Chicago Rib House

Got this deal at LivingSocial last month:

Chicago Rib House: (7 choice of main course) + soup + drink for RM 28 per person.

Main Course(7 Choices):
1. Chicago Half Rack Pork Ribs (choose 2 side dishes from the choices below)
- Original BBQ flavor; or
- Honey Garlic flavor
2. Hickory BBQ Bacon Burger (choose 1 side dish from the choices below)
3. Hawaiian Burger (choose 1 side dish from the choices below)
4. Grilled Bourbon Chicken (choose 1 side dish from the choices below)
5. Grilled Peppercorn Chicken (choose 1 side dish from the choices below)
6. BBQ Chicken Pizza (no side dishes)
7. Pepperoni Pizza (no side dishes)

Side dishes:
1. French Fries
2. Fresh Vegetable
3. Corn On the Cob
4. Baked Potato
5. Mashed Potato
6. Fragrant Rice
7. Coleslaw

Bottomless Drinks:
1. Pepsi
2. Pepsi Light
3. 7 Up
4. Mountain Dew
5. Miranda Strawberry
6. 7 Up Revive
7. Lipton Iced Lemon Tea

I tried to make a reservation on Wednesday, but was told that they have been fully booked on  the entire Friday, and the only option was to sit outside at the smoking area. We arrived about 1pm yesterday, and sat down outside the restaurant. It was so hot outside that I asked the waiter if there were available seats inside. He was so nice to help us get a seating inside.

Chicago Rib House

                                                             
                                                                     

The vegetable soup arrived first. This soup is flavourful, but a little on the salty side.

Vegetable soup

We ordered something extra from the menu; Cheese Nachos. This was recommended by the waiter, and said to be very popular. We did not regret ordering this. Awesome cheesy nachos with tasty shredded chicken and 2 dips.

Super yummy Cheese Nachos (RM 17.90) 

Then the main course arrived. I had the Honey-Garlic pork ribs with 2 sides (baked potato and vegetables consisting of broccoli, carrots and zucchini). Hubby had the Original BBQ pork ribs with fries and coleslaw.

Honey-Garlic Pork ribs with baked potato and vegetables

Original BBQ pork ribs with fries and coleslaw

We agreed that the Original BBQ pork ribs tasted better than the Honey-Garlic pork ribs. I felt that the pork ribs were not marinated long enough. Nevertheless, we both enjoyed our ribs a lot.

Satisfied customers

We were super stuffed by the time we finished our lunch. The deal was indeed worth it. We enjoyed our food and service and will definitely come back to this place again :)

Gelatomio

Tried out 2 new places yesterday; Gelatomio and Chicago Rib House at Gurney Plaza.

Gelatomio

Since we had our first gelato in Rome and second in Florence (read about my food adventure here and here), we decided to try out Gelatomio, Italian Traditional Ice-Cream.

Gelatomio

Selection of flavours available

I chose pistachio flavoured gelato (to compare with the one I had with Giolitti, Rome), while hubby had the crunch-rum flavoured gelato.

 

Price wise, it's rather comparable with the price we were charged in Florence. 1 small cup with 2 scoops of ice-cream costs RM 7.40. In Florence, the same cup costs 2 Euros, but the amount of ice-cream we got there is much more than what we got here at Gelatomio.

Oh let's not talk about taste. The pistachio gelato did not at all have any hint of pistachio, but had a strong coffee taste. What?? Could they have mixed up the flavours? Also, the ice-cream was not creamy and smooth at all :(
On the other hand, the crunch-rum tasted quite nice, with a tinge of rum in it.

I don't think I will come back here again unless I am convinced that the other flavours are good.
Do you have any recommendation for good gelato, on par with the ones sold in Italy?

Peter Thomas Roth

I've never heard of Peter Thomas Roth skincare until 3 months ago when we stayed at Hilton. Apparently Hilton Hotels & Resorts had replaced the La Source amenities from Crabtree and Evelyn with Peter Thomas Roth since the end of last year.

The smell of the body lotion is not pungent, but not exactly to my liking for I prefer lotions with 'flowery' and 'fruity'smell; Body Shop and Victoria Secret. The lotion did not leave my skin as soft as body butters do.

Body lotion

Can't comment much on the conditioner and shampoo as I find no difference using this shampoo compared to the ones I've been using so far.

But I absolutely love love love the body wash. It has micro-beads in them and a lemony and refreshing scent. My skin felt smooth and soft. Happy happy:)

Conditioner, Shampoo and Body Wash

The other toiletries from Peter Thomas Roth

Mysore Curry House

I have a 'thing' for Indian food; specifically North Indian Cuisine. It was about 5 years ago, when Vijay  introduced me to North Indian food, at Mirch Masala back in Johor Bahru. I fell in love with the food, and brought Dan (my boyfriend then) there. I got him hooked too:) Since then, we'ved tried Agneeys at Tampoi, Chakra at JB and Chennai Curry House at Sungai Petani.

Earlier this year, Mysore (pronounced My-Sore) Curry House made its way to Alor Setar, at Jalan Pegawai. If I am not wrong, the guy who owned Chennai Curry House also owned this one. We've been here about 5 times (3 times alone in October) including yesterday for dinner.

Mysore Curry House @ Jalan Pegawai

The boss told us that Mysore is his hometown in India. As you can see, the front cover of the menu shows the Mysore palace, which is one largest palace and most visited monuments in India.

Front cover of the menu

The frame on the wall

Left: Teh Halia (Ginger milk tea) Right: BRU Coffee Ice

Papadam (4 pcs for RM 2)

We've so far tried the Butter Chicken and Chicken Varuval, so we decided to try something new; Kadai Chicken. As usual, the dishes here are always pleasing to my tastebuds. From what I read, ginger, tomato, red and green chilli and capsicum are part of the ingredients that made up this yummy-licious dish.

Kadai Chicken (RM 13)

For vegetable, we chose Vegetable Kholapuri which is very thick and rich. This dish consists of cauliflower,  green beans and carrots, to name a few.

Vegetable Kholapuri

The contented and happy other half enjoying his meal:)

The total bill came up to RM 35.20.

I would strongly recommend you to drop by this place. If you are a vegetarian, you can choose their vegetarian set (3 veg + 1 rice) for RM 5.60. I assure you that it will be worth your money!

Greenlane White Sauce Chicken Pie

I love pies; chicken, apple, cheese, fish...you name it.

Since the ladies at the office wanted to order these lovely pies, I ordered 2 for myself.

White sauce chicken pie (RM 3.80/pc)

The filling (chicken, potatoes, egg, carrot, onion)

Overall, the pie tasted good. The crust is neither too thick nor too thin. The filling is ample, moist and yummy.  Personally, I think it would taste better if I add a little bit of crushed black pepper or herbs.

Anyway, I think the price is reasonable for such a large pie. If you are interested, you may contact:

Greenlane White Sauce Chicken Pie - 04-6578124

Dinner at Xuan Xin Restaurant

We rarely have dinner together, MM and I. So today, we decided to have dinner followed by grocery shopping after that. She recommended this place, Xuan Xin Restaurant at Queensbay Mall. The food is on the pricier side, but the portion is really huge.

When we entered the restaurant, there were already quite a number of people there, mostly working adults.

The entrance

Before coming to this restaurant, I had mentally told myself 'NO RICE' (konon-nya nak berdiet). But after flipping through the impressive menu......I was torn between ordering the sze chuan hot & sour soup or the rice selection. The latter won..Sigh!

This is no ordinary rice.......as it has roasted duck in it. Absolutely yummy (although being me, I added around  6 spoonfuls of chilli sambal and some black vinegar). The portion was huge. It has been 2 hours (at the point of writing)  and I am still feeling super stuffed.

Braised Rice with Roasted Duck (RM 14.80)

MM ordered this instead.....

Fried rice with Pork Belly and Kimchi (RM 12.80)

The total bill came up to RM 33.85 (including 10% service charge and 6% gov tax).

Will I come back again? Yes, for sure...this time for the Hot & Spicy Sze Chuan Soup (unless I change my mind again..hahaha).

Yves Rocher Moisturising Lipstick

Today's post will be about my new purchase, the Yves Rocher Moisturising Cream Lipstick- Rose Thé.

This is my 1st Yves Rocher lipstick. I've been using Maybelline and Silky Girl for as long as I could remember. But what prompted me to purchase this was the fact that this lipstick from Yves Rocher is paraben-free (although not fragrant-free). Seems like people nowadays are more cautious about the beauty products they use, and the latest trend is to go for paraben-free products. So what's with parabens?

Parabens are chemicals found in products; hand creams, lipsticks, deodorants, facial cleansers, etc.
They are used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical products as preservatives. Quoting from Wikipedia:

Average levels of 20 nanograms/gram of parabens have been detected in a small sample of 20 breast tumours (P.W. Harvey et al, 2004;  P.D. Darbre, et al, 2004) These findings, along with the demonstrated ability of some parabens to partially mimic estrogen a hormone known to play a role in the development of breast cancers (P.W. Harvey et al, 2004) have led some scientist to conclude that the presence of parabens may be associated with the occurrence of breast cancer (G. Vince, 2004 and L. Christine, 2005) and to call for investigation into whether or not a causal link exist.

From what I surveyed so far, not many brands are carrying paraben-free products. They may have some products which are paraben-free while the rest are not. Being a little paranoid,  I rummaged through most of my beauty products and find them to contain one or more type of paraben(s). OMG!

My conclusion is that soon paraben-free products will be in the 'IN' thing in the market, and cosmetic companies would have to cater for such requirement. Until then, if I could avoid using beauty products with parabens, I would but if I couldn't that's too bad. Am I paranoid or what?

Yves Rocher Moisturising Cream Lipstick- Rose Thé