Greenlicious @ 10 Boulevard

Disclaimer: One meal is sponsored. Reviews are solely mine and do not represent the views of the sponsor.

A few weeks ago, I received my first free meal from KindMeal.my at Organica Lifestyle (read about it here). The team reviewed the post and decided to offer me another free meal, how lovely!

I decided to pop over GreenLicious at 10 Boulevard (located at the exit of Lebuhraya Sprint) after coming across their coupon for meat-free nasi lemak.

GreenLicious started its organic concept from Green Green Organic Kitchen in 2009 to promote a healthy and nutritious organic diet. The team consists of recognised professionals from diverse backgrounds, each having in-depth experience of various fields, including doctors, nutritionists, beauticians, artists and in-depth tour experts. Today, it is more than an organic shop, it is a unique place which indulge in a healthy and trendy cuisine in the way of organic. [source]

Iced house organic soy milk (RM9.90)

My friend and I had a glass of soy milk each. They were both FOC because one came with the KindMeal coupon and the other with their lunch set. I found these to be a little sweeter than the one I used to have at the organic shop in SS18. Nevertheless, they both complimented our dishes of choices very well.

First up, nasi lemak!

Nasi lemak KL Tower (RM12.80 via KindMeal)

According to the details on the KindMeal app itself, this is a vegan nasi lemak (no dairy ingredients) which comprises pandan rice, sambal petai, vegetables and crispy crackers. I particularly enjoyed the sambal petai with rice but compared to the one I had at Organica Lifestyle, this one had a less vibrant flavour and was more towards a sour profile.

To my surprise, it also came with "mushroom nuggets" which was not mentioned in the description (completely forgot to ask if the batter was dairy-free, many apologies vegan readers!). My friend and I loved them so much that we decided to order a plate of mushroom nuggets à la carte (RM9.90) which was served with sweet chilli sauce, turning it an addictive snack.

Curry mee with chicken (RM18.90 with a drink as a part of their lunch set).

* this dish is not a part of the KindMeal deal

Non-vegetarians/vegans should try their curry mee. The thickness of the broth truly defines a KL style curry mee. I personally love my curry mee with a heap of sambal but I do recommend tasting the curry before adding sambal (it's the same one as the nasi lemak minus the petai). This could be considered a huge portion to some so if you're a light eater, perhaps share this bowl with someone.

Note: the vegetables were raw and although I didn't mind at all, just giving some of you heads up if you prefer your vegetables to be steamed before being chucked into your curry.

Top view of both main dishes.

* * * *

 Are you a blogger who would love a FREE meal?

KindMeal is currently offering free meals to bloggers or those with Facebook fan pages with the hopes of encouraging more food lovers to experience meat-free cuisines and sharing their food stories with people.

Who/what is KindMeal?

They are Malaysia's first meat-free lifestyle platform, offering a unique angle towards promoting restaurants and cafes, with the primary objectives of saving animals, health, environment and money. Basically they're meat-free advocates so if you're a vegetarian/vegan, this is your place to go.

Who runs Kind Meal?

They're operated by PetFinder.my, Malaysia's leading animal welfare portal, a platform for animal lovers and rescuers. 

How can I get on board?

All you need to do is look for KindMeal in the app store, download it and you're good to go. They use digital coupons (go green!) and you no upfront payment, booking or any form of printing is required. You need not worry about having to use your coupons because if you choose not to, just allow them to expire when they do and you can obtain more coupons after. 

- Thanks for yet another free meal, KindMeal :) -

Information
Address: Unit A-G-12, Block Allamanda, 10 Boulevard, PJU 6A, Lebuhraya Sprint, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Opening hours: 11.30 a.m. - 10.00 p.m. every day except Wednesdays
Contact no.: +60 3 7724 1109
Email: greenlicious11@gmail.com
Website: www.greenlicious.com.my
Credit card payment: Accepted
Service charges: Applied
6% GST: Applied

Pop Up Dining KL

Pop Up Dining KL is a collaboration of young chefs, putting their food out there to serve to a group of guests in pop up venues [source]. It is almost as if they are ninjas appearing whenever they so please to serve a fine dinner for private guests, and once they leave, they disappear with the night till the next session.

Monday happens to be their favourite day of the week to set up their pop up diner. Which Monday to be exact? You've got to check their Instagram for that. As for the location, they have been based at Jaslyn Cakes for a few dinners now but intend to do their next pop up at another location, perhaps still within the Bangsar suburb.

* I apologise if the lighting in the photos may seem "off" to you. The location had low-key lighting and I for one am not an expert on that, unfortunately.

So my friend, Lydia, and I got to experience this:

Price: RM75

I noticed that they don't name their foods but rather simply include the ingredients which work as both the title and description. Quite clever.

A plate of rice crackers with a certain tomato-based topping greeted us upon arrival.  Not the best ice-breaker but it was a start - a minimally seasoned snack to kickstart those tastebuds.

I absolutely love sourdough bread and am particularly glad it was served with more than enough butter, though I wish I had an entire slice of bread rather half. Crusty with a soft, warm and dense middle, this was the perfect tummy warmer. Also, is anyone else a fan of those slightly burnt edges of breads that gives off the most profound flavour? Because I am.

Prawn, sorrel, chicken and onion sauce.

Had to Google up what a sorrel was and it's apparently used in cooking for its acidic flavour. Combined with the sweetness of the onion sauce and the prawns, it added freshness to each bite taken with it.

Tomatoes, lala, pegaga, pickled shallot, cured egg yolk, sea butter.

These various types of tomatoes were blanched, giving that burst of elegantly refreshing juice upon arrival in your mouth. The cured egg yolk was used as garnish on the top but the highlight, I believe, was the sea butter base made with obviously butter and also flavourful juices from the lala. It sounds like a handful putting salt into butter but that did not threaten the freshness of the entire dish. This has to be one of my favourites of the menu.

Rice congee, ikan bilis (anchovies), egg, local greens, fish sauce caramel, spring onion

"Congee? Really? What possible greatness can it hold besides being just ... congee?" My exact thoughts pre-dinner. And guess what? I took back what I said.

There's nothing much to be said about the rice congee itself other than it being well done - not too watery nor chunky. The fish caramel sauce was slightly peculiar. Typically, I enjoy congee with soy sauce and just soy sauce so having some sweetness was an interesting experience for something savoury and fishy. Also, do you see that egg? It is a sous vide egg - also pretty much like a poached egg but rather having vinegar in the water, the egg is slow-cooked at a certain temperature. Dear restaurants who do not know how a proper runny egg is like, please find the image above your reference. 

This could be one of the better congees so far but I'm sorry, nothing beats my mom's homemade one. 

Duck breast, beetroot, cucumber, cashew nut leaf.

The congee was filling but there was still space for one more. This beautiful duck breast, which was tender enough to render a phrase of weak-in-the-knees, claimed the final course before dessert. For someone who is not a fan of beetroot, the sauce was a surprising delight. You can tell it's quite thick from the way it can potentially run all over the plate but just refuses to.

Rose apple, milk, meringue.

Dessert was a milky ice cream with apple slices with a subtle rose flavour and meringue. The ice cream melted fairly quickly and became cream-like at the end. I'm not sure how to describe the apples. The texture is comparable to the blanched tomatoes but it was more like having extremely juicy and cool apples. I would've very much preferred the ice cream to be the highlight.

Dinner ended with hot rose tea and financiers a.k.a. tiny French cakes which are such a delight with tea. We got to take more home as well!

Thank you, Pop Up Dining KL for having us :)

If you're interested, follow their Instagram or 'like' their Facebook page to get the latest announcements and menu for the next session. 

Organica Lifestyle @ Bangsar (featuring KindMeal)

Disclaimer: One meal is sponsored. Reviews are solely mine and do not represent the views of the sponsor.

I finally managed to check out Organica Lifestyle after knowing of its existence for quite a while. As its name suggests, it serves delightfully healthy food that are meat-free and advocates healthier lifestyles not just for food - they also run yoga and pilates classes. 

Its location may be a bit of a hassle to discover for those who are not familiar with the area. If you're coming from the NPE or Federal Highway (through Mid Valley), just make sure to turn left after the Petronas station and then to your immediate right turn. Look out for the white house with brown gate and you'll be on your way to a healthy meal in no time.

As much as this is actually a restaurant, it still looks like a home from the way it is designed. To me, it was as if my Pinterest pins came to life.

These images show the counter you'll see where they do their juices and what not. Behind is the kitchen where more magic happens. From the looks of it, one can tell that they to not cater to crowds or massive groups which is actually great because the setting truly looks like a healthy getaway as you indulge in good food and be around the friendly people who work there.

My friend and I went for 3 dishes: 

Great Life Bowl (RM28.00)

Quinoa Nasi Lemak (RM29.50)

Veggie Fritters (RM29.50) [which is actually the "Green Lantern Set" on KindMeal]

The Great Life Bowl, more like colours of the rainbow in a bowl, is basically a salad with a quinoa base. It includes ingredients like carrots, tofu, cauliflower, broccoli and purple cabbage which are then topped with their signature Tahini Dressing (tumeric and honey are the primary ingredients). This dish is a little dry but if you're the type who prefers oil-free food, this is what I recommend going for. 

The quinoa nasi lemak was interesting. I've never had this much quinoa in my life, what more with a vegetarian curry and having the conventional peanuts being replaced with pine nuts. I regret not asking how they did the curry because it is absolutely packed with flavor and is still so yummy even though it is practically meat-less. Go for this if you're looking for local delight with a twist.

These veggie fritters are from the "Green Lantern Set" under KindMeal and they are my favorite of the lot! If you're familiar with the Indian vadai, this tastes almost exactly like it. These glorious fritters are crispy on the outside yet so soft and moist on the inside, textures that won the hearts of my friend's and mine upon cutting up the first piece. And who knew that a creamy lightly-salted feta-avocado-beetroot dressing would do so well with feta cheese?! The next time I buy vadai from a mamak restaurant, feta should be the next thing to get on my list. Good lord, I'm still not over it.

The Great Life Bowl and Green Lantern Set both come with their own drinks but unfortunately, they were out of mint so they couldn't make the cold-pressed coconut mint juice for us. We settled for a beetroot based juice, not that I'm complaining. 

So if you're a blogger reading this, what if I told you that you can get one of these meals for FREE?

KindMeal is currently offering free meals to bloggers or those with Facebook fan pages with the hopes of encouraging more food lovers to experience meat-free cuisines and sharing their food stories with people.

Who/what is KindMeal?

They are Malaysia's first meat-free lifestyle platform, offering a unique angle towards promoting restaurants and cafes, with the primary objectives of saving animals, health, environment and money. Basically they're meat-free advocates so if you're a vegetarian/vegan, this is your place to go.

Who runs Kind Meal?

They're operated by PetFinder.my, Malaysia's leading animal welfare portal, a platform for animal lovers and rescuers. 

How can I get on board?

All you need to do is look for KindMeal in the app store, download it and you're good to go. They use digital coupons (go green!) and you no upfront payment, booking or any form of printing is required. You need not worry about having to use your coupons because if you choose not to, just allow them to expire when they do and you can obtain more coupons after. 

- Thanks for having me on board, KindMeal! :) -

Information

Address: 15, Jalan Tempinis 1, Bangsar, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Opening hours: 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. every day except Mondays
Contact no.: +60 12 704 8565
Email: hello@organicalifestyle.com
Website: www.organicalifestyle.com

Event: New Zealand Dessert Showcase @ Empire Shopping Gallery, Subang Jaya

Three New Zealand brands: Whittaker's Chocolate, Omaha's Organic Ice Cream, and Marcel's Pancakes organised a dessert showcase at Empire Shopping Gallery in collaboration with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Kuala Lumpur last month.

While preparing the ingredients and equipment, a small crowd of people from the media started filled up Jaya Grocer's demo kitchen that afternoon. Each attendee was given a goodie bag with compliments from the organisers which included a packet of Marcel's Pancakes tandum and a bag of peppermint chocolate from Whittaker's.

Preparing the dark chocolate mousse with tofu and pancake pieces.

Using Hubbards muesli as the base for the parfait.

Preparing the parfait alongside the dark chocolate peppermint cake.

We were served the following breakfast combinations:

Dark chocolate mousse with tofu, a piece of pancake, a scoop of organic blueberry ice cream, chocolate shavings and a fruit of your choice. 

For something with milk, go for the muesli with dark chocolate mousse and a scoop of organic ice cream.

That dark chocolate peppermint cake can be eaten by itself or served with organic ice cream topped with fruits.

Of course, strawberries would be first choice.

Ice cream would normally be extremely sweet but these organic ones are not to say bland, but rather guilt-free in my opinion. They don't taste like dessert at all.

We took a break from mousse and pancakes and proceeded with baked breads and of course, the organic ice cream. Seem they're advocates for having ice cream for breakfast!

We ended off with crepes and more ice cream. I actually love the crepes because they are less fluffy than the pancakes and still are light. Would very much prefer this with ice cream.

Generally, all the breakfast options did not have an overwhelmingly sweet note even though most of the ingredients are conventionally sweet and suited for dessert. And no, this is not an excuse to have ice cream for breakfast! The ice cream used in the demonstration is organic and healthy unlike what we mostly have here in Malaysia which conventionally has alarmingly high sugar content. 

Thank you for the invite, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise!

For more information on each product, click on the links above.

LA/PA @ Bangsar

Hey everyone! Sorry for not updating frequently these days (I really try though). Hope you all celebrated Chinese New Year well and ate to your hearts' contents! I was in Penang again for Chinese New Year and managed to explore even more new places. Should I do a blog post about it? Let me know if you're keen in the comments :)

Have you heard of this food app called Burpple? No? I suggest you download it now and start following all those hungry foodies! Before I continue, please note that Burpple did not pay or ask me to mention them whatsoever. I am genuinely telling you about how great this food app is when it comes to looking for food and also sharing the ones your recommend! I'm typically a little lazy to write extremely long reviews these days like the ones on my blog unless there is something I have to say. Other than that, do check out more of my favourite places on my Burpple profile HERE.

Three Burpplers and I met up in Bangsar a few weeks back to catch up because it truly has been a while since we all first met last October. LA/PA (pronounced as "lapar". For non-Malaysians, it means "hungry") is one of the newest places to makan in Bangsar so naturally we collectively decided to meet there.

As usual, parking was a nightmare so I parked at Bangsar Village II to skip the tedious, endless rounding and rounding.

Here's are some quick snaps I took of the menu. We went during brunch so we ordered 4 out of 5 items of the "Breakfast" section along with a cup of coffee each. The coffee was pretty ... meh. Nothing to shout about.

Provencal French Toast [RM19.90] of dark rye loaf seasoned with herbs de provence made with kale, basil pesto and feta cheese.

Fair warning to those who are appealed by its name, this is a savoury dish and may come off as oddly otherworldly to some.  I was impressed at the seasoning but thought it would go better with the conventional pasta. One of the Burpplers didn't fancy it considering french toasts are normally served sweet here in Malaysia. Nevertheless, it was a great thing we tried it for a new experience. The price is a downside because of its puny portion. 

Bread Basket [RM12.00] of assorted house-made breads served with garlic herb butter, spiced brown sugar & raisin butter and Bonne Maman jam. 

This is something definitely worth ordering if you're not particular about a wide variety of flavours. For that price and that amount of bread and spreads, it's a great breakfast right there. I love garlic so the garlic herb butter was a bliss to my tastebuds. 

The only fault with this was not with the dish but rather the kitchen. Our spiced sugar & raisin butter had a plastic wrapping around it. Luckily, one of the Burpplers decided to investigate it before consuming (we thought it was gelatine!). The waitress briefly apologised, took the entire dish back to the kitchen and returned with all the spreads replaced. We discussed if we should ask for a refund but decided to just let it slide.  

Pancakes & Orange Quinoa Compote [ RM19.90] of fluffy buttermilk pancakes served with spiced orange and quinoa compote, Indonesian long pepper and vanilla bean whipped cream.

The picture looks as unenthusiastic as I was when I took my first bite. The presentation made it a bit hard to grab a good picture of all 3 pieces of pancakes (or maybe I'm just a horrible photographer). Photo composition aside, they were just average pancakes lacking the fluffy texture to live up to its description in the menu. They were not all fluffy, based on what reviews are saying. They were more like a cross between fluffy and chewy. Some may like it, but sorry I don't. The quinoa was a redundancy on a plate and the orange could be just the wrong type or the wrong fruit even. It's sad to say that none of us enjoyed this over-priced breakfast. 

Duck Eggs in Purgatory [RM21.00] made with Australian spinach in creamy garlic sauce, a dash of paprika and served with baguette.

Another garlicky type of food, but this one saved me from leaving with a disappointing brunch in my stomach. It tasted so good and well flavoured even though the eggs were a wee bit overcooked. Very satisfying dish! 

Maybe they're trying out new flavours, maybe they're trying too hard to add a twist to the classic. But one thing's for sure, it'll be a while till my next visit.

Information

Address: 15, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.

Opening hours: 8.00 a.m. - 11.00 p.m. every day

Contact no.: +60322014395

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lapabangsar?fref=ts
Website: http://www.lapa.co 

Food Trail: Klang Bak Kut Teh

* BKT - Bak Kut Teh

Here are the tales of the BKT trail I did with two friends earlier this month.

What you need:

• A car (because this is no walkabout trail)
• Up to a car full of people craving for BKT
• 3 hours of your precious Saturday morning (excluding traveling time to meet at the first point and departing from the last point)
• RM40 per person
• A hurricane of hunger 
• Bring your own tea leaves if you prefer

* * * *

#1 B. H. Bak Kut Teh

Address: Jalan Batu Unjur (off Jalan Young), Pandamaran, Klang

Located along Jalan Batu Unjur, this restaurant serves individual bowls of BKT rather a huge pot for sharing. According to another Klang friend, this is the authentic way of serving Klang BKT.

We arrived considerably late at 9.30 a.m. to find the big pot of goodness already almost empty.

The veggie-less bowl of soup had a powdery texture, probably because it is the last bit of soup before the end of the pot. Ai Lin said this one is more herbal than the usual ones around which is great for me, personally. Nevertheless, it was a great start to the day with not too much soup and hence, not overly filling.

One minor downside: there wasn't any youtiao (a type of Chinese fried breadstick) in sight. But I guess that's because there's already a lot going on in that small bowl so there is no need for youtiao.

#2 Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh

Address: 17, Persiaran Pegaga, Taman Bayu Perdana, 42000 Klang

This pot required sharing and had a more smooth, oily texture to it. It is served with fresh, green lettuce and had straw mushrooms.

You can tell from the picture that its texture is thick, smooth and clear sort of. Also, I forgot to grab a picture upon its arrival which explains why the pot is not full. On a personal note, I would rank this the 3rd based on its soup because it's just too ... smooth.

This is located not very far from the first stop.

#3 Weng Heong Bak Kut Teh

Address: 28 - 30, Jalan 5, Kawasan 16, Taman Intan, Klang

Bias: it was the second time I've been here and it still lives up to its standards despite being located next to the more "well-known" BKT just door (which I have not yet tried). 

I'm not sure how else to describe this besides that it somehow all 3 of us preferred this BKT, of course judging from the soup. To be even more specific, it was like the perfect balance of flavors and texture compared the the first one which was too powdery and the second which was too smooth.  

As it was our third and final stop, we felt obliged to order the dry BKT as well - a relief from the same flavors we've been having all morning.

All in all, we managed to visit 3 places in 3 hours, which sounds like a rush but go at your own pace by all means! :)