d'italiane

I remember my birthday meal last year was arranged by Crystal in an Italian joint Neroteca. This year Crystal did the arrangements again. And it was a surprise of sort. The place she initially picked was some place in Aman Suria, PJ. But that place had a function and was full house. So she did a last minute change and we ended up in yet another Italian place - the d'italiane.

The d'italiane is located on the ground floor of the Paradigm Mall in Kelana Jaya, PJ. It is at the outside concourse of the mall. 

The restaurant is rather big. They have a small outdoor (smoking?) dining area. Inside, it has a nice contemporary decor. The setting was right for a quiet relaxing meal.

My first surprise was seeing SP, Mei and Van in the restaurant. I thought it was to be a quiet threesome. Crystal arranged their presence. It certainly was nice to have them.

Their menu was like a newspaper.I wondered why it was D'Times. The variety and selection was pretty good. But I did not have to crack my heads over it. Crystal did the ordering.

The waiters laid our table. And no, it is not my camera or your eyes.

The glasses were indeed crooked.

The food were delivered very promptly. We started with the salads. This was the Sicilian chicken salad with roasted chicken strips, diced tomato, sliced peach, grapes, pine nuts and mixed salad tossed in herb dressing and served with a mustard sauce. It was a good salad. The flavour was mixed and varied. I enjoyed the variety.

The second salad was with roasted pumpkin, chick peas, rockets and lettuce, tossed in herb dressing and served with grated feta cheese. It was quite an unique salad. The roasted pumpkin was very nice.

The fresh mushroom soup was served with decorative cream and bread. The flavour was mild and pleasant.

This orange coloured soup was pumpkin and tomato. The combination was not bad at all, but it was somewhat stronger in flavour. I liked the mushroom more.

We ordered garlic bread to go with the soups, not knowing that bread came with the soup. But no regrets. The garlic bread was very well done. I enjoyed it.

The first of the entrees was this smoked duck pizza. Besides strips of duck meat, there were button mushroom, sliced garlic and spring onion, covered with mozzarella cheese and a base of roma tomato sauce. The pizza was delicious. The crust was perfect. I had double helpings of it. I guess it is a birthday boy privilege.

This was spinach ricotta ravioli. The ravioli was stuffed with ricotta cheese, cooked in a spinach and pesto sauce, and topped with roasted pine nuts. I am no big fan for ravioli. I find them rather doughy. The spinach and pesto flavour was good.

There was a choice of chicken or beef in this carbonara spaghetti. We opted for chicken. It was cooked with button mushrooms, herbs and garlic. The flavour was very good. But the al dente of the pasta was not totally satisfactory. I found it a little soggy.

This was the river prawn arrabiata spaghetti. Arrabiatta is a kind of spicy tomato sauce, which I liked. Again the pasta was not great in texture, but the sauce and fresh prawn made up for it.

The "jumbo" lamb shank was not exactly that big. It was served with mashed potato, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrot. The meat was rather soft but the flavour of the sauce was good.

Finally, we had this pimento chicken. It was pieces of grilled chicken thigh cooked in pimento sauce and served with rosemary potato and some mixed vegetables. I liked the taste of the pimento. It was slightly spicy and added a lot of flavour to the chicken. The rosemary potato was very nice too.

It was a very satisfying meal. d'italiane did a very creditable job. I enjoyed the meal. Then I got my second surprise. The waiters walked out with the birthday cake. I was a little flustered. Crystal had arranged all these. And it was a good cake too - green tea and red beans.

I had a most enjoyable birthday evening.

Verona Trattoria

The Verona Trattoria is a chic Italian restaurant owned and operated by a Mat Salleh-Malaysian couple in Section 17, PJ. We were there for a small family dinner. I didn't even know this place existed. I guess it opened its door not too long ago.

It is located on Jalan 17/54, in a small commercial area beside Taman Lee Yan Lian. I used to know this area very well. Had not been there for a while and the 2 small rows of shophouses have certainly changed a lot. There are a few other new makan places, one of which I think is Japanese. I have to go back there to cari makan (look for food) soon.

The inside of the restaurant, to me, was rather gaudy. I didn't like the red colour scheme. Not at all cool. The lightings were somehow inadequate - not dim but inappropriate. The art pieces on the wall were also somehow out of place. If they were all meant to make the place cosy, I think they had failed

But we were there for the food. I heard they serve some awesome Italian meals. The menu looked interesting. They had the full Italian works - pastas, risotto, pizzas, salad, soup and plenty of meats. And they were not terribly expensive.

For starters, we shared a caesar salad, with generous amount of bacon and a good french dressing. It was nice. The leaves were crisp and fresh.

The quatro pizza was very considerately done. It was 4 flavours in a single pizza. If you are the type to eat a whole pizza alone, this would be very nice to break the monotony. But we are the sharing type. So we don't get to sample all the 4 tastes. And by the way, the pizza was good. The crust was thin and and crispy. The toppings were generous and the flavour was just nice.

We shared one other pizza. I don't remember what it was called. It had the normal pepperoni, and vegetables toppings. Like the quatro, it was very good.

This spaghetti aglio olio was superb. It was definitely one of the best spaghetti I have tasted in Malaysia. The texture of the pasta was perfectly al dente. It was done absolutely right - not the least overcooked or soggy. The flavour was delicious. The herbs were just right.

This was saffron risotto with mushroom. I normally do not fancy risotto too much. My preference is that if I wanted to eat rice, I would opt for the Asian way. But this risotto wasn't too bad. Of course, the rice was soggy. But the flavour, probably because of the saffron, was quite Asian and delicious.

I didn't quite like this lamb shank. I thought the meat was rather soft and overdone. And the sauce was rather smothering with too much flavours. I couldn't get the actual flavour of the meat.

This roast pork belly was a lot better. The skin was delightfully crispy. The meat was tender. The sauce was light - complementing the meat rather than overpowering it. But the serving was small. There were 6 of us and we had to be contented with a small share.

We asked for garlic bread. And again, there wasn't quite enough to go round.

Desserts, like the other dishes, were shared. We had this chocolate cheese cake, which was okay but not great.

Neither was this pudding.

This tiramisu in a cup was the last of our dishes. By then, I had too much in my tummy to be interested. I gave it a skip...

... preferring this simple cup of coffee instead.

The Verona Trattoria is not a bad place at all for a reasonably priced good Italian meal. The dishes were quite authentic. I wondered where the mat salleh owner originated. He was rather scruffy, spoke without any non-English accent. I think he has everything in a good Italian restaurant. But he needed a good interior decorator.

Neroteca Italian

This was the dinner for my recent birthday. And it was a small quiet one. Just 4 family members. SP and wife were away in Perth. Crystal chose the venue. When she first mentioned the place, I had no idea what she was suggesting. For I had not heard of Neroteca.

Neroteca is located on the ground floor of the Somerset Residences on Lorong Ceylon in the Bukit Bintang area of Kuala Lumpur. It is quite tricky to find and a GPS is recommended. It is one of 3 restaurants of the Nero group. The other two are Nerovivo - a jazz place in Jalan Ceylon, and Nerofico in Wisma Perintis, Damansara Heights.

The place is the only commercial outlet in the spartan and barren Somerset Residences building.

Inside, it was small and narrow. Yet it was cosy and conducive, and somewhat European in decor.

Wine bottles lined the whole wall on one side of the restaurant.

Brass pots and pans dangled from the ceiling.

And salamis, sausages and garlic loomed over the serving counter.

The waitresses were friendly and helpful. One of them came over to help us with the menu. We made our selection and settled to nice leisurely dinner.

The bread was uniquely served with roasted garlic in a paper bag. They went very well with black Italian balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Our starter was the cold meat platter. It was a selection of cold cuts, ham, bacon and salami. It was served with some rocket salad and burrata cheese. The flavour of the various pork slices were wonderful. The burrata and rocket complemented the meat superbly. But the serving was quite small and we did not have enough of it.

Next was the roast piglet. The waitress first suggest half a piglet. We felt it would be too much for the 4 of us. Besides we were having other dishes. So we settled for just a serving. When it arrived, I thought it was a mistake. We did not order chicken. The serving of roast piglet which was the hind thigh, was no bigger than a chicken drumstick. The taste was so-so. It was not a wow. The skin which was supposed to be crispy was rather flaccid. And the meat was too dry. 

The Risotto Con Funghi was cooked in mushroom, peas and topped with rocket salad. The rice was rather mushy. The flavour was good. The serving like the others was small. The rocket actually blend with the risotto very well. I liked it.

Papardelle is a broad flat pasta, similar to fettuccine. The papardelle we ate was braised with wild boar meat in a tomato sauce flavoured with chianti wine. I personally did not quite like the broad pasta. I would preferred the thinner spaghetti or linguine. The flavour was very tomato. I did not detect any wine.

The last dish we shared was the Valdostana pan fried pork tenderloin with roast potato and asparagus, topped with fontina cheese. I think this was the worst choice of the evening. The meat was rather bland.  The sauce and cheese topping did not do much to enhance the flavour. I remembered the awesome pork tenderloin we had in Checkers. This was no where near.

We were done with the entrees and we were ready to order dessert. It was at this point that I heard the birthday song sung by the waiters and waitresses behind me. For a short while, I thought it was celebration at the next table behind us. Until they brought me this piece of cake and my family joined in the singing. It was a wonderful gesture - all arranged by Crystal. The tiramisu tasted exceptional good - compliments of the house.

The other desserts we had were this mango thingy in a glass. I really cannot remember what it is call. It was pleasantly delicious.

And this chocolate ice cream cake.

I ended the dinner with my usual long black, while my wife and Crystal had this innovative hot chocolate which was a chocolate "lollipop" dipped and melting into a cup of hot milk.

It was a memorable birthday dinner. The food was not the greatest. The occasion with my loved ones certainly was.