Holiday

Will be on a short holiday down at A Famosa Resort at the historical state of Malacca on Friday and Saturday. Tags: A Famosa Resort, Malacca, Malaysia, Travel, Holiday, Leisure

Dinner @ Chinoz, KLCC

Was relaxing at KLCC on Wed night. Decided to drop into Chinoz On The Park for dinner. My family ordered familiar food thinking it was a good meal on the way.

To our surprise, 2 dishes with the name of Scallop and Salmon in the menu was actually a serving of 6 slices on a plate respectively. Just too bad I don't have a camera phone at that point of time. Need to purchase one soon to shoot such situation and publicise it to the public.

When I shared this scenario to my friends just now while having supper at Mamak Bistro in Subang Jaya, my friends have the same feedback - that the waiter should have highlighted that the serving was small for a dinner meal. Though another friend said you can't blame the waiter as he could have assumed that you were there for a simple meal or to try out their food. Can't agree with the latter as the waiter took the order from each person and the meal was taken during dinner time at 7pm plus.

And the ridiculous small portion cost us RM30.00 for Scallop and RM25.00 for Salmon. My chicken pie meal (RM33.00) was not bad. The mushroom sauce that came with it really top it off. It could have been nice for me but have to share it out due to the shortcomings on the scallop and salmon. The waiter could have thought that this family was either stingy or do not know how to order. Yeah, true in a way we didn't understand the menu but the waiter should have been alert enough. Conclusion, he was not well-trained for such a restaurant that was trying to put itself into the map of fine dining restaurants. Even if we did order correctly, the price for that portion was still too much. I have eaten scallops/salmon with bigger portions and it didn't cost that much.

When I asked for the bill, the bill has an empty space under the base (total) amount for you to write in any tips. They still have the guts to ask for it when they didn't have a display a good service in explaining to their customers on the food that they have ordered. Why do I say that? One of those friends at the supper table that agreed with me went with us for fine dining at The Olive restaurant at Genting Hotel last year. The waiter who was assigned to us can actually described how was your order being prepared and whether the portion was enough, otherwise he would suggest something else to suit your appetite.

Do you think I will frequent Chinoz again?
Tags: Chinoz On The Park, KLCC, Food, Dinner, Kuala Lumpur, Scallop, Salmon

Visual Sharpness

There is a man's face amongst the coffee beans in the picture as below. Time yourself on how fast you can locate the face.

Within 3 secs - normal developed brain. Within 1 to 3 minutes - brain responding slowly. Additional protein intake will help to improve it. More than 3 minutes - brain reaction is too slow. You need such brain exercise more often to improve further.
Tags: Visual, Sharp, Brain

Life in Kuala Lumpur

Enjoying my time in Kuala Lumpur now. The quest for food has not taken me quite far but getting to taste what I have missed thus far while being based in Sudan. Be it at mamak, hawkers or chinese restaurant, have tried it.

Daily visitation at family/relatives/friends' house would be the main programme now. Normally will set visitation priority by the food being dished out especially during the lunch or dinner hours. No lah ..... just joking. More of catching up with old times.

I still do get "ang pau" (red packets stuffed with money) from a friend's parent. This is also the time where kids liked it as they looked forward to receiving those ang paus. Older kids will take this ang pau money to buy what they have been dreaming of. Younger kids portion will be kept by parents in piggy bank (nothing to do with the Year of Boar).
Tags: Chinese New Year, Kuala Lumpur

Happy Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai To All Readers,
In China, it's widely known as the Spring Festival. For chinese, the Chinese New Year's Eve will be a gathering of all family members for a reunion dinner. The start of my quest for food back in Kuala Lumpur.

Tags: Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, Chinese, Reunion Dinner

What Is Guts?

Once during the gulf war, the President of USA, and the Prime Ministers of UK and Singapore were travelling on a warship that was cruising near Saudi Arabia. The 3 were talking about how brave their soldiers were; their discussion soon turned into an argument where each wanted to prove the bravery of their own soldiers.

The President of USA said, "Let me show u what is guts", where upon he called his Colonel and said "Jump into the sea and swim 3 rounds around this ship!". The Colonel replied "Anything for Uncle Sam, Sir", jumped into the shark infested sea and swam 3 rounds around the ship, with the sharks chasing him like mad! After the successful 3 rounds, the Colonel came up to the deck and said, "I did it for Uncle Sam Mr. President!". The proud US President replied "That's what I call guts!".

The Prime Minister of UK was pissed. He had to show. He called his 3-star General and said "General, jump into the sea and swim 10 rounds around this ship!". The General replied "Anything for the Queen, Sir", jumped into the shark infested sea and swam 10 rounds around the ship, with the sharks chasing him like gila (lunatic!). After the successful 10 rounds the 3-star General came up to the deck and said, "Long Live the Queen!". The proud UK PM replied "Hurrah, that's what I call guts!"

The Prime Minister of Singapore could not tahan (control) further. He had to show that his soldiers have it too. He called one of his Private, Ah Beng and said "Soldier, jump into the sea and swim 50 rounds around this ship!".

The Private replied "Oi, you siao (crazy) izzit? I juz bought my condo and I am paying for it through my nose. Now, U want me to jump and die? If u want to Hao Lian (show off), you jump into the sea yourself ! @#*&%F!........

The Singapore PM grinned and said "Now, that's what I call guts!"
Tags: Jokes, Funny, Humor, USA, UK, Singapore, Guts

Restricted Sports For Viewing

Recently I came across a statement by a mufti (mufti (Arabic: مفتى‎) is an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law (Sharia), capable of issuing fatwa) that men could still watch women athletes as long as they are dressed decently. Why this statement arose?

PAS, an Islamic political party in Malaysia, was organising a Malaysian All-Women Games this coming weekend. The PAS's state women and sports committee chairman Abdul Fatah Mahmood mentioned that men can only attend the opening ceremony but NOT the individual sporting events. Did I read it wrongly or did the press published the wrong words? (source: The Star)

I can bet for sure that the attendance for the sporting events will be real bad. I wonder how is PAS going to re-coup the money dumped into organising this sporting events then if the ticket sales are restricted to women only. Most women are either housewives or working mothers and do you think they will take time off to watch a local women-only sporting events. I'm not against PAS's view to ensure that men don't lust by watching women participating in sports. Maybe they can implement a new competition ruling that women athletes must wear certain sporting outfits rather than prohibiting men from viewing the sporting events.

I joked with my malay colleague that he would be barred from watching the following women's sporting events in the coming Beijing 2008 Olympic Games:-
1) Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo, Swimming & Diving;
2) Volleyball
3) Athletics
4) Cycling
5) Gymnastics
6) Tennis
7) Rowing
and especially 8) Beach Volleyball

To which he responded "Only can watch Archery then? Anyway, for a mufti to have said something, it's a very strong issue already"

I'm wondering whether it's intended as a sporting event or a way to tell muslims that PAS is very pious with some subliminal message too. But kudos to PAS for taking the effort in trying to organise such an event. Seriously speaking, how did they picked the participating athletes? From which qualifying events? Please enlighten me.
Tags: PAS, Islamic, Mufti, Malaysian All-Women Games, Beijing 2008, Sports, Women