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!

Tastebud : Villa Godthem (2nd time)

7 May 2025

Dinner at Villa Godthem. It is my second time in this place. The first time I was here, we had their Christmas buffet. Today, we chose this place to have dinner after our activity in Gröna Lund. We did not eat in Gröna Lund as the food was quite pricey for the amount and quality one can get. A kiosk selling sausage and bread cost 30kr, while I had a similar meal at a bonfire activity early this month for 25kr. Biltema, a hardware store sells that for 5kr. Plus, we do not come to this side of the town very often so we took the opportunity to eat here.

I had the restaurant's well-known dish - plankstek. 429kr. Grilled striploin served with bacon, green beans, baked tomato, béarnaise, red wine sauce & pommes duchesse. For starters, we were served complimentary sweet bread, dry bread and butter. Well, the price is not cheaper here either but the quality of the food is guaranteed. 

Pommes duchesse is a French cuisine - a purée of mashed potato, egg yolk, and butter, which is forced from a piping bag or hand-moulded into various shapes which are then baked in a high temperature oven until golden. Source from Wikipedia. 

Next to the dish is a small papper that states the number of times the dish has been served. It has been served 2 877 004 times. Definitely a favourite dish among customers. The meal is very filling. 

Amusement Park Gröna Lund

7 May 2025

After 8 years living in Sweden, my wish to visit the town's amusement park, Gröna Lund came true! I am so happy! A company's activity which means free entry and free rides. We were allocated 2 jetpasses per person. A jetpass means one can avoid the usual queue. I used my jetpass for a new attraction, Pumpen and Blå tåget - ride through some scary popping skeletons and monsters. We spent 2.5 hours in the park. I hope that we have this activity again next year so that I can try other rides! This year, I did Tekoppen - max of 5 sit in a teacup and the teacup swirls very fast, Elefanterna - 2 persons sit in an elephant that goes up and down slowly in circles, Vilda Musen - a roller-coaster ride and my 2 jetpasses.

This is Pumpen. It is a ride that swings up and down and up again.

I rode on Vilda Musen - the Wild Mouse. It is a roller-coaster ride that is meant for kids. My boyfriend decided to hop off when he saw the ride, although it was him who suggested the ride. He said that his stomach could not handle it. So, it was me alone on the ride and he could take my photo from bottom. Some commented that the ride could give one a whiplash with the sudden turns and jerks. I agree on that. Thankfully, I came out fine from the ride.

At last, I managed to have my own flower-shaped twisted balloon. I get to be a kid on this day. I wanted to do face painting too but I did not know where the activity was.

Tastebud : Kungsfisk Eastery

2 May 2025

Lunch at a fish restaurant. I was very excited when my friend suggested an affordable fish restaurant. Unfortunately, the fish and chips (129kr) that I was looking forward to tasted bland. The fish is bland. The batter is bland. Since it was a lunch menu on a weekday, there was bread and butter, salad as well as coffee and tea. I was satisfied with the portion and I was neither hungry nor full after the meal.