Gourmet Fast Food at Jungle Gym

Well I'm sure any parents in Brunei have at one time or another been to the Jungle Gym in Kiulap. I have been going more frequently this year as the kids are at an age where I need to get them out of the house so they can thrash some other place that I don't have to clean up after. hehehe.

And often times, places like these serves up what kids like to eat - fat ladden fried food like fries, nuggets, fried chicken, burgers etc. So I had been reluctant to eat there all this while. Until one day, I was just too tired to brave the traffic to go to our usual haunt and decided a little fast food once in a while might not be a bad thing. So I sauntered casually up to the food counter and looked the menu up and down while other parents were ordering buckets before me. With the usual fast food list, you can also order from their sister establishments like Le Taj (which serves North Indian Cuisine) and Capers (Italian pasta and pizza). So I order the Jungle Gym set for the kids which consisted of a drink, fries and choice of chicken fingers, fried chicken, spaghetti, burger, hotdog or cheese & tomato toastie which comes with a toy for $5.00. Add 50 cents extra if you want Milo in place of the softdrinks which I did. I also chose the chicken fingers which I thought would catch the kids attention. On top of that, I ordered some papadoms from Le Taj.

Results: The so called toy that came in the Jungle Gym set meal box was nothing to shout about. In fact, it was nothing even to whisper about. It was totally crappy. But then again why was I expecting a premium toy, eh? This is not McD here. It's just a box toy that you can buy in any supermarket for 50 cents with a pack of melted candy & if you're lucky, a small plastic toy, and if you're not so lucky, a card or sticker or tattoo.

But enough about the downside, let's talk about how unbelievably good those chicken fingers are!! They are the best chicken fingers I have ever tasted from a fast food outlet. Beats KFC, McD & Ideal combined!! Unlike those other fast food outlets whose nuggest are made of minced chicken bits, this is big chunks of chicken meat (not minced) fried in a breadcrumbs batter. Very aromatic, juicy, tender on the inside and cruncy on the outside. The only thing is, it's not well salted. Which might not be a bad thing, considering it's for kids. But even with the under salting, I couldn't get enough of them. I mean, I plan to go there the next week just to eat these chicken fingers. Why has it taken me so long to discover them? So after that, I decided to try the cheese and tomato toasties, which were also very good. So it's not just your average white trash junk food we're talking about here, but gourmet fast food. I think this is courtesy of their highly reputable sister establishments (which does the cooking, I guess).

Price: Reasonable enough with a pack of 6 chicken fingers for $4. Cheese & tomato toasties for $2.20. Fries for $1.50. Jungle Gym set for $5.00, add 50cents extra to substitute Milo. I noticed they have brewed coffee ($3.00) and I think I'll try that soon.

Rating: 10/10 for the chicken fingers!! Craving for them badly now....

Best Chicken Chop Ever

Had the best chicken chop ever today. Accompanied with the best coleslaw (even though it was a bit warm) and slightly soggy wedges (but still good, nonetheless) with a sauce that is not the usual taggy type but salty, just perfect for it. The chop was fried to crispy perfection with a crumbed crust and had no gamey chicken taste at all! It was a big piece of boneless thigh, yet tender and moist, sprinkled with bits of mixed veggies on it. Even the kids couldn't get enough of it.

Where, you ask? Ironically it was served in the RIPAS Hospital Ward today. You know, if they keep serving food like this, I'd check myself in there just to eat it. And they'd be less wastage too. I noticed everyone in the ward licked their container that day. All pleasantly surprised at the treat. 3 cheers for RBC. WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MOREEEE!!!!

Supasave's VacuumSaver Containers

Pic of the Roundy Series with the Pump

Supasave is having another promotion where for every $10 spent you will get a sticker and with 5 stickers you can purchase a range of VacuumSave containers at discounted prices. These containers (made in Taiwan) claimed to be airtight and with a special pump will remove all air from the container and make it EVEN MORE airtight. So of course I was tempted to buy a few.

Results: I bought the biggest "roundy" and the biggest rectangular one and the pump. I must say they are NOT very good at all. First, when you suck out all the air from the container with the pump, it only lasts less than a day and suddenly the container is no longer airtight and you can even remove the lid easily (instead of needing to push a small button to release the air when you newly pump it).

I put my biscuits and keropoks into the containers and they were all soggy. I would have been better off with a Tupperware (or any other commercial airtight containters for that matter). Less fuss too, no pump, no nothing, just put on the lid and it doesn't even go soggy as fast as this VacuumSaver. With the VacuumSaver, I pumped my muscles out only to have the air magically refill back in a matter of hours.

Would I buy it again? BIG FAT NO!

Costs: Ranging from $2.95 for a small one to 16.95 for the bigger ones. Pump costs $4.95.

Rating: 0/10.

P/S: Just gotta warn people not to get it because it's so lousy! In fact, I felt deceived! It's like the worst airtight product ever!!! Aaargghh so pissed.

Twelv Cafe "Gourmet" Buffet Spread

Well, Ramadhan is here again. Which means a deluge of Sungkai buffet spreads on the offer. Ahh..so much food, so little time. Went to try Twelv Cafe's "Gourmet" Buffet Spread. Called ahead to make a booking and should have taken the hint when I asked if it was fully booked yet at 4pm and the waitress said I was the first one. Turned out, including us, there were only 2 other tables. Hmmm...

Verdict: Food pics all taken courtesy of Twelv Cafe's Facebook page. And I really gotta say, it looks better than it tastes. I gotta stop getting fooled by the tasty pics on Twelv's FB page damnit! A few gripes - they served the food really late, way past 6pm (maybe to preserve food integrity so that it is hot), but some people who are there early and who do not puasa (like young kids), at least they can feed the kids first, and they themselves eat later. There is a TV inside but they did not switch to the channel that shows the beduk, and no other indications of the correct time for sungkai. So we were left with no idea that it was already time to sungkai until the waitress said it's time and we had to take their word for it without hearing the actual "proof". But they said the TV was outside with the beduk channel.

Another thing is their dessert is really poor. There is only fresh fruit platter and cendol, which consist of the green thingy and the gravy only. I had expected them to at least include some kueh if not their "famous" cakes. Also, instead of having a drink dispenser so that diners can get their own drinks, they make you your drink and serve it to you, asking you a choice of either red or orange. And the drinks were too sweet we had to ask for water to dilute it.

Food wise, the only thing worth remembering was of course the lamb chop (which was cut in small pieces but nevertheless good, done the Twelv grilled way) and the pasta. Other things that were served that day was mixed veggies, mushroom soup, steamed chicken, some seafood gratin, (there were no labels because I think they don't even have time to put it up since the food came out so late), pandan chicken, mashed potato with mushroom gravy, with starters such as popiah, deep fried mushroom, battered chicken pieces & onion rings, and dessert of cendol, fruits, etc

Price: BND$15 for adults and half price for kids above 5 years old. I don't think it's really worth $15. Maybe $9.90 is more appropriate.

Would I go there again? Not for the "Gourmet" buffet. But as I've said before I think they do good steaks and they do have a loyal fan base for certain ala carte dishes.

Rating: 4/10, below expectations.

Some of the starters. The square bits were cold meat cuts which I didn't try because it didn't look appetizing.

Another starter, the popiah and pizza. Even my kids were not interested in the crunchy popiah and the pizza which they used bbq sauce as the base was too sour. I like the veggy popiah but it was too salty if eaten too much. Actually most of the food tasted too salty.

I assume a waldorf salad with fruit pieces.

The starter of popiah and breaded chicken pieces which was quite nice but again, the kids didn't like it.

Steamed chicken with ginger & garlic sauce. This one came out so late that we had eaten our fill and was about to leave so didn't even touch this.

The mashed potato and mushroom gravy. The gravy was nice.

The pathetic looking "homemade" cendol. Didn't try it.

The tomato bruschetta toppings were quite nice but they could have toasted if not buttered the bread.

Jindi Camembert Cheese

Comes in a semi circle box.

Results: I'm a big fan of brie and I think camembert is kinda similar to brie. The wax sealing on this brand of camembert, however, is too thick. Hence, there's not much cheese left to enjoy.

Notice how thick the wax is.

Price: B$4.20 for 100g at Supasave, slightly cheaper than Australia Gold but hardly worth it.

Would I buy it again? No.

Rating: 5/10

Royal Brunei Catering

Some of the finger food from RBC, truly exceptional ones were the spinach tart and a sort of squid tart (not pictured). Good touch with the cheese and crackers.

We had a corporate function the other day and decided to go with RBC to cater some finger food. There's no denying that RBC does good finger food with creative presentations. But it's their staff that spoils the RBC brand.

We ordered food for 100 guests but since less than 50 showed up, we asked them to wrap up the food for takeaway so that at least we can bring it to the office for the rest of the staff the next day.

The next day, 3 plates of cold starters turned up. I doubt that was all the food we had left. Come on, there was $2000 worth of food there and 3 plates was all they could spare? We paid for the food. Wait, it's not even about the money. I'm going to be cliche and say it's about the principles. I mean this has happened way too often. It has become synonamous with the RBC brand.

So our PR officer rang up RBC and all they could say was, maybe it got misplaced and sorry for that. That was all. They expect us to just accept that and say ok, thank you, don't let that happen again (but we know it will). But we refused to be made a fool of this time. We demanded that the food show up or we were not going to use them again and others will hear about this.

Aparrently according to some of our staff who were there that night at the event, they saw one of the RBC's more senior staff asking the waiters/waitress to just take all the food they want. When our PR officer walked into the kitchen he was vissibly caught off guard and a little embarassed and when we enquired about the food, he said yeah they were in the process of wrapping it up.

RBC should really train their staff on PROFESSIONALISM. It's understandable if the junior staff would be doing something like that, but as a senior staff, he should be able to set a good example to the juniors and always remind them to behave professionaly. But having a senior staff endorsing this kind of behaviour is just too much.

I can see that most of the waiters and waitresses are youngsters, probably school leavers, or those waiting for a permanent job. They are impressionable and most of them are in it for the fun. There was also one time, not only were they taking the food, they were pulling out the flowers of the main bouquet. Usually our company's practice would be to bring back the bouquet to put in the main hall. But a few of the young waitresses were already pulling out the roses and each shouting, "I want, I want". One of our staff had to tell them that we still wanted the bouquet. They didn't even ask permission but, like vultures, swooped down on everything after the main guests have gone.

Another time, we asked for containers for our staff to take away the food but we were told there were no containers, only to find the RBC staff in the kitchen with containers wrapping food up for themselves.

Another incident, the staff started eating the food after the function had just ended. We told them that the food belonged to the company and we would like to take away and the staff said, "But we're hungry." And on humanitarian grounds we let them continue eating.

I think whenever there are any big corporate functions, all the staff are just volunteering to work.

Rating: 4/10

Tepung Goreng Ayam Puteri Ayu

So far in this blog, I have yet to give anything a 10 out of 10. But, that streak is about to be interrupted. Yes, this is the product that deserves 10 out of 10.

Magic powder that can make anything taste good

Inside the packet

Results: I use this to fry chicken, seafood (squid rings, tempura prawns), veggies (cauliflower) and I've not tasted any flour this good. It makes everything taste nice. Compared to other frying flour, it is nicely seasoned, not too salty, not too peppery, just right. The chicken also stays crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

I normally would dip everything in egg first before coating it with the flour. This product is also hard to find as it often runs out - a testament to how good it is, perhaps? hehe.

Price: To be updated as I'm not really sure (it comes in huge and small sizes)

Would I buy it again? In a heartbeat.

Rating: 10/10