Remember a couple years ago, when suddenly out of nowhere there was this huge donut craze?
Big Apples and J.Co donuts (and later Krispy Kreme) were popping up everywhere, accompanying each new branch was always a long queue of customers eager to get a taste of fluffy pastry with a hole in the middle, it was quite a phenomena, well, at least until we got tired of it and the whole thing sort of tapered down.
The same thing is happening all over again, but this time around it is them Bubble Tea.
Chatime, only took a photo, wasn’t too impressed
Bubble tea is of course, nothing new in this country. The difference in these new establishments are not revolutionary, but they seemed to inject a breath of freshness in this old product.
Places like Chatime, Gongcha, and Ochado has one thing in common – they use updated ordering system and allows you to customize each drinks with different sugar and ice level as well as extra ingredients should you choose to add (pearl, grass jelly, etc). The tea are also brewed each day (or every few hours), no powdered form is used.
A fancy plastic seal is used to seal the drinks, only to be popped open by the oversize straw 2 seconds later.
Price wise, they are somewhere in between your average cup of Old Town drinks and Starbucks coffee, which means from around RM 5.90 to RM 7.90 or so, depending on the type of tea, additional pearl/jelly/milk froth, etc.
As of writing, Chatime has the most branches in Malaysia with a total of 15, you can find them as far as Melaka and Penang (check the listing here). I tried their milk tea with pearl and frankly, wasn’t too impressed. The tea tasted alright, it wasn’t too sweet, but at the same time didn’t give me any ummph I was hoping for. I wouldn’t line up for 20 mins to get a cup of Chatime bubble tea, but if I’m thirsty and there isn’t a line, I’ll probably still grab one.
Address:
Chatime
G-K9, SSTwo Mall,
No. 40 Jalan SS2/72,
47400 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.12093, 101.62727
Website: Chatime at facebook
Gong Cha at SS 15, one of Haze’s favs
Then there’s Gong Cha at SS 15 and Mid Valley, just like Chatime, it is another Taiwanese chain that was started in the mid of last decade and recently arrived in Malaysia. Gong Cha is not nearly as prolific as Chatime, but I find their drinks quite a bit better in quality, especially those with perforated milk.
Their grass jelly and one particular winter melon tea were quite lovely. Lucky SS 15 is some distance from where I stay and they only open till 10 pm, otherwise I’d spend too much calorie quota at this place I think.
The white pearl (extra RM 1.50) at Gong Cha has a nice texture to it, but I couldn’t distinguised their standard black pearl (RM 1) with those from pasar malam, so no more black pearl for me.
Address:
Gong Cha
No 3, Jalan SS15/7,
47500 Subang Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.07629, 101.59040
Tel: 03-5638 3328
Website: http://www.gong-cha.com.my
Ochado at Pavilion Tokyo Street is good, Suanie & Cheesie agrees!
My favorite of the lot though, is Ochado at Pavilion’s newest 6th floor section – Tokyo Street (that also house the popular ramen place – Hokkaido Santouka.
Ochado isn’t Taiwanese bubble tea, but Japanese instead (though this brand actually started from Singapore last year). To me the tea actually tasted a bit better, and so does their grass jelly. I’ve also tried their coffee with a type of “coffee pearl” that was simply marvelous.
When Cheesie tested it, she went “OMG IT HAS IKURA!“. The coffee pearl pops in your mouth and release concentrated flavors in small doses, I love it.
However, being in Pavilion also means that Ochado is slightly more expensive than the other two brands, but not more than extra RM 1 or 2 for similar drinks.
Address:
Ochado
6.33.00 & 6.34.00, Level 6, Pavilion
Jln Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.148872, 101.713368
Website: Ochado at Pavilion KL
For those who likes bubble tea, this is a good development. However, just like the donut craze, the Old Town & other modern kopitiam craze before, and the HK cha chan teng craze before that, eventually the bubble tea craze will come down and settle on a plateau. I’ll give it 1-2 years.
A week ago I was invited to Opus Bistro for a revisit, this time around it’s an event organized by MilkADeal, the group buy website that not coincidentally, is having a good deal for Opus Bistro right this moment. Details of the deal at the bottom of this post.
My previous visit at Opus Bistro was a wine tasting event with Montana wine while this one is a purely food oriented session with all the dishes here available on their menu (Opus’s website).
Opus Bistro at Jalan Bangkung, Bangsar
We were seated on the first level, a tastefully done dining area fit for private functions as well as cozy dinner without the usual noise associated in a busy restaurant.
Many of you aren’t necessarily interested with the thickness of chair cushion and how many replica pantings are on the wall, so lets go straight to the food, shall we?
seafood antipasti platter
Like most finer dining places, we started off with some bread that you dip in olive oil and balsamic vinegar while sipping a glass of white wine, but that is pretty dull to describe, move on to the first dish then – the seafood antipasti platter (RM 45.)
Here is a dish with some of my favorite ingredients – squid, scallop, tiger prawn, and clam. All perfectly prepared but come in different texture and flavor that compliment each other rather well. I love it.
risotto ball, seafood spaghetti, grilled lamb cutlets in red wine sauce
Then there’s the risotto ball (RM 22), something that is quite unique to Opus. It is sort of a vegetarian “meatball” that the health conscious should love, but meat lover such as me find slightly lacking.
The seafood spaghetti (RM 22/36) is a delightful dish especially if you didn’t have the antipasti platter to start off dinner. Here you find mussels, prawns, squid, and clams accompanying the pasta in olive oil and herbs, almost healthy.
The grilled lamb cutlets with rosemary in red wine sauce (RM 58) is a dish that can satisfy anyone with a huge appetite for meat. There’s a choice of mint sauce too if red wine sauce isn’t your thing. The meat is tender and succulent.
aglio olio with smoked duck, roast cod, tiramisu, chocolate desire
For those who love to venture into the slightly wilder side, there’s linguini aglio olio with smoked duck (RM 17/30.) The smoked duck breast carries a slightly salty smokey taste that will satisfy your curiosity.
We also tried both versions of roast cod (RM 58) at Opus. I personally favor the one with white wine sauce over the lemon caper sauce but truth be told, both were excellent.
For desserts we had tiramisu (RM 16) & chocolate desire (RM 20). The hot chocolate in pastry combine well with the cold vanilla ice cream to serve as the far better dessert for the night.
Haze, KY, Ringo, Kerol, and Suan at Opus Bistro
Opus Bistro is in effect, a place with pretty good food at a still affordable pricing, a poor man’s fine dining restaurant if you would.
The good news is, in the next 6 days (till 10th of May, 2011), you can get a deal from MilkADeal that maks Opus a must-visit place. The deal is – RM25 instead of RM74 for a Main Pasta + Wine / Fruit Juice / Soft Drink. Click on it, purchase, redeem, and enjoy!
Address:
Opus Bistro
67, Jalan Bangkong
Bukit Bandaraya
59100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.138116, 101.669197
Tel: 03-2092 4288
I had initially wanted to offer you, my dear reader, another cute story related to Pizza Hut when I was in US.
A story much like the previous story penned on the article about Pizza Hut Fish King. My memory however, failed in this instance, and instead I have the following photo to show you, this was yours truly more than 10 years ago taken in a dorm at Bemidji State University (I spent a semester there).
taken in my dorm room at Bemidji State Univeristy, 1999 I think?
Now the only relation this photo has with Pizza Hut is that the Bangladesh dude behind, Masud, has a friend whose name I can’t remember, but worked for Pizza Hut delivery in the tiny city of Bemidji during my short stay there. Naturally, this other dude whose name I can’t remember, and whom I don’t have a picture of, sometimes brought us free pizzas!
An awesome perk when you’re a poor overseas student. Awesome pizza in frigid Minnesota winter is always a warm experience. *slurp*
Pizza Hut and the Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizzas
Anyway, fast forward 11 years, and following last May’s promotion, Pizza Hut is at it again, and this time around it is all about cheese! So naturally Haze and I picked up cheesie for the tasting session at Bukit Damansara. We were joined by a bunch of other bloggers including Huai Bin, Tim, Audrey, Saimatkong, kampungboycitygal, Michelle, and more.
It was quite literally, a feast.
check out the extreme cheesy 6 pizza with hawaiian chicken topping
To make this Extreme Cheesy 6 pizza, Pizza Hut imported six different premium cheese into the country (I can’t remember how many containers altogether but it was a very big number).
They are:
To be honest, I’m familiar with only the first three types of cheese, the other three were pretty foreign to me. Then again, why worry about the details when the overall end result is only thing we’re interested at?
.. and it was good. I wanted to put in beautiful descriptions and professional-ish sentences about the pizza, but at the end I can only tell you it is wholesomely cheesy and really does taste awesome!
mushroom and chicken sausage, pepperoni, original extreme cheesy 6
Extreme Cheesy 6 comes with original style with just all the six cheeses, as well as with several other toppings. There’s chicken sausage and mushroom, pepperoni (of course!), and Hawaiian chicken. My favorite is the Hawaiian chicken, with pieces of chicken meat and pineapple to complement the super cheesy taste.
pasta, garlic bread, chicken wings, and salad bar
Of course, other than pizzas, you can also find garlic bread, chicken wings, pastas, as well as the salad bar at Pizza Hut. I remember we used to stack up a huge plate of salad (we were allowed one visit to the bar if I remember correctly).
Tim, Huai Bin, Haze, Cheesie, Michelle, Audrey, KY, and others
In conjunction with the promotion on Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza, there’s also a contest:
Write a post on “Why You Love Pizza Hut’s 6 Cheesy Extreme Pizza” (dine in or take away) with plenty of pictures with the 6 Cheese Pizza and be sure to mention all 6 types of cheese. Make it unique, interesting, and be creative. The title of your post must be “I’m crazy about Cheeeeeese!”
Top 5 winners will win RM 2000 cold hard cash each!
The contest runs from 21th Oct to 16th of Nov 2010 and is open to all Nuffnang registered bloggers.
Good luck folks and say Cheeseeeeeee!
The photo below depicts two girls screaming on top of their lungs, the background you see behind those tiny windows is not an illusion, the earth was not parallel with the pint size airborne vehicle we were in.
cheesie & Haze screaming their lungs out
The little plane was a Cessna 172, the girls Haze and Cheesie, Reuben was our tour guide by air, and I was riding shot gun.
The following video condensed the 45 mins or so flight trip into an easy to digest clip less than 2 minutes. The screaming girls in action, watch it.
Departing from Sg. Besi airport gave us the opportunity to fly closer to the city than any other airport. Though the check-in procedure to get to Royal Selangor Flying Club was a bit of a drag (it’s a military base after all), it was worth it.
Reuben the pilot
Reuben took us around Mid Valley, banked over the iconic Batu Caves, and over quite a bit of KL landscapes I don’t actually recognize. There was no air conditioning on the aircraft, but it was breezy, and the temperature drops a few degrees due to the altitude.
some 1500 feet below, we have Sim City MidValley
It was comfortable, we had headphones on, allowing chatters without being overwhelmed by the noise from the single engined Cessna.
And then there’s the stunts, of course. Reuben will perform several acrobatic maneuvers (or just 1-2 if you have overly loud screaming ladies) over the “training area” where you feel the effect of 2G, and 0G too. It was quite a lot more fun than roller coaster rides. Cos you know, there’s no track and it’s a 1500 feet down to solid earth below.
i get to be a fake co-pilot
Before it all ends, I even got to be a fake co-pilot for a bit, getting a feel on how the steering turns (while not actually turning it at all).
The experience in available at KL by Air for RM 600 per hour with up to 3 passengers. Reuben is a certified pilot and a soon-to-be flight instructor.
For the few of you who have been following this blog for a while, it is not something new that I’ve been a fan of Guinness. For those who are also a fan, there’s good news, the annual Arthur’s Day is coming again! installment number 251!
what’s better than enjoying a pint with your best buddies?
The world’s most popular black beer probably doesn’t need much introduction. A perfectly poured Guinness with it’s inch thick creamy foam on top of that pure black beauty is a sight that turns any bad day good, and good day even better!
Over the years, the black beer has also found a place in the kitchen. From the classic Guinness pork ribs from your typical Chinese restaurants, Guinness lamb shank, and to international celebrity chefs like Chef in Black’s creations, what other beer is more versatile?
Arthur’s Day 2009, Black Eyed Peas
Last year’s Arthur’s Day was a blast, Black Eyed Peas was brought in for the 250th anniversary of the famed black beer. We had an awesome time at Sunway Lagoon partying, the photo collage above is worth about 8,000 word’s description, so do exercise your imagination.
There’s no slowing down for Guinness, this year’s Arthur’s Day, we have the following line up of international and local artists performing at Surf Beach @ Sunway Lagoon on the 24th of September 2010:
Arthur’s Day 2010 artist line up
Tickets go for White, Black, and Gold zones (mosh pit) go for RM 98, RM 198, and RM 350 at Axcess.com.my or Arthursday.com.my. But of course, there’s always a chance to get in for free, by joining The Man of Action contest:
Simple isn’t it? On top of that, there’s a grand prize winner that’ll be announced on Arthur’s Day itself, and the lucky fella will walk away with a trip to Dublin to visit the St James Gate Brewery & Guinness Storehouse!! What are you waiting for? Lets do this!
Here’s my submission, a collaboration effort with the fehmes Cheesie, what do you think? (don’t laugh :/)
Oh, for those who are slightly less creative, there’s also The Man of Vision Contest where you decipher how many Guinness elements can be found in a given image. Go to arthursday.com.my to get illustration, and follow @GuinnessMY on Twitter to get more clues!
Grand Prize is another Dublin Trip + mosh pit tickets, and there’s weekly mosh pit tickets to be won too.
See you guys on Arthur’s Day!
