Sri Lanka Day 4 - Colombo

Went back to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka and we visited Gangaramaya temple in the morning. It's a popular tourist attraction, as well as a place of Buddhist worship and learning in Colombo. The temple is quite big and there's many interesting stuff to see. It has a library and a museum which holds numerous Buddha statues from all over the world, old watches and many other antique collectibles. The place which I really like is the courtyard area where the big Bohdi tree is and also the stepped out wall with many Buddha statues were installed in rows.

I would really like to recommend this place BUT I just found out that there's a chained elephant named Ganga in this temple and it was mistreated/abused by its handler and being used to make more money. It was until today when I googled about this temple and found a video clip of Ganga being beaten abusively then only i knew its existence. There's no sight of it when we visited so we had no idea about this, the guide didn't mention about it as well. Hope that proper actions are being taken and Ganga will get the proper care and treatment as it deserves.

Ended our day with a visit to the Independence Memorial Hall and some shopping at one of their biggest shopping malls in town. Back to hotel and it was such a bliss to have a sunset sea view just outside our hotel room window.

SYNC Korean Fusion Bistro

I have to admit that the main reason I want to visit SYNC Bistro is because of their matcha lava cake..haha! SYNC Bistro is located at Westgate which is super duper far away from where i stay. Ever since I moved to Bugis from Boon Lay, i rarely go to the west area..lol! Anyway, I decided to travel down just for the matcha lava cake and i was glad that it didn't disappoint! SYNC Bistro is divided into 2 seating areas which are the indoor air conditioned area and the outdoor alfresco area. We were seated at the outdoor area on that day.

For our appetizer and main, we ordered the Gamja Tukim aka kimchi cheese fries ($6.90), jap chae ($11.90), topokki ($7.90) and ja jang myeon ($12.90) to share. Some might think the combination of kimchi and cheese fries will be kinda weird but the spiciness of the kimchi actually balance the dish and make the cheese fries less gelat to eat! The topokki that topped with fried shallots and bacon bits was so yummy plus the egg was a lava egg, not your usual ordinary hard boiled egg..lol!! This was the first time i had ja jang myeon and i thought the taste was pretty unique! The jap chae here was really yummy too!

Ok, here comes the highlight of the meal..the lava cakes! We initially ordered a matcha lava to share but it was so nice that we couldn't resist to order another flavor..hehe! I really LOVE their matcha lava cake omg just look at the oozing goodness (insert heart eyes)! The green tea taste is so rich and flavorful but not too overpowering! Every bite is love!!!  The white chocolate red bean lava cake on the other hand was just decent, I would definitely choose matcha lava over red bean lava hehe!


SYNC Korean Fusion Bistro
Westgate
3 Gateway Drive #03-01/01A
Singapore 608532
Sun-Thurs: 11am-11pm
Fri & Sat: 11am-12am

Sushi Zanmai

I've always been a fan of Japanese food especially sashimi, sushi and yakitori! Sushi Zanmai is a well know sushi chain in Kuala Lumpur. I wanted to try Sushi Zanmai when I was in KL couple years ago but didn't get to try it because of the insanely long queue..lol! They recently opened a new outlet in JB so we decided to give it a try. We ordered some sushi, yakitori, grilled saba, gyoza, tamago (my must order whenever i visit a jap restaurant XD) and a sashimi moriawase. My favorite dish is the grilled saba, the fish was grilled to perfection and the meat was so juicy and sweet! Overall i think the food was quite decent but nothing to shout about, price is quite affordable though.


Sushi Zanmai (Malaysia, Johor Bahru)
Lot 209, Level 2, KOMTAR JBCC,
80000 Johor Bahru.
Open daily: 10am-10pm

Bornga Korean BBQ Restaurant

My love for korean food never dies. Just some visuals of the food that we had at Bornga few weeks ago. We ordered 2 servings of marinated pork ribs, kimchi soup, seafood pancake and the seafood toppokki to share among 3. A long tray of fresh vegetables was served on every table and this was the 1st time I saw so much varieties of vegetable for us to wrap the bbq meat in a korean bbq restaurant. I love their marinated pork ribs a lot, wanted to try the beef one but my parents don't take beef so next time maybe! The seafood pancake was really delicious too, their version was a bit thicker and fluffy like egg omelette but it still remain crispy! Need not say more, Bornga has easily become one of my favorite korean restaurant in JB..hehe!


Bornga Korean BBQ Restaurant 본가 (Malaysia, Johor Bahru)
Unit MF-23, Level 3,
Johor Bahru City Square Shopping Mall
Open Daily: 10am-10pm

Real Food

My friend and I decided to eat clean this time round instead of the usual heavy dinner. Came across this place online so we decided to give it a try. Real Food is a 3-in-1 grocer, vegetarian/organic-cafe and bookstore which located at The Central, Clarke Quay. The cafe is hidden in the basement of Central, never knew the existence of Real Food until that day..lol! Real Food serves organic and vegetarian food and I only realized it was a vegan restaurant upon browsing through their menu, lol! Took quite some time to explore the menu as we seldom dine at a meat-free cafe..haha! 

We ordered steam dumplings ($7.00), genovese pesto pasta ($9.80) and a organic pizza ($13.80) to share. First time eating so much vege..with no meat at all lol! Anyway I love the steam dumplings the most! Their dumplings are handmade with more than 10 ingredients such as carrots, mushrooms, bean curd (well i hate bean curd but i dun taste it in the dumplings hahaha!), french beans, chestnuts, etc. My friend and I don't really fancy the pesto pasta as it was a little bit dry and i dun think we like the taste of pesto? Hahaha :p  This was my first organic meal in Singapore and i thought it was pretty good..heard that their burgers are really good so maybe we should try it next time when we feel like eating clean again..lol!

REAL FOOD

6 Eu Tong Sen Street

The Central #B1-52/53

Tel: +65 62244-492

Open daily: 10am - 9.30pm (Last Order 9pm)