Friday, November 28, 2008

Izzy's & Izakaya Tamako

It was so sweet of Ipoh Banker and Stanchart Model (from 19XX) asked to meet up for lunch, also for the reason of celebrating birthday. It's been years since any of us celebrated each other's birthdays, so it was quite a surprise.

Ipoh Banker was late, and the rendez vous was to have been at Pavilion. Stanchart Model then suggested Izzy's, along that row where Ship used to be (is it still there?), apparently an Indonesian owned franchise selling a mish mash of local and pseudo Italian food. The place was packed, which is always a good sign.

As I had been killing time in Pavilion, I used up my 20% birthday voucher from Times bookshop, intermittently on the line with Boolicious of Masak Masak, my walking wikipedia for all things food related. What a privilege to have such an invaluable guide. Anyway, I couldn't really find any books I really wanted, but the kiasu in me felt I HAD to use the voucher, so ended up buying one cook book and one comic book (SHERMAN'S LAGOONS LATEST, Sharks Just Wanna Have Fun).

Stanchart and I sat down, while waiting for Ipoh Banker (who actually now works in KL) to appear. He appeared, looking very dapper with shirt and tie, instead of the usual bank uniform that make them look like highly paid janitors. Anyway, he spied this package on the table, (my Times purchase) and assumed it was a present from Stanchart, so quickly chirped, "oh, the present is from the both of us".....

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Roll eyes! Anyway, after a good chuckle, we proceeded to order. Stanchart recommended the Prawn Aglio Olio and the funghi pizza.


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The pasta was lovely, and light. Perfect for lunchtime food. Not too oily either.


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Mmmm, the pizza was rather good, with generous mushroom topping. The crust could have been thinner, but overall, it was better than your average pizza hut or dominos....

I forgot to take a pic, but the bread with garlic butter was heavenly. The latter especially, but beware if you have to attend a meeting after lunch, for that garlic smell really lingers in the breath, and through the burps.....

They have this really strange deal, whereby if your mains are above RMX, you get 70% (yup, SEVENTY) discount. The soft drinks are bottomless too. Without the discount, the alacarte prices seem pricey, but our total bill came up to just over RM40, for 2 pastas, 1 large pizza, the bread and garlic butter, bottomless iced lemon tea....cheap what hor.

Since they both sound similar, I thought I'd blog about Izzykaya too in the same post. One night, AWOL and the toy couple on MSN decide they would meet up for a late dinner. As I had brought the kids for the 7pm screening of Madagascar II, we also needed to eat something for supper, so invited ourselves.

AWOL was famished, and had ordered ahead, a plate of Japanese Pork Curry Katsu with rice.



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There's something about Japanese curry. It's really a completely different taste. Rather good, but cannot be compared with our Malay curries.

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This Izakaya is famous for its various skewered stuff. Gosh, the term escapes me. But I simply LURVE the bacon and enoki yakitori. The bacon is gorgeous and porcine, without being overly fat, and the enoki lends a fabulously fibrous texture that assuages your guilt at chomping on bacon. Not being a tomato fan, I didnt care much for the bacon wrapped cherry tomato, although it wasn't bad.

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Despite having SPECIFIED I wanted SOBA, the FAT ONE, I got udon instead. Bah. The buckwheat taste is a tad too healthy for me. The tempura and soup were nice, but the noodle really spoilt it for me. AND to make things WORSE, Hairy Berry's Tampopo post, and AWOL's reference to Ramen had given me a serious Ramen craving which was not about to be fulfilled that night. Argh. Good ramen recommendations anyone?

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I always thought the Japanese were exceedingly healthy, but these skewered crispy chicken skin yakitori indicates that they can sin afterall. It's LARRRVELLLY, and were it not for the health implications, I'd have had 5 myself.

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Toyboy couldnt resist his usual staple of garlic fried rice, although they had eaten dinner. Tsk, the youth of today.


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Ooh, this one was some kind of belly pork yakitori. A carnivore's sure road to esctasy. A bit too much meat, unlike the enoki rolls which had the enoki to balance out the plentiful pork but very delicious.

Not content with all the above, we ordered more bacon enoki rolls. Absolutely yummy.

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Check out the other review at AWOL's blog.

I am off to the Western Seaboard, for the school holidays, and will be absent till Friday. Have fun at work, peeps. Pbbbbbbth.....

24 comments:

boo_licious said...

Have fun! Er, btw, the thin ones are soba while the fat white ones are udon, so they got it right when you ordered. see you when you get back!

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean about the chicken skins. I make kai-yau-char whenever I need to make chicken rice (I use the rendered fat to cook the rice). Almost as good as chee-yau-char. And it tastes almost more healthy than chee-yau-char. White meat fat mah.. :D

Any idea how they make the bacon rolls so tightly ah? I attempted something similar once, but after grilling, the rolls became kinda loose.

Breadpitt said...

those pic are just making sliver drip,and im craving now......

fatboybakes said...

Boo, hahah, no no, i wrote it wrong here, coz i definetely ordered the fat one there, and actually, wife ordered the slim one, so we ordered one soba one udon...so either way, it should have come one thin one fat...some more had such a long confirmation session about which is which...

GFAD, i havent used chicken fat for chicken rice in the last 20 years.... but only cos i havent made chicken rice for that long.... i know, its a must to have chicken fat for chicken rice...u hainanese ah?
and yes, i am sure the chicken fat is a lot healthier than the pig's fat... afterall, chicken's can fly ma, whereas pigs cant.

fatboybakes said...

breadpitt, long time no see!!! haha, love your creations la.

Anonymous said...

"Since they both sound similar, I thought I'd blog about Izzykaya too in the same post."

LOL. I was wondering about the title of your post till I saw this. Well, as good a reason as any, I suppose? Hehe.

Henry Yeo said...

Izzykaya......sounds so true when watching Grey's Anatomy.

Is that the same Izakaya that LL went to last time?
Ramen? go Japan lah, local ramen not up to par.

HairyBerry said...

I am still wondering how they are able to wrap bacon strips so perfectly around those petite tomatoes....amazed, I am! ;)

And Izzy seems ok, hor? I brushed off the idea when folks salivated over the pizza through the window...I'm such a bad son...haha!

Have a great vacation and see ya soon! ;)

Ciki said...

yar man, i agree with nic... how did they do that with the bacon and enoki yakitori.. also, it kinda reminds me of something, that i won't mention... haha

Anonymous said...

wonder why do Izzy's even bother with the ala carte prices when they run promotions of 50-70% discounts almost every month?

and the skewered stuff looks droolworthy...

Anonymous said...

I hafta agree with jasmine. Izzy's promos are to gimmicky for me. Which explains why I haven't bothered to step in there despite the gorgeous looking food.

Izakaya Tamako has made me a kushiyaki fan. Love love love the bacon and enoki mushrooms. The bacon's a little different, isn't it? It's so thinly sliced, which probably explains how they manage to get it wrapped around the mushrooms and tomatoes so well.

I'm still having cravings for ramen. :-(

Tummythoz said...

'..healthier bcos chicken can fly, pigs can't.'
Hahahahaha hapi hols.

sc said...

i love izakaya tamako's yakitoris. absolutely scrumptious. have a wonderful hol!

Anonymous said...

Have fun!

vialentino said...

delicious food pics...drooling my saliva till the ground liow...

Anonymous said...

Hmmm.. so the secret lies in the thin-ness of the bacon, eh? I'll try with some slivers of Oscar Meyer bacon then.

I din know flying animals are healthier. How did you come to that conclusion ah? Same rationale as swimming creatures being more heart-friendly? :D

I am Hokka (Hokkien+Hakka), and hence my love affair with all things porcine. :D

Anonymous said...

GFAD, greetings from ipoh, chicken heaven... nah, there's no scientific basis for my theory alas.

vialentino, thanks for dropping by! heh heh. don't slip on the puddle.

jason, any recommendations? (if u reply this after today, it'll be too late)

sc, i could use a bacon roll now... and whisky.

tummythoz, hor.... good theory hor.

AWOL, your fault la, the ramen thing. pbbbbbbth.

jasmine, yalar, i oso cant understand these promos...

ciki.......hmmm, i wonder what!! start with T ah?

hairy, where are the other izzy outlets ah? or is it the same one? yalar, bring them to eat la.

henry, brilliant suggestion. let me book my ticket to tokyo right away.

LFB, sometimes one just wants to be silly and shallow. oh, actually, not sometimes, oh dear, its ALL THE TIME!!!

Breadpitt said...

haha, thanks for giving face, haha!feel free to drop by nore often;-p

Anonymous said...

RM40+ for so much food + drinks, very the cheap leh.

Penang Tua Pui said...

good tricks to get ppl spend until certain amount and offer u discount......

win win situation....

the Japanese Pork Curry Katsu phot is a bit dark.... some how.. but overall shot is nice.

Hi I am Huat Koay From PenangTuaPui

Anonymous said...

HI there... nice food review there..

anyway, i'm still stuck on getting my way there... where is it actually? read until blurr blurr adee LOL

maybe i'm too hungry till blurr hehe

fatboybakes said...

desmond, thanks for dropping buy....
where is which one? izakaya tamako is at plaza damas, opposite the starbucks in hartamas shopping centre, if i'm not mistaken. izzy's is on jln sultan ismail, where ship etc used to be.

hi penang tua pui, thanks for dropping by. WOW, your blog is the definitive food guide of penang. fabulous!

that banana...still havent figured out who you are leh.

breadpitt, where got give face one? really, really, sincere compliment...love your stuff.

Argus Lou said...

So funny - it was like looking at my own crockery but with better food on it (I can't cook Japanese). The square plates and the rice bowl with blue bamboo print. ^_^

JT said...

What you got is Soba, which is what you ordered. The fat one is Udon.