小笼包の疯狂世界

My Cool CNY (not talking about the weather though)

2012-01-27T21:11:00.006+08:00

Hello people~!
As I only have one more day to spend in Taiping before going back to KL reality, I'm finding myself in deep shit! Ah, maybe not as serious as deep shit, but man I have got so many things undone yet! Ish!
Anywayz, how was your CNY?
Mine was... Quite happening actually, although I do think that the atmosphere isn't as heavy anymore compared to the last few years.
To sum up my CNY, here are some pictures...

Just a random decorative item I did at home! Talking about branding... Ah hem..

Our CNY reunion dinner... I know I looked ugly in this pic but come on lar, pay attention to the food, not me!

We went to Papo's friend's house for a CNY Open House where we had food of all races in Malaysia! Char Kuey Tiaw, Tosai, Cendol, etc!

And we love camwhoring with my iPhone 4s!!!

See! Didn't I just told you we love camwhoring with my iPhone 4s???

Ducum and I with our cute ang pows which we gave to our Ah Ma on first day of CNY.

I met my cousin's son (and what should I call him huh?) for the second time (Yea, we only meet once a year you see...) and the moment I put on the kitty glasses onto his face, he smiled! Shoooooo freaking cute lor!!! :p

Talking about kids, how can I miss Tessa? See how cute is she???

Ducum and I definitely love playing with the girls, Carina and Tessa and I bet they love posing with us for pictures too! In fact I think they are such good posers as compared to us!!!

Oh gosh, look at Little Yue Yue with the baby suit I bought for her from Cotton On! Seriously over-cute lor!!! Kekekekeke...

The old friends gathering happened as usual, this year on the second day. We took quite a lot of pictures that day and I need to wait for them from XT now...

Deardo met Ah Ma (dad's side) for the first time, finally!!! And yes he got the head-to-toe check from her, as expected... Kekekekekeke...

Went hiking with Papo and Vivian one fine morning just to burn a bit of fat eaten over the CNY and snapped pics of the plants that I love a lot but I don't know what to call them. :S

But that hike was nothing compared to my Maxwell Hill hike, which reached another record for myself as I reached 3.2km of the climb (damn I was half dead after the climb)!

Drinking session is a must for all CNYs! Agree, no?

Drinking session number two! Can you believe we actually finished dad's box of Hoogarden and Budweiser in few days time?

I hope you had a fantastic CNY too! Make sure you take a good rest before heading back to work yea! :)
Stay tuned for another post on our CNY fashion shoot! *wink~~*

Happy CNY people~! :D

2012-01-21T23:26:00.002+08:00

So... Yes, I noticed I've become super duper unreasonably lazy since arriving home. I didn't even turn on my lappy for the first two days home! Hence, today I'm just going to make a short photo blog before going to bed as we prepare for the New Year's Eve (oh gosh, haven't even start cleaning the room and help mop the floor and make the milo dessert and... So many things!).

I'm definitely missing Little Yue Yue... Many said she looks like Deardo Wong! What do you think? Nah... Don't worry, she is not mine, she is Deardo's sister's newborn baby!

Was trying this very uniquely design Cheongsam at Jusco the other day. I noticed Jusco always sell really nice and cheap traditional wears like Kebaya, Kurung and Cheongsam... I got most of mine there. Can you I guess did I buy this home? *wink~~*

I've made this year's CNY look more like a Christmas! Gifts for the family all wrapped in CNY-themed wrapping papers! Cool or not jek???

I'm pretty sure nothing can be cooler than this hi-tea set! I bought the 2-tier hi-tea plates from Aino, Got the Macaroons from Chef Karam (as usual, they are simply the best ones and I couldn't help but bought them back just so that Mamo and Papo can try them), got Vivian to peeled the mini Mandarins and a out-of-the-blue idea of adding 'Bak Gua' (the BBQ pork slices) on top of the tuna on rice crackers to make this very fusion and interesting (or at least I think so) hi-tea at home! Mind you, Some actually find the combination of tuna and 'Bak Gua' damn nice okay??? *proud face~~~*

Roast Pork Bones Porridge!!! I've asked to reserve the bones before coming home so here it is, just to answer my long crave for Mamo's Roast Pork Bones Porridge! ZOMG it was so so so yummy and satisfying!!!

I certainly love playing with my cousin sisters Karina (top) and Tessa (bottom)! Don't you think they look super cute in my kitty glasses???

Before signing off...

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

万事如意！身体健康！财源广进！

HAVE A GREAT YEAR AHEAD!!! :D

Heart-warming soups @ Tang Shifu Restaurant

2012-01-17T17:30:00.002+08:00

Ok I lied. Ok I know I just said I'm not updating until I reach Taiping but I figured this is a short food review so I better do it before going home!

Tang Shifu, as the name says it, is a restaurant that sells all kinda soups, especially Chinese herbal soups. So one day when we decided to be healthy and skip all the fried or deep fried stuff, as well as rice, we decided to give this restaurant a try.

They do serve all kinda soups, most of them comes in a set with rice and a side dish. But as we were (and are still) trying to skip rice, we opted for the ones with mee suah.
Oh but before I go any further, there was an incident that almost made Deardo Wong walk out of that restaurant before having the meal there.

Here's what happened... This guy, quite old and I assumed he is the manager or someone senior. He was really friendly and all and took our order and went off. Then we waited for about 15 minutes and our food weren't served yet. We looked around and hey there were only a couple of tables occupied and a table who came after us got their food before us! So we started to wonder... So did the senior guy, who finally made his suspicious move towards our table. He opened his mouth and said :"Hi, have you guys ordered?" Deardo and I went totally = = ||| "We just ordered with you!" We told him. Deardo became mad and wanted to leave. That freaked that guy out, like totally! He quickly said sorry and he miraculously remembered what we ordered! So I held Deardo down and said let's try and give him a chance, okay?

Mee Suah with Herbs & Rice Wine, RM13.90.

Mee Suah with Dried Scallop & Abalone Slices, RM15.90.

Poached Vegetable with Wolfberry, RM15.90.

Luckily we stayed actually., cos the food turned out to be quite nice. The soups tasted really 'herbal', as in they were a bit bitter, which also means they uses the right ingredients! The Poached vegetables, although not as good as what Ah Ma and Mamo can do, it was definitely satisfying, probably just third behind Ah Ma and Mamo's. Definitely a must try! :)

Together with service charge, the dinner cost us RM53. Quite a normal pricing if you ask me. Not too bad a choice for those who miss home-cooked soup a lot!

Tang Shifu Restaurant

Lot LG2, 32,
Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall
Tel: 03-5636 6772

Dragon or Bears?

2012-01-17T15:09:00.002+08:00

Just to make sure I share this before going home for CNY...

Do you know that Pavilion is not only good at their Christmas deco (yea I didn't take any picture of their Christmas deco last year because it was bloody hell super 'people mountain people sea' on my every visits there), but also their CNY deco? Well at least to me, their dragon year CNY deco is super grand lor!!! No believe?

Check out the dragon from different angles man!!

Simply gorgeous and grand!!! It makes dragon such a cool animal (er... Is it an animal or what?)!

Oh wait a minute, the dragon can't be as cool as the buddy bears outside Pavilion!!!

Gosh... Didn't the bears just stole the limelight from the dragon??? Kids love them and we adult will be impressed by the arts! Each country is represented by a bear which were painted with different colours and designs by their local artists. Of course not all countries on earth are there lar (I didn't find Japan), but some were quite interesting, for instance...

Maldova? Where? It actually tells you where the hell is Maldova! Seriously cute! :)

I can't remember if this is Myanmar or Cambodia... But it's definitely one of my favourites cos it looks so grand and exclusive! Don't you think?

But my favourite bear has to be this South African bear. Simple but reflects everything you know about the country!

The original buddy bears???

And guess which was the one that I went around looking so hard and die die also want a picture with???

Oh yeah! The Mexican bear!!! Yay~!

You should know if you know me well, right? :p

Anywayz, I don't think I will have time to blog anymore before going home. But I'm sure I will update once I reach home! So to those who are also going home, safe journey home and drive carefully yea!!! :)

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

2012-01-09T17:06:00.002+08:00

Just FYI, I did not watch any of the previous installments of the Mission: Impossible movies, but this one I went to watch in in IMAX, which is like fuyoh~!
Ghost Protocol is in deed a cool action movie. I mean, those 'impossible' technologies aside (you know I'm realistic enough to not buy that kinda crap, right?), the action was really impressive that Deardo said it was the best out of all the Mission: Impossible series of movies. My favourite is of course the Burj Hotel part, which I think most of you guys would agree with me too. Such kan cheong, entertaining, yet funny scene of the movie! As an action movie, I do not think it's the best action movie I've ever seen. As a drama, this is not even up to my level. But to me, it's slow in terms of story, but action wise, surely worth watching.
I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise, not especially ever since he jumped on Oprah's couch. So Tom Cruise aside, I find the rest of the IMF team quite good. Simon Pegg (come on! Everybody loves him), Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner all played some lovable roles in the movie, even though I sure think Jeremy Renner needs to work on his acting and body before he can play Bourne (yes, he will take over from Matt Damon). I also love Anil Kapoor's appearance in the movie, it's simply something different for an Indian actor to play in a Hollywood movie.
I found guys finding the movie a bit too slow and too little action. So I guess 'average' should be the right word to describe it lar. But to me, not the best but worth-watching!

My New Year...

2012-01-03T14:05:00.008+08:00

So how was you new year and the long weekend?

Well as usual, I didn't send myself into those crazy countdown crowd in the city but I must admit I had quite a crazy day out with Karen on new year's eve. It was just quite a normal catch-up with food and movies and we bought ourselves some crazy (can be useless) stuff like...I know! I'm not even a kitty fan but these glasses are just too cute to resist!!! I can't help but bought 3 pairs of them but if I have more money to spend I'll probably buy more lor!!! Ish cute gila babi!!!
You know, sometimes you really need friends whom you would just do crazy stuff together, who will not say no to you when you ask "should I buy this? Even if I won't really use it?", friends who listen to you mumble about life, even if that means very private stuff... And we cried and laughed together too that day... At the cinema...
Okay, let's prepare our hearts for the following movie review... :p

New Year's Eve
Yeap, we actually watched New Year's Eve on a new year's eve and I'm very glad that I watched it on that day too cos it made me think and reflect on life and got myself excited and prepared for the brand new year!
Like Valentine's Day (which is also from the same director), the movie is made up of a few different stories. It is somewhat very cliche but I actually like this one more than Valentine's Day. I think the reason is simple, because this is not just a romance movie with some very cheesy until you beh tahan's lines and scenes. New Year's Eve does have some love stories, but there are also stories which reminds you of your mum, your dad and how you should open yourself up more and try new things! I definitely love the whole idea! I mean, although it is not a very fantastic movie, but I'm loving the idea and the messages it carries!
In fact, my favourite story has to be the Zac Efron and Michelle Pfeiffer's part where the latter played a middle-aged woman who just decided to be rebellious in her life and complete a whole list of new year resolutions before the new year comes and Zac Efron helped her in completing the task! My least favourite? The Ashton Kutcher and Lea Michelle's part. It's just a bit too cheesy and... And... I don't know, maybe it's just because I never liked her singing, thus I'm annoyed whenever she sings and she has to sing from Glee to New Year's Eve! *Truly annoyed~*
I am super glad to see Russell Peters in the movie but why did they leave him out of the poster? Bloody hell! And Sofia Vergara is funny in the movie!
While I leave it to you to decide whether to watch this movie, which I personally think is entertaining, I shall leave you a quote, or a speech to be exact from the movie, which is definitely the most unforgettable moment of the movie and has surely inspired me to be a better person (although I know I'm nice already... Ah hem...).

"It's suspended there to remind us before we pop the champagne and celebrate the New Year, to stop and reflect on the year that has gone by. To remember both our triumphs and our missteps - our promises made, and broken. The times we opened ourselves up to great adventures - or closed ourselves down, for fear of getting hurt. Because that's what New Year's is all about: getting another chance. A chance to forgive, to do better, to do more, to give more, to love more. And stop worrying about 'what if' and start embracing what would be. So when that ball drops at midnight - and it will drop - let's remember to be nice to each other, kind to each other. And not just tonight but all year long."~Claire Morgan (Hillary Swank) gives this heartfelt speech when the famed ball in Times Square has a bit of a malfunction.

Of course I spent the new year's eve at home with Deardo and his dad drinking beer, eating peanuts and Thai Durian Chips as the countdown and fireworks happened outside...Seriously can't live without the glasses eh?

And on the next next day, I got myself a new year gift!!!Which one do you like? Black frame? White frame?
I'm loving the book, Two Asian Kitchens by Adam Liaw so much that only by flipping through the book I'm already so inspired to cook and to be creative in my cooking! Yumzzzz... Can't wait to try out some of the recipes! :D

I hope you had a good new year celebration too! Be prepared, 2012 is certainly going to be a GOOD one!!!
Cheers~! :D

HAPPY 2012!!! :)

2011-12-30T15:41:00.005+08:00

As the curtain closes down for the year 2011 (trying to be very gempak with my words now...) and before I go off for a long new year weekend which I hope would be exciting-er than expected, let's do a quick New Year's blog post!Check out my new hairstyle and new hair colour! I'm definitely loving it RED!

A summary of my year 2011...
1) I'm glad because I'm growing to love my job and some of my colleagues more.

2) I'm happy because everyone in the family are healthy.

3) I'm excited because Deardo and I have officially bought a house and are expecting to get the key by next year. *fingers crossed~*

4) I'm not very happy that I have not cut down weight (in fact I might have put on some weight).

5) I'm a little sad because there isn't any overseas trip with my Deardo...

So, the year 2012, although rumoured to be the end of the world, should be a more exciting year that I'm looking forward to very much! Especially our Perth trip! Wooohoooo~~~!!!Eating nice and fancy-looking food is part of my job! See, there is a reason why I put on weight! Arrrhhh...

Of course, I intend to make the year 2012 a fantastic one by setting these new year resolutions...
1) Stop shopping so much and save enough for the renovations of our house.

2) Work harder towards investing in stuff like properties to earn more money.

3) Work harder in terms of ideas at work so that I can earn increment and more bonus(tell you, people are often motivated by the BONUS!!!)!

4) Be braver at work!

5) Be braver in life (some of you should know what I'm talking about...)

6) Cook more healthy and varieties of food when we have our own kitchen (seriously can't wait!)!

7) Try harder to get a balance between work, love and blogging (oh yes for blog's sake!)!

8) Be nice and nicer to my parents.

9) Ok lar I'll TRY to tell you when is the big day coming (which is obviously not too soon lar of course) but it really depends on someone you know, the someone who needs to propose you see... *hint~~hint~~~*(very beh pai seh...)

10) VERY IMPORTANT: LOSE WEIGHT!!! Targeting at least down to 55kg(yes I am heavier than that, bloody hell)!

Even typing these make me so damn happy, for some unknown reasons!
2011 was good, but 2012 should be better!!! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

We Bought a Zoo

2011-12-29T16:46:00.003+08:00

Being a super fan of Matt Damon, I wouldn't want to miss this movie, not especially when the trailer was already good enough to make me tear!
Based on a true story, We Bought a Zoo talks about Benjamin Mee (played by who else if not the extraordinary Matt Damon?), a middle-aged man with some middle-aged crisis in life and decided to start fresh by buying an unwanted zoo and how he managed to overcome all kinda obstacles to actually successfully opened and managed the zoo.
Well the story itself is inspiring enough, especially when it actually happened in real life. But what made the movie more worthwhile to watch are the added 'spices'... The touching and sad love stories, the father-son relationships, the animals love, the fun of dealing with animals... These elements made me cry and smile throughout the movie. Such real and nice movie, especially to share with your loved one and family during this festive season!
Benjamin Mee isn't so much a challenging role for Matt Damon, but I see no other people more suitable than him to play the role. I've read that Ben Stiller was once considered for that role and I totally can't relate him to Benjamin Mee. Ben Stiller probably better off playing the main guy in Zookeeper. Matt shows his versatile acting skills from what you know of him as a young man in Good Will Hunting and Saving Private Ryan till the action guy you see in the Bourne series, till now a loving father (of course also because of age lar). I definitely love him in this movie as he seems to be into the character so comfortably! Scarlett Johansson also made it so believable as a country girl in the movie, which surprises me a lot! And you'll be in love with the other casts too, trust me!
I have absolutely no bad comments about the movie seriously! Although it wasn't a super fantastic blockbuster movie, it is certainly one of the most inspiring movies seen recently! And for this movie, I beg you to visit the cinema to watch it!!!

"You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it." - Benjamin Mee, We Bought a Zoo.

Extraordinary Christmas!

2011-12-28T10:26:00.017+08:00

This year's Christmas was a very unique one. Nothing to do with any fancy Christmas celebration of Christmas dinner or whatever, it was perhaps, more meaningful than that. I'm loving the colour of my Baju Kurung I bought this Raya!
Yeap, one of the three musketeers got hitched on Christmas this year! It was Lina's engagement party! I think Rev and I were pretty excited about not only because it was Lina's engagement party, but also because it was our first Malay engagement party (well if I'm not mistaken, I've attended one before too but I was very late when I arrived at that person's house). Lina's bride's kebaya was wooohoo gorgeous and sexay~!
One with the bride before the ceremony starts~!
After a while accompanying Lina in her room, we went down to join the crowd as the ceremony started. Urm... Quite an eye-opening, really... We both thought it would be a very religiously done ceremony with loads of praying and stuff, but it turned out to be both sides sort of having a chat over the offering (hantaran). It actually sounded more like having a sit-down comedy. Well we kinda enjoyed it you see. :pWe were sitting right in front of these people who joked about the engagement... Hahaha...
Very modern, and very Lina's set-up. I love it a lot too!
The hantaran...
Lina and her mother-in-law!!!
How? How's my wedding photography skills? :p
The couple!
Lina and her lovely family...
The ceremony was done in a blink, surprisingly! What we got to bring home as a souvenir is this cute little cookie with a polka doted ribbon!
Of course, during the ceremony Rev actually told me about her guy whom she is planning to wed in 2013! Woohoo~ Absolutely exciting and I'm really happy for her too! :DBride's best friends also need to touch-up, okay?
After lunch, we managed to grab the bride and groom to snap some pictures with us before leaving Lina's house...Here we go~!
Our usual 1Malaysia picture, but this one even more meaningful than that stupid slogan lar!
With the happy bride!
Honestly, I have not attended any close friends wedding (eh ehm... Because they all refuse to get married yet! Hello??? Guys???) yet, until Lina's engagement party (her wedding is to be followed in June next year). Because the ceremony was a bit shockingly short, so I've not have much feeling about how touching and how sweet the party was. But deep in my heart, I know I'm really happy for Lina (and Rev too in a way)! I couldn't wait any longer to attend my other friends' wedding! Can't wait to play 'Ji Mui' for the first time and torture the guys! Bring it on guys! Kekekekeke...

P/S: I didn't have a special Christmas with romantic dinner like you will expect me to have but I did get a Christmas prezzie from Deardo Wong!Bling bling bling blingzzzzzzzzzz... :D

C & N lunch @ Truffles Restaurant

2011-12-26T15:26:00.015+08:00

One thing that keeps me moving at work is when my students win awards or medals at competitions. Although I'm not the one who train them, there is always a sense of pride when I see them winning stuff. Deardo always say I'm so patriotic about my company, but the truth is, I'm actually very proud of the students, not the company.
So I've decided to tell you guys about this very interesting lunch date I had with some colleagues from other departments the other day. It was a lunch at Truffles Restaurant, the usual restaurant where the students cook and serve their customers like us. But that day we went because it was the Advanced Diploma class, which means these students are the ones who concentrate in cooking a lot, which also means food they serve should be better than the rest lar! Basically I jumped into the opportunity once I heard there were lobster served that day! :p
Let's see the dishes on the menu...Our appetizer which I forgot what they are called...
The Garlic Soup.
Deconstructed Lobster Thermidor with Nicoise Salad.
Beef Wellington, Vegetable with Confit Garlic Bernaise Sauce and Beef Juice.
Ocean Trout in Butter Sauce with Polenta and Confit Onion.
Apple Sorbet with Brittany Prune Castard.
Basically the class has a theme where the meal was inspired Chef Paul Bacuse, a French Master Chef. So obviously those were French dishes, which you and I might not really used to. I mean, first thing I saw in the menu... Garlic Soup? Er... Wouldn't it be very smelly? Well surprisingly it doesn't give you any bad breath at all! It was really smooth and comforting to the stomach! Then the lobster salad really blew me off! Ignore the green salad at the side (which was quite a normal salad), the baked lobster was surprisingly fresh and tastes really mama mia~!!! :D Then we were given a choice of beef or salmon as our main course in which I had the salmon, which was yummy but a little oily. I can actually see them enjoyed the beef more actually, although I can see some of them are a bit overcooked... Hey they are students lar, they are allowed to do mistakes, okay? As for dessert, I love the apple sorbet but I'm definitely not a fan of the prune custard... Er simply because I'm not a fan of prune perhaps?Macaroons to go with tea and coffee.
And then we had macaroons to go with tea and coffee! For your information, our own Chef Karam is the one chef who is super famous with his macaroons! And that day the pistachio macaroons really drove me crazy! Not only the texture remains chewy yet not sticky to the teeth (which is basically my perfect standard of macaroons), they weren't too sweet to my liking too! NICE~! :DSay hi to Evelyn who likes to do funny stunts and Vivien who looks at her awkwardly...
The ladies who enjoyed their lunch.
Even for the Advanced Diploma class, we only need to pay RM10 for all that amount of food!!! How cool is that, right? And I'm seriously not promoting the hospitality, tourism and culinary arts school here in my blog because the restaurant isn't open to the public yet and I actually gave my honest thought about the food. I'm just sharing my extraordinary experience of having such fine-dining lunch with you guys! Of course, if you are dropping by to visit me one day and want to try-out our students' work, I'm more than happy to have lunch with you at the restaurants too! Advanced reservation is a must though!!! :)

Comedies...

2011-12-26T11:40:00.004+08:00

I've not stepped into a cinema for a long long time, perhaps the longest time ever since I know how to visit the cinema myself! While I still have some hopes to catch some Christmas and New Year movies, I've watched these movies at home...

Our Idiot Brother
The title tells it all, the movie talks about a brother who always create disasters because of his good intention to help people around him. Well of course, he ruined his three sisters' life indirectly and they all disowned him at one point before finally realising how important the brother is to them!
Well I love the entire idea of the movie. It is funny yet full of meaning and lessons of life. But I will have to be picky on how the movie presented the part where the sisters finally realised how important their brother is to them. To me, it was a little too rush and you know... Like you can't really feel them yet! So yea, not touching enough lar. Love the soundtrack too!
I must say it's quite a complete perfect cast too! Paul Judd as the idiot brother, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer as the three sisters were quite good in their performances respectively.
It's the kinda light movie you wanna watch for relaxing purposes, although it doesn't really leaves a very huge impact in your memory...

The Change-Up
Another comedy about two friends exchanging bodies. They used to admire and prefer each other lives, until they switched bodies... It's all about growing into a better person too through other people's life. But it is also not a fresh idea anymore, especially in comedies.
I thought the movie reached its objective of telling people a lesson of life but then in a very normal and boring way because this isn't the first time we've seen movies with such body-switching idea. I actually like Jason Bateman a lot ever since Horrible Bosses but I think both him and Ryan Reynolds weren't allow to show their real talents in the movie, which is sad...
I did enjoy the movie as a comedy but the creator could have done a better job in presenting the entire movie, maybe in a different way.

Shirlexia goes Spanish - Chickpeas with Chorizo

2011-12-23T15:58:00.018+08:00

As you may already know, I've started to loan books from the company's library and damn I love the selections of recipe books in there! So much of varieties!!! Getting ready to Spanish it up~! Uno Dos Tres!
So the other day I got this recipe book which talks about nothing but Spanish dishes and tried out one of the recipes in there which looked very tantalising in the book! And that was really my first try at Spanish food!
So what you need are...Canned chickpeas, Chorizo sausages (Spanish pork sausages, you should be able to find them at Cold Storage or Jaya Grocer, not cheap though >< ) cut into cubes or chunks, tomatoes, canned button mushrooms (this wasn't in the recipe, I added in just because there was a can of them sitting in the kitchen), chopped English parsley, chopped garlic and red onions. Salt and black peppers to taste(I didn't follow the exact amount of ingredients stated in the book too, just go according to my liking. :p

How to make this interesting dish...
1) Obviously in the book they use this Spanish pan or something to cook the dish, but I only have a non-stick wok so wok it is!!! Heat it up and then heat up some olive oil too.
2) Stir-fry the garlic and onions until they are a little brownish.3) Then add in the Chorizo sausages and fry them a little.4) Until the sausages are almost done, add in the parsley and tomatoes. Smash the tomatoes a bit to let the gravy flows into the dish.5) Next, add in the chickpeas and stir.6) Throw in the mushrooms and add in sufficient amount of salt and ground black peppers to taste.And that's it!

The wholesome dish tastes really delicious because of the Chorizo sausages which have Paparika in it and that spices up the dish a lot! We had the dish as the only dish for dinner and it filled us right and I was very happy with my very first try on Spanish food! :) According to the recipe book, chickpeas has fibre and iron while tomatoes has Vitamin C that helps in the absorption of the iron! That means this dish has a balance of everything=healthy but also tastes fantastic!!! Oooohhh yeah!!!Our super yummy Spanish dinner!!! Salivating yet???

Little note: Do not defrost the sausages too much. In my case they became very soft and it was really hard to cut as all the meat just came out of the tube. But I'm not all sure too cos the Chorizo I got from the supermarket don't look exactly the same as the ones in the book. So good thing to figure out when I try my luck on getting them from other supermarkets next time. *wink~~*

Didn't I just shared a recipe that you can possibly try out for the coming Christmas dinner?

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! :D

German dinner @ TJ Haus

2011-12-20T17:06:00.011+08:00

I had a short catch-up dinner with Yve Vonn few weeks back and knowing that I love to eat and I blog about food, she brought me to a new place called TJ Haus, a restaurant specialised in German food.
Located at second floor of a shoplot unit, the restaurant looks pretty small, with very European homey feel decorations. I especially love the small flower pots they put on each tables. According to Yve Vonn, the owner cum chef of the restaurant is a German origin who opened the restaurant with his Malaysian partner.
(I'm sorry for forgetting to snap a pic of the exterior of the restaurant because it was too dark and late at night when we came out from the shop it wasn't safe to stand and take a picture)The interior of the restaurant looks more like you are dining in a German family house.
We ordered most of the dishes which were specially recommended by Yve Vonn. So here's what we had that night...Prawn Cocktail to start. RM13.
Cordon Bleu served with rice and poached vege. RM24.
German Crispy Duck with Purple Cabbage and Potatoes. RM 26.
The prawn cocktail was certainly refreshing as a light starter before we proceeded into our main courses. I had the Crispy Duck and I thought it was just average. It could be better if it wasn't so dry I think. I tried the Cordon Bleu too and I think I'm in love with it, very much! Unlike other Cordon Bleu you see outside, this one comes with a special gravy which tastes a bit like curry plus cream. That gravy is simply to-die-for! And unlike other stuffing you get outside, this one comes with squid! How cool is that? Next time I visit this place, I will surely order this!!!Homemade Cheese Cake. RM12.
We also had the Homemade Cheese Cake highly recommended by Yve Vonn as dessert. The cake was not too bad but perhaps because I was too fulled, I didn't really enjoy it so much... Loads of updates and gossips were done over the catch-up dinner with my ex-college mate! :)
It was quite a nice and satisfying dinner with very reasonable price!!! I mean, where in KL can you find real German food at that kinda price??? Thanks for the recommendation Yve Vonn! Will definitely go back one day!

TJ Haus
27, 1st Floor,
SS18/1B,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor
Tel: 03-5636 4508

COOL weekend getaway~!

2011-12-15T15:48:00.037+08:00

Courtesy of 3e and Uncle Thong, Deardo and I spent a night at Avillion, Port Dickson and were surprised guests of their 25th Anniversary as a married couple! Avillion stay was cool, but 25 years together? That's super duper COOL!!!Romantic dinner for five, please!!! :p
So... I've decided to start this blog about the 25th Anniversary dinner at the Crow's Nest Restaurant at Avillion. It was a five-course Chinese ala fine-dining dinner. Interesting...Tea Smoked Seafood with Honey Mustard Mesclun Salad, Olive Oil and Balsamic Reduction. No idea why is it 'reduction'? I'm not a chef...
Braised Shark Fin Soup with Dried Scallop.
Tossed Prawn Mayo with Grated Nutmeg stuffed Chicken Roll with Seaweed and Crabmeat.
Crispy Duck with Young Mango Salad, Poached Broccoli, Garlic Fried Rice.
Double-boiled Snow Jelly with Ginseng in Coconut Shell.
The food were better than expected really. I especially love the entree and the dessert! And to present Chinese cuisine in a fine-dining way was really cute too! Food and wine make a happy foodie~! :)
3e and Uncle Thong! Awwww~~~ So cute~~!!!
What's even cuter was the fact that this was a total surprise to 3e! She only went to Avillion thinking of having a short weekend getaway just like us and only to find out it was a little celebration for their 25th anniversary as we reached the dinner table! After the dinner, Uncle Thong demanded that we go to this cafe downstairs and there the staff served up another surprise! An anniversary cake! Us enjoying the cake and the songs!
At their age, they certainly look like a couple who are still so much in love with each other! And the surprises made Uncle Thong such a sweet and romantic husband! I can only feel the sweetness looking at them and I hope my future hubby is like him! *hint hint hint~~*
There was a wedding dinner with a Hong Kong couple going on at the private beach that night too!

It was my second visit to Avillion after almost 10 years! I remember vividly how much I love that place even though it has been years! Although the Port Dickson beach isn't fantastic, the resort itself is to-die-for. The water chalets especially were simply too cool to forget! It's like you're staying in a floating house!
Hence I was so excited to be there again! Our room as we arrived at night...
The very cool toilet with an open air shower!
The little bed next to the window is one of my favourite corner of the room! Imagine looking at the stars there at night!
The cool shower and the sea water you can see right below the shower!
It was raining quite bad in the morning so here went our balcony...
After a morning sleep... *Yawn~~~*
Uncle Thong and Deardo Wong enjoying their beer at the balcony of 3e's room!
Well I must say some of the furniture in the room are already quite old by now, but other than that, wow, the room is still nice! And the little balcony facing and just above the sea water! And and the open air shower! Woohoo~~!!! Still love the room a lot! :D

Because it was only a short weekend getaway, we didn't go anywhere out of the resort. We spent our time sleeping, eating, walking around and using the facilities available at the resort itself. So here goes...We went to the animal feeding farm where Deardo did this when feeding the little peacock. :p
You know what, I looooooveeeee peacocks!!! They are the most gorgeous animal on earth!
That's why I demanded to take a picture with him, even when he is so high up on the roof!
We swam a little at the big pool only for adults...
And a little at this general pool where kids are allowed...
And we met Tongkat Ali and Kacip Fatimah and the Spice Garden, standing next to each other!
The garden chalets. A cheaper choice but I think they are not too bad a choice too!
Then it was very hot in the afternoon and we couldn't have fun at the beach... :(
See... The walkway to our room! Cool right?
Avillion has an award-winning spa and we were there!
Of course it was only for members only but 3e brought us in anywayz!
Very nice and comfortable deco and colour!!!
And no... We didn't go for the spa or the coffee... We were just getting ourselves amazed and snapping loads of pictures!
LOOK AT THIS!!! SO BLOOOOODY BEAUTIFUL LOR!!!
How could we miss a chance to take picture there??? That place was simply fantastic!!!
Jan Yi, 3e, me and Deardo took a group picture before leaving that place unwillingly... :(
It was a very short but fun getaway and I must thank 3e and Uncle Thong for that! I think Avillion is still a very nice place for people who need to relax and do nothing at all! I mean, the room itself is so fun to stay in that you wish that you wouldn't need to leave the room!

Can't wait any longer for my next holiday~!!! Er... When is that? Hmmmm...

最佳女主角--我的偶像胡杏儿！

2011-12-08T17:16:00.012+08:00

好久没发粉丝疯了！这次我要很兴奋得宣布......
恭喜恭喜！恭喜我的偶像胡杏儿终于登上视后宝座！

99年还是中学生的我，追看香港小姐时就已经很喜欢胡杏儿了！其实同届的港姐们都很漂亮（当年的冠军可是郭羡妮咧），她能夺得季军还真的算是很幸运了！当年很可爱的胡杏儿。
还好他继续在娱乐圈发展，让我也有机会继续的支持她下去。《流金岁月》和《冲上云霄》是她早期的一些代表作，也是我很喜欢的两部电视剧，虽然当时的她还是停留在饰演小女孩的角色。《野蛮奶奶》系列则是之后大家都很喜爱的电视剧，而且那时候我就开始很喜欢她和黄宗泽的配搭，一直都希望他们的绯闻是真的！《流金岁月》《冲上云霄》
但无可否认，还是有几部电视剧是失败之作，包括当时很轰动的《肥田喜事》(个人认为完全是选角出了问题，尤其是男主角）。网友们对她的演出毫不留情的批评，虽然有些时候自己也默默的赞同，但心里还是很替她难过。
今年确实是Myolie风光的一年，演出的《鱼跃在花见》、《怒火街头》和《万凰之王》的角色都有一个共同点，就是令人又爱又很。难得的是，她都一一的诠释得淋漓尽致，演技大跃进！我就是那样，看到underdogs苦尽甘来，辛苦得来的好成绩我都会特别兴奋和感动。胡杏儿今年真的是潇洒封后！耶！
你可想像，当时坐在电视机前看直播的我是多么的紧张，尤其是之前宣布我的最爱电视女角色是她之后我整个都心寒了！当宣布最佳女主角是胡杏儿时我直接就尖叫了起来，要不是身边有人，我早就跳起来在家里绕圈了！真的超开心、超感动的！Myolie多年来的努力终于都是值得的了！两人第一次公开拖手仔、亲密合照，看得我都好感动、好开心！

然后...... 她在致词时的爱的宣言更是sweet到爆炸，而那句“我希望我地一路顶住大家”也成了近期最hot的金句！我也很开心，Myolie和Bosco经过那么多年，终于也可以光明正大了。而且根据近期的八卦新闻，他们明年可能会结婚了耶！好替他们开心哦！成了我desktop background picture的超漂亮照片。
喜气洋洋的贺词就待他们结婚时才说了吧！现在只希望他们能开开心心！:D

P/S: 《怒火街头》是我今年最爱的电视剧，而且是surprisingly超好看的剧！剧本写得好、角色鲜明、演员都演得很出色，包括“茄哩菲”哦！如果你还没看就一定要看啦，Astro有在播！！！郑嘉颖封视帝也是实至名归啦！！！

The Thai Pork Crackers!!!! Awwww~~~!!!

2011-12-02T14:14:00.009+08:00

The Thai Pork Crackers was something I've tried and got addicted to before I went to Bangkok. My colleagues bought them back and I just totally fell in love with them. Hence, I bought about 5 to 6 packets of them home! Because the wordings on the packet says things only in Thai, I have no idea what is it made of exactly. Most of us believe it is actually pork skin. I don't know, if it is that means I've eaten loads of cholesterol into my body! Dang... :SMy love~ Thai Pork Crackers!!! Nom~ Nom~ Nom~ Nom~
Anywayz, apart from being a super yummy and addictive quick snack for movies or TV series, I found new ways to use them in my cooking!

1) Thai Pork Crackers with porridge!So with a mission to eat healthily, we had porridge for dinner one night. I made simple porridge with carrot and potato cubes with minced pork just like those you would feed a toddler. It has been one of my favourite light meal and that night we added in the pork crackers just for some additional crisp in the porridge! It tastes great! My only advice is, eat them when they are half soaked in the porridge so that you still get some crispiness out of the crackers!

2) Thai Pork Crackers with Chicken and Cucumber SaladThis isn't something new, I've did the same before and you can find the recipe here. Only this time, I broke the crackers into small pieces and sprinkle them over the salad! It was definitely a healthy salad with a (pork) twist! :)

3) Thai Pork Crackers with Tuna and Potato SaladI Baked the potato cubes with olive oil with the oven, boiled some eggs (then cut them into cubes) and french beans (supposed to be asparagus but couldn't find them in the supermarket the other day) and mix them all with tuna in olive oil, chopped tomatoes, English parsley and black pepper to make this another random salad. To top it up, some Thai Pork Crackers! Oooh so nice!

Now the Thai people might wanna thank me for promoting their snack so much! :p

Bangkok, the shopping paradise

2011-11-29T16:11:00.023+08:00

Sorry for the delay guys! I was thinking of giving up blogging about this Bangkok trip (which happened almost 2 months ago) but I figured it will be a waste not to talk about the wonderful shopping trip!
Anywayz, I'll just make it more to a photo blog...The sky in Bangkok? Probably was in an artsy mood...
So, I went to Bangkok for the first time with a bunch of colleagues because it was a staff trip. It was a very short one, 3 days 2 nights and that's it. And... That was the only time I followed a tour guided trip since erm... Super many years ago when I was probably just a kid. Our tour guide Joey (his Thai name iswrqr#@%) is a very funny Thai guy! That's why he deserves a mention here! :)
Turned out, the only place we girls followed the tour itinerary (except for the restaurants lar) was the first place we went as we landed in Bangkok, the four-face buddha. Nothing fantastic to us. So we snapped some pics before going off to have our late lunch at McD next door...So here's the famous four-face buddha...
In general, I find Bangkok as a city, probably looks very much like some parts of KL. In many ways, it doesn't look as developed as KL, yet there are many areas that we can learn from them too. I especially find the Thais very friendly. Shopping with the girls (and ladies) was FUN FUN FUN!!!
I have to admit, their temples (even though I only went to one because I'm not interested with temples) and buildings like Baiyoke Sky failed to impress me. I don't fancy their trains too because of their stupid money-changer system. And Tuk Tuk drivers are definitely cheaters but yea not bad if you are looking for an adventurous ride or a real Bangkok experience.Pink taxis! How cute!
Aaaahhhh... Finally we got to sit down for a bit! Phew~!
Took a picture with the Tuk Tuk before the very adventurous ride!

So what did I truly enjoy in Bangkok? No... I didn't enjoy the company's lame game after our seafood dinner...
And not the fact that I found my colleague wearing the same patterned top! LOL!

Firstly, massage!Evelyn and me enjoying our massage! And the lady commented that we are 'soi' (pretty)! Yahoo~~!!!
Well obviously they are not fantastic, but not too bad. Not especially with that crazily cheap price! I paid 380 Baht (RM38) for a 2-hour full body massage! So yea, I guess that explains why we actually went for massage two nights in a row there. It feels extremely good especially after a whole long day of walking!

Of course what I enjoyed the most was shopping!!! Exhausted, but very happy shoppers! :p
I've never been to anywhere in Thailand before, so I was really innocent to think that the money I brought was enough! I didn't know that the stuff there can be so dirt cheap! Seriously! I should have brought more money!!!
My favourite must be Platinum Wholesale Mall in which we spent half-a-day just to finish one floor and didn't even have time to proceed to the next floor! Aaaarrrrgggghhh... So Pek Chek! So yea I guess even if I had the money, I wouldn't have enough time to shop too!The cute shoes I bought!!!
The few pieces of clothes and swimsuit I bought and am loving them too!
Belts, earings, pictures, notebooks...
Souvenir for colleagues from the famous Naraya.
FOOD, FOOD and more FOOD!!!
In the end, I actually bought more food than clothes and I wasn't really happy about that. Like my colleague Sze Ling said, it doesn't feel right, just doesn't feel like we are done! Enough said lar, the next time I go to Bangkok, I will make sure I have enough money and time to shop!!!At the airport we were already asking each other when is our next Bangkok trip!
I really enjoyed the shopping and the food in Bangkok and that three days really wasn't enough for me to explore all the shopping and all the food Bangkok can offer! Hence, next trip to Bangkok, I wanna go all out to eat and to shop!
Wanna join???

Plan B inspried Sauteed Mushrooms

2011-11-25T08:30:00.007+08:00

Remember how we enjoyed our breakfast at Plan B in Bangsar? I think I've recently grown into something like my grandmother, whenever I tried something that tastes really simple to make, I'll start talking about how easy this can be made at home.
And that is exactly what I did to try making the very yummy sauteed mushrooms that comes with the breaky! Our breaky at Plan B with the Sauteed Mushrooms that I was so tempted to order extra.

So here's what you need...Fresh mushrooms cut into half or slices, cherry tomatoes halved, huge amount of finely chopped garlic and English Parsley.

And here's how you make this yummy and simple dish...
1) Heat up a frying pan or wok with some olive oil.
2) Dump the garlic in and simmer till they turn a little brownish.3) Dump the mushrooms in now and stir well.4) Now dump the tomatoes and parsley in and stir well. Add salt and black pepper to taste.5) Until you see the parsley are spread well in the entire dish, you are done!

You can serve them as a side dish or you can go ahead to have it as a main dish just like us! Yea, that explains why we cooked such a big portion of it right? It was another successful try for me even though I think we (actually I think it was Deardo... :p) sort of overcooked the tomatoes a bit. But taste wise it was all perfect and we definitely enjoyed it as a light dinner dish!
Now you can go ahead and try this at home too! :)

Horrible Bosses is horribly hilarious!

2011-11-14T07:45:00.005+08:00

Horrible Bosses is definitely one of the best comedies I've watched in the past one or two years. Of course, providing you watch it outside Malaysian cinema. And guess what, it's so funny that I've watched it 1 and a half time (didn't get to finish it the second time, that's why)!
I guess you roughly know how's the plot like only by seeing the title of the movie. Basically the three mains hate their bosses and started to plan to kill their bosses.
Basically I think the movie owes its success to two factors: 1) Bloody good and funny cast, almost everyone of them are so unforgettable! 2) Freaking funny script! Which means, you have to turn on your volume very loud to make sure you don't miss whatever they say!
I like Jason Bateman's interpretation of Nick, very angry yet chicken enough to not fight back. Jason Sudeikis as Kurt is probably the most not-so-outstanding character yet you won't say you hate him. Charlie Day as Dale is probably the most interesting and funniest character! And man I'm sure we all like his voice that makes his character funnier! And how can we forget the three horrible bosses??? Kevin Spacey was 100% awesome acting as the very bossy boss! You can really feel like you hate him so much you know! Jennifer Aniston who acted as the very 'sexually aggressive' boss was bloody natural and funny! And finally Colin Farrell gave up his sexiness and good look to play the ugly boss was really good too!
I'd say it is definitely a must watch if you enjoy comedy!

It's been two years! :)

2011-11-10T18:48:00.014+08:00

This Deepavali we celebrated our second year together.It was a rather simple celebration with a dinner at Meatworks Restaurant & Deli at Solaris, nothing fancy but I guess it was good enough lar since we always have nice food even when we aren't celebrating anything. :pI love the mushroom soup! RM15.
Deardo's Sirlion was a little over-cooked. RM50.
That's my Lamb Shank. RM65.
1/2 Roast Chicken, RM30.
My Lamb Shank was standing tall!
Ha, I know, right? we had a soup and three main courses!!! It was Deardo lar, his Sirlion wasn't enough for him so topped it up lor...Together with a pot of green tea, taxes and service charge, the dinner cost us RM193.50. Not too bad a price but taste wise, not so impressive I must say. And I hate the fact that all their sides are the same for every single dish! We prefer the Lamb shank and chicken over the steak. To me, the chicken marinate which is sweet, sour a little spicy makes the roast chicken really tasty! Obviously that was my favourite of all dishes. Oh! Love their mushroom soup too! It's really 'kao' and tastes really fresh!

MeatWorks Restaurant @ Solaris
2G 3A, Jalan Solaris 5, Block H
Solaris Mont Kiara
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
(Directly across Cold Storage)
Tel: 03-6203 0871

So... It has been two years! How fast time past? My anniversary gift for Deardo was this 'Everyday I'm Shuffling' t-shirt I bought online and shipped all the way down from the US. Bloody expensive since I bought it from the official LMFAO Party Rock online shop but we both love it so much!
To me, two years is not too long but hey we already feel like we've been together for so long. Seeing each other everyday means we already act like an old married couple. Sometimes I wish the relationship can be more exciting and I always hope Deardo can be more romantic and give me surprises like what you see in the drama series. But then come to think of it, he takes care of me whenever needed in daily life, whenever I'm sick... What else can I ask for? I think it was two days after that we gave ourselves a break having supper, beer and cocktail at Chili's KLCC.
What we had that night at 11pm!
I can't even remember when was the last time we really went out for supper...
Don't ask me about marriage. There are still some complicated issues to be solved before we can go to that level of life. I am anywayz, not such of a fan of organising and going crazy over a wedding and judging from our lifestyle now, I don't think a marriage will make such a difference to us. It will, perhaps be a marriage just so that our parents will be happy. And plus! Like I always tell Deardo, you better think of an unforgettable proposal or I could just say no to you if you give me a non-romantic proposal! :p

Makan-makan in Bangkok

2011-11-09T18:37:00.018+08:00

Hello people!!!

Yeah, I've been super duperly busy recently and that prevented me from publishing anything on my blog (and actually also prevented me from reading other blogs). I know, I know, that means my blog is boring without any updates but hey I'm back and I hope that although I'll still be quite busy at least until December, I'll get to update more often. I mean, bloody hell all my stuff are so backdated now!!!

Grrrrhhhh...

This particular post on food I had in Bangkok was taken from my company's staff trip exactly a month ago! Anywayz, most food I had in Bangkok was fantastic, giving me zero excuse to skip blogging about them!

Sinfully yummy pork burger @ McDSawadee ka Mr. McD Thailand~!
Oh yeah, finally I got to try this very famous pork burger that all Malaysians don't have the courtesy to have them here in our country!!! Forget about whatever healthy diet! I'm a HUGE fan of McD pork burger!!!
The pork patty is juicy and super nice but a bit to thin lar... I suggest if they have the patty from Loong Kee to go with their sauces and lettuce at McD, it will be perfect! *ching ching ching ching~~~*I have a colleague who walluped three of the pork burgers at once!Thai McD's breaky menu.
I also tried their Spinach pie, which also cannot be found in Malaysia but it was just so-so. So... I was truly impressed by the yumminess of the pork burger. Haih... Perhaps they can consider opening an extra McD in Malaysia that is non-halal? Or like in any supermarket, open up a section that is non-halal so we can enjoy these yummy burgers too? Seriously, I only go to McD for breaky (oh and by the way they also have pork porridge in their breakfast meal! How cool!) but if there is pork burger here I'll probably visit McD more often than ever.

Seafood Dinner @ Nathong Seafood
This is one of the restaurants the tour guide brought us to and all dishes were pre-booked. Oh just FYI, it took us more than one and a half hour to get there for our dinner. Bloody Bangkok traffic... ==|||The restaurant is super huge! And I suspect they actually have buffet counters where you can go get sashimi, sushi and pork satays but ours were pre-booked so we can only eat whatever came to our table lar. They even have live band!To cut the whole thing short, I will only showcase those that I think are recommendable...This is unique! Spicy and Sour Squid.
I never liked salted fish but this fried Kailan with salted fish, me like!
The Thai Fish Cake was good too!
This deep fried fish was superb!!!
The deep fried fish was definitely everyone's favourite dish. Very crispy, fresh and delicious! See, the simplest dish won here! Hehe...Us girls who enjoyed the dinner like some hungry ghost just because we were so hungry trapped in the bloody traffic jam!

Lunch buffet @ Baiyoke Sky Hotel
Also included in the package is this lunch buffet which we only had about one hour there to sapu whatever we could simply because we were too busy shopping! Ha! Yes I'm serious, we didn't follow most of the programme throughout the 3 days 2 nights trip because we were too immersed with the shopping!!!Due to time constrain, this is the only picture I took of the food. Top left is the Tom Yam soup!
Anywayz, the only thing that really satisfied me and to say, something special was their Tom Yam! Their Tom Yam comes in a small bowl of fresh mushrooms, squids, prawns and fish and guess what, they add milk in it! Ok, maybe I'm suaku lar but that was the first time I had Tom Yam with milk and it is absolutely delicious I had three bowls of it!!!

Best ever Mango Glutinous Rice @ MBK's Food Court
Food court? You serious???
Yes, I'm serious! That is by far the best ever mango glutinous rice I've ever tried in my entire life and it was found at a food court of a shopping mall! You gotta ask ourselves why Malaysian food court can't do that, right?Irresistible mango glutinous rice! Yummmzzzz...
First of all, the mango is super sweet and fresh! The rice tastes just nice with the right amount of coconut milk and the right amount of crunchiness. And we all agreed that the small little yellow sprinkle on top of the rice made a whole lot of difference even though we really don't know what are they actually... :pAlso, beef noodles...
And absolutely colourful Pad Thai.
We also tried their Pad Thai and Beef Noodles but I think the Pad Thai deserves a mention! That's me and Evelyn, the Pad Thai die-heart fan! I think she had at least 5 Pad Thai during our entire trip in Bangkok. :S

It was really too short a trip, both for food and shopping. Food in Bangkok in general passed my satisfaction level with quite reasonable price. But going with colleagues who aren't very adventurous also means I didn't get to go the extreme. I didn't even try any of the street foods because my colleagues were worried of hygiene issue which makes a lot of sense because I did see loads of flies floating on top of their uncooked food at some roadside stalls. But oh I wouldn't mind trying once, at least! And the insects! Although I haven't really decided whether or not to really put them into my mouth, I didn't even see any of the stalls selling fried insects!
Hence, going to Bangkok for a second time is a must (of course when it is free of flood and political issues lar) when I have more money and more time because 3 days 2 nights weren't enough!!!

Till then, stay tuned for a second and final post on my Bangkok trip. Soon, hopefully~! :)

Yummy breaky @ Plan B

2011-10-25T08:18:00.007+08:00

Finally! Finally I've made it to Plan B! Well, Plan B is actually under the same company as Ben's and Canoodling and the famous Delicious. Oh yeah, we are guessing that company is earning super big bucks! Anywayz, Plan B's interior is about the same as Ben's in many ways. I suggest some of the food, like spaghetti are actually the same as what you can find at Ben's. But our mission that morning was to have their breakfast! Ya know I always love good breaky to start my day, right?I find the bottle for water very cool! It's like some container for medicine!
At RM24, we got our plate of breaky with ham, sausage, hash brown, bread, egg, baked beans and some yummy sauteed mushrooms. Plus, a glass of juice and tea or coffee. You can even have more of any of the ingredients at an extra RM2 and above, not too bad a deal too! Salivating yet? Who says breakfast are boring?
It's hard to not compare their breakfast with the one at La Bodeg a, they basically look almost the same! Of course, the one at La Bodega cost you more and to me, a little more filling. But I reckon Plan B's breakfast isn't bad at all! I definitely love their sauteed mushrooms! Super duper yummy I felt like I want to order more of them! They have some really fresh mushrooms and and cherry tomatoes tossed in some garlic and parsley... Ooohhh... Definitely tempting! I also like their sausage and hash brown a lot! The only one I don't really fancy was their baked beans. I was so excited looking at my breakfast!!!
I certainly like the breakfast here and I don't mind coming back at all! Oh and did I forget to tell you, the breakfast is available until 6pm! So you can sleep till late and still enjoy their breaky! I heard their sandwiches and burgers are good too! Gotta try them next time! :)

Plan B
Ground Floor (It's right in front of the back entrance),
Bangsar Village 1,
59000 Bangsar,
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2287 2630

Good food comes in two

2011-10-22T13:13:00.012+08:00

Yeah well, I guess it's also because I'm really too busy to blog and I have too many backdated stuff to blog about that I finally decided to do two food reviews at once since I finally have a little time to blog.
Now, these two restaurants and its food are totally different, but they both impressed me in some different ways.

Surprisingly good dinner @ Spring Garden Restaurant, KLCC
Last month when I was at KLCC for work, Deardo and I decided to give this fancy and expensive-looking restaurant a try after a long long day at work. I forgot to snap picture of the entrance, but yes it is a very cozy restaurant.
Spring Garden Restaurant is a restaurant under Tai Thong, but this one is pork-free (but not alcohol-free). From what I see, not many Malay customers that night, in fact majority were Chinese and Mat Salleh diners.
As we were being very price-cautious, we chose to go with just two dishes with rice. Claypot Seafood Beancurd at RM38.
Half a Crispy Spicy Roast Chicken at RM35.
Just to show you the very yummy chili paste...
The Claypot Seafood Beancurd was not too bad, with the seafood such as prawns, cuttlefish and abalone slices being very fresh. But what surprised us the most is the roast chicken! The skin was super crispy and the meat was really juicy. And! The chili paste that came with the chicken was super delicious! I don't know exactly what's in it, but I think there are some mini dried prawns in it or something, making the dish simply unforgettable!
Their rice also tastes a little different. It's like very obvious that they are not some random cheap rice. Well duh, they charged us RM3 per bowl okay? We both looked really tired, didn't we?
Together with a pot of tea at RM13. We paid RM98.25 (and that's with some special discount) for the dinner. Definitely expensive but I have no complain at all about their food and services!
The also have 50% off promotion on their Dim Sum from 3pm-6pm but pork-free dim sums? I'm in doubt...

Spring Garden Restaurant, Suria KLCC
Lot 413 & 414,
4th Floor,
Suria KLCC City Centre,
50088 Kuala Lumpur

Surprisingly yummy Chicken Rice @ Wai Sek Gai, SS2
Did I ever tell you that I'm secretly a chicken rice fan? Yes, by that I mean the rice itself! I can really go to a chicken rice shop and just order the rice with some gravy or soup to make it a meal for myself! :pWatch out for this stall! Well it is normally quite crowded lar.
Anywayz, because of diet issue, I try my best to avoid eating it but Deardo brought me to this stall one day to try this chicken rice which totally satisfied my cravings for some bloody good chicken rice!Looks quite normal but man it was so dangerously yummy!
The Leng Chee Kang next door was also not bad, although still cannot beat the one we have in Taiping. :p
Deardo's interpretation of 'this is bloody good man!'
I can totally give the rice a hats-off. The rice are well-cooked with the taste and fragrant simply tantalising. I thought the chicken was not fantastic but hey the Roast Pork was bloody nice! And for the plate of Roast Chicken+Roast Pork Rice, we only paid RM5.50, how reasonable! And mind you, the normal portion is already quite big and will fill a guy's stomach well!
Not a perfect place to dine at(super hot there man), but for nice food, who cares about the location, right?

Okay, time to go back to work!

Movies.电影

2011-10-15T13:27:00.006+08:00

Hello Saturday!
Finally it's a lazy Saturday where I got to sleep till 10am and slowly had a satisfying breaky before landing on my own blog to talk about movies! Haven't really been to the cinema for quite some time but watched these movies at home!

Bridesmaids
Didn't even thought of watching this movie until my colleague Madeleine passed it to me. Surprisingly I kinda enjoyed it!
I was expecting it to be another romance comedy with some really cheesy love stories but it turned out to be more to a movie about friendship than any other thing. It is funnily gross but not cheesy at all and I really love it! If you've watched this movie, I'm telling you, my favourite part is when the girls are trying out their dresses and suddenly food poisoning strikes them! That was a REAL classic man!!!
I thought Kristen Wiig did a good job portraying an unmarried woman. I mean, if you are 30 plus and unmarried, I am sure you can relate to her character! It's just so real! The rest of the cast, including Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy made up a line of funny bridesmaids with strong characters respectively. Just like Kristen Wiig, Chris O' Dowd also made an unexpected main guy very lovable.
Overall, Bridesmaids is cooler than a usual romance comedy, but better than a girls' fighting movie. I was truly entertained!

窃听风云2 Overheard 2
一看到角色的变化我就觉得很有趣，至少大家都有不同的岗位，不像第一部那样大家都是警察。更何况我一直都觉得吴彦祖演坏人才有看头，还记得新警察故事吧？
这一次依然以股票为故事背景，牵连到了警察、股票经纪和一个要报仇的某人，大家有大家的agenda,而且窃听的技术似乎也越来越出神入化了。中间只要他们在分析股票的东西我就觉得又得无聊了，因为根本听不懂他们再说什么。动作也不是很特别，开始觉得有点闷了......后面结局才了一个精彩的！看到吴彦祖的角色如何将窃听器藏在自己的身体里，不只让人找到他的尸体，更帮忙警察破案，我才突然觉得哇塞！聪明！好看！
刘青云依然潇洒，这样一个股票经纪人的角色一点也难不倒他。古天乐也收放自如，现在只是希望哪一天看到他得最佳男主角。吴彦祖依然那么有魅力，但是相比新警察故事，这个奸角真的不算什么。但这三个男主角真的造就了一部精彩的电影！啊，别忘了，还有久违了的曾江和一班老戏骨，单看到他们就特别兴奋了！:D
这部电影不算超好，但还不错！

全球热恋 Love in Space
电影说的是一位母亲和她三个女儿的爱情故事。
刘若英饰演的大女儿和前男友Micheal（郭富城饰）在太空的故事，对我来说很无聊、幼稚兼多余，亏他们还是最老的那一对！感觉就在浪费观众的时间。二女儿桂纶美和陈奕迅的那一段就比较特别了，一个有洁癖，另一个是倒垃圾的，是不是听起来就特别有看头？而且两位主角都演得很到位、很真！至于Angelababy和井柏然的那段故事不算新鲜，但是感觉还不错，至少没有刘若英那段无聊。
说到演技，看起来就是桂纶美的角色比较好发挥，她也把角色诠释得很不错。其他的就还好啦！
其实电影的另外一个重点很明显是设计。没看到吗？每一个场地、每一件衣服都经过精心设计的！我特别喜欢桂纶美戏里的那房间和Angelababy打工的那件咖啡厅的泡泡制服！都超好看的！还有桂纶美的手套翅膀也超有创意的！
全球热恋肯定比之前的全城热恋来的好看。如果没了大姐的那段故事，我大概会给这部电影近满分的分数，可惜，现在我只可以给它打70分。

劲抽福禄寿
还没看就知道这是一部废戏，对吧？只是希望它会很好笑，弥补一切的“废”！
好啦，至少是有一个还蛮正常的故事的，而且还蛮励志的。剪掉一些太不切实际的故事其实还过得去啦！搞笑部分真的还不错，至少有娱乐到我啦！
演技方面就别要求带多了，大部分都是夸张地在演，除了薛凯琪，但她哭成那样，好像在和房租名演戏那样，在这种喜剧里看起来就好像太over了。
这部电影......过得去啦！

P/S: Hoping to catch夺命金 and Warriors! What about you???

Updates in 10 sentences:

2011-10-14T08:40:00.005+08:00

1. Shopping in Bangkok was bloody fun but I didn't have enough of time and money~!!!! Aaaaarrrggghhh...

2. Work is freaking crazy at the moment I wish I could blog more than writing articles for work purposes!

3. I want to watch Warriors.

4. I want to watch Glee Season 3!

5. I saw this pair of really unique-looking shoe at Charles & Keith but was thinking it's a bit too pricey but later decided to buy... Unfortunately I can't get my size anymore! :(

......

Okay, I think 5 is enough.
Hopefully I can get some time off for my blog over the weekend!
HAPPY WEEKEND~!!! :D

Bang the Kok

2011-10-06T14:30:00.006+08:00

*Replacing lyrics of Empire State of Mind~~~*
Bangkok~~~ You like massage, makan or shopping~ Or McD Pork Burger~ You can find them in Bangkok~ Bangkok~ Bangkok~

Actually supposed to have more stuff in Bangkok to talk about. Like Thai Girls Show, Tuk Tuk, Nasi Pattaya, Ladna and all that. Bangkok also reminds me of:
Its scariness and craziness as shown in Hangover 2.'Lost in Bangkok' was a line that was constantly said in the movie. Damn scary lor!!!:S

Belle NuntithaIf I happen to bump into her/him, I will probably give her/him a hug. :)

Traffic jam.I heard it can be quite bad, can match KL's traffic. :S

I'm proud to announce, I'm going to Bangkok tomorrow! To the crazy city of Bangkok! Shopping, food, massage, Thai Girls Show, McD Pork Burger, Pork Keropok or whatever... BRING THEM ON~!!!

Ha... Like I have a lot of time...
Shirlexia Tan will be in Bangkok, in fact, Thailand for the first time in her life for only THREE days lar!

SAWADEE KA BANGKOK~!!!

Pricey Afternoon Tea @ New Shanghai, Pavilion

2011-10-03T08:21:00.013+08:00

I fell in love with this cafe/restaurant at first sight! I love the entire design and deco, and even their paper bags! Man they are so cool I wish that one day I can go back and just simply takeaway something just for that bloody cool bag!!! Seriously, all restaurants and cafes owners should invest in the design of their shops! Bloggers and photographers love chic restaurants and cafes!!!Check out their wall papers man!!!
So we went for afternoon tea one day. We were shocked looking at the menu! A pot of Chinese Tea for RM18!!! ==||| So anywayz, we decided to go ahead since we were already there. So here we go...From left clockwise: Shrimp Beancurd Roll (RM3.80), Chess & Potato Roll (RM3.80), egg tart (RM1.50) and BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Puff (RM3.50).
Shrimp Dumpling or Har Gao (RM8.80).
Red Bean Cake (RM6).
Notice I basically listed out all the prices of the food? That's because I think they are really pricey!!! Having say that, I must admit I definitely enjoyed the Har Gao and Cheese & Potato Puff, but then again I can't decide whether or not they are worth that price. I like their tea too, I can feel that it is off good quality lar... Duh... RM18 for a pot, you better serve me well man! *Slap on table~*That's me and Deardo's mum with our very expensive tea.
Well I think on average, the food was pretty nice. So if you don't mind paying extra for some quality food, New Shanghai is good for you to go. And if you love the concept and the deco, I'm pretty sure you should go at least once just to get the feel of it! Or at least, snaps some pictures there.

New Shanghai
Lot 1.02.00 Pavilion KL
(Opposite Mercato)
168, Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2142 2833

Oh by the way, remember El Fresco? Well we managed to go there again to try new stuff before Empire Subang sort of exploded...Fresh prawns with spaghetti.
Mushrooms and ham pizza... Yumzz...
The prawns can be good if they are fresh. Ours were not all fresh, so yea it's based on luck I guess. I love the pizza simply because of its thin crust and generous amount of mushrooms! :)
Man this make me miss Empire a lot! I'm not even sure if people dare to go there when they re-open... :S

Asparagus Bacon Rolls

2011-10-01T09:37:00.009+08:00

Hello October!!!
Suddenly I'm in such a good mood today, even though I'm actually at work on a Saturday morning! Like really EXCITED!!! Nah... Don't worry, I'm not high on drugs or anything like that. I think it's just because I had a very good night sleep... Oh and! Congratulations to Xiao Ting!!! Proposal is done there and I can't wait to be your bridesmaid!!! :D
So back to my blog. I realised I actually have quite a lot of stuff to blog about but work is kinda keeping me away from blogging but that's good actually, I prefer this to having nothing to blog about when I'm actually freaking free!

So... I'm gonna rewind back to Raya time when I was back at home and I made my family nice food to eat... I'm loving the library at work!!!
I've always wanted to make these Asparagus Bacon Rolls, especially ever since I recently have this interest to learn to make fancy finger food. I actually saw this recipe in a recipe book I got from the library at work. So here's how to make these cute, presentable and super delicious Asparagus Bacon Rolls...
1) Wrap the bacon onto each of the asparagus (many thanks to Mamo who has more patience than me slicing off the lower (and older) part of the asparagus). 2) Brush olive oil all over them.3) Sprinkle enough coarse black pepper and salt over them to taste.4) On a grill pan or a frying pan, heat up some olive oil and put all the asparagus bacon rolls and grill them till they are all cooked and that's it! Well obviously there were a little glitch when the bacon didn't seems to stick onto the asparagus. I mean, according to the recipe book, it doesn't require any extra stuff to make them stick onto the asparagus! But well, I still managed to sort of re-wrap them properly before serving them with some Aglio Olio! The Aglio Olio that I made this time around was the most successful one so far actually, just that my family don't seems to be very used to this kinda spaghetti... :( Good thing was, they definitely love the Asparagus Bacon Rolls! They were almost perfect! The bacon were nicely cooked and crispy and the asparagus wasn't overcooked and dry at all! Yummey~~~!!! I simply love this picture of my dish! Doesn't it looks dangerously yummy???
Well you might want to figure out how to make the bacon and asparagus stick together before trying this at home! But remember, remember to tell me how you do that okay? :p

My 27th Birthday, etc

2011-09-28T08:42:00.014+08:00

So last Sunday I turned 27.
Because of a busy week (and more to come), I didn't really have much mood to celebrate. In stead, I spent whole first half of my birthday staying at home and slept for probably more than two hours in the afternoon. Guess I was just too exhausted...
But of course, Deardo treated me with a birthday dinner at Jogoya! :)I call that sleepy face cos obviously we both just woke up from our very long afternoon nap! :p
I had the mini Tiramisu cake from the cake bar as my birthday cake!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Guess what? We spent almost 5 hours there!!! Wakakakaka...

I don't know, I wasn't really too excited about my birthday this year, probably because I was really busy and I know I will have a lot to do after my birthday. So yea, all I wish for my birthday was a good rest, or a short holiday somewhere out of KL, which is not going to happen so soon. :(
Anywayz, as a reward for myself, I bought this Charles & Keith bag as a birthday gift for myself...It was love at first sight... :)
Mind you, at RM199, it is already the most expensive bag I've ever own! I think I'm going to take very good care of that bag!

Before my birthday, I was at the Culinaire 2011 at KLCC, doing some live reporting on the competition. It was pretty exciting for me since it actually made me feels like I'm back to my sport journalist life. You know, those camping out at the competition, doing reporting and interviews! Love it!
It was of course very tiring walking and standing for 2 and a half days but I guess nothing can beat how the students and lecturers have worked so hard to prepare for the competition! I'm truly proud of them, no matter how's the result like. But of course, I'm proud to say, they did very well! :D
Here are some snapshots of the event...Yeah... Imagine, I was with high heels on the first day!!! :S
Our golden boy... Derek won us three gold medals!!!
And here's Issac whom I'm very very happy that he won a gold medal at the competition!
And here's me and my colleagues... We were waiting for some result at urm... Probably 8.30pm...
And check out this cute sugar art piece of the Angry Birds! But according to some expert, this piece of art is ugly... What say you???

And just in case you are curious, and I know this is random, but here's my desk in the office...One of my colleagues actually said it looks like there are a lot of organic pet food. Cos the Japanese green tea packet at the right looks like food for fishes and the container of oats looks like they are for rabbit... ==|||

Like I said, work is still pretty crazy. I still have so much to blog about but have totally no time to do so!!!
So till then, hasta la vista babey~!

Mostly Comedies! :D

2011-09-19T20:18:00.006+08:00

Yea, Chris Colfer who plays Kurt Hummel in Glee failed in his second attempt in winning the Emmy Award but hey it doesn't matter to me! I am still very much in love with Chris and Kurt! Can't wait to watch the new season of Glee which starts today~! Yay~! :D
I've been pretty loaded with work at the moment and do expect it to be like that for at least another one month time. Sigh... Seriously miss blogging and movies! So I took the opportunity of the long weekend to watch three movies in a row and I must say I'm still not done yet with the list of latest movies I want to watch! Arrrrggghhh...

Contagion
Obviously I went for this one because of Matt Damon! And yes, the likes of Marion Cotillard and Kate Winslet sort of make it more watch-worthy!
The movie talks about a virus that kills and how it affected people around the world until one scientist finally found a vaccine for it. It doesn't have a proper flow, with random switches to different scenes with characters in the movie, which I like a lot. But then the entire storyline doesn't seems to have a huge impact on the audience as they watch or even after watching it. There isn't like something that sort of click! While I still think it was quite an interesting movie, Deardo was absolutely bored.
And because there were just short scenes of each characters, you get to see very little acting from the actors, even if it means they are all like what? Oscar winners? To me, that was a waste. I mean, Gyyneth Paltrow died about 10 minutes into the movie and Kate Winslet follows soon after!
I think Steven Soderbergh should stick to comedy.

Johnny English Reborn
Rowan Atkinson is back! I was really excited to watch this movie actually but I knew sequels always fail to impress so I didn't have high hopes.
Fortunately, Agent Johnny English proves me wrong! The plot was brilliantly created where the beginning of the movie often seems to have a link to whatever happens of the movie. And mind you, it is bloody funny okay? I really cannot remember when was the last time I laugh so loud watching a movie, especially a sequel! Seriously, how can anyone not love Rowan Atkinson? Or Mr. Bean? Or Agent Johnny English???
While it is nice to see Rowan Atkinson again, I think I was also very excited to see Gillian Anderson, the very famous 'Agent Scully'! But my other favourite character has to be the killer cleaner! Ha, that woman is cool! And guess what? I just found out the actress, by the name of Pik-Sen Lim, is a Malaysian and was in the good old comedy series Mind Your Language! Gosh! Mind Your Language! So classic man!
This is definitely a must watch!!!

Nasi Lemak 2.0
You know, I know, Deardo knew that this is going to be quite a stupid comedy but still, I was curious. So we went for it, for Namewee you may say. Although I'm not quite sure about that.
Storyline wise, it is VERY DRAMATIC. Some makes you say things like 'stupid' or 'nonsense'. I especially don't like the over-used 1Malaysia or those Malaysia in unity crap ideas but well at least Namewee actually, as usual, touched on the sensitive topics, which makes a little difference. And of course, we all love how he made swear words sound so indirect!
While there isn't any acting skills to talk about, I am truly amazed by the fact that there are so many famous figures such as the Alleycats and the Baba & Nyonya guys! I'm sure we all missed them a lot!
And for some strange reason, the 'Curry Leh' song is stuck in my head now... I think I kinda like that song! :p

Best Ramen EVER @ Santouka Hokkaido Ramen, Pavilion

2011-09-15T11:59:00.016+08:00

You can say I'm Suaku or whatever. The truth is, I've never been to Japan and so far, the ramen at Santouku is REALLY THE BEST RAMEN I'VE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!
Remember we went to Suki-Ya, which is just next to this very famous ramen restaurant. Why I say famous? The queue was sooooo loooong the last time we were at Tokyo Street!So we went, with Deardo's family as early as 11.30am just to avoid the crowd. The menu design and the entire list of variety of ramen are not that much, or maybe not yet. Like the ramen, you can only choose from perhaps six choices? The only difference is that you get to choose the size of your bowl of ramen from S to L, which I like a lot cos you won't waste food if you are a small eater!

Anywayz, we had two appetizers that day...Crispy Gyoza and Chicken Karage at RM10 each.
I think the Gyoza is probably also the best Gyoza I've ever had so far. Though the size is relatively smaller than usual, the skin at the bottom was really crispy and it really wasn't oily at all! I was really impressed! The Chicken Karage was so-so but the dipping sauce is unique and yummy!

And then the ramen...We had two of these Spicey Miso Pork Ramen on our table.
Miso Pork Ramen.
Shio (Salt) Ramen with Chasiu.
Chicken ramen, which was surprisingly the most expensive of all! :S
Springy handmade ramen... Yumzzzz...
Well we actually tried almost every one of the ramen in the menu, except for the shoyu flavour! Out of all the flavours, I think my Miso soup base is the best. It is flavourful but not too heavy while the salt base tastes a bit like our Ipoh chicken hor fun soup but obviously doesn't look like it. The spicy one is also not bad actually! But my conclusion is that the soup was marvelous! I've never had any ramen soup with such thick soup base okay! It is obvious that they made the soup out of pork broth and that does made a huge difference! I was so tempted to drink up all the soup in the bowl!!! I think the pork, bamboo shoots and leek went perfectly well with the ramen!
The ramen ranges from about RM20-RM34 or so, depending on flavour, meat and also size. Very pricey if you ask me, but the quality of the ramen is just too good for you to resist! Maybe we should go like once a month? :p I was very very very happy with the lunch that day~~!!!
Apparently Santouka is a Japanese brand that has outlets in all over the world! So yea, you can actually find it in country like Canada too!This queue is considered very short ok cos it was still early!
I am giving this restaurant a clear 5-star for their food and I think you shouldn't miss it too! Just gotta make sure you go a bit earlier to avoid the queue! :)

Hokkaido Santouka Ramen
6.24.03, Level 6, Pavilion
Jln Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2143 8878

Lovely Milo & Marie Biscuits Dessert (Kek Batik)

2011-09-08T08:23:00.026+08:00

Truth is... I didn't even know this is called 'Kek Batik' until I googled with 'Milo' and Marie Biscuits' as key words. To me, this Milo and Marie Biscuits dessert is part of my childhood memories. Aunty Ah Choo, who was once our neighbour, taught us how to make this and because I had a sudden crave for the dessert, I actually called her to ask for the recipe!
Apparently this is also something that a lot of my friends in FB love and for that, I must say, I'm happy to share the recipe with you guys! :)

Here's Aunty Ah Choo's accurate amount of ingredients:
200g Milo
500g Marie Biscuits
500g raw peanuts/groundnuts
250g butter
About 3/4 can of condensed milk

As you read how I made the dessert, you will notice I didn't follow the rules so much. Kekeke...
1) First, fry the peanuts/groundnuts with medium to small fire until it is obvious they are a little burnt and smell like they are cooked.2) Separate the skins by... Whatever way you could. Mamo told me to hold them with a filtering basket, scratch the nuts with your fingers then shake the basket while blowing the skins off. Yea, I know... Real hard work man.3) Now you will have to take about 1/3 of them to mash into almost powderish (or whatever you call it :p).4) With the mashed peanuts, lay them evenly on a baking tin.5) Now in a pot or huge pan, melt the butter (I only used 227g cos that's the only size I could find in the supermarket and I didn't want to buy another one just for another 23g). 6) Add in the milk and stir well.7) Now turn off the fire and add in the Milo. I didn't measure the amount of Milo either. I just pour until I think it is enough to thicken the entire mixture.8) Now add in the peanuts (the ones that are not mashed).
9) Then break the Marie Biscuits into smaller pieces (not too small though) and add them all in. I didn't use all the Marie Biscuits too cos I thought it was way too much to put them all in! I mean, 500g!!! I suspect I heard wrongly lor!10) Stir until the Milo mixture cover all the biscuits and lay them all onto the prepared baking tin. Make sure you push them tight!11) Spread the mashed peanuts evenly on top of the mixture.
12) Send the baking tin to the fridge for at least 4-5 hours and you can cut them out and serve when it's chill.
To me, this thing is just too easy to make! Okay, I admit the peanuts part is kinda ma fan. Well you can either skip that if you're not a nut fan. Or, you can buy ready-made ones from the market! Absolutely no baking required, just some simple cooking method!
Well, most importantly, it is dangerously delicious and addictive! The entire thing tastes a bit like chocolate fudge/Sneaker/Cloud 9. You get the chewy Milo and the crunchy chunk of Marie Biscuits and peanuts that made it a to-die-for dessert. My little cousins who happened to be in Taiping love it! My Ah ma loves it! Papo and Mamo love it! And Vivian was so happy to finally taste something that she also missed!
Try this at home too! I'm sure you and your family will will enjoy it too!

P/S: Many thanks to Vivian who helped me a lot throughout the process. :)

Super Simple Kerabu Pork Belly

2011-09-02T15:33:00.008+08:00

I saw this recipe on Kuali.com and I was soooooo looking forward to try making this myself.
Personally, I love Kerabu! Be it Kerabu chicken feet (oh yumzz) or Nasi Kerabu (Alright, I know that's a different thing altogether). Most importantly, I am such a fan of pork belly! You know those with the fat on top of it??? You just have to admit it that even though they are super unhealthy, they are also super duperly yummy! :p

Well I made the recipe simpler so here's what I did...
1) Obviously, boiled the pork belly until it is cooked then removed and soak in ice water.
2) Next, just cut it into thin slices.3) Now in a bowl, mix the pork belly, chopped parsley, sliced shallots, chopped serai and chopped chili padi together.4) Add in some squeezed lime and brown sugar. 5) Now add in some fish sauce to taste and that's it!
We had it with other dishes for dinner the other night! It was quite a cool recipe I think. Pork Belly is normally tasteless and we always have it to go with soya sauce or simply cook them with other methods which erm normally take quite some time. With this recipe, pork belly became flavourful and too simple to make a dish with!
I'm loving it~~!!!The Kerabu Pork Belly was like a cooling salad!

P/S: I cheated this time around because we already had the pork belly cooked for the month of July prayer in the fridge. Hahaha... And thanks to Ah Ma's maid, all ingredients were cut well before I made the dish! :p

Lunch @ Menglembu East Ocean Restaurant & our Ipoh trip

2011-08-31T22:00:00.024+08:00

I've heard Deardo talked about this restaurant like N times and finally I made it there with him and his family on a trip to Ipoh! Now their love for this restaurant was basically because their food are damn cheap and nice. But we went for some pricey stuff that day and here's what we had...I know I shouldn't be having shark fin soup but er... Just once in a long while! :)
Our very yummy abalone!
Stir-Fried French Beans with Salted Eggs! Yummy~!
Yam Basket, not my favourite...
'Jiu Pai Tofu'.
Very tender and yummy Dong Bo Yok!
Yeap the abalone itself already is RM38 per piece and the big bowl of shark fin soup was already RM48. But trust me, the rest of the dishes ranges only from RM6-RM12!!! Even Deardo's mum was like:"What? The yam basket dish only cost us 6 bucks! 'Yam gong loh...'(in Cantonese)!"Deardo's interpretation of "the food are delicious~!"
Not only that, taste wise, the dishes really impressed me! The shark fin soup (little shark fins but loads of crab meat and dried scallops), the abalone (very nice to chew, not really ruber-ish), the Dong Bo Yok (freaking tender and yummy) and Fried French Beans with Salted Eggs (OMG this smells and tastes soooooooo GOOD!!!) were all my favourite! Seriously, haven't had such impressive proper Chinese food for some time!
Really, you should give it a try whenever you're in Ipoh!

Menglembu East Ocean Restaurant
1-7, Hala Perusahaan Menglembu 17,
Menglembu,
31450 Ipoh,
Perak
Tel: 05-2829 457, 05-2829 435

Well that lunch pretty much summed up our trip to Ipoh before we headed back to Taiping.
But earlier, we started our day with some famous Foh San Dim Sums and because we really didn't have any idea where to go in Ipoh, we went to this Gunung Lang Recreation Park just to kill time and accidentally found out it was quite a cool place to visit! Here we are~~~! Gunung Lang!
Played model to Deardo Wong's car/toy/second gf.
Don't you just love my lovely red skirt???
The only group picture we took that day!
So it's a place with this beautiful mountains and all that, with a lake in the middle where you can pay 3 bucks as a return boat fare to travel over to the other side of the lake to a park where you get some kampung houses, a lighthouse, and some ostriches, kancil, monkeys and turkeys! Oh and by the way, there are so many BIG FAT fishes in the lake too! I was having fun feeding the fishes! There were so many GIANT ikan keli~! I love eating them!!! :p
I'm leaving on a jet-boat...
So raya feel, right???
Stomachache pose just for the fun of it. :p
Yeap, that's the so-called 'lighthouse'.
Nice view hey?
The ostriches were especially cute whenever they put their heads up to look at Deardo who was snapping pictures of them!
Obviously this Gunung Lang isn't a very famous tourist spot, at least from what we saw. But the entire atmosphere was really nice there. Like really green, really erm... NATURAL! Besides, the scenery from the top of the lighthouse was really amazing!!! How could people didn't realise that this is not too bad a place to visit in Ipoh?
I truly had fun there! :D

And then we also killed some time playing bowling at Ipoh Parade and bought some bloody yummy Kaya Puff.
Here's a funny name for a building/shop lot in Ipoh... Deardo's dad said this is the ex-Foh San! Surely a very 'dramatic' place, I think.

I hope it is still not too late to wish you all SELAMAT HARI RAYA, HAPPY MERDEKA & HAPPY HOLIDAY~!!! :D

Hello, this is a film review

2011-08-29T21:33:00.005+08:00

Being home totally makes me freaking lazy to blog. Plus, I was really into the Glee mood even though I totally think the storyline is just too childish (yes, even though Kurt's story always, in fact never failed to make me tear, I'm so weird I like gay guys! LOL!).
So anywayz, my first blog post from home is going to be movie review of movies I've watched maybe 2 weeks ago... Not that they aren't good, just that I was really lazy, okay? So here we go...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
I must admit because I've grown up watching more Chinese movies as a kid, I did not watch any of the earlier Planet of the Apes movies. So this is the very first one.
The story was something like how people misused chimpanzees as their experiment tool and in the end got it back from the chimpanzees. Yea I know, like so lame right? Well, maybe not lame, just that it's a bit lack of creativity. Like once you watched the beginning you already can predict what's coming next. Having to say that, I still like the message the movie wants to bring out to the public. At least it is straight to the point that you shall not mistreat animals. And I'm totally amazed by how technology has made the apes looks so human! I mean, the facial expression made them so creepy to watch!
Nothing to shout about in terms of acting, totally a waste of actors using James Franco and Freida Pinto. But I was surprised to see Tom Felton in it! Quite cool to see him landing jobs outside the Harry Porter series!
I know I sounded like I hate the movie at the beginning of the review, but actually, I think the movie is worth a watch. You just have to put aside the fact that the storyline is just not very fantastic.

武侠
武侠很文艺。可以这样讲吗？就是那些对白实在是深奥，再加上大部分的对白都是金城武的四川腔华语，更加头痛！只能非常专注的看字幕。虽然戏名为“武侠”，但其实主角是个屠夫，不是武侠，连武打戏份也很少。反而金城武的戏份比较多，或许应该叫“法医”才比较贴切。总之整个电影从故事编排到对白都很另类，或许这就是特别之处吧？我不会说不好看，但我相信不是所有观众都懂得欣赏。像我就觉得大概就是还好吧！
我是为了汤唯而看了这部电影，但失望的是有点大材小用的感觉。甄子丹就实在跳不出叶问的框框，但老实说句，这部算不错了，比陈真好很多！金城武确实是重点，确实演得蛮到位的。嘿嘿，帅哥会演戏！！！ :p
我对陈可辛导演的电影不熟悉，但我感觉只要是陈导的粉丝一定会喜欢这部电影。若不是大概就大概看了有点lost啰！

My Mashed Potato Recipe, etc

2011-08-26T15:51:00.013+08:00

Here's a mashed potato recipe taken from my best mate in Perth, Jodi and modified by yours truly. Deardo and I definitely love it and he was very surprised at how easy it was to get this done!

1) Cut potatoes into cubes and boil them in salt water for no less than 15 minutes.2) Drain the water off and start crushing and pressing them with a spatula or whatever useful kitchen tool you have in your kitchen.3) Sprinkle enough salt to taste.
4) To make the mashed potato really creamy, pour in appropriate amount of milk and continue stirring, pressing and crushing until you really see the mashed potato like really fluffy.5) Add in mixed herbs and pepper to give it an extra flavour so that the potato won't taste so plain.
And that's it! We had our mashed potato with the Sha Cha Sauce (yeap, we are so in love with that sauce!) Grilled Chicken and some greens as a side. I just love the texture of the mashed potato! :D

Ohyea! The dressing for our green salad! Also something I learned in Perth. Simply mix some olive oil, vinegar, soya sauce and sesame oil to make a very very yummy salad dressing! Oh yea... Careful with the amount of vinegar if you don't want your dressing to be too sour, just like how ours turned out to be! :p Very simple and erm... Asian salad dressing I guess...

On other occasion, we made another quick and lazy salad at home, which I won't say it's a healthy salad but I would say... Interesting and tempting salad!
I bought some Char Siew from a restaurant near work, lay them all over some lettuce, cherry tomatoes and hard boiled egg. Then sprinkle roasted almond over it. I did tell you it is tempting, didn't I?
Now, the best thing is, I didn't even need to worry about the dressing! I just poured the Char Siew sauce the restaurant gave over the salad to make it a Char Siew Salad! Okay, I agree it doesn't look very appetizing at this point... But taste wise, it was marvelous!
Not very healthy as a salad but well, I guess it's still a good and bloody simple recipe if you are on non-carb diet lor! :)

Going home for Raya. To all of you who are going home for Raya too, have a safe trip and drive safe!!! :D

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie

2011-08-24T08:28:00.005+08:00

Thanks to someone special, I was at Sunway Pyramid last night to watch the premiere of this movie (in fact it was my first ever premiere experience!). Though I did not follow the series (yes, not at all), I do listen to some of the tracks from the movies in which I also think the Glee guys sang Teenage Dream better than Katy Perry herself. Hence, I am definitely interested to see this 3D concert movie!
To start off, it is really just a concert, zero storyline with bits of backstage funny interviews and footage of some Glee fans' stories on how the show and the characters changed their lives. I am a little disappointed with the concert due to the song selection. But I do prefer it when they sing together as a group rather than solo performances. The solo performances were just too forgettable where surprisingly I thought Brittany's slutty performance was the most unforgettable one! I mean, it was sexy and nice choreography as compared to others that are too dry! I don't see why they have to give Rachel so much of air time cos I think her singing isn't fantastic. They should have let Mercedes and Kurt sing more! Oh by the way, my favourite character is Kurt even though I've never watched a single episode of the Glee series. Of course, best performance goes to the Warblers! Love their Acappella!!!
I love the footage of the Glee fans! They were all very encouraging asking you to be yourself, in a bloody cute way! Love it love it love it! Probably the best part of the entire movie, really! Okay, shouldn't forget the little boy who sang like Blaine! Just to give you an idea...

The Glee team better bloody hell pay that little boy for making the movie so cute to watch!!!
I give it an average of 3 out of 5 and it would have been more if they sing more of today's hit songs or super classic songs. I think it is a movie purely for 1) Glee fans, 2) musical fans and 3) those who love inspiring stories and don't think they sound like crap or too fake.
Now, can someone lend me Glee series??? I wanna watch!!!

P/S: I just found out Kurt (Chris Colfer) has won a Golden Globe (outdated me) for his performance in Glee! And I just soooooo love his speech!!!

It's my pleasure to help! :)

2011-08-20T14:04:00.011+08:00

Papo and Mamo are two very kind human being. Almost half the population in Taiping know them and almost all of those people have gotten some kinda help from them. Papo has always 'support' the lottery guy just because he feels bad for him selling lottery for decades. Mamo will always help her friends, who are normally senior citizens, to run some small errands like banking and posting letters, etc. Hence, it is natural that their daughter, me, know the importance of helping people.

Honestly, compare to my parent, I am not always a very helpful person. With people I know I sometimes think reward is necessary when I help. Like you know how you always tell people:"hey now you owe me a meal' after you've helped them? And I always think when you are too nice, people will take advantage of you easily! But when it comes to people who are poorer and less fortunate, I normally have a softer heart for them. In many ways, I am thankful for having such parent for bringing us up in that way. The only other time I really did community work was at the John Curtin Weekend, which I enjoyed so much that I joined for three years in a row!
There was one very unforgettable incident that I would like to share with you. Deardo and I were at a steamboat restaurant having dinner when this unable person came on a wheelchair (or was it just a trolley?) came outside the restaurant singing Hokkien song, begging for donations. His voice was terrible, but I felt really bad, especially when it started to rain and he actually continued to sing for a little while more and everybody else were ignoring him. I told Deardo I wanted to help, and passed him 5 bucks as he ran out to chase that fellar (who had to finally stop because of the rain) and gave him the little money. He came back and told me that was like the first time he did such thing. That sudden moment, we both had tears in our eyes.

I'm not saying Deardo doesn't have sense of sympathy, but to me, he is the other way round. He helped his friends and family without complains. Just that he was not used to donating and stuff like that. Well I can see that changing now actually. :)

Okay, enough of the introduction. So I first had the idea of sponsoring a child when I was studying in Perth. It was May 2005 when I was forced to cover arts and cultural events as part of my Print News assignment. I went through some interesting journey to reach a school in Subiaco to see the Watoto Children Choir performed. Read my experience here and how excited I was when my article got published in The Western Independent, Curtin's own community paper here. Apart from the cuteness of the kids and how good their singing was, I learned about Watoto. They are actually sort of like a village set up in Uganda for unfortunate children and even mothers, who are mostly victims of war and AIDS. So behind the smiling faces, there are so many sad stories. Most of the children have lost one or both their parents to AIDS. I felt dearly for them but at that time, as an international student, I couldn't afford to sponsor them and I've decided that this year for my birthday I would do something meaningful by really helping the kids in Watoto.Pictures taken 6 years ago when the Watoto Children Choir performed in Perth.
Yes! My article!!!
So yea, this basically came a bit early since my birthday is only coming next month but oh well, there shouldn't be time limit for charity! I'm officially a sponsor of the Watoto Babies starting July and all I need to do is pay HKD250, which is just RM95 per month and that will enable the Watoto people to help orphaned babies, who are often dumped in rubbish bins, roadside and churches in Uganda. Unlike the children sponsorship, I don't sponsor one person but to all babies and I thought that is a good idea because honestly, I don't want the kid that I sponsor to be forced to write letter to me, you see what I mean? And I guess it is also extremely important to help these kids when there are younger, making sure they have enough to just grow up healthily. My very cool welcome pack! I'm part of Watoto now! :D
I was absolutely excited when I received the welcome pack from Watoto Hong Kong office. While as a trial, I picked to sponsor for a period of six months. But I don't see any reason to stop after that.

One of my favourite tracks sang by the Watoto Children Choir! :)

I am obviously not writing this to tell you how nice or how kind I am. I think I'm just very excited to share because it has been years I wanted to do this and to finally start doing it just made we feel really good! And plus, RM95 per month to help those who are in need? I believe you can also help them up! Check them out at the Watoto website now~! :)

The next thing I really hope to do is to see them perform live again. If I could I would really hope that I am powerful enough to get them to come to KL to perform! And next next thing? Perhaps a visit to the Watoto Village? That sounds great, right? ;)

Tokyo Street & its yummy lunch @ Suki-Ya

2011-08-16T08:30:00.019+08:00

Even though I might have other things to share, I chose to blog about the Tokyo Street first because I think to many, it is chic to visit that new place in Pavilion. So, being kiasu, I can now proudly say:"I'VE BEEN TO TOKYO STREET ALREADY!!!" :p Not the real Tokyo but people are so excited some had to queue-up just to take pictures!
Of course, that includes us!
Nah, this is the spot where you really have to wait for your turn to stand and snap a pic!
Well, Tokyo Street has some shops and brands that you already know such as Daiso and Kindori Ice-Cream, together with some new brands, including a bubble tea and mochi stall! OMG I just missed the mochi, must go back and try one day! It is not as fancy as I've expected since you've probably seen most of the stuff on sale there, but yeah it's a good change and it has certainly succeeded in attracting the crowd! Yeah, we realised we forgot to claim our chance to share our wishes to try our luck to win a trip!
The 'Tokyo Street'...
Yeah, the 'Tokyo washroom'. LOL!
Well of course dining wise, the restaurants and cafes are all brand new names. But honestly, it is not difficult to figure out which ones are the crowd's favourite. One's the Hokkaido Santouka Ramen that KY has already introduced and I always wonder if it is because of his recommendation that the restaurant is so freaking busy! The queue seems to be never-ending! But Deardo being Deardo, prefer to go by quantity. So we chose the second most famous restaurant, Suki-Ya Eat all you can Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu, which is right next to the ramen shop. How the restaurant looks like at 11.30am.
The buffet costs RM29.80 per person and you get free flow of thinly sliced lamb, beef and chicken meat, plus a 'healthy bar' where you can get tofu, vege, variety of mushrooms, yong tofu etc to add into your Shabu Shabu pot. Also, there is an ice-cream machine for some free flow ice-cream too!He better make sure he is amaze by the soup, not the auntie!
The little healthy bar where kiasu Malaysians go crazy fighting for their food!
They have three choices of soup bases - clear soup, bean paste and spicy (ok I created the names according to my memory). We chose the clear soup and bean paste soup and we obviously still prefer the clear soup. Most of the vege and mushrooms were very fresh and nice but the main thing, which is the meat are also very impressive! We both love the lamb the most! They don't have the smelly lamb smell that you always get with lamb and you can taste how fresh and how nicely-cut they are! Simply delicious that we wallup three plates of it! Ah, together with three plates of beef, we told ourselves our cholesterol level is now high enough for some extra work-outs! :pVery excited about the meat lor!!!
I think by now you already realised how much I love steamboat!
Okay, was just really in a mood for pictures I think.
We totally fell in love with the Misotare Sauce on the right! Spicy, sweet, salty and nutty! Yumzzz...
I was very excited about having my first scoop of ice-cream after months! Bloody cough worms...
We truly enjoyed the buffet and some of their staff were quite helpful and friendly. And with that price, if you have more of the meat, it is actually quite worth it! The only down side was that we were very unfortunate to be seated near a Cina-pek family who talk and sneeze loudly and their spoiled kids just made it worst! Gaahhh... Cannot tahan those people! Worst, outside, the DJ was announcing all kinda promotion the grocery shop is having... Spoiled the whole atmosphere!!! This is how the restaurant looks like at about 1.30pm.
The queue at Suki-Ya can be very bad too, though not as bad as the one next door. But yea, you better be there earlier! They open at 11.30am for lunch and 5pm for dinner.

Suki-Ya
Tokyo Street
Level 6, Pavilion KL.
Tel: 03-2141 4272

Zookeeper

2011-08-15T17:58:00.005+08:00

Watched this over the weekend just because I wanted something light to watch. I promise I'll watch The Rise of the Planet of the Apes after this!
So obviously I didn't bring high hopes, thinking this could be just another Ace Ventura or The Animal. Totally nothing but lame jokes through stupid facial expressions and body languages. Yes, it has some stupid facial expression and body languages, but surprisingly the entire story wasn't that stupid. In stead of a lot of imitation of the animals, there are story behind the animals and some fun and interesting love story that actually made the movie a little more unforgettable. Deardo and I both have our favourite part of the movie in when Griffin brings the Gorilla out to T.G.I.F! Ha, I especially love the singing in the car part! So bloody cute~!!! :D
Acting wise, nothing really challenging lar I must say. I was a bit disappointed with Ken Jeong's useless character in the movie and I think all other actors are also quite forgettable, except for maybe Leslie Bibb, who is unforgettable for a wrong reason. The voices also didn't excite me much as I think their voices aren't obvious enough. You know the feeling when you hear the animal or cartoon character says something you would go hey that's XXX or this voice sounds familiar? Honestly, without looking at the list of names, I didn't even know Sylvester Stallone and Cher shared their voices in the movie! Quite sad, right?
It is not good enough to be a good movie, but definitely not qualified to be a bad movie.

Mama Mia Salmon @ El Fresco, Empire Subang

2011-08-12T17:43:00.009+08:00

Empire Shopping Centre has recently became our new favourite hang-out place. I think not only because it has less people (yea cos it's also smaller), but also the entire feel and atmosphere is totally different. You feel like you are walking in probably Bangsar Shopping Centre or something in there. I totally love some of the restaurants there, some unique brands and even recently we fell in love with a cool kitchen and hardware shop there we spent almost an hour in there! The restaurant and the poster telling you how the whole thing works!
One of our recent findings is of course El Fresco, a little cafe inside Jaya Grocer. It is next to Hikari and has the same concept, only this one, in the Italian way!
So Deardo and I, trying to be healthy, skipped the steaks, chose two pieces of salmon from the fishmonger, priced at RM12 plus and RM14 plus each. Took them to the cafe, paid for them and ask them to cook for us for no extra charges! Well of course, you need to pay an extra six bucks if you want a side from choices of pasta, grilled vege or green salad. My man paying for our dinner! Yee haaa...
Then we have this number and waited for our food to be served.
Honestly speaking, all the staff we saw at the cafe don't look very appetizing. I'm sure you know what I mean, so I didn't really have high hopes lar, just wanted to try-out new things. But seriously, the salmon turned out to be surprisingly superb! First thing first, the salmon was sooooooo bloody fresh and juicy! And it was very well-cooked, not too raw, not overcooked as well. Taste wise also just nice! With some olive oil and the vegetables, the dish does look very simple, but man it took my heart away! Oh no, both our hearts! Yummy salmon at a freaking reasonable price! :)
I mean, RM30 plus for two pieces of salmon is actually very cheap! And to have them so fresh (yeah fresh from the fishmonger, duh!) and yummy just made it so worth it! Honestly, we are both very impressed. And... I think I kinda like dining in a supermarket with loads of fresh vegetables and fruits and imported food products around me. Ha! :p
They also serve some other dishes like pizza and pasta which I cannot assure you of the taste!

Al Fresco Cafe @ Jaya Grocer
Lot 6, LG-G1
Empire Shopping Gallery
Jalan SS 16/1
47500 Subang Jaya
Selangor

Healthy recipes

2011-08-10T12:22:00.007+08:00

Still recovering from one of the biggest nightmares I've ever had in my life... FOOD POISONING!!! :S
I think never in my life have I ever refused food as much as this. And when I decided to eat big I vomited... So now I can only rely on porridge, Milo and bread, how sad???
Oh by the way, Deardo actually cooked dried scallops porridge for me when I was really sick! How sweet??? :D

Well before the 'poison' hit me, Deardo and I sort of decided it's time to cut down on what we eat. For that, here are two simple recipe I did at home that are light and healthy.

When Instant Noodles become Healthy!Not sure is this light, but it sure is healthy! I boiled up the Ginseng and Cordyceps Chicken Soup for about three hours but in stead of rice, we had it with noodles. I boiled some instant noodles, drained them and put in a bowl, together with some lettuce, then pour the soup onto them to make it a bowl of healthy instant noodles!
Trust me, instant noodles taste extremely good with the Ginseng soup! Yumzzz... And best part is, you get all the nutrition needed in the vege and chicken with an extra Ginseng kick!

Honey Mustard Chicken SaladI simply put some pre-packed mixed greens in a big bowl, added some halved cherry tomatoes, toasted sliced almonds and finally roasted chicken slices (I marinated the chicken with soya sauce, white and black pepper beforehand). I didn't make my own dressing though, got a bottle of pre-done honey mustard dressing from the supermarket and added some in. Finally squeeze some lime juice onto it to make it a perfect and yummy salad!My very simple roast chicken slices.
Be careful with the amount of honey mustard dressing you use though, it is actually probably fatter than Mayonnaise!
Now who says salad cannot be yummy? I always believe if you have the heart to make a boring salad become somehow interesting and flavourful, it can taste better than any other dishes! Well Deardo definitely enjoyed it! :D

Captain America: The First Avenger

2011-08-06T10:42:00.005+08:00

So out of boredom (yeah, wth there are no interesting movies on recently) and because Deardo Wong was dying to watch it, I watched Captain America, another movie which I don't normally watch.
Well I thought story wise, except for some boring beginning, the entire movie was not too bad. Very typical heroic movie with lesser special effects (yea because the story happened in the 40s). Captain America, unlike Ironman or any other superheroes, has a very simple power. Hence, it is not a movie for you to see how powerful Captain America is. I think it is more to patriotism, which I thought was quite an interesting idea. I don't like how the devil died though, looks like too easy and he wasn't even killed by Captain America!
Chris Evans, like Chris Hemsworth in Thor, didn't leave much impact as a main actor of the movie. I mean, they are quite forgettable, which is unlike people like Robert Downey Jr. and Tobey Maguire (die die must squeeze his name in!). The main actress, Hayley Atwell had very minimal chance to act in the movie and I thought she looks a bit too old to be a main actress in a superhero movie like this. Acting wise really nothing fantastic...
I think Deardo and I were most amazed by how they actually shrinked Chris Evans into a smaller and shorter person. I found out how in the movie's Wikipedia page, just in case you are curious too. Sounds like a lot of hard work though...

Although I'm not much of a fan of superhero movie, I think I also can't wait for the The Avengers to come! It's going to be next summer though, looooooong way to go! Haha did you stay till the end of the ending credit to catch a glimpse of the movie???

Chill?

2011-08-04T11:02:00.007+08:00

It's a bit outdated but I couldn't stop myself from writing something about this.
Guess by now many of you have seen and know what happened to the brilliant Ramadhan ad 8TV has came up with, and within 3 hours time had to take it down.
Yes the people who produced and approved this ad are truly genius, but what pissed me off more is what the CEO of Media Prima Ahmad Izham Omar tweetted on his Twitter...Now someone better give me some ice to chill... *fan fan fan~~~*

It should be just a simple Ramadhan ad to wish all our Muslim friends Happy Berpuasa. They have to give us Chinese a good lesson on how to lepak, wear and act in a Ramadhan market. Whoever brainless creatures who made and approved the ad, I congratulate you but seriously, living in Malaysia, going to schools in Malaysia, having different races of neighbours for so many years have taught us enough how to behave. I DO NOT NEED SUCH STUPID AD TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!
I was thinking... Maybe we should all boycott that TV station and let it goes bankrupt but then hey I have some innocent friends working in there! Oh well, since the CEO already apologized and since I don't watch that much of TV anywayz... Bet my mum will be very sad to miss her Hokkien series on 8TV too... :p

Din Tai Fung vs Steam Room

2011-08-03T08:59:00.016+08:00

I thought these two restaurants are quite similar to Dragon-i, so perhaps it should be Din Tai Fung vs Steam Room vs Dragon-i.

Din Tai Fung @ Empire Subang
Din Tai Fung is a very famous restaurant globally. I've heard about their Xiao Long Bao in Taipei being bloody yummy so since it has landed in Empire Subang, Deardo and I went immediately to have a try.We ordered the large Xiao Long Bao (8 pieces) at RM10.80 or RM11.80 (sorry I can't remember the price) to share. The Xiao Long Bao, slightly cheaper and more amount than Dragon-i, were quite tasty. Although I can't really tell which restaurant has the best Xiao Long Bao, the price does make a difference.Smaller and cuter-looking Xiao Long Bao!
They very yummy Pork Chop Fried Rice.
Very simple-looking Shrimp Wanton Mee Soup Ramen.
Deardo also ordered the Pork Chop Fried Rice for himself and I had the Shrimp Wanton Soup Ramen as a lighter option. Deardo made a right choice as the Fried Rice was really well-fried, can even taste the smell of the hot fire they use to fry the rice. And the pork chop was very tender and yummy. My Ramen was ok lar, not fantastic. There aren't too many choices anywayz. Cool and clean design at Din Tai Fung. Model: Deardo Wong, Shirlexia's modeling. :p
Overall, Din Tai Fung's menu is a little too limited in terms of choices as compared to places like Dragon-i. Not sure if it is because it is still new or whatever reason. Price for their vegetables and main dishes are a bit pricey to me, that was why we refused to order any other side dishes. I like the Xiao Long Bao and the Pork Chop Fried Rice though. Just the matter of price and choices that might stop us from visiting it too often.

Din Tai Fung @ Empire Subang
G15, Ground Floor,
Empire Subang
Jalan 16/1, SS 16
Subang Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-5022 2522

Steam Room @ Sunway Giza
Here's a restaurant we randomly picked at Sunway Giza. No Xiao Long Bao, but loads of steamed soup, steamed rice and Dim Sums. The name tells it all, almost everything are steamed dishes. Healthier I guess! :)I love their variety of steamed rice! Besides the typical steamed chicken with Chinese sausages, there are so many other choices to choose from! Definitely something new to us! So Deardo ordered the Steamed Chicken with Minced Ginger Rice and I had the Steamed Pork with Cuttlefish Rice. We also ordered a Steamed Ginseng Chicken Soup to share.Our Steamed Ginseng Chicken Soup at RM11.80.
Steamed Pork with Cuttlefish Rice at RM12.80.
Steamed Chicken with Minced Ginger at RM12.80.
We think both steamed rice were good, except for the fact that I cannot really taste any cuttlefish in my steam pork lar. The soup was really good, can even taste the bitterness of the Ginseng! Us and see what's behind Deardo Wong? The bamboo-made steam basket for Dim Sum as part of their deco!
The price was reasonable and I love the entire interior design of the restaurant.
Next time around, I want to try their Dim Sums too!

Steam Room @ Sunway Giza
Block C-8-G
Sunway Giza 2
Jalan PJU 6/14
Kota Damansara
47810 Selangor

Love her or hate her

2011-08-01T13:06:00.013+08:00

Girls being girls, they hate girls who are pretty, they hate girls who are sexy, they hate girls who got too much of attentions, they hate girls who are dating their dream guys... And all that apply to not only their friends but also people they don't know personally, e.g. celebrities.
I have this little idea out of the blue actually. I thought of some female celebrities who are very famous but it's like you either love them like crazy or you hate them to the max. And I've came up with a list of them. A very short one cos I'm lazy... :p

1) Lady GagaMind you, this is one of my favourite Gaga's outfits! Gaga woolala...
Her music, her music videos, her image, her clothes, her hair deco... All so weird! I have a colleague who once told me this:"I like her songs but I really cannot accept the way she dresses!"
True, her fashion sense probably makes more headlines than her music but well don't you also agree that her songs are often very catchy too! Admit it that her music are fantastic!
I don't know about you, but I AM TRULY A FAN OF LADY GAGA!!! Like inside out! Both music and fashion, and any other thing, really! She just wanted to make herself unforgettable among the public, hence the image. And don't forget, she has the talent, not like she is just parading her body with daring clothes for fun okay!
I LOVE LADY GAGA~!!!!!

2) Megan FoxWhat will she transform into after Transformer???
She is pretty and sexy but girls may simply tag her as 'slut'. She can't really act but that doesn't really matter. Her sexy appearances in movies are enough to make her loads of money.
I'm quite neutral on this one. I do admire her long legs and body but I don't think she is pretty at all, nor does she know how to act.
Buy hey do you remember what movies did she star in? Transformer, Transformer, and Transformer?

3) Angelina JolieEeee... Menyampah aku tengok muka dia!!! Ish...*pui pui pui~~~*
Simply do a quick search on the celebrity you hate the most, I can assure you Angelina Jolie is one of the most frequent name you will find.
Guys worship her like god. Sexy lips body and tattoo plus the pretty face and all the missionary work that she is doing... Oh doesn't she sound so perfect? Oh f**k her!
I'm sorry I'm really not a fan... Not ever since she took Brad Pitt away from Jennifer Aniston and ruined their marriage. One of the forumers called her 'home wrecker' and I think there is nothing more appropriate than that to call this slut.
Yes, tell me about it. I hate her so much that you better make sure you don't let me go near her!!! I will pullherhairslashherfacespitonher....*Aaaarrrhhhh~~~*

4) Scarlet JohanssonBig boobs+big ass=Scarlet Johansson
She has this classic beauty look and that curvy body that she herself is constantly proud of. To top that up she is bloody talented. At 26, she has already won numerous awards for her outstanding acting.
But girls like Ducum hates her. She doesn't think she is attractive and she once had her favourite actor, Ryan Reynolds as her husband. So yea.
I think she is ok. I respect her the most for her stand on her curvy body rather than going for a bamboo body like most celebrities adore. People should learn to love their own bodies more!

5) Taylor SwiftAnd I always think her make-up are too much. Don't know how does her skin really looks like under those make-up.
She sings sweet (too sweet) songs, she uses her charm and beauty (or what you guys call it) to get really cute guys like Joe Jonas, Taylor Launter and Jake Gyllenhaal... Do you really like her though?
I don't. I never really think she is pretty. And her songs are too cheesy to my liking! Like eiyer... Sounds so little girl trying to act naive and all that when you know she is not-so-naive. I mean, the list of guys she has dated are solid proof okay!

6) Victoria BeckhamWith her signature tight outfit.
Ohyea, she is a hot mama married to the guy we all once hope he was ours. As an ex-Spice Girls, she definitely cannot sing. Yet she is so freaking famous and rich! She has received so many criticism for being so skinny and so on but who cares? He has a cute hubby and 4 pretty kids!
But then... I'm a fan of her since Spice Girls era! I always think she is so bloody cool and forget about those days when she had to act cute for being a member of a girl band, I LOVE HER COOL FASHION!!! And being a David Beckham's fan, I have no objection to have my idol marrying my idol!
The question is, are they really going to stay as husband and wife forever or...

Some others like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Bai Ling, Miley Cyrus and Gwyneth Paltrow are quite familiar with hatred from girls.

So what do you want to say about these hollywood stars? And who else do you think should be in the list?

*All pictures credit to Associate Press.

Antipasti Buffet Lunch @ Spasso Milano, Jalan Ampang

2011-07-31T13:02:00.016+08:00

One colleague's recommendation + some bloggers' good reviews = enough for a visit to Spasso Milano.We had to go through bloody bad jam to reach this place, and it was a bloody Saturday okay! Bloody Jalan Ampang~!!!
So this is how the whole thing works... You pay RM18 for the Antipasti buffet (means starters like salad and cold cuts) and you can pay an extra of minimum RM3 till maximum of RM12 for a main course to go with the Antipasti. So you can basically have a buffet for RM18 or have a full course meal for only RM21! And these are Italian food! Sounds like a good deal, isn't it?The Antipasti buffet and... Us! :p
Well the antipasti buffet has quite a number of choices. From green salad, soup, vegetables, cold cut chicken, mussels to desserts and fruits. Actually if you don't mind most of them being cold food, they are good enough to make you full just by having two plates of the food from the buffet table.Are you sure these are called 'starters'???
We thought the Antipasti was quite interesting but taste wise a bit too blend for Malaysians. Deardo was right, Malaysians are not so used to such blend taste with mostly just olive oil, parsley and garlic. But I must say I enjoyed most of the dishes, especially the calamari salad, that was bloody yummy~~~!!! And the dessert was not too bad too!My Pan Fried Fish Fillet for an extra RM3!
Braised Wagyu Beef with Soft Polenta for another RM12!
For the main course, I chose the Pan Fried Fish Fillet for RM3 and Deardo tried the Braised Wagyu Beef with Soft Polenta. While I don't find the fish fillet good, I definitely think the side, which is a simple olio pasta was very well done. The Wagyu Beef was ok but the gravy was too sour too our liking. I found myself liking the Polenta a lot, although you seriously cannot eat too much of eat before you feel muak. But anyway for that kinda price, you really can't ask for too much lar...That's Shirlexia showing off her brand new cute dress from Teetoo~! :D Oh yes the swimming pool is part of Nihonkan, the building where Spasso Milano is in.
Here comes the verdict... I love the entire ambiance and really good service. The food I'll probably just give it a 3/5 but I'll take it that I wasn't lucky that the Antipasti choices weren't that good cos I've definitely seen better ones in other blogs. And for that kinda price at that kinda restaurant, honestly, is BLOODY COOL!!!
And I do believe the serve nice food too in their normal menu. Maybe I should come one night for dinner! :)

Spasso Milano
Nihonkan Club
347, Jalan Ampang
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03- 4252 7088

*To all my Muslim friends, Selamat Berpuasa!!! :)

The Hangover Part II

2011-07-29T11:59:00.003+08:00

I Just found out I wasn't very impress with The Hangover in which I blindly thought I love it so much and demanded to watch The Hangover Part II so badly! Blur case... ==|||
So anywayz, the cast this time around went all the way to Thailand for a wedding and did the whole hangover story all over again. Very expected. The hangover story wise was lack of creativity. I mean, the only change was from L.A. to Bangkok! It is funny, that's for sure, especially with some of the very vulgar script, but nothing very impressively funny lar.
Yet, I am truly a fan of the cast like Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong! Oh, especially Ken Jeong! I SOOOOOO BLOODY LOVE HIM!!! He is so irritating yet funny! :D And I kinda like Jamie Chung too, so is gorgeous!
I give the movie a 2/5. Worth a trip for some laugh but it's OK to miss. Perhaps it would be better without all the censorship. So maybe you can try not to watch it in Malaysian cinemas?
Ah by the way, Mike Tyson can't bloody sing. Ha!

10 things I wish I could do

2011-07-28T09:49:00.007+08:00

Saw this on Hayley's blog and ya all know I love to do such thing... :p
Well to be honest, as I grew older, my fabulous and ambitious dreams all turned into being realistic. So I have things that I wish to do, and I think they are mostly quite achievable! :)

1) Get slimmer obviously! I'm not asking for too much you see. I will be more than happy if I get to 50kg! *Phew~Long way to go man~~*

2) Stopped working or only work as a freelancer, or start a business and be my own boss. Life would be so much more easier without those stupid f**kers at work, really. (#1 also become easy because I will have all the time to workout!)

3) Adopt or sponsor a child. And I know I am soooooo doing this. SOON!!!

4) Eat whatever I like and maintain the same ideal weight (stole this from Hayley because I think this is soooo COOL!)

5) Become a well known blogger and sort of inspire people through my blog. :)

6) Bring my family to an all-expenses paid (by me, obviously) trip. (#2 tak jadi already...)

7) Travel to not-so-famous tourist spots (well maybe just among Malaysians) like Africa, Mexico, Spain, India etc.

8) Produce a short film and win at least an award for it just like how Yve Vonn did, although honestly, I haven't got any idea what the story would be like...

9) Retire in a laid-back town or city like those in Australia or New Zealand.

10) Die because of old age and not because of disease, sickness, disaster or whatever scary thing you could think of! :S

Okay, Hayley, it is actually difficult to complete the list! :p

Stuffed Chicken Served with Vegetables Couscous and Special Gravy

2011-07-25T13:54:00.030+08:00

Cooked this dish as Mamo's birthday meal during my last trip home. Of course, the rest of the family also had the luxury of trying my very first attempt of this fancy-looking dish!

Inspired by a recent cooking competition that I was partly involved in, I took the basic idea of stuff chicken breast but I chose my own ingredients for the stuffing and made my own innovative (cheh wah...) side and gravy.
So here we go...

For the chicken breast:
1. Lay the chicken breast on a chopping block, with a cling wrap on top of each of them, give them some punches with the kitchen hammer (those to crush ice), or if you don't have that like me, just use the blunt side of your knife. This step is to flatten and soften the meat.
2. Spread salt and coarse black pepper over the chicken pieces. Set aside.

For the Stuffing:
1. Simmer some chopped onion over some hot oil in a frying pan.
2. As the onion turn brownish, add in chopped fresh button and Shitake mushrooms.
3. Sprinkle salt and mixed herbs to taste. I also added some rice wine, which was very random. :p
4. Last but not least, add in the some roasted almond slices (I roasted the almond in my mum's toaster oven) and stir evenly.
For the stuffed chicken breast:
1. Simply lay the chicken on a chopping board or plate.
2. Lay good amount of the stuffing over it.
3. Sprinkle some Mozzarella cheese over it.4. Carefully roll the chicken breast and clip it up with toothpicks.5. Wrap them up with aluminum foil to further mold them into rolls.
6. If you have a real oven, just dump them into the oven. But if you are like me cooking in Mamo's simple kitchen, steam them all in a wok for about 10 minutes to make sure the chicken are cooked.7. Then take them out of the aluminum foil and dump them into the toaster oven just to sort of grill them a bit. It is done once the chicken turn golden brown.
Now for the side dish (vegetables couscous)
1. Simmer some onion over some generous amount of melted butter.
2. Add in the chopped zucchini and halved cherry tomatoes.
3. Add in water enough to cook the couscous, something less than what you use to cook rice. Add salt to taste.4. Let the water boil and add in the couscous. Stir until couscous are well-cooked.5. Add in some black raisins and you are done!
And for the gravy:
1. In a pot, simply melt some butter.
2. Then add in some curry leaves. Simmer till you can really smell the curry leaves burning.3. Add in evaporated milk (we commonly use Ideal Milk) and stir over medium fire.4. Add in some salt to taste and you are done!
I then put some couscous on the plate, cut the chicken roll into half and placed them in front of the couscous, and carefully pour the gravy on the plate to make it a fine-dining-wannabe dish!That's Chef Shirlexia doing the plating!!!
Fine-dining at home~! My Stuffed Chicken served with vegetables Couscous and Special Garvy!
I love the extra crunchiness from the almond in the stuffing which made the stuffed chicken tasted much more interesting. But I would add in more cheese if there is a next time. As for the chicken breast, it was still a bit too dry. Perhaps like what Mamo and Ducum suggested, I should try using chicken chop in stead. The gravy was good, tasted a bit like curry butter milk. But it should be slightly thicker. Maybe next time I should add in some cornflour or beat it up with a whisk to make it thicker. I give the dish 7/10. So much more rooms for improvements!
Papo, Mamo and Vivian enjoying my cooking! :)
I know it sounds and looks like a pain to cook up this dish but honestly, it wasn't that hard. You see, you dump the chicken into the oven and let the oven does its job. You cook the stuffing, couscous and gravy in probably less than 5 minutes each. All you need is the passion and love to make it a perfect dish for the ones you love! :)

*Special thanks to Mamo who bought the chicken from the market and Vivian who helped to cut the ingredients and take pictures when I was cooking.

Random post on a random Friday

2011-07-22T10:00:00.029+08:00

Every time I think or talk about Friday, I'll have Rebecca Black and her stupid song in my mind. So just in case you don't know what I'm talking about, here you go...

I'm constantly worry that you guys will be bored of just film reviews, food reviews and recipes. Hence, here comes a random post...

First off, some pictures of me at work...About half a year ago at an event... The guy at the right, I think he put on weight since he joined us, just like me.
I bloody love that dress I bought from Parkson. Guess what it was only RM50 plus!

The other day Deardo and I went back to Canoodling, hoping for some RM9.90 noodles again... Yeah... That was exactly how we felt...
Still want to fake a smile despite the price hike!
Yeah, they have a new restaurant opened next door and they have a freaking cute menu!
Deardo drew and wrote his two favourite things in his life! *winks~*
And I decided to have a commercial break here.
Because Canoodling has a yellow theme mah... Duh...
Sigh... No more cheap noodles in Bangsar!!! :( Deardo was so disappointed that he wrote about his disappointment on the comment card! Ha!

I had about four lonely days when Deardo was away in Singapore for work. I took the opportunity to work-out like crazy and ate my favourite food that he doesn't fancy like crazy (oh yes!). And yes Secret Recipe disappoints (this blog post sounds so disappointing, isn't it?) me too as I found out they have discontinued the healthy and yummy Japanese Soba from their menu!!! Worst, Ducum suspects it's something to do with the government's recent check on Halal food!!! Aaaarrrrhhhh... SO BLOODY IRRITATING!!!
So I had to try out new food at Jaya Grocer, Empire Subang!
Apparently you can choose the fresh ingredients from the supermarket and leave it to the chefs in the cafes (there is one Italian and one Japanese) to cook for you. Of course as I was alone I just wanted something simple, so I didn't do that lar. I ordered a Grilled Chicken Chop and Mushroom Soba and a Chawanmushi at the Japanese cafe called Hikari as my light dinner.
The way the chef responded to the order with a 'hai' made me believe that although he is a Chinese, he must be a real Japanese cuisine chef. Dinner time babey~!!!
The grilled chicken was really surprisingly good! Tender and flavourful but as usual I don't fancy the Japanese Shoyu soup lar. And the Chawanmushi, though done with simple ingredients, was very well done! Love the texture! I thought the noodles, at RM10 plus was a bit too expensive but hey it's Jaya Grocer! Get use to it! Ohyea, they offer free self-service green tea! Made me feel like I'm back to Taka Restaurant in Perth!!! :D

And then my man is home, finally! Since he is always cautious about me not liking things that he buys for me, especially anything to do with fashion, I've never expected anything from him but he came back with bunch of gifts for me!!! :D
Okay, I was forced to drink that D.O.M because I'm always sick. No, no, should put it another way. I was forced to drink that D.O.M because Deardo Wong sayang me a lot, it crushes him seeing me cough like crazy lately. *aiyer so bloody yok ma~~~*
And I'm using the white colour Esprit handbag he bought for me although if I were there, I wouldn't buy it lar. Well it looks quite cool and I appreciate it that he tried to pamper me with stuff! Blek~! :p And the YSL perfume! Smells sooooooo freaking good I love it so much~~~!!!Of course, the Smarties with a Cinderella on top was a special request from me. Saw it at the airport during my trip to KK but didn't buy! Cute right?
A souvenir he brought for me after having Yoshinoya in Singapore! Ish ish!!!
I just don't understand why Yoshinoya has to close in Malaysia and why Malaysia has got no MOS Burger!!! :(

And then I found out that the clothes that my mum and her siblings were wearing about 20 over years ago are so hip now!Look at those handbags, dresses and skirts!!! Tell me you see them all in the boutiques now! And yeah, the tiny girl who was posing like a model is me!

And some other old pictures taken probably three years ago...
BE PREPARED...OMG I cannot believe that was me! *hide face with pillow~~~*
Well that was my first stage play and I wasn't even in school. it was really just three years ago!!! Judging from the look on my face, I assume I was enjoying the attention a lot! :p
Hahaha... Still cannot believe I did such thing at such an old age! But ah well, it's good for a good laugh now. Agree?

Till then, have a good weekend guys! I'm sure I'll have a good one too! :D

Fair Game

2011-07-20T14:01:00.003+08:00

This is one of the few movies that I really can't wait any longer to share with you guys, although it isn't a very new movie, but well it wasn't show here in Malaysia anywayz... REAL SAD CASE.
Based on a memoir named Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, the movie is sort of a biographical movie of an ex-CIA Valarie Plame and her husband Joseph C. Wilson.
The movie started off quite boring actually, except for the first scenes that have KL in it (yes they shot the movie here), all the nuclear boms, aluminum, terrorists attacks and all that crap before the climax came when it is almost one hour into the movie. And then you will realise all that crap in the beginning were necessary. The entire story sounds pretty unrealistic yet it is a true story. I am truly impressed at how the director made it so touching, engaging and encouraging. It's very political and I think if you are an activist, you will surely love this one.
Naomi Watts and Sean Penn's performance was as usual, brilliant, but not to say their best lor. Nonetheless, I think there is no other actor more suitable for the role as Joseph Wilson. I mean, come on, Sean Penn is, himself an activist in real life! He is even like Joseph Wilson, known for his criticism on George Bush. I love the chemistry between the two though, at least I feel like their chemistry in this movie was much better than in 21 Grams. As a fan of Sean Penn, I must admit, I still think he looks so sexy even in those granpa glasses and sweater!!! OMG I LOVE SEAN PENN!!! Can he act in movies more frequently??? I so bloody miss him!!!
I googled the movie and the real persons and I find it amazing how these people can speak their mind, wrote books criticizing the government and eventually made a movie out of it. Although they stress about how they are not-so-democratic in the U.S. in the movie, I think if you take Malaysia into consideration, they are definitely better than us. At least they don't have some stupid law that allow them to detain people for no reason!!!
Anywayz, trust me, this is a good movie.

HALAL food in KK

2011-07-18T17:22:00.009+08:00

Okay guys, it's time to go back to Sabah for some food reviews. Like I said in my previous post, My KK work trip was a Halal one. Maybe not completely Halal, but definitely no pork. So out of those pork-free meals, I thought there were two places I went that were worth mentioning.
So here we go~

Seafood noodles @ Jin Jin Seafood Restaurant, HilltopWell the seafood restaurant only operates at night. Day time they have this stall selling their very famous seafood noodles.
They have a variety of stuff for you to choose from, be it the normal fish balls and fish cakes, or the high-end stuff like fish meat, fish head or fish maw! So you choose the ingredients to go with whichever noodles you like, then just choose to have it in soup or have the dry one, which also comes with a bowl of soup.Very special fried fish cake.
The dry noodles with the tomato soup.
I had my noodles with fish, homemade Yu Wat, Fish Maw and Fu Chuk.
I ordered the soup one but I definitely think the dry one looks really tempting! The uniqueness of the noodles lies strongly with the soup. It's more like tomato seafood soup. I thought it was interesting but tasted a bit too bland to me. Perhaps with some pepper, the soup would be perfect! I love the ingredients though, the fish, fish maw and homemade 'yu wat' were all very fresh and I totally enjoyed them!
With a cup of Kit Zai, if I've not mistaken, my meal only cost me RM10! Not too bad hey!

I tried to korek the address but couldn't find it. No worries, when you reach Hilltop, the restaurant can be easily seen by the road side, right next to the Prudential building. :)

Malay food with a twist @ Kak Nong, Harbour CityNow this is an award-winning Malay restaurant one shall not miss when visiting KK. Kak Nong won The Best Kopi Tiam award at the Sabah Tourism Award 2007. That's not important lar, the most important thing is, I'm impressed! :)
Looking more like a cleaner version of Mamak stall, the restaurant sells mostly dishes that you can normally find at the common Malay stalls. But! With some twist! For instance, you can find Bakso and Soto with not only chicken and beef, but also seafood! And I noticed a lot of the customers enjoyed their ice-blended desserts.My very satisfying Soto Nyonya with Seafood.
The very famous Gado-Gado.
Since we were there for a very late dinner, I opted for a lighter option and that is the Soto Nyonya with seafood. See what I mean? Soto Nyonya! They even have Soto Gulai! The Soto tasted more like the Chinese Fish Head Mihun, with the salted vege, ginger, tomato and tofu in it. But then somehow there is still some Malay rempah smell in it which makes it a little different. And unlike the usual seafood you get in Malay stalls, the seafood here were all damn fresh! Yumzzz... My colleague ordered a Gado Gado, which is like a modified version of Pasembor, but with kangkong, long bean and keropok in it! The sauce was so good I was thinking of ordering it as my second dish but I controlled!
I can't remember the price but I remembered it was very much reasonable. Kak Nong is definitely something different that will change your entire perspective of Malay food! Must try, really!

Kak Nong Restaurant
B26 & 27, Level 1, Block B,
Harbour City, Sembulan,
Jalan Pantai Baru,
88100 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah.
Tel: 08-8487 411

非诚勿扰2

2011-07-15T10:11:00.004+08:00

我超爱非诚勿扰的，所以很自然的期待它的续集，虽然通常都是失望而归.......
非诚勿扰2延续了第一集的故事，笑笑和秦奋搞试婚，但闹得不开心收场，到后面好友的离世才让他们了解世事无常，结果再走在一起。
相交第一部，这续集明显华丽了很多。不只是大家很关注的离婚典礼和中间的告别会，还有取景地都特别高级的感觉。故事也明显没第一部幽默，反而多加几分伤感，让故事更真实。但是搞怪的部分依然保留，什么离婚典礼、去世前的哀悼会等，还有那种超多有的没的的道理的对白，让你觉得：啊~果然还是非常勿扰呀！
虽然还是觉得看第一部时新鲜感比较多，也比较幽默，但是我还是蛮喜欢这续集。还是觉得很可爱、很漂亮、而且很好玩！这次有点觉得葛优演的秦奋幼稚得有点讨人厌，但他那种不轻易、很随性的浪漫还是那么的迷人！他求婚时的那句“七年之痒咱就不试了，把中年危机也省了，直接就试相依为命！”是多么的可爱啊！
依然喜欢葛优、舒淇的组合，还是觉得很可爱。但这次的孙红雷和姚晨组合也很不错，我尤其喜欢孙红雷的演出，完全不油腻，看了就是舒服！
最后，准备爱上三亚吧！:)

Best Char Siew @ Toast & Roast, SS2

2011-07-13T12:41:00.007+08:00

I was in doubt when Deardo first wanted to bring me to this place. First of all, him being a Hakka Noodles fan liking Hakka Noodles is so not a news. Secondly, Char Siew? I'm not even a fan. I was even doubting his sense of direction when we were on the way there because it seems like some very hidden place! Simple shop, simple menu, cute pig. Ghor ghor~~~!!!
So Toast & Roast turned out to be a very simple restaurant, selling very simple stuff in a very simple menu. Except for Hakka Noodles, they also sell Curry Chicken Rice, both normal and green one, with some other sides like dumplings and roast pork. Even the drink menu looks damn simple. Our large Hakka Noodles at RM5.50.
Small portion of Siu Yok and Char Siew at RM7.
We both had the Hakka Noodles and the noodles aren't the best one but then the combination of the noodles with the minced pork and pork lard, together with the fried onion and spring onion just tasted sooooooooo good! We had the Siew Yok and Char Siew too. Siew Yok were so-so only but wow, the Char Siew was bloody awesome! The smoothness of the meat and the gravy were like perfect! I tell you, it's so unforgettable that I can still remember how surprised I was after having the first bite of it. Er... Did I just say I'm not a fan of Char Siew. Okay if I did, sorry! :p
We had the Taugeh too but it was quite bad. But hey, who cares? The bloody noodles and Char Siew
Definitely bloody good Hakka Noodles and Char Siew. Best ever Char Siew I've ever had so far!

Toast & Roast Restaurant
No. 20, Jalan SS2/72,
47300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
Tel: 016-682 2249
(I found some bloggers saying their Char Siew are only ready by 10.30am and run out fast. So maybe you want to take note of that)

Bersih? Seriously?

2011-07-12T12:30:00.004+08:00

I just read this article written by one of my favourite bloggers, KY. I read his blog frequently for food reviews but this article was a little different. In my opinion, this is the best blog post he had ever posted in his blog. People shed tears reading it, and that include my Deardo Wong (okay, he said watery eyes only lar... :p)

Like many of you, I'm hardly an activist. I whine about the country, the leaders, the people, the culture, etc occasionally, just like any of you Malaysians do. Bersih Gathering or Rally? I didn't give a shit. After watching and reading the news, I thought it was a waste of time for those people to just be there to be caught and be shot with tear gas. Nothing would change just because of such a gathering! Nothing!You can NEVER see these pictures in any of the local newspapers.
Then KY's article hit me real hard. What he wrote was the true story of not only how the so-called authorities treated the protesters (yes, you better realise by now that whatever said on TV and on the newspapers are rubbish), but also how the different races stood together, helped each other for a 'bersih' country throughout the entire event. As an ex-journalist (though a lousy one who is now still being ignorance of the political happenings), I am surprised at how naive I was to believe in whatever came out in the local news.

Many thanks should be given to the powerful internet. With the internet, you can't really hide things (yes, even from your mum and dad). Bloggers, online news agencies and even FB-kers make you realise that the country is much more complicated than you think.

I feel sad for my fellow journalists friends, for not being able to practice what we've learned in college or uni. The media is definitely not 'bersih'. Seriously, do you still want to become a journalist in Malaysia?

And after reading numerous articles posted by bloggers and some online news agencies, I thought hey, the Bersih 2.0 actually made a difference. Imagine, these people just wanted a bersih election with a peaceful march or gathering, or whatever you call it. But look at how they were treated by the FRU? Do you still call this democracy? Do you still believe in what your government says? Do you still believe in what your PM says? Do you? Even if you don't give a shit about the event or the dirty politics, do you think these people deserve to be treated like that by the government?

I do not need to tell you much, but I think you understand why I said the rally will actually change something. And I regretted and am shameful of myself for not being part of the rally, just like how I gave up voting at the general election back in 2008.

I am a registered voter now. Are you? Are you ready to TRY to make a change too?

By the way, our PM just made the whole world LOL at us...

I don't know if he will win in the coming election, but one thing for sure, he will win an Oscar for the "Lousiest Actor" award for that.