Toh Soon Cafe - Toasted Hainanese Bread with Kaya and Butter & Kopi @ Penang in Malaysia

When I visited Penang in 2016, I remember walking past a coffee shop that was drawing a long line of customers. Fast forward to my trip last August / September and it was exactly the same scene; begetting the question, "is it really so good?"

I returned again on a tuesday morning at about 10.30am and was ecstatic to see only one group of customers waiting in queue outside Toh Soon Cafe! Lady luck was with us and even though we already had breakfast, I forced Alex to join the line! 

Within minutes, we were seated in the non-air-conditioned eatery that would have made a great setting based on the 1970 / 1980s era; zinc roof, concrete floor etc. Very old school charm that could have been one of the reasons for its unrelentless popularity. 

Imagine seeing a traditional, charcoal fired stove used for toasting your bread! That would have made many traditionalists excited although for me, I am more into the overall package. Basically, the taste matters. 

Kitchen of the cafe which was just a narrow stretch. So, please don't expect a wide variety of breakfast offerings. I shall share the menu at the end of this post for your reference.

I did promise Alex I shall not over-order.

Just coffee, toast and soft-boiled eggs.

Kopi - frankly, this was actually average tasting for me; so unimpressive I was that I didn't bother putting in any comment on my notepad, except for the word, kopi.

Toasted Hainanese Bread - you can choose from a selection of other bread like whole wheat bread, coffee bread, chocolate bread and black charcoal sesame bread, and a max of two spreads that included homemade kaya, new zealand salted butter, homemade peanut butter, condensed milk and cold sliced butter. 

We went with hainanese bread (toasted instead of steamed) and with homemade kaya and new zealand salted butter; yes, I am a traditionalist at heart too. Charcoal grilled thick toast that gave a nice, smoky, bready aroma that was pretty good even though it didn't help to have a thin spread of butter and kaya. 

I am better off dipping the toasted bread in condensed milk.

At least I wouldn't have wasted the well grilled bread. 

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Address

Lebuh Campbell, George Town, 

10450 George Town, Pulau Pinang, 

Malaysia

Map

As above. 

Operating Hours

8.00 am to 5.00 pm

(Closed on Sundays)

Menu

As above.

Pricing

RM 12.10

Trung Nguyên Legend Cafe @ Da Nang City in Vietnam

I love Vietnamese coffee and the most notable brand that sells 3-in-1 coffee sachets in Singapore would be G7, which I like. However, there's another brand I love more but I could only stock up when I am in Vietnam.

That brand is Trung Nguyên Legend and this particular branch was at Da Nang, and it came with a cafe section too. Now, I had a terrible experience at its branch in Hanoi and wonder if the same rude customer service would persist so far away. 

Thank god no! Maybe it's a city thing as people in the City of Bridges are generally very friendly and the staff members here were way better than the Hanoi branch; trying their best to translate and recommend. 

Free tra da (green tea)! Tra da's position in Vietnam would be similar to complimentary plain water or infused lemon water in Singapore cafes, although most places do charge a nominal fee. 

Tiramisu Latte - close friends would never I am not a fan of tiramisu; hence, this had to be Alex's order. I took a sip and thought it was very nice; like a comfortable, sweet, dessert drink with traces of aromatic vanilla. Would it be close to a tiramisu? Not in my honest opinion. 

The Creative Energy (Creative 4) - I need extra caffeine to kick start the morning and opted for a mid-tier traditional Vietnamese drip coffee, added with condensed milk to temper the bitterness. 

Finally ready, and poured into the cup of ice after mixing the condensed milk with the filtered coffee! Given its intense, dark shade, I knew I had to expect the "worst"! And it sure was intensely strong, and immediately perked up my tired brain cells! To better enjoy this beverage, I had to slowly drink. Mmmmmm.

Ending with a peanut candy that had a hard, candied shell. It reminded me of a traditional Chinese candy called gong tng, albeit harder and sweeter. 

Honey Banana Crepe - of course a dessert would be a good companion. Now, I wonder how wrong could a honey banana crepe be. It can be disastrous. 

Crepe was alright; a thin layer, crisp at the edges. Visually appealing to be honest but the yellow strips on the rolled crepes were actually raw ginger! Why?! 

Banana was unripe and the lousy honey used failed to pull up the dessert! For a banana lover, I was utterly disappointed with this dessert. 

Nevertheless, it didn't stop me from purchasing over S$60 worth of Trung Nguyên Legend 3-in-1 coffee! I would have bought more should the specific type of 3-in-1 coffee I love most was available. p.s. the coffee were good as gifts too! 

 

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Address

35 Thái Phiên Phước Ninh, 

Đà Nẵng 550000, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Tiramisu Latte - 99,000 Dong

The Creative Energy (Creative 4) - 69,000 Dong

Honey Banana Crepe - 35,000 Dong

(NETT)

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam

618 Hokkien Mee (and Char Kway Teow) @ Yishun Block 618 in Singapore

Have you read an article about a Malaysian who drove back to Kuala Lumpur with 30 packs of hokkien mee from Singapore just so he can freeze them and slowly indulge?! Now, Malaysians have always been skeptical of Singapore food and to hear this was a shock!  

As the hokkien mee stall is near where I stay, I decided to jog over yesterday for brunch! I also took this opportunity to ask my mom along since she was free, and happened to work in that same coffee shop a few years ago. 

After a wait of 14 minutes, it was my turn to order, make payment and collect the pager. Curious about the second wait, I asked how long it would take. Answer: about 30 minutes! 

Char Kway Teow - the pager started beeping about 15 minutes later and I was like "woah, not as bad"! But what I collected was the char kway teow (CKT), which I ordered since there were just two dishes on the menu and we thought we might well get it for sharing.

Contrary to my typical CKT order, I didn't give any special instructions so that I can review its original flavour. So, it was a bit too plain with no discernible wok hei but still managed a decent 6-7 points (upon 10). I would suggest eating with the chilli paste for that extra oomph. p.s. we found just one small cockle! 

Hokkien Mee - finally, the star of the show! 

Let's squeeze the lime before indulging! 

Ingredients included pork belly, squid, egg, prawns, pork lard and a good balance of yellow noodles and thick / thin bee hoon. What appealed to me was the rich bed of sauce right underneath all the ingredients; love hokkien mee that was full of zhup (sauce)! 

OMG, this was delicious, and I can fully understand why our Malaysian neighbour was obsessed with it; the taste was more savory than sweet and, you can feel the wok hey but I was more taken aback by the chock full of seafood umami in every spoonful of hokkien mee that went into my mouth! 

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I wouldn't want to come back given this would highly likely overturn my crusade towards weight loss! And it didn't help that the stall was just a 15-minute jog away. ☹☹

Address

Block 618, Yishun Ring Rd, 

Singapore 760618

Map

As above.

Operating Hours

9.00 am to 3.00 pm

(Closed on Wednesdays)

Pricing

Char Kway Teow - S$4.00

Hokkien Mee - S$4.50

Le Jardin D'amour Flower Garden @ Sun World Bà Nà Hills in Da Nang [Vietnam]

Less than two hundred meters from the famous Golden Bridge at Sun World Ba Na Hills was a flower garden that visitors shouldn't miss out; Le Jardin D'amour Flower Garden, which means the Garden of Love! 

Entrance wasn't grand enough to accurately represent the scale of the garden. From this hardly impressive "gateway", you are forgiven for assuming there's nothing much. 

Proceeded down the path. Sun World Ba Na Hills was actually built in sections accessible mainly by cable cars; hence, if you are at the Golden Bridge area, there's really nowhere else to go but to be either holed up at an eatery or check out Le Jardin D'amour Flower Garden and/or Linh Ung Pagoda.

A much better signage; why didn't the designer thought of moving the above to the entrance closer to Golden Bridge. This would have generated more interests to draw in the visitors.

For a moment, I thought these squirrels were decorated with flowers / berries, given the garden relevance. A closer look, however, said otherwise. They looked more like those fake berries / cranberries used for Christmas decorations.

Closed-off section. Guess I could check it out in May! 

Fascinating; a standalone half completed building across a bridge. Frankly, it didn't serve as a practical purpose since the constricted space was a challenge. Visually on site, however, it was like "wow" as I didn't know what to expect until I crossed over.

Entrance fees for Sun World Ba Na Hills included admissions for almost all the entrances; exceptions included the alpine coaster and access to Wax Museum,  and the above Bar Debay- Wine Cellar etc! 

Wine connoisseurs might be interested though as the ticket cost only 70,000 dong per person and this cellar was built more than a hundred years ago, at a depth of 100 meters! 

Now the main area! 

The gardens with flowers aplenty! I thought it was just one huge garden but they were further separated. Not that it matters much since it was just a collective of gardens. The above reminded me of the flower field at Flower Dome at Gardens of the Bay in Singapore, where there's always a main attraction. 

Happy taking photographs! 

Pity I was alone.

Fancy playing with humongous chess pieces? They reminded me of an incident at work, when an incident report was filed when a person hurt his/her fingers while moving a heavy, stone chair. 

Cascading fountain from a water hour glass. Love the visuals although the cultural imbecile within me can't really get the arts implication. Shallow, I sure am.

Mythology Garden - aside from the Roman statues and the architectural columns, I was scratching my head on the kind of Roman myths we were supposed to relate to. Whatever the case, they were pretty. 

Eden Garden; should they portray Adam, Eve and maybe the snake, instead of a peacock!? I don't know about you but the feathers on the peacock's head seem more like arrows that hit its head. 

Suoi Mo Garden - with its terraced flower plots. After a while, it was just flower after flower. Nevertheless, it was mentally relaxing with so many flowers surrounding us. What I lacked was a cup of hot chocolate while relaxing with the sights in front of me.

A water feature that didn't seem to be operational, but key message was behind; a vantage view of the Golden Bridge! I don't know why I kept thinking if was golden hands bridge in the past! 

Another water feature; that of a merboy blowing a golden horn, as if to awake the schools of fishes to come to his rescue since he was stuck in the highlands, far from the seas. 

Random photographs for reference! 

The Big Buddha from the next door Linh Ung Pagoda can be seen from Le Jardin D'amour Flower Garden, creating a strong contrast between cultures. 

In order to visit Linh Ung Pagoda, you actually had to go through Le Jardin D'amour Flower Garden, through an entrance that looked nothing like a temple!  For more photographs of the temple, please click here. 

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Location Map

Sun World Ba Na Hills, 

Da Nang, Vietnam

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam