Friday 23 August 2019

No Need To Cook Lah : Dahmakan Made Me Lazy (Part 1)


Ever since I tried ordering from food delivery, I am hooked. I mean, there is nothing like having someone cook and deliver the food to you and after you eat, you just throw away the box. Hah! 

No more grocery shopping, tearing your hair out when a crucial ingredient for a pre-planned meal prep is unavailable, washing and cutting veggies/meat, slaving over the stove, washing up and all that crap. Right? Right?? wahahahaha!!!

Well. I could get used to it but it is a little costly (depending on which meal you choose) and you may not be completely happy with the meal. If you cook it yourself, you can adjust to your taste, add more veggies if you like etc. 

So far I am enjoying the ride, hanging up my wok for a while and chilling out especially during this very busy work period at the office.

Oh, by the way, I decided to sign up for Dahmakan SELECT to enjoy preferential prices for the meals. So let's see what I ate so far.

One thing you will learn is that what you see isn't going to be as pretty when you open the box.

Meal #1


What's in the box (RM24.90, I paid RM14.90 - using the last of my RM10 credit from Kris' promo code) :


What? Chicken breast? I know .... I know .... I wanted to eat the pasta. I have never had pasta Arrabiatta.


I'll have to say that I loved the Arrabiata sauce though the pasta was a little overcooked for me. The portion of pasta and sauce was a little conservative, a bit more would be great. Overall, this dish would have been perfect for me if it was served with chicken thigh.

Would I order this again ? : No, because I don't like chicken breast.

Meal #2


What's in the box (RM24.90, I paid RM19.90) :



It smelled very nice when I opened the box and what caught my eye was that sad wrinkled thing on the lower left of the box. It turned out to be half of a hard boiled egg that had been fried. I would prefer the hard boiled egg in its natural state. 



The portion of rice was very generous, it was fragrant but not lemak enough and it was a bit mushy. I have no complaints about the chicken (thigh) but the ikan bilis was a bit strange. The color was weird (sort of purplish pinkish) and taste wise it was not remarkable. The sambal was quite decent and very spicy hot.  I was stuffed after this meal due to the rice.

Would I order this again ? : No, because I have had better nasi lemak.

Meal #3



What's in the box (RM24.90, I  paid RM19.90):



This was my hangry meal. The rider was late and the best part was that even though the app notified me that he had arrived, he was nowhere to be seen and he took such a long time to phone me.

He was actually nearby and I informed him to ride a bit further up (about 200m) and to look for a particular signboard. Then I saw him zoom past without turning his head to look for the landmark.

I had to call him something like 3 or 4 times and finally to end my frustration, I asked him to wait for me at a bank nearby and I walked there to pick up from him. I was really mad and I chided him gently. This guy got a one star rating from me and customer service got an earful (or rather an eyeful when they emailed me).



Luckily this meal was delivered warm and it was so delicious that all was forgiven (well, not really). The beef was very tender and the seasoning was just right. The flavors of this beef chili con carne was spot on. A little bit more gravy would have been great because I felt that I needed more for the rice.

Would I order this again ? : YES! A resounding yes!

Meal #4



What's in the box (RM29.00, I paid RM19.90):



A little bit burnt but that did not affect the taste. I was surprised that I liked it because the cheese was not overpowering. 



I could taste the salted egg and there were generous slices of beef in the rice. It made for a satisfying and filling meal.

Would I order this again ? : Yes!

Meal #5



Before I get into the food, let me tell you that if Meal #3 was my hangry meal, then this was my heart attack meal. It was a Sunday evening and the tracking showed that the rider was 1 minute away. So I waited outside while playing with my cat.


Then my phone beeped. He has arrived. Eh? I don't see him. I did not even hear the sound of a motorcycle nearby. Then another beep. 



What the? Who the? **@@##>.<!@!!!** WHO took my food???!!!

Straight away I contacted customer service screaming bloody murder (via text lah). Then 5 minutes later the rider showed up. He almost kena murdered.

When I questioned him why was I notified that my meal was delivered when he had not even arrived, he was quite flustered. He tried to explain that it was raining (not in my area anyway) and his phone malfunctioned. I quickly contacted customer service to notify them what happened and the rider got a one star rating from me. So.

What's in the box (RM24.90, I paid RM19.90) :




Stress and anger notwithstanding, I was like wah! when I opened the box. The first time that something looked so loaded and more beautiful that the website photo. It smelled pretty good too.



To make it easier to eat in front of the telly (hah..hah...), I transferred the food to a plate. And then because I had a nice avocado in the fridge, it became like this :



I added loads of freshly cracked black pepper and this turned out to be one of my most satisfying meals. The portion of chicken was huge and though I have a love hate relationship with cheese (especially parmesan cheese), I found this chicken parmagiana to be totally delicious (even though it was chicken breast).

Would I order this again : YES!

To be continued..........

21 comments:

  1. I love the avocado you added to your meal. I don't like the suspense of waiting for the rider to deliver meals for me alone so unless my friends order in group. Is your ginger cat a male or female?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am with you on the suspense of waiting. That's the part that I don't like hah..hah.. My cat is female.

      Delete
  2. I see that you haven't really ordered any of the RM35 meals yet (the ones which will give you the most returns...haha!). Like me, you've had meals that were hits & misses. I've been wanting to try the beef chili con carne, so I will when I order/see it next since you've given it a resounding yes! ;)

    The delivery riders are like that. Through experience I've learnt that when the message comes that they're at the door, it isn't necessarily so (they could be 5 - 10 mins away). So now I ignore the messages and wait until they press my door bell before I venture out. I think this is not the fault of dahmakan but the fact that the rider is trying to beat his delivery schedule by communicating that the food is delivered when they've just arrived at the housing area but not specifically in front of the house yet. Wah, I see you're even more difficult to please than me...kekeke! Only 5 mins late and customer service already got an earful from you. I've only complained about the 30 - 40 mins late delivery (got that twice)...and was given a RM5 credit as an apology.

    I'm glad that you're enjoying your time off from the kitchen...we all need that some time. Oh dear, does that mean your partner has no home-cooked food of late since you don't food prep? It's great that we can share info on the taste of some of these meals so that we know which ones to avoid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I got a bit antsy because I thought my food was delivered to someone else hah..hah... The delivery times are quite erratic, sometimes they surprise me by being early but that does not happen very often.

      Oh no, my partner still gets his home cooked food hah..hah... He can't survive of Dahmakan as the portions are too small for him.

      I will be sharing more in part 2 or there might even be part 3!

      Delete
  3. No need to cook anymore. Nice selection and you wouldnt get bored with their yumny menu.

    Avocado. I like but no cheap. Seldom eat it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But I may get back to cooking soon as it is quite pricey.

      Delete
  4. wah...the last one looks exactly the same (or even nicer)after transferred to the plate...now I feel like want to order this too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you like cheesy stuff, you will like this one :)

      Delete
  5. Yes, cooking is a hassle and very tedious, so it is good that you are taking a break and time off from cooking even though it is a little costly. I have tried foodpanda once and the food was good even though they were not as warm as eat on the spot in the restaurant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am thinking of trying Grabfood to order from some restaurants that I like.

      Delete
  6. i'm very tempted by the salted egg baked beef - if i end up ordering that next week, you're to blame (since i'm currently not a regular dahmakan customer so far)! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, order that! I am waiting for it to make its rounds again hee..hee...

      Delete
  7. I would just order too if we have that here, hassle-free, just sit and eat and enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really like it but well, it is not so easy on the pocket :(

      Delete
  8. I love the convenience of food delivery but I really want someone to come up with a solution to get rid of that incredible amount of single use packaging. If someone could solve that problem with reusable containers, I just might order a lot more often.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with you. I ordered food via Grabfood recently and ended up with a plastic box and plastic cutlery. I suppose plastic is convenient and relatively cheap, hence the high usage at the expense of the environment.

      Delete
  9. Yes, can try, so you will be opened to more options and choices :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, my pocket also has deeper holes LOL!

      Delete
  10. Agree that cooking is very tiring and ordering food is so convenient. The only thing is I hate to wait in suspense.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Impressive post. Really very useful for me. please provide more tips. Keep continue. My Fit Foods

    ReplyDelete