China House @ Georgetown, Penang

It has almost 2 years since i step into Penang again. This time is for my friend's wedding which falls on 11th November. I booked my flight many months ago once i received notification from the buddy. I reached Penang one day earlier before the wedding. Boon Yi recommended me a nice place called China House which is located between Beach Street & Victoria Street. The amazing heritage old shop houses terrace place transformed into a cafe cum dine-in place & art gallery for customers.

I am amazed with the structures and the decorations of the place. It truly a colonial place which makes us feel so vintage and comfortable for leisure time. However, one thing to take note that the parking space is limited and you might have difficulties to find place to park your car. It's worth though to give it a try here and enjoyed the atmosphere and the ambiance of such a cosy place. 

Each area of the place has different theme and the dinning areas option are available indoor and outdoor too. Too bad as i am using iPhone to take photos so spare me from my poor quality photos of the place.

We went there on 11th November which is happened to be Boon Yi's birthday. So we have a mini celebration. Just two of us only with a nice meal and companion. Each table is set up with white 'mahjong' papers. I even saw some of the customers drew on the papers so i requested for colour pencils from the staff. Guess what, i got the brand new crayon set. I was kinda happy to reminisce my favourite drawing session with colourful crayons. I drew a birthday cake on the papers.

Let the photos below do the talking:-

Chinese Pear Salad - RM30 per serving. 

It's one of the popular salad which served with shaved parmesan, cranberries, coriander, cashews, red onions and crispy greens. I can taste the sweetness and sour taste from the combination. It makes my appetizing more appealing. I love the colours of the salad too. 

Boon Yi's Beef Curry Spaghetti - RM28 per serving.

The presentation looks tempting to us. The beefball taste good. The meat is not tough and still manageable. I love the curry sauce made to accompany the spaghetti.

The recommendation drink- Gula Melaka Pistachio Shake -RM16

I don't really like it though because it is way too sweet for me. The taste is strong too. I can't take it and didn't finish them in the end :(

Boon Yi with the cake

Dessert always served after main course. We headed to the desserts area to pick the cakes we want. They served varieties of cakes and it looks good and taste good too in my point of view. We choose Banana Trutle Torte - RM15 per slice. It was 'huge' slice for us. The taste is fascinating. The sweetness of banana with the chocolate makes the overall taste bud feels satisfying. 

After the lunch, we headed upstairs level 2 to see the art gallery. It was understand that there is different theme of art exhibition going on monthly. This time round we saw the circus art exhibition. I took some of the photos from the gallery and here I am sharing for your viewing pleasure.

 

*All photos taken using iPhone 4s* 

Location address:-

China House

153- 155 Lebuh Pantai

Georgetown

10350 Penang, Malaysia

Tel: +604 2637299

Website: www.straitscollection.com.my/

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar @ Esplanade Mall

It is such a random decision that we headed off for a quick dinner after work and headed to our actual aim to have chocolates! We are chocolate lovers and it is a great start of the week and of course to kill Monday Blues.

We headed to Max Brenner Chocolate Bar located at Esplanade Mall to satisfy our cravings. It is purely base on recommendation from the website. We are basically greedy at the spur moment and end up too full at night.

My choice is the best recommendation desserts-

Melting Chocolate Truffles Heart Cake & Shake S$16.00.

 It is served with vanilla bourbon ice-cream. Strawberry and iced milk chocolate shot. The description was too fascinating that you couldn’t tell from the menu that it is actually a chocolate lava cake. Sinful I would say and it is very VERY rich chocolate. The smell was simply alluring. The combination of the vanilla ice-cream with the chocolate soufflé melted in the mouth with rich dark chocolate.

Pamela’s choice – The S’mores Connection S$13.90.

It is served with marshmallow fluff, milk chocolate mousse,graham crackers and caramelized bananas. She finished all of them within minutes. She is a dessert lovers and she enjoyed the taste of the milk chocolate mousse. The presentation of the dessert caught our attention immediately when it is served. The milk chocolate mousse to go with the marshmallow fluff makes you feel like drinking a milk chocolate but in cold version

Yunita’s choice – Banana Split Waffles S$18.90.

It is served with vanilla bourbon ice-cream, milk chocolate truffle and caramelized rice krispies. It is superb rich plate of dessert. We are awfully shocked with the presentation. It was ‘huge’ for us but we managed to finish it. I love the crispy sound when I bite the rice krispies accompany with the hot waffles and vanilla ice-cream. The chocolate syrup was all over the waffles and sweetness was surrounded us.

I think we are overdose as we ordered 3 different desserts and managed to finish them off after our main course. We had rice and noodles for dinner. It was a perfect ending with wonderful desserts on the table.

 Location Address:

Esplanade Mall #01-06/08
8 Raffles Avenue, Singapore 039802
Tel: +65 6235 9556
Website: http://www.maxbrenner.com/home.aspx

Desserts to TRY @ KL

TONG PAK FU

Desserts are always a must whenever we had our main course. It marks the perfect dinner. The current desserts choice in KL would be Tong Pak Fu and SnowFlakes. I had both when i went to KL on the first weekend of this month (November).

We headed to Tong Pak Fu located at Subang Jaya. Tong Pak Fu (in Cantonese) is actually a famous Ming Dynasty scholar. Fu carries the connotation of shop, Tong refers to 'Tong Shui' or dessert while Pak symbolises the blooming of different varieties and styles. The combination then brings out the message of 'a dessert shop offering myriad of choices"-be it traditional or new flavours. (Source: Malaysiamostwanted website). The dessert branches are expanding fast in Malaysia. 
 

 

The famous Treka Durian- durian snow ice dessert which is extremely sinful! Very rich durian taste and the snow ice is nicely done! No much comment but once you taste it, you will enjoyed it. It will be a wise choice for durian lover.

 

We also ordered the Matcha (Green Tea) Snow ice with red bean. No much comment as well as it really taste like green tea and the snow ice is nicely done as well. All I can say this is Malaysia's snow ice version which is popular among Malaysian desserts kaki as well.
 

SNOWFLAKE

Next we have the Snowflake, Taiwanese dessert that began popular few years back.The business is booming and franchise branches are available in the market We had snowflakes for desserts on the day before Elaine and I headed back to Singapore. It's her first try and she loving it as well. I miss the taste and this time round i am able to reminisce the taste of the icy snowflakes with the yummy taro ball. I personally feel that no other desserts stall are able to copy the exact same taste of taro ball like here. It's really chewy and Q! I love to chew them and eat them with the snowflakes.

Location address:

The first ever outlet in KL

Snowflake

No. 61A, First Floor, Jalan SS15/8A, 
Subang Jaya, 47500 Selangor 

The Pizza Place X Fruit Paradise

It was a monthly cousin gathering and here is the location for our July gathering. Carmen suggested The Pizza Place located at basement of Raffles City Shopping Centre. The restaurant is quite small scale and it is self-service order. So basically we will need to get a place to seat and queue for order.

Laurel & Carmen ordered Carbonara Linguine which is cream sauce topped with beef bacon bits @ S$9.80. The taste and the presentation is lovely. The cream sauce is way enough for the serving.

Beef Lagsana @ S$12.80 where the choice of juciy ground beef in the unique cheese and herbs. It was a filling dish. I can't finish it alone though. 

This is highly recommended by Carmen. It is the the wedges. 

We ordered two types which is one with baked one and the other is the original wedges. Forget the price though :p

Dinner was great. The foods are nice and price is decent. The companion is great too. I was the last person to reach. Luckily both of them wait for me patiently.

We went window shopping before we have our dessert time. It is to digest our immune system before we input more foods into our stomach.

Luckily we reserved the cakes because the cakes are selling like hot cakes. I always passed by Fruit Paradise and never really want to try the fruit cakes because i felt the price is a bit pricey.

Even by looking at the photos, my saliva is drooling. We ordered one slice of banana cake and mango cake to try. True enough that the taste is as good as the presentation.

 Awfully delicious and sinful! I felt so loved! 

The mango and banana are nicely filled into the gaps of the cake layers and you can taste the fruit sweetness when you have it with the sponge cake and also the cream.We were so engrossed with the cakes and started to have shooting before we dig in. 

It was truly a fruitful gathering. The cake slice is around S$6.90 per slice if i remembered clearly. I felt that the price is pricey but the quality of the cake paid off. I would love to try it again.

All photos taken using Olympus camera.

 Photos credit to Carmen.