Kakiis Night Out @ Euphoria, MOS

euphoria

I went to the Kakiis Night Out event last night at Euphoria by Ministry of Sound. I think it’s the only non-smoking club in town. I went there with KY and Eiling as my team members.

check

I am honored that the organizers felt my 27-year-old self worthy of an ID check for a free voucher of Carlsberg Draft…until I realized they asked everyone for ID.

pinky tham

Pinky Tham! I less than 3 you! OMG, that was so random. Moving on.

interior

I haven’t been to Euphoria before but the place has a great sound system and excellent lighting. It’s operated by the esteemed MOS in London.

The Kakiis event kicked off with a performance by the Break B’Boys. They’re quite good at what they do and it got the crowd pumped up for the games. Kakiis Night Out has 10 booths with 10 games where you go and get footprints. DJ Steve from FlyFM was the MC for the night and briefed the crowd on the challenge.

games

The games range from Kakiis Extreme (with electric shocks and dubious sea creatures and worms) to the more intellectual games like Kakiis IQ. You’re supposed to complete all 10 challenges. I didn’t go there expecting to win, but I was surprised (in a good way) that Eiling is rather competitive by nature and wanted to finish all the games. πŸ˜‰

beer

I wanted a drink before that though, I just had two and needed a bit more of the amber fluid inside me to be in the right frame of mind. I managed to bum quite a few beer coupons off random people. I didn’t know it wasn’t free flow or I would have started drinking at home first. πŸ˜‰

team 37

Meet Team 37! We actually won one of the games and walked away with a prize, which we didn’t expect.

The most interesting challenge of the day is the Kakiis Tornado where a blower blows pieces of paper around in an enclosed phone box type contraption and we grab the pieces from the air. We had to wear goggles – watch our team in action!

food

Dinner was provided and we stopped to grab a bite to eat before continuing the games. “Dinner” was mainly finger food without any substantial carbohydrates except for the cakes and desserts. Coke and other soft drinks were free flow but they ran out of ice at one point.

pinky us

Me: Look Pinky, you have like two leng chai sitting beside you!
Pinky: Where? Where got leng chai?
Me: …..

worms

Anyway, we went back to attempt to complete the games after that. The more memorable is the one where you have to dig for coins in covered boxes. Two contains water and eels and the other two contains sawdust and sago grubs. There are four groups and each group of three people tag-teamed the way through.

shock

This is the game where we won (fastest time). It’s a contraption which delivers an electric shock with the two mesh wires inside. You have to reach through and grab a ping pong ball to spell out…

kakiis win

…KAKIIS. I got shocked twice, KY got it once and Eiling didn’t get the electric treatment. I think you need to touch both the wire meshes for it to deliver a shock. We thought we did pretty well on this one but didn’t think much of it.

chill

There was also a challenge called Kakiis Chill where you dip your feet into a small pool of ice-cold water and attempt to fish out ping-pong balls with your feet spelling KAKIIS. Fun.

girls

This is the best-dressed group IMHO – they were wearing reindeer antlers and matching outfits. They won one of the video awards too.

yodel

There was a yodeling competition going on at center stage while we were outside fishing ping-pong balls with our toes and everyone got a 16 GB Pendrive Sliq so our group immediately joined the next game…which was cat walking and showing off our kakis (kaki also means feet in Malay, wordplay on the social networking site).

I’m sure there are at least two compromising videos (and probably some photos as well) of me taking off my shirt and showing my beer belly (potbelly?) for all and sunder to see. I was about to start taking off my belt too before DJ Steve from FlyFM shook his head. πŸ˜‰

Our team won the Kakiis Shock challenge though. I think we all knew we had a chance and looked at each other before the winner for that challenge is announced…and true enough it was Team 37!

pendrive

We each snagged a 16 GB Pendrive Sliq for having the fastest time in that challenge. Team 37, FTW!

…and no, we did not meet Mr. Fariz there. πŸ˜‰

Centerpoint, PJ is the center of the world

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. πŸ˜‰

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

Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant @ The Gardens, MidValley

fong lye

…a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. I hooked up with Ringo, KY and Xin and arranged for dinner at Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant. It’s been over a month and I realized I haven’t even blogged about it until I was browsing through my archives. I didn’t manage to get a shot of Fong Lye’s exterior too, coz the place was closing when we finally left. I have been meaning to reshoot the exterior without the shutters half closed, and went back last weekend.

fong lye interior

Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant is a franchise operation that is constantly packed, even late at night when we went. It’s pretty amazing how these Taiwan/HK/Chinese eating establishments can maintain such a high capacity in the current economic situation. The place is literally packed when we arrived. Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant has different seating arrangements to cater to different groups of people and we got seated at the corner before ordering our food.

fong lye pork

KY had the Pork Intestines Set Meal (RM 17.80) rated as spicy by Fong Lye. He was seated too far away for me to taste his meal but he thought it was pretty good. I can’t actually remember if I ate his pork or not, since we were staying at the Boulevard Studio Suite at that time and I took advantage of the free beer at the Executive Lounge.

fong lye dim sum

Ringo had the healthy sounding Hot & Spicy Dim Sum (RM 16.50) after most of what she ordered wasn’t available. I remember having some of her dish – it was pretty good, except for the tofu. I don’t like tofu. I’m more of a meat person but two pieces of something I had from her order was great.

fong lye beef

Xin, for some mysterious reason, did not order a main dish at all. She had the Beef Roll (RM 10.30), which we all had a piece so she was left with only two slices. It tasted pretty good though but a tad overpriced for what is tantamount to a souped up popiah.

fong lye beef noodle

Doris went for the Taiwan Braised Beef Noodle (RM 19.80). It is served with several side dishes, like most of the meals. The side dishes contain various snacks and vegetables and makes the presentation immaculate. The Taiwan Braised Beef Noodle is spicy and piping hot, with a rich broth that must have taken a herd of cows to make. πŸ˜‰

fong lye chicken

I went for the Three Varieties of Supreme Diced Chicken (RM 19.80), which turned out to be the best dish of the night. The chicken is tender, and cooked to perfection. This dish is also amazingly spicy, something that always rates highly in my books. The chicken claypot is literally full of chillies!

fong lye chicken macro

I love this dish and would do a return visit to sample it again (despite it numbing my taste buds for a while). Those who tried it also agreed and pronounced it Good (TM).

fong lye dessert

Ringo also ordered this weird desert called Peanut Snow Mountain (RM 8.30) that we all shared. It tasted gooey and saccharine sweet and elicited quite a number of jokes related to scat (not skat, the card game, and certainly not scat as in “go away”). It was alright as a dessert though.

fong lye us

The total came up to a RM 151.35 for five people, inclusive of a beer on my end and drinks for everyone else. Fong Lye Restaurant is a great place that opens till (relatively) late so check it out at The Gardens @ Mid Valley if you’re into Taiwanese food. It’s definitely worth a try.

Why do I promote eating outlets for free?

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. πŸ™‚

Snail mail from Nicole Tan

nicole mail

I just came back from a really enlightening conversation about life and relationships in general to a dark house and picked up two pieces of mail – one was for my car insurance premium for RM 1,704.60 (=_=!!!) which I have to pay before next month and the other was a padded largish envelope.

star metro

The writing at the back says “Sorry it took so long, but here you are”. It’s the autographed copy of The Star from two months back with a feature of me by Nicole on sixthseal.com.

star leaf

I have read the article in the online version of The Star and was surprised at the more positive key in the actual paper.

sixthseal

The front page Saturday Metro text has Drug blogger turns over a new leaf” which is a much better angle than the “Former drug blogger comes clean about his past” headline that the online version features.

star metro kissed

I asked Nicole for an autographed copy of the paper and she finally got around to sending it to me. πŸ˜‰ The article is an interview about sixthseal.com and my experience as a drug blogger in the past and how I’ve turned my life around.

nicole auto

Nicole wrote “To Huai Bin, Hope you continue to thrive in life, be happy in whatever you do” on the top of the article…

nicolekissed

…and autographed the bottom with “You’ve been Nicolekiss-ed!!” πŸ™‚

Thanks for sending me the papers Nicole, much appreciated! I like the article in the off-line version, it’s much more positive.

Harian Metro

Well, at least it can’t get any worse than this. πŸ˜‰

Camwhoring with Ringo Tan of Cheeserland

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. πŸ™‚ 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. πŸ™‚

Hail to the Queen of Cheese! πŸ˜‰

Tasting Room wine bistro review

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. πŸ˜‰

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

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. πŸ˜‰

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

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? πŸ™‚

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 fiancΓ©’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. πŸ™‚

Lunch date with Cheesie

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. πŸ˜‰

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. πŸ˜‰

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

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...