errr....

i didnt mean to do this, really...but i just could not control myself..

i know, i know...i have said it a thousand times before and each time i had to pinch myself but yet...i am weak, i am human...and...I JUST CANT HELP IT...



i just love smartfones !!! kakakaka :P


so..my galaxy note went out the window and in came this newbie..the first of its kind in the market..a quad-core 1.5 GHz running on android ICS...wheeeeeeee

i present to you my latest toy..the HTC One X ..

this is just about the fastest running smarfone there is right now..with beautiful graphics from any which angle that you look..read the review by gsmarena and see for yourself why this baby is so so hot at this moment..

the only downside, as yet again with all the smartfones out there...the battery just doesnt seem to last long enough for me to enjoy playing with it..and i was kinda getting used to the 5.3 inch display of the galaxy note.. :O(

home cooking ??

yeah..u heard me right !! the wholesome goodness of real home-cooked food. a kind of rarity nowadays when every eatery out there, plus some too busy-to-cook mothers who leave the cooking to their maids, throw up what appears like tasty looking meals but are so heavily laced with chemicals instead..haha (means got plentiful ajionomoto added lo..).

in contrast, let me tell you a bit about those dishes that come with just the right amount of ingredients, the right balance in aroma, taste & texture, and not forgetting the whole-hearted effort plus hours of preparation, that go into bringing them to fruition and wah laaah, you get the kind of meal that really beats all diet programs.. means you just want to throw any thoughts of dieting out the window and gorge yourself silly on the food like there's no tomorrow..but one that is so much more healthier than what one can buy outside or those that come with added foreign flavors...hehehe

i met this really wonderful lady a while back, an aunt of a good friend of mine, who's just so into creating simple & wonderful dishes that can rival the best that any restaurants can offer..now i wish i had taken more pictures of her creations on previous invites but i suppose, when i saw them food laid out on the table, my camera just went out the window instead as i laid my hands on those mouth-watering delicacies..lol lol

well, this last invite, i had the mind to quickly snap a photo before everyone attacked the food..hahaha

i had on previous occasions suggested to her to open a restaurant or cafe as i truly believe she can really do brisk business, but on the other hand, come to think of it, good food like these should perhaps be known only to a few select people, to savor, to indulge in and to bring joy to... and i think she does that rather extremely well for all her family, relatives & friends... and i am so honored to have had a couple of those opportunities to share in them..





p/s:.. and oh, she plays a mean game of gin-rummy too...

ok folks..

..i'm taking a break. may not be blogging for a few months..

got things to sort out..will be back, hopefully soon..

cheers..

a nice getaway..

i wanna tell you about this little place that i discovered by chance recently..

it was just one of those lazy days at the office when i suddenly got a pop-up email message from booking.com on their specials..absent-mindedly opened up the web-link and what i saw really piqued my curiosity..it was a flash deal on a boutique hotel in town..at rm49 for a room, it was totally unbeatable, especially when i saw the pics of the rooms and the hotel..

so i made an immediate booking for an upcoming holiday, got hold of my bunch of friends and off we went to explore the place..

what greeted us on the outside was kind of totally unremarkable..an almost plain looking glass door fronting an unassumingly normal looking building amidst a run down neighborhood...but once we opened the glass door, it was like going into a different dimension..


pretty decent looking frontage..that is if one doesn't look too far to the left or the right..and if one forgets to appreciate the real esthetics upfront, one might think it not very different from any other budget hotel in that part of town..







motel-like rooms seen from the courtyard..very clean corridors..not a piece of rubbish seen..







artificial looking natural trees..haha. dont get me wrong, it actually looks very very pleasing..landscaping must have been done by a professional...the plastic paneling actually allows sunlight to come into the courtyard but keeps out the rain. the sides are not enclosed, which allows natural air to flow in..very smart..






having a cup of tea or coffee in the afternoon can be quite nice, relaxing and refreshing out here..with my samsung tab in hand, i could just while my time away playing angry birds..







quite upmarket finishings. one can judge a room by its wash basin..and the wood paneled flooring just adds a further measure of luxury..very simple but yet very cozy and comfortable..








this is really nice..mattress on a floor board. so japanese in styling. the bed was really comfortable...i could just live in this room forever..and with a 32-inch LCD tv facing the bed..i was in heaven..







the shower and toilet..again very very clean. the hot water was a bit low in pressure..but what the heck, just have to spend a longer time in there lo..








a nice table to do one's work if necessary..







i was actually very surprised by the design and make-up of this hotel, the courtyard and mostly the rooms. i could tell that someone actually took the time to design this very aesthetically pleasing place from scratch, when they re-built the place..and to offer it as a lifestyle hotel at a very very affordable price is truly remarkable..and unbelievable. i just hope it stays like this forever..


so..if you are looking for a nice getaway that wont burn a hole in your pocket, look no further than the V Garden hotel in KL.. you can get good deals from here too..and you might also want to explore the neighborhood if you come to stay, as dinghy as it appears to be, it actually holds a treasure of eateries not known to many..and you can tell these places cater to KLites who know where to find good food..without having to use a credit card...

the ultimate..

..in smartfone design and technology has to be this..i am so glad i traded in my galaxy S2 for this one..

















i'm talking about the new Samsung galaxy note !! a 5.3 incher, 1.4 GHz dual core, super amoled plus monster of a phone that fits so so snugly in my pants pocket. with this, all others just fail by comparison..every app just runs so smoothly and in clear crisp colours too.. and the coolest app on-board has to be the S-memo using their special stylus pen, where i can make doodles on mommy's pictures and then send to her..hahaha but luckily she cant receive as her phone is not so smart..hehe. but right now i'm just gonna let these pics and video do all the talking...coz i'm gonna be so busy playing with my new toy..hehe

and becoz of this, i gonna send my bb and all other smartfone wannabes in my closet to the junk yard....kekekekeke






i'm so happy...wheeeeeeeeeeeeee

...baby

found a nicer place..

so....it was my deepavali holiday getaway lo...haha..didn't really go anywhere lah but decided to go stay at a hotel in town..just to get the feel of like going on holiday somewhere like that lo..hehehee

anyway, the next day me and my friends went back to our new food hunting ground in seri petaling, absent-mindedly walked into the same cafe that we had visited the last time..was about to sit down but suddenly felt the urge to try something else instead..and so we did..

i said to my friends..hey, let's all quickly quickly run out before the waiter comes to take our orders..hehe. so, we got up, pretended to all point to something across the street.. and rushed out. we then walked into this dim sum place just a few doors away..there were like quite a number of people in there but we managed to find one table to sit down..the menu was wonderfully illustrated, sending our expectations up..we just pointed here and there and the order was done..food came very quickly in a few minutes and they looked like these..





first up was this shanghai "xiu loong pau" which my friend wanted. i have to say he orders this particular item every single time we all go makan dim sum..haih..don't know what's so special, looked to me like the "pao" went swimming like that....haha..in any case, he said this one wasn't good as compared to that din tai fung place at empire shopping centre (of coz that was before that place kena
explosion..we await eagerly their re-opening)





next up was this deep fried crispy "woo-kok"..(yam..)..very flaky, quite tasty, not oily at all..in other words not bad lo..i wonder how they make the external pastry part..so flaky, so light and crispy, they sort of melt in your hands..hahaha






this is their hong kong style fried carrot cake "lou pak kou".. again not oily, taste was decent & spicy enough but did not have that oomph factor.. would have been nice if they could add a few more drops of oil when cooking it...and oh yes..maybe turn up the fire a little bit more..?






this is "siu mai" with added fish roe on top.. fresh and crunchy prawn pieces on the inside.. maybe if they had put the more colorful ebikko on top, would have perhaps looked more enticing and taste a bit more seafoody...nevertheless, it was fairly decent in taste..still beats a lot of other places..





this one's crispy prawn roll. one word..NICE..again without the oily residue blotting the paper serviette underneath...hmmm, this place must really pride itself on serving really really non-oily dim sum..is it on purpose or just their recipe, i wonder..?? can't complain i suppose, less oil means more healthy lo..blek.. :OP






..and we saved the best for last. this one is fried "foo-chok" or dry bean curd..very very nice.. crispy, tasty and again, when i held it in my fingers i felt no oil stains..wow !! i could eat this everyday...i give this 5 out of 5.. :O)




all the above came out to less than rm50 !! and it included many glasses of warm water and my 3-layered coffee brew (forgot to take a pic of it coz it was so colorful i immediately drank it..)...cool isn't it, to get this kind of pricing at this day and time for six dim sum items..??

would i go this place again? a definite yes..because i saw so many many other dishes on their menu (mouth watering pics really..) that i would love to check out next time.. they got crabs lah, fish lah, of coz prawns and other meats too & vegetable dishes to make for a full course dinner..

two places..

...and more..

so..i was hanging around the seri petaling area yesterday evening and i chanced upon this new section that i've never really noticed before ...wahhhhhh...so many many new eateries there..every shoplot was a cafe or restaurant of some sort..it was approximately a kilometre long from one end to the other..well almost.. and deciding what food to eat was like the most difficult decision i've ever had to make in my life..!!


being a penangite, i had to try out this place called the chopper board cafe. it had the word penang below the cafe name and so i assumed they served penang fare..and of course i ordered the char koay teow. it came out looking like it had all the necessary ingredients for a good plate of ckt.. tastewise, it was quite good, had good wok-hei...but something was missing..?? maybe lard wasnt used for the cooking...and despite my asking for my ckt to be fried with extra chilli, it did not give me a fiery taste and the friendly waiter offering me sambal to add just wasnt quite right..not the way penang ckt is eaten. a friend tried their noodle soup which was deceptively tasty.. i had thought that his noodles came out of a maggi packet but i was wrong..

all in all, it's a good place to have some decent penang hawker fare..i must check out their curry mee and prawn mee next time..

seeing so many cafes in one place got me uncontrollably excited..so i forced my friends to crash another cafe right after..this one i have read about on some foodie blogs..restaurant herbs & spices. the pictures on the walls were just too tempting..i got sucked in by some magnetic force..hehe
i ordered a plate of hainanese chicken chop to be shared..and it was good..the chicken was fresh, and tender on the inside and so so crispy on the outside. i didnt need the accompanying sauce to enjoy it.. it was so good..but i was too full to finish it or to even think about ordering any other dishes..next time will go try this place again..