Petaling Jaya: Shugatori Dessert Cafe @ Damansara Uptown

If you are looking for a good waffle place at Uptown, you could try Shugatori! It serves toasts, waffles and pancakes, but the price is slightly more expensive. I went there with two friends and we decided to order one waffle to share as we were quite full after lunch and worried that it might not be nice. As we are matcha lovers, we ordered the matcha waffle with a scoop of matcha ice cream. 

Sorry for my bad memory! I can't recall the exact price. I remember it is RM20++. The ice cream was a little sweet for me- I prefer matcha ice cream with more bitter taste. The waffle is the bomb - crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. =3 

Trying out flat lay! This looks.....great? What do you say? XD

Address: 95G, GF, Jalan SS21/1A, Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya. (same row as Good Batch)

Opening hours: Tues-Sun (12pm-11pm)

Kuala Lumpur: Birch @ DC Mall

Birch @ Damansara City Mall is the new, famous cafe hopping place for brunch lovers or Instagrammers. I have been seeing people checking in and my friend who tried, told me that they serve good food (coffee just so-so). Two weeks ago, I finally get to try this place out with a friend. 

DC Mall is a quiet mall and hence parking wouldn't be a problem. And guess what, the parking rate is RM1 per day for weekends! That's a plus point as you can spend quality time with your friends without worrying of your parking fee that will increase exponentially.

They offered us bar seats or else we have to wait for table. As we were quite free that day, we decided to wait for table instead. We left our number and walked around the mall for about 10 minutes. Since there are nothing much that we can see, we waited in front of the cafe and surprisingly was called immediately to our table. Lucky! Note: It would be safer if you call to reserve a table if you have a large group. I observed that a lot of tables were reserved and that's why we need to wait. 

Simple 2 pages menu - Immediately spot for Eggs Benedict that my friend recommended. XD 

Birch Benedict (RM26) -- served with spicy pulled chicken, BBQ sauce, hollandaise sauce!

Favourite combo and it is really good! Finally a brunch place that satisfy me.

Shakshuka (V) (RM25) - Baked eggs.

We shared our meals so I get to try this too! Surprisingly good and better than Breakfast Thieves and VCR in my opinion. My friend who loves meat like this as well. =D 

Petaling Jaya: Milligram @ Taman Mayang Jaya

A catch-up session with friends should be matched with good environment and good food! We were thinking where we should meet and finally decided to try out a cafe at Taman Mayang Jaya which we found out months ago -- Milligram.

It was a Friday night but we don't have much parking problem in this area. Great! It was quite pack when we arrived and managed to get a sofa seat.

It was not difficult for me to locate this place. Waze brought me there without much hassles.

As I arrived slightly earlier than the others, I ordered a cup of coffee and read my book while waiting. The coffee was of usual cafe price range (RM10) and pretty decent.

They have mains (e.g. sandwiches, pasta), cakes, waffles, cute macaroons and drinks (e.g. tea, coffee). Their macaroons are really cute! However, I am not a macaroon person, so I didn't try. We ordered three different mains, cheese macaroni, pork sausage carbonara and bacon carbonara. Overall, the mains were quite nice and I personally preferred my friend's pork sausage XD (but didn't manage to a photo of that).

Here's mine - Smoked Pork Bacon Pasta - it was served with poached egg. The taste was quite nice - slightly saltier than usual and cheesy. 

Overall, the service here was nice and we enjoyed the environment here. It would be a good place to chill for some conversations over coffee. =)


Address:             8, Jalan SS26/4, Taman Mayang Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Opening hours:  Mon-Thurs 11am-11pm; Fri 11am-2am; Sat 10am-2am; Sun 10am-11pm

Petaling Jaya: myBurgerLab @ Seapark

#throwback Merdeka month

A lot of restaurants introduce special menu in conjunction with Merdeka month. The one that attracted my attention is Nasi Lemak burger by myBurgerLab. Undoubtedly, they serve good burgers. So, for this special menu, I was tempted to give it a try although my spicy tolerance level is rather low. I was lucky to have a good friend who read my mind and said, let's go burgerlab! Woohoo! It Dream comes true! Thanks angel! 

We planned to go early at 5pm to avoid the dinner crowd. But, other people might have the same thought and there was a long queue! Oh no.... it was a horrible experience to queue under the hot sun. I wore my sunnies, ignoring how others look at me. =P

Can you feel the heat????

Luckily the queue moved quite fast as now seapark branch has two floors. My last visit was years ago where I had to queue under the hot sun for hours when there was only one floor. Thank goodness! Here's the advertisement board for nasi lemak burger. So tempting! *slurps*

Two Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang burgers and one Bait & Switch burger. 

Bait & Switch is good too! It came with Kelantanese sauce which is sweet and sour. Love it!

Close up of the nasi lemak burger! It was served with egg, onions, fried chicken, rendang sauce, sambal, peanut butter sauce, ikan bilis and charcoal buns. Never thought nasi lemak would go so well with peanut butter sauce! But yes, it was oily. How many km to run to burn this off? It was huge. It took me almost 6 hours to digest it. 

I know you miss my face! with a close up of Bait & Switch burger. 

No doubt, this is still my favourite burger place after this visit. Fat with no regret. LOL!

Address:             SEAPARK BRANCH (14, Jalan 21/22, SeaPark, Petaling Jaya)
Opening hours:  Mon-Fri (5pm-10.15pm), Sat-Sun (11am-10.15pm). 
                             Closed on 1st Monday of the month

Kuala Lumpur: Merchant's Lane @ Petaling Street

Thanks to the change in job scope, now I have much lesser or almost no free time to spare for this blog. Deeply sorry if there is anyone who follows this blog and is hoping for an update these few months. I am back here today as a method to release my stress. =)

So yeah, here's to share my cafe hopping over the past few months in KL! Let's start with a famous one -- Merchant's Lane.

Merchant's Lane is located at first floor's of a corner heritage shop lot. I was lost when I tried to find my way to this cafe, even after friend's guide from upstairs through the phone. I was walking along that row of shops for several times and still missed it. Indeed, the entrance is rather small and with green doors (Maybe that's why I didn't notice, not obvious to me. Finding excuse XD). It is actually the same row as ChoCha Foodstore (which I tried few weeks after visited Merchant's Lane).

If you still can't imagine what is Merchant's Lane so special about, this is the place where a lot of people posted photos of them on a wooden string. But unfortunately, I did not take any instagrammable photo when I was there. As I was there to meet up ex-colleague for an overdue catch-up over a short time.

Their menu has food with fancy names but not much choices like most cafes in town. I ordered South China Sea as this is recommended in many food blogs whereas my friend ordered their burger. Rose honey milk that was served to my friend was really beautiful, not sure how it taste though. My cappuccino was rather normal only.

Look at this beautiful rose honey milk. So girly!

My dinner! South China Sea - poached eggs, salsa and crispy hash. 

To be honest, this is very disappointing! I can't appreciate/enjoy such combination. Taste is just so-so. Overrated dish.

After finishing up our mains, we decided to give their dessert a try! They have a dessert named "Better than Sex" and we were interested to try out. Haha! 

Pontian: Restaurant Heng Heng and Kedai Kopi Keng Guan Hiong

Hello there! This would be my last post from Pontian. I am leaving this small town for good after 4 weeks here. As I was really bored, I explored a few food places around this area, including day trips to Batu Pahat and Johor Bharu (JB)! Unexpectedly but predictably, I've grown rounder after stranded here for weeks. Oopss!!

So tonight I am gonna share 2 famous restaurants in Pontian town, which can be found in other Pontian food blogs! These 2 places are apparently very famous, as I saw a lot of Singapore tourists there during my visit. 

#1 Restaurant Heng Heng (兴兴）

This restaurant is famous with its Wantan noodle, which is a specialty in Pontian too! In Pontian, they mainly serve Wantan noodle in ketchup, unless you request for soy sauce version. I requested for ketchup with a little spiciness. Really curious about the taste!

It's almost 2pm and there are still a lot of people here.

Apart from noodles, they also serve otak-otak for each table. They will count according to the amount that you consume later. It is around RM0.80-RM1 per piece. Sorry, my memory don't serve me well recently. I decided to try one and it is just so-so. 

The noodle is served!! It is typical Wantan noodle combination, with fishballs! How does it tastes? It's sweet but won't be too over as I requested for some chili to be added. Overall, it is fine. I still prefer my soy sauce Wantan noodle XD Good to try though! 

Can't really see the red colour in this photo. 

Address: 766, Jalan Parit Mesjid, Taman Anggerik, Pontian, Johor. (It is not too hard to locate! )

Opening hours: 9am-6pm (closed on Fridays)

#2 Kedai Kopi Keng Guan Hiong (琼源香)

I have been craving for good coffee and went to try out this famous coffee shop, which is quite near my hotel! I have read about the sourness of coffee in Pontian and feel really interested to try it out. To be honest, I am craving for a cup of Ipoh White Coffee now! How I miss Perak! Haha...

There's also a lot of people here! Why is it crowded everywhere I go??

Pontian: Joe Burger Station + Sri Delima BBQ & Steamboat + Pontian Seaside

Pontian, is a small town, located in southwest Johor. This district has 2 towns, which are Pontian Besar and Pontian Kechil (district capital, which means more happening place). After exploring, I realized that there are no malls or cinema here. So, it is time to explore something new during my free time!

Here's to share some of the food I've tried for dinner and my current favourite seaside.

#1 Joe Burger Station (halal)

This is a shop run by Malay family and it seems to be very famous! They have lots of tables by the road side and there are a lot of people dining in when we arrived. Apparently, a lot of food blogs recommend this place too! So we decided to try out. 

I was craving for Roti John for a while, so I decided to order that instead of burger. They serve noodles and western food here too! My other colleagues ordered chicken chop, burger and lekor. They are all really good! Or is it because I skipped lunch? =P

Roti John (RM6) -- The bread is slightly crispy! So good! I can imagine how good is their burger by having this. haha... I tried the lekor too and it is good too. A place worth trying if you are in Pontian.

#2 Sri Delima BBQ & Steamboat (halal)

To be honest, every night we have problem identifying what to eat for dinner. A colleague found a steamboat place which looks fairly decent and we decided to give it a try. It ended up just walking distance from our hotel and it is buffet style. RM22 per pax, with bottomless drink. Their choices are quite standard. One thing I like is they have satay! We can grill our own satay and there are two types of sauce - rempah (marinated with spices) or honey. Nonetheless, the satay is good! 

The environment is quite nice as they have indoor and outdoor setting. However, there are a lot of birds flying around and we were really worried while eating. Don't wish to have any additional "spices" in our food! XD Oh! Not to forget that they serve ice cream here too! That goes my diet mission in Johor. 

We have 2 types of soup - tom yam and clear soup. Save us from choosing which soup to order. 

#3 Pontian Seaside

It is located near terminal bus Pontian Kechil. Along this seaside, there are a lot of seafood restaurants, either Malay or Chinese. You can come for seafood hunt! To be honest, I haven't get to try any. So wait till I give a try then I'll share =)

Pontian: Kemangi Restaurant (Mee Gulung)

Hi all!! It's been a while since I update this blog. Have been going to different places for the past few months. Hong Kong trip, Kuantan working trip, and guess what, I am currently in Pontian (Johor)! Travel too much this year! Oopss.

Pontian is a small town in southern part of Johor. I will share more about this town in later post. Today, I would like to share about my visit to this restaurant called Kemangi Restaurant, which serves Mee Gulung.

What is Mee Gulung?? Sounds special right? Will show you in a bit.

Kemangi Restaurant is easily located as it is just by the main road side. It is a halal restaurant and they serve a variety of food! Fried rice, noodles, ayam penyet, tom yam, etc...  From a short review online, I noticed that they serve something special, which I never heard of -- Mee Gulung. It is noodles wrapped by omelette, served with sweet/spicy gravy (Kemangi version) or soup based (something like Mee Kung Fu)

I went there with my new colleague and ordered Mee Gulung Kemangi. Was really looking forward to try it out. =) The food was served really quickly! 

My first time trying this type of noodles! It was served with seafood and vege. This costs me RM7! Good deal, especially in such a restaurant with good environment. The taste is not too sweet nor spicy. Just nice and its very stomach-calming! Was really hungry before dinner XD

Itinerary: Bali 4 days 4 nights trip

Hello!!! It has been a long long time since I last update this blog. Caught up with work and money constraint and  hence lesser time to travel. XD Finally, I have time to update on my Bali Trip last month -- a random, 4 days 4 nights trip in November 2016 with my hostel mates. 

As one of us has pretty tight schedule, we have only 4 full days to travel. Thus, we booked a night flight on friday night and reached Bali at midnight. Trying to spare more time to travel on Saturday. Flight ticket was bought pretty last minute and it costs me RM616 for return ticket. Could be cheaper if buy during zero fare. Air Asia has sales every week anyway. 

So let's start with my journey to Bali!

Day 1: KL-Bali (Check-in hotel and sleep!)

As I'm traveling alone from Kuala Lumpur, I've decided to park my car at Bandar Tasik Selatan station and catch the KLIA Express to KLIA2 (RM38.40 one way)

Our flight got delayed for 30 minutes... The friend who flew from Singapore had to wait for an hour in Bali airport to meet us. Poor thing... We booked a driver -- Mr Bagus and he waited to pick us up from airport to hotel. Was a little sad with the delay as he had to stay up to pick us up and the next day we have a full day tour. No extra charge! Very kind of him.

Our hotel for first 3 nights -- The Kana Kuta Hotel.

Pool view from breakfast place. I love the coffee served during breakfast. Best coffee I have tried in Bali. Too bad I didn't manage to get the brand.

Day 2: Tanjung Benoa (water sports) - Lunch (Babi Guling) - Pandawa Beach - Uluwatu Temple (for sunset) - Adi Spa - Dinner @ Jimbaran Bay

We had breakfast in hotel and then proceeded with our first stop of the day with water sports activities at Tanjung Benoa. To be honest, I think that this is the spot that I don't really enjoy throughout my Bali trip. Expensive and nothing special (maybe because there's no crystal clear water, which makes me feel disappointed). We spent a lot of time waiting for our turn under the hot sun, and our parasailing was forced to cancelled due to the weather. In the end, we spent about RM260 per person for Jetski, Banana Boat and Rolling Donut. 

Tanjung Benoa

We ended our water sports activities around 2pm and we were all starving. So, we asked the driver to bring us to try Babi Guling. As we were rushing time, he suggested a shop nearby instead of going to those famous Babi Guling restaurants. We ordered nasi babi guling special to try... Was really excited to try it since it is so famous. 

While waiting for our food to be served.....

Ta-daa! My plate of nasi babi guling special (~RM10). 

It comes with pork satay, minced pork, crispy skin, etc... I don't really like the skin. Only enjoyed the satay and meat. It was served with chilies and hence quite spicy. Overall, I don't really fancy but it is a good experience trying out. Just wondering if the famous stall's would taste better or not. Ahh....

Then, we went to Pandawa Beach for a walk. Pandawa Beach is more of my kind of beach, with greenish blue sea and white sands. It was once known as secret beach due to its location, which lies behind the two cliffs with poor access. There are a lot of tourists visiting Pandawa Beach now... You may need to pick low season for a more peaceful beach. =)

I enjoyed walking on the white, soft sands. ^_^

Overview of Pandawa Beach from the cliff area (near the Pandawa statues)

After that we were supposed to go to Water Blow at Nusa Dua but our driver suggested us to skip that and go to Uluwatu Temple right away in case we missed out the sunset. Hence, to choose between Water Blow and Uluwatu Temple, of course we choose the latter.

Uluwatu Temple, also known as Pura Luhur Uluwatu in Balinese, is a Balinese sea temple. It is one of the six key temples believed to be Bali's spiritual pillars. It is known for its magnificent location, perched on top of a steep cliff approximately 70 metres above sea level. Uluwatu Temple is one of the top places on the island for sunset delights, with direct views overlooking the beautiful Indian Ocean, and you can watch Kecak dance performances over here too!

With such amazing view, I can't stop myself from "WOW" "WOW "WOW" while walking along the cliff walkway. The entrance fee for uluwatu temple is IDR40,000 but it is really worthy! Spamming photos taken at Uluwatu Temple as the place is too beautiful!

Look at this view! Heartmelts...

Aww... I can stay here all the long just to listen to the sound of the sea slamming on the cliff. 

Group Photo while waiting for sunset. 

Bare in mind... You have to be very be careful with your belongings here. Monkeys will just come attack anytime, anywhere. Our driver kept reminding us and we managed to escape in one piece =)

Not a perfect sunset but it is worth waiting after all. 

Heart this place very much

After that, the driver brought us to a spa place - Adi Spa. The price is really expensive and we bargained so hard to get IDR300,000 per person for an hour of Balinese massage. It is actually very over-priced but we were like stucked there with the driver (who looks pretty keen for us to try) and the workers. We looked at other spa's places for pricing and realized that we paid almost twice more than the actual price. =.= conned... 

The environment is quite peaceful actually.

After an hour of spa, we finally can go for dinner @ Jimbaran Bay. I was actually quite sad that we couldn't make it for sunset at Rock Bar. Choosing between Rock Bar and Uluwatu Temple, I decided to go for Uluwatu Temple, which is the must-see. Typical tourist thought. =)

The driver brought us to a seafood place to dine at the beach @ Jimbaran Bay. We were quite exhausted after one whole day of tour, both mentally and economically. Hence, we just ordered some simple dishes like fried rice and grilled chicken to fill up our tummy. Food here isn't cheap either. Maybe of the location I guess. However, I do enjoy the environment here. The sound of the ocean is so soothing.

The restaurant that we dined in.

The open air seating. Too bad it was drizzling when we arrived. So we got our indoor seats instead of this romantic one. XD

Day 3: Barong & Keris Dance - Batik Shop - Kintamani (where we had lunch) - Coffee Plantation (Luwak Coffee) - Tirta Empul Temple - Tegalalang Rice Terrace - Naughty's Nuri (Dinner)

Early morning of our day 3, we heaeed out around 9am (was supposed to be 8.30am =P) to watch Barong & Keris Dance. It is a traditional dance, and they have written storyline in different languages available for your reference while watching. It really helps! Easier for me to understand the content of the show.. I wouldn't disclose any of the show content... You are suppose to come here to explore if you're planning one. haha... Entrance fee is IDR100,000 per pax.

 

Our group photo with the Barong. 

Then, the driver drove us to a batik shop, with some people processing batik at a side. We did not spend much time there as batik stuff are expensive and we are running out of money. Not our main interest of the trip anyway. =D

Colouring of the cloth

After that, we proceed to Kintamani for lunch at Pulu Mujung Warung. Usually, drivers or tour will opt for buffet at Kintamani.. We are trying to find something more special and hence we ended up here. I kinda like this place as they serve organic Indonesian dishes, which is nice. However, my other 2 friends who prefer heavy taste find them very tasteless. Haha... But, there's one thing that all of us like - the Mount Batur view with breezy cold wind.

 

Lunch with such a view - best in life!