Nuffnang

Friday, October 18, 2013

The Lord's Cafe, Cameron Highlands

I have been to Cameron Highlands once before this but that time, I didnt have the chance to visit this little cafe. The Lord's Cafe (was known as T Cafe previously) is located in Tanah Rata, just above the only Marybrown's outlet in Cameron Highlands (opposite Terminal Freesia). It has been highly recommended by many bloggers over the years and finally, we (my wife and I) got a chance to actually visit this cafe. (she was not as thrilled as me when we first entered the cafe :P)


This cafe is famous for its very affordable food variety but the one that everyone have been highly recommended is the scone.

For those of you who don't know what scone is, it is a single-serving cake or quick bread, usually made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and are baked on sheet pans. They are often lightly sweetened and are occasionally glazed.

Here in Lord's Cafe, you have a choice of plain scone (RM2.50) or strawberry scone (RM2.80).

We went for the plain scone as we want to get the original taste and obviously, it does not disappoint us at all. Rather, we fall in love with it. Nowadays, we would actually crave for it and hope to find a time to go up Cameron Highlands again for the scones and the charcoal vegetarian steamboat (another post another time).

My wife... she started to love the place unknowingly

Here is a look at the plain scone that we ordered, which comes with cream, butter. We also ordered hot chocolate which taste extremely nice (I am a chocolate addict) and apple pie which is just as good.

Scone with cream and butter

 Apple Pie

Hot Chocolate

This is definitely a highly recommended place for anyone who love delicious food.

The Lord’s Cafe
Tanah Rata,
Cameron Highlands
11am – 10pm
(Closed Sunday)

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Little Wok Kitchen

Food Huntz was invited to review Cornery's gourmet popcorn so we decided to head to KL Festival City to pay Cornery a visit at their new branch. You can read my take on Cornery at the following link: http://foodhuntz.blogspot.com/2013/10/cornery-popcorn-gallery-collins-take-on.html

So after doing our food blogging stuff for Cornery, I decided to have a bite at...
My lunch venue.
The environment looked pretty nice and I didn't feel like having western at that time so this seemed like the perfect choice for lunch.

After what felt like centuries (I'm indecisive when it comes to food), I finally decided that I would have this for lunch. Looks really delicious and healthy. 
This is actually one of the set lunch in their menu.
Customer service was OK I suppose, nothing memorable. I didn't intend to blog about this restaurant at first as there was nothing about it that screamed "BLOGGING MATERIAL!". That is until my order came...
My "delicious" looking order.
one can see the shocking similarity with the picture in the menu immediately. The vegetable doesn't look too inviting and God only knows where the carrots and potatoes are. To top it all off the main dish looked liked it is served in a spittoon or some other sanitation device you see in a hospital's toilet. 

After digging in, I only discovered that the carrots and potatoes are actually camouflaged with the thick black gravy which also covers the entire chicken drumstick. I could not taste the natural sweetness from the 2 vegetables as the salty taste of the gravy was very overpowering. The only other taste I notice in the gravy is the hint of Chinese mushrooms. The soup was nothing to scream about as it was only chicken stock mixed with ajinomotto and spring onion. This entire meal cost me RM 20.80 (including taxes).

My verdict, if you are willing to spend RM20.80 on  a meal, I would STRONGLY suggest that you spend it somewhere else.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Cornery Popcorn Gallery: Collin's Take on Gourmet Popcorn

Popcorn, buttery fluff of popped corn usually associated with movie theaters and couch potatoes watching a rented DVD / Blu-Ray movie on a Friday night. Now,  now, I know many of you must be thinking...

BORING!What can be so interesting about a bunch of fluffy stuff that vaguely taste like corn!? I mean it can't be made into a proper meal! Heck, it can't even be PART of a proper meal! Have anyone heard of popcorn as a side dish for your steak? No? That's what I thought.

However, as insignificant as the humble popcorn may be today, it's history is far from insignificant. The word "Corn" itself is actually used to refer to the most-used grain of a specific place. So in the biblical account of "corn" stored in the pyramids of Egypt was actually barley, in England "corn" was wheat, in Scotland and Ireland "corn" was oats and since maize was the common American "corn", it took the name and it stuck to this day. Popcorn was also an important food for the Aztecs, who used popcorn as decoration for ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and ornaments on statues of their gods, including Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility. In the not too distant past, during the Depression, popcorn at 5 or 10 cents a bag was one of the few luxuries down-and-out families could afford.

About Conery

Not too shabby for a snack eh? So, why write about popcorn you ask?

Recently, Cornery, a company whose name is derived from the word Popcorn and Gallery, invited us to review their merchandise. They first debuted on 28th May 2008 in Singapore with a mission to change people's perception on popcorn and bring a new trend of consuming popcorn outside the halls of movie theaters. How are they going to accomplish this? Well Cornery have an army of popcorn artists to create an array of interesting and mouth watering gourmet flavors. To date, they have 21 gourmet flavors in their arsenal (10 candied/sweet flavors, 10 savory flavors and the original buttersalt flavor). Flavors that caught my attention are butterscotch, banana, green tea, black sesame, chocolate,  curry, tom yam, seaweed, cheddar cheese, sour cream & onion and wasabi.
Got your attention yet?

According to their website (http://www.cornery.com), when you visit their retail outlet you can:
  1. Watch popcorn being made.
  2. Sample, pick and choose your favorite flavor.
  3. Have your popcorn packed upon confirmation of order.
So lets put these to the test shall we? 

Store & Customer Experience

I first visited their newest outlet at KL Festival City
New Cornery retail outlet in KL Festival City.
and was greeted with a big warm "Welcome!" from the staff when I walked up to the counter. They guided me on how to make an order. An order of popcorn comes in 3 sizes, Grab, Regular and Large and it will cost you RM 5 (my memory is a little fuzzy for the price of Grab. It could be RM 7), RM 10 and RM 20 respectively. You can have a total of 2 flavors for Regular and a total of 3 flavors for Large but an additional RM 1 is charge if you want to mix flavors. So with this many options you can imagine how indecisive I was. Good thing I was allowed to sample some before making an order.
The choices for the day. Flavors are rotated every month. Call to check if they have your favorite in stock.
When I finally decided, they proceeded to pack my order. In this store, I bought banana and butterscotch.

Being the busy body that I am, I went around the store to see if I can see their popcorn being made. Here are the account of what I saw.
The popcorn poppers! Corn kernels popped with hot air.
The popcorn first started out as a corn kernel and is pop into shape with the 3 white thing-a-ma-gig you see in the picture above. These contraptions uses hot air to pop the corn kernel and this is why your fingers don't feel oily when you touch the popcorn. The popped corn comes out from the thing-a-ma-gig's funnel into the basin below.
Coating the popcorn with flavor. This was the chocolate batch.
Next, the coating material or the popcorn's flavor is made in a big tin like contraption and the popcorn is coated with its flavor in the tin contraption itself. Once coated, the popcorn is poured out into another basin and left to cool. This is also why your fingers do not feel sticky after touching the popcorn. Although, your fingers will feel a little sticky if the popcorn is touched with moist hands / fingers. I also notice that they kept stirring the popcorn while they cool. I can only guess that it's to avoid the popcorn from sticking together after being coated.

I see no issues with cleanliness as the staff wore proper head gears and gloves when preparing the popcorn. The staff that coats the popcorn with flavor is even wearing a face mask. The store itself is also kept neat and clean.

Anyways, with my order firmly in my hands, I'm ready to head to their next branch in Low Yat Plaza.
Order of banana and butterscotch packed and ready to go!
First ever Cornery branch @ Low Yat Plaza
The experience is pretty consistent in this store as well except that I wasn't greeted with a big warm "Welcome!" when I walked up the counter. Although this is not a major deterrent, it would have been better if the greeting stayed consistent in all outlets as it makes Conery's customer service experience a cut above the rest. In this store I purchased the black sesame and green tea flavor.

The Meat & Potatoes

Several hours have passed since I bought the popcorn, so it's time to go into couch potato mode and enjoy a movie while chowing on popcorn. The popcorn was still crispy as the packaging keeps out ambient air as stated in Cornery's website.

Another plus is that there were no popcorn stuck together and most of the corn kernels were popped well. In a bag, I have only bitten into 1 or 2 popcorn which still had the hard texture of the corn kernel. The color of the popcorn also looked natural so I guess there is no coloring (or not much coloring is used) for the flavors that I choose.
A closer look at the popcorn.
As for the taste, fortunately it is not overly sweet. It's just sweet enough to cover the buttery taste of the popped corn. Although I wouldn't recommend finishing a pack of candied flavored popcorn on a daily basis.

I could not finish a Regular pack all on my own so I had to enjoy my popcorn on another day. The package is actually a zip lock bag so you can conveniently seal your unfinished bag of popcorn and store it for another time / movie. Even after a few days have passed the popcorn still remained crispy.

Conclusion

Cornery have definitely put in a lot of thought and effort into every pack of popcorn. From preparation to packaging, everything is carefully thought out to provide you with the best popcorn eating experience. So the next time you have a hankering for your usual junk food snacks, I would recommend you to spend that money on a pack of Cornery popcorn. Although it may not be the healthiest snack but it's definitely a healthier alternative. Compared to your bag of potato chips, Cheetos, etc, a pack of Cornery popcorn provides you with dietary fiber and it doesn't contain much fats because it is made without oil.

My perception of popcorn have definitely changed. How about yours?

You can find Cornery at the following locations:

Plaza Low Yat
Lot LG-032B
No. 7 Jalan Bintang, Off Jalan Bukit Bintang
Bukit Bintang Central
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: (603) 2110 6010
Open Daily: 10:00am – 10:00pm


KL Festival City 
Lot GK-08, Ground Floor
No. 67 Jalan Taman Ibu Kota
Taman Danau Kota, Setapak
53300 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: (603) 4144 3010
Open Daily: 10:00am – 10:00pm

Coming soon to Cheras:
Cheras Sentral (Opening Soon!)
Lot 700-BF-35, Basement Level
B-2-17 (Phoenix Business Park)
Jalan 2/142A
Off Jalan Cheras, KM10
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: TBA
Open Daily: 10:00am – 10:00pm

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Cornery Popcorn Gallery: Alex's Take

Popcorn.

Everyone's favourite snack, any time.

Gourmet premium popcorn are the craze nowadays. They comes with many different kind of flavours and they are really tasty.

The latest "Popcorn Kid in the House" is Cornery, Popcorn Gallery, a Singaporean gourmet premium popcorn outlet. 


Currently, there are two outlets, first in Low Yat Plaza and the second is in KL Festival City, Setapak with the third opening soon in Cheras Sentral soon.


The second outlet was launched last Sunday and Foodhunterz were there to have a check on these premium popcorn on an invitation by Cornery Popcorn Gallery. 

Still, to make sure that our review would be unbiased, we didn't announced our presence until after we experience everything.

The staff at the counter was more than happy to let me try each and every flavour that they have before I placed my order.



These popcorn sure tasted different compare to the other popcorn that I have came across. I got to know afterward that instead of using oil to make the popcorn, they actually use hot air to pop the popcorn. And the result are super popcorn that taste different from the others.

Here is a video of how the popcorn were popped using hot air.



Another PLUS for Cornery popcorn is the open kitchen concept where you could actually see how these popcorn are made. From popping the popcorn to adding the flavours and packing/sealing them into the air-tight bags. All popcorn are freshly made, everyday.


Their best selling flavours are butterscotch flavour, which are highly recommended but don't jump into any conclusion. The other flavours are great as well. My personal favourite would be the chocolate as they actually use dark chocolate for the flavour. As a dark chocolate lover, it got my highest recommendation.

Black sesame flavour and caramel is slightly toward the salty while banana (something very different) and green tea are particularly sweet. Grape soda and peanut were a surprise as well as we never know that it could taste so good with popcorn.

More flavours coming soon!

Another plus point for Cornery is how they actually let you mix the flavours in the pack that you purchase. (limited to Regular or Large). Regular let you mix 2 flavours while Large would let you mix 3 flavours together.


Currently, you can find Cornery at the following:
Plaza LowYat, Lot LG-032B
KL Festival City, Lot GK-08
Cheras Sentral, Lot 700-BF-35

Joe Tan, MD of Cornery Malaysia, told me that they are looking for more franchisee and if you are interested, please contact him at the following:

Cornery Popcorn Gallery
Joe Tan
Email: info@my.cornery.com
Phone: 03 - 8073 3617

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Aaron Cafe @ Taman Melawis, Klang

This "cafe" is not your ordinary cafe. It does serve coffee but the main attraction here is not the coffee.

Aaron Cafe is more of a little restaurant but on the menu, there are only one general item, Char Kueh Teow or stir-fried ricecake strip. It is more popular among the older generation of Klang (I was introduced to this place by an ex-colleague's boss) but that does not means the younger generation don't know about it.


For me, once I tried it, I always tried to come back for more.


If you guys remember about the unnamed shop that served loh yee mee and red wine misua that was featured here in FoodHuntz (link here), Aaron Cafe is basically on the same row of shop, except that it is on the other side.

The whole shop consist of the boss and his two helpers.


As with any other char kueh teow shop, the boss allow you to choose how your meal is to be cook with. Basic ingredients includes prawns, cockles, bean sprouts, eggs and Chinese chives. You can tell the boss which ingredient you want and which ingredient you don't want and he would prepare it as how you wanted. Also, you can ask for different level of spiciness.

I usually ask for a plate without cockles and prawns and here is a look of my meal on my latest visit to Aaron Cafe.


While it maybe more "greasy" than usual, it is really yummy. I don't recommend you to come for it everyday but once in a while, it is definitely worth the visit.

Address:
Lintang Gangsa,
Taman Melawis,
Klang
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