Happy Chinese 牛 Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

I like this simple yet nice greeting from Sky:-

"May the year of Ox bring you better health, wealth, luck and all other good things in life!"

And I also like Bob's unique greeting:-

"May you have an ox-picious year! :) "

Thanks for all the greetings everyone! Let's look forward to a better year ahead of us, perseverance and sheer hard work will be the keys to fruitful returns!


Picture above taken from :- www.gift.org.sg/cards_cny_p2.html

MOF @ Pavillion

Whenever I walk past Ministry of Food (MoF), I'm always in awe and practically drooling at the ice cream and dessert selections on display.....

And then comes my bf would always nudge me to walk faster and head to Food Republic (when actual fact he's trying to divert my attention away)

During my last trip to KL, I decided to finally try out MoF's dessert selection, and it was an eye-opener indeed!

Some introduction to MoF - it originates from Singapore boasting a wide selection of authentic Japanese food and appetizing desserts; however, this outlet only offers the dessert range

Firstly, at every table there is a piece of order sheet and a pencil to write down your orders with - well this is not something new as many places have also adapted to this DIY ordering style

Secondly, once you are done with the menu and ticking the orders on the order sheet, you need to head to the counter and queue up for the food - that's right, this ain't Kim Gary or Old Town where attendants come by and collect the order sheet and put in the order for you

Thirdly, you must pay up the moment your order is placed, and then sit back down at your table to wait for your orders to arrive - now this, to me, is a first coz I don't recall having ever have to pay for any food or drinks before they're being served?!

Anyway, as we were pretty full with our lunches, we ordered a dessert and a shake for sharing:-

Macha Zen (RM 12.50)



A concoction made up of red bean paste topped with Hokkaido Green Tea ice cream and 5 Japanese glutinous balls

Verdict : the red bean paste was waaaaaaay too sweet; the green tea ice cream a bit too coarse for my liking, but very flavorful indeed; and the glutinous balls were nothing to shout about.

After waiting for quite a long time, the Sesame Shake came (RM 11)




This is the thickened version of a milk shake - made of black sesame sauce blended with their home made soft serve

Verdict : it's pretty annoying to have the sesame seeds getting in the way of the milk shake's smoothness (or maybe we just ordered the wrong milk shake :P ) and so both of us didn't really enjoyed it at all - apart from the soft serve itself

Though this place doesn't charge service charge, I felt it to be overpriced, since what we had wasn't really that out-of-this-world-ly tasty nor unique, but who knows? I may come back to sample some other desserts when I'm more loaded I guess, heh!

What do others think about MoF?
Motormouth from Ipoh
Yowazzupfood
BadBoyBen
ShellFoodStation

The Sire Museum Restaurant @ King's Street

Hidden within a row of shop houses along King Street is one of Penang's landmark to remember - the first house of the late tycoon Yeap Chor Ee - which has now been tastefully decorated to house his antique collections, and open for public to visit and dining at the restaurant as well.

After reading a couple of reviews on The Sire since it first opened its doors back in June 2008, I was fascinated by the richness of its historical values and the entire concept behind this museum and dining establishment that Dato' Seri Stephen Yeap realized to commemorate his grandfather Yeap Chor Ee.

Honestly I never heard of this place before stumbling upon one of my friend Adele's facebook photos of one of her food journeys, and find it very shameful that one can stay in Penang and not heard of this finely decorated restaurant at all!

And after sharing this with DC, she decided to treat CC and myself for her birthday celebration *thanks DC!*

We went there for dinner, and were seated in one of the tables at the front section near to the entrance, as all the tables within the inner sections of the restaurant were already full.

Being a first-timer, we didn't know what to expect, or what to order. After browsing through the menu over and over again, we were pretty ready to order hence signaled the waitress over; ordered a Baked Cheese on Smoked Salmon Sandwich, a Seafood Spaghetti and a Cheese Cake for dessert.

Knowing how a fries lover CC is, DC asked the waitress if there are any main courses that comes with fries as sides? And the waitress just shook her head and asked if we wanted to order a separate serving of fries instead. So DC went 'cin cai (whatever) -lah' and added it onto our list of orders.

DC always liked the idea of ordering different types of food and share amongst each other so everyone could sample everything, hence the reason for 2 mains, 1 side and 1 dessert - and we're not complaining at all! :D

The fine and artistic interior and table decorations..


Each meal comes with a complimentary Garlic Bread


Baked Cheese on Smoked Salmon Sandwich


All 3 of us looked at each other one kind when this came - not because we've never seen a smoked salmon sandwich before, but the portion of the fries that came with it! And what did the waitress say when DC asked if any mains came with fries? *head shaking* they should hire waiters/waitresses who at least understands and speaks English IOHO (in our humble opinions) :P

I always have a soft spot for smoked salmon and this one's pretty good - the fries were snapped up pretty quickly - not just by CC, but all of us as well! :P

Seafood Spaghetti


This was another nicely done main - the sauce was not overly creamy, the seafood fresh and came in varieties of prawns, fish, squid, and it's just right for our cosy birthday celebration over non-sensical chats *grin*

Cheese Cake


One of DC's favourite is cheese cake so we shared one for dessert - what a delightfully decorated dessert it was! All of us were gleaming with excitement when this was served :D

(And yea we shared the sorbet ice cream and all the other edible garnishes that came with the cake as well - as DC always says "Sharing is Caring" hehe)

Cam whoring time!


The Sire is located along King Street (opposite the new Great Eastern building and across the road from Dewan Sri Pinang)

The ambience is really nice and I've been wanting to bring KW here for a long time now but still haven't got the chance :(

Read about my 2nd and 3rd visits to The Sire here

Other reviews with chock load of pictures of the museum and food, as well as the conception of this establishment:-
Lingzie's Tummy Treats
tham chiak
Totally Autumn
What2see
What2see - revisited
Zoom2see

Swensen's @ Gurney Plaza new wing

I had limited impression on Swensen's especially as a restaurant as I only recall it to be a very nice Ice Cream Parlour back to the olden days when it was located at Mount Pleasure, and it used to be a luxury to splurge on Swensen's ice creams back then.


Since its appearance as a family restaurant at Queensbay Mall, I only dined once there and never set foot in any other ever since... until recently. They just didn't measure up to my expectations of having similarly good entrees or mains, apart from their unique ice cream parlour offerings

Went to Swensen's at Gurney Plaza with Ling on Monday during our window shopping trip, and the place was practically deserted!


Ling ordered a Chicken Spaghetti and a Mango Coffee, and since I couldn't make up my mind on what drinks to order, I went with the set lunch deal which the waiter suggested (with the Chicken Spaghetti order) - which I'd get a soup of the day and iced tea with additional RM 2.

Swensen's utilizes a basket filled with sets of cutleries and serviettes sufficient for the table, and this is where they will host the bill at the same time.

Our orders..

Ling's Mango Coffee (Espresso poured over mango ice-cream)


The waiter actually brought the ice cream tower and poured the hot Espresso over the tower in front of us prior to serving - neat :) and the whole combination of hot coffee and the sweet Mango ice cream is very tantalizing to our taste buds too!


Ling's Chicken Spaghetti

Ling said this is not-too-bad (but she wasn't overly impressed) - I shunned just by looking at it (*_*) "

Condiments that came with it.. cheese and chili flakes


Soup of the Day - Asparagus Soup (came with the set lunch)


Upon chowing down the first few spoonfuls (assuming that it was Mushroom soup), I was really suspicious whether has it gone bad or something as it tasted slightly sourish, hence I enquired the waiter what is the soup and he said Asparagus, and that's when I went "Ohhhh....." so That explained the sourish bit to it, but I've had better asparagus soups elsewhere, meh~

My Ice Tea (also came with the set)


Mediocre ice tea - they could've done much better than this

My Sourdough 49ers Beef ...


Which carries the description of : Thin beef slices braised in light teriyaki sauce and cheddar cheese sandwiched between sourdough football buns,served with U.S fries and coleslaw.


I gotta say both Ling and I were pretty amused by the fact that the sourdough (the bread) is as hard as a rock with 'krak krak' sound when I tapped it with my knife, and that has got to be the biggest turn-off element ever!

And so I attempted to be positive and diverted my attention to the teriyaki-ed beef slices in hope that it'll salvage the whole meal itself, but was very disappointed to find that the beef slices were equally hard (yeah, with the 'krak krak' sound too unfortunately)

The fries were OK though, but I normally take fries as a snack when I'm not having any main courses so half of it were left untouched.

Our bill came to about RM 65 (if I'm not mistaken) but the food quality and portion are just not measuring up to that price tag.

I must say, after all this while of not even considering to dine at Swensen's since my last visit, I am very disappointed that their scoreboard rating in my mind had dropped yet again from their low last time.

Well one thing's for sure, I know the next time I'm gonna set foot in Swensen's again is when I'm craving for some ice cream concoctions, and nothing else.

Gee Seng Seafood Restaurant @ Bukit Tambun

Bukit Tambun @ Simpang Ampat is pretty famous for its less expensive seafood affairs, evident with many seafood restaurants within the vicinity.

The one my bf and I (as well as most of our friends) frequent is Gee Seng - located right at the very end of the entire seafood restaurant stretch. This place is always packed with people so smart people like us usually go there early, like 630pm (to avoid disspappointment, or so they say) to secure car park as well as table.

We decided to go there after our very short trip to Sunway Carnival 2 weeks ago, and it was drizzling when we reached there, and very much surprised at the emptiness of the place - only a handful of cars were visibly parked, not many tables occupied within the restaurant - and it was 730pm already :O

... and so we were parked at the very first lot on the side of the restaurant (one that did not require any shifting in the middle of your seafood meal to make way for cars parked in front of you when they leave)

This place is renowned for the speed of their serving of dishes once your orders are taken - by the time your first dish arrives, you'll be seeing a steady stream of your other dishes magically appearing on your table in the speed of eye blinks! :P ... well.. EXCEPT for your crab dishes that is, especially when it's baked

Clockwise from top left..

View from our table looking out to the entrance
Gee Seng's name in chinese
The set ups.. plates and cutleries
Condiments - cili padis, Thai chilli sauce and sambal

Rundown of our orders in sequence they were served (and yes, it's for the 2 of us only)

'Thik Teng Leh' (a type of sea snail) (RM 5)

... where you poke out the flesh using the toothpicks provided - I like mine dipped in sambal... Yummmmmm~~!

We wanted to order mantis prawns but the price quoted was too darn expensive so we ordered 'Than' (a type of clam) instead (RM 12)

Nestum Prawns (RM 15)

Prawns weren't awfully fresh this round... but I was still chewing on the nestum after we finished the prawns :P

Deep Fried Calamari (RM 6)


No reasons not to love this dish... it goes well with the Thai chilli sauce

Baked Mud Crab (King size) (RM 20) - It rightfully earns the #1 spot as our favourite dish at Gee Seng

This is one helluva crab I'd say - HUGE, and it was definitely sufficient for both of our stomachs..

Check out the extremely fresh and ample meat just within the claws itself! (and I wasn't even finished digging yet)

Closeup of the fresh, succulent and springy crab meat


After our supmtuous seafood meal, KW recalled we had their Fried Ice Cream before, and so we ordered 2 of them as dessert (RM 2.50 each)

Oh, and we ordered 10 sticks of 'not-to-be-missed' satay from a small stall right outside the restaurant, but due to the long wait time, we dug in and I totally forgot to take a pic of it :P

I must say, it was extremely distracting, 'tergopoh-gapah' and challenging to be taking pics of all these good food (not to mention the refrain of tucking in as soon as it lands on the table) as well as having to enjoy eating them all at the same time, most of them with hands too!

Our meal cost us RM 64.80 (excluding satay) - hence the reason why I felt such money is comparatively more well-spent here compared to @ Williams :P (HB, time for you to head north)

I've read some of the reviews for the same restaurant but IMHO some of them were disappointed coz they've unfortunately ordered the wrong stuff; to be fair to Gee Seng, only some of their so-called 'signature' dishes are good - example their sweet and sour crab with fried man tou, baked crab, mantis prawns, calamari, butter or nestum prawns, steamed fish... to name a few. I tried their Or Chien (fried oyster) before too and it tasted awful - worst I had thus far.

More reviews here...
KampungboyCitygal
vkeong
RasaMalaysia

Buy 1 Free 1 @ Starbucks- New World Park

Had an afternoon 'yam cha' session with DC on the eve of new year 2009 @ New World Park's Starbucks, and delighted to find out they were having Buy 1 Free 1 Mocha Frappuccinos!


I guess it's pretty bad that this promotion wasn't really publicised well enough, as no one knew about this until the barista actually told us about it, AFTER we ordered our Frappucinos.

The promotion was on for the 2 drinks of Dark Cherry Mocha Frappucino and Toffee Nut Latte only. And my guess was that these were the X'mas/New Year offerings, and it happened so that both of us wanted the same Mocha Fraps

And so DC only paid for 1 drink only! And mine was free :D Thanks DC anyway for belanja-ing

Our Dark Cherry Mocha Frappucinos.......


...... which should've come without the whipped creams as ordered, but wth, it's the end of year 2008! Let's get fat! (can't believe I just said that)

It tasted surprisingly good! (For something that's buy 1 free 1 that is) The weather outside was pretty breezy, and the drink just compliments it nicely (what an excuse to splurge on Starbucks)

This was actually my first time patronizing Starbucks at New World Park and it's a pretty cosy place I'd say, and will definitely visit again...... eventhough they screwed up our whipped creams :P

Meng Curry Fish Head @ Sin Kim San

KW had a craving for curry fish when he was back last weekend, and we went to Sin Kim San coffee shop along Macalister Road for a good ol' curry fish head.


The stall is called "Meng Curry Fish Head", and it not only serves fish, but also prawns and squids, with the fish head being the best-seller (obviously)

As both KW and myself were not big fans of fish head, we always opt for fish slices instead..

Curry Fish with fish slices (RM 16)


The curry base is slightly sweet in flavor (I still prefer savoury curries), with loads of fish slices, lady's finger, menthol leaves. It'd be nice if the curry were to be served in a heated claypot of sorts to be it warm throughout the meal :)


The rice


The rice is no good - not really warm and pretty hard

I had better curry fish heads elsewhere but this one's not too bad if you're looking for a quick fix on your curry fish head craving