Not Too Dazzle

Garden Lifestyle Cafe @ The Curve

2010-10-22T15:12:00.002+08:00

Set Lunch

inclusives of Soup of the day, Ice lemon tea

and choice of Main course

Additional order..

My main course

My friend's Dory fish

Ah Leng Char Kuay Teow @ Penang

2010-10-19T12:15:00.003+08:00

Located at Jalan Dato Keramat, this place was recommended

by my cousin, she said it's a must eat when in Penang.

When she was there with her family, they waited for more than 30 min!!

Well, lucky for us, we were there at 3pm - tea break, so it was very quiet.

It's one of the stall in a Kopi-tiam

RM9.00 for a plate of "small special" - with mantis prawn

The serving was indeed small, mine had 3 big prawns.

It tasted good however I'm not a big fan of

Penang char koey teow, it did not linger in my head.

I totally forgot how it tasted after we left for coffee at King street.

Scone @ Cameronian Inn, Cameron Highlands

2010-10-19T11:46:00.006+08:00

I've been to Cameron Highlans a few times, but never
had a chance to have Hi-tea and scones.
During my recent trip there I had to make sure not only

I'd have scone but also the best scone in town!!

So I read the best scone is served at Cameronian Inn,
located at Tanah Rata. Cameronian Inn is a small guest house
that serves homebaked scone. A set of 2 scones and a pot
of tea costs RM15.00

Ordered 2 sets for 3 person sharing. So fresh from the oven

I had always thought scone is dry, powdery, tasteless

and tough, so choking that you'd need to wash
it down with tea!!

These, smelled so nice. So soft and moist on the inside.

I put plenty of butter, spread on the jam and cream, so delicious!!

Teochew Chicken Rice @ Seremban

2010-10-19T11:11:00.006+08:00

再豐雞飯

This is a popular chicken rice among the locals, it's a family run business.

The shop does not serve lunch until 12 noon. It's good to arrive early and

get a table and wait, as the place can fill up very quickly. We reached fairly

early around 11:30am, went and got some siew pau and got back 15 min later,

grabbed a table, waited for like 30min to get ours. Bear in mind,

they are Teochew, they are very slow and "mo" in preparing the food!

Queue was building up quickly, many came to doggy bag

Choi Yun Kai, very tender and juicy, was worth the wait

Closed up~ served with crunchy cucumber slices

The chopped chicken was drizzled with chicken stock,

sesame oil, soy sauce, some may find it bit salty but that

maked the chicken extra moist and juicy!

Buffet @ Kampachi by Equatorial

2010-10-19T10:42:00.003+08:00

This is the first time I have ever visit Kampachi japanese buffet at

Equotorial Hotel. I had heard so much about it. Finally decided to go

there one fine Saturday afternoon for the buffet lunch..

Assorted sushi - everything was very fresh and

look at the thickness

Teppanyaki salmon

Teppanyaki beef - perfectly done!! Juicy!!

Chawanmushi & dumplings together with salmon skin

From the grill station

Had to try little bit of everything..

No more stomach space but gotta have the Beef Suziyaki!

Doraemon pancake, kinda dry for me

Xenri d'Garden Terrace @ Menara Hup Seng

2010-06-26T10:20:00.005+08:00

Starters counter

Sushi station

Very fresh sashimi

more sushi...

noodles counter

fresh prawn

Oyster~

BBQ items

Salmon sushi

some desserts

Tao's @ Sunway Giza

2010-05-05T10:34:00.005+08:00

Since there's a new Japanese buffet in town, gotta try lah!! Weekend lunch is at RM58++ per pax.

Some of the sashimi spread. Cold items like sushi, sashimi, salad and teppanyaki are served at the bar counter.. other dishes to be ordered from the menu.

Toufu deep fried with sesame seeds

Teppanyaki items and some grilled salmon.

The interior deco

Tatami seatings

Sake display near the bar counter

Ole Ole Bali @ Soho KL

2010-04-26T15:07:00.002+08:00

Had lunch with my old friend, Ina. Cucumber Mojito in the background.

Nasi Campur Ole-Ole @ RM33.00. Very tasty grilled fish!

Wang Town @ Taman Usahawan, Kepong

2010-04-09T09:45:00.003+08:00

炒粥 (fried porridge with seafood)

RM10.00 for small serving, 1-2 person, depending the other dishes you order.

I've not tried many fried porridge before, but I thought this tasted good.

The seafood was fresh too.

Excapade Sushi @ Kuala Belait, Brunei

2010-04-09T09:29:00.004+08:00

Excapade Sushi located at Kuala Belait, a 45min drive from Miri

The bar seating and serving station

Sushi Combo @ B$18.00

Layered sushi (with cream cheese) - B$3.00 blue plate

A beef niku set from our last visit (B$8.00)

Scallops Mentaiko Yaki (with cod roe) - too much mayonnaise

Grill beef slices - more like a cold dish

Spotted a new Mazda2 parked next to Chris's Myvi, so tiny

Miri Trip (02/04/2010-05/04/2010)

2010-04-08T17:53:00.005+08:00

Looking down from my flight..

View from my Dynasty hotel room Pelita was the firt high rise in Miri

Can't live without my netbook, lucky there's wifi access!

Not many choice here.. only Ron95?!

This is Miri's Marina Bay.. look, rainbow

The light house

Sunset @ Tanjong Lobang beach

A sight can't see in KL

Miri Food (02/04/2010-05/04/2010)

2010-04-08T17:30:00.004+08:00

Miri Laksa @ Madam Wee, Krokop (RM4.00 per bowl)

Ice Kacang & Cendol with fried prawn cake

Beef stew rice @ Taiwan restaurant

Miri style fried kueh teow with pork stripes @ Open Market

Cantonese hand-made egg noodles @ Miri market

Tenji Buffet Lunch @ 06/12/2009

2009-12-09T17:12:00.013+08:00

Last Sunday I took Sam to Tenji for buffet lunch. Since I received some tax return money, he insisted that I treat him for lunch.

Tenji is having lunch promotion throughout December at RM49.90++ per pax. It was my second visit since January this year. I came with my colleagues for division dinner, they had just newly opened then. It was packed and chaotic - food was not great, dishes we ordered from the cooking station took forever to each our table and was stone cold by the time we got them. Service was bad, no one ever came to clear the tables, plates were piled up at one corner. However we all liked the sweet coconut very much.

Ok, back to last Sunday. We arrived and saw a long queue already formed until the escalator. Obviously the crowd is still good for Tenji. Everyone is queuing to give their booking number and get their table. Children are charged based on their heights, 130cm and above will be charged a full adult price. So, some parents were not very pleased and caused some delay. After getting our table number, we had to queue again to pay before we can be leaded to our table.

We were seated between the dessert counter and western food counter. First thing we went for was the sashimi, cold plates and oysters.

Unlike my first visit, the gigantic palm size oyster was a mouth full and nasty, this time they have the normal size oysters. The cooked sweet prawn was nice.

Some of the appetizers in mini plates.

Steamed chicken eggs at the appetizer counter

Steamed fish and crab in creamy milk sauce in the background. The fish was ok but the crab was not fresh at all.

Lala in soup at the cooked food section.

One of the cooking station, I didn't order anything from here, didn't seem interesting or delicious enough..

I saw the guy from next table got himself a whole crab, I didn't see it anywhere? So I asked him, he got it from the BBQ station on the terrace area. Went there, there were roast turkey, roast duck, BBQ crab and some hotdogs.

The staff gave me one with crab roe.. he tld me, "this one female, good". I appreciated his initiative, but the crab was under cook and kinda raw, on top of that it was not fresh.

After 30 minutes or more, my fish head in bean sauce finally came, but steam code fish is nowhere to be seen..

The steam cod fish finally arrived at our talbe when we were eating our waffle. I took some cookes from the dessert counters and that was it for me, no mouse cake, no cheese cake. I saw the lady beside our table took a few pieces but didn't finish them.

Beer is also on the buffet menu and free flow, it may be good news for some. Outside on the terrace, there are also Haagon Dazs and Baskin Robin ice-cream station and a japanese ice cream counter called Kindori. I wanted to try but they were out and I had to wait 10min, and after that was long queue.

Actually, for beer lovers, Tenji has supper package at RM49.90++ and you can sit at the terrace, drink beer with your pals, have a few oyster and some sashimi, it's not a bad deal at all!!

Morning Market, Krabi @ 16/11/2009

2009-12-09T14:08:00.012+08:00

The last day in Krabi, me and my room mate decided to ditch the hotel breakfast and tried something local instead. So, we took a cab from Ao Nang to Krabi town morning market. The taxi driver agreed to drive us there, wait for us, and send us back to hotel with THB700.

Maharaj market is a covered market is located at Maharat Soi 7 , with vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and even sundry shops.

Then, there is a food section, where food vendors selling all sorts of goodies. It was very clean and bright. So many food!! We got all excited already, where to start?

Some kinda pre-packed dumplings kuih.. We bought some, they are quite tasty, although we have no idea what's inside.

Kuih with grated cocunut..

All kind of kuih-muih ..

Sprin rolls.. similar to those in Vietnam.

Packed rice..

Similar to our local food...

More colourful kuih-muih...

Then finally we found this young man selling pork trotter rice~!!

We were sharing one plate, as there were to many things await us to taste. I still prefer the one we packed the other night, maybe it had more fatty goody.. The pickled veggie actually go very well with the fatty pork.

Then I spotted someone was having this dish~ Kueh Chap~ I had to order, so I was pointing at the bowl, the lady behind the counter was like "Kueh chap??" Oh, they even called it Kueh Chap in Thai?? In no time, a bowl was placed in front of me. So excited to see something familiar frm our home land. I loved the "kueh", all curled up in the spoon, a little bit of soup and some bite size braised meat, very nice. The soup was a bit sweet though, I think all the soup I've tasted in Krabi tend to have very sweet taste, sweet as sugar sweet.

Then as we were strolling on the other aisle, we saw a lady cooking this big pot of soup, it looked like the bamboo shoot soup. Then she dumped something looked like fried fish maw into the soup, a few stir, it was ready to serve.

We got ourselves a bowl, it looked interesting enough to try. Ok, it was no fish maw, it was fried pig skin, what were we thinking! However, the pig skin was crunchy and chewy at the same time, the bamboo shoot add the crispness to it.

I think this is some kinda salted fish?

Scorched glutinous rice cake or pulut panggang.

Suddenly, the national anthem started playing over the speakers and everyone stopped moving. There was a sudden silent in the hussle bussle market.

Meat section / butcher section is divided by beef, chicken and pork and located behind the main market at the wet section.

Local made Balacan..

Fish section..

Sea coconut seller outside the market.. so big compare to our sea coconut which is like siew pao size.

We still had one more mission.. to taste some fried buds and worms~! So we told our Taxi driver to find for us. He thought we wanted to eat seafood and drove us to a seafood restaurant! No..

He didn't understand me even after all my funny gesture simulating a crawling worm, so I took out my pen and drew these.. He was like "Ah..." and told us, "No, no, Krabi don haf.." Don't have? How is that possible? My friend told me it was everywhere.. with no luck at all, we headed back to the hotel, with a full stomach of course.

Krabi @ 15/11/2009

2009-12-01T21:35:00.023+08:00

Day 3 was more relaxing, we went for a 4 island hopping trip in a nice speedboat, exclusively for our group only. Before our departure, I hurried to the convenience store just beside our hotel and got myself a plastic holder for my camera at THB350, so that I wouldn't miss anything underwater.

We boarded the speedboat on Ao Nang beach itself, just opposite our hotel. We departed early, headed toward the first spot at Phra Nang Beach.

Leaving Ao Nang beach

There's a resort on this isolated beach, but it isn't that private anymore since all island hopping tours bring the tourists here for a dip.

Nice, clean beach here. Do check out the "princess cave" on the beach..

After about 30min swim, we left for a spin around Chicken island, nothing so special; then stopped at Koh Khai bay for our first snorkeling.

Our tour guide threw some bread into the sea and a school of fish came to the surface, we were all excited seeing so many fish. I quickly jumped in with my snorkeling gear and a life vest - since this is a more than 2 metres deep sea.

So many fish~

Ooh? Swimming away from me..

Do excuse the quality of the pictures, this was the best I could do. I saw a couple of Nemo swimming around the coral. There are many sea urchin as well~

The swim was cut short when a few of my colleagues got hurt - got some cuts from the coral, hit the razor side of the cliff.. few of them were bleeding all over. Well, we didn't want to become shark meal, so better leave.. haha!

We reached Tup Island for our second snorkelling, this place has very clear water, the beach is very shallow, during low tide, tourist can walk over to a nearby island! Eventhough the sea is shallow, there are abundant of fish speices.

I didn't bring the camera with me as it was a bit troublesome - which I regretted much. I liked this location much more than the earlier one, it was more relaxing, no current that you've to fight against with.

Then we reached Poda Island for our lunch.

Simple set up..

It was very simple, just seafood fried rice accompanied by a bowl of clear soup.

After the lunch, we proceeded to swim at the beach. Many long tail boats parked at the beach.

Another view of the beach

This long tail boats is selling fried rice, sandwiches, beer and even milkshakes to feed the hungry tourists.

The sea water at Poda beach not as clear as Tup island. However, even at knee depth water can see many fish.

Further, the water got murkier and since there are many rocks, it was not the best spot to snorkel.

We headed back to Ao Nang beach around 2pm.

After freshened up, we had the afternoon free for own leisure. Most of us decided to go for massage, since they had "happy hour" promotion with 50% off and after all the expose under the sun, and hardwork from yesterday, we all desperately need some pampering. We all opted for aloe vera massage cool down the sun burnt skin. It cosed THB300 per person for an hour session, good deal.

Dinner was at Wang Sai restaurant, a huge restaurant located on the west side of Ao Nang beach, about 5 min Tuk Tuk ride from our hotel. This place was recommended by the hotel staff when a few of my colleague asked for good restaurant to eat - which I thought it was a stupid idea.. although I don't think they get commision from the restaurant.

I saw some table ordered BBQ tiger prawn, they were huge, so I insisted to have the same.

We wanted to order mud crab as well but they ran out that day, disappointed, we still wanted to have crab and the only choice was the flower crab.

We had steam fish too, I think this was the third thai style steam fish we had through out the whole trip.. I wish we had something different though~ I was so bored out with the selection of our food choice. I thought everything was average yet very pricey!

Krabi @ 14/11/2009

2009-12-01T11:39:00.025+08:00

Rise and up~

We had a full day of activities on the second day. Sea kayak in the morning, follow by elephant ride in the jungle in the afternoon.

The tour was booked seperately by my boss from one of the local tour agent. So, could see the difference on the transportation. This was our ride for the whole day. All 12 of us had to squeeze into the back where there were only two row of benches. I thought it was meant for 10 pax only, we were packed like sardin in a can.

After a 45min ride, we arrived at the kayak spot - Tha Lane Bay (Ao Thalane), west of Krabi town. There were many tourists getting ready and lining up for their kayak. We didn't know that you can get wet kayaking eventhough you don't go inside the water. The splashing from all the paddling can easily wet your entire bum. Damn!

Couldn't do much, guess we just had to walk around with wet underwear the whole day. Got our paddles; no life vest for me, thank you. Waiting for my turn.

We had no idea we had got ourselves into a 3 hours sea kayak tour~ All excited and full of energy in the beginning.

We had to paddle through a not so narrow passgeway between two cliffs. Nice scenery all the way..

Paddle and more paddle.. We had no idea where we were going.

The water got murkier as we paddled further.. These are mangrove trees. This place has one of the best mangrove bay.

The water level was low as we got to the river area. At some point, the guys had to get down to push the kayak as we were all stuck in the mud. Our guide pratically had to drag our kayak forward.

Everyone was exhausted at this point after had to struggle over the mud for 30min.

We were very proud to know that we had paddle for 15km~!! No joke~!! What a torture!

What could be the better reward to ourselves than to have lunch after such hard work? Lunch was included in the package. Sweet and sour fish?

Stir fried vegetables and chicken in Thai sauce.

With all our wet bums, hopped onto the big tuk tuk again, headed toward "Nosey Parker" elephant sanctuary some distance away.

This would be an hour elephant ride through the jungle, across the little stream, up and down some muddy and slippery (I don't know if the elephant thought the same though) path.

Our elephant was a female named Delta~ So sweet~

Other team with their ride from a distance.. the elephants were munching!

After a day of hard work, they clocked out around 4pm and went for their bath in the stream.

They seemed to enjoy it very much! They looked so adorable here. And.. my bum was still wet!

Finally, we got to clean our wet bum and changed into some dry underwear. We decided to go Krabi town, heard that there's a night market, good place to check out the local action. First, have some decent dinner. We stopped that this restaurant, can't recall the name now.

Nice set up, very intimate, good place for the locals to go on a date kinda restaurant. However.. the waitresses here are hopeless with english, we had problem ordering, there were only one english menu. We had to point and gave a thumb up gesture and they just nodded.

Spicy chicken soup, strong taste, like hell lot of pepper in there.

Garoupa fish fillet in light soy sauce. Very delicious.

I didn't eat a full stomach at the restaurant, was saving some space for the night market stroll. We had a couple of hours to spend there. In fact, one hour is more than enough. There are main food stalls, some vendors selling local made products such as bags, paintings, trinklets, paintings, etc. There's a center stage in the middle of the market where local talents can show off their performance.

This lady was selling something look like ice-cream potong but made of soft drinks!?

These looked like keputat..

Deep fried baby crab, I bought a tray, very crispy, not too tough at all.

Local BBQ, seafood or mini sausages.

Local sweet treats, little crispy pancakes with whip cream and sprinkled with chocolate or shredded sweet coconut.

On the way back, I went across the street to see what the food stalls were selling on the other side. Hey, the last stall was selling port trotter rice~!! I've seen some website about this dish, swore I must try it when I came to Krabi. So, I had one rice pack with roasted pork to bring back hotel for supper, hahaha!

I wasn't disappointed at all~ Look at this thing~ THB500. It was so delicious, the salted veggie sort of neutralized the fattyness of the pork. The pork trotter meat was very tender, soft, enough fat and skin to make it chewy. The sauce was very nice.

Krabi @ 13/11/2009

2009-12-01T10:03:00.015+08:00

After months of deliberation, we had finally settled on a destination for our division trip – Krabi, a 4D3N trip over the weekend.

Upon our arrival, our tour bus came to pick us up, first stop was to treat our stomach since our flight was delay, and everyone was hungry.

Our tour bus.. fits 12 of us nicely inside, even with all our luggages~

They took us to this duck noodles place tucked away somewhere in a jungle.

Bowls of duck noodles were served up within minutes; mine had two big duck drumsticks with flat Thai noodles. The soup was a bit sweet, but still tasted good.

After filling the stomach, gotta do some walking to promote good disgestion. Next stop to Tiger Temple - which has no more tiger living there, instead has the population of thousands monkey.

Buddha statues can be seen every corner..

The main Guan Yin temple.

It is funny what they have all 7 colours of joss sticks for each day of the week, so pretty.

Our original schedule was to visit the Krabi Fisheries Research Centre that day itself but due to the flight delay, we didn’t have time. So we stopped at a local food product centre for some local snacks souvenirs.

Spent almost THB500 on some dried chili shrimps and crispy rolls.

Finally we arrived at our hotel – Ao Nang Princeville Resort located along Ao Nang beach itself. It’s well hidden behind the shops.

The coffe house, where breakfast is served every morning.

Nice swimming pool, they even have a swirl pool.

After freshen up, we all came out to look for food (dinner time) and everyone was all so excited to see what the Krabi shopping has to offer.

So many clothing shops.. colourful beach wears.

Saw this lady selling the ever so famous Banana Pancake just right beside the hotel. Very cripsy, she flipped the dough just like how the mamak flips the roti canai here~ Topped with sweeten milk, made a nice dessert.

Further down, turn to the left and walk towards Mc Donalds, there's a stall selling Pha Thai, I ordered one plate to share with my colleagues. Hot and tasty, good. There are other stalls selling BBQ chicken wings, fish; fruits juice vendors. One can eat a good meal here.

We chose to go Aree Bar Bar restaurant for dinner, just a bit further down the road from Mc Donalds, since it has good review on the internet. I think is own by an European.

Thai style steam fish

Thai green curry chicken

Tom yam soup.. a must have when you're in Thailand.

It was more shopping (free and easy time) after the dinner. Some of my colleagues went for massage and I decided to rest earlier since we had to get up at 7am tomorrow for a whole day of activities.

Baggu Bags

2009-11-29T11:28:00.008+08:00

I’ve always try to do my best in helping the environment, like collecting old plastic bottles (around the house that is) for recycling, use biodegradable plastic rubbish bags around the house, carry a shopping bag with me whenever I go grocery shopping (trying).

I’ve a couple of Jusco reusable bags, but they are so big and bulky, you can never fit them in your handbags. They are left in the backseats of the car most of the time. Furthermore, I don’t want to use a Jusco bag when I’m not shopping at Jusco (like bring a Jusco bag to Cold Storage??). So I’ve been looking around for good reusable shopping bags, something I can pop inside my handbags and forget about it, and find them there during any unexpected grocery trip~

When I saw my friend, Teamo is selling some cute reusable shopping/grocery bags online, I gotta get some from her. They are called Baggu Bags.

I got two designs, one Honey Stripe and the other Navy White thin stripe. They are the standard size (medium) Baggu at 15”W x 25”Hx6”D. Made of 100% ripstop nylon, one Baggu can carry the content of 2-3 plastic grocery bags or up to 11kg~

They come in their own matching holding pouch, folded inside, to a square of 5”x5”. Small enough to fit in most of your bags, and yet big enough not to lose them. And they are quite stylish.

Unfold it.. from the carry pouch..

During one of my grocery trip, I managed to put in the whole 4 boxes of Kleenex tissues, a box of butterhead lettuce, and some other stuff. It's very flexible.

To get your own Baggu Bags, click on http://teamopassiondelights.com/blog/archives/438

Umai-Ya Japanese Buffet, Uptown

2009-11-10T13:55:00.009+08:00

When my girl friend said she couldn't make it for the buffet last Saturday, and the others decided to postpone it, I went ahead with the luncheon with Sam. Why waste it right? Since I've already booked a table..

We were seated on the first floor, in the middle section near the sushi bar, where the light was very very dim.. but it was fully booked hence we were unable to change table.

Each table will have form like this, with appetizer, salad, sashimi, sushi.. noodles dish.. cook dish, BBQ items, etc. You just have to tick on the items you want, pass it to the waitresses, they'll serve your order accordingly.

First dish up was the Umai-Ya green salad, ordered by Sam. Duh, I'd not waste my stomach space with some green leaves.

Followed by the tempura eel, which was a bit cold and soggy, but still nice. Also ordered a chikuwa tempura.. which was like... crab stick wrapped in fish cake and deep fried - not very good at all.

Next up, the sashimi, we weren't sure about the serving portion, we had humbly tick "1" in Qty for the sashimi, only to find out later, one means one piece for each person?? Ok, next time I'll write down "10" instead! The fish was fresh.

Dragon maki, also delicious, especially when I like avocado. In between the sushi, Sam ordered another salad, similar to the green salad, only topped with tobiko. I had also ordered agedashi tofu, yaki tori, some shishamo..

When they served us the salmon maki and soft shell crab maki, I didn't even remember ordering them.. hm. There was a lot of crunch in the roll, quite a mouth full.

I decided to order some beef for myself, a beef nigu with spring onion rolled inside. I thought the portion was really, really tiny. I also had the sunagimo (Chicken Gizzard), I thought it was a bit under cook and under BBQ.

Kani unatama maki - I guess it's one of their house specialty. Soft shell crab, tamago and unagi wrapped tightly with little bit of rice in between..

Finally after stuffing ourselves with the last dish of Saba fillet, it was time for dessert. When we saw wasabi ice-cream on the menu, we had to try it. It was like... eating frozen wasabi, literally. And the spiking after taste was strong.

At RM48++ per pax, it's totally well worth it. The presentation was good, service was prompt, lucky we didn' have problem with our order, unlike other bloggers had their order mixed up. Green tea is served in a pot. They gave us a long bill with all the items we've ordered listed out, hm.. both of us had whacked up 32 items.

Café Café @ Jalan Maharajalela

2009-11-03T16:24:00.012+08:00

Finally, I went to Café Café for dinner after much anticipation, I’ve read so much about this place since so long ago~ Booked a table for Sam’s and my birthday, not better time to discover this enchanted restaurant right?

From the outside, you’d know you are going to have a great time here. The waiter got the door for us; everyone will be captivated by the interior once inside. It is very Parisian, the Baroque inspired décor is so magical, I felt like I was in Moulin Rouge era. I almost wanted to look out for woman in drapery dress and corset. The waiters were greeting us with smiles and sat us down at our window view table. Light is so dim here, music of French songstress in the background, so intimate, love the ambience.

Ok stop talking about the décor and star ordering. The menu has a well balanced list of appetizers, main courses and desserts. So many things to order, to have a taste of everything, I opted for the Michelin set (RM139) while Sam ordered a salad and the pan fried salmon fillet for main course.

The appetizer - 4 pieces of fresh oyster with lemon wedges on ice. My set also came with a full portion of Rock salad, dressed with black vinegar, crispy~

My main course - I chose the Duck Confit from the Salmon dish and the pasta dish. Cripsy skin, I thought the meat was bit tough and dry.. wouldn’t order it the next time.

Sam said the salmon was ordinary, I didn't try though.. It did look a bit boring~

I had my small cup of lemon sorbet before they served my dessert. Last minute we ordered the hot chocolate cake and the male host asked if we were celebrating something, told him that it was both our birthday.. hee.. So he went into the kitchen and did his magic.. (^w^)

Tiramisu

Hot Chocolate Cake

Later, they came out with two plates; each with a stick candle lighted, and placed them in front of us. I didn’t like the Tiramisu much, I thought the brandy was too strong (but Sam liked it very much). I loved the chocolate cake, with the little message drew out from the chocolate powder. The chocolate cake was so soft, one scoop the chocolate sauce just oozed out, not sweet, but full of flavor. I almost melted off my chair~ mmm~ I could have two plates of that~

Overall, the food is 4 stars, ambience 5 stars!! The waiters are very attentive; the male host has good knowledge about the food serve there. I’ll definitely come back here again, and soon~

Dubrovnik restaurant @ Solaris Mont Kiara

2009-11-03T14:36:00.006+08:00

After read about Dubrovnik Restaurant in Solaris Mont Kiara, saw a few pictures of the crepe like appetizer and crispy dessert, I had to give it a try~ Took Sam there for our birthday eve dinner (Ha~).

The main dining area is on the mezzanine floor with tables lay in white tablecloths and white dining chairs, give the interior a Mediterranean feel. Pictures of Croatia are hung on the white wash walls, with curve arches open out to the ground floor area. It’s nice and quiet.. quiet as no music?!

First thing I noticed thought, other than the hostess leaded us to the table, the other two waitresses were pulling their face, no smile and just stared on! What? Are you so under paid that is painful for you to even twitch your lips a little?

And the waitress seemed so “unwillingly” served us the complimentary bread with salsa dip. The bread was soft and maybe it was tossed into the wood-fired oven, I thought it had the ashy smell; and the salsa sauce… I think TFIF has better.

I wanted to order the appetizer platter which has a salad, a Strukli and a Palacinke but the dish is meant for 3-4person sharing.. no fun, I had to choose between Strukli and Palacinke (I really don’t care about the salad), andI chose Palacinke, simply because I like crêpe, it’s crêpe filled with cream cheese and baked over the wood-fired oven. Hm, the taste was a bit bland, I didn’t taste much of the cream cheese.. and the surface was not golden brown enough.

Our main course, the signature Lamb Croatia with the pommes dauphine potatoes - mashed potato lightly fried in oil, paper thin crisp skin, the inside is cotton soft, nice. The lamb was tender, done almost medium rare, nothing to shout about and the dish was a bit cold! grrr...

Mine was Sarma (beef and rice wrapped in sour cabbage), reason I ordered it - traditional Croatia dish. The dumpling like dish was dressed with sour sauce and half the plate was taken up by a big blog of mashed potato~ (grouch). I didn’t like the dish at all, I don’t like sour food.

Very soon, it was dessert time. They ran out of Millie Foglie that night.. sign.. so Sam suggested the Royal Chocolate cake. It was fudgy chocolate cake on a nice crunchy hazelnut base, almost waffles biscuit like.

Overall experience.. food was not as tasty as I’d expected. I’ll come back to try the Millie Foglie and the Steak Korcula – which have to order 1 day in advance. If you want a quiet dinner and try something new, it’s worth a visit. Oh, the whole night, we didn’t get a smile from the other two waitresses, so, would you like to be served that way?

Elle knit shawl

2009-10-04T16:07:00.000+08:00

I wandered into Elle one day (I don't usually shop at Elle), and found this quite neat shawl which has buttons on both ends, it allows you to create difference style and wear, very versatile. Well, well.. how often do I need a shawl? No, hardly, once a year? Second thought, I don't even owned a shawl, oh, this could be the perfect, first own. Isn't it nice to wrap yourself with a soft, pretty shawl during a flight to somewhere? Just tuck it into your handbag when you don need it? Ok, told the salesgirl I'll take a black one. I took a photo of the "instruction card" from the rack, showing a few ideas and style, the salesgirl told me that it's not limited to just these 8 looks, if you were creative enough, you can create more way of wearing the shawl. Well, the easiest way I could think of right away was to wear it loosely over the shoulders, and, just lightly wrap around the upper arms to keep warm when wearing with a dress~ how uncreative!

Lulu Guinness scarves

2009-10-01T15:24:00.000+08:00

When I was in Wufenpu, I met this lady selling handkerchiefs and scarves, like Burberry, Celine. She was showing me this brand, Lulu Guinness. I wasn’t familiar with the brand but she said it’s a popular designer from UK. The style is unique, all design are playful and chic, suitable for young people. I was attracted by the fun design, and selected one yellow and one black. All for TWD700, not a bad deal, and I like them~ The size is more like a handkerchief, can tie them around handbag handles to perk up the bag.

Taipei @ 17/09/2009

2009-10-01T11:43:00.000+08:00

DAY 3

Finally we had some time to do some real shopping, after breakfast we headed to Sogo which is just three stations away at Zhongxiao Fuxing station.

Not to confuse yourself, there's another smaller Sogo shopping centre at Zhongxiao Dunhua station that sell higher end brands like Burberry, Chloe..

Dame, we were too early again, the shopping malls don't open until 11am. The good news is, it was first day of Sogo anniversary sale. The door finally opened after an opening speech by the promotion girls. As we walked into the store, we were greeted by “huan yin guan lin” (welcome) all the way.

There are 6-7 floors of area to shop, plus a bargain corner at 12th floor. My goal was to get some, or at least a handbag.

I got this cute pink tote from a Taiwanese brand called Junior, the promotion girl said they even have matching wallet. It’s interesting all the concession counters have their own cash machine and credit card machine, there is no common cashier.

Second purchase was at Che Che counter, a pink automatic umbrella (open & close) at TWD790..

After spending most of my money, we left all the stuff in the hotel before departing to Danshui (淡水), a town north of Taipei city, popular for its sunset. The train ride was about 40min from Taipei main station to Danshui station. By the time we reached Danshui was already 5pm, and were told by the lady at the Information center most museums were closed. She suggested that we go to Danshui Fisherman's Wharf that is located at the east side of the town.

Fisherman’s wharf has a bridge connecting the market and car park area to the ferry pier called "Lover's Bridge"

The "Lover's Bridge" is a modern pedestrian bridge built just a few years ago. There are restaurant and small food stalls along the pier. From there, we hopped onto a ferry that took us right to Danshui old street – where all the food are.

Once you got off the Danshui old street jetty, you'll see this fish balls soup.

You can try the giant ice cream cone that available in many flavours.

This is a 40 years old shop selling mixed pork noodles and glutinous rice sausage.

Iron egg is the most popular delight from Danshui. Eggs stewed inside herbal mixture until they are black and chewy. It makes a good souvenir too.

“Ah Ge” is another significant dish here, basically is fried toufu stuffed with glass noodles and fish paste.

Continue to walk toward ZhongZhen Dong road as we explored the things to see and buy. A short breezy walk, we reached back to the train station.

From there, we stopped by Shilin market. To reach the market, get dowm from the Jiantan Station. The night market is just accross the road. This is another shopping destinations with plenty of affordable korean, japanese inspired fashion.

On the other side of the road is Shilin supermarket and food court. Majority of the food stalls are selling fried oyster omelette, braised pork rice, dumpling soup..

Oyster omelette, didn't like the gravy much, the texture was too slimy for me.

Taipei @ 16/09/2009

2009-09-30T21:04:00.000+08:00

DAY 2 (part 2)

We finally arrived at Kee Lung after an hour bus ride packed with students. Kee Lung miao kou is just 2 min walk away from the bus stop.

There are easily hundreds of food vendors here selling all kind of Taiwanese delights, from glutinous rice sausage to fresh sashimi and seafood.

Our first stop was at this stall selling glutinous rice and crab thick soup. The soup taste bland that it looked. The bowl of rice cost TWD25, and the soup was TWD50.

In the middle section, there were a few seafood stalls selling king crab crawl, giant oyster, jumbo prawn.. and many other sea shells.

we couldn't help to stop at one of the stall, ordered 2 sticks of king crab crawl at TWD250 each. Well.. nothing to shout about the cooking style.

I wish I had more stomach for the food, but after a long day, my appetite wasn't exactly good, we decided to head back to Taipei. On the way to Keelung train station, there's still double storey Watson outlet that I just had to visit. They have products like SKII to the more economy brands like Maybelline.

Eventhough my feet were killing me after all the walking, we still decided to go Ximending after a good shower in the hotel. Ximending is just a station away from Taipei Main Station, and has a good crowd of young people. Many clothing stores selling Japanese inspired fashion.

This part of Ximending makes me feel like I am in Tokyo~ although I've never been to Tokyo.

Shops close around 10pm.

Taipei @ 16/09/2009

2009-09-30T17:38:00.000+08:00

Day 2 (part 1)

Since the hotel doesn’t have a coffee house, we were given vouchers for KFC breakfast at KFC that is about 2 blocks away.

Breakfast menu was decent, good choice of sandwiches and porridge. First stop for the day was Sun Yat Sun Memorial Hall, initially an itinerary for yesterday but we didn’t have enough time.

At the exit of this station, there’s a Japanese stall selling all kinda packed Japanese rice and sushi, dame the KFC breakfast, now I don’t have stomach to any!

Sun Yat Sun Memorial Hall is just located 50m away from the Sun Yat Sun Memorial Hall station on the right hand side. It's a big, squarish building with a big garden surrounding it. There are two gallery halls located left and right side to the Sun Yat Sun statue. The statue is then guarded by two honor guards. There's a formal shift change every hour, is part of the tourist attraction here.

From the memorial hall we took a taxi to Wufenpu which cost about TWD100. Wufenpu is an area where 90% of the streets and alleys are fashion vendors. We found out later is better to visit this place in the afternoon or at night as most of the shops do not open until late noon. So we were wandering around the main street to find food, came across this shop selling “ge bao” (割包), had to try one then.

It’s basically “man tao” cut in half and stuffed with chopped braised pork and braised veggie then sprinkle with crushed peanut, TWD45 each, not too bad.

Just a few doors down, it’s another small stall selling “lu rou fan” (braised pork rice), can’t miss this one since it’s one of the most common dish for Taiwan, at TWD250, it’s just a tiny bowl of rice top with braised pork cubes, a bit fatty for me liking. Finally, after had to kill half an hour, some clothing stores are finally opened. I just wished I had more time to browse around, but we had to leave for Jiu Fen. Still, manage to buy two summer dresses and a tank top. Yeah, good buy!

To go Jiu Fen (九份), first take a train from Sungshan railway station to Rui Fan, this is a train, not MRT. The trip was only about 30 min and very comfortable, the train was very clean, I enjoyed the scenery too. Once reach Rui Fan, go towards town area, there’s a spot beside Welcome mini mart where buses pick up passengers to Jiu Fen. A mere 15 minutes, we were there at Jiu Fen bus stop. Jiu Fen is a hilly town, most streets are curving and narrow. There are so many things to see and eat! We passed by a stinky toufu stall, the smell, was overhelming~ it smelled like.. dumpster? We decided to check out the whole place first and come back for the toufu later.

Come to Jiu Fen, gotta eat “yu yuan bing” (芋圆冰)~ this is Taiwanese ice kacang, shaved ice with red beans and “yu yuan”, the orange one could be pumpkin yuan and sesame yuan. The yu yuan was very chewy and springy, dressing was not too sweet.

"Bak Wan" (meat ball) is also another popular dish in Jiu Fen, the skin is made from corn starch and sweet potato starch, very soft and gelatinous, the inside stuffing looks like BBQ pork with some bamboo shoots, serves with savory sauce. I liked the sauce.

There are many interesting shops, selling mochi, shops selling hand made leather goods. There's even a shop selling all sizes handbag with printed teddy bear, kitten and puppies at the end of the ally. Didn't get one though.

Finally, after discovering the village, we turned back for the stinky toufu~ A skewer only TWD25. It didn't taste as bad as it smell, and the toufu is quite moist. Phew, but we still had to get mints from 7-Eleven after consuming that!

We are done with Jiu Fen, from Jiu Fen statin, we took a direct bus to the nearby town - Kee Lung.

Taipei @ 15/09/2009

2009-09-30T16:56:00.000+08:00

DAY 1

Finally arrived in Taoyuan International Airport after 4 hours and 40 mins flight. We took an airport coach that goes to Taipei main station in Taipeicity. The bus fare was about TWD120 per pax, the ride was about an hour since there were a few stops dropping passengers before reaching the final destination, quite convenient.

Hm, Taipei is not as modern as I’d expected. Buildings are quite old and dated, residential buildings are finished with tiles on the exterior, that’s very old school. In Taipei city, we passed by a street with some branded stores such as LV & Armani. Not many tall buildings to be seen.

We arrived at station’s East gate, took us a while to find the right direction to our hotel since the station has north, south, east and west entrance. The station is old and basic, nothing compare to our KL Sentral.

We decided to go underground to the Metro Mall to avoid all the traffics. This is a underground mall that links the MRT and other railway, it has many clothing shops and food stalls.

On the way, we came across this small stall selling 葱抓饼 (taiwanese roti prata), it was delicious~ so crispy and full of flavor, only TWD25 for the plain ones. After getting direction a couple of time, we finally reached exit Z10 at zone Z, and damn, no escalator? We had to drag the luggage up the stairs~ bad idea, should had stay above the surface!

Our hotel – See You hotel, is very nice and clean, looks new too. Room a bit small though, I thought we had the Executive suite~ It’s already over 5pm after settling down, gotta treat my stomach first. We went to this Xin Jiang restaurant near Sun-Yat-Sun memorial station, highly recommended by my dear sister.

You can opt for ala carte dishes, a BBQ buffet at TWD499 per pax or a full all you can eat that includes drinks and appetizers at TWD699 per pax. Dame hungry, we decided to have the full buffet of course!

We had the goat milk soup, nice, tasted like cream sauce with small pieces of lamb inside, straw mushroom and bamboo shoot crisped up the taste.

The Mix goat soup was fantastic, sweet and no gamey taste. BBQ meat was fresh, tasty with plenty of seasoning powder. The Kai Lai (sweet and sour plum juice) was very refreshing, nice.

Gotta exercise after a heavy meal, so we walked to Taipei 101, the main purpose was to see the golden damper. It cost TWD400 per ticket to go up the Observation floor, L88, L89 and L90. Taipei 101 has the fastest lift in the world, it took only 40 seconds to reach L89!

This is the observatory floor at L89 where you’ll see 360 degree of Taipei night view. There's also a souvenir shop selling damper baby toys. The golden damper can be seen from L88 & L89.

It looks like a giant bee hive to me~

Towards the exit, there are more souvenir counters selling local food products, jewellry made from corals.

The shopping mall below is surprisingly quiet and close early at 9:30pm~