Taiping: Le'pak Kitchen

#throwback

If you want me to count how many nice cafes are there in Taiping, it will be an easy task! There are so few cafes here and good or beautiful ones are even lesser. Today, I am going to share a decent cafe, located near Taman Kaya in Taiping. They served Malay + Western fusion style and also photogenic desserts. I've seen a few people posting photos of this cafe and hence I went there to try about a month ago. Sorry for the delayed update! XD

Not hard to find. It has a very spacious parking space, but.... it still gets packed. 

Woods and bricks.

I ordered a photogenic dessert, which serves with bueno chocolate bar. However, I had too high expectation on this. It ends up just so-so to me. 

Craving for some mango sticky rice and so we ordered one to share! This dish looks so flooded as compared to our normal mango sticky rice. And it comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!! Yumzz...

Grilled chicken chop served with salad and potato wedges. (around RM9)

This is quite a decent plate of grilled chicken. =)

Chicken Chop served with mushroom sauce (RM5)

This is cheap! But it has too much flour. I prefer grilled chicken as compared to this. Of course, the price also doubled. 

Nasi Komando (if i don't remember the name wrongly). It is combination of nasi paprik and nasi pattaya. Ordered this because mom and aunt never try nasi paprik before and I personally like pattaya. Haha... So yea. This plate kills 2 birds with 1 stone =D

Taiping: Cendol KTM

Weather is getting hotter! I am sure your craving for a cup of iced drink or dessert would be higher under such hot weather. And if you happen to be in Taiping town, I want to recommend you a cendol stall, which is located at the ancient ktm station. 

Here is it! Located at the centre of the previous KTM station. The new KTM station is just right beside the old one. This stall sells cendol, ice kacang, laksa, pasembor, mee rojak, etc.... Typical laksa stall. There is another Chinese laksa stall beside this. But I find the cendol here much nicer. 

Cendol with red beans is served! Look at the amount of red beans they gave me. Their cendol is slightly salty, but overall quite nice. 

I also ordered a plate of mee rojak - pasembor + noodles as my lunch. Satisfied!

Lunch idea to fight the heat! =D

Perak: West Joy Cafe @ Taiping

During Chinese New Year, I have strong cravings for Thai Food. XD I used to have Thai Food at least once every 1-2 weeks when I was back in Alor Setar. Staying in Taiping for now, I have no idea where to get delicious authentic Thai Food. I was telling my sister about my cravings and she suggested me to try out a Thai Cafe, which open for around a year plus -- West Joy Cafe. She strongly recommend their green curry and I am interested to try.

So, one day, I went to try out the cafe with my sister. It was a cafe with simple design, located Opposite Prima Cafe (the hawker stalls, not the classy prima cafe). Flipping through the menu, their pasta attracted me - GREEN CURRY PASTA! How to resist the urge to try! Will they match? Will they match? So, I ordered a green curry pasta and a plate of pad thai (to try their authencity.. XD)

Here's their Pad Thai!

I would say, it is not up to my expectation. Though the amount of peanuts is generous, the overall taste is still disappointing.

Green Curry Pasta.

This is a boom! It is served with chicken and also some vege. Surprisingly, green curry matches spaghetti really well. It is kinda spicy but I like it! 

Overall look of our food of the night.

The outside of the cafe. Simple. and Green curry is nice.
Will come back to try their tomyam one day. =D

Perak: Old Town White Coffee

Haven't had Old Town White Coffee for such a long time! Went to try it in a random afternoon as sis and I were out of idea of what to eat. Surprisingly, we found that their menu has changed a lot. They added a lot of choices as compared to last time. They have steamed rice, wan tan mee, etc etc..... Old Town White Coffee may be very common but you might not order what I've tried. Right? =D 

We ordered a Hailam Fish Fillet Rice and also Kaya Butter Toast (double). For drinks, we both ordered Cham (Hot). Don't know why, I am addicted to Cham recently. The mixture of both goodness -- milk tea and coffee. How to resist.  

Hailam Fish Fillet Rice. Served with steamed vegetables and butter rice. The sauce is quite nice. 

Butter Kaya Toast. Never fails to grab my attention. It is really nice. Warm crispy toast with cold butter and kaya. Best combination ever!

Trying to win the contest! Hipster photo for food in Old Town White Coffee. Look nice too huh... XD

Perak: STG Tea House Cafe Taiping

If you are from Taiping, have you heard of Ecopark by Spritzer? In Ecopark, there is a STG (Sabah Tea Garden) tea house cafe, which is a franchise of the one in Ipoh. I have never tried STG in Ipoh/Taiping until this year's Chinese New Year. 

The mini golf place in Ecopark. STG is just beside this. 

The entrance of STG Tea House Cafe. Design looks very promising... 

The serve quite a variety of food but the choices of each category is kinda limited.

The bar.

We ordered a few types of food to share. So I'll be sharing photo of each dish and comment for them =D

Creme Brulee. Their creme brulee is quite good, just that it has stronger egg smell.

Potato Samosa. It was served super hot and the samosa is nice! Lots of fillings. 

One of the main -- Spagetti Cabonara with Turkey Bacon. This is quite good! Look, they are quite generous with the bacon. XD

I ordered Lemon Sabah Tea and it was really awesome! Best in the town!

Perak: Steamed Sandwich (刈包) @ Taiping

So busy with work! Finally I have time to update this blog!

Have you ever heard of steamed sandwich -- koah pao (刈包)? It is also known as Taiwanese Hamburger. I never try one when I visited Taiwan, but I found a stall in Taiping which sells delicious steamed sandwich. The stall is located in a kopitiam, opposite Prima Restaurant. The stall sells steamed sandwich (刈包), Dumplings (水饺) and Steamed Sweet Potatoes (烤地瓜).

Here is how the steamed sandwich looks like! 

You can choose either chicken or pork, with or without egg. I always ordered one with egg because it costs only RM3 with additional egg. So cheap!!! The sandwich bun is soft, mantou (馒头) texture. It has very nice sauce with peanut. Yumzzz.... One down side is..... The owner will need some time to prepare. Be prepare to wait and it is totally worth the wait! =D

I also ordered the dumplings! It is so crunchy and delicious. And doesn't look too oily. 

Definitely will visit this stall again if I want some special, cheap and nice dinner.

Taiping: Wasabi Sushi

Sushi post again!! =D

I have no idea why recently I have so much craving for Japanese food recently. When can I go Japan?

Wasabi Sushi Restaurant exists in Taiping for several years but I never try it till last 2 weeks. During Chinese New Year, sis and me were really hungry and we wanted to have some good food. Wanted to go Ming Ji Restaurant for a cup of coffee but that time the restaurant was closed for a break. So, we changed place to Wasabi Sushi which is located nearby. 

The menu which is simple, but looks a bit old.

The simple CNY design of the shop

The shop is rather small but quite cozy. When we went in around 3pm, there are 2 tables of customers. What a surprise. Tea time and tables are quite occupied (Because there are only around 5 tables. Haha... )

Ordered a pot of green tea for 2.

And ordered different sushi. They served all our orders in a plate. 

Look! Total bill is less than RM25 for everything. Rather cheap. But taste wise is just alright. Salmon nigiri feels not too fresh. Unagi nigiri was good. Tamago is too too sweet and hence awful. 

Taiping: Shunka Japanese Restaurant

Recently, Taiping has a newly open Japanese restaurant -- Shunka Japanese Restaurant. It is located near Taiping Mall, opposite my dad's shop (Sin Heng Guan Trading in Hawker Centre). Since the location is so strategic for me, I decided to give it a try with my sis. 

Hoping to get some nice desserts and sushi. =)

Went there around lunch time and the restaurant was quite full. 

The decoration in the restaurant is quite nice. Just that I find it not spacious enough as the walkway is quite narrow - waitress has to "squeeze through" if there is people. 

I wanted to try their matcha desserts but the waitress told me they are out of their green tea ice and/or glutinous ball. So sad! The waitress told me they will replace the glutinous balls with more red beans, which does not sounds tempting (The dessert itself already has red bean, just that they will add MORE red beans). Sigh........

HENCE, we've decided to order a hot matcha latte (RM7.90), reluctantly. But surprisingly, it turns out really nice! The matcha taste is rather strong and taste a bit bitter. With the addition of sweet milk, it turns out sweet with a little bitterness. A description of life. =D

After taking order for our drink, we've decided to get some sushi as snacks. Flipped through the menu and realized that they don't offer sushi. They offer main dishes (Japanese + Korean) and dishes, and some appetizers. So NO SUSHI. Sad...

Then we decided to order their Takoyaki (RM8.90) as snacks. It turns out very awful. I can only taste a "tepung ball" rather than sotong ball. Such a disappointing Takoyaki. Night market can get better Takoyaki than this! 

The Takoyaki -- look kinda fascinating. 

But the taste is really disappointing. =(

Taiping: Happy 8 Retreat Cafe & Charcoal Factory Visit

#throwback

If you were to come Taiping for a day trip, I would recommend you to go Kuala Sepetang (Port Weld) for a walk. That is a fishing village and this is where you can get cheap seafood, famous Pau (Chinese bun), famous Curry noodles and enjoy the nature. Port Weld has plenty of mangrove trees and you can go to the Mangrove Forest Reserve to enjoy the beauty of nature. I remember during my last time visiting the Mangrove Forest Reserve, I saw baby crabs crawling out from the mud. So cute!

I wanted to bring my colleague to visit the Mangrove Forest Reserve in Matang but when we reached the place, there are very few humans and hence we were worried about our safety. 2 girls in "jungle" did not sound like a safe thing to do. So, we decided to change plan -- visit fishing village and try out the new cafe (opened early 2014) in Port Weld.

Here is it! The Happy 8 Retreat Cafe, Kuala Sepetang.
Design is quite nice but the food/drink that they serve are quite over-priced. 

We ordered a cheese cake to try. Cakes here are from Free Mori (a cake shop with franchise in KL).
OS in my heart: "Cheh.....Not made in Taiping... I'm asking a friend from KL to come Taiping to eat cake from KL.... ISHHHHH......"

The cake is nice, but too expensive. RM13 if I'm not wrong. X(


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Next Stop: Charcoal Factory (RIGHT OPPOSITE Mangrove Forest Reserve)

At first I thought we were just going in and have a quick walk around the factory. Who knows, they offer factory tour, with RM3/pax. The owner of the factory is very friendly and good in explaining the process. From tree trunk to charcoal, they need days of burning, with different types of fire + temperature. Amazing! 

Oh! And we bought 2 sweet potatoes from the owner. Overpriced but well, the tour for RM3 is worthy. =D

Taiping-Penang One-day Food Trip

#throwback

HOW TO EAT 5 HEAVY MEALS IN A DAY??? 

Let me show you with my Taiping (breakfast) & Penang (6 other meals) Day Trip!!
** Specially thanks to my partner in "crime" -- Mr Jiaming.

1st Meal: Breakfast @ Taiping (Cashier Market/Larut Matang Food Court)

Taiping version Chee Cheong Fun (RM2.70 if I'm not wrong)

Fishball Fried Kuey Teow (So far I can only find this dish in Taiping) (RM3.80)

Before we had our 2nd meal, we went to hunt for some street arts as Mr JM said he hasn't seen any of them. As a very good "tour guide", of course I have to search street arts again, under the hot sun. =D (Not complaining, at all)

You can read about my Penang Street Arts post too! --> Click here for street art!

2nd meal: Teochew Cendol @ Lebuh Keng Kwee (More descriptions can be found in my previous post -- click here)

As busy as usual. We went on a Saturday and hence, crowds are expected. 

Ahhh! Best dessert on a hot & sunny day!

Only selfie in Penang -- Too busy eating. Mr JM and me with our cendols.

3rd meal: Hot Bowl Nyonya Delight (White Curry Noodles)

Heard about this white curry noodles for some time and finally I try it myself! Apparently they have moved to the street beside of their original stall. It is no longer at Abu Siti Lane, but Jalan Rangoon.

We reached there around 3pm and we were very very lucky. We ordered the last bowl of white curry mee. A table of customers beside us, who came earlier, ordered and the waiter told them they already ran out of stock. Who knows we got one bowl, even we reached later. LUCKY! And thankful. 

White Curry Mee!

Taiping: Cafe de Memoire 忆留轩

First try at the new cafe in Taiping town! 

Darling came back from Singapore for holiday and we planned to meet up (it is our routine to meet and update each other wherever there's chance)

She wanted to try Mille crepe in Taiping and hence we decided to have a high tea date. :) New cafe in town -- Cafe de Memoire is where we want to try.

The cafe is at a corner, not too spacious but they have vintage European design. Quite comfortable. 

The menu! Creative but difficult to read. I think they should provide white papers at the back of each page to make it clearer. Too difficult to read and choose. 

Table number. Can see that they did put effort in decorating small stuff. Nice

Espresso Mille crepe close up!

Green tea red bean Mille crepe close up!