The Malaysian Insider :: Food
The Malaysian Insider :: Food |
| Women-only restaurants trending around the world Posted: 06 Jan 2013 05:57 PM PST LONDON, Jan 7 — From Dubai to Las Vegas, London and Zhengzhou in China, restaurants catering only to women are becoming increasingly popular the world over. The latest eatery to cater only to women is set to open next month in London's Soho area. According to the London Evening Standard, Sofakingcool on Frith Street will reopen as KC'z Bar on February 1.  At ease in the exclusive company of women.©shutterstock As The Standard points out, London is now home to a handful of women-oriented restaurants. They include The Sorority Club, STK — an American steak chain developed for women — and women's beer-tasting club Dea Latis. As Relaxnews reported, "Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria also opened a steakhouse designed specifically to cater to women diners, called SHe in Las Vegas. SHe had its grand opening on New Year's Eve. The former Eve Nightclub and Beso restaurant, inspired by the roaring 1920s, includes a central dance floor and catwalk, and is bedecked in mirrors and crystals. A restaurant in Zhengzhou was also built to put women diners at ease. Men are allowed, only if they are accompanied by a woman. In Saudi Arabia, a businesswoman opened a women's-only eatery last year so that women can enjoy a meal free from by harassed by police cracking down on the mixing of men and women, reports Emirates247. — AFP/Relaxnews |
| Not all burgers are created equal… thank goodness! Posted: 06 Jan 2013 04:58 PM PST  The queue outside myBurgerLab way before opening time. — Choo Choy May pictures KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Both businesses are remarkably similar: they both serve unconventional burgers and are open only in the evenings. Both started last year and are run and owned by bright young men using their own savings. Price-wise, the burgers are about the same and both burger joints are located in the suburbs, outside of malls and away from high-traffic areas. But that is where the similarities end. I'm talking about myBurgerLab and Burger Junkyard, two burger joints that are similar, yet different in so many ways.  myBurgerLab founders (from left) Cheah, Chin and Teoh — love experimenting with burger ideas. myBurgerLab was opened in July 2012 by friends Chin Ren Yi, 31, Cheah Chang Ming, 28, and Teoh Wee Kiat, 23. Cheah and Chin studied engineering together while Teoh studied finance and accounting. None of them had prior professional culinary training. The idea to start myBurgerLab is interesting. A trained barista with a passion for coffee making, Chin helped out in his friend's cafe, The Red Bean Bag. "At that time, The Red Bean Bag was only open for breakfast and lunch. We saw that the cafe business was very competitive and we wanted to find a niche product to go with coffee," said Chin. "We decided to go with burgers because it was something simple. Before opening myBurgerLab, we did our research at the The Red Bean Bag, renting it at night to experiment with recipes, having at least 10 sampling sessions with 20 to 50 of our family and friends. We realised we could survive on burgers alone instead of coffee." Chin told Teoh about the idea when Chin was doing a work and travel programme in New York. Chin learned about food while working part-time as a waiter in the States, and Cheah had experience working part-time in a Chinese restaurant while studying in the UK. United by their love for food, the three of them decided to develop the menu together, going online, searching and experimenting to see which recipes worked."Our burgers are cooked in a scientific way, from the temperature to the unconventional way of cooking," said Chin. From the description, it sounded labour intensive. No wonder the kitchen needs the whole day to prep before doors are opened at 5pm. myBurgerLab used to produce 150 burgers a day when they first started and everything is made from scratch at the restaurant. But as business grew so the engineer part of Chin took over and he devised a way to produce 450 burgers a day. On the day I was there to talk to the boys, there was already a long queue outside the restaurant before 5pm. Burgers are cooked once an order is made so that they are fresh but it can take awhile as there are lots of orders. "We wanted to create a shock factor, that's why we chose the charcoal bun. It is black in colour so people will want to Facebook it, Instagram it," said Chin. "Initially, we were satisfied with the white bun but we wanted to make it viral so we added charcoal powder and it didn't change the original texture."  Shock factor: Building the burgers at myBurgerLab takes skill! The menu has changed over time since they first opened but myBurgerLab usually adds new flavours instead of taking them out. Regulars know of myBurgerLab's "secret menu", which consists of two burgers called the Elvis and The Bomb, and then there are specials that are updated once a month. (Yes, the Elvis and The Bomb are not on the menu but go ahead and order them!) "Our approach is to create a sense of mystery when it comes to our burgers and that's why we do not have professional photos of our burgers. We wanted to created something 'Instagrammable' and let the products speak for themselves," said Chin. For first-timers to myBurgerLab, Chin would recommend the A+, which comes in chicken or beef versions, with sharp Cheddar, caramelised onions, shiitake and enoki mushrooms. Another popular choice is the Beautiful Mess v 4.0, which — as the name suggests — has been tweaked four times, and is made of fried portabello mushrooms, sunny side up egg and Swiss cheese. When you take a bite, the yolk is supposed to run over the sides of the burger, hence the name. Chin joked that assembling Beautiful Mess v 4.0 required Jenga-building skills. myBurgerLab serves 120-gram patties cooked medium to medium well and there are chicken and vegetarian options as well. Chin tells of how one of the vegetarian burgers got named after a customer.
"We had a burger called Vege Beta and there was a customer named Vivien who loved the burger so much that she tweeted that she wanted to marry the burger. When we found out about that, we decided to rename the burger Vivien's Husband." The team plans to have a centralised kitchen and a second restaurant in 2013, but they are looking at a suburban area, to cater to the community rather than having it at a mall. Because all three founders learned about the food business while studying and working part-time, Chin believes in extending that opportunity to young people, and that's why he encourages students with no culinary experiences to work at myBurgerLab. myBurgerLab also collaborates with other local gourmet businesses such as Forty Licks ice cream and Smooshie Juice. Smooshie Juice is sold at the burger joint and two weeks ago, Forty Licks set up a stall outside of myBurgerLab. There are plans to have Forty Licks ice cream and milkshakes at myBurgerLab permanently in the future. The prices of the burgers range from RM11 to RM18 for a la carte and an additional top-up of RM6 for fries and bottomless soda. Then there is the recently-opened — just last month — Burger Junkyard, which was started by college mates Nicholas Thang, 22, Kevin Yeow, 22, Joel Yap, 22, and James Gwee, 33. Thang, Yap and Gwee have culinary experience.  Burger Junkyard at The Strand, Kota Damansara — traffic from office workers to shoppers. Thang spent half a year working in the F&B industry in Singapore before coming back to Malaysia to open Opika — an organic restaurant — as a head chef. On top of learning how to open a restaurant from start to finish, he has also won a gold medal in Chinese cuisine. Gwee has experience working as a chef in France and he has a gold medal in Nyonya cuisine. Yap used to work at Les Deux Garcons, a patisserie in Bangsar, where he was in charge of making their fabulous macarons. "Initially, we almost bought a franchise of Les Deux Garcons but the price was too high so we decided to start something on our own," said Thang. "Our style of cooking is very European- and French-influenced and that's why we use the butter brioche for our burger buns. Our buns are made fresh daily from a bakery owned by Joel's dad." Growing up eating burgers, Thang and his partners figured out that burgers are here to stay for awhile unlike other food trends that keep coming up and dying down. Thang and Yeow have been family friends since they were seven so during Yeow's graduation in Australia, Thang decided to go visit him and together they surveyed the food industry. "We (all four partners) decided to open a burger joint and we've been planning and testing since June. During that time, we didn't know about myBurgerLab but once they opened, their success motivated us to go ahead with our plans," said Thang. The founders of both myBurgerLab and Burger Junkyard got to know each other through Facebook and they became friends, with Chin and Thang exchanging knowledge and experiences at Burger Junkyard till the wee hours of the morning. According to Thang, they are not trying to kill each other off but are forging ahead together in the affordable, gourmet burger business. So yes, they have similar goals and even though they share experiences, their methods of preparing the burgers couldn't be more different.
"At Burger Junkyard, we use one recipe to play around with creatively," said Thang. "We just concentrate on a few burgers, about 10 to 11 of them." Burger Junkyard hires people with culinary experience so despite having just four people in the kitchen, they are able to churn out 70 to 80 burgers per hour. "That's about 1.4 burgers a minute and we are particular about quality control. Not just any Tom, Dick or Harry is allowed in the kitchen, and James handles all the patties," said Thang. Thang basically oversees operations, was the one who came up with the burger recipes, does the photography for the burgers and even the web design for Burger Junkyard. Gwei is in charge of the kitchen, Yap handles the cash and Yeow manages the customer service experience.  At Burger Junkyard, the buns are buttery brioches... giving their burgers an additional taste dimension. Like myBurgerLab, Burger Junkyard has beef, chicken and vegetarian options. "The top sellers include Brooklyn Burger (either chicken or beef), Beef in Blankets, Texas Hold Me and Balsamic Beefin' Onions, in that order," said Yap. "In two or three weeks we'll be changing the menu. Some of the burgers we will be adding is a blue cheese burger, mango wasabi chicken and a burger with smoked turkey, cranberry sauce and brown sauce," said Thang. The reason why Burger Junkyard chose their location at The Strand, Kota Damansara, is because there are a lot of developments in that area including new office buildings, service apartments and a cinema. They will be targeting the lunch crowd once they have set lunches in the future, and also the supper crowd after late-night movies at the cinema. "We are looking at the bigger picture, targeting a more mature crowd with safer palates," said Thang. Burger Junkyard serves a single set of burger and fries from RM14.90 to RM17.90, and you can top up RM4 to make it a double set or add an additional RM2 for a drink. Single and double refers to the size of the patties, with single patties at 90 grams and double patties at 180 grams. They do not serve burgers a la carte. So what's next for Burger Junkyard? "In the future, we will come up with milkshakes, instead of the usual flavours of vanilla, maybe dunk in Oreo or Mars chunks just like how they serve it with burgers in Europe or in the UK," said Thang. myBurgerLab and Burger Junkyard show us that not all burgers are the same... nor the stories behind them either. But the good thing is that as consumers, we get to enjoy both! myBurgerLabNo.14, Jalan 21/22, Seapark, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Opening Hours: Tues-Sun, 5pm-10.30pm Burger Junkyard |
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