"A beautifully cooked piece of meat!"
Good news! I can now tick ‘eat steak in a swamp’ off my to-do list. It was a rather pleasant experience, and one I wouldn’t mind going through again. Good food in a good place; that’s hard to beat. So, steak in a swamp: done! But let’s back up. No, I wasn’t actually in a swamp. That’d be weird. It just so happens ‘Toowoomba’ means swamp in native Australian Aborigine, as the poster on the wall says. And instead of a wet bog with mosquitoes flying around, Toowoomba Meats and Deli is perhaps one of the nicest looking places you can go today to enjoy a steak.
Toowoomba Meats and Delis is a steak-house owned by Perfect Fresh and Frozen, a local purveyor of meats, mostly imported from Australia. Their schtick is that all of their products are guaranteed Halal from reliable sources. Toowoomba is apparently their latest restaurant, situated in the brand new Platinum Mondrian commercial building along Jalan Genting Klang. It’s easy to spot from the main road; a few steps away from Overtime Sports Bar. If you’re wondering what kind of place it is, think Las Vacas or Ayers Rock; it’s essentially a meat shop that cooks for you.
The first thing that struck me as I stepped in with my colleague was just how clean and bright everything is. This led to a very cheerful, friendly atmosphere. There weren’t that many people around the day I visited, maybe it’s because of how new the place is. The restaurant is furnished with wooden furniture and decorated with high-contrast posters that mostly talk about meat. As with a lot of modern restaurants, the kitchen is visible to see behind glass panels. You can actually watch the chefs cook your food there and then. Of course, there’s the ice-box and meat-case where a selection of high-quality beef and lamb, all Australian and Halal, is ready for you to buy. The ice-box also contains seafood products such as salmon.
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"Absolutely delicious!"
With hot and mostly sunny days like ours, ice cream should be a daily affair, especially if it is as delectable as what Buckets churns out. Back in the day ice cream was traditionally churned in a wooden bucket; this is where the new player in the artisanal ice cream market gets their name.
While the ice cream here feels rich and creamy on the tongue, it’s actually made in a healthier way using top quality ingredients. They replace the cream with palm fats and gelatine isn’t used as a stabiliser for texture. Their ice cream is trans fat and preservative free meaning there is no fatty aftertaste or waxy coating on the tongue, just pure smoothness and a depth of flavour. The ingredients selected are the finest to ensure quality such as actual Oreo pieces in the cookies and cream, real Tahitian vanilla bean for the waffle cones, strawberries from France, chocolate from Belgium and more. Even the sorbets are made using the fruit pulp for pure taste and texture instead of using artificial flavouring. This keeps many of the vitamins and minerals intact meaning that the ice cream is not only healthier than the regular variety but it provides you with goodness too!
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"Delectable food from a truck on a bridge"
How’s the idea of eating pasta over a bridge sound? Bet you never expected that question to be fielded to you, right? I didn’t either, but here I was, doing exactly that: eating pasta over a bridge. This is Pusat Bandar Damansara, and the ‘bridge’ I’m talking about is the flyover over Jalan Damansara nee Sprint Highway down below. Let me tell you some more.
Come along at nights, 10pm onwards and head towards Pusat Bandar Damansara. Take the road that will lead to the McDonald’s, and you’ll spot a row of mostly full tables next to a small white van. Stop. Get down. Find a table and take a seat. Welcome to The Humble Chef.
The Humble Chef is actually a truck/kitchen/café combo, serving pasta dishes, sandwiches and omelettes. The proprietor, the friendly Chef Rosman Hussin, is actually a fully qualified chef; he took a Diploma in Culinary Arts from a local private college, and he had stints working as a chef in KL and Germany a few years back. Now he’s home and cooking up satisfying late-night dinner fare from the back of his converted truck.
“It was basically my mom’s idea,” Rosman said when asked why a truck and not a grounded premise instead. “You know, to open an actual restaurant takes a huge investment. Not to mention the overheads: rent, bills and so on. So my mom suggested a truck instead. I bought this truck, paid to turn it into a moving kitchen. And here I am.”
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"Incredible coffee!"
I’m not a coffee drinker, not because I don’t enjoy it, but because I’ve had too many bad cups of coffee to put me off. I’ve had coffee that tastes like drain water, coffee that is extremely bitter and burnt tasting, coffee that is overly sweetened; you name it, I’ve had it.
Artisan Roast Café is a hidden secret and I can understand why coffee connoisseurs might want to keep it that way. When you first arrive here you immediately feel as though you’ve stepped into an oasis of calm within the busy city. The café is surrounded by trees and has a cool artsy feel to it with the mismatched furniture and minimalistic design. The laidback slow paced nature of this place allows you to kick back and enjoy a freshly brewed cup.
Here, they roast their own beans and they’re currently using a single origin bean known as the Mena Gold from Mandheling, Sumatra. It is this attention to detail that makes a good coffee. Michael refers it to the ‘trilogy’. Good coffee boils down to the beans, roasting, and preparation. All of which Alang does meticulously.
The beans are roasted about once every two weeks and it is in using the single origin beans that set them apart from the regular commercial coffee joints which use a house blend espresso to be on the safe side.
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"The mother of all burgers!"
Today I met the mother of all burgers. This burger has every possible sinful delight packed on making it extremely fatty and rich, in other words it’s absolutely lip smackingly delicious. If you’re going to attempt to eat this however, a word of advice, share it with at least one other person.
The burger in question? The Dirty Nelly. A 300gm patty made up of not one, or two, but three different meats: pork, veal and lamb! Now if that hasn’t already sold you, the patty also has bacon bits, jalapeno peppers, and English cheddar buried within it, and then it is topped with bacon strips, mashed potatoes, and a fried egg. And then guess what? It gets even better…this monster of a burger is accompanied by a bowl of chilli con carne, crisp battered and fried white bait, potato wedges, and slaw. This burger just beckons for you to pick it up and devour it.
The patty here is meaty with the slight gaminess of the lamb shining through. The cheese submerged within makes an ooey gooey mess that gives the patty some moistness. The mashed potato on the top is certainly an interesting addition that oddly enough works, much like the addition of fries on burgers except for this has a creamier consistency. Being a fan of real bacon I’m thrilled to see a few strips lying on the patty giving it an additional dimension of naughtiness, and the fried egg with the runny yolk seals the deal. Runny yolk is liquid gold that elevates any dish to a whole new level.
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"Pure fudgy creaminess"
This humble little café started off as a home baking business in 2008 with a booth set up on weekends at the Amcorp Mall flea market. Orders were also taken online and they churned out baked goods and delivered them to customers for special occasions. As their popularity grew, a dream became a reality, as they were able to open up their very own spot a mere year later.
Cookie Cat is a family business run by Zarina and her two daughters Azza and Li. Zarina is known as the single mom superwoman, Azza as the brownie expert and cookie monster, and Li as the taste-tester tech monkey. Zarina, a banker by profession, somehow always found time to bake in the evenings and on weekends for her friends and customers. She found it relaxed her eventhough her day job was tiring and highly demanding. Her passion for baking is what led them to open up a cosy and affordable cafe with a loyal following. The Cookie Cat was born out of their love of both cookies and cats, simple as that.
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"Creamy and not too tart"
Don’t have a cow, man! Although, when it tastes this good I think I will. While it hasn’t been too popular in recent years, it would appear that KLites are finally ready for the frozen yogurt craze. There have been all sorts of chains springing up in the city and now we have our very own local homegrown froyo chain, Moo Cow.
The froyo here is made using fresh milk and yogurt containing live ABT cultures, which is the healthy type of bacteria that our body needs. It is comforting to know that this is a product of fresh ingredients and not flavoured powdered mixes. The culture they use is made through their own fermentation process as everything is produced in-house. They also claim that their yogurt is low in sugar, which is a major plus point for me. Of their two flavours, the Original is sweetened with a little bit of cane sugar whereas the Mango has no added sugar relying on the fruit’s natural sweetness.
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"Just add yolk for a rich carbonara..."
The menu at Mezze explores the wonderful flavours surrounding the Mediterranean. You’ll find dishes inspired by France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Northern Africa. The portions are large and sharing is encouraged. This is exactly the kind of spot where you get together with a group of friends and order a bunch of dishes to eat family style.
That is exactly what we did on our visit here. To start off with we were recommended the jamon croquetas. The manager told us that we would never taste anything like it elsewhere. We also ordered the chorizo salad and the duck liver pate.
The jamon croquetas are indeed like nothing else I’d eaten before. These little breaded deep fried balls are filled with creamy béchamel sauce and ham. I don’t even know how they manage to keep them intact when they fry them. As soon as you bite béchamel sauce gushes out. Absolutely delightful. The chorizo salad with baby potatoes and slow roasted tomatoes are also a favourite at the table. The tart dressing works well with the spiced sausage. The pate is served with a fennel marmalade that cuts the richness and I adore it slathered on my bread.
With our appetites stirred by the delicious starters we swiftly went on to order a few main dishes to try; the pappardelle with oxtail, the salmon with puy lentils and a mustard sauce, and the lamb pilaf pie. The oxtail is braised for 8hours making it meltingly soft and flavourful. This dish is an acquired taste though as the meat tends to be a bit gelatinous and gamey- if you enjoy your meats however this is the dish for you.
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"It's messy and delish!"
They say never to judge a book by its cover; I however judge restaurants by their menus. To me, if you can’t be creative enough when putting together a menu then you really have no business being in the food industry. I was pleasantly surprised when I flipped open the menu at this chic little hangout. The first item that popped out at me was the roasted pumpkin and couscous salad with a mint mustard dressing...as I thought about those ingredients together I realised that the combination is genius and was slightly jealous that I hadn’t thought of it first. Reading this gave me hope for a delicious meal because everything on the menu intrigued me…and we had trouble narrowing down our choices.
Of course the roasted pumpkin salad was one of the orders I placed, along with a French burger (yes, I’m still in a dreamy just-got-back-from-France mood) and my dining companion decided to go for the Huevos Rancheros wrap. We also ordered the popular Bee burger to takeaway for another colleague.
As we sat back and waited, my colleague noted that the music selection is really good here. The tunes they play are worth listening to as you kick back and enjoy your meal. It also seems to be a popular dining outlet especially for those working in the area; the tables were packed with colleagues hunched over dishing the latest office gossip. Our tummies rumbled as tables around us got their burgers and everyone was happily chomping down.
The salad was the first to arrive. The pumpkin is spiced and then roasted till it is still firm but soft as soon as you bite down. The sweetness with the tangy minty mustard dressing is beautiful and the fresh crunch of the mesclun salad leaves is refreshing. I’m told that the dukkah prawn salad is another must order: grilled prawns in dukkah spice with grapefruit, watercress, salad leaves and a mint yogurt dressing. I’ll definitely be making a trip back for that soon.
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"Medium-rare perfection and meltingly tender"
Ayers Rock Butchery and Grill is situated quite deep in the heart of Bukit Jelutong, where I reside. As a meat lover, my interest was piqued when it opened. It is a small unit, occupying one shop-lot. At first glance it seems rather out of place, but this could be because it’s in the middle of a housing area, and its neighbors are a mamak shop, a laundry and a 7-11. As the name suggests, it sells meat for customers to take home, and also grills it for you there, should you choose to buy and eat-in, which was what I did.
The first thing that caught my eye when I walked in was the meat cases. I have to say you don’t get a lot of choice, but it was a small joy to see whole sides of rib eye, striploin and a few full-length tenderloins lying in the chillers. There was also a side of Wagyu sirloin, which made me smile even more. The restaurant itself is clean and simple, with heavy use of red and wooden furniture. The décor evokes an Outback cowboy life, with hats and replica guns hanging on the wall. It was quite busy the night I came. Rather cutely, each table is adorned with a salt and peppershaker in the shape of hugging friends, and a bottle each of tomato sauce, chili sauce, mint sauce, Tabasco sauce and HP sauce.
I sat myself down and was handed a menu by a gentleman in casual attire. This is probably the simplest, most straightforward menu I’ve ever seen. No fancy descriptions, and just about two half-pages long. It simply lists the types of steak (rib-eye, striploin, tenderloin, t-bone, ‘aussie’ which is rump; and there are different varieties such as grain-fed and even Wagyu), lamb items, a few seafood items and some burgers. All of them came with a side of salad and fries or potato salad. Best of all, the steaks were VERY affordable compared to the bigger steakhouses. As a point of reference, Ayers Rock rib eye is a relative bargain at RM35 compared to RM50 at a place like TGIF.
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