February 24, 2015

New Year New Me



Hi, sweeties! First, thanks for dropping by here.

Recently, I feel that I have abandont my blog massively.
And I am sick today, sore throat, really subtle pain all the time. I don't have mood to do anything except to sit quietly in front of my lappy and scroll blog post of others.

After seeing the blogspot of others, I felt that why my blog doesn't felt like worth reading? I mean it's actually every informative, I scoured every nook and cranny for the bits of information. I think perhaps it's my blog template that doesn't make this blog look inviting.

So, I thank you for dropping by here. 


you have so far spent your time to read until here!

This post here, I am going to post something about myself!

I just felt a bit falter when I saw someone, at the age of mine,

financially independant
can even buy some lovely gifts for her parents in CNY

I mean, although I don't feel myself as an adult. (By saying adult, I mean those adult who is working, having a stable income, and a lot of opportunity for career advancement )But I really want to do something to contribute my family. At least, not to ask money from parents.

But..said is easier than done, hehe
I really cannot stop going to those nice eatery to eat, or stop going roadtrip, because I don't know when this will happen again if I let it go. At this time, this spirit with the best companion. You know you just should reject. hahaha


So to compensate my guilty, I promise myself to study harder, be someone who is well rounded. Sounds very general? I mean improve myself in everything. Instead of having some resolution which I could hardly achieve, I list out some of my to do list here.

1. Change my blog template!
2. Study harder
3. BLog harder, I didn't update so frequently previously, but I can be so easily distract when I do assingment, I went to see some interesting youtube video. End up, I spent 2 or 3 hours there. So why not I just spent like 40 minutes to blog a short post here. I want to make this space look inviting! 

4. Stand firm on your goal / to do list. Achieve your target. Don't just plan.
5. Learn to taking care of others.



So, this is the new me! New Year, Better Me. I would work out everything!



February 9, 2015

De' exclusive Venue @ 79- First fine dining experience with Love

Talking about first fine dining, I didn't know it was actually fine dining until when I got shock by the price of our dinner. It was only Rm 65.10.(include 5% service charge , and no government tax! )


Maple: (looking at the bills) Wah, quite expensive ar~~

WS: Not expensive lar. The food were all nice and deserve the price. Some more, this is fine dining, it's consider quite cheap already lor~~

Maple: Owh~~ So I just had my first fine dining with you lor~~ I thought you want to save money all the time? 

WS: It's fine dining mar~~so once in awhile doesn't harm lar. This make up our valentine's celebration. 

End of the story how I found out I actually indulge in Fine Dining. Before I venture more into the review today. I also thought that fine dining is something very sophisticated. It has to be

- consist of the appetizer, soup,  main course, and dessert
- must be very expensive
- the environment must be very romantic and French style spacious
- Both the couple must wear like they were going to Prom night, well adorned. 
- Must not only drink plain water. Either wine or the worst sparkling juice.
- Must book in advance
- The proportion must be very tiny. Cause you eat to enjoy rather than to be full. 



Don't expect this is what you gotta see in this post. Cause it's some is totally opposite of it. We didn't plan to have any fine dining previously. It was just we went around the Tower Regency Hotel, looking for a quite decent place for dinner. I wanna to try something that is only found in Ipoh, like local delicacies, but at the same time I wanted the restaurant to have air-cond. There were some bars  selling western cuisine as well, but the environment is just too noisy. In the end, we  chose to dine in here. 

This restaurant looking quite small from the outside. I usually like judge the environment of the place first before dine-in. But since there were really no more suitable place and I am so hungry already. So yea, we entered.


FOund more dining table at the back of the shop.

The service from this restaurant is quite satisfied too. The waiter ask whether she need to recommend anything for us. In the end, this is what we chose.

Also, after all the main course was served, the one that I believe is manager came up to sort of like greet and talk to us. She even offered to help me take photos of us! Thanks!



 Aromatic Lemon Grass Chicken Rm 26
Served with salad, potato cutlet and mango salsa.

The chicken is so tender, don't think it is marinated before, but the aroma of lemon grass is so pleasant, at the same time, a bit of Thai style. I once thought the mango was from Thailand, it was so sweet! Later on, just realise that the mango maybe is can food. The potato cutlet is neither too dry or damp. And the dressing for the salad is enchanced and turned out a bit sweet..which I like! 

What I like about this chicken chop and this restaurant is that they pay attention in every little particular. 



 Linguini Sausage & Mushroom Rm 24
Served in German Sausage and mushrooms, in white wine cream sauce.

The name is so long I prefer to call it mushroom carbonara. Their sauce is so far the best I ever tried. First try on it is O~MG, so heavenly nice. But later when the sauce is a bit cold already, you will started to feel the concentrated sauce is a bit overwhelm, though pleasant.

I suggest people to eat like this.
Don't serve 2 main courses at the same time. Esp when one of them is this thick sauce linguini. Then share among too, so that 2 of you can finish it before the heat gone.



Break & Butter   FOC

I not sure they serve this so that I can pair with the cream sauce later on, or simply eat with the butter. BTW, I only eat with the butter. Usually , people would just serve without oven the bun, but these buns were served inside hot. So the butter melt immediately when we applied in the middle of bun. And the outcome is so yummylicious! 



Crepe Suzette Rm 12
French crepe pancake filled with Vanilla Ice-cream and served with fresh orange Beurre suzette. 

What I understand about crepe suzette is they typically flamed it with liquor- orange flavour cognac. But I don't taste any aroma of the cognac here. Still this dish is quite delicious in its own way. Didn't know it can serve with ice-cream. Such a delight surprise. The taste would be better if less zested orange is put. coz their zested orange is quite bitter. 




This is the first time that i try on something that each dishes was so heavenly tastely. So I believe in  the tagline of their restaurant.

Afforable. Quality. Service. 

It really a hidden gem in Ipoh that I think people should know this. What I hope is that they can still remain their standard and passion in the serving people the best. I DONT GET PAID for doing this review, but sharing it for the notion of every single dishes is so delicious! What I hope is that when people all flood to this restaurant , they will still manage treat every single of their guest as VVIP =D Serving the best. Then my recommendation would worth it, haha. 



Also, one of the reason that I don't know I was having fine dining is because the proportion given is quite ordinary. I mean it's not a tiny portion that you can finish in less than 5 gulps. 

Actually, deep down in my heart, I still wishes for the real typical type of fine dining. But fine dining always consist of seafood, or duck breast, liver as main course. Something that I won't it. I also roughly know that for fine dining that is consider sophisticated, it's quite hard to localised. I mean if you know the core value of fine dining, you will not try to localised it. Must eat like white people. Quench your thirst with Wine. Oh yea, we didn't order any beverage for the meal. Although wine is sold in this place, but we don't feel like want to drink it at the moment. 




Location: 
79, Jalan Raja Ekram,Ipoh Perak

05-241 0882
016-5328779 (Manager)

Food : 9/10
Service: 9/10
Environment: 8/10






P/S: My thought about fine dining is this is one of the western influence from the European cultural. So far, I could hardly appreciate the tiny portion food serve in big plate. But I really love the atmosphere for fine dining. As an asian, deep down in my heart, I will still carve for rice, noodle sometimes! 

Review: Tower Regency Hotel, Ipoh

Harlo, I am not yet back in Action. BUt since I have accumulated so many pending post, I should clear some of them this weekend. So, this post I gonna review about my Deluxe Room staying in Tower Regency & Apartment in Greentown Ipoh! 


Oh first, let me make this clear. It's my own honest review yea. I didn't receive any cent from the management for this review. 


Located in Greentown Ipoh, this is consider one of the skycraper in Ipoh. Their highest floor is to up 20??  By the way, this is my Deluxe King room which I booked from agoda for Rm 170 that included breakfast for two.

Intially, the price is Rm152 shown in agoda. But after the 10 % service charge and 6% government tax, it went up to total of Rm170.

I stay in 13th Floor. Could find the trace of aging of Tower Regency Hotel everywhere. The old wooden cupboard, brick wall, and the filthy carpet in the corridor to rooms. I could even smell the cigarattee in the corridor. Like =.=....I am here for vacation, not to be second hand smoker. However, I will still stay in this hotel in the future, as the condition in the room is totally different from the condition in the corridors.



Service from the hotel Personnel

What I like about this hotel is the service from the hotel personnel whether they are bellboy, receptionist, chef or technician.

First, after our checked-in, the aircond in our room cannot function well, the room is hot like sauna evne after 1 hour, so  the technician came to rescue like 10 minutes later. He politely request to enter our room, and help us to check. Thumbs up for the manner that he spoke to us. So polite and friendly!

Second, This is actually the room after we requested the front desk receptionist to change for us. The view of the previous room is also not as nice as this one.  Because they were some other guests who stay beside our room, and they keep making noise and smoke. I really hate to smell cigarette. So I request to change to a room free from the cigarette smoke. To my surprise, YES, they agree! and about 10 minutes later, a bell boy came to our room and help us to carry our luggage to another room of the same floor somemore!  I really felt like I should tipping them, but I didn't do it anyway~~ haha.


Third, during the breakfast buffer, I ask the chef where is the location of the cup. And one of them go to the beverage section to take for me somemore! (NOte: I was in coco-crunch area, where I wanted to drink the milk only, but only bowl was there.)


Only one thing that make me feel a little not welcome, a waiter didn't allow me to take photo of the food during the breakfast buffet. (I was like.... +.+ I am helping you to promote ler). Anyway, that's not the main point of this post.



The Room

 The landscape outside my room.

Spot the Kinta River Front hotel?? Intially I plan to stay there, but it was a little expensive for our budget.


 When I first entered the room... so spacious!! Like the ground with layered with wooden plank, when our feet won't feel that cold.

 The angle from my king-size bed.  A mix of old furniture and modern plasma tv!

 What I wanna show in this pic, is SPACIOUS!

 SPACIOUS pic the second.

Didn't get to order any of them. I can eat other better delicacy as there were many eateries nearby!


Coffee table


Look like didn't function right, but it's actually cold. Perhaps because the room is only operated when the card is inserted into the key holder. So, the fridge only work when people check in. Smart weh~~~


Strangely, there is also another mirror beside the coffee tea maker here. Anyway, I don't feel anything about this. More mirrors means you can easily find a place to make up, hahaha.


Bathroom

Another SPACIOUS bathroom!


And this is to show how large the mirror is. Not only I can capture myself , I can capture the landscape of bathroom too!

The toiletries and hair dryer.


Buffet Breakfast
The food is totally halal



Not a spledid one. For me, I am satisfied as I only paid Rm 170 for the service. However, to avoid wastage, they charge Rm 5  fine per table for the leftover food. Guess this is the habit of Malaysian huh ? Being greedy all the time until the hotel have to come out with this policy. 


Other

Facilitiy wise, this hotel come with mini swimming pool, mini gym, and sauna, free for guest! I didn't try on them. As the swimming pool don't look inviting. It's just a mini swimming pool in the middle of building. Besides the cafe.


 Also, there is a grocery shop like 7-eleven at the reception floor that closed at 10pm.

 Didnt expect to see pub in this hotel. The interior decoration is okay, and very cold. Just wander, it's Saturday, why no one come here to lepak one?


 Found this piano at the reception floor! I don't know how to play piano. But I guess it would be very excited if you know you can play piano freely here?

Besides, they also provide the service of catering, ball, conference and prom night. The first prom night of my boyfriend was having here!



Verdicts: 

It's quite normal for a hotel equip with all the facilities. However, not all the facilities in this hotel stand out. I mean the gym is a mini one, so does the swimming pool. Hence another factors that will attract people is their location.


My bf and me went out for dinner hunt by just walking around the area.

All these were the eateries that I found throughout the exploration. This is just a minor part of all. There were afforable hawker center, vietnam bread, vietnam cuisine and beer. Brick and Barrels also within the walking distance from the hotel also. Perfect for those who have no car, but wanna to try nice food.  Also, I found out there were quite many body and foot massage center. And several mini inns in rustic and theme style. Soon, I found out that the mushrooming of hotel, inn and massage center actually rely on each other. #ifyouknowwhatImean. Neh, this is not the reason I am here.

Instead, I was drawn to the many of the delicacies here. I have seen "espresso lab" online before and always wanted to try it. That day, however, in the end, we didn't make it, because I am already too full for any food. For my dinner, I tried out something more fantastic! It's my first fine dining experience. Wanted to know more? Stay tuned for my first fine dining experience next post o!