C'est LA viE

Yes! Finally I successful got my first leave after working for 3 mths plus.

The application was not as smooth as I thought, I got to wait for my boss's approval and also promised that I could handle all scheduled task as planned then only could take this leave.

My confirmation appraisal is still not due yet as our technical director was really busy and kept dragging the date.

However, I had 2 replacement leaves and 1 annual leave gained from weekend working and rewarded when our factory passed 900 days free of accident.

Today I clear 1, and 2 more to go =), hopefully I get confirmed soon and more leaves to clear, especially when the new law was set: NO CARRY FORWARD LEAVE ANYMORE!

Hmmm, luckily I wont have many days to clear for this year, but for those who still have 10+ days leaves, good luck!

Ok, so I went to Mid Valley today to meet Shirley. Yes, she is back from NZ for holidays, and it is nice to meet her~

I am wearing my new ballet flat with my Fossil sling bag today!! =D

Not to mention that this is my first time at Mid Valley after 7 years! The last time I went there was before I gone to NZ.

I was planning to drive initially, but was told that the traffic would be jam even in weekdays, and hard to get a parking.

So, is time to test efficiency of public transport in Malaysia!

Honestly, I am pleased that the lady coach concept is planted in the comuter now. I feel more safe and secure when taking the train.

Luckily the train is on time, and there is not too pack in the train. Put on my earphone, grab my book, I had a comfortable ride and arrived my destination on time.

While Shirley had train delayed from Seremban, I got to shop for sometime and look what I bought!

Haha, I am still a freak who obsessed with winter knits regardless I am moving back to the equator now.

Shirley finally arrived and joined me for lunch at Nana's green tea - where I had been craving for my first green tea parfait!

Nana's green tea is actually a chained cafe, and firstly landed in Malaysia at Mid Valley now!

Apparently there is no queue today which is unusual as this cafe is one of the top ten place where Malaysian freak will line up for hours!

Therefore I suggested going there earlier, and I was right with my prediction, we got a seat and all remain seats were occupied in less than half an hour later.

To be honest, their mains were just alright. I had this lunch set special - japanese beef hamburger served with rice, soup and a tea.

Japanese hamburger only come with the meat patty itself (the patty usually is thick and puffy), no bun, but with lot of sauces...

However, their beef patty is a dry and the ponsu sauce was too sweet. I do get their 'healthy' concept when they serving millet rice but I guess their ratings are given for their outstanding dessert.

Yes, of cause I wouldnt miss out their famous parfait! This is what I come for all the way from rural Klang LOL.

I just couldnt pick the one I want, well, I wanna try all of them tho they are pricy.

Shirley picked the matcha one, while I picked the coffee one. Well, I do wanna go for the matcha, but I just wanna find out more on varieties.

There are more attempts to go if I wanna try out every single version!

Dont your heart just melt when you look at this!? They are so pretty and irresistible!!!

The portion is big enough to fill me up, the mochi is chewy, the soft serve vanilla sundae is silky smooth and not too sweet. I did dislike the coffee paste but overall, this parfait is really delightful and made my day =)

Especially when I reached the bottom, the firm glass jelly underneath just balanced with the sweetness from the sundae.

I tried a few scoop of matcha parfait Shirley ordered too, the matcha chocolate is awesome and yummy!!

Bitter at the outer layer (from matcha) and sweet inside (from the chocolate), mixed well with the vanilla sundae!

In general, I enjoyed my lunch a lot, especially finally tried out a delicious parfait! =)

Shirley and I chat a lot today, we have endless conversation while doing some window shopping.

I am glad with her completeness of studies, and revealing a new chapter in her life.

She had done a great job on getting some networking which benefits her future during her last year of studies. I guess we all had come far from what we gained now.

Moreover, her words motivated me a lot today especially I felt a bit gloomy these days. Thanks my dear.

Wish you all the best in ur remain journey in NZ! You would be blessed!!

Finally I have paid my visit to this place - Jibby & Co.

You would be blown off by the endless long queue lining up outside the restaurant!

We waited for nearly 15mins to get out seat, just because there were 5 of us, and it is harder to get a big table.

But, it is lucky that there were 5 of us, because we got to see at the sofa area right beside the French window, facing the road side.

Thanks to Mr. Yap, that's why we have this opportunity to have something pricy this weekend.

I have heard of this place for many times, and always wish to come here.

Different from when I was in NZ, it is really hard for me to explore new cuisine or awesome food now in Malaysia due to inacessibility of different location.

While public transport is nt very safe in this land, it is very important to own a car.

However, I am not working for my car allowance yet, perhaps soon I would.

Unless I have a very reasonable excuses, or else it would be difficult to 'borrrow' mum's car during weekend.

Therefore, gathering become a great chances for my food hunting =D

So I have ordered a soft shell crab burger for my lunch, which was recommended by my ex-colleague.

To be honest, I had a similar but better burger in Melbourne, you can see here.

This soft shell crab is not crispy enough, and the bun turns soggy very soon, perhaps also because I didnt finish it sooner.

But thumbs up for the kumara (or sweet potato) fries, they are crispy and sweet, it would be better if they serve more. =P

My frens ordered other meals include egg benedict (but they named chic breakkie = =),

Jibby big breakfast which I want to order initially, but I changed my mind as it is too common and I would love to try out something new.

Bean couldnt finish this and I helped out in the end, ermmm...taste was just usual, nothing special. The scrambled egg is slightly too soft, and mushroom was quite salty. And I prefered the "real' bacon. You know what I mean.

Our birthday boy ordered the ultimate aussie burger, which took more than 20mins to be served.

Perhaps their mains were just alright, or we have ordered the wrong food, but they did serve amazing dessert.

A little pricy for a small slide of cakes, RM16.50 each. However, the indulgence is priceless.

I wish to try out others if I have chances to come again.

Our dessert attempts havent stopped yet, because we saw Tous Les Jours right opposite us.

Bean said her colleagues highly recommended this Korean bakery house, which is a franchise from Korea and opened in Malaysia now.

I couldnt deny it is indeed a very comfortable and modern cafe to spare during a lazy weekend.

Their dessert caught our eyes without a second, and we decided to have more sweet stuffs.

The quote: Don't judge a book by its cover could be applied for these dessert.

They are very appealing, but they are so sweet that I couldnt taste the bitterness in the tiramisu, and the flavor is not rounded. =(

Macarons on top of the cheese cake and tiramisu are a little too sweet and sticky....

I guess perhaps they are more expertise in bun and toast then.

However, the lime mojito was lovely =)

Alright, I have a good weekend, not mentioned that I have spent so much this week.

P/s: I also have bought 3 pairs of flats just in this week!

Ok, this post is more about the photos rather than words, yet the visual effect is simple than long sentences

here are those photos which I've taken since back home, most were from outing with besties...

Never fail to visit japanese cuisine back home, especially all my beloved mates knew I am a crazy Japan fans!

The soba-sushi set is from a Japanese cuisine nearby my house, but first visit for me =P

It was a crazy night, we couldnt find any free-seat at other restaurants/cafe, ended up we went to this place and waited for some time.

The food was alright, well, moderate rate for taste would be given from me, but I ranked good variety rate for the menu =)

Combination of different japanese food is good for me as I have trouble when come to 'choosing', but sushi never fail to attract me, therefore i got this set without doubt

However, i do think the soba was a bit dissapointing...

Well, is not all about frens outing, these 2 photos were taken when I had meal with family =D

Food on the top is a chicken-chop meal come along with onions, potatoes, peas, fried egg, tomatoes and sweet & sour sauce. I had it at a well-known coffee shop at port klang, where my dad's shop is closed by.

Chicken-chop is very normal 'western' meal in Malaysia, but it is not common (as far as I known, there arent any which I had seen in NZ) in the western world. NZ fine dining places serve chicken-thighs, chicken-breast (likely mixed with bacon - known as cordon bleu) or stuffed chicken. Whereas chicken chop well known in Malaysia is a piece of chicken fillet (boneless or come with little bone).

I had this port-klang favourite chicken chop since childhood, and it still taste the best after my return. =)

The photo at the bottom is a pork-pumpkin casserol served in a pumpkin-bowl. It was from one of the dishes we ordered during dinner.

Though the chef is creative on this recipe, i dint really like it perhaps because i am not a pumpkin-fans.

Continued with my frens outing photos, we went to Morib beach and Morib Gold Coast!

It was a good day at the beach where we took nearly 1 & 1/2 hrs drive, and we picked up Bean who live at Banting along our trip.

We did have a lot of fun at this famous beach where we always had written in our former essays during school life, but it was actually my first time visiting Morib.

Although this beach is nothing as compared with any other beaches in NZ or Aussies, I did enjoy the time we spent at there, I guess memories with besties made everything perfect.

We even had fun playing with the hermit crab~

 It is indeed a bit scary, but it was so shy and kept on hide itself when we touch it. At the end, we just had to hold it quietly, firmly and patiently waited it to crawl out from its comfy home...

Never forgot we headed to the pasar Ramadan after the beach and bought almost every different variety of food/snacks from the Malays stalls.

We were so excited about the food we seen, i guest four of us were the only chinese at the market.

Then this HUGE ABC could be found from the mamak stalls nearby Giant at Bkt tinggi, taste is just typical familiar ABC, i guess the special size just made it different.

Well, these Taiwanese desserts were eaten this other day at a dessert shop at Bkt tinggi too.

I guess Klang had been well-developing and we no longer need to boost in to the capital to hunt for good food.

Undeniably, cafes/restaurants at outer Klang still proud with their varieties/flavors, but it is a good thing that at least we still could able to find taiwanese, japanese, korean, western cuisine etc easily in our neighbourhood.

Yet I wont rate these taiwanese dessert 'good', but i am glad at least i could find them at Klang.

And these "peach buns" were the dessert served at my uncle's 80 years old birthday celebration dinner, he host a big reunion dinner at a hotel restaurant and my whole family were invited. I was just amazed by the big bun. haha.

I got this omelette rice meal from the food court at a shopping mall, hmm, can i consider this as confession? lol

Last, with my best fren, busy-ing with her phone as well as enjoying her carls junior burger. I dint ever try carls junior after the branch arrived at Palmy while I still at NZ, never believe that i entered the One-U branch after 2 months later =S

Bean (my besties) is a super-carls junior fan, she had been craving for the burger all time but never get one as she live in Banting.

Good on her happy with her meal =)

well titled, as i might get busier in coming weekends, going to Auckland next weekend.

then there will be 2 weekends remains, the time just passed super fast!

I guess i will be packing and catching up frens in the last 2 weekends, oh yes, and also clear out my room, and continue pack my stuffs

the packing is really pain in the ass! I mean it this time....

i had thrown away so many stuffs, but there are something just really hold u tightly and u dont know wherther u should give up or not

ohh, i mean my lecture notes! super frustrating!

u never know will u use it/need it, u can choose to throw them away, but u never know u might be need them in the future

my colleague, Ping was saying i will never use it...or else i could scan it...

well said, there are more than 100pages of notes my darling!

oh well, i will decide at the very last min, days right before i fly to dunedin

u couldnt even imagine these packing process actually made me wanna just direct fly back KL

but of cz i am sure i will be regret if i did that, so i chose to let go~ let go some stuffs, let go my frustraction...and enjoy my remaining days in NZ

Just like today, i gone for the firstly ever opened high tea cafe in Palmy!

Thanks to Nicole, she found out this cafe on grabone and got a voucher. But gutted we couldnt use it on a weekend, but the lady boss was kind enough to actually gave us some discount...

Place was quite nice but small, atmosphere just similar like the high tea place, Martha's pantry where i been to in Wellington

but i think their cutlery are cleaner and also better than those i had at Martha's pantry.

However, is a NO for the food....those savoury food were alright, but the cup cakes at the top were yuck...

i think they placed those unsold and infamous cupcakes into the high tea set which actually ruined everything

It was a bad decision if they really did that, because they just missed the opportunity to monopoly the high tea demand in Palmy

well, not sure if high tea is really demanded in such a small city, but bakery definitely was~

there arent many bakery shops in Palmy, those exist are also not good either...sad =(, but i am all good as i am leaving here very soon, but bad for those who staying

nevertheless, those who staying and who i known, they are all good in baking...i guess the poor sources in Palmy really made good bakers! =P

So we decided to leave this place, and we gone to have other tea at the botanical garden~

finally visited the esplanade cafe at the botanical garden...weather today is also brilliant!

we just chilled at the garden, and chit chat....sigh, will miss these kind of time, definitely miss nicole a lot!

Yes finally have the chance to dine in at awarded best cafe in town 2012!

I was having my italian dinner at Tomato cafe with Nicole today (too bad they dont have an official website)

I've been tempting about it so long over, my close colleague did criticize about their bad boss, but come on, i am eating there not working there~

and so glad i come tonight!

the cafe have a good environment, well it was very hard to take good photos due to the dim light environment

We were sitting at the upstairs, unbelievable the interiority looked very organized althought it is not spacious.

However i can imagine how compact it could be if people are having party here.

The only thing i would like to complain is the time for my meal arrival.

It was pretty slow as they were not having many customers tonight, but the waitress indeed had a very good customer service.

My meal finally arrived!! I ordered a meat ball spagetti for the first time.

I am not a meat ball fan, dont like their taste/texture, but i just craving for red tomato sauce rather than a carbonara white-ish sauce.

so i ordered this, and actually it was lovely.

The cafe made their home-made spagetti, it is so chewy and come with good-bite!

Sauce was very enriched but not too saucy or cheesy, very suited my appetite!

For the first time i brought a 'doggy bag' (take away) home from a fine-dining western/italian cuisine...

I am happy for the second lunch tomorrow =D

so what's next? Their home-made pizza =P

This is the second time, perhaps, last time I celebrated her Big day with her, my colleague, Halie.

To be honest, I actually like Halie, I mean as a friend~

She is very different from other kiwis I knew, while not that I knew a lot, but from whoever that I have met so far, Halie is different..

For some reasons, we clicked with each other very well. We shared the similar values upon dining, food, health concept, diet and both of us love Japan!

haha, the world isnt very big, but i think is not easy to find someone that u actually like and shared so many similar stuffs.

She just somehow remind me of Nicole as well...felt so grateful I met these awesome ppl in NZ. =D

Ok, is Halie's birthday today, i remember she hold a golden birthday last year and quite many colleagues  were there.

But this year is different, only me and Ping were invited as Halie is going to have another house warming party soon.

So she just trying to drag the other colleagues to her house, but both Ping and I got invited for both lovely events =D

Actually we celebrated her birthday since the first moment, 12am today.

We were at the hot shot show at Feilding last night and we dint go back Palmy but stay over Antony's, Ping's boyfriend who also a colleague's house

he has a nice house, and i played with his cat this morning, abdorable ^^

Then we drove back to Palmy for Brunch.

It was a very sunny day with my hot chocolate and omelette. This cafe was picked by Halie which was considered a popular cafe at Palmy, but since I had awesome omelette at Sydney, I didnt find the omelette good...anyways, i think i will miss the NZ brunch and cafe culture a lot!!

Got some rest after brunch, and ready for the night!

There were still many of us, with other people who are Halie's church friends and school mates.

The one got circled in red was me! And I am sitting just right beside the birthday girl~

We had dinner at the newly opened restaurant, Table 188.

Shamed that they placed us at 2 diferent tables and actually the meals were delivered very slowly~~

Apparently, Halie's sister is a chef at this restaurant too, but she was not on duty tonight, and she was with us =D

It is this the reason that the meal was not that amazing?

(photos downloaded from menu-mania website, i dint snap my main, bt it was pretty much same appearance, with just I ordered vege salad instead of kumara chips)

Well, I did not find their famous steak very delicious, it was just up to standard, with pretty much the same as other restaurants tho.

And the dessert was very 'usual' trio ice-cream, perhaps i ordered the wrong dessert....

But did not find it fit my palate, and what really hold me tonight was their broken unisex toilet door. =S

Someone just broken into the toilet while i was doing my business.....== Luckily it was an old lady, how if an unknown guy turned up?

I 100% confirmed that I locked the door, and i even checked if i locked it properly!

I should have told the staff u need to fix yr door, but anyways...i dont think i am coming back for second time.

Anyways, tonight is for Halie, it was still a fun night, happy birthday 'Bro'!

yea gone to have a proper Japanese meal today at Sushi King (Sunway Pyramid) with my bestie, Vanes.

Finally is my first time having soba in a Japanese cuisine.

Never thought Sushi King actually have variety of proper Japanese meal despite of sushi train...

I dint grab any sushi plate this time as I was too full from the reasonable portion size of my meal.

Actually it was also the first time dine at Sushi King, yea, dont be surprise, i dint really have many chances to have Japanese meals in Malaysia.

Good lunch tho, =)

And I also bought a dress today at the mall =P, is a nice dress, but it was real expensive, and kinda regret i dint baggain over the price, i guess i need to adapt the environment prior to my back home for good time. =S

Lol, Fresco alive! (p/s: Fresco is the team of mine with other 3 members for food product development project in food science course 2010)

But without the only guy member, Shaun. Haha, well finally the 3 of us from 2010 food sci course gathered!

And wth, i forgot to take photo again!

TT well, we have a very short, but wonderful time tho.

Pavillion was selected as the meeting point, due to its convenience and central location among all of us.

Well, is so hard to meet in Malaysia, not like NZ u meet everyone so easily haha because there are not that many ppl. =P

Lunch menu was Japanese cuisine, I ordered udon with tempura, guess the price, is RM30+! WTH!!!

well if u convert to NZD is actually similar price, but actually i could get a cheaper one in Malaysia, is it just because it is Pavillion!

What so fancy about Pavillion come on?!

ANyways, we swapped places for dessert, tada!!

It is a 糖水platter from 许留山~ I was really amazed with the food/dessert trend in Malaysia now

Chat-time (a bubble tea chain stores) was all over the places (I even saw it at Sydney!) and everyone was bubble-tea-ing

but just after a year, (perhaps not fully a year yet), chat-time was so deserted...

the current trend is, ermhmm, 港式芒果冰, HK style cold mango dessert.

what so random about mango? Well i do miss it, as I never have mango for more than 5 yrs!!

still i miss the actual mango fruit tho...=S hard to get one now....TT

The desserts were alright, not like a 'WOW" but, in term of price, and appearance and flavor, oh reasonable tho.

apparently, Huey Yee was saying 许留山was not the good one, 唐伯虎is the better one.

I like: 'what the?? 唐伯虎？？！ why they so creative and used those names, lol!!

the dessert chains names just blew me out! lol XD

apart from that, i bought another box of Japan-imported frozen mochi again after last year....

hehe, sweet as last time!

Besides, looked what i found!

I only bought one tho, the taro macaroon was alright, so tempting to try out their other patisseries now, but i will leave it for the next time I back home =)

Wait for me, sweeties....<3

Good to know everyone in the Fresco team is doing very well, looking forward for the next reunion =D til then, take care and enjoy life all!

The foodie weekend continued today with such a lovely sunny day!!

Gone to Wellington Sunday market for food!!

The mexican burito was so goood!!

I explored so much of good stuffs this weekend, thanks to Chyi Mei...

Also found another good spot for macarons~

so tomorrow is Wellington anniversary day, guess what? Palmy shared the public holiday too!! SO I am off tomorrow!! Yes, will have a late-waken Monday morning then!

Haha, yea, I guess spring finally's here!! See the blooming sakura!!

So beautiful!! I saw this when I passed by George St on Friday when walking to Davis Trading for some Asian goods...OMG, the sakura are so beautiful~~

Hopefully they could stay longer, rain rain pls stop harrasing Palmy ya ^^

I am very glad that Spring is here, because not just able to see the sakura, i can wear dress now!

To celebrate this, I had lunch at steak out with my colleagues yesterday.

Although the meal was very cheap and the portion size was relatively huge, but the service was really bad. Well, the manager was very passionate and 'super caring and friendly', however. we actually waited our food for nearly an hour.....Luckily i was not very hungry...but I was not very pleased with this.  Yeah, I am very picky in terms of dining and eating, just a very strong foodie nature of myself...

Why I claimed the manager very friendly, she is a Singaporean, and also Ping's fren. So actually it was Ping's idea going there for lunch. I had steak here once, and it was ok, but perhaps not coming back. I felt that somehow the manager was a bit over. Sorry that I dont appreciate her passionate service, I rather would feel grateful if my meal was able to be served faster.

So this was what I have, chicken salad. It was a good presentation, and taste was alright. A huge portion tho, but just cost NZD10. So actually not bad.

I also got this free dessert, home made banana cake. It was just normal....but I am not complaining because is freeeeeeeee.

Is actually good that this restaurant is trying so hard to improve their business, but I guess they might need to improve their service better. Somehow, I still dont mind coming back if I have to, well, the other concern pulled me back was Nicole was saying she found a metal in her plate last time while dining there....Hmmmm.

Customers are always right aye? And we have the right to choose as well~ Opening a food business is relatively not an easy job....

That's why Nicole and I chose another fine dining dinner at Yatai last night!

I saw the update on Yatai's page (yes is facebook ==), and a new chef arrived Yatai and started making new but weekly menu in this Ikazaya. OH my, I was so excited when I figured out Yatai is serving Nabe for this week!!

Yea, although I said is Spring, but this week was relatively colder compared to previous week. That's why Nabe is on the weekly menu. So Nicole and I took the last Nabe served on Sat (last night) as Yatai closed on Sunday.

I was speaking with the new chef (i guess, or he would be the owner then) while booking for my table on Wednesday and I also was enquiring if I had to pre-book the nabe...The Japanese guy who answered my call dont get my 'nabe'.....oh my, is my japanese pronounciation that sucks?? NOOOO, I want improvement, i really want to study Japanese....=(

Anyways, he finally got me, and suprised I love nabe! yes, i do!! I tried out nabe once at Hanamizuki, that was ok, (pls check my relevant blog post here: http://bluelavender930.pixnet.net/blog/post/90175724)... just somehow I felt that the nabe i had at Hanamizuki was not very ordinary.

And Yatai did make a good job!!! Well, i guess that's the best we can get in this small town. I still insist that the best and ordinary will be in Japan, and perhaps, I still havent tasted the real nabe....I wouldnt be surprised~

The chicken nabe was very tasty, and yes it met the raw egg very well. I just cant stop it, and I ordered white rice even tho it cost like NZD4 for a medium rice....But at least I was very satisfied! Yes, I am a rice-person, but I still like eating noodles occasionally.

tamago kake gohan!! I started loving it now!! Ok, fyi, it means cooked white rice topped with raw egg. I was reluctant to have it when I saw the popularity of this meal in Japanese tv shows, but then, I found it was actually a very good match!!

haha.....I am so high when it comes to food, especially Japanese meal and cuisine~

We also ordered okonomiyaki, yummmm.

And last, I definitely wont miss the daifuku!

Got served 2 different daifuku this time, I felt lucky~ ^^

that's my weekend....how was yrs??

Yes, Nicole is back, and just had a catch-up with her tonight. I can see that she had "recovered" from the tiredness from work, and look refreshed. I also felt grateful that her boss finally hired some people to not keep her too busy and having OTs…

My plum wine....

We had a great meal at Hanamizuki, and I ordered unagi-don. Well, not really like a unagi-don, as they separated the rice and unagi. I guess this restaurant is not really a "wow" for me now, I can see that my first impression was very good because of the "first time" effect. Honestly, the price is shocking as the meal was not very good.

Nicole ordered sukiyaki....i mentioned this in my last blog, see here: http://bluelavender930.pixnet.net/blog/post/88539021

we had green tea ice cream for dessert, this is great, cz in large portion and with good green tea flavor

Finally, yes I meant it this time, I had dinner with Nicole at Bella cafe successfully

Being rated as the top restaurant in Palmy, having dinner at Bella was very delightful

The waitress had a sweet mouth, we had decided to order extra entree which we didn’t willing to at first. So in the end, we order 2 entrees, 2 mains and shared a dessert.

Here’s come my entree, the special soup tonight – seafood chowder!

I always am a big fan of seafood, especially for the seafood chowder, totally irritable! This chowder was very rich, both in flavours and content. You can basically fill up a mouthful of scallop and shrimp in every spoon. I was surprised that it comes with a big full bowl, which already filled up my empty gut in the half way.

Nicole’s calamari was just amazing! The way it cooked was so ultimate, and different from other place that I have tasted, the calamari was so fresh, juicy and soft! I am not sure how those calamari being cooked, well, the description was way too complicated to remember, but definitely not pan-fried~

Actually there’s a long wait before the meals were served, well, but it was worthy to wait for such a great meal. And this was my main,

I was clueless when I was asked how would I like my venision fillet to be cooked, this was like my first time being asked this type of question when I ordered for venison. Well, basically I thought venison must be fully cooked, and I had a mind-set that venison fillet is hard....

I was so wrong, and now I know venison is better to eat in medium-rear, and it was tender and juicy! Being advised by Nicole that it might be bloody, but hell no! Not bloody at all, come on, I had tasted someone’s proudly home-made ¼ cooked beef fillet, that’s really worst...

The tomato scented jus was familiar, i must had eaten somewhere. Oh well, 3 venision fillets were definitely, easily made me full, moreover I have started diet~

But anyway, I couldn’t resist dessert! How could I skip the final sweetness after 2 great course?! Nicole was right, i might just feel emptiness if i left dessert behind....

Therefore, ehmmm....we decided to share one~

Coconut Pannacotta:

with Malibu Infused Mango Salsa, Coconut Macaroons & Whipped Cream

The macaroon was different from our favourite French’s macaroon, so more like just a description. It’s actually a failure for the "macaroon" but, still a huge thumb for the soft and creamy panacota.

Thanks Nicole for being my company for such a great meal, yeah, we are foodie buddy! LOL

Note: I paid for my all 3-course meal (including the dessert) for just around NZD60, and the portion size was massively huge! (for ladies to be specific). Please do come for a try!

www.bella.co.nz

Yeah, finally met up Paya today, glad to see her back with refreshing newly perm hair~

We had a sort of brunch at chocolate lounge.

The usual chocolate frappe I ordered at chocolate lounge, why they dont serve it with cream like starbucks?? Well, guest they were considering for me who need diet aye? =P

And Paya ordered this, omg, crunchy croissant, served with yummy chocolate sauce, I was melted! I tried a bit, and totally appetizing for me, so I ordered this:

The waffles I ordered was really yummy! It was crunchy!!!

====================divider (good description?)=================================

Then, is lunch time again, lol. We went to the Vietnamese? (Or probably thai?) restaurant to have our lunch as bean cafe is still closed.

And Nicole come to join us~

Well, then we had dessert at yeda again, well i dint have a sweet tooth today after the sweet waffles this morning, so i ordered takoyaki.

Nicole ordered soft shell crabs (on top), my takoyaki (at bottom)

It was alright, the soft shell crabs were not amazing too, oh what to do?, Palmy did not have nice Asian restaurant. TT

Lastly, Paya bought me this as gift from Taiwan, is a peppermint stick, it used as an inhaler, or I could just slightly apply on my neck and 太阳穴 for stress relief~ Good stuff! <3

Hmm, is this like a trend? I am dining out with Nicole more frequently, like once a week, and we always chose fancy restaurants. LOL

Initially, the infamous Bella cafe was chosen, but it was fully booked! How could i forget that it might be fully booked because of its famous meal??

Nevermind, we went through another few restaurants, being told that they were fully booked as well, eventually we went to this restaurant, Steak-out

I would say it is not a fancy one, but not a regular one either, be specific, this will be the first and last time i come. Not because of the food, the food was alright. It just way too expensive to me with that simple-cooked eye fillet, i would expect more~

And the self-serving salad just not right to me to pay that much....I am sorry, but u are out of my list.

Well, we had sweet tooth, so we went to Yeda for deep fried ice-cream. We ordered a glass of Japanese plum wine again after I tried one glass by myself last night at HanaMizuKi.

Our fried ice-cream, the outer layer (bread) was coated with caramel sauce....too sweet for me~

And the plum wine we shared....

I love this name: flower.water.tree, hana.mizu.ki. Is just like just poem, =D

I finally able to dine in here, well is a Japanese restaurant~ We have a sort of gathering event tonight to welcome the previous French intern: Orianne, back to Palmy for her interview with our company, shortly, means she returns!

Well, i guest is a good thing for her, especially her lover is here. So, wish her good luck for getting the job.

I dint able to take photo tonight, well, with all the colleagues around, is not good to show my nature. =P

But I did have a very good meal! I decided to skip the entree (and end-up regret!), and just ordered a suki-yaki: Japanese traditional beef hot pot.

I have not tried sukiyaki before, but always willing to try sukiyaki after watching Osen, Japanese drama starring Aoi Yu and Suga Sakura. Jitsu at Dunedin did serve sukiyaki, but it was not hot-pot, it was rather like a ramen soup bowl which just chucking everything inside.

But this one, awesome! I should have taken photos regardless how my colleagues view.

This was traditional enough, it come with raw egg! Well, and the soup base just unique~ Ok, let me explain, the way to eat it is put the raw beef slices in the soup to let it cooked, the principle just similar as hot pot, well you can fully cooked or make your beef slices medium rear, is all depends on you. But then, before you decide to eat it, u has to deep it into the raw egg, yes I mean raw.

Basically, the cooked beef slices will be coated with a thin layer of runny raw egg, and the taste just unique. After u finished all the beef slices, just pour remain raw egg into the hot pot provided. Then u will get a sweet soup base. The hot-pot comes with authentic Japanese sukiyaki flavours, with many vege, and tofu in it. Is definitely a healthy meal!

But to be honest with u, sukiyaki is still not my favourite as compared with sushi, or don.

Anyways, great to try new food.

Besides, I finally get to know Helen, well we are staying on the same st, and I only found out she was my "senior", she was in the same class with me for a few papers. No wonder, somehow, I think she has a familiar face, fool me! @@

Note: I immediately got a stomach-ache after back home, and got diarrhoea......Raw egg??

Long time since my last dim sum, it was in Malaysia with my family, but in NZ, it was last year.

Finally got to try the ‘famous’ dim sum at Tasti restaurant, but sorry to say that, it was not tasty.

Ping picked this for Tali last farewell lunch, but I felt relief as Tali really enjoyed it, oh except for the ‘offensive’ chicken feet. Haha, I also just actually started eating this after I come NZ. Was naïve in past, never realize this good stuffs! However, it was acceptable that kiwis felt it weird and ‘scary’ perhaps. The feet itself was so obvious, and imagine u like eating a hand….

Anyways,  I was really surprised there are a few kiwis really like Asian culture, she is going to wellington uni to learn Chinese!

Good luck dear.

Today dim sum was generally cheap, but I don’t think Halie liked it. Well, Japan fans often do not like Chinese things aye? Except for me….^^

I think sometimes I really need something special, or something that I missed for long time.

One of it, is the delightful indian meal!

I tried the indian takeaway from the plaza once, it was good in terms of takeaways, cant deny spices are always on my top on the meal list~

There are something that I cant and wont border to make, I rather spend some pocket money for that.

So it is Tali's farewell tonight, and we went to her favorite restaurant: Indian 2nite

I dint purposely typed a short form, indeed, the restaurant is pronounced that way, sound creative?

hmmm, but the food was creative!

I ordered this special indian 2nite curry, it come with the special venison curry, and covered with a fried egg on top!

That was special! Haha, special ppl always got special treat, lol

ok sorry i dint bring my camera over, and yea, it was not a good choice to capture, as Tali's mum was there, and she's my colleague too.

Hmmm, that's something different, and u cant just truly be urself in front of your workmates aye?

AM i fake?? Hell NO, i am just being considerate, looked how sweet I am =P...too much information lol...

Ok, i must go there for another time, next time, is good to discover such a great delightful place for dinner. Thanks Tali, and I wish u all the best for yr study in Welly~

til we meet again, take care!