GOA by Sapna Anand

Tales of Kerala

September 18, 2019

Restaurateur, cookbook author, TV star and lecturer… Most people would collapse under the weight of so many hats but Sapna Anand, 46, looks like she just stepped out from between the pages of a fashion magazine. She is speaking at a Press Conference at Goa by Sapna Anand (previously Goa by Hubba); the restaurant is located on a wide strip of balcony above Tujo at The Ascott Kuala Lumpur and the laughter floating up is almost infectious. As she talks about her new menu, Sapna sends tendrils of anticipation sneaking into the seated audience and we couldn’t wait to taste it. 

We start with a vegetarian dish, 3 Bean Salad With Puffed Rice (RM22). This is a wholesome salad which combines regular chickpea, brown chickpea and green lentils with puffed rice and a sprinkle of pomegranate, sliced turnip, lettuce, tomato and rocket leaves. The dressing is tamarind green chutney. Sapna says this is similar to the Tamil Sundal or Northern Indian Chana, street food which comprises a variety of stirfried beans sold in a newspaper cone.

Three Bean Salad With Puffed Rice, inspired by Indian street food

It’s not just her childhood that inspires Sapna. Borrowing a trick from China, she makes slow-cooked spicy mutton and sandwiches this in Chinese steamed buns with fried shallots and coriander for Shredded Mutton Mantao (RM25). Easy to eat and satisfying.

Shredded Mutton in mantao

One can have happy tummies with just snacks, with items such as fried ladyfinger, pakora and skewers. Goan Masala Chicken (RM18) is deepfried chicken strips marinated in a Goan red spice paste and served with a dip of Goan mayonnaise. Sapna says: “Recheado or Goan red spice paste is the quintessential base for seafood or meat sauces, made by blending chillies with 8 spices and is the staple ingredient for most dishes in Goa. It is used to cook meat or seafood together with Goan coconut vinegar.

Chicken Cutlet

Chicken Cutlet (RM18) is minced chicken marinated in a special blend of spices, rolled and coated with panko, a dish inspired by the Portuguese dish, Fofos de Bacalhau or fried cod cakes, but the fish is substituted with chicken instead.

Goan Chilli Prawn in minced garlic butter

But don’t stop there. The main courses await. I couldn’t get enough of Goan Chilli Prawn (RM35), scented with minced garlic butter and coriander leaves. Would have liked it with more chilli flakes but it really is yummilicious as it is. Order this with plenty of garlic bread or naan to mop up the gravy. Sapna says this is a Goan beach shack specialty, a snack she and her college friends binged on at the beach.

Fillet of seabass in a gorgeous saffron sauce

If you prefer fish, go for Fish in Saffron Sauce (RM45) is a thick fillet of seabass, grilled. Served with onion rings and bokchoy with generous amounts of golden saffron sauce. The fish is sweet and cooked to flake just right. The delicate flavour is a perfect foil for the mild, scented and creamy saffron sauce.

Malabar  Mutton Curry with plantain fritters

Malabar Mutton Curry (RM28) is just as luscious, with chunks of mutton and spices slow cooked to tenderness. Served with plantain fritters that adds a sweet, fruity edge to the dish. 

Keema with Baked Egg served with toasted baguette

Keema with Baked Egg (RM28) is a Parsi-style slow cooked lamb in spices and baked with runny egg on top. Meanwhile My Best Friend gives the thumbs-up to tender Goan Beef Vindalho (RM28), a Goan favourite made with brisket.

Vegetarian Paneer Pea Cutlet

Vegetarians won’t go home hungry at Goa. Vegetarian Paneer Pea Cutlet (RM18) is balls of paneer and mashed pea coated with crumbs and deepfried to a golden crisp. Inspired by Kolkata street food and served with hung yoghurt spiced dip. Hung yoghurt is yoghurt that has been strained to remove the water.

Other vegetarian choices include Eggplant Curry (RM22), a mild coconut spiced curry with tamarind brined caramelised baby eggplant, Paneer Tikka (RM22) and Mushroom Xacuti (RM22)

The mains are perfect with ghee rice, cranberry rice or a variety of naan (from RM6). For dessert, it’s house-made ice cream (RM16).

phoenixbee@gmail.com

GOA by Sapna Anand (pork-free)

The Ascott Kuala Lumpur

9 Jalan Pinang, KL

Telephone

+6012-210 3055

Opening Hours

Daily, 5pm to 1am

Website

https://goakl.com.my/

THE STICKY WICKET

Time for some wicket cocktails

August 23, 2019

Friday evening. In view of the coming weekend, My Best Friend and I share similar thoughts… a wicket... I mean wicked… cocktail seems to be in order.

Erhhmm…pardon the pun but after all, we’re in The Sticky Wicket where mixologist S. Roy is shaking up a roller-coaster of cocktails for us.

Naturally, the cocktails are naturally named after professional cricketers from throughout the ages, such as K.S. Ranji, Mark Ramprakash and Liton Das to Albert Edwin, Chris Gayle and Gilbert Aessop.

I love The Record Breaker (RM48), named for George Griffin. It’s a combination of Beefeater, elderflower, honey infused beer, pineapple juice and fresh grapes. So fruity and delicious.

From left, Whiskey Sour, Dickie Bird, Record Breaker, The Light Bowler and Somerset

I particularly enjoy Whiskey Sour which shows the right attitude in the well-balanced mix of whiskey, sugar and lemon, with just the slightest tinge of bitterness.

If you’re a cricket player or cricket fan, The Sticky Wicket is the place to go. If you’re not, don’t worry. It’s still loads of fun, especially if it’s cricket season.

Walk in and you’ll see cricket paraphernalia lining the walls while sports programmes play continuously on the many large television screens. If you want more privacy, head upstairs.

The comfy lounge upstairs

Cricket originated in south-east England in the 16^th Century but over the years, its popularity spread to the British colonies all over the world, especially India and South-East Asia.

Ouch! The tummy’s growling in protest. It’s been hours since lunch, so we ask for a menu. We see a list of dishes from countries where cricket is popular – Britain, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and Canada. Yes, these include Cullen Skink, a Scottish smoked seafood soup, Fish & Chips, Toad In The Hole, Springbrock Boerewers, Crab Kottu and Eton Mess.

Actually, the menus for food and drinks are great conversation pieces. I am tickled by some of the names here such as Howzat Poriyal, Dolly Chick and Fried Leg Stump.

Delicious chicken poutine

We start with Poutine (RM26, chicken/beef). For this delicious Canadian specialty, fat fries are generously doused in a gravy cooked with pulled beef brisket or shredded chicken and topped with cheese. The Sticky Wicket presentation adds a sunny-side egg on top. In between chomps, MBF and I agree that the chicken poutine is better balanced in flavours.

Calamari with  house-made Salted Egg Yolk dip

Gin & Tonic with a slice of grapefruit

Then we have Salted Egg Yolk With Calamari (RM35). The basket of thick rings of deepfried calamari are crisp on the batter coating and juicy inside. The house-made salted egg yolk sauce is delicious, with that slight gritty texture that comes from real egg yolk. Leaning a little on the more salty side, it’s perfect with beer or, in my case, a gin tonic (when in a pub for cricketers, drink what cricketers drink).

Also great with drinks is Crab Waugh (RM20), with chunks of soft shell crab battered and deepfried to a crisp and tossed in salt and pepper. And it’s a “straight run” with the addition of curry leaves and chopped chilli padi.

Hot and spicy Soft shell Crab Waugh is perfect with drinks

The Sticky Wicket Beef Rib Burger

For mains, we start with The Sticky Wicket Beef Rib Burger (RM42). I don’t take beef but MBF is delighted to find, instead of the regular beef patty, a wow factor in the shape of braised beef short rib in between the burger bun, along with caramelised onions, rocket leaves and a mac’n’cheese waffle. Comes with thick fries.

Fried Leg Stump

Fried Leg Stump (RM32) – somehow I keep seeing images of Long John Silver, the pirate – turns out to be a deboned chicken leg, panfried to golden brown and served on a bed of mashed potato/mushy peas, with mushroom sauce, salad greens as well as buttered cauliflower and carrot sticks. It has a strong flavour of rosemary, so beware if you’re not too fond of this.

Quintessentially British Fish & Chips

For Fish & Chips, a British staple, we have a choice of cod (RM60) or pollock (RM36). We pick cod; there are 2 slabs of white fish fillet with a basket of chips. The beer batter coating is crisp, preserving well the sweetness and moisture of the delicate fish. On the side are two dips of mayonnaise and mushy peas.

Springbok Boerewers 

Springbok Boerewers (RM69) is not meant for the faint of heart. A full 500g of pure chunky meat (in this case, beef) sausage comes coiled and sizzling in a cast iron pan, drowned in a spicy curry sauce, with waves of thick cream on top.

Crispy Lamb Shank

The Crispy Lamb Shank (RM58) is unusual. While lamb shank is usually soft braised, The Sticky Wicket offers a new perspective by a quick dunking in hot oil to make the outside crispy. The shank is then served on herb-infused mash and what the chef calls “naughty bean sauce” which actually has baked beans.

The hearty Full English is also available for Weekend Breakfasts

After much discussion, we pick The Full English (RM38) for the final hattrick. Also available for Weekend Breakfasts, this is a whole wooden bat topped with 2 sausages, sautéed mushrooms, panfried tomato, buttered and panfried bread, beef bacon, baked beans and two sunny-side eggs. There’s enough chow here to satisfy any growling tummy.

Sticky Date Pudding with melted toffee and cream

After all this food, we are hesitant about dessert. But The Sweet Taste Of Victory beckons, so we have Sticky Date Pudding (RM22) and Sweet Appam (RM8) to share. The pudding is light, moist and springy in texture. Laced with sticky melted toffee, it’s perfect when served with thick cream.

Sri Lankan sweet appam also comes with an ice cream option

The Sri Lankan appam is a circle of crispness surrounding a soft centre sprinkled with coconut milk and gula Melaka. If preferred, customers can have it with a scoop of chocolate ice cream though I’d recommend having it the original way as the chocolate ice cream confuses the flavours somewhat.

Happy mixologist S.  Roy

Tummy appeased, we retreat downstairs to make S. Roy mix up more cocktails at the bar. His new creation, The Light Bowler, has raspberry syrup with extract of fresh rosemary, gin, sugar, lemon and egg white, which he finishes off with dabs of angostura bitter and a flower on top.

Dickie Bird (RM39), named after Harold Bird, is a crisp mix of Monkey 47 sloe gin with Campari, Yorkshire Tea syrup and fresh apple and lemon juice.

The jury (or is it umpire?) is still out on Somerset (RM29). MBF loves it, saying it smacks of apple pie. But this is where I beg to differ, not having a love for apples or cinnamon and Somerset has an overindulgent, lingering aroma of the bark spice. The drink combines fresh green apple juice with organic apple cider vinegar and cinnamon syrup.

Love gin? Sticky Wicket stocks over 25 types of gin and its house pour is Beefeater which is RM9.80 during the Happy Hour which is noon to 7pm daily and all day Sunday. I can see I’ll be quite happy here.

There are also 2 Gin Buffets. Choose from brands such as Beefeater, Ungava, Opihr, The London, Boodles, Tanqueray, Roku Gin and West Winds at 3 glasses for RM60++ or 5 glasses for RM95++.

The premium Gin Buffet comprises Rutte, St George Spirits, Bitter Truth, Hendrick’s, The Botanist, Gin Mare, Poli 1898 and Citadelle at 3 glasses for RM75++ or 5 glasses for RM120++.

 

THE STICKY WICKET (pork-free)

34 Jalan Medan Setia 2

Plaza Damansara, Damansara Heights

Kuala Lumpur

Telephone

+603-2011 5378

Website 

www.stickywicket.pub

Opening Hours

Monday to Thursday: Noon to 2am

Friday: Noon to 3am

Saturday: 9am to 2am

Sunday: 9am to 1am

Happy Hours: Noon to 7pm daily and all day Sunday

Promotion

Sticky Wicket also serves set lunch menus that include soup and a glass of iced lemon tea or lime juice. Items include nasi lemak, nasi goreng, pulled beef burger, chicken salad, fried leg stump, fish and chips, beef bacon linguine carbonara, chicken chop linguine in basil-pesto sauce, chicken casserole and a spicy vegetarian fried  rice.

On Saturday and Sunday, Weekend Breakfast, from 9am to noon, offers choices including Eggs Benedict, Avocado Toast, The Full English, Scotch Egg, pancakes, burrito, South African Lamb Curry, Sri Lankan Breakfast, Idli Tiffin and apam.

  

Bijan Bar & Restaurant

Simply Malay

April 21, 2019

While other establishments are touting Kampung Cuisine, Mum’s Cooking or Royal Repast, Bijan’s chefs are going back to their roots and keeping the restaurant’s buffet theme as Simply Malay. But there’s nothing simple about that; in fact, the two words say volumes. Head chef Razis and his assistant, Chef Ujang, wants to showcase hearty Malay recipes that “warms the soul”.

Chefs at the grill station and it's not just satay that's on fire

There will be 3 rotating menus but some items are so significant, they will be offered daily. These include Kelantanese-style bubur lambuk, satay and ulam-ulam with various sambal. 

Diners will be offered a refreshing drink of freshly squeezed calamansi juice to start.

Favourite ulam-ulam with various dips

Hot cucur jagung or corn fritters

Gado-gado with peanut gravy

At a sneak preview of what to expect, we nibble on appetisers such as corn fritters, keropok lekur, deepfried mushroom, getuk ubi (tapioca cutlets) which has a sweetish taste. Then it’s on to the salads. Gado-gado is popular, with the requisite peanut gravy. The grilled squid kerabu and jackfruit kerabu are my top picks for flavour, texture and the piquant lime dressing.

Kerabu nangka and kerabu sotong bakar

Fish lekor 

For a meaty start, there’s papaya and smoked beef kerabu. Or just have raw ulam-ulam with dips including sambal belacan, budu, cincaluk, air asam, sambal kicap, sambal tumis, sambal penyet and the very delectable sambal hitam that is a Bijan specialty.

Otak-otak Muar, pais ikan and various types of satay and seafood skewers

Don’t miss the Satay Station, with skewers of beef, tripe, lung, chicken as well as prawn and sotong. The skewers are well marinated and frankly, you don’t need the peanut gravy to go with it. Here’s where you can get some yummy otak-otak Muar and pais ikan (spiced fish in banana leaf parcels).

Carving Station with chicken, fish and beef tongue

Next to this, the Carving Station has an impressive display of a giant snapper, ayam golek and smoked beef tongue. On other days, you can expect roasted leg of lamb, smoked striploin.

Delicious Laksa Negeri with condiments

I always enjoy a bowl of noodles and there will be either northern soup noodles, curry laksa and laksa Negeri, which is served with strips of smoked beef. It’s a delicious bowlful. Those who don’t take beef can still have the noodles without this as the laksa stock is vegetarian based.

Rendang Daging Hijau

Squid ink is what gives Sotong Masak Hitam its distinct flavour

The hot mains beckon. Rendang is a must and there will be rendang tok, rendang daging hijau and rendang kambing, on rotation. I am enamoured of the sotong masak hitam, with the black-as-night dish of squid cooked in its own ink to give it that distinct flavour and aroma.

Ayam Kampung Limau Purut

Udang Masak Lemak Nenas has a fruity edge

Tender chunks of lamb in Gulai Kambing 

Petola kembas

Ayam kampung limau purut is a light dish scented with the citrusy aroma of shredded kaffir lime leaves. In contrast, the udang masak lemak nenas is sweetly fruity from the addition of sliced pineapple.

Part of the dessert spread

All these demand a helping of rice and there will be a choice of plain rice or nasi minyak.

After the satisfying dinner, my eyes are attracted to the display of colourful Malay pastries such as kuih kosui, egg jelly, kuih bingka, kuih talam, kuih lapis and serimuka. 

Jelly and a springy kuih kosui  topped with desiccated  coconut

Puteri Mandi

There are also fresh cut fruit and individual saucers and glasses filled with mango pudding, sago gula Melaka and banana puree. Finally, the ais kacang corner is filled with all kinds of condiments, from attap seeds and jelly to cincau, red bean and peanuts.

Prefer something hot? Pick parcels of pulut inti and labok sago from the steamer or have puteri mandi and green pea broth.

phoenixbee@gmail.com

Bijan Bar & Restaurant 

3 Jalan Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Telephone

+603-2031 3575

Opening Hours

Monday to Sunday: 4.30pm to 11pm

Ramadan Buffet from 7pm, May 9 to 31 

Website

www.bijanrestaurant.com

Promotion

Simply Malay buffet at RM120++ per pax

Early Bird at RM110 nett before May 8

Open House buffet at RM110++ per pax

Special for readers: 

Use this promo code  PHOENIXBEE/BSM19 and get Buy 5 Free 1