One of the other places we dined at during the trip to Seremban was this very nice looking restaurant called La Esquina, or “the corner” in Spanish. Naturally, it specialized in Spanish cuisine. The interior of this place is modern yet very cozy, it spots a full bar and has seating areas both in and outdoor. The first Spanish cuisine in Seremban is also probably the nicest decorated restaurant at Era Square.

grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon

La Esquina doesn’t have a huge menu when it comes to food selection, they do, however, serve all sorts of drinks and a variety of tapas. As we were still half full from our very satisfying meal at Kensington, we only had some light dishes at this place.

a full bar and a nicely decorated interior

The grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon slice was a pretty delicious dish. I mean, you can’t really go wrong with grilled asparagus and bacon. The bacon, however, is of the beef variety rather than the non-halal version from pork. Though I think the later might have jazzed up the taste just a tad more, the beef bacon wasn’t a bad substitute.

tapas

We also had fresh button mushroom, mussel in white wine sauce, Spanish warm potato salad, and spicy chicken sausage. The tapas were served with slices of bread to go with the sauce that comes with it. I mentioned that the spicy chicken sausage isn’t exactly spicy for our taste, the owner Mr. Satwant explained that the level of spiciness in Spanish cuisine is a lot less than what we are accustomed to.

basque crab casserole

The last dish served was not tapas, but the pretty unique basque crab casserole. Generous portion of crab meat and some other ingredients I can’t name were baked in flowery crab shells. This dish carries a slightly salty taste that I imagine would taste pretty well with some red wine.

La Esquina is located at Era Square

Tapas at La Esquina ranges from RM8 to RM15, the crab casserole goes for RM18 per pair.

Address:
No. 49, Jalan Era Walk 3,
Era Square
70200 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan
Tel: 06-768 7405

Tags:  bar,  casserole,  dining,  era baru,  era walk,  food,  seremban,  spanish cuisine,  tapas

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »

I want to wish everyone a prosperous rat’s year. Since you can already find a picture of rat/mickey/minnie/mighty on every other blog, I thought I’d just post some pictures I shot at Penang’s Kwan Yin Temple last weekend.

pigeons at the sacred temple

This Kwan Yin temple is the oldest temple in Penang island. Located at Pitt Street (now renamed Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Keling), it was constructed at the early 1800s by Chinese migrants.

the roof line

The building follows ancient Chinese architecture with carvings at every corner and beautiful dragon statues on the roof line. These creatures the guardians of the temple.

There are hundreds of wild pigeons around the temple everyday, casting a holy and surreal atmosphere. The birds are fed by devotees.

the dragons

Every year during Kwan Yin’s birthday, there are thousands of devotees flooding the temple to worship this Goddess of Compassion and the other deities in the temple. Thick smokes from josticks and the quite murmurs of prayers can be heard, it’s a sight to be seen, but I suggest you bring your goggles.

josticks

If you find yourself in Penang, do give this temple a visit. The wonderful architecture not to be missed, furthermore, there’s a stall selling awesome loh mee just next to the temple (I will post about that soon).

the lion guard

More information can be found at Tourism Penang’s website.

more photos at my kwan yin temple flickr set.

Tags:  architecture,  b&w,  black-and-white,  canon,  Penang,  Photography,  temple,  tourism

Posted by KY | 9 Comments »

I received the invitation to the premier of Dunia Baru the Movie from the PR lady Nuradila (Thanks! Keep them coming) at Grand Brilliance about a week ago. Initially I didn’t think I would be going to the movie, cos 1st, it is a local production (many of them aren’t very entertaining), and 2nd, it is also my badminton night.

However, things in life usually turns out the way you never knew it would. Due to fact that I need to steal Suanie’s car for CNY, and that she wanted to catch the show, I ended up ditching badminton. BUT, before the movie starts, the Suan actually thought it might be a great idea if we skip the whole show and have a big dinner instead. I told her to be nice and just watch it in full.

We were both pleasantly surprised by our collective decisions at the end. Dunia Baru was just so entertaining!

Dunia Baru the Movie

The movie is actually based on a massively popular TV series by the same name on TV3 about life in college/university. In the movie, Anizah was being kidnapped by a stalker, her university friends then ganged together and traveled a long way to rescue her. 90% of the show is about their adventure, with a lot of funny bits and a few heart warming moments.

I particularly like the performance and character of the rocky chick, played by Elyana. A very strong character who also sings very well.

The stars of the movie (shot with my N82)

The movie does show a parallel to one of my favorite comedy, Eurotrip. With a lot of almost lame but very funny bits. I was laughing my butt off on so many instances it was ridiculous. The soundtrack was awesome, and sceneries very beautiful. Of course, production quality and sound quality suffers a little, but luckily they did not get into the way of me enjoying the movie.

The cool thing was, all the stars were seated just a few rows behind me during the screening!

Give this local show a try, I must say I am impressed. Much better than I am Legend that’s for sure.

Tags:  movie

Posted by KY | 11 Comments »

One of my favorite shopping mall parking lot is at Sunway Pyramid. They have installed this nifty little light with a sensor on top of every parking spot. If the spot is occupied, the light is red, if free, it is green. A quick glance down the isle will tell you if there’s an available spot so you don’t have to navigate the whole parking lot aimlessly to find an empty space.

So I went there for lunch the other day. The parking lot was almost filled, but I spotted 2 green lights very close to the entrance, must be my lucky day I thought. I quickly drove there just to find this idiot.

A Toyota Vios parked right in between 2 handicap parking spots. The sensor missed the car.

WPK 6393 the idiot.

I don’t know if this guy is genuinely handicap, the vehicle did not display a handicap sticker or anything. However, there is no excuse for parking right in between two spots even if you are disabled. Patients with that kind of spatial disability shouldn’t be driving anyway.

I took the opportunity and snapped the driver’s name card that was hanging on the rear view mirror inside the car. The N82 did a decent job getting the face, but unfortunately the gentleman’s name is obscured by the furry crap right next to it.

Mr. Lim with Sense Health Solutions

Apparently the guy (Mr. Lim) is a member of Sense Health Solutions. I tried to check more on this particular “club” online to no avail, anyone knows about this?

I want Peter Tan to beat this guy up with a stick.

Tags:  disabled,  idiot,  N82,  sunway pyramid,  vios

Posted by KY | 60 Comments »

There are many blogs like this, but this one is mine.

It all started on 1st of February, 2005. 1095 days and 503 posts later, this blog is officially 3 year old, please do wish a Happy Birthday to KYspeaks.com!

happy 3rd anniversary!

Tags:  birthday,  ky

Posted by KY | 52 Comments »