5 interesting snacks I bought back from Sibu

1. Marmite Rice Cakes

Marmite Rice Cakes

Marmite is something you either love or hate. It’s a very divisive yeast extract meant to be spread on toast. I went to Christchurch, New Zealand when I was 15 for my high school and fell in love with it immediately. I’ve since tried the Australian and United Kingdom version and but I’ve never seen their rice cakes before. Naturally, a got a couple of packs to bring back to KL.

2. Cadbury Roses Strawberry Dream

Cadbury Roses Strawberry Dream

This is a limited edition flavor of Cadbury Roses. I always make it a point to go to the local import specialty shop to get some snacks before I go back. They had a huge sale this time since lots of the items are close to expiry. I decided to grab a couple of packs since I can eat a lot of chocolate in a day, so it doesn’t matter to me if the use by date is next month.

3. White Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

White Reeses PB Cups

I love Reese’s PB Cups but not everyone likes them. This is the white chocolate version. I wanted to bring some back for my better half to try since this variety isn’t very common. The stuff here is all made in the country of origin too – United States, UK, Australia etc etc. It’s a real blessing that we have such a bounty of imported chocolate and snacks in such a small town.

4. Twizzlers

Twizzlers

I love licorice and would buy a big pack of plain store-brand licorice twists when I was studying in Australia. I’m partial to the aniseed taste but I know a lot of people don’t like them. It’s another love-it-or-hate-it candy. I chose licorice as one of the flavors when we went to Ladurée at Champs-Élysées during our trip to France. I adore it and this is spiked with Hershey’s chocolate to boot. My dear doesn’t like it *at all* but I plan to proselytize to her. smirk

5. Whoppers

Whoppers Malted Milk Balls

OMG! This is quite rare in Malaysia. You always see Maltesers (made by Mars) instead of Whoppers (Hershey’s). The latter was invented first and is more common in Commonwealth (or ex-British colonies, like our country). Whoppers are a United States product and honestly, I prefer Maltesers since I grew up with them. However, it’s harder to find Whoppers so I got a two boxes to bring back. 🙂

Cadbury Egg n Spoon: The most interesting chocolate Easter Egg in 2015!

Okay, I’m a huge fan of Easter Eggs. I once sent a 1 kg chocolate Easter Egg back from Melbourne to Sibu! It was all eaten by ants by the time it arrived but it’s the thought that counts. I used to stock up on lots of Cadbury Crème Eggs when it goes on a massive sale the day after Easter but generally there’s not a lot of innovation in these things – you get the traditional Easter Eggs, chocolate hot cross buns (like this one I had while studying in Australia – blogged about it *12 years ago* almost to the day), chocolate Easter bunnies and that’s about it.

Cadbury Egg N Spoon

Until now! The past few years have seen hen-sized Easter Eggs packed in a traditional egg carton/box but they’re mostly artisanal products. Cadbury produced their Egg ‘n’ Spoon range just a couple of years back but it was different then. This *new* range is filled with white chocolate mousse inside the hen-sized chocolate egg so you can eat the inside with a spoon – which is conveniently provided!

This is a UK import, it retails for close to RM 40 here (which is a high markup from the £2 it sells for there). I’ll let you all know how it tastes like once we’ve eaten it. smirk

I made my own chocolate bar at the Kit Kat Rubies launch!

Kit Kat Rubies Group

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Kit Kat Rubies launch at The Royale Chulan Damansara Hotel. This is in fact the worldwide première of the Kit Kat Rubies as the opening launch is in Malaysia – that’s right, we’re the first ones to get it! 🙂

Kit Kat Rubies Photo

There were selfie props at the photo wall so I decided to take one with Aud and the two girls dressed up in Kit Kat Rubies attire. They’re supposed to take a photo of us, but I thought it’ll be nice to have a photo with them flanking us. Haha.

Kit Kat Rubies Packaging

The event started soon after that and Mr. Sachin Goel (Business Executive Manager, Confectionery Business Unit, Nestle Products Sdn Bhd) and Mr Thierry Martin (Innovation & Renovation Manager, Confectionery Business Unit) went up for the launch gambit.

Kit Kat Rubies Presentation

It was our first look at the Kit Kat Rubies packaging…

Kit Kat Rubies Launch

…which opened up to show a beautifully crafted two-tiered box which opens up both ways to show off an array of Kit Kat Rubies!

Kit Kat Rubies

This gem of a chocolate is individually wrapped and contains an indulgent piece of rich chocolate truffle filling with a crispy wafer centre, and pieces of hazelnut encased in silky smooth milk chocolate. The chocolate truffle cream is created from the finest ingredients brought in from Spain and the crispy wafer centre stays true to the Kit Kat name.

Kit Kat Chocolatier

I had a chance to go up while Mr. Thierry Martin was conducting a chocolate making workshop and mixed my own liquid chocolate. This was an extremely fun experience for the media, each of us got the opportunity to make our own chocolate bar with the ingredients we wanted!

Liquid Chocolate

I opted to put everything except nuts into my chocolate since I wanted to make this for my better half and she didn’t like chocolates. I had these to choose from:

  • Strawberry pieces
  • Chocolate crumble
  • Crisped cereal
  • Almonds
  • Hazelnuts

Making Chocolate

I mixed the top three together well in my liquid chocolate before pouring it into my mould. We had name stickers on the moulds so we won’t mix it up while it set. I actually took a photo of the ingredients we had to work with and used Whatsapp to send it to my dear to ask what she wanted in her chocolate.

Chocolate Moulding

It took a while for the chocolate bar to set but as soon as that was done, it was packed up and I rushed to pass my better half her personalized handcrafted chocolate bar:

Handcrafted Chocolate Bar

We were the first to sample the Kit Kat Rubies and there was a lot going around during the Kit Kat Rubies launch. It’s really indulgent – I loved the chocolate truffle and hazelnuts inside the silky smooth milk chocolate that holds it together. The crimson red individually wrapped pieces adds a touch of class and makes it perfect for sharing.

Kit Kat Rubies Individual

Kit Kat Rubies is an ideal gift for the festive season too – the 2-tier packaging is beautiful and it’s perfect as a gift! No matter the occasion, be it Christmas (it lasts for 12 days), New Year, or even Chinese New Year, Kit Kat Rubies would be an excellent gift. It works for birthdays, celebrations or even just giving for the sake of giving.

Kit Kat Rubies Media

I loved the Kit Kat Rubies launch, especially the chocolate making workshop and the unveiling of the product – it was a lot of fun and all of us enjoyed it immensely. I know what I’m going to give as gifts for this festive season! 🙂

8 fun things we did for our Christmas Eve celebrations!

Christmas Photo 2014

It’s Christmas Eve today! We actually celebrated this year’s Christmas dinner earlier since the kids have tuition and other Christmas party commitments later in the week. Here’s 8 things we did this festive season:

1. Christmas crackers

Pulling Christmas Cracker

This was the first order of the night! We each had a Christmas cracker (the kids had two) and everyone pulled theirs with a partner.

Christmas Cracker Toys

I got a mini basketball game but the bigger one was looking at it with more than a little bit of envy. Haha. I could see it in her eyes but she was too polite to ask me for it so I exchanged mine with hers (a small deck of Mystery Calculator cards – the least popular one).

Christmas Crackers Kids

The smallest one got a purple hairband and a really cute pair of badminton rackets (complete with shuttlecock) which you can actually play with. The party favor my better half got was a pirate eyepiece. The biggest one also got a deck of cards – tiny ones but a complete 52 card deck. There were also selfie props in the box, which we used for our family Christmas photo.

2. Turkey dinner

Christmas Eve Turkey

I had roasted a turkey with cornbread stuffing and demi-glace earlier in the day and we all ate till we were fit to burst. It’s such a huge bird that I think I’ll be eating leftovers for at least a week!

Turkey Demi Glace

It’s all good though and the demi-glace was delicious!

3. Chocolate Monopoly

Chocolate Monopoly Kids

Dinner done, the kids couldn’t wait to break open the Chocolate Monopoly set so we all played a complete round. You’re actually supposed to eat the chocolates in the middle if you land on a particular color which is already taken but the kids unanimously decided to “keep the chocolate Monopoly pieces forever” so they can play with them next time.

Playing Chocolate Monopoly

I thought that was funny and adorable so that’s the way we played it. No one has ate even a single piece of the Chocolate Monopoly up to now. smirk

4. Eggnog

Borden Eggnog

I bought a quart of Borden Eggnog and doled it out while we were finishing the Chocolate Monopoly game. The bigger one liked it but no one else did except me – I *loved* it. Borden makes a really good eggnog – if you like *ultra thick* custard-like consistency. It’s like drinking crème caramel without the caramel.

It’s so thick you can hear the “glug glug glug” as it attempts to pour out:

The eggnog is more custard than liquid and spiced nicely with cinnamon too and it’s delicious when mixed with a little cognac (none for the kids, of course). Lovely stuff that you see on the shelves once a year.

5. Pandoro

Pandoro

We ate a lot of panettone last year and this year and we decided to get a 1 kg pandoro for Christmas Eve dinner instead. Pandoro is the speciality Christmas cake for Verona (it’s also popular in Venice) and tastes completely different from panettone (which is from Milan). There are actually six (!!!) different regional Christmas cakes in Italy.

Pandoro Classico

I thought I wanted to expose the kids to different foods and since we already ate panettone, it was pandoro for the after-dinner dessert. Pandoro is also a sweet leavened product that’s dusted with sugar and shaped like a frustum. I love pandoro, you can scoop out the middle and add gelato inside and it’s meant to look like an 8-sided snow mountain.

6. Christmas tree

Christmas Tree

I wanted to get a large real Christmas tree (it’s about RM 600) but my better half forbade it. The trees actually shed a lot of needles every day so it can be a chore to clean up after it. We settled for a fake miniature Christmas tree instead.

7. LEGO time

LEGO City

This was the part which the kids were most looking forward to. They have been huge fans of LEGO since the LEGO movie came out and we encouraged their creativity – it’s good for them. The collection that we’re getting for the kids is the LEGO CITY range and I bought them a large set with a large police set-up with boats.

Building LEGO

It basically involves a generic LEGO bad guy escaping with pilfered cash and jewels in a boat while the police goes after him. The amazing thing is that the boats actually float in water! We each assembled a section and I finished up the most difficult part where a thread had to be tied into a hook to attach to the LEGO police boat – it actually has working parts that moves to winch the boat up!

LEGO Floating Boats

We had a lot of quality time together with the kids on this one – various scenarios were enacted and played out. I role-played the lazy LEGO police who would not move out with the truck containing the boat until the kids got the police lingo right. Haha.

LEGO Working Winch

We actually have a new site dedicated to LEGO minis now, it’s primarily done by my awesome better half, who takes amazing posed photos with our growing collection of LEGO minifigures – the site is called tumblingminis.com

8. Family photo

Christmas Photo

This is our Christmas 2014 family photo! It was taken with the selfie props from the Christmas crackers and I thought it made for a nice photo. It serves as a digital Christmas card too – I sent it to my dad and my sister and they both loved it to bits.

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us! May the festive season bring you joy, peace and love. 🙂

12 things I bought for Christmas

1. Chocolate Monopoly

Chocolate Monopoly

This is an awesome find for RM 59.95! It’s a licensed Monopoly board game but all the cards, game pieces and property are replaced with chocolate pieces. The rules are somewhat similar but it’s of the spinner variety (there is no Monopoly money) so I thought it’ll be a great game for us to play with the kids on Christmas coz you can eat the chocolate pieces afterwards.

2. Christmas crackers

Tom Smith Selfie Christmas Crackers

An essential for the festive season, Christmas crackers are large pieces of cardboard with a snapper firecracker inside that explodes with a bang. The fun bit is that there’s miniature toys inside – usually tiny keepsakes that can range from a small compass to fart cushions. I bought a pack of six of the Tom Smith luxury version (RM 59.90) – one each for us and the kids plus two extra for my dear’s parents.

3. Snickers Slice n’ Share

Huge Snickers Slice Share

This is a *gigantic* bar of Snickers! It’s not pre-cut so it’s a solid block of candy that weighs 453.6 grams. You have to slice it into pieces yourself, thus the name. I’ve never seen this format before. I think it’s specially made for the 2014 festive season since it fits well with the large family dinner and sharing theme. This solid 1 pound (!!!) block of Snickers costs a staggering RM 68.95.

4. Porky Salt

Porky Salt

Haha! This is made by Garam Haram which literally translates to Forbidden Salt (and it rhymes too). It’s a play on the fact that pork is forbidden (haram) to Muslims and this is literally bacon infused salt. Porky Salt is a local artisanal product that’s just RM 15 and I can think of many ways to use it this Christmas dinner, whether we roast a traditional turkey like last year or go Asian.

5. Panettone

Panettone

What is Christmas without panettone? This brioche like edible is a Christmas staple in Milan and I’ve only seen it suddenly appear on the market in the last few years. I went to an Italian restaurant and had a wonderful “tiramisu” made with panettone in 2012 and I thought it was lovely. We also bought one last year for our Christmas celebrations. It’s tastier than the rock solid fruitcake that we’re used to eating before panettone started to flood the market as an alternative.

6. Giant Juicy Fruit

Giant Chewing Gum

Yup, this classic by Wrigley’s is supersized for the holidays! smirk I loved chewing on these when I was in high school – so much so that my Physics teacher in Christchurch called me “Eater”. Needless to say, I wasn’t a model student but I quite liked that nickname. You can eat in most classes in New Zealand (they’re not as strict as over here) but that particular educator didn’t like anyone doing so.

7. Huge roll of Life Savers

Giant Lifesavers

This classic sweet has put on some weight for the festive season too. The plus sized roll of Lifesavers is now 30 times as large as a regular roll! I used to eat this in high school too, it was cheap and I’m particular to the Musk flavored ones but you can’t find that flavor outside of Australia and New Zealand for some reason. Musk is not a popular flavor except down under.

8. White Cheddar Popcorn

White Cheddar Popcorn

You know how some people decorate their Christmas trees with popcorn? Well, not us, we prefer to *eat* popcorn. Especially if it’s this expensive! This bag of savory popcorn costs RM 21.90 and it’s made in the US by Angie’s. This is the White Cheddar flavor and they use all natural organic ingredients. It also checks all the healthy tick-boxes by being gluten-free, low trans fat, and whole grain.

9. Crème Brûlée

Creme Brulee

I accidentally bought this RM 12.50 packet of crème brûlée, thinking it was crème caramel. I love the latter, have eaten heaps of them as a kid (my mom used to make them) but it seems like they dropped off the face of the Earth! Since the advent of crème brûlée, the preparation without the blow-torched hard crack top seems to have disappeared. It used to be served in coffee-shops and I’ve been missing crème caramel since.

10. Christmas hampers

Christmas Hampers

‘Tis the season to be giving! I bought a RM 280 Christmas hamper for my better half so we could open it on Christmas Eve. I was torn between the one inside the sleigh and the one that’s in a large tube wooden reusable box (there’s only a RM 20 price difference) and after much consideration, chose the former. The retail assistant told me they both contain the same thing, it’s the wooden sleigh that’s more expensive due to craftsmanship.

11. Valrhona chocolates

Valrhona

It hurts my brain to even see this. Haha! We had gotten Valrhona chocolates from France – they have really good single origin Grand Crus and it’s the chocolate of choice for many high end Parisian fine dining restaurants. It’s very expensive to source your own Grand Crus from small gourmet purveyors like what Michelin starred restaurants do so this is the next best thing. I found it while shopping at BIG in Publika – I didn’t even know Malaysia stocks this.

12. Eggnog

Eggnog

You can’t have Christmas without eggnog. I have tried making my own but it’s a time consuming process if you have a turkey and other sides to take care of and store bought tastes just as good. They even have eggnog with alcohol included (mixture of brandy, whisky and rum for 14.75% alcohol) for RM 85.90 for 1.75 litres but if you have your own spirits, you can just get the regular 1 quart (946 ml) Grade A Eggnog for RM 23.90 and add your own to taste.

Short mention:

Christmas Hamper Ling

I used my credit card to purchase this Christmas hamper that I got my better half. I wanted to get my dear something nice and this beautiful reindeer sleigh contains all her favorites – hot chocolate, cookies, Turkish Delight. There’s even some marshmallows for the kids and a stuffed toy that looks suspiciously like Olaf from Frozen. I’ve been using my Maybank credit card for *everything* since I can get my purchases for free with their I LOVE 100% Cashback campaign! Just spend with your Maybank cards from now until 31st January 2015 and get your expenses paid off!

Check it out – there’s nothing better than getting your festive season spending paid off with a 100% cashback to spread some festive cheer! 🙂

Death by Chocolate Ultimate Breakfast Wrap

death by choc wrap

I made this sinfully delicious wrap for *breakfast* over the weekend. I just woke up and wanted to get something to eat. We went grocery shopping the night before and we always get a huge tub of ice cream before heading back. My dear picked this one:

death by chocolate

It’s appropriately called Death by Chocolate Premium Ice Cream. It’s described as “a chocolate lover’s delight featuring decadent chocolate ice cream, chocolate candy pieces and crunchy almonds”. It also has bits of chocolate brownies inside!

death by chocolate ingredients

To make the Death by Chocolate Ultimate Breakfast Wrap, you will need:

  • Wholegrain tortilla wraps
  • Death by Chocolate Premium Ice Cream (or any other ultra chocolate ice cream)
  • Soft cheese stick from a bakery
  • Muesli

The muesli is not just there to give it a healthy illusion – it actually tastes really yummy! It’s Dorset Cereals – 50% of the contents are fruit, nuts and seeds. I was eating the Super Cranberry, Cherry and & Almond – described as “an exquisite blend of cranberries, cherries and almonds with raisins, sultanas, sunflower seeds and toasted cereals”. It’s essential for the crunchy texture it provides!

muesli

I also thought that putting a soft cheese stick (we got it from a bakery) would make this a more substantial meal since we’re going to share it. I was right since it was so good I think she ate more than her fair share. smirk

I scooped out *almost a pint* of the Death by Chocolate ice cream into a tortilla wrap and sprinkled muesli on it before adding on the cheese stick. I couldn’t actually wrap it so we ate it like a soft taco.

death by chocolate us

I had one bite and she had one bite and we started taking bigger and bigger bites and before long it was all gone. It’s coz we used so much ice cream in the wrap, it’s the exact opposite of the healthy Greek yoghurt sandwich I made. This one is absolutely delicious – so much so that it was devoured more than eaten. Haha!

death by choc

I gave her more though coz I know she really liked it. <3

Caviar and chocolate on wholemeal crisp rolls

chocolate caviar rolls

I’ve been down with the flu for the past few days and just woke up totally ravished after not eating for almost 24 hours. I rummaged about in my severely diminished pantry and decided to go with something very salty which doesn’t require much preparation as I’m still a bit sluggish.

Enter the tube of Smogaskaviar I got a few days ago. It’s not real caviar (cod roe, salthe roe, pacific cod roe for 51% of the total contents) but it is extremely salty. Heh.

It comes in a tube that I’ll rather call fish roe spread and I squeezed it all over a bag of wholemeal crisp rolls. I wanted to break the salty monotony (and monopoly) after the fifth one so I decided to top it off with a piece of dark chocolate.

chocolate caviar crisp roll

It’s surprisingly good, but would taste better if I had melted the chocolate.

It ain’t chicken soup for the soul but it sure is another one for the continuing bread story. smirk

A selection of Hors d’oeuvre

chocolate cubes

This is one of the most awesome chocolates I’ve ever had – it’s made of over 80% cocoa, very dark and bittersweet, with a dusting to finish it.

chocolate cocoa

I think a whole bunch of us in Singapore had way too much of these. I know I certainly did, totally ruined my appetite for dinner.

hors d oeuvre

This is pretty good too – it’s a layered chocolate cake and almost impossible to dissect but let me attempt to describe it – it contains layer after layer of moist and fluffy pastry covered with chocolate. I was impressed, it was so light it felt like I was eating mostly air.

lobster shots

Lobster shooters. I liked this one too – awesomely concocted pieces of lobsters with the accompanying sauces and garnishes in one ready-to-drink (eat?) shot.

liquor chocolates

This were the chocolates that had liquor in it – it’s infused with Bailey’s Irish Cream. I preferred the original high cocoa content chocolate cubes instead but a lot of others liked these. 🙂

The Pursuit of Happiness

happiness

The United States Declaration of Independence has an oft quoted line – Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. It’s misunderstood by a lot of people. Your happiness is not guaranteed…the sentence is supposed to give you the basic unalienable human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (emphasis mine).

What is happiness? Well, it depends on the individual but it is your right to seek your own happiness. To me, happiness is a state of mind where you’re content with everything in your life.

flying

Happiness is something money cannot buy. A lot of people are unhappy about their financial situation but I believe that’s an unnecessary worry. The Chinese has a proverb that goes “Money is something that you can always earn back when you lose it”. There’s another phrase that goes “There will be water if God wills it” but that comes from the less reputable and more modern Dark Tower series of books by Stephen King. 😉

roman bath

Happiness is a state of mind that I always try to strive for. I’m happy when I’m doing the things I like such as travelling. It enriches me and makes me a more understanding and better person when I meet new people and learn about new cultures. I’m even happier when I’m spending quality time with loved ones – friends, family, my girlfriend.

It’s all too easy to get caught up in the rat race and forget about the simple things in life that lifts your mood:

  • Finding a parking space as soon as you enter a full car park
  • The smell of freshly cut grass
  • Laughing at corny jokes
  • Having a baby smile at you
  • A fellow commuter stopping to let you drive out of a particularly busy exit
  • Waking up and realizing it’s the weekend so you can sleep in
  • Watching a sweet TVC that makes you smile

These are all little things which makes yout day just that little bit brighter. It has a cumulative effect and happiness is highly contagious – it’s like laughter. It’s meant to be shared. 🙂

I watched the Cadbury TVC and repeated it twice coz it was just so sweet. I found it adorable – the simple sweet joy (pun not intended) that permeates the entire commercial. It has all the elements done right – the humor, the camaraderie of neighborhood love, and a dash of romance.

resort

I took it upon myself to make a video similar to that. I was in Miri, Sarawak at that time to help my girlfriend move her stuff to KL. We spent a weekend in the Marriott Resort and Spa in Miri. It’s located right on the beach by the South China Sea and we booked a chalet facing the pool and sea.

You just need to open the sliding glass door to get out. There’s a balcony which is less than 10 meters from the pool – it’s almost like having a pool right at your doorstep!

view

I thought up the idea of having a series of unfortunate events much like the original TVC. The entire video was shot over a period of 2 days. I didn’t have a professional videographer so I had to think of how to get the scenes right.

I also wanted a “happy” vibe so everything is shot in daylight – it’s bright and sunny with no indoor scenes except the initial phone call. I’ll go through the more interesting bits to give you a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of the video. 🙂

The splash

tripod

The first mishap you see (the one where I exit the house just to get splashed by a wayward neighbor’s dirty mop water) is done using a tripod. The one holding the bucket is…*drumroll*…Jeanie herself. The bucket was too heavy for her and we had to do two takes. I ended up changing coz the first splash totally failed – she went into the scene, propelled by the momentum and weight of the bucket of water.

We filled it with less water in the second take. I didn’t want to use up the rapidly dwindling backpack of attire I brought along. 😡

The car not being able to start

You’ll see the same car in the next scene so I did an extreme close up so you won’t see the make, model or color of the car. 🙂

The accident scene

car

This one wasn’t too hard to do. It only required the two of us to pull it off. I filmed Jeanie driving towards me. I told her to put her foot on the gas and not worry about hitting me.

After that part was filmed, I passed the camera to her and she filmed me being caught like a deer in the headlights as the car (apparently) came barreling down on me.

The next scene was me twitching on the car bonnet after being “hit”. It took some video transitions to make it look comically realistic (without actually hitting me with the car).

It was originally longer but I thought the bit where I ended up wandering about dazed after being hit was a little too much so I cut it from the editing board. You can watch the full original scene here:

I spent a lot of time editing the videos – it’s a good learning process but it took me the better part of 3 days of almost continuous tweaking to get the timing and synchronization right. I’m a newbie in video production, thus the learning curve.

The sea

beach

This is one of the scenes that I took out of the video as I thought it won’t contribute much to it. The beach walk also had to be sped up 4x so it won’t drag on.

The underwater scene

underwater

This is a bit of a retrofit. It was meant to be all fluff – a cool video taken underwater. I have a waterproof digicam and I figured it would be nifty to take a video underwater. I knew it won’t make much sense since I appear with my shirt on in the next scene…until I saw someone being escorted out by security.

pool

The Marriott has a strict policy – only guests are allowed to use the resort facilities and The Proverbial Light Bulb (TM) came on. It shall be the scene where I evade the guards! smirk

I put that in the caption (used the Confucius angle), and the rest, as they say, is history.

The end scene

people

After all those trials and tribulations, we finally shot the last scene beside the pool. There’s this comfy sofa and we enlisted the help of a kind lady from France who was more than obliged to help us film this scene. The inter-cuts you see at the end is filmed by us – I did her and she did me.

The chocolate

cadbury old

I swear this was the hardest part of the video – we went to several different shops in Miri but none of them had Cadbury Dairy Milk. They have others – the ones with nuts, Old Gold, and others…but not the original. It took us 2 hours before we stumbled upon a shop that sells it. I bought 5 x 75 gram bars.

cadbury new

I then realized that it was the old packaging when I chanced upon a shop with the new packaging. I bought more of it and re-shot some of the scenes again. I have a lot of chocolate now but I love Cadbury Dairy Milk so it’s all good. 😀

cadbury dairy milk

We actually did share it – there were a couple of kids running around in the resort and I passed them several bars. I thought their parents would balk – candy from strangers and all that, but they thanked us for it and one even bought us drinks from the poolside bar.

poolside

The kids loved it. One of them came up to me and she showed me her toy – a launcher she was playing with beside the pool that launches a baby dinosaur up into the air by pumping air into the tube. That was the highlight of doing the video – sharing the Cadbury chocolate and seeing the little ones enjoying it by the pool during their holiday. 🙂

Here’s my masterpiece:

What do you think?

Do you need a dose of happiness? Join the Cadbury Facebook page and get some! 🙂

theobroma CHOCOLATE Lounge

theobroma

theobroma CHOCOLATE Lounge
is a dessert establishment specializing in everything chocolate. It’s an international franchise with outlets in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. The first chocolate lounge in Malaysia that I recall was the popular chocz in Suria KLCC.

theobroma interior

Theobroma is located right in the middle of 1 Utama shopping mall’s passageway, much like it’s predecessor chocz. The setting doesn’t deter chocolate lovers from the lounge though, mainly due to the ample partitions and leather tub chairs, which is well insulated from the throngs of shoppers.

theobroma montage

Theobroma also sells a wide range of chocolate and cakes – it’s the place to be for people with a sweet tooth.

fair lady

I ordered the Fair Lady (RM 12.90) that came in a mug and warmer. It’s one of their specialties made with Belgian milk chocolate. The melted chocolate on the rim of the mug is not the result of carelessness, but the signature finish of theobroma. It’s rich and creamy, with the warmer keeping the drink hot throughout the experience.

fair lady macro

The Fair Lady comes with Belgian milk chocolate shavings down the middle of the frothy drink – a very nice touch. It melts as you consume it, due to the temperature of the beverage. It’s sinfully delicious, and comes highly recommended from me.

princess of iceland

Doris opted for the Princess of Iceland (RM 10.90) – a cold chocolate concoction with beautiful swirls adorning the sides. This Belgian iced chocolate beverage is made with dark and milk chocolate and comes with a scoop of premium chocolate ice cream on top. It’s thirst quenching, but I prefer my Fair Lady for pure, unadulterated chocolate pleasure. 🙂

chocolate affair

We also ordered the signature Chocolate Affair (RM 25.90) – a chocolate fondue with four seasonal fruits for two people. Ours came with bananas, oranges, kiwi fruit…

chocolate affair strawberry

…and strawberries hidden at the back. A strawberry dipped in chocolate is a sweet and tangy contrast that has to be experienced at least once. The melted chocolate inside the warmer can also be consumed straight for a sugar rush or dipped with the marshmallows that come with the platter.

theobroma us

There is something not quite right about me feeding my girlfriend a banana and her reciprocating with a strawberry but I assure you that any innuendo is unintended. 😉

theobroma splash

…even the Splash Damage (TM) that occurred when she accidentally dropped her strawberry down my pants.

theobroma end

theobroma CHOCOLATE Lounge is a great place for people with a sweet tooth. It’s a perfect destination for post lunch or dinner desserts and celebrates all things chocolate – which I’m told is better than sex.

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