will i am's delayed diary

Another quick update since I wanna breeze through June! Dry food. Assorted dried food stuff and herbs at the morning market. Fin food. Say "No" to sharks fin? Spiritual food. The lightest gold ingots in the world. Spicy food. Once in a while we want a riot in our mouth. Bland food. I like it actually, unlike some people who treat it like food for the sick. Crispy food. That's actually battered mantis prawns, not banana fritters. Fun food. Nyonya kuih for a BEC gathering that evening.

Happiness is... ... making your own popiah  and munching it down with family and friends. Then drinking a how bowl of bubur chacha for dessert.

It was QueerRanter-D's birthday so a dinner party was arranged at Osteria RealBlue , Solaris Dutamas. As with all shops at Solaris Dutamas, they are a challenge to locate. It was just a small affair with my mum, SK, KH and Apollo, and Apollo's mum. KT was supposed to come, but an emergency at home held her back. Bruschetta with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Wanted the Burata, but ended up with Caprese Salad instead. Smoked salmon with artichoke cream. A cold and refreshing dish. Ravioli with Porcini mushrooms. Seafood ravioli with saffron sauce. This is a very delicious Mat Salleh seafood sui kao ! I'm not a fan of carbonara, but this dry-ish version really changes my mind about cream-based pastas. The birthday boy had his cake at Coffee Stain .

Gosh. Nothing to say about a mundane Saturday in June. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Went to the market as usual. Took this photo from the multi-level car park that overlooks the playground. The vegetable sellers and food stall owners take over some of the space to do business. I love soup noodles in the morning, especially from the stall that operates from a small lane in the OUG morning market. Whenever I want a little more kick, I order some curry chicken feet. That weird looking thing is Ika Meshi which is squid stuffed with sticky rice. Bought that in Hakodate during my recent trip to Hokkaido. The reddish dish is red wine residual chicken, a Foochow dish. Mum and I love it. Been ages since my last visit to the pool. Kinda lost my stamina. Broke in a new pair of swim trunks that I bought online. The camo prints are interesting, no?

There's this shop at Empire Shopping Gallery that doesn't know what it wants too be. In its window showcase, you see skin care products. The brand of the skin care products do not match the signboard-- IsMe . To add to the confusion, it has a F&B counter on one side, opposite a beauty counter. For several months now I have noticed its lack of customers. I think people who just want to sit down for a cup of coffee and cake are worried that they might get an earful of beauty consultations, so its much safer to go elsewhere. With some trepidation, we walked into the so-called beauty cafe and looked at the menu. Since we were the only customers, service was excellent. SK demanded that I order the signature coffee because it came with a cute bear face. According to the service crew, their Red Velvet cake uses beetroot instead of food colouring so we gave that a try. It was delicious and so was the matcha-passionfruit mille crepe. Other than coffee, they also serve flower teas ...

Tater was in Kuala Lumpur for a social trip so we made plans to meet over dinner at Quivo, Pavilion. Started things off with some happy hour drinks and some beer snacks. Quivo's Cheesy Spinach Dip was an excellent start. Crispy pita chips go well with a melted Parmesan cheese infused with baby spinach. For dinner, KH and I shared a pizza. Post-dinner coffee was at Coffea Coffee where Tater tried the Peanut Butter Latte. Not something I think I will ever order. Haha. Always great to have Tater over because he's such a nice guy and always has great stories to tell. His most recent adventure was at the North Pole Marathon! Never a dull moment in his life. And he's not seeing anyone at the moment... :D

Gone are the days when the Bazar Ramadhan was a place for great food. Back when I was growing up in Kuantan, we didn't really need to care which shop we bought from because everyone had some actual culinary skills. Miss the crunchy mini samosas, delicious nasi dagang , and spicy popiah basah . In Klang Valley these days, it is hard to find decent food at such places. The food that is sold is only a 'seeming' of its name. A poor imitation with no real substance. Might look like it, but end up tasting all wrong. And if you're unlucky, you might walk away with a stomach flu. Probably would have to kiss many frogs to find your prince. But after a few kisses, you would probably give up from the utter disappointment. While roaming the Bandar Kinrara 5  Bazar Ramadhan , I chanced upon a really good nasi kerabu among the multitudes of stalls selling rainbow-hued drinks and grilled meat ( walking through a meat haze! ). The nasi kerabu came with all the right sauces and cond...

KH suggested dinner at 8 Jugra, a new and upcoming place for Italian food. The restaurant is located off Jalan Klang Lama, converted from an old detached house, so it is quite hidden. Arrived at the restaurant well before dinner time and was greeted by snooty service. Since we had no reservation, they had not much interest to have us. SK actually asked to look at the reservation and work something out. Waiter: Sorry, but we are fully-booked. SK: That table is for 7:30 PM right? It's only 6:00 PM now, we'll be gone before that. Fantastic, right? The interior was pretty interesting. A mix of new and old furniture in a setting that reminds me of a house in the country. We ordered three items, but only the roast pork belly and risotto arrived. The pizza was lost in transit although there was only one other table occupied at the time. Our neighbour was pretty chatty. He was a German retiree who was very interested in old school furniture, Bakelite switches and the like so t...

Right after KH and I got back from our Hokkaido trip, we attended a family function together at Bagan Sungai Burung , in the heartland of Selangor. It's a fishing village where my maternal cousins live and work. Every year, my uncle would throw a huge birthday party ( cum annual dinner for his employees ) and he would invite us to come. To him, the more the merrier, so invited SK and KH to tag along. Both of them had never been to that neck of the woods before and they were curious to try the famous seafood there. We exited at Sabak Bernam and headed into the Sungai Besar area. Further in was Bagan Sungai Burung. Our first stop was at Tokong Hui Long Kong , the main Taoist temple of the village. The road in front of the temple was lined with rows of huge joss sticks with dragon motifs. Nothing unusual about that, but we were shocked to see pineapple shaped joss sticks too! At my uncle's house, I brought them around jetty to look at the place where they process the daily c...

We had a long drive ahead of us. KH and I split the 300KM drive to Chitose . The expressway was quite boring with no big rest stops. Mostly just toilets and a vending machine. Pushed on and arrived at Mitsui Outlet Park , Kitahorishima at about 2:00PM. Our Mitsui Premium Outlet in Sepang has a similar design, but the selection of brands is much better in Hokkaido. Although shopping was high on the list, eating lunch was more important. The food court offered a good selection of lunch options. Miso ramen is popular in the Sapporo region, so KH tried that. I for one found it to be overpowered by garlic oil. I chose Hokkaido pork don with leek. What I ate was pretty close to what Senya serves in KL. Kudos to Senya. Found the best bargains at Rockport and Banana Republic. Surprisingly, they also have a supermarket there selling fruits and vegetables. When we left MOP, our hands were full of shopping bags. Been trying to find SK's Albion products for two weeks but to no av...