Beef & Reef, Gobo Downstairs, Traders Hotel

Okay, there's no Gobo Downstairs, only Upstairs, ...it's called Gobo Chit Chat...

Now, honestly, I am not a buffet person. Contrary to popular belief, people are under this illusion that fat people love buffets. Au contraire, calories are cheap, and ahem, we (the fat people) prefer quality over quantity. If it takes a lot of good stuff to keep us fat, then so be it.

It always baffles me how the likes of Alison Victor can stay so slim. The way she chugs beer and all. Okay, when it comes to eating, she cheats, she jettisons half her plate to unwitting victims. Anyway, when Theresa, that dear lady who is the Communications Manager ( I think that's her designation) of Traders, not the other one from Calcutta, invited us for a Beef & Reef tasting, well, who can say no to Beef and Reef. That's a new moniker to what is more commonly Surf and Turf, or Fish and Sheeps... you get the drift.

The traffic into town on a Friday evening, let's not even go there, and yeah, as my bladder was about to explode like the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, I also wished I wasnt going there. However, thanks to my in built GPS brain, I managed to mitigate the traffic somewhat, and even got there ahead of Aly. And Dilly, of Mix FM, (previously from Red FM), ...yup, I was amongst celebrities, and Theresa, and THAT made it allll worthwhile. You may now go "AWWWWW".


They weren't kidding about the beef. There was a lot of it, in various forms.










And the reef was not to be outdone by the beef.....


There were other offerings too, apart from beef & reef.... the usual buffet stuff


There was kind of a middle eastern promo going on, and they had this gorgeous middle eastern dessert, I forget the name, but it was yummy.


Tarts of all shapes and sizes, and fillings, adorned the dessert counter





Baklavas! I made sure I had my share, seeing as to how EXPENSIVE they are outside.





The BBQ station has fresh water prawns, slipper lobsters, salmon fillets, stingray, baked spring bay mussels, etc.


For once, Aly did not rush for the sang har mee....


Yorkshire pudds for the roast beef....


Can you guess what these are???

There's even a fresh juice counter....






Lovely sushi...almost too pretty to chomp down, and all those little nemo eggs....I hope there isnt some sad fish out there suffering post partum depression from losing all her lil eggs to the sushi counter.


Reminds me of these two characters from Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID, Flotsam & Jetson

When you're sitting with Theresa, there are perks. With a wave of the hand, and the quick whisper, theoretically we didnt have to walk around the buffet at all...the buffet came to us...


The stuff that was freshly cooked was really fabulous. Tender slices of moist succulent beef, fresh sweet crab claws, ....



Celebrity on my table....who I dunno for what reason in God's green earth, decided to order PASTA....aiyo, it's as bad as people who go to buffets and fill up on fried rice.







Is it possible for scientist to clone a crab that is all claw? I want.



Look, if I had been in this pic, I'd have been Bosley.... the original one.

Anyway, the normal buffet is priced at RM60++for lunch, and RM70++ for dinner..what a STEAL! However, on Fridays and Saturday, with the beef & reef, it is a bit more, I think it's RM98++, but hey, its a STEAL. Heck, I'd go just for the crab claws, and beef...that alone makes it worthwhile already.

Thanks Theresa!!!!

To book, Call Traders Hotel 03-23329888. Gobo Chit Chat.

ps- there must be close to a hundred items in the buffet, so obviously I could not feature them all. It IS, extensive!

Breton Apple Pie, Nick Malgieri

Now that most of the series that I follow on TV have come to an end, or end of season, (eg, CSI NY, CSI Vegas, Brothers and Sisters, Game of Thrones, Camelot) I find myself finding solace once again in cookbooks, usually before going to bed. This beauty was given to me by Boolicious, as a birthday present a couple of years back, and I have so far only tried one recipe from there, one step croissants. A bit misleading, coz it's HARDLY one step. Anyway, that was a botched attempt... I think our hot and humid weather and my sauna of a kitchen are not conducive for croissant making.


One night, after a disturbing watch of Spartacus, Blood and Sand, and the uninhibited violence, which shows the slitting of the throat, and blood spurting out like a slaughtered chicken, from the bad guy's neck, (actually he wasn't a bad guy, just doing his job la, as a gladiator, much like our FRU fellas), I thought I'd dispel the gory images by flipping through some food porn. And I stumbled across what I thought was rather interesting, the BRETON APPLE PIE. The description intrigued me, it said the crust was almost cake like. But, the thing that caught my eye was the use of 4-5 egg yolks for the pastry. I always have a lot of egg yolks from Pavlovas, and apart from making custard or pastry cream, and fattening the already horizontally challenged FBB-lets, I tear my hair out wondering what to do with my yolks. Indonesian layer cakes require a lot of them, but it also requires a lot of time.

So this dough recipe, I thought, would be a good way to get rid of them yolks.

Pastry
200 gm butter
4 yolks
1 cup sugar (which I reduced to 3/4 cup)
2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (not essence)
1 extra yolk for brushing.

For the filling, get the domestic help, or child labour, or a knitting grandmother, to peel and core 8 apples. The book says 1.5kg of Golden Delicious, but I mixed it with Granny Smiths, (the green type, not a knitting grandmother).
Stew the apples (cut into 8s) in 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon, (I upped it to 1 tablespoon...I like my cinnamon in apples), with a dollop of butter and squeeze of lemon juice.
Stew stew stew until the apples are tender. Like a woman's heart. Some women anyway.



Strain the cooked apples, letting all the liquid sieve out. Afterall, you dont want a soggy pie, which is as bad as soggy biscuits.


Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Can someone explain to me how creamed yellow butter turns pale? Does that mean if we cream a chink enough he becomes white? Oooh, now there's a thought. Add the yolks, one by one....the way the animals boarded the ark. Oh, hangon, that's two by two. Sorry.


Chuck in the flour, and scrape with a spatula, to bind together. Although the number of yolks seem to imply an inordinate amount of liquid, surprisingly, the dough was fairly pliable, and not watery. The instruction was to roll it out into a 10 inch diameter x 2" tall pan. However, instinct told me that there will not be enough pastry, so I used a 9" pan instead. You're supposed to roll the pastry into the pan, up the sides as well.


You cant really tell here, but the pastry does creep up the sides, about 1.5 inches. One reason why I havent done more bake and take picture posts is coz its helluva inconvenient to roll pastry in one hand and handle a camera in another hand. Let alone a dslr. These are taken using the Iphone 4, which is idiot proof...somewhat.


Chuck in the apples. You can see from here, with some frame of reference, that the pastry does come up the sides.


Oh, sorry, I forgot to say, roll out 2/3rds of the pastry, leaving 1/3rd for the top. As it is, even with a smaller pan, I was struggling to have enough pastry to cover everything. Roll out the balance pastry and cover the pie. Much like a normal pie, though Nick made it sound very complicated. Brush the top of the pie with the egg yolk. (actually in the book it says whole egg with some water for the egg wash, but I needed the whites for pavlova).


Bake for 50 mins in 180C (or 160C in my oven, with fan).... I was quite pleased with the results actually, a cake cum pie, like a Chindian or some other mix. The color (okay, Iphone 4 white balance is iffy) was a lovely golden brown.


Now, the only thing missing was a dollop of Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream.





Verdict - Yummy. Actually, contrary to popular belief, this version is probably easier than a normal apple pie, because you can botch up the pastry a bit, and it doesnt require the fiddly task of rolling out pastry, lifting it into a pie dish, etc. The texture of the pastry/cake is precisely as described. Not quite pie, not quite cake. It makes for easy storage and refrigeration. Oh, and do serve it with pure cream or vanilla ice cream. That was sorely missing.

Toastina, Sheraton Imperial

You know, I have to say, that the F&B in Sheraton Imperial has improved by leaps and bounds compared to a few years ago, when I had the most shockingly bad buffet at the coffee house, in that era before it was known as Essence. Kudos to the F&B team for really making a 180 degree turnaround in the quality, etc.

The latest Toast in town, is a quaint little deli/bistro type outlet, tucked away in a corner of the hotel, mainly targetted at the office crowds in the surrounding area, I suppose, for a light lunch, or tea....

After a couple of botched appointments, I finally made it, at the invitation of the lovely Evelyn Koh, and Cindy, to dine with the two lovely ladies, over lunch. They must think I eat for two, coz there was sure a helluva food and those two eat like birds....not the large vulture type birds, but little sparrows...






A lovely refreshing drink aptly called REJUVENATE, a mixture of apple juice and mint. RM12-00. Actually, I simply have to replicate this at home. It is remarkably simple and tastes great.


Latte, for later....only RM5-00. Cheap hor.


Caesar salad with garlic toast –RM 12.00. Love the presentation, them little jars are so cute. Though I'm not so sure about practical wise. It would be hard to lick up all the dressing if you really liked it.

Potato, broad bean and bacon – RM16.90- Loved the potato salad. The dressing was slightly tangy, not just plonked mayonnaise from a jar kinda thing.








Braised beef cheek pie with pea mash and chips – RM20.00; there's something underrated about mushy peas. I love peas, and I also love them mashed, so this accompaniment was a boon for me. But, I have to say, I found the pastry for the beef pie a tad too thick, .... I reckon they should have just stuck with the puff pastry they used for the chicken pie...



Chicken and corn pie with balsamic marinated arugula – RM12.00 - Frankly, at this price, this dish is a STEAL!!!! Look at that lovely puff pastry, all buttery and airy. And aragula.... the BMW of vegetables. RM3.99 for 150gm in Supermarkets. Must be planted in gold.


Crème caramel ice blended – RM16.00 - For the sweet toothed. Of which I am not. Contrary to popular belief.


The cross section of the beef pie. The filling is nice, but as I said earlier, the pastry leaves a bit to be desired. It could have been a one off thing, afterall, pastries are as unpredictable as our government's stand on public rallies.


Then, a sampling of a trio of sandwiches.
Wild mushroom, cheese and walnut – RM18.00
Asparagus aioli and artichoke hearts – RM15.00
Smoked roasted salmon, capers berry, confit tomato, wild rocket and horseradish – RM24.00


I'm a sucker for croissants, and love them as breads for sandwiches, which I understand is the least healthy option of all the breads.... unless you count deep fried Chinese man taus. However, my favourite filling of the three was the asparagus aioli and artichoke hearts.


There's a nice outdoor area, and a bar for happy hours. I imagine it would be quite pleasant, in the evenings, having a tipple or two, watching stressed office workers running to catch the train.








The deli area serves take away popcorn too, which I thought was incongruous with the surroundings, but apparently office people do nip down every now and then to get some popcorn. Maybe to accompany the movie they downloaded on their office PCs.



Linzer Tart Cake – RM8.50, New York cheese cake – RM10.00,Chocolate mousse éclair – RM5.00
Another trio of a sampling platter. But really, I was soooo full at this point, even bulimia would not have eased the discomfort of having food up to the nostrils. Cindy & Evelyn must really be trying to help me keep my figure.

Actually, if I were in the neighbourhood, I would not hesitate to pop in here for a quick and nice lunch, and very reasonably priced too I might add.

Check out Eat Drink KL review HERE.

Ghee Biscuits - The Latest In My Series of Weird Cravings

I've been having some strange culinary cravings lately. On Monday, I craved a Macdonald's apple pie. Something about that deep fried goodness and crunchy apple that draws me to it like a camel to an oasis. Then yesterday, through some very bad inceptionizing by fellow twitters, GFAD posted a link to LARD COOKIES WITH DULCE DELECHE ICE CREAM. Since lard is out of the question, I thought of my tin of QBB Ghee that has been sitting pretty on the larder shelf, and thought, hmm, I should make ghee biscuits with Salty Caramel Ice Cream instead. By the way, I am not pregnant. I might look it, around 5 - 6 months, but I can assure you, its just a cute little fart.



























Anyway, Babe In the City KL promptly directed me to one of her recipes for easy Ghee Cookies. Yay, I thought. Easy. I like. Happy as a lark, I open the tin of ghee, the bovine smell that would probably cause my late grandmother to vomit, (sou, as they call it) hit the nostrils like a Spartan sword digs their nose. As always, being a very bad student, I always never read thee exam questions, or in case, the recipe, properly. Suddenly, I see that the sugar has to be MILLED! Who mills anything in this day and age? Luckily I have one of these handy at home.




Moral of the story, always keep your ass handy, you never know when you might need it to mill some sugar.






















Thank goodness we have the automatic version of the miller with the ass, imagine, in my greatgrandmother's time, they had to use this manual one, with no horsepower. Or asspower.



























There's something very gratifying about rolling balls, especially greasy ones. I am a ghee biscuit virgin, so I was not very delicate in handling them. With all gluten, too much kneading produces a tough cookie, unlike humans, when too much needing makes one soft. [when I shared this with Awhiffoflemongrass, she said, ah, I see a blog post coming].

Incidentally, milled castor sugar has the texture of what I imagine coke would look like....or a more child friendly example, icing sugar. But you cant use icing sugar, according to BabeKL because it contains cornstarch which makes your balls hard.



Ah, my first attempt at Ghee Biscuits. I have to say, they weren't bad at all. Rather melt in the mouth, goes well with a hot mug of black coffee, no sugar.

Thanks BabeKL for the recipe. I shall attempt it again with a lighter touch on the balls for a more melt in the mouth experience.