Olive @ Sooka Sentral, Brickfields

It was a wet wet day, Chunny picked me up and we headed to Brickfields. Traffic was heavy, we were running a bit late…but the traffic refused to budge…eventually, we got to Sentral, pusing-pusing-ed the Sentral Station and found the car park at Sooka. We much have entered from the wrong end, as we looked high and low and couldn’t find the signboard for Olive ..eventually..we got to Olive..it wasn’t that hard to find, we just hadn’t been looking at the right places.

We were shown to our reserved table, with Chunny big name on a placard. This Groupon deal was for a 3 course meal, and the meal include :

Drinks weren’t include in the deal, so we scanned the drinks menu…Olive serves fresh juices with prices ranging from RM 6 – 8; Healthy mixed juices including Melon Dialogue : watermelon, holey dew and mint ( RM10) , Citrus green : apple, cucumber, celery and ginger ( RM12) , apple+lemon+wheatgrass (RM12); Calamansi Freeze ( RM12); Smoothies (RM14), Organic tea (RM7) plus a variety of coffee, teas and soft drinks. Both of us decide to go for Hot lemon tea (RM6)

For starters, we forfeited the soup to stay green and ordered 2 portions of salad – Italian balsamic toss. Ah…we liked the balsamic toss, the dressing was light and fresh..

For the main course, Chunny ordered the Braised beef and I decided to go for the Herb and almond-crusted barramundi.

Braised Beef : The serving was a generous portion, the beef was wonderfully tender and the marinate had penetrated to the core of the big chunk of beef. The gravy was tasty. This was oh-la-la..

Herb and almond-crusted barramundi : The skin of the barramundi was crispy and made a krukk-krukk sound when eaten with the crunchy almond flakes. The fish was sweet and ah..overall, a good blend of flavour. Hmmmm..i loved the potato croquette too ..and not just taste but what a pretty dish to behold…i likeyyyy. Oh..i did a search on the net…barrmundi = siakap !

For dessert , we chose to have the Earl Grey creme brule and apple banana crumble.

The creme brule was surprisingly not too sweet, I am not sure where the Earl Grey came into the picture as I don’t think I tasted any Earl or Grey. This wonderful dessert came with blueberries which gave a burst of flavour when eaten with the smooth brule.Apple banana crumble –not overly sweet and not overly spiced with cinnamon. This was not too bad too..

Overall, an enjoyable meal and the staff were friendly , the place was cozy and comfortable . We hope that Groupon will repeat the deal soon as we would really like to come back to olive again.. Pretty please ?

Thank you Chunny for the yummyummm treat.

The prices at Olive are  rather reasonable, Australian ribeye steak : RM36, Char Grilled lamb chops (RM28), Pan seared salmon salsa ( RM30); Chicken parmigiana ( RM 22), Basil Chicken fettuccine ( RM20) etc

NB: Olive Sentral does not serve pork, but offers alcohol on its menu.

 Location :

Unit G-4, Sooka Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5
Kuala Lumpur 50470

Tel : -2785 1988

Legend’s Claypot Briyani House @ Brickfields

Being a weekend, the drive to Brickfields was a breeze.. we parked beside SMK Vivekananda ..yes.. it was a yellow line zone but since my makan kaki said that she will bear the costs for any summonses- should they find their way to my car’s windscreen… I was worry free..

My first impression of Legend was a bright and clean environment. We presented our Groupon voucher and was shown to our seat and presented with a menu. You can view the online menu by clicking here . Legend offers banana leaf rice, tosai and ala cart dishes as well.

 We were later presented with a Groupon prefixed menu. We decided to try the claypot seafood and the claypot fish. For drinks I opted for ginger tea while M ordered lime juice.

 This was the first time I had ginger tea- and I liked it, the aroma and the kick from the ginger was very refreshing and yet gave my tummy a warm and fuzzy feeling.

 While waiting for our claypots, i.e. nothing to do- we started to notice our surroundings. A table next to us was occupied by an Indian couple with a chubby ( and very mischievous looking ) boy –he was an energetic little fella, running and weaving his way through the tables and once even attempted to run with his eyes closed, his dad was chasing after him and feeding his pieces of tosai.   He looked about 7 or 8, I made funny faces at him whenever he passed our table. My efforts to be noticed by this little fella was rewarded when he stopped by our table, then patted my hand and pointed to the steel cup that he was holding and uttered ‘ this is very nice’ and continued with his running

While attempting to bond with that little fella, our claypots arrived.…

An hardboil egg perched daintily on the long grains of briyani rice. the set came with a pampadam, onion salad and a bowl of gravy. The portion is rather large for one and maybe not enough to be shared by two. 

 

One has to dig into the claypot  and turn the world upside down to revealed the goodies buried under the mass of fragrant and richly coloured rice

 Insulated by the claypot, it really took a long time for the rice to be cooled ..i was puffing away to reduce the temperature of each spoonful- which was a bit of a chore. I find the meat of the fish was rather dry and hard. The rice was richly flavoured and  after a while I think my tastebuds got lazy and the taste became rather one dimensional.

 From the company website, Legend has four  branches, two in Brickfields, and one each in PJ and Serdang.

Website : http://www.legendsclaypotbriyani.com/

Business hours 7am – 11pm daily

 Location :

No 50, Ground Floor,
Jalan Vivekanada,
Brickfields.

Wesak 28 MAY 2010

Taking a break from Vientiane stories for this posting !

 Wesak is a sacred day for Buddhists, an occasion to commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and passing away of the Buddha more than twenty-five centuries ago. For 2010 Wesak will be celebrated on 28 May ( Friday). 

 

 I was at the Buddhist Maha Vihara temple @ Brickfields last night and a festive feeling filled the air. There were a lot going ons at the temple, volunteers were seen arranging tables/counters, groups of people and monks holding small discussions,  not to mention the usual crowd of visitors.

Along Jalan Berhala ( road to the temple) , stalls were been set up, the one and only stall already with the wares ready was….tan tan taraaa….the muruku stall ! no joke, I saw big bags of various types of murukus – the curly whirly ones, the straight ones, the thin ones, fat ones etc etc ( they have proper names for these different variety, so pardon my ignorance lah, I only know them by their shapes !)

 

I saw monks on cranes, putting up the buntings along the road leading to the Vihara

 

This year, I think the celebration will be even grander  because Mr and Mrs PM will be visiting the temple on Wesak day ! And  Gordan Ramsay ( he of Hell Kitchen’s fame – may he be free from samsara..hehe) will be cooking at the Vihara !

 Devotees can donate RM20 to lit an oil lamp. I helped out for a while at the corner where the volunteers were preparing the oil lamps . The preparation involve : 

 

1. get the glasses ready and arrange them

2. fill half of the glass with water

3. fill the remaining with oil

4. place  the floating thingy into the filled glass

5. place a wick on  the floating thingy

 The  activity schedule for the Buddhist Maha Vihara for Wesak day :

 

Please click here to the official website of Buddhist Maha Vihara.

Nalanda Buddhist Society ( Serdang) also has a series of activities for Wesak, click here for the program.

Happy Wesak. May you be well and happy !