Dragon-i. Sushi Zanmai, Alexis & Bak Kut Teh without Teh

During the month of January the boy had a business trip to KL and I had also tagged along for my favourite Italiannies, Dragon-i and Sushi Zanmai and the oh-so-famous Alexis! So i guess this is one of the benefits of being jobless lol.

Now that my craving for Dragon-i can be satisfied in JB, my stomach has room for new love when i visit KL again!

To be exact, we were not going to KL but PJ but the entire area is always vaguely referred to as KL by  friends and I. -_-

We stayed at North Point and by the time we reached it was already dinner time. Walked around Gardens and decided to settle down at Italiannies!

Last visit was awesome so we just went in without much hesitation. :D

Actually we wanted Zanmai but the queue was still insanely loooooooooooooong so we made do with this.

Top - Bottom:

1. Tropicale 

Turkey ham, pineapple with Mozzarella cheeses all spread over our home made Pomodoro Sauce

RM36.90 

The pizza was like Swensen's standard but considering the $$$$ paid i will never ever order this again.

2. Salmon Fettuccine

Fettuccine pasta tossed with white wine, salmon and onions in pink sauce.

Regular - RM39.90 | Abbondanza - RM59.90

They seemed to have change the salmon fettuccine in term of presentation as it looked different from what i had last time and they also increased the price! It was served in huge portion size too the last time i had it but i don't remember it being priced close to RM60.

3. Signature Seafood Risotto

A medley of seafood sautéed in white wine, with Arborio rice simmered in mussels and clam broth.

RM36.90

I have secret fetish for risotto and this was pretty good!

The next day finally it was Zanmai time!!!!!

They have awesome sushi at really affordable price! After my first visit i always wondered why i am paying so much for the same foods in JB -_-

Salmon love!

THE ABURI SALMON WAS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! 

I must have mentioned a couple of times in this blog but it's just...just....so good i can't help but shout out loud silently.

Definitely a must-order!

Anything with mentaiko will never go wrong.

Yes mentaiko again lolol.

Another mentaiko sushi :x

So pretty! Friend's order.

This oyster was super cheat one! See the next pic to find out why. 

Picture was indeed for illustration only. O.o

Also i finally visited the popular Alexis! Heard that their tiramisu is really good so definitely got to try it!

Here it is.

I would say it was very different from traditional tiramisu. It was good if judging on the basis of cake rather than tiramisu.

Mixed fruit meringue

It was good but nothing special.

Black forest (with alcohol)

Couldn't really taste the alcohols though. Not a black forest lover but the boy wanted it.

The cake was moist and good chocolate flavour.

Met some other friends for dinner and this was the must-go back then!

 

Unfortunately the boy and I were still full from the cakes hence only ordered the dumpling and a ramen for sharing.

Went Time Square the next day for some shopping!

Nothing special at TS so we had Old Town -_-

Nonetheless they have really good curry that goes with prata.

So pretty!

They might have been removed as i heard the management changes the theme from time to time and it was Taiwan theme when we were there.

Apparently the Old Town meal was not filling enough to last until dinner so we bought some in-the-mall street foods like

This

Quite juicy!

And i also saw this stall in Taiwan for real.

They have quite a number of interesting flavours.

and this.

Taiwanese sausage is one of the foods that i have zero resistance to. T___________________T

But eat in moderation lar nitrates/nitrites added to sausages are bad for health.

And lastly, this

They offered many special flavours! By many I meant more than 15 types!

And this made me literally LOL.

After TS we paid a visit to 天后宫 before dinner.

Last dinner in KL was the bakkutteh that has no teh! Coz it was dried lolol.

Veggie

Tau Kee

Not bakkut-teh but porkbelly-teh since there was no bakkut in it. =________________=

Everything was so yummy!

And now I'm thinking when should i travel to KL again for some nice foods. =________________=

how do i live without u, 8.27pm

Now i don't have to travel all the way from JB to KL just to have a bowl of Dragon-i ramen

Finally they heard me and set foot in JB!

For the first few weeks they queue was ridiculous so i didn't really want to join the craze, since it's already here and not gonna disappear in no time. 

Why queue then???! Not that we did not have other option.

True enough, the crowd died down months after their opening. Of course there was queue still occasionally but it was only during meal hours and was not as long as how it used to be.

So one fine day the boy and i just happily stepped into the restaurant without having to queue at all.

The space was not that spacious but i liked how the walkways in between rows of tables were adequately gapped.

It would have been even better had there been greater space between each table so the next table would not overhear our conversation.

Standard table settings

The same menu as that of KL branch.

Yummy stewed peanuts lol

Ordered my favourite 酸辣湯拉麵

It was quite spicy but the noodle was good. 

People with low spiciness tolerance level kindly avoid this else you might experience the tragedy of the boy, who couldn't speak and kept on sweating after just ONE SPOONFUL lolol.

炒刀削麵 was good too. Very nice fragrance, aka Wok Hei in Cantonese.

Signature little dumpling!

Totally loved the thin-skinned dumpling! But still, eat while it's still hot else the skin may harden, especially at the top part.

I believe everybody has their own special ways of eating this kind of soup dumpling. I usually take a small bite and pour the soup onto my soup spoon first then eat the dumpling followed by soup such that my tongue does not get burnt -_-. I knew they are supposed to be eaten together but the meat filling and soup are just too hot lar! By doing so i am eating the dumpling and the soup together too what just that the meats has priority to get into my mouth first lolol. I couldn't help but to save my poor tongue from such disaster my way of eating xiaolongbao just got to to be a little more tedious. T___________T

#truestory

There were lots of rumours saying how the quality of this branch deviate from that of KL branch ever now and then. After trying out I would say those rumours are rubbish as they tasted equally good, at least what I had had were more or less of the same standard. They cannot be exactly the same since they are all man-made right! 

Perhaps I was just too happy to have Dragon-i in JB hence the acceptance standard has been set lower to begin with lolol.

The only down side was that they were quite pricey, else I would be more than happy frequent them!

how do i live without u, 4.31pm 

the Sibu across the sea

2.5 months ago my family and i flew to Sibu for the first time!

It was actually my sister-in-law's hometown and we were invited to the dinner with her relatives in celebration of the wedding.

Sibu is a small town located at East Malaysia and it is not as urbanised as Johor so the 4D3N stay there was rather relaxing and enjoyable.

Da pretty sky.

Sibu desu!

This scene was rather surreal to me as they usually appeared in Google Maps but now i was seeing them through my own eyes rather than a satellite.

Part of day 1 lunch. 

For the first time i had yam in soup and the bottom one was wild boar meat!!!!!!!!

First Dinner. Totally freaked out by the giant size.

By giant i meant THIS HUGE.

:O :O :O

I called this the fruit and ice-kacang combo lolol

Super duper liked this dessert!!!!

It was red bean+yam paste in the centre and surrounded by fried biscuits with sesame with red bean filling! It was like Julies cheese crackers (the round one) and the mouthfeel was surprisingly good after frying!!!!!!

Too amazed by the creativity.

Day 2

Day 2. 

En route to sister-in-law's house. Lovely weather!

But freaked out by the table-ful of foods again O.o

These were longan! It was mixed breed coz the fruit tasted like longan but the texture was like rambutan : /

Went to a mall before lunch and found this. I just have zero-resistance when i encountered such gongcha-like beverage lol.

The foam was great but the drink was just way toooooooo sweet. It was winter melon tea so sugar level could not be adjusted. :(

Even before we could feel hungry the clock hit 12pm so we were brought to lunch again -_-

After the first day we all had phobia going to restaurant because all the foods portion was really humongous. The round plates were all with at least 30cm diameter so please imagine how huge and how much we gotta stuff them into our stomach. :O :O :O :O

Still got horrified even when we were mentally-prepared. It was just too much!

Spotted this super old school cinema nearby the restaurant.

Finally saw the Rajang river in person. It was crowned the longest river in Malaysia!

But Y U NO CLEAN??

All prepared for the wedding dinner!

Went to the swimming pool to take a look and caught this gorgeous sunset. :)

The only decent shot of me taken by the boy =__________________=

Spot the boat =______________________________=

But this time round it was a smaller boat.
STILL QUITE BIG. =_____________=

Got pomelo!!

I bet by stomach got enlarged at the end of the day. I was still feeling bloated when i was about to sleep.  T_T

Thanks to the great hospitality we had no chance to feel hungry, not even slight craving for drinks. Yes drinks, not foods. T_T

Day 3

After being freaked out two days in a row by the humongous meals arranged by the parents of my sister-in-law, we decided to settle our own meal in the third day so as not to over-eat again and again and again. =_=

We went to the largest market in Malaysia and these were what the boy and i ate: roti prata / fried mee / laksa.

Finally some normal-sized foods =_= quite cheap though! Nowadays it is almost impossible to find foods selling at RM3 in JB.

After the meal we took a tour around the market and GUESS WHAT I SAW.

Chicken wrap in real life. #fullyraw. Not the chicken wrap from Burger King of any fast food chain. :O:O:O:O

TOTALLY AMAZED.

But come to think of it the chickens were quite poor thing lar. They could not move at all so what if certain part of their body was itchy? Cannot scratch leh so quite torturing lolol.

They were also quite obedient! Just laying there quietly while waiting for their murderer to come lol.

The residents in Sibu are mostly Christian or Catholics so we saw a lot a lot of churches along the road. There was this rare temple built nearby the market so walked over from the market and climbed all the way up to the top.

GOSH CLIMB DIE ME.

But the view was quite good. Ok quite worth it lolol.

Then must take group photo. hahahahaha!

No passer-by so the awesome timer function and swivel camera screen come to good use!

Whoa non-aircon bus spotted!

Seriously i just hoped that public transport could get better. :(

Had our lunch at this beautiful cafe by the river.

First floor was full so we were seated at the second floor.

When the foods were served we got freaked out AGAIN.

WHY WOULD THE FOODS FROM A CAFE SO GIANT-SIZED???????????

Luckily we ordered only 4 items for sharing among 8 of us. Else.... we might have to skip the dinner then T___________T.

Downstair.

The crowd was gone by the time we finished our meal. 

After that the boy and I walked around the town for sight-seeing.

These retail units were really beautiful but unfortunately they seemed to have been deserted.

Bad feng shui? lol

Jetty!

I thought those standing boards showing departing time were quite cute hahahaha

Settled the afternoon at this nice cafe.

In the car en route to sister-in-law's house again.

Loved these funny shots lolol.

Aiyo so cute.

Last dinner in Sibu was a big feast still. O.O

I think my parents had hard time trying to finish them so as to show appreciations for the efforts put in.

Model of the hotel we stayed.

Before we arrived i was expecting those shop house-type of hotel as we had been told of how ulu Sibu is. Yet this hotel totally surprised us!

After we returned to JB only did i realize this Kingwood Hotel belongs to Abdul Taib Mahmud, the infamous Chief Minister of Sarawak.

Ok that's all for the trip!

how do i live without u, 11.25pm