A Day in Nilai 3

If you see few post back, I wrote a post about us having lunch at Crumbs. While we were there, they were using some quite good looking cups and saucers. We asked Amy's friend where she got it from and she said she got it from Nilai 3. We didn't even know what Nilai 3 was but we found out it was a super big huge "Pasar Borong" (Wholesale Market).

We have been wanting to check it out for a while now and finally last weekend we manage to find time to take a trip there. We were super surprised with what we saw, IT WAS SUPER MEGA HUGE and there were like I think 100+ outlets there selling stuff. It sounds impressive but they do sell the same things such as carpets, furniture, wedding stuff, house decor, curtains, etc. Just a bit of a warning that most if not all the shops were catered to the majority race in this country.

However there were a few gems to be found there and we spent a good 3 hours there walking around and shopping for home decor stuff. Our main objective to go there was actually to get some bowls for soup which we do not have yet. We ended up with....

It looks like we just went to the wet market and brought back vegetable, meats and fruits. However after unpacking all the stuff this is what we bought....

We bought all that for RM244 and what is missing is 2 Claytan soup bowls which we forgot to put together. I would have to say we achieved our initial goal which was to get soup bowls but we came back with ah heck alot more stuff then we initially planned for. We went crazy buying home decor stuff. Some of them were ready to go but some of them "some assembly is required". 

We were walking around this place called KK home deco and I spotted this cool table decor. It would be perfect for our house since we do laugh alot. Can you guess how much this cost? It only cost us 12 bucks something. a steal if you ask me. We also got some simple flower decors for our dining table.

It is super simple decoration which is a combination of square short vase with some fake flowers. I like the different colors we picked out and it is sitting very nicely on our dining table. Amy went fake flower crazy and got....

I think we got like 40-50 bucks worth of fake flowers and a couple of hours of assembly later by Amy we got....

We didn't actually get the pot from Nilai 3 but it was actually part of our guest book at our wedding. I think Amy has done a good job and it will surely make our house more vibrant. Last but not least we got some crockery as well...

We got 2 huge serving bowls/tray and 2 tiny little casserole dishes. They are super extra cheap and the huge bowls/tray cost RM8 a piece and the casserole only cost 3 bucks each. I do not think they were made for eating but more for decoration. We have yet to figure out what to do with them yet and initially I didn't want to buy it because we didn't have a use for it. However Amy said since so cheap buy la. Ladies!

Anyway it was a quite a fun day in Nilai 3 and if you are looking to buy huge quantities of wedding stuff, fake flowers and a whole load more stuff, you can check out Nilai 3.

Trip on the LRT

Many of your all should know that since I started working in KL, I have been taking public transportation to work. I find it a very pleasant ride to work and it is much less stress. There was one time I was right at the front of the train and instead of taking out my book and reading like I always do, I decided to just stare out the window and look at the sights and sounds that was passing me by. I was actually fascinated with what I saw and have always wanted to bring my camera to capture some of the images.

I finally managed to do it last week. First this first of course we must talk about safety...

One thing I realised in the past 3 months that I have been taking the train is that most people actually adhere to this sign. I rarely seen anyone stepping outside the yellow boundary. I have taken many picture of this and I still like it quite alot....

The station in itself gives a nice frame for the scenery beyond the station. Most of the time because the station is quite dark (by camera standards) and the outside is very bright, you get to use the entrance and exit of the station as a nice frame.

On the many occasion that I was not reading my book, I am always amazed at the buildings around the KLsentral area. Especially the ones just before entering the KL Sentral Station...

They are very modern looking and they are built around the track as if the track was planned and the  buildings were planned around the tracks. It makes me feel like I am no more in Malaysia but in a foreign country like Germany or Netherlands. The little dome shape building in the middle of the shot is filled with restaurants and cafes and they even have seats outside which overlooks the LRT tracks.

The exit to KL Sentral station is also just as nice as the entrance. Again here due to the contrast between the outside light and the inside light, we get sort of a framing going on. The only problem is there is nothing to frame outside.

Right after KL sentral station is the Pasar Seni Station. If you look out, you will realised some really cool graffiti.

It looks super awesome and bare in mind this is the walls along the Klang river. Last time it used to be just normal graffiti and about 2 months ago suddenly it was all painted over by a primer. I was thinking to myself, well looks like DBKL is coming to clean up the place. Then about last month these started popping up and if you look closer, it is more likely sponsor by Dulux since their logo appears on a few of them. I think it is pretty cool for Dulux to be doing this and it is almost like free advertising. All they need is to supply the paint.

After the pasar seni station, the train goes underground for about 3 stations and I usually get off at the KLCC station. There wasn't much things to take so I decided to do a long shutter shot while the train was moving. Check it out....

Never would I have thought it would come out that cool. Since it was so cool in the tunnel, I tried it outside as well on the way home...

Not as cool as the in the tunnel shot but ok lar. It gives the illusion of speed of the train. There were a few more sights that caught my eye but I didn't managed to take a picture of it. Oh well maybe next time.

Garrets Popcorn

The reason craze in Malaysia is the revival of Bubble Tea in Malaysia with Gong Cha and Cha Time. However another crazy craze that hit Malaysia is Garrets popcorn. I currently work at Etiqa Twins and for me to go to work I walk past the Garrets shop on the way to work and on the way back home everyday. On the way to work I can smell the sweetness of the caramel and the buttery butter and on a few occasion it gave me this "jelak" feeling. On the way home the line to buy pop corn is incredibly super long. On a few occasions there were more then 20 people in line and it is on popcorn. Not only that it is quite freaking expensive as well. The smallest packet cost something like 16 bucks per pack which is mad amount to pay for popcorn.

Garrets is basically a Chicago institution that has been making great pop corn since 1949. They are famous for their Chicago mix which is a mixture of their famous Caramel Crisp popcorn with with Cheese popcorn.

One day I left my office early at an odd time of the day and as I was walking pass Garrets, there were only like 3 people in line. So I decided heck what is Garrets all about and I decided to get a packet. A lot of people have been telling me the Macadamia Popcorn is very good but I decided to get their famous Chicago mix. It comes in a paper bag and the paper bag is really interesting.

One side of the paper bag says....

Which I feel is kinda weird statement to put on a paper bag and on the other side....

Inside the paper bag is where the little pop kernels of corn are....

It looks good and as I was taking the popcorn out of the paper bag, the smell instead of making me feel "jelak", my mouth was actually watering. Inside as you expected is a mix of yellow (Cheese Popcorn) and brown (Caramel Crisp) popcorn.

So here goes the first taste of 16 bucks worth of popcorn...

The first taste of the popcorn was well like any normal caramel popcorn really. It was nice and crispy and sweet but taste like popcorn you can get from GSC or TGV. The only difference is that the popcorn is very evenly coated compared to the GSC and TGV ones. The Cheese popcorn was very different. I think they use some quality cheddar cheese and it was nice and salty. However what makes it good is the combination of both the Caramel Crisp and Cheese popcorn that is magical. The sweetness of the Caramel Crisp and saltiness of the Cheese popcorn complements each other.

The crazy thing is that the more I eat it the more I love it. I still think that 16 bucks per pack of popcorn is a crazy price to pay for popcorn but once in a while I think ok lar. In fact while writing this blog post, my mouth is watering and I am suddenly craving for some Garrets. Haha.

Going on a date

Even after getting married, I think it is important that couples go for dates once in a while. It brings the couple back to the courting times where everything is always good. It really brings back the fun in the relationship. So in January we decided to go for a date night and we went to...

Where you ask is Wasabi Bistro? Well wasabi bistro is at Mandarin Oriental hotel. We had a coupon for 2 set dinners at Wasabi Bistro and as we sat down we were presented with the appetiser. Now this is some interesting appetiser...

It was basically sticks of carrots and celery stuck into some crushed ice and complement with a thousand island like sauce. The base is thousand island sauce but I am not sure what they put into it that makes it really special. The set dinner also comes with salad...

Simple salad with salad vegetable like rocket, cabbage, etc dressed with simple japanese salad dress. Simple and very nice. Next came the signature dish for Wasabi Bistro.

When the dish was first put on the table, I was like WHAT???? What the heck their signature dish is mash potato with like teriyaki sauce? However the first bite into this tiny appetiser and it was absolutely perfect and refined. It is almost like fine dining and it is actually crab meat and avocado wrapped with white fish and baked with secret sauce. The dish comes warm and the white fish was so soft it has the consistency of mash potato. The crab meat was nice and warm and man the secret sauces was oh so delicious.

Now I know why it is one of their signature dish. It was really really really good. For main meal we order 2 types which was the salmon teriyaki and tempura seafood.

The salmon was really good but the tempura is kinda standard. In fact the oil used to fry the tempura made me a little sick towards the end of the dish. We also order one maki roll...

Now this is a very interesting maki roll. It is japanese rice wrapped with raw salmon and mango topped with some fish roe. This was really interesting which is why we decided to order it but to me it didn't go to well. The mango was a bit too sweet and it actually masked the taste of the salmon. I do no think that this combination actually worked for me.

After dinner we did some cam whoring....

We were really full after dinner and we decide to head to KLCC to walk around a bit. We wanted some dessert and Aileen was telling us about this place called ABC. 

ABC stands for Acme Bar and Coffee and it is located at The Troika KL. Troika is behind Citibank building opposite PNB Darby park. Aileen told us about how good the coffee was and we decided to have cakes and coffee. We ordered...

Macadamia white chocolate brownie and....

Cempedak cake. The Macadamia White Choc Brownie was not too bad. It wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be. Something that makes this different is it also has desiccated coconut which gives it a different twist. Now the Cempedak was very very very interesting. I thought it would be like a chocolate cake with cempedak instead of chocolate. However what they did was they used Pandan Sponge cake with cempedak cream in between. It was very good and anyone who loves cempedak will surely love this cake. On the outside they also had pistachio nuts which gives it a very good texture difference from the soft sponge cake.

We were there for coffee but what I saw on the menu that I couldn't resist....

They served Kronenburg there and it was on DRAFT as well. It was so nice and smooth and irresistible. It is good that I am seeing more Kronenburg in Malaysia and not only in bottles but draft. Yummy. It was a really good date night and looking forward to the next date night.

CCL's Birthday

This blog post is very appropriate because the previous post was about his car. Not only that but he drove the Humber to dinner and he told us during dinner that he was selling off the Humber. If I had the money to maintain the Humber I would buy it just for sentimental reasons. Now on the the current post, we celebrated Chong's birthday on Tuesday at...

Chong absolutely loves this place and I have only been here once. The last time I was here was with Amy and her cousins. It was the first time I met up with Amy's cousins. It was raining and then the electricity kept cutting out but we finally got through dinner. This time however the electricity was on all the time and we celebrated Chong's birthday in style...

We started first with the Moet and since we were super hungry the alcohol went directly to the head for some of us. Then the food came and you should never ever let a hungry foodie i.e Jack to order food. He ordered...

Since there is a lot of food on the table let me go via a list:

1. Char Siew - Very nicely roasted but the first piece I took was a bit fat and the rest was good. The dish went superbly fast as we were hungry and it was the first dish that arrived
2. Salted Egg Bitter Gourd - I do not like bitter gourd and this was very nicely cooked. The salted egg that coated the bitter gourd masked the bitterness
3. Claypot Rice with Crab - The claypot rice was just so so but the crab was really really nice. It was very nice, juicy and the claw was really huge as well. It was better then the crab with the glass noodle
4. Pork Knuckle - Very nicely fried but very different as well. The reason why this pork knuckle was different was because usually the ones that I have had were either just fried or with a spicy peppery sauce. However this one was in a sweet and sour Thai Style sauce. Very delicious and a must order if you come here
5. Glass Noodle with Crab - This was actually the opposite of the claypot rice with crab. This dish, I liked the Glass Noodle because it wasn't soft but it has a bit of a spring to it. Normally it is cooked with Vermicelli or noodles but ths was different and I liked it.  The crab was a bit dry and no as good as the claypot one
6. Tofu - The tofu looked normal but it was pretty nice. They used the egg tofu but since it ain't circular, I think they made their own tofu and it was very nice and soft and tender
7. Assam Fish - I think this was the star of the dinner. It was so good I couldn't stop having it. The fish was very fresh and the assam was nice and spicy and sour as well. Again this is a must have if you are coming

We had dinner with 4 bottles of beer and....

Picture courtesy of Pui Ling

After dinner we started with the Single Malt Whiskey and also the main highlight of night.

I cannot remember what Allan said but suddenly Chong went....

and I actually managed to catch this priceless expression and just as fast as the killer instinct came, they made up again...

Chong even fed Allan with....

It was again a really good night out with great friends, good food and good alcohol. We also learnt a new word tonight "Huurrloooken Guurrrleeeken". It basically means cheers in Finnish. We sang the Happy Birthday song to Chong twice that night. One time during the cake cutting and also just before we leave. He was so embarrassed. Maybe next year we won't celebrate it with us anymore. Hehe. Happy Birthday Chong!