A meal at Brussels

It's again time to catch up with food posts that I had not had time to write!

Brussels Beer Cafe was having a lunch promotion on weekdays. It cost RM17.90 for a main dish, a drink, and a salad/entrée/dessert buffet. (still need to add on 10% service charge and 6% tax)

crispy thai fish salad with rice

fried pork chop with mushroom cream sauce

grilled lamb chop with frites and spicy yogurt

Everything was pretty decent. As you can see, the main dishes did not come with any salad, because we could get it outselves at the salad bar (with a choice of vinaigrette or thousand island sauce).

The salad bar had purple mashed potato (or should I say mashed purple potato?), which for some reason had small cubes of chicken in it. The soup of the day was chicken soup, and was a bit on the watery side, so it was not that good. The fruit (of the day?) was watermelon, and the first tray was very sweet, but the later refills weren't as sweet. So that would depend on luck.

A cup a day, and a cake to share

The other day we had a farewell lunch for Jackie (the name is important, as you will see :P )

We went to a place called A Cup A Day, although for some silly reason it was actually registered as Acupaday, which bring "acupuncture" to mind.

I like the decor, though some of the others said that it seemed very simple. The photos of the decor are courtesy of our guest of honour; I only took photos of the food! :P 

I find that the food presentation is a lot better than the actual taste itself. Though the taste was not "bad"... it was just normal.

I initially didn't plan to take a photo of the coffees... I thought, it's just a leaf pattern, we've seen it all before! Then I saw the swan on the other cup. On the left is regular latte, and on the right is butterscotch latte. I tried a sip; there was not much butterscotch taste in it though.

Then there is the most photogenic drink of all, "espresso cube in silky milk" (RM15). I'm not sure whether that's the regular price or the lunch price. For lunch, some drinks come free of charge (like my peach tea which I didn't take a photo of), and the coffees above were charged only RM5 instead of the actual menu price.

the instructions

While waiting for our food, we ordered a slice of cake to share.

Belgian cheese cake, RM14

 When we saw that they had written so much stuff on the serving board, we requested that they write "Jackie" for us. The server looked puzzled, but complied. :D

See the added word?

This was the best-tasting thing at that lunch! First layer was chocolate cake, second layer was cheese, and at the bottom, more chocolate (not cake).

Then on to the main course...

bagel rendang chicken, RM20

just to let you see the top of the bagel

This is a fusion dish, and it looks great, but unfortunately it didn't taste as great. The bagel was very good, the top piece was perfectly toasted (in my opinion), slightly buttered and crispy. The bottom piece was definitely not crispy after the rendang chicken was placed on top of it. The rendang was okay, but just not that good. Maybe there was just too much sauce, but the two of us who ordered it just left some behind in the end. (however that does mean that the portion was huge :P )

salted egg-crusted chicken chop, RM28

This one looks really good, with cornflakes on the crust, and fortunately with the salted egg sauce on the side instead of poured on top of it. I tried the sauce, but unfortunately it did not taste that much of salted egg.

summerglitz chicken chop, RM25

I think the glitz of summer comes from the apple slices (yes, those are apples).

And after eating, a group photo (guest of honour in the middle)

Mentai

Recently I went to Sakae Sushi not once, but twice!

The first time was with Snorlax. We had a "buy 1 free 1" promotion with the Maxis app.

mentai zukushi, RM8.88 for a plate

The three pieces of sushi came with prawn, octopus, and white fish (I call it white fish because I don't know the actual name). The octopus was very chewy and even the fish was slightly chewy, so it wasn't very good. The mentai sauce was good though.

chicken teriyaki jyu, RM11.88

tempura & sushi bento, RM17.88

The chicken teriyaki rice was very good. As for the bento, it was a hesitant choice on our part. Snorlax wanted a tempura bento, and this was the only one. It it came with rice, it would have been perfect for him. As for me, I had wanted to try soba for some time now, but always hesitated because I was afraid I wouldn't like it. So we decided to share the chicken teriyaki rice: he gets his rice, and I get to try soba.

The soba was actually quite nice after squeezing the lime on it. I tried it without the lime first, but felt that it wasn't so good. The only thing is, it's still a cold dish so I am unused to it making a complete meal. (the same as when I tried Korean cold noodles)

That was the meal with Snorlax... then another time I went alone and made use of the "buy 1 free 1" offer for mini don with my Watson's member card.

gyu kinoko mini don, RM9.88

I knew that gyu was beef, but turns out that kinoko is mushroom. The beef was stir-fried with brown beech (shimeji) mushrooms. This was just as good as the chicken teriyaki rice.

tamago mentai mini don, RM6.88

Since this costs less than the other mini don, it was the free item. There were only four mini dons to choose from, and this was more special, and something that I would definitely not order when there are other dons to choose from. So I took this opportunity to try it. Tamago is egg, the Japanese rolled omelette. Actually in the photo from the menu, we can see the slices of tamago and the mentai sauce is on top (similar to the mentai zukushi at the top of the post), not fully covering the egg. I was surprised (pleasantly so) to see so much mentai sauce when the dish arrived.

The dish tasted good, but... I think I still need my meat. :P

Just a photo of both mini dons. The beef one arrived first, so I was already halfway through eating it when the second don arrived.

The prices above are all non-inclusive of 10% service charge and 6% SST. One thing to note was that even for the free items, we were charged for the service on those items. The actual price and the SST were the ones that were waived.

As for the title of the post, I thought it was worth mentioning that I usually don't order mentai dishes because they are quite expensive. So the "buy 1 free 1" deals gave us a chance to try some mentai!

An unusual tandoori

Some time ago we went to Indian Palace. My friend had raved about how the tandoori there was not dry, unlike the tandoori at most places. So I tried it, and really, it was moist and juicy!

I made sure to ask for the thigh part, so that I wouldn't end up with the chicken breast. As you can see, the end of the drumstick is wrapped in foil, presumably so that it wouldn't dry out.

Vampire bunny

I just read an article about Bunnicula, a vampire rabbit. The name Bunnicula sounded so familiar, and after doing some Google research and reading the story of A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery on Wikipedia, I am convinced that I have read that exact same book before.

Finding the bunny at the movie Dracula and naming him Bunnicula? Check.
Two holes in the vegetables that turned white? Check.
Bunnicula sleeping all day? Check.
Using garlic against Bunnicula? Check.
Bunnicula thriving on a liquid diet for a happy ending? Check.

All these plot points definitely sound familiar. I'm pretty sure I found the book in a library and that I don't have it myself. Now I wish I can find the book again to read it.

When someone rejects AirAsia free seats

So what do you want? Free airplane? :P