FOOD becomes a celebration of experiences in the Gastronomical Adventure 2009. This collaborative effort of Urban Rhythms Tour, Adventures & Travel and Mirth & Merryment aims to give diners the novelty of sampling food and beverages at various restaurants all in one night.
At present, this culinary adventure is happening at the Cangkat Bukit Bintang area with participating outlets Delucca, Palate Palette, Bouchon, Bermuda & Onion, and Flam's; and at Jalan Bangkung, Bangsar, with U Restaurant, Cava, Leonardo's Tea for Two and the Tasting Room. The adventure, which began this month, has been extended until the end of May.
To join, diners just have to log on to www.nibblish.com, select which area they intend to dine in, make their choice from the menus provided by the participating restaurants, book their place and pay for their choices online.
Then, just turn up on the day and time of the booking to enjoy an unusual dining experience. Each restaurant offers a special menu of three entrées, three mains, three desserts and special beverages. Diners can pick from any of them and have it at the outlet which serves it.
In other words, they can enjoy a three-course dinner at three different restaurants with three different ambiences. As these restaurants are all next to each other, the walk isn't far.
Urban Rhythms Tour chief executive officer Nigel Wong said this concept started in Melbourne, Australia, about eight years ago and has proved to be successful over there.
"Our target market here are expatriates and executives who enjoy eating out. We are giving them an opportunity to try out different restaurants in one night."
Wong said that the two locations were chosen because of their wide variety of restaurants and also because they are easily accessible.
He added that they are now looking to add other locations. On a recent culinary adventure at Jalan Bangkung, we climbed the stairs to the Tasting Room for our starters. This cosy restaurant is famous for its wide selection of old world and new world wines.
The three starters in the package here are portobello mushroom, prawn bisque and baby octopus. The meaty portobello was toasted and topped with crusted cheesy chicken and served with a mushroom sauce. The light and yummy prawn bisque had a braised tiger prawn on it, adding texture to this delicious dish. The baby octopus came sautéed in wine sauce.
Next, we went over to Cava, which means cellar in Spanish, to sample its special Sangria (red wine, triple sec, orange juice and lime juice). The Spanish-Mediterranean restaurant with its cosy white-lined shelves and brick walls is the perfect place to enjoy our main course of chicken Cordoba, spaghetti with dory fish and paella Maricos.
The charred chicken leg was beautifully enhanced by the tomato-cilantro chutney sauce and citrus chilli oil. Served with creamy mashed potato and a fruit salad, it was superb. The spaghetti was light and good while the paella came -packed with seafood and was as good as anything that is served in Spain, one diner claimed.
For dessert, we headed to U Restaurant which serves modern Japanese cuisine. There's a stunning giant aquarium with gold fish which stretches across one wall while the décor is kept simple. The ice creams here are home-made and aficionados swear by the creamy goma (black sesame) ice cream and the masha (green tea) ice cream which is served with red beans.
We tried the vanilla ice cream which came with deep-fried banana tempura that gave a nice combination of flavours and textures to this dessert. Diners could also order other items which might strike their fancy at the outlets. Of course, they would have to pay for any additional courses.