KOI Japanese Restaurant at Gurney Plaza, Penang.

Hello readers! My internship life has officially ended and on my last day of work, my boss decided to treat us lunch and so we headed to KOI Japanese Restaurant for our farewell lunch together with other colleagues. It was my second visit here actually, the first visit didn't actually impress my family and I much, somehow the second visit was good, probably because I was with a bunch of friendly and funny people :) Boss ordered lots of food since there were 8 of us, really thanks a lot! And how funny before they started eating they said "Yan Yun don't want to take photos meh?" "Let's place the food back nicely for Yan Yun" Aha so gonna miss all the fun and laughter we had.

Bread Crunch. "Bread and Nori (dried seaweed) used to roll with crabstick, cream cheese, ebiko, cucumber, croutons and mayonnaise, garnished with KOI Maki dressing and peanut cheese". This sounded special to me at first but I couldn't taste the dressing nor the peanut cheese, end up it tasted like an ordinary dish to me.

Nama Ika Teriyaki. "Squid in sweet sauce marinade". Big love for this one! The sauce tasted really nice I find it different from the others, normally I wouldn't want another pieces in other places but the sauce here makes me wanting them more.

Chicken Teriyaki / Spicy. "Sweet soy sauce marinade/ drizzled with Mayonnaise and Chilli Powder". Failed to taste the spiciness cause I was busy taking photos of food and when I wanted to try it out, there was only one piece left without the Chilli powder on top. Colleagues didn't find it impressive tho.

Soft Shell Crab Karaage. "Garlic marinate soft shell crab". My favourite among all! I've always been a fan of soft shell crab and this tasted better than any soft shell crab that I've eaten. The ones I've tried before only tasted crunchy like chicken skin with little taste of crab. In KOI, you can see and taste real crab meat inside! So it was crunchy on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside. 

Assorted sushi, managed to try the octopus and the clam ones and they were really fresh.

Tuna Steak. "Red tuna steak seared and pan-fry to ideal tenderness with our KOI sauce and topped with fried garlics". When it comes to fish, I only eat Salmon or deep fried fish, and I never like tuna, but this tasted really good to me as if I'm eating chicken, it was really tender and completely absorbed the KOI sauce, thumbs up for this one.

Unagi Unagi. "Each maki is made into a shape of tear drop with crabstick, avocado, sweet omelette and cucumber fillings, topped with BBQ eel and mayonnaise, dressed with KOI spicy maki sauce". Just realised they are supposed to taste spicy when I'm blogging right now but again, couldn't sense any spiciness in it, perhaps my spicy point is too high? lol. It tasted pretty average to me.

Chiclen Teppanyaki. Not much to expect from it since teppanyaki is quite a normal thing.

Fried Oyster. All fried food taste good to me as it's quite impossible to make fried food taste bad haha, so I think this is pretty good and it matched well with the sauce which tasted a little bit sweet and salty.

Sweet baby octopus which is my all time favourite Japanese dish, tasted ok as you can find the same taste in other places. 

Green tea ice cream to sum it up! Don't really like red bean but it matched well with the ice cream, while my friend who doesn't fancy green tea related stuff said it tasted good. 

p/s: that's NOT all we ordered, there are also some rice set which I didn't manage to take photos of 'em.

In overall, it was a satisfying meal with all the nice people, talked about any random topics that we can come up with, laughed loudly like the restaurant is ours (since there was only one table of customers), and not to forget KOI gave us more greentea ice cream for free! Gonna miss the memories that we had here :) Once again, thank you boss for the treat!

La Vanille Cupcakes & Macarons, Penang.

Hello readers! Few days ago my working colleagues and I have decided to go further a bit for our lunch break as we have no idea what to eat in our area, mostly we would go Gurney food court, Paragon food court, Kapitan or Ali for lunch lol, so one of the colleagues suggested La Vanille which is located in Hutton Lane (beside New World Park) since they have 10% discount for students!

Was attracted by the beautifully decorated cakes and cupcakes.

Based on the name you would obviously know they sell cupcakes and macarons, hence I hereby presenting you their cute cupcakes decorations! They are all really cute and you can actually order the cupcakes for someone's birthday, anniversary and many more, the staff would customized the cupcakes based on the occasions. 

Aren't they cuteeeee?!

Macarons which I'm still having phobia towards them, just couldn't forget how I got sorethroat and fever after I consumed the ones from Valer*e's. Anyhow, some blog reviews stated they are ok tho.

They are also selling cakes if you are not a fan of macarons, heard that their Signature Tiramisu is quite nice.

And it's ordering time! The menu is located on top and the prices are consider cheap if you compare it with some other cafes, bring along your student card for 10% discount! 

My tummy was starving and so I ordered spaghetti carbonara set which includes a glass of ice lemon tea/ green tea. I thought the carbonara could fulfil my tummy but I.WAS.WRONG. Should have ordered their signature Honey Grill Chicken since the reviews are quite good, unlike my order..

Look at my sad-looking spaghetti, with so little spaghetti, ingredients and sauce. Tbh it tasted good but it could've been better if the portion is bigger and of course creamier, not to forget add some ingredients. My mom be like "That's what RM9.90 looks like" when she saw my photo lol. End up I had to buy a curry puff from Mak Ee which is few doors away.

Friend's Egg Mayo croissant. 2 baby croissant drizzled with a little amount of honey on top and some hashbrowns with cherry tomatoes on the side. It tasted good to her as the croissants are really crispy with a little bit of sweetness, portion was quite small to her as well and later on she purchased 2 tuna puff from Mak Ee.

My intern friend, Angela on the left and Ker Li on the right, a very funny and helpful full time colleague :)

Thank you for bringing me here even tho the food was quite disappointing, their desserts would taste better according to the reviews on other blogs, main course are just.. meh.

Ending this post with a cute bunny.

Chao :)

Tsuruya Japanese Restaurant at I-Avenue, Penang.

So mom and I have made our first visit to Tsuruya Japanese Restaurant, hoping we could find a Japanese restaurant around us (Bayan Baru) that can satisfy our taste buds since both of us do not like Sakae Sushi and Sushi King, and we always have to drive for 30 mins or more just to dine in our fav Jap restaurants which are Sushi Zento and Sushi Zanmai. Well, after the first try, I'd say we still need to drive a loooong way for Jap food. Continue reading to find out why :)

Even though it is a Jap restaurant, they are selling some Korean dishes as well.

I like their special seating but somehow we were arranged to the normal seating, naaawww maybe because there were only two of us :( be sure to take off your shoes if you happen to get the special seating.

Chawanmushi which was included in my rice set but it was the first who arrived, the wait for food seems to take forever. Despite the waiting time, it tasted pretty good, I'd say this is the nicest among other dishes.

Chicken Teriyaki & Enoki Bata Set. "BBQ Chicken and golden mushroom fried with batter". The chicken tasted rather normal and too salty for my liking, while the golden mushroom tasted quite good at first with light and creamy buttery flavour, but after awhile it turned greasy and oily. This set costs me RM26, quite affordable actually but not sure if it's really worth the price, mom said she could cook the same thing with much lower cost.

Mom's Tonkotsu Ramen, took a sip of her soup and it tasted quite good with a hint of spiciness from black pepper, somehow mom said the ramen was tasteless as it failed to absorb the flavour of the soup, couldn't agree more on that, I still think Nippon Yataimura serves the best ramen. 

Okonomi Yaki. Only took a tiny small bite of it as my tummy overloaded, nothing that attracts me and same goes to mom, it tasted so-so for her, end up we couldn't finish it and had to takeaway. 

Thus, these are all the WHYS mom and I would rather drive longer and spend more money on really delicious Jap food. To be honest the environment is great and the prices are affordable, but when it comes to food, it's a major turn-off.