LOVE LIFE, CHERISH MOMENTS

   I am always a firm believer of quality living. It is not about living luxuriously, enjoying exclusive items and designers' brands, but it is all about treating yourself the way you deserve, living the moment and enjoying the beautiful world God has created for us. After a long day of work, i will make sure i get some me time, be it making a cup of soothing chamomile tea or simply watching my favourite reality TV show would end my day in a perfect note. Some days, when i'm feeling a little more energetic to drag my butt out of the house, i would also treat myself with some good and hearty brunch, to make my rest day even better. Today, i'm going to share with you a new found brunch cafe in Publika, Mont Kiara that has taken over Instagram with its minimalistic interior and hearty breakfast items--Pan & Tamper.



   Located within the vicinity of Solaris Dutamas, this white cafe is easily spotted at the corner lot of Block D1, on the ground floor. I visited this place with Mr J and Zheng when she was in town for a short getaway. We were warmly welcomed by a team of energetic young people, and were led to our table with their simple menu. Pan & Tamper likes to go for simplicity in the menu, offering a few items on each section--brunch, lunch, desserts and beverages. We were tempted to try their pasta but decided to safe it for our next visit. Hence, we ordered their popular dishes like I'm A Fun-Ghi, Pan and Tamper Bake Your Egg and of course their Cave Man Breakfast. For the drinks, Mr. J and i went for a black and a white coffee--Long Black and Flat White.

I'm A Fun-Ghi--RM 28 Potato rosti crafted with an assortment of wild mushroom sauteed with thyme, accompanied with cooked baby spinach and topped with 63 degree Celcius egg.

Pan and Tamper Bake Your Egg--RM 28 Chicken meatballs, baked egg, piquillo peppers, assorted beans, toasted almond, sauteed spinach and yogurt , served with 2 pieces of wholemeal toast.

Cave Man Breakfast--RM 28 Grilled turkey ham and chicken sausage, sauteed onion and baby spinach, baked cannellini beans, fried potato rosti and egg of your choice (scrambled/sunny side up/poached), served with wholemeal toast.

Flat White--RM 10

Long Black--RM 9

#flatlays

    As you can probably tell, Pan & Tamper is being real cheeky when designing their menu. Each and every dishes here have their own unique and hilarious names. For instance, I'm A Fun-ghi? I'm a fun guy? Jokes aside, the execution and presentation of this dish is totally restaurant level. This vegetarian dish is designed beautifully, combining all kinds of earthy flavours such as potatoes, mushroom and eggs, each component bringing different texture and taste, producing a sophisticated and eye pleasing dish. We would prefer the dish to be warmer and less greasy. My baked eggs was top on the notch too, with another unique flavour combinations. I love the addition of yogurt as it offers acidity and a tinge of freshness to this heavy dish. However, i would love to have beef balls instead of chicken beacuse white meat doesn't go well with tomato base. Lastly, Mr. J's Cave Man Breakfast was another interpretation of the famous Big Breakfast, with little twist on its presentation. Coffee was good, with strong acidity and fruity body. Flat White was executed beautifully, with the right foam and art. We couldn't complain much about the caffeine.

Wide selection of unique cakes for sweet tooth

   Overall, Pan & Tamper proved to be a significant force in the cafe scene of KL, with its consumer friendly pricing, lovely service and comfortable dining ambiance. I would definitely return to try out their pasta dishes. Till then, xoxo.

More Information~
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/panandtamper/
Address: 9, G3, Block D-1, Solaris Dutamas, Mont Kiara.

Greetings dear readers and hello to summer people! To all the Malaysians, i guess you would understand how i feel right now. Although they say it's summer all year long in this country, but why do i feel extra hot recently? Anyone here share the same complain as i do? It is like i just showered 5 minutes ago and once i settled down on my study desk, i start to perspire. God, please send some rain onto this ground! Anyway, while waiting for the miraculous rain to fall, why not have a break over some heavenly chilled desserts? Today, i'm going to share with you guys 2 cafe that serve absolutely delicious ice-cold desserts, perfect for a steaming hot summer day! Enjoy~

1. Caffe Bene, Solaris, Mont Kiara

Strawberry Bingsu (small)

Matcha Bingsu (Small)

Blueberry Yogurt Walnut Waffle

    We really loved our bingsu to the max! Let's start off with the Matcha one. It is basically a shaved ice, flavored with sweetened milk, topped with red bean paste, nuts and a scoop of green tea gelato and topped again with a mountain of whipped cream. I like the subtle flavor of the milk within the refreshing ice, the nuts that gave a wonderful texture to this desserts and most of all, when you mix the entire thing together when the gelato is melted, produced such a great combination of flavors. The strawberry one was not bad as well. The slightly sweetened berries worked well together with icy-cold berry gelato. These bingsu would tasted better if the shaved ice was more refined. The walnut waffle was ordinary, nothing too inspiring.

  Overall, Caffe Bene has some signature something to offer their customers and their desserts items were good. However, it is definitely overrated and not worth to queue and wait for an hour for a table here. Anyway, i was pleased during my visit here and would love to see more new items and surprises from Caffe Bene in the future.

Contact Info~
Website: http://caffebene.com.my/

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2. Inside Scoop, Bangsar


   
   Well, next up, i'll be writing all about this ice-cream cafe in Telawi, Bangsar--The Inside Scoop. The Inside Scoop is run by a few chaps who share the same interest in making tasty yet healthy ice-cream to serve to the public. They claimed that the ice-cream produced here uses only the finest ingredients without any preservatives. T'was a day when yours truly really craved for waffle and ice-cream, hence, we went to this cozy little cafe in Telawi, Bangsar to satisfy my cravings. (Blame the hormones!) We ordered a waffle with 3 scoops of ice-cream (Green Tea, Blueberry Yogurt and Cranberry XO). All these flavors are under premium group, so we had to top up RM 1.50 for each scoop.

Waffle with 3 premium ice-cream--RM 26+

Cranberry XO

Blueberry Yogurt

Green Tea

   Well, what else can go wrong with these combination man! Their waffle was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. It is slightly salty so that it can make a good contrast against the sweet ice-cream. My personal favourite would be Cranberry XO as it is special, perfectly balanced and memorable. Its liquor's level is just optimum to boost up the creamy base and sweetness from the cranberries. Next, the green tea one also conquered my palate with extremely smooth texture and strong matcha after-taste. Last but not least, the blueberry yogurt was alright but not memorable.

   To those who love sweet, chill and colourful desserts, Inside Scoop is definitely the place to visit. I am quite happy with the service and food, but i find the pricing is slightly on the high side. Nevertheless, it is still worth a try, especially during summer season!

Contact info~
Address: 9, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insidescoopkl

   There are times in life, when you are having a really bad day in office, a really bad fight with your spouse, a really horrible exam results in school, a really misfortune incident that happened. We all had our bad days. It is in times like this, i would just distance myself, have my own quiet time, sorting out my emotions. It would be great if i could munch on some comfort food of my liking. Perhaps desserts, perhaps the good old Western brunch or just anything loaded with sugar, carbs, salt and fats.

   Today's topic is all about my favourite comfort food. Introducing brunch from GOOD Friends Cafe and also Korean Dak-Galbi from Uncle Jang Restaurant!

1. GOOD Friends Cafe, Subang SS15



   Located at the center of the ever packed SS15, GOOD Friends Cafe is a staple to college and university students around the vicinity. It truly lives up to its aim--serving good food, for good friends' gathering. It is not hard to find this friendly and bright cafe. It is situated along Jalan SS15/8A, just opposite INTI College, on the same street as Asia Cafe, next to 99 Mart. Parking would be a problem, but i assure you, the food is worth the fuss.

   We ordered a Chicken Bolognaise, GOOD French Toast and Eggs Atlantic as mains. For drinks, i had a cup of cappuccino as usual while my friend had a cup of Mocha.

Chicken Bolognaise--RM 15 Chicken with vegetable slow cooked with fresh tomatoes served with spaghetti.

GOOD French Toast--RM 15 Thick cut brioche in eggs with caramalised banana, fruits and toasted almond.

Eggs Atlantic--RM 15 Smoked salmon on scrambled eggs with toast, topped with wasabi mayonaise sauce.

   Generally, the food served here was pretty decent. I especially love my Eggs Atlantic, simply because the balanced flavor with a tinge of surprise element. Smoked salmon and egg on toast is always the typical combination for Eggs Atlantic. However, the unique surprise here was the instillation of wasabi mayonaise sauce. This addition totally elevated the entire taste of the dish, making it an ejoyable and memorable item. French toast and chicken bolognaise were equally good as well.

Cappuccino

Mocha

   Despite scoring high on the dishes, GOOD Friends Cafe disappoints me greatly on their coffee. I did not enjoy my cappuccino at all because the caffeine tasted very rough and astringent, the milk was not silky enough to overcome the pungent coffee flavor. Mocha was pretty much the same as well, more like a hot chocolate than a mocha. The coffee art lacked effort and creativity too.




   Despite the hits and misses, i would still consider GOOD Friend as a pass for comfort food restaurant. The price was average and affordable. Service was average, we waited for a bit too long for our coffee to be delivered, perhaps due to the busy crowd. Nevertheless, the simple comfort food and cozy, comfortable ambiance is still worth a revisit!

Contact Info~
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodfriendsrestaurantandcafe
Address: 15 & 17, Jalan SS15/8A, Petaling Jaya

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2. Uncle Jang Korean Restaurant, Solaris, Mont Kiara




   Alright, next up, one of my favourite cuisine has got to be the Korean food. This time around, i went to try out something other than the usual Korean BBQ, sets and tried out the Dak-Galbi from chain shop Uncle Jang Korean Restaurant in Solaris instead. For your information, Dak-Galbi is actually a popular Korean dish, consisting stir-fried marinated chicken/pork/beef in a chili pepper paste, along with variety of sides such as cabbage, sweet potato, rice cake and more. It is totally up to the Korean restaurants on how they want to customise their Dak-Galbi. Here in Uncle Jang, we were offered Dak-Galbi in 3 spiciness levels, ranging from normal, moderate and super spicy! For sides, they offer the usual ones, plus ramen, rice, cheese and more. Customers can customise their own Dak-Galbi from spiciness to sides. Complimentary cold lettuce, kimchi, onion, sauce and water will be provided and is refillable.

   Without further delay, i'll let the photos show you the process of making an absolutely delicious Dak-Galbi:

Firstly: chili pepper paste, cabbage, sweet potato and more will be stir-fried in a hot stone pot. These are the standard items in a Dak-Galbi set.

The staff will help you with the cooking

Or you could try it out like myself :)

Look at the amazing color!

We ordered extra ramen and cheese as add-ons

Lastly, sprinkled some macaroni cheese and we are done! A perfect comfort food for the wounded soul!

    Alright, that concludes my post for this week. Now you know what is my favourite comfort food and where i would head to in case i am feeling a bit under the weather next time! If you share the similar taste in comfort food, i hope this would help you next time when you are having a sad time. No matter what is your worries or problems, believe that nothing is forever, so does suffering. Hang on there peeps! As cliche as it sounds, there is always a silver lining! All the best on the coming week! Let's endure the challenges together (with good food)! :) xoxo