Eat: Bites, Lake Fields Sg Besi

I did not realise that it has been close to a month since I last posted here, and now I am back with another food post to kick the dust off this blog of mine. I am hoping to be back blogging and I do already have a couple of posts lined up, due to publish. So, do look out for those posts. Before further ado, allow me to share with you on my latest food adventure to Bites which is located in Lake Fields, Sungai Besi.

I know of Lake Fields area about a year back, when pH Pastry House was opened there. Back then, pH was one of the places I would visit until the food standards dropped and it was getting rather pricey to have just a simple dinner there. So fast forward to last week, I was back in the area again but this time around, to try a new café there. Let us begin, shall we?

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Club Sandwich Waffle | RM 12.90

This arrive in all of its gloriousness; beef bacon, eggs and ham sandwiched in between crispy waffles. So humongously huge that you need a stick to hold the awesomeness of it together. I am sounding that this is too good to be try, but this was how my it arrived to my table and it is that tasty. As you bite into the waffle, you’ll be welcomed with crispy thin waffles and then, the saltiness of the ham and bacon coupled with tartare sauce. Just simply delicious.

Grilled Chicken & Waffle Sandwich | RM 15.90

If you cannot get enough of the waffles as sandwiches, you’ll welcome this dish with wide open arms, especially if you’re a fan of both grilled chicken and waffles because Bites married these two perfect combination, topped with creamy rich mushroom sauce. This would have you licking the plate clean, with the oh-so-yummy sauce with goes well with both the waffles and the chicken, of course.

Eggs Benedict | RM 17.90

What would a breakfast be without eggs benedict? Certainly one that is incomplete! Here the eggs benedict is served with a generous portion of smoked salmon and shimeji mushrooms, which just happens to be two of my favourite ingredients. Needless to say, I loved this dish and yes, they did get the eggs done right. It was just perfect, with the runny yolk.

The French | RM 15.90

Now, meet the French toast as interpreted by Bites. This is a French toast which is filled with chicken ham, melted cheese in between the bread and the ham, drizzled with maple syrup over it. A sunny side up egg placed over the toast to compete this dish. The toast was fluffy, and with the combination of the ham and cheese with the egg, I went “mhmm” as I had it. 

The Italian | RM 14.90

This is a breakfast fritata, which is basically an egg-based Italian dish which is similar to an omelette or crust-less quiche. I have never heard of it till I had it the other day, and I must say, it was loveeeee with just the first bite. This is officially my latest egg dish! The Italian comes with turkey ham, onions, spinach, cherry tomatoes and of course, the eggs itself. Personally, I can polish this off in 2 minutes because it’s amazingly delicious. Heck, I can take two servings of this anytime.

The Mexican | RM 12.90

After having Italian and French, there is The Mexican on the menu as well. What this is a breakfast burritos with tortilla, chicken sausage, eggs, mushrooms and cheese. I have never been a fan to wraps, so I will be biased when I say this was just pretty decent for me. It is delicious, nevertheless but not one dish that bowled me over as the rest of the dishes has. Still yummy and very healthy, I must say.

Breakfast Pizza | RM 14.90

Unlike your usual pizzas, meet the Breakfast Pizza which has baked beans, beef bacon, shimeji mushrooms, cheese and the usual vegetables like capsicums, tomatoes and onions, topped with a sunny side up. The crust is a cripsy crust too, so it is perfect for little bites.

Beef Bacon & Shrimp Pasta | RM 18.90

This pasta is a spaghetti aglio olio with beef bacon and shrimps, a combination which I found to be rather unique because the ones I’m used to for aglio olio was prawns or seafood, but not with beef bacon. The bacon are usually in the carbonara. As a simple dish as it is, Bites has managed to make this one rather delicious, with light hints of chilli flakes and yet very flavourful.

Grilled Salmon Fillet on Crispy Potato Cake | RM 32.90

Grilled Salmon Fillet on Crispy Potato Cake | RM 32.90

In all honesty, I love my salmon raw and I always rarely eat salmon if I’m out. I have never been impressed by any cooked salmon dishes, that I had ever had before. But this dish, was something different from the ones previously; mostly because it was fresh and the homemade creamy sauce went superbly well with the salmon. The salmon skin was crispy and the topping was as well. I would say that the whole combination work pretty well, and it is one delicious salmon dish.

We mostly had the breakfast dishes known as Early Bites and just two from Big Bites which are the main course dishes. Then, we ended the meal with Sweet Bites, which are the desserts!

Nutella Pizza with Strawberry and Banana | RM 10.90

Dessert Waffle topped with Gula Melaka Ice Cream | RM 11.90

(Note: Bites serves The Last Polka ice cream in its cafe so you can get them goodies, at RM9.90 per cup.)

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Overall, I found most of the dishes served in Bites to be very tasty and delicious. I must admit that not many places can serve consistently good dishes across their menu, cause usually you’ll have only a handful that is nice. The ambiance of the cafe is a cosy one, with nice decoration around it. I didn’t unfortunately take any pictures of the interior, I should remember to next time. I am definitely visiting the cafe again, so when I do, I’ll be updating this post with the pictures of the cafe.

// Bites, Lake Fields Sg Besi //

72, Jalan Tasik Utama 7, Lake Fields Sg Besi

03- 9055 4438

Open from Monday to Sunday from 9am to 10pm

The cafe opens till 11pm on Friday and Saturday. It is also a pork-free cafe. :)

Snaps: Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7

Let me start this post by explaining for my lack of updates for the past two months. I've been pretty much tied up with my preparation for my exams, which I'm actually resitting for after failing the papers in my first attempt. It took me a while to pick myself back up and that's why I went off a short hiatus for a bit. I'll be back running the blog again, really really soon but before that I thought I would like to share with you on something rather exciting.

So as the title suggests, this post would have some pictures of the latest camera from Olympus ; the PEN Lite E-PL7, along with some photos I took using the camera on a very brief shutter therapy session in Pudu market. Before I go on further, I just wanted to say that I would be completing the full review for this camera and this post is really just to touch on what the upgrades of the camera are (since I have the PEN Lite EPL5 already) along with some pictures. It’ll be some what like my first impression of the camera. I’ll be completing the full review once I’m done with my exams. :) You might want to look out for that.

The first impression on the new camera was just how amazingly sexy it was. Olympus PEN range have always been more of a retro feel to it but with the EPL5, it wasn’t so. I bought my own leather jacket for my camera to give it that retro feel. But in the EPL7, Olympus used synthetic leather on the surface of the camera giving it the same retro look, similar to the EP5. What a sexy beast I must say. My camera is in black colour, to match my set of lenses, but in all honesty, the silver would have been my pick. That actually looks really retro and fashionable. Damn.

The camera also comes with the new pancake version of M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm EZ, making the whole set up of the EPL7 incredibly tiny as you can see from the pictures. It is smaller than what my EPL5 is with the older version of the same lens. Even so, the new camera has a more solid feel and grip to it, somehow the build fits better in my hands. A good friend of mine told me that to know which camera is for you, you have to hold camera to get a feel of it. And having his words in mind, the moment I held this camera I loved the feel of it.

Speaking of which, there is now a dedicated dial on the EPL7 which you can customised for easy access to adjust the aperture, exposure or the shutter speed, depending on the mode you are in. The EPL5 doesn’t have this, so this a warm welcome for me which means that it is now easier for me to change my settings which is especially useful when I’m shooting on the streets.

Another change in the camera is that it now has a LCD screen which tilts downwards making it easier to take selfies. It somehow feels more natural to look at the screen at the bottom of the camera instead of the top. Having said that, I’ll be honest to tell you that when I first saw that the LCD tilts downwards now, I was wary about Olympus’s decision for that. First thought that came to mind was that I can’t tilt the screen when I have the camera on the tripod. That means I can’t see the screen when I shoot my own self-portraits (which I do with my EPL5).

However, the EPL5 did not have the built-in Wi-Fi control, something which I HAVE ALWAYS wanted in a camera. Being able to remotely control my camera from my phone would allow me to see the live view from my camera and also to snap a picture. If you have been following me, I had a photo project last year ; Project 52 where I shot a self-portrait every week in the year. I had trouble getting my pictures in focus since I couldn’t control my camera remotely. What I did was to pre-focus with a self timer and then rush back, pose in front of the camera. Shooting this way was difficult and taxing, with most of the pictures getting out of focus since I was also using prime lens and I wanted a shallow DOF (more blur bokehs).

But now, with this Wi-Fi control, I can’t wait to do some self-portraits with the remote control function. I have been drafting out some casual ideas which I cannot wait to try once I am done with my exams. I hope I can recreate the images in my head now. :D I did give the remote control function a try, and baby, it was so smooth. The User Interface is fairly simple and there was almost no lag in the live view. I’ll touch more on that in my next few posts.

I will stop myself here, before I go on rambling on and on about the camera. If I do that, I will run out of things to say in the following posts when I have done a complete review. I’ll leave you with some of the pictures that I took with the camera. :)

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And what’s a shutter therapy without taking a ‘selfie’! Here’s a look at how the LCD screen tilt downwards. So, I hope you enjoyed reading this post, so do look out for the next few ones.

Till next time,

xoxo

Event: TasteMIGF – 2014 Edition

About a month back, I attended the Festival Gala Launch for Malaysian International Gourmet Festival where the chefs from various fine dining restaurants cooked up gourmet dishes and served them in bite size portions for everyone to sample. That night, we were served with many different types of cuisines from Sri Lankan to Cantonese, Modern French to Italian, Japanese to Thai, and a fusion of International and Western specialities.

Signature Summer Salad | Signature by The Hill

Salmon Sashimi | Minori

Salmon Salad | Minori

Certified Angus Porterhouse Dry Aged | Chambers Bar & Grill

28 Day Aged Striploin | Tanzini

Chilled Mini Abalone | Dynasty

Hot & Spicy Hokkaido Scallop and Clam | Dynasty

Chicken Liver Terrine Tart | Neo Tamarind

Pizza Bufalina | Nerovivo 

Fish Cutlet | Aliyaa Island Restaurant & Bar

French Snails | Tanzini

And that is all the food porn I have for you, I wished I took more pictures of the rest of the dishes. But there were so many that night and under limited lighting conditions coupled with the fact that I was shooting with an unfamiliar camera (Alex’s Panasonic GX7), I didn’t get as many shots of the food as I wished I had.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures nevertheless, and here’s to looking forward to attending the next one? ;)  Before I end this post, you can click here to read last year’s post on TasteMIGF, Sunway Pyramid - 2013 Edition.

Review: NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner–Part 2

If you read my earlier review on the NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner way back in February this year, then I’ll let you know that this is an updated post on that review. Back then, I reviewed the product when it was firstly launched into the market and now months later, they now have three different variant instead of just two last time. The newest variant is Whitening, something most women would find to be useful to have a whitening in-shower body lotion.

This time around, I have all the three variant of the NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioners to review. Although I do expect that all three body lotions would not have much difference in terms of their texture and effectiveness, besides their own key ingredients like more hydration, intensive moisture and whitening.

Since I reviewed the NIVEA In-Shower Intensive Skin Conditioner in this post here, I’ll mention more on NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner (Normal skin) and NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner Whitening (Dull skin). The difference in these two variants is that they contain sea minerals and camu camu (known for its natural antioxidants and skin lightening properties), respectively instead of almond oil.

I found the one for normal skin to have a rather neutral smell, whereas the dull skin one has a stronger fruity smell. The dull skin version does have Vitamin C extract which would explains the sweeter smell. :) In terms of the products, it is the same as I have reviewed the last time. I explained how to use this product in the previous post, but I’ll attach this step-by-step visual anyway as a guide.

So, I’m sure you have some questions regarding the product after reading what I have wrote. I know I had some questions, because back then, I didn’t understand how it works. I mean, how is it that I just apply the lotion in my shower only to wash it away? I learnt that the answer is pretty simple. When the skin is wet, pores open up and it is pretty much the best time for skin to absorb nourishment easily. The NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner is actually activated by water to fully moisturize and repair dry skin. What it does then is that it leaves a nourishing film on the skin surface without a sticky feeling.

 Like the illustration above, the NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner formula pretty much works with wet skin only and is designed to be rinsed off after application to achieve the silky soft skin feeling which does leave my skin feeling so. And I dare say that it left my skin hydrated throughout the day until I took my next shower. That’s how awesome it is. What I do in the shower with the product is that I’ll rinse off the product and I will pat my skin dry then. That’s it!

And that’s basically it! I have been using the product for months now and I have to say, I’ve been loving it so much. It really saves me the hassle from having to apply body lotion after I have showered, which is annoying to me because I’d be fully clothed then and I would end up applying certain parts on my body. Sometimes, I skip that all together. That is why I love the NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner because I can do it all in the shower, in less than 60 seconds.

If you’re love it as much as I do, you should share it with your friends and family here; NIVEA I Love In-Shower on Facebook so that they would know about the products as well and to say goodbye to the conventional way of applying lotion!

And if you haven’t tried the product before, fret no more as you can also request for a sample on the NIVEA I Love In-Shower page on Facebook. Then you can have a try before you buy the products. If you do plan to get the products, they are RM 16.90 (250ml) and RM 22.90 (400ml) for the NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner (including the Intensive one). As for the Whitening one, it is RM 18.90 (250ml) and RM 24.90 (400ml). 

I’ll end this post with a video about what the likes of Erin Malek, Nadia Heng and Emily Quak has to say about the NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner! Do share with me what you thought of the product if you tried it before. If you haven’t, there is never a better time than now.

NIVEA In-Shower Skin Conditioner

Till next time,

xoxo

Review: The Facial Sculpting Experience at Premier Clinic–Part 2

Hellow! I’m back again to continue on where I left of in my earlier post about my experience in Premier Clinic. If you haven’t read the first post, here’s the link; Review: The Facial Sculpting Experience at Premier Clinic–Part 1. Read that before you read this! So, let me continue from where I last left off which was waiting for the numbing cream to take effect. If you never had numbing cream on your face before, you should try it at least once because I found it rather funny to lose sensation around my lower face area. I know I'm weird, that is what you would probably think of me now.

But anyway, once the effect takes place, one of their ever so helpful beauty assistants would help to remove and clean the cream from the face. They would then proceed to take a picture of your face before the treatment from 5 different angles. After that,  I was pretty much all prepped for the treatments.

The first treatment was the Botox treatment where Botox was injected into my masseter muscles using a technique which is called the “safe injection”  technique. This is a safer technique which ensures that the Botox is injected at the right spots in the muscle, with 3 jabs on each sides of the cheek. Dr. Aarthi used a pencil to draw and indicate where my muscle was and made markings at the three points where she would inject them into. To get the markings right, she asked me to bite on my teeth so as to identify the correct spots. 

After marking the spots, my cheeks were ready for the injection. For the injection, I was told to relax my muscle as contracting it would affect the accuracy and it would also hurt really badly. Because the muscles are located deep within the face, I felt like the needle was going in deep and once it reached the muscle, it was actually pretty painful. But I told myself it'll be okay because I just need to endure the pain for the moment. It did only hurt when the injection took place and not after that. 

Next up, was the Dermal Filler injection for my chin where a three point method is used for the injection. The filler was supposed to from below my chin upwards, but my skin was too thin there. Hence, Dr Aarthi injected from the middle of my chin instead. Compared to the Botox injection, this didn't hurt as bad. In fact, this was almost painless.

The filler works pretty much like a mouldable clay so after injection, Dr Aarthi would massage and try to sculpt the filler to give my chin a defined V-shape face. I found this rather amusing and amazing at the same time! 

Oh, I forgot to mention that for the Dermal Filler treatment, only sterile equipment were used. The gloves were changed to special sterile ones and I had a sheet which was sterile, placed over my chest as Dr Aarthi injected the filler. I wasn't allowed to touch my face as well for fear of the bacteria. The filler is a natural hyaluronic acid, that's why it is prone to fungal infection which could be rather nasty. 

Both the treatments were done in less than 15 minutes, all thanks to Dr Aarthi with her amazing skills who even took the time to explain to me what she was doing while actually performing the treatments. Would you believe if I told you that the effect of the filler treatment was immediate? Exactly! I didn't need to wait for it to take effect, as I sat up, I was given a mirror and ta-da!!! I had a V-shaped chin, and it was so amazing, I could not stop laughing. It's like at that moment you don't believe what you're seeing kind of laugh. 

As for the Botox, it would take 10 days to see the full effect of it. The idea was that the Botox would help to shrink the muscle and result in smaller cheeks. After seeing how amazing the filler works, I was pretty excited to see what my whole complete look would be like. I think I may just have the face of my dreams now. 

But to see that, the final and complete look..... You'll have to wait till the next post to read about the final part of my Facial Sculpting Experience and also, the pictures of my face! So, do look out for that last post. I'll be talking a bit more in depth about the products that was used on my face and what I felt after the treatments. 

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// Premier Clinic //
No. 31 Jalan Wan Kadir 2, Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI)
03-7732 5522 / 012-662 5522
Open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 7pm