One Ballad too many, Decanter Too, Desa Sri Hartamas

Following the string of posts about Decanter Too at Desa Sri Hartamas such as here and here, we visited to see if it lived up to the earlier Decanters' reputation for serving to generations cheap, comforting food & drinks.

Located on the same row as Fong Lye, street parking is relatively easy IF and only if you get here before 6PM. After that, it's best to just head straight to the open-air paid parking lot behind the KK mini-mart across the road. Decanter Too also neighbours the entrance to the pole-dancing studio on the first floor, so on evenings where we sat at one of the two tables outside, it was only a matter of time before the traffic of fit and fabulous pole-dancing class attendees made us somewhat conscious and sheepish of the boozy feast on our table.

Hainanese Chicken Chop - unrestrained portions and reassuring, but the batter could've been somewhat lighter. Also, this introduced me to my first and recurrent grouse to the food here - too healthy dosing of MSG!

Hui's Stir Fried Fish with Shallots & Spring Onion confirmed the MSG irritant, for she reacted immediately to it with a dull ache at the back of her neck.

Deals like 3 jugs of beer for the price of RM100 nett are too alluring so despite the parched throat in the middle of the night after that meal, I returned the same week.

One of the recommended whites by the bottle - Domaine Sur Lie (RM99++). This was too dry for my liking, should've gone for the other recommendation.

Chicken & Mushroom Pie (RM8) - Somewhat routine, but served its purpose of a light pairing with the wine.

Mel's Steak Pie (RM8) - good with her beer, generous chunks of meat a nod to Decanter's rep for offering value for money.

Cantonese Fried Noodle (RM9) - Meal owner N proclaimed it OK-lah, not the best he's had but certainly agreeable at that kind of price.

Oh, one more gripe - when we arrived at a little past six, the music playing was a Scorpions' greatest hits on repeat at a discomforting, piercing volume. The third time we heard the ominous whistling in the opening bar of Winds of Change, we requested for a change in music, only to be replaced by yet another equally nauseating greatest hits compilation. No music snub intended, but Scorpions at a dining outlet like Decanter's is akin to playing opera at a night club. Or K-pop at a cocktail reception. Or Wu Tang Clan at a wedding solemnization. Oh wait, that could work. Anyway, point is, given the cosy ambience, they ought to give the kind of music they play some thought.

I'm indifferent to the food, but the pricing's reasonable, drinks cheap, the service fast and attentive ('cept for the music, y'all), an outlet that I wouldn't mind coming back to.

Mr Ho's (Small) Big Breakfast & Mr. Pieman, Hartamas Shopping Centre

How great is this three-day weekend? I actually feel rested for the first time over a weekend in a long while. When will we ever see the four-day working week materialise??

Finally made it to brunch with Dianne after months and months of planning, navigating weekends away, work schedules and whatnot. We agreed on Plaza Damas with Fogal's protein extravagance in mind, but then detour to Mr. Ho's Fine Foods, one of the latest F&B entrant at Hartamas Shopping Centre.

Adena, aged 7, a bundle of precocious energy. I remember her vividly as an infant, then a sassy toddler like it was just yesterday!

All three of us get the Big Breakfast which comes with coffee or tea. Mr. Ho's brews Avanti - this is good, a strong and robust kickstart right before midday.

If you think there's nothing Big about this, you are spot on. Mr. Ho's serves its Big Breakfast in two sizes and in an attempt to exercise some balance on account of having missed my morning swim because of an accidental hangover, I go for the Small size. Two triangles of very thin wholemeal toast, a tablespoon of baked beans, one pork sausage, a SHRED of bacon and one egg, sunny-side up does not make for a very filling breakfast - it's almost like a tasting platter. The other Large size is apparently twice the portion of this, which would be about right. However, at a mere RM9.90 nett for the Small with good coffee, I'll admit that we get what we pay for.

With obviously room for more, I keep my eyes open as we walk around the mall a bit and spy Mr. Pieman, a kiosk in front of Mercato supermarket.

Mr. Pieman has four pie flavours - Rotorua Chicken, Waikato Beef, Tauranga Vegetable and Kaipaki Apple. I find the obvious NZ reference curious and a quick poke around the website reveals that the founder picked up pie-making from the Kiwis. The kiosk also sells a Potato Top version, in beef and chicken.

Rotorua Chicken (Small). I love that the pastry isn't puff and offers a lot more substance (and less mess!) when you bite into it. Also, the filling is generous - plenty of chicken in a peppery white sauce. While it tastes fine on its own, I do find that a little bit of Heinz ketchup went a long way with this. RM2 per piece or get 5+1 for RM10.

Potato Top - the potato crust is baked to a crumbly texture and melded well with the filling. I'd expected the filling to be different from the pie's, on account of its name but as both were very small servings, I don't find it too much and they filled me up very nicely.

The verdict? Mr. Pieman is certainly an interesting addition to Hartamas Shopping Centre and the general deficiency of good pies in KL; I would definitely venture back to try its other flavours.

Savoury pies at John King, Pavillion

Found myself wandering around Pavillion's food hall, wondering what I should get to kill the munchies. Had just come from a more-ish breakfast, so really didn't want to go crazy either. After pacing the stretch of the food hall about three times, I finally stopped at John King. Now John King purpotedly serves the bees' knees of egg tarts. Egg tarts would be about the right size and serving to fit that itsy craving but I wasn't up for anything sweet.

They also had a range of pies, about the same size of the egg tarts. I got a regular chicken & mushroom one and a curry chicken one; both pies came up to about RM6 plus. I can't say I'm crazy about these.

Chicken and mushroom pie

Chicken curry pie

Same signature crumbly pastry, great on its own but it's still SWEET pastry and tastes off-kilter when paired with the rich savoury flavours of curry and cream. Couldn't complain about the filling, so if you like your savoury with your sweet - like sundae with fries or other such combination - you might like this.

Chicken pies from KSB Specialist Bakery & Cafe, Macalister Road, Penang

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about longing for pies minus the puff pastry. So imagine my utter delight when I chanced upon exactly some of those today.

Disgruntled and soured after the lunch at Lynn's, I decided to hang out with Mei Shean while she waited for an appointment on Macalister Road. We had about 20 minutes to kill and thought we could really use a seat and some coffee and voila, about ten feet away from us stood the highly inconspicuous KSB Specialist Bakery & Cafe. We wandered in and ordered ourselves two cups of freshly brewed coffee at RM3.60 each. They came in steaming mugs, so strong and virile they more or less made up for the disgrace that was Lynn's coffee earlier.

We deduced that it's the same bakery that started at the lobby of Loh Guan Lye Specialist Centre and it's branched out to a stand-alone outlet now. Apart from the usual array of preservative-free health bread and buns, they also sold toasted sandwiches, mushroom soup and gasp! a variety of pies with short crust pastry! The selections include chicken, curry chicken, black pepper, sheperd and vegetarian. They also accept bulk pre-orders for a rather impressive-looking Yorkshire pie. We both took away two pies each - I took home chicken and sheperd (which we learned was also chicken).

And the verdict, come dinnertime?

Apart from the crust, a noteworthy and welcomed change from the puff pastry madness which has enveloped our deluded nation of pie makers, I have to say the filling was.... more of the same. At RM3 each, they were still very tasty treats but I was kinda expecting the filling to be some gooey, gravy explosion and they turned out to be the rather standard potato-chicken-egg variety.

Sheperd's Pie - potatoes, chicken, hard boiled egg, peas, carrots, corn



Chicken Pie - essentially the same thing as Sheperd's Pie, but of lighter colouring?



A closer look at the filling contrast - Sheperd's on the left, Chicken on the right. They really did taste the same, not that there's anything wrong with that.