NARCISSISM IS NECESSARY

All pictures taken with my Nokia N82.

Saturday - The Day

10 May 2008 - World Lupus Day.

The event that ShutterAsia has been trying very hard to put together for more than a month finally happened with tremendous success. The Minister of Health, YB Dato’ Liow Tiong Lai officiated the launch and was a good sport throughout the event.

Getting this event up was a tough journey indeed, and must be especially so for Freaky (otherwise known as James) whom may I say, single handedly made this happen with little or no help at all. I would like to thank Freaky for roping me in and I’m proud to say that it’s an honour to have worked alongside him. While I escaped to party with Tiesto, he stuck on till 10pm to make sure the event ran smoothly till 1 Utama closed. James, I <3 you!

James @ Freaky, emcee for the day.

I would like to thank Nikon and 1 Utama for being such generous sponsors as well. When I heard from someone who spoke to the Nikon big man, and he revealed that for this event, he doesn’t even care about any newspaper or media coverage. He just wants Nikon to contribute to the photography community and society in general. He knew for a fact that ShutterAsia ran this event with no monetary support whatsoever, everything from the venue to exhibition stands to carpeting to sound system to the balloons….were contributed by companies that supply them. That’s not just it, some of the people from these sponsor companies even got down and dirty helping with the event setup. It was truly an eye-opening experience for me.

1 Utama (thank you Ms. Joey C.) said yes to my request for venue sponsorship within hours of my FIRST email without even batting an eyelid. To be honest, before approaching 1 Utama, I had sent several request to other smaller shopping complexes, most did not reply (as expected) and one even sent back to ask for ROI Report (I was flabbergasted). But 1 Utama, which was my last resort…..because it’s such a successful shopping complex and was very intimidating, said yes to us within hours!

They were also very accommodating to us eventhough the exhibition could not be set up extravagantly in line with the interior of 1 Utama due to budget constraint, but they allowed us to hold our event anyway with nothing but genuine support. You may not know this too, but 1 Utama is probably the only shopping complex in Malaysia with space (it’s called Community Corner on 1st Floor Oval, New Wing) allocated for non-profit organisations that are struggling to afford any space for their charity events.

Anything Butterfly Photography Exhibition is still on-going till 18th May 2008. Persatuan SLE Malaysia will be there selling homemade craft and accepting donations. 1 Utama, 1st Floor Oval, New Wing :)

Satuday - Night

After the event, I reached home at 5pm, showered and made my way to KY’s house. We all had dinner (or rather, I joined them while they were already eating) and then started our journey to PD. I was mostly unconscious during the journey but I managed to wake up during a toilet stop and took a picture of this car with something from the bathroom on the side mirror.

Recycle, reduce, reuse.

We reached Admiral Marina about 10.30pm parked not too far from the event venue. The queues were gawdamn long -_- and it was so humid. I was soaked by the time we entered party grounds.

Can you spot PinkPau’s setan face?

Without further ado, the faggots (our endearing nickname for each other) got a carton of beer to jump-start party mood. And then another carton…

Beer.

I took 1/2 a can and promptly passed out. I would like to defend myself that under normal circumstances I could have consumed 1 can with no problems but I was already exhausted from work.

Here is a picture of Spongefox sipping his beer.

Spongefox sipping the beer.

I puked several times into the empty plastic bag that had contained the beer before I was well enough to walk nearer to stage. I managed to catch a glimpse of Tiesto making his grand debut before passing out again. The last song I remembered hearing before my slumber was In The Dark (which I f-king love).

TIESTO!

Then I woke up to some random stuff I’ve never heard before but were still f-king awesome. I was almost well again and I danced and danced and danced…

Fab lighting.

Sweaty girl.

Kim & KY.

Kim & Eyeris.

And then Love Comes Again came on. I was estatic!!!

You gotta believe that…Love comes again

From then on, it was orgasm all the way, man.

TIESTO!

Crowd was just loving every second.

The finale was amazing. Forever Today came on along with fireworks and confetti!

Forever Today

We left party ground at 3am and made our way home. Thank you to the Suan for driving us all back safely to Ming Tien for supper.

Every time after a rave party, I’d always claim it’d be my last but man, as long as Tiesto is playing my last rave party is not yet in sight.

Sunday

I woke up at 3.30pm on Mother’s Day. Mom was very understanding not to have woken us up, since we stumbled into the house at 6.30am. We went to Pearl International Hotel for buffet, which was fabulous (KY blogged about it here). They had an array of activities lined up for Mom’s Day that I didn’t even know about when I made reservation. They took our family picture and printed it out, had a good lucky draw with trips to various destinations as prizes and yummy goodies to take home. Mom was very happy :)

Then, I taught her to blog and use Flickr!!!!! :D She’s just posted her first entry after about an hour of frustration (heh heh heh) and I hope she didn’t get turned off by the complexity (obviously to me it’s like clockwork). I’ll definitely pimp her blog when she hits her 5th entry. So dearest, please leave some words of encouragement here because she doesn’t believe it when I say a lot of people would love to read her blog!

You want to, don’t you?? (p/s: the momsie is a hottie).

Jeng jeng jeng! Do the Big Mac Chant and stand a chance to win RM10,000!

When I was in high school, I used to eat Big Mac every Friday because:

1. I could leave school earlier on Fridays.
2. Big Mac’s the only thing I knew how to order!

For a couple of years I wasn’t inclined to order anything else other than Big Mac. Why bother, how much better could it get, right? It is still one of the best burgers around and certainly deserves its own chant!

THE BIG MAC CHANT

Two All-Beef Patties,
Special Sauce, Lettuce,
Cheese, Pickles, Onions
On A Sesame Seed Bun!

Hmm, the special sauce. HMMMMM HMMMM HMMMM!

Here’s my shot at winning RM10,000…..having the burger and eat it too so to speak. Presenting….the Big Mac Chin Chant.

So, all you have to do is to take a video of yourself doing the Big Mac Chant and upload it to http://www.youtube.com. Then, email the URL of your video and your contact number to bigmacchant@nuffnang.com.

The judging is by popularity (40%) and by McDonald’s judges (60%).

Find out more, view the current entries and stand a chance to win RM10,000 at http://www.nuffnang.com.my/bigmacchant

Contest is valid only until May 28 2008.

In conjunction with St. Patrick’s Day, Bossa Nova (Parkroyal Hotel), Bulldog, Sevenatenine, Delaney’s, Nikko Hotel and Jarrod & Rawlins are participating in Guinness Draught Infused Food Creation Contest, serving their very own Guinness-inspired dishes throughout the month of March. All the Guinness-inspired fare will be judged by Chef Emmanuel Stroobant of Asia Food Channel’s Chef in Black.

Thanks to the good folks from Guinness, I was able to sit down for lunch with the celebrity Chef himself, Emmanuel Stroobant at Jarrod & Rawlins. He was there to evaluate the food creation by Jarrod & Rawlins and I was just there to get starstruck, eat and be merry :)

Guinness Stout.

The chef from Jarrod & Rawlins whipped up some Guinness ribs from scratch while Chef Stroobant watched on. I’m all for open kitchen concept cause watching your food meticulously put together by a chef is a wonderful experience.

Kitchen kungfu.

Chef Stroobant shared with me his judging method for all the participating outlets. He has about a dozen categories ranging from hygiene to creativity which he would rank between 1-10, 1 being poorest and 10 being exceptional. He showed me the scores of the other participating restaurants he has ranked in his moleskin notebook.

It was very interesting….I shall not divulge who pwns who aye!

Chef Emmanuel Stroobant evaluates.

Grilling the ribs, baby.

The ribs were pretty good, the meat was juicy and very well flavoured. And I absolutely love the contrast of taste courtesy of the diced beetroot. I hope they will continue to serve the dish after March.

Hearing the little voice calling out for a perfect pint of Guinness yet? Well, then head on to Guinness St. Patrick’s Festival this Saturday, 15th March 2008 at Plaza Mont’ Kiara because starting from 5pm, the first 1000 party guests will get a free pint of Guinness!

Guinness St. Patrick’s Festival

Of course, for the weight watching ladies, there’s always the hotness that is Chef Emmanuel Stroobant as a reason to go to the carnival ;)

Chef Emmanuel Stroobant.

p/s: I’m still waiting for my picture with him. Will post it up as soon as I got it!

I’m still salivating over it. Probably the best oysters I’ve ever had in my life. Absolutely succulent, fresh…tasted as though they were just fished out from the sea.

KY blogged about the place here.

oh.my.gawd.

I didn’t even take pictures of them cause I so was captivated at first sight. Which led to the first bite and ahhhh…….

Ah Suan took a video of me having my first one.

Just look at that hungry face. The eyes, so focused on the generous flesh in the massive shell.

Now, I can die happy….

Berhati, berhati, di jalan raya.

By the way, has your boyfriend shown you this page? Flip the bird ladies…flip the bird!

When I received an invitation by Melium Group to savour the signature offerings at their latest venture, Yo! Sushi, I was so happy okay. I’ve been to the place before and was so impressed with the quality of food I’ve already proclaimed it to be one of my favourite Japanese restaurants.

Yo! Sushi is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Pavilion, similar in concept to joints like Genki or Sakae but with way, way, way better quality sushi. They’ve just opened another outlet in Gardens too. The price is of course slightly higher but not that expensive that it makes the “food washes down your spine” (only my FOB brethren will understand this). They’re also very particular about freshness, none of their sushi would stay on the belt for more than 2 hours, something I feel is rather important for Japanese restaurants.

Armed with my D70s and 50mm F1.4, I checked out Yo! Sushi with ShaolinTiger.

Did a little camwhoring while waiting for ST at the petrol station. Check out my new acquisition!

Straw hat inspired bag.

I love this bag. The reason why I love it so much is because I could fit in a whole dSLR into the bag plus my bulky aunty purse and all other miscellaneous stuff and still look kind of…young.

Fits everything.

I ought to practise more with taking pictures of myself. They’re always either blur or underexposed. Sometimes I look damn dopey I wonder if I come across like that to other people -_-

I mean look at this! This picture make my skin crawl okay…

Deliberately enlarged eyes.

And a shot at being emo…..

So blur and stupid. I think cause the car was moving already.

Okay sorry, this is supposed to be a post about sushi! :P

These are the pictures I took with my D70s in Yo! Sushi. Just look at them……processing the pictures made my belly growl so much.

Sushi belt.

I eat salmon sashimi at least twice a week and I’ve developed a taste for the good ones. I used to be damn happy to hit a buffet and eat as much salmon sashimi as I could but I’ve realised now that those places are serving sub par sashimi…sliced so thinly so that when you dunk ‘em into the wasabe/soy sauce you wouldn’t be able to taste the fish at all. They’re also very slimy…..ewww.

As for the salmon slices in Yo! Sushi, they’re excellent! Fresh, fat, meaty and very reasonably priced. They come in various styles as well…marinaded with dill/wasabe or covered in sesame or eat it as a salad. Take your pick.

Sashimi feeds my soul.

Glorious salmon.

One of my favourite things about eating in Yo! Sushi is watching the chefs in action. Watching them bringing out fresh slabs of salmon and preparing them on the spot made me feel secure about having the second, third and forth serving….hahahaha.

Sushi kungfu.

I also love their non-salmon offerings. Namely the mushroom-only dish. I love my mushrooms, if I could I’ll have them with everything. I must have had about 3 servings of these…

Just mushrooms!

I can’t remember what this was…but I remember it being really good. Duck, I think.

Delicious duck roll.

And the best of the lot….OMG. Salmon, cream cheese and avacado inside out roll. This would what I call a match-made in heaven.

Salmon, cream cheese and avocado ISO roll.

The eggplant was so-so…..but the salmon and cucumber salad behind it was awesome.

Eggplant.

Casey the emcee.

The black cod miso is also one of their signature dishes. I could have had 5 of these but I stopped at 3 because I got a bit embarrassed hogging all the good stuff and depriving others of them :P

Black cod miso that melts in your mouth.

By the way, this is not an advertorial. I actually really love this place and I think I should spread the word before they close down because some people think that Genki is better (seriously, how can??!). Freakin’ hope they’ll open one in 1 Utama too cause as at now, I have to contend with their latest branch in Gardens, Mid Valley which is not too far.

Oooh and look what I’ve got from the party…..

Many, many sushi! Muahahahahahhahaa!

And errr…I’ve also realised that I’ll probably never make it in food photography. I have too little patience for it, all I ever want to do is eat first -_-

I think nothing defines me more as a chinese than my palate. I was just looking through some pictures I took last Sunday at breakfast and I thought about all the gross stuff I’ve eaten throughout my life.

Guess what it was.

My family and I (except for Mom) are big fans of disgusting food. I may have trouble killing a roach but have absolutely no problems eating one.

Anyway, speaking of disgusting food…there was an exotic food stall near my parents’ place. Rumours had it that the owner of the stall used to kidnap the neighbourhood’s pets for dog meat stew. I’ve lost two Dobermans when I was younger and I’ve always wondered whether he was the one who stole my dogs. Nevertheless, we frequented the stall for all sorts of delicacies including stuff like snakes, bats, turtles (not the endangered type lah) and many more. In fact, I ate my first monkey there.

However, to date, no dogs on the menu……

Among the disgusting stuff I enjoy are as follow, in random order:

1. Pork intestines - fried or braised or boiled
2. Chicken feet - fried, braised or deboned (kerabu)
3. Cockles - still bloody with spicy chilli dip
4. Pork skin - absolutely divine in curry mee
5. Stinky tofu - deep fried
6. Pork liver/kidney - in wine/pepper soup
7. Chicken gizzards - deep fried
8. Blue cheese & mature cheddar - with seedless grapes and saltines
9. Raw oysters
10. Century eggs with pickled ginger.

Braised chicken feet in the morning with my delicious hakka noodle. Notice the reddish colour….it’s authentic hakka chilli sauce and I insist my noodles drowning in it.

10.30am look.

So what is your favourite disgusting food? Or are you a squirmy one?

We’ve been together for more than 3 years and share a mutual disdain for Valentine’s Day. If I remembered correctly, the last three Valentine’s Days were spent at mamak or malay stalls because all the decent restaurants would be packed.

Anyway, we made an exception this year. More or less because our kitchen was starting to collect dusts and I felt that it’s about time for some cooking to happen. So what better day than Valentine’s Day to whip up a fancy dinner?

[L-R]Zucchini and tomato stew, mushrooms with toasted almond flakes on bed of lettuce, steak and boiled potatoes with dill. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I’ve got the candles going too :D

Anyway, I cooked everything from scratch except for the tomato stew. It came from a can, I just added sliced zucchinis and seasoning.

Medium rare.

The steak was heavenly, just the way we love it.

Glad to say that dinner was delicious. I didn’t burn down the kitchen and our bellies are not experiencing any odd sensation related to diarrhea (yet).

We skipped the alcohol and had sparkling grape juice cause I was not going to fall asleep on Valentine’s Day.

House MD to catch, what did you think? Happy Valentine’s Day baby boo :)