This is the last of 3 part series on my diving trip at Tenggol that happened from 27-29 March, 2010. Click on part 1 and part 2 (with dive site map) for previous entries.
Above is a short video from dives I did at Tenggol, editing it made me miss diving lots, but it’s all good since I’m already planning another trip to Tenggol over the labor day weekends. This time I’m going to have my own set of equipments too, yes, diving is now a serious hobby for me. 
Work hard, play hard.
wreck diving at Palau Tenggol, Terengganu
This was the second time I visited the house wreck that is located within the protected bay where the resorts sit, the last time was on the 30th July, 2004. It was a relatively easy dive albiet the relatively murky condition. Terence took his time to snap pictures during descent and somehow managed to get lost and had to surface alone and missed the fun completely, poor thing.
nudibranch – sea slugs if you can’t be bothered
For the 4th dive of the same day, we chose to go shallow for a more relaxing dive at Pasir Tenggara. Saw more nudibranchs, starfish, and managed to take a couple more videos of clown fish too. It started drizzling as we surface, but luckily water wasn’t all too choppy.
star fish, table coral, and them nemo!
For the last dive of the trip, we went to the famous 5 sisters dive site. Here lies 5 Vietnamese regufee ship wrecks at over 30 meters underwater. Looking at these relics made me wonder how the refugees must have felt when they arrived at this small island and had to sink their ships just so they can’t be towed out to international water and left for dead.
We stayed at depth for only about 15 minutes before proceeding to shallower water to avoid decompression time. Visited some artificial coral reefs too.
Due to my failure in checking the underwater camera casing’s seal properly, a couple drops of moisture went in, but thank god it wasn’t a full flooding. Gotta be more careful next time.
I’ll see you in a couple weeks, Tenggol!
Tucked at the corner on the ground floor of Wisma Central is a little hidden Japanese ramen shop that even many white colar guys around the area is oblivious to. I didn’t realize the existence of Tenka Daiichi Ramen for the first couple years I was working at KLCC myself.
Tenka Daiichi Ramen at Wisma Central, Jalan Ampang
Despite its hidden location, business seems to be pretty brisk whenever I went there. The restaurant is operated by a middle age uncle and the chef looks to be his Japanese wife. This is of course, purely my own interpretation via observation.
Lunch and dinner menu differs, with more choices over lunch and only 5 combination dishes served at night. However, there seems to be a separate menu in Japanese that might offer other choices, or that could be just a sake menu. The clientele at Tenka Daiichi Ramen for dinner consists of almost entirely Japanese expats.
Ramen with char siu
I almost never failed to order their char siu ramen whenever I’m there. A couple pieces of glistering rolled pork shoulder (not roasted like Chinese style though) swimming in the subtle but sweet tasting soup and that soft but firm noodle. You can also order them with a side of gyoza too.
Other items they serve include cold tofu, pork patty, grilled fish, and a few different types of ramen. Expect to spend around RM 10 for lunch and perhaps over RM 20 for dinner here.
Address:
Tenka Daiichi Ramen (behind 7-11)
Wisma Central, Jalan Ampang
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.158728, 101.714473
Ladies and gentlemen, today we’re gonna talk about lunch sets. Reasonably cheap lunch sets at KLCC (but not at one of the food courts) that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
May I present.. Santini!
To be honest, I’ve only started going there less than a year ago despite having been working at KLCC seemingly forever. The only reason being that 1) I thought it was very expensive, and 2) I actually didn’t know where it was located.
fish & chips, grilled chicken, spaghetti bolognese
There’re quite a few choices on the menu that goes for RM 14.90 per set. You get a choice of soft drink and a main course, and if you’re feeling rich (or extra hungry), add RM 3.50 for soup of the day, garden salad, or illy coffee.
Pretty good deal if you ask me.
So far I’ve not been able to not order either the grilled chicken or grilled lamb leg. Both of those dishes were pretty yummy, and comes with a bit of salad topped with balsamic vinegar.
grilled lamb leg, and my colleagues!
I’ve also tried the spaghetti and a bit of the fish & chips, they tasted pretty decent too. Other choices include pizza of the day, pasta, whole meal sandwich, and salad.
Do make sure that you have a pretty flexible lunch hour if you plan to go there though. Like many restaurants in Malaysia, this one suffers in slowness of execution during busy lunch hours. Service too can be a bit lackluster at times.
On the bright side, this is only about as pricey as Little Penang or Madam Kwan for a completely different cuisine. The more choices the better.
note: Santini is actually own by Tai Thong, which also runs San Francisco steakhouse, among other restaurants.
Address:
Santini at KLCC
Lot No. G45B,
Ground Floor, Suria KLCC
GPS: 3.157581, 101.712102
Tel: 03-2382 0329
For the past 2 years, my family and I have been to Damansara Village at Damansara Jaya for steamboat reunion dinner over CNY, and if a place passes my mom’s taste test, it will surely passes mine.
The restaurant is a venture of the infamous Patrick Teoh, his daughter Melanie and Son-in-law. The original place was, and still is doing so well that they decided to open a branch right at the heart of KL. The new place is aptly named Restaurant Damansara Village at Imbi
indoor and outdoor seatings, the fish pool, and live seafood aquarium
Together with about a dozen other blogger friends, I was invited by Patrick himself for a review session. I am hesitant to be writing about the same place twice (tho different branch), but I was assured that the menu is different. Furthermore, how could I resist a an invitation from a celebrity that is named Patrick Teoh KY?
Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction.
village steamed chicken, bamboo clams
Other than air conditioned dining area (as well as al fresco) and nicer decoration, Damansara Village at Imbi also offer more than just steamboat. Our motto of the day was to sample these offerings.
According to Patrick, there isn’t a chief chef per se at this establishment. Every dish is a recipe from someone’s relative/friend, and every ingredient is sourced directly from some of the more interesting locations.
For example, the village steamed chicken (RM 49 for half) is cooked with 100-day free range chicken from their own farm (usual intensive farmed chicken is slaughtered at about 6 weeks) and steamed only with salt. The texture is quite a lot firmer and I do like the richer flavor too.
The steamed bamboo clam is served with slices of chili, fermented beans, and some spring onion. The combination worked for me, seafood with a dash of spiciness and the saltiness from the beans. I like how there put 2 clams in one shell too!
pork knuckle vinegar, pepper pork tripe soup
Next we had the pork knuckle vinegar. Fatty pork knuckle with glistering layer of fat served in sweet vinegar that is not overly strong. This dish always work for me, I kinda wished I had some sambal and rice to go with it though.
Pepper pork tripe soup (or the spicy soup 辣汤) reminded me of Kien Kee at Seri Kembangan. It was very peppery, fragrant, and full of 3-layer pork, tripes, and other innards. I wouldn’t rate this any lower than Kien Kee to be honest, it was tasty!
steamed snake head, steamed duck
Then come the steamed snake head. Instead of the more common farmed snake head, those served at Damansara Village are caught from the wild. As such, the meat is quite a lot firmer. Call me crazy, but I actually prefer the farmed variety with its’ smoother meat, though what we had was decent too.
For the first time of my life, I had steamed duck! Just like the chicken, this one is cooked with nothing but salt. Though not completely void of the strong “duck smell”, this dish still manage to end up tasting pretty good. However, I will only suggest this to duck lovers, casual diners should stick with roast duck instead.
salt bake crab, village special steamed clam
The seventh dish of the night was salt bake crab (RM 48), another traditional recipe that even I know how to make – kill crab, rub with plenty of salt, throw in the wok, fire up). And sometimes the simplest method is also the tastiest method, provided you have superior ingredients. Though they were a bit smallish in size, the taste more than made up for the size, they were very, very sweet and flavorful.
Steamed clam (RM 20) was cooked with plenty of dried wolfberrie (kei chee), cilantro, Chinese wine, and some other herbs. The clams were juicy, and I liked the combination of the ingredients too.
damansara village steamboat with herbal soup
After the eight dishes, I was already quite full, but Patrick wouldn’t let us go before trying the very dish that made the name Damansara Village famous – the Pulau Ketam style steamboat (RM 18.80 per portion) with additional Chinese herbs (RM 12)
Other than the typical servings of fish ball, dumplings, meatballs, mussels, vegetable, tofu skin, and so on, we also added flower crab to flavor the soup, and some live shrimps (RM 23 for 300g). As full as I was, I couldn’t help but to devour a few more of those oh-so-yummy shrimps. This is a must order add-on.
patrick teoh and the food bloggers at damansara village
After the excellent dinner, we hanged out till way past closing time and had a pretty good time with Patrick and the gang that includes Gareth, Kim, Suan, Reta, FA, Huey Fang, Sue Lynn, Eiling, Yiling, Cumi&Ciki, Meena, and more.
The food was honestly better than I had anticipated, and I think I’ll be bringing mom to the new outlet next year!
map to damansara village at Imbi
Address:
Damansara Village at Imbi
32, Jalan Utara, Off Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.144715, 101.717166
Tel: 03-2141 1678
If you told me I’ll be among the “top” bloggers when I started this little blog five years ago, I’ll call you crazy. And if you are from the future (like Time Traveler’s Wife) and told me there’ll be this thing called Project Alpha and I’d be in season 2, I’d have laughed so hard I’d die instantly, much like Martin of Aragon.
The good thing about this version of reality we’re in is that time machine is very much confined to science fiction, and truth itself is often stranger than stories the best script writer could conjure up.
So yah, together with my fellow porkgang member Cheesie and Shaolintiger, proper celebrity Azwan Ali, pretty boy Niki Cheong, yoga instructor Ninie Ahmad, and Joe Lee, yours truly is in Project Alpha season 2. *bow*
Life is ridiculous like that, and thus for the photo shoot of Project Alpha season 2, the make up artists gave me a ridiculous hairstyle that’s been described as.. *ahem* “Korean pop star” look. Don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, I’ll just keep my hair messy and free of combing as usual TQVM
Jojo working the camera, and the Project Alpha season 2 casts + sponsors
Cheesie, ST (with Kim) and I had our session shot with Jojo and the crew at Lost World of Tambun earlier in the year (will blog about the trip soon). It was a fun and exciting experience, being in front of the camera with half a dozen crew working behind it isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do.
But here we are, it is done, and Project Alpha season 2 is coming on the 19th April! Very soon now!
Last Wednesday the show is officially kicked off! We had a press conference and screening at Cineleisure with all the cast (except Cheesie who’s in Japan) and sponsors. Gareth and I were pulled aside for an interview with Nanyang daily too, though the mat salleh can’t exactly speak in Mandarin.
At the same time, the trailer is launched and will be on big screen before movies this whole month at Cineleisure too!
Check out projectalpha.com.my for more videos that are coming, and if you’re on twitter, follow #ProjectAlpha hashtag too.
Life just got more exciting!
Project Alpha season 2 is presented by Adidas Action 3 and supported by P1 as well as MAS.
