Tuesday 31 January 2012

Buffet lunch at Tanjung Aru Beach Hotel

A private gathering earlier this year after some family matters. Tanjung Aru Beach Hotel is a nice place, very relaxing and overseas the ocean. I love hotels/resorts and wished I work in one, it must be fun to go to such a grand and relaxing place everyday and meet all sorts of people.

Colorful assemble
 I took pains to select a vibrant platter, I love how the colors turns out.

Smoked salmon and olives on top of a bed of green and purple lettuce and vinaigrette dressing.
Sushi and barbecued chicken Char Siew
 The Barbecued chicken Char Siew is rather good, sushi is nice enough but nothing to shout about.
Bun with tuna spread and raw fish
The buns made a nice presentation but is rather common in taste, you could easily make these for home parties with a sliced open bun, a piece of lettuce and tuna spread. There are a whole range of sashimi like Salmon, red snapper and others which does not interest me much, I only like butter fish sashimi. I don't remember what is this pink sashimi already.
Dessert and snack platter
 Less colorful assemble, but most of the desserts are good. I'm starving now and regretted that I didn't go back for second or thirds that day.
Lemon meringue tart and bread pudding
 Lemon meringue tart is okay, but not as good as the yummy bread pudding. Its on par with our own bread pudding. Except this does not have peaches and was served with a nice cold cream.
Miniature pizza, chocolate brownies (?) and eclair
I remember the miniature pizza as dry and the taste is pretty forgettable, chocolate brownies or cake is heavenly, the photo does not do it justice at all, the eclair is pretty nice too, chewy with a nice creamy spread inside.
Dim Sum and Miniature pizza
 The dim sum is rather forgettable as well, I'm sure I'm not the one who has said this before, hotel dim sums are usually not as good as proper dim sum places, one of the reason being (psst... no pork) If you want good dim sum, you must go to non-halal restaurants. New Wong Kwok is one of the good ones in town. Or Royal China, however I'm disappointed with R.C's service when I went there the last two times, next time I'll go to Foo Phing instead.
Soup
 Slightly watery, taste is so-so only.
Almond pudding with lychee
This one is nice, not too sweet and the pudding really does taste and smell like almond essence. Unlike some places who served a few cubes of white agar with no taste and called it almond pudding.

p/s: I have six days left to garner votes for the Social Media Awards 2012 before the voting close on 6th February, do vote for me if you haven't, I would appreciate it very much. Please vote me: lady-g-blog.blogspot.com for the Upcoming Blogger of the Year category. I have 6 votes up to date and I'm truly thankful to all who have taken the time to vote for me. Thank you.

Monday 30 January 2012

Social Media Awards 2012

Official site: http://www.socialmediaweek.com.my/


Hey guys, I've just nominated my own blog (shameless) in the Malaysia Social Media Network 2012, the nomination closes tomorrow and I know this is a last minute sign up therefore I don't expect I will be able to win with the small readership and voters. However I figured that entering my blog in this might help me get some publicity and hopefully a little more traffic to my site, who knows if there might be some curious viewers who might click into this humble blog (although the owner is anything but humble lol) So, anyway, I do hope you will help vote me up a little, I don't expect much, pretty please...

My blog is under Upcoming Blogger of the Year, you might find my blog http://lady-g-blog.blogspot.com/ at the very bottom for the moment. It will take you a short while to sign up before you can vote, though. I shall appreciate very much if you could take the time to vote for me.

Closing date for voting is February 6th 2012, I only have 1 short week to gain some votes, so I won't go down too badly, I hoped. Click here to vote. Thank you.

p/s: Can I also ask you to Like me on my newly created Facebook Page? I still haven't figure out how to add it to my blog page like everyone else. Thanks again.

Friday 27 January 2012

Brooklyn at 1 Borneo

After Tea Box, we walked around the mall and end up at Brooklyn some times later, so we decided to stop in and have a quick lunch. It might be a nice location to throw a birthday party since the place is huge and can seat many people, not that I'm planning to throw a party or anything, its just a suggestion for anyone who might be interested. To read my previous post on this place, click Here. I think the photo quality is slightly better than the last time.
Double Cheese and Ham Sandwich RM12.90
The classic sandwich with ham and cheese, served together with salad on the side.
Beef Bacon Seafood Pizza RM18.90
This Pizza is nice and flavorful, although the shrimp is rather small.

Hawaii Teriyaki Burger RM18.50
Burger with nice beef patties served with teriyaki sauce, pineapples and fries,  lots of fries.
Original Coney Island Cheese Dog RM15.50
Hot dogs topped with bolognese meat sauce and cheese, served with fries and bits of salad.
Pan Fried Dory Fish RM24.80
Pan Fried Dory on top of a bed of mashed potatoes and salad, the sauce is too salty in my opinion. But overall, its passable.

Waffles with Peach and Ice-cream RM10.90
How can we say no to good ole Waffles with Peach and Ice-cream, a must order whenever we're there. Yums.

Brooklyn
G838, Ground Floor, 1 Borneo,
Jln Sulaman ,Kota Kinabalu
088-486353

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Tea Box at 1 Borneo

While waiting for my sis and mom outside of Kaison, I decided to sit down for a short tea break nearby, there are Mario's Pizza, VedaBlu and TeaBox. I planned to have Mario's but I thought of having a proper lunch soon, so that one is out. Then I wandered over to VedaBlu, but they didn't have my favorite flavor- Pepito (It's been a while, what happened VedaBlu?), they do have a new flavor called Bambangan or Wild Mangoes that is favored by the Sabah Kadazandusun natives, sounds interesting but maybe next time.

In the end, Tea Box it is, I've never actually tried Tea Box before so I settled for a Vanilla Creme Frappe. I love the subtle vanilla flavor within the milky slush, nice. Pricing is rather reasonable too. Maybe I would try the Peppermint Frappe, Green Milk Tea, Vanilla/Peppermint Latte next time. My Dad might like the Mango Frappe, he is very fond of mangoes.

p/s: Pictures edited with Picnik to give a Lomo-ish look to it, I wanted to make it look more interesting, do tell me if you found it too O.T.T.



Monday 23 January 2012

Prosperity Burger

Enough of stray cats, after feeding them, its time to feed ourselves next. Its been quite sometimes since breakfast and we planned to takeaway our lunch at McDonald's drive through. Every year, my dad would crave their prosperity burger (I remember last year we went there for 3 times in a row during CNY), I definitely craved the curly fries, seriously, they should make curly fries a permanent item instead of just during CNY, everybody loves curly fries. Lately we have tried to limit our fast food and soft drink intake, its been quite a while since we had McDees so its a nice treat for all of us.
Fries and curly fries

Double cheeseburger

Ayam Goreng McD

The Beef Prosperity Burger

Coca Cola

Happy Chinese New Year

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, it was a busy start for me this year, I hope I will be able to blog more this week since I'm on leave for the holidays. At first, I would just like to wish all my readers a very Happy and Prosperous Dragon Year. Here are some pictures of cheery yellow chrysanthemums I've photographed at my Grandpa's house this morning.

Round, brightly colored pom poms

How pretty they are
p/s: I'm sad Picnik is going away soon, its a nice photo editing tool that I used often to correct my pictures, they are so much easier to use, I dubbed it Photoshop for Dummies. But the good news is, from now till April 19, everyone can use its premium functions without having to pay for it. I'm taking all the advantages I could get, editing my pictures like no tomorrow. Picnik will be joining Google+ after this, I wonder if the function is still the same.

Vegetarian Dish

First day of Chinese New Year must eat vegetarian dish, its a custom for many Chinese families. My mum cooks the best vegetarian dish and I have yet to see a better dish elsewhere. This recipe was passed down from my Paternal Grandmother, my mum was in charge of cooking it every year ever since my grandmother passed away. We would usually eat this dish for breakfast and have the leftovers as one of the dish for dinner. Its a jumble of textures and flavors, very satisfying; soft, juicy, slippery mushrooms and fungi, chewy bean curd sheets, the arrowroot and waterchestnuts add a bit of crunch, yums.


The dish includes various ingredients such as mushrooms, bean curd sheets (deep fried the night before), knotted lily buds, black fungus, dried oysters (re-hydrated into gigantic proportions), arrowroot bulbs, water chestnuts, Chinese cabbage, glass noodles, fatt choy (a type mossy algae that sounds like the Chinese word for prosperity) and flavored by Nam Yue (red fermented bean curd). The ingredients and method of cooking this dish varies from one family to another, some would have less ingredients, some would have more, and some flavors their dish with soy sauce or oyster sauce (like my maternal grandmother would), but I think those cooked in Nam Yue taste the best. We would bring a pot over to my grandpa's place where relatives would gather there to eat this dish.

There is also another fond memory attached to this dish: during my high school days, there is once a small program in our class where each group of students needs to bring 2 different traditional dish as cultural studies. My team will bring the Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls in sweet soup) and this vegetarian dish. On that day itself, my mum gladly cooked this and packed it into a large Tupperware for me to bring. During the program, everyone crowded around the Tang Yuan and other dishes, but non came over to my place. It was rather disappointing, and I'm quite sad that no one appreciate my moms effort. My best friend comforted me, she said, 'its okay, we'll eat it all by ourselves'. While we were helping ourselves, some classmates come over to try the dish, after they did, more crowded at our place and some even came back for seconds, proclaiming that its the best vegetarian dish they've tasted. Imagine how proud I am of my mum's vegetarian dish, I went home that day recalling the whole story to her and it made her day as well.

One of these days, I'm going to learn how to cook this and pass this recipe down.

Stray cats

After visiting my grandpa this morning, we had a leisurely drive around town. We went to my dad's office to feed the cats there, there are a couple of them and my dad has been feeding them out of goodwill since last year. One of the gray cat was very attached to my dad, it would try to sneak into the office while someone is entering to look for my dad there, it's really funny. Sometimes, my dad would work at the workshop dealing with company cars, the gray cat would follow him up and down or go and geh-poh (busybody) with what he's doing.
Yup, that's him and his sister

How pretty they are

Sometimes he would feed stray cats near where he frequently goes, one of our newer kitten- Nini was found in Inanam, she was small, week and ill when my dad found her. He poured some cat food on the ground and the kitten bounded over to eat. After nibbling on 2 kibbles, she plopped down on my dad's feet, that is how Nini came to live with us after that, if my dad did not bring her in, she wouldn't be able to survive another 2 days. At first she couldn't eat much, her body is bony, her ribs protruding through her skin, her paws are skinny like a chicken and she would have diarrhea for days poor thing, we even suspected that she might have suffered some abuse while she walked the streets due to some suspicious signs on her ears and paws. After a few weeks with us, she's showing improvement, currently she's still skinny, still prone to diarrhea, but her cheeks and paws filled out a bit and her belly is round like a tennis ball. It's a funny sight since her belly is bigger than the rest of her body.

There is a Kopitiam (coffeeshop) my dad frequented, there's a handsome white cat who always awaits him. No doubt my dad fed him whenever he was there. The Kopitiam lady boss would tell my dad that 'his' cat was waiting for him in her shop, she seem like a nice lady since she didn't chase the cat out, I couldn't say the same for some other shop owners who are simply horrid to strays, it angers me to think about it. I wished more people would be kinder to animals, especially strays. We could only do as much, however there are too many stray animals still roaming the streets, not even SPCA can save all of them. I also wished people would adopt a pet rather than buying one to help give stray animals a home. Today, the white cat wasn't there, he might have been frightened away by the fire crackers nearby, I hoped he wasn't hurt or anything.

The government should set up more animal shelters throughout the country to take in more stray animals, and giving higher subsidies in spaying/neutering for anyone who wanted to spay/neuter their pets. I would suggest to stop issuing pet store license in order to encourage people to adopt pets instead. Or just impose a law to encourage people to spay/neuter their pets, those who did not wish to spay/neuter must obtain an expensive license and breed their pets responsibly to avoid animals being dumped or abandoned. Higher fines and jail sentence for animal abuse, abandon and dumping should also be implemented. Some people have the perception that spaying/neutering is cruel and inhumane, but think of it, stray overpopulation is a serious matter throughout the world, many animals are euthanized because the shelters cannot afford to keep them. Others are abandoned, suffered from illness and abuse out there, by spaying and neutering our pets, we can prevent more of these cases from happening. Read more on Myths and Facts about Spaying and Neutering.
This is Sylvester

His coat is so shiny and black

This is their mom

Currently her two litters of kittens are living in the office

Spaying or Neutering is actually a simple procedure, all my cats and spayed and neutered and they are able to recover very quickly. I noticed that after they are spayed or neutered, their behavior are more gentle and more manja with humans. I know some people, especially guys, who are very protective of their balls, might think that the male cats will be less like a man after being 'ahem', cats don't actually feel any difference, just that they no longer feel the need to breed. I actually felt the same for my first cat, but he recovered 'like a boss' 2 to 3 days later, females would take a few weeks to heal completely but they will feel only minor discomfort for most of the time after the surgery.

Whoa, I didn't intend this post to be this long, I was just going to mention feeding the stray cats and move on to another topic about food, but somehow it unleashed a motivation in me to blog a lengthy post about social responsibilities on animals. No doubt, I will continue to speak for those who couldn't speak for themselves.

Sunday 22 January 2012

Kenny Rogers Roasters

After a session of broke back shopping at the Popular Book Sale in 1 Borneo 2011. We've stopped by at the nearest Kenny Rogers Roaster's for a quick lunch. Also to rest our aching feet and back from carrying all that books. Seriously, the only times I ever thought, "I need a man" is always during book sales, I need someone to carry all those books for me while I dig through the piles of discounted books, of course, to foot the bill in the end of the day (hehehe) But never mind, so far I've survived countless book sales without a man, other than Daddy dearest, to whom I'm most grateful of his support for my love of books, although he would sometimes make me carry all those stuff by myself, oh well, I'm not complaining. If you're reading this now Daddy, I lapiu <3.

Alright, since we weren't really that hungry yet, we've only ordered something light.


Iced Lemon Tea

Spaghetti Bolognese


Roasted chicken drumstick with rice

Roasted chicken drumstick with macaroni


Friday 13 January 2012

Toscani's

Meet up with some friends again, this time they're coming down from Sandakan and Lawas. This is 2 weeks before my diploma graduation ceremony that was held on December 5th this year, although we have already left college for more than 3 years. They didn't have enough students in our batch to hold a proper graduation ceremony, so we're having it this time together with our juniors.

I love going to Toscani's, the outdoor lighting is absolutely perfect for food photography, photo's taken here turned out really good. Check out the previous post: Toscani's Waterfront. This time, its even better cause a pro is in attendance. It was nice to lunch with like-minded people, once the food arrives, everyone took out their smartphones and me, my camera to snap a picture of the food. It's awesome, no one waiting impatiently for me to finish photographing so they can eat.

Photographing colorful food are better than eating it, sometimes.The funny thing is when the bill was brought to us, I whipped up my calculator (the Casio ones we used in high school, almost every student have one of those) and everyone laughs. I brought my calculator with me, easier when it comes to splitting the bills cause I don't trust my mathematical skills, the funnier thing about it is that I still managed to calculate wrongly even while using a calculators, and the funniest thing to top it all is when everyone put our heads together busily punching numbers into their own phones and still got it all wrong anyway. My friend exclaim, this is truly a generation relying heavily on technology, without these gadgets, what will become of us? In the end, one of us took charge and finally manages split the bill accurately. All this while, the waiter is waiting for us nearby.

Esprit Lemon Lime

1 dozen of cheese baked mussels

This one is taken by a pro

Salmon Penne
Color quality is really good, I want to post everything.

My seafood penne
Below are some of the test shots taken by the pro with my camera, I kept them to study his skills, all of them are mussel shots, emphasizing on aperture priority.



That's me behind the vegetable, my skin look so white *vain*