Saigon : Trung Nguyen Coffee

If you haven't know yet, Vietnam is the 2nd largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil and also if you haven't know yet, coffee is so happen to be my staple food. I can survive with no food but never without a cup of coffee.  So you can imagine how exited I was planning for this trip.

While doing the research, I found out that they have a few famous local coffee joint but Trung Nguyen Coffee and Highland Coffee were the famous one and they sure are. Their cafes were all over Saigon!

Anyway, there's a story behind this. It took 30mins taxi ride from the airport to the hotel and along the way, we could see so many Trung Nguyen Coffee joints all over the place! Exited, once we were done freshen up, we went straight for a stroll with a main mission, to have a drink at none other than Trung Nguyen.

But don't know what happened we couldn't find any Trung Nguyen Coffee even after a looooong walk! Turns out we keep on turning at the wrong side. LOL. This one that we went to was so far away from our hotel but actually there is one just around the corner.

This Trung Nguyen is like our Old Town White Coffee in Malaysia. They are everywhere!

His Drink. Can't remember the name anymore. But it tasted OK.

Mine. I like my coffee black and hot. But in Vietnam, their specialty is ice milk coffee and it tasted so good!!!!

Me looking at you, looking at me

Anyway, you can can also get the Iced Coffee for USD1 on the street rather than have a drink at their cafe. Much more cheaper and the taste is similar. They sell it at the back of their motorcycle and it took only a few minutes for them to make one for you since the coffee was brewed earlier. I swear I drank so many cups of iced coffee that my pee started to smell like one. err...

When you're in Vietnam, make sure you give it a try.

February Birthday Party : The Surprise

Each time there is a party, the birthday girls have no idea what the party will be like or even where it will be held. We just know that there will be party for us and we are told to give the others our wish list. Simple as that.

But for February birthday this year, we did a prank making the birthday girl thinking that she won't get any party this year. 

Why?

You should see how she enjoyed herself the most during our Jan party. We even started to think that it was her party when she keep on screaming "the best party ever"! I also have a shot video of her screaming around laughing like mad as an evidence.

Nah! Too cruel if I share it here. 

What we did to her?

We kept it all secret until the day. Ahaha. She even got her eyes blind folded and we sent one of us to her house to pick her up and blind folded her there and then. 

Not just that. We make her wear the hideous hat that sparkle you can see it from the moon and we kid around with her like the ali baba movie. Haha. 

Her desperate attempt to ask strangers where she was. The passerby being so cool they told her she was at the zoo! Haha.

Tadaaa! Happy birthday and no, you're not at the zoo. Hehe.

Well, actually the surprise was so much more than that. We actually secured a meet up with her fav actor to have breakfast with her that morning! That level of love you may not get it anywhere darling. Haha. 

But the actor cancelled last minutes. He told us he got other job and need to go there ASAP. Well, there will always be other time.

We had a great time, that's for sure!

Presents that she got from us. Gambar pun jadilah! Haha.

Group photo! Two of us not here. one cannot make it and another is currently in UK. Hi nadot! *waves excitedly*

Hope you had a good birthday babe! Don't hijack our party next time, please?

February Birthday Party : The Food - The Red Beanbag, Publika

I am supposed to blog about the party first, but since I'm hungry now and literally drooling when I browse thru my album photo, so food review it is! Plus it's weekend maybe you guys need some suggestion where to eat. I'm kind like that. Hehehe

Compared to January birthday party which was carefully planned, this time it was impromptu due to some reason (will blog about it in details later) so the place also was chosen randomly. Lucky we have 6th sense when it comes to food. It was yummy no regret!

It is situated outside Publika facing Ben's. Easy to locate, don't worry. Just park at Publika, walk all the way out to Ben's, look on your right you'll see it big and clear. 

Now the food. Ahhhhh the food....

It's was beautifully made. We ordered quite a number of variety. All turned up to be delicious.

Baked Egg. Forgot the name of the dish already. I'm such a bad blogger. hehe

Egg Benedict. So far the best I ever tasted.

This was with smoked salmon. Urghhhh I want moreeeeeee.

 Can't remember the name of this dish but it was a pan fried salmon with pooched egg, hollandaise sauce and Australian spinach. My fav!

We also ordered their toast. No picture. Everybody busy eating no one remember to snap. Haha.

And what is birthday celebration without a cake, huh? But if you're a muslim, some of their cake contains liquor so make sure to ask 1st before u order. This one is the Salted Caramel Cheesecake. Yum!

Since I am also crazy about coffee, I ordered a cup of their Piccolo Latte. The waiter explained that Piccolo latte has more espresso than milk compared to normal latte so let's give it a try.

Verdict? It's nice but since this is the 1st time I had a Piccolo, so I got nothing to compare to and will I order it again next time? Why not?

I think this cafe is worth visiting. They open at 9.30am but it was already full house by 10 and you should see the waiting line. The service was excellent we love it. They're fast, polite, always smiling, and don't mind helping us taking picture tho they were running here and there to serve customers.

Here's their details;

The Red Beanbag
Lot A4-1-8, Solaris Dutamas (Publika)
(opposite Big Ben’s, take the staircase up)
Jalan Dutamas 1,
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603-62115116

Business Hours:
Tue – Fri: 8.30 am – 10.00 pm
Sat – Sun: 9.30 am – 10.00 pm

Meeting at Dip n Dip, Bangsar

I was cleaning up old draft on this blog and found this draft about our short meeting with friends at Dip n Dip Bangsar few days after my confinement end. Erm that was like 6 months ago. I was supposed to blog about it while the Dip n Dip was still new and still the hottest in town but as u can see, it was buried in my draft folder. (yeah I blog a lot but somehow never finish most of the article and kept in the draft folder like forever) 

Anyway, I was drooling while looking at the picture and decided to make you drool as well. LOL. Of course, I have to delete like 4 para of the entry because it was not relevant anymore and re-type again another entry but whatever to make you drool people. hehe.

Enjoy the pictures and please do not ask me the name of the food and also the price cause obviously I don't remember anymore. Haha.

Imaan was 2 months plus this time. How time flies!

Group photo.

Finish drooling already? Here's some tissue, go wipe all the saliva off the laptop. :)

Air Batu Campur

Who's here love ABC say hooooo!

Growing up, there's a superb ABC stall right in front of my grandma's house. I still remember my excitement each time we went there for a visit and will plead my grandma a few bucks for an ABC treat right across the house. Boy it was really good I swear!

But I found it hard to find a nice cup of ABC that will remind me of childhood.
You know.. the kind with smooth ice, rose syrup, gula melaka, evaporated milk, cincau, sweet corn, kidney beans, and if we're lucky there'll be "buah kabung" as extra.

Most of ABC that I found lately is the modernise version with ice-creams, all sorts of jellies, and will have colourful syrups but without gula melaka sometimes even without the milk. That's not ABC!!

My hunt for the decent ABC (see, I don't even put high hope in finding the best one) is never ending. Until lately I found this right in front of my nose.

Oh my.....

Well, still... no gula melaka but it's okay because they put just the right amount of syrup & milk for it to taste so good.

Still no sign of good childhood memory ABC but I'm okay settle for this for the mean time.





Note:
It was one of the stall at Masjid India area. I forgot the name of the stall. Will check it out later when I go for another treat next time.

Italian Herb's Dory with Yogurt and Broccoli sauce

Hello!

I'm back! Go wipe your saliva. As promised, here is one of the recipe of the dishes that I cooked some times ago.

Italian Herb's Dory with Yogurt and Broccoli sauce 

Ingredients:
(1) For Dory

Dory Fillets

Olive Oil

Italian's Herb (you can get this at Tesco or you can mix Oregano, Basil, and Thyme for alternative)

Black Paper

Salt

(2) For the sauce

Yogurt (original fat free)

Broccoli 

Carrot

Lime Juice (Half a lemon)

Salt

Olive Oil

Cheddar cheese

Step 1: The Fillet

Clean your dory fillets and mix together all ingredient no 1. You may marinate it for few hours if you wish or you can simply baked in the oven right after you mix it all. 

Working Mum tips #1 : 

I normally prepared my fish upfront, pack it nicely and leave it in the freezer overnight. The next morning, I transferred the fish to the fridge before I go to work. Not only it will be full of flavors from the marinating process, it also will be soft by the time I get home and I have 1 less thing to worry about. Even if I'm stuck at the office, the husband can baked the fish himself and don't have to wait for me. Get it? 

Step 2 : The Sauce

Boil (or saute, or leave it raw if you like) the broccoli and carrots with a pinch of salt until soft. Then throw the veges (leave half of the vegetable for side), in a blender together with yogurt, olives oil, lime juice, and blend. Done. No cooking required.

Step 3 : The Side & Garnish

Set up the table, arrange your dishes in a plate and don't forget to garnish it with chili flakes, salt and paper. 

Easy? Go try it.

P/S: I blend the vegetables together with yogurt because I had a hard time to make my daughter eat vegetables. So I thought maybe if I make it invisible she'll eat and yes, she loved it!

We are trying to eat healthy now.

No joke.

By eating healthy means we try our best to control the nutrient and the calories that we take. Of course it will not always be "perfectly healthy". Come on! But it is better that what we used to eat.

It stared early this year when I tried to slim down a bit but I couldn't accept the fact that I have to starve myself. Exercising is another option but for lazy person like me, it doesn't sound like an option. Hehe.

1st step is, we have to stop dining out because we cannot control what they put in the dishes. So I have to try cooking at home and being a working mom, you already had an idea how busy life is and to cook at home...well, not that we cannot do it but face it, the earliest that we can get off the office is by 5pm or for some people is 6pm. Driving all the way home will take you at least 1 hour, another hour to prepare and clean up before you can eat. That means 3 non-stop hours before you can finally stop and relax. Imagine if we get off the office at 7pm or 8pm? Dine out will be much easier, right? Some of you might nod while reading this. hehe.

Whatever. A women gotta do what she gotta do (to be skinny) right? I tried and being inspired by Jamie Oliver's 30 minutes meal tv show, I succeed in cooking every single day (except when we have things to outside or mum is cooking something so nice we couldn't ignore the call). Talk about achievement.

So, I have this mini album in my facebook showing off all my "masterchef" skills and because I am nice..... heheh.. I am planning to share the recipe here. 1st thing, don't judge. If it suits you, follow. If it's don't, stay away. And please note that everything that I cook takes less than 30 minutes. Easy huh?

My 1st recipe is............


Next post lah. Too long already. And of course I want to keep you coming back for more! :p
I'll give you a hint. Go drool and come back tomorrow for the recipe. hehe.

Las Vacas, Mont' Kiara

Best.Steak.Ever. Hands down.

Got to know about this from foxyfarah's blog. Decided to give a try today since all of us didn't take any breakfast, we deserve a feast. They have 2 outlets if I am not mistaken (Kelana Jaya & Mont' Kiara) but we went to Mont' Kiara because it is nearer to our house.

Parking was no problem. We parked alongside of the road. It's illegal but most people park there. Oh, for those who wanna know the location, it's at Mont' Kiara Shoplex, next to Baskin Robbin and near the new 1Mont Kiara shopping complex.

With my beautiful daughter. The one and only.

Right before indulging the meat. Still looks slim. hehe

The meat lover

Sauces

Mine. Beef Wraps. So yummy I am drooling while typing this. The portion is not so big tho. Good for weight watcher's like me (yeah right!). They have veges and cheese melted inside. 

Husband choose all  day breakfast since he was still in the breakfast mood. Not bad either. Combination of steak, lamb, turkey strips, big size hotdog, sunny side up egg, and salads. For the 1st time I prefer beef rather than lamb. Drooling!!

After finish eating we decided to have ice-cream for dessert. Actually we kind of promised Rania that she can have an ice-cream if she go shower that morning.

Lucky she didn't recognised this pink logo is actually an ice-cream logo. Hehehe

So we walked further down to Plaza Mont' Kiara and....

......having a Mc Donald's ice cream instead. Jimatttt duit. hehe

This was taken by my daughter. She's all grown now can take picture of mummy. *wipe tears*

Anyway, I don't think I will be visiting Victoria Station of San Francisco Steak House for a looooooooong time. :)