Peace and quiet lunch@Ristretto Cafe, MontKiara 10, Jalan Kiara 1

Demona: Sunday's Sabbath day, God's day of rest and for us to gather and renew our hearts for the week at church. After spiritual renewal and rejuvenation, physical rejuvenation comes along. Sunday Coffee day!

Dogma's friend recommended this place for good coffee. Initially, we got lost searching for "Mont Kiara 10", but thanks to Google maps. Tadah! This cozy cafe's nicely tucked in at the end of the road. Away from the crowd, away from noise...

Demona: A nice outdoor area to have a meal and coffee. The tranquility!

Demona: Simplicity. A juicer corner, and a coffee brewing area. The staffs were really friendly, in welcoming us, recommending us their must-haves and serving us. Oh yeah.. kinda' nice having John Mayer's album playing as background music.

Demona: I ordered a ham and cheese panini sandwich, with salad on the side. The sandwich was so-so, nothing biggie to shout about in terms of taste but i did feel his/her sincerity in the preparation of the food. Nicely toasted, and the bread tasted fresh. RM 10, pretty decent I gotta' say for a quick bite/light brunch.

Demona: Dogma ordered the flat white, Costa Rica beans. Quite milky and creamy, but I preferred my cappucino. RM 8.

Demona: This was my cappucino. The froth was really thick and milky. It's one of the few better cappucinos which I had so far. I wished that the cup was bigger though, more to drink! RM 8.


Demona: Dogma ordered the fish and chips. It's been awhile since we last saw crinkle cut fries being served. The fish was quite fresh also and thankfully it wasn't one of those with tons of flour but thinly sliced fish inside. The tartar sauce seemed home made as well and they were pretty generous with the portion. RM 15

Parking's free over here (yey!) and it was really quite enjoyable having good coffee in a peace and quiet setting. Hey, they even gave us a card to collect stamps for free coffee so I doubt this will be our last visit here.

Ristretto closes pretty late at night, 11 pm. Wonder how's it like having dinner here. Anyone's got an experience on that before?

Black Canyon Cafe@Denpasar Airport

Our last meal in Bali, at Denpasar Airport's BlackCanyon Cafe just outside the departure hall.
It was a smart move by Demona to dine before we check in as the price inside the depature area was double the normal price. Example: the big mac was 18k RP outside the departure hall, but it was 29k RP inside the departure hall.

Black Canyon Nasi Campur@20K RP: This was yum yum yum!. Nicely fried drumstick,rendang beef and the famed stirred fried mixed vege.. Ahhhhh... so nice and so cheap!!

Watermelon Juice@9K Rupiah: For abt 1.50SGD, you have 100% freshly squeezed watermelon juice in a decent cafe in the airport...Not to forget the painstaking carved watermelon deco by the glass as well.. SCREAMING CHEAP! Orange Juice@9K RP: Another fresh juice before boarding the plane! Fresh hand-squeezed 100% orangejuice. Bali = 1.50SGD. Singapore = 5.50SGD, KL = 9,90RM....We love BALI!

Starbucks Kuta

It's getting a bit hot in the afternoon in Kuta and we stop by at Starbucks Bali, situated right beside the HardRock Cafe:
You know, Kuta Beach literally looks like an Aussie Beach with tons of Austrialians and Aussie shops/goods/foods. Barring the passing local hawkers and street peddlers + chaotic motorbike, this place could really pass off as an Aussie beach front.

Caramel Jave Chip Frappucino without Whipped Cream: 49K RP ~ 7.50sgd: Taste the same as what you get at other starbucks outlet around the globe, thick thick coffee frap with choco chip bits and caramel on top... Nice drink in the scorching hot beach! ( btw, 49K Rupiah could easily feed 3-4 adults at a local warung shop.)

Black Canyon Coffee@Jaya Jusco, Ipoh

Demona: YK and I decided to make a pit stop yamchar session at Black Canyon before we continued on with work. I've eaten here a few times before, and they had presented fairly decent food as far as I remembered.



Demona: Empty, empty place... business must be bad these days. Most of the customers here ate at the revamped food court instead. I guess, the food court offers cheaper food than the rest of the restaurants here, and people probably became less picky on their food after the fuel hike.



Demona: This was a mocha coffee shake. The coffee shake was ooooh, oh so creamy! Yet, the taste of their south african imported coffee was quite strong, and thankfully, the drink was not diabetic. The scoop of ice cream was clearly, the cappucino ice cream from KING's. I used to love eating that ice cream back in school, and the chippedy chocolate chips made it very enjoyable. RM 8.95. (Good quality, and STILL cheaper than Starbucks/Coffee Bean etc)




Demona: I was itching to try something different. The "Jamaica Coffee" name caught my eye. Thus, I opted for it. Same price as the one above, but volume wise was truly disappointing. You could see the dark brown layer on the bottom of the glass, that was the brewed coffee, and the probably 100 ml milk on top of it, and the rest half portion was covered by whipped cream. URGH. The coffee was good, that was without a doubt. But, too little to drink, too whippy to handle.



Demona: I wasn't exaggerating on the whipped cream, haha. It was so much that I could cover the saucer.

Verdict: Do give Black Canyon a try, they do have some good thai fusion dishes... well, if they had maintained their quality from the previous meal I had in their branch at Centerpoint, One U until now. Drinks wise, I would say they're all more or less quite enjoyable. Much cheaper than a frap that u are paying for in Starbucks or Coffee Bean, and yet give quality sense of satisfaction. One thing though, just skip the Jamaica drink.

Location:
Kinta City Shopping Centre
No 2, Jalan Teh Lean Swee,
Off Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah Utara,
31400 Ipoh, Perak.

Gd Morning Nanyang vs Provence Bakery

Demona: Breakfast battles are the most fierce for us. Dogma and I are work out junkies and we're up most mornings for a swim in the chilly chlorinated waters, or putting our leg muscles to the morning walk test. We put a lot of effort into searching for a great breakfast/ brunch place as a reward after a sweaty work out.

Sometimes I wonder whether what we're doing is right, because half way through swimming/jogging, we'll discuss on what food we are going to order later, imagine and salivate in our minds.

We've overdone ourselves this time. TWO breakfast places, back to back. Good Morning Nanyang and Provence. Stiff battle. Sweaty palms. Possible saliva shed.



Demona: One of Provence's ultimate weapons. These two pastries own many Active Key References, meaning having others to promote them, without the seller doing anything.. so it's purely selling on its goodness! One's a custardy, potato bun tasting roll, and the other is a chocolate roll. Any combination for a total of 10, cost SGD 6. These mini rolls, are soft, and very nice to chew! Taste wise, was average, but its softness won it all! 10 was no problem at all for me to finish.



Demona: Another Good Morning Nanyang's strong defenses, its ciabatta toast, sandwiched with good olde freshly home made kaya and good quality butter. The ciabatta toast was very thick, and it still had a little flourish taste, like the scone which we had previously.

The kaya and butter content were not enough to complement the thick ciabatta. The owner stopped by our table again, and gave us a tip saying if we want more kaya and butter on our toast, we can request for more slabs of 'em in future! Generousity, generousity.

Verdict: The war goes on....

Provence Bakery take 5 @ Holland Rd

This little Jap styled Bakery has become the Holy Temple for Demona's pilgrimage to Singapore. You could see her eye twinkling with " Provence Provence " the minute she awakens for breakfast.


Here it is, Provence Bakery, Take 5.

The usual Suspects: Blueberry Cream Pie. Soft, creamy bun bursting with gooey real blueberry jam. This is heavenly!
Almond Bun with Apple fillings: This is pretty interesting. The bun was soft with a good chunk of candied apple cubes in the centre. Commendable but slightly too sweet. Demona wipe it clean nonetheless!
Bacon Egg Toast Set: This gotta be one the best Bacon Egg Toast set I had for a long time.. MMMMMM,, savoury fried bacon sandwiched in between generous servings of tomatoes, lettuce and omelette. I am satisfied! At the cost of 5sgd per set, inclusive of side salad and tea/coffee, this is a real steal!

Japanese Curry Chicken Fried Bun: I find the fillings lacking in some spicy kick and it is a tad too mashed up. I could not taste much of the ingredients of the fillings. It was a little on the salty side as well. Pass.

Little Part 1 Cafe@Adelaide Park Estate

Demona: We had ambitious intentions of doing some home cooking after prawning at Bishan. However, after a poor yield catch 3 hour prawning session on a hot sunny Saturday afternoon, we were left sweaty, frustrated, and *Growl growl* .. HUNGRY! I managed to convince Dogma to cook on Sunday instead, with my pouting face, fake cries, and continuous whines hahaha.

Dogma: Ok! Ok! We'll stop by somewhere for dinner later! Just.. stop.. it!"
Demona: (Tee..heh..heh..) :D OKAY



One of Dogma's colleagues, Marie, recommended him to this cafe, and since it was around the corner, we decided to eat here. Initially, I wasn't willing to eat at Little Part 1 because I didn't wait him to spend unnecessary extra money, but he insisted on trying. So.. oh well, what the heck :)

We were sweaty, smelly, and were in horribly lousy clothings. The cafe on the other hand, was designed as its theme. Little Part 1, neither home nor workplace, but somwhere in between. With colourful, funky furnishings, rows and rows of interesting books and boardgames, and relaxing chill out jazz music.



Demona: We ordered a onion rings set (SGD 4.90). The onion rings.. were..absolutely fantastic! The oil used was fresh, and the onions were fried to perfection! Onion rings with coated breadcrumbs are better than flour dough any day. What made this dish a TNT was the spicy, zing wasabi mayonaise. These guys willingly brought us another bowl of mayonaise since us spicy eaters finished it up almost immediately. No charges on the extra bowl was made. Great! Showed how generous they were.



Demona: We ordered a set of buffalo wings as well. (SGD 6.90). This was disappointing, especially the fact that we already tried Wong Ah Wang's famous chicken wings. The wings were not complete, the end of the wing was missing. We had no idea why. Each portion had 6 half chicken wings. The wings were simply deep fried, and the spicy sweet sauce were not coated on the wings, like the usual ones which we get. The sauce was separated, which was alright with us, but the sauce did not improve its tastiness anyway.



Demona: Since the Green Tea shake had a "Chef's Hat" recommendation, we decided to give it a try, knowing Dogma LOVES any green tea based products. The green tea shake wasn't too bad, but if they added more green tea and less milk, it would have been even better. The milk taste overpowered the green tea. One good thing about this was the controlled sweetness. SGD 5.00.



Demona: After finishing the food from above, we were NOT full, but NOT hungry, BUT ... we were... GREEDY!!! We asked for the menu again, and decided to try their crepes. We ordered a ham, mushroom and cheese crepe (Another "chef's hat") and to our surprise the portion was huge! Unlike the conventional one layer crepe wrap, this crepe was in layers, wrapping thick rectangular strips of ham, juicy mushroom slices, and generous melted shavings of mozarella cheese. The crepe actually tasted quite delicious, maybe due to the cheezie weezies! We were overstuffed 3/4 way through the meal. SGD 8.90.

Verdict: The chicken wings were totally unsatisfactory. If we had skipped that dish, the bill would actually be quite affordable. The crepes portion was enough to un-growl your tummy. I think that the green tea shake also played a major role in filling our tummies.

The cafe offers decent food, and I'm definitely interested to try other dishes next time, or maybe just come back here for their awesome onion rings! The ambience is lovely, definitely a great place to chill out with your girlfriends, or have a romantic alone dinner with your partner, or a cool place for a small birthday celebration.

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe@Chinatown

Demona: Dogma knows I am an adoring fan of toast bread and coffee, and I am always eager to venture new, interesting toast bread/coffee places. This is a great way to kick start the day, a light meal with some creamy sugary goodness, aromatic dose of caffeine, reading the headlines for the day. Somehow rather, all these aspects combined together spells FEEL-GOOD.

Dogma introduced me to a new place today. He drove past the beautifully decorated vibrant coloured lanes of Chinatown, and parked inside Chinatown Point. He led me to this cafe, called Good Morning Nanyang. The bright orange colour painted walls with a gigantic "GOOD MORNING" sign, followed simultaneously by the strong buttery toast smell filling our nostrils definitely drew open our sleepy eyes.



Demona: We ordered a toast bread+eggs+coffee set to share. Dogma made a good move by requesting for our coffee to be less sweet. The ice coffee served to us was aromatic, creamy, with a just-nice sweetness level. After taking the first sip of coffee, the only word that came out from out mouths were .. " Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". Our sleepy, oxygen deficient minds were zapped awake.



Demona: We were busy reading the day's newspapers when the toast bread came. The kind owner, Mr. Byron who noticed us leaving the toast bread aside, came over to our table and advised us to start eating the bread before it got cold. We appreciated his kind gesture and immediately started eating.

I am one of those who prefers my toast bread properly spread with butter and kaya, rather than a huge slab of butter stuck in the middle of it. If I do see it, I would spread it on my own and remove the excess.

Old habits die hard. I opened up the sandwiched layer to check for slabs of butter. To my surprise, the bread was nicely spread with butter and thoroughly mixed with kaya. Yippeeeeeeee!!!

Mr. B also happily told us how his kaya is freshly made everyday in his cafe. The kaya was not too sweet, creamy, and definitely tasted home made alright. I showed my sticky crumb-filled smile to Dogma. SYOK NYA!



Demona: Dogma swallowed down the 2 eggs. I thought the watery part was a bit strange though. Don't think I saw many half boiled eggs with a water layer on them. After finishing off the last spoonful, Dogma was now extra energy powered by 2 protein boosted eggs!



Demona: Another signature food from Good Morning Nanyang is its scones. We also ordered one to try it out. The scone was a bit dry, hints of flour taste was still detected in the scone. Addition of the jam and butter did great on the scone. Mr. B definitely has characters of a great eatery owner. We were honest about our opinions on GMN's food, and told him that the scone was a bit dry and the flour taste was a bit strong. Instead of being defensive, he actually listened to our comments and said to look into ways to make their scones more moist.

Verdict: A hearty breakfast meal, in a cozy, comfortable environment with a warm, friendly service up from the owner itself down to the waitresses. All of these goodness wrapped up in a bill receipt of less than SGD 5. What more to say?

Delicious@ Bangsar Village

Dogmama and Dogpapa were in town (KL) today. I was cracking my brain on where to bring them out for lunch. ( you know, being a "native" Singaporean driving in the crazy KL traffic doesn't really help in deciding your lunch venue. There is only a handful of places i know how to go without the need of Demona GPS. )

Some how , we managed to reach Bangsar Village and i brought DogPaMa to Delicious opened by my cousin Elaine's friend. I heard the boss is only 29 years old and its a 8 million rm F&B group now.

Initially feeling uncertain if DogPaMa will be ok with such young and hippish bistro, my fear was soon allayed when they served the food.


Strawberry CheeseCake15.90?: Mom opted for the straberry cheesecake for lunch today. The cake has right amount of cheese in it. Creamy and solid without being overly cheesy. Top with a pretty natural tasting strawberry sauce, this cake sings! Mom loves it!
Basil Pesto Pasta@17.90rm: This was the star dish for the day. Basil Pesto Pasta topped with Shaven Parmesan cheese. The pesto sauce was rich and full with the zing from the basil pieces. You could feel the basil pieces singing and dancing on top of your tongue...The pasta was cooked al dente and it was pure bliss!
Daddy and mommy both enjoyed this and you could see Dogmama's finger trying to Sapu the parmesan cheese!
Smoked Salmon Quiche@18.90rm: This was quite a let down. The quiche was pre made and it was microwaved before being served. The fillings tasted custardy and dead. The smoked salmon was pretty boring as well as the flavour did not blend in well with the crust/fillings. It doesnt help that this quiche cost 18.90rm. GRRRR. Let down.

We ordered 2 pots of tea @ 10rm each and felt so stupid and short changed as they just gave us Twinning tea bags served in some porcelain tea pot. ( The maths as follow: 80cents for Twinning Tea bags, 20 cents for use of Porcelain Tea pot and 9dollars for the ambience). We went home that day and had our own Twinnings Tea bag for breakfast the second day. (80cents for Twinning tea bags, 0 cents for the porcelain mug and 0 dollars for ambience)

Overall, a nice place to hang out with and the dishes are pretty good for KL standard.

Provence Bakery@ Holland Village 3

Without a doubt, Demona has turned into a die-hard Provence Bakery Zombie Fan..
Zombie-mona: I .... need... Provence Bakery.......................

What to do, I being the resident chauffeur have to wake up early on a cozy Saturday morning to satisfy Zombie-mona's cravings for some Japanese Carbo!

Third Visit to Provence Bakery in 2 weeks for Demona from KL!!
I had the fried sausage bun. OOOOOO... the bun was very very lite, buttery and chewy. It is not oily as compared to most typical fried sausage bun...I like!

Another close up picture of the buttery fried sausage.....

Chocolate Danish: Zombie-mona's favourite on her third trip to Provence. Dark gooey chocolate fillings ooozing out from the fluffy danish.... It is light and not overly sweet. Beautiful!

Cream Cheese Sesame Bun: Fragrant cream cheese butter in the middle of the black sesame bun. It was pleasing but not amazing. So so la...

Commonwealth Market Coffee Stall

Kai suggest this place for excellent coffee + good toast at the Commonwealth hawker centre beside Queensway MRT. The shop name " White Coffee Stall" looks promising....


Hmmm, result was pretty disappointing.

Toast: The kaya was kinda factory made. Nose was bland without the natural caramel nose of egg and sugar/pandan. The bread texture was passable as well. Not holding well.

Coffee: Too much milk. too creamy. Serioulsy lacking in coffee flavor.

Wine Tasting@Tartines Café Francais

Dogma loves wine.
He loves it even more when it is a free tasting session.
But nothing beats free tasting of quality french wines.

B had just started his wine distribution business specializing in French wine. B,being a French selling French wines, there is no better place to showcase his wine than the Tartines Café Francais at Capital Tower.

Few things to highlight for this memorable wine tasting:

• The ambience was relaxed and cozy due to the casual warm setting of Tartines
• The finger food was excellent, consisting of pate bread, various French cheese spread, fresh salad dips.
• Interesting quality wines to go with. Fabulous!

Following are the reviews of the wines:
Les Creisses Languedoc 2003@35SGD (50% syrah,4-%grenache 10% cabernet sauvignon): Languedoc wines are typically rustic and probably tend to be a tad harsh. However, Les Creisses is beautifully harmonious with nice tone of chocolate on the nose. The tannins are rounded with seamless acid. Finish was moderate but i was impressed by the good integration of the fruits acid and tannin. Excellent buy

Les Creisses Languedoc "Les Brunes" 2000@60SGD (80% cabernet, 10%syrah, 10%mouvedre): The top cuvee from the domain. Good black fruits with some toasty/spicy notes. Dense with firm tannin. More acid in the mid palate and longer finish compared to the lower end Les Creisses.


Marigny Neuf Sauvignon blanc 2005@25SGD: Simple white with pretty pleasant pineapple. Some toasted rice note on top which is interesting. Pretty good value wine at this price point. Not too oily compared to New World Sauvignon Blanc. More elegance compared to some similar priced wine.
Ampelidae le S 2005@49SGD (Sauvignon Blanc): Made from 30-100 years old vines, the Ampelidae le S is a big step above the Marigny Neuf. With more intense tropical fruits and vanilin from oak handling. Pretty big in the mouth and moderate long finish. Good cellaring potential to reveal more tertiary aroma.
Chateau Martet Reserve de Familia 2005@69SGD (100% merlot): Similar to Petrus, with 100% merlot in it, Chateau Martet's vineyards has been cultivated since the 13th century. Interesting nose of currants, black fruits with beautiful elegance. Very balanced, none of the elements overpowering each other. Silky tannins rounding off the moderate finish. Harmonious wine. Pleasure.

Roc De Cambes 2004@140SGD: This wine is owned by the same owner of Chateau Tertre Roteboeuf and ranked amoing the top 30 best wines in Bordeaux. Roasted caramel note with some cigar box. Silky mouthfeel and rounded tannins. Packed with black fruits punch. Interesting but too expensive.

Saint Geron Natural Sparkling Water@5SGD 75CL: With 100% natural carbonation , the Saint Geron touches your tongue gently without much stony mineral and cold metal note ala Perrier etc. It is amazingly elegant upon entry, flowing smoothly on top of your tongue and you could taste the purity of the water. The bubbles were very fine and did not interfere with your taste bud. Surprisingly smooth and pure. A different class compared to the other sparkling waters i had. Upon further research, St Geron is the only natural sparkling water officially recommended by the French ministry of Health. Pretty impressive.... Homemade French Brownies: This is the real bomb, practically sending everyone to orbit. I'm not a big dessert fan but the brownies here are simply amazing. Slightly crusty on the outside, you could taste pure moist chocolate once you sink your fangs into it. The sweetness of the brownies was sitting just nice without being obvious. Moist creamy texture that shows wonderful control of butter, temperature and flour. I have to bring Demona here!. A++++

Close up shot of the Orbiter!

Gloria Jeans Green Tea Frap

The Green Tea Frap Shoot Out:

I do like Starbuck's Green Tea Latte quite a bit until I'd tried Gloria Jean's version.
Richer in green tea flavour with a tinge of tea-bitterness aftertaste, Gloria Jeans is more "kau" and generous with the green tea powder. It is also less milky and sweet than Starbucks's.
Try it out !

Ghiradelli Chocolate Caramel Coffee

I bought a couple packs of Ghiradelli Ground Coffee on my previous trip to California and had totally forgotten about it until today.
Frantically i searched for my Moka Pots and both of them are a tad rusty with white powderish material on the surface. hmmmm,,, fear not, i could still make do with a cheap coffee filter to make myself a good cuppa for a lazy Saturday afternoon..
Upon opening the coffee vacuum packet, a beautiful nose of chocolate caramel nose hit upon me,,, MMMMMMMM, smells fabulous!

Added with Demona's Dutch lady milk (2007 xmas present),it surely made my day!

Happy Saturday everyone!