the day i got a bag of laduree

one of the perks of having globetrotting friends is getting stuff from abroad. and it pays when they're foodies too who can accommodate your weird requests. in june, h will be going to paris so it was already a given that she'll get me laduree which is the most famous macaron and pierre herme which is deemed to be the best macaron.

a week ago though, she went to a conference in zurich and managed to squeeze in some leisure time in milan. there were no street signs in milan so it was serendipitous that the deli they went to is right across laduree. yes, laduree has several branches all over the world and one is in milan. the box says eat the macarons within 3 days and she knew it can arrive here in kl on time .


the lovely paperbag...it looks like a tiffany and co. paperbag but with an aged effect looks really nice...expected from a french brand right?

one of the 150 years boxes they have right now.

inside....8 lovely macarons.

because of the "expiry" my greedy self took a bite on all of them hehe. (blurry ugly photo because i used my handphone on this one, was embarrased to take a picture using my camera. and yeah i should have first aligned them as such and then took a decent photo before biting into them. i guess i don't have a high EQ ;). so here's my take on the flavors.

i'll just be giving reviews on the fillings. since all the "macarons"/ meringue base have this thin crisp crust with a chewy pillowy inside that i have never experienced in all the macarons i have tried before. and now i know why people love them, there's a huge difference between the actual french macarons and the ones i've tried in this side of the world.

top row:
black currant - i like the tartness of the filling, provides a nice contrast to the relatively sweet meringue. the filling has a jam/gum like consistency.
salted caramel - i knew this will be my favorite. i am a caramel lover. the salted caramel filling was just love. the flavor was spot on...has the nice caramel flavor nearly burnt but not quite. the texture is not the stringy caramel but more like a paste of some sort.
raspberry - there's really not much to say about this flavor. i actually couldn't figure out what it was. i knew it wasn't strawberry and i knew it was a berry i had to check the website. the filling has a similar consistency with the black currant but lacked any distinct characteristic to make me want more.

middle row:
chocolate - i don't like chocolate. but this one is also good. it was filled with an almost dark chocolate ganache (it wasn't bitter but it wasn't sweet as well). again, a perfect combination with the sweet meringue. i was a convert on this one.
citron - oooh i love lemon. this one was perfect. it wasn't too tart heck it didn't have any tartness if i recall but has the right amount of lemon essence. the filling was buttercream and it was just perfect for the crisp chewy meringue.
pistacchio - i don't like pistacchio...i love the nut but surprisingly don't like anything flavored with pistacchio. i thought i'll have a change of heart with this one but it still failed to convert me.

bottom row:
pear - i thought the specks were incidental, apparently they weren't. another flavor which i couldn't figure out. i thought it was chestnut or something but it was one of the seasonal flavors. it's has a buttercream type of filling with chunks of pears in it. it was also nice.
salted caramel - whether it was intentional or not, love the fact i got two caramel flavored macarons :D.


laduree
http://www.laduree.fr/
several branches all over the world

kajang: satay feast on a saturday

satay is basically skewered grilled meat served with a peanut sauce dip. kajang is known all over malaysia as the satay capital, it's around 50 km south of kl.

after years of living here, we have never really made an effort to try the satay in kajang and we are usually satisfied with getting our fix in kl. you might think it's no big deal but we are foodies, we have travelled to klang to get the best bak kut teh, we drove to ipoh to try their dimsum, had a taste of the famous penang char kway teow and had the best cendol in malaysia in melaka. i've done those things except for eating satay in kajang, furthermore it's close to my friends' office. yeah, they work in the "province" hehe so it would have been really easy for us to go and eat there.

anyway, last saturday was d day. of course we did some research. the famous one is haji samuri with the biggest chain all over the country but recent reviews said that they don't cook their satay fresh and just reheat them, which is a major no no for us. so we tried the next best thing. nyok lan satay. yeah it's owned by a chinese but really had great reviews so we opted for it.

after some circling around kajang because google map directions were not reliable grrr. we found the place. perfect timing since it was right before dinner time, minutes after we got seated people started pouring in.

we got everything! satay is traditionally chicken and beef, but they have already made innovations and used other meats so here's what we got.

the peanut sauce dip has some sambal to give a nice contrast from the sweet sauce. some ketupat, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves but sometimes they are just plain rice cubes which is traditionally eaten with satay. there's also some cucumber which is a traditional side dish with satay as well.

chicken and beef - the traditional flavors. the chicken is dry for me, maybe because they just use breast meat. the beef was good it was tender and it was actually quite big compared to the chicken and they both costs 80 cents.



fish and kambing (1.30 RM per stick) - the fish is dory and it had this fishy aftertaste but a welcomed break from the traditional chicken and beef. the kambing was also tender, loved it. it's one of my favorite satay meats they did it well, tender with no gamey taste.




duck (1.30rm per stick)- this was heart. the best for me. it was tender, no gamey aftertaste it was soooooo good.

so was the trip worth it? well for the duck satay it was. i can have a similar tasting satay kambing in one of the joints in kl that we frequent but the duck satay was love...really love.

nyok lan satay kajang

31 jalan semenyih

kajang, selangor

it's the red dot on the map. after the kajang hospital it's the corner shop right after the overpass.

2011 holiday food fare

well here's some of the stuff i cooked during the holidays. among these, the iberian chicken was the least favorite...i think i put too much bay leaf but i just followed the recipe. not in the mood to cook it again. and the sure fire winner was the turkey. it was the best!!! humility aside really it was good i followed a recipe from allrecipe.com tweaked it a bit and voila i was surprised myself. definitely it will be a holiday tradition from now on.

iberian chicken

garlic prawns

jap chae

black truffle pasta with pecorino romano

homestyle turkey, the michigander way

eat my gf

eat my gf is the creative name of this new food booth at the food choices. it means garlic fries. it had good reviews from the UTT (ultimate taste test) so i was keen on trying it.

i was so disappointed. the fries are the typical frozen ones...mcdo's even better! and the garlic, basil and parsley didn't give that much flavor. ok, i have high standards on garlic fries after trying out hooters', their garlic fries were awesome and this is no where near that. you pay for what you get i guess.

eat my gf

food choices

glorietta

kl: snowflake

feels like im on a blogging marathon. i've just realized i have too much backlog. anyhoo, here's snowflake. a taiwanese dessert chain. very "hot" in kl, there's always a long line. most of my friends are not impressed. i am not overly obsessed compared to milkteas but because i like bilo bilo i enjoy snowflake.

i thought this was the bestseller but now it seems like a different flavor. the bestseller doesn't have the sago it has grass jelly instead with the ice at the bottom unlike this one. i like those white/orange taro balls...not a fan of the sweet potato, this one is served with milk/cream which you pour on top. and viola you have taiwanese dessert.

p.s. i checked the website and this is the taro balls series.

snowflake

pavilion, bukit bintang

katsu treat at yabu

i've read several reviews on the famous katsu resto, saboten, which unfortunately i have not yet tried. i'd have to settle for similar places until i get to singapore or hongkong or better yet japan for it.

on 11.11.11 yabu opened in megamall. it has a similar concept. basically, a restaurant that specializes in katsu, deep fried breaded pork, fish/seafood or chicken. so i told myself i had to try it. here's the famous sesame seeds which you need to grind before mixing with the tonkatsu sauce.




my mixed seafood katsu with hire - pork seafood and veggies. served with bottomless shredded cabbage with either sesame dressing or ponzu.



there are two types of tonkatsu, hire which is tenderloin and rosu which has a small amount of fat. i was apprehensive about the hire but i thought wrong, it was extremely tender that one would think it has fat in it. it is indeed a healthier alternative. the mixed seafood is made up of dory, scallop and ebi. my first plate was a miss, the dory was uncooked in the middle. they replaced my entire plate except for the rice, which meant i had a free refill of the miso soup and an additional eggplant tempura because i've finished mine already :D.



the hire was love, it was very tender. the seafood seemed to be fresh but somehow after the meal i felt itchy which means one of the items wasn't really fresh. i also found the katsu a bit oily like it was cooked at a wrong temperature and if you notice the darker color it kinda hinted that they used a relatively old cooking oil. i'd have to say that they need to ensure the quality of their katsus, after all that's basically what they serve.

it's still a must dining experience and i like that they have great service and also their japanese rice is yummy :D.


yabu
2nd floor sm megamall atrium

buenisimo by cafe ysabel

this is a long overdue post. i thought i already wrote one for this. was at eastwood mall and had nothing in mind so we opted for buenisimo by cafe ysabel. here's what we got.

freebie bread - warm flat bread with soft pillowy insides served with a yellowish oil which ain't nothing like piadina's chilli oil instead has a sweet flavor...maybe pesto would have been better.



crispy pork belly (forgot the actual name) the belly was perfectly crisp but it just had too much fat. i think they should ensure they serve leaner liempo. the rice was a bit oily too which increased the cloying effect of this dish.

bbq ribs (forgot the official name too) as if we weren't thinking straight. we also ordered another pork dish. the ribs were tender but there was something lacking with the flavors which i couldn't figure out what.

dalandan shake - had to post this because c and i both agree that this was the saving grace of our meal ...perfect consistency and it was just oozing with dalandan flavor.

buenisimo

eastwood mall, libis