Kuala Lumpur's sweet tooth moments

What is it about desserts and sweet things that brings out some childlike innocence in us all? That elation that comes not from a sugar fix but rather the sheer enjoyment that pastry, cakes and the like can elicit.

I love desserts. I'm not ashamed to admit it and if we're being completely honest, I'm not so sure I completely trust people who don't love them too. Or at least like them. You don't have to love all desserts, but every person should have at least one that results in turning them into putty. Pliable and weak to that desire for sweetness.

When I'm on holiday I tend to lose my restraint when it comes to waistline watch and basically eat what I want. But after all, that is the true spirit of holidaying and I am happy to do it! Here's some of the memorable sweet tooth moments I experienced on my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur with my partner Jeremy.


Delectable by Su

When undertaking our pre-holiday research, I stumbled across the most adorable baked good store, Delectable by Su. My intention to find the stores was announced immediately to Jeremy as I quickly found out that this little chain of deliciousness had brought across new pastry sensation, the Cronut, to Malaysia.

I wanted to try a cronut so bad it actually made my sides hurt. I love fads for eating - cupcakes, macarons, whoopie pies. Yes, yes, yes. And cronuts - hell yes.

Unfortunately our first try of Delectable by Su was at the Pavillion Shopping Centre, which doesn't sell these crosses between croissants and doughnuts - only the Garden Malls store sells them (and apparently they sell fast!). So instead we splashed out and bought some cookies. Two different kinds - butter and black sesame seed.

The cookies are amazing. So good in fact that we actually returned again to the store to buy some to eat back in Perth. The butter cookies are rich and live up to their name; crumbly and just a little sugary and salty at the same time. They are delicious and though I often bake cookies at home, I really like these and find myself eating too many all at once!

The black sesame seed cookie has a lovely savoury flavour profile to it with an abundance of sesame seeds scattered over the top. They're not as rich as the butter cookies, but are just as enjoyable to eat. I can see why they say this is one of their most popular flavours on sale. They're so different to any other I've had before. Simple but truly delectable!

When we have cronut success at the Garden Malls store, I am amazed by how they look. The packaging alone is cute enough to showcase, with an array of delicious snacks cartoonised and kept with the same colour schemes and styling the stores feature. I love the consistency and adorable packaging. Such a sucker for marketing even though I work in the field!

Jeremy and I decide to get two cronuts and share - with each of us picking a flavour. They have three different versions available - (1) caramel and praline, (2) strawberry and lemon curd, and (3) coconut kaya. We opt for the first two though I'm now wishing we'd got all three since I do love kaya jam!

The caramel and praline cronut is divine. It looks just like your standard doughnut, but when you bite into it, it's layers of puffed, crisp croissant pastry that crunches under your teeth. The caramel and praline is sticky and sweet; adding additional texture to each bite. It's my favourite of the two and a great introduction to a dessert treat I could easily find myself becoming obsessed with.

The strawberry and lemon curd cronut is much more like an elaborate dessert than the prior cronut. The strawberries on top are sweet and sit amongst a strawberry icing. Inside the croissant like layers there is a thick piping of lemon curd which is tart but sugary. It's extremely decadent but works well with the more savoury pastry. Just looking at my bitten cronut photo makes me want one right now because yes, they are just as good as you suspect.

Delectable by Su really does live up to it's name. Yum, oh yum!


Shangri-La Hotel

When travelling to Asia, I always think it makes perfect sense to stay in a five star hotel because the comparative price to what you'd pay elsewhere is ridiculously cheap. At least, that's what I like to tell myself because I do love five star accommodation!

This time around on our trip to KL, Jeremy and I chose the Shangri-La since it's the highest guest rated hotel in the city on Trip Advisor and Expedia. Sounds good to us! And I am extremely happy to say that in no way did it disappoint. The staff, the service and the amenities were all top notch. And the food, well that was damn good too!

From Lemon Cafe 2 Go, a downstairs take away cafe, you can get a variety of different visually stunning desserts to eat there or take away. One afternoon I found myself craving sweetness so we paid a visit to the cafe and ordered a berry tart to go. 

It was huge! Thank goodness we just got the one as I had to enlist Jeremy's help in trying to finish it (we ended up having half each and being full). 

It's a gorgeous pastry casing with custard and an abundance of berries piled sky high. The flavours are sweet but not sickly; the balance of ingredients and textures spot on. I particularly loved the variety in the berries and definitely recommend that if you are at this hotel in KL, you try some it.

After a long night out one evening, Jeremy and I decided to indulge in some room service at the hotel for dessert. They have a large number of dishes to choose from so we took our time and finally settled on what we'd like for our midnight snack.

He chose the Berry Clafoutis which came with Vanilla Ice-cream on the side. A clafoutis is a baked French dessert with berries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. Traditionally cherries are used, but in this case it was blueberries and blackberries, which made it almost seem like pancakes!

Served lukewarm as it's intended to, this was a delicious dessert. It ticked all the boxes - sweetness, tartness from the berries, body and of course an accompanying scoop of ice-cream. Happiness can really be a dessert!

Marquise desserts are about as decadent as it can get. Usually reserved for chocaholics (which I am not, I gravitate towards fruity desserts), they are rich, velvety and memorably chocolatey when done right.

This one definitely was! A rich chocolate mousse like centre is covered in a thin raspberry flavoured shell. There's a crisp chocolate layer on top with fresh raspberries and then a pool of caramel sauce surrounding it. 

I can practically hear my arteries wheezing as I dig in. It is so, so rich but I do like what I eat. Unfortunately about halfway through I need to give up as there's just too much and I know that while I hate wasting food (especially dessert), I just can't continue. Lucky for me, Jeremy's all too happy to resume his role as the chocolate lover of us two and dives in. It's gone within minutes and he's smiling a very sated grin. 

Starhill Tea Salon

After dinner one night at Royale Vietnam in Starhill Gallery, Jeremy and I decided to stop by Tea Salon for dessert. We'd walked by earlier in the night and spied some delicious already made desserts in the display fridge. 

Jeremy's tiramisu is cold and refreshing. There's a nice hit of coffee without it being overwhelming - which as two non-coffee drinkers, we're probably more sensitive to than most. The cocoa powder on top is a bit too thick but when you cut your spoon down through all the layers of cream you can see that it adds a great extra flavour.

It looks beautiful, and it tastes as much too. A win-win situation!

I opt for the Strawberry Trifle which is a gorgeous concoction of cream, sponge and strawberries piled high in a glass. It's so sweet but not in a bad way; and I adore the vanilla bean flecks in the whipped cream.

The sponge inside is soft and fluffy; soaking up the residue strawberry sauce like a perfect vessel. How delicious!

Because I'm greedy, I also order a peanut butter macaron because they look too good to pass! It comes out on a little china plate looking absolutely amazing. Two crisp shells surround a nice peanut buttery filling that has equal parts sugar and salt. It's so moorish that I fall in love. Perhaps my love of macarons might have been reawakened?


Bread Talk

When you're in Kuala Lumpur, you may notice there are a million bread stores everywhere. These are my achilles heel! Since I omit bready things from my diet most of the time in Perth, it's a real treat to let myself go crazy in these bakeries where everything smells like heaven.

I usually flock to the savoury items like the hot dog buns, chicken floss buns, cheese sticks etc. But one thing that I can never go without trying is the Portugese egg tarts. I love these little desserts that straddle and blur the lines between savoury and dessert. Eggy custard that is lightly charred on top and crumbly, flaky pastry that breaks apart with each bite. It's happiness in a bite.


Cafe Vienna

Located in Suria KLCC is a cafe that juts out into the actual mall (prime spot for people watching). I've eaten at Cafe Vienna before on my last trip to KL but I had to go back after experiencing a lava cake of epic gooeyness proportions. 

Jeremy and I take a break from our shopping day and I manage to convince him that a dessert snack is what's needed. I know straight away that I'll be ordering that phenomenal lava cake again this time, and he immediately settles on the strawberry and chocolate crepe. It's filled with ice-cream and the crepe has a soft, enjoyable texture.

There's a generous slick of each sauce type and a serving of whipped cream to enjoy with each bite. And enjoy he does!

My lava cake is on the small side, but I prefer it that way given the richness of this type of dessert. It comes with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream on top of crushed peanuts, plus a slick of strawberry sauce with a couple slices of the fruit.

As my spoon cuts into the cake, the most glorious river of chocolate sauce spills out and coats the plate. This is a true lava cake! It seems to never end, pouring out and more than enough to top each bite of the actual cake which is actually quite light and not too decadent.

I really enjoy the peanuts with the ice-cream as they give some needed texture and a little saltiness to counter the sweet. What a great, great afternoon treat!

Grandmama's

After a delicious lunch at Grandmama's one afternoon where Jeremy and I munched on nasi lemak and hainan chicken, we decided to order a traditional Malaysian dessert to share. The ABC cendol. 

A cendol is a dish that features ingredients such as coconut milk, jelly noodles made from rice flour with pandan flavouring, shaved ice and palm sugar. This one we ordered had red beans, grass jelly, sago balls, corn and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

This is Jeremy's first time eating cendol and I watch as he digs through the layers to discover all the different elements. It's basically like a mixed lollybag of goodness - so many varying textures and levels of sweetness to indulge in.

I love cendol, but I do not like corn in desserts. So once I pick out all the visible kernels, I indulge in each bite with it's icy goodness and the creamy quality of the ice-cream. It's definitely a dish to share though because it's quite big and there's a decent amount to go round!


Shimino Crepes


Upstairs at Pavillion Shopping Centre is a designated area known as Tokyo Street. It's adorably Japanese with shops and food stalls on paper lanterned 'streets'.

One of the stands which caught our eye is Shimino Crepes which offers Japanese style crepe cones with a variety of different toppings. The inside of the crepes looks like the above - cream and fruit and in some cases even cake!

We place our orders and watch as the lovely girl behind the counter gets to making our crepes fresh for us; pouring the batter onto the hot plate and smoothening it out until it becomes the size of a pizza, or even bigger.

Inside Jeremy's crepe is a piece of blueberry cheesecake, cream, almonds and blueberry coulis. He gets a standard size and it's huge! Soft, fluffy cream inside that's sweet and properly whipped rather than one from a can. The crepe is paper thin, and gorgeously light.

For my crepe, I choose one that has fresh banana slices, cream, almond flakes and chocolate sauce. I choose the mini size which is a perfect little treat. I love the flavour combination and the decadence of that hazelnutty chocolate sauce. It's fingerlicking good!


J-Pop Ice-cream

On a different day in Tokyo Street (our last day in KL wahhhh), we decided to stop and try J-Pop Ice-cream. It's a Japanese ice-cream stand that sells adorable pops which boast a lighter, airier product that maintains its creaminess. I have to say, I was definitely intrigued!

Jeremy opts for the oreo flavoured ice-cream which features creamy cookies and cream ice-cream, complete with an actual oreo cookie right in the centre. The outside has been rolled in crushed cookies giving it the most amazing texture as he munches away. I can hear the crunching!

My white chocolate ice-cream is adorable! A little animal paw print (if only there wasn't a melted drop on the outside). The white chocolate outer is crisp and thin; sweet without having that chalky aftertaste white chocolate often can have. The inside is mainly vanilla but there's little flecks of milk chocolate throughout, making it more of a chocolate chip flavour.

It truly is delicious.

I don't know what they do in the manufacturing process that creates these ice-creams in such a light and enjoyable manner, but I did really like them. If only (as I often say after holidaying), such delights could be found here in Perth :)