Maju Garuda - Chow Kit

Woohooo... let's go padang again. We had Natrabu before and this time Yuri said let's go to an alternative. So, off to Kampung Baru we went.

Location : It's on the same road towards the Chow Kit Market if you come from Kg Baru.

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Yup. You help yourself to the dishes, so, no serving time required, apart for the drinks.

Decor/Ambience : Nice and clean, and lots of fans around, so, pretty cool even under the KL sun.

Food : Gorgeous. Just absolutely gorgeous. There were so many different types of gulai's, and fried chicken and meats and veggies and fresh selection of ulam's. All authentic Indonesian style I was assured. I had the Daging Dinding which was thin and crispy. There was kampung chicken either plain fried or with chilli. There's masak lemak gulai dishes that had various 'meats' in them like beef, tripe, chicken etc.

It was very very difficult to not spoon all the available dishes on our plates. They all looked and smelled soooo good. One of the specials is Ayam Pop which you need to order. It comes with this hot soya sauce dip which was superb.

Price : I was actually expecting cheaper, but each type of dish costs around RM4 to RM6. So, I had a plate with a bunch of stuff that came to RM20. The others ranged from RM8 to RM16 per head.

Return Trip ? : A big YES. A little pricey but well worth it.

Yong Tau Foo - Ampang

According to Yuri this place has been here since he was a boy... and is the original Ampang Yong Tau Fu.

Location : On MRR2 near Ampang side.

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Yes. From the Ampang Elevated Highway, take the next exit after Setiawangsa. It's about 50m after that on the left. The orders come pretty fast for either the fried or boiled goodies.

Decor/Ambience : Your typical wall-less zink-roofed restaurant by the roadside. It's big, and pretty clean. Plastic chairs and those round tables. Open kitchen style too so you can see all the action as it happens.

Food : The food was nice and fresh. The soup was not overly 'ajinomoto'ed. the bileds stuff was great and the fried stuff was, well, good too. I wasn't overly thrilled with the black dipping sauce, I guess because I was more accustomed to something sweeter. Apart from that, very good. We had some herbal drinks too which helped chase the food down.

Price : 70sen per piece, and the pieces were larger than the other yong tau foo's that I;ve had. So, pretty good. We came away with about RM10 per head.

Return Trip ? : Yup, but not before trying som eother places first.

Tupai Tupai - KL

This restaurant's been around for several years and the food has been consistently good. Most of the gang was in the office today (plus extras) so, made a quick call to dash over there for lunch. The roads were pretty good today too due to lots of people taking the week off.

Location : Near Dewan Bahasa, towards the Palace.

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Yeah, if the road's not too busy. Service depends on how many people's at the queue.

Decor/Ambience : Cool... literally. The restaurants motto is 'Suasana Rimba... di Kuala Lumpur'. And it works too. The restaurant has no walls and built from wood with very high ceilings. The fan and watered roof keeps the whole place very cool and breezy. You wouldn't think you're in KL. Interesting fact: all the beams used to construct the restaurant came from old TNB power poles. Talk about re-cycling !

Food : Oh man, where do I start.... you can order Chinese food if you like (which I have been told was darn respectable), but the main attraction is the spread of Malay dishes. They have all the gulais and masak lemaks and currys and asam pedases etc. There's also ikan bakar of various kinds, and daging bakar as well. And typical of a good Malay restaurant, you get lots of ulam and sambal and tempoyak and cencalok and even budu ! I had the pucuk paku masak cili with some daging dinding today and it was perfect.

Price : Depending on what you order, this should not set you back more than RM10 per head. Which is great value! Of course, if you load up several plates with dishes (and believe me, it's very tempting to do) it'll cost you a bit more.

Oh, and let me not forget their other speciality, the botok botok which is a bit like otak otak but bigger, green, and has half a small fish in it.

Return Trip ? : Definitely. There's such a wide variety that you won't be eating anything twice even after 10 trips.

...happy squirrels..

Kafe Biryani Gam Putrajaya

Apologies to the rest of the gang, especially Rizal, but I had a meeting in Bangi near UNITEN. Right after, it was a 10 minute drive to the Biryani GAM shop and it was a chance I just couldn't pass.

Location : It's near UNITEN in Bangi. You can see it off the highway, but need to go to the UNITEN entrance to get to it.

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Errr... nope. This requires a mini road trip. It takes about 30 minutes from KLCC, on Seremban highway then exit Kajang and head towards Putrajaya.

Service depends on how many people are in the queue. Like a self service cafe. You then choose the type of biryani you want from the large cooking pots.

Decor/Ambience : Like a big stall with zink roof and functional tables and chairs. People are here for the GAM and not so much decor. Would still come if it was decorated like a rubbish tip.

Food : Ahhhhh... what's a Biryani GAM you may ask. Well.. it's a recipe from Johor and it starts life in one big cooking pot :

The rice is cooked in here wrapped in some cloth.. why ?

..because if you move it aside, underneath the rice is where the meat is cooked. So, it's all in one pot and the gorgeous juices from the meats are absorbed in the rice.

This is the pot for the Chicken Biryani GAM, with the sack of rice above it removed... yum !

..and here is the finished product, served with some crackers and achar. You can also buy some optional achar buah which is great too.

The full menu of biryani that they have : Biryani GAM Herba Kambing, Biryani GAM Herba Ayam, Biryani GAM Herba Lembu, Biryani GAM Herba Rusa, Biryani GAM Herba Kambing Kampung, Ayam Kerutup, Ayam Merah, Daging Opor, Kambing Kasturi & Kambing Kuzi. The speciality of the house is the Biryani GAM Herba Kambing. A must try.

Price : This place ain't cheap. About RM20 per head with drinks. About RM10 for additional meat dish.

Return Trip ? : Oh yeah.... but it's not something you can have every week.

Actually, here's the FINISHED product.. ha ha ha :-)

Nandos - everywhere

OK, not very creative for lunch today and ended up at Nandos. No need for introductions on this one !

Location : We went to the branch in KLCC, but you get these all over the place

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Obviously yes if you get to your nearest one. The orders were pretty fast too, came in about 15mins.

Decor/Ambience : If you don't know, where have you been dude ?

Food : We ordered the whole spread this time :

In pita bread...

..in a burger..

..salad..

..quarter chicken..

..and if you're hungry, the half chicken !

Price : about RM20 with a drink.

Return Trip ? : I guess... but not so soon.

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A short walk away from KLCC you'll find Wisma Central. Within it there are plenty of restaurants (which are more stall like!) with a great variety of types. One of our regulars is the Ikan Bakar Portugis..

Location : Ikan Bakar Portugis @ Wisma Central

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Walking distance, and the food is served within 15 minutes.

Decor/Ambience : A little stuffy at times, and cramped... but the whole eating floor is like that. A good working crowd from the nearby offices, so, you will be rubbing shoulders with Ralph Lauren work shirts and Coach handbags. Smoking allowed too.

Food : You have a selection of Pari, Sotong or Fish. All grilled in tin foil over the hot plate with their special sambal. The sambal's chilliness varies.. sometimes hotter than usual.. but either way, I love it. Yuri had the Terriyaki chicken today and is passable. Served with sambal too, of course

Price : under RM10 per head with dirnks !

Return Trip ? : All the time.

Kijai:

The sambal is excellent... and patrons can actually have a combo serving... my fav is the sotong + ikan pari.. good food, cheap and nice place to have a quick lunch... plus you can order from other stalls as well!!

OK, only half the gang was around for this impromptu lunch trip to RSGC. It's a members only club but you can come in as a guest. Lunch was at the Terrace and it was the usual club fare.

Location : Royal Selangor Golf Club, off Jalan Tun Razak

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Rather easily. Location is in town, and the order came pretty fast... if you catch the waiters.

Decor/Ambience : It's a golf course club house, of a very old club. So, it has that old feel to it, and a cool view of the course. Seats outside on the terrace or inside the aircond section.

Food : The Ngai Lam Mee (spelling?) or beef brisket noodle was superb. The soup is very peppery and tasty. The mee mamak looked pretty good but I didn't try any. Similarly, the Cantonee style Kueh Teow was a mean little number too. What's famous here too is the steam chicken rice, but we didn't have that

Price : under RM15 per head with a double sugar cane !

Return Trip ? : Of course... with the rest of the gang too.

Natrabu - Kampung Baru

Birth of the makan SIG, special Interest group... or as Dennis would like to call it the Lunch CoP (Community of Practice). I'd actually term it as CoG - Community of Gluttony !Anyway, the five founding members Rizal, Khairul, Yuri, Dennis and Me have decided to formalise our lunch time missions. Starting with Natrabu.

Location : Kampung Baru ( I guess Yuri can give the GPS coordinates here !)

Can make it within an hour ? (travel + service) : Yes, it's rather at the heart of town and the food came pretty fast.

Decor/Ambience : Nice and clean. Not very 'Javanese', but they have a pelamin there for some reason... maybe the food will move you to get married on the spot.

Food : We had two types of chicken, a gulai and fried, ikan asam pedas, Daging dinding, the green sambal, some veggie and dessert was errr, cant remember, is like ABC. Well, the daging dinding was great. Thinly sliced and crispy. The fried chicken was nice with the sambal. The fish was average. Dessert was like ABC on sterroids... very good.

Price : about RM25 per head

Return Trip ? : Yes