Al-Qasar: New BEST Arab Place in Cyberjaya.

FOE's favourite lecturers. Cause we're so kind and generous. And
don't scribble the students reports that much before it flies out the window.

And another one. Kinder one.

Thanks people, for stopping by and looking through my posts for the next best place to take the family. I find writing very therapeutic, and I am glad I could help, even if you just skim through the headlines. I used to write about my cat Koko, and she had a big fan-club going, but she ran out on me when she found out I was writing behind her back. I would love to write about Islam, but I am not learned and would probably implicate myself. I would love to write about my research but three of my papers got rejected in the past and the scars are just drying up. And if I wrote about my life experience, I would probably end up in court or someone's hit list. So lets talk about food instead~~

This next restaurant just baffles me, in the highest sense of the word. I am in turmoil and I am confused. But as an outrageously feminine woman, I need to unravel my confused mind via some complex nouns and FFT transforms in order to see a clearer picture of what the confusion is all about.

Steeping into Al-Qasar is like stepping into an Arab soap opera setting. The place itself is quite spectacular. A visit would propel you into an Arab palace complete with symmetrical arches and water fountain. If a flying carpet suddenly flung me in the air or a squad of belly dancers broke into song, I wouldn't blink an eyeball nor will BP be affected. Hanging from the center of the ceiling is a chandelier that looks ancient middle-eastern-Turkish. The chairs are wide and hard with cushions to lean on. Deco-wise, Al-Qasar makes other restaurants in Cyberjaya look like car wash centres.

Foodwise though -- pretty amazing. The makhzoon lamb was crazy delicious. The humus beiruti made us lick our fingers. My kids fought over the left-overs I brought home of the chicken-baked-in-bread dish -- I can't recall the sophisticated name. Miza was so impressed she vows never to set foot in Saba' again. I wouldn't be so cruel. Saba' has been good to me. But Saba' needs to step up a little now.

The chicken baked in bread dish.
BEFORE

AFTER.

Then what.is.the.problem?

It's the service. It sucked big time. But because the food literally tornado-ed us away, I gave it a second, third and fourth chance before I even wanted to write this review. I can honestly say on an average of 4 visits we were lucky with service 1 time. Thats a 25% probability of achieving a passing satisfaction rate at Al-Qasar. And I did everything on the mental checklist to grab the waiters attention: take out camera, wave hand, smile, act like I'm in a hurry and finally, pull bengang face. Food arrived at a rate of 1 dish per half hour, and drink  (read: just warm water) arrived before we were about to leave. At the second visit, food did not arrive at all, it disappeared like the MH370 and they told us to come back later. I wanted to flood them with my limited repertoire of French words, but I couldn't risk being banned from the place.

Chicken makhzoon

Lamb makhzoon. The meats came in the foil and was so tender.

Yesterday, when I told my husband the girl at the kitchen cabinet store pulled a sulky face at me, he said we'll do our cabinets elsewhere (that was before the ridiculous quotations arrived in email). But I would say Al-Qasar is an exception---the waiters can pull all the sulky face in the world, the cashier can reject your stained ten ringgit note and wave it in your face, and the manager can tell you to leave because your baby is pooping and howling, but you'd still come crawling back for more. Awesome food Al-Qasar. Please just be gentle with us. We Malays don't do kasar-kasar. We are peace-loving people you know.

The humus that captured my heart.
Humus beiruti. It runs out of stock frequently too.

Al-Qasar
Cyberjaya Street Mall

Cleanliness: A
Food: A
Price: A (appropriate)
Satisfaction level: B
Service: F

Swez Brasserie Eastin Hotel PJ: For a Lovely Surprise Anniversary Dinner

Desert. Truffles and raspberries. So delicious.

This post is dedicated to my significant other, and the wonderful staff at Eastin Hotel with whom I promised an awesome review. Also for all those wonderful wives out there who are thinking on surprising their equally wonderful husbands, here's an idea for you that works. Insya'Allah.

My husband did not see this one coming because it was so intricately planned, if I may say so myself. I asked him to accompany me to Eastin Hotel for a meeting with a virtual friend, and he took the bait and obliged.

I would like to thank the Eastin staff for the crazy rose arrangement on the bed. That was really thoughtful (and funny) I thought, but priceless indeed. I was just as surprised as my husband. He was still looking about the room for the friend we were supposed to meet. He chewed a rose petal and said: these are real~~ I nearly suffocated him with a pillow.

Thanks to the staff at Eastin for the very romantic rose petal arrangement.
 If it was up to me, I would have just strewn everything on the bed.

We went downstairs for dinner at 8:30 pm, and I whatsapped the restaurant in advance telling them of our impending arrival. Hubs was already raring on buying me dinner and he had been surfing on the internet for nice restaurants in the PJ area. When we reached the lobby, Mr Ah Kit (the coffeehouse manager on duty that night), managed to persuade him to a table to check out the menu. But when we got to the table, it was already set and dinner was served. My husband's expression was priceless. Certainly worth more than dinner. If I could replay life, I would have that one expression on repeat 1. Especially when we have our squabbles. 

The food was delicious. I had ordered the dishes in advance back in the comfort of my cold little office a week ago: rack of lamb and brownies for desert for hubs, and salmon and apple pie for me. But I must say again: it was superb and it was perfect. I loved the table arrangement and the garnishing on the food, especially desert. I did mention to the staff this was a surprise anniversary dinner for my husband, but the arrangement they made exceeded my expectations in every way. And for that I owe them a surprise dinner. Which reminds me of the infinite filter I am teaching in class.

Salmon. A!

Rack of lamb, medium well. Superb!

Apple pie with ice-cream.

Brownies with ice-cream. A++

Thanks to Mr Subra, Mr Ah Kit, and Mr Henry for the wonderful arrangments to make this occasion a special one for us, also to Ms Jessylina from reservations for the flower arrangement, and to Ms Iris from customer services for lending me her personal phone charger because I didn't pack one (if you need their numbers let me know). And finally big thanks for my husband for coming along. And for pampering me and spoiling me all this while. And for being very patient with me. And for paying for the anniversary dinner I set up ----behind my back. 

Congratulations to everyone who is celebrating another anniversary this year too (especially my good friend and colleague Zu who shares the same anniversary date with us, except she's on her tenth one!). Life is certainly a very tough journey, but the love and support of a good spouse makes it endurable and worthwhile. Alhamdulillah.

So be a good one! :)  

Our first anniversary. Praying for many more to come. Ameen.

Swez Brasserie, 
Eastin Hotel, PJ


Cleanliness: A
Food: A
Price: Worth it.
Satisfaction Level: A++
Service: A++
Atmosphere: A

VEENA: Langkawi's MUST-STOP Thai Seafood Restaurant. Trust me.

Please excuse me for the disappearing act. The week before I was away on a trip celebrating our anniversary and my birthday in Langkawi. Thank you to my husband for the most elaborate anniversary/birthday present ever. May Allah bless you and our marriage.

This was dinner on the second night we were there. We were cruising by the Kuah district, after an entire morning in the sea and hubs had come up with a temperature. The weird thing about Langkawi is, all tourist spots and clinics even--close at 6pm--way way to early even for sub-urban girl me. It wasn't until 8 pm did we finally managed to find one open clinic, run by a kindly elderly doctor who looked like he was ready to retire. He jabbed hubs one time in the butt with a lethal anti-virus and sent us on our way.

From the outside, the restaurant did not look appealing at all. Birthday girl thought sick husband should choose desired menu that night and he wanted Thai Green Curry. So in part we ended up in Veena mainly because of the Thai Seafood part of the extraordinarily mediocre signboard. It was right next to a Chinese restaurant that had little beer flyers hung all over from the canopy to the floor. I hesitated but then noticed Veena's cooks and waiters kindly faces and muslimah dressing and were assured the place were halal.

The signboard seen from the road. The river runs on the other side.

We sat down at the table near the river except the river was pitch black and the air was full of buzzing mosquitoes so we moved to the center. We noticed quite a number of tables were reserved. I thought nothing of it until the food arrived.

Let me just say the place must be--I have no doubt---a local favourite. By 9 pm the place was bustling crazy and ALL the tables were full, including the mosquitoe-invested ones by the river. And the seafood---masha'Allah. OUT OF THIS WORLD. Here's what we had ordered:

1. Ikan siakap stim: with perfection approaching infinity, I have never experienced such a dish. It is now, in my book, the ideal siakap stim in Malaysia. It was served on a container of hot-coals. All my boys were slurping on the sauce and tambahing nasi 2-3 times at a rate of 3 suaps per second. My rating: A+++!

Ikan Siakap Stim. Perfection approaching infinity...

2. Tom Yam seafood. Awesome. This was my step-daughters favourite, she didn't look at anything else. It had all the usual: shrimp, squid, chicken etc etc. I would say the tom-yam here though is comparable to the Tom Yam we have in Bangi. Thank goodness, at least I don't have to travel all the way to Langkawi for Tom Yam. A+!

Tom Yam Seafood. One of the best..

3. Siakap 3-rasa. I would say siapkap kicap cili was more appropriate a name. Not that it tasted normal. It was superb. I just think that the 3-rasa theme we have in Selangor/KL has a very different meaning to it and the Langkawians didn't catch on. Nevertheless A+!

Siakap 3-rasa. Wonderfully flavourful.

4. Sotong goreng tepung: A+. Delicious. And the Thai cili sauce that came with it was original and good too. 

Few notes on Veena though because I know you're just about to jump on the next plane to Langkawi. They take a while to prepare your food and we realised along the way why so many tables were reserved. The locals: they know it so they order in advance. Was the long wait worth it? A big resounding YES. One mouthful of the siakap stim and Veena just got a huge I-dont-care-how-long-it-took-you-to-cook-my-food-but-you're-forgiven ticket. Few places do that to me. Its like forgiving your husband for forgetting your birthday because he bought you a BMW with his bonus pay. Wouldn't that be wonderful. 

Our bill.

I am putting Veena up there for the best MUST STOP Thai Seafood restaurant in Langkawi. We went to 5-6 restaurants while we were there, and although they were all good and satisfactory, Veena shines through like a diamond among cubic zirconias. We went home happy and full, and to my pleasant surprise the bill only came to RM100+ which also includes telur dadar, sambal belacan, two big bowls of jasmine rice, kangkung cili and drinks--although I am clueless to what they charged us on the bill and do hope they've covered everything. After all that food, hubs fever broke alhamdulillah and he was right as rain for another rendezvous of the island the next day. Alhamdulillah and thank you Veena. What a wonderful Thai Seafood experience you left us with. Please don't ever change. I love you just the way you are.

With the little waitress --who didnt speak a word of malay.

Veena Thai Seafood,
Persiaran Mutiara 1, Langkawi
Waze it!!!!

HIGHLY recommended.

Cleanliness: B
Food: A++++
Price: A (reasonable)
Satisfaction Level: A
Service: Could be faster.
Atmosphere: A