Belated Birthday Dinner @ Sweet Lemongrass Restaurant

Not my belated birthday celebration, of course! Mine is not due in like 8 months time. Hahaha …. Like what I mentioned in my previous few post, I offered my friend the privilege to choose his favorite restaurant for this special occasion. Much to my surprise, he chose Sweet Lemongrass Restaurant at Kiulap which offers nice and decent Thai cuisine. If I were given the option to choose, I would have gone for Western cuisine at Charcoal BBQ & Grill for their lamb chops! I guess he is trying to be a gentleman to make sure that it doesn’t leave a hole on my wallet when I am paying for the meal, or maybe not?

Food was nice and it was served in less than 10 minutes after we placed our order, which is a good thing. Half of the restaurant was reserved by some customers so we were being led to a table nearby to the washroom. We ordered for two main courses dish and two appetizers. But they all came at the same time.

1. Seafood Tom Yam

Tom Yam is a kind of hot and sour soup dish in Thai cuisine. There are two types of soup bases. One is the clear type and the other one is like the one that we ordered, which is red in color. The red soup base is however much more spicy compared to the one with clear soup base. The soup base was flavorful with just the right level of spiciness but there weren’t much seafood inside the soup. Only a couple of “squid flowers” and prawns could be seen. The rest were just tomatoes and lemongrass.

2. Green Curry Chicken

This is unlike the usual red curry that we Chinese usually have. This is much more creamy and rich in the taste of coconut milk. Do not underestimate the level of spiciness. It could be pretty spicy if you couldn’t tolerate much spicy food. The Green Curry Chicken is much more expensive compared to Seafood Tom Yam. It’s B$10.00 per plate. Standard portion with standard price. Hahaha …

3. Fried Crab Sticks

I liked it better the last time I tried it with Jia few months ago. The sauce that came along with the Fried Crab Sticks is the Sweet Thai Chili sauce. I think they homemade it. It doesn’t taste like the usual Sweet Thai Chili sauce that you can usually get from the local supermarkets.

4. Pandan Chicken

They have the best Pandan Chicken in town. Pandan is actually a kind of leaf in which local people usually use to make local delicacies. They can also be boiled in water to make dessert soup. It makes your delicacies or dessert soup smells and tastes even nicer. However, in this case, they wrapped the chicken in those pandan leaves. The chicken wrapped inside the pandan was all juicy and tender despite being greasy. The waitress would ask if you want the pandan leaves to be removed before serving or the other way round. But we usually requested the pandan leaves to be removed before serving coz doing it on your own will leave your hands both greasy and dirty.

The entire dinner cost about B$32.00, which we think is not expensive considering that we both were extremely full by the end of dinner. Customer service was good and food was served real quick, which is an added bonus.

If you have yet been to Sweet Lemongrass Restaurant and happened to be craving for Thai food, do try out the place! 😉

A Lil’ Treat For Your Sweet Tooth @ Swensen’s!

The idea for this title just came into my brain out of the blue. Intended to use some other titles instead, but I liked this one better.

Had our little treat at Swensen’s, The Mall after dinner at Sweet Lemongrass Restaurant. We were supposed to go Secret Recipe for dessert instead. I had been craving for cakes lately. Probably it’s my hormones messing up with my taste buds lately. Hahaha … 🙂 I told my friend that Secret Recipe has one of the best Durian Cream Cake in town and Swensen’s has the best Durian Ice-Cream. Hahaha …. Our friend here who is a big fan of durian had been itching to try both the mentioned desserts. I am now fully convinced that he is a durian freak. So, I offered him the privilege to choose between cake and ice-cream. He chose Durian Ice-Cream from Swensen’s.

There weren’t much customers left when we arrived at Swensen’s. It’s past dinner time anyways. We were led to a small table at the corner. The waiter must have assumed that we are not there for main course meals but desserts. Hahaha …. Anyways, it doesn’t take us a long time to decide what to order. I had Merri Mint Sundae while he had Durian Supreme Sundae (as expected anyways!). Hahaha …. I don’t wanna risk getting caught burping with durian “aroma” coming out from my mouth, therefore I went for the Merri Mint Sundae.

My Merri Mint Sundae with hot Chocolate Fudge. There were two scoops of Peppermint ice-cream inside the cup. The mint taste was strong. I could even smell the mint coming out from my mouth when I burped. Hahaha …. It may not be as smooth as normal ice-creams but it still tasted good!

Durian Supreme which my friend had for himself.  See the tiny yellowish bits sprinkled all over the whipped cream? Those were tiny almond bits. You must be wondering what is the light yellowish transparent thing beneath the whipped cream. Those were attap seeds. It’s also known as palm seed, if I am not mistaken. Tasted a bit similar like Nata-De-Coco.

Swensen’s makes good durian ice-cream. They were made out of real durian flesh! This is what I called real durian ice-cream with no artificial flavoring. And the texture is smooth! Friend that said that the attap seeds made a weird combination with the durian ice-cream but I think it was okay.

Anyways, time to hit the sack as I have a workshop to attend early in the morning tomorrow.

Late Lunch @ Pizza Hut, Gadong

After having a horrible breakfast at May Fang Restaurant yesterday morning, Jia and I had a scrumptious lunch at Pizza Hut, Gadong around 2:30p.m. in the afternoon. We were both starving already. Jia picked me up from Shikai Restaurant at Batu Besurat. I thought Shikai Restaurant serves Japanese food, least did I know that it was actually an oriental restaurant! I only had a cup of 3 Sours drink whilst waiting for Jia to pick me up and it tasted a bit weird. Unlike the usual 3 Sours that I had at the other restaurants. I think something is wrong with my taste bud. Most of the food which I ate in the past few weeks seems to be horrible in my opinion.

I had my usual food when I go Pizza Hut – Baked Chicken Lasagna. Jia ordered the same thing too with a side order of regular sized Pan Pizza with half of Tuna Delight flavor and another half of Honey Garlic flavor. In the end, we both agreed that we had ordered too much food which can feed for about 4 persons. And we even ordered a pitcher of Coke. Hahaha … 😳 Lesson learnt, never ever order a pitcher of Coke unless there were at least four of you dining together.

The Coke has been diluted with plain water and it’s less fizzy than how it’s supposed to be. However, the good thing is that it’s not that sweet as the original Coke.

Jia claimed that the Baked Chicken Lasagna was undercooked but I think it’s usually that wet every time I had Baked Chicken Lasagna. We all have different taste buds anyways. You may not find it nice but some people do find it nice. Hahaha …. But I really don’t like the Garlic Baguette which came along with the Baked Chicken Lasagna. Too dry and hard.

I am treating a friend for his belated birthday dinner tomorrow night. Gave him the privilege to choose a place that he wanted to dine in but of course not at those fancy restaurants from EMPIRE Hotel & Country Club. I am not that loaded yet. Hahaha ….

But I think it would be way better to narrow down some of the restaurants for him as it usually takes him forever to decide where he wanna eat. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he tells me that he wanted to eat durians for dinner tomorrow night.

Western:
1. Charcoal BBQ & Grill Restaurant
2. Fleur-De-Lys Bakeshop
3. Buffalo Steakhouse
4. Cottage Grill

Oriental:
1. Shikai Restaurant
2. Ice Bar Shabu Shabu
3. Fun Wok Hong Kong Restaurant

Japanese/Korean:
1. Kaizen Sushi Waterfront
2. Kimchi Restaurant
3. Silla Korean Restaurant (I don’t know where is this located actually) 😳
4. Yam Yam Korean Fried Chicken

Second Review: May Fang Restaurant

It’s Sunday and I am supposed to have my beauty sleep after torturing myself with work during weekdays. But … No such luck, got dragged by a friend to attend a youth service with him early in the morning and met up with him at 8:30a.m. sharp. He even Whatsapp-ed me yesterday night and told me to meet him at The Mall entrance at 8:00a.m. sharp.*sweat*

I was starving a bit when I drove out from home to meet him at Gadong. We were supposed to have breakfast at Netzone which is nearby to La Mee Restaurant. Much to my surprise, it was closed. So, we decided to have breakfast at May Fang Restaurant instead. And it was the most horrible breakfast I had so far. 

I had been craving for Fried Kueh Tiaw since yesterday night. So, I ordered for it without second thought and it turned out to be the worst mistake ever. It took more than 10 minutes for the Fried Kueh Tiaw to be served when there weren’t much customers in the restaurant. Another customer got his food before me even though he came in a lot later than I did.

Anyways, let’s go back to what I intended to do in the first place. The Fried Kueh Tiaw looked a promising at first sight. But when you took the first bite, you knew that it wasn’t cooked properly. The taste of soy sauce hasn’t exactly sunk into the Kueh Tiaw and there is no hint of burning taste. I know it’s weird that I am looking for a burning taste but that’s what make a good Fried Kueh Tiaw. And it tasted a bit bland. I had no choice but to add in lots of soy sauce with some green chilies.

Hot Teh-C which tasted rather bland too. Tasted more like plain water with a bit of milk in it. Friend ordered for a bowl of Kolo Mee. Looked appetizing too at first sight but then I think the portion was too generous and he started to get sick after he finished half of the noodles. Hahaha …

I was pretty dissapointed with their food this morning as I was pretty impressed with their signatory Chicken Wine Mee Sua which I had last time. Customer service was horrible too but what can you expect from a local Chinese restaurant? Food takes longer time to be served when it should be out of the kitchen in ten minutes. Note to self: Never ever return unless it’s for their signatory Chicken Wine Mee Sua.

Ing, I think you should hunt for a better breakfast place the next time you come down Bandar. Hahaha … 🙂

Supper @ The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Had supper with a friend yesterday night after I got off from work. We were planning to have froyo actually but Mochi closes at 10p.m. so we had our supper at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf instead. Thank goodness that Mochi closes at 10p.m. as I am not allowed to have anymore acidic and sourish food due to my heartburn.

It wasn’t raining yesterday night even though that the weather station predicted heavy rain with thunderstorm during the night. Times Square was partly deserted when we arrived. I should have drove on my own to Times Square instead of my friend picking me up from work. There were ample parking spaces for me to try. Hahaha …

I had Hot Chocolate since I am not allowed to have any caffeinated drink for the time being. The Hot Chocolate tasted good actually despite being too milky and sweet. Had a side order Puffy Chicken Pie as I did not have a proper dinner yesterday night. Ever since my heartburn returned, I had lost appetite on some food. The Mayonnaise Fish Fillet on yesterday dinner wasn’t appealing at all to me.

My Puffy Chicken Pie. I did not finish the whole pastry but the filling inside the pastry only.

My friend ordered for a Croissant for himself. It looked pretty dry to me when he was slicing the whole thing. But he claimed that it was delicious. It’s either that I am super fussy with food or he’s fine with anything that he eats as long as they don’t taste like shit.