Dynamic Kitty Food & Places

Dine in Date: 23rd November 2014

Tappers cafe is nothing new, I had tried it in the same outlet about a year ago but I haven't started this blog yet.

I was thinking hard where to have my lunch as I do not feel like eating the same thing again, so I decided to give this one another chance. I mentioned "chance" because I did not have a good impression for this cafe after my first attempt.

Frankly speaking, I was quite disappointed for my first time experience about a year ago. I remember I order Fish & Chip that time, as I'm usually a big fan of Fish & Chip, so I was expecting quite some quality in this. When the dish came to me, I wasn't expecting something good because it looks too plain. The french fries are tasteless and it's like Carefour quality. The fish fillet is also like from Carefour, the outer skin are too deep fried so the fried skin is more than the meat. And I don't really taste the fish meat because the taste is too plain and texture is not really good. I forgotten about how the salad taste like, but in overall it's not a good experience that time. This dish cost about RM15 if I'm not mistaken.

One of my friend order a Caesar salad that cost about RM12++. He commented that the taste is totally weird when he first bite on the vege with the cheese dusting on it.

They have a set lunch that include a meal and a drinks There are a range of dishes for you to choose. Range from local cuisine, sandwiches, burger, and western dishes. This time, I decided to give their signature Spaghetti Carbonara a try. The cafe does not has many customers that time, and there are two waiters facing their back at me talking to each other. I shouted twice "Excuse me" when the two waiters are just three feets away from me but they didn't hear me, just talking to each other. That's make me a little frustrating but I don't want to keep waiting, so I just walked to them and give them my order. Without a long wait, the lime juice that I order has reach to me. And about 5 minutes later, this is the Carbonara:

As you can see, the portion is quite a lot. And the taste is quite good as the sauce is not too much and too full of the creamy taste. The bacon strip and mushroom also has a good portion as it's not too little so the overall taste is nice. When I ad finish with the dish, I don't feel too full of the creamy source so I consider this one is quite good in terms of taste and the portion for overall.

The lime juice taste good, as it does not taste too sour or taste too plain.

After taking these two dishes, I'm feeling a bit full. The original price is RM14.30 for this set, after adding the tax it's around RM15.25.

Although I had some not-so-good experience in this cafe, but I might give it another try next time for other dishes, as long as not the FIsh & Chip, salad, or probably the burger.

Rating

Quality: Okay
Portion: Good
Service: Okay
Cost-Worthy: Somehow-Worthy
Environment: Good


Facebook Page: Tappers Cafe
3rd Floor, Central Zone,
Berjaya Times Square, 1,
Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur,
Bukit Bintang, 55100

I love all type of cheese cake. Although I have not tasted lots of different cheese in this world, or in Malaysia, but so far there isn't any cheese cake that I dislike. The only thing that stop me from it is the cost. Great cheese cake in Malaysia are usually made from imported cheese, they are bloody expensive although it's taste super awesome. I used to be satisfy with the local cheese cake as long as they are tasty and not so costly, but not so until I learn how to make this Tiramisu.

I'm not sure about you, but whenever I try to look for simple Tiramisu recipe over the internet, all of them are consider too troublesome for me. And most of them are using different type of ingredients that are usually hard to find or quite costly. I'm a lazy guy, and I don't like the idea of spending half a day in the kitchen producing one type of food. So after a few tries in making Tiramisu using the standard way, I found this simplest way that doesn't need too much of ingredients, not so time & effort consuming, but with great taste! Of course, you can add any ingredients you want to make it better in your own way, but my target is to make something that can be called Tiramisu and the taste is awesome.

Now, let's get started! These are the list of ingredients that I used for a more tasty Tiramisu. You can get from any AEON Big and Cold Storage outlet.

1. Ingredients

My Standard Tiramisu Ingredient List

Ingredient	Unit/Grams	Estimated Price	Remark
Mascarpone Cheese	250g	RM16	I prefer Gusto Dolce brand although it's not that cheap. But the cheese texture is super awesome.
Whipped Cream	125g	RM8	-
Icing Sugar	1 or half tablespoon	RM5	You can go for white sugar. But icing sugar is easier to mixed in when you mix them later.
Vanilla extract	1/4 tablespoon	RM2	-
Rum	1 or half table spoon	N/A	Traditional type of Tiramisu use Rum. If you don't have it, you can replace with any wine.
Cocoa Powder (For Topping)	Any amount	RM10	I use Van Houten Cocoa powder. The taste is fine, not so bitter and the cost is quite reasonable for me.
Lady Finger Biscuit (For Base)	10 pieces	RM10	For RM10, you can get any lady finger biscuit pack that has more 20 pieces. Unless you go for much expensive brand. Otherwise, you can use any type of biscuit, crush into tiny pieces and place on the bottom of the Tiramisu.
Dark Coffee Powder	2 or 3 tablespoon	N/A	Any brand of coffee powder you prefer.
Total Estimated Cost: RM51 (Exclude Rum)

The list above is more standard, especially if you want a better taste. But for me, I also go for a much more simple list because it's easier to get those ingredient and less costly.

My Simple Tiramisu Ingredient List

Ingredient	Unit/Grams	Estimated Price	Remark
Mascarpone Cheese	250g	RM11	Tatua Mascarpone Cheese is another choice for Mascarpone. My experience is just fine with it, I'm not super satisfy with its texture thou.
Whipped Cream	125g	RM8	-
Icing Sugar	1 or half tablespoon	RM5	You can go for white sugar. But icing sugar is easier to mixed in when you mix them later. You can also exclude this if you don't want to taste any sweetness in your Tiramisu.
Cocoa Powder (For Topping)	Any amount	RM10	I use Van Houten Cocoa powder. The taste is fine, not so bitter and the cost is quite reasonable for me.
Lady Finger Biscuit (For Base)	10 pieces	RM10	For RM10, you can get any lady finger biscuit pack that has more 20 pieces. Unless you go for much expensive brand. Otherwise, you can use any type of biscuit, crush into tiny pieces and place on the bottom of the Tiramisu.
Any Coffee Powder	2 or 3 tablespoon	N/A	You can also use instant coffee or any coffee available..
Total Estimated Cost: RM44

In case you are using the simple ingredient list, do not worry about the instruction below if you are lack of certain ingredient. Just skip any ingredient that you are not using and proceed.

2. Preparation

Now when you have all the ingredients ready, you need to follow with the preparation below before you start whipping and mixing anything. So follow the checklist below and make sure you have everything ready.

1. Make a cup of coffee with your selected coffee powder with a cup of 300ml water. Add in the Rum (optional) after you done making the coffee. Then, pour the coffee with Rum into a flat plate and let it cool down.
2. Take the mascarpone cheese out from the fridge about 10 to 15 minutes before you start making it so that it's easy to mix and fold when it's about room temperature.
3. That's it! Get ready to do cake making.

3. Steps

1. Start with whipping the cream. If you are using a whipping machine, set it to medium speed and whip roughly 3 to 5 minutes, or until it is soft and sticky. Mix in the vanilla essence about 1 minute after you start whipping the cream. You need to process the cream until it's not so creamy and when you turn over the whipping container where the cream is, it won't leak out like cream. Careful not to beat too much because when it is over beaten, it became much more creamy and you can't use it anymore.
   
   
2. Mix in the mascarpone cheese and icing sugar and start whipping again. This time, you just need to make sure the cheese and icing sugar are well mixed with the cream. Remember, the cream will not be so smooth if you over whipping it. So as long as the cheese and icing sugar is mixed, and you no longer see tiny pieces of sugar on the surface, then it's done.
   
   
3. Get your container ready and place the plate that contain the coffee & lady finger biscuits beside the container. Make sure the coffee is cool off and not hot anymore so that your lady finger biscuit will taste more solid later. Now, you need to dip the lower part of the lady finger biscuit into the coffee for 2 seconds and quickly turn to the other side. You just have to make sure the lady finger biscuit had absorb a certain amount of coffee. Then, place it at the bottom of the container. Repeat the same step for each lady finger biscuit until you cover the bottom of your container with lady finger biscuit.
   
   
4. Add a layer of well mixed cream, mascarpone cheese and icing sugar on top of the lady finger biscuit in the container. You need to distribute the mixture evenly on the surface so that the entire layer is flat on the surface. Also, watch out on how much mixture you had after you adding into the container, because you might need to add another layer of lady finger biscuit after dipping into the coffee and add extra layer of mixture on top of it. It's better to have at least two layers of lady finger biscuit and cheese mixture so that you get more taste in a single bite. Unless you are using a long rectangle container so you don't have enough ingredients to add another layer.
   
   
5. When you had used up all the ingredients according to the steps above, now you can pour the cocoa powder on the surface of your (going-to-be) Tiramisu and try to distribute to the entire surface evenly as well. Best to have food powder grading tool so that the cocoa powder will be separated nicely.
   
   
6. Close the container cover and put into the fridge for at least 4 hours, and voila!
   

Now you can take the container out from the fridge, open up the cover and take a nice picture of it or just devour on this easy and simple Tiramisu with great taste.

Something not right?

- If the cream mixture is not smooth, or the texture is kind of like tiny pieces in it, it's either you had over whipping the cream or you might want to consider trying other brand of mascarpone cheese. I tried several type of mascarpone cheese, one of them always give me this texture.
- If the lady finger biscuit doesn't have much taste in it, you probably want to dip into the coffee longer before you putting into the container. Just becareful not to dip too long.
- If you can't really get even a soft bite on the lady finger biscuit, as it is too soft to the extent that your tongue can easily dissolve it, it's either you had dip the lady finger biscuit into the coffee too long, or the coffee is not cool enough.

Dine in Date: 2nd November 2014

A new outlet of Texas Chicken has finally open in Mid Valley. But I got no chance to try it yet with my dear dear because the line is too long every time I pass by there. But since I only get the chance to pass by there during my lunch hour and after work, so no choice.

Texas Chicken around Jalan Sultan Ismail also the same I guess. If you get down from Bukit Bintang Monorail, you will see McDonald on the other side. Texas Chicken is the opposite of McDonald. You can cross the road to the direction where you see H&M on the other side of the road, then go to your left and cross the road again. Walk a few more step and you will see it on your right. It's before Maybank.

This is not my first time dining in here. My first experience was with my friends, they recommend it because it's much better than KFC (Sorry to compare with KFC but couldn't help because too much of similarities).

Basically, the menu is quite the same with KFC at the basic level. You get to choose two piece chicken plate or three piece chicken plate, both with sets and comes with smashed potato, salad, and a soft drinks. They also have burger but not really attracting me. I didn't study through their menu, but from what I see, Texas Chicken has the same thing as KFC. But the best thing is, drinks are free refill! You get to choose coke, coke light, Fanta grape, lemon tea, and few more drinks. The only sad thing is the drinking machine is at the bottom floor, so if you sit at the second floor, it's a bit troublesome if you want a refill. And the stair is a little narrow.

So here it is, I order the usual two pieces chicken plate. I was a little hungry so I order nugget as well. No doubt, it's basically the same as KFC's snack plate.

While eating the chicken, I feel a little different, something good. Then I realize why later. It's because the chewing feeling give me a good feel because it has been long time since I eat fried chicken and I'm able to chew on chicken meat rather than eating only the fried & crunchy skin without much chicken meat. The two pieces of chicken meat is quite huge. The skin is not over fried, so it is crunchy but the skin won't cover too much of the entire pieces. So it's good to have a taste of the fried skin with the soft chewy chicken meat. I order spicy, but it's not too spicy. Guess this is too suit the foreigner taste.

Instead of butter scorch bread, their butter bread is the best bread in all fast food restaurant I tasted so far. My friend said that, if you take a bite on the bread, you feel like you are in Hawaii~....... Nope, not to that extent. The bread is crunchy in the center, and cover with a layer of butter with some sugar. It's small but really enjoyable, great for appetizer too. You can't find it in this pic because I swallow too fast before I remember I need to take pic.......

The smashed potato is just fine. The gravy has much more taste in it. And the smashed potato is more muddy, so it's easier to merge with the gravy. Although I personally prefer the smashed potato not too soft like this, but not a bad taste if you like the combine the taste of gravy with the smashed potato.

The salad taste the same as the salad from KFC. Just that they are using a different type of green vegie. I can't really tell since it's all covered in mayo and stuff. Probably lettuce. Kinda feel like the mayo is a bit weird, but still eatable.

Lastly, for the nugget, it's only six pieces, but quite full after the two pieces chicken plate. The original taste of the nugget is really nice. I can taste the juicy chicken meat in it. And it's quite big. The creamy jalapeno add another great taste to the nugget. So taking the nugget with or without the jalapeno sauce also give a great pleasure. Just not advisable if you are taking nugget as appetizer or dessert. On side note, you can have nugget combo with drinks too.

For the two pieces chicken plate, it cost RM11.35, and the six pieces nugget is RM6.90.

If you are looking fried chicken with great taste and pleasure, Texas Chicken can be a good meal if you don't mind the price.

Rating

Quality: Good
Portion: Good
Service: Fine
Cost-Worthy: Somehow-Worthy
Environment: Fine

Location

Texas Chicken Malaysia Website: http://www.texaschickenmalaysia.com/
Texas Chicken Malaysia Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TexasChickenMalaysia
Jalan Sultan Ismail
Lot 44-4 Jalan Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang,
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Sun-Mon: 10.00am to 1.00am
Tel: 03-21411566