pakdoktergolfblog

Recent Culinary Adventures (1) : 'Ten' Japanese Fine Dining

'TEN' is a fine-dining Japanese Restaurant located at the Solaris Dutamas locality of Kuala Lumpur. Pakdokter came to know about this restaurant while in Japan as the owner of this restaurant is one Mr Ichiro Suzuki, a member of the RSGC, who travelled with our club's golf team to Tokyo and Kyoto in April. Mr Suzuki, if pakdokter is not mistaken, is also PM Mahathir's partner in the 'Loaf Restaurant' at KL's Pavillion, Langkawi and Bangsar Village.

The Solaris Dutamas development looks set to be KL's newest culinary centre with so many restaurants of all types being opened there. It will mostly likely eclipse the jaded 'Bangsar' and 'Sri Hartamas' districts.

'Ten' is a posh outfit, its dishes somewhat pricey. But the way they are prepared and served - it stands out and is different from the many other Japanese restaurants in town. Ichirosan had taken out some of the RSGC golfers to have the 'Kobe' beef in Japan. When he was asked to bring the beef to his restaurant in KL, he said it would be difficult to source halal Kobe beef. His restaurant is a halal outfit.

view of the Wilayah Mosque from the restaurant

grilled giant sotong filled with rice

grilled eel on top of tofu

grilled cod fish

a basket of tempuras

a plate of grilled wagyu beef steak

Recent Culinary Adventure : 'The Hills' @ Damansara Heights

The "Hills" is a bistro-cafe-restaurant located off Lorong Dungun in Damansara Heights. It was recommended by pakdokter's partner's personal trainer. The "Hills" is a 3-storey bungalow, located atop a hill and converted into this drinking and eating place. The atmosphere is casual.

We tried out and shared a plate of nachos which was good but the tenderloin steak was just about average. This place is more of a watering hole and not quite a fine-dining restaurant.

Recent Culinary Adventure : Mado @ Bukit Bintang

After a dinner date at a Japanese restaurant in Sri Hartamas, pakdokter drove to Bukit Bintang to check out the newly opened "Mado" ice-cream and baclavas outlet. Pakdokter had come across this outlet during the trip to Istanbul in January this year and pakdokter's partner, in particular, liked several of the dishes we tried there. So we wanted to see of the Kuala Lumpur outlet offered the same fares. Yes they do and judging from the crowd that filled up this cafe at almost midnight - the "Mado" cafes would likely be a success in Malaysia. The offerings are quite pricey matching the ice-creams of Haagen Daaz or Baskin Robbins.

Jakarta Revisited : Dinner at Kemang

We finished our golf at Bogor Raya at around 6 pm and after a bath and change we had a round of drinks at the Bogor Raya Clubhouse. PakRosliKhan suggested that we all adjourn to a restaurant in the upmarket Kemang district of Jakarta Selatan. We were joined by pakRosli's spouse, Linza Wells, and their friends, Clare and her husband. Most of us settled for the tenderloin steaks. A live band entertained us to 'evergreen' tunes hile we dined.

from left - pakRosli, pakJohan, pakFaidz,

pakZulfikar and pakZul's partner.
below was Linza's main dish of grilled prawns

topped with a layer of foam

Jakarta Revisited : Bogor Raya Golf Course

the lovely club-house of Bogor Raya

We were originally booked to play at the Bogor Raya at 130 pm. We thought by starting very early at the Permata Sentul, we could finish our game there by 11 am latest - have an hour of massage, lunch and quickly move over to Bogor Raya which is only about 30 minutes away from Permata Sentul. However, Permata Sentul was so busy, we finished quite late and only managed to reach Bogor Raya at 3 pm. We had asked our tour agent to call up the Bogor Raya Golf Course to warn them of our late arrival.

Pakdokter never realised that it has been quite a long time ago that pakdokter played here. Pakdokter was pleasantly surprised at the great condition the course is. Being a resort course - it is quite friendly and short with wide fairways that encouraged pakdokter to drive the ball with gusto. And pakdokter was surprised at how long pakdokter's drives were, often longer than the better players in pakdokter's flight. Perhaps, the earlier Javanese massage at Permata Sentul had also helped.

Pakdokter only managed to play 14 holes due to the failing light. Of the three courses we played during this trip - Bogor Raya turned out to be the cheapest. Its green fees, buggy and caddy fee inclusive came to about 500k rupiahs. It cost about 650k rupiahs at Cengkareng and Permata Sentul. Cengkareng is a walking course - so it was the most expensive of the three. The few of us who had booked through the CIMB Bank had the benefit of playing for 'free' at Cengkareng and Bogor Raya being part of the benefits for holding the bank's World Credit Card.

flat course with wide fairways

the gym of the Novotel @ Bogor Raya

pakRosliKhan was hitting everywhere...

he must be not as fit as he used to be....

pakFaidzIzham with the Bogor Raya caddies

what a luxurious changing room

Jakarta Revisited : Permata Sentul Bogor

On Friday, we all woke up early for the 630 am tee-off @ Permata Sentul Golf Course in Bogor. Permata Sentul is definitely a very popular golf course - even as we arrived, there were already probably 30 to 40 golfers who have teed-off from as early as 545am? Most of these golfers were members of the TNI, judged from the official military cars they came in with. Perhaps Friday is the soldiers' golf day........in Indonesia.

As we had to leave our hotel at 530 am, our hotel, the Swissbel in Mangga Dua, was kind enough to prepared packed breakfast boxes for us. ( picture above)

pakdokter, pakRedza, pakZulfikar

pakJohan,pakDrRosli, pakKamal, pakIdzham

pakKamal came in his blue golf shirt

looking very much like the 'master-caddy'

so of course he got the best caddy amongst us

Permata Sentul is a relatively short course - but it is tight and narrow with steep downhill fariways that demand accurate drives and fairway shots. Any draw or slice will be punished by forests on both sides of most fairways. The greens are mostly small and the green speed equally fast as @ the Cengkareng.

this short par-3 uphill hole 11

pakdokter used a 9-iron to reach 6 feet away from the 115 yards hole

but 2-putted for a par

pakRosli pulled his drive and sent his ball to the left forest

pakKamal's special caddy

if you lost all your balls to the forests.....no worries...

many 'experienced' balls at the half-way huts

considering the level of 'challenge' from this course

pakdokter did relatively well

returning with a score of 48/48

pakKamal was the day's champion

he could have done better if not for the 'blunders'

on the the final two par-3 holes!

pakRedza was putting for a birdie in one hole

but ended up with a 6!

that's how difficult and fast the green was

after the game we all treated ourselves to one hour of

a traditional Javanese massage at the club's

luxurious spa followed by lunch at the club's lounge

Jakarta Revisited : Cengkareng

A group of the RSGC Sunday Buayas made our second trip to Jakarta this year in early May. Zulfikar went a day earlier on Wednesday evening on the KLM whereas pakdokter and 4 others ( Redza, Faidz, Johan and Kamal) went on the early Thursday morning flights on Garuda or Malaysia Airlines. We were picked up at the airport and transfered straight to the Cengkareng Golf Course.

Pakdokter's friend, Dr Roslikhan, from Jakarta, made up the two flights of golfers which was reduced to 7 when CYLim had to cancel the trip at the last minute for a medical reason.

Cengkareng is a walking course and pakdokter and most of us had often played here. The course is not as long as the RSGC - but although one can often reach the green on regulation, the greens are pretty fast and difficult to read. The caddies gave good lines but pakdokter had difficulty adjusting tothe fast speed.