Review: Battle of the Taiwanese Dessert House and Bubble Tea.

Dessert houses are sprouting like mushrooms in Malaysia these days. First it was the donuts craze, now it is Taiwanese dessert houses and bubble tea. It is quite interesting to see how some people can be so crazy adamant about those desserts that they would actually queue up in ridiculously long lines to order. Mind you, there may not even be seats available in the shop!! Looks like people don’t even mind the ban on bubble teas issued by our Ministry of Health. *shrug*

Fortunately for me I don’t fancy them but unfortunately for me, my husband does. So sometimes I have to brave the throngs of people to satisfy his cravings. In view of the uprising trend, I shall do a review of desserts that I have tried before.

Contender #1: Battle of the Dessert Shops - Honeymoon Desert vs. Hong Kong Dessert

1) Honeymoon Desert.

(Honestly what’s with the dickhead logo? It’s quite disturbing.)

Hie .. I like to lick myself

Noticed that this shop specializes in all sorts of mango desserts. If you ask me, it is no difference than KTZ in SS2. I find the desserts a tad too sweet for my liking and they ODed on the artificial flavoring.

Some mud-pie concoction  of tau foo fah and er .. black sesame.
Don't know why the hubby tried to be adventurous that day.
It taste as yucky as it looks. 

Some mango loh

Some mix fruits loh

Some ice-shavings strawberry thingy

However, the durian and mango pancakes are awesome!! But still cannot beat those sold in kiosks in The Curve and Gardens for RM10 for 6 pieces. Of course, the Chinese Restaurant in Mandarin Oriental also serves awesome durian pancakes! 

Sedap!

2) Hong Kong Dessert @ Tim Pan Kor Kor.

So far I've tried them twice – both times also I ordered “tong yuen” (glutinous rice balls in ginger soup). Yeah, one of the only few dessert that tickles my fancy is the ol’ skool “tong yuen”. The ginger soup was too sweet and lacks the ginger taste – it almost taste like syrup soup. The “tong yuen” itself was not too bad. Hubby and my coussies tried some other dessert though and so far they didn't rave about it, so I take it that it is so-so only.

The durian and mango pancakes sucks, so don’t bother trying. The skin and cream is way too thick, whereas they kiam on the filling. So little only!!

Tak sedap

Well, when it comes to “tong yuen”, the grumpy aunty in Bukit Tinggi Klang serves the best – really “kau” ginger soup to the extent that you can taste the spiciness, not too sweet, and the soup is piping hot! The texture of the “tong yuen” is just right – not too soft, not too hard. Cheap and good. Mmmmm ~

Bukit Tinggi Klang cheap and good Tong Yuen

Side Bet: THE Snowflake Taiwanese Dessert.

(A lot of people I know would fall down on their knees and worship the person who was responsible in bringing the franchises into Malaysia.)

Got to admit that this is pretty original (in Malaysia at least). Basically you can choose a mixture of ingredients which you fancy and voila ~ a bowl of dessert is produced. Of course, if it is your first time, then you should try their taro balls, which are chewy tapioca balls (?). Actually I have no idea what are those orange balls. 0_o"

The most famous mix is of course the Coco Loco (apparently that’s what my hubby told me). The Coco Loco consists of Coconut Ice + Taro Balls + Stringz + Grass Jelly + Gula Melaka. I don’t even know what are some of those ingredients so don’t bother asking me.

Coco Loco which drives people loco trying to
queue up for a bowl of this.

I've to admit  though, the desserts served by Snowflake is pretty darn good. Natural, not much preservatives, sweetness is just right, and the texture of its ingredients is consistent. No wonder people queue up like mad. Justifiable.

My Verdict: The grumpy aunty in Klang wins hands down!

Contender #2: Battle of the Bubble Teas - Chatime vs. Gong Cha

1) Gong Cha.

My cousin and Sue has been talking on and on and on about how fantastic the bubble tea is at Gong Cha. So one of those random days, we tried and hubby loved it (Disclaimer: He is the #1 Fan of all things Bubble Tea). It is definitely different as they uses fresh juice / tea instead of powder, hence the flavor doesn't taste artificial and thus more healthier (?). Got to admit that the pearls are nice, chewy, and had a bouncy texture to it. Really nice! The uniqueness of Gong Cha is the top-layer of foam milk (I think it is foam milk la) which everyone adores. However, I find the foam milk a bit too jelak for my liking.

2) Chatime.
(Jakun me initially pronounced it as Chat-Time -__-")

Had my first try recently and this was pretty good too. Again the drink and pearls are awesome. The thing that I like about Chatime is that they have way more varieties and flavors. They also serve really nice hot drinks too (try the Japanese Green Tea Matcha and Brown Rice Tea) and they are really sedap! Macam Starbucks .. with pearls.

My Verdict: Chatime because of its awesome Japanese Green Tea Matcha which can almost top Starbucks' Green Tea Latte (not to mention cheaper too!).

Conclusion is I tak kisah which is better which is not because I don't go craving over desserts... too sweet for me. And I find these desserts/bubble tea are not exactly cheap also unless if you go to the grumpy lady in Klang.  I prefer a hot cup of cappuccino or latte. Anytime. :)

Love;
Mrs Lee