooked spinach is a soothing broth.

Our last dish from Xi Qing Seafood was Mushroom Omelette. This one is pretty interesting.  I can’t seemed to pinpoint exact flavors of the dish but it’s a fluffy omelette filled with a mushroom filling before being dressed with a creamy golden sauce and topped with lots of bonito flakes.

Once the bonito flakes touch the heat of the dish, it started doing its dancing trick, making one think it’s almost alive. The bonito added a deep salty rich flavor to the egg. The egg is fluffy and creamy together with the sauce while the mushrooms and beansprout lent a lovely texture and flavor. Pretty unique!

Now one can also sit at the Grandeur Teppanyaki mini restaurant to enjoy the live kitchen action when the chefs do all the flipping cutlery actions. We had the dishes to our table near to the other restaurant.

We had their bestsellers – Honey Glazed Chicken Chop, Beef Steak, Salmon and John Dory Fillet Teppanyaki. There seemed to be two sauces of black pepper and brown sweet sauce.

The Beef Steak Teppanyaki is juicy and scrumptious. I tasted lots of garlicky notes with succulent beefy flavors and hits of black pepper.

The Salmon Fillet Teppanyaki fared better that the John Dory Fillet Teppanyaki in my books. The salmon is gorgeous soft and moist. The sautéed garlic and onion bits are super yum and aromatic. The brown sweet sauce reminded me of teriyaki sauce and is also lovely. I am glad the put the black pepper on the side because it would have overpowered that beautiful salmon. Nothing to fault the John Dory Fillet Teppanyaki as it was nicely cooked but I just happened to prefer salmon most of the time.

Honey Glazed Chicken Chop is very delicious. The honey coated chicken is so succulent and cooked to perfection. You can see how the lovely caramelized and crispy edges on the chicken are. The light sweetness is also perfect and the side of crushed sesame seed provided much more flavor and texture. Must-order!

Dinner was really satisfying at Taste Enclave. What I enjoy was all the food minus the regular restaurant price. If you are looking for choice, this would also be another plus factor since Taste Enclave offers so many choices under one roof!

Good food, great price and a very cool ambience…

TASTE ENCLAVE

Lot L2-6B, L2-8, L2-9 & L2-10, Level 2

Avenue Shopping Centre,

No. 156, Jalan Ampang

50450 Kuala Lumpur

Website: www.tasteenclave.com

Business Hours:

Sundays to Thursday & Public Holidays        10am to 10pm

Fridays, Saturdays & eve of Public Holidays  10am to 11pm

*More photos available at my Facebook: Chasing Food Dreams

Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice Goes Italian at Fuzio Bar and Ristorante!

I like rice. Rice is great if you are hungry and want 2000 of something!

quoted by Mitch Hedberg

Rice is the staple of many cultures in the world. This tiny cereal grain is consumed widely throughout the day and in many forms. In fact according to Wikipedia, rice is the second highest production worldwide after corn in a data analysis in 2010. Rice cultivation, though not difficult, still requires precise environment with plenty of rainfalls. There are many types of rice and they can be categorized into long grain, medium grain and short grain.

I love rice. Like many others, I really enjoy the various varieties and also in many forms. To name a few, my favorite has to be the all-time-favorite national dish of Nasi Lemak. Fluffy grains of rice is tainted with creamy coconut milk and savored with a pungent sweet and spicy sambal. In my Chinese household, I also enjoy steamed rice with dishes. Sometimes I tend to go overboard with my helping of rice just because I love it so much. Then there is the time when I needed some comfort and I will go the porridge route. So when I got to know of a special menu concocted with Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice, I immediately accepted this with much excitement.

Jasmine Food Corporation, through Padiberas National Berhad (BERNAS), has been marketing and importing rice for more than 50 years. Jasmine has a wide range of rice available in the market. Though there are many varieties, Jasmine is proud to introduce its Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice. This grain is the top of the grade for Basmathi and is highly prized for its length and quality that yields aromatic, soft and fluffy rice.

Taking the Italian route, Fuzio Bar & Ristorante was handed the task to create dishes using the highly prized Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice. Located at Jalan Berangan in the bustling city among the busiest street in KL, Fuzio is a stop-one restaurant cum bar serving Italian cuisine. The restaurant and bar is housed in a three-story building where dining takes place on the ground and first level while the rooftop has a gorgeous open rooftop bar perfect for a cool hangout.

What make Fuzio really cool besides the dim lighted cozy ambience are the artistic posters and artwork placed all over the restaurant plus graffiti art at the rooftop bar. Table settings are set in pristine white. A long bar is available at one end while there is a huge wall housing racks of wines at the back of the restaurant. Coffee lovers would be please as there is also a serious coffee machine at the restaurant.

The evening took off with House White wine to be paired with the appetizer course. We also had some freshly baked Focaccia and Grissini baked in house served with the Italian way of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

First up were golden balls of Arancini. Now Arancini is usually made with risotto which uses short grain rice. Fuzio has cleverly used the Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice and stuffed these with mozzarella cheese. The golden Arancini is served on tomato sauce with roasted cherry tomato.

I love Arancini. In fact, I have made them myself simply because I love these little rice balls. Using the extra-long grain Basmathi rice, the Arancini is pretty scrumptious. Well crumbed and deep fried to golden brown, the Arancini is delicious. Though not as moist as the regular one, the Basmathi rice has a lovely light and fluffy texture in the Arancini. There is also some mozzarella cheese providing some oozy cheesiness. I enjoyed this very much with the tomato sauce.

Our mains arrived and we shared the tasting among the few of us. Starting off the list is Spring Chicken Stuffed with Basmathi Rice Pilaf. The whole spring chicken is dressed in a dark caramelized sauce with extra sauce beneath. Served with simple grilled bell peppers and roasted whole garlic bulbs, the chicken is cut open to reveal a very moist rice pilaf made with Jasmine Basmathi.

The chicken is well cooked and stayed tender and moist. What I enjoyed was the flavor of the marinade and sauce. There is a rich deep sweetness with a lovely umami note that made the young chook a hit. Though the stuffed rice pilaf wasn’t much to go around, I did manage a bite and it was lovely. Fluffy and fully flavored from the chicken essence and it also has a beautiful almost creamy and earthy flavor note.

If you are at Fuzio, order this dish. Though it may not come with stuffed rice since this is a special menu, the chicken is very yummy and juicy and is it also served with porcini risotto.

Somewhere in between, we had a House Red wine to go with our heavier mains. Lovely and full bodied with a beautiful finish…

Lamb Shank served with Porcini Rice Pilaf won many hearts that night, including mine. A gargantuan lamb shank trimmed and braised in a deep rich tomato base sauce has meat that fall-off-the-bone tender. The sauce goes really well, embodying the meat flavor beautifully.

The Porcini Rice Pilaf made with Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice is really scrumptious! I loved how moist the earthy the rice is and the flavors of deepen rich porcini mushrooms worked the rice like a charm. Bits of asparagus lent a lovely texture and flavor as well. I must say, the long grains of the rice can really soak up and take on flavors very well and yet it remains fluffy.

Honestly, I would enjoy this rice alone on its own…. Yum!!

Who doesn’t love a lovely cut of quality beef! Well unless you don’t eat beef of course… here sliced Angus Beef Tenderloin is served with Scented Rice and Mushroom Cartoccio. The beef is divine. Tender juicy pink beef topped with herb pesto is so delicious. The mushroom cartoccio is actually mushrooms cooked in a paper bag. Once the bag is open, an air of delicious mushroom aroma and flavors tantalized our senses. The rice is cleverly scented with lemongrass and has bits of veggies to brighten it up. Enjoy the rice with the mushroom sauce and beef and you’ll get a hearty comfort note.

We also had a Spicy Oxtail served with the same scented rice. Cooked in a light tomato base stew, the Spicy Oxtail was decent. To me, it needed more spices to pump up the flavors another notch. Maybe I am just being biased as I am used to richer robust strong oxtail stews. This one echoes more of the home-style Italian one. It does go very well with the rice and is comforting.

The Cod Fish with Porcini Rice Pilaf is literally to-die-for! Glorious big chunky slice of sweet cod seared and baked to perfection sat on a bed of the delicious Porcini Rice Pilaf. The one I had raved earlier with the Lamb Shank. Some grilled peppers and onions together with a savory sweet sticky sauce, the combination of fluffy earthy rice with the fish is a symphony of flavors and textures. I think fish and rice is always a great pairing.

Fuzio also has this on their menu but without the rice. Maybe they should update the dish to be served with rice from now on… I would order this again for sure.

The last two mains we had are seafood cooked in two styles and served with fluffy steamed Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice.

The first was Marinara in Tomato Base while the second was Marinara in White Wine Sauce. Both has lovely prawns, mussels, squid, clams and scallops. It was a battle between us as half of us loved the tomato base while the other half loved the white wine.

The tomato sauce was really well balanced and very smooth in flavors. It’s not heavy and goes well with the lovely separated grains of the Basmathi rice. The white wine sauce was more delicate and sweeter. It has a lovely note of herbs. My foodie friends drank the whole bowl happily.

Just when we thought we are done, we had an awesome dessert that was also made with rice! Simply named Mango Crisp, the kitchen team cleverly took a thick half of fresh ripe mango and paired it with a layer of Basmathi Rice and nuts before breading it and deep fried it. It is served with Vanilla Ice Cream and a Berry Coulis.

I can taste the sweetened flavored rice and the sweet mango. What a magnificent idea and combination. The tangy berry coulis balanced the sweetness while the creamy ice cream sent a thrill of iciness to the mango. I love the texture. The mango is soft but you still get a crunch from the rice, nuts and breadcrumbs. The dish reminds me of the classic Mango Sticky Rice but with a twist. Sensational ending to the evening…

I couldn’t stop raving about this dessert to the owner. I hope they put this dessert on their menu!

Rice is so versatile; there is so much we can do with it. There are so many varieties today in the market. The team at Fuzio Bar & Ristorante did a lovely job in whipping up the many dishes made or paired with the Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice.

Do head over to Jasmine website at www.jasmine.com.my for more information about Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Extra Long Grain Rice and other rice varieties with lots of recipes.

FUZIO BAR & RESTAURANT
29 Jalan Berangan, Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur.
Phone: 603-2110 0303

Website: www.fuziobar.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Fuziobar

*More photos available at my Facebook: Chasing Food Dreams

Aliyaa Island Restaurant & Bar, Bukit Damansara: Bodacious Sri Lanka Flavours and Healthy Heart Menu!

Great Flavours for Heart & Soul!

Making its ode to Sri Lanka cuisine, Aliyaa Island Restaurant & Bar has been serving up fine dining Sri Lanka menu to Klang Valley diners since a good few years back. Aliyaa, which means elephant in Singhalese, is located at the quiet neighborhood of Bukit Damansara. The restaurant cum bar honed into the world of spices where balancing them is an art by itself. Serving up authentic Sri Lanka dishes, many of its spices and ingredients are imported from Sri Lanka itself to ensure authentic flavours are achieved consistently.

Though one of the reasons we were here was to savor their Heart-Healthy Eating Menu approved by the National Heart Foundation, we were also impressed with a glimpse of what their regular Sri Lankan menu has to offer.

Opened for lunch and dinner, Aliyaa provides a lovely quiet ambience perfect for personal or business meals. The two-storey restaurant offers regular dining or private dining. It’s back to minimalist for the interior with elegant dark furniture and pristine white table settings. White walls are brighten up with gorgeous photographs and artistic paintings. Both floors has a long bar set up with many drinks to quench one’s thirst. Aliyaa even boasts to have one of the largest single malt whiskey collections in Malaysia for those hardcore whiskey fans. Though parking may slightly be harder during the day, it is pretty much easy in the evening.

Sri Lankan cuisine is very complex in flavours. Some say it’s due to the national geographic influences while others say it’s due to historical trade from its previous colonial powers that sums up the cuisine. Similar to the Indian cuisine in some ways, Sri Lankan cuisine is more distinctive in its own unique way. Using their own blend of spices coupled with the country’s ingredients like the famous Sri Lankan crab, Aliyaa Island Restaurant and Bar is up to showing what the nation’s cuisine is all about.

As mentioned earlier, the drink list is nothing short but exciting! We thoroughly enjoyed our Jaffna Bling Bling, Mojito and Lychee with Asam Boi. I adored the Jaffna Bling Bling made from Baileys, chocolate vodka and a series of other ingredients. Utterly creamy and silky, the cocktail is so deliciously inviting with a kick! The Mojito is fresh, minty and tangy with beautiful spiked up notes.

Our evening kicked off with the Sri Lankan Sambal Set which consisted of four sambals of Katta Sambal, Seeni Sambal, Pol Sambal and Karupillay Sambal served up with a bowl of crisp Pappadums. Beautifully presented, I was attracted to the gorgeous colors of the sambals at sight. All of these make excellent starters or to be savored with any Sri Lankan dishes of rice, noodles, appam and roti.

We were told to start off with the mildest one of Seeni Sambal, a lightly sweet caramelized onion relish that has hints of heat and tangy notes. The softness of the onions goes well with the crisp pappadums. Pol Sambal is very popular and is made from grated fresh coconut, dried chilies, onions, lime juice and curry leaves. The light orange hue denotes the stained coconut with the chilies. I like the freshness of the coconut flavours spiced up with chili together with citrus, sweet onions and aromatic curry leaves.

Karupillay Sambal showcases fresh curry leaves blended with chilies and spice. This one has a slight raw note but its hardly an obstacle as the blend of chilies is nothing short but spectacular in flavours. Fully aromatic with lovely heat, I kept on munching my pappadums with this one. We were warned that Katta Sambal is the spiciest among the four and told that the unique ingredient in this one is Maldive fish. Aliyaa imports the Maldive fish as it is only available in Sri Lanka or Maldives. It is basically a cured dried tuna. The Katta Sambal is super spicy and gets your adrenalin going after a few bites. I was practically hooked on this one.

The Sri Lanka Sambal set is so good, one may need to order more pappadums… just like we did!

Before we head on to the regular menu, Aliyaa is proud to offer their Heart-Healthy Eating menu that is now available at the restaurant. The menu showcases dishes whipped up with minimal or no oil and coconut milk. There are few main dishes to be savored with side dishes and vegetable dishes.

We tasted the Fish Curry where chunks of firm fish are cooked in a rich and tangy curry laced with fresh milk. It is practically oil free as the curry doesn’t have that usual layer of oil as most does. What the chef did was cooked the curry with lots of onions, spices and curry leaves for flavours.

To go with the main dishes, we had Vella Muddai, egg white hash cooked in very minimal olive oil and Bendi Oli, sliced ladies finger sautéed with onions,tomatoes and mustard seeds. It’s a great idea to savor egg white as it takes up the flavours of the Fish Curry and Bendi Oli beautifully.

Other dishes on the Heart-Healthy Eating menu include Chicken Curry, Chicken Salad, Fish Sothi, Red String Hopper, Puddu, Vendhyakulambu and Vallarai Sambal.

We continued our dinner with the regular menu. The Fish Cutlet arrived in golf balls size of golden crumbed cutlets beautifully halved and served with chili sauce. Perfectly crispy on the crumbs with soft creamy fish and potato filling, these have a light note of spices too. The Fish cutlet is very enjoyable as it is or with rice.

The next dish evoked much controversy. Lumprais or Lamprais, according to Wikipedia, is rice cooked in stock, dressed in special curry, accompanied by ‘frikkadels’ and wrapped in banana leaf to be baked in the oven. The rice and curry with other accompaniments are placed separately and not mixed up while being baked.

The version here at Aliyaa is slightly different. The cooked rice is mixed up with the curry of your choice from chicken, lamb, beef, seafood and vegetarian together with onions, egg, chili, cashew nuts and spices before being baked in banana leave. We had the Lumprais with Chicken. When the platter arrived, it sure smelled heavenly. The banana leaf aroma mingled with the scent of spices and exuded a very delicious aroma.

When we opened the package, we saw the rice all nicely mixed up with lots of ingredients. My first taste of the dish had me comparing this to our local nasi goreng. Though the rice is a bit wet from the drenched of the curry sauce, the flavours are beautifully comforting. The moist rice is nicely loaded with a well balance spice and heat combination. There are lots of textures in the dish from the chicken to the sweet onions, chili, cashew nuts and vegetables.

Ok, maybe it’s not the original looking Lumprais but it sure taste really good in my books… our table enjoyed this dish a lot!

We also had the String Hopper Kothu Chicken. Kothu is a famous street dish in Sri Lanka. Roti is chopped up with vegetables, egg, meat and spices on a flat heated iron pan using two blunt metal blades. String Hopper Kothu was born out of the need to use up left over string hoppers or idlyappam, thin strands of noodle like made from unprocessed brown rice.

It tasted almost like our rice vermicelli noodles but softer. Here it is literally chopped up with lots of onions, carrots, scallions and chicken. This one also has a light spice note and it quite mild in flavours with a slight tang. The Kothu corner has roti or string hoppers and guests can select from chicken, beef, lamb or vegetarian.

Aliyaa’s signature arrived in the form of Sri Lankan crab at RM13.90 per 100gm. Sri Lankan crabs are known for their size and sweet succulent meat. Here, these crustacean beauties are about 800gm to 1kg each. It is recommended to call in advance just to make sure to reserve these luscious beauties. One can have these prepared in five sauces from Colombo and Jaffna to Sweet & Sour, Black Pepper and Devilled.

We opted for the Sri Lankan Colombo Style Crab with the heat level of what local Sri Lankan would savor. The crab is indeed pretty large and is smothered in a dark rich brown sauce laced with loads of spices and chili heat. In fact, we were told that this secret recipe involves more than 20 spices.

A taste of rich robust sauce will hit your senses like a ten-ton truck. It’s loaded, fully loaded with bold spice flavours. Although the sauce is very spicy in heat terms, I must confessed that the sauce kind of mellow a bit after a while of consumption. The flavours actually grew on my tastebud and I can now taste a richness of the spice sauce. We were also told that the heat of the dish is derived from lots of cinnamon roasted and grounded with rice and coconut. I certainly learned a new thing today and that is that cinnamon is actually spicy in heat.

By the time I am done with the succulent sweet crab and spicy sauce, I did felt a sense of great satisfaction with the bold flavours of the Colombo Style Crab.

Just like our Chinese crab with bread, we also had Plain Doosara Roti (Pol Roti) where the pan grilled flat bread is served up with Pol Sambal. We used the flat bread to mop up the Colombo Style Crab sauce with much delight. Besides filling up, the bread also helps to tone down the heat levels of the sauce.

We also had Plain Appam and Appam Egg. These too can be enjoyed with any of the main dishes and sambals. I love how the egg is just cooked but the yolk is still oozy soft. Combine the rich yolks with the earlier sambals and I am set. Aliyaa makes awesome fluffy Appams… a must-order!

Our last main dish was Mutton Paal Poriyal, slow cooked mutton in a devilish spiced up sauce till it’s almost dry. The dish has a lovely aroma too, a bit heady with the spices. Laced with lots of curry leaves, the mutton is savory and spicy and melt-in-the-mouth tender. This dish is perfect with rice or roti.

Dinner ended on a flaming note! We had Appam Sugar, a dessert version of the fluffy Appam. Not just satisfied with this, we were told that there is an alcoholic version. And so, we were so excited to see some flaming actions on the brandy or Grand Marnier versions.

The Brandy and Grand Marnier was poured into the Appams and then quickly lighted up to burn off a bit of the alcohol.

When the fire died out, dive right in! These are O.M.G. good…

The edges of the Appam are crispy while the middle is fluffy, soft and now thoroughly moist from the alcohol with bits of caramelized sugar.

How good is this on a scale of one to ten?
An eleven in my books… order your own, you won’t want to share, trust me!

Another dessert that is also scrumptious is Vatilaapam, a rich cream caramel like pudding made from creamy coconut milk, brown palm sugar, eggs and spices. Though it has some air bubbles in the pudding, I still enjoyed the medium firm texture with a nice balance of cinnamon and cardamom. Its quite sweet and the eggy flavours does stand out. It can be quite rich so one may one to share.

Aliyaa Island Restaurant & Bar has really opened up my eyes and taste to Sri Lankan cuisine. Now I know why it is an art as it really takes experience and skills to get the right balance of spices in this cuisine. The cuisine itself is pretty humble too and is enriched with the many combinations of spices in each dish. Make sure to order their signatures or if you are health conscious, check out their new Heart-Healthy Eating menu and still enjoy a taste of Sri Lankan cuisine.

A LI YAA ISLAND RESTAURANT AND BAR 

48 G & M, Jalan Medan Setia 2
Bukit Damansara
50490 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603-2092 5378

Business Hour: Mon – Sun: 12.00 pm – 11.00 pm

Website: www.aliyaa.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/aliyaamalaysia

*More photos on my Facebook: Chasing Food Dreams