Leonardo's @ Jalan Bangkung

I am back to my May posts again. I am amazed salute people who can do 2-3 posts a week. Possibly these people don't sleep!  I need my sleep otherwise i can't function the next day. And i am immune to coffee already :(

Well, skip the sleeping, this is a way overdue post on my Cousin 4's b'day. Actually, it's a surprise party of sorts and a cousin gathering. Now, those of you who do follow my blog, my eating events are either because of family events or with my makan gang ( which till now i have not found a name for them - it is either the greedy piggies or the gluttons, or big eyes, small tummy :D ) and OD gang. More often than naught, food is a time for me to enjoy my company more than anything else and i tend to forget any problems during these outings- all work talk is banned!.  In this case, cousin's b'day was planned by her sis Cousin 2, who is some what, the makan goddess in our family ( who does not blog, but makans alot )... I have heard of Leonardo's from a few fehmes bloggers, and gamely went a long with cousin 2's suggestion to have a surprise party for her sis. And this place is SERIOUSLY not halal.

Cousin 4 and i are quite close, separated in age by a few years. Heck, we even worked in the same company for 10 years! And hardly anyone believed we are related because we are as different as night and day. While she was the more refined and elegant one, i was completely either brash and loud (more on the loud bit). However, that doesn't stop us from msning each other daily or sms each other often on office gossip. Dinner events in the family normally see us yakking away loudly and laughing raucously as if we have not seen each other for a few years. Over the years, we started planning what we call "Cousin Events" for the remaining cousins who are still in KL.  Most of our cousins are either overseas, or estranged ( for some ) , or too young to join but the intent was to keep us together as a group. Often naught, Cousin 1, who flies back from overseas often is also a frequent guest to our cousin events. Also,.... cousin events have veered in the direction of being up class as well hehehehe.... since now everyone is working, we had more money than we had as kids!

Leonardo's is situated in a quiet area of Bangsar, which i totally love. Why? Nice hilly place, with greens, and people walking their goldies... I could so live here if i have the budget to do so. And parking is good here. I am still sore on those Kayu Ara -like place when it comes to parking!

The journey here was quite interesting for me, because i exasperated Lil Bro with my rather weird name road. When asked, ( since he drove ) what is the road name i replied "Jalan Bakung"... Using google maps, it showed... Indonesia!!  After a few hisses and spats, we finally found it on the GPS and we were on the way there. And we were super early. I was assigned - the cake task - task of buying cake for Cousin 4 at Suanson's place...which.......... was close on Sunday! Neither did Opus sell a whole cake, so i decided to wing it and ask Leonardo's to prepare something for me.

Leonardo's has 2 floors, the dining area and the wine loft in the upper floor. Obviously, we are here for the dining. It's not super big, this place but cozy. And i like cozy. Already, 2-3 tables were there and eating at 6:30pm!

And this place is posh, i tell ya. Look at the cups and the cutlery, i was beginning to wonder if this place is in the same league as Sage or Cilantro's - hopefully not, i hope not to have a degustation menu that night.

Then Cousin 2 smses to say she will be late as the Q to KFC was long... I was eh? Oh. forgot, 2 nephews were home alone that night. No kids allowed session. Good thing to, can't imagine the two of them running up and down this place!  And thank god for GPRS ... as otherwise Lil Bro will be rolling on the aisles in boredom.

The Reunion Dinner

As a kid, reunion dinners meant eating alot. Really Alot. When grandpa was alive ( and great grandma ), reunion dinners we must have many dishes, at least about 7 or 8. While later i suffered some form of constipation ( ahem ) i was a bit terrified at the thought of reunion dinners as great grandma used to star at us eating. Chopstick habits were observed during dinners and it was seemed so formal.  There was always chicken, duck, fish, pork, sausages etc in reunion dinners - plus it was always a must to sit at tables to eat together.

As i grew up, the reunion dinners had a different meaning altogether.  The number of people begin to lessen but i slowly developed the real meaning of reunion dinner. Formats changed, there were more talking and catching up with family members. Number of food dishes did not lessen - till everyone cholestrol levels hit sky high. And with grandma being my only remaining grandparent, the meaning is not lost to me that we should cherish such events all the more.  She used to cook splendid dishes during reunion dinners. Every year besides the standard chicken, duck, fish, pork, sausages, there is always a special dish from her. Sometimes it was pork rolls ( this was pretty awesome but a lot of work ) dumplings etc so that there is something different. However, since she was getting old, we had less and less of that. Grandma now sits and relaxes and waits for reunion dinner to be served! Perks of getting older :)  


Grandma enjoying the keropok we fried earlier. She loves crunchy stuff.

This year, our reunion dinner is much simpler. Well there is only 6 of us. We really cannot eat up a storm. ( I heard in China, reunion dinners go up to 15 dishes etc ) For us, it is more of being together. My uncle in Australia has never been able to make it back as being a professor in Uni, term starts right smack in CNY time.


We kept it about 5 dishes + soup. Grandma hates dry rice.  Must have is duck and chicken. Kai, Ngap. You get the drift and some greens to wipe up the oil. And my favorite - Chinese sausages. :)



The duck comes from the Famous Canning Garden Restaurant Hong Kong. It's also called the Divine duck by Malaysian Insider. We order it a few days in advance for Reunion Dinner. And when you go to collect it, the duck is piping steam hot. Otherwise, if you are eating the next day, they will give it an  oil bath to retain it's crispy skin.  I was always suspicious the person cutting the duck took some liberties with some pieces. And i never caught him. This year the son of the owner decided to do the cutting himself. No missing pieces this year.  There is a kick ass chilli sauce with the duck itself that i cannot do without. Seems like i am the only in the family that eats the sauce!



Home styled steamed chicken. The skin sends shivers down my spine for some reason. That's a full chook here. Plus alot of grounded ginger to go with.

Dinner took 2 hours. In grandma's case ... cause she got distracted listening to all of us talk. So the food going into her mouth was also slowed down.  However she did enjoy herself immensely. Let's hope there are more of such dinners to come.

Restaurant Hong Kong ( Those interested in da duck )

60 Jalan Lee Kwee Foh
Canning Garden
Ipoh.
Tel +605 5477813