Official Opening of NEO with STYLE ROCKS!

FASHION MEETS GOURMET MEETS LIFE !

Style Rocks! Party, one of the most talked about parties in KL, was back. This year, The Melium Group celebrates Style Rocks! Party in full flavour by teaming up with The Malaysia International Gourmet Festival (MIGF) and KL’s new it-spot Neo Global Tapas Restaurant & Luxe Lounge.

The stairway leading up to NEO which sits on the slope, was lit with flickering candles. Society’s A-list added sparkle to the venue which included local celebrities like Datin Su Day, Dato Farah Khan, Rohaya Smurthwaite, Maple Loo, Ning Baizura, Camelia, Shireen Zainuddin Lowe Lina Teoh, Carmen Soo, Serena Choong, Sophie Kamaruddin and Jesrina Arshad. Elaine Daly, a familiar face in the scene, was the host for that evening.

Everyone arrived in style, mostly dressed in the latest fashion runway trend, Juicy Couture. Eight Juicy Couture muses were hand-picked by Dato’ Farah Khan herself.

Guests were also entertained by ‘Juice Couture’ girls who sashayed their way into the party in dazzling, colourful and definitely over-the-top (OTT) outfits to ignite the renowned fashion line.

They grazed the floor in outrageously-juicy character, danced with guests and took photographs with everybody.

They even ended up on the bartop! Another highlight of the night was NEO’s pole artiste who relived the MIGF moment at the gala launch. Exemplifying the art of pole expression, she certainly kept the crowd in the dining room enthused and enthralled.

This night also celebrated the official launch of Samadhi Retreats’ latest addition to their four other established restaurants, Neo Global Tapas Restaurant & Luxe Lounge. Located in the heart of Kl City along Jalan Sultan Ismail (next to Tamarind Hill), Neo is a stylish restaurant and bar with an uber-cool concept inspired by nature. The domain boasts a galactic bar – the longest one in the city – and rendered by professional Scandia-mixologists showcasing their creative cocktails of strangely delicious sorts. Samadhi’s own group Sommalier Yuhei Teraoka, a popular and well-reputed Japanese wine specialist in Malaysia who has close to 400 labels, and eventually 50 by the glass, to be enlisted for NEO as well as all the group’s restaurants. The star of the night was also NEO's multi-award winning Food Designer, Canadian-Thai Chef Thiti Thammanatr who prepared interesting, flavor-layered neo-cuisine that left everyone famished for more!

International DJ Tony Montana as well as DJ Haze (who is also NEO’s Resident DJ) kept the party rocking with their slick sounds of house, hip-lounge and chill-house groove till late night.

It was a special evening to celebrate fashion, haute gourmet and lifestyle, by bringing people with the same passion to a much coveted event by The Melium Group, MIGF and KL’s it-place NEO Global Tapas Restaurant and Luxe Lounge. There were just over 300 invited guests at Style Rocks!

MALAYSIA INTERNATIONAL GOURMET FESTIVAL 2009 (MIGF)

We won 4 awards and bagged another 3 for excellence!

The month-long Malaysia International Gourmet Festival 2009 has finally ended, with a big bang for Tamarind Hill and the newest & hippest restaurant & luxe lounge in KL, NEO – both owned and run by Samadhi Retreats. Having bagged four festival awards this year, the group has proven their decade-long success in the Malaysian dining scene. Reputed for exquisite ambiance, quality fare and stunning locations, the group has wowed diners with their outstanding chefs and sumptuous cuisine, design originality and great service standards.

This is the 7th year Samadhi Retreats participated in the MIGF. In previous years, Tamarind Springs had garnered a lot of interests being a festival restaurant and had won the Most Creative Restaurant Display for 2004, 2006 and 2007.

At the advent of Tamarind Hill’s re-opening in the city after 2 years of relocation plan, and the birth of NEO which is a conceptualized restaurant-lounge that fuses gourmet, cocktails and music, the group decided to use the MIGF as a platform to launch the two restaurants into the dining scene. One very prominent feature of the new restaurants is their Food Designer. Chef Thiti Thammanatr represents both Tamarind Hill Restaurant and NEO Global Tapas Restaurant & Luxe Lounge. “I see dining as an art which consists of a fair balance of 3 most important elements: good food presentation, great ambience and of course ultimately the good taste. Tamarind Hill & Neo offer just the perfect balance of all these 3 elements and it gives me great satisfaction to be working with them” said Chef Thiti Thammanatr while proudly holding on to his trophies.

Originally from Thailand, Chef Thiti Thammanatr, the multi-talented chef moved to Canada at the age of 18, and began a hard but rewarding journey working his way through some of Canada’s most esteemed establishments. He was one of the few Thai chefs in the world to practice five-star Japanese cuisine at the renowned Suntory Japanese restaurant, which he then followed up with working at the Canadian Pacific Hotel Waterfront Centre Hotel as their Chef de Partie.

NEO Most Innovative Cuisine Award

Every year at the MIGF finale gala dinner, the Chefs’ Charity Auction is a ritual. This year, Chef Thiti Thammanatr had successfully raised RM8,500 for Tamarind Hill and RM10,000 for NEO, which will be donated to Mercy Malaysia, an international non-governmental organisation that provides medical relief and sustainable health-related development for vulnerable communities.

These are the awards Tamarind Hill and NEO had won for 2009 :

Tamarind Hill - Most Outstanding Dining Ambience 2009

- Most Creative Restaurant Station 2009

Tamarind Hill Most Creative Restaurant Display Award

NEO - Most Innovative Cuisine 2009

- Most Creative Festival Menu 2009

NEO The Most Creative Festival Menu Award

NEO also received the Award of Excellence for the Most Creative Dining Experience, the Most Creative Restaurant Station at the Gala Launch and was nominated for the highlight-award of the evening, The Golden Cauldron award.

“Both Federico and I are so very proud of our team in Tamarind Hill and Neo who had worked so hard and smart to bring our restaurants to where we are today. What better reason to celebrate our 10 years in the industry! And I believe the sky is our limit. Gourmands out there, you really have got to journey with us on the ultimate 'fly & dine' experience. Be our Neo-Aerial Gourmand!" said the Creative & Marketing Director of Samadhi Retreats, Maple Asaro.

POLE IDOL

POLE IDOL is geared to promote pole dancing as the new phenomenon in dance and fitness. This acrobatic sport, undeniably a beautiful art form, has recently captured the interest of many Malaysian women as well as men. This competition is therefore an exciting event for all, but essentially an eye-opener!

The Pole Idol champion will represent Malaysia to compete at the upcoming Asian Pole Summit in Singapore .

Over RM10,000 worth of cash and prizes to be won!

Date & Time

LIVE AUDITIONS : Oct9 & Oct10, 2009 (9pm)
GRAND FINALS : Oct24, 2009 (9pm)

Venue
NEO
(19, Jalan Sultan Ismail - opposite TGIF/next to Wisma KFC)

For those who wish to compete, please contact Maple Loo of The Hanging Garden at mapleloo@gmail.com or TIME-OUT magazine at Tel: +6 03-2166 6650

As for the rest, come and enjoy the show!

NUDE at Mandi-Mandi

26 July 2009 : 4pm to 11pm

A party for the creative community in Malaysia, it was a night for the friends of the arts. This was the 2nd congregation of NUDE, put together by Mushi Mushi. This time in the urban jungle setting of Mandi-Mandi. So there we had it, our own mini version of the rainforest world music fest in our backyard!


The evening was a fusion of indeginous musicians, including digiridoo players + percussionists, integrating song and instrumentation by orang asli women (a special performance with the talented, awe-inspiring Anteras all the way from Magic River)


And electronic dance live music with Haze - flanked by an ethnic-inspired pole dance performance by Maple herself.



The dry pool at Mandi-Mandi was filled with guests chilling out on the deep end, lounging on benches and pillows, with musicians on the other. Guests also feasted from pizzas & pastas to Tom Yam & Thai salads and could have almost every drink under the sky.

Il Tempio was transformed into an art gallery.
Thanks to Brandon, Justin and Manjit for all these great photos!

Look out for the next NUDE party! Send us your email and we shall make you a NUDIST;)

Tamarind Hill's Official Launch Party

FINALLY.... WE HAVE ARRIVED.

After being opened for 6 months, we feel it's now time to throw a big party to officiate our re-opening:) So welcome to Tamarind Hill.


Distinguished guests, our family and some of our closest and dearest friends, many whom we’ve not seen in a while; some have even flown in from Bangkok, Bali, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka.

We can’t thank you enough for choosing to spend this night with us. It was wonderful. Everybody was just so beautiful.

This year Tamarind Hill is 10 years old. What better reason to be back!

A couple of years ago we had to close Tamarind Hill at the old property in Ampang to make way for a housing project.

So we looked and we looked and then we found this gorgeous spot. There’s really no other more perfect place to put Tamarind Hill we thought, to have it sitting on a hill like it should.... Better still, it’s in the heart of KL. Again, we're opportuned to create an environment, an oasis in the city where people can escape to. This is just perfect!

So it wasn't a hard decision to make….we knew we were gonna make this place ours. But then we had to wait. Now finally after 2 years today, Tamarind Hill is reborn.

In those 2 years, Federico and I had spent quite a bit of time in Thailand again, searching, sourcing and researching. Everything from food, architecture and design ideas to people.... in anticipation of a far better Tamarind Hill than it ever was. And this is usually the part we both love most – the process of creation, working the magic.…

During this phase, there was really no place else we’d rather be but Thailand, which we feel so home to and really, Thailand is where our heart is. Plus all the fun! Shopping and eating and connecting with the Thai people... there’s no place like Thailand.So there we have it, we found everything and everyone that forms the very essence and the core of the new Tamarind Hill we have today.

The entire restaurant was designed and built by Federico himself, decked out with my obsession with hilltribe art and crafts, the restaurant is therefore a slice of our personal experience and true passion.

However, the real star of the show really, is our new cuisine. You’ll never imagine Thai food can taste and look like this! 10 years ago, we also brought Vietnamese cuisine to you. Today we bring you Burmese. Guests sampled party portions that night but they shall return to embark on the full-on experience with our Chef Thiti's creations. His cuisine, best classified as Thai with a twist - Thai & Burmese food revisited.

Some of our guests went home with superb lucky draw prizes too! First there were the RM100 dining vouchers then it got better...

Flight-inclusive stay at 3 stunning Relais & Chateaux hotels in Asia Pacific : Bangkok (The Eugenia), Chiang Mai (Rachamanka) and including our very own JapaMala Resort in Tioman.

It was Cyndy's lucky night, thanks a million to www.nesrinmarketing.com for their gracious sponsorship of two complimentary return air-tickets to Bangkok, and of course the world-class boutique hotel The Eugenia for their one complimentary room-night stay:)

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.....Michael finally got his chance to go to our JapaMala Resort in Tioman. Lucky bugger, we had just opened our biggest, most opulent 2-room villa called The Penghulu's House on the beach and that's where he shall stay for 2 nights! Thank you Berjaya Air, which will fly him and his loved one in for some serious relaxation jungle-luxe style.

How could Stephane Junca be left out.... Stephane is the Director of Development for Relais & Chateaux Asia who had picked out Cynthia for the grand prize!

TADA!!!! Thanks to Rachmanka Chiang Mai, the most exquisite and charming hotel we know in the north. Cynthia gets 2 nights' stay + a day tour to the Doi Suthep temple + an exclusive 'Tamarind Hilltribe' experience too! All paid for, thank you Paul. And thank you www.nesrinmarketing.com for flying cynthia & hubby there and back!
A million thanks to Euro-Atlantic, Calbeck, Cave & Cellar and Riche Monde too for their unremitting support always. There shall be more parties!

Appetizers TO DIE FOR - Il Tempio

If you're dining in Il Tempio for the first time and don't know what to order, try these two contemporary dishes :

Porcini Mushroom cream with Truffle oil, topped with stewed spring onions, pan-fried Foie Gras & Vanilla salt

Beef Carpaccio sandwiched in Parmesan Chips

Tamarind Hill LUNCH ESCAPE