just minishorts.

About a month ago I agreed to sample the humongous buffet spread that is the Weekend Special Buffet at Coca Restaurant.

The extensive menu that is the Weekend Special Buffet. Click to go to my flickr to see it in large size.

For the initiated, the Coca chain of restaurants is a made-in-Thailand now available in several shopping centres, hugely associated with steamboat, but actually has a whole lot of other goodies chain of Thai-styled steamboat restaurant. We went to the one (that's currently under renovation) at Bangsar Shopping Centre (near my office-kan), a day before Valentine's Day.

On our arrival, the restaurant marketing manager came up to us and congratulated us on our engagement - fuiyoh the whole world knows we're engaged hah, can't cancel the wedding anymore, can we? , and then we were informed that instead of the Valentine's Day set they were going to have us try out their signature menu.

So this was the one. RM78++ for adults on weekends only, a (super super) wide spread of dishes that ranged from the steamboat eat all you can (really really eat all you can) to the cooked dishes.

Now this was where Eric and I were a little surprised, truth be told. All along I had assumed that Coca had only their steamboat (the last time I ate at the same restaurant was about 8 years ago before meeting Eric, and I recalled little about Coca serving cooked Thai dishes only. So Eric decided immediately, 'OK, errr… we will skip the steamboat set, my fiancee has tried that one before anyway, but I'm more interested to see what you can cook up.'

The restaurant decided to recommend several dishes (in total we had about 10 mains and anothre 3 desserts. I'm going to show you some of the more noteworthy ones so that you'll remember to order these if you choose to go there…

Thai-styled Shark's Fin soup. I must say I was very impressed to see them serving real fin — sorry to the animal activists here. The taste was rather unusual for those prefering the Chinese-styled drenched in XO liquor type, and it was also very different from the ones they serve in Bangkok's Chinatown. Coca-styled - I'll call this boleh-lah.

Scallops (Typhoon styled). According to the menu you can order the scallops cooked in any of these ways: Tamarind, Golden Fragant, Typhoon Style, Coca Special Sauce, Stir Fried with Basil Leaves. We took the different sounding one. Now if you're ever going to try this (and do order the scallops - they're HUGE), don't order Typhoon style. Get the Stir Fried with Basil Leaves. The broccoli tasted great, but the scallops did not manage to absorb the sauce.

Breaded Soft Shell Crab - so sinful. But so yummy. MUST MUST MUST TRY (if you love soft shell crab - Eric thought it was too rich for him so I finished both pieces. ^_^

Always order a Thai salad at a Thai restaurant. We took my favourite - the Mango Salad. Chunky peanuts and whole cashewnuts were a good sign and this dish delivered. You can order as many salads as you want, so hehe, order a few lah if you go…

Eric saw the words 'Fried Morning Glory' and we had a little argument over what they meant. "I'm telling you they really take the flowers and fry lah."

"No, they're Kangkung… in Thailand they call it morning glory nia…" I said.

"OK we order and see who wins."

NEVER FIGHT WITH A WOMAN IN A RESTAURANT. She always wins.

This was very very close to the way they fry it in Bangkok. I like!

The creme de la creme. The steam fillet of cod on a bed of oh-so-sumptious Steamed in Thai Style sauce (up in Kelantan we would call this the Khengsom Steam). It's a pity the buffet only allows a one-time-order only for Cod and Crabs. Otherwise we would have ordered this over, and over, and over again. THIS ONE DISH ALONE is worth the entire trip to Coca (even if you don't take the Weekend Buffet, ORDER THE COD! The manager told us that they fly in an entire cod on a weekly basis so you can be guaranteed of freshness. And the sauce is very very spicy yah (so children and people who can't take chillies, you've been warned).

The desserts were so so and the Biasa type you can find in all Thai Restaurants. Go for the Thai styled Cendol, cause the cempedak bits in them makes the taste very different from the Malaysian styled one…

Of course there are some not-so-sedap ones on the list. The stranger dishes which you might wanna miss if you go…:

Stuffed prawns, baked crabs (the fillings were the same, and tasted like fish paste! The black pepper giant prawns (a little wtf lah, the sauce tasted right out of a bottle!) and the pandan chicken (a little too oily). Wait. On second thought, the pandan chicken was ok…

***

OK. The Verdict: for RM78++ and the choices you get (the extensive list of cooked dishes, AND the steamboat set), it really is value for money. Its a pity that the normal human being can't take in too much (or rather, Eric and I aren't big eaters) so even though we only order the cooked dishes, we were stuffed by the end of it. Cooking time is rather slow (we had to wait around 25 minutes for the first dish to arrive), but the quality of the food is good. I'd prefer to take the steamboat though, after all, IT IS COCA, and you HAVE to order the steamboat when you're there - so if you ever order this buffet set, don't skip the steamboat. I would recommend ordering the following sets if I were you…

Steamboat buffet - take this one…
Cod Fish - Order the steamed in thai sauce set
Soft Shell Crabs - Order two plates if you love soft shell crabs and you don't really care about cholesterol
Morning Glory - Very nice
Mango Salad - I would order a whole plate for myself, if you love Phad Thai then do the same!

If I were you I'd also call the restaurant to reserve a table AND order the dishes of my liking first. That'll give them some time to cook!

Coca Restaurant outlets are at:

Open Hours :
[Weekdays] 11am - 10.30pm
[Weekends] 11am - 11pm

Dear Ms Claire,

Greetings from Coca Restaurant! We would like to invite you for a Valentine's Dinner for two on the 13th Feb 2008 at 7.30pm. This dinner is worth 240++.

In return, would appreciate that you can write a review about the food and your experience you have in Coca.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wah this is pretty awesome yah. Photos to come tomorrow (shucks I have to go in office wear, I get off work too late to change)… and Eric's mumbling 'wtf' cos I've managed to get him something without having to pay for it. Heh!

A very, very blessed young lady won herself an LG DVD player a month back. That same week also, a slogan which she submitted to this website beat over 230 other entries to win her the coveted grand prize of an LG K800 Pink Chocolate phone, courtesy of LG Malaysia.

Photo courtesy of Albert from Glaring Notebook

So here it is. Congratulations real time, Erin, God really did answer your prayer in a grand way, didn't He?

Anyway, just three days off the rack and thanking the big guy up there for preserving my life, I'm here relishing in the opportunity to play Santa Claus post Christmas, in a big way too. So a big big thanks to everyone here, for the well-wishes, to LG Malaysia, for the phone and the opportunity, and the readers, for keeping me intact and giving me the reason to continue blogging. I'm off the accident, I'm praying the adjuster makes a fair judgement and allows me the claim-amount required for full repairs, and I'm hoping the rest of 2007 will be great and memorable to look-forward to.

Oops, it's February already!

Hi.

Just a note to inform the shortlisted entries from the LG Chocolate phone competition that Ms Lucky Winner, Erin, told me that she would be free on 3rd February 2007. That's next Saturday.

So I'm going to come along bearing gifts, among which is the ultra pink Chocolate phone that Erin has won for herself, and some chocolates of course. I've also discussed with local dentist Jolene, and since Wizard World on the 6th Flr of Sungei Wang Plaza just happens to have WiFi access as well, that's where Erin and I will be headed.

Just to list down the remaining lucky selected ones, and to inform you that i'll be giving you guys a chocolate bar each if you would join us at the Blogger's Meet:

sewjin says:
LG is a girl's best friend bcos chocolate is better than diamonds and just as good as sex.

Ngeow says:
LG is a girl's best friend bcos they make chocolates that won�t make you fat.

Lora says:
LG is a girl's best friend bcos it's multi functional, it makes you look great, while keeping you close to the people you love.

rijac says:
LG is a girl's best friend because UNLIKE men, its dependable and always there when you need it, it listens when you talk to it and if it annoys you you can just turn it off.

luzzio says:
LG is a girl's best friend because once I win it for her, I'll be her second best friend.

nileey says:
LG is a girl's best friend because it's uber trendy, an indulgence to the senses that's 100% fat free!

Stephanie Yong says:
LG is a girl's best friend b'cos it does not require you to cook and clean after it, does not demand for sex, makes you look beautiful whenever you hold it and is sexier than any man will ever be.

eRin says:
LG is a girl's best friend, coz it can't get any better with something that'�s smooth, suave, pink, user-friendly, obedient, lets you talk into it, and doesn�t talk back.

Elaine says:
LG is a girl's best friend b'cos it's sweet chic for the ultimate chick.

QT says:
LG is a girl's best friend becos it's chocolicious, chickalicious, divalicious, pinkalicious, sexilicious and simply delicious!

Melissa says:
LG is a girl's best friend b'cos it pays tribute to the modern woman - pretty tough on the outside & simply brilliant on the inside.

Min says:
LG's a girl's best friend b'cos it contacts, connects and cheers the best girlfriends.

yeeqin says:
LG's a girl's best friend b'cos. it's a link to life and a line to her heart.

—-

Just a small, small favour to ask of you, could you please indicate if you're coming (or not) so that I'd know how many bars to get? Thanks!

LG is a girl’s best friend, coz it can’t get any better with something that’s smooth, suave, pink, user-friendly, obedient, lets you talk into it, and doesn’t talk back.

Dear eRin,

For your creativity, LG promises to reward you with the phone featured in the photos above. Now I'm going to collect the model for you sometime next week, and because it's going to be with me, we will have to set up a meet up date for collection, won't we? Please mail me directly with a possible date, hopefully before January ends.

Congratulations,
minishorts

The rest of the shortlisted readers will receive a bar or packet of chocolates each, depending on what I manage to purchase for the prize giving ceremony cum mini-blogger's gathering at a place of choice. The date remains tentative until Cik eRin @ Chocolate High tells me when she will be able to get down to KL to receive her technology-packed chocolate bar.

And yeah, you'll only get the edible chocolates if you appear at this meet up. Kalau tak datang, sorry lah, the chocolates will be shared out between those of us who do come.

So folks, that's the end of the LG Chocolate promo, and let's hope for 2007, I'll be able to offer some more goodies for loyal minishorts kakis.