The Gardens ~ Pastis Cafe

I seldom shop at Mid valley, well, can say that I don't really like Mid Valley. Reasons? Well, for one, I used to work there, at the boulevard office and it doesn't really work well, and for two, it's always jam there, and the car park.. oh my..

Anyway, FL and I went there two weeks ago for the home deco exhibition (why these exhibitions always held there? hmmm..), after the exhibition, we decided to go over to the gardens becos mid valley was too crowded. We had our tea+early dinner at the Pastis Cafe, ground floor, right in front of Isetan after we saw it's full of ppl.

Pastis Cafe

very nice environment

FL's peach tea
taste not bad, but doesn't really blends well with the food we ordered. hehe..

Coffee with free cookie

Milk, it's warm some more..
smells very nice!

toast set which comes with two cups of coffee/tea
RM 21.90

Butter, Kaya, Rasberry and Peanut Butter
cute right? like toothpaste. hehe..

Although the toast are thick, but it's surprisingly tasty, it's crunchy at the outside and soft inside. yummy... besides that, we also ordered..

farm house chicken pie, RM 16.90
this is tasty as well, but the salad tasted a bit weird..
maybe it's becos of the dressing..a bit salty..

Overall, we had a very nice meal there, the environment is nice, food is tasty, and of cos, price not cheap also lar.. The total bill adds up to RM 42.70 with 10% of service charge. If you ever pass by there, do try it out, you will like it too!

Chayo ~ Everyone's Cup of Tea @ Kelana Mall

When D asked me out for lunch last week, we both were clueless on what to eat. We wanted a quiet place where we can chat, a place near my comp, a comfy place.. There's really not much choice except those kopitiams (old town, ali cafe, papa rich) at kelana mall but we both were so sick of the food at kopitiam, that is why we decided to try something new.. Chayo...

Chayo was opened quite some time ago but I nv tried having lunch there before. I guess the main reason is because there's always not much ppl there, and I'm not really sure what they served there.. is it just coffee and cake?

Anyway, when D told me they served northern vegetarian food, I said to myself, why not go try it out? So there we are..

There are not really a lot of choices on main dishes but I did see a lot of ppl ordering mee goreng. But there's quite some choices for snacks.. So D and I decided to order a main dish to share, and some snacks too...

Black Coffee, RM 5.60

forgot what drink is this, it's part of the snack set, RM 6.50,
i don't like the taste, but D loves it!

Spaghetti Spicy, RM 9.90 this one not bad...

Cheese fingers, part of the snack set
can't really taste the cheese, and it's kind of tasteless..
it taste better when you eat it with the sauce..

Pan Fries Potato, RM 4.50
well, it's just potatoes... nothing special..

Bombay Toast, RM 4.50
it's basically Fried toast...
comes with the sauce as well...

Our bill adds up to RM 34.10 (include 10% service charge). The food there is quite ok, no strong flavored food and taste ok, it's good to come here if you want to have something different, something light..and the environment is superb...

Ah Lan's Yu Guo at Jiufen (九份) 阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿、

We were walking at the JiuFen Streets and then suddenly we saw a long queue. Everyone is queuing in front of this shop!! What is so nice here?

阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿

I asked FL to go queue first while I go see see look look what they selling. hehe..kiasu mar..so ask FL to queue first lar..

what is this? green green one biji one biji...

There wasn't a lot left but don't worry, they have a group of ladies making it at the back.. check it out!!

see? no matter what is this, must be quite nice to eat cos it's fresh!!

got sweet one, salty one...

and we bought two biji, one sweet one salty..
nt 10 each (RM 1.20)

It's not cheap also lar, one small biji costs RM 1.20, it taste a lot like our 'ang gu kuih', not bad... quite nice...If you ever visit Jiufen, do try it out!!

HYT Espresso Chestnut Mooncake (喜月堂咖啡栗子月饼)

A colleague of mine brought me the HYT mooncake brochure to see whether I'm interested in buying mooncakes or not. He's very nice, trying to help his mum to get some sales. After browsing through the brochure, I decided to buy one from him (my family doesn't like mooncake, if I buy more, I'll be the one who need to finish all!! :p).

For those who knows me, you guys should know I LOVE coffee... that's why I chose this...

HYT Espresso Chestnut Mooncake (喜月堂咖啡栗子月饼),
RM 11.70

smells nice..when I removed the package..

the yellow part is not egg yolk..not sure what is it,
but it taste like condensed milk.. :p

Hmm, the mooncake doesn't have much coffee taste and it's quite sweet, have you guys tried other brands' coffee mooncake, is it better? I prefer less sweet one...

DAP's Rocket United Cafe @ SS2, PJ

I came across this cafe while I was blog surfing. Hmmm, kopitiam is really "hot" nowadays, even DAP decided to open one? Interesting, a political cafe where you can drink coffee, suft net, chit chat, read political magazines and even sign up as a voter!! Not bad hor...

So few days ago, FL and I decided to go try it out, to have our dinner there. We actually had a hard time trying to find this place, we go round and round SS2 and when we finally decided to give up, we saw the cafe!! hehe...

Rocket United Cafe
situated opposite the 'wai sek gai', same row with 'gei dak sek'.

they served all kinds of coffee,
from ipoh, from penang, sabah, melaka, muar,
indonesia, vietnam and etc etc..

As for food, there are nasi lemak (as usual), chicken rice, and the special one is the nyonya rice which I don't think you can get at other kopitiam. Besides rice, there's noodles too, chicken hor fun, tom yam, and also snacks such as popiah, fish ball, fries and etc. Of cos, kaya butter toasts are available too...

drinks..
once you've decided what to eat,
you placed your orders here...

food..

FL's Ice Chek Hup White Coffee, RM 4.90
well, it's tasteless....

teh tarik, RM 3.90
I decided to play safe and ordered teh tarik. hehe...
not bad lar.. very big mug...

FL's Nyonya Rice Rendang Chicken, RM 8.90
Hmm, this looks good and special..the blue color rice, the huge and yummy rendang chicken..taste not bad...

My Nasi Lemak Sambal Sotong, RM 8.90
this one just so so,
sambal sotong tasteless where else
the nasi lemak's sambal is too salty..

There's no service charge/gov tax added to our bill. I should say the food and drinks there are ok, it's probably better than some other kopitiams out there but I think they should improved on their service cos it's actually quite slow. Somehow they don't served ppl based on first come first serve.. Cos we placed our order first but then the other two tables got their drinks and food first..

Besides that, it's quite dark in there, and one thing which I don't really like is there are A LOT of mosquitoes!! I can even see mosquitoes (4 to 5) flying above everyone's head!! How to read/chit chat there when mosquitoes keep attacking u?

Will I visit the place again? Well, maybe.. when there are no more mosquitoes ... hehe....

Not so stinky Stinky Tofu @ JiuFen Taiwan (臭豆腐@九份台湾)

I've always wanted to try stinky toufu cos I can't seems to understand why ppl will like such smelly food. Some friends told me the smell and the taste is totally two different thing. That is why I told myself, die die also must try when I went to Hong Kong last year. But at the end, I didn't try also, why? Cos it's toooooo smelly till I don't even dare to go near it, not to mention putting it into my mouth. hehe...

Although I didn't get to try it in Hong Kong, I did try it for the very first time in Taiwan!! and yes, it's delicious!! But one thing is, it's not smelly at all, so maybe this was not the original smelly toufu?

I still remembered when we passed by the stall, I asked FL, ei, what is this? looks nice.. Then FL looked up and told me, hey, this is stinky toufu leh.. and my first reaction was, har? why not smelly one? let's go try it!! hahahahahaaha...

looks nice right?

the grill (现烤臭豆腐) one, nt 25 (RM 2.90) per stick, the fried one (油炸臭豆腐) nt 40 (RM 4.70) per stick, we decided to take the grill one..

and of cos, we added lot's of chili!! hehehe..

We were surprised we actually like it! It's not smelly and it's tasty, especially with the chili added!! Yum yum!! I finally tried smelly toufu!!! yay!!

Famous Prawn Mee @ Jalan Ipoh

When we were on our way home from the bookfest (that was like 2 weeks ago!!), FL brought me to Jalan Ipoh to try the prawn mee, recommended by his colleague. Well, I'm not really a fan of prawn mee, but no harm trying lar...

Shun Li (顺利) Prawn Mee

wow.. seems like a lot of HK actors where here before!!
Eric Tsang, laughing gor, Cheng Kar Weng and etc..

According to FL's colleague, we MUST try the dry version of prawn mee, so both of us ordered dried prawn mee...

dry prawn meehun, RM 4.50

and we're given a bowl of soup..

After tasting the soup, we both think the 'wet' prawn mee will be much better.. Dry prawn mee.. erm, really nothing special...

Breakfast at Taiwan's McDonalds

FL and I both decided not to have egg biscuits and hamburgers for breakfast anymore on our last day of our Taiwan trip. We have been eating egg biscuits and hamburgers for 3 days continuously (2nd & 3rd day, 4th day). It's time to try something new. hehe...

There's a mcD near our hotel, and we normally will try McD when we visit other countries to see what's the difference between ours and theirs. That's why we decided to have McD for our breakfast on our last day in Taiwan.

So what to order? The minute I looked at the menu, I knew what I was going to order..bacon & egg!! I love bacon!! As for FL, he ordered a pork sausage mcMuffin for himself.

Bacon & Egg Breakfast Set and Pork Sausage McMuffin Set
nt 150 for both sets (RM 17.60)

Bacon & Egg
looks nice right?

bacon

Although my bacon & egg burger looks nice, but it doesn't taste that nice. The bread is so hard and I think you will hear a sound if I used the bread to knock on your head. hehe...

FL's pork sausage mcMuffin

doesn't looks nice but taste better than mine!!

I don't know why they don't allow ppl to take photos in McD. Yes, there's actually a sign there stated no pictures are allowed. So all these pictures I curi curi take one. shhhhhh..... hehehe....

Vietnam coffee, anyone?

I went to Hanoi few months ago, the one thing that I miss till now is their coffee. Yes, Vietnam's coffee. Their coffee is superb!! Trust me, you will never forget it's taste once you've tasted it.

That is why I bought a lot of coffee back with me..7 packets of coffee powder. hehe..

A lot of ppl said, Vietnamese have lot's of time, why said so? They are very hardworking, they woke up very early and they sleep very late, therefore they have a lot of time. What has this to do with their coffee? Well, to make a cup of coffee takes some time, let me show you...

To make a cup of Vietnam coffee, you'll need this..

no, this is not just a cup..

see?

lot's of small holes right?

placed it on top of a cup

coffee powder from Vietnam

here's the steps that we need to follow
to make a cup of Vietnam's coffee

put in three full teaspoon of coffee powder

placed the cover on it

pour hot water in it

so now what? wait..

Remembered I said earlier to make a cup of Vietnam's coffee takes time? Well, now you know why. To make a cup of Vietnam's coffee, you will need about 10 to 15 minutes..

see, it's dripping...

placed the cover on top and checked back after 15 minutes..

After 15 minutes...

finished dripping..

you can add in sugar or condensed milk..

I prefer condensed milk..

drink it hot or cold..

there you go, a glass of Vietnam's Coffee
hmmmm, smells so nice...
taste sooo good...