Minimal-guilt nasi lemak isn't an oxymoron; folks in search of relatively wholesome recipes for our national dish can now explore two eateries, starting with Fortunate Coffee, a new vegan restaurant & coffee bar in Riverwalk Village off Jalan Ipoh.
Fortunate Coffee's nasi lemak is built with brown rice & a little less coconut milk than the norm; most of the flavour comes from the accompaniments - organic tempeh, potato rendang, a tasty-thick sambal & a side salad with passion fruit dressing. RM11.80; typically available Mondays through Thursdays.
Prefer Western-inspired fare? This speciality burger (RM12.80) has a soy patty laced with morsels of corn, peas & potatoes. There's enough of a savoury bite to make it worthwhile, but it's still not the match of chomping down on a meaty-juicy burger.
Fortune favours the coffee lover: Enjoyable cold brews are available here, as are hand-drip & espresso-based preparations.
Some context: Fortunate Coffee is Malaysian-owned, but the name is licensed from a Taiwanese brand. It also sells DMG Bright Time Universal Family clocks & watches that are meant to 'convey inner peace' & 'bring unification to the cosmic life.'
Next up, Sun Fresh Cafe, which is part of the Sunrider health & beauty boutique franchise store in The Weld.
Sun Fresh's version of nasi lemak is surprisingly satisfying under very strange circumstances - instead of rice, quinoa & couscous are used, & there's no coconut milk. In that sense, this might sound beyond bizarre - nasi lemak without rice & santan? But it still manages to emulate the tasty traits of nasi lemak, with tempeh sambal & seeds galore. RM13.50.
Sandwiches are available too - choose either pumpkin wholegrain or spelt bread with cheese & kitchen-made spicy paprika BBQ sauce (RM6.90). Add RM2 for smoked chicken or RM4.50 for smoked salmon.
To stifle a sense of post-lunch sluggishness, Sun Fresh serves detox smoothies, juices & teas; we kinda like the room-temperature, made-to-order blend of spinach, green apples, young ginger, orange & lemon zest (RM6.60 for small).
Fortunate Coffee
H-G-3A, Plaza Riverwalk, Off Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur
Open Monday-Saturday, 10am-7pm. Tel: 03-4040-0305
Sun Fresh
L1-03, Level One, The Weld Shopping Centre, Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur
A customer at the Shear Madness Hair & Beauty Salon in PJ's Happy Garden has murdered Isabel Fernandez, Malaysia's most famous pianist! But who?!? You and the audience have been watching them come and go, getting their hair washed and cut on-stage at this one-of-a-kind show that will play at the PJ Live Arts in Jaya One, Nov. 26-Dec 7.
"It's basically a live version of Law & Order or CSI," says the show's director, Richard Harding Gardner. "When I first saw Shear Madness at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, I was amazed at just how observant the audience was! Stuff that I had missed, someone, somewhere in the audience pounced on it!"
So it's like Cluedo, plus it's very, very funny. Come and see if you can work out who-dun-it! It's not even the same person every night, so take YOUR turn to play armchair detective, question the cast and catch the culprit.
Tickets can be purchased at www.tix.my or by calling 017-2289-849
For the November 26 premiere, Gardner & Wife Theatre is offering a "Buy Two Tickets for the Price of One" exclusive bargain for customers who type the coupon code EDKL when purchasing your ticket online.
Check out the latest edition of Eat Drink KL: 100 Favourites, featuring 100 recommended restaurants for October-December 2014, including more than 30 new entries for this quarter.
This eBook is available to read or download at this link: http://eatdrinkkl.cld.bz/2014D
This link expires Dec. 31, 2014. Please check the newest blog entries after that for fresh links.
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Sausages to sambal. Muffins to marshmallows. Peanut butter to mango chutney. Cornflake ice cream to honey aloe yogurt. Lavender-laced lemonades to lychee-&-guava juices.
Eat Drink KL: Small Businesses, Huge Flavours is the first eBook to help customers navigate the diversity of independent F&B entrepreneurs who bake & boil in their own kitchens, offering some of Malaysia's finest, most fascinating food products.
This resource will be continuously updated with new listings: www.eatdrinkkl.publ.com/businesses
