DUKES and DUCHESS @ TTDI Kuala Lumpur – Chilling Out At A New Happening Place at TTDI

There is a watering hangout place in TTDI that have revamped its kitchen to emphasise on serving some original Portugese fare and Western cuisine.

We were invited by HungryGoWhere to try out this new menu of the DUKES and DUCHESS @ TTDI located at 52, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur.

DUKES and DUCHESS @ TTDI Kuala Lumpur is a favourite drinking kaki hangout place in this quiet part of TTDI. The DUKES and DUCHESS @ TTDI Kuala Lumpur is everything as you imagine of a watering hole,

In the early evening, DUKES and DUCHESS @ TTDI is a nice place to dine in to enjoy the new fare.

Our review dinner started with the Roasted Mushroom Soup which was served with toasted baguette.

Helming the kitchen is a new chef i.e Chef Don Theseira with more than 35 years, which has its roots from Melaka. DUKES and DUCHESS@ TTDI introduces a few new speciality dishes like Devil’s Curry – This is a tone down version as the original version might be overly spicy to be eaten by most.

Next, we had the Mutton Curry – the chef which uses a variety of the spices have manage to reduce the gamy mutton smell significantly. It was cooked until the meat was very tender and soft.

Another specialties dish was the Chilli Padi Chicken – which have a special strong flavour thru the use of the bunga kantan which extrudes a very strong and aromatic flavour. This dish although cooked using chilli padi was not overwhelmingly spicy, I suppose the chef have tone down the spiciness index by one or two notch. Best eaten with white rice or bread.

For the western cuisine, the chef have prepared some porkylicious dishes for us. As I am a big fan of Pork Knuckles, there was no hesitation to order one to try.

The Chef had cut out the Pork Knuckles into bite size pieces, so there is not much effort to devour this dish. The only minor setback for me is that the skin was not that crusty.

This Pork Knuckles is also served with a few pieces of bacon that was fried and laden on top of the Pork Knuckles. The grilled bacon juice brings out the best of the pork knuckles meat. This dish is best eaten with cold beer.

Next, we had the Australian Sticky Pork Ribs, The pork ribs meat was very soft, The pork ribs was marinated with the Chef special sauce for 24 hours before grilling it and topped up with the Black Pepper Sauce. You can have a choice of other sauce  topping for example Mushroom and BBQ sauce too.

This was followed by the succulent and perfectly "Silence of the Lamb: which is grilled Lamb shoulder. The lamb shoulder was well marinated and grilled to perfection, We could just eat it as it is without any sauce to taste the marinade and the natural lamb taste.

We then had the Spicy Bacon Pizza which is on a dough of thin crust. The pizza was laden with a generous amount of spicy grilled bacon and lots of cheese which have emboldened in the crust. Best eaten, when it is still fresh from the oven.

Another one of a perfect beer /liquor matching food is the Nacho Chilli Con Carne. The Nachos was made in-house by the chef and was fried until it was crisp and then drenched with the Chef chilli corn carne and lots of melted cheese to top it off. The result, you can’t help yourself to the second and so forth. It was very addictive.

To end up the night, our dessert is no other than the Molten Lava Cakes which was served with either the Vanilla or Strawberry flavoured ice-cream. A piece of advice, eat this cake, as fast as possible so that you can get the molten chocolate flowing out effect. If one waited too long, the molten will then be hardened and you get a lump of chocolate instead.

Overall, the new menu item at DUKES and DUCHESS@ TTDI are very beer or liquor friendly, some of these dishes are nice to be taken with a cold beer. So, the next time you need to jam up with your buddies or associates, you might consider this joint for a change.

This food tasting session was organised by HungryGoWhere Malaysia – Discover, Eat, Share today!

Life Café @Taman Segar, Cheras - Little Tea House that serves Soupy And Noodles Delights

There are not many Tea House restaurants around town these days but at Life Café, they have revolutionized and integrate with a combination of Taiwanese fare with a local twist. We were invited for a food review at Life Café located at 55, Jalan Manis 4, Taman Segar, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, a stone throw from the Cheras Leisure Mall.

Life Café @ Taman Segar, Cheras has its origin from Kuching Sarawak which has more than 18 years history. Its’ décor is reminiscent to the simple classic Chinese tea house setting of yesteryear i.e. wooden stools, bamboo walls and wooden tables. It is also decorated with Chinese painting, Chinese verses and tea pots.

When it started, the Life Café promotes the Chinese tea drinking culture and you can order special Brew of Chinese tea like the Superior Pu’er,  Tie Kuan Yin, Jasmine, Lung Ching or the Mulberry Leaf brew to enjoy.

To start off the night, we ordered the Flower Tea (single). This tea is not only nice to see as you can see it blossom in the tea jug. It is more of a floral fragrant and flowery taste. The strong fragrant of the flowers were very evident in the drink.

Next, we had the Ginseng Chrysanthemum Tea, the strong aroma and taste of the Ginseng in this case have overpowered the floral fragrant of the Chrysanthemum in this drinks.

Soups offer a unique comfort food to most people. It is heart warming especially on cold rainy season. We started the healthy herbal soup offering of Life Café@Taman Segar, Cheras with the Ginseng Chicken Soup With Red Dates. The strong flavours of the Ginseng was very evident in this soup. The quantity of Ginseng was the right balance as it is neither too overwhelming or too bland. One of the most important benefits of Ginseng is that is improves blood circulation.

Next, we had the Ten Treasure Chicken Herbal Soup, which uses the Black Chicken. The Black Chicken takes a bit of challenge to some as not many people like to eat the black chicken. Nevertheless, the meat was tougher than the normal chicken which have a rougher texture. It is claimed this soup relieves the body heat and neutralizes toxin. You could taste the herbal goodness in the broth.

Next, we had the Stew Mutton With Yand and Medlar Herbs. This soup has a strong gamy flavour of the Mutton. This can be very challenging for non-mutton fan. The herbs flavour was strong and the mixture of the gamy mutton taste blended well to make the broth very delicious and heart warming. The mutton meat was boiled until it was very soft and tender.

It is recommended to order white rice to accompany these nutritious herbal soup.

At Life Café, there are many single dishes which you can order like

Lamb Special

Curry Chicken

Pineapple Chicken

Fish Fillet

Spicy wanton 

  

All the above dishes can be ordered with al dente noodles listed as below to go with these dishes like the Shanghai Noodle,

The Spicy Noodle – the soup based is made from a blend of traditional and local spices from Borneo – all freshly and naturally prepared.

The Vermicelli or just plain rice.

For the side orders, you can opt to order the

Traditional Homemade Spring roll – it is minced chicken meat rolled in the bean curd skin and fried – much like the Penang Loh Bak.

For desserts, we had the Black Sesame toast. This dessert with a strong black sesame flavours jam will tickle your sweet-tooth with every mouthful. The toast was toasted to the right crunch too.

The Ganga Cafe @ Bangsar – North South Indian Vegetarian Cuisine – A Vegan Paradise Review By Best Restaurant

For a meat lover like me, vegetarian meals does not really excite me much, after all, how much, can vegetables be cooked in any way that will satisfy my craving for a truly satisfying meals. How wrong can I be? We were invited by the owners of the newly taken over café i.e. The Ganga Café @ Bangsar which is located at 19. Lorong Kurau, Off Jalan Riong, Bangsar Pertama, 59100 Kuala Lumpur

This no-frills café is located at a very quiet corner of bustling Bangsar, which is a stone throw away from NSTP office. In fact, to reach it, you drive past NSTP office and turn left at the traffic junction and go all the way straight until you reach a row of shop house or click on the location below.

Helm by Madam Meeta, she has brought her home kitchen to the The Ganga, you will be pleasantly surprised on how ingredients and spices when fallen into the right hands can transform simple food like potatoes, chick peas and tomatoes into sumptuous, delicious and nutritious vegetarian dishes.

To start off the night, The Ganga Café @Bangsar offers 4 specialty drinks which were unique, special and pure. The drinks are
Ganga Tea Crush -A concoction of mint, lemon and lime in ice tea
 Pranic Juice -A concoction of mixed herbs, spices and mint leaves- a detox formula
  Mango Lassi - very creamy and thick Lassi.
Lemonade - Lemon Lime with a tinge of Soda.

For starter, we had the Stuffed Fried Chilli – To make this, potatoes are cooked with spices and then smashed and stuffed and wrapped into and around the green chilli. This is followed by a coating of chick pea powder and deep fried. This Stuffed Fried Chilli is then topped up with a spread of in-house made yoghurt and some sprinkle of coriander chutney and garnish with coriander leaves.

The next item we had sounded like “Hello Kitty” which in actual fact is called Allo Tikki – this is quite similar to the begedil in which it is also potatoes based but without any meats.

The deep frying at high heat of the breadcrumbs makes the crust crispy while the potatoes filling with coriander leaves, chilli padi was smooth and soft and spicy if you get to the chilli padi.

Another starters that we had was the Masala Papadam. It looks like a thin crust vegetarian pizza, but the base, instead of a dough based, it is a home-made papadam, which was pan fried till crisp and garnish with vegetables topping like onion, capsicum and tomatoes cubes.

Next, we had the Vada Pav. Pav stands for bread in Indian which happens to sounds like Pau for Chinese too. So, it is not too difficult to remember this. This is a dish that looks like a mushroom or hamburger with a thick layer of patties but this patties is 100% vegetable based which has potatoes as the based and cooked with spices, chat massala and deep fried.

The bread is butter roasted on both sides, with the bottom section spread with red chilli chutney and the top with a green coloured coriander chutney. So, the next time you like to have a burger but not the fats, you ought to try this for a change.

Next, we had the Bhathura Set, which was the deep fried until the Bhathura becomes inflated. To eat it, you poke a hole and you will be able to see the steam escaping from the Bhathura. This Bhathura set comes with Chick Peas cooked with Masala Chat and secret spices.

The Chick Peas was soft and blended well with the sauce. To eat it, you spread a little yoghurt on to the Bhathura and add in a spoonful of chick peas and a small slice of onions. It is just a perfect combination to savour this dish. Best eaten with your hands.

Thirdly, we had the Pav Bhajhi. Bhajhi stands for mixed vegetables, which means this dish is called Mixed Vegetables Bread. The serving comes with the yoghurt and mixed vegetables of which are the potatoes, cauliflower, capsicum, green peas and tomatoes.

The last set we had was the Radish Paratha. The process to make this paratha is very tedious and time consuming. The raddish are first cut into thinly strip and squeezes dried and cooked with coriander seeds and leaves. It is then put in between the paratha dough before the dough is being pan fried. It is served with a potato spread and yoghurt as the accompaniment.

If you are ones of those health freaks, you might want to try the Ayurvedic Chapatti. The dough is a mixture of 6 super healthy grains which is Wheat, Oats, Maize, Ragi, Chana Dhall and Barley. Best eaten with Dhall.

As, it was a Friday and a vegetarian day for the Indian, The Ganga Café do offer a complimentary desserts i.e. Payasam for each diners. The Payasam was indeed a perfect close to our hearty meal as it was very light, not too sweet, as some which I have tried before at other restaurant.

On every Sunday, The Ganga Café @ Bangsar offers a Special Sunday Buffet which has around 18 dishes for the price of RM16 per pax. To catch the latest offering, I was told that you can visit their facebook page which will have an update on what will be served at their Sunday buffet by Thursday. This gives you the opportunity to try out all the special dishes all at one go. Heed this, it is usually jam packed with people, so you probably have to get up early on a Sunday to devour at the Buffet.

For lunch and dinner, you can have the Rice set, which you have a choice of either to choose Brown Rice, Tomato Rice or the Briyani Rice. It is offered in Big Thali, Thali or G-Light portion. For most the Thali (normal) portion should be sufficient.

So, the next time, you do yearn for some healthy, nutritious, wholesome, delicious Indian Vegetarian meal, head over to The Ganga Café @Bangsar.

Watch Our Video Review at YouTube below

For Other Related Food Review By Best Restaurant To Eat, please click on the link below;

Vegetarian. Click Here For More Vegetarian Review by Best Restaurant. Pls Click Here

For More Indian Food Review By BEST RESTAURANT Click Here

Bangsar - Best Restaurant Other Review in Bangsar. Pls Click Here

Kuala Lumpur - Best Restaurant Other Review in Kuala Lumpur. Pls Click Here