Lovely Family Reunion

It's been crazy at work I couldn't even believe I'm actually abandoning my work to update my blog! LOL!
It just doesn't feel right to be abandoning my blog all together.

Last week, which is the Raya weekend, Papo, Mamo and Ah Soi (Vivian lar, who else?) came to KL for a short five days trip. I managed to arrange some time to spent with them, although not everyday. It was great hanging-out with them and bringing them around to try food that I always thought of bringing them to!
Since the food are not new anymore to me and my blog, there isn't any food review for this post. I just really want to share some cute photos of the Tan family with you guys! :)

As they arrived in KL on Sunday, Deardo and I brought Vivian all the way to Mid Valley to let her do some shopping. After that we had our coffee break at Austin Chase, The Gardens, a very cozy and nice cafe that I've fallen in love with since the first visit here with Karen. That's my sister, Vivian, whom many said we look very much alike. What say you?
While this is my Deardo Wong trying to imitate me... Grrrrrhhhh...

Just FYI, I actually requested Mamo to come and cook dinner for me with some of my favourite dishes on the list. The more I eat Deardo Wong's mum's cooking, the more I missed Mamo's cooking. I'm just too used to Mamo and Ah Ma's cooking that are often pretty simple, yet unforgettable. :)
So on the same night, my craving for Mamo's cooking were very well answered! FAVOURITE OF THE FAVOURITE!!! Big Bean Sprout with minced pork and prawn! Ah... I'm feeling hungry!!!
Bitter gourd with Black Beans, chicken and prawns! Love this too!
Mamo's signature Steamed Prawn with egg and Tang Hoon. Man this picture is killing me!!!
Dinner was also served with a whole Roasted Duck bought from Taiping and two extra dishes that my 3e cooked.
Even Deardo Wong had to agree Mamo is in deed a silent good cook! She just doesn't want to tell people so that people wouldn't ask her to cook!
Ah yes, I do have a lazy Mamo. :p

And then the next day after work, Deardo and I went to pick them up again and went to TGI Fridays, The Curve for dinner. It was their first TGI visit and I was very very glad that they love the food there! :)The gentlemen surely enjoyed their beer.
While the girls(and yes, that include Mamo) prefer to stay with boring lemonade and hot English tea. LOL!
Ducum Tan where are you? Stucked somewhere in the cinema???
Being the youngest in the family, Vivian is bloody close to Papo and Mamo, as compared to me and Ducum.
And gosh I love the photos taken over there because I looked so slim! :p

The night ended with some famous dessert at Gei Dak Sek, SS2. My parent are so cool they always obey my instructions when posing for photos. Jealous, aren't you???

On the 16th, which was a Malaysian Day public holiday, we had a happy family day out with Ducum around!
We first went to Uncle Seng, SS15 for breakfast. Since the noodles is similar to Wantan noodles in Taiping and since Papo and Ducum love Wantan noodles, I've always wanted to bring them there to try the noodles. I'm glad I finally did! :)Satisfying faces after some yummy, energy-boasting breaky~! Yee~Haaa~~~!!!

And then we went to Sunway Pyramid for more shopping and food...Bought them some Jackfruit flavoured Kindori Japanese ice-cream which was awesome~!
Posing outside the fitting room where Mamo was busy trying out clothes that we picked for her.

For lunch, I brought them all to Ccozi & Friends for Papo and Mamo's first Korean food experience. I love it to take their 'virginity'! LOL! I'm loving my newly-bought studded earrings! They are so bloody cool!
And they say we all look alike! What do you think?
There is a reason why Mamo couldn't smile showing her teeth. But she is going to kill me if I tell you the reason. She always think 'the whole world' will know about her embarrassing stories once I posted them up in my blog. LOL!
My lovely Papo whom I was always concern about him being bored shopping with us!
Mamo was so excited to try Kimchi but the sourness made this picture so damn funny~!
Nom nom nom~~~

And finally before saying goodbye, we went back to SS15 for some nice Taiwanese dessert at Snowflake! Ducum and Shirlexia on a mission again to take artsy pictures! LOL!
See, I told ya! Only Vivian can do this!
I love them so muchy~~~!!!
Couldn't help! Just love showing off my new earrings again! :p
Woohoo~ Even the very yim chim Papo loves Snowflake! You know Vivian says it's very hard to hear Papo really say something is yummy! She said Papo is Simon Cowell, the food review version!

The other day when they reached Taiping and SMS-ed to tell me they've arrived, I replied them saying I'm missing them already and asked them to come more often. The moment I sent that SMS out, I had tears in my eyes! What drama queen I've become lar? Is it because of too much of Hindi films? Hmmmm...
I think lately because I always have to hang-out with Deardo's family, it made me felt a little uncomfortable and at the same time made me missed my own family. I was really glad that they came and I got to spend a little time with them, finally! Plus, ever since I know how satisfying it is to earn my own money and pay for gifts and food for my family, I'm always happy to give them treats! So it was a sense of achievement I guess, to be able to buy presents for them, pay for meals, etc.
Special thanks must also be given to Deardo Wong who brought us here and there and paid for meals too.
To Papo and Mamo, enjoy life more ba! We are all grown up, don't get yourself too stress anymore! :)

We are Family

I know I know... For so long I didn't watch a movie, the first one I watched is a Hindi movie??? Pathetic, you might say?
Ah well, if you don't know, I'll tell you, I'll do anything for Kajol, my favourite and only favourite Indian actress of all! And that means dragging Deardo Wong along! It bored him till death I think, so please give him a round of applause! *clap clap clap~* I'm actually a fan of Karan Johar too, who is only the producer this time around.
Based on the film Stepmom, the story of the movie is truly a typical family kinda movie, with a full package of Hindustan cheesy hugs and over-dramatic scenes, including one Hindustan tradition--singing and dancing scene. Well obviously it was a bit of a let down lor. It did made me teared a bit but that's all. I especially don't like the sudden loud music that annoys the audience all the time and I'm certainly not a fan of the make-up for both Kajol and Kareena Kapoor.
Acting wise also it wasn't anything interesting really. Although, it is actually quite cool to see Kajol and Kareena Kapoor acting together again after Kabhi Khusi Kabhie Gham years ago!
I'm sorry, I guess I'm just not Indian enough to like too typical Bollywood movies. I still prefer something like My Name is Khan.

Which is quite true...

Yesterday as part of my job, I had to sit in for a talk on architecture by Kun Lim.
He is a Malaysian from a poor village in Kedah, and then off he went to study in Ireland, in the US and even worked for a few years in the US. He said it was the poor environment that made him dare to dream big. That was the environment that made him wanted to study overseas and succeed.
I thought it was quite true. I wouldn't say I came from a poor village, but yes Taiping is a small town. I think people who are from smaller towns or villages tend to dream bigger as compared to people who live in the big cities, especially those who already have everything and already been to N countries in the world when they are kids.
It was me being in Taiping and never been to anywhere out of Malaysia and Singapore that made me wanted to study overseas, and I actually worked hard to persuade Papo to give up part of his properties to let me go. It was also that that made we wanted to work hard and pay them back.Of course those were the day that I also dreamt of becoming a TV host. I even went for training and some auditions! But seems like it didn't happen although I did get myself into freelance emcee-ing for a while and I still love doing it!
To me, everyone must have dreams. And everyone should dare to dream big! Try hard to achieve your dream even if it means unsuccessful in the end, it doesn't matter! At least you tried!

Oh by the way, Happy Malaysian Day and Happy Holiday to ya all~!

My Raya Pertama

As the Raya song sings "setahun hanya sekali...", The Three Musketeers (Revathi, Lina and I)only meet once or twice a year for Hari Raya and Deepavali (but not CNY, unfortunately). So as usual, we met at Lina's house again this year, with the only difference being Deardo Wong came along this time around. My theme for the day was: traditional+fashionable. :)
So it was a short catch-up with them with some nice Malay food and cookies. Hopefully there will be another gathering during Deepavali lar! :)Seriously, I wanted to buy a black colour Kebaya top at Jusco but it didn't have my size so I had to go for the pink colour one, otherwise it will be an 'All-Black' for the three of us!
Gosh, don't you think so that time really flies??? It seems like just yesterday we celebrated Raya last year!

After leaving Lina's house, Deardo and I decided to go on a KL day trip! Come one, nothing can beat going around KL during Raya time! Traffic was soooooo damn smooth! But mind you, the crowd around KL was still pretty scary! :S Well I guess Chinese and Indian population in KL is bigger than what I've expected!
We started off with window shopping and afternoon tea at Pavilion.Must thank Deardo Wong for some nice pics of myself taken at Pavilion! :)
My new Kebaya top was from Jusco, while my polka dots lace skirts is one of my favourite buys from Taipei!
Okay, it wasn't coincident that we wore the same colour! :p

Dinner @ Heritage Food Village, Lot 10
I think most of you already heard of this food court sort of place located at the lower ground floor at Lot 10 where they got all famous stalls in KL gathered here. A night earlier where we went for the Teochew porridge for supper, we actually wanted to try Soong Kee Beef Noodles, which was closed when we were there. Hence, we gave the one at the Heritage Food Village a try.
Both Deardo and I were very happy with it. Although the noodles were a bit over-cooked or perhaps too sticky, the taste was okay. The bowl of beef balls, beef and innards were almost perfect! Especially the two small pieces of beef which were only medium well! I love them! And the set of the noodles with a plate of vegetable and Chinese tea was only RM8.50 (excluding tax)! That is such a good deal! The only other down side was the sambal. A commercialized version of Soong Kee Beef Noodles already impressed us so much. I wonder is the original one even better?
Two very happy faces!
We also tried the Imbi Road Pork Noodles, which was just so-so and the price of a bowl of the noodles is actually around the same as our set of beef noodles! So yea, I guess you know which one we picked as our favourite for the night. The Imbi Road Pork Noodles.

We went for a short walk at Sungei Wang, and then back to Sunway for a light supper before we called it a day.

It was a Raya day that both Deardo and I enjoyed very much! I think for months we didn't have any weekend for ourselves due to the fact that either he or myself needed to work, or the fact that his mum was here. So we really missed a day out all by ourselves like this where we just go out on a date!
I hope you guys had a great Raya break too! :D

The good & the bad

Hey guys, here are two restaurants I went over the week which I would categorized them as 'healthy food' but in two extremely different ways. My personal review for them is totally different too.

THE GOOD...
Lunch @ Annalakshmi, Temple of Fine Arts, BricksfieldsWhen my colleagues told me they were going to Annalakshmi for lunch, I excitedly offered myself to join. Well, FYI, I used to go to the same restaurant in Perth for N times and I absolutely love the food there!The restaurant is very well decorated.
A little introduction for you just in case you don't know. Annalakshmi is actually a vegetarian buffet Indian restaurant(I found the sequence of the few words a bit confusing, but you know what I mean) under the Temple of Fina Arts. The restaurant is charity based, that means whatever you pay will go to charity, and the amount is totally up to you! Even RM1 is alright! But I hope you won't be so stingy lar! :)My two rounds of lunch, which really made me really really fulled!
You wouldn't want to miss the delicious Mango Lasi!
The gang from left: David, Jessica and Thava.
And here are Shirlexia and Antoinette. Now do you still think my name is hard to remember???
The variety aren't a lot but then the quality is definitely assured. It's like Indian fine-dining with a very cheap price! The healthy rice I had which I've forgotten the name is pretty nice and the Dhaal was awesome it was so thick you'll think the one at the Mamak stalls suck big time! And I love the Mango Lasi too! Yummmzzzz... Seriously feel like going back just for another round!
I must say I enjoyed my lunch there very much. But vegetarian, especially Indian vegetarian food aren't everyone's cup of tea lar. But what I can say is, give it a try! Best thing is, it's for charity! :)

THE BAD...
Supper @ Porridge Restaurant, Pudu
I've been hoping Deardo Wong would bring me to this restaurant for a while after reading KY's review on it. As you all know, I'm always a HUGE FAN of porridge, while Deardo is totally the opposite.
So as we went all the way to KL to look for supper and after the original plan didn't work, we finally arrived at this restaurant that only sells Teochew porridge. There was a crowd, which was an early indication that this is going to be good. A look at their variety already made me really hungry too!Seriously, the food there do look nice!
Since Deardo isn't so much a fan of the food, we only ordered four dishes to share--Dark Soya Sauce Pork, Steamed Pork, ladies fingers and some Fu Chok. Honestly speaking, I didn't like the Fu Chok at all because they were sweet rather than salty. My favourite one is the Steamed Pork but yet, like Deardo said, our mums can probably do better than that! Our very healthy but no-so-satisfying supper.
So I thought ok lar, the food was so-so only but it did cure my crave for porridge and it's always healthier to have porridge as supper mah... But that was before the biggest disappointment came... THE BILL CAME UP TO RM19! Yes, Bloody RM19!!! Just for four small portion of dishes and two bowls of porridge!
In the end of the day, both of us weren't happy and I feel especially bad for bringing Deardo to eat something he doesn't like at such an expensive price, BLOODY HELL!!! :(

P/S: A very big SELAMAT HARI RAYA to ya all~! :D