One Utama, 22-Feb-2007

Chinese New Year decoration @ One Utama new wing. I kind of like the bamboo decorations and I think it will look better if it was less sparse.

Little Penang Cafe, 1 Utama

Setting is very simple. Had Nasi Lemak PG stye and Pie Tee (unfortunately the chilli paste is not authentic as it lacks vinegar). Its a good replica for PG food but nothing beats the original of course.

Sentul Vihara

The Sentul Buddhist Vihara has really changed a lot. After which YTL transformed the old sentul into the new age - the temple is now located just right next to the main road. Used to be located inside a secluded and quiet spot with tree surroundings.

Happened to arrived in time to be blessed by one of the bhikkus. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu! (May all beings be well and happy)

Went to "Ti Chen" chinese restaurant @ Saujana, Golf Resort for the Chinese New Year reunion dinner. Booked a table and selected the dishes which comprises of:-

a. Salmon Yee Sang

b. Tempura Prawn with Mayonnaise Sauce

c. Roasted "Peh Pah" Chicken (Top)
d. Braised Sea Cucumber with Fatt Choy,Black Mushroom and Dried Oysters (Down)
e. Stir-fried Asparagus with Belacan (Left)

f. Double boiled Water Chestnut and White Fungus
g. Steamed Red Snapper with Spicy Chilli Sauce (sorry, forgot to take pic.)

Tang Oh

This leaf is only available during Chinese New Year. A delicacy that is required to be cooked in the steamboat soup for its unique taste in transforming and enhancing the base soup.

My creation

" Angel Hair" spaghetti cooked with authentice tomato sauce and large button mushroom. Finally topped with spices.

Nice sunset

The skyline caught my attention in one of my evening stroll. It is very seldom to catch a glimpse of this multi coloured light above. Needless to say from the massive orange hue, the following day was very HOT indeed.

Melaka St.

Finally a restaurant serves good baba-nyonya delicacies. The Petai Prawn is quite nice and served with a generous toppings of onions and of course "petai"s. At least here we are unable to count the quantity of petai's that was cooked unlike other restaurants.

The "Sizzling Tofu" is a must try as the sauce is sweet and slightly salty from the salted fish. A vegetable "Loh Hon Chai" comes with sauce that is just right to the palate.

Chinese tonic for coughs

This is the specially brewed chinese tonic for coughs. De-skinned peanuts cooked with rock sugar. Quite yummy, apart from it medicinal values, one can also cook this as an after dinner dessert.

肉干

Went to ss2, PJ today to beat the super long queue for dried meat ("bak gua"). Freshly done and packed upon order. Went for the original pork meat as there is chicken option available as well.

An orderly queue to process the order

Crystal Vase

Did not want to waste this crystal vase so decorated it with some pines (collected from SF) and some Mou Tan Fa. Looks great especially with a direct light source to ephasize its beauty.

Sat nite @ SJ, Carefourre

Look at the crowd at LGF of Carefourre Subang Jaya. So many family rushing for the last minute stock up before CNY next week. The queue was surprisingly long. Wonder if tomorrow would be worse?

Home fried CKT

Did you know that the cost for fried "Char Kuey Teow" is very cheap?

Flower crab

A substitute for 'crabs'. As a buddhist, we observe the first precept of not taking life, thus we cannot eat fresh 'crab' as they are cooked alive. This is because dead crab will turn bad and can no longer be eaten even if cooked.

With flower crab however, they can still be edible even when they are cooked after death. Prepared using sweet bean paste with ginger, garlic and chillies. The shell of the flower crab are significantly brittle compared to the normal crab (you do not require tools to break them apart - no need for pliers, hammers and handphones)

Steamboat (trial)

Bought this really cheap induction cooker (was window shopping and found another cheaper model from a different company). Something really simple, with anchovies stocks and some quail eggs, 'sotong' balls, cabbage, cauliflower, REX scallop mushroom, crab stick, fried ladies fingers, pork with century egg, ...

Although simple, the soup was surprisingly tasty.

Pattaya Fried Rice (@ ss14)

With so many choices on the wall, I finally settled for the "Pattaya Fried Rice" which is not bad. Fried rice - Thai style - wrapped in an omellete.

Spring cleaning

Finally the time has come to clean up the junks (yes its throwing away time) of the storeroom. Look at all these items (pic. is showing only 15% of the items). No, we do not have a giant storeroom just that we have excessive junks. After labouring for one whole day, now we can easily maneuver within the storage room without having to be an acrobat.

All the lighting item(s) are now all placed in this cabinet for easy access. There is no more running helter skelter to search for the right luminaires. Ah... what ease.

Also discovered a very ancient manual dated back in the 80's (i think 1988) for Video Cassette Recorders (VCR).

Finally after standing for almost 4 hours painstakingly removing the crystals and cleaning them piece by piece (pic. shows the process of removing the crystal pieces), the chandelier now is finally sparkling (bring me my sunglasses) and dazzling. (no pic as it will not reflect the gravity of my task)

The new cleaned look of the chandelier. See it sparkles.