I have only tasted Haagen Dazs‘ ice cream once! And the very reason I got to eat at Haagen Dazs is because my brother got an unexpected bonus for his good performance at work. To be honest, Haagen Dazs’ ice cream is really expensive and it is not something I’d eat very often. Even a single scoop cost like RM9 already. We do buy a pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream once in a while. But my mom and sister would finish it before I could even have a spoon lol. And since it was my brother’s treat, we chose to have the chocolate fondue!

It took quite some time for the chocolate fondue to arrive but it was well worth the wait. We were so excited when it finally arrived lol. The chocolate fondue is clearly a popular item in Haagen Dazs, as I saw most of the customers ordered it. Regardless of them being family, friends or couples.

As usual, they have to wait for me to quickly snap a few photos before they can start eating hehe.

14 scoops of ice cream are given and the flavors consist of strawberry (or was it rasberry?) coffee, chocolate and vanilla. I am not sure if you are allowed to choose the ice cream flavors. we didn’t give any specifications so we just took what we were given. It’d be really nice if were allowed to choose the flavors don’t you think?

Other things you can dip in the chocolate fondue are fruits (banana, green apple, strawberry) chocolate love letters, chocolate chip cookies and a orange cake cubes. Ice cream aside, I enjoyed the chocolate cookies and cake cubes the most. Chocolate cookies dipped in melted chocolate, so chocolatey it’s just wonderful!

Since Haagen Dazs was generous with the amount of melted chocolate given, we didn’t hold back with the dipping. A small light is placed under the ceramic pot to keep the chocolate stay melted.

Throughout the fondue meal the ice cream balls didn’t melt a bit, they must be really well frozen! When the ice cream is dipped into the melted chocolate, the chocolate slowly hardens and forms a nice coating of chocolate. Before the chocolate fully hardens you gotta dip it into the peanuts.

Then you will get something like this The chocolate fondue is really good! So good that I kept scraping the remaining chocolate left in the pot using the fork lol.

I have forgotten how much the chocolate fondue cost, paiseh! But based on what I’ve Googled around, the price should be RM62.90 after tax. The price went up 30-40% in just a span of two years! It was only RM44++ from other older reviews. So, if you plan to try Haagen Dazs chocolate fondue, better do it quick lol. The portion is a big huge for two but just nice if shared among four.

If you are wondering, we had the chocolate fondue at Autocity. And no, I didn’t purposely travel back to Penang just to eat this. This was even before I came to SK lol. By the way, Haagen Dazs’ outlet in Autocity is just beautiful

Other bloggers who have tried Haagen Dazs Chocolate Fondue:

• Malaysiabest
• quaintly.net
• yowazzup

Technorati Tags: ice cream, chocolate, chocolate fondue, Haagen Dazs

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Fong Lye is a Taiwanese Restaurant which has recently opened their latest outlet in The Gardens, Midvalley. Among the many restaurants in The Gardens, we chose to dine in Fong Lye because it was the most cheapest restaurant we could find. Well maybe cheap priced food comes with cheap quality.. our dinner was not good at all. Lesson well learnt: you get what you paid for.

We ordered three types of food and only this Fried Seafood Spaghetti tasted good, it was a bit spicy. But, it was not worth its price tag at all. RM20+ for a simple seafood spaghetti like this.. not many seafood also! And they even served that cheapo cartoon faced fish cake lol.

Pork Dumplings in Beef Soup - very normal only, nothing to write home about. During my entire meal I have been paying attention to how the restaurant was run. The design, although nice is not practical. There’s only one way in and out of the kitchen. Worse still, there was a wall blocking the kitchen’s sight. I have witnessed many incidents where the waiters kept running into each other when delivering foods. If they are not careful enough, they would surely drop and waste the food. The staff are pretty clumsy too, every other minute you’d hear something break.. which reminded me of Queensbay’s Dragon-I.

Then came their Taiwan Stir Fried Lala, which was a total failure. I’ve been watching Gordon Ramsay’s shows recently and learnt quite a lot about kitchen and restaurant management. If Gordon Ramsay was running Fong Lye’s kitchen, he will never serve this. Using his very own quote “It’s fucking stone cold! Don’t you dare to serve it!” Yeah he swears a lot in the show and he’s a perfectionist. I am guessing the lala (clams) were already cooked earlier and can be served immediately whenever someone orders it. But please lah, at least reheat it before you serve it! The taste itself is already sucks, some more is blardy cold!

The total bill was RM60++ and I was pretty angry with the quality of food and service we were given. There were other unhappy incidents but I rather not talk about it. In the end, we pretty regretted not going to TGIF. We could have had an awesome 3 course meal instead! Masak-masak thinks their food is quite good, it was a different branch at Sri Hartamas and reviewed 2 years ago though.

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This is a quite popular and nice nasi lemak in Kepong Baru’s ‘wai sek kai’. If you’re from Kepong you should probably already know this nasi lemak stall. And I bet you have eaten it a couple of times already too. A normal order would be the usual anchovies, hard boiled egg and sambal. But you can opt for add-on dishes to make it a bigger and of course, a more delicious meal.

What makes a good nasi lemak? The sambal of course. No matter how tasty the other dishes are, sambal provides the ‘kick’ and most importantly improves the taste a lot. Most curries are not too spicy to cater for the masses. So, the amount of sambal you put in your nasi lemak determines level of ‘kick’ and spiciness. I recommend taking lots of sambal if you’re eating here, it’s very good.

Among the things you can add-on are beef and chicken rendang, curry squid and fried egg. I took the beef and chicken rendang because they looked really good. And also the enticing smell of lemon grass used to cook the rendang.. you can smell it even when you’re queuing. I have a habit of adding extra eggs to my nasi lemak because I just love to eat them with sambal.

The rice is cooked to perfection with coconut milk. As you can see the rice are not in lumps or sticking to each other, this requires skills yo. And the anchovies are of the freshest and one of the crunchiest I’ve ever tasted. They make pretty loud crunchy sounds when you chew on them lol.

It’s a pity there’s no name for this nasi lemak stall. But if you mention good nasi lemak in Kepong, this would probably the first that come into mind @ “Wai Sek Kai“. Price wise, it was quite reasonable. It cost less than RM10 for us. The uncle and his sister only sell for dinners from 7pm onwards. Be there as early as possible or you will join the long queue lol. Besides good nasi lemak in this ‘wai sik kai’ food court, there’s also great Kam Heong Lala and BBQ chicken wing! All foods are equally well recommended

Technorati Tags: nasi lemak, Kepong

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The sky was exceptionally clear and blue yesterday.. and the cloud formation was perfect.. such a nice weather is hard to come by nowadays. So, I took the opportunity and went to Putrajaya to experiment with some HDR shots. This is my third time taking HDR in Putrajaya, which I have finally managed to get some satisfied results to share with you. HDR tutorials are abundant on the Internet but I will try to come up with my own later. Because I can only fit at most 500px wide photos in my blog, these are actually smaller version of the HDR. To view the full size, do click the photos and it will bring you to my flickr!

Putra Mosque is probably one of the most photographed mosque in Malaysia lol. Simply because of its modern design and situated beside a lake.

Another shot from the same place I stood, but with different HDR settings. The color saturation is higher.

Another HDR attempt on Putra Mosque. If you are an expert in HDR, I would love to know your opinion of my work. Any advice or criticism to improve my photos are most welcomed!

This is a HDR processed from three RAW images. The outcome is clearly different from the ones generated using JPEG.

This is where our PM works.. Keranamu Malaysia!

I actually like this photo the best. If you haven’t been to Putrajaya before, you won’t believe that this place, Dataran Putrajya is actually in Malaysia. It is flanked by the Perbadanan Putrajay Complex which is a very cool steel like building, and the Palace of Justice.

This is the Palace of Justice, which houses the judicial departments and courts. Both Palace of Justice and Kuala Lumpur Court Complex in Jalan Duta have this “BUAT KERJA” banner displayed. Seems like a reminder to do their work lol. Hope you liked the photos.. and please.. comment comment and comment!

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So, I went and tried Sister’s Char Koay Teow in McAlister Road before I left Penang. It it said to be one of the best char koay teow in Penang, with a notorious reputation of being overpriced and arrogant. I even heard that you would be charged for not ordering a drink in the coffee shop. I had to see it for myself to confirm this.

The coffee shop was pretty empty when I went there. Only a few tables were seated and it didn’t seem as busy as I expected, since it’s supposed to be famous and all. To be honest, we were not really impressed by the looks of the koay teow when it arrived on our table. It looked quite bland and normal, portion seems small too. If you noticed, there’s a little crab meat sprinkled on top of the koay teow as garnish.

But, it turned out to be very delicious and had a unique good taste which other char koay teow doesn’t have. The prawns are big, fresh and sweet - giving the dish a boost in taste. It is certainly a par above the rest. The price tag for a plate is quite expensive though, which is RM5.

And here are some of the rules to be obeyed while you are in the coffee shop. No moving or joining of the marble tables is allowed, and no outside drinks is allowed too. The poster on the right warns that anyone who didn’t order any drinks within the coffee shop would be charged 50 cents each. I tested this by only ordering one drink for two of us and yeah, we were charged an extra 50 cents.

Sister’s Char Koay Teow can be found in Lam Heng Cafe, a corner coffee shop at the end of McAlister Road. Besides char koay teow there’s also laksa, mee jawa and their very own otak-otak. So, you are not necessarily forced to eat char koay teow only lol.

Technorati Tags: Penang, Sister’s Char Koay Teow, McAlister Road, char koay teow

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A few weeks ago I went to Klang in search of the best Klang Bak Kut Teh. I’ve visited and tried most of the Bak Kut Teh restaurant in Klang, and left only a few more to cover. My first stop was Fong Keow Bak Kut Teh restaurant, which is located in Taman Intan (formerly known as Taman Rashna). In Chinese this place is called “Lan Hua Yuan”.

In this area alone there are like five to six Bak Kut Teh restaurants. With such stiff competition, each restaurant needs to have their own distinguishable taste and quality to survive in the town of Bak Kut Teh.

I look for tender and fresh meat, herbal thick and sweet soup in a good claypot of Bak Kut Teh. And Fong Keow doesn’t disappoint. Pork ribs were actually given, which made me a happier man lol. Some are very stingy and only give the lean meats. What’s Bak Kut Teh without pork ribs, right? Anyway, a person’s serving with additional pork meat balls and yiu char koay is more than enough for two. One thing to remember is to come as early as possible because they sell out pretty fast.

To get to Fong Keow, use the Federal Highway and exit at Taman Rashna toll. Keep left or follow the road leading to Klang town until you see Jalan Batu Tiga Lama. Turn into Jalan Batu Tiga Lama and you will see Fong Keow immediately on your right.

Technorati Tags: Bak Kut Teh, Klang

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You won’t believe where I went to celebrate my last Valentine’s day. It wasn’t at any fancy Western restaurant nor a romantic candle light dinner. Partly because most of the restaurants in Penang were already fully booked a few days ahead. So, we decided to have a seafood feast at Bali Hai Seafood Market - a seafood restaurant along Gurney Drive. We thought that the money would be better spent on seafood than lamb or steaks. And boy, did we make a helluva good decision!

Before the showing the foods I ate, let me give you a tour of the seafoods Bali Hai has to offer.

The restaurant is big and can sit a hundred people easily. Beside the restaurant is a transparent glass where you can see all the chefs preparing your food live.

The selection of seafoods in Bali Hai is amazing. Each aquarium tank you see houses an individual seafood! Bali Hai certainly lives up to its tagline of “If it swims we have it”. I have seen some of the seafoods like spider Crab, snow Crab, geoduck on TV but I never imagined them being available in Penang.

Spider Crab, which I have always seen on Japan and Taiwan food programmes. Their limbs are so long and meaty! They don’t come cheap too.. RM25/100gm.

The Emperor Crab, so huge!

And the cheapest crab of the bunch - our very own local meat crabs. They seem so tiny to me after looking at those huge emperor and snow crabs lol.

OMG! Lobsters! OMG! Almost every table ordered cheese baked lobsters.. made me salivate like hell!

These mantis prawns are so expensive because they are of the bigger sized species which have a lot more meat. A couple of these mantis prawns would be equivalent to the price of an emperor crab already.

Fresh Water Prawn - known as “Dai Tau Ha” in Cantonese. “Dai Tau Ha” is also used to describe someone being forgetful lol.

Some of the fishes available. Honestly, I couldn’t identify any of them! Can you?

Ah, at least I know this one - grouper! I think it’d take at least 10 people to eat one grouper of this size.

Oysters

These weird looking creatures which seem to have elephant trunks growing out of them are known as geoduck (pronounced “gooey duck”) Geoduck are actually clams native to the Pacific Coast. Apparently, it is highly regarded in Asia cuisines especially among the Chinese - almost same level as abalone. An eye opener for me.

Our first dish to arrive was Kam Heong Clams - RM12. It tasted good - spicy and fragrant but it was the cheap price that really surprised me.

Then came the Salted Egg Crabs - RM35, there was only one crab. Bali Hai was generous with the salted eggs. You can see that they are fully covered with salted eggs which is a good thing. So far, this was the best salted egg crab I had.

Since this is a seafood restaurant, Bali Hai’s zhap choy (RM15) is prepared using seafood too. The usual pork or chicken meat are substituted with squids and fish. And the fresh and sweet tasting fish meat made all the difference. I never thought zhap choy could taste sooo good!

Tiger fish is very difficult to find in Penang nowadays, especially the fresh (live) ones. It’s not even available in Bukit Tambun! So when I saw they have it here in Bali Hai, I ordered it immediately. Although tiger fish looks ugly and resembles nothing like tigers, it has one of the sweetest and most tender meat among fishes. It cost RM15.

Our dinner cost RM90 inclusive of two fruit drinks, 5% government tax and 5% service tax. The food alone would cost RM77 only. I think it was reasonable considering that Bali Hai is located in Gurney Drive. To see more seafood Bali Hai has to offer, do read 24hr Mom’s dining experience. She had lobster sashimi and lobster yee mee, fuyoh!!

Technorati Tags: Penang, seafood, Bali Hai

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When I got paid the 2nd time by Advertlets, I decided to spend all of it on a meal. The amount I was paid was RM100 in cheque. It was not a lot, but I was convinced it would buy us a very nice dinner somewhere in Penang. Heeding the recommendations of friends, we chose Chicago Rib House in Autocity.

One of our main courses (we ordered 2 main courses lol) was a combination of pork ribs and chicken fillets served with mashed potatoes and broccoli. If you don’t like pork, there’s also beef ribs. You can also choose the spiciness of your ribs, we wanted it to be original. Sweet and sour cream is provided for dipping the chicken fillets. The pork ribs are very meaty and soft, but I found it a bit too dry. If compared with Ribs’, I prefer the latter.

Soup of the day was chicken noodle soup. It tasted great but the serving size needs some improvement. You see, it was only half full!

The second main course was the BBQ Chicken Pizza. It has a thin crunchy crust topped with plentiful of cheese and onions. I think I ate 4 out of the 6 pieces alone, it was really nice. Well at least better than those Pizza Hut ones lol.

I never thought I would ever order roasted pork in a Western food restaurant, but I did. I still don’t know what struck me that time to order this.. It tasted nothing different than the roast pork my mom buy every weekend in the market zzz. When it arrived I was thinking “Huh? OMG? Sio Bak??” lol.

Our drinks that night.. Chocolate Milkshake.

And Strawberry Milkshake. Usually we’d ask for plain water, but since it was an all out night (on cash), what the heck!

The bill came up to a little over RM100 because of the tax and service charge. Anyway, still can be considered as a free meal, treated by Advertlets I had some trouble looking for Chicago Rib House in Autocity. Actually it is located just behind McDonald’s, which is also the least crowded side in Autocity. And maybe that explains the lack of customers?

Technorati Tags: Penang, pork ribs, Pizza, Western food, Autocity

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This curry laksa @ curry noodle stall is introduced by none other than my dear gf. When she was working as a industrial trainee in Shah Alam, her colleagues always brought her to Glenmarie for the famous curry laksa. She has been telling me how good the curry laksa tasted, which I can only ponder. After returning to Cyberjaya to work, I finally have the opportunity to try it.

The modus operandi is systematic and seems almost like a human factory for producing your very own bowl of curry noodles.

Firstly, you will specify what type of noodles you want. You can choose from bihun, yellow noodle, koay teow or huang di mian. Then, you can opt to ‘ka liu’ (add ingredients) with the array of yong tau fu or curry chicken. Fish ball, brinjal, tau fu pok, fish cake, dumpling are some of the yong tau fu you can add. If you don’t eat si-ham (cockles), this is also where you can ask for it to be omitted. Next, another person will prepare the noodle with the ingredients chosen. Lastly, payment and retrieving the curry noodle you have just customized.

This was SL’s curry noodle, with her favorite brinjals and dumplings. Oh my, that looked so tempting and tasty!

Mine, on the other hand only had extra fried dumplings. This curry noodle is also known as curry mee in Penang. The main difference I noticed between Penang and Kuala Lumpur curry mee would be the soup. Penang version’s soup is sweeter and the chili is added separately, so the soup appears white-ish. In KL, curry noodle’s soup is cooked together with chili and the noodles are topped with curry chicken. Because of this, the soup is so much thicker and spicier by default.

The stall does not have a name but there was a name printed on the t-shirts they were wearing. Too bad I forgot the name, lol. Anyway the curry noodle stall is selling in a coffee shop named Chicken Cuisine. Very recommended if you like thick, rich and spicy curry laksa. It is located in HICOM Glenmarie, just after the Shell and Caltex stations. This is the exact address of the coffee shop I got from A Whiff of Lemongrass.

6, Jalan UI/Seksyen UI Hicom-Glenmarie Industrial Park,
40150 Shah Alam

Technorati Tags: Shah Alam, curry noodle, Glenmarie

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A nice bowl of ais kacang during a hot day does wonders I was spending the day hunting for my new camera and it was scorching hot. So, we stopped at Lorong Selamat to enjoy some ais kacang and to cool off. And do you know that the famous char koay teow here has moved to their own coffee shop? Their new shop is a corner shop at the end of the road. I think the char koay teow stall’s migration has affected the business a lot.. it used to be difficult to find a seat. Now, seats are freely available.

This is one of the nicer ais kacang in Penang which has still managed to maintain the quality and taste (unlike New World Park’s) The price did went up a bit though.. Another ais kacang stall I’d recommend would be Penang Road’s.. will blog about that in future.

Anyway this is the first photo I took after I got my EOS 400D, it’s crappy lol. And having a 50mm lens, I’m always trying to play with depth of field and create some nice bokeh shots. Until today I still haven’t mastered the DSLR.. especially under tricky lighting conditions.

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