gone out of town for an indefinite period of time, will be back with updates

I would like to beg for forgiveness of the readers in this delayed posting of the Stadt review. Apparently while my G900 Sony Ericsson phone allowed me to blog while i was there, my glee was awfully short lived because the internet access died and my phone's camera function with it.
This angered me slightly, however, just like the span of my happiness, the span of my fury was equally short lived, as the food arrived soon after the internet access died.
And to say it arrived is an awful understatement, as the food MADE its own announcement upon arrival. The impeccable aroma of Honey Glazed Pork Knuckle, still makes my mouth water until now.
Before and after, Honey Glazed pork knuckle :P
Its succulent and juicy flesh, mixes well with the honey glazed skin, and the accompanying bacon strips serve to further illuminate the flavor of the pork. A very well done dish, and i was really impressed by the star of the STADT menu :)

So in my quest to find better places to dine for melc's sake, I found myself blogging live from Stadt, a German restaurant i was recommended to try. Oh er... excuse me the food's arrived. brb

Gah what happens when you get a stream of sleepless nights? Really, i don't know.
So if any readers out there have ideas on how to cure sleepless nights, please do recommend me some :)
Anyway due to me being unable to sleep properly, I've decided to blog about the latest food joint that i've visited :)

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So i had me a wonderfully eventful life up till now...
and i expect it to be as industrious and eventful as ever for a long time to come :)

Feeling awkward about the entirety of it, I spent a few hours thinking what to do for the people that make my life so special that i would celebrate it...
So, i decided to try out something. Something i know i'd love to eat :P
I took out the recipe for the baked potatoes, thinking that i'd mash the insides to make potato mash and fry some fish for a Fish & Mash.

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So the adventure continues in Pt. 2 :)

After the awesome dinner i had the previous evening, my outspoken friend brought me out again the day after to meet up with her friends :)
I must say that they are an interesting bunch of really jolly people and that their company was delightful and was an experience to treasure :)
Unfortunately, my poor memory has served to beget me once again by having me forget the name of the restaurant. I will henceforth find a way to get the name correct.
This was what i had for dinner that day.

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Few days after having my site layout changed, I had an interesting evening with a very close friend.
And as such, we decided to have an equally interesting meal :)
We headed down to the nearest shopping mall at that moment(IOI mall) and after some indecision, chose to dine at Sakae Sushi.
I haven't had an opportunity to taste Sakae stuffz, so i accepted the opportunity with open arms and gladly stalked into the Sakae Sushi restaurant.

Honestly, i never looked back.

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The site would temporarily be 'wonky' for the next couple of days due to me testing out new templates :)
please bear with me, i understand i am not the best at this...
Hence i've acquired help :)
hopefully together we'll come up with something u guys like :)

Today i had a gap between papers...
and i woke up late..
and my sister had raved about healthy eating...
so a cumulation of all the above factors led me to try out a new recipe :)
thus, i went over to trymasak(link on left pane :P) to see if i could find a new recipe.
and then i met a recipe for nasi lemak, which was relatively decent but was too fattening for my sisters needs.
This led me to search for something that was flavorful and yet less fattening.
Although this ended with a recipe that wasn't really slimming, it was more interesting. As trymasak didnt have this recipe in their lists..
So being highly interested in cheese and potatoes i tried my best to find a recipe that would combine both.
A flashback came to mind and i started thinking of a dish that was served to me in a fancy diner awhile ago..it was called "potato jackets"

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So on the last friday that i had before my Final exams this semester..
Me and my pal took a trip down to GOmobile2009..
over there... some life changing things happened...
1. I found myself in the odd position to accept that the world now has realtime telegram service called 'twitter'....
2. I found myself becoming a 'twit'
3. I found that i was suspended even before twit-ting anything lolz..

well now that you all probably know more than i do about twitting...
or was it called twittering..? i do not know i'm confused..
anyway.. i hope to learn more about this.. and discern whether its a fad or fab... :S

Ok, thats enough jabber...
back to what i would like to post about.
"www.trymasak.my"
was a website i was introduced to at the Gomobile 2009...
and apparently they have video recipes for local recipes!!!
i have gone to register myself there and hopefully i'll find time after my finals to try it out :)

in the meantime hopefully everyone will go try to memasak :P

Before the meat eating animals can get the energy to hunt, there was the vegetarian animals; and before the vegetarian animals got the energy to run, there was VEGGIES!!!
Green,Efficient, Organic, Natural, and Life Sustaining Vegetables, the source of energy for almost all life on earth.
A few weeks ago, I had a chance to come across these basic things in the food chain, the vegetable, and the vegetarian :)
A few friends and me went to KLCC for a meal during dinner and we just had to try out this restaurant we found overlooking the gardens and convention centre.
here's a picture of the scenery from the inside

not exactly the breathtaking view :P but out there is the smoker's section, very nice idea if u ask me to put smokers out there with no air-con
they'd smoke up the air conditioners...

so we arrived there around the evening and decided we would have an early dinner.
the atmosphere inside was great, and surprisingly we had less complaints about it compared to some other things i usually do not complain about.
(then again we were critical people anyway...)

So we were nicely ushered to our seats which was about 20meters away from the entrance, which i felt was quite a showy feat for a restaurant to show off their abundance of space hahahaha.

we waited for a whole 15 seconds before getting a well dressed but slightly less well mannered waiter ready and waiting beside us to take our orders. After looking through their menu, which we felt was very under maintained.(it had ketchup stains on it..) We decided to order the following items:
BLT(Bacon LETTUCE Tomato) Pizza,
Peking Duck Pizza
Garlic Cheese Checca (appetizer)

Honestly, we were surprised by the speed in which the food was served. Less than 15 minutes of our orders being placed, the Garlic Cheese Checca arrived.
And to our Delectable Suprise it arrived with an abundance of savoury smelling CHEEESE!!!
All of us agreed that the Checca was wafting its smells from right across the room before it even arrived on our table, as we were salivating from the smell long before the food showed up.
to assist your creative thinking ability, I'll provide you with the picture of the Checca.

bonus points here for the great smelling food :)
we couldn't quite figure out what the exact composition was placed into the sauce that they provided us, but the mixture of Checca and sauce was lovely....
Thick Creamy cheese in Savoury arabic bread, Sweet mix of tomatoes and herbs in the sauce..
The Checca really knocked the socks off our feet, and we started singing praises of the place when suddenly...
... the waiter reappears hoolding our other 2 orders before we could even dig into the Checca.
He didn't even say a word..(we felt that kinda rude and thus docked the extra points given.)
... before dropping our other 2 orders and left again without saying anything.
(food being served fast is good. however being served all your dishes in the frame of 2 minutes, makes the food cold before u can finish them all... - points) not to mention the table couldnt fit all that plates...

The peking duck pizza was, to its credit, the oddest pizza we have seen and it smelled alot like the hoisin sauce used in chinese cooking.. again smells caused us to give it bonus points :P
Peking Duck Pizza :

However, the BLT pizza was a letdown. Not only did it not smell fresh, the Lettuce to tomato or bacon ratio looked, felt, and tasted like 10:1 causing the BLT pizza to lose alot of valuable fresh flavor as well as Bacon flavor.

BLT :

After completing a number on the Checca, we moved on to the BLT pizza first since it looked less apealling to us non fully vegans...
and upon first 2 bites of the pizza, it was to the condiments section to search for the heroes of the evening: condiments

we dramatically needed large doses of these condiments to make the BLT palatable, even the foreigners on the next table were piling up on the condiments for their BLTs.
(westerners usually don't have a stomach for strong flavours.. so it was a rare sight.)

and the Tabasco sauce they had was actually quite Awesome :p we loved it so much.. we took a picture for future reference :

Then we moved on to the Peking duck Pizza, which by now had been sitting there for a good 25 minutes.

To their benefit, the pizza's smell didn't change while it was sitting out there. It did however, become more 'Jelak' as the flakes of fried flour on the top of the pizza softened due to exposure to air water moisture. This problem was overcome by the good strong taste of the sauce, which ended up being slightly too salty, and the smell from the sauce itself. After completing the whole pizza, we had difficulty in determining if we really had any duck at all, as the duck slices were reallly really thin. Oh and not to mention that they forgot to add any peking duck skin at all...

Well after the meal, we sat some more to discuss about the entirety of the meal. we discussed about how the food was served and how fast we felt hungry again.

Finally we came to our verdict which determined the analytical break down of the experience as below.

Overall satisfaction = 3
+ points :
+ speed, it was served really fast
+ waiter alertness and accuracy, they had our orders to the letter
+ Checca was awesome, and the smells enhance the dining experience
+ Environment was non smoking, not oily, clean, serene, not too loud
+ Condiments were awesome.

(i did say that we were meticulously critical....)

-points :
- food was not held back to wait after the appetizer but served immediately and thus cooled too early.
- waiters weren't prompt enough, they would take our drink orders and dally before getting the orders through.
- music was out of place.
- BLT was a bad experience with its bland taste and lack of freshness
- Peking Duck with no skin??
- i had to use condiments? not good..
- the food was filling but could only last us that long.. after 15 minutes we were hungry again.
- mannerism of the staff can be improved
- i would like to have a menu that doesn't stain my hands thank you.

The deciding factor and churning of the verdict happened there and then, as we debated over points and rated everything else.
verdict was convincingly stressful...

and lastly, u would wonder where we went to eat?



"CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN"

yes my dear Melc, let me know if they have better pizzas in California.... :p

Apparently the voice of fate malfunctioned last month, as well as this month. So now i've gotta write my own pieces.

Ok, lets get back to the food, this time the shop was named Ah Wang Bak Kut Teh, although personally i'd highly not suggest you eat their Bak Kut Teh.
Their restaurant has not much to go for in terms of looks,located right next to old klang road beneath a highway(not the most scenic spot i'll wager), but arrive late or during human feeding hours and you'd be hard-pressed to get a seat.
Almost always full to the brim, the restarurant serves Chinese style dishes and of course Bak Kut Teh. A typical chinese broth made of herbs and largely based with pork.

Now as i said although the place was named after bak kut teh.. its best dish i've had thus far has to be its assam fish..
Also known as Steamed Fish in Assam Laksa Sauce.
Ordering the hot steamy dish granted us a long wait as there were tons of people ordering similar fish dishes, and there could only be that many steamers in a restaurant. So to taste the prowess of their bak kut teh we ordered a small portion of that too
After waiting for what seemed like ages(30mins) the fish, Bak kut teh and rice arrived.

The flesh of the fish was fresh and juicy, coupled in mix of sweet, sour and slightly spicy Assam Sauce which goes to full blossom as the fish slides into your mouth.
Irresistibly the steam frm the fish tingles your senses and tempts you to eat more than what you would normally have.
As you reach out fo the Bak Kut Teh broth, you notice its pale coloration in comparison to usual Bak kut teh.
And as you bring a spoonful to your mouth, you smell its lightness and lack of body.
When you put it into your mouth however, the taste proves that you were right all along. The broth is light, and lacks body.
However, as i ate the fish and drank the broth I realised, the broth was not meant to stand alone, but to complement the other dishes that they might serve. As the usual broth would be too thick and strong.

All in all Ah Wang Bak Kut Teh restaurant is highly misleading in its sign, stature, and location but it doesn't fail to deliver delectable chinese cuisine at affordable prices.
Also the restaurant is open from 6 pm to 4am, so if you're ever feeling in the mood for Bak Kut Teh in the wee hour of morning.. Old Klang Road is the place to go :)

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is the voice of fate once again. Filling in this ominous evening for your usual host, Medicontherun. The topic for today s as extravagant as our usual host's exquisite finesse in mincing his words. First made in the 90's the uniquely named spork was made for people who are cluelessly clumsy or just can't use both their hands for meals.
Now, in lieu with modernization let me showcase our latest innovation in sporking technology.

http://www.nooschi.com/2009/05/masami-takahashi-ramen-spoon-fork.html

That's all for now folks, this is the voice of fate returning you to your daily lifestyle and schedule.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to another session with the 'voice of fate'. This is a short notice you say? Well that's because Medicontherun was feverish after moving all the books last night, therefore he informed me of this draft he posted for a while.
Telling us the story of an interesting location to eat in the midst of his residential region he has left behind a short legacy of his visit to it. Without further ado, let us begin this oral rendition of his feverish work:


" The night pulled its long shadows over my heart that night just like now, the lonely light that formed the crescent moon drew out dark and twisted feelings of loneliness and the need to meet up with a friend just for small talk. A searing pang struck across my midsection, dinner had yet to reveal itself to me and my stomach was endearing me for it. I reached out for the phone, flashes of phone numbers raced through my grey matter. Calculations raced for risks and odds, the one with the highest possibility then struck my phone in a flurry of button presses. I swear it never went through my head as i watched the number materialize on the silicone screen.

The phone came up to my ear as calculations ceased and pinpointed this number as the highest possibility. The voice answered and the result was positive. I breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to leave for a new locale.

No i would like you guys to forgive my feverish memory as i've forgotten the names of places and F&B that we had, however i do know where it is and that the food is decent for its price.
also that i would like to go there again.
so in the meantime here are the photos to ease out your pallete :)



"
well that's the oration for the night ladies and gentlemen, this is the 'voice of fate' signing off once again and until next time may you live by the enlightened hands of fate..

ladies and gentlemen, this is the 'voice of fate' speaking. here to take over from your traditional underposting medicontherun due to his being under the weather for the past few days.
he has briefed me recently on current events and of recent endeavours, i shall now commit it to you in verbatim from what he has described to me in explicit detail :

"Ok, i didn't manage to get my new blog resolution down properly.. (to update more often...)
so what can i say?
other than that i've always tried my level best to make every blog post count towards making the blogosphere that little bit bigger.. (yeah rite...)
so to do that i'll need a lot of vocabluary and ability to use that passive lexicon of words in my head...
That brings me to my latest haul..
i stayed up until 3am last night moving these babies out of the car (i got home at 12 midnight)
so here's some pictures of my latest library additions :)





i got them all at a steal price so i hunted them all night
even when i type this my arms are still sore from the ordeal...
i wonder how long will they take to finish ahahhaahah
laughing about it with my sister last night was good family therapy.. something we needed for a long time..
i also got to meet one of my favourite Magic™ writers Zac Hill that night, awesome fellow and an awfully good writer :)

anyway.. less of life

and more of my latest Recipe.. for a special friend.. (apparently medicontherun claims you know who you are... )

Recently a close friend of mine had some residential troubles.. and as she told me about how she could only use a pot to cook, i was reminded of the days when i also only had bare minimal to live by in campus.
so i went and confronted my mom for he impeccable ability to conjure delicious food right out of a single pot..
its a recipe she always made when the weather was cold in particular, because it tasted best when hot :) so anyway here goes my oral rendition on it..

Rice in a Pot

ingredients:

1. RICE!!! the obvious..
2. garlic(chopped)
3. onions (chopped)
   
4. dried shrimp(minced)
5. long beans(cut to inch sized bits.. use your thumb for RULE OF THUMB ONLY DO NOT chop it)
6. chinese mushroom/shitake mushrooms (sliced or diced)
7. chinese sausage/bacon/fragrant meats u can find(sliced)
   
8. minced meat(chicken or pork no beef cos beef would be too strong) best if seasoned with soya sauce, sugar and salt.
9. spring onions for garnish (chopped)
10. cinnamon powder for those cold days or when u need an energy boost..

instructions

1. start off with frying the onions, garlic, and dried shrimp till they are fragrant and slightly browned(for the garlic and onions. Some people however prefer to have them only lightly fried) remember to do this in the pot.
2. next once the onions, garlic and prawns are fragrant, put in the sausages to fry.
3. put in the meats together with the chinese sausages to fry,until they're reasonably cooked.
4. once you get your meat almost cooked, put in the mushrooms and beans. pour in about 2-3 tablespoons of thick soya sauce(the sweet and thick one they use for char koay teow..)
5. season with salt and pepper and fry till fragrant/reasonably cooked.
6. wash the rice and ad put it into the pot to boil with adequate amounts of water..(depends on your pot and amount of rice)
7. add more oyster sauce if needed.
8. wait till the rice is done cooking and remember to put enough salt, the water might dissolve this.
9. when the rice is cooked mix and serve, remember that some rice will stick to the pot, so its advisable to eat and wash immediately after. Or choose to soak the pot in water for the rice to dissolve slightly bfore washing
   

this recipe was passed down by word of mouth so please edit the amount of ingredients to suitable proportions according to your needs
if you need a more direct set of proportions please do not hesitate to ask me :)
I hope it'll help u over come your boiled food woes dear friend... :) "
thank you ladies and gentlemen for your attention, this is the 'voice of fate' signing off until we meet again on another prescheduled blog post or you can catch me on medicontherun's deviantart too. Until then, my the Fate guide you..

So i chanced upon a meal with my family a few weeks ago that had this most interesting choice of additives in the rice.
I was in Puchong and at a very popular local joint for claypot rice.
Seriously popular, it had good soups and nice claypot rice.
In fact, i even promisd to post about it after that meal..
However i've now taken back my idea due to a very interesting ordeal.
My family decided to have dinner that day, and we ordered 2 bowls of claypot rice.
Mum's the one who usually eats the least, but today she was ravenous.
So she started before the rest of us.
Halfway thru the meal she squealed, and she started weeping.
Shocked, we turned to see what had shaken her so.
Only to see this squiggly lil white thing stick its head out of her spoon.
It was a WORM, 1 cm long!!
it caught her in such a fit she couldnt do anything but weep.
Sobbing she summoned her will to call up the waiter.
We all pointed at the worm in unison, the waiter looked at it and said "oh its just a rice worm"
He made it sound so matter of fact that we were all taken aback.
"Its just a rice worm", how in the world would a rice worm be alive and in the rice?? after cooking??
So the waiter just left our table. saying that its alright and it was only a rice worm.
after being taken aback like that my mom stabilized..
she reached out for another new plate and scooped up another round of rice from the pot.
And then she saw it again! Another squiggly white thing, with its head sticking out of the remaining rice in the pot.
She threw the spoon back into the pot and screamed for the waiter.
This time the waiter came back, contempt written all over her face.
like it was my fault that there were worms in the rice.
she looked into the pot and grabbed it away without saying a word, but her face showed contempt and rage.
We quickly decided to pay up and leave, then the manager came to bill us.
he said i'll not charge you for that last pot of rice, it sometimes happens that they give us old stock so rice worms do get into the rice sometimes.
I stared at him in disbelief...

What do you think you would have done in my shoes?
do you think that it was a decent try on the shop's part to persuade us off the topic?
do discuss and tell me what u think

ok since the previous post had me clogged for ages, i've decided to give that topic a skip and move on to the next post and next set of foodstuffs...

so i shall start off my return with a simple dish i had the opportunity to perfect just a few days ago..

-Buttered toast.

ok its simple enough to warrant stares for even being bothered to post this here instead of the CHJMES review..
but i've never actually been able to master the art of buttered toast..
not that i knew not to butter ur bread before toasting it :(

anyway here's the recipe:(no photos, the toasts were gobbled clean before they could be taken)

ingredients:

-"hailam" bread (if u can't get them or don't know what are they, substitute with the airiest bread u can find)
- butter/margerine
- kaya/coconut jam

Method:

-toast your slices of bread till stiff and crispy(2-3 minutes)
-butter them well and spread some coconut jam on them
-put 2 slices with the spreads in between and enjoy

alright hopefully you guys enjoy this simple recipe while i head down south to Johore for my New Year celebrations :)

note: the author wishes to express his regret for not bing able to come up with anything better due to his lack of time and concentration recently. he hopes that the readers would be understanding enough... :(