Chinese dessert/snack @ TianJin, China

Not sure why i'm feeling a bit nostalgic lately.. maybe because I just copied all my photos from my personal laptop to my work laptop and while going through all the pics, I found that I have tonnes of food pics I never got to blog about!

It was during our second last day on our Beijing trip at Tian Jin - we were out shopping and stumbled upon this peddlar on bicycle selling a type of snack. Now we were actually forewarned by our tour guide that people at Tian Jin are generally not as 'friendly' and 'open' compared to people back in Beijing as they tend to be more 'open & direct' with their emotions e.g. if you are not genuinely interested in buying items at the stalls - DO NOT ask for the price.

Anyway, back to the peddlar, we noticed that there were quite a few locals buying from this peddlar and finally we summoned enough courage to ask what is it he's selling - is it something sweet or savory and what is it made of?


So he said it's made of glutinous rice and dates and it's a sweet dessert - well, because it's served with a layer of sugar spread on top of it.

The peddlar said there are 2 varieties - one layered with red dates and another which I've actually forgotten :( so we opted for the red dates

We actually asked for the smallest portion and only paid like RM 3 for it after conversion. And it tasted absolutely beautiful! Freshly made and finely sliced with the right amount of sugar coating - authentic street/peddlar food this is - check out the aparatus he used to 'judge' the weight and subsequently the price - so old school ok?


After we had the first helping and walking around a while, we decided to buy a slightly bigger serving for the others to try and if they didn't wanted them, we'd chow them down ourselves :) In the end, some took our offer while others did not - and so we were happy to finish them off!

Room Service @ Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles

Decided to post up some room service food I had for a change - for those who knew when these have dated back since - shhhh k? :P

Stayed at Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles and due to the lazy bum and 'kia si' nature I am, I used the room service so conveniently made available to us guests during my stay there.

The meals that I had..

Breakfast:-

Plain pancakes garnished with a strawberry, served with rolled up butter and maple syrup and a glass of iced water with a slice of lemon in it.


The pancakes were steaming hot but there were too many pieces of it, I couldn't finish it and it was too thick, too dry and no flavour unfortunately :(

I had to keep pouring the maple syrup to make it slightly not so dry and flavoured a bit.

On my way back, I stayed at the same hotel for 3 nights and used their room service again - but for my dinner instead.

I had a good 'ol burger on my touch down night:- It was chock full of ingredients like beef patty, bacon, 2 types of cheese, onion, with a side of salad.


The beauty of it lies in the fact that it was served with 3 cute mini bottles of Heinz sauces - ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard! (which I was very tempted to bag in my luggage mind you) oh, and it came complete with salad dressing and the usual iced water with a slice of lemon


The bacons were definitely too hard and the cheese were just too overwhelmingly much (if there's such a description) I think the salad were not too fresh as well, although the beef patty was pretty good, to say the least

It took me a lot of effort - far too much effort to 'try' to finish this beast - so I ended up having leftovers for breakfast the next morning. It was cold and all but at least I have something filled my stomach before heading out to play :)

Based on my 2 experiences of not being able to finish my meals, I decided to go for their kid's meal the second night :D So I ordered myself a kid's spaghetti meatball, a kid's hot dog and an apple juice (adult size :P )

When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find that the portion was just right for me :D (and again served with 3 mini bottles of Heinz sauces)

Though both the spaghetti looked very plain and unappealing, they tasted great!!

The spaghetti meatballs were full of tastily marinated meatballs, the spaghetti soft and the sauce was just a perfect complement. By the time I was done with my spaghetti, I was actually pretty full but I couldn't resist taking a bite of the hot dog while it's still hot and it tasted good too! Grilled just right. Because of this, I decided to keep it til the next morning for breakfast, to go with ketchup :D

One thing I liked was the pretty decent sized dessert made up of pineapple and 2 types of honeydew - probably for the sake of giving kids some fruit elements. The fruits were not very fresh though they were quite juicy.

Oh and I absolutely adored the huge kickass apple juice served too! It filled up the glass to its fullest! This is what I call value for money ok?

Overall I was the happiest when I had the kid's meal.. Maybe that goes on to prove that I'm just a kid at heart afterall eh? :P

Häagen-Dazs Flavours of Summer

During PChoon and myself's recent visit to with Häagen-Dazs', we were delighted that they are offering a 15% discount off the Flavours of Summer in conjunction with Häagen-Dazs' 15th Anniversary in Malaysia!

Check out its Sensual Summer Moments menu...


These 'creations' adorn very romantic names indeed.... and each comes with a description of how it's being inspired


Jewel Blush
Summer Drops
Taffeta Blossoms
Aprica Romance
Sunset Frills

We had Jewel Blush, which is described as...


'A tribute to the hottest shoe design from the runway this summer - bejewelled strappy sandals! Scoops of Rasperry Sorbet, Apricot & Cream, Belgian Chocolate and Macadamia Nut ice cream presented on a bed of checkered chocolate sauce accentuated by silver pearls'

Let's compare... Häagen-Dazs' original version......... (from Jewel Blush on Voize)


To the one featured in The Star (Flavours of Summer in The Star)


And finally, the version we were served that night....



Not bad isn't it? Normally we won't get anything near to the prettily decorated ones as illustrated in the menu, but this one did not disappoint at all :)

In case you're wondering - we substituted some of the flavors that we did not really fancy hence the reason for the mis-match in the colours

And we still could not figure out if the silver pearls can be consumed - but it was damn hard anyway

LauEE Home Kitchen Fine Home Dining

Took my grandma, mom and dad to a nice Shark's fin place in celebration of my dad's birthday :)

It's a very private home dining where prior reservation needs to be made, but we'll soon find out why it's all worthwhile. I was so worried that I couldn't find the place but I found it at last :D

Apparently my Sar Chek (third uncle) frequents this place quite often and brought my grandma and my dad along previously, but this place operated from a bungalow at Pulau Tikus.

The very tastefully decorated interior......... This is kinda like the 'signature' of the owner's 'home', as with his previous bungalows





Table setting


Vinegar and home made chilli sauce that the owner claimed goes well with anything from shark's fin to noodles


Cilantro leaves to go with shark's fin later


We ordered...


2 pots of Large Braised Shark's Fin (RM 50 each)




These were served in boiling hot claypots and were just marvelous - check out the ample shark's fin within.. genuinely good stuff! I normally have my shark's fin with green chillies but we tried with the home made chilli sauce and it was like a match made in heaven - the chilli sauce was so spicy!

Crab Claw Tang Hoon Noodles (RM 35)



The crab claws were huge and it was easy to consume too, given the fact that only the claws were left covering the crab meat and the rest are readily exposed. The crab meat were very fresh and were not overcooked even with the tang hoon noodles together. One thing to note is this dish had strong pepper fragrance to it and it had loads and loads of garlic cloves underneath all the tang hoon

Goose Legs Noodle (RM 30)



When we ordered this goose legs dish, we did not realize that it came with noodles as well, if we knew we would most probably ordered something else that did not come with noodles. Nevertheless, the goose legs were soft and flavorful and unlike the ones we had at Red Bali before. Too bad we did not enjoy the noodles that much because we were all pretty stuffed with the tang hoon from the crab claws dish.

We all loved the home made chilli sauce - even my dad who's pro in consuming cabai etc found it to be extremely spicy and had to stop half way


Thai Fruit Jelly Dessert (RM 8 each)


After all the 'heavy' mains we had and the spiciness built-up within us from the chilli, we initially wanted to have Bubur Cha Cha but we were told that we had to pre-order them so that they would be freshly prepared. So we ended up ordering 2 thai jellies to be shared and they were very timely indeed. The cool and chillness of the jellies were comforting and did a good job ending our sumptuous meal :)

The bill came to RM 181 for 4 pax - about RM 45 per pax for fine home dining shark's fin :)


If you're looking for a home style yet fine dining private setting for a nice pig out of the best of the best - this is the place to be.

Please call to make reservations about 3 days ahead -
Tel : 016-4322 986
Address : 318-A HTE KEAT ESTATE, PENANG
Direction : Take a 3 o'clock turn at the Air Itam roundabout, go straight and uphill right til the end of the road. By then you will be able to see the bungalow on the left.

Gelatomio @ G Hotel

Ahhh... my favourite dessert.. ice cream!

Spotted a new 'stall' of gelato ice cream near Nando's side entrance lately and been wanting to try it out but no 'kaki' so finally had it last night with KW


It was a rainy day yesterday but nevertheless I was determined to have my dessert after a not-so-satisfying dinner @ Blue Reef prior (will post it later)

There is another shop nearby called Gelatissimo offering a variety of gelato ice cream as well but something kinda tells me that Gelatomio is nicer :) maybe because the last time we tried Gelatissimo at Mid Valley, it did not impress us that much

A total of 10 flavors are offered at Gelatomio but I'm not complaining as this is, afterall, a make-shift push cart 'stall' we're talking about.


Tiramisu *
Strawberry Yoghurt
Chocolate Marshmallow
Black Sesame
Rum & Raisin *
Kiwi Yoghurt
Soya Green Apple
Wildberries
Oreo & Cream
Mango

* flavours that contain liquor


We asked to sample the flavours and the attendant manning the stall was generous to give us pretty decent-sized ones too! After checking out a few, I decided to get a cone with a single scoop of Chocolate Marshmallow

This is how it looked like:


It's HUGE isn't it?? And I thanked the guy for being so generous! The chocolate was rich and creamy, and there were traces of marshmallows in it - the absolute marvelous dessert! :D

I asked the guy what's the difference between this stall and Gelatissimo - are they related whatsoever - apparently they offer gelato ice cream, but this stall is managed by G Hotel and the prices are all in nett.

At Gelatissimo, the price ranges about RM 8 ++

RM 7 nett was what we paid for this baby - and it's sooo worth it heh?

Gelatomio pricing:

Single
Cup RM 6.50 nett
Cone RM 7.00 nett

Double
Cup RM 10.00 nett
Cone RM 11.00 nett

Triple
Cup RM 14.00 nett
Cone RM 15.00 nett