I usually don't take coffee on weekdays, because I'm very sensitive to caffeine. It usually triggers my insomnia and causes heart palpitations and other bodily discomfort. Somehow, the coffee at RAW doesn't have much negative impact on me, but the other positive effects of the caffeine can be felt. I'd like to think this to be my body's natural mechanism for detecting good coffee.

My favourite coffee at RAW is their latte. You should watch them make it - such care and attention and intolerance for imperfection. The result is a smooth, evenly frothy coffee with plenty of creaminess and flavour from the milk, yet without drowning out the natural flavour of coffee. I like that their coffee is bold but not too acidic - very easy to drink.

I also like that Fitness First members get 10% off the bill! Also good to note is that they roast their coffee every Tuesday.

When it comes salads, Ben's General Food Store doesn't comply to expectations of boring greens. My absolute favourite salad here is the soba eggplant salad with soy paste. Cold soba in itself is already a hit with me, but add in soy paste for that salted, slightly fermented taste, and super soft eggplant that soaks up all that flavour, and I'm completely sold.

Bits of spring onion also add a tiny crunch here and there, with a little burst of zing in the flavour. I could just eat this on its own without a "main" dish, even though it has no meat.

I usually try to avoid eating noodles because it's very carby; furthermore the noodles at Kuala Lipis Noodles are quite oily (as Hakka noodles always are, purposefully) and the meat is (also purposefully) fatty. However, sometimes I am in a rush and the timing is right (freshest batch is served at about 11am on weekends), so I find myself making excuses that I deserve to eat extremely fattening food every once in a while (which usually turns out to be close to every single day).

I find that the noodles are better these days, with the sauce being lighter and sweeter; while the amount of minced meat is still the same (moderately sufficient). I love the way the siew yoke tends to break apart in the middle, separating the leaner half from the crispy half. Not many places can pull off a good siew yoke with the lean part being super tender, while maintaining the super-crisp texture of the skin, with all its salty goodness.

These days I find myself favouring the char siew less, because despite it being aromatic, sweet, and full of porky flavour, it just lacks the texture I seek in a good char siew. However, I still order both meats with my noodles because I think the meats balance against each other very well.

Apparently they have other nice dishes, but I just can't come by Kuala Lipis Noodles and NOT eat the Kuala Lipis noodles.

I find myself the in the mood for noodles very frequently these days. One of the best places for a big bowl of less-than-typical noodles is Canoodling. From the many varieties available on their menu, one in particular caught my attention: Red Curry Duck Noodles.

Interestingly, the noodles itself is black - it's charcoal noodles. Taste-wise, it's more plain and has a slightly coarser texture than regular noodles. I'm not sure why I would purposely pick these over regular noodles, but since that's how it's served, I just went with it.

The duck in red curry was very aromatic. I could taste and smell the herbs and spices! It was a whole duck leg, so it's very much worth the money, and the dish itself contained various ingredients that gave a lot of dimension to the flavour, such as sweetness from the lychee (which is quite an unusual ingredient in a noodles dish).

With the large number of gelato places in the Klang Valley, it has become increasingly difficult to set a benchmark. Every gelato place generally serves decent gelato. It's impossible for me to try every flavour at every gelato place.

This rule applies to every restaurant out there, and the same principles apply - if you taste something that's extraordinarily good, you know this place is worth a mention; and this is exactly what happened when I tasted the black sesame gelato at Gelatomio.

Of the many places that I've tried, most failed to even come close to being "good enough", and almost none are "good" in my books. Gelatomio's black sesame gelato is amazing. Rich, nutty, creamy, and very intense in flavours that didn't resemble most poorly-made black sesame desserts of any kind that I've tasted before.

This is the only branch that also makes gelato on the rocks, i.e. gelato folded in with toppings or other flavours of gelato on a cold stone slab, making the texture smoother while offering the option of combining flavours and mixing in toppings.