Pizza Perfect

Pizza is the perfect get-together food. You eat it with your hands so you don’t worry about putting out cutlery. You need not bring out your good china – in fact, it tastes better on a napkin and a plastic plate. There’s also this chill and hang loose vibe about pizza that makes people friendlier to each other, even if the group you’ve gather are not all from the same bunch of friends. 

I had this party-perfect night today when Kit made his now famous (among my circle of friends) pizza pies. We had a few Expomal International staff and some ex ones as our guest base. I widened the degrees of separation with the very talented videographer Skeet Yap who shoots for Expomal, and Julian Liang, ex-banker.

My vat of salsa, with organic green tomatoes mixed with commercial reds.

Kit was hauled into drudgery early in the morning to dice tomatoes and red onion for my salsa. It spent the day chilling while I went off to work after defrosting passion fruit pulp in readiness for an aloe vera, nata and jelly dessert. 

Pepperoni with black olives and mushrooms.

Pepperoni with red peppers and Habenero cheese. Spicy, spicy!

The storm that hit Kelana Jaya and Subang made everyone glad of the warmth radiating from the kitchen, and the hot pizzas were greeted with delight. Kit made his usual pepperoni ones, with red peppers, olives, capers and his strong tomato basil sauce, along with Habenero cheese. This time, he also presented a new invention – a wasabi mayonnaise pizza with chicken pepperoni. That was much appreciated by the Buddhist friends, Julian and Jess Yeoh. Everyone loved the originality of the sauce and how it was sweet and yet spicy.  

Chicken loaf with Kit's new mayo-wasabi sauce.

The final half and half of pepperoni and chicken loaf.

Skeet brought us a great bottle of Chilean red. This Cab Sauv was really a great accompaniment to the pizzas. It was fruity, mellow and very drinkable – a social little wine. 

Skeet's great choice for the evening!

Dessert was served in my big Jasper Conran bowl, and I was very chuffed that it went down so well. It was just diced up Cocoon jelly, but the pairing of aloe vera in syrup and tangy passion fruit really made it sing! 

 Thanks everyone for the great company!

Dark Delights

It’s always nice when a fellow foodie buys you gifts from abroad. You can be sure of something new and interesting. 

Stephanie Ong came back from Perth and brought over a pack of these Tim Tams which will probably not make it over to Malaysia because of halal issues. These dark chocolate Tims contain a sticky, chewy filling made with Jamaican rum. They made a rather posh after-dinner offering. Tim Tams are a bit twee, but alcoholic Tim Tams are another thing altogether! They are mellow, pleasant, with a good crunch and none of that Made In Indonesia oily mouth feel that comes with the use of palm oil as opposed to good milk and cocoa! Salut!

Sugar, Sugar!

I picked up this bag of Japanese gourmet popcorn at Cold Storage IPC. You have to leave it to the Japanese, they make such lovely snacks. The corn was perfectly popped, with no old maids (that's the technical term for unpopped kernels).

The flavour was superb; a lovely, fragrant brown sugar.  Well worth the RM3 price tag!

An Eye For Offers

I really like being surprised by close out or clearance items at the grocery stores. My best find recently has been at Cold Storage at IPC (lately known as Ikano Power Centre) where I got buy one, free one (BOFO) deals on Kettle Chips. I bought Cheddar Cheese, Sea Salt and Vinegar and Jalapeño. I’m a sucker for deals. Especially since imported items are so exorbitant here. 

Last week at Cold Storage Subang Parade, I got these snack sized Butterfingers which were normally RM19.90, and reduced to RM4.90. Also these Stix In The Mud on special deal. Yum! All unhealthy stuff, but such a nice treat!

Sealed With A Whisk

12 April 2011 – Since the O Café had no dessert options, I steered Kit in the direction of Whisk, on the same floor of Empire Shopping Gallery. I liked how the store looked – it reminded me of these little bakery nooks in Australia, New Zealand and the barrios of New York where small little places like these flourish on the strength of good coffee and great bakes. 

Whisk feels like a Parisian boulangerie.

I tried to rein myself in, so forewent the macaroons (RM2 each, RM18 for a box of ten) for slices of Red Velvet Cake and Hummingbird. Why I have this fixation about Red Velvet, I just don’t know. Am I channeling the later, gluttonous Elvis, whose favourite dessert this was? Or is it the forced reddening of the chocolate sponge which speaks to my need to try to energize a tired world? Whatever it is, Whisk’s Red Velvet has the best texture of any Red Velvet I have had in KL. Until maybe three years ago, this was not one of the usual offerings on any dessert menu.  It is a traditional Red Velvet, meaning, no other bells and whistles, except for the cream cheese frosting. 

Red Velvet Cake.

I think I would have liked it more with a bit of coconut sprinkles on the top, and perhaps a much thicker layer of icing. Red Velvet should also be in the shape of an armadillo, but that’s just my channeling the groom’s cake from Steel Magnolias. Remember that cake? Or the movie?

Hummingbird Cake is the Southern Comfort of baked goods. It’s a largely Southern American cake, made popular in North Carolina after a recipe for it was published in the February 1978 edition of Southern Living Magazine. 

Hummingbird Cake.

The original had mashed bananas, pineapple and pecans in it. Whisk’s version does not stray too far from it, and it really is a luscious, moist, tender crumbed delight. This coming from a person who eats only fresh bananas. The cream cheese icing was excellent too, and thick enough to be decadent. 

The cakes aren’t cheap, at RM12.80 a slice, but they are really worth it. Plus, Whisk serves water with their cakes too! With something so rich and moist and filling, really, water should be the only beverage to accompany these masterpieces.

O So Green

The frontage of Organic Goes Chic.

12 April 2011 – I was preparing for lunch at American Chilli’s at Empire Shopping Gallery, when I decided I should not be spending so much on eating out. The best way to cull cost was to go local, and I just happened to pass Organic Goes Chic. I liked the simplicity of the menu, so in we popped. 

It’s not too fancy a place, but effort was made in terms of ID. I liked the rolled up magazines on the shelf above the dining booths. 

While I did not like the fact that calling it ‘filtered water’ gave the joint cause to sell water at RM1, I was glad that they even had water. It is appalling how most places are starting to simply refuse to serve H20 as a service!

Seaweed Salad Roll.

I ordered the Seaweed Salad Roll (RM8.90) and Inari Mango Salad (RM5.90) as appetizers. I really liked the first one. It was so fresh and crisp and clean, and you know it was made to order because the seaweed was still crunchy and brittle. Kit said the red cabbage, carrot, cucumber, iceberg lettuce and vegetarian flakes combination was just bland, but I found it very light and ‘real’, with a whole new dimension added with the dipping sauce. I have no idea what it was, but it was great, and I can understand why someone would order an extra bowl of it for 50 sen. 

Inari Mango Salad.

The Inari Mango Salad was sharp and tangy in contrast to the Seaweed Roll. There were three Inari (Japanese sweet pressed beancurd skins) pockets filled with mango, carrot and red chilli, served cold. There was a nice amount of heat from the chillies, but nothing overwhelming, and a lot of lime, which made me think of Knorr’s lime powder. Still, there still was a tangible flavour balance, with the sweet from the Inari complementing the sour of the lime and the spiciness from the chillies evening it all out. The red and green coral lettuce was also gobbled up. After all, it’s supposed to be organic!

Petai Fried Rice.

Kit said the Petai Fried Rice with brown rice was just right for him. The RM12.90 dish was served with four belinjau crackers, some naked (meaning undressed) coleslaw, and a halve of lime. The lime is key to pulling this dish together. I tasted it without and it was so-so, but the acidity made the chilli less obvious and made the nuttiness of the brown rice come through better. 

Lasagna With Bread.

The Lasagne With Bread (RM10.90) was just ill-named, Kit proclaimed, but we both agreed it was very good. There were no pasta layers, but the base was wrapped in popiah-like skin. There was just a dollop of cheese on top, and the rest look gunky and congealed, but was actually a good re-invention of meat and tomato sauce using mushrooms and vegetarian mock meat or gluten. It looks like a small portion, but it is very filling, and it can get a little sickening after too much of it. The slightly sweet toasted bread slices help balance the richness a bit. 

The restaurant prides itself on using tableware and kitchen cutting boards made out of natural rice fibre. They also say their cutlery is organic, but it looks like stainless steel to me.

I was not sure if it was a fully vegan restaurant, because I did see mention of fish on the menu, but after checking the menu and the cutesy nutrition information label which proclaimed 0 artificial colour, flavouring, preservatives and MSG, and 100% vegetables, I figured it was indeed vegetarian. The server confirmed it. I think it is a great way not to put people off vegetarian cuisine. 

This has been one of the most satisfying vegetarian and organic meals I have had in a long while. I have no doubt that I’ll be back. Even if I do have to pay for water.