@missyblurkit invited us to sample some food at Trattoria Cucina Italiana, an Italian food establishment in the middle of KL city centre. I learned two things that day:
1) Italian food goes beyond pizzas and pastas; and
2) When @missyblurkit says, “let’s have some Italian food”, she really meant, “let’s have a feast with food enough to feed 10,000 starving soldiers.”
Trattoria Cucina Italiana is located at the ground floor of Rohas Perkasa, which is opposite the infamous Beach Club and Thai Club, at the junction of Jalan Perak and Jalan P. Ramlee. Its bright blue with yellow lettering signboard is quite visible from the main street. It has been remarked that their signboard didn’t seem in tune with their delightful offerings, but I suppose it’s their corporate identity. Free parking along the same road is available for patrons.
For (the many, many) starters, we were served bread with vinegar and olive oil which is one of my absolute favourite things to eat. Then the antipasti came..
Cheese platter and baked eggplant
Italian cheese platter with marmalade (RM37). I tried all of them except the blue cheese because I’m not a blue cheese kind of person. They all taste really fresh and wonderful, especially when combined with the fruit preserves. Baked eggplant pie stuffed with mozzarella and tomato (RM23), this was a winner with me as I love eggplants! Wish I didn’t have to share, heh.
Salads and cheese
Tuna salad (RM26), Caesar salad with chicken, beef bacon (RM26) and Mixed seafood salad (RM27). The salads were rather good and the portions quite large, very generous servings. I’d imagine having an order of salad for lunch and I’d be stuffed. All the greens were fresh and crunchy, no indication of yellow, frail, dying leaves in sight.
But enough of all that. I want to draw your attention to the photo on the 2nd row, on the right. It looks like a scoop of vanilla ice-cream served with tomato slices and salad, doesn’t it? Well that’s the Fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese (RM33) like how Italians eat it and it was yummy! The soft and moist, velvety cheese almost melts in your mouth, it’s slightly bland yet has a milky taste. Went well with the fresh tomatoes. I would only share this with someone I like very, very much.
Then came the home made pastas!
Pasta, pasta, pasta
Black ravioli stuffed with seafood with creamy salmon sauce (RM32), Spinach pappardelle pasta in creamy mushroom sauce (RM29), Spaghetti with mixed seafood in cherry tomato sauce (RM35) and Oven baked gnocchi with creamy Bolognese sauce and mozzarella cheese (RM34).
My favourites were the green pappardelle (very tasty) and the baked gnocchi. The latter is just so addictive, something about potatoes being an ingredient? Add in meaty Bolognese and cheese, it being a comfort food is a sure-fire crowd pleaser.
Cappalleti stuffed with cheese in cream and turkey ham sauce (RM31), Risotto with truffle scented porcini mushroom (RM38), Deep fried squid and prawns with fried vege (RM45) and Carnivora Pizza – tomato, mozzarella, beef salami, chicken sausage and turkey ham (RM68). The cappaletti was okay, I suppose at that point I just had too much creamy stuff. Me not a fan of creamy sauce. Not a fan of risotto either, but my fine dining companions loved it so I suppose it was good.
The seafood fritters was good, the seafood fresh and the batter light. Now for the pizza… it was GINORMOUS! They recommend it for 3 to 4 people, but that’s only if you do not plan on having much of anything else! Even though it was big, it was still crispy and nice. Don’t worry, Trattoria serve normal sized pizzas also, the big tray ones are just a lot more impressive.
Remember the part about feeding a legion of solders and not just 8 people? Then came the meats!
Red and White meats!
1-kg T-bone steak served with chips and side salad (RM128). That was my first time seeing an entire kilogramme of steak being served in a whole. I’d heard of places where you would get free steak if you could finish off a kilo of their steak within an hour or so. Not that Trattoria offers such a thing, but now I’ve seen with my own eyes how much steak is a kilo of steak. IT’S A LOT!
Grilled marinated lamb chops served with sauteed potato and grilled vege (RM71) and Sliced grilled beef sirloin with herbs served with rocket salad and chips (RM59). I enjoyed these two dishes, more so than the ginormous steak: perhaps because the latter was just too much for me. The meats were juicy, flavourful and succulent, I also enjoyed the sides of sauteed potato. For some reason they tasted really, really good.
Grilled seafood – prawns, squid, cod fish, seabass served with mixed vege (RM126), an introduction of Trattoria’s seafood offerings. Not bad I suppose but not something I’d order for myself next time. I feel that their strength is in pasta and red meat where main course is concerned.
Why dining with food bloggers is a pain in the…
Kim with KY, ShaolinTiger didn’t know where to start eating.
missyblurkit with Marcus, KY and Haze and ST and me and Horng.
And finally, the desserts! By this time we were all almost bursting. But you can never really say no to desserts, can you? Actually I did because I really couldn’t take it anymore, hahah. No longer the bottomless pit that I was :(
Dolci!
Tiramisu (RM26), Creme brulee (RM22), Affogato (RM17) – vanilla ice cream with espressso and Warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream (RM26). All pretty good, you could tell by the way they were attacked. How were they attacked? Below is a series of actions of how a Warm apple cake with custard, chocolate cream and vanilla ice cream (RM24) didn’t make it.
The right way to polish off a dessert
There you go.
To top a most hearty and excessive meal, the brilliant chef threw in a lime sherbet and chocolate liquor. Quality chocolate melted down, added with vodka (I think) becomes a palatable after-meal drink. Or as the chef said, breakfast drink for the Italians! You know, like how you’d mix Milo with alcohol. Hey, sounds like someone I know…!
Yum factor: 400%!
That was a pretty long post, wasn’t it? Well it took me 3 months to come out with this blog post as I finally got over the feeling of being overwhelmed, heh. Trattoria Cucina Italiana‘s menu is rather extensive: 18 pasta dishes, 15 red and white meat dishes, 20 pizza selection… you get the idea. If you don’t have an idea of what you’d like to have, you could spend ages just studying their menu. They have a good list of cocktails and shooters, beer and all sorts of wine (red, white, sparkling, dessert).
At first glance, their prices seems to be on the higher side. But having dined there, I understand why. Every ingredient is fresh, made to order (hence a longer serving time), and the portions quite large. You really get every sen of what you pay for.
Go give it a try, and say hi to @missblurkit when you see her there!
Trattoria Cucina Italiana, KL
Wisma Rohas Perkasa, No. 8 Jalan Perak,
50450 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603 2163 2368
GPS: 3.15485, 101.708711
Website: www.trattoriaasia.com
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