Take Two at Ben's Gurney Paragon

Forgive me as I'm still a little obsessed with Ben's so I've been dragging Glam Girl, Hubs and Bubs with me on repeated visits. I was really insistent on trying Ben's scones (huge afternoon tea fanatic) so I was crushed when the waiter said afternoon tea only starts at 3pm :(

The ever gorgeous Glam Girl, such a glowing mama to be :)

We'd a beefburger and mac-n-cheese. Both were nice but not really stellar though.

A meal at Ben's is never complete without dessert - this round we tried black forest and rocky road which were served in very generous wedges. Can you spot Bub's antsy look in the photo? ;) He finds my no-touching-mummy's-taking-a-photo-rule before cake extremely annoying and a test of his patience. He was well rewarded with all the cake his little tummy could fill.

I adored the black forest cake which I thought nicely presented with pieces of meringue shards (my favourite!) at the side and the juicy pieces of cherries sandwiched between the chocolatey cake were to die for. Topped with fluffy marshmallows and layers of peanut cream, chocolate mousse and a crushed biscuit bottom, I found the rocky road to be on the rich and heavy side.
 

Wearing a loose, flowy skirt in anticipation of all the eating we're going to be doing

Since I didn't get to try the scones, I insisted we head back again for the afternoon tea, time time ensuring that we were there after 3pm. Hubs rolled his eyes but as usual, Bubs is always game for any kind of cake ;)

For the afternoon tea: you get a choice of coffee or tea for two from the main menu and yes, Ben's does have a good selection of both. We had a mocha and green tea which I was happy that they used T2 teabags (Gorgeous Geisha - a nice, fruity green tea). Bubs had the iced water - free flow and no extra charge from Ben's :) I thought it was a nice touch for them to include a slice of biscotti with our hot drinks.

You also get to choose a slice of cake from the dessert display and the other two tiers are filled with scones, marshmallows, mini cakes, chocolate truffles, cookies and sandwiches. Is it sad to admit that at this point, I'd pretty much tried most of Ben's cakes so I stuck with my favourite black forest?

The scones at Ben's are more biscuit-y and crumbly, I usually prefer my scones to be softer. At least the cream served was decent and heaven forbid, not whipped cream! I found the highlight to be marshmallows which had a very lemon zing to them. Hubs enjoyed the chocolate truffles coated in cocoa powder.

Initially when the goodies were served, I was thinking that the portions looked very scant and thought of ordering more food - luckily Hubs restrained me because we were struggling to finish everything and zonked out with all the sugar. We found the afternoon tea to be really good value for money as it fed two adults and a cake-mad toddler.

The Alphabet Elephants

After reading this brilliant post about alphabet fish, I was inspired to try crafting a similar version of it. I went to Popular to buy cardstock and lo and behold - they had ready cut elephants! I weighed the pros and cons: to draw and cut out 25 fishies so I could tell Bubs that we're "fishing" or to just get the elephants and come out with some kind of story line?

Guess which route I took? ;)

Hubs, who is good at drawing and everything I'm not, drew in the little details onto one elephant for me and I used that as a blueprint for the rest. In case you're wondering, the little squiggles on the legs are the wrinkly knees which all elephants have. I insisted on this when Hubs was drawing the first elephant. And can I tell you how cool Crayola markers are? They don't dry out even though I haven't touched them in months, they dry really fast and they don't bleed through the paper.

I hooked on metal paperclips and voila! A raging stampede of colourful alphabet elephants. By the way, the elephants are not smiling, those are their very ferocious tusks.

Tied a Daiso magnet with yarn to a chopstick. I couldn't exactly call it a fishing pole since there aren't any fish to catch. I was contemplating drawing a banana at the end of the chopstick and telling him that he had to feed the elephants until I thought what the heck, let's keep it simple. 

Bubs squealed "ally-fents" happily when he saw everything. I felt a little surge of self satisfaction that my artwork wasn't that bad since he could recognise what I was drawing :D I told him that he had to help the elephants cross a river to go home and showed him how to hook them on with the magnet. He was excited that he could call out the letters and this kept him occupied for quite a while.

A few notes: be careful when letting kids play with magnets, little paper clips and string. Oh and I found that for his little arms, the shorter the string, the easier it was for him to control the magnet.

PS - check out how cool is this mini magnetic fish set!

Dear Bubs: 27 Months

Dear Bubs,

Time flies when you're having fun! Can I say that these are the best times we've ever had together? Or do I seem to say that each month as you hit a new milestone?

The things you say truly astound Daddy and me. You seem to pick up the darn-est things.

Me: Why are you digging your nose?
Bubs: There's an elephant in it.
Me: What is the elephant doing in your nose?
Bubs: Elephant ... what you doing there? Come out here, elephant!
Me: *trying to keep a straight face* So what is the elephant doing?
Bubs: The elephant's eating ice cream inside my nose

We've also ended up incorporating some Bubs-erisms into our daily speech. Daddy insists on correcting you but I always find your baby talk to be cute.

If you don't sit proper-berry, you will fall down. You love eating chocolate chip chip cookies and apochi (strawberries). You scratch your hand whenever you feel itchy-lily. We turn on our comp-pin-ter to work and to show you Elmo on YouTube.

In addition to Sesame Street, you now like the Muppets. I think your favourite character is Animal followed by the Swedish Chef (mine too!) and there's nothing you love more than using a clothes hanger as a guitar and strumming it while singing songs along to Sesame Street and the Muppets. If you run out of songs to sing, you just go "la la la, El-mo's songggggkkk". You were thrilled to bits when Por Por got you your very own toy guitar and you guard it fiercely. Not many people are allowed to touch it, not even Mummy and Daddy.

You also like going to Uncle M's room and plucking at the strings of his electric guitar. Future Bon Jovi, perhaps? ;)

Sorry to say, kiddo, you have a terrible temper when you don't get what you want. When you misbehave and get a swat on your palm, you don't even blink your eyes. However when we withhold something that you want badly from you, you throw the most awful tantrums. Big, fat tears will roll down your cheeks, you wail, you arch your arms behind your back and you stamp your feet - all at the same time, yeesh!

We've been trying to teach you how to share stuff with other children. Like your Chinese zodiac, you are very much the territorial tiger and refuses to share your toys to the point that if you see some other kid hovering close by your possessions, you march right over and grab it away.

 And another huge milestone, we've been loosely potty training you. Credit should go to Por Por who's had the patience to persuade you to sit on the potty until you've *ahem* completed your task, which can at times take up to 45 mins. You can now poop on the potty but we've to remind you to go, otherwise you'd still find it a lot easier to do it in your diapers. However, once on your potty, you need a LOT of entertainment to keep you on it. We've resorted to putting your potty next to the sofa so you have a back rest, in front of the telly and some toys around you.

You've also turned into a mini nagging reminding version of me which I find to be extremely helpful, much to Daddy's dismay ;) Daddy has an awful habit of chewing his fingers and each time I say "Bubs, tell Daddy to stop biting his fingers", you'll happily parrot after me "Dadddeeee, stop biting your fingers, it's dirty-yuck-yuck!"until he stops. Good job, Bubs!

Love you lots and stop growing up too fast, you'll always be my baby,
Mummy.

Gusto Cafe at Tanjung Bungah

Gusto Cafe, a small and homey cafe tucked in the Hillside area of Tanjung Bungah, offers American style breakfasts and diner-like burgers for lunch. Think fresh bagels, home made beef patties in their burgers and pulled pork sandwiches ... have these gotten you salivating yet?

I dragged Hubs and Bubs there early for breakfast and I was disappointed that the famous burgers weren't ready until 11.30am (that's when they start to serve lunch). Hubs looked at me incredulously and asked if I really wanted to chomp down on a burger with all the works first thing in the morning. Oh wellllllll ... at least I get to try the bagels for brekkie.

My choice - bagel and eggs. The bagel was very, very good. It was fresh, slightly crusty on the outside and impossibly soft and fluffy inside. It went down a real treat with the scrambled eggs.

Hubs picked French toast with bacon, banana and a side serving of maple syrup. I thought the bacon and maple pairing was a slightly bizarre and very American thing but Hubs devoured it. The bacon was really good and I could see myself ordering more of it. Both the breakfast sets come with a cup of coffee or tea each.

Since I wasn't satisfied I didn't get to try their legendary burgers, we went back again for lunch a few days later. Yes, people, the things I do to satisfy my foodie cravings.

Unfortunately they were out of stock for the pulled pork so we settled on the sukiyaki steak sandwich and the Double Happiness Burger - dubbed the heart attack for its double beef patties, bacon streaks and cheese. Was it worth the return trip back? Yeeeeeeees!

The sukiyaki steak sandwich was beautifully done, thin beef slices grilled and drenched in the most delectable tomato-chilli sauce on an open face sandwich bun. I polished this one off by myself and was almost prepared to order a second one but came to my waistline senses.

They weren't joking when they named the burger as double happiness, Hubs looked as though he was in ecstasy with each bite that he took. Made freshly from ground beef, it had an earthy, herb-iness to it and very well grilled, it was juicy and very tender. I asked Hubs, which was better - Gusto's or Marshall's? He thought about for as he chewed on his burger. Marshall's has a unadulterated beefy taste and comes with veggies, almost like a gourmet version of Ramlee burger. Gusto's patty has a more spice-herb-y earthiness to it, more like a meaty yet slightly sophisticated burger. In the end, he shrugged - why bother picking which is better, Gusto Cafe is open for lunch, Marshall's only starts at dinner time, just have both lah. 

Jason, the owner, is very friendly and approachable. On our second visit there, he came by our table to asked if everything was okay. We got him to describe what the Coronary Bypass burger was: imagine a slice of cheese, bacon and a patty and then ... times that by 4! Very aptly named, me thinks. For those that don't like beef, Gusto Cafe does the same patties but with pork. 

Gusto Cafe
4, Jalan Sungai Kelian, Tanjung Bungah, Penang.
Tel: +6012 595 9811
Opening times: Mon-Fri, 6.30am-3pm; Sat, 8am-3pm, closed on Sunday.

Toys for Bubs

Bubs has been spoiled with gifts this Xmas and lets just say this better be a one off for this year ...

When I heard Sue was going to the US, I begged her to cart me back a box of Magna Tiles. The reviews for them were stellar and I couldn't find a retailer either in Malaysia, Singapore or Australia so I was psyched when Sue got them for me Bubs.

The concept is relatively simple: colourful magnetic tiles that snap together to form geometric shapes. I couldn't agree more with the tagline "where maths, science & creativity meet". We're using them now to build mini buildings and I'm introducing shapes to Bubs. When he gets a bit bigger, I plan to teach him basic geometry with these - Hubs is rolling his eyes and branding me as a tiger mum.

 I initially thought that we'd stop at the Magna Tiles, until I went into the Mothercare store during their year end sale and carted this out at half price (score, bargain!!!)

People, I present to you ... the Tower of Doooooom. 

It took quite a while to set this up, sort of like a 3D jigsaw puzzle but believe it or not, I built 3/4 of this all by myself before I got bored and left the rest to Hubs to complete.

It's even taller than Bubs, lol. We had fun playing exploring all the nooks and crannies in the tower of doom - it comes with a working drawbridge, trapdoor and beautiful details. Can foresee that this definitely be something to play over and over again for a long while.

The last 2 pressies were complete surprises from Aunt D. She is really generous in passing to Bubs fantastic hand me downs that are still in fabulous condition.

Bubs had a blast with the MEGA Bloks Fill & Dump Wagon. The blocks are a good size for his little hands and easier to put together. The wagon is a huge bonus for him, it's so cute to see him drag the it around on its wheels.

I was lost for words when I saw this.

The Injusa electric car has to be the most generous hand me down she has ever given us and Bubs is in total lurrrve with this. It is very sturdy, easily charged and surprisingly fast. It has 2 gears: forward and reverse and when Bubs floor the pedal, it speeds off really fast that even Bubs is jerked to the back. He picked up the concept of changing gears but laughs maniacally whenever he hits walls or runs into us (very often). When asked to steer, he twists the steering wheel left and right frantically while being very heavy footed on the gas pedal. Safe to say, he won't be allowed to drive Hubs's car anytime soon ;)