Gong Cha @ SS15, Subang

The craze for bubble tea continues, with the presence of another big name - Gong Cha, which has been much anticipated by the bubble tea lovers.

I was happy that I had the chance to swing by SS15 to take-away Gong Cha's drink. This was around the same time that my nieces were falling asleep in the car, while on our way home. Boy, was I not surprised to find that their eyes were wide open when I got back to the car with my drinks... They smell something fishy when the car was stopped. Hehe...

When I stepped in their SS15 outlet (this being their 1st branch, and to-date, they have their 2nd outlet opened at The Gardens), I noticed that all designs are kept the basic. Well, I thought to myself, I can bear with the appearance which may not be as fancy as their closest competitor, as long as I get to taste a yummylicious cup of bubble tea.

Gong Cha kept to its simplicity

Their list of drinks were listed on this 2 TV screens, and on printed leaflet which customers can refer to. They have a total of 28 drinks, which works out to about only 10%+ of its competitors, but I liked the fact that I will be able to try 'em all, sooner, and I thought 'perhaps, they only choose the top of their most favorite to sell in the market'..

As for their price point, they only have 1 size, with lowest price being RM3.90, up till RM6.50 for its tea range of drinks, whilst its coffee price range is between RM6.90 and RM7.50.

It offers extra add-ons at RM1 for the general add-ons which include Pearl, whilst RM1.50 for White Pearl, and RM2 for Special Form.. The last 2 got me pretty curious.

List of drinks listed on the TV screen

Staff at work, to prepare my drink

Oh, 1 thing I like about Gong Cha, for each order, the staff will double check with me on the range of ice and sugar level that I prefer.

I ordered the Gong Cha Signature Milk Winter Melon Tea for myself. I used the straw to take a sip of the milk froth... Sooo extremely smooth, and a strong aromatic taste that lingers... I then continue to sip the tea and milk on the other layers....Oh My! Tasted so good... I love the mild winter melon taste... After that, I sipped back again the milk froth, so that I can taste it for another time, before I mixed the drink together..

Gong Cha Signature Milk Winter Melon Tea. Price-RM5.90 (+RM1 for Pearl)

Here's the actual procedure of drinking the tea..

3-steps to drinking Gong Cha's signature milk tea

I ordered the Plum Green Tea for sis. Love the piquant taste that came from the plum.. Nice!.. The mild green tea taste doesn't overkill as well..

Plum Green Tea. Price-RM4.90 (+RM1 for Pearl)

After the first taste of Gong Cha, I can't keep my mind of it... and the following week, as I was driving pass through Subang, I just kept justifying to myself, that the few turnings getting to Gong Cha wasn't too much a trouble.. And so I was there on the hot burning afternoon... This was the day I saw the Gong Cha signage being put up.. :)

This time, I decided to also go for their House Special, and this time their Signature Milk Green Tea. I like the very mild green tea taste, and at the same time, the same enjoyment I had, in being satisfied over the creamy smoothness of the milk froth on the top. As I was so curious about how their White Pearl taste, I opted for this

A 'savior' on an extremely hot hot afternoon

While driving, I slowly sipped my drink, and slowly chewed the white pearls. I was informed that this was done using seaweed extract (if I am not mistaken), and this transparent like pearl has their texture that feels like thick jelly, yet, has the chewy feeling. Its not overall smooth, and I was extremely curious of this, that I decided to take some out, to check it out, when I arrived at my destination.

Look at how cute these White Pearls are...

Yes, Gong Cha will definitely occupy a special place in my heart. ^<>^

GONG CHA

Gong Cha
SS15 and The Gardens Mall
Tel : 03-5638 3328

Website : www.gong-cha.com.my

The Vanilla Place @ Empire Gallery, Subang

After reading much about this little cafe that opened at Empire Gallery, I can't wait to try it out myself. The 'Tea for 2', available from 3-6pm, seems like the most worth it deal in town, priced at RM18.80. Just wanted to point out that it seemed a little misleading from the menu as it states 'Tea for 2 (RM18.80 per pax)', but it's confirmed that RM18.80 is for the entire set, meant for 2 pax.

Well, once seated, I first ordered the 'Tea for 2'... Its true, it has a long list of mini delicacies, however, of the 13 different types of dessert/finger food served, the quality of it, really wasn't there. Perhaps the most worth it is the tea for 2 pax. The excitement of being presented the mini items ended as soon as I taste the food.

Tea for 2. Price-RM18.80

All the food from the 1st tier of plates wasn't quite edible, to me. The mini cupcakes were not at all moist, and topped with hard sugar icing swirls, the cookie doesn't taste good, and so was the macaroon. It doesn't have the delicate fine taste a macaroon should present.

1st tier of plates - OUT...

The 2nd tier - mini scones was absolute dry, mini brownie was alright, and was topped with overwhelming amount of cocoa powder, which choked us, and as for the 1 big size of strawberry dipped in chocolate, nice in size, but taste sour. The chocolate helps us from finishing the strawberry.

2nd tier of plate - also OUT..

3rd tier of plate was the most decent of all.. The tomato bruschetta was real tasty, topped with lots of cut tomatoes, and avocado, the tuna sundried and tomato sandwich was alright, however the mini pie and mini quiche was just normal, with soft crust. The thing I most not like was the top hat, which has a real thin skin, with finely shaved carrots.

3rd tier - was ALRIGHT, compared to the other 2 tiers

In terms of satisfaction, thank god that we got it from the Spaghetti Carbonara as it was really tasty and good. It has really lots of cream, and loved that each bite of spaghetti, or the ham or mushroom has sufficient cream to go with it. Yumms.

Spaghetti Carbonara. Price-RM14.80

My niece went to the cake display shelf, and as much as I tried to convince her to choose Pavlova, she still wanted the Oreo Cheesecake.

Qi taking her pick

The oreo cheesecake was alright, though it won't be my absolute favorite. Its a very dense texture piece of cheesecake, with a little oreo here and there. It also has this thick chocolate that served as the base, and by the side.

Oreo Cheesecake

In terms of the right cosy atmosphere, The Vanilla Place will be the right fit.

Cosy

Spot this cafe in the middle, while walking towards Toy 'R Us.

The Vanilla Place
Level 1 - Empire Shopping Gallery,
Subang Jaya
Tel : 03-5022 2198

Oriental Pavilion @ Jaya 33, PJ

A dinner arranged by my dear friend, Jo Har, for a few ex-colleagues to have a meet up with the Rock-Queen, Sio Chian (our ex-boss), in conjunction with her new sports car.. Hehe.. what a reason, to meet up. As I suggest, we should go to further destination, like Seremban, for BBQ crab next (also to celebrate a few new cars ^^ )

A little waiting took place during the dinner, and Ms Tan filled us by sharing on 'feng-shui' and the '5 Elements', talk. Interesstting...

Sio Chian showing off her 'green' new camera.. Whatever possible, she now uses 'green'..

Just a little thing would have gotten us confused... doesn't really fancy the menu that goes by partly cost indication by pax, and some by portion.

Despite that, we really liked the Chinese food served here, cos I hear a few 'xxx is nice' throughout the dinner.

The dinner started with this serving of yummylicious roast chicken. The chicken was roasted till real crispy on the skin part, while remaining its tender juicy meat inside.

Roasted Chicken. Price-RM76 for whole chicken

Loved the beancurd, with slightly crisp skin, holding the soft yet 'compact' texture. These beancurd were laid nicely on top of lots of spinach, topped with lots of mushroom.

Braised Imperial Beancurd with Spinach. Price-RM24 per portion (we ordered 2 portions)

This vege we ordered seemed to have some similarity as the beancurd dish. The spinach was cooked till just nice, and we get this really soft spinach, cooked in imperial sauce. Enough for all us to get quite a big bowl.

Spinach. Price-RM48

The 'nai pak' was a favorite too. Just simple stir fried with garlic, we love simplicity of this dish, and ordered a 2nd serving.

Nai Pak. Price-RM20 per portion

By the time we were served with this longevity noodle, we were all full, and thus couldn't really finish. It was fried with mushroom, crab meat and vege. I love the taste of this too.

Noodle. Price-RM20 per portion

Despite some of us that were really full, we decided to add this order - Baked Otak-Otak Cod Fish in foil. Glad we did. Just love how aromatic this dish was, baked together with otak-otak. The cod fish was very fresh, and a bite combining this and the otak-otak, absolutely yumms..

Baked Otak-Otak Cod Fish in foil. Price-RM16 per pax

These were all that made it the other night. Hope to have more ex-colleagues join us in future.

Love the color combination of those standing... :)

While we continued chit-chatting, noticed that phenomenon of IPhone! As ALL OF US (except 1), are IPhone users... We respect choice by different individual, but we suppose to see another converting to IPhone soon..

Check out the fanciful IPhone covers (and how the Nokia seemed so out.. hehe)

Took the opportunity of the 2 birthday girls, and some Red Velvet that I brought, to sing this 2 lovely ladies a birthday song..

Candice & Sio Chian. Have a great birthday celebration.

Hope to catch up again real soon.

Oriental Pavilion
Lot P104, 1st Floor, Jaya 33,
3, Jalan Semangat, Section 13,
46100 PJ
Tel : 03-7956 9288

The Street Cafe @ Sunway Pyramid

Have long heard of this little cafe serving Korean food at Asian Avenue @ Pyramid, and finally got to try it last week. Reaching during lunch time, it was all crowded, and we literally got the last table available.

I liked the concept, which ties in relatively well with the name, STREET CAFE, as in fact, you get the feeling of eating at a street.. (better still, air-cond street ^^)

Busy lunch crowd

I often get a little over-excited when visited a new place, for the first time. Flipped through the menu and decided on this few items.

One thing that looks extremely tempting to us was the Korean Rice Cake in chilli sauce. We opted for the original version. This was served piping hot, and we had to be extremely careful while taking each bite. Extremely chewy texture and was spicy. Just the right portion for us.

Korean Rice Cake in Chilli Sauce. Price-RM5.90

We took the Korean BBQ chicken mixed rice with kimchi tuna soup set. By the time we finished the rice, it has still remained super hot. With the chicken, there were beansprout, carrot, dou miau / pea shoots, mushroom - enough things to eat with the rice. This rice came with sweet, and slight spicy sauce. Overall, we didn't quite like this.

Korean BBQ chicken mixed rice with kimchi tuna soup set. Price-RM17.90

The kim chi soup which was part of the set, was really nice... Yes, everything was basically piping hot... It has the right level of spiciness, and lots of tuna, which tasted like chicken, to chew on, and lots of kimchi. Liked this...

Ordered the Street BBQ chicken set, which came with rice, kimchi and soup. This was ordered for my nieces, but they 'noticed' even the very slight spiciness, so we ended up having this. The chicken was marinated well, and was juicy.

Street BBQ chicken set. Price-RM10.90

Me, sis & my nieces

Street Cafe offer value for money Korean food, and is the first and only place offering HALAL korean food.

The Street Cafe
Lot 197, 1st Floor,
Asian Avenue ,
Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall,
3, Jalan PJS11/15, Bandar Sunway,
46150 PJ, Selangor
Tel : 03-5632 9822

Website : www.thestreetcafe.com.my