Pubs Are For Beer

Some kind of illumination, eh? Forgive me, but I've had some really stellar bar and pub meals before, and I guess I kinda figured that if pubs in KL do serve food, it should be good food. Whatever the case is, the scenario was this. Rain-wet and swollen-eyed from the sad, sad task of being there for the euthanasia of my brother-in-law's golden retriever, Donno, Vin Sen and I needed physical and emotional shelter from the torrential downpour which accompanied the dear, goofy dog's passing.

I offered him wild boar curry at Studio 42, a neighbourhood pub which is the watering hole of another good friend, Pat Seow. The curry was fantastic, the aroma rich and heady, and the meat tender to the point one would not believe it was wild boar. Pub owner Alan hunts and shoots the boar on his jungle expeditions, and it has become quite the hit on the menu.

I needed the anointing of grease for the heartache. I figured pubs were good places for fry-ups, right? Beer and fried foods are like Donno and her car rides. So I ordered the fish fingers. Cor, what a mistake. For one, it was not even fish. I did not expect fillets or white fish, but I certainly did not want these stringy, styrofoam-like rectangles of unidentified stuff that felt just barely, like some gluten, pseudo-mock meat. As much as I like my fried food, I left the bulk of it. Vin said it was something which was only edible after it was the only thing unordered from the bar menu, after ten beers. Not the best way to blow RM15. At the same price, the curry was much better value. All in all our pub tab came to RM58.


Studio 42
42 Jalan SS20/10 Damansara Kim
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: +603 7725 5023

Because Studio 42 did not have Guinness on tap, Vin insisted we go just a few doors down to On-Line for a Guinness Draft. As luck would have it, there was wild boar on the menu here too! So Vin had a portion. It was a different kind of equally great. Done in a dried, rendang style, the meat was a little more chewy than Studio 42's, but the spicing was pungent and fiery - a perfect foil to the ferrous tang of the Guinness. The bread served with the dish was toasted and cut into quarters, and made for great sandwiching. Good stuff, and bracing enough to see us through to the next hour where we had to drain the burial plot of the rainwater, and lay dear Donno to her final rest, with a big rawhide bone with her. I bet she would have loved the wild boar too! Cheers, Donno!