: : Valentine's Day : :



You know, there is something to be said about coffee and love.

Happy Valentine's Day!

: : Harbourview Hotel : :



As promised days ago, here is the menu of the dinner I went to at Harbourview Hotel. It was a Chinese style dinner with 7 courses in total. Sounds like a lot to eat, no? Well, each table had about 10 people so more than enough people to share the spread of food.



This is the sweet corn crab meat soup. It's very easy to do and can be done at home. All one needs to do is add some creamed corn, pieces of crabmeat, thin and small strips of black mushrooms into a pot of boiling water. Then, add some cornflour to thicken the soup. Also, slowly add in eggs while continously stirring the soup until the egg is cooked.



I love the big freshwater prawns used in this dish : stir-fried chicken with chilli and prawns. Yes, I'm still eating chicken during the chicken flu scare. Anyway, it was a nice dish. The chicken was cooked in a sweet and sour sauce where the thick and sweet dark soy sauce was used. The prawns (shrimp) looked to be fried separately and later added to the dish just before it was served.



According to the menu on the table, this fish is cooked in Hong Kong style. Hmm... not sure what does that mean unless it's Cantonese style since the Cantonese are the largest Chinese group living in Hong Kong. The fish was steamed in light soy sauce first. Garnishing were added on later which include deep fried shallots and strips of carrots, chillis and spring onions. As for the fish, I think it was a garupa that was served. The flesh was very tender and delicious.



The BBQ beef ribs was served in a great tasting BBQ sauce which I think was made from the thick and sweet dark soy sauce. But, it was a bit tough to eat because the skin was not removed completely from the flesh. Ah well. We all had a taste of it so that basically finished 75% of the entire dish.



The next dish to come from the kitchen was the pak choi with mushroom. The pak choi is an extremely crunchy vegetable that goes extremely well with oyster sauce. Heck, all vegetables goes well with oyster sauce! Although the black mushroom tasted really sour. It's the first time I've ever tasted such sour black mushrooms though. Has anyone have a similar experience? I did not have any stomach problems that night so the sour taste does not indicate food gone bad.



The last main dish was the fried rice cooked kampung @ village style. This means that chopped pieces of ikan billis @ fried anchovies are added into the dish to give it a pleasant salty favour. Nowadays, most restaurants would divide up all the rice into individual bowls on the table although the last person would usually not get an equal portion.



To complete the meal, a platter of local fruits was served : pineapple, watermelon and honeydew. A nice way to clean one's mouth after all the delicious meals with different flavours.

After that, we started to belt out song after song of English, Malay and Chinese tunes. Did I sing? Yes. On the karaoke? Nope, because my voice sounds terrible on the mike.

Anyway, ciao people!

: : ART 461/561 : :

We came to a realization that design plays a deterimental role in a BLOGs effectiveness. Some BLOGs are endowed with quality content, however the design is so poor it could stop users from reading instantly. In contrast, a good design can retain someone's attention--keeping them on the page yearning to read more. However, we discovered that a balance between content and design is essential to an effective BLOG. We didn't want to read a BLOG that looked cool, but had shitty content and vice versa.

And yours truly was listed under the BAD category. Not that I mind, mind you. The design is a linkware although I am partly to blame for the layout on the left hand side. Too lazy to edit it properly although the font size is set by the linkware designer. One day perhaps when I have more time I will change the layout. Seriously need to revamp this entire site but need to seriously think of a tasteful design. However, the original template from mizdos.com was attractive and in-line with the theme of the blog. When one starts adding more links to the blog, then things start to get seriously messy.

I'm intrigued by their comment below.

However, we discovered that a balance between content and design is essential to an effective BLOG.

They classified Riverbend's Recipe Blog as BAD but interesting enough, her other blog, Baghdad Burning, is read worldwide by 4000-5000 readers daily due to her day-to-day account during the war as well as her sarcastic wit. Both blogs have the same design. So? Good balance? To each his or her own.

Insulting the blog is ok. I need the mental stimulation anyway. As long as one doesn't insult Granny dearest, I'm fine about it.

If one absolutely hates a particular blog design but loves the content, I would suggest using a RSS reader so that one only gets the posting and not the layout. Makes life easier, no? I use Bloglines not because I dislike the layout but rather, it's easier to notice new postings with font changes easily identified.

Would I have wanted to have found out about this? Of course not but it's their project. Next time, be forewarned that linking to a blog that has a statistical counter that can trace links on how people arrived at said blog.

: : Friday nite : :

Everyday was a busy day. Not much time to rest. So many social obligations with dinner, Toastmasters, dinner again and meeting up today with friend.

Dinner at Crowne Plaza : sorry, no pics. Too formal a function to take pictures.

After dinner : drinks at Monsoon with some friends. Cursing cars that stop by the side of the road to buy roses for Valentine's. Can you believe that there is a massive traffic jam at 10:30 - 11: 30 p.m. at NIGHT?!?

Coming home : Feeding hamsters some peanuts and small pieces of bread (they are addicted to the stuff). Then, I rummaged around the fridge and decided to make a sandwich.



The bak por @ BBQ-ed pork slices were leftovers from the Chinese New Year celebrations. Goes extremely well with plain bread minus the butter/margarine.

There are also a lot of cookies leftover. Urgh! Also, Renee's gift is still not devoured yet! Granny wants to wait for me to sit down for dinner. So, we're probably going to have it tomorrow night.

: : Postponement : :

Sorry everyone. Got back home late today. For some reason or another, there's just too many things to do this week and I'm too tired to post up pictures.

Don't think I'll have time tomorrow either to post anything up. It's another dinner but this time at Crowne Plaza rather than Harbourview Hotel.

Pictures will only be posted on Saturday.

Cheerio.

: : Smashing Nite : :

The run down for the nite :

7 course dinner at Harbourview Hotel
Singing oldies (both English and Malay) with people who weren't born in that era or rather, most were not old enough during THAT era
Moving on to a nearby pub
Coming home, to see the moon very close to the earth so just gotta take a picture



Not satisfied with picture as camera limitations.

No time for food review. Tomorrow? I'm beat.

: : Stew ~ Version 1.1 : :

Remember the stew yesterday? Well, here is the chicken version.



Also ironic that both me and my uncle are suffering from a bad flu. Yet, Granny is as strong as ever. Definitely a Powerpuff girl.

Granny : Aiya! Nothing else to cook lah!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that she also added in slices of onion to give it a sweeter flavour.

: : OMG : :

I WANNNNNN!!!

This is where I start going berserk.

The new CANON Powershot S1.

Drool, people, drool!

: : New digital camera : :

One of the ideas in the works this year would be a new digital camera. Getting frustrated with the quality of the SONY DSC-F77. Don't get me wrong. It's not the food pics that is bothering me but rather the other pictures that I take i.e. scenery, people, objects. Just that not having any optical zoom is really the pits.

Options are :
Canon Powershot G5 : Steve's Digicam
Small, compact. Loads of features.
Canon Digital Rebel : Photoxel, Steve's Digicam
Big! And lens are separate. Wonder how much will that costs?
Sony DSC F828 : Photoxel, Steve's Digicam
Whoa! Big alrite! But can use CF card with it. Hmm...

Maybe will get it some time this year. Don't know when though. We'll see. Anyway, gotta get my camera looked at before the warranty expires in March. Something wrong with the flash. Argh!!

: : Stew : :

So it was porridge day for me. Granny made a huge tub of rice porridge that was to be eaten by yours truly. Urgh! Oh well. I don't have it all the time so it wasn't *TOO* bad.



To go with the porridge, she made pork stew whereby she added in some potatoes for taste as well. She cut the pork into medium-sized strips and fryinng it until it browns. Then she added in the potatoe as well as soy sauce, water and sugar to taste. Of course, salt and pepper was added into it as well. She would sometimes substitute the pork with chicken breast meat.

Suffice to say that for dinner and lunch, I finished about half of what you see there.

: : Valentine Day Poll : :

Right. CNY is over and it's time to take down the CNY poll. Here are the results from 107 ppl :

What is your favourite Chinese New Year treat?

Pineapple Tarts : 22.4%
Yee Sang : 15.0%
Pork Leg Stew : 3.7%
Braised Duck in Soy Sauce : 8.4%
Salted Vegetable Soup : 8.4%
Stir-Fry Leeks : 0.9%
Love Letters : 12.1%
Layer Cake : 8.4%
Bak Poh / BBQ Pork Slices : 10.3%
Mandarin Oranges : 10.3%

Hmm...there is something about pineapple tarts, no?

Anyway, here is another poll but this time in conjuction with Valentine's Day this weekend :







Now, be honest!

: : Addresses of Food Spots : :

Finally completed the list of food spots that I've been reviewing. Probably missed out a few but never mind. Apologies if there are no specific addresses to those locations. I tried to add in some landmarks that you cannot miss.

Unless otherwise stated, most places are in Kuching, Sarawak.

Map of food places will come later on. Much much later on.

: : Is my blog Burning? : :

Guess Alberto is busy at the moment so thought I'd compile some of the soup links here :

potato and horseradish cream soup with smoked trout and toasted almonds by Alberto himself
Khao Soi from Chez Pim (yes, in hokkien it sounds vulgar but it's suppose to be Thai)
pasta & fagioli from Carlo at My Latest Supper
tomyam soup by the kitchenslave a.k.a. toru
spiced spinach soup by maki
trashy potato by jackie (now this looks like an awesome and kewl dish)
roasted chestnut soup by Josh (now we know what to do with leftover chestnuts from Christmas)

Well, those were the links that I saw, not to mention drool over.

: : How to eat like an Asian student : :

...otherwise known as How to eat like a Hong Kong resident. I'm kidding here as in most Hong Kong movies and sitcoms, you are bound to see someone cooking instant noodles. The weird part is how come they don't show it on Malaysian TV when the community also eat it by the gallons. I know I do. Ok, so I am addicted to the stuff.

For the Is my blog Burning? submission, I wanted to post Granny's chicken soup up but had raging fever this afternoon. So, took a long nap and woke up at about 1:30 a.m. feeling very hungry because I didn't get to eat dinner. And yes, the fever finally broke. So, since I was hungry and lazy to cook something massive, it was back to the basics : instant noodles. Found some packets of Korean noodles, kimchi flavoured, and decided to do that. Yeah, so I cheated for my submission. Feeling lazy tonight and I wanted some comfort food.



I started out by preparing the soup ingredients. So, cut up some chai sim @ Chinese veggie (extremely crunchy if cooked just right and always tasting fresh) and crab sticks. The packet of noodles is on the right.





Boiled the water and then dumped the noodles into it. Then, boiled it some more until the noodles had softened. Threw away the MSG filled water and rinsed the noodles.



Now, it's time to make the soup. Poured in the powder from the soup packet that came with the noodles and stirred it until it dissolved completely. Brought it to a boil and added in the veggies and crab sticks. Also added in an egg into the soup.



Finally, I was done with my Kimchi Noodle soup. Very spicy and I was sweating. Not that I cannot take the spicyness but it's a genetic condition passed down from my Dad : we sweat (face level only) whenever we eat spicy food.

Instant noodles must be one of the greatest food innovation of all time. Easy to do, hence the 2-minute mee from Mee Maggi. I add in all sorts of ingredients to it to try to disguise make it as nutritious as possible. Mind you, I will only eat instant noodles from Asian companies at this moment because the ones made in the West doesn't suit my tastebuds. Perhaps one day when they make a better soup base, then I will take it.

Aw heck! It's late and I still haven't finish my work for tomorrow. Darn! Gotta rush off now. Toodles people!

: : Fruit Flan & Thai Food : :

Update : Forgot to mention that the Pandai Thai Delight doesn't serve very spicy dishes. So, if you are a person who cannot quite take spicy food but still enjoy a bit of hotness, this is the place for you. What I should have done is asked whether they could have made the food spicy-er for us. One thing for sure, the food came out VERY FAST.

Ack! Had to go and run out and get the birthday cake for Pascale and KSL. Remember the two dinner appointments mentioned earlier? Since I offered to bring the birthday cake, had to rush to the bakery and then dropped it off at my collegue's house.



Bought the cake from Sunflower Deli. Since Mr. Ngui advised to get a fruit flan with fresh cream, I bought this huge cake. Then, rushed over to drop it at the house. After that, another rush to Pandan Thai Delight.



Had dinner with Joyce, Gette, Sheebs and Jia Hui. Yes, the gorgeous and cute Chocolate Frogstar. Huai Bin was supposed to join us as well but he had already made other plans.





We all thought that this was a really cute way to provide the rice for everyone.



This was the mixed vegetables with glass noodles @ tang hoon. Simple yet tasty. Wasn't so spicy. Errr... I could say not spicy for me, Joyce, Sheebs and Jia Hui. Not sure about Gette as she was the only one that does not go around eating extremely spicyfood.



The prawn green curry was served in a very cute and quaint little pot with it's own holder. It was heated up using a small candle that is used to heat up scented oils. Again, not that spicy but it was tasty. Luv the aubergines @ terung that was added to it.



This was fried tilapia with Thai herbs. Could only deduced that Thai herbs were shredded lemon grass which is the messy concoction you see on top of the fish. Still, it added a nice flavour to the overall dish.



Now what is a Thai meal without some Tom Yam soup? This is the clear water version with seafood inside. We found prawn @ shrimp and squid inside. Wah! Tasty! But, not so spicy.



Tasty but not that sour so it was agreeable with our stomachs. This was the mango and papaya salad. The papaya used is the unripe version, same goes for the mango as well.

There was also the roast chicken but because the table we sat in was small and we were all concentrating on not knocking anything down, I forgot to take a picture of it.



I was halfway eating this wonderful dessert before I realised I forgot to take a picture! So, camera came out and I took a shot of the water chestnut in jelly and with coconut milk. The pink colour came from the rose syrup used. It was nice except that the rose syrup unnerved us a bit. We all never had it before but it added an interesting taste to the dessert.

Pandan Thai Delight is located at the new RH shoplots in the BDC area. It's next to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and the BDC roundabout.

And, meeting up with Sheebs is always a hilarious occasion with her witty comments. Here are some of them :

On the homemade ice-cream available at The Ranch at King Center.
I have 4 stomachs and one of them is reserved for ice-cream.

On a car with a big exhaust pipe that revved up loudly.
My, there goes a farthing car.

BTW, Huai Bin, we were thinking of going to eat some steamboat tomorrow nite. Wanna join us? SMS me.

Ciao people!

: : Janet Jackson Nipple Cupcakes : :

Hilarious! Unfortunately, at her expense. But I don't think I want to eat it. Urgh! Visuals were too good!

via Boing Boing