A blog a day..

A blog a day, keeps my laziness away..
I will try to blog everyday, from today.
As a habit, not to blog, but to keep it going.
To remind myself, I have my goals ahead.

I have been slacking a lot since start of work.
Laziness has bitten into my bones and became part of it.
Because I felt that I'm best at what I'm doing;
I'm better than anyone else in my company, made me stop to improve myself.
Arrogance, I would say.

Another reason is lack of motivation.

I start to slack, procrastinate.
Always think that it's not worth giving more,
since they will not appreciate.
Demotivated, I would say.

So, I slow my pace.
I remain stagnant;
I remain confident;
I still think that, I'm at my best.
Slowly I realise, I'm actually downgrading.
Rotting as time pass by.

A recent incident woke me up.
Hitting me hard, bringing me down to earth.
I then realised, what I have missed for the pass year.
Wasted my precious time, doing things that doesn't benefit.
Stupid, I would say.

Since then, I replan my whole future vision.
I start reading and researching ways to upgrade myself.
The enthusiasm and passion I long lost,
 revived again..

Catching up in progress

There are so many things to share, yet so little time to compile. I have photos, reviews, personal feelings to blog about, but I also have many personal things to do too.

Hmm.. Which to start off?

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

Sorry for abandoning you for so long. There's so much work to do and so little time to rest. I will settle my outstanding work a.s.a.p. and resume blogging soon. There's so much I wanna tell you. so many photos and gadgets to share until I have lost count of it. Give me some time, and I will return for you.

Loves,
Your Owner

[Review] Poco - Kota Damansara

Poco opened their second branch at Kota Damansara recently. While serving homemade cakes and pastries at their Bangsar branch, the Kota Damansara branch offers a little bit more in their menu with additional dishes to choose from their kitchen.

Namely Poco - Zakka & Kitchen, it is my first time here in the Kota Damansara branch. However, I never been to their Bangsar outlet before, so I'll just based my opinions here. Apparently this outlet is new and just begun their operation last month, July. During the time of our visit, we saw the staffs were decorating and relocating the decorations within the restaurant.

Before we go into the desserts, which was our main purpose of visit that day, let's talk a bit on the interior design and decorations of the restaurant. I'm not a interior design expert, hence I will just comment based on my own opinion and terms used, if there's any mistake I made, please do forgive me and correct me if possible. They have both indoor and outdoor dining areas to choose from, with indoors air-conditioned. A very strong scent of latex paint struck us once we stepped into the restaurant compound. The layout of the restaurant is themed to traditional and nostalgia, where simple daily items are used as their decoration. The floor is naked cement based without any tiles nor planks, while the tables and chairs are made of wood. 

The decorations used are mainly recycled items and antique furniture, together with some racks and cupboard filled with other little items for you to discover. The waitress who served us were very friendly and the menu they provide was made of recycled paper, similar to the exercise books that we used during school days. However, the variety of food and desserts in their outlet is rather limited, leaving us to have less option. I was informed that this is their temporary menu and will be updated soon.

The waitress introduced us the few available choices of cake from the limited menu and recommended their specialty Homemade Tofu Cake (RM9). Feeling skeptical and curious about the taste, we decided to give it a try anyway. Besides this, she also recommended another cake which is not in their menu and it was the day's special -- the Strawberry Crumb Cake (RM10+). We decided to give both a try and also ordered a pot of Premium Jasmine Tea (RM4) and a cup of Green Tea Soya (RM6) to go along with the cakes.

The Homemade Tofu Cake may sound as tasteless as the name, is actually quite similar to cheese cake, with the biscuit base on the bottom, while the cheese part is substitute with the white-coloured moose-liked tofu on top of it. The green layer on the top of the white layer is green tea flavoured I suppose. However, you will not discover any similarity between this with the typical tofu we have daily. If this cake is served without telling you the name of it, I'll probably think its a milk based moose or cream, minus the dairy taste.

Strawberry Crumb Cake on the other hand is different with fresh strawberries and cream topping and also another layer in between the cake. The cake's texture is different from the typical siphon cake base, not too sweet either. Not a bad try but can be improved anyway.

The Hot Green Soya smells nice and taste like what you expect from mixing green tea in soya, or soya in green tea, or whichever makes sense to you.

Wrap up, different from the commercialized cake shops and pastries, Poco offers a more down to earth, homemade style of cakes to their customers. The look and taste may not be as appealing as the other widely available commercial cakes, but the creativity and the passion of making good cakes and pastries are definitely there and successfully delivered via our mouth. Overall, the Poco in Kota Damansara offers a nice and cosy ambient for an afternoon tea break and hopefully they will increase the variety in the menu near future.

Poco do have their own offical blog, do visit Pocohomemade

[Review] The Vanilla Place - Subang Empire

The Vanilla Place, situated within Subang Empire, is a place where they serve coffee, cakes, pastries, pastas, sandwiches, and other desserts including macaroons. A small kitchen located in between two rows of shops, located on the 2nd floor of Subang Empire (if not mistaken), or the lot number FK101 to be precise.

I had a chance to try the pastas there as we were having a small birthday dinner celebration for one of my friends there. They decided to give it a try after getting much positive reviews about the restaurant.

It was a Sunday night and the crowd in the shopping center was obviously lesser, so is the restaurant. There were only a table occupied during our arrival, and frankly speaking the place is quite small and only enough to accommodate a small party, probably around 40 people with my estimation.

Given the small dining area, the number of staff doesn't really seemed to be proportional, even on a Sunday night. There were a few waiters/waitress with the kitchen crew of course. We're served by a waitress and have all the freedom to choose where to sit since there's no other customers there during our visit.

We noticed the lunch and dinner promotional sets available including starter, main, a drink and a scoop of ice cream. However, the sets are only available during weekdays, too bad then.

We decided to try their pastas instead of other food available such as sandwiches, pastries and lasagna. We ordered four different types of pastas which include Carbonara, Aglio E Olio, Smoked Duck and Masala.

I myself ordered the Smoked Duck pasta. It is served with smoked duck breast and grilled cherry tomatoes, I believed. The duck breast is tender and juicy with a layer of fat as shown in the pictures. Onions and garlic were used to spice up the pasta, giving it a strong aroma, together with dried shredded parsley i believed.

My girlfriend ordered the Aglio E Olio, shrimp pasta with grilled vegetable toppings. The pasta tasted quite similar to my Smoked Duck, but with different toppings. Two big shrimps were served with slight grilled vegetable like broccoli, button mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.

My other friends ordered the Carbonara and Masala Pasta. I didn't have the chance to taste it but from what they claimed is, the Carbonara is not half bad with typical creamy texture of carbonara. She couldn't really identify what is the little star on her pasta is made of. As for the Masala pasta, its more like eating rendang with pasta.

Most of their pastas are priced at RM15.80, exclusive of the 6% gov. tax and 5% service charge. As for the drinks, we all ordered different drinks and I only can comment for my own. However, if you do not wish to spend too much on drinks, tea pots are available and I think it is more than enough for two persons to share.

As for myself, I ordered a hot Cappuccino which comes with a pretty fern-liked pattern as the coffee art presentation. The Cappuccino also comes with a small piece of sesame cookie. Priced at RM8.00, the Cappuccino was OK for me, as I'm not a coffee fan hence I do not really have the skills to taste it.

We took our sweet time chatting there after our meal and was prompt by the waiter if we are interested in any desserts. But with our stomach filled by pastas, I guess we will give it a pass until next time we visit here again. A simple search on the net shows that many good reviews are given for their desserts especially their cakes, macaroons and pastries. Maybe one day we will come here again and give it a try, but for that day, it's time to head home and prepare for next day's work.