Brunch & Munch Restaurant @Desa Pandan, G-Village Kuala Lumpur - An Affair with Eggs and Pork Review

 

Many people that I knows just loves to eat eggs cooked in any form and style. Now to satisfy your craving for everything eggs, you can head over to Brunch & Munch located at Lot G-05, G Village, Jalan 1/76, off Jalan Desa Pandan, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

At Brunch & Munch, most if not all the menus items have one or two of their main ingredient which is Eggs and/or Pork. So, if you are fan of one of these two ingredients, you will be spoilt for choice at this restaurant whether be it for a full meal or just to munch.

The decor at the restaurant is one that exudes a warm feeling with a centrepiece display of a large crack giant egg. It exudes the theme of casual dining with soothing pipe in music of the sixties and seventies to calm your stress away during your meal.

Our food review started with an order of salad, which is the EggCellent Salad (RM18.00). Consisting of egg white, with quail eggs, carrots, onion rings, radicchio, rocket and bacon chips and topped with Honey-Citrus with Lemon dressing; it is a nice start for the review.

Next on is the Pork Corn Belly (RM18.00). The Roasted Pork Belly are lightly braised with dark soy sauce together with dried chillies exuding out a sweet and slight spicy taste to this pork belly. I prefer the white rice that came along with this dish as it was a nice match eaten with it; although customers can choose to have it with hash brown too.

This is then followed by a pasta dish which is Brunch & Munch Carbonara (RM26.00). This pasta is cooked in a carbonara style tagliatelle with pork belly, bacon, aged cheese and mushroom. After that it comes with a topped sous-vide eggs which will be mixed with the pasta giving you an extra creamy and cheesy texture.

The next pork dish is the Not So Boar Ribs (RM30.00). This ribs is double cooked, the first is using a slow cooked process with an in house special marinade to cook the ribs. Before serving; it is then sent to the griller to give it a smoky flavour. This dish is served with side dishes of sauteed cabbage with bacon and hash brown.

 At Brunch & Munch, they also served burgers too; the one that we tasted is the Cheese Boar Ger (RM35.00). Although the price is a little costly but the thick and succulent housemade pork patty made up for the price. We love the texture and taste of this patty as the patties are made from BBQ pork with lap cheong (chinese sausage). The burger is served with bacon, sunny side up, aged cheddar, pineapple relish, tomato, gherkin, lettuce and coleslaw.

The last dish that we tasted is the Scottish Eggs (RM18.00). A soft boiled eggs is wrapped in with the special minced spiced pork (much like the Yong Tau Foo) and sent to the deep fryer. It has a crisp on the outside layer and drizzled with a sweet hot sauce and served with pickle cucumber.

For those that loves to hang out; you can savour some of these eggs and pork dishes while having a drink or two and munching some of these dishes after work to avoid the massive traffic crawl.

New Peng Wah Restaurant @Damansara Jaya Petaling Jaya - Authentic Village Style Home Cook Dishes

For those of you that stay in or near Damansara Jaya, you would probably notice the New Peng Wah Chinese Restaurant located at Lot 15 & 17 , Jalan SS 22/19 Damansara Jaya 47400 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, just behind the Atria Shopping Gallery.

New Peng Wah Restaurant has been around this neighbourhood for the past 3 years and one of the very few Chinese Restaurant that serves authentic village style home cook dishes. +BestRestaurant ToEat got the invitation to taste these special signature dishes which are only available at this restaurant.

The setup is very simple and minimal, no fancy decor and furniture to line up the restaurant to impress you but what is more important is the food that is served at this restaurant.

Our review started off with Signature Lala Soup (Small Serving RM16.00). This is a very different dish from the one that we normally eaten at other restaurant. The main difference is in the soup broth which is flavoured with Tong Kui and wolfberries. Love the herbal taste and the aroma of the wine. Here the Lala is of a special species which is from the Philippines; has a bouncy and chewy texture. Best eaten with white rice especially with the flavourful soup.

For those familiar or regular customers, one of their favourite dishes that is ordered is the Signature Deep Fried Ma Yau Fish Senangin (RM6.00 per 100gm). This fish is deep fried to a nice crisp and with the accompanied soya sauce was a nice match to a simple dish.

Next on, is a another village style dish; which is the Signature Potato Fried Pork (Large - RM 25.00). The potatoes are thinly sliced and fried together with the strips of pork. We like the texture of the slice potatoes and with the sauce that was used to stir fried this dish. Another one of the dish that are good to be eaten with white rice

The second fish dish that we had is the Stew Grouper Fish Head (Large - RM48.00). The fish head are cut to biteable sizes. Using garlic, old ginger, red chillies, green chillies, capsicum and soya sauce; the flavours of this mixture was delicious. We can't help ourselves to more orders of white rice to goes with this tasty dish although it was a little tad of saltiness - you can pre-empt the captain when you order this dish to cut down on the level of saltiness of this dish.

This is another dish which is difficult if not impossible to get from other restaurant; as this is very Temerloh village style. It is called the Homestyle Claypot Brinjal (Large - RM28.00). The brinjal are pre boiled and mashed to a paste. It is then cooked with minced pork and prawns in a belacan paste. This is a dish when you start eating; will be difficult to stop. Love the taste of this dish.

The next dish is a chicken based dish which is named as the Claypot Hua Teow Wine Chicken. The strong aroma of the Hua Teow wine was very nice and make this dish very tasty. Served on a claypot the gravy was slurped up to the last drop. 

The last dish for the night is the Fried Pork With Nyonya Sauce. A very interesting dish. According to the manager, you can ordered this nyonya sauce with steamed fish or chicken. Well, you guessed it; we really need to order another white rice to go with this addicted sauce.

If you love village style home cooked meal as much as we do, New Peng Wah at Damansara Jaya Petaling Jaya will definitely not disappoint you.

Izakaya Kushi Raku Japanese Restaurant @TTDI Kuala Lumpur -Japanese Bar and Yakitori Review

I really enjoyed Izakaya style dining especially its skewers (Yakitori ) offering. Recently +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to Izakaya Kushi Raku Japanese Restaurant located at 28, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 2 Taman Tun Dr Ismail TTDI 60000 Kuala Lumpur to taste out these special offering.

Izakaya Kushi Raku Japanese Restaurant has opened for business less than one year ago with a theme of Japanese grilled bar concept.

The interior is a modern and fun setup with a lots of Japanese inspired peripheral. Sake bottles can be seen adorned on top of the rack. Even the furniture which is custom made to foster the ambience of a casual dining.

Izakaya Kushi Raku offers chicken, beef and pork skewers. There are also vegetables and seafood skewers too. Izakaya Kushi Raku now have some very special signature dishes for customer to enjoy it with a cold sake or a cold beer.

Our food review started with 2 appetizers; the first of which is the Skate Fish (Eihire) – RM10. For those that are not familiar with what a skate fish is; it is actually a Stingray fish (Ikan Pari). The fish meat are cut and grilled. It has a sweet salty taste. Nice to eat with the some sake.

Next is the Snail Meat (Chuaka Sazae Niku) – RM9. I love the chewy and bouncy texture of this snail meat. The sauce was just right and was served chilled.

For the skewers (yakitori) we started with the Chicken Wing Salt (Teba Shio) – RM7 per skewer. The chicken wing are slightly seasoned with table salt and put to the griller. During the grilling process the chef, sprinkle some sake to add in the wine flavour to the chicken wings. Loves the crisp, and sake taste in the chicken wing.

Next on is the Chicken Thigh meat with Wasabi Mayo (Momo Wasabi Mayone-zu) – RM5 per skewer. As with the chicken wings this thigh meat is also seasoned with salt and during the grilling process, the special wasabi mayo sauce are applied on the meat. This ensures the flavours are locked into the meat when you bite into it.

After which we had the Beef Ribeye with Miso Sauce (Gyumiso) – RM11 per skewer. This is another sauce enhance grilling. This time, the chef uses the miso sauce. I like it as the miso sauce was not too overwhelming, as if he has applied too much of the miso, it will be salty and would not have tasted the flavour of the beef meat. Love the medium done texture which leave the meat still tender and juicy.

The second last skewers is the Pork Belly Special (Bara Yaku to Age) – RM7 per skewer. For this skewers, the chef uses the teriyaki sauce to apply to the skewers. It has a sweet and salty taste and with the use of pork belly meat (oil mix with the sauce); gives a nice texture and taste to this slight crunch skewers.

The last skewer is the Cherry Tomato (Cheri Tomato) – RM4 per skewer. Lightly seasoned with salt and sent to the griller.

For the main course we had the Squid Stuffed Rice (Ikasaki Raisu Zume) – RM27. Using seaweed, sesame seed, bonito flakes and mix with Japanese Grain rice; it is then stuffed into the squid before being grilled. Using Teriyaki sauce to spread on the squid while grilling; the chewy texture squid gives you a sweet taste.

The final dish is the Grilled Riceball with Salmon (Salmon Yakionigiri) – RM7. The Salmon meat are moulded into the rice and then send to the griller. Before serving, it is topped with seaweed. I am really not a fan of grilled rice as I find the rice to be a little hard and have a slight crunch; but for those that loves this kind of texture, they will probably find it tasty.

Whether to hang out with friends or to have some good food while enjoying a nice beer or just plainly stayed chill for the evening, Izakaya Kushi Raku is definitely a nice pick. 

Raj's Banana Leaf Rice Restaurant @Bangsar Baru Kuala Lumpur - No MSG Banana Leaf Rice Feast

As I was in Bangsar with my makan kaki gang and it was quite sometime ago that we last eaten Banana Leaf Rice, so we decided to try out a friend recommendation on a NO MSG Banana Leaf Rice at Raj's Banana Leaf Rice Restaurant located at 38G, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.

At Raj's Banana Leaf @Bangsar Baru, I saw a big notice that says NO MSG; so decided to try it out. At Raj Banana Leaf Restaurant; all its chef are from India and are specially trained to cook these authentic South Indian dishes.

As it is located at a corner shop, it offers a well lit and a clean environment to dine in, unlike some of the restaurant which are stuffy, dirty and feel claustrophobic.

As with any Banana Leaf Restaurant, there are the curries and the fried delicacies to choose from. These fried item are fried upon an order being made.

You can also personally select the kind of meat and seafood that you like from the chillers to be handed to the chief grilling chef.

For us, we choose a variety of seafood for our fried selection starting with the Fried Flower Crab (RM15.00). The crab is marinated in a special curry powder paste before being sent to the hot wok for frying. 

Next is the Giant Tiger Prawns (RM24.00 per 100g). As with the crab, the tiger prawn are also subjected to the same curry powder marinade.

Followed by the Fried Chicken (RM6.50 per piece). We like the texture of the chicken as the meat was still moist after the frying. At this restaurant the skin of the chicken have been taken out; so for those that dislike having Fried chicken skin will rejoice this Fried chicken.

We have also chosen a couple of fish to taste out, the first of which was the Senangin - Threadfin (RM 7.50 per 100g).

followed by the Tenggiri (RM6.50 per piece) and the Fried Fish Egg (RM 5.00 per 100g).

another fish was the Ikan Bulus - Silver Whiting Fish (RM7.50 per 100g).

and the last fish was the Ikan Bawal - White Pomfret (RM7.50 per 100g).

The last seafood that we selected was the Fried Squid With Onion (RM9.50 per 100g). Nice bouncy texture.

Next, we moved on to taste the curries; the first of which is the Mutton Varuval (RM10.00).

followed by the Mysore Mutton (RM11.00). For those that cannot to take too spicy curries, then Raj's will be just nice for you as most of the curries are less spicy.

and the other 2 dishes are the Chicken Peratel (RM8.00).

and Chicken Masala (RM8.00).

Besides Banana Leaf, it also serves Roti Canai and Thosai all day; together with some snack food and kuih for tea time. We tasted a couple of these roti canai starting with the plain one (RM1.50).

followed by the Roti Banana (RM3.10). One of the thing I like about the Raj Banana Leaf Restaurant is that these Roti Canai and Thosai are served on Banana Leaf.

the Roti Tissue (RM3.00).

and then the Thosai which we had was the Thosai Ghee Paper (RM3.00).

and the last one is the Rava Thosai (RM2.50).

For those that might not want to travel all the way to Bangsar to try the No MSG Banana Leaf Rice; you can go to the other 2 outlet of Raj's Banana Leaf; one in Publika and the other one which was just opened in Jalan Gasing (a few doors away from Raju Banana Leaf).