Frontera Sol Of Mexico @ Jaya One Petaling Jaya– A Date With Speedy Gonzales – Texan-Mexican Cuisine Review

There are not many Mexican Restaurant in the Klang Valley. We were honoured to be invited to review some of the current in-house favourites and also a few new dishes soon to be released offering of Frontera Sol Mexico @ Jaya One located at 18-G-2, Jaya One, 79A, Jalan Universiti 46200 Petaling Jaya.

Frontera Sol Mexico @ Jaya One was very well decorated to give you the Mexican feel. The bright orange colour wall exudes this warm feeling too.

Sitting on one of its corner is where sombrero (oversize Mexican) hats are put up to further set the mood for some hot peppery food that is usually enjoyed by Speedy Gonzales.

Tequila - The perfect partner to the Frontera Fiesta Platter.

To start our food review session, we had the starter i.e the Frontera Fiesta Platter – which is a four appetizer in one i.e. Stuffed Jalapeno, Taquitos De Pollo, Jalapeno Crab Cakes and Buffalo Wings which was a perfect combination for the matching with the Margaritas.

Stuffed Jalapeno - guaranteed dish to spice up some heat on one’s taste bud with the vinaigrette taste of the preserved hot Jalapeno.

The cut out of the Stuffed Jalapeno.

Taquitos De Pollo - Crispy Taquitos on a roll, with chicken stuffing, to be enjoyed with the salsa verde sauce dipping.

A closer look into the inside of the Taquitos De Pollo.

Buffalo Wing – Chicken wings served in either BBQ or Spicy Habanero coating with ranch dressing dips. One can taste that it is slightly sweet, a little sourish and at the same time, a little spicy, all at the same time.

Jalapeno Crab Cakes – The patties was laden with Crab meat, moulded in a cake and deep fried to golden brown. The patties have a distinctive taste of spiciness from the jalapeno and to be eaten when hot with your favourite drink like the Horny Margarita.

All the above appetizer can be ordered ala-carte individually.

Next, we had the Fajitas Con Pollo Asudo – Succulent grilled chicken served with red and green pepper, yellow onion, Jack Cheese, Salsa  and Toasted Flour Tortilla. 

To eat this, you spread a thin layer of the cream, add in the salsa and cheese onto the tortilla. Then you add a piece of grilled chicken and some onions, red and green peppers. Wrap it up and soon you will be able to enjoy this traditional Mexican dish.   

Guacamole Bacon Burger – Rich Guacamole (avocado) paste with bacon and 100% home made beef patties. Perfect combination of the bacon with the juicy beef patties.

 Super thick layer of patties that goes well with the Guacamole paste and melted cheese surrounding the entire meat patties.

Next, we had the opportunity to sample some of the yet to be available dishes for our comment. These dishes are not on the menu yet but you can probably check it out on your next visit if they do serves them in future.

Beef Stuffed Jalapeno – similar to stuffed jalapeno, but with the taste of minced beef stuffing. 

Tacos In A Cone – Lamb – Nice offering without the strong gamey smell that are usually present in the meat of the lamb.

Combine with the crunchy and flaky taco, it was just the perfect balance with every biteful.

Tacos In A Cone – Fish – this taco is served with a crunchy deep fried fish fillet, instead of the mince lamb meat we had earlier. It is for those who prefer seafood in their taco instead of lamb or beef filling.

Deep Fried Squid – It looks good when served, but when eaten, it is a little of too much batter coating, making it less crispy. The management agreed to relook at this dish to find the right batter mix to further improved on it.

For those who do not know what to order. You can try the above.

Frontera Sol Mexico @ Jaya One is also very popular in serving tequilas and margaritas. Its most famous Margarita is the Horny Margarita.  

The Horny Margarita (Sauza Hornitos Tequila) was very refreshing and smooth. With every sip of the sweet tequila, salt (from the rim of the glass) and the sourish taste of lime, you could taste the warmth of tequila flowing down the throat.  Sip after sip you are able to enjoy the smooth agave taste of the tequila.

No wonder it was voted by Time Out KL as the Best Margarita in Kuala Lumpur.

Frontera Sol Mexico @ Jaya One also serves a wide variety of tequilas and hard liquors too. If you are a fan to these, you might want to check this place up.

Watch Our Full Video review on YouTube

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.