Pack Your Baggages!

I’d just returned from a solo trip to Penang earlier this week, and I’ve been itching to share some gems from my trip - Le Petit Four is one of them!
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Tried their Saint Honoré (RM22) during my trip there. Word has it that this is famously used as a test for pastry school. 😟 And why wouldn’t it given the multiple baking techniques it’d take to achieve this showstopper?!
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Honestly, it doesn’t deviate much from the standard taste of your regular choux cream puff, but holy moly the crunch it packs - we love to see it! 🤩 The presentation too…I didn’t mind spending a good 10 minutes just trying to get a good enough photo of this! 🥴 (8.8/10)
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Quick backstory - I actually had planned to go to another patisserie, but I happened to pass by this one while I was making my way to some museum. The interior really caught my eyes - it was pretty damn beautiful.

Missing Korea as I’m typing this, especially the scattershot of cafés they have there. One of my favourites was Lotte-backdd Angel-In-Us Coffee which had the Honey Thick Toast.

This plate of cut-up soft, fluffy thick toast comes drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce, and with a side of air-light chantily cream. I couldn’t really sit down and enjoy this as I was rushing for my train ride at that time. 😢 But I really liked that it wasn’t heavy on my palate at all, even though it looks like it’d be the opposite. That helped in clearing its rather large portion! 😛 (7.5/10)

Should’ve shared this much much earlier. I found my way to O’Sulloc Tea House located along the streets of Insadong. They are touted as the matcha haven of South Korea as they use tea leaves from Jeju, spawning many products such as tea drinks, face masks and desserts like their roll cakes (which comes in three different flavours by the way)! 👅

Unfortunately though, I wasn’t too impressed with this, mainly because it fell short on the bitter goodness of matcha. I did like the delicate airy texture of the cream though. The sponge cake was soft and pretty moist as well, albeit not in a melt-in-your-mouth kind of way, so it wasn’t too shabby overall! 🍰🍵

Quickly throwing back to my South Korea trip from a few weeks back - I had this lovely cup of sugar-free iced green tea before commencing retail therapy at Insadong. 😍 Honestly, not the best choice given the single-digit temperatures recorded during the day. But it was light, gorgeously grassy and refreshing after having so many hot milk-based drinks! 😂

A sad thing that I didn’t get to finish drinking it because it fell out of my bag’s side pocket and plunged…straight into the toilet bowl while I was using the restroom. 🙁 A tragic, but funny memory!

Situated just beside Rodeo Jeans in an alley, this humble shop sells nothing but macarons in a vareity of flavours - Blue Hawaii, Green Tea, Honey Lemon, Orange and Red Velvet, just to name a few. 😘 They were really average and actually homogeneously monotonous in taste, to be honest. But for roughly S$1.20 per piece, I can’t really complain, can I? 🤧

Strips of beef bathed in a mixture of its jus and its light sesame marinade, stir-fried with some onions, enoki mushrooms and shredded carrots. This dish skyrocketed me to euphoria as it was so soft, so tender, so juicy, so flavourful - even after it was cooked to well-done. I was sharing this with four other people, so I had to be really slick with stealing more beef strips. 😂 (8.6/10)

[Halal] Spicy stew of stir-fried chicken topped with melted shredded cheese…perfect for the autumnal temperatures here in Seoul! It’s difficult to find halal food in Seoul (I swear you’d have to sell your soul/Seoul for it lolol), especially in the Hongik University region, so this place was undisputedly our saviour. Plus, the food was lip-smacking and leave-no-grain-of-rice-untouched kind of delicious! This will always have its imprint in my head and heart, honestly. 😢 (7.8/10)

I know the hype over these has waned considerably over the years, but that didn’t stop me from snagging a couple of them at Hongdae’s Seoul Pastry! This place had a few other flavours that had me drooling a little (eg. Passionfruit, Matcha Green Tea Ganache, Injeolmi etc), but I got the Raspberry (left) and Choco Crumble (right). 🙌🏼

It was delicious, especially the latter, which had a chocolate icing that was less sweet and the traditional bitterness of dark chocolate. I personally love it when desserts aren’t too sweet. In many ways, it feels a lot easier to enjoy them.

Anyway, the cronut itself was a little too flaky, but that didn’t really bother me! Being a dessert fan, having this already made me happy enough to enjoy it for what it was! 😋 (7.6/10)

My mum who is straight-up fervent about coconuts couldn't pass up on getting one of these when she saw Sangkaya selling them at Mid-Valley Megamall.

A highly lucid sweet treat - petite scoops of coconut ice cream in a coconut husk bowl, topped with diced nuts, coconut chips (I think), and corn flakes. I kinda liked it - it was milky and silky smooth. But to be honest, I'm not the best person to get opinion from when it comes to coconuts haha.

I guess the best judge would be you then. Consider giving this a try if you happen to see the place for yourself! 🌝 (6.5/10)

I can't ever bring myself to get one of these here in Singapore because of how expensive they are, so I always look forward to getting this whenever I'm in KL! 😛

The bittersweet cocoa flavour runs deep in this one, with the tartness of the raspberry sauce cutting through it like a razor blade. A sip of this is euphoric and, to some extent, refreshing. This was super shiok honestly. I get excited reminiscing about havingthis everytime! 🍫🍓 (8.3/10)

An insanely affordable donut which happened to be really satisfying in every way, from the bite to the flavour. The remarkable texture was, however, the highlight of this - it was so fluffy and dense, which was unlike any of the previous donuts I've had. The white chocolate icing and the walnuts both truly served to accentuate the bread. This is a level up of its kind, I must say. (8/10)

During my short getaway to KL, I ordered in on one of the nights at The Majestic Hotel and got their Aged Beef Burger. It's not the exact name of the item though, and it's worse that I forgot to jot it down. 😐 Ah well…

Anyway, this was a stunner. I haven't properly tried dry-aged beef before, so this was my first time. It was firm, but was packing immensely savoury and slightly nutty flavours. They also incorporated chilli into the patty so there was a slight spicy zing to it, which was a highly-welcomed addition. 🍔🌶

The fries as well - they were surprisingly so well-made. They were thick, yet crispy and fluffy, and showed no sign of sogginess. I must say - I really got my money's worth with this. Thoroughly enjoyed this, from the first bite down to the last! (8.5/10)