PCL

Shiewie... and the rest of the gang... Kung Hei Fatt Choy!! Now hey hey, Puteri is interesting as I drive past the Penchala Link one most days when I'm in KL... can you go into some detail as I've thought a lot about going in to try, but never dared... There are times I get serious cravings for ayam kampung goreng and a good sambal... Do they do those???

Now, Robin hasn't posted here for a bit, but maybe try emailing the restaurant or sending him a PM. He just might reply...

It seems like the FDA have nothing better to do than fluff around banning stuff that's good for you while approving massive amounts of proprietary pharmaceuticals that make fat cats richer... A little bit of Vegemite goes a long way towards producing healthy sporty kids... I for one believe truly madly deeply in the adverts

I've been away from Australia for some 6 months or so now... and I've been craving the stuff... I wandered into an all night 'coffee shop' in downtown Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia (formerly British North Borneo) and was like, totally surprised to see on the handwritten menu 'Charcoal grilled toast with butter and vegemite'... I ate two plates. And then returned for breakfast the next morning. The coffee-shop is known as a kopi-tiam in the local parlance, and serves up colonial and traditional favourites. The vegemite was introduced by diggers who fought in Sandakan... and the owners of the cafe, who participated in the Death March anniversary decided to put it on the menu after approaching a local supermarket owner to import a few crates of Vegemite... lovely!!

I only tip at cafe's and noodle shops... the restaurants generally have a service charge tagged on to the end of the bill... prices in the menu are generally nett... am I right?? Seeking clarification too...

Teepee... I gotta go where the work and fun are!! Lots of good food in KK!! ...but back to beef... so I've eaten at Jake's recently, and Prime at the Le Meridien in Sentral... both were disappointing experiences... I mean, one is an old timer, with a damn fine reputation, but they still managed to screw things up... overbooking and overtaxing the kitchen for one... and charging an arm and a leg for portions that are simply not adequate, meaning thin steaks... larger size, meaning flatter and thinner but larger in circumference... is this to speed up cooking at the expense of customer enjoyment?... and the meat... well... lacking, totally... Prime? overpriced and overstuffed seats... inexperienced waitstaff that arre more concerned about throwing out the latest buzz phrase and their own appearance than customer satisfaction... the problem? attitude without a clue... and the food? more of the same... the meat?... dry... rested too long... due to crap wait staff... temps were off and well... no wonder people still talk about heading down to Singapore...

The Expansion of the Grossi Empire... could be the subject of a new documentary/video podcast... And is the friendship straining through a fine sieve? I'm sure Hewy taught Grossi well but has either one of them turned to the dark side?... ...stay tuned... ...Man, what kind of drugs am I on?... had a cold... getting over it, am I?... need to eat...

gee teepee... wonder if they send to KK....

Just checked in here after a long absence... ... tolarno's??... i thought that's now defunct??

Morton's has a good bearnaise yes, but the Steakhouse at the Intercontinental, formerly the Regent in TST does an even better one!! But I have a naggling question re: the new Robuchon... I left HK just a couple days short of the opening, damn it, but hope to be back in HK early next year... what are the prices like?? And welcome to eGullet!!

A quick update after a very short layover in Hong Kong.... Dinner at The Lounge, Four Seasons Hotel... promising menu, but short on delivery. Service was curt, food quality lacking, but the wagyu sirloin... hard to fault but at HK300 a pop, you'd want it to be good... fortunate choice for some Lunch at Ye Shanghai, Marco Polo Hong Kong in TST... hairy crabs galore... rich, creamy, we feasted on the crabs, on the baked shells, crab meat noodles, like a rich fettucine with truffle cream sauce... Dinner at The Tandoor in Central, behind Lan Kwai Fong... all you can eat buffet dinner menu... and it was... sensational... leg of lamb bryani... great rogan josh... delicious dahl... making my mouth water just thinking about it...

Isetan in KLCC, Kuala Lumpur has a good meat section. I haven't looked in there for a while, but it is worthwhile asking them seeing as they often have 'exotic' promotions on. There was even Wagyu on sale there not long ago...

Had dinner at Morton's Chicago Steak House/Grill/Bar whatever at the Oriental in Marina Square, Singapore on Monday night. Was good. The baked Maine lobster... wow, rocked. We got away having spent $384 Sing. Two cocktails, two glasses of an excellent Oregon Pinot Noir... and key lime pie... yeah....

Northern suburbs... Carlton, Excell meat supplies, Lygon St, or Footscray MArket, not Northern, but close enough... lots of Asian butchers there

Il Nostro Baretto at the GPO has had culatello once or twice, and I know that Ladro sometimes has it too. In terms of purchasing... strange enough, I've only bought it in Lorne...

Very good news. Thanks Julian. Will put Le Bouchon on my list when I get back to KL. Another one to look out for is Neroteca... more on that later... promise... typing from airport lounges , or posting rather, is not fun...

This is fantastic. Nice work Julian. I have long thought about burping on about how crap service and food generally is when it comes to so-called KL fine dining and this is the cake that needed to be cut. Bravo indeed. To echo JC, Cilantro is definitely numero uno at the moment. The problem however, is that trendiness and perceived fashionableness tends to prove more subtstantial in the dining public's mind in Malaysia and like, almost wholly so in KL. Gone are the days of the Grill at the Regent, now known as Regent Four Seasons, and Lafite at Shangri-la. In those days, fine dining meant a 5-star restaurant, and back then, they cared. Some notable recent experiences include Eest at the Westin, another Starwood production number. I like the look of the place, but it soon proves to be quite un-diner friendly and the food, well, I'm still not quite sure what Pan-Asian is... a whole of Asia is left off the menu and I'm talking India, Indonesia... it reminded me more of say Longrain in Sydney and Melbourne. Apparently there is a link between David King of Westin, formerly of Begawan Giri Bali, and Martin Boetz of Longrain, but I'm not quite sure how... but i digress... a lot of flash and dollars, but I left kind of hungry.

there are some sympathetic 'producers' of foie gras lurking about... difficult to find, but if you know of anyone with geese... i knew of someone in Ruffy, Victoria... hmmm....

Out of curiousity I whipped this up: Milk, regular fat, 2%, purchased in a grocery store in Kuala Lumpur. Tasted like pretty much regular milk to me, although a little thin compared to Australian milk of the Victorian variety, ie. purchased in Melbourne. Bananas, two... small, pisang emas variety, like small golden fingers, very flavoursome. And here's what I think made it all work... Sweetened condensed milk... like, a three generous teaspoonfuls... Whacked the whole lot in a processor, and pulsed and then slow whipped. Coaty, creamy, and pretty close, but best of all, not artificial.

During a recent trip to Bali, we managed to try some tasty beverage concoctions containing lemongrass. One was a honey-sweetened tea with lemongrass infused. Very very refreshing. Another was a blend of pineapple, young coconut water, and lemongrass and ginger. In the morning, a fantastic hangover cure. There was also a lemongrass infusion served with some spicy dishes, but these dishes were Sudanese, not Balinese, but alas, lemongrass tea was a palate soother.

Why is the big name so important? Isn't it a little like wearing Armani Jeans when Levi's, the originals, are superior, even when you know it you do it because everyone else is? Is being the largest island on Earth so isolating that we need to feel better about ourselves by digging into the big names? Am I ranting again? Yes.

As a Malaysian born Chinese, now an ex-pat sometimes frequenting the area... yeah, it's good... very good... didn't know how much I missed it all... thanks for putting up the blog... but do share with us here too... chew, discuss!!

unfortunate.... i miss them.... very much....

See if you can get more Kiwis to sign up!

Frank is Calabrese... I don't want to start comparing cultures, but I do think it is a bit unfair to say that Italians do not know offal. One only needs to visit the Tuscan countryside and eat at a small osteria to see how they treat all manner of bits and pieces. Perhaps a lot of it hasn't filtered through to Australian Italians, but then again, it is uncommon to see a mixed grill of offal even in so-called South American BBQ joints in the major cities. Let's see where this goes.