Watermelon PARTY & Family portrait!

Date: 30 April 2012
Day: Monday
Time: 5.30pm

It was the day where our engineering gang decided to take a family portrait at our beloved UNMC.

We had never taken one before. Some of us are graduating this year, including me. This capture the memory and the faces I know in these 4 years.

Our camera man--David Kong, as usual. He took 30 minutes to set up his camera and finding the best spot for the portrait.

Photo shooting starts when the sun is still shining brightly in the sky....

Taking the "family portrait" the N times....just at different location and with different background...

The photo shooting session last till the sun set.....

Night falls....time for the watermelon party~~~

We prepare lots of watermelon, some are infused with vodka.

Honestly, vodka watermelon is not taste as cool as it sounds.....

Card games.....drinking games......Xbox fighting game.....

Last party with those Notti. friends.... A happy and fun one~
The end? Not yet, I guess....still have USA work & travel to go.... =)

Spring Ball 2012 @ Nowhere

This was the first and last UNMC's annual dinner I have ever joined and it was the extraordinary one compared to all the other annual dinner uni held before. Usually annual dinner is held in some grand hotel and have after party at a club. This time, they moved the dinner to a cruise!
We had our annual dinner on Libra Star Cruise in Penang.... Yes, we drove all the way to north for the event. We were the first reach the port, waiting for the boarding gate to be opened.

First, there was a dragon mascot take picture with every single person at the port before boarding. Then upon entering the boarding bridge, they checked your IC and the special cruise identification card. This is how the card looks like...

After that, cleaned our hands with sanitiser and pass through a metal detection gate and put our luggage through a X-ray machine for security reason. Finally, enter the ship, leave our IC at the reception counter, yes...they holding our IC throughout the whole trip till we leave.

First thing, find our way to our room......

voila~ this is our room. We put everything out on table.....facial mask, lotion, make-up, curler, hair clip....

Had a nice hot shower, put on anti-shine mask, tie my hair, wear my dress, put on simple make-up. Everything seems ok. It is time to go...

Walked to the room next door, check the other girls. All pretty engineering girls, off we go...... =D
Meet up with the other engineering guys at lobby, everyone looked great. The dinner was a 4-course meal: salad, pumpkin soup, Morocco chicken and chocolate cake. The food was so-so, actually we quite disappointed in the food. Anyway, we had great great time on the cruise. Camera filled with our faces and memories....

After dinner, changed to our casual wear, start the exploration. Lied the sun bench at the deck, enjoying the sea breeze, looking at the beautiful moon in the sky, chatting with friends and this is one of the best time of my life.....

A bright morning, we woke up to. Too bad we did not have time to dip ourselves in the jacuzzi. 

We leave the cruise around 12pm, and head for lunch at G hotel. Spend the next day in Penang, eat and rest and eat again. Happy memory +10 after this trip~ Continue fighting with my FYP after this weekend escape. =)

Eat eat @ KimchiHaru

I should post this long time ago....I totally forgot about it~
it was Valentine's day.....
all restaurants were fully booked.....
we passed by this Korean restaurant at IOI Boulevard....
It looked not bad and most importantly....there was table available!

I didn't have much expectation on the food. But it came out quite good and the price was quite cheap as well...
Maybe it was Valentine's day.....they could not cope with such a huge flow of couples customers, service was very slow.....

We ordered bibimbap (Korean mixed rice), kimchi soup and stir-fried pork.

Just like any other Korean restaurant, there is always some side dishes for every meal....

The bibimbap was simple and good.  It was just rice with many types of topping and Korean chilli pepper paste.

The chilli paste was served separately. You can add the amount you want to your taste.
I love the chilli paste, it was the most essential ingredient in bibimbap. I spammed a lot in the rice, just the taste I missed so much....

The stir-fried pork was good as well.

Pork was thinly sliced and cooked to perfection. It didn't dried out and still remained tender.

It was a satisfying meal at low cost. Whole dinner only cost us RM50+.
Another happy full meal with darling. =D

Eat Eat @ Melaka

It was a last-minute planned trip. This trip was almost called off, but still we managed to plan everything out in 1 day. Whole trip just depended on a not-so-updated GPS. Anyway, we reached Melaka at 6pm on first day. We had our Melaka food check list in mind before this trip.

1. Seafood at Portuguese Settlement

I planned to have dinner at Capitol Satay Celup, but the queue was at least 1-hour long and we were very hungry. Therefore, we go for our second plan of dinner. There were total 10 restaurants and they were numbered 1 to 10 accordingly. Once we got down from car, the restaurants' staffs approached us and hard-selling their shop to us.

Before we made our decision, we took a walk at the jetty and of cause took pictures.

At the end, Restaurant number 4 had the honor to prepare the dinner for us.

We ordered garlic and chili clam, butter garlic scallop, Portuguese grilled fish and stir-fried vege.

Our favorite was the garlic and chili clam.

 

There was slight hint of sour taste in the juice from clam. It tastes great! yum yum~

The fish was too big for 2 people, it was around 700g. The fish was nice but it was too "jelak" to finish it.

The butter garlic scallop was not bad too but I prefer it to have the garlic blended in butter sauce rather than just scattered on top.

Whole dinner cost about RM90.

2. Cendol with gula Melaka

My dear was craving for dessert after dinner, so we went for dessert-hunting at Jonker Walk. It was around 9pm and most shops were closed at that time. We went to Luiz Cafe to have a bowl of Cendol.

I am always biased against those fancy looking cafes that they charging high price for not-so-good food. However, this cendol surprisingly tasted good.

Before going back to hotel, we had a walk along Sungai Melaka (Melaka River) and Jonker Walk.

Back to hotel with more pictures in our camera. =)

3. Chicken Rice Ball

Next morning, we woke up early to have famous Hainan chicken rice ball as our breakfast. We went to Chung Wah restaurant (中华茶室) located at the start of Jonker walk (where the small fountain located). This shop is known to have good rice ball but bad chicken. This statement is verified! We had serving of chicken and rice ball for 2 person.

The rice ball taste really good that it could be eaten on its own, it also didn't break apart when we hold it up with chopstick. Chili sauce was good as well, spicy and sour. Yum! The chicken was a bit tough and rough. Still, this shop is quite popular.

Actually Hoe Kee chicken rice ball is another famous shop located at Jonker Walk, very near to Chung Wah. This shop is known to have good chicken but bad rice ball.

I tried it 3 years back, the rice ball was not as good as Chung Wah's one. This shop wasn't opened in that morning. We went in just to try their chicken when we return to Jonker Walk around 3pm. The chicken was tender and smooth, it's much better than Chung Wah's chicken.

After breakfast, it's time for sight-seeing.

Ruins of St. Paul Church at the summit of St. Paul Hill

Christ Church Melaka

4. Mille crepe at Nadeje Patisserie Cafe

Tea time!!! Must try Melaka's famous mille crepe at Nadeje. We went to the branch located at Jalan PM 4, Plaza Mahkota.

We have spend 3 hours there in this cosy cafe and  tried quite a few things on their menu.

                                                                Mille Crepe (original)

This is GOOD! The cream between crepe was smooth and light and evenly spread.

                                                   
                                                                  Strawberry tart

This tart is not as good as Levain's one. I think the tart shell was too wet and the pastry cream looks bad.

                                                                      Okonomiyaki

This is good too. The seasoning just right to my taste. =D

5. Capitol Satay Celup


Everyday there is a long queue at roadside outside the shop. We experienced and saw the long queue before, it's something you can google easily. So, we reached the place at 5:15pm, and of cause we got a table immediately. Within another 20 minutes, the queue started to form.

Satisfying dinner~

I want big prawn! I want big prawn! I want big prawn! I want big prawn!

This shop is famous for all these good expensive seafood with RM0.90 per stick. This is special treat by shop owner after we sit there for quite some time and got lots of eyeing from hungry people at the roadside.

6. Mille crepe at Nadeje Patisserie Cafe  

Oh yes...we return to Nadeje after satay celup dinner for another round of great dessert before leaving Melaka. This time we ordered paraline mille crepe with rose tea. I forgot to mention that their tea are all imported, very nice and fragrant.

Great dessert gave a perfect ending to our wonderful Melaka trip of 2. =D

Hello 2012

It was almost 12am, we started hearing some firework sound from outside....

So we quickly ran out from the house and hope that we could see it....

there was a countdown event at Serdang too...

the beautiful night view of Serdang....

firework started~~

here's the end of two O one one....the start of new two O one two.....

new year resolution?

eat well sleep well love well live well... =D

New year's eve cook~

I don't really like joining the crowd at the street or shopping mall and count down for new year....

I had my own way celebrating and welcoming 2012 --> cook at home for my dear family~

Planned a simple menu for the day...

1. mushroom ravioli topped with dill butter sauce

I wanted to make the size of wantan....but accidentally turn it into BIG UFO..... =/

and the pasta sheet.....of cause I made it myself...

first time making it, it came out not bad.... =D

2. chicken and leek pie

this time I bought the ready made puff pastry from Cold Storage....

it's very hard to make puff pastry. I tried before but it didn't turn out well....

3. meatball pasta

I use minced pork for the meatball and then add in caramelized onion, garlic and a dash of red wine...

I stuff the meatball with a bit of bacon and pinch of cream cheese... they add extra flavour in the meatball.... =]

Lastly, came my favourite part of dinner -- dessert!!

4. caramel custard pudding

it's so easy to make, just milk and egg and sugar. I make it like steamed egg..

Yes, I used steamer instead of oven, which lead to shorter cooking time... =]

it still came out very nice...smooth and springy...

dinner was so satisfying~

I am saying both the process of eating and preparation... =D

Early Xmas gift

Early Christmas gift for myself!

Voila~

I went to Gramedia Book Store @ The Mines to hunt for cookbook. Guess how much I get them for? Originally, all three of them cost RM321.30. But I got it for RM96.60!!!

Super dirt cheap and great bargain. The shop is going to close down and it is having clear stock sales now. All English and Chinese books are 70% off.

However, the sales has been going on for quite few days, not many books and stationary left. I am so lucky to get the book I want. =D