Month: May 2008

Envy Health & Beauty Grand Opening

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envy health and beauty

Envy Health & Beauty had their grand opening officiated by YB Vincent Goh on the 10th of May 2008. I was up early to support Joyce’s and Mary’s venture. 🙂

envy interior

The interior of Envy has been added with some frills for the press since reporters were coming to cover the opening ceremony.

envy pansar

The people from my company chipped in to get flowers for Envy. Joyce works in my office (we’re even on the same floor).

envy potpourri

There were already a lot of people there when I arrived (fashionably late, not intentionally, but due to the seminar) and Joyce, Mary and Shirley were there to greet visitors and pass out a bottle of drinking water with a cute bag of potpourri attached to it.

envy girls

The three girls were all wearing white uniforms which looks really professional.

envy shirley

This is Shirley, who is one of the partners with Joyce and Mary. I just met her that day. 🙂

envy shirley er

I was rather curious about the little name tag located near Shirley’s left…er, cardiac region, so I asked her permission to take a very close-up photo of her cleava…er, I mean tag. Thanks for being a sport about the unusual request, Shirley! 🙂 (and please stop snickering guys)

envy food

High tea was provided as well, with a selection of local delights for people to indulge in after the opening ceremony. Their product line is really good and worth the try. One of our team is actually an avid fan of their products and keeps it along with the natural skin care products she gets from https://misumiskincare.com.

envy cake

The centerpiece is a huge blueberry cake with the word “Envy” scrivened – and yes, there really is such a word – on it.

envy eddy

The guest of honor arrived promptly at 10 am, which surprised me a little, since dignitaries usually bring the term “fashionably late” to new heights. 😉

envy vincent

There was an opening speech by YB Vincent Goh, who is the designated VIP of the event and then the ribbon cutting ceremony was held to launch Envy Health & Beauty.We offer amazon vitamin c serum, if you want to care your skin.

envy cake cutting

The obligatory cake cutting ceremony was held after that.

envy ribbon

The other obligatory event was the ribbon cutting to signify the opening of this new establishment.

envy yb

The owners of Envy presented YB Vincent with a thank you gift to mark the end of the opening ceremony.

envy bp ad

I also took the liberty of putting out a congratulatory ad in Borneo Post for Envy…with a rather prominent self-promoting URL of a certain blog, naturally. 😉 It cost me RM 170 which is pretty reasonable for the size.

envy congrats

Heartiest congratulations from sixthseal.com to Joyce, Mary and Shirley. May Envy Health & Beauty be the envy of all other establishments. Okay, that was a rather lame bit of wordplay. :p

Envy Health & Beauty is located at No. 2, 1st Floor, Lorong Pahlawan 7E, Pusat Jaya Li Hua.

There is a previous post about Envy Health & Beauty on sixthseal.com here.

Special Mother’s Day buffet dinner @ RH Hotel

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rh hotel

RH Hotel is having a special Mother’s Day buffet dinner promotion at Oriental Bistro with a door gift and a free ticket for every five tickets purchased.

mothers buffet

It is priced at RM 44 ++ per person and there’s a 50% discount for children below 12 and senior citizens above 55 years old.

rh inside

I went there with Faye and KJ since my parents had a church function they had to go to.

rh steak stand

The highlight of the Mother’s Day buffet dinner is a kebab/steak stand where the chefs cook the cuts of meat you want.

rh steak

There are also various types of sausages…

rh slice

…and they even slice it up nicely for you at your request.

rh abc stand

There is also an ABC (a kind of shaved ice dessert) stand for something sweet to finish your dinner with.

rh abc

You can customize the ingredients and toppings you want inside. I had mine with chocolate sprinkles, which is a decidedly unorthodox topping. 🙂

rh eat

This is what I ended up eating…and this is just for starters coz I was REALLY hungry last night.

rh plate

My plate overfloweth. It contains:

rh scallops

Beef tripe and scallops

rh calamari

Deep fried prawn dumplings, beef rendang, calamari

rh chicken

Prime portions of chicken

rh squid

Deep fried squid and braised duck

rh shrimp

Chicken curry and shrimp with mayonnaise

rh fish

Steamed fish

rh side

There’s even a side dish of various cuts of beef and veal!

rh puffs

I was still feeling a little hungry after all that excess so I attacked the pastries counter for dessert.

rh cream puff

I noticed one of the chefs bringing out a new batch of cream tarts so I got some as well. =D

rh dessert plate

This is the dessert plate that I finished the meal with – I even got four (4) scoops of ice cream to go with it.

rh us

I am a rather fast eater, as Faye has been telling KJ. Faye took a video of me eating the entire plate. This is really the usual speed at which I eat, unless I’m with polite company. 🙂

Speed eating!

Liger

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faye liger

I made a friendly wager with Faye the other day regarding the existence of an animal called liger. I’ve never heard of such a creature in my entire life! Faye swears it exists and that she personally saw it with her own eyes in Korea and even had her photo taken with it! I tend to be rather skeptical about her “facts” since…well, let’s just say that she’s fond of getting them from dubious sources. This is the same person who told me frequent sex will damage my kidneys coz a Chinese medicinal practitioner told her so.

Personally, I think that’s just a convenient excuse she uses (the equivalent of a headache) so I tend to take the fountain of questionable facts she shares with a fistful of sodium. She told me she had her photo taken with this “liger” creature during a tour of Korea and the tour guide told her it’s the result of a lion and tiger mating. The name is supposed to be a contraction of the two parent animals. She even took a photo with it!

liger photo

I don’t think she made this up, but she can be a little too trusting at times. I said the tour guide probably told her that to make the trip more interesting and shared an anecdote about the time I went to KL when I was really young. We were sitting beside a large tour group of Caucasians and the tour guide told them that the dish on the table is tiger meat.

The tourists took it all in hook, line and sinker and was overheard commenting about how “different” it tastes. The proprietor, who had no lost love for the wayward tour operator, whispered to my dad that the dish is actually a mixture of deer meat (common over here) and wild boar (also a common meat). I strongly believe something similar to the tiger meat fiasco happened to Faye in Korea – the tour guide told them that a regular lion with perhaps less than usual features is the offspring of two different wild cats.

liger

We got into a heated debate after this, with me firmly taking the stance that she was fleeced in Korea and with her nearly foaming at the mouth with irritation at my disbelief. Finally, we reached an agreeable method of dispute resolution:

quality birdnest

If ligers exist, I would buy her a box of bird’s nest of her choice (not exceeding RM 300)

If this liger thing does not exist, she would be paying for one night’s stay at the resort hotel we’re planning to go to (dollar value RM 230++)

That being said, the conditions that I put forth was that it MUST be from a reputable source, with citations and references to respectable studies. No two bit website from Korea with a Photoshop image or stuff like that.

I fired up the browser to Google and typed “liger”.

I was extremely sure that I would win this bet since I consider myself well read and I’ve never heard of such an unusual animal. I was even thinking about whether to bring red wine or single malt to the beach resort!

Faye didn’t even hover over my shoulder. She just watched the expression on my face as I expelled a rather rude word in an excessive volume while incredulously staring at the search results.

One of the first results was from Wikipedia, and I didn’t really need to read the other search results. I knew I had lost the bet. From Wikipedia:

The Liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a female tiger.

…and it says there’s even such a thing as a tigon too, which is the result of a male tiger and a female lion.

birds nest faye

Incredi-fucking-ble.

Envy Health & Beauty

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envy

Envy Health & Beauty is having their official opening on the 10th of May, 2008. It’s owned by two of my friends – Joyce and Mary. Four of us were invited to a pre-opening sneak preview of the place and offered a free facial worth RM 50.

testers

Thus, Katherine, Chiew Keing, Sheau Lih and myself trooped down to Envy to be the first guinea pigs. 😉 I’m kidding, Mary has a lot of experience in doing this and so does Joyce. It’s just not open until this Saturday so they invited four of their closest friends to get a complimentary facial.

fluffy slippers

You change into fluffy slippers when you enter the establishment – red ones for females, blue ones for males. I didn’t even know it was color coded coz I wore the red ones. Heh!

chairs

The interior of Envy is very tastefully decorated and exudes a nice, clean and relaxing atmosphere. There are lounge chairs, bean bags and couches in the waiting room, which is meant as a place for friends to hang out and relax.

futon

My favorite is the futon chairs and carpet seating area.

display

There is also a glass display cabinet showcasing the two major products they carry.

usana

Usana is one of the latest nutritional fads to hit Sibu.

sense

SenSe is the beauty product line that they are using in their in house facials.

facial room

The facial room is the highlight of this establishment and it has three beds with see through privacy curtains for a maximum for three simultaneous customers at once.

lights

There is mood lighting for each of the beds…

sound

…and soft, relaxing music playing for a stress free ambiance.

mary and me

It was soon my turn to get the facial and I got Mary to do mine.

facial

It took about 30 minutes or so to get everything done.

before

This is the Before shot.

after

This is the After shot.

envy thanks

Thanks to Joyce and Mary of Envy for inviting us in for a pre-launch preview and a free facial! 🙂

Envy will be opening on the 10th of May, 2008.

The Big Mac Chomp Challenge

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big mac chomp challenge

The Big Mac Chant Challenge is the latest craze in town. It is perhaps one of the best marketing efforts by McDonald’s in recent memory. However, I would like to propose a new challenge – The Big Mac Chomp Challenge.

You can probably do the Big Mac Chant within four seconds…but can you do the Big Mac CHOMP within four seconds?

big mac chomp

Can you EAT

“Two all-beef patties,
special sauce, lettuce,
cheese, pickles, onions
on a sesame seed bun”

within four seconds?!?!

This is what separates the men from the boys. Watch and weep. 😉

I used the coupon I won yesterday to redeem a Big Mac and got the McDonald’s staff to clock me doing the Big Mac Chomp. My first attempt started well but Faye accidentally pressed the stop button just as I was taking my first bite so I had to do a second take. It’s here for entertainment purposes.

The McDonald’s crew were kind enough to pour me a cup of Coke after the first failed attempt and furnished me with a second complimentary Big Mac since I ruined the first. Thanks people! This is the second and final attempt at the Big Mac Chomp:

I didn’t manage to stuff everything in within four seconds. I reckon I would have made it if I took one bite (of one quarter of the Big Mac) each second but I nearly chocked on the final bite and couldn’t get it down. The remains are here if you have a burning urge to see it:

remains

It tastes surprisingly good even after being pre-chewed. 😉

lovin it

i’m lovin’ it!

mcdonalds crew

A big thank you goes out to the crew of McDonald’s Sibu. Thanks for the support! 🙂

Mega Mac and Big Mac Chant

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mega mac

McDonald’s is now offering the Mega Mac for a limited time only. The Mega Mac is a super sized Big Mac with four (4) beef patties instead of the usual two. It retails for RM 14.50 for a large value meal.

mega mac meal

I went there after work today since I felt like I could handle the four patty behemoth, having skipped lunch and all.

mega mac burger

It is basically a huge Big Mac with double the amount of patties.

mega mac patties

There’s nothing new about Big Macs (having being around since time immemorial, or so it seems) but there’s something appealing about biting into the largest burger ever produced by McDonald’s (exception being the Half Pounder promotion in Australia).

big mac chant challenge

The Big Mac Chant is also doing the rounds this time with an online and offline advertising blitz. It’s a phrase you have to say within four seconds (probable tie in to the four beef patties a.k.a, “four times the kick” Mega Mac) to win a free Big Mac.

big mac chant coupon

To qualify for the Big Mac Chant, you have to purchase a McValue Meal which entitles you to one (1) entry coupon valid for “one chant, one chance” at the Big Mac Chant Challenge Counter.

I was the only one at the Big Mac Chant Challenge Counter at that hour and I guess I was probably the first in Sibu to attempt it (since they had to set up the counter for me) but I did it in 3 seconds flat. 🙂

It was very appealing experience to have the McDonald’s crew crowd around the counter to watch me do it. I could hear people coming from the kitchen area asking the timer whether I did it and several comments of “Cepatnya” (He’s fast) from the crew. Heh!

big mac chant

Guide to the Big Mac Chant:

Two all-beef patties, special sauce,    – 1 second
lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions,        – 1 second
on a sesame seed bun.                      – 1 second

It’s essential to finish the entire chant in one breath so take a nice, deep breath before attempting the Big Mac Chant. Most people can probably finish it in about 3 seconds if you take a minute or two to practice first.

handle it

I can handle it!

Wine & Dine Promotion @ Peppers Cafe

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wine and dine

Tanahmas Hotel is having a Wine & Dine promotion this month with steak air flown in from New Zealand paired with their Seifried wine from Nelson, NZ. Faye was in a generous mood, so she bought me dinner last night. Perhaps me helping her out tutoring had something to do with it as well. 😉

ribeye steak

I had the Grilled Ribeye Steak (RM 44.00 ++) which came with broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, young corn and mashed potato. It comes with your choice of black pepper sauce or mushroom sauce. I’m a big fan of garlic sauce, which I guess is a little unrefined, and can be hazardous to your breath, but it’s really good. Unfortunately, they don’t have that, so I went with the black pepper sauce.

ribeye steak macro

I had it medium rare and the steak came out tender and juicy. The portion is very generous too, well worth the RM 44 price tag.

grilled lamb chop

Faye had the Grilled Sizzling Lamb Chop (RM 26.50 ++) which is also part of the Western Food Promotion (also known as the Wine & Dine promotion). It comes with the same trimmings and sauce options. She went for the mushroom sauce.

fried mee mamak

We also ordered fried mee mamak (RM 13.00 ++) to share. I like Tanahmas Hotel’s (the place is really called Peppers Cafe, I don’t know why everyone calls it Tanahmas Hotel) fried mee mamak – it’s very spicy.

chimpanzee shake

This is the Chimpanzee Shake (RM 10.00 ++). It’s a peanut butter milk shake and I’ve been having cravings for the stuff ever since I had it a couple of weeks ago. It’s a thick and sinful concoction of peanut butter and ice cream and if you think you’ll like something like this, you probably would. Honestly, everyone I recommended this to came back with rave reviews.

faye present

Faye also presented me with a crudely wrapped DVD sized package as a token of appreciation for my tutoring efforts.

adata 8 gb

It’s an 8 GB USB flash drive. I’ve been wanting to get another one since the one I got earlier this month filled up. It’s the perfect gift for a blogger (or photographer). Thanks Faye! 🙂

us tanahmas

Hey, what’s with the feeding each other routine? :p

Min Kong Cafe RM 20 prawn noodles

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min kong cafe

Min Kong Cafe is well known in Sibu for its RM 20 prawn noodles. Their flagship dish actually reached an all time high of RM 25 per bowl before dropping to its current RM 20 rate. There are other places offering the same dish for RM 12 but for the original Min Kong prawn noodles, there is but one place to eat it.

min kong interior

Min Kong Cafe is air conditioned and also offers traditional fare as well as rice dishes but most people go there for their flagship RM 20 prawn noodles. There are actually three (3) RM 20 offerings – big prawn cooked noodles, big prawn fried noodles, and fish noodles.

tiger beer

I couldn’t try all three in one sitting so I had the famed big prawn cooked noodles first with Amy and some other people from work. I also took the liberty of ordering Tiger Beer (RM 8) since I saw someone eating big prawn cooked noodles on the office Intranet (a supplier) and drinking Tiger Beer and had felt the craving for the same ever since. I guess it’s alright since both times I went there were Saturday afternoons. 🙂

big prawn noodles

The cooked big prawn noodles (RM 20) is known as “ta sia chau chu mien” and is the flagship dish of Min Kong Cafe. It’s very well known for its unapologetic pricing and generous portions of prawns. There are four big prawns in every bowl (it’s actually two, sliced horizontally) and the broth is very prawny.

big prawn noodles macro

Min Kong certainly doesn’t skimp on the good stuff and the portions of noodles are reasonable so it doesn’t fill you up too much. The prawns are also pre-shelled so there’s no hassle involved in shelling the prawns in a bowl of soup (which can be pretty unwieldy, and can cause no small amount of splash damage).

min kong amy

I like!

fish noodles

I also went there earlier this afternoon with Faye and she opted for the fish noodles (RM 20) since she’s not a very big fan of prawns (being allergic to most shellfish as it were). The fish noodles is topped with generous slices (slabs?) of prime fish meat on the top.

fish noodles macro

I just love the beautiful mosaic swirls on the fish meat. It’s wonderfully tender too, well worth the RM 20 price tag. This is a good option if you don’t like prawn, the fish noodles is also chock full of prime ingredients (with an appropriate prime price tag to boot).

big prawn noodles fried

I went for the fried big prawn noodles (RM 20) this afternoon. It’s the lesser known contender to the RM 20 cooked big prawn noodles throne but I certainly wasn’t disappointed by its performance. The same neatly shelled prawns are heaped on top of the fried noodles and I even found the feelers nicely shelled and ready to eat! The gravy is very prawny and concentrated, and the noodles fried just right. I would recommend this lesser known dish to real lovers of prawn instead.

min kon faye

Bon appetit!

Word of the day:

splash damage
(verb)
Otherwise known as the mee soup incident, it is the inadvertent soiling of work clothes due to uncooperative ingredients mishandled during lunch hour.

Eh?

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eh

Hello! My face is up here!

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