So, its prime time and your mates have asked u out for a meal...
usually u'd be wanting to stay at home on the couch and order a take out from the van above so you could catch the latest episode of your favorite soap opera correct?
Well there's no such leisure for a food connoisseur(or so i hope to be :P hey it rhymed so dun blame me)
apparently my tour guides have found out that the above takeout van has a main base!!
and its been featured in the STAR(the only paper i pay attention to cos of the food corner :P)!!!
So after watching the latest episode of MYTHBUSTERS in advance, yours truly decided to put Adam's quote to good use:"i choose to defy your reality and substitute it with my own :P"
Thus with "Raving Hunger" as my weapon of choice and "High Expectations" as my shield, I set foot into the unknown......
My tour guides left me with much to desire as i was given round after round of tantalizing stories.
Starting with juicy tenderloins breaking waistlines, pungent aroma causing nausea, to intriguing snippets of photos taken with the owner's permission....
All that story telling got me psyched. So we started off our journey at the stroke of 6PM(prime time on Sunday for Eastern and Mountain time zones...) turning on the engine to my mum's trusty Kancil a rush of excitement flowed through my veins.
It felt like adventure arising, a certainty of which i would be surprised by what i would find next.
Thirst for adventure pumping we started the drive. On the road we were met with a wilderness of modern day, swerving cars and rampaging motorcycles were but the least of what we had to go through.
Leaving the gruesome reality of what formed the major part of our journey behind, we arrived at an open playground.
To level the playing field so to speak, i took off my shield of "High Expectations" and looked squarely at my guides.
With a shudder they pointed towards some foliage, i squinted, in the distance i could barely see some neon lights.
Looking up at the clear moonlit sky, the waxing crescent seemed to smile at my interesting circumstance as if appreciating the effort I've put to get this far.
Holding "Ravaging hunger" close to my chest i set out in front of the pack through the field.
Walking through the green meadow like field was breathtaking to speak, we were coming in at the target from upwind so it wouldn't smell us.
The slight movement of the brush could blow away our cover, as we inched forward ever so tenderly. Constantly afraid of stepping on to bogs and other natural "mines".
As we finally cleared to field and stepped onto tarmac once again, i felt an overwhelming sensation of wanting to kiss the ground. However, "Ravaging Hunger" started to glow brightly and thus we headed towards the Restaurant where my rush was explained...

WHERE ARE ALL MY SIRLOIN STEAKS!!! MY PORK RIBS!!! GIMME MY WINE!!!
i thought i was in for WESTERN CUISINE!!!! not NASI LEMAK at a KEDAI MAMAK!!!

Dreadfully feeling cheated regardless of how my tour guides tried to persuade me otherwise, I trudged into the store.
Only upon sitting down and glancing the moon once again did a revelation occur to me.
The sign on the shop was a cryptic message, left by ancient(the shop is 20 years of age) shopowners to fool fiesty young food expert wannabes.
The shop sign meant opened 6-10 PM primetime only for Grills & Nasi Lemak.
A clarification with one of the more enthusiastic waiters i've met clarified my revelation and got our orders down.
For the main i ordered a Norwegian Grilled Salmon, half expecting a half black half white resident cat of niagara to appear :P
We also ordered a typical western favourite, chicken chop. I liked the choices that came with that selection in particular, we were allowed to choose between breast meat and thigh meats, brown sauce or bbq sauce, and grilled or fried.Versatility is always appreciated :)
The next order placed was that of Lamb chops, this order was placed because of the pungent lamb smell that floated all across the diner. And although the outside of the diner looked like ur typical chinese food joint, the interiors were pretty decent and therewasn't much oiliness or stickiness in the air.
For drinks, All of us had juices. An interesting note was that the juices had salt in them, and havin left during the beginning of the dinner crowds made the chef hard to question so we didnt find out why.
Within 8-10 minutes of our orders being placed, the food arrived smelling awesome.
However i wasn't exactly pleased with the Norwegian Grilled Salmon as i expected smoked Salmon but apparently it wasnt smoked. Which dipped my scales for that particular dish.
The fish was well grilled, and wasnt overcooked which must mean experience on the chef's part. The sauce that went with it was decent, but wasn't outstanding enough to raise the stakes.
The grilled chicken chop on the other hand was marvelous, the sauce contemplated the chicken well, and the meat wasn't hard but supple and slightly juicy.
The slight juices in the chicken combined with the BBQ sauce wonderfully and saw my guide licking his cutlery after every bite.
The lamb chop was a little bit on the fat side, but it had a rescuing angel in terms of its mint sauce.
As soon as the bottle was opened, we could smell the mint sauce from where it stood on the table.
The mint sauce wonderfully enhanced the flavour of the grilled lamb chops in a marriage made in heaven :)
Mint freshness, succumbing to the tender lamb flesh that suprisingly didnt have a heavy smell to it, stirred an involuntary salivation.
That in turn only made the dish more palatable and tasty.
Having tried the main grill dishes, we decided to go for their nasi lemak since it had the odd favor of grabbing my attention.
Halting the enthusiastic waiter didnt prove too difficult, although the other waiters/waitresses leave much to be desired in that dept.
He had the courtesy of introducing us to a new special that was off-menu but sounded interesting, PORK rendang nasi lemak.
Once that was served up, the gladiator was fed to the lions.
But the jury, now having been satiated with the previous WOW stuff, could only be moderately satisfied by the Nasi Lemak and pork rendang.
Granted it takes credit for an awesome pungent smelling rice which was rich and flavourful, sweet yet spicy sambal, and rendang sauce that could beat the beef rendang in most places, But its pork was not very flavorful.
That was a major setback after all the suprises that the previous dishes had.
payment was made to the cashier and we found ourselves blasting off back home.
the prices atthe restaurant were steep, not unlike what u'd find in a normal food court, but still a tad pricey although i would eat here due to the good flavorful food but not on a daily basis :P
i have to end my review here cos its 2:30 AM and i have exams this week...
i would like to take this opportunity to say sorry to mel,and everyone else, because i had to take so long to update my blog. (having finals :( )
so good night for now and once my sis releases my photos from captivity i'll have something u'd be wanting to try when u get back frm states mel :)