Groove to the rhythm, baby

A few weeks ago, one of the Sundays happened to be Mother's Day. So, I figured, "Hey, why don't I offer to take my parents to Las Vacas. That way, I'll seem like a super nice son AND I get to devour steak?" So, really, it's not Mother's Day as much as it is Nick's Day.

I've been meaning to go to Las Vacas for some time now. I was supposed to go with He Xiang and a few others recently but something came up. So, anyway, we trotted out there only to get turned away because the place was fully reserved. Lol. So, lesson learned:- Always make a reservation for Las Vacas. The phone number, graciously provided by me again, is 03-78740711. It's located at at 23, Jalan SS5A/ 11, Kelana Jaya in good ol' PJ.

So, anyway, persistent fellow that I am, I made a reservation for the following week and took my parents there.



It's located by the FAM House, on the row of shops behind the row facing the FAM House. Quite ulu location, in all fairness. But hey, I'm fine with it and so should you. Anyway, it's a butcher shop, first and foremost, but it expanded its business to the restaurant sector with an awesome kicker. Pretty fricking wise business move, I'd say.



As you can see, ambience isn't really its top goal. Simple tables and chairs, simple table cloths (paper, really). But I have to say, if you're looking for a quiet romantic dinner, I think this place does okay as well, simply because it's quiet. For the record, I'd be very cautious about bringing a date here personally, simply b'cos she'd be convinced after the meal that she was dating a T-Rex instead of a human being. I can't decide if this would make me happy (since my goal in life is to be a T-Rex) or sad cos y'know, I lose the girl and all.



MEAT!!!!!!!!!

Now, here's the reason why this place gets top billing from me. YOU CAN CHOOSE THE SIZE OF YOUR CUT OF MEAT! So, let's say you're feeling ravenous. You go to a regular steakhouse. Your portion is limited by their choice, not yours. Here, you can choose however much you want. I decided to go for 500g worth of Rib-Eye. (The standard is 300g). I always believe that if you're willing to pay a mutually agreed amount for something, you should be able to get what you want. And so, I got more steak than I would at other places.

And voila:-



500g of pure awesomeness, medium-rare. (For those not using the SI scale, it's about 1.1 pounds). And honestly, it's sheer ambrosia. The biggest advantage of getting a bigger and thicker cut is that the center of the meat is super juicy. Seriously. When you chew it, you can actually feel the juiciness of the meat. And this sounds wrong, but there's nothing better than meat juice (I recognise the double entendre). And it's made to perfection, in terms of temperature of the meat and the texture of the meat. I thank the cow who sacrificed itself for my lovely meal. Really, I do. Your life was not in vain.

I mean, look at this!



Okay, the brown stuff is steak sauce, not meat juice. The one caveat I would like to add is that for those of you who prefer stuff like black pepper sauce or mushroom sauce or whatever silly sauce that comes with your steak, this place is no-frills. As in, you just get the steak without any sauce cooked with it. Which, to me, is fricking brilliant and adds to its ranking. I mean, you eat steak for the juiciness of the meat, not b'cos it's covered in something retarded like black pepper sauce or something.

They also have other options if you don't feel like having a pure steak. They have burgers, though I'd obviously never get them here (not for quality reasons or whatever, just that I'm getting me some steak). My mom, for example, loves lamb, so she got lamb chops or lamb shoulder or something like that. Wasn't paying attention. Hard to focus as a carnivore with all the awesome beef meat lying around.



She let me try some (i.e. I was all like, "MMaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmm, can you let me try your food?" Cartman style). And the lamb was pretty good actually, as it should be from a place that deals with meat for a living. And very reasonably priced too.

Oh, and you're wondering why my dish is so bare? As in, just a steak on it? Well, this comes with the dish, but I had them put it on a separate plate for obvious reasons.


Stuff I don't eat. Well, I eat the bread. So, don't worry about a pure meat eating. You lot still have some salad to go with your meal. Though why anyone would think about that crap when eating awesomeness is beyond me.

Anyway, this place is fricking fantastic. I give it the highest ranking I can give, which is Ambrosia level. The price is pretty steep for the beef, the lamb is reasonable, but I assume you'd only be coming for the beef, so it's Firebolt Broom level. It's good to come here once in a while and pay premium price for premium food.

Pak Cik Nasi Lemak

There's this sports theory that goes by the name of the Martian Premise. It was coined by Bob Ryan, a sportswriter for the Boston Globe. Basically, it says, if the destruction of Earth could only be prevented by a 48 minute basketball game versus an all-Martian team, what team would you send?

Borrowing from that idea, I'm switching it around here. If Martians invaded this planet and the only way they wouldn't destroy the Earth (after stealing our unobtanium) was to enjoy a truly Malaysian dish which ranked a 10 on the scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is sheer ambrosia, what would you feed them?

Well, my answer is this:-



Nasi Lemak. Not just any nasi lemak, the Pak Cik Nasi Lemak by the mosque and roundabout in Uptown. He's open every morning from 7.15 to like 9.30 (that's when he's sold everything, probably even sooner on weekends). His wife is in charge of another 'branch' in Damansara Jaya, behind KDU, opposite the PETRONAS station.



So why do I like this place? Well, I have been coming to this place for nasi lemak ever since I grew teeth. The Pak Cik has always invited me to his open house for Hari Raya. But my obvious bias aside, the sotong for this place is out-of-this-world (which is why it's perfect for the Martians). While both the badan and the janggut are both great, I personally prefer the janggut. The gravy for the sotong is immense. I'd say it's good enough to replace the standard sambal that people have with nasi lemak.

It's a little bit expensive for stall-based nasi lemak, but then again I always tambah nasi and tambah sotong, which costs me RM5 total. So, if you don't want extra stuff, it's probably about average, RM3-ish. If there's going to be a weakness, I'd say his Chicken isn't that great, just about average, but hey, you don't watch the Cleveland Cavaliers to see Jamario Moon, you go to see Lebron James. Yes, I just compared the best basketball player today to squid. So, yes, for nasi lemak sotong, it's actually a great price given the awesomeness of the food.





Seriously, after this meal, I'm 100% sure the Martians would be happy and would call off the invasion. The downside of this is that they might abduct the Pak Cik to feed the Martian population though. Which makes me wonder if I really should introduce them to this. I mean, would I risk the destruction of Earth or be forced to see the Pak Cik and his nasi lemak go? I'd probably choose not to destroy the Earth, but I had to think about it.

All aside though, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is Bittergourd (I've never had it, but I heard it's unbelievably nasty), 5 is the average McDonald's meal, and 10 is sweet nectar of the Gods, this is a 10.