Chocolate lounges. That seems to be the in thing now. Something different to the food scene no doubt, but the idea of a place with a whole menu of different items made with chocolate sounds like a meal that screams sugar high while I'm more of a savoury kinda person Unimpressed as I was, I decided to try it out.

The Theobroma Lounge has a lot of publicity so I headed over to the branch in One Utama. They have two others, one in Bangsar and another in Pavillion. No doubt, the layout of this café was very well thought out. It’s warm and comforting, like hot chocolate on a rainy day. The dessert and chocolate display would have the average chocolate lover drooling. I ordered two drinks, a walnut brownie, and a quiche to see if they are good in the savoury department. The drinks were “ The Princess of Iceland” and the “Queen Of Rock And Roll”. Yeah, they do give their blended drinks laughable names like that. For the quiche, I went for the Quiche Lorraine.

The drinks at first tasted really good. The “Princess of Iceland” was a dark chocolate drink while the…  Continue reading »

Opposite the road from Melaka Sentral, there's Taman Cempaka's Food Market. I love to try markets in different states as sometimes I find that the same kuih can taste very differently way way way out of town. And sometimes, they crave for different things as well. For example, one of the top selling hawker there is a grilled chicken Stall called Ayam Bakar Bangsar (Bangsar Grilled Chicken). Wow, whilst people in KL crave for nyonya food, chicken rice balls, cendol and other stuff, Melaka people likes KL's Bangsar Grilled Chicken. People even had to reserve for the next day if they are to be guaranteed a piece.

Next in my quest to find good local delicious homemade food brings me to Taman Dato Harun. This wondeful food market is not to be mistaken with the one near the mosque but rather about a minutes drive heading towards Taman Medan along PJS2/2. You can't miss this place. At 5pm, it has probably one of the longest rows of food stalls in Klang Valley stretching almost half of PJS2/2 and a quarter of PJS 2/3. Now that's long. What I love about this place is that you can get the typical malay kuih's and also laksa's, malay nasi biriyani, putu piring, ikan bakar, ayam golek and other stuff.

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Sri Serdang is a one of the hidden gems when it comes to great Malay fare to buka puasa. So far it has never disappointed me. After my dismal visit to Kampung Baru recently, my heart was beating faster and faster as I reached the food market grounds. My hope is that the stalls do not succumb to the 'commerciallization of food' that everyone almost sells the same cookie cutter kuih. I was not dissappointed.

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When it comes to food, Malaysian's have always been 1Malaysia (forgive the pun). Come Ramadhan, it's no different. People from all walks of life, from different races, colour, religion, political beliefs will flock to their favourite ramadhan food market to find their favourite kuihs and Malay fare. Some only appear during these times. Polite jostling and patient queing are essential skills needed when visiting these markets. If you've read my tweets, you'd realised that I was really dissappointed with Kampung Baru this year. It seems that the selections are more 'commercialised' rather than homemade. That's not to say that it's not good anymore ... well it does actually. There are still some good finds in Kampung Baru although this year. But my next few blogs will cover somewhere else out of KL if I can. So, here's some food encounters from Kampung Baru. Next blogs will be on to Sri Serdang, Taman Dato Harun/Taman Medan and then a little place in Melaka called Taman Cempaka. Great food...

Kampung Baru
This is a famous food market come every ramadhan. 500meters worth of…  Continue reading »

A friend of mine recently turned vegetarian. He is a practicing Buddhist and sincere in his devoutness- it was a matter of time. However when he told me this, I was surprised at how sad I was.

Why was I upset by this? Well this guy is a true foodie. He’s my back alley friend (not that kind lah), rather my companion in seeking wonderful food in unexpected places. Many times I would meet him at LRT stations or dodgy carpark and we would walk to hidden food gems together. We’ve cracked crabs together standing up, savoured steamed chicken in markets, slurped soups laden with seafood and devoured steaks. He was the original FoodCrawler and used to organize sojourns to unknown restaurants in the younger days of FriedChillies.

So part of my sadness was the knowledge that this guy really LOVED his food.

Malaysia, as everyone knows is a multi-racial country, but sadly now (more than ever), we feel the divide among us. As the economy worsens, as our national language seems to belong more to the Malays than any other race, and as it becomes increasingly common to find yourself seated next to a fellow Malaysian but being unable to speak the same language- we look more and more towards those Petronas Ads to believe that racial harmony is truly alive and kicking in our country.

But maybe the 'dream' isn't really that far off. To get a good dose of racial harmony, you only need to visit a place like Fatty Crab on a Saturday night and you will see all of us (with no prejudice whatsoever) jostling for a seat. It doesn't matter if you are Malay, Chinese, Indian or 'lain-lain', everyone loves a good makan spot.

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