We’ve run out of coffee and tea at home. I’ve been craving for Chinese tea for a few days but never had time to go replenish them. Until yesterday. I couldn’t do without any tea anymore so when I had a chance to drop by one of the hypermarkets today, I quickly headed to the beverage section.

But the hypermarket doesn’t carry the brand of tea that we normally buy, and I didn’t fancy the other brands. So I opted to change the type of tea. I suddenly had the urge for peppermint tea and luckily for me there were about 4 to 5 brands to select from. Next I went on to shop for coffee, and instead of going for our usual brand, I decided to go for yet another change too.

I finally ended up with a box of St Dalfour’s Organic Peppermint tea that cost me about RM8 for 25 sachets and a packet of Ali Cafe 3-in-1 coffee mix at RM9.90 for 25 sachets. Before I knew it, I actually spent close to 15 minutes just to pick out these 2 items. I’ve never spent that kind of time deciding on tea and coffee before.

But it was actually quite fun for me trying to change brands and try something different. Normally shopping for tea and coffee is a mundane task because we head straight for the regular brands we use at home without much of an adventurous mood to try something different.

I didn’t stop at just the tea and coffee though. They won’t be so great on their own without a little tea or coffee snack…so right after I hopped over to Cake Sense bakery and got one whole cheese cake! The sign read “Best Seller”, so I didn’t hesitate to grab one. Looks like I’m not helping my other half in maintaining his hard work in following diets for quick weight loss formula with all these snacks that I’m frequently buying home!

So how did the tea, coffee and cake do? Well I love the St Dalfour Organic Peppermint tea. Very refreshing and cooling. As for the Ali Cafe coffee, the aroma is great but the taste is lacking. I couldn’t finish the cup of coffee whilst the tea bag was topped up with a second helping of hot water. Even the second cup of tea was satisfying, didn’t seem to be thinning in taste. As for the cake, I was being good and haven’t snacked on it yet

This peppermint tea bag is recommended. It’s organic and comes in environmentally friendly packaging.

How often do you change brands for your usual coffee and tea? Or do you have to stick to your usual brands? If you care to go for a change, go ahead. Who knows you can find something you may enjoy more or even add on something else to your favourite collection. I’m definitely adding on the peppermint tea to my usual fix from now on.

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Shopping for coffee and tea can be quite fun

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Every retail business now seems to be running their own Privilege or Loyalty Card system. I walked into King’s Confectionery today to buy some Portuguese egg tarts and one of the staff shoved a brochure into my hands. It was about the application of a membership card for King’s Confectionery.

To apply, you need to pay RM20 for it and you stand to benefit from the following:

Instant 50% discount on all King’s Confectionery non promotional items upon joining of membership

Enjoy 10% discount on all King’s Confectionery products

Enjoy 50% discount on 1kg cake on your birthday month

Free RM 40 cash vouchers

Free RM 40 cake vouchers

Buns & Pastries vouchers

50% discount cake vouchers

Discount vouchers for Pak Hailam Kopitiam up to 35%

I also overheard one of the staff explaining to another customer about using the card to collect points when shopping and the accumulated points can be redeemed for vouchers. I hope I heard right.

Sounds good to you? Well if you are a fan of King’s Confectionery’s pastries, breads and cakes, by all means go for the membership card. I suppose it does make some good savings if you are a frequent customer to King’s Confectionery.

With all these great discounts, it’s easy to over indulge. Well, just be wise and buy moderately and not end up looking out for lipofuze reviews after too many cakes!

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If you enjoy nutritious and clear soups, one place that I would like to recommend is The Zun Express at Mid Valley. The Zun Express is part of the Eu Yan Sang group and they are located right next to Eu Yan Sang shop on the lower ground floor of The Gardens, Mid Valley.

The restaurant is always packed with people and just once after we tried it, we’ve also been consistently going there to eat most of the time when we are in Mid Valley.

The reason is that the attraction for us are the soups. They are various nutritious soups offered at very reasonable prices, between RM8 to RM12 per portion and it is good for at least 2 persons to share if not 3. When you order the soup, you will also be given a portion of rice and this is how I actually like to have it. Just plain soup with rice will make a very satisfying meal for me.

Other than the soups, they also offer a variety of noodles. So far I’ve tried several of the noodle dishes but my favourite there is still their Hokkien noodle. If you take a look around, most patrons tend to order a portion of the Hokkien noodle to share if not as an a la carte main course for themselves. It’s definitely one of the better ones you can find in a shopping mall.

As the foods served there are presented in a rather clear and simple manner, it somewhat gives me the impression of healthy home-cooked meals. Whether or not there’s MSG in there, I don’t know but it just seems like pretty healthy cooking since I don’t see excessive oils being used and the taste is not overly tasty. Whether real or imagined, at least when eating there we psychologically feel we’re not in need of things like Lipovox to burn off the fats even after downing an entire bowl of noodles.

If you aren’t weight-watchers, after your hearty meal there, you may want to treat yourself to some desserts. They have some simple ones like gwai ling kao, honey dew sago, mango pudding, etc. We’ve ordered them before but I’ve not tried any as I’m not a sweet-tooth person. But I did see some nods of approvals from those who slurped every spoonful of it. Even my son enjoyed the mango pudding and honey dew sago.

As for drinks, our favourite is their Rooibos tea. We’ve always ordered the same thing each time. It comes in a pot and it can be refilled so it’s good to share it if everybody agrees to a good and hot pot of tea.

In summary, I would recommend The Zun Express as the food are not only satisfactory to us, the prices are also rather reasonable. If you are a member of Eu Yan Sang, just present the card and you will get a 10% discount.

I’ve also read reviews of a similar chain restaurant in the heart of KL called The Zun Kitchenette where they offer more varieties of food and is also under the same umbrella of the Eu Yan Sang group. Perhaps I will try that place out if I’m in the area.

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Yesterday I had lunch with a friend at Oriental Maju Palace. We ordered dim sum as they are famous for their dim sum dishes. We’ve been there a couple of times now but I kept forgetting to write about it. And oh, sorry no pictures to show because the food was always so irristible that we digged in immediately when the food was served.

What I like about the restaurant is that the variety of food they serve is quite varied and the choices are pretty different from other dim sum restaurants. Usually when I go for dim sum, I often enjoy the steam dumplings more than the fried stuff. But at Oriental Maju Place, I really enjoyed some of the friend foods they have. I don’t remember the names though.

One of my favourites is a deep friend dumpling with mango. Another is deep fried cheong fun that comes with a steamed layer on the outside, served with some vinegar chilli sauce with onions. Yummy!

If I remember correctly, we ordered about 5 items to be shared amongst the two of us, and 3 out of 5 items were fried stuff. Couldn’t resist them, although I felt really unhealthy afterwards! Luckily I’m not a diet freak or else all the oily food would have to be offset with some best diet pills to be taken for weeks!

If you’ve never tried the dim sum at Oriental Maju Palace, do give it a try. It’s located on the 5th floor of Maju Junction in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Go have a feast!

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I happen to be at Tropicana City Mall one afternoon looking for a decent place for a quick bite at lunch time. Then I came across a small burger outlet called Ninja Joe. Ninja Joe serves pork burgers so it is definitely non-halal. No other burgers if you are hoping for more variety.

The way to order the burgers is a little different from what we are used to at McDonald’s or Burger King outlets. Instead of value meals, you order the burgers in the quantities you want, followed by add-ons like fries and drinks to make it a meal set. The burgers on the menu come in single, double, and more servings. There were two of us at the time so we ordered double ninja burgers with a side of fries and lime juice.

Also, you get to choose from different flavours available. I don’t remember what the selection was like, but we ordered both the burgers in Teppanyaki sauce. There’s also a notice on the order counter that says that no MSG is used in the preparation of the burgers.

Closer look at the pork burger with some salad topping

Each burger costs about RM5.90. Of course, they try to work on an economy of scale basis, so the more burgers you order, the cheaper per burger it works out to. Well, a couple of cents cheaper, that is.

How did I find Ninja Joe? Well, not that impressed really. The burgers were a little small in serving if you ask me. Taste wise, it was a little strange for my taste bud. The stuff that I did enjoy was the large and thick fries and the lime juice. A pity that the side dishes were better than the main course itself. But maybe that’s just me. If you have tried it, do share your opinion and feedback.

We did think that maybe the double ninja burgers were meant for one person’s serving instead of one burger each to fill the stomach satisfactorily. But I can’t really imagine eating two of those burgers. Kinda fattening and it makes me feel like a glutton eating two burgers in one sitting! Definitely not the kind of food that will agree with someone who’s on a quick weight loss diet!

If you would like to give this outlet a try, you can find the outlet at the Lower Ground floor of Tropicana City Mall.

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