Tutti Frutti (good for you, not so for your wallet-- I mean purse)

A tutti frutti visit...!

Tutti Frutti is this froyo place which serves healthy yogurt ice-cream. Or frozen yogurt if you like. The target consumer I guess would be 7 to 25 year olds who'd be really excited at getting a chance to pull the ice-cream lever, and top it with delicious (unhealthy) toppings, which in all likelihood cancels out the health benefits of froyo.

For the slightly wiser 25+ and above (that'd be me and the people I hang out with), the anti-colon cancer pitch makes the whole experience and cost, a little bit more worth it.

Baskin Robbin's (one of the best ice-creameries out there)

Baskin Robbin's is one of the best, long-standing and creative makers of ice-cream out there. And if you're like me, you'd probably have a favourite old-time flavor. For me, it's always been Pralines and Cream. Always and forever. Ever and ever. From since I stumbled upon the little Baskin Robbin's place behind Vandy way back when. I would drop by with my backpack and order the Pralines and Cream for lunch with the Mint-Chocolate-Chip-flavored shake for to go.

So, these pictures are all me on my various excursions with Miza, Ning and Armand. And believe me, there have been numerous excursions because Alamanda has one pretty stall standing straight in my face as I exit the parking lot, with all the ice-cream cakes sitting nice and pretty towards me begging to be picked up. Almost like that annoying cat from Shrek.

 Okay, here's the deal with Baskins: all the flavours taste yummy except for Green Tea and Black Forest Cake. Green Tea ice-cream and doughnut and whatever food item out there that involves green tea in a form other than tea, is a gimmick to make you--the incredibly intelligent consumer--think healthy. Get over it strategic-marketing managers! We know that green tea is only good for when we're shocked into our 30's and socializing with health junkies. And Black Forest is old news since Red Velvet's debut, not to mention it tastes like a regular Wall's ice-cream you pick up at Petronas while filling up gas. Not bad, but not so great either.

So there you have it. If you would like to taste something new that's awesomely delicious, try the Orange Pound Perfection. I know it doesn't sound or look incredibly attractive but it's orange flavored ice-cream thrown in with pieces of orange peel and  pound cake and it's not as sweet as Bombshell Blondie, which, although tongue-blowing, is a little bit too sweet for health purposes, I thought.

Black Forest Cake.
NO.NO NO.
Go get a wall's for less.

Bombshell Blondie and
Mint Choc Chip. YES. But
Bombshell Blondie is very sweet.

Last but not least, don't forget to wear pink on Wednesdays to get discounts. Men, don't think they hate you. We realize pink is so over-rated but Pink is Baskin's Robbin's trademark color and besides, eating ice-cream will emasculate you anyway, so why not give in looking all graceful and lovely.

Baskin Robbins
Cleanliness: B
Food: A-
Price: ~RM5 per scoop
Satisfaction Level: A-
Service: B (sometimes these ice-cream people can be really slow~~)
Atmosphere: A

J.Co Donuts & Coffee (Amazing froyo. The real thang~~!!)

This is me on one of my me, myself and I trips. Because I like it like that.

Place I am reviewing: J.Co Donuts and this one is located in Puchong. It was one of those really spontaneous buys. I wasn't really planning on anything sweet and unhealthy, in fact, I was on my way to a Subway sandwich, but as fate would have it, I detoured and went straight to the ice-cream counter. What can I say, I am only human. Who is naive. Ambitious. Sweet. Pretty cool. Okay, okay, I'll stop.

Real froyo. I mean it. YES. YES. YES.

So, have you ever tasted yogurt? I mean real yogurt? And then have you ever stuck the yogurt pot in the freezer and tasted it frozen, like, in a cute and spunky (gedik) way? Yes? definitely nothing like Tuitti Fruitti right? But.. then again, Tuitti Fruitti may have added some supplementary jargon in their froyo to spring-clean your colon. 

And the froyo at J.Co's? No kidding but it cannot possibly get any better than this. It is the absolute real froyo. This is definitely frozen yogurt to the last letter of the spoken word(s). It is frozen yogurt perfection. It is what frozen yogurt should taste like, and that is frozen yogurt. Not ice-cream. Not medicine. Have I convinced you enough? OK, last attempt: J.Co's froyo is adult, no play-play froyo. The real thang~~!

Unlike the Tutti Fruitti playhouse, here you have no control of any ice-cream lever, so it's all mature and serious. The froyo comes in several different shaped containers depending on the number of toppings you choose. The Jayco girl recommended the three-topping because the one up higher had more toppings but less yogurt, so I went along with it.

So she swirled the yogurt into this square plastic container and asked me to choose the toppings. There were several fruits, jams, honey (and jams/honey is what the Greek eat their yogurt with -- so J.CO is so cool, I thought), and cereal to choose from. And here's what I chose (please pay attention future life-companion): longan, strawberry and mandarin oranges. But I regretted the strawberries because they were sour! And wished I had chosen the strawberry jam instead~! My one and only regret in life to date, it seems. 

Baby donuts. RM18. Do not eat babies.
They are very good.

Along with my yogurt I also grabbed---okay....... politely lifted and paid for---a box of baby donuts for home. (It was right in front of my nose on the counter; you'd have to be mental to resist). Yes, they really are called baby donuts, it said so on the box. And I think they come from the middle parts of mommy and poppy donuts. Waste not, want not right? Make every relative doughnut count. 

I have to say, the donuts with all of its fancy toppings looked and tasted exceedingly similar to Big Apples. I suspect the recipe came from the same toothless grandma (all that sugar can't be good for her). Which is probably why Dunkin donuts have yet to go bankrupt: originality, even though Dunkin's taste like they're 2 days old as soon they leave the oven.

And the verdict? Go for the yogurt. Excellent stuff. Skip the doughnuts, they're unhealthy. Well. Maybe once or twice a year is fine. 

J.Co Donuts & Coffee, IOI Mall, Puchong

Cleanliness: B+

Food: B++

Price: ~RM12 per pax for yogurt. Add another RM10 for a drink and a free doughnut.

Satisfaction Level: B++

Service: B++

Atmosphere: B (cool place to kick back and take pictures of your food)

Secret Recipe BBB (skip the local food entrees~)

Seafood Mee Curry. NO.

Secret Recipe Cyber review here.

This was another mom-son rendezvous I had with Armand last week, but somehow only managed to put it in now, due to lack of inspiration and shortage of time. You know I have a food review blog, I had said to Armand, I was not feeling Secret Recipie-ish at all and was reluctant to go. Do we absolutely have to eat at Secret Recipe? I asked again. But I want a brownie mama... said Armand over the phone. OK, so that was that.

To go straight to the point, Secret Recipe knows I am on to them and has improved! I noticed a full change of staff as well, which I guess is good because last time we actually had dinner at Secret Recipe BBB (some time last year, it was that bad), service was so slow the customers who came before us suddenly started screaming because we (i.e., the later customers) got our food first. I may be Indian, one of them screamed, but I am a lecturer! And I demand to get my food now! Not that we blame her .We noticed she had been sitting there ages. We had been too. 

Original chicken cornish. YES.

Vienna brownie with vanilla ice-cream. YES

When we ordered this time around, the pretty young waitress apologized in advance. It may take a while, she said, we're backed up. Well, I replied, my son only ordered the chicken cornish, don't you just have to heat it up? The response I got was a smile and a quick serve. In fact, quicker than the customers already sitting there. I was holding my breath for another outburst. Luckily this time, no one lost their marbles.

Armand ordered the chicken cornish, and I must say, it was pretty good. And I ordered the seafood mee curry, which was again, mediocre for me (why do I keep doing this to myself?). It just didn't taste fresh enough and I didn't eat the prawns because they neglected to clean the insides. And I could see it. 

Walnut brownie with vanilla ice-cream. NO.

For desert, we ordered the brownies and ice-cream. I had asked the brownies to be heated, cause that's the politically correct way to get your brownies done, all warm with melting ice-cream on top (in the US, they would serve the brownies on a hotplate, topped with ice-cream and drizzled with warm caramel and it was marvelous), but I guess the microwave wasn't working. Nevertheless, the Vienna brownie was delicious, although I couldn't say the same for Armand's walnut brownie which looked great but tasted a few days old. Armand's strawberry milkshake however was just nice. 

So here's the deal with Secret Recipe. Go for their cakes, coffee, milkshakes, pastries, and the freshly arrived brownies (ask them which ones). Avoid local dishes (tom yum, mee curry etc). They're not fresh and are overpriced. You can get better at local restaurants at 1/3 of the price with no surprising service charges. Sorry Secret Recipe, you still need a bit of work.

Secret Recipe, Bandar Baru Bangi, (same row of shops as CIMB)

Cleanliness: B

Food: B/C+ (depending on what you order)

Price: ~RM25 per pax  

Satisfaction Level: C+ (they didn't heat up the brownies when they said they would)

Service: B (waitress was friendly)

Atmosphere: B (everyone looked like they've been waiting ages).

Cream and Fudge Factory (extreme sugar rush)

Have you ever heard the saying, too much of a good thing..can actually do you harm? Well, much as I want to say all the sweetest things about the Cream and Fudge Factory, and much as I admire the professional-looking chef mixing the ice-cream up on his ice-board like cement, I must say, the cream fudge factory was... too sweet.

With diabetes running genetically in almost every household in Malaysia, I personally found the ice-cream that was already too sweet to begin with, and then topped some more with cookies and pieces of chocolate almost unbearable. And this is me who has an uncontrollable penchant for sweetness. Not exaggerating it but I am literally all sugar. They took my gallbladder out ages ago. They, as in the X-files people who did Charlie the Unicorn.



coffee ice-cream in a basket



chocolate ice-cream

So I didn't finish my ice-cream cup. Thank goodness I only ordered one scoop. Thank goodness it was on Ning.

Cleanliness: A-/B
Food: C+ (tooo~~ sweet)
Price: ~RM13 per pax (including the cone or that little basket the ice-cream goes in)
Satisfaction Level: B-
Service: B (friendly, chef was like a sushi chef)
Atmosphere: NA (no enclosure)