Friday, November 25, 2016

Celebrate Christmas & New Year with Hard Rock Hotel Penang

Ho! Ho! Ho!
It is time for another year of festive seasons that we all celebrate with joy and laughter.
This year, Hard Rock Hotel Penang has prepared lots of fun-filled and joyful activities for all their guests!
Celebrate this Christmas and New Year this year with Hard Rock Hotel Penang with style! To welcome this year's festive seasons, this proposed "6 ways to celebrate Yuletide and New Year at Hard Rock Hotel Penang". will give you an extraordinary experience.

1. Plan a Rock Star Holiday with your family
Experience Hard Rock Hotel Penang’s new rock inspired rooms. All 250-rooms are newly refurbished with new interiors and features with new contemporary workspace, BOSE Sound Systems and 50-inch LED flat screen TVs with free HD on demand blockbuster movies. Book direct to enjoy exclusive perks.


2. Dine like a Rock Star
Starz Diner is offering a Christmas Eve Rock ‘N’ Roll Buffet Dinner on the eve of Christmas at RM190 nett per adult and RM96 nett per child, age 6 to 12 years old. Boost your Christmas spirit with a selection of holiday goodies like Petit Seared Rare Beed with Edamame, Seafood Nori Roulade with Cauliflower Puree & Red Capsicum Salsa, Blackened Red Snapper with Squid Ink Noodle & Cherry Tomato Stew and Creamy Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Shredded Cheese. What is a Christmas meal without a good ol’ roasted Turkey? Be sure to look out for the Roasted Turkey with Giblet Gravy, Cranberry Sauce and Glazed Nuts Sage Bread Stuffing. Besides the savory eats, indulge in some Chocolate & Cherry Yule Logs and Strawberry Fruit Meringue. Can you hear the Christmas bells already?
 Lavish buffet spread at Starz Diner

*Please scroll down for all the buffet highlights*

3. Shop like a Rock Star 
Have a rockin’ Christmas shopping at the Rock Shop! The Rock Shop is giving away goodies for every minimum spend of RM450 starting from 26 Nov 2016 until 1 Jan 2017. Visit http://penang.hardrockhotels.net/offers/year-end-goodies/ for more info.

4. Rejuvenate by Christmas 
Bring your loved one to a pampering spa session at the Rock Spa with a special Christmas Galore spa package inclusive of foot cleanse, Hard Rock Massage, body scrub and gifts – lavender massage oil and voucher. Enjoy the 2-hour treatment at only RM250 instead of RM320 per person and RM550 instead of RM640 for 2 persons. This offer is valid during the month of December 2016 only.
More spa promotions at http://penang.hardrockhotels.net/offers/november-december-spa-promotions/

5. Welcome 2017 Over Good Food with Friends & Family 
Starz Diner is offering a New Year’s Eve Buffet Dinner at RM199 nett per person and RM99 nett per child, age 6 to 12 years old. Usher in the New Year with a scrumptious International Buffet with highlights including the Crabmeat Otak-Otak with Chili Marmalade, Wok-Fried Slipper Lobsters and Braised Duck Nyonya Style with herbs. Enjoy a sweet ending with a Green Tea Panna Cotta and Semi Freddo with Berries.

What could be better than to enjoy some fresh slipper lobster?
I'm quite a big fan of slipper lobster especially if they were to cook it instead of placing them as seafood on ice. I find that cooking slipper lobster will enhance the original taste of it and taste a lot better.

Green tea panna cotta, rich & creamy with mild taste of green tea, it was pretty smooth and great to taste, only I will prefer it to be less sweet. The presentation of this dessert is simply attractive isn't it?



Other highlights of the Christmas eve & New Year's eve buffet are as below:

Petit Seared Rare Beef with Edamame

Left to right: Gateau of Avocado, Tomato & Crabmeat Salad, Asian Charred Baby Octopus, Prawns & Peach Shooters.
All the dishes were specially crafted for diners to celebrate this festive seasons with Hard Rock Hotel Penang. I like how the food was presented as they look very fine and creative.

Red Snapper Hinava & Salmon Gravlax
I like how the snapper were cooked, it tasted like kerabu on top and makes it really appetizing, it is just great especially for us locals who enjoy the herbs and spices.
As for the salmon, it was sort of glazed instead of the ordinary ways of serving salmon sashimi, rather special as I've never tried this dish from anywhere else before.

Other highlights also include Braised Duck Nyonya Style with Herbs, Seafood Nori Roulade with Cauliflower Puree & Red Capsicum Salsa, Crabmeat Otak-Otak with Chili Marmalade and Blackened Red Snapper with Squid Ink Noodle & Cherry Tomato Stew.
The menu are sort of fusion menu hence there will be something for everybody so you don't have to worry about dining here at the Hard Rock Hotel.

 Anyone fancy some juicy and delicious beef?
Meat lovers can go for their Grilled Beef Steaks with Sundried Tomato Hollandaise.

Roasted Turkey for the wish!
This is something everybody wouldn't wanna miss for Christmas and it is also something I'm always looking forward to during this festive season! I'm always aiming at all the vegetables and the stuffing other than the turkey itself.

The stuffings here are rather special and suits health-conscious people as this is glazed nuts sage bread stuffing instead of the usual meat stuffing. It is a lot healthier and tasted pretty good I would say.

Creamy Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Shredded Cheese anyone?

 Starz Diner also offers some pretty bad ass desserts for the diners!
You could try this Semi Freddo with Berries that will leave you with some pretty impressive after taste.

Look at how cute their desserts were presented!
The dessert shown below is their Strawberry Fruit Meringue, too cute to eat it!

Miniature Passion Fruit Cheese Cake, they were rather thoughtful to serve all the desserts in mini size so the diners could taste more varieties and yet all their desserts were presented nicely.

I was pretty impressed with the Yule Log presented by Starz Diner. The flavour is chocolate and cherry and the design of the cake simply caught our attentions!
I would say that the cake was carefully prepared and crafted with passion by looking at the details of and the design of the cake. This yule log cake is also something too cute to consume!

All the fine dishes on my plate, do you want to try them all?

Sous Chef, Chef Mohd Faizal bin Aris posed for the photo while cutting the Roasted Turkey for all of us.

Cute decoration at the buffet spread.

6. Party like a Rock Star
Don’t miss the Jingle Bell Rock Party at Hard Rock Café Penang on Christmas Eve! Party with DJ Stephanie Cass and the Bugshow band from Jakarta, Indonesia at RM85 nett inclusive of 2 selected drinks and a party pack. Alternatively, partygoers can join New Year’s Eve Party at the poolside. Join the countdown and enjoy live music performances by The Jazzhats, party tunes by AFORadio Djs, games and fireworks! 

Get your early bird tickets at only RM65 nett until 15 December 2016. Tickets are available for purchase at the Main Rock Shop and Front Desk or book your tickets at http://penang.hardrockhotels.net/calendar/new-years-eve-party/. 
To book your dining reservations at Starz Diner or Pizzeria, please call +604 886 8057 or email to fb.penang@hardrockhotels.net. For Hard Rock Café Penang, please call +604 886 8050 or email to hrc.admin@hardrockhotels.net.

Hard Rock Hotel Penang
Address: Batu Ferringhi Beach, 11100 Penang, Malaysia
GPS: 5.4677016,100.2415431
Map

Google Street View

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Wag & Romp @ Fluffy Dogs R Us, Jalan Kelawei, Penang.

Pets cafe is now a trend in Penang!
Been around the neighbourhood for years, Fluffy Dogs R Us is a good repo pet shop located at the Kelawei Road in Penang. They have recently opened up a cafe and named it Wag & Romp

Ideally located at one of the busiest area of Penang Island, they are still one of the best pet shop in Penang and now even came up with a cafe business to reach more customers especially the pet lovers who loves

As what they always emphasize in their shop,
  Wag & Romp
"Your fur kids deserve better."

You can easily recognize this superstar Afghan Hound from the logo of Fluffy Dogs R Us.
His name is Maurice and he belongs to one of the owners of the pet shop, he is one of the rare breeds in Penang and there are only a few Afghan Hounds here.


 
They have a limited menu in the cafe but it is pretty sufficient for a cafe for dog lovers. The place was rather cozy with grey colour as their wall colour. They have only few mains, snacks and desserts and drinks but it would be great for dog lovers who would love to visit their resident dogs.

A pomeranian who loves to be carried and pat on his head. He is rather cuddly and loves climbing on the customers' lap. He would fall asleep on their lap whenever he got pat and feeling all comfortable to be there. 

 Another superstar of the cafe is the cute toy poodle. She is very attractive and pretty adorable, but what's important is she was super friendly and pretty comfortable with anyone approaching her or calling out to her. She will let you cuddle with her and being so calm with anybody.

One of the most popular resident would be none other than the star Marley. If you have watched the movie "Marley & Me" then you would know that this Marley is sharing the same name with the Marley in the movie. She is quite an attention seeker and pretty friendly to, she loves to approach every customers that walk into the cafe and greet them with smiles and play with them.  

Another customers' favourite is the cute corgi that could never keeps his tongue in. He is super adorable but a little bit too lazy to entertain the customers. The only thing that attracts him is whenever people carrying foods or bringing snacks for all the fur kids to share.
To be short, he is just super tam chiak and will be attracted only to food, the rest of the time he would just walk around or sleep on the floor.
He looks like a seal isn't he?

The cafe also has Daschunds and they are pretty active. They were always curious whenever they saw somebody walk into the pet shop as the cafe is separated from another door to protect those fur kids especially customers' pets from walking out on their own. 

The pets at the cafe are pretty friendly and live well with each other. They can share treats with each others too so customers are also allowed to buy some treats from the pet shop and treat them to the fur kids. 

A cute and well groomed Pekingese. Simply too adorable to handle and extremely friendly to people.

Customers are pretty entertained and attracted by their cuteness and friendliness. 
They all really enjoyed playing with the customers and also being pat by them too.

Mia, a rather friendly but a little big arrogant, taking pictures of him or with him is nearly impossible as he never listen and never want to stay still and wait for you to take pictures.

The Golden Retriever, Marley is pretty friendly and she lets you do anything to her as long as you would pat her or show her some loves. <3 p="">

It is not too easy to take a picture with Mia, look at how unimpressed she was when I captured this shot with her. But guess what, it is not easy to get this shot at all, answer is next. 

She kept struggling and wanted to get away before I could take a good picture of her.
But she is just attracted by many people and food all around the table.
  
Aglio Olio(RM18.00)
served with smokey bacon and mushrooms
I was rather impressed with the well cooked pasta that a simple cafe like this could offer. The herbs and chili flakes that used were generous and matched with the Penangites' appetite. I like how spicy this plate of pasta is and they are also pretty generous with the bacons and mushrooms. The pasta was al dente, but when I visited the second time my pasta was slightly overcooked though.

Waffle & Ice Cream (RM13.00)
You get to choose your ice cream flavour or they will go by random. I had this waffle with vanilla ice cream for the first time and green tea ice cream for the second time. They serve a simple 4 pieces of waffle that bake on the spot, but we would prefer the waffle texture to be a bit more crispy and not fluffy. Depending on how you like your waffle to be and this one is not really my favourite though.

The Cafe Latte was pretty decent and it would be great to have a cup of good coffee in a cafe like this and meeting all the cute fur kids at the cafe. I like the smooth texture and the right kind of bitterness in the coffee. My first and second visit was pretty lovely and I wouldn't mind coming here more often to play with the fur kids.

Wag N Romp @ Fluffy Dog R Us
Address: 161 Jalan Kelawai, 10250 George Town, Malaysia.
Contact number: +604 - 229 9161
Business hours: Daily 11:30am - 8:00pm
GPS: 5.4383842,100.3080105
Map

Google Street Earth

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Deepavali Gala Dinner @ Hotel Equatorial Penang

Some 200 guests have recently gathered for the very first Deepavali Gala Dinner in Penang at the Hotel Equatorial Penang. This gala dinner was held in conjunction with the Deepavali celebrations with our Hindu friends, many VIPs were invited to attend the event and enjoy the lavish buffet and eye opening performances prepared by the hotel. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Omakase Dining @ Kampachi Restaurant, Equatorial Hotel Penang.


After the recent experience with Omakase dining, I was invited again to one of the well known Japanese restaurant in Penang, Kampachi Restaurant located inside Equatorial Hotel Penang. Kampachi Restaurant has been in Penang for years as one of the resident outlet in Equatorial Hotel and I've heard a lot about them especially their weekend buffet. 

Once again, Omakase do not have a fixed menu. The customers will be served with whatever the chefs will be serving on the day itself and they will bring all the freshest ingredients for the meal and leaves you with a lovely dining experience. Omakase literally means "I'll leave it to you" which customers will let the chefs to decide what they will be having for the night. But usually customers will be asked about special diets and the chefs will tailor the menu. I'm not sure why we weren't asked about that on that evening. 

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Scoops Penang | Homemade Ice Cream

You will never understand what's the meaning of exotic until you have tried ice cream by Scoops!
Being an innovative brand in Penang, Scoops created numerous interesting ice cream flavours and been serving Penangites for 5 years!
In conjunction with their 5th anniversary, Scoops recently had an ice cream party to rewards all the loyal customers that have been so supportive all these years.

Scoops Penang been serving all the delicious and innovative ice cream to Penangites all these years without a physical shop. Scoops serves handcrafted ice cream with variety flavours and you only get to try it during certain events. For now Scoops is permanently having their booth at the Sunday Pop Up Market at the Tavern In The Park every Sunday.

The recent ice cream party was held at the Passion Heart Cafe, where they serve very nice and healthy cakes especially their cempedak cake and durian cake.

I was really surprised to see there were so many people attended the party. Look at the crowd and their tables! I'm sure they all enjoyed their ice cream! 

Scoops specially prepared some special flavours for the event, which they also took the opportunity to launch their all new flavours! There were total 6 flavours (Roasted Strawberries with Miso, Tau Hua, Chocolate with Chili & Cinnamon Sorbet, Gin & Tonic and Earl Grey Sorbet)

All the ice cream were packed in all single scoop packaging, like how their usually serve their ice cream. 
 
Roasted Strawberries with Miso - A rather playful but very special flavour I would say. We prefer this flavour the most among the 5 flavours. We never thought that dessert ingredients like strawberries could blend so well with Miso that commonly served as soup. The ratio was just great that every spoon tasted pretty smooth and creamy. 
Tau Hua - Something that you don't really expect to find it in ice cream. Unlike how you normally eat tau fu fa, the ice cream version tasted as good as the pudding version. They have also added a bit of ginger into the flavour that made it tasted a bit more exotic yet very refreshing. This is pretty acceptable to me though I don't like ginger.
Gin & Tonic - Using the real alcohol, this ice cream is definitely not for the kids! If you are someone who loves Gin, this is definitely your kind of ice cream! This is really special and very surprising! I like how strong the Gin was and definitely enjoyed it very much!
Chocolate with Chili & Cinnamon Sorbet - A flavour that caught me off guard. The first spoon was pretty surprising and I was like "Wow! This ice cream is spicy!" It gave me a "WOW" feeling for the first spoon and the more you eat, the spicier it gets. In the end I surrendered.
Earl Grey Sorbet - this flavour is the smoothest and also the smoothest among all. I quite enjoyed it that I took 3 scoops of this sorbet and still don't think that it is too much for me. The great taste of Earl Grey tea melted in my mouth is the kind of tasting pleasure that I enjoyed very much. 


Some people also brought their kids to the ice cream party, but I'm sure they are not taking the Gin & Tonic flavour. Some of the ice cream are really for adults only. 

A happy mama, a happy daughter.

Scoops Penang also accepts private orders for your events. If you are having any private functions or events, you can also order in bulk from Scoops Penang

Scoops Penang 
Event: Every Sunday at Sunday Pop Up Market @ Tavern In The Park
Address: 125, Jalan Timah, Georgetown, 10150 George Town, Malaysia
GPS: 5.4120289,100.327674
Map

Google Street Earth