at Coffee Stain by Joseph, Farenheit 88

Bro, BF and I decided to have coffee at Coffee Stain by Joseph at Farenheit 88 after dinner tonight.

The BF asked for a chocolate drink, and the barista suggested the "Iced Dark Chocolate" which my bro had as well. 

Take a look at the picture below...

That's dark chocolate. Doesn't look very dark to me at all- store bought chocolate milk is darker. Thinking that looks could be deceiving- and there's a chance fhat it could taste better than it looks right?- we gave the drink a good stir and took a sip. 

The kindest word to describe this would be bland. This tasted like iced milk with just a hint (if that) of chocolate. Extremely disappointing. Give this a miss.

On to...my order. The Cool Cube

I picked this coz it looked unusual- coffee ice cubes served with a bottle of warm skim milk. You pour the milk in, and the coffee will melt in the milk. Interesting comcept- but not really worth the higher price- the finished product tastes just like a regular latte. Passable but nothing special taste-wise.

Bro also ordered a slice of cheesecake. Not bad, this was adequately dense and yet fluffy enough to have that melt-in-your-mouth texture. I also how the served this, on a mini wooded chopping board with a drizzle of chocolate sauce on the side.

Ellie's ratings:

Ambience: 5.5/10

Drinks: 5/10

Food: 6/10

Homemade Ginger Sesame Chicken (麻油鸡)

Ingredients:

500g chicken (I used 2 boneless chicken legs)

3inches ginger, julienned

3 tbsp sesame oil + 1/2tbsp regular oil

Chinese rice wine

Dark soy sauce

Salt 

Seasoning (combine)

1/2 bowl water

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp chicken stock

1/4 tsp sugar

Directions:

Heat up oil in pan, and stir fry ginger till fragrant

Add chicken and saute till 80% done

Add in seasoning liquid, and simmer till chicken is done

Add salt to taste

Stir in dark soy sauce (about 1/2tbsp) for color

Pour in a splash of rice wine, simmer for a minute and turn off heat

Serve with rice and enjoy!

At The Apartment, KLCC

My tenderloin, second choice after the duck confit (budget issues heh). Why do I always have a knack for ordering stuff unavailable on the menu? This came served medium rare, on a bed of mashed potatoes and topped with sauteed baby spinach and wild mushrooms.

The steak was beautifully medium rare, with a gorgeous, juicy pink center. I enjoyed and savored every single bite of this. The mashed potatoes were on the bland side- fixed by eating them with the sauteed spinach and mushroom(a tad salty) and a few dashes of Tabasco (in my book, Tabasco fixes everything)

Tiggy ordered fish and chips, one of his favourite meals. This came with a very generous serving of chips, and the fish was as crisp as it looked. Tiggy enjoyed this very much, while I found it so-so (personal preference, I'm not a huge fan of fish and chips)

A quick shoutout to the waitress who served us- she was wonderfully attentive to all our needs and requests. If only all restaurants had that standard of customer service...but let that be a story for another day.

Ellie's ratings:

Food: 8/10

Ambience: 7/10 (sit upstairs, it's lovely!)

Service: 8/10

Black Canyon

Abby's chicken and shrimp fried rice in omelette

One of my fave coffees- Honey banana Coffee 😍

And one of the best tomyam I've had. Yums! Perfect balance of flavors 😍😊

at The Red Beanbag, Publika

After a previous disappointing visit, the bestie and I decided to give the Red Beanbag another visit - for brunch. Our expectations were high since a close friend said the breakfast items were 'heavenly'

Bestie ordered the Croque Madame (grilled cheese covered in mozzarella, served with a sunny side up) and baked eggs. My order was the Sumo (grilled salmon fillet, sautéed baby spinach, poached egg with seaweed hollandaise, served on top of rosti)

Croque Madame was a very simple, hearty, comforting sandwich- I enjoyed my taste of this, and would personally go for Croque Monsieur (no egg). My friend said she'd prefer the addition of some stronger cheese, like cheddar.

Baked eggs- yummy and hearty, with chunks of sausage (chicken, beef and lamb if my memory serves), potato and 2 eggs, with a generous amount of melted cheese on top. This came with 2 slices of bread which I didn't try.

My fave item was the Sumo- loved the perfectly done salmon- most places overcook it. The rosti fried to crispy perfection and was moistened by the perfectly runny yolk. Yum!

We finished the meal with Fatbaby ice cream- flavors of the day were Apple Crumble and Chocolate. The Apple Crumble ice cream was divine- nice buttery crumbles and small chunks of apple in the ice cream.

Almost every table had an order of Eggs Benedict or Eggs Atlantic- we'll try that next time! The coffee also smelt great- I'll have it on my next visit!

Ellie's rating

Ambience: 8/10

Food: 8/10 (breakfast menu only!)

at Octopus Sushi, Ampang Point

Salmon don, miso soup, Ten don, salmon sashimi, agedashi tofu

Had a late lunch with Tiggy at Octopus Sushi on Sunday - it's one of the places we go to when we can't think of where else to go for a meal (#firstworldproblems), as we both find the food here acceptable.

I opted for the Salmon Don this time (RM21). This came with 8 thin slices of salmon, some pickled ginger, a teaspoon of roe, slice of lemon, and shredded cucumber on a bed of Japanese rice. I expected the salmon slices to be thicker for the price, so I was a tad disappointed by this. The rice however, was well cooked- I mixed the rice with lemon juice, a drizzle of soy sauce, the roe and the cucumber (because I hate plain rice), and ate the salmon separately like sashimi. Hehe.

Tiggy had his usual Ten Don- tempura and rice. This came with 2 prawns, a piece of soft shell crab (MINE!), onion, and eggplant, along with a generous amount of those crispy, crunchy bits. Nom for him, but not my type of dish as there was no gravy :P

Tiggy also had the miso soup- palatable, but I thought it slightly diluted.

We ordered agedashi tofu and salmon sashimi to share. The Agedashi tofu was nicely fried to a beautiful golden brown color and was pretty good- however the coating got soggy quickly. Sad.

And now...my favorite!!! The salmon sashimi, served on a bed of ice. This was the thickest cut of sashimi I've ever had- more than 1cm thick, melt in your mouth buttery goodness! Please note however, that the sashimi cuts weren't as generously thick on previous visits- but still decent. Altho I wonder, why is it served on ice?

Ellie's rating:

Food: 6.5/10

Ambiance: 5/10

at Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel

The housemate/bestie had a dimsum craving, so we decided to check out the all-you-can-eat dimsum buffet at Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel (weekends and public holidays, MYR45++/pax) with a group of friends.

Some of the dishes we ordered are pictured above. Personally, I enjoyed the roast duck best which was tender with a small amout of juicy fat.

Another thing I enjoyed was the mango pudding with passionfruit puree. The passionfruit puree was wonderfully tangy, and provided an interesting twist to an otherwise ordinary mango pudding.

The other dishes rated as just 'meh' for me, only the duck warranted a second order. I found most of the fried stuff too dry and lacking in flavor, and the egg noodles with prawn lacked flavor of any kind (Tiggy liked this tho, and had a second order.)

Har gow, my usual favourite, wasn't up to par, the skin was too mushy ans. broke upon contact with my chopsticks. The egg tarts were also bland and tasteless- Tiggy however said it tasted like tau-foo-fa. Disappointing. 

Soup of the day. Old cucumber soup. Delicate and flavorful, this had the right touch of 'sweetness' that I wanted in a Chinese soup. Yum.

Chinese herbal jelly. This had the right hint of bitterness, however, I would prefer if it came with honey to sweeten as the bitterness got to me after a few bites.

We ended up having a lot of unfinished food- and had to play a true-or-false game (miss a question, eat a piece of dimsum) to avoid any potential wastage charges. I think we were the noisiest table dining there. Heheh.

Ellie's rating

Food: 4/10 (what I didn't enjoy outweighed those I did)

Ambience: 6.5/10

Would I return? Probably not- there are much better options for dimsum out there.