After lunch at Red Silks in Chinatown, like most people who has nothing better to do, we look for a cup of after meal coffee and a place to chill out. We headed up north a couple blocks to QV (Queen Victoria Building), a rather popular hangout area that houses several restaurants and a couple grocery stalls

Max Brenners at QV

Coffee drinking is actually quite a big thing in Australia. The annual coffee business amounts to some $3 billion, that is plenty of coffee for a population of some 21 million people. The market is a lot more mature than KL, with plenty of privately owned businesses and a few international chains.

In Malaysia, you’d go to Starbucks or Old Town, but in Melbourne, the defacto choice is Max Brenners (although you can find Starbucks, and actually even Old Town Kopitiam!), it is just convenient that there is an outlet located right in the middle of QV with a nice outdoor seating area that is sheltered from sun and wind.

milk suckao and cappuccino

The place is almost perpetually full, we actually had to wait for a couple minutes before landing ourselves a table. Since I was basically a tourist and Max Brenners is famous for their chocolates, Mell ordered a Milk Sukao for me, and from their website:

Suckao is the espresso of the chocolate drinks. It is a small, dense, concentrated shot of rich chocolate. The term “Suckao” is made up of two words that describe the utensil and the unique drink it contains: Suck – to draw the dense liquid through the metal tube. Kakao – the Spanish word for cocoa beans from which this rich chocolate drink is made and which determine its quality.

It is basically fresh milk (refillable) warmed by an aroma therapy size candle with chocolate chips on the side to mix. The quality of chocolate was rather high and I really liked it, not bad at all for $6.

latte, KY, milk chocolate

Mell got herself a milk chocolate ($5) that comes in a “HUGMUG”. The cocoa used is originated from Venezuela, creamy and tasty. The hugmug is specially designed for chocolate drinks at Max Brenners, to be used for hugging with both hands, perfect for the rather chilly weather when we were there.

Carol, Margaret, and Mellissa with her hugmug

Carol and Margaret got themselves Cappuccino and Cafe Latte ($3.30 each), and both the drinks were better than the same offered by the likes of Starbucks or Coffeebeans in Malaysia. Part of the reason being that the milk used here is so much fresher and tastier.

We ended up going to Max Brenners a few more times, meeting up friends and sampling different types of drinks along the way (the coconut + lychee drink was awesome, and the magic waffle balls very interesting). It was sort of a meeting point for Mell and her friends there, for obvious reasons. Good drinks, nice environment, affordable prices.

Max Brenners is located at the heart of QV

Max Brenners has over a dozen branches in Australia, a couple in New York, Philippines, Israel, and there’s even one in Singapore at Esplanade Mall on Raffles Ave.

Address:
Max Brenners
Queen Victoria Building
25-27 Red Cape Lane,
Level 2, QV Square,
210 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
GPS: -37.810657,144.965587
Tel: +61 3 9663 6000

Tags:  chocolate,  coffee,  kerol,  margie,  melbourne,  mellissa,  QV

Posted by KY | 42 Comments »

A couple days before my birthday, I got a special delivery from down under, a big package all the way from Australia, the land of dozing wombats and slimy skinks. It was a gift from my hot chick, and I couldn’t be happier receiving the original super star snack Tim Tam and Pods! Just look at them! *drools*

chocolate goodness to die for

Due to fluctuation in temperature while shipping these goodies, the pods seemed to have melted before, but fortunately, while the cosmetic is a bit off, they still taste great! Pods is something like a bigger version of Koko Krunch cereal but filled with chocolate and caramel, very rich and very addictive.

I think Tim Tam needs no introduction to most people, especially those who studied in ozzie. This chocolate mud biscuit is the best seller in Australia. The snack is full of chocolate, caramel, and biscuit in a harmonious combination that treats your taste buds the way good snacks do. Kinda reminds me of Reese’s although they are completely different.

chocolate and strawberry flavors too!

You can get the local version of Tim Tam from places like Cold Storage (they now sell Reese’s too!), but I’ve heard that it doesn’t taste quite the same.

*slurps*

Tags:  australia,  biscuit,  chocolate,  snacks,  tim-tam

Posted by KY | 17 Comments »

Most everyone who works in an office building has a food drawer filled with snacks for the time when stomach makes the untimely growls. Alongside with the awesome Keebler’s Chips Deluxe Cookies, this biscuit with the silly Hello Panda name is one of my favorites.

well herro panda!

This stuff is made of hollow shortbread with stuffings inside, and my favorite is the chocolate stuffing. One of the two types you can find at Isetan supermarket, the other being strawberry. There are altogether 4 types of stuffings but the vanilla and peanut butter (YUM!) can’t be found anywhere. If only I had discovered this before I went to Tokyo. The sweet and soft chocolate gives a very good taste and textural contrast the blunt but crispy shortbread, sort of like the Oreo experience, but a lot tastier and alot less messy.

ahhh yummmmm

The biscuits come in an over sized tube ala Pringles style. Convenient to store and doesn’t get soft and and limp from the moisture. Best still, you can keep the tube and use it for the great Keebler’s cookies!

A tube is about RM 15+ and contains 450 gram of wholesome bite size cookies. Not exactly cheap, but this thing is awesome it’s really worth it, not to mention packs a meal’s worth of calorie in a snack session. Best. Meiji is a Japanese confectionery brand, but this particular product is manufactured in Singapore.

Tags:  biscuit,  chocolate,  cookie,  hello-panda,  snacks,  strawberry

Posted by KY | 22 Comments »

This is actually my 2nd time having chocolate fondue at this Choz place in KLCC. Some of you who read terence’s blog might have come across his post on the same subject. Since it was not quite a right experience having that type of treats with a guy, I decided to set things right this time by having a proper female companion.

look at that strawberry!

Now some of you noobs might have not heard of fondue and be wondering wtf it is. Basically chocolate fondue is steamboat western style. Instead of meat, fish, and vege, you get fruits. In place of soup, there’s chocolates. Where there should be the fire/stove, you get a tiny little candle. Best of all, you get the same calorie intake from the chocolate despite it being just a snack.

Since I’ve had the dark chocolate fondue, I decided to go for the white variety this time and settled for the white mango fondue. It came with cubes of apricot, apple, banana, kiwi, grapes, strawberry, mushmellow, and not nearly enough warm white chocolate in liquid form.

The philosophy of ying and yang plays a role in this dish. The contrast, the warm chocolate and cold fresh fruits, the hard and crunchy texture versus the liquified cocoa product… or something like that. heh.

bad idea….

We decided to be smart asses and tried to BBQ the mushmellow with the candle, I think you can see the results.

Anyway, Choz is at 3rd floor of KLCC, right below the 4th floor food court. A pretty nice place serving everything chocolates, you should try it sometimes unless you are strictly a starbucks or coffeebean person, but that gets old…

GPS: 3.157581, 101.712102

Tags:  chocolate,  fondue,  klcc,  terence

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »