Croatia (aka Hrvatska). I bet you’ve probably never heard of it. Well, I didn’t. Until I got invited to an event at Dubrovnik Restaurant last year. Croatia is actually close to Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Romania. In the map its that boomerang shaped orange thing in the middle. And Dubrovnik is actually the name of a city in Croatia. Based on pictures I’ve seen, I think it’s a city by the sea. Really gorgeous place.

My friends and I were invited over for some chit chat and some makan-makan. I’ve been here twice previously so haven’t really sampled all their food so it was a good time to check out the rest of the food!

What’s unique about Croatian food is the mix of Mediterranean, Greek and even Turkish (correct me if I’m wrong?) influences in their food. So expect a lot of lamb and different spices that what we’re used to. But first, a bit of history of Dubrovnik Restaurant Dina Djumic, GM & our host for the evening.

Dubrovnik Restaurant has actually been in Solaris for the past 3 years. In fact I believe they were one of the few restaurants who first opened there. At first glance, it may look intimidatingly expensive when in actual fact, there’s much to learn about this place. In preserving the authenticity of the food, they make most of their items like bread, sausages, pasta and even cheese themselves! Dina’s father, Zoran Djumic, is the Head Chef and he oversees the cooking.

So now on to the food! Warning, photo heavy post after the jump!

Note that the photos you see here might not be the same as the standard portions as we were a big group.

For starters, we had some finger food (pic above) – asparagus wrapped in beef bacon, Kobase (chicken sausages) and home-made bread with Ajvar. We also had Orangecello Martinis – a variation of Lemoncello which is lemon left to steep in pure grain alcohol (or vodka – which is easier to get). Quite an interesting taste. I liked it.

KOBASE (RM35) are home made chicken sausages (you may also order the lamb sausages) that are served with sauteed potatos and roasted capsicum. In the photo below they are cut to bite sized pieces and served with cucumber, or is that zucchini? Not too sure. I like my sausages a bit more peppery tho.

AJVAR (RM12) is a dip made of capsicum and tomatoes and some other yummy goodness. It comes with home made bread baked in the wood oven at the back of the restaurant. That pic above is (I think) a full size serving and this is one of my favourite things to order when I come.

The below pic are CEVAPI and DJUVEDJ (RM60). Cevapi are sausages of minced lamb (more lamb!) and beef which are grilled then served with my fave Ajvar. Djuvedj is special Croatian vegetable rice. I loved the Cevapi, but didn’t quite fancy the rice (I prefer bread or potatoes).

Next is Chicken Stroganoff (RM40). I know people usually have Beef stroganoff but according to Dina, our host, she found that a number of customers don’t eat beef so this is a twist on the traditional. The sauce was creamy and light, the chicken was tender. I’ve never had stroganoff before though so can’t compare it with the beef version.

Im not sure what the fish dish on the right is called –_- sorry! But it has herbed croutons on top of it. I didn’t really have this, cant comment.

I think this is something new to the menu. This is basically a pizza dough wrapped like a pita, instead of semi circle like a calzone. This one had chicken ham and cheese. Didn’t quite like this as I thought there was a bit too much dough in the middle

LAMB PEKA (RM50) served with Juicy baked potatoes. Imagine a piece of lamb, marinated with spices, sitting on a bed of potatoes and baked under an iron bell (to seal the juices in) for three (3) whole hours in a wood fire oven. That’s what Dubrovnik calls “The Best Lamb in Town”. This is really good stuff!! Read more about it HERE.

And those potatoes and onions hidden under the lamb? Absolutely delicious. To me, these are the yummiest potatoes in town! Very very good!

And of course, dessert! We had an assortment of desserts – Crepes with chocolate filling, Apple Pita (Pie) (RM16) & Royal Choc Cake (RM17). The Apple pie crust is light and the apples are cooked just slightly, not until they become a mush like in some versions of apple pie. Neither was it too cloyingly sweet.

But the royal choc cake is something you MUST order when you come here.  It’s a dark chocolate mousse-like cake with a crunchy, nutty (hazelnut) praline base. As Pei Chyi said, its like a “fererro roche” cake. Simply delicious.

Notes : I must say that the food in Dubrovnik might seem under seasoned and very “light” to some. I think this is partly because we (or me at least) are used to eating Malay/Indian food that is heavily spiced. Of course im sure you can ask for salt/pepper to add to your dish.

Anyway, planning my next trip for more Ajvar, Cevapi, Lamb Peka and Royal Chocolate Cake. Anyone wants to come with?

Dubrovnik Restaurant KL J-0G-14, Solaris Mont Kiara, No. 2 Jalan Solaris, Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur Opening Hours: Tuesday-Friday: 11:30am – 3pm, 6:30pm – 11pm Saturday & Sunday: 11:30am – 11pm Mondays : Closed Tel : 03 6203 6780 / Fax: 03 6203 6780 Google Map | Website | Facebook | Foursquare Foursquare Special : 15% discount on Every Check-in

THANK YOU to David of BuzzMedia for the invite and Dina Djumic for hosting us this evening! It was really fun!

Disclaimer : The food was provided by Dubrovnik Restaurant but this does not effect my judgment or opinion. Bear in mind that tastes are subjective so if you do drop by Dubrovnik, do leave a comment as I’d love to know what you think!

We tried out this new place for roti canai and its been our hangout when we’re in KL town.

The roti here is stretched thinly, so its crispy and fluffy. It came with sambal, dhall and curry (chicken I think). Its RM1 each.

As for the name, well we asked the auntie owner and she said, that Valentine is the name of her son. Interesting name for a roti place right?

Anyway, don’t get lost getting there : From Jalan Ampang, turn left into Jalan Semarak. After Menara Celcom on the left, pass the traffic lights and you’ll see Roti Valentine on the right after the shoplots. You’d have to find a place to uturn though.

Enjoy

Desserts!! And at the bottom “ All desserts for RM7++”. Needless to say, I decided to sit. The place had a rustic kind of feel to it. Brick walls and along the walls were shelves filled with loaves of bread on one side and tons of ingredients on the other. Not too sure if you could buy those ingredients, I neglected to ask.

The owner of the place (sorry I can’t recall his name) was friendly and dropped by our table to introduce himself. He mentioned that he and his partner were formerly from Telawi Street Bistro (god I miss those long lunches at TSB with a wood fire baked pizza and a pint of Hoegaarden) who decided to set up shop here, just mere lots away. Nice guy.

We took a look at the menu and it seemed to have an interesting selection of western dishes and pizza. The main dishes range from under RM20 (sandwiches and pies) to RM30 (lamb stew, beef ribs) to RM70 (Rump Steak 300gm). Pretty reasonable if you ask me. However, as we were too full, we settled for a Chocolate Mousse to share. I ordered some hot tea as well.

The chocolate mousse was simple, with some (unsweeted) cream on top. The mousse was not overly thick like a pudding but not runny. I thought it was nice and chocolaty without being too sweet.

Am planning to come again for the main dishes, anyone game to join me?

G3 Kitchen & Bar
19, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 2282-9019

This is a specialty restaurant, only serving a limited amount of dishes. In fact, there’s only four (4) types of ramen you can choose from. I took the house specialty – Marutama Ra-men (RM18) – ramen in chicken soup with a slice of Char Siu – with an additional topping of Ajitsuke Tamago (RM 2) – seasoned egg.

I wouldn’t actually call it “soup”. It’s really thick and rich that its almost like a broth than stock. The char siu was really fatty tho. But the star of the whole dish was the egg. Its like boiled egg with a runny egg yolk and was super yummy.

Here’s a picture of the menu taken from Rebecca of the Nomad Gourmand 

Would I come again? Yes, if I was in the area. If not for the ramen, definitely for the egg.

Marutama Ra-men
Fahrenheit 88
Lot F1.27.01, First Floor, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : +03-21411573
Business Hours : 11.30am to 10.00pm
(Non-Halal)

Golden Phoenix Chinese Restaurant in Hotel Equatorial KL is one of the finest Chinese Restaurants around and every year the best Chinese chefs in town cook up new and exotic delicacies to keep the menu fresh.

This year, there is a whole array of traditional and modern mooncakes presented and specially created by the Chefs in the Golden Phoenix. We were greeted with a table of these modern mooncakes with flavours like – Pumpkin Taro, Red Yeast Sweet Potato, and the like. They also had the traditional mooncakes – such as Mixed Nuts, Red Bean Green Tea, Single Yolk Lotus, Double Yolk Lotus and what not. More photos of mooncakes at the end of this post

In addition to the mooncakes, they also had these Shining Moonlight – little “gold ingots” made from puff pastry and with lotus paste inside. These were light and buttery but not oily nor too crumbly. The filling was not too sweet and nice. I liked these. They sell it in boxes of 9 pieces and they only make 50 boxes a day! So buy it before it gets sold out.

We also had a preview of their new menu especially created for the Mooncake season. Also, we had a mien making demo by the chef, then three bloggers got to try and make the noodles by pulling it without breaking it. This looked quite fun and i think the participants enjoyed themselves.

First on the menu is the Chicken Ginseng Soup. This soup is boiled for SIX HOURS with wolfberries, chinese dates, ginseng, cordycep, mushrooms and of course chicken. What I liked about the chicken is that the skin has been taken off (so the soup is not oily) but most importantly, the chicken still has taste. Sometimes when you boil the soup for too long, the chicken ends up tasteless, but this one didn’t. So plus points for that. Liked!

Next was the Fook Lou Chou Fan which literally translates to Rich Man’s Fried Rice. This dish has big prawns in it. Also the top is fried dried scallops. Isn’t that interesting? I wouldn’t think about deep frying it then using it on top of fried rice. Unlike your typical chinese fried rice, this one only uses egg whites and less oil so its good for the health conscious. For me, i felt it was a little bland.

Ohh this one i definitely liked. This is Scallops with Mango and Snow Peas. I believe its called “Emperor and Prince”. Mango was an interesting twist to it which made the whole dish taste unique and nice. And the scallops were huge, i mean, look at those things. Very nice.

This one I liked also. This is Fried Foo Chuk Prawn Rolls in Tom Yam Sauce. Bits of prawn wrapped in Foo Chuk then fried. Crunchy on the outside, the inside was soft and yummy, like the fillings of “har kau” prawn dimsum. The sauce complimented the slighly salty foo chuk nicely.

That dish at the back is Special Eggplant La Mien. The noodles are handmade by the chef himself and fried with minced pork, some chillies and eggplants. This dish is slightly spicy and very good.

For dessert we had Gui Ling Gao (turtle Jelly) in Coconut and Durian Pancake. The coconut juice is boiled to eliminate the “cooling” effect and the jelly is added. This dessert was quite refreshing though the turtle jelly has a slight bitterness to it. In fact this was recommended personally by one of the staff who said she drinks it 2-3 times a week.

The durian pancake was the BEST of everything. The soft skin covering the durian flesh like a pillow and the filling is pure durian flesh, not added with any cream. This pancake was utterly delicious and not too sweet. Very very good.

It was a really good food with delicious morsels and unique mooncakes guaranteed to satisfy your palate.

Golden Phoenix Chinese Restaurant
Lobby Level, Hotel Equatorial Kuala Lumpur
Open for Lunch : 12noon to 2.30pm
Open for Dinner : 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm daily.
Reservations : 03-2161 7777 ext 8455

Thank you so much to FeedMeLah.com and Hotel Equatorial for the opportunity to review their new menu and mooncakes!

Now for more mooncake photos, courtesy of April Yim. Complere set HERE.