Roast Factor Glee | Bukit Utama

Recently, my brother and I started hunting on cafe that served hand brewed coffee.We love to try out different types of hand brewed coffee, but unfortunately there isn't a lot of cafes in KL/PJ that serve hand brewed coffee compared to espresso coffee. 

Roast Factor Glee is a cafe that serve hand brew and cold brew coffee which is what we are looking for. They also specialise in roasting their own coffee beans in-house. It is a small cafe located in The Club at Bukit Utama, nice quiet little place to do nothing but enjoy coffee during the weekends.

It isn't very eye catching at first glance from the outlook.

The available coffee of the day were written on the wall with the description of the aroma and taste. You can always ask for recommendations from the barista if you cannot make a choice. I love to request the barista to recommend based on my preference on that day.

Cold brew refrigerator

Bread and cakes counter. One of the recommended buns is the brioche with strawberry jam and danish butter.

Hand Pour: Pour Over- RM 20

Guatemala Los Cerritos was our choice of coffee for hand brewed. It is said to have the mild taste of milk chocolate, pleasant rounded body and melonish acidity. The body of the coffee wasn't strong but overall it was still fine and light in taste.

Cold Brew: Black no Regret- RM 18

We chose the Rwanda Inzovu coffee bean as our choice for cold brew. There are three types of bean to choose from for cold brew. If you like a cold light coffee, this will be your cup of coffee.

Mom's pancakes-RM 15.00

The fluffy pancakes are topped with bacon bits and two smoked streaky bacon, served with their strawberry tomato artisan jam and is a hearty breakfast you should get to start a day. However it is only available on Weekends which gave us one more reason to come over on Sunday morning. I love their unsweetened strawberry tomato jam, giving a light taste to the honey coated pancakes.

Love their coffee? You can purchase their in-house roasted bean to make your own coffee at home now.

If you are looking for dessert to bring home. You can get their premium ice-cream with 6 flavours available.

Roast Factor Glee

G06 Village Shops@The Club, 9 Bukit Utama, No. 9 Persiaran Bukit Utama, Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Phone:03-7732 2893

https://www.facebook.com/roastfactor

Event: Biryani Buffet and Fantastic 4 Movie with FoodPanda

Thank you FoodPanda for the recent invitation to their event. It was a good and fun night meeting up with some blogger friends.We were treated with a scrumptious dinner at Bangsar’s famed Fierce Curry House and a screening of Fantastic 4 at GSC, Midvalley.

I was invited to try out the Biryani at one of the most popular Indian restaurants in Bangsar, namely Fierce Curry House. Fierce is well-known for its high-quality Hyderabadi style biryanis. No stranger to accolade, Fierce has been serially recognised by Timeout KL, having been nominated and named as best curry house consecutively from 2012 to 2014, whilst up for the same title again in 2015. 

Just for your information, there are two outlets in KL with slightly different in their name, but both owned by Mr Herukh Jethwani. The one in Bangsar is named as Fierce Curry House and the other one in Publika is named as Fiercer Curry. Bangsar outlet served South Indian Food while Publika outlet served the North Indian Food. 

The buffet spread ready to be served

Foodpanda is a mobile food delivery marketplace operating in 40 countries and territories around the world. The service allows users to select from local restaurants and place orders via the mobile application as well as the website. foodpanda has partnered with more than 58,000 restaurants worldwide.

The Lobster Biryani, one of the recommended Biryani by Mr Herukh Jethwani, where you will need to call 1 day in advance to make reservation. Looks delicious!

Speech by Sidney Ng

Speech by the Fierce Curry House's Owner- Mr Herukh Jethwani

It is time for Makan! Crazy us just can't put down our cameras when we see food. Capture the best moment of everyone holding their camera even our stomach is calling.

Food! Biryani rice with Chicken masala and curry. Not to miss the extra Papedam too!

Door gift from FoodPanda and two movie tickets of Fantastic 4. Thank you!

Hand Brewed Coffee Course at Beam

As some may know I took up a hand brewed coffee course one month ago, and today I'm going to review on the course. If you are interested, you may email me to get the instructor's contact directly or call the cafe for more information.

Hand brewed coffee class, also called as hand drip coffee class is available in Beam cafe (which I have reviewed previously here). I took the class together with my brother as they need a minimum of 2 persons to start the class. So, if you are interested, get a friend to join and you will have more fun in the class. It took us around 3 weeks to complete the whole course which is 2 hours per week.

Here are the tools you need to make Hand Brewed Coffee. They are the basic tools you will need. We are using the Hario brand which Beam cafe is one of the distributors in Malaysia.

Different types of kettles were introduced by our instructor. It depends your preferences, but different kettles really does make a lot of difference in term of making hand brewed coffee.

I really love their setting and lighting in the cafe, it gave us a good environment to learn and have fun.

Here are the types of coffee beans that are used to make hand brewed coffee. Different coffee beans come with different smell and taste.

Myself, making my first cup of hand brewed coffee.

My brother, learning to pour the prefect water flow and level.

My friendly instructor making his pose while demonstrating his techniques to us. 

BEAM
25, Jalan SD5/3B, Bandar Sri Damansara,
52200 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-6261 8255
Business Hour: (Close on Tues)
Mon-Thurs 11:00 am - 8:00 pm,
Fri 11:00 am - 10:30 pm
Sat - Sun 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
https://www.facebook.com/beamspecialty

Coffee Place for Vegan | RGB & The Bean Hive, KL

Recently. I like to go cafe hopping with my brother, trying different types of coffee around the cafes in KL. RGB & The Bean Hive, I would say it is a hidden gem in the city of KL. It is located in a Bungalow house, at a residential area; it's like any ordinary bungalow house but you wouldn't imagine there is a cafe behind the door.

There is a big compound to park your car, free parking is what I like when come to food hunting. A small sign of RGB hangs on the entrance's pillar. Just in case you can't find it, just use Waze and it will directly bring you to the front of the house (I have tried it! Very accurate!)

Once you open the door, you will see a counter just in front of you. Menu is displayed at the counter. You have to order at the counter and pay before proceeding to find a seat. What I find special about this place is that the items offered in the menu are mostly vegetarian, even for the cakes too! I guess this is the best place where my vegan friends can look out for when it comes to cafe hunting.

The entrance is with a simple display of art painting

Non-air conditioning area with colourful cushions around

Iced Mocha- RM 14

I quite like this iced mocha, rich but not too sweet, leaving a sense of bitterness at the end of the sip. It is nice to drink this on a hot sunny day especially when we chose to sit at the non-air conditioning area.

Flat White-RM 11

A nice cup of flat white to go with a slice of cake. Perfect for weekend tea time.

Aeropress Coffee- RM 12

I am expecting much more than that. They used Indonesian bean for the coffee. It is a bit mild in taste.

Orange Cake- RM 12

I personally like the juicy look of the orange cake and ordered it, however it came out to be a little  bit too dry and hard, it would be better if they can add more orange juice to zest it up.

Vegan Mocha Almond Fudge- RM 13

This cake is not only perfectly made for a vegan but also for anyone who is not vegan. I personally think it tastes really good for a vegan cake. Try it out!

Enjoying my weekend tea time with my brother. Love ya!

RGB and The Bean Hive

35 Jalan Damai, Off Jalan Ampang

KL City Centre, 55000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel. No.: 03-21811329

Business Hours: Mon–Fri, 10.30am–6.30pm; Sat–Sun & public holidays, 10am-6pm

www.facebook.com/RatherGoodBeans?fref=ts

Four-Faced Buddha of Erawan Shrine | Bangkok

Erawan Shrine, one of the most popular tourist attraction in Bangkok. Anytime throughout the day and night, the place is always crowded with locals and tourists. This is also the Shrine that I won't miss every time I touch down to the land of Bangkok. A lot of people believe that praying at the Shrine will bring them good luck, good fortune and good health. 

So, today I'm going to introduce you to the four-faced Buddha of Erawan Shrine that is located outside Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel. 

How to get there: You can take the BTS to Chit Lom Station and follow the sign " Erawan Bangkok" or "Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok" on the pedestrian bridge. If you are stay at Pratunam like me, I walked using the pedestrian bridge which took me around 30 mins, it depends on which part of Pratunam you stay at.

Erawan Shrine was built on 9th Nov 1956 by Erawan Hotel. It was said that Rear Admiral Luang Suwichanphaet, who specialized in astrology determined that the date which was chosen to lay the foundation stone was not auspicious. It must be corrected by building a shrine of Thao Maha Brahma and a spirit house around the hotel to eliminate all the bad luck. Therefore, the Shrine was built according to his advice and since then a worship ceremony is carried out on 9th Nov every year.

Top view of Erawan Shrine

I normally buy the flowers and joss sticks from inside the shrine. There is a counter at the right hand side at the end of the shrine. I find it to be cheaper than the stalls outside. There are a few packages offered so you can choose from 50 baht to 2000 baht. The person in charge of the counter can speak fluent Mandarin and some English. 

Simple flower and joystick set- 50 baht

You may also see a lot of elephants that were displayed at the side of Shrine. Those who can afford it will donate wooden or golden elephants statues to the Shrine based on their wishes. Other than elephants, you may also hire the dance troupe that is provided by the Shrine to offer to the Buddha.

Golden Elephant

 How to pray: Normally we pray clockwise starting from the front, which is the side that's facing to the entrance. Every face of the Buddha represents different elements like

Front view: Business and Wealth
Left hand side: Wisdom
Back view: Health
Right hand side: Relationship and interpersonal

There was once a Thai tour guide who told me that the best time to pray four faced Buddha is during evening around 6pm-7pm, that is the auspicious time that can lead to higher chances for wishes to be granted. I have not tried that before as I always visit the Shrine based on my available free time.

The opening time for the Shrine is from 6am to 11pm. You may visit anytime during the day or night, I find that it is less crowded during the night and it is more cooling compared to afternoon.

There are a row of stalls selling flowers, joss sticks, elephants statues and others on the street towards the Shrine. You may buy from these stalls before going into the Shrine.

Leave me comment or story  about Erawan Shrine that you would like to share. :)