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..

wahlao eh !!

..so i was up in genting lo for the malaysia day holiday..like most chinese people, i went gambling lo..hahahahaha (not really true..but we get stereotyped anyway...hehe, just like what i'm gonna tell you about the movie we watched up in genting..)

and the good news is i won RM 800 betting on a single number (18) at a roulette table. my only attempt at a table on the second day and my one and only bet on that day..sekali the number came out, i grabbed my money and walked straight out of the casino..wheeeeeeeeeee...

and of course with that winning, i had to belanja my friends all go makan and watch movie lo..and we decided to go see Nasi Lemak 2.0, a movie directed, co-written, and acted by our "infamous" local boy.. namewee....wahlao eh..i thought i was gonna die laughing from beginning to the end of the movie...granted there were a few scenes i didn't quite get or understand, i just laughed because everyone else was cracking up !! on the whole, it was really really boisterously good.. for a first timer at acting and directing..namewee is talented..

a lot of stereotypes were depicted but in a most hilarious way and i don't think anyone of us was offended in that cinema..i saw a mixture of audience, although the majority number of patrons were malaysian chinese..but everyone laughed like mad throughout the movie..i think we all saw the funny side of "us" in that movie.. :O)

i especially loved the curry neh dancing scene, it was so bollywood but yet the song was sung in chinese..and that part about people hiding behind trees & bushes was really steroetypically hilarious..david arumugam's face alone in that scene really cracked me up..and all the acting was quite natural..not bad really.. everyone should go see it..

and i think the language/dialects that are spoken in the movie is rather original..people actually do talk like that out there.. if we only really stop to listen..and i think if we could all take time out to laugh at ourselves once in a while, this country might just be a happier place for everyone of us..

and so after a good laugh and a happy time in genting, it was back to our normal grind again in KL..

so good....

...it was a long awaited holiday for me over the past one week during the raya holidays..so off i went with some friends to melaka..

it's been a great many years since i last visited that place and much has changed since then..for one, melaka raya area seems a little bit bigger than previously, a lot more busier than previously and the people much much more than previously...

but it was a leisurely trip for the bunch of us..to just play tourists but of course we avoided those obviously touristy sites like a-famosa lah, the stadhuys lah etc..etc.., and instead just went walk2, cari makan, beli-belah...as in curi2 malaysia...and i tell you, i have never seen such a huge underground shopping complex as i saw in the dataran pahlawan under-field complex.. wow..so many shops, so little time, so so tired from the daily walks in air-conditioned comfort...hahahaa..

but for this post, i just wanna tell you about my discovery of this little art cafe in jonker's walk area..i'm pretty sure it's already famous without the need for me to rave about it...anyway, it was the highlight of our visit to melaka..

it was actually a chance walk-in into this cafe coz we were so tired from walking under the noon day heat and we saw this cute little cafe which seemed to be blowing a cool breeze at us as we walked by...so anyway, i just had to say that this was the BEST tasting nyonya melaka laksa that i have ever ever tasted in my life..it was so good, i almost drank all the soup..the color and texture were almost perfect, the taste was exquisite..really..u go try and see and then tell me..




one of us ordered this somewhat normal looking nasi lemak, although it came with yellow rice (? nasi kunyit..) but i took a spoonful and found it rather tasty despite its plain looks..








this samosa & springroll combo was simple & nice too..crispy on the outside, fresh fillings on the inside..






this is what they are famous for actually..coffee !! i had the ice blended local coffee mix..i think..beats SB or CB any time..







...this is the cafe lo..from the outside..








...and this is how it looks on the insides..nice & cosy, a cool atmosphere for the always hot melaka weather !!



so..if you ever thought about making a visit to melaka, this place is good enough a reason for you to make that visit..the place is called calanthe art cafe.. :O)

...on a side note..see these people queuing up to go into the coffee shop ? it's supposedly one of melaka's famous chicken rice balls outlets....hmmm..the weather was too hot for us to join in the silly queue...maybe next time..

it's been so long....

..years really, since i last laid my buds on these fabulous mouth watering delicacies..

i found this place by chance actually while i was going up an escalator with a friend at the pavillion shopping centre yesterday..suddenly, there was this little sign board that screamed out at me.!! come get the best tacos, nachos & other mexican spread - at Popilla !! and then it was a good 10 minutes of frantic, heart palpitating excitement verging on disappointment, searching all over for that outlet at the lower ground food court area...and just when i was about to give up..wah lah !!..like magic, the stall suddenly appeared right in front of me..



this is THE place that brought back memories of a place long gone..almost cried when i saw it..hahahaha (ok..ok..granted this was nowhere near the likeness of Taco Bell, but it was very very close enough...)





ok..well..these fellas dont quite look like mexican amigos but they can sure serve up some really nice mexican feast in a jiffy, like speedy gonzales.. yibba..yibba...andale..!!





and this folks !!..this is the one thing that has been missing from my life for over the last ten years !! i kissed the ground & praised the lord for bringing me my kind of nachos !! just you look at those melted cheddar cheese...wheeeeeeeeeeeelelujah...!!




..and this of course, completed me yesterday..wonderfully crispy taco shell, filled to the brim with spicy minced chicken, laced with an exact amount of sour cream & salsa sauce & loaded with lots of freshly cut tomatoes & crunchy lettuce shreds..all topped up with a hefty sprinkling of grated cheese that just melted in my mouth with every single bite.. uuummmm..yummy.. can you taste it ?


the above plus a drink of pina colada for only rm 12.40..!! unbelievable...

i was in no mood to share with anyone, i had to eat them all, every little bit of it, almost licked the paper wrapper too..at that moment in time, it was just me and my tacos & nachos and nothing else would have mattered... and they were all mine, mine, mine mine...huargghhhh !!

so now..i'm drawing up my next few sunday trips to Popilla to savor their echiladas, burritos..etc..etc..

i podía comer aquí para siempre....

i thought i would..

..give this playground place a visit again since the last time i went there was a bit of a let down..who knows..maybe the chef was in a bad mood that day..haha and anyway, parking spots were plentiful around the cafe lot last night..

i wanted just a light meal as i had not had my dinner yet.. so i ordered the following..


this was appetizer/dessert..haha. it was a supposedly -25C ice floss. i ordered the orange flavored one..it was kinda nice, tasted a bit like ice cream but without the heavy creamy taste, kinda melt-in-the-mouth sweet.. those little pearl-colored balls on the side were nice. they "pop" when you bite into them..like small little eggs..haha




this was my dinner..moonlight fried koay teow..i suppose they called it moonlight was becoz of the raw egg placed on top.. to represent the moon i guess... the taste was sort of bearable but i wish they had not used frozen crab sticks & other frozen processed bits & pieces of seafood. Would have been nice if fresh prawns or squids were used..


well...i guess i would just go back to try other ice floss flavors..

cheap and so good ah..

wow..i just discovered this fabulous eating place..and i think this has to be the ultimate-great-food-at-extreme-value-for-money place so far..

a very unassuming seafood restaurant by the highway..the only giveaway is the huge number of people sitting and some standing & waiting for tables to be emptied..the place was really packed yesterday when i was there, but surprisingly, we managed to get a table, put in our orders, and the food placed on our table in less than 15 minutes..

anyway, i'm gonna just let the pics below speak for themselves..




first up was this vegetable curry..totally rich & yummy, full of coconut milk zest !! and you can have fish-head version, chicken, prawns, crabs or whatever you fancy..








..and of course, i had to have my salted egg ration for the day..hehe..this one cooked with mantis prawn..totally awesome..








next was this stir-fried kai lan..first time in my life i sort of enjoyed munching on kai lan...just tells you how good it is..coz mostly i would prefer softer vegetables like spinach or potato leaves, but some how this one won me over..





finally, the toast of the town !! their signature dish - Oyster Omelette..every table had one i believe!! nicely huge and totally fresh oysters were used. just unbelievable how fresh those oysters were..hmm..maybe they had just scooped them out from a fish tank..hehe. my only gripe..the mild chili sauce wasn't exactly appropriate..maybe something spicier might had added even more oomph to that dish..but then again, even without any chili sauce, on its own, the dish was already absolutely tasty..



...and can you believe, the above 4 dishes with rice and a pot of chinese tea for an incredible price of RM50.20 ??!! i think eating in any fast-food joints for 4 persons would have cost much much more...and if you can't resist the temptation after salivating over the pics above, head on over to: foo chuan seafood restaurant at 2580 persiaran raja muda musa in klang (highway leading to port klang..) right this minute .. wheeeeeeee...

oh..by the way, i hear their crabs are really really good too..!! i'm gonna make sure i try that on my next visit..

it's been a while..

...since i put up anything korean..music, food, etc..etc..

no, i havent lost my love for all things korean or japanese..just that i havent really come across anything that catches my attention so strongly until this..

for someone with his kind of background, it must have taken him massive amounts of determination to live and an unbelievable passion to still pursue this dream of his..

he is such an inspiration to humanity, against all odds really...anyway, do watch and be amazed..





..now imagine if bik could sing well like this, jib would sure win the next round hands-down.. ..nella fantaseeeeeea..satu malayseeeeeeahhhh..lalala lalalala..mega shopping time ahhhhhhhh... lala lala lalaaaaa....