Seizing the Sumptuous (The) Ship

Was back in Penang after just a week of the CNY break. It's more of a case of not having a choice since that particular weekend would be celebrating Evan's belated birthday and also TY's incoming birthday lol.

Lucky thing it was a 3-day weekend, so at least I'm not spending such a short time in Penang and then I'm on my way back again. But then this time around I wouldn't be able to go back to SP because TY got involved in an accident on his way back to Penang from KL, so the car is about to undergo an operation (possibly more), both functional and cosmetic. Boh huat lor, but then again, I was just back home a week ago, so I guess it's alright lah :p

Ze Kapal!

Our group in Soon Jiun's car (consisting of Elaine, Ruo-Wen, SJ himself, TY and myself) showed up fashionably late at the restaurant. Whereas the others, Evan, Zi Xiang, Chin Teng, Pei En and Kenneth were already there, like close to an hour before us. We can only place the blame on the person who dilly-dallies the most, tidor at the wrongest time, aka Mr CTY (some more had the guts to let the others accuse me of making him late wor! Then he diam-diam over there).

Anyways, we buka-ed two bottles of wine, one red and one white. I had the white one to go with my huuuge lobster ;) Freaking huuuge lobster burnt a huuuge hole in my pocket ;(

You might remember an earlier visit to The Ship, but this time we ordered some completely different salad and soup to whet the appetite.

THE SHIP's Salad
Freshly selected lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, dressed with turkey ham, boiled egg and croutons, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, served with Thousand Island sauce or French dressing

I didn't know why I ordered this one, it's completely boring, nothing special and would turn out to be too much at the end of the meal but the absence of salad just doesn't seem right for me... Nge-nge have to order.

U.S. Seafood Chowder
Improved version of the original "BIG CATCH" recipe

I've tried the seafood chowder in Victoria Station and I must say that The Ship's a bit of a disappointment... the one in VS is sooo creamy, every bite filled with the wonders of the sea T-T. The Ship one is not bad lar, but the seafood they have in the soup is a bit crudely cut, whole chunks of fish/cuttlefish just doesn't do it for me. Now, the ones at VS are just right, bite-sized... and did I mention creamy? Oh I did T-T. Also, when I sinked my teeth into the soup's fish chunks, a fishy smell, almost 'chau cho' filled my nostrils... really kills the taste -_-

And presenting the pocket burner!

Lobster Thermidor
Baked in white mushroom, bechamel wine sauce and cheese, served with baked potato and a bowl of salad

Sigh.

First time that I finally get to feast on a lobster in a nice restaurant. Was initially supposed to be belanja-ed by Su Jen at Red Lobster in LA but that time we were running out of time getting Coach bags so tak jadi T-T. There are only 2 ways that lobster is served at The Ship, grilled lobster and Thermidor.

I think Thermidor Lobster is just the same as grilled lobster, with the addition of cheese. Lobsters need cheese to be complete right ;) Ahem.... this 1kg crustacean sea creature is heaven sent! Haihz.... salivating at the thought. The meat is oh so tender, dipped in the melted cheese...mmmm.... oh but one thing is that, the lobster also emit the chau-cho bi, but as soon as you sink your teeth in it, everything is lovely. I suppose the cheese must have done a good job in masking the unpleasantries. TY said western stuff is liddat wan wor. But it can't be not fresh, because the waiter caught the lobsters out and showed us while it was still alive and kicking, to see if we're fine with them.

Obligatory photo with unsuspecting creature.

RM23 per 100 grams. You do the math.

Liked how this picture turned out.

TY got the steak.

I think this would be the first and the last time I would ever order a lobster.
#1 - I am not a seafood person
#2 - I am a meat person. Steak would satisfy me. After the huge lobster dinner, I was hungry 4 hours later.

Yummzy

Charbroiled Rib Eye Steak
A tender and succulent steak served with prime vegetables, corn on cob, baked potato and a bowl of salad

Salivating at the thought... oh well, there's always another time, but that other time definitely won't be that soon... extremely pokai d lol.

Cacat Fler.

Witness me tackling the lobster single-handedly. (okla, got some help from around the table too...)

Strangely reminds me of a roach's bottom.

TY's bday gift.

I think he gets these like close to every year..... Like not enough underwear liddat.

Also managed a group photo :) which turns out not bad.

Headed over to Coffee Island after dinner to catch up. Kenneth was terrorized by us at the back for his 'good connections' with USM professors aka pembodek hehehe.

Here you see him trying to pinch us at the back after getting a heavy dose of teasing... and since he has got nothing to retaliate, he uses the tried and tested brute force, that damn barbaric fatty. Thank goodness Evan has a lot of practise with snakes, held him off till we got off safely at Coffee Island.

I think it has been a bit more of a habit now that I'm working in KL, to sleep early, latest by 12am, but I try to make it to bed between 10-11pm. This could probably kill my social life in the weekends lol. Start yawning around 11... jeez. People also just baru only wanna enter club I already yawn.

Okies, I'll just end the post with the drinks for the night (non-alcoholic though)

Winner of all the drinks goes to the least unexpected.... peanut butter milkshake (which many were reluctant to order due to its, urm, geng-ness.

My karot milk :D

Viet coffee. Tastes ok, think I tried the one in Tropicana City and that was superb... kao kao.

Fatty good stuff. Peanut butter milkshake ;)

Okla, it's already 5:30am and I'm still so enthu wanna blog. Catch a few zzzs. Nite everyone.

The Korean Charm

On Sunday, which is the 8th day of the Lunar Calendar, and also coincidentally Teen Yuen's birthday according to the Chinese calendar, I was invited to have dinner with TY's family. The whole bunch of them from Kuantan will be travelling from Kuantan early morning and then we will meet up in KL.Korean food @ Ampang! :D

I suppose it's sorta like a high-end Korean restaurant. Dinner could fetch up to RM50-100 per pax.Arrived at the restaurant close to 7pm I think. There were two sections that made up the seating area. A half consists of tables surrounded by partitions to ensure privacy, and the other half of a large open area with a stage in front. To my surprise, only a handful of tables were occupied then. But I guess it's still very early.The waitresses in the restaurants are from Korea and it certainly lends a hint of authenticity to the restaurant. All of them are very sweet looking, with fair and smooth skin (makes you wonder whether they have gone under the knife - at least 75% of Korean women are known to have performed cosmetic surgery.

Check out those heels the girls have to put on under their han-boks. Can you imagine walking in these all night long? lol. But after a quick calculation, taking off the heightened platform of the heels, I estimate the heels would come to about 3 inches high. 4 inch would be a killer, 3 inches - tolerable but definitely sore at the end of the day. Wei En mentioned that these girls have been trained in Korea and are sent over to Malaysia for a limited period.Our table has been reserved and it happens to be the very front one just by the stage. The elders did the ordering while we young ones were snapping pictures or crapping.


By the way, did I mention that taking photographs are prohibited from being taken in the restaurant? I didn't know until 3 quarter of the meal was over.

I can't recall the names of the dishes served in this restaurant, so I went on a mission to search for the menu and to my dismay, an official website is lacking and I even stumbled into a few blogs which mentioned of the place, but had difficulty capturing photos of the food, and even shots of the menu lol. I guess I was slightly a bit more lucky because some of these bloggers were already stopped from photographing before stepping into the place, whereas I had the opportunity to take multiple shots of every dish except 1. Oh, make that 2. Didn't take the dessert (watermelon slices) simply because it's not special enough to be captures ;pAnyway, attempts to research more on search engines were futile, some leading me into histories of Pyongyang (a town in NK) or location of embassies. Bleah. I'll just try to describe the dishes in my own words la. I also found out that Pyongyang is billed to be the only North Korean restaurant in KL.

First to be served were some small side dishes (banchan) so accustomed to the Koreans.

What I don't like when these small plates are served is that, they are all placed far apart in between and seated in such a huge round table, I had difficulty in trying out the other dishes, lest I look like a glutton reaching and stretching out my arms with my chopsticks flinging across the plate at the far end.

Bottom to top: Stir-fry soybean sprouts (taugeh), some sort of cucumber (?) in sour sauce and roasted groundnuts.

Stir fry beef strip. Meat is a bit tough.

Kimchi. (Truth be told, I don't think I can detect much difference on a possibly RM10-20 plate of Kimchi sold in a high end Korean restaurant to the RM4 a jar Kimchi sold in Tesco. Sourness level possibly the same. Maybe my taste buds a bit tak bley pigi). And you can't argue on the freshness cos, kimchis are fermented for a period of time... so I guess we're paying for the ambience? But anyways I did not have to pay for dinner so.... however that will make the whole post sound dumb (like, this is alright la, since I don't have to pay for it...) ok I am being a complete cheong hei, so let's move on damnit. I'll pretend like I paid for it la, just because.

This is one of my favorite. Some sort of a vegetable pancake (I think) topped with bonito flakes (katsuobushi).

A form of omelette fried with a chockful of starch. Nothing special I think. I also can make:p

Meat dumplings. Okie okie lor.

Dining mates.

Grilled beef skewered over foil. This is very yummy too. I'm not sure what sort of herbs and spices they marinate the beef with, but they're doing a good job. Add with a blob of mustard and you're good to go! By the way, beef are considered to be prized among all meats.


Glass noodles cooked in a dark soupy broth with slices of meat. Some say it's an acquired taste, for me, it's not something that I cannot accept but it's not something that I can describe either. It's neither salty nor sour nor anything at all. -_-

It is served cold and typically cold dishes (some mixed with ice cubes) are taken during winter and is believed to balance the body temperature. Weird eh? I would do it the opposite way. Whereas during the summer months, the Koreans have something spicy pulakz.

Ooooh! This is also another fave of mine! BBQ-ed beef strips to perfection, sprinkled with sesame seeds, immerse in the sauce plate, add a li'l bit of raw chopped onions and yummmzzz.

Erhh... This is a bit dumpling-ish, loads of stuffing which I cannot recall, I know it kinda reminds me of otak-otak but not quite.... no fish in it, meat, some veg and some sort of herb or what that creates the yellow color.

Kimchi fried rice! I also know how to make! :p Okla to be fair, Pyongyang's version of fried rice seems to be much wetter. But my version uses leftover rice (as should be done for fried rice, or you end up with wet rice) and I put in more ingredients into the rice ok... costs less than RM10 per plate ;) But it's good la anyways :D

Stir fry glass noodles with assorted vegetables and mushrooms. Not unlike the chinese stir fry glass noodles and vegetables.

Then makan makan halfway d, the Korean waitresses came out on stage and started performing a Korean dance. Again, I sneaked a picture.

The girls are definitely very pretty, and are pretty graceful. I do notice that they change into lower heels for the dances.

Then after dancing with the fans, a few of them started to sing Karaoke on stage.

Lookie them close-up.

When they started to sing, they made all this kind of cliche moves, some like very emo, some like the dong dong chiang MV you used to see 15 years ago, like very practiced moves and not natural liddat, you know?

I think that they should have stopped at the cultural dance. Even the songs that they sang also are English (Barbara Streissand)..... But I do think that uncles or kam yu lous would love to see them perform... I mean no offense, these girls are memang pretty, polite, graceful and all that, but the singing is totally unnecessary. They remind me of an extremely loud and outdated Chinese wedding dinner.

Okies, a couple of group photos!

Not exactly the whole group, those are with TY (darn slow in editing...)

and a different mode.

Happy tummy ^^