Zuo @ Eat Food Village, Publika

We were at Publika (again) one day (one of those days before our wedding) in search for wine for our wedding when we decided to give Zuo a try. 

Hello there! I was still a single woman back then! :p

Situated at the Eat Food Village (or you can call in the food court), the restaurant is obviously not the most happening one but it is certainly a breath of fresh air from all the otherwise western-only food outlets in the mall. I don't know what is their concept, but to me it seems like a fusion where they like to mix things up a bit, like Chinese+Western or Chinese +Japanese, etc.

Their one-pager menu. 

So here are what we ordered:

Free soup and it's not any random chicken stock soup! It's Water Cress Soup!

Bacon Fried Rice, RM10.90.

Seafood Udon, RM16.90.

Spinach Fu Yue, RM5.90.

Deardo loves his Bacon Fried Rice because it tastes really with the 'wok hei' (the burning smell in the wok, if you get what I mean) you need in a Chinese fried rice. The Spinach with Fu Yue was also pretty nice, nicely fried with some ginger strips and chili too. As for my Seafood Udon (which is sort of like Claypot Lou Shu Fun) was okay in terms of fresh ingredients such as sotong, fish, etc, but taste wise it was a bit too salty to my liking.

Some Herbal Tong Shui(front), RM4.50, Green Tea (back), RM1.50. 

Deardo looking excited!!! LOL!

With the drinks and 10% service charge, we paid RM43.65 for our brunch that day, which is not too bad actually. If only they can buck up with their services which was a bit slow and 'dying'. Well I won't blame them so much too since there weren't a lot of business that day. Some people just need to give the restaurant a chance man!
I'm pretty sure Deardo would want to go for his Bacon Fried Rice again!

Zuo @ Eat Food Village
Lot FC3, Level UG,
Publika Shopping Gallery,
Solaris Dutamas,
1, Jalan Dutamas 1,
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-6143 2281

Just some extras from our gathering at 3e's place after that as we tasted the wine that we bought and gave out our wedding invites.

Hi-tea at home, with wine, LIKE A BOSS!!!

Till then, see you guys soon! :)

Super Simple Ratatouille Recipe

About two months ago we celebrated Deardo's father (now my BIL, officially) in KL and it was a pot luck kinda thing where everyone cooked something although eventually Deardo and I both contributed five of the dishes! LOL!!!

Home-cooked birthday dinner!!! 

Since we already have the carbs and the meat, I decided to make a vegetable dish, which is not salad. Ratatouille comes into my mind so I went online to search for recipes and mix-and-match them to make mine!

What you need: Sliced garlic, roughly chopped onion, a can of tomato puree, olive oil, fresh thyme (I skipped this because I just couldn't find it in the supermarket the other day, so I added some dried parsley), thinly sliced yellow zucchini, green zucchini and eggplant,shredded cheese of any kind (I used my leftover cheddar but Mozzarella and Parmesan are good too) and black pepper to taste.

What to do:
1) Pour your tomato puree into your baking dish.

2) Add in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and black pepper and stir them up. 

3) Now add in the garlic and onion then spread them out evenly. 

4) Now lay the zucchini and eggplants on top of the tomato base rotating from one vegetable to the next. You can repeat for a few layers.
5) Sprinkle some salt, black pepper and thyme over the dish.

6) Cover with a piece grease paper.

7) Put into a pre-heat oven at around 180c or so for about 30 minutes.

8) Take the dish out, sprinkle cheese over the dish. Send it into the oven again for about 10 minutes and you are done!

The dish came out of the oven with a really refreshing tomato smell and really nice cheese aroma!!! *drooling~~*

Since it was my first time I was pretty worry if it is nice and that people would accept this kind of dish. But thank goodness everyone loves it and finished the entire dish!!! :D

Deardo's approval??? 

So it is a healthy, nutritious and yummy dish, which is very easy to make! It is also a better options to normal stir-fry vege or just salad! Will surely make it again with fresh thyme next time! :)

Our Pre-Wedding Photos Yaw~!

If you remember, months ago I did give a sneak peek to our pre-wedding photoshoot here. Since our weddings are over (oh yesh), it's time to further share our experience of our entire process with the bridal house.
As mentioned earlier, the bridal house left us with no choice but to do everything in Putrajaya so that I can have more gowns and styles.

But we warmed-up a little bit first in the studio.

While we were very skeptical about studio shoot at first (we initially refused to have any studio shoot), the result was surprisingly satisfying! Probably because we were both still feeling quite fresh so we look pretty good in the photos!
Plus, the make-up artist was awesome! She made my 'Adele hair' with my very short hair! Fuh, that was something that I really like about her!!! :D Of course, the gown was the jaw-dropping one that Deardo really fell in love with when I tried it on! It was definitely the first time seeing Deardo in white but surprisingly he looks quite good, isn't it? *wink~*

And then we changed and moved to Putrajaya...
So we took some very typical pre-wedding photos with veil flying in the air and all...

I didn't particularly like my hair here but the A-line gown was a simpler choice compared to my other gowns. It did sort of made me look slimmer though! :p

This is where the rain came and we had a 'rain break' for about an hour, before continuing with the next shoot.

Well I already knew I wanted one of my gowns/dresses to be either short or hi-lo but unfortunately those at the bridal house were either ugly or too small to fit me in. So in the end, I picked this black one which really turned out to be very nice too, at least the corset closure and the black colour made me look really slim at the waist! :)
Love the location too! Not many people know Putrajaya can look so European isn't it??? 

I didn't choose any evening gown for the shoot simply because I really hate them. I don't like dark colours and I don't like those flowy chiffon ones. I mean, I don't mind if I can find a nice one but there really aren't any, full stop.

So the fourth one I changed into was my tailor-made gown (yay)! It's a light grey with pink details gown, and it's a Vera Wang-inspired gown! It is supposed to be a wedding gown but I guess here you can also call it an evening gown (more about the gown later),
The polo field is also one of our favourite spots really. It almost looked like a farm with cows or horses around! The jetty can look much nicer if not the dirty water and the buildings around... Deardo especially hates the buildings around the area. But photos taken there were extremely beautiful!!!

More of our pre-wedding photos here. :)

Overall, we are pretty happy with our pre-wedding photos and our experience with the make-up artist and photographers was not as bad as what we've heard before this. The photos are fine, just not very fantastic since I thought it was the most classic type. I would have preferred it to be a bit more vintagy, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I think that also has a lot to do with the location which wasn't vintagy anyway... Bridal houses in Malaysia also have quite limited styles of gowns to choose from if you ask me. I've seen so many nicer ones (especially evening gowns) in Taiwanese magazines or on-line! Surely something that our bridal houses need to work on still.
Of course, we could have spent more money flying to Australia to do such thing but we chose not to. I told Deardo, one day if we have the money and that both of us still look good (blek), we can do it all-over again with a foreign company in a foreign country. :p

Anyway, another sneak peek here... Our Taiping wedding's morning session SDE which we are also very happy with! :D



Okay, thank you for watching! :p

Awesome Pork Noodles @ Restoran Siong Pin

I'm quite particular about the pork noodles I eat. I mean I can eat any of them but it's very hardly that I would fall in love with all of them because to me a real pork noodles must have the innards! The liver (although I don't eat them) or the kidney (my all-time favourite) or the intestines. Otherwise, no fun! 

Deardo knows I love kidney in my pork noodles (or in anywhere, LOL) so he brought me to this pork noodles stall at Siong Pin, which he always visit for lunch during working days. Managed by an old couple and their son, the owners are always very friendly and humble.
We normally go on Saturdays for brunch and always order big bowl of noodles and top-up on the innards (liver, kidney and intestines), plus an egg.

Ooooo... This is making me so hungry~!!!

While the soup isn't anything interesting, the glorious park lard and fried garlic that comes with the noodles makes it super duper yummy. They are also extremely generous with the kidney (wooot~~) and that is one reason I just couldn't stop going back for more! 

Chilling on a late Saturday brunch! 

The bowl of noodles cost us RM7, which is slightly more expensive but man who cares when you get so much of goodies in a bowl of noodles??? 
You know sometimes simple comfort food like a hawker stall's pork noodles can make people smile easily. :)

Restoran Siong Pin
30, Jalan SS3/31,
47300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor

Escape Plan for Thor

Escape Plan
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc
Director: Mikael Hafstrom
Synopsis: Ray Breslin (played by Stallone) is a structural engineer who check on prisons' security by escaping prisons for a living. He was eventually sent to the world's most secret and secured prison where he found himself totally isolated and has to escape with fellow inmate Rottmayer (played by Schwarzenegger).
The Thumb-Up(s): Seeing the two veteran actors teamed up for a movie can be quite exciting if you have grew up in the 80s and are fan of them since then! While I thought it would be another stupid and lame movie just like the two actors' recent works, the entire storyline and twists kinda surprised me. It was thrilling, interesting and quite smart in some ways. I was truly entertained! :)
The Thumb-Down(s): Sometimes you do wonder why aren't Stallone and Schwarzenegger retiring from acting yet? I mean, this might be a more lovable movie if it is starring maybe Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, etc. I guess you know what I mean?
The Verdict: Maybe it's just me who went into the cinema without any idea what is the movie all about and without high expectations, and it turned out to be quite good!
3.5 out of 5

Thor: The Dark World
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, etc
Director: Alan Taylor
Synopsis: A sequel to Thor, Asgard is in trouble as the dark came for revenge so Thor freed Loki from the cell to help save their kingdom.
The Thumb-Up(s): Certainly more entertaining than the first movie with some humour inserted, even if it means sarcastic lines coming out of Loki's mouth. Love how they go between earth and space(?) at the end (although I didn't pay attention to the editing skills here), which really makes it pretty interesting and funny. And like most of you girls out there, I have continue to drool over the talented, funny and handsome Loki a.k.a Tom Hiddleston!!! 
The Thumb-Down(s): Predictable storyline, very typical superhero ending without much interesting actions too. Also hate the fact that the main actress has to be involved in the entire thing like falling weak and how a superhero needed a girl's help to win the final battle. It is not only cheesy but also shows how Thor is quite useless as a superhero. LOL!
The Verdict: Watch it as if it's a comical movie (which in reality, it is one) without thinking too critically then it is not bad a movie. But not good enough for me. By the way, can we have a movie simply call Loki anytime soon???
2.5 out of 5

Shirlexia's Bridal Shower

So our two rounds of wedding are finally over. It is definitely a huge relief for both Deardo and I (and probably the rest of the family who were super busy and stress handling the events)!

But one thing for sure, we are both extremely happy to be married! I mean, before this we thought nothing much would change since we were already staying together for more than a year, but man, this new relationship of ours have made us falling in love all over again. And we are, very very much in love! *blush~*

Anyway, before I can have all the photos taken at the weddings, let's go back to my Bridal Shower that my colleagues (or I now prefer calling them my friends) very kindly organised for me. It was held at DV Ristrorante at Bukit Damansara. I'm not going to blog about the food here but overall we were all very happy with their food! Definitely going back one day!

So they blind-folded me all the way from my house to the restaurant where we had some awesome pizzas and pastas as our late lunch. But most importantly was the decor that my friends made the efforts to put up, based on my wedding's theme colour somemore!!! That was really so sweet of them!!!

Me arriving without knowing where was I.

Do Lea and Jason look like my bodyguards or actually superstars in sunglasses? 

And that's Jason telling me there is a BIG hole and Lea trying to hold on to her laugh... ==|||

There were purple balloons with purple and pink ribbons, pretty pink Gerbera and they even made really cool badges with Deardo's face on it with a line that goes 'PROPERTY OF SHIRLEXIA'! LOL! Those badges came in handy last weekend when the Heng Dais and some of my relatives were wearing them for the morning session. Kekekeke...

Enjoying myself in the spotlight???

I am sure we were making a lot of noises as we chit-chatted and played some games. Unfortunately most of the games' part were captured as videos and I do not have them now with me yet, but trust me we were having great fun! :)

So by the way, these are the people who were nice enough to throw the party for me...

Maddy, who also also just got married! :)

June who doesn't always do ugly faces for photos...

Hui Sin, who has the signature teeth which look like my little sister, Vivian. :p

Lea, the crazy.

Jason, the Korean superstar.

Tze Yang, the can-be-crazy fellar.

And here's a random guy who walked past us and asked for a photo with the bride to be! Hahahahaha....

I think he was drunk lar.... Hahahahaha...

And of course, the group photos!!!

I do have the coolest bunch of friends/colleagues isn't it??? 

Is this the first time you are seeing guys included in a bridal shower??? :p

And I personally requested for this one...

And yes, we purposely put Jason on the right. 

This photo has went viral on FB since Lea posted it up! Mostly applauding Jason though, which is not hard to understand. LOL!

Bahahahahahahaha... So, did they do better than the Tan family???

The Bride to be trying to be crazy...

We also went to Artisan Roast HQ after that for coffee and their awesome cheesecake as we continued to play games and stuff and we were featured in their Facebook page!

Bunch of celebrities wannabe! :p

I was quite reluctant to have a bridal shower or hen's night because I didn't traditionally think it's a must. But when they offer I was like, fine but please make it simple and it was simple in terms of programme and games but really, the efforts that the bunch of monkeys have put in for the bridal shower surprised me! I was really really amazed and touched when they finally took off the scarf covering my eyes to see all the pretty decor they have made! And in case you don't know, for most of them, they really had to spend extra time after work to prepare all these because work were already driving them crazy enough!
So once again, guys, thank you so so much! I truly appreciate the day, the food, the efforts and the fun!!! Love you guys man!!! :D