Antipasti Buffet Lunch @ Spasso Milano, Jalan Ampang

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

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

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

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

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