Big Fish Moment with Pizza Hut

It was exactly half past eight in the evening when me and Michael was lingering in the Sunway Pyramid shopping mall. We were yet to have our dinner, and I asked Michael a simple question, "Are you hungry?". And his reply was "Yes, I'm very hungry".

As we walked out from the elevator near the skating rink, I could already smell the fragrance of the pizza coming from Pizza Hut. Seriously, it is hard to resist the aroma of the pizza, what's more when you are having a hungry stomach. I knew at this time I wanted Pizza Hut as my dinner so badly but obviously I need to respect Michael decision as well. So I asked Michael whether is he alright with the idea, and much to my delight, he agreed with it.

Pizza Hut Restaurant

I was aware of the newly launched Fish King Pizza by Pizza Hut earlier this month. It is no surprise that we were being presented to the leaflet of the Fish King Pizza upon getting the menu. I'd already had in mind that I wanted to try their Fish King Pizza even before being presented to the leaflet. And the inviting Fish King Pizza leaflet, just confirmed our choice of pizza for the day!

Big on Fish, Bigger on Value

Since, there were only two of us, we opted for the Fish King Set 1 which comes with one regluar Fish King Pizza, two soup-of-the-day, four pieces of garlic breadstix and two glasses of Pepsi drink.

Fish King Set 1

We were told that the Fish King Pizza needed a preparation of 17 minutes before it is ready. The soup-of-the-day were served almost instantly after our order. A good appetizer to aid our hungry stomach while waiting for the Fish King Pizza.

Soup-of-the- day, Mushroom Chicken soup

The garlic breadstix is great especially when being dipped into the soup, just like I'd always love to do when dining at Pizza Hut.

Garlic Breadstix

Pepsi drink

Approximately after 17 minutes, I could see the waiter topping off the Fish King Pizza with a slice of lemon at the pizza counter. I was hoping that the Fish King Pizza is ours and Yes!, it was indeed being served to our table. Time for some feast now!

Fish King Pizza

My eye was being caught by the fairly huge fish fingers. A closer look at it showed that it was actually bigger than the size of my index fingers. It is no exaggeration that the size of a fish finger equals to two of my index fingers being stacked together.

Fish Finger
For those that are not aware, these fish fingers were actually made from the specially-imported Alaskan Pollock fish which has milder taste, whiter colour and lower oil content compared to the typical Pollock fish.

Counting fingers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We have SIX Alaskan Pollock fish fingers on our regular size of Fish King Pizza. The fish fingers were so tempting that I wanted to have them all by myself. But since young, mum has always taught me that sharing is caring. So, 3 sticks each for the both of us.

The fish fingers that are "begging" you to eat them!

After much attention on the fish fingers, it is time to look at the other ingredients used as the topping of Fish King Pizza. A closer look showed the topping consisted of crabsticks, capsicums, yellow onions, pineapples and the Mozzarella Cheese.

Cheesy weezy Fish King Pizza
This is what you get from a Fish King Pizza that came fresh from the oven. Can you see the dripping of the melting cheese?

Ask yourself, "How often do you consume fish?". What's more, when we are talking about Alaskan Pollock Fish. And I'm going to have my very first bite on the Fish King Pizza!

Fish King Pizza feast

My first bite resulted in a very cheesy experience. Very much to my liking the pizza is topped off with so much Mozarella cheese. As I had a larger bite, I could actually taste the tanginess of the sauce which I believed is their cool lime mayo sauce, tasted like the tartar sauce. The topping very much resemble the taste of the Island Supreme. But as you continue feasting in the Fish King Pizza, you will come across the juicy pineapple and this is when it gave you a thought that you were maybe having a Hawaiian Supreme.

A fan of Pizza Hut as always, my all time favourite are the Hawaiian Supreme and the Island Supreme. Thus, it is not a tough task for me identifying and having the memorable taste of these two flavours. Never in my wildest dream that I'd be able to taste my all time two favourite flavours in a pizza, the Fish King Pizza! Man, this is just awesomely delicious!

Cheesy experience with the Fish King Pizza

Maybe you might not be craving for pizza during you next visit. But do make sure that you "steal" a stick of the Alaskan Pollock fish fingers off the Fish King Pizza. After all, this is what Fish King Pizza is all about.

Do not missed out the Alaskan Pollock fish fingers!

The Alaskan Pollock fish fingers consisted of actual real Alaskan Pollock fish meat. We are not talking about the typical processed fish fingers. Now this is what we called feasting in a delicious protein meal!

The real Alaskan Pollock fish meat

The breaded fish fingers offered a mild crisp on the outside. The Alaskan Pollock fish meat within meanwhile were so tender and soft. The silky smooth and the juiciness of the fish meat very much resembles the feeling of having freshly steamed fish meat. Best of all, it is boneless!

Tender on the inside, and crispy on the outside

Our bill came to RM 32.20 which inclusive of service and government charges. I supposed it is very reasonable acknowledging the fact that the set fills up our big hungry stomach satisfyingly! Not forgetting to mention that, it was a meal that full with protein thanks to the awesomely delicious Alaskan Pollock fish fingers. I'd definitely be back real soon for a larger share of the Fish King Pizza!

Freshness is guaranteed. Any fresher you got to travel to Alaska and catch the Pollock fish yourself!

So hurry to your nearest favourite Pizza Hut outlet to get your share before the catch runs out!

Atmosphere: 6.5/10

Food: 8/10
Price: 6.5/10
Verdict: Can't wait for my next Fish King Pizza experience!

Pizza Hut Sunway Pyramid
LG 2.40, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall
No 3, Jalan PJS 11/15
Bandar Sunway, 46150
Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03 - 7492 2551
Website: http://www.pizzahut.com.my

Melaka Mango Juice @ Jonker Street, Melaka

Something has hit Melaka. It is not the tsunami, earth quake nor volcano eruption. It is the Melaka mango juice which just hit the town. Barely a year ago, I first came across to this juice at the Portuguese Settlements during my seafood dinner. Then on the very next day, my friend spotted another stall selling the same juice at Jonker Street.

This mango juice is not the typical concentrated mango juice which require you to add water to enjoy it. Instead, it is freshly squeezed to give maximum satisfaction!

Melaka Mango Juice stall at Jonker Street

You could see the mango skin are freshly peeled before being put into a container. A mixture of ripe and young mangoes are being used for the juice.

Slices of ripe and young mangoes

Upon ordering, you could see the lady boss taking a few pieces of the mangoes into the squeezer. Oh-no, what a pity to those mangoes!

Squeezing time!

After adding some ice, syrup and a sour plum fruit, the mango juice is ready to be enjoyed. It take approximately 2 minutes to prepare a glass. Pray hard that the queue is not long, else you will need to wait for more than 2 minutes.

Melaka Mango Juice (RM 2.50)
So here you are, a refreshing thick original mango juice that will be sure to quench your thirst! The perfect blending of sweetness, sourness and the coldness will be sure to make in an even more memorable trip down to Melaka.

The mango juice is the answer to chill the body especially during the walk on the soaring temperature of Jonker Street. Warning, highly addictive though! One is never enough and this is where you ASK FOR MORE!

Taste: 8.5/10
Price: 7/10

Location: The stall is located at a mini shop cum booth at Jonker Walk.

Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Ball @ Jonker Walk, Melaka

It is no surprise that when you are walking down the Jonker Street, you will be greeted by an abundance of chicken ball rice stalls. Whilst it is good to have more variety to choose from, it does give you a headache especially when you are new to to Melaka. So which stall really serve good chicken ball rice?

There is this stall named Hoe Kee which serve pretty decent chicken ball rice. Assuming you are walking from the Malacca river bridge, just head down to the Jonker Street and you will spot this stall on your right hand side right after passing by the Jonker Street arch.

Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Ball

It was 6pm of a Saturday on my previous visit to this stall. I supposed we were really lucky as we were the last customer of the day when the stall was getting ready to close.

Steamed chicken
The chicken was perfectly steamed, resulted to a tender and juicy meat. I particularly like the part where the meat were so silky smooth, as though you were having a semi-cooked chicken. Much to our liking, there is not even a single part of the chicken which is bloody.

Chicken rice ball
This is where the rice is being mashed and formed into a ball shape which we refer to as chicken ball rice. The taste of the rice is a resemblance of Hainanese chicken rice.

Chili sauce
I'm a person that is very particular to the chili sauce when it comes to having chicken rice. The chili sauce is rather a let down. Way diluted and contained too much sesame oil. I would have prefer it to be a little sweeter and concentrated.

The total bill came to RM 33 which included half of a steamed chicken, a platter of chicken rice balls and four drinks. I reckon the price is very reasonable for the portion that we get which feed the five of us decently. Was it because we were the last customer of the day? Anything it is, this is the stall to be if you fancy some chicken rice ball the next time you are at Jonker Street.

Atmosphere: 4.5/10

Food:7/10
Price: 7/10
Verdict: Be prepared to queue up especially on the weekends during the peak hours of lunch time.

Location: The stall is located at the shop lot along Jonker Street. Assuming you are coming from the bridge of the Melaka river, keep walking until you reach the arch of the Jonker Street. Walk a few more steps and the stall is located on your right side.

Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Ball
Jonker Walk
4, 6, 8, Jalan Hang Jebat
75200
Melaka
Tel: 012 - 6238431
Business hours: 8am - 5pm

GPS Coordinates: N2 11.717 E102 14.886

Jonker 88 Desserts @ Jonker Street, Melaka

When one travel to Melaka, one should not missed out the ice shaved desserts that are sweetened with Gula Melaka. Gula Melaka which literally means Malaccan sugar, are brown in colour, rich in taste and offer a very aromatic tasting experience.

Located at along the famous street of Jonker Street, Jonker 88 Desserts stall is hard to be missed out. During the afternoon and especially on the weekends, you could see people flocking in to queue up for their share of desserts. At times the queue could stretch up to the walkway of the Jonker Street.

Jonker 88 specialty dessert menu

I recalled that I have never missed out this stall whenever I visited Malacca. It is like a "must-to-do" thing in Malacca.

A very antique layout stall

Some calligraphy posters

The stall operates on a self-service basis where you order it from the counter and bringing it yourself to your table. It is advisable to get someone to look for a table first before ordering to avoid disappointment of not getting a table later on.

Baba Chendol (RM 2)
A small serving of ice shaved desserts that comes with green jelly (cendol), hint of cocunut milk and heavily drizzled with Gula Melaka.

Baba Durian Chendol (RM 3)
The same version of the Baba Chendol, but this is topped off with some Durian fruit. Fancy the aroma of the King of the fruit? Then this might well be your bowl of dessert.

E. P. C. Eight Precious Chendol (RM 3)
The name itself is bombastic. I supposed it comes in 8 different ingredients, hence the name given. Main essential ingredients of Chendol are remained but it comes with the nutmeg fruit. This is my all time favourite bowl of dessert here.

Mango Ice Kacang (RM 3)
A bowl of ice shaved dessert that come with groundnuts and topped with mango fruit before the heavy drizzling of syrup and Gula Melaka. I particularly like the tanginess of the mango which add some extra "kick" to the dessert.

Sago Chendol (RM 3)
The most bland of all the desserts. The sago did not provide any extra aroma but merely some extra chew. Not my bowl of dessert.

Our collection of desserts for the day

What make the desserts stand out is actually the presence of the heaving drizzling of aromatic Gula Melaka. Apart from that, the ice shaved desserts were pretty normal with some modified toppings. Whilst some may like the thickness syrup of the Gula Melaka, some might find them too sweet. As for me, I find the Jonker 88 desserts was alright, but not my best preference bowl of an iced shaved desserts.

Atmosphere: 4.5/10

Food: 6.5/10
Price: 6.5/10
Verdict: A unique aroma of ice shaved desserts thanks to the heavy drizzling of Gula Melaka. Great for those who had a very sweet tooth.

Location: The stall is located at the shop lot along Jonker Street. You could see a huge crowd queuing up for the desserts and the laksa as well.

Jonker Dessert 88 (Museum Cafe)
88, Jonker Walk
75200
Melaka

Melaka A'Famosa Resort @ Alor Gajah, Melaka [20th Mar 2010]

I'm sure many would have heard about A Famosa Resort, an integrated resorts that provide accommodation, leisure and entertainment for those that seek a breakaway from the routines of life.

Back during the March MATTA fair, me and Chee were attracted to the promotional booth by A Famosa Resorts. The promotion was that the villas were going at RM 180 nett per villa. Since we have yet to experience the resorts since it's inception, we bought a night of staying over at the villa without having any confirmed attendee. Melaka isn't too far away, so we thought there should not be any problem finding some holiday troopers.

Main entrance of A Famosa Resorts

However, during the very last week before the trip, we were still unable to find party troopers to accommodate the trip. Whilst there were some in the pending list, however many pulled out at the last minute resulting to a final number of 5 person which included my both parents.

Upon reaching the main gate of the resorts, we were halted by the security guard to collect the security pass.

To collect a pass when enter, return when out

Security pass

After collected the pass, we thought our villa would be just a stone throw away. So wrong we were, that we actually need to drive to the other end of the resorts where our villa was located. The road signage was not helpful either, we went to the wrong site twice before finally reaching the villa check in site, after some 30 minutes of driving.

Our villa check in site

We were told that the villa would be available only at 4pm. The clock was showing only 2.30pm. It left us thinking on what to do next. To travel to Melaka town would take at least 45 minutes of drive, not a very feasible choice. So in the end, we choose to explore what do the resorts got to offer.

Initially, we thought of taking the bus provided by the resort. However, we were told that a person will be charged RM 1 for each ride. Their each ride is not on a daily passport basis but merely from location to location. Making things worse, those buses interval are not fixed and on the best estimation of time. That seriously puts us off, no choice, but to drive then!

Our first stop, were the sporting site of the resorts. It offer paintball, archery range, go-kart, and horse riding. Though it was on a Saturday noon, the site were rather like a deserted zombie area. There were only us and those facilities complex were seen vacant as well.

The sporting site of A Famosa Resorts

There is nothing that really wow us at the site. Fortunately, there is a little horse farm which provide us some sights of different species of horse.

Different species of horse

Guess who the baby horse fancied more?

And yes, they do have a semi working tank lied at the sporting site. Perhaps, to create more awareness of the sporting site?

Semi-working tank

Next stop, we went to a site by a river which lied the fishing and paddle boat activities site.

Resorts Fishing & Paddleboat site

The charges

Again, there were no one else at the site during our time of visit apart from the five of us. Seriously, the surrounding was so quiet that you could actually hear the noises of the breeze and the flowing river clearly.

Panoramic view of the river/pond

Fancied paddling some boat?

Lovey Dovey

My parents

With my both parents

The time was showing 3.30pm and we decided to pay a visit to the resorts self-proclaimed renowned A Famosa Water World and Animal Safari World.

Main entrance to the A Famosa water and safari world

I seriously do not understand why is there a need to charge parking fee of RM 3 per entry of each car knowing the fact that there were already entrance charges to both of the worlds. Not wanting to pay that unnecessary parking fee, we opted to park our car by the roadside, before the entrance to the world. We then walked towards the deeper part of the world.

Wild-wild west theme

Elephant by the road

Layout of the A Famosa Resorts

Charges for the entrance fee

The foyer, sitting area

Entrance to the Water World park

A Famosa Animal World Safari

We wanted to check out the hoo-haa of their renowned Water World Park. I was thinking maybe the water world deserves some credit and I don't mind including them in my blog to promote their famous ride. So we proceeded to the counter to seek permission of entering the Water World Park with the aim of sharing our sighting experience with our friends and close ones. Our wish was simple, were to have look around on what do the water park has to offer.

We were then being attended by this Audit manager called Mr Jayacandran. He attended us, telling that we need to purchase the ticket in order to seek entrance. While I understand the need to buy a ticket if we were to use their facilities, but hey, all we want is just to survey what it has to offer. After much discussion, he asked me to wait by the counter while he seek his supervisor for permission. 20 minutes passed by, no news from him nor even his shadow. My patience was running out, so I asked the counter desk officer to give him a ring. And only then, I was being informed that the Audit manager could not grant us the access to the Water World park. Whilst I don't blame him for not being able to grant us the access, the part where he let us, the potential customer waited like dumbo seriously challenged our dignity and intelligence. Was it so hard to just walk out and inform us that the granting the access is not possible? If I don't seek the desk officer to give him a ring, I can assure that he would just expect us to go off and forget about it. Mr Jayachandran, you only make a shame of yourself and the possibility of incurring potential losses to your company due to your unprofessional code of conducts. Audit manager, what a joke! Worst ever customer service experienced ever, a disgrace to the managerial team of A Famosa Resort!

Crappy customer service at the A Famosa Water World Park. Two thumbs down!

After that, we headed back to our villa which were already ready to be checked in. Another plain dumb system here. There was only one lane provided for the entry and exit to the villa compound. As a result, car need to wait for each other should their is a coincidentally of two cars coming from different direction.

Plain dumb lane system

Checking in hours at the villas

Our private villa

The street

Resemblance of gated community town house

Time to have a look at the private villa. Comes with 3 bedrooms , 2 bathrooms, a large area of living room and a pretty sizable dining area. The kitchen were huge too, but a let down, because no cooking were allowed, another crappy regulation here. It was fully air-conditioned and the television were equipped with Astro facilities, offering some basic channels, ESPN and Astro Wah Lai Toi.

The area and facilities in the villa

Master bedroom with an attached bathroom

What appeal to us most while at the promotional booth was the private pool being offered by the villa. It was located at the backyard of the private villa. However, the pool did not appeared to be in a very inviting state, neither of us went for a dip.

Private pool at the backyard

Machine acting as a filter?

Fast forward it was the night time. By the time I reached villa, it was already 2.30am. Everyone were already sleeping except my mum and Chee. And. it was great to have a little catch up session with this college buddy of mine. Shuet Yan who opted to stay a night at our villa.

Thanks buddy for bringing me around! Great to see you again=)

The next morning, we checked out at 12am before headed to Seremban for lunch.

We needed to wait for some moment as those facilitator need to check the state of our villa to ensure everything is in the good state..

Coffee house at the check out site

Some different private villa

5ive is the number

Out of all the facilities offered, we are most satisfied with the accommodation, the private villa. The wide span of the private villa was huge and could easily accommodate more than 10 people. However, the private villa is located rather secluded deep in the resorts and it took us at least 45 minutes of drive to Malacca town. This make this resort not a very feasible choice for those who plan to venture more in the town. Other than having a relaxing breakaway at the resort, I could not think of other selling point of the resort.

And our verdict? Won't be back here anytime soon unless they came up something really amazing or offer some free villas to us, which we might think twice first too. For sure, the integrated resorts did not lived up to it's billings. More complaints than compliments indeed.

A Famosa Resort Hotel Malaysia
Jalan Kemus, Simpang Empat
Alor Gajah, 78000
Melaka
Malaysia
Tel: 03 0 2781 8888 (Reservation), 03 - 2781 8833 (Contract Department)
Fax: 03- 2781 8822
Email: enquiries@afamosa.com