Monthly Archives / March 2009
March 31, 2009
I had a very early KFC dinner yesterday and got myself pretty hungry while skyping with Mell later at night. And since I had finished the big can of Hello Panda biscuits Eiling gave me a couple weeks earlier, it was time to have some instant noodle.
the Amazing Spider-Man instant noodle, with Mell on skype
It wasn’t just any instant noodle, but the Amazing Spider-Man instant noodle Cheesie bought me all the way from Universal Studio in Japan!
When it comes to instant noodles, I guess you got to give it to the Japanese. This little cup of noodle comes with corn, spring onion, salted vegetable, pork (yes pork!), and little spidey faces that are probably made of fish paste.
spidey faces, and pieces of pork too
3 mintues of boiling water later, it was all ready. It was a little salty (perhaps I didn’t put enough water) but otherwise rather tasty. The bits of pork really gave the noodle that extra kick that is often lacking in instant noodle.
Thanks Cheesie! Now I think I should go to Isetan to look at their non-halal instant noodle section.
March 30, 2009
This is the ultimate unlikely combination when it comes to Asian food. An plate of oxymoron of traditional Malay (and hence, usually halal) food with a Chinese/Nyonya twist to it. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the star of the day – nasi lemak with mince pork sambal.
mince pork sambal, curry chicken, and that fragrant rice
I’m not sure where else is this combination available, but 6 to 10 Nasi Lemak and Grill at seksyen 17 is one of those very rare places that serves non-halal nasi lemak. I have previously blogged about their Western Food in this post (pretty tasty and rather economical), but it actually took me a while to try their famous nasi lemak. I didn’t know what I had missed for so long.
suan, horng, and “aunty” enjoying their nasi lemak
The standard nasi lemak comes with rice, fried ikan bilis (anchovies) and peanuts, sambal with onion, a few slices of cucumber, and half a hard boiled egg. You can then choose to add a number of extra ingredients, including mince pork sambal, cuttle fish, beef rendang, or curry chicken.
The mince pork sambal is the must-order, if only for the “I’ve had it too” factor. The pork and sambal combination works well, and made perfect with the fresh lime juice squeezed on it. Spicy and a tad tangy, flavorful, and that unmistakable taste of delicious pork. You just have to try it.
cuttle fish and beef rendang too
The cuttle fish is one of their most ordered ingredients too, with it’s perfect texture and spicy strong flavor, it is not hard to see why. I also tried a chunk of the pretty tasty beef rendang without being disappointed, and the curry chicken too, received positive feedback from my lunch buddies.
A plate of standard nasi lemak with one extra ingredient goes for RM 7.00, two for RM 10.50, and three for RM 13.50 or RM 14. Definitely not among the cheapest nasi lemak around town, but you do pay for quality and taste I suppose, and I just went there twice in the last two weeks.
a slightly hidden location, but well worth the drive
6 to 10 Grill & Nasi Lemak opens for lunch (12-2:30) and dinner (6-10), they are closed on every Monday and Tuesday.
6 to 10 Grill & Nasi Lemak
BG-1, Block B,
Jalan 17/13, PJ
GPS: 3.123268, 101.634489
Tel: 03 7955 4993
March 27, 2009
It is a little known fact that I, despite the horrific spelling and more than imperfect grammar exhibit on this blog, actually went to a proper university and gotten a full degree. To add to the horror, my degree has this gold emboss that says “Summa Cum Laude”, extra credit if you know what it means.
I swear this is not photoshopped!
Back then, I actually had to fly half way across the world and went from 30 Celsius to -40 Celsius to attend a university in the land of 10,000 lakes. That was the meaning of distance learning back then, you fly over a long distance, and then you study.
Apparently over the years, that particular phrase took on a new identity as you can actually study from anywhere.
I think the whole concept of Wawasan Open University is a pretty sound, the physical separation of the classroom and student gives so much more freedom. Firstly, you save so much time from not having to fight off traffic, then there’s also a lot more flexibility in scheduling subjects, and of course, not having multiple big buildings also meant the cost of tuition can be significantly reduced.
Open distance learning has arrived in a big way, which brings us to Wawasan University’s Post@Postcard Contest tagline
“Your world. Your classroom.”
I meant to type Driver, but it ended up with Drive (spelling arghh!)
My entry is “Swing & Study!” with the photograph taken during one of my driving range sessions at Sunway (I’m still quite a long way to improve before I dare go on the green). I find the repeating pinging sound of clubs connecting with the golf balls rather soothing for reading, or hooking up to the internet to find other information (learning isn’t confined to books alone).
Alternating between swinging and reading is also a very good way to switch between working the brain and working the body. Great for people with relatively short attention span like me!
But anyway, I am sure by now some of you should have guessed that this is where I tell you how to join the Wawasan University’s Post@Postcard Contest, and more importantly, what are the prizes.
From now until 15th April, you can participate by snapping a picture of yourself, then use any image editing program to digitally add the contest stamp and a tagline (Bahasa or English) to it. Submit the completed “postcard” to the contest site, then post it on your blog or any social networking website (facebook/friendster, etc).
The winners are determined by judges (not another mere popularity contest), let me quote the website:
- Contest winners will be chosen based on choice of location, composition of photograph, creativity of caption, facial and body expression and relevance to the theme “Your world. Your classroom”.
- For the special prize, winners will be chosen based on largest list of “Intended Recipients” in their submitted form.
And the prizes are actually very attractive too!
There is a Macbook air, Macbook white, and iPod Touch, as well as iPod Shuffle and a special prize of Canon 450D DSLR!
So guys! Where would is your classroom going to be? Cheesie says she’s doing hers in a toilet, so please come up with something original.
March 26, 2009
December 17th, 2008 was the second time I went to Little Taiwan at Avenue K for lunch, it was also a rather significant date as that was the day I conned Mell for her phone number and suggested that the nuffies to join me for lunch over there. My intention was of course, to meet her. She didn’t know the whole udang di sebalik batu then, hee-hee.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Little Taiwan, with the glorious braised pork!
Anyway, a little known fact about KLCC is that there is no pork served at any of the restaurants or either of the two food courts. The nearest pork fix for me would usually be Wisma Sentral, or Avenue K.
I had initially thought that Little Taiwan would be one fo those halal Chinese food outlets, until I saw their menu and immediately started drooling over the pictures of the glorious braised pork. It has since become one of my regular venues whenever I crave for those unhealthy and yet delicious glistering fats.
zha chiang noodle, pork ribs noodle, braised beef with rice, salted fried chicken
For weekday lunches, the outlet offers a quite a selection of set menu priced at RM 9.90 to RM 14.90. The set lunches come with a main dish (either with rice or noodle) and a choice of either green tea or red tea. This would only be around the price of a typical meal at Burger King.
My favorite at Little Taiwan would be their braised pork. Three pieces of very tender and rather fatty pork braised to perfection, rice is served with a dash of mince meat sauce, and there are also a bit of fermented vegetable as well as a couple slices of fresh cucumber and tomato to go with it. This dish is certainly not for the more health conscious diners.
KY, Mell, and Yat
I have also tried their braised beef and salted fried chicken, I find the beef pretty tender and the meat portion generous. As for the chicken, it lacks the more intense (and salty) taste I prefer of the same dish at Fong Lye. Other dishes generally receive pretty decent comments too.
Avenue K is located right opposite KLCC, accessible via the LRT station
Overall Little Taiwan offers a pretty good value and some rather delicious dishes. If you’re at KLCC and crave for pork, you know where to go. The restaurant is located just an escalator ride away from the KLCC LRT station.
Little Taiwan also has outlets at Mid Valley, Subang SS15, Pavilion, and Pearl Point (Old Klang Road)
Lot No. UC-3B & 3C,
Upper Concourse Level,
Avenue K, 156, Jln Ampang,
Tel: 03-2161 4118
March 24, 2009
When I was younger (not that I am old, you know), every other kid seems to be a fan of Jackie Chan, we would eagerly wait for his movies to come out and rush to the cinema to witness this very strange phenomena that only appear on Jackie Chan’s movie at the time – Cantonese movie that filled the cinema with movie goers of every race, be it Chinese, Malay, Indian, Iban, Kadazan, everyone!
These days, while Jackie is still a force in the movie industry, there are also some younger actors bursting into the scene, trying to snatch that baton from the slightly, ahem, older generation superstars. Daniel Wu happens to be one of the most worthy candidates (since Edison already sort of messed up).
Mellissa and I has a very incompatible taste in picking movies, at Bangkok we were spending so much time picking DVDs it’s not even funny. I just wish Shinjuku Incident was already out then.
I mean, I like Jackie Chan, she likes Daniel Wu (look at the chat log below), we can totally watch this film! As a bonus, there’s the brilliant Ken Watanabe too!
The synopsis certainly sounds pretty interesting:
In the early 1990s, a tractor mechanic from China nicknamed Steelhead (Jackie Chan) enters Japan illegally, in search of his girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). Steelhead and his friend, Jie (Daniel Wu) meet in the busy Shinjuku district of Tokyo and take manual labouring jobs to earn money. When Steelhead finds out that Xiu Xiu has married a Japanese Yakuza leader named Eguchi (Ken Watanabe), he decides to remain in Japan. To obtain citizenship, he agrees to work for Eguchi as a killer, but quickly becomes used to the power. Soon he has become embroiled so deeply in the ways of the yakuza that there is no turning back.
In conjunction to this movie, Anglia Shandy, which incidentally happens to be the very first alcoholic drinks I had from many leap years ago, is giving 10 winners an opportunity to meet Jackie Chan & Daniel Wu in real life during a private fan session.
You can take pictures with them in flesh (maybe with flash too), and possibly, just possibly, touch them too. That would probably give you bragging rights for years!
All you have to do is to head to Anglia’s website and score the highest in Escape the Yakuza game
The game is actually pretty straight forward, you only have to deal with the UP and DOWN button on your keyboard. If there’s a hurdle or some bonus on top of you, press UP to jump, if the yakuza gangs throw a baseball bat or a knife at you, press DOWN to duck.
Except it is actually not very easy, despite being a super awesome minesweeper player, I haven’t been able to finish this game yet… but I will keep trying!
- top 10 winners: Each winner gets 5x premier tickets + 2x up close and personal passes to meet the cast
- 50 consolation winners: 2x movie passes
Well, of course those who did not win can still attend the public session on 31 March 2009, 7pm, at Bukit Bintang Entrance (Pavilion KL) . So I guess if you are not so pro at the flash game, all hope is not lost.
On a side note, I actually went to Shinjuku when I was visiting Tokyo back in 2006. Luckily I did not have to escape from any Yakuza.