Category Archives: Food and Drinks

A week of uncertainties … and its only Wednesday

Posted in Everyday Life, Food and Drinks by

My week always starts on a Sunday. While last weekend has been brief – it was nevertheless filled with warmth and happiness. I kinda got a ‘premonition’ that I will be forgetting my younger sister and Dad’s birthday this week (of which I did), I decided that the family must celebrate early.

The First Uncertainty..

.. was when I had to choose a cake. My favourite cake house at the moment is the Italy Bakery as it has a wonderful selection. It was between the La Rose Cake and the Absolute Chocolate cake. I stood in front of the cake display with Hazeeq fidgeting by my side in his little jubah for like 5 loooong minutes before I finally made my choice. An LA Rose cake it is – an excellent choice at that as this cake not only has a luxurious and elaborate decoration, it also exudes wonderful taste and texture to any birthday celebration.

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BRANCHES (TAMAN SEMABOK PERDANA, MELAKA)

N0.31 31-1 Jalan SP1,
Taman Semabok Perdana,
Melaka.
Tel: 06-282 6450
E-mail: info@italybakery.com.my

My Second Uncertainty ..

.. was when I had to make a difficult decision for a patient at work. It was not a matter of life and death. But it’s one of those things that keeps popping up at the back of my head. I had to go with an experience-driven instinct – enough said

My third Uncertainty..

.. is my dear Hazeeq. I have to say he is a fun little human right now. He can interact, he understands most of the things we say to him. He is a big boy! He remembers crystal clear the things he saw or heard, the direction to his grandmothers house or Tesco. He can even relate to us the activities he did for the day with his grandparents although we have to filter it a bit because come on lah.. takkan lah nenek nak pergi tesco everyday bawak you makan kfc. ha ha ha. 

hazeeq's new slippers.. bought by nenek

I wouldn’t say Hazeeq’s uncertainty is a negative thing. I like the fact that Hazeeq is gender neutral. Meaning he loves Sofia the First as much as he loves Upin Ipin. He loves pink slippers as much as wearing his shorts and checkered shirts or ‘baju aku kaya’ as he calls it.

My current ‘uncertainty’ is in how to initiate potty training. First time parent lah kan.. and despite being a medical professional I’m still hoping that the business of pooping or pee-ing on ones own will come by naturally. Aduh. 

Medan 2014 : Food-tourism on a budget

Posted in Food and Drinks, Leisure & Travel by

I daresay eating or makan-makan in Indonesia as a tourist is affordable and clean at most places. We are able to have our meals at decent air-conditioned restaurants with a price tag way cheaper than in Malaysia. Imagine a meal set for two in a fast food chain, TEXAS CHICKEN for instance, only costs us MYR 12.

And our most hefty meal at AYAM GORENG KALASAN which included a dessert even, later amounts to only MYR 25. Alhamdulilah.. kenyang. 

AIR ASIA PRE-BOOKED MEAL

We were off to a happy start when our pre-booked meal of Nasi Padang  (MYR12/meal) on the Air Asia flight proved to be delicious. Like pure chewy daging rendang on board the plane! We underestimated how quick the journey could be because as soon as we opened the aromatic, piping hot packaging.. the flight attendants were already bringing the black plastic bag around to collect the rubbish. Argh.. panik. I blom makan.. 

Mr Husband ate, well …  swallowed it all in a jiff. I chose to pack it for dinner later at the hotel. There wasn’t enough time for a quick photo too but we did have a snap of our meals during the return flight from Medan to KLIA2. This time it was Nasi Lemak Pak Naseer and Nasi Tomato with Ayam Percik. The latter dish was Hazeeq’s favourite. He kept asking for more ‘matik’ [read=nasi] throughout the flight. The percik was a bit spicy for the boy but he liked the rice anyway.

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NASI LEMAK AIR ASIA

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And if I heard it correctly.. I think Air Asia is introducing a Kids Meal on board soon.

Great.“With Air Asia, every kid can eat”

Cafe Bang Memeng,

Komplek Istana Maimun

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This was an impromptu breakfast meal. We were secretly scouting for the Halal logo from the few eateries (gerai) available within the grounds of Istana Maimun. Then, jeng jeng jeng.. we spotted one of the cooks in a hijab. So in the spirit of InsyaAllah Halal.. we ordered simple nasi goreng with jus durian belanda.

 

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Fried Rice with Durian Belanda juice

 

JO’S FAMOUS TEA HOUSE,

SUN PLAZA

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Perhaps this is not a tourist-y destination, but we were willing to try anything for lunch. Especially since we don’t have a proper tour guide to consult. Plus we couldn’t find the famous Restoran Garuda most bloggers went to during their trip to Medan. Still, Jo’s Tea House was not disappointing. A very pretty lady came to take our order. Prettier than Bunga Cinta Lestari, I have to say.

Mr Husband tried the Mee Udon Medan. As for myself, I went for the Rawon Setan.Which is beef broth with bits of beansprouts and an egg. For a while, i thought the Rawon looked like brewed Jamu  – pretty spicy looking. Rawon was to be eaten with rice but well.. I just had rice for breakfast. Diet konon. Though I ended up nicking Hazeeqs Monte Cristo Banana Chocolate Bread. He was too busy posing for the camera in sipping the iced lemon tea.

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To be honest, Rumah Hijau’s Banana Chocolate Cake lagik nyaman. And this Rumah Hijau is in Kuching, Sarawak. One of our must eat places when go back Kuching.

77 ES TELER,

SUN PLAZA

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Dessert does not come any sweeter than the Es Nangka we had at this joint. Nangka is Jackfruit. It was overwhelmingly sweet thus we were glad we shared the bowl of Es (ICE). And to wash it down – another sweet coconut drink.

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Somtam Tesco Melaka

Posted in Food and Drinks by

“Eat whatever you want, and if anyone tries to lecture you about your weight,

eat them too”

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Sometimes the most lovely dishes are closer to home.

Somtam (kerabu betik) is one of my favourite Thai dishes. I first had it when a fellow friend whose mother hails from Bangkok prepared us a homemade Somtam. Later, my second Somtam meal was in Krabi. However, this time I bought this Somtam at Tesco Melaka’s Bazaar Rakyat for MYR5. And the taste was everything I imagined it to be. Take note, it is very spicy but the bliss of having it for Iftar was worth it. Although I did have to swallow 2 tabs of Gelusil post meal.

Its a simple dish. The ingredients were fresh and the young boy mixing the somtam certainly knows what he is doing.

Too bad the Pulut Mangga was not available during Ramadhan. Perhaps, after Raya then? Heard it was equally mouth-watering.

 

A simple Iftar

Posted in Everyday Life, Food and Drinks by

 

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

Words could not describe the joy seeing your son eat up the simple iftar menu with much gusto!

Mr Husband was being fussy on not wanting to have rice on the plate. So I had to think of  an alternative. Thus, in my magic pot, I brought some spaghetti to a boil. Blobbed Prego sauce on top with bits of meatball and sprinkles of cheese and black pepper seeds. The outcome : a simple dish for breaking fast.

And the meal was prepped in less than 15 mins! Nice.

Any links or ideas for easy, simple meals? This working mother definitely needs help. Cheerios!

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Have a bite. Eat at BurgerByte

Posted in Food and Drinks, Places to Eat, Reviews by

“When in doubt, ingest carbs.” 
― Rachel Cohn,

What if I tell you that I was deeply disappointed with my virgin experience at Burgerbyte?

Sadly true.

BurgerByte had all the best mojo for success – a good recipe, a celebrity endorsement, franchises at dense, youthful areas (meaning at places where people eat burger), friendly owners, good chefs, wonderful restaurant ambiance and such. But somehow it failed for one major reason at the branch I went to. I’ll tell you why.

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I went to BurgerBytes located at Bandar Saujana Putra. I was so excited to taste this famous eatery that I have repeatedly reminded my sister to go there early and book a table – to which she said, no need as there wouldn’t be as many patrons there as those in Damansara or Bangi.

We were a party of 8 (6 adults and 2 toddlers). This is minus Mom who had to attend her social engagements with her ‘women club’.

My younger sister took our orders and proceeded to place it at the counter. And this was when our unpleasant experience began. The young girl at the cashier was … to politely put it, slow and blur. She knows Coke and Ice lemon Tea.. but she somehow has never heard of the 100 plus drink. My sister, a teacher by the way, was at a boiling point mengadap her ‘innocence’ but managed to refrain herself from giving her one of her ‘teacher’s look’ or slamming her hand on the table muttering ‘astarghfirullah’.

The cashier managed to understood the order when my sister finally pointed out the picture to her. We would empathise if she was an OKU but she was not – she was a bimbo.

But the problem did not stop there.

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When our orders came, instead of the famous NakËd Burger which we wanted in beef, it came as only a NakËd Beef Patty. The waiter apologized for what seems a wrong order but knowing it wasn’t the chef’s fault and we were terribly hungry, we gave in. We took the meal and tried to enjoy it. Obviously, we didn’t like it that much as we were expecting something else.

I wasn’t keen on taking pictures. I just couldn’t. My first time with BurgerByte was ruined. But hey, its like Auntie Anne pretzels. The ones at Sunway Pyramid tasted better than the ones at Aeon Jusco. I like to believe that the same thing applies to BurgerByte  although its quite sad to think ‘where is quality control in this?’

Hence, driven by that optimism we decided to give it a try at Burgerbytes Malacca, located at MITC.

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It was not disappointing although my sister was frustrated that we did not try the ‘proper NakËd Burger’. We ordered other stuff on the menu including the JUMBO size carrot juice! Well well.. next time then – for NakËd Burger!