Bay Leaves

No, this joint is not in anyway associated to the City Bayview group of hotels and certainly does not have a clear view of the bay. Bay refers to the plant that is associated to many uses
especially in the spices industry.

Bay leaves which are fresh and dry are used as spices in lots of countries especially Australia, India and Malaysia. I believe during selection of names to kick start an enterprise,the owner of this place chose Bay Leaves to represent their dishes which hopefully will be widely accepted by multi races local and overseas.

Located just a door away from Eastern Creative, me and two other friends had a good time shooting pictures and trying out their supposingly distinctive dishes as recommended by our former lecturer in Law. I had their RM 14.90 set meal which includes Grilled Black Pepper Lamb , a really thick mushroom soup with a mixture of various mushrooms and a glass of starfruitjuice. Mushroom soup was tasty, starfruit juice was blended purely from the fruit without adding in sugar. So far so good as asians will put it until it comes to the lamb.

Drinks were served with cute geisha?? coasters

Starfruit Juice

Homemade Cream Of Mushroom Soup

I do not know where to begin or to end. It was black alright, but i couldn't taste the pepper. The black pepper sauce was too watery it literally murdered the taste of the pepper. The lamb's texture is fine but the sauce is simply too disappointing to discuss about. It is like going to a concert to watch a black man sing, as it is a general understanding that all blacks sings well but this black man couldn't sing nor rap. It feels like a major ripped off!! I am not boycotting this restaurant and i believe not all the dishes here will turn out wrong . I just got the wrong lamb. This joint is worth a try , you got to taste it to believe it.

Grilled Black Pepper Lamb minus the black pepper taste

A friend of mine R, had a decent meal. Grilled Lemon Chicken tasted delicious. It was accompanied with lemon dressings that looks a lot like baby's vomit but it sure does taste good with the chicken. I grab a bite at the chicken without the lemon sauce , and oh my it was totally tasteless! but once dipped in the sauce, it is just perfect, lovely! it brings out the feeling of falling in love at first sight. However , different individuals has got different taste for food. By any chance after tasting the chicken and you file a divorce , bear in mind, i didn't incite you to it! Haha....

Grilled Lemon Herb Chicken

E had their lasagna's set meal but i shall leave it to him to grace this column with his personal experiences. There was little to no trace of oregano, in fact, I can't even taste or smell it. The bolognase was okay but in place of chopped onions there were cubed carrots. The kind you find selling per kg in supermarkets, blasphemy!!!. Cubed carrots!!!

However, the serving portion was decent, and the mushroom soup, as N so eloquently put it was rather good, but abit to heavy on the garlic and cream for my taste, a little more Swiss brown would have perfected it. The lemon herb chicken sauce was above average. Note that I used the word sauce because the sauce was good, the chicken was just below par, it did however make a decent contrast to the sauce, where the chicken did not overwhelm its dressing, but this would fall to individual preferences as some people would have preferred their chicken to taste better than a salted cardboard box.

Eastern Creative Lives Up To Its Name

How did we come across such a joint? You may call it destiny or random chance , we were walking around Melaka town looking for new places that we have not tasted and there it was Eastern Creative .

By merely judging on its name alone, one will be able to tell that this cafe serves dishes that are fusion oriented.

The Cafe is made known to Malaccan as Eastern Creative or Simple Life. Why does it bears two names? probably because it is run by a typical chinese uncle and we all know the ancient chinese has got really long names and it wouldn't suprise me if Eastern Creative is a name directly translated from chinese feng shui characters .

Organic Thong Sui ?? how organic can a dessert be? especially if its chinese desserts?? it is usually lots of sugar or lots of herbs. It was quite disappointing when the dish was served because it is none other than Red Beans Paste!! aiseh!! i was having heavy expectations for a breakthrough in the dessert industry. Anyhow, the red beans appears to be appealing, not so sweet, the beans are easier to digest compared to my grandma's technique and it is only
RM 3. It is not a must try, but try it sometime if you're in need of de-tox .

Organic Thong Shui

Home made cheese cake? this i must try for whenever a restaurant is bold enough to come up with a home made recipe it represents the creativity of its chef and since this place is known to be Eastern Creative, can't wait to see how creative can this easterner be? I strictly ordered for my cheese cake to be complimented with chocolate also known as the Triple Chocolate Cheese Cake . Triple chocolate does live up to its standards having served with three different types of chocolate chips and moreover its moist and rich with cheese, triple yummy!! though its appearance doesn't really look much like a cake, more of a tou fu gone bad but do not judge a cake by its presentation. A slice of this cake is around RM7.

Triple Chocolate Awesomeness

Upon spoiling my diet with all the cheese, i need to cleanse my tummy and wash away some fats so i browse through their not so spectacular menu and ordered for an organic beverage . A combination of honey, potato and celery which tasted alright, it was not bitter at all. The price for this beverage which supposingly is good for those with flu and allergies cost about RM 3.90.

Does not turn you into the hulk, does make you stronger though

A vegetable a day, keeps pimples away! Girls, no longer need to run away from weight problems, give a chance to Eastern Creative to give a chance to yourself! till then this is N reporting for Ben-m4u, i shall leave it to my pal E to proceed with the map and other necessary updates, Adios!

Nadeje Brings A Brand New Meaning For Cafe

Tired of hanging out in McD and Friends Cafe all week? Where else to slack around in Melaka? Is Melaka City so boring till this extent? No you dorks just got to move around and dig out new places. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of good cafes in the city which some remain isolated within housing estates.

Today, i shall introduce Nadeje a cafe in town that runs with its own style and character. Tea time is simply not the same with cakes, pastries and all sorts of tea selections. Myself and the team have tasted their cakes which are creamy , soft and addictive which makes us keep ordering for more. It is sweet but with the right amount of sugar not the sort that will leave us with diabetes but it sure gives us a sugar rush!

The difference between this cafe and others in town apart from its cakes , i shall say the interior design of the cafe. Sofa seats, tinted glass, dim lights and walls filled with artistic values. Washrooms, yea the cafe's toilets are rather one of a kind in Melaka for they have got paintings of kamasutra positions all over the wall. I believe it is a prevention measure to avoid other customers with tendency to vandalise toilet walls with ridiculous drawings, might as well put up drawings of their own.

The cakes varies from strawberry to green tea and original. A kilogram of the cake will cost us RM 70 and a slice of it should cost us RM 9. We had slices of every different cake just for a start and for beverages we had strawberry milk tea, blueberry soda and a pot of rose tea that was served in a rather unique approach.

Original Japanese Layer Cake

Strawberry Japanese Layer Cake

Blueberry Vinegar Soda

Strawberry Milk Tea

The pot of rose tea comes with a timer like those sand clock used by the ancient Egyptians. Once the sand falls from one end to the other end, it signifies that the tea is ready to be served and the same routine is repeated each time we tend to pour our tea.

Rose Tea, timer and all

Good jazz albums just makes our hearts grow fonder of the place, reluctant to step out. Too bad, it only operates from 10am to 12pm. Two branches of Nadeje can be found in Melaka. The main branch is located at the back of Mahkota Parade shopping mall (Mahkota Square). In case it is hard to locate, tea time lovers can also visit Dataran Pahlawan mall and scout for Old Town Coffee. It is situated on the same upper floor. N reporting to you from Ben-m

Shih Lin Taiwan Street Snacks Review

E: Welcome to Shih Lin Taiwan Street Food where according to the offical website's description

"... Taipei's Shihlin Night Market is the most famous due to its very wide range of local delicacies in its small streets and alleys. If a snack is nice, you can surely find it in Shihlin!"

They have numerous branches scattered around Malaysia, mostly in emporiums, of for the hip or trendy, Malls. Usually simply decorated and not too flashy, the stalls are centered around the bartop design where customers may dine at the bar table or at small stools centered around small coffeeshop tables conveniently situated near the bar table, all in all, it is a pretty good representation of the street food concept, staying true to its name.  A list of branches could be found here, but for this review's purpose we tried it at Dataran Pahlawan, Melaka.

Oyster Mee Sua

I love oysters. I cant begin to explain how much i like oysters, I once had 8 fresh oysters down my  throat, roughly accumulating RM64 worth of damage. The Mee Sua was pre cut and al dente, the broth thick and creamy, just the way i like it. Edible with a soup spoon, chopsticks are not necessary as the mee sua was pre cut. The chicken strips and coriander adds a nice contrast to the simple yet powerful taste of the oysters and the broth. The oysters itself, fresh and juicy, exploding in your mouth on bite.

Happy Rice Box

There is a reason why this is called the Happy Rice Box, Cold Sliced Tofu, Cold Diced Century Eggs covered in fresh spring onions, Chopped Spicy Crispy XXL Chicken Chop over a decent serving of pearl (sushi) grain rice, topped with sweet and soy sauce makes E a happy boy. As a fan of cold meals i found this set especially satisfying, I even imitate this recipe at home when I get the time. All this accompanied with a bottle of Vsoy soy milk. Vsoy means really thick and strong for the uninitiated,thick, white, and creamy, just the way its supposed to be. It trully is the King of soy milks.

Not Man Chowder

You Gotta Go With The Flo

Body aching all over? all tense up and feeling a little overweight? Well, walking while touring around Melaka isn't going to help you lose much of a weight unless you are a committed jogger who jogs every morning before work or after work in the evenings.

Apart from all the hustle due to heavy workload and schedules with loads of overtime and unbearable shifts, many do not enjoy the luxury of time to work out and stay healthy. It is to my opinion that even workaholics need to take a break an hour or two, visit your nearest salsa club and just salsa all night, get your lazy bones moving!

By any chance, if any of ya lazybones happen to be around Melaka, do not miss out on a thrilling evening of salsa, disco, merengue and any dances that you have in mind, do check out the FLO , yes just three letters the Flo a jazzy looking lounge in Equatorial Hotel Melaka.It is a spot that is so flashy looking especially at night that it is hard to miss!

Visit Equatorial, you visit the Flo. It isn't a hideout for just dancers, even those who wish to find a place witha decent live band, fun, classy , comfortable, you can actually hear your friends talking to you, Flo is your second crib. Menus are decorated with liquours from high grade whisky to rum,tequilla, Martini, hundreds of cocktails and mocktails selections not forgetting the wine bar.

Grab a chance to re-live the scenes from Dick Tracy, Saturday Night Fever or any of your favourite characters from the 70s and 80's .

The place is a little bit pricy but it is worth the visit, not daily perhaps once in a month or on a special occasion. Sofa sets instead of those chairs that gives us a pain in the ass after an hour or two and lightings which brings out the aroma of tu' amor or love. I have brought the team twice to this lounge and they are of the same opinion that this place rock if you're looking for a place to relax and chat unlike those night clubs with thrashy remix of house and r&b. Crowd headbanging and popping up pills while feng dao to rock and roll?? it is just so wrong!

I'll hand over to my pal E to proceed with the illustrations and photos. Till then this is N reporting for you once again and always will be....

Girls will love it here. Guys, you just have to bring your dates to this sort of places .

E: Also, wine!!! And various types of alcohol of course

Cant remember what kind of wine

Have no idea what this is called

Shirley Temple

Daiquri

White Russian

There is a whole lot of other cocktails/mocktails on the menu, but most of us were driving that night so it was not advisable to increase our blood alcohol level that much.

Earth Hour - Who Says We Gotta Dine In The Dark?

Today all humanitarian and nature lovers have joined hands in showing their support towards "Earth Hour" and we as the food reviewers from Ben-M4U didn't miss out on all the action by supporting this noble cause. How did we do it despite our tight schedule going around tasting and reviewing dishes? Go on a diet for a day? No Way!

Our routine goes on as usual. However, we option for a candle light fine dining get away instead in a newly operating Italian restaurant known to locals and tourist groups only as Olio. The name Olio as we generate its definition from an American dictionary refers to a collection of various artistic work be it musical, literature or in dining sense it literally brings the meaning to a mixture of stew , chicken and vegetables.

Dissatisfied with the explanation, i took the courtesy to scout for its meaning behind the Spanish-English dictionary. A much more precise definition of Olio will be "culinary" in Spanish it is pronounced as olla and the usage of the term olla is rather wide spread in example "olla podrida" - spanish stew.

We arrived rather early and it wasn't until two 2 hours later for the restaurant to begin its daily operations. In the name of love for food reviewing, we waited in anxiety. We are individuals with high sense of tolerance but our stomach kept grumbling for we have not eaten anything all day.

The result of 2 hours waiting

While waiting we had to pamper our appetite by devouring on char siew fun also known as pork chop rice . My friend Datuk as usual had to place unusual instructions when it comes to ordering dishes in satisfying his curiosity and this time he deliberately ordered for fried rice with char siew . It sounded simple to prepare but none of us has ever eaten char siew fan in such a unique fusion.

Yet, the 5 ringgit fried rice with char siew proven to be a good bargain. The blend of sweet yet crispy char siew accompanying a savoury display of rice well fried with eggs and beans complimented our taste buds . Affordable, simple and unique are three words used to describe our evening snack.

Fried Rice w/ Char Siew

I personally had regular char siew fun - plain rice with char siew that is simply juicy , so juicy that while chewing it felt like juices from the meat smeared all over my tongue. My other friend E, who is responsible for all the sharp photos and detailed mapping for this blog pampered himself with hokkien noodles and though the noodles isn't the best in town but its worth every dime and time. This food joint can easily be spotted behind Renaissance Hotel in Melaka. Char siew fun is priced at RM 3.50.

Char Siew Rice

Dry Prawn Mee

All ya food lovers need to do is to get your lazy butts up and walk a few steps to the back of the hotel and there will be a huge parking space. Walk across the parking space and you will be able to spot a run down sign board that says Yong Tau Foo. This joint has been around for decades eversince i was little and dad used to bring me for movies before the Federal Cinema got torn down . Last i checked, this restaurant has been around for almost 40 years all throughout Melaka's development. Eating here isn't just about its tasty dishes but it is an experience no money can buy to be a part of Melaka's legacy.

Time really flies when we're having a good time and just as gust of wind passes by, two hours have passed and we are all prepared for the fine dining in Olio. We have tried making a grand entrance just like Al Pacino and his posse from the GodFather but we felt so small upon walking in for every angle of the restaurant portrays a certain amount of stature and comfort. Dim lights, fine linens , bottles and bottles of replica representing wines from all over the world.

My dad's a privillege member of Renaissance thus we have cash vouchers to bail us out in case we ran out of cash . Warm smiles and never ending assistance from the waiters and Maitre'D gave us a wonderful time. Menus are designed to be unique looking like a pastry board kitchen helpers uses to give dough a roll and the top and bottom of the menus are decorated with miniature rolling pins as if we're reading a scroll.

The prices for pastas ranges from RM 32 to RM 40 excluding tax depending on its ingredients and style. I have tasted the pasta trilogy which is priced at RM 40 and to be honest, the combination of three different pastas spirullini, spaghetti bolognese and seafood spaghetti brings a new blend to my taste bud. A must try, rest assured, its worth every penny.

Today, we ordered Zuppa Fungi {RM 16++ } as a starter. Basically zuppa means soup in Italian, so we actually had mushroom soup. Kindly do not be intimidated by the bombastic jargons written in the menu, there are English translations! . E, ordered Anti Pasti and no its not somebody's aunty in Italian. I believe europeans will be most familiar with this term which represents a style of fusion salad and right here in Olio, its free flow only for {RM 25++} .

Zuppa Fungi

AntiPasti

E kept refilling his salad so often for Datuk was enjoying the salad and kept begging E to refill. AntiPasti or antipasto refers to the meaning of "before the meal" Antipasti includes cured meat, pepperoncini,olives, roasted garlic mushrooms, anchovies, artichoke hearts smeared with either mozarella or provolone. Just the sound of it makes me hungry don't ya think so?Yummy! is all i can put into words. The salad itself is so appetizing that E went for several rounds of refill cleaning up the salad bar.

It took the kitchen some time to prepare the refills again. Such big eaters we are must have given them the shock of their lives. Just as Ray puts it, we are cheap, be proud of it. Rm25 ++ means we have to finish every single salad ingredient left in their kitchen. Accompanied by huge white candles,aromatherapy and voices of Andrea Bocelli, Il Divo and Pavarotti it is an evening to die for and if i am with a date instead of these two guys of course, grins!

Are we done yet? Hell No! if we are going for fine dining, we're certainly not going to miss out on a main course no matter how costly it can get. We had Uzzolo Pizza , authentic italiano pan crusted pizza . It was delivered in a large portion and it was prepared with a lot of passion judging by its outlooks.

Pizza Quattro Uzzolo

The pizza is so crunchy if felt like we were munching nachos dipped with tomato puree , smoked salmon and ham . Fantastica! it isn't just any pizza, it is "the" pizza, a refine work of art. Uzzolo cost us RM 42++. The food amount to RM 83 and obviously since this is a hotel's F&B outlet, there has to be service charge Rm 8.30 . No wonder they were so nice to us. Government tax is at RM4.15 eventhough we are currently suffering from recession and the total is RM 95.45 quite a fair price for such authenticity in their cuisine.

Datuk was grumbling all evening on the reasons the kitchen took such a long time to refill the salad bar . He even walked to a table that says "reserved" and took their spoons away for our cutleries were cleared off from our table as soon as we were done .

According to Datuk if we have spoons, and E shamelessly parade around the salad bar, they might just refill in time. It was hillarious but it was indeed a tremendous dining experience.
It is a bit pricy, but the experiences are worth the time and money. A definite must try!

Before we left, the waiter asked if i wish to place orders for any dessert to end the evening, i asked for the menu and he came back with two blank papers and placed it in on the table leaving us in confusion. We were terrified that this might be our last meal and that's our wishlist or will in case we cannot afford to settle the bill.

Haha , to our dismay, the waiter came back with a huge stamp machine and stamped the papers with a list of desserts, the names and its prices. The waiter stamped so hard that it leaves our table as well as our hearts a terrifying impact!

Pictured : Terrifying Impact

Olio, there is no need for directions, it is an outlet of Renaissance Hotel Melaka. We didn't order any beverages besides water but we have every intention to re-visit this joint for the wine buffet price at RM59.90 ++ . Till then, this is N from ben-m4u reporting to you, me dio mucho gusto conocerlo, hasta luego, see ya later!

Jonker Street- To Eat Or Not To Eat?

It is my first visit to Melaka and i've heard from my friends that it is a must to visit Jonker street for it has a lot of stalls from food stalls to clothing and accesories. Is it true?? Clothing and accesories maybe, but food? i would recommend ya guys to drive a little bit further to Kota Laksamana since you're in Jonker. It is within the same area just different Taman.



Ask around and you will easily obtain your way to Kota Laksamana. Kota has got several restaurants - the night dim sum{edible but nth special} , the parang fishball noodle{its a must} , kota assam pedas{ its over exaggerated} and Hari -Ohm{ speechless, once i had cockroach in my milo}

To have a bite at assam pedas in Melaka, its either my granny's place or Pasar Borong Batu Berendam. During the day it is a whole sale market but in the night its a food haven for our locals. Yet, be sure you do not visit Baru Berendam area during rainy days, for the area is well known for having terrible floods. Bad Fengshui if you're planning to get a house.

The saying goes, if you do not have a bite at nyonya food in Melaka, you have not been to Melaka. Especially after all the commotions about peranakan culture courtesy of the recent hit drama Little Nyonya by mediacorp. Ok, nyonya food enthusiast, kindly visit Nyonya Suan which is located behind Mahkota Parade , look for the Sen Heng electrical store , it is on the same row. It has got 2 phases the air cond and non air cond section.

I personally have not tasted their food but according to my sister the food is quite tasty and the price is reasonable during the day . Take note, during the day only!..for they have promotion.
This is N reporting to you virtually from Melaka.