El Corazon Del Vino: The Heart of Wine at La Bodega, Bangsar Shopping Centre

[F&B Feature]

10662084_759934377386365_3073141128561577627_o

MHB’s Angelica, Jenny, Daphne, Sharon, Andy and our friends headed over to Bangsar Shopping Centre on 14 September 2014 for the preview of El Corazon: The Heart of Wine. The event is a new promotion at La Bodega which happens every Sunday afternoon from 12.00 noon till 4.00pm and features an afternoon of free flow cocktails and cava served with one (1) savoury platter of Spanish canapes and one (1) dessert platter for just RM60.00++ per pax.

There will be a featured alcohol of the month and for the month of September, it is Tio Pepe Fino Muy Seco sherry from Spain. I actually attended a Tio Pepe sherry tasting session in La Bodega Bangsar Shopping Centre back in July and you can read more about it here – https://timchew.net/2014/07/17/tio-pepe-sherry-wine-tasting-at-la-bodega-bsc-fuego-troika/

You might think that drinking on a Sunday afternoon sounds a bit odd but this is not the heavy yum seng type of drinking but rather the more chilled sort of drinking with some good food to accompany it!

The savoury food platter consists of several canapes serves with the seafood and chicken paella:

Paella Valenciana Mixta – Spanish rice cooked in a huge paella pan with prawns, chicken, mussels, and clams with saffron, peppers and peas

Croquetas Bacalao – Cod fish croquettes served with chili mayonnaise

Pinchos Morunos – Marinated chicken on toast with garlic mayonnaise (aka aioli)

Calamares Fritos – Deep-fried fresh squids served with garlic mayonnaise

I really liked the fried calamari and the cod fish croquettes. The girls were wondering what was in the croquettes as it certainly didn’t taste like your normal fried fish fingers. The inside had a nice and soft texture while the outside was crispy! The paella was nice too and came loaded with lots of seafood including mussels, prawns and clams.

I’m not much of a dessert person as I’m not much of a sweet tooth however the girls seemed to like the macarons.

Creme Catalana – The Spanish version of creme brulee
Chocolate Brownie – Classic brownie served with basil cream
Assorted Macarons

There were 7 different cocktails you could choose from or you could opt for some cava or the base alcohol of the cocktails - Tio Pepe sherry. I opted for the latter as I'm not too big a fan of cocktails although I did quite fancy the Salmon Roll cocktail with smoked salmon inside! — There were 7 different cocktails you could choose from or you could opt for some cava or the base alcohol of the cocktails – Tio Pepe sherry. I opted for the latter as I’m not too big a fan of cocktails although I did quite fancy the Salmon Roll cocktail with smoked salmon inside!

The range of Tio Pepe cocktails available included:

Garden Sprite – A mix of Tio Pepe, lychee liqueur, strawberries, oranges, and mint leaves.
Citrus Cup – A goblet of oranges made perfect with a dash of drambuie and Tio Pepe. The girls liked this one as it was like drinking orange juice.
Toffee Apple – A martini built on Tio Pepe, Broker’s Gin, white creme de cacao, freshly muddled apples and brown sugar.
Oceanic – Consisting of blue curacao, orange juice and Tio Pepe, built in a tall glass creating a lovely ocean effect of blue to green.
Salmon Roll – A unique martini consisting Tio Pepe and Martinin Blanco shaken and double strained into a martini glass and garnished with smoked salmon roll on a stick. This was my favourite cocktail as it was not your typical sweet cocktail but rather had hints of savouriness from the smoked salmon.

And there were also two (2) Aperol based cocktails:

Aperol Soda – Aperol and soda. Quite refreshing with a mix of both sweet and bitter flavours from the Aperol.
Aperol Sour – A zesty mix of Aperol, lemon juice and simple syrup.

As nice as the cocktails were, I spent most of the afternoon drinking the Tio Pepe sherry with the odd glass here and there to liven my tastebuds

But to each his own and unsurprisingly most of the girls opted for the cocktails

10687361_759935084052961_6077148821865861460_o

1534800_759935144052955_5213590610569866870_o

The girls trying out the 180 degree flip screen on the new Sony Alpha 5100

10648276_759935567386246_5877423179864200098_o

10688384_759935270719609_7068100523394518140_o

10694450_760083944038075_3936404213266581136_o

We also tried the Spanish Cafe Carajillo with flaming Spanish Torres brandy. Guaranteed to wake you up!

So if you're looking for a place to chill over some canapes, wine, and cocktails on a Sunday afternoon, La Bodega at BSC just might be the place for you. — So if you’re looking for a place to chill over some canapes, wine, and cocktails on a Sunday afternoon, La Bodega at BSC just might be the place for you.

La Bodega BSC is located at:

G109, Ground Floor, Bangsar Shopping Centre,

285, Jalan Maarof,

59000 Bangsar,

Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia.

Tel: 603 2287 2768

Operating hours: Monday – Sunday, 8.00am – 1.00am

More info at www.gastrodome.com.my

Photo credits: Andy Kho Photography (www.andykho.com) and author’s own

10580793_760083564038113_2896446821499212599_o

Photos with Andy Kho’s watermark were shot using the Sony NEX 6. As you may notice, the Sony NEX 6 is already a very capable camera and I expect its replacement model the Sony a6000 to be even better. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to review it soon.

Photos without Andy Kho’s watermark were shot with the new Sony a5100 and you can get more info on the camera here – Sony Malaysia’s website (click here).