Kyros kebab :: go for lamb kebab!

The epitome's of kebab. Kyros Lamb Kebab. Not so good looking on the outside,
but very good-tasting on the inside. Please, do grab one now.

There's a little Kyros Kebab restaurant in Warta Bangi thats been there since time memorial but I've never even blinked at them --how haughty taughty of me (slap self). I guess the idea of kebab did not appeal, although I had kebabs nearly every other weekend back when I was studying in the UK. Tapi bak kata orang-orang bijak pandai kalau dah ada jodoh tu takkan ke mana. Tak pandang pun lama-lama boleh jatuh cinta (google translate on left). Nowadays I am an avid Kyros kebab fan. The lamb kebab.

The first time I had Kyros is quite a story. My husband probably doesn't even know he contributed to the meeting, even though he was the one who set us up. It was love at first bite~

Flashback:

We were on the way to Genting, and the car died on the way up the mountain, as normal love stories go. A kind Samaritan stopped to help us and by the time we reach the top, it was getting dark. We  had driven round looking for a carshop. My husband parked the car near a row of shops and left us to get some supplies while we waited for him in the car.

Something emerged from the forest and stumbled past our car. Relax, it was just a dog. With three kids in the car though, the excitement and commotion was like watching an elephant pass by in a drive-through safari. The dog was really skinny, and looked starved and half-dead. We took pity on it and searched around in the car for food. We found the kyros kebab hubs had bought before we left Bangi, and flung it at the dog. Before I did though, we all took a small bite each of the kebab.

Pause remote:

The kebab was superb. 

Continue story:

So superb the kids began fighting over it and I nearly changed my mind about giving it to the dog. But in a matter of seconds it was flying out the window anyway, and the dog gobbled it up and wobbled off. Hubs returned safe sound and unscratched and I apologized for his lost kebab and promised to get him another. He nearly strangled me in the car and threw me off the cliff--actually no, that was an ending to another movie. Just to fast forward a bit, while hubs was immersed in watching a really boring movie recently, I went out to Warta and bought him the replacement kebab. Promise fulfilled--although it was 9 months later. I hope you realized you were eating a kebab that day Abang.

Ida with black pepper spaghetti. A!

Miza with rootbeer float. A!

Present Day:

Last week me and [Assoc Prof] Miza went to Streetmall for a late lunch after another long meeting discussing the future of the younger generation (the ones who are currently stuck in FOE) and how we can get them to do the AES evaluation online without tying them to their chairs. There is a Kyros Kebab restaurant at the streetmall and remembering the one lingering bite so long ago at Genting, I suggested we get the lamb kebab to Miza.

She loved it, as did I (flashback: Genting episode). And Miza liked it so much that she stopped to get one for her husband too the next day, who said it tasted better than a Subway sandwich. I agree. Subway seems to taste the same nowadays regardless of the different fillings; it's like drinking different brands of mineral water. But if Subway was Air Mineral Petronas, Kyros Lamb kebab would be Evian.

Black pepper spaghetti. A!

Current promotion at Kyros Kebab @ Street Mall Cyberjaya. Make it a lamb kebab night!

Anyway, the pictures you see here was visit number 3 this month with Ida tagging along. Ida said the black pepper spaghetti is good too. Me and Miza remained faithful to our lamb kebab, we were women on a lamb kebab mission that day. It was as awesome as expected and as filling as a plateful of rice with 3 sides and an extra dash of tempoyak/sambal belacan/budu (insert favourite condiment here). The shredded lamb gives you an extra boost of energy to patiently finish off that thesis which reads suspiciously like its been copied off Wikipedia. And the bread was warm and crunchy enough to make you feel all optimistic for another semester of marking scrawling assignments, quizzes, lab reports and exam papers. Thank you Kyros for the awesome lamb kebab. Alhamdulillah.

Lamb kebab --> recommended!!

Kyros Kebab

Warta Bangi or Streetmall Cyberjaya

Cleanliness: A
Food: A

Price: Appropriate

Satisfaction level: A

Service: B++ 

Atmosphere: B++

Papa John's. Best pizza ever. Period.

with my babies. At Papa John's

Last Sunday was a Papa John's weekend. I had promised a Papa John's review back in May 2013. A promise is a promise. Better late than never. Biar lambat asalkan selamat because Papa John's has got to be the best pizza makers in the entire world and I want this review to be so perfect, your next stop this weekend is Papa Johns even if you have to drive all the way from Selatan Thai to get here.

I am sure your current favourite pizza place is Pizza Hut and you've probably ordered Dominoes countless times. But seriously, Papa John's is really special~ See, Papa Johns is the only pizza makers in the whole wide world (to my knowledge at least) that comes with this amazing garlic butter dip that can make your taste-bud plop and your fat cells multiply at twice the normal rate. And you wouldn't care about the dip if you're used to ordering Pizza Hut and Dominoes. Because Pizza Hut and Dominoes are in a conspiracy to cover up the dip by Papa Johns. Because they want the dip so bad but they can't because Papa John's came up with it first.

The epitome of all pizza sauces. Papa Johm's garlic butter sauce.
Simply dip your pizza into sauce then take huge bite.

We had this. And then ordered cheesy bread and spaghetti some more.

cheesy bread. Love at first bite.

All-meat pizza. A++

Spaghetti and breadsticks: A!

chicken balls. Awesome. 

Verdict on the deliciousness of Papa John's are as follows: I give Papa John's a 9 out of 10. My husband says 9.5, Armand, my 13 year-old says 8 and Iman, my 8 year-old says 6. Qayyum, my 5 year-old didn't say anything, he was busy with his spaghetti. But if this was a thesis we could see a correlation between age vs. score given: Qayyum would probably give Papa Johns 3. Regardless, the last 3 sample scores do not represent the mature population so we can and will overwrite them. Conclusion: at 9.25 over 10 Papa John's is the best. 

There's a good deal running in Groupon for Papa John's: a RM50 voucher for RM25. Definitely get one of those because I think my husband paid RM100++ for our meal (Thanks abang. Only Allah can repay your love and kindness~~). If I still haven't convinced you Papa John rocks, it's okay. I won't take it personally. Not everybody likes pizza. Only highly sophisticated bookwormy ambitious nerdy really fit people do. 

Papa John's
IOI mall or AEON Seri Kembangan 

Cleanliness: A
Food: A (my favourite pizza). I wish they delivered to Bangi.
Price: Standard for Pizza. Get the Groupon.
Satisfaction Level: A
Service: C -- quite slow. But it seems to me Pizza restaurants always have slow waiters.
Atmosphere: B+

Tappers Cafe On the Block: Lunch selection a must try~

And the best honey lemon tea award goes to...

TAPPERS!!

I had lunch with my sister Jah at Tapper's the other day, and I thought the place is definitely worth a review. They have a cool selection of lunch dishes around ~RM12 that comes complete with Honey Lemon Tea that is the best lemon tea I have had in my entire life (I am bolding and underlining it and including pictures of me drinking it for extra emphasis). Tappers is this feminine-looking white-wash restaurant at Shaftsbury Square (my new favourite place). It's in the same block as Pizza Hut and Secret Recipe. The place even has it's lights on in the afternoon so you can spot it through the haze. You can't miss it.

Tappers. Front entrance.

The manager came over as we sat down and took our orders himself. He recommended the chicken parmigiana, and I asked my fries to be replaced with potatoes and vegetables. Jah ordered the fish and chips. 

Here's the verdict:

The chicken parmigiana was delicious. It was topped with cheese transforming it unwillingly into a chicken pizza in my book and you know how much I love cheese (it keeps me in my current shape). The potatoes and carrots were sweet and yummylicious. Jah thought the veggies were mediocre, but that's because she didn't grow up eating carrots and potatoes everyday like I did. My parents had jobs when she was born. And the Beatles had disbanded. 

The fish and chips were OK. It was talapia, fried in batter and smelt slightly fishy-- so Jah squeezed lemon all over it making it soggy. I miss the fish and chippies drenched in vinegar we used to get back in the UK. I have yet to find a restaurant that serves incredible fish and chips. If you know of a place in mind, please ping me asap. It has to have vinegar with the fish or it wouldn't qualify.

Chicken parmigiana. I ordered mine with potatoes instead of fries.
A+!!

Fish (tilapia) and chips. Very good! B!

There were other items on the menu that look really good too, which I am definitely planning to try on my next visit. I just hope I won't order the chicken parmigiana again because then this food review is going nowhere. And we all want to get on with the next episode.

One other important observation: our orders arrived really fast --almost as if it was just waiting for me to say the magic word to be delivered. The place was packed at lunch hour so I had expected at least a 15 minute wait. Service was definitely first class with the manager taking our orders and everything. And I did notice a Jalan Jalan Cari Makan plaque on the door! TV3 had beat me to it~! Again! I need my own TV channel.

Here's our bill. RM30 bill is not bad at all for the food, service and comfort.
I had a RM60 bill the day before at Secret Recipe next door. That's two trips
to Tappers right there!

Will definitely be back tapping at Tapper's door (for the free meal). Someone stop me from ordering the chicken parmigiana again, please!

Tappers Cafe on the Block
Shafstbury Square, Cyberjaya

Cleanliness: A
Food: B+
Price: A -- lunch sets come with choice of drink, appropriately priced.
Satisfaction Level: A (thank you to the manager for the recommendation and warm service)
Service: A -- food arrived super fast!
Atmosphere: A -- good crowd

Alamanda Foodcourt: crazy selection of food~

Me with my crispy poppia. And sis and daughter.

Fun times in an Alamanda foodcourt on a work day with my family members--the ones who stay home and lepak all day watching sinetron (the Indonesian dramas). My mother, may Allah reward her for bringing 6 healthy boisterous people into this world, had a stroke 3 years ago and once in a while we'd take her out on a shopping spree. Please remember to include her in your prayers. May Allah make her well again. May Allah shower her with His love and guidance. What am I without my mother? Unborn.

Mak and her nasi campur.

Begin review:

My mother, my maid and Iman, my step-daughter, had food from the Nasi Campur stall--the very first stall on your right as you enter the foodcourt. There's a nice selection of lauk there priced unbelievably, let me emphasize CHEAP. I am not sure if the dude at the counter is new, or my smile was sparkling white that day but my mother's dish had about 6 lauk on it and he charged me RM7.50. My step-daughter had her telur masin what-not what-not and that was RM4.50 only. And my maid had some kuah and veggies and that was RM3. 

I was shocked suspenseless. Can Nasi Campur Putrajaya be cheaper than Nasi Campur Bangi? Is Bangi really the metropolitan it claims to be? Watch TV3 to find out.

Jah and her yee mee.

My sister Jah had what we usually order when we eat at Alamanda: sizzling-black-mushroom-chicken-yee-mee. That's the stall with the longest line and cheapest entrees (or so I thought before I came across Nasi Campur.) Possibly the best yee mee in the whole of Putrajaya too. I can recommend a nice Yee Mee place in Bangi, but I will save that for another entry. Please stay put until I do.

Side note: I do not recommend Sizzling Yee Mee to pregnant moms and unhealthy people though. I suspect there is a considerable amount of MSG in Yee Mee that only very healthy young people are able to digest. High dosage of MSG's may cause heart palpitations or nauseousness. Those shitake mushrooms don't help either: they have a really strong flavour and leave you with petai breath. 

Armand with his bento box

My son loves the Teppanyaki Salmon to pieces. I do too..it's the brown sauce, which is probably made from salted soy sauce, honey and few hundred sploshes of Aji-No-Moto. What I do not love is the price. For RM18 you might as well eat at a posh Japanese restaurant with your feet in the air than a noisy food court with plastic tables. Armand doesn't even eat the beancurd soup or salad that comes with it, so if I order, I would return the soup and salad and ask to replace it with extra rice and more salmon. Smart as a Japanese, aren't I? Except if the Japanese was really really smart, they'd make a better version of the beancurd soup.

Siti with her coconut drink

My maid had the nasi campur, but her nasi campur only had kuah on it so a picture of her with that would look like we are depriving her of lauk which may end up on youtube under maid abuse. So we thought we'd take a picture of her with the coconut instead and she willingly agreed because she's on a roll to get fit. The coconut at the drink counter costs only RM4.50 and is fresh and good for you. Its probably the only dish in the entire foodcourt that is  not splurged with MSG. And with a model like that <-- who can resist? 

As for me, I had the crispy poppia with crabstick --shown in picture at top. I don't know why I bought it, I make better poppia at home, but I seem to get rambang mata at the Alamanda foodcourt everytime and don't know what to order. In the end I always end up eating a little off everybody's dish (read: finishing my mom's leftovers) and ordering the cheapest item available: i.e., crispy poppia. Besides, the guy at the Poppia Crispy stall intrigues me. He's like the only second person in the world who looks really unhappy to see me. The first is the chinese dude in Warta who is always telling me to keep my watches away from my mobile phone like I shouldn't give him business.

Iman with her nasi campur

I hope you enjoyed my review. Next time you are in Alamanda, skip all the restaurants and head straight to Auntie Anne's. The pretzels there are crazy awesome. 

Alamanda Foodcourt
Putrajaya

Cleanliness: B
Food: B
Price: B
Satisfaction Level: B
Service: B
Atmosphere: B

Saba' :: Still the best!

I love it when my husband has meetings in Cyberjaya. He would call me up and we'd go out for lunch. Or coffee. Regardless, it makes the laboring day pass by faster. Which is just great. Before you know it, I'm in the car on my way home humming a happy tune.

I've done two of reviews on Saba' before, so I won't re-iterate and bog down your brain cells when you can use them for something more productive; like concentrating really hard on the sermon during Friday prayer and becoming a better person an hour later. You can just skim through them old entries here. The pictures are gone, but trust me, its just food photos. Google has a lot of them.

We'd already concluded from the last Saba' post that ordering something else apart from lamb kabsah may be disappointing, so today again, I had ordered the lamb kabsah (awesome as always) and I didn't think to do a review. But my husband had an epiphany and ordered that red-bean dish (picture number 3 below) which I thought tasted extraordinaryly like good spaghetti sauce. I can't recall the name but there's a picture of it in the menu if you want to try it (point and order). It came with an enormous chewy black sesame bread that reminded me of Elfen bread from LOTR ---it keeps you full for hours. Definitely a must-try.

Muttabbal. Best best most awesome appetizer on earth.

Lamb kabsah. A dish so simple the lamb stands out.

Bread and red bean sauce. A!

Saba' is great for going when you are extraordinarily hungry because the dishes are gigantic Arab-size servings served really quickly. Regardless of the so many new places that have popped up in Cyberjaya, Saba' still remains my favourite Arab food place. 

Abang with his schawerma.

Saba'
Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia


Cleanliness: B
Food: A!
Price: Just right.
Satisfaction Level: A+-- I always love eating with hubs.
Service: B++
Atmosphere: A-- too many people. They need to open up a bigger restaurant!

Secret Recipe Shaftsbury: New Menu~

Don't we look like sisters? We probably share a grandma somewhere back up the line.

It's always fun going out with Ning. I did a review with her last on Penang House and if you recall, it's now my turn to pay for lunch. Today we decided to go to Shaftsbury's in Cyberjaya to check out the restaurants there. Shaftsbury's Square is the new row of shops right up the street from MSC.

Ask for the brownie to be heated. And ask for WALNUT Brownie.
Simply awesome. A!

Ningy--a.k.a Dr Guo to people under 25 and living on MMU campus---is from China and all we talked about that day was the MH370 crash. It was quite therapeutic because you know how women need to get 21,000 words off her chest to feel good again? (this theory remains to be proven though). Well, I think I managed to finish my word quota that day with Ningy, because I fiercely stared at my Master's student who dropped by my office unexpectedly that afternoon until he scurried off in fright. Sorry.

Anyway, we finally ended up at Secret Recipe and you know I've done reviews of Secret Recipe before. It isn't that Secret Recipe is my favourite favourite place at Cyberjaya, no no, that would be Tokio still, but the brownies and ice-cream have this magnetic pull I can't resist especially in light of current incidents: the missing MAS flight, the haze, the draught and the denggi outbreaks, na'uzubillah. Money can't buy you a feel-better pill (actually it can) but chocolate cake and ice-cream is safer and halal.

Ningy ordered beef steak (RM22.50) and I had the fish and chips because it was a new hotter version of Fish and Chips, check it out; Spicy Fish and Chips (RM18.50). I loved it and Ningy's black pepper sauce which flooded her beef was good too, although she said the beef was a bit tough. I noticed something else too-- Secret Recipe had a whole new menu book with...*drumroll* PIZZA! I tried ordering and they said the store is still new so no pizza on serve-- bummer! If I was 22 I would have stomped off to Pizza Hut which is just next door. Now that I am a wiser, I just gave an annoyed smile.

Close up of heaven.

Pizza is now on the menu!!

Spicy fish and chips! Fresh and crunchy. B++!

Fresh and tough and good sauce! B+!

Apart from the extra-terrestrial prices (especially cake) plus tax charges that make you feel like voting for the opposition party, I still think Secret Recipe is a nice place to lepak-lepak and hang out with friends and family. The new branch in Shaftsbury's is still new enough to have fluffy sofa's and there's a new selection of food, cakes and drinks since last time I visited them--which was back in December 2013 with a RM254 ringgit bill that had left me quite traumatized. Until this day.

Lunch set includes lemon tea that tasted plastic.
Get water instead.

Secret Recipe
Shaftsbury Square, Cyberjaya

Cleanliness: A -- new place, sofa still plump and comfortable.
Food: B+
Price: B -- I hate the taxes they have at this place.
Satisfaction Level: A
Service: A
Atmosphere: A

Victoria Station in Kuala Lumpur

Check out our non-smoking cabin. 

We're at Victoria Station having dinner after what I think is a very productive Sunday (did the groceries and everything). And I am blogging on location. My husband is busy with the camera as usual and the waiter has taken our order.

Victoria Station is on Jalan Ampang near the Chinese Embassy. Its an isolated building (not in a mall..yayy~). In the car, hubs had given me a choice: "My darling darling wife, shall we eat at Victoria Station or Madame Kwan's?" My reply: "Victoria Station please, I've already done a review on Madame Kwan's". He hits the gas pedal, does his crazy James Bond turns and we were parked behind Victoria Station in less than 5 minutes. I am telling you, his Waja is growing on me. It's got a good grip on the road too when hubs does his emergency brakes which is at least 5 times per trip--and that's from the house to the nearest G-mart store. 

But anyway. This ain't no proton review or of hubs driving skills. We are having dinner in a static train coach: at the best seat in the house! Although I must say, I have been on the tubes at Victoria Station in London and the coaches are nothing like this. This is more like the inside of a pirate ship with curtains from your grandma's recycled baju kurung. Regardless, the setting is comfortable and different and it's not everyday you eat steak in an unmoving cabin. All other restaurants I've been to serve food in a room.

Our food has arrived--very fast. We had both ordered steak. I went for Colonial steak--the most cheapest item on the menu at RM35.90. Actually, second cheapest. The cheapest is Minute steak which is a ringgit less and probably would have arrived earlier. Mazlan ordered T-bone steak at RM65.90. Wife is feeling generous and she told him to go for it. Actually, wife nearly forced him at steak-knife point for the priviledge of paying. Lucky wife.

check out the buns! Yep, we get free buns and butter while we wait for order
to arrive. They've clinched it! A++

Colonial Steak. Mine. B

T-bone steak. Cooked medium well perfectly. B+!

The steaks are good. Chew. Chew. Mmm~~!...Done medium well and quite luxurious. This cow has had much oxygen from the fresh mountains of New Zealand. Lucky cow. If you'd notice, I rarely order red meat because---as the Brits would put it---it's not my cuppa, but the full page introductory section in the giant menu has sucked me right in. Apparently, the Victorian Stationers started off as butlers for the Brits. They mastered how the Brits got their steaks done, improvised on the technique, quit work as butlers and started their own steak business. Suddenly butlerless, the Brits now needed to get new help, and having lost their focus, got ushered out of Malaysia in the process. Merdeka!

Just in case I told it wrong. Here it is.
[Click to read].

For convenience in parking, good food, fast service, free buns and and an unusual dinner setting, head to Victoria Station. Remember it is not a train station nor a bus station. It is a food station. I must say a special thank you to my husband for his kind company. It must be awful having dinner with wife while she blogs after every mouthful. Will try to chat animatedly with you in car on way home instead of holding tightly to door handle Yang.

This is the entrance.

Victoria Station, 
Kuala Lumpur

Cleanliness: A
Food: B
Price: Expensive. RM135 for us both.
Satisfaction Level: B+
Service: A++ superb. I thought they might know I blogged on food or something.
Atmosphere: A --loved the coach setting. Very adventurous.


May Allah help the victims and families of MH370 during this testing period. Only He is capable of all things.. Ameen...

Satay Kajang Haji Samuri (progress! we need progress~~!)

Note: This is a re-post and re-edit from an older entry which is no longer available for your viewing pleasure.

The Glory days. Newspaper cutting from 2001. The one and only wall deco.

Like all mysterious things in life, Satay Kajang baffles me. They know how to make good satay. They have the recipe for the best kuah satay ever, but they have one of the most mediocre restaurants in downtown Bangi.

Suraya Kpg Baru: fresh fish, fast service~~

Check out the telur dadar --- my favourite!!

Welcome to another edition of food intertwined with another flash of my life with my homies. Thank you to Allah for all the blessings He bestows on myself and my family. May we always be grateful servants.

This was us on our way back to Bangi from Ampang Point, where we had spent the whole afternoon at Harvey Normon quizzing the enthusiastic salesman on all aspects of Television and ended up not buying anything. His name is Wan so if you ever find yourself there (there's a sale going on at Harvey's up until the 30th of this month and all the cool flat-screen TV's are virtually free), please seek him out so that he will get the commission he deserves.

So in the car my husband asks me in his Ulu Klang accent: my darling wife, where should we go eat? My answer was: "rice and no malls. How about Kampung Baru?" I can't remember what he said in reply but he did a U-turn and lo and behold we where in Kampung Baru in 3 minutes. It must be the new LED lights in the car. 

Oro: Melaka's must-stop Moroccon Restaurant!

Good times at Oro with my childhood bestie Dor.

I think the last time I did a review with Dor was back in 2011 when we went to TGIF's  and she was holding back on food because she was getting married. Fast forward two years and she and hubs now have the most adorablest little baby called Ahmad and a classy restaurant right in the heart of Ayer Keroh called Oro.

Dor's husband, Adil, used to run a restaurant back in Germany called No Concept. There's no menu and customers would come in and trust the good-looking chef would serve them something good. Since Malaysians in general are a cautious and shy lot of people, No Concept food probably won't make it past our throats. So Adil made the concept here crystal clear: Moroccon and Italian food --the way it should be.