Year: 2008

The Queen Lounge & Café grand opening

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the queen

The Queen Lounge & Café was officially launched on Friday night with an invite-only guest list comprising mostly of friends and regulars of Café Café (who is owned by the same people).

queen interior

The interior design of The Queen Lounge & Café can be summed up in a single word – absolutely fabulous. Oh wait, that’s two words. You know what I mean though. The ambiance is great, and I can imagine this being the next new hot spot to hang out in town – the place to see and be seen and all that.

queen reserved

The Queen Lounge and Café is co-owned by Peter, who is an old schoolmate of mine. He just has this magic touch for setting up nice cafes with the warm ambiance that draws in the crowds. I remember hanging out as teenagers during weekends at Country Café (the place to be about 10 years ago) and his dreams about opening up a similar place in the future.

queen couch

Well, he did, and kudos to him for that. The success of Café Café is a testament to his will and resolve, and I respect him for that. Oh, and I’m not just saying that coz I got complimentary martinis the entire night. 😉 No, seriously.

flowers

The proprietors of Queen’s Lounge and Café also own Café Café, a hugely popular café in town – the current place to be. They also have an interior design place called Mari Mari. I’m not sure about the obsession with double affirmatives but at least Queen’s is a departure from tradition – I’m just glad they didn’t name it Queen’s Queen’s. 😉

lychee martini

The Queen Lounge & Café was serving complimentary Lychee Martinis to the guests the entire night as well as snacks on the house.

my martini

It’s made from Kwai Fei lychee, Absolut Raspberry, Cranberry and Pineapple juice with a menu price of RM 22. Queen’s has an impressive cocktail menu with a long list of martinis, shooters and wines.

martini strong

It’s quite nice, but I’m a bit of a monster when it comes to drinking so I was asking Peter for a special, customized Rendezvous Lychee Martini – just Absolut Raspberry neat, with a lychee inside. 😉

satay

Snacks were also served to the guests from the Queen’s Lounge and Café menu. There were Madurerse Chicken Satay (menu price RM 8)…

chicken

…and Thai Style Chicken Wings (list price RM 13) circulating amongst the guests.

ita ting

I bumped into a lot of people at The Queen’s – this is Ita Ting, an old friend of mine from way back in high school.

peter

Peter and Ah Tung, the two co-owners of the place.

grace chan

Grace Chan. OMG, I look fat in the photo.

girls

The beautiful people I’ve been bumping into in clubs around Sibu.

jimbo

Jimbo and some other buddies I hang out with on weekends.

datina ting

Datina Ting! I haven’t seen her since Chinese New Year and she’s getting married later this year. Congrats! 🙂

chinese dancers

The proprietors spared no expense in the launch of The Queen Lounge & Café – there were two troupes of dancers with two different sets of routines.

The first dance is a very Chinese traditional dance, transporting you back to the glory of Shanghai, post-Japanese occupation.

I liked the way they dominated the floor with grace and elegance, garbed in traditional Chinese costumes and armed with fans.

martial arts

The second set features svelte female figures draped in white and performing a martial arts inspired dance.

It’s a very lively performance, extremely full on and unique.

opening end

It was a great premiere for The Queen Lounge & Café and I have exhausted my repertoire of superlatives to describe the opening of the establishment. It’s going to be a great place to hang out at – the next big thing.

Congrats to Peter, Michelle and Ah Tung and all the best in the new lounge! 🙂

Lazy Saturday afternoons…

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lazy saturday

I just spent a lazy Saturday afternoon watching movies on DVD. I’ve not been to the cinema lately and have been trying to catch up on the latest movies from the friendly neighborhood (copyright infringement) DVD peddler. I made burgers with a twist (cooking post up soon) for lunch and we caught Mamma Mia (an enjoyable feel good movie if you like musicals and ABBA) and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (typical cheesy Adam Sandler stuff, but has its laugh out loud moments).

Anyway, I’m taking a break today since my higher cerebral functions have been diminished due to an excess of ethanol consumption last night. sixthseal.com will be back with two verbose and photo/video filled posts tomorrow, so in the meantime, entertain yourself with these selected HDS posts (which is something I haven’t been slacking on ;)):

My first ever paycheck – RM 1,790.32

Kempen Kerjaya PDRM @ Bukit Bintang

Nude Crab Burger!

S.H.E. collectible licensed mooncakes

The girls from China fiasco

RM 3,072.25 – paycheck for September

Gone fishin’

Genting Highlands Indoor Arcade

Genting Highlands Outdoor Theme Park

Taiwan Mei Shi restaurant review

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taiwan mei shi

Taiwan Mei Shi is a restaurant that cooks authentic Taiwanese cuisine. It is located beside Mitsu Tea House, which creates massive competition for this eating establishment. It’s truly amazing that it has survived thus far with that kind of contention. I’ve never been here before but Amy suggested going to this outlet for lunch, mainly due to the air conditioning, and she was driving, so we conceded.

taiwan mei shi interior

The place does not have English signage so I got her to translate – Taiwan Mei Shi literally means “Taiwan Food” and it opens up to an al fresco seating area. The ambiance of the place feels very homely, with wood tones and handcrafts dominating the expanse.

taiwan mei shi aircond

The eating establishment is not as small as it looks – it actually takes up two shop lots, although the second one doesn’t carry the sign board. The sliding doors to the right leads to air conditioned comfort – a blessing in the heatwave that Sibu is experiencing right now.

taiwan mei shi net

There is a net inside the air conditioned compartment with photos of the clientèle in compromising positions…eating. I asked about the photos and the friendly proprietor told us it is their practice to take photographs of happy diners and clip it onto the net for your viewing pleasure. I like that concept and got her to pose for a photo in front of the netting.

taiwan mei shi drinks

Amy had hot Milo (a malt drink) which came in a squarish cup that I found interesting. The quirkiness of the angular drinking receptacle makes the presentation unique. I had the Super Greeny Jasmine Green Bubble Tea just coz I found the name amusing. 😉

taiwan mei shi waitress

This is the obligatory shot with the waitress. I noticed that she didn’t look at the digicam in each of the four shots that my colleague took…and we finally figured out the reason why. She didn’t look us straight in the eye while taking orders too! Some people shy, okay? 🙂

taiwan mei shi food

Back to the food, we ordered four dishes:
Taiwanese deep fried fish fillet in sweet and sour sauce
This is good, and the sweet and sour sauce is not heavily tomato influenced and tastes rather like a BBQ sauce instead.
Salted egg with bitter melon
Everyone liked this dish – bitter melon (bitter gourd) is supposed to have a slightly bitter tinge to it, but it was offset by the salted eggs. Nice.
Sautéed beef with Szechuan preserved vegetable
I love tender beef slices and the mixture with the Szechuan vegetables (which includes a healthy dose of dried chillis) and claypot style serving does wonders to the appetite (and palate).

taiwan mei shi signature

This is their signature dish – Taiwanese Three Flavor Chicken. It came in a small claypot with whole garlic, onion slices and spring onions. I’m not sure what the three flavors are supposed to be – I could taste sweet and salty tones but the third flavor eludes me.

taiwan mei shi dessert

The proprietor was kind enough to serve us dessert for free – this is a special cincau (black jelly) mixture that’s supposed to be “cooling”. It came in a traditional Taiwanese cup for (sweet) soups – literally dessert. The two jellies are both made by the proprietor and not bought off the shelves, as she stressed (repeatedly).

taiwan mei shi jelly

It has the consistency of jelly, and yet maintains enough slippery fluidity to be slurp-able. Better still, the dessert was chilled, so it countered the heat while the thirst absorbing qualities of the second substance (which for the life of me I can’t remember) counters the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome inflicted by the MSG laden food. 😉

Taiwan Mei Shi is not a bad place to eat – the food is good and the service is great. It’s a little overshadowed by the other titan eating establishments beside it, but it’s worth your time to check out the food. However, the bill came up to RM 44.40 for the three of us, which is a very inauspicious number in Chinese numerology. 😉

Fireworks surprise at the girlfriend’s house

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universal battle

I remember having a batch of fireworks from the previous Chinese New Year and decided to give my girlfriend a surprise at 12 midnight last night (technically, today). I carried the firework cake configuration to her house with my car lights dimmed and called her to come out for a while. I had planned to deploy the fireworks just opposite the road outside the house – a hit and run affair, since fireworks are not exactly legal in Malaysia. 😉

universal battle deploy

This is “Universal Battle” a cake configuration of 13 shots (which is not an inauspicious number for the Chinese, unlike the Caucasians) and I drove over to her place with it on my passenger seat and dimmed my car lights when I got to her place before coming out with the fireworks and a lighter.

She was already standing outside when I lit the fuse and was quite puzzled by my “Shh…” motions and gestures to ask her to stay put and wait:

This is the fireworks surprise to cheer Melody up, which didn’t go exactly as planned…but she still enjoyed it. Happy half-weeksary after monthsary, dear! =D

Postmortem:

I could have pulled off the fireworks stunt a little bit better with proper planning. The place was a residential area and letting off (loud) fireworks at night led to a barking spree by all the dogs in the area which woke up just about everyone in the place.

I should think everything through at least three times due to my impulsive nature and stop doing anything while inebriated since it’ll probably not turn out to be the way I expected it to be.

I had prepared a text message saying “Surprise! I love you dear. Hope you enjoyed the display.”, but in hindsight it probably left a bad impression, despite the Hari Raya festive cheer since…well, letting off fireworks in the middle of the road of a residential house is not exactly the kind of stuff parents root for. 😉

She had the remote so it would have been much better if I had let her in the car, went to a public park, let off the fireworks and gave her a quick hug and kiss before sending her back. It would have been much more meaningful (and tactful) since I wouldn’t have woken up the entire neighborhood. She would have enjoyed the display better in a private moment and it would still retain the Surprise Factor (TM).

Oh well, I’ll do it better next time. 🙂

Melody enjoyed the surprise, and that’s all that matters to me. Cheers all!

Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2008

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hari raya header

This is the first day of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations – the new year for our Muslim friends. In Malaysia, “open houses” are practiced and it is common for different races to mingle and socialize during festive occasions.

hari raya 08

I visited a couple of houses this morning with a bunch of friends. I neglected to pace myself and ate too much at the first house, which resulted in me not being able to eat much at the latter houses. 🙂

raya 1

This is what I had – pulut (glutenous rice), satay, beef rendang, curry chicken and ayam masak merah.

raya 11

I also had some dessert after that – cakes and this confectionery made out of cornflakes that I really like. 🙂

raya ketupat

Our group adjurned to the second house after that where there is ketupat (a traditional Hari Raya preparation made out of glutenous rice, but different from pulut).

ketupat

This is what ketupat looks like – it’s made with pandan wrappings (a complicated procedure that traditionally lasts throughout the night) while pulut is cooked in bamboo over a slow BBQ fire.

raya breasts

I was presented this home made confectionery by the host and the following conversation proceeded:

Host: What does this remind you of, Huai Bin?
HB: Hmm…something that should be covered up. 😉
Host: You have a gutter mind la…it’s eyes.
HB: That’s what I meant, it should be covered up with sunglasses. What did you think I mean? Lingerie? 😉

raya feature

It’s fun, with witty banter and general fellowship. I have missed Hari Raya for two years in a row so it’s great to be able to go visiting again. I love this water feature that I saw in one of the houses that we visited.

Selamat Hari Raya 2008 to all readers of sixthseal.com! 🙂

AirAsia – The perils of mis-clicking

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air-asia-mishap

I booked a return air ticket from Sibu to KL just now and mis-clicked on the departure date. I didn’t really notice the erratum until I checked the itinerary in my email. I went back and made amendments to the chronological discrepancy and was charged RM 150 for the “Change fee” (blue arrow).

It came up to a total of RM 165 for the clicking malfunction (green arrow) which is fair enough, considering Air Asia’s status as a no-frills airline and it was my mistake anyway.

However, it would be great if AirAsia allows for changes to the arrival/departure date and time for a certain period of time after the initial booking – a grace period, if you will. I suggest allowing changes 15-30 minutes after the initial booking gratis before the “Change fee” is levied.

This will allow genuine mistakes to be resolved without the fiscal penalty while avoiding last minute changes from indecisive travelers due to the short grace period for changes.

Anyway, that’s my two cents on the matter. I’ll be going to KL to attend my sister’s wedding reception in PJ. She’s already married – the ceremony was held yesterday at Auckland, New Zealand and she’s coming back with her husband and my parents for the KL reception before heading home to Sibu for the reception over here.

I’ll see you all in KL! 🙂

Project Monsary – Pasta with roast beef and razor clams

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ingredients

Project Monsary was initiated yesterday afternoon to commemorate my monsary with Melody. I cooked pasta with roast beef and razor clams for our lunner (lunch/dinner as opposed to brunch). Razor Roast Fusilli is the official designation I gave the dish – not very romantic, but it kinda rhymes. 😉

You will need:

Continental Creamy Bacon Carbonara Pasta and Sauce
Fortune Razor Clams
Libby’s Roast Beef (“Great for Burritos”)
Absolut Vanilia
Wall’s Viennetta Kurma (dates) ice cream

alcohol

New readers of sixthseal.com might be wondering why there’s always alcohol involved in my cooking posts – the rational is simple, it’s better to drink and cook than drink and drive. 😉

You might need to get a mixer as well, I forgot that not everyone is an alcoholic and drinks it neat and straight from the bottle like me. 😉

butter

The Continental Creamy Bacon Carbonara is a ready mix packet of pasta with the fusilli and (powdered) sauce in the packet. It’s kinda like the Italian version of ramen (our instant noodles) – just add water (and milk). I also forgot about getting milk and butter for the pasta, so it’s a good thing I manage to scavenge some from the fridge at home.

open

I also couldn’t find the automatic can opener so I had to use a manual one. We started up by opening the can of Libby’s Roast Beef, which comes parboiled and steam roasted in gravy.

exhibit a

I have to admit that Melody’s skillz in using a manual can opener is much better than mine. Exhibit A above shows the can she opened.

exhibit b

Exhibit B here shows the one I did. I’m a “shortest distance between two points is a straight line” kind of guy and I guess it manifests itself in all aspects of my life…including opening tinned food. 😉

razor clams

The razor clams were drained from the brine in the can and placed in an appropriate receptacle. You don’t need to cook the tinned razor clams, it’s ready to eat.

roast beef

This is Libby’s Roast Beef, which comes in nice, huge chunks complete with gravy. You have to heat it over a saucepan before serving, but it’s best to do it when the pasta is almost cooked so it’ll still be warm when served.

melody

I also didn’t have a measuring cup and this is where Melody’s pragmatic brain comes into play – she counted the columns on a standard 500 ml bottle of mineral water and told me where I should pour up to.

milk

The recipe calls for 125 ml of reduced fat milk (it’s a good thing I have low fat milk in the fridge since I neglected to RTFM while shopping for the cooking project)…

water

…and 310 ml of water. I just mixed the two together in the mineral water bottle (which doubles as a not-very-accurate measuring cup) for easier handling.

milk water

The land of milk and honey, I mean, water. I added more milk and less water since I want it to be creamier and also coz I’m not sure “reduced fat milk” is a synonym for “low fat milk”. 😉

polyblah

The recipe also calls for “salt reduced polyunsaturated table spread”. Jesus Christ, why can’t you just say BUTTER! 😉

teaspoon

It requires a teaspoon of the “salt reduced polyunsaturated table spread” (Continental must have very high regards for the English comprehension standard of their consumers) and I could not for the life of me find a teaspoon in the entire house. It’s nowhere to be found. There is no (tea)spoon.

agaration

Melody teaches me agaration.

The results of camwhoring while estimating a teaspoon of butter:

camwhore

1. Butter starts slipping from knife
2. Cell phone falls into butter when mouth opens to communicate
3. Cell phone gets sticky
4. Butter drops to the floor

mixture

Anyway, after the mess was cleaned up, the bottle with the water and milk is poured into a saucepan and the butter (margarine, actually) added into the mixture.

timer

I set my timer for 8 minutes…

p asta in

…and poured the Continental Creamy Bacon Carbonara mix into the saucepan. The saucepan was put on low heat and stirred occasionally.

heat beef

The roast beef should be stir fried in a wok at the 5-minute point to ensure the chunks are nicely heated up before the pasta is al dente.

matching plates

This is Melody with matching Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse plates for our pasta extravaganza.

pasta done

The pasta was done at the 9-minute mark – apparently I put in too much liquid and it needed more time to coagulate with the low heat that I was putting it on.

razor clams in

The pasta was heaped onto the plate and the roast beef chunks added in on the side before the razor clams is mixed into the pasta. The packaging states that it serves four (4) but Melody and I didn’t even find it filling for two!

final dish

This is what the dish looks like when it’s done. The hot pasta will heat up the razor clams so it will be warm and appetizing. 🙂

final dish macro

Here is a macro shot of Razor Roast Fusilli – it tastes more tempting that it sounds. Melody loved it and so did I.

walls kurma

This is what we had for dessert – it’s the limited edition Wall’s Viennetta Kurma (dates) ice cream. It’s only available during Hari Raya Puasa since dates are traditionally eaten during the breaking of fast.

kurma ice cream

It tasted delicious and rounded up a great meal. We shared the ice cream and finished it in one sitting. There are dates in the dessert ice cream and it tastes great with Absolut Vanilia.

kurma macro

I love cooking together with Melody and it was a great Monthsary together.

monsary

Muaks! I love you dear! =D

Happy Monthsary!

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monsary

The 28th of September, 2008 marks our first monsary – Happy Monsary, Melody! 🙂

The etymology of monsary from an amateur etymologist:

Monsary is a concatenation of the words “month” and “anniversary” and it has entered my vocabulary through a friend. A quick Google search revealed the usage of this term amongst certain demographics in the Philippines. It’s the first time I’ve heard about it and perhaps a social indicator that our relationships don’t last very long anymore in today’s fast paced, WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) world. Relationship anniversaries have gradually shifted over time from annual to monthly, and I’m not sure that’s a good indicator.

Daysary anyone? 😉

Zuiho Daiko performance @ Sibu Gateway

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zuiho daiko header

Zuiho Daiko is a professional taiko (Japanese drum) group with intellectual disabilities from Nagasaki, Japan. The Rajang Community Service in conjunction with the Sibu Community Services Association (of which the Agape umbrella falls under – the SCSA is apparently the jumbrella) organized the event for the Kanowit, Sibu and Kuching leg of their tour.

The performers were amazing – as event organizers, we were concerned about the acoustics of the venue since it’s an open space, and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist (or the modern cellular biologist/nano physicist equivalent) to know that sound waves attenuates in such conditions.

enthusiastic

However, the taiko drums were really loud and it was an amazing experience to watch them perform.

The show started out with an enthusiastic sonic assault from the taiko drums. Taiko drums are traditional Japanese percussion instruments that were used in feudal warfare. The taiko drums beats signals the troops to advance, retreat or call on allies to jump in.

zuiho players

I love the speech by the Japanese representative that stresses how Japan is now a peaceful country and offers an olive branch to all nations. I guess that strikes a note with the older generation since there was thunderous applause after that statement. Historically, Japan invaded, I mean, occupied, Malaysia (and other Asian countries) during World War II.

There was another great publicity stunt by the leader of the taiko drum troupe when he jumped out from backstage with our local Sarawak drum to perform.

sarawak

The Sarawak drum was given as a souvenir to the drum troupe and this scene was totally unrehearsed and impromptu – the Japanese delegation did not even know about the souvenir until just before the performance when it was handed over.

…beats from the Land of the Rising Sun
(this was one of my press release titles that was rejected and I just wanted to publish it on my blog ;))

zuiho ending

The Zuiho Daiko ensemble performed for 40 minutes before the show ended. The area was packed, the crowd was happy, and overall the event was a success. It was tiring to be a volunteer for charity work, but strangely rewarding as well.

zuiho pose

The full postmortem of the event organization will be up soon. Cheers!

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