Piggin' Out: Cristang, 8 Avenue

Restaurant: Cristang
Address: B-G-19, 8 Avenue, Petaling Jaya (behind Courts Mammoth, Wisma Thrifty)
Tel: 603-7956 7877
Cuisine: Eurasian
Other reviews: absolut ginger
Check their Facebook group *here* for more details

On Wednesday, Rommel sent me this link to a restaurant behind Courts Mammoth and said let's do dinner there that night. He read it was 20% off all their pork burgers on Wednesdays. Plus, they served pork vindaloo and he's been having cravings for it for a while now. (No, I do not know how to cook it but I suppose some day soon I'll ask his mom how she makes hers, since he likes her version of the dish but obviously isn't inclined to learn how to make it.)

But, given that we had much to do in preparation for this weekend's fund-raising dinner (which I might blog about another time but it went very well, thank you. We raised more than the targeted RM250,000 for our church roof fund.), we weren't able to check it out last week. Finally, our first free slot was tonight's dinner and we decided to take the opportunity.

Ambience and service
Clean, simple decor, a little quirky but in a nice and warm way. Service is a bit on the slow side since there was only 1 waiter tonight who also made the drinks and took the orders and brought the bill at the end. But, the food came promptly and there was only 1 other table of 4 when we were there. The restaurant owners were also around if we really needed to holler for anything.

Food
For starters, we shared the Devils on Horseback - grilled back bacon wrapped over asparagus spears, drizzled with a red wine reduction (RM9.30 for 3 pieces). Bacon and asparagus are one of the great meat-and-veg pairings in my books.... like beef and mushrooms. The Japanese call it umami......

Rommel had the pork vindaloo with plain rice (RM15.80 for a small portion and RM1.20 for the rice). He found the vindaloo not the best, but good enough to satisfy his cravings. I thought the vindaloo needed a bit more salt but that could be because the bacon in the starter and my burger had already skewed my tastebuds. We just wished that it came with more kuah because how do you enjoy a curry when it lacks the kuah, right?

Since we'd read that the pork burgers are good, I decided to try one. The burger menu is separate and has variations called P1 to P6. I can't rattle off the descriptions of all the types but I remember P4 to P6 had petai in them. I'm no fan of petai so I chose P3 - pork burger topped with cheese and chilli con carne (Rm22.80). Loved the burger. You can tell that the patty is homemade. It was sufficiently juicy, tasty and I really liked the pickles that came on top. The burger comes with baked potato wedges on the side. Shen, I think you'll like the wedges. Homemade, with a generous sprinkle of good herbs.

For dessert, we ordered the tiramisu (RM18.80). Now, I've been told my tiramisu is pretty decent (best compliment yet is from my colleague Edward who can be rather difficult to please when it comes to food - he said my tiramisu was almost as good as his wife's.), so I'm always curious to find out how restaurants serve theirs. Cristang didn't disappoint.

First, owner Gerald comes to our table to ask how much alcohol would we like in our tiramisu. He makes them to order and so it can be made according to our preference. Rommel being Rommel, of course said the more the better. In less than 10 minutes, Gerald's whipped up a yummylicious looking tiramisu on a plate. He's added Cointreau and orange liquior into it. A very nice twist indeed, somehow reminding me of the crepe suzette in Chalet. Only one issue with it - not enough mascarpone. But that's cos I'm really generous with mascarpone in my tiramisu - if I had to make it and sell it for a living, I don't think I'll be able to make much money. Just like the amount of ricotta I use for my cheesecakes!

Drinks
I had a Red D-tox (watermelon, carrot and orange juice, RM8.80) which was freshly made and not too bad while Rommel had the ice lemon tea (RM4).

The bill.... came up to RM89.30. Not too bad la since we had a starter and dessert too.

Will I go back? Yup... now trying to suggest to the parents to take them there to try.

** Apologies for the lack of pictures today. I didn't bring my camera out cos we went to watch Wolverine earlier and I hadn't known where we were going for dinner.