22nd May 2008

It's the 22nd of May again. How time flies...

As of this day, Chin Aun and I have been together for 6 years... It seems like just yesterday when we were fresh out of school and starting college life. But look at us now... already in our mid 20's...

To commemorate the event, Chin Aun took me to The Ship in Uptown for the "Best Steak In Town". And granted; it was :)

Clam Chowder and Crab Salad

The Clam Chowder is awesome!! It's the first time I've ever had Clam Chowder with a red base soup. The soup and the salad is so fresh that I would have been contented to just order another serving of that and go without the main course

Grilled Sirlion Steak

Sizzling Chicken

Chocolate Temptation
This ice-cream dish even comes with a personalized chocolate stick that has The Ship's emblem on it! Isn't that cool?? :)

Chin Aun with a Bib

He has to wear one because he ordered the sizzling chicken and the gravy would go splitter-splatter all over his shirt

The food excellent and the service is even better than that. It's nice to go classic and visit a restaurant as established as The Ship rather than going to the usual fast food / fusion joints that we often frequent nowadays...

And I even got a free gift from the restaurant :

A cutey bear :)

Chin Aun's 26th Birthday

He's getting old *chuckles*

I know that I should start with the customary "Happy Birthday ... la... la... la" But that seriously was the first thought that popped into my head when I was typing the title to this post. Which makes me dwell on the fact that I am not getting any younger either.. *bang head on wall*

That thought just successfully prevented me from digressing further..

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEEBS!**

*sprinkle confetti*

(I actually don't know why I bother since he doesn't frequent my blog much...)

We went to have the renowned Haagen-Dazs Fondue at the Haagen-Dazs outlet in 1-Utama for a small celebration...

My my... check out the spread *grin* the ice-cream's the best part. Chin Aun wanted to ask if he could trade in the rest of the spread for more ice-cream :) Just so you know, we could have up to 4 flavours - Macadamia, Chocolate, Strawberry and Coffee. I'm not normally a huge fan of strawberry ice-cream but I gotta hand it to this one :D it's fabulous!

That's me clenching my hands into fists thinking "C'mon, hurry up with the pics!!!"

A delicious masterpiece :) Chocolate ice-cream dipped in rich hot chocolate and rolled in little bits of nuts. No guessing who's hands these are, looking at the signature dolphin ring on the index finger.

Since it's his birthday, I have to cook dinner instead *groan* Before you guys come to any conclusion that would even remotely equate me to having any culinary skills, I would like to first clarify that dinner would consist of instant noodles and egg :)

Attack of the Calves!

This is what happens when Chin Aun goes to New Zealand without me! :p

My Birthday! :)

I know that those who know me are probably going "Whaa??? Your birthday!?!??! WTH are you talking about?? You're birthday's in June!"... whoopsie! hahaha... I've actually drafted this post much earlier but I haven't had the time to upload the photos until now.

Today's actual date is 14th Sept while I drafted this post (as you can see on the post date) on the 17th July. Ah well, dates are just numbers anyhoo...

Anyways, this year for my birthday, my parents didn't come down and celebrate with me. Hmmph! But Chin Aun took me to a new place for a celebratory dinner (I can understand why kids and teenagers CELEBRATE their birthdays, I mean, after all, they can't wait to grow up :p But the thing is, why do people like me -- ergo. OLD people -- celebrate birthdays?! Why are we celebrating the probability of a new wrinkle being discovered!? Hmmm... excuse my digression but you gotta admit it's something worth thinking about!)

Back to the topic at hand... Chin Aun and I 'commiserated' that grand annual event of my birthday at this place called "The Courtyard Garden" in Damansara Heights.

It's a bungalow refurbished with Balinese decor and filled with lush greenery amidst an otherwise bustling section of Selangor. Upon entering the restaurant, I felt as though we were automatically cut off from the hustle and bustle of the busy city outside.

(hey, what's that little brown mobile bag doing on the table beside the cutlery?? Opps! haha.. just so you know, that doesn't come with the decor of this place, it's more of a personalizes thing!)

And now... to my favourite part of the evening and of this post:

Finger food for the evening with sour cream 'n' onion dip

Wild Mushroom soup with croutons

Caesar salad with smoked salmon *yum*

Refreshments! :)

My main course of chargrilled beef

Chin Aun's main course of mixed grill

And of course, since it's my birthday... there'll always be this :)

Happy Birthday to me!! :)

And my birthday wish is lots of love and luck for myself and all those dear to me. I also wished for the disappearance of any wrinkles that may be part and parcel of this happy day :D

Just so you know, Chin Aun found out about this place when his company held a farewell party for one of the company's directors and he really loved it. As do I :) For those who are interested, this is a link to their website: http://courtyard-garden.com/home/

22nd May 2007

22nd May... Hmmm... Do you know that on this day, Chin Aun and I have officially been together for 5 years?? 5 long years ya... How time flies... It seemed like just yesterday when he was still studying in Kelantan and I was still studying in Penang. And now we are both here, stuck in the misfortunate city of Petaling Jaya, miles away from home...

To celebrate our 5th year together, we left work early and went for a nice dinner at Planet Hollywood on Bintang Walk... Though I've been here for 3 years, I have never been inside Planet Hollywood. Sure, we've always said that one day we'll go check it out, but we never had the time or the chance and now opportunity has presented itself :)

Started off just like any other day... gruelling day at the office for him and for myself... Then these came for me :)

Chocolate Flowers!

A photo of me and the bouquet taken using Chin Aun's phone...

We both got off work on the dot and I drove over to his office to pick him up. Then he drove us to Bintang Walk. Surprisingly, there wasn't any traffic jam! :) A good sign??

In the throes of my menu-madness

Planet Hollywood's Signature Starter

(the mozzarella was soooooooooo good!!!! as were the quesadilla!)

Signature Ceaser Salad
(awesome!!! the only other nice one I ever tasted was from MFM)

By the time we were done with these two appetizers, we were almost too full to eat anything else! And we both had an order of main course on the way.... each!!!

Chin Aun's Tequila Chicken

(When we were served this, Chin Aun asked to pack half of the chicken home --- so you can imagine, this is only half portion of the serving!)

My choice of main course --- sizzling beef fajita *yum*

Like him, I was too full to eat so I had to ask them to pack it up nicely for me to take home together with the Tequila Chicken after taking only 1 wrap)

We packed so much to go, that we had enough food to last us until the next day's dinner! hee hee... Ultimately, the food there wasn't bad, it wasn't bad at all! However, the service was barely mediocre. The guy who waited on us was pretty attentive, but the hostess was distant and disinterested and the girl tending the souvenir section was ill-mannered and asking for a good-hard slap.

My conclusion --- go to Planet Hollywood KL if you don't give 2-cents about customer service. If customer service is what you thrive in, this is the place you have to skip. Remember y'al, There's nothing like bad customer service to spoil a special occassion!

All that aside, I was in a great mood and nothing (not even lousy service) could spoil it :)

After 5 long years...

Jack's Place

Chin Aun took me to Jack's Place in 1-Utama for a celebratory dinner on Saturday (actually, it was a couple of saturdays ago but I have been putting off my blog on this - mainly cos I'm a bum...). We've been wanting to try it out for quite some time already but we have been putting it off due to lack of monetary resources (?) hehehe...

No blog post is complete without a shop-front shot of the place:

Jack's Place in 1-Utama
(on the same row as La Senza, etc)

This is what we had off the menu:

Appetizer - Shrimp and Mango Salad *yum*
the serving is small; not to mention a little bit pricey too.. but it was so so shrimpalicious!


Soup - Lobster Bisque served with 2 slices of garlic bread
*drools* this tiny bowl of soup cost almost RM10 and it was delicious right up to the last drop

Chin Aun's main course - Mixed Grill
a nice mix of beef, lamb, chicken, sausage and ham... not to mention the yummy stuffed potato and vege :)

My main course - Jack's Special Steak
Ah.. beef, beef and more beef. Served with shitake mushrooms, asparagus, various types of vege and a stuffed potato! (i like the stuffed potato with its sour cream and chicken bits)

Our Dessert - Banana Split! Yummy!!
Ice cream is still just Ice Cream and nothing beats Bulla's Crumb Honeycomb but this one is nice too. I would have liked it better without the whipped cream, but of course, that's just me ;)

Anyways, here's what boring old me thinks of it (on a scale of 1 to 10):

Food Portion - 7 (the main course is pretty alright, just the soup and the appetizer)
Food Quality - 8
Variety - 6 (personally, I think there should be more variety, say, various types of gravy for the steak, etc)
Service - 7 (the service is fine... much better than the service at Chilis and Italiannies! but there wasn't a permanent usher at the entrance)
Environment - 6 (the place is a rather small, but other than that, I like the interior and the ambience just fine)
Value for Money - 6 (they have promos and all, so it's much better than some other dining outlets)

So, all in all, I'd definitely go back there in the future when my purse is more accomodating ;)

My Birthday!

.... and I am another year older *gasp* but am I wiser????? hahahaha... I'd like to think so... It's not actually my birthday, my birthday was actually on Monday (over a week ago) which was the 26th of June but I only have the time to blog about it now... (uploading those pictures took forever!! )

-*Lunch at Italiannies*-

It all started last Sunday (the 25th) when Chin Aun took me out for a great lunch at Italiannies. We went to the one in 1-Utama. I have been dying to go there for goodness-knows how long and I'm glad I finally got the chance to go. The food was great!! (can't say the same about the service though! There was this female in a green ensemble-she stands at the entrance- who looked as though us patrons did something bad to her once and she was with a vengeance! bleargh..) Here are the photos:

This is the entrace :o) (note: the female in green by the entrance *shudder*)

No proper Italian restaurant is complete without checkered table cloth and Olive oil and Vinegar on the table! :)

The interior of the 1-Utama Italiannies

Our food (clockwise from top left): formaggio, stuffed mushrooms and lasagna :D *drools*

and this is my strawberry-banana smoothie :)

On the day of my birthday itself, I had to go to work. Isn't that sad???? But Chin Aun took the day off and accompanied me during my lunch period. Took me to this new eating place in SS2 called "The Prince". The food there is somewhat like the type of food served in Kim Gary and Wong Kok. Customer service-wise, it is a little bit better than Wong Kok and Kim Gary but I don't know how long that would last. I figured if they were serving Hong Kong style food, they might as well vet out Hong Kong style manners right? :p But the Kim Gary in Penang has good service though! Didn't manage to take any photos then due to the time constraint..

-*Dinner at Marco's Pizza*-

Anyways, after I got off work, Chin Aun and I went to Marco's Pizza with his bro, Ah Keong, for dinner :) The food there is not bad... on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best), I'd give it a 5? The environment there was pretty alright, the service was alright too. But I can't say the same for the price and the food quality. Some photos:

Clockwise from top left: Seafood platter with cheese dips, Spaghetti Carbonara and Marco's Specialty Pizza (with Turkey strips)

That's Chin Aun posing with a cuppa! hee hee...
(nice interior though eh?)

My verdict? on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best)

Italiannies:
Food Portion - 8
Food Quality - 9
Variety - 5
Service - 4
Environment - 6
Value for Money - 7
--> Best place to go when serving a large party :)

Marco's:
Food Portion - 6
Food Quality - 5
Variety - 5
Service - 8
Environment - 5
Value for Money - 3
--> I don't think I'd be going back there anytime in the near future...

Ah... sounds like I had a good dose of Italian food for my 2006 birthday eh? Ah.. a few days after my bday, my sister and Daniel took me to Marche at The Curve for dinner *ahems* More good food!!! hahahahaa...

-*Dinner at Marche Movenpick*-

Clockwise from top left: My fusili with vege and salmon, My sister's Lamb Shank, Chin Aun's Grilled Chicken Breast with rice

And this is my bday cake courtesy of the nice people at Marche :)
These nice people sang me a birthday song too.. hehehe..

My review on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best)

Marche:
Food Portion - 7
Food Quality - 8
Variety - 8
Service - 8
Environment - 6
Value for Money - 6
--> Best place to go when there's a need for a variety of different food :)

******************************************************************************
Enough about food... anyone wanna see my pressies??? hehehe

First off, this is from Chin Aun.. a white gold plated necklace with a butterfly pendant! :) Love butterflies *muuuuuuaaaaaaks* and love you even more ;)

This is from Kareen :) So sweet of her!! *hugs* drove all the way from Klang just to meet up and give me this... haiih..

This is from Ah Keong! hehe.. So thoughtful ya??

And this is from my boss! Haha.. So nice of her!! I was so touched when she ordered this and had it sent to the office. Gave me a nice surprise :)

And this is my birthday cake :) Courtesy of Chin Aun, naturally *grins* It's chocolate mousse!! and very very yummy ;)

This is my birthday pressie from Sue *hugs* She bought all the stuff that I told her I liked in the span of over a few months! She actually remembered!! hehe.. There are Lay's Potato Chips, Red Syrup (when we went for Banana Leaf Rice and I told her I liked Red Syrup), A&W Root Beer (long long ago when I was hungry and told her I'm going to A&W for a cuppa root beer) and McD Nuggets (which I always order.. hehe but it's not in the pic cos I already ate it!) And the pic on the right is of the Walnut Pie that she got for me *yummy* nicest pie I ever tasted!! Love u so much Sue.. Thanks again!!

And this yummy home made dinner is courtesy of Sue and Yen *grins* (I helped to cut the long beans!) Yen brought the goodies - sotong, fish, etc; from her hometown in Pulau Ketam.

Revision to the original post:

This is a magnet :D I like magnets! So cute leh?
I forgot to add this photo of another pressie which I received from Victor (mainly because he gave it to me a couple of days before my b'day and it was already unwrapped and sitting on my white board)
Anyways... this is a gift from Vic, my "heng dai" :) thanks so much ya? ;))

So... that's about it for my birthday this year :) if my parents were here then it'd be even more perfect!! *grins* So, I'll just end this post with a shoutout to all my buddies with birthdays in June..

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY (albeit Belated) to... (in the order of their birthdates!)

~**CHIN HAU**~
(sorry I forgot ur bday earlier, dude... I remember when it is, I was just too steam.. really sorry ya!)
&

~**MELISSA**~

(we go makan when I come back ya??)
&
~**SOOYING**~
&
~**JAMES**~

&

~**YEE LENG**~
(this horrible person who is sooooooooo busy now..)