Burps N Giggles

Deciding a place to meet up with your friends during this CNY season seems to be a tough decision to make. You need to consider the business hours of the place, location, parking, traffic condition, price range and eventually in the end, unexpected factors pop up like its either full house or closed. I was surprised that a new outlet such as Peninsula Cafe which is in a rather odd location was also full house. After made a rash decision to brave through the town traffic and securing a parking spot, I only found that Patisserie Boutique is off. Well, my friend suggested we try Burps and Giggles. Well, why not? Surprisingly I haven't visited this place, probably due to the hassle of finding parking or its odd operating hours (not operating at night)

Since its tea time, we omitted the burgers, pizzas and sandwiches. Yeah, this place is the place which started the trend of  of gourmet burgers in Ipoh. Many years back then, people are still reluctant to pay like RM20 for a burger? But fast forward more than 5 years later, Ipoh people seemed to accept it well. Or probably due to the chic and hipster setting of this cafe which made it still stand strong amidst the over 80 cafes sprung up in Ipoh across the years?

Let me provide some justification from the point of view of desserts. The blurry picture above is the The Tarik Gelato (RM13) – hand made ice cream (yes Gelato is actually how the Italians refer to their ice cream) having a different term, thus can put a slightly premium price tag? Hehe... The ice cream is infused with strong aroma from the iconic Malaysian milk tea beverage –the dessert is never a bit too sweet. In contrast, the tannin from the tea sent a slightly bitter aftertaste to your tongue. The crumbled cookie and drizzle of chocolate sauce did not really complement the tea flavored gelato but rather create a slightly complex combination of taste which gave an overall balance to this dessert. Somehow I still feel that the Jackfruit – Gula Melaka Gelato is the best of the 3 types available. Don't mind coming back again just to try the Jackfruit Gelato out of curiosity. Since the Teh Tarik is packed with flavours, I think the jackfruit and gula melaka flavour should be equally intense.

Moving one step down the menu is the sweet dessert which has only 2 items under this category. Between the Berries Cheesecake and Salted Caramel, I opted for the salted caramel. Hot Volcano (RM15) is actually similar to a molten mug cake. Although it was mentioned that it may take 15-20 minutes waiting time, but it was served in around just 10 minutes! I think the molten cake here is quite similar the mug cake recipe you can find online. I love the warm caramel filling flowing out and to balance it out, there is a small serving of vanilla ice cream to balance the sweetness. And dig in deeper to the ice cream glass, and you will get caramel-butterscotch puree at the bottom! Yummmss!

Raspberry Cheesecake is not in the menu but one of the few cakes at the display shelf. Priced at RM12, it may be slightly pricier but rest assured the cakes here are only made in small quantities. Due attention and passion has been poured in, from visual appearance to the taste. I must commend the idea of incorporating rose flower petals which gave a very pleasant taste to the creamy cheesecake. The pureed raspberry was neither to sweet nor sourish but somehow the texture of this cheesecake is just not my cup of tea. Its a bit more like the marshmallow like texture, which I feel something was amiss, like how the creamy and rich sensation a typical solid cheesecake would carry along.

With slight hits and misses from the desserts tried, it was a good place to unwind and feed your Instagram with the rustic-like ambiance. Here is a snapshot of the drinks and desserts menu but one thing I like about this place is they provide self-service refillable skyjuice! This score additional marks in my checklist, unlike my horrible experience in STG Tea House, forcing customers to order their Spritzer Mineral Water at RM3 per bottle as they claim that they do not provide "tapped water". 

Take this change to help give STG some free publicity! They really do not know who they are dealing with in the comment above. Since I do not get any appreciation for my compliments on their food taste, I should've just saved my praises for them. They do not know who they are dealing with :p