FIRST TASTED: Ichi Zen @ Sutera

This is a one of the places recommended by my dearest dentist friend who is also expert in “racun-ing” me to go all those nice places for m@k@n. I would like to thank her for helping me gaining so much fat on my tummy (just kidding)! Joke aside. I will only be in Malaysia two days a week to try out so much nice food over here. I sincerely would like to thank her and give her some credits on doing all the filtering for me, so that I don’t need to spend my time to try out the bad ones. Thank you! You know who you are…

A long-time-no-see friend came over to Johor from the east Malaysia for his sister’s convocation, sure enough, I will try my best to spare some time for him. A spontaneous choice of lunch brought us to this place, having a long 2 hours lunch!

Below is the quick review of this shop,

Ambient / Environment:

Sitting in a place for a long 2 hours is not an easy thing to me, especially. From which, you can tell that the ambient/ environment of this place is comfortable and pleasant enough for a long hour lunch and chit chatting.

Food:

My friend and his friend ordered 2 set lunch which are quite good portion, not sure if they tasted good or not, as I didn’t try them out. I ordered myself a Tonkotsu Ramen, which was recommended by one of the waiter there. The Ramen was springy and nicely cooked; the egg was excellent! From the outside, it looks like it’s overcooked; when I bit on it, it’s barely cooked on the inside. I wonder how they did that! The soup was good as well, a tad too salty to me though.

Other than those, we also ordered a salad, a Sashimi and sushi for sharing.

The salad is called Soft Kani Karaage To Shake Kawa Sarada with Goma Dressing (sesame dressing). Salad is one of my favorites, this salad was really good. The vegetable was very fresh, mated with crispy fish, fish skin and special made sesame dressing. The combination of these ingredients is simply best!

While for Sashimi, we went for the safest choice, which is Shake Sashimi. This was the first time my friend tried out Sashimi, he didn’t seem to be repulsive to it. Look at the color of the meat! Experts could tell how well/ fresh it is, of course, I am not the expert, but the Sashimi was considered fresh enough to me. Also, the serving of the Sashimi was generous enough for the price we paid for.

So far so good then, here is the last thing we ordered- half Una and half Salmon Tataki Roll. Maybe I put my expectation too high on this Tataki Roll, as this costs the most out of the three. The taste was alright, but just a bit overshadowed by the other two.

Services:

I have nothing to complain about, they have performed their job well- know their products quite well (they will try and ask the chef or supervisor whenever they have any doubt), very attentive to customers and endlessly refill the green tea for you!

Would I come back to this shop?

To be brutally honest, Japanese is not really my favorite. I don’t hate it, but no special feeling to it either. Whenever I go for one, that particular shop better be good, else I will blacklist that shop forever. This one, however, is not on my blacklist yet. I will definitely come back to try out more stuff if someone asks me to.

Despite the Tataki Roll, this is one of the best Japanese restaurants I have ever tried thus far (out of the only few that I’ve tried). One quality shop it is…

Welcome to Taiwan!

Taiwan is the place that my mum wanted to go for quite a while, maybe having too much of entertainment shows from Taiwan? Not really to me though.

Since there’s no other places is of their interest, Taiwan it is for this year trip. One thing good about not having much of an interest about a particular place is that you won’t be having much expectation either, which also means you have nothing much to lose. In fact, surprises always come along when you have plain feeling about something. This is true, at least for this trip…

This is my first time coming to Taiwan. Before I first came here, Taiwan was never a place that I’d look forward to, as I always thought of it as a mini-China- anything that can be found in Taiwan, could possibly be found in China as well, except those things that you could see in China, might be much bigger and even more spectacular. This time round, I was wrong, as usual. I am not good in estimating things, aren’t I? Taiwan amazed me quite a bit (despite some unpleasant/ annoying events happening along the trip).

For a start, Taiwan is a country where the main spoken language is mandarin, which is very good to us. When I am speaking a common language with someone, regardless of where I am, I could instantly feel the friendliness. Taiwanese are generally, be it a real or fake, extremely polite. I am not sure where they learned/ practice it from. It might because of the way the parenting is being carried out over here is different or maybe being polite is simply the culture here? All I can tell is that it is a complete opposite from what we have experienced in Mainland. Taiwanese are generally willing to help. At least, I met a few when I was asking for direction.

For sightseeing, Taiwan does have those places that are like replicas to those you can find in China; those are the places I excluded from this trip. I went for the places that can truly represent Taiwan instead. To me, travelling is about experiencing, not living a good life in other countries, hence places ranging from visiting, chilling, relaxing, sightseeing, jungle trekking, hill climbing and many more are all included in the itinerary. It amazed me quite a bit that Taiwan has them all!

Transportation in Taiwan is considered convenient. They have a pretty good MRT system in Taipei, high speed train from south to north, slow speed trains that are connected to some of the small towns/ villages, and rather crazy bus network around that can bring you to the rural areas. Those places where you can’t reach, you can always wave for a taxi and there are plenty over there. To enjoy the more local way of travelling, I would suggest traveler to rent yourself a scooter! According to our driver, the number of scooter in Taiwan is as much as half the population in Taiwan, which means excluding the young and the old, each Taiwanese has their very own scooter?

Food wise, it’s a preference thing. From what I learned from previous trip in Beijing, the tour guide used to say: “there’s no awful food, it’s whether the food suits your taste or not”. I kind of agree and disagree. To me, this statement is only true when a group of people is eating the same thing and not every single person is complaining about the food. Taiwanese does have a rather good culinary skill, especially those specialty restaurants, I was amazed by the way that they use simple ingredients to come out with something that’s so memorable. While for the snacks from night markets, some of them are good, some are not. Whether it’s good or not, you need to experience it, as the night market is kind of like a culture here in Taiwan.

Switching through their TV program, I realized that the media here is really one of the best around the region, or maybe around the globe? I think this has something to do with the liberty that they are having in this country. Taiwan is a country that’s practicing multi party democracy, and it’s one of the most democratic countries that I have ever seen. I think a well-practiced democratic country would give the citizens a sense that they are having the basic human right and not being oppressed by any kind of monster. Liberty leads one to creativity, gives them a chance to say/ criticize from the bottom of their heart when they are baffled by something that’s wrong. That’s something that we could hardly see in most of the Asian countries. I was impressed.

To conclude, Taiwan is a pretty nice place to be, to visit or even to stay. It’s quite safe and not too expensive. I personally love the simplicity of this place.

One day, I would definitely be back here for a more thorough visit! 🙂

FIRST TASTED: Coffee Valley @ Sutera Mall

One motiveless afternoon and one random suggestion led a few of us to this place. This is one of the shops on my “to-try” list. And here I am, Coffee Valley checked!

First of all, I personally don’t like Sutera Mall very much. Part of the reason is that this mall is so full of people, what’s worse is the insufficient parking lot it has. The odds of getting a parking here is comparable to striking TOTO. You need some luck!

This is my first visit after plenty of seduction by my friend, who posted so many photos of this café on FB.

A quick review after my first visit to this shop:

Environment / ambient:

It’s a very pleasant place to be, but it’s also a tad too crampy to me. One of the reasons is that this café is in a mall, limited space will be provided for each tenant. The layout of this café is problematic too. There’s a wall splitting indoor and outdoor to accommodate smoking customers. That simply eats up most of the space they are having and makes the café feeling even more crampy.

Food:

This is a café that sells cakes and fancy waffles. We ordered 2 cakes and 2 waffles.

   

These are the original waffle and Chocobanana waffle that we ordered. They look fantastic, don’t they? Do they taste as good as they look like? I’m afraid the answer is a NO (at least to me). The waffle is supposed to be a bit crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, but these waffles are hard! So hard in fact, you might get your mouth hurt if you are having a big bite of those waffles.

These are the cakes that are highly recommended by one of the staff there- Matcha Azuki (green tea flavored) and Yam+Pumpkin flavored (forgot what the name is). I like the lightness of the cakes, so that you won’t be disgusted after a few bites.

Drinks:

   

We ordered an Americano, a Caramel Macchiato, a ice blended drink (I don’t know what it is and I have no comment on it, because I didn’t try) and 2 cappuccinos. Americano was terrible. I can say this is the worst Americano I have ever tasted. It’s supposed to be a cup of strong black coffee, but as it turned out, the coffee content is too little, it’s too light. The Caramel Macchiato, I am not an expert of this drink, but to me, the whole thing has just overwhelmed by the caramel taste, it is just too sweet to my liking. While for the cappuccinos, I ordered the second cup after affirming that the first one tasted alright (not the best, but good enough). When the second cup was served, disaster! It didn’t look quite the same as the first one. The color was noticeably lighter as compare to the first one. Luckily, the taste was not out by far. It’s clearly shown that the barista is not up to the standard to deliver a cup of good cappuccino consistently.

Would I come back to this shop?

I would come back occasionally when I crave for waffles, but not on a regular basis. To me, other than the decoration and ambient of the cafe, everything else requires some minor tweaks/ fine tuning to make this café better, especially on their food and drinks.