Delicious, 1 Utama

WHOA. That's the only word fit to describe the following dishes. It's not even in a good way. If just by looking at them, would you realise they are the work of Delicious? 

The Aglio Oglio with Seafood looked nothing like how a normal Aglio Oglio should: clear pasta with flecks of chilli flakes and sometimes with sun dried tomatoes tossed in. Bits of garlic and black pepper corn would be expected too. The one below looked slightly tainted with tomato bits although it tasted alright.  There were just three rings of squid and two prawns in the whole plate. Not very appetising right? 

The Seafood Marinara looked to be half the size of the Aglio Oglio. It was bland with what tasted like ready-made tomato purée poured over it. Again, there were three squid rings and two prawns only in the whole fish. 

Maybe they are accustomed to lowering the quality now that they have buy 1 free 1 pasta on weekdays but our visit was on the weekend and without any promotion. Therefore, we were immensely disappointed by our visit. They used to be good but I guess things changed. 

DIY Herb Labels

I just love how those herbs are labelled in photos all over the Internet and after googling around, realised that I do not have the yoghurt cases or some printer or laminating machines. So I decided to just use what I could find around the house.

I used only normal paper, Scotch tape and unwanted plastic stirrers for these DIY labels. 

I first drew all the labels using coloured pens and cut them to sizes. I then wrap the Scotch tape around them before trimming off the unwanted edges. Den making use of the same roll of tape, I simply made some "double tape" from rolling them into tube-shapes and sticking behind my labels onto the plastic stirrers.

They were fast and easy!

Nadeje, 1 Utama

It's been years since I last went to Nadeje. Those days they were only available in Malacca but nowadays they have branches everywhere in KL. Finally last weekend Hubby and I went for a little tea break right before dinner. I ordered their Lychee Green Tea with wolfberries while Hubby had the Orange Yakult. Maybe its because we had the cake so both the drinks tasted a little bland or bitter. 

We both agreed that the Double Chocolate Mille Crepe was amazing though. It's a pity they ran out of the Strawberry Chocolate. Each bite was wonderful with bits of chocolate chip inside. The cream was light and delicious; definitely not cloying. Can't wait to have more next time ;)

I'm not sure whether I should label here as Halal or not as some of their cakes contain Alcohol so I guess technically they aren't but if you purchase the non-alcoholic ones, they should be Halal.
Heh!

Nadeje Cake Shop

Address: GK 101 Ground Floor, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Lebuh Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Phone:+60 3-7710 0302

My First Herb Garden

After wanting my own herb garden for so long, I finally got a start to it! Thanks to Hubby I got my first four pots of herbs! I was beyond excited and can't wait to expand them~

I planned to transfer them into a longer rectangular planter when they grow bigger and made my plans below:

*(L): likes lime (so can use egg shells)

Share Pot:
1) Oregano & Rosemary (L) & Sage – DAMP to DRY SOIL/FULL SUNLIGHT
2) Basil (L) & Coriander & Spring Onion & Dill (lao coriander) – DAMP SOIL/SHADY & WARM
3) Mint (CANNOT share)
4) Lemongrass in water will suffice

Hopefully I will get more of them soon!

During our purchase of the herbs, we found that Peppermint + Stavia leaves made an excellent match. I like lemon balm too so maybe those will be next, together with sage. I guess spring onion, lemon grass and coriander I will start from food scraps the next time I buy some for cooking. 

I've been saving my used coffee powder and the cuttings from the leaves etc to make my own organic compost. Heh!

Franco, Mid Valley

It's not our first time but I have been pestering Hubby to come again after I got their promotional voucher from Groupon. However, we were sadly disappointed and the service was terrible. Half the menu was also not available. It was pretty much a horrible experience for us. All the desserts were not available except the Cookies N Cream Parfait. No souffles, no pastries and no toasts! The Lobster Bisque was off the menu as well. We only got our mineral water after 30 minutes and we asked about it thrice; each time to be brushed off as it seemed the staff seemed to only want to serve their own tables and our server was no where to be found. I found this really annoying and calculative of them. I might be wrong but shouldn't the wait staff all work together? Anyway, here's my review:

The Black Squid Ink Rice was not bad albeit its small portion. The scrambled eggs at the side was fluffy and buttery with succulent prawns accompanying the dish. I think it was probably the highlights of the evening. Sadly, there's only four prawns inside. :S

The Spaghetti Yumena was a far cry from their standard. Usually they have some turkey ham, spinach and mushrooms in it but as you can see, all these were missing except the Frankfurters, brinjals and tomatoes. The sesame seeds that I have come to expect with this dish were missing as well. The pathetic poached egg in the middle was quite small and had most of the whites missing.

This was their Pescatora. I had this before and this was very different from the one I had. I think there were less than six clams and two prawns in total. There were no signs of the Green Mussels. I believed there were supposed to have some squids too? The tomato sauce was very bland and in minimal quantity.

We did not have any dessert since there was none but it was lucky because we found a gem in Madame Waffle!

I wouldn't recommend coming to the Mid Valley branch of Franco.

Madame Waffle, Mid Valley

Madame Waffle is my new favourite place for desserts! I was quite dissatisfied after a lousy dinner in Franco and was looking for a substitute since all their souffles and desserts were not available. Madame Waffle had promotional menu for groups and seemed to be quite reasonable provided all the items in the package is what you would want to have. We opted for ala-carte and not the value sets because the items we wanted were not in the package. 

We shared the Durian Crème Brûlée Waffle and the Blueberry Cream Cheese Waffle. Both were excellent with really fragrant waffles garnished with mountains of delicious toppings. I love the blueberry one better but its a close call. The Durian Crème Brûlée had a generous amount of durian cream? and bruleed (torched) a little so they formed crispy caramel layer on top. It was slightly burnt in my opinion and not very enjoyable but otherwise, this was a great dessert. The crunchy cornflakes scattered around it added a nice contrasting texture to the plate. The bits of strawberry and blueberry makes the plate look oh-so-pretty too.

The Blueberry Cream Cheese came with a generous serving of whipped cream cheese topped with blueberry jam and had a tart berry coulis to round it off. The blueberry jam complemented the cream cheese cream really well and the dish felt very refreshing despite having cream cheese which could be quite rich. It reminded me of a cheese cake but with waffle instead!

Good waffles can also be found at Caffe Benne but for more choices, Madame Waffle would still be my choice!

PS: If you like salted egg, they have Salted Egg Yolk Waffle too!

Caffè Benne, Jaya Mall

My first time in Caffè Benne was in Korea but shortly after that, the first Caffè Benne was opened in Sunway, followed by branches all over KL. The branch in Jaya Mall was a little filthy especially their tables and chairs but the food seemed alright. Service was relatively prompt and staff was quite friendly. 

I had the white chocolate latte which was quite creamy with hints of vanilla underlined by strong fragrant coffee. The mug was a generous portion too and I couldn't finish it all in one sitting. 

The strawberry Bing-Su is my favourite! Lots of fresh strawberries gave this refreshing dessert the tang it needed to carry off the sweet strawberry syrup and its sorbet. The delicious red bean paste dilutes some of the sweetness and brings together this dessert wonderfully. With the crunchy bites from the ice shavings, this cold bowl of goodness is a god-send on a hot day!

The beef pie, I am not a fan. I love my pies with short crusts and the chewy ones they use here is not my cup of tea. The fillings were a little starchy although the beef chunks were tender and flavorsome, it was not my favourite. Hubby loved it and cleaned it off his plate in record time though. :S

On the other hand, their waffles have always been YUM and I had the Tiramisu one that day. Yummy coffee ice cream on a big mound of whipped cream smothered by loads of cocoa powder on delicious waffles! Each bite of crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside waffle was saliva-inducing. For even more wonderful waffles, do check out my post on Madame Waffles~