I know, I promised a series of Hokkaido travelogue but it's tough job sorting out thousands of photographs! I NEED MORE TIME!
So in the meanwhile, let's make do with JB, okay?
The BF just suddenly decided that we should do a day trip to JB during Hari Raya PH and so we roped in Sa and DS for a eat-(grocery)shop-massage JB trip! Planned for a little jam on woodlands causeway and hence set off from home at about 630am, and reached our 1st stop of the day, Restoran Ah Piaw, unexpectedly early at about 8am for breakfast.
Running 24 hours daily, Ah Piaw seems to be quite popular, especially amongst fellow Singaporeans, but for unknown reasons. Perhaps for the convenience of being open 24 hours and just about 8 minutes drive away from the checkpoint? I don't know.
Supposedly being famous for their wanton mee, it was quickly shot down by Sa and DS for being just really normal. The abalone kway tiao does a little better with a lot more ingredients and a richer soup base as compared to some other abalone noodle places, but also at a higher price tag of RM $12 for a small bowl (with 3 slices of abalone, prawn, fishballs, wantons, fish maw and 1 small scallop)
Abalone Kway Tiao (big)
Those "abalone" slices doesn't taste real, either. That's the biggest problem.
Anyway, after breakfast, we headed over to a friend's place and lepark (chill) for a while and the BF and I gymmed for about an hour to earn all the junk we're going to eat for the day.
And after washing up (after gym), we set off for Sutera Mall for some egglet waffles, which their standard dropped, I supposed. They tasted more like the normal bakery waffles but in bubble shapes than the crisp HK egglet waffles I've been craving for. MEHH! We also picked up half a dozen of the Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart before letting ourselves loose at Aeon Big Hypermart and burning like almost half of our day's money on some basic necessities and tons of tidbits!
After that, it was time to get some lunch! And we (actually, I) decided to check out this pretty cool looking cafe called Coffee Signature, which is pretty much "built" by stacking two containers on top of each other.
Cookie Cup with Chocolate Milk
Sweet Rain (Coffee)
Mini Sunshine
Fungi & Chicken Pasta
It wasn't truly named so, but that's the most direct dish name I can give it.
Grilled Calamari
The pricing of the food are roughly 1:1 to local pricing (meaning it's actually 1/3 of our cafe prices after currency conversion), which makes it really affordable, but I really have to say that the calamari was a huge disappointment for the RM $28. I was expecting it to be those monstrous sized squid that the Japanese uses to make Ika Meshi (rice stuffed squid) but what came to our table was just normal sized, sliced squid cooked zichar style, which probably will just cost us RM $16 at any other zichar stalls.
Sweet Rain was definitely a creative way to add the sugar to your coffee (or tea), but also an extremely messy way to do it. Most of the cotton candy will not rain directly into your coffee but everywhere else on the table. Your coffee cup will also end up being extremely sticky with all the melted cotton candy residues that dripped onto it. And, the coffee wasn't that fantastic either. It's like McDonald's breakfast style of coffee.
The pasta was pretty good and so was mini sunshine (it's hard to mess up ham/bacon with eggs) but I think they probably forgot to top mine with the melted cheese. There was a wrong order sent to our table when we're done and it was full of cheese drizzle!
Would have tasted even better, I'm sure. *bitter*
Anyway, all these came up to a total of about RM $160, which was barely SGD $15 per pax!
Coffee Signature is located at 52, Jalan Serampang, Taman Tebrau Jaya, 80400 JB
After lunch, we planned to head straight to Holiday Plaza for some foot massage/and manicure, but the BF wanted to get a car wash and just so that our eagle-eyed Sa spotted one by the roadside while we drove past.
And so to spend an extra hour's wait (for the car wash), we headed to another cafe 2 houses away from the car wash shop.
Yeah, we just ate lunch and we are going to eat moreeee... So glad I've gymmed earlier in the morning.
The cafe's called Passion Food Cafe & Bakery, with a few parking spaces available (along the road). If not, it may be a good idea to leave your car over at the car wash for "parking". The car wash's signboard was stated RM $30 for sedan (car wash), and BF was charged about $80 or $85 for car wash with interior vacuuming and car waxing.
And the cafe was TONS of mad cute character french macarons!
Taste wise, they were just okay. I had to pluck out all the fondant before eating them and it seems like they're all in one (sugary-chocolate) flavour only.
It's either I've really started not liking sugar that much, or... they're really just very mediocre tasting macarons.
But of course, full marks for the cute factor!
And the BF specially requested for the "latte art" so that I can take a nice picture. HEH!
Coffee here was much, much better than what I had at Coffee Signature, I must say.
But it's a shame that it wasn't a very well done one. All the garlic and herbs flavour didn't really get sufficient time to seep into the flesh. So while the texture was still alright, they were pretty bland. The toasted bread tasted much better.
Passion Food Cafe & Bakery is located at 71, Jalan Serampang, Taman Pelangi, 80400 JB
And so with nearly bursting stomachs, we left the cafe to pick up the car (which was so clean and shiny we almost couldn't recognise it) and left for Holiday Plaza!
After looking through a couple of nail salons, I stumbled upon two sets of really cute Mickey and Minnie nail art designs on the signboard outside Unique Nail Palace and was quoted just RM $75 for either set of the nail art and RM $85 to mix both sets, which is really cheap!
Every single detail on my nail (including the Mickey and Minnie heads) are HAND DRAWN. The manicurist was also very meticulous and even took it upon herself to redo Mickey's eyes because she herself found that she has drawn them a little too small on her 1st try. Big, BIG thumbs up for her awesome service!
There were only 3 manicurists around when I was there, and they had to reject some walk in customers, so it's better to make an appointment with them before dropping by.
Unique Nail Palace is located at F56, Holiday Plaza, Jalan Dato Sulaiman, Taman Century, 80250, JB. You may whatsapp them at +6016 768 9798 or call them at 07-3310201 for appointments.
As the nail was estimated to take me about 2 hours, the rest decided to go for their foot and back massage at one of the massage parlour located at B1 (or was that L1). Not very sure of the shop name, but the BF was unlucky enough to get a very bad masseur with outright BAD massage skills. She has not only ate some of his time, but also just half-heartedly elbow-rubbed his back (for his back massage) and massaged his calves (and calves ONLY) for his 25 minutes of foot massage. Like, WHAT? Sa and DS were more lucky to get decent masseurs though, but their experiences were still only "just okay".
So, a big yes for nails, but no for massage.
The initial plan was to have Bak Kut Teh at Shoon Huat for dinner, but they were sold out for the night when we got there at 8 plus (they're supposed to be closing at 9pm). So we headed down a few shops away and decided to try out Restoran Teck Sing.
-credits to forumspp.vr-zone.net-
The restaurant has a find-your-own-table kind of free seating system, so just head right in and grab the nearest empty table when you get there. A quick check on all the occupied tables told us that their paper-baked chicken and fishhead curry are the must-try dishes.
Paper Baked Chicken
Fish Head Curry
Stir Fry Di Huang Miao (Emperor Sprout)
Hot Plate Tofu
DS and Sa liked the chicken best, while I prefer to give the Fish Head Curry number 1. And the BF chose....
TOFU. =.="
The chicken had a pretty nice herbal taste and was relatively tender and juicy, but as i'm a spicy>>>herbal person, I naturally chose the curry as the best dish of the night.
Prices were really reasonable and affordable, as the meal only set us back (in total, drinks included) by about RM $109.
Restoran Teck Sing is located at 3, Jalan Sutera 1, Taman Sentosa, 80150 JB.
Till then,
Mia Foo
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