SUGAR JUNCTION: VINTAGE TEA ROOMS (UK)

It's a favourite past time for macunions to congregate on a sunny Sunday at a local eatery. The town especially a buzzin' with the day's weather. The tea rooms were filled, especially by the windows where the sunlight is streaming in and you can people watch the pedestrians walking by.

We have selected a prime location for lunch this week. Teehee. It's a place I've been eyeing for weeks past now. It's at Northern Quarter, yes, the great Northern Quarter, with food and much more food. As I've said from my last post, the northern quarter is pot brimming with eccentricities and oddities of the grungy kind. Always something happening in those streets, this week a market of arts and crafts.

It was too full upstairs, so here we are, below deck. 

I really like that lamp. I like the wallpaper a little too much.

They use books for menus. Novel idea. Geddit?

Waitress was top notch. Had our meals come in less than fifteen minutes. It was the lunch menu, so here are our orders.

Red Wine Beef Brisket with onion pickles and I think rocket salad inside, oh and before I forget, monterey jack cheese, melted! on the brioche. Yums. It was a messy meal, I tell you that, also, juicy beef, my hand was dripping from it. Had a side of cole slaw and some potato and sweet potato fries.

Halloumi toast with basil, a side dish of potatoes fries and sweet potato fries and some slaw.

Delicious mocktail, English County Garden, fresh mint, cloudy apple juice, elderflower syrup and lemon juice, with fresh blueberries. Very refreshing on a nice day out.


Sugar Junction. It was spacious, lots of interesting decor inside, and the food was delicious.

Opening times are Monday and Sunday, 9am-6pm. Tuesday to Thursday 9am-8pm. Friday and Saturday 9am to 11pm.

Breakfast menu till 12 pm. Also they have a afternoon tea menu, which looked scrumptious, and would try next time I'm there.

Address:Sugar Junction, 60 Tib Street, Manchester, M4 1LG. 

Visit their website for more information. http://www.sugarjunction.co.uk/index.html

This is Sharon, signing off this week's blog. Stay tune every week for more. 

OLD REX CUCUR UDANG CAFE: TEA TIME EPISODES

For many years, Old Rex Cucur Udang has been the no.1 go to place for me whenever craving for belachan bi hun, golden crispy cucur udang (prawn crackers) and sweet spicy chilli sauce with crushed peanuts. Also one of Kuching citizens' favourite eats during tea time - a bowl of abc or special, rojak, sotong kangkung, belachan bi hun and cucur. This place has it all.

One interesting and refreshing drink they sell here is the Ngo Mi Teng.

It contains barley seeds, agar-agar, nata de coco, and fruits topped off with syrup and shaven ice. This is perfect for a hot day as it is cooling to the body as well. It was a light and sweet drink, and you could smell and taste a slight fruity fragrance in the syrup.

Old Rex Cucur Udang also sells other delicious drinks such as Special, ABC, Cendol and the other typical tea time refreshers to go with your cucur udang.



Next, a not to miss delicacy when eating at Old Rex. It's the belachan bi hun.

This brown savoury broth is full of flavour, you wouldn't want to miss a single drop of it. It was rich and of a thick-like consistency, filled with dried shrimp goodness and the belachan which made the broth slightly sweet. The beansprouts and cucumber strips complimented this dish perfectly as well. The squid pieces were very soft too. This dish can also be ordered with preserved egg also known as century egg.

This is the famous cucur udang.

Each cracker were deep fried then cut up into quarters. It was cooked till crispy, and even the prawn shells could be eaten. The batter had a nice savoury taste to it, with a hint of prawn flavour. When eaten with the chilli sauce, adds a nice sweet spicy kick to this cracker.

Their chilli sauce was also delicious, and flavourful enough. It wasn't too spicy either, and goes well with almost any of the deep fried food they sold at this cucur stall. A generous amount of crushed peanuts would be also given when requested.

This stall sells many other types of deep fried delicacies but some of the recommended items other than the prawn crackers are the dragon head, cheese tofu, seafood tofu and bishop's nose.





Come try these famous local tea time delicacies at the famous Old Rex Cucur Udang, and taste them for yourself. Definitely the no.1 place to go to for delicious belachan bi hun and crisp to perfection prawn crackers.





Old Rex Cucur Udang Cafe
437-438, Rubber Road 
93400, Kuching, 
Sarawak, Malaysia.

Opens everyday from 6.30am to 5pm except Mondays.

This is Jolynn signing off this week's episode on The Makan Post. Stay tuned for more.

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The Makan Post brings to you weekly food adventures, so be sure to catch us every week for new episodes and dont forget to subscribe to us. Just click on the Follow button below. Also, check out our instagram page @themakanpost. Cheers.

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AH YEO AIS KACANG: TEA TIME EPISODES

I recently headed back for a holiday in Kuching. It was fantastic, awesome food adventures with my buddies and just glorious food! Glorious food! I cannot stop smiling thinking about it. But now I'm back and I'm missing so much of it. (cries into my pillow)

So one of my most favorite dishes is eating desserts. I love sweets, every kind there is. It doesn't matter what cuisine, I will enjoy it. Probably shouldn't as much. But we got to live life right?

Ah Yeo's Ais Kacang, located in a happening spot called the Pondok Jubilee, is one famous stall selling all sorts of ais kacang. And when I say all sorts, I really do mean all sorts. Ah Yeo is famous for it's wide variety of desserts and refreshing drinks to choose from such as 'lady gaga', 'beyonce', 'spiderman' and many other names of artists. He has a long list of orders named after celebrities. This is the menu.

The Makan Post team with Uncle Ah Yeo Ais Kacang.




This uncle here has been working here for many years, and told us this stall has been operating since 1962. His wife, the one that does the drinks, is the eldest daughter in the family, thus, these recipes from generations were given to her and she was taught how to make these desserts, served today in Ah Yeo's. This uncle has also been updating the menu with recent trends to attract more customers, and that's what makes Ah Yeo special. He also knows what's best to recommend to his customers.



Here in Pondok Jubilee, you can find many stalls selling tea time snacks such as rojak, sotong kangkung, char kueh, belachan bi hun, char kueh tiaw and even sarawak laksa and kolo mee. But do choose your seat before ordering as some stalls wont serve their food if you're seating at another stall's area.

So we ordered ABC(original), Special, and one from the celebrity category, Taylor Swift. The Taylor Swift was really refreshing, with white jelly, barley, rambutan slices and a sweet honey like syrup to which I do not know what it is. It had a sweet and sour taste to it from the sour plum and honey like syrup. It is one drink to quench your thirst on a hot day.

The Special had many types of fruits in it, and normally you cant go wrong with this common drink, if you're a milk lover. It came with a generous amount of fruits and red syrup.

Here, jackfruits were also part of the fruits they had inside it. It was not too sweet and just right.


And then of course ABC, THE ULTIMATE AIS KACANG! My favourite!!

Red beans, cendol, grass jelly, santan, ice, syrups. It tasted really good with each component of it, going together so well. Oh my god, I think I'm drooling.

It was a satisfying and refreshing tea time for this episode on The Makan Post. Now it's your turn to give this place a try.


Opens from Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 4.30pm.


Location:
Ah Yeo Ais kacang
Jubilee Hawker Centre
Jalan Tan Sri Datuk William Tan,
Kuching, Sarawak.

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This is Sharon signing off this week's episode on The Makan Post. Stay tuned for more episodes coming your way.

The Makan Post brings to you weekly food adventures, so be sure to catch us every week for new episodes and dont forget to subscribe to us. Just click on the Follow button below. Also, check out our instagram page @themakanpost. Cheers.

themakanpost@gmail.com

RICHMOND TEA ROOMS : TEA TIME EPISODES (UK)

I'm currently a student in Manchester, and have been for the past months. For the most part, I don't really eat out very much cause I'm usually pinching for money since eating out is super expensive.

So when I do go out, I rather spend it on good food or asian takeaway. I do takeaway cause I'm homesick and british food can be so bland.

A couple of days ago, in celebration of my friend's birthday, we went out for afternoon tea. It's a past time in the most of UK, an old social that was fashionable back in the seventeenth century which has been toned down from cakes and scones with tea and finger sandwiches to just biscuits and tea. But if you wish to have a grand afternoon tea, most fine hotels here would serve it and some even with champagne.

I've eaten afternoon tea here just a couple of times before, and once on the airplane, and it's honestly a great experience and something one should do when you're a sweet tooth and visiting the UK. The one we visited was called Richmond Tea Rooms, a really pretty place with an Alice In Wonderland Theme going on.

It is located in an area, famously know as the gay village. Well, the area is not only known for their rainbow proud-ness but the good bars and clubs there.

The outside of the Richmond tea Rooms is quite grand, with british flags and pink banners hanging above. The entrance as well. Living in Malaysia, we don't see alot of old buildings like this with brick roads and giant wooden doors with steps. I love this sort of antiquity and passing by these sort of architecture makes me smile. Though I wouldn't want to live in it.

There was an offer of afternoon teas in the menu, since it was an Alice In Wonderland theme, there were Alice's Afternoon tea, the Queen's Afternoon Tea, the Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea, and one I found adorable, was the Gentleman's Afternoon Tea. They all served for different size parties, with Alice's tea for one person only having scones with clotted cream and jam and tea of your choice to the Richmond Afternoon Tea with savory pastry, finger sandwiches, scones, cakes and tea of your choice with champagne. But the Gentleman's Afternoon Tea has beer with sausage rolls, battered fish fingers and peas, with sandwiches and cumberland Scotch Egg. For more information, you can look them up.

To be honest, the afternoon tea in here was alright, but the atmosphere and decoration in the space is really nice. They have the whole space furbished with things related to the story of Alice in Wonderland. The amount was quite small, but affordable. The scones were I think pre made, and re heated, which isn't very nice to eat. It was hard and crumbly, fell to pieces when I tried to cut it, but when paired with clotted cream and jam, those thoughts really fall to pieces. Clotted cream is when you indirectly apply heat to cream, and it gets clotted and you spread it over warm scones. The sandwiches were good, just spread of the usual finger sandwiches, egg and mayo, butter and cucumbers, beef and horseradish. We were given a carrot cake, which was quite good, moist and dense. It was covered with cheese cream like all carrot cakes are. They also gave us a small jar of trifle, consisting of cream, custard, cake and diced cherry syrup. It was a finger long, very tiny but it tasted really good together. A slice of swiss roll, with custard inside. The savory pastry was alright. They had a sort of pastry with melted cheese inside. It was buttery, soft and warm.

Ultimately, in the whole meal, I've only remembered the tea. Which was afternoon darjeeling. It was seriously good. Light, with subtle tones of fruity flavors. I would buy that tea from now on.

For more information visit their site: http://www.richmondtearooms.com/



Opening Times:

Monday to Thursday: 11am to 10pm

Friday: 11am to 11pm

Saturday: 9am to 11pm

Sunday: 9am to 10pm


Richmond Tea Rooms,
15 Richmond Street, 

The Village, 

Manchester M1 3HZ, 

United Kingdom.

This is Sharon signing off this week's episode on The Makan Post. Stay tuned for more.

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The Makan Post brings to you weekly food adventures, so be sure to catch us every week for new episodes and don't forget to subscribe to us. Cheers.