will i am's delayed diary

KH wanted to try the ramen at Kanbe , 163 Retail Park, so we had a lunch date there. We arrived at 2 PM, and the queue spanned more than two shop lots. Patiently, we joined the queue. Thankfully, I had something to eat before I came out, else I would have been hangry! Took us about half and hour to snake into the restaurant. In that time, we had decided on our orders. KH chose the Shiro ramen, their signature broth that "makes you want to come back". Pure pork bone. Not wanting something similar, my choice was on the other side of the spectrum~ kohaku tsukemen . The kohaku is combination of pork bone broth and fish stock, and it was served in a hot stone bowl. Since it was used for dipping, the broth was thick to the point of semi-coagulation. Could really taste the dried bonito, mackerel, and sardines. At the start, the waitress sent the wrong bowl of ramen to us. After we had finished taking photos, it was returned to its rightful owner, the lady at the adjacent table. She

JJ asked for a dinner meet-up with KH and I. KH thought long and hard on where to eat. In the end, he decided on So Cute , a Taiwanese restaurant in Sri Petaling. And since Sri Petaling is more challenging than usual a destination, SimonLover came along with JJ and Bunny in the same car. Reviewers on Google Maps kept complaining on the restaurants hideous interior, but many praised the food. Personally, the interior was fine, but the food sucked. Hated my bowl of spicy beef noodles with its weird texture and 'powdery' soup. Bunny took a long time to order, and in the end the pork that he ordered was too spicy for him. Since the food was so bad, it didn't bother us when Bunny described the sewage problem at his condo. The main sewage line burst at his unit, and the effluent marinated his floor a couple of weeks before the management office notified him. A home owner's horror story.  For after dinner drinks, we gave JJ a choice of bubble tea, yoghurt drink, and soy bean j

On Saturday night, a dinner party was held at MaisonSK 2.0. I arrived at her condo at 7:00 PM, with a line of cars already forming at the visitor's entrance. When it was my turn, I was turned away with the reason that they had run out of visitor parking bays! Goodness! There were still many cars behind me, and there was no parking outside. It was chaotic because residents were being blocked from going in, and visitors were making three point turns in front of the entrance to get of the gridlock! In the end, Drew came down with SK's parking card and I parked at her spare parking spot.  KH and Ivan were the last to arrive. Luckily they managed to get a parking spot outside. For dinner, mum made red wine chicken, KH packed fish head curry, and SK boiled soup. Drew had some vegetarian dishes. After dinner, Ivan brought out a bottle of Koshi-No Shinobu Blended Whisky, and SK showed off her stash of beer snacks from Don Donki ( she actually spent MYR1000 there! ). From SK's place

KH's belated birthday celebration continued with Gratitude and TZ at Thai Tae , Kuchai Lama. The missing Musketeer was Jerry. Coincidentally, the chosen date was KH's lunar birthday. The restaurant came highly-recommended and was touted as being quite authentic. The spiciness level was definitely authentic. My favourite dish was the grilled pork neck. So moist, so delicious. The squid salad had a great texture, but on hindsight we should have chosen spiciness level 2 instead of 1. Surprisingly, the green curry was the spiciest dish of the evening. The absence of Jerry made it convenient for us to bitch about him. Also finally understood why they always gave him the hashtag #superrichfriend on Facebook. Other topics for the night was Thai BL. Aieee! To our surprise, Gratitude and TZ actually bought a cheesecake for KH. The waiter brought it out with a birthday song ( not in Thai! ) blaring over the audio system. Think it was my first time experiencing such a scene in a Thai rest

SimonLover organized Korean dinner with e10, and Khatijah. He also brought a new friend, Alan. The dinner venue was Kimchitiam at Faber Towers. For some reason, we always have Korean. Mungkin pasal Simon likes to watch Korean dramas. The restaurant was new to all of us. It had an uncommon banchan counter concept. For every main, you get an unlimited refill of one variety of side dish. Don't know how they keep track actually. It's quite silly. With the new dining SOP, I just piled all the food in one bowl-- banchan + bulgogi + kimchi pork + squid + kimchi stew + miso stew. Anyway, the food's pretty mediocre. Some of us were still hungry. Alan wanted to order more, but I stopped him. Might as well go elsewhere.  Thought to have coffee at LDG, but we were shocked by price tag on their cakes-- MYR20 a slice! Didn't mind going a bit further. Ended up at Zus Coffee a few minutes drive away. A spanking new place with a B1F1 offer for new users of their mobile app. Perfect.

CNY was an excuse to meet up and have good food, and drink. Danny organized lunch at his favourite restaurant, Seafood Legend ( formerly-known as F1 Kitchen ). KH and I just brought our stomach capacity, while Ivan brought a bottle of Yamazaki whisky and Qinghua Fenjiu baijiu . The get-together was also a chance to celebrate his life planner qualification to Court of the Table. We toasted to Danny's continued step up in his career. Ivan had a recent upgrade too-- fatherhood, and it showed on his face. Haha. The food was amazing, and the chilled Yamazaki was really smooth.   It was a late lunch, so by the time I got home, it was already 4-ish. Together with mum, we went to our next appointment-- a CNY visit to Apollo's house. Although we couldn't have our usual CNY lunch, a quick visit was a good substitute. Every time we go to Apollo's house, his garden seems to get bigger and bigger! Since we were in Petaling Jaya, KH suggested that we try Pepo Pizza . The place is hi

Made a date with Mei and MiniMei at T42 ( a cafe which is known for their leicha ), Bukit Jalil. MiniMei had just learned finger knitting and couldn't wait to show off her new skill. She made a bunch of bracelets for all of us to choose from. So sweet of her. Apollo, mum, and SK, also tried their hand at it since Mei brought lots of yarn with her.  In the evening, SK treated dinner at De.Wan 1958 . With many businesses losing money and revenue, her industry continued to do well because of the increased demand for cleaning agents. Hence she got bonus money to spend! Lifebook, Bless, Apollo, and KH also joined us. SK actually enquired if it was possible to get a private room. According to the staff, there's a minimum order of MYR2,000. Although the prices at De.Wan are higher than average for Malay cuisine, I really don't see how anyone can spend so much money there when there's no alcohol. Assuming that the most expensive main is beef rendang at MYR70 per portion, it wo

Boxing Day brought mum and I to the specialist clinic. Mum's appointment was due, and we spent quite some time there waiting for the doctor. Business was brisk. Many MCO pregnancies. Huhu. As usual, we had our favourite Teochew fishball noodles at You Noodle House . And because it was too late to go to the OUG morning market, we went to the nearby Puteri Mart instead. The concept is pretty good, everything under one roof. Basically a mini morning market with all the additional requisites-- pharmacy, prayer paraphernalia, clothes, household items, etc. A good selection of vegetable and butcher stalls inside. Fruits seem a tad limited.  Two appointments that day. Danny invited KH, Ivan, and /I to his house for a mala hotpot lunch. In my opinion, it's such a waste that good pork bone broth was used as a base for mala soup. Can't drink any of it. Sad. He kept feeding us big prawns and Sakura rolls. While stuffing our faces, it was also a money talk about investment opportunitie

In mid-December, Cutiepie ( she managed to ditch her kids lol ) and I ( brought hubby along too ) had a long overdue birthday gathering at Midvalley Megamall. My birthday was in October ( you guys remember right? ) and her birthday was in November. Our debut into the 4th decade. We had lunch at Pho Vietz , a meal of bun cha and steamed rice rolls. At the restaurant, we exchanged gifts-- belated birthday presents, and Christmas presents.   The choice of Midvalley Megamall really brings back a lot of memories for us. It was one of our de facto venues for loitering during our undergraduate days. Sometimes we had hours to kill because we would have a lecture at 8 AM, and maybe another at 6 PM. Did some shopping and camwhoring before stopping at Jamaica Blue for coffee and lemon curd cake. A chance to rest our legs, and reply a work e-mail that I was being chased for. Someone forgot to factor in a monthly recurring cost of HKD10,000 into the proposal that we had submitted earlier. Opps. 

Received sad news that The Chief's mother had passed away. Took half the day off to attend the wake at Gui Yuan Crematorium and Funeral Hall. Before we went to the wake, met up Gratitude at Pokok KL Cafe for brunch first. My first time going into MAHSA College actually. SK and I entered through some service entrance located near the restrooms, and it turned out that we bypassed all the Covid checkpoints. LOL. Had to backtrack. Pokok KL is really like a greenhouse. Lots of natural light. We shared a nasi lemak , Caesar salad, and baked eggs. Decent food, but it can get really crowded, so go early. Surveyed the place a little, and found that in general, MAHSA College is very Instagram-able. Every strategic corner is designed for a photo-op with decorations and props. In the upper floors, one can find a nail salon, a soap boutique, a florist, a cafe, and some misc. shops.   When we arrived at the wake, the first day of Buddhist ceremony was ongoing. During the break, we had the chanc

SimonLover organized a Korean dinner at Nak Won , Taman Desa with KH, Khatijah, and ForIHaveSinned. According to the gang, it was the first social outing for ForIHaveSinned in months since the CMCO. It was good for him to finally get out of the house. One might go crazy without social interaction. In addition to mingling, it was also an underwear exchange party. Not used underwear swapping la... Our usual postage sharing for underwear purchases.  After dinner, we went to Jemi Cafe for coffee. The nice people there put us in a glass room with excellent sound-proofing. Strong enough to cancel out Khatijah's trademark cackling. Perfect for epic gossiping and bitching sessions.  P.S. : Thanks SimonLover for the wonderful Egde Pride bikini brief! Damn sexy.

These days, my first choice for dim sum is at Oriental Treasure , The Sphere. Price-wise, it isn't much more expensive than Jin Xuan or Foo Hing. In terms of quality, it trumps those places. And restaurant is much more comfortable with no messy crowds. On Halloween, SK organized a lunch there with Lifebook.  Our coffee stop was at The Farm Foodcraft which is really a unique experience. The server brought us to a section called "The Greenhouse" which was located behind a heavy curtain. Our table was surrounded by greenery, and ferns drooped above our heads. Our table also gave us a view of their bar. Starting at MYR40, the cocktails were painstakingly mixed. First time I saw a bartender use infused finishing sprays. Like EDT for your drink.  Back at Bukit Jalil, mum and I went to the plant nursery to shop for a houseplant for SK's new condo ( MaisonSK 2.0 ) We chose a Monstera deliciosa which was all the rage with its unique perforated leaves. Paired it with a white

For my 40th birthday, I had a craving for crab. Took me quite a while to decide on a venue for it. A balance between quality and price. Finally decided on Crab Meet at Taman Bukit Mayang Emas. Apollo, Lifebook, SK, and KH were there to memeriahkan majlis . For maximum satisfaction, we ordered the so-called XXL crabs, but they weren't that big la. A decent size. The star dish was the salted egg crabs that came stacked like a pile of Jenga. It came with crispy yam sticks which made it even yummier. Actually, my favourite is sweet and sour crabs, but their version was disappointing. Too sour.  Apollo recommended Beans Depot for after-dinner drinks. It was located in a very quiet area of Ara Damansara. Dark and deserted after office hours. But it was great because there was a good selection of single origins coffee with various brewing methods. That night alone the barista brought out the syphon, V60 dripper, and nitro cold brew keg. The affogato was good too. Another interesting thi

KH asked me to meet him at Teddy Cafe at Zenith Corporate Park. Bloody had to make two u-turns on LDP because I kept missing the junction and there was only one access road to the place. He was there because of his mum's dental appointment. Cooled down with a cute bear-y affogato. I melted its face off with a shot of espresso. Loitered there as long as we could before heading off to our next appointment. Once in a while, SimonLover invites a bunch of friends over to his condo for a dinner. When we arrive, he always looks stressed while preparing the food. He would be fretting in the kitchen in his short shorts.  Surely we offer a helping hand, but he usually shoo-es us out of the kitchen. He would rather we wait in the living room and watch Netflix ( have to get the parental lock code from him.... whatttttt.... ).  That night, we had our usual guests-- Khatijah, ForIHaveSinned, JJ, Bunny, KH, and KH's  anak  Mic. Traditionally, the main dish was BKT. He had one pot with lean m

Dropped mum off at KLSCAH for an afternoon meeting with her women's chapter buddies. I parked my car at Zhong Shan Building hoping to kill time at Tommy Le Baker. Unfortunately, it was a full house. The afternoon sun was at its zenith, but I had no choice but to take the number eleven bus to Petaling Street in search for lunch. Walked up and down, and read a few menus, but nothing really caught my interest. Hawker Chan, the Michelin star soy sauce chicken rice from Singapore had zero customers. The Hungry Tapir was expensive vegan food. Ho Kow was... well the usual Ho Kow chaos. KafeiDian was also at full capacity. Not too sure about Luckin Kopi either. Didn't want to do Merchant's Lane too. In the end, I sat down at Restoran Jawa An-Nur , an Indonesian restaurant that serves a pretty good pecel lele . I sat there for hours with a mug of hot  kopi c . From my observation, its very popular among the contractors from the nearby Merdeka PNB118 construction site. Guestimating

Been a while since I met Mei and MiniMei, so KH and I organized dinner with the pair. KH recommended a new shop in OUG called Zhuji Spicy Soup . Don't be misled by the name, they actually specialize in pepper pig stomach soup, not the type of spicy soup popular in Kajang. Mei looked so fabulous when she walked in because she made her face, and had eyelash extensions put in! The food was pretty nice, but it's kind of hard to share food there due to the seating arrangements, and the type of the food. The pepper pig stomach has a nice aroma or peppercorn ( but a tad salty ), and I also recommend their shrimp paste fried chicken wings. Crispy and moist. MiniMei walloped 3 pieces by herself.    Super hard to talk at the dinner joint, so followed up with coffee at Morrow ( previously Doors Cafe ). Although MiniMei didn't take any coffee, she was pretty worked up, giggling all the time. Maybe it was sugar from the cakes ( she liked the rum and raisin... like mother, like daughter

Gratitude was going through some relationship problems, and was feeling a bit down. But he had the secret to happiness, which was of course through the stomach! He invited us over for crab dinner. For  weeks he had been praising the freshness of the sea crabs which was sold near his house in Klang. To showcase the natural sweetness of the seafood, he prepared a platter of steamed crabs as the main dish. We were not disappointed! The crabs were paired with fragrant saffron rice, kerabu , clams in superior soup, and curry chicken. We toasted to a better tomorrow with a bottle of sakura-infused Chinese white wine.   After dinner we sat down in the living room, and Gratitude put his moka pot on the stove. The whole house was filled with the aroma of coffee. Our chat was often interrupted by the newest member of his family, a kitten named Kody. A very feisty, and playful cat. Lanky, with a tail that looks more at home on a civet cat. Kody flies around the house, full or energy. Definitely g

In the past week, I had Peking duck twice with two different group of friends at Restoran F1 Kitchen , Puchong Jaya. For just MYR50 per bird, it was quite a steal. As if that wasn't enough, the meat-travaganza continued with Gratitude at The Birdland and Fat Cow at SS15 Courtyard. From the name, its obvious that they specialize in poultry and beef. Ordered two portions of steak with foie gras, one hobayaki style, and the other sumibiyaki style. Hobayaki is a style of cooking on dried Honoki leaves, giving the meat an extra smoky flavour. I found the sumibiyaki better. Don't order the Hokke because there's no mention of fish in the restaurant's name. The staff manning the restaurant seemed mighty young to me. They all look like apprentices.    Next up was coffee and cakes at Naj & Belle . We sat right at the entrance of the mall, with a whole lot of human traffic, and flies for some reason. Not exactly ideal. The rose almond lychee crumble ( what a mouthful ) l

What's the best indication that the Covid situation was getting better? The opening of 4D outlets. The aunties and uncles were definitely not fazed by the new SOP. Plenty of money saved up during the MCO. Mum and I  SK bought a new Joyoung pressure cooker from China. She organized a pepper pig stomach soup with black garlic party that was cooked with her new kitchen appliance. Black garlic's colour comes from the  Maillard reaction . Pretty mild in flavour. In my opinion, the soup wasn't great. Felt that the pepper corns didn't meld with the pig stomach. In the evening, KH and I went out paktor -ing at Equine Park. We had our dinner at Jack & Steve Grill . Shared a plate of pork chops and some barbeque wings.  Then we had coffee and cake at Day 9 Kitchen . The hojicha burn cheesecake was an eye-catching item on their seasonal menu, but it wasn't well-executed.