Yummily Satisfying Dinner @ Sai Gong, Kepong

If you notice, I normally hang out with my Ah Ma, aunts and uncles, plus cousins in KL once in a while. While like 3e, I'm actually missing my cousins who are now working and studying in Melbourne, I still try my best to catch-up with the rest of them in KL. And like most Asians, normally we will make it a makan catch-up.

So, the other day Ah Ma gave us all a treat at Sai Gong in Kepong. The restaurant was already pretty full when we arrived, so before we even got ourselves a seat, 3e was already odering food! Ha! We are kiasu, I know!!!

And then... I felt really lucky that 3e was being so kiasu because!!! We waited for bloody one hour for our food to arrive at our table! Boy those food better be good!!!

Some Signature Tofu Dish. Not too bad. Only thing is I always prefer the Japanese Tofu.

Gluttonous Rice was a lil' hard that night.

Stir-fry Yao Mak for the family who love vege a lot!

Claypot Red Fermented Tofu Pork! My favourite of all!!!

Gui Fei Chicken! Another one of their signature dish.

Sesame Honey Chicken Pork Ribs.

Sambal Kangkung.... Told ya we love vege!

Claypot Butter Seafood... Yummy!

On average, the food were really delicious! My personal favourite has to be the Claypot Red Fermented Tofu Pork Belly! Although the pork was very fat, but the meat was really tender and entire dish was just super flavourful! The Gui Fei Chicken was also really good, especially when it doesn't taste as salty as a lot of those salt baked chicken. The Honey Sesame Pork Ribs was another super must try dish! It was crispy and super addictive! The other one that I would highly recommend will be the Claypot Butter Seafood, of course, that will be strictly for those who love creamy stuff.

So that's eight dishes for eight of us. Plus few portions of rice and two big bottles of beer, the bill actually came up to RM204!!! That's like RM25 per person! I don't know about you, but to me, that's even cheaper than what I can find in Taiping ler! That was seriously a satisfying and reasonable meal! Only thing is you have to wait! :p

Restaurant Sai Gong

No. 63, Jalan 1/62D,
Medan Putra Business Centre,
52200 Kepong,
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 016-6000 655

爱 Love

钮导又来了！这次比较商业化、比较星光闪闪。
爱这部电影有多个故事连接起来，最近一套相似的是New Year's Eve吧！像New Year's Eve一样，虽然自己很喜欢，但大众，尤其是影评们都批评得一文不值。真的，除了彭于宴、陈意涵和郭彩洁那一段比较接受不了之外（天啊，为了证明你爱你的爱人跳进粪池？算了吧！），其他的故事我都非常的喜欢。除了爱情，还有亲情和友情。很难说出哪一个才是我的最爱耶，或许是赵又廷和赵薇和她的儿子的那段吧，令我感动得流泪了！电影也拍得蛮漂亮的，选曲也选得很不错、很适合。
大牌明星的排场，还好有好几个是演技派的！特别喜欢赵又廷（真的好爱他，又有才华、又帅、那双小眼睛超可爱的！）和陈意涵在里头的演出，演得最真，也最令我动容。小天、舒淇和钮导本人也演得不错。当然值得一提的还有一班绿叶演员，尤其喜欢饰演小天和意涵的父母的，还有饰演北京的警察的三位演员。
说不上很难忘的电影，但个人觉得看了出来感觉超好的！就是很甜、很positive的感觉，会让你会心一笑！

This & that, here & there

Sorry for the little updates guys! Life has been busy as I was working over the past few weekends and I'm still going to be working this weekend. Yah, such is life! But after that I hope I will be able to breathe some fresh air, literally, as Cameron Highlands trip is currently in our plan just so that we can relax a little after all the work crap...
So just a quick update of Shirlexia's life through some urm.. Rather colourful photos...I bid farewell to one of my close colleagues Cassandra last month but I'm very happy for her as she actually got a very good offer elsewhere. I'll be very sad soon as I'll be losing two more work partners by end of next month. :(

Oh that reminds me of this... We were talking about singing 'Someone Like You' to my two colleagues who are leaving. And Madeleine, who is sitting next to me in the office, is said to be an Adele-wannabe! Now you be the judge! :p

I also went to Terengganu last month, my first trip to Terengganu in fact. It was a shame that I was only there for one day for work, so I didn't get to see and try much. This fishballs-alike stuff was the favourite food I've tried during that one-day trip. Special thanks must be given to the ADUN, who bought that for us to try! Yumz~!!!

Little Yue Yue has also grown bigger and longer. In fact this is not the most updated picture of her. She has since grown ever bigger!

One of my colleagues, the one who is leaving soon was nice enough to buy us some famous Pulau Ketam Nasi Lemak for breakfast the other day. The Nasi Lemak doesn't look interesting at all, but fuuuuhhh the sambal was bloody delicious and spicy! Love it love it love it!!!

Here's a picture of me having my Char Siew Pau on a weekend where I spent with my Ah Ma and 4e.

And here's a picture of me taken randomly with my phone by guess who? My boss... LOL!

I went to Jan Lamb's comedy stand-up few weeks back and I'm so glad I didn't miss it this time around! Out of all the comedy stand-ups I've attended, his is by far, the BEST one!!! Well done Jan! And what a pleasant surprise to see his partner Kot Mun Fai at the show too! :)

Only two weeks back, Karen and I had a girls day out where we went for movies marathon at the Hong Kong Film Festival. We also had loads of fun shopping together~!!! Yay~! :D

And guess what? We bumped into our ex-teacher at The Voice Academy, 佩盈老师！She is pregnant and is delivering very soon BUT you surely can't notice that from this picture, right??? She is as usual, still so pretty and elegant! And thanks so much for the fresh fruits! We really enjoyed them in the cinema! :p

Till we meet again, adios!

香港电影节 Hong Kong Film Festival 2012

幸运的，今年的香港电影节总共看了三部电影，满足啊~！:)

桃姐 A Simple Life
夺奖无数、票房超好，自然的我也对这部电影有所期望。
电影比较像是桃姐的生活日记，很仔细的、也很无奈的。感觉很安静、平静的把她的故事说完，完全没有什么高潮、低潮，也没有戏剧化的发展。说穿了，原本以为有的激动戏，没有。原本准备好了的tissue没有机会派上用场。并不会觉得电影很烂，但实在有点闷，像一部纪录片多过电影。我明白，许导演要走艺术路线，但我始终不懂得欣赏那么平淡的一部电影。
无可否认，叶德娴的演技真的很棒！只有她才能把桃姐的无奈和善良诠释得那么到位。但是刘华的演出我就看不出来有什么特出了。最开心还是看到了许多老演员的客串演出，而且还有林以诺牧师！
不过说到我对这部电影最终意见......我会说，还是最怀念女人四十。

大蓝湖 Big Blue Lake
又是一部还没看就知道会很艺术的电影。但是老实说，对白比我想像得多，哈哈！
电影一直围绕着寻找大蓝湖和一些人和物，然后探讨年轻人的想法。自己最喜欢、最感动、印象最深刻的就是女主角丽仪的父亲回到家，和她一起吃公仔面那一幕。丽仪对父亲说“对不起”，父亲竟然就笑着说，“早就不生气你了！”，就那么简单的一句话，就足以让我热泪满眶了！我不会觉得故事很棒，但真的还不错、蛮新鲜的。而且我相信香港人看这部电影会比我们更优feel啦！
男女主角的演技就so so啦，但自己最喜欢的就是饰演女主角的母亲的覃恩美，演得超自然的!
不是什么大片，而且是新导演的作品，确实值得鼓励！*拍手~*

东风破 Merry-Go-Round
完全不想卖关子，直接就大声喊，东风破超好看的！！！
电影有着浓浓的怀旧味道，不管是场景或是音乐和歌曲都那么的old school，只是听到那些oldies就已经足以让我很兴奋了！运用好几个不同的角色，串成了一个个动人的故事。虽然听起来好像很戏剧性，其实是多么的写实啊！特别喜欢里头泰迪罗宾和苗可秀的那段爱情故事，很realistic、也很触动人心。也特别喜欢电影带出的意义，告诉大家不管你去到哪里，最终还是要回家去。更难得的事，电影拍得十分漂亮！！！
东风破最令我意外的就是一班老少参半的演员们，演技超乎我的想象的好！最令我大跌眼镜的莫过于官恩娜！她所饰演得了绝症的少女的角色，演得不浮夸、不感觉搏可怜，而是让人觉得很舒服！太棒了！连周俊伟也进步了很多！还有我也蛮喜欢的何韵诗！其他演员，像泰迪罗宾、苗可秀和张同祖更不用讲，一流！
那么好看的一部电影，真的很可惜没有大红大紫！但是如果你问我，东风破不止是这次香港电影节我看过最棒的电影，还是近年来少数我欣赏得心服口服香港电影！

Jap Dinner @ Edo Ichi, First Subang

Ever since it opened, we go to First Subang quite often, most of the time for Chatime or to buy grocery. So I was quite excited the other day to try out new food outlet at Edo Ichi, a Japanese restaurant in the small mall.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty comfortable but what I really like was the service I got, especially from the lady manager. Very good hospitality! :)

Because Deardo already had something light earlier, we didn't order too much of food. Urm... To me it wasn't too much lar, I don't know what is your say on the amount of food we ordered that day.

Sashimi Salad, RM13.80.

Chawanmushi, RM4.

Butter Enoki Mushroom, RM8.

Mentai Fried Soba, RM17

Some random sushi from the sushi belt, RM5.80.

Out of the food we ordered, I think the Butter Enoki Mushrooms was quite unique, although you would feel sick eating too much of them because of the butter. The Mentai Fried Soba (not exact name though..) was our favourite! Love the texture of the noodles and the mayo, although yes, very fattening. In terms of salad, I still prefer the one at Sushi Zanmai.

Overall, food was delicious but some dishes were just a bit too pricey. If you ask me, this is a very good place to go if you don't want to queue-up at Sushi Zanmai just for dinner. Of course, your wallet must be well-prepared.

Edo Ichi Japanese Restaurant

Ground Floor,
First Subang Mall,
Jalan SS 15/4G,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor

Our Valentine's Day Dinner @ California Pizza Kitchen, Fahrenheit 88

I know, I know this comes really late, but it's better late than none right? :p
California Pizza Kitchen isn't new to us, we celebrated our first month there and we were really crushed that after so many years they moved out from KLCC. We've never stepped into the restaurant ever since it moved to Fahrenheit 88 for some unknown reason until we saw their Valentine's Day set, which we thought was not too bad a deal.

At RM88, the set comes with choices of a salad or appertiser, a pizza and a pasta. To top that up, you can choose to have wine or cocktail too! Quite cool lor if you ask me!

Very big glasses of wine, if you ask me...

So here are what we've chosen for our V Day dinner...

Thai Crunch Salad, before and after the stirring.

Original BBQ Chicken Pizza.

Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti.

I absolutely love the Thai Crunch Salad! It was refreshing and crunchy I felt so healthy eating it! Love the variety of Chinese cabbage, beans and peanuts in it! And thank god it wasn't with some random Thai Chili Sauce! Surely we've made the right choice for our first course. The Original BBQ Pizza was just normal, but I'm not complaining. The only thing that I would complain is the Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti. I thought it is going to be quite interesting to have Kung Pao Chicken to go with spaghetti but obviously the risk-taking choice failed us. It tastes too Westernised and not as original Kung Pao as it is supposed to taste like. The gravy was just too sweet to our liking. We didn't even finish the dish... What a waste~!

It was a quiet V Day dinner, just what we wanted! Although not all food was satisfying, we made it up by having a walk around the city and shopping malls.

Well, obviously this year's V Day isn't any special because like Deardo said, we pamper ourselves with good food every now and then nowadays, so there isn't any use to just have superb food for V Day. And we spent time together everyday now, so yea, V Day really isn't any special! But trust me, I intend to make Deardo's birthday this year a bit more special by.... Hahaha... I don't know yet but hey, he is spending it with me in Perth this year! So that is already very special! Can't wait any longer for our Perth trip! Although... Urm... Aussie Dollars is so fucking expensive now! :S

California Pizza Kitchen
Lot 2.02 (01-02) Level 2,
Fahrenheit 88,
179 Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ·

An Award-Winning Lunch :D

I was really honoured when Chef Farouk invited me for this special luncheon where a six-course meal (seven, to be exact) were served. This is slightly different compared to the normal Advanced Diploma class lunch because this time around, they served up award-winning dishes from the Nestle Professional Culinary Arts Award 2012 which our Advanced Diploma student, Chen Kim Leun won a few weeks back. I was already told that it was going to be a superb lunch by some chefs earlier, so obviously I was excited to try out the dishes!

Mocktail - Sunset Tea.

I was given a table of six, so I invited Madeleine, Wai Quan, Mei, Lea and Jason, who are mostly newbies to join me for lunch.As a start, we were given Sunset Tea as Mocktail of the day. It was a mixture of Earl Grey, passion fruits and orange juice. Quite refreshing!
And then comes the very stomach-filling and taste-satisfying seven-course meal...

Amuse Bouche - Chicken Terrine with Sun-dried Tomatoes Tapenade & Nori, Seafood Tart & Parmesan Cloud

Chicken Roulade w. Tomato Avocado Salsa, Avocado Puree & Almond Foam.

Pumpkin Soup.

Salmon - Tornadoes & Crumbed served with Spiced Lentils, Eggplant, Caviar, Celeriac Remoulade Saute Asparagus.

Marinated Duck Breast w. Pithiviers, Herb Risotto, Braised Red Cabbage, Pickled Carrot, Spinach & Chocolate Oil.

Pumpkin Tart w. Lemon Semi-Fredo & Melon Soup.

I'm telling you without bias because you know I can be very proud of my student's achievement!:p I love all of them except for the duck, which I think isn't the winning dish because it was supposed to be beef which they have taken out from the menu. Perhaps it was because we were also already very full, but the duck meat in the pastry was a little too salty.
But the rest of the dishes were awesome! I have two favourites. One was the crunchy pumpkin bread that comes with the pumpkin soup. I never liked pumpkin but the soup was yummy and that piece of bread thingy was simply delicious! Someone should sell that for CNY man!!! The other one was the salmon dish. The Tornadoes piece of Salmon was very nicely cooked in which it was cooked outside but half cooked inside. But I think what really amazed us was the breaded piece of salmon! I don't know how they controlled the fire, but the salmon wasn't really cooked inside and was really moist and with the cheese in it... That piece of salmon was HEAVEN!!!

Just to give you a clearer idea of what I'm talking about... Salivating, yet?

We then had chocolate (yes, more food!) for extra dessert! Phew~!!! Can you imagine how full we were??? Luckily there wasn't any steak so I didn't feel so guilty! :p And by the way, the lunch cost us only RM15!!! That's not even enough to have a salmon dish outside!

Chocolate of even Fisherman's Friend flavour!!!

Well done Kim Leun and his classmates!!! Chef Farouk too, of course!!! :D

Kim Leun (center) is only 20 years old and look what he can do man!!!

I know it is impossible for you guys to try this (unless if there is special request) and I know it sounds like I'm so syoking sendiri but I really can't help but to share this experience with you guys! I think my job has not only given me opportunity to eat all kinda nice food, but also taught me a lot. You see, I've not tried fine-dining before this in my life and who knows what the hell is 'Amuse Bouche' until these students tell me about it? Perhaps the next step is to learn French! :p

Of course, I also love my job because of my lovely colleagues! Clockwise from top left: Me, Jason, Mad, Wai Quan, Mei and Lea.

Do let me know if you are interested to stop by for lunch with me in our restaurants. I can help book a table for ya! :)