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AN EYE OPENING VISIT TO PERFECT FOOD MANUFACTURING SDN BHD AT ALOR GAJAH @ MALACCA

Written by crizlai on May 24th, 2012 | Filed under: blog, bloggers, event, gathering, product, production, vacation

I’m sure the name Perfect Food Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. might not ring a bell in the minds of many consumers but the name “Julie’s” would. The company is actually behind all the Julie’s biscuits products sold in more than 60 countries throughout the world. During the recent A Date with Bloggers in Melaka event organized by 1asiafoodguide.com and bestmelakaguide.com, we had “A Date with Julie’s”. Romantic isn’t it? Well, it was as we got up close and personal with Julie’s production processes. LOL! Foreign bloggers from Singapore and Philippines joined the Malaysian bloggers team from as far as Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru gathered under one common roof for the first time to have a better understanding on the mission and vision of this biscuit manufacturing organization. The company’s motto “Baked with Love” says it all as they sincerely did share out their lovely bakes from the heart~ 🙂

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From a humble beginning more than 3 decades ago, the brand Julie’s has today become a well known household brand by winning many distinctive awards such as the Superbrands Award, Putra Award and Asia Excellence Brand Award, to name some. Throughout the years, the company has also received numerous certifications such as the ISO 1901:2000 (design, modeling, manufacture and delivery of products & services), HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points), HACCP (Ministry of Health), OHSAS 18001 (British Standard for Occupational Hazard & Safety Management Systems), GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices), ISO 22000 (interactive communication, system management, prerequisite programs & HACCP principles) and the latest being the HALAL (permissible food based on Islamic law) certification.

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After a short briefing on the company’s profile by Mr. Ng Teng Chai, General Manager of Perfect Food Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. (Julie’s) and staff, we were then taken on a tour to the production line. As there was a rule against any recording in the production room, I’m sorry to say that there would not be any photos available here to share out but I’ll try my best to get every detail in here as possible. As food safety and hygiene are extremely important in their daily operations, we were required to dress up with protective gears from head to toe. This is one of the standards set to ascertain all activities carried out within the premises have the required quality and safety at all stages from primary production through processing, storage and distribution prior to reaching the consumers. Even with the “bathing cap” to prevent hair droppings, mouth piece to prevent unnecessary bacteria, below knee covered overcoats and shoe covers to prevent foreign matters, we were also required to wash our hands with anti micro-organisms hand lotion and rolled with adhesive tape prior to entering the production room. Upon entering the room, we were again asked to sanitize our hands with some antiseptic lotion. That’s how serious Julie’s is in hygiene to ensure their food safety.

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Here’s a group shot of the future “operation room surgeons and nurses”. LOL!

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Upon entering the production room, you can feel the intense humidity from the long line of conveyor belt baking ovens. We were shown all the stages of producing the aromatic biscuits, from ingredients weighing, mixing, fermentation, forming, baking, cooling, metal detection, sandwiching, wrapping, weight checking, cartooning and right up to storage. Thereafter, the end products would be dispatched to respective retailers before being sold to consumers. Below is the summarized overview of the whole procedures.

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The end products would look like these little packages with crunchy biscuits inside. In the production of these biscuits, no preservatives have been added. Only permissible natural colorings have been added and these colorings are ten folds costlier than artificial coloring. Anything displayed on the shelves for more than 9 months would be taken back to ensure the freshness of all Julie’s products. Rejected products would not be resold on the market place, resulting in roughly a million ringgit worth of product being destroyed yearly.

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Perfect Food Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. (Julie’s) produces 4 types of biscuits, namely crackers, sandwiches, wafer rolls and assorted biscuits in tins. You can purchase any of these products practically off the shelves in any of the leading supermarkets, hypermarkets or even grocery stores throughout the world. More varieties such as the upcoming productions of Sultana Biscuits would be available soon. Do keep a look out for the launching.

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On top of their “Aloha” principle in instilling a clean and harmonious working environment, Perfect Food Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. (Julie’s) also carries out their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by sharing their successes with the community by executing their “Share the Love” campaign frequently. Apart from rewarding those “unsung heroes” with some little tokens of appreciation for working at odd hours or days to have a better living, they also have many sponsorships and charity drives to help out those underprivileged society. It’s all about friendship and solidarity in expressing “LOVE” as one entity in humanity. Some of their achievements and events can be viewed at their official website.

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After a brief lunch at the cafeteria, we adjourned to the main entrance of the factory and took a group shot of the Julie’s management with “A Date with Bloggers in Melaka” participants.

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Eventually, we had to bid farewell to the management of Julie’s with Mr. Ng Teng Chai, General Manager of Perfect Food Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. (Julie’s) personally handed out some giveaways for our memorable visit to the factory.

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Coincidentally, I have a true story to share out here. I’m a pet lover and I owned 5 cats at home now. Johann L was the latest stray cat to be adopted into the J Family Kitties on 10 May 2012, barely 9 days away from my trip with “A Date with Bloggers in Melaka”. He was all run down with injuries sustained from some dog bites and is still recovering from those bad wounds. I can’t leave him there to fend for himself right? Our first encounter was with Julie’s and he loves the biscuits ever since. No doubt human food would not suit animals for a long period of time, but I still do pamper him with small bits of the biscuits from time to time as it was that moment of fate that brought us together. What a lucky fella! 🙂

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Lastly, I would like to thank to Perfect Food Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. (Julie’s) for sponsoring the event as well as giving us the first hand opportunity to witness the production line.

Name: JULIE’S @ PERFECT FOOD MANUFACTURING SDN. BHD.
Address:
AG 6876 Jalan Industri 4, Kawasan Perindustrian Alor Gajah,
78000 Alor Gajah, Malaysia.
Contact: 606-556 1401
GPS: 2.361314, 102.20007
Website: http://www.julies.com.my

 

I'm thirsty for a drink now. Would you be kind enough to treat me?


AN INSIGHT INTO A DATE WITH BLOGGERS IN MELAKA 2012

Written by crizlai on May 22nd, 2012 | Filed under: blog, bloggers, gathering, holiday, vacation

Criz Bon Appetite together with a few bloggers from Penang had the privileges to be invited to join other bloggers, Facebookers and student chefs from Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Johore, Singapore and Philippines respectively on a field trip organized by the management team from “A Date with Bloggers in Melaka” to the historic centre of Malacca (Melaka), which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 7 July 2008 together with George Town, the capital of Penang. The trip included visitation to Julie’s biscuits manufacturing factory (Perfect Food Manufacturing S/B), hands on cooking lessons on producing some of Malacca’s local delicacies, food reviews on local Hainanese, Portugese and Nyonya cuisine as well as visits to some of the heritage and historical sites in Malacca. I’ll just write a brief here while elaborating more on individual eateries soon at Criz Bon Appetite.

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As for those of us from Penang, we started off our journey late due to some bus engine malfunctions and departed only at 1.00am on the Saturday morning. However, luck wasn’t at our side and the replaced bus also broke down an hour later. Eventually we had to hijack a passing bus and managed to reach Kuala Lumpur by 5.15am. After having an expensive breakfast experience at Petaling Street, we left for Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) at Bandar Tasik Selatan, KL via Pudu Sentral LRT station.

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We spent around 2 hours at TBS utilizing the hi-speed broadband before leaving there by a charted bus for our visitation to Julie’s biscuits manufacturing factory (Perfect Food Manufacturing S/B) located at Alor Gajah, 20km away from the Malacca Central. We were given some briefing on the company profile by the GM, Mr. Ng Teng Chai and staff. Eventually, we were all dressed up like operation room surgeons for a tour into the production line. We had some buffet there before ending up for a group photography session. Everyone was given some biscuits to bring home.

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We then departed to our designated lodging place to check in. My team mates who consisted of the Penang bloggers and chef students from the Berjaya University College of Hospitality and Malaysian Institute of Baking were assigned to Motel Sayang Sayang, just a stone throw away from the famous Jonker Walk (Jalan Hang Jebat).

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After a short rest and freshening up, we walked to Uncle Keong Delicacies for some desserts and light meals. It was great to be served some chilled desserts on such a hot and humid day.

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Immediately after that, we adjourned to Eleven Bistro to savor our Melaka Portuguese dinner. The amount of food served here were humongous. Almost every dish came in large portions, including the Sambal Crabs. We were given a model ship each for our visit.

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After a short rest back at the guesthouse, we departed to Mahkota Parade for the welcoming ceremony, officiated by YB Datuk Wira Latiff bin Tamby Chik, Chairman of the Malacca’s Tourism, Culture and Heritage State Committee. More souvenirs were given by Julie’s and Mahkota Parade.

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The function ended slightly around 9.15pm and some of us managed to linger around the shopping complex for a speedy shopping spree. Well, Nadeje Patisserie, the milli crepe cake house was our target, having a 10% discount given earlier by the management.

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Upon leaving Mahkota Parade at around 10.00pm, our next move was to get back to our respective guesthouse and have a free and easy stroll down Jonker Walk to savor the local delicacies. The night ended with stuffed tummies.

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Surprisingly, my team mates all managed to wake up rather early after a hectic schedule the previous day. By 8.00am, we were already hitting the streets for some sightseeing adventures on our way to breakfast at Cheng Ho Café along Jalan Tokong. It was a nostalgic walk down the Malaccan heritage trail, witnessing the historical structures such as the Kampung Kling Mosque and many other unique architectural and colorful buildings with nicely drawn wall arts.

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Breakfast at Cheng Ho Café was simple with just Stir Fried Rice Vermicelli, Omellette, watermelon and hot beverages.

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The actual action began right after the breakfast as the café was within the premises of the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum. Although the entrance was RM10 (adult) and RM5 (child), we had the privileges to tour around the 3 level museum for free. It was a great experience to learn more on the history of Malacca and the Cino Malay cultural exchange which brought about the trade and commerce, agriculture, industry, fishery, culture, religion and much more in the region.

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We then had a changeover to yellow t-shirts sponsored by Julie’s and headed down to the Malacca Hainan Association for some food demonstrations and hands on practical lessons. Two of the main highlights were the making of the Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls by the women wing of the Association and Suncakes by the proprietor of Mei Zhong Yuan Confectionary S/B.

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Lunch was also provided by the skillful Hainanese ladies from the Association, Nyonya cuisine by Restoran Anak Nyonya and beverages by Jonker Gallery.

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The lunch gathering was graced by the Chief Minister of Malacca, Y.A.B. Datuk Seri Hj. Mohd Ali b. Mohd Rustam. Appreciation certificates signed by the CM were also presented to the sponsors and participants. The lunch ended slightly after 2.00pm.

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While waiting for the next review at Mei Zhong Yuan Confectionary S/B at 3.00pm, we went for a quick shopping spree along the heritage stretches, grabbing whatever items we like. After a short refreshing and repacking at the motel, we headed to Mei Zhong Yuan Confectionary S/B for the review. It was a simple one with us getting samples tasting on some of their signature confectionaries.

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We left the Jonker Walk area around 4.00pm and headed down to Kota A’Farmosa for a nice group shot. There were many interesting sights surrounding this historical site.

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We left Malacca at around 5.00pm and with the weekend traffic jams along the Seremban/Nilai highway stretch, we arrived at the TBS slightly after 7.15pm. We bid each other farewell before departing to our own destinations. The Penang bloggers left for home slightly after midnight, arriving safely back in Penang at 4.30am.

It was a fun-filled but tiring journey for us Penangites but it was a great experience to mingle with old and new found friends. If only we have more time, we could have tied in a closer bond between every participant. All are without lost as we managed to receive many sweet memories from our short visit to Malacca. Thanks to the sponsors for these lovely take home gifts and souvenirs.

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Even my cat loves the smell of the cheesy puff sandwiches given by Julie’s. Thanks for the great hospitality ladies and guys. Let’s hope we can have trips like this in the near future. Until then, let’s keep in touch always~ 🙂

JULIEJOHANN

 

I'm thirsty for a drink now. Would you be kind enough to treat me?


THE FIRST OF ITS KIND TRANSFORMERS MOBILE PHONE IN THE WORLD BY SPICE CSL

Written by crizlai on Jul 10th, 2011 | Filed under: announcement, event, gathering, product, review

In conjunction with the release of the blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Spice CSL with close association with Hasbro has released the world’s first Transformers mobile phone – the CSL Transformers DS700, a dual SIM, full touch and bar type transformable mobile phone that would be great for dual SIM cardholders as well as collector’s items. It has multi functions that would be affordable to everyone. The mobile phone would come in 3 unique tin boxes, fully equipped with accessories and relevant preloaded wallpapers plus sounds (except for the Megatron mobile phone) – Red Optimus Prime, Yellow Bumblebee and Grey Megatron. Presently, each design of the mobile phone is selling at a promotional price of RM299 with 1-year warranty, instead of its recommended retail price (RRP) of RM499. I got the opportunity to review the product at the recent road show held at 1st Floor Concourse, Queensbay Mall, Penang yesterday together with 19 other Penang bloggers. You can still catch the road show as today (10 July 2011) is the last day. Just in case you missed out, you can also check out their Transformers Phone Everyday SMS Contest which would be held until 31 July 2011. Other than the daily giveaway, the grand prize is interesting as it’s a limited edition Bumblebee Coin Bank with speech.

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Each model can be dismantled into 3 parts. Either you want it to be a PDA or you can have it as a candy bar phone. The 3 daring colors of red (Optimus Prime), yellow (Bumblebee) and grey (Megatron) models would come in brushed aluminum casing with relevant Autobot or Decepticon logo imprinted behind. Powered by MediaTek’s MT6253 chipset, a highly integrated chip in the market for mobile communication, this 13mm thick mobile phone has the strong support for features such as camera, high speed USB and Class D audio AMP.

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Let’s me just summarize the specifications and features to ease your reading as below. Click to view a larger picture.

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We were then led to Austin Chase at Ground Floor, Queensbay Mall, for some coffee and light snacks while being allowed to have a more in depth study of each individual unit’s unique features and specifications. Five beverages were served, namely Hazelnut Latte (RM12.50), Signature Black Chocolate (RM13.00), Strawberry Cream Frappe (RM14.00), Mocha Frappe (RM12.50), Long Black (RM7.00) and Brew Coffee (RM7.00). The Smoked Salmon Sandwich (RM11.90 – it’s 1/3 of the original size in photo) on the other hand was slightly steamed and filled with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and some salmon slices. It was quite delicious.

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Well, I was quite a naughty boy that day as I did not heed my mother’s advice as not to play with my food. LOL! How could I resist the temptation of not playing with my food when there were these cute little Optimus Prime and Bumblebee mobile phone holders to play with? A mobile phone holder would be given away with each purchase of any model of the CSL Transformers DS700, while stocks last. Don’t you think they looked real cute with food? 😛

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You can check out CSL Malaysia’s official website for more updates.

Here’s the video on the launch

I'm thirsty for a drink now. Would you be kind enough to treat me?


WHAT IS COOKING THIS HOLIDAY?

Written by crizlai on Oct 15th, 2008 | Filed under: floggers, food, gathering, holiday, life, party, rant, recipes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a successful turnout for the second Penang Food Bloggers (Floggers) Meet at Edelweisse Café on 27 September 2008, the organizing committee had decided to hold another gathering some time in the month of December. That would be the time where all the jingles and jangles of the Christmas bells would be heard. I was anxious about the next gathering until I found out that it might be a potluck gathering.

The first thing that came into my mind was what should I prepare for the gathering that would impress the guests? I was digging into my recipe collections trying to figure out what would be the ideal dish but I was lost. Everything was Oriental and would have to be taken with some rice. I needed something that would be light and easy to consume without the hassle of using fork and spoon or even a knife. I will need some finger food.

After stretching my brains out, I thought why not I have some holiday appetizers since we would be having Christmas just around the corner. The appetizer should be something to set the mood of the gathering to be happy, joyous and merry. Now I’m contemplating whether to have some Sweet Potato Pecan Tarts or Chipotle Shrimp Cups. Maybe I should have some salty items instead. What do you think?

I'm thirsty for a drink now. Would you be kind enough to treat me?

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