{Review} The Brew Orchestra

Finally I got the time to pin down my thoughts about this cafe. Last visited this place was like two weeks ago when we went JB. Since JB has been quite popular with the cafe-hopping scenario, I asked my boyfriend to drive us to The Brew Orchestra.

We were quite expectant to taste the food and coffee as there were quite a number of reviews saying this place is really good (looking from their Facebook page). We were quite famished too cause we had our breakfast around 8am at the resort and did not have anything else after. It took us around 1 hour to reach this place after checking out from the resort (read about it here).

The place looks cozy and comfortable. When we visited it was around 2pm, and only a few table was taken so it’s quite quiet =) We were greeted by friendly staff and decided to sit at the long table which is right in front of the coffee bar area ~

Long table, the entrance is on the left on this picture =)
You can see there's a glass panel with the handle.

The bar area =)

Looking at the menu, they had quite a various items that are interesting. When I took the menu picture, the staffs keep on glancing to me as if I’m weirdo LOL

Because I work in printing industry, looking at their menu makes me a bit sad as I felt they can do much better for their menu presentation =(

Beverage Menu

Food Menu

Since both of us needed caffeine shot (we did not have any coffee for one day and both of us are craving for it LOL), we ordered Caffee Latte and Hazelnut Latte. Both our latte taste okay. He doesn't like my Hazelnut latte as it is too sweet for him 😄

Caffe Latte - RM12.00

Hazelnut Latte - RM14.00

As for the food, I decided to go with Egg Benedict (most recommended in the review) and my boyfriend ordered Sakura Ebi & Tobiko Pasta. We ordered Balsamic Grilled Mushroom for sharing as well (effect of being too hungry; ordered every single thing that I feel like eating) We almost ordered more but I managed to stop cause we experienced quite few times ordering too much food and end up we are always forcing our self to finish it 😆

FINALLY THE FOOD COME !!

They served the mushroom in a small bowl and next moment I knew, this is slightly over-priced. We can cook this our self too !!! Button mushroom sliced to small slices with balsamic oil and chopped condiment such as basil or rosemary to enhance the fragrance. 

Presentation wise - normal

Taste wise - normal

Portion vs Price - not worth it =( slightly overpriced?

Balsamic Grilled Mushroom - RM10.00

To be very frank, the egg benedict is just so so, not as great as many has written down on the review of the Facebook. I’m sorry to say but it really just tastes nothing special and no wow-factor 😞 My expectation was crushed but at least it makes me full (yeah just full not satisfied 😔) IMHO, the hollandaise sauce should be the wow factor, but nah I don't get it from here.

Presentation wise - okay

Taste wise - normal

Portion vs Price - reasonable

Egg Benedict Deluxe - RM22.00

Meanwhile for the pasta, it's not bad, but it's too salty for me. My other half likes it so much though cause of the overflowing tobiko (probably this is the reason why it's salty. Hahaha !!)

Presentation wise - okay

Taste wise - too salty for me 😔

Portion vs Price - worth the price ~

Sakura Ebi & Tobiko - RM 21.00

Overall experience? Was okay (thanks to the atmosphere of the cafe)

Will I come back? Probably meh as I prefer to try out different place
Worth to spend your money here? Maybe once in a while when you're feeling rich LOL

Let me know in the comment section if you have tried other items from this cafe or you disagree with me for this post =) 

Location –

19, Jalan Molek 1/5C

Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru

{Review} - Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh

There are two types of Bak Kut Teh that I've tried in life, the herbal and the pepper based soup (I think there are only two types hor, if got any others please do let me know haha)

I've been craving for the herbal-based soup bak kut teh (BKT) since I came to Singapore as I'm used to the taste when I was still at Malaysia. The BKT at Singapore mostly is pepper-based which to be honest I don't like it at all 😞😢

After long searching, lo and behold I managed to find it (thanks to boyfriend as well 😂) and satisfy my craving!! Although I'm quite sad that they don't have 肉圓 (rou yan, meatballs), but happy that they have 三辰肉 (pork belly, but if you literally translated it, three layer meat LOL sinful sia!!) I said this as the last round I went JB to have BKT, I don’t have the chance to have pork belly (you can find the review here)

We ordered for two pax with two rice (the amount of rice is too generous that I can’t finish it. In the end, almost half of my portion gone to my boyfriend so he’s eating 1 and ½ bowl 😂)

The soup taste is heavenly good (as I can’t find one like this in Singapore for the past 3 years) so I might be overly happy describing this food =p We got 10 slices of pork ribs (yeah I literally count how many both of us eaten) and few slices of  pork belly (I did not count this LOL)

Bak Kut Teh for two pax =)

We ordered a portion of youtiao (Chinese fried churros or doughnut) and a portion of braised peanuts (man I love this so much that I just keep on eating and then regretting it after I’m full cause I might have pimples on the next day HAHAHAHA)

Braised peanuts

Youtiao 

Why youtiao? Don’t ask me sia cause to be honest I don’t know but I think it just a culture thing. We will soak it in the BKT soup (yeah we literally just throwing it in every 3-4 pieces) and when it’s soaked with the soup we will eat it. The combination of the soup and doughnut is just perfect =) I don’t touch my rice mainly because of this reason LOL

As for the peanuts, it’s just a condiment too. Don’t even know the reason why people order this when they have BKT or other dish such as kway chap. The peanut texture is so soft and the taste is just nice, not too salty =)

Will I go back to this place? Definitely YES !

Is it worth the price? Absolutely YES !

Cost for this meal - S$19.40 (2 pax)

Location -

Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh

251 Geylang Road, 389309

Birthday gift - Huawei P20 Pro

My birthday gift from my boyfriend ! He bought me Huawei P20 Pro !! *Jumping here and there cause I've been wanting this phone so much*

The latest gadget that hype up everyone as this is the FIRST phone with triple camera !!

Huawei once again rock the world by releasing this new technology with their own chipset Kirin 970CPU and co-engineered their camera lens with Leica. I'm sure everyone can read all these specs online, so I don't have to elaborate more correct? HAHAHA !!

I got the Twilight color phone, which is very unique and is like one of a kind cause other phone just have one solid color. You can see the color below. Awesome right !!

Huawei P20 Pro Twilight 

Doing the opening of the box with all my heart and as careful as I can LOL The video is taken part by part and I compiled it together using Media Player ~ This video is taken using Huawei P10. (Such a Huawei fan hor HAHA) Click on the box below to play the video =)

All the pictures after today will be snapped using P20 Pro so you can see the quality of the picture =) But before that, you can see the image below that I took at NEX, Serangoon during the Avengers: Infinity War exhibition at the main atrium (YES, Avengers was the hype at this moment when I'm writing this LOL)

Do note I'm not professional photographer, so I might not be able to take ultimate awesome picture that makes you go WOW but might be able to make you a bit jealous and make you want to get P20 Pro for yourself =p

Sand & Sandals Resort & Spa Desaru Beach

As I've promised in my previous entry, here's my review on Sand & Sandals Resort & Spa. This is purely my own honest opinion and I did not get any paid for this. You might have other comments and opinions, you may leave it on the comment box below 😄

Sand & Sandals Resort & Spa Desaru Beach

I just realized that I did not snap a picture of the resort main entrance, so hereby I post a picture with two men who completed their 113 Triathlon !! (hope they are not angry with me posting their pic hahaha)

The guys who completed their 113 Triathlon from 7am !

Once we reached the lobby, we were welcomed with long queue (I didn't snap a pic on it as I was just too tired after the long journey from Sg) to check-in and it took them almost 30mins to settle per room check-in. We just need the room to put our stuff and settle down as the participants of the 113 Triathlon (read the reason why I visited Desaru on my previous blog here 😃) needed to attend their briefing and collect their race pack as well.

The long check-in at least paid off ! The resort has quite nice view and landscaping =) Below is the view before we enter the lift. There is one lift and total of 5 floors only (we gotten the top floor yay !)

Morning and Night comparison view =)

The room we booked is Deluxe Garden View and it is super spacious that I can just jump or dance around and my boyfriend can put his bicycle as well. We booked the room from Agoda, S$303.70 for 3 days and 2 nights =)

Room View

Room View (other perspectives)

My beloved boyfriend stuffs preparation for the 113 Triathlon 

The room has fridge (totally empty), coffee and tea set with 2 bottles of water. If you want to have additional coffee or tea, please top up RM3 or if you want additional bottle of water, please pay another RM1 😲

Left - Coffee and Tea set
Right - Shower amenities

The bathtub is located outside of the room, at the balcony ! They have three panels to close the surrounding that you can move around. If you worry that people might be able to peep on you, don't fret, as they actually make the side balcony with fixed panels that you can't move around =)

Bathtub ~

Room service is 24 hours. Menu is per below =)

Good stuff in the resort for those arcade game lovers. They have their own game room, from the Initial D, Time Crisis, to Basketball. They have 2 pools table as well 😁

Game room for kids and adult =)

The pool is amazing too as they have small pool for kids, pool for the adults, separate pool whereby they have one slide for the kids to play (located separately from the small pool) also best part LAP POOL !! They created the pool as if it's beach-like unlike the usual pool =)

Pool Side ~

Leaving my sandals before going into water ~

Lap pool !

The gym is so so not so amazing but I'm impressed they are using good quality machine (Life Fitness if I'm not mistaken). It's overseeing the lap pool area ~

Gym ~

The beach is pretty usual and not much wow-ing. They are quite a number of big rocks in the middle that it will be dangerous if you go swim. The water temperature was cooling but the sands is crazy hot as it was quite sunny (it was around 9+ actually)

Us capturing the evidence that we've been here ~ 😆

Nice morning vitamin-sea ~

View at night of the beach from rooftop bar

Overall experience? I would say it's decent and it's really suitable for couples and also family with kids =) Oh, and for breakfast, don't expect too much. It is just so so too. Haha.

Worth to go back? Hmm, I would say not really as I believe there are more awesome place that yet to be explored and compared =) Well unless you don't want to travel that far (if driving for 2hrs+ not consider far) and still want beach life haha.

Hope this can help you to make decision to stay at Sand & Sandals resort or not =)
Ps: all pictures taken Huawei P20 Pro =)

Resort Details -
Sands & Sandals Resorts & Spa
Address : Bandar Penawar, 81930 Kota Tinggi, Johor, Malaysia
Phone    : +607 822 2222
Website : http://www.sandandsandals.com/

Have a good day ahead peeps !!

Out from Singapore for 3 Days 2 Nights ! Desaru, Malaysia !!

Finally I gotten the chance to visit Desaru ! This visit is special for me as I am not exploring to the famous Desaru fruit farm or Ostrich farm or to see fireflies at night. It's a 3 days 2 nights trip, what did I do if I didn't visited those places which a lot people recommend?

Basically, first day when we reached Desaru, we just chilled. The second day is race day (scroll below to read more on this) with seafood night and the last day is purely chill, shopping at JB and went for a cafe tasting 😋

So, let's begin the journey !!

I shall start with what we did when we reached Johor. We decided to have lunch at Hwa Mei Bak Kut Teh (华美) which is located around 10mins from the Johor Custom. It's bit tricky though as the shop is located in a very small corner of the road.

The BKT shop)

I thought it will be those traditional served BKT (in one big hot pot with all the meat inside), but I was wrong. To be honest, I'm quite a bit disappointed as this is not as what I expected, but it's okay as the taste is still the herbal BKT that I miss so much. Three of us ordered one big bowl of pork ribs, small bowl of organs (I did not touch any of it)

Food that we ordered on for our lunch

For three rice and three drinks with all the food we ordered total spent was RM50.00 (inclusive of 6% GST), in SGD it's around $17 (conversion rate of 2.95). Below is the snap of the dish individually, see if you are tempted by them. If yes, then give it a try. No harm in trying eh =p

Big portion of Pork Ribs cost RM18.00

Preserved vege (Mei Cai) small size - RM7.00

The organs (😨) small bowl - RM12.00

After the lunch, we headed to Desaru straight away. It was quite smooth journey and it took us around 1 hour 15mins following Google maps (distance at 76.4km). Weather was good as well !

Looks cloudy on the beginning of the journey =(

The cloud decided to spread out and giving me nice view to take pic =)

So how did we end up choosing Desaru for our weekend getaway?

I decided to join my boyfriend for Desaru trip as I am rooting for him and his friend as they joined 113 Desaru Johor - 113 Triathlon (2km Swim, 90km Cycle, 21km Run) held at Lotus Desaru Beach Resort on the 5th May. I never see him in the race and decided to give it a try =) Plus I never visited Desaru, so why not !

Few pictures taken using Huawei P20 Pro.

I've labelled the picture so you can read each description below 😊

1. The banner spotted on the road before turning in to the resort
2. The start line of 113 Triathlon, the Elite (approx. 5 persons only) will get to start first
3. The beach to swim
4. 113 Triathlon route map
5. Route map for three categories (113 Triathlon, 113 Sprint, and 113 Mini)
6. Finishing line !

Although the race is at Lotus, we decided to stay at Sand & Sandals Resort & Spa as suggested by my boyfriend's cousin. It's also because I saw the room pictures from the cousin and fall in love with it. Lotus was quite an old establishment and the room might not be that clean as well, hence we decided to top up few dollars more.

After the race, the guys totally knocked out and rest for another few hours before we went to have our seafood night at Sengat Seafood Restaurant, which is 30mins (31.1km) drive from the place we stayed. Good food however location wise is totally unpredictable (we thought we were LOST!) but all in all, it's worth the experience =)

And on the very final day, we just chill at the beach/pool and checked out at 1pm and went for shopping at JB ~

Instagram worthy? 😂

I'll wrap up my stories on this entry. There are quite few stories that I will write more linking up to this trip and I'll update all the links here, so stay tuned !

»»—— To see the review for the place we stay, you can click here 😄

»»—— To see the review for the seafood place, you can click here 😄

»»—— To see the review for the cafe we visited this time at Johor, you can click here 😄

»»—— To see the review during the race of the 113 Triathlon by my boyfriend, you can click here 😄

Ceramic Tile Printing (Printcious)

Hey people !

Writing this post out to let people know that you can get personalized gift from this website !!

Maybe I'm too slow but I'm quite sure there are some who don't know about this =)

Do note that I DON'T EARN anything from promoting this website hence all I wrote is just my honest opinion =)

I was thinking what do I need to get for a gift, so I tried to Google (I've ordered a ceramic tile with printing for my boyfriend (for our monthsaries 😊) and VOILA ! This website helps me to make my decision =)

The website =) 

You can even check on the delivery status as they provide you with tracking number and the courier service they used (Aramex) is great too. Below is the sample history of my tracking. I literally don't have to worry and wonder where my stuff goes HAHAHA !

So, after 10 days ordering, I received my item ! YAY ! Side note, not really a complain, but Aramex guys definitely didn't read the special request. Requested them to avoid delivery 12-2pm but yet they still came around 1+ . Luckily I was back to office (yes, office ! cause I put my office address hahaha!) after lunch time else, I will definitely missed it 😩 Anyway, scroll below for the pictures!

Beautiful packaging =) The wrapping is so good ~

The packaging box =)

You can see below that they bubble wrap your stuff neatly, ensuring it won't cracked !! Professionally done ! Approved !! 😂😂

Bubble wrap bubble wrap ~

I will update next week on the product I've ordered as I haven't pass this gift to him (in case he opened this blog and start reading ! Although he knew that I will give him a ceramic item, at least he won't know the image that I've chosen to print out 😁)

Don't forget to get yours at https://www.printcious.com/sg if you need to send a personalized gift to your loved ones (friends/family/relatives/boyfriend/girlfriend/ you named them !) Not only they have ceramic tile, they also provide printing for t-shirt, mugs, etc. So, check them out ok 😉