Go French!!!

I'm very thankful that my deardo actually went to watch French movies with me during the French Film Festival at GSC which ended today. You know, he is not that kinda guy who would normally watch this kinda movies lar...
Anywayz, it was great to finally catch some international films! :)

Largo Winch
I cannot believe this is based on a comic! Such a serious topic for a comic!
Largo Winch is an adopted son of billionaire Nerio Winch. After his Nerio's death, Largo is forced to fight his way to stop his father's company from falling into outsiders' hands.
The storyline sounds very simple, but there are lots of surprises and twists in between. It's also another smart movie that I really really love! Of course it's a bit too dramatic, but when I got to know it's based on a comic, everything is forgiven! :p
I cannot accept the fact that Largo can fight so well, as in he really knows martial arts and all. I also cannot accept some of the music used in the movie. But I had the hardest time dealing with the bunch of 'ke lei feis' acting as board members in the Winch company. They all just look like those ang mo 'ke lei feis' in Ip Man 2!
But overall, this movie gives me enough of excitement and twists and I definitely love it!

Could This Be Love? (Je Crois Que Je L'aime)
Since it's French Film Festival, I thought it would be stupid to not catch a romance themed movie. So I chose this one, which is a romantic comedy.
The story talks about a successful and wealthy man Lucas, who falls in love with an artist Elsa. Because he was betrayed before, he asked a private investigator to find out more about Elsa, including putting up cameras in her house. And then the two fell in love, and then she found out about the cameras and is so pissed off, and then the private investigator explained and then they stay happily ever after...
The story actually doesn't sound too bad, but the whole thing runs too urm... Too fast? Like they just fell in love just like that. And then probably just after 2 days dating each other, then something happened, and then very quickly problems are solved! Yet, I'm not saying the pace of the movie is fast oh... It's still a very slow paced movie... It's just that the love story part isn't good enough to touch me.
Nevertheless, I love the hilarious script!

**Yve Vonn... Are you jealous??? :p

Nine

Finally~! Finally I watched this musical-cum-movie!
The director, Rob Marshall is the same director who gave me goose bumps years ago watching his amazing Chicago. I actually think Nine is somehow quite the same as Chicago, both very women kinda movies.
I love the idea of the story, although it seems to have end without a huge climax. But it's a musical lar, one should pay more attention on the music and performances, and... costumes! Well I pretty much enjoyed the music and performances, especially those with Penelope Cruz, Fergie and Kate Hudson. I enjoyed their performances as I can see there are hard work done in their performances, including the stage design, choreography, costumes, etc. But I think I'm most amazed with the cinematography, you guys should check it out, the whole movie is shot so beautifully with perfect lighting and all... Simply beautiful!
Since it's a musical, most of the acting are a bit exaggerating lar. But seriously, Penelope Cruz rocks! Again! She is so cute and funny! I think the only reason she lost the Oscar's Best Supporting Actress award is that the character is too similar to the one in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (in which she won an Oscar last year), both very siao one and she is always so good in playing that kinda role! LOL! I JUST LOVE HER!!!
To me this movie is not the best musical I've watched, but not too bad.

Food I (probably) won't get to eat when the bf is around...

I have to put 'probably' because the bf would defend himself by saying: Hey who say? I can accompany you to eat if you want too! So yea...
There are some food that the bf, or probably guys in general hate. And I got to have some of them when I was back in Taiping. It was like wow~ What a relief!!! :p

1) Porridge
Is it my deardo or is it all guys are like this? He hates porridge so much that the only time he really rejected the food I cooked was the time I made porridge for him when he was sick... I even cried because of that since I've put a lot of effort in it!
Anywayz, true to my Teochew root, I'm a HUGE fan of porridge. Be it the watery Teochew porridge or the thicker Cantonese Porridge, I can sapu them all! Doing Mamo's friend's son a favour... Newly opened opposite Taiping Hawker Center.
Ooooh yeaaaahhhh... Teochew porridge finally!!! :D
Pig Stomach, or intestines, or whatever you call it... You know what I mean...
Mamo made me some seafood porridge one night with fish, prawns, dried scallop and crab sticks... Super yummilicios~~!!!
Mamo's signature chicken porridge! I would name this super-yummy-no-one-can-beat chicken porridge! Hehehe...:p
And by the way, porridge is good if you are on a diet plan. Many years ago I read that Liza Wong 汪明荃eats plain porridge to maintain her figure!

2) Loi Cha Fun 雷茶饭
A Hakka delicacy, I've tried Loi Cha Fun at Mid Valley's old food court before and I definitely love the fact that there are loads of vege and peanuts in it! Although the Loi Cha tastes a bit 'too green', but I love it! To me, it's something that is yummy and healthy!
In Taiping, Mamo said the best one is this one at Tai O~Yum yum yum~~~!

3) Bitter Gourd
Okay, I admit even girls hate bitter gourd. In fact, the bf has a good reason why he doesn't eat bitter gourd... His mum hates it too, so she never cooked that for them.
I used to hate them when I was a kid too but as I grew older, I started to become a fan of bitter gourd, especially when they are cooked with black beans and chicken! Wow~ Superb man! Mamo makes very nice bitter gourd dish too! :D
Mamo said bitter gourd is really good in detoxing and to lower body heat! Well, what can I say? Healthy food most of the time aren't very yummy~!

Bonus Pic 1: Papo's funky t-shirt...Looks like Papo has learned it from me, we both love funky t-shirts!
By the way Papo, how many girlfriends do you have? :p

Bonus Pic 2: Notice found at Larut Matang's Hawker CentreI think the funniest part are "must on time take medicine and injection" and "Please bring it back, I'll give you money!".....==|||
Make sure you on time give me money ok???

Trying out new food in Taiping

Kong Xing Restaurant @ Pokok Assam
Mamo has this one whole gang of friends that are made up of mostly elderly people. They always have makan sessions whenever someone strike 4D or they will just go Dutch whenever they feel like having a meal together. This time around it was the go Dutch dinner.It was raining heavily so this is the best I can take from the car.
The fancy looking menu...
Kong Xing Restaurant, located next to 66 Restaurant, is a new restaurant opened up by brother of one of the gang members, so yea it was kinda dinner to show some support lor. And since Papo wasn't around that night, I went with Mamo to try out food at this quite good looking air-conditioned restaurant.
The auntie, who is the sister of the owner made the order and here are the food we had, without the proper names cos I was too lazy...Tangerine's Skin Chicken.
Some fried lotus roots with some other stuff.
Some deep fried prawns...
Deep Fried Eggplant with XO Sauce.
Ma Yao Fish with some special sauce.
Fried French Beans.
Sour & Spicy Fish Head Mihoon.
Basically as a new restaurant, they started out with very little items in their menu. For instance, there are only two types of green vege in the menu. And the auntie probably chose the wrong dishes cos they are all too dry to my liking. I love loads of gravy or soup with my rice. The Lotus Root dish is not bad. The Deep Fried Eggplant with XO Sauce is not bad too but I reckon the one I had in Lemon Tree is much better. The Sour & Spicy Fish Head Mihoon is my favourite and I think it's definitely a must if you are a fan of Sour & Spicy food. The rest are just really so-so. And to me, the portion is a bit too small lar. The gang of aunties and uncles I had dinner with...
Together with rice and tea for 10 of us, the bill came up to RM151, which is still not too bad for people like me who is living in the expensive KL city. But there are definitely needs to improve in terms of taste, variety and time of waiting for the food to be served.

Tops Thai Tom Yam @ Taiping Town
Thanks to Hayley, who with her colleagues are fans of this Thai restaurant, I finally brought Mamo to this restaurant that she always wanted to try but was always turned down by Papo, for a belated Mother's Day treat.Oh by the way, the restaurant is already 7 years old, not new at all, but that was the first time we stepped our foot into the restaurant.
The restaurant looks very simple with the two old owners serving us... Too friendlily(oh there's such word!)... We ordered three dishes to share.Every table has this lotus flower...
Tom Yam Seafood, portion for one person.
The very nice Glass Noodles Salad.
Pandan Chicken.
I think the Seafood Tom Yam is thick and nice, but not the best Tom Yam I've tried. The Glass Noodle Salad is really nice with surprisingly quite a lot of shrimps and squids in it. My favourite would be the Pandan Chicken, which has a really nice scent from the pandan leaves and spices they used. We actually also tried the Crispy Chesnut Coconut Dessert but I really had better one and cold one in KL. I think Mamo enjoyed the meal too!
Together with drinks and rice, I paid RM38.50 for the lunch. Not too bad actually. Haha, but watch out for the overly friendly owners! I think they were really excited that I was there with my camera and they just took my camera and say:"Come, I help you guys take a pic, go stand next to the statue, very nice one!" So this is the blurred pic taken by the uncle...Uncle... Why so blur one????
==||| right?
Luckily I have one nice one taken by myself...HAPPY BELATED MOTHER'S DAY, MAMO!!!

Till then, most likely I'll see you again in KL! :)

Bye bye Thomas Cup~~~

I skipped reading the sport news this morning. I guess you all know why, you probably did the same too, mou ngan tai already man...
The Malaysian badminton team let us down AGAIN. It's okay, this is already the N times since I became a Malaysian badminton fan back in 1996. Yes, I wasn't even old enough to realize things when the Malaysian team won the Thomas Cup in 1992. What bothers me more is the difference of the attitude the Malaysian players had back then and now. Of course, that is just part of the reason they've lost. The biggest reason is still, they are simply not as good as the Chinese players.
Despite the fact that I was once a sport journalist, I have zero idea how the Malaysian players behave in real life since I've never got to do any badminton news back then. But look at the great Mohd. Faiurzizian who responded with an 'isyarat lucah'(according to Bernama) to unhappy audience after losing his match during the Malaysia vs Japan match. Look at how kan cheong Datuk Lee Chong Wei played when facing Lin Dan, he looks so scared like Lin Dan is some kinda zombie or something. And I couldn't stop starring at Koo Kien Keat's big ass as I think he definitely put on weight a lot. My point is, the Malaysian players nowadays really have lower EQ and are definitely too pampered with whatever the government(=tax payers like us) gave them.Fairuzizuan who??? I didn't know who you are until the day you became so famous because of the wrong reason...
Even my dad thinks Koo Kien Ket is too fat, Koo Kiet Fat suits him better.
Don't agree? Look at our second single, Wong Choong Hann. At 33, he is one of the veterans sadly still being included because there aren't anyone good to take over his place. Yes, it's true he lost all his matches during the entire tournament. Yet, he lost it beautifully. I can see fighting spirit, I can see skills, I can see calmness whenever he plays. It was just physical problem that caused him all the defeats.Wong Choong Hann is definitely a better player compared to the younger ones although he lost all his matches.
If you can remember, the other very calm and cool Malaysian player I really like was Yong Hock Kin. He always fight for every single shot, even if it makes him run here and there or fall like a baby. Most importantly, he always remain calm and quiet. Until today, he is still my favourite badminton player of all.I LOVE YONG HOCK KIN!!!
Nowadays, Malaysia just stopped producing skillful players with good attitude.
Okay lar, you can say they are skillful. Lee Chong Wei and Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Hiong certainly are not some lousy players since they are ranked world number one in both the singles and doubles categories. But when facing tough moments, they just look like babies playing against professionals! I think this is just mentality problems really.
Yes, I mustn't forget, training is tough. But other than training, did they have too much of fun with the money they are earning? Are they too pampered?
Thomas Cup seems so far away from us...
We've missed the Thomas Cup for 18 years now. Playing on home ground doesn't help. Having world class coaches like Rexy Mainaky doesn't help. Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's presence doesn't help. Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah's presence doesn't help... I think ah, for the rest of my life also I won't get to see another Malaysian team winning the Thomas Cup!
Still want to say 'Malaysia Boleh' eh? Still want to call Lee Chong Wei 'Datuk' Lee Chong Wei ah?

*Pics taken from The Star and around the internet.

Honey Mustard Chicken for Papo and Mamo

This is a dish that my best mate in Perth, Jodi used to cook and I used to love it sooooo much! So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw the recipe base selling at Carrefour! I've promised my deardo I will make this for him one day, but before that I decided it's time to give my parent a little treat of mine by making a unique lunch for them.Jodi and I are Australian-American-Malaysian twins! :p
For this dish, Jodi and I pretty much followed the instruction on the packet, but we added onions to make it smell better. The dish is creamy, a bit sweet and spicy, very nice one!!!You can find this Australian brand recipe base in Carrefour.

So besides the recipe base, these are what you need...Onions, chicken cut into pieces (Ang Mos like Jodi would use chicken breast, but I mix it up with some chicken thigh), French beans, button mushrooms and light cream (I can only get the normal cream, not the light cream from the Tesco Taiping).

What you need to do...
1. Heat up some oil and simmer the onion until they are brownish.2. Add in the chicken and fried until they are brownish.3. Pour in the honey mustard recipe base and cream.4. Next, add in the French beans and mushrooms.5. Let them boil for 10 minutes or until the French beans are soft and it's ready to be served!
According to the packet, the Honey Mustard Chicken can be served with rice or mash potato. But I guess you can also have it with some pasta.
Anywayz, here's our yummy but fattening lunch (yes, the cream is definitely fattening)...Honey Mustard Chicken served with rice!
Seriously, it tastes as yummy as it looks like!
Mamo and Papo enjoyed the lunch too! :D
*Special thanks to Mamo for helping me to stir the food whenever I need to take pics! :)

Oh... By the way, it's time to tell you guys why my mum and dad are now called 'Papo' and 'Mamo'. It was Vivian who started all these. In fact not only Papo and Mamo, I'm also given a name Ah Doi (transformed from Ah Da as I'm the eldest one), and Ducum's Ah Oi (transformed from Ah Er, as she is the second one). So we call Vivian Ah Soi since she is Lao San!Not only that, Super Ah Ma is also called 'Kupu'! Haha, that's a bit hard to understand right? Because Ah Ma love to call herself 'Ah Ku Pek', so it comes 'Kupu'! My Ah Ma is butterfly? LOL! Ohyea, and that is why I'm calling the bf 'Deardo' and he is calling me 'Deardu' too! :p

Home-cooked Aglio Olio

Two years in Perth made me totally sick of two very famous Italian food, pasta and pizza. Nowadays except for special occasions, or except if they are superbly yummy, I wouldn't want to eat some normal pasta or pizza.
'Normal' pasta to me here means with Carbonara sauce or those with tomato paste. I would always opt for other sauces or those with olive oil.The Mexican Aglio Olive we had in Louisiana.
My deardo and I found out we both love the Mexican Aglio Olio (or Olive) in Louisiana and after googling, I tried to make this very simple dish for dinner last night.

Here are what you need:Spaghetti (we prefer Angel Hair all the time), generous amount of chopped garlic and chopped English parsley (yea and I didn't chopped enough of parsley. Why? Try chopping them and you'll know), chili flakes, olive oil and salt to taste.

The simple steps:
1. Boiled the spaghetti in salt water.
2. Heat up a generous amount of olive oil, like about 10 tablespoon if you are making a lot of spaghetti.
3. Add in the garlic and chili flakes (the amount depends on how spicy you want it to be), then salt to taste.4. Simmer them in low fire till the garlic become brownish.5. Add in the parsley, and then add in the spaghetti.
6. Simply toss the spaghetti around until they are all covered with the oil. And you're done!Here we have... Our favourite pasta served at home~! It's a very easy dish to make I must say. But for the first time I did it, I put too little of oil. Yea, even if it's olive oil, it freaked the hell out of me looking at the amount of oil we have in the wok. But yes you should put more so that it won't turn out too dry. And next time, chop more parsley! I also made a simple potato and egg salad and boiled Ginseng Chicken Soup (yea I know it was a weird combination but who cares...)!I always love having dinner at home, although it means extra work of washing and cleaning, cutting, cooking and then washing and cleaning again... But when someone praises your cooking, everything is worth it! :)