food review: Ah Cheng Laksa October 31, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Food.2 comments
where: Cineleisure Damansara
claims to be “best in Subang Jaya & Sunway & some say PJ too”. what a bloody rip-off, and a downright lie.
firstly, the place looks somewhat like a paradox in cultures. one could sit by the counter where there were long tanks containing little fish swimming around, sort of like the thing one would expect in a swanky sushi bar in downtown Tokyo or something like that. Or one could sit in the main dining area, which had standard metal tables and chairs, the ones one would expect at a mamak stall or something. in conjunction with their grand opening, they are offering all food at 30% off until the end of November.
never mind that. over half the things on the menu were still not available, not even basic koay teow with soup, the only things available were asam laksa, curry laksa, and nasi lemak.
trying out the first two, the asam laksa proved to be a watery mess. the noodles were not the fresh, springy and semi-transparent kind that you would expect from an authentic asam laksa, but some white, hard, gooey thing that didn’t taste fresh at all. the soup at least had some flavor to it but was far too watery and just didn’t give much impact to the proceedings. my wife asked for an egg to go with the asam laksa and she only got half an egg. for 50c, that’s really a rip-off
the curry laksa also turned out to be disaster, albeit a smaller one. it was tasty enough, but extremely oily and the serving was so miserable, I wouldn’t have paid rm2.50 for it anywhere else. I got a decent amount of noodles but only 2 miserable small pieces of chicken and a few pieces of tofu and a smattering of long beans. the gravy was so oily that I only ate the noodles and other ingredients and didn’t even dare to touch the gravy/soup. I also asked for an egg to go with the curry laksa but it didn’t even make it on the bowl. at least they didn’t charge me for it. after I had finished everything, I still felt hungry and had to grab a hot dog at Cineleisure before catching the movie.
at least the white coffee turned out okay. however, the red bean soup was a tad too sweet.
rating: 2.8/10 and I’m not going back there again. ever. for rm6.90/bowl of stuff, I’d rather pay a dollar or so more and go to Uncle Lim’s or Kluang Station and actually be satisfied.
food review: Riblee’s October 30, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Food.add a comment
last night wewere looking for a place to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and since we figured downtown KL would be rather jammed up, we changed our original plan from going to Ciao and opted instead to head towards the Sri Hartamas area. We had to walk around a bit while trying to figure out what to have, and the birthday girl insisted she didn’t want any Asian food, so we opted for Riblee’s instead.
Riblee’s is a joint in Sri Hartamas, basically just opposite Burger King, and is a small comfy one-lot establishment on the 1st floor.
At first glance, the menu seemed a little limited, but adequate. The ribs were given a large representation, as was seafood, with a smattering of beef and chicken. This was definitely not a halal place! For starters, fresh prawn quesadillas and texas egg rolls. The quesadillas were rather good, with sour cream and salsa, the quesadilla shell was crispy and the prawns were quite succulent. The Texas egg rolls were good, basically deep fried rolls with some minced beef and vegetable inside, but honestly, I’ve had much better.
The mains presented a delicious quandry… should I have cow, or pig? I opted for the roasted wild boar ribs which came with mash and some stuff called Brazilian salsa (basically, chopped pineapple and mango) which went well with the firm wild boar meat. The wild boar itself was good and substantial, but true to form, wild boar has to be eaten hot, otherwise it tends to get rather tough and gamey. The chicken fajitas were okay, but didn’t reach the same heights as the ones at Friday’s or Chili’s. Another friend had the steak, which was very nicely done (she wanted it medium rare or something like that. At least it wasn’t still mooing at us) and although they didn’t have the Black Angus beef that was on the menu, the Argentinian substitute proved amply rewarding. The meat was flavorful on the outside, and soft and tender on the inside.
The service proved to be polite, however, a tad inefficient. The waiter had to continually come back to the table to inform us that some of our choices were unavailable, and our order of the Texas egg rolls was forgotten until we reminded them, also, the steak almost never arrived as the waiter thought we didn’t want it and canceled the order for some mysterious reason.
Altogether, not a bad place, I found myself looking at other tables longingly to see what they were having. I’d say it’s a place that I’d go to again, and hopefully with better service next time!
my rating: 6.2/10, just slightly lower than it deserves due to problems with the service.
price: expect to pay about rm50/person for a nice meal without wine
Weight Watchers, indeed October 27, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Food.2 comments
through surfing (yeah, I’m bored at work sometimes) I stumbled across this website that pokes fun at a bunch of these Weight Watcher recipe cards that are like, oh, somewhere close to about as old as I am. Just like the author of this website, I was never served these things as a child; good thing, too.
honestly, I don’t know how anyone can seriously cook up and serve these things. If you dare, check these out and please, hang on to your lunch while you’re reading 
A day in the life of… Oct 20th 2006 part 3 October 26, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Stuff.add a comment
the final part of this 3 parter!
1745 – as I drive home, the heavens open up and it starts pouring cats and dogs and other assorted farm animals. As it’s a Friday evening and the final day of work before a long holiday, I moan that it’ll probably be jammed on my way home as it has a nasty tendency to flood when it rains heavily. As expected, just outside the Curve shopping mall, traffic is at a standstill, which causes me to duck into the Curve for a while. I park in the mall, and stroll around grabbing a quick snack at Sakae Sushi and then settling down in MPH to read a while to wait out the jam.
1930 – my wife calls me and says dinner is ready so I take a quick peek out the window of MPH and check to see how traffic is. It doesn’t look too bad, so I put back the book I was reading about Marvel superheroes and get back to my car and head home. Traffic really isn’t too bad, so I reach home in a few minutes.
2030 – after dinner and a shower, I’m ready for our YA care group (Young Adults). Only Khim Sin is there on time, the rest are strangely very late. I get a call from Noel saying that it’s extremely jammed out there and later, that they’re turning back. Only Khim Sin, Bee Lee, and Ivy make it, so we have some fellowship, singing and share watermelon and yummy buttery microwaved popcorn.
2200 – Everyone starts heading off, we’ve already been snacking in the care group so we decide not to go for yum cha (having drinks) after. I relax for a while and all and then turn in at about 0030 or so.
And thus ends one day… tune in again another time when I may upload the events of another day, and other funky stuff!
A day in the life of… Oct 20th 2006 part 2 October 26, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Stuff.add a comment
yeah I know it’s late, but here goes the rest of the day
0930 – today I have invigilation duty, so I head on up to the examination hall on the 5th floor. The university calls it proctoring (is it just me or does that word seem to have the same root word as proctology?). Basically what I do is walk around and try to make sure that students don’t cheat. Like that would happen. Students who are determined to cheat will do so at all costs, and intense invigilation will probably only deter about half of the cases anyway. At least this time one of my papers is being conducted, so my students have an opportunity to ask questions. It is actually one of the most boring things you could ask a lecturer to do, and it wastes over 3 hours of precious time that could have been used for lecture preparation or marking or consultation. bleh.
1305 – after over 3 mind-numbing hours, the exams are finally over for this session and we can head back to the office. I come back to the office and do a quick check on my e-mail and head out to look for lunch. I have had quite enough of the poor cafeteria food around here, so since parking isn’t too much of an issue today I head outside for lunch. Most of my colleagues have already had their lunch so I head out on my own.
1355 – coming back to the office, I settle down for the afternoon. Quite a lot of work to be done, so I get down to it. Checking on the syllabi of some of the various courses that I’m teaching this semester, and looking through what some previous lecturers have done. In between, I also do some preparation for tonight’s care group Bible study, as today I’m supposed to be conducting the Bible study.
1630 – I’m insanely bored. I’m satisfied with what I’ve done today, and there’s nothing else to do (at least nothing that I want to do). I’m waiting in eager anticipation of the holidays to come, getting a long stretch all the way from Saturday till Wednesday.
1705 – finally! time to get out of campus and go home. I jump into my car and make the long journey home
A day in the life of… Oct 20th 2006 part 1 October 20, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Stuff.add a comment
Some people have asked me what goes on in a typical day of mine as a lecturer and all. Well, once in a while I’ll post stuff like this that’ll just give a brief overview on what I do and all, to give a representation of various days in my life. Starting with today (Oct 20th!)
0645 – my phone starts ringing with Lincoln Brewster’s Let the Praises Ring, that’s my alarm for weekdays. I think waking up to music is much more pleasant than beep beep or brrrrrrrrrrrring. I pry my eyes open and groan *don’t tell me it’s morning already* (see? that’s where I get the name for this blog), I resist the urge to chuck the phone across the room and instead push snooze.
0705 – several snoozes later, my wife kicks me out of bed (mostly because she’s annoyed at having to hear that same song over and over again while she’s trying to sleep). I brush my teeth, shave, shower and get dressed. I grab my stuff and look for some other stuff that I forgot to pack the night before, and head out to the car. Living in an apartment complex has its pros and cons, and having to park all the way across the complex is definitely one of the cons.
0735 – Kimberley (my car) growls at me as I turn on the ignition and an unattractive light on the dash draws my attention to the fact that I have less than a quarter tank left. A quick check on my Touch n’ Go card confirms that I also have only a dollar or so left on that as well. Oh well, off to the friendly nearby Petronas then…
0740 – At the Petronas station near my place, to give Kimberly some much needed sustenance, and my Touch n’ Go card some much needed sense of worth. I resist the brightly lit Golden Arches beckoning me for a McBreakfast, and head off to work.
0810 – 5 highways, rm4, and 3 tolls later, I finally reach my destination. I had almost gotten into an accident when some idiots decided to stop and look at some policeman stop at the scene of some accident or had pulled someone over, I didn’t see which. Why is it that Malaysians always have to stop and look, and endanger themselves and other motorists? Just to take down licence plate numbers for lottery purposes, or just because they’re kaypoh (busybody). The worst thing is that they don’t pull over and stop by the side of the road, they always stop right in the middle of the road, even a busy highway. Morons. Anyway, pulling into campus, I see that the hill is fully parked halfway down. Groaning inwardly I think “it’s supposed to be a break for the degree students, what are all these people doing here?”. I try going to the other side of the hill and am pleasantly surprised that there is ample parking space there. No need to hike up the darn hill today 
0812 – Nobody in the office… hmmm… well, it’s not an uncommon thing, so I settle down in my little cubicle, unload my stuff, and turn on my notebook. We don’t get our own computers here, in fact, we’re required to purchase our own notebooks for work (Malaysia still has a very primitive view of employees being assets and proper human resource and all). All the e-mails from the previous day start pouring in, so I guess it’s time to start sorting things out. I read through the e-mails and check the NHL hockey scores while munching on the sandwich my wife made me for breakfast.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll continue updating this as the day goes on. Keep tuned for another installment!
Food review: Shogun Japanese Buffet October 17, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Food.1 comment so far
at the behest of my dad, we went to try out Shogun at One Utama. We’d been wanting to try it out for a long time, but never got around to doing it, everytime we wanted to go (and had the money to go) it was all crowded and all.
so! It wasn’t very crowded today, so we thought we’d pop in and try it out. At first glance it seemed pretty good… spacious layout and seemed like a very good variety of choices in food and all, much better than its parent restaurant Saisaki, at least.
those were first impressions. The food, I must say, for the most part was too salty and a lot of it didn’t taste very good. The unagi (barbecued eel) was hard and rubbery, and many other things from the cooked food section just didn’t really have any other flavor rather than salty. Even such a novelty as Peking duck rolls just failed to take off. The situation just remained dire at the teppanyaki counter, which didn’t have much taste at all. At least tempura couldn’t really go wrong.
as for sushi, most of it was good, especially the hana maki (something like flower petal rolls, with a good sized portion of raw salmon wrapping it) which was excellent and the fact that I could have as many of them as I wanted was a big attraction. However, the sushi rice was a let down, which led me to…
sashimi! I was anticipating eating platefuls of the stuff. Normally at Jap buffets I’d be taking a mound of sake sashimi (raw salmon), however, this wasn’t the case this time as the salmon didn’t really taste fresh. They must have used up the good stuff for the hana maki and…
salmon with honey mustard? sounded rather off, but delicious since I love honey mustard. And so that took the place of all the salmon sashimi I could eat… I basically took almost an entire plateful of it. So that was where all the fresh salmon went…
overall, I was actually rather disappointed with Shogun. I don’t know if my expectations started off too high but for the price one pays (it’s rm48++ per person) I would have at least expected better. As it is, it’s not a place I would boycott, but I would cautiously return once or twice to see if they’ve improved any. If going, my advice is to take very small portions of food until the actual good and edible dishes are identified.
my rating: 5.3/10 and the next time I go to a Jap buffet, I hope it will be back to Nagisa (Sunway Lagoon Resort) which has an excellent Jappy buffet and when in season, fresh strawberries!!!!! :p
something squiddy October 13, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Stuff.add a comment
so, those who like squid, here’s something I found out recently about the giant squid and colossal squid. Apparently they’re two different species, with the colossal squid possibly reaching 4.5m in its mantle with eyes supposedly the size of dinner plates and hooks on its tentacles which it uses to attack prey. Nasty stuff.
More info here: http://deepseanews.blogspot.com/2005/09/giant-squid-overthrown-as-largest.html
more nasty stuff here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid
I wouldn’t eat them (I don’t like eating squid) but hey, it’s quite fascinating watching them
Verse of the day October 10, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Stuff.add a comment
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, [a]
I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
- Amos 5:22-24 (NIV)
food review: Daorae Korean BBQ October 9, 2006
Posted by ewokiebear in Food.1 comment so far
to one of my favorite topics: barbecued meats. Daorae Korean BBQ is located in the Taipan business center, opposite McDonald’s (I don’t know the address)
the meat is good (it had better be), and the side dishes are generally very good as well. Bibimbap is also quite a good choice, although the signature dish of bulgogi came already pre-cooked and all and also was rather fatty. So in subsequent visits, we opted for mostly barbecued stuff like gal-bi (beef ribs) and the like.
Price-wise, it’s quite good as Korean barbecues go. The main beef dishes are rm48, like most other places like this, and everything else is pretty much average as far as prices go. The big thing about this place, though is that the meat is good and fresh and the service is good. Expect to spend an average of about rm30-50 per person I think.
highly recommended, do make reservations on weekends as it is very popular. I’ve only been there on Sunday evenings and it’s usually been a full house after 7pm. Phone number is (03) 8024-2616.
7.2/10 for this one
