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September 28, 2014

Brekkie at Foh San . Ipoh



On the month of May, I had a road trip with my family to Ipoh and I finally make up my mind to post about it now, mm-hmm hope you don't mind the super duper backdated post. Before I start the post, I would just mention something outlying from this post. You may notice that I included watermark again in my photos from this post onward, I did have watermark once but I kind of stop included it on my photos thinking that it a little bit spoil the art of my photo. Laugh. Then, things just happened. I'm sure you got to read some commercial website publish and introduce new cafes in Penang or any other related post, I found out that some of my photos are on their post yet they did not credit those photos to my blog. Of course I don't mind seeing my photos been shared in commercial website, but at least they should just credit mention us (I'm not the only one facing this kind of problem I think). Thanks to my friends who tagged me on their post and let me know that my photos being used without credit, so I'm putting in the watermark to prevent this from happening again. Nah, it will happen again but at least readers with eyes will see the watermark and know the source of the photos. Okay, I'm done with this topic.

It was my sister's holiday if not mistaken, then we family thought to have a road trip to somewhere near to our island, Ipoh is definitely a good choice for us who stay in Penang as the time consume for go and fro is only around 3 hours. We departed around six in the morning as my-everything-also-know-sister said we must reach Foh San restaurant before 8am if we want to get a seat for breakfast.
It was my first time to Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant even-tho I went to Ipoh for times, but I never went there for dim sum; my previous trip to Ipoh was to had my breakfast at Sin Yin Loong for their hawker style brekkie before head up to Cameron Highlands. I knew that there are plenty of famous dim sum restaurants in Ipoh which offer cheaper price than Foh San but still I would want to give Foh San a try and my parents seems to prefer Foh San as well. 
My first impression on Foh San restaurant was: walao, how can a dim sum restaurant be so huge and grand that make it a little bit looks like a 5 star hotel. We reached there according to our schedule (8am), we already had hard time to look for a parking and the traffic in front of the restaurant was quite terrible. Foh San even provide a Take Away section next to their main entrance, quite convenient to those people who are in rush. 
We couldn't get a seat at their ground floor or I should say my sister totally ignore all the seats at the ground floor and straight went to 1st floor to look for seats. Lucky us to get a empty seats, sorry to those people who walked behind us, we got the seats first lol. 
Sat and waited for awhile, then the waiter (or waitress) will approach you, just name your preferable tea and they will serve you the tea and this paper-card. It is kind of a self-service system in Foh San, so you will need to bring this paper-card when you go pick your favorite dim sums; no queue system at their dim sum section but we kind of practiced it during our visit and people behind us also paiseh to cut queue. In case you want to know, we ordered 菊潽 (Pu Er and Chrysanthemum) for our tea.
Looking at the photos make me drool, seriously I missed the dim sum there, some of them are heavenly good! We wanted to try all their dim sums but we don't have such a big stomach to put them in. I'll not list down what I had during my visit, too much to list, if you want to know how tasty they are, pay a visit to Foh San yourselves. They do offer some desserts, but personally I don't really like the Golden Mango Sago as it is way too sweet but I still saw people queuing for this.
One of my favorite goes to their 金沙包 (Golden Sand Pau), I hardly find a dim sum restaurant selling this at my place, even if they do, the taste is just so-so. This one is superb, I like it and it remain warm even I put there for 5 minutes. Drooling again. We spent around RM107 for our breakfast, if you were ask me is it worth to spend this much for breakfast, I'll definitely say OF COURSE, they worth the price and I'll definitely go back again to have their dim sum. 


Location
51, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, 30300 Ipoh, Perak.

Business Hours
6.30am - 2.30pm (Daily); Closed on Tuesday

Contact Number
05-254 0308

Website


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Hey Sunday, don't run away from me please.




September 21, 2014

Wheeler's Coffee, Love Lane



It's just another backdated post, I don't really explore new cafes nowadays as the killing weather stop me from going out from my house. I still go out before the sun popping out and after it going down, and I mostly re-visit old cafes instead of new one as I don't have much energy to wait and look for a seat in new cafe; people tend to love the new and loathe the old. I'll just skip those grandmother's stories and start with this post.
Finally paid Wheeler's Coffee a visit, parking surely a problem whenever you come to Love Lane, if you are lucky enough, you might get the VIP parking lot right in front of the cafe. The cafe serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, other than that they do rent their bicycles which hanging outside the cafe. Rent and ride a bicycle in Georgetown area is a trend now. 
Countless of bicycles are used to decorate the cafe, even the murals are with bicycle drawing as well. Maybe the cafe is still new, they have limited choices on the food menu but all their price are surprisingly affordable. During the day we went, at first we wanted to sit upstairs but the staff said they do have seats on the ground floor, if all tables are occupied on the ground floor, they will only open the first floor for seating. Don't really like this as I feel I have the right to choose where to sit in the cafe, don't you think so? Or maybe they just lack of staffs to look after the first floor, so they prefer us to occupy the ground floor first. Hmm....
Frappe Green Tea . RM12.90 | Yogurt Smoothie Mango . RM12.90
Iced Mocha . RM11.90 | Latte . RM9.90
I didn't try their coffee but my friend who is quite typical with coffee said that their coffee is good, and they are willing to come back this cafe for more coffee. I had their yogurt smoothie mango, it is really good to have cold beverages during hot noon, other than that I do not find any special on the smoothie, most of them taste the same. I tried to sip on the frappe green tea, I nearly cough to death on my first sip as the frappe green tea is quite powdery and tickling my throat. After I used to it, then no more the tickling feel on my throat, it would be better if they make the frappe green tea not so powdery. 
Aglio Olio | RM11.90
Wanted to order their seafood carbonara, but the staff said it was out of stock so we ordered this instead. Lucky us to have this dish, as this is the tastiest dish we had in the cafe, it will be better if they make this portion bigger, we actually finished this dish like few mouths only. Normally, you can only get plain spaghetti whenever you order aglio olio, but here they do cooked the spaghetti together with some sliced bacon and mushrooms. Appreciate their afford to make this so tasty eventho it's quite oily but I somehow quite in love with the greasy taste of this! 
Spaghetti Chicken Bolognese | RM13.90
Normally, we only get minced chicken whenever you order spaghetti with bolognese sauce, but this is quite special as they served the fried chicken breast in this dish. Thumb up for their creativity, the portion ain't big as well but the chicken breast somehow will make you full. I read some food blogs, and they do comment the same that Wheeler's Coffee serve convincing spaghetti than other dishes, I strongly agree with this statement and would come back this cafe for their spaghetti but not others. 
Fish & Chips | RM15.90
I ordered this on the sake of trying new food than only spaghetti, but it's quite disappointing as I waited for more than 1 hour just to get this; all my friends finished their spaghetti but for me, I'm still waiting for my fish & chips like forever. Finally when it reached me, I expected that I can have heavenly dish but I didn't (on some aspect). The chips taste better than the fish as they topped some lime/lemon sauce on the fish, it taste quite sour to me, it's not up to my liking. Imaging when you have only 5 minutes to finish this super hot dish, I got no time to judge is it good or not as we were actually rushing to Gurney for movie after that. If they can served this earlier, I might have another thought on this, you say true or not? Anyway, it's only my personally opinion, don't judge them according to my words, as they might improve their serving after a month I visited them. 
Green tea Mille Crepe | RM10.90
Don't really remember the name as it was ordered by another friend, to celebrate PK's birthday, nah, a photo of me and him, weee... The cake is quite good, and I like their chocolate art on the plate, I saw other diners also have pretty chocolate arts when they order their cakes. We also finished it in 2-3 minutes due to lack of time. Hopefully Wheeler's Coffee can serve more varieties of food when I re-visit again. 


Location
67, Jalan Love Lane, 10200 Georgetwon, Penang. 

Business Hours
10am - 11pm (Weekdays); 10am - 12am (Weekends)

Contact Number
04-261 3570

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Work hard, play hard.




September 16, 2014

Patisserie Equateur (赤道法式烘焙) . sun shines after the rain



I started to realize that more and more cafes are mushrooming not only in Penang island, but also in Butterworth, it's a good news to people who stay at mainland (my sister) as they don't need to travel far to have high tea. As for me, I don't really bother to travel far just to have a meal, as long as the food are worth for it; I can travel to Raja Uda for lunch and come back to the island which to and fro spend around 1 hour. Whenever I'm in Butterworth, it's a must to look for my sister moreover it's her school holidays now and she got nothing to do at home I assume lol. It was not a good day when I departed from my home, rain started to pour heavily when I happily having my lunch somewhere near to Chai Leng park. Lucky us as the rain stopped when I reached my sister's place, without second thought, we decided to head out for high-tea; yup girls always have more space for dessert. 
Wanted to go Patisserie Equateur (赤道法式烘焙) for so long since early of this year where they just started their business, too bad it was not open when I was there, few times and I started to lose hope on them. Nah, just kidding. My sister went there few months back and she promised to bring me here as she kind of likes the desserts; from the photos, those desserts really look good  and they a little bit make me feel to visit this patisserie eventho I'm not a dessert lover. 
We look for our seats first before we made any order at the counter, the helpful staff keep recommended their signature dessert such as Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake (nah, the word chocolate scared me off), Creme Brulee (wanted to try other dessert than this) and Crispy Cream Puff (my sister had it before, so I thought to order something else). 
There's a self service corner where you can get your ice water or refill the hot water into your pot of tea; we didn't went to the corner that day as the staff did help us refill the hot water. We just sat there and enjoy our tai-tai moment. 
Lady Moon | RM13.90
High tea moment wouldn't complete without a tea set, so we ordered Lady Moon, one of their signature which is a combination of French Rose, Lavender and Osmanthus. This is a 2 pax set, RM1 surcharge is needed for additional one more cup. Le sister said that they served transparent glass cup on her previous visit, I saw some of the diners also using the glass cup, most probably they were out of cups, so they served this fleury cups; I kind of heart this cups! Never try this combination of tea before, it is quite refreshing to me.
Iced Caramel Macchiato | FOC
We were so lucky that they having a promotion that with every purchase above RM35 in single receipt, we will get a free iced caramel macchiato. Don't ask me when is the promotion ended as they didn't stated it in their Facebook page either, the promotion will be carried out according to customer's responses. Again, they were out of cups, that's why they serve this in a plastic container. This is up to my liking as it doesn't taste too sweet with the amount of caramel, at the end of your sip, you can taste the mild coffee taste, which is quite suit my need. 
Mont-Blanc | RM17
Was quite in shocked when I saw its name on the receipt. As the name given, the baker made this dessert according to the appearance of European Alps mountain, Mont-Blanc. For the orthodox of Mont-Blanc dessert, the chestnut cream is in brown color, they sprinkle some icing on the cream and topped with a chestnut; there is a mango pudding inside the chestnut cream. This taste a little bit too sweet because of the chestnut cream, but if you eat it with the mango pudding it will be just fine. Personally, I don't really like it as the chocolate cookies at the bottom is so hard and we even having trouble to cut it with a knife; we made a big mess while cutting this. 
French Vanilla Brulee Cake | RM10.90
This is my favorite! It doesn't taste sweet yet at the same time it's so creamy with the brulee sandwiched between the thin sponge cake. Since all their French dessert require a very delicate handmade process, so the quantity of each dessert is quite limited, if you wanted to try their signature, I think you need to reach there earlier. I was quite surprise to see they topped some edible gold flakes on blueberry, I never have dessert with gold flakes before! The gold flake is actually tasteless but it makes the dessert looks grand, don't you think so? I would go back to Patisserie Equateur for this! Heavenly good. 
Macarons | FOC
Again, when we almost finished our dessert, the staff served the macarons to us, which are free of charge as well. Lucky us that day! My sister claimed that the macarons are too sweet, but for me it is just nice. I started to love macarons more and more eventho it taste quite sweet, but I can accept it; I can't accept the sweetness from chocolate tho. 
等一個人 . 花茶


Location
41, Lorong Teras Jaya 2, Kawasan Perindustrian Teras Jaya, 13400 Butterworth, Penang.

Business Hours
1pm - 11pm; Closed on Monday

E-mail

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Am I going on the right path I wonder?




September 7, 2014

The Thistle Bindery | Binding & Weaving Pages of History



It is the month of September now, it means that the one-month-long Georgetown Festival 2014 came to an end now right together with national day of Malaysia. As I mentioned earlier, the only event that I participate in GTF 2014 is the "Binding & Weaving Pages of History", some kind of bookbinding workshop which was instructed by The Thistle Bindery. It was a 2 days bookbinding workshop and I registered for both days as I'm really quite into handmade kind of stuff. Our instructor, Ian Tan, who came from Singapore is a conservation architect and I have learnt a lot from him throughout the workshop; my enthusiasm towards craft/DIY is alive again, let's see how long can it stays in me. Even though I kind of stop the handmade moment of mine once I started to be really busy on my full time job, but the skills are yet rusted as they are born in me. Way the feather. I feel to post a little about the workshop to show you guys on how I spend my 2 days with Ian and with the books, papers. 
Only Ian has his apron with him when we started the glue-ing session to prevent the glue from dropping on his clothes, wish to get one for myself with my name on it. Talking about apron, I once asked the Starbucks barista whether I can get one of the Starbucks apron as well; of course I know the answer before I asked, but never try never know right? End up I didn't get that Starbucks apron. Love that wooden tool box that use to keep all the tools needed for bookbinding, now I just keep my handmade tools in a drawer, and here and there. Kind of messy, sometimes I can't even find the tools when I need it. Laugh
Different kind of bookbinding samples were displayed in the room but not for sale, they are masterpieces of Ian's for each workshop, that he also use them as his template during the workshop. You can see there are several type of stitching available here, but of course we can learn it all in 2 days, so we just learnt the basic, the rest I think we can find it online, in somewhere else. Since it was a 2 days workshop, I just roughly jot down what I have done and I think this would be a long post with plenty of photos. Enjoy!

Day 1: Japanese Stab Binding

The workshop was held at Yeng Keng Hotel, 10am until 5pm as per stated in their schedule. Thinking that we only made books and nothing else? Nah, then you are wrong. The bookbinding session is actually started by 1pm onward, so we kind of visit the George Town area during morning session. Since we were going to make a photo journal kind of book, so we had visit some historical sites in George Town, took some nice photos and we can actually print them and paste it in the book that I were going to show later on. 
Ian work as a conservation architect, so he know well why and how the old people built the temples or houses with certain design, he shown and told us stories about the buildings; I'll never know this kind of things if it is not by him. 
We stopped at Yap temple, somewhere nearby Khoo Kongsi to make some stone rubbing with crayons that provided by Ian. Of course we did asked for permission before we really did the stone rubbing on their carving, some people might not allow and feel that it might spoil the carving. To prevent the crayons from contaminate the carving, we first put a tracing paper before we did stone rubbing on the recycle paper that we going to make it as our book cover. The grey shirt guy is Ian, who trying out the carving pattern on tracing paper before he rubbed on his book cover. I was first wanted to make the cover with pink base paper and blue crayons on top, later on I realized that it was quite 'dirty' to put on the cover, let's see what I have at the end.
Random shot while waiting for others to complete their stone rubbing. Ian gave us full freedom after the stone rubbing, we separate into few teams to walk around the area before meet up at Yeng Keng Hotel at 1pm. Sharing is always the part where you let people know about you more and more, so we had some story sharing session before the bookbinding; the fun part started after that! I will not share any dimensional or the step-to-step bookbinding here, as I feel that we need to respect Ian for working so hard to conduct workshop here and there. You may sign up for Ian's workshop at Singapore which he will conduct from month to month, visit The Thistle Bindery facebook page for details. I'm sure if you are not in Singapore, you will still able to find some local instructor for bookbinding; or you can just date me out and I can teach you some basic bookbinding if you trust me lol.
Here are all the tools needed for bookbinding, I'll not talk about some tools that you similar with. Awl and bone folder is needed the most for bookbinding; awl is the one where we used to make pinholes on papers and book cover so that we can stitch the book easily. Bone folder is use to fold paper and to remove the 'wrinkle' on the paper, it's a great invention as it really help a lot while we stick paper to paper using glue. Ian was selling awl and bone folder in the workshop, I got them with RM10 only which we couldn't get this price at the market. Bought it for 2 reasons: I want to make some books at home which need these and it's so cheap. Yeah, I always buy tools if they selling at low price even I know I might not using it or only once or twice in a year; sound rich lol.
Glue and brushes. This ain't the normal white glue for handmade stuff that we can get at market place. I assume all of my readers know that starch can be made into glue after heat up with water, and it will be a perfect glue for crafting project. As per Ian, starch glue not easy to dry while white glue dried very fast, so he mixed both starch glue and white glue to make it perfect for bookbinding. I love this mixture of glue, very sticky towards your craft art but when come to your hand, it wouldn't hurt your hand even you touched it so long time. Ian even teach us, glue should apply on the surface with weaker absorption, for example paper vs cardboard, glue should apply on paper then stick on the cardboard but not another way round as the cardboard is with higher absorption level which will attract more glue on it and make the glue very hard to dry. I learnt a lot as I told you!
Last but not least, the string. Before we really stitch our books, cut the string from arm to arm long, don't too long as it might trouble you while you stitch the book. Use bee wax to coat few layers on the string before you get the needle, this will prevent the string from becoming tangle while you start to stitch your book. Putting this size of string into a needle could be a problem too, your mouth play a very important role here where you need to bite it and make the string flat so that it can go through the needle hole. Don't worry with the bee wax, it's safe to eat. 
That's the photo journal book that made by myself, decided to put all photos into one if not this post going to load super slow and you might just leave this post before the photo finish loading. I like this cover page as it looks neat compare to the blue one I shown previously. Ian ended the workshop at 6.30pm as we accepted challenge and chose the more difficult stitching pattern, he did offered a simple one but this one looks nicer. Imaging that you need to get the string go through the pin hole on the cover/papers (poke with awl) 2-3 times, it's very hard to pull the needle as the space become tighter, I even broke a few needle. After I get the hang on it, it became so easy; I managed to stitch 2 books while others completed only 1. 

Day 2: Long & Link Stitch Binding

The tools that we used for day 2 were similar with the day 1, but we were no more using recycle paper as the cover page, we used dried lotus leave and challenge accepted again! The dried lotus leave itself is quite weak, it will just crack at somewhere else if you press it hard, so we apply a thin layer of coating (I forgot what it call, to make it looks shinny and strong) before we headed out to have historical walk again. 
We were not visiting any temples in day 2, but to go different markets and talk about spices this time. Ian wanted us to get some spices, and he explained the history of the spices, quite cool huh? So I got some mint leaves, cinnamon, black stone flower, peppers and etc., so each of us required to talk about how grandmother stories that why we pick that spices before the bookbinding session.  
The book binding is more or less the same as day 1, but this day we kind of make some collection book which consists of paper bags instead of paper, once done it will become something like files that you able to keep postcards, tickets or tiny things you found throughout your journey. I didn't write much about day 2 as all the things we used or did was the same, just we changed the inner papers to file kind of bag, I just straight away show my masterpiece.
This is it! Cool right to have lotus leave as cover and we able to finished the class before 5pm, as most of us who attended the first day workshop know how to stitch by ourselves by looking at the pattern provided by Ian. This one is the easy one with long stitch at the spine of book, but I did not know Ian will going to make a tie at the middle part of the stitch (the blue color string), so I pulled the string (red one) as tight as possible, ended up the knot seems a bit weird at the middle. Ian said it's a good thing to have tight string along the pages, so that the inner papers wouldn't move around easily. Mission completed. 

Here's the details for The Thistle Bindery, if you are interested on bookbinding, do contact them.

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I haven't watch [等一個人咖啡], but watched [The Hundred Foot Journey], quite nice!