Baking: Peanut Butter Chips Brownie Cups

Peanut Butter Chips Brownie Cups
This blog started out as a baking blog but lately, the ratio of food review posts to baking posts have shrunk to 10:1 (??). *Sigh* Where has my unstoppable drive for baking gone?

Anyway, to finish up the container of Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder and a packet of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips (both items bought from HK) before I have to throw them out from the pantry, I came across this recipe that uses both items. And much to my delight, it happens to be a really easy recipe too.
And I was not disappointed with the end result either. Best served warm, the slightly moist dark chocolate center with the slightly crusty top paired so well with the yummy peanut butter chips!

So, so delicious.....

If only both Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder and Reese's Peanut Butter Chips are available locally. (If you happen to know where I can get them locally, please, please let me know. TQ)

Starbucks Breakfast Promotion

Swayed by the promo above, and by stories that I heard about these sets being sold out even before mid-morning at some outlets, I found myself at Starbucks one day ordering the Tomato, Basil and Cheese set. I reminded the server to have the sandwich toasted beforehand.


Complimentary cup of Tall Size (12oz) Freshly Brewed Coffee that comes with the set. Coffee was somewhat lukewarm.

I wasn't expecting a gourmet-style sandwich but I was still let-down when I saw the sandwich. To be honest, I could hardly recognized the sandwich when it was served to me after being toasted. It was so "flattened" that it looked like an ordinary white sandwich bread minus the crusts.

Maybe I was hoping that they will serve fresh basil leaves but instead what I got was a couple of sprinkles of some dried basil flakes (not unlike those commercial dried herbs).

Couldn't help but to feel slightly ripped-off. Then again, what could I expect for a RM4.50 breakfast deal at Starbucks....*sigh*

Promotion ends Apr 30.

Taman Sri Sentosa Pan Mee

Continuing my "pan mee" fetish, recently I finally visited this "pan mee" (broad noodles) shop in Taman Sri Sentosa that I have been wanting to try for a long time now ever since I read about it from Boo's and Precious Pea's blogs.

Exterior of shop. No proper sign board, just some chinese characters scribbled on a panel.

Armed with the direction guide from the afore-mentioned blogs, this place is not too hard to find although a bit obsure. My friend and I went at a slightly early lunch hour on a weekday, hence there were ample seats available as the normal lunch crowd had not fully descended yet.

My friend went for the classic pan me, cooked in broth while I chose the other style which is the dry or kon lou.

Classic pan mee cooked in broth


Pan mee "dry" style (served with one small bowl of clear broth on the side)

Both received praises from us. My friend liked the soup version. She thought that the soup was very "ching" (clear) and flavourful. On the contrary, I thought the soup although clear, was not flavourful enough (as in the anchovies stock was not rich enough). I love mine though. The dry version came with some minced meat, deep fried anchovies, leafy greens, chinese mushroom in a delicious black sauce. Mix everything together, it was utterly delicious! I requested for my usual preference which is the hand-shredded noodles (vs the machine-shredded noodles), I was told that they only have one style which is the "hand-pulled" style. The noodles came in long ribbon strands and were rather thick in texture. Because of this, it was chewy yet bouncy. Very nice indeed!

Chili sauce
The compulsory condiment to go along with pan mee is of course the chili. Different shops prepared them differently. My personal favourite is Lian Heng's style (aka minced cili padi). The chili sauce provided here is adequate enough although not remarkable. Cut limes are also provided so that you can squeeze it over the chili sauce to give it an extra zing.


Original Pandan Chicken
I also order their original-flavoured pandan chicken (also available in black pepper flavour). It was so aromatic when it reached our table. It was another winner in my books! Deep-fried succulent chicken, slightly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Also, it seems like it was stuffed with some kind of paste that reminded me of otak-otak. Not sure about this, but it was how it tasted like to me when I bit into the flesh.


So far, so good, no? Oh well, I did have some gripes about this place. Firstly is their serving size. The pan mee is available in either BIG or SMALL serving size. Naturally, we ordered the small size but it was one of those rare occassions when I was actually taken by surprise to see how small the serving was (small bowl costs RM4.50). It should be re-labelled as XS instead. Secondly is the "smell" of the surrounding. Not sure if this is the norm but when we were there, the air reeked of a foul "longkang" smell. Not sure where it came from as there was no sight of a rubbish dump near the shop and the surrounding looked "ok" enough. We sat near a blowing fan so that the stench wouldn't spoil our appetite. But other than that, I would like to come again for their dry pan mee and the pandan chicken!

Read about my other pan mee adventures here, here and here.