[ Penang ] Ssambap Korean Restaurant, Krystal Point

Do people still read blogs nowadays? I think not much people do so (unless they wanted to search for new food hunting places and travel itinerary) compare to last time and this cause bloggers not to update blog that often as well. That means I got nothing to read and I have no idea what should I do whenever I'm online, plus I'm not a Facebook-kind of people, so how? I'll try to keep my space active though no one will even care about it, but I feel good to read through my old posts especially those photos.

Okay, way out of topic. I've been to newly opened Ssambap Korean Restaurant which located at Krystal Point together with BenDan's friends, that's a birthday dinner for BenDan. If not mistaken, we tried to make a reservation before we head there as we knew there will be a huge crowd of diners during dinner hour, too bad no reservation is allowed (maybe it just apply to weekend). We need not wait to get our seats, and not much diners that night like what mentioned by food bloggers, maybe the upsurge is passed. 

This is the Korean restaurant that provide most banchan, nine in a row including a bowl of salad. All the banchan are quite tasty which feat our taste bud; the staffs never offer to get our empty plates refilled, we need to ask for that which I feel quite troublesome as most of the staffs were hook up with other job like taking order, helping diners to grill the meats bla bla bla. Sometimes they just ignore us when we ask to refill the banchan, but remember it is really okay to refill the banchan here. 

Kimchi Stew | RM18 . Soft Tofu Stew | RM18

Each stew or soup is including one bowl of steamed rice, you can add-on the steamed rice which rated at RM3. BenDan always prefer sundubu jjigae (aka soft tofu stew) than kimchi jjigae because it wouldn't too spicy and sour; egg and seafood added in sundubu and make it taste so fresh, we finished the whole bowl of sundubu jjigae that night. Yet only kimchi jjigae has glass noodles in it, so we quite struggle what to order sometimes, so we had two different stews that night to share around; both tasted okay, still have room to improve anyway. 

Stir-fried Rice Cake | RM20

This is heavenly good when you eat this when it is still warm, the tteokbokki (aka rice cake) is well cook, not too soft and not too hard, which I quite like it. They served this with one hard boil egg where some other restaurants didn't have it, the fish cake that cooked together is good as well, so tasty that I wanted more of the fish cake than the rice cake, oops. 

Grilled Pork Belly | RM25 . Chicken Bulgogi | RM25

Like always, we must order minimum 2 sets for the barbeque, steamed egg is available as well and refillable at RM5. Other than steamed egg, the staffs will also grilled the kimchi and garlic where you can eat together with the meats and wrap in the green. The chicken bulgogi is quite good but the pork belly is over grilled which make it too hard to chew. The steamed egg is quite mild, so we didn't refill it at the end. Overall it's quite good and they have lunch special promotion for weekday, you can get 1 barbeque, banchan, rice, soup and drink that only cost RM19.90!

Location

1-1-24, Krystal Point, Jalan Tun Dr. Awang, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.

Business Hours

11am - 3pm; 5pm - 10pm (Daily)

Contact Number

+6016-4712133

. . . . . . . . . . .

Watched 'The Intern', it's quite a good movie. Experience never gets old.

[ Penang ] Hearty breakfast at Ferringhi Coffee Garden

After my first attempt at Ferringhi Coffee Garden few years back with my friend, I finally paid another visit there together with my sister. This is a delay post as we actually went there before she gets pregnant; I scanned through some albums that I haven't blog about and decided to share this with my readers first. Ever since my sister gets married, she seldom have time to explore this beautiful island as she stays at mainland; so she dated me earlier to have breakfast over here.

Didn't take much photos on the restaurant, you may read my previous post for the interior. Although the weather was quite hot in the morning that day, we still decided to have our seats at the alfresco area; need to mention that their service is still that good as we changed from one table to another just to get a table with more shade, the waiter still happily served us without any complain. The menu will be placed on the table and the food choices didn't change much compare to few years back, but the price range is increased by a few dollar. 

Cafe Latte | RM9.80

To be frank, I'm not the coffee person, so I can't tell you how good is the coffee or what coffee bean they have use to make this coffee taste so good, bla bla bla. So we just ordered a cup of cafe latte and fresh orange juice to share; the coffee art is good but I prefer something cuter or floral. As usual, their juice come with the slanting cup, which I think it's their signature; the first time I saw these kind of cups, I still thought I almost spill the drink and it makes me so nervous about it.

FCG Breakkie | RM29.80

FCG here means Ferringhi Coffee Garden, so basically it's their style of big breakfast which include chicken or beef sausage (I had the chicken one), eggs, beef bacon, grilled tomatoes, roasted thyme potato with Grana Padano (a kind of cheese if you ask) and a slice of toast. I requested not to have beef bacon, so they change it to ham and baked beans instead. At first I thought the portion is okay for one person but I need to surrender that I tried very hard just to finish this portion of breakfast. Overall the food is just okay, the soy sauce (I think is soy sauce, correct me if I'm wrong) they put on the ham and sausage a little bit too salty and I don't like it; but the roasted potato worth a thumb up.

Eggs Benedict | RM20.80

My sister's choice. We should just order one main breakfast to share since this coming in pairs, normally other restaurants / cafes will only served one portion of Egg Benedict. The yellow of the poached egg is so runny and served on a buttered loaf with bacon and garnished with Hollandaise sauce. This is quite good, it will be better if the loaf can be softer and not over-toast.

I remembered we tried so hard and sat there for hours just to finish the breakfast, I still think that we should have finish it earlier or easier, and I blame it to the weather, I was actually sweating at the alfresco area even though they do have some ventilator at the area, and the bad hair of mine made me so frustrated on everything. Anyhow, I still spend a good day with my sister there.

Location

43-D, Batu Ferringhi, 11100 Penang.

Business Hours

8am - 6pm (Daily)

Contact Number

+604-8851192

Facebook

Ferringhi Coffee Garden

. . . . . . . . . . .

Viewing back my old posts, I realized I've been changing so much; from good to better I hope.

[ Kuala Lumpur ] Le Apple Boutique Hotel KLCC

I'm not a very particular person when it comes to hotel, the most important thing that I'm looking at is the cleanliness and tender bed that can let me sleep through the night; of course the location is quite important as well. We can't depend on the photos to tell us how clean or good is the hotel, that's why I can only depend on people's review on their previous stay, which I sometimes do find good and bad comments in one. For my friend's wedding in Kuala Lumpur, we have made reservation for our 2 nights stay in Le Apple Boutique Hotel KLCC where we hardly find any bad comments from the guests except for the limited parking lots. 

There is no more free parking lot in the hotel when we reached there, that's why we park somewhere else and walk to the hotel. The walking and busy traffic cause me forgot to take the hotel outlook and the lobby, you may get the images on their website. 

When we first entered the building, we couldn't locate where is the reception counter; we only saw the Rokko Japanese Restaurant which attach with the hotel and taxi counter. After wander for awhile, we only saw a small sign nearby the stairs indicates the lobby and reception is on the first floor. The receptionists are quite helpful and; the lobby is with dim lights and decorated with old-school furniture which I quite like it, desktop and iPads are available in the lobby for guests' usage.

Just right after the entrance of the room, they have a full-length mirror and two rows of hangers (wardrobe is not available), on our right we have the washroom which is quite huge in size. The washroom is quite clean, normal toiletries are available and there is hair dryer in the washroom as well, which most of the girls care the most. 

The room is quite spacious which you might can't tell from the photos above; safety box, small fridge and Wifi are available in the room. Overall, we quite satisfy with the room especially the view outside the window, KLCC is just opposite of our room. 

The hotel just located next to Avenue K (around 10 seconds walk from the hotel), and it's quite convenient that they have linked bridge/sky bridge that link to KLCC and Pavillion. Once we got our parking in the building (charge at RM20 which is claimable in the lobby when you check-out), we just let our car stay in the parking lot and we did the walking to those shopping malls. We quite like the location of this hotel and the price is reasonable, RM130+ per night before tax; that's why I strongly recommend this hotel to those you come across to read this post and my friends who are going to Kuala Lumpur. 

Location
No.160, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, 50450 Malaysia.

Contact Number
+603 2179 3688

Website
www.leapple-klcc.com.my

[ Penang ] Sushi Mentai @ Elit Avenue

Since I finished the Hat Yai posts like finally, I think it's time for me to blog more about Penang food again; didn't went to much cafes or restaurants nowadays, as we are giving ourselves some budget each month for that, means more saving for us! Good thing I would say. Like what I mentioned in previous post, BenDan and I went to have our lunch at the Sushi Mentai which gone viral among Penangites. We were thinking to reach the restaurant half hour after the opening hour, so we wouldn't wait too long for our seats; but we were so wrong. 

We passed by the restaurant while looking for the parking, I decided to queue in front the restaurant after seeing the crowd while BenDan continue to look for a parking. I must say that there is no waiter or waitress outside the restaurant to control the crowd, I also have no idea where to get the queuing number until I saw the not-so-obvious handwritten paper on the door; this should be improved. It will be better if you are coming here with lesser friends, it means you will get your seats faster than those in big group. We got our seats in half hour time while the big group was still waiting until more diners were leaving the restaurant. 

The first impression when I saw the interior: packed, small and noisy, hopefully the situation will become better after the crowd is lessen. Since the sushi price is only selling at RM1.80 and RM2.80 (after GST will be RM1.91 and RM2.97), so we decided not to order ala carte menu except for the temaki hand roll. Something I don't like is I saw flies in the restaurant, which is quite annoying and make me doubt on the cleanliness of the restaurant. 

California Temaki . RM3.80

Ebi | Chuka Kurage

Salmon | Tamago Mentai

Salmon Mentai | Unagi

I just took some of the sushi photos, and we only had 9 red plates (RM2.80) and 6 yellow plates (RM1.80) which is quite less if compare to others. We did asked is it okay to place order for the sushi, but the answer given is NO; they can't take the order at this moment as the crowd is too much and they can't handle it. It means we can only sit there and wait for the sushi to be served on the conveyor belt, I remember we sat there for 10 minutes just to wait for the unagi sushi. Sigh. The quality of the sushi is just moderate, which is worth to the price we are paying, so no complain except the flies. We happened to passed by the restaurant when we were dining in another restaurant at Elit Avenue, the crowd is lesser and I think it will be the best time for you or me to visit again. Till then.

Location

1-1-33A, Jalan Mayang Pasir 3, Elit Avenue, 11950 Bayan Lepas, Penang.

Business Hours

12pm - 9.30pm (Daily)

Contact Number

+604-638 3233 (No reservation can be made)

Website

http://sushi-mentai.com

Facebook

Sushi Mentai Penang

宇宙无敌的Cold Stone Creamery冰淇淋

这应该就是我合艾游记的最后一篇了，终于在几经辛苦（其实真的很懒惰）下分享完去年的合艾之旅了。结果在我们吃完午餐回到旅店后，雨还是不停的下啊，在没办法下我们过后的行程就只有在Central Festival里头逛街。我们到这里的最终目的其实就是这间冰淇淋店 - Cold Stone Creamery，之前是因朋友介绍的到新加坡第一次尝试就爱上了。也许是我们国家没有这个冰淇淋品牌的关系，物以稀为贵，久久出国吃一次，才会觉得分外的好吃！

在店面前，他们都会注明店里出名的冰淇淋口味；当然如果你们并不喜欢照着菜单的口味，你们也是可以选择自己喜欢的口味噢。在还没决定口味前，服务员都会询问你想要的冰淇淋分量，普通的总共有3个容量：Like It (5 oz)， Love It (8 oz)和Gotta Have It (12 oz)；除了这个，我们还可以自行选择想要的华夫饼干种类等等。顾名思义，Cold Stone当然就是把冰淇淋放在特制的冰冷石头上炒一炒，这样一来冰淇淋也不会这样快溶化，在炒的过程中，服务员也会把当中的材料（饼干，起士蛋糕，巧克力等）切块，搅拌在冰淇淋里面。

因为我们在新加坡吃过了Gotta Have It的容量，印象中是蛮小分量的；所以这一次我们竟然点了两份的Gotta Have It，结果冰淇淋大到我都吃不完，结果只好放弃了那个华夫饼干。我们点的口味除了有全球最畅销之一的Cheesecake Fantasy，还有泰国最畅销的Rum Raisin Sensation，这两种口味都各有秋千；真要我选的话，我也选不了啊。因为在两个国家吃了Cold Stone，所以很自然的都会比较一下，比起来泰国的还比较大分量，而且又不会那么快溶化，那时在新加坡吃的时候还真下了一跳，怎么这么快溶化啊，还没认真试起味道就要赶紧的把冰淇淋吃完；还是泰国的完胜啊！就等年尾去曼谷的时候再见吧。

合艾总行程请阅读：

合艾3天2夜自由行 . Hat Yai 3D2N Itinerary

. . . . . . . . . . .

加油。