For reasons that I don’t know of, I was the only blogger who was invited by a PR agency (on behalf of California Pizza Kitchen) to attend a food tasting solely for the medias. Yes, you read it alright, the only blogger among a pool of KL media, magazine writers, journalists and photographers.

In KL itself, there are tonnes of hardcore food bloggers who have probably twice or even ten times more of my traffic, yet I was the only invited blogger. Weird huh? Anyway, I am not complaining, just that it would definitely satisfy my curiosity if I know the reason why I was invited. Again, I took the public transport and it was surely tiring even at non-peak hours.

After checking out the location on the information panel, I made my way to California Pizza Kitchen. I think it was two floors above Burger King and KFC, a floor above Dome and Chinoz in the Park, I think. Haha!

It’s the open kitchen concept again, kitchen on the left side while dining area is just on the other side. On the far right are full length glass panels that exhibit views of the KLCC park and fountains, while allowing natural sunlight to brighten up half the dining area at the same time. Dining area is huge, probably able to accommodate more than 150 diners at the same time, with a private room / section at the far end, which was “our place” for the day.

For your information, Nee has paid this American franchise a visit almost a year ago. That day, it was my turn.

California Pizza Kitchen has recently changed their menu and introduced new flavours for their salads, pastas, pizzas and desserts. Hence, the medias were invited for a food tasting session. Me? I am just a blogger, and bloggers don’t belong to the media category.

Seeing that all the mainstream media and magazines were there to write the same thing, I decided to take the less formal a.k.a the blogger approach to write my dining experience in California Pizza Kitchen. I was invited as a blogger, not as a journalist, remember?

First up was the Mediterranean Salad (RM22).

A chilled salad of cucumbers, red onions, fresh tomatoes and Greek olives tossed with crisp Romaine leaves and lemon-herb vinaigrette, served on a bed of hummus. Topped with Feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and homemade Tzatziki sauce and served with pita bread.

Add grilled rosemary chicken breast @ RM10 / sauteed salmon @ RM14.50 / grilled shrimp @ RM14.

I am a carnivore and eating salad is a really dreadful thing to me. It tasted pretty decent, but the feeling of eating grass kept on popping up and it was a few spoons later, I decided to skip this particular dish.

Second was the Miso Salad (RM22).

Shredded Napa cabbage with fresh avocado, julienne cucumbers, daikon, edamame, carrots, red cabbage, green onions, cilantro, crispy rice noodles and crispy wontons tossed in a Miso dressing. Served with chilled grilled chicken.

Add grilled shrimp @ RM14.

Now, this is a salad dish that I wouldn’t mind eating again. It was really crunchy due to the rice noodles, wontons, cabbage, cucumbers and other stuffs inside. It was more of like eating snacks than salads. The slices of chilled grilled chicken definitely boosts the dish’s value since it is also priced at RM22, same as the Mediterranean Salad without the chicken meat. Value and taste wise, Miso Salad definitely wins hands down!

California Pizza Kitchen doesn’t serve only pizzas, but also some noodles and spaghetti dishes. The three newly introduced specialties were the Pan Sauteed Salmon, Chicken Marsala and Chicken Piccata.

Pan Sauteed Salmon (RM32) definitely went well for my taste buds. I am not the kind of person who loves sourness in my food, hence, the sourness in the lemon-caper sauce wasn’t exactly my liking. However, if I were to take away the sourness from the spaghetti, I would definitely be whacking them like a hungry man who has starved for a day. I definitely love the lightly seasoned and pan sauteed Atlantic salmon, which was quite a big chunk to begin with.

Atlantic salmon lightly seasoned and pan sauteed. Accompanied with fresh grilled asparagus and spaghetti in a creamy lemon-caper sauce. Served blackened upon request.

The second speciality dish was the Chicken Marsala (RM30).

Thinly pounded chicken breast sauteed with fresh mushrooms and grilled asparagus in a marsala wine sauce. Served with linguini pasta.

This tasted better than I expected, although the marsala sauce part wasn’t my idea of marsala. The almost tasteless chicken fillet sort of became “alive” after I mixed it with the marsala sauce and linguini pasta and walloped it down my throat. If and only it has some spiciness in it, that would be really nice. The asparagus sort of lost its texture after being tossed together but the mushrooms made up for it.

While the Chicken Piccata (RM30) was not made towards to my liking due to the sourness in the lemon-caper (Duh!) sauce, a few mouthful of the noodles didn’t taste as bad as I initially expected. If you are one who can take sourness, this is a much better option for you compare to Chicken Marsala.

Thinly pounded chicken breast sauteed in a creamy lemon-caper sauce. Served with spaghetti pasta.

Every year, California Pizza Kitchen renews their menu with new flavours. This year, they have introduced three new pizzas, the Italian Tomato & Basil, The Works and Sicillian.

Italian Tomato & Basil (RM26) may sound really simple and nothing to shout about, as it only uses four main ingredients, Italian tomatoes, basil, Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese, coupled with their own made tomato sauce. However, the taste definitely said the opposite thing. The slight and natural sourness of the Italian tomatoes, coupled with fresh basil and sinfully delicious Parmesan cheese, you get a saliva inducing and appetite opening pizzas.

Imported Italian tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese and our tomato sauce, topped with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.

The lower right pizza inside the picture above is the Sicillian (RM32) pizza.

A spicy marinara sauce with sweet Italian beef and chicken sausage, spicy turkey salami, julienne beef salami, Fortina, Mozarella and Parmesan cheese. Topped with fresh oregano and basil.

Judging from the description above, that’s sure heck lots of ingredients used as the toppings for the pizza. No wonder it tasted so nice and I couldn’t help it but to eat not one, not two but three slices. By the time I finished taking my pictures, the pizzas served has already cooled down yet it still tasted really good. Imagine when it is served right after coming out from the oven, oh la la!

On the other hand, The Works (RM34) is a combination of the more common ingredients used in pizzas, such as the sweet Italian chicken and beef sausage, beef pepperoni, sauteed mushrooms, Mozzarella cheese, mild onions, green peppers, black olives and own made tomato sauce.

I wouldn’t say its super delicious or its really bad. Its somewhat in between of its counterparts. Definitely the ideal choice of pizza for those who prefer to go safe instead of being adventurous with the uncommon flavours.

Those were the main courses served that afternoon. Now, its time for desserts.

Red Velvet Cake (RM20)

Three layers of moist red velvet cake frosted with vanilla bean, cream cheese and white chocolate curls. Served on vanilla bean sauce.

It is a little bit sweet for my liking and the sweetness would definitely stop you from finishing the whole slice of cake. However, with the vanilla bean sauce and vanilla bean frost, the taste was definitely top notch.

Red velvet cake was the only new dessert by California Pizza Kitchen, but the guys served us with Chocolate Souffle RM25.50 and Tiramisu (RM25.50) as well.

A simple dessert like chocolate souffle will definitely not go wrong if one wants to be safe and order something bound to taste good. The brownies were definitely soft and moist, with strong flavour of chocolates in it. Together with the icy cold vanilla ice cream, you get the hot and cold feel inside your mouth, which is not a really good thing for your teeth but it is worth the risk.

The Tiramisu contained too much of rum, overpowering the coffee and cocoa flavours. The rum is supposed to be a passive ingredient, to bring out the taste of coffee and cocoa but not the other way round. While they got the texture just right, firm enough to stand on its own yet soft enough to immediately melt inside your mouth, the taste has to be improved.

Overall, it was a really satisfying food tasting session, definitely worth my trouble waking up early, taking the LRTs and coming up all the way to KL.
Will I return? Definitely.

California Pizza Kitchen
Lot No. 140, Level 1,
Suria KLCC,
Kuala Lumpur City Center,
50088 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel : (03) 23820512
Fax : (03) 23820516
Email : cpkoffice@po.jaring.my

P/S : Many thanks to Kelly Thean of Integrated Public Relations who invited me to the media food tasting and California Pizza Kitchen restaurant manager, Ronny Izwan, who hosted the lunch.

After the donuts shopping spree at Pavilion’s J.Co Donuts & Coffee, I then proceeded to meet up with Nee where both of us headed to The Curve’s Italiannies. It was quite a jam as the short distance from Section 13 to The Curve took longer than 45 minutes.

My last visit to Italiannies was during the month of May, which I went with Sook Ying and JiNz. Click on the link to read my first visit to the restaurant that serves decent pizzas, pastas and other Italian cuisines. Every thing was pretty much the same except that there were quite a bit of crowd as it was dinner time.

Upon seated, we were served with a plate of bread, that came in two texture, soft and hard. There’s a plate of sauce, mixed using olive oil, sprinkle of herbs and spices and vinegar (?).

Deep fried calamari. A little oily, but it was all good. Served with a bowl of authentic Italian tomato sauce, which didn’t seem to really go along with the deep fried squid. I mean, I am used to the artificial tomato sauce already. Ha! They didn’t over fry it and the sponginess and juiciness of the squid were well retained. Yet, can don’t serve me too much of the leggy part? -sweat-

Nee doesn’t take beef and that means no lasagna. Say no to chicken lasagna.
Nee doesn’t like salmon and I can’t try the salmon carabona.
I have tried shrimp aglio olio before and I try to avoid the same food / main course.
Pizzas are way too much for both of us and they are dry too.

And, that pretty much strike off most of the items in the menu. Anyway, knowing that the portion at Italiannies is awfully huge, I ordered one main course for both of us to share. Deep fried chicken topped with melted cheese, served with tomato sauced based spaghetti. There’s a name for it, but I have forgotten. It’s called Chicken Parmagiana, credits to Hung Wei.

You got to love the cheese that they put in their dishes. Sinfully delicious and aromatic. The chicken breast meat was coated with cheese, moisturizing the rather dry meat so that its easier to be gulped down. Yet, not too wet till the crispy layer was soaked away.

As expected, Nee couldn’t finish her share and I gladly finished most of them, leaving a little bit behind for them to clear up. Despite being rather full, how could I resist their tiramisu, which was just God damn delicious and full of flavours. Soft, like you are eating ice cream, which melts right in your mouth, only to be welcomed with some rum, blended with chocolate and coffee flavoured finger sponge. Heavenly.

We paid the bill and it came close to RM90, and I left the restaurant feeling satisfied and filled to the brim.

Heh!

Just when I was thinking when to pay Dutch Harbour Cafe a visit after reading the review at Amazing Melaka by Tien Soon, I received a call from my boss that the owner of Dutch Harbour Cafe has invited the media for a food tasting session at its cafe.

Armed with a notepad, my faithful FZ30 and an empty stomach, I made my way to the cafe and was greeted by Clifford Hudson. The owner, Azizuddin A. Aziz wasn’t in, hence, his partner, Hudson would be the host for the evening. Hudson was born in England and has lived in US for quite some time before settling down in Malacca. He was a retired air captain and currently working as a chief pilot instructor at Batu Berendam’s Malaysian Flying Academy.

The cafe is on the left hand side of the shop lots at the stadhuys (Malacca’s infamous red coloured buildings) and is diagonally opposite St. Francis Xavier church.

From the outside, it looks pretty much like just another small restaurant / cafe, but when you are inside the cafe, it’s a whole new environment. Behind the boring old cafe setup is a small garden (also the kitchen) and right outside the small garden is a row of tables nicely placed along the corridor, next to the dirty old Malacca river. With a bottle of beer, couple of old friends, this is definitely an ideal place to hang out, without the noisy environment and horrifying music (Read : Wingz Cafe.) or expensive drinks (Read : Nadeje Patisserie.) Operating hours is from 9am until 12 midnight.

There were only two of us, my colleague and myself but Hudson had prepared three freaking tables of food. Isn’t that a little wee bit too much, you asked? Yes, it is but when it comes to food, I certainly don’t mind at all. The perks of working as a journalist.

Since there are too many food to write about, I shall just pick a few and the more prominent ones to write about. Fruit salad, curry puff, spring roll and garden salad were the rather common ones on the table. There were really many types of fruits, like watermelons, green apples, pineapples, grapes, oranges and cherries, in the fruit salad. How about adding papayas and mangoes the next time? My colleague said the spring roll tasted really good, which I second that.

Lasagna, far cry from Secret Recipe’s lasagna. They over cooked it, hence, the sides were stiff and hard. It was just nice in the middle though. Taking Secret Recipe’s lasagna as the benchmark, the lasagna they offered didn’t have enough minced meat in it and seriously lack of cheese. I like my lasagna to be flooded and melted with cheese.

Hudson said that the dutch eats the most chocolate in the world. Well, even their breakfast consists of chocolate. Hagelslag, buttered bread topped with chocolate rice, is what the dutch eats for breakfast. I kid you not. It is so simple to make that you can even do it yourself. If you can’t, you are doomed anyway. Taste is very simple, nothing to shout about but it’s something unique that you don’t get in Malaysia yet or have it for breakfast.

San Fransisco rice is also another specialty. It is rice and orzo (A kind of Italian pasta.), toasted on a pan and then, cooked with mixed vegetables and beef / chicken stock. It’s pretty much like fried rice, but has a different texture and taste. Not to mention, it’s not oily at all and on the dry side. You can taste the difference between the rice and pasta easily when you chew them slowly. It’s a dish that Hudson brought it from the states and often cook himself.

Hawaiian chicken pizza and beef pepperoni pizza. For the chicken, the pizza is very dry. Unlike the pizzas we normally eat, the pizzas here are not spread with tomato puree before topping off with the toppings, hence, the chicken meat and pizza itself are generally dry. However, you can put some chili sauce or drip a few tabasco sauce on it, it might help a little. Perhaps, topped the pizza with a huge amount of melted cheese might fix the problem, who knows?

Beef pepperoni, tasted pretty decent as well, far better than its Hawaiian chicken counter part. However, by the time I put the slice of pizza into my mouth, it was cold and stiff. Hudson assured me that for customers, the pizzas would be served right from the oven, smoking hot and still crunchy. Well, couldn’t blame him as we were talking and taking photos when the food was left on the table for more than 30 minutes. The bread is somewhat thinner than the chicken as well. A few dash of tabasco on it certainly spiced the flavour up.

Guilder, a round nugget lookalike, is chicken meat covered with mashed potatoes and then deep fried. It is called guilder because the size of the nugget lookalike is the size of the 100 cents coin in the Netherlands. Absolutely perfect for finger food while you gulp down your cold beer.

Chicken croquette is absolutely delicious. Crunchy on the outside, mushy on the inside. The fillings looked pretty much like chicken floss but didn’t taste like one. It was like a finely chopped and rolled up tightly chicken meat. Man, come to think of it, I don’t even really know how to describe the texture of the chicken croquette.

As for drinks, we were served a few kinds. Carribean perrier, where three layers of different density liquid poured into one glass. The first layer is perrier water, followed by orange juice and lastly, grenadine syrup. Hence, you have the plain, sour and sweet flavours in each level. Russian perrier is somewhat like lime juice / sorbet, ideal for those who love sour, which I’m not.

Well, among all drinks, I strongly recommend you their Madagascar Fruit Blast. The drink is made using superbly fragrant, thick and concentrated tropical fruits puree mixed with the best and most expensive vanilla cream from Madagascar, with whipped cream as the finishing touches.

For your information, Madagascar is the world’s leading vanilla exporter (Up to 50% of the world’s export market!) and also produces the finest and most consistent vanilla. I was a little doubtful when Hudson told me that, but not until I googled up for the information.

You can ask them not to add in the vanilla, but it’s the vanilla that gives the fruit puree a smooth and creamy taste.

It was this glass of tropical fruit punch that made the dinner complete and my day. Upon my first sip, immediately, I know this is good stuff and something you won’t be able to get in Malacca easily. It also put a very big grin on my face after that. This beverage may be the sole reason why I return to this cafe in near future.

Dutch Harbour Cafe will be on my top three choices if I am looking for a place to chill with my old buddies. They serve beers, all kinds of fresh juices and other beverages, finger foods, pizzas and some main course dishes. With the nice ambiance and environment at the back of the cafe, it’s definitely a much nicer place to go compared to other music cafes and pubs in Malacca.

Will I return? Definitely.

They have their own official website - “Dutch Harbour Cafe“.