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Undoubtedly many of you have heard of Madam Kwan restaurant at KLCC (and other branches.) My colleagues and I decided to have our lunch there after getting tired of Isetan take-outs. We usually did not consider the place cos it isn’t exactly budget lunch, and it is always packed with way too many patrons, but since we head out a little earlier today, we thought we could avoid the crowd.

Jabot (top left) so happy with her noodle

We got there at around 12 and already we had to be put on the waiting list. Luckily it didn’t take us long before a table was available. A big crowd did build up outside the restaurant approaching 1pm, however.

We ordered noodle with mushroom & chicken (basically like dried wantan mee but with chicken and mushroom,) char kuih teow, and cantonese noodle (滑蛋河 – wat tan hor.) The mushroom was very good, however the noodle might be a little to the salty side. Lucky it came with the soup, so you can always blunt it abit.

The cantonese noodle and char kuih teow are cooked with chicken, shrimp (look at the picture below), and squid. According to my colleagues, they are pretty good. The serving is pretty big, so prepare a big stomach and don’t be like Shah, wasting more than half a plate as she was a bit over confident and had a serving of mushroom soup as appertizer.

Shah (bottom left) enjoying her mushroom soup

The price is quite reasonable, an entree with a drink costs around RM 20. Madam Kwan is at the 4th floor of Suria KLCC.

p/s: I even know mandarin, are you impressed? 😀

GPS: 3.157581, 101.712102

After staring at the busy restaurant that is SOD from the opposing mamak square for better part of a year, we finally decided to give it a try on one rainy evening. Since it’s a bit of a mess to eat at the open air mamak place.

note: this restaurant is no longer in business

look ma, i eat vege!

SOD stands for Source of Delight, however, the Cantonese Name “吃好的 – Sek Hou Di” directly translate to “Eat Better”, which wouldn’t be a bad name anyway. It is a one of the handful of Hong Kong style restaurants that recently surfaced around the area.

hungry or not?

The menu offers a huge variety of food. However, the shop gets its fame on porridge. Hence naturally, Kerol ordered the crab porridge. I had the wantan mee soup, while horny got the chicken rice. The food was pretty good. My wantan mee has the authentic taste too it, if not a little blunt, which suits me well. The wantan was pretty decent, and the noodle quite nice.

Horny claimed that his chicken rice was just alright. As for kerol, she loved her flower crab porridge. Do note tho that the crab porridge is prepared differently from the one at PJ state that I posted. The former is slightly soupy while the the PJ state seafood porridge is more to the mushy side. I prefer the latter though.

funky twisted straw, empty dishes

Overall the food was pretty good, and there is still a lot of other dishes we have yet to sample, will definately return. There is a 30% discount if you eat after 9:30pm, and for every RM 10 that you spent, you get a RM1 voucher. I don’t know how long they are keeping this offer though.

So you know how to get there, foo!

Address:
94, Jalan SS 2/60
47300 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.117387, 101.622548

As good citizens, we strive to keep a healthy live style, and what’s better than playing the national sports that is badminton? In case you don’t know what is this badminton thing, please read this wikipedia entry, (I think Reta needs to read the rules too)

We usually do this on saturdays from 2-4pm at the UTAR Social Science building behind Dutch Lady that is located at Seksyen 14, PJ. Regulars are faggot, horny, kenneth, xaviera, vader, jack, and myself. Sometimes fox joins us too. On the luckier days, we had FA, and Reta.

Reta & FA, on seperate days

Then FA somehow messed up the knee during a game, and decided to stop playing. As for Reta, the girl got so excited she took her partner’s turn thrice, I ended up rolling on the floor laughing, literally. So I’m not sure if she will still join us, I hope she does, for the greater good for the country.. or something.

If you are up to the challenge, come and join us, costs less than 10 bucks per person usually. Hot chicks not guranteed. Otherwise maybe you can join huey fang in her twisting exercise thingy..

lets do the twist, anyone?

Our next door finally had a party of their own after seeing that we had too many over the last one and a half year since we moved in. It was their 12th grand kid’s full moon party, and we were invited.

As we already had our meal after badminton last saturday, we didn’t join the neighbours when it got started in the evening, and partly we were abit, you know, shy, too. But after the old timer walked right into my house and practically commanded us to be there, we had no choice but to oblige.

look at the alcohol

It was a mistake, just as horny, kerol, margie, faggot, and I took the food and sat down. The old dude shoved us a can of beer each, and opened them for us too. We were pretty much forced to drink while eating, and he would check our cans to see our progress.

There was free flow of beer, half a dozen bottle of whiskey, lotsa spirits, and even some cigar available. I wonder what would the baby think about the party when the fella grows up. The only think lacking was the disco ball and some hardcore music, but I guess dancing isn’t something wise to do when you are retired and drunk.

kerol’s butt, right next to horny

After finishing our meal and having a couple more drinks, we quickly made an escape. I heard the old dude was out, and another old timer puked, got himself a small cut, and went on an ambulance due to difficulty in stopping the bleeding. I guess they still have it in them after all these years.

Like a fairy tale, sad episode only lasts so long, it must be followed by good news, right? So Paul called me up on Saturday to inform me about a reader and fellow Koi lover Mr. Lee wishing to donate a couple kois to take the place of the departed Shiro Utsuri, I was ecstatic.

water parameters looking good

On Sunday before going over to Mr. Lee’s residence, I checked the water parameters to make sure everything is fine and that the prior incident did not happen due to unhealthy water. I was not going to introduce any new fish if the water quality is not fit. Ammonia and Nitrit were at minimal levels, pH at a healthy 7.5 ~ 8.0 range, and Nitrate at around 10 mg/l. That was good.

Mr. Lee is an experienced Koi keeper and has a marvelous pond with dozens of very high quality Koi. I particulary like the setting with the computer area situated right behind the pond, making a relaxing work station. We had a brief tour of the house and then picked up the Kois Mr. Lee so generously gave us.

soaking the plastic bags

It was a very beautiful Kohaku (red and white) and Showa (red, black, and white.) They were about 14 to 16 inches long and carries very attractive coloration and pattern, undoubtedly very high quality speciments. I soaked the plastic bags containing the kois in the pond water for a while to make sure there is no temperature shock when releasing the fish to their new environment.

kohaku released

Water from the plastic bags is then thrown away and the fish released to the pond.

showa released

There are six fishes in the pond now. 2 Kohakus, Showa, Yamabuki Ogon (yellow), Tancho (white with red mark on head), and an unidentified blueish gray koi, perhaps a Soragoi.

all the 6 kois

To prevent the Shiro Utsuri incident from happening again. I erected a peremeter fence around the pond with some plastic netting, taking a page from Mr. Lee’s set up of his koi pond.

fence construction

It’s a simple set up, hard plastic netting fixed with cable ties on wooden stick that are hammered into the ground. I even sprayed the outer side of the wood flat black in an attempt to improve the aesthetics, but I am definately choosing safety over looks for now.

Pond still looking good isn’t it?

Finally, I want to thank Mr. Lee again for so generously donating the two excellent kois. I will make sure they are in good hands.