Ah Ling's blog.

Started work on May 3rd, managed to hit the road for a road trip, and got my paycheck! Woohoo for the moolah!


But anyway..

We stayed at Holiday Inn Malacca. Can I say that the service was fucking FANTASTIC, EVERYONE of their staff there were constantly smiling and ever so helpful. I find that great, considering the fact that we are no 'orang putih' (white people). Yeah, don't you know, it is quite sad that in Malaysia foreigners get treated better most of the time (not always), since many people have this thing about treating non-Malaysians better than fellow Malaysians. In fact, if you wish to experience this first hand, try being in the same plane of a local airline with foreigners

But I digress.


Entrance to room.




Yeah, the rest of the photos are in the partner's camera.

Anyway, there's a rain shower in the bathroom, flat screened TV, ironing board + iron, safe, extra pillows in the cupboard, fridge and complimentary bottles of mineral water. Ooh, and on each of the pillows are cloth bands with little signs stating if they are 'firm' or 'soft'.


What do you do if you've just woken up and have time to kill?


You take photos-lah.




Excuse my 'just woken up face' and the craterpimple on my forehead. It was Bad Skin Week™.





According to the partner, one is SOFT and the other is FIRM. Hmmmmmm....o_O







We were having a lot of fun playing with the tags while waiting to check out ok -__-"





There's also another picture, but it is a bit *ehem* not suitable for viewing purposes. Jamie who was fortunate enough to see it will attest to that teehee.



Chicken rice balls are a MUST HAVE if you ever visit Malacca. The unique part of this dish is that the rice is shaped into balls. There are loads of places to eat this dish, but the one we always go to is the one in Batu Berendam.




We were lucky enough to wait for only a while before getting a table to sit at. The line for 'ta pau' was omg, super long. This is what the counter where all the food preparation looks like.


Guy walked past and blocked the view. Grrrrrr.





The guy on the left is actually blocking the view of the uncle who chops the chicken when it is ordered. A drumstick? No problem. 5 seconds is all it takes. Seriously. He chops so fast, our friends swear chicken bits actually fly all over, so beware! You have been warned!






Auntie scooping out the pre-prepared chicken rice balls.





Whie waiting for the chicken rice, we had this dish below, ordered from a stall OUTSIDE the shop.



Don't know what it's called, had little fishballs, pineapple bits and other fried-ty stuff in a sauce. Nice!





The chilli sauce has to be good, or else you will not get the complete chicken rice ball experience.





The chicken rice balls! FYI, we ordered 40 at first, but added another 20 later on. Satisfying our gluttony never tasted so good.






Half a chicken for 4 people.






This is how I eat it:




Chilli sauce, 'kicap pekat' (thick soya sauce), rice balls and gravy from the chicken all-in-one.


Excuse the hurriedly taken photos. We were all too hungry to bother about taking nice photos.



You know, besides the great tasting food we get and great people we meet in Malacca, the next best thing about eating out is the price. For a KL girl like myself, I love getting a 'heart attack' when it is time to pay. 'Heart attack' here in a good way.


Total cost of chicken rice balls meal for 4 people:

60 rice balls
half a chicken
4 drinks


Total : RM 20.20



Bloody hell. It cost roughly 4 freaking GBP. OMFG. Told you eating out in Malacca is dead affordable.




NEXT UP:

Cendol, the old-school way.





xoxo,
ah ling

Labels: Bad Skin Week™, Blog, food, friends and food, photos, random, travel

Posted by Ah Ling at 1:34 AM | Permalink | Comments

..because I have been swimming everyday for the past 5 days. Yes, I joined a gym, and I normally head there after work, and it's approximately a 40 minute walk back home after that, so I am so knackered.

God, muscles I never knew I had are aching.

Other than that, Chinese New Year is coming, and I'll be heading down to London again to see how the festivities are held in China Town there. Oh, and to squeeze in some shopping too =)

Went to Manchester sometime last week and shopped as well as had dim sum! StoleTook some pictures from my friend's camera (obviously I have yet to upload the pictures from my camera).



In front of the arch at China Town.












While waiting for the dim sum to arrive, we cam-whored.







See the chee cheong fun thingy? Well, there's 'yau char kwai' (fried doughstick) in it, and I LOVE IT. First tried it in 2007 when I visited my friend in Norwich and he took me out for dim sum. I just had it 2 days ago as well =)








One guy and three members of the hair band gang. Lol.






Will update more the next time. Or at least I'll try =)


xoxo,
ah ling

Labels: Blog, friends and food, self, travel

Posted by Ah Ling at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tuesday night - One drink while out with friends at a pub for a birthday dinner.
Wednesday afternoon afternoon - One drink while out with a friend + food.
Wednesday night - 5 drinks during company's Xmas party (yeah, exercised self-control okay)

It was the cocktails during the party, I swear. They tasted so DAMN GOOD (no taste of alcohol AT ALL). But the alcohol kicked in RIGHT HARD AFTERWARDS.

The amazing thing was actually being able to walk back home (albeit a little unsteady). Thank god my friend was there as well, so I got home safe.

Woke up with a slight hangover (left temple pounding) but still managed to make it to work early and I'm fine now.

Labels: alcohol's revenge, Blog, events, friends, friends and food, musings, random, self

Posted by Ah Ling at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments

How ironic that when attending my housemate's boyfriend (okay, also my friend-lah)'s birthday dinner last night, I find out that out of the 12 people (including me) there, 4 of them are my ex-boyfriend's ex-coursemates?! wtf?!

Coincidences aside, the food was nice =) Kinda small portions though, but still enough for us to help second helpings and had cake as well...

Winter seems to have brought really unexpected circumstances. And I am glad for them.


xoxo,
ah ling

Labels: friends and food, musings, personal, self

Posted by Ah Ling at 3:23 AM | Permalink | Comments

Okay, before I can even start typing properly, looking at the pictures and remembering the food there is making me salivate *drools like orang gila*

Before I left Malaysia, my nice friends (sorry, no pictures of us on that night, we were all too busy stuffing ourselves) decided to belanja me makan there. <333 those people!!


Actually we were supposed to go to Yuen Steamboat on the opposite row of shops there. In fact, we had even put our name down on the list, but the queue was taking too damn long longer than a horse's..whatever and we were all too hungry!!

And I'm actually glad we went to Chong Qing instead. Really.


Here's a few reasons why.

There are FOUR different types of soup. 2 spicy ones (forgot their names, sorry), a tomyum and the herbal one.
(Since one of us was suffering from very VERY terrible ulcers as a result of being under the sun too much Outward Bound camp, we took tomyum and the herbal one.)

Also the assortment of food there was quite amazing.











(I LOVE THE FISHBALLS!! They are no ordinary fishballs because they are filled with meat!!!! ^_^)





While the food was cooking I took a pictures. Lol.







And then I prevented everyone from cooking so I could get a nice picture. Lol again.







See my bowl. I told you I liked the fishballs, didn't I? xD








Another dish we we all loved was the pieces of pork fried in preserved bean sauce (?). Damn nice and crispy okay. Thanks to Jamie who suddenly stood up and rushed to the buffet counter halfway while eating. They didn't refill this after it was all gone, and believe me, it was gone so quickly.






Yup, for RM 19.80, Chong Qing is well worth a visit. After converting it to British pounds it is only around 3.15 British pounds *sobs*

I'm definitely visiting Chong Qing when I get my arse back to Malaysia.

Labels: Blog, friends and food, Malaysia oh Malaysia, photos, self

Posted by Ah Ling at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

Cooked chicken rice the other day for 2 friends.

Taugeh is so expensive here after converting *grumbles*. In Malaysia RM 3.41 can buy a bloody big bag enough to use for a pillow. Or has the price gone up again?







A better picture of expensive taugeh *grumbles to self again*







The main star of the chicken rice show.






All the cast together. The rice was fried with sesame oil, garlic and butter before being boiled. Damn nice *Sendiri bangga*





And the other day went blackberry picking. Got poked by thorns in the process as well. Heh.



Choose your berries.






The berry shortly before it's vanilla icy cold end.







Blackberry ice-cream (I know it doesn't look very appetizing here but blame it on me taking the picture without using my DSLR *coughcoughehem*)





Okay, lazy to update anymore liao. Have a good week ahead kay?

Labels: friends and food, photos, random

Posted by Ah Ling at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments

Happi Birthday sis!!


Thanks for all the 'good clean' *ehem* fun.


*hugs*



We were as we were one year ago.



I see Tetek Leong! xD



Sorry, no pictures from this year. Yet.




xoxo,
ah ling


P.S: Tomorrow, my
Marc Jacobs bag will finally get to see the sunlight in Malaysia, so this means that I can finally stop whining about not using it. HOWEVER, my arms are still as fat as ever. Damn.

Labels: birthdays, friends, friends and food, musings, photos, self

Posted by Ah Ling at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments

I would like to reminisce about Italian menfood. I'm really sorry if you are bored about reading about advertisements and other random rubbishRome already but I have not put up as many pictures as I would have liked to earlier on. Please blame it on my lazinessbad Internet connection.



Anyway, am hungry right now, which is BAD.BADBADBADBADBAD.





I want risotto. With Porcini mushrooms. Like this:





I also want grilled eggplants. And pasta. Here's a tip for those heading towards Rome. The pasta is only okay in some places, but even so the grilled veggies there served are YUM. Really.


In the foreground, my pasta with grilled eggplants and Joyce's cannelloni in the background.




And we queued up for what seemed like AGES(hey, we were STARVING okay), to eat at this highly recommended place for pizza (recommended by Joyce's friends, and also our Rome guidebook), called Baffetto.








A very non-artisticcomical caricature of the owner:





Yes, the pizza has an EGG on top. Authentic, yes, weird, yes (for us anyway).






The pastries were bloody good as well.



The bigger one has some cream inside, and the smaller one has apple filling. By the way, a croissant is a 'Corneto' in Italian, so don't feel weird ordering a corneto in Rome and not getting an ice-cream instead.





And lastly, the effects of globalization which extend to food as well:

The Golden Arches @ McDonalds.

The ice-cream with an espresso was orgasmic, so orgasmic that Joyce dragged me to a McDonald's outlet EVERY SINGLE FREAKING DAY WE WERE THERE.But I got to try other things well, so I am not complaining. Like the currypuff lookalikes, which have tomato paste and cheese inside. Kind of like eating an incomplete pizza.




This would be a normal feature inside most of the McD outlets there:



Coffee junkies seek sustenance here.

As well as gelato counters (think Lecka-Lecka).



Okay, no more food pictures. Kinda bored edi.



xoxo,
ah ling


P.S: Pictures which were not watermarked are by Joyce. And I think I pulled a muscle in my butt. God knows how. I wish God would let me know. Sigh. Have a good week ahead.

Labels: friends, friends and food, musings, personal, photos, random, self, travel

Posted by Ah Ling at 1:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

Sorry for the lack of updates, have been so damn unmotivated to blog. Digging the laptop out from the bag and looking for the cables and stuff have been too tiring as well. I'm just lazy.


Anyway, check it out. A Roman gladiator crossing the road at the Colleseum in bright daylight. For a moment I felt as if I was stuck in the wrong century.







Silver ballet flats and roman sandals not fuck me pumps like those in Amy Winehouse's song.







Just an example of glorious Italian food. I <333 Italian food okay. I think it can be even better than the men. Joking-lah! *runs for cover*





Saw this in the grounds of the Vatican Museum. Can anyone please tell me what this golden ball is supposed to represent? I don't get it.










I miss the breakfast cappucinoes at the small little cafe near Termini station.







xoxo,
ah ling



P.S: At many places in Rome I wished that I had a wide-angle conversion lens. *sigh* just got a display protector and UV filter thingy for my camera. Mahal!! Expensive!! Have to sell ass soon...

Labels: friends, friends and food, musings, random, self, travel

Posted by Ah Ling at 1:24 AM | Permalink | Comments

First of all, I managed to tear myself was away from the Internet for 2 days or so and quite a number of interesting things happened.

If you notice my advertisement somewhere on this page (go find it hor), you'll realise that it would be my first advertisement which I have received since signing up with Nuffnang (yay!). So go support the advertiser and check out their site please.

Other than that, people have updated their blogs, so that counts for interesting events.


------------------------------------

My second time having dim sum (no more stories about dim sum after this for a long,long time,promise!)at Soho in One Utama was just as good as the first. Just that I never bothered to document the first time around in pictures.


Since the penguinboyfriend and I went there IMMEDIATELY AFTER finishing a 'yum cha' session at Coffeebean (where else), we didn't order much to eat. In fact, we were surprised that the staff actually let us in as it was already quite late.

Actually I only went there to fulfill my craving for ONE thing, but since it was the penguinboyfriend's first time there and I was paying he ordered two other dishes.





First up (thanks ah ying for introducing me to it, I can't get over it EVER.) Item number 403 on Soho's menu.




If you look closely, you can see that I only managed to take a picture of the wrappers, cos' we scarfed it all down before deciding to take pictures. The 'pao' or steamed bun looks orangey like that, and the filling is literally flowing. All I know is that there's salted egg yolk but it's salty sweet. Bah. Difficult to explain-lah. You just have to try it for yourself. Another alternative would be to try out 'Baoz', they have it there too except it's called 'Melting Gold'.




Next was:




Carrot puff pastry (?). Have forgotten the name already though. This is savoury and not sweet as what I thought.



And lastly:



Siew loong pau!!!!!!!!

There were six, but obviously two had been eaten already.



One more pau on its way down to the stomach.




Who ever said that penguins can't enjoy dim sum?





And just another picture of the chopsticks. They are edged in metal, making them very useful as a murder weapon pretty.






Overall, dining at Soho has not been disappointing as the service is not bad. The only problem you may face there is that most of the staff can only speak mandarin (and if you are a 'banana' like me, then bless you).


And if you are seated too far away, you can always press the 'Call' button to call them.Heh. Go see for yourself what I mean.






xoxo,
ah ling

Labels: friends and food, penguin, photos

Posted by Ah Ling at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments