Flora Fest 2007 - Putrajaya, Part 2

Leaving my shaded place, I joined the many others on the street to take better shots of the parade. Even that had its own set of frustration; there were many photographers already out there and I had to make sure that I was not in the way of others. Sadly though, others were not as considerate and were in my way. Furthermore, there I was holding my tiny camera compared to those with gigantic cameras and some of them made it known through their actions that I was not "worthy" to be amongst them.

Melaka's - with its very own coconut tree!
Royal Malaysia Police band
Another shot of Penang's winning float

Selangor's fruity float

DBKL's troupe - I don't know the significance of why they were bouncing these giant balls!

Perak's
Some troupe members still looked so cool under the hot sun!

The heavily "guarded" Putrajaya float - maybe some ministers are in it?

I only took my shots after they were done with theirs and I was thankful enough that I manage to get some decent shots at the end of the day. Problem was, by the time the parade was over, I had a case of heat-stress and lost my appetite for lunch! (Can you imagine that???? Me? Losing my appetite?).

I wished I was dressed this cool and pushed around to watch the parade. Ha ha ha...
I felt like joining these two kids to cool off after the parade but I don't think I would look cute rolling around on the ground. I might just get apprehended by the police! LOL!

I drank a gazillion litre of water and couldn't finish my food. After reaching home and taking a shower, I crawled in bed and took a 3 hour nap! The heat only left me the next day and I felt much better since then. Oh, of course, I found my appetite too! Ha ha ha....

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. ~ Adabella Radici

Flora Fest 2007 - Putrajaya, Part 1

Taking a break from food posting for this round, I thought I should blog on my trip to Putrajaya for the Flora Fest 2007; held on 27 January. Kota Bahru's food trip will resume after Flora Fest's two parter post as there are quite a number of photos.

KA and I decided to go for the Flora Fest parade just the night before after we told ourselve that it was better than sleeping in! It was a feat waking up at 5.10 am when I slept at 2am! KA and I decided to have dim sum for breakfast at Loong Seng in SS2 before we started our journey to Putrajaya, just to make it more worthwhile to be up so early! We reached Putrajaya at about 7.30am and wondered how tourists got to the place as there were no proper road signs indicating where the parade would be. There were banners at lamp posts everywhere; north, south, east and west which would confuse first time visitors. Well, KA drove, following some cars (we saw families and we guess they must be going to the parade too) and found the way to the right area.

Waiting

Reaching the area almost at 8 am, we ended up standing at the tail end of the parade line. The crowd jostled for a good spot and yours truly didn't really have much choice for a photo spot. By the time the parade started after the speeches, it was almost 9am. I wasn't taking good shots in the first half of the event and contemplated getting a new spot. It was a really hot day, luckily, KA brought an umbrella along which proved to be god sent as the sun was out in full force. That made me stay rooted to my spot till I got a bit frustrated by an auntie (who had earlier been at the back of me but somehow ended up in front of me). She then opened her big red umbrella, thus ruining my shots as in was getting in the way! Not having a good angle plus the auntie's "intervention" prompted me to join the rest of the photographers (amateur and professionals) on the street itself. Initially we were all behind the barricades but more and more photographers walked out onto the street to get better pictures.

Photos are at random...

Sabah's - Theme Trophy

Selangor's

One of the many bands - all in sync, all impressive!

DBKL's - Creative Trophy
Perak's troupeA cute touch to the band's uniform

Penang's - Premier Trophy
Up close and personal - Labuan's Flower Power!

To be continued...

Kota Bahru Food Trip Pt. 1

When K asked if I wanted to follow her back to her hometown, Kota Bahru, I replied with a resounding YES! I had gone there about 10 years ago and had a good time, crossing the border to Thailand too. The food was good and I looked forward to another round of it after a decade! K had told me that there wasn't much to do in KB except to eat! Yes, I couldn't help being disappointed...Ha ha ha ;p. On the contrary, I was excited about the food adventure that I was about to embark on.
We took good old Air Asia but the flight was delayed for about half hour and K and I talked about the previous trip we made to KB while waiting. After calling her brother, KS, she said that we will be hitting the first food stop once we touchdown!
When we arrived in KB, sure enough, KS whisked us off to our first meal. He took us to Lim Siong Kee located at Jalan Hamzah (opposite KB Mall). I remember this shop vaguely but I do remember the beef noodles well; they were good! The lady who did the cooking asked me where I was from since I was busy clicking away. She was amused when I told her what I normally do with the pics.
We had the dry kway teow (flat noodles) and plain beef balls. The beef balls come in two sizes and we ordered the larger ones; more oomph! The dry kway teow was nice; it's something about the dark sauce that they use, you know what I mean? With some shredded chicken meat, topped with spring onions & fried shallots, the noodles tasted as good as it looked. The beef balls were firm, not too springy and the soup was lovely. The beef broth is one of the better ones that I've tasted. As we were finishing the noodles, K told me that we'll eat the beef noodles again before we leave KB!
They also have other type of noodles; curry, prawn and chicken at RM3 each but we usually stick with the beef noodles (the beef noodle is RM4)!. The stall opens from early morning till late lunch (while stock lasts!).

To be continued...

Kam Fatt Noodles, Tengkat Tong Shin

Along Tengkat Tong Shin, one can find lots of good hawker fare. There's Ngau Kee Beef Noodles, Meng Kee's famous Char Siew, Adik Beradik Chua's Fish Ball Noodles and Pork Noodles and Restoran Chin Hai's Sar Hor Fun which also has other noodles (I like the curry wantan noodle "sang meen" here, will blog on that another time). There's also this one stall located further down the road. Just walk pass Meng Kee, then pass Adik Beradik Chua and you'll find Restoran Kam Fatt (another non-halal place).
They sell lots of stuff. On the five foot way, they have the usual fare of limited dim sum available. They also sell chee cheong fun, loh mai fan (glutinous rice), carrot cake and an assortment of local kuih. The stall further in sells noodles and economy rice with some pretty tasty looking dishes available. They are open for breakfast early from 7plus am till late lunchtime (the last I know of).
This lady originally ran the place together with her family, serving noodles only at the lane next to this shop lot. Business got better and in time, I was told, they bought the whole shop lot next door (the floors above it too, that's where they live!) and expanded the business, providing more variety. I usually come here for the noodles; soup and curry, depending on my mood. What I like about this place here is that you can choose what ingredients you want with your noodles. Besides the all important deep fried intestines, they have foo chook (beancurd sheets), square & round pork balls, fish balls, chicken and cockles. I might have missed out a few. They had me at deep fried intestines! LOL!

I normally order foo chook and shredded chicken meat and a separate dish of the crispy intestines. I don't like it soaking in the soup as it would then be no longer crispy. This is usually my ritual when I eat noodles here:-
1) Dunk a few of the intestines into the bowl.
2) Down a spoon of noodles along with one or two of them.
3) When "stock" runs low, repeat Step 1, followed by Step 2.
4) Repeat cycle until finish.
Lyn having a sore throat that day, opted for bee hoon soup with shredded chicken meat and fish balls. Both the soup and the curry are good, whichever one fancies. The soup version in my opinion comes across as home-cook stock, which is good. Not sure if you know what I mean. I like eating the soup noodle with their slightly sweet chilli sauce which seems to go well together. This is the only place where I opt for chilli sauce with the soup noodle over the fresh cut chillies/cili padi. Oh, they also serve good kopi peng, which is local ice coffee (I have mine "gau"-strong!).

They have been around for maybe more than 30 years; I recall that I've been eating from this stall since I was a primary student! I remember well that Dad used to pack the noodles home for me. Ahhh....happy memories; refreshed each time I frequent this place :o)

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.
~ Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Delicious, 1Utama

Had been kept busy, selecting and loading pics up in the Il Divo forum, hee hee...Well, bits and pieces of the concert are still being played in my head. They have left and life has to go on! So, it's back to food for me....Ha ha...

After reading Tummythoz's post on Delicious, I was reminded to post on it too. Us food bloggers could well be eating at the same place and at the same time, not knowing! I ate at Delicious in 1Utama a couple of months back when we had a small gathering.
The five of us ordered the Chicken Salad and the Mushroom Toast as starters. We loved both of it, the salad was refreshing with tangy dressing and as for the mushroom toast...well, I just love mushrooms!
We had pasta as mains and ordered Seafood and 2 plates of Duck Confit (the latter being our favourite). The Seafood pasta was pretty mediocre compared to the Duck Confit.

I like the slightly sourish sun dried tomatoes in the Duck Confit.

For desserts, we had two orders, opting for my fave Banoffee Pie but I couldn't really remember what the other dessert was called but it was a moist Chocolate cake ala mode (with lots of fudge!) to me.
We had a late lunch there and stayed on way past tea time...it was nice and the group of us had a great time chatting away (till almost dinner time!).

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off
the dessert cart. ~ Erma Bombeck

Il Divo Live, KL Convention Centre

Czar and I went to KL Convention Centre last night to watch Il Divo in concert. For those who have been stranded on an island/consider music a sin/been too preoccupied with food rather than music, this is Il Divo (pic from http://www.ildivo.com). Read more about Simon Cowell's brainchild HERE.

From top left, clockwise : David Miller (USA), Carlos Marin (Spain), Urs Bühler (Switzerland) and Sebastien Izambard (France)

Arriving there around 7.30 pm (an hour before show is suppose to start), we decided to grab a quick bite downstairs, planning for something more filling later after the show, Ngau Kee Beef Noodles! Ha ha ha...By the time we came back up to make our way to the hall, the entrance was filled with rich and famous people(and some famous but not so rich, hee hee...), video cameras were rolling and cameras flashing. We tried to figure out who's who but I could only recognize a few faces whereas Czar being the "Datin" as she is knew most of the faces.

Well, we settled down to our seats (uh...quite a distance from the stage, ha ha ha...) and waited for the concert to begin. It was 8.30 and we were still waiting. Anyway, I had the pleasant experience of having Zabrina of The Amazing Race Asia sitting next to me for a short while before her friend asked her to move to another area. Czar and I chatted with her for awhile and Czar wanted to find out who the winner was and I told Czar that Zabrina couldn't possibly tell us as she has been sworn to secrecy! Zabrina was glad that we understood as she said that she is constantly asked about it. I asked whether Andy and Laura were really such villains in real life. I will not write down what she said but I personally told her that I was happy that they were eliminated and that it could be that their English accent that made them seem more villainous than they really were (you know, just like in the movies, most villians speak with an English accent!). Ha ha ha.....Oh well, I'm still rooting for Joe Jer and Zabrina or Andrew and Syeon, our two Malaysian teams who are still in the running. It was almost 9 p.m., when the lights dimmed, signalling the start of the concert. The audience gasped in excitement and the show began. Apparently, a lot of us were taking photos of them and no one stopped us. I must have taken about 100 shots of them! Since I was so far away, the pics aren't that clear and sharp (taken without flash). I don't think the audience around me would have been thrilled to be blinded by my camera flashes 100 over times! Ha ha ha...
The acoustic was very good and I could feel the delivery of emotion through Il Divo's renditions. Czar was moved to tears by their music. Well, she is definitely a bigger Il Divo fan than me ;o) Carlos's baritone voice boomed through and sent the notes soaring, whereas David and Urs' tenor voices were slightly softer. My fave, Sebastien seems to be the more playful one as he danced cheekily now and then to the more upbeat numbers.
Accompanied by 4 musicians and a small scale orchestra, Il Divo delivered the goods and made lots of Il Divo's fans happy. No slick dance moves or special effects were needed, just their four heavenly voices belting out song after song, serenading the audience. My favourite tunes were Mama, Nelle Fantasia and Passera. They came out for an encore with another two more of my favourites, Regresa A Mi (Unbreak My Heart) and Somewhere. After being "sophisticatedly" (meaning more gentle, not like by some usual teen crazed fans) mobbed by the VVIPs in front (the ladies gave them garlands, flowers, gifts and posed for photos with them), they bade farewell after 1 hour 20 minutes and left the stage, giving the audience a memorable night indeed. I bet sales for Il Divo's albums, especially their most recent release, Siempre, will increase significantly in the coming weeks.

As we made our way out of the building, we were surrounded by local celebrities and the who's who again. Czar took a photo with Chef Wan who was friendly and chatted with us for awhile. As luxury cars pulled up one by one; picking up the elite of the crowd, Czar and I walked to the modest automobile that was in the nearby car park. LOL! We then made our way to Ngau Kee's stall for that perfect ending to the perfect night! ;p

Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory -
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Update : So far I have had thousand over hits on this post, coming from the Il Divo forum. A note to say Hi to all you DIVOted fans and Divas. And yes, I will try to gather more pics that I took and load them up in another link. I will inform the forum when that's done. Till then, hope you enjoyed reading the article and staring at the photos! ;o) Viva Il Divo!

Ah Keong Chee Cheong Fun, Damansara Uptown Hawker Centre

I love Chee Cheong Fun (CCF) and one of the few places (apart from Taman Cheras) I go to get a bite of this is at Damansara Uptown Hawker Centre. This is Czar's favourite place too. We find the sauce nice (especially the chilli sauce!) . For those who fancy something spicier, they have curry too. It's pork free and people of all races eat at this place. On a busy night, there'll be a long queue as we wait for our turn to choose what we want and then hand our plate over to Ah Keong, who's also helped by his wife.

We also love the crispy Foo Chook skin (beancurd skin)!

But one of the other reasons I like to eat here is that they also have Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun (however, minus the pickled green chillies but beggars can't be choosers). For this type of CCF (also known as Anson CCF), I usually eat it without the sauce , just with lots of sesame seed and a bit of oil and soy sauce.

The Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun, with bits of turnips, dried prawns and fried shallots.

To find Ah Keong's stall, go to the right side when you enter through the middle of the entrance. Walk through till almost towards the end, it's opposite Steven's Corner (where one can also get decent Western meals at reasonable prices).

The second day of a diet is always easier than the first. By the second day, you're off it.
~ Jackie Gleason

Peculiar Post #3

Talk about the love for food! Check this out! He's so round and cute! Hee hee....

"Hercules" the dog food lover!

PORTLAND, Ore. - A 20-pound stray cat whose girth got him stuck in a pet door while trying to plunder some dog food was reunited with his owner Thursday.

Owner Geoff Ernest said the tubby tabby Hercules (called Goliath while at the animal shelter) went missing while Ernest was in Seattle for a lung transplant six months ago.

Jadwiga Drozdek, who lives in suburban Portland, found the feline stuck in the dog door of her home a few days ago, helped free him and gave him a plate of food on her patio.

Read more from the original article HERE....

Every dog has his day - but the nights are reserved for the cats. ~ Author Unknown

Interruption

Guess all the Daniel Henney's pics overloaded my senses. I'm down with a bad case of cold. Am feeling slightly better now but was totally knocked out earlier.

But you know what they say, Fight Fire With Fire! And Im gonna do just that. So gals, look at this till my next post! I should be back on my feet in no time. Oh, by the way, I passed my exam! Now, there's another in February! Hmmph....

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. ~Irish Proverb