Tastebud : Asahi Fondue & Grill

1 July 2025

Today's dinner is a new sort of cuisine for me - Korean barbeque. I read from the reviews that this is unlike the real Korean barbeque as the slices of meat are not marinated. (according to Wikipedia, the meat is marinated with a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, ginger, scallions, sesame oil, garlic and pepper). Apparently, there is unmarinated meat too but then it will not differ from any usual meat. 

As the meat served was unmarinated, I did not find anything special with today's dinner. There were three of us and each person paid 359kr. It includes beef, chicken, bacon, oyster, prawn, squid, sweet potato, onion, zucchini, mushroom and a cabbage head to eat the grilled food in. We could create our own dip sauce too from the sauce booth. It reminded me of the sauce booth in Happy Lamb Hotpot. One can have a refill of meat and vegetables if one is still hungry. We did that but half of the portion.

We could take the fried food from the buffet section too. The raw ingredients were served to us at the table. So, I took fried chicken, a spring roll and fried bread (you tiao). I was so excited when I saw the fried bread (second photo - the food next to the prawn chips) because it is one of my favourite food! But it tasted not good at all! It was tasteless and hard. Ugh. 

For dessert, there was an option of fruits and an ice-cream machine. So, I had ice-cream with strawberries and raspberries. Yummy. The three of us agreed that we should not eat buffet next time. We ate too much and walked home instead of taking the train.

Tastebud : Non Solo Bar (2nd time)

26 June 2025

After our dinner at Chuan Tapas, we spent the rest of the evening at Non Solo Bar. Our reserved time at Chuan Tapas was limited to 1.5 hours and the place was very noisy due to its small space. We went to a nearby bar / cafe to have our dessert. The place has an outdoor seating and was packed with people as it was a lovely sunny day. It is the only sunny day this week. So, many are outside to take advantage of the sun. 

We shared a slice of key lime pie 72kr and I had alcohol-free pear cider 64kr. It is definitely an expensive piece of pie. I was here in 2019 and I sat outdoors with a cup of brewed coffee and the price then was expensive too - a cup of coffee for 35kr. Small cup, too! 

Tastebud : Chuan Tapas

26 June 2025

Despite me telling myself that I am going to stay away for Chinese food for a while, I still went to Chuan Tapas because the meal concept here is different. I thought of Asian food being served in tapas and that was intriguing. But my friend and I did not choose that when we were in the restaurant. We chose the skewers served in hot soup, and of course, the soup base is the tongue-numbing Sichuan soup, which was the original reason of why I am staying away from Chinese food for a while. Last experience that made me decided that, was my dinner at Lilla Kina. 

The restaurant has a very small space and I thought that there was no toilet. But a customer requested to wash her hands and we found out that the toilet is located behind a curtain that is behind the counter. Good thing there is a toilet! Because of the small space, the restaurant gets noisy very fast. A couple who sat next to us spoke very loudly, especially the man. We had a similar experience in Her Name is Kim. I understand that the restaurant would like to maximise the space but it was not a fun experience for me as a diner. Our seating is reserved for only 1.5 hour, which is also understandable due to the limited space. Even I had to hang my bicycle helmet on a wall-mounted clothes rack.

I had special mix set 229kr that includes - as described in the menu: Coriander Beef (2 sticks), Beef (2 sticks), Shrimp (2 sticks), Squid (2 sticks), Beef Tripe Leaves (2 sticks), Duck Tongues (2 sticks), Pork tripe (1 stick), Lotus Root (1 stick), Potato (2 sticks), Bamboo Shoots (2 sticks), Thousand Layer Tofu (1 stick). 

The duck tongue was really weird. It looked scary and does not have much meat - instead, it has cartilage and tiny bones. The shrimp is so tiny. Definitely not worth the price. By writing this, I have already decided that I am not coming back here again. 

For starters, we received a complimentary dish of pickled cucumber.

The scary duck tongue. I just googled if duck tongues are edible! And indeed they are, and considered even as a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

The tiny shrimp.

I took a picture of the utensils as they looked different from the usual. I used the chopstick to eat the pickled cucumber but the knife and fork were not used. I requested for a spoon for my soup. Fancy utensils but too bad cannot be used for the meal. 

Painting on canvas

17 June 2025

For the first time, I did painting on canvas. My friend asked me if I was interested and I said yes! I prefer drawing than painting. I painted with watercolour during my school days but I was not good at painting. 

The website showed various paintings at selected dates and my friend chose the painting of a girl with a midsummer wreath. I bought this 1.5-hour activity for 501kr. It is quite expensive. I thought it included wine in this activity but I misread the text. There were two locations for this activity. The one we chose at Clarion Hotel did not include wine in the ticket but offered 30% discount on food. The other location at Hard Rock cafe includes wine. So, I had a vision of myself with a paintbrush and a glass of wine the whole time until I found out I was wrong. Haha!

Regardless, I had a good time at the activity. Each participant was given a small canvas, acrylic paint, 3 brushes and a small printed paper of the finished painting. We could refill the paint if we needed to. The artist guided us on how to draw on the canvas and recommended on how to paint it. Each participant has their own interpretation of the painting.

Tastebud : Bara 2.Noll

17 June 2025

Today, a girlfriend and I chose a random pub to have dinner before our painting activity. The customers were there to drink beer. I think we were the odd ones out as we ate instead. I had a burger that fell apart when I bit into it. My burger came with fries, salad and pickled cucumber. 195kr. It was affordable. Not a place that I will come back though. 

Tastebud : Winner House (4th time)

12 June 2025

I absolutely love this place! 4th time today and this time for dinner! We were here 2 weeks ago during a public holiday. Today, the staff treated us to a small bowl of lotus root with peanut soup. There were not many customers in the restaurant. How lucky we were! We had complimentary shrimp chips and 6 spring rolls.

Today, we ordered mapo tofu with meat 168kr and sweet and sour pork 188kr. Good food at affordable price with large portions! Rice is complimentary, and we got a refill too. Best place ever!

For dessert, we received complimentary fried bread with custard sauce, red bean syrup and a small cup of jasmine tea. We were very full at the end of the meal!

Tastebud : Winner House (3rd time)

29 May 2025

I enjoy going to Winner House whenever I have the opportunity to do that! First time was in April and I was pleasantly surprised with complimentary starters and dessert! That is so generous of them. I decided that we should go there when we have the opportunity so that I can try all the dishes on the menu. The price is affordable and the food is delicious! So, we visited them a second time during Labour Day which is a public holiday. 

Today is a public holiday in Sweden so we went for a long walk and had lunch in Winner House. We had complimentary shrimp chips (this time I managed to take a photo before my boyfriend finished them) and 5 spring rolls (boyfriend took 1 before I took the photo). 

We had pork belly with plum vegetables 228kr, soy sauce chicken 168kr and pakchoy with garlic 158kr. Rice is complimentary and we had a second helping of the rice too. We realised threee dishes were too much and we should have two dishes next time. 

The pork belly with plum vegetables was perfect. The fat from the pork belly melts in the mouth and the gravy is flavourful. I did not understand what plum vegetables mean and after checking online, this is dry pickled Chinese mustard. This is an ingredient used in dijon mustard. I was surprised by the dish presentation. Fit for a special occasion! I found online too that the dish is served during a wedding banquet. It definitely does look like one with the broccoli on the dish.

For the soy sauce chicken, the uncle-waiter asked me if I wanted to have half scallion chicken and half soy sauce chicken. I agreed to it. That is so nice of him as we could have two types of chicken. For the scallion chicken, we had this before during our first visit. He said that he usually offers this sort of different chicken option for regular customers. I said that this is our third time because the food is so good! He laughed and commented - only 3 times?! 

Pakchoy with garlic was light and easy to the stomach. 

For dessert, we received complimentary dessert - fried bread with custard sauce, red bean syrup and a small cup of jasmine tea.

By the way, here is the menu! I got the Chinese menu and my boyfriend received the Chinese menu with English words. After some translation works, I realised that there are some dishes in the Chinese menu that are not in the other menu.

Tastebud : Beirut Bistro

27 May 2025

Today, my friend and I had Lebanese food for dinner. I used TheFork application to book a place and there was a 30% discount for the selected time and day. I had Lebanese food three times - the first time in 2019 at Feyruz for lunch, second time in 2020 at Feyruz again (and it was with discount from The Fork too) and the latest was in 2022 at Tabbouli which was my best experience with Lebanese food. 

For Beirut Bistro, I would not do a second visit or recommend the place. The portion is small and the food is not exceptionally special. I wondered if the food portion is small due to the 30% discount. With the 30% discount, we paid 419,30kr instead of the original price of 599kr. 

I had a Meze mix plate 255kr, that consisted of Hummus (chickpea paste), muhamara (paprika paste), creme toum (garlic cream), tabbouli, falafel, sambosek (minced beef pie), jowaneh michvie (chicken wing), halloumi (cheese), rakakat (cheese roll), potato wedges (I chose potato wedges) or rice. I read the definition of tabbouli in Wikipedia and I did not taste lemon juice and did not see any bulgur. I am unsure if there is tomato too. Hmm. The first layer on the plate is a lot of potato wedges and the top layer is the mix of small dishes. I thought the mix plate will have two of each small dish. This reminded me of my eating experience at Swedish Diner by Basilica at Mall of Scandinavia. Two giant potatoes under the thinly-sliced meat. I felt cheated then.

Tabbouli is the green salad on the plate. Here is the definition from Wikipedia - finely chopped parsley, soaked bulgur, tomatoes, mint, and onion, seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and sweet pepper. 

A short definition of meze from Wikipedia - Meze is a selection of small dishes served as appetizers in Eastern Mediterranean cuisines. It is similar to Spanish tapas and Italian antipasti. A meze may be served as a part of a multi-course meal or form a meal in itself.

For dessert, we shared baclava and ice-cream 89kr. There is a dessert of baclava only for 75kr. My friend pointed out that the ice-cream costs 14kr. Expensive... But we took with the ice-cream anyway. Good thing that we could share the cost.

Tastebud : Yumcha by Waipo

11 May 2025

Last Christmas, I bought a brunch for 2 voucher from Upplevelse for 524kr. The price was discounted due to Black week. When I bought the voucher, there was only one restaurant in the list - Kvarnen. Last week, I checked it and a new restaurant was in the list - Waipo. We decided to go to Waipo. I think it was a good decision because the food served is different from the usual brunch. We had dimsum!

We were given a menu to choose the dimsum we wanted. We had 4 steamed dimsum, 2 dishes from the noodle/rice, 1 fried dimsum, 1 dish from steamed bread, 1/4 of grilled duck, 1 dimsum from the sweet options, 2 types of dipping sauce (one can choose all 4 dipping sauce) and 2 pots of tea (one can have several). You can see the ones that we marked to have. All the words are in Cantonese pronounciation.

We were served our choice of tea first while we chose our food. The first choice of tea we had was oolong tea. 

Our sweet and fried dimsum came first. For sweet, we chose 64. No mai chi - warm coconut balls made of glutinous rice with sweet egg filling and for fried, we chose 51. Wu gok - deep fried taro-filled dumplings with fillings of shrimp, pork, shiitake mushroom and carrot. I enjoyed the deep fried taro. Crispy. 

I had the sweet dumpling the last. I would not recommend this. I thought the egg filling will ooze out but it did not. It is a bit boring. Amazingly, the sweet dumpling was still warm when we had it, as per its name in the menu. 

Next, came our steamed dumplings and steamed bread with duck. Our dipping sauce is dim sum sauce and chilli oil.

No. 6 Hung syu gaau zi - pork and shiitake mushroom

No 2. Siu lung baau - pork and spring onion.

No 5. Ngau jiuk gaau zi - minced beef, bean sprouts, coriander and spring onion.

No 13. Dou shi paai gwat - steamed ribs with black bean sauce. Not recommended. This dish has more bones than meat. It was difficult to chew the meat off the bone too. 

No 41. Bak ging baau - steamed bread filled with Beijing-style duck. This was really delicious!

Next, No 21 Siu aap - grilled duck (one-quarter) with dipping sauce. Several bones which I found it troublesome to bite the hard meat off the bone too but I like the skin. 

Then, the 2 dishes from the rice and noodle section. We had No 33. No mai gai - glutinous rice with chicken and pork and No 34. Jyu yuk wan tan tong - Wanton filled with pork and shallots served in broth. The wanton dish could have had white pepper in its filling. The broth is not very flavourful. 

The glutinous rice dish went well with the chilli oil. I had this dish in Malaysia and I am not a fan of it as I often find it very filling and oily. However, this dish was not such so I enjoyed it. I think it helped that I shared this dish so I did not get too full.

Finally, our dessert - mochi ice-cream with raspberry and sour plum sauce. This is my second favourite after the steamed bread with duck. We had three flavours of ice-cream - chocolate, macha, and passion fruit. I liked the passion fruit the best.

We had a second pot of tea as we would like something to drink after all the food. The first pot of tea was finished. For our second pot of tea, we chose jasmine tea. The fragrance from the jasmine flower was very strong. We even got a new mug to have our jasmine tea. I was informed that is to ensure that the tea flavours don't mix. 

Overall, good food experience! I summed up the price from the menu and everything came up to 810kr and this does not include the price of the teapot as the price is not in the menu. Well, it was definitely worth the experience as the voucher costs lesser and best of all, we did not have to pay any tips!