VLOG 01 - My Thoughts of Working (During This Semester Break)

I'll let the short vlog speaks all.
Currently getting sick (as you would notice on the video) yet it doesn't stop me to update my blog.


 I hope you enjoy watching, thank you!

Humble Review: Toastea Coffee @ Summerton, Bayan Indah, Penang

'Walao eh, the weather is freaking hot these days. I even sweat a lot while enjoying my kopi.'
'Aiya, what to worry, go chill yourself with a cuppa at StarB or CoffeeB la, easy.'
'Bo lui la, one cup from there equals to a meal for two at hawker stalls liao you know'
'True pun la.'
'Aiya, those aneh modern eh kopi, I drink liao also beh satisfy, old style kopi suit me more lo.'
'Aneh kuan ah... ehh, I know there's a coffee shop nearby Queensbay, the kopi quite reasonable one, ngam you'
'Really bo? Don't say lie leh. How much?'
'Lie to you zomik? Got air cond somemore. RM 2.50 for a cup of kopi, beh pai ma hor?'
'Ok wor. Open till what time?'
'Midnight ahh, don't play play, business beh pai also.'
'Kia la, what time you free? Ki lim kopi!'



I hope you get to learn a little about Toastea Coffee based on the frictional Hokkien language conversation of typical Penang Lang (Penangites) before further readings on my humble review as followed.

Precisely sloganed as Prepare to Get The New Taste of Old Memory? , Toastea Coffee opens the door for patrons to dine in from as early as 7 in the morning till 12am. The handcrafted old-school coffee is the signature in the house where coffee lovers could have agreeably sipping of theirs in the air-conditioning coffee place. To have some food to fix your cravings, there are also a number of them readily to be served upon your order.


Being one of the popular food from the pork-free menu in the coffee shop,
Toastea Coffee would fix your cravings on curry chicken at anytime.



As one of the tenants at Summeton, Toastea Coffee owns an unit of shop lot ideally for a place to have quick meal or meetings or even to spend a high tea time (Muslims-friendly)
The aroma of coffee is expectedly excites our nostrils right on our first step into the coffee shop.
The menu is embedded on the cabinet of roughly a foot below the ceiling. Toastea Coffee runs self-service on taking order whereas food servings are on them.


The men in black on the left is one of the shop owners who is also the barista.

 Let's see the order for two for a quick lunch break.
Hot Coffee (RM2.50-ala carte)


This is apparently the popular and signature cup in the house. 
Being an average coffer addict, it tastes mild where texture is light and thin.
(So you woundn't get muak or jelak on it)
  In overall, it is well-balanced in terms of the harmony of texture and flavour.

Curry Chicken with toast ( RM 8.90)
We chose toast instead of rice to have a lighter intake. 
3 pieces of average-size cut of curry chicken are served along an exceptionally large curry gravy.
The gravy itself tastes generally rich, I think it could be better if it comes with a stronger aroma.
However, it's simply nice just to have unstoppable spoons of the gravy, just slightly mild spicy that everyone could have it anyway.


Nissin Soup Noodles with Ham & Fried Egg
 (RM 6.90 - ala carte / RM 8.90 - combo with selected drinks)
It is doubtless a big bowl of instant noodles with the add-ons of ham, egg and cut pieces of greens. 
The soup based is excellent on my dining experience.
It is not salty as I thought most of the kitchen would prepare that way whereas it's delightfully sweet to consume. I guess most of the children would love this very much.



We had French Toast (RM 4.50) to complete our meal.
The toast itself is well prepared and we enjoyed every soft bite of it.
Perhaps they could top a scoop of ice cream and makes it similar as everyone's favourite french toast from After You Dessert Cafe, Bangkok.


I will make sure for my second visit as three local delight of my all-time favourite were already sold out by the time I was there (around 1.45pm)
Porridge and Chee Cheong Fun are so much high in demand!
And according to the service crew, outsourced Nasi Lemak that arrived in the morning of 50 packs were also sold out and the second batch of 30 packs would only reach at around 2.30pm daily. Therefore, plan your visiting time just right to have yours.

Another landmark is the famous Uncle Testu Cheese Cake. Toastea Coffee is located right next to it.


Save the location for your own convenience!


Summary:
(Scaling Point: 0 - lowest; 5 - highest)
Price: 3/5 (Reasonable pricing with no GST or service charges)
Taste: 3.5/5 (Contributed more by curry chicken and coffee)
Dining Ambience: 4/5 (Air-ventilation is pretty good despite the boiling water corner for coffee)
Vehicle Parking: 3/5 (Indoor parking lots are available)
Business Hour: 7am till 12am. Opens daily.
 Address: 110-1-3A, Summerton, Persiaran Bayan Indah, 11900, Penang, Malaysia
Contact: 012-3416678
Facebook Page:Toastea Coffee

I hope you enjoy reading, thank you.

I'm SNOW-mad! 2.0

Hey, I'm backed with the second collections of mine. Have a great working week ahead and enjoy watching!

PS: Humble Review series will be up on blog next.

I'm SNOW-mad!

This is just a short post where the following video would do the saying for all. My friends around know that I'm such a mania in using an app from Korea namely SNOW. It provides a little platform for users to take videos or motion photos (selfie) with thrilling, cute and funny face effect. It works similar like Snapchat where you could share the videos/photos you take to your friends who are also using SNOW as well.

My phone gallery is mostly landed with the SNOW videos/photos (mostly videos). Personally, I would prefer this to Snapchat. Alright, let me show you the first collections of SNOW videos of mine and you might consider to install it on your phone right after this, Enjoy!


Humble Review: Aji Noren Japanese Restaurant 味暖簾 @ Prima Tanjung, Penang

It's not surprising that Korean cuisine is in higher demand by the consumers under the great leading influence of Korean entertainment  late these years, however, Japanese cuisine that led the fame earlier once upon a time is still everyone's all time favourite, after all.

I'm glad that Aji Noren Japanese Restaurant leads Japanese cuisine of the humble review series on my blog. Being one of the favourite dining place for the authentic Japanese, it is persuasive enough that Aji Noren is a must-visit Japanese restaurant in Penang. Worry no more, Aji Noren provides the customers a high degree of dining satisfaction with relaxable dining ambience and most importantly, all these come with reasonable price. If you happen to be there around or Gurney Plaza yet no idea what's up for meal or perhaps, tired of having the franchise Japanese cuisine restaurant in the mall, this would be a good alternative to go.

Aji Noren is located at the ground floor of Prima Tanjung, it is easily spotted on on your right hand side once you turn left before the traffic light (as well as the junction in front of Island Plaza)
It takes around 15 minutes car journey to reach from Gurney Plaza anyway.

It was full house again as usual by the time we reached there around 8.30pm
We rang them earlier on to place our reservation but they refused to accept reservation after 8pm due to the peak hour of business time.

We did walk-in instead. The restaurant is considerable in providing the waiting customers a long wooden bench while you could see the big menu that displays as partition at the same time.
If you were in the waiting group, kindly be reminded to give your name and number of people at the cashier, shall they seat you when there's empty table.

This menu is quite effective and works on me! We waited for about 20 minutes till our turn and I'd already selected what to order later on.

It was quite windy during our waiting time hence the air ventilation is fairly good, at least you are more pleasant in waiting to be seated.
Oh ya, Aji Noren is also proudly recognised by Foodsion, a local magazine that mainly features food and beverages that has a number of readers in both Malaysia and Singapore.

Upon stepping in the restaurant, I've fallen for it (to be honest). I love the effect of dim light that provides a calming environment.
As you could see, it's full house and waiters as well as waitresses were busying serving customers.

Element of wood is heavily used in the house as evident on the furniture layout.
They are all in rather high density where there's only one aisle to walk.

The samples of alcoholic beverages are displayed at the cashier for the drinkers' convenience to place an order later.

This is the narrow aisle I'd mentioned earlier.
We were lucky to have Zashiki style seating to have a more authentic dining experience. As usual, shoes were removed before stepping into the sitting area.

There comes the menu section.


Appetizer section



A variety of sashimi, sushi and temaki sushi
Salad and tempura
Fried food



Pan friend food
Teppanyaki and ramen/udon
Soba
Rice

Not to forget, a list of beverages


Katsu Kare (RM 26)
White rice served with chicken katsu (cutlet) and potatoes, filled with Japanese curry sauce
First thing to be impressed is the generous portion. As you could observe from the photo above, the cut steamed potatoes are also come in rather bigger ones. Curry sauce is rich and I assume this is a good one to go as my friend didn't give any negative comments on it.
Yaki Gyoza (5pcs/ RM 12)
We had this Japanese fried dumpling as appetizer.
(which actually came after our first main)
It tastes fair however the portion of each is indeed out of my expectation, smaller than I thought it'd be. I would love to stuff a bigger size one into my mouth. Minced pork is marinated well and balanced which we didn't find any element of the ingredients is overly prepared.

Tonkotsu Ramen (RM 21.80)
Homemade ramen in pork soup broth served along few sliced of marinated braised pork belly, half cut of boiled egg, cuts of thin sheet nori and the assist of sliced tsukemono (pickled food) as well as cut spring onion sprinkle on top.
The first thing I tastes on this bowl is the soup broth. Well, it is fantastic over the clear, sweet and slightly creamy flavour of pork marrow. It looks sort of miso soup but it tastes totally different than what you would thought at your first sight.

. Personally, I prefer to stuff in together with the nori that gives me a little bit of salty taste.


There are 4 to 5 slices of marinated braised pork belly served along provides a maximum satisfaction in my dining experience, simply awesome.

Cha Shu Men (RM 19.80)
Homemade ramen topped with few slices of Japanese braised pork and half cut of hard boiled egg. Soup is clear and brown broth flavoured with soy sauce (shoyu)
Perfect bowl for diner who opt for lighter taste yet filling meal.
A little highlight goes to the slanted bowl that serves Cha Shu Men.


We like Aji Noren in whole. From dining ambience to service as well as food quality, everything is presented pleasantly to us. Free flow of green tea would be topped up from time to time, or in case the service attendants are busy working, inform them and they come to you shortly after. Our waiting time for our meal is below expectations, the first one served at around 15 minutes and the followings came one after another. Due to the full house, I noticed that few of them acted quickly to stuff some buns in a short time at a corner side. Therefore, this is simply evident that Aji Noren has been gaining diners' heart to be one of the favourite Japanese cuisine restaurant in Penang.

Feel free to communicate in Japanese language with them if you are able and would like to as I see there are some service attendants are fluent in speaking Japanese (few are authentic Japanese) and the cook is also Japanese, according to my friend. I'm greatly looking forward for my next visit. 

You could save the location for your own convenience.



Summary:(Scaling point: 0 - lowest; 5 - highest)
Price: 3.5/5 (Slightly higher than franchise Japanese restaurant but no GST and service charges)
Taste: 4/5 (By far one of the best homestyle Japanese cuisine restaurant in Penang)
Dining Ambience: 4/5 (Personally like the effect of dim light)
Vehicle Parking: 2.5/5 (Quite tricky especially lunch and dinner hours)
Business Hour:  12pm - 2pm ; 6pm - 10pm (Closed on Mondays)
Address: 98-G-35, Prima Tanjung, Jalan Fettes, 11200, Tanjung Tokong, Penang
Contact: 04-8994720

I hope you enjoy reading, thank you.