Foodarrific

One Sunday afternoon, we were in the vicinity of Sri Hartamas and ended up at Soho KL tucked away in a swanky part of town. After walking around undecided, we finally settled on Ole-Ole Bali, an Balinese (Indonesian) restaurant with both an indoor and an al fresco dining area. We chose to sit outside as only a couple of tables were occupied and there didn’t seem to be any smokers.

We ordered this Nasi Campur Ole Ole (Mixed Rice, literally) which comes with various accompaniments like shrimp, squid, chicken on a lemongrass stick, stir-fried veggie, salad and assorted sauces. Interesting and quite tasty.

The Ole-Ole Trio was also quite interesting with chicken on lemongrass sticks, crispy deep-fried shrimp, barbecued chicken wings, sliced cucumbers, tartar sauce and chilly sauces.

My son, who prefers Western food, ordered the next best thing, the BBQ Combo with chicken and lamb which turned out not to taste very Western after all. The lamb was tough and he didn’t like the taste of the sauce.

My other Western food lover decided the safest bet would be the more familiar-sounding Chicken and Chips. It tasted okay, just like any ordinary deep-fried chicken chop.

The food is interesting and presentation is great. The way we were eating, it was a good thing we decided to share our orders or we might’ve needed something akin to an rv towing service to get out of our seats. Indeed we would’ve been able to eat more if the food hadn’t been so overly greasy and salty. You know how I feel about that. I wouldn’t be in any hurry to go back again unless my bank account is overflowing .

Filed under: AsianMeatPoultryReviewsSauces & CondimentsSeafoodVegetables by chili queen - No Comments →

Friday’s has this Southwest Adobo Chicken on their new menu. What’s got us excited are the sweet potato fries it comes with! How cool is that!

But here it is – a healthier, naturally sweeter contender to the French fry we know and love so well. As you can see, this portion of sweet potato fries is way small for something that tastes so good.

So I went home and made a huge batch of it myself the next day. This is a recipe that came straight off the top of my head. I used to have a pretty good tempura batter recipe sitting around somewhere but I wasn’t about to go digging for it. So I improvised and came up with this.

• sweet potatoes, cut lengthwise French-fry style
• 3-4 tablespoons cornflour
• 1 tablespoon flour
• iced water
• pinch of salt and pepper, if desired

Combine flours and iced water into a batter. Feel free to add more water to achieve the desired batter consistency. Dredge the sweet potatoes through the batter and drop carefully into a pot of boiling oil on high heat.

Keep the heat on high throughout the process. Fish out the fries when they turn light golden brown. The cooking process will cause the fries to darken a little more after they’re removed from the oil.

It’s so simple, you should try this. Makes a great appetizer or finger food for guests. If you’re too lazy to make this yourself, go try it at Friday’s where baby strollers are welcome and kids get to eat for free if you order a main meal. No, I’m not getting paid to advertise for them.

Filed under: FusionHealthy EatingKid-friendlyRecipesReviewsSnacks & DessertsVegetablesVegetarian by chili queen - No Comments →

We were on vacation in Penang last week (read and see the photos here, here and here) and decided to check out Strada, a small restaurant tucked in a row of shophouses in busy Pulau Tikus. We’d read good online reviews about this place and thought, why not, since the set lunches seem reasonably priced.

The sets come with either soup of the day, which was Pumpkin Soup that day, or salad. Unfortunately the Pumpkin Soup was sweet and bland (if you can imagine that!) and none of us finished up our order, which is something we hardly ever do since my philosophy is not to waste food.

The salad came with the default dressing which means we didn’t get to choose our favorite dressing.

The Chicken Chop with Oriental Sauce was nothing to shout about either. The sauce was more like a pizza base.

I hate to say this but this Spaghetti alla Vongole was really hard to swallow. The presentation was great so I guess I set my expectations too high. It was bland (which is better than too salty, I guess) and the sauce was like some Chinese gravy?

The Salmon Fish and Chips was, by far, the best thing we had there though the portion was rather skimpy.

It’s a shame the quality of Strada’s food didn’t live up to the nice ambience of the restaurant. I guess if you don’t try it, you’ll never know, which also confirms my philosophy of not chasing down food no matter how good the reviews are made to sound.

On the day we were there for lunch, only a couple of other tables were occupied. There was a small family and 3 ladies discussing mortgage protection insurance rates.

Filed under: MeatPastaPoultryReviewsSeafoodVegetablesWestern by chili queen - No Comments →

We went on vacation to Penang earlier this week and stayed at the swanky Hard Rock Hotel Penang. The hotel is very happening and fun, you can read all about it and drool on the photos here, here and here.

Well, since we were paying a small bomb for our sea-facing rooms, we had high expectations for their buffet breakfast which has the the usual spread of Western, continental and Asian breakfast foods.

Normally we wake up ravenous and are ready to really dig in . But to be quite honest, the food at the Hard Rock Hotel Penang isn’t that great. By the third morning of our stay, our choices had dwindled down to a few dim sums (pork-free dim sum just isn’t dim sum, know what I’m sayin’?), croissants and sausages.

Even my son who normally makes a beeline for the nasi lemak (coconut rice with condiments like anchovies, chicken curry, nuts, etc) didn’t touch it once. So that should say a lot!

As for me, I ended up eating really healthy for lack of choice. Each morning, I had cereal with lots of raisins, pecans and dried fruit (very yummy!) and drank lots of fruit juices.

And I ended each breakfast with grapefruit and honeydew. Well, if I was hoping these healthy breakfasts would be kinder on my waistline, I’m sorely mistaken .

Actually I’d promised the kids I’d treat them room service supper. But as we were walking past other rooms on our floor, we noticed most of the room service trays had heaps of leftovers on them. We took that as an indication that the food must not have been very good. So we gave room service a miss.

Next up, the pasta place we went to in Penang.

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If there’s ever a time of year when we just let our sweet tooths hang out, this is it! There’s something about the beautifully decorated Christmas trees and festive air that drives us to expensive coffees and cakes that we mostly ignore during the year .

Me and the kids stopped by at Coffee Bean after lunch one day and I treated them to this incredibly decadent Chocolate Fudge Cake. Yes, I definitely prefer more cake than cream.

And this Tri-Cheese Cake is to die for. It is so rich, so packed with cheese, you just don’t want to swallow it, know what I mean?

If you’ve toiled long and hard at your GMAT prep or have had the baddest day at the office ever, this is how you should reward yourself. It instantly takes all your stress away and you start hearing sweet music . It’s that good!

Filed under: ReviewsSnacks & DessertsWestern by chili queen - No Comments →