Joyous Cafe is an adorable looking cafe on Union Street which provides full month packages with customized baby cards, customized selection of box designs. All packages are easy to deliver right to your doorstep. Besides that, they are also selling healthy fruit juices and snacks. They have highly creative concoctions help to de-stress and detox, while at the same time help to improve your skin’s radiance.

Joyous Cafe was our 2nd stop of the day for Penang Heritage Food Trail.

It was a good thing too that we had our stop here after having a pasta overload session in Soul Kitchen.

Conveniently located at Union Street, it’s very hard to miss it as it’s just before Maybank.

As you enter the cafe you will see polka dots all over and this would be in theme with their baby full month services. Adorable looking items all over the place.

There’s a showcase to display the different packages available for the full month, complete with toys and packaging.

They also have a wide variety of cakes and drinks for those who would love to chill out.

We had the chance to try out all of their signature drinks and it was definitely thirst quenchers.

So if you would like to take a modern approach to the first full month of your new born, you could have a look at Joyous Cafe’s offering.

Since they also offer deliver services, you have the chance to explore the packages they have on their website itself.

Joyous Cafe Online Store

Joyous Cafe

5 Union Street 10200 Georgetown Penang Malaysia

Contact No: 04-2610910

Website: http://www.joyousventure.com

Email: customerservice@joyousventure.com

Business Hours

Open daily: 10:00am – 7:00pm

I am gonna be frank here. I have always heard about Soul Kitchen but never had the chance of dropping by, simply because i was rooted to KL for the last few years. 2011 however was different. I was back in Penang and when i was told that the 1st stop for Penang Heritage was Soul Kitchen, i was ecstatic.

I checked out their Facebook page before hand and true enough when i arrived there, i was greeted by the beca and the owner’s new bike. Located at Muntri Street, it’s hard to miss this place if you are coming from either Love Lane or Penang road.

Michele and Tonio who run this place are not your usual couple you would see in cafes. They are a Malaysian German couple who met in Munich and ended up getting married here in KL before setting up this business. As i was walked into this cafe i could sense on why they called it Soul Kitchen. It was cosy, every where you look it was eye catching and not forgetting both Michele and Tonio who were kind enough to introduce the place as well as the food that would be served.

Soul Kitchen Trattoria

The place itself looks cosy. By any chance do you what’s the meaning of Trattoria? Its an italian-style eating establishment. there are generally no printed menus, the service is casual.

Part of the menu is already available to be seen from the greenboards itself and if you are spoiled with choices, simply ask them for recommendation

As we waited for them to prepare the different dishes for us, we wasted no time snapping picture of the place. We had 2 hours to explore the place as well as to review the food prepared.

Pasta Salmon – Fresh salmons with mustard cream sauce. The thing about salmon would be the smell, it definitely has to be fresh to enjoy it and pasta salmon checked every box right. Fish lovers should give this a try.

One of us decided to bring out the mother of all cameras, an iPad 2 to snap the dishes, lol.

Pasta Chicken al Limone – consists of chicken cubes marinated with lemon juice and white wine, slices of capsicums, herbs, carrot and also parmesan cheese. Of all the pastas, this was my favourite.

Pasta Salsiccia – Comprises of homemade pork sausages with fresh tomatoes. If you would prefer something lighter than Pasta Camo, then you can opt for this. Of course do take note again that Pasta Salsiccia comes with pork.

Pasta Sardella - Anchovies, fresh tomatoes, capers and olive oil

Pasta Como consists of goat cheese and white wine, bacon with some cut chillis. Every single pasta here was unique in its own rich flavour.

Pizza Parma Ham – Came out as a surprise to me. The usual pizzas are round with fixed amount of ingredients. This however is more homely done. The crust is how i like it, thin. This pizza has ham, parmesan cheese and garnished with rocket salad.

Pizza Gorgonzola with Pears – Now who would thought about pears being on pizzas? If you want something different from the usual pizzas you always see, why don’t you try this out. Good for 2 pax.

Fish Soup – Now this is something different. It has different types of fillet fishes in it with prawns. On top of that, it has freshly cut potatoes and carrots.

Dried Tomato Salami Entree – Salami, dried tomatoes, rocket salad and mushrooms. I made a mistake here thinking it was all to be eaten randomly. I was wrong. You are suppose to eat all 4 ingredients at one go and that will set off your taste buds.

We then were given a short break before the dessert.

The tiramisu was a great way to end the meal and it was personally prepared by Michele.

Soul Kitchen Trattoria

Address: 102 Lebuh Muntri, 10200 Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 04-261 3118 / 012-594 3522 (Michele/Tonio)
Opening Hours: Weekdays: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.30pm-9.00pm
Weekends: 10.00am-2.30am, 6.30pm-9.00pm
(Closed Tuesday)

I finally had the chance to drop by Charlie Brown Cafe last Saturday after going through a Bake At Sugar session.

Both Sugar and Charlie Brown Cafe are located at the 1st floor of Straits Quay, Penang.

The setting of Charlie Brown Cafe brings back a lot of memories when i used to watch them when I was small. It had an impact in me that till today I use some characters name as my nick

As the cartoon has made an impression that could last a lifetime, i wouldn’t say the same for the cafe.

The service was little slow and I just didn’t like how things were managed. The excitement that was built over the month when I saw the phrase Coming Soon, went down the drain almost instantaneously.

The food and beverages were nothing to shout about. It was those typical cafe style kinda menu. Nothing special.

I asked Angeline if she would drop by again and she gave a disappointing “no”. I would have answered the same.

I am better off hanging out at Old Town or even Starbucks.

I was waiting in front of a stall for my roti naan to be done when I was suddenly greeted by a small kitten right in front of me.

It kept purring which got the attention of one of the fellas from the stall.

He took the kitty away and returned. He immediately got behind the stall and started massaging the dough.

“Roti apa kamu mau?” he asked.

He never washed his hands.

It was more than 2 weeks ago that some of us decided to drop Amcorp Mall to pay a visit to Joey’s stall. He was selling some items from his shop which is based in Kelantan. Before we went there, we had lunch at Haeun Khon Restaurant. It was a Korean / Japanese / Chinese restaurant and it seems to be famous for it’s kimchi sets.

I wasn’t mentally ready to torture my mouth more over i was dead hungry, especially after queuing up like a cow for close 2 hours to ride a hot air balloon. That i will talk about in my up coming post.

This was Angeline’s, which was too vege-ish for my liking. When i am hungry, i definitely need meat and not make myself greener. Nevertheless it tasted quite ok.

The 2 above, Evie and Vivien, decided to have the pot of kimchi. I can’t even finish the small portion of kimchi that was served to me, imagine finishing a pot of it. It smelled spicy. Yeah you read it write, it smelled spicy, LOL.

Everyone doing their rituals before actually diving into their food and that’s to photograph what’s gonna be in their stomachs for lunch, lol.

We had a surprise visit from a Thai villager and he goes by the name Joey, hahaha. Having a stall that emphasizes on Thai goods, Joey had to get into the zone by dressing up in their traditional costume.

His believe was that he who has the headgear on, shall be photographed with everyone.

Joey then picked a victim to be part of his ritual, Aaron was the nearest. Aaron’s face says it all, ROFLMAO.

… and there you have it, our new King of Port Klang. All rise …

The rest laughed at the new King O.O!

Hahaha.

My meal was one of the last few to be served, so i hijacked Angeline’s bowl.

My lamb finally came. It was a bit dry for my liking but then again i was dead hungry, so anything goes ! Nom nom nom.

Daniel came late as he had class till 1pm. He also went for the pot of chillpowder kimchi set like Evie and Vivien.

Burp!

A scene after a war erupted, lol.

You guys should try this place. It’s at the 3rd floor of Amcorp Mall.

Haeun Khon Restaurant,

Lot 342 & 345, 3rd Floor,
Amcorp Mall, 46050
Petaling Jaya.

I suddenly had the inspiration to blog about Cambodia again after Chiaw Yin passed a very random statement over on Facebook.

“Mr Shiya is very good”.

I was cracking my head on who is this fella and why is she telling me this. Then it clicked me ! Mr Shiya aka Siya was our tourguide in Siem Reap and i used to call him as Ya. I knew Chiaw Yin was in Siem Reap not long ago but i never knew she also got him as her guide.

The best part was, she said he still remembers me ! ^.^

But to be frank, he is one hell of a guide, to be honest. Though we occasionally teach him the wrong things in Hokkien, hahahaa. I really hope the guide i am getting in Indonesia would be as good and enthusiastic as Siya

Back to my writing, I am still in 3rd day of Siem Reap of the 4 days we were there. The picture above shows a note from one of the kid saying she isn’t well to do and she supports the family by selling books. The thing about the kids, they really look pitiful but if you don’t play their game then you will just end up being cursed. As for the books, after closer inspection you would noticed that it’s photocopied. Just the cover is coloured. So yeah bargain hard.

We were back in Angkor Wat after having breakfast in Jasmine Lodge. By this time around in the day you would see plenty of tourists flocking by the bus loads to the main entrance. Security is tight as usual. So it’s advisable to keep your daily pass properly at all time.

Sometimes i wondered how the people of the that time used the stairs ? Were they all using their four limbs like Emily and Ai Ling ? Btw, this is the library. For some reason, this is the only part of Angkor Wat that i can remember well. LOL my memory damn bad T.T

The women in this trip are really hardy women, hahaha. No joke. I was worried at the beginning on how would they handle such situation where dust, heat and walking are common in this trip. Cha Bo power, rofl. For their hardiness, the upcoming trip to Bali should be a little challenging. Let’s see how the sister no. 1,2 and 3 handle

We were in Angkor Wat until late evening before heading back to wash up.

For dinner, we were brought to Amazon Angkor Restaurant. Here the dinner served is buffet style and there’s a huge variety of food but the main attraction is the performance. Different styles of dance by the locals are performed during the whole course of the dinner. It’s kinda touristy and commercialized so it may not appeal to those who only wants hardcore local standards.

As for me i loved it. I mean after walking like cow for hours, i just wanted to sit and enjoy my food with some ambiance and this place was perfect.

After dinner we went for walk walk at their night market. Everyone started to unleash their bargaining skills, buying what they could afford. Price wise it’s really cheap, especially when you buy in a big quantity. So if you are in group, gather a few to buy.

But if the price doesn’t appeal to you, you can try the stalls out of the night market. Since they are slight out of the main area, they would be able to lower down even more. But if that also not good enough for you, then just go to the old market place. You can get shirts are 2ringgit there, lol. The down side is the place starts to close down at 9.30pm unlike this Night Market. Further more the atmosphere here is much better.

Before heading back to call it a day, we headed to the local so called pub. I had their Angkor beer but Aaron decided to do one better

Baliksssss to hibernate !

The next day would be our final day in Cambodia !

Stay tuned !

I am finally BACK ! I am BACK blogging. Curse facebook and twitter for taking up my blogging time, LOL. Anyway i am back here to finish off my Cambodia entries with the second last entry which is basically the 2nd last day in Siem Reap. For some reason i think it was a bad idea shooting this particular shot in sepia cause it emphasizes how dirty the hands were.

If you didn’t already know, the egg looking thing in the plate my friend is the unborn ducky -_-!

It’s known as Balut in the Philippines.

We didn’t actually plan to do this but so happened a lady cycled passed us and asked in Cambodian if we would like try. Our guide, Siya then stopped her and said he would have one. Thus giving us the opportunity to see how she prepares. From cracking the egg, to digging out the duck and serving with certain leaves and ginger.

Sister number 1 was terrified seeing the duck on her plate. HAHAhaha.

Siya showed us how to eat it and then he explained why people in Cambodia resorted to eating fried insects, unborn ducks, etc. It all started off with a certain regime taking over the whole country and the people were left to starve for food. Thus most of them resorted to insects to fill up their hungry tummies. Of course time flew by but the habit or crave for insects never left, thus you see many roadside vendors selling fried insects and also unborn ducks.

This is why i love traveling, you always gain something from a trip especially when you are backpacking. Experiencing what the normal people have to go through would definitely open our eyes bigger and thanking for what we have.

Imagine me telling a Cambodian my side of the story of hunger. When i am hungry, i don’t go hunting for insects but i end up at Murni having Nasi Goreng Maryland Special and Watermelon Special, LOL.

Nom nom nom the duckling T.T

Lee May also tried …. with her eyes closed. Might as well don’t see what you are eating. Good thinking by our resident pharmacist

So as Lee May tried … Sister Number 1 and Sister Number 2 were …

…. freaking OUT ! HAHAHAHA

Imagine halfway through, Siya pointed out that certain part of the egg was like the pillow for the duck @.@!

I didn’t try.

So to recap, i never tried the insects in Phnom Penh and i never tried the duck in Siem Reap >.<!

Initially i was suppose to take a photo of mine but due to unforseen circumstances, i only realized i forgot to photograph it right after i was done eating. Too bad i don’t have a clear shot of the jelly and this is the only picture i have before my sister asked me to buzz off.

The jelly of the coconut is actually the coconut water itself and this is done by removing the outer husk and left in the oven to roast. During the cooling period, the coconuts are placed in a cooling room and this is when the jelly is formed.

It’s best to be eaten there and then cause if you were to leave it in the car and finally return home after a few hours, it would turn sour. There’s no preservatives, all natural.

Angeline brought it home and some of it did turn sour when she and her family ate it the next day. Mine on the other hand was perfect as i ate it on the same day.

It’s RM 3.70 per coconut and it’s pandan coconut, just like the one at Abu Siti Lane but this is along Dato Keramat.

Earlier that day, Angeline and I met up with Richard and Emily over at mainland to have fresh water prawns for lunch at Sungai Acheh. I made a call to the owner prior to our arrival so that he can reserve 1.5kg for us. Initially Hugo was suppose to come but he had to ‘tutup kedai’. Apa lar lu

It has been like 3 years plus since i have came here and nothing has changed except for the price of the prawns. The last time i was there, it was about 63 ringgit per kilo and now it’s about 59 ringgit.

Since Emily, Richard and Angeline have no idea on what to order, i took charge. I asked for 750 grams of curry prawns and 750 grams of steamed prawns. We were then asked if we would like steamed rice or steamed bread to go with the prawns. We ordered 2 of each.

Some of you might ask, what’s so special about these prawns. It’s bigger than the normal ones you see in the market and the big ones can be slightly smaller than a lobster.

Curry Prawns

Steamed prawns

Sister number 2. Sister number 1 was too lazy to rise from the bed.

Richard promoting the steamed prawns

Angeline showing the head of the prawn -_-!

If any of you do go there, don’t forget to order their steamed bread. Really damn nice ! It’s so soft.

The place was really packed when our prawns arrived. If we were there earlier, Mr Lim, the owner would have gladly brought us back to the kitchen to show where he stores the prawns. A few years back when was here with my family, he showed my siblings how 2 of the giant prawns fought when he put them together in one tub. Moments after that, they were all covered in curry on my plate, lol.

After that Richard asked if there’s anything else nearby to eat and so i brought them for laksa and ice kacang.

DOF out  -_-!

We ended up at the wrong stall. There were 2 laksa stalls side by side like Penang Road ice kacang and after 3 years i totally forgot which one was the better one. The laksa here is a bit different because it has crackers in it. The stalls are situated at the Nibong Tebal town.

P/S: Have to build on this momentum to blog -_-! The pictures are ready but i always end up doing other things than blog, lol

Krispy Kreme gave away free doughnuts at Times Square yesterday

While having lunch at Old Town Kopitiam, i took Angeline’s ipod and started punching in reminders which would come in play for what i have installed for her while she waits to board her flight.

… but to no surprise, the flight got delayed and the reminders popped out ahead of time.

Nevertheless, the reminders were sort of vague and Angeline called up and asked what was going on. I told her to ignore it.

An hour after the actual boarding time, she calls and says that she is finally boarding and asked if she had to do as i asked in her reminders and i replied yes.

“What happens if i don’t want to follow your instructions ?” she asked.

I told her to have a safe journey and it’s up to you if you want to follow.

Just don’t kill me once you have landed in Penang.

So she boarded the plane..

When the plane reached it’s cruising altitude, an announcement was made.

Paging for Miss Angeline Tan, paging for Miss Angeline Tan

Your roti canai is ready

-

-

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

She was kind of stunned and decided to dabao the roti canai, ROFLMAO

You know the fella beside me thought i was mad !

Dabao-ing roti canai in mid-air ! I am sooooo gonna kill you !

I probably got stressed out while booking her flight ticket no thanks to all the 60 journals and thesis writing i have been doing for the past 2 weeks. And so i wondered, what would happen if i added a roti canai in her booking ?

… and that’s what i did. Booked her a flight, added a meal which was roti canai but never told her about it. If you are wondering what were the reminders that i mentioned earlier, it was actually instructions for her to show her boarding pass to the stewards so that they can bring her the roti canai but for some reason her name was announced instead. Hmmmm i sense a lot of scolding is coming my way >.<!

3 ringgit roti canai = stress relief

Angeline, don’t you feed it to Husky i tell you !

Now that my blog is finally UP Arghhhh for some reason this entry disappeared no thanks to the propogation delay -_-! Anyway i shall continue where i left on Phnom Penh. We were still on the Killing Fields and i didn’t feel all that confortable reading signs after signs indicating what had happened here during the Khmer Rouge. The cold breeze just made matters more eery than usual. This particular tree had a loudspeaker on it for a purpose …

… which is to drown the voices of the victims as they were executed in mass.

We later went into the building that stored all the remainings of the victims. Here’s William snapping with Angeline observing the skulls. I didn’t take any though I had to ration my memory card so that it could last me the whole trip which didn’t happened as i had to borrow 2Gb from Aaron.

Having barely 2 hours or so before our bus departs for Siem Reap, we rushed back.

Since we had time to spare, we roamed in Phnom Penh to find for lunch. We agreed to go to the Central market since it would be a good place to seek for food. But the thing is, the market in Phnom Penh isn’t exactly how we would see back here in Malaysia. The market was basically a market only, selling meat, vegetables, everyday utensils, previous stones, etc. There was no sign of hawker food, ROFL.

We left the market and walked to a few nearby mainroads.

We then came across this shop and i heard someone said, let’s have lunch here.

LOL. The thing about Phnom Penh is, if there’s a Bak Kut Teh shop here then the whole row would have BKT all over. Same goes for mechanics, sundry shop and also hawker food which we were yet to find any >.<!

We headed back to our rooms and decided to board the bus, in the hopes of finding something to bite on the way there.

There was this bread stand, i mean a few bread stand in front of the bus we were boarding and so we grabbed whatever we wanted. Igot myself a french loaf and asked the lady if it was empty or had anything in it. To my avail, we had some major communication barrier, lol.

Every where you go in Phnom Penh, you can easily find bread stands or even bakeries which have loads and loads of french loaves. I guess the French definitely did leave something behind when were in control of Cambodia.

After settling down in the bus, i finally had a bite and i tell you, it was one of the best french loaves i have ever had. Maybe because i was too hungry but for that price and to have pork floss in it, it was definitely worth it.

That ended up as my lunch.

The bus journey took about 7-8 hours if my memories serves me well. It was a 2+2 seating arrangement and it was one heck of a experience travelling with the locals. Even the movie played in the bus was a freaking eye opener. Hahaha. I quickly dozed off once i had my lunch but i was awaken to the sounds of the blaring monospeaker tv where it was showing a fighting scene from a local movie. I didn’t know basketball moves and gymnastics could be the basis of a fighting scene in any movie Taking a glance around, i could see how the locals were hooked to the tv set.

We did stop at their rest stop and it was just a normal shed with one stall and a sundry shop. We would try just about anything since we were in Cambodia and so we bought ice creams …

… just to find out it was packed in Malaysia.

Hahaha

We arrived Siem Reap when the sun was setting. As we got down from the bus, Emily yelled at me …

“Eh somebody the other side is holding a sign with your name on it.”

It was the driver who was assigned to be with us for the next 4 days in Siem Reap. I was actually prepared with other contacts in case the person whom i have been emailing back and forth for months didn’t turn. You know la, anything thru the net isn’t always guaranteed.

For USD 4.25 a night, we stayed comfortably at Jasmine Lodge. We were all divided the same way in Phnom Penh, where the girls and the guys had their own room. I stayed at the top floor and we even had our own lazy chair. Jasmine lodge is way wayyyy better than our accommodation in Phnom Penh and their hospitality was even better. Breakfast was included as well as free wifi. Now that’s definitely a bargain for any backpackers.

By the time we washed up and got ready it was already 8 something and we walked towards the town in search for food. Siem Reap is very different compared to Phnom Penh. It feels safe to walking at night.

After walking for more than 15mins, we finally decided where to eat.

The food was quite good and if i am not mistaken i ended up paying USD 4 plus, for the rice with pork and coconut shake. Some of us ordered mee soup which had lots of ajinomoto, lol.

Since we were already near the town center, we continued exploring the night life in Siem Reap

The girls totally zoned out when we came across a shoe shop ala Vincci/Voir/Nose. Eventhough it was cheaper with the current sales, the girls decided to leave empty handed

Of course that didn’t last for long …. LOL. I will tell you why later.

The central market was still operating so we had a look and slowly everyone started buying things like shirts, scarfs, elephant bags. Hahaha. I got my Cambodia shirt for USD 1.25.

Ai Ling and Emily made friends with this lady who had a unique way of saying, “Oh my gawdddddd.” ROFLMAO

Emily ended up saying that for the rest of the trip, she would just OMG anyone out of the blue, hahaha

Before leaving the town, we went to one of the sundry shops to get a few things. At the same time, we also did a price comparison with a few things, like liquor, chocolate, etc.

A few of us did become hungry when we reached back, so we walked to a nearby roadside stall and had supper.

Emily and I ordered this special fruit thingy. We just didn’t know that special means sprinkling milo all over the fruits >.<!

HAhahaha it tasted funny.

That’s the first night in Siem Reap. To be continued soon …

P/S: My blog is having some sort of problem, so please bear with me as i update a few things before posting the coming entries. In the mean time, do drop by Malaysian Dream Girl’s site to catch the latest episode of season 2