m a k a n i s m a

Mini-Review: Waroeng Penyet @The Curve

2009-12-12T22:25:00.009+08:00

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*mini-reviews are reviews which are not as intensive as a standard one, focusing mainly on food.

Okay, first off, sorry for the loooooooooooong delay. We've been pretty much busy with uh, 'real work', hence the huge gap between this review and the last one. But let us start off by conveying our sincerest gratitude for all the nice words and visits =)

Jom kita makan Ayam Penyet.

Translated directly, it means 'flat chicken'. Well apparently the chicken is kinda smashed down before cooking. We guess the logic is that it'll enable faster cooking... kot. These Ayam Penyet joints have been mushrooming around the Klang Valley area. One of the more prominent ones is Ayam Penyet Ria, but we went to the one at The Curve. Waroeng Penyet (Flattened Stall? HAHA)

Going on a busy night proved to be kinda bad; service was slow and there were a LOT of people around. But we suppose that suits the nature of the place and food kot? Well, you wouldn't expect five-star service and waiters in waist-coats right? The place was very informal, with simple plastic chairs and tables and service staff in polo tees and pants. Decor was minimal; think of it as what would happen if McDonald's served rice meals, and you'll get the gist.

We had to wait a few moments before we got a table; sat down, we glanced at the menu. It was small and limited affair, which arguably was all the better. We know of plenty of places where they try to be the jack of all trades but end up as the master of none. *cough*kedai tomyam*mamak shop*.

It basically boiled down to a choice of their own spiced fried or grilled(chicken/beef/bergedil/fish) with rice. There were other dishes on the menu as well, including kangkung belachan and sup buntut (and no, that's not ass soup, it's the Indonesian term for 'tail'. So 'sup buntut' = ox tail soup).

But since ayam penyet was the star attraction, that's what we had, with a bowl of sup buntut. To order, you ticked down what you want on an order form and bring it to the cashier; payment is done straight-away (yea the McD thing I mentioned above). I also wanted the Jus Alpukat, which was actually an avocado smoothie with chocolate sauce drizzled, but they ran out of avocado, so melepas la that night.. -_________-"

A few moments later our food arrived. Ayam Penyet first.

What did we get for our money? In the neat basket, a generous piece of chicken, some cabbage (ughhh) and... cucumber. Those scrunchy bits on top of the chicken are the crumbs from the frying. They were nice mixed in with the rice. Also served is the sambal, which comes in two forms: not-so-pedas, and pedas-gila. We had the pedas-gila one, and more on that later.

Then the Sup Buntut, which came in a bowl with a few chunks of ox-tail.

Syed also ordered some crackers to go along with it.

Suffice to say, the food was delicious. There's something very comforting about simple food done in a good way, and that was certainly the case with Waroeng Penyet. See la, it's just, in theory, ayam goreng, sambal and nasi. But somehow that combination simply works. The chicken was juicy and flavorful; whatever spices they used as the marinade lent this fragrance to the meat. So it was with the sup buntut; simple, but satisfying and hearty. The crackers though were stale and so-so.

Special mention must go the pedas-gila sambal. THIS is how all sambals should be like: insanely hot, sweat inducing, breath shortening. Superb.

Both of us ended up ordering an extra plate of rice each :P We ended the night with sweaty foreheads (literally, because the air-con wasn't really working kot?) and a bill of about.. RM30 I guess, for two. Which isn't bad.

To wrap up:

Food rating = 4/5, WANT
The ayam penyet was good, but the sambal is what transformed a rudimentary meal to an excellent one. The sup buntut was okay; not spectacular, but good. Overall, great food.

Everything else = 3/5, Okay
Service was fair if kinda slow, and the place tends to get crowded and hot. You won't feel pampered, but that's the point of it all I guess.

Overall = 3.5/5, WANT and Okay
Recommended, especially for lovers of fried chicken and haemorrhoid inducing sambal lovers. The service and ambience is nothing to shout about though.

:)

Waroeng Penyet @The Curve
First Floor, Lot 1.32
The Curve
Mutiara Damansara
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 017 - 200 3988

Waroeng Penyet review. DONE.

*apologies for the lack of detailed photos on this; camera issues (read: battery habis)

Pasta Zanmai @Hartamas Shopping Center

2009-11-01T10:16:00.012+08:00

When we first came out with the intent to start up a food review blog, Syed and I drafted up this 'hit-list' of restaurants or eateries to visit. They weren't all expensive ones okay, as the list also included warongs and road-side eateries. But first on the hit-list was Pasta Zanmai.

They've got quite a few outlets now; we recall seeing it for the first time at One Utama. But, seeing as that we're, ahem, bohemian, we went to the one at Hartamas Shopping Centre, a decision we'd eventually be thankful of.

Pasta Zanmai is essentially a Japanese/Italian fusion concept restaurant. As you could probably see looking at the picture below, there weren't many people considering we went on a Saturday evening. That's the cool thing about HSC I guess. If you check out the outlets in Sunway or OU, you'll tend to find a LOT more folk there.. -_______-"

Anyways, we were greeted by the waitress (who unfortunately did not look Italian nor Japanese) and took our seats. First things first: it's a very nice looking restaurant. Think Zen decor; minimalist with clean lines and soft lighting. Which was nice. What spoiled the effect a bit though was the choice of music (Simple Plan WTH?). But the place was very clean and cozy.

The menus were already set on the table, along with chopsticks, cutlery and serviettes. Every table also got, as you would expect, salt+peppers shakers plus Tabasco sauce and chili powder.

We made ourselves comfortable and took a look at the menu, which is huge in both physical size and selection. It was a great looking menu though. All menu's should have pictures like this.

See what I mean? And that's only two pages of it. We're not big fans of big menus, but at least this one looked like a pretty comprehensive selection. They have starters and sides (oddly placed at the end of the menu, just before desserts), and ta daa, plenty of pasta dishes. We can't recall them all, but we saw tomato based, sesame based, soup based, etc. It was cool to see they had pizza as well, and rice and an awesome looking steak dish.

"Nak makan apa?" I asked Syed.

"Anything, let's try," he said.

"Okay, let's go for one pasta and one pizza, and share, okay or not?"

"And one soft-shell crab!"

We decided to go with something very obviously 'fusion' to gauge out first visit here at Pasta Zanmai. We decided on these:

Sorry for the blurry photo -__-" But anyways that's a prawn and rice cake (!!!) pizza with cheese. And also this:

We admit: for this dish, it was the incredibly appealing idea of Unagi and soft-cooked egg that sold it for us. We fricking love Unagi, and what could be better than Unagi with a soft-cooked egg over pasta, kan? We made our order, along with a battered and fried soft-shell crab to start with.

Naturally, being green tea fans, we also asked for some iced green tea for two that came in a pitcher... and it was only RM3, which is awesome.. :D :D :D

A few minutes later our soft-shell crab starter arrived. It looked great. We squeezed the lemon wedge over, dipped the crispy crustacean in the sauce and... sighed. We looked at each other. Unfortunately, the crabs were overcooked and quite dry. Which sucked. Syed also noted that the batter was greasy and wasn't flavorful enough. The crabs were, eh how to say eh, not 'crabby' enough. It was pretty ho-humm to be honest. We finished it anyway, and hoped our main courses were MUCH better. Just on time:

The pizza came first. Again, it looked great. And smelled wonderful. The aroma of cheese was intoxicating. Ugh, lapar. But it was about to be upstaged.

By this. LOOK AT IT. UNAGI OH SOFT COOKED EGG OH PASTA OH. It looked gorgeous. We couldn't wait. We dug in. Pizza goes first.

The pizza was topped with tomato sauce, cheese, chunky prawns, mushrooms, and each slice had a.. uhm, slice of rice cake on it. We gotta be honest; it looked fantastic. WANT.

We had it without Tabasco or chili, to gauge the actual pizza. It was excellent. The pizza base was crispy but pliable, and it wasn't 'doughy' tasting at all. The cheese was nicely melted and stringy, and the prawns and mushrooms perfectly cooked as they weren't mushy nor were they too tough. The tomato sauce was tangy and sweetish without being tart. But the real star was how the motchi (rice cake) sort of glued together with the pizza base. As Syed said, a 'nice example of fusion'. It was a brilliant mix, a dance of textures that we would see again later.

Hello Unagi and Egg Pasta, can we marry you and have your babies? It was a simple dish; spaghetti with glazed roasted Unagi (eel) and a soft-cooked egg on top. It couldn't possibly be bad, kan?

AND IT WASN'T. The Unagi and Egg Pasta was incredible. At first, we couldn't quite point out what it was. Was it the spaghetti, cooked al-dente? Or maybe it was the chewy, sweetish, savory eel? Possibly it was the way the egg broke into luscious liquid which coated the strands of pasta? In the end we decided it was a combination of all that: like we said above, a dance of textures. The firm pasta, enveloped in silky liquid egg, with the chewy, flaky unagi. Brilliant.

These two main courses more than made up for the initially disappointing soft-shell crab (our benchmark for that crabby critter is Sakae Sushi's). The pasta, in particular. Excellent stuff.

We finished the dishes with happy faces :D This whole food review thing was turning out to be fun, we thought as we sipped our cool green tea. Can we have the bill please:

Not bad huh for two people. Of course, if all you're used to is cheap and watery spaghetti bolognaise from Pizza Hut (huh, tak best), you'd say this is a rip-off. But considering what we had, and the quality of what we had, we'd say this was worth it.

So, to wrap up?

Food rating = 4/5, WANT
Although the soft shell crab was a bit meh, the mains made up for it, a LOT. We're definitely gonna give the food here another try, if what we had was an example of what they could do. Pretty food, pretty tasting food.

Everything else = 4/5, Coolness
The service was good. friendly and prompt, the place was clean (as all places should be, really) and the ambiance was cool. Music kinda spoiled it a bit though. In terms of pricing, it's really not too bad for something different, takkan nak spend this kind of money on burgers or steaks je kan?

Overall = 4/5, WANT and Coolness
It's definitely worth going to, and the food is excellent. Having a huge menu ensures that WE'RE definitely going there again. It rocks.

Pasta Zanmai @ Hartamas Shopping Centre

Lot P-2C, Plaza Ground Floor,
Hartamas Shopping Centre,
60, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1,
Sri Hartamas,
50480 KL.

TEL: 03 - 6201 1610
FAX: 03 - 6201 1690
MOBILE: 012 - 635 1610

Pasta Zanmai review. DONE.

Welcome To Makanisma :D

2009-10-31T23:42:00.005+08:00

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Welcome to 'm a k a n i s m a'

:)

This foodblog was created because the authors here (i.e, US) discovered that OH WOW we could afford to eat almost anywhere now. And because we love food so much, we've decided to jump on the food review bandwagon & start our own site.

We know there's a lot of local food sites out there, but we're gonna do this anyway. Hopefully we'll be rajin enough that this blog gets noticed and read. We're gonna try and do that by reviewing places in our own style.

So here's what Makanisma is about:

We look for places to eat within a wide price range. We will go there, eat, take pictures and review it later on this blog. We write our own words and take our own photographs.
We'll review honestly; if a restaurant sucks, we'll say so and give our reasons why. Likewise if it's fantastic.
We use two 5-point scales; one for FOOD & DRINK and one for EVERYTHING ELSE (which includes ambiance, cleanliness, service and Value-For-Money). The scales are explained below.

The Makanisma 5-Point FOOD Scale

Food will be rated based on taste, texture, aroma, visual appeal and presentation.

1 is DO NOT WANT, and it is the lowest rating we could give to an establishments' food. It means the food/drink is utterly crap and not worth a single cent.
2 is Only If You're Desperate, which is the second lowest rating. It means the food/drink is bordering on crappy but is useful in moments of distress.
3 is Okay, which is the average rating. It means the food doesn't stand out nor does it have any glaring flaws.
4 is WANT, our second highest rating. It means the food is superb, but missed the turn to absolute awesomeness.
5 is FD ('F***ing Delicious', in honor of Gordon Ramsay), which is our highest rating. It means the food is fantastically delicious and flawless. We won't be handing these out easily, so if a restaurant or place gets one of these, be sure to check it out.

The Makanisma 5-Point Everything Else Scale

This is where we judge service, ambiance, cleanliness and value-for-money.

1 is Don't Bother, the lowest rating. It means, like it says, that it's not worth going there AT ALL.
2 is Only If Desperate, the second lowest rating. Like the food rating above, it means that the place is crappy overall, and is only worth going if your closest restaurant happens to be on Jupiter.
3 is Okay, which, of course means average. Not outstanding, but not too horrible either.
4 is Coolness, our penultimate score. It means the place is cool to be at and has great qualities, but again, there's something holding it back from pure awesomeness.
5 is MUST GO, our highest rating. This means the place offers awesome service, awesome prices, awesome, awesome, awesome.

Using these two scales, we'll award an OVERALL rating out of five at the end of each review to summarize both food and everything else.

So that's how 'm a k a n i s m a' will work. We'll try and keep our reviews entertaining and casual, while at the same time telling you, Dear Reader, what a place and its food is all about.

So hang around and maybe you'll find good places to hang out and eat. Bring your friends.

:)

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to use the CBOX on the left of the site, or leave a comment. We'll get back to you whenever possible.

Thanks!

The Authors & Photographers

Muhammad Edwan Shaharir (b.1986) is a graduate of Bsc Culinary Arts Management from Thames Valley University in London, England. He worked as a chef while studying, earning a Sous-Chef position, but suddenly decided that he missed seeing the sun in the sky and people in broad daylight, so now he works as a lecturer at a hospitality school in Kuala Lumpur. Edwan is witty and cool, and likes to write. And eat. Sigh.

Syed Abdul Khaliq Syed Ihsan (b.1986) is a sucker for good foods. Working stressfully as an engineer requires him to feed on pleasant rations to bring up his mood (the equation; Good Food = Good Mood). Supposedly rocketing to the moon (graduated with a B.Eng in Aerospace from the University of Adelaide, Australia), but ended up digging down to the centre of the Earth for Oil & Gas. Loves photography, hoping to see the obscured part of life through the viewfinder.