Saturday, January 11, 2020

明明 Day 9 Kitchen

Ever since my bff sold her cafe, I have had difficulty finding a replacement cafe that serves nearly as decent coffees and food as hers. So yes, I felt happy that she managed to get back some of her freedom but no, I felt sad because I have lost my coffee hangout.

Fast forward a few months, a new place opened up in a quiet pocket of our neighbourhood. As it isn't located along a main street, not many people were aware of its existence, especially when they did not seem to had any advertisements.

They play along the minimalist line - walls are either in white or unpainted concrete. Simple signage and straightforward furniture arrangement. Perhaps a little too simple - as they have left all their hard surfaces as is, it gets a tad noisy when there is a crowd.

We started off by trying their coffee because well, we are caffeine-driven people. Trying only one would be unfair so we returned several times to order different drinks. And our verdict: a good variety of caffeine and non-caffeine drinks that are each carefully made.

Cold cappucino (RM11)
Cold bittersweet chocolate (made with 60% dark chocolate, RM15)
Cold Oolong milk tea (RM13)
MoMo Ice: Double shot espresso, 60% dark chocolate, fresh milk, vanilla ice-cream (RM15)
Drop in Black: Ice black coffee, soda water, orange slice, vanilla ice-cream (RM15)
Affogato: Vanilla ice-cream, hot espresso, cocoa crumble, dry cranberries,  chocolate stick, mint leaf (RM14)
Dino-C: Fresh orange juice with soda plain water, strawberry, mint leaf (RM13)
Hot latte (RM10)
Hot rose latte (RM13)
Hot Ooling milk tea (RM12)
Do you not think that they all have good visual, too? So yes, not only do the drinks tick the right boxes taste-wise, they also tick the right boxes presentation-wise.

Now, for their food. We noticed a mixture of Italian and Japanese influence on their menu. There are pastries like bagels and egg wraps that they bake on-site, pastas, rice, fried chicken or pork, salads, finger food, and desserts.

Bagel is their specialty. We were pretty impressed by the texture of their bagels. Even my friend who is a sous chef in Mandarin Oriental complimented their bagels. I can still remember his partly surprised reaction when he took his first bite, "Ooh, this bagel is quite good leh". 

Egg and cheese bagel is a plain bagel sandwich of egg and mixed cheese served with honey gherkin mustard sauce, chips and salad (RM14)
As above but with cheese bagel sandwich
Burn the pig bagel is a sesame bagel sandwich of fried pork drizzled with either homemade Sriracha sauce or tartar sauce served with salad and chips (RM18)
They also have snack servings of their bagels if you decide not to have a full meal, like the below Boom boom prawn open bagel (RM13). It is a plain bagel cut in half served with fried prawn, cucumber, tartar sauce and dry parsley. Its fragrant aroma could be smelt from afar.


In addition to savoury bagels, they also have sweet bagels, like the below Nutella banana open bagel (RM11). A chocolate bagel sliced in half, it is served with Nutella, sliced banana, almond nibs and mint leaves. Sinfully satisfying, if you ask me.


Once, they ran out of bananas so we asked if they could use strawberries instead. They gracefully obliged:


Their handmade egg wraps remind me of those in Taiwan. It is a little like a drier, crispier version of roti telur. I very frequently order their egg wraps but I do not take photos of every one of them.

This fried pork wrap is one of the bigger wraps that consists of a generous portion of fried pork, cabbage and spring onion with either sweet sauce or homemade Sriracha sauce (RM15). 


The tuna onion wrap (RM12) is presented in a rolled fashion instead of the above pocket fashion. It is tuna, onion and spring onion rolled up in their egg wrap pastry.


There are two types of pastas available on their menu. They have either aglio e olio or homemade tomato pasta. Their aglio e olio is served using spaghetti while their homemade tomato pasta is served using fusilli (spiral):

Fried pork-corn spaghetti aglio e olio (RM18)
Turkey ham aglio e olio (RM16)
Mix mushroom aglio e olio (RM15)
Potato croquette tomato pasta (RM17)Personally, their pastries and pastas outshine their rice and main meals by far, which is why I don't have any photos of their rice meals. The below two main meals were ordered by my brother (fried pork) and a friend (fried chicken) respectively. While they did not complain about the taste, they did mention that the meat were a little dry - perhaps might taste better if the meat were juicier.


Should you prefer a healthy but no so healthy option, there have a list of salads but one that caught our attention was the fried pork-corn salad (RM15) because well, we are Chinese ma...


If only feeling peckish, their Dino-stick (RM9) would be a good choice. The handmade fried potato croquettes served with tartar sauce are addictive!


Perhaps because the two main chefs (and possibly the owners) worked in a fine dining Italian place before, they bake their own cakes. Dad and I especially like their Is cheese cake (RM15), a caramelised semi-baked cheese cake with caramel sauce, espresso crumble and berries.  


If you like something with more flavour, Red Knight (RM18) would make a tantalising choice. It is 70% bittersweet chocolate with blueberry flavoured mousse cake drizzled with raspberry with red wine sauce, topped with mixed berries, chocolate shards, mint leaves and dry lemon slice.


The Basque matcha cheese cake makes for an extremely filling slice of cake. The cheese cake is pure matcha is is served with homemade red bean paste. I could treat is as a meal on its own! 


As they are still serving parts of their Christmas menu, their fruit cake slice (RM7) makes for a light afternoon tea snack. It is served warm, so you could bite into its slightly crispy crust and soft spongy middle with chewy bits of fruits and nuts. Oh, and definitely could smell and taste the cinnamon, too.


In summary, I really hope they continue to be in business for a long time to come. :)

3-1 Jalan Equine 10B, Taman Equine, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
M: 016-345 3944, E: mingmingday9@gmail.com
Wednesday to Monday 11:00am to 10:00pm
Cash and Boost payments only
FB | IG

No comments: