Eat Drink KL: November 2024

Friday, November 22, 2024

Common Feed: Now an Italian-Spanish restaurant & deli in Damansara Uptown

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Common Feed has returned, as a new Italian-Spanish restaurant and deli in Damansara Uptown, serving fresh-baked focaccia sandwiches, rustic pastas, robust Neapolitan pizzas and more, with everything from Italian charcuterie to Spanish canned seafood for sale.

This is a cheerful, casual choice for lunch and dinner, warmly welcoming patrons to a charmingly furnished wood-toned space with a wood-fired oven in its open kitchen.

Browse for bottles of olive oil, cans of tomatoes, and wide-ranging cold cuts and cheeses, then kick back for a hearty meal. In the afternoon, focaccia sandwiches offer fast, tasty convenience; in the evening, pizzas prove perfect for sharing, bolstered by Spanish-style tapas.

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Focaccia sandwich sets are the highlight from 11am to 3pm, at reasonable prices of RM23-RM29, including a choice of iced tea or coffee.

Six sandwich options are available - we could order a different one every workday, each with its own satisfying combo of tastes and textures: The ham lover’s Jambon Beurre (RM25), Mortadella & Stracciatella (RM27), creamy-spicy ‘Nduja & Stracciatella (RM27), Parma & Stracciatella (RM29), Meatballs & Gruyere (RM23) and Lamb Porchetta & Feta (RM25).

Common Feed has perfected the proportions: The focaccia is baked in-house, balanced between fluffy and full-bodied with a fragrantly pillowy bite, layered with lots of meat and cheese for addictively punchiness.

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During dinner, the kitchen’s attention turns to twelve-inch pizzas, built on two-day-fermented dough, culminating in a pleasurably puffy-airy crust with depth of flavour, leopard-spotted with heartwarming heat.

Common Feed’s pizzas rank among our favourite in PJ - for carnivorous carb cravings, check out the Spicy Kielbasa (RM42) and Mortadella (RM45), showcasing the savoury succulence of sausages and salumi.

Common Feed is also our best bet for Panuozzo Napoletana, the lip-smacking pizza sandwich, lusciously crafted here with Parma ham and stracciatella cheese.

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Dry pasta is served for lunch and fresh pasta for dinner, with a lunch selection of umami-rich, briny-earthy Anchovy & Porcini Burro (RM25 including iced tea or drip coffee), Fusilli Pesto, Meatball Amatriciana and more.

Dinner pasta temptations include the citrus-brightened Al Limone with a choice of Spanish sardines or tuna for fish-fuelled fun (RM38), Carbonara, cooked with hand-rolled strozzapreti for a firm Italian 00-flour bounce in an eggy, guanciale-tossed tribute to classic Roman no-cream traditions (RM40), Truffle Serrano, Aceite de Gambas, and Crab Pesto.

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Common Feed’s risotto deserves a shout-out of its own, convincingly al dente, decadent with smooth foie gras and silky porcini mushrooms, worthy of a top trattoria (RM62). Risotto with chorizo and clams is also available. 

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For small plates to share, we love the Chicken Liver Mousse with melt-in-the-mouth, velvety richness, complete with lavish crackers (RM23), ‘Nduja Clams, featuring plump, juicy molluscs, mouthwatering in tangy-sweet sauce blended with ‘nduja salumi (RM42), Gambas al Ajillo, doing justice to the Spanish staple with market-fresh crustaceans, aromatically garlicky (RM38) and Galician Spanish Octopus, mixed up with sausage slices for an extra kick, comfortingly cushioned with potatoes (RM43). Cheese and charcuterie platters also sound super-tempting.

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Common Feed’s tiramisu is impeccable - for dessert devotees, it’s worth visiting for this delicately whipped wonder even on its own. Fun fact: On Friday evenings for dinner, Common Feed serves up a playful special - scoop all the tiramisu you want from the kitchen’s tray to your plate for just RM25!

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Common Feed 
115G, Jalan SS21/37, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. 
Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-3:30pm, 5:30pm-10pm. 
Tel: 03-7731-7313

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Lemak by VUVU, Bangsar South

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Bangsar South's new family-owned Lemak by VUVU takes pride in a Terengganu mother's prize-winning recipe for ayam lemak, aromatic with lemongrass and local spices, served with steamed rice or mihun for a satisfying meal.

Fun fact: Vuvu is a cute moniker blurted out by one of the family's young children while they were brainstorming for names.

Shouka, Bukit Jelutong

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Smash burgers for brunch: Beef and buns come out bright and early at Bukit Jelutong’s Shouka, with sizzlingly juicy burgers off the griddle beginning 10am.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Air Day Coffee, Taman Seputeh

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Air Day Coffee is a beautiful new sanctuary for the soul, offering a breather in Bukit Seputeh beside the Syed Putra highway.

Friendly co-founder Lex and his team have lovingly crafted a space of soothing solace, largely lined with wood fittings, some hand-built, exuding a humane warmth with wide windows looking out on laid-back leafiness.

Analogue inspirations abound, from a manual-lever espresso machine to music cassette deck players, amid flourishing English ivy, begonias and rubber plants representing essential elements of life.

With T-Bone Walker singing the blues on the speakers, mornings are calm and cosy here, with fresh-baked apple crumble pies and fragrant coffee beckoning.

When We Meet Is the ideal introduction, bringing together the bittersweet Ethiopian Nano Chala G1 Washed filter with an Ethiopian Gedeb Lalisa Village Natural cold brew blended with pineapple juice, milk and Earl Grey lavender syrup, plus scrumptiously soft hojicha sponge cake with white chocolate and passion fruit cream.

If you admire cafes with a genuine personal character, check this out. Air Day Coffee roasts its own beans, available for sale along with home brewing equipment.

GF17, Jln Syed Putra, Bukit Seputeh, 50460 Kuala Lumpur.