Jaya Grocer :: Amazing Cafeteria Food :: Armand's Birthday

Birthday boy with Auntie and bro

An overdue post is coming your way right now. On a supermarket that has a most rocking restaurant--Jaya Grocers--located inside Gateway Bangi. It is the first building you see on your right as you slowly smartTag your way through Tol Bangi (because the car in front had low batteries or no credit, as always). 

First visit to Jaya Grocers cafe. Circa early 2014.

I had noticed the sizzling roast lamb and beef staring at me a while back, and one sunny afternoon after the plane ride from Langkawi, we came here for a late lunch. And it was awesome. So for Armand's 13th birthday (yep, my son is now 13 years old and even taller than his pretty mama), I made arrangements with Chef Zul --that's the head chef at Jaya's Grocer--for dinner with my party of 7. Armand's own request. In other words, Secret Recipe just lost one of its long-lasting customers this birthday. Must be the frightful 16% tax they charge there that always leaves you gaping in confused wonder at the cashier.

The cafeteria at Jaya's is just like a smaller version of my old university cafeteria or IKEA's cafeteria, if you like. All the food is on display under a glass hood not facing your way and when ordering, you pinpoint the dish you want and they'll slap it on the tray for ya. After that first day of slapping though, they were always out of lamb when we came along (usually around 9pm for our weekly groceries). So of course, I had to make a contingency plan for the upcoming birthday celebration to avoid disappointment. And Chef Zul was kind enough to make a reservation of lamb for me without me putting down a single cent. Thank You Allah for the fact that we are still a trustful and trustworthy nation. Though I cannot say the same for my maid.

roast lamb with mash and slaw.
A!!

roast lamb with mash and veggies.
And gravy!

roast chicken with mash and grilled veggies.
Awesome!

Armand's birthday cake. Creme brulee..
Very nice!

You get 150 gms of beef/lamb and 2 whopping side dishes per plate. And each plateful costs around RM20+. May I just say, the meat was tender and juicy and absolutely unsuitable for people with hypertension. In which case there is always chicken, pie or pasta alternatives. But we each went for a plateful of red meat and sides instead, with an enormous helping of the most grooviest of gravies. My favourite side dishes: macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. Just give it a try; your tongue is in tongue-heaven the few seconds before you swallow. And repeat.

I recommend you share one gigantic dish for two because there is a lot to go around and membazir itu sahabat syaitan. Unless everyone in your family are well-built and strong like mine and have to do laundry every day, which requires lots and lots of energy.

So try it out for dinner tonight, especially if you're slightly lethargic (i.e., tired lately) and need a good dollop of iron. And then afterwards you can release more stress by looking at all the imported chocolates and biscuits on the supermarket shelves just next to your table.

For my 13 year old-- may you grow up wise and strong like your mother. And good-natured like your father. In his younger days.

Jaya Grocers

that awesome supermarket at Gateway Bangi that is slightly more expensive than the average supermarket but has a rocking cafe and superwide aisles!!

Cleanliness: A
Food: A
Price: B+ (slightly expensive for eating arrangements)
Satisfactory level: A
Service: A. Thanks Chef Zul and team for arrangements!!

Manhattan fish market (time for a little celebration....)

9pm 25th December 2012  

Grilled salmon. YES

Before you say..AGAIN?! Let me just say that we have limited, high quality, western seafood places in Cyberjaya and my one and only kid had really wanted salmon before the day where he'd be laser-ed, stitched up and never again be whole like the day he was born. Having said that, we shall go no further on this topic since food and bio don't mix.

Right. We ordered a whopping large size salmon platter with chips for Armand and the Quad delights for me. For dessert, we ordered the Manhattan mud pie because it looked so good in the picture. For mud anyway.

Have I said this before? because I will say this again. Manhattan Fish market rocks. And if it wasn't for all the frying they do in that crunchy batter, I would come here every single day and try out everything. And on the topic of batter, you'd probably notice they have a different type of batter for each seafood item. 

Quad delight. YES

The quad delights I ordered consisted of fried mushrooms, fried calamari and fried shrimp with three different sauces and slaw. Heavenly. Armand barely looked at me as he gulped down his food, obviously because he didn't want me pinching his precious salmon, which I did anyway. He also finished all his chips which was amazing because he doesn't eat potatoes. On chips, avoid McD's french fries if you can help it. They do not decompose even after 2 months of being left out to rot. You wonder what on earth can the McDonald's possibly put in their fries that even bacteria--the most primitive biological life form ever--decided no way. So lets avoid it, shall we?

Manhattan Mud Pie. NO. And I will say it
again. NO.

And finally, dessert. And much as I love Manhattan, New York and Chicago for that matter, the mud-pie was not up to par. The crispy crust of a cup was a bit chewy and the brownie was a bit dry. The ice-cream was okay but not as memorable as the fish. Avoid. If you really need to have dessert, your best bet would be to re-locate to Secret Recipe which is just next door or trot off to Baskin Robbins which is about 20 meters away inside the mall.

But dessert wasn't all that bad, just that I've had better. I think Manhattan is a great place for those special mini celebrations, ya know,  like the one we are having now, i.e., pre-circumcision party. Other possible small celebrations that is worth a Manhattan meal would be first paycheck, boss resigned, finally submitted journal paper, or lost that 5 kilos (and now want it back). Don't ever eat at Manhattan's for nothing because they are a tad expensive. So make each visit to Manhattan count and next time you're feeling lowly, you can always drop by Manhattan and feel like its a special day. (Hah, I just threw a psycho one on you, whatever that means.)

Manhattan Fish Market, Alamanda, Putrajaya. 

First review here.

Cleanliness: B

Food: B+ (oily but good!~~)

Price: RM35 per pax including dessert

Satisfaction Level: A

Service: B (waiters sometimes a big slow~~)

Atmosphere: B 

Nu-In Little Perak (Yes, it tastes like Perak food)

Round 1: Popia basah. RM1.80 for 2. OK.

There's plenty of kopitiams in Bangi and so for the next few entries that's all am gonna write about: kopitiams. Mainly because lately me and Armand have been doing some serious bonding time and all Armand wants is roti kaya.

So right after we went shopping at the Al-Ikhwan factory sports store for some cool and original Abibas t-shirts, we went to Nu-in for a really light dinner because Nu-in is right behind Al-Ikhwan and I couldn't be bothered to re-park the car.

The place was moderately crowded. The music that was playing was some Malay classics my father would love (utterly boring in my opinion) and old nasyid. The whole concept of the store is based on Perak, the coolest of all the states in Malaysia, except for Selangor, of course. I always have had fond memories of Perak and my Grandma. 

Round 2. Presentation not so
awesome I know. 

The food was not outstanding and the price was fairly moderate on the cheap side. All the entrees were named after places in Perak: mee goreng menara condong Teluk Intan, popia Taiping, roti hailaim Setiawan, nasi goreng Ipoh. You get the idea. But to be honest--and I am being completely honest because I do love Perak, burst into song: I do I do I do do do do do do do do-- food in Perak, or Teluk Intan at least, is not much better than food in Selangor with the exception of mee mastan Ghani (a local restaurant) and a Chinese bakery shop downtown near KFC (which is pure awesomeness). So Nu-in has got their food...just right, IMHO. 

There weren't that many choices of food but adequate. You definitely won't spend more than 1 minute looking over the menu and if you do, you seriously must not have noticed that they stuck three menus together and that you're looking at the same food three times in a row in an endless cycle. Seriously. There's only like 10 types of food including poppia and poppia goreng (that's 2 already) and 25 drinks.

Armands. One serving of toast with kaya. RM2.50.
He had two servings.
The other was roti stim with kaya.
Trust me, they both look the same.

The atmosphere was relaxed, and that is the best part and probably the main attraction of the place. There was a row of very comfy sofa's against the wall and that is were we sat hoping to soak in the Perak-ian atmosphere. There were quite a few people eating alone, I noticed. All old. Poking at their food with a glazed look in their eyes. Probably reliving memories of Perak and wishing they were there. Perhaps naming all the food after Perak monuments and cities was not such a bright idea after all? They should carry out a few psychological tests on that one. You seriously do not want customers crying on their food.

Armand started playing Angry Bird and attracted a group of 2-year olds who watched excitedly over his shoulder. This is weird mama. He said while he played.

This is a great place for private conversations and business discussions because the music isn't loud and everyone i.e., the waiters and customers seemed, looked and talked very politely somehow. But then again, Perakians are always gentlemanly and this place absolutely exudes politeness. The waiter spoke to me in the softest and sweetest voice just before we left: kak, lain kali datang cubalah cendol zoo Taiping ye.**

Limited menu choices, slow music, small servings. My opah would absolutely adore this place.

Nu-In Bandar Baru Bangi, (right behind Al-Ikhwan factory outlet store, in front of Kopitiam Bangi)

Cleanliness: B

Food: B

Price: ~RM8 per person including drinks. 

Satisfaction Level: A (short wait, nice calming atmosphere)

Service: B+ There's no sugar in the drinks, they give you syrup you add yourself which is totally cool.

Atmosphere: A -- Just like Perak!


**entree names vastly exaggerated. But they were named after places in Perak.

posted from Bloggeroid

Kopitiam Bangi (for people-watching)

Armand with kaya toast. Again.

Lately my mind has been occupied with a great big gigantic black hole that is draining energy out of me and taking up a lot of space in the time domain as well, as a result. Has that ever happened to you? How do i break the cycle and get back to mormal? Luckily, on the outside, I am my regular cheerful self. At least my hormonal levels aren't affected--just low productivity at work. And I don't even smoke. Now on that topic: look out for some weird stuff coming on this blog soon. Possibly tomorrow. On smoking. Just one of my instantaneous crazy projects.

Affects of occupancy of black hole in mind: totally messed up order this morning during breakfast. The waiter suddenly appeared all smiles and presented me with a plate of half boiled eggs on toast. "Excuse me", I said calmly, "you must be mistaken. I ordered scrambled eggs". He looked confused and came back with my chit sheet. That little piece of paper you write your order on. There, quite clearly, was me looking back at my handwriting from a different era: 324 half-boiled eggs 1. Gulp. Am I losing it?

Eggs on toast. I prefer
scrambled. But this was OK too.

Well, there's a first time for everything. Even though my entire life raw eggs have always looked icky to me especially the yolk part, I closed my eyes, gripped the fork tight and dug in. Armand glanced up at me and submerged back into his book. Lately mama has been acting less bossy so that is just fine with him as far as he is concerned. And men always bond through silence anyway, he says.

The first bite. Not bad. The second. Ok. The third. Quite good. And then it was all good from there on. Which goes to show: raw egg yolks isn't all that bad. But scrambled definitely better. 

Armand ordered his regular kaya on toast and that was ok. I thought the bread tasted quite stale but Armand said it was awesome. Clearly, Armand is not ready yet for Australian Junior Masterchef.

This place is not great for eating but great for lepaking and mild conversation. The kind where you just nod your head and agree to everything your dinner friend says while you sip on coffee and watch smokers around you slowly breath in all the negativity of life and puff it out again to old 80's music. 

In fact, the last time I sang here (cause the guy from the live band knows me and called me up), I dedicated it to all the smokers in Bangi and may they quit one day and everyone cheered (very optimistic people these smokers, that's how they manage to ignore the gruesome pictures on the ciggarette packs) . Anyway, will write a better review of this place sometime in the future iAllah because I come here a lot for lepaking and mild conversation. And scrambled eggs on toast.

Kopitiam Bangi (corner lot, sederet dengan hosp Pakar An-Nur)

Cleanliness: B+ (standard)

Food: B 

Price: B

Satisfaction Level: B

Service: A-

Atmosphere: B (feels like I'm in Perak when I am here. Pekan-ish atmosphere. Oldies)

posted from Bloggeroid

La Rizz BBB (Breakfast is a global foodfest..!)

Roti bakar. Armand always
goes simple. YES

La Rizz is one of the best places to eat in BBB. Even though located in quite a hidden area, if you're a Bangi old-timer you'd know about it. For future Bangi immigrants and stopper-bys, jot this down: it's near the traffic light junction to ILIM, going towards Alamanda through Sungai Merab. 

The owner of La Rizz, abang Boy, is my backdoor neighbour so if I drop by and he's there, I'd get free food. The last time I went there to pick up Che Nah's farewell cake he gave me a whopping slice of his latest inspiration: Markisa cheesecake. All I can say is..WOW. My youngest sister is so lucky. Her birthday's coming up next.

I would say La Rizz is the enhanced, better, much cheaper and Malaysianized version of Secret Recipe; they do brownies, cakes, cheesecakes and then all sorts of food from all over. That's the best thing about La Rizz: variety. They have everything from roti canai to pizza, to lasagna to nasi campur to bubur to lontong to laksam to ikan bakar to jemput2 to macaroni cheesebake to cornpuffs to baked potatoes. Everything. You want it, they have it. Which is why even early in the morning the place is packed with people.

Crunchy roti canai. YES

Lauk pauk available for breakfast.

The fridge full of goodies. Yes yes yes yes yes yes and yes.
(cheesecakes are RM65 and are as good as Secret Recipes, 
if not better.Choose from OREO, MARKISA, DURIAN, 
RED VELVET, ORIGINAL and more)

I have pretty much tried everything in La Rizz over the years and so this morning when me and Armand went there for breakfast, I just had my roti canai and Armand his toast kaya. And, as if I haven't praised them enough already, even that was very good. Its the variety thing. It gets to you. You get full just looking at what's on display. And since the price is local-standard low, its great value for money.

There's only one thing lacking with La Rizz. They close at night. But that's probably because they're out of food by 4pm. And probably thats why people like them so much. It's business on their terms.

The food I tapau-ed for my parents this morning.
Clockwise: rainbow cheesecake, hotdog and potato salad mix,  cream-puffs &
kuih bom, baked potatoes with cheese & beef lasagna and fried meehun.

To order cakes or make a catering booking call 03-89253800. My family never caters with anyone else for home functions. Tell Abang Boy Shima recommended you. That way he'll send more free food my way. And I can maintain my weight cause I am going skinny with all the admin work they throw at me in the office. ;))

La Rizz, Seksyen 12, Bandar Baru Bangi
Cleanliness: B
Food: A
Price: ~RM10 per pax
Satisfaction Level: A (variety is awesome)
Service: B+ (waiters fast and friendly)
Atmosphere: A (hustle and bustle but I loved it.)

posted from Bloggeroid

Secret Recipe BBB (skip the local food entrees~)

Seafood Mee Curry. NO.

Secret Recipe Cyber review here.

This was another mom-son rendezvous I had with Armand last week, but somehow only managed to put it in now, due to lack of inspiration and shortage of time. You know I have a food review blog, I had said to Armand, I was not feeling Secret Recipie-ish at all and was reluctant to go. Do we absolutely have to eat at Secret Recipe? I asked again. But I want a brownie mama... said Armand over the phone. OK, so that was that.

To go straight to the point, Secret Recipe knows I am on to them and has improved! I noticed a full change of staff as well, which I guess is good because last time we actually had dinner at Secret Recipe BBB (some time last year, it was that bad), service was so slow the customers who came before us suddenly started screaming because we (i.e., the later customers) got our food first. I may be Indian, one of them screamed, but I am a lecturer! And I demand to get my food now! Not that we blame her .We noticed she had been sitting there ages. We had been too. 

Original chicken cornish. YES.

Vienna brownie with vanilla ice-cream. YES

When we ordered this time around, the pretty young waitress apologized in advance. It may take a while, she said, we're backed up. Well, I replied, my son only ordered the chicken cornish, don't you just have to heat it up? The response I got was a smile and a quick serve. In fact, quicker than the customers already sitting there. I was holding my breath for another outburst. Luckily this time, no one lost their marbles.

Armand ordered the chicken cornish, and I must say, it was pretty good. And I ordered the seafood mee curry, which was again, mediocre for me (why do I keep doing this to myself?). It just didn't taste fresh enough and I didn't eat the prawns because they neglected to clean the insides. And I could see it. 

Walnut brownie with vanilla ice-cream. NO.

For desert, we ordered the brownies and ice-cream. I had asked the brownies to be heated, cause that's the politically correct way to get your brownies done, all warm with melting ice-cream on top (in the US, they would serve the brownies on a hotplate, topped with ice-cream and drizzled with warm caramel and it was marvelous), but I guess the microwave wasn't working. Nevertheless, the Vienna brownie was delicious, although I couldn't say the same for Armand's walnut brownie which looked great but tasted a few days old. Armand's strawberry milkshake however was just nice. 

So here's the deal with Secret Recipe. Go for their cakes, coffee, milkshakes, pastries, and the freshly arrived brownies (ask them which ones). Avoid local dishes (tom yum, mee curry etc). They're not fresh and are overpriced. You can get better at local restaurants at 1/3 of the price with no surprising service charges. Sorry Secret Recipe, you still need a bit of work.

Secret Recipe, Bandar Baru Bangi, (same row of shops as CIMB)

Cleanliness: B

Food: B/C+ (depending on what you order)

Price: ~RM25 per pax  

Satisfaction Level: C+ (they didn't heat up the brownies when they said they would)

Service: B (waitress was friendly)

Atmosphere: B (everyone looked like they've been waiting ages).

San Francisco 2 (it's a mom-son thing xD)

Creme Brulee. YES. Absolutely

(San Francisco Part 1 here).

Since Armand's off to his dad's tomorrow for the holidays celebrating Sultan Selangor's birthday trekking in the jungles of Terengganu I'm sure, the night before would be our traditional quality mom-son-before-you-go time. Usually we'd go out, watch a movie, catch up on school, his friends, my friends, shoot some zombies at the arcade and then find a place where we can watch football or national geographic and eat. That would be San Francisco this time around.

Last time we came here, Armand said he'd want to order lamb ribs for next time. But now that we're here, we both agreed lamb ribs for RM55 seemed too fantastic. That's like 10 quarter pounders from McD or 30 nasi lemak lauk telur from the Bangi market. Na'ah. We'll wait for the next person in the family to get married. That way, Atok will get an entire lamb on the spit, not just the ribs.

Chicken Lasagne. OK. NO.

So we ordered creme brulee (gorgeous), garlic bread and mushroom soup (superb), chicken lasagne for me (good, but could be better), salmon with honey mustard for Armand (perfection), banana milkshake (excellent, says Armand, I'll take his word on it) and coffee (bittersweet). We enjoyed the food tremendously even as we watched in horrified wonder the documentary that was playing on TV about some mat sallehs skinning, cooking and eating rattlesnakes in Bali. Let me just say, do rattlesnakes look like their begging to be eaten? I had always thought they'd kill you if you came near them. Unlike cows.

The bill came out to be RM80. I pretended not to act shocked (it gets easier with practice), calmly smiled, paid the bill, picked up my mobile in slo-mo, called HSBC and asked them to void the latest transaction on my credit card. We left loudly joking about not coming back. But we probably will. Next payday. 

Garlic bread and wild mushroom soup. Go for it. YES

Salmon with honey mustard and mixed veggies.
Definite YES.

Pizza San Francisco, Bandar Baru Bangi

Cleanliness: A 

Food: B+ (expensive but very good)

Price: ~RM40 per pax including drinks and desert

Satisfaction level: B+ 

Service: A- (friendly waiters, short wait)
Atmosphere: B+ (nice dining atmosphere. We have a favourite table there. In front of the telly)

posted from Bloggeroid

Islamic Kitchen (generous portions of Salmon!)

You know how there's Pizza Hut, Ice Room, Noodle Station, Manhattan Fish Market, and Kedai Kita? (feel free to suggest some more examples). Well now there's Islamic Kitchen, and though the name implies middle-eastern food (to me at least), you'll be surprised to find that it serves mainstream food from every continent including awesome chicken nachos complete with cheese dips. Yep. Mexican. (Yo quiero Taco Bell!).

Grilled lamb and salmon with black pepper sauce,
corn on the cob and fries. Heavenly.

The thing about Islamic Kitchen is that it's like a down-graded version of those big western food chains, you know, like Cili's, or TGIFs. The menu interestingly displays the chefs who cooks your food. A few are not bad-looking, and though I haven't tried (Dor was not with me), I don't think you can order them. 

The menu also states that there's no MSG in their food and that they make their own ice. Which makes you wonder about all those other restaurants you eat at: who makes their ice?!

Nasi goreng Mr Pow.  So-so.

So last hot Thursday, I picked Armand up from school and we decided to eat out, seeing as Armand just found out he got number 2 in class for his exams. Don't tell him this but I was quite proud of him for doing well. I had literally dragged him to Port Dickson the weekend just before his exams to accompany me on a health workshop and he spent the entire two days in the swimming pool in front of the hotel room instead of studying. Bravo babes.  

I was feeling 1Malaysia that day so I went for the Ah Pow fried rice (that's nasi goreng Cina sans normal, --yep, its gone down from an entire nation to just one guy with Islamic Kitchen, apparently). Armand ordered the salmon and grilled lamb. He usually goes for the salmon in butter lemon sauce, which I must admit is quite heavenly, and for around RM25  is very reasonable given the big portion of salmon. 

So here's the deal. If you go to Islamic kitchen, order the western meals. They are delicious and good value for money. But the nasi gorengs (i,e., fried rice), tastes mediocre and are over-priced, considering also the ordinary table and open-air space you're eating it in. Comprendo? :)

Everything else about Islamic Kitchen is cool. I mean, which other restaurant lists their chefs in the menu and make their own ice these days? 

Islamic Kitchen, Bandar Baru Bangi
Cleanliness: B
Food: B (asian food can be better and cheaper)
Price: ~RM25 per pax (including drinks)
Satisfaction Level:  B+ (definitely halal)
Service: B/C (sometimes wait is quite long. Food does not arrive together)
Atmosphere: B (hustle and bustle, open air)

San Francisco BBB (go after payday)

So, two nights ago, me and Armand decided to spend some quality time over some good food at San Francisco. The San Francisco described here is a corner restaurant at the T-junction as you enter Bangi from Tol Kajang/Putrajaya, facing the Zakat Selangor and Termite Terminator billboards.

The last time we had dinner here was some months ago last year, and never returned since, mainly because I nearly choked on the RM100++ bill we received. This time, however, we weren't going to binge. The plan was to eat healthy food, watch football on the bigscreen and discuss Armand's defense tactics for his football game at school.

The menu at San Francisco's is mainly Italian. One wonders where the San Francisco came from. If I had to choose an arbitrary city name for a restaurant serving Italian food and bits and pieces from other parts of the world, Cyberjaya would be a bit more glamorous, in my opinion. (Yes, there was a hint of sarcasm in there somewhere).

There was a good choice of pizza's, calzones, and pasta. Lots of seafood soups and lamb with rice dishes as well. We decided on mushroom soup and garlic bread for appetizer. And for the main course, Armand had the salmon linguine and I had Caesar salad with beef strips.

The garlic bread was delicious. Warm and fresh. So those disappeared in a matter of mili-seconds. The mushroom soup was delightful. If the only mushroom soup you've tasted in your entire life was from Pizza Hut you'd be thrilled to your toes because there are lots of mushroom bits in there. However, I can faintly taste the cornflour they added to thicken the sauce.  Fortunately Armand was too hungry to care. And the garlic bread made up for the loss.

The Caesar salad was good and bad news. The leaves, the croutons and the dressing were great but the beef strips tasted like thick rubber bands (or maybe they were supposed to taste that way?). They were so chewy my jaws locked after 3 mouthfuls. So I picked them out and fed them to the cat under the table. Kidding. The restaurant was nice and chic. No stray cats running about. Definitely no cockroaches or termites. Not with the big termite sign across the street.

Armand's pasta was nice and rich. As a result, he didn't finish it and I was tired of chewing rubber to help him out. The coffee I had ordered was divine. It kept me up thinking until 2 am.

The bill was RM65++.

Armand said next week we'll go for the lamb ribs. His mom said we'll see.

Cleanliness: A+
Food: A-/B+
Price: ~RM30 per pax
Satisfaction Level: A-
Service: A- (friendly waiters, short wait)
Atmosphere: A (great bonding experience)

Share your San Francisco experience.