Black Market

If you go to Main Place mall in USJ, you might see this shop called Black Market near the valet entrance of the shopping complex. I must let you know, they have quite a number of vegetarian options that you can order.

We decided to try out this place after purchasing vouchers on Groupon. Ragu said he always wanted to see what they had to offer. The place , true to its name is painted all black\Grey :-). It brings out a dark feeling when you are inside but comfortable. The deco at this place is very tastefully done and impressive - even for using dark colours. I guess the lighting complemented it very well .

One thing that caught my eye is the number of dishes with truffle menu. Truffles are type of fungi that can be found in France originally and but now are cultivated in several countries around the world like Australia and New Zealand. There are many types of truffles: Black,White and other species. Because of its not so common, the prices for truffles can be high. Hence they are also served in very little quantities. This time would be the first  i'm trying truffles, so I won't be able to compare its taste with anything. I'll just have to look around in other shops and review it later.

Because truffle comes under fungi/mushroom - i'll take it as vegetarian ;-)

On the menu, there were quite a few (V) sign : V= Vegetarian , but do be cautious .We noticed even a Truffle Potato Salad with Egg is labeled (V). If you are ok with eggs, go for it.

On the Salad and Soups, they had 4 ( V) choices : Truffle Mushroom Soup and  Spanish Vegetable Soup, Fruit Salad and Truffle Potato Salad with Egg.

We ordered the Truffle Mushroom Soup ( RM16). It was lovely. Definitely the right choice, the mushrooms were well blended, creamy and not to over powering in taste.  Truffles were in the middle. I was excited to taste it but just could not pick up what i'm supposed to taste. Maybe the soup was just too good, I forgot the truffles taste.

On the Appetizers , another 2 ( V) options : Nachos with Guacamole and Wedges with Guacamole, but there was garlic bread and cashewnuts on the menu too.

We got the Nachos ( RM16) . Nachos was  tasty - just the right amount of salt and flavoring and not too greasy like some other nachos around. The only complain is that it came with a really good dipping sauce which was too little a serving. For that much of nachos , we need more sauce.

There were no ( V) marked in the Main section, so you just need to go with the dish name.

Ragu ordered Seafood Petai Sambal Fried Rice ( RM28). He enjoyed it , especially the prawns and petai, but found the rice a tad way spicy.. Nevertheless, thumbs up for him.

The kids and me tried The Five Star Egg Truffle with Linguine , since it had a crown beside it :-). It was recommended and also the Truffle Mushroom Pizza.

Make no mistake like me. The pasta dish pic on the menu showed egg on top, and I asked for the egg to be well done , forgetting that its the soft cooked egg yolk when mixed, would bring out the flavor with the pasta together with the truffles.. Plan failed and I probably didn't get what i should have. Next time I have to learn to keep my mouth shut. Pasta taste was good . I just have to visit them again to try how it should be.

Pizza taste was ok - again I couldn't feel or taste the truffle. Maybe I should be smelling them instead.

One thing I have to recommend is that they have the best shakes we had ever tasted. The kids ordered each , one strawberry and one chocolate . Both were superb ( RM 15 each). Thick and frothy you can feel every ingredient in the shake, while sipping its creaminess . Two thumbs up. Please come here if your kids like shakes.

Now , whichever restaurant we go to, the kids would order chocolate Lava if its on the menu. They have benchmarked many and so far the one at The Beer Factory in Setia Walk beats everything. So I asked them to review this one and they were excited. When the Choc Lava came, they punctured, it , tasted it , combined it with the ice cream and said , NOPE!  Not as good. ( I'll blog about the Beer Factory's food another day) . Ragu and me found it not flowy enough, but tastewise ok. Kids have high expectations I think.

 

Black Markets  outlets are at


1)

Address: St. Mary Place, No. 1 Jalan Tengah,, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur

Phone:03-2022 2060

Hours:

 

Opening hours · 10:00 am – 11:00 pm

2) No 16, Jalan Kampun Pandan, 55100 KL
Phone : 0173218686
Opening hours : 11am to 12 am

3) Ground Floor , Main Place Place Mall, USJ21/10
Phone : 03 -58797668
Opening hours : 10am to 10pm

Bon Appetit !!

Franco at IOI City Mall

Driving back home over the Chinese New Year holidays, we decided to stop over at the newly opened IOI City Mall at Putrajaya. This mall was opened only a few months back and looked very impressive from the outside. As soon as  we parked and got out to the Lower Ground Floor, we were stopped at our tracks..Literally. TOO many people on this we could hardly move. Lower Ground was packed with food joints of all sorts. We decided to walk a bit to a uncrowded area before getting a bite but the stretch is really long. Never realized how long this mall was until then :-)

Finally we found a restaurant at a non busy area of the Lower Ground Floor. Great location , its and advantage for us. Franco! Its a French Japanese Fine Casual Dining Retaurant.

 The place was really nice. It was situated at the Parkson end of IOI City Mall. Crowds in this area was comparatively lesser but it was still quite packed at Franco's. Now, what would you expect from a French Japanese fusion restaurant. We spoke to the manager of this outlet, who was very helpful in explaining what they had on the menu and what was recommended. Their highlight is actually the Franco French Toast. But our luck, it was out of stock. All toast was out, so we had no chance to try it. But this is how it looks on the menu. Next time , we got to come again. It looked really good.

 

Ragu ordered Franco Ice Coffee, that came in a really cool bronze tumbler. Coffee was ok. He wasn't jumping up and down. It came with milk and sugar separately.. The kids had a ball mixing it.

I ordered a Peanut Butter and Banana Shake ( RM13.80). It was recommended and true to its word, it was wonderfull. We could feel the smoooth banana flavor and it blended so well with the crunchy peanuts. Its basically a drink that you can munch on :-)
But make sure you share the drink, cause towards the end , it can get a bit "jelak" .

The kids ordered Nuttela Pancake ( RM16.80) and Berries Cheesecake Parfait ( RM14.80 ) .

The Berries Cheesecake was perfect - and it was recommended too. Its not like the ordinary cheesecake you get, its actually layers of strawberry compote, cream cheese, shorbet -type ice cream, drizzled with strawberry sauce and fresh strawberries and blueberries. It tasted awesome. Cream cheese had the perfect taste. It took no less than 3 minutes for the kids to wipe it clean. Definite worth it to see the happiness on their faces. No regrets!

The Nutella pancake however wasn't much to shout about. It took ages to come, although justified that the pancakes are whipped upon order to ensure the freshness. The pancake was light , fluffy but slightly dry, even with the nutella inside. For the price of the dish, we expected more nutella, but very little cane. The presentation was pleasant, with a big star in the middle. We'll have to try other pancakes next time.

They have other items on the menu, pastas ( one vegetarian spaghetti option)  , Souffles , Souffle Pancakes and Toasts.. Definitely worth a stop over guys when you see this shop.

They have 3 outlets so far, with the IOI City Mall outlet being the latest, just opened on the 19th of Feb 2015.

Other outlets are at
FRANCO @ 1 Utama. Lot 146, G Floor (Old wing), 1 Utama Shopping Centre, 48200 Petaling Jaya. Tel:
+603-7731 8923 FRANCO @ The Curve. Lot G49, Ground Floor, the Curve, No. 6, Jalan PJU 7/3, Mutiara Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

FRANCO @  IOI City Mall LG-80C & 80D, Lower Ground Floor, IOI City Mall, Lebuh IRC, IOI Resort City, 62502 Putrajaya, Sepang. Tel:
+603 8959 3928


Bon Appetit !

Niko Niko Onigiri

You might have seen this name in several places like Puchong, Subang, etc..

 

They call it the Japanese Rice Ball shop and it has a vegetarian menu!!!

 

So if you like Japanese, and finding for Vege options , you may stop your car here :-)

 

 

 

 

Saisha and me love this. Her favourite is Egg Mayo, while I love the  Vegetarian Meat and Seaweed Meat Floss. Both burst with flavor, slight salty , slightly warm when indulging into it. Potato and Egg wasn't that great and tasted rather bland. I'll have to try other flavors next time..

 

 

 

So what is it you ask? Well its basically rice( warm rice ) put into triangular containers half way .Then, the filling is added then they top it up with more rice and make it really compact.

 

 

Then the whole thing is upturned onto a seaweed sheet, releasing a triangular rice "ball" .

 

 

Then its wrapped ( too fast for me to even understand how its done! )

 

 

And..whoppee.. Here is the complete product. 

 

 

Now , unwrapping it is another story. The instructions are given at the bottom of the Onigiri, but I can never get it right...eventually I'll pull the read strip in the middle, peel one side of the plastic off and start muching from one corner of the triangle. I have NO patience..

 

 

Bon Appetit folks!

You can find Niko-Niko Onigiri at the below places :-)

•         Niko-Niko Onigiri Sri Petaling :
• No 67, Jalan Radin Tengah, Bandar Baru, Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
•          Niko-Niko Onigiri Puchong :
• No 17, Jalan Kenari 7,Bandar Puchong Jaya, 47100 Puchong
•         Niko-Niko Onigiri Subang( SS15/4D) 
•        Niko-Niko Onigiri Uptown, Damansara :
• No.66, Jalan SS21 / 39, Damansara Utama Uptown, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
•        Niko-Niko Onigiri Cheras :
• No.72, Jalan 1, Taman Lenseng, Cheras, 56000, KL.
•        Niko-Niko Onigiri Setapak :
• G-20, PV 128, Jalan Genting Kelang, Setapk, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
•        Niko-Niko Onigiri Seri Kembangan :
11-1, Jalan 4/1, Taman Bukit Serdang, 43300 Seri Kembangan