MacLaren’s grub

Checked out a restaurant in Damansara Perdana, MacLaren’s.

Its newly-opened, so not fully decorated yet. It’s set-up is simple and casual.

Restaurant+bar

Food is British and fusion, and chef Scott is a local Eurasian boy, who’s got skills.

One of the favourites here is the Pork Ribs ($25.50 nett), which unlike most joints, here they oven-bake them.

Flashy

I think the significant factors about these ribs are the tenderness, and interesting flavours. Scott marinades d ribs in spices & ….. Coke! Then bakes it and adds an Oriental BBQ sauce.

The sauce is sweetish, with hints of spices while the meat… goddam its tender, skidding from the bone with a little effort. But dat dont mean u shd use cutlery.

Goes well with a Guinness.

Not dicks. Pigs in Blanket - large & juicy

Had to do the Pork Vindaloo ($25.50). It’s made with pork belly. Being a vindaloo, it gives a medium-low glow in the mouth on the spiciness scale, thanks to the loads of various spices and other condiments, including vinegar, making the gravy quite grainy and thick.

Piggy

Eaten with bread or rice, it’s gotta a sour-peppery tinge. Unusual and pretty good.

The Apple Lamb ($25.50) is another a curry-like dish, which is sweeter, and medium-spicy at d same time. Loaded with raisins, chunks of apple, and cashew nuts.

Sumtin different

The lamb is tender, the gravy flavoursome, and altho sweetish, does complement the meat. Could use more meat tho.

I had no space to shove dessert in. I should eat slower. But had one eye on an item called Braised Apple Compote, which contains apple braised in wine, with homemade basil & raisin ice-cream.

Everything at MacLaren’s is made from scratch, nothing out of bottles or cans, so food quality is pretty good.

Some of d items

Some of the best-sellers here are the Double Whammy (burger – double patty of your choice, bacon egg & cheese, $22), the Oxtail Soup and the pies (like Shepherd’s, Steak & Kidney, Beef Onion). The burgers are good value, beginning from $11.60, and 4 animals are available (pig/goat/chicken/cow).

Laid-back

Menu is pretty wide. There’re also sandwiches, Devil Curry and Fish ‘n Chips of course.

Tried a whisky for the first time – Glengrant. I gotta say, its very smooth and easy, with a decent bite just after d end, leaving a pleasant light burn in your mouth.

Yea. Only $232 nett a bottle here

Rick, the owner, is a Brit. So a projector screen is comin up for football n such.

Give d joint a shot.

D deals

Share

Why cocktail bars fail

I’ve seen ’em come, I’ve seen ’em go. And go…ooze.

Cocktail bars in KL tend not to do too well, tho they start pretty ambitious. I have several explanations for this. (U can also read this post about my observations on how bars can make customers consume more.)

The main one is the pricing system in this country. On top of the govt tax, bars and clubs mark-up their drinks 100% easy, and many even mark-up 200%! And that’s just for regular booze.

Cocktails? Probably 300%.

Why mark-up so highly? Because they do. And anyway you’d probably blame the government for the high prices.

(If they use cheap-shit alcohol, mark up is 1000+ %)

Cocktail culture? Not yet. Maybe not ever

Hence, people prefer to buy bottles of spirits – more bang for your buck. Higher ROI. If everybody bought individual drinks all their lives, all drinkers wd be broke by now. Cocktails? Double-broke.

So we’re so used to keeping things simple – a bottle of whisky, a pitcher of Coke or water. Done deal. Vodka? Orange or cranberry. That’s as complicated as the cocktails get for the general population.

Cocktail orders tend to be limited to sangria, margarita, mojito

Another major factor is the local F&B industry have really fucked things up. Many bars are stingy, and instead of using regular spirits in their cocktails, they use cheap-ass moonshine from Klang, meaning the cocktails taste like cock. Malaysian have gotten used to crap cocktails because of this, and so are not into it anymore. Besides shit taste, u could earn yorself a good hangover.

So-called popular bars do this too, so better check next time ur there. And many bars also use crap mixers, even if they use premium spirits. What’s the point?

U wanna pay 20-30 bucks for a piece of shit?

As for me, even tho i’m all over the  goddam place, i’ve  rarely come across really good-tasting cocktails, even by good bartenders using good shit. 80% are unbalanced and not smooth. Most are too sour, many are too sweet. One sip may be fine, but then finishing the whole glass is a different story. It can be a struggle!

What a waste of alcohol. And a waste of hard-earned money.

I think these bartenders need to drink their own cocktails a lot more, and not dip a skinny-ass straw into it and have a tiny sample. Of course most cocktails taste fine like that. Drink the whole glass. Or three.

Some bars even hire clueless foreigners! But i’ve already talked about this before.

I usually reserve cocktail-making for my house parties or travel or my blog parties.

Yea baby!

I’ve done a better job than some of these guys if i say so myself, with my Kelapa Rock (coconut water-based cocktail) and Brown Brown (Milo-ais based cocktail), among others. Easy, tasty.

At the moment, the better-known cocktail bars are View Bar, 21 and Tate. Be prepared to pay high prices.

One of the longest-living and coolest cocktail lounge was Chill. It was real smooth. Great cocktails, reasonable prices, great chilled Ibiza and Hed Kandi tunes in the afternoon/evening (and soul/funk house later at night, courtesy of DJ me!), funky decor, cool guys, and hot chicks. It had a good four-year run, but was ahead of its time.

Like dumb blondes, some only LOOK good

I look forward to cocktail bars for mainstream drinkers, with good mixers, normal-standard spirits, reasonable prices, balanced-tasting drinks, cool decor, and innovative bartenders. O yea, solid tunes too.

Share

Tres Generaciones tequila

This is a super-premium, triple-distilled tequila from the town of Tequila, Mehico.

It’s from the Sauza family, the people who bring us Sauza tequila, which is the house-pouring and cocktail base at Frontera Bar & Grill in Jaya One.

The last time i was at this Tex-Mex joint, i got blasted (tx to Kenny Sia) on some crazy Mexican chili called habanero, and tequila of course.

Ramesh of Frontera introduces us to the first of two Tres Generaciones, the Reposado (which means it’s aged between two months and a year). This one did four months in American oak. Obviously it’s 100% agave.

Reposado

The bottle is cool, like some ol skool Aztec shit. Funny, i just talked about the Aztecs in a recent post.

It has a citrusy nose, while very easy on the palette. You can swirl it around your mouth without any facial reaction then swallow. It’s got a smooth, and a lil spicy finish. No salt or lime necessary of course.

Yup, a tequila that can be sipped. But as it’s the super premium range of Sauza, expect to pay 50 bucks a shot.

The other one is the Anejo (meaning aged minimum of one year, but less than three years).

Style

The Anejo has a caramel tinge, but is less sweet and spicier. This one did 12 months in toasted American oak.

Frontera makes all its margarita from Sauza gold (which is 100% agave tequila), so u can be sure its good shit. And, rather than regular sugar syrup, the cocktail is sweetened with imported agave nectar. It tastes like herbally honey. Awesome flavour. Almost like a Ricola! Haha

And the margaritas are made with fresh lime juice. No cordial crap. A pitcher is 110++ (7.5 shots of Sauza).

Special

Frontera has the $50 for 3 deal for Guinness etc all day. Happy hours is 5-9pm, where margaritas are 2+1.

There are a total of 11 different tequila here (including Patron), besides a wide range of Mexican food. The nachos platter kicks ass.

 

Brain damage: 7.5/10

Share

Morning party!

Yea, this year, decided to throw my birthday party in the morning. 10am.

For a change.

Why are parties always at night anyway. Same ol shit.

However did have an impromptu one at Tom, Dick & Harry’s, TTDI a few days prior.

Kicked off with Guinness, then a bottle each of Ardbeg scotch, Havana Club rum, Talisker scotch, Cruzon rum, Jagerbombs (yuck) and shots of Jose Cuervo.

Not a favourite

Cheeeers...

Happy

Special thanks to Byron, Anil and Khabs. And Naveen the crazy wildcard.

Anyway, it was a beautiful Sunday morning, and i arrive at El Meson a lil after 10. Wasnt easy wakin up. Friday at TDH was obviously heavy, and Saturday i’d done the whole six-in-da-morning shit at Sniffa Dawg’s birthday bbq.

Have beers to start, followed by a few plates of Breakfast For A King, El Meson’s breakfast special.

We occupy half d joint, just nice.

Breakfast of champs

By noon, i’m several pints down n pretty zapped. Most guests are here by now.

By afternoon, it’s hazy. I recall popping a bottle of bubbly (courtesy of Mark & El Meson), drink from it, then pass it around.

Yup, recall this

Next, i whip out a bottle of Captain Morgan Black Label. Superb stuff. I have it on the rocks. Beers are not in style by now.

Who yor daddy

Hmm, watdat in the background

Then, the highlight, the ‘Caribbean surprise’ that i promised guests. It’s a rare bottle of Lemonhart Demerra 151 rum, which i featured once. Finally found a time to cut it.

At 75.5%, it’s not sumtin to fuck with. There’s a warning label about how flammable it is.

Major artillery

I have it neat, from d bottle.

This shit got me by surprise. Considering it’s strength, this dark rum from Guyana is pretty smooth, taste-wise at least. Love it.

I pass the bottle around, and everyone has a sip or two. Somehow, both rums are cleaned.

Dark rums. Yummy.

Party in effect

The plan was to end at lunchtime.

Bad plan. The thing about a plan is dat sometimes it gets in d way.

JB Paul

Experience some degree of brown-out, especially from 2pm to 4pm. I think. I might even experienced D.I.A., but dats just speculation.

My plan was for a small one, 15 pax. We probably had a lil more over the course of the day.

Quite bent, i split the breakfast party at 5pm. Time just flies.

An awesome morning, afternoon and evening. Thanks to El Meson too.

A real unique gig to remember! Or not remember, either way.

 

Brain damage: 9/10

Related Posts with Thumbnails
Share