Fluffy cake and cheese tart

Some time ago, we went to Kia Lai Cake Pastry which had just opened a branch near Sunshine Square. 

Their best-seller is a seaweed chicken floss cake, and they have a variety of cheese tarts. We tried their best-seller, and selected a cheese tart.

chocolate cheese tart, RM5.90

seaweed chicken floss cake, RM7.90

The cake was extremely fluffy; the sponge was so soft that the cake could hardly keep its square shape. In the middle, between the two layers of sponge, there is a bit of jam filling, probably just enough to keep the cake from being monotone.

The cheese tart was also extremely good; I felt that it was even better than Hokkaido cheese tarts. The cheese was not overpowering, lighter than Hokkaido's. Maybe people who like a stronger cheese taste would prefer Hokkaido?

Fish head at Hameediyah's

The other day we had dinner at Hameediyah Sungai Ara.

I have always liked their beef murtabak and beef rendang, which I had ordered for takeaway or delivery before. (eh, both are beef dishes :P )

That day we were planning to order these two and some other dishes to eat with rice, but the employee there immediately asked us whether we wanted curry fish head. There were a number of fresh fish heads on display in a chiller, and we ended up ordering the smallest one for RM30 (my mother did some negotiation to bring the price down, otherwise they were planning to charge us more)

Then we selected a few other dishes, all single portions since we already had a curry fish head!

The employees seemed very happy when the fish head curry was served; they brought all the other dishes together with the curry. And then they asked us for a photo, with us sitting at the table, and a few of them standing behind the table holding a Hameediyah placard.

I told them not to post the photo online, and they said it would be only for their Whatsapp group. I’m confused as to what that means…is that an employee Whatsapp group? Is that to show their boss what they managed to sell??

Anyway, here is my own photo of the dishes:

And the bill:

The beef rendang was still the best (apart from the fish curry, which is a different category of dish), better than the lamb mysore which was also good. But the fried squid was the worst! Besides being tough and rubbery, it was the most expensive. At this quality, I wouldn't pay RM1 for it.

The mango lassi was also disappointing; it was so watered down that it was just like a milky mango drink.

So what we think is: Next time we should just have beef rendang, since it is the best and cheapest. And probably the curry fish head, if we can get that kind of price again.

Food discoveries in Ipoh

Last weekend we made a trip to Ipoh. This time we tried two new eateries.

One was Small Village Cafe, a newly-opened cafe in town, near Tong Sui Kai. We tried two of their signature dishes, and both were good.

sour & spicy fish noodles, RM19.80

mutton curry rice, RM21.90

We also tried two desserts. These were good but not that special…

barley foochuk, RM5

pumpkin sago (with ice because we ordered it cold), RM5.50

We were surprised to find pieces of pumpkin inside. We thought it would all have been blended smoothly in...

The other place we tried was a kopitiam that we had always passed by when going to Chooi Yue Dim Sum. During dinnertime, they have a rather famous western food stall (Thum’s Western Food) and also a satay stall. There are other stalls too, but these two were the ones we tried.

chicken chop

fish & chips

Both come with fries and onion rings. The fried items were very crispy indeed. We thought that the chicken chop would be deep fried (the photo showed that it was…but it may have been a very old photo), but turned out it was grilled. We saw that most people ordered chicken maryland, which was definitely fried. The western food cost around RM15 each if not mistaken.

beef & lamb satay

chicken satay

To me, the western food was not bad, but I especially like the satay. It was 80 sen a stick for chicken or beef, and 90 sen for mutton.

When ordering, we were actually considering trying the lamb, but we decided not to because there was too much fat on the lamb skewers (you can see it from the photo) So we ordered chicken and beef, five sticks each. But the seller brought us beef and lamb instead. Since both tasted good, we went back and ordered five sticks of chicken. The chicken was good too, so we were satisfied. :D I forgot to take a photo until there were only two left. :P

The only “bad” thing about the satay is the sauce; it’s not great. But the taste of the satay is good enough that it can make up for it. It would have been good even without the sauce!

The kopitiam is called New Weng Fatt. I’m definitely looking forward to going back for more satay. But we’ll skip the mutton…it’s not worth it when the beef is just as good!

A crawly insect

Because the photo theme for last week was insect. It so happened that I spotted this at my door! How kind of you to come for the photo-shoot... :P

Brown art

The photo theme for this week is brown. So I was on the lookout for interesting brown items.

I spotted this at a shop where we had dim sum for breakfast. It was a set of four, one for each season of the year. This one is for autumn.

Don't blame me

At the organic produce section of the supermarket, my parents look at a bittergourd and compare it with one that my mother has selected from the “normal” section (and weighed). The price of the organic one was of course higher, but my mother remarked that it looked similar to the ones from the normal section, and that we wouldn’t even know it was organic if not for the label.

Then my father says, “So if we take off the plastic wrap, we can take it to be weighed in the normal section?” (the organic ones are individually wrapped in cling wrap)

Is this why I always look for loopholes in code reviews / rules & regulations? It might be hereditary... :P

Worlds apart

The other day at our badminton team selection, I was talking to a few girls from the Finance team. The conversation went something like this:

Me: You’re all from Finance, right?
Them: Yes, but we’re from different teams in Finance. They are both from the tax team, but the rest of us are from different teams.
Me: I don’t know much about Finance teams, they are all Finance to me…
Them: And you are from which team?
Me: Tetra Software
Them: … And that is…
Me: *tells them about a few similar teams, each having their own SW and HW teams…*
Them: *looking blur*
Me: So to us, you are Finance, and to you, we are all lumped under what?
Them: Engineers.

LOL.

I was expecting them to say R&D. :P

Who's keeping the lady waiting?

For more than one, maybe two weeks now, this little lady has been waiting at the stairs of our office car park.

At first she was lying down on the ledge, then a few days later someone propped her up against the wall (still on the ledge).

I wonder whether the person she's waiting for will come...

If no one picks her up, I might eventually invite her to visit Captain Tetra. :P

The photo theme for this week was sculpture, so I thought this tiny sculpture would do!

A panoramic view

 

Because last week's theme was panorama.