We did not have any plans for Christmas this year, other than going for the church service on the night of Christmas Eve. See if you can spot me in this video clip! LOL!!!
My girl made this gluten-free chocolate brownie with chocolate icing…
…using the cake mix that my cousin from Brisbane, Australia gave her earlier this year. Yes, it was very nice – the cake was rich and moist but like most/all cakes in western countries, it was very sweet. I had to refrain from having more than one or to the most, two slices in one sitting.
We got an invitation from my cousin to join her family and some of our other relatives here for lunch…
…on Christmas day so of course, we did not not want to miss it, not at all! Hmmm…that cushion sure came in handy, don’t you think? LOL!!!
Her daughter, Jessica, and Conelius got married at the end of 2014 and are blessed with two kids now, a boy and a girl which, of course, means that my cousin and her hubby are proud and happy grandparents now. The photographs that I took of the dishes in the buffet spread did not turn out too well so all I’ve got to share is this one of the celebrated Sarawak kek lapis (layer cake)…
That night, I suggested going for a western dinner and when we were here not too long ago, I did say that I would be looking out for their Christmas menu and would drop by if we thought it would be worth the while and that was why we went back there again that evening.
When we entered, we caught a whiff of the very delightful coffee fragrance, whatever they were brewing at that point in time and being unable to resist, my missus ordered their flat white (RM10.90)…
…and my girl had their latte (RM10.90)…
…and yes, they loved their picks though my missus insisted that hers was nicer. As for me, I stuck faithfully to my glass of plain water.
We had their classic Australian rib eye (RM79.90)…
…which was, at best, quite all right to us but then again, we are not really fans of beef – we prefer lamb. It was not tender enough but went very well with the special sauce/gravy that came with it.
They probably had quite a crowd the night before for they were out of their rack of lamb that we wanted. No, we did not want their curry lamb shank as we wanted to go entirely western and that spicy dish did not fit the bill and we could not order their hot and crispy lamb shoulder as it would not be gluten-free with the coating of bread crumbs. In the end, we just ordered their roasted chicken whole leg (RM25.90)…
…and that turned out to be a really wise choice on our part. It was so very nice and we loved the orange sauce in the dish. That certainly was a consolation for the fact that we did not get to enjoy any turkey this year. Sobsss!!!
They were out of Ceasar salad too so they suggested a replacement instead – potato salad (RM13.90)…
…and of course, we jumped at it – we certainly would prefer that but it was not on the Christmas menu and for reasons unknown, the sesame salad dressing was served separately…
…which was a good thing as that particular range of Kewpie salad dressing is not gluten-free and my girl did not mind it one bit as she enjoyed the lightly-fried potato cubes and bits of bacon and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on their own.
She also wanted the mushroom soup (RM10.90)…
*Archive photo*
…that we had on our last visit again as she did enjoy it very much.
We certainly were caught by surprise when this King prawn aglio-olio spaghetti…
…was served to our table, a special Christmas treat from my ex-student, John, whose sister and brother-in-law run the place. Goodness gracious me!!! I don’t know how much that costs but if you go for a bowl/plate of noodles with those three gigantic prawns at a coffee shop outside, it would set you back by around RM60-100, I’m sure. I asked John to put it on the bill – after all, he already gave me a treat on our last visit here but no, he insisted that it would be on him, that sweet boy!
My girl could not eat the pasta as it was not gluten-free but it was really very nice – I absolutely loved it…and the prawns were awesome too – we had one each and we sure enjoyed it to the max.
I went to pay the bill and the total, not including the prawn pasta dish, came up to RM152.90 and I got a further discount – I think it was 5% so the nett total was RM145.25 and John waived the 25 sen and collected RM145.00 only from me. My! My! With this kind of privileged treatment, no price for guessing whether I would be coming back again especially when we like the food plus the service is great, prompt and efficient and everybody is very nice and friendly…and yes, they speak English very fluently here too.
My girl was immensely pleased with that most delightful dinner and could not contain her happiness and of course, when she is happy, the father would be very happy too! Though unplanned, it sure turned out that we had a very lovely and joyous Christmas celebration, after all.
LADOREE CAFE & EVENTS (2.302891, 111.842997) is located at Wisma Liberty, Lot 4047, Block 3, Jalan Pedada (now Jalan Dr. Wong Soon Kai).
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 