KartQuest at MAEPS is now both my favorite and most tragic place for karting, more on this later.

I have been on go-kart less than a handful of occasions in my life. My very first experience was probably in Genting, which did not exactly leave me at all impressed. The karts were super slow and you could floor the accelerator all the way without spinning out or worried about hitting anything. That was some ten years ago.

hello my name is KY, I’m a karting hero

About 2-3 years ago, I went karting with Gareth and got to know Yee Hou at ELITE track. It was fun and competitive, but they were a little too strict and so we somehow did not do it again.

Then we discovered KartQuest, and already been there twice this month.

A total of 10 of us went the first time, with Jaclyn not driving cos it was “too hot” and she wasn’t prepared. I, however, brought my own helmet, wore long sleeve, proper shoes and all. We had a blast, and I also ended up with a huge blister on my right palm after 2 x 10 minute session of intense karting (RM 20 per session). We went all out speeding.

dree & gf, eric, damien, terence, horng, KY, galvin, amy

Last Sunday, Terence, Horng, Rachel, Kerol, Jaclyn, Eric, and I went there again. This time around I was a bit less prepared, no long sleeves, no proper shoes, and I was only wearing shorts. It turned out to be huge loads of fun, I think the guys gave us more than 10 mins per session.

Instead of going all out in speed, we were more towards nudging each other and trying to fish tail the person in front of us. There was quite a lot of almost unintentional accidents, and Horng even broke the tyre wall and created new route by himself.

Blackberry Bold the smartly escaped. meet the new N86 shattered edition

I ended up being the villain of the day by banging everyone else on the track, it was just so addictive and so fun!

But karma has a way of biting you back. I made the mistake of keeping the phones in my pocket while on the track.

They fell, and the Nokia N86 (where majority of the photos on this blog were taken with) probably got rolled over a couple times.

Amazingly, both phones still works 100%.

Who wants to go karting again maybe this weekend!?

XPAX Advert:

Some FAQ about the new XPAX plan

Why is it special?
The first prepaid plan to offer BEST RATES to 15pax across all networks. Voice at 12 sen/min and SMS at 1/2 sen (within celcom) and 6 sen to your 15 fav numbers

How about to other general numbers (those not in 15 chosen ones)?
Voice at 38 sen, SMS at 10 sen, and MMS at 35 sen to any network

To activate new Xpax plan if you’re already an Xpax user, just type MIG XPAX and send to 28882.

For more, go to Xpax FAQ page

Tags:  amy,  dree,  eric,  galvin,  go-kart,  horng,  terence,  xpax

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »

Last Sunday a bunch of us went for a good go-kart session at KartQuest located at MAEPS, near UPM. After sweating our collective butts off and myself sustaining a big blister on my palm from two 10 minute sessions of hard work on the track, we proceed to reward ourselves with a very good lunch at Restaurant Yap Yin & Bak Kut Teh at Seri Kembangan.

We ordered 7 dishes for the 8 of us at Yap Yin, a bit too much food heh?

Like many restaurants around Seri Kembangan, on top of a rather comprehensive menu of Chinese dishes to go with rice, Yap Yin also serves Bak Kut Teh. This combination is rarely seen outside this area, usually restaurants are either ‘tai chau’ style, or they solely concentrate on bak kut teh.

Restaurant Yap Yin is located at a pretty busy part of Seri Kembangan, street parking is a bit tough to find, but they do have a couple dedicated parking spots, do take advantage of them.

Braised pork knuckle and innards, kung pao frog, steamed haruan fish

The claim of fame at Yap Yin is their steamed haruan fish (snake head, RM48). The preparation of the steamed fish here is pretty unique, the fish meat is sliced up to bite size, and 2 bottles of Brands chicken essence are poured to the fish upon serving to add to the flavor. It was well worth the price, very smooth texture and with the chicken essence adding a different dimension to the taste, very nice.

The kung pao frog (RM 20) was very flavorful and actually comes with the proper kung pao ingredients – bell pepper, dried red chili, cashew nuts, ginger, and the dark sauce. I’m sure Kim would have ordered an extra plate if she was with us.

One of the most sinful dishes we ordered has to be the braised pork knuckle with innards and chicken feet (RM 20), plenty of fatty porky goodness and chicken feet braised to perfection. Tender and juicy, best with some chili padi.

kampung chicken, tofu with mince pork, lotus root, bak kut teh

The kampung chicken (RM 12) was, well, tasted like kampung chicken, not fatty like normal chicken rice steamed chicken but otherwise not particularly interesting. Tofu with mince pork comes in a clay pot and dark sauce, silky smooth and rather flavorful. Very good value at only RM 8!

The  sauted lotus root (RM 16) provided us with some sense of meat vs vegetable balance though in reality we should have ordered something in green to satisfy ourselves visually, oh well!

horng, KY, Adry & gf, Terence, Damien, Amy, Galvin

Just when we thought we had ordered too much, Galvin, being from Klang, couldn’t resist the temptation and ordered a pot of bak kut teh (RM 9). The herbal soup was thick and actually quite nice, but I wouldn’t say it is on par with the proper Klang version.

We well all stuffed silly after lunch, total damage came to RM 191 with drinks and rice included. About RM 24 per person for so many dishes, it was well worth it. Should go there again after next go-kart session!

Address:
Restaurant Yap Yin & Bak Kut Teh
No. 1231, Jalan Sekolah
43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor
GPS: 3.021839, 101.704372
Tel: 03-8943 5426
Hours: 11:30am to 10pm

BB Update

The Blackberry Bold, Tour, and Curve 8520 (from Xpax)

I was often asked what’s the differences between the few common blackberry models currently officially sold in this country as well as some “underwater” models too. So here’s the very quick comparison:

• Curve 8520 - one of the most affordable Blackberry models, the latest in the Curve series. EDGE, Wifi, touchpad, Media Keys, not that much bigger than a normal phone
• Bold 9000 - used to be one of the highest end Blackberry models, EDGE, 3.5G, Wifi, GPS. One of the biggest and heaviest BB smart phones. Bold 2 is coming soon, and I suspect would be rather pricey.
• Tour 9630 - even though positioned below the Bold (and now Bold 2) series, the Tour is sold over RM 2k in “underwater” market and not officially via Telco. EDGE, 3.5G, GPS, but no Wifi.
• Storm 9500 – the first touch screen Blackberry, EDGE, 3.5G, GPS, but no Wifi. Mixed reviews on the touch screen implementation, but Storm 2 is coming up, we’ll see how much it’ll be sold for.

Every model comes with the beloved BBM, push mail, and all the other messaging technology that earns Blackberry the nickname CrackBerry, they can get very addictive. Every model here works with Xpax BB prepaid too!

If you’re new to the BB world, the 8520 is certainly a good start as it is priced below RM 1000. What kinda other cool phones can you get for that price these days?

Tags:  adry,  amy,  Bak Kut Teh,  bkt,  brands,  faggot,  galvin,  haruan,  horng,  pork,  terence

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »

Every we went out to eat with Chow Ahbeng aka Galvin, he would always say something like “next time I bring you to eat at this place, they serve the best xxx”, and one of the places he mentioned most was this “fried porridge” thing at Klang.

So after listening to him talking about it for a good part of last few years, we finally made a trip to Klang a couple weeks ago and actually tasted it for ourselves. The place is appropriately named Restoran Bubur Goreng, direct translation – Fried Porridge Restaurant, not the most imaginative name huh?

the group includes Galvin, Damien, Rachel, Kerol, Horng

The restaurant is located right across the 7-11 at Berkeley Garden in Klang. Berkeley is in turn, located on the right of Federal Highway after taking 3 o’clock at the round about not far from the Klang toll. Not exactly terribly difficult to find even for a first timer to the area.

Galvin did the honor by ordering for the nine of us. A big plate of Hokkien Mee, two bowls of their signature fried porridge, and another huge portion of crab meehun.

hokkien mee, fried porridge, huge plate of crab meehun, bottled sugar cane

The Hokkien mee here is a little wetter than usual, and the extra sauce really does help bring out the flavor, I just wish there were slightly more lard like those at restaurant Ahwa in PJ though.

Crab meehun was this giant plate of fried meehun with three or four rather good size flower crabs. I’ve always love crab meehun and this did not disappoint, having flower crab instead of the usual mud crab made it easier to eat too. This was my favorite dish from the dinner.

crab meehun, and fried porridge with extra lard!

As for the fried porridge itself, well, I find it tasting a little weird. It’s a combination of familiar tastes that never felt quite right to me. The porridge has pork, tofu, spring onion, and some ingredients I couldn’t identify/recall. Horng and Galvin seemed to like it, but the slightly burnt porridge taste was still a bit weird, probably takes a little used to.

The bill came up to less than RM14 per person with drinks included. Pretty reasonable considering a typical meal of Hokkien Mee at PJ and drinks will fetch close to RM 10 anyway, and we had plenty of crab meehun.

Address:
Restorant Bubur Goreng
(Old Berkeley Cinema)
Lot 6932, Lebuh Bangau Taman Berkeley,
41150 Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan
GPS: 3.06005,101.464974
Tel: 016-6868 579

Tags:  crab,  damien,  galvin,  hokkien-mee,  horng,  kerol,  klang,  porridge,  rachel

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »

Steamboat is best enjoyed with a group of friends, so I gathered the usual suspects last weekend and eight of us went to the relatively new Damansara Village Steamboat opposite ProJET gas station near Atria at Damansara Jaya.

very nice set up and excellent ambiance

This place is more than just a simple restaurant, there’s a little pool for kids to catch guppies (longkang fish) from, some furry animals, Iguana, and a giant tortoise on one side, a miniature vegetable farm, and even a guy twisting balloons for free. At least this local restaurant is catching up to McDonald’s concept of making the kids happy first.

As for the restaurant itself, there are indoor and outdoor areas, with everything set up in an open concept. No need for air conditioning when you have high ceiling, no wall, and plenty of fans. The tables are not arranged too close together either, very spacious and comfortable.

the standard steamboat set

For the eight of us, we ordered five portion of the standard steamboat set (assorted fish balls, prawns, mussels, eggs, bamboo clams, noodle, and vegetables). To complete the meal and add some variety, we also asked for 300gm of live tiger prawn (still jumping on the plates!), straw mushroom, 1kg of giant clam, and a pretty good size batfish that looks and tastes pretty much like pomphret.

the extras: tiger prawns, clams, fish, straw mushroom

As this is a Pulau Ketam style steamboat, we go for the traditional clear soup with some herbal ingredients. The sambal provided at this place was pretty good too.

We started out boiling the soup with some seafood, fish balls, and noodle for the first round. Finished everything in less than a few minutes; and proceed with the second round of giant clams and others; then it was the fish; and after that the live prawns; with the final round of more noodles and egg. The soup got better and better as the essence of seafood ingredients got sucked into it. It was a very fulfilling meal, fresh ingredients with very good soup. The food went well with the fresh coconut juice and a bottle of toddy we ordered.

the happy diners

The dinner came to slightly less than RM 30 per person. I would consider that a very good value for the ambiance and great food we had. A place worth visiting again.

less than 2 kilometers from Kelana Jaya LRT station

Address:
1067, Jalan Jenjarum
SS23 Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.124233, 101.612672
Tel: 03-7803 1832

By the way, if you haven’t know already, the big boss is Patrick Teoh.

Tags:  clam,  damansara,  damien,  dree,  fish-ball,  galvin,  hot-pot,  margie,  prawn,  pulau-ketam,  Steamboat,  suanie

Posted by KY | 26 Comments »