[PlateCulture] Garden To Table, Section 14, Petaling Jaya

The tagline goes : Artisan Flavours & Edible Garden

That immediately caught our attention! :O

One fine day, gNOMe 1 received an invitation from PlateCulture to review one of their listings. And so happened we were planning to try out PlateCulture, so why not! Decided to bring gNOMe 2’s brother along. Hearing all the positive reviews about PlateCulture, we willingly parted with an additional RM 78.

For the uninitiated, the process is actually very simple:

1. Head over to this website
2. Sign up for an account
3. Choose a chef or type of cuisine
4. A friendly assistant will then send a message to your inbox shortly should you be lost, and hook you up with a chef suitable for your tastes, as shown in the screenshot below:

Now, having not experienced PlateCulture before, we went without any expectations, just waiting for Chef CY’s skills to blow us away. Chef CY is determined to serve dishes that are as fresh and as healthy as possible. Her processes even extend to soil selection, usage of natural fertilizers, alternative methods to pesticides, all to ensure the sustainability and organic value of her supplies.

Chef CY’s place is located in a 40 year old bungalow, and upon entering the main gate, we were greeted by the sight of greens. And more greens. The whole place is akin to a nursery!

We were amazed! Perhaps over 100 different types of vegetables can be found there. From Pumpkins (yums!) to Okra all the way to ulam (traditional salad) which she uses for her Nasi Kerabu, all can be found fresh in her garden. Noticed that huge bunch of grapes and those beautiful eggplants? 😀

Not only we were amazed with what we saw, Chef CY graciously showed us around after our meals. Teaching us how to identify seeds and most importantly, educating us on what goes onto our plates. 🙂

Chef CY’s menu of the day heavily relies on what she can source from her garden. All ingredients are fresh from her garden (anything fresher than this, you have to grow them yourself!), and most importantly, organic. No MSG is used in her cooking. The gNOMes looked forward to a hearty and healthy meal 🙂

Chef CY’s famous Nasi Kerabu

So pleasing unto the eyes! The rice, infused naturally with the blue color dye from the home-grown Butterfly Pea flower, sits in the middle of the plate and is surrounded by fried fish, acar (pickles), keropok (crackers), paku pakis (edible fern), half of a salted duck egg, fresh ulams and bean sprouts. This dish is then served with homemade belachan (shrimp paste) chilli and sauce.

Not only this dish is so beautiful, we couldn’t wait to feast! And truly, indeed, we know why is it famous. The sauce has a hint of sourness that we loved, coupled with the fragrant with a hint of heat belachan chilli paste, we dived into it almost immediately. Rice was fragrant and beautifully cooked, ulams were oh-so-fresh!, coupled with fresh acar, stir fried paku with sambal and fried fish. This whole dish is indeed an embodiment of what a good and delectable Nasi Kerabu should be.

Chef CY’s Famous Nasi Ulam

To be very frank, both gNOMes aren’t big fans of Nasi Ulam, but surprisingly, gNOMe 2 wiped this plate clean! Similar to the Nasi Kerabu with the same side dishes, the gNOMes were really in for a big treat with this one. With a sambal (chili paste) much different to that of the Nasi Kerabu, with a hint of sourness and mild heat, it made a perfect accompaniment to the fragrant rice aside from adding color to the flavor of the dish.

Chef CY’s Steamed Bario Rice with Dayak Style Chicken

The gNOMes are HUGE fans of Sarawakian cuisine, so to hear that this was on the menu, simply raised our expectations, even though we tried to go with an open mind. Traditionally prepared with wild boar and tuak (East Malaysian rice wine), Chef CY gives a Halal take on it. The results are simply amazing. The natural sweetness of the chicken really giving the gravy a nice base, while a tinge of sourness keeps it interesting, couple that with the tender chicken and soon the gNOMes found themselves fighting over the gravy. And oh, the gravy has quite an apparent taste of black pepper which made it so fragrant and oh-so-good! Definitely recommended!

Buttermilk Scones

Handmade scones and tea for an evening, not too shabby isn’t it? 🙂 Chef CY puts extreme care and the highest quality control into producing her Buttermilk Scones, a process that yields a maximum of 12 scones per batch. We were served buttermilk scones with poppy seeds, with a side of buttermilk cream and butter. The icing on the “cake” was a selection of marmalade or berry jam. Being huge fans of all things buttery, the gNOMes were even more excited now. The texture of the scones were absolutely spot on, falling wonderfully in between the range of biscuit to cake. The fragrance of the batter was definitely enjoyable when paired with the wonderful jam.

Coconut Ice Cream with Roasted Peanuts, Toasted Coconut Flakes & Gula Melaka

A fairly popular dessert of this restaurant. By the time we reached this part, the gNOMes were absolutely stuffed. The ice-cream cake is fairly solid, so do wait a while before consuming. We did feel it slightly lacked the coconut taste though.

Cempedak Ice Cream

This jackfruit ice-cream had a good dose of jackfruit in it, making it an enjoyable end to the meal. The ice cream had a rather smooth texture to it despite being a homemade ice cream. Yums we say!

Verdict : The PlateCulture dining experience was an enriching one, where one gets to meet various home chefs with unique culinary journeys of their own. Chef CY herself is a strong advocate of sustainability and natural, fresh flavors. She employs a highly stringent quality control in whatever she serves, which results in consistently high quality food. All food served on the table has its own unique journey which starts from the soil right up to the plate, embodying the mantra “garden to table”. Definitely worth every penny.

Opening Hours : Every Saturday

Book your slots over here at PlateCulture