Review on Macau Souvenirs- Indulgence with Pastries from Koi Kei Bakery (鉅記餅家)

Koi Kee Bakery is a wildly popular franchise in Macau known for their local specialties. Ubiquitous pastries from Koi Kee Bakery; Macau were the biggest shopping haul during my visit to Macau. It's often a great experience when free samplings were provided and I've ended up bringing back 3 big packets of pastries from Koi Kee Bakery for my family.

1. Almond cookies

As stated in my blog review earlier, Macau Koi Kei Almond Cookies are the best almond cookies I have tasted. The renowned almond cookies with whole almond within and I often crave for another piece after finishing one. Each almond cookie has sufficient amount of almond bits and a whole almond, giving it extra crunch. 

Macau Koi Kei Almond Cookies

2. Portuguese style pineapple pastry

15 individual packing of pineapple pastries are in a nice packaging. Its packaging has me remembering the pineapple pastries from Taiwan too.

Hexagon-shaped pineapple pastry which is packed with strong taste of pineapple filling.

Thankfully, it's with fair sweetness.

3. Wife Cake

Wife cakes from Koi Kei has flaky skin (less flaky than Hang Heung's) topping with some white sesames. The winter melon filling of the wife cakes have just the right amount of sweetness. and it has lesser pork lard smell.

4. Almond Pastry ( Almond Flakes)

Puff-like, flakky almond pastry with a light almond topping. Koi Kei Bakery has machinery-made and hand-made, I had chosen the latter one. This delicious almond flake crumbles at the slightest touch (bite) and it's not too sweet for me. The top layer of the almond flake cookies are sugar crusted almonds with crispy layers beneath.

A crumbly texture yet crunchy at each bite of flaky almond pastry.

Undoubtedly, I couldn't resist to have more crunches of these almond flakes.

5.  Koi Kei Bakery's Signature Egg Rolls

The signature egg rolls from Koi Kei Bakery does not fail my expectation. Crispy egg rolls with nice and strong egg flavor. The egg roll sheets are thin, contributing a tender crust and a crumbly finish.

6. Peanut candy

There are few versions of peanut candies offered by Koi Kei Bakery such as chewy type, crunchy type, with sesames, with shredded coconut and etc. I had bought the crunchy type. It's quite similar to the ones we could obtain in Malaysia. 

 

Hard sugar candies embedded with shredded peanuts.

Crispy peanut candies are the perfect snacks when you're bored at work.

7. Macau Museum of Souvenir - contains Black sesame biscuit, walnut cookie, peanut candies.

A box pertaining 4 types of cookies produced by Koi Kei Bakery had been given due to the huge purchase I had in Macau. I personally love the black sesame biscuit very much. Notably, I just found that Macau Museum of Souvenir was the 1st museum which was souvenirs-themed and founded on July 19, 2011. Perhaps give a try when visit to Macau in future?

Other Macau specialties from 澳门牌坊手信

Pork floss egg rolls and seaweed + pork floss egg rolls which are crispy could be obtained from the nearby pastry shops in Macau too. The one we tried from 澳门牌坊手信 tasted nice and much cheaper compared to Koi Kei pastries.

Oh My Darling! Chloé Mini Fragrances-Chloé Parfum, L'eau de Chloé Perfume, Love Chloé Perfume & see by Chloé

I do not think that I will be loving the use of fragrances / perfumes until I have tried the luxurious fragrance sample from Burberry. I had the 1st bottle of perfume from Body Shop- White musk Perfume given by my friends during my 24 year-old birthday. Admittedly, finding a fragrance that is not overwhelming and suits your personality could be a great challenge. It's a daunting task when search for the most suitable perfume as I don't wish to be smelled like giving people (myself) headache. Instead, it would be great to be smelled like "Oh my darling" if the perfume is applied. I personally like the fresh floral or fruity scent which brings reminiscent of love and hint of sweetness.

This's going to be the 1st review I wrote about my new perfume collection- Chloé Mini Fragrances which I had bought from duty-free land; Hong Kong with a good bargained price. The fresh, floral scents of Chloé miniature set has been lingered in my room fragrantly. You could imagine that a rose garden happening in my living area now. The miniature perfume set look so pretty displayed on my dressing table, hence I just had the thought of writing a review about each mini fragrance of Chloé ! 

Chloé Mini Perfume 4 Pieces Gift Set includes:
- Chloé Perfume 5ml Eau De Parfum
- L'eau de Chloé Perfume 5ml Eau De Parfum
 - Love Chloé Perfume 5ml Eau De Parfum &
 - see by Chloé Perfume 7.5ml Eau De Parfum.

Each limited edition Chloé fragrance is housed in the most alluring glass faceted bottles. These little bottles are miniature replicas of the full size which not only makes them a great way to sample the fragrances, but also adorable to be displayed and brought along for outing or travel. 

The ingredients

1. Chloé Eau De Parfum

A single spritz of this perfume could last for the whole working day of mine. Chloé Eau De Parfum which have top notes of pink peony, freesia and lychee providing a light freshness to the signature Chloé scent. After the initial floral assault, I like the light floral scent with roses blended with the base notes of Virginia cedar, amber and honey. The fragrance is very versatile and it doesn't overpower, suitable to be used on workdays.

2. L'eau de Chloé EDT

L'eau de Chloé EDT has the pleasant peachy citrus scent running through it. The composition of top notes contributed by grapefruit, citron, bergamot, peach and aldehydes possesses reminiscent of refreshing lemonade-like scent followed by a light yet sweet touch of natural roses and elegant veil provided by patchouli. The citrus kind of scent lasts for a short moment and moves on to the hint of floral undertones contributed by the roses. At first sniff, it's not the type of fragrance I would like as the floral or fruity scent is very light in which the sweetness doesn't linger for long duration. The progressively rose note is what I like after all. It somehow likes a refreshing version of fragrance that reminds me of holidays. :)

3. Love Chloé

As the name of this fragrance, Love, Chloé has a fresh, romantic, feminine scent.  Love, Chloé was developed by perfumers Louise Turner and Nathalie Gracia-Cetto; the notes include orange blossom, pink pepper, iris absolute, lilac, hyacinth, wisteria blossom, heliotropine, powdery musks, talc and rice powder. In short, it's sensual, musky floral with a noticeable hint of orange blossom. It has very good sillage and makes me feeling elegant when apply this fragrance. By the way, its powdery scent reminds me of facial powder.

The longevity of Love Chloé  is great which I do not have to think of re-spraying. The scent blooms steadily throughout the day with a soft floral scent to embrace the loved one. Hmm.. sounds perfect to be used before attending romantic dinner. 

4. see by Chloé

The bottle is adorable. Styled like a vintage bird cage and a ring of the cover has let me thought of wearing it with a necklace. Okay, it's a wrong idea as it's heavy!  Distinctively from the another three perfumes, see by Chloé has the top notes of bergamot and apple blossom and heart notes consist of jasmine and ylang- it mellows and vanilla to anchor its base. Well, I still prefer rosy smell instead of jasmine scent anyway. The longevity of Chloé Eau De Parfum is better compared to see by Chloé. For me, it takes some time to be smelled comforting and familiar.

So, have you tried any of Chloé Fragrances?

What's your favorite scent?

Last but not least, Merry Christmas！

Dinner @ Zen Taiwanese Restaurant 珍品轩台式馆; Aeon Tebrau City Shopping Centre

A backdated blog post which was regarding the nice dining experience at Zen Taiwanese Restaurant 珍品轩台式馆; Aeon Tebrau City Shopping Centre one year ago. It's similar to Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant which was full house during dining time. Taiwanese dishes that continued to intrigue tourists visiting Taiwan and also influenced Chinese families, introducing more variation of delicious cuisines. One day, I shall visit Taiwan to taste their authentic mouth-watering delicacies.

The restaurant was quite spacious and each table had enough space for cozy chats. It's not a stuffy place with noisy ambiance. Clean environment was one of the good impressions when I stepped into this restaurant. We spent some time to choose our set meals before our cozy chat and "wefie" session. The set meals were available with affordable price and various choices of main meal accompanied with soup, a bowl of rice, prickled Japanese cucumber slices, chicken roll and dessert. Apart from that, ala carte dishes such as Taiwanese sausages, bassil fried rice,dumpling soap noodles, pan-fried dumplings, Mapo Tofu and etcetera.

My prettiest partner in crime with her bubble milk tea

Taiwanese braised pork with read yeast set meal

My friend chose to satisfy her taste buds with the flavorful braised pork which was cooked for few hours. The meat acquired a delicate texture and flavor, a homely dish which reminded me of cider braised pork cooked by my mom. 

Taiwanese 3 Cups Chicken Recipe | 三杯雞  set meal

An extremely popular Taiwanese dish that occupies the Taiwanese restaurant I had been to. Three Cups actually referred to a equal portion of three essential ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice cooking wine.The divine aroma of sesame oil combined with sliced gingers, garlic, chili making this dish tasty. The boneless chicken meats were much convenient to be eaten.

Poached Chicken 葱油鸡 set meal

The chicken slices served with the mixture of aromatic shallot oil, ginger, soy sauce drizzling on top of them. The shredded, poached chicken matched well with the hot rice. Well, a lazy eater like me preferred to have boneless chicken breast hence this dish suited my appetite and eating behavior. 

The side dishes which came along with our choice of set meals included deep fried pumpkin ball, prickled cucumber, chicken roll and herbal soup. I liked the pumpkin ball very much. The outer layer was crispy and its filling (red bean) was not too sweet. After all,it's one of the great dining experiences in Johor!