A couple of weeks ago, I attended a friend’s daughter’s wedding dinner at a five star hotel here.  A Chinese wedding dinner in Malaysia is usually an eight or nine course dinner, such as this…..

I forgot to take a picture of one of the dishes which consisted of vegetables.   

The younger generation nowadays prefer to serve red wine instead of brandy or whiskey at their wedding dinner.   Personally, I prefer the taste of red wine.   And as I look at the happy young newly-weds,  I can’t help but be reminded that age is catching up on me …. real fast!

Our friends Richard and Woon discovered a new eating haunt in Desa Aman Puri and we decided to join them for lunch at this 168 restaurant.  They serve only pan mee either individually like this.

Or in a claypot for two persons.  There are more ingredients inside the claypot pan mee.  The cost is also higher. 

The pan mee is nice, isn’t salty and probably doesn’t have much MSG in it.  This place is crowded during weekends and today we had to wait for our table.

The owner of this restaurant who is also the chef is a lady and near the cash register you can see a glamour photo of her hanging on the wall. 

I was at 1 Utama today to celebrate a friend’s 51st birthday.   The place was not very crowded and it was nice and relaxing to walk around looking at all the Chinese New Year decoarations.  The movie theatre was full of young people, though. 

We went to Chili’s restaurant to have lunch. 

We had the fruit juices which was refillable.  Not bad.

And we ordered the following dishes which was nice although we felt sleepy after eating all of it.  This beef dish comes with the bread and chopped vegetables.

The food was nice and the service was excellent.  I like the way the waiters and waitresses came up to check on us to make sure that we had our drinks filled up and that we were enjoying our meal.

Merry Christmas to you.  Time really flies, it feels like only yesterday when I celebrated last Christmas.  I didn’t do much shopping this year because I was too busy with work.  My family and I went out for Christmas eve dinner and it was good because we didn’t have to do the dishes nor do any cooking.  But we missed the turkey.  The price of turkey is cheaper this year, I suppose this year somebody didn’t make big bucks at our expense.

We ate too much, as usual….

When we arrived at the restaurant at about 7 p.m. we heard some people singing karaoke in a room.  At the dining area, we were the only diners!  No kidding and it must be the sign of the times.  Even after we paid the bill and left, there were still no other diners walking in.   Also, this afternoon when I went for lunch, the “har mee” cost me RM3.50.  I think the price has gone down because it used to be RM3.80 or RM4.00.   I hope that soon the price of food will go down.

I met up with my two old classmates from secondary school for dinner at the Padi Prada restaurant in Kota Kemuning.  The restaurant serves Penang food.  It’s a nice, cosy restaurant but not busy, probably because it was a working day.  We had this drink made from a local fruit and it tastes quite sour.

We ordered the assam fish which cost us RM21.00.

The “Jiu Hoo Char” dish costs RM10.00.  We ate this dish by wrapping the fried turnips and squid with the green vegetables.

This Lobak costs RM7.00.

The Otak-otak costs RM7.00.

We were given complimentary green bean soup for dessert.

The total bill came to RM64.25 for three persons, including rice and taxes.  The food was delicious and we finished everything on the table.

Last month, I joined the senior citizens in my church for lunch (er, I’m not a senior citizen yet, ok?) at a Chinese restaurant at Desa Aman Puri.  The food tasted so-so but who’s to complain considering the price we paid for the food.  Some of the dishes are shown below.

I can’t remember the name of the restaurant nor the price I paid for the lunch (honestly, I’m not a senior citizen).

This is my favourite dessert, “Air Batu Kacang” or ABC.  It’s made of iced shavings with jellies, sweet corn, peanuts, beans and “cendol” in it.  All that is topped with coconut milk/evaporated milk, syrup and brown sugar.  Sometimes, ice cream is also added.

It’s been ages sincce I last ate at the KFC restaurant.   When I was in college, I used to love Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I usually patronise the restaurant at Sg Wang Plaza because somehow the chicken is crispier and tastier in that particular restaurant.  After a while, I got tired of eating Kentucky Fried Chicken, also because the price kept going up and the chicken got skinnier. 

So I was shopping at Tesco Selayang with Ah Loot the other day and since we were hungry we decided to have a snack and ended up at the KFC restaurant.  There wasn’t much choice.  The chicken still tastes the same like how I remember it to be but look at the size of the chicken, it has really shrunk. And guess what?  There’s only chilly sauce here, no tomato sauce at all.

I was at 1 Utama over the weekend with Ching and we had lunch at this Just Thai restaurant. 

We ordered the Just Thai Appetizer Combo – RM16.00.

The dish on the left is March Mango Salad – RM9.00 and on the right is the Beancurd with chicken mushroom – RM10.00.

This Green Curry Chicken costs RM15.00.

We had the above dishes with rice and the total bill came up to RM69.15 (for two persons including drinks) and after 10% discount when charged to CIMB credit card.

The food was delicious and fresh.  The place looks clean, lighting was pleasant and service was excellent. 

Last weekend, we went to see the movie, “Mama Mia!” at 1 Utama.  I enjoyed the movie very much because when I was growing up, ABBA was one of my favourite singing groups.  In fact, as the songs were sung in the movie, I was also singing the songs in my head.  I had a good laugh at some parts of the movie.  The Greek island where the movie was filmed looked like a nice romantic getaway.  Overall, it was very entertaining, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a really good movie.   Actually, I can’t remember when I last stepped into a movie theatre, it was probably five years ago.

Mel purchased the tickets online at the Golden Screen Cinemas Online here.  She chose the seats on the last row.  She said if we get seats with another row of seats behind, we may get children sitting behind who have very itchy legs and can’t stop kicking our seats at the back.  The last row seats were excellent, the screen was large enough for everyone to enjoy the movie and there were no heads blocking our view and best of all, no disturbance from people at the back.

Since we booked the 9.20 p.m. show, we went to have dinner first.  The popular restaurants were full of people so we had no choice but to go to the Restoran Sri Melaka which was almost empty.  I think it survives on the spill over from the restaurants next door.   The nyonya food it serves doesn’t taste like the Malacca food that we’re accustomed to.  But I must say that the restaurant is very clean and service was good.   The price of the food is also expensive.  We spent about RM115.00 for the dishes below and some drinks (for five persons).

The Pandan Chicken was a let down, I wouldn’t recommend it to you.

The Curve was full of shoppers on the first day of Hari Raya especially at all the restaurants.  Ah Loot and I had a tough time deciding where to eat as most places were crowded.  Finally, we decided on the Vietnamese restaurant Pho Hoa because it was less crowded.

Ah Loot had the rice with chicken…

While I ordered the usual beef noodle ..

The spring roll was delicious.

We didn’t try the Vietnamese coffee because the last time we tasted it here, it wasn’t as nice as we expected.

Sorry about the poor quality of pictures because they were taken with my mobile phone.  I didn’t know I could adjust the size of the pictures until after they were taken.

We had dinner at Steamboat restaurant at Desa ParkCity last week.  The place is quiet at night and the houses in this residential area are really nice and modern looking.  The shopping centre here is called The Waterfront. 

The Steamboat restaurant is on the ground floor near the entrance of the shopping centre.

The steamboat is served individually i.e each of us have our own pot of boiling soup (either clear or tomyam soup) to dip the food into.  The prices here are quite expensive especially if you have the side orders.  Otherwise, the food is fresh and delicious.  Below is the basic dish for the steamboat. 

This one comes with extra beef.

This one comes with extra chicken meat.

This comes with extra fish.

While we were at Chinatown, we had dinner at Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant.  Since it was the fasting month, there were only a few of us in the restaurant.  However, the place was noisy because the waitresses were talking at the top of their voices as if there wasn’t anybody at the restaurant.  It was totally annoying as they were chatting and laughing and making a din in a restaurant where customers come in to enjoy a nice and quiet meal.  When we were ready to take our order, one waitress came by and halfway through taking the order, she stopped us and called another guy to come and take over from her.  Later we discovered that she had done that to answer her mobile phone (????).  Can you imagine that? 

The muffins tasted great as usual.

All of us ordered the quarter chicken with different side orders.  Paul Kiah’s was the spicy one with rice (real China pek).

Paul Kiah wanted a taste of some steamboat so we went to Bandar Manjalara. However, we couldn’t find the usual restaurant although I went around two times.  In the end, we decided to just drop into this Ho Ho steamboat restaurant.  They don’t have tomyam soup so Paul Kiah was disappointed.  Anyway, the clear soup was not too bad.

All the food goes into this hot boiling soup before eating.

When my family and I were in Kuantan, we tried out the seafood at Pak Su Seafood restaurant.  It was about 5 minutes drive away from the Swiss Garden hotel.  It was a Friday night and the restaurant was full of people.

We wanted to sit outside the restaurant facing the sea but all the unoccupied tables were reserved.

We ordered our food and it took more than half an hour before the food came.  By then, we were dead hungry.  Paul Kiah had his beer.

We had the following dishes.  The total bill came up to RM164.50 for five persons which we thought was reasonable.  We were afraid at first that they might charge a higher price as we were not locals. 

The food was delicious and I would recommend this place to anyone visiting Kuantan.

Since the Turtle Sanctuary at Cherating was closed when we went there, we decided to go to the “most happening place in Kuantan”, i.e the East Coast Mall.  The place is huge and cheery looking and had more or less the same outlets as those at Mid-Valley Megamall or 1 Utama.  We went looking for the food court only to find that it wasn’t opened yet.  Apparently, the mall is newly opened and not all the outlets are in operation although they are listed in the directory.  So, we went to the Food & Tea HK restaurant. 

The place was nice and clean.

The red bean soup was good.

Chocolate milkshake was good.

Ah Loot and I shared the Hokkien fried noodles which was delicious.

We also shared the buttered garlic rice which was not so nice.  I didn’t like the tomato sauce that came with the rice.

Mom had the century egg porridge.

Peta had a burger.

Paul Kiah ordered a beef steak but he got chicken steak instead. 

After he told the waiter that they had made a mistake, they took it back to change but without any apology.  They must have heard us complaining, as someone came later to apologise for the mistake.   Anyway, we had this mango dessert which was refreshing.

We spent hours at this shopping mall, Paul Kiah and Peta bought several things.  We also managed to catch a singing competition held in conjunction with Merdeka Day.

We had dinner at Cemara Asri seafood restaurant in Medan.  The restaurant occupies about half a dozen shoplots.  Tables are laid outside the restaurant as diners prefer to eat under the stars.  Perhaps because it’s cooler outside than inside the restaurant.   Below are some of the numerous waitresses and waiters.

The special menu for the evening.

Before the food was served, we ate the crackers, it’s not fish or potato crackers, not sure what it was.  We also had a cold glass of coconut water, very refreshing.

We had the vegetables.

This fish looked so delicous that before I could take the picture, someone tore off a part of it to eat.

 I have never eaten so much fish in one sitting before.  But they were all very delicious.  If I have the chance, I will come back here again. 

We had the local fruits for dessert.  The papaya tastes a bit different.

These two cats look well-fed don’t they?  I bet they had some fish to eat too.

Somewhere at Brastagi, we had lunch at this restaurant called Bundo Kandung.  Food was delicious.  The waiters will pile up all the dishes on your table and you pick whichever dish that you fancy.  As long as you don’t touch any dish, it will not be charged to your account.

So much food, but we only picked about 5 different dishes to eat.

Ah Loot and her friends went for dinner at Peony Garden nyonya restaurant at Dataran Sunway.  This restaurant is newly opened, about four months old.  Earlier in the day, Ah Loot’s friend had called the restaurant to make a reservation and also to order the duck soup which they confirmed was available.  However, when they reached the restaurant, there was no duck soup.  They denied receiving any phone call earlier regarding the duck soup.  So, then hoh, Ah Loot kicked up a storm, say, how come liddat one.  At first say got, now say no.   But there was no apology forthcoming from the restaurant owner and since they were already there, they decided to stay on and order the food.  After all that drama, Ah Loot said that the food was nice and the price was reasonable.  She didn’t take note of the names of the dishes but those of you who are familiar with nyonya food would be able to identify them.  Yummy, yummy!

My mother turned 79 on Sunday, 20 July.  We took her out for dinner at the Sixth Happiness restaurant on Saturday night to celebrate the occasion.  There was a wedding dinner going on at that time, but fortunately, the restaurant has a couple of rooms opened for drop-in customers like us.  The restaurant has been refurbished and looks very nice and clean.

We ordered the individual set menu which costs RM26.80 net per head.  Normally, they have a set menu for a table of 10 people but now that they have this individual set, it suits us fine as there are 6 of us.   The food was delicious and the set consists of these dishes:

Add this vinegar to the shark’s fin soup for added flavour. 

We wanted to change the fried rice dish to longevity noodles as this is usually eaten for birthdays but it wasn’t allowed, so we ordered the noodles separately.

The above set meal comes with complimentary fruit juice or beer.  All of us opted for the fruit juice.  Ang Gu’s watermelon juice was yellow, orangy colour but it tasted like watermelon alright.

We were too stuffed after the meal to have the birthday cake, so we took it home instead. 

Max was as usual excited with all the happenings and he started jumping all over the place and we had to shout at him to get lost or push him aside.  In the end, he got sent to the corner and told to behave himself or get booted out of the house.  He looks very dejected here.

Ah Loot’s friend took her to an organic shop at Jinjang North in Kuala Lumpur for lunch.  The shop sells organic food and serve cooked food as well.  The food looks delicious. 

The next picture is a takeaway.  I tried brown rice once and I think it tastes terrible.  I guess need to get accustomed to the taste.

Ah Loot’s friends took her all the way to Ijok to savour the food at this restaurant….

After the above dinner, they went to Jinjang to have bah kut teh!

We had dim sum at Desa Amanpuri on Sunday.  The food tasted okay, nothing fantastic.

A young boy came around to sell some pastries and I bought this kaya bun. 

I had lunch at the Sun & Surf Cafe with my colleagues yesterday and as usual I ate more than I should.  It’s about time I stop going for buffet meals!  After  a while, all the food taste about the same, wherever they are served.

There was so much food but I finally settled for the shashimi and the oysters. 

Then I tried this Moroccan soup, Harira, which tastes like a mixture of lentils and lamb.

This plate is a mixture of different food.  Notice I didn’t have any rice (well except for those in the California roll)?  I am trying to eat less rice these days… what with the rising cost and all.

For dessert, I had some fruits, cake and ice-cream.  Someone once told me that I should eat my fruits before meals and not after.  I must remember to do that the next time.

We celebrated my sister-in-law’s birthday at Dao Rae Korean restaurant on Friday night.  This is our second time at this restaurant and as usual we were greeted with “An nyoung ha seh yo” (hello) by the waiters and the owner. 

This soup was complimentary.  It had chilly padi in it and very spicy.

This dish belongs to another table but it was being cooked behind me.

We ordered the usual soups and barbecued meats. 

This steamed egg takes like the one my mom cooks.

The dish below is very colourful, and it contains rice cake and vegetables.  We had pancake also.

After dinner, we were served watermelons and ginger rice tea (below).

MeL bought the birthday cake from Polar Puffs & Cakes at the Pavilion KL.  The cake tasted yummy.

Chester had to make do with his own dog biscuits.