A Birthday Surprise At Coffee Chemistry Signature

Last Sunday, I celebrated Witch's birthday with my regular group of blogger and Twitter friends at Coffee Chemistry Signature in the newly opened First Subang Mall.



It was intended to be a surprise so Witch did not know we had bought her a birthday cake. We had earlier had our dinner elsewhere before coming here so we only ordered drinks.



This is my cup of hot Cappuccino. I love it!



Latte



Another Cappuccino



Orange juice



Caramel macchiato



Affogato



If we had not eaten dinner earlier, I would have ordered some food. Oh well, maybe next time...

Then it was time to reveal the birthday cake! It was a Mango Ice Cream Cake from Swensens!



Witch was of course, caught by surprise. We were so glad we succeeded! Haha! Here she is, cutting the birthday cake.



The ice cream cake was delicious! Yum!



After that we had a game of Monopoly. It must have been ages since I last played this board game. This photo below captured Eric playing the game and Caroline...errr...tweeting?



It was my first time playing the World Edition of Monopoly. What? Montreal, Canada is the most expensive? It used to be Boardwalk in the original version. And by the way, Malaysia is not even listed here.



Unfortunately, we did not manage to finish the game as it was already late and time for Coffee Chemistry Signature to close.

We took some group photos before leaving. Below is one of them with my face blanked out as usual.

It had been an enjoyable gathering, as always.

Steamboat Dinner At Jade Pot

One fine Sunday night in September, I met up with my regular blogger and Twitter friends for a steamboat dinner at Jade Pot Steamboat Restaurant in Jalan Klang Lama, KL. It was also an opportunity for us to celebrate Mooncake Festival and Saucer's birthday.



Since there were 8 of us, we opted for 2 sets of the set menu for 4 pax priced at RM89.90. We also ordered 2 types of soups for an additional RM8 - Tom Yam and Head Fish with Yam.

Ooh! Look at the cute teapot!



Before long, all the raw ingredients were on the table ready to be cooked in the steamboat pot!



While waiting for the soup to boil, we ate the deep fried dumpling with minced meat first as it was the only dish that was already cooked.



These were some of the raw items in the set that we ordered.


Deep fried bean curd skin


Fresh fish balls


Stuffed bean curd


Dumplings

There were squids, shrimps, mushrooms, pork slices, eggs, noodles and vegetables too but I did not take photos of them.

The steamboat meal also came with 4 different sauces for us to choose from.



I found the tom yam soup really nice with just the right amount of spiciness and sourness that befits a tom yam soup. The fish head with yam soup was also good - tasty and full of flavour!



However, later after the dinner was over, a few of us experienced excessive thirst. We suspected that the soup must have contained lots of MSG - no wonder it was so tasty! MSG is not good for health so I was not too pleased about it


Adrian scooping up some cooked food from the steamboat pot

For dessert, we were served with Ai Yu jelly, which was pretty refreshing.



After dinner, we celebrated Saucer's birthday and surprised him with a birthday cake from PJ Hilton!



Saucer, the birthday boy and his birthday cake. Happy birthday!



The durian cheesecake was very delicious and full of durian flavour. I loved it! Priced at only RM35, it is PJ Hilton's cake of the month. I wonder if it's too late to order this cake now since it's almost end of the month!



After the cake, it was time to celebrate Mooncake Festival with what else, but mooncakes! All of us brought one mooncake each so that we could share all the different flavours of mooncakes!



Except for me. I decided to be special and not bring any mooncakes! I brought taro instead. I was not really into mooncakes this year - it's rather strange and I do not know why!



Unfortunately, we were too full to eat any of the mooncakes and ended up cutting them up and bringing them home to be eaten later.



Although I was full, I nevertheless ate some of the mooncakes and did not bring any back. So much about being full and not into mooncakes. Haha!



We took some group photos. Here's a funny group pose. As usual, I respect my own privacy and have my face blanked out.



It was so much fun dining with this group of blogger and Twitter friends! I had a great time that night! Let's do this again, guys!



But please, no more steamboat at Jade Pot. Unless they get rid of the MSG!

FIRST COMMENTER

My Filipino Buffet Lunch At Kamayan

It was my fifth day in Manila, Philippines. I was so excited as it was the day I had planned to meet up with Ishmael Ahab, my Filipino blogger friend and to savour Filipino food!

Since Ishmael told me he would be bringing me to a buffet lunch, I decided to skip the hotel's complimentary breakfast that morning. I also had the luxury to sleep in later which was good, as I had been waking up at 6am everyday since arriving in Manila.

To my surprise, Ishmael brought me to a restaurant very near my hotel. In fact, it was along the same road (Padre Faura Street) just a minute's walk away!



The restaurant is called Kamayan. Oh wait...it's actually called Dads, Kamayan, Saizaki.

That's because it's actually three restaurants in one! Dads offers continental fare, Saizaki Japanese specialties and Kamayan authentic Filipino cuisine.

I was more interested in Filipino food so we focused on Kamayan.


Top : lechon de leche (roasted suckling pig)
Bottom : liempo kawali (crispy pan-fried pork belly)

Kamayan is a Filipino word means to eat using hands. Not such a foreign culture as we Malaysians also love eating using our hands! But of course, in this restaurant, we were provided with forks and spoons so we did not use our hands!

The photos did not turn out nice as the light in the restaurant was quite dim. I hope you can see the pictures of the food clearly!

Here are the rest of the food we ate. I am not sure if I got all the names and their translation correct! So if you are a Filipino reading this, do point out my mistakes - thank you!


From left to right : kamayan yamang dagat (kamayan seafood), bopis (diced pork lungs and heart), kuhol sa gata (snails in coconut milk)


Pusit sa gata (squid in coconut milk) and bangus belly guisado (milkfish belly stew)


From left to right : pancit (noodles), kalderetang baka (Filipino beef stew), crispy chicken


From left to right : embotido (Filipino style meatloaf), gulay sa coco (vegetables in coconut cream), pla pla (tilapia fish) in garlic pepper sauce


Inihaw liempo-bicol (Bicol's grilled pork belly)

There were quite a variety of desserts! Please don't ask me their names!



But the one I like best was halo-halo!



Halo-halo is a very popular Filipino dessert which is made up of shaved ice and evaporated milk and which you add into the mix various boiled sweet beans and fruits. I would say it's something like a version of Malaysia's ice kacang.



By the way, the word halo means mix.

For the price of 600 pesos (RM42) per person, you can enjoy the buffet from Kamayan, Dads and Saizaki. What a great deal!!!

Drinks were however, not included in the buffet price. So each of us ordered a drink (I forgot what the drink was!) which costs 200 pesos (RM14). Now that's expensive! But we were given a toy bear each! How nice!

It would be nicer if they could give us a panda bear each! Haha!!



Guess what? After chit-chatting with Ishmael for some time, I got thirsty and decided to order another drink.

So we ended up with three bears on the table! Two whites and one brown! Haha!!



We were also entertained by a group of singers and musicians! We requested for a Malaysian song but none of them knew except the girl, so they ended up singing an English song for us!



We were both quite full eating those Filipino food that we did not try the continental fare from Dads and Japanese food from Saizaki! What a waste!

But it's OK, I just really wanted to try Filipino food so I got what I wanted! All thanks to my Filipino blogger friend, Ishmael! Thank you so much!

Now if you are wondering why there is no picture of Ishmael, that's because like me, he values his privacy and does not like to have his photo posted online. High five to that! LOL!

As we left, I took a picture of the restaurant's interior. A lot of customers had already left by that time.



It was an enjoyable lunch and I would not mind coming back to this restaurant again in future!

There is actually one reason why I did not want to eat too full at this buffet. Do you know what's the reason? Well, that's because right after the buffet, Ishmael would be bringing me to eat balut, which is fertilised duck or chicken egg with a nearly-formed embryo inside!

Sounds like a Fear Factor challenge? Perhaps, so stay tuned : )