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I was told to meet at the Garden in 1U for a friend’s birthday dinner one evening and I had no idea where it is… this shows how little time I spent in shopping centers

Anyhow, I picked up Miharu and we soon arrived at this “outdoor cafe” within the 1U shopping mall.  White base with lots of greens is the theme of the place and the whole place looks like a nice big elegant and classy English garden.

My first thought was, hmmm… how can a cafe like this have good food, probably cake and coffee… so we got greeted by extra friendly and helpful staff and were shown the menu. The selection is not as comprehensive as a restaurant with the fact that this is a cafe but quite good for it’s size.

The first thing that caught our eyes were this appetizer which are six shots of vodka with fresh oyster and lychee in it! I could not imagine how it would taste it… but surprisingly it tasted ok and not as bad as I thought. The vodka is light and oyster goes good with the lychee covering its taste. However, this is something I would not want a second helping, don’t mind trying the first one .

We ordered jugs of fruit juice to share, the initial serving was quite watery… so we complained to the friendly staff and after checking with the kitchen, they were kind enough to change for us and the second time, it was much better.

Unexpectedly, the food here is good, first to arrived is the lamb shank serve with some sides of potato and nice tomato gravvy. Meat are soft, tender and very nice. The roast chicken covered with tasty gravvy and greens are very good as well.

We also got other stuff like pineapple fried rice, olio, spagetthi seafood and fish & chips too. Overall I must say food here is pretty good.

Another thing that impressed me is that, we bought a slice of cake for our friend and the kitchen was nice enough to help us decor the cake with topping and birthday greetings, I thought that is really creative and clever of them, bravo .

We had a very satisfying time here, good food, great service, worth trying. Cost about RM30 plus for 7 of us and the birthday kawan eats free .

Garden Lifestyle Cafe & Store
1 Utama Shopping Complex (New Wing)
GPS: N3 09.047 E101 36.920

I wanted some Chinese for lunch when I was in Batam, opposite the Tua Pek Kong temple on the road heading to Lucky Plaza is where Kopitiam 68 is located. They don’t sell pork here at this shop but its Chinese food and some Indonesian food.

I ordered chicken rice which I must say is not too bad… fried rice was ok too. The chicken rice is a bit different here, the standard serving is both bbq plus white chicken with some braised eggs . The rice is quite tasty meaning the stock is ok, Miharusee me eat so syiok halfway gasak  my chicken rice hehe… lucky the seafood fried rice is ok too, quite yummy and the rice don’t stick together.

I also ordered some gado-gado and lontong to share, a bit spicy for the lontong but nice. I tried some char koay teow from siok li’s order and its quite good too.

Price is ok la… like KL rate but I was drinking Bintang beer for lunch hehe… so quite ok la plus food is ok.

Kopitiam 68 @ Batam
GPS: N1 08.512 E104 00.683 (agak-agak la… forgot to capture waypoint, this is estimates )

We are meeting up at Ed’s place in Kajang early in the morning on our trip to Batam, but thought we try out a unique breakfast in Kajang first, which are lat thong which means spicy soup in Chinese. Spicy soup for breakfast, now this is something new!

The shop is located at the alley to Lorong Mendaling from Jalan Mendaling in Kajang Town next to Langat river. They serve rice and porridge plus soup. The lady boss recommended us to try their lat thong or spicy soup for sure, which are gingery peppery hot spicy soup with pork and chicken in them. It hot alright but not the hottest stuff here and its still manageable, nice to go with rice.

Jason specifically wanted the Fai Tiew Kai which is a claypot chicken with fai tiew wine. Taste ok but wine taste is not strong enough.

We also ordered the chee keok sin which are braised vinegar pork legs which is quite normal la. One thing Ed’s friend told him as a must have is their “foh pau yok” meaning fire exploding pork in direct translation, hehe… and no joke, its living up to its name as its really spicy and tongue burning pork. It taste nice when you just put it in the mouth but after taking it, that’s when your mouth with explode!

Elaine our chili queen obviously love this place la… she keep commenting of the high quality = super spicy chili they provide here. The entire meal for 9 persons cost about RM90. Its a new experience for breakfast and good for spicy food lovers! Thanks Ed for taking the trouble to ask around and showing us here!

Hong Kong Lat Thong
GPS: N2 59.530 E101 47.182
If you like a map to this place, check out this blog