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It's after office hours, and here I am blogging in the office :p

I feel like crap, dragging myself to work after a 5-day long satisfying holiday.... So unfair... Wish that I had appreciate my schooling and uni days now. But then again, those days you would have to bring your assignments and revision back, so I suppose, just try to be content with what you have :)

It's close to the end of another year, and believe it or not, almost 3 years I have posted multiple crap onto this blog. Interestingly, each year I have managed to produce an average of 50 posts, well, excluding 2008 where there were only 40 posts but this year has the most number of posts! (uh, yay?)

Food tops the list of blog category lolz. Whereas Around the World has the least :( I think under that section, there's only the States that I have blogged. Never really got to travel around that much these past years.... But then again, that Tag is pretty recent, so it's probably not updated anyway but I don't careeeee.

I think the major difference through this blog is that I've increased posts relating to trips, holidays and makan places. There's a definite curve downwards on Rantings... Not as if I've been a more contented person, but I suppose blogging about something other than that is much more fun and doesn't make me feel any more depressing that I already felt lolz.

Alritey, time to get ready to go to the gym and burn some major fat I've been collecting during my Christmas holidays.

Soon, we'll welcome 2010! Happy new year! :D

East Coast Xmas

Like, teh si overload -_-

Spent 5 days before and after Christmas in the capital state of Pahang. 5 days is just too darn short! Blink twice and it's already time to go back T_T

Anyway, after enduring four hours in the bus (crooked uncomfortable seat, cramped space, windy and bumpy ride filled with the annoying screeching of Malay rock songs) , I think it is just worth the ride to be able to enjoy Christmas with TY's family... along with an abundance of delicious food too hehe.

Breakfast Day 1.

Curry mee at (where ar?). Initially we wanted to go to a different shop, but that one closes quite early and as we are all pretty heavy sleepers, we missed that.

Even this curry mee place also has very few stuff left over lol. Only some deep fried stuff and tofu.

Later had goat cheese for tea. I think this would taste really great with crackers. Aunty said that a roll of this cheese costs around RM40. The goat cheese has a really strong smell, especially on the outer area.

This one has a slightly less strong smell. Smoked ham cheese.

Dinner Day 1:

Loads and loads of veges! Just the way I like it hehehe. Stir fried long beans, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, pork with ngaku (arrowhead) and lettuce.

Also the most amazingly greasy and crispy pork meat and skin fried with garlic omg.

Afterwards, we (well, more like Aunt herself) proceeded to get the tiramisu going!

The sponge cake that makes up the layers between tiramisu which Aunty has prepared in advance.

Kahlua coffee liquor.

Thus, observe and learn! :p

Wei En badly wanted to spread the coffee liquor on the sponge cake. However, Aunty was a little apprehensive I think and when she was doing the first layer, she purposely counted loudly with each coffee liquor spoonful as Wei En requested to spread herself. Lol.

But last skali she got to do it also lar.

Breakfast Day 2: Christmas Eve.

Had Konlo mee at Pasar (one of Kuantan's biggest wet market) with Kopi-O. It's similar with respect to the wantan mee in Penang, with the difference that (in TY's words:) the noodles are less yellow-y (lacking in what sort of chemical, I do not know) and the noodles are drenched in clear soup instead of the dark sauce that I am accustomed to. Tastes pretty good actually, once you kinda get used to the idea.

Later on we went to buy ingredients for stuff to cook for dinner that night. Mostly ingredients for my ceviche! You may remember this dish that Su Jen has made for me before while I stayed over at her place in LA. It a Mexican dish and tastes really great on its own or as a condiment with tortilla bread or even crackers.

Hao and I working our asses out. It's hard work spreading garlic butter in between each slots of the French loaf ok. This whole time Mr Lazy was upstairs playing a game called Plants vs Zombie I believe lol. (More on that later :p) Oh wait I just remembered, I think he was conveniently cleaning his camera lenses and looking busy when we all needed an extra hand in the kitchen. Typical.

Anyway some of the stuff you see are probably repetitions from previous Xmas :p

A few ingredients for the ceviche.

Aunty's granola chunks and bits that she made herself. I think I will soon have to bend on my knees and beg her to take me in as an apprentice.

Roast taters! Well, these haven't actually gone through the process of roasting yet, but they are almost 50% complete to be called that lol.

Mixed together with rosemary herbs, olive oil, and some seasoning.

Got so many things to cook for Christmas dinner some more Aunty can find time to cook something spectacular for our lunch -_- Respect.

Lai fun. Sprinkled with sesame seeds, roasted peanuts, some salted vegetables and roast pork after drenching the noodles in tau cheo sauce.

And now, I present to you, the Mother of All Feasts!

The bigass roast turkey stuffed with rosemary and bay leaf. Please shift your attention to the golden clear liquid at the bottom of the tray.... greasy... oily... and full of rich goodness T_T. I had to endure the tantalizing aroma from the damn turkey for the whole day, but can only see, cannot eat, cannot touch till dinner time. Temptation!

The green pea soup silently bubbling away ^^ Not my favourite but tastes good nevertheless.

My ceviche! Lol. Ok, admittedly, it looks very much different from Su Jen's version. Like it has more greeneries right? Have to accommodate TY's family mar lol. Also, I'm not very happy with the outcome, I felt like I could've improved it somewhat. If I could do it again, I would add fatter and juicier prawns, the ones we had here were cut a bit too thinly that you couldn't tell there were prawns inside too. And also, it just wasn't spicy enough. I should have put in more chili seeds. But we did compensate by adding Tabasco chili to it though.

T_T

And what is a feast without some beer and wine? Chilled to goodness.

Another addition to the feast which Aunty forgot to bring out lol....

Ze 2009 Happy Meal :)

Out comes the cake! Aunty has sprinkled cocoa powder on top to give the cake a most delicious look T_T

The taste? Almost orgasmic lol. I feel like this year's tiramisu is a bit lacking in something lor... The coffee liquor doesn't seem to be soaking enough of the sponge cake. So some parts are kinda dry. I mean, some will probably think that the cream cheese would be 'wet' enough but the tiramisu I've tried the previous time was sooooo good and wet-ish brimming with coffee liquor so this is a bit of a setback.

Not that I'm complaining though!'

Birthday gal Wei En. Uncle Chiang said that every year her birthday party is the most expensive wan lol.


Predator marking its innocent and oblivious to the surrounding victim.

Dinner: Christmas Day (Day 3)

ABC soup cooked with turkey bones T_T Been boiling and cooking for the whole day. The aroma is just so omfgly out of the world. The soup is unbelievably sweet. Love!. Had 2 bowls. Only. That also because almost want to finish d and I don't want to take any more cos pai seh I guest.

Also had soup with a bowl of rice, leftover turkey and gravy, leftover ceviche, PoPo's special pork chop (which she probably makes every year or so) leftover coleslaw and some stir fry greens.

I spent some of the best time in Kuantan fighting zombies off the front lawn and back yard and roof.

T_T

Dinner: Boxing Day

Hao wanted to make spaghetti (or was it TY or Wei En?) and I suggested meatballs... so....

...we have two guys, one with the grossest butt crack and the other probably will soon follow his foot steps? I darn hope not. The world already had enough sufferings to begin with.

TY's chopped pork meat (with uneven sizes :p) marinated with minced onions and garlic, thick dark sauce, pepper and finely chopped carrots.

Ta-da!

Spirals and bow-ties.

Wei En and Wei Shan so schweet gave me a birthday present. And I'm such a meanie didn't get anything for them. Not that I didn't want to... but I just couldn't find anything nice to get for them...

Then, all too soon, it's already time to head back sob sob... How I wish that I don't have to ever dread the end of the holidays and the return to work. If only I have a home in KL that I look forward to go back to after a hard day's work....

Breakfast in Taman Tas just before my return to the concrete jungle.

Before I forget.... Chiang Teen Yuen!! You owe me like, one hundred massages already ok please. If I add in interest you'll soon not have a single night free d.

Turning 24 Again

Sort of like a advert before the main show begins, let me share with you a few more posts of what Kelly cooked a couple of days ago hehe....

It's some mushroom thingy with assorted vegetables which Kelly has cooked before and that I have expressed my love for it in this post. This dish sort of differs a little from the one I love because Kelly has missed out the Japanese seaweed and the macadamia nuts :(

And this is also gooooood! Pork meatballs from minced meat, onions, carrots deep fried to a golden brown perfection served with fried sliced taters and mushed green peas.

The girls were gracious enough to hold a belated birthday celebration because most of them were busy the week before. So Mei Ying, Grace and I agreed to meet up in Pavilion, get a bit of shopping done and then meet the rest at Lecka Lecka.

The Christmas decorations in Pavilion is awesome. Completely over the top, but in a good way. Red carpet greets shoppers from the main entrance all the way down to the grand stage set up with four magnificent Christmas trees. By the way, do you know that the main entrance of Pavilion is designed in such a way that heavily incorporates feng shui? From the main door, the stairs slopes downwards into a large concourse. It is supposed to 'collect' all the good luck and money apparently.

We later got to 'enjoy' the fake snow. Made of foam, they do actually look a bit like snow flakes as they drift their way slowly downwards. If only the foam do not have this unpleasant fumes coming out of it and if the surroundings were a bit cooler then I'm sure it would be fun lol.

The exterior decorations are pretty nice too, reindeers pulling on a sleigh...

My virgin dining experience at Lecka Lecka. Apparently there are about 10 outlets around KL but only this one here at Bukit Bintang is actually a restaurant. The others only offer ice-cream. The restaurant has a nice open-air seating (wonder how do they survive on rainy days?) and it is cool to dine in the hustle and bustle of a city.

Lecka Lecka is also the only place that offers Egyptian shisha although we didn't try that. Tze Imm said that it's much too expensive (RM35) when elsewhere they offered around RM15. Well maybe that's local? But there is one ring of truth in what Tze Imm said though... most of the items here seem to be overpriced. I guess we're largely paying for the ambience and location then.

One thing to note is that we girls are just a bit too demanding lol. So. Mr CTY, you can't blame me for complaining/demanding too much since these people have already been influencing me since I was still young and naive.

First, we settled ourselves down on this comfortable seats but the table was way too small for a group of 5. It could only sit 4 unless another chair is pulled up at the side, but even so whoever so unfortunate to sit on that would be very uncomfortable because there just isn't any leg room.

So.

We requested for another table and the waitress (who can only seem to understand Malay. Has difficulty when we try to converse with her in English) directed us to another seating area which has a sofa-like seats but the table was a bit too low to dine on. We brought this up to the waitress, so she suggested we take the normal table-chair seating around the middle of the place. Just as the waiters were moving two tables together to join them up we decided we want to sit somewhere near the entrance because the table they were going to give us has a bit of a sad view, can see cars passing by and that's it. lol. After that we didn't complain already la. About the seating arrangement that is. Oh wait, we did. Because some chairs have cushions and some don't. But we only commented that among ourselves, we dare not ask the waitress to bring us cushions lolz.

Sin Dee and Tze Imm arrived later, close to 8:30pm and we proceeded to order our meals and drinks. Beer, baby!

I dunno why but I just like this picture. Brings out the nice background and color. Sin Dee looks very nicely tanned!

We had this atrociously priced salad for starters: Avocado salad served with lettuce, red lettuce, slices of tomatoes, and cheese. For a freaking RM20 or something like that.

Seafood Spaghetti Aglio & Olio for a taste of pasta. It's just so-so. A wee bit oily but plentiful of sea creatures to keep us happy. This simple paste is made up of tiger prawns, mussels, white squid, fish and clams.

Lecka Freeze both Gracie and I shared. Has mango, orange sorbet and I cant remember what else. Again, nothing special to keep in our memories... Bit bitter too which Grace reckons probably from the orange peel.

And pizza! It has a long and strange name which I did not bother to memorize. Has turkey ham, and all other typical makings of a pizza. This is my favorite of the evening though I completely forgot to take picture of the whole plate! I was already halfway through my slice when Mei Ying asked whether I had remembered taking the pictures lol. Then only I fumbled with my camera, take a hasty shot and returned to eating.

Moroccan Lamb. Again, I did not fancy this much.... To tell you the truth, I can't remember what it tastes like so it must have been something not worth remembering :)

Mei Ying's Lecka Cooler (cranberry, orange, lime and mint)

First group shot before Yee Ker arrives. The girls are always cracking jokes with the innocent waiter about pressing the camera button "harder and longer" LMAO.

And then comes the highlight of the dinner! Yummmzzz... Allow me to present to you, the Sizzling Chocolate Brownie!

This is one of the best brownies I've ever tasted... We asked for an extra scoop of chocolate ice-cream and they are served on a hot plate where the waiter later tipped a small pot of boiling thick, hot chocolate over our cold and unassuming brownie and cream. I only just managed to get this shot hahahha and Mei Ying actually asked the waiter to pour slowly lol.

A toast to great friends :) Still can't get over how the pictures turned out so nice with the great background.

Whoever took this picture must have moved my camera before the image is settled down... but I liked the way the shot turned out! Made Imm look a bit like a devil in disguise :p

Cracking some lame jokes again lolz. Lucky we 3 at the back can maintain our coolness.

Then we proceeded to beh pai seh-ly taking pictures with every single decorative structure Pavilion has painstakingly put up. Beh pai seh take pictures with the trees like we own the place nevermind, some more got nerve to ask every single passerby to take pictures for us. Count the number of strangers who we managed to persuade them to capture our vain selves on camera:

At this point I started to feel like the passer-bys are giving us a wide berth, scared later they become victim to our vanity lol.

After pictures we went to Zouk and the songs played there are pretty good! My kinda place :D

The sweet girls didn't stop at dinner.... they also gave me a present! So gam dong..... T_T

I love them! Love the girls even more so! Don't be surprised hor if my skin suddenly become silky soft ;)