Yesterday, my dear Satkuru brought me to this coffee shop located at Bishop Street. He went there for food review on Sunday and wanted me to try their coffee as the owner is the best barista in Malaysia.

Since we have 2 hours to kill before meeting up with event planner from Cititel, I agreed and off we went to this quaint coffee shop, Lighthouse Cafe.

Upon entering, my nose caught strong whiff of coffee. Mm~

The place is small but cosy. Dim yellow lights are shined on the wall to create warm ambience. Tables and chairs are smartly placed at both sides, giving walkaway in the middle. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a staircase leading up, but I’m not too sure on that. We walked in and headed straight for the counter. That’s when we heard someone called our names.

We turned and to our pleasant surprise it was EMILY!

We laughed, and I walked to her and had a little chat before was asked to place order. I looked at the green board on the wall behind the counter to see if there are any “Must try/Recommendation/Best” icons beside the drink names.

Can’t recall if I see any but I ended up asking the gentleman behind the counter on what are recommended at Lighthouse. He named me 3 – Butterscoth Caramello, White Strawberry Mocha and Coffee Hazelnut Mocha – if my memory doesn’t fail me on the last recommendation.

I chose Butterscotch Caramello while Satkuru took White Strawberry Mocha. There are cakes displayed at the counter too, but we didn’t take any because the cakes didn’t really thrill me much. Hmm.

We sat at a small round table in front of the counter. Few minutes later Satkuru went to get our drinks and we took a sip. My Butterscotch Caramello is heavenly. Just that after few sips, I was telling Satkuru that I should have ordered it hot rather than cold. He agreed.

The White Strawberry Mocha is nice too, but I prefer mine. I took 2 sips and passed back to him whereas he took 2 sips of mine and concluded mine is rather bitter compared to his. And I was telling him that his drink is rather sweet! Haha!

This place is so cosy that when Satkuru kept pestering me to finish up my drink fast or bring my coffee to the car, I didn’t want to leave! Haha. I just like sitting there, talking to him, taking photo around or just enjoying my coffee, glazing into his face. Ah life~

Of course that didn’t happened. So much for enjoying my coffee in the afternoon. T__________T

This place is highly recommendation for coffee lovers. Even if you’re not a coffee lover, you should drop by and try their coffee. Theirs are good. I like!

The reason why I started my post with I’m not a coffee lover is because, I went to two different places and ordered coffee. Well, the second cup came unexpected but still, two cups in one day! Way too much coffee intake for a non-coffee addict. @_@

After meeting up with the lady from Cititel, our tummies growled and we decided to grab something to eat. Satkuru suggested Behind.50, but I told him to go somewhere else because we’ve been there. Out of the blue he took out his phone and looked for China House on the Waze. The house was located and direction to there appeared. 5 minutes later, we found the place.

Located at Beach Street, China House is easily identified from rows of heritage buildings no thanks to the 3 bold signboards bearing the words, Shopping, Art + Theater, and Food + Drinks.

While crossing the road, Satkuru constantly asked me if the place is opened as it looks dim from outside. I told him yes, and dragged him in. Haha.

Unknowingly we walked into a gem. A rather expensive one, lol!

Upon pushing the door, very strong coffee aroma greeted me. Way stronger than Lighthouse Cafe; so strong that I could even ‘smell’ it in my mind. Immediately I thought to myself, wow the coffee here is so good! I must try!

We walked straight to the back of the building. To be frank, we were quite surprised to know that this building is that long! A bar adorned with coffee grinder and machines and alcohols is on the left side of the area while tables for two are on the right. The gap of 3 feet between the bar and the tables allows guests to walk in and out of the cafe and for the host and attendants to serve food and drinks.

Beyond the bar, one can find two long tables at both sides of the walkaway. Many types of cakes, pies and breads are placed on the left table while books and magazines sat on the right table.

Further down, a big antique brown cupboard which stores the belonging of the host and attendants acts as a divider for the vast space. Behind the cupboard, two more tables can be seen there.

We didn’t stop there, we continued walking and we found ourselves at the supposed open-air middle courtyard (the Hokkien people would call this place Am Ceh) which is already covered up with plastic transparent roof sheets.

A long table for 14 pax is smartly positioned in the middle of the courtyard area, decorated with potted plants and framed photographs. A blackboard is nailed to the wall and I can’t help to notice the troll drawing that someone left there. I pointed out to Satkuru and he laughed. Lol.

At the supposedly kitchen area, one could find 2 more tables and roughly 4-5 bookshelves placed against the wall. As much as we wanted to sit at the courtyard and the back area, the tables were all occupied. T________T

We didn’t walk furthermore as we thought that’s the end of the building. But from what I gather, there is a back courtyard which link to another two buildings! Argh! We should have walk out of the building to the courtyard. Huhu.

We walked back to the front of the building and decided to sit at one of the tables placed parallel to the bar. I didn’t realise/notice the mahjong paper which is clipped to the table, but I was very excited when I saw a glass filled with canyons on the table. Then it made me think THIS is the place where my friends posted up photos of them drawing on table with crayons! Haha!

Obviously I grabbed the crayons and drew on the mahjong paper. Wahaha.

Menus are given to us and there isn’t any sign of “Must try/Chef Recommendation” icon on the menu. Satkuru immediately checked Foursquare for tips. Among so many tips, we spotted Vingie which stated overpriced. This tip trembled us a little, but since we had already seated down we thought why not just try the best in the menu.

And we did. We ordered a cup of coffee, a glass of chocolate, 2 slices of cakes and their famous homemade ice cream as they’re highly recommended on Foursquare. He didn’t really see any of the mains mentioned in the tips therefore didn’t go for main course.

My coffee came with a cup of gula melaka. Happily I took a sip. It was bitter like mad! So I quickly add in two spoons of gula melaka and stirred. Took a sip and it was still bitter! I pushed the coffee aside and went for Satkuru’s iced chocolate with chocolate ice-cream. It was heavenly as the chocolate ice-cream is so rich! Yums!

I so wanted to swap my bitter choco with Sat’s choco, but I knew he wouldn’t let me. Grr. In the end I just accepted my bitter coffee, added few more spoons of gula melaka and that’s it. I didn’t want to put much of sugar because I’m afraid I’ll get diabetic out of it, lol!

I can’t help but to think that the person who recommended coffee in Foursquare is either a bitter-lover or plain lazy in mentioning the full name of the coffee. Hello, there are few COFFEES on the menu and your suggestion on ‘coffee’ is killing me. Grr.

I had terrible headache after drinking the bitter coffee. By the end of the meal, I told Satkuru that I have to say NO to coffee and cakes for at least a week. My appetite for these (coffee and cakes) are totally ruined. T__________T

As for the cakes, mine is delicious at first but as I dug on, the bitter coffee spoiled the whole appetite and making my eating experience very torturous. Thus, I ate because I didn’t want to waste food, not because I truly enjoy it. That’s totally not the propose of me entering this place! T__________T

I think Satkuru enjoyed his meal as he didn’t have bitter coffee to go with the cake. Blek!

Immediately after finishing my cake and coffee, I asked for the bill. It took them quite some time to give us our bill because we were told they didn’t have a proper cash machine yet and everything is done manually.

Guess how much our bill amounted to?

- One piece of RM50 note and a piece of RM1 -

Oh well, someone gotta pays for the ambience.

It supposed to be 10 pax trip, but ended up only 8 managed to secure the ticket.

Last minute, one had to pull out due to work and thus only 7 people got onto the plane heading to Vientiane, Laos.

Don’t know why they sprayed so much of this asap thingy.

The flight took 2 hours and 50 minutes with occasion turbulence along the way. Once the turbulence was so strong that I felt that we were in roller coaster ride, lol!

Aaron, Satkuru and my head! LOL!

We couldn’t help but to order Deepavali special meal, tandoori naan set though we had lunch 2 hours earlier. It was delicious! Thumbs up!

Came with a packet of muruku too!

Laos is an hour earlier than us. So when we reached the airport, it was already 6.30pm. We quickly changed money at the money changer and gotten ourselves a van heading to the city centre.

The van is so much better than the van we gotten in Medan! It was so spacious and new. And clean too! Gosh, I begin to like Laos already. Haha!

The moment we got out of the airport vicinity, I could see tents after tents at the roadside and people would be dancing in it. I even counted the numbers of tents I seen along the road! I told the rest this, and we all agreed that Laotians are really good at enjoying themselves – by dancing in the tent with music blaring out loud.

Our van brought us to this hotel in front of Mekong river. As our van turned onto the road leading to the riverfront, there were a sea of human blocking the road. We were puzzled on the crowd and the loud music, all wondering what festivals that brought the locals out to the roads.

Our van driver explained that it was the day of the Dragon Boat Competition. It was held at Mekong river, which explains crowd. Apparently we were a day late, according to him. He said if we were there yesterday, we would have gotten a chance to witness the competition!

Ahhh! What a waste!

After few minutes of honking and jamming, we reached the hotel. It looks lavish and instinct told me it’ll be expensive. Emily and Vingie heard good review from a Singaporean guy about the hotel, therefore we decided to head there daringly. Satkuru went in to inquire on the room rate.

Then he came out, my gut was right, they charged USD60 per pax per night! Cheap for Singaporean, not cheap for us!

So we asked the van driver to bring us to Rue Pengkham. Before coming, I’ve listed out few potential hotels as well as the map of the hotels – just in case we might need it. It really came handly, having these extra information in hand.

The sky got dark pretty fast! Tho it was only 7ish but it seemed like 8 something or 9. There were massive jams all over the main road in Vientiane. Stomach started to growl and anxiety began to grow as we came in without any booking!

First time we went into a country without room confirmation. It’s not that we didn’t try to book, we did inquire around. But those that replied were expensive, and those that look cheaper, didn’t reply. Gahhh!

The Singaporean told that it takes the local 2 weeks to reply. So guys, if you want to head to Laos, especially Vientiane; book 2-3 months earlier.

When our van finally turned into Pengkham road, we were happy to see few hotels there. We told the van driver to stop us there, and paid him USD2 for the extra trip. I was later told that he wasn’t really happy with the USD2 when Satkuru passed him that; ‘maybe should give him USD3‘, he said.

Coincidentally, the van stopped in front of Family Hotel Laos, the hotel that we inquire 2 days before. Satkuru ran up to ask on the room rate and also the availability while we waited outside.

Now, why we inquire this hotel 2 days before the trip? Well, we were waiting for reply from Thawee Guesthouse and so happened I came across this hotel’s website on Agoda which stated they have 3 queen beds! Without hesitation, I asked Satkuru to email this hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel only replied on the day we flew.

Satkuru came out and told us the place is clean and the room is priced at USD38 per night; which all of us happily accepting this hotel. Comparing to the earlier hotel, this hotel is much cheaper!

Immediately we went up the stairs to the lobby, registered and checked into our rooms. Satkuru and Aaron in room 504, Emily and Colleen in room 603 while Vingie, Jessica and I in room 604.

The room looks clean, the bed looks so puffy and inviting, and the toilet – it is sparkling clean and spacious! Strong WiFi connection is available in the room and along the corridor. We washed up a little before leaving our rooms with only valuables in hand.

We were hungry. Like mad hungry. Satkuru stopped by the hotel reception to ask if there’s any ‘food’ available around the hotel area. He encouraged us to walk down the road as there are plenty restaurants and cafes there. He mentioned a popular cafe, “Khop Chai Deu” in the recommendation.

Which fits the information I gotten from Lonely Planet. Top 100 eatery in Laos!

So we walked along the road, passed by an Italian restaurant, a Scandinavian cafe and a bakery, and a fountain. Since the receptionist guy asked us to walk down the road, so we decided to cross this considerably main, busy road. Before crossing, I so happened to look to the right at this cafe with lanterns hanging all over and told Satkuru, see over there, such a beautiful cafe!

In front of the busy road, there were food stall on both sides of a smaller road and goodness, I couldn’t stand the aromatic smell coming from the stirring, charring and bbqing food. I so wanted to tapao something there, don’t know why I didn’t.

We crossed the road, but after walking straight for few minutes, we decided to make an U-turn and head to this beautiful cafe. It’s the famous restaurant, Khop Chai Deu!

At the entrance of Khop Chai Deu, we were ushered in by the lovely waitress. She led us inside, but we told her that we would prefer to sit outside, so we got ourselves a table for 8. Insufficient menus were passed to us. ==”

Sat and I decided to share, so we ordered their Laos set, which comes with sticky rice, papaya salad, sour and spicy fish soup, minced chicken with fresh herbs, Lao dessert and LaoLao. We added a bamboo sticky rice, just in case the sticky rice that they provided weren’t enough. While ordering, I actually asked Satkuru if we should tell the waiter to reduce the spiciness level of the food, but he felt the food shouldn’t be spicy.

Bamboo sticky rice that looks like a banana. Similar to lemang, but not that lemak.

And we were so wrong – in ordering the extra sticky rice and in the spiciness level! The papaya salad is delicious but totally burnt my tongue! As we ordered tower beer to share among 7 of us, the beer didn’t help to lower down the ‘hot’ sensation in our mouth! As for the bamboo sticky rice, it came 10 minutes before the set came and feeling hungry we ate that up first. But when the whole set in, we couldn’t finish up the sticky rice that was stored in a cute small bamboo weaved basket. However, I walloped up the whole basket to counter the spiciness of the papaya salad. Luckily it worked!

Even the minced chicken is spicy. T___________T I gladly munched on the greens to cool off the ‘hot’ sensation in my mouth.

As for the soup, it was sour and less spicy. However the fish meat contains lots bones! I hate fish that has lots small bones. The bones make eating less enjoyable because needs to pull them out before putting into the mouth. Gargh!

Ohya, Satkuru ordered their famous Luang Prabang sausage too.

… but I didn’t know that he did order that until this dish was placed on the table.

Immediately after we finished our meal, Satkuru asked for the Lao dessert. Thankfully the dessert is cold and sweet! I could only manage to take in few mouthfuls as Satkuru telan the whole bowl. LOL! Yes, like me he can’t take spicy food too. Haha!

After a filing meal, we talked, laughed, and enjoyed the beers. I busy observing people.

Like how I observed an angmoh initially sat alone at the bar with a beer tower while we were eating and after finishing our meal, there was a Lao chabo (girl) sitting beside him. Unfortunately for her, the angmoh totally ignored her. I saw her sitting alone, drinking Pepsi and looking around in boredom. While I was busy digging into the sweet Lao dessert, I saw the angmoh suddenly walked towards other angmohs who were seated at table in front of us and joined them, bringing over his beer tower, lol!

Halfway talking, Satkuru suddenly called the waiter and asked for the last item to be served. I puzzled and asked what’s the last item? He said, LaoLao, but no idea what’s that.

The waiter came back with a glass of yellowish liquid. We looked at it, and asked the waiter, what’s that? He said, LaoLao. Lao Whisky!

All of us went Ooo in unison. One by one took a sniff of the liquid, not daring to take a sip. When it finally reached to Vingie’s hand, she took a sip and advised us not to take it in whole as it’s very strong.

Me being the curious cat, wondered how strong it is. So I took the glass, and took a sip. When the liquid entered my mouth, it felt cold; but as it descended down my esophagus, I can feel the liquid ‘burned’ its way through. It was strong, but surprisingly good!

But I don’t dare to take another sip. One sip is enough.

The glass then traveled around the table, all took a sip just to taste it. Satkuru accidentally took a big gulp, hence he felt heavier burning sensation in his stomach. Teehee!

After the LaoLao experience, we paid the bill and left the place for a little exploration. However when we walked out of Khop Chai Deu, most shops were already closed and we had no choice but to walk back to our hotel. Along the way, we stopped by a 7-11 alike convenience store, M-point Mart – which turned out to be our favourite shopping place for the next 2 days, lol!

We bought few essential items like water bottles, yogurts, and snacks. Then we continued our journey back.

That night, we played Monopoly deal for almost 2 hours. Emily and Colleen supposed to come over and we waited for them, kept messaging them but there’s no reply. Little did we know that they fell asleep almost immediately after their heads touched the pillows. They must be really, really tired to fall asleep that fast!

However, it was on Saturday the 15th and I was still in Laos on 15th.

After couple of email exchanges and with a phone call from Emily to Vin, the founder of Qyzzy.com, the session changed to Sunday 16th! Immediately we sent back our RSVP.

On Sunday, off we went to Penang Times Square for a little tea-time session! We reached Times Square 15 minutes late due to the heavy rain around my area.

There was Red Bull Monkey Run event going on and I was so tempted to walk over and watch participants completing the obstacles. But since we were already late so we rushed to Z Classroom as fast as we can.

Z Classroom’s tagline caught my eyes: Z Classroom, where you learn.. how to drink. Couldn’t help to think if we would be serving beers later. The thought was of course dismissed as we were invited for a tea-time session, not drinking session, lol!

Vin was introducing Z Classroom to the bloggers when we reached. He was mentioning on able to charge phones on the shelves if our phone’ battery were running low. We quickly ‘blended in’ and attentively listening to him.

Then he suddenly did a quick ice-breaking, quickly introducing everyone to everyone! I lost part of my voice by the end of my trip and realise I couldn’t really speak aloud when was asked to introduce my website to them. In fact, I was struggling. Ah, so memalukan.

T___________T

He then introduced the owner, Kelvin to us. Kelvin greeted us, said thanks and then passed over to Vin back.

Vin ended the speak by asking if any girls would want to wear this super skimpy dress. He then shot the Q to me and I squeeked nooo, it’s so short! ><

After that, we were allowed to linger around to take photos of the place. I was super proud of my Sony Nex-C3 as they were able to take superb photos at low light without me adjusting any mode or needing to use any flash. Wahaha!

I took few photos around and then was notified that we can go upstairs for more photoshooting. I was like, what? There’s more upstairs? Cool! - and we went up the stairs to this room filled with strong ciggers smell, something that I dislike greatly.

However one cannot break the connection between beers and cigerattes. These two are interconnected, so it’s normal to find such smell there.

One thing that really infruites me is the equation on the wall! E-mc square! I couldn’t help but to say out aloud, isn’t E=MC square? and nobody replied me, not even my beloved fiance. –”

So, I went around taking photos.

The second floors is separated into 2 by a partition. The inner side is turned into a spacious VIP room, good for entertaining more than 10 people in it. It has a big TV on wall, long sofas and a karaoke system.

The outer side accommodates 4 tables and chairs for patroners. There’s another big TV on the wall too.

Then my eyes spotted something interesting. A speaker trumpet! I was posing with it, and someone said it’s from USS! I asked, how you know? He replied, see! The price tag is still there!

Alamak! Haha!

There are also two microphones at the side, so I posed with one also. Passed one to Emily and both of us posed for a picture.

- Satkuru took the photo for us. Still haven’t gotten picture from Satkuru. Aih! -

Then we went down. I realised most of them gathered around the bar around, busy taking photos of something. Curiously I went nearer to see what are they taking photo of. It was the beers!

Vin explained these are the types of beers available there. Then we asked, How about Laobeer? and then we laughed. Couldn’t help but to make some jokes on the beers as we just came back from drinking session in Vientiane. All thanks to LaoLao and Laobeers! Lol!

Did I mention that this cafe has sphere shaped beer dispenser rather than the typical tower beer? Cool right?

Criz came halfway, to pass us the CSL phones that we ‘won’ for writing on CSL post. Super cute ah!

Soon we were served cappuccino, mocha and white coffee. I took white coffee; Emily took mocha and Satkuru took cappuccino. The fragrant of these coffees were too overwhelming, we quickly take photo of the coffees and took few sips.

Ahh~ Heavenly.

Then the cakes came. We were treated to 3 types of cakes. Rum, blueberry and tiramisu. I love their rum and blueberry, but wasn’t really fancy on tiramisu. Maybe because I’ve tasted better other place.

Their rum is heavenly. They’re generous with the amount of chocolate on the cake; and the rum, the rum tastes just nice – not too overpowering, not too lacking. Thumbs up.

Blueberry cheesecake is charming. I think my mum would love this cake. She totally hates cheesecake as she cannot stand the cheesiness in it and this cheesecake doesn’t have that cheesy texture in it. Maybe I can bring her there one day.

Tiramisu. Like I said earlier, I don’t really fancy tiramisu. Upon first bite, all three of us looked at each other and agreed that it lacked of something. Something we couldn’t explain. However as I dug on more, it became nicer and nicer. Weird, right? Haha!

As we’re eating our cakes, we were talking and socialising with other bloggers as well. Z Classroom’s owner, Kelvin also came by and talked to us. We asked him few questions regarding this cafe and found out that it opened in mid August. Also, he mentioned that Z Classroom is his 2nd outlet! His first cafe is the Z1 Cafe. We were marveled as he owns two cafe at such a young age! Kudos to him!

Vin came over and didn’t know how, we started playing Jenga!

Boy, it was such a nerve-wreaking time. My hand shook uncontrollably, so much that I couldn’t place the block nicely! Haha!

We played two rounds. First round was toppled down by Emily. Second time, Vin’s unsuccessful pull caused the tower to fall. It was a big relief to Emily and I when the tower fell before our turns.

Then it was time to go. We took group photo and bid goodbye. We also took photo with Kelvin. ^^

Thanks to Qyzzy.com for inviting us. We had plenty fun mingling around.

Obviously we didn’t, lol!

So we bear the discomfort and prayed that the traffic would be clearer when we got out of the congested area. Luckily it did got clearer.

Still by the time we reached Straits Quay, it was already 8pm. Satkuru was already there, so I called him to meet us at the centre atrium. Then we directly headed to Blue Reef for al fresco style dinner.

We quickly ordered our food and while ordering, my bro and I struggled on checking onto Blue Reef on Foursquare due to bad 3G connection there.

For your information, you’ll get free soft drink upon checking in Blue Reef on Foursquare and show the crew the ‘special’. So, do remember to check in! However this special only valid on weekdays!

In the end, only my sister, Satkuru and I managed to check-in and hence claimed 3 free drinks there! Wahaha.

Since we were so hungry, we decided to blow candle and cut cake first. After all the cake was melting and couldn’t ‘wait’ any longer.

This year I decided to book a special cake for dad. So, I went for mille crepes!

We quickly lighted up the candles and immediately sang birthday song. Dad made wishes that and then blew the lights off the candles. Then he cut the crepes.

Too bad the crepes was too soft that it couldn’t stand beautifully after cutting them in slices. It would be beautiful, if only it came out directly from fridge.

My, my.. the crepes taste so delicious even tho it was soft. I couldn’t imagine how tasty it would be if eat it right after receiving the cake!

Soon our food came in one by one. We have grilled garoupa with mash potatoes and broccoli and carrot stripes for my sister;

.. grilled salmon with mash potatoes, broccoli and carrot stripes for mum;

.. and different fishes of fish and chips – the Threadfin fish and chip for dad;

… the Halibut fish and chip for bro;

… the Spanish Mackerel fish and chip for bro’s gf;

… and the Garoupa Fish and Chip for me!

Satkuru ordered deep fried prawn and calamari since he tried fish and chip before in our previous visit the earlier weekend.

The food didn’t exactly wow my family but I’m glad that they left the restaurant with full and happy tummies.

Maybe it was the mille crepes that made the tummies happy! Haha!

I always love Cathay Pacific, I flew with them few times before and they never fail to impress me. They serve good food, they have pretty cabin crew, the seats are comfy, I love their entertainment channels as they not only have the latest movies in their channel, the movies are different too for different routes/region. You definitely won’t feel bored onboard.

Tho some people prefers sleeping.

It rained early in the morning, but by the time I boarded it stopped. Still, the sky was dark.

Nevertheless, the flight took off smoothly but a guy sat next to me clasped his hands tightly and even took out his rosary beads to pray. He stopped doing that only after that the seat belt sign went off and took out his iPad to probably clear his mind off.

Throughout my 3 hours flight, I watched Burlesque, lol. I was so glued to the screen that I didn’t even know that the crew already started serving breakfast. I was given a choice of omelette or fried noodles with prawn. I chose omelette.

Due to the over demand of omelette, the cabin crew apologised to me for not able to serve me omelette and passed me the hot fried noodles. To my pleasant surprise, she gave me the food meant for business class.

See the amount of prawns there! And the serving was much bigger. It was so much that after I finished my breakfast, my tummy sort of bloated. *_*

Off and on I stopped myself from watching the screen only and looked outside the window. Well, I opted to sit by the window for a good reason right? That’s to able to snap great photos of the clouds.

After 3 hours of watching-movies-plus-snapping-photos, the crew finally made announcement of landing and half an hour later, our flight landed safely on Hong Kong International Airport.

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2011/05/flying-with-cathay-pacific/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2011/03/marmalade-cafe/ http://phingelicious.com/2011/03/marmalade-cafe/#comments Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:47:55 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=3162 Instag.ram has been a great source of discovering new places on food. Off and on friends from KL would post up food photo that looks so yummylicious that I almost lick my phone’s screen in mistake.

Marmalade Cafe came into my life via Instag.ram. My dear half-sisto posted up photos of the interior design of the cafe as well as the delicious-looking cakes which made into the must-visit-place-the-next-time-I-visit-KL list.

After so many moons, I finally had the chance to return to KL for the 33rd Incovar Dharma Camp. Since the camp ended on Tuesday and Wednesday was a public holiday, I took the opportunity to meet old friends and also to explore new eateries.

I ‘forced’ them to meet up for banana leaf for dinner before heading to Marmalade Cafe for a cup of coffee and few rounds of Monopoly Deal.

I love their wallpaper so much that I wanted to put similar design for my future house, but was rejected by Kurubee. T_T

Due to the amount of banana leaf rice I stuff into my tummy earlier, my intention of trying the Marmalade Cafe’s cakes was unfulfilled. On the other hand, Jess didn’t have much for dinner so she ordered a slice of carrot cake to share among the rest.

It is niceeeeeeee! I loveeee the frosting, my my my, I could have finish the whole slice if not weren’t for the banana leaf rice I had half an hour ago.

Without wasting anytime, we started the game. Since there were 8 of us and only 5 players are allowed per deck per game, so some of us teamed up to ‘ensure’ participation from everyone.

We laughed so hard and made so much noise due to excitement that the rest of the patrons looked at us with annoyed face. Haha.

Barely into the 3rd game, we were told by the cafe’s waiter that they’re going to close the cafe soon.

At that time, I was like “gosh, I forgot to take in account of the closing hour as we were so used to hangout at places that open till late night.” Afterall, we had so much fun that to stop the game and leave at 10pm is kinda potongstim.

We could have find another place to go, but then since some of us were feeling under the weather (including me since I just got off camp) so we went around taking pictures at different corners of the cafe before saying goodbye.

Would definitely love to return to Marmalade Cafe to try out their food.

2 hours later, we arrived at the new Straits Quay, admiring the big arch bearing the name at the entrance.

Located in Seri Tanjung Pinang, Straits Quay is one of the project under the E&O Development. There’s a quay, wharf, lighthouse, luxury suites, gym, boutiques, eateries, and errr… fountain in the middle! Rofl.

We walked in and my goodness, the building totally wowed us. The architectural design of the British colonial era totally made us feel like we were in European country. Totally mesmerising!

Feeling hungry, we walked from one end of the building to the other looking for food… and we decided on Weissbrau German Bistro & Bar. Which means the table must have… BEER!

and German crispy pork knuckles! Mm~ Heavenly~*

Not forgetting sausages! *slurps*

Don’t know why we ordered Mushroom pizza too. But, I totally enjoy the pizza. The crust is crispy. Thumb up!

The food is great, but we prefer Ingolf’s Kneipe’s.

After dinner, we lingered the area, checking out the shops there.

However, we left not long after that since the place is still new and there aren’t much to see as the most shops aren’t opened yet. Only ‘candies’ can be found there. Heehee!

Purposely cut all the needed ingredients so that I wouldn’t have to start cooking that early. Little did I know when I took nap at 2.30pm due to terrible headache, mum woke up me an hour later asking me to start cooking!

Of course, I snoozed the ‘alarm’ until 4pm, lol!

I thought I would have enough time to kaotim everything myself, but I’m so wrong again. Again, help was needed in the kitchen. Mum, sis and even dad crowded the kitchen, helped stirring, frying and washing the plates.

By 7.30pm, dinner was served.

Baked scallop and bacon with honey mustard sauce; Garlic beer prawn; Thai style steamed fish.

Omelette wrapped minced meat; Stir fry lotus root, peas and assorted mushrooms; Almond Chicken Strips.

Braised Abalone With Mushrooms and Garden Greens; Watermelon cube soya jelly.

Ahh~ I was so full after dinner… but now, don’t know why I’m hungry d. T_____T

Happy Lunar New Year!

Since it was a sunny afternoon, we didn’t object at all, lol.

Like usual, the waiter came.. ordered, bla bla bla… and then the drink/desserts came.

Ice Ice Baby has varieties of drinks, desserts, finger food and courses to choose from. Therefore we always order different ‘stuff’ each visit.

Their courses (baked cheese, fried rice) tasted so-so to me, their stupid ball (I kid you not, that’s really the name of that dish) was seasoned well and I totally love their crepe. Pardon me for forgetting the filing (I didn’t jot down somewhere -.-”) but I remembered the skin was so crispy! Nice!

Price wise, they’re not crazily expensive. In fact, they’re affordable. The youngsters love to gather here, lovebirds would share their desserts here, and not forgetting the factory workers too as it is comparatively cheaper than other place.

As I blog now, I realise it’s been a while since I visit Ice Ice Baby. Maybe it’s time to try other desserts there.

*cue music from Vanilla Ice*

Because of the crave, I shall blog about Korean food today! Haha!

Last year, after visiting the hot air balloon thingy, we went for lunch at Haeun Khon Restaurant on the 3rd floor of Amcorp Mall.

The food is delicious and surprisingly affordable too! I was thinking oh my, gonna burnt a hole in the pocket but I was quite stunned to know that the set costs like under RM20?!

Ah, now I crave for Korean food even moreeeee! Oh My BIBIMBAPPPPPPPP!

>___________<