How to host a party?
What would you do if you are to host a party within 24 hours?
Perhaps a few important things will be
1) Loads of food
What type of a party would not be complete without food yeah? Be it snacks such as potato chips or tasty BBQ chicken… You’ll always need food at the party!!! Remember though to get sufficient food. Nothing is worst in a party than a bunch of hungry mob chasing you down for their fair share of food. And noone will enjoy having to get extra food from the outside after a party. PARTY=FOOD. You can never call it a party without food. PERIOD!!!
2) Loads of music/entertainment
Now the funny thing with a lot of people is that they rarely can have a meal/snacks without having something else to do. They will be talking to someone while eating, watching someone else about their things at a distance, fiddling about with their fork or spoon, watching the TV and eventually repeat the cycle all over again. Now as the host, you need to provide the proper thing to keep them occupied while their eating, be it someone else to talk with, some loud music, some belly dancers… anything which will keep them entertained throughout the party. You wouldn’t want your guest to be yawning at your party (aside from the yawns you get after partying for hours).
3) Loads of people
You have the food… You have the entertainment… And you noticed something is missing… Where is everyone? Take important note to invite all whom you could invite to the party (relevance is a point of consideration as well). Nothing stinks at a party more than the lack of people where 30 minutes into the party, you’ll be noticing that you had finished talking to everyone. And deciding whether you want to go through a 2nd round of talking or just call it a night. It wouldn’t hurt to have hot hunks and babes as these are crowd attractions.
Simple right?
*The writer of this post holds no responsibility if your party didn’t go how you would expect it to go*
Spaghetti Grill, Midvalley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur
If you’re looking for a place to eat at Midvalley, do give this place a try. It’s located on the same row as Chili’s but just further down. It offers quite authentic Italian pasta and pizza with bottomless drinks for a dirt cheap price of RM10. The taste of the cuisine might not be as good as more authentic places, such as Little Italy in KK, but it’s definitely better than some other pasta places such as Pizza Hut or Domino’s.
Watch out for this signboard the next time you are at Midvalley
~
The interior gives you a calm and cozy feeling. This, along with bottomless drinks, might stop you from leaving ^^
~
Can watch sports here also (Too bad World Cup is over)
~
Some of the food on the RM10 set lunch. There’s also a dinner set which cost around RM16 which includes soup and other appetizers (can’t remember, sorry)
~
Calzone (simple but yet delicious, but it sort of look like an oversized curry puff)
~
Chicken Bolognese pasta (with a piece of garlic bread on the side)
~
Chicken salad (looks like KFC popcorn chicken plus some vegetables)
~
Pepperoni Pizza (A lot better than what’s offered by the Pizza Hut)
~
They really have a brick oven with wood fire at the back of the restaurant.
~
Anyway, do give it a try.
You might be wondering what I was doing there recently right?
I met up with the bride here to give her the wedding photos. And thus, ends my first wedding assignment.
In case you didn’t catch that post, visit here.
The Food in Penang
Please make sure you are not hungry when you’re reading this or you just might get more hungry at the end of the post
I didn’t just went for the Proteomics Workshop in Penang nor did I just went to take photos at St Anne’s Church, I had a great time filling myself up with some great food as well.
This is all thanks to Olivia, JJ and Dominic.
The day after I finished the workshop, JJ took me to Seberang Perai where Olivia was staying at and our first stop was Sungai Udang (Coordinates: precisely at N05 9.050; E100 27.750)
This place is famous for its curry seafood which I had to say was great 
~Curry Fish~
~Curry Crab~
They serve the dish with either bread or rice. Imagine dipping bread into the curry and eating it. (I’m salivating).
Quench the spiciness of the food with a bottle of cool sugarcane juice
After that we ventured to a night market nearer to the Seberang Jaya area where Olivia recommended some of the nicer food to me.
~Some type of chicken~
~Soft version of the egg rolls you normally have during CNY. I like this one~
~Sandwich with BBQ pork and meat floss in it. Damn nice~
~Finished it with this nice cool dessert~
At night, we ventured to somewhere (I really should take note of what I eat and where I eat and how much it cost)… to have a steamboat dinner. I remember it was nearby Bukit Mertajam area though.
~Steamed fish steamboat with the extras dishes we ordered~
Later, Dominic went across the road to buy some of the nicest kuih I have ever tasted. Seriously damn nice.
~The kuih~
~The family that made them…Vehicles were lining up literally to get some of these kuih~
And finally, the next morning, I had a nice tasting hor fun for breakfast in Penang. This one can really fight with the one in Perak
All in all, thanks to Olivia once more for bringing me around Penang to ‘see’ Penang through my taste buds.
Food in Pangkor (July 2010)
We went to this place called Ye Lin seafood garden which sit pretty much within walking distance (around 1km) of Vikri Chalets. Ye Lin, is apparently one of the best seafood restaurant in Pangkor and I really agree with that statement. I had one of my best seafood experience in Ye Lin. I would really recommend this place to everyone whose visiting Pangkor.
*Apparently the whole dish cost around RM125 for 5 people, which considering what we ate was well worth it*
~
~Soft shell crabs~
~Floured cuttlefish~
~Laksa steamed fish~
~Cray fish~
Reviews: Nijyumaru Japanese Restaurant, Sutera Utama, Johor.
Managed to grab a bit here with Janice (although it would seem like she’s the one craving for it) and a few friends during my stay at Johor while covering Li Hong’s wedding (Photos might be up soon)
I’ve heard quite a lot from Janice about this Japanese Restaurant and it will be a pity not to give it a try while I was there.
Food’s a bit on the expensive side but since we did have quite a good lunch, we didn’t really order much to eat.
*Photos are taken by me and Janice. Since we were both snapping away at the food, I’m not really sure which one is taken by me and which one by her. So even though I watermarked it, credits go to her as well*
This is Seafood Nasu. An assortment of seafood in an eggplant (RM 18)
~
This should be the Sal Mentai Yaki (RM 14)
~
Soft shell crab tempura (RM 12)
~
Sake haru maki (RM 18)
~
Unagi Ura Maki (RM 15)
I hope I didn’t get the menu wrong. It was sometime ago when I ate it. All in all, definitely one of the best Japanese food I had so far. Well worth a second visit.
Photos: Shirley’s birthday 2010
Place: TGI Fridays, The Gardens Midvalley KL.
Date: 12th June 2010
Photos:
Speak no evil
~
The cake
~
The chilli sauce
~
The grilled lamb chop
~
The girls
~
The girls and one guy
~
The over-photoshopped-photo of a girl.
~
The table at the side
~
The backdrop of TGI Fridays
~
The poor little birthday girl who had to come by KTM because her bf is a bit busy on that day. (Next time tell us earlier so we can go fetch)
~
The challenge: Blow it!!! Blow it!!!
~
The crazy look. @.@
~
The celebration (I like his hat)
~
The slice of cake
~
My Ferrari
Nikon 35mm f/1.8G
Gotten this lens recently
Really love the bokeh but it becomes a bit hard to control at f/1.8
Also distortion is quite easily seen using this lens
But it gives really sharp photos.
Tested it out during a trip to Papa John’s pizza recently
Will most probably be my fixed-on lens if I don’t need a zoom or the 50mm higher prime.
My journey with Esme [My D90]
Warning: Newbie giving advices, so not all info might be right. Do correct me if I’m wrong.
It was 2 years of training with my semi-pro digital camera before I decided to make the transition to using a DSLR. The transition was because I found that there were still a lot of limitations on a digital camera and on the contrary of my experience in a digital camera, I haven’t had much practice on a DSLR before I got mine.
I remember when Esme first arrived. I spent a few hours reading through the manual, understanding only parts of it before I started my hands-on on it. And a lot of things really seemed new to me. It really takes a while to get used to it.
I gotten Esme late November 2009 mainly because I was planning to bring her to Taiwan with me during my trip. I remember experimenting with Esme a few days before the trip, among which I went to Putrajaya to take some night shots [Which mostly turn out horrible]. Some of the photos are shown below:
Horrible!!! [Quite underexposed]
One thing which I really couldn’t get used to then was using the viewfinder instead of the liveview. [FYI: viewfinder is where you look through with your eye to see what you are taking photo of, and liveview is what you find on most digital camera LCD screen where the image you want to take photo of is shown on the screen]. This caused quite a problem because I totally lost my ‘balance’ as in I couldn’t make my photos look balanced. It’s either leaning towards one side or the other.
The photo looked tilted here.
And that caused a lot of cropping to get the images balanced. Even now, I still do a lot of cropping especially when things like that happen.
After that I became a bit conscious about the lens smudges and dust off the lens every now and then. especially how much a single lens cost so I went to read up on how to take care of lens and gotten myself a UV filter to put on every time I’m near water or near the beach. I’ve even gotten myself a lenspen to ‘clean’ the lens when it’s necessary
Then a few days before I got to Taiwan, I gotten a circular polarizing lens (CPL) filter which helps in making the skies bluish especially when it looks boring. It also helps in reducing reflections which really came in handy especially when I was taking photos in the aquarium and by the seaside. The only problem with the filter was that it’s full potential can only be unleashed when the sun is at a proper direction. It also did help a bit while I was taking photo out of moving vehicles as it reduces the reflections from the glasses. I guess I might be using it as a tone down filter also if I’d want to make river flows seemed smooth especially on sunny days since CPL filters darkens the exposure by one or two stops. Some better photos from Taiwan [even better might not be too good]
~~
The following photos were taken with CPL filter on. Notice the lack of reflections from the glass
In the end, I did get quite a number of nice photos from Taiwan but my framing and composition was horrible at that moment. Not to mention that there’s still a number of things I still couldn’t understand. So after the trip, I started reading a number of books on composition and tips and tricks on taking photography. I would really recommend Petersen’s Photographic Digital Photo Guide which can be found in bookstores in Malaysia. There are currently 5 volumes of this magazine out and the guide really helps a lot in teaching you framing, composition, exposure, taking shots of nature, lenses etc etc. Do grab a copy if you find one at a bookstore near you. There’s also another 1-volume magazine which teaches on basic photography techniques and some post processing techniques called Ultimate Guide to Digital Photography, 3rd edition.
Source: Petersen’s Photographic Digital Photo Guide
I was very much engrossed in reading up on photography for the next 2 months and while reading about that, I learned about the nifty fifty lens [50mm prime lens f/1.8] which was one of the cheaper lens which give good bokeh [Bokeh means how some lens can throw certain areas out of focus depending on where you are focusing at]. I’ve read about how potential this particular lens was and decided to give it a try. Bought it, and played around with it and learnt a lot of things after playing with it. Its so hard to get the focus right especially at f/1.8. Another thing which I failed to realize was how narrow 50mm was. Being a prime lens, you cannot change the zoom in it and so you’d have to adjust yourself and your subjects just to get a shot right [which frankly is what photographers should do]. And you’d have to stand very very far away if you want to take group photos. Very far away especially when the group was big. I found out about this while using it to take photos of the big large group during the CNY dinner. Failed photo below
I was standing quite far away when I took this photo and all I can see is still half of the people present. [Note to self: Don’t use 50mm prime lens to take group photos]
But the good thing about the 50mm prime is that with the proper settings you can get something like this:
Notice the bokeh
~~
The following shows just how powerful the depth of field of a 50mm prime lens can be at f/1.8
Focus on foreground…
and then
Focus on midground [the pillows] throw both the foreground and the background out of focus.
and finally
Focus on background [the plastic bags] throwing both the bottle and the pillows out of focus.
And with that, the possibilities are almost limitless. Imagine what a f/1.4 or an f/1.2 can do.
But it’s often very hard to get the focus right without proper practice. I’ve gotten spoilt photos because the focus was off. Imagine a photo with the eyes in focus but the nose out of focus.
Till now I’m still practicing with the 50mm prime lens.
After I gotten the lens, I decided to take back revenge on my failed first shoot at Putrajaya at night and gotten myself a tripod and this time with the proper knowledge, went for a Round 2 photo shoot session at night. Guess who won?
Sorry for the watermark but I really want to use it for some other purposes.
After that I noticed that at night it was hard to take photos of people at night so I invested in a hot shoe flash.
And I managed to overcome the darkness and played around with bounce flash [which is basically bouncing the flash off the walls to make more natural light and not use the flash directly on the subject] and filled flash [by which you flash in broad daylight to reduce the shadow effect produced by the unique features on the human face or by other things]. Also learnt to make a better bounce card as shown here.
I’ve learnt all this to prepare for the CSSUPM Annual Dinner by which I was one of the photographers. You can refer to this link to see the photos.
One of the nicer photos.
Even so, most of the photos are a bit overexposed since I was using Auto flash with the flash aimed at the ceiling, so it almost every-time gave out a full powered flash which overexposed the subjects. Will use manual controls to control the bounce flash power after this.
Also Joachim, a junior of mine who has more experience in the photography field also taught me about color balance, about how to maintain the proper color of what you saw. Very often we have seen photos taken under orange-ish light which cast a strong orange-ish color on the skin and this can be properly corrected by presetting color balance before taking the photo or do it during post processing. This became very useful and reading about this eventually lead me to learn about another feature in photography which is using spot metering. I really want to try some spot metering portraits soon especially shots that darken most of the face but keeps parts of it visible.
And finally I went for my virgin fireworks shoot with Esme by which a mistake on my part cost us better fireworks photos. But I will redeem myself in the next fireworks event I’m going to go to.
One of the nicer fireworks photo.
Thus is my journey so far with Esme, and I’ll be doing some more photo shoots with her to get more used to it.
Sometimes I get the feeling that, photography is not only a hobby, but a passion.
CSSUPM Annual Dinner 2010 [Retro Rendezvous]
CSSUPM has recently just organized it’s annual dinner on the 14th of March 2010 at the Banquet Hall of Palm Garden Hotel. The theme for the current year is ‘Retro Rendezvous’ by which dress code will be ‘retro’.
Unfortunately, Mr Cam-man (Cameraman for the day-referring to me) has no idea how looking retro should have been. I’ve imagined myself wearing a white formal shirt buttoned to the neck and with a bow tie and with cotton slacks that are pulled very very high up my waist. Also thought of combing my hair down and using lots and lots of gel to make it shiny. And perhaps top that off with a pair of big round glasses. And I’ll end up looking like a very old-minded young adult. After all that thinking though, I just decided its a lot of work and ended up just wearing what I normally wear [I found many similar minded friends at the dinner]. But regardless of that, some really went an extra mile to portray their ‘retro-ness’ [A big applause to them].
Anyway, I am one of the organizing committee being in charge of [you know it] taking photos. So it would be my first cover of a dinner even as a cameraman. And also my first real experience of using the hot-shoe flash I gotten for my Nikon.
It was also a good experience for me because all the attendees are required to pose after they had sign their name for the night [and I had the chance to attempt modeling photography with almost everyone that night]
We have poses like:
Overall the dinner was well planned out [you’ll get that impression when you go but if you’d listened to what the committee had said during the post mortem, you might beg to differ]. Food was ok [I was photographer with less food to eat T.T]. Performance was ok [Great show from Kimberly]. Games were ok [A bit long winded but fun nevertheless] and the Fashion show was ok [Go Go Go!!! Father Jo!!!]. A job well done by the committee members.
And surprisingly Dr Mary turned up for the fun as well. Thanks for coming Dr Mary.
Some photos of what’s happening on stage and off stage:
Dr Kenny giving his speech
~
Sensual Steffi and Stylish Lawrence.
~
Steffi with Mr Camera-man (Love this shot, thanks Lawrence)
~
Benny rocking it up for his fashion show performance.
~
Brandon was up on stage as well
~
Charming Alex
~
MC Kevin and President Nova!!!
~
Comedian Clement and Percival ‘The-Twister’ Liew on stage
~
Scandal alert!!!
~
Alert No 2!!!!
~
Gary showed us some more of his moves.
~
MC Kevin and MC Christine
~
The three musketeers.
~
Deejay S.cH bringing the house down.
~
President Nova.
~
Best dressed of the night [Devebra retained her crown]
~
Yammmmmmmmmmmmmm-Senggggggggg
~
‘I liked to thank my daddy, my mummy for this award…’ [Actually no, it was Fr Jo reciting the closing prayer]
~
Krystal and Alex showing their stuff on stage.
~
Bringing the house down!!!
~
The Twister showing Devebra how to twist.
~
Spotlight on some of the attendees that night.
~
Dr Kenny helping Fr Jo with his ‘do’
~
Alert No 3!!!
~
Dr Mary graced the event by handing out some of the lucky draw prizes.
~
CSSUPM members + Kimberly
~
Final year CSSUPM members with juniors on stage for the games.
I’m really looking forward to covering another even like this one. What’s next? Easter? Or CSSUPM Annual Camp?
Kin no Uma Japanese Dinner Buffet review
I had the chance to visit Kin no Uma Japanese restaurant in the Palace of the Golden Horses a while back. Went to savor their Japanese Buffet which starts off at 6.30pm till 10.30pm on Saturdays at a price of RM65 [every once in a while I do this and end up eating bread for the next few days].
Those who know me will know that I have a super ‘fetish’ for salmons. And my eyes just popped out of the sockets when I saw this
A whole freaking tray of raw salmons, oysters and other raw fish. I’m in heaven.
I wasted no time savoring the salmon and thinking about it now just makes me drool.
Had a lot of salmon, maguro and one oyster [Oyster are definitely not my cup to tea]
Anyway, besides the [all-you-can-eat-salmon], there are also other delicacies such as Japanese Udon, Teriyaki Chicken, Chawamushi, Fried Garlic Rice, Unagi, Seasoned Octopus etc. [all you can eat]
There are even some BBQed fish on a stick [salmon once more] and some grilled salmons. Salmon all the way.
But for those feeling a bit sick of all the salmons by now, I would recommend strongly that you try the cooked saba mackerel. The meat was just amazing, so amazing that it melts in your mouth. I had two servings of the saba mackerel that night.
For dessert, there was ice cream [Green tea, Mint, Yam, Corn etc]. The Green Tea ice cream tasted great according to most of us who went for the buffet, having abundant green tea taste without tasting too powdery.
There was also a humble selection of cakes [3 types to be precise] but Palace of the Golden Horses was always famous for their cakes and they haven’t let me down now. There was a chocolate mousse cake [if memory serves me correctly], a hazelnut chocolate cake and a durian-corn cheese cake [pardon me if I’m wrong about the cheese part] but all three cakes tasted heavenly. The hazelnut chocolate cake had crushed hazelnuts in it and it was just simply irresistible.
We who ate there thought that the durian-corn cake was really underrated. The other two cakes was quite rapidly finish by other customers but noone seemed to have touched the durian-corn cake [perhaps it was due to the green-yellow color of the cake]. Anyway do give it a try, and if you are a Malaysian, I’m quite sure you will love it.
Setting wise, the place really have an antique feel to it. Some of the rooms can be booked for larger groups of people.
All in all, the only thing to improve regarding the place should be the air conditioning. Things can get a bit heated up when there are many people around.
Do give the Japanese Buffet a try. There’s a cheaper promotion out this month for the lunch buffet which is at RM38++ [But I’m not really sure if its a full buffet or if certain things on the menu are excluded]. Will go on a 2nd trip for the lunch buffet to find out.
Note: Some other photos of the hotel. [Its really an exquisite place].
Ornaments on display
Settings in front of one of the lift.
The ‘coffee house’
The entrance to Carousel Cafe.
A miniature model of the hotel.
Biomedic CNY dinner 2010
I went for the Biomedical CNY dinner 2010 at Moon Palace Restaurant, Mines. I’ve been going every year now and I still do need to find reason to justify myself for going to the dinner [mainly, I’m bored at home] 
Anyway, since it’s a while ago, I’ll just sum up what happen that night.
A night of ‘okay-okay’ food, with nice pretty girls, and some entertaining performances.
Some photos:
I have no idea what he is doing with the teddy bear, nor do I know why the teddy bear was even there.
The only Chinese guy for 1st year- Jfook – and Samantha.
Three of the 2nd years who arrived early in the restaurant.
Sally, photographer enthusiast.
Leng lui, Samantha, and Junior, Elaine.
Buddy family, with Michelle and Irene.
Samantha being ‘emo’
Hui Kee, 1st Year Junior, Michelle.
The 1st years and their performances.
A crazy [it’s suppose to be a club dance] dance
How low do you think she can bend without support?
Lao Sang.
All in all I suddenly feel very old because I keep seeing my juniors come and go. I watch them grow up, become mature and find their partners [exaggerated a bit].
A belated birthday celebration
Last year I had I really early birthday celebration which, in the end sort of ‘pissed off’ a lot of people. And I’ve learnt my lesson and didn’t do the alterations I did last year.
I became 10 days older last year. And this year if I were to follow the date by which this group of friends celebrated my birthday, then I would have been 18 days younger . [So all in all, 8 days younger??]
Anyway, thanks for celebrating my birthday
~The bf, the gf, and the lamp post~
~PKK friends~
~The birthday cake~
~I still have this much sitting in my fridge since I’m sick and can’t really eat any cake~
~Me cutting the cake~
~Me wishing for … (secret)~
Oh anyway… I still have that very unique sense to know whether there’s a hidden surprise for me every birthday. So in the end I really felt that you might as well just bring the cake out and get it over with. The faster we go through routines, the faster I can eat the cake.
Thanks
Yaki Yaki Japanese BBQ Buffet Lunch-Hi Tea Promotion
Went to a Japanese BBQ Buffet Lunch at Yaki Yaki yesterday. The normal price of such a buffet is at RM 65++ but during this promotion period the lunch price became RM18.90++
The promotion is only on for the month of September only if I’m not mistaken and is only for the Lunch period and also the Hi-Tea period only. And one last thing to note is ONLY ON WEEKDAYS!!!
How to get there?
It’s just next to Low Yat plaza. A bit hard to find but its directly in front of one of Low Yat’s entrance.
A point to note though is that for this promotion, Sashimi and Oysters are not included. To have a taste of those things, you’ll need to go for the original price package.
Anyway. Some of the food which I had during my first round walk there…
If this was some other type of Japanese restaurant, my first round pick would have exceeded RM20 already. But you could see the raw fish for BBQ on the right had side. There’s some ready cook food on the upper left side. Below that is some of the tempura fried food. And the other two plates are filled with sushi. BTW… I’m a salmon fanatic which sums up why there are so much salmons there. You can see some Unagi sushi on the same plate as the Salmon sushi.
Close up of the lower left plate. You can see some unknown fish sushi on the left and at the middle is some type of pork sushi (The BBQ is not halal BTW) and there’s the egg sushi on the right.
SALMONS!!! AND EELS!!!
Close up!!!
Some type of fish… Red snapper on a stick and salmons to be cooked. There’s also shark meat which I didn’t try though.
The tempura food… Prawns in the background…
Snapping away. Ate up some of the salmons. There’s some cake at the background BTW.
Fish, chicken and pork being BBQed.
The all-you-can eat Baskin Robbins ice-cream.
Green tea ice cream + Mango tango ice cream.
Some of the cooked pork meat and chicken.
Being creative. Dipping some BBQ fish into the tempura sauce.
The raw fish counter. They filled up the counter when the food runs out. So you don’t have to worry about nothing to eat. Look at all those salmons.
Some of the side dishes. There’s Japanese egg tofu and other types of food.
Up close with the Japanese egg tofu
Some Japanese Bakuteh…?!
Some crabs
More mixed up ice cream. Heavenly.
I kept on taking salmons. Can’t have enough of it.
Look at how tasty it is.
SALMONS all the way!!!
The raw fish counter.
The meat counter. You can see chicken legs and all sorts of chicken which you can BBQ. There’s even all types of meat and pork. I remember they even have some Rosemary Lamb meat for you to BBQ.
The ready cooked food counter. All sorts of fried rice and mee for you to take. But I didn’t take any…
Part of the sushi counter.
Not much jelly dessert BTW.
But there was quite a number of cakes to choose from.
One of the rooms that you can reserve.
Just a photo of the cup. It wasn’t whisky BTW.
The food group that I went with. We ate from 11.40am till 2.10pm. And we left the place a lot heavier than when we arrived.
I just had that one grand meal that day. And didn’t feel hungry for the rest of the day.
Have to return to have another round there before the promotion end.
Apparently Yaki Yaki has closed down. Not sure for what reason. Just an update so you’d know
Ipoh trip 2009
Managed to go to Ipoh last weekend with a bunch of girls (I went because I found myself more and more to be like a travelling freak)
It was more of a food trip… Since we were literally stuffing food down our throats for the whole one half day there.
And so there was 5 of us going up to Ipoh in a 3 hours or so bus ride… And we had our host ready in Ipoh to bring us on a food spree once we reached there…
And half and hour after arriving and we are already having our first meal…
This is the Ipoh’s Asam Laksa… Hot and Spicy and with a variety of fried add-on for you to choose… The stall was located beneath a huge tree and thus the name of the stall/food court is ‘Beneath the Tree’ or something in Chinese…
~The Asam Laksa~
~The Fried Add-ons~
After having that heavenly (and oily) asam laksa, we went for some desert and settled for this roadside soya bean stall… Apparently the soya bean stall was quite famous as it had made the newspapers a few times… We went to have Tau Fu Far in Soya Bean which was warm and took the spiciness of the asam laksa away. I noticed that most of the customers just drove in front of the stall and the waiter will take the order and later deliver the drinks to the customers in the car. Talk about the lack of self service… But apparently this was how things happen in Ipoh (Noticed the same for a salted chicken shop… Just drive and stop in front of it and the boss will bring a box out… Ask you if thats enough and then collect the payment.
~The tau fu far~
~The stall~
~The map on the name card of the stall… Impressive right? Since when do soya bean sellers have their own name card~
After having quite a filled beginning to the food trip, we finally checked into the hotel where we were to stay for that night…
Its called Fresh hotel… And like the name implies… It’s really fresh…
~The Fresh Hotel~
~So fresh that the lobby apparently have nothing else other than a water cooler and also a few chairs~
~But the rooms were perfect if not close to perfect… This is my room… I paid RM48 for the night but after seeing how clean and white the sheets are… It was worth it~
~The room wasn’t really big but since its only for me… It was okay… There was air conditioning…~
~And the toilets were clean too.. The doors are actually see through sliding door… So those girls who were peeping in could gaze upon my hunky body get a shock of their lives…~
~There was also an LCD TV in the room but it wasn’t really filled with any Astro channels other than the AEC or something… But local TV channels were there.~
~The phone number for those who would like to make reservations or something~
For that night, we had some of the best food court dish ever for dinner… We went to a food court near Jusco shopping mall… I forgot the name.. And ordered all sorts of different dishes ranging from Ikan Bakar, Sotong, Bak Ku Teh to snails (Yup… Snails… How I just love them)… There were also crab on sales… But then… We had quite a variety already and it was also a wonder none of us ordered any crabs… But we were really stuffed by the time that ended… (There are no photos of the night because Alan was too busy… stuffing food down again…)
Later that night, we went to Breeze… A western cafe somewhere in town also where it is really very breezy due to the bulk of fans blowing everywhere… We had too much for dinner so we just settled down for drinks…
I was so tired that night (Thanks to preparing for my Journal Club presentation a few nights before that once I reached my room… I slumped into bed and started snoring )
The next morning… I found something in my room that adds to the worthiness of staying in this hotel… But I am not saying it here… PM me to know what it was…
Anyway… After checking out of the hotel… We went to this place…
~The Perak Chinese Amateur Dramatic Association… Where everything is dramatic… NOT!!! Its the Restaurant err… The tree is blocking the name… –.-‘’’~
But it really is a famous restaurant… Why?? Because people are queuing once more next to the table trying to rush you to eat faster so they can sit down after you leave…
But what’s so good till the people take their sweet time staying at the table…?
This…
~Honestly it has been a long long time since the last time I had dim sum and hot tea for breakfast… And to imagine I have to travel to Ipoh to have some…~
After a really heavy breakfast… We visited a temple nearby… A bit of sightseeing to digest what we had…
~Acting as if I could pedal~
~I have no idea what those words mean..~
After the short trip… We went off to eat again… (Amazing bunch of girls right.. Just eat eat and eat…)
This time it was ice-cream…
~Just in case you didn’t know what I had… It was the last one~
20 minutes later…
And emerged a very very stuffed Alan…
~This was the ice cream shop we went to~
And after a bit of shopping for Ipoh delicacies… We went for our last food destination… Whoever that visits Ipoh will have to try this… Cause its their famous… Noodles with steam chicken and tauge…
And all of us went back a few kg heavier… Even the train seemed to buckle under our weight…
Last but not least… Some photo moments in front of the train station…
~Everyone is looking fatter than they were…~
Best crabs in Labuan
I ate some of the best crabs in Labuan before coming back to UPM. Dad brings us out for dinner last Saturday night to this place called Anjung Ketam which is located somewhere near Tanjung Aru… Just go onto the road towards Wong Wo Lo 2 housing area and then keeping going straight till you see a road leading away from the bigger road with the sign, Tanjung Aru on it… And the place is also closeby SK Tanjung Aru I think… Travel for about 5 minutes or so on the straight road and then you’ll see a blue sign on the right side of the road… Turn in there and you will see the small seaside restaurant with the best crabs in Labuan…
~The view at night~
~One of the stalls there… There are a total of three stalls here~
~The seaside restaurant… Unfortunately, there is nothing to see out at sea at night around here… And be ready with a sweater or wear something warm as the sea breeze will continuously chill you..~
~Steamed crabs~
~The best dish of the night… Butter Garlic Crabs… Simply amazing… I started off with the steamed crabs but had this for the rest of the night after I taken a bite of it… The dishes shown here are from the rightmost stall… Gerai No 1~
The crabs are just so nice… And the price was really quite cheap as well…
Lets see… We had.. 2 plates of the steamed crabs as shown above… And then 2 crabs of the butter garlic crabs… And then a steamed fish… And a plate of oyster sauce cooked kailan… And 2 jugs of lime plum juice… And all of us… A party of 10 people… 5 kids… Couldn’t finish all of it and ended up tapao-ing back…
The price???
RM 170
Considering that you had 10 people eating for it… Everyone only pays RM17… And then… I had my fill of crabs until I couldn’t take in anymore of it…
It felt like an all you can eat buffet of crabs for RM17… Totally worth it…
I’ll definitely come again…
Anyone care to join me??
Cyberjaya’s Old Town Coffee and Secret Recipe.
I managed to visit the Old Town Coffee Shop and Secret Recipe shop in Cyberjaya recently.
Old Town Coffee shop can be found nearby the HBSC and Fujitsu company. The exact location should be in Prima Avenue.
I’ve been an avid visitor to Old Town shops all over KL. Sometimes having my breakfast there (My fav: Toasted bread with half boiled egg, topping it off with a glass of Iced Enriched Chocolate and I’ll be feeling in heaven.
~The settings is still the same~
But the same could not be said regarding the Old Town Coffee Shop in Prima Avenue. I ordered a bowl of Prawn Mee while my friend ordered the recently on promotion Hainan Chicken Chop rice. We were halfway through our meals when she decided that she wanted to have my meal instead. So we exchanged what we are eating and luckily we did.
It wasn’t long before I found something in the rice.
~Yup… Something sharp and something which look metal…~
And straight off I stopped eating… Lost my appetite to finish the meal… Not sure the sharp metal thing is fell accidentally there or what… But I complaint regarding it the to the waiters… They are good enough to allow me to have a new plate, by which I changed my mind after a while, a bit worried over what other surprises that may be expecting me with the new plate… (I just lost confidence with eating there)… Imagine if I wasn’t looking at what I was eating and swallowed it… I won’t be something I wanna think about…
In another way, it was lucky that my friend and I did changed what we are eating because I would have doubt that she will noticed it before eating. Thank God everything was ok in the end.
I’m not saying that Old Town ain’t a good shop but… precautions really have to be done towards making sure that incidents like these do not happen again.
On the other hand, since we didn’t really enjoyed the meal we had there, I brought us to the Secret Recipe shop a bit further away. And we really didn’t regret going.
The place was a heaven… I really fell in love with it upon entering the door. The sofas there are so soft and the place is just so relaxed… It was so calm and peaceful there when we arrived (There wasn’t any customers at the moment)… And I felt that I could really sink in my seat and not leave at all… The setting is just great… Truly a place to go to get out from the rushed and busy world outside… It felt like a getaway to someplace out of this world. Bravo Secret Recipe…
~Its just so beautiful :teary eye:… Now I’m being a bit too expressive~
~Indulging in Chocolate Indulgence~
~Fantastic Almond Brownies~
I really enjoyed the place… It help me to relax and think through a lot of things… Eventually helping me to arrived at the answer I was looking for… I wasn’t really feeling too good due to certain things that happened but a few hours of pondering there got me back into shape once more… And the decision I came upon will be hurtful but I guess being hurt is another part of growing up and become stronger…
Now… Perhaps I should bring a date next time with me to the Secret Recipe here
Address to Secret Recipe:
Secret Recipe
Suite 0-7
CBD Perdana
Jalan Perdana
Cyberjaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia
Thanks LiPeng for bringing me out
Penang Trip- Sights, Tasty, Rainy and Closing…
Just got back from a 3 days 2 nights trip to Penang. And the title could very well be summarize the whole trip…
ay 1:
First off, 3 of us, Clarice, Clement and Me boarded Transnational bus (I have faith in this company) and after 5 hours of sitting in the bus, we arrived at Penang Island…
~Clement~
~Clarice~
We stayed at a fine hotel located in the more desolated area of Penang Town, the Regal Hotel, Penang. However, despite its location, the price is really quite low compared to other more classy hotels. We spent RM 115 for a deluxe room which has 2 big beds and could easily fit 6 people if used efficiently, a really budget hotel for people like us who wants luxury but don’t wanna pay too much for it. The RM 115 is inclusive of complementary breakfast for 4 persons every morning. The breakfast wasn’t anything special to look out for though.
~Regal Hotel, really not a bad place…~
~The lobby~
~The deluxe room with 2 beds… Clarice got the pleasure of getting a big big bed for herself~
~View from our room~
We managed to get really nice guides for the 3 days that we were there… We got my sweet direct buddy (junior) Olivia and JJ, another junior for the first day…
~Olivia, really knows her food~
Olivia is the type of guide who really knows what to eat and not to eat… She could very well have her own food show on TV about Penang if she has one… The other thing I was amazed at was her level of planning for us… It was simple but it made me really appreciate her…
~The plan she prepared for us… On PAPER… Normally I won’t even write down all the details of where to go and what to do~
When she was bringing us about in her car, she will keep recommending different types of food at different food shops that we passed by… So much so that after checking into the hotel, she straight away bring us to buy banana pancake and yam kuih at the nearby Burma Road…
There are many stalls beside the road which sells these pancakes or better known as Apom… But she knew which was the nicest… Look out for an uncle and an auntie, both in their elder ages, selling these pancakes by the roadside…
~The pancake stall by Burma street~
You may be thinking, roadside, pancakes, uncle auntie… How good could it really be… There wasn’t much people lining up for the pancakes when we arrived… And I have my doubts on whether its that good… My doubts cleared when I was placing my order… I ordered 10 pieces (He sells one for 30cents… Very cheap only) and he told me to wait… Cuz there was an order for 50 pieces before me… I was like… Wow… Penang people feed their kids pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner is it?? And the 50 pieces are actually ordered by someone who lived in Ipoh, Perak which must be.. what… 50km away?? Now, this must be some pancake stall to be that famous… Till even Perak people know about it… And yup… The pancakes really live up to their name… It might be small but its really tasty… Pancakes on Burma road… The pancakes worth trying if you’re at Penang…
Olivia suddenly realized that the stall on the opposite site and a little down the road sells tasty yam kuih as well… Which she went to buy for us in the end… And yes… It’s even better than the pancakes… Arrived in Penang for not more than an hour and I felt I’m already in Food Heaven…
~The yam kuih served with bits of nuts and possibly bits of small prawns~
The original plan Olivia got for us is to buy the popular Tao Sa Piah, another kuih in Penang… But we arrived there too late… It was already 5pm. The shop was found further down Burma road as well… But with the preparations she made (She even wrote on the paper… Taste taste first)… We found a box of the kuih in the car… along with a box of preserved nutmeg which she bought for us taste… Apparently, she visited the shop earlier that day to get a box for us to taste…
~The Tau Sa Piah and the Nutmeg she bought for us to taste… Olivia… If you keep doing these stuff… I’ll really fall for you… Haha… ~
~The shop which sell the nice nice Tau Sa Piah… Taken when we revisited the place the next day… They bake the kuih here fresh every morning and you can see many people queuing up to buy it every day…~
And then… Stomachs full and all… We went onto the ferry to head for the mainland… And it was a long wait (Cuz of the rush hour at the time)
~The three of us on the ferry… Ya, I know… I’m chubby~
~Penang Island, taken from the ferry~
We are on our way to St. Anne’s Santuary at Bukit Mentarjam and after around half an hour after getting off the ferry… We reach there and saw this…
~It was closed… Cuz it was already after 7pm… :sweats:~
So what can we do… We just lingered around and take more photos… Percy ‘The Twister’ even came to join us…
~The few of us… JJ’s taking the photo~
Since it was closed, we thought of continuing what was on the plan… Eating steamboat… Before we heard that the place was closed as well… :sweats: And so… We made our way following Percival to a nearby hawker center for dinner… It is nearby the OldTown Coffee Shop at the Mainland… (No photos on this place… Sorry)
And I found a pearl in this hawker center… Make it two pearls… The first being an extra spicy Nasi Lemak with Sotong which has gotta be the best Sotong Nasi Lemak I ate till today… It was so spicy that even Clement (who grew up eating peppers) said it’s spicy… And I absolutely love it…
The second pearl will have to be… this..
~Ikan Pari bakar… RM 9… With hot sauce… I felt that I went to heaven again…~
The food there was cheap and really damn tasty… rools looking at the pictures:
And with that… We returned to the hotel with filled stomachs and the jeans felt tighter on the waist…
We even had a bible sharing session before bed… Weird right??? All thanks to Clement bringing his Bible along~~~
~
ay 2:
JJ and Vi (her friend) were our full time guide for today since Olivia was off to somewhere else…
~JJ… I think she’s quite confused about the roads in Penang~
Plans for today was to go and visit the Penang Botanical Garden and the Butterfly Farm in the morning… Have lunch in a restaurant at Little India and then shop till drop at Queensbay Mall before having dinner…
The botanical gardens is filled with people jogging when we arrived which I found quite strange since it’s a weekday… I was more amazed to see some of the mother’s bringing their baby along to jog with them… :salutes:
~A big big tree in the garden~
~We were attempting to pose~
~The wooden thing behind us looks like a Japanese bird stand… Taken with self timer~
Nothing much happened which we are on the gardens except the incident with Clement and the monkey… Apparently one of the monkeys got quite annoyed with Clement and wanted to jump onto him… And we quickly retreated…
~He looks really annoyed…~
It is advisable to not bring any noticable food or plastic bags to the gardens as the monkeys may attack you for it…
~Another type of monkey~
~Us and self timer~
And then we went off to the butterfly farm… Along the way… This happened…
~And it was heavy~
And so we took one hour to go up the hill and then down again… Since it was raining… :sweats:
Lunch’s up next and I’ll really have to recommend this place for you…
Its called Karaikudi restaurant and is found somewhere in Little India in Penang… (The place where there are a lot of Indian Shops)
It looks something like this from the outside but don’t let looks fool you…
Because the insides are like this…
~Very high class look…~
And the food was great…
~From the left: Calliflower Masala, Prawn Pepper, Chicken 65 and Briyani Rice…~
The servings here aren’t much and one dish may be suitable for 2 person or so… But the Briyani rice is really a lot and can fill you up… The dishes felt like side dishes in the end… But very delicious side dishes… If you’re up for some Indian food… Give this place a thought…
~
JJ took us to her church next… The Church of the Holy Spirit… Since we didn’t managed to visit St Anne’s the day before…
~The church and me…~
And then we went to Queensbay Mall to shop…
~Taken fron Queensbay Mall~
On the way back… We passed by this overhead advertisement…
~They are showing me their behinds ~
JJ took us to dinner after that… There is a small hawker center which gets more and more crowded the longer we were there… Its located in front of Sunway hotel and the food there is also really tasty… I tried the Ikan Pari Bakar here as well… And it was on PAR with the one at mainland…
The only downside to the Ikan Pari here is that it costs RM 14… Apparently, the food here are tasty… But really quite expensive…
~The hawker stalls~
~The nearby Sunway Hotel~
I tried out the Chee Cheong Fun here as well… Not bad also…
And I went back to the hotel feeling that I’ve gained a few more pounds…
And feeling so tired that I was practically sleeping when Clement was doing the Bible Sharing…
~
ay 3:
Another different guide for today… Another food expert of Penang… Dominic…
~Dominic… Food expert extraordinair~
He wanted to bring us to eat till we drop again… And so he brought us to try out the best Penang Hokkein Mee… And we saw this… again…
~Closed… Whats with Penang and stores closing ya???~
The stall is located in front of Lorong Bangkok… Closeby there is another stall which sells delicious Mee Goreng…
~It looks spicy but its not… Wonders what is their secret~
~They cook the Mee Goreng here… Don’t look really clean… But then… One should be brave to discover new tasty food… But please make sure you have had your shots before…~
We also visited Kek Lok Si temple… A great sight for tourist and those who wanna take photos of Buddist statues and temples…
~The gate guardians I think…~
~Me and my animal, the Rabbit~
~Also took a photo with the pig…~
~The temples~
~The Guan Yin statue was being renovated~
~The Pagoda~
~Group photo with self timer~
Along the way back from the temple, we managed to stop by a stall selling Penang Laksa, as recommended by Dominic again as one of the nicest in Penang…
The uncle open his shop quite late in the mornings… At around 11am plus the time we visited… So do take note if you’re interested… Its located along the road to the temple…
Aside from the temple… We also managed to visited the beach… Because the other two keep wanting to go to the beach… And we ended up running to the car when we noticed it was raining nearby the beach again… (Raining again… Haiyoooo~~~)
And we also did make a trip to Dominic’s apartment… (Don’t play play… Very high apartment) before having another food trip to this place…
The Lobak and Char Kuey Teow here is really damn delicious as well (I’m starting to think whether Penang has something which is not delicious)
The Lobak uncle actually export his Lobak to KL to be sold… Thats how good it is… I heard he’ll also be going to the Hawkers fair in Singapore this coming few months to cook there…
~Lobak and Char Kuey Teow~
The Kuey Teow here gives a whole different meaning to the Kuey Teow I normally eat… Its totally on a different league…
And with that, we made our way to the Nibong bus station to board our bus back to KL (PlusLiner buses aren’t too bad too)…
We left Penang after tasting some of the nicest food Penang has to offer… And still missing out a lot of other tasty food which we didn’t have the chance to try out… Lets just hope that the next few times I visit… The stalls will be open and it’ll be less rainy… Haha…
Penang… Haven for tasty food… (I’m really going to get very fat if I stay there)
~Alan… Weight gained and exhausted…~
P.S: The total spent for this trip is around RM 200 for the food, the transportation and the accomodations… Not too bad for another budget trip… And now… I can finally go to sleep
The current obsession
Recently I gotten a major obsession into certain things. One of them is:
Eating sushi.
OMG… I’m really addicted to it…
Anyway.. MPoh who seems to know that I like sushi gave me instruction the other day to get a special coupon via SMS.
You’ll have to send a specific SMS to that number and it will deduct RM3.50 from your credit and give you this
Show it to the ppl at Sushi King and for each one plate you eat, you’ll get another plate of the same colour for free… Muahahahaha… Being the obsessed sushi eater I am… I wasted no time to use this…
~~
I’ll always start with my fav sushi ever which is
Kani Mayo…. Its basically sushi with small slices of crab meat in mayo… The taste is absolutely heavenly… Felt like eating it again every time I see this picture.
~~
Tried out a few raw ones too today.
This is called Tako (octopus). Its supposed to be cooked but anyhow it looks raw to me… One thing I dont really like about this is that they didnt really do any preparations for it… Just take it out of the ice box and stick it to the rice… And serve… Its quite a disappointment since I can still see bits of ice on my Tako when it was serve. :sweat:
~~
The smoked salmon really tasted smoked… Haha.. Anyhow… I thought its taste was ok even though I feel like most of the time I’m being biased to cooked sushi.
~~
The Fry Roll is another one that you shud try… Its expensive of cuz at RM5 per plate but its really tasty. I can practically eat the whole thing in one bite…(without the prawn’s tail of cuz)
~~
This is called Kani Tama Maki which really sounds like 3 harsh words (KNN, TMD and PKM). Putting that aside, its also another favorite of mine with crabstick, cucumber and mayonnaise. (Notice that crab meat is always in my fav)
~~
The Royal Carib… Another crab meat sushi… My mouth watered seeing the size of that crab meat.
~~
The Golden Ball… is a mixture of egg and crabmeat mayo (again… Haha). Em sorta regretted asking for this cuz its really filling… Eating this is like eating 2 or 3 plates of sushi and I was thinking of eating a lot more… BUT after eating this, I felt I’ve reach the satiety level (being full) my stomach could hold.
~~
And the big ending… Chawamushi
Or in this case Hotate Chawamushi… Its scallop egg custard if I’m not wrong… And again… I went to heaven after eating this…
~
~
~
~
And came back down again when I had to pay… Overall this is how much I ate
I really love sushi
p.s… The whole thing cost RM 24… when it should had cost RM 48… :winks:
