Happy Birthday Malaysia

I've been to so many places,
no matter how shitty, sucky, poor, 3rd world Malaysia is..
I am still proud to be a Malaysian....
so cheers to Malaysia....*hic*
*another exuse to pop a bubbly...hic*

FINALLY...
after more than one month.. from design to completion,
my sideboard is ready to be installed together with both the Liebherr wine chillers...
Did not expect it to be so long...about 11 feet plus plus...
so the poor boys had to carry it all the way up...
YES.....to 14th floor via the staircase.
Can't see the wine chilles right? That's the idea....very well integrated.
Later at nite, had a late dinner around 9 pm at Cilantros.
It's a superb Italian restaurant.
A bit let down coz my favourite starter no longer in their menu....
pan seared unagi with foe grais!!!
so I have a better idea.....my home chef will learn to make it for me then.
I had something waaaayyy to rich for my heart.....
squid ink pasta with sea urchin.
angel's hair with uni and seaweed.
wagyu cheek with mushrooms.
Sorry folks..only remembered to get some pics after satisfying my stomach.
this is new on the menu...baked apples dunno-wat with earl grey ice cream...
I was too intoxicated by then to know what they served.
Met a new sommerlier there and he was previously from Les Amies..
What a small world!!
He just came back from Burgundy and shared some notes on the wine we brought...
We brought:
CLOS DE LA ROCH fr Domaine Armand Rousseau.
It was a good year in Burgundy...1996.

Sommelier's comment:
mineral, salt and lasting on the palate bla bla bla bla *I can't digest coz too intoxicated*...very very good. Excellent...*continue sipping*
*JS was soooo generous to let him have a glass*

Monkey's thought:
very easy to drink, fruity on the nose and I prefer the nose than the palate....*but i guessed the year wrongly...shart*

JS's note:
.......*no comment coz sooo fascinated by his own wine*....CEH!

As at this stage, this is the most expensive wine I've tasted...I can buy another Dior bag...*choke*

2 years ago..
I teman-ed u for your *important* job interview,
at a posh hotel in KL,
We got a high time shock when we arrived,
looking at your *competitors* made me so depressed.

Deep in my heart,
you are sooo not gonna make it,
those ppl are like damn damn farking good,
but as your partner,
I made sure you are always well prepared for anything big...
esp on this day.

You've always made me proud,
achieving status and material things,
beyond your age and within your capability,
coz u've worked very hard for it....
and I know you've sacrificed a lot....so did I.

with a new career,
you achieved even more,
I can have what I wished for,
go where I wanted to,
do anything I like...just like a princess.
But..where were u?

1 year ago,
you told me to let go everything,
my career and my life,
in the name of *us*
to be with you wherever you fly to,
to take care of everything so you can be more focused in your career.

and so I did,
to be there for you,
always been there for you,
if you only care,
care to see how things drifted,
and we let it happenned....

this year would be different,
and I am glad,
coz I want a happy memory on this date.
no more agony and sadness,
of tears and heartache.

but...I can't take my mind off of you.
I can't take my mind off of you,
even more after you told me,
that you don't find happiness after *us*,
and that you missed me.

I just wished that,
you don't deliver pain again,
on this day....
I want it to be a happy one
Let me have a Happy Merdeka.

Cloned Grapes

With the current technology advancement, you'll be AMAZED what human can clone nowadays. Frightening eh? I do wonder, how far can we go and the effects to our civilisation. Well let those genius kill their brain cells on this...I shall not!

from the valley of Montepulciano *yes I'm a fetish for Tuscany wines* (RM 199)

Carpineto, a clone of Sangiovese, but taste as good. 1999 is a very good year for Italian wines. When selecting any Italian wines, do make sure there's a DOCG label on it.

Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG)

To make things less complicated, DOCG is a standard *the strictest & highest* in Italian wine making. It means that the wine has passed the stringent evaluation by the tasting committee. In short, it's a guaranteed bottle...and you can't go wrong.

we had dinner at Opus Restaurant at Jalan Bangkung, Bangsar.

Food is 7 out of 10 but ambience definitely scores.....

relaxing and casual place to chill out on a Sunday evening.

Opus is famous for their tiramisu...must have (RM 14)

Back to Gotham City after that..*hic*..

Master of Complications

SFC for breakfast and saw an article on Frank Muller in The Star papers...so off we went to Frank Muller's boutiqe at Ground Level, P. Ramlee Mall, KLCC.

Their Long Island collections is really funky!!
BUT monkey can't really carry it coz it looked farking huge on my tiny wrist.
Frank Muller is famous for its CRAZY HOURS collection.
As you can see, the hours are really unorthodox and it will kill some brain cells to read the time. It jumps from hour to hour so you'll need to read the numbers the hands are pointing to ...instead of the conventional placement of romans.

Now I know why he's known as the Master of Complications.

Enthusiasm

Well it's good to be enthusiastic especially when it comes to work.
I love to see this value in my staffs and myself..shows how passionate you are about your job.

However, *someone* woke me up early in the morning and said:

"Let's make steak for dinner tonite!!"
"....huh? It's only 7 in the morning. Let's decide later.....zzzzZZZZZzzzzzz"
and JS continued to babble on what to buy etc.....

as usual...stucked in the infamous Saturday jam at Bukit Bintang.

Lunched at Shanghai Restaurant at Marriott and the usual cuppa later at SFC.
Then to Isetan for usual shopping before heading to BSC for groceries.

Traffic at a crawl from Bkt Bintang to Sultan Ismail.

Monkey can't sit still and very unhappy about it.

Jam dued to some really extremely important VIP..note the men in black on the bike...they are the bodyguards.....it was an entourage!!!

Home Sweet Home after the shopping and I'm all smiles again :)

the chef who's so-full-of-enthusiasm!!

We used wagyu beef for our steak....marble number 7...fattening and juicy yo!!

JS bought this "le creuset" cast iron pan specially for grillit.

GOD damn heavy I can't even lift it up.
I wouldn't spend such amount on a pan....-_-

A few seconds on one side and a few more on the other.

No oil nor butter needed to grill this baby....its own fat is enough to do the job.

JS was very happy with the results.

served with de-glazed djon mustard in red wine, caramelised white mushroom, roasted chat potatoes, and aragula.

I had only a small piece....too much of calories today!!!

I love my steaks medium rare like this.

Goes very well with a bottle of shiraz.

This Pensfolds has been aged in the barrel used for Grange...so you can imagine the fruity note you'll get.
A very young wine, so can get drunk easily....
This one guaranteed high in stock level....*happy happy happy*
JS still has a crate sitting in Australia.

Look at its deep red colour....really high in tannin.

Someone asked for the roast potatoes recipe the other day....
Here it is in my own language and measurement.

Serves 2
5 pcs chat potatoes (small plum size potatoes but chats are good for roasting) - cut into bite size pieces
1 head of garlic - separate cloves from the bottom
3 small shallots - halve them
3 sprigs of rosemary
2 knobs of butter
generous amount of olive oil
Salt & coarse black pepper to taste

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2) Toss the above into the casserole dish/pyrex and spread evenly.
3) Smack them into the oven for 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender and browned. (You may wanna stir them from time to time)
4) Serve hot with almost anything....yum yum...

Let me know the outcomes ya!!!

Bangkok Day 4

Time to say goodbye to the City of Life.
Our flight to KUL scheduled at 12.00 noon (Thai time = minus 1 hr).
To avoid the massive infamous Bangkok traffic jam, we head out fr the city at 8.45am.
The limo driver sped all the way and it took us only 20 minutes to the airport!!!!
So it was freaking early.......-_-
Again, JS got us the 1st seats....
After we checked in, we realised our flight has been delayed to 12.50pm.
This is not looking good coz we had too much time to kill in the airport!!!

So headed to Silom Village for a scrumptious breakfast

their noodle (very thin kuey teow liked) is really al-dente, similar to linguine.

famous fried roasted pork with kale

More shopping in duty free and we bought tonnes of Jim Thompson stuffs....it's like 50% off without discount compared to the boutique in StarHill.
More variety here...so in the end we have more things to carry coz JS got us a really nice silk duvet for home.

"UCP said, with this on the sofa/bed, dunnit woman already.....*continue stroking the duvet against his cheek*"
"Sure, get one then and have fun with it...I'll find my own man"
"Baby....that's not what I meant....*whine whine whine*......."

It's really damn soft-fluff-until-can-die.

Later... parked ourselves at Silk Air Lounge and another announcement....
MAS flight to be rescheduled to 1.50 pm...WTF!!!!!
Somebody kill me please....

After some time hanging out at the lounge....
for the 2nd farking time, the flight was delayed AGAIN to 2.10pm...*urgh*
so we head to Silk Restaurant.....

There's this typical mis-en-place anywhere you go....a combo of 4 flavours...sweet, sour, spicy and salty.

tonnes of tongue numbing chilies in fantastic fish sauce....thais don't take soy sauce...very seldom.

sweet thai basil with porky and capsicum

green Thai chicken curry

me looking blur after doozing off at the lounge...

JS busy working on his mobile while monkey zzzz...as it's MONDAY!!!!

at 1.50 pm (due to take off at 2.10pm), we saw our plane touched down and taxi-ing at the runway to our gate....-_-" *sweat man*

all in all, the crew took another 45 minutes to clear the plane..bla bla bla...
everyone were so pissed and I can see there's a silent protest goin around in the cabin.

"Which meal for you sir?" *to a passenger*
"No...no meal."

"Hello sir, which meal for you ?" *to JS*
"NO MEALS....*pointing to his Zenith*....odd time for meals."

in the end, no one had anything except for the welcoming pink guava. Well we save them tonnes of work.

we touched down at KLIA around 6pm......
one whole freaking day gone!!

thanks to MAS...
thank you for providing such fantastique service so that I can spend more $$$$ while killing my time.
thank you for your first class onboard service...which is sooo unprofessional.
thank you for making me paying 1st class price for 3rd class service.
If I have choice, I'll fly other airlines...

Bangkok Day 3

It's Sunday and Thai chicks come out dressed like shinjuku gals. All pretty pretty and dollled up, makes you wanna have threesome with them....kakakkakaka. So tempted to take pics with them but JS said I'm "jakun" ..hmph..

Breakfast..dunno what do u call this, but it's similar like our msian "chee cheong fun"
except it has layers and layers of different meat as you dig further....
porky, prawns, chicken, crabs!!!
those red specs u see there are crab roe and it cost only 500 bath (RM 5.00)

JS brought me to sample some truly authentic Thai dishes....
Thailand isn't about Tom Yam Goong...pandan chicken...fish cakes etc.
There's so much more to eat...only if you know how to place your orders.

We went to this porky place....look at the cute piggy logo.

Their chrysanthemum tea is soooooo good... pure honey instead of sugar!!

raw blue crab som tam....spicy until can die I tell ya!

stewed porky soup with lotsa greens...extremely good....yum yum.
After I've gobbled down the whole bowl...JS dropped the bomb & told me what's in it....coagulated pig's blood....*ewwwwwwww*....pui pui pui...but I will still go for it next time.

crispy sweet pork strips....I've never tasted anything this heavenly.

yummy glass noodle!!

crispy porky salad

typical mis-en-place...sweet thai basil and crisp long beans.

I'v never eaten sooooooo much PORK in my life!!!! Their pork doesn't smell porky...it's good.
Later we walked to Petcha Buti Tat Mai Road for the dessert I've been dyin for!!

sticky rice with sweet Thai mango.

the rice was so good and chewy (almost al-dente) with full coconut milk flavour absorbed in it. While the mango was heavenly....Indian mango or Pakistan mango or South Australian mango all no fight!!! It's creamy, sweet, fiber-less, rich and melt in your mouth. We can't get this mango in Msia...coz we are not allowed to import it to protect our own agriculture. ...*duh*

The seed is so thin...less than 5mm. But it's quite expensive at 800 baht (RM 8.00) as this stall is by the road side. It's just opposite Bangkok Palace.

so detailed, it even has a sex organ (note the purple colour section)

more to choose from...

Sexual preference is practiced freely in Thailand, where you have the freedom to express your sexuality. Be it you are a bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual or in the process of changing to the other. So you can imagine, *someone* got so much of attention from pretty boys.....soooo pretty and even MALE cashier wear MASCARA to work!!!! *RESPECT*

hey....I didn't lose out, farangs (mat sallehs) coming after me thinking I'm a Thai gal!! yikes...get off me!!

I wanted to take him home...guess he'll need to check in as cargo. See how tiny I am!!

everyday in Krungthep, monkey & JS shopped from 10 am till 10 nite....

we shopped till:
our legs can't walk no more.
our pull along luggage bags are full.
our eyes are red - due to the dry air.
our body are aching.
the mall guards ushered us out.
JS's right hand almost *patah* fr signing too many expenses.

there seems to be shrines everywhere in the city.

to be continued...*wat? again?*