REVIEW: MIGF 2011 Festival Menu @ Al-Amar, Pavilion KL

Visually arresting yes?

Nougat Glac Laid on a Bed of Vanilla Pineapple Confit Served with Pineapple Sauce & Spiced Chocolate Shell.

Well, that was precisely what we thought too when we were presented with the dessert platter for the 2011 MIGF menu for Al-Amar Lebanese Restaurant.
Al-Amar is all set to impress diners with their affordable (YES, affordable!) yet superb MIGF menu this year.

Transition from the seasons of the world, easing from summer to winter, each dish showcases different ingredients & flavours according to the seasons.
The brilliant chef has carefully designed the menu in keeping to the theme of MIGF 2011 this year; which is Its Raining Chefs.

Festival Chef: Chef Michel Karam

***

Festival Menu

Lebanese Four Seasons
For a sunny start
Authentic Labneh Trio with Lebanese Southern Tapenade and a Brush of Thyme
Wine: Chateau Musar Jeune White, Viognier, Corsican variety, Vermentino and Chardonnay, 2008, Lebanon

Labneh, (a cheese made of strained yogurt) coated with 3 different herbs thyme, mint, chill powder & paprika. Good to eat it with the breadsticks or just on its own.

Summer blooms
Apricot Glazed Beetroot Tartar on Mango Leather and Rocket Coulis
Wine: Chateau Kefraya Blanc de Blanc, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc & Chardonnay, 2008, Lebanon

Summer blooms we had bright red beetroot, refreshing and tangy with the fruitiness of apricot. The beetroot were firm but really sweet, perhaps a bit too much apricot syrup? But it was a sweet sweet summer alright.

Autumn flavours
Spinach Bonbon, Soujouk Mille Feuille and Herb Crust Filled with Hommos and Grass Fed Baby Lamb Fillet
Chateau Musar Jeune Red, Cinsault, Syrah & Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009, Lebanon

Presentation were all very artfully done, as you can see from the pictures. Our Autumn course consisted of something a little heavier, their made-in-house lamb sausages (finally some meat!), 2 spinach spring rolls ribbons (they are known as bonbon actually.. I was just trying to be funny here) and last but not least, the grass fed baby lamb which was to me, non-existent.

Actually, it was there, on the fish-y looking thing you see above. The 3 little bits sticking out from the hummus in that fish-shaped crust. To be honest, the whole dish was tasty, its just that sharing it with 3 other hungry bloggers was in my opinion, a bit ridiculous.

Raining chefs
Braised Rack of Lamb with Stuffed Baby Marrow and Vine Leaves Accompanied by a Garlic Mint Sauce
Wine: Chateau Musar Hochar Pre & Fils, Cinsault, 2002, Lebanon

Yes, 4 bloggers (actually it was 3 +1) shared one dish of each course in this MIGF menu. Yes, its true that one doesnt have to eat the whole dish to know its good. But still..

Anyways, back to the food. The eye-candies on the sides were delightfully as well. The above is a ball of meat mixed with rice, served cold and sits prettily in a hollowed out squash. The vine leaves wrap .. hhm.. cant quite remember when you have to fight for your food before the whole plate is wiped out.

But yes, I do remember the lamb. Fork tender; a! knife w asnt required at all. Pink in the middle, barely seasoned and moist. Just like how I like my meat. They say having just a bit of something leaves you yearning for more. Well, if thats the case then the ploy worked, for I only managed a slice of it before it all disappeared and Im definitely hankering for more.

Pan seared Red Mullet Fillets with Sayadieh Rice and Drops of Fish Jus
Wine: Chateau Musar Cuve White, Obeideh, 2004, Lebanon

The lovely aromatic sayadieh fisherman rice was wonderful on its own. Very flavourful. Very fluffy.
Middle Eastern rice dishes are always so tasty yes? It must be the stock that they used to cook the rice. It makes you forget everything you hear about carbs being bad.
But no worries on that though, not when that small timbale of rice was shared by 4 people.

The fish .. I guess it was alright. But the rice stole the show.

Sunshine after the rain
Nougat Glac Laid on a Bed of Vanilla Pineapple Confit Served with Pineapple Sauce & Spiced Chocolate Shell

Sunshine after the rain indeed. If youve got a cloud over your head, this pretty kaleidoscope of colours is bound to turn up the corners of your mouth.

You smiling yet? Im sure you are. This platter of art tasted as good as it looks.

But of course, you got to eat it fast. Not only there were 4 5 peoples spoons digging into it at once, the ice cream melts pretty fast too.

Cardamon ice cream encased within a chocolate shell. Creamy, cold with a nice tinge of spice.

The dome encased

Full Festival Menu: RM138++per person with wine
RM98++per person without wine

***

Yup, all that above for RM98++! (We were not served any wines). I did say that it was a tasty and affordable meal right?
Its one of the best value MIGF menu for 2011. I think it would be filling enough for 1 (one) pax.

Luckily we were served some canapes at the start of the session. These are from Al-Amars Catering menu.

Do check out my other reviews on Al-Amar:
Post 1: Affordable Lebanese Food at Al-Amar Express, Fahrenheit 88
Post 2: Chateau Musar- My Lebanese Wine Tasting Experience at Al-Amar Pavilion KL

PS: Im loving the pictures in this post. Thanks to the free NX11 workshops that I have been attending, I have mastered the Samsung NX11 slightly better now and able to use manual mode to play a bit with the settings for better control on the images! Yay!

Pernod Ricard Code Friday, Sept 30th 2011

Guess what!

Pernod Ricard Malaysia (PRM) is launching their global Responsible Drinking campaign on Friday, September 30, 2011.

The global Pernod Ricard stance is to promote responsible drinking on 5 fronts: -

* Advocating Moderation
* Avoiding Drink-Driving
* Making Young-People aware of the risks linked to alcohol
* Dissuading Pregnant women from drinking
* Making Staff aware of their responsibility

In Malaysia, the responsible drinking campaign will be driven by the overriding programme name: Be In Control. If You Drink Dont Drive.

So, what is Code Friday all about REALLY?

Well, we will know tomorrow night at the launch!
And I will be sharing all about it here on RebeccaSaw.com; mainly the campaign objectives & how you can make a pledge in support of Be In Control. If You Drink Dont Drive.

Whos with me??

The Sitiawan Fling

James Cendol @ Sitiawan Shaving the ice the conventional way. Shes the wife of the owner, James whos operating a branch on Old Klang Road in KL now.

Its been ages. Felt almost like years since the last travelling stint sometime during the last quarter of 2010. This time around, I had a whirlwind of a few hours worth of fiasco down south; around Pantai Remis-Sitiawan-Seri Manjung.

The lapse of serious travelling throughout the last 10 months in KL got this old bones rusted to some considerable extent. Still remember vividly how we used to go north-south-east-west within weeks, and still survived the ordeal with lots of memories to be retained, work experiences to be shared, and burping good food stories that could last an eternity.

Ahh . Those good old days. This noble quest of food hunting around Perak is being tasked upon the remnants of this now-defunct gluttons club; plus a few fresh bloods in the old office. I can only watch from afar .

Nothing ground-breaking, in fact lesser ingredients than before and the lumpy pulut did not help much. Yet, this was a saviour on a hot afternoon. Nostalgia was all that mattered.

I know Sitiawan almost like the back of my hands. Okay, slightly exaggerated, but comparing myself to most tourists, Ipohans or heck, even some locals in Sitiawan/people whom have worked for years in the district, I still have the upper hand in the FOOD-navigation department.

A good one year! or so f rom the last visit to this beautiful town that shares borders with Ayer Tawar and Seri Manjung (actually, I cant even tell exactly where is the border between Sitiawan and Seri Manjung ), no glaring changes could be seen.

Lost? Look for the Indian temple on the same side as The Store on Jalan Lumut in Sitiawan

So, Tesco has started operating in Seri Manjung. A mainstream hypermarket at long last, in tandem with the rapid development (the Big C cinema saga, remember?) around the district made famous by fisheries, a port in Lumut and cheap seafood.

Yes, the sweltering heat proved to be too much for this Motormouth. Came back driving on the Ipoh-Lumut highway with a hoarse throat, slight headache and an immensely-dumbed down mentality from the sheer drama in Pantai Remis earlier in the morning. But I shall not go there, for anything can happen in this Bolehland.

Anything.

The bowl of chilled cendol in gula Melaka and extra lumps of pulut (glutinous rice) made my afternoon so much more bearable. Yeah, albeit the fact that the make-shift zinc roofs did less to shelter the burnt layer of epidermis from Mother Natures wrath, and the revelation that this bowl of shaved ice dessert cost me a good RM2.20 (with pulut) now, with skimpy portions to boot (less kidney beans and the worm-like green pea flour strands).

Rojak Manjung A cross between Indian pasembor, and Malay style of conventional rojak.

Still, I was a happy kid. In case youre w! ondering why was this lady named James? Go read my previous post on this stall.

James is manning a stall in KL now, and stay til the end of this post for the address. By the way, the stall in Bercham of Ipoh is NOT the original James cendol. That ones opened by his nephew though.

Who knows a solitary venture could be so therapeutic? The previous food haunts around town jolted at the back of my mind, but most restaurants require more than one diner to share the portions (like Bei King or Lido for instance). Ended up at Rojak Manjung further up the same road of Jalan Lumut, easily the most populated stall in DMara Plaza come lunch hours.

So I should have dipped the ingredients in, rather than pouring the sauce over them like how I did before. Hmm .

This was not the first time I was here eating alone. Maybe this type of stalls is best suited for single diners, since I wont be pressured to order more than an individual portion of food; their famous rojak (Malaysian style of mixed fruits/vegetables/fritters salad served usually with a spicy sauce) for example.

For RM3.50 (biasa or without addition of extra ingredients), you get a whole boiled egg sliced in quarters, a perfectly crunchy and addictive piece of cucur udang (prawn fritters) studded with caramelized (almost burnt, in a positive way) onion chopped into chunks, potatoes, a piece of chewy chicken gizzard thats more of a Fear Factor ingredient for detractors than anything else, fish cakes and bean curd. The spicy peanut sauce on the side is a perfect complement to the ingredients; so compatible that youd be left wanting more of the sauce, or the cucur for dipping purposes.

The nasi campur stall was doing very well too, on a perpetually-packed basis.

Still with ample stomach space for lunch (this IS me, after all a bottomless pit was my nick back in my glorious chomping days), I went in search of my favourite gong pian, a Foochow style biscuit baked in a large contraption akin to how they make Indian naan bread, or the Gunung Rapats heong peng.

Sitiawan Cheong Cia Gong Pian ran out of biscuit to sell at 2pm, though they were still busily making new batches. Some locals adamantly swore that Sin Lays better, in Kampung Koh further inside the villages of Sitiawan. Kedai Biskut Sin Lay is located a short distance away from the famous Kampung Koh markets kampua mee/loh mee stall. And last time, this fantastic Foochow restaurant used to be here, but they have moved.

Almost non-descriptive and easily missed if youre zooming past the shops in Kampung Koh.

The gong pian from Sin Lay was terribly hard the last time I had one; so badly that I did not succeed in finishing the whole piece. Maybe the biscuits were left hardened and cold while seated in the cabinet display. But this time, I walked over gingerly preparing my camera for a potentially few good shots. Four workers were seated in the middle of the room making new ones.

As I was about to snap some pictures and buy myself a few pieces of the pork-lard oil infused, caramelized onions stuffed biscuits, the buzzing flies in the cabinet got me thinking twice. Sorry, although I eat from the streets without a care in the world ! on most days, the sight of flies on my food is repulsive. (A horrendous experience from one of those mee udang banjir stalls in Kuala Sepetang got me really wary of this now)

At the end of the day, the Manjung coconut jelly capped the day off with a bountiful loot of 6 pieces to bring home. (One for RM3.50, three for RM10). Still seated in my fridge, I know I am gonna have myself some refreshing antidote to the manic weather in the coming days.

Whats the plan for tomorrow, you asked?

TAIPING.

The full reviews of the places mentioned in this post with locations and contacts in the following posts :
*James Cendol
Branch in KL @ Old Klang Road, next to Lee Chong Weis Sports Arena. GPS Coordinates : N3 04.911 E101 39.824
*Rojak Manjung
*Sitiawan Cheong Cia Gong Pian
*Manjung Coconut Jelly

Still craving for more good food finds in Perak? Read through PERAK FOOD GUIDE by J2Kfm

The Warehouse @ Chinatown

Nestled in a nearly century-old building in the heart of Chinatown, The Warehouse is home to three sections: an art gallery, a steakhouse & an atmospheric cafe.

Here's a glimpse of the ground floor cafe, which offers simple fare like sandwiches & coffee. But be warned that it closes at 6pm.

When night falls, head upstairs to Ril's, the stylish steakhouse that opened this week, serving beefed-up meat & sultry cocktails.

Exotically bizarre: Thai Bloody Mary (with fish sauce!!! combined with vodka, chili, tomato, cucumber & coriander) & Arab Spring (brandy, cardamom, dried apricot, vanilla).

Champagne cocktails, with herbal & floral twists: Rosemary Kiss (aperol, lime, rosemary) & Hibiscus Fizz (roselle syrup, hibiscus flower).

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Turkish Delight (vodka, creme de cacao, rose syrup, honey, pistachios) & Sweet & Sour (cachaca, hibiscus jam, apricot brandy, egg white).

Potent alcoholic tea for two: hot apple cider with spiced rum, ginger wine, cinnamon & cloves.

There's also plain ol' coffee at the cafe, whipped up by a Seattle-born barrista who fills her Vibiemme Domobar Super espresso machine with fresh Illy coffee beans.

What about the food? All in good time, since we'll all be reading & hearing plenty about this venue in the months ahead.

Cafe Art @ The Warehouse Gallery & Cafe,

198, Jalan Tun H.S. Lee, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2022-0528

Malaysia's First Ever Blogger MasterChef

My first introduction to MasterChef was the cooking programme on BBC One which I enjoyed viewing while living in the UK. Everyday for a few years, I would tune in religiously to watch individuals battle it out in the kitchen for the title of "MasterChef". My favorite part of the show was the "The Final Test" whereby the contestants would design their own two-courses and cook them both for the judges in one hour. You get to see the creativity and ability of the contestants to cook. It is certainly inspiring to see ordinary people with so much talent succeed and finally be crowned as "MasterChef.

Agreat inspiration to people who love to cook.

I was excited to learn that Masterchef is finally coming to Malaysia. MasterChef Malaysia will be launched on the 22nd October 2011, here are some details on the show:

- Show title MasterChef Malaysia
- Program Details: MasterChef TX will be starting from 22nd October 2011, every Saturday Wednesday, 9.00pm. Master Class will be on every Friday, 9.00pm.
- Program channel Astro Ria (Channel 104)
- Official Site URL http://www.astro.com.my/MasterChef/
- Facebook Page Link- http://www.facebook.com/MasterChefMalaysia
- Twitter Link www.twitter.com/MasterChefMY
- Background Information on MasterChef MasterChef is a worldwide phenomenon. A cooking reality show, that although doesnt allow viewers to vote, has still broken viewership records in US and Australia. MasterChef is a success because not only is food something we are all very passionate about but the show only allows amateur cooks to compete. Malaysians who love cooking but never had a chance to really showcase their skills and be appreciated, now get the opportunity! Get ready for the MasterChef phenomenon to take over Malaysia on 22nd October 2011!

Inconjunct! ionwith the launch of MasterChef Malaysia, Nuffnang Malaysia is holding a contest to find Malaysia's First Ever Blogger MasterChef. This particular contest appealed to me since I love food and I love cooking!Food is my passion, and it gives me great joy to be able to put delicious tasting food on the table every night for my family. I'd like to think that I can cook well since the dinner table is filled with smiles each time I cook. I am well versed in both Western and Asian cuisines. My recipes have been featured twice on DineMalaysia, a comprehensive dining guide owned by the prominent Expat Group. I am very proud of this since one of the main reasons I cook and share my recipes is so that more families out there can enjoy good food every night.

I have many recipes on this blog but when I questioned my family as to what their favorite dish was (cooked by me), theyunanimouslyanswered "Roast Beef".

I cooked Roast Beef for Christmas 2010

Roast beef is something we enjoy from time to time, on a Sunday, and on special occasions like Christmas day. To enjoy a good roast beef, it is important to get a good roasting joint. You can easily get this in more upmarket supermarkets such as Cold Storage. Depending on how much you are willing to pay, you can get different cuts (and qualities) of roasting joints. The most enjoyable roast beef experience for us so far was when I used a striploin roll. Here'! s the re cipe for it:

Roast striploin with roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots andbroccoli

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

Beef roasting joint (approx. 1kg)

Olive oil

Freshly ground salt and pepper

1 small onion, halved

1. The beef should be removed from the refridgerator 1 hour before cooking to bring it to room temperature. Keep it wrapped.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C.

3. Rub the beef with the olive oil, salt and pepper all over.

4. Place the joint in a roasting tin on top of the onion halves. The onion will caramelise as the beef cooks and give a lovely flavour and colour to the gravy. (*Tip from Delia Online)

5. Place the roasting tin in the preheated oven. The recommended cooking time for medium rare beef is 5 minutes per 100g of meat. For medium doneness, add an extra 10 minutes per kilo and 20 minutes per kilo for well done.

6. While the beef is cooking, remove it at least twice and baste the meat with its own juices to keep everything moist and succulent.

7. Remove the beef from the oven, transfer to the carving board and cover with foil to allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Well-rested and ready to be carved

8. Any juices from the beef should be poured into the gravy, it makes all the difference to your gravy!

9.Carve the beef in 1/3 inch thick slices. Best served with roast potatoes, steamed vegetables and lots of gravy. Enjoy!

The moment of truth - is it medium rare as we like it?

Medium rare it was... hooray!

Fluffy and crisp roast potatoes (Recipe here)

Roast striploin with roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, broccoli and carrots

I hope I'll be celebrating with a bottle of Moet if I win this prestigous title! :)

Wish me luck! :)


For foodies / amateur chefs who are interested, you have until 3 October 2011 (11.59pm) to join this contest. More details can be found here.