Homemade Nasi Beriani

This article is specially presented to Uncle Teng that has prepared the Nasi Beriani for LP and myself. Even though we're pushy yet he has still willingly prepared this homemade dish for us over the weekend.

The Nasi Beriani is a rice-dish that is well-known among the Muslim-Indian. The word means fried or roasted whereby the rice is traditionally prepared in an earthenware pots. Sufficient heat is needed to enhance the aroma and flavour of the special spices that are being used in this dish. One of the most important ingredients in the making of Nasi Beriani is the special rice granules that are short and fat, an example is the Basmathi Rice. A plenty of spices are being used in making a Nasi Beriani that range from chili, bay leaves, pepper, cloves, ginger, onion to garlic in order to prepare a vegetarian rice that is flavourful in both taste and aroma. If you're a meat lover, you can top it with chicken, lamb, beef, fish or prawn. A premium element is the Saffron that is meant to add an "appetizing" colour to the Nasi Beriani.

What is so special with the Nasi Beriani from Uncle Teng? He has chopped a lot of green chili and spring onions as garnishing for the Nasi Beriani. The crunchiness and freshness of these greens are adding a refreshing taste to enhance the deliciousness of the Nasi Beriani. Moreover, the chicken meat has been cooked to a softness that it goes perfectly with the Nasi Beriani. Despite the Nasi Beriani is very spicy but I love it deeply. Oh ya, this is a very healthy dish whereby it's not oily at all!

Black Forest is at Changkat Bukit Bintang

Changkat Bukit Bintang is a lively place in the night of Kuala Lumpur. This is the centre point where all the restaurants, bars or pubs are located that you can eat, drink and party all night long. Come here if you want to experience what the meaning of crowd is or if you want to know where all the locals and foreigners are gathering at.

Suggestion from Attila, we've decided to try out the Black Forest German Restaurant + Bar. Despite it's not a German Cuisine, I've insisted to order the Seafood Spaghetti with Lobster Cream that comes with big and small prawns and also a scallop. It's a tomato based spaghetti that tastes spicy and surprisingly that the sauce is really delicious. I've no clue if it contains lobster cream but I've definitely enjoyed this plate of pasta especially the succulent meat of the fresh prawns. Exceptionally with a little disappointments towards the short spaghetti that has been "minced" as if the rice vermicelli and the frozen scallop that is decorated on the "used" shell! Attila has taken the Wiener Schnitzel that is served specially with Fries. I find that the pork fillet tastes a little "special" or "weird"? It has a very strong aroma of the butter. Anyway, the pinkish fillet is quite tender and the taste is acceptable.

Ending the meal, I've taken a shot glass of Altes Schwarzwalder Kirschwasser or the Cherry Schnaps. It's very strong and I still dislike this fruit liquor... 

DoubleTree, the Hilton & Tosca, the Italinese

Going to Kuala Lumpur for a short relaxation, we've chosen the DoubleTree by Hilton that is located at Jln. Tun Razak. I'm firstly satisfied with the piece of complimentary Chocolate Chip Cookie for the "Welcome to DoubleTree by Hilton" that is served warm to our hands. This round cookies is filled with plenty of chocolate chips and walnuts. The porous cookies comes with the crunchiness of the nuts and the softness of the chocolate that melts in the mouth, it's a delicious dessert. Finishing the cookies and eager for more to fill the hunger...

We've decided to try out the Tosca Trattoria Italiana that is located in front of the swimming pool. It's such a wonderful relaxation to have our lunch here while enjoying the nice scenery of the bluish water. I love how the various kind of bread is presented despite neither the Grissini or bread sticks nor the white and the wheat bread are the most delicious bread that I've ever tasted. Have you ever tried out the mixture of olive oil with vinegar? This is the Italian way of dipping sauce for the bread.

Attila and I have decided to take the Bresaola Verde Pizza and the Linguine with Tiger Prawns. This is a non-tomato based Pizza that is topped with air dried beef, garlic paste, rucola vegetable, Parmesan and Mozzarella Cheese. The dough tastes okay only that I indeed prefer the flavourful, thin slices of beef. Well, this is not the best but it's definitely an edible and quite a nice Pizza that Attila can enjoy of! I'm totally not satisfied with my Linguine that comes with small prawns or the shrimps?!! Moreover, they're not fresh. The handmade noodle is soft in texture and it's being fried with the smoked duck skin that has indeed added a nice aroma to the pasta. The Linguine is quite delicious except that it's slightly too dry for me. I'm actually hoping further if the duck skin can be crispier.

The Italian food here is definitely not the best ever but being coupled with the nice scenery together with our mood in leisurely pace, we've enjoyed the time that I feel it's moving slow and slower...

Namoo is a Korean!

Can you imagine the taste of an Korean Dessert? You'll never know if you've never tried it and we've visited the Namoo Korean Dessert Cafe N Bistro that is located at Gurney Plaza. Stepping into the restaurant and I've immediately changed my mind that to stay outside at the open air. I dislike the smell of the various food that is wandering in the air and sticking onto the clothes, it's awful! On the other hand, I quite like their idea of displaying the menu with clothes hanger.

We've shared the Beef Bibimbap whereby it's a rice-dish being topped with mixed vegetables and meat that is then served in a stone bowl. The most important step is to stir all the ingredients together with the special Korean chili paste that is sweet yet it's not spicy, till they're mixed uniformly. The rice is too sticky while the beef is too minced instead of being cut into thin slices. I find that it's still quite delicious especially to go with the spicy Kimchi. This is definitely not the best Bibimbap that I've ever tasted but it's at least one of the edible that I can accept in Penang. We've also shared a Seafood Pancake that comes with a minimum amount of prawn and squid but a lot of spring onions. I'm wondering if the Chef has used the wrong flour as the pancake is just too soft and sticky.

Finally, we've given another chance for the dessert that we've chosen the Sweet Potato Cake. It's claimed as the Korean special recipe whereby the cake is made from 100% natural ingredient and fresh cream. Indeed of naming it as cake, I'll rather call it as mashed sweet potato. The whole stack of the triangle slice is just a layer of sweet potato that is topped with fresh cream and being garnished with crumbs. It's special but it's not my choice of dessert.

I'm not impressed, neither by the ambient nor by the food here. I feel disappointed with the dessert here that I've put a high expectation earlier. I can't find a motivation if I'll visit Namoo again.