LOVE LIFE, CHERISH MOMENTS

   With the current heat wave hitting Malaysia real hard, i can't help but missing the icy cold desserts i had in my Bangkok trip few weeks ago. Similar to Malaysia, Thailand also shares the tropical warmth and monsoon seasons. I still remember all i wanted during my trip there was cold coconut water all day every day. Now that i'm back, i'm starting to miss some of their sweet lily mangoes as well. That leads to my entry today, which is all about this popular mango-themed cafe in Bangkok--Mango Tango!





    Mango Tango is situated in this 2-storey shop lots. It was super crowded when we reached, as usual, filled with hungry tourists like us. We were required to queue for a while before making our order at the counter. After we made our payment, then only the waitress will lead us to our table. (So much of insecurity right? Afraid that we will run away?) Anyway, i was quite bumped when they rudely demanded us to order one item per person. I was like, this doesn't make sense at all. What about small eaters that cannot even finish one serving? They will waste the food instead (thinking about poor African kids). I was utterly disappointed with their service and policy, a big no-no in my dictionary.

   Nevertheless, since we made it here after such a long walk, we had to succumb to their rules and order several items. Mango Tango is well known for its mango sticky rice dessert. Hence, we ordered their signature Mango Tango, Mango Salsa, Mango Aloha, Mango Parfait and Mango Iceberg.

Mango Tango's Signature Mango Sticky Rice--160+THB Mango Pudding+Fresh Mango+Mango Sorbet+Sticky RIce

Mango Salsa--95+THB Mango Pudding with Fresh Mango cubes and juice

Mango Aloha--75+THB Diced Mango in Milk Sago topped with Mango Sauce

Mango Parfait--95+THB Mango Ice-cream, diced mango and corn flakes

Mango Iceberg--95+THB Mango Sorbet with sago and mixed fruits

    Sadly, this cafe fell short from my expectation. The mango sticky rice was not remarkable. The serving of sticky rice was only a tablespoon, too small for the price that we are paying. Mango pudding was bland, mango sorbet was ordinary. Similar materials were used in all the other desserts, so we got to taste the exact same thing in different arrangement and combination. It was redundant and lack of creativity. The only plus point was the sweet lily mango that saved all the dessert items.

   In other words, i was totally disappointed with Mango Tango and it was seriously over-rated. I hope that some improvement can be made with their menu and service, so that tourists that came all the way for this would not be disappointed as we did.

More Information~
Website: http://www.mymangotango.com/

Gion Set--159+THB Green Tea Roll Cake filled with strawberry custard, served with green tea+bamboo charcoal soft serve, sliced fruits, nama chocolate and green tea syrup.

Matcha Deluxe Parfait--229+THB Green tea+milk custard jelly--Red bean--green tea shaved ice--Kantan jelly--glutinous rice ball--single scoop matcha soft serve--nama chocolate--whipped cream--cookies

Sumi Matcha Anmitsu--149+THB Matcha-bamboocharcoal mixed soft serve (Wagashi), served with fresh fruit toppings, 'Kuromame' black soy bean, azuki, shiratama, 'Kanten' jelly, 'Kuromitzu' (black honey) syrup.

    As you might notice, these photos were not upright enough and flawed. The truth is, i was not able to focus when taking these seductive desserts. After a few shots, i immediately started gulping all these wonders down. For the Gion Roll set, we went with matcha roll cake. I must say, the roll cake was amazing with generous amount of strawberry custard cream, and it was soft and silky smooth. Their matcha+bamboo charcoal was super smooth and it melted away inside my mouth. Bamboo charcoal did not carry much flavour, it tasted like vanilla milk soft serve with bamboo charcoal powder as colouring agents. My second favourite is the Sumi Matcha Amitsu, or soft serve fruit bowl. I like how generous they are in the serving and types of fruit toppings. It was so refreshing and black honey syrup really stepped up the entire flavor for this dish. Lastly, the matcha parfait was a little bit let down as i dislike the bottom milk and green tea jelly. I'm not quite sure whether it can be called as jelly because the consistency was very hard and tasteless. Nana's parfait would topple this item easily.

   Anyway, i still recommend this cafe to all the matcha-maniac out there. There are actually plenty of awesome dessert cafes around Bangkok. So the next time you visit this city, be sure to try out this Japanese dessert cafe rather than the usual 'touristy' cafes! I'll catch you guys next time! xoxo

More Information~
Website: http://www.kyorollen.com/
Menu: http://www.kyorollen.com/menu/
Address: GF (Sweet Avenue Zone), Siam Paragon, Bangkok

    Bangkok, being the capital city of our neighbouring nation Thailand somewhere familiar to all Malaysians. One can simply take a 1.5 hour flight to visit this vibrant city filled with diverse culture, food and shopping havens. I've been to Bangkok several times for family trips, but mostly for shopping. However, this was my first time exploring this beautiful city in depth with my fellow classmates during our long awaited graduation trip. I am still in the middle of processing all the photos and materials but i will surely write about my travel experience during this trip. Before that, i present to you this very popular and in demand dessert cafe in Bangkok. This is none other than the After You Cafe situated in Siam Paragon, Bangkok.




   As you can probably tell from the photos above, After You is surely busy. Located at the basement of the prestigious Siam Paragon Mall, Bangkok, After You is not difficult to find. The only difficult part is getting a table. We visited this cafe during Saturday night, which is one the peak periods. We were required to take a number and waited roughly 45 minutes for a table due to the crowd. Nevertheless, the wait was worth it.

The Menu

   After You is a petite corner cafe located just beside the grocer hypermarket of Siam Paragon, same floor as all the food court and food stalls in the basement level. The interior was dim and made up of little wooden furniture which gave out a warm and welcoming feeling to diners. Once we were seated, we had a quick look at the menu filled with delicious sweet treats. We decided to go with their signature Shibuya Honey Toast and a Strawberry Cheesecake Kakigori. Customers are required to make their orders over the counter and make a payment as everything is self service. You can also get your own complimentary free-flow tea in the cafe to overcome the sweetness you are about to have.

Shibuya Honey Toast--185 THB Toasted butter and caramalised bread with 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream, drizzled with honey

Strawberry Cheesecake Kakigori--235 THB Shaved ice with hidden cheesecake cubes, topped with strawberries and drizzled with strawberry sauce

    Both of the desserts we ordered were good but my favourite goes to the Strawberry Cheesecake Kakigori. It is basically strawberry cheesecake flavoured bingsu/shaved ice. I love the surprise within the center of the desserts. As you dig deeper, chunks of cheesecake will appear and it tasted heavenly with the perfect combination of sweet and tangy. The Shibuya Honey Toast was not too bad, just like an ordinary toast flavoured with butter and sugar. It was a little bit too sweet and nothing too special about it.

Happy faces after desserts!

   On a side note, we found a little food stall ( Pick & Chic) at the same place--Siam Paragon Food Hall at the basement level. The smell of its sweet BBQ chicken and pork attracted our attention. The stall serves several kinds of barbecued meat (chicken, pork, beef) as well as sausages. They displayed these meat and will only grill them upon order. We had some of the sausages and BBQ pork. Oh man, this just blew our minds a way with its sweet and savoury flavors, succulent and tender meat, juicy and crispy caramalised skin on the outside. It only costs us 15THB per stick! I strongly recommend this BBQ stall to you guys who are visiting Siam Paragon to try this out!

Grilled Tender Pork--15THB

The Menu

Tom Yam Kung (Prawns) in Coconut Cup--200 baht

Fried shrimp cake

Green Curry Chicken--130 baht

   Well, the food was average but cheap. I still think our own Thai Thai cooks better than them. I would rate it 5/10. Anyways, after dinner, i went back to this fried ice-cream stall that caught my eyes when i first arrived. I remember i saw it from some food channel, selling this unique dessert in Thailand. I got to give it a try! I had a Chocolate Almond topped with whipped cream, Mommy had the Mixed Berries with yogurt base and Cousin Yap had a Chocolate Cornflakes with milk base.

Variety of toppings, just like frozen yogurt, you can simply choose your topping

He first pour the ice-cream mixture on a piece of large, round ice (guessing it's a dry ice kinda thing) Someone please enlighten me

After mixing them well, he spreads it over as thin as possible, and scrapped it out to form a roll like this

Mixed berries with yogurt base--89 baht

Chocolate cornflakes with milk base--89 baht

Chocolate almond topped with whipped cream

We were quite lucky as there was this international food fair going on, we got to taste plenty of other snacks

Coconut something, couldn't remember the name but it was ok

my tourist shot

personally like the decor of this shop, kinda reminds me of my Europe trip last summer

   Alright, i guess this marks the end of the post. Sorry it took me so long to produce my entry. It has been a hectic month but thanks for having faith in me! I will do better in bringing more exciting news, food reviews and travel experience to you guys! Off to CNY shopping now! xoxo