Grandeur Gallery Café, Le Rozell French Café and Crêperie & TBC Café @ Kota Kemuning

The long overdue tales of café hopping with my lovely friend, Kimm, in an area known for its never ending trail of roundabouts: Kota Kemuning.

Grandeur Gallery Café

The bar counter and cake display.

One of my favourite spots to snap photos.

The setting is quite dim in the gallery section where paintings are hung up on the black walls. 

It was a late Saturday morning and there was no crowd, probably because it's quite well-hidden and not to mention facing an empty land opposite. According to Kimm, the locals (hereinafter referred to as people who reside in Kota Kemuning) go there to fly their kites. 

Cappuccino.

Tiramisu (Kimm's recommendation) - this is only available on weekends! Notice the sponginess of the slice which suggests that it's very light and not too filling.

Address: 22-2, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla BE 31/BE, Kota Kemuning, 40460 Shah Alam.
Contact no.: +60355255568
Email: grandeurgc@gmail.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ggc.kk

[CLOSED] Le Rozell French Café and Crêperie 

A spacious restaurant serving both sweet and savoury crêpes run by a French lady who was ever so kind to spend a couple of minutes chatting with Kimm and I. 

La Campagnole of shredded duck confit, pan-seared mushrooms with cream, honey, and topped with chives. If you're visiting for the first time, I suggest you go with this!

My favourite of the lot (and Kimm's too) goes to the panna cotta topped with rose syrup. It is so smooth and a great relief from the savoury dish earlier.

We also tried the mille-feuille which reminded me of the vanilla slice I used to have in Melbourne. This was quite filling after the panna cotta and savoury crêpe. 

Address: 35-1, 8 Jalan Anggerik Vanilla BE, 31/BE Kota Kemuning, 40460 Shah Alam.
Contact no.: +60351314092
Email: lerozell@hotmail.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Le-Rozell/468373496598311

TBC Café

Kota Kemuning's newest café on the bandwagon which was packed full upon arrival at lunch time. There is no way you'll miss this bright yellow place when you drive along the roads across. 

Took this in a rush which explains the tilt. They have a pretty cool door that spins 360 degrees!

They use PULP's Throwback blend for their coffee - so glad because it's my favourite blend! Very satisfied with the outcome.

Kimm ordered tea. Love the cup and lid!

Highlight of the visit: Espresso maple bacon sandwich topped with scrambled eggs served with a side of fries and coleslaw. Now let that sink in for a bit.

Address: 2-39-1, Persiaran Anggerik Vanilla, Kota Kemuning, 40460 Shah Alam. 

Contact no.: +60163178180 

Email: jndpartners@gmail.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tbccafe.my/timeline

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Follow me on Instagram at @_emilyec for updates!

Kee's Creampuffs, Subang Jaya

Hello everyone!

Quick update: So I just recovered from stomach flu; not fully but enough to consume small portions of primary meals. Nearly 10 days of fresh hell, the experience was perfectly horrid as nausea came and tormented me even when I decided to re-hydrate myself with water. That was the reason behind my sloth-like sleeping hours and surprisingly sleepless nights from feeling nauseous in the middle of the night. I suppose the bright side of this was a weight loss of 2kg within less than a week. Not sure if I put it on again - nope, not checking.

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Cappuccino [RM7.50]

Earlier this month, I was invited to a cream puff tasting session by Kee's Creampuffs (thank you, Katherine for the invite and André for accompanying me!). Since I haven't had cream puffs in a while, I thought it'll be great to give this a go.

Their spread of 15 flavours of cream puffs is impressive; including the classic original flavour. Alongside cream puffs, they also have a variety of cakes and the usual tea and decent coffee.

Setting

The menu chalkboard (and André).

View of the cafe from the entrance.

Their display of cakes and cream puffs.

Cozy side table seating for anyone in the mood for a tea time setting.

What went into our tummies

Yes, I'm a coffee person but I decided to order English Breakfast tea [RM6.50] that very afternoon. Don't question.

André's iced mocha [RM9.50].

I decided to have a cappuccino (pictured at the beginning of the post) at the end of the session because I had some room to spare - and it was pretty decent! They handcraft their coffee rather use am instant coffeemaker so I'm glad.

Katherine explaining the flavours to us. It's amazing how she remembers them in their exact orders without referring to notes or whatever!

These three are my personal favourites:

Looks like the original, eh? This one's durian [RM2.50/pc] and it tops my list with no surprise. 

Chocolate banana [RM1.80/pc]. They also have chocolate but I'm a fan of bananas so it made a significant difference.

The gougère [RM5.00/2 pcs] is a unique savoury cream puff which was a relief from the 14 sweet flavours. This is a cheese cream puff - made with a blend of parmesan, mozarella and cheddar cheese, toasted, and served with sour cream infused turkey ham bits topped with a sprinkle of parsley and thyme. The sour cream somehow goes very well with the toasted cheese puff and the flavours were just right. Honestly, this can pull off as an atas appetizer.

The following are other flavours we tried:

[RM1.60/pc]

Classic

[RM1.80/pc]

Blueberry (made with fresh blueberries)

Lemon (which was quite strong)

Cookies 'n' Cream

Chocolate

Choco top (quite memorable)

Green tea (quite bitter but they're adjusting the flavour)

Hazelnut

Coffee (they use Nescafe)

Strawberry (made with fresh strawberries)

Peanut (which has a very local touch to it. Reminds me of ba chang kuih)

Mocha

The amount of half cream puffs I ate could probably last me a year or so but I'll definitely come back for the durian and gougère!

Information

Address: 30-G, Jalan USJ 9/5Q, Subang Business Centre, 47620 Selangor.

Contact no.: +60173842813 or +60380819897

Email: keescreampuffs@gmail.com

CLICK for Facebook page

* Kee's Creampuffs does catering in bulk for parties, weddings, events, and re-sellers.

Australian Journal #1

Hello everyone and a very happy Merdeka to all Malaysians!

Yes, finally. An update on Australia! It'll only be a short one but I hope it'll do much justice.

As some of you know, I'm in Melbourne primarily for education purposes. Aside from that, being someone who has lived in Malaysia literally for her entire life, I thought I should give a shot at experiencing the life of being an independent person.

This trip is where I leave a second set of my footprints in Melbourne. I guess this is the experience that I've missed out on because I was on tour the last time I was here rather on a self-exploration journey.

Unfortunately, food isn't on the top of the list for "Best Melbourne Experience". Without hesitation, I put the people first. With regards to that, there is much to say about Melbournians. For instance:

This guy definitely has a Masters in Photobombing.

Prime example of an Australian, if you'd ask me. "Friendly" would be an understatement for this young lad. "They know how to enjoy life" would be more appropriate words to describe the people here.

I have my own fair share of friendly people around me especially those living in the same hall as I am. I got lost in my hall itself wandering for half an hour and looking my room only leading to failure. I guess I am to be blamed for I define a woman with bad directions but the 8-hour flight and the 1-hour journey to the campus drained me too. After unpacking, my shelves were empty and I could only think of one thing. Food.

I am utmost grateful for my neighbours who volunteered to take me out to Brandon's Park to grab groceries, a couple of essential items like plates, a lamp, hangers, SIM card etc. With that, I would consider myself settled in and only within a couple of hours after arriving which was self-surprising.

Aside from that, Australians have their own slang in which I am still trying to pick up. They shorten words so much it's just weird. For instance, "arvo" means "afternoon" (I have no idea how that is derived) and "brollie" means "umbrella".

From personal experiences, they use quite a fair bit of sarcasm in their conversations. Which reminded me of this Big Bang Theory scene:

* * * *

Anyway, my friends and I arrived in Melbourne when it was 6 degrees and raining. It was extremely hard to sleep at night without a comforter. I was personally freezing inside and out and that was when I thought, "Thank goodness I'm not in Canada or Moscow!" But as winter passes, the weather got more merciful. This was one of the best days ever and it so happened to be the day we decided to shop.

 

Beautiful, beautiful day to walking by the Yarra River and shopping at DFO South Wharf!

* * * *

Speaking of food, oh boy, I didn't know where to start as I was typing this out.

But these were what my friends and I had during my first trip to the city:

Slow roasted lamb with tomatoes, red onions and chips. [$9.00]

Yes, I wanted to try Greek food badly so we discovered this restaurant that serves Greek street food. I was expecting the chips to be served as a side order, but little did I know, they included them in the souvlaki and pita which tasted amazing! Not too sure how authentic this is for I have not had any Greek food before. If you know any Greek places I should try out in Melbourne, by all means, drop a comment or email me!

 

Greek village salad [$8.00]

Information:

Restaurant name: Kalamaki - Greek Street Food

Address: 389, Londsdale St, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Contact no.: 0396024444

Website: www.kalamakigsf.com.au

 

The dessert theme was French!

 

La Mongolfiere [$10.00] which looks like a scrumptious, ginormous dumpling. Inside is vanilla ice cream.

Close up shot of the berry and whipped cream.

La Charabotte [$10.00] of homemade salted caramel, bananas and vanilla ice cream.

This was the one with flames is La Suzon [$11.50] or orange marmalade, warm melted chocolate and grand marnier under the "Les Flambées" section. Sadly, I didn't catch a snapshot of the flames. This dish, without the flames, is absolutely bland for it'll be missing a scoop of ice cream.

And I absolutely love the deco!

Information:

Knock yourselves out!

I shall update soon. Thanks for reading and have a very pleasant day ahead! (:

Vanilla: The Mille Crêpe Café @ SS15, Subang Jaya

Finally. A full-on dessert blog entry. 

Hey everyone! I apologize for being MIA the past two weeks. A couple of major God-forbid assignments have not been too kind to me, but I'm glad I survived! 

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The signboard.

I visited this place about 2 weeks ago after a not-so-good dinner (review to be up soon). It wasn't my first time visiting it but after a bit of beautifying done to the place, I decided it was worth a good write up.

A crêpe is a type of thin pancake which originated from France, particularly Brittany. Its main ingredients are wheat flour/buckwheat flour, milk and eggs. Sounds really simple right? They are usually served with a variety of fillings. I personally like mine with strawberry jam and a good scoop of vanilla ice cream. Perhaps bananas as well. 

A Mille crêpe, on the other hand, is a French cake made out of many layers of crêpe which is what this blog entry is about to introduce. My source on Google states that "mille" means "a thousand" which implies the many layers of the cake. This ain't no ordinary make-the-batter-and-pop-it-in-the-oven sort of cake because before setting another layer of crêpe on top of the other, you must spread the filling which can be of cream, jam, etc. I can't imagine the time I would possibly take just to make one myself. The perfection of each crêpe, ensuring the layers aren't messy, oh boy.

Setting

My first visit was quite a dull one because the walls were all white, there was no big menu, and the place was simply just ... dull. It's amazing how colour can change one's mood. The newly painted maroon walls just added points to the ambience and made my visit pleasant.

Display of cakes.

This case displays the ones for sale

Check out the maroon wall and France-related paintings on it. Definitely a plus point!

Chalkboard menu. Ahhh!

A closer view of the menu. Pardon the highlight. I have no idea how to get rid of it. #noobiephotographeralert

What went into our tummies

The price for the cakes range from RM9.00 - RM11.00.

I was particularly eyeing on this one.

Durian Mille Crêpe. Confession: I'm a sucker for durian.

See what I mean by layers? So many of them!

If you're a durian lover, please just get the durian crêpe and do not question. 

Chocolate Milo Crêpe.

This particular one is pretty good. But durian > anything else on the counter!

Green Tea Latte.

Not fantastic, just okay to me. It might be a little too milky for some people.

Cream Puffs!

This one was a real shocker. Four pieces in one box. Want to guess how much these cost? Highlight between the quotations for the price.

" RM4.00 "

I kid you not. Really.

A couple of tips 

They do sell whole cakes as well but you need to place your order at least a day in advanced. The whole round cakes are priced at RM95.00 in which I think is a little too costly. A cheaper alternative is to choose about 6 different flavours of the ready-made slices (subject to availability) and they can tie a ribbon around them for you. That way, you spend less and you can have more flavours on one tray. 

Other branches are available. Check their Facebook page for more details.

Information

Address: No.17-G, Jalan SS15/4, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor.
Contact number: +60173402835
Operating days: Mondays - Sundays
Operating hours: 10.00 a.m. - 10.00 p.m.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vanillacakes
Email: vanillakajang@gmail.com
Parking: Public parking @ RM0.50 per hour
WiFi: Available but password protected