For LY’s Birthday This Year… May 1, 2012

Happy Labour’s Day! Thank you for your thoughts and wishes, so far my phase 2 implementation has gone by a lot smoother than the first round! Being in UVW Bank really taught me a lot of stuff, but too bad I’m too stingy to share with my ex-colleagues, trololololol. I will talk more about what happened when it’s actually been rolled out for at least 2 weeks. Don’t wanna jinx myself!

Anyway, I’m in the mood for posting up old pictures, so here’s pics from my sister’s birthday celebration earlier this year. We went to Serai in Empire Gallery for dinner and I bought her an ice-cream cake. I thought that it was something unique and different, but sadly, it didn’t last quite long in my fridge. By the time LY hacked the cake open, it was getting quite gooey. *sad* I always seem to mess up her birthday cakes. Another unique thing that happened during the birthday celebration was when we took turns carrying Ben (my nephew in case you don’t know) so that another person gets to eat. For some reason, Ben was sooooo antsy that day and he kept crying and couldn’t be pacified. His cries were so loud that other patrons were starting to give us the evil eye. Kris said to me, “LeeCh! You are such a bad mother. You better bring the baby out of the restaurant.” WTF! Kris is the bad father lar!

Our drinks at Serai.

ALL THE FOOD WE HAD! We had mainly Asian set meals, though they do serve Western cuisine as well (that’s my brother’s pasta up there). I just felt that their forte lies in the “nasi” sets. Very worth the price you are paying for as it is guarantee to more than satisfy you. A very filling meal indeed.

LY’s ice cream cake from Baker’s Cottage. I actually got the idea from my colleagues who bought an ice-cream cake for another colleague’s birthday celebration.

Birthday girl and her naughty son! Don’t wan to look at the camera, tsk tsk.

Father and son. (Again don’t want to layan the camera… hmph!)

My happy sister, LY. Look at ben’s serious business face! HAhahahahahahaHAHAAHa!!

Obligatory photos of Ben for his fans on my blog. ^^

Celebrating Tron’s Birthday (Pt 3) August 20, 2011

A while back, I mentioned that my sister took me to this awesome restaurant called Erawan Classic Thai. I said that I might bring Tron back with me because it’s SO suitable for a private, romantic dinner together. So for his birthday, it was a total no-brainer for me, and I made reservations there. From their website, you can see that it is encouraged for patrons to pre-order some of the dishes, just in case it is not available on the walk-in menu. My sister pre-ordered the last time, so I thought that’s just the way things work. It is quite hard for me to anticipate what Tron’s tastebuds are like, but I think I just went with what sounded good, and I have full trust that everything on the menu is great anyway.

FYI, I initially wanted to make my reservation at 7:30pm, but the person taking the reservation said that they were fully booked then, and requested that I go for an early dinner at 6:30pm instead. I had no choice as I really didn’t have a back-up plan, hahaha. On the day itself, we noticed the restaurant definitely had empty seats from the time we arrived til when we left (way after 7:30pm). This was the only slight issue I had with the reservation, but I suppose that if the restaurant received a lot of bookings and no-shows, then I cannot blame them. I only feel that it’s a bit of a shame because :
a. Tron and I had the buffet lunch earlier, so an hour extra of digestion time would’ve whet our appetites even more
b. we were watching this Donnie Yen movie in the cinema earlier. We left the cinema before the show had completed (though we watched the climax of the movie already), Tron was afraid we would be barred entry if we were even a second late!

Reservations aside, I have to apologise in advance for the quality of the photos. I forgot my camera (as mentioned earlier), and by this time, my handphone had also died. So I took all the following photos using Tron’s Blackberry and proceeded to lomo-filter them to death to make them look brighter.

The small cup of syrup hanging off the glass is just so cute!

Okie, for starters, we had the 3 Ocean Salad. This is actually pretty filling by itself – chock-full of juicy prawns, squid and JELLYFISH! It is actually pretty spicy though, so mind your tongue. ;p I actually had a hard time deciding what appetizers to go for. The 4 angle bean salad I had last time would’ve been a good choice too though I think this 3 ocean salad is more value for your money. Next time, I wanna try both the refreshing pomelo salad and the scallops with Thai-style salad. Seriously, check their website out, there’s sooooo many yummy options!

I am observing Tron, trying to gauge his reaction. Does he like it? Was this a good choice?

For mains, what a shame that there’s only 2 of us, otherwise there would be even MORE dishes that I would order! Well, I ordered the green curry beef which I also tried before last time. Tron loves beef, and indeed, this was his favorite dish for the night. The owner said that if we want, we can consider upgrading to wagyu beef next time. Hmm.. will have to save up quite a bit more for that. ;P

I also ordered the tamarind softshell crabs… which is SUPER good. Actually, we ate a lot of softshell crabs at the buffet lunch earlier, but of course, this one is better. For one thing, the softshell crabs in Erawan are ALWAYS FREAKING HUGE!! And I just loveeeee the tamarind sauce. Not too much sauce that it is an overkill. I would say it is JUST NICE. I really cannot decide which one I like better – the softshell crab in curry cream or this one. Hehehe.

Finally, we had a simple brinjal stir-fry as this is Tron’s favorite vegetable. Yup, only three mains as there’s only 2 of us. With the appetizer, it was actually a bit TOO much, but we managed to do the restauarant justice by polishing everything off. We couldn’t make space for dessert, which is really too bad cos this is the 2nd time I’m missing out on dessert here.

Just before we left, Tron paid his compliments to the owner, and somehow casually (??) mentioned that it was his birthday. The guy felt so bad, said that if he knew he would have prepared something for him. Hahahaa. Awww… so sweet. It’s the thought that counts. I also mentioned that my last blog entry on Erawan is linked on his website, and according to Tron, this scared the owner. Hahaha!

Celebrating Tron’s Birthday (Pt 2) August 18, 2011

Hmm… because I was so busy with the church activities, I didn’t manage to study for the exam for the training we had recently. I think I’m officially the dumbest person in the class, but I’m kinda nonchalant about it because the course is for something that my team doesn’t really use. If you’re wondering why I would need to attend such a course in the first place, I say — knowledge is power. Lol. I mean, if you’re an arts student, studying add maths won’t harm you righttttt? **convincing myself**

Anyway, for Tron’s birthday weekend… his sister arranged for a family dinner at Umai-ya in IOI Boulevard. My first time in Umai-ya! Heard many good things about it, but never tried it before. You know what? I was super char dou that day because I forgot to bring my camera! And my handphone camera was running out of battery. -___- Never had there been a worse time for me to forget my camera… sigh, I blame it on the fact that I had to charge my battery the day before (ya, I even charged the battery in anticipation of the barrage of photos I would be taking!), and I took the camera out of my bag. In the morning, I was totally running around making sure that I had Tron’s presents, cards, etc. Haih. -__-”

Well, the Umai-ya we went to is a bit hard to find parking, so try to park inside the underground parking as trying to find free parking will have you going around and around for hours. The Umai-ya Japanese buffet is quite interesting — you don’t have to walk around getting the food, but you just order what you want from a menu provided to you. There’s no limit to how many plates you want to order, but of course, the table you will be seated at isn’t very big… so if you order too much, there might not be enough places to put the food! They have everything from sushi rolls, sashimi, teppanyaki, etc. And free flow of green tea, Coke, or … beer! That was totally unexpected! =D Tron of course just HAD to take the beer… (and only managed to drink a few sips, tsk!)

Oh, remember to make a reservation at least 2 weeks in advance! This place is really popular. And don’t worry about the “style” of the buffet, as once you have placed your orders, the waiters get the food to you SUPER fast. They won’t try to “cheat” you by serving you slowly, not like some places that I have encounterd before. So you really literally just sit back and relax while food keeps on coming! I especially loved the softshell crabs (can’t believe Sushi King would sell RM15 for 1 softshell crab! Here you can eat until you pangsai out a whole crab), the beef rolls with veggie inside and the SASHIMI. I think we had 3 plates of that!
And for dessert, there’s ice-cream! Green tea, chocolate and the ever-famous … WASABI ice-cream! I have to admit, it is one of the weirdest things I’ve eaten so far. It’s such a strange clash of flavours… I didn’t quite like it, and didn’t even finish. I don’t think I can wrap my brain around this concoction.

I think the buffet goes on for about 3 hours long (not sure)… but we were done in 2 hours. =D And Tron’s parents insisted on going as they felt very sluggish just sitting there, continually eating. Oh, FYI, both Tron and his dad were the first to “close shop” and insist that they couldn’t eat another morsel… (until the chocolate ice-cream was served).

Well, I’m saving pictures of the romantic dinner for a separate entry, so let me tell you about our Sunday lunch instead. After church, this is one of our FAVORITE-ST places to eat at… it’s in Jaya 33… and it’s called D’Italianne Kitchen. =p I really love the service there, and Tron really loves the SPICY BEEF AGLIO OLIO. You know what, when we went there, I told him — I’ll pay for lunch today if you order anything BUT the spicy beef aglio olio. He kept staring and staring at the menu. When I was ready to order, I asked him what he was having. He pitifully said, “I donno. I really only want the spicy beef aglio olio.” Beh tahan! So he ordered that anyway and I still footed the bill. What a great girlfriend I am. Muwahhhaaha.

Yummy garlic bread! I just love it… but I think I can make this too….

Tron and his ever-present spicy beef aglio olio.

My ham potato gnocchi… I think that’s what its called. But I don’t quite like it, as there’s supposed to be minced turkey ham in it and there was hardly any… But it’s very filling despite the seemingly small portions.

And we shared the melting chocolate cake! So yummy and sinful! This is your birthday cake from me, Tron!!

And just to illustrate how much we love D’Italianne Kitchen, this is what we had just the week before. I had pestered Tron to bring me to Sunway Giza as I have never been there (I know, so kampung of me, right? And my gym’s new branch supposedly there some more). I heard that there’s so many nice restaurants, but when I arrived there I felt so disappointed with the place! What nice restaurants? Really nothing that tantalized the tastebuds like D’Italianne Kitchen did. So there we went again. You see what we ate? Only I’m the one who ever tries anything new.

Ahem… no prizes for guessing what this is.

Garlic bread… but Tron attacked it too fast…

My spicy crab linguine. Ooh.. this one is REALLY good. Maybe I should make THIS the signature dish that I order each time?

See how tanned Tron got after outward bound camp??

Finally, I’m the fairer one! ;P

Celebrating Tron’s Birthday (Pt 1) August 11, 2011

I think Tron should have his own “Bulan Bersocial August” series, except that he celebrates his birthday every weekend in August with ME! Muwahahha… after all the headache and worrying about arrangements and such…. in the end it was just one awesome thing after another.

The day before his birthday, Tron was very blessed because his sister baked cupcakes for him for his birthday. She made vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting — designed Angry Birds style! Hehehe. Tron said his sister gave me 1 cupcake to try, and honestly this is my first buttercream cupcake ever. Usually I don’t eat buttercream cupcakes because I fear all that sugar + butter. But must give face, and honestly it is yummy. So at least eat the calories also worth it, lol.

Yes, I got the angry piggy from Angry Birds! Hehe.

For pre-birthday-dinner, took him to Uno! Actually, didn’t plan to, lol. Just that Taipan was so jammed up that day that decided … why not? The place is packed!! And next to us was this group of people who were talking SO LOUDLY AS IF THE WHOLE RESTAURANT WANNA LISTEN TO THEM. I really thought Uno! was one of those classy quiet affairs for couples to be moony and romantic at. Oh well.

This is tired Tron.

We split a caesar salad.

And also shared a pizza. I think this is the Uno! special, or whatever you call it. Quite good!

Tron asked me where was his present. Should I have given him his present the day before? Nah… better to give on the actual day itself, right? ;P I did feel somewhat bad for him. Last year, his mom & dad both bought him birthday cakes, and both me and his sister baked cakes for him. -___- I think this year we all simultaneously decided not to be so wasteful, so he ended up with no birthday cake, but thankfully Angeline saves the day with the cupcakes. Hahaha!

Where did we go the next day? Stay tuned!