Brunch with a French Twist at La Vie en Rose

La Vie en Rose is French singer Édith Piaf's most iconic song - which made an appearance in that wonderful Pixar robot love animated film WALL-E. It also happens to be the name of a French restaurant on a bungalow up on a little 'hill' along Jalan Raja Chulan in KL. On weekends it serves up a brunch menu with a French twist that you probably won't be able to find anywhere else in the city!


All brunch orders come with this bread basket loaded with croissants, bread and danish pastries, all very accomplished breads - for example the croissants were crispy and buttery enough to eat on their own! The fig and berry preserves, home made yoghurt and butter were very good, too.


The Smokey brunch set (RM65) consists of Scrambled eggs with smoked Petuna trout, mushroom and duck bacon bruschetta, and duck confit shepherd's pie. Eggs were delicious and properly scrambled, and we thought the bruschetta was just divine. Shepherd's pie could have perhaps done with a little more time in the oven as it was a little too watery for our tastes.


Eggy costs RM60 and comes with a brioche of egg benedict, truffle scrambled eggs and grilled sausage. We really enjoyed the scrambled eggs here too; with just the right amount of chopped up truffle goodness without making it too pungent.


After polishing off all the food we're stuffed but still have some room to share a Cold Strawberry Soup with Vanilla Ice Cream (replacing basil sorbet which the kitchen didn't have) and almond crisp (RM20). It's cold, sweet, sour and refreshing all at the same time - although if you're not a fan of Strawberries' natural tartness then you'd probably be better off with a different choice.


Overall the meal lands squarely in the "on the high side" pricing territory; for which it gets a little difficult to say if it is 'worth the money.' What we can say is that we thoroughly enjoyed the food, ambience and service, and that the food is at least as good as any of the other top brunch places in the city.

La Vie en Rose is at 39 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur. Brunch reservations probably not necessary as the dining room was only about half full when we went. No pork.

Tel: 03-2078 3883
Email: info@cuisine-studio.net

Slow Cooker Sweet BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich / Wrap Recipe

Ingredients
1 chopped Yellow Onion
2 chopped ripe Peach
500ml of BBQ Sauce
1.5kg of Pork Shoulder or Pork Butt
Tabaco Sauce (Optional, to add some spicy flovor for slight kick)
Wrap or Dinner Bread

Pork Seasoning Ingredients
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teasppon Black Pepper

Honey Avocado Spread Ingredients
1 Avocado
1 tablespoon of Honey

Choices of Topping Ingredient
Coleslow
Mix Greens
Luttuce

Step 1 Measure and premix the Pork Seasoning.
Step 2 Trim excess fat from the outside of the pork then season it generiously with the Pork Seasoning.
Step 3 In the bottom of the slow cooker, stir together the Yellow Onions, Peaches and BBQ Sauce.
Step 4 Place the pork on top of the mixture and spoon some of the sauce over top.
Step 5 Cook on low for 8hours.
Step 6 Remove the pork from the slow cooker and use fork to gently pul the meat apart then return it to the slow cooker to continue cooking on low until when you're ready to consume.
Step 7 Put the Avocado and Honey in a small plate and mash all of it up well then place it inside a container and store in the fridge until when ready to consume.
Step 8 Place the Wrap on a plate.
Step 9 Spread a generous layer of Honey Avocado Spread.
Step 10 Scoop and line the Slow Cooked Sweet BBQ Pulled Pork.
Step 11 Top with your choice of Topping.
Step 12 Wrap the wrap with a greaseproof paper and cut it in half and serve while it's warm.

Lesson Learnt from this dish:
Do not add water as you would want the sauce to be thick when you're serving.

Enjoy~!!!

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Shrimp Avocado Salad Recipe

Ingredients
1 diced Avocado
32 peeled Shrimps
2 tablespoons Red Onion

Dressing Ingredients
0.5 teaspoon Italian Herbs
0.5 teaspoon Garlic Powder
0.5 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar or 1 tablespoon of Lime Juice
0.5 teaspoon Chopped Parsley or Cilantro
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
Salt & Black Pepper to taste

Step 1 Steam the peeled Shrimps.
Step 2 Place all the Dressing Ingredients in a small bowl and whisky until well combined, then set aside.
Step 3 Put the Shrimp, Avocado and Onion in a large bowl. Follow by pouring the desire dressing amount desire and give it a toss.
Step 4 Serve additional dressing on the side or in a bottle for your guest to add on themselves.


Enjoy~!!!

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Golden Sand Salted Egg Prawns Recipe

Deary and me are nuts about Salted Egg anything! Prawns..Crabs..Squid..you name it. It's been a while that I have the fear of trying it out myself at home as it seems to be a complex dish. At last I cooked it, we very delighted with the results.


Ingredients
15 large Prawns
4 Salted Egg Yolk
2 stems of Curry Leaves
1 tablespoon Butter
2 tablespoons Evaporated Milk or Simmered down Fresh Milk
0.5 teaspoon Salt
0.5 teaspoon Sugar
Vegetable Oil

Prawn Marination Ingredients
1 teaspoon Oyster Sauce
0.5 teaspoon Sugar
0.5 teaspoon Sesame Oil
3 tablespoon Corn Flour
1 Egg
0.5 teaspoon White Pepper

Step 1 Shelled and devein prawns.
Step 2 Marinate the prawns for 10 to 15 minutes.
Step 3 Steam the Salted Egg Yolks until just done.
Step 4 Smash the cooked Salted Egg Yolks and set aside.
Step 5 Heat a pan with Vegetable Oil.
Step 6 Drain as much prawn marination as possible.
Step 7 Shallow fry the prawns and remove them when it is semi cooked. Set aside.
Step 8 Melt Butter and add Curry Leaves. Stir fry until fragrant.
Step 9 Add in the Smash Salted Egg Yolks, Evaporated Milk and Prawns.
Step 10 Immediately and quickly toss and mix well.
Step 11 Add Salt and Sugar. Stir till well combined.
Step 12 Dish and serve immediately.

Enjoy~!!!

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Pho Vietnamese Beef Rice Noodle Soup Recipe

Our very first Vietnamese recipe!

Prettier picture to share as we made this again on 30 Mar 2017! Give this recipe a try. We believe you'll love it too.

Pho Beef Noodles is what will come to our mind when we think of Vietnamese food. The richness of the beef broth but yet light enough to enjoy every slurp. The soft tender beef. It's one of the food you will think of when it's a cold rainy day.


Broth Ingredients
700g Oxtail
1.5" Ginger
1 Yellow Onion
50ml Fish Sauce
4 whole Star Anise
3 whole Cloves
2" Cinnamon Stick
0.5 teaspoon Fennel Seeds
2 Bay Leaves
3 litre of Beef Stock
Salt & Pepper to taste
3 Soup Stock Bags


Step 1 Place the oxtail in a large pot and add enough water to cover and let it boil for 10mins.
Step 2 Remove the oxtail and set aside while you pour away the water, rinse the pot.
Step 3 Slice the Yellow Onion and Ginger in half and place it on a aluminium foil and char them under the broiler until lightly browned.
Step 4 Using the same pot place the oxtail in along with the Beef Stock and bring it to a boil.
Step 5 Meanwhile, toast the Star Anise, Cloves, Cinnamon Stick in a small pan over a stove on medium heat. Turn the spices a couple of times, they are ready when you can smell. the aroma and it is slightly darken. This will take approximately 3 to 4 minutes.
Step 6 Pack up all the spices, charred Ginger and Onions in the Soup Stock Bags for easy retrieval.
Step 7 When you're done with Step 5 and 6, the broth would have just started boiling. Place in the packed Spice Bags and let the broth simmer for 4 hours.
Step 8 After 4 hours, discard all the packed spice Bags. Remove the oxtail from the pot and pull the meat from the bones.
Step 9 Return the bones to the broth and continue simmering uncovered for about an hour.
Step 10 Add salt and pepper to taste.


Serving Ingredients
2 serving of Rice Noodles
1 cup of Mung Bean Sprouts
1 bunch of Scallions
1 hand full of Fresh Cilantro
1 hand full of Parsley
1 hand full of Basil
3 Limes
Chilli Paste
Thinly sliced Filet Mignon/ Brisket/ Flank or Beef Balls

Step 11 Soak the Rice Noodles in cold water for 20minutes.
Step 12 Arrange the sliced scallions, cilantro, parsley, basil, bean sprouts, lime wedges on a platter in separate piles.
Step 13 Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the drained rice noodles. Give the noodles a quick stir and cook for about a minute until tender but firm.
Step 14 Just before serving, return the broth to a full boil.
Step 15 Divide the Rice Noodles, arrange the Beef and Mung Bean Sprouts on top of the Rice Noodles.
Step 16 Carefully ladle the boiling broth over the raw beef or beef and Mung Bean Sprouts.
Step 17 Garnish with Scallions and serve immediately. Or serve the bowl of noodles immediately along with the platter of garnish.

Cooked these meal for deary and me only. The oxtail meat was sufficient portion for us, so we didn't add extra beef or beef balls. Also, as you notice from the picture we omitted Cilantro, Parsley, Basil as we don't fancy these herbs. This is the beauty of home cook food.


Enjoy~!!!

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Singapore's Best Omakase Sushi - Shinji by Kanesaka, Raffles Hotel

Two weeks ago we blogged about Shinji by Kanesaka's 9-piece Hana 花 set, and we concluded that the Sushi was the best we've ever eaten. Today we continue with the review of the Omakase Yume 夢, which adds on some sashimi and cooked dishes before proceeding to the restaurant specialty sushi - let's go!


Yuzu-marinated Ikura (Salmon Roe)
Considering that Japanese typically don't eat salmon sushi/sashimi (because it's an imported fish and not available in the local fish markets), it's a little surprising that they eat so many salmon eggs. No complaints from us, though - the yuzu marinade does wonders here to temper the saltiness of the eggs. Delicious and opens up the palette perfectly for the food to come.


Sawara Sashimi (Spanish Mackerel) with Ground Japanese Brown Rice

Ika (Squid) and Uni (Sea Urchin gonads)
We've never liked the (lack of) taste and texture of raw squid, and unfortunately this simple soy-sauce'd rendition doesn't change our minds. The Uni is gorgeous though - creamy, buttery, briney, umami deliciousness.


Steamed Octopus, Tuna Meat and Kamasu (Barracuda)
A trio of seafood is next! We thought that the tuna meat was rather ordinary and did not have the necessary flavor to stand on its' own. The octopus was sublime, though. Octopus is normally a little tough/chewy/rubbery, but this one having been steamed for 2 hours was texturally quite similar to chicken! Barracuda was lightly seared skin-side presumably to crisp up the skin a little and provide a nice textural contrast to the raw fish.


Chawanmushi with Red Snapper and Prawn Paste
By far the weakest dish of the entire afternoon was this tepid chawanmushi; it lacked either the flavour or texture to compensate for being served lukewarm.


Saba (Mackerel) Sashimi with sesame and shiso leaf

Grilled Cod with turnip paste and baby yam with miso paste.
I really liked this dish. The cod itself was grilled superbly and the turnip-based accompanying paste was what elevated it to pefection; followed by a delightfully sweet baby yam which went well with the saltiness of the miso paste.


Skinless Japanese Tomato
Half a Tomato comes next, fresh, sweet, refreshing to ready the palatte for the next part of the meal - the sushi! Many of the neta here was also served in the 9-piece Hana 花 set, so do head on over to that post if you haven't already as we won't be repeating the write-ups.


Hirame (Flounder)

Kinmedai (Golden Eye Snapper)

Chu Toro (Medium Fatty Tuna)
Just to recap, in the previous post we had this to say about the sushi served here:

What we liked most about the sushi here is the shari (sushi rice). It comes at the perfect temperature, and is packed just tightly enough to hold it's shape from plate to mouth. Once the chewing starts the rice breaks apart, allowing you to taste and feel every single seasoned, slightly sweet, vinegared grain. Bliss.


Aji (Horse Mackerel)

Shimofuri Oh-Toro (Marbled Tuna)

Uni (Sea Urchin Gonads)
More of the delicious creamy Uni! Personally we prefer Uni in this gunkan sushi rendition; the addition of the sweet/vinegary rice and crisp seaweed is a perfect accompaniment and gives a interesting bite and extra flavor to the Uni.


Sufugai (Spiral Shell) with lime
We don't normally like shell-based sushi as it tends to be a little lacking taste-wise. The next time we visit we'll try to get the Chef to change this to something else. Like another piece of Oh-Toro :)


Kuruma Ebi (Japanese Imperial Prawn)

Maguro Akami (Lean Tuna)

Unagi Two Ways (Eel) - Salted and Sauced

Clear Clam Soup

Negi Toro (Minced Tuna Belly) Maki
Ten pieces of gorgeous, delicious nigiri, followed by the same clear clam soup, and then a Negi Toro maki handed personally by the chef.


Musk Melon
It's our first time eating musk melon (on account of its exorbitant price here); and we immediately understand where the name comes from. It's juicy and sweet, but the main difference between regular honeydew is the 'musky' taste - it's similar to that slight fermented after taste you get in some durians.


"Hey, you must take my photo. I am very famous chef." - Master Chef Koichiro Oshino
Like we mentioned in the previous post, we thoroughly enjoyed dining here because the Chefs are so jovial. Master Chef Koichiro Oshino speaks pretty good English, explained all the dishes, chatted with us and even made us take his photo!

Good things don't come cheap, though, and it's hard to say if the $250++ price tag is worth the money. We suppose that like all good things in life, you need to pay top dollar for the best, and the 'mid-range' options are normally the best value for money. So it is with Shinji by Kanesaka - their 9 piece lunch set is insanely good value. The Omakase is much pricier but you also get the absolute best produce that the restaurant could procure, cooked with all the combined skill of the Chefs. Do note that the 20-plus dishes do take a while to serve; you won't be able to squeeze this into a 1-hour lunch break.

Shinji by Kanesaka is at Raffles Hotel and is open from Mondays to Saturdays for Lunch and Dinner: Reservations highly reccomended: Telephone +65 6338 6131 or Email reservations@shinjibykanesaka.com