Table of Four - Umami

Me and Kevin got so obsessed about an Umami based theme, we started planning our menu. A 3 course menu was done in ideas and paperwork. All we needed was guests to fill up the seats and help us with the preparations and also cleaning up the dishes :P


First course was my Deep Fried Kailan Soup with lots of ingredients(as you can see! lol)
We were really greedy and wanted almost everything in the soup, so...
we added meatballs, toufu, dried anchovies(ikan bilis), wolfberry(goji berry) and even wolfberry foam!
Thats what happens when you have lots of chefs in the kitchen.

We were really suprised and happy at the same time as the wolfberry foam was actually stable enough to be foam up. This time rather than deep frying the kailan, i actually toasted it with little oil, it tasted so much less oily than the first trial i did. The Umami tasted really mild and light which is just right for the first course to bring up the Umami intensity.


Dried Scallop and Mushroom Risotto is Chef Kevin's idea with the concept that came from the original umami profile, dashi. After stir frying the garlic, onion and mushroom, Hua Tiao rice wine was added before the dried scallop stock.

The flavour in this dish was really one of a kind. Definately Umami i must say! The Hua Tiao rice wine intensify and stimulated our appetite and palate for more. Craving for this now while writing this blogpost!

Last but not least was, Pan Seared Snapper with Braised Chinese Mushrooms served with Dashi. Chef Kevin was inspired by a dish in Top Chef season 5, Eric Repert's Sourdough Crusted Snapper with Tomato Basil Consommé. He used the same concept but twisted it since we were doing an Umami theme set
This Dashi reduction was made with kombu and also braising the pre soaked mushrooms into the dashi. The fish was a frozen snapper which was pan fried with basic seasoning to upkeep the Umami flavours as the only main flavour to be focused on . 
Maybe the Risotto dish should be the last dish as it was the most highest intensity level of Umami among all 3 dishes. Overall was a great simple 3 course theme set which we all had nothing much to complain about but just enjoy our foodie session with great company and conversations :D

And for those who do not have an idea what kombu(scored) is, this is it :)

Click Here for Rebecca's Table of Four - Part IIClick Here for Rebecca's Table of Four - Part IIIClick Here for Rebecca's Table of Four - Part IV

Coffee Experience Workshop at Universita del caffe della Malesia

My friend was one of the few lucky winners for Illy's Coffee Experience workshop through Timeout KL's tweeter contest. He invited me to tag along for the workshop without much hesitation. It was held at Universita del caffe della Malesia which i later found out it is a school which offers variety of coffee courses to explore or even be a master barista.

We all learned how a prefect espresso and cappuccino are done, what is the most suitable ingredients to use,the difference of coffee beans, how to enjoy a cup of coffee and the most interesting of all, be able to make our own cappuccino.

The different types of coffee beans

One of the most important note for all coffee lovers is to remember not to buy coffee in powdered form because aromas only last a few minutes in powdered form.

Besides that, we also learned how to differentiate a perfect espresso

The variety of equipments they have at the school

Breaking down every important component of a coffee machine

The master barista of the day, teaching us how to make a cup of perfect cappuccino and also demonstrating the amazing coffee arts which can be done in a few minutes and i can bet he will win any girls attention serving these coffees.

And the most highlighted coffee art of all,

Angry Birds!

Universita del caffe is around the world to educate the world about coffees

A big thank you to my friend, Jovi for the invitation to this workshop, Timeout KL for organizing this and Universita del caffe della Malesia for teaching us all the knowledge they can.

More pictures available on CCC's facebook page

Illy (Dr. Ernest Illy) invented the first automatic espresso machine.