Golden Elephant Bay Thai Restaurant金象湾 @ Kuchai Lama

It was Chunny’s birthday treat and the initial plan was to dine at a restaurant that we had been before …but then- it was the eve of Fathers’ Day and the place was fully booked and hence we decide to drive around and see what caught our fancy… the Golden Elephant Bay caught our attention ..well ,anytime is a good time for Thai food, sawadee kha..

As there was only the two of us, it was not easy to order, we have to have a balanced meal and make sure we do not over or under order – well, you get what I mean, we studied the menu..and studied ..and studied..and decided on a fish, a salad and something from the BBQ . We seek the help of the waiter to help us to make the final decision for what type of fish to have . Mr Waiter recommended the Thai Style lemon fish, ok, we will go with that.

The mango salad (RM12) was nice but  deadly.. …there were some hidden ‘spicy’ mines, i.e. bits of chili padi in the salad. Both of us had to screen the salad by way of sorting them out and making sure that the chili were removed and also had to differentiate the spring onions from the chili padi, but I guess some got away too and pretty soon our mouths start to burn and our noses started to water. I wished there were more roasted nuts and dried shrimps/sotong in the salad as that would enhance the taste further but all in all, this was enjoyable.

Thai Style Lemon steamed fish (RM38). I panicked when  I saw the dish and the amount of reddish chili in this..wooweee..anyway, luckily this was not as spicy at it looked. The fish was fresh and the balance of the taste between lemony-spicy-sweet-sour worked very well. This was good…this started another round of sniffing and runny nose.. (The pictures in this posting is the courtesy of Chunny’s iphone….khop khun marg marg)

Thai Style BBQ Squid ( RM18) – I was so looking forward to this and so great was my love for BBQ squid that I had even ignored the cholesterol level that this dish will add to my blood stream.. the bbq menu is only available after 6:30pm. Well..the verdict- this was a bit of a disappointment, there weren’t the expected smoky fragrant from the bbq , this was rather bland and we had to enhance it by dipping in the sauces that came with the dish..i guess that was the idea of having the sauces on the side..

Overall, an enjoyable meal. The above mentioned meal, plus 2 plates of rice and 2 glasses of water and service charged totaled RM76, which I guess was not too bad.

Location :

No. 2G, Jalan Kuchai Maju1,

Dynasty 3, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,

58200 KL

Tel : 79717139

Red Onion @ Bangsar

When I saw the makan voucher/ promo for  Red Onion  at Bangsar, the main issue I have was – oh..what about the parking ?  And a few weeks later when we wanted to redeem the voucher, the same question cropped up when we were pusing-pusing-ing around Bangsar looking for a parking space. Anywy, lucky that Bangsar had a large residence area, we managed to find a parking space  way way behind Jalan Telawi 5 of a Telawi somewhere and had to walk under the hot sun..the sacrifices we make for food huh ? err..well, at least I do not have to run around in a loin-cloth ( not an appetizing sight as well) with a spear or a club to clobber some mammoth or a wildebeest and after that having to start a fire to cook my meal..well,  a bit of a hot sun didn’t do anyone any harm..so, I shouldn’t grumble…

Red Onion specializes in Arabian and Pakistani cuisine. Our visit was on a Sunday and the lunch hour at Red Onion was quiet to say the least, apart from the two of us, there was only one other guest at the restaurant. The setting at Red Onion was nice and cozy.The menu

For drinks, we asked for plain water (as drinks were not part of the vouchers, us- cheapskate wanna save a bit lah) but was told that, Nope, they do not serve plain water and what they can offer is mineral water. A quick flick of the menu, this costs RM5 for a small bottle, so we decide to go for ice lemon tea ( RM5) instead and the waiter recommended us to try Tea with hot milk which according to him was better than teh  tarik. Ok, we will try that..

Tea with hot milk ( RM6)- the tea was light and smooth, but frankly I prefer my stronger and ‘heavier’ teh tarik with condense milk…or maybe I am too loyal to the mamak stalls..

The promotion for the vouchers came with a salad, 2 soups and two main course, we can’t chose the soup but were given a few options for the main course, we decided to go for the Shesh Tawok from the Arabic cuisine and  Red Onion Special Chicken from the Pakistani cuisine. Apart from Arab and Pakistani cuisine, Red Onion also serves Vegetarian, Chinese –  chicken Manchurian and Chicken Shashlick – I don’t know how Chinese are these, I guess Manchuria is in China, so that qualifies, as for Shashlick..me no idea one;  Western – steak, spaghetti or lasagna,  Rice dishes – fried rice, Buryani, mushroom rice, Muglai rice etc

Hot and sour soup (RM10) , this was peppery and not too sour- taste a bit like a creamier version of the Chinese style sweet and sour soup.

The green salad ( RM5) :  at the centre of the salad was a very much dried up and shriveled green chili which I guess might have seen better days. From a scale of 1 to 10, I will give a zero for the presentation of this salad, there are soooo many ways to make this dish prettier and more appetizing.

Shesh Tawok (RM24) was cubes of grilled  chicken and vegetables served with rice. I looked up the WWW, shesh means skewered and tawok is chicken and from wikipedia the common marinades are based upon yogurt or a tomato puree, though there are many variations. The chicken cubes were tender and the meat was fragrant. This was nice. The serving was rather generous. 

Red Onion Special Chicken (RM 22), we ordered some plain nan to go with this dish. Taste wise- I had to remind myself not to compare with our local curry, but for ease of reference that is what I am going to do, the ‘curry’ is much lighter i.e not as rich as our curry and this was also not spicy. Taste wise- not bad. The nan was nice and fluffy.

The staff were friendly, we had two of them came by our table to ask us about how we like the food . According to the Manager who came by for a chat at the end of our meal,  Red Onion started business about 6 months ago and lunch during the weekends are always slow because people like to sleep in after a late night and they do much better business during dinner time. When I commented that it was difficult to get a parking space, En. Khalid  said that the diners  could call them 15 minutes before their arrival and red Onion can reserve a parking spot for the patrons. Red Onion is a halal restaurant – En Khalid told us that a Pakistani restaurant would be halal. And we were also told that the chef was formerly working at JW Marriot.

Before we left the restaurant, En Khalid thrust 2 of their pamphlets ( what you see below) into my hands, from the pamphlets- Red Onion also does home delivery  and there are no delivery charges .

Location :

No. 4, Jalan Telawi,

Bangsar 59100,

Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 03-22016674

Bumbu Desa @ Mid Valley Megamall

I like Indonesian food, nasi padang, bakso , soto, gado gado errr…yes, I like Indonesian food and I can’t name them ..err..that is how much I like Indonesian food, seriously, I like Indonesian food. It was with glee that I saw the Groupon promotion for Bumbu Desa. Yehawww…buy buy buy.

We arrive at Bumbu Desa at Level 2, Mid Valley Magamall at lunch time and the place was rather full, and the thing is that being halal and Indonesian, this restaurant seemed to be able to cater for a wider range of crowd , I see Malays, Chinese, Indians, Indonesians and maybe a few dan lain lain , having their lunch at Bumbu Desa.

We showed the waiter our Groupon printout and were immediately handed a menu specially created for this occasion, we look see look see and finally decide to go for Set B because of the squid curry, and that we can exchange the Dendeng goreng ( something to do with beef) with a chicken curry.

The setting was distinctively Indonesian- with the Indonesian puppets adorning one of the walls, the waiters were clad in sarongs and headgear. I check the net for the meaning of ‘bumbu’ and wikipedia tells me that this mean- spices mixture or seasoning.

The first dish was  brought to our table, and then they seemed unstoppable, the dishes came – fast and furious in a continuos flow..so many of them..wow..

The rice came in a quaint steel pot

I had to get my hands on the Gado –gado first, remembering the good stuff I had during my Indonesian trips, did I tell you that I like Indonesian food ? From the menu , the ingredients in Gado-gado were said to include – steamed mixed vegetable plus eggs, potatoes, tofu, tempe and keropok ( crackers) served with peanut sauce , which is kinda like the satay sauce. The Bumbu Desa version of gado-gado was a bit disappointing, the sauce lacked richness and the fragrant peanut-ish flavour- as the sauce is the major ingredient that determine the tastiness of the dish..so…this was not to my liking lah.

Gulai cumi ( squid curry) – the squid was hard / overcooked, I think most of dishes came from a buffet-like selection at the counter- which maybe mean that the food were overly exposed or maybe cooked too long. The pieces of squid had some kind of stuffing in them , the texture of the stuffing was like chicken. The curry that the squid were swimming in  was watery and taste wise- average.

Chicken curry—I am not a fan of chicken breast,  so to see a piece of chicken breast  in the curry was something that did not particularly bring a smile to my face. Luckily the meat was not that tough but the curry taste rather similar to the sotong curry.

Ayam bakar – in the menu it was supposed to be ayam bakar, and what arrived at our table was well, a chicken that was probably bakar-ed ( grilled) although instead of being dry, the chicken piece ( OHH NO..more chicken breast !!) was coated with a tomato-ish paste kinda gravy. The gravy was not too bad- tangy and sweet-spicy-ish. But being served chicken breast- ( which by the way,  was tender and moist)  I had to discount this by 50% . ( anyway, if we had known- we should have requested for other parts of the chicken rather than leaving it to fate, hor ?)

Perkedel jagung ( corn fritters) and tahu goreng ( deep fried tofu), the menu described the perkedel as – a blend  sweet corn, egg and flour, deep fried to a golden crisp. The fritters had a nice sweetness of corn and it was crispy on the outside and a bit of a chew on the insides. deep fried tofu had a nice tough texture. This was nice.

Tumis kangkong ( water cress tumis-ed) , this was too spicy for me..ah ah…so spicy one..and also so salty one..

Gulai daun singkong – cassava leaves ( daun ubi kayu ?)  cooked in spicy yellow curry.  A bit salty and taste wise -nothing much else.

The above dishes were  supposed to be what was in Set B, but then we also had a soup delivered to our table- this must be sayur asem ( which was available in the other two sets) ? if this was saying asem which means salty vegetable, then the menu described it as a variety of vegetables steamed in water that was already ‘bumbu’-ed  and cooked traditionally . It was extraordinary salty !! Images of kidney failure flitted across my mind .

Overall, I would say this was a so-so meal. The servings were generous though and the staff were nice and friendly. Iced or plain water is on the house.

 Location :

 Lot S045, Level 2, Mid Valley Megamall,

Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel : +603-2282 2825

Website : http://www.bumbudesa.my/?page_id=521