JUST WANT COFFEE @ The Garden

Million thanks to the Johor local friends otherwise I wouldn't have the chance to visit this nice cafe. This cafe could be one of the good choices to have high-tea at.

Just Want Coffee;The Garden was previously a show house but has been renovated into a cafe by the boss at JP Perdana, Johor Bahru. From the news obtained from my friend, the concept was aimed at attracting visitors regardless weekdays or weekends. Unexpectedly, we got there just few minutes later than the cafe opened on the day, yet we had to queue outside to be served.

While waiting to be seated, my dear buddy and I had gone for some photo-shooting session. Well, why not to capture some string of memories?! :)

Back to the main points of the blog post, let's continue with the review of the foods. We had ordered blueberry cheese cake as I opined that it will not turn out to be a bad decision for ordering this flavour of cheese cake as the first trial in any cafe. The waitresses kept recommending tofu cheese cake, perhaps I shall try it next time.

Ice cappuccino

hot cappucino

Latte

 The tiramisu has a layer of ice cream instead of the normal mascarpone cheese layer. The tiramisu seems like have put some red wine as it contains some aroma of red wine. I would prefer it to be in larger size as the price of this tiramisu is quite expensive.Notably to mention that the best Tiramisu I had eaten before is at Bel Pasto Italian Restaurant (p/s: the Tiramisu is in larger size and delicious; costs only RM8.90).

Overall the exterior of the cafe is very big yet the interior is considered packed and less spacious. It could be providing a feel of ' congestion' when the cafe is crowded.  Compared to KL cafe, I would say the price of the food here is considered as reasonable. The coffee (specialty coffee) tastes not bad and tiramisu which is recommended by my friend does not fail my expectation. A suggestion: Have more pastry please.

JUST WANT COFFEE vs CHEELICIOUS @ JB
I would opt for the second one, as the cheese cakes there had lingered in my mind most of the time :)

Tame Your Furious Skin with Luxola De-stressing Kit

Have you ever noticed that you tend to have more breakouts when overloaded with stress?According to most health articles, stress causes our body to produce cortisol and other hormones that stimulate our sebaceous glands to produce more oil. Subsequently, the oily skin is more prone to skin problems creation.

Okay, now let's see what drives me nuts about my furious skin...

As you can see, when our skins are furious,

 there are a lot of skin problems that could be caused by stress included:

• seborrhea (scaly red skin) or dead surface cells and scars
• dark circles under eyes
• breakouts i.e. pimples (I dislike the most)
• freckles, dual-color (skin has different tone color i.e. uneven skin tone)
• comedones (blackheads and whiteheads)

The saying goes, 'Never trouble till troubles trouble you.', but what if stress becomes part and parcel of our lives?Well, it is impossible to avoid stress completely, there are approaches to handle stress better, and subsequently improve our skin problems.

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That's the doubt keeps haunting me all this while...

Showing you the best solution brought by Tammy & Luxola Malaysia!

This beauty/skin solution kit differentiates itself from others by having a facial product which has recently won Harper’s Bazaar Beauty Hot 100 2012 Award matching with the exquisite Emporium Candle housed in a luxurious glass topped with 24 carat gold decorations. The Alpha-H Liquid Gold Smoothing and Perfecting Mask (suitable for all skin types) consists of 15% Glycolic Acid to exfoliates dead surface cells. The Manuka Honey, Lavender and Vitamin E are also consisted in Alpha-H, the award winning face mask able to hydrate skin, providing fresh and smooth skin. From most reviews about this face mask, light tingling sensation can be felt when you apply the mask. It sounds good as it seems like can make my round face slimmer! LOL

When you look at the Luxola de-stressing kit, did you wonder of what can MOR Emporium Candle Lychee Flower help in de-stress？ A brief description about the quintessences of this MOR Emporium Candle Lychee Flower is enlisted below:

The MOR Emporium Candle Lychee Flower emits a nice floral and fruity scent produced by the ingredients such as lychee flower, ripe berries, soft powdery florals and a slight hint of forest wood.

1st thing came to my mind... Anyone thinks of lighting up this candle during wedding ceremony? Let's add a touch of romance to your living space with this great MOR Emporium Candle Lychee Flower. Couples can have facial skin care together with MOR Emporium Candle Lychee Flower. So, could you resist this perfect de-stressing kit?

Next, what are the reasons boil down to my decision for joining this giveaway?

• I wish to improve my skin problems especially dead surface cells or scars left after acne production. I am searching for a good skin solutions to remove dead skin cells, sebum, dirt that can cause any breakouts. With a healthy skin, I can boast up my self-confidence. Now Luxola Malaysia is providing a good avenue to heal with the dehydration of skin and other signs of aging, pimples and skin problems that are literally led by stress hormone cortisol.  Let's me to get rid of all the following problems with Luxola Malaysia Alpha-H Liquid Gold Smoothing and Perfecting Mask!

Succinctly stated, the smooth skin without freckles, acne and scar is what am I wishing for.

• I hope to pamper myself during weekends or after a long walk or jogging). After the drudgery of work, I just hope that I can rest myself in a very comfortable environment. What would be better that I am like siding in the lychee flower farm?!

7 Common Trade-offs in Life

To get something you want, you have to give up something else you want. In other words, it can be said as trade-offs!Life is full of possibilities, can we have it all?! Hmm.. sadly there is often a cost of something incurred for what you give up to get it. So, have you thought of trade-offs you often face in life? Enrolling into society and workplace, the increment of chances to face trade-offs become greater.

In my opinion, there are few common trade-offs that we face in life:

No.1 Working holidays abroad/ Advanced education vs Job experiences

I had been thought of this for several times during days and nights after my degree studies completed. Shall I pursue for a Masters degree now? Or should I work for few years then pursue further studies? Could I have both together at the same time? Could I manage it if I study Masters part-time after working? Would my company allows me to go off on-time?

If my decision is to have advanced degree now, I might lose one to two years of working experience and of course the earnings too. But if I choose not to have Masters degree, my qualification will be lower from time to time. There are millions degree graduates out there right now every year.

Okay, come to the working holiday abroad which is getting more popular in Malaysia. Many of the seniors went to U.S.A, New Zealand and Australia to have working holiday abroad. The benefits are widened view and opportunities to explore the world when young and (single and available) apart from personal satisfaction, but there are costs besides “out of pocket” costs like further education and N years' lost earnings. Furthermore, will the employer kindly keep your job position available till you are back from working holiday abroad? Hmm..

No.2  Career advancement vs More time to spent with family

We couldn't have all the advantages of having more time to spent with our loved ones especially family. If
the working hours are 8 approximately, to be competitive in workplace, we might need to work overtime  to get things done and yea, more time for our career. There would be a trade-off occurs in achieving career
advancement by sacrificing time to spent with family or even ourselves. You can't be a leader and be free of responsibility. How can a leader often go back home earlier than his followers? We want a work-life balance, but how many employers are really practicing this for their workers?

 No.3  Extra income vs Rest days

Recently, most of my friends had discussed me with this topic. First and foremost, occupation had become one of the topics. Will you sacrifice to become a doctor/auditor/banker if your wealth (health) is taxed? But all these occupations gain respects from others and the occupation itself was often named as professional jobs. Apart from the higher income, benefits of these employment are better than the others. Yet your working hours will be longer compared to most other occupations which may have lower salaries.

The next thing I would say is the basic income is not enough for fresh graduate nowadays. Okay, probably the money left (after deducting EPF and SOSCO deduction, car petrol and maintenance, support family and meals ) would be sufficient for us to survive only. We can work overtime or have part time job to earn extra income, but we would lose our rest days. A busy weekend to gain extra income or utilize the weekend to replenish your sleep? That's your choice.

No.4  Get married/ paired up or being single

Can I have both advantages of single life and be married? Being paired up would have the advantage of someone will be there to care about you when you are sad, happy or angry or disappointed; financially supported by one another; an all-the-time listener and etc. However, you need to give up freedom and time for yourself. You need to tolerate, accept, spend time and money on the one you love. There are many other trade-offs in a relationship or a marriage after all. So, get married or being single (forever alone) ? The opportunity cost is often incurred in which what you give up in order to obtain the item in question.

 No.5  Buying branded stuffs or cheaper but low quality stuffs

Nah.. you can't be thrifty if you love to buy branded stuffs. In contrast, you can't expect for good quality stuffs which are sold at lower price. This causes me stayed in perpetual state of frustration and disappointment during most of my shopping time. Spending RM 70-RM100 on a quality and nice dress or keep the money to purchase 2-3 nice outfits? Another trade-off I have thought of : Buying an imported car or national car.. Cars depreciate value from time to time, but purchasing a national car doesn't give me a sense of security due to bad feedback from my friends regarding their cars' engines quality and the material which seems not durable. However, an imported car's price could be higher than a national car for several thousand bucks. Huh..

No.6  Invest or save money for rainy days

In this contemporary, the property prices keep increasing and most of the older ones mentioned that now is the best time to invest on property. However, invest the house to standby awaiting for next generation to grow up and live there? Or the money is much more better to be saved for rainy days? At this moment, we have to be rational to think at the margin.

*Choosing the level of action where the marginal benefit equals the marginal cost.

No.7  Eat all-you-like vs Control, control and control you weight and appetite 

Do you have a great appetite and feel like eating when you see nice food images shared at social networking sites?Delicious foods are over tempting and irresistible.
Again, there is a trade-off between gaining weight and never miss a chance to food-testing. In the end, it is always an solution for eating all-you-like without controlling appetite and weight i.e walk extra miles after meals or do exercise.

My second thought: Will you give up nice foods (desserts, burgers, pizzas,snacks, fast foods, caffeine drinks) for your health? All these high calories food might cause high blood pressure,obesity and other health issues. But all these foods look so yummy!

Nevertheless, there are many trade-offs in our life, yet we should feel grateful for the paths we have chosen. At least, we are still given opportunities to make decision for any trade-off. Let's set free from the paralysis of "never enough" and move forward to "good enough."

Family Trip: Hunting for Joy and Malacca delicacies (Part 2)

A trip to Malacca will not be completed without a meal of chicken rice balls! On the 2nd day of my family trip at Malacca, we had breakfast at a shop near Malacca Pasar. We had to book earlier to avoid disappointment like what had happened yesterday. We ordered 70 rice balls and hainanese chicken apart from a bowl of nyonya laksa to be shared. I would say the laksa is just okay as I still prefer Penang style laksa which is richer with curry paste. Overall, the chicken rice never fail me, but prefer it to be served hot :)

After a hearty breakfast, we had a walk at the Malacca beach. The view from here was not that pleasant as many rubbish left.

The historical heritages were our subsequent destinations. The last time we visited historical heritages at Malacca was during my form 1  and my youngest sis was just aged 7 years old. 

Fort A Famosa

St Paul's Church

Christ Church Malacca which has built since 1753.

Tan Beng Swee Clocktower

Family Photo :)

After visiting historical heritages, we headed to our lunch before we went back to K.L. The experience of stuck in heavy traffic had us decided to leave Malacca earlier than our plan. Pork Satay as our 'dessert' before lunch as we expected that we might need to wait for a long time for foods to be served later.The shop was located near to the Jonker Street.

The satays were served once we were seated and the staffs refilled the satay once we finished the satays. It was a value-added service, but the portion of satay meat is abit too less. However, the pork satay were really delicious!

The final spot in Malacca before we headed back to K.L. was Baba and Nyonya food. Applauds given to Joel as tourist guide who brought us to this place. I think only few locals here know where is the best to find Baba and Nyonya food in Malacca. It was located near Klebang ( sad that Klebang coconut milkshake was not opened that day). 

We were shocked to see many big cars parked around this old shop. It is obvious that the place is famous of its nyonya food otherwise I think rich people would dine at restaurants or hotels. (Perhaps that's my fallacy to think of rich people never dine at mamak style place). Nasi lemak, ikan cencaru sambal, sambal prawns or sotongs, and kangkung sambal are the main delicacies here apart from its famous mango juice. Every dish was scrumptious although each considered as simple dish. This place is definitely worth to be visited again!

The trip ended at 2pm and we rushed back to K.L. as we could see more and more heavy traffic problems occurred at the town. It was a nice family trip and there were foods pending to be tasted such as ikan bakar @ Portuguese Settlement, nyonya laksa, Klebang coconut milk shake and nyonya kuih muih. 

Thanks to Joel's mom who bought Nyonya dumpling for us. Again, it was the first time for us to taste Nyonya dumpling. It was different compared to the Chinese style, whereby its filling consists of dried shrimp, mushroom and pork cooked with sambal and Nyonya spices. The taste was very different but I would show a thumb up! 

Visit What You Can Do In Malacca and Malacca Delicacies You Can Try for more details :) 

Family Trip: Hunting for Joy and Malacca delicacies (Part 1)

It was a continuous holidays following Hari Raya as public holidays which fell on 8th -10th August (weekends). My family and I had decided to have an annual family trip to Malacca. As usual, it was a sudden plan since last month and we faced difficulties in booking hotel. Nevertheless, we managed to rent a room with Joel's help. When visiting Melaka, food is always something on top of the list when travelling in the city. The main purpose of the trip was hunting for foods apart from joy!

We arrived Malacca during noon and we headed to have our lunch. The mee sua here is the best one I ever ate. The food had been cleared before we remembered we should at least taken a photo of it. :P

Parallel to Jonker Street, there is a street named as Harmony Street (officially Temple street or Jalan Tokong), containing the prayer houses of Malaysia's three main faiths - the Cheng Hoon Teng Chinese temple, the Sri Poyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Hindu Temple, and the Kampung Kling Mosque.

Sri Poyyatha Vinayaga Moorthy Temple

Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthy Temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Malaysia, located at Jalan Tokong, or Temple Street, within walking distance of the Kampung Kling Mosque and Cheng Hoon Teng Temple. It was built by Hindu community of Malacca in 1780s and dedicated to Vinayagar or Ganesh, the Elephant deity. 

Masjid Kampung Kling

 Majid Kampung Kling was built in 1780s along Jalan Tukang Emas in Malacca, is among the oldest mosques in Malaysia. The minaret was built entirely of masonry in contrast to the accompanying timber mosque. It has the appearance similar to a Chinese pagoda or stupa form, another Malacca characteristic.

马六甲青云亭

The Cheng Hoon Teng Temple is Malaysia’s oldest Chinese Temple. The temple was founded in the 1600s by a man named as Li Kup, who fled China when the Manchus toppled the Ming dynasty. 

Walking past the road, we dropped by Orang Utan House. The Orang Utan House is originally set up by a Malaysian artist, Charles Cham. I was impressed with the remarkable paintings and t-shirt designs which deliver some funny yet sarcastic messages. I bought a t-shirt from there not long ago, which emphasizes on human rights. More details, please click here .

We spent the whole noon to walk along Jonker Street. My mom was excited to shop for cookies here. There are dodol, pineapple tarts, biscuits, and confectionery here, there and everywhere around Jonker Street. Anyway, dodol is not my choice. The first stop was LW Nyonya Pineapple Tarts House. The retailers were generously served us to taste various types of cookies for free. Of course, we ended up buying many types of cookies back. 

To quench our thirst, we had gone to San Shu Gong to have their famous durian cendol. My siblings had their cute egg ice-cream along the way heading to San Shu Gong. The durian cendol is refreshingly delicious and rich with durian taste, gula melaka and coconut milk. However, my mom said that the durian cendol had failed her expectation as she felt the cendol was too sweet and lacked of durian taste.

The view of Jonker Walk from San Shu Gong. The road was full of tourists and we decided to come at night after our dinner.

One of the photos I liked the most! Captured from San Shu Gong.

An advice to be given: Never visit to tourists destination during public holidays. We chose to have dinner at Portuguese Settlement but we ended up being told that the whole place was fully booked. Even given a queue number, the ingredients might have finished that time.Eventually we had our dinner at Ban Lee Hiang Satay Celup House. Satay Celup is basically a type of steamboat with the raw foods on the stick to be cooked in a boiling spicy peanut sauce. It was an unprecedented experience for my family (except me), yet they felt the way of eating the same pot of peanut sauce which had been eaten by others was unhygienic. Okay, let's just conclude it as a good experience to enjoy local delicacy at Malacca- the famous Satay Celup!

After having dinner, we went back to Jonker Street to have a walk. The recent news that Jonker Street may be closed down due to politic issues. I hoped that the Chinese culture here would be continued. Along Jonker Street, we can find plenty of nice cafes or pubs with live bands playing throughout the night. A great night that we ended it with a nice walk along Jonker Street and piping hot putu piring :)



Click here for reading Family Trip: Hunting for Joy and Malacca delicacies (Part 2).
Click Malacca Delicacies You Can Try for more details :)