Popin’ Cookin’ are Japanese DIY candy that’s really fun to make! I’ll make a detailed review of each one soon. I got the cupcake set, bento set and sushi set. So far I’ve only done the sushi set and boy it was a lot of fun. Stay tuned for the review!

I first heard about ayam penyet when I was doing my internship at a production company. Everyone was talking about how good the food is, and how spicy the sambal (chilli) is. They had an Indonesian helper at the office so he probably introduced it. After all that buzz, I decided to try it for myself. Boy, little did I know from that day on, I’d be ayam penyet lover and addict. It’s all about the sambal which is soooo spicy, it’ll sure give you stomach burn for a whole day. Ayam penyet originated from Indonesia and has currently became a huge hit in Kuala Lumpur, with branches popping out here and there.. there’s Ayam Penyet AP, Ayam Penyet Ria etc. I hope they’ll expand the franchise to other states..especially Ipoh.

According to their website, ayam penyet is described as:

Ayam Penyet is a traditional Indonesian cuisine which originates from Surabaya. It is a popular chicken dish where the fresh chicken is specially marinated with various spices and herbs . The meat is then smashed with a wooden headed hammer and deep fried until golden light brown. One of the unique feature in preparing this funny name dish is the art of frying where it is crispy from outside and juicy inside.

I knew they were opening a new branch in KLCC when I saw the sign. when I was attending a very sucky and shitty 1Malaysia1Halal campaign or something at the national mosque few weeks later, I decided to stop by at KLCC and found out they’ve opened the new branch of Ayam penyet Ria at the food court.. boy was I happy. But sad news is, Yoshinoya (my favorite restaurant) has been replaced by almost similar Japanese stall.

During my first visit it was almost lunch hour so KLCC wasn’t packed with people yet. The girl there was very friendly and chatty with my mom. But during my 2nd visit, and 3rd visit, during peak hours, they weren’t quite as friendly and chatty as they were when they first opened. Plus different people too.

Ayam Penyet Set : RM8.80

A set of ayam penyet @ Ayam Penyet AP KLCC consist of rice, ayam penyet (smashed chicken), tempe, fried tofu, and little of greens (cabbage etc).. they ‘sprinkled’ some bread crumbs I assume on the chicken. Of course, the sambal. I love to have extra sambal for super extra spicyness. Be warned to those who can’t stand spicy food, avoid the sambal.. but then again, what’s the point? Their specialty is the sambal. That’s what made ayam penyet famous. The chicken, since it’s smashed, is very,very soft but yummy and crunchy for the skin.

For the KLCC stall, the set also comes with a bowl of soup which is an extra nice surprise because Ayam Penyet Ria or other ayam penyet place I’ve eaten at doesn’t give the soup. So yeah, that’s a nice surprise. If you want soft drinks, it’ll cost RM2.30 each.

Of course, there are a lot of other varieties and not just ayam penyet. You can have beef, fish or any Indonesian delicacies like gado-gado, etc. Trust me, if you love spicy food, you’ll love ayam penyet.

RESTORAN AYAM PENYET AP
Level 2 (Stall 10)
Signature Food Court
Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur
http://www.ayampenyet-ap.com

They also have outlets in Subang, Bangi, Sunway, Punchong and are opening more outlets.

Even though it’s like 2 weeks after Halloween already. But that is not going to stop me from blogging about my favorite holiday. Now Halloween in Malaysia is not really celebrated like Americans do. Sure we have some Halloween themed parties at clubs but there’s no trick or treating, no kids would come to your door, and you won’t have to spend a lot on candies, and no house would be decorated with spooky decor, except maybe a few of people. But to compare with a decade ago, people have started to know Halloween better now.

Halloween is my favorite holiday because I love anything spooky or horror related. Each Halloween eve and day I would spend my time with watching horror movies and some Halloween toons on TV (which is a whole day marathon of The Simpson Treehouse of Horror). But this year I decided to spend a little bit on some imported Halloween candies that I bought at Ikano Power Center.

They all ended up costing me around Rm20-RM30 or so. So what did I get? Hmm… Pixy Stix, Bubbaloo bubble gums, Atomic Fireball, Air Heads, Jolly Ranchers hard candies, Wonka Nerds, Gilliam stick candy, Fluffy Stuff cotton candy pops and some Halloween themed lollipops consisting of 5 in a pack of ‘Lots a Spooks’ – A pumpkin, 2 white ghosts and 2 Frankenstein heads …. and a skull lollipop.

Pixy Stix – This is nothing special to me though. It’s basically some tangy sugary powder in straw-like packets and what you do is you just open it, and put it all in your mouth.

Air Heads (Flavor – Green Apple) – Air Heads is normal to me, like a normal chewy candy with green apple flavor. I like the taste though.

Wonka Nerds (Flavor – Lemonade/Wild Cherry) – I haven’t opened up this one, but I’ve tasted Nerds before, and it’s an interesting candy. Small irregular shaped candies that has lots of different flavors. Bigger boxes of Nerds come in 2 different flavors.

Jolly Ranchers – I looooove Jolly Ranchers’ hard candies. When I bought it, it came in a pack of a few of different flavored Jolly Ranchers like watermelon, etc. Sorry I forgot what flavors there are, but I love them.

Bubbaloo Bubble Gums – The red packets is strawberry but I forgot the pink one.. but these are bubble gums with liquid in the center, so when you chew it’ll ‘burst out liquid’ which is quite nice actually.

Fluffy Stuff Lollipop (Flavor – Cotton Candy) – Just like it says, it taste like cotton candy. It’s actually nice, but way sweet.

Gilliam Stick Candy (Flavor – Root Beer) – I picked out root beer flavor but there are quite a few flavors available. It taste like… root beer, lol but I like it.

Lollipops – The skull one tasted like root beer and something sweet.. it’s very nice actually. Too bad it’s a Halloween candy, so when I went back today, it was gone. And the 5 in 1 Lots*a*Spooks lollipops taste very sweet. But it’s cute. It’s actually a gift pack, hence the nicely wrapped package with ribbon and a ‘card’ .  Cost about Rm 7-ish at Cold Storage.

Atomic Fireball – HELL IN MOUTH! That’s what I like to call it. It’s a cinnamon hard candy, a jawbreaker. And a word of warning, it’s EXTREMELY HOT. I repeat, EXTREMELY HOT. The moment it was in my mouth, it was kinda sweet and well, cinnamon flavored until about 30 seconds later then my tongue started burning.. then it became hotter and hotter until my tongue became numb. Now, I’ve never heard of Atomic Fireball before so I was expecting the hotness/spicyness would subside soon, and it’ll actually become sweet but nope, half an hour later my tongue was still burning like hell and I had to spit it out, wash my tongue and eat a Jolly rancher. I ended up with stomach discomfort for a while because of the hotnesss. The thing about this candy is that, you can prank people with it. Ask them to pop one in their mouth and watch their reactions ;) A little torture device disguised as a candy.

So that’s my review for some candies/lollipops that I got for Halloween. I’ll be reviewing some more candies soon.

Wendy’s at Giant, Kota Damansara used to be our hangout spot every Friday. Mostly because of the good promotions they had back then, like free Strawberry shake with every purchase, and 50% off on any Frosty every Friday. Plus there was also the good Pepper stacked burger, and free Frosty float with every combo meal purchase. Wendy’s is also my favorite fast food restaurant out of all mostly because of the size. The squared meat and the big drinks… compare to McDonald’s or KFC, their regular drink is McD’s or KFC’s large drink..

But since when has Wendy’s become STINGY??

We tried to buy a combo meal only to find out the 50% off on Frosty every Friday promotion is no longer available. So she ordered the new Wrap & Roll ala-carte. We received the receipt which says “FREE FROSTY FLOAT with your next combo meal purchase“. Now what is wrong with that sentence? Everything.

First I tried to use my friend’s receipt to buy my own combo meal, so I’d get the free Frosty float. They had this same offer the last time too. Guess what?? Turns out my friend would have to buy A COMBO MEAL for that receipt to be valid. WHAT THE F——? Now nowhere in that receipt stated that you need to buy a COMBO meal for that receipt to be valid, so that you’d get a free Frosty float for you next COMBO meal… if that’s the case, it would be stated like this — “With every combo meal purchase, FREE FROSTY FLOAT on your next combo meal purchase” or something like that. We were pissed and disappointed, and felt conned because this is a stupid marketing tactic. What happened to free shake on any purchase, combo or not??

Not only that, the wrap & roll is extremely SMALL. Okay, it taste great, but the chicken is as big as my middle finger, no joke. For this it cost RM5.50? We’re better off buying KFC’s toasted twister. Wendy’s, you disappoint me. I thought you were different from other popular fast food outlet.

Wendy's Wrap & Roll: RM 5.50

The first I tasted this, the chicken leg was so big and it had so much meat on it that it took me longer than usual to indulge myself into its greatness. However, this time, my 2nd time of tasting it, it was a huge disappointment. The chicken leg was so small that it had barely any meat on it. They were quite generous with the carrots, and the potatoes were soft this time, unlike the first time. I don’t like that kind of potatoes and was hoping I could change to fries but they won’t let us. I did ask for a bit extra sauce cuz the I love the sauce. My friend said it tasted milky-ish.

The meatballs is undoubtedly the best thing ever. Usually we’d request for mashed potatoes but we were told that they don’t have it anymore except on Sundays :( I prefer the presentation of it on a normal big plate (with Sweden flag they used to put couple of years ago) rather than the kiddy plastic plate for the 5 pieces even though the plate would be too big for just 5 pieces. The presentation is not that appealing anymore. Good thing the gravy tastes really nice.

One of the good thing about IKEA is that you can have unlimited refill for your drink. We always have a mixture of all soda drink, which was my idea at first (and everyone thought I was crazy!) to create some sort of tangy, sweet and sour-ish kinda of taste if you mix the drink right!

If it wasn’t for the disappointing chicken, it would’ve been a great meal. If you’re there, try their Daim cake or their other sweet dessert, and also their cinnamon bun.. they’re great to me. I’ve tasted their sandwich before but I thought it tasted bland. They also have like a chef special meal daily which sometime could be good and tasty. If you want something very light and on the go, check out IKEA’s cafe … they have really good curry puff for RM1, drink with unlimited refill, and hotdog with self service topping… so you can put as much sauce, mustard, onions and relish as you want!

IKEA Malaysia
No.2, Jalan PJU 7/2, Mutiara Damansara,
47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan,
Malaysia
www.ikea.com.my

Mon – Thurs 9.00am – 9.30pm
Fri, Sat, Sun, eve of Public Holiday 9.00am – 10.30pm
(Breakfast 9.00am – 11.00am)

(image taken from SEVENTH ANGEL [NET])