Review: Hong Kong Food Culture

**Non-Halal Posting**

Heh, what's with the current trend that everywhere you go, there seems to be a Hong Kong style "char charn teng" (coffee shop/cafe in Cantonese) around in the vicinity. The frenzy started by Kim Gary at their first outlet in Sg Wang Plaza a few years ago. Later on more and more similar cafe opened and Kuala Lumpur is like being hit by a bomb *kaboom*... now like little Hong Kong. It's still growing ok...

Anyway, I got tired of Kim Gary as when they started one of my colleague always dragged us there for lunch at least once a week. When she left the company a year later, we never stepped into Kim Gary ever again and that was like coming to two years soon. However, we never stopped ourselves from trying other places when we're tired of our local stuff. I always welcome a cup of hot Hong Kong style milk tea, missed the real thing!!!

Whenever we visit Low Yat Plaza for our PC stuff, we'll drop by Causeway Bay Cafe on the Ground Floor, opposite Coffee Bean Cafe. I liked the noodles with prawn wantan or sui kow (dumplings) there. Loads of prawns and meat in them...

Of late, we ventured downstairs at the Lower Ground Floor as they've renovated a bit and seems brighter and more new food outlets have opened. I've never noticed Hong Kong Food Culture until my colleague pointed out the kooky name of this place in Cantonese. I think it's "Kong Yum, Kong Sek" (Talk About Drinking, Talk About Eating literally). One evening it was raining heavily and the traffic in the city centre had gone hay wire, hubby decided to park the car at Low Yat Plaza to have dinner. Walked around and hubby said "Causeway Bay again???". I brought him downstairs and check out this place, he was pretty sceptical as we stood outside but anyway checking that the place is rather filled with diners, he guessed it must be pretty safe.

After scanning the menu that evening, I ordered the dry version of Noodle with Wonton and Dumplings (RM7.40, weird amount!). Hubby ordered Fried Rice With Salted Fish and Chicken Dice (ermm that's how it sounds like on the menu... RM10.50). I had my standard order of Hong Kong style milk tea (RM2.70) as my benchmark hehehehe which came out pretty well as they used the authentic large cup and saucer like those in Hong Kong. One slurp and the balance of milk and tea were right. Added in some sugar and it tasted lovely and creamy. Other similar cafe serves them on a much smaller cup, no kick leh but I really missed those "si mutt lai char" (panty hose milk tea kekekeke yeah that's what they used in Hong Kong to filter the tea!!!!). Hubby did asked the proprieter in Hong Kong (he goes to that shop so often that the boss sort of recognise him)... he said the panty hose have finer holes compared to those traditional cotton sieve, hence allow the flavour of the tea to come out the fullest it seems! Ohh my how bad of me... hehehe I drank 3/4 cup of the tea before remembering I have my new phone with me. I was too scared embarrassed to bring out my digicam as the place is pretty cramped and errr there's a table full of errrmmm "tai kors" ("big brothers") behind me.



My noodles came... I checked the 3 pieces of wonton and 2 pieces of dumplings in the separate soup bowl. Hohoho so huge... mmmm... visual approval granted! Tasted the noodles, just the right kind of texture for me. The wonton have one whole prawn and minced meat where else the dumplings have one whole prawn mixed with carrots and loads of black fungus in there... wahhhh nice. The first pic depicted the noodles together with one each of the wonton and dumpling, second pic showed the inside of a wonton and the last was a dumpling splitted into two!!!



I finished my noodles and poor hubby still waiting for his rice. Have to asked the waitress a few times then only they told us they forgot to put in the order... goshhhh... anyway they sped up the order and the fried rice came in no time. I tell you... as the waitress place the plate down... I could smell the wonderful aroma of a fried rice full of "wok hei" (Cantonese literally means the breath of the wok... something stimulated by the large amount of heat). As hubby busy dug in, I can't help but spoon some into my mouth. Heh I was right... the rice was so full of "wok hei"... it has been a long while since I last tasted such nice fried rice. The rice have loads of diced chicken pieces, pieces of fried eggs, loads of spring onions but not much salted fish there, just a hint of the taste. I presumed salted fish is an expensive delicacy these days. What I liked is they fried the finely shredded iceberg lettuce together with the rice which lended an extra bite to it. Other places so far, they just placed the fresh iceberg lettuce on top of the rice.



Hubby was delighted that this place have his fave Fresh Milk Curd With Ginger (RM5.00) which I've tried many times to replicate this at home but somehow always failed to get it set to the right consistency. Anyone with a fail proof recipe to share?? Hong Kong Food Culture's version is just slightly curdled and smooth. Taste wise... not as great when hubby benchmark it against those he ate in Hong Kong hehehehe not fair huh? I had the Grinded Walnut Soup (RM6.00) which is something unusual as compared with peanut soup. Errr tasted funny okay, maybe I was so used to the aromatic peanuts instead of walnut but me being a good gal, I forced myself to down the whole bowl... urghhh! No choice... early education from parents that one must not waste food unless one is really too stuffed to swallow had taught me not to waste food!!!



Looks like we'll go again to check out the rest of the stuff offered unless we're so sick of Hong Kong style food. Teehehehe...

Hong Kong Food Culture
Lower Group Floor, Low Yat Plaza
(look Baoz kiosk and vegetarian shop, there's a lane there going to more shops including a big boy's toy shop selling manga and anime stuff I think)
Opps no telephone number provided in the receipts.


Since we're on this topic, we tried new a Hong Kong style shop around my parents place in Kepong recently. This row of new shoplots is located directly opposite of Jusco across the Jalan Kepong. There are two such shops but we tried the corner lot (behind Petronas Kiosk) - KYS (Kong Yam Sek, funny this one is literally translated as Talk Drink Eat, how original they can be?!!??!). I wished they have invested in a good ventilation system for their kitchen as the inside of the aircon shop can smell of the cooking fume, hence we sat outside along the corridor which we can still smell the fume... Ok back to the food.

We loved the cheese baked rice where my boiboi wallopped all my cheese toppings!!!! My mom's pork rib rice was fantabulous but my dad's porridge sucks. So the poor him have to abandoned his porridge half way and ate half of my mom's rice. My brother ordered a piece of peanut butter and condensed milk toast and a bowl of mango sago to help him filled up. The toast is nothing out of the ordinary but my boiboi liked it a lot that he polished up 1/4 of the thick toast! This smart fella knows how to ask my dad for peanut butter bread for breakfast some days when he have the craving for peanut butter hehehe atta boy, just like mummy (his daddy don't like peanut butter!). The sago in the mango sago were kinda crunchy and not chewy... I wonder if they're really sago or some kind of those pearl balls substitute. The puree is not as nice as those KTZ's.

So enough of Hong Kong food, I wished they could give me some authentic Por Lor Yau Bao!!!!! Am gonna be away working for the whole of this week, most likely there won't be much updates... so please head on to Alberto and Jennifer for the round up of the Cookie Swap.

KYS Restaurant (CLOSED)
No. 1 Jalan Metro Perdana Barat 1,
Taman Usahawan Kepong Utara
Tel: 603 6257 4205

IMBB#21/SHF#14: Cookie Swap

I'm so glad that this month's Is My Blog Burning and Sugar High Friday are having a joint event - a virtual cookie swap! A brilliant idea by Alberto (originator of IMBB) and Jennifer (originator of SHF) . My schedule is pretty packed but luckily I managed to chance upon a very easy to bake cookie recipe on an old copy of Home Cooking magazine which I'm gonna share here. It took me about an hour to get everything done, including the washing up.

The recipe called for 4 bars of Snickers where I've used 2 bars each of peanut and almond. I've also cut down on the sugar. I've about 100g of plain flour left, so I substituted the rest with self raising flour and cut the baking powder to 1 tsp instead. The following is the original recipe...

Crunchy Jumbo Snickers Cookies

Ingredients:
4 Snickers chocolate
bars
125g caster sugar
140g butter
185 plain flour
2 tsp baking
powder
100g quick cooking oats

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C and grease a large cookie tray.

Sift flour together with baking powder and add in oats into mixing bowl.

Combine butter, sugar and Snickers bar in a pan and stir over medium fire until melted. Add to flour mixture and stir to combine. Divide mixture to 12 portions and arrange on prepared tray.

Bake for 15-18 minutes. Cool on tray before removing.

Notes: Have to work fast to assemble the dough onto the cookie tray else they all crumbled up and difficult to be shaped into a solid chunk. I suspect it's due to the high sugar and caramel content of the Snickers and also maybe because of this, the cookies turned rock hard the next day but it was so crunchy on the same day they were baked. They're still edible though and my mom enjoyed the bite. Even my boiboi likes it a lot. I've no idea why everyday on the dot at 7.00pm he would go near where my mom kept her cookie jars and request for some of those cookies. This happened everyday for the past 3 days!!!! Strange eh??? Okie, maybe reheating them in the oven before eating might be able to crunch it up a little. The texture is like the Chinese biscuit - Hup Tou Sou (walnut biscuit).

Even though I've cut down the sugar content, they're still pretty sweet, so I'll need to cut down further which I forgot how much, oh dear hehehe. Do adhere to the "Cool on tray before removing" bit as the cookies were kinda soft when they were out of the oven but turned solid after cooling down. Ohhh... they smelt so nice... so hard to resist a bite during cooling. Tasted fantabulous... like Snickers hehehe minus the sticky caramel. The next round, I'm gonna cut down the oats and add in some chopped nuts for more bites. The nuts from the bars are simply not enough.

I was supposed to bake another type of cookies I sampled at Kakak's open house recently, Arab Biscuits. I've all the ingredients but I have finished up the flour baking this batch of cookies plus I'm a little busy now. Will bake them later. It's something like ghee/sugee biscuits. My boiboi popped one whole biscuits into his mouth!!!

Thank you Alberto and Jennifer for the joint effort in holding this cookie swap. Oh yeah thanks to Jennifer too, she have 12 copies of Cookies Sutra to be given away. Apparently there is a contest for the most number of votes received. All you (participants and non-participants) have to do is read through the round-ups which I'll link up later, then choose your top three favorites and email Alberto/Jennifer before 8th December quoting the recipe and which blog it appeared on. The top twelve most selected entrants will get a copy of the book each. So hurry and submit your fave cookies recipe!!!

Peach Yoghurt Smoothie

Fast one today... saw 2 tubs of near expiring plain yoghurt in my fridge... rummaged thru the ladder and found canned peaches. Yikes no fresh milk... went to 7-11 for rescue mission and came back with some vanilla milk (yes, very delish one.. Magnolia brand, the bottled sterilised type with a light green cap which looked like this).

Blend yoghurt, peaches with a little syrup if you want a sweet smoothie, a little milk according to the thickness you would prefered and some ice cubes. Voila... instant smoothie in a flash (trip to 7-11 not counted kekeke).

There were just too much for the two of us, so I poured the remainder into ice lollies containers. Dumped in some cubed peaches... and you get this... yumyummm... and healthy if you use fresh fruits instead of canned ones. I only have apples in the fridge which I doubt can make a yummy smoothie, so out came the canned peaches. Bananas, papaya or mango would be great! Must make a fresh batch for boiboi this weekend...

Instant Tummy Warmer

Been very busy and I can foresee that I'll be pretty busy with work till January... means lesser updates here. I have thousands things to write about but I just don't have the time. I'm sneaking in this quickie post... just like the title - Instant Tummy Warmer!!!

My friend Fake and his wifey recommended some people the tasty instant chapati they got from Tesco during the fasting month. Somehow they couldn't remember the brand of the chapati for all they always gotten them from Tesco. Since Tesco is miles away from my convenience, each time to the super or hypermart have me going through the frozen food section brazing the cold rummaging the packages in the chests in search for THE said chapati. After checking a few outlets, it seems there is only one brand that has chapati and that is Kawan. The rest of the stuff were mainly roti chanai, pratha, roti bom etc which I don't really fancy. Since they also mentioned that they have instant dhall and vegetable curries, so I gathered this must be the brand. So Fake & Soulpop, is this IT??? kekekeke

Anyhow, I grabbed a pack of chapati, forgot the price I think around RM3+ for 10 pieces. They looked like this in flat packaging.



All one need to do is fry them in a non-stick pan for about 2 minutes or more on both sides. Best part me and my brother (<-- health freak these days after started going gym) agreed was no oil is needed. Superb! After frying... looked good ain't it? The chapati is fluffy and tasted fantastic immediately off the pan, if you plan to fry up loads of them, do find some way to keep them warm. However a little oil is detected on the surface most prolly to prevent them from sticking on the plastic sheets in between the chapatis. If you fry it slightly longer, the chapati became slightly crispy. So adjust the cooking time to your liking.



Nothing beat serving chapatis with curries... so Kawan has frozen curries as well. It's RM2+ per pack of two. It's not really huge pack, good enough for about 2 servings per pack. At the moment, there are dhall (rectangle pack) and vegetable (tube like pack) curries available. It's ohhh so convenient!



Just pop these packages into hot boiling water for a few minutes and voila, hot curries to be served with the chapatis. I find the dhall curry is slightly on the salty side but nevertheless thumb up for the thickness and taste. I simply love the vegetables curry!!!! My brother and I gave 2 thumbs up for this. Tasted so delicious that I drank this up like soup kekeke... Noticed loads of small pieces of vegetables like carrots, long beans, potatoes etc in the curry. These curries are not too spicy and the amount of spices used are just right, not overly heavy. Click to view the larger pics... dhall on the left, vegetables on the right.



Overall, a very satisfying meal without leaving the doorstep to go to the Mamak/Punjabi stall/shop. Great tummy warmer in an instant! I WILL stock them up in my freezer and cook some curry chicken to go with them. Hey, maybe can serve them as appetizer for parties... hmmm see what I could do with them later.

If you prefer to cook them up from scratch, Grab Your Fork has a lovely dhall recipe and Amy Beh's version of chapati or Clare's version. Read my review on Santa Chapati.

New Food Mag Hit Kuala Lumpur!!!!

I was walking to my office this morning and I took a peek at the newstand. Whoa... a bright new magazine greeted me. I took out my purse and hurriedly dig in RM8 to pay for the colourful cover magazine.

The moment I hit my desk, I ripped off the plastic cover and flipped thru the mag and I have no regret parting my RM8! Every pages were filled with colourful mouthwatering food shots arrghhhhh... so the nice! Loads of recipes... gadgets (kitchen ones lah), tips on setting up your dining table and so forth graced the inaugural issue of FemaLe appetite. This food magazine is related to the popular women magazine Female. How great... as this one will definitely fill the void left by the defunct Home Cooking. Seems like Pelita Lim formerly from Home Cooking is contributing in the new mag too.

I doubt they'll be a competitor to Flavours as I can see that they're slightly different in terms of content even though they may have similar sections. Go buy one copy and find out yourself, check out the content.


The only sad thing about this mag is their tagline - The Food Magazine For Modern Women!!! Eh hello??? So sexist geh??? I'm sure there are many menfolks out there do read such magazine, no? Sometimes Lanatir reminds me to get my Flavours kekeke...

I have an issue with the Editor's Notes written by Vivian Chong. Since this is the inaugural issue, there is no brief introduction of the mag and no mention of the frequency of publication. Well you tell me if you managed to get such info from the mag since I merely browsed thru only. Will only read properly later, well maybe I missed it or something.

Oh yeah, in this current "modern" world, there is nary a single email address to submit our views or as somekind of contact to the team members of the mag. Woohooo... don't "modern women" use email these days rather than snail mail?? I googled for the publisher and found the Singapore company instead. Adoi..

Aside my grouses... please do get a copy. This inaugural issue come with a free Tupperware container... big enough to store a box of paperclips, chopped garlic, teeny bits of rice bubbles for your baby etc... and yes its the ori Tupperware brand one ok. So hurry before the mag vanished from the shelves!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT work for Blu Inc Media (the publisher) whether directly or indirectly and I don't get paid anything for this plug! Just wanna share with my fellow Malaysian Floggers. Happy weekend.

Review: Sapporo Noodle House

**Non-Halal Post**

I better post this up before I forget. Been trying to post up stuff the past few days but my line was erratic hence I gave up till today.

We chanced upon Sapporo Noodle House when we were looking a place to have our lunch around Low Yat Plaza and I can't recall why we ended up going up and down the Federal Bowl side of the alley. My colleague was browsing thru their menu board when someone came out to usher in to try their ramen. I tell you, their chef, Jacky Lim is a kickass salesman hahaha... He managed to convinced us in and recommended us some ramens and stuff. His main selling point - WE DON'T USE MSG!!!

I've been to Sapporo Noodle House the past one year, it was pretty good but somehow it slacked. Seems like they're not that consistent but overall they're a okay. Therefore I didn't bothered to post it up here, plus I did not take any photos at all since I was with my colleagues most of the time. Ermmm this blog is my secret playground where not many of my colleagues knew about plus my *ahem* such glamour nick will make them roll around the floor in laughter.

Anyway, back to this place. Jacky told us they started off with the outlet at The Mall (what's the current name huh? Putra's Place??), 7 years ago. Their main clientele are Japanese. It seems like their second outlet in Federal Hotel too attracts Japanese during dinner hours. However the many times we went during lunch, it's usually us and another table will be filled. This outlet in Federal Hotel is holed up in a pretty small lot with minimal decor. The tables and chairs are of those kopitiam type. Oh yeah the other thing I dread going there is the kitchen is sort of like open concept, hence you get to smell the cooking fumes. Arrrghhh my whole body smelled of stale oil urrghhh, not very pleasant okay. I haven't been to outlet at The Mall, so I've no idea how it looked like.

I've tried Ghau Zhau Ramen, Char Siew Ramen, Shoyu Ramen, Braised Pork Ramen, Beef Ramen etc... they're all pretty good except sometimes I find the soup base slightly on the salty side. Could be because I'm used to less salt dishes??? They have udons and rice dishes as well. The ramen texture is just right. Price per bowl range from RM10-12 or around there... can't really recall. The portion is slightly on the large side but it's not overly huge. They have fried rice too. If you can't decide, they have sets comprise of ramen, fried rice and gyoza but in smaller portion. Price is about RM16-18. Not too bad eh?

Do order the side dishes like gyoza, terriyaki chicken (wooo this one is superb), spring rolls, terriyaki sake, sabo shioyaki etc etc... Actually this small little shop have loads of variety, I haven't get to try everything yet.

Now the main thing I wanna blog about this is not mainly on the food BUT the offer. Yeah it's 50% discount. Hehehe... YES, you heard (read) me!!! They're offering 50% off on all their ramen but not on the udon, rice or side dishes. Really value for money. Fantastic strategy as it's hard to get a table past 1pm these days. No need to hurry there okay as they told us the promotion is on going till indefinite. Promotion is on for both lunch and dinner too.


SAPPORO NOODLE HOUSE
Arcade B2, Federal Bowling (next to Kameya)
Ground Floor, Federal Hotel.
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-4045 7669 / 012-616 6571
Opening Hours: 12.00pm - 2.00am

or

Lot 1.21, 1st Floor,
The Mall (opposite PanPacific KL), Jalan Putra,
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 012-616 6571
Opening Hours: 11.00am - 9.30pm

What Kind of Food Are You?

Having gone to Foodcrazee's blog, I clicked at the link and did the questionaire. This was what I got...

You Are Italian Food

Comforting yet overwhelming. People love you, but sometimes you're just too much.

What Kind of Food Are You?

Review: Chilli Pan Meen

**Non-Halal Review**

Pan Meen literally translated means board noodles, a spin-off from a Hokkien delicacies known as meen hoon kuay (sorry I'm not sure how to spell it) as these days people uses the noodle/pasta maker to churn out these noodles. They come either wet of a soup base of anchovies (ikan bilis) or dry (kon lo in Cantonese) in sauce made of black soya sauce. Accompanying these noodles are usually minced and sliced pork meat, julliened black fungus, shue tzai choy (darn I've no idea what's the actual name, anyone?) and crunchy deep fried anchovies.

Since there were many reviews on this chilli pan meen's place, I'm gonna be a story teller today instead. A little history of some sort and how it evolved to it's current status and situation...

It has been a long while since I last went to Auntie Peng's pan meen shop. Auntie Peng and her hubby used to lived in the same kampung as my parents. Yes, they do knew each other as I've brought my parents to this place many many years ago since I first patronising them back in 1996. This kampung is actually located behind their shop which has since been made way for development. If any of your parents or relatives used to lived in Kampung Limau, off Batu Road (now known as Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman {TAR}), chances are they would know my parents, some relatives and Auntie Peng as well.

When I mention chilli pan meen, I'm pretty sure everyone would thinking of this shop. They could easily be the first in Kuala Lumpur that introduced chilli pan meen. Auntie Peng and hubby used to operate from a stall right at the open air car park near by. Yup, the car park is still there but they "chased" Auntie Peng out a few years back, forcing her to find a new place to operate. Hence now, you get to eat the fiery pan meen in the comfort of a tiled up place complete with ceiling fan!!! In those days, we have to eat under a measly thin tree or under the umbrellas. Each time after eating the fiery pan meen under the hot hot sun, all of us would be perspiring like mad and we needed loads of tissues to soak up our sweat. Not only that, we have to tolerate long long wait just for a bowl of pan meen! Most days we'll need to wait more than 45 minutes as compared to now cos Auntie Peng would cook the pan meen all by herself with some help from hubby. Hubby's responsibility was to take order, serves the patrons and collect money. I still remember their helper, Yau Yue (Cantonese for squid or sotong), clearing up the tables and washing dishes. Oh yeah he owned the drinks section where Auntie Peng was generous enough to let him run his own small little business whilst helping her up. Their elder son would occasionally be around to help out when he has finished his classes. That time he was studying a diploma course. Some how he's now ended up being the chief cook!!! Yau Yue is no where to be seen after the shift.

As most of you know now the shop is called Restoran Kin Kin. It's located along Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1 (behind Honda showroom along Jalan TAR). This place's pan meen is slightly different from the usual ones found in kopitiams. Their dry style pan meen is kinda light in colour and is usually served with a beautifully poached egg. You can opt to omit the egg though but I find the egg gave the pan meen a slightly smoother texture. They have tubs of fiery chilli flakes on each table. To eat the pan meen, usually patrons will mix heaps of the chilli flakes into them. The effect... a very spicy, fiery hot rendition of pan meen. I've seen some patrons did the same to their soup version. If it's your first time there, go easy with the chilli flakes else you'll end up having a super warm tummy and at times could end up purging away. Don't say I didn't warn you ok.



Whilst you're here be prepared to hear this "Moe Tai, Moe Sai" hahaha in Cantonese means "No Big, No Small" in reference to the serving size of their pan meen. Last time we get to choose small (RM3.50 which is rather steep those days) or big bowl (RM4.00) and thick or thin pan meen. Not anymore since their business prospers and also due to the long waiting period. Auntie Peng decided one size only policy which did helped speed things a little. In my recent visit, I found out that the uncle did not asked us thick or thin... which means one thickness policy has been introduced. Taste wise seems to be getting a little disappointing too.

Price has gone up. It's now RM4.60 a bowl which to me pretty pricey considering how small the portion were. One of my male colleague, downed 3 bowls in one go that earned him the nick Human Incinerator (you know who you are)! Hahaha... I was there recently with my female colleague and both of us shared 3 bowls kekeke... So there you go, a little history of this place.



This place is also accessible via monorail but you might need to walk 5 to 10 minutes from Medan Tuanku station. Read a couple of reviews by fellow bloggers - Robyn of Eating Asia and Gina of Gina Gets Her Groove!. Little did I know that James' (of Loopy Meals fame) love story started from this pan meen place, thanks Gina (and Google) for the tit bit.

Restoran Kin Kin
40 Ground Floor, Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1,
off Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur

Opening hours:
Weekdays 7:30am-9:00pm
Sat & Sun 7:30am-4:30pm
Closed last Sunday of the month

Note: The photos taken with W800i's macro option, no edit done to them except resizing.

My New Toy: Sony Ericsson W800i

Two words for this phone digicam MP3 player mobile phone - IT ROCKS!!!!

Let's put it this way, this toy rocks for the below:

• 2 megapixel digicam - super clear especially outdoor shots, has got macro function as well! Can record video.
• It's a Walkman that plays MP3 files and FM radio. The Disc2Phone software could copy files from music CDs to the Memory Stick. It has MegaBass and stereo speakers too... whoa... superb sound with the earphone that came with the kit. Best is that the earphone uses soft silicon ear buds and it blocks off surrounding sound. No more missing foam sponges. The earphone kit has 3 different size ear buds to fit different ear sizes. This little orange devil can be plugged into TV, speakers, car stereos and different head/ear phones but Sony brand only I think but am not sure cos all one need to do is purchase the cable separately.
• Came with a 512MB Memory Stick that can store up to 130 songs. Can use up to2GB Memory Stick.
• Came complete with an USB cable to connect fast and easily with the PC. This is useful to move songs from PC to phone. When the USB cable is connected to this phone it also charges the phone battery. YAY!!!
• 3D games, well not that I play games but should be able to keep my boiboi amuse.

So far there is only one major flaw... as a phone, the reception quality is not good at all and I knew another person who told me the same thing too. Even though I'm stationary, the reception is like as if I'm on the move especially driving thru some blind spots. Very disappointed since it should be a phone first. Maybe I should contact Sony Ericsson and see what they could do about it.

Sighh I guess we can't ask for more eh? Nothing is perfect. Plus it doesn't have EDGE... so no live video streaming for me. Oh yeah, even though the colours of bright orange and cream are very attractive but I find it not practical as the cream colour can easily show dirty finger prints, euuuwww...

Overall, OK lah, don't complain so much when it was supposed to be a "surprise" pressie. Thank you again Mr Gadget. You're such a darling!

For more details, click HERE and HERE. The Star's InTech journalist did a review on it too but he's just being too nice.

I've toyed around with my two digicams, lemme know which digicam produce better results by participating in the poll below. Thanks.

Sony DSC-F505V on the left or Casio EX-Z750 on the right. Click to enlarge.

Free polls from Pollhost.com

Which digicam gave better result?

Sony DSC F505V Casio EX-Z750

Revealing My BoiBoi...

Okie all the uncles and aunties (to my boiboi lah, not me)... listen, I know I sorta cheated the other time when I said I'm gonna show you all a pic of my boiboi. So I'm gonna show you this one...

Kekekeke just his eyes hor... enough or not? If wanna see his eyes close up... click on the pic! So I'm revealing bit by bit hehehehe. Do come back yah, you'll never know when I'm gonna reveal the rest.

UPDATED 10 Nov 2005: I noticed the old pic of boiboi's head inside a box appeared sometimes, maybe due to the same filename being used. I've changed that and hopefully you'll get to view boiboi reading a book.

SHF#13 & IMBB#20 Round Ups

Kelli of LOVESCOOL hosted SHF#13: The Dark Side and here's the round up to this event.

Kitchen Chick hosted IMBB#20: Has my blog fallen? and she have separated the round ups into two - savoury and sweet.

Check them all out!!! Thanks to both our lovely hosts.

For this month, it's going to be extra special. SHF and IMBB will be jointly hosted by the originator of both events, Jennifer and Alberto. We're going to do a virtual cookie swap! Yay, how appropriate with Christmas and Chinese New Year coming soon in the next few months.

The theme is "Cookie Swap" and the weekend for this joint IMBB-SHF is Friday 25th – Sunday 27th November. It's time to heat up the oven for some baking!

Austrian Coffee Cake

Sorry for the hiatus. Been so busy with my boiboi during the long holidays, no time to even rest my feet! I've baked this cake before the holidays but haven't got the chance to post it up. I was browsing thru my old copies of Flavours magazine and chanced upon this recipe which so happened I've all the ingredients at home that weekend. It seems like the cake base is a butter cake and to get the coffee flavour, one need to make a coffee kinda syrup to be poured onto the cake after baking.

Here's the recipe which I'm too lazy to type out. I know me really bad... infringing copyright of the mag so please jot down the recipe before I take them away. Click to enlarge.



This is the mixture before placing into the oven. I've used two loaf pans instead of a round one as specified in the recipe.








And this was how the cake turned out after baking.











After cooling it slightly, I made the sauce and splitted them into two batches. I can't locate my brandy. Darn... I hunted high and low but can't find any. Checked thru the liqour bottles... I've Kahlua. So I've used Kahlua instead of brandy since it's coffee sauce anyway. The other batch I kept it alcohol free for my boiboi. Heh so now you know why I've made two loaves. I poured all of them onto the cakes and they produce very moist cakes. In fact a bit too soggy for my liking. Next time I'm gonna reduce the liquid to 200ml or even lesser. For a stronger coffee flavour do add a little more coffee powder. I wonder how would the cake taste if I substitute with thick kopi-o (local black coffee) or a couple of expresso shots... must be pretty aromatic. Can't wait for my next attempt.

Here's how the sliced cake looked like. Check out the slightly dark patches... those were the areas where the coffee sauce ran thru. I have to admit the liqour one tasted better as the coffee flavour is stronger. Overall, it's a lovely cake. Oh yeah, no icing cos I don't have any whipping cream on hand. Next round I'm gonna use brandy cos I found where they were later in the evening!!! Darn, what a bummer!



BTW, do check out Lilian's tips on how to avoid baking a lousy butter cake.

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 22

I'm joining in the fun just for this once (maybe). This Weekend Cat Blogging was introduced by Clare from eat stuff. Since Clare is not free this weekend, Boo the cat, will be hosting on behalf. Am sure boo_licious would be delighted to know Boo is so the clever to round up this week's cat blogging.

Okie... I got a litter of kittens recently. 6 of them of be exact! See how cutesy they looked......



Hahahaha gotcha or not?? It's actually a basket made of kittens, kinda like patchwork thingy. Got this at Makro. It's a steal at RM6.90!!! Can't resist myself when I saw how adorable they were, which I was darn sure my boiboi would love it and yes he did. He loves cat and he can imitate cat right down to the T!!!! From an adorable kitty who brush against my body and face (sometimes he licks my cheeks too hahaha) to an angry cat that scratches my face (literally), yes he was darn good.

Check out the 6 little kittens...







No names yet... anyone wanna help out???

My New Toy

Here's a shot of my new toy in replacement of my stolen one, thanks to Mr Gadget. Love you darling! More on the toy later...