I just cried like a baby...

watching this movie...

My Sister's Keeper
Based on the very famous Jodi Picoult's novel with the same title, My Sister's Keeper is... NOT SHOWING IN MALAYSIA! I don't know why, it has Cameron Diaz in it! Maybe it's just not commercialized enough to make the cut?
Anywayz, the story tells about Anna, who is a so-called 'designer baby' born to just help her elder sister, Kate who is dying of Leukemia. She then sued her parent for Medical Emancipation (well, obviously I just copied this from some websites), which is to have the right to not be a donor to her sister. In the end there is a total twist in the story...
When I heard about the story, I was thinking oh no, the whole movie will be shot in the court with all the court scenes. Luckily it wasn't. It was more to a flashback on Kate's life, which is surprising and I love it! I especially love it when they talk about Kate met a guy called Taylor who is also a cancer patient and they fell in love! I mean, you don't normally expect a dying person's story to come with love story, right? Love it when Taylor says:"If I didn't have Cancer, I wouldn't have met you. I'm glad to be sick." Man, I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe because I'm in love now, I think that line is so damn romantic can!!! From the info I got from the internet, I know the ending of the movie is totally different than the one in the book. And well, I prefer the movie's ending.
I love the little girl, Abigail Breslin! That was since Little Miss Sunshine! You will not believe that she is 13 acting like that! She is just adorable! I really think she did a great job again in this movie! Cameron Diaz acting as a mum of three kids... Urm, I'm sorry I just don't buy that. Really. Although I wouldn't say she acted terribly, in fact she did quite well, it's just that she doesn't really look like a mum. Ah well, she should feel happy about that. Ohyea, she looks really good in short hair in the movie!
Overall, this is a nice and touching movie to watch. I especially love the little twist at the end. Watch it if you have the chance.

Pre-CNY dinner @ Betty's Midwest Kitchen

Sean told me about this restaurant his friend owns and I got interested. So I invited him and Ducum, of course plus my pork-lover dear dear, to Betty's Midwest Kitchen for a pre-CNY dinner.Haha... My dear took my Facebook status on his iPhone...
Look out for this restaurant, it's not with a very catchy signboard but it's just by the road side.
Located at Aman Suria, this restaurant is very much a family business cos you see the whole family cooking or serving you food and drink. Sean told me the owner's sister is staying in the States and his mum loves cooking Western food.
What I like about the restaurant is that it serves very unique Western (or American) food. And the fact that they are all done by the mum and son is a plus point. It's a bit like eating at home. Plus the fact that it's non-halal. Nowadays I really think Western food without pork is really nothing! The interior is quite okay, but I would say it's quite small lar, no wonder I heard it's always very packed during dinner time!
So before everything I gotta tell ya, we ate a lot! Soup of the Week, Ham and Tomato Soup. RM10.
Lady of the day... Shirlexia... Kekekekeke...
The Classical Meatloaf. Very unique dish in deed. RM15.
Grill Beer Braised Boston Butt. RM25.50.
Yes, those were what we ordered before Ducum and Sean came later. We both prefer the Beer Braised Boston Butt than the Meatloaf. Although I will still recommend you to try the meatloaf dish just because its a very unique dish with a mixture of beef and pork in it. But the Boston Butt is really really nice, especially the gravy! Yum~!
And then Ducum and Sean came...Eh... You two are late, you two should be paying!!!
The other couple...
We can never be serious... Hahahaha...
The superyummilicious (wow what a word) Hog Wild. RM31.50.
Dog Food, which is fries in special sauce and cheese. RM7.50
The Hamburger, served with fries. RM15.
Jucy Lucy, very fancy name hey! RM13.50.
The Hog Wild is VERY VERY DELICIOUS!!! Oooppsss... I'm a very bad blogger cannot think of creative words to describe the food... ==||| Aiya, no matter what, the Hog Wild is just good! The sausage is really good and the pork ham steak is like OOOOH SO TEMPTING AND YUMMY YOU DON'T WANNA MISS IT! The Dog Food (very interesting name hey) is ok lar, cos to me fries just has to be crispy and will never be good with gravy lar. I tried some of the Jucy Lucy and Cheeseburger and I think both are pretty nice too! They both have pork in the pattie. Tell ya Western food with pork is always better! :p
And then we had dessert of the week to share... Not too bad too! :)Apple Crumble with Vanila Ice-cream. RM8.
Overall, it was a very satisfying dinner. I give the food 4 out of 5 stars. And the fact that it's pretty cheap (well of course portion also not as big as those you get in T.G.I Friday, but good enough for me) is a plus plus plus point. That's why we can afford to try so much of their food! Love it! Now I understand why this place can be so crowded during peak hours!
This is their website, which is I think not really done yet. But have a look and you can find their address and phone number just in case you wanna book a table in advanced!

Shirlexia's Sesame Oil Chicken and the 'Lou Sang' dinner

I tried to avoid posting another food post, but couldn't help lar... :p

I made dinner for my dear again as it's weekend again! This time around it's the Sesame Oil Chicken. The dish is well known as a good nutrition source for women after delivery. It is just a very simple yet nutritious dish. It was my first try, and I went online to search for the recipe where I took some from each of them and kinda made it without the proper way... :p

Here are the ingredients:Two big pieces of chicken thigh(I removed the skin and oil), sliced old ginger, Gei Zi, mushrooms and of course black sesame oil and Chinese cooking oil.

The Method:
1. Heat up some sesame oil. Well, it can't be too little like how you stir-fry vege lar, it has to be a little bit more than that.
2. Simmer the ginger.3. Put in the chicken and fry them a bit. Don't need to make them fully cooked, but make sure all part of the chicken has some sesame oil! 4. As the chicken is about 60% cooked, transfer them over to a cooking pot. Turn on the fire and add in a generous portion of Chinese cooking wine. Add in some water too. At this point, I basically just keep on tasting and see if I need to add more sesame oil, wine or water. 5. Add in the Gei Zi and mushrooms.
6. Cover with the lit of the pot and let it boil for about 20 minutes or until the chicken are cooked. And that's it!Ta da~ Never expected it to be so simple, but it was VERY SIMPLE!
I think the dish is so easy to make! Simple method and ingredients too! The Gei Zi and mushroom were extra stuff I put in, otherwise it would be even easier! And for my dear and I, who are both fan of sesame oil and wine, this dish is just so satisfying yet healthy! You can treat it as a soup to go with your rice, I can assure you, it's HYPER YUMMY!!!My dear looks so damn happy to be home and have the lovely dinner I made! Yea, we always have to eat on the sofa with the food on a plastic chair. With a bicycle at the back... LOL!

We actually had this 'Lou Sang' dinner last night. But for the sake of showing off my successful cooking, I gotta put that up first! :p
Like I said, I kinda hang-out quite a lot with my dear's bunch of friends nowadays. Just like how he hangs-out with my sister and my relatives. This time around, it was me who suggested that he and his cell group members should have a 'Lou Sang' dinner before everyone goes home for CNY. Me and my dear in matching costumes!
That's Yapp(I think he looks like Choc 7's Louis) and Shan Shan.
Very cute Pearly and Ket Hon... Who seems to have very big nose... Holes... I mean, according to this picture...
So off we went to Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant, located at Subang SS15. The owner's wife is my ex-colleague and of course this was my er... fourth visit. I kinda like their food there. I remember last year we had our company's CNY dinner 'Lou Sang' here too!
What we had...The Yu Sang... Actually I still miss the Sushi King's one. I hope I can have that when I'm back in Taiping! Yay~!
Wah... Lou ah lou ah... See how excited Pearly was! Haha.
Their Curry Fish, which is well known for without coconut milk=healthier!
The Gei Zi Dong Guai Chicken. We were making fun of the guys having this dish because it's well known that this is very good to women... :p
Our very small portion of sweet potato leaves.
The Deep Fried Sotong.
Ooopsss... Just found out I didn't take picture of the Kam Heong La La! Probably because I was mad at my dear for something stupid and I just had no mood to take picture... :p
The curry fish last night was a bit disappointing lar. The fish weren't fresh. :( The Gei Zi Dong Guai Chicken was everyone's favourite. The sotong like I always think, tasted a bit too sweet. And they were really busy they ran out of the vege we ordered so we had to order another kinda vege to go with the sweet potato leaves we had.
Plus the Yu Sang, rice and tea, it cost us around RM173. I think it was a bit pricy cos don't know how they charged us twice the price for the curry fish when I asked for just some extra of other kinda fish because ya know the Pow Yu we ordered wasn't enough to make a big portion one. Anywayz, a bit out of their normal quality lar. A group photo~! Finally~!

You might have notice in these pictures above and from my other posts, I'm currently hooked to headbands. I think they make me look for girlish since I already cut my hair short. Not to say I purposely wanna be so girlish lar, but now someone would complain if I act or wear too boyish mah... Blek~!
I'm especially very much in love with those feathered ones. This one that I wore for the dinner... One of the feathers came out and I couldn't stick it back even with super glue. So yea in the end I found my solution...Cannot see very clearly what's the solution, right? Kekekeke...

More food reviews...:p

Not that I want to purposely update my blog so frequent, it's just that since I have nothing to do, then why not spend some time updating my blog?
I have these two places to tell you about where you can go for some good food! Hehehe...

Restaurant Kong Sai 广西仔My dear brought me to this restaurant once and I totally fell in love with it! Over here, I can find the dishes that my Ah Ma and mum cook at home! The biggest example is the Steamed Shrimp with Eggs which my mum makes! But I haven't try theirs here lar...
On this particular visit, my dear and I ordered their 'jiu pai' dishes, the Farm Chicken and the Pig Stomach Pepper Soup, plus the special Stuffed Tau Fu Pok and a Sambal Kangkung.The Farm Chicken is yummy, especially when you eat with their special garlic and celery sauce.
The Sambal Kangkung is not too bad too, especially the sambal itself tastes pretty good!
The very famous Pig Stomach Soup.
Also, the very special Stuffed Tau Fu Pok.
I always love their Farm Chicken, the meat are smooth and tender, but most importantly taste very fresh! Definitely a MUST TRY over here! The Pig Stomach Pepper Soup isn't too bad, but I think they put too much of pepper lor. The rest pretty much passed my expectation.
I think one day I really gotta go try their steamed fish and shrimps.Remember to ask for their oily rice, which is so bloody yum~yum~!
Restaurant Kong Sai has branches in Sunway, Puchong and PJ.

Win Soon Fresh Prawn Fish Head Mihoon 亚顺生虾鱼头米
Dear's best friend, Ket Weng recommended this famous restaurant located at Kuchai Lama to us the other day. Since I'm quite a big fan of Fish Head Mihoon, I demanded that we should go try this no matter what. My dear ordered the Fresh Prawn with Yu Wat while I had the ori thingy, the Fresh Prawn Fish Head Mihoon. The soup itself has Chinese wine in it, which gives it a really nice fragrance. And I found out what makes it so special and delicious! That is, they put pork lart in it! Very sinful but ya know, anything with pork lart in it is YUMMY! The prawns are pretty fresh and I'm pretty satisfy with it. The noodles are selling at RM13.80 for the ones with the prawns. We also ordered a small portion of vege which pissed my dear off a bit cos it's too small a portion he refused to take picture of it... :pI had a Chrysanthemum with Ginseng Tea.
The one with the Yu Wat... You can see the pieces of pork lart here...
And the original one... Not too bad!
Anywayz, make sure you go there early because I saw people standing outside waiting for tables when I was there!

Film reviews, finally!

It's been a while I didn't do any film review hey?
First thing first, Oscar Nomination for this year has just been announced. I'm SUPER HAPPY that Matt Damon is nominated for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Invictus. Although his chance of winning is quite slim, still, it's an honour! Some even say he should be nominated in the Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in The Informant! too! I just love Matt Damon and can't wait to watch these two movies of his!
By the way... Here are the two films I've watched recently...

Brothers
Only last week I think, Tobey Maguire was nominated for the Best Actor award at the Golden Globe for this movie. Though he didn't win, he is still to me, one of the best actors in Hollywood.
So this is a story about a Sam, who went to Afghanistan and went missing. After being tortured and forced to kill his own teammate by the Afghans over there, Sam came home becoming a bit of a psycho and did all sort crazy stuff, including suspecting his wife sleeps with his brother....
Tobey plays Sam and Jake Gyllenhaal plays his brother Tommy. First of all, I always thought they look alike. Secondly, I do think they both suit the role perfectly. Thirdly, I think they are both good actors, especially Tobey, of course! He really did a great job. As my dear said, if he wants to act spooky, he can really be very spooky. But I think that wasn't enough to win him a best actor award, just yet. And the way he made himself so skinny for this role is amazing! Natalie Portman isn't too bad too. I think she is turning into a good actress in stead of just a pretty face.
I like the movie because it's kinda 'real', it's just really possible to see this kinda situation happen in real life. But I don't like the ending. It's kinda 'cincai'. Overall, the impact makes it a movie which will stick in your head for a while.

大日子 Tiger WooHoo
我家从来都没有Astro，MY FM也不算是我的首选电台，但是看在有人说这部电影很好看一下，那我就去看一下啰！
拿“舞狮、舞龙、舞虎”来做电影题材已经不算是新鲜的了，尤其是在大马。而整部电影的故事与发展都很在预料之内，没有很多的惊喜。看得出来制作团其实很用心，很想搞笑之余又有感人的故事（有点像新加坡片了）、又要有很多很多的大马色彩，其实我觉得都做得到了。至少我有跟着笑，也有跟着掉泪，不错了啦！
其实主要演员们的表现也不错了，虽然我从来都不喜欢林德荣，但演阿炳还真的是演得出神入化，到现在我都还记得他的“正番薯”！阿贤的“也对pun”也很经典。豆腐卜也很够可爱、很好笑。Royce也演得很“娘”！我觉得最令人惊喜的是曾洁钰，第一次演戏，还演一个粗粗鲁鲁的咸鱼妹，还蛮自然的说！只是硬要配一个比她老那么多的林德荣，真的是.......唉唉唉~！
总合来说，大马制作来说，算很不错了。是略显没有太多的高潮迭起的感觉，但是以轻松喜剧来说，还蛮值得一看的哦~！:D

I just came back from France and Japan!

Warning: This is a bloody long blog post, so if you're currently busy with something else, you might wanna skip this for now... Until you're free, please do come back to see this! :)

Do you actually believe what I said in my title?
Well I cheated. Obviously!
My dear and I actually just came back from Berjaya Hills Resort, Colmar Tropicale, which is also known as the Malaysian French Village. Strangely, few kilometers away, there is the Japanese Tea House! But isn't France in Europe and Japan in Asia???
Anywayz, I have whole loads of pictures taken over there, so I'm going to crap lesser and let the pictures say the words...

Colmar TropicaleHere we are~! Ho~Ho~Ho~!
Despite the fact that we were trapped in the bloody hell long traffic jam at Batu Caves(no thanks to those people who simply parked and double-parked on a highway, ish!), we arrived earlier and checked into the room earlier. We got the room at RM308, a promotion price we got from their website. The room is quite big and quite worthy of the price I guess, although I hope they have hair dryer and laundry bags in the room.Pretty big and nice room...

After some rest, we went out to start exploring the place. So we were actually staying at the French Village itself. And as we stepped out you can see the so called 'street' with some cafes and restaurants. It's actually very cute to see all these buildings. And since it's located on top of a hill, it's pretty cooling over there! Love it~! :DPretty amazing, isn't it? Taken from a tower.
One with my dear...
One of me, trying to be cute~! LOL!
One of dear, trying to be funny~! *come on, laugh a bit lar!*
Like you're really on the street in France.
So matching with my dress lar~!
I'm cooler, isn't it? :p
I like this picture very much! Hahahaha...
Toilettef, sir???
Oh dear, I want the one with the pumpkin, not this one!
Posing in front of the whole Colmar Tropicale...
Ta da~(losing ideas for caption already...)
My dear's favourite picture...
Look at the back! I was so excited when I first arrived and saw the colourful buildings!
I had loads of fun camwhoring over there, so excuse me for all the pretty pictures of me! :p

Japanese Tea House
And then we took the free shuttle to the Japanese Tea House and Botanical Garden, which are located next to each other. The journey with the shuttle was quite interesting, a bit like how we go up Maxwell Hill on the jeep. The Japanese Tea House is surrounded with all these tropical trees with their names on them, which I believe you are not interested with, just like me... You have to walk a bit up to see the Tea House, the bloody expensive Spa and Massage Centre and the exclusive Tatami Suite, which looks so abandon... ==|||The fishes over there have something to say...
Pretty nice view over there too!
Well, I was surprised to find out they actually offer Kimono rental! And it's RM20 for 30 minutes, not too bad wurt! So, why not??? Koninciwa!!!
Ahhh... Kawaii de su ne??? :p
Aaaahhhh... Ya me deh, ya me deh ku da sai!!! :p
Hai, wa ta shi wa Shirlexia de su. Dai gak ku no to ki, ni hon go gak ben guo shi ma su ta. De mo, i ma wa, wa su let ta~! Haha, that's about the best and most important line I can remember from my Japanese studies back in university! Phew~! Wa ta shi no boyfriend de su!
Kak koi de su ka????
Act like so 'si wen'... :p
Later only we found out there are Japanese traditional wear for guys there too! Aih... Wasted!
Acting cute... Hey Japanese girls always do that lar!
Again, it's like once in a life time experience taking pictures in a Kimono, so excuse me for so many pictures of myself! I actually have so many more in my folder okay????

Nah... Let you see different stuff...Have you ever seen a Japanese Muslim???

BYO Dinner & Supper @ La Flamme
It was a bit tiring walking around these places, so we were both very hungry by the time we got back to our room!
Since I've read some bad reviews on the food at the restaurants over there, I made some Cold Pasta and brought some Japanese Cup Noodles there as our dinner! Hmmm... Needless to say, the Pasta I made was yummy~! :pOur simple, cheap, yet delicious dinner.
I boiled some Angel's Hair, pan-fried some chopped onion, black pepper sausages and mushroom and then put the Japanese sesame dressing to mix them up~!
But then it was still bloody early when we finished everything! So we went out and have a walk. The climate was even better by now! You actually feel a bit cold at night! Oh I just love that kinda cooling weather! There is indeed yes, nothing much to see except for some souvenir shops, games (to cheat your money), Chinese peoples' performance and the restaurants and cafes with some Filipino singers walking around singing to you. Romantic view, hey?
Couldn't resists but sat down at La Flamme for some supper. We ordered a little pizza to share and true to those reviews I read, it wasn't good lor...Looks nice, smells nice, but doesn't taste really good.
I was looking very tired already... :S
I must say, it feels like these restaurants aren't really made for 5-star food (although the price is). They are just there to serve the people who are staying in the hotel. Since you're on top of the hill, you have no choice but to eat them, right? We are smart bringing our own food hey! :p

Breakfast @ La Blason
The next morning, we had our free breakfast buffet at La Blason. Like I said, I didn't expect much after reading the reviews and of course, the supper! Shirlexia with her puffy eyes in the morning... *yawn~*
The breakfast buffet has quite a wide range of choices actually. It's just that the best thing I can think of is the Fried Yee Mee and the plain porridge! The curry chicken especially, tasted so hard that I think it's been over-heat for a few times before we get to eat that... Euw~ You might say?Our very first round of food...
They didn't have mushroom with the omelet too! :(
My dear never forgot to have some corn flakes and croissant!
The porridge was pretty ok, just that the peanuts were bad. And the others... Oh never mind...
I think that was probably the only time I've had so little food at a breakfast buffet!

Archery @ The Sport Complex
After checking-out, we drove down to the Sport Complex to try the archery there. To my disappointment, it was indoor and was so damn simple they don't even provide the thingy for you to put on your fingers! That's all you can get at the Sport Complex's so called 'archery field'...==|||
See... I do look like I'm so pro, right??? Actually I still suck although it was much better than last time when I tried it for the first and second time. :)
He thinks the 10m is too near wor....
Yeah~ Yeah~ And we were done in less than 30 minutes~! Weird....
Our souvenir from the trip~! Ouch...
Anywayz, Archery is still a fun sport to play, but not at this place lar... Maybe I can join XT's dad training again, for free! :p

Little snack @ Kow Po, Bentong
The beauty of having an iPhone(yes, I own one now! Yeah~!) is that we get to go on-line anytime and anywhere! And we made full use of that to search for famous food in Bentong and made our way there with the GPS! Here we are... At the famous Kow Po!
Kow Po is famous for their homemade ice-cream and it was just perfect on a heaty day! They also have Yong Tau Fu and a Malay lady selling Nasi Lemak and Fried Noodles.You get pandan, banana, peanut(note:NOT peanut butter) and coconut flavours here!
The ice-kacang, which looks and tastes more like a Cendol. We had the banana ice-cream for this.
The double-scoop ice-cream with pandan and peanut flavour!
You don't get to pick which Yong Tau Fu you want, you only get to order and they serve you this....
The ice-cream was indeed pretty special in a way, cos they have some unique flavours compared to those traditional ones. The peanut flavours tasted a bit salty like it's really peanuts! But I must say they aren't very yummy lar, just very special. And the price is pretty cheap too! The double-scoop is RM4, Ice-kacang RM3 and the Yong Tau Fu was RM 5.

So that wraps up our lovely trip!
Since our first Valentine's Day together will be ruined a bit because it's going to be first day of CNY, we take this as a replacement of the coming Valentine's Day celebration.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the trip. I've read some bad reviews from the internet before we went. Some said the furniture are old, the toilet cannot be flushed, food are expensive and bad... So I didn't expect much. Fortunately, the room was big and cozy (although urrrhhh... Got lizard one! :S). The French Village and Japanese Tea House although are just pretty and have not much of entertainment, but that's just what I was looking for. I want a quiet trip in some kampung places like this where we can finally have some private time and space together! Food wise, it was a big thumb-down. And the sport complex was also a bit of a let down. Maybe it's just because not many people like to go there so they gave-up on the maintenance kua.

Now, let's look forward to our trip to Taiwan in April~! Oh~ Woo~! As the Taiwanese love to say... 超期待的!!!

My Korean class is fun (still don't know how to type in Korean ==|||)

I'm not sure if you still have any memory for my craziness I had for the Korean actor Yoon Sang Hyun, click here to see it. Because of him, I went pretty crazy and enrolled myself into Korean language class without thinking too much...
I regretted a bit because WTH I went for it just because of an actor! I'm really not too much a Korean drama fan, I only watch those with my favourite actors in it! And it's a bit difficult when I'm busy working and there are whole loads of Korean homework to be done or have to prepare for test and exam. It's like paying money to suffer... But in at the same time, I enjoyed the class, my Song Seng Nim(teacher in Korean) and most of all, my classmates.
Tuesday was our final exam for Beginner 2. Oh by the way, I got Grade A again! *Clap clap clap~!* I brought my camera just to snap some shots of the people I enjoyed having the Korean class with them so so much~! Soon-to-be people's Tai Tai Gloria Ssi and our very special Indonesian classmate, Ana Ssi.
Left: Andrea Ssi who knows Japanese and Korean languages so well I'm so envy of her. Right: Chee ssi who can be quite blur sometimes... :p
Han Yeong Ssi, who will be going back to Sabah and won't be joining us for the next class.
Pui Yen Ssi, the quiet one in the class...
Miss Kim, our teacher, trying very hard to check our exam papers!

After the exam and getting our certificates(yeah~yeah~ Grade A again! :D), we went to Asia Cafe and had some supper with our Song Seng Nim! Sorry lar Gloria ssi, I think I look better in this one lar, so have to sacrifice your sleeping look a bit. :p
Philip Ssi, who is always so busy until he had to quit the class half way! His trademark line is: A Ju Ba Bba yo~!
Shirlexia and Song Seng Nim!
O Chean Ssi??? Hahaha... Anywayz, I found the O Chean pretty nice. I don't like those crispy ones...
And the Deep Fried Abalone Mushroom are really yummy too~!
But the grilled fish was a HUGE disappointment. Too burned and not very fresh.
Still listening to Philip Ssi craping about his work... Sigh! :p
It was a pretty fun supper, with Philip Ssi joining us. He is always the funniest in the class! We definitely missed his presence in the class! LOL! And we also used our limited Korean to ask a lot about our teacher's personal life, etc. Haha... Of course we are curious lar, a lady who came all the way here just to teach Korean language mah!

Anywayz, see you guys in the Elementary Class after CNY! :)

Shirlexia's Special Chicken & Long Beans Rice

I've been cooking for the past two weekends since my dear and I are both sick of thinking of what or where to go for makan. Plus, it's always healthier to eat at home, since he still has his Cholesterol problem... (keep reminding... :p)
Because he always come home feeling cold after hours in the pool, I always make soup and a simple dish to go with rice. But last Saturday I made something different, a bit like my Ah Ma's cooking, but with my own recipe and way of cooking, present to you... Shirlexia's Special Chicken & Long Beans Rice. Chan si nai? gam yat gam sexy ar???

Ingredients: I just picked what I like to eat apart from the main thing- rice, chicken and long beans. The chicken (cut into pieces)should be marinated with some soya sauce, pepper and sesame oil. Put some corn flour to make the meat tender. The other stuff includes: Lap Cheong (Chinese sausages, and I love them!) and mushroom, and of course some chopped garlic and pieces of ginger.
Others:
Of course you need oil and chicken stock to taste. I also put some Chinese cooking wine in it. We both LOVE the wine!

Method:
1. With a wok, simmer the garlic and ginger.
2. After that add in chicken, and then followed by the other stuff, fry them for a while.
3. Add in cleaned rice, continue frying.
4. Add in chicken stock and white wine. Just fry them a little bit more.This is how it looks like after the 'frying session'...
5. After that, transfer them over to your rice cooker's pot. Add water slightly more than the content (as in the rice plus all the other stuff).
6. Turn on the 'cook' button and wait till your rice is cooked!

Again, I used the five coloured healthy rice so it looks a bit dark in colour. Anywayz, ta da... My lovely Chicken & Long Beans Rice! :D
Although I think it wasn't a perfectly successful try(the rice wasn't soft enough), still I think it was yummy enough for a first-timer in cooking this particular dish lar! :p
Try this at home too! :)

My bloody test report...

Right after putting my previous post up, something just triggered my mind like all of a sudden~! Ah... Yes, I was going to post this one up but I forgot! How could I???
As we stepped into the new year, my dear wanted to do a blood test and see what's happening in his body, so I followed.
Unlike him, who had already found out he has Cholesterol and Uric Acid problem when he was 22 or so, I didn't know what to expect since that was my first ever body check-up in like 25 years! I was quite nervous waiting for my report to come when they had to fax it over to the clinic when we were there.
I mean, I'm quite a big eater. In some ways, I eat quite unhealthily too. Who knows? I might have a lot of bad stuff in my body too!
Kan Cheong Kan Cheong...



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So here comes the reality...Only showing you the important parts...

Phew~
I basically passed the test. Cholesterol and Uric Acid level, as my dear said, almost twice lower than his. But the LDL Cholesterol (the bad Chelesterol) is slightly high. I bet it's the fact that I love to eat intestines, animal skin and fat a lot. Time to cut down lor! :( I also have not enough of Corrected Calcium, whatever the 'corrected' means, that means I don't have enough of Calcium lar! So yea, must drink more milk from now on! I was also worried that I have low sugar in my body because I get dizzy quite easily. But nop, it was perfect.

Eating habit wise, I would say mine is not too bad yet not too good too. Like I said, I love the junk, but I'm trying to be good now because I always say I want to go on diet. The good thing about me is, I'm quite sick of fast food and instant noodles because of the years of staying outside of the house. So I don't always go for those deep fried stuff and all. I'm also not a fan of dessert or sugar, except for ice-cream~! I think exercise plays a big part too. I try to go to gym 3 times a week although I sometimes skip gym for no reason. But I do think that helps cutting down the bad stuff in my body. So people, I wish that everyone out there are cautious about your health and make sure you have a healthy diet and life! :)


P/S: My dear and I recently and accidentally found out about the new 'Super Fruit' called Pomegranate. I'm sure you've seen the fruit before, it looks a bit like an onion from the outside. We earlier found out it has loads of Fiber and it's good in cutting down Cholesterol so we started to buy the juice from the organic shop which is quite pricey actually. But according to Wikipedia, there are whole lot more of benefits, including lowering the risk of getting prostate cancer, so watch that fruit out, guys!

Three rounds of food~Phew~!

I tell you man, if you have a bf like my dear, there is no way you won't put on weight. Of course, it's the same the other way, if you have a gf like me, it's hard to not put on weight too. :p

1st round: Dinner @ T-Bowl, Sungei Wang
Upon my request, we went to this toilet bowl-themed restaurant. Of course, I didn't expect the food to be good, I was purely thinking of going there because it's interesting and that I can snap a few interesting shots there. So here are some of the pics we've got...T-Bowl from the outside...
You can choose the sit or the squad toilet bowl!
Ooooppsss... Someone is peeking when you're doing your business!!!
Me being myself, had to sit on the one with polka dots on it! :D
My dear was doing his 'big business' when I went to take a pic of him! LOL!
Of course, as expected, the food aren't fantastic. My dear didn't even finish his rice. And the steamed egg was actually cold inside...==||| Even the ice-cream doesn't taste really good.I had the Volcano chicken noodles... Nah not good...
My dear's braised pork ribs rice tasted like the pai kuet in the Dim Sum restaurant in Taiping lor...
I was eating with the pink toilet bowl~!
The so-not-good punya steamed egg...==|||
The so-so only punya ice-cream...
So the conclusion is... T-Bowl is just an interesting restaurant. The food are pretty lousy. I think we are going to explore the real one in Taiwan later....

2nd round: 2nd Dinner @ Uncle Duck, Low Yat Plaza
Obviously my dear wasn't happy with the meal at T-Bowl and was still craving for better food. So he brought me to this HK-styled restaurant. If you know the little stall outside Low Yat Plaza selling HK snacks, this restaurant and the stall is like linked and you can order food from the stall to be dined in the restaurant. He loves the spicy fish balls and the Black Pepper Beef Fried 出前一丁. So we had that with a little bowl of Roasted Duck Porridge.The spicy fish balls...
This one is GOOD~~~!!!
The Roasted Duck Porridge...
Look at him.... Ish...
I'm not so much a fan of fish balls or fish cakes, so yea the fish ball was just normal to me. But I must say the beef was really good, they were just nicely cooked and tasted really good. As for the porridge, I like the taste of it but I still prefer the duck to be in smaller pieces.
Anywayz, by now we were both really fulled already~! Phew~

So after that two rounds of dinner, we went to have a walk in Sungei Wang and Pavilion. It seems like we love to go Pavilion a lot, hey?
Just like their X'mas deco, Pavilion's CNY deco is really nice too! I was like saying "hou leng ah~" the whole time I was there! I love the Tao Hua trees so much! it feels like you are in Japan during their Sakura season man! Of course we took some pics there too! This is not KL, this is Tokyo~! Hahahaha...
I love the Sakura trees...
Posing~posing...
One with my dear dear...
Even the inside looks so nice lar~!

3rd round: Supper @ Snowflakes, Pavilion
And then my dear was already tired of the walking. I was still okay because ya know, walking in shopping centre is fun for girls! Hahaha... So we wanted to sit down to have some rest. And then we saw Snowflakes is actually opened here with special opening offer of buy-one-free-one! FYI, my dear loves this Taiwanese dessert cafe. So off we went to have our supper...Newly opened in Pavilion, right in front of the Padini Concept Store.
I love everything in it except for the pieces of yam and sweet potatoes on top of it.
Phew~ So unhealthy of us...

Bonus pic:
Taken from Esprit's boutique...We both think it's quite catchy yet funny~! I think the designer wanted to say it in a way that the 'Aaaarrrggghhhh' represents the roaring of the tiger? But to us, it sounds more like the he/she is frustrated that CNY is coming soon! LOL!!!

I love Hakka Lee~!

This is a restaurant that I've been visiting quite regularly lately since it's located just next to the language school where I'm having my Korean classes at SS 15, Subang.Well, I must say I like the food there because they look and taste so much like home-cooked food, you'll feel so homey eating them. If you're longing for some homemade braised-pork you can get it here! In fact, you can see their operation is like a whole family kinda thing with the husband and wife there, sometimes you'll see their daughter and son helping out. And mind you, they speak English!
Anywayz, someone just told me the Hakka Mee (which I haven't even try) there isn't good, so yea, I guess it depends on which dish you choose.
So far, these are the stuff my dear and I tried and are very happy with...The noodles soup which comes with the braised pork! Yummy~! And you can choose from a variety of noodles, including my favourite Dang Hoon(glass noodles)!
Braised chicken with ginger and vege with rice. The chicken is just yummy~!
The Meat Ball Noodles with fried Wonton. This is the dried one and yes I had it with the Dang Hoon again~! :p
The vegetarian rice isn't too bad too if you feel guilty of having too much of meat, like my dear! :p
I really love their Sui Gao~!
I love their braised pork which has a homey taste and the pork is just as tender as I like it to be. The braised chicken with ginger is really really good too! It just make you feel like you're at home! Not to forget is the Sui Gao! Loving it!
The noodles and rice are around RM4 and above while the Sui Gao is RM6.50 for six pieces. I think it's pretty reasonable. Although, I think their drinks are slightly expensive, maybe that's their strategy?

Jan Yi's B'day Treat @ Seo Gong, SS2

Ducum and I missed Jan Yi's(our cousin sis) birthday party at her house last Saturday, I've promised to make it up for her with a treat. And poor Jan Yi, who is a fan of Korean actors, knows how to sing Korean songs (what's that band's name again? I really cannot remember, so many numbers...), but never tried Korean food before. So here we went, to Seo Gong, recommended by I Rene.It's this restaurant located opposite A&W in SS2.
A family photo with the timer on...
They have quite some pages of choices in the menu and some set meals as well. I somehow missed the beef part and ordered the pork set meal for three person which comes with whole loads of stuff, like the hot stone rice, the BBQ pork, Spicy Octopus, Sam Gye Tang, steamed egg, the side dishes and drinks for three persons. The set meal itself is RM145. I topped that up with a Kimchi Jjigae and two bowls of white rice. The side dishes... Not very interesting though. :(
The very-the-fatty punya pork...
The Spicy Octopus was impressing!!!
The Hot Stone Rice was so-so lar.
Some veges and mushrooms wrapped in pieces of pork.
Not too bad actually... It's just that I think it would be better if they were beef.
The steamed egg, which comes with the set meal.
The Sam Gye Tang... I wonder when can I have the real Sam Gye Tang in Korea? I think it must be bloody good to have this during a cold weather!
The Kimchi Jjigae was one of my favourite dishes of the day!
I must say, I think the pork are good, but I think it would be better if I've chosen the beef one. Ish, don't know why I didn't pay attention on the menu!!! I love the Spicy Octopus and the Kimchi Jjigae a lot, they are both just spicy enough for those who love spicy food like me, Ducum and Jan Yi (unfortunately not my dear, hehe...). The Sam Gye Tang was good, but I reckon not as good as the one I had at Seoul Korean Restaurnt in Taman Desa. So are the side dishes, they are not as many and not as interesting.
By the way, the biggest shock of the day is... The bloody rice is RM5.00 per bowl!!! I was like... What the??? Bloody expensive man... ==|||

Anywayz, I know there are now too many pictures of food, so here are some pictures of human being... Kekekeke...Ducum and Jan Yi having some fun and my dear acted as the photographer...
A nice pic of the birthday girl, Jan Yi!
Pretty cool pic of Shirlexia and... Haha, you know who...
Eh, eh, dear, what's that face for, huh???

Till then, Gam Sa Hap Ni Da~! :D

Night out at Bangsar... Where else can we go???

So it was another Pak Tor session and we had another minor headache thinking of where to go. This time around, my dear thought of Bangsar, a place we haven't been to since we started our relationship less than 3 months ago. I was thrilled with the idea because then I can go do some shopping at Telawi! Yeah~~~!!!So first thing first we had dinner at this very old-school-looking Kopitiam called Nam Chun, which I believe I've been there before with Uncle Yip. Apperantly there were quite a lot of poeple dining over there, and most of them were having those dishes with rice from the stall with the name 'Steven' on it.
We ordered dear's favourite Wat Dan Yuen Yong, a Sang Chao Wong Dai Mien and a Tofu with Choy Sum dish. My dear doesn't like their Wat Dan Yuen Yong, adding that the one I cooked is better (hahaha... :p). But we both love the Sang Chao Wong Dai Mien, which has Char Siew in it. The Tofu and Choy Sum dish was pretty good too! The Wat Dan Yuen Yong... Yea I agree it doesn't even look very good...
The very yummy Sang Chao Wong Dai Mien.
The Tofu dish has some mince pork, prawns and some dried sotong on top of it.
My squarish and cute bf... :D
My dear's leng lui gf... *grin*
Together with two small bowls of rice the meal costs RM25. Not too bad hey!

And then we strolled past Telawi, visiting some of the boutiques. Some are just so disappointing while some closed early... So yea, ended up buying nothing... :(
And then we ended the night with a drink at PapaRich at Telawi...I tell you what, I'm absolutely loving my new hairstyle!
Well of course not as much as the love for my dear lar (ish bloody yok mah I cannot take it anymore! :p)!
We are getting use to the fact that we are a 'mobile couple' because we don't really have a private room or house to just hang out together. So we are constantly thinking of places to go. So yea, slowly we are exploring new places.
But... If you have any new places to go for pak-tor session, please do leave comment and tell me all about it! I would really appreacite it!!!

Bonus pic: Took this at a smelly fruit stall in Bangsar, with the rubbish bin at the side... Do you dare to drink sugarcane juice after seeing this???

Pray for the people of Haiti...

*Photo taken from MSNBC

Yet another disaster, another earthquake, this time around it's in Haiti. It is estimated that 100,000 are dead. Very sad... :(
Let's pray hard for the people of Haiti...
At the same time, please be good to the earth because I think a lot of you have the same feeling as I do on all these natural disasters. God is punishing human for not taking care of the earth. It's time to wake up, people!!!

Brunch @ K3K Benta Kaya, Subang SS15

It was a Sunday morning where I had not enough of sleep *yawn~* because of the boy next door, Ken... Yes, aunty (Ken's mum), an nyeong ha se yeo~! If you're reading, your son just came home drunk last Sunday morning at about 2 something and vomited in the toilet and woke me up while my sister, Ducum had to clean the toilet for him... ==|||
Anywayz, I'd promised my dear that I would join him and his church friends to have brunch after their church session. Yea, after going out with him, I got to know some of his church friends as well...
Ivy and Ket Weng, hi~! :p
So we went to K3k Benta Kaya which I've been there once before and found it pretty good. In fact, I didn't know what are the food that are actually famous in Kuala Lipis, Pahang! From the outside, K3K is a bit like some overly commercialised kopitiam, but the food they serve are definitely different. I must say, in a way, very homey.Taken by Ket Weng I think... I was still very sleepy... *Yawn~*
Unlike Ket Hon, who was already so up and excited about the brunch! LOL! By the way, I think the aunty at the back is quite 'qiong geng'!
I've tried the milky noodles before and I thought it's great, despite the fact that it doesn't come with vege(you know I'm very fussy about that). The Penghulu Fried Chicken Rice is very yummy too. Ivy's Nasi Lemak with Rendang is definitely very tempting as well, especially the rendang! I tried the Fish Head Mihoon that day, and I think it's not too bad, especially when it comes with pieces of yam in it! Not that I'm a fan of yam(I'm soooo not), but it feels like it uses the very ori recipe lor. But the fish are just fish fillet in stead of fish head lar. Look at the rendang! Doesn't it look so seducing?
The yummy milky noodles...
The Penghulu Fried Chicken Rice... Very good if you're not on a diet plan! Haha...
Love the fact that the fish balls are homemade, the mihoon are the thick ones and the fact that they give a generous amount of sesame oil!
They also have this special Topee, which looks a bit like a mini pizza. I've tried both the Tomato and the Kaya Butter one. I think the sweet one is better because of the yummy homemade Kaya.The Western Kinda Topee, which is called the Tomato Topee.
Oh~ You must try this Kaya Topee~!
The price is also reasonable, with each main dish costing less than 10bucks. Not too bad for the nice food you know.

Breakfast Buffet @ Atrium Cafe, Pyramid Tower

I actually had a bad experience with Atrium Cafe's hi-tea buffet last birthday. But I wanted to give the breakfast buffet a try because I figured breakfast only mah, no matter how it won't go too wrong, right?
So I got my dear up early today just to have breakfast with me, because I love having breakfast! Like 卢广仲said, breakfast is rock & roll style~~~!!!
Okay, too much of talking...
First look at the stuff that they have over there, I was amazed! They have Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western cuisine, with a big pastry counter that sweet lovers would love! The Indian department amazed me the most. They have like roti canai, tosai and whole loads of different curries! Perhaps it's because Indians love to dine here? Hmmm... Anywayz, the breakfast buffet there was just what I'm looking for! :D
Here are what we had...Shirlexia's style is... Have fruit before meal.
First plate we had, with even smoked salmon and smoked duck!
Fried Mihoon, baked beans and fried egg! Yum, I love fried mihoon as breakfast!
My dear was so surprised with the... (he is so funny that's why we clicked! :p)
The rendang chicken which he had with the nasi lemak lar! The rendang was super delicious okay!
What? I can't eat my salad with chopsticks meh???
The very bad dim sum but very nice onion and mushoom omelette, which I had another one later. :p
My Teochew porridge with some Yao Tiu. Quite nice too!
The sweet pastry department... Didn't like them too much though.
Had another plate of this, and then some cornflakes later too.
Overall, the breakfast buffet was pretty good. Nice food, nice atmosphere and all. It's better than the one we had at Maytower earlier. Well I wish the dim sum can be improved though, they are really bad. But yea, overall it was a nice and enjoyable breakfast outing with my dear.
We tried to take some pics over there but none of them turn out to be very good. So I'm putting this pic that we took a night ealier in stead...And the mat salleh behind as our background...
Nice??? :p

I'm lovin' ma new hairstyle~! :D

As usual, I wanted a new hairstyle for a brand new year. If my face is not so 'bao' then I might just go for the super short one. Too bad I have to stick with longer hair to cover up my meaty face. :(
I let the hairdresser lady did whatever she wanted to do with my hair and...
Ta da... I LOVE IT!!!
It's longer at one side and shorter at the other! And the back is actually very short. I really really love it!
What do you think, huh???

Avatar... The verdict

I know I'm outdated.
But... Actually it was a little bit on purpose. I'm not really a fan of this kinda movie, very science-fi story. And after seeing the trailer for N times, and even now that I've watched the movie, I still think the Navi characters that they created looks so scary. No wonder Sin Fei thought it's a ghost-horror movie! But yea since everybody is saying, and still saying it's so freaking good, I went for it.
So here comes the verdict.
Honestly, I like the story and the message a lot. I'm quite a 'go-green' earth lover and I really love the way James Cameron used such a unique story to remind people about it. Like my dear said, he must has such good brain to think of such amazing story. I also like the very beautiful graphic in the movie, especially with the plants, as well as the music.
But still, I think the characters are a bit too ugly and scary like you're looking at some ghosts or something. My dear suggested that the action part wasn't good enough. And I also think it's a bit too long and draggy.
To sum it up, both of us think it's worth a watch, it's just not as fantastic as what you guys have been saying. We won't really go crazy and say we are going to watch it the second time lor...

In Taiping...

I was pretty occupied during my last trip home to Taiping. One of the reasons being my cousin sisters are back too and I love hanging out with them a lot, especially when that was a farewell trip for Sin Fei, who is leaving for Perth soon (gosh, I'm jealous!). The other reason being dear is home too, so although he had to spend most of his time with his family, we still managed to meet up for a few days lar. And of course, it was also fun catching up with XT and KK! Can't wait for our annual gathering in CNY!!!
Anywayz, I didn't eat too much this trip, I also don't know why ler. Maybe I'm already aware that I have to stop eating so much or the eating mood was just off. I had pictures of two meals I had in Taiping and here they are...

The Home Alone Fried Noodles
The day after I reached Taiping, mum and dad came to KL to pick up the car that my mum won through a lottery(I'm not kidding you, I'M SO FREAKIN' SERIOUS!).
So Vivian and I were left home alone. And because I'm still very useless I can't drive, we had to settle our lunch at home. I basically just grab anything I could get from my mum's fridge and fried the noodles good enough for both of us to have a nutritious and yummy lunch!The stuff I used for my yummilicious noodles~!
Vivian was the assistant chef, helping me to boil the noodles, bring stuff to me, and finally clean the dishes!
I put in some salt, sesame oil and pepper to taste, and ta da... Very colourful somemore~!
Thumbs-up even before trying the noodles... :p

The Farewell Dinner
It was supposed to be a treat by Sin Fei who is flying off to Perth with her fiancee soon. In stead of some restaurants in Taiping, we had our farewell dinner at Da Gu(my aunt, dad's sis)'s house. You know lar, she always love cooking.Introducing, chef of the day...
This time, we've decided that the kids should sit here at the main table since we are no longer kids! :p
Special order from outside, BBQ duck! Yum~!
The Assam Prawn I think... Only had one, I'm always lazy to eat prawn with shell on it.
Soup of the day... White carrot soup. My aunt's version was without any pepper though.
Spicy and sour Chicken, with pineapple.
Very cheap and simple dish... But definitely one of my favourite dishes cos I love tauge!
The healthy dish... Capsicum with snow fungus and some yong tau fu. Not too bad!
The sinful dish... Dark soya sauce pork~! This is sooooo good~!
To me, this is the main dish... Very yummy curry fish!!!
This is better than any other random restaurant!!!
That's about the most sumptuous meal I had this trip. Need to hit the gym very soon to wash off the fatssssssssssssssssssssss...

Bonus Pic 1:The night we had our pillow talk till about 2am... Lotsa crap on boys, relationships, and our funny parents! LOL!

Bonus Pic 2:Taiping is becoming very interesting nowadays... But the name of the pub(yea, although they like to call themselves 'cafe') couldn't be any worst than this one I think...==|||

A belated HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We had our first ever New Year together in Taiping, our hometown!
Sorry guys, have been pretty busy this time around in Taiping that I have no time to even get on-line!
So yes, HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my dearest family members, friends, and readers whom I might or might not know~! All the best in 2010!!!
I'm normally very excited about the review of the previous year and the new year resolution post. But this year since I'm already late, let's make a short one.

Here's my New Year post last year. Let's see how many of the stuff that I've actually done...
1. Go to Taiwan (Oh yes, I went! For less than 2 days!)
2. Go to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Hong Kong (Checked! I went! I went!)
3. Get down to 50kg (Urm, I actually put on weight...==|||)
4. Earn LOTS of money (Well I earn more money, that's for sure, but I spent more too I think.)
5. Save LOTS of money (Yea, fortunately I think I did save a little more)
6. Sponsor a child (Not done yet)
7. Re-study my Japanese (I studied Korean in stead. An Nyeong Ha Se yeo~!)
8. Get back to the wheels (Ah... No I didn't :( )
9. Indirectly, to get a bf (Checked! :D)

I think I had a pretty normal year, in general and career wise, no change at all although I keep complaining about my boring job almost everyday. I'm really glad that I've traveled to Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and they were all really some cool and enjoyable trips! :)
I guess the climax came in October when I bumped into CL at Sunway Pyramid. We had lost contact for about 9 years and then all of a sudden we just fell in love, yes, VERY MUCH IN LOVE! So there you go~ A great year with a bf! What is there to complain about 2009 when I have that kinda love and care I'd never had before from a guy? Love you, my dear! :)

To make it short, here's a list of stuff I wish to do in 2010:
More:
1. Love (not only for my dear lar, to my family too)
2. Money (Money is never enough, isn't it?)
3. Travelling (Taiwan and Perth are in the plan right now, maybe more?)
4. Good health (Having back pain problem is killing me! And I hope everyone around me has good health too)
5. Courage (to get back to the wheels, maybe?)

Less
1. BODY FAT!!!
(Can't think of any other stuff, LOL!)

Heading back to KL later, with my dear... With his Mama and Yi Po... ==|||

Till then, HAPPY NEW YEAR once again!