The Loaf @ Telaga Harbour Park, Langkawi

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 04/15/2010*

After the Oriental Village, we headed towards Pantai Kok to check out Telaga Harbour Park. Langkawi is well known as a major sailing and yachting destination, so it is no suprise that many marinas can be found all over the island. However, Telaga Harbour is one of the more popular ones and is said to be the most beautiful. From the moment we got there, I can see the reason why. The whole marina is landscaped and designed to resemble a Mediterranean-style harbour town of the French Riviera, with beautiful luxury yachts docked at the harbour. For a split second, I forgot that I was actually in Malaysia! Of course, the amazing view of the Andaman Sea as well as the Mt Matchingcang range reminded me that yes, we are still in Langkawi :D

Perdana Quay is the place to go if you are looking to wine and dine in Telaga Harbour Park. There are many restaurants (mostly high end ones) for you to choose from. Since we were there in the afternoon, there wasn't much activity going on. I can just imagine how it will be like when the sun goes down. With awesome views of the Andaman Sea, you can choose to dine al fresco or inside. I can't remember exactly all the restaurants that is there but I know that there is a Russian (Restaurant USSR), Seafood (Pulau Pulau Seafood) and Italian (Mare Blue) restaurant. Of course, the famous Loaf Bakery & Bistro is also located at Perdana Quay.

I have heard so much about The Loaf that we just had to go check it out. Opened in 2006, this is the original branch of The Loaf (there is now a branch in Pavillion, KL too). Owned by Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir, The Loaf is well known for it's bread and pastries that are baked using traditional Japanese techniques.

Check out the almost full basket of pastries that we picked out (RM4 - RM7 a piece)! I must say that they don't come cheap but they sure taste awesome :P Apart from it being a bakery, The Loaf is also a dine in cafe with a full ala carte menu. If you are ever around the area during breakfast, it is said that you have to try Tun Dr Mahathir's favorite breakfast set (RM22). It consist of a bowl of fragrant mutton curry, two soft boiled eggs and chunky toasted bread. Sounds good to me!

Another 'must have' when you are at The Loaf are their Mini Uhu! Uh!s. Mini what??? What's that? :P Well, let's just say they are little cups of heaven! They are tiny cup cake size cheese cakes, available in many different flavors. I believe there are 20 flavors in total, some with wacky names like Coco Loco and Glitzy Strawberries. There are also some 'Malaysianized' flavors like Splendid Kaya, Refreshing Longan, Enticing Rouge (air bandung) and of course, Durian Obsession. These tiny cheese cakes don't come cheap though. A single cup cost RM3.20, 1/2 a dozen is RM16.50 and a dozen will set you back RM31.90! I guess it's worth it if you are a big cheese cake fan :D I'm glad we stopped by The Loaf to pick up some snacks. The pastries were yummy and even though it's a little bit on the expensive side, I think it's well worth it. Maybe we should have brunch there the next time we are in Langkawi!

The Loaf Bakery & Bistro
Lot No C9 Perdana Quay,
Telaga Harbour Park,
Pantai Kok, 07000 Langkawi,
Kedah, Malaysia
Tel: (604) 959 4866
Fax: (604) 959 4803

Food Square @ Incheon Airport, Korea

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 03/31/2010*

After the one hour ride back to the airport, we walked around the duty free shops for a bit (yes, we did pick up a few magnets and stuff :P). Incheon Airport is pretty cool actually. There is free WiFi and also free Internet lounges available for everybody. Also, if you are interested in culture, arts and crafts, they have a few Korean Visitors Centers location at various parts of the airport. You can visit those centers and there, you can learn more about the Korean culture. There are people there to tell you all about Korea, let you try out some Korean traditional costumes, learn how to play some traditional instruments as well as help you make your very own souvenir, for free! Yup, everything is free at those centers.

We did a quick walk around there but didn't really have the patience to sit there for an hour or two, just to work on some arts and crafts :P Also, we figured we should eat an early dinner, because we will only arrive in KL at around 11pm and who knows what time they will serve dinner on the plane. So, we headed to Food Square.

Food Square is like a food court, with different stalls selling different types of food. However, unlike most food courts where you order the food at the individual stalls, you just have to walk up to the order desk and order your food from there. Then, they will give you a device that will beep once your food is ready. You can then go to the individual stalls to collect your food. Very good idea! :D

I ordered the Seafood Noodle with Black Bean Sauce (KRW 7000, approx US$6) and some Mango Orange juice (KRW 2500, approx US$2.20). My noodles came with a side of kimchi and one other thing. I am not so sure what is that one other thing :P The noodles was alright, not the best, but alright. There were quite a lot of shrimp and squid under the black sauce, so that pretty much made up for the not so great noodles. The kimchi wasn't as good as the one at the bulgogi restaurant but still, it's nicer than the ones that I have tried before.

Kevin ordered the Homestyle Seafood Noodle Soup (KRW 8000, approx US$7). His noodle came with three sides, some kimchi, spinach and something else. Since he didn't like any of the sides, I ate his spinach and kimchi too! :D His noodles was pretty good, actually. The broth was really sweet, must be due to the crabs and seafood in the stock. There were quite a generous helping of seafood (crabs, shrimp, squid, fish..etc) in his soup too. I would say that it was way better than my noodles. After our meal, we had about half an hour or so before boarding. Perfect timing! With a full tummy, we were all ready for our final leg of journey back home!

Seoul City Transit Tour (Traditional Korean Lunch)

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 03/31/2010*

We were actually pretty happy that we gave Cheonggye Plaza a miss. I wasn't really in the mood to walk around in the rain to look at some man made stream :P Also, it was already way past lunch time (or so it felt like) and we were hungry! Our tour guide explained to us on the bus that we will be going to a popular traditional Korean restaurant, in the outskirts of Seoul city.

I really have no idea where this restaurant is located or the name of this restaurant (everything is in Korean!). I might ask Ashley to read the signs and try to figure out the name of the place. Oh yes, Lil Miss Korean Boy Band fan now reads Hangul too! Man, this K-Pop craze is getting out of control. Anyways, it looked like a pretty popular restaurant, with tons of tours buses parked outside. Looks like this is where all the tourist go to for the 'traditional Korean lunch' part of the tour..haha! :P

If I am not mistaken, the restaurant consist of three levels (maybe four?). The ground floor is for walk in customers, the second floor is for tour guides as well as their bus drivers and the third floor has small private rooms for various tour groups. I am not too sure, but looks like there is also karaoke somewhere in that restaurant! LOL!

Ahhh, this is our tour group's private room. We had to take off our shoes and place them in the little nooks beneath the floor before sitting down in our individual booths/tables. We shared a table with a guy from New Zealand and his Israeli girlfriend. Our tour guide told us that water and Korean tea is on the house but we needed to pay for any other drinks that we ordered. OK, got that! Now bring out the food please...

So, what did we eat? Of course, they brought out a few different kinds of banchan (side dishes). Now, let me state that I am not really a fan of kimchi. I would usually just eat the spinach and beansprouts but since I was in Korea, I figured I would try a piece (just to see if it taste any different). Guess what? It was different!! Man, I guess I have been eating bad kimchi all this while. That's why I didn't like the taste. This was actually good! Since the other three 'angmohs' didn't like the taste of kimchi, I had the whole dish to myself. Yay for me!

For our mains, we had a choice between Bulgogi (of course) or Bibimbap. Bulgogi is thin slices of marinated beef grilled with mushrooms, onions, spring onions and garlic. It is usually served alongside some lettuce and rice. Bibimbap on the other hand is a bowl of white rice with vegetables that are seasoned and sauteed. It is then usually topped with chili pepper paste and a raw egg. Almost everybody (except two people, I think) went with Bulgogi. I would say that it was a good choice. The servers allowed it to cook for a bit, then they would come and mix it all up and sort of like 'stir fry' it in front of you. The meat was so tender and the sauce was really sweet and nice. Super yummy!

Look at the size of the pan. That was a three person portion. Even after sharing, we still couldn't finish all the food. Let me say it once again. It was really really yummy! One of the best bulgogi I have ever eaten before. After lunch, we all piled into the little bus again and headed back to the airport. It was a fun ride back, with our tour guide teaching us Korean phrases, giving us Korean candy to munch on and some Korean trivia. We even received a bottle of hand lotion each, compliments of the Korean Tourism Board! After arriving at the airport, we still had quite a number of hours to kill before our flight back to Malaysia. Stay tuned to see what we did!

KFC @ Incheon International Airport

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 03/17/2010*

Remember me blogging about our 12 hour layover in Korea and how we had to wait for almost 2 and a half hours before the transit tour desk was open for the day? Well, to kill time, we went to KFC for breakfast. It was actually a toss up between KFC and McDonalds but KFC won because McDs was serving their regular breakfast menu and we wanted to try something different (something that is not on the US or Malaysian KFC/McDs menu).

Ordering our food wasn't an easy task. About 95% of the menu was in Korean, with tiny English words here and there. It took us quite a while to figure out what we wanted and proceeded to order by pointing at the pictures on the menu (you would think that the menu would be in English and that the workers would have a better understanding of English, since this outlet was in an international airport after all).

Kevin ordered the Tower Burger & Chicken set. The set consist of one Tower Burger, one piece of chicken and a drink. The Tower Burger was pretty big and looked really yummy. Spicy white meat chicken fillet (something like the Zinger fillet), hash browns, lettuce, some sort of sauce and melted cheese in a sesame seed bun. I didn't try it but Kevin says it's really good.

For his chicken, he had a choice between original, spicy or garlic (some new promotion that they were having at that moment). Of course we tried the garlic. I took a bite of his chicken and mmmm mmm mmmm. Realllly good! They should consider putting that on their regular menu! Crispy on the outside and juicy in the inside. Really well marinated too...awesome! The fries in the photo is part of my set. Nothing to shout about I guess, just regular fries :D

I ordered the Shrimp Burger set. It came with one shrimp burger, a single serving of fries and a drink. The Shrimp Burger was really good. One crunchy shrimp patty (with pretty big chunks of shrimp), lettuce and some sort of tangy sauce in a lightly toasted sesame seed bun. Very yummy indeed!

We also ordered an eggtart each for our dessert. The pastry was nice and flaky and the filling wasn't too sweet (which is a good thing). However, it was way too oily/greasy. Overall, it wasn't too bad.

So, what's the damage? The bill came up to KRW 14,100. I can't remember what is the exact breakdown of each item but KRW 14,100 is approximately US$12.50. I am not sure if the pricing is the same for all KFC outlets or this particular one is more expensive because it's located in the airport. I guess $12.50 is not too bad, it's about the same (maybe even a little less) as what we pay for a two person meal back in the States. Stay tuned for more about our transit tour in my next post!