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It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in November when the blogger girls gathered for a good old-fashioned natter about… what else, gossip!

Can you see our table in the picture above?

The Bee fits all of our criteria for a meeting spot. A cozy setting that is great for photography, an extensive and delicious brunch menu, bemused staff (very important!) who are tolerant of the noise and demands that our group of females can be capable of coming up with. The suggestion to meet at The Bee came from Kahani, and as one of us, her suggestion was definitely spot on. Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who hangs out with me long enough will know that there’s only one type of coffee I’ll order from upmarket coffee houses/cafes. And that would be a latte – regular sized, with one packet of raw/brown sugar.

My usual java of choice comes from that ubiquitous brand – Starbucks. Spare me the spiel about how Starbucks is evil and yadda yadda yadda – I choose it because it’s convenient. Everywhere you go, you can find a Starbucks outlet, right?

Image credit

Last Friday, my colleague kindly bought me a latte from Austin Chase as thanks for playing driver and ferrying her to MidValley. And this was my first time tasting coffee from Austin Chase. How did I find it?

Well, the milk froth/foam on top of the latte was not as dense as Starbucks, so it felt more like air bubbles. And the coffee strength seems less strong, because I didn’t get the same caffeine buzz as I normally would. (My caffeine tolerance level is pretty low.) Also, I found the overall packaging of Austin Chase’s takeaway coffees to be less refined as compared to Starbucks – especially the plastic lid, which reminded me of McDonald’s takeaway coffee cups.

So, am I a coffee snob much? I’d say yes.

Although Ipoh’s not part of my usual stomping grounds, but whenever the family heads up north on a roadtrip, this place is where we’ll definitely stop for breakfast.

Reason? For the yummy food and local coffee. In fact, we would never have known about this place if not for my godparents, who first brought us here during one of our visits in 2009. Apparently this place is popular with the local folks, because invariably we are the only outstation car parked in the area and it’s not easy to get a table. Plus, the food sells out pretty quickly too, so try to get there before 11am if you don’t want to be disappointed.

Delicious and authentic Ipoh white coffee that cannot be found in KL and definitely does not taste like those pre-mixed coffees that claim to be Ipoh white coffee.

Home style yam cake, one of the best I’ve ever tasted!

Chee cheong fun is not one of my favorite foods, but I’m assured that it was good. They tend to serve it a little differently here, with long green beans and green chillies in addition to the usual sweet sauce and chili sauce.

I don’t know what this is actually called. I call it my favorite pancake (not a technically accurate term) and I’m just drooling thinking about it now! This is the best pancake I’ve had in my life – the size is not too small or big, it is perfectly crispy without being burnt and the batter used to make this pancake is beyond perfect.

The lor mai fun was a tad smaller than I’d have liked it to be because it was yummy. In the background, you can see a small sauce dish of curry which adds to the uniqueness just like the chee cheong fun.

Kedai Kopi Sun Yuan Loong
Medan Bendahara 2
Taman Taiping
31650 Ipoh
Malaysia

Two separate outings, but at the same venue and with the same gang of madcap friends!

The first time around was last year, when we had a surprise birthday party for Paris B at Marmalade in Bangsar Village II. Fast forward 10 months later and we were back for a weekend brunch cum gossip session.

I find Marmalade to be an excellent venue of choice for those laid back weekend brunches and for catching up on the latest gossip with friends. The bright and cheerful interior of the cafe boasts colorful murals on the walls with comfy seating arrangements that allow you to linger. It is also a good place to host small parties as there is a section of the cafe which can be blocked off and seats around 20 people comfortably.

Marmalade’s staff are also incredibly helpful and accommodating – when we held the surprise birthday party, they graciously allowed us to bring in the birthday cupcakes and helped us store it. And no matter how long we linger around (on average we can sit around for up to 4 hours at a go), service is always prompt and cheerful. It’s nice to know that good service does exist in Malaysia.

Now, the highlight of dining at Marmalade for me is always their breakfast sets (which are available up till 1pm). Tip : Order a few different sets and share amongst family and friends! That way you’ll get to try more. The Hearty Brekkie above comes in a set with choice of coffee or tea and juice.

We couldn’t get enough of the scrumptious omelette you see above, so we had 2 sets of this (or was it 3?) and still wanted more!

I simply love the fruit and yogurt that comes with the French Toast set. Makes me feel more healthy in a way. LOL.

I didn’t get to try much of this burger, but as with the other items on Marmalade’s menu, it must have been good since it vanished off the plate in a hurry. Oh, but those grilled mushrooms you see at the side of the burger? Absolutely yummy even on its own.

This last dish of pumpkin soup was ordered on a whim, since the Caucasian ladies at the table next to us had ordered it and it looked so good even from afar. We reasoned to ourselves that soup was just liquid anyway, so we went ahead and ordered it even though we’d had multiple sets of the food above! It was a good decision, for me anyways, because I love pumpkin and this soup was nicely creamy and akin more to pureed pumpkin rather than a watery soup. I was scraping the bowl clean on this dish!

All in all, I do love a good brunch at Marmalade and I really shouldn’t wait for 10 months to pass by before I make my next trip there! Anyone up for brunch?

Marmalade Cafe
Lot 1F-18
First Floor
Bangsar Village II
2, Jalan Telawi 2
Bangsar Baru
Kuala Lumpur

Click here for the Google Maps link.

Read the other surprise party event blogposts here :
Paris B
Beetrice
Pinkelle

Read other blogger reviews on Marmalade here :
Boolicious
Chocoholic Memoirs
Lyrical Lemongrass
MeiyeN

Last week, Paris B kindly invited me and Kahani to join her on a food tasting review of the delicacies that The Huckleberry Cafe (hereafter referred to as Huckleberry) has to offer. The foodie session was organized by Candy of Asian Age Holdings and boy, were we on a sugar high after!

For folk who are familiar with Food Foundry in Section 17 PJ, you’ll be happy to know that Huckleberry is opened and run by the same folk, so you can expect the same standards to apply at both eating outlets. I’d heard of Food Foundry before, but never managed to find the time nor an occasion to check it out but I think I’d want to after sampling the light finger foods and desserts at Huckleberry.

Huckleberry is tucked away into a nook at the back of Times Bookstore in Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC). (As such, I had a moment of confusion when I arrived and checked BSC’s tenant list only to find no Huckleberry there. Luckily, a quick call to Paris B sorted things out. Phew!) The area itself is not very large, but the tables, chairs and comfy sofas have been neatly arranged to maximize space constraints without feeling cramped. I can imagine chilling at Huckleberry with some coffee and cake whilst browsing books from Times on lazy afternoons.

And since we had some time to spare before the food tasting began, we had an impromptu photoshoot session for Kahani so that she could showcase the lovely cerulean blue dress she wore on Frocking Around.

Then it was on to the food, glorious food!

Here’s my iced cafe latte (MYR 6.00) before I mixed it all up. A decent enough, normal cup of latte that went well with the pastries and cakes that we had.

We started off with the savories. Here you can see 2 types of quiches and a cornish pastry. The spinach and beef bacon quiche (MYR 9.00) was less savory than the mushroom and onion quiche (MYR 9.00) (which I really liked!) but both were melt-in-your-mouth delicious, with just the right amount of flaky pastry the way I like it, which is that it doesn’t remind me of pie, where I have to go through layers of pastry that flakes to bits before you can get to the savory filling. But the standout would be the beef rendang cornish pastry (MYR 9.00), which had a solid meaty filling of rendang that reminded Paris B and me of serunding and would be excellent with nasi lemak.

We then moved on to the sweet stuff (but not exactly desserts yet), starting with the Banana Raisin Bread Pudding (MYR 9.00). Silly me forgot to take a picture of the pudding! I love a good bread pudding and the addition of bananas and raisins to traditional bread pudding was pretty inspired, if you ask me. Not overly sweet, but just nice. Made me wish for vanilla ice-cream to accompany it though.

From left to right, clockwise, you have the Guinness Chocolate Cake (MYR 9.00), Whooppie Pie (MYR 5.00), and Macarons in the flavors of Pineapple, Green Tea and Red Bean (MYR 2.50 each). I would have preferred a slightly stronger tasting Guinness Chocolate Cake and it also needed to be a little bit more moist but on the whole it was good. Same with the Whooppie Pie (could’ve been more moist) which reminded me a bit of Oreos and made me wish for vanilla ice-cream again. The macaroons were uber sweet but oh-so-tempting! The pineapple one reminded us all of traditional pineapple tarts but my absolute fave was the Green Tea one, because the taste balanced out the sweet macaroon shell.

We were by no means finished, because like a magician, Candy whipped out four varieties of cake for us to try! Clockwise from bottom center you have the Chocolate Cake, Hummingbird Cake and Carrot Almond Cake (MYR 9.00). The Chocolate Cake was just right, chocolate-y and moist and reminded me of brownies that would go absolutely perfectly with ice-cream (yes, I think I was craving for ice-cream that day. *wink*). The Hummingbird Cake was nutty and grainy, just the type for people who like “healthy tasting” cakes and got classified as “now-I-know-where-to-get-a-cake-for-my-godmother”. (The Huckleberry Cafe does take orders for whole cakes, but you’ll have to call them up 2 days in advance.) I had rather high expectations for the Carrot Almond Cake because I love carrot cakes in general and this was one of the good ones – not too sweet and light, but filled with lots of good, nutty ingredients. The only thing that threw me off a bit was that faint taste of cinnamon, which I’m not used to having in my carrot cake, and which I suspect may have to be an acquired taste for me at least.

If you have been counting, you would have noticed that I talked about tasting four varieties of cake but only pictured and described three above. Well, I had to save the best for last, right? Here is the highlight of the desserts…

Mille Crepe Cake (MYR 10.00)! Pictured above in Vanilla, it also comes in Strawberry and Chocolate flavors too. Even now, I can picture and taste the delicate crepe layers melting in my mouth with every bite. No wonder this is the best-selling cake at Food Foundry.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and settle some dessert cravings from writing this post. Contact details of The Huckleberry Cafe are as pictured below.

The Huckleberry Cafe
@ Times Bookstore
Bangsar Shopping Centre
Tel : +60 3-2095 1606

Read other blogger reviews here :
Kahani (featuring the photoshoot session only)
nrewq
Paris B
Xin

A great many moons ago (but still within this year), some bloggers and I gathered at Yook Tho Hin (PJ) Restaurant for a post Chinese New Year lunch. Being the very hungry folk we are, we decided to indulge in a seven course meal to celebrate the New Year.

First up was the ubiquitous Yee Sang that is present at nearly every meal during Chinese New Year. For the uninitiated, yee sang is a salad-type dish that is served with a number of sauces and usually with raw fish (salmon). The best part about eating yee sang is the part just before you eat, when everyone gathers around to “loh hei” or toss the salad while reciting auspicious sayings. As you can see, it can get a wee bit chaotic and messy!

There was also the usual seafood sharksfin soup as the second course. Even though some time has passed since then, I remember that Yook Tho Hin’s version was not too starchy and pretty delicious too!

My fellow bloggers were raving away about the fried prawns with salted egg but being allergic to most types of seafood that comes with a shell, I could only watch them tuck into those gargantuan prawns (look at the size of ‘em!) and drool.

Luckily for me, there were other dishes that I enjoyed tremendously. Like the baked herbal chicken. The chicken was so tender and soft it literally fell off the bone and while I personally would have enjoyed a stronger herbal taste, this dish got the thumbs up from me.

We also had two vegetable dishes, braised vegetable and tofu and the vegetarian dish of vegetables and mushrooms but after the tofu dish, my camera ran out of battery!

We were very full after all that good food, but there was still dessert to come – the usual tinned fruit in syrup and fried pastries – plus a special surprise of a birthday cake for me. =)

For all of the food we feasted on above, we paid about MYR32.00 per head (8 pax x MYR32.00 = MYR256.00). Considering that we were then still within the 15 days of Chinese New Year (when most Chinese restaurants tend to inflate their prices), I found the prices to be reasonable, especially for such good food. The company, of course, was excellent, as always.

The restaurant is fully air-conditioned on both levels, but it would be wise to call ahead and reserve your places on weekends as space is limited.

Yook Tho Hin (PJ) Restaurant
No.13, Jalan SS21/37
Damansara Utama
Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Tel : +60 3-7729 6534
Note : The restaurant is located at the same row as HSBC in Damansara Uptown.

Read other blogger reviews here :
Connie
Paris Beaverbanks
Peteformation