New food review coming soon: stay tuned~~

Raya 2014. Selamat hari raya peeps!

No, I haven't forgotten to write. Yes, I am still around. Although I eat out less now, because my husband prefers to eat at home. Anyway, a new review coming soon. Please bookmark this page/subscribe for updates. Just down there.

Stay tuned. Iallah by this Friday. Eaters.

TalentLounge :: PJ Tradecenter :: Ramadhan Buffet Review~

My tasters and fill-in-the-blankers.

I feel really happy to pen this one down. A restaurant after my own heart. Small and sweet and a selection of food that is just right, priced just right. With shelved books nearby to flip through for those times you just want to chill out by yourself and pretend you have a life outside your phone and some very friendly and helpful waiters. Like I said, I am really happy to pen this one down.

This was a weekend trip with the entire family. Tomorrow is Ramadhan. Alhamdulillah for the honor of another Ramadhan. Coincidentally today is Iman's birthday. And the brownies we had (to make up for the cake) were delicious. And now, full of cake she announces:

Hear hear!!

The crazy thing is, the event manager of TalentLounge is hub's old pal. So he was pretty much in Jejak Kasih mode and pretty happy with the whole set-up. He could eat, take pictures and reminisce with his pal while I daintily nibble and wait for inspiration. Thanks for his expert help at getting the kids off me, I managed to blog this one down on location and won a hamper from our sponsers. Thank you Hungrygowhere. Go where? Go TalentLounge.

Group photo~~

With Event Manager, Azlan. Also old friend.

Colorful is probably the best word I can use to describe the dishes. There were, amongst others, red chicken (ayam masak merah, B++), yellow fish (ikan masak lomak cili padi, oh my--A), brown rice (mediterranean briyani with beef, big crazy A), green salad with honey dressing, orange carrot crunchies (loved the presentation for this), white thin pita to go with some real humus (one of the best, A!), crispy potatoe wedgies (quality potatoes, A+) and the chocolatiest-ever brownies (this one just made my day and the kids too). And drinks were pink bandung, red tea and black coffee. The chefs pretty much covered the entire color spectrum. If they could come up with something blue I am sure it'd be pretty good too.

crunchy carrors and cucumber, white
pita and humus. A++

mediterranean rice with pieces of beef.
superblicious!

The buffet they are offering this Ramadhan costs RM45+ per pax and RM20+ for 12 and under. The best thing is, surau and very clean toilets are just few metres away and they'll be laying out carpets too for people who want to pray just outside. The restaurant is on the ground floor of the PJ trade centre, a quiet area, facing a grove of trees on a gravel patch where hubs did a kuch-kuch hota hai on me (Jejak Kasih mode). Parking should be easy. Go Green and tie your bike to a tree. Restaurant closes 9 pm so you can go home and do terawih.

The chewwiest brownies...I loved it..

Selection of local kuihs..

Hubs selection of food..

Lamb with rocket

One more very important observation worth mentioning is the deco. The sofas were really really comfortable. Birthday girl asked me: mama can we sleep here tonight? I couldn't be bothered to reply. The next question might be even more challenging. But I do know where that came from.

Loved the layout of the place. There were places to read, eat and lepak.

There's something about the trees I guess.. :||

My camera-guy cum babysitter for the day being interviewed by NTV7 reporter.

TalentLounge in a nutshell: colorful selection of great food that is reasonably priced in a very creative set-up at a strategic location. This is a Sheemz recommended restaurant (yaayy~). Mazlan cannot comment. He's bounded under Conflict of Interest laws.

TalentLounge

PJ Trade Centre, Damansara Perdana

Cleanliness: A

Food: A -- loved it even though it was a small selection, it was just right

Price: A -- appropriate.

Service: A -- waiters were friendly and helpful

Atmosphere: A++ very comfortable. Kids didn't want to leave it seems..

Satisfaction Level: A

“This event was organised by HungryGoWhere Malaysia – Discover, Eat, Share today!” Download the HGW app for your mobile here.

HRC Melaka :: Evaluation of Kid's Menu with Hafiz and Pals

With Akim and Afiz. Armand took.

Another expedition with hubs, this time for Hafiz and friends (friends being Akim and Hazama). This was a weekend trip and we brought all the kids along and stayed in a Super Cowboy Hotel. Literally. If you don't believe me, check it out on Trip Advisor. Hotel nie mmg koboi habis. Enough said.

I am going to iterate on the kids menu because that's all we ordered. The kids meals cost RM17 per order and comes with a drink; your choice of milk, ice lemon tea, sprite or coke. We've made it a point to eliminate coke from the family menu. So we ordered milk and ice lemon tea all the way. Milk tasted like Dutch Lady and lemon tea was cordialish okay. Go for it.

Here's what we ordered while we watched Hafiz and friends' stretch their jugular veins to quasi-bursting point as they hit the high notes. But I must say, the choice of songs that day was excellent. There's that song about you giving all of me and me giving all of you and I am still winning even though I am a loser, and one about I regret putting work above you and if I could I'd put you first next time. Stay tuned for Hafiz and friends on Astro. Since I married this guy (i.e., Mazlan), this is the best show he has had to engineer to date. And Akim, although skinny, is not bad looking at all. He's just not that photogenic on paper.

Kid's menu. For under 100s

Back to the food, all these menu are tried and tested so here goes:

1. Cheeseburger and fries --- A++ enormous and wholesome, deprived of all vegetables and condiments. Armand loved it. And the fries tasted UKish. Wonderful.

2. Hot dog --- exceptionally big and long. Again, deprived of all vegetables and condiments. Qayyum had TWO. It must be very good.

3. HRC Pizza --- cheese and red sauce. Very2 basic. No veggies, no pineapple, and no taste. The cheese was chewy and good but it didn't stick to the crust. It tasted like cheap microwave pizza you can get from Walmart. I suggest you skip.

Iman with her 2nd plate of mac and cheese.

4. Cheesy Mac --- the bestest of them all. We ordered 5 of these and Iman had 4. I took few spoonfuls off her plate though just to be fair. But it really was exceptional. Please just order the mac and cheese.

The bill came to RM180. That's what happens when you take kids to work with you. You win some you spend some extra.

Waiting for the next invite for Hafiz and friends get together. Here's to hoping Hafiz gets some new friends. Like Maher Zain.

Hardrock Cafe 
Melaka

Cleanliness: B+ (toilets were clean. Very nice)
Food: B++
Price: B
Service: A. Staff was excellent. Very friendly and all smiles.
Atmosphere: okay. There was a performance going on--what did you expect.
Satisfaction level: B+ Melaka is fun, as always..





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Singapore Zam-zam Restaurant :: Briyani Galore!!

Andy again, our Singapore food expert, and Najib.

Everytime I go to Singapore, I end up here. And of all the clean restaurants in Singapore---because you won't believe how clean Singapore is---I would say this one is the most comot of all. It comes very close to a Malaysian mamak restaurant: hustling, bustling, with floors needing a good scrub. The only clue that it's outstanding are the customers lining up outside waiting for a table. 

Menu. Click to enlarge.

I won't say that Zam-zam's briyani is spectacular (I just said it didn't I), but its definitely Very Very Good. A trip to Singapore is definitely incomplete without a visit to Zam-zam, even though you're just here to accompany your husband on a business trip and slow him down because you wore your least favourite high heels and its killing you. Slowly.  

Chicken briyani. Hot stuff!

kurma. A!

Here with Andy again, and Najib, another one of Mazlan's colleague. I have to say, my husband has very cool colleagues. All they do is talk about how wonderful their wives are and how much they miss them. When I am with my girlfriends, we usually talk about work. And where to get the best prices for everything. 

I ordered briyani with ayam kurma (4.5/5) Mazlan and Najib had chicken briyani (4/5) and Andy had murtabak singapore kambing version (4/5). I loved my kurma. It was delicious. Mazlan's was a bit hot but it was good too. Service was fast and after we were done we were almost ushered off our chairs and out onto the street. I noticed a big sign on the walls along the lines of "eat quickly and give your seat to our other much important hungry customers please".

Outside of the Masjid Sultan.

Interior. Men's place.

Road facing masjid. Around 10 pm. Awesome shot MM!

Masjid Sultan is right across the street from the restaurant and I fell instantly in love with it. It was old and ancient and Mazlan said the chandelier is the same as the one in Masjidil-Haram in Mecca (I guess they nicked one). I would have definitely liked to explore the mosque and the area around it further but I am reminded of the fact that I am here on a business trip and not on a Jalan-Jalan Makan Angin excursion. We don't want Mazlan to be the only husband who doesn't talk about how wonderful his wife is. :O

Singapore Zam-Zam Restaurant

North Bridge Road, Singapore 
near Masjid Sultan (Waze it!)

Cleanliness: C

Food: A

Price: A -- Reasonable

Service: B+ , food arrived fast, but so hard to get the waiters attention!

Atmosphere: B 

Satisfaction Level: B -- felt a bit rushed

Rise :: And Shine...in Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Hard at eat work.

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel is this marvellous piece of modern architecture in the heart of Singapore (heart, kidney, lung..one wonders). It is 3 awesome buildings connected together with a huge platform on top that looks like a surfing board and I had the priveledge of having a buffet lunch there right under the second tower with hubs and his colleagues on a good working Wednesday.

Honeycomb and nuts to eat
with some dry biscuits

Desert was a vast selection

Strawberries for the chocolate fountain.
I know if my kids see this they go crazy

Little tiny sauces of condiments

I do not think Rise is halal, so I had only the seafood and fish dishes. And some biscuits and honey. And salads. Regardless, I am still putting in an entry here, because you might get some fantastic ideas when you (or I) open our own restaurants in the kitchen. Five stars to Rise. It is the best lunch buffet I have experienced to date. And that's not even touching their meat dishes.

They had sushi--mostly fish and fish eggs, salads and sauces of all kinds, indian briyanis and curries, italian and pasta, western dishes, seafood raw, biscuits, breads and cheese, soups and lots and lots of desert and one very happy selection of chocolate fountain dippers.

Mine!

And again.

Hubs!

This all cost SGD$57/pax which is around RM130. For the beautiful scenary, presentation, food selection and comfortable table and chairs, I would say that RM130 is okay (and I shouldn't even be thinking in ringgit!). Perhaps a tad expensive for paying out of your own pocket, but for coperate meetings and lunches (i.e., on the company), it is just perfect. If my vendor treated me to lunch here, lets just say, it would take a lot of effort to say no to the proposal.

Fresh fruits for grabs...

Sweets and cookies. These remind me of my kids. They would go crazy I am sure..

Bread pudding. Eat with vanilla and chocolate sauce. A++

So many types of bread. But I was too full already..

Array at Indian section

Salmon in Teriyaki sauce

Prawns

Fresh seafood

cous-cous

I don't know what this is. I think Tuna and feta cheese..

Loved it, definitely loved it and what started out as a formal business meeting turned into very lively friendly conversation. Rise, when you go halal, please let me know and I will put you in my top recommended list!

Here it is from afar. The three buildings with surf board on top.

Rise
Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore

Cleanliness: A
Food: A++
Price: Expensive. But it's buffet. In Singapore, of all places!
Service: A
Atmosphere: A. Very comfortable. There were trees inside. It was like a giant greenhouse.
Satisfaction Level: A.

NoorJannah's Kitchen, Singapore :: the one and only Opeh place in the entire world~

 [thanks to Mazlan for the pictures! click to enlarge]

Andy, in front of Al-Jannah restaurant (behind him)

My husband dragged me along with him on his latest business trip to Singapore. And I thought he is such an awesome guy. So I bought him a shirt while he met his bosses i.e., went shopping (tips rumahtangga bahagia #30) and blogged this down.

The first night we were there, Andy, his friend and colleage took us to this little place for dinner and I thought it was worth a review. It is unique and different and a fun night out of our little hotel room that is the size of a shoebox but equipped with modern gadgets. That's Singapore for you: small and expensive.

otak-otak: sotong, udang and mackeral flavours

Sotong goreng tepung. The batter tasted suspiciously of Adabi Tepung goreng pisang.

We started off with otak-otak. One piece is SGD$1.80 and you have to get five minimum. Don't be surprised but it tasted nicely like the ones at home, except the shape and size has gone through somewhat of a drastic transformation (its not cone-shaped but a big flat square). We hesitated to try some but the kindly lady at the next table said it was very good and we should try it. And it was.

Andy, our Singapore food expert.

Owner of the restaurant, a very kind elderly pakcik (melayu)

The guys ordered the beef hor fun in opeh dish and I noticed the couple at the next table had gear box mee hun opeh which looked increadibly tasty too. But me myself just ordered nasi and telur dadar (A!) that night because I didn't feel so adventurous. I tasted some of Mazlan's though and it was not bad (average of 3.5 out of 5 from the guys). I would say a good sound B from my few spoonfuls. The opeh leaves are worth the drive all the way from Chinatown nevertheless, its the only time you can relate to all those Lat cartoons. You can't find it no where else in the world. 

Enjoying Singapore. 

Inside Noorjannah's Kitchen. 

The mosque at Changi Road, Kembangan, Singapore.
Very conveniently located across the road from Al-Jannah.

Masjid Kassim is just across the street less than 30 m away from the restaurant (waze it!) and after dinner we went and had our jama' ta'khir maghrib and isya' prayers there. Side note, be careful of smoking in Singapore because it's illegal and you could be fined SGD$300 or thrown into jail for polluting the air and jeopardizing the health of others. Don't say I didn't warn you. They have cameras all over in this small country. And RFID detectors for that card they make you buy for your car.  :O

Noorjannah's menu. Click to enlarge.

NoorJannah's Kitchen
Kembangan, Singapore (waze it!)

Cleanliness: B
Food: B; A for being creativity though!
Price: A -- for Singapore, it was OK
Service: B+
Atmosphere: B
Satisfaction level: A -- enjoyed the night out immensely