Sudu - KL Hilton

Company had function in KL Hilton again... (due to its strategic location and maybe nice banquet packages, a lot of company choose to hold their functions in KL Hilton). What I was looking forward is their food... yes, their didn't disappoint me. The function that we organized was a dinner talk, but dinner will only be served at 9pm, so, we ordered some light refreshment before the talk.

Mini burger
Salmon, tuna and bacon

I especially like this mini salmon burger

Curry puff

White rose as table flower on reception table

We were actually expecting 50 participants and 10 VIP
Usually some will MIA in the middle or didn't turn up for the talk, but that night, everybody turned up. So, we as the helpers had no table.
And also because the turn up rate very satisfactory, boss asked my manager to bring us to Sudu for dinner!
Yeah!!! What a good reward! Although we already very tired, but we definitely wouldn't mind to have dinner separately.

The menu
Usually they are famous for their semi buffet. But the buffet will close at 10.30pm, it's really not worth it if we order the buffet at about 10pm. So, the waitress suggested us to order Ala-cart

My marketing manager ordered lamb shank

My 3 other team mates ordered this - OMG, I forgot what's the name of this fish

My national sales manager ordered steak

Although they didn't agree with me for ordering fish & chips in this fabulous restaurant, but... this is what I like... all because of the chips

Food is good, as usual... but finishing dinner at 11 something at night isn't that healthy lo...

Sky Bar again...

Lately I find that my blog has higher traffic... hehe, thank you, thank you... thank you for visiting and supporting my blog. I will try my best to at least update my blog once a week.

Lately I've been blogging a lot about food... I think sooner my blog will become another food blog, not photography blog. Actually, I'm not quite qualify to own a photography blog, because I'm not a photographer... I like photography, and I bring along my compact camera 24/7, so, whenever I saw something interesting or something I would like to share with others, I will quickly take out my "sony-zai" (ya, I'm a Sony fans) and take it down. Hence, most of the time, my post will attached with a few pictures. Will you still consider this as a photography blog?

Sky Bar... has blogged this more than once before. I really like this bar and each time they will have different menu for drinks. But I also realised, the charges of the drinks are getting higher...

13th International Congress of Infection Disease (ICID) is now holding in KL Conventional Centre from 20th - 22nd June 2008. Wyeth is one of the participant, so, I'll also need to go to jaga the booth on Sunday. On Thursday, a day before the congress, we were having a meeting with those top top Wyeth International colleagues from 5-7pm. After the meeting, we (my team colleagues) were thinking, since we will be jammed in the traffic while going back, we decided to get a drink somewhere around there. Initially we planned to go 7ate9 in Ascott Hotel, because I've never been there, but we were wearing high heels, so, walking is not funny... so we go Sky Bar again, obviously, Sky Bar in Trader Hotel is nearer.

When we were there, we saw a team of people were re-decorating the bar, because they will have a photo shooting session later.

The big pool in the middle of the bar
The big vases and the long dried sticks are the new deco

I'm sorry, I couldn't remember the name of the drinks that we ordered

Bryan's cocktail
It's a mixture of sake and vodka

plus a piece of cucumber...
The drink looks fresh, but the taste is strong... I can feel the drink burning all the way down from my throat to my stomach when I took a sip

Recommended by the waiter because I really have no idea what I want to drink
This is a more lady-like cocktail, taste sour with a bit of sweetness...
It's a mixture of some kind of alcohol with lemon and grapefruit juice

With a small piece of strawberry as deco

Elaine ordered a glass of white wine

Light & smoke testing before the actual shooting

Guai mui as model, wearing cheongsam, tanglung hanging on the dried sticks...
What a fusion of East & West, Tradition & Modern...

OMG, look at her, she is so so so so skinny... The cheongsam that she wore is fitted until she need to sit down slowly on the stool and need to be extra careful on her breathing... (I think).

Sky Bar

Address: Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC), 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Phone: (03) 2332 9888
Opening hours: 5pm - 1am
Dress code: casual

Flying Chillies

I love Thai food although I can't eat spicy stuff... most of the time when I eat spicy food, my nose will starts running, tongue burning, eyes tearing... but I like that feeling (like to torture my taste buds) hehe.
I think some of the self-claimed authentic Thai restaurants are not really serving something authentic. The food is not as spicy as I expected, most probably they are trying to fit to our local spicy threshold...
Flying Chillies in The Garden is also similar to other Thai restaurants in KL, but I like the Thai Iced Tea that they served, although it was a little bit too sweet to me, but at least that's something close to authentic.
From the interior design (modern design and everything in white), you might not know it's a Thai restaurant until you walked in and the waitress greet you with "Sawatika".

They signature drinks - Thai Iced Tea & Lemongrass Juice
See the beautiful layers of the Thai Iced Tea?
Top - Tea
Middle - Milk
Bottom - Brown sugar

Bangkok Flat Noodle Soup
Taste good, not too spicy, it whetted my appetite, can't stop eating until the last strand of noodle. The noodle is different from the Chinese flat noodle, it is thinner, and more chewy.

When I looked at the menu, I couldn't decide which one I want, because I wanted to try their pineapple fried rice as well.
At last, I chose noodle and Lingzie chose pineapple fried rice, so that both of use can taste each other food.
Not extremely delicious, but we both like the taste.
(If they failed to serve nice pineapple rice, they shouldn't call themselves a Thai restaurant then)

Thai Fish Cake
The delicious part is the sauce... fish sauce played an important role...

We also ordered a spicy tomyam soup with prawn, and red ruby water chestnut as dessert... but sorry la, forgot to take pictures. hehe Taste wise, like other dishes, 3 words - not bad, normal, no surprise... (3 or 5 words?)

Khob Khun Kha...Khob Khun Khab (Thank you)

The Making of Chinese Dumpling

Was suppose to post this before the dumpling festival, but... haih, same old word... LAZY lo

I see my mom make dumpling every year, sometimes I did help up, but every time when I failed, I will give up. The dumpling is really not easy to make, especially the final wrap up step. Chinese has this special festival and wonderful food - dumpling, I know I need to learn how to make this one day, because I don't want this wonderful food disappear in our Chinese society (not many people know how to make dumpling nowadays).

So this year, I have decided to help my mom again.

Ingredients Preparation
1 day before...

My mom usually will book the pork few days before.
And the pork must have a very good proportion of fat and lean meat. Believe me, forget about your slimming program, it taste really good.

Marinate the pork with:
Onion and garlic (pounded)
Rice wine and Shaoxing wine
5 spices powder
Oyster sauce
Thick soya sauce

Marinate the pork overnight and at the same time, soak the dumpling leaves and strings.

Other ingredients:
Fried dried, shelled shrimps
Stir-fried marinated pork
Fried glutinous rice with red bean (+ some salt)
Boiled mushroom
Salted egg yoke
Dried scallop
Chestnut

Started wrapping/making the dumpling
Take 2 piece of leaves, folded to a funnel shape, step by step fill in the ingredient
1. put a little bit of rice at the bottom
2. put all other ingredient in the middle
3. cover with rice again

Tada, yeah! I did it! Although my dumpling is slightly smaller than my mom one.
I also do not understand, my mom's hands are smaller than mine, how come her dumpling is bigger than mine?

Boiled the dumpling in salted water for 4 hours...

See, my dumpling looks so yummy

I didn't press hard enough, that's why the rice was a bit loose.
Can you see the whitish part in between the dumpling? It was the pork, so tender and juicy
yum~ the best part of a dumpling.

For those who have digestion problem, better don't take so much dumpling at a time. After all the dumplings were done, I took 2 and after that, I suffered stomach pain... indigestion lo... haih, my body likes old lady...

Chocolate Bars

When flipping my mum's recipe books, I thought this WAS easy...

Ingredients:
220g butter
1 egg
120g icing sugar
220g plain flour
90g green bean flour

Garnishing:
100g melted chocolate

Method:
1. Cream butter and icing sugar until light.
2. Add in the remaining of ingredients and mix into dough.
3. Put into a piping bag and pipe into two straight lines.
4. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes or until lightly brown.
5. Dip a side of the cookies into melted chocolate and leave to set.

Easy job right? But, with wrong tool, the process can be very difficult. I have a small piping tube which I use it to pipe cream/jelly. By now you should roughly guess what's happen or even lol and point your finger at me thinking how stupid I am. Because the mixture is a dough, so, you can imagine, how hard to pipe it out. That's not the end of the story... I made another silly mistake later.

The piping head is smaller in size, so, instead of pipe 2 straight line, I piped 3.
I pressed so hard until my hands were shaking and I hurt my palm.

I was supposed to melt the chocolate by double boiling it (means not heating the bowl direct contact with fire)
I admit, I'm not a very patient person, the chocolate melted so slow, so, I thought I can control the fire by direct heating the bowl.
End up, I was not melting the chocolate, I was burning the chocolate...
When my dad came back from work, he still could smell the burn in the kitchen and dinning area. Luckily didn't get scold.
My mom is always my savior, she cut the chocolate bar into smaller pieces and melt it in the oven, just a couple of minutes, the chocolate was melted nicely.
Before the chocolate cool down and become solidify again, we quickly coated the cookie with chocolate.

Not nicely decorated, but taste wise... boleh tahan (my "white mouses" said good)
But nobody know there is "blood and sweat" in the making...

I think this is a very good recipe for parents who want to play masak-masak (baking) with their kids, that will be a very good and interesting learning process

Bukit Melawati Climbing Trip

It's so unbelievable I go climbing again... Last year when I climbed mount KK, I swore, I will never do climbing again... but... during Wesak day holiday, my friends asked me to climb Bukit Melawati with them and their colleagues, initially I was a bit reluctant, but they said since I've "conquered" Mount KK, Bukit Melawati is nothing, because the climbing distance is about 1/6 of Mount KK, taking consideration of I took about 6 hours to reach Tanah Rata from starting point and 4 hours from Tanah Rata to Low's peak and about 8 hours down from Low's peak to starting point. And, I actually climbed this Bukit Melawati once during my college time, so they said this time will be easier for me (opps, I didn't take my age as a consideration). Ok, after long persuasion and negotiation, I joined them.

Weather of the day was fabulous, not too sunny nor raining. I only ate a piece of bread for my breakfast because they said we still can catch up our breakfast/brunch after climbing... We started our journey around 8am and we predicted that we will complete around 11am.

Compare to Mount KK, I still think that this Bukit Melawati is tougher and more dangerous, some part of the journey is like rock climbing, and you really need to walk/climb carefully or if you fall, THAT'S IT! And must accompany by some who really know the climbing path, or will lost in it.

Overall, I still think that climbing is not my activity, I'm not an indoor person but extreme sport...? NO NO NO NO NO... I swear again, no more mount climbing in my life again! I mean it this time!

A lake at the back of the bukit

See?! Need to be "spiderman" climbing down and up the rock

The city view from the top

Timin was figuring-out how to climb down, which leg first and which leg to which rock

Beautiful mold on rocks

Some pine like trees on top of the bukit

Spider-climbing up again... sign~

It's all rock!

Heading back to where we parked our cars

My "reward" of the day - big bruise on my calf

Fishing My Way To Made Of Honour

I'm a real game idiot, I've been playing this game for about 3 weeks, but the best catch is only 11,400g... (tomorrow is deadline, I don't think I can get any higher than this) eh, those scoring 2*,***g, how you guys did it? Can share some secret ar?

Although I'm a dump game player, but I'm really addicted to this game. It reminds me of a childhood game/toy that I used to play when I was a kid, it's a round shape plate with fishes in it, the plate will turn and the fishes' mouths will open and close, then you need to use the stick to do the fishing? (Can you get what I mean? Or we are from different generation?).

Anyway, I hope I can be the top 40 nuffnangers and win an exclusive invitation for two to the exquisite dinner and the Premiere of Made of Honour organized by Hong Leong Online. *finger cross* Because look at the prize, wah, that's the most attracted part lo, nice dinner and movie premiere for free... please please please, let me win...


Besides, after the Hong Long Online Activation Contest period, will this game still remind online and let us play for fun? If they take it down, I think I will miss the Flippy lo, sob sob...

Alarming Incident Happened to Newly-wed Couple

An ugly incident happened to my friend's brother few days after his wedding. Last Thursday, 29.05.08, while they were away for their honey moon and other family members were at work, a thief broke in to their house and stole all the jewelry and RM25K.

Police came and told them, there are several similar cases lately. They suspect the thief is aiming those houses which had wedding events (Usually we will have cocktail party a day before wedding in our house, that's how the thief know we have wedding event). Because the thief also understand, we Chinese usually will get a lot of jewelry or ang pao as gift.

So, my friend is asking me to share this:
For those couples who are going to get married, here's an advice - do not keep the money or jewelry at home, keep the jewelry in safety box or bank in the money as soon as possible after your wedding.