: : 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.