Rainforest Bakery: Rich Bread, Poor Manners (Part I)

As some of you might or might not know, I managed to get myself caught on the online coupon craze not too long ago. Bought myself one coupon after another and finally decided to stop at coupon number four, because all that coupons have not materialise to tangible or even edible items just yet. So I said to myself, "Hey hey! Slow down girl. Wait till you at least try to redeem one of them and see how it goes."

So I did!

I finally used my very first Groupon on my own!
(Note the keywords "on my own". My first was with my fellow colleagues

and I just tagged along for a pre-paid lunch.)

Head over to Rainforest Bakery at Chulia Street after dinner with the family and bought myself RM20 worth of b.r.e.a.d. I know. I know. Omg right? Hahaha. Before you go all out thinking this young lady must be crazy, let me justify that the deal was I got RM20 worth of bread for only RM10. Yup. A good deal especially since Rainforest Bakery is known for its really good but slightly pricey bread.

So I came home loaded. I even paid an extra RM3.60
for ummm.. 'overspending'. :P

Need a better look?


Here you go! So what did I get?

Two thick slices of Yogurt Limonata Cake for RM4.20 EACH. Told ya. A loaf of Mixed Grain Bread for RM5.40. A Foccasia for RM3.90 and a gigantic loaf of Poppy Seed Bloomer for RM5.20. Yup, you read it right. Poddy seeds.

These were not my initial choices but unfortunately I went late after dinner and all the other good stuff were already sold out. *sad face* Now here's where the story begins.

Obviously the bread is good. There's no denying about that. In fact, we had a wonderful lunch yesterday from all that. More details later okay? But first back to bread shopping shall we? Well, there was obviously a lack of choices when we were there and mom went on to ask if these were all there is and the below conservation took place.

Conversation 1:

Mom: Is this it? But there are so many choices on the flyer.
Guy: You came late. That's all there is. You want you come in the morning.

Gee. Felt like I just got slapped by the truth.
I admit what the guy said is true but it wouldn't hurt to be nice about it, no? Say maybe...
"Sorry 'mam. That's all there is since it's late already. We have more in the morning."

*shrugs*


*******


Conversation 2:
Mom spotted some stuff behind the counter near the baking area.

Mom: What are those? Are there more buns inside?
Guy: No no. That's not... *mumbles something.. I wasn't paying much attention at first till I heard...* Why would we want to keep anything. Of course we want to sell everything.

Alright. True. I accept that.


*******


Conversation 3:
Mom spotted a basket of little pre-packed strawberry jam
like those in hotels and restaurants served together with bread.

Mom: Is this free ah? *excuse the Manglish*
Guy: *gives mom a are-you-being-ridiculous-stare*
No no no. You have to pay. Everything here you have to pay.

Hear that?

Everything here you have to pay.

As much as I felt embarrassed about mom's typical aunty-like antics, I was also very not pleased with the man's poor social skills as a salesperson. Hello. Know the words 'Please, Sorry & Thank You'? Guess not. Since mom was being an aunty, the man was being a jerk,
I might as well be the bigger person. So I paid for my extra RM3.60, smiled and say my "thank you" and enjoyed seeing confusion swept through the man's face for an instant in not knowing how to react to some proper etiquette and finally muster out a little "thank you" in return.


Sigh. Took a young to teach the old. Not cool.


Now as for the bread, well...

Rainforest Bakery: Rich Bread, Poor Manners (Part II)

Now as for the bread. They were really gooood.

The Foccasia had a strong herb smell to it which may not suit the general taste buds.
Mom for one couldn't handle more than a slice. So I figured since its herbs, it should go delightfully well with some good old tomato soup. Dip dip. Yummy. Fortunately there was some tomato paste left from my last baked spirallini. So I added water to thin it out and simmered it with finely chopped onions and meat loafs. It's no surprise that Mr Tomato Man enjoyed his meal.


Then there's the Poppy Seed Bloomer covered with lots of happy seeds on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. Do you know that you can actually fail a drug test after consuming poppy seed bread? Hahaha. I read that up on the internet. It has low opiate level
but still enough to place you positive for drugs. Whoah! Anyway, for that, I worked up some scrambled eggs with onions and meat loafs. Same same ingredients, just different way
of preparation. :)

The verdict? The bread was so good, we almost finished the entire loaf in one sitting. There's only three miserable slices left. Hmm... maybe it's the poppy?

So if you're looking for good old traditional bread, Rainforest Bakery is as good as it gets. Just beware of the 'unfriendly' man. Ignore him, get your bread and you'll be fine.


Rainforest Bakery & Pastry
300 Chulia Street,
10200 Georgetown, Penang
Tel: 04-2614641

FREE Delivery
Delivery time: Monday - Saturday
(2pm onwards)

[L.E.P.A.K series: Paris] Chap 13: An Afternoon in Paris

Our next itinerary for the day was a walk down Champs-Elysees. Now we could have begun our walk right from Notre Dame Cathedral but decided we had a long day ahead of us. So we opt to cut our walking time short by riding the RER to Invalides stop.

This time we got a ride on a double decker train instead!
It was a first for Cik Anai as she merrily took multiple shots of the train. I myself have came across such trains during my travels in Japan. However, I still shared the same excitement in riding it. You see, even though I saw these trains in Japan, I did not had a chance in riding them.

So naturally, we camwhore like nobody's business. There were not many commuters on the train anyway as seen in the photo above. I guess it's because we were there on a weekday and most people were already at work during these hours.

While on the train, our stomach growled and we were reminded of our lack food since our 'junkie' breakfast. So upon arrival, we attempted to make our first purchase in Paris sans French.

We stared at all the yummy looking pastries and was drooling over the Pain au chocolat except we had no idea how to go about with our order. You see as much as we read and knew about it, we had no idea how to pronounce it correctly in French. Was 'Pain' pain? *frowns* We were all set to offend the bread lady with our ignorance when a helpful
Mr Black who was making his own purchase beside us, kindly asked us
"What do you girls want?"

OUR LIFESAVER!!

We promptly pointed the pastry of our choice and he ordered them for us. A very short conversation ensued as bread lady wrapped our pastries. Turned out he's not a local himself and is studying in Paris. We thanked him for his help and he wished us an enjoyable holiday as he went his merry own way. We on the other hand, proceeded to move ourselves to a corner to....

...take a photo of our yummy pastry!!
Hahaha. Cute right? The two choco dots made the pastry looked like
some funny muppet character.


As we climbed up the stairs and stepped out into the open,
we were surprised to find ourselves right under Pont Alexandre III.


Our photo-taking mode started to kick in. With one hand already pre-occupied with our dear pastry, we tried our best to take some good shots of the luxurious looking bridge.


And then we looked up the flight of stairs...
Wow! One more shot. :D

That's me and my yummy Pain au chocolat at Pont Alexandre III.

And that's Cik Anai with her yummy Pain au chocolat
already nicely tucked away in her stomach. Hehe.

We passed by lots of beautiful architecture along the way. From the modest statue of General La Fayette to a not very Grand Palais to what seemed to be a more lavished Petit Palais. It's not hard to guess which of the three is the one behind me.

Not to mention, very very scenic views one after another.

And another! Heh.

Tham-Chiak Girl in action!

Because let's face it. It's a little crepe stall. C.R.E.P.E. It's another must-have in Paris except it was probably not the best crepe in town. I wouldn't know since it's the only crepe I had that day but it was still an awesome experience standing there waiting for my crepe to be done. =P

Now how did we order our crepe this time without helpful Mr Black?

Well, lookie! An Asian girl helping out. Yay!
Except she doesn't speak a word Chinese and she seemed reluctant to even speak English. Woot?!? Not exactly what I called friendly but we managed to place our order nonetheless.
I had no idea how we concluded in chestnut flavour though. Hmm..

A happy me with our crepe.

The crepe was shared between us since we were still filled with our Pain au chocolat. The crepe was good in the sense that it was filled with warmth and was simply lovely to enjoy on a chilly afternoon. The chestnut though reminded me of sweet Azuki (Japanese red bean paste) which I do not exactly fancy. I love nuts. I adore peas. But I do not fancy beans. =P

Wow! This post is loooong and we're not even there yet!
Alright, it's break time!

My-Everyday-Groupon-Deals ;)

Have you hopped on the online coupon deals bandwagon yet? I did. Yeah yeah. Before you start rolling your eyes and say "Now only hop, outdated already lah!" I will tell you that... that is so true! Hahaha.

I'm always a step slower than the rest in keeping up with the latest "in" things. Not that I'm not aware of it, it's just that I don't hop right on it. Get it? I always tread with caution. I don't just hop on the first bandwagon that passes by. I make sure a few bandwagons went ahead of me, reached the destinations safely, all hypothesis supported with proof and evidence, etc, only then do I hop on the next good bandwagon that comes my way.

Except I kinda plunged right in too deep and managed to get
myself addicted to the entire thing now. *frowns*

Now now, if you think I'm on my way spending my ka-chings away on cheap but unnecessary spending than you are very wrong. In fact, I have only made five purchases so far (since late August) and one of them was not even bought by me. I just paid for it. It was a lunch deal that the entire office gang bought together and enjoyed together. Hah!

My first two purchases were for a Photobook deal and one of them was even bought as a gift to dear Cubbie. So that left two minor purchases that cost barely RM10 and RM12 each. See, I am no big spender.

So why call myself an addict then?

Well, I'm not addicted to the act of buying, I'm addicted to the act of window shopping. LOL. Or is it call 'browser shopping' instead? It has somehow became a routine for me to check these online deal sites out every night. And that my dear friends, is very dangerous. Seriously, you are tempted to buy things you never thought of buying.

So be warned: Lots of discipline is needed when venturing into
the oh-so-very-convenient world of online shopping.

Side Notes!!
Between the three sites that I frequent: Groupon, Everyday and Milkadeal, my preference leans towards Groupon simply because I am a girl and I like things pretty. =P Did I just make myself sound shallow right there? Hahaha. Seriously though, I'm talking about the web design and presentation. Everyday and Milkadeal just don't do it for me. I know at the end of the day, it's about how good are the deals offered but it sure doesn't hurt to be pretty at the same time, right?

[L.E.P.A.K series: Paris] Chap 12: Say a Little Prayer

We were still a little intimidated by the fact that we were in Paris surrounded by a very unfamiliar language. I can handle Japan with my survival Japanese but I speak no word of French and I admit, I made no effort in learning since it was only for a day's trip. :P

But that did not dampen our excitement over the entire thing. In fact in a positive note, our entire French experience was pretty delightful, not to mention, exciting! Maybe because it was such a short trip that we did not see any 'ugly' side of Paris. Unlike London which has its fair share of highs and lows, we left Paris with the impression that the people were nice and moving around was easy. More on that later, shall we?

So we hopped off the RER at St-Michel Notre-Dame, headed up the stairs and was greeted by the beautiful Seine River. A lovely start to what would later turned out to be the most memorable day of our week long trip.

A 180 degrees turn around and Notre Dame Cathedral majestically stood before us.

That's me and my little traffic light right there. Hehe.
Obviously every moment is picture worthy when you are travelling, even when you are simply waiting for the light to turn green to cross the road.


And finally we were standing right in front of our first destination of the day.

We then proceeded to take photos of each other with the cathedral as our backdrop. One of the few down points of travelling with just two is that you tend to be lonely in pictures. But alas, a sheepish looking man came forward and offered to help take a picture of us together. Sheepish. Really. But we took our chance with him. A big chance because we somehow ended up passing him Cik Anai's DSLR camera to him to take the photo. It was at that spur of a moment that happened naturally simply because Cik Anai was the one taking photos of me with her camera when he offered his help.

Now trust wasn't the only issue here. We stood together posing for our photo, trying hard to smile while at the same time stared worriedly at Mr Man who was holding the camera in a very unconvincing manner, swaying slightly, up and down, up and down. *sweatdrops*


Surprisingly, the photo turned out okay if you ignore the fact that we kinda look short and stunted in the picture. Hah. At least that's another picture of us together.

There was a lot of people hanging around the vicinity. And lots of birds too.

There was even an 'art class' going on in front of the cathedral.

No surprise coming from a place where art is life.

A silent "Wow!" was said in my heart as we stepped into the cathedral.
The entire atmosphere was so tranquil and serene.

The candles that were lighting up the entire cathedral was another sight to behold.
They were up in chandeliers, down on small rounded stands
(much like the cover photo of this entry)...

...and even in little glasses that stood collectively, shining brighter than ever.

These candle glasses came with a nice cover too and while they were supposed to be lighted up for prayers, you can also kindly dropped a sum of donation in the box and take one home. That was what Cik Anai did as a momento for her aunt back home. I regretted not doing the same as I had no small change at that moment and thought of buying a souvenir from the souvenir counter later. Nothing perked my interest at the counter later, much to my dismay, and I left the place with only our photos and memories.

Now for a short and simple photo tour of the place.

That's the confession room. Different eh.

And that's one of the many beautiful stained glass windows in the cathedral.

Visitors were actually not allowed at the centre worshipping area. We were instructed to only walk along the side, circling along the cathedral. However as we approach the stage, we saw everyone busy taking photos of themselves in front of it and proceeded to follow the crowd in doing the same.

We were in and out as quickly as possible because we were not sure whether if all this 'silent' commotion was actually allowed.

That's the wooden model of the cathedral. Impressive eh? If we hadn't see this, we would have not known that the cathedral was in fact that long in depth. All we saw from the front was its beautiful facade.

As we stepped out of the cathedral much later, we were continued to be struck in awe by the surrounding walls. See that third saint from the left? Quirky. ^^;;


And if you continue to look up, up, up...

you'll find yourself opening your mouth wider, wider and wider.

:o :o :O

And if you look down instead, well, suddenly I was reminded of home. Hahaha. Pigeons. Much like the ones hanging around our Kwan Yin Temple back in Penang.

Finally we were on our way again. But as we make our move, we can't help
turning back for one last shot of the place. <3


Next! Time for a walk along Champs-Elysees.

Sauceless vs Cheeseless

This was what I cooked last week.

*points to picture below*

And this was what I cooked this week.

*points to picture below*

Monday Night Verdict?

Apparently the latter is the crowd favourite. The crowd being mom and dad. Heh. I got an instant "Nice." from dad even before I actually sat down. Dad was already digging in. *as shown in the picture above*

It was a no-brainer since it's been known that dad is a Tomato Man. I've been stubborn for the past few weeks in attempting to cook all my pasta-ish dishes without the regular tomato based sauce. Hence last week's Salmon Spaghetti was flavoured with just garlic and pepper. I personally enjoyed it. *bias* Because unlike dad, I have a thing for pepper. Many weeks earlier, I worked up a pot of Green Pea Spaghetti and let's just say that lunch was enjoyed in silence. =P

In my defence, it was still yummy but apparently,
nothing beats good old traditional tomato.

Now I came to realise that I've been posting up pictures of all my cooking adventures without actually sharing a recipe or two. Well, that's 'cause I rarely cook with a recipe.
I either randomly come up with an idea of what would work and buy my ingredients or in some cases, make do with what's available in the kitchen.
Hence, today's cheeseless baked pasta!

The idea of baking my spiralini instead of just cooking them ala spaghetti came about yesterday while I was walking around Giant. Now being right in the centre of the hypermarket, I could have easily grab some cheese for the idea yet I stood there in front of that cheese and decided against it. I admit they were not cheap and I was not feeling generous. Heh.

So I came home and seek Google for help. After twenty recipes asking me to put lots of cheese on my casserole and a read on a cooking forum later, I came to a conclusion!
What was important is that I have enough sauce to cover the dish so as to not dry up my spiralini. The cheese, aside from being rich and yummy, was a core ingredient in holding up the dish together. All I need is something else to do the job!

Finally, a first time in Hiyashibeeps,
I am offering a cooking tip instead of a travelling one. :O

If you're cooking for lactose-intolerant people or simply want to avoid the rich and not exactly healthy cheese, break an egg or two and coat it over your dish. There's also the other option of using yogurt in replace of cheese but again, I got none in my kitchen and there's lactose in that too.

So dear readers, if you are out there.
Try your luck with a cheeseless baked pasta today!

On a side note, I'm done with all things pasta for the time being. Mom just reminded me yesterday night that I still have my Japanese rice in the fridge. Yikes! Looks like it's time to go back to Japan. *grins*

[L.E.P.A.K series: Paris] Chap 11: To Paris with Love

After sharing our humble shepherd's pie together for dinner, we then proceeded to wash up and hit the sack early as we have a loooooong day ahead. Not to mention a very early morning start. Now if there's TWO strong selling points that Tune Hotels pride on are their power shower and comfy bed – the two core essentials for tired travellers like us. So we snuggled in as early as 10pm...

... and woke up at 5 freaking am to catch the first tube out to King Cross St Pancras Station. We were literally standing right in front of the tube station waiting for the shutters to open... and before you start calling us crazy, we were not alone! Hah!

Oh oh! Before I go any further, let me tell you about this super duper
yummy yogurt we had for breakfast.

This is crazy stuff man!

Honey walnut yogurt yo! It was soooo goooood. All for a not-too-expensive-yet-not-exactly-cheap price of £0.79p. I mean it's cheap if you ignore the difference in currency and take it as 1:1 but if convert over that's like RM4.00 for a cup of yogurt. Then again, Cik Anai and I saw a walnut yogurt (minus the honey) selling at a whooping price of over RM10 at Cold Storage back here in Malaysia. So... £0.79p is so worth the every savouring slurp we had with that yogurt.

Yummy yogurt deserves one more shot! See it says right there
“Thick & Creamy Yogurt – Walnut & Greek Honey”. Yaaa meeee!
Alright, end of yogurt commercial. :P Back to our early morning adventure.

So what's with all the fuss about being early anyway?

Well, we were on our way to catch the 6.53am Eurostar train to Pa-Pa-Paris!

That's the Eurostar waiting lounge right there. We were worried that we might mess up the check-in process or get lost inside King Cross station since we have never been there before and therefore got off on an early start. Better be safe than sorry yo! And seriously this is one ride we cannot afford to miss. After all, it cost a small fortune to ride on the Eurostar. On the contrary, we found our way easily in the station and the check-in process was swift with our print-out-and-scan tickets. So with another stamp in our passport we made our way to the waiting lounge.

There was an information counter at the waiting lounge that was manned by a friendly staff. We picked out some free yet very informative brochures of Paris to read on board and even bought ourselves a carnet of tickets. That way we don't have to fuss about language barrier when we arrive in Paris later. A carnet consists of ten tickets that can be used in all Metro, RER, bus and tram rides in Paris. However buying it here at King Cross would mean you will be buying it in pound instead of euros and the difference in currency is a disadvantage in this case as we bought it at a slightly higher price compared to that of in Paris. But it is most definitely time-saving and convenient, so we went ahead and bought them. We also managed to pick up some good old junk food at the convenience store.

Finally we were called for boarding.

That's me in the compulsory "Hey, I rode the Eurostar!" pose. :D


The train was pretty empty since it was a weekday and we almost had the entire cabin to ourselves save a hand full of others. What's more we even booked ourselves the centre seats designed to accommodate a company of four. It has two double-seaters facing each other, sharing a single table. We took our chance with these seats hoping to either have the extra leg space or if the seats in front of us were occupied, well there's no harm in making new friends. ;-)


But there was no one to make friends with and instead Cik Anai pop over
and sat across the table. *grins*


And finally we were truly really definitely on our way. We grabbed our load of junks out and munch away on our very unhealthy breakfast. In our defence the Real McCoy's grilled steak flavoured chips were de-li-cious!


Cik Anai enjoying her yummy chips!


Time to show off the wonderful morning scenery Cik Anai managed to
capture along the way.

Rajin membaca konon. Hehe.

Did we just pass the border? *clueless*

Art or vandalism? *shrugs* I don't know.
All I know is that we are almost there!!

And WE ARE HERE!

After being in the cosy train for over two hours, we were once again greeted by the chilly breeze as we stepped out onto the platform. The real bummer though was not the chill but was the fact that we lost one hour due to the time difference between London and Paris. That means lesser time for us to see Paris. Not cool, not cool at all.

Time to hunt down the RER!

Our first stop... off to meet the hunchback of Notre Dame.

Umm... I mean Notre Dame Cathedral.

Promise no delays on the next update. Stay tuned!