Review: The BIG Benquet's Ramadhan Rendezvous Pop Up Buka Puasa Buffet Dinner

Muslims round the world will be starting their Ramadhan (fasting month) pretty soon. In Malaysia, this is the month where many pop up Pasar Ramadhan with all sorts of colourful and mouth watering food stalls opening up. I guess The BIG Group decided to join the bandwagon but in the comfort of a food court. Even though the location is currently known as Burp! on the 4th floor of Bangsar Shopping Centre, and it's not associated with The BIG Group but plans are underway to rebrand this food court to strEATs. Apparently The BIG Group has big plans for strEATs where it will housed four different concepts of art, entertainment, food and play.



We have a small preview of it in the form of a pop up buka puasa buffet dinner catered by The BIG Benquet. An area of the food court has been cordoned off for buffet diners. A band to be worn on the wrist will be introduced to differentiate buffet diners from food court diners.



This is the menu of the buffet which is priced at RM70+ for adults and RM35+ for children 12 years old and below. When I asked Kenny Lee (The BIG Benquet's Catering, Event & Sales Specialist) whether the items on the menu will be rotated and he replied no. I'm quite surprised by this actually as I thought to keep attracting diners to come, one would rotate the menu so that diners would be able to taste a wider range of dishes.

We sampled some of the dishes on offer and I have to say the dishes do taste authentically Malay. Best part, the dishes are quite healthy as I do not see the thick layer of oil covering them. There's the ulam (fresh herbs and vegetables) and sambal belacan platter as well. Very happy to see my fave daun selom here. There were fish crackers and belinjau chips too which went well with sambal belacan.



Then there are other starters such as fruit rojak, gado gado, Thai mango salad, eggplant & ladies fingers sambal... not forgetting a Western addition of Caesar Salad with the options to add your own chicken slices and crispy beef bacon, one of my fave order from Ben's.



There's a section of BBQ items such as beef and chicken satay, ayam percik, grilled lamb shoulder and yummy grilled stingray.





The dishes that goes down very well with steamed white rice were beef brisket rendang, ayam masak merah, sotong goreng berbawang, a rich sayur lodeh and stir fry kailan. We loved the beef rendang a lot and it was a wonder it was so tender as brisket was used. The squid rings were cooked in turmeric which lend a nice yellow hue on the dish.





Can't go wrong with stall concept in a buffet, so do expect a curry laksa stall and a beverage stall. From the beverage stall, help yourself to sirap bandung and teh tarik. Perfect to break your fast as these are not too sweet else it would have over power the palate.



There's a DIY ice kacang section but our only grip was too little condiments! On the tray were just black jelly, sweet corn, peanuts, gula melaka syrup, rose syrup and evaporated milk. We missed having the basics of red beans and cendol. Since this was just the preview, hopefully it will have a full range of items when the buffet starts on 12 July 2013.



They have Capt'n Hook's favourite sweet soup - bubur cha cha. It was very well cooked except that it's a tad too thick.



We also feasted on the assorted Malay sweet and sticky cakes known as kuih (singular) or kuih muih (plural). Lol can squeeze in language lesson in between *shakes head*.



Well, if you can't make yourself available to visit this pop up buffet, The BIG Benquet is introducing Ramadhan catering!!! Yes, believe me they can come to your door step to serve you all the BIG goodness and the prices are really easy on the pocket starting from RM60+ to RM80+ per pax.

Don't forget, at other times, The BIG Benquet can cater any events according to your needs, from an intimate dinner for 2 up to a party of 500! Just call +603 6209 1770 or email benquet@thebiggroup.co.

We would like to thank Salina & Associates and The BIG Benquet for the wonder hospitality.


The BIG Benquet's Ramadhan Rendezvous Pop Up Buka Puasa Buffet Dinner
strEATs
4th Floor, Bangsar Shopping Centre
Reservations: +603 6209 2202
Opening:
12 July - 4 Aug 2013
6.30pm - 9.30pm

Latest updates https://www.facebook.com/TheBigGroup
More photos on my flickr album


Updated 29 June 2013: 

I was informed that the menu has been updated to this one here, very extensive now I would say:

THE BIG GROUP 

by The Big Benquet 

RAMADHAN RENDEZVOUS 

Buka Puasa Menu 

Soup 

Sup Ayam 

with 

Assorted Bread 

Potato Bread 

Starters 

Rojak Buah 

Gado Gado 

Som Tam 

Kerabu Pucuk Paku 

Fish Crackers & Belinjau Chips with Sambal Indonesia 

Eggplant & Okra Sambal 

Ulam Ulam & Sambal Belacan 

Caesar Salad 

With 

Caesar Dressing, Turkey Chips, Parmesan Cheese, Boiled Egg and Croutons 

From The BBQ Pit 

Beef & Chicken Satay with Condiments 

Percik Marinated Chicken Wing with Sauce 

Leg of Lamb with Mint Sauce 

Grilled Marinated Stingray Fish with Assam Sauce and Limau Kasturi 

Stall 

Nyonya Bee Hoon Curry Laksa 

With 

Shredded Chicken and Condiments 

Mains 

Beef Rendang 

Ayam Masak Merah 

Sambal Sotong 

Sayur Lodeh 

Sides 

Steamed White Rice 

Nasi Kerabu 

Telur Masin 

Budu 

Pickled Garlic 

Freshly Cut Ulam 

Dessert Counter 

Bubur Cha Cha 

Assorted Malaysian Kuih 

Chocolate Fountain 

Seedless Grape Skewers 

Marshmallows 

Mini Brownies 

Baby Red Velvet 

Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce 

Kurma 

Assorted Fruit Basket 

Lychee Jelly 

Salty Caramel Ice Cream Sundae 

Ice Kacang with Condiments 

Beverage Stall 

Teh Tarik 

Sugarcane 

Sirap Selasih 

Air Mata Kucing 

Soya Bean with Cincau 

Menu Price RM 70 + per person 

Review: Just Heavenly Cafe @ Bangsar Shopping Complex

Just so you are not aware, the Just Heavenly duo of Nigel Skelchy and Allan Yap have roped in Caroline Lee as their COO to open up Just Heavenly Cafe at Bangsar Shopping Complex a few months ago. We went in for tea and got to sample quite a number of dishes... 

Just Heavenly Cafe is located on the second floor of the newer wing. You can choose to have a quite corner inside the cafe or to see or be seen over at the outside which overlooks the concourse area.

We started off with Coconut Chicken Salad which is one of my favourite item on the menu. The chicken is poached in coconut milk and the salad is a mish mash of Nyonya ingredients such as cucumber, onion, pineapple, deep fried shallots, thinly sliced bunga kantan (torch ginger) and lemon grass. The chilli jam dressing gave it a slight hot, sweet and sourish flavours.

In the other Asian style salad, Soba Salad, which to me could be a meal on its own as it has soba noodles, shiitake mushrooms, strips of yam bean and carrots, and some Japanese cucumber cubes with a drizzle of a very Japanese style dressing of soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Loved the addition of local herb of ulam raja which tasted quite similar to arugula and the nuttiness of toasted sesame seeds.

Then we have the layers of toasts, turkey ham and cheese topped with a runny poached egg. Who could resist the golden liquid oozing out from the egg? Find Monsieur Bullseye under All Day Breakfast!

This cafe serve a rather mean burger by the name of BLT Burger. As the name suggest the thick and juicy patty is made from Australian beef served on sesame bun with lettuce and tomato with a chunky mushroom sauce. On the side are a green salad and fries. These are no ordinary chunky fries as the process to cook them are rather labourious. The potato chunks are first blanched before deep frying them twice in order to achieve a tender but yet super crispy texture.

The next item is easily my BoiBoi's fave as he loves smoked salmon. This sandwich has smoked salmon in between wasabi mayonnaise, watercress, tomato slices and croissant. A wonderful light meal this would be, in order to save some space in the stomach for dessert :p

We tried 2 types of quiches. Being a meat lover, Capt'n Hook loves Quiche Lorraine as it has slices of beef brisket and sweet onions. In contrast, I love the Monster Mushroom Quiche as it is heavily packed with 3 types of mushrooms! Vegetarians would adore this one.

It's hard to get perfectly cooked carbonara as some places made it so rich and creamy or some... the sauce just split. Just Heavenly Cafe's Penne Carbonara sits just right on my palate. It's creamy but not insanely rich. I could polish this up on my own!

For those who are fond of tomato sauce based pasta, I would recommend Spaghettini Con Gamberi. The star of the dish is of course the large prawns but I love the freshness of the tomato basil sauce.

Knowing we're in Just Heavenly turf, we can't leave without desserts! We have both the Chocolate Eclairs and Classic Eclairs.

A very decadent Lemon Meringue Pie which the tartness of the lemon curd, to me is just nice... not overly sour, balances well with the not too sweet meringue.

Now, there's this Key Lime Pie which is only available at the cafe and not the other outlets. There's a buttery lime cake layer that sits on a pie pastry with generous topping of cream. Even though it sounded rather heavy but the sharp lime flavour cuts through pretty well.

We can't leave without have a bite on the Chocolate Durian Cake, do we??? Just in case you have never eaten this... inside the smooth and thick chocolate ganache lies thin layers of cake filled with creamy durian puree. One would never imagined that chocolate and durian can go so well together!

We also have some refreshing drinks ranging from Mojo Jojo (fresh lime and mint leaves muddle with sugar, orange syrup and topped with soda); Charlie's Angels (have a combination of sweet red dragonfruit and apple balanced with a hint of lemon juice) and my favourite of all Lemongrass Passion (an infusion of lemongrass and pandan in soda).

We end our tea with cappucino as it was highly recommended by Allan.

And most interestingly the tea served here are by Bradley's and the biodegradable tea bag comes in a cute little cardboard box which can be recycled, of course. Open up the box and dunk your tea bag into the hot water.

Allan & Nigel

Do note that they serve a rather ridiculously big breakfast on weekends... so huge that it covers almost the entire table hehe... do drop by and check it out yourself! There's a wager going on between Capt'n Hook and I... to see of BoiBoi can finish up the entire big breakfast on his own!

Thank you to Nigel, Allan and Caroline for having us over!

Just Heavenly Cafe

Level 2, West Wing
Bangsar Shopping Centre
285 Jalan Maarof
59000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2011 4866
Opening hours: Daily 9:30am – 10:00pm

Epicurious Brunch @ Bangsar Shopping Centre

Veni Vidi Voro was the motto on Bangsar Shopping Centre's (BSC) East West Food Fest banner. Capt'n Hook interpreted to me it's "I came, I saw, I ate" in Latin o.O don't ask me how he knows and when I asked... he proofed it to me by searching on the net via his phone! Well, the meaning is right about there and that was what happened today when the 3 of us visited the Epicurious Brunch.

15 stalls doesn't sounded much but by the time you try out the food from each stall... I tell ya... your stomach would be bursting! Luckily for us, we sampled and shared the food amongst ourselves, in a way, a little goes a long way for not for ttthhhat long.

Brunch menu was the call of the day and you'll find plenty of creative brunch menus to chow on. Starting off near the entrance is Craft Bakers with an array of very interesting breads and pastries ranging from Chocolate Chili Bun, Ginger Chili Chelsea Bun to Chocolate & Pumpkin Bread. Craft Bakers is an Artisan European style bakery and cafe located in Solaris Dutamas and they serve freshly baked organic breads, coffee and tea.

I finally got a taste of the goodies from Swich Cafe! We sampled on Salted Egg Yolk Soft Shell Crab Pizza which essentially met the East West theme. The salted egg yolk crab smelt so good when the chef was cooking it that we stayed on and waited for the pizza to come out fresh from the oven! There's an aioli on it but yet it's not rich. Was told that they'll be opening by early next year at Publika, yay!

We checked out Andy's BBQ next! Well Andy is basically based in USA but his brother, Todd, is helming the stove here in Kuala Lumpur. We have Smoky Chicken Banana Pancake with Gula Melaka and Virgin Kiwi Mint Julep. We loved the mint julep, very refreshing. The pancake is quite funky huh... there's the smoky flavour from the chicken but there's sweetness from banana slices and a light gula melaka syrup.

Can't helped but to watch a bunch of jovial youth over at Yay, Sammich! I was served by Basira and was told their Christmas Kinda is very popular. The sandwich has roast chicken, cranberry jam, cheddar cheese and gravy and they're grilled on a panini pan before serving.

Next we have Paulisima's Kitchen which is showcasing tacos with handmade corn tortillas. The tortillas are soft, totally different from those stiff pre-packages stuff. I opted for the traditional one which is the Classic Beef which has mozarella, chopped onion, cilantro and a roasted tomato salsa.

Kee's Creampuff which has a shop front at Subang Business Centre is serving creampuffs plus a brunch that made up of devil egg, cheesy cream puff and chocolate cream puff. We tried the classic creampuffs... nice choux pastries filled with cream.

The Potong had a presence here and I've blogged about them earlier. There are 3 new flavours for this brunch and we tried one of them - Sparkling Mimosa which must be really good that BoiBoi asked for seconds but too bad by the afternoon the Sparkling Mimosa was a little too soft due to some technical problem. We got him the Blueberry Yoghurt instead which turned out he quite liked it too even though he said it was a little sour but then again this is real yoghurt, not the sweetened kind. We also tried a Nutty Choc... nutella and fresh coconut milk, need I say more?

Jason's Food Hall have some delectable local and western goodies. I spied nasi lemak, sandwiches, pasta, kuih muih etc but then not only that but the award winning macarons and chocolates from Pierre Ledent. I'm not a big fan of macarons as I always find them overly sweet however Pierre Ledent's one is a different story altogether. 

It was much later on that we noticed quite a number of people from our neighbouring tables were devouring the banana leaf packaged nasi lemak. Capn't Hook bought a packet and got it heated up. Oh what a delightful find!

Kuriya made a big presence as it had a tuna cutting demo at noon. There were hordes of people crowding around the chefs while they twist, turn and slice up the 58kg tuna! After the demo, the packets of fresh tuna sashimi and sushi just snapped up like hot cakes!

I met Chiun of Smooshie. On display was homemade yoghurt topped with strawberries with red dragonfruit and buckets of colourful bottled natural fresh juices without sugar nor preservatives. Oh boy, when you read the labels that came with health benefits on them, you'll find really interesting flavours that really works! Both the juices we tried were equally good. One of it Passion Fruit, Orange and Yoghurt but the adults loved the  Green Apple, Lemongrass and Rambutan! Rambutan, oh wow, so exotic as juice, nice.

Next to them (a little hidden at the corner), you'll find loads of gourmet treasures at Gourmandine ranging freshly made breads and pastries, French butter (oh Heaven), gourmet juices and syrups and so forth. I brought back a sandwich loaf and made a yummy open sandwich of grilled chicken, carrots (cos I've ran out of lettuce) and topped with an egg for dinner. Just remember their breads are made without preservatives hence you'll need to quickly eat up or keep in the freezer or fridge or they'll turn moldy pretty quickly in our weather.

These babies are from Ultra Fudge Brownies by Lexy. Was too full already so we brought back Ultra Fudge Brownies with Walnut and Spiced Orange and Raisins Fudge Brownies that are so full of chocolaty goodness.

After hearing from so many foodies that Forty Licks Ice Cream is so delicious that we just have to make some space for them. I've gotten their best seller of Salted Caramel which is creamy and nice but kinda too sweet for me but then again my tolerance for sugar is quite low. However, we're swoon over by BoiBoi's choice of Honey with Dark Chocolate bits but I can be bias as I love love honey and bitter chocolate. As there were too many people making a beeline for them, I did not bothered to taste the rest, maybe next time.

By the way, I'm slowly reintroducing coffee into my system after stopping for 16 years. At that time my stomach suddenly can't tolerate coffee anymore (not that I drink it everyday) hence the stop. I've asked Capt'n Hook to make me some decaf latte and ehhh my stomach did not protest over it. So over the last few months, I'm slowly but getting bolder these days hahaha. Yes yes yes, I'm starting to enjoy all the gourmet coffees that I've missed out all these years. So it was a great pleasure to end the brunch with  fragrant cappucino and latte from Hot Shots Coffee & Tea.

The Epicurious Brunch is not all about food displayed at the stalls but there are some cooking demo and activities for kids. Nigel of Just Heavenly/Baking Barn was demonstrating how to make Eton Mess when we leave after BoiBoi's participation in the Dress-A-Cake Workshop for 7 - 12 years old kids. Nigel will be showing how to make honeycomb tomorrow at 10.30am, so make your way early if you wish to learn a trick or two. After that don't forget to drop by at Just Heavenly Cafe for more Heavenly food. I've tried the delicious offerings and will blog about it soon.

And tadaaa this was how BoiBoi's cake turned to look like...

Thank you to Anusha of BRDB for the invite and all the participants for feeding us so much delicious goodies. There is still one last chance for you tomorrow to sample on all the goodies show cased here. So head over to Bangsar Shopping Centre from 10.00am to 6.00pm for your fix of deliciousness!

There are more pics on my flickr album.