Christmas Cakes

Just some random post on Christmas cake pics I took:)

The Yule Log cake...always so Christmassy!!

(This is Black forest cake I think; shaped in the yule log:)






Have a Merry Christmas:D

Bali Bali

Since I had to attend my uncle's wedding this Christmas holidays, I didn't go back to KL and waited for my parents to come up to Penang to visit me instead.

I had a long break since Hari Raya Haji since my department also decided to shut down the production floor operations during the long weekend and everyone was sort of forced to take leave; allowing us to have a long break of about a week!:D

We stumbled upon this food court in Sungai Dua; where I used to stay and noticed that the old food court has been renovated and it is now known as Bali Bali. A friend of mine mentioned that this was previously in Gurney.
Since we were also getting bored of our old haunt, we decided to try it out.

Purple cabbage dumpling skin which holds the shrimp dumplings

Taste is mediocre:p


Har Mai; another type of shrimp dumplings


Fishballs


Spinach and chive with shrimp dumplings

They mixed it with mince pork as well; therefore I couldn't really eat it...bummer.
According to Dear, it was only on the average.

Normal shrimp dumplings (Har Kao)



Overall, the food here is only on the average; but I must mention that the service is notably slow!!
We waited so long for our tea to arrive and there was another table where the customers complained that they had finished their meal and the tea didn't arrive at all!
Anyway, if you wanna try it out (for Penangites), do let me know what you think:)
After all, One man's meat is another man's poison!

Pre-Christmas and Anniversary Dinner

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!:D

I haven't been updating my blog for some time and I have so much to blog about and the pics as well!!

Anyway, I am sure everyone is looking forward to Christmas celebration sharing and therefore I will postpone those other food blogging and concentrate on mostly Christmas stuffs first;)

Let's go back to last week; the Week before Christmas:)
It was an anniversary cum Pre-Christmas dinner I had with DearDear and we went to Dorsett Regency in town to try out their buffet dinner which was priced at a rather reasonable price (compared to the other hotels). Since I didn't want to spend too much, I reckoned this will be a good experiment:)



Priced at RM38 per person, the buffet offers an international spread. I find the choices rather limited for me; but for the price, that would be the variety:p


Over the salads and appetizers table, one can expect the usual vegetable offers such as lettuces, cabbage, sweet corn, peas, beans, dressing, etc.



My favourite of all time, steamed sweet corn


Steamed chickpeas and salad


We started off with a hot bowl of Seafood Chowder; or rather, Dear brought me this with heaps of fish chunks, shrimps and squids with vege.

It was creamy (I can't take creamy stuffs) but I must say the seafood portions were really neat:)

Vegetables and salad


Grilled mackerel, dim sum (dumplings) and the bottom right were fish.
The ones wrapped (like little turnips) were actually smoked salmon with celeries and below it were the smoked tuna chunks.

Slightly salty but still nice:D

Fruits


This was a jelly pudding; but the jelly was more of Jell-O substance and was not soft and tangy like our usual jelly.

Rather unique and interesting taste:D

DearDear made a bowl of Mixed Ice (Ice Kacang aka ABC) with grass jelly, red bean, sweet corn and cendol for me:)

Nothing spectacular about the Ice Kacang here:p


More desserts (Cakes)


Since I don't like nor take cakes, Dear sampled their different pastries such as the Walnut Slice.


Banana Crumble


For Citibank Card Members, we even enjoyed a 20% Discount for our meal!!
Total bill was only about RM65++ after the discount:)

We enjoyed the nice decorations they had at the hotel lobby

I always had a soft spot for Gingerbread House:p


Here's to wishing everyone a Merry little Christmas!!:D

3 in 1 tag!

I just found out today that I was tagged by Celine (really sorry, I have been busy this month:(
Anyway, it's been some time since I have participated in tagging games...so I will just do a quick one:D

1. A movie that made you laugh.
Haha...plenty!! But the most recent was White Chicks:D (And I must mention the memorable Meet the Parents/Fockers!)

2. A book that made you cry.
Where Rainbows End and the Language of Love

3. A Best Friend.
Yenn!!

4. A favorite childhood memories.
Family vacation and Prize Giving Day!

5. Your favorite animal.
Rabbit:D

6. Your favorite food.
Seafood (fish!!)

7. An item of clothing you cannot do without.
Skirts and dresses:D

8. Something you collect.
Watches and books!

9. Your favorite store to shop in.
Shoe shop, dress boutiques:)

10.Your favorite flower.
Daffodils!!:D

I would like to pass this tag to:
Anyone who wants to do this...hehe :)

Little Cottage

Little Cottage down Burmah Road was a cosy and comfortable place for casual or romantic dining. The environment in the restaurant is conducive and with the soft music playing in the background, one can sit back and relax themselves and block out all worries on the mind.


It has been sometime since we went for dinner/lunch at this cosy place and since DearDear suggested to come here, we came for dinner (we didn't know where to go anyway) after work last week.
The creamy mushroom soup which came with the set dinner.
If you are looking for thick and creamy mushroom soup, well, you may be a little disappointed as their soup is slightly diluted compared to the thick version of mushroom soup.


As usual, the bread and butter

I was fascinated by the fluffy cheeks of the buns in the basket that I couldn't resist taking a closer shot:)


Orange juice

Too sweet for me....it's not the freshly-squeezed juice but rather the cordial drink which probably had tons of sugar:p

DearDear ordered the Norwegian Salmon Steak set(RM39.90).

Served with asparagus and other boiled vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), the salmon was not bad with the special sauce they prepared.

As for me, I ordered my favourite Sizzling Sweet and Sour Fish (RM25.90)

I love this dish and it's always the one on my mind each time I am here. It is served with generous portions of cubed capsicum, onions, tomatoes, and even pineapples and the sauce was just sourly sweet and vice versa.


The dessert which came with the set was this Chocolate Fudge cake




Total bill was about RM60++ for the two of us:)
This is definitely a nice place with an English homely feel if you are looking to have a quiet chat with your bestie or loved one.
It's not too hard to find; just go along the Burmah Road and it's actually after the Nine Emperor Gods' temple and before the junction to Nagore Road :)

Jawa Mee

Jawa Mee is a common hawker food you can find anywhere in food court in Malaysia.
It's an Indonesian-style noodle in broth.

Cooked using the thick yellow noodles,there are usually bean sprouts, fried fritters and a half of a hard-boiled egg.

My bro and dad really loved this and they will buy it once in a while whenever they have a late lunch from the famous stall in Maluri.


One note, I used to wonder as a kid, why Jawa mee is famous only; why not Jakarta mee, Sulawesi mee, Kalimantan mee, etc....hehe:)

Just food for thought (literally!)

Siu Chow at Sri Bintang

Sri Bintang is this quiet neighbourhood in Kepong Baru; where it is surrounded by all the residential areas and right at the far end; where the Kepong hill is located, there is this row of shophouses on both the left and right.
There are two coffee shops located at both corners which serves almost similar hawker fare and also Siu Chow at the back of the coffee shop.

My family will occasionally go to this coffee shop on the left for either breakfast, lunch or dinner as they have different stalls available at different times of the day.

At night, you can usually see the Siu Chow,Nasi Lemak, Pork Noodles, Char Koay Teow, Satay available. This particular Siu Chow stall has changed ownership several times and there was this one that we frequented at one point.
Now, after more than a year, we decided to try this new Siu Chow which was run by a very young couple.


The lady boss was really friendly and patient as she listed out their offerings of the home-cooked dishes while taking our order.
We waited patiently while Daddy and bro were busy watching the badminton tournament shown on Astro.
Then we were served this big bowl of Kow Choy in soup priced at.....nothing!

Seriously, we were surprised as we couldn't recall that we ordered soup and the lady boss came over smiling and told us that the soup was on the house; it was the soup of the day.

We were surprised and even more amazed when we saw the abundance of vegetables, eggs, shrimps and small squids in the soup despite it being served free.

The quality of the soup was definitely not bland nor diluted; it was really a courteous and noble offer by the cook which I think even some prestigious restaurants would not offer.

Within a short waiting period, our food is served. I am really impressed by the prompt service attitude:)
Our Fried Mantis Prawns with Dried Chilli (Kung Pow style) - priced at RM10
*If you have been reading my blog, you will see that this is one of my favourite food featured each time I go for dinner with my family:)

It was really nicely done and the flesh was just so juicy and succulent; not too dried due to over-frying and it suited my picky taste.


For the greens, we ordered the all-time Malaysian Favourite; the Stir-fried Kangkung with belacan (fermented shrimp sauce).

It was really fragrant and not too spicy (just right for someone who can't take much spicy food like me:) The price was pretty reasonable too; only RM5.

This is one of their specialty; recommended by the lady.
Fried Otak-Otak (originated from Muar) with their own special marinated flour. Priced at RM10, there were 6 pieces of fragrant and lightly fried otak-otak.

The otak-otak was wrapped with spiced marinated flour which was slightly crispy and yet, the otak otak was surprisingly soft and tasty as you would taste in the original steamed otak-otak.

Definitely thumbs-up for the originality and creativity of this:)

For PickyEater, I always get the privilege of having fish whenever I am around.
This was the fish on promotion; similar in texture to the White Pomfret; this was the Ma Yau or Threadfin which was one of my favourite since childhood:)

It was steamed in the plain old Chinese style with soy sauce and also a hint of Chinese white wine and garnished with ginger slices and garlic, the fish was really well-steamed and to perfection too.

Remember that I am always picky with steamed fish and the tender flesh, well, threadfin is also one such fish which had thick flesh texture and yet smoothly succulent which was well-maintained in this. It was really nice and the fish was definitely fresh:)
And the best part is, this steamed fish only cost RM9.90!!:)

The total bill for 4 people was less than RM40 for all those dishes and even the pickyeater liked the taste of the food:)
Since it is so near my place, I bet I will be asking to go there the next time I am home:)