Tag / winnie
December 26, 2012
And it was another Xmas Eve Party at SS3, a yearly tradition that we’ve had since 2004 (except for 2010), if you’re counting, this was the 8th time on the same venue with the same concept – plenty of drinks, a bit of food, and a tricky gift exchange program by midnight.
The idea is for everyone to have some fun counting down to Christmas day, and at the same time an excuse to have a few drinks and mingle among like minded friends.
xmas eve party at SS3, 2012
Carlsberg Malaysia was kind enough to sponsor us some beer for the night – we had 2 cases of Carlsberg, Asashi Super Dry, and Kronenbourg Blanc each. Thank you Pearl, Calvin, and Serin!
I made full use of the Jagermiester freezer and Carlsberg beer tower I won from the Jagermiester Halloween Party a couple months ago.
I made some bergedil, haze marinated pork for bbq, Fresh made santa berries
Other than the beer, we prepared some food for the night. Haze marinated more than 3 KGs of pork for BBQ and prepared a small slab of roast pork, I made some bergedil, and Fresh prepared her little cute Santaberries.
It wasn’t a dinner event, so these were just beer food.
Jeniffer & Janine; Fooi, Sam, Kerol, Terence; Shany & Desmond, Eiling, Horng
Guests started coming in just slightly before 9 pm. In fact, David and Michael actually went to my place while we were out having dinner, talk about being too punctual.
Fresh, Huss, Janine, Winnie & Terence, KY, Erin, Yuki, Martin
The returning party goers were:
KY, Haze, Horng, Yuki, Kim, Gareth, Terence, Kerol, Ruby, Michael, Li Ling, Lance, Eiling, Yee Hou, Firdy, Zess, Shiang.
Fiqa, Eiling, Ruby & Desmond, Terence, Vindy, Cherlyn, Desmond, Terence
New Faces were:
Fiqa, Huss, Fresh, Erin, Martin, Jennifer, Janine, Winnie, Fooi, Desmond, Sam, Geoffery, Shany, Cheryn, Vindy, David, Gary
So that was 17-17 with a total of 34 people, a pretty nice turn out despite a few notable absence due to work, travel, and family commitments. You know who you are, and we hope to see you next year.
David, Yee Hou, Desmond, Michael, Kerol, Horng, Firdy, Gary
We had another fun filled gift exchange program with the following rules this year
- every participant contribute a gift worth over RM 49.90, and then draw a number from the box
- smallest number start by picking and unwrapping a gift
- next number can snatch the opened gift, whereby the person who lost it gets to choose another gift, or snatch another opened gift
- maximum of 3 snatching sequence per round
The most snatched gift was a sweet Puma Ducati bag from Fooi that’s actually retailed at over RM 300, Lance went home with it. Other memorable gifts include portable air bed, Chinese liquor, ice cream, Thor’s Hammer bottle opener, a couple of salami from Australia.
Terence ended up with a pair of blue lingerie, who would have thought, right?
Gary, Geoffery, Horng; Yee Hou, Fresh, Yuki, Haze; and finally, the drunken man
The men in blue visited us by around 2 am and that’s when the party was winding down. The ending of this party is almost exactly the same as the one in 2008 where we had a dude in Afro K-O-ed on the floor. It was a blast.
See you guys next year!
November 23, 2012
Some 9 or 10 years ago a friend brought me to a Malay/Mamak place that was pretty special. There were tables set under and around a garden, and even a few on platforms set on trees, like childhood tree houses. I also remember the place to be beautifully lit, and that they served some decent food as well.
I had no knowledge of its location since I wasn’t family with KL then. It wasn’t till I mentioned to Yuki about this place that I found out it was actually Naili’s Place at Sentul.
We decided to check it out a few weeks ago.
Naili’s Place, not your average night time hangout
The place has probably changed a bit since my first visit almost a decade ago. It looks quite a lot cleaner and more comfortable. There are trees sprawling throughout the place, and yes, the tree houses are still there, but you’d have to be very lucky to get those tables unless you call ahead.
We picked a spot near the bar and ordered our dinner, it was on a raised platform with shoes off, pillows, and low table. Comfortable and informal. The music in the background goes well with the type of food served too.
tomyam seafood, nasi temasik, nasi lemak,
The menu is pretty extensive (available on their website here), they serve local delights, Western foods, snacks, and some “special” drinks.
The Mixed Tomyam (RM 15) got the seal of approval from Haze & Yuki. It was a pretty big serving loaded with chicken, squid, prawns, mushroom, and does carry a kick. Positively spicy, and goes really well if you’re having some rice to go with.
I had the Temasik Rice Special (RM 12.90) and that came with spicy shrimp, beef rendang, and fried chicken alongside butter rice. This is similar to Madam Kwan’s Nasi Bojari but with better value, and equally as tasty. Make sure you’re really hungry before ordering this.
Nasi Lemak (RM 6.90) here tastes pretty decent too, it comes with a choice of Rendang Chicken, Rendang Beef
or Sambal Sotong.
naili’s special fried rice, “twin mermaid”, fried rice with beef rendang
Naili’s Special Fried Rice (RM 12.90) is a pretty decent dish that came with fried chicken wings, fried egg, and keropok, but in my opinion the Temasik Rice Special is a superior dish at the same price.
We also ordered the twin mermaid (RM 14.9) to share, the fish can be either deep fried or grilled, we had the former since the grill wasn’t ready yet. They tasted pretty decent especially with the condiment, I’d love to try their ikan bakar next time though.
Winnie, KY, Horng, Haze and Yuki
We didn’t try any Western food at Naili’s, they serve salmon, lamb chop, steak, chicken chop, pizzas, pastas, and even burger. It’s a pretty sweet place to hang out that is friendly to most everyone (it is halal). Other than Sentul, Naili’s place has branches at Ampang Point, Uptown, and USJ Taipan.
Address:
Naili’s Place
116C, Kampung Chempedak,
Jalan Taman Dato’ Senu,
51000 Sentul, Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.194678, 101.69353
Tel: 019 2020755, 019 393 0878, 013 205 6419, 019 919 2165
Website: www.nailisplace.com
November 19, 2012
Restaurant Goldview Hakka Food, situated next to Giant at Taman Paramount, is one of those restaurants that is somewhat a victim of its location for the fact that it is located just a stone’s throw away from the more established Kong Sai, the famous herbal soup & rice stall that is Meng Kee, and another rather popular outdoor tai chao place – Ming Heong.
This was why it took us all these while before finally giving it a try, and that turned out to be a nice little surprise.
Restaurant Goldview Hakka Food at Seapark
Restaurant Goldview has a pretty basic set up, there’s air conditioning indoor and a couple of tables outdoor on the balcony. Interior decoration was done probably in 5 minutes, but it is clean, and the tables & chairs are rather comfortable.
The photos here are from 2 separate visits.
“fa tiu kai”, omelet with preserved vegetable, hakka fried pork with black fungus
“Fa tiu kai” (RM 19, medium), a type of clay pot drunken chicken cooked with Chinese wine, is as good here as anywhere I’ve had. The flavor seeps its way through the poultry and mixing those sweet, fragrant sauce with steamed rice will leave you wanting for more.
We also love the simple “choi poh fried egg”, or omelet with preserved vegetable (RM 6, small), though usually taken with porridge, it goes pretty well with rice as well.
Hakka fried pork with black fungus (RM 12, small) is one of my favorite dishes in Hakka cuisine (New Grand View’s wantan mee has this), but the version here was just passable in taste, perhaps the pork we had wasn’t fatty enough, or that the taste of namyu (preserved red bean curd) was not as strong as I prefer.
salted steamed chicken, “mui choi kao yok”
Hakka salted chicken (RM 12, small) is a steamed chicken dish that carries a hint of saltiness, goes pretty well with rice, and would have been better with a more superior (chili) sauce or other condiment. This is something that Kong Sai fared better, but truth be told, it didn’t disappoint.
We love the “mui choi kao yok” (RM 12, small) here, the cut was excellent. Those glistering fats in between layers of meat topped with that perfectly cooked skin, oh my. I can have this pretty much every meal. I suspect that their “wu tao kao yok”, or yam with pork belly, should be equally as good.
and the spicy soup “lat thong” was superb! KY, Winnie, Horng, Yuki
Last but not least, for those who can read the signboard in Chinese, you’d notice that spicy soup is mentioned on their business name. So naturally, we had to order a bowl to share.
There’s a choice of kampung chicken, pork stomach, and lala as the main ingredient. We had wanted to try lala but ended up with pork stomach (RM 14, small) instead due to availability.
The soup was super peppery and spicy, but in a good way. It was one of the bests we’ve tried and I dare say, on par with Kien Kee at Seri Kembangan. If you find yourself here, this is a must order.
We ended up with less than RM 15 per person for dinner, excellent value for pretty awesome food. This is a place that we surely will visit again. Other dishes that I wanted to try include trotter vinegar, sweet sour intestine with pineapple, salted fish steamed pork, ginger duck, and more.
Hakka food might not be the most popular type of Chinese cuisine, but you should definitely check this place out.
Address:
Goldview Hakka Food Restaurant
26, Jalan 20/16A
Taman Paramount
Petaling Jaya
46300 Selangor
GPS: 3.107092, 101.62475
Tel: 03-8076 8766
Operation Hours: 11.30am – 2.30pm, 5.30pm – 9.30pm (Closed on Tuesday)
June 18, 2012
We have a friend in Winnie, who also goes by the nickname of hamsup (the origin of this is your extra credit homework, thank you very much).
When hamsup was working near my office, we used to have lunch every once in a while, but since she moved on to greener pasture, that has dwindled a bit, so we spent a bit of time catching up a bit over dinner at Bone & Pot (有骨气) at Kelana Jaya just the other day.
Bone and Pot at Kelana Jaya – plenty of soup choices
Bone and Pot is located opposite Kelana Jaya LRT station, parking is usually not a headache inducing exercise. The restaurant is clean, modern, and equipped with working air conditioning system that makes having a steamboat dinner a rather enjoyable affair.
For those who prefer sniffing haze and enjoying the great outdoor with smoking allowed, there’s the alfresco area as well.
fried beancurd, chicken “soft bone”, and squid with salt and pepper
While waiting for hamsup, we started with a few deep fried dishes to line our stomach.
The golden bean curd (RM 5.80) is a rather surprising dish, surprising in how soft and smooth the bean curd actually is, and with that golden slightly crunchy skin, makes a fabulous starter.
Salt and pepper chicken soft bone (RM 11.80) reminded me of the dish I had at Sumi Ka Yakitori at Subang, except this is in a deep fried form, equally as tasty. Salt and Pepper squid (RM 8.80) did not disappoint either, but I thought having 3 dishes that shares the same type of sauce (Thai chili sauce) was perhaps a bit too monotonous in retrospect.
Perhaps I should have used the other sauces available.
cheese ball, pork ball, sotong ball, shrimp ball, mushroom with pork ball
Like other steamboat places, there’s plenty of fish ball/pork ball choices available. We had cheese ball (RM 8.80 for 4), home made pork ball (RM 6.90 for 4), squid ball (RM 7.90 for 4), shrimp ball (RM 8.90 for 4) and mushroom with home made pork ball (RM 7.90 for 4) and fish dumpling (RM 4.80 for 6 pieces)
These “balls” mostly have pretty firm texture, with the cheese ball particularly interesting. I like them all, but couldn’t really taste anything other than the dumpling skin from the fish dumpling though. That’s one that I would probably skip.
beef slices, pork neck slices, lamb slices, pork intestine, and vege
Meat wise we had fresh lamb slices (RM 15.90), fresh beef slices (RM 16.90), and pork neck slices (RM 15.90). These are frozen meat that requires less than a couple minutes in the boiling soup. A word of advice – don’t leave them on the table too long lest you want the meat to go limp. They were fresh and we enjoyed em much.
Pork intestine (RM 8.90) came pre-cooked and thus you don’t need to worry about it messing up the taste of the steamboat soup, portion was definitely a little too much for this dish as only Horng and I ended up eating them. The girls did not share our palette for this particular internal organ. This goes very well with the sauce. 
Finally, no steamboat is complete without vegetable, we had water cress (RM 4.90) and rocket (RM 5.50), and together they gave us all the vitamin C we needed for the next day (I think).
Horng, Yuki, Kerol, KY, Haze, and Winnie, we chose tomato & potato broth
As for the choice of soup, Bone & Pot offers some interesting choices. There’s their signature pork bone broth, pepper pork broth, preserved eggs with Chinese parsley broth, Tomyam broth, and the our choice of the night – tomato and potato broth. This is rather different from the usual clear soup and tomyam soup choices at other places.
Towards the end of our meal, the broth became very similar to HK style borscht soup, unique, filling, and complimented the mostly meat and processed seafood ingredients that we had.
With drinks, we ended up spending a tad over RM 30 per person at Bone & Pot. I consider it a place worth visiting again, the soup is top notch, ingredients are fresh, service generally pretty good, and while you do pay a slight premium, it is in line with what is offered.
Address:
Bone & Pot
No: 7, Jalan SS25/12,
47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.11400, 101.60061
Tel: 03-7880 5511
Hours: 5 pm to 1 am everyday
July 27, 2011
When it comes to chocolates, just like many other forms of indulgence – wine, whisky, cars, women, and so forth – the premium stuff are almost always better. One of the more exclusive brands available anywhere has got to be Godiva, the chocolatier named after the legend of Lady Godiva, a naked lady on horseback (check their logo!)
Godiva cafe at Pavilion KL, this hot chick is Winnie
The company was founded in Belgium in 1926 by Joseph Draps, over the past 80 some years it has grown to become one of the larger premium chocolate brand in the world with annual sales over $500 million. We are fortunate enough to have our very own Godiva Cafe at Pavilion where you can purchase a lot of their products as well as have coffee, cakes, and other good stuff.
Perfect getaway for a lovely tea time.
ciki pours some coffee while Yazeed explains on
A couple weeks ago a bunch of us were invited to Godiva Cafe for a private function that aptly named The Chocolate Story where we were taught a bit of history about chocolates (you can learn them from wikipedia too, but wikipedia doesn’t give you chocolates to eat), and get our hands messy in a Master Chocolatier workshop.
to melt the chocolate, you only need a single candle
According to the brand manager Yazeed, Godiva sources only the best ingredients to make their chocolates. For example, the best cocoa is from Ivory Coast, and hence that is the only place Godiva get their cocoa.
After the chocolate history lesson, we were shown the ways of chocolatiers. First, we melt a bar of Godiva, and all you ever need is a single candle. Try doing that with your pasar malam stuff, I think you’d need a penunu bunsen. (this is due to the much higher sugar content, among other things, in mass produced chocolates)
and make our own chocolate derived goodies
With the melted chocolates, we then made our own chocolate products – chocolate lollipops, chocolate biscuits, chocolate cornflakes, and all these with bits of other stuff to make them real pretty too.
We were then served some food while the chocolates were being chilled.
and you can buy some godiva hampers as Hari Raya gifts too
In conjunction with bulan Ramadan and upcoming Hari Raya, you can now get your hands on “GODIVA Chocolatier Hamper Collection” – there are three types altogether and cutely named Jubilee, Impression and Jewel De Nile
oh yes, ahh, i see, it’s like that haaa
It was overall a fun, informative, and definitely very satisfying session at Godiva, I got to learn quite a bit about chocolates that I previously hadn’t a clue about, and of course, get my chocolate cravings fixed too. You can read Kim, Ciki, taufulou, and KampungBoyCityGal’s accounts.
and a grou picture for all the lucky buggers
Writing this is making me crave for some proper chocolates again, gahhhhh!
Address:
Godiva Chocolatier Cafe
Level 2, Pavilion
Jln Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.148872, 101.713368
Tel: 03-2142 5252
