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 had the chance to be at the Grand Launch of TGV’s new cinema in Penang last week thanks to Kenny Wong, COO of TGV. The cinema has been operating for a few weeks now and it’s conveniently located at 1st Avenue level 8. In fact prior to the invitation, i have watched 2 movies there and i can tell you the seats are awesome. The leg space especially.

If there’s still knocks on the back of your chair then it’s definitely on purpose!

I arrived slightly late as Angeline could only leave work sharp at 5pm. We were joined by Emily who saw us walking towards the cinema. Upon registering, we were given goodiebags that had potato chips, calendar and a small beanie bag. At this point of time i just didn’t know what has the beanie bag got to do with TGV Cinemas.

I spotted Chun Huey and Wah in front and ended up joining them.

We were served with cocktails and even had the choice to have beer or shandy.

It was later announced that TGV Cinemas in 1st Avenue would be the first cinema to serve beer! Not that i am drinker or what but that’s definitely something different.

While waiting for the event to start, the emcee of the evening, Julie Woon went around giving pop quiz and giving away free TGV tickets if you get the answers right. It was funny to see what kind of answers were given to some questions, lol.

Angeline was one of the unfortunate preys and she was asked, where is TGV’s cinema in Penang?

Probably she got too excited and immediately said, “Prangin Mall! Eh no no no 1st Avenue!”.

LOL!

Julie then handed her 2 tickets for any movies in TGV.

Later on the ceremony started and then it was official! TGV Cinemas has landed in Penang.

We were all given a tour around the cinema and was explained in detail on why certain things were done in a certain manner.

And then we were brought to the highlight of TGV Cinemas’ outlet in Penang ….

… The BeaniePlex!

It had super huge beanies all over and it’s placed in couples. The tickets are RM 26 per couple.

Too bad the cinema hall lights weren’t on. So it was hard to take a proper picture. The moment i sat down, all i wanted was TGV Cinemas to play Lord of the Rings trilogy! That would have been awesome!

So the next time you want to try something different, go for the BeaniePlex in 1st Avenue.

After the tour, it was dinner time.

Angeline and Julie Woon.

Emily, Bryan Soh, Angeline Long, Thean Soon, Me, Angeline, Wah, Chun Huey and Khar Ling.

After dinner, we had the chance to watch Green Hornet 3D.

The movie was alright. I am actually quite impressed that Jay Chou could speak English though at times i felt like scratching my face with my nails as he tried to force out a few words. Nevertheless the movie was entertaining and funny.

Would give it a 6.5 out of 10

The event ended after the movie. I was actually hoping we would be able to watch the movie screening at the BeaniePlex, lol.

I guess i will do that when i am back in Penang

It cost me 60 cents to park for an hour near Sunshine Square and i handed over 1 ringgit. The change of 40 cents was returned and i rushed off as i had another appointment. Little did i know that instead of getting 40 cents, i had 1 x 20cents coin and 1 x 1 rupee (Indian currency).

I only found out about it when i returned home.

Both coins had similar sizes, they only differ by weight and that’s how i realized when i was emptying my pocket.

Based on today’s exchange rate:

1 rupee = 0.06988 MYR

that’s less than 7 cents. So it’s about 27 cents. My mum then told me that some parking attendants return coins in rupee or baht, so just double check before leaving.

It might only be 13 cents to some of us but it could be a lot if it was multiplied.

Lesson learned -_-!

On a side note:

I received a package from overseas a couple of days ago and i was ecstatic ! Will write about it soon

Coming from a closely-knitted family and being always stuck in front of the computer all day long, i never liked clubbing. In fact the ones in Penang are usually in town and i was living on the other side of the island, …

in a kampung …

… called Kampung Jawa.

The most happening place in Kampung Jawa was this mini mart called Sui Wah and that’s it. I grew up and left for my degree, Sui Wah grew up and it’s now Sunshine Square, still the most happening place around Kampung Jawa.

Shifting to Melaka and KL to further my studies did open my eyes big big, well it depends on how you interpret my sentence. I think i have gone to pubs and clubs in KL more times compared to Penang.

Actually in Penang i have only gone once … -_-”

That also my friend drank my share of the beer, swt.

Last year was the first time i attended Hennessy Artistry where Flo Rida was the main guest artist and i tell you that event alone changed my perception on clubbing and parties. That’s like a different class all together. I was there as a hired paparazzi photographer. People just kept tapping on my shoulder asking me to snap their pictures. At that point of time, i was still new into photography and it was a good training ground for night photography. I just learn/work better under pressure.

That night i remembered roaming around the place snapping and changing lens whenever a different artist appears and that got me thirsty. Tired you know.

Even with Angeline constantly reminding me not to drink a lot since it was free flow BUT it fell on deaf ears.

I first asked for a coke but probably the fella didn’t hear and poured Hennessy only. Not even mixed. Gulp down 2 cups and i felt one kind, lol.

That night i think i drank 6 cups all together and i think that’s my limit cause i wasn’t drunk or floating. So yeah i drank responsibly, lol. Enough of the drinking but Flo Rida definitely brought the house down !

The following year, i was invited by Yatz and since i had an extra pass, i dragged Mr Canon-in-D aka Wei Chung along. I have always told everyone i knew, that they should try to attend Hennessy’s events.

Though i was equipped with my camera but i barely took any photos. A few hours before that i was at my sister’s convocation in Melaka. My GPS made things worse. Searched for Bukit Kiara as a reference and it brought me to Seremban -_-” I was more or less tired when i arrived.

While i was enjoying the surrounding, suddenly i heard people saying, ” Eh look, mini jay chou.”

I was like who ?

Ok ler, he does have a slight resemblance of Jay Chou.

Wei Chung and Lih Ren. All three of us have known each other since end of 2003. Or was it 2004 ? Nevertheless, all kawan lama

Then Wei Chung was kind enough to offer me to take my photo which ….

… was a bad idea T.T

This Friday (02 Oct 2009) from 9pm to 3am, Hennessy Artistry is back with Paul Freeman, Hsiao Hung Jen, Boys Like Girls and Lenka will be performing Club Quattro KL. I was told that the free 100 tickets has already been given out but fear not.

Purchase 1 bottle of Hennessy VSOP to get 2 exclusive invites!
Purchase 2 bottles of Hennessy VSOP to get 5 exclusive invites!!

So see you there if you are coming

Speaking of partying and clubbing, the most recent one i attended was at Ministry of Sound for Juice’s Birthday Bash.

The main space in the middle shakes because of the crazy-ass bass and that makes everyone dance, lol. I was with Leang, Yatz, Lih Ren and Joshua. They kept telling, ” Snap only don’t worry !”

So yeah i went around snapping.

One thing i have learnt that night was don’t, don’t ever put maximum power for the flash gun. Why ?

Cause the artist would be flash banged for no reason >.<!

Bad move.

Joshua was showing me how to enjoy the songs, lol. Lih Ren and Yatz just stared in blurness

The dance floor was really vibrating like mad. So some of the people got onto the platform where the artist was and started dancing.

The girls that happened to snap earlier too got on to the platform and now only i realized why some of them were wearing sunnies. So that they won’t go blind if someone flashes. Wait, that sounds wrong -_-”

Then suddenly the rest of the fellas kept shoving me saying, wei look look on the stage. This couple was really get it on. Am i invading their privacy ?

What do you think ?

This entry is kinda sketchy, like no direction. First there was the zaman purba story of my kampung and then suddenly got girls dancing and couples kissing. LOL.

Btw my kampung is damn real, ok. Not made up one.

If you come to Penang, do find it. You can’t miss it. It’s near Intel and Agilent

See you all on Friday

P/S: Dolphin is invading KL this weekend ! Roti telur satu !

Last week i was fortunate enough to be back in Penang for the 4th consecutive weekend and i was back mainly because needed to get some things for my thesis as well as attend a Penang Blogger’s Meet which is known as What a Bloggiful World.

The venue was Paradise Sandy Beach Resort which coincidentally was the same venue for the Penang Food Hunt which i have yet to blog about

Upon reaching, i was greeted by Chee Hsien and Imin who were in charged of the Registration booth. Dolphin and I reached quite early and there were barely anyone in the hall.

Ceddy and Minny who were the emcees for the event

Though the time stated was 12pm sharp but as usual some had their watches set to half an hour slower. But sooner or later, the hall did fill up. To be frank, i had my doubts at the beginning but i was proved other wise. The decoration of the hall was not how i imagined and it was more like a prom themed hall. I felt under-dressed -_-!

Our table consisted of Shouters from shoutoutlounge.com and other bloggers.

Charleskey’s dad, dropped by our table to chat

Jolene, ChenSeng and Angeline

Adelene and friends …. school mates if i am not mistaken.

The program finally started with speeches from the emcees,  main organizer and also the VIP. Which was followed by a 3 segment show by Celebrity Fitness which caught everyone off-guard. Probably no one expected such a performance by the gym instructors, lol.

Three belly dancers appeared before our eyes on the stage and so were the amount of photographers who gathered right in front of the stage -_-! and that includes me, lol. For some reason i had a gut feeling that i was constantly being monitored by dolphin, hahaha.

One of the performers for Body Combat which was more like doing taekwando or karate moves according to music.

Then it was Hip Hop dance and i have to say my photo didn’t really justify the swift movements the 3 girls showed but this was the only shot i took of them before returning to my seat.

During the officiating ceremony, Charles decided to sabotage while i was trying to get a shot of the people on the stage -_-! lol

This was probably the cheesiest part of them all, celebrating for the December babies. But it didn’t really matter cause it just added more fun to the function and so happened the YB’s birthday falls on December as well.

Then everyone was asked to touch the knife for good luck

There was also games and 10 lucky people were chosen. They would each performed whatever that’s stated in the piece of paper given to them in exchange of a RM50 reload by Digi.

Mark was asked to pout like Angelina Jolie

I can’t recall what he was suppose to do but i know Minny jual mahal like there’s no tomorrow, lol.

Eunice was also there and she had to act out if a blackout occurred while blogging

Erica was asked to pose 10 times different if she were to take pictures of herself.

Probably you would notice a lot of the pictures were blur -_-! Sigh, i need steady hands.

There were lucky draws right after the games and prizes were worth RM 10k if i am not mistaken.

What a Bloggiful World

We took a group photo before leaving.

For more detailed writing on What a Bloggiful Worl, drop by Emily’s

I will be posting the rest of the pictures on my facebook, so look out ya

I was walking with my mum and sis towards our car in Queensbay mall just to find out some dodobird did an illegal parking behind our car. In fact one of the guards was already waiting there, anticipating some comotion. I tried reversing but there wasn’t enough room to get out of my parking bay. If that wasn’t frustrating enough, another dodobird parked right beside our car which was meant for trolleys and that made my getaway even harder.

So at that very moment my car was only able to reverse straight back, without being able to turn.

By then i have already caused a massive jam on floor six and seven. Within minutes more guards and parking personels appeared. They themselves were furious at how ignorant some people could be. They tried paging the owners via PA system but as you and i know, NO ONE LISTENS to those announcements.

After five minutes, they decided to move one of the car ….. manually.

The car behind was a Proton Wira and the car beside was a Daihatsu Charade.

As they were moving away their bikes, a few people who got stuck in the jam actually walked up to see the problem. One fella even decided to help the rest.

They checked the Wira and found out it was Auto and thus harder to move. So all of them gathered at the Charade to move it to the left.

By then more people have gathered behind my car to watch them move this car and i tell you, it wasn’t pleasent at all. Cause as they moved the car, cracking sounds were heard and my sis actually noticed part of the front bumper gave way. I am not sure why that happened but after moving the car a few times, i was able to pass thru with ease

It was the most stressful twenty minutes of my five days break in Penang -_-”

Thank God for Penang food, this kinda incident can be overlooked The three of us ended up at New World Park feasting away on Char Koay Teow, Chee Cheong Fun, Yam cake, ice kacang …

Hmmm this explains why i am gain weight by the minute whenever i am back in Penang >_<”

Moral of the Story: Please park responsibly. You wouldn’t want to see a cracked bumper when you get back to you car wouldn’t you.

Just got back from Redang and i am still swaying around as though i am still at sea @_@

I was never a fan of classical music and i remembered how my dad used to play the cds that he got from Reader’s Digest and i would go bonkers. In fact at times i would show tantrums *the joy of being a kid* just to get the song changed or the cd player switched off.

But all that slowly changed and i started to appreciate classical music but not to the extend where i go gaga over it.

During my younger years i remembered how much time i wasted sitting in front of the tele box watching shows after shows on either tv1, tv2 o tv3. There’s one particular session where i definitely wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world and that’s the Dunhill Double BlockBuster. Every Thursday and Friday i will be glued to the tele watching what ever they had to offer and i tell you those movies were top notch, i mean for that time ler. It brought the world of time traveling to me and it made a strong impact that i even asked my dad why aren’t we going back in time when the speed of the car touched 88, lol. If you still haven’t got any clue what was i talking about, it’s Back to the Future. Besides that, Robocop was another one which i followed religiously.

So just like those movies, Dunhill brought Johann Strauss to my living room. I remembered vividly that it was shown for 4 weeks on every Thursday and Friday. After a quick check on wiki, i found out that it’s called “The Strauss Family” and it’s a seven part mini series. The storyline kept me on my toes for the whole month and that’s where i learned about sibling rivalry The song that caught my attention was composed by Johann Strauss II and it’s called The Blue Danube.

For some reason, i didn’t manage to video record it like what i did for Back to the Future and Robocop. The song was never heard again till a decade later when p2p was widely used and i somehow stumbled upon the song. To those who have no idea what the Blue Danube is, here’s a sample

Speaking of classical songs, a few weeks back i attended the Harp in French Music which was organized by the Penang State Symphony Orchestra & Chorus which was held at Dewan Seri Pinang. I didn’t manage to catch the first part of the show and had to stand at the entrance till that particular piece was finished.

Before the show, i was at the ferry point waiting for Dolphin to appear from the sea but because of rough currents, she took longer than expected. So while waiting, i got bored and started snapping random pictures at a nearby construction site.

Was suppose to go on a food hunt around Penang but time didn’t permit. We barely had half an hour before the show and we rushed to a nearby mamak stall to have dinner. Dolphin ordered their speciality which was torn roti canai with chopped chicken. It tasted something like scrambled murtabak, lol.

I on the other hand, ordered Garlic Naan and Chicken Tika. So filling our stomaches, we dashed off to the venue. When we reached there, the first part of the show was already on the way and no one was allowed to move around in the auditorium. The late comers had to wait at the entrance till that piece finished.

When we finally got in, we choose the sittings which wasn’t too far from the stage and waited for the show to restart as it went into an interval. The whole show lasted till 10pm and the arrangements of the songs were really ear pleasing. The only ‘potong stim’ part was the small kids running around in the middle of the show and one particular kid ran up and down the aisle i was sitting beside with a plastic bag. Now how annoying is that, with the sound of plastic bag being introduced into orchestra. They should ban all kids for this kinda show or simply cage them outside till their parents finally noticed that their kids were no where nearby. But overall the show was good and i would really look forward for more show like this in the near future. Futhermore the price of the tickets sold were reasonable. In fact, they even had student price.

After the show, we met up with some of the participants in the orchestra itself. Dolphin met up with her coursemates and friends

Chen Seng and Stefan so happened to be my ex-schoolmates and they both were in the orchestra

This Sunday will be meeting up with ‘the Gayaz’ for Beauty and the Beast Musical @ KLPac. Anyone out there going ?

“So how long is yours ?”

” … close to 8 inches”

“Ganassss, girls got kacau you or not ? LOL”

“No ler, some girls scared ler. Not easy to walk around”

-

-

Photography is definitely an expensive hobby, whether its a piece of plastic to diffuse the flash or a bag to house the camera and accessories, everything is bloody expensive. But nothing beats taking a good photo and Juon Wor here went to the extend of getting a 70-200 f2.8 lens. For those who have got no idea what that means, it’s an expensive lens that is used for zooming -_-” I mean a REALLY expensive lens and it cost more than my camera itself >_<”

I followed Juon Wor to get his lens and since he had a couple of hours to spare, we decided to walk along Penang Road to snap a few pictures.

I was already having a hard time carrying around my bag and my camera round my neck and God knows how Juon Wor was managing his crazy long lens with his camera. I tried it on my camera and it’s so heavy that i would probably need to lift weights if i ever decided to buy, which isn’t gonna happen

The weather too wasn’t kind enough as it was scotching hot.

Speaking of cameras, a few weeks back i met up with HungWei, Aaron and Hugo at Midvalley. Aaron finally got his flash and so he officiated it while we had dinner at some Vietnamese Restaurnt.

Aaron showing off his spanking new flash

The sight of flashes bouncing off the ceiling off and on had attracted a few people to have a glance on what’s happening on our table. Hung Wei in particular had fans throughout the dinner

Later on we adjourned to Kim Gary. Before Kim Gary, we followed Hugo to get his money changed for his backpacking trip.

Then out of the blue, Dolphin appeared out of thin air …

She too got excited with the flash and decided to play with it … which caused HungWei to …

… keep an eye on Angeline. See his ever ready hand. Just waiting to pounce if anything goes wrong. Hahahaha.

Now i shall continue my hibernation. Can’t wait to watch Italy VS Holland later at night

A few years back, i remembered Sim bringing me to this place in front of one of the Shell stations over in Farlim, Penang for laksa and i was told it was probably one of the best in Penang. But lately the stall disappeared and i never heard of it’s whereabout till last week

A few of us were hanging around Farlim waiting for the KL people to wash up, so we decided to have laksa first. And boy was i surprised when i saw the name of the shop. It was called Shell -_-” Hahaha then Willazz told me this is the very stall that used to be in front of Shell. Since they can’t operate there anymore, they got themselves a shoplot. It’s near the field where the pasar malam is in Farlim. I didn’t really get a good look for any prominent landmark -_-” If i have any detailed direction to the place then i will update again

Willazz

JJ – check out the people behind him. Probably they haven’t seen someone using DSLR before, ahaahaha.

Wendy

Then we went back to Ah Lok’s place to gather with the KL people. While waiting for Daniel to get ready, we sat around and took photos -_-”

Angeline

Firewire and Sae Wei

First row: FireWire, Daniel, JJ, Aaron

Second row: Wendy, Willazz, ME, Angeline, Sae Wei

Back: Ah Lok !