bloggers meet

Nuffnang Bloggers Dinner @ The Apartment, Downtown

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apartment downtown

Nuffnang invited several bloggers to The Apartment Downtown @ Suria KLCC for dinner. It’s more of a meet and greet social dinner as a prelude to discussing some Serious Issues (TM).

apartment starters

We were served Cranberry Juice (great for UTIs) and a variety of starters which includes stuffed squid, pita bread with a curious combination of butter and cheese, stuffed eggplant, and chicken liver pate.

apartment pamsong

I think the last one scarred Pam a little…she’s a very PETA type person. I hesitate to label her as a tree hugger coz the reason she doesn’t like pork and stuff like that is due to the offense it instigates to her olfactory senses.

apartment mains

The main dishes arrived after that with highlights being the lamb, creamy melt-in-your-mouth cous cous, salmon with udon noodles and mussels cooked in curry. I notice a distinctive apprehension at my table whenever I took a mussel. I realized it’s due to my poor motor coordination in opening up the shell and spearing the flesh inside. Pam actually warned me not to send the poor crustacean flying. I think she also mentioned something detrimental to my well-being if any landed on her. 😉

apartment dessert

The dessert was individually served with chocolate mousse, meringue (reminds me of Pavlova actually), and some peanut butter infused creation. It was great!

We adjourned upstairs to have a discussion about several pressing issues relevant to the blogsphere…

apartment tzia

…before the camwhoring started in earnest. This is Tzia, featured blogger of the month.

apartment audrey

Audrey, of 4 feet nine fame!

apartment pam

Pamela Song a.k.a. my nemesis! We’re just pretending to be nice here one. Posing for the digicam, usually we can be seen disagreeing vehemently. 😉

apartment carol

Carol Koh! I less than 3 you! =D

apartment cindy

Cindy…

apartment ringo

…and Rin.

apartment camwhore

Plus a lot of other camwhoring shots!

apartment group

It was a great night of fellowship among the Nuffnang staff and the bloggers. It’s kinda like church and cell group meetings, except we don’t have a Jesus. 😉 It’s great for building rapport and all that corporate speak. I’m looking forward to the next one already. 🙂

The man is in town

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dabido meet

David was in town and an impromptu meet was scheduled at Starbucks in Centerpoint to celebrate the second (third?) coming of dabido. I haven’t actually met him in person before, but I’ve seen his comments everywhere (he’s like the greatest commenter of all time).

dabido me

This is David, better known as dabido. He hails from Perth, Australia and we have a couple of mutual friends.

dabido fa

This is the very elusive FA…she will be flying off to Singapore (again). I shall be in Bali, BTW.

dabido suanie

Suanie! I suspect the only reason we meet in Centerpoint is coz it’s close to her house. 😉 I can’t complain though, it’s close to my place as well. Heh!

fa pose

FA with her patented pose…

fa fu

…and her other classic feature. 😉

dabido balance

This is David teaching us the arcane magick of balancing a Frappuccino on his stomach.

Pizza Uno

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pizza uno

Pizza Uno is located at Centerpoint PJ, the center of the world. I went to Pizza Uno last night with Yee Hou, Suanie, Zoe, and Hannah. BTW, does Hannah have a blog?

pizza uno sangria

This is Sangria (RM 34), which according to the menu is a mixture of fruit juices, wine and brandy. The four of us had this, I won’t say which four coz one person is a minor. :p

pizza uno food

Zoe and Hannah shared the Alla Carbonara (RM 22).
I went for the Ravioli with Chicken and Mushroom Stuffing (RM 24) which is only available during weekends. Absolutely fabulous!
Suanie had the Deep Fried Whole Spring Chicken (RM 26), described as a tender young bird.
Yee Hou went for the Aussie Pizza (RM 32), which is rather authentic – it has egg on top.

pizza uno suanie

This chicken looks a bit obscene with its legs spread wide open like this.

pizza uno take out

This is the first time I’ve seen people take off their tongue piercings to eat – Zoe and Hannah does that.

pizza uno obc

Lainie joined us later and had the Oven Baked Chicken (RM 24). She didn’t even finish it.

pizza uno me

Here’s an anecdote from the night – some poor old soul came in and asked us for money for food. I offered her my slice of pizza but she declined. It seems that she prefers cold, hard cash. Heh!

pizza uno us

The Pizza Uno manager on duty chased her away politely after that – “Auntie, can you please not bother the customers?”. I thought that was pretty funny.

pizza uno four

The drawing of the four (with tongue piercings).

pizza uno panna cotta

This is the Panna Cotta (RM 8) we had for dessert. I forgot to bring my digicam, but lucky for me, Suanie practically lives at the mall (or close enough anyway) so all photos here – courtesy of her digicam. Thanks Suan! 🙂

pizza uno feed

It’s not everyday you get the honor of being fed by Zoe. 😉

pizza uno zoey 

Zoe sends her love.

Breaking news: Osama bin Laden apprehended in Malaysia, transporting to Singapore tomorrow

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costume

I have just received word that Osama bin Laden has been apprehended and will be heading down (heavily guarded, of course) to Singapore at 10 am tomorrow morning. He will be making an appearance at the vPOST-Nuffnang Christmas Bash 2008 tomorrow night. I hear he’s staying at the Marriott Hotel at Orchard Road for the night.

props

Please do not expect the Osama bin Laden you’ve been used to seeing in the infrequent videotaped appearances he has made in channels like Al Jazeera. The US forces has shaved off his beard (and some of his hair) and made him take off his headscarf. He is expected to be blindfolded and restrained on his way to Guatemala Bay. He will also be wearing a military issue bulletproof vest instead of his usual camouflage jacket and his AK-47 will naturally not pass Singapore customs.

Osama bin Laden is so 2001, so thanks to Edmund, he has received a total makeover. I had a great idea for a 2008 Poh Huai bin Laden and the storyline that goes with it and his costume shop is a treasure trove to manifest my sudden fit of inspiration! 🙂

The Nuffnang Malaysian bloggers are heading down to Singapore tomorrow.

See ya all in the Sin City! =D

Centerpoint, PJ is the center of the world

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blogger meet pj

I went to Starbucks Centerpoint after an event to meet up with people I haven’t met for a good three years – Kimberly, Suanie, and Paul Tan. Other bloggers in attendance were KY and Eiling, who were with me at the event (post tomorrow), ShaolinTiger, and KY’s roommate. We were there from about 10 pm till 2 am.

eiling cigars

I smoked one of Eiling’s cigars which probably costs more than what I’m paid in a week. 😉

outing aftermath

I paid a huge price for it though. My girlfriend pushed me around a little when I got home and kinda got one of my surface bar piercings to bleed.

Outing aftermath, sial.

See how much I love you guys and sacrifice so much for you all. :p

Camwhoring with Ringo Tan of Cheeserland

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ringo tan 1

I was in KL about a month ago to…er, attend to my sister’s wedding arrangements and met up with Cheesie at O’Briens before I was scheduled to fly back home. I have gotten a new external hard disk and while transferring photos over, I realized that I have several shots with Ringo after lunch.

ringo tan 2

Cheesie left me with a very good impression, she’s very down to earth and has a bubbly personality, which makes for a great dining companion. 🙂 Anyway, we went outside for a bit of camwhoring after lunch – some of the photos were taken by passerbys at 1U but Ringo has perfected an excellent technique of taking photos.

ringo tan 3

She taught me how to take self portraits of us using one extended hand, which I never really got the hang of. It’s her 4th blog anniversary at her own domain so on head over and wish her a happy blogniversary. 🙂

Hail to the Queen of Cheese! 😉

Tasting Room wine bistro review

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tasting room

Tasting Room wine bistro is located at Bangsar above Wine Cellar. It’s a wine bistro operated by the same people who runs Wine Cellar. The interior is very tastefully decorated and there is an al fresco balcony with seating arrangements for the nicotine brigade.

tasting room interior

I went there for dinner with Nicole and Grace. I was supposed to meet up with Nicole earlier at The Curve for a late lunch after finalizing the details for my sister’s wedding in KL but she couldn’t make it so we decided on an early dinner at Tasting Room instead.

into the future

Tasting Room has a themed wine tasting menu called Wine Flights. I went for the Into The Future 3-glass experience. It’s described as “A unique opportunity to time travel” and comes with the tag “Please ask for more information or be really adventurous; take the flight and see where you end up!”

future making

Into The Future is priced at RM 35 and includes a 2006 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier, a 2016 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier and a 2026 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier (!). You’re supposed to compare the taste between the original 2006 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier (the control glass) and see how well the wine ages with time.
 
into the future paper

The three glasses of wine (all originally the 2006 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier) are arranged on a paper liner and the sommelier starts the process of aging the wine 10 years into the future for a taste test comparison and then 20 years into the future.

chef du vin

I’ve read about this in Nicole’s blog and it gives you the opportunity to sample wines many years into the future by using a contraption that ages wine automagically at a rate of one year per second.

future 66

I also asked to age the wine 60 years into the future to beat Nicole’s 50 year old futuristic wine and ended up tasting a 66 year old wine from the future. It did lose much of it’s taste and was rather flat in nature but hey, I drank a wine from the year 2066! =D

nicole wine

Anyway, we started off with a bottle of wine that Nicole recommended. It’s a sweet white wine with a really long and foreign name which I couldn’t for the life of me commit to memory.

spaghetti raw egg

I opted for the Spaghetti Carbonara (RM 26.90) which is served with a half cracked raw egg in the middle of the dish. I was impressed by the presentation. You’re supposed to stir in the raw egg into the pasta.

fois gras

Nicole had the customized version of the Pan Seared Fois Gras (RM 29.90) which is described as “lightly fried with enoki mushrooms and expertly paired with delicate salmon roe quiche”.

pasta duo

Grace went for the Pasta Duo (RM 29.90) which is “an unusual combination of squid-ink angel hair and green tea soba pasta served with moist and juicy pan-seared scallop”.

second bottle

We ordered another bottle of wine and ended up staying for more than two hours. The total came up to about RM 400+ which is pretty reasonable, considering the two bottles of wine that we ordered. I think this is the second most expensive dinner I’ve ever had, the first was for a bill of RM 500+ for two. 😉

tasting room us

Tasting Room is a great place for gourmet food cooked with passion and fine wine and the ambiance is perfect for conversation. The proprietor is friendly and the sommelier is very helpful. It gets two thumbs up from me.

KL Trip Day 2: Nicole Tan and Chelsea Asia Tour 2008

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nicole

I was busy with the preparations for my sister’s wedding for most of the day before Nicole texted me and asked if I was free for dinner. She was the one who wrote the rather alarming article about me in The Star and now that the fallout is (or seem to be) relatively over, I wanted an autographed copy of the column. Heh!

me nicole

Well, in all fairness, it really wasn’t her fault coz I consented to the interview but the headline was a bit on the sensationalist side. Nicole is a really nice person in real life, we had dinner at Tasting Room in Bangsar and polished off a couple of bottles of wine. The full review of Tasting Room wine bistro will be in a separate post.

driving nicole

Anyway, at some point during the night, it was decided that we were to drive down to Shah Alam and catch the Chelsea – Malaysia friendly match after all. Nicole wanted me to drive her car down (!). I was a little shocked and awed by her faith in my driving skillz, especially with the number of collisions I have under my belt and the two bottles of wine plus several other glasses during a tasting session in me.

me driving

I did find it quite amusing that I’m actually qualified to be a designated driver – I’m probably the worst candidate for that. I’m also secretly honored by Nicole’s faith in me driving her car down to Shah Alam, so I put on my best Sober Expression (TM), and took the 1 hour drive down to the Shah Alam Stadium. I noticed that she did take precautions to fasten her seat belt though. 😉

nicole car

I didn’t quite know my way around KL and Shah Alam so Nicole was giving directions from the passenger seat while Grace slept at the back. It took us a little more than an hour to arrive due to traffic congestion and the poor road signs to the stadium where Chelsea was playing. I also remembered missing an exit three (3) times in a row due to my inebriated state and having to make a long U turn back only to miss it again.

chelsea tour

Shah Alam Stadium was packed full of Chelsea (and the odd Malaysia) fans and I had a ticket in addition to the five (5) I gave out in the Heineken Chelsea contest so I decided to go in and take a couple of photos and videos.

pitch

The stadium at full capacity.

second goal

Chelsea scores the second goal of the match. 2-0.

snacks

Snack vendor catering to the crowd.

frenzy

Frenzy – the minority Malaysia team supporters lamenting a missed opportunity.

final score

Final score: 2-0 to Chelsea.

Watch the video of the Chelsea Malaysia friendly match. This is the Chelsea Asia Tour 2008 – Malaysia event.

The girls weren’t keen on going in due to the crowd and I couldn’t find the other bloggers so I left after a bit to drive back to KL. I heard the score was 2-0 to Chelsea when we headed back to Wine Cellar to have some more to drink. More about that in another post. Cheers!

KL Trip Day 1: Meeting up with the Nuffnang team and Julian Hopkins blog research project

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bangsar heights

I arrived in KL last Monday to do some stuff related to my impending sister’s wedding. I was supposed to meet up with Grace at 6 pm after she gets off work coz I was crashing at her place at Bangsar Heights for two nights, so I had an entire afternoon to kill.

julian hopkins

I arrived at around 12 pm and met up with Julian Hopkins, who is doing a blog research project. He’s doing his doctorate in cultural anthropology about bloggers and wanted an interview with me. Read more about this research program about bloggers here.

soo kee

Julian wanted to bring me to this famous duck rice stall but it was closed so we ended up eating at the equally renowned Soo Kee Ipoh Chicken Kueh Tiaw soup.

soo kee stall

I expected the kueh tiaw to be like the Sarawak type of kueh tiaw (which is thicker) but the ones served here are much thinner and it’s really good.

soo kee chicken

The broth was absolutely infused with chicken soup and it’s very tasteful and not too filling as to induce post lunch coma.

soo kee soup

I love this stuff, I haven’t had it before since I’m not a big fan of soup dishes…until now. The Soo Kee Ipoh Chicken Kueh Tiaw soup really is that good. Anyway, Julian brought me to Monash University after that for a taped interview, which took up most of the afternoon. He kindly sent me back to KL Sentral so I could meet up with Grace. Julian is a really nice person so help out with his research program okay? 🙂

grace ong

Grace took me back to her apartment in Bangsar Heights where I stayed for the next two nights. I wasn’t really comfortable with the idea of sleeping with my future in laws since I smoke and all that and Grace’s room is a smoke-free room (as in you can smoke for free ;)).

jalan alor

I wasn’t due to meet up with my sister’s fiancé’s family until the next day so I hooked up with the Nuffnang team for dinner at Jalan Alor.

alor eat

Timothy suggested Restauran Sun Chui Yuen which is a bit of a tourist trap.

alor beer

I had a couple of beers…

alor food

…and we ordered quite a lot of food.

alor nuffnang

L-R: Samantha, Timothy, Nicholas, Yee Hou, Grace, Huai Bin (me).

Thanks for the dinner Nuffnang! It was great meeting up with all of you. The Nuffnang team are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. 🙂

Lunch date with Cheesie

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obriens

I was due to fly back to Sibu last night and since I had some time to kill (and also coz I wanted to meet Ringo ;)) I managed to get in touch with her and meet up with the big cheese at O’Briens in 1U.

obriens cheesie

This is the delicious dairy product herself, in her stealth mode disguise. She has the exact same cell phone as mine.

obriens interior

O’Briens is known for it’s gourmet coffee and handcut sandwiches…

obriens counter

…and their tagline “See your food made fresh in front of you”, kinda like an open kitchen thing, except it’s an open counter of sorts.

obriens salmon

Cheesie went for the healthy option, with the Smoked Salmon on Shambo (RM 13.50) under their Low Fat Lifestyle menu, interestingly dubbed “Guilt Free Food” with everything having under 3 grams of fat.

obriens peach

This is the Peach Blush (RM 10) that she ordered. My first impression was that she seems to wear a lot of bling. This girl has color coordination – most of the articles she wore has gold trimmings!

obriens toastie

I went for the (much) less healthier option of the O’Briens Crambo Club Hot Toastie (RM 16.50). The sandwiches at O’Briens are all served with crisps, which is a nice touch. I love putting Pringles in sandwiches, it makes the texture with white bread (untoasted) very interesting. Crispy!

obriens coffee

I also had the large Cappuccino (RM 8.50) which comes with a shamrock froth finish. I have seen Guinness doing that for draft stout in some bars, it must be an Irish thing. 😉

obriens us

Cheesie has a very bubbly personality and I felt very comfortable talking to her. We also had a lengthy intellectual discourse on methods of improving Cheesie’s Wardrobe. Heh! It was great meeting up with you Ringo! Jesus, now I sound like a fanboy. I have also noticed that I will be needing Botox on my forehead very, very soon. 😉

…and no, this is not an advertorial nor was any payment (monetary or otherwise) arranged for me to do this Cheesie post. =D

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