Friday, August 6, 2010

Caffeinated Cappuccino Me!

Before I was working at Elken, which was … about … 4.5 years back, I totally hated coffee because I dislike anything bitter and coffee was bitter to me. Extremely.

So working at Elken, they have their own coffee called Elicafe which was the first coffee I’ve ever liked. Everyday at 3pm, the nice coffee lady who goes around pouring all the Elkenians coffee will be at the department I worked for and when she came to pour my then colleagues coffee, it smelt so damn good. So one day, I had to try.

Surprisingly, the first sip was good. It wasn’t bitter at all and I totally loved it because it was not thick and heavy. Instead it was just nice, sweet and light and I realized that is just how I liked it. So, from then on I was very eager to have the nice coffee lady coming around my department pouring me coffee.

There was no turning back. I was hooked.

When I resigned from Elken, I used all my point claims to get boxes and boxes of Elicafe because I knew I had to stock them up as I wont be getting anymore free coffee at 3pm where ever I was going to work at but they only lasted me 3 months and I had to find a replacement. So now, my daily coffee fix would be Old Town 3 in 1 classic mix and during the weekends, I’ll treat myself to Starbucks.

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If time permits, I will usually take an hour off during the weekend to visit my usual coffee place, Starbucks. I’ve tried a number of places but Starbucks is my favorite because I needed the peacefulness of the place (Midvalley’s outlet excluded), the comfort of their sofa plus their awesome Cappuccino (hot please!). I am very particular about my coffee actually. I still do not like the bitter ones, thick ones or weird ones. I just like my coffee to be light, foamy (a bit), with milk, and sweet. So, Starbucks is still one of my favorites and I won’t be able to live without visiting them for at least an hour during the weekend. Starbucks is my Zen place.

The next best coffee outlet I would say is Dome. I’ve never tried Dome’s cappuccino before but the other day when I was at Midvalley, I made a detour to Dome as Starbucks was freaking packed! Not a nice place to chill..Seriously!

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Dome’s cappuccino is a tad bit better than Starbucks and at the same price too (RM10). However, I didn’t like the fact that the cup was smaller than Starbucks tall cup. Same price and all, but quantity much lesser. I love the place though. It’s like a place for everyone to just shut up and read newspaper. You’ll never hear them laugh out loud or hear conversations you don’t want to hear. Dome is definitely my type of Zen place but because it is at Midvalley and the cup is smaller than Starbucks, my usual Starbucks at Pearl Point won over a hundred times.

So Starbucks & Dome are yes yes to me but where are my no no places?

Two bad experiences I’ve got to share are Delicious and Austin Chase at Midvalley.

First would be Delicious. We had a bit of waiting to do before the movie starts and I needed my coffee fix so I wanted to try Delicious cappuccino and I had the most horrible coffee experience ever!

First, I would like to highlight something totally unrelated to the coffee. The manager of the place looked like some cina apek with no teeth who belonged to Petaling Street. He seriously could have passed off as a vcd seller or some old Chinese gangster. My drink came and it was nothing but foam! Everyone knows that cappuccino comes with a thin layer of foam but when my drink came, I was actually drinking foam than any coffee at all. I was scooping all the foam out, trying to look for my coffee and the fact that I was doing that, was already making me impatient, cranky and frustrated as I needed my coffee badly and a place like Delicious should very well have higher service, food & beverage standards.

So I asked the manager, what was this cup of thing they gave me and the moment he opened his mouth, I was shocked because he has no teeth! Well, if you call decayed blackish teeth, teeth, I don’t know what it was. So, he actually gave me the whole story of how cappuccino is made but I did not care because I did not go there to drink foam. What annoyed me the most was that he assumed I didn’t know what I ordered and told me that that is the standard way of making cappuccino, which was 70% foam and 30% coffee. WTF! In the end, I didn’t get my coffee because I refused to drink foam and had to rush off to cinema as we were almost late! Oh, and I had to pay for that cup of foam so I think that Delicious at Midvalley really sucks.

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Second and last (I do hope so) will be Austin Chase at Midvalley. This has nothing to do with what I experienced at Delicious. In fact the people are very friendly, the place is actually very nice and comforting. Quiet too, which is how I like my coffee place to be but, I didn’t like the cappuccino.

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It wasn’t light and sweet but thick and bitter. Their coffee is the opposite of Starbucks actually. It’s dark and heavy. No, I didn’t weigh them or look at their raw beans but by tasting their cappuccino I sort of figured that out. Although, the coffee isn’t my cup of tea (ironic) but I am very sure that genuine dark coffee lovers would love that place because of the ambience.

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Baby loved his Famous Amos crunched coffee though :)

Now, how did I end up writing such a long post about coffee? LOL

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Cristang Restaurant @ 8 Avenue

It was the usual Dunnowhattoeat Day or in another reconstructed sentence Wheretoeat-Dunno Day. Being a meat lover myself, I can say that I've tried quite alot of burgers around KL and so far my favourite would be the Lamborghini Burger (obvious to the name, Lamb Burger) at The Daily Grind. We heard of Cristang from a friend and decided to give it a try. So it was Baby, me, Ade and ChrisSL.

Cristang recently became famous for their porky dishes and they are actually very open about it. Publishing promotions on Facebook and having really tempting deals like pastas for RM10 on Thursdays if you get yourself something from their main menu.

The owner is a very down to earth, bubbly person. He was sort of dressed like a waiter, with their very own uniform but when he mentioned, "I had to close down the other place and open here.." which gave him away as the owner. He was also openly joking with us that he had to charge us RM10 for an ice water top up which I initially thought he was serious because his face gave nothing away but later on, he crinkled a smile and I knew it was all good.

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One thing that he mentioned caught my ears was when he told us that his regular customers consists of the usual Chinese, Indian, Portuguese and a few Malays and the first thing that came to my mind was, "wow, that good"

So anyways, we had a look at their menu which has all sorts of porky dishes from pork steak to pork burgers and ... get ready for this ... egg and bacon soup!

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I picked P2 (RM18.90), which consists of bacon (a must!), pork burger patty (deliciously good), cheese, mustard, tomatoes, lettuces, buns and their awesome potato wedges sprinkled with rosemary leaves (thumbs up!)

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P3 - P2 with added pork chilli

ChrisSL had the one labeled P3 (RM23.90) which is the P2 but with added pork chilli. Well, I tried a little of their chilli but I've got to say that it didn't really go well with the whole combination. I still preferred mine which was really really good.

Other than what we've tried, what caught my eyes and probably my taste buds was ... I'm not sure P-what burger ... the burger with additional petai. I didn't really want to experience the aftermath of eating petai so I stayed safe and made do with the P2 instead and I have to say (again!) that it is the (THE!) best pork burger I've ever tasted in my life. Cheers to Cristang!

Cristang Restaurant
A: B-G-19, 8 Avenue,
Jalan Sungei Jerneh 8/1
46050 Petaling Jaya
T: 6.03.7956.7877
E: cristangpj@gmail.com

Monday, August 2, 2010

The Review of Inception

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After numerous failed attempts to purchase two sets of tickets for Inception, we finally got them on Sunday! Everyone was talking about this movie, of how this is the most brilliant show made by Christopher Nolan ever (apart from The Dark Knight). I was exceptionally excited to watch this movie, not because of all the hype created by people on Facebook but because of Leonardo diCaprio. When there's a show with him acting in it, you'll be guranteed a brilliant one. Such as, Inception.

Inception is a 2010 American science fiction action film written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, and Cillian Murphy. The film is inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation. The film, a variant on the heist genre, centers on Dom Cobb, an "extractor", who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. His abilities and questions about the death of his wife have cost him his family and his nationality, but he is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. This process of planting an idea, known as "inception", is less familiar and far more difficult than Cobb's usual job of "extraction".

What I love about this movie is how it is made for the mind of intelligence. I am a fan of these kind of shows because it manipulates the mind, uses the brain and plays with your insanity. Ok, I don't know what I just said but basically, I love intelligent shows ok? and this show is beyond intelligent. It's extraordinarily out of this world! I love how Christopher Nolan played with the whole dream process where there are layers and layers of dreams. The movie is extremely detailed to the fact that if you miss just a second of the show, you'd be lost. I love the fact that they've taken us into this illusion idea that being in people's dream and manipulating them might be possible in the future. There is nothing I dislike bout this show because I love everything about it. This is a really good show. An extremely mind blowing show which will leave you wanting more at the end *which was why I sat through the entire credits hoping for more but was greeted by cinema lights and janitors instead.

You will be guranteed : A journey through dreams :)

Think preppy jumpsuit, rainbow splashed dresses, maxis!!, floral dresses and a whole lot more!! :D

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