Monday, October 20, 2008

Prego at The Westin

Now, if the WIFE had bought me these shower gels, I'd have suspected foul play was ominous. Afterall, it would seem like she's preparing to marinade me and perhaps cook me.... check out these delectable flavours...Lemongrass & tamarind, Tomato & tangerine, Mushroom and Ginseng!!!!, Spearmint and Bamboo.....

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However, it was not the Wife who bought it, but me myself, from Boots in Bangkok. They have such a nice range of shower gels, and I have a shower gel disorder. Since we should be on austerity drive, Body Shop has been kicked out of the equation.... L'Occitane was never really within my league, and neither was Origins, etc... So the Boots options are good and relatively cheap. Can't wait to marinade myself....

On Saturday, we headed to Prego for friend's birthday dinner. Had brought along these cupcakes, as one of the other dinner mates had ordered them for her daughter's birthday.


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Me not being a cupcake person, these were made specially since the orderer is an OLD dear friend....Chocolate Chip Cupcakes....and also Oreo Mousse Cakelets...the photo was shocking so I didnt bother putting it up.

First up was the bread....plebian me asked for butter, although the olive oil balsamic mixture was rather palatable, as was the salsa dip. The bread was yummy. We were also hungry.

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Wife's salt crusted sea bass was the first to arrive. We saw them shucking the salted sea bass, and heard her say, Oh Dear I hope that's not mine! But it turned out good.

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The clam chowder is very rich, and creamy. Could stand a spoon in it. Good stuff for a cold wintery night. (so we're in the wrong country) Meanwhile, a commotion ensued at the next table, as a large fat cockroach was roaming free, and I guess mat salleh's are a bit less tolerant about wild fauna roaming the restaurant floors. Eventually, the man tracked it down all the way to the wall, and squished it with a napkin and presumably brought it to show the manager. Very Victor Victoria. Wonder if they got a free meal?

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The mushroom pizza was superb. A thin crust, slathered with mushroom paste, and some roughly chopped up mushrooms. Very subtle. Must try to make.

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Friend's carbonara. Looked too rich for me. I cannot finish a carbonara pasta by myself these days.
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A smoked salmon pizza.... Not so good. The carnivores were saying AIYA, MUSHROOM PIZZA ONLY AH? WE NEED SOME MEAT. Big mistake. firstly, coz everything came out together, soup, starters, dessert, mains, (ok, no dessert), we became full very fast. Secondly, the smoked salmon was actually a bit fishy.....

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The Deaf One had carpaccio.... with rocket.....it was good, apparently.

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I forgot to check what this was, but it looked like an aglio olio with a prawn.....no complaints there. Looked quite good.

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My roasted rotisserie duck in balsamic sauce. Very good. At first it looked HUGE, the portion, but we then realised the duck's bone structure is a lot more complex than that of a chicken, and there was a LOT of bone. The meat was bordering on the tough side, but tasty and gamy. I guess if one wanted soft tender duck meat, just eat Chinese Siu Ngap. It was a pity it was served with polenta. I'd much rather have had wasabi mash or something.

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Hotels are becoming more kiasi these days. If you take away food, you have to SIGN an indemnity, clearing them of all responsibility if you keel over and die from food poisoning..... I thought this was rich, considering the vermin cockroach that was running around earlier on as if he owned the hotel..... the same applies for birthday cakes brought from outside. Have to sign indemnity.....

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So, I signed the indemnity for the pizza, but decided to accept their free mud cake rather than serving our own cake, and having to sign more paperwork.

I used my Starwood group dining voucher, with a 25% discount, and the meal came up to RM420 for six people. Pretty reasonable I thought.....even without discount, it'd have been RM530 thereabouts. Not to bad huh!


25 comments:

Ciki said...

there was a roach running around the westin ! isn't that terrible for prego's reputation, now that half of klang valley have read about it ;)

Anonymous said...

You know what else would go well with the rotisserie duck? Vino cotto. Yeah. But hey, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

aiyoh duck got to go with sweet sauce and oil rice la..what mash..guess ur not that simple of a plebian after all la..diff league for this 1..

Tummythoz said...

Sign indemnity? Too may lawsuits?

Julian Si said...

Great post, loved the photos ... Macro lens?

I am using my new SP90 (Tamron) to good effect on my trusty ol body, Nikon D80. Starting to post a few piccies, such as a recent home cooked meal and Cova at the Gardens too.

I loved the bit about the indemnity :-) Haha!!

Babe_KL said...

actually the hotels are not keen for guests to tarpau unfinished food but i never knew need to sign off indemnity hahaha. i hosted a buffet dinner once and they never allowed us to tarpau even though i technically paid for the event! DUH

Anonymous said...

shucking the salted sea bass
How does one shuck a fish? And what's salted sea bass anyway? Harm yee ah??

I had duck breast recently at a french restaurant. It came with some turnip mash and sugar-glazed radish (or was it radish mash with glazed turnip??) with droplets of raspberry coulis. Nice. Could have done with more mash - it was the most delish thing on the plate.

Hotels do the indemnity thingy here. Don't remember having to sign though. Yeah, you should have asked them if it applies when you get sick from having a cockroach run over your food..

Less than RM100 per head for a 2-course meal?

HairyBerry said...

how does one smell like after a mushroom and ginseng body wash ar? i guess the chef at the dai chow stall will not need any of these...hehehe...jokez...i'm sure they are nice! :)

i think the most attractive dish (for me) is the duck lar...but ya lor...why polenta one?? a wasabi mash would hv been nice. we are afterall, chinese and we lurve our yins and yangs...hehehe...

Bangsar-bAbE said...

Carbonara looks good. Same goes for the clam chowder. I heart cheesy and creamy sauces. :D

Ooohhh, wasabi mash would have been nice! In picture, the smoked salmon pizza looks darn good. A shame the salmon was fishy...

Argus Lou said...

Oh, clam chowder reminds me of college days in Montana. Had to serve it at the food service hall. Very good too, it was. :-P

RM500 for a meal for six is reasonable? Wah, you rollin' in moolah or what?

Anonymous said...

argus, really leh, these days, for KL, if you can get away with less than RM100 per head for western, sum more at a 5 star hotel, is considered reasonable....

bangsar babe, yeah, i heart wasabi mash..(oh my gosh, i cant believe i i said i heart...argh, old man, act your age)

argh, kid wants to use pc, have to reply other comments later...

Anonymous said...

LOL... Kids these days, snatching the PC away from their blogger daddies... :P

The food all looks good and I can carbonara a ton of pasta any day... But I'm rich and creamy liddat. ;)

Henry Yeo said...

lfb: someday, all those carbonara will pack a ton on your body frame and we shall see what happens.

fbb: i wonder how cheap you will be when you go to nerovivo next month?

fatboybakes said...

henry, november's not looking good for me, i seem to have no more free nights, as it's also my birthday month. so will have to give nerovivo a miss.

LFB, well, there is certainly no evidence on your svelte frame that you've been weaned on carbonaras...anyway, u can still afford a few more kilos, unlike some of us

hairy berry, i dunno wor, i havent used the mushroom ginseng one yet... i should use it in a sauna and see if i feel like a spring chicken...

salt crusted seabass la, GFAD. its like yim kok kai. the fish is crusted in salt. i shoulda taken a pic..the idiot server didnt bring it to our table, and did it from afar...

babe, yala, and apparently staff arent allowed to pack home either...so much wastage hor..

jules, 50mm lens. yes, i read all your posts, cova etc... cool pics.

tummythoz, well, i remember le meridien had a similar thing, but didnt have to sign in b&w.

nipples, yup, nuffink like duck with sweet sauce and oily rice. yummmm

AWOL, i'm sure the vino kote will go loverly with that duck...

ciki, LARKY for westin, my readership is confined to 8 or 9 readers...so that's hardly half of the klang valley!!!! can they sue me ah? its factual right? no libellious...

Jason said...

Yea, I think Boots are rather good too... but mushroom and ginseng? O.o Sounds like soup...

Anonymous said...

i am really hungry looking at the food. argh!

btw, the boots store is so cool! they have almost everything there!

Argus Lou said...

I'm like you in that I'm a shower gel and bath creme 'ho', too. ;-)
The Boots range, which is not so affordable here, had 30 percent off last season and I bought a few.
Sephora and Zara Home have interesting ones too.
I'm sure the once-a-fortnight cleaning person hates me for having so many things around the bathtub, heh heh.

Anonymous said...

argus, surprising, about boots. i dunno why there's no boots in msia. i dun think we have sephora and zara home. i have at least 15 bottles of shower gel and 5 shampoo ready at any one time.

xin, yalor, here dont have hor. so sad.

jason, it DOES, doesnt it. back in the body shop days, i used to feel like drinking some of the shower gel.

Anonymous said...

Not on my general frame, no. But I'm a proud owner of a bonafide beer belly now. (Sans beer.) Maybe you can call me PotBelly Kenny now. LOL

All this talk of shower gels is making me crave a shower now. Feel so dirty. :P

Henry Yeo said...

lfb: photographic evidence please.

Catherine said...

Hi, I notcied that you listed quite an array of gells, including lemongrass & tamarind, Tomato & tangerine, Mushroom and Ginseng, Spearmint and Bamboo.

I have a question, though, these are a number of a flavors that I quite enjoy and use in much of my own cooking, but how would you reccomend using these flavors in combination, if indeed you would at all?

Thanks! By the way, I keep my own cooking blog at -

livingthegourmet.blogspot.com

Tell me what you think and any possible tips you might have, thank you!

daphne said...

Oh u got me laughing (and coughing) when I read the first paragraph. Marinate yourself huh? LOL

Those dishes certainly made me think of some homecooked versions..esp the salmon pizza.

Simon Seow said...

Hard to find good bowl of clam chowder soup nowadays, last I found a good one is in Carl's Diner 13 years ago in Lot 10.

Nate @ House of Annie said...

sign an indemnity? That's too much! So sad.

Raynebow said...

Ohh I love Boots' toiletries - the lemongrass one is my favourite, hehe!