Monkeycup @ Chow Thye Road, Penang.

Finally a date out with my darling ever since my semester break started! It was a last minute change of plan as we actually planned to meet on the past Saturday but darling decided to bring it forward, couldn't wait to see me eh? :3 And of course there wasn't any plan of where to go or what to eat since it was so sudden, thus I did some googling and off we went to Monkeycup. Monkeycup specializes in Thai food unlike most cafes that sell mainly Western and Italian, the only two non-Thai options are croissant and Angelababie (creamy pasta), dessert like cakes and creme brulee are available as well.

Outdoor and indoor seating.

Being a creamy food lovers, darlingandI decided to try out their Angelababie! We have also ordered their creme brulee which was so affordable!

In love with their creme brulee! The sweet caramel layer was really thick and wasn't over burnt, when combined with the brulee, just mmmmmm, the brulee itself was really smooth, I could have it all to myself!

Angelababie! Despite their main focus is on Thai food, but it didn't fail to satisfy me, the cream sauce is of course, creamy (what did I just say) yet not to the point that it was greasy, everything worked perfectly well with the sauce, wouldn't share it with my darling if I knew it was this good teehehe hadn't had enough!

Girls may consider ordering this because when it was served, the waiter would of course "intro" the dish by saying Angelababie, indirectly calling you Angelababy *laugh* OK I'm so lameee.

To sum it up, Monkeycup serves quality food with affordable pricing, will definitely come back for more!

My ootd.

Selfie taken at Secret Recipe after Monkeycup.

Food Buddy for life! 

Ben's Gurney Paragon, Penang

Happy Mothers' Day to all mommas around the world! Thank you for the 3728472 level of pain you suffered in labour, and taking care of your babies 24/7, 365 days a year with no annual leave, public holiday etc etc. To all the moms, you're free from housework today and you may continue with it tomorrow LOL jk. So, bf decided to be a good boy (heh) and treated his mom to lunch at Ben's Gurney Paragon last weekend to celebrate M's Day in advanced, I happened to hung out with them so I got to enjoy his treat as well teehee. I believe 99% of Penangites already know about this place so I'll just skip right to the main point aight? (and mainly because I didn't take much photos) :(

It's located beside Miam Miam which I blogged about it HERE, HERE and HERE (yep that's three visits).

I was first quite surprised by the menu as I thought it would be very very very pricey based on the environment, turned out it was quite affordable.

Photo source: Ben's official website. Click for larger view or download the pdf file HERE

So we ordered:

Spaghettini Carbonara which I loveeeeeee it A LOT, it tasted even better than Itali*nnies even though the amount of sauce was quite little, bf and aunty had a few bites and I finished the rest until the very last drop of sauce, it was too good to resist! One little thing that I hope can be improved is the amount of bacons! It was too little for me :( The rest was really great tho!

Aunty ordered Char-Grilled Seafood Spaghettini with chilli flakes and wilted spinach. It was an appetizing dish that tasted sour and spicy at the same time, the seafood were all very fresh, squids were cooked to a perfect timing where they didn't taste like rubber band lol, in fact they can be chew off easily! It wasn't very spicy, thus it can be accepted by most of the people.

Berrific Sundae with fresh mixed berries, ice cream and chocolate sauce. The portion is suitable for 2 pax sharing but it tasted normal to me as it can be prepared at home without needing any complicated steps. At first we thought there were only strawberries cause other berries were no where to be found lol, turned out there was a small amount of blueberries and raspberries underneath the ice cream. I'd recommend you to try out other more unique or hard-to-make desserts.

In overall, I'm very fond of the pastas and guess I'll bring my mom here to celebrate her belated M's day as she isn't in Penang right now, I'm sure she will love it as much as I do! The staffs were very attentive in making sure there wasn't any empty cup of skyjuice, most of the desserts on the menu are very tempting as well, hoping I can give some of them a try!

That's all for now, chao.

Brew Thirty Two Coffee House at Green Hall, Penang.

It's another outing day with my high school mates like finally after a number of plans and cancellations as all of us study in different colleges and school, it was really hard to find time that suits each other, everyone was busy with their own work and NOW, is consider a perfect time for us to meetup cause I have just started my semester, meaning the assignments are not piled up YET, while Khuiching aka my bestie just graduated from Form 6 and another friend of mine is starting her sem break real soon!

So after endless discussion, we finally decided to visit Brew Thirty Two House Coffee cause we were kinda out of ideas lol. I've already been here twice actually and the impressions were ok so I figure no harm revisiting it again.

I seriously needa give 100% credit to my bad photography skill for this bad-looking photo. Trust me, the signboard looks waaaay better than this.

The menu. They serve a variety of cakes, coffee and limited choices of mains. 

Butterscotch Latte for me. Didn't really impress me in terms of the taste, tasted really normal and my friend said it merely tasted sweeter like caramel latte. During my first visit, I ordered their Mochaccino and it tasted pretty good and it sure is better than the Butterscotch Latte.

Old picture of Mochaccino

My fav Spaghetti Carbonara with bacons! The amount of cheese powder is really generous but it wasn't greasy even after you finish the whole plate. The only two things I think need improvement would be the sauce as it was quite little and not creamy enough. Another thing would be the portion cause I'm not sure why among three of us who ordered spaghetti, mine was the smallest! :(

Other choices of spaghetti would be Aglio Olio and Bolognese which I have already tried all of them when I ordered their Brew 32 Special/Signature to share with my bf which I don't think it's available now. It's basically three types of spaghetti served together in three small portions so you'd have the chance to give each one a try. I immediately thought Carbonara was the best, Aglio Olio the second and Bolognese the last.

*Digging out old pic again*

The waitress said it would be enough for two servings but ended up we still need to order another plate of Spaghetti Aglio Olio extra bacons slurp.

XinMin's Spaghetti Bolognese. She's a fan of bolognese but somehow she disliked the one in Brew 32. When I told her bolognese was the least fav for me here, she said:"why didn't you tell me earlier?!?!" Aha so sorry I really didn't know you'd order this, otherwise I'd be glad to save you from the not-so-good bolognese sauce. And I noticed her spaghetti is served with the biggest portion *emo*.

KhuiChing's Spaghetti Aglio Olio. It tasted slightly different from what I had last time, it was a little oily during my time which I find it pretty good, but hers was quite dry with no sight of oil underneath the spaghetti and it was even spicier than last time.

JiaYi's Grilled Pork Burger with Bacon. The patty was quite juicy and tender and matched well with the bacons together with the BBQ sauce. I'd say this tasted better than my friends' spaghetti.

 After meal, it's selfies time!

Bestie since Form 3, this has been our signature expression together in photos, so please ignore us when you see us taking such photos in public :D

*photos credit to Khuiching*

XinMin, KhuiChing, blogger and Jiayi! It was really nice meeting up with you girls!

We have actually taken more than these but of course I don't want wanna bore you with all my photos, ending this post with my ootd below!

I'm really glad that we can finally meet after so many attempts, and luckily it didn't turn out to be awkward since we didn't really talk face to face for such a long time, love you girls! <3

Valentine's Day at Miam Miam Penang Part 1

The reason why I named it part 1 is because we actually didn't finish the whole course as we were in a rush to catch the movie "That Awkward Moment" at 10:05pm. We arrived Miam Miam at 8pm and we didn't expect we would actually eat for over two hours lol cause we have no experience in celebrating Valentine's. Despite dating for over 2 and a half year, we missed celebrating V's as we were both working in the first year in different places, him in KL while me in Penang. In the second year, V's day happened to clashed with CNY where I had to head back to my hometown and that's how we missed the second V's.

Let's get back to the part where we waited 20 minutes for our desserts after our main course and it was already 9:45pm. Boyf checked with the waitress and she said we have to wait for another 20 minutes which we will obviously be late for our movie and I'll have to rush back to Gurney in my heels uglily as I'm still not used to wearing heels. Thus, boyf said he'd like to cancel the desserts, TWO desserts! And my first thought was "naaawww, there goes my desserts", but luckily, the considerate staff said we could retrieve the desserts during the next visit for free! Thumbs up for the services. So this is the LONG reason why I have to separate them into 2 parts. You can also read about my first visit HERE.

Before proceeding to our seats we were required to sit on the love chair and take picture and here's the outcome!

Me and my valentine.

Together with a handkerchief rose, the V's menu and a box of chocolates which looks like a condom box to me at first *laugh* not sure if they purposely make it this way lol.

Lemon squash for the boyf and berries smoothie for me. Boyf's drink was really sour so don't order it if you can't handle sourness. Mine was sweet and it tasted really good with strawberry and blueberries on top as if it's specially designed for girls' liking.

Mushroom soup which is not bad for me as it has tiny bits of mushrooms in it.

Wafu Salad. Those who know me will know that I really dislike eating vege. So I was like (O_O) when it was served, boyf was happily forcing me to finish all of it urgh. Luckily there was sauce underneath them so it tasted quite good to my surprise, the sauce tasted salty like the soy sauce we find in Jap restaurants. Salty and sour food always open up my appetite so I'd say good job for this one. In the end I finished everything except for the cucumbers, a big achievement for myself. 

Fruit sorbet. This was the last appetizer before the main course was served. It sort of functioned to freshen my tongue and taste bud so that I can indulge more for my main course.

Boyf's Lobster Bisque Pasta with giant tiger prawn. The soup was rich in lobster taste as normally it is prepared by cooking the lobster with boiling water in order to obtain their flavour, just like how housewives usually boil soup with bones. It was creamy but not greasy! Boyf said it was good.

Pasta Pescatore with king prawns and Alaskan scallops. The portion was big and I thought I couldn't finish it but I was wrong about myself lol. It was a tomato based pasta and I usually prefer creamy type of pasta, but this tasted good actually especially the scallops as they have fully absorbed the tomato paste. 

Boyf was peeling off the prawns's skin for me, such a small yet lovely gesture :) Loveyou!

Cancelled the desserts and skipped to the last course which is coffee and tea. Boyf has a high expectation for coffee and he said his coffee was good based on the beans they use I suppose. It was served together with cold milk inside this cute little milk pitcher!

Tea in a pot for me. Not a professional tea drinker so I'm not really sure what to expect. It smelled nice and the taste was quite soft, guess it was meant to be that way so I had to add a teaspoon of sugar just to make it taste stronger.

In overall, it was a really satisfying Valentine's dinner for both of us, despite the waiting time for the desserts, I'd say Miam Miam had given us a very great first experience on V's day, the services were good and I really love how they take Valentine's seriously that they gave rose, chocolates and a picture that marked this special day. I also like how the waitresses/ waiters make sure that every couple is happy, checking tables whether their food is arrived, or what to serve next. Thank you for the wonderful Valentine's dinner!

El Mondo Restaurant at E-Gate, Penang.

Valentine's is just around the corner like literally! If you have no idea where to bring your love ones or happened to forgot to make a reservation, this might be just the place! El Mondo serves not only Italian but also Western cuisine, and not to mention dessert too! Valentine's menu is at the end of this post. According to the very friendly lady boss, all the food are freshly made to order by a Malay chef specializes in Italian cuisine who resigned from Bella Italia.

It is located right beside PappaRich.

Went there with my mom and her friend for dinner and below are our orders:

For appetizer, we ordered Antipasto Misto. "Chef selection of little appetizers on a plate. Smoked salmon, rosette marinated baby octopus, pesto chicken, battered prawn, sausage capsicum roll & potato salad". 

My favourite was their potato salad as it is not overwhelmed by mayonnaise sauce and it has a hint of sourness probably from lemon, it opened up my appetite in an instant. The second would be smoked salmon, they were fresh and didn't contain fishy smells, I finished all of them because mom and her friend don't like raw food, I like it even it's just a simple dish with dried basil sprinkles. The baby octopus, battered prawns and pesto chicken tasted rather normal, nothing that surprised me. As for the sausage capsicum roll, initally I thought it's either ham or some sort of meat cause the capsicum was really soft to a state that it didn't really require biting!

From fish and seafood category: Grigliata Mista Di Mare. "Mix grill seafood of prawn, slipper lobster, calamari, fish mussel & scallop with garlic butter sauce and salad". I've always thought that garlic butter is very oily and greasy but not this one! All the seafood have absorbed the aromatic flavour of garlic butter and they tasted superb, didn't contain fishy smells as well. Their prawns are washed throughout cleanly, unlike other places that have black stains in it, even their prawn heads are clean! My mom loved it even though she's not a fan of seafood. There was mashed potatoes underneath the purple lettuce, which matched perfectly well with garlic butter! The whole thing was great, even better than the first order.

Mushroom soup which was highly recommended by the lady boss, I'd say I'm glad we ordered it, it was cooked with three types of mushroom crushed together, the amount of mushrooms used was generous as the soup was concentrated, it has replaced the position of mushroom soup in Mizi Bistro and became the best in my heart, I think they can make it even better by providing garlic bread.

 My Spaghetti Con Frutti Di Mare. "Spaghetti with mixed seafood, garlic and chilli". Was planning to order carbonara or any creamy sauce but I don't think it's available here as I've re-read the options several times. This was not a bad choice though, again the seafood was fresh and even it was only stirred fry with olive oil and chilli, it still tasted good. After meal, the lady boss recommended us to try out their tiramisu but we were too full to consume any more food. I'll definitely try out their pizza next time!

You can also visit them during lunch hour and enjoy their value set lunch ranging from RM12.90 onwards. Again, the friendly lady boss said they take their quality of food seriously and they will not simply cook just because you order lunch set, I like how they put so much effort in making sure that the food is well served and the customers are happy, it's a restaurant with quantity and quality! In overall, the environment is nice, food is great and definitely worth the price, they only have 10% service charge and NO GOV TAX, very very friendly lady boss, I will be back again!

 Took this menu directly from the lady boss's phone because the printed ones haven't arrive. Do take note that they DO NOT take reservations, only on first come first serve basis. Couples who face difficulties in choosing a place or failed to make any reservations can consider coming here!

Miam Miam Cafe & Restaurant at Paragon, Penang.

I guess most Penangites probably know about Miam Miam Penang cause it has been operating for quite some time now since June 2013, and I know I'm sort of outdated cause some of my Facebook and Insta friends have already tried it out a long time ago. Some say it's good, some say it's overrated, and I guess some are like me, didn't bother to give it a try until mom suggested, so why not? Yay or Nay? Let's find out!

Love the mouth watering menu! 

My plain looking iced matcha latte, well the taste is expected, matcha with milk, just like the green tea frap from Starbucks. I actually wanted to order iced matcha latte with SOFTEE, you know with ice cream on top :( Somehow I managed to mislooked and misordered because iced matcha latte is located directly above the softee one on the ordering sheet, their ordering sheet is so narrow maybe because they wanna squeeze everything into one page. It could probably be my own fault as well cause I went "ya, ya, ya" when the waitress was repeating the order. Lesson learnt: always double check everything and pay attention T.T

Mom's Miam Miam Spaghetti. The egg yolk is supposed to be stirred together with the spaghetti, but it was like 70% cooked when it was served. Still, my mom loves it! It was fry with bacons, eggplants, tomatoes and as you can see it was sprinkled with Japanese seasoning, it tasted quite salty but sure is an appetizing dish. 

My Country Style Clam Chowder Pasta. The creamy sauce did not taste greasy at all because it is cooked in a more soupy way and it has a strong flavour of milk, I have my thumbs up for this one. 

Vanilla Souffle. "The original flavour, made with homemade vanilla custard and folded with light and airy meringue". Initially I thought the layer on top is as normal as a sponge cake, turns out I was wrong! The entire thing is so soft and fluffy as if I'm eating tofu!

Look at the tofu-like texture! But, I couldn't really taste the vanilla flavour in it as I could only detect the taste of egg white, it's still good tho, it is also available in matcha and chocolate flavour. 

In overall, the food and dessert were good, drinks are pretty average for me, price would be on the higher side, great environment and services, it's a Yay from me! 

 Yours truly, was having a bad hair day :/