A Coffee at Straits Club Restaurant and Bar made by Lee.

Some may know, the time after a nice dinner, or when your day is about to start, or in the afternoon, when you're craving for a nice shot of espresso, a Latte, a Cappucino, Machiatto or the like. Look no further. On most days or evenings, except Sunday (his day off) we've got Lee behind the handles of coffee bliss.

So, we may wonder, what should be a good coffee then? Lee gave his thoughts which are summarized below:

...it has bitterness but is not burnt.
...it's smooth and does not drink like sand paper (If you ever came across a bad coffee, you'll know what       we mean)
...After drinking one, you want more.

And he will make a coffee for you with skill and a smile. How? We begin here.

Meet Lee...

Lee, always there for a good coffee and a nice chat

And so we'll start with grinding the coffee beans. Lee explains to use only the best beans you can afford to buy. Average beans means average coffee, simple as that.

The coffee beans has to be ground at the last minute

We should highlight that he is demonstrating the makings of a 'Latte', which is the most popular style of coffee served here. For this you start with one shot of espresso. Now, many of us may think that espresso is simply just that, a shot of fairly strong coffee. Wrong. A good espresso has, what Lee calls, foam on top. Like this.

A proper shot of espresso

The next step is the milk, foamed to a very smooth consistency. How? This, got explained as being a combination of fresh milk and skill. You'll have to use fresh milk, no manufactured full cream, low fat or any other in that category . Skill? Well, here he suddenly started to become very secretive, so, we assume it's quite an exact job that can only be done right after many times of trying and testing.

Foaming the milk

What's is left to do now is pouring the foamed milk into the espresso, kind of carefully, though, and you will be smiling, it's ready! Lee added that a good foam is light and smooth, but somehow dense enough so that a cube of sugar will remain floating on top of the surface for some time.

It should stay like this for at least 5 seconds

We say thank you very much to Lee for his explanations and his coffee. You only need to guess once who drunk this one in the pictures. 

That's right.....

Something to Nible

So, our blue print for the new a la carte dinner menu is almost finalized. Now we're going into the smaller bites of our food offerings. On the current menu we don't do any snacks of sorts but occasionally you'll find them on our black board.

Today we've got:

Crumbed Blue Swimmer Crab Cakes with Preserved Capsicum and Green Olive Relsih

RM 20 / 4 pcs

Blue swimmer crab......

.....are found in many places across the globe but also here in Langkawi. The cakes are kept quite simple, using crushed potatoes as a base, a couple of herbs for flavour and loaded full with the meat of the above shown creature. If you don't like crab this is not going to be your thing.

If you do love crab, though, you've got not much time left to try our crab cakes. Hurry! They won't last! 

The Story of JJ at Straits Club.

JJ:                   'Woof, woof'.
Service staff:   'JJ.....'
JJ:                   'Woof, woof.......woof'
Service staff:   'JJJ.......JJJJ  !!!'
JJ:                   'Woof, woof.......woof, woof'
Service staff:   (Takes a long and thin stick, walks briskly to JJ, and sais) 'SSHHHH!!!!'

*We should highlight here that we do not whack JJ, but he somehow understands that he has to quit barking, when shown the stick. This lasts only 10 minutes, though, and he'll start again.

Let us introduce JJ....

JJ, Straits Club pet resident

JJ has been brought in from Penang, where he was the resident pet of Straits Collection, our sister property there. He loves, admires and sometimes is in dire need, of attention. Most of the time a pat on the back is enough but a walk around Temple Tree will, for sure, make him happy. 

The staff at Straits Club take care of him very well and so does the people of Langkawi Lassie, who ensure he stays happy and healthy.

Temple Tree and Straits Club Restaurant & Bar were build in order to allow Langkawi Lassie to expand and continue doing their hard work of taking care of the pets and stray animals of Langkawi. Profits of Temple Tree and Straits Club will go to this charity.

For more details about Langkawi Lassie, check out:

 www.langkawilassie.org.my

We hope JJ will be with us for many years to come, but please......

it would be very welcome if he relaxes a bit more often....

Ice Cream Testing

So, after testing desserts we do have plenty of ice creams to serve. For the coming days (this is not going to last very long) we got this 'Ice Cream Tasting' as a special.

 The raspberry sorbet with chilli is something we've been serving from time to time, already. It is a common occurence that the guest whispers to his/her companion (while eating this sorbet) 'I can't taste the chilli, where is it? And then.....yes...sniffy nose and trouble speaking. To warn, the heat is in the tail of the taste and it lingers.

Lamb Canneloni.

This may well be a stayer on our progressing new menu.

Canneloni of Lamb with Ras-el-Hanout Spices, Baba Ganoush, Preserved Capsicum and Lemon

This dish has already a few thumbs up (including from the chef himself). Why? We hear you ask. Lamb and smokey eggplant do like each other very much but become a bit rich if eaten just so. We'll need to cut that down, lighten it up and balance the flavours.

And so we added pickled capsicum, a recipe of which will be posted soon. Add some rocket, lemon, salt and black pepper and you are indeed.....smiling.

There are 24 hours left on the clock before we move on to the next dish. 

Want to try?

We hope to see you soon.

Ongoing menu tests, our Wine Dinner and some useful info.

Testing, testing and testing....

It are good times for the kitchen. Testing means tasting, right? Below the specials we've on the black board.

And, also, Friday we are doing our Wine Dinner again. It is safe to say that bookings are highly recommended since that the start of this blog the seats has been sold out, each time.

T 04 9553937

E info@templetree.com.my

The useful info.....  Straits Club has actually no signage at the road side yet and may therefore, for some, not easy to find. We are located right beside Bon Ton Resort inside the house mentioned in the previous post. For those who wants to visit, enter through the Bon Ton entrance but turn left when you see the 'Temple Tree' signage. You will arrive at the porch of Straits Club.

We do also have our own access road, 200 meters before Bon Ton (coming from Pantai Cenang), which will take you straight to us.

.......right here

Hope to welcome you soon!

The Story About Eurasian House.

The house where Straits Club is located in is called 'Eurasian House'. It was the first building to be build at the site of Temple Tree. As with all other structures here, this one also got transported from another part of Malaysia and then it got reassembled at its current location.

The house at its old location in Penang

Its former location was 114 York Road on Penang island. Build in the 1920's by a Eurasian family, it was named 'Bahagia',one of its translations of this being 'happy'. Later on it was sold to a Malay family who lived in this house for a while. And then, a few years ago, Bon Ton purchased it from them and so now its our home, if you like.

Eurasian House, just after completion

This house has a number of spacious rooms and wide verandahs. On the high end of the walls are beautiful carvings that besides being nice looking also ensures air circulation throughout the house. That combined with high ceilings means that the internal spaces don't get to hot and especially when there is a bit of wind it will give it a breezy feel.

One of the verandahs, used as a dinning space

Eurasian House has a pool room with flat screen TV, a library, the reception for Temple Tree, a bar and a restaurant. At the back of the building are the old staff quarters which are converted into a housekeeping department and the restaurant kitchen.

TempleTree Reception

Straits Club Restaurant and Bar can cater up to 25 persons comfortably for a lunch or dinner. We've got tables set up at the verandah, bar area, inside most rooms and outside at  the poolside.

Straits Club Bar

You're welcome to experience our 'home' any of the 7 days a week from 10.30am to late, though the kitchen closes at 10.30pm.

See you then...

Scallops and Prawn - take 2

So, our first attempt of this dish was not bad, not bad at all. But.....not good enough. This time around we went for a slightly more traditional approach. At least, that was the idea.

Seared Scallops and Crusted Prawns, Green Pea and Sweet Corn Sauce with Basil, Warm Potato and Coconut Salad

Sweet corn, basil and scallops work together really well, thanks to the  sweetness of the sauce and the nuttiness of the  seared scallops and prawns. That is the traditional part.

But then, we added coconut to the potatoes and we finished the dish with a drizzle of chilli oil and shaved coconut. Chilli oil will give a little kick to the sweetness of the sauce. So far, the response has been quite good. 

Want to try? Be fast, tomorrow we'll be working on new dishes.We'll have to see if this dish makes it through....

Wine Dinner tomorow.

 Tomorow, as usual, we'll be doing a wine dinner menu for the very friendly price of RM 95 per person, inclusive of selected wines. We should mention that seats are limited, so, bookings are highly recommended.

• Straits Club Restaurant

If you had a nice experience with us and wouldn't mind writing a little something about it.....

Thank you :-)

A new menu in progress.

Below a couple of new dishes we are trying out for the new menu. They are on our specials board today.

A new menu in the making.

Time for change....

Currently we are testing dishes for our new menu. There will be 2 seperate menus. One with lunch dishes and snacks and another menu for dinner. The black board with our daily specials will remain to keep our chef on his toes.

Below a seafood main course:

'Seared Scallops and Prawns, Roasted Lemon and Parsley Potatoes, Spicy Carrot and Coriander'

Light and flavourfull in a mix of Western style with Middle Eastern and Malaysian flavours, which kind of summarizes the style of cooking we do here.

And then a dessert:

'Mango Trifle with Pine nut Praline, Crisp Merengue, Vietnamese Mint and Basil'

A bit rich but with plenty of refreshing local flavours. Vietnamese mint is a favourite herbs we use. It is a very fragrant leaf but with a bite and a much needed one in a dessert like this.

More previews to come..........

No, this is not our black board.

But you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. However, below are our specials for today but our next post is going to be something else.

Promise.