Food Therapy For The Soul

Lemon grass has long been used for its therapeutic properties.  Some massage oils contain essence of lemon grass, there are also tea with lemon grass and lemon grass drinks. Lemon grass is also used in cooking due to its sweet and soothing smell it eminates.  Its soothing and calming oil properties help the human body to invigorate itself and rejuvenate the senses through the blood.  Lemon grass too have been traditionally used to fend off flatulance in one's body.  It is no wonder that in Thailand, warm or cold lemon grass drink mixed with sugar is a common drink in hotels to welcome guests.  Even their cold towels are dipped water mixed with lemon grass as the aromatherapy of it, soothe the senses and relaxes the mind.  Almost everywhere you go in Thailand, lemon grass is used in many ways to relax and calm the body and mind.

        That is why not far from Kuala Lumpur, lies a quiet restaurant that extensively uses lemon grass and it is located in the bustling beehive area that serves great food.  So good is the food, I would dubbed it as the "Food Therapy for the Soul".  At first, your mind would be active in absorbing the ambiance and interior of the restaurant.  When the food is served, it is an orchestra of fantastic smells and fireworks of taste that blends together for an orgasmic finish which leaves you just...breathless.  This fantastic restaurant is called BumbuBali.  BumbuBali is a Balinese concept in food and decoration. 

The Restaurant
BumbuBali doesn't just feed your sense of smell and taste but also your eyes and ears.  The over all ambience of the restaurant is totally Balinese, from the decoration the moment you step in, to the authentic Balinese gamelan music that is played.  One may think that they might have stepped into a spa by mistake as the soothing gamelan music is heard throughout the restaurant.

Merchandise Items For Sale As Soon As You Step In

There are 2 levels of dining area for dine in guests at BumbuBali.  The lower level holds a long bar but lesser tables for diners as it too houses some authentic Balinese merchandise which you can purchase and the prices are reasonable.  The merchandise items range from simple ornaments to hand painted small sized surfboards to reflect that the island of Bali is also a surfer's paradise.  Some of the items would be worth getting such as the cloths and hand crafted wooden items. 

        After making your way up through the wooden spiral staircase, you will be welcomed by several large paintings.  Right at the top of the staircase you will get to see numerous newspaper and magazine clippings regarding the restaurant.  BumbuBali has been featured in many food and culinary newspaper and magazine sections, just to show that the said restaurant has a good reviews and credibility in the food and service given.  The level above features a larger dining and seating area.  It has the same airy feeling as the dining area on the ground floor as the windows are widely open and there is mistyfier all around the openings of the windows with large fans blowing cool air into the dining area.  The level above is dotted with many large plants and pictures and frames of the island and wood carvings on the walls.  Also a point to note is the clothed salamanders stuck to the walls as though it is crawling towards the ceiling.  The all wooden furniture just adds to the atmosphere of the restaurant and those seated next to the windows have higher tables and chairs for them to look out of the restaurant.  Onced inside, the surroundings and decoration will make you forget that you are actually in Kuala Lumpur.  The restaurant has the aire to make you feel relaxed and unwind, very much like a spa.

The Food
What makes BumbuBali special is their food.  Balinese food differs from the all too plenty Padang type of cooking which is widely available in KL.  It is richer in flavour and the usage of spices is more abundant.  The first impression you get when you open up the menu that the restaurant offers is, the difficulty to choose what to eat and to understand what each dish is about.  They have an extensive variety of food and drinks to choose from with exotic Indonesian names tagged to it.  The drinks section itself is divided into alcoholic and non-alcoholic where the latter has a wider portion to choose from.  Beware, as food portions served in this restaurant is huge and if you are a small eater, ordering a dish may require 2 or 3 people to finish it.

BumbuBali restaurant's speciality dishes are simply fantastic.  When you are there, these signature dishes are worth a try:

• Campur Campur Tiga - very similar to Triple Play dishes you would find as entrees at TGIF, HRC and Planet Hollywood, this dish comprises of Satey Lilitan, Cumi-Cumi goreng and spiced up chicken wings with different dippings.
• Nasi Campur BumbuBali - a small portion of Nasi Uduk with fillet of marinated grilled fish, a choice of rendang ayam or daging, grilled prawns and squid which is  lightly marinated, 'rempeyek' a sort of Javanese keropok which my grandma always make to accompany her tea time and small  bowls of sambal, chili padi potong dipped in oil and acar.
• BumbuBali Famous B-B-Q Combo meals - they have chicken and lamb, chicken and fish, fish and lamb, beef and chicken and the combination goes on.  This combo comes with garlic mashed potatoes and refreshing coleslaw.
• Nasi Ma Pasih - basically similar to Nasi Campur BumbuBali but with less dishes.

        Okay those are some of the signature dishes which you just have to try when you get there.  They also cater a wide variety of western food, but cooked Balinese style.  That means that the flavours and marinate used is Balinese which makes the food, more authentic and goes well with the environment.

Food Review
I was there with some friends for Buka Puasa and this is what I ordered. After ordering we were served with a small plate of kuih and a small bowl of dark suspicous looking liquid.  Immediately I thought, that this is the brown sugar sauce for the kuih as the kuih looked sinisterly similar to what I have eaten before at hotels and restaurants.  I was informed that the liquid is actually for us to drink!  I was suprised, as the dark looking substance had to be dark brown sugar or gula melaka that you pour over the kuih.  To my suprise, its actually cool sugared lemon grass water with cincau.  It was indeed a great thirst quencher as the properties of lemon grass and cincau instantly wetted our parched mouth and soothed our dry throats.  The kuih served had some grated cocount over it and taste very similar to some of the kuih you would buy at Pasar Ramadhan.  The drink which I ordered is somewhat unsual for a place like this.  I had the Mojito with Lemon Grass.  The real Mojito drink is alcoholic and is popular in Latin countries especially Cuba.  The real Mojito would contain rum, Sprite or 7-Up with mint leaves and lime.  It is a refreshing drink.  Here in Bumbubali, the Mojito is of course, non-alcoholic and is concoted of soda water, a bit of sugar, essence of pandan, green coloring, lime and mint leaves and of course, 2 sticks on lemon grass.  It offers the same thirst quenching properties as the real Mojito but without the alcohol.  Great, tho it could use Sprite or 7-Up instead of soda water because the essence of pandan would just go great with it and the sweetness of Sprite or 7-Up would be more quenching.

        Next came my dish of Nasi Campur Bumbubali which was served on a woven rattan plate layered with banana leaf.  Almost all their signature dishes are served this way to bring out the flavour of the food as it is served traditionally on banana leaves.  Now this Nasi Campur BumbuBali is strictly for those who have a large appetite.  What comes with the plate is something that needs a large stomach to digest.  It comes with Nasi Uduk.  Nasi Uduk is a boiled rice prepared with some tapioca.  You can even opt for Nasi Kuning which is yellow glutinous rice.  On the plate comes with grilled fillet of fish.  The fish is succulent and cooked to perfection.  It has the perfectly grilled aroma and almost has a hint of natural sweetness to it.  My option of rendang chicken is also another dish bustling  of wonderful spices and taste.  Not your typical dry rendang, this wet chicken rendang is not hot but filled with herbs and spices.  The grilled squid is another thing.  It is marinated before being grilled thus won't give you the tastless rubbery feeling and so goes with the grilled prawns.  Somehow, there is a hint of charcoal after taste which makes me wonder if they actually grilled it over a charcoal pit.  If that is not enough, they even give you a stick of Satey Lilitan.  Satey Lilitan is actually fine minced chicken with herbs and spices, wrapped around a stick of lemon grass and grilled.  The chicken meat is infused with the flavours of the lemon grass from the inside out as it is being grilled.  To help achieve a more mouth watering sensation, 3 small bowls accompany the large rattan woven plate which is the sambal which is red but not spicy, the acar which produces a stronger sweet sour salty mix that goes well with the Nasi Uduk and the cut chili padi suspended in oil.  I like this the best.  The oil would give a sorta of basil like flavour just like what olive oil would do to pastas.  Very unfamilar that such Asian cooking more over Balinese cooking would require the usage of additional oil, like what the Italians do.

After such a large portion of food, to while away the oils and spices I decided to order the Cincau Jelly with Rambutan in Iced Lemon Grass water.  Was I in a suprise that it too came in a large soup bowl and the pieces of cincau was enormous.  It had slices of rambutan in it covered with ice cubes on top in sugared lemon grass water.  Very similar to what I had in the beginning in the small bowl but in a very large portion.  Just sipping through it is like drinking another glass of cincau water with rambutan and lemon grass.  It did though cool me down a lot tho and wash away the oils and spices of the food.

        I did manage to sample some of the Cumi Cumi Goreng (deep fried squid) on my friend's Campur Campur Tiga plate.  The batter they used for the cumi cumi is simply outstanding.  Not dry but tasty and the aroma of seafood sticks to the batter.  Another sample I had was the a portion of the large Famous BumbuBali B-B-Q Combo of chicken and lamb.  I have never seen a piece of lamb shoulder that large.  It is larger than the palm of my hand and there were 2 pieces of it.  The B-B-Q lamb is cooked until tender and the spices used made it taste very much like stewed lamb.  Perhaps if they went easy on the gravy, it would have made the lamb's taste more prominent instead of the gravy.

    There were other food which I did not manage to sample it as my belt was bursting at its seams.   The food portion is just huge and there are too many things that looked extremely tempting.  I heard the Fudge Brownie served with ice cream was delicious but I had to resist the tempation of sampling it over the fear of passing out from over eating.  One definitely had to do repeated visits just to taste all the dishes they have there.
                                                                                            A sample of Campur Campur Tiga - Triple Play

   

Location
BumbuBali is located in a bustling beehive at Bandar Puteri, Puchong.  Its location is somewhat hidden from the main road thus you won't be able to spot it from there.  The area itself is food haven with numerous restaurants at almost every corner shoplot from KopiKau cafe, Ketam Stim Seafood, Steamboat, Nyonya restaurants and so many others.  If you have no idea where to go for your dinner, just take a drive there and you will end up eating at one of the eateries.

To get there, take the LDP from Sunway to Puchong.  After paying the RM1 toll at Sunway, keep right to take the flyover towards Puchong, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya.  Go straight till you pass IOI mall and TESCO on your right.  Just after TESCO, standby to keep left as there is a flyover to turn left to Bandar Puteri.  As soon as you turn left at the flyover, keep right immediately to turn right.  Giant would be on your left.  After you turn right at the traffic light turn right again in the shophouse area and proceed straight.  Just before you exit back out towards the LDP there is a turning to the left.  That should be Jalan Persiaran Puteri 1 and BumbBali is no 18, a corner lot double story shop.  Here is a Google Earth map to help you align yourself to the location.  Hope you had a pleasant read.

   
Click any of the images to enlarge.  All pictures except Google Earth were taken with Samsung SGH D600 mobile phone.

Comments

[Atik]

last tome I see to earth...
I see how small I'm
to adjust bad become beautiful...and stupid - clever....need friends..
environment made us likely crazy frog in this world....
how can we live in this postmodren era??????????
let's see!!
and join me!!!!