Purple Pasta Restaurant & Cafe@ Oasis Ara Damansara – RM5 Pasta/Spaghetti Review – Best Restaurant To Eat

With the constant rise in cost and inflation, there are not many places where you can go for a decent meal at a very reasonable price but we were surprised when we were invited for a food review session at Purple Pasta Restaurant and Cafe which is located at D-G-06, Block D, Oasis Square, Ara Damansara 2, Jalan PJU 1A/7A, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

 
You wonder how true it is when they are able to sell their pasta/spaghetti at RM5.00 per plate. One might wonder whether they will cut off certain ingredients or the serving is of a extremely small serving. Nowadays, even if you ever had lunch at a coffee shop, it will easily cost more than RM5.00 and you probably have to sit on uncomfortable chair and a very hot environment.

The setting of Purple Pasta Restaurant & Cafe@ Oasis is simple and modern concept. There are different sections within the restaurant that will cater for different groups of people coming into this restaurant. There is an alfresco area where you can have a sit-down session with your friends in an open environment.

There is also a little cozy corner, where some soft sofa sets are, where you can hang around after lunch for some quiet reading or after dinner, coffee session to have some small chats with your friends.

and of course, the sit down area for your breakfast, lunch or dinner.

To start off our session of this review, we had the Garden Salad, which have lettuce, tomatoes, arugula, crotons, parmesan cheese top with a concoction of Japanese mayo and balsamico vinegar.

The light flaky crotons, was a perfect combination with the fresh green and the buttery powdered parmesan. Indeed a classic starter for a hearty meal ahead.

The dressing was of the right taste with a well balance of mayonnaise and vinegar which blended well with the crisp salad.

Next, we had, two of the top RM5.00 Pasta/Spaghetti.

The first one is the LAMB MARINARA. The tomatoes based sauce which was made in-house was not too sourish and it was topped with a generous amount of herbs.

The Lamb meatball was succulent and didn’t have the strong gamey lamb taste which makes it taste good. At RM5.00, it was very worth it.

The next pasta we had, was the AUTHENTIC CARBONARA, this version is very different from the other carbonara serves elsewhere which, we are used to i.e. flour and milk based.

From the onset it looks quite plain but the sauce is made up of yellow egg yolk, with parmesan cheese and guess what, roasted anchovies. It is then top up with a runny poached egg.

For fans of eggs, you got to try this. Make sure you let the runny eggs flowed into the pasta and mix it for a wholesome meal. For me, I would have preferred to slurp up the runny egg yolk.

For those that can eat a little spicy, you can add in some chilli flakes to give it that extra zing.

Both the above pasta, are part of the RM5.00 offering, there are other RM5.00 pasta of which, are CHICKEN CARBONARA, MUSHROOM CARBONARA, CHICKEN MARINARA, MUSHROOM MARINARA, CHICKEN GRAVYNARA, LAMB GRAVYNARA. You can sample these reasonably price pasta without burning a hole in your pocket.

The Purple Pasta Restaurant & Cafe@Oasis is embarking to introduce a few new premium pasta and dishes into their menu, which we have the privilege to sample and to provide feedback to the owner.

One of the first dishes to be tasted was the FRA DIAVOLO MUTTON. This pasta is a creation by the owner /chef himself, which he uses a base tomato sauce and a generous amount of dark chocolate to enhance the unique flavour of the sauce.

The use of the dark chocolate infused into the sauce are also able to kill off the gamey mutton smell and taste. The end result, the sauce was very addictive till the last drop. With a generous serving of mutton meat, the overall feeling of this dish was one of a premium taste.

The second dish we sample was the SALMON TARTARE – this is another fine example of the creativeness in the preparation and the choice use of the ingredients to bring forth the special premium taste. The Salmon are cured in-house with Rock Salt and Brown Sugar for at least 12 hours.

The combination of fragrant pear and ebiko add a new dimension and texture to this dish. The sauce was subtle yet complemented well with the slightly salted cured salmon which enhances the overall flavours of this dish.

The next dish was PRAWN CEVICHE – this dish is very challenging to most people who does not savour upon slightly raw or raw food.

CEVICHE is a form of cooking which uses the natural process of acid to cook the fresh seafood, in this case the PRAWN – no heat whatsoever was used in the cooking of this dish. Served chilled, you can actually taste the slight rawness and the tangy meat when eaten. Combined with vinaigrette onion and purple cabbage, it was a very unique and distinct taste.

The next dish i.e PRAWN THERMIDOR is as close as it is to eating LOBSTER THERMIDOR, as far as taste wise is concern. The chef is able to recreate close to the same taste of this premium dish.

The art of cooking the sauce and the use of Super Size Tiger Prawn, which have a firm and slight tangy rough texture, make it ideal as a close replacement to the lobster.

 

Lastly, we had the POACHED CHICKEN AND SMOKE DUCK - again with some creativeness, the chicken breast are sliced to pieces before poaching into the Earl Grey Tea, which gives it a distinct tea taste onto the chicken meat.

Placed in between the poached chicken slices, are the smoke duck slices that allows you to have 2 different taste of 2 poultry meat. Served on a bed of smashed potatoes, it was the perfect partner to the meat.

We hope that the owner will be serving up these specially created dishes, later at the Purple Pasta Restaurant & Cafe@ Oasis. Do check it out before you order.

By the way, if you are a coffee lover or fan, you might want to check out the TRIO SUGAR LATTE.

It is a latte served with this special azulette sugar which is purple in colour and look like the sparkling red rubies.

The Azulette sugar tasted quite similar to that of the cotton candy that we eat.

The other coffee is the PICCOLO COFFEE, this blend is a little stronger as it is more concentrated compared with the normal latte.

So, there you have it, a café that serves delicious tasting pasta at a very reasonable price or should it be cheap price and some nice coffee to finish off your delightful meal.

Two Pesos Steamboat Restaurant@SS2 – Quick, Nutritious and Delicious Steamboat in a Zippy Review - Best Restaurat To Eat

As we know, to truly savour a steamboat meal it would easily takes a lengthy time of between 1.5 hours to 3 or even sometimes 4 hours. It is ever possible to eat a steamboat meal in less than 30 minutes.

Taiwan had been the epicentre of Chinese fast food fads and now you can enjoy a sumptuous steamboat meal in less than 30 minutes. We, Malaysian are very fortunate to get to experience new food and dining experience thru the daring entrepreneurship of many, to bring in specialties food to Malaysia.

We were indeed delighted when we were invited for a food review session at the newly opened Two Pesos @SS2 Mini Steamboat Restaurant located at 7, Jalan SS2/67, Petaling Jaya, which was opened on 25^th August 2014

This restaurant offers mini steamboat set in a personal cast iron, or ceramic pot all ready to be eaten within minutes. Some takes less than 5 minutes to cook while others up to 10 minutes. You can literally have a complete meal in less than 30 minutes. Isn’t that fast for a steamboat meal.

The restaurant is designed as a fast food style with vibrant décor and colour theme. It is very brightly lit and provides a nice atmosphere for you to enjoy this mini steamboat without the rather hearty, sweating at most steamboat restaurant that we are familiar with.

The concept for Two Pesos @ SS2 is Fast, Affordable, Nutritious Steamboat offering a wide variety of soup base served in a uniquely designed pot.

The ordering process is a self service i.e. upon entering the restaurant;

1.  Pick up a washable menu from the counter and a crayon pencil.
2.  Head to your table, use the crayon to choose the Steamboat set that you want.
3.  Mark the type of meat you want.
4. Mark whether you want Rice, Mee Hoon or Yee Mee and hand over to the waiter/counter.

Two Pesos have gone thru many trials on the best way to enjoy mini steamboat, it boils down to the use of the right type of pots for different cooking style with each of the soup base. The right type i.e. ceramic or iron cast, closed lid and etc can make the real difference as was experienced by us.

Most steamboat restaurant offer very limited soup base, but here at Two Pesos @SS2, there are altogether 12 different sets of mini steamboat offered, of which we gotten to try only 5 pot namely (based on my preference) which is

Two Pesos Stone Pot – ours is served with pork slice – the pork slices are firstly fried in the pot together with garlic, onion, spring onion and sesame oil. During the frying, the strong aroma of the sesame oil was very enticing. The staff will do this for you to ensure that it is cooked to a specific level. You will need to cook it in the pot later.

After frying, the pork meat are removed and the chicken broth are poured in it to be boiled up, which is then followed by your preference of either the vegetables or other ingredients to be steamboat and don't forget your juicy fried pork slice.

This soup base is best eaten with Yee Mee.

The next pot of goodness was the Tajine Seafood Pot. This is a very unique ceramic pot, which is also called the Moroccan Pot, which has a natural way to cook the food thru the vaporisation process.

All the vegetables and seafood are arranged in the pot, the pot is then cooked at high temperature. It uses very little soup in.  As the soup boils and due to the conceal nature of the lid (the vaporisation process takes place here), water are thus extracted from the natural ingredient like the vegetable and seafood i.e prawns and lala. This extracts are blended into the soup base to increase the volume of the soup.

Once it is boiled, as you can see from the water overflowing out from the side of the lid, which should be around 5 to 6 minutes, you turn the fire to medium and boil another 3 minutes and viola, the whole pot of goodness, which had a very strong seafood especially the lala aroma (the minute you open the lid) is ready to be eaten. You can really taste the natural flavours of each of the ingredient. This is best eaten with rice or Bee Hoon.

My third choice was the Japanese Sukiyaki pot. It was served with a covered iron cast pot with a lid. The pot comes with the Sukiyaki soup and all the ingredients are already pre-arranged into the pot. 

Fire up the stove, and cover the lid. About 5 minutes later you can enjoy all the wholesome goodness of the ingredient all cooked up with the natural extract into the Sukiyaki soup.

I was surprised as the Sukiyaki soup was not too sweet and just the right flavour for me. I am not a real fan of Sukiyaki. For those who want a lighter version of the soup, you can add in the additional broth to dilute it further. This soup is best eaten with rice.

Fourth pot was the Basu Spicy Pot – this is one pot for those who love to have a spicy version for their steamboat. Basu actually was the old name for Sze Chuan. So, this is actually, a Sze Chuan soup, which explains the extra zing in the soup. The soup is served in a special brass like pot.

The spiciness of the soup comes from the use of the special hot peppercorn that has a very pungent after taste which lingers around your throat for sometime after you have eaten it.

This soup base will go well with the Bee Hoon as the Bee Hoon can really absorb the soup into the Bee Hoon.

The last Steamboat pot, we had was the Milky Seafood Pot – we understand that the milk used was imported from Germany and henceforth it has a special milky flavours and have a light cheesy taste.

It is quite mild and compare to your normal Fish Head Noodle, it does not have the strong oomph of the evaporated milk taste.  

You can only enjoy this broth towards the end, and just like the Basu Spicy, Bee Hoon is the preferred choice.

By the way, there are free soup refill, so if you need more soup like me, you can get your refill from the counter – self service.

There are 3 type of sauce served in Two Pesos, which you can mix it based on one’s personal preference i.e. chilli sauce, bean paste and sacha sauce.

The bean paste sauce

and sacha sauce (taste a little like the Bonito fish paste) are imported from Taiwan.  I tried mixing all the type of sauce with different proportion, it was indeed very delicious and a perfect match. For those that love to have a little more spiciness, you can add more chilli sauce to your blend.

For those, who do not have the time to savour the steamboat at the restaurant, or need to pack back for loved ones, there is a counter at the main door, where you can order the take-away.

The takeaway are nicely pack into this takeaway cup, where you can just i.e. pre-heat the soup and enjoy your delicious one-pot wonder.

Overall, it has been a real new experience to try so many variations of steamboat without over burdening with too much food. It is really a simple, healthy, hygienic (if you don’t enjoy eating steamboat with a big pot) and fast (can finish your meal in 20 to 30 minutes), so you can literally have steamboat for a quick lunch or if you are rushing for time.

We got little curios, how a Taiwanese Steamboat ended up using Two Pesos (sounded more like a Philippines Restaurant) as the shop name. Ironically the husband and wife team chanced upon a coin which was kept after their visit to Boracay, Philippines and it was a 2 pesos coin. So, it explains this little mystery.

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