Taste of Mexico, seasonal menu at Hard Rock Cafe Kuala Lumpur
Hard Rock Cafe Kuala Lumpur is keeping things fresh by introducing a seasonal Mexican menu to complement their all-American fare for the month of May. Come June we will be treated to another seasonal menu. So, Mexican food fans, be quick to try this or you will be disappointed to have missed a great menu.
While it is not always a great idea to start the meal off with a cocktail, these Mexican-inspired cocktails are a pleasant precursor to indulge in before the actual meal. The Diablo, Amigo and Troublemaker are three seasonal cocktails, priced at RM45 each, to give your tummy a good kick - like a whack on the piƱata.
Each cocktail has a base alcohol - the Mezcal, an agave plant based alcohol with a worm in it. After just returning from Vietnam where they preserve all kinds of vermin and insects to make medicinal drinks (read: homebrew spirits), worms are the least disgusting ingredient I have seen in alcohol recently.
The Troublemaker is a blend of Mezcal, chipotle pineapple syrup, Cointreau, fresh lime juice and muddled jalapeno rings (the front-most in the picture).
The Diablo is Mezcal mixed with muddled cucumber, agave, mango puree, lime juice ad topped with ginger beer. It is served with candied ginger and cucumber twist (the last one in the picture).
The Amigo (the middle one) features BOLS Maraschino liqueur, blueberry, orgeat, lime juice and it is garnished with maraschino cherries. It had a very strong artificial cherry taste, not something we particularly enjoyed.
After a long 20 minute session of religiously taking photos of our food, we finally dug into our first starter - fresh tortilla chips with a dip of steamed shrimp with lime, orange, avocado and cucumber. The Yucatan Style Shrimp Ceviche (RM35.00), as it is called, was a great start to the meal.
Next, we tried some authentic Mexican tacos. We had a vegetarian-friendly taco, stuffed with sweet potato, quinoa, pico de gallo, parmesan cheese, tomato salsa, feta cheese and sour cream. You know they've achieved a great feat when your vege taco tastes like meat - an indulgence without the guilt!
One of the favourites had to be the breaded shrimp with yellow chili sauce. The chili kicks in at the end but it's the spicy aftertaste that leaves you wanting more.
The tacos also come in meaty options like beef and chicken.
Another favourite during the meal was the chicken quesadillas. I wonder if the inspiration for murtabak came from this traditional Mexican dish... Both share many similarities but the Mexican dish definitely wins in terms of spiciness.
Salad eaters will be pleased to find an arugula, avocado, nutrient-rich salad that is both pleasing to the appetite as well as the eyes.
This aerial shot was a pain to get but I think it turned out well, considering we were climbing the furniture and rearranging parts of Hard Rock Cafe to achieve this. Sorry, guys, we're not cool enough to care what we have to do for a good Instagrammable picture. Amiright, foodies?
Hard Rock Cafe, Jalan Sultan Ismail