Best Restaurant To Eat - Malaysian Food Blog

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

MALAYSIA INTERNATIONAL GOURMET FESTIVAL 2014 MIGF - The Festival Awards & Celebration Party Grand Finale – Royal Chulan Kuala Lumpur

After a hectic month of dining and spectacular Festival events - set to the theme of ‘Red Hot Chefs!’ - it was time for the hard working 28 premier restaurants to let their hair down, enjoy the camaraderie of their peers and be feted at the traditional MIGF Awards and Celebration Party.

Attended by over 1,000 VIPs including royalty, 23 foreign Ambassadors, celebrities, captains of industry and international food writers, the MIGF Awards and Celebration Party signaling the finale of the 14th Malaysia International Gourmet Festival MIGF 2014 was an explosive affair with smoke, flame, red hot dancers, magical tricks and glittering awards ceremonies at the Royale Chulan Hotel Kuala Lumpur last Thursday evening.

The event began with fearless fire-breathers entering the atrium twirling flaming batons and swallowing flames whole. The Festival Chefs then arrived on the stage with much fanfare presenting a picture of happy camaraderie until suddenly eight 'chefs' broke forward, threw off their chefs' garbs and transformed into red hot dancers. The crowd burst into excited applause!

It was the restaurants' night off and courtesy of the Vision Four Media Group, Festival restaurants and guests enjoyed the best of traditional cuisine from each state of Malaysia. A lively Latin band, energetic salsa dancers and free-flowing drinks made sure it was a long night of continuous revelry.

Six restaurants made the final cut for the Golden Cauldron Award – given to the best all round restaurant of the Festival - but at the end of the evening it was Chef Nathalie Arbefeuille of Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie who raised the gleaming trophy high, setting a new record by being the first female chef and the first non-hotel based restaurant to claim the Festival's ultimate prize.

In addition to Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie, the finalists for the Golden Cauldron Award were La Scala, Marini’s on 57, Tanzini, Ten Japanese Fine Dining and The Olive.

Four Special MIGF Awards were also presented: The prestigious award for ‘Most Popular Restaurant at the VIP Gala Launch’ was won by Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie based on portions and value sold. ‘The Most Popular Overall Restaurant at Taste MIGF’, this time by public response, was won by Ten Japanese Fine Dining. The award for ‘The Most Outstanding Marketing of the Festival’ was won by Resorts World Genting; while Westin Langkawi’s Seasonal Tastes won the award for ‘The Most Outstanding Overall Festival Experience’; Chef Valmurugan Subramaniam of Samplings on the Fourteenth was voted by his fellow chefs as ‘Chef Congeniality’ - the most popular chef of MIGF 2014.

MIGF 2014 was sponsored by Tourism Malaysia with The Vision Four Media Group as the Principal Festival Partner. The Official Imaging Partner was Fujifilm Malaysia and Official Beer, Kronenbourg 1664. The Festival Media Partners were Astro, Asian Food Channel, Astro Radio, Seni Jaya, Vision Four and Vision KL.

The MIGF Awards and Celebration Party is a rare time, not only for the Festival Chefs, but also for the restaurant management, kitchen, and service staff to enjoy the limelight due to their traditional behind-the-scenes roles. “Everyone involved in MIGF is a winner. Everyone deserves a medal. It has been a privilege to work with all of you!” declared the Organising Chairman, Dato’ Steve Day.

Awards were given for creativity, innovation, presentation and value of the Festival Menu, quality of service, effective marketing strategies, best use of the Festival theme, best restaurant station designs and the number of Taste Sovereigns and Gourmet Dollars collected and portions sold during the Gala Launch and Taste MIGF.

Full List of Award Winners MIGF2014

Golden Cauldron Award for the Best All-Round Restaurant 2014

Overall Winner: Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie

Winners: La Scala, Marini’s on 57, Tanzini, Ten Japanese Fine Dining, The Olive

Chef Congeniality 2014

Winner: Chef Valmurugan Subramaniam

Special MIGF Festival Awards

Most Popular Overall Restaurant at the VIP Gala Launch

Winner: Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie

Most Popular Overall Restaurant at Taste MIGF

Award Winner: Ten Japanese Fine Dining

Most Outstanding Marketing of the Festival

Award Winner: Resorts World Genting

Most Outstanding Overall Festival Experience

Award Winner: Seasonal Tastes, The Westin Langkawi

Friday, November 21, 2014

You & Me Kitchen Corner @ Kinrara Puchong – Hidden Romantic Gems Review

Finding a romantic place to dine and quality dishes serves without costing you and arm and a leg, is not easy these days but You & Me Kitchen Corner @ Kinrara Puchong located at ZP2, 27 & 28 Zest Point, Lebuhraya Bukit Jalil,Bukit Kinrara 9, 47180 Puchong, Selangor along the Lebuhraya Bukit Jalil.

When you arrive at You & Me Kitchen Corner @ Kinrara Puchong, you will be greeted by a very nice and beautifully decorated garden setting with wooden swing to sooth your stress away. Breezy and stylish with natural lighting by day, it is even soul warming at night as the lighting will be changed to a more romantic setting

Once inside, you will notice that the interior have different table setting i.e lovers’ corner, love shape table, round table and the normal dinning table. It is a nice place to hold an event like pre-wedding, post-wedding or wedding ceremony.

You & Me Kitchen Corner @ Kinrara Puchong, offers a wide varieties of dishes from Chinese to Western dishes which account for over 160 dishes to choose from. What is amazing is that the chef have painstaking made almost of its’ own ingredients ranging from the pasta (noodles, vermicelli, wanton noodles, pasta, wanton skin) to the sauces, soup base and so forth.

The chef emphasises on the quality & taste of its food. While food tastes wholesome & lovingly home-made it is liberated from excess oil or salt (here they use the Himalayan salt) with its homemade recipe.

For Appetizer we started with the STUFFED JAPANESE INARI – 3 pieces, it has that nice porky meat filling, combined with the soft and smooth Inari. With the added special sauce layered at the sides, it was the perfect match as a starter.

The next starter that was served was the YOU & ME SIGNATURE BAKED CHICKEN WINGS – 3 pairs. According to the Chef, it will take at least 20 minutes to cook this dish as baking the whole chicken wings to this perfectly baked texture will require this amount of time.

The skin has a special crisp while the meat of the chicken wing was still moist. The presentation of this dish was splendid.

THIS CHRYSANTHEMUM SPRING ROLL – 5 pieces, is another creative use of the wanton skin (made in-house) to wrap and fried out to resemble a Chrysanthemum flower. It not only looks nice but tasted even better with the stuffed pork meat with shrimp paste.

The flower petal which is the park of the wanton skin is very crispy.

An innovative way to present the next dish is the PORK BELLY SATAY - 6 sticks – It come serves on top of a mini BBQ stove with charcoal still burning in it, to give you the extra feel of the warmth on to your satay i.e. still served hot.

The Pork belly was very well marinated with the strong aroma of the Lemon Grass and the gravy was very fragrant with a strong smoky peanuts flavour.

After all the appetizer, we started with the Chinese dishes serves here, which is the YOU & ME SIGNATURE FOUR SEASON VERMICELLI IN PORRIDGE – this is the first time I have actually eaten a bowl of noodles cooked in a porridge broth. It is really first of its kind, as the porridge which was cooked with chicken was simply delicious and heart warming.

The decorated vegetables which are used to resemble the four seasons are sliced ginger, slice fresh red chilli, carrots and black fungus was a delight to look at. Even the fine texture vermicelli was in-house made too.

Next we had, CURRY NOODLES WITH MINCED PORK & MUSHROOM – this is similar to the Spicy Pan mee which I have eaten before but with an added taste from the in-house sauce which was very flavourful. The noodle was very springy and chewy and blended perfectly with the ingredients and gravy.

Seeing this dish, it does not resemble any curry noodles as the first thought of curry is, it must have loaded up with santan and spicy red/orange colours.

HEART TO HEART – the white Pearl rice comes in two lovely heart shaped. Couples can share this dish together. It comes accompanied with a special in-house concocted sauce with sides condiments on a bed of freshly cut purple cabbage.

To eat this dish, you just add all the condiments and mix it. The combination of the sauce, the meat and the other condiment was delightful with each bite having an ingredient or two in it.

Next we move on to the Western dishes, the first of which is the MARINARA SAUCE HOMEMADE PASTA WITH APPLE MEAT BALL – the meat ball which was added with apples was very bouncy and meaty. The strong apple flavours embedded in the meat paste was evident in every spoonful. The pasta which was fried is a slight different variant from the spaghetti which we are used to. Nevertheless it adds some texture to this dish.

This is then followed by the HOMEMADE NOODLES WITH VEGETABLES AND MIXED FRUITS IN SPECIAL THAI DRESSING – it has a tangy feeling, a little sourish taste. All the noodles here are in-house made and fried using corn oil to give you a nice crunchy feel.

Next, we tried the PAN FRIED RED EYE STEAK – this dish is very well decorated to resemble a cattle farm. The vegetable and pan fried mushroom is the “cow pen”. The sauce that was provided for this dish was the BBQ sauce and the Brown sauce.

What I like about the way this dish is served was, unlike other restaurant which pours in all the sauce on the meat, the sauce are served on individual container i.e one that look like a milk urn to complete the decor. This way, you will have full control on whether we like it with sauce or little sauce or no sauce on our steak. By the way, this dish is served together with a small glass of red wine.

Our last dish that we had was the PAN FRIED NORWEGIAN SALMON FILLET – It comes decorated to resemble a salmon swimming in the sea with bubbles form by the onion rings, while the vegetables with mushroom is the bed of corals.

This dish is served with an avocado based sauce, which is flavourful and matches to the Salmon. The other side sauce one of which is the caviar sauce and the garlic sauce add wonders to this dish. This dish is served together with a small glass of white wine to complete the meal.

For desserts, we had the GOLDEN BRICK – It is a sugar coated toast with the mango sherbet. Sweet ending to the meal, the toast was a tad too sweet for me. But when you dip the toast with the sherbet which has a sourish taste, you get to taste both sweet and sour taste at the same time.

For drinks we had the Tropicana Tea – which has freshly cut Apple, Grapes, Passion Fruit, Strawberry, Kiwi. It is a super refreshing drink as each sip accompanied with the freshly cut fruits is very delicious. The sweetness level was just right.

For coffee, we had the POTTED LATTE – the coffee comes from Triple A, Taiwan. For me, I find the coffee taste to be on the milder side as I really like my coffee to be extra fragrant and super strong. But for others, this version should be ok.

The last drink was the ORANGE EGG NOG – this is an orange juice with fresh egg blended into it. The result; you get a drink that taste quite similar to a yakult. The blended eggs make the drink a little creamy and milkier. Served cool, it is a delight to drink.

Yes, we had a field day at You & Me Kitchen Corner @ Kinrara Puchong as the food presented and serves here are so picture beautiful and it awaken your senses and taste-bud to a new level. So, if you are really looking for a romantic place to chill with your love ones and have beautifully presented home cook meal served to you, then you can’t miss out this place.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

BITES CAFE @Lakefields Sungei Besi - Breakfast, Breakfast and Breakfast Review

Breakfast is one of the most important meal of the day. With that in mind, Best Restaurant To Eat was invited for a breakfast menu review at the Bites Café located at 72, Jalan Tasik Utama 7, Lake Fields Sungei Besi, 57000 Kuala Lumpur.

Bites Café décor is one of a casual hip café setting, with artistically decorated posters lining up on all its walls with comfortable seating and friendly environment.

The emphasis at Bites Café @ Lake Fields Sungei Besi is on the an all day breakfast menu, ranging from Mexican, Italian and all the way to Malaysian breakfast with a special twist on some of its varieties.

There is also a childrens' corner where little kids can play while you can sip your cuppa of your favourite coffee while enjoying a nice breakfast here.

EGG BENEDICT was the first dish on the table for us to review. The serving comes with a runny flowing egg, Smoked Salmon, a little of the sautéed spinach, Hollandaise sauce, toast and some fresh salad.

Next, was THE FRENCH breakfast which is a French toast with chicken ham, melted cheese, maple syrup & topped with sunny side up. The toast was perfectly toasted to give it that light fluffy crunch.

This was followed by the BREAKFAST PIZZA – a serving of Beef Bacon, Egg, Baby Spinach, Mushroom, Baked Beans and topped with some sprinkle of Cheese – The ingredients are found mostly in the Big Breakfast set but here it is served on a thin crust crispy pizza dough.

and then, THE ITALIAN BREAKFAST - Frittata with turkey ham, onions, spinach, cherry tomato, eggs. A fabulous, exceptional and a thick layer of soft scrambled eggs (4 eggs to make this) made this dish a delight to be eaten. The choice of ingredient used were very complimentary. This dish is specially for eggs lovers.

THE MEXICAN is wrap in a burritos, came with a topping of tangy home made sauce. It is a breakfast burritos with tortilla, chicken sausage, egg, mushroom, cheese.

CLUB SANDWICH WAFFLE– The freshly made flaky and crisp waffles used here are the type of thin crusted instead of the meaty thick type which is a better choice. Sandwiched in between the waffles, are the beef bacon, scrambled egg, fresh strip of lettuce, cheese and tartar sauce .

Next, we had the GRILLED CHICKEN & WAFFLE SANDWICH, the waffles comes with grilled chicken, sautéed mushroom, melted cheese, and a densely infused mushroom sauce that gives it a unique flavour & aroma. Licking up the sauce with a piece of waffle and top with a piece of chicken, it amplifies the overall flavours.

BERRIES & BANANA PANCAKE – is a super thin and crusty pizza dough, makes it perfect as the base for the topping of the Berries compote, bananas whipping cream and the flavourful maple syrup. This dish is more of a munching snack or desserts, although it is more than sufficient for a small eater.

The POTATO SALAD - The crunch of the boiled potato with an added drizzle of ham and cheese mayonnaise coating was a superb mix and a very complimentary starters.

Next is the GRILLED SALMON FILLET ON CRISPY POTATO CAKE, it is served with sautéed asparagus & homemade sauce which lent a subtle fragrance to the dish, The salmon was pan fried which has crisp skin while the flesh of the salmon retains its’ natural taste.

Lastly we had the BEEF BACON & SHRIMP PASTA – The natural salty taste of the beef bacon, springy shrimp topped with a layer of chilli sambal that is slightly spicy add a new dimension to the taste and positively addictive.

As for desserts, we started with the DESSERT WAFFLE TOPPED WITH GULA MELAKA ICE CREAM – This is a dessert worth saving your appetite for as the smooth and light sweetness of the flavourful Gula Melaka ice-cream jive well into the waffles.

For coffee, we had the AFFOGATO WITH CRUSHED CRANBERRY ALMOND BISCOTTI WITH: PANDAN KAYA ICE CREAM – a light single shot espresso – the espresso shot is not that strong and blended seamlessly with the smooth and velvety ice-cream of the pandan kaya, although we would have preferred the normal vanilla ice cream.

Lastly we had the AFFOGATO WITH CRUSHED CRANBERRY ALMOND BISCOTTI WITH COCONUT ICE CREAM.

Start your day with a hearty appetizing breakfast fare at Bites Café @ Lake Fields Sungei Besi.

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