el-Cerdo Restaurant

El Cerdo, a restaurant where KL people will be no stranger to, I bet. If anyone of you is a pork lover just like me, please head down to El Cerdo, a place you will not be disappointed with, where you eat all the pork you want, from nose to the tail. However, I deeply apologize if my post offended anyone, especially Muslims and non-pork takers.

1). Located at Changkat Bukit Bintang, a busy street of gourmet heaven, just behind the heart of Jalan Bukit Bintang, the Red LIght District of Kuala Lumpur.

2). Currently occupied two shop lots, as opposed to a single one previously. The original premise houses a better restaurant-style ambiance; where as the latter is a bar-oriented decoration.

3). Make sure you got yourself a table before you come, otherwise you'll end up queuing throughout dinner time. If you come in a small group, it is easier to squeeze in a small table.

4). After ordering our dinner, time for some liquor to kick in. A pint of Hoegaarden draught witbier is never enough, if you're a heavy drinker. By the way, the drinks here are much more cheaper as compared to where I come from.



5). Freshly squeezed orange juice for the lady, who end up finishing my beer ^_^


6). Hot mushroom soup is served together with a slice of bread. Creamy and hot, just nice to warm up our starving stomachs.

7). Our appetizer is served promptly after the soup. We got ourselves a Spanish Ham Platter for two, which consists of assortment of two types of Spanish air-dried cured ham, Jamón Serrano (mountain ham) and Jamón Iberico (Iberico ham) with a variety of Chorizo Sausages and condiments. Nice and salty, just right for two persons, too bad we couldn't differentiate which ham is which.

8). Time for our long-awaited main dish under their Specialties menu, Cochinillo Estilo Segoviano, a.k.a. Roasted Suckling Piglet. We ordered a half piglet, which is only few weeks old to my guess, just for the two of us.

9). There is a special way to eat the suckling piglet at El Cerdo. One of us will be asked to use a plate to chop the piglet at three different part of the body. First at the head, then center of the body, and lastly at the butt, just to prove the crunchiness and crispiness of the piglet.

10). After that, a wooden bin will be pushed over to the table, the person holding the chopping plate will asked to make a wish and smashed the plate into the bin. This is the traditional Greek way to cherish good luck to the person performing the ritual.

11). The unlucky piglet will be taken away to be chopped into pieces for easy consuming. Taste rather different to the our Chinese counterpart Suckling Piglet, where it is toasted into absolute crispiness. You can still taste the flesh as well as the crispy skin of the El Cerdo's piglet. Needless to say, it is really delicious, especially for pork-lovers like us, where we engulf the piglet with only bones are left. This is the reason that keep us coming back for more.

12). Besides the piglet, there are other side dishes to compliment the piglet, which are fried potatoes, a special gravy and Caesar Salad. To be honest, the potatoes and the gravy are worth mentioning. The potato tasted just nice on its own and the gravy also compliment the piglet very well. For the the salad, well, at least there are some veggie for our heavy dinner tonight.

13). As I always said, a dinner is never complete without its dessert. We ordered their signatured Ice Cream, although the name doesn't sound glamour. When the dessert is served, its attractive appearance really caught our eyes. The Ice Cream is made of Vanilla, Pistachio, Chocolate, Rum & Raisin Ice Cream with Hazelnut sprinkled on top. Again, needless to say it is damn tasty (if you're a ice-cream lover), until we are crying for more, but our stomachs couldn't take in anymore.

14). Lastly, we are presented with a glass of El Cerdo Special each for everyone, which is served as a digestive drink after our heavy meaty dinner. It is made out of Spirit, Wine and Juices. A very warm and considerate approach, I might said. A satisfying and stomach-busting meal indeed, even though the damage was RM200+. I personally feel that it worth every penny, and I am prepared to come back for more.

el-Cerdo Restaurant

Address : No.43 & 45, Changkat Bukit Bintang, 

                50200, Kuala Lumpur.

Business hours : Lunch & dinner hours daily 

                         (Closed between 3.00pm - 6.30pm)

                         Except Saturdays open for dinner only.

Tel. : 03-21450511

Fax : 03-21451375

E-mail : werner@elcerdokl.com

Website : http://www.elcerdokl.com/

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MLTR Live In Kuala Lumpur 2011 (Part II)

This is the part two of my MLTR post, which consists a few of their songs in video. Hope all the MLTR fans out there would enjoy this, even if you missed the concert!

1. Salvation                                                          13. Angel Eyes
2. Sleeping Child                                                  14. How Many Hours
3. Love Will Never Lie                                          15. Take Me to Your Heart
4. It's Only Love                                                   16. Final Destination
5. Someday It's Gonna Make Sense                   17. Paint My Love
6. Something You Should Know                          18. Breaking My Heart
7. The Actor                                                         19. That's Why (You Go Away)
8. Naked Like The Moon                                       20. Encore I : Someday
9. I'm Gonna Be Around                                       21. Encore I : 25 Minutes
10. Complicated Heart                                           22. Encore II : Wild Women
11. Nothing To Lose                                               23. Encore II : Out of The Blue
12. Medley (Take Off Solo + Hot + Animal + Blue Nights)

1). The Actor



2). Naked Like The Moon



3). I'm Gonna Be Around



4). Complicated Heart.



5). Nothing To Lose.



6).Animal.



7). Blue Nights.



8). Angel Eyes



9). Paint My Love.



10). Breaking My Heart.



11). That's Why (You Go Away).



12). Someday.



13). 25 Minutes.



14). Wild Women.



15). Out of The Blue.


MLTR Live In Kuala Lumpur 2011
Venue : KLCC Plenary Hall
Time : 8.30pm - 11.30pm


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Win Soon Cafe (亚顺生虾鱼头米)

I have always been a big fan of fish head rice noodles, ever since I first tasted one in Serdang. However, I failed to find any replacement for the addictive rice noodles in my hometown, Ipoh. Even the famous Fei Kei is no match to any of the KL-styled fish head rice noodles. Due to unrequited fulfillment of my lust for the milky rice noodles again, I traveled all the way to Puchong to have a taste of the fish head rice noodles once again.

1). This Win Soon Cafe in Bandar Puteri Puchong is the second branch which was opened in May 2010; where as the first one is located at Kuchai. I was told that it was originated in Happy Garden, OUG.

2). The house was jam packed as expected on a Sunday afternoon during lunch hours. The spacious corner shop lot can easily fit in 100 pax of diners.



3). The owner, Kwa Win Soon was the chef at their original restaurant in OUG, started out the branch to be able to expand his secret recipe in making fish head noodles and expand their business in franchise manner.

4). A cup of Coke with Lime is definitely refreshing and quenching on a hot Sunday afternoon.

5). The first bowl we ordered is Fish Head Rice Noodles. A large bowl of rice vermicelli mixed with fried fish head, pickles, sliced tomato and the most important is the highly addictive broth. Evaporated milk gives the creamy appearance and flavour of the broth, which is the taste that I have been longing for. The sweetness and tastiness of the broth is unparallelled with the ones in Ipoh. The fried fish comes in large chunks and full with fresh meat, best eat together with the soup.

6). Besides Fish Head Rice Noodles, Win Soon also offers a wide variety of other ingredients to compliment the fish heads. In this case, we ordered the Fish Paste and Fish Head Rice Noodles. It is exactly the same bowl of fish head noodles with extra fish pastes. Yet again, the fresh and juicy own-made fish pastes are best tasted together with the broth.

7). The third bowl to come is Squid Balls and Fish Head Rice Noodles. These squid balls are not own-made, but bought from supplier and served with Fish Head Rice Noodles. The seafood balls are springy and tasty too when mixed with the soup.

8). The last bowl of noodles, Fish Head Rice Noodles with Prawns. It is the same bowl of Fish Head Rice Noodles but comes with two large Ming prawns. These fresh water prawns are large and suckling, not to mention they are fresh! Again taste best when mixed the tasty broth. One thing you would definitely have after finish your bowl of noodles, which is sweats drenching down your head and body!

Win Soon Cafe (亚顺生虾鱼头米)

Address : No. 16-G, Jalan Puteri 2/6, Bandar Puteri,

                47100 Puchong, Selangor.

Business hours : 9.00am - 10.00pm

Tel. : 03-80651619

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MLTR Live in Kuala Lumpur 2011 (Part I)

1). Not so long ago, I was gifted a VIP ticket to a concert of my all-time favourite band, Michael Learns To Rock (MLTR), live in Kuala Lumpur on 24th April 2011. The event is organised by Star Planet and presented by MBI International. The venue for the concert is KLCC Plenary Hall. As my seat is numbered, therefore I can shop for while and entered last minute ^_^

2). I have never missed any of MLTR's concert in Malaysia, definitely not going to miss this one! The concert starts about 9.30pm. Warmed up by a local artist, in which he claimed MLTR is also his idol!

3). This is the moment I have been waiting for! It's been two years since I went to their last concert in Genting Highlands in September 2009 and the second last was in July 2007, again in Genting.

4). Mesmerized by the sexy voice of lead vocalist and keyboardist, Jascha Richter.

5). You rarely can find the drummer and percussionist, Kåre Wanscher out of the drum set and have a run at the front of the stage, performing "I'm Gonna Be Around" and "Complicated Heart".

6). Sitting in Plenary Hall is pretty comfortable, as you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the show in cooling air-conditioning and a comfortable adjustable sofa.

7). This is the closest shot I got for the three original MLTR members, using my trusty Sony TX-5, as professional cameras and camcorders are not allowed, gotta take this shoots secretly and in discrete.

8). Jascha has always been the center of attention, performing all the songs that wanted by the crowd, and also not forgetting his sense of humour!

9). Every time Jascha come down the stage would create chaos in the hall, including this time around, however only once he came down time, shake hands with the fans, and kiss a girl's hand on the way, apologizing to her partner afterwards, funny and naughty!

10). After performing every song, Jascha would shed a little light on the next song they would be playing by giving some introductions, for example "The Actor", where it was first aired in Jakarta and eventually propelled them to super stardom in Southeast Asia.

11). While performing "Someday It's Gonna Make Sense", Jascha giving us a hint of their next release by saying, "We never stop making music, although we have only released 7 of them. The next one is coming, but now it is still a big secret". Everyone laughed and cheered.

12). This time around they brought another bassist, which is young handsome dude, unlike last time when they bought a blonde babe!

13). Rarely you'll see Jascha in action with a guitar, singing "Sleeping Child".

14). Also not forget to mention the energetic guitarist Mikkel Lentz, changing guitars song after song, sent flying kisses to the crowd making the fans gone wild, and dancing Macarena too!

15). While performing "That's Why (You Go Away)", he passed the microphone towards the fans, taunted them to sing along, and he took out his handphone to record the spectacular view of every single of their fan singing out loud their all-time famous song and they retreated to the back stage.

16). After encoring twice, MLTR performed their last song, "Out of The Blue", which is also one of my favourite songs. MLTR bidding farewell to the fans and heads to their next destination in Kuantan, where they held their final stop in Malaysia on 30th April 2011. The concert ended on a high note at 11.30pm, leaving their fans shouting encore for more.

17). A whooping total of 23 songs are performed during the concert, I like every single one of them, the only one missing was "The Ghost of You", have been dying to hear it live for ages. I am surely gonna missed them, until the next time we meet again! Thumbs up for concert, you have my support always!

1. Salvation                                                          13. Angel Eyes
2. Sleeping Child                                                  14. How Many Hours
3. Love Will Never Lie                                          15. Take Me to Your Heart
4. It's Only Love                                                   16. Final Destination
5. Someday It's Gonna Make Sense                   17. Paint My Love
6. Something You Should Know                          18. Breaking My Heart
7. The Actor                                                         19. That's Why (You Go Away)
8. Naked Like The Moon                                       20. Encore I : Someday
9. I'm Gonna Be Around                                       21. Encore I : 25 Minutes
10. Complicated Heart                                           22. Encore II : Wild Women
11. Nothing To Lose                                               23. Encore II : Out of The Blue
12. Medley (Take Off Solo + Hot + Animal + Blue Nights)

1919 Restaurant & Gallery at Ipoh Garden

There are plenty of unique restaurants in Ipoh, 1919 Restaurant & Gallery is definitely one of them. It offers a different range of Chinese dishes here, as well as other oriental food and Peranakan cuisine, not to mention this restaurant is pork-free too. 1919 also serves catering, private functions, parties, events and wedding dinners as well. Without further a do, let's check it out what it has to offer!

1). Located in a corner shop lot at a very strategic location, within walking distance and situated just in-between Kinta Shopping Centre and Tesco. Carpark is vastly available outside of the restaurant and inside nearby Tesco.

2). Its interior is filled with classical design and antics too, as showed by the wooden chairs, marble tables and wooden cabinets, it feels like time has rolled back to the past whenever you're dinning in.

3). The dishes come promptly after minutes of ordering, maybe it's still before lunch hours. The first dish we ordered is a small portion of King Sauce Chicken (RM8.00). The chicken cutlets are deep-fried in crispy golden colours and topped with a special sweet sauce, making the dish very appealing and very complimenting to any bowl of rice. Although its King sauce is all over the meat, it didn't cause the meat to lose the crunchiness of the outside, and the meat is tender on the inside. Lovely, this dish would make my day!

4). The next to come is the Butter Soft Shell Crabs (RM32.00). Minimum order for this dish is at least two whole piece of crabs. However, its portion is not very large, just enough for the two of us. As we all know, soft shell crab is a kind of Green Crab, which is harvested for food during their shells changing period and the hard shells hasn't formed yet. Thus, the whole piece of crab can be eaten even with their shells on. Back to the dish, where the crabs are deep fried again into crispy golden colours together with the buttery egg flakes which give the dish the sizzling looks. Needless to say, it's another pretty delicious piece of food, we are crying for more!

5). The third dish we ordered is a small portion of Stir-fried Bittergout with Salted Egg (RM8.00). Yet again, another fried food, this time is bittergout, a veggie at least. To be honest with you, anything would be tasty if you cooked together with salted egg. The aroma and the taste it gives to the dish just makes you wanting for more. This dish is recommended, in fact, anything dish with salted egg will do!

6). The last dish to come is a small portion of Crab King Tofu (RM8.00). It is their recommended dish on the menu under the Tofu section, however it has nothing to wow about though. Seafood tofu is cooked together with mushrooms, carrots and broccoli in its broth. What about crab meat, you say? I don't tasted any of it, maybe just an ample of it..

7). In conclusion, if you're a fried food lover like me, then this is the restaurant for you. Not to say only fried food are offered in 1919, it also served other oriental dish and Peranakan food as well. Make sure you book your table before you come, especially dinner hours on weekends. 

1919 Restaurant & Gallery

Address : No.1, Jalan Medan Ipoh 6,

               Bandar Baru Medan, 31400 Ipoh, Perak.

Business hours : 12.00pm - 3.00pm & 6.00pm - 10.30pm daily

Tel. : 05-5477196 (Steven Wong)        Fax : 05-5481046

E-mail : 1919restaurant@gmail.com

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Restaurante San Pedro at Malacca Portuguese Settlement

Melaka, our nation's Historical City, which is rich in history and cultures, not to mention many types of great food too. This include Nyonya food, Satay Celup, Chicken Rice Ball and many other unique food, which only can be found in Melaka. However, I start off my first Melaka post with a less-traveled path, a visit to the one and only Portuguese Settlement, in search for some authentic Portuguese food.

1). This is the restaurant that I have been looking for, Restaurante San Pedro, which is the first ever Portuguese restaurant here, established since 1977.

2). This is the signboard located just outside of the restaurant.

3). It is located at D'Aranjo Road, where you see the Portuguese Square and turn right from the main road of Dalbuquerque Road. From the outside, it would never looks like a restaurant, more like a rundown shop lot. 

4). During my first visit, I was shocked to found the restaurant, which was empty house. Cold sweats start running down my spine and regret starts to kick in.

5). The most dominant religion of Portuguese is Roman Catholicism, as showed by the statue of Virgin Mary at the entrance of the restaurant.

6). A piece of 2-page menu is handed for ordering dishes. I was recommended to order 3 dishes for 2 person dinning in, can't be too greedy though. There are a few dishes can only be served, if you pre-ordered it, as showed in the menu under cakes, pies and pickles. However, you can cut the waiting time by ordering your dishes earlier, your food would have more time to be marinated and become tastier.

7). There are five juices to choose, however it subject to availability. All the juices are freshly squeezed and sugar water was add in. Both apple juice and lime juice are refreshing nonetheless and priced at RM2.50 each glass.

8). First to come is a plate of ordinary White Rice, priced at RM2.00 a plate, not the authentic Portuguese rice as I wished it would be ^_^

9). The first dish to come is the Portuguese Baked Fish, which is also their signatured dish, priced at RM22.00 (according to the weight of the fish). The type of fish they usually cook is Seabass or Red Snapper, where a layer of special chilli sauce is placed on top of the fish and baked together. Their fish is freshly caught locally, and you can taste the chilli getting hotter by every bite, until I have to order a second drink. Thumbs up for the fish!

10). The second dish to come is Curry Debal, a.k.a. Curry Devil, is a very spicy curry flavoured with candlenuts, galangal and vinegar. It is their traditional culinary and often served during special occasions. The dish looks like curry chicken to me, however the texture of the meat is the most tender I have ever eaten and the curry is very complimenting with rice too. This is certainly my favourite food of the day and considerably cheap at RM10.00!

11). The next dish is Portuguese Sauce Prawns. At first sight, the size of the prawns are huge! The prawns are slightly fried with a dark sauce, which I reckon is soy sauce. The prawns are fresh nonetheless, however I was expecting more from this dish though.

12). The fourth dish to come is Mixed Vegetables Soup (RM6.00). As the name suggested, variety of vegetables are added in, such as carrots, Chinese cabbages, Capsicum and anchovies. Grown up in vegetable family, this dish is nothing to be raved about, for me at least.

13). The next dish to come is another one of my favourite, the Chilli Crabs, priced at RM19.00 each. Don't let the colour of the chilli scares you off, it isn't spicy at all, tasted more like tomato crabs. The meat is fresh, as they purchased from nearby restaurant whenever orders are placed. Oh, how I wish there are breads to compliment the delicious sauce!

14). The last dish to come is everybody's favourite, the Black Pepper Crabs, also priced at RM19.00 each. As I mentioned earlier, if you pre-order the crabs, they have more time to marinate the crabs. Thus the flavours of black pepper penetrate through the meat, makes every bite is filled with black pepper. A satisfying meal indeed, with a total damage of around RM140, still is moderately priced. I'll make this a place to stop by every time I visit Melaka.
 

15). A little bit of history lesson, where the urban renewal of the Portuguese Settlement was given official orders by the Chief Minister of Melaka in 2004.

16). Is there anything else to see in the Portuguese Settlement? Well, there is a Portuguese Square at the end of the main road, where three other Portuguese restaurants are located inside, which I have never tried before.

17). The Lisbon Hotel, opened in 2008, where the rooms are overlooking the Straits of Malacca. However, it did not receive good reviews over the internet though. Hopefully, this place will be developed into another tourist hotspot soon, and I wish I could participate the annual Fiesta San Pedro, which will be held at 23-29 June 2011.

Restaurante San Pedro
Address : 4, D'Aranjo Road, Portuguese Settlement,
                Ujong Pasir, 75050 Melaka.
Tel. 06-2842170 (Willy)
Business hours : 5.30pm - 10.00pm daily.
                         Closes on Wednesday.



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