First of all, I want to thank everyone for coming and made the fifth installment of our annual Xmas Eve Party a blasting success. There were some 40 people who turned up, quite a few bottles of liquors and wines brought by you, and again, Tuborg sponsored loads of free beer with their beer girl Siao Ling joining the party as well. It was awesome.
Due to the hectic schedule a week (including a trip to Singapore) prior to the party, my housemates and I only managed to put up some minor decoration and set up the place in the last 2 hours. I bought some x’mas lights for my two x’mas trees, reuse the deco, got some snacks, mixers, a Coleman huge ice box filled with ice from 7-11 and we were good to go.
free Tuborg beer, and lotsa socializing
The party got started at around 9pm with Terence, Chris, and Anthony arriving first. Sheryl, Cindy, and Simon arrived there after, and joined by Eiling, who managed to fetch Huai Bin to my place despite being already 3/4 drunk before the party even got started.
Erna, Michael, Elfie, Reta, Cindy, KY, Siao Ling, Huai Bin, Mohan, Firdy, Simon
Suan, Alan, and Wei Yi were around when our favorite Tuborg girl Siao Ling showed up with all those beer just as my new ice box was yearning for some attention. We quickly set things up and the party really got started right after that.
Chan, Huey Fang, Kelvin, Sheryl, Terence, Yee Hou, Aireen, Chris Tock
As the resident alcohol pusher, Terence was doing a fine job ensuring everyone a fair chance to get royally drunk by mixing 2 huge glasses of alcohol laden concoction named Life and Death. Erna was very fortunate to have a few gulps and ended up missing half the party by passionately hugging my gate with a really stoned facial expression. Elfie was embarassed that her fellow Sabahan can’t hold her drinks.
Naufal, Gareth, Shamsul, AC, Faye, Kim & chef, Adrian, Alan, Wei Yi, Suanie
There were some new faces in this year’s party, Shamsul, AC, Faye, Chris, Anthony, Rebecca, Jenson, Aireen, Daniel, and Debra are friends of friends or people whom I got to know via the blog but never met prior to this party.
Cindy, Selina, Siao Ling, Tock, Yee Hou, Firdy, Huai Bin, Elfie, Michael, Eiling, Erna, and Zoe are certainly are friends who attended the party for the first time. I got to know some of them via blog, random events, and via other friends.
Chris, Anthony, Zoe, Horng & Eiling, Amanda & Rachel, Enoch & Alice, Jenson, Rebecca, Daniel, Debra, Selina
There are also those who are no stranger to our little yearly celebration, Reta, Naufal, Nicholas, Alan, Adrian, Rachel, Kelvin, and Mohan all came to the party at least once before.
Then there is the group of my closest friends who were here since the get go. My housemate Horng, Suanie, Gareth, Kim, Huey Fang and Chan, and Terence. I am glad that my exgf Sheryl was able to make it after being away in Europe for post graduate studies for the past two years.
some of the more embarassing gift exchange moments
We didn’t actually have a dress theme this year. Instead, the legendary gift exchange has a little twist in it: It has to be something you can wear, and you must wear it after opening. This idea came from Horng, blame him if you were one of the victims.
Some of the more messed up gifts include a purple bra (I hope the size fits you, Elfie), disposable undearwear, a few boxes of condoms (Huai Bin wore one in public, scaring off all the girls), numerous underwear, socks & stockings, headgear, and lipsticks. The gift exchange was pretty intense, very dangerous.
the Heineken hat exchanged hands 5 times, stupid Michael!
The most saught after gift item was this Heineken hat brought by Michael. The hat was snatched up 5 times and ended up back to Michael just because Elfie wanted it (that’s wh4, stupid Michael). I think we should make it a rule that you can’t pick your own gift next year onwards.
some of the things people do when they are slightly influenced
Things got a little wilder after the gift exchange session as the blood alcohol mixture gets a bit out of hand for a few people. There’s this particular “Patrick” who can’t seem to walk properly and ended up passed out all over the place. The best thing was he kept saying “careful! careful! the earth is moving” and “are you guys ok?” everytime right before he passed out. Patrick is seen sleeping in two places with “James” sitting in both places in the collage above.
There were also some toe licking actions by Faye and Huai Bin, Siao Ling was, tragically, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The party was great, and it was only appropriate that we had to end it after the cops came at 3:30am saying we were a bit too loud. Some of us then headed to Ming Tien for an early morning breakfast where Rachel promptly vomit out the wan tan mee after consumption. I think she was eager to join Patrick and James as the third person to throw up.
Again, thanks for coming, Merry Christmas and see you guys next year!
More incriminating photos can be found on facebook.
KY’s album 1, album 2, album 3
Suanie’s album
Horng’s album 1, album 2
Reta’s album
Kim’s album
Merry X’mas to everyone! The 4th X’mas Eve Party we had last night was awesome, I want to thank everyone for coming, and for the few who didn’t manage to make it (eg. my hot chick), hopefully we’ll do it again next year. I hope that everyone had fun and enjoyed the party, if I wasn’t a good host, please file your complains elsewhere cos I’m not gonna give a crap. 
There are more photos on my facebook album and flickr set
Gerald, Suan; Kim, KY
Chan, Huey Fang; Alicia, Su Li, Mohan
Like the previous year, we have the regulars and some newcomers. Lets see if I manage to count how many of us were at the party.
That makes 40 even, pretty good turn-out I’d say.
Albert, Ringo; Aysraf, Sueter
Esther, Sew Jin; Jessica, Arthur
The party got started at around 9pm. I had gotten the place ready with plenty of drinks, the few bottles of harder stuff I have laying around, and 3 crates of Tuborg beer that were given to me by this nice lady from Carlsberg after reading the X’mas Eve Party invitation post. I guess everyone at the party was grateful of Mr. Ole, the GM of marketing and Mr. Teh, the Brand Manager of Carlsberg.
Reta, FA; Nicholas, Rachel;
Kelvin, Skyler; Justin, Simon
As the night went along, people were starting to get friendlier, probably alcohol had something to do with it. They started chatting up and doing some camwhore sessions.
Dree, KY, FA, Jack, Naufal; Winson, Damien, Douglas, Dree;
Skyler, Kelvin, Reta, Esther; ST, Nicholas, Esther, Alicia
The theme was Ah Lian and Ah Beng outfit, but most of the guys were not really up to task. Credit must be given to FA, Reta, Chan, and Huey Fang for going the extra mile. Ringo had an interesting harajuku type of outfit though, while Alicia didn’t even need to try, she is from Klang after all 
Adrian Low and friend; Arthur, Audrey
Suan, Jack, Reta; Carol, TBG, Ed
At midnight, we started the gift exchange program. This time around, everyone who contributed a gift is given a number. We then draw and call each number from the hat. Whoever has their number called will get to choose a gift from the pile, or anything that is already opened from the previous person. As always, the later you get your number called, the better selection of opened gifts you’ll get to choose for. If you chose a good gift early, someone can snatch it off, as we shall see.
The various gifts we got
Jack, being a noob as usual, inadvertently chose something Carol gave, a packet of adult diapers. Nicholas got a toilet survival kit from Suan. There were also condoms, KY jelly, crayon set, bubble blower, puzzle, CEO cafe, and even a Basic Instinct 2 dvd. I gave away a curry dinner meal with raw fish, prawn, curry powder, and all the vegetables.
the bacon bak kua went through 8 people!
The hottest gift this year was the bacon bak kua from Kelvin. The gift was snatched up 7 times, Skyler was the lucky last person to bring back that delicious bag of bacon. Douglas promised he will bring the most sought after gift next year, like how he did the previous year (a set of keyboard)
The bacon trail: Alicia -> Aysraf -> ST -> Audrey -> Su Lin -> Reta -> Kim -> Skyler
it was a great party, we must thank the Tuborg beers from Carlsberg
I think the whole bacon debacle got everyone excited and police actually came to ask us to quiet down at around 1am. Luckily the uniformed officers were nice (though they didn’t want to take a photo with me when I asked) and just politely asked us to keep it down and end the party soon.
I had a great time, and I want to thank you for coming. See you again next year!
For whatever reason, it has taken me this long to write about Kangsane Korean Restaurant in Ampang despite having been there numerous times since more than a year ago. In fact, this is the Korean restaurant I most frequent in recent times, and there is a reason for it: simply the best Galbi (marinated beef ribs) anywhere!
nice ambiance, illustrated menu
Kangsane Korean Restaurant is situated right in the middle of Little Korea at Ampang, that interesting commercial square where you can find dozens of Korean restaurants, grocery stores, and even optical shops. This place is to Korean like Brickfields is to Indian. Parking is usually not an issue here.
kimchi jjigae (soup), samgyeopsal (pork belly), and Galbi (marinated beef ribs)
Just like most other Korean BBQ restaurants, Kangsane serves various BBQ meat, stews, bulgogi, and of course, all these comes with plenty of Banchan (side dishes) that is the signature of Korean food. The must-order dish here would be the Galbi, I just couldn’t get enough of the succulent and perfectly flavored beef ribs.
I suggest that you always give them a call to make sure that the supply of Galbi is ample before heading there. We had to go for pork galbi on the last visit as the beef version ran out of stock, while it was still very good, the beef ribs is simply irreplaceable.
the many banchan (side dishes)
The other commendable dish is the samgyeopsal (pork belly), do start with this dish first if you also order galbi as the pork carries a more subtle taste that might be overpowered by the beef if you reverse the order.
Of course, a good Korean restaurant must also serve good banchan (side dishes), and the good thing about Kangsane is that they always have different banchan every time we go there. From anchovies to tofu, kimchi to some funny looking vegetables, they are always very delicious and accompanies the main dish very well. I also absolutely love their kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup)
good food is to be enjoyed with friends: Kim, Kelvin, Pinkpau, ST, Kenneth
Price wise, this place is pretty much in par with similar Korean restaurants. Some BBQ meat dishes, stews, and maybe some dumplings will usually cost around RM 40-50 per person for a table of 4-5. Very worth it though.
Kangsane is situated in the Little Korea at Ampang, KL
Address:
C5 Jalan Ampang Utama 1/1
One Ampang Avenue
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.155283, 101.751364
Tel: 03-4251 2598
Following our sumptuous dinner at Lucky Loke with the garlic fish and asam prawn, we decided to head for some dessert that we deserved, especially since Kim wasn’t with us. We decided to head to Food Foundry at Seksyen 17 for some Mille Crepe.
how do you resist something like this?
For the uninitiated, Mille Crepe is a French dessert, basically made by many layers of very thin cooked pancake. There are some custards and other flavorings in between the layers, usually presented in slices, kinda like Cheesecake. Mille literally means a thousand, but in this case, there were 20 layers of crepe that made up this dessert.
Despite just having had a heavy meal, we ordered 3 pieces of this wholesome stuff, Vanilla, Chocolate Orange, and Strawberry & Cream.
this one’s for you, Kim.
Of the three flavors, my favorite was plain old Vanilla, the texture of 20 layers of crepe with the taste of fresh custard and the vanilla flavor, very luxurious. It’s easily one of the best desserts I’ve ever had, and put Cheesecakes on a completely different scale altogether. With Mille Crepe, you don’t get the annoying “stick to the roof of your mouth” feeling as you would with the latter. The Chocolate Orange was very good too, as with the Strawberry & Cream flavors, but I thought they could have slightly stronger Strawberry taste to it though. We finished everything rather quickly while almost bursting our guts in the process.
The dessert costs RM8 to RM9 per piece, but it was seriously good and any dessert lovers should not call themselves dessert lovers if they haven’t give this a try. It was a pity Kim had to miss it.
Food Foundry is located at Seksyen 17
This restaurant is located at the same block as 6 to 10 grill, other than Mille Crepe, they serve some western style as well as local cuisine and desserts.
Address:
BG-8 Happy Mansion,
Jalan 17/13, 46300
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.123520, 101.634870
Tel: 03-7955 3885
If you have been following this blog, you will suspect that I am mostly a meat person, since this is the first vegetarian food posts, of the 142 done thus far. Truth of the matter is not that I don’t love my vegetables, but rather I have always maintain that we should get our greens served as what they are, not disguised as some fake chicken, fish, or meat… and then I was somehow convinced by this joker to go to Kuan Yin restaurant.
mat salleh loving the char siu
As the name of the restaurant suggests, this place serves Chinese vegetarian food. Not only all the food are prepared with non meat ingredients, neither garlic nor onion are used, this is to satisfy the “rules” of the “religious” vegetarian practiced in this country.
However, if you look at the menu, you will find many titles of meat dishes. All of these dishes are, of course, made from non meat ingredients. Funny isn’t it? How can anyone claim to be a vegetarian but eats dishes that tastes exactly like meat? (my main reason of not visiting vegetarian restaurants)
there is no meat here
For dinner, the four of us ordered a fried vegetable with clear sauce, “mutton” curry, Thai style “chicken”, “Char Siu” with mantou, and a radish soup (free).
To my surprise, the food were actually good. The chicken was a bit “fake”, but tasted decent nonetheless. The mutton curry tasted like very tender mutton, and the curry sauce was great, I had no idea how they can prepare it without using onion and garlic but still maintain the aroma and taste of curry that we are accustomed to.
ahhh, the imitation char siu… slurps
The best dish of the day though, was the Char Siu with mantao. They were in fact, better than most the REAL char siu I have tasted in my life. I will go back there just to have this particular dish.
The bill came to be slightly less than RM 20 per person. Pretty good value considering how much other places charge for similar dishes.
so now you know how to get to seksyen 17
I would not recommend a religious vegetarian to have fake meat and chicken as I think that is principally wrong, but this is an excellent place to bring your Muslim friends to have a taste of Chinese food.
Address:
1084 Jalan 17/29
Seksyen 17, Petaling Jaya
46400 Selangor
GPS: 3.129230, 101.635353
Tel: 03-7957 4528
