White (Fright) Night at Bianco, Damansara Perdana

I've never been very good with the Horror genre. Not even when they were just exercises in exaggeration & theatrics around a fire. So it was unfortunate that my first visit to Bianco happened to be the evening when both my cheerful companions decided to share some "real-life" horror stories, one of which involved an other-worldly inhabitant in a unit in the Tropics itself, right above where the restaurant was snugly located. GULP.

Thankfully, the food, ambience and service were delightful enough to distract me (but just barely) from the night ahead, when all these stories will come back to taunt me and my faint-hearted sleep.

Arancini di formaggi - Rice & Ricotta fritters, served with a robust tomato-based sauce. Red and lustful, like blood vampires hunt. Pulpy like the gory disembowelled insides of the victim of an Eli Roth flesh-eating zombie.

We decide to split two pizzas - Marinara & Gambretto. We were told the crust would be very thin and crispy, so they would work out to be nice portions for the three of us.

The marinara arrived with plenty of sumptuos offerings from the ocean. The ocean, where vicious sharks and underwater ghouls live.

We went with the waitress' suggestion to top up our Gambretto with rocket and it came with sparse dashing of balsamic vinegar, which provided a wicked contrast to the sweetness of the chilli prawn & olive topping.

I liked the crust, but I thought it was missing that hint of smoke. Still overall a good pizza meal, the unsettling story-telling notwithstanding.

House White Chilean. Wish there'd been a wine list to speak of but we didn't see one. This was OK enough for us to open two bottles, but more so from the lack of choice than anything else.

The meal came up to a mere RM216 for the 3 of us; we thought it was well value for money.

Bianco's also offering an all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch for a stunning RM25++ per pax, on the last Sunday of each month from 12PM to 5PM. The menu looks promising, pizzas, pastas & antipasti galore. Going to try come back here for that - perhaps the best part is that it would be in broad daylight, and I wouldn't have to worry about battling the nocturnal heebies-jeebies after!

Pop! Goes the Pasta, Italiannies' Lunch Deal

I'd been reluctant to return to Italiannies for a number of years. Over and above appearing too Disneyfied Italian, I was traumatized by an undercooked fish dish once at the outlet at the Curve, of which I'd taken a huge bite (and swallow) before realizing it. Recently though, I chanced upon a not entirely horrible dining experience at the Gardens outlet bidding a departing colleague farewell. Granted, all I had was the Shrimp & Mango salad and a sangria, but it was enough to prompt me towards the hugely popular lunch deal the very next day.

Freshly baked bread, perfect to stave off those dizzy hunger pangs while waiting for your food or rudely gaping at your neighbours' very inviting pizza

Choice of Soup: Marsala Mushroom or Minestrone. Both of us go for Mushroom because we wanted heavy! We wanted cream! The soup was fine, with chunks of fresh mushrooms and I'd order this again in a heartbeat.

The choice of mains range from RM13.90 (advertised, but applies only to the Margherita Pizza) up to above RM30. I went for the Chicken & Mushroom Spaghetti (RM19.90). This was bland from the start but upon the third forkful, started to offer a really bizarre, manufactured aftertaste. I don't know if my tastebuds were acting up (for they do at a great frequency) but it felt like I was eating stale tea leaves??! Do shiitake mushrooms have that effect on people? Why didn't I just order the damn pizza?
Mel's Penne Bolognese (RM19.90) - she was hardly impressed. Definitely not the stuff to be soundtracked with gravely passionate operatic tenor. It's the type of meal that should be stomached with music that's a bit more non-commital, like one of the American Idol alums.

One thing must be said though - the portions are huge and if you finish it, you WILL be full and sluggish at your desk for the rest of the afternoon. I won't be coming back anytime soon for the pasta, but the pizza at the neighbouring table... now that's a different story!

The Secret Ingredients

There's no doubt that the best things in life (to eat or otherwise) are those offered to you with love, kindness or plain generosity, where the term of barter is merely an unspoken understanding, or at most, a sincere word of thanks. Along with these wonderful gifts come the revelation of their secret ingredients that make the offerings exclusively and unmistakably theirs.

Mama Chow's Curry Chicken, a very special treat, yet predictable in its ability to uplift the soggiest homesick spirits. Her secret ingredient: A dollop of belacan! This was prepared and consumed at the tail end of my extremely short but gratifying weekend home in Penang.

Riz's Vegetarian Chilli. I was presented with this, thoughtfully packed by Riz and Hui when we met up at Sid's after a long day at work gone horribly wrong. I was swooning in gratitude, even more so when after downing 3 pints of cider, I had this to heat up and devour when I got home! His secret ingredient: Peanut butter! This provided the tomato-based stew with a lot more heart and body, coating each morsel of fresh diced vegetables, beans and mushroom. Ambrosia at midnight.

Beatrice brought to work on her last day an Apple Pie she'd baked. Her secret ingredient: Custard! The buttery, crumbly short crust pastry she made from scratch was the perfect accompaniment to the cinnamon explosion of the apple filling. Her baking prowess, along with her presence as part of the team, will be sorely missed.

In observation of Dumpling Festival today, Lee came to work armed with a truckload of his Mom's dumplings for everyone. He'd painstakingly taken pre-orders to make sure everyone got exactly the dumpling they wanted, from a list Mrs. Lee's choice ingredients: Belly pork, Chinese mushroom, Mung beans, Chestnut, Onions, dried shrimps and Preserved egg yolk. I had two, and they packed a mighty homemade punch! My Inner Dumpling is appeased for the year.

A thoughtful (albeit non-edible) gift from Mei Shean - my very own Breadou, looks like a bun, smells like a bun, feels like a bun, but a bun it ain't! It's a computer wrist-rest and stress-reliever made from foam, designed to be ergonomic and to whet the carbo appetites of those committed to spending pretty much every waking hour in front of the laptop. Mei Shean got this from Action City in Singapore; also comes in the shape of other baked confectionaries.

The best gift of all is to be let in on the secrets that lie embalmed at the heart of these offerings. I can only say thanks in so many ways and someday, I hope to be able to return all these wonderful favours.

Desperately Seeking Ah San

One fish head beehoon place that my parents used to frequent at an alarming rate was the one prepared by this legend of a man named Ah San. He used to operate out of one of the houses behind Convent Pulau Tikus, along Medan Maktab. Unfortunately, complaints from residential neighbours brought that era to a close. To this day, the whereabouts of Ah San remain a question mark. It was rumoured he had closed the business down to retire properly, only to reopen somewhere in town, Lorong Selamat, went the latest installment of said rumour.

So this fine morning, we went searching for it, but it was a fruitless hunt. Dejected, but still fixated, we headed to No. 7 at Parma Food Court, along Jalan Burmah. Mama Chow had tipped us off, saying that while it was no Ah San, it subscribed to Ah San's methods, i.e. the use of anchovies in the broth.

Alas, this brought my great Penang food streak to a screeching halt!

The picture says it all - one look and I couldn't even be bothered to attempt a better shot of it. The soup was bare, the ingredients were far and few in between - two pieces of fried fish head and four cubes of fried bean curd (Tau kua). Also, I didn't appreciate the gooey batter of the fried fish head pieces and the beehoon texture, which was a little too tough and dry. A poor student of Ah San's.

Breakfast was not a total loss, thankfully for No. 7's redemption came in the form its Fried Tau Chiam (soy noodle) with fish fillet, served with punchy sambal. This offered great relief from the lackadaisical fish head beehoon, plenty of bite from the noodles' unusual texture and the fresh fish pieces (gooey batter absent here) were utterly complementary and delightful!

I would definitely order the Tau Chiam again but to satisfy that nostalgic craving, the search for Ah San continues. If anyone out there has any clue where he has gone, please, please let me know, I will be eternally grateful!

Cheapskates and Cheap Sake at Kin San Kichi, Desa Sri Hartamas

Kin San Kichi used to be THE place for a good cheap Japanese feed, kinda like the Hokano of yesteryears. I remember coming here when they still permitted smoking indoors, the place permeating a wonderful mix of odours from the BBQ tables and the open-air kitchen inside. It was often brimming with in-and-out diners, queues forming in the early evenings. Most of all, I remember how we'd constantly end up being pleasantly surprised by the tab at the end of the meal.

We were looking for a quick bite in the area before proceeding with the evening elsewhere and stumbled in here. Not much had changed after a number of years. The restaurant manager (now possibly part-owner), whom I remembered as a very friendly and efficient young lady, was still around, looking significantly wiser and more matronly. The menu's looking slightly spiffier, no longer those clumsy clear plastic folders but the prices remain pretty hard to beat.

Our orders were generic that evening but suffice to say, there are plenty of other goodies available on the menu, including a very affordable BBQ set, value-for-money sashimi sets and they do a decent version of my favourite grease trap, tonkatsu curry rice.

The customary Saba Set (RM16), generous enough to feed the unusually ravenous Hui.

Riz got the Ten Don (RM14). I forgot to get his take on it but there can't be much wrong with it, nor much great either, I suspect.

Kimuchi Ramen (RM18) - a steal with 2 x medium prawns, fresh fish, 3 x meaty chashu in a spicy broth. It was a tad salty I felt, and made me very thirsty. Also, the requisite bite from the ramen quickly deteriorated when left to sit in the broth a touch longer, a note of its quality.

Sake on the cheap! Left: My Ozeki Hana Awaka (Sparkling Sake) and Riz's Hakutsuru Nama. Ben's order of Shochu by the glass as well as Hui's Asahi were both a very moderate RM10++ each.

We probably didn't order the right things to truly render this a worthy revisit of Kin San Kichi but it's heartening to see the key cornerstones of this humble little restaurant remain solidly grounded. I should be back to give that nostalgic curry rice a go!

Kin San Kichi
16, Jalan 27/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2300 3889

It's sandwiched between Aoyama and Cavells, diagonally opposite the open air carpark behind KK mini-mart, on the other end of the same row as Finnegan's.

The Boss' Prawn Mee, Kam Heong, PJ State

Saturday AM: Pre-dawn lucid dreaming about Penang Hokkien mee (or Prawn Mee in KL). I wake up and realise waiting till my next visit back to the island is no longer an option; something here will have to do right now! I get a tip-off from Mel, Kam Heong in PJ State and recall reading about this over at Masak-masak's.

Kam Heong is on one of the rows of old shoplots surrounding the MPPJ building with no discernible English signboard except for the KTV outlet's on top of it...

The Boss... of Prawn Mee goodness is in the house!

The incarnate subject of my dream arrives, more real, more substantial, more edible! One sip of the soup confirms that this is not just any weedy stand-in for one of Penang's culinary luminaries. It is full-bodied, reflecting the hours, care and pride that flank its preparation.

Ingredients are unstinting and at RM4.50 per bowl, the serving is appropriately bigger than the standard Penang's. The soup is more pork than prawn though, which doesn't necessarily d0 justice to the Prawn Mee moniker for those who seek heavier notes of shellfish in the soup.

I also pick up curry puff from the Mon Kee siew pau stall for a snack later. The pastry is SWEET, the curry extra spicy, rendering this one weird concoction. I notice a lot of similar stalls using common pastry for both savoury & sweet fillings - am I the only one who has a problem with this? Would the two camps of fillings not require parallel ratios of sodium to lactose?

Back to Basics at Sid's Pub Bangsar

Reently learned that Sid's opened up another outlet in Bangsar South, much nearer to my workplace and home than the original outlet at TTDI so off we went to check it out one lazy, HOT Sunday afternoon. It'd been a while since I last ventured to the Pantai area and I was surprised to see how the Village (essentially UOA's Bangsar South showhouse) was already nicely inhabited by an Old Town, a Secret Recipe, a 7-11 and Sid's. All the basics to convince you this is going to be prime real estate! Investors, get your cheque books out!

The cool tranquil pub interior offers refuge from the blazing mid-May Malaysian sun. Entrez s'il vous plaît!!

Signature Sid's dark wooden furniture, paraphernalia-adorned walls, one very well-stocked bar. In addition to its proximity to home, this outlet has the advantage of more room, both indoors and out...

...and Strongbow Cider! Much preferred to Blackthorn's served at TTDI's. We have the pub all to ourselves for a delightful couple of hours.

On another visit on an uneventful Friday evening saw a more decent crowd, chugging back them pints. The very decent pub grub at Sid's did not fail us that evening.

Mel's Pork burger. Very meaty tasty patty, the plate flowing with fries. Despite the fact that this filled her up plenty, Mel thought the patty wasn't all that generous - "you just cannot compare this with Ramly's!"she wisely observed.

At this point, unexpected company burst through the door and joined us, lending further hilarity and stomach space for food sampling. Thank you for the pre-birthday surprise, folks!

Eevon's Bacon Butty - I should've snapped a pic of the last few mouthful of her sandwich, which looked like it held about 2 inches thick of bacon.

Vicky has mash and lamb sausages with baked beans. Mash tasted powdery, she proclaimed and left it pretty much untouched.

The pièce de résistance of the evening was the Nevis Burger - basically double-patty and all the add-ons you can handle. When this arrived, the whole table watched entranced as the glistening leaden fat dripped from the top of the grease tower languidly to form a mounting pool of sin at the base of the burger.

AUMMMM!!!!

He collects it, he opens up his mouth wide, he brings it in and he scores! The evening's unquestionable hero for throwing frivolous table decorum out the window as he wiped his plate clean. For what are birthdays if not the most elementary reminders of our individual mortality in the larger scheme of things and the futility of denying ourselves enjoyment while we can?

And on that note, will be back, again and again!