Showing posts with label Cakes. Show all posts

Monday, March 4, 2019

YummY! - Good Homely Coffee @ Platform Coffee, Pekan Nanas

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Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Good Homely Coffee @ Platform Coffee, Pekan Nanas

Pekan Nanas, Johor, Malaysia - September 2018

There's this nice coffee place in Pekan Nanas, it's not an "Atas" (that's local speak for "up-market") place. In fact, it's a down right down to earth place! A no frills place that serves pretty good coffee in a simple but warm setting.

The place is Platform Coffee located somewhere in a quiet residential area near the town centre. AND one will be forgiven if one miss finding the place.
It's located in a single-storey house which, with it's thin bamboo fencing and corrugated roof, totally does not look like a coffee joint.

As one steps in a large bust lies in a corner of a small rock-garden foyer, it's that of an bald old man with a cheeky hands-in-the-mouth look, inviting patrons in.

The simple look belies what's inside. Within the front compound is the cafe. Even then, this interior does look like a cafe; it consists of a simple concrete bar counter which, except for a red coffee making machine, looks very much like a local kopi-tiam.
It's here at this counter that we meet owner-operator Ah Ping (Hui Phing). Dressed in just a simple dress, she looks more like a house-wife instead of the good barista that she is. But she is in her element, with a tweak here and a push there, she makes good coffee for her patrons!

The place looks quite chaotic, a hodge-podge mix of things that seems to be strewn all over. In one corner sits an antique old radio, with it's dials on a squarish face. On another counter an old Chinese rattan suitcase lies opened ....

At another corner sits a large shelf with odd looking clay mugs. There are even some small busts of a Japanese samurai, a roman gladiator and even one of a satyr. This are the handicraft made during the pottery workshops held by Platform Coffee.
But amidst this chaos is some order, the mugs are used to serve coffee and other drinks, their odd design adding to the uniqueness of the place.

Our coffee came; served in self-made cute cups. Together with the coffee came a liquor bottle, but it contained water and not any alcohol. So don't be fooled and get tipsy!

Mine came in a cute dark brown clay cup with a long-nosed face on one side and short stumpy legs at the bottom (kind of reminds me of myself, those stumpy legs not the long nose 😆). This was local coffee with condensed milk (on account of my lactose intolerance, no fresh milk for me 😰). Even though it was not one of those "atas" western coffee, my local one tasted very good - thick, robust with a hint of acidity.

Next to the coffee counter were these interesting looking antique Chinese rattan baskets. Perhaps they were part of the old stuff that this place displays.

A close up look at the rattan baskets; the paintings on them are exquisite, and reminds me of those antiquarian Nyonya bamboo tiffin carriers.

But these rattan baskets were not just for display; inside them were pastry, kept there to keep them moist and away from the drying air. This one held tempting looking chocolate brownies and Red Wine Walnut cake!

We selected the brownies and it came served on one of those cute self-made pottery dish - this time a blue one with a "We are the world" opened arms figurine. The brownies were beautiful to look at and even more beautiful to sink our teeth into; they were really delicious, full of chocolaty flavours, moist and soft to bite into!

From another basket we selected this Black Bean Loaf ; it was filled with black beans and also pumpkin seeds, and finally topped off with black and white sesame seeds. This was another wonderful pastry made by Platform themselves; very breadish with a good balance of beans and seed flavours and aromas.

And to go with the breadish bun, the olive oil dip was served in a saucer with a cow naughtily sticking out it's pink tongue.

A tempting fluffy croissant served with pats of good La Belle d' Andiane French butter.

This innocent looking cheesy Tomato Focacia conceals what lies within.

..... a layer of creamy cheese floating above slices of tomatoes. Although it looked a tad dry, it was in fact very creamy.

Opposite the coffee counter is a nice area with sofas and chairs for relaxing, all of these sits on a low platform.... Hey a sitting Platform! Was this how Platform got its name?

At one side of the platform is a plywood where patrons can leave memorable messages.... I stuck one of my AhPek Biker stickers at the top left corner!

Platform is more than a coffee bar, they regularly hole event workshops for people to pick up some artistic trade like basket weaving, pottery, etc. It's also a home-stay and within it's living room is a self-drawn cartoon-style map of Pekan Nanas.

Platform's coffee menu are two large plywood boards hanging behind the counter. Above is the Hot Coffee menu.

Platform's Iced Beverage menu.

Platform Pastry & Cake Menu

Other menu were chalk written onto small blackboard slates lying against some bicycles:

Here, they also sell the La Belle d' Andiane French butter which is used for baking.

Platform Coffee, Kulai

DH17A, Lorong A-4, Pekan Nenas, 81500 Pekan Nanas, Johor, Malaysia.

Tel: +6011-15136749
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/platform.coffee.homestay/

GPS & Directional Map: 1.50642, 103.50917

(Click here for Google Street View)

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Monday, August 20, 2018

YummY! - Pork Steaks @ Ante 1-Utama

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / Footsteps / YummY! / Western Food / Pork Steaks @ Ante 1-Utama

Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Pork Steaks @ Ante 1-Utama

Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia - August 2018

On a treat outing, the birthday boy got to pick the place for the do; and he picked a place that served pork steaks. Pork steaks? Can pork be cooked as a steak? Yes, I have tried pork chops. But as a steak? Can it be as chewy tender as beef? Yes, he answered. And they have good marbling too. That got to me, marbling - the magic word! Let's go!

We started off with a Polenta, but one that's served uniquely with the cream scooped into a quarter head of fresh cabbage. It came with bacon bits and garnished with thin strips of spring onion. The bacon bits were more than just bits, slightly chunky for a better bite. Overall it was a good dish, with the fresh cabbage balancing the creaminess and the bacon porky salty aroma adding to the flavour.

As an entree to the main, we ordered a plate of grilled pork striploin to share. I am not that good at porky parts, but this one looked like pork belly prepared ala Chinese style, just like one from the corner coffee shop. Well balanced with more fat (the way I like it), and with lean meat that was tender; both slurpingly good. My only complaint, the skin was not crackling crispy and hence had some parts harder to bite into.
It comes with a "classic gravy mix" (meaning soy sauce with some lard oil), with sprinklings of Italian herbs.

A nicely presented diagonal cuts of seared duck breast; a fusion dish with green pea curry and duck sauce garnishing, complemented by peach salsa. Another good starter to share with the breast slightly salty and with good ducky aroma. The green pea curry was just slightly chilly hot, and the salsa a good diet balance.

They do serve pasta here! This one is a good carbonara with small slices of lightly pan-fried bacon.

And here comes the mains..... almost.
I must apologize for this, it's of a cut of 450gms, much bigger than shown above. By the time I got to photo this, the rest of the gang had whacked it! This is a pork shoulder marinated with North African chermoula spices before being grilled.

The cut of dark meat was very tender and the spices had done their job of making it uniquely tasty, with the edges nicely seared.

The meat was also nicely marbled, making it all the more tasty and tender!

This is their chargrilled pork shoulder served with truffled butter sauce. On the menu, it was supposed to be a cut of pork rib-eye but they had run out of rib-eye; but the shoulder cut worked fine too.

I was curious on how well the marbling goes and did a V-transverse cut across the slab. Yes there was marbling, but most of it were nearer the top fat layer.

I had no complains though, as overall it was still very tender and almost a juicy as a rare-done beef steak. The truffled butter sauce was good, not so full as spices as the other piece, and with it's own individual flavour.

Grilling was perfectly done, nicely charred fat and tender leans. Beautiful aren't they?

For desserts, we had a free piece of Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake, compliments of the house to the birthday boy. It was a generous piece good enough for the five of us to share. The caramel was very good and went well with the slightly wet cake full of chocolate flavour.

Okay, okay... we are not cheapskates! We did order another dessert, their home-made waffles (meaning self-made in their kitchen instead of those frozen ones). I love this one too, as it came with a good helping of fresh raspberries and blackberries and a large scoop of honey lavender ice-cream.
We took advantage of their BUY 2 - GET ONE FREE offer, and bought another cake to get another free. Both these other two pieces we took away. Yup, their cakes are that good.

ANTE has upped the ante, let's hope the other eateries will place their bets the right way too!

Below are ANTE's current menu and price list (click on photo for enlarged view) :