To the Land of Promised Luxury

Yesterday, I went for a food review with KY & Grace. Details of the food review will be revealed later but more importantly, was the conversation that goes on during the dinner. You see, we were trying to prove that we can all roll our tongues (for me it's evident in most of my photos) and since everyone could do it, KY wasn't satisfied. He wanted to know if all of us could whistle.

In fact, I can tell you that I can't whistle like a pro but I can still make it sound like a boiling kettle except with a lower volume. So, since Grace & I couldn't whistle to save our lives, KY wanted us to take a bet. We would determine the stakes but then Grace made a very good statement. Why would girls wanna whistle. What would we benefit from learning how to whistle? Obviously, girls don't sit at walkways and whistle at guys when they walked past nor do they need to whistle to get a pretty boy's attention. So why would we wanna try so hard to master something which wouldn't benefit us?!! So the deal was off! We did try to take a bet with KY asking him to post about the review today but he didn't accept it either because he knew that he would loose since he is famous for his backlogs! And the damage would be 300bucks per person.

And back to my trip to The Land of Promised Luxury or even the Land of Oil & Sand, it's tonight! I'm flying off to Dubai at midnight and would be arriving at the Dubai Aiport at 3.30am! It's a 7 and a half hours flight and it's 4 hours behind the time of Malaysia.

I'm there for a workcation (work + vacation) as my company is taking part in The Sweets of Middle East Exhibition at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre from 3rd to 6th Nov 2008. After that, I'm taking a one week off to stay with my parents in Abu Dhabi as I have not seen my dad for the past 4months. And my visit is his happiness because along with my clothes, I brought him his favourite dumplings, dry meat, meat floss, John Grisham novels, DVDs, The Edge and some cooking ingredients that my Mum requested. I'll be back on the 16th Nov and I hope that I can blog as often as possible. Would probably have to fight with my Dad for the network card because the internet charges there is exorbitant. I heard my dad's company is paying more than 10k a month for internet usage.

Although it's not my first visit to Dubai, I am still excited as I have yet to step foot into the Burj Al Arab and also the Burj Dubai (the last time I was there, it was halfway done). It's going to be my shopping trip (indulging in a world of a shopaholic).....

See you at the Lounge tonight! Cheers....

Alcohol Challenge 2 : Absolut Mango agar-agar

To some of you who doesn't know what agar-agar is, you can always google about it. In fact there are a few types of gelatinous substance in the supermarket shelves that may confuse an amateur trying to make desserts out of them. For instance, there's agar-agar, Konnyaku, jelly and gelatine. On the texture, agar-agar has a very tough texture, Konnyaku has a very chewy and springy texture where jelly (or some called it Jell-O) is soft like Flubber. Agar-agar and Konnyaku remain as my favourites till today. I find the Jell-O too soft and not to my liking because it's like eating something that's barely there!

When I first laid my hands on a bottle of Absolut Mango many moons ago, I was so delighted and proud of it as it was not launched in Malaysia yet. I had to buy it because being an alcoholic, I have the urge of trying new drinks whenever I could or whenever there is a chance. My sister too collects the Absolut bottles so how could I not buy Mango and show off?!!

I found many ways to serve Absolut Mango - mainly on the rocks, with Mango juice, ice-blended, and of course putting it into my agar-agar! If there's a will, there's a way!


The ingredients are pretty much simple: Absolut Mango, Agar-agar powder (I always like to use the Mermaid brand from Thailand), Pandan leaves (from my garden), F&N evaporated milk, caster sugar, mango cubes and Golden Kiwi (it's not Kiwi gone bad like what my sister thought when she saw the yellow colour).

I'm making a two layer agar-agar and thus the cooking of the powder has to be done two times. Firstly, I have to make the milk layer and let it set. After that while it's 3 quarter set, I need to cook the transparent layer. after the white layer has been almost set and laid with the mango cubes and golden kiwi, I poured in the transparent layer mixture added with 3 table spoons of Absolut Mango onto the fruits in the tray. The secret of making the agar-agar an ABSOLUTELY alcoholic one is by soaking the mango cubes in alcohol before arranging it onto the white layer! Brilliant eh?!!

And the result - taa daa.....


It looked so good. And tasted good too okay?!! However, one slight problem I had was there isn't much alcohol taste to it. I thought I added quite a bit but mana tau the alcohol must have evaporated. Although there isn't much alcohol, it can still make you drunk as evident from my assistant's feedback when I gave her a box to take home. She said she felt sleepy after eating them and thus she went to bed as early as 9pm. Haha... don't look down on my alcohol creations - they surely are deadly (to those who doesn't drink)!



The agar-agar looked so nice that I will only do justice by camwhoring it. This shot is taken by Yiling. So artistic oh (I was referring to my jelly)?!! I think this can make a good party dessert. Let's get them drunk without them knowing it!

I have yet to try the alcohol on sticky mango rice. Wonder how it tastes like? Perhaps Huai Bin, whom have just received a bottle of Absolut Mango can try it!

My other post - Lychee Liquor Jelly

Dabai oh Dabai

When I first read about Dabai on STP's blog, I was like - DABAI?!! What was it? Sounds like CB (a rude word that you shouldn't know if you can't figure it out) to me. Lol.... ok forget about making fun of this fruit and let's get down to business. I was commenting on his blog telling him that I have not encountered or have I heard anything about babai oops I mean Dabai before and I would like to try it one day.

The very day that I happened to have the chance of trying was last week, just a few days after the comment because Philip was in town and he brought me some Dabai. Ok, it wasn't some, it was like a few kilos! So sweet of him. He even bought me some herbs and together with a CD containing photographs of the Dabai. Philip was in town to do a photo shoot on the graduation ceremony at Segi College in Kota Damansara. I met up with him at Nikko Hotel since I was at Petaling Street and he had an appointment there.

A quick google got me some information on Dabai or its scientific name is known as Artocarpus Heteropyllus. Dabai is its local name. I can't be telling you that I have just eaten Artocarpus Heteropyllus and you might start thinking I might be some freak whom has just fed on some carcass. "DABAI is a native fruit of Sarawak harvested by local natives and sold it in the native market. It can only be found in SIBU. The external colour of DABAI is black while the fresh of the fruit is yellow in colour. The seed in the centre is a 3 angled diamond in shape. You can only eat the kernel if you can crack open the seed".


The pictures below are a courtesy from Philip.

Do you know that the trees can take up to 7-10 years to grow from the seedlings and they have an economic life of 25-40 years. Do you also know that the male plants are thrown away? They only keep the female ones! Hmm... I wonder how they can tell. No wonder I said the Dabai sounds like CB because only females will be kept.

They are also known as Sibu Olives.

Good ones can cost up to RM20/kg.

To eat the Dabai, you must first wash the Dabai and then put them into a bowl. Then pour luke warm water into the bowl and soak the Dabai for 15-20mins. Never use hot boiling water as told by STP. To know whether it is done, you can try seperating the flesh from the seed. If the flesh is soft, it is ready to be eaten. It can go with soya sauce or sugar. I know that sounded weird but it did taste better compared eating it just like that). The seeds can be cracked open and the white kernels inside can be eaten. I was too lazy to do it so I didn't taste the kernels. This blog here has completely "dissected" the fruit for your viewing.

All I can say that it is an acquired taste. not everybody is going to love this exotic fruit from Sibu because it has a very bitterish and sharp acidity taste. The fruit is just like having your foie gras or blue cheese. Some may find it too out of the world and some may love it. As for me, I still love my foie gras and blue cheese anytime but Dabai... not too soon. No harm to try anyways. What's life without new adventures?

P/S: Thanks to Philip again for your kindness. Hope to have tea with you next time!

Extreme Makeover

If I would give this a title, I would probably name it Project Makeover : Victoria Beckham's Hairstyle. As you all know, I really wanted a Rihanna but considering the fact that I'm not slim enough nor do I have a sharp jawline, I settled for Posh's hairstyle after recommendations from my sisters. I have had so many hairstyles, which most of them are all short ones and thus this time it is not an exception. Many of others have asked me to leave my hair longer and maybe have a long hairstyle for a change but I can't stand it anymore. It had been 3 months not going to a hairstylist and my hair looks like shit that I have to tie it up almost everyday. Thus, today was the haircut day!

Proof of bad hair day

I managed to wake myself up at 9am and had an appointment with the hairdresser at 10am at SS2. Yiling tagged along since she looked like she needed a haircut too. She wanted the Rihanna look. We had takeaway breakfast at McDonald's since we were running late. After that, it was all the time at the hair salon until 3.30pm! We spent 5 hours there having our hair cut, dye job and blow job (oh that didn't sound too right) ermm... our hair being blown!

Gosh I looked so terrible here!

The hairdresser had my hair cut real short at the back and left a long bob in front. I had gold, copper and green rum hair dye. Yiling on the other hand had the real short Rihanna hairstyle with Violet hair dye. Let me present to you the new hairstyles:

Wah gaya kan?!!

After being satisfied with my new hairstyle, I went to 1Utama to have my cherry popped for eyelash extensions. I've never tried putting on fake eyelashes and I'm at Glitters (yeah, the same place where I go for brazilians) today to try it on. It was RM90 for natural eyelashes extensions and RM110 for party girl (which is a little bit on the extreme side) and guess what?!! I had the party girl ones! The process of having it done was such a torture. They had to tape my eyes so that I can't open them and I had to lie on the bed for 1 and a half hours to get my lashes done. I had fallen asleep during the process and at 1 time I really want to give up because I felt so restless lying there and I really wanted to pee! After it was done, I opened my eyes and found that part of my vision has been blocked by the thick lashes. It was normal according to them and sooner or later I'll get used to them.

A girl came for waxing and as she was leaving, she saw me having my eyelashes all done up and she complimented me on the extensions. She was so attracted to them and she decided to have them done on the spot too! Glitters should really pay me for being a walking advertisement. They will last about 3 weeks and after that if you wanted a touch up, it's between RM30-50.

The effect of the eyelashes is really apparent. Now with the new hairstyle and eyelash extensions, I looked much better - youthful!

Looks good even without makeup. only Lip gloss.

Any comments (except I'm vain)?

Of interesting menu & reads

Yesterday was another glutton day for me as I was invited by Mr.L for a dinner at Imbi Palace with the usual "wine kakis". This time, he suggested a different menu and liquor pairings. Instead of the usual food with red/white wine, we had a several different liquor that night.

The appetiser was roasted pork (siew yoke). It was good but of course not as good as the one near Plaza Pudu where the meat really melts in your mouth. After that, we were served a Chinese Mitten Crab, or popularly known as Shanghai Hairy Crab in individual bamboo baskets. It was piping hot! When asked whether I would like to "dissect" the crab myself or leave it to be served by the waitress, I chose the later. As much as I love to eat crabs, I haven't try "dissecting" a hairy crab myself because I was unsure of the correct method. And thus for the benefit of others, I've posted a video on how it was done.

Now watch the video to learn how to "disect" the crab. Pardon the music of my choice.

And to go with such wonderful crab, we had a few glasses of the Shaoxing Huadiao wine to go with it. I know, doesn't that sounds like the rice wine that we used for cooking? It is but the difference is that - this is a 20-year-old-wine! The wine had to be poured into a porcelain jug and kept warm in a warmer before serving. Sorry, I don't know the value of it but it was good. It tasted much better after adding a piece of sour plum into it.

I spent more than 15 minutes trying to eat the whole crab. Although it doesn't look that big, a lot of effort is needed to lick it clean. The faster you finish the crab, it means that you didn't enjoy it or it still has meat inside the shell. After that, we had a bowl of ABC soup each. Knowing that I love ABC soup, Mr.L ordered this lovely soup - full of flavour, has tender pork strips and the potato has been boiled to a right texture. The ABC soup I boiled of course can't be compared to this!

After that we had the beef steak with a fried egg. The beef steak was too tough and we all rejected the dish so it was off the bill. Mr. L insisted that he wanted to order Kobe but we all stopped him. The dishes for the night was sufficient. Another unique dish that I had that night was instead of foie gras (the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened by gavage), we had it being made with chicken liver. The dish is also accompanied with crispy skin chicken with meat floss. Other dishes are like the cod fish, sea cucumber and also fried noodles and it ends with a bowl of "suit kap with red dates and longan" each.

Throughout the night, we had pourings of Grey Goose Vodka on the rocks with lemon slices. of all vodkas, this has to be my favourite one. It's premium vodka from France and the taste is absolutely smooth.

We also had a bottle of The Old Malt Cask from Bowman Distillery aged 25 years. It's a single malt whiskey and it's really smooth. Love it. This bottle costs about RM600/bottle.

What's a better way to enjoy good food and drinks than with a Cuban Cigar?!! Mr.W, our usual cigar supplier gave us a cigar each. I didn't recognise the label and after some googling, I found out about the brand of the cigar that he gave us that night. It was "Vegas Robaina" (pronounced Vay-gah Roe-bye-na) and was created in honour of famous tobacco grower Alejandro Robaina. Not too bad, quite a good cigar, sweet smell at first and has some spicy notes at the end of it. If I'm not wrong, it's about RM50/stick.

Overall, the dinner was enjoyable with interesting conversations going on. I've managed to get a preview on the book Sex 365 - A position for every day, a book that one of them brought back from Singapore. It's equivalent to a Karma Sutra and gosh, some positions were really difficult to perform! However, most positions are almost repetitive because they looked somewhat familiar. I don't think you can get this book here but you can certainly order it from Amazon.

One of the reviews - "The best part is the little text blurbs added about each position to give advice on how to achieve it and tips to increase the spice. The text addresses sexuality frankly and pragmatically but often has great tongue in cheek (or elsewhere) humor. It rounds out the images nicely and keeps the book from sounding like stereo instructions, but avoids the flighty unrealistic language that is common in many love guides. The only complaint is a large number of positions that need an overhead bar to attempt them. Perhaps I am just in the minority that does not possess the gymnastics equipment necessary. Overall, if you are looking for some variety with your partner and want a well presented list of positions this is an excellent choice."

Now go figure.

Jack Daniels & Bollinger

I was at the airport today. KLIA to be exact. It's been almost 5 days since the new shop has opened and I've yet to see the shop after it had been fully stocked and operational. Although I was already impressed with the interior design one week before it was ready, now it looked even more impressive! It has got to be the most modern and tasteful chocolate shop in the country's airport. The interior designer whom designed our chocolate shop also designed our Loccitane boutique, situated just opposite Choc Stop in the Satellite building.

Will post the rest of the pictures of the shop once Fidani's counter is ready!

Ooh lala.. now I get to buy everything here at staff price!

That wasn't really the highlight of the day's visit to KLIA. Knowing that the First Class Golden Lounge is terminating Haagen Daz and getting in another ice-cream, I had to go there and have my last bite. Of course, I do indulge in some finer things in life while working. It was so called partly working, building rapport and maintaining the right connections with the right people. My assistant and I went into the lounge and look for our usual "kakis" there and have good food, drinks and chats.


When I'm at the lounge, I'm never going to give the wonderful tubs in this fridge a miss. It's like a must have food! I'm certainly going to miss these delectable treats. They're changing the ice-cream soon and by next Friday when I'm flying off to Dubai, the ice-cream are probably gone! Don't worry, I've asked the chef to save 2 tubs for me when I fly next week. hehe... brilliant eh? I was also helping them to do a tasting on some ice-cream cakes that they are going to introduce at the lounge.


I was served the Triple Chocolate, Strawberry, Chocolate Chip and Mocha. I liked the Triple Chocolate the best. Strawberry tasted funny to me and I no like mocha. I only managed to eat a few bites of each and the rest was wasted. Then, when asked what I wanted to drink, they knew what I wanted everytime - alcohol! I wanted to try everything they had there. It was quite an extensive range from wines, Tiger, Heineken, Otard, Black Label, Blue Lable, Jack Daniels, Sheridan, Wild Africa, Absolut, Grey Goose, Bacardi and the list goes on.

The last time I was at the lounge, they offered me a Grey Goose Mojito. I bet half of the glass was Grey Goose. They thought I'll be drunk by then but they were so wrong! How could I get drunk with that 1 glass. I did know they really "hentam" on the content of the liquor in my Mojito. They also asked me to drink as much as I can when I'm flying next week because they will be getting a wheel chair ready for me just in case I can't walk to the boarding gate. Lol...

So today I chose:

JD Silver Select Single Barrel

"Jack Daniel's Silver Select Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey was crafted and sold by the barrel, each with its own individual taste. Each barrel of this select 100 proof whiskey is aged in a unique location within the warehouse where the whiskey's color and taste mature an extra measure. Because Silver Select is a single barrel whiskey, bottles drawn from individual barrels offer subtle differences in nose, color and taste. To mark its distinctive character, each bottle is hand-labeled with its rick and barrel number and its individual bottling date."

If you have been drinking JD no.7 and you don't like it, it's fine. I don't like it too. But you know what? You've gotta give this bottle a try! It was so smooth and it's a fine drink to drink neat or on the rocks. A No.7 probably cost around RM70 per bottle but this Silver Select is at least RM300 duty free. I could still smell the oak. It was just marvelous. I even had a piece of cheese to go with it!

Next up, the chef decided to give me a lil treat by opening a new bottle of Bollinger for me since I have not tried anything less than Dom Perignon Vintage at the Lounge.

Bollinger Grand Annee 1997

Just a short intro to Bollinger- It's a champagne house producer from the Champagne Region of France. When Bollinger believes there is an exceptional harvest, they will produce their prestige Champagne Grand Année (“great vintage”) designed to express the character of the vintage. The house will select the best wines, cru by cru, to produce Grand Année. The bottle I had was vintage and it was a blend of 65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and from Grand Crus 75% and Premier Crus 25%. First fermentation was in oak casks. Second fermentation is in the bottle under natural cork, seal with a traditional metal clip and then aged for a minimum of 5 years.

It has a mild gold hue. A citrus and caramel nose at first, showing some toastiness and a little smokiness with time in the glass. Youthful palate, crisp, fresh and lovely acidity. The more important reason to try this bottle is that BOND drinks BOLLINGER. Isn't that reason good enough for a sip? Well, I had not just a sip, but a few glasses!

My verdict: Even Bollinger has been very appealing, I still think that Dom Perignon tasted better. I'm not sure whether the brand has something to do with it, but I'm sure for one thing that I don't like any champagne less than a Bollinger. You can definitely trust my trained palate as I have a very expensive taste in liquor. After all I started drinking champagne with Dom. What do you expect?!!

Related post (where I drink what Bond drinks) :
Bond Drinks Chateau Angelus

Jogoya @ Starhill

How am I going to loose weight if week after week I'm having such good and rich food?!! This post is strictly beneficial to

LADIES ONLY!

Sorry guys, the benefits do not apply to your species.

Today, I had an appointment with Tangs at 2pm at Pavilion and so Wei Mei booked a table for two at Jogoya for lunch. I think there's no need for an introduction for Jogoya at Starhill. Many would have blogged about it. Knowing that I haven't been there before even it's the talk of the town, Wei Mei think it's a good idea to have lunch there with the promotion going on. Read this:

50% Discount for ladies only for lunch on weekdays

Such a good deal! The both of us paid only RM51 each after adding all the taxes. And since it's a buffet, there's no limit to as how much you can eat, as long as your tummy can store them.

Being my first time there, I was quite excited (jakun). There were so much to choose from, endless list of food. Making a choice was so difficult. As we were seated at the table, there were three metal clips on the table. The metal clips with the table number is to be used when you need to order something that need to be cooked so that you can leave it on the plate of the dish you wanted to the chef. They will then send the food to you once it's done. Brilliant!

I had quite a variety of food. I tried not to eat too much of one dish so that I can try as many dishes as possible in the shortest time possible and gaining the least weight as possible. Sounds impossible? It's not!!! I think I had tried more than 20 types of food in less than 1 and a half hour. But weight - I dunno lah!


To prove that I have eaten my fair share of the bill, here's the calculations based on my smart estimations:

1. Oysters X 2 = RM20
2. Squid + Snails + Abalone slices = RM15
3. Prawn Tempura X 2 = RM5
4. Grilled sting ray = RM10 (Jln Alor or now Jln Kejora price)
5. Miso Soup with King Crab = RM15
6. Edaname + smoked squid = RM5
7. Coconut X 2 = RM7
8. Wine X 1 = RM10 (cos it's a small glass)
9. Desserts (Jelly, green tea cake, tiramisu & Mochi) = RM10
10. Haagen Daz Ice Cream X 4 scoops = RM28

Total value that I have eaten = RM125!!! See, so it's actually worth going by paying only RM51! It was such a good deal. So so so good....

Look at her, drowning in coconuts. Actually 2 of them were mine. Hehe...

Savouring my all-you-can-eat Haagen Daz!

So guys, if you're interested, lunch is at RM68++ per person for you and girls have them 50% off. Reason behind it - I guess because guys can wallop a lot of food and therefore Jogoya will go bankrupt even before the promotion period has ended. Girls, take the chance to try if you haven't. It's quite an experience. Promotion ends 19th December 2008. Next time I go there again, I'll head to the Haagen Daz chiller straight away. One more note though, the wine sucks big time. It's definitely cheapo wine, trust me.

Tom Yam Cravings

Last Sunday, I woke up really early at around 7.30am to go to the market. I couldn't believe it either. On Sundays, I usually sleep until 10am because I have to work on Saturdays so I don't have the pleasure of waking up late on Saturdays. This few weeks, I had to drag myself off the bed and then to the market since my mom is still in Dubai until December, so I have to play mom. It wasn't that bad after all to wake up early. It's the waking up and leaving the bed that's difficult. I somehow had a feeling every morning that my body was glued to the bed and how nice if I don't need to get to work.

After waking up early, there's no turning back. I can't go back to sleep because one house chore came after another. After I came back from the market, I had to wash the chicken that I just bought before freezing it. I also had to sort out the vegetables and other groceries. As I was preparing for lunch later, Someone rang my doorbell and it was a man asking whether I need to cut the grass at the garden. I allowed him in since the garden is in a bad shape after my mom left. No one in the house seemed to have green fingers. Plants tend to die under my sisters and my care and mom would be yelling at us when she's home.

After the man had cut the grass, I asked him how much he charge and he said it's up to me. For a less than 10 minutes job, I gave him RM5 and a can of 100plus since it's a hot morning. He looked at me as I hand him the money. Was it too little?!! I don't know the rates! If 10minutes he earns RM5, after 5 hours he probably had RM150. Ain't that bad huh? After he had finished, I still had to pick up all the cut grass and sweep the porch. And since I was at the garden, I also cut away those flowers that were dead. After that, I resumed my preparation of lunch.

My mission is to make a tom yam soup base. I had bought all the food needed to go with the tom yam. Making the soup is not that difficult because I chose the easy way of cooking tom yam by buying a ready made tom yam paste. Smart leh?!!

Although it looks easy like adding water to the paste, there are a few ingredients that I have to add to make the soup more flavourful. I added the prawn shells, lime leaves, lime juice (Limau Kasturi), onions and two extra table spoons of Thai tom yam soup paste from the bottle. One packet of the A1 instant tom yam can only cook 1 litre of soup therefore I needed more tom yam paste for a bigger amount of water.


The end result of the soup was great. It's spicy enough and there's a hint of sour from the lime juice. After that remove the prawn shells and lime leaves before serving. And to pair with such good tom yam, I had earlier bought fish balls, cuttlefish, prawns, beansprouts, choy sum and thai stick rice noodle.



After all the seafood had been put to boil in the soup, it's even more flavourful. We had a tom yam steamboat style lunch. It's simply a satisfying meal. Easy to cook and delicious too with the comfort of your own home with the air-conditioned turned on!

In an unrelated note, something made me went boiling today. I was so mad when my friend told me that we had to share some bottles of liquor which I did not consent to order the last weekend. At first we had two bottles, later a few more bottles came but I had no idea who ordered it and considering I didn't drink much because I'm not a blended whiskey person, I didn't ask. Then later today, my friend text me in MSN and asked me to pay RM53 which is my share of the liqour. I was like "WHAT?!!" Since when did anyone asked me whether I want to share? Apparently my friend who text me was also caught by surprise today having to pay her share too. I am not angry about sharing the cost. I was angry that I was not told earlier. If I had known that, I would have drank my fair share! For goodness sake, I didn't even touch 2 glasses for that 2 extra bottles! Don't the guys even have the courtesy to ask us earlier about the deal?!! If I pay, then I can choose what I want to drink.

So much so for being guys with no brains or whatever intelligence or even common sense. Lucky they are just my friend's friend's friends. If they were my friends, they wouldn't see the daylight already by now. I would have given them my piece of mind. I was angry because they drank those bottles like it's water, drowning the alcohol neat one by one, making a mockery out of themselves. That's why I didn't even bother talking to them. Its a total waste of my intelligence.

Ish geramnya.... (if you could just see my two devil horns protuding from my scalp now)

P/S: What Rubberseeds commented made sense. I save some bucks from cutting grass and threw away RM53 just like that. I paid RM53 to some buggers who doesn't even mow my lawn! #$^@!%@#

Alcohol Challenge 1 : Lychee Liquor Jelly

Yes I am an alcoholic, a self-professed one. I am not addicted to alcohol, I just seemed to enjoy it. I don't drink to get high, I drink to savour the taste and enjoy the company I have drinking with me. There's many ways to enjoy alcohol - neat, back, with mixers, cocktails or cooking. Thus I chose cooking as my theme for this alcohol challenge.

Lychee Liquor Konnyaku Jelly

Alcohol: Kwai Feh Lychee Liquor (20% alcohol).
Jelly: Konyyaku Jelly with pre-added sugar mix.
Fillings: Canned Lychee, fresh strawberries & Kiwi seeds



Steps:

1. Bring the konyyaku jelly powder mix to boil with 700ml of water. Add in the lychee syrup which measures to about 300ml.

2. Add in a shot of the lychee liquor (just like the pic).
3. Once boiling, turn off heat. Get ready the jelly moulds and fillings.
4. Put lychee, strawberries and kiwi seed into each empty cavity.
5. Then pour in the jelly mixture and let it set. Chill before serving.

* The reason why I chose to use konyyaku powder is that this Japanese jelly tends to have a chewy and springy texture rather compared to the normal western jello and it tasted perfect with the lychee and strawberries.

The results:

KY, you really need a white plate!!!

Jelly for your loved ones!!! (minus alcohol for those 18 and below)

It's full of lychee flavour and when coupled with the strawberries, it has a bit of the sourish taste which is just nice. The jelly is chewy, just the way I liked it.

To fully enjoy the experiment, I brought some to KY's place and shared it with him and Rachel. I think they said it was good. Was it? Anyways, I said it was good. What's a better praise then my own self praise?!! However, I think it can be improved with adding more alcohol because obviously the alcohol content was not stong enough to be enjoyed by those people who has a high tolerance for it - especially me of course! Maybe I had a trained palate and won't be able to taste the alcohol if the jelly is not made up of 50% alcohol and 50% jelly!

Savouring every bite!

KY's kissing the jelly

Rachel biting it!

I shared it with my assistant too. She was so afraid that I would drunk her with my jelly that she refused to eat before she drove home. Lol....

Quattro @ Avenue K

Quattro is described as one venue transcending 4 seasons. There's a Winter Bar, Spring Lounge, Summer Restaurant and Autumn Club. At first I didn't plan to go to their soft launching on last Friday night but since my girlfriends are going, and it's a rare occasion that we get to hang out together at some club, I RSVP through facebook for it. Trying my best to make it on time on Friday to meet Gee at her place so that I can hopped on to her car because the free flow is only from 8pm - 10pm, I was still caught in a traffic jam. I guess when it's raining, traffic jams is inevitable.



We only managed to arrive at our destination at 9.00pm considering our poor sense of direction because we had no idea which road to use to get there. The only guide was the twin towers and later, one of our girlfriend had to call her navigator! I do know how to get to KLCC but then again, I can only recognize certain roads (I have been so spoilt that I have been using the SMART tunnel like no one's business to get into KL). Before you have anything to comment about it, let me just say that I'm smart. Why get stuck in a jam while you can pay to avoid it?!!



As soon as we arrived in front of Avenue K, which is just opposite KLCC and in the same row as Corus Hotel, we left the car to the jockeys but the rate is quite expensive. It was RM20. I've never paid anything more than RM15 for jockey parking. Later did we know that if we drive further down, the jockey parking is only RM10. Ceh, what a rip off! When we saw the crowd, we were so turned off because it was damn freaking packed (Note: There were over 2000 people RSVP for the event) but we got lucky. One of our friends knew someone whom is a shareholder there and thus we gained direct entry without queuing and the best thing - we had a nice long table with endless flow of Johnie Walker Black Label the whole night. I think we easily had 5 bottles that night with just 13 of us drinking.



What is so special about this place is that they had 4 different sections for 4 different ambiance and music. We were all the time at Autumn Club, which is a club obviously with DJ spinning and R&B music. The area inside Autumn is the largest among all the other sections.

The crowd at Autumn Club.

Then, we went exploring after a glass of booze. We went to the Spring Lounge which is located by the side of the walkway of Avenue K but it's still connected to Autumn. White is used with warm lighting and retro-looking designer chairs. At the corner of the lounge, there is a walkway, not just any ordinary walkway but a raining one! It rains for 5 minutes every hour at the hour itself.

Spring Lounge

For those who are drunk, you can get washed here! Lol

Summer is a restaurant and it serves a medley of Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, French and Italian cuisine. It sounds like Rojak to me! There is a lunch promo going on and 10% discount for lunch from 12-3pm from now till 31st Dec 2008. And as for Winter Bar, temperature is between -5 to 10° C and with occasional snow in the snowing room. That's what I heard because we didn't want to queue and thus no pictures.... The flight of stairs to get to the Winter Bar will probably put you off and if you have someone whom is drunk, you can just rolled him down the stairs because no one ain't going to carry them down! I think that's the weakness of the bar.



Any event is incomplete without some camwhore pictures and thus I shall do the honour of posting them for your viewing pleasure.

Ipoh mari friends - Li Wei, Selina & Hue Gee

With Li Wei & Selina

Trying to kiss Hue Gee

The signature rolled-tongue after some ethanol influence.

We were so bored at one time, we decided to hug and lick the pillar!

With Willie & Kelly

Bumped into Joshua

Don't look at me, look at the leng chai behind la! So cute hor?!!

Selina gets her Birthday kiss at 12am!

I managed to spot Yat & Thomas Yap too! Sorry, forgot to camwhore with them also. I left the club at about 2am when one of our friends was drunk. We had to send her home and it was also time to leave since I do have to work on Saturday. It was so tiring because I only had a few hours to sleep. Damn it. Why can't I have a 5-days week job?!! Overall, it's a nice place and I think I will return again provided I am given free booze la. Lol...