marcky.my [That Thing I Do]

It was on a Sunday evening of no particular occasion, when we casually yet purposefully ventured to Favola, armed with every intention of savouring an evening of indulgence. I had dressed well enough to live up to expectations of my lady and the restaurant, but not so well that I would terribly mind if any pasta decided to find its way onto my shirt.

I hadn’t heard much about the restaurant, located at Le Meridien KL, but the little I heard was enough to nurture a desire that eventually led us here. After all, Italian cuisine had a special place in my heart, and frequently manages to find a special place in my belly.

Best bread I've ever tasted

I’ve always thought of bread served before a meal as the means of to placate the wrath of the hungry man; though the bread at Favola served a need beyond mere placation of hunger, though perhaps inadvertently.

Seared jumbo sea scallop with sautéed white mushrooms trifolati and truffle (RM60++)

Our appetizer of jumbo scallops served on a bed of white mushrooms trifolati and black truffles outdid itself despite my high expectations. Fresh and seared to perfection, with plenty of its own natural flavours alongside the intensely pleasurable flavours of mushrooms left us gracing it with our compliments and lavishing it with our highest praises.

Braised beef and potato ravioli, smoked black truffle butter sauce (RM50++)

The ravioli at Favola is a testament that big things do indeed come in small packages. A mere five pieces sad wading almost proudly in a small pool of smoked black truffle butter sauce in a (startlingly ugly) red dish, topped with freshly-shaved parmesan; it was almost as if the ravioli was daring us to find fault with its modest portion size. Biting into one of the slightly-larger-than-a-tablespoon-sized ravioli revealed a flavour so intense I could only describe it as a tongue-gasm. My lady was full before she could finish her fourth piece, and I very happily helped her lap up the leftovers. She attributes her fullness to the intense flavour, though I’m sure that the bread had played an equal role to that end.

Veal ossobuco (RM100++)

“Favola” in Italian roughly means “story”; and I usually like to end my stories with something clever, climatic, or profound. This time, I’ll just end my story, my Favola, with a tip, though anti-climatic: don’t order the veal.

It’s been a good four years, if memory serves, since I came back from India after a 5-month project that I had to undertake at my job. Strangely, of all the wonderful food pleasures that I had experienced there, it was the pub grub that I hold fondly in memory.

Back then, it was unheard of to actually go to a pub with the primary intention of having a good meal; though now such a concept is more familiar, with the advent of the many great watering holes that serve up great food. However, it just wasn’t the same for me. Pork burgers and ribs are wonderful, but you can’t really beat that feeling of well-being from enjoying homely comfort food with a cold beer.

Bintulu belacan fried rice

Comfort food at its best form – fried rice, topped with an egg. Unlike regular fried rice, the fried rice at Beer Belly (located at The Strand, Kota Damansara) is cooked with a belacan from Bintulu – it packs more kick with its stronger flavour. The contrasting sensations between a cold pint of Tetley’s and the spicy-hot belacan fried rice reminds me of a hot shower on a stormy day.

Birmingham Chicken Balti

One unique thing about Beer Belly is that the menu is an evolution of the chef’s (who happens to be the mother of the restaurateur) travel adventures. The chicken Balti, said to be an evolution of Pakistani cuisine in Birmingham, is reminiscent of both Indian and Chinese cooking styles (though more Indian than Chinese).

Beef stroganoff

Beef stroganoff, which is of Russian origin, strangely (and really, I’m not making this up) tasted similar to the murgh makhanwala (butter chicken) that I used to enjoy (too) regularly when I was in India. Tender, aromatic, and full of chunkiness in every serving. Served with butter rice, it’s almost as if my whole experience at Beer Belly was orchestrated to be an echo of my favourite dishes in India.

Comfort food to me is an unpretentious menu that is all about familiarity without frills… and plenty of beer.

It was a quiet weekday mid-afternoon at Sri Hartamas. We had gone a little out of our way to seek out a cosy little cafe. Urban Spoon , it was named; almost cliche, I thought to myself. The neon blue signage did not indicate that it was a cafe that I would normally frequent. However, the moment we stepped in, we took pleasure in the slightly rustic yet contemporary setting. It was to be an afternoon of leisurely dining.

As it would transpire, it wasn’t to be the only time during this visit that initial indications fool me.

Hunger takes hold of me, and I agree to an order of carrot and orange soup – a bewildering combination to imagine. That has always been what I thought of fusion cuisine anyway – strange. The idea of merging two completely different flavours didn’t seem to sit right with me. That is, until I had a taste of what Urban Spoon had to offer. Deconstructing the whole idea of the concept with my own food insights, I would think that it started of as a basic carrot soup. Characterless. Uninspiring. Boring. Breaking convention, onions were added for sweetness and texture, and balanced out with orange for an unexpected twist of sweet-sourness. Bordering between sweet and savoury, in came fresh, chunky shrimp to give the soup its identity without robbing it of its personality.

That, I’d like to think, is the whole ideology behind the fusion cuisine at Urban Spoon. It’s not about taking two heterogeneously-evolved dishes and simply merging them. It’s about taking base ingredients without limiting to the “usual” ingredients, and evolving the dish as a whole.

Magic. I could hardly notice any strange (I would imagine) orange flavour in my savoury soup.

My love for deep-fried battered food has never run very deep; the perfect stage for Urban Spoon’s stuffed jalepenos to take me by surprise. I had imagined that they would be overly oily and taste mostly like batter, but it was the complete opposite. The batter served its purpose – to keep the jalapeno’s flavours locked in; and there certainly is a lot of flavour to lock in. So much sweetness locked within its tender green shell, masking the creeping spicy burn that eventually filled the back of my throat. It’s the kind of spicy that packs a punch and gives you a kick, without robbing you of the ability to feel your tongue. My lovely companion did not seem to enjoy it as much as I did (she’s never been a fan of stuffed chillies of any sort), and I didn’t make much effort to pretend to be disappointed. After all, more for me.

Even their mojitos (my favourite cocktail) couldn’t escape a little reinvention. I noticed strong notes of ginger in my mojito; very pleasantly refreshing. Extra combo points for having it right after a spicy appetizer!

Fish is hardly my first choice of mains when I have the option of beef or lamb; but this time I decided to just give in to the faith that I have for Urban Spoon’s chef, Tawfeeq Seow, whose 18 years of experience (including being an executive chef at the prestigious JW Marriot hotel in KL) clearly makes a testament for itself. While the supremely fresh and immaculately cooked cod is an important base, and the vegetables and trimmings are also very important to the overall impact of the dish, I would have to say that if a single element defines the entire dish, it would have to be the sauce. What initially seemed like balsamic vinegar reduction (yummy!) was in fact far beyond. Hints of cinnamon and spice, among other more subtle notes (super yummy!) prevailed alongside the balsamic base. I would perhaps say this has been the best fish dish I had ever eaten in my life, and I wouldn’t hesitate in ordering it again during my next visit.

I guess it goes to show, that sometimes, you can’t let your first impressions lead your decisions. We have to look beyond the cliche and the quirks. The menu at Urban Spoon goes beyond fusion. I would describe it as “freedom”.

Valentine’s Day has never really been a day of incident, meaning, or memory to me. Perhaps one might attribute my apathy of the lovers’ day to my coinciding singledom. This year I would dispel such assumptions as I remain indifferent on the celebration of Valentine’s Day. But that’s not to say I won’t necessarily indulge in at least a Valentine’s Day meal. I’ve never been one to need a very solid excuse to validate my desire to indulge in fancy meals. I’ve also not been known to take the calendar too literally – I had my “celebration dinner” a little earlier this year, at Speakeasy (located at the Ming Annexe, Jalan Ampang, just a block away from Masjid Jamek LRT station). If there’s one element needed to make any celebration worth speaking of, it’s that one factor that impresses, which some call the wow-factor.

Starting a meal with a fresh oyster topped with luxurious Moluga Caviar and fennel pickled in liquorice-flavoured Pernod definitely qualifies as “wow” in my books. Accompanying that appetizer with a rock oyster drowned in basil-infused Bloody Mary takes it from “wow” to “very wow”. Though I’m not a fan of oysters myself, I couldn’t help but notice that it the appetizer was designed to impress, with premium ingredients but without going over the top in fanciness. Oyster is said to be an aphrodisiac, so that would probably lead to higher chance to impressing even towards the end of the night (or start of the morning)!

Following up the oysters with a soup course really unlocked my appetite. The double-boiled chicken consomme was rendered interestingly, served with prawn and scallop quenelle, enoki mushroom, and tempura baby asparagus. While the accompaniments to the consomme itself were important parts of the package, they didn’t distract me from the appreciation I had for the consomme. Its unassuming outlook belies the fact that the preparation and serving of consomme is beyond simply boiling some ingredients in a pot and then scooping it into a bowl. The fact that consomme cools very quickly demands a little extra thought when serving, and the fact that it’s virtually fat-free means more preparation work. As I (rather quickly) sipped up my consomme, its rich flavours and mouth-feel left me wishing I had dibs on the whole pot. It’s fat-free. Don’t judge me.

I normally don’t take very well to large chunks of uncooked meat, but the next course of tea-smoked salmon sat very well with me. The salmon itself was fresh, but unlike most smoked salmon that I’ve tried, this one actually had a distinct smokey tea flavour. Good enough on its own; but accompanied with salmon roe, Alaskan crab creme fraiche , petit sprouts, and purple potatoes, the contrasting textures of flavours left me feeling like my mouth just had sex. Seriously.

The purposefully leisurely-paced evening peaked with the serving of the main dish of red wine braised ribeye serve on truffle-scented mash and topped with seared foie gras, grenadine onion marmalade, dressed in merlot glace. Translation: tender, rich yummy beefy goodness; fluffy aromatic carby deliciousness; melt-in-your-mouth sweet fatty intensity; and sweet, sweet juices everywhere. While I’m slightly averse towards foie gras (and all renditions of liver), the foie gras completed the ribeye beautifully. No, perfectly . The salty, dense flavours and coarse and firm texture of the ribeye and the sweet, silken flavour of the foie gras are like a yin-yang of perfectly balanced flavours. Honestly, if served foie gras on its own, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it; but this combination completely blew me. Some thing are just perfect together, I guess… which reflects aptly on the theme of Valentine’s Day after all.

And then there’s dessert; but I hardly had the space or the give-a-hoot for it after being blown away dish after dish (except the oysters, because I’m not big on raw shellfish).

While I had my Valentine’s celebration a little early, only time will tell if I will return to pay for a second round. At RM150++ including a cocktail, the almost sexual food coupled with the cosy ambience makes for a Valentine’s experience not soon to be forgotten.

Veni, vidi, Valentine. I came, I saw, I fell in love.