Starting a category on Augustdiners call the "wordless friday"
Perfect for lazy bummers like me to fill empty spaces.
It was such a short decision to organize this birthday party, the process was a little hectic since I’m the sole planner this round nevertheless fun altogether and I wished to share it with everyone.
Before I bombared you with endless pictures, I’d like to share some tipper for a good party in Augustdiners context:
1. ALCOHOL
Don’t be surprise this is rank number one priority for us, I think in all our parties held, we’ve never had one without alcohol. Alcohol makes your guests happy (faster), and this in turn makes the hostess happy. You win both ways so make sure you have plenty of those.
2. THEME/OCCASION
We always have a theme to a party, either house party or party outside, it’ll be good to know what kind of mood you want to set. It can be an elegant party where everyone is dress in pretty cocktail dresses, or a fun party, where the hostess can have the pleasure to instruct guests to wear a certain something (how about a bikini/pyjamas/Disney dream party?), prepare appropriate music to suit your party theme.
3. FOOD
The way through a guy’s heart is through their tummy, is what the old sayings say. But this rule really applies to all humans, so of course you’ve gotta feed your guest well, or semi-well to prevent them to be alcohol influenced too easily (you don’t want the party to end early, do you?). Your food choices need to tie back to your party theme! I’m often most excited planning this part.
If you’re not too passionate about cooking your own food, you can choose the easy way out, e.g. POTLUCK where everyone bring their share of food, hotpot where you just need to buy all the ingredients, or lok lok (just hail lok lok van and let your guest enjoy themselves with the skewers)
4. CROWD
Whenever there’s a human involve, it tend to complicate things, because we are complicated. (Admit it people!)
So, in drafting out your guest list, you’ll want to know the capacity of your party venue, whether guest actually know each other, whether they’ll click with each other. Sometimes it’s good to include some fresh faces because people are often love to know new friends (but not too diverse that you’ll spend most of your times running few ways making sure your friends are having fun equally and miss out on enjoying your own hardwork)
5. ENTERTAINMENT
Something to keep guest occupied is necessary. E.g. poloraid cameras for plenty of camwhoring, board games, karaokes, dices etc. I’ve kept a set of games for the just in case situations- but mostly alcohol often does the job. Hence it being ranked no. 1. HEHE
For this party, I’ve decided to do a bit of cocktail party style, hence plenty of finger food, not too messy albeit one that people can finished in one bite. Bear in mind my guests are coming after work at 9pm, they’ll be starved, so I’ve also prepared some customary carbo food. The night started off with a little hiccups, all because of my last-minute personality that believe I have time to do everything last minute. HAHAHA! My party starts at 8.30pm and I am still out grocery shopping at 7.30pm! Worst thing is one of my guests arrived early and stranded outside my house for one hour waiting for me to go home.
So with one hour left till the party starts, and no food on the tables, how bad can it turn out?
Luckily a lot of my finger food has been prepared by my Chefs, so all I had to do was the plating! Which is NOT as easy as it looks, because…. I haven’t got out all the plates from my storage area yet. *roll eyes*
OK lets start with the food shall we?
Tomato Bruschetta, Creamy mushroom bruschetta
Cold Smoked Duck Risotto
Spicy tuna on cucumber boat, creamy chicken on celery stick
Prawn Cocktail
Crab Salad
Down to Carbs Carbs Carbs! Pizzas!
Tomyam Meehoon
Nachos with fresh guocamole, tomato salsa, sour cream and japelenos
Now now lets move on to the drinks shall we?
I got home a keg of STELLA ARTOIS draught complete with the whole engineering works, Oxygen tank, ice box and all. Curious how the internal looks like?
The cooler instantly chill the beer that run through from the keg.
Ahhhh it was absolutely fresh.
One barrel can tap close to 90 pints
KK helping himself
There was my customary welcome drinks- red pussy its called
My guest was having fun with the cocktails
Strawberry daiquiri
Blue margarita was yums
Zhong seems to know what he's doing, cuz his concotions are absolutely delish!
The guests mingle and tingle
Then there was desserts! My usual Tiramisu and isnt this absolutely adorable??!?!?!
Bride and Groom strawberries!
Sorry, a bit melted at this point
Looking handsome indeed!
How cute do they look together?
How about some dice games in between?
My guests that make everything possible, including getting the inbeatable Ms. Jazz drunk,
it wasnt a pretty sight, im afraid.
So here's some photos before i stop caring whats going on and being in my own little world. *laughs*
Whisky neat. haha! Such a good sport =)
We were born on the same day! *loves*
Yup im officialyy one year older! (:
I love having a bunch of friends that see eye-to-eye with me on the enjoyment of food, not necessary fine but all kinds, although admittedly all of us are quite weak in the hawker food department. Our so call ideal place to meet for Malaysian food is “wong ah wah @ Jalan Alor”. FIGURES…
On suggestion by Jon to do dinner- he chose Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie and has been gushing about this place. Since opening he has went there every month to try the menu of the month. Now, no way I’m doubting a person who goes out fine dining with a vengeance.
However, since I have my reservations with Nathalie Gourmet Studio in Solaris (sister outlet), having to go back there to try a few times, and having to conclude that their main course always fail to impress while their desserts always divine, I told myself that I’m going to go to Cuisine Gourmet with an open heart.
While Nathalie Gourmet Studio in Solaris takes a more casual approach and predominantly focuses on cooking classes and macarons, this new outlet at Menara Taipan leans towards fine dining and has overtook previous seafood fine dine outlet, High Tide. Because Nathalie takes her food VERY seriously (according to crazieapple, she has to be the one doing all the plating), you can find her at Solaris during daytime, and Menara Taipan during the evening.
The setting of the restaurant is simple yet elegant. Atmosphere is not at all uptight; you can enjoy your meal and talk beyond whisper here.
Otherwise, you may also opt for her Set Menu, which brilliantly has 2 choices, one for seafood lovers and another for the carnivores (that’s me by the way).
Their seafood menu (RM130) and Nathalie’s Selection (RM145) comes with 5 courses, and by calculations it does seem to be more value-for-money, and the best thing is you can sample everything at a comfortable portion.
Nathalie also came out with a degustation menu (RM200) which comprises of 7 courses of tinier but equally filling portions.
Some of the items which I manage to capture off my friend’s ala carte, degustation. or seafood menu for your viewing pleasure.
French rock fish soup in Ala Carte menu (RM35)
Open Ravioli with Blue Lobster, Vanilla Sauce
Oxtail beef squid, Jerusalem artichoke puree and mesclun, short juice sauce in degustation menu
Salmon confit in duck fat, asian mushrooms in sweet and sour broth, buttered savoy cabbage
in Seafood Menu
Duck a l'Orange in degustation menu. Had a bite of this, it was yummy!
Most of us opt for the Nathalie’s selection. (RM145++ for 5 courses)
Started off with Nathalie’s selection of three finger food, we have a chilled cucumber soup with prawn, salmon blini, and mushroom ragout (correct me if I’m wrong, I tried so hard to recall what the servers had told me), all delightfully light as we wait in anticipation for our starters.
Pan Fried Duck Liver in a Brioche, roasted apple, and apple juice sauce. I love the 2 pieces of petite yet plump duck liver sandwich between a delightful light brioche, combine with the apple which eludes some sweet tangy flavors, it was a classic combination yet something that a lot of restaurant get it wrong. Nathalie’s would prove to be some strong comparison. The presentation has also added extra cookie point to this dish. If there’s anything I like about Nathalie’s, it is that their presentation was always done so beautifully.
Beef tenderloin, Porcini Sauce, Potato and Porchinis Mille Feuille with duck liver jelly is hitting all the right notes. We loved the tenderness of the beef, perfect doneness according to our preference, and the flavor of the combination of sauces and complements were just explosive. There’s really just all praises for this dish. We swiped up every single bit on the plate.
I love Red Meat! *Rawr*
Vanilla Mille Feuille, Vanilla Caramel Sauce, and Vanilla Ice Cream. I have mix feeling about this. While the flavours were there albeit slightly sweet for me, the Mille Feuille kind of left us stranded, we weren’t too impress with the hard dense pastry (but not doubting it could be its original intention) however, since I prefer my mille feuille slightly airy and light, this dessert was not too memorable for me
There's no such thing as Macaron overdose in Augustdiners context.
We were delighted with the selection of macarons. As with all macarons, there was hit and misses in their flavours, yet it is still one of the best in town! Do try their salted caramel, i can go crazy over 'em!
Poppy and Strawberry Big Mac, Strawberry Mousse and Basil Sorbet
My dear friends
Nathalie has definitely impressed us with this new outlet here and has taken her culinary skills to a new height. I know by fact that if i'm ever craving for french food, Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie would definitely comes to mind. Let's just hope that the September menu would be good! Time for revisit?
P/S As this was a way overdue post, please be noted that the items above is from the August Menu, you can check their monthly menu here.
Ratings:
Food: 7.5/10
(Most flavours hit the right notes with more hits than misses, yay!)
Ambience: 7/10
(suitable for work dinners, and celebrations with friends and family)
Service: 6/10
(decent, could be more attentive)
Presentation of food: 8/10
(never failed to please with those wonderful emulsions and good portioning)
Overall: 7.5/10
Updated: very dissapointed with my 2nd and 3rd visit! Sigh! Unfortunately, we've experienced overly salty dishes for most of the MIGF courses.
Updated: very dissapointed with my 2nd and 3rd visit! Sigh! Unfortunately, we've experienced overly salty dishes for most of the MIGF courses.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie
Menara Taipan,
Jalan Punchak
Off Jalan P.Ramlee, KL
Tel: 03-2024452
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