Ben's Cookies, and How They Melt In Your Mouth

Wow, it's been raining in Riyadh! For days! When it rains in Saudi Arabia, it's a big phenomenon because it's something unusual. I've been in Riyadh for five years and I haven't seen this much rain in this Kingdom. Reminds me of the earthquake we felt a few weeks back, which my father felt for the first time in his 20+ years of stay here. It's kind of scary how nature is getting too unpredictable these days. However, this entry is not meant to scare you. Or predict the end of the world.

Even if it's quite weird, I meant the rain, it provides a gentle reprieve from the summer heat. It's quite cold this morning even if the sun shone and I love the breeze outside. The drizzles from time to time are nice too. (I miss rainy days in the Philippines! It's my favorite season in our province.) The rain makes us lazy! Don't you just want to hide under your comforters and sleep all day? Or grab a book, a cup of coffee, a cookie, and a --- did someone say cookie? COOKIE?

Reminds me of a pack of Ben's Cookies that I got a few months back in the Jarir Bookstore building in Khurais Road on our way to visit a friend. I've been intrigued by Ben's Cookies that I grabbed the chance to try them. I saw it first in the food court of Sahara Mall.

Yeah, well, it's a tower of cookies!

Ben's Cookies was founded in 1984 in England by Helge Rubinstein and has opened 11 stores in the UK and three stores in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their cookies are baked fresh every day and are made from the finest ingredients. What attracted me first was their size; they're big. Each cookie is priced at SR 7. And with their promo of buy 5 get 2 free, I think I got a pretty much good deal since I get to taste seven flavors in one go for SR35 only.

Can you identify the flavors?

T-B: Milk chocolate chunk, milk chocolate praline, oatmeal and raisin, coconut, white chocolate chunk,  double chocolate chunk, peanut butter

The cookies have a good consistency; slightly crunchy outside and soft inside with gooey chocolate chunks in most of the flavors. The melted chocolate chunks are velvety and lends just the right amount of sweetness to the dough. The cookies are delicious especially when they just came out of the oven. The warm chocolate dribbles in my chin, like lava bursting from a volcano mound. The Milk Chocolate Chunk is my favorite but I like their Coconut cookie too. It's soft, almost like a small, round packed bread filled with coconut shavings, and is not cloying.

My favorite of the bunch -- milk chocolate chunk!

I didn't like the Peanut Butter because they didn't seem to have incorporated the creamy peanut paste in the cookie but just threw in a handful of peanuts. The oatmeal and raisin was a bit tough to chew on; even hard on the edges. It might just be that specific batch but on my next visit, I stayed away from this type of cookie. Most of the cookies, though, are seemingly laden with too much butter that in some cookies, it's all I can taste. Nevertheless, among all the commercial cookies in Riyadh, ones with local branches and are franchised from abroad, Ben's Cookies is the best for me. (It's different when compared to homebakers.) Wish they open more branches which are more accessible to the Riyadhizens in the city center.

I'm already imagining myself reading a book and reaching for a cookie! Pleasant weather, please stay! Oh, and I didn't know why I ended up just taking photos of the cookies in tower form. There's even no solo or bite shots of the cookies! I guess they all melted in my mouth immediately. Burp! :P ~ Sundrenched

Ben's Cookies
Food Court, Sahara Mall
T: +966-1-4520460
Sharq Plaza (Panda), Exit 15
T: +966-1-4714508
Jarir Bookstore, Khurais Road
T: +966-1-208486
FB: www.facebook.com/BensCookies
Twitter: @bens_cookies
W: www.benscookies.com

Thailand, A Photo Diary 2/4

It took me a week before I had the chance to write and publish the second of our Thailand series (check out the first here). Our schedules are crazy with all the events happening in Riyadh. Have you noticed how frequent we publish events in our Facebook page now compared to two years ago? We're glad that Riyadh is more open to these events and that a lot of people are thinking of ways on how to promote skills and camaraderie. Yey, Riyadh!

Choosing the photos for the blog entries took me quite a while. We have a thousand photos to browse.  Masyado kasing camwhores eh! Haha. Both Eyecandy and I brought our DSLRs and we also took photos with our iPhones. Consider this a disclaimer; this entry contains 50+ photos.

Anyway, back to Thailand... as I said on our first entry, Pattaya was our base in Thailand, not Bangkok which is the capital of the country. I think it was a good thing because we get to see one of the beach areas of the land of smiles and still had enough time to tour Bangkok's temples on our third day. 

This is our view from our hotel room in Asia Pattaya Beach Hotel:

Good morning, Thailand!

Our That 70s Show-themed hotel outdoors. :P

Our day 2 started with a breakfast in our hotel's restaurant. We had a good view of the pool and the place is filled with music from the 60s-90s. Told you, seems like we went back in time. I had Nasi Goreng for breakfast. It's not a Thai cuisine but more of Indonesia's. Eyecandy had a crab omelet.

Nasi Goreng and satay

Their version of Coke/Pepsi

Being the OC when it comes to travel itineraries (I'm obsessed making them and making sure that we cover as many places in such a short amount of time), I came to Thailand prepared with a plan. Tripomatic helped me make it so if you're having a hard time making itineraries for your trips to other countries, grab this app! But then, itineraries should also be flexible just in case something doesn't go on as planned or the tip of a local makes much more sense than the one you researched.

Our taxi driver suggested we go to Mini Siam first to avoid the noon heat. By the way, Thailand is HOT! We should've been used to it coming from a tropical country like the Philippines but Thailand is hotter! We suddenly missed our aircon in Riyadh! (Can you believe we actually wished to be transported to Riyadh during the hottest time of the day? :P) It might also be disconcerting to find that the Thais drive in the left side of the road.

Mini Siam: Around the World in 2 Hours

Welcome to the world!

Mini Siam is basically the place of miniatures filled with small replicas of the wonders and iconic landmarks of the world. It started as a research project in 1985 and constructed in 1986 with 29 Rais (unit of land measurement equivalent to 1,600 square meters) divided into Mini Siam and Mini Europe. Entrance fee is 300 baht. Check if you can identify all the monuments, buildings, and national heritage sites:

Bright, sunny day

Eyecandy and I went on separate ways. She started in the Mini Europe while I went to the Mini Siam area and roamed Mini Europe after.

China

Those are "people" holding the flags!

Cambodia

Amazing details on the temple and people

Stone shrines and temples in Asia

The Grand Palace in Bangkok

So colorful!

How cool are these miniature elephants standing guard

The beasts of burden, the Philippines' prized hardworking carabaos.

Fly Thai!

An accident in the making (see yellow car)

The trains are ready to go!

Can you identify this building? (Because I can't, hehe!)

I reached a mini lake at the corner of Mini Siam where visitors can feed fishes. The lake is packed with fishes! I don't know how they can swim properly in such dense conditions. I reached for a pack of pellets and paid 20 baht. The moment I threw my first handful in the lake, the fishes swarmed in my direction like crazy!

Huwaw! This ain't an aquarium.

The Mini Europe zone featured a lot of more familiar landmarks around the world:

Singapore, Australia, France in one photo

Singapore, Australia, France in one photo

Russian Palace

A colorful palace in Moscow

The Christ Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Statue of Liberty (wait, why is it colored teal?) + Mt. Rushmore

We won't give you a clue on where this is. :P

Lean to the left. 

With matching stairs... and moth? :)

The Cathedral of Notredame

The details in this miniature are incredible!

The fountain of Rome... make a wish!

The details on all miniatures were amazing! It took us an hour or so to roam the area. It would have been longer if the weather wasn't that hot. Eyecandy was taking a bath in her own perspiration. LOL. And I was basically skipping in my desire to see every featured landmarks and get out of the heat pronto. The Thai sun wasn't that cooperative, mind you. But it was indeed smiling broadly at us.

After Mini Siam, we went to the Sanctuary of Truth. It's located outside Pattaya, just 20 minutes away from Mini Siam. This is the place I enjoyed the most because we get to go on a speed boat ride and the Sanctuary of Truth was a marvel in itself. Entrance fee is 500 baht. We added 200 baht for the speed boat. Being a sacred place, we rented sarongs to cover our exposed legs (we were wearing shorts). Dressing modestly is a must in temples.

Sanctuary of Truth: Heaven on Earth

Breathtaking at a distance

More breathtaking up close!

It was so hot I needed some Thai iced coffee (my favorite drink in the land of smiles!):

I need my dose of caffeine even when traveling!

We arrived on time to watch a cultural dance performance.

Those are looong nails, young lady! :P

Gorgeous! Fawn Lep of fingernail dance from Chiang Mai!

Rabum Talikipas or fan dance from the Southern part of Thailand

Love the myriad of colors in her costume and hair crown

Couple dance

 I want her headdress!

After the performance, we were then given life jackets and whisked into the sea by our speed boat driver. And this is where the fun begins! Woot!

Woohooooo!

The speed boat took us to the other side of the Sanctuary and we saw Pattaya from afar. The modern buildings line the shore and we enjoyed the wind. There were rough parts though that we were sprayed with water, but it alleviated the warm weather. It was tempting to jump out of the boat into the water. Wished we prepared our bikinis (yikes!).

Pattaya shores

The Sanctuary of Truth seen from the sea

The island on the other side of Pattaya

After our mini photo shoot, haha, we went back to the water area near the Sanctuary of Truth and took our photos from there. We had a hard time taking our shots because the boat kept on moving; the direction of the waves being opposite to where we wanted to stay still. The sea is not that cooperative too. My sarong was wet by the time I got out of the water that I was tempted to not wear it anymore but I'm afraid the gods might take my exposed leg as an insult. (It is quite insulting on its own, sashaying my varicose veins and all, lol!)

We wished the speed boat ride lasted an hour! But it was a probably a good thing it didn't last that long also because we didn't slather on enough sun block. Kung hindi, sunburn ang ganap! We got our hard hats aka helmets and finally entered the Sanctuary of Truth.

Ready to go inside!

The Sanctuary of Truth is a gigantic wooden construction (yes, it still is being constructed up to now that's why the hard hats are a must when one enters). Every inch of the building is covered with sculptures that reflects the ancient vision of earth, ancient knowledge, and eastern philosophy. It was termed "heaven recreated on earth."

What a welcome!

Surreal!

Amazing carvings on the walls... every where!

We were awed by the magnificence of the place. Every inch shows how religion, philosophy, and art can bring about so much goodness. E and I tried hard to capture how grand everything from the inside is but our cameras can only do this much:

A window overlooking the sea... reflective.

The light and wood has an ethereal feel to it.

The inside.

Under construction 

These wooden sculptures of women in the exit definitely caught our attention. Uhuh, I know it did get your attention too!We had to have a photo with them! We asked one of the employees of the sanctuary to take our photo and she gladly obliged.  Please try hard to look at us. :P

What a view!

There are guides who can speak English and other European languages so you might want to check the schedule before entering on your own. Well, we just did our own touring around of the place so we definitely lost on some major historic details. There are other activities like horse riding and elephant riding.

It's quite a long entry filled with photos so I would have to cut this day and put our elephant ride experience in the third post along with other activities we did in Pattaya. Come back for more of our (mis)adventures in Thailand! ~ Sundrenched