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. 

SONG KHENG HAI FOOD CENTRE: TEA TIME EPISODES

Today, we're about to adventure to a few famous stalls at a well known recreational food spot, where you can find many different types of local delicacies sold. This spot is famous for their kom piahs, a popular snack consumed in Sarawak in which consists of deep fried flat buns coated with sesame seeds and filled with sweet savoury minced meat, and also famous for a stall selling quite an interesting combination of juices- coconut and sugar cane.

This popular recreational food ground is known as Song Kheng Hai Food Centre.

It is a 2 story open air centre, with the ground floor almost like a car park, but sometimes, you can see teens skateboarding or dance practices going on.

The top floor is that hot spot many people go to for delicious variety of local delicacies. The whole area is filled with food stalls, with a tiny percentage of stalls selling newspapers, groceries and sweets.  Surrounding the food stalls were fixed tables and chairs.

This well known stall selling kom piahs is called Rihga, stall no.7, located just at a corner around the back. They are known for their crispy and savoury kom piahs, with delicious flavourful filling. Also, they have many other types of fillings in their kom piahs besides the usual meat filling.

Sio bees and rojak are also sold at Rihga.

This is their kom piah.

It was freshly deep fried once again before serving to customers. It arrived fresh and hot, smelling delicious.

The meat filling was glistening as I opened it to have a look. The dough was crispy and not too tough, held it's shape very nicely. The meat filling was juicy and sweet and went very well with the fried dough. It was a really good combination and one is never enough.

Here is their rojak.

What I like about their rojak here is that they used crispy dried dough fritters, also known as dried 'iu char kueh' or 'you tiao' in their rojak, and they are always very generous in serving those. The rojak came with a heap of crushed peanuts as well.

The rojak sauce, which was the most important component of this delicacy, was a bit more towards the salty side. Personally, I think rojak sauces should be more towards the sweet side, but overall, this dish still had it's own unique flavour. The fruits used were fresh and pieces of boiled squid were also put inside.


Next, another stall here, selling a combination of sugar cane and coconut juice. It's stall no.1, Mao Zhong.

It might be a weird combination for many who heard of this for their first time, but it is quite a well known drink here.

Juices are extracted from the sugar cane, combined with coconut water, and servied with a generous amount of freshly scraped coconut flesh.

The combination made the drink refreshing and cooling. This drink is perfect for a hot weather, and also a definite thirst quencher. The coconut flesh was served in huge chunky pieces and was a great compliment to the mixture.

If you're planning to visit Song Kheng Hai Food Centre, you definitely can't miss trying out these 2 stalls here. There are also many other food stalls to try out from here, so you can get to try other local delicacies at the same time.





Opening hours:
Everyday from 7am to 6pm

Song Kheng Hai Food Centre
Lorong 15 
Jalan Song Kheng Hai off Jalan Padungan
93100 Kuching,
Sarawak.








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.

themakanpost@gmail.com

TEASE BY JASE'S TEA ROOM: CAFE EPISODES

Today in Kuching, hipster cafes seem to be popping out everywhere and can be found at almost any street. It's definitely the in-thing and also something you wouldn't want to miss when in Kuching. From the quality of their espressos, the ambience of the cafe, accompanied by  soft bossa nova music, to the cheesecakes, pies and not to forget, hipster lightings for that insta-worthy shot, cafes here are a must try.

Previously on The Makan Post, we adventured to a cafe in town called Coffee Obsession. Today, we adventure to a cafe selling interesting savoury snacks as well, previously located at 101, Jalan Tun Jugah, now at Icom Square, recently moved, it's non-other than Tease by Jase's Tea Room.

A cozy yet spacious environment in this cafe, with high ceilings, comfy sofas and high stools. Here, they have A4 sized colouring papers with colouring materials.

And yes, they would love to have your art work as well after colouring.



They even have fun props, perfect for your selfies and wefies. Each table has a few in a small cup, each with different types of them.

Known for their teas, they have a wide range of teas to choose from, and all their tea leaves are located behind the counter. After selecting your tea, the loose tea leaves are then brewed in a small pot before serving to customers.



The not to miss drinks here are definitely one of their specialities, the ice-cream and milk series. There are ice vanilla chocolate, ice chocolate, ice hazelnut chocolate and many more, all topped up with a scoop of ice cream on top.
Here's how tasty it looks.

This is the ice vanilla chocolate. Cold milk poured in a glass filled with ice cubes drizzled in chocolate syrup and topped off with vanilla ice cream on top, further drizzled with more chocolate syrup. The ice chocolate comes with chocolate ice cream instead.
It was creamy and very refreshing. The taste of the milk and chocolate was not that sweet and when eaten with the ice cream, balanced the whole thing very well. The ice hazelnut chocolate had a rich hazelnut flavour to it as well. It was a great combination with the chocolate syrup and the ice cream.

They have a wide variety of cakes here as well. One of the best selling one was the yoghurt mango cake.

It was layers of sponge cake, filled with cream and mango chunks in between each layer, and topped with generous slices of mango on top. It was delicious and light. The sponge cake was fluffy and soft, and each bite had many chunks of mango. The cream brought the whole cake together well, adding that slight creamy sweetness to every bite.

Something from their finger foods, fish tempura nuggets. This was served hot and fresh, with juicy insides and with the outside, crispy.

They have other snacks such as wings and pizzas. For those wanting something heavier, their soft shell crab man tou is something that many recommend. They also have burgers, sandwiches and many more.

Another cafe you would want to give a try in Kuching. They are open for all day dining  offering brunch as well.


Opening hours: 
Everyday from 11:00 am - 11:00 pm

Tease by Jase's Tea Room

AT110 Block A, 
Icom Square, 
Jalan Pending, 
93450 Kuching, Malaysia.

Contact no.: 0168608282 or 0168943332


Facebook page: www.facebook.com/jasestearoom/

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

-

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

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.

-

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.

-

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.