Year: 2008

Laksa Shack

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laksa shack

Laksa Shack is a franchise operating along the trend of establishing hawker food fare in the air conditioned comfort of malls. It has outlets throughout Malaysia and specializes in laksa, as the name implies.

laksa shack interior

Laksa is a noodle soup dish originating from Malaysia and has two major variants – curry laksa and asam laksa. The first one is santan (coconut milk) based while the latter is a medley of sour and tangy notes from tamarind. Sarawak laksa is an offshoot of curry laksa but I tend to prefer the asam laksa more.

laksa shack asam

Asam laksa has no coconut milk and is based on a fish paste broth with tamarind, which gives it the distinctive sour taste. I find that very appetizing, and it’s served with translucent thick rice vermicelli instead of the thinner version.

laksa shack operation

Laska Shack is a quick service operation and offers Asam Laksa, Johor Laksa, Curry Laksa, Laksam Kelantan, Tom Yam Laksa, Laksa Nyonya Melaka, Sarawak Laksa and Laksa Lemak Singapore. The soup base is all pre-cooked and kept in heated receptacles at the counter so they just need to pour the right gravy on the right kind of noodles.

laksa shack drinks

I went with my girlfriend to the outlet at MidValley Megamall and we shared a Laksa Set (RM 14.90) which comes with the laksa of your choice, 2 pieces of otak-otak and Sirap Bandung Cincau. The drink (left) is a rose syrup drink with milk and cincau (black jelly). I ordered another drink (right) for RM 5.50 – Ipoh White Coffee Cincau.

laksa shack set

This is what the Laksa Set looks like. The laksa ordered separately costs RM 9.90 each and the drinks will set you back RM 5-6 so it’s usually more cost effective to order the popular laksa set. The two pieces of otak-otak came really fast – the operation at Laksa Shack is all very streamlined.

laksa shack otak

Otak-otak (literally brains-brains) is a fish paste snack wrapped in banana leaves. Laksa Shack offers the steamed version and the otak-otak is (very) highly processed, leaving very little taste, as is oft the case in mass produced bulk food.

laksa shack asam laksa

The Asam Laksa at Laksa Shack is surprisingly good for a quick service restaurant. The soup base is tantalizingly sour and comes with pieces of fish. I find tamarind based broth to be very appetizing and drank all the soup in the dish.

laksa shack asam laksa macro

I didn’t quite like the fish pieces though – it seems to be sardine to my untrained palate and sardine is one of the few aquatic lifeforms I do not like to eat (due to taste rather than any sentimental PETA/Greenpeace ideology).

laksa shack end

You can probably get better laksa for a lower price at regular hawker stalls but Laksa Shack offers the experience (and convenience) of eating hawker food in air conditioned comfort inside a mall. I have seen this trend take off and I suspect the end is nigh for the novelty value of hawker-food-given-premium-treatment concept eating establishments.

It’s going to jump the sardine soon, mark my words. 😉

Couple T-shirts

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couple t-shirt booth

I’ve always been a hopeless romantic at heart and I love stuff like couple T-shirts. Levi’s produces designs every Valentine’s Day and although it may seem a little cheesy to some, I, for one, think highly of couple T-shirts. 🙂

couple box

I’m not adverse to PDAs as well, and I love to show my affection to my girlfriend. I was on the plane back last night, hugging and kissing her and one person who was sitting at the same aisle probably noticed us doing that but kept his peace.

couple t-shirt

Anyway, as we were waiting at the airport, imbued with heng tai (brother) courage (someone was driving him), he rolled down his window and said “Eh, never kissed before izzit?” (in Mandarin) before driving off. This is the local equivalent of “Get a room!” which I’ve never really understood. It doesn’t offend me, I think of them as jealous souls who need to get a girlfriend. 😉

couple us

I’ve always thought of affectionate couples as adorable, and I love seeing them as it reinforces the “hopeless romantic” Aries personality trait of mine.

I don’t know about other people though, how do you feel about it?

My sister’s wedding @ KL

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kl wedding

My sister had her wedding reception in Restaurant Oversea at Jaya One in PJ last Saturday. I was in KL for the weekend to attend the wedding – there will be another one this Saturday in Sibu, where I would be the MC for the night. I have been instructed to tone down on my jokes coz I commented about her cleavage in the KL wedding and she nearly went into hysterics and rushed into the toilet to fix her dress. Heh!

wedding table kl

My sister is the polar opposite of me, personality wise. 😉

me sister kl

I’m going to cover the Sibu wedding ceremony (which I haven’t figured out how to do while being the MC at the same time) so I didn’t do much at the KL wedding, which was more on the groom’s side, so here’s a montage of the events:

montage

This is my new extended family:

group kl

I had a pretty embarrassing pre-dinner moment when the person manning the reception counter was on the phone and couldn’t seat us. I gave an off-hand sarcastic comment to my date and my aunt in KL which I’m sure she heard. I found out later that the receptionist was my sister-in-law. Major faux pax. Not a good way to start a relationship, I’m sure.

Oops…

The Habanero chili challenge

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habanero chili

The Habanero chili pepper is rated as one of the hottest chili peppers in the world. I took the Habanero chili challenge at Frontera Bar & Grill at Jaya One. I ate the entire chili pepper raw in two bites and didn’t think much of it. Larry, the proprietor, told me that it only hits after five minutes…

Jesus Christ, I must admit, the chili started stinging at the 2 minute point and peaked at the 3 minute point. My eyes were watering and my nose was running.

habanero chili aftermath

I felt a little queasy after that and my taste buds were desensitized for about 15 minutes, but it was fun, and I would do it again. Take the Habanero chili challenge @ Frontera!

You man (or woman) enough? 😉

Why do I promote eating outlets for free?

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free or fee

This question was posed to me during my sister’s wedding dinner just now when I talk about my blog.

It startled me coz I’ve never thought about that or seen it that way before. Sure, the free or fee mindset is very rampant nowadays in the commercialization of blogs. Why do I do this for hotels, places, events etc etc without a fee?

…coz I don’t see it as promoting it for free. The world would be a sad place if everything is done for profit instead of passion, if the exchange of currency is involved in every single venture that we do.

Also, I see sixthseal.com as a springboard for me to bigger and better things – I’ve always wanted to be a personality on Discovery Travel & Adventure, going to different places and trying new things, experience new cultures.

I haven’t given up on that dream yet. 🙂

AirAsia Airline Food Review

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air asia food

I took the 9:15 am flight out of Sibu to head over to KL for the weekend. My sister is getting married later tonight in PJ so that’s why I took three (3) days unpaid leave to extend my support over here. Anyway, I bumped into a friend on the flight (actually bumped into quite a few people) and sat beside her and decided to sample the new AirAsia menu.

air asia platters

AirAsia has come up with some nifty marketing that ties in their menu with brands like 1901 hotdogs and other franchises. The Snack Attack hot meals packs have also been given a facelift, with standardized features. The hot meal packs now come with full color transparent heat seals with photos and the name of the dish.

fried rice

This is 1902 Gourmet Food Asian Fried Rice with Chicken Satay (RM 9). AirAsia has a history of partnering up with established catering establishments for their meals – Sri Melur Jaya is a renowned restaurant in Selangor that provides a large portion of their hot on-board meals.

aa food 

I had the 1902 Gourmet Food Asian Fried Rice with Chicken Satay (it’s actually mini satay sticks) while my musically inclined friend opted for the Sri Melur Jaya Nasi Briyani with Curry Chicken (RM 8). We both shared the Sri Melur Jaya Roti Jala (RM 6).

aa roti jala

The Sri Melur Jaya Roti Jala turned out to be the best dish of all – taste and presentation wise. It’s quite spicy, which is always a plus point for me.

aa food final

The total came up to RM 27 with a bottle of mineral water. I could have eaten better for less, but eh, it was fun to binge on food on an airplane and I’ve wanted to check out the new menu for quite a while.

P/S – sixthseal.com is still a bit messed up from the backups. Some images are missing but I promise I’ll get that fixed once I go back to Sibu. I’m currently in KL. Cheers!

Let me go down on you…

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downtime

…no, get your mind out of the gutter. 😉

sixthseal.com was down for nearly two days coz my previous host suspended my account without notifying me of the reason(s) or replying to any of my emails. I think it’s due to the content from the archives, but somehow, from browsing through web hosting forums, it seems that the hosting company in question has a less-than-stellar reputation, to say the least.

I know I have been overloading their server (it seems that they only have one) from the CGI pulls and I have noticed my blog getting slower and slower especially when commenting. That would probably have been the prime reason my account was suspended without any feedback from their end and thus, I have lost all the posts and comments.

However, thanks to Google cache, I can start rebuilding the blog, and I will be doing that over the days. I have paid for two years with my previous host but it was relatively cheap (about USD 120) so I guess you get what you pay for. I have switched to a VPS now, which was what sixthseal.com was running on before I went for my enforced vacation. 😉 It’s one of the best and though it’s not cheap, at least I can rely on it for good uptime and performance.

My apologies to all readers of sixthseal.com for the downtime. I will need some time to start rebuilding the blog since I don’t have a backup (in the grand tradition of sixthseal.com =_=!!!) so please bear with me while the process is slogging along. I will be concentrating on bringing the 2008 posts up first before resuming the Hari ini Dalam Sejarah project.

Thanks for reading, and my apologies for ranting a bit, I feel like I owe everyone an explanation. Cheers! 🙂

The phoenix will rise again…

It always does. 😉

Manscaping – Retail therapy for men

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g2k

I’ve always wondered about the concept of retail therapy for our female friends. There is an increasing trend of terms like “metropolitan” and “SNAG” being thrown around for men who likes to dress well and look good. I have never doubted my manhood and have no qualms about applying lip balm or hand lotion in full view of the entire office.

I have purchased (via proxy) a G2000 shirt (black – 60 % cotton, 40 % polyester) that just came out for RM 159. I did not get the positive stimulus from physically being in the store – trying out different shirts, preening in the fitting rooms and actually making the purchase. However, the wonders of modern technology (3G video calls) enables me to pick and choose three new arrivals from G2000 from more than 1,000 km away.

g2k lunch

I just got the shirts yesterday and I wore the black one to work this morning. I was surprised to register feelings of contentment, general well being (almost bordering on euphoria), and renewed self-confidence while driving to work. I walked straighter, smiled more and was in a more positive mood the entire working day.

I can understand the concept of retail therapy – purchasing a new garment that makes yourself look (and feel) good, but have never been a strong proponent of it due to my less-than-healthy fiscal status. It never ends there either. I have also found myself dabbling in the mystical arcana of manscaping.

g2k hair

Manscaping is a concatenation of the words “man” and “landscaping” and you can probably figure out what the term means from the two root words. I have newfound fascination with landscaping the follicles on my legs to make the filum look more streamlined. I am also venturing into the nether regions to try out my ideas of color, form, line, scale and texture on the foliage growing there. 😉

Retail therapy and manscaping might come across as a little bit on the gay side to our excessively heterosexual men out there, but I can understand the appeal of wanting to look good. 🙂

sixthseal.com aesthetic tip of the day:

Deodorant works for 24 hours. You don’t actually need to apply it first thing in the morning after showering. Instead, try applying it at night, just before you go to sleep. It still retains the hyperhidrosis management properties of your underarm regions and the scent (of the deodorant, not your armpits) is not as strong/overpowering the next day after your morning shower.

g2k dinner

Hah! I bet you didn’t know that a chao ah beng blogger knows these things.

Excuse me, I’m a Chao Ah Beng (Premium Edition), okay? Got study in Australia one. 😉

Project 3 1/2 Inch: Burgers for brunch

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ingredients

I spent a nice weekend lazing around at home with Melody and decided to throw together some burgers for brunch. Well, here at sixthseal.com, all our cooking projects requires a catchy name and an irreverent goal, so this was dubbed Project 3 1/2 Inch – to make a burger that would have a height of at least three and half inches. 🙂

You will need:

Beef burger patties
Unbreaded crab flavored claws (this adds bulk and height, as well as taste)
Six (6) eggs
Burger buns
Arrack Putih (local distilled 50% alcohol)

arrack putih

Melody insists that Arrack Putih (translated as “bai jiu”) is meant for cooking. I vehemently disagree, having had more than my fair share of drinking cheap local liquor. It’s RM 5 – RM 10 for a 640 ml bottle containing 50% distilled liquor that tastes like vodka.

down

I have to applaud the local distilleries for marketing a high proof alcohol that doubles as an excuse for cooking purposes so stay-at-home moms can live in denial about their drinking habits. It’s the local equivalent of “just a nip of the cooking sherry”. 😉

drink

To prove my point, I downed a full glass of the alcohol neat, while Melody had 1/4 an inch of the stuff, also neat. She agreed it tasted like vodka too. This begs the question as to why we’re drinking the cheap stuff and the answer to that is simple…times are hard, my friends. 🙂

thaw

Anyway, after being imbued with some Dutch Courage (or Irish Motivation rather), I fired up the gas stove and heated some oil (coz we used up all the butter in the previous cooking expedition) in a frying pan…before remembering that the beef burger patties weren’t defrosted yet. Thus, we waited 30 minutes for it to thaw out and started with the crab claws.

crab claws

There happened to be some debate about how this should be done. I was in favor of steaming it, which she said was ridiculous since the metal instrument was way too tall for the wok to be of any use.

steam

She was all for boiling it in a pot of water with some salt, since that would not only quick defrost the crab claws but we could turn off the gas and control the heat so it’ll still be warm when the burgers are done.

boil

I agree in principal, but boiling will result in an unacceptable loss in the taste of the crab claws. Still, I went along since the ethanol was kicking in and I was in a cheerful disposition. =D

fry

Thus, with the disarmament peace talks reaching a positive conclusion, the beef burger patties were fried in vegetable oil. We fried four beef patties – two for each of us, while the crab claws were being boiled tasteless. 😉

oil

I’m not much of a health conscious person, which is pretty obvious by the way I live my life, but Melody insisted on lining the plate with tissue paper before putting the beef patties in to soak up the excess oil.

egg

However, there is on thing I excel at – The Ancient Art of Breaking an Egg with One Hand (!!!). =D

This is the sixthseal.com guide to breaking an egg with one hand. It serves no purpose whatsoever, but makes you look like you know what you’re doing in the kitchen. Chicks dig it. 😉

egg trick

Anyway, I soon realized that six (6) eggs would not make a paper thin wrap around the burger patties Ramly burger style due to the volume so I decided to just fry it all and make an omelet of sorts.

swirl egg

The sheer volume of the unborn chicken fetal material was a bit too much for the wok to handle, but I have a trick I learned while frying eggs in primary school (I love eggs!) which basically involves moving the liquid pooled inside the recessed wok out to the sides so it’ll cook faster…

eggs done

…and then use the spatula to move the cooked egg back in so more liquid egg can be displaced into the treasured hot surface area to the sides. It’s called The Swirling Egg Trick (TM). I’ve been doing it for ages. You’ll have an omelet up in no time using this method.

drain

Meanwhile, Melody started draining the crab claws. I didn’t have a strainer but she has some tricks up her sleeves as well, and managed to get the crab claws out. She dropped one into the sink though…

crab claws cooked

Crab claws are actually made of fish meat and flavored with crab flavoring – whatever that is. The flavoring industry has made leaps and bounds in their technology and I’m sure they can make an artificial flavoring that tastes exactly like you. 😉

me cutting

The problem with the kitchen at my place is that there’s really no proper cooking implements to speak of…bread knifes were nowhere to be seen. I tried my hand at cutting through the burger buns with a regular knife…

knife

…which didn’t work out so well,

melody cut

so Melody did the cutting instead.

process

The burger bun was sliced in half, and the beef patties layered on top of fried eggs before everything is topped with crab claws, peppered with…er, pepper, and doused with chilli sauce.

burger

It’s a huge gooey burger, but it tasted delicious!

burger project

It’s 3 1/2 inches. We measured. 🙂

eat

I must admit…I had a bit of a hard time eating it though…

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