Chiaroscuro, Jln Bedara (behind Istana Hotel) 28 Feb 2009

My dearest friends, David and Cindy insist that they buy me my birthday dinner in advance, since I will be away for work in JB on the day itself. David suggested Chiaroscuro, an Italian restaurant, situated at the Bidara apartments behind Istana Hotel. 

Chiaroscuro has been opened for a year now and like other restaurants, it is feeling the impact of the economic downturn. Business was especially bad for the month of January and February, partly due to the Chinese New Year. Chiaroscuro has both indoor and al-fresco dining and boasts of a full size wood fired oven, which is ideal for making good pizzas. Opened by Andrea Zanella, who is the owner and chef who hails from Vicenza, northeastern Italy. 

The menu has a good selection of appetizers, pastas and mains which are permanent features on the menu plus a chef's recommendation which is seasonal depending on the produce that is available. Chiaroscuro also cures some of their own parma ham which is highly recommended but unfortunately, they ran out of it when we were there. 

While waiting for us to deliberate over what to order, we were presented with a basket of freshly baked assorted breads and sun dried tomatoes in olive oil as the dip. It is common for Italian restaurants to serve balsamic vinegar with olive oil to go with the bread but this was quite a refreshing idea and the sun dried tomatoes dip was very good.

 

We ordered the Australian tenderloin carpaccio with mushroom salad and parmesan sun-seed "tuille" for the starter which was Cindy's pick and I ordered the slow-roast pork with mash potatoes, which was on the chef's specials and David ordered the Gorgonzola and Speck Ham pizza.

I like the caparccio and mushroom salad. The mushrooms were thinly sliced lightly drizzled with olive oil and the "tuille", which actually means a lightweight, crispy cookie which is normally flavoured with sesame seed or other of nuts. Instead of a cookie, the tuille in this recipe is parmesan cheese with sun flower seeds perched on top of the mushroom salad, just like how you would decorate the tuille in desserts. Quite clever... The mushroom salad is light and goes beautifully with the carpaccio and the parmesan cheese adds a sharp balance to it.

The pizza was made of tomato sauce, speck ham, gorgonzola and mozzarella cheese. Speck ham is a lightly smoked raw ham. Some can be seasoned up to 22 weeks. It has a very intense dry-cured flavour, slices like prosciutto and cooks like ham.1 We asked for the chilly flacks to go with the pizza and I believe the chilly flacks may be home made too because they were abnormally huge chunks of flacks and was quite spicy.  Not sure, if we left the pizza too cold before we gobbled it down but I was not that impressed with it. Maybe it was a bit too dry or maybe I prefer my pizza with more cheese and tomato sauce on it.

As for the slow-roasted pork with mashed potatoes, the pork was very soft except for the skin which was suppose to be crispy but instead came out a bit too hard and tough for our liking. I think the skin has to be crispy and crunchy like our Chinese "siew yoke" and not too rubbery. Besides that, I was quite alright with it - flavor was nice, pork was not too lean, some fat here and there. The mash potatoes has grated orange peel in it, which was quite a nice twist as well. Not sure, if this is truly an Italian trade secret but I liked it.

Cindy gave the meal a 5 out of 10 and glared at David for picking this restaurant. I am going to be more generous because I really did enjoy the ambience and I thought, the service was very good. Staff were very attentive and were quite knowledgeable. I also like the location. Right in the middle of the city but kind of tucked away from all the bustle and bustle. Though we were too full to have dessert or coffee, we spend the next hour just catching up. It was great... I love it and would definitely come back. 

Chiaroscuro

Ground Flr, 38 Bidara, 

30 Jalan Bedara

50200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel. +603-21448006 
www.chiaoscurokl.com

1 - www.ingredientsgourmet.com