The Relaunch Of Cava's Menu

Being the peasant that I am, I always thought Cava meant Cave, in some language.  Maybe it does, but certainly not in Spanish, where it actually is the Spanish sparkling wine of Denominación de Origen (DO) status, most of which is produced in Catalonia, (cut and pasted from Wikileaks Wikipedia), I guess in much the same way sparkling wine from Champagne is called Champagne, and only those from Champagne can be called that.  So if you're going to use grapes from Genting Highlands to make sparkling wine, no, you cannot call it a Cava.  Maybe BatuCaves can la.

An invite from Peter Yew, the high powered fella who is in charge of most of the restaurants along Jln Bangkung, is always a welcome invite, for there is always a promise of good food, wine, and company, not necessarily in that order.  And new menu launches are always exciting, although, truth be told, as I age, I am getting less adventurous, and am happy with half boiled eggs every morning.

We start with their signature red wine Sangria.  I'm not a sangria fan, because I find the whole concoction too sweet.  That's the God honest truth.  We had a choice of red or white sangria.  Unlike the normal stuff you see elsewhere with fruit floating around like flotsam and jetsom from a sunken vessel, this one didn't have any debris that might choke your vocal chords as you imbibe. 

What the Cava management had done was, to get a guest chef from Spain, the very lovely Chef Maria Elena who spent three months training the chefs of Cava KL to produce authentic Spanish cuisine. 

I wonder if her most asked question during her tenure was, HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM, CHEF MARIA? (To the tune of Maria in the SOUND OF MUSIC).  Somelier Jonathan Lim also explains to us the various wines that were to be paired with the dinner.  Meanwhile, Ciki and I were fidgety and couldn't wait to lap up the wine, instead of the sangria.  Shameless we are.

We were seated at this little nook in the restaurant, kind of like a private dining area.  The picture of the wolf on the snow, is topic for discussion...is it dying? Is it napping?  Do wolves (or is it a dingo) sleep with their eyes open? 

The chic and tasteful interior of Cava.  Pictures of various diners, not necessarily celebrities, adorn the walls, across from a well stocked bar. 

Maria says that with our balmy hot weather, the idea of a cold soup shooter would be refreshing.  Of course, cold soup goes against the grain of every Asian, and in particular, Chinese tongue, whereby if the soup doesn't scald your tongues, it needs to be sent back.  But when in Spain, do as the Spanish do.  The wonderfully refreshing carrot tomato soup titillated our palate for more food. 

Pulpa a la Gallega, Spanish octopus with potato, lightly dusted with paprika.  The texture and taste of this Spanish tentacled creature is amazing.  Unlike some of the rubbery stuff that wash up on our local shores, manufactured by Dunlop, this octopus is tender, and flavourful, almost as if it was spawned by abalone and err...very young calamari. 

Patatas Bravas With Cava's Famous Chilli Padi Pesto - For the brave, spicy tomato & Aioli.  I loved the chilli padi pesto, and reckon Cava should bottle and sell it.  The baby potatoes are so flavourful, crunchy yet soft, creamy almost.  Apparently this is a staple tapas in Spain.  I wouldn't know, as the closest I've been to Spain is...Italy.

Grilled Asparagus With Romesco Sauce, a lovely lovely paste almost made from roasted almond, garlic, capsicum, olive oil and paprika.  Simplicity embellished with culinary genius.  The perfect combination. 

Olives Villeroy with Creamy Pesto. Basically breaded olives, which I forgot to take a cross sectional of, but you can see it at CCFOODTRAVEL and BROUGHTUPTOSHARE blogs.

Cava's Specialty Arroz Negro, a squid ink paella with squid and prawns, with garlic aioli. Which begs the question, who first discovered that squid ink is edible? And how did they verify that? Did they test it on an animal first?  Just one in a list of a thousand food questions that constantly run through my head.

Back to the dish at hand, thumbs up for this paella.  Different from the usual ones, which are usually inundated with every imaginable seafood and meats.  Again, the sheer minimalistic-ness of this dish really serves to help the eater focus on the flavours at hand. 

Cava's Specialty Piquillo Peppers, stuffed with seafood, served with creamy piquillo sauce and asparagus.  These unique peppers are found only in the North of Spain, and Peru.  Either way, both a long way from here. The piquillo sauce is such a treat to the palate. 

Saucery, with peppercorn, chimichurri, Gorgonzola, and Mushrooms and Wild Ceps to accompany....

Australia Goulburn Valley Premium Grass Fed Sirloin...after the exotica of the Spanish filled ingredients in the dishes, I'd say the beef was comfort food.  It was nice to try the meats with the different sauces, of which, I loved the gorgonzola.  The beef was seared nicely, and tender enough.

The mains were paired with CVNE Monopole Viura 2011 (Rioja) White or Altanza Le Altanza Crianza 2009 (Rioja) Red.  Riojas hail from the Alta Region in Spain, and are of higher quality than lower lying grapes.  The whites taste much like the Sauvignon Blancs.

Dessert was a simple strawberry with fresh whipped cream, or more exotically, FRESAS Y NATA.  Can't go wrong there, if it's good enough for Wimbledon, it's good enough for me.  Nice to pair with Castillo Perelada CAVA Brut Reservation NV. 

That's us!

Cava Restaurant and Bar
71, Jalan Bangkung,
Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar
59100 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Tel: +603 2093 6637
Business Hours:
Mon – Sat: 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm – 12:00 am
Sun: 6:00 pm – 12:00 am

El Cerdo, Porcine Paradise

You know when you enter a place, that even the door knobs are embellished with pictures of cute little piggies, that it is an establishment not kosher. When wall upon wall are filled with more portraits of those cute pink babes in all shapes and sizes, you know that these slitty chinese eyes, that were made to gaze upon char siew and siew yoke, light up like when one shines a torch into a dumb blond's ears.

El Cerdo, on Changkat Raja Chulan, same row as Frangipanni is one such establishment. There's so much pig QI in the air, I swear I'd grown a curly tail and grunted to the wife by the time we left.

I only saw one non pork item on the menu, which was oxtail. I guess fish would be quite safe here, if they wanted to live. The place was packed, for a Monday night, with pockets of large crowds. All oldies lah. Fortunately for us, Young Lawyer in our party, being quite the gourmand, has eaten extensively in the area, and was no stranger to the place, and knew exactly what to order. There is something indescribably wonderful when someone takes over the ordering, its like a sudden release of pressure from an over inflated tyre. Suddenly the mind switches off, and enables us to focus on the other aspects of the dinner, such as the gossip about a high profile murder trial. I suspect this is why some women love it when a man takes over during a date, and does the ordering.

Anyway, to start, we had a little cup of mushroom soup.... I'm not sure if it was on the house or not. (oh oh, we had this fiasco with mineral water...I am one of those strictly against paying RM18++ for a bottle of imported mineral water....so voiced my objection loudly to the manageress, but soon enough, we were served ice water in carafes. (but not before two bottles of Panna had already been opened).

That was followed by the most sublime thin slices of parma ham and rockmelon. I have to say it was a first for a jakun like me, though I have seen many pictures of parma being served with rockmelon. The saltiness of the ham marries with the sweet rockmelon, making it a match like Thelma and Louise. Plebs that we were, all asked for butter for the bread, which was actually meant to be eaten with the ham.





Next was a pork medallion kinda thing, with some saurkrautish potato, which was nice, but not outstanding. Very yummy was the bacon wrapped around some paste with anchovy. A trite salty, and bad for the blood pressure, but what the heck. Tasted gorgeous.



Then came the piece d resistance, imho. The paella. Now, nothing like good old PORK to really add taste to a dish. Not normally a paella fan, (to me, its like soggy fried rice...maybe coz I've never tasted better), I was wowed by the burst of flavours in this particular one. Large succulent prawns, pork sausages, saffron arborio rice, what's not to like.



With that outstanding carbo out of the way, we could now refocus on their specialty, roast suckling piglet. They're even smaller than the chinese ones, but let's not go into the whole issue of when and what age is it humane to slaughter an animal. Very interesting dish, because the owner comes around, with a plate, and uses the plate to chop up the piglet into slices. Then, in some european tradition, he smashes the plate. (into a bucket).


The meat was tender and perfect. The skin could have been crispier, but overall, it was a gastronomic pigging out feast.

Then came my favourite part, dessert. Actually I have no idea what the stuff was, but it was a lovely mixture of summer berries, ie, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries in a thick cream, which I wasnt even sure was ice cream or just cold cream, but it was divinely good. It was served as below at first, doubling as a "birthday cake" for our friend.


The one above was a rum and raisin pancake, with vanilla ice cream. Also very good. The pancake was thick, and had lots of body. I would have preferred more taste of rum, as my own raisins are perpetually soaking in a tub with rum. (now now children, by raisins I meant the real thing, ie, dried grapes).

To finish off, we were given these shot glasses of something that vaguely resembled a margarita.


What a lovely meal, thanks to our three gracious hosts.

On a separate note, my dear insurance agent dropped this off for me yesterday. A very superb range of corn that can be eaten raw. I was a bit sceptical at first, but yes, it indeed can be eaten raw, and tastes very sweet. But halfway through one cob, I felt very jelak. I think I prefer mine cooked. Can anyone tell me what species of corn this is? Probably GMO.