New Zealand Natural | Ice-Cream Review

I was invited to New Zealand Natural, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara for a review several weeks back thanks to Melissa. Reached there right on time without having dinner beforehand.

After the general introduction and the exchange of cards with everyone present, we went around the area taking photos while waiting for the ice-creams to be served.

We were served two of their limited edition ice-cream favours. First off was the Pecan Praline Crunch Cookie Sundae (RM12.90) (superb long name that is) which was served with a creamy scoop of pecan praline crunch ice-cream on top of a double chunky chocolate cookie and caramelised pecan nuts, chocolate syrup whipped cream and strawberry. 

Verdict? The first touch of the cookie and ice-cream on my tongue, it taste really good. The moist and soft cookie was good in a way that would just melt in your tongue after a while. The downside of it though is that you would not be able to enjoy the taste of the oh-so-awesome ice-cream much for the strong flavour of the cookie. 

But as you eat on (the cookie because the ice-cream is too little to make much effect and the ice-cream is really good!), gets a little too sweet for your taste buds. It probably would not suit the taste of elderly people (or probably some younger ones) who couldn't take sweet stuff.

Pecan Praline Crunch Affogato (RM13.90)

Comes in a scoop of Pecan Praline Crunch ice-cream, glazed with caramelised pecan nuts and chocolate syrup, strawberry fruit and piece of biscotti, topped with an espresso shot.

While I was having this, I was thinking "people sure have a unique way of serving their ice-creams nowadays." And it's somewhat right isn't it? Ice-cream those days were the basic vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and several others common flavours which you still can find in supermarkets these days.

Capturing this was hard enough because I ended up making a mess on the table. Uh oh!

This would probably be the one ice-cream that coffee lovers would love. The shot of espresso was really strong according to those at my table, but I couldn't taste the 'strong-ness' of it because it really tastes okay to me although slightly bitter. Oh nu..! I think I'm turning into a coffee person with all the Nescafe canned coffee that I consume almost every morning. >.<

Verdict? The biscotti was good and I liked it even if its consumed without dipping it in the espresso-ice-cream mix (some of us liked it that way). Mixing the shot of espresso with pecan ice-cream was interesting but you wouldn't get to taste much of the ice-cream with them being mixed together. I think the strong flavour and aroma of the espresso would have covered the ice-cream. Nevertheless, it definitely did make me stay awake for the night...but not for long. ;)

Last but not least, we were given the chance to try their assorted favour of ice-creams as well.

I have picked BerryFruit Sorbet (red) and Mango-something-which-I-cannot-remember-anymore (yellow). What I remembered though was that my selection was a balance between sour and sweet. You really could taste it with this combination and it's really really nice!

Maybe its time to go back there for a visit with all the mental stress that I'm going through now :'(

New Zealand Natural is one of the largest premium ice-cream parlour chains in New Zealand and Australia. They offer a range of ice-creams, fat-free sorbets, low-fat frozen yoghurts, juice whips and even coffee to cater to all age groups. 

Well, that concludes my ice-cream dinner for the day. Those two Pecan Praline Crunch items are for a limited time only, so if you're up for it, grab them before it's out!

You can find them...

@ New Zealand Natural Facebook

@ NZN Website

New Zealand Natural can be located at Suria KLCC, The Curve, Sunway Pyramid, The Waterfront @ Desa Park City and several other places in Klang Valley and Penang, Malaysia. Find out more at New Zealand Natural Outlets.

HomeTuitionJob.com for Tutors, Students and Parents

As a kid, I started attending a maths tuition class with this school teacher that lives around my housing area since I was 8. It was a private tuition which I've attended together with 3 to 6 others until I've ended highschool #longesttuitionever!

And heck, I can still remember how naughty I was at that age to a point that the teacher has got this bulu ayam ready to scare the hell out of me - but nah...I was not scared one bit. :P

It didn't work because whenever he brought it out, I would have ran under the table and played merry-go-round with him. lol!! But still not scared because the next time we'll all do whatever naughty things we were doing before - eg. Knock his house mates' door and RUN!; put finger / hand into the small and beautiful fish pond he owns to disturb the peace of the fishes. It was and is still a really good laugh till today. hehe!

On the bright side, attending that tuition class was definitely the root of my strong foundation in mathematics. :)

It's common to find most school going children attending additional tuition classes nowadays. Not to exaggerate but there are some who even attend 2 to 3 tuitions of the same subject!

Tuition centres have been mushrooming around town for several years. While I still like to attend classes which are small (less than 10 students), students in tuition centres are now increasing in size. I think there are some centres which have up to 30 students per class?

Parents who wants their kids to get more attention from teachers has been seeking for private tutors around. But where to find them?

Here's something for your parents-with-school-going-child(ren) out there: Home Tuition Job!

It is a platform which links tutors and students. If you're a student or parents, you'll be able to seek experienced and professional tutors for whichever subjects in need from this website.

And if you're a tutor, it is a website where you can login your details and seek for interested students/parents.

I browsed through the website and find that there are quite a number of available tutors out there for every possible subjects. 

They're not only limited to academic subjects only because you might just find tutors for special skills such as programming, swimming, piano, entrepreneurship, cooking, dancing and etc.. There's even one tutor that offers architecture classes!

Well, it's either that, or as a tutor you get to scroll through a list of details of available tutor jobs available around Malaysia. That is, you get to see the offered monthly fees, subjects to be tutored, number of lessons, contact information and such.

HomeTuitionJob is a very informative and useful website. Do check them out at hometuitionjob.com! :)

"HomeTuitionJob.com

because education is everything"

An Online-Shopping-Virgin No More: Bought Something from Lazada Malaysia

This is not a commercial post for Lazada, but simply document down my (first) online shopping experience. Excited ma! hehe.. :P

With so many online businesses blooming like mushrooms in the past few years, I've got to admit that I'm an online-shopping-virgin.

I've never once performed online purchases - well, at least to purchase anything online using my credit (not like I have one), debit or any acceptable card out there.

Reasons?

1. No credit card
2. I couldn't use my other cards to buy things online before this due to some reasons
3. (Really have) Nothing to buy; and
4. Even if I needed something, I prefer the traditional way: make a visit to the shop; harass the item on display; think x912413560612 times on whether I should buy it; think another x951631634321 times; and then DECIDE (Sometimes buy or I'll just tell myself, maybe next time! After all that effort of thinking lol!)

So, I've come across some advertisement on Facebook's (FB) sidebar while playing Tetris Battle some nights ago: Lazada Malaysia. And the advertisement was showing some RM100 discount coupons for Sunway University students and I couldn't help but click on it (again, for the first time I'm clicking on FB's advertisements!)

Browse through the website and found that one of the coupon was to buy cellphones while the other was some other things which I don't need and don't have the money for it.

And then I saw that you can get some RM20 coupon for redemption when you purchase anything above RM50. So then I thought, oh hey, I do need a pair of earphones!

That's how I ended up in the audio accessories tab, browsing through the various list of items that they have. DECIDED to purchase something from them FOR THE FIRST TIME after 1.5 hour of contemplating whether or not I should buy.

WHY?

Because of the I needed the earphones (don't need to keep borrowing from my dad anymore after destroying my other headphone after a week of use T.T!);

there was a RM20 discount for it (using the registration email coupon I mentioned above!); AND most importantly they accept cash-on delivery.

This is what an accounting student-with-not-much-extra cash-in-hand-like-me think:

1. RM59.90....hurm..quite expensive for an earphone.
2. BUT got RM20 discount!
3. That makes it RM39.90. Not bad for something so pretty and good.
4. Cash on delivery. Can la. BUY!

Tough decision okay, but I think the cash on delivery part really did encourage me to click on the "Check-out" on the screen. lol!

Right after that, I browsed through their FB page and found that there were many complains from various customers about their delivery delay (they promised to deliver within 4 - 7 days).

Got quite scared, but what the heck. I didn't pay up front also. Nothing to lose anyway.

Hence, that explains why I did not put much expectation on its delivery speed. So when this came in the mail today....

...I was over joyed!

Just SIX (6) days after I've submitted my order! *grinning*

Something which I'm in loved with now because the colour is so pretty!

Sonic Gear Ear Pump 2 - Champagne.

Here's the misunderstanding on my part (just realised while I'm writing this blogpost). Well, I initially ordered Metallic Black but they called and email me telling me that it's out of stock, so they suggested a list of colours for me to choose from and I've selected Champagne. Asked them what colour is that, is it YELLOW, and the guy actually said YES.

Proceed, and today when I saw it was purple, I was like...I didn't order that but oh well, it doesn't really matter. Sent an email with regards to that and regretting it now T_____T Paiseh.

In defence, how do I know what colour is that wo. My colouring vocab also not good. I only know BLUE, RED, YELLOW, BROWN, BLACK, you cannot see me!, PURPLE and several other colours which are written in something which we were taught in kindergarten (Probably only applicable in Malaysia)!

Oh well, that was a good first experience of my online shopping. To do it again? Lemme think x232153156 times first. haha!

And that's the story of an Online-Shopping-Virgin (no longer one now). Thank you for reading!

Do you have your online shopping story to tell? :D

Ps. Based on the negative feedbacks on their FB page, I think Lazada's team should take heads up on this issue and solve it asap. Unhappy customers is REALLY bad for business for many reasons. Written is just my experience on buying just one item. I really still prefer the traditional way of shopping as mentioned above :)

Road Trip: Morning in Ipoh, Noon in Cameron Highlands

First stop in the morning (after a hard time dragging ourselves up from bed to check out and leave Ipoh) was Kedai Kopi Sun Yuan Loong located at Jalan Bendahara.

It was a jam packed coffee shop to a point that we needed wait and when there's an available table, we had to walk very fast towards it to sit before someone else does. There's always someone else who does. haha!

So, what we've got for breakfast?

Toast bread with margarine (RM2.80 for two bread).

Hor fun with various ingredients that you can choose. I picked four different ingredients and it costs me only RM3.70!

White Coffee (RM1.60) which we wanted to have so much since day one but did not get the chance to do so.

Wan Tan Mee which I initially wanted to have since but it was sold out at about 10am plus!

With that morning activity being done, we then drove up to Cameron Highlands right after. It was about a two hours (or less) drive up to Bharad Cameron Valley Tea House with the many cars that were up there. We did not manage to go right to the top because there's a terrible traffic jam and hence, we've decided to turnaround the car and just hangout around Cameron Valley Tea House.

That's what we had there, scones with strawberry jam, cream and butter topping (RM12 for two)

The price for it is definitely expensive but I have never had it before and it's not something which I eat often, hence, I've decided to go ahead with it. And boy, I wasn't disappointed because it tasted crispy and hard on the outside and really spongy on the inside - like what scones 

Besides tea and scones, we also had Salty Chicken (RM17) (which we have bought from Ipoh) illegally as we sat there. lol. Tasty yo!

Well that's the end of the two days food journey with three blog posts for it. :) Awesome food, weekend and a getaway holiday from reality. Following is some pictures from Cameron Highlands!

It was a cloudy day with slight drizzle in between.

So what do you think about it?


More pictures here: Facebook/MirrorOfMe
Related posts:

1. Part I: Road Trip to Ipoh
2. Part II: Road Trip to Ipoh

Road Trip: Ipoh (Part 2)

After lazying around in the hotel room by crashing on the bed and refusing to get up for two hours, we have finally dragged ourselves up and out when our tummies were rumbling.

Where were we headed?

Back to Old Town for the supposedly tea-time:

Restaurant Ong Kee for the famous bean sprouts with chicken. We were early (at 5.30pm) hence there weren't much people around the area...yet. Because at 7.00am, it was when the food party starts.

The chicken (duh!)

and the bean sprout a.k.a. tauge (doink!)

Which we had with hor fun (four bowls) because the lady assumed that we all wanted a bowl of hor fun each before we could even tell her our actual orders (Wee Sheong wanted rice). It was like she was racing after time when clearly, there weren't much customers in the house.

Walked around the area to waste sometime. Went into some shops around the area which sold biscuits and snacks to buy some back to Kuala Lumpur before we drove off to the REAL dinner at Restaurant Different Taste located at Bercham (near Tesco area).

Pandan Chicken (RM8) where 10  chicken meat cubes was wrap in pandan leaves.

 There was some hesitation when we introduced to this dish by the owner since we were quite full from our tea-break (lol) but then she said that it was something small and we could have afford to consume it as snacks, we agreed to try it. I liked it a lot after having a taste for one. Again the chicken meat was tender and crunchy and the ingredients that they've used to cook it wasn't lost (though, I couldn't identify what it was - it was just good).

And their famous dish: Claypot glass noodles with crab (RM49)

It was supposed to be a claypot dish for two since we ordered the small one, but it was definitely enough to fill four stomachs probably since we've eating a light dinner right before that. We sat there having this scrumptious dish, having tea while pouring our heart issues over dinner till the shop's closing hours. 

Well, the night was till young at 10pm hence, we made our way to Wai Sek Kai for desserts and on our way there, we met with two incidents which made our night at Ipoh VERY happening.

1. While driving towards Wai Sek Kai, we saw a guy running across the street while looking over his shoulder occasionally, giving us the impression that he was up to no good. Really looked like he just robbed someone and was on the run for his life. Couldn't really see what he was holding because it all happened too fast.
2. Right after the entrance of Sam Tet School, there was a car that was stopped to the right handside which was not suspicious until I saw a guy reaching into the car and came out with an axe of sorts - which I assume it was just to scare off two teenagers who I THINK had some disagreement with those men.

On the second incident, my friend slowed down the car (very slow) and so we were right beside the said car - which was where I saw the whole incident - until we shouted at him to hit the accelerator and GOOOOO! You wouldn't know if the guy would have turn his attention and attacked us instead right? Hope no one was hurt at that time.

It scared us quite a bit and we were quite vary with our surroundings while we're out at Wai Sek Kai buying supper.

Mango Lolo (RM3.50)

Kiwi Lolo (3.50)

It was certainly refreshing to have it after a long and eventful day.

Next Post about the Road Trip: Breakfast in Ipoh and the journey up to Cameron Highlands!


More pictures here: Facebook/MirrorOfMe
Related posts:

1. Part I: Road Trip to Ipoh
2. Part III: Morning Ipoh, Noon Cameron Highlands

Samsung GALAXY S III Media Launch @ One World Hotel

So few weeks back, I was invited to the Samsung GALAXY S III Media Launch which was held in One Utama  by Nuffnang as part of the Samsung Evangelist programme.

Somehow, some way, I was there several minutes late because I was caught up in Paradigm Mall thinking that my car broke down :P

So the launch, they had Mr Kwon Jae Hoon, the Managing Director of Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd (SME) give an opening speech with a short introduction on what could we expect of the Samsung GALAXY S III which comes in a tagline "Designed for Human".

They had this awesome big screen displayed as the backdrop and displayed some really nice presentation materials on the back. Especially as seen in the picture below, which displayed a really pretty nature picture to illustrate their point where the Samsung Galaxy SIII is inspired by nature - its design concept reflects the flow and movement of nature.

He said, "Designed to be both effortlessly smart and intuitively simple, the Samsung GALAXY S III has been created with our human needs and capabilities in mind. What makes me most proud is that it enables one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences, opening up a new horizon that allows you to live a life extraordinary.”

Then we had Mr.Luke Aw and Mr.Benn Lee Go, the Product Marketing Managers to tell us more about the SIII features and live demonstration on the product.

The features that you can be sure to expect from the SIII is:

• Smart Stay: recognizes how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by having the front camera identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.
• S Voice: the advanced natural language understanding, the Samsung GALAXY S III listens and responds to your words as well as your motions to offer maximized usability. If you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and ‘Direct call’ will dial their number.
• Smart Alert: save you from trouble by catching any missed messages or calls; your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle.
• S Beam: allows any large files including movie files to be transferred by simply touching another Samsung GALAXY S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.
• AllShare Play: users can be also used to instantly share any forms of files between Samsung GALAXY S III and your tablet, PC, cameras and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices.

Benn Lee certainly did made me go "WOW" with the stuff he has shown us on stage about the features of the SIII.

(From left to right) Mr. Charles Kim, Advisor of Mobile Phone Division, Samsung Malaysia Electronics; Mr. Kwon Jae Hoon, Managing Director, Samsung Malaysia Electronics; Mr. Zalman Aefendy, Chief Marketing Officer, Celcom Axiata; Mr. Vijaya Kumar, Head of Device, DiGi Telecommunications; and Mr. Lee Yen Ming, Senior Manager of Device Team, Maxis Communications, presenting the new Samsung GALAXY S III on stage.

After the official launch, media and guests were lead towards the display room where there were multiple SIII phones being put on display for us to test around.

Weighing at only 133 grams and measuring at only 8.55mm thick, the Samsung GALAXY S III is the first device featuring quad core application processor. This provides users with enhanced performance, faster web browsing, seamless multi-tasking, supreme graphics quality, and an instantly responsive user interface on a larger screen

The size of it is slightly larger than the S II and about a thumb smaller than the GALAXY Note (will put up a picture of this soon). And for a phone with that size, it's really surprisingly light that I would need to check whether it is still kept in my pocket from time-to-time.

The launch with dinner served outside the ballroom and a BIG GREAT surprise email that I've received from Nuffnang a week later: A chance to do my first phone review with Samsung GALAXY S III! *grins*

Will post up something soon! :)

Road Trip: Ipoh (Part 1)

Yay! I finally got the pictures sorted out by sitting in university's computer lab for over 2 hours :)

It took us (Micht, Wee Sheong, Bernard and I) roughly around 2 hours to reach Ipoh from Kuala Lumpur. Reached there around 12.00pm and our first stop was Restaurant Kong Heng which is located at Ipoh Old Town for lunch.

The food we have ordered was chicken and pork satay which comes at RM0.80 per stick. With the similar colour of both type meat, we couldn't really differentiate it based on looks itself. The meat was tender and fresh.

At the same restaurant, we ordered their Hor Fun which comes in this awesomely taste soup that had a mixture of prawn and chicken taste.

Then, we were off finding for Funny Mountain for their famous tau fu fah. Also located at Ipoh Old Town, it is just a small shoplot which offers a drive-thru (cars can just line up along the roadside and they'll serve your orders with you seated in the car), take away or sit-there-to-eat service.

The queue was even longer when we passed the shop on the second day. Why?

Because they have this super awesome tau fu fah which was soft and silky to the core. I can practically feel it melting in my mouth.

Though, one bowl at RM0.90 was not quite enough with the small quantity that comes with it. You'll probably need to have two or three bowls to really satisfy yourself.

After all that tummy filling afternoon, we checked into the hotel that I've booked for the night: Ecotel Hotel. Located in Casuarina Corporate Park, along Jalan Dr Nazrin Shah it was some budget hotel that I've found online which had good ratings on booking.com (7 out of 10). Pictures on the website looked good too and price was definitely affordable at RM148 nett per night (peak season) for a three person room.

Though the road leading into the hotel was a bit too quiet for a female to walk or drive alone at night. Room Room was clean and it also comes with several Astro services on the television.

The room though, did not have a window (for the Deluxe room) since it was located in the basement and so it was easy for us to lose ourselves in time. If it weren't for Micht's effort to wake us up, I don't think either of us would have woke up on time the next day. haha!

Washroom was good and water supply was powderful - which is good. though this time around, again we've gotten a room with oh-you-can-see-his-or-her-shadow-when-they-are-using-the-washroom kind of bathroom. When we noticed that, the first thing that came to mind is "Oh dammit! Not again?" - the exact same thing that happened in our first trip together to Malacca two years ago. As Micht said, it's just our luck lol.

Verdict? I was actually happy with the room because it came with an affordable price, good service and good room which I was comfortable enough to stay in for the night.

Would like to thank Nicholas, the Ipoh boy, for all the awesome food place that he have intro-ed to me for this trip of mine. =D

Next up: More FOOD in Ipoh and our drive up to Cameron Highlands.

More pictures here: Facebook/MirrorOfMe


Related posts:

1. Part I: Road Trip to Ipoh
2. Part II: Road Trip to Ipoh