Before I came back Melaka (yes, I am in Melaka already) hubby told me about a famous Japanese restaurant that she see a few times on internet. I thought why not give it a try?
As in the name "house", the restaurant is actually in a housing area where the house was renovated
and transformed to a restaurant, be it living room, bedroom or kitchen. Only the front door are kitchen, the other part of the house can equip customers.
Although the house is small, but there is a room where the long table is located can equip 12 person at a time.
Sakura House's Menu
Sakura House's Table setting.
My main dish: Hire Katsu Jyu (猪扒盖饭)which is Fillet And Egg On Top Rice The pork chop is quite dry and no taste (not marinated), the pickles are ok ok, although too much colouring but I can understand since Japanese Bento's pickles are come in such way. However, the only thing I don't quite get it is the egg and rice. It's not Japanese style but Chinese style fry egg on top on steam rice. In another words, Chinese style pataya =.=
Yasai Poteto Korokke Bento(炸薯泥饭盒) which is Mashed Potatoes Croquettes Bento
Sanma Shioyaki Bento (烤秋刀鱼饭盒)which is Grilled Pacific Saury Fish Beno
Unagi Kabayaki Bento (烤鳗鱼饭盒)which is Grilled Eel Bento
Overall: 8/10 (Not 100% Japanese food, so it's cheaper than usual Japanese food you found. It was previously cheaper but according to the owner, since the earth-quake in Japan few months back has affect the price)
Taste bud indulgence:7.5/10 (It's just so-so, not very impressive, not typically Japanese food though~)
Purse saver: 9/10 (Labeled as Japanese Restaurant with a 1/2 of the price you get from some franchised Japanese Restaurant)
Atmosphere: 8.5/10 (It's creative to have a house renovate to become a restaurant. If the noise insulation isn't done well, the neighbours definitely wouldn't appreciates it.)
It's quite frequent that I heard my friends go to see sun rise in Brogo Hill. I am very jealous of them because I thought I never went to Broga Hill. On the previous Hari Raya break, my dad bring us (my brother, my cousin and I) to this place again, then only I know the place I am familiar with located in Brogo.
I wouldn't describe much, just some photo and captions.And I would like to apologize for the poor compositions and contain of the photo. Well, if you are me, snapping on a hot day in a long jeans without umbrella, you know how it feels, right? Broga Temple entrace
GuanYin(观音) statue
Dragon pillar
Divination
Tributes - follower
Incenses
Marble Lion
At the back of the back, there is a garden name ShuiLianDong(水帘洞). In the famous novel, Journey to the West, the Monkey King lifes in the ShuiLianDong. Giant Pineapple
Giant Fruit basket
Giant Gold (buipaisei camewore pic XD)
Giant Durian
TaiGong(太公) catches fish
Dragon Door
Gold Turtle
Dragon (Left: my brother; right: my cousin)
Cow(looks like buffalo, isn't it? @.@)
Rabbit (more animal i.e. 12 zodiac animal statues can be found in here too)
crossing the bridge leads to the Money King's Temple
From far, I see can see the Monkey King's face.
But when I reach it's temple, I can only see skirt =.=
Isn't this atmosphere/architecture something you familiar with? Yes, you get it right! You can easily see these structure in U.S typically Mexico movies. This is because Frontera's mission is to serve best Mexican food and fresh lime margaritas in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
Frontera's Bar
You can see bottle any where
Don't you feel the "exotic-ness" of the ambient?
Comes back to the food tasting >.<
The 1st dish served was soup and tortilla with Chili Con Queso (top) and Red Salsa (bottom) dip. In English, tortilla means potato-based omelette originating in Spain, or flatbread made from corn or wheat originally made by Mesoamerican peoples.
As for Frontera, the soup is not usually serve with tortilla. Thanks to Ramesh to prepared it for our food tasting session. This is the 1st time I eat tortilla. Frontera made their tortilla dips to be a little bit crispy but slightly thicker than your regular potato chips. The tortilla has not much flavour on it self but when it comes with the dip, it is different story.
I personally like Chili Con queso dip(Tejas-styledcheese dip made from American cheese, cheddar cheese & tomatoes) more because I am a cheese lover. The tomatoes chunks are dry in a way that the moist is preserve in it but when it is bite, it is as tender as ham.
Not to say I don't like the Salsa dip(Homemadesalsa using tomatoes, garlic, cilantro & Ancho chili.), if the other dip wasn't a cheese based dip, I will definitely choose this dip as my favourite. I am so surprise that the dip has preserve so much Unami(savouriness, 5 basic taste together with sweet, sour, bitter and salty) flavor in it. At first I thought It was made by seafood soup such as claim, but Ramesh deny. When I go back to search a bit, I found out that rip tomatoes are rich in Unami components.Usually, the tomato sauce we made consist of all the tomatoes fruit part i.e. skin, flesh, seeds juice etc. But the tomato seeds are bitter. Ramesh said that the tomato seeds were remove before it is made into paste. I think that is the reason why the Salsa dip is so fresh and full with Unami.
Chipotle is the smoked chili pepper or smoked dry jalapeno. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Mexican-American and Tex-Mex. Need not to mention Chipotle is very hot. Actually I will like the soup more if it isn't as choky as it is. The soup'd fragrance is so sweet and innocent, but if you didn't realise it is a spicy based soup, we will choke by the chipotle spiciness on your 1st ship. I did it too and it gives me a few cough. When I am more used to the spice, I enjoy sipping though the raininy night to warm me up.
Jalapeno
Right: Tortilla Chicken Soup (Traditionallightly spiced chicken soup with tomatoes & onions, garnished with tortillastrips, cheese & cilantro) The thick creamy chicken soup is fill with tortilla strips, cheese and chicken floss. Like I say, I am bias towards cheese and diary products. But the spice in this soup is quite mild can easy to accept.
After the soup/appetizer, it's time for main dish.There are several dish that Ramesh prepared to us, so we just pick randomly on some paper. Since I prefer not to eat beeff, so I exchange this with one of the blogger and this is what I got:
Ranchera Chicken Tacos (Crispycorn tortillas with grilled chicken, topped with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes& Ranchera sauce. Served with Mexican rice & refried beans.) Left: Pinto beans paste, tacos and tomato rice. The pinto beans has comparably smoother texture that I had before, but the taste is not very outstanding. The Tacos are very crispy, the cheese topping is great but it covered the ranchera flavour (what is Ranchera? =.=). Maybe the soup's flavor has been too strong that the main dish can't be so appealing as the earlier dish.
Showing some of the main dish's photo, if you want to see more, try find out at here.
Lone Star Burritos (Marinatedbeef brisket, chili con carne, refried beans, cheddar cheese & hot saucewrapped in flour tortilla, topped with chili con queso & chili con carne.Served with Mexican rice refried beans.)
Tex-Mex Burritos (Marinatedbeef brisket, chili con carne, refried beans, cheddar cheese & hot saucewrapped in flour tortilla, topped with chili con queso & chili con carne.Served with Mexican rice refried beans)
Chicken Enchiladas (Shreddedchicken enchiladas, topped with sour cream & Monterey Jack cheese.)
Left: Texas Bacon Cheeseburger (200gof pure beef patty topped with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, dill pickles, meltedAmerican cheese & beef bacon. Served with fries & jalapeno coleslaw) Middle: Texas BBQ Burger (200gof pure beef patty glazed with BBQ sauce & topped with lettuce, tomatoes,American cheese, beef bacon & onion rings Served with jalapeno mayo, fries& jalapeno coleslaw) Right: Beef Enchiladas (Border-styleslow cooked beef enchiladas topped with New Mexico red chili sauce)
As for dessert, there is also more than 1 choice.
I choosed Chocolate Chipotle Brownies (Sweet& spicy, a Frontera original, topped with Vanilla ice cream & chocolatesauce) I like chocolate, I like brownies. My passion towards chocolate is as much as to cheese, but this brownie is giving me lots of dissapointment =( The brownie is rather hard and dry. Most sweetness cames from syrup. The ice-cream is also not very appealing. Worse part, I can feel chili seeds in the brownies thought Ramesh said only Chipotle paste were use in making the brownie. Can you image the feeling of eating something sweet and enjoying it then suddenly you got a spicy sense? You wouldn't feel nice, right? =(
The other dessert includes:
Black Label Sundae (Chocolatechipotle brownies topped with Mexican caramel, Vanilla ice cream, hot fudge,whipped cream & cherry) The name is quite miss-leading. This is a non-alcoholic dessert.The bottom brownie is same as mine but since it is cold and comes with whipped cream, the combination is much better than the dry hard brownies in my plate.
Cheesecake Chimichanga (Crispyflour tortilla filled with homemade cheesecake, topped with strawberry syrup) Another rather miss leading name. The tortilla isn't filled with any cheese but rather some condense milk. I didn't say it's not nice, but the name itself give me too much of expectation. The crust is very thick, made of tortilla. It's a very surprise combination that not only fills the tummy but spoils the tongue too.
All of these are thanks to Ramesh (right) for the wonderful food.
Since this food tasting session is to choose the best menu, I wouldn't rate Frontera this time. Although the food was sponsor, the comment I gave was not coach, not advertorial.