Review: Mezze @ Jalan Kasah, Medan Damansara

**Non-Halal**


Mezze in the Eastern Mediterranean is a selection of appetizers or small dishes often served with beverage ie. beer, wines, etc is rather similar to the tapas of Spain or finger food. The Mezze I visited last week shared the same philosopy where food tastes best when shared with friends and family. When I walked in, the word "homey" came in mind where bare brick walls with beautiful b&w photos of my city, Kuala Lumpur and her people graced other walls. To me, Mezze at Jalan Kasah, Medan Damansara (just besides Vintry) is some sort of a meeting place where one kick off his shoes, sit back and relax whilst relishing on tasty bites and flowy wines.

Going thru the menu, I loved how Mezze sectionised and labelled them LOL... there are Greedy for big dishes, Grazing for small dishes, Indulge (no need to explain on this huh?) and Thirsty! There's even Afternoon Quickies hehe...

Richard Brewer is the Head Chef here but we got Perin to help us out in picking out some signature Grazing dishes for our party of 8. We shared some and it's clear which dish came out tops! Clockwise from top left; Mezze Flat Bread & Dips (RM9.50) have some Turkish flat bread with 2 kinda dips and the dips tend to change periodically. Pancetta & Prawn Tempura (RM15.50) have 3 huge prawns in crispy tempura batter, the wasabi aioli complimented the prawns beautifully, so good that we have double orders. Duck Liver Pate (RM13.50), needless to say this is THE must order! The pate is sinfully creamy so do balance out with a wee bit of fennel marmalade... it's very rich so do watch out and don't gorge yourself silly on this as there are more yummies here.

The next item we grazed were Zucchini Fritters (RM11.50). The fritter here is fried flat, almost like a pancake. There's a bite in this fritter that is the feta cheese. We felt the cheese is a tad heavy here especially for grazing. Shantini (I hope I got the spelling right) explained that this dish is to cater to their vegetarian guests who need to have some bite instead of just eating plain vege. It's great to see that they care for vegetarians instead of alienating them. Hmm we have a very meaty Lamb Cutlet (RM28.00) next. I tell ya, this is everyone's favourite! The 3 generous size lamb cutlets are chargrilled with coriander mint and honey, ohhh so tasty that you don't need any dips or anything else except digging them in with fingers and all. The bones were all sucked dry, see it was that good! Lastly the Duck & Chicken Spring Roll hold some meat too. There were shredded chicken and duck with pieces of feta and mushroom inside the crispy roll. Again the dip - green chili jam was fabulous to go with these babies.



Since there were eight of us, we just decided to order all the 8 Greedy dishes LOL the rule of thamjiak :p

The Chili Shrimp Spaghetti (RM29.50) have chargrilled prawns with chili, slow roasted tomato and shallots. I loved how the sweet shallots give the pasta dish a whole new dimension. Already noted and will do the same with mine at home. I was surprised on how Steamed Mussels (RM22.50) have turned out! Since I did not read the menu, I was half expecting them to be some sort buttery. I was so wrong hahaha... Richard told me that he had used some very Asian ingredients like tamarind, lemongrass, ginger, chili and honey which Capt'n Hook thought it was some kinda of Thai tom yum soup. Lovely!

Barbecued Spatchcock Chicken (RM28.00) have a spring chicken sitting on top of potatoes and a burnt aubergine salsa. We all know this is someone's fave but I better refrain from putting the name here, otherwise I will not get anymore invites :p. I had always wonder how would Spatchcock Chicken looked like after watching Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson making them. I finally get to taste it. Even though its barbecue, thank goodness the taste is no where barbeque sauce flavour! It's kinda have smokey flavours on the meat and I liked the shallots in the salsa. We then have Ballotine of Lamb (RM42.00) where the chargrilled boneless lamb marinaded in tagine spices, herbs, preserved lemon, olives etc served on a bed of cous cous. Loved how the cous cous soaked up the gravy.



Guisado Alicante (RM28.00) is a broth chokeful of seafood and chickpeas. I can taste smokey chorizo in it, hmmm now that it reminded me it's quite similar to my Minestrone but of course this is better. Very hearty! The Rib Eye Steak (RM65.00) is the priciest item in Greedy, so what do you think? Sounds reasonable huh? I would think so with the kinda quality Richard is controlling here.

The Lamb Pilaf Pie (RM23.00) came with a flaky pastry top. Just be careful when you dig as it's very very hot. We broke open the pastry and the smell of the pilaf rice with lamb pieces whafting out is so aromatic. Braised Beef Shank Pappardelle (RM32.50) ends our Greedy selection. The fresh fat ribbon pasta is homemade by Richard's friend served with ragout of braised beef shank. All right by now, I'm quite stuffed even though I'm only tasting morsels of each!



So the last thing to do here is to Indulge ourselves into these desserts. We have a Mango Tart (RM11.00, not pictured) where thin slices of mango on a crisp flaky pastry with mint and pineapple granita gave a good combination of flavours. This is something light but in case you like heavier desserts to share, these will be them.

Pana Cotta (RM9.50) is smooth, not too sweet. Best eaten with the hazelnut bits and syrup. The next Sticky Toffee Date Pudding served with Haagen Dazs vanilla ice-cream is not in the menu but it's on the blackboard, we're trying to tell the chef to make this permanent as this screamed the best dessert in Mezze! The warm pudding is rich and moist with light drizzle of sticky toffee, gosh everyone loved this. Fastest dessert to disappear. Then we have an Affogato (RM15.50) which no need intro huh... Haagen Dazs vanilla ice-cream topped with a shot of expresso and coffee liqueur. The crowd seems to be chocolate lovers as the Brownie (RM19.50) is fast going too. Can't blame them when the brownie is made with Varlhona chocolate!



BTW, my pics sucks to the max but don't worry, you can view the yumilicious offerings over at Lots of Craving. This means this place is low in lighting and a good place to bring your girl girl or boy boy for some intimate dates. It's quiet enough to have decent conversation. Sincerely speaking, this is a great place to share and graze food and of course drinking as well.

At this outing, I finally gotta meet the person behind the microphone, Aly and Fay Khoo, author of Best Eats. Very happy! Thank you to theQguides, Perin, Shantini and Richard for a fabulous evening.


Mezze
132 Jalan Kasah
Medan Damansara
50490 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: (603) 2095 0122

Note: Website not in operation yet