Wednesday 31 May 2006

Cameron Highlands Part 4: Rose Valley

We had wanted to go Boh Tea Centre in Sg Palas on Saturday morning but after snaking 1/3 way up, we were told by one kind soul who was on his way down with some tourist in his van that the tea centre was closed. No wonder I saw some kind of chariot along the Hindu Temple along the main road. Apparently there was a Hindu festival on that day. The workers in Boh Tea Factory were mostly Indians which explained why they were closed. I wish Boh Tea could place a signage at their huge billboard at the foot of the hill to inform the public on its closed days other than Mondays. The kind soul told us they jammed all the way up and down for more than an hour... wahseh. Anyway we took a U-turn and we still got stuck in a traffic jam! Yeah jam since it was a long weekend, lots of tourist flocked Kea Farm, Rose Valley etc to buy vegetables and stuff. Too many cars and haphazard parking caused crawling traffic.

Anyway, I was so bored and took out my Sony Digicam and start shooting as we inch towards the foothill which Rose Valley is located. Lotsa stalls selling vegetables, fruits and flowers there. Hmm the wonders of having zoom capability... I don't even need to get down the car to get these shots hehehe...

See the traffic jam right at the junction.

rose valley - traffic jam due to sg palas closure

Equatorial Hotel, the tallest hotel located in Cameron Highlands.

rose valley - eq

Check out the lush bougainvillea plants!

rose valley - lush bougainvilla

Stalls along Rose Valley. These row of shops were located right along the main street but it seems that the inner stalls were getting all the business.

rose valley - stall01

rose valley - stall02

rose valley - stall03

Cameron Highlands Part 1: The Land of Work Horses
Cameron Highlands Part 2: Sam Poh Chi
Cameron Highlands Part 3: Heritage Hotel

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Happy Duan Wu Jie

Today is the 5th day in the 5th month in the Chinese Lunar calendar which means it's Duan Wu Jie or more popularily known as Dumpling Festival or Dragon Boat Festival. I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Duan Wu Jie!

No dumplings post since I only had my first one yesterday morning. Am sure by now a lot of people would have blogged about it. Otherwise check out my previous posts here, here and here about these dumplings. For step-by-step instructions on how to wrap the dumplings, check out Boo_licious post on how her aunt make them.

Try not to over stuff yourself with these dumplings ok else you'll feel bloated up. I saw an article recently that the seller recommended to drink soda drinks before eating them to avoid that bloating up feeling. Try and tell me if it really worked for you.

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Cameron Highlands Part 3: Heritage Hotel

Not a bad place to stay but since the opening of Simpang Pulai, it seems like an eternity to reach this place as we reached the higher places first before Heritage Hotel located in Tanah Rata. It's our second stay here... staff were extremely courteous and attentive this time round. Apparently some of them were Indonesians students from a hospitality college in Bintan Island on their industrial training. No complaints except for the dirty, damp and musky smell of the carpet. Problem solved when I plug in the air freshener I brought along (me super kiasi and had sort of anticipated this hehehe, bet you never thought of this huh??) and we practically wore slippers all the time in the room.

For RM468, we got 2 nights stay, it's quite a bargain since it was peak period. It came with breakfast for two on both mornings, steamboat dinner for two on the first day and two western set dinner on the second day. Will post about them later on.

These were the apartment blocks which I think some locals are staying there. Some units were rented out to tourists. We stayed at the tower block. @$% they gave us a room above where the tour buses parked below. Grrrrr every morning the buses will start their engine around 7.00 blardy am!!!! On top of that it got noisier when the drivers started chatting and their passengers started to hang around the buses. Sighhhh... can't even sleep in late.

ch - view from room ch - heritage apmt

Some flowers found around the lobby.

ch - heritage pink ch - heritage orange lily ch - heritage lily

My boiboi took this picture, kinda all right huh?

ch - heritage boiboi took lilies

...and he asked me to take a pic of this daisy he picked.

ch - heritage daisy

This is him chasing the pigeons at the balcony of the restaurant after breakfast.

ch - heritage shooing pigeons

Cameron Highlands Part 1: The Land of Work Horses
Cameron Highlands Part 2: Sam Poh Chi


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Monday 29 May 2006

Review: Hard Rock Cafe

HRC

After our visit to KL Tower, we dropped by Hard Rock Cafe for our dinner. Many would have thought Hard Rock Cafe (from hereafter HRC) is a drinking place, pub, music and such but they never knew that HRC serves one of the better American Tex-Mex gurbs in town, in fact they were the first to arrive in Kuala Lumpur before TGIF or Chilis. I've been frequenting this place for meals and fun time with my friends but somehow the recent years things have been slowed down a lot. Maybe because my office is now further or could it because most of us have families already??? It's a whole lot of fun sharing food (super huge portion HRC served here), checking out the live band and dancing on the tiny floor space (lots of heat there as one get to be gyrating to someone's body next to you kekeke) or which ever available space. There was once I remembered it was so packed that we merely stood on the bench and have fun. Wooo those were the days.

Back to our recent visit, it's a first for my boiboi. He was kinda excited with the super duper friendly service from the servers (yeah that's what they called the wait staff). Lotsa attention there that came with balloon and a colouring sheet with some crayons. He definitely had fun there.

We had a starter, Potato Skins (Large potato shells, fried golden brown, filled with Jack & Cheddar cheeses, crisps smoked bacon, green onions and parsley. Side of sour cream for dipping.) Hmm yummmy, I remember they serves one of the better ones and I was not wrong. They still were! The skins were crispy on the outside with a soft centre topped with sinful crispy bacon and loads of cheeses.

hrc potato skin

Check out how my boiboi ate his potato skins... no kiddin' ok this little fella knew how to use his cutleries. He specifically asked for fork and knife for this haha. I guess he learnt from observation and some practise at home. To parents, it's ok to let kids mess up during meal times at home so they learn the right way and won't embarass you when you're dining out.

hrc makan

With the huge portion in mind, I safely chose something that I could finish on my own. I picked a simple Cheese Burger (Same great burger, even better with two slices of American, Swiss, Cheddar or Provolone Cheeses.) that came with a thick minced beef burger with loads of cheese and some lettuce, tomatoes and onion rings. I gave 1/3 to boiboi and he wallopped all. Usually, when I came with a large group of people, I won't be ordering anything from the menu except for an empty plate and cutleries. *evil grin* When the food arrives, the rest of the gang would be asking for plate and start piling their orders onto my plate ahahaha... that way food would not be wasted and most importantly I could try a whole more dishes in their menu :p hohoho... smart eh?

hrc cheese burger

The next dish on the menu that I could finish up is their Seafood Spaghetti that hubby ordered. Done marinara way with loads of seafood... mussels, clams, large prawns, squids etc... I took some bites and it's still yummy after all these years. After boiboi finished his burger, he asked his daddy for some spaghetti. *roll eyes*

hrc seafood spaghetti

What would a visit to HRC without ordering their signature Mud Pie! It came in a chocolate flavoured pie shell with Haagen Daz chocolate and coffee ice-cream filling. Topped with generous squeeze of chocolate sauce and toasted almond flakes. Very messy affair but utmost delicious. My boiboi, after downing 1.5 pieces of potato skins + 1/3 cheese burger and some spaghetti, he managed to dig in almost half of the mud pie. Kuat makan (big eater in Malay) hor??? He usually eats more when stuff he likes is served but then he's not greedy type, he knows when to stop when he's full.

hrc mudpie

There were many more goodies on the menu but then they also have their not so great stuff, so you gotta do some trial and error. I thot of letting you guys know here but then their menu shown does not reflect the Kuala Lumpur's HRC menu. Well, maybe next time.

So boys and girls, children of all ages, ladies and gentlemen... if you think you heart TGIF or Chilis, check HRC too. You'll be pleased just like I did after all these years. We're gonna visit more!


Hard Rock Cafe Kuala Lumpur
Ground Floor, Wisma Concorde
Jalan Sultan Ismail
50250 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: 603-2715-5555


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Kuala Lumpur International Motorshow '06

Four and a half hours later, with tired calves and feet... we sort of covered the Kuala Lumpur International Motorshow '06 on Saturday. As expected traffic was heavy but luckily we took KTM Komuter... a bit stress free there.

IMHO... it's a total disappointment. With minimal concept cars on display and non-appearance of some of the biggies ie. Alfa Romeo, BMW, Land Rover (practically most under Sime Group umbrella)... I guess they shouldn't label themselves as "International"!

My boiboi had a whale of time jumping into cars and drive his madness off. As usually most of the guys there went for one more thing other than the cars and accessories... the sexily clad gals lah! I think Bridgestone had the sexiest uniform where else Volvo has the elegantly dressed one. As in the quality of the gals... all of them had one inch thick of ICI paint on them... which made them stand out lor but seriously not that many pretty faces.

Oh yeah, remember to wear your most comfortable shoes cos this year's show is really BIG but OSIM has a few relaxation points with isqueeze scattered around for you to errr relief yourself. I've loads of pics taken but I doubt as of good quality cos there were simply too many people around to take uninterrupted shots. Will see if I have time to process or not then I'll post them up.

If you're going this week, just remember to allocate at least 6 hours to really comb thru all the booths. Have fun!

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Friday 26 May 2006

Sugar High Friday: Ginger it Up!

This month's installment of Sugar High Friday (SHF) is hosted by Ruth of Once Upon A Feast - Every Kitchen Tells Its Stories. She had cleverly picked ginger to be included in our creation. I've thought of making steamed ginger-flavoured milk curd but I was still unsucessful after many cartons of milk wasted to perfect the recipe some time back. We had to literally drink up the ginger-flavoured milk concoction instead. It tasted all right but after many cartons I guess enough is enough. I could have make a sweet potatoes in ginger syrup but nahh it's way too simple.

I searched through the net for some inspiration and this came to me... Ginger-flavoured Lychee Sorbet. Hmmmm nyaammm nyaaammmm... seems pretty easy to fit into my schedule plus I have many cans of lychees in my larder given to me during Chinese New Year. I don't really like lychees so what better way than to turn them into another form.

All I did was placed all the lychees into a container and poured some of its syrup from the can. Grated some ginger (amount according to your liking) and squeezed the juice into the lychees. Then I used my hand-held blender to whizz them up. Cover and place in the freezer. Once it's frozen, I break the ice up and whizz it with the hand-held blender. For finer ice, freeze it up and whizz it again. Serve with some lychees on top. As easy as that.


Ginger-flavoured Lychee Sorbet

Sorry for the lousy photo quality. It's hard to photograph whitish stuff. For the original recipe, check it out at Kuali. I kinda like the subtle hint of ginger in this sorbet which is not too sweet. Great for a person who doesn't really like ginger nor lychees hahaha...

Thanks Ruth for being such a wonderful host.

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Thursday 25 May 2006

Cameron Highlands Part 2: Sam Poh Chi

ch - sam poh chi 01

Continuing my travelogue... it was wet when we arrived Cameron Highlands on Wesak Day in the late afternoon. The first thing we did when we arrived was to stop by at Sam Poh Chi (located near Brinchang) to offer our prayers. Surprisingly it was pretty quiet, maybe the devotees came earlier in the morning.

ch - sam poh chi 03

ch - sam poh chi 02

Cameron Highlands Part 1: The Land of Work Horses


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Tuesday 23 May 2006

Cameron Highlands Part 1: The Land of Work Horses

Ahhh finally got some time to blog about our recent trip to Cameron Highlands. For Part 1, I just have to pay homage to Angus' cousins!!! The highlands is filled with Land Rover Defenders in all sorts of shapes and colours with a scattering of some older generations of Range Rovers. These Defenders are used in the highlands to transport workers and goods such as vegetables and flowers grew in the highlands. Many of the farms are located in very steep slopes of 45 degree or lesser. There is no doubt about it that this is the only job for a work horse like Defender.

Darn, we missed Angus so much!!!

My boiboi had a field time counting the number of Landies up there but he tends to lost count since the most he can count on his own is up to 20. He was very very excited... every nook and corner he would bump into one and he will go "Look there is a yellow Defender", "Hey there is another ONE", "Wow look another Defender... you see, it's green colour one!!!" etc... nonstop ok till we got off the highlands. *roll eyes*

BTW, new models of Defender are not sold to civilians here in Malaysia with the exception in the highlands. This model is used mostly by the military and fire brigades in Malaysia. If you ever notice that most of these Defenders have huge label CH on their doors. These Defenders are meant to be used only in the highlands with restricted usage up to Tapah as they are paying cheaper road tax.

We spotted this beauty on our way out of Bala's Chalet. It was drizzling then but we just have to stop and grab some pictures. Even my boiboi couldn't resist and posed next to it. Awwww we missed Angus awfully . I wonder how Angus is doing now. Anyway this Defender is sooo outrageously cool!

def03

I did a search and found that Emma and Lee Perham jazzed up this Defender to travel from Lee’s birthplace in the UK to Emma’s birthplace in OZ. Quoted from their website UK 2 OZ...

UK 2 OZ is a self funded 4X4 overland expedition. Our aim is to travel through 4 continents in 10 months, fundraising for Action Aid. As part of our journey we hope to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the world’s people, culture, and environment, whilst challenging ourselves through new physical and mental experiences.

Check out Emma's and Lee's journal here.

def04 def02

UPDATED 25 May 2006 1.00am

Okie to clarify on Boo_licious comments. Sorry for not being clear enough as I was half asleep when I was typing away last night. The new models of Defender are not sold to civilians openly by Land Rover Malaysia unlike their counter part Discovery and Range Rover. They would not have any Defenders displayed in the showroom. We've asked Land Rover Malaysia before and their reply was it's just too costly due to the exchange rate. If there are civilians who have enough dough they can order them. As in those older Defenders you can see on the road, some Landie fanatics actually sought after the old vehicles that were disposed by the Army or Police forces. Next, they will mod and refurbish them. Most of them transplanted Japanese engine especially Toyota Land Cruiser for cheaper maintenance. These Defenders are then used in their off-road expedition. Check out Land Rover Owners Club of Malaysia on how Landie enthusiasts in search for a Landie, how they laboured over modifying them and of course their exciting expeditions. Landyshah is one ofthe prominent owner. He had put up a website dedicated to this.

(I actually wrote this up yesterday morning but I can't seems to upload grrrrr... blogger ka apa??)

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Here... here...

I'm still here alive and kickin' but I have been running around like a headless chicken urrghhh... hopefully I can update this week especially on my trip to Cameron Highlands. See ya soon!

Oh yeah and also a visit to here too...

HRC

I'll be back!

Monday 15 May 2006

Happy Belated Mother's Day

Better late than never...



BTW Dafthamsta, the flowers above is hydrangea. I took this pic at Cactus Valley, Cameron Highlands.

Thursday 11 May 2006

Wesak Day

Wesak Day aka Vesak Festival celebrates three major events in the life of Lord Buddha: his birth, Enlightenment and passing away (achievement of Nirvana). Lord Buddha was born as Prince Siddharta Gautama on a full moon day in the month of Wesak (in Indian which is month of May in present day calendar) in 623 BC. Siddharta began his search for enlightenment at age 29 and after six years realized the eternal truth, thus becoming the Buddha - which means the Awakened One. This auspicious event took place at dawn in the month of Wesak in 588 BC, which was also a full moon day. Lord Buddha taught the truth for 45 years until his final passing away into Nirvana on a full moon day in 543 BC. Thus, all the three major events in Lord Buddha's life happened on a full moon day in the month of Wesak. As such Buddhists of both the Theravada and Mahayana tradition throughout the world celebrate this thrice-blessed day.

Lord Buddha's Enlightenment is the central event in Buddhism, and Enlightenment is an ideal to which all Buddhists aspire. Wesak Day is therefore the most important festival of the year. This year, Wesak Day falls on 12th May which is tomorrow.
Wesak is celebrated beginning at dawn on the night of the full moon with a candle procession and devotees will gather at temples to meditate on the Eight Precepts, and there is recitation of Lord Buddha's and his disciples' works. Usually at the temple ground, you can see devotees setting doves free, donating meals to the needy, offering incense and joss sticks, and chanting of the sutras in unison by monks in saffron robes where Wesak provides an opportunity for prayer and reflection on Enlightenment.

Every year Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur celebrates Wesak in a grand manner with a float procession with 20 floats and you can see throngs of devotees carrying candles following these floats. The theme for this year’s celebration is "Respect Human Rights, Promote Mutual Understanding". The floats will leave Buddhist Maha Vihara at 7.30pm tomorrow, and traverse the route to Bank Negara and Jalan Raja Laut, then turn at the Sime Darby building to head for Dataran Merdeka and Jalan Travers before returning to Brickfields.

We won’t be joining in as we will be away in Cameron Highlands. We’re going to the Sam Poh Buddhist Temple this time, a very special one to our heart. There will not be any postings for the weekend unless I get wifi connection up there.

Wishing all of you peace and happiness on Wesak Day and always…

Metta to all!


A 5 MINUTE INTRODUCTION TO BUDDHISM
UNDERSTANDING BUDDHISM
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VESAK - BUDDHA DAY
CELEBRATION OF WESAK


Whoopsss by the way, today is Teacher's Day. If you're a teacher, Happy Teacher's Day to you.

Tuesday 9 May 2006

Playing Tourist - KL Tower

Haven't found anytime to go thru my pics until now, took these pics in February!!! We played tourist on one rainy late afternoon. My boiboi is always fascinated by the height, lightings and just about to be able to view KL Tower from most part of Kuala Lumpur as it is perked at 515m above sea level, hence we decided to take him up the tower. He just got up from his afternoon nap and was immediately perked up when we told him that we're bringing him to KL Tower.


Menara Kuala Lumpur is one of the tallest concrete towers in the world,standing at 421m and built with 45,000 cubic metres of sturdy concrete. Designed with vertical ribs on the external surface, the Tower weighs 100,000 tonnes and was built on no-piling, freestanding land. Menara Kuala Lumpur opulently stands as the tallest tower in Southeast Asia.

The four tallest towers in the world are CN Tower in Canada at 553m, Ostankino Tower in Russia at 537m, Shanghai Tower in China at 468m followed by Menara Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia at 421m.


Woohoooo I've been to the tallest and fourth tallest towers in the world :p CN Tower is way way cool as one of ther deck is an outdoor deck!!! Yeah the wind is strong but of course it's all wired around so you cannot jump off the tower hahaha. CN Tower also have a "glass floor". Scary ok to even stand on the edge of this see thru floor.

I can't remember how much we've paid for the entry to KL Tower since I did not paid for it but it's pretty cool now as they have Observation Deck . The last time I visited was kinda like around their pre-opening hahaha yeah that long but I've visited a few of times after that but mainly to dine at Seri Angkasa, a revolving restaurant (check out the prices!!!! The food there is nothing to shout about but the view was fantastic).

I took these pics from the Observation Deck. I did not have the tools to edit my pics except for cropping and resizing. Look at the pictureque view of Kuala Lumpur in 360 degree. Also check out how great is the Sony F505 zooming capability... it's 10x. Well its not as canggih as the newest model but hey this digicam is 7 years old already! It's the grand old daddy of all your digicams. How sad Boo_licious lost this same digicam model to a snatch thief recently!!! Oh yeah some photos are blurry cos it started to rain whilst we were up there. I've added some notes in Flickr.

This one is right smack in the city centre.

fm kl tower 01

Almost the same view but taken during a shower.

fm kl tower 09

This is zoomed-in Menara Olympia.

fm kl tower 09 - 10x zoom m olympia

St John's Institution Convent Bukit Nanas (thanks to wyejon for pointing this out). Anyone studied here before?

fm kl tower 12 - 10x st john

The flagpole at Dataran Merdeka.

fm kl tower 11 - 10x zoom dataran merdeka flagpole

Woohoo can even zoomed into Parliament.

fm kl tower 10 - 10x zoom parlimen

View towards Stadium Merdeka & Stadium Negara side.

fm kl tower 02

Zoomed into Stadium Merdeka & Stadium Negara.

fm kl tower 08 - 10x zoom stadium

Towards Renaissance Hotel & Concorde Hotel.

fm kl tower 03

Shangri-la & The Weld side. Did you spot Luna Bar??

fm kl tower 07

View towards err what's the area name... suddenly forgot... along Jalan Tun Razak.

fm kl tower 04

Took this view with normal setting...

fm kl tower 05 - natural

... same view using magenta filter setting, and...

fm kl tower 05 - magenta fliter

... red filter setting.

fm kl tower 05 - red filter

Just look at the horizon...it's towards Ulu Klang and Ampang/Cheras side.

fm kl tower 06 - red filter

Zoomed into Concorde Hotel and further zoomed into Hard Rock Cafe logo on it's rooftop! This logo inspired us for a visit there. Watch out for my next post!

fm kl tower 13 - 10x concorde hotel

Did you know it's fun to play tourist in Kuala Lumpur once in a while? Try it one day.

Thursday 4 May 2006

Review: Tuck Kee Dim Sum

**NON-HALAL POST**


We were back at my parents and only went back close to midnite. Hubby had this sudden cravings for yue mai (also known as fishball in dim sum term), not any other yue mai but those from Tuck Kee at Taman Bukit Maluri in Kepong. You must be wondering why huh???

There was once my brother brought some back for him and ever since that encounter, he had fallen in love with Tuck Kee's yue mai. I'm not a big fan of this but I've tried one and I totally understood how he felt and why he craves for more. Their yue mai is rather huge, about the size of ping pong ball. It's very springy and has no fishy taste which explained that they've used very fresh fish paste. As if that's not all, inside the paste, there are scattering of red chillies and spring onions that impart a very fragrant aroma to the yue mai. They're first deep fried before placing into the bamboo steamer to be steamed. Try once and you'll understand what's the hype is all about the fishballs!!!

tk yue mai tk yue mai01 tk yue mai02

Tuck Kee have all sorts of variety of dim sums and we've ordered a few that night. The siew mai (a type of pork meat mixed with shrimp meat dumpling wrapped in wantan skin) was kinda skinny to me but taste wise not too bad actually. They squeezed in the ebikko on top just before serving.

tk siew mai

Next came the har kaw (shrimp dumpling)... wooo this one is very nice. The texture and thickness of the skin are just right and I have to give full marks for the freshness of the shrimp inside. So crunchy and tasty.

tk har kau

This is another type of dumplings similar to har kaw but I can't remember the name.

tk har kaw

Since I loved brinjal, hubby ordered one plate of stuffed brinjal (aubergine stuffed with fish paste and lightly pan fried. Somebean paste sauce is poured over it when served.). Nothing spectacular here since my mom can make better ones heh :p

tk stuffed brinjal

Hubby had a loh mai kai (steamed glutinous rice). I took a couple of bites and I find it ok. This is the wettish type but the glutinous rice texture was not overly soft, still maintain the chewiness.

tk loh mai kai

On another occasion, we had the char kueh (also known as char kueh kak which is stir fried raddish cake) which is so so only as I find it slightly on the oily side.

tk fried radish cake

We also had woo kwok (deep fried yam dumplings) where there is simply too much yam dough wrapping teensy bit of meat.

tk woo kok

The price per dim sum serving for the normal varieties are RM2.80 and the loh mai kai is RM3.80. Pretty reasonable but the best part is you can have dim sum here for breakie, lunch and supper too!!! They're open till 3am if I'm not mistaken. Great place to head on to especially when you have a hungry adult hankering for some fishballs!!! DUH... BTW, I was there for dinner over the weekend and it seems the dim sum price has been increased in May! I'm not sure how much is it now. Our dinner that evening was really delicious and pretty reasonable but I won't be blogging about it since I was too busy taking care of boiboi's meal and of course extremely busy polishing down the enormous amount of dishes my mom ordered.

On how to get there... either from Kepong or LDP, turn into Taman Bukit Maluri. There's a mosque on your right. Take the second left turn and drive down the slope. Tuck Kee Dim Sum is just on your left. You can opt to sit inside the airconditioned shoplot or up front along the hawker row.

tuck kee

Notes: Our jaw dropped when the next table ordered a dai bao (large steamed bun), wah liau so HUGE... they cut into many portion which can easily feed 6 - people!!! I also see loads of patrons ordering their fish head too. Must try next time.

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Blog Revamping

Hello... I'm in the midst of revamping my blog to make my life a little easier. So do not be alarmed as work is still under construction.

Cheers,
Babe_KL
16 Oct 2012