The Red Cherry @ Jaya One

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In the very quiet (at least on Sunday evenings) Jaya One lies a store called Pop, which is dubbed a "retail hotel". Basically it's a shop that sublets its space for a minimum of a day, so you'll find a hodge podge of kiosks.

Among these pop up stores is The Red Cherry, which besides selling Legos and children's clothing Gymboree, offers desserts by UnionJac and Cherry On The Cake.

I must confess to having a sweet tooth and after being delightfully surprised how yummy their crunchy cornflake cookies (rm16 for a box) were, I just had to try the macarons.

Have you had a bad macaron? My first one ever was. It was chewy and dry and cloyingly sweet, might as well down a spoonful of sugar la, no other flavor.

But I've been fortunate enough to have tried some really good ones since though I certainly can't call myself an expert. I can, however, tell if I've enjoyed it.

Back to Red Cherry, yes, they have macarons! At Rm4.50, which seems to be the going KL rate. 

I only took 2 flavours, because let's be honest, it feels extravagant to pay that much for an itty bitty cookie in our current economy. 

Pistachio and a special Valentine themed macaron called "Jack & Rose" (as in Titanic).

The pistachio gets a thumbs down for me. It had a nice flavor but was on the chewier side. I'm guessing it might be a little old?

But the "Jack & Rose" gets a thumbs up! Rose with a dark chocolate and raspberry jam filling. I am a sucker for chocolate and raspberry anything, and this one didn't disappoint. However, I did feel that rose is too delicate a flavor to pair with, so it was lost on me although the macaron itself was light and airy. 

Plus those little hearts are a nice touch. It seems that they come up with special edition flavors with matching designs for festive occasions ie a red and gold pineapple spiced macaron for CNY.

Verdict -  hit and miss! But I'd most definitely come back for more (just not pistachio) when the sweet tooth temptation is too great. I'd like to try the lemon poppyseed loaf another day.

The Red Cherry

POP @ The School, 

Jaya One

Jalan Universiti, 

46200 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Website: http://theredcherrystore.blogspot.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/theredcherry

Price - $ (for the food, not retail items)

no pork served

Gerai Ayong @ Johor Bahru, Johor

I pestered K to take me on a makan trip last year before delivering but the man was just too busy. In the end, we planned the trip for Jun 2013, that's over half a year ahead! 

Haze or no haze, aku takleh sabar dah woy. I WANT MY NOMS I WANT IT NOW!

I got some serious side eye when choosing JB for makan trip destination. JB takde benda lah, said K and some friends. HAH! 

Apologies for crappy photos (and lack of it), we used a camera phone. But to make up for it, have a map! 

Important advice for people not familiar with JB - don't completely trust googlemap for directions. It hasn't been updated, we had to make a lot of u turns as there was no right turns. 

Gerai Ayong, Medan Selera Tepian Tebrau

Gerai Ayong is famous for tauhu and char kway/ koi bakar, sotong kangkung, ikan bakar (grilled fish) and ais jelly. 

Clockwise from top - ABC, Tauhu & Char Kway Bakar, Ais Jelly

The tauhu and char kway bakar (grilled) was a surprise hit for both of us. The crunchy, lightly charred tauhu and char kway  was served with sweet and sour rojak sauce with peanuts and cucumber. 

The sotong kangkung was good, served with same sauce. The sotong was springy and overall, it's a good dish, but I wouldn't drive all the way from KL to JB for it, mostly cos it's not something too hard to find.

We chose ikan pari (sting ray), the sambal on the ikan bakar was an absolute winner. Sweet, sour and spicy, the sambal was so sedap you don't need any dipping sauce/ condiments and the fish itself was fresh and well cooked. We were hoping for other seafood like baby crabs but they only had fish in stock that day. 

 
Left - Sotong Kangkung & Ikan Pari Bakar

For drinks we had the ais jelly and abc. Wah, macam day and night. The ais jelly is light and refreshing thanks to the limau, while the abc was heavier as it's served with generous drizzle of chocolate sauce instead of sirap. The abc was interesting but it can be weird eating red beans and sweet corn with chocolate. To be honest, I think the ais jelly compliments the fish better than abc.  

K: Actually felt a bit muak eating the ABC. Too rich, too rich! It's something I would give a miss and I am a choc lover too. Choc's great, as long as it's not too sweet of course.

Random musings: The stall's name is Gerai Ayong & the operator, Ayong, is Chinese, so how come the name of the operator on the signboard is Malay? Chinese Moslem? Ali Baba? Anyone can shed some light?

Gerai Ayong is located at the Tepian Tebrau Food Court, which apparently has other good stalls too. Will have to make another trip down to JB to check the rest out...if we can resist going back to Ayong that is!

Verdict - Worth the trip, worth a repeat :D

Gerai Ayong
Medan Selera Tepian Tebrau
Jalan Mohd Amin
80100 Johor Bahru

Open from 6PM - 12PM

Closed on Wednesdays

No pork served

Price range - $-$$

Awfully Chocolate @ Raffles City, Sg

I am a chocoholic (pinjam your tagline, J)

After seeing these little shops popping up in several areas in Singapore, and also catching it on tv, I could resist no more. Even before conversion, the prices are steep (as stated by my Sg cousin) but I just had to quell my curiosity. A shop called Awfully Chocolate? Is there such a thing as an awful amount of chocolate?

I first tried the rich chocolate cupcake (about sgd$5) a year ago and months later, asked K to buy the all chocolate cake (sgd$25-50) during a business trip.



They were awesome btw, especially the Moist Dark Chocolate cake. The cake, befitting its name, was indeed moist and very bittersweet like a good dark chocolate. This means a sliver alone can sate me, so we had the cake for a while. This is a good thing because:

1) it is hella expensive;
2) it is rich; and
3) it is in Singapore la wey.

So during my next Singapore trip, I made it a point to go to Awfully Chocolate again. This time I tried the Cold Poached Chocolate.

What exactly is Cold Poached Chocolate (about sgd$6 and up)? Heck, what is poach? I automatically think of eggs, to which I confess I've yet to poach one. Anyway, it seems like they came up with some new method to temper chocolate but instead of using heat, it's cold.

They have several flavours to choose from, mostly boozy though. Your non-alcoholic choices would be Horlicks and Salty Butterscotch (pictured). I had the latter.

This is seriously sinful stuff. I'm not kidding nor exaggerating. A cold slab of chocolate as soft and gooey as a chocolate truffle topped with a mountain of cream and a drizzle of salty butterscotch. 

A spoonful of this gave me a sugar shock.

 The cream was airy and light, a contrast to the dark and dense chocolate. The texture is like sex in your mouth. The salty butterscotch was nice but not memorable, perhaps because it drowned out by everything else or maybe there wasn't enough of it. After a while though, the chocolate orgasms subsided and was replaced with a hangover.

It was shared among 3 people but even then, it was a struggle as the muak factor is high. It is richer than the Sultan of Brunei and unlike the cakes, I found this to be sweeter than my liking.

I'm not saying this isn't sedap but the portion was too much for me to handle in one seating. I would have preferred this in a smaller dose, bite size perhaps.

Awfully Chocolate
http://www.awfullychocolate.com
Store locations
Price - $$-$$$
No pork served, but there's hidden booze eg cooking alcohol. Not certified halal by MUIS.

Durian 3 Way @ Jonker Walk, Melaka

We can't remember how or why a very last minute makan trip to Melaka came about but we were probably inspired by this CNNgo article.

To be honest, we could check our chatlogs, but this fuzzy recollection of how things happen is more authentically us. :D

Cendol & ABC @ Jonker 88

The shop is also famous for its laksa dishes but we were too full from lunch to have a bowl. 

ABC Durian

EPC

ABC Durian is typical ABC concoction with the added bonus of fresh durian flesh puree. The addition is what makes it unusual, also a little disconcerting.  You can never miss the flavour of durian in a dish, but (both) Nina (and TJ) had a bit of cognitive dissonance in having it paired with the other major note in the dessert, that of the rose syrup. It's not something that immediately comes to mind when it comes to complimentary flavours. Whether it works for you in the long run depends on how much you love durian to close one eye about the janglyness of the whole thing.

EPC (or Eight Treasure Cendol) doesn't actually come with durian. It's a cendol that comes with additional ingredients such as roasted peanuts, sweet corn, nutmeg and buah nipah (atap chee) . It feels more like what a Malay restaurant would consider as an ABC, in Nina's opinion, in the sense of 'let's throw in everything and damn the consequences!'. But the volume of the condiments is not overdone, so it's just right. We are not actually a fan of nutmeg by its lonesome, but it all works here.

Durian Cendol

Durian Cendol is the thing Jonker88 is known for (or at least how it's known for amongst ourselves). Plain perfect cendol added with a dollop of durian puree. The dish itself is what it's supposed to be: fresh, icy and creamy, so the addition of the durian was a welcome one. Nina likes the jolt of durian as it livens up the creaminess of the whole thing.

So what makes Jonker 88 cendol so special? The shaved ice is powdery fine, no chunky ice bits, the gula melaka is as thick as molasses and the santan doesn't taste canned. TJ has heard of better durian cendol places but sadly, not in a pork free shop.

RM4 each

Taste Better One Bite Durian Puff @ Pooh Kean Enterprise

Taste Better One Bite Durian Puff

The pastry was amazingly light and if you have it fresh, crispy and airy enough. It keeps well enough, but it's one of those pastries that tastes heavenly right out of the oven. The cold cream durian filling was just nice and not too much per puff. A perfect one-bite puff indeed! Just be mindful of your stomach and appetite: it might disappear in one bite, but your stomach won't thank you if you've overloaded. The box of 12 divided between 3 people was just nice - we couldn't keep eating because it's all finished, but we tak rasa tak puas hati because there weren't enough for all of us hahah.

However, do note that it's not fresh durian filling, just cream. For TJ, the best durian puff that actually has fresh durian in it would be in Petaling St (will blog abt that someday!).

Good news is you don't have to travel all the way to Melaka for these. Just head to the Mines, Sri Kembangan or Setia City Mall, Klang. Chit, kalau tahu, tak payah tunggu 10 minit for it to finish baking.

RM15 for a dozen.

Durian Fireball @ Iceland

Durian Fireball

We were actually hoping to have the durian crispy roll or crunchy roll, but alas, habis. So durian fireball it is. Unfortunately, it was terribly disappointing.

While the exterior shell, which tastes like a mochi/ glutinous rice that was dipped in batter and deep fried, is good, the filling...well look at the picture. Can you see the gooey golden creamy durian just oozing out of it?

Neither could we. :-/

RM5 for 3. 

Jonker 88

88, Jalan Hang Jebat, Melaka
Price Range - $

No Pork Served

Pooh Kean Enterprise

96, Jalan Hang Jebat, Melaka
Price Range - $

No Pork Served

Iceland (or maybe it's next door to Iceland?)

32, Jalan Hang Jebat
Price Range - $
No Pork Served

(original tumblr photopost)