I Don’t Know Why, I Can’t Lose Weight… February 4, 2012

That is what I told one of my colleagues from the business side recently. He gave me some further advise like skipping dinner. Already do that. Cut out rice. Already do that. Do some running. Already do that. He said I should be “really thin” by now, but in fact I’m not. =) I told him, “I just don’t know why, I can’t lose anymore weight. I can’t skip breakfast as well — all I eat is an energy bar.” In the end, we kinda came to the agreement that it could be the sinful shots of coffee that I take everyday (thanks a lot, coffee machine. You be my downfall), but after going through my folder of unblogged photographs, I realise it’s a lie.

The honest truth is that I’m a very good dieter from Mondays to Fridays, but when the weekend rolls around, I eat like a girl who operates a BBW website. Muwahhaha…. In case you don’t know what is BBW, check this link out! I like how it’s labelled “Safe For Work, Not Safe For Life”. Lol!

So here are some major food pic updates. Haven’t been doing that for  a while! And I think I have 2-3 more instalments to go…

Oh, just an appetizer at our new fave restaurant at Subang Parade.. (Capriciossa)

The lunch sets at Italiannies are very affordable and worth your money. And you can dry many more different types of pasta and am not forced to share one large pasta like other times!

Eat ALL the rainbows! (Have a soft spot for Whisk cos they gave me an additional free macaron!

Crazy Korean feast that Tron and I had with Pastor Sally. I love Korean BBQ so so much! But have quite a bit of hate for kimchi at the moment because I got such severe gastric one day when I decided to eat nothing but kimchi one day…

When Tron and I introduced our parents to each other, we took them to a 10 course dinner at a chinese restaurant in USJ 19 mall.. it was an interesting meal indeed! I didn’t take so many photos, because it was kinda awkward with so many people around, hehe. But it was fun and everything went well. As Tron says – where there’s food, there’s joy!

Fuzz urgently emailed me and Dull to buy Groupon coupons for this BBQ buffet at Chillout Bar. I already was a bit meh about it, but I agreed, just to teach her a lesson that Groupon deals are not always what they are cut out to be. In the end, she had to agree! The BBQ buffet was small and they didn’t serve drinks (this is how they earn the $ back – cheap food but so dry & spicy that you’ll have no choice but to order exorbitant drinks!). However, it was a good night spent with my fave gals and I enjoyed myself at Chillout Bar. I love the deejay’s 90s selection!

Eating at TGIF because we had free vouchers…

Set meal at Capriciossa to indulge…

Can’t Stop, Don’t Stop The Buffets November 17, 2011

I know I haven’t been writing public posts in a long time… in fact I have a lot to write… ALL BITCHINGS. Hahaha… hence the sudden influx of protected posts. =D In fact, I wanted to write another private post, but then I thought that for all those people who don’t have the password, then it’s kind of plain to see 3 consecutive mystery posts. (But then again, it’s gonna be another influx of food pics, so maybe you’ll hate me anyway).

So let me do the November weekend updates instead! It’s been quite an eventful November, and it’s only the middle of the month. At work, I’m so crazy busy. When I was free, I was so free that I can go to the gym so often. When I’m busy, I am up at night doing programming. Troll Cobol giving me problems. -__-” Then I get resentful that I can’t go to the gym. I think basically you have to just find the right balance. Just select 2 or 3 days from the work week that “no matter what”, you will leave on time / not that late. Then just stick to it. If you really wanna do work, can go back home and VPN back in anyway. Just that sometimes you feel like you are SO on the brink of cracking that tough nut that you end up constantly testing and testing and testing… then oops, 1 hour just passed “like that”.

Early November, my brother finally treated all of us to a Japanese buffet (Shogun) because … it’s his “first job treat”. Hahaha! All those years that LY and I have been treating him… finally we get to enjoy! Some more my brother had to pay for Tron and Kris… what a gooooood brother. And you know what? He actually insist on treating us even though just that very afternoon he injured himself playing football. You must think it was some mad scuffle or something. Actually he was #foreveralone playing footie with himself. And still injured himself! Ok, don’t want to laugh at him because he is in a lot of pain.

Anyway, because of my brother’s sprain / torn ligament (don’t know the exact terminology, and til today still pain), there was a lot of drama that evening! Though I would have loved to continue attacking the dessert buffet, we had to go home in order to bring my bro to the clinic. At one point, he couldn’t even walk to the carpark, and the guys (Kris & Tron) had to go and find WHEELCHAIR for him. Sunway Pyramid got so many disabled people cos they ran out of wheelchair, then the guys had to go to pharmacies and find crutches for him! Heroically, they managed to find! (Clue : go to Watsons, the rest don’t sell).

This was what we had whacked before our celebration got cut short :

This isn’t mine! It’s crazy Tron’s one… donno why he can whack raw oysters (no tobasco / lemon even to mask it!) so easily… disgusting wei!

Earlier in the day, I accompanied Tron to do his errands around KL.. so I forced him to eat Snowflake with me! Irony of ironies, just when I had collected a fully-chopped card, I have lost my love for Snowflake. Maybe because when I was so into it, I would eat it WHENEVER, which meant, even if it’s raining cats and dogs and super cold, I would be chomping on the grass jelly ice. Now I just feel so meh about it. Anyway, I took this photo to enter Snowflake contest… but those kinda contest which require voting on FB.. need like thousand friends in order to win. Scratch that, need thousand ENTHUSIASTIC friends.

We also saw these cars outside Sunway Resort Hotel when leaving Sunway Pyramid. Actually, they are MORE than cars. I just donno what to call them. I wanted to camwhore with it, but it’s so tinted that you don’t know who is inside. Probably people with guns who would have no qualms about pulling the trigger…

You familiar withe the brand Brietling? I had never heard of it til my ex-colleagues kept telling me that the Tan Sri gave one of the managers (male – must specify in case you think it’s Amber Chia case all over again) a Brietling watch. They tell me it costs > RM30k. Seriously? Anyway, they had a showcase in Pavilion the other day…

The next day, I accompanied Tron for his mother’s birthday celebration! We got her a very nice gift that as totally on-the-spur inspired as I walked past the shop. All my other suggestions were thrown out of the window by Tron. My mom is much easier to shop for – like me, she likes stuff like perfume, make-up, toiletries, etc. Apparently, Tron’s mom got more than enough. Anyway, the family bought Groupon coupons for a buffet meal at Renaissance Hotel. This is my first Groupon experience after a very long hiatus… hahaha.

My personal recommendation is that you head for the sushi and sashimi area first and foremost! This place will be EMPTY if you wait any longer, and the sushi chef takes forever to refill. And the people in front of me will pile EVERYTING on their plates, maybe leave one slice of sashimi there so it don’t look so bad wtf. So yah, head for the Japanese section first! (I loveee sashimi, never enough even though I just ate a lot the previous day!)

Not many Western dishes that I like. If you like lamb, you’d be delighted with this place as they feature it a lot in their dishes. Oh, and that spagghetti, Tron’s mom & aunties all refer to it as Spagghetti Indian Style. Lololol. But I think it’s quite nice leh!

Just wanted to try their chapati + dahl…

And then beeline for desserts! I’m glad that we were kiasu and arrived super early, cos I think those people who come when the buffet has already started for > 1 hour… they will find a lot of empty plates!

I love the jellies!

And more desserts… the dessert selection was fantastic!

Fruit cocktail.

We got good seats with a great view!

Happy birthday to Aunty J again and hope you liked the gift!

Ooh, and I was very happy on Saturday because I met up with Sookie… and we went to Marmalade!! My first time there…. omg. So jakun right? And everything on the menu sounds so good. I just couldn’t make up my mind, and wound up with a burger. The place very nice la, if no noisy screaming kids, even nicer. I wanna bring Tron here!

Happy also cos got new gym partner, though Sookie doesn’t do Combat, Jam, etc. Sigh. She’s going to convince me that cycling is really the way to go… hehe! Really need to get my stamina back up. Today I pushed myself so hard though I didn’t gym for 1 week already, and nearly fainted! I seriously felt myself starting to black out. Damn shameful right. Any drugs I can take to rectify this? WTf!

Ooh, and I also got to collect my prize from Just Heavenly. Ok, I only won two cupcakes, that I had the intention to share with Tron. Then I felt bad that my family don’t get to try the awesome-ness that is Just Heavenly, so I selected a few cakes for them. The price I paid for the cakes is more than the cupcakes I won lor! Anyway, I hope they enjoy it, my mom was so happy so I felt good too.

Appreciative boyfriend?

Celebrating Tron’s Birthday (Pt 4) August 24, 2011

Cos I lack the time to write lengthier blog entries, I’m going to post a catch-up post of sort. Which generally means – less words, more pictures. Lots of food pictures. K, without any further ado :

1) San Francisco Steakhouse with Mydeal & Mylove

My 2nd last group deal… *sigh* I paid about RM90 to have a 3 course meal with free flow of ice-lemon tea / soft drinks at San Francisco Steakhouse. We went to the branch at Jaya Square. This was on a random Friday night. In fact, the coupon stated that it can only be used on Mondays to Thursdays, and Sundays. Kinda random, right? Well, I didn’t read properly and made a booking on Friday. The lady on the line corrected me that  the deal wasn’t valid on Fridays. I guess I must’ve sounded pretty disappointed for a second, because she then said, “Ah… just come lah.” Hahaha. Awesome! This is one pleasant surprise from group purchases that I have not gotten before. Love it! Kudos to the people at San Francisco Steakhouse for being so accomodating.

When we arrived, I saw this on the table :

Always quite ‘char dou’ when I see that I can get a similar restaurant directly from the restaurant, without going through a 3rd party. Although I *think* the deal I got is slightly better, so I’m also slightly mollified.

The rather thin, mystery soup that we got. Not flavorful, so not exactly a great start to the dinner…

But the awesome bread & garlic spread that we got made up for the starters! Really yummy, wish we had more of this instead. The captain also allowed us to add on RM2 per person to switch from soft drinks / ice-lemon tea to FREE FLOW FRUIT JUICE. Of course we grabbed the chance la… it’s so worth it. Especially since I drank 3 cups of mango juice.  

Tron’s apple sauce baby back ribs. It looks dodgy in this photo, but his food was soooo tasty. I just love this! He gave me quite a big portion too…

I thought I would be getting a ribeye… but this ain’t no ribeye! Also, I asked for a well done steak, but the captain suggested medium well. I said that medium well steaks are usually still quite bloody and he stressed that it was much better than a dry / tough well done. As you can see, it’s quite bloody… and therefore, chewey. Perhaps I’m just not a steak kinda gal.

Our desserts! Tron and I were lol-ing over the huge discrepancy. On the left is his single scoop of Haagan-Daaz chocolate ice-cream. On the right is my coit cookie tower ice-cream sunday. Which is 5 scoops of vanilla ice-cream on top of a GIANT cookie sprinkled with chocolate sauce and some jammy sauce. It was insane! Obviously couldn’t finish it and Tron told me to stop eating so much cheap ice-cream anyway. Hahaha.

2) Old Man Restaurant
Nothing to do with Tron’s birthday celebration, but a celebration nonetheless. It has been a family tradition for the person who starts a new job to give a treat to the rest of the family members. I quite liked the Old Man Restaurant in Kajang (that ironically – my old company colleagues took me to for my FAREWELL) and I had said that I wanted to introduce the place to my parents. And I kept my promise. I tell you, when I placed the reservation over the telephone, it was the most “lan teng” (hard on the ears) conversation ever. I could barely speak proper mandarin, and the lady seemed to barely speak english. Somehow, we managed to get everything correct. Lol!

All in all, I ordered NINE dishes for all of us, and surprisingly, we managed to finish everything, though the waiters and waitresses also looked at us doubtfully. Well, later I found out most of them didn’t have dinner afterwards. Hahaha.

Had the fresh ginseng soup… everyone kept saying, “This is really good soup!”. I think my brother-in-law had 3 bowls! And I tried to fish the ginseng out for a photo op, but got a piece of random chicken instead. Cheh! This is a pre-order item in Old Man Restaurant, fyi. And it’s quite affordable. Like around RM25+ for a pot?

“Thousand layer cake” which is another preorder item. As per what the lady said – this is just “to eat for fun”. It’s basically er… salted egg, cheese, and dunno what else (seriously dunno what else) sandwiched together. For 9 pieces, this costs RM50. Quite expensive, til the lady had to ask me multiple times whether I was sure I wanted it. TBH, I don’t find this so special, but dunno why my mom & sister loved it so much. Oh, and this place kinda cheese me off by serving the soup first… then making us wait like 20 minutes… and then serving the rest of the 8 dishes all at once. Like what the heck… doesn’t the appetizer come first?? Why give us this “appetizer” with the rest of the food? Only complaint though, really.

Some simple tofu dish because my sister insisted on tofu.

The lime, chilli, peanut squid that I love and HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU GET. It’s freaking delish, and only RM18 per plate! You should get like, 2 plates.

The star dish (as recommend on Ho Chak!) – the tobikko fried rice. Very fragrant, very flavorful… again, thumbs up all round the table.

Brinjal, long beans, fried together. Tron is so lucky, brinjal is his favorite veg. My sister picked this dish.

My mom suggested this dish – claypot frog in ginger. She said my dad loves to eat frogs! But when the dish came, my dad barely ate it. Sometimes I wonder if she knows the man she married, lololol.

The most expensive dish — some steamed fish. Cost about RM70. Chef’s recommendation all… only tastes good when it’s piping hot. Towards the end got a bit slimey. Yech. I’m very picky about my fish.

Baked ribs in chinese herbs & sweet sauce… another pre-order dish that cost me RM50. But this one is really yummy and flavorful. I had multiple sharings of this, hahaha. Will have you smacking your lips in delight. =D But my brother-in-law and Tron both complained that there’s too much sauce for this dish. Haha. Then my bro-in-law said maybe it’s not the sauce but a black pig wtf!?

And free fruits…

Random picture that Tron snapped. Posting it up cos my dad looks funny. Hehehe.

Guess how much the whole thing cost? RM325 leh! Worth it right? And to think it would be cheaper if I had some restraint and didn’t order those funny appetizers. I think Old Man Restaurant and the Coconut Flower Restaurant in Teluk Gong will be my fave places to treat my family from now on. Cheap and good food, great service. No complaints, man. Oh, and though I said this is not a Tron birthday celebration — my sister bought Tron a shirt lo! Out of nowhere he benefitted… hahhahha…

3) The Minister of Pavilion
Went to jalan jalan in Pavilion after that massive lunch in Kajang… guess who we met there? Tun Mahathir!! Zomg! Everyone was so star-struck! Tron and I managed to shake his hand, but when I finally got the guts to get out my camera, this Tron would at turns say, “Ok faster faster… go go go” and “Eh don’t disturb people la” then “ok, go la, got others going also” and then “eh, his bodyguards are getting pissed off.” So in the end NO, I don’t have photographic proof standing next to him. All I have are these semi-stalker photos:

Tron also treated me to a Death by Chocolate because we passed by the cake stand, and I remember my gym instructor saying that it is awesome. Guess what? It is!! Arrgghh.. it’s so goooooood that I wanna try everything they have on display. I think it’s called Just Heavenly, which is a pretty apt name, really.

Finally, we had our early dinner (because it’s puasa month..) at Ben’s, which is also known as “The other Delicious cafe”. Tron ordered his aglio olio (as usual), and I ordered something like … grilled seafood with spicy spagghettini… which was actually aglio olio + seafood lol wtf. Like RM8 more expensive for the pieces of seafood.

4) You Got The Curves
Went to Curve on a random Sunday because had to meet Raymond to get some official company XYZ documents that were STILL being sent to the office. One of the stupidest documents I got was one that said, “We see that you have resigned. Please give us your new company details or we will cancel your credit card.” (I ad-libbed, but yeah, that’s what they are saying what). What I wanna know is… whyyyyy would you still forward the letter to my office when you clearly put there that you know I have resigneeeddddd… Omg. What if I had no one to forward the documents to me? Would my card just get cancelled out of nowhere?

The most annoying part about this was that I had just gone to the bank earlier to change my credit card mailing address. Then two days later had to go back to change employment details. That isn’t the annoying part. The annoying part is that the only convenient food to eat when going to that particular branch is McDonalds.. So I had the GCB twice in a week! Hehehhe… so sinful la. And with the shaker fries… zomg. They must’ve kangkang-ed that crap because it’s freaking addictive.

Anyway, we had lunch at Marche (my treat) as I was hankering for their meatloaf and fried mushrooms. Must’ve been ages since I went there though… there’s no more meatloaf on the menu. But my new discovery – the beef bacon wrap – is awesome possum. Had so much food that day that I had to ta-pow half the wrap back for dinner. =)

Tron and his mushroom soup (chunky mushroom!)

Rosti. He said that this is what Marche is famous for.

My fried mushrooms! *love*

Beef bacon wrap! With side of salad and some fattening mayo-like sauce to go with it.

And if you’re wondering why, with just those few items, we could be so full… well let me introduce you to this :

Cookies from the California Cookie Company! Tron randomly made friends with the mastermind (I think) behind the brand – Erica. Her cookies do not contain any preservatives and you have to “say goodbye to your diet” cos this has real butter, real vanilla… real fattening I guess? But it is soooooooo good. Zomg! We bought 6 peanut butter cookies and a large double chocolate cookie “just to try it out” and we ended up gobbling everything by the sidewalk!! Went back and ended up buying RM60 worth of cookies from her just to let our respective families try some. Hahahhaa.

If you wanna try it too, try to find the store during the Sunday flea market at Curve… follow your nose. Don’t worry, she gives out free samples as well, though I noticed some really hardcore gym goers seemed to be terrified of her stuff. Lol!! You know what impressed me? Erica let Tron try one fruit bread like thingy that she said is her grandmother’s recipe. Tron ate it and said, “Hmm… it tastes like Christmas.” And then she was so amazed because apparently it’s their tagline for that cake (on Facebook, which obviously we don’t know about since we just saw the store that day). I think they should get Tron to come up with the taglines for all their stuff. He can be their taste-test-er. Hahahaha!

This Is Not A Food Blog… July 25, 2011

… but I don’t blame you if you think it is because every post seems to be about food. -____- Well, a true foodie would give you price listings and addresses, and I’m not that generous. Hehehe.

Ever since I got VPN connection at the office, I have been trying to brush up on mainframe stuff at home, so that’s why I don’t blog so often. Well, last week didn’t count because I blogged 5 entries on the weekend and set it to auto-update one entry per day. Anyway, yes, this is one of the reasons why I LOVE the new company. I love having VPN! Last time, we had to copy out all the information / data onto our own personal PCs / laptops (if we have any) — which means we had to install the software as well onto our own personal PCs / laptops. Sorry, I wasn’t that dedicated. The most I had to do was just stay back at work longer in order to “study” longer as well. Kinda pain-in-the-ass. As opposed to now, I can sit like a trishaw puller in my house, in comfortable pajamas and swear out loud if something is too difficult.

Yes, that’s a BIG plus point.

Another thing is, another ex-colleague from XYZ Bank joined UVW bank recently, so I can chat with him. I also found another ex-colleague other than him. This gal had been working at UVW bank for 1 year, but I never knew (cos people who left the bank don’t usually talk about where they’ve gone on to?). She only found out because she has a sister that works in HR, and the sister mentioned in passing, “Hey, someone from XYZ Bank with 7 years experience just joined us!” And she was like, “what the…” and found me. And when we had a joyous reunion on the 3rd floor of the building I’m in… she then told me that she is leaving UVW Bank this week. -____- Seriously, I was like FREAKING happy to see her again, and then it’s like my spirit just dive down again. Geez…((but of course, I wish her all the best in the new place)).

Pumping petrol only TWICE a month is also a big plus. That is 50% savings on petrol! But frustration amount almost equal because of the traffic jams lah. My gym is like a stone’s throw away from where I work, but though I leave work at 6:05pm (only 5 minutes late.. cos dismantling stuff), I still arrive at the gym only 30 minutes later. Darn frustrating!

Ok, don’t want to talk anymore as I want to get to my mainframes. Here are some leftover pictures from TWO weekends :

Duck King

I love watching Tron eat, because he looks like a smalllllll kid.

Was actually trying to camwhore in the mirror, but then Tron asked me something and I wound up taking this picture.

Something like kung pao chicken. Ok ok only la.

REALLY yummy eggplant with seafood stuffing cooked on an iron plate … =)

Dome
Tron took me to Pavilion because I had been whininggggg about how Dull cancelled on the Sephora outing we had planned. :X It was supposed to be a girly day out, but she ended up having teambuilding. Anyway, going with Tron is of course, really really sweet, but he can’t understand how a place like Sephora can make a girl weak in the knees. There’s just so much to SEE and BUY there. Muwahahhha! Tron told me not to go overboard just because I have more $$ now… in fact the $$ is supposed to be savings since I don’t get my yearly “huge” bonus anymore.

I was admiring my purchases while eating at Dome with him later.

Ice mocha with vanilla ice-cream on top! (Instead of whipped cream… probably just as sinful, but I told myself it was a healthier option, lol)

My cajun chicken salad… quite yums. I am trying to lose weight, going to order more salads when I’m out instead of eating so much pasta. (Though pasta drives me wildddd!)

ONE of the items that I bought at Sephora – the Too Faced Romantic Eye palette. To be honest, it’s so pretty that I haven’t used it yet though I’ve been itching to! Must photograph it in its pristine glory before I taint it with my grubby fingers. I’m also interested in the Too Faced Naked Eye palette.. but should I get it if I’m getting the Urban Decay Naked palette? There’s also many other awesome palettes from Urban Decay. The other item I got was a body butter from the Soap & Glory range. I’ll be blogging about it all on my beauty blog.

Decanter
Went for the Decanter group purchase from MyDeal. The original price for this bbq buffet is about RM96, so we got it half-price, about RM48 per person? I personally think that that should be the original price, then I would consider going again. RM96 is way to expensive per person for this buffet. On the plus plus plus side, the service here is SUPERB. So I think I’m paying more for service than the food.

Wish that there were more BBQ stuff available, and the chunks of meat are thicker. Maybe more Malaysian-ised stuff too, like BBQ stingray in sambal. Mmm mmm~~

Tron was very impressed with the decoration… haha. And we arrived super early… like 6:15pm when the buffet starts at 6pm. If you don’t want to be a lonely diner, come at 7pm. (On the plus side, didn’t have to line up for food at all)

Salads and other various starters… I ate a LOT of their salad … it’s refreshing against hot pieces of grilled meat! Plus, the coleslaw is really awesome.

Some grilled seafood… they have prawns, scallops, crabs, fish, some kinda shellfish (don’t know) and squid. Didn’t try the last two.

For meat, they have lamb and beef cutlets, and marinated chicken wings. I prefer the chicken wings — were really succulent and well-marinated in God-knows-what. The beef and lamb a bit hard after bbq-ing.

Pre-cooked food : had carbonara, bamboo clams, some kinda tofu and Hainan chicken. There were lots more, just that I wasn’t keen on it.

More seafood! Also had a pile of prawns and another pile of meat… didn’t take photos as was busy stuffing face.

Some too-sweet jellies…. I prefer the firmer jellies… cos these ones look like they were disintegrating already.

Ais kacang that was quite nice…. cos I got to put in what I like! (No corn, no peanuts!)

Wendy’s
Finally got to try Wendy’s!!!!! It’s my first time! Ok, it’s kinda like Carl’s Jr, but I think there’s more bang for your buck thanks to the square beef patties. The bread is also reallllly soft and I like the fries- you can actually taste the potatoe, wtf.

(We keep on going to Jaya One nowadays because I wanna treat Tron to the char siu pizza! But we always wind up having something else. Tsk! Talking about Tron, his birthday is coming up! What should I get him for a birthday pressie!!?)