It was Sunday. We had finished work late, and yes may all the Saints preserve us, I do have to work on a Sunday. I fancied a burger, my wife was a little upset that I didn't fancy her too, but it was lunch on my mind, not lust, so we drove to Setia Walk, Puchong, and strove to find the long advertised Steam n Grill Burger.
Find it we did, eventually, after wandering Setia Walk until I for one was eager and quite willing to give up. It was a severe case of location, location location - a common real estate cry, and doubly true in Setia Walk, where it is difficult enough to locate specific enterprises with its meandering lack of signage. Sadly, I had tried for a number of weeks to find Steam n Grill Burger, and this day was about to give up when I was chivvied on by my wife, to try one last time, and find it we did, in an area of Setia Walk we had never before ventured. It is a pity that that particular eatery is so difficult to locate, as the not-so-fast-food (100% natural yeast) outlet has everything going for it - design, style, taste, attentiveness of staff, all things right except for location and that dreaded tasteless music which I could have easily done without.
In my great optimism, and ever in search for the great, not just the good, burger, like some cartoon side-kick to a sea-faring spinach eater, I had plumped for the Double Special beef burger - think Burger King Double Whopper and then a whole lot more, and healthier. I had a wholemeal bun out of a choice of four bun types. It was, honestly, one of the best (halal) burgers I've tasted yet, and was so reminiscent of those long lost great burgers from the Swiss Centre, Trafalgar Square, London in days of yore. Unfortunately, the contemporary music in Steam n Grill Burger grated on my nerves to the degree that I had to ask for it to be turned down, which the staff did.
The choice of 'bun' was a nice idea, while I chose wholemeal, my wife charcoal, my step-son had the original. My beef was succulent and authentic enough, not at all hard or compacted like some other burger establishments. There was sauce enough to drip the length of my arm and lettuce enough to pretend that I had a wholesome meal. A graphic on the wall read - THINK BURGER IS FAST FOOD JUST THINK AGAIN, and suggested that the meals were not fast, in a good kind of way, I might agree. Cutlery was absent, but might have been a good idea for those of us taking the larger (double) burger, just to prevent the copious drips and splashes from a hand held meal. Luckily I had my trusty backpack with me and, inside, a pack of wet-wipes just handy for such occasions.
Burgers finished, and having been seduced by the large ice cream counter, my wife had brought back a heart shaped confection. A small boy appeared as if by magic. “Hello beautiful lady is that a tasty ice cream I see in your hand”. Those words were not actually spoken, but the four year old Chinese boy chatting to my wife had this huge thought bubble above his head, as his eyes swivelled between my wife's face, and her hand containing the ice cream. Her strawberry and lychee iced dream became eaten down to the stick. My wife's new love affair appeared ended no sooner than it had begun. We never saw that small boy again. It was obviously an all one-sided affair, based upon desire and not the knowledge of intimacy. My wife had never actually proffered her heart (shaped confectionary), much to her young suitor’s disappointment.
All in all Steam n Grill Burger is a delight to go to, but a little expensive. It is a luxury burger outlet in one of the up-and-coming mini-malls in Puchong, just outside of Kuala Lumpur, and a worthy one too. My budget will not allow too many Double Special beef burgers a month and, maybe, that is a good thing too.
