Pork Burger@Kissaten, Jaya One, PJ

Many have probably raved or blogged about Kissaten's pork burger by now.. And finally I'm trying it.

I gotta say.. It was, a really good pork burger. Meat was juicy and tender, and the egg was nicely fried too, and a bit sweet also, as I noticed that it was a bit caramelized.

The rest of the ingredients: vegs, buns etc were typical accompaniments, nonetheless.. Yums!!!

Enough for a lady's tummy on a greedy day, but may not for a hungry man.

Cost RM 11-12, can't recall the exact digits.

Late lunch@Haute Food n Co, Plaza Damas

My gf, LY accompanied me to the Msian Art Expo, at Martrade, organized by my good friend, Polenn.

Ain't the paintings awesome? I feel like taking up art classes again. Just to paint, draw, colour, express and feel free.

After a stroll at the expo, we stopped by Haute Food for late lunch. Awesome!

The grilled chicken caesar salad (rm15.90) was served with a generous portion, enough for two moderate tummies to share. The chicken strips were freshly grilled and the veges also tasted fresh too. Thumbs up!

The carrot slice (rm12) was pretty delicious also. Had a little familiarity in looks and taste with fruitcakes, but less sweet and more nuts. It was so filling that it can be substituted as a main meal.

The desserts that Ive tried here so far had not disappoint me yet, but the only downside is that it is rather pricey, but value's worth.

I'm dreaming about the sticky date pudding again.. damn...

Tsukumen Ramen@Menya Musashi, One Utama Old Wing

My new colleagues brought me to this newly opened restaurant, Menya Mushasi, inside Isetan. So much has changed inside One Utama. I felt so disoriented. Shows how long I haven't gone into malls.

Back to the Jap food venture, apparently this shop serves awesome fairly authentic ramen.

Gigantic pictures of samurais are displayed on the walls and upon your entry, the chefs in the kitchen will shout out in Japanese, to add to the feel of samurai chefs in action.

When I peeked over, hoping to possibly catch some hot Jap chefs, only to be greeted by Nepalese and Phillipino workers. Aiks.

Ok, on a serious note. The ramen was delicious. I ordered the dry version, but after tasting my colleague's soup version, the soup one would have been a better choice.

Salty, flavourful and the although the pork slice initially seemed too fatty, but it was quite well cooked that you wouldn't taste the over powering porkiness and it was rather crunchy also, as if the pork slice was briefly dipped in frying oil.

The only downside is that a bowl cost between RM 25-30. Ouch! For a bowl of Jap noodles. Phew.

Worthy try, though I can't comment much as I have yet to taste the widely spoken about ramen shop in Pavillion.

Definitely worth trying again.. Once i've extra savings :/ Damn Ringgits!

The BEST BEEF RIBS ever!@Hurricane's Grill Steakhouse, Sydney

It was our final day in Sdyney. Gloomy feeling indeed. Even the weather mourned with us. The day was cloudy, drizzling, cold. The fun trip would be ending in a couple of hours. We went to the Darling Harbour and took a stroll across the bridge. Just enjoying the view and breeze and reminiscing the awesome things we did in the past couple of days.

We weren't hungry either but Mr Travis insisted that we must have this meal, as he saved the best meal choice for as our last. We came to Hurricane's Grill. I was surprised to see the restaurant still packed at 3 pm.

The pork sausages were... super delicious! Porky pungent power packed smell. Served with spicy chilli sauce and mashed potatoes. The tasty sausages really opened up our gloomy taste buds.

Mr Travis ordered the 2 sets of beef ribs and steak dish and 1 more set of beef ribs alone. When they first arrived, I think my jaws spiritually dropped down and hit the ground. The portion was so big, enough to feed 10 persons! The size of one rib portion was easily 30 centimetres long and 20 centimetres wide.

We felt like modern barbarians celebrating over a great victory, with the immense amount of meat we had on the table.

The smell of the heavy chargrilled, wood, smokyness were absorbed into the ribs and steak, and you could taste all these flavours in every single bite!

My hands down, to the BEST RIBS EVER! I thought the best ribs was in Hard Rock, Barcelona. But THIS, made Hard Rock's version dropped 10 spots.

Sexy female barbarians. Just look at the size of the ribs. Madness! Madness from having a too delicious meal. Phew.

A great meal to end a great trip!

Chocolate madness@Max Brenner, Sydney

Max Brenner: a famous local joint for Sydney-ians, especially students, to gather, catch up, "Lim teh" (as what Malaysians love to do during in the evenings) over gooey delicious chocolates : drinks, waffles, cakes, pastries, etc. We came here, about an hour after the crazy sashimi loaded lunch. In normal eating circumstances, the sashimi meal itself was already too filling. In holiday circumstances, there's always room for more interesting food! *burps*

My eyes widened with excitement when I saw the display of chocolate pastries. Could almost hear them calling out to me ,"pick me! pick me!"

The chocolate sauces were melted in a big pot, hidden somewhere. There were pipe linings above us, apparently funneling all the melted chocolate to the tip of the nozzle, located next to the cashier machine at the counter. The waiters will turn on the nozzle to drizzle the hot chocolate sauce all over our food. Much like a bartender pouring a mug of draft beer. We had a mixture of chopped fruits, banana cakes and marshmallows to dip into melted dark chocolate and milk chocolate. IT WAS AMAZING! Chocolate dipped banana cake chunks were like the most sinful yet most tasty one. Brrrrrr. Shivers of sin!

Need I say more. The picture itself tells the whole story in one glance. The waffles were so buttery, fluffy and warm, absorbing in all the melted milk chocolate drizzles. On top of that, creamy vanilla ice cream to complement the chocolate and for 'slightly' healthier people, fruits as an option to complement the waffles.
The best waffle I've ever had. Much thanks to the chocolate.

The face of guilt. Mr Travis's sugar high face. Miss Joy, shaking her head, while looking through our pictures from Day 1, to Day 4-after-Max-Brenner-face. 4 days and we all turned CHUBBY!

As our trip is coming to an end, we talked about life, relationships, future travel plans.. and our next group holiday aim : flights to Goa, India. Or flights to Japan. Or flights to South Africa. Or re-visit flights to this gorgeous romantic city, Sdyney.

Till next year, Joy, Travis, Neets!

First Korean meal@Rest stop, along the way to Yeoju, Korea

Ever year, Pyung Kang Cheil church organizes retreats, inviting church members from all over the world to meet and have a great fellowship with Father. This year's retreat is held at Yeoju, during the warmest period in South Korea. The weather is very similar to Malaysia. Once we arrived at the airport, we departed to Yeoju right away.

We had lunch at a rest stop and there were so many people there, both locals and tourists. School children were having their summer break from school, and thus, family holiday time too. Feels like siesta in Barcelona. My first meal was the pork cutlet with rice, drizzled with cheese and BBQ sauce. What's interesting here is the ordering system runs with some online ticketing software or something, all these hungry souls will queue up at this ONE counter to order just about anything you want. It was hectic, crazy, and chaotic.

Firstly, it is all written in Korean, so we simply pointed and hoped we had our orders right. Then our orders are keyed into the system, and we were given a ticket with some Korean words and numbers written on it. We did not have time to ask much further, as hungry Koreans from behind were already pushing their way through.

Even waiting for the food was slightly confusing. Each counter serving different food may be putting up the same order number on the platform, so I did go the wrong counter initially.

But finally, my food came! Well, the food was so-so but we were hungry, anything goes! Quite expensive actually. This meal cost Korean Won 7900, so about RM 20 plus.

Summer food! It looked delicious, but it wasn't as delicious as I thought it was when I took my first bite. The dough was too thick and the sausage, was quite... economical. Sausage, sliced in half, thinner than ever. Cost was Korean Won 2000, about RM 6-7. Phew.....

Swordfish burger and fried seafood goodies@Bondi Beach, Sydney

The houses, apartments, shops and cafes along these hilly winding roads along Bondi beach really give out the sense of holiday-ing-all-the-time feel. I will never forget the first glimpse of Bondi beach when we reached the tip of one of the hilly slopes. Although you can't see much from the picture which was taken from one of the slopes, believe me, the view was outstanding. Those people staying at the apartments nearby are so lucky to be waking up to this view, EVERYDAY.

My friend who is also a frequent traveller says that Bondi beach is quite similar to Kalkan. I've never heard of this place before but apparently it is located on the Turkish Mediterrenean coast, known to tourists as a place for fine beaches too. Greeks used to live in this place before the war between both nations started and since then many Greeks had left, leaving Kalkan almost disappearing from the map. Luckily, some rich merchants back in the 50s decided to preserve the place and today, it has become a famous tourist destination and the Kalkan property scene has since hit sky high. Similar shops, houses, apartments, cafes located along the hilly roads complementing the scenic view of the beaches.

What an interesting FYI. Turkey, hopefully my future destination and Kalkan will definitely be one of my must-visit places.

Ok! Back to the foodies!

When we were finally here, I was really awed by the scenic view of the splashing blue waves, and baby blue clear sky. Breathtaking! Not to mention, lean, mean, machine surfers to make the view, more sassy!

The place my friend had been raving about since we first arrived. Swordfish burger!

These guys are so lucky to have fresh seafood served daily. And it is so affordable for them! Argh.

Deep fried calamaries and fries. Yummylicious! The squids were nicely marinated with pepper and paprika. I'm salivating already, looking back at this picture.

Grilled tuna and swordfish. The fishes were fresh, but a little too bland for me. Healthy dish! Minus the fries of course.

Finally, the long awaited swordfish burger! This is definitely a much healthier option of a burger if you are indeed craving for one. The breaded crumb fried swordfish was delicious of course, but it wouldn't have been good alone, without the fresh vegs and the delicious tartar sauce. The diametre of the burger was about 6 inches. Phew!

Fried scallops. Yums! The only downside, was the batter. Didn't stick well to the scallops and they were too thick. We dug out the batter and ate the juicy fat scallops on their own. Good enough!

Say hello to my foodie friends. Only 4 days and nights of food and we all ballooned up. Aiyaiyaiyaiyaiyai!



Cashew Nuts Experience@Phuket, Thailand

AirAsia flights to Thailand are pretty well known to Malaysians, especially flights heading to beach destinations like Koh Samui, Krabi and Phuket. Sadly, the cost of travel to these islands can sometimes turn out to be cheaper than our own local islands in the East Coast, which shouldn't be and the tourism ministry should re-look into the aspects of making local holiday destinations more affordable for Malaysians.

Anyway, back to Thailand, my friends and I recently flew via AirAsia to Phuket for a short weekend getaway.

What I've learnt from several AirAsia flight experience, it is better if we pre-booked our meals along booking our airline tickets as somehow rather, we will feel hungry, even short travels. The airline only provides limited food and if you are sitting at the final few rows, most likely no food is left for you. So yea.. pre-book!

This fried rice with satay cost RM9.90, and mmmm.. delicious!

Our first place of visit was the cashew nut factory. Honestly speaking, I had never seen a cashew nut at its most raw form. I respect the cashew nuts a lot more now, after seeing how the lady workers sit in front of these stacks of nuts all day long, cleaning them while risking skin damage, from the poisonous sap of the fruit.

My first time drinking cashew nut juice. Slightly gassy, and sweet, but I couldn't really taste the cashew-ness from its juice. But it surely did its wonders cooling us down under the excruciating hot weather.

  

I was shocked at first thinking that cashew fruits are multicoloured. In actual fact, these were just cappings to protect the fruits from birds and squirrels.



Breathtaking view of Phuket, by the sea. Gorgeous isn't it?

Sashimi frenzy@Sydney Fish Market

Free flights to Australia for Miss Foodventura, anyone? Particularly Sydney! Am missing the sashimi from Sydney Fish Market terribly now. It's only been a month..

Mr Trav, a sashimi expert, was in charge of all the food ordering. We ordered a balance between raw salmon, tuna, swordfish sashimi, scampis, oysters, prawns......

to deep fried soft shell crabs, baby octopuses, grilled unagi slices and fries. Madness! So much food for only 4 tiny tummies. The sashimis were by far the freshest I'd ever eaten in my life. Mr Trav, however says that Japan is leading when it comes to fresh seafood.

Even the salmon roes, were really fresh, and crunchy. Each sashimi slice was dipped with wasabi and soy sauce, and with a finishing coat of salmon roes. Bliss!

Initially, we wanted to eat our lunch by the pier, enjoying the gorgeous view and cool breeze. The view looked peaceful right? But we were attacked by gigantic fiercesome seagulls. Dozens of them were hovering over the waters and benches. One of them dashed towards us and pecked on our plastic bag. Crazy! We moved back into the market, not risking any of our delicious sashimis to these predators.

They tasted as fresh as they looked! My favourite, were the scampis! I had never eaten them before and this first opportunity surely did not disappoint! Sweet, tender, fresh. Yums! The next in line was the prawns. I must admit, when the steamed red prawns came in a plastic bag, it looked a little unappetizing. Little did I know, the prawns were fat, juicy, tender, and complemented so well with the tartar sauce. Best cocktail prawns ever! Total damage: AUD 50/head. It was all worth it! So... free flights to australia? sydney, anyone? I want fresh sashimis... fresh seafood...pretty please?

The Best HotDog, like everrrrrr@Harrys De Wheels, Sydney

Although it was only 6pm, the sun had already set and the temperature dropped to nearly 10degrees. Brrrrr!

Mr Trav brought us to eat the ultimatum-hotdog-of-the-century. At Harrys On Wheels.

The shop didn't stand out, just like any normal van stand with bright lights. When we went near, we saw many framed photos hung on one side of the stall, featuring celebs dating back, possibly 50 years or so.

The hotdog was about 8inches, with one fat, chewy, flavourful sausage lying on a heavenly pile of
minced beef, beans and sauekraut. Drizzled over mustard and bbq sauce. Aud 6.50

My first bite ( had to open mouth really wide). Kaboom! The best hotdog I had ever had in my entire life.

Forget the calories, the sin, the guilt. I, myself finished the entire 8inch of deliciousness. yikes!

P/S: not a meal on a first date, especially if you wanna score a kiss and more future dates with this guy. Why?

Mouth stank from the garlic and saurkraut. Then, the sight of you gobbling it up like a barbarian, sauces and minced meat smudging your face.

It was just too delicious to eat it like a decent fair lady!