Dessert Day : Carbo loading @ Serai Empire

I am not a dessert fan.. I rather eat savory thing than cakes and such. But there are times when I do enjoy dessert, pudding / jelly / mousse type especially. 

 

Last Friday was indeed a makan day. I went for lunch with my colleagues to Dave Deli Subang Parade, and decided later on to have dessert with two of them for dinner. They suggested Upstairs, which is located at the row of shop lots near Sime Darby Medical Centre, but there was no parking then. So we changed the location to Serai @ Empire.

Let us talk about the dessert sold at Serai. Serai has quite a number of cakes selection, but I only tasted one - the pavlova. I saw they have red velvet and carrot cake too. As I am not a dessert fan, I hardly glance at their cake counter most of the time.

 I wrote in here that Mr D loves pavlova very much, and he does love Serai's pavlova as well. But Mr D is on a strict diet nowadays (as a result of his recent blood test), so pavlova is a big no no for him. But F, my colleague, did have pavlova specifically in mind when we stepped into Serai last Friday. So pavlova it was for her. As usual, I can eat Serai's pavlova, but it is not my favorite. The crust is too sweet to my liking. It kills me if I don't eat it with that sour strawberry. 

I went for goreng pisang this time, one of my favorite in Serai. Many thought it is crazy to spend that much on goreng pisang, which we can definitely buy at a much cheaper price at various stalls, but I like it anyway. The difference is, many of the goreng pisang sold outside are a little too oily, and it is kind of difficult to find a crunchy one like this. I really like the batter. It is really crunchy. And the inner part of the banana is nice, because the banana has a little sour taste in it, which suits the batter really well. This goreng pisang is served with gula merah / gula melaka, but I never pour it on my goreng pisang simply because I will hate it if it is too sweet. And I just eat the ice cream separately because I don't want it to spoil the crunchiness of the goreng pisang. Yummy!

 

And presenting, the pistachio creme brulee. This is my first try of creme brulee in Serai. Not bad, not at all. The only drawback is the caramel on top is a little too hard, perhaps because it is too thick. Otherwise, it is good. 

When I am in the mood to try dessert next time, I'll try others.

Breakfast @ Kosit Hotel Hat Yai

There's nothing much I want to write about actually... cumanya nak cakap betapa murahnya price of food at Kosit Hotel, Hat Yai ni. This is at the cafe downstairs.

The picture above was our breakfast. How much do you think it costs us? It was 80 baht per pax (about RM8.00) for 2 half boiled eggs, 2 pieces of toasts with jam and butter, a glass of orange juice and tea / coffee. OK lah tu kan? Hotel ni dalam 2 bintang je kot, but was OK enough. Basic things are there. Price untuk standard room pun tak sampai RM80. Nak expect macam 5 star tak dapek lah kan, but comfortable enough for a short stay.

Souvenir @ Te Anau

 

I just thought about this souvenir shop, just as a guide for those who go to New Zealand. Many talk about DF Souvenir in Queenstown / Christchurch as a place to get cheap souvenirs, but I want to add to the list. I found this shop by chance while walking around Te Anau city centre. I don't have much pictures of this shop though, as I mentioned earlier, our belonging were stolen at Arista at Rotorua a day before we came back to Malaysia, that includes most of our pictures. So I have to rely on the pictures taken using my handphone. 

J&C Boutique. What is interesting about this shop is, it is owned by a Malaysian couple from Sabah. What is more interesting is that we paid the price using Ringgit Malaysia, they accepted it at a negotiable cincai rate, as they are going back to Malaysia every year so they don't mind keeping some Ringgit with them all the time. 

Price wise, it is about the same with DF Souvenir, with similar range of choices. The owner is also ever ready to give some discount to Malaysians - a bonus !

Going Pakistani @ Restoran Menara USJ 9

We were going round and round searching for food the other night, when we finally bumped into a Pakistani restaurant at USJ 9 business centre, right at the corner of Jln USJ 9/5P which is very near to Masjid Al-Falah. I am not a fan of indian food, but I do sometimes enjoy some of their food for as long as it doesn't have too strong curry smell in it. 

The name of the restaurant though, doesn't suggest that it is a Pakistani restaurant. Restoran Menara, how about that? Sound Malay enough huh? The ambiance of the restaurant is OK, but Mr D complaint about the smell, which I thought is quite normal in an Indian restaurant. 

Looking at the menu, they have quite a variety of things from kebab to tandoori to beryani.. but we were not into rice then and thought of having some nan - so garlic nan it was. But we decided to take only 1 nan to be shared between the two of us, turn out to be a wise choice since the nan is quite huge to be eaten by one.

We settled for some grilled fish, chicken and mix vegetable - I love the mix vegetable this time. I normally do not like the vege served at indian restaurants because they are normally overcooked, but the mix vegetable served at this restaurant was cooked just nice. Not too raw but not overcooked either. It was served hot, sizzling hot really. The waiter suggested we take a type of savory chicken which I can't remember what is it called. Mr D enjoyed that very much. 

 Pricing wise, it is in middle range. Many of the menu I've chosen above ranges from RM15-RM25 per plate. Not bad, considering the portion and taste.

Khlong Hae Floating Market

I wrote before about how I wish I can visit the floating market in Hat Yai, but trips to Hat Yai has always been a working trip for Mr D, hence not much time to roam around. But I finally managed to slot some time to pay a visit to the floating market in Khlong Hae during last September visit. 

This time around, we stayed at Kosit Hotel, in the middle of Hat Yai. It is a simple budget hotel, Mr D wanted to see how this hotel looks like to consider for the budget trip offer for his clients. Though the time was really tight, we managed to visit the floating market in Khlong Hae. The floating market  is in operation every weekend. Though we drove to Hat Yai, Mr D didn't want to drive to the floating market as the parking in Kosit Hotel is really limited, hence, we opted for Tut Tut instead. It costs us 600 baht (about RM60) to and fro, with the driver waiting for us at the market. The journey was about half an hour from the city centre to the market in Khlong Hae.

The floating market was set at a river in a village, basically the floating perahu are not the only place where they sell things, there are also stalls set nearby which sells many other things other than food. The perahu though, are only selling food. And most of them are muslims, or was it all of them are muslims? 

The river where they set the market is quite dirty though, with the kind of smell you can't stand for long. When I was there, there were not many people, and I wonder what is the kind of income they get per night with this kind of crowd. Doesn't really look promising.

The kind of food sold is simple - snacks, drinks, cakes and such, though some of them are selling rice as well. I tried their dim sum, which is full of coloring, and their mixed kerabu, which La Kasturi can definitely prepare better. We also bought coconut drink, which was sold in those little clay container. 

I wasn't impressed with the kind of things sold, but nonetheless enjoy the way the transactions were done. Each and every seller has a basket tied to a long bamboo, which they used to deliver the food to customers, after which the customers will put their money in it as a payment.

If you ask me what do I think of this place, I would say the concept is interesting, but it needs more improvement in terms of logistic, the kind of thing sold and the cleanliness of the environment. It can be the tourist attraction if there are more things to look at. 

Below is the only food I enjoyed that night - the noodle soup. With lotsa chicken and vegetables. It was served hot and was really satisfying. I paid 30 baht (around RM3.00) per bowl for this. If you see any dim sum, don't buy it. It doesn't have taste, not at all!