Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 10

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Consider 27/6/2013 a rest day or shopping day!


We were at Thornaby. We took our time waking up and having breakfast before heading for a walk at the nearby shopping area. Bought quite a number of clothes there. Very happy with the purchase. Got myself 2 blouses, 2 skirts, and a dresses which total up to less than £60 from Debenhams and H&M.



We thought it would be a short walk but ended up it took us quite awhile there due to our shopping spree so we had our lunch at Marks & Spencer food court. We had wrap, carrot cake, some buns, and brunch set(chips, baked beans, sausages, ham, and egg). Don’t remember the total.



Around 4pm+, we drove to Newcastle for another shopping spree. Goodness! Never in my life shop like that, I just grabbed whatever fancied me in Primark and brought them all into the fitting room. The price was so cheap! Quality was great! What’s more, my size everywhere! Ended up only bought a dress, a blouse, and a pair of shoes ;p All these cost me less than £20, what a steal!?! Would want to buy more but spent quite a bit in the morning, if not because of that I would buy even more here. The shopping bags in the photo are the end result of our shopping spree for the day.


After shopping, we went to Palace Garden (45-51 Stowell St, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE1 4YB, United Kingdom) for dinner. It’s located at Newcastle Chinatown. They serve an array of Szechuan, Malaysian, Cantonese and Pekinese cuisine.


Left: The interior is rather grand, there’s even a pond in there. I wasn’t there when they made the order, was at the Chinatown’s arc, so I don’t really know what they ordered and even the price.
Right: Fried beef kueh tiaw.


Left: Kangkung belacan.
Right: A tofu dish served with rice.


Left: Salted fish bean curd soup. Very salty indeed, they didn’t skimp on the salted fish.

Overall, the food was good, portion and price were reasonable. Full! Satisfied!

That’s the end of our day. Gonna be another road trip the next day.

Driving All the Way - England, Food Porn, Going Places

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 9

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26/6/2013, off to Nottingham we went…




We visited University of Nottingham and had some ice cream there from Mr. Whippy ice cream van. The soft serve ice cream was not bad, smooth and milky. Don’t remember how much was it.


The signature tower of University of Nottingham.


Next, we went to see the statue of Robin Hood.


Then we went to have lunch at China House (154 Alfreton Road, Radford, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG7 3NS).


Left: Rice for 6 people with unlimited refill. No idea how much for per person.

Right: We were given with Chinese menu instead of English so I’ll try to translate the dish’s name into English *LOL* Stir Fry Green Bean with Dried Chili (£8.80).


Left: Steamed Pork Belly with Mustard Greens (£12).

Right: Gosh! I don’t remember what’s this. There’s century egg, white cabbage, and luncheon meat.


Left: Salted egg with tofu (£8.80). My favourite of all!

Overall the food was above average, portion was great and prices were reasonable, we ordered a bit too much for 6 people. Not a bad place to go.


Done with Nottingham, we drove to York.


Basically we walked around York.


Left:Since it’s already evening, shops are closing. However, the Haunted Walk of York would start soon. Interesting… Didn’t join, no time for it and not with the right travel partners.

Right: Pork! Lots of them! Didn’t try any because we had too much leftover from Cambridge to clear.



Bettys Café Tea Rooms (6-8 St Helens Square York YO1 8QP, United Kingdom) in York. So many people! Had to queue and we didn’t have the luxury of time for it as we need to go on another 1 1/2 hours drive to go to our final stop of the day, my sis’ place, before the sun went down.


Goodbye York! That’s the end of the trip for the day.

Driving All the Way - England, Food Porn, Going Places

Cloud-99 Ice Cream Cafe

Posted on By sweet surrender 2 Comments on Cloud-99 Ice Cream Cafe

Let’s take a break from my Europe trip. We’ll talk about food today.

Been hearing about Cloud-99 liquid nitrogen ice cream for quite awhile and finally got to go there few weeks back.

It’s located at Precinct 88 at Jalan Song.

Went there on a Sunday afternoon, so many people!

I went for popcorn flavour with cone (the smallest size) and it cost RM7.90 (good thing there’s 10% discount), they have discount on selected flavours from time to time, do check their FB page (https://www.facebook.com/iluvcloud99) for the offer of the day. While my friend ordered passion fruit with a topping (first topping is free, only applicable to regular-RM9.90 and large-RM16.90), can’t seem to figure out the topping she ordered.

The ice cream melted instantly! When they sent it over to me, it’s already dripping from the bottom of the corn. As for my friend’s, she said it’s all liquid at the bottom of her cup. I had difficulty finishing it fast, I’m very slow when it comes to cold stuff. Guess what? It dripped all over our table -.-”

Taste wise, it was not bad. I didn’t choose the base or sugar level. However, the sweetness wasn’t too sweet, it’s just right. I assume my ice cream base is the regular ice cream. You can choose to have the base as frozen yoghurt, soy milk, or low fat ice cream. As for the sugar level, there’s normal, low, and no sugar.

Very interesting concept, you get your ice cream made only when you order. Not your usual ice cream. Just the price is a bit steep but still not so bad, can’t really indulge in it in a regular basis but oh well… What to expect? I do like the ice cream.

I tried chocolate chip cookies and teh-c-peng flavours are Kuching Festival, the small one was only RM5! Way cheaper than getting it at the shop. Those I had at the festival didn’t melt as fast, I guess it’s the amount of liquid nitrogen used.

Overall, I will go back but only once in a blue moon. So many flavours to try out!

Food Porn

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 8

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25/6/2013, Goodbye Paris! We went to the train station to take Eurostar to go back to London. Finally saw the train went into Euro Tunnel and then it was just pitch black out there *LOL* Nothing interesting.



We arrived London St. Pancras International and waited at the station for our rented car. While waiting, I took a peek at the desserts found at the station from Pattsserie Valerie.


Finally got our car after about 45 minutes delay. We drove straight to Cambridge. Many planes flying in and out of London. You’ll see one every few minutes, that’s how busy Heathrow is. Can even see them clearly. The photo was just taken with normal digital camera with 3x zoom from a moving car. You can imagine how low it flew.


Luck was with us. We initially booked the Travelodge near the highway but we got a call while on the way telling us that they had relocated us to another Travelodge in Cambridge at Newmarket Road. New one! Also, to compensate us, they threw in breakfast for us! Excited!


It was so new that we could still smell the smell of the paint. People were still putting finishing touch on the building. What’s more! It’s in the middle of Cambridge. Great location!


Left: Everything was new and clean. This is the best stay we had on our road trip.

Right: After checking in, we headed out again. To discover Cambridge.

I’ll just let the photo show you the views that I saw when I was there. As it was already evening, most places were closed. First came to mind was University of Cambridge. This is basically the highlight of this place. It’s really a place with many students and academicians. Visited the university. The university buildings are everywhere! Views were amazing too. At the same time, felt a bit haunted because of the architecture.










We basically discover Cambridge on foot. Our dinner was KFC from Cambridge. Then we called it a night.

We had to drive to Nottingham, York, and Thornaby the next day.

Driving All the Way - England, Food Porn, Going Places

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 7

Posted on By sweet surrender 2 Comments on Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 7

So many photos from two cameras, there’s three cameras all together but do not have photos from the third camera.

Anyway, continue with the post of 24/6/2013.


After Musée du Louvre, we took the metro to another destination. This is one interesting station. Alphabets on tiles, we had fun trying to find words from the tiles while waiting.


Left: The typical cafe you can find in Paris. Too bad, there’s no way for me to enjoy it. We’re always on the go and was not with the right travel companions for this thing.

Right: Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre was our next destination. This is the location where the metro station was different. So many staircases and it took us quite awhile to get out of it. Usually it’s just one flight of stairs but this one went spiraling, don’t have the photo with me. Many tourists including us weren’t prepared for it. It was rather funny. Anyway, This area was also where we went souvenirs shopping spree before going to this building.



Finally we’re up there! Beware of this place while you are on the way going up/down. There’s two options, you can either walk up or take the elevator-like thing up where you need to use a new metro ticket for it. We went up with the elevator and walked down.

Many black youngsters will try to ask you to show your hand to them or just blatantly grab your hand then will tie a string on your wrist, after that demand you to pay for it, there is no way you can reject once they managed to tie the string on you. No joke! They are aggressive and at the same time you might get pickpocket. They are bunch of bastards! We just kept our hand inside our pockets and didn’t respond to them to avoid giving them the chance but my bro was caught by surprise because he didn’t know, wasn’t in time to warn him. Luckily he managed to pull his hand away. They are very forceful. Damn! They just ruined the place to the max! Be sure to stay alert at all time!

Also, one thing to bear in mind, NO PHOTOGRAPHY in the church! You’ll get scolded. Many tourists got scolded very loudly! Don’t even try to sneak a shoot with your phone, not allowed at all!

View of great but the bad people there sure ruin the whole experience.


Left: Another couple coming here for pre-wedding photo shoot. My goodness! The driver was good! He managed to squeezed the Audi(the black car on the right) into a very cramp space.

Right: A stunt that a guy did on the pillar. Beware! This is meant to distract you so that thieves can steal your things. We didn’t know that time. Luckily didn’t become one of the victims. I only knew about this when I am composing this post as I need some information online to complete this post.


After this place, we walked around the area again to discover more shops.


All chocolates, sweets, cookies and more! Bought more macarons here. Don’t remember how much and the shop’s name but it’s cheaper than buying those already packed ones (with boxes or nice packaging) in the shop.


Another shops selling cookies and sweets. Didn’t buy anything though. After that, we headed back to our apartment.


Left: McD’s macarons and the one we bought just now. See the sizes? McD’s has standard size but the one we bought from the shop wasn’t standard, big and small, and it failed big time! I tried rose, mint, chocolate, peanut, butterscotch, and orange. Couldn’t figure out some of the other flavours. It’s macarons days for us! *LOL* Even had it for breakfast the next day.

Right: Time to discover the area were we’re staying.


Lots of eateries there! Food galore!


We decided to have our dinner here at L’Atlantide (4 rue du pot de fer 75005 Paris). The 3-course meal cost EUR12. Original price was EUR14 but they offered us EUR12. Too much competitions. Were served with complimentary bread.


Left: Starter: Escargot, first time having it. Not bad.
Right: Starter: Onion soup, hmmm… Very salty -.-”


Left: Starter: Fish soup, there’s cheese and sour cream there. It tasted a bit odd. The texture was like Penang assam laksa but without the assam. We pretended the cheese was the laksa *LOL* It tasted slightly better after adding in the cheese and the cream.

Right: Main: Bourguignon beef (beef Burgundy) with potatoes, presentation wise was -.-” taste wise? I don’t remember, let’s just say that it’s edible but not great.


Left: Main: Turkey with mushroom sauce, so-so only.

Right: Main: Rump steak cheese sauce, this wasn’t too bad but that I didn’t expect the sauce was all over the meat.


Left: Main: Bourguignon beef (beef Burgundy) with chips which they forgot and we had to remind them about it.

Right: Dessert: Chocolate mousse, not bad, not too sweet, just nice but… We’re stuffed already.


Left: Cheese and its coulis, it tasted like yogurt and raspberry sauce. Quite sour but it’s OK for me to even out the saltiness and oiliness of the starters and mains. We thought we were scammed but didn’t bother to ask them hehehe… Now that I checked, it’s actually French-style Fresh Cheese (The French answer to yogurt).

Right: Day pie, French Apple Pie for the day. I assume they serve different type of pie everyday. I like this the most but was too stuffed to properly enjoy it. Not too sweet with hint of sourness and very big piece. Was expecting something crusted but it’s not.

We ordered 4 sets but how come only 3 types of food? This was due to the choice for the fourth set that we made weren’t available yet the other options were just usual type food we could get anywhere.

Overall, the food was average, price was acceptable, and service was good. Coming back? No, I think there’s better place out there but then again I don’t think I will be coming to Paris in any near future and this is likely my first and last.

This marks the end of our trip in Paris. Gonna head back to London the next morning.

Food Porn, Going Places, People Everywhere - Paris