09.20.09
Three-in-one at Crystal Jade Meal³.
If you are a fan of the stylish food composition Crystal Jade is good at, you might want to stop by another of their restaurant at Pavilion KL for a whole different set of menu to feast upon.
Established in October 2007, Crystal Jade Meal³ (pronounced ‘cube’) serves up spectacular arrays from three types of cuisine for the bustling crowd in the heart of Kuala Lumpur city. It represents three cuisine they serve in the restaurant – Asian, Eastern and Western. All with Crystal Jade’s tinge of food fashion to appease the customers’ appetite.
Non-veggie eaters (meaning me, heh) can rejoice now! We rarely find ourselves ordering salad dishes as our entree, but here, we can definitely ring up the Golden Pumpkin and Potato Salad. The pumpkin and potato are mashed together with diced cucumbers and dribbled with sweet mayonnaise.
It is tender and sweet, both welcoming on the tongue, and the cucumbers are like refreshing treasures hidden in the comfy blankets of golden yellow. I would have finished up the entire thing, if I was not expecting a line up of dishes to come next.
From the soup menu, there is the Meal³ Signature Soup with three types of mushrooms (button, shitake and black dried), simmering in thick sinful cream soup under the puffy pastry roof.
As you can see, no originality here as the idea derives from Dome’s very own menu. And the soup is not any better than the latter’s, either. It tasted more of cream rather than soup. So, you can imagine how quickly it got too much for me to finish.
The Lemongrass Hot and Spicy Soup is much easier to stomach. Filledseafood delights such as with mussels, squids, clams, dory fish and prawns, it is sweet yet spicy to awaken your taste buds, yet not too spicy to kill off the palettes.
The unique Stuffed Chicken Roll is served with Crystal Jade’s signature brown sauce of onion and black pepper corn. This dish has the insides of the roasted chicken cleaned out and stuffed with Holland onions, carrots and basil. However, their spaghetti has an overwhelming flour taste that just kills off my intention of finishing up this dish.
The Wok Shallow Fried Fish Fillet is a must-try in Crystal Jade Meal³. Served with in-house fish sauce, a big scoop of mashed potato and some steamed vegetables, the pieces of dory fish are succulent with a tang of saltiness to its softened meat. Not to mention the mashed potato was fluffy and addictive. It is also served with dribbles of yellow mustard for an unusual spicy kick.
For those who are not feeling adventurous, there’s always the Hainanese Chicken Rice to fall back on. This dish comes with the expected chopped up chicken drizzled in onion oil and Hainanese soy sauce with complementing ingredients like cucumber slices, spring onions, Chinese parsley and ginger vinegar. It is accompanied by a bowl of steamy Hainanese rice and chicken soup.
The usual suspect. Nothing to shout about.
Established in the heart of KL city, there are bound to be bustling yuppies running back and forth. Before their seats could grow warm, they are already getting jittery to get up and leave for an appointment.
So, if you would like something quick and to go for lunch, Club Sandwich would surely do the trick. It comes with a side of French fries, coleslaw and a selection of cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, Melbourne super sliced cheese, sliced chicken and fried egg. Whether you would like to have it there and then or pack it back to the office, it is enough to last you till dinnertime.
For desserts, Crystal Jade Meal³ has some Thai-oriented sweeties you can finish off your meal with.
There is the Mango Sago and Jelly with Pomelo, which is a kind of substitute for Thailand’s water chestnut dessert. It comes with three layers: mango cream pudding, followed with strawberry jelly in the middle before topping it off with cream caramel and bits of fresh pomelo and sago.
This one did not get me going. Probably because I was turned off by the caramel topping.
But for the Glutinous Rice with Mango and Custard Sauce, I like. It is a simpler version of the famed mango sticky rice, and don’t you just love the food presentation. Keeping in mind that this would be the last course for the day, and that diners may already have their brims stretched, the dessert comes in a small portion of white glutinous rice capped with dices of fresh mango sitting in a pool of warm custard sauce.
Even though I was full, I could not help making room for this dessert, when there is no room left to make. The warm glutinous rice was like a good pat on the tummy, and the mango slices were extra refreshing especially after the mouthfuls of rice. I would definitely skip right to the end for this dessert in my next visit.
At the end of the day, it is a restaurant you could choose to go to, if ever you are not sure where else to head to for lunch. Most of their food are not hard to stomach. Just make sure to stay off the obvious choices like the chicken rice and sandwiches, then your trip would not be that mundane.
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Crystal Jade Meal³
Level 3
Pavilion KL
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Opens daily @ 11AM-1AM
T: +6 03 2148 2116
F: +6 03 2148 3116
09.16.09
Not 1, not 2, but 15Malaysia.
Also guest blogging at Backseat Radio: Howl be thy name.
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For the past month, I am sure a lot of you have caught wind about 15Malaysia, a Malaysian filmmakers showcase, that has been taking the country by storm (I’m such a punny cliche, heh).
I will not deny that Malaysian-produced films have been more of a disappointment to me, rather than of standing ovations. When they announced the 15Malaysia project back in August, I did not really mind too much about it. Checked out a few trailers, sure, but it did not make me go whee. Maybe I was afraid this is going to be another roll of badly orchestrated films.
But I was glad it is not. As days go by, I slowly became alright with the local talents. So much so that I had a brief moment when I am actually proud of what we have. For the past few weeks, my mornings in the office started off with something new to look forward to besides the day’s news and instant Nescafe.
Here is my take on the short films.
#1 Potong Saga by Ho Yuhang
15Malaysia premiered on a right note with this first showcase. A Chinese guy, due to the world economic downfall, goes through an unnecessary circumcision to get himself eligible for an Islamic bank account because of misguided information regarding the application from three Chinese ah peks.
It was definitely a laugh-out-loud film to watch, and to kick start the series in a more lighthearted note. Also, I always find Chinese speaking in that twang amusing. Heh.
Note to self: never get information from all around, especially Chinese ah peks. Go straight to the information counter. Heh.
#2 The Son by Desmond Hong
I like this film because the angle is quite refreshing. It’s told from the perspective of a Chinese boy who paid witness to a racial dispute gone wrong. One of those good-guys-turn-bad-at-a-bad-time kind of scenario. It’s also one of those stories that keep the audience glued as they gradually unveil the big picture. Textbook storyline to follow, but they did well on it.
The human interaction shown between the father and son seems to be quite realistic to me. How they would dodge the pink elephant in the room by talking about the son’s exam results and helping out in the father’s store.
#3 One Future by Tan Chui Mui
This is my favourite out of the bunch. Immediately, I caught the similar whiff to George Orwell’s 1984, and I kind of liked it. It shows an extreme situation in the future when the government takes full charge of the country. Despite their goodwill providing jobs and homes to the citizens, even assigning people to different families everyday without regards of the startling racial difference, the latter has no freedom to go against the government with something as simple as speaking.
Pete Teo’s narration is an eerie one in the introduction: “The future. Life is perfect. The government loves everyone. It takes care of everyone.” Note the ‘it’ pronoun for ‘the government’. Although halfway through the tone gets a little humourous, but the message is all the same on high alert for all.
A pretty simple take, yet all the same informative. Well done.
#4 Meter by Benji & Bahir
This can also easily be a favourite. Another comedic piece from the collection, which features Malaysian politician Khairy Jamaluddin, whom, I must admit, put on quite a good act for this film. He did a good portrayal of the typical Malaysians’ attitude towards everything around them, how there is always something to complain about for both sides of the coin. And how we are just a bunch of big talks.
And the passengers he picked up are the few minority in the population that have to put up with the typical Malaysians in all sorts of way – whether if it is getting bashed, telling them off, or simply just walking away. I like it how Baki Zainal, the second taxi passenger, told Khairy’s character off when he confronted the passenger for speaking English when he is a Malay.
There are a couple of films that deserve some honourable mentions. One of them is House by Linus Chang. Despite the acting being not so great, there is a wonderful metaphor going on when the kids smashed Rama’s prototype house and when the constructors came to tear down his house with his mother watching on.
I thought Linus’ work wore a coat much alike to Yasmin Ahmad’s works, what with the pulling of emotional strings. So, who knows, maybe he may be the one to carry on the torch.
Suleiman Brothers’ Rojak! deserves an honourable mention too because of the CGI special effects. As the rojak seller explains how Malaysia is pretty much like the rojak he makes, everything around him goes bam-bam-bam. The protests, the snatch theft, the bullying, the discrimination… every bad that holds the country together like the thick curry he coats atop the many ingredients.
It is one of those shit-happens-to-us-but-at-least-we’re-still-together kind of films, so yeah. It gets overplayed sometimes.
A good half of the collection is made up from a humourous aspect, such as Halal, Slovak Sling and Healthy Paranoia, which also carries a more serious undertone on how we view the country. I guess people tend to take things in more when it is funny. Films like The Tree, Lumpur and Gerhana, tend to get a little boring but the messages are still as alarming.
Chocolate, one of Yasmin Ahmad’s last works, still uses the same characteristics the Malaysian legend has been using since day one. Racial differences – mainly between Chinese and Malay – and the unchangeable view that still prevails after the May 13 riot. It did not do well for me, because it was too open-ended. It left me hanging, much like Yasmin’s sudden death a few months back.
I appreciate Nam Ron’s boldness for Lollipop to open his film with a paedophile masturbating to young innocent children in his little room, but other than that, his metaphoric intention was not as clear as House, and it took some time to link the pedophilia to the Zambry/Nizar political battle. At first glance, the latter seems to be thrown in just for the sake of being involved with the country’s current affairs.
Johan John’s Duit Kecil was probably the least catchy one from the bunch for me. A man visiting the whore house with no small change, and ended up holding a conversation with the prostitutes. Meh.
All in all, 15Malaysia is a collection worthy to be stashed on your shelf. So, well done, Pete Teo and Packet One Networks for spearheading this project. As well as the 15 directors of this series. We may have hope yet.
If ever some day Packet One were to release a DVD of them, be sure to head out there and get a copy. Or, you can do it the Malaysian way – get a ciplakversion, or pirate it off the net. Heh.
You can still head on over to 15Malaysia’s website to check out all the short films, or if Streamyx has been a bitch to download the videos, you can watch them all in one shot at TimeOut KL’s Free Flicks event on September 27, 2009 (Sunday) at the Annexe Gallery. More info here.
