[Travel] A Quick Trip Down To Malacca

Got a free stay from a friend at Swiss-Garden Residences Malacca, so we took the opportunity to go for a quick 2D1N trip. Itinerary and estimates below :

MALACCA 2D1N
	DAY 1	DAY 2
MORNING
Brunch	Puchong Yong Taufu	Juat Lye - Yee Kiao Mee - Prawn Mee - Toast
	Head to Malacca	Enjoy hotel facilities
	Stop at Freeport A'Famosa Outlet stores
AFTERNOON
Lunch	Unicorn Cafe - Babi pongteh - Nyonya laksa - Paitee - Durian cendol	Ming Huat Restaurant - Mee Kahwin - Nasi Lemak
Tea		Backlane Coffee
	Check in to Swiss-Garden Residences Malacca	Klebang beach
EVENING
Dinner	Ban Lee Siang Satay Celup	Lucky Famous Restaurant - Duck noodles - Loh duck - Fried Pork Balls - Spring Chicken
NIGHT
Drinks	Sky Garden	Head home
BUDGET (2 pax)			TOTAL
Food	RM150.00	RM110.00	RM260.00
Entertainment			RM0.00
Travel	RM50.00	RM50.00	RM100.00
Accomodation	RM250.00		RM250.00
TOTAL	RM450.00	RM160.00	RM610.00

DAY 1

Started the day a little late, headed to Puchong for Yong Tau Fu brunch. Our favorite place for Yong Tau Fu. Unfortunately it was closed on Monday so we went to the one nearby. 

Then off we go to Malacca! 

We first stopped at the Freeport A'Famosa Outlet. Decent amount of stores here, Nike, Adidas, Under Armour. After a couple of hours, we are back on the road to Malacca.

Next stop, Lunch!

We tried a cozy little cafe called Unicorn cafe. Apparently they serve nice Malacca Nyonya food.

Nyonya Laksa - Did not like it, the aroma of spices is nice but unfortunately seasoning seems a bit off, tasted bland.

Babi Pongteh - Pretty nice, but I'm not really a fan of Pongteh.

Pai tees - Awesome crunchy little cups of goodness. Loved it!

Durian Cendol - Heard durian and had to order, but forgot that unfortunately Malacca cendol is not my cup of tea.
Pales in comparison to Penang's, just a ball of ice with gula Melaka and durian puree on top.

All in all a pretty good cafe with affordable prices. Would love to come back for more Pai tees. To note, I am in general not a fan of Malacca Nyonya food.

Unicorn Cafe

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/mhPorMoY8hL2

Opening Hours : 

  1030 - 1630

Closed Thursday

Rating : 3 STAR

Next we headed to Swiss Garden Hotel and Residences. This was a hotel, rentable apartments, residences and a mall all rolled into one. We did not stay at the hotel, but the I think rentable apartments tower. Nice room design and right beside the Malacca river. However it is a very high density accommodation, even on a non-peak weekday the 4 lifts serving 40 floors seems severely inadequate. 

One of those useless see through showers, makes it not cool to come with friends and family.

After lazing in the room for a few hours, we headed to perennial favorite, Ban Lee Siang Satay Celup. Interestingly along the same road there was another shop with the exact same name, I think it's a branch.Simple ingredients cooked in an unctuous peanut satay sauce. A Malaccan specialty worth a visit when your in town.

Ban Lee Siang Satay Celup

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/pfrivgsSJy72

Opening Hours : 

Daily 1600 –1230

Rating : 4 STAR

After dinner we went for drinks at Sky Garden located in Swiss Garden Hotel block.

Awesome view and wonderful breeze, what better way to end the night.

I think you can also order food from the room service menu but we were not hungry. Drinks should set you back about RM20 per drink.

Sky Garden @ Swiss Garden Malacca

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/7wZ58uCnZ4N2

Opening Hours : 

Mon-Sat:

1700 - 0100

Sun:

1700 - 2400

DAY 2

Next morning we headed to Juat Lye restaurant which is a bit off the normal tourist areas.

We were hoping to find a hidden gem but it is just disappointing normal food.

Yee Kiao mee was new to me but it's just some boring dry style noodles. Prawn mee is nice if you have never ever tasted Penang's. Toast is good, comes with real butter.

Juat Lye Restaurant

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/imWA5PfsGvQ2

Opening Hours : 

0730 – 1430 (Closed on Mondays)

Rating : 2 STAR

We then headed back to the hotel to enjoy the cool facilities. You can also borrow a basketball from the counter for a quick game.

Now lunch was much better. We went for Mee Kahwin which is Mee Rebus + Rojak. 

Awesome dish, beautiful potato-ish sauce, slight sour, slight spicy and nice pieces of cucur. RM4.50 per plate, well worth it. The nasi lemak here is also nice, fragrant rice and spicy sambal.

Mee Kahwin

Simple Nasi Lemak

Ming Huat Restaurant

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/PuwgeuzuRyy

Opening Hours : 

0930 - 1500 (Closed on Friday)

Rating : 4 STAR

So after a good lunch it's time to just do nothing. So we headed to Backlane coffee to relax and play Cluedo. Coffee was good, nothing to shout about, cafe design is very nice and very comfy.

Backlane Coffee

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/gZbFJbKgb4N2

Opening Hours : 

Sun-Thu 1100-2400

Fri- Sat 1100-0100

Rating : 3 STAR

Since it was still a little early for dinner, we headed to Klebang beach. They have interestingly some old buses which have been converted for use by the booth operators. Really interesting, even the public toilet is a bus. Unfortunately the booth operators did not capitalize on this unique concept and the buses seem to be only used as storage or their personal resting place. So sad, considering it could have been better used to attract more people here.
The beach is nice and wide, not the I-can't-wait-to-jump-into-the-water kind but more of a let-me-just-sit-at-the-beach-eat-keropok-and-enjoy-the-breeze kind.
There seems to be some new developments going on around the beach, plenty of new shop lots and some kinda theme park near the submarine museum. 

For our final stop in Malacca we went to Lucky Famous restaurant. They serve duck noodles and all the loh stuff. Taste-wise pretty standard, just ok. The fried pork balls were nice. Spring chicken is crispy but dry. Overall not something I would purposely come for when in Malacca next time. First choice for dinner is still Tong Sheng and their amazing cheese prawn bihun.

Spring Chicken and Fried Pork Balls

Loh Duck

Lucky Famous Restaurant

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/g192pEG44Ak

Opening Hours : 

1030-1430 

1730-2230

(Closed Monday)

Rating : 3 STAR

And that's the end of a quick but wonderful and relaxing trip.
Now to head back home and dream of the next trip :) 

[Cook] Shibuya Toast

SHIBUYA TOAST

Shibuya Toast! Made this sinful dessert for supper. Nicely caramelised at the edges and ice cream gives a nice cold contrast to the hot toast. But a bit too sweet. Need to reduce sugar next time. #homecook #shibuyatoast #supper #dessert #yummy #sinful

A photo posted by @eugene_the_great on Jul 12, 2016 at 9:44am PDT

INGREDIENTS

Bread	1 loaf uncut
Butter	3 tbsp
Sugar	2 tsp
Honey	as needed

STEPS

- Cut approximately 2 inch thick slice of bread. 

- Divide it into 9 cubes, cut almost till the end. The end result is 9 bread cubes just barely attached to each other.

- Melt butter using double boil method. ( put butter into bowl and place the bowl on top of boiling water. Indirect heating method often used in melting chocolate.)

- Add in sugar and stir well to combine. Add honey to taste

- Place cubed bread slice on oven safe plate/tray.

- Pour butter mixture over bread. Pour enough to coat top of bread. It might be too overpowering if you put all the mixture.

- Place into oven and toast at 180 degrees for 5 mins or until nicely browned.

- Remove from oven and top with desired toppings. (here I used ice-cream and palm sugar syrup.)

End result is a quick and easy dessert. Toast is nice and cruncy with sweet and wonderful caramelized surface. Cold soft ice-cream fits perfectly well with the crunchy hot toast.

An alternate way to cube the bread is to cut of the top, then cut the INSIDE of the loaf into cubes leaving the crust making a simple bread bowl. The cubed insides of the bread is then mixed with the butter and toast both the crust and cubes in the oven.

When removed from the oven simply toss all the cubes back in the bowl and add topping. This is just another way to present it.

 

[Eat] Secret of Louisiana @ Kelana Jaya

There's something magical about having a wonderful meal while watching the sunset.

Secret of Louisiana is located at a rather run down area of shops in Kelana Jaya. The area is just beside Kelana Jaya park. The main attraction here for me is the view of the lake. And on this beautiful day the weather is just perfect nice breeze and clear skies. Nothing like enjoying a good meal while watching the day slowly end with a sunset. 

I ordered the Neptune something which is a generous seafood platter with crawfish, mussels, oysters, scallops, prawns and fish on top of a bed of spaghetti. The food was good, not as flavorful as I expected but good enough for me to return. The menu also has interesting Louisiana dishes like gumbo.

Overall this is a very nice place, hard to find that view anywhere else in Petaling Jaya. The food is good, at least it's a pass in my books. So if I ever want a relaxing dinner, this would definitely be a place I would consider.

Secret Of Louisiana

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/cFNeCA7x6Bu

Opening Hours : 

Mon-Sun:
11:00 am - 3:00 pm
5:00 pm - 11:30 pm

Rating : 3 STAR

[Eat] Shang Palace @ Shangri-la KL

Extravagant siu mai topped with scallops! #yummy #dimsum #foodporn #chinesefood

A photo posted by @eugene_the_great on Jul 7, 2016 at 12:46am PDT

I rarely go to extravagant restaurants like this, but once in awhile it's a nice indulgence. We requested and got a room, so we got to dine in a private room in a beautifully designed restaurant.

We were here for the dim sums. 

The siu mai was awesome, with generous ingredients, prawns and most noticably a good sized scallop slice on top. Har kow was plump and filled with prawns. 

The fried lo pak ko was just ok. 

I loved the deep fried prawns wrapped with beancurd skin, It was wonderfully crunchy and generously filled with prawns.

Plump Har kow

Fried Lo Pak Ko

Deep Fried Prawns Wrapped with Beancurd Skin

The most decadent dish we had was the wat tan hor with cod fish slices. 

They were very generous with the cod fish.

However the noodles and sauce was just ok.

Wat Tan Hor with Cod Fish Slices

Overall this is a nice classy restaurant and a great place for family gatherings with good food. 

Shang Palace

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/exz3pPWUY9m

Opening Hours : 

Lunch

12noon - 2.30pm (Monday to Saturday) 

10.30am - 2.30pm (Sunday and Public Holidays) 

Dinner
6.30pm - 10.30pm (daily)

Rating : 3 STAR

[Eat] Yut Kee @ KL

Hainan Pork Chop

We were there on Raya morning about 10am, and the place was packed! We had to wait about 30mins to finally get a seat. However service was fast and friendly. 

Hainan Roti Babi

Roti babi was good, but the dish that I loved was the toast and pork chop. 

Pork chop was nicely cooked, sauce infused with tomato and potato was flavorful.

The toast was awesome, paired with good butter and the awesome homemade Kaya. Could definitely eat this everyday. 

Toast with homemade Kaya

Hailam mee and beef noodle was really just normal. These are not worth ordering.

Hailam mee

Beef noodle

Overall a very nice place but expect to queue to get in. However once you are in, food will be ready very fast.

Yut Kee 

Google Map : https://goo.gl/maps/i5PQ3hPaFDU2

Opening Hours : Tue-Sun: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm

Rating : 4 STAR

[Cook] Eryngii Aglio Olio

Eryngii Aglio Olio!

INGREDIENTS

Eryngii	400g
Cherry tomatoes	200g
Butter	2 tsp
Spaghetti	2 portions
Parsley	Handful
Garlic	2 tbsp

STEPS

 1) Take half the Eryngiis, cut length wise about 0.5cm thick. Cut the other half into cubes.
 2) Cook spaghetti in separate pot, reserve some pasta water.
 3) At the same time, heat up a pan and add a tsp of butter. On medium heat, fry length wise cuts of Eryngii. Season as needed. Remove from pan and set aside. 
 4) Add about 3 tbsp of olive oil, add garlic and fry until brown.
 5) Add cubes of Eryngii. Cook for about a min, and toss in cherry tomatoes. Season as needed. Cook for another 5 mins.
 6) Add in spaghetti into pan and toss, pour in about half a cup of pasta water. Toss.
 7) Season with salt and pepper. Turn off heat, throw in parsley and a tsp of butter. Toss.
 8) Transfer to plates and garnish with length wise Eryngii.