Acme Bar and Coffee’s GoodSeed Spring Menu Media Preview

[Review]

 

Before I start with the review at Acme Bar and Coffee, I would like to digress a little to talk about the new DSLM camera that I picked up earlier this week from Panasonic Malaysia – the small and portable yet very capable Panasonic Lumix GM5.

I won’t bore you with the technical details because you can easily get them here – http://www.panasonic.com/my/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-g-mirrorless-dslm-cameras/dmc-gm5.html

What I do want to show you is the quality of the photos. I used the “Appetising Food” mode which falls under the “Scene” mode on the dial to shoot the food, while the pics of Rachel and I were shot using the intelligent-Auto mode with Face Recognition enabled.

I did slightly post-process the photos adjusting the brightness and contrast, cropping and sharpening just a bit – but no more than I would for the other cameras I used, and I didn’t use Photoshop.

Now on to the review.

 

This was my first time reviewing Acme Bar and Coffee (ABC) and I was quite excited about it having dined there during a client’s event sometime back. ABC which is centrally located in Kuala Lumpur city at The Troika, occupies a lot on the ground floor which has two-storeys inside as well as an al fresco area. Parking can be rather tricky as the visitor car park in The Troika is rather limited so I’d highly recommend parking across the road in the multi-storey car park (which is under KLCC’s parking management) that offers thousands of parking lots.

This media review was to try out ABC’s new spring menu which aimed to showcase the best produce and products from around the world. ABC’s objectives are to satisfy their customer’s palate with the finest ingredients they can find, and the new spring menu incorporates Provencal vegetables, celeriac and freekeh – which is a nutritious young green wheat.

ABC believes in serving good wholesome food, and delivers freshly-made dishes upon order, never pre-cooked or microwaved. “Our meat dishes are air-flown chilled Australian beef. They are not frozen. We use organic eggs for our breakfast dishes because they taste better. We use French rocket in our salads because rocket salads should give a peppery taste when we bite into it,” said Andrew Wong, Chief Executive Officer of Acme Bar & Coffee. This Spring, we are also paying special focus to Seed Box – an edible garden that you can grow at home. Acme Bar and Coffee is proud to announce that all proceeds from the sale of our Seed Boxes will be channelled to the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), in supporting their education initiatives and doing our bit for the conservation of our natural heritage”.

The coffee at ABC comes from DeGayo, richly aromatic Lintong beans of the highlands of Sumatra, which are extracted using the La Marzocco Strada espresso machine. The machines have variable pressure profiles to finely extract the best from each roast, and there are only 10 such machines in Malaysia with two (2) of them in ABC. I had a flat white and I must say that the coffee taste is pretty robust – just how I like my coffee! If you’re more a tea drinker, ABC serves Tea Forte’s Signature Teas, known for their quality artisanal teas and infusions which are Fair Trade ™ and also USDA Organic certified.

If you’re more a spirits person (like me!), ABC serves Reyka vodka from Iceland which has a smooth body with crispness from its Arctic heritage. The water used to make the vodka is Arctic spring water collected from a 4,000 year old lava field which acts to filter it. The vodka is distilled using geo-thermal energy. The finished product goes great with tonic and a wedge of grapefruit, and I knocked back quite a number of these. You could also opt to try Shawn Chong of Omakase & Appreciate’s unique cocktail, which is available throughout the GoodSeed Spring Menu which runs from 26 March to 18 June 2015.

Now here’s a look at some of the dishes that we tried:

 

 

Crostino Troika – Spicy duck chorizo, mushroom feta cheese, scrambled eggs with salmon gravlax on crispy crostini

A little appetizer with some ingredients that go well with the crispy crostini bread. My favourite was the scrambled eggs with salmon gravlax as I’m quite fond of salmon but the other two were quite nice too. And don’t worry, no strong duck smell whatsoever from the duck chorizo.

 

Soft Shell Crab Corn Chowder – Hearty corn chowder with tempura soft shell crab dusted with sumac and coriander

 

Avocado & Grapefruit Fennel Salad – Curled fennel, rocket, spiced Rice Krispies with coffee coriander chilli vinaigrette

The avocado and grapefruit nicely balanced each other out, making the dish not too rich or too sour. The Rice Krispies was a nice variation to the texture and brought back memories of my childhood days eating cereals. The dressing was not spicy although it contained chilli and was not too heavy either. A nice, citrusy, and refreshing salad to start your meal.

 

Sizzling Spring Chicken Hot Plate – Spring chicken on sizzling hot plate with roasted aromatic vegetables with chimichurri and sage jus

A nice and flavourful chicken dish.

 

Seafood Freekeh Paella – Crawfish, squid, black mussel fresh paella with fresh herbs and coriander aioli

This paella came loaded with lots of seafood and was nicely cooked – not too wet or dry. The inclusion of the coriander in the aioli gave the aioli some freshness to cut through what would be a rather rich and creamy dish. Comfort food for me!

 

Charred Angus Flank Steak – Rubbed with mixed spice, apple jam, Provencal vegetable, celeriac chips with chimichurri dip

This one was the star of the night. Delicious, tender and flavourful Angus flank steak that required absolutely no sauce or dip (although there’s a chimichurri dip should you want it). Cooked to medium rare (as not to destroy the beautiful meat), the tenderness and juiciness of the beef was simply wonderful. What an awesome dish!

 

Mango Pistachio Roulade – Mango and cheese cake layer with fresh mango topping and pistachio nut

This one was nice and soft and delightful with the slightly tangy flavours of the mango balancing out the cheese cake. A nice and fresh dessert!

 

Apple Cinnamon Pie – Cinnamon crust apple with choice of ice cream: Vanilla or Milo

The girls found this one a little hard but in all honesty I thought it was just fine (or maybe I’m used to chewing hard food?). Unfortunately the little sample portion I got to try didn’t come with ice cream.

 

Also available are (although I did not manage to shoot or try any of them except the Crispy Prawn Bites which are incredibly addictive):

Crispy Prawn Bites – Deep fried whole prawns with chimichurri dip and lime halves. – A great snack to go with beer. Don’t share this one with too many people as you’ll find yourself just popping one crispy prawn after another.

Charred Brussels Sprouts – Brussels sprouts lightly dusted with anchovies, chilli and spiced Rice Krispies

Salmon Gravlax Freekeh Salad – Freekeh, beetroot, radish with herbed cream cheese spread on crispy bread

Charred & Grilled Pasta – Fettuccine tossed with charred broccoli, grilled zucchini, crispy torn bread, chilli flakes, Parmesan and dukkah spices

Spicy Sambal Prawn Pizzadillas – Fresh shrimp, capsicum, pineapple & cherry tomato with spicy sambal sauce and mozzarella cheese topping

Charred & Grilled Veggie Pizzadillas – Grilled zucchini, charred broccoli, spring onion on tomato coulis, mozzarella cheese topping and dukkah oil

 

Overall I think it that this new seasonal menu is quite interesting, utilising lots of fresh quality ingredients. My favourite has to be the Charred Angus Flank Steak which was just so delicious and tender that I really couldn’t stop eating it.

 

Acme Bar and Coffee is located at:

Unit G1, The Troika,

19, Persiaran KLCC,

50450 Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia.

 

Telephone: 03-21622288

Email: mailbox@acmecoffeebar.com

Website: http://acmebarcoffee.com/