Fine desserts from Madhatter desserts @ Damansara Uptown, Petaling Jaya

MadHatter is a fine dessert cafe located in Damansara Uptown. The owner is the runner up of Masterchef Asia, Marcus Low. They offer creative and high quality desserts at the standard of some Michelin rated restaurants that I tried in overseas. They have a few signature cakes such as raspberry rose and lychee, chocolate calamansi and pistachio, passion fruit and green tea cake. They serves premium desserts at 7.00pm onwards. So if you craving for their fine desserts, do drop by after your dinner. Most of the desserts here are inspired from our many Malaysian fruits, traditional desserts and ingredients.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. I like their watermelon with assam boi tart, chocolate calamansi and the bubur cha cha dessert. Good taste combination. Their breads are good as well especially the preserved olive leaf sour dough and brioche. I have been coming here for few times to try their different desserts and so far they are good at maintaining the quality and taste. The best part is the owner is always around and passionate on the desserts that he created. The service here is good as well).
Price:3/10(Expensive. Although the price of the desserts here are high, but the those desserts are high quality and taste great. Cakes price between MYR13 to MYR17 and premium dessert between MYR25 to MYR40. This shop however only accepts cash as payment. I do hope that they accept cards in the future as their desserts and bread are not cheap).


Bubur cha cha premium dessert.

Watermelon with assam boi tart.

Chocolate calamansi. Rich chocolate taste on the outside and sourish taste on the inside with crusty base. This cake looks beautiful.

The variety of cakes and tarts that they have. The design and texture are quite unique.

Teo Chew fried kuey teow @ Jalan Imbi Hawker, Kuala Lumpur

This little stall located at Jalan Imbi open air hawker centre has tasty fried kuey teow. This stall has been around for quite long and its operated by mother and daughter. The daughter doing all the cooking and frying while her mother assist her in bringing the food to the customers. What amazed me is her daughter memory of remembering all the orders from the customers without writing it while she was so busy frying kuey teow. She can remember each customer customized order which range from no chili, no cockles, no bean sprouts, more bean sprouts, 2 plates with cockles and 2 plates without cockles and so on! During my half an hours there, I don't see her mixed up the order and she can remember the sequence well.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. By default the preferred order here is fried kuey teow with noodles. You should order that as it taste good with cockles, prawn, bean sprouts, egg, fish cakes, kucai and enough wok hei).
Price:8/10(Cheap. Delicious plate of kuey teow at MYR6.50. You need to wait as the queue can be quite long at certain time).


Best food option to try if you happen to be at Jalan Imbi at night.

Tasty plate of fried kuey teow.

GPS/Coordinate: 3.145885, 101.715342
Address: Next to Jalan Imbi Honda showroom, 193 & 195, Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Business hours: 7.00pm till 12.00am

Nasi kerabu from Teh Tarik Place @ CITTA Mall, Ara Damansara

Teh Tarik Place is now an upstream eating spot of Malaysian local street food cuisine. This chain restaurant now present in many major shopping malls such as Setia City mall, Publika, Citta mall, 1-Utama, Empire shopping gallery and much more. The shop has many local favourites like teh tarik, roti canai, nasi lemak, nasi kerabu and mamak style fried noodles. The restaurant is covered with nostalgic old style artwork and it's a truly Malaysian culture.

Taste: 7/10(Moderate. The rice and salad were good. However, the ayam percik provided were not up to expectation. I enjoy their teh tarik. Its sweetness with nice tea taste were balanced and delicious).
Price: 6/10(Moderate. Nasi kerabu set at MYR12.00).



Nasi kerabu of Teh Tarik Place. Contains ayam percik, rice, salad, salted egg, fried coconut, fish sauce/budu and fish crackers.

Nasi kerabu lunch set only available from thursday to saturday. Lunch set with teh tarik at MYR12.00.

Interesting concept of converting Malaysian street food into more upscale type of environment.

Old school cosy environment.

GPS/Coordinate: 3.113029, 101.579087
Address: G-47, Ground Floor, Citta Shopping Mall, No 1, Jalan PJU 1A/48, Pusat Perdagangan Dana 1, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Best cannoli from Maria's Pastry @ North End, Boston, Massachusetts

Maria's pastry shop located at North End Boston has the best cannoli. However this little gems is less well known. It's a small family owned shop and generally isn’t as crowded as the others. But don't let this fooled you. Maria’s Pastry won the highly coveted Boston Magazine Best Cannoli Award in 2013. Filled to order Maria’s crunchy ricotta-filled cannoli are addicting. Maria’s is a locally loved institution.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. The cannoli were made on the spot. Shell were fresh, flavourful and crispy. Ricotta filling were the best after I tried Mike's pastry. Soft, silky smooth and generous amount of filling).
Price:6/10(Moderate. Ricotta filling cannoli at USD3.00 each).


The shell was so fresh and flavorful in a wonderful buttery way with the right amount of crunch and flakiness. The ricotta filling was silky smooth, slightly chilled, and sweet with a hint of cheesy savoriness.

It is an old-fashioned unassuming Pastry shop near the North End neighborhood. You can't never imagine that this shop has the best cannolis in Boston.

Maria's pastry shop. Small. Tucked away. Family owned. Not touristy.

GPS/Coordinate: 42.363297, -71.056506
Address: 46 Cross St, Boston, MA 02113, United States
Public transport: Haymarket subway station via orange line.

Balmy street murals: Human rights message thru art @ San Francisco, USA

Balmy street murals located in the Mission District of San Francisco offers a virtual outdoor art gallery featuring colourful murals featuring expression of outrage over human rights and political abuse in central America. There were also a few murals featuring themes such as gentrification and Hurricane Katrina. This place is more of San Francisco local flavour and off the beaten path. You don't see it gets crowded like other tourist attraction areas. The alley is best viewed on foot either by yourself or on a guided tour from Precita Eyes Mural Arts. Entrance to the street to view the murals are free and you can learn the local culture as well.


Mural human rights. Most murals here focusing Hispanic and Latin American.

This is a mural on gentrification.

The whole Balmy street filled with murals carrying powerful messages.

Namdaemun Market @ Seoul

Namdaemun Market is the largest street market in Seoul. You can get cheaper stuff here compared to other places in Seoul. There are many variety of items here and the price of some items may differ from shop to shop. I would recommend to buy your souvenir here and there are a lot of choices here and the price is reasonable. This is also a place for you to saviour Korean street food from seafood, pork knuckles, snacks and Korean dessert. Do come here during early afternoon or late evening. You can buy most Korean items here such as Korean cookware and souvenirs. You able to purchase the black clay bowl that all shops used to serve bibimbap here. This type of clay bowl able to maintain its heat at longer period. The side alleys are great places to eat local food and most menus are in English. The street food is fantastic and I recommend going in the evening if you want to see more unique foods although it can get quite crowded.


Stalls selling underwear and clothing.

You can get cheaper souvenir in Namdaemun market compared to other markets in Seoul.

Dried food such as squid and anchovies.

Plastic items and gloves also available.


Having vegetable pork bun.


Vegetable pancakes.

Street food - fried fish fillet.

Crowded with shoppers during late evening.

Preserved vegetables and food. There are one item which is very smelly here (bottom left) but I don't know what it is.

Souvenirs. Plates, pictures, chopsticks, mask, beauty products and much more...

This shop basically just selling all the photos and pictures of famous Korean actors and singers.

Key chains, letter opener and mirrors.

Nice dolls in Korean costume.

Variety of seaweed to choose from.

Abundance of selection of winter clothing and leather jackets available in Namdaemun market. These items however are unbranded.



Pork knuckles. It looks good but I don't have chance to try it as I don't know that they also serve single portion. According to my friend who went to the same shop, she said the pork is good and worth to try.

This is the stall selling pork knuckles.

If you like seafood. Sit down and order your favourite dish.

Another street seafood stall. You may get your soju alcoholic drink here as well.

Variety of Korean street food. Mostly are seafood.

Fish Cakes: This is a great snack. Fish cakes are cooked in a rich broth. After eating two or three, you are full. Plus, the broth that is served with the cakes is nice. Price range between 500 Won to 1000 Won per cake.

Variety of fried stuff and Tteokbokki.

Just pick which screwer that you want.

GPS/Coordinate: 37.558303, 126.977190
Public transport: Hoehyeon station (Subway line 4) exit 5.