Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tell-A-Tale (Part 35): Hot, Hot FriedChillies’ AFA, Pannaz and Om.

Pannaz was buzzing with journalists, guests, awards recipients and food enthusiasts when Lyrical Lemongrass and I arrived. Looking at the meticulous coordination; from the elegant decorative pieces to the menu cards to the goodie bags to the projector, I knew it was going to be a night to remember.

It was FriedChillies’s first Annual Foodster’s Awards where foodies get to vote for their favourite local stalls and restaurants of different food categories. It was an appreciation towards the existence of tastes that are close to us and the people behind these delicious, local fares. And that, to me, is already a celebration itself. I mean, how often do we see an awards party of this magnitude and grandeur that acknowledges the hours of hardwork put in by the cooks just to earn your few ringgits (or lesser, even) from, say a bowl of appetizing assam laksa? To me, they are undoubtedly the unsung heroes of the city’s foodscape.

The programs for the night included an impressive opening speech by Adly (FriedChillies’ CEO) which almost had me dashing to Nam Chuan for a bowl of Sarawak laksa, creative video presentations, a groovy acoustic performance by SlowJaxx and of course, a taste of Pannaz.

There were hors d'oeuvres (including an interesting duet of watermelon and sun-dried tomatoes), bowls of full-bodied mushroom soup, mains (I had a fantastic piece of lamb with brown sauce) and desserts consisted of sweet bread-alike, ice cream and chocolate cake.

Here is the list of winners with their respective addresses and GPS coordinates (taken from FriedChillies’ website):

For Best Roti Canai :Raju Restaurant
No. 27, Jalan Cantik, Petaling Jaya
N 03.10159 E101.65385

For Best Assam Laksa : O & S Laksa
39, Jalan 20/14, Paramount Gardens Petaling Jaya
N 3.10783 E101.62499

For Best Banana Leaf Rice : Kanna Curry House
No. 29 Jalan 17/45, Petaling Jaya
N 3.11974 E101.62978

For Best Chicken Rice :Hainanese Chicken Rice
73, Jln. SS22/23, Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya
N 3.12595 E101.61618

For Best Crabs : Fatty Crab
No 2, Jln SS 24/13 , Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya
N 3.11482 E101.61254

For Best Char Koay Teow : Aunty Gemok
Restoran Jamal Mohamed No. 24, Jalan SS5A/9 Petaling Jaya
N 3.09526 E101.60546

For Best Satay : Satay Samuri Taman Melawati
Jalan Melati Utama 4, Melati Utama, Setapak
N 3.13505 E101.62370

For Best Nasi Lemak : Village Park
5, Jalan SS21/37, Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya
N 3.13774 E101.62318

For Best Street Burger : Burger OM
In Front of 7-11, Off Lorong Kolam Air Lama, Ampang
N 3.16063 E101.78560

For Best Kopitiam : Yut Kee Coffeeshop
35, Jalan Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur
N 3.15705 E101.70001

Going through the winner’s list, I realized that I have only tried the satay. Yes, I have committed a huge food crime. Kuala Lumpur’s supreme foodcourt should imprison me for life! I should be barred from entering the city! The winners should throw rotten eggs at me!

Okay, food dramas aside, something interesting did happen.

“Let’s have a burger crawl tonight,” said the excited Boolicious, as we watched the video of the making of a piece of culinary art by OM Burger (winner of the best street burger).

"Very good idea lah!"

It was somewhere before midnight when we reached OM Burger. Thanks to Riz (FriedChillies’ creative director), we managed to get there within approximately twenty minutes as opposed to days if we were unguided.

We had company that night. Lots of it, to be precise. They were the ancient meteorologists. And by their staggering number, a heavy downpour was to be expected later that night.

The stall was unlit. This was to prevent the flying ants from fluttering anywhere near the food. But the convenient store behind it was not so lucky. The ants had already built a kingdom in it. Many died along the way, in search of light and warmth. If I may say, the flying ants added to the whole local makan experience.

They called it the Sloppy Burger. Despite the name, it was everything flavourful and fun. Take a bite to understand that the egg wrapping the piece of meat is cooked to moist perfection while the molten cheddar and sauces add to the euphoric burst of flavours. Sloppy? I call this modern art.

Too bad the crawl came to an unexpectedly early end as the second stop (burger with apple slices!) was closed that day. Nevertheless, we all went home happy and full.

Today, I looked at my calendar and realised that the last few days of Week 15 were spent celebrating all things local. I managed to catch the incredible Talentime, had a fantastic plate of fatty char siew at a wet market, went for an amazing awards party honouring local food (thank you, FriedChillies!) followed by a superb street burger and was caught in the jam from Sungai Wang all the way to Jalan Tun Razak (and beyond).


Definitely a cool weekend to remember.


Links:

Do check out FriedChillies’ excellent website here.

Lyrical Lemongrass wrote about the event here.

Click here for Cumi & Ciki’s take.

More details on Pannaz the restaurant here.

Information on Talentime, the local movie directed by the awesome Yasmin Ahmad can be found here.

There's a song called Pergi from Talentime which I thought was fantastic. Click here for a listen.

And here is the English version, sung by Pete Teo.

Coming soon:

Posts from Kenny Mah, Boolicious and thenomadGourmand.

24 comments:

Rebecca Saw said...

grrr...so sad i missed the OM the 2nd time! 1st time they were off for awal muharram or something and now this!

J2Kfm said...

so cool. to be invited to such a prestigious ceremony. probably 1st of its kind in Msia?

next time can honour food from other states ah? :)

sc said...

looks like a wonderful time you had there :). though i've tried 6 of the 'winners'..hmm, i dont agree to some of it though. oh well, my own preference i guess :p

Selba said...

Beautiful pictures being captured! Nice collage of the award event.... and my favorite of all the pic in this post is the cute cat :)

Did the cat eat burger too? ;)

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

is that ciki with her new camera???

UnkaLeong said...

Aiyo...I knew I shouldn't have clicked on the burger pic. Now I have a craving for burgers :P

choi yen said...

They use black pepper sauce for the burger? I think it's too wet for my liking, normally i love my burger without any sauces, weird eh ?

Xiu Long Bao said...

Gosh, should I then be prosecuted for not trying any one of the places listed, for not updating my blog over a month, for eating more SG food than KL food, for bearing the thought that SG food is actually not bad...

Faye fly said...

ur photo have new look ah !! not bad ...

Selba said...

I'm listening to the song "Pergi" in English version right now... love the music! Wish there's the chinese version.

Thanks for sharing the links! :)

minchow said...

Ooh yes, the personification of the Malaysian food scene looks gorgeous as always... but the crown of the post has got to be that shot of the burger... no mess ever looked that delightful!

Life for Beginners said...

OMG!! You haven't tried Village Park yet? LOL... just kidding la, bro... this just means you have the opportunity to try the rest. ;)

Aiyo, how am I to post? I forgot my camera that nite... can borrow your pics ar? Hehe.

Jun said...

whoa so very the happening! so got red carpet or not? :P

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

ok next time we go burger epal...if kenot find, we go burger nenas....if cannot find, we go burger....errrr...

Ciki said...

nic: PENGSAN.. were we at the SAME PLC??!! shots are crazy hot!

joe: haha.. not mine la.. on loan fm boo:P

qwazymonkey said...

LL & Nic: I wanna go for some burgers too! Bring me along pretty please with bananas on top?

Talentime soundtrack good hor? I've not watched the movie though. Maybe go watch this weekend.

Sugar Bean said...

Haha, if then, I'm worse than you. I haven't tried any of those listed there at all! Haha, ok, with the list, I could go back to KL and have good food! Thx!! =)

backStreetGluttons said...

Have no fear , the Best Awards are yet to come from the Black & the White for the truest love & spurting gasps of sensuous deep satisfaction always follow unrestrained passion which will soon , we hope be chronicled for the innocent World to appreciate.

Just make it not late but early

HairyBerry said...

thenomadGourmand, nice meeting you that day. i remember seeing your face on your blog but just couldnt recall that day..hehe...no worries, with the address, i think we'll be able to go anytime now. ;D

j2kfm, yeah, it was good time to meet up with some blogging friends! not sure if it's the first of its kind but the idea is fantastic, me thinks. ;D as for other states, yeah, that would be fun! imagine best ipoh taugeh chicken. sure hot one. ;D

sc, yupe, it was definitely fun meeting up with friends. ;D woah, you tried 6 already? you da bomb! haha, i guess everyone has their own preference la, hor? like me, i still prefer my roasted duck at kepong. must try! ;D ;D

selba, thanks for the compliment! ;D haha, that cat was looking at us when we eat. and the kind boolicious and splashie boy actually fed them with some cat food! now isnt that sweet...awwwww....

joe, nope. it was boo's. ciki's camera rosak already. so, boo pinjam-ed her the camera. the camera is quite fun.

unkaleong, we go there la, next time! burger crawl! ;D hey, i think that place is just a short drive from city centre la. can go after work today! ;D

mimi, hmmm, good question! i dunno if it was black pepper cos it wasnt really peppery but it was definitely yummy. oh, i have friends who eat McChicken without the sauce. so, you are not weird lah. :D

xiu long bao, you can start your sentence by giving me a treat this saturday. free flow of paulaner, extra dark..hehehe..ohh, add a dinner to it. dai chow will be fine. ;D

faye fly, thank kew thank kew! actually, i wanted to try something new. hence those pictures la. hmmm, i still prefer my old pictures though. ;

HairyBerry said...

selba, great! glad u liked the song! i dont think they have a chinese version for that. do check out the movie's soundtrack. it's fantastic! ;D you are welcome on the links. ;D

550ml jar of faith, oh, yes...malaysian food is fantastic. the blend of different cultures alone will have one mesmerized. and we havent started on the details yet..;D chaotic deliciousness, that burger. ;D

kenny aka ll's hss (heheheh), hey, i must go check out that nasi lemak stall d la. read some good things about it. when you free?
oh, btw, you can borrow my pics. no prob! cant wait for your take on the event!
:D

jun, red carpet? haha! actually, the FriedChillies team wanted to keep things casual and fun. it was, definitely. i guess the grandeur came from the food themselves. how awesome is that, eh? ;D

lyrical lemongrass, yes yes yes! instead of all the kentuts and kenots, let's go for all!!! ;D and we'll end the crawl with a tsunami burger...cant wait la!

cumi & ciki, thanks for the compliment ya! ;D of course we were at the same place la. heheheheh....your shots are good la. and cool. ;D *passing minyak cap kapak to the pengsan-ing ciki*

qwazymonkey, cool! we'll go sama-sama makan-makan burger-burger. ;D woah, imagine burger with banana hor? that'll be interesting.
yes, go watch talentime. it's all things malaysian and beautiful! betta watch fast cos not many shows left la, dude. ;D

sugar bean, cool! yupe, you should definitely visit them when you get back to kl. they'll be waiting! ;D i myself am going for the nasi lemak soon, i hope! ;D

backstreetgluttons, haha! my knowledge not that good to compile a list liddat lar...this the Black and the White only knows of the best dim sum at jalan ipoh batu 3 (mee boon), best roasted duck (kwong kee kepong) and errr, best hokkien mee still remains a mystery. the sensuous deep satifaction comes after dat, no doubt.

GFAD said...

Aahh.. I had the pleasure of eating at Village Park before I left. Killer fried chicken they have, aitelyu.

Let's meet at Kanna one of these days, ya? ;)

And we can continue the quest of searching for the holy grail of hokkien mee... :D

qwazymonkey said...

oooh. I'm imagining sloppy banana burger with peanut butter and nutella sprinkled with chopped toasted hazelnuts. hmmm what should I call it?

ladyironchef said...

and now you have tried two on the list. lol! go cover everything so that we can benefit from your blog. hahahahaha

HairyBerry said...

GFAD, omg! fried chicken! must go, must go! yeah, i've not been to kanna before la. when you coming back ar? oh, i have on hand, a a few places for hokkien mee already. name the time, babe! ;D

qwazymonkey, haha, why do the names of those ingredients remind me of a donut ar? hehehehehe....oh, back to your question, i think you should call it qwazysexyfunkycool burger. ;D

ladyironchef, omg! that'll take me years, i tell ya! haha! but it's good to have a guide so that we would have headache as to where we are gonna eat next..hehe