Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Sunday, August 24, 2014

YummY! - Thai Temptations @ Barn Thai Plaza 33

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YummY!

Jotaro's Food Review

THAI TEMPTATIONS @ BARN THAI

Plaza 33, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia - August 2014

We used to frequent Barn Thai down in Kuala Lumpur years ago; then it served some good food and was the place to hang out with friends for drinks while taking in the good jazz music. Every once in a while there would be good jazz musicians to provide live band music too.
When that joint closed, a sort of vacuum set in; a vacuum for good Thai food coupled with good music. So when Barn Thai Restaurant & Bar opened at Plaza 33, Petaling Jaya a few months ago; the Thai-Food/Music crowd were excited - "Happy Days Are Here Again!" For the first few months they served Thai Tapas to go with the music and the drinks.
Of late, they have opened up a large dining section at the rear section of the restaurant. The food served, I must say is real good and tempting.

Right from the start, Barn Thai promises all things Thai; a teak Thai-style roof entrance arch welcomes patrons. Inside a large horse statue made from strips of Burmese Teak stands proudly.

Beyond the entrance, a large bar area caters for the happy crowd, who were drinking and listening to some good old music from the seventies and eighties. The place is dim but not overly dark; Yes, one can still see one's fingers clearly.
A large Thai roof canopy hangs over the bar counter; the décor and furniture are mostly wood. The brown earth tones gives a cosy and comfortable atmosphere, and yet the place exudes a certain classy air. This is a joint that will certainly cater to the business crowd too.

A smiling and gay waiter cheerfully led us down a corridor past two layers of auto-sliding doors. With the underside of a tiled roof above, we felt like we were being led to a chalet.
The attentive staff had certainly made us feel at home; that's Thai culture for you.

Nope, it was not a chalet that we were led to, but a large split level dining area with a similar timber tone setting. Even with a busy bar on the other side, the dining room was surprisingly quiet. The two layers of sliding doors, acting like a sound lock, had done their job well.
We opted to sit on the upper deck.

After making our orders; I looked around. On the walls were hung Thai knick-knacks and decorations. On one wall were a photo montage of sceneries from Thailand.
You must be wondering why I am spending so much time describing the setting. I must say that I was very taken in by the overall environment of the place, the balance of warm timber with the decorations has built up my eagerness to savour the food.
Hah! The setting itself is an appetizer.

Well, here comes the food!

Crab Cake.
Shredded crab meat is mixed together with vegetables and some spices to create a tasty paste. Deep frying in crab shells gave this dish an extra aroma. Overall, this was a flavourful starter.

At first I though that this was some kind of doughnut, and thought to myself "Hey! Isn't it to soon for desserts?"
No, these are not doughnuts but Thai Fish Cake. Instead of being made into round patties, Barn Thai have made them this way; which is good too, as that little hole there gave a more all round cooking and also provided slightly more of the semi-crispy skin.

That little hole had done a good job to ensure a quick all round cooking; the inside of the fish cake was still juicy making it succulent to bite into.

The Deep-Fried Vegetable Spring Rolls came in a small fryer basket. Barn Thai has not only taken the effort to make the food delicious, they have taken that extra step to make the presentation of their food special; each dish is presented so well that one gets drooling to start. But wait a moment, let the eyes have a feast first, build up the appetite more.

The Eggplant Basil Chicken had minced chicken stir-fried together with the eggplant and basil leaves, and topped up with three large prawns. This was not overly fried and the eggplant was not soggy and maintained its shape. A tasty dish, it went well with white rice.

Grilled Chicken Salad - Slices of boneless chicken is stir-fired with dried chilli, onions, etc. and served with sticks of salad ala Thai style.

The beef in the Beef Green Curry was in manageable thin slices, making them tender and juicy. Vegetables in this curry balanced off this dish. A creamy curry, it also went well with the white rice.

Clear Seafood Tomyum.
Prepared the Northern Thai style, don't let the "clearness" of this soup belie its spicy hotness. With slices of fish, cutlets of squid and mussels it had a very good seafood flavour.

Fried Fish Tomyum.
Frying the fish first before cooking it in Tomyum is a great idea, the fishy oil had seeped into the curry giving it that extra fishy oomph!

This Grilled River Prawns is the dish I enjoyed the most. Nicely grilled with some burnt parts, the prawn meat when dipped into the Thai Chilli sauce was perfectly superb!
I slowly took small pieces of this and savoured them.

A couple of desserts rounded off our meal. The Tab Tim Grob had nice chewy tapioca jelly with water chestnut inserts. Slice of mango were added to the creamy santan. I would have preferred Jackfruit in this dessert as the Jackfruit does bring out the creamy flavour of the santan better.

Mango Pudding - Slices of mango were served with a helpful amount of Pulut Rice and topped off with a sprinkling of fresh santan. The slight sourness of the mangoes balanced off the sweetness of the pudding.

What better way is there to end the night than to adjourn to the bar section to enjoy good drinks...

... and listen to wonderful retro-music spun by Deejays Mei & Kev.
I sipped my drink and just let the moment sink in.

BARN THAI RESTAURANT & BAR

PG-01B, Ground Floor, Plaza 33, 1 Jalan Kemajuan, Section 13, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +603-7932 2233 Fax: +603-7932 3338
Emails: reservations@barnthai.com.my enquiry@barnthai.com.my
Webpage: www.barnthai.com.my

GPS : 3.109575,101.637801

Hours: Lunch - 11:45 am to 2:30 pm Dinner - 5:30 pm to 10:30 pm Bar - 4:00 pm to 1:00 am
Closed on Sundays

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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Malaysia 2014 : Rabbit Farm @ Ijok

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Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

RABBIT FARM @ IJOK

Bukit Badong, Ijok, Selangor, Malaysia - August 2014

One one of our interesting rides, we cycled from Rawang to Ijok and dropped in to visit a rabbit farm there. The cute and friendly rabbits really captivated our hearts and we stayed longer than we had planned.

A signboard with Bugs Bunny as the host welcomes visitors.
The farm is called the Taman Arnab Bukit Badong operated by One Stop Rabbit Farm & Trading. It's located at Bukit Badong in Ijok, Selangor.

Just at the entrance is a play pen where some rabbits are put to run about and have fun. Visitors can go in and play with the rabbits there too.

To the side and rear of the reception house, are long sheds houses rabbit hutches. There must be hundreds of different types of rabbits in these hutches.

Photos of some of the rabbits are shown below. Unfortunately, the names of the type of rabbits are not indicated on the hutches, so I will just name them according to their looks for the time being. They are up for sale as pets too.

Mascara Eyed Snow-ball.

Patchy Floppy Ears.

Furry Patchy Brown.

A short interlude, here. Carrots are on sale here at RM1-00 each for feeding the rabbits.

Grey Smooth Fur.

Black-eared Furball.

Furry Furry White. This one is so furry that sometimes it's hard to make out that it's a rabbit.

Grey Mousey Rabbit.

Furry Fringed Hair.

Another look at Fringe Hair, from the front. Here it looks so feminine.

Black & White Patchy Mousy Head.

Front view of Mousy Head, showing it's mouse like head with black eye patches.

Patchy Brown-Black-White.

A short interlude here to show that most of the rabbits are very friendly and let visitors carry and pet them. Let the staff guide you on how to carry them out from cage and then pet them.

Midnight Black.

Furry Brown-White Patchy.

Short-haired Black-White Patchy.
This one has very fine short hair, very comfortable to pet.

The rabbits are allowed to breed, sometimes cross-breeding are carried out so that beautiful hybrids are obtained. The above photo shows a mother rabbit with her brood of kits.

One of the baby rabbit, looking very cute and huggable.

On another piece of adjacent land, closed of from the public are rows and rows of cages. These are where the meat rabbits are reared.

These poor white rabbits with pink eyes, are bred for their meat.

ONE STOP RABBIT FARM & TRADING
Lot 543, Jalan Haji Abdul Manan, Kampung Bukit Badong, 45600 Bestari Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +6019-220 6135 (Ismail)
GPS: 3.344723,101.408721
Visiting Hours: 9:00 am to 6:30 pm
Entry at RM2-00 per pax; give them a call first so that they can bring the rabbits out to the play pen.
FaceBook Pages: https://www.facebook.com/TamanArnabBukitBadong

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