Food Review: Jombali Restaurant

Jombali is one of the latest franchised restaurant which made its appearance in the Malaysian restaurants scene and touted to offer Malaysian favourite cuisines (local and Western alike) with the freshest ingredients. According to their website here http://www.jombali.com.my/, currently they already have 5 outlets across Klang Valley and yesterday i had the chance to visit their outlet in Tesco Mutiara Damansara and sampled its food offerings.

Menu

as you can see from the above menu, the foods offerings here are quite extensive and affordably priced.Needless to note the portions of foods served here are quite big as well and sharing is recommended for those with small appetite.

They have also highlighted their "must tries" dishes such as Nasi Kebuli Supreme and Braised King Prawn Mee as your guide in selecting the dishes.

The beverages selections are equally extensive and looks colourful and tantalizing making it harder to decide on which to try.

My friend ordered the Nasi Kabuli Supreme. This fragrant rice is marinated with varieties of spices giving it a wonderful aroma and pack with flavours. It is served with sides of quarter spiced fried chicken, egg sambal, cucumber pickles and crackers.

I had a good taste of this dish and i must say that it is a must try dish if ever you come to Jombali. The rice is perfectly cooked and fluffy. It tasted quite similar to Nasi Minyak that is usually served in Malay weddings, but it has more spices to it. The fried chicken is very tender in the inside with a bit of crisp from its skin left intact to it. The sambal, pickle and the crackers synchronized well as the side dishes making it a one wholesome dish, and giving its portion, can easily be shared by 2 people.

I ordered the 3 layered coffee. I believe this drink is a mixture coffee with palm sugar and evaporated milk. It is not too sweet, just the way i like it.

For my dish, i ordered the Kantonis Fried Sang Mee. This dish is a typical Chinese style broth-based noodle whereby all the ingredients will be swimming in thick broth of chicken stock. The noodle used here is kweytiew or thick white rice noodle. It is richly mixed with slices of chicken, fish cakes, fresh prawns and vegetables. The broth is heavily dominated with ginger taste as they used lots of ginger in the same. For me this dish is just moderate in taste, and nothing spectacular.However, i really can give them credit for using very fresh and plump shrimps in this dish as i could really taste the sweetness of the prawns and the other ingredients similarly. The only gripe i had was at first this dish was served with the egg which was used to thicken up the broth was not cooked well making it too watery for my liking. I requested the same to be re-cooked and it was returned perfectly well done afterward.

With its offerings, Jombali can really compete with the other established restaurants in Malaysia provided they maintain the current price range of their dishes and most importantly the quality of foods and ingredients. A must try restaurant indeed.

Ratings out of 5: 3

Trans Studio Bandung-Indonesia "The World'd Largest Indoor Theme Park"

Yes..the title said it right...the largest indoor theme park is not located in the US, Europe or Japan but smacked right in the Indonesian city of Bandung, Java.

I had the chance to visit this wonderful place some time back during the Eid holiday. This theme park is actually part of Bandung Supermall, the newest and hippest shopping centre you'll find in Bandung. Entrance fee to this theme park is priced at RP 150 k ( Mon-Fri) and RP 200k (Sat-Sun). In order for you to make any purchase of merchandise or foods and beverages from any of the outlets within the theme park, you'll need to use some sort of pre-loaded debit card whereby it can be reloaded at any top-up stations located in the vicinity of the premises. 

Lobby of Bandung Supermall....they have many high-end boutiques here...

Que at the ticket counter.....

the entrance area......

The internal area of this theme park had been designed to resemble the 70's designs of American town, which can clearly be seen from the designs and architecture of the shops and outlets therein, they also replicated diner styled design in the restaurants........

now..it wont be a complete review of a theme park without talking about the rides available here. There are 20 rides that you may choose...they have all the usuals spinning wheels..bumper cars...roller-coaster...ghost house etc. Their roller coaster is quite spectacular for which some parts of the tracks are extended outside of the building..thus you'll have an indoor and outdoor ride of this roller coaster....

Basically, the area within the theme park is separated into 3 different themed areas i.e Studio Central, Lost City and Magic Corner...i believe they made the distinction based on the type of rides and attractions offered in each area...

it is very sad to say that due to the overwhelming crowds at the time i visited the place, i only got the chance to go inside the ghost house  and no other rides at all. Anyway the ghost house is a "railing experience" whereby you'll be carried in an individual carriage of 4 people per carriage and will be taken thru a ride along scary and haunted set-ups based on local folklore and ghost stories...be careful as at some part they do have real people jump out of the set to scare you.....

The ghost house is aptly named "Dunia Lain" or simple means "the other world"....

the most important advise that i can give to all those interested to visit this place is that avoid coming during weekends or public holiday as the big crowds would warrant longer waiting time for anyone to get into the rides.

for more info do visit the official website here:  http://www.transstudiobandung.com/english/index.html

Journey North America-Washington DC

Im back....after a long hiatus from writing any new entry and more importantly the continuation of my trip of a lifetime, which shall be continued herein...our trip from New York City to Washington DC, the capitol city of the US of A.

my previous post of our journey in USA can be found here north-america-brooklyn-tour

It was known to us prior to our trip that Washington DC is not a far away place from NYC and with that fact we started to search for the way to reach DC from NYC. There are multiple options to get to DC from NYC that are by air, road (bus or rental car) and train. Having watched AmTrak trains being featured in various Hollywood dramas and films, im enticed to try their services. It was not the cheapest option though as the bus is the cheapest mode of transportation to choose, but the thought of spending 4 hours bus ride in an unknown country was a tad disturbing and thus we chose to take the train. The train ride would take about 3 hours plus.

Return ticket of the journey cost us around $90 and can be bought online at Amtrak/HomePage

The few point of departure from New York was at Penn Station and arrival at Washington Union Station.

We left our hotel at 5th avenue in the wee hour of the day to catch our 9.30am train ride.

The cabin of the AmTrak train was spacious and equipped with clean toilet. The legroom was generous for long hours journey.

It was indeed a beautiful day to start our journey to DC as the sun had just crept up to shine the day....

We passed through sub-urban areas, small towns and many beautiful lakes and rivers along the way......

The train made stops at few stations and one of it was in Philadelphia...never knew this city is located in between NYC and DC...not to forget we also passed-by Boston, another notable city.

We finally arrived at the beautiful and historical Union Station. It was a big train station as you can see in the picture below, it boasts few levels of public areas and many retail shops...i really like the unique honey-comb ceiling design.

 It was easy to get a cab at the main entrance of the station. Another note of reminder, traveling in the USA might require you to prepare some small chains to be given out as tips...as everyone (literally!) is hoping to be tipped..especially the taxi drivers :)

Once we checked into the Madison Hotel we made our way out for lunch. As we were wandering around the area, we stumbled upon this Indian/Pakistani restaurant which serves buffet lunch at $8 only....it was a steal and you can eat to your heart content.

 

 

 I believe the  chef of the restaurant had "tamed" down the spices of the food here as they were all mildly spiced and not spicy at all. I was quite disappointed as i love spicy foods...the spicier the better for me....

After a hefty lunch, we made our way to the city centre. Needless to note that in no way DC can be compared to NYC as here the city looks less crowded and the people here looks more "discipline" and "officials" in their manner and dressings.

this is the Smithsonian Art Museum...opposite to it was a shopping mall.

We then made our way to the most iconic building in DC, the White House....

This is the front part.....

 some history and fact of the famous house......

To get to the other side or the "back" side of white house, we had to make a full turn along the vicinity.

 The White House is surrounded by many historical and mostly government official buildings like the treasury dept etc....

This is the Washington Monument..a popular target in Hollywood-alien sci-fi movie.....

 The Capitol Building......

and finally the rear view of White House...i believe the Oval Office is located here.....

Hello Obama!..............

Our last day in Washington, we spent the morning, which was a Sunday, taking strolls in the nearby area....

At around noon time we made our way to the train station back to NYC to catch our midnight flight back to Doha and the ultimate destination Kuala Lumpur. It marked the end of my journey in North America 2011 as well. We gained so many new experiences, meeting new people and seeing new places. It was indeed a trip of a lifetime and an unforgettable experience for me...

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all of you...cheers-Kay2011