Lost World Hotel . Ipoh

It's been awhile, missing from blogsphere for nearly a month now and I'm finally here again to update something that I wish to share with you. Before I continue, let me tell some grandmother's stories on why I was not updating my blog for a month. Been really really busy with my work and continuously worked overtime for a month now, glad that I'm still alive after so many issues. Also, I was busy preparing my itinerary to Singapore (again!) during the weekends as I need to know every details since we brought my parents there for holiday. And yeah, we just came back from Singapore last week and I think I won't step into that country in 5 years time, let's move our aim to other countries then. Quite surprise that my blog traffic didn't reduce during this period, thanks to those foodie who crawl to my blog for cafe details, I think so, as I mainly share about food here.

Promised that I'm going to write about my experience during my short getaway to Lost World of Tambun with my loves one. Why I chose there? Wanted to soak into the hot springs badly since my last try at Felda Residence Hot Springs years ago during my high school, long enough? I don't feel to go back the same place as there have nothing other than hot springs, so we decided to pay Lost World of Tambun a visit as we can have some activities to do during day time. I'll write about the Lost World Hotel in this post, will continue with the theme park once I'm free lol. Departed from our island early in the morning, went to Ipoh town to have the famous tau fu fah before continue our journey to Lost World of Tambun. Were trying to kill some time at Ipoh town as we do not want to reach the hotel too early before the check-in time, still, we reached there around 12pm.

I did read some reviews about the Lost World Hotel from tripadvisor before this getaway, most of the reviews are not really good, and people complain this and that. I had no choice but still need to get the hotel as this is the nearest hotel to the theme park. Since it was not the check-in time when we were there, so the worst case I thought is to put our baggage in the car; yet the receptionist is so kind to allow us to check-in one of the room (we get 2 rooms) first, they even called me around 3pm to inform me that my second room was ready to check-in. Things happen afterwards (read on to know more) but the hotel staffs trying hard to help us and I felt satisfy with their service, if you want me to rate about their service, it would be 4/5 stars! My thought: reviews are for reference only.

We booked the Classical Room for around RM190 per night, the price is quite reasonable with all the tiptop facilities available in the room, for your information, WiFi is available too. The room we got is with linked door to next room, normally all hotels will arrange linked room for family that booked for 2 rooms. The room is quite spacious, and the washroom is clean enough. Thumb up.

This is what you got once you check-in: room key card, complimentary free breakfast buffet at Garden Terrace, 10% off Lost World entrance ticket and Hot Springs entrance ticket from 6pm to 11pm. I feel it is quite worth the price. 

We were then went to have some outdoor activities and return to our hotel rooms when we caught in the sudden rain. While waiting for me to dry my hair, my parents rushed to my room and tell me that the ceiling leaks, water/rain were drip on their bed! I was quite shocked and immediately called the receptionist on this; after a minute, the staff inform us that they going to change our room to first floor and upgrade us to Executive Suite. They even sent their bell boy to help us on our baggage. Yeah, their hotel might need some maintenance but nevertheless they did solved our problem, here comes another set of the room photos. Laugh. 

The happiest thing during travel is to get upgraded without paying extra moolah, we can run here and there is the Executive Suite, simply put our baggage in the living room, they even have small kitchen in the room! 

[ B R E A K F A S T ]

There are several restaurants available around the Lost World Hotel, but we only have our breakfast buffet at Garden Terrace, we settled our dinner at Ipoh town. The breakfast buffet is from 7am to 10.30am, Garden Terrace is open-air style, located just next to the entrance of the theme park. Not much photos for the environment, we not only dined there, but also sat there to enjoy the fresh air and spectacular view around the place. 

Overall, the food is okay but I was quite disappointed with the porridge they have; btw I forgot to take the fruit photos lol. Throughout the 2 days I was there, I feel that Lost World Hotel deserved good review from me, that's why I came across to write this post. Stay tuned for the theme park part...

Location

No.2, Persiaran Lagun Sunway 1, Sunway City Ipoh, 31150 Malaysia.

Website

Lost World Hotel

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Determination needed.

Bingsu Bingsu! at Caffe Bene . Gurney Paragon

I first know about this Korean famous snack - Bingsu was from my cousins as I saw them shared the Bingsu experience in their social media, they were trying out the bingsu when Caffe Bene opened their first outlet in Kuala Lumpur. Everyone seems so excited when the first outlet is opened; when I scroll my facebook news feed, I saw friends from Kuala Lumpur share Bingsu photos as well. I was thinking that: is the Bingsu really that nice? It's something like our local ice kacang what... Then, Penang has the first Caffe Bene outlet in Gurney Paragon Mall; my friend (who just came back from Korea) brainwash me saying that it is so awesome to have it in our island and from her Korea trip, she claimed that she saw this cafe at every area she been. 

Last few days, we were suffered from the hot weather due to the haze, I was sweat like hell even I did nothing at home. Then I think of this Caffe Bene and decided to get some Bingsu to chill us up after our dinner.

Many of the Penangites have the same thought too that make the cafe so crowded, we were so lucky to have the last seats in the indoor, yay yay; I quite like their al-fresco (open air) area but definitely not during the hazy night. 'Bene' here means 'good', with the brand name Caffe Bene, it means good cafe. Since we brought our parents together, while they had their seats I was queuing to order the Bingsu! 

Other than Bingsu, Caffe Bene also offer nice waffle, toast, beverages and gelato; I'm going to save those for my next visit. While waiting for your turn to order, you can read on their Bingsu menu, and choose the size you want; the size for double seems too much.

Here's the guide on how to eat Bingsu:

Step 1: Take pictures (they really understand what's the trend now lol) 

Stop 2: Mix it well including the gelato

Step 3: Enjoy your Bingsu! 

Once you have your order placed, they will give you this coaster, we only need to proceed to counter for collection when the coaster is vibrates. The wifi password is also stated on the top of this coaster. 

Coffee Bingsu | RM12.80 for single

Green Tea Bingsu | RM12.80 for single

If not mistaken, their top seller Bingsu goes to Green Tea, Coffee and Cookies & Cream, which they also show the samples near to the counter. Other than that, they do offer other flavors; the latest one is Strawberry flavor but my dad don't like sour fruits so we dropped this from our list and ordered Coffee flavor instead. If you are chocolate or milo lover, I would recommend you to try their Choco Devil Bingsu, lots of fudge brownies are included in the Bingsu. Not really my type as I feel it will be quite sweet on my first sight. Every Bingsu is comes with a gelato which match the flavor your order, topped with some hazelnuts, almond flakes, red beans, coco crunch and etc (depending on which flavor you order). 

We were advice by the waiter to mixed our Bingsu once we done our photo section on it. First, we need to press the topping and gelato to the bottom of the bowl, then mix and stir well starting from the center part of the bowl. The outcome doesn't really looks good or might a little bit affect your appetite lol, but trust me, it's better to consume like this than you eat it layer by layer. Both flavors are up to our liking but all of us prefer the Green Tea one as it really heavenly good, the cream on top also makes the shaved ice and gelato taste more creamy after we mixed it. My dad seems to like the coffee Bingus more since he is a coffee lover, it tastes like espresso or cappucino I would say, feels like we were having a cuppa while eating that. Craving fixed! 

Location

163D-1-06, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang.

Business Hours

10am - 10pm (Daily)

Website

www.caffebene.com.my

Facebook

Caffebene Malaysia

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2 weeks to go! Oh yeah!

Table for two at The Eighty Eight Restaurant

Stay at home and thinking that I should just write something here but at the same time I'm not in the mood for blogging, but I wish to read something new here... girls being girls, lol. Finally make up my mind I should just have something short to share here, I re-visit The Eighty Eight Restaurant on the month of August for BenDan's birthday (a nickname I got for him over here, literally it means 笨蛋 and I call him so). Always feel to re-visit this restaurant again after my first visit as I really miss the food there even the price not really cute when you glance through the menu. Okay lah, it doesn't really hurt my wallet as I didn't buy any present anyway lol. 

Only 2-3 tables were occupied when we were there but after 10 minutes the restaurant was full house, not a single seats are available. 

White Wine . Red Wine | RM18/glass

Never thought that we will order wine but it only cost few dollar more than a fruit juice, so why not. It's been awhile I had wine, one because I don't really know how to enjoy it, second because I used to have wine phobia after the night that me and my friends (3 of us) finished 2 bottles of wine; quite a awful experience I would said. The red wine is from Saltram Maker's Table Cabernet Sauvignon (Australia) that give us a berries taste and aroma. The white wine is from Hole In The Water Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand), same here it's some kind of berries taste with a bit of passionfruit (knew it from menu). Not really know how to explain the taste of wine, I think I should just stop here before I go wrong. I prefer the white wine more. 

Next up, we got the homemade bread served together with their specially made butter before the meal. Something I really like over here is the bread was served warm to us, at the same times it still remain the crispiness which is really up to my liking. The flower-shape butter seems a little bit too much for the bread but we finished it as it tastes so good.

Saute Clams | RM26

This is one of their signature appetizer and it served together with an empty bowl for us to put the clam shells. The fresh clams were cooked together with white salamis in arrabbiata sauce with some white wine, butter and basil leaves. The clams were so fresh and chewy, I could also got the wine taste on my every bite, it would be better if they served this with more sauce. Thumb up. 

Spaghettini | RM40

Normally, I'll only order pasta in cream sauce instead of bolognese sauce as I got enough the latter sauce at home, my parents prefer the red sauce. This spaghetti was cooked with minced salmon, creme fraiche, water cress, lemon zest and topped with some salmon roe. When it first served to you, you might thought that the portion is rather small but it can actually fulfill your stomach, sometimes less is better than more. I like the cream sauce and it doesn't make us feel greasy, I felt to lick the sauce that leftover on the plate but I can't do that lol, table manner is very important.

Salmon | RM58

If you read my previous post, their salmon is cooked using the sous-vide technique that make the outer of the salmon so crispy but the inner of the salmon so soft. The salmon is served together with parsley puree, glazed radish and baby fennel. The taste is heavenly when I bite on the salmon, the inner is so soft and make me feel like it's still a little bit raw inside, I can't find this kind of salmon else where. This is why I always feel to order this dish whenever I'm in this restaurant.

The side that served together with salmon, I can't tell it's actually mash potato from its look until I really ate on it. Quite special when it topped with some olive oil I assumed. I quite like the services over there as the waiters will make sure you finished the appetizer before they served your main course, and every time when they walked by our table, they will asked our opinion on the food. 

Ended this post with their brown flower damask placemat. For your information, the Eighty Eight Restaurant is closed down and relocate to somewhere near China Street Ghaut, most probably take around 1-2 months to complete their renovation. Follow their Facebook page for any further information, they did shared some sneak peak on their new interior design, it is way awesome than current one, can't wait for their re-open.

Facebook

The Eighty Eight Restaurant

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Moving Forward (nah, I'm not advertise for Toyota).

I'm imperfect

We were just hanging around the Ipoh town before going back to our island, the rain started to drip-drop after we had our hi-tea at Burps & Giggles. Just noticed that Plan B is opened somewhere near to the cafe, right in the mid of Ipoh town, promised myself that I would want to visit Plan B if I were given the chance. I did in fact, after few months from this road trip with my family. Am going to post about that too, together with my experience in Lost World of Tambun, Ipoh. Most of you might know about it through my Instagram, if you are not and feel to know more about me, you can just follow my Instagram (@stimfishchong) although I'm not updated it frequently. Sometimes I just feel not to update so much in social media laugh. 

I love this quote taken up by Plan B:

"It's perfect to be imperfect, because perfection is made up of many imperfections put together that makes it perfect."

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I'm imperfect; I'll improve but times needed.

Thean Chun Coffee Shop (天津茶室) . Ipoh

Whenever I was in Ipoh, I only have chicken rice for my lunch or dinner, nothing else. It was great that my sister suggested that we can try something else in Ipoh and we were in Thean Chun Coffee Shop for their famous Chicken Kuey Teow Soup (Kai See Hor Fun in Cantonese). People queuing outsides the coffee shop to look for their seats, I nearly had the 'let's go somewhere else for lunch' thought when I saw this much of people waiting for their food. My sister insisted to lunch in the coffee shop, and the owner said we can just have our seats next to the coffee shop (other coffee shop) and he can bring the food to us if it's ready. 

Felt lucky that we had some soy bean curd earlier before the lunch at Funny Mountain, the chicken kuey teow soup take ages to reach us. While waiting for that, we actually ordered some food which is quite famous in the coffee shop to share around. 

This is how the little coffee shop looks like, see the crowds outside the coffee shop? Salute. Other than the chicken kuey teow soup, you can also see long queue on their chee cheong fun, caramel custard and satay stall; we ordered some to try except the caramel custard. This round, I admit that I'm a fail blogger for not remember the price for the food that we ordered. Hehe, so just enjoy the food photos. 

Here comes the Ipoh style Chee Cheong Fun which topped with dash of sesame seeds, crispy fried shallots and served together with pickled chilies which is hardly found in Penang. Some of you might don't like the taste of pickled chilies but as for me, I find it quite good to enhance the taste of the food and it's not spicy at all. We ordered the chee cheong fun with shrimp paste, the taste isn't too strong as the shallot oil a little bit cover the shrimp paste here, which is quite up to my liking! 

I read through some blogs before I continue this post and found out that the chee cheong fun and the pork satay are actually from Kong Heng Coffee Shop, most of the stalls sharing the same alley between Thean Chun and Kong Heng Coffee Shop. Why bother, as long as we get to eat the food right? Next up is the pork satay, I think it's quite hard to find pork satay in Penang so we were quite enjoy the pork satay over here. The satay is good with minimal fatty cuts of meat, it's even heavenly when we dipped the satay into the peanut sauce. 

Finally, the chicken kuey teow soup (kai see hor fun) that we waited for almost 1 hour. Once you order the chicken kuey teow soup, a number plate was given by the stall owners, they will serve your order according to the number plate, this is quite good as no one is able to cut queue. We felt quite excited when we saw the diners with number before us were served, we knew next will be us lol. The portion for this is rather small, we finished it within 3-4 minutes, not really fulfilled our empty stomach if we were not order other dishes. The taste is good but I feel it's quite similar with the Penang's prawn mee, nonetheless the kuey teow (hor fun) is super smooth! 

When we finished our lunch, I saw this little mural opposite of Thean Chun Coffee Shop, which is draw by Ernest Zacharevic, it looks like real kopi-o hanging on the metal door. 

Location

73, Jalan Bandar Timah, 30000 Ipoh, Perak.

Business Hours

9.30am untill late lunch (Daily), Closed on Thursday

Contact Number

05-255 3076

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To be or not to be.

The famous Soy Bean Milk & Tau Fu Fah @ Funny Mountain (奇峰) . Ipoh

Not going to post about the caves visiting we did in Ipoh, one because I don't think most of you are interest with that, second I once posted about it (but not all lol). We also visited Burps & Giggles cafe before headed back to Penang, not going to post about it either as I posted about it too, you can read the post here, my laziness is overload this week. Forgive me on this, facing the laptop screen too much just make me feel like I didn't really enjoy my weekend. Travel to Ipoh is something like you travel to Penang, other than those attraction places, the only thing you can do in the state is EAT, don't read my blog posts if you are hungry. Laugh. 

If you are in Ipoh but never try the soy bean milk and tau fu fah (soy bean curd) from Funny Mountain (奇峰), I think you defeat the purpose of going to Ipoh. The shop was renovated few years back, now they have the proper signboard compare to last time; I discern their changes from years to years. The thing that never change is their recipe and the huge crowd of customers. 

Customers need to queue up to order their soy bean milk or tau fu fah, don't worry with the long queue, their serving is quite fast and you do not need to wait for long. Something you will never find elsewhere is their drive-through service, brilliant idea to have this service as sometime it is quite hard to look for a parking during peak hours. 

The operating hour is starting from 10.30am onward until their beverages and tau fu fah are sold out, so please be there earlier if you don't want to be disappointed. Look at the tau fu fah container, it was almost empty when we were there around 12pm in the noon. Funny Mountain is also deemed as the Best In The World by 8TV, good job! 

Look at the happy faces when they get to eat their tau fu fah which cost RM1 per bowl, not expensive but the portion is slightly small tho. You can order extra bowl of tau fu fah if you don't have enough. Normally I prefer black sugar when I order tau fu fah but here they only have white sugar, it doesn't affect the taste btw. My parents claimed that the milk taste is overpower the taste of the soy bean (they prefer the one they have in Penang), nonetheless the tau fu fah is super smooth. 

Location

49, Jalan Theatre, 30300 Ipoh, Perak.

Business Hours

10.30am till finish (Daily)

Contact Number

012-516 1607

E-mail

funnymountain@hotmail.com

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Rain, keep it small.

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

fohsan.com.my

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