“A morning coffee is my favorite way of starting the day, 
settling the nerves so that they don't later fray.” ― Marcia Carrington 

My mom is an avid fan of tea. She’s a tea-holic, she actually survives on tea, really. She could go days without rice and proper food but could only last a few hours without a cup of steaming hot tea. So naturally I was never raised to be coffee lover. The first time I tasted coffee was probably when I was 10, at a relative’s house and they served us hot black coffee (yes, to the kids as well) and I remember thinking that the taste wasn’t anywhere near good. 

Little did I know the day will come when I will be finally introduced to good coffee, become obsessively dependent on them (oh those sleepless mombie nights and sleepy mombie days) and the rest they say is history. 

[Mombie: a mommy who is a zombie, weee!]

Coffee; in support of mommyhood since forever (so my mom preferred tea but to each moms their own caffeine, yeah?) Happy International Coffee Day, coffee lovers all over the world! Thank you for existing in our lives!

"If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you." - William Gladstone

 

 

Are you hooked on caffeine? Then we’re on the same boat. Every single day, I can’t seem to get them (tea or coffee, no soda please) out of my mind until I finally have some. These days I try to limit my intake to one cup per day (the keyword is TRY) so I always ensure the one cup that I reward myself with shall be a damn worthy cup of caffeine.

 

With that being said, calling all JOHOREANS! Have you been to Chaiwalla & Co? You haven’t?! Where have you been for the past two months, guys?! Still sipping coffee at Starbucks? Still getting your tea from Chatime? They’re super rich already, guys. It’s time to support a local business.

 

Head over to Chaiwalla & Co! It is a container café, a real cool concept that is, located in JB town at Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, near Hua Mui and Kin Wah restaurants, or for you more urban locals, it’s somewhere near IT Roo and Roost Café. They serve coffee and tea, the kind where you get to choose your flavour, toppings and sugar levels, but my favourites are their signature Thai Milk Tea and Vietnamese coffee. Oh you really have to give those a try! Oh and for foods, they have homemade pastries and brownies. Real yummy too.

Even if you're not a fan of caffeine, just go for the windy, relaxing ambiance, trust me. 

 

 

 

They also have Kodomo Chai, a choice of milk tea or flavoured milk, for your kids! Hadi was having Strawberry Milk Tea here. He love it there. Give him his drink and iPhone, and he'd be a happy camper!

As the Turkish aptly said, "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death and as sweet as love." Love love.

 

 

To avoid disappointment, please note their operating hours: They’re opened Sunday to Thursday 10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10.30 a.m. to 1 a.m. (they take a break between 6.30 to 8.00 p.m. for dinner and prayer). Do follow them on Twitter: @ChaiwallaCo, Instagram: Chaiwallaco and Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/chaiwalla.co

 

 

If you follow me on Instagram, you’d know that I’m quite a regular there; you can find me and my little family there on most weekends. The main man is the husband's friend so that explains. Hehe. But this is not a sponsored post, as always, I just give credit when credit is due! I’ll be away in KL this weekend but you still probably will see my husband chilling around there. He’s there a lot they should give him an apron already! Heee!

 

“Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.” ― Sydney Smith, A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith

I’m no longer a Chatime virgin. We had our lunch at Papparich and saw the newly-opened Chatime branch in Taman Sutera. It was raining and hubs had to make another pusingan, just to satisfy my curiousity. My girls from Twitter recommended so many flavours, Strawberry Au Lait, Banana Milk Tea and what not, but I remembered someone told me that if I’m a hardcore Teh Ais fan, for my first time, I should try their Pearl Milk Tea.

Unfortunately for me, their Pearl Milk Tea is not my cup of tea. Mungkin juga sebab aku tak pernah berkenan sangat any kind of bubble tea but really, aku rasa there’s nothing special about their milk tea. I’ve tried so many bubble milk teas before and they all, including this one, taste the same, which is, biasa-biasa saja. Maybe next time I should try their other flavours. But as far as Milk Tea is concerned, Teh Tarik Susu Lembu Azmi Corner is waaaaaaay better.

‘Drink within 2 hours for best taste’. It’s been 3 hours since time of purchase and I think the rest of it will just go down the drain. No offence, Chatime. Mungkin aku yang kampung, forever Teh Tarik crew.

Yeah, I’ve popped my Chatime cherry. And I was not impressed.

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” - Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, in Pavarotti, My Own Story

The husband and I are always in the look for new places to dine out at, and especially for coffee joints or dessert café. We love lounging around drinking coffee and indulging in creamy, chocolaty dessert, OK the latter is just me, but yeah, we’re Italians in that sense. Ngeee.

So anyways, after my severe abdominal pain drama which turned out to be just severe period pain and nothing serious, hubs decided that I needed a good lepak session (he must have thought I was suffering from stress ulcer or something) and before picking up the little one, off we went to the town looking for coffee. If you’re a Johorean or you’ve been to JB, you’d know that save for Roost the cool juice bar, Hua Mui the legendary coffee shop and many other small Chinese kopitiams, hipster-looking boutiques, fruit stalls, and  Pasar Karat at night, JB town is pretty much a dead entertainment scene. You want better places to hang out at? You gotta go to Bukit Indah, Nusa Bestari or Austin areas and yes, the one and only Chatime in JB is in Austin, which is quite far, which explains why I am a Chatime-virgin. 

So anyways, (berapa banyak anyways daaa), we wanted to have coffee at Hua Mui but realized that yes, Hua Mui closes at 6, they’re hip like that. Not. And there it was, right before our eyes, one newly opened, eye-catching joint, Roost: Repurposed & Recycled. Hubs is adventurous when it comes to food, so yeah why not. This Roost is related to Roost Juice Bar (which is cool and cozy but not very kids friendly ‘cause it’s dark and has too much deco and stuffs around) but unlike the latter, this one doesn’t serve juice and finger foods, it serves coffee, yogurt and they have a salad bar. YEP! SALAD BAR. If you’re like my husband, who has now turned into a somewhat healthy eater (only indulging in greasy, creamy food once in a while. Read: BORING), you’d love this joint. From the salad bar, you get to choose your leaves, toppings and dressing and they’ll whip it up for you. Pretty much what I could do at home. Ngeh. Dessert lover like me, bring your own cakes. 

But I have to say that the salad was really good. Not warm chocolate muffin with vanilla ice cream on top kind of good, but good. And the deco, oh wow, the deco, my hat is off to the founders! They have really put so much thought into making the place feels warm, welcoming, and at the same time looking cool and intelligent. 

These are all iPhone pictures but if you wanna see more quality pictures, I bet you can google it and you’d find a Chinese girl’s blog filled with DSLR pictures of the joint because when we were there, there was this couple who wouldn’t stop clicking their camera, so yeah, I haven’t tried googling but I bet ada. Heh.

In the midst of pretty-much-dead JB town of old school Hua Mui and mamak stall Azmi Corner (which serves the best killer Teh Tarik Susu Lembu by the way), Roost is undoubtedly a breath of fresh air. 

"Cookies are made of butter and love." - Norwegian Proverb


Kamu penggemar pencuci mulut?
Kamu penggemar pencuci mulut berbentuk kek?
Kamu penggemar pencuci mulut berbentuk kek dan biskut?
Kamu penggemar pencuci mulut berbentuk kek dan biskut nan lazat?

Then you MUST, MUST, MUST head over to AYIN’S KITCHEN and make your order. Bintulu people are luckier as you guys can order cakes as well! But for the rest of us penggemar pencuci mulut berbentuk biskut nan lazat, Ayin’s cookies are delivered nationwide!

This is not a paid ad and although Ayin is obviously my bestie, I can guarantee that her cookies are simply divine. My personal favourite is the Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, oh my! I just ordered another 20 large chunky pieces (RM2.50 per pieces), yes I’m that lahap.

So what are you waiting for, penggemar pencuci mulut berbentuk kek dan biskut nan lazat? After all, they did say that "a balanced diet is a cookie in each hand!" ;)

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY #19

"Of course life is bizarre, the more bizarre it gets, the more interesting it is. The only way to approach it is to make yourself some popcorn and enjoy the show." - David Gerrold

Sungguh hebat perniagaan bertih jagung semata-mata yang boleh menjadi begitu gemilang dan digilai ramai. Orang yang mudah terpengaruh dengan pop culture seperti saya tentunya terpaksa membeli apabila berpeluang bertemu bertih jagung gemilang, si Garrett di Temasek semalam.

Ada makhluk kenit yang tidak sabar. Barangkali turut terpengaruh dengan pop culture. Oh atau mungkin terkenang caramel popcorn dari Cinemax tempoh hari.

Disebabkan tidak sabar, kakak Garrett memberi sample cup kepada makhluk kenit.

Makhluk kenit tentulah suka. Manis!

Saya rasa ia agak overrated. Sedap memanglah sedap tapi kegemilangannya terlalu berlebihan, apatahlagi bila melihat orang beratur panjang di KLCC sana. Caramel Crisp flavour terlampau manis untuk saya tetapi Caramel Crisp Macadamia memanglah lazat sangat. Sekian.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY #18