Bad Brunch

Secret Recipe was well known for its cakes. Other well known food from their menu is the Irish Lamb Stew, Singapore laksa, Chicken Cordon Bleu and a lot more. Today, Weng Kit, Kim Bee, Andy and I meet up at Times Square for a mini reunion after each of us was busy with each others stuffs after high school. We decided to have a rather scrumptious lunch at Secret Recipe.

My expectation towards Secret Recipe has always being high since I usually goes for their cakes and Cornish only when I am there. Today I decided to call something from their menu since I haven't even had breakfast yet.



I ordered the Roasted chicken with Tumeric Sauce. Costs me RM 14.50. The chicken is hard. Very hard. It's either they over roasted the chicken or the chicken used isn't fresh at all (second one is highly possible). The fries and vegetable portion isn't that generous either. For RM 14.50, I'm sure I can get a better deal at Vivo. The turmeric sauce is very very yellow, but the taste is no where to be found. Worst, I shat brixx right after having this.



Iced Lemon Tea was rather tasteless. If I could turn back time, I rather have the iced water at the back instead.



Andy ordered the Meatball spaghetti. Portion is quite small. I don't dare to curi sikit. XD


Kim Bee and Weng Kit go for the set. Both of them choose Black pepper chicken chop with black pepper sauce and rice. They are very kiam siap with the rice it seems.

The overall experience I had in Secret Recipe isn't that good. I think I'll just stick to cakes, brownies and Cornish when I'm at any Secret Recipe outlets next time. A great reunion ruined by a bad brunch.

Money (Part I)

Money is the new modern tool to judge the person around us. Long time ago, people worship the sultans, maharajas and kings because these figures, as a symbol of leadership is always the one with the most wealth. In the modern days now, we rarely heard anyone talked about our Yang Di-Pertuan Agong nor any of the sultans of the states. Tan Sri lim Goh Thong, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, Ananda Krishnan and Robert Kuok are among renowned figures among Malaysians. What makes them famous? One simple answer, MONEY.

In this modern world, money is indeed everything. One only needs to experience it in their life. Some are born in poverty, and some are born in a luxurious family. Some are born in a poor family, but personally witnessed their family's rags-to-riches story whereas there's some who are born in a corrupted rich family which in the end saw their family members all either being sent to jail or has ranned away to other part of the world living a solitary lifestyle.

I would say I was born in a poor family. My mother's side is a family of 6 members and they used to live in the unit above Dynamic bookstore at Pudu. I remembered my mother used to tell me her stories about how poor they are, especially after the Japanese occupation and the May 1969 incident. In order to feed my mother and her brothers and sisters, my grandmother was forced to pawn off her jeweleries to the pawn shop at Pudu. She always reminds me to be grateful for what we have and never envy other people for what they have.

My father's side is at least a little brighter. The price of sky rocketing rubber during those days brought some fortune to my father's side. However, my grandfather was a stingy person and this influenced my father's side grandmother as well. However, when synthetic rubber was invented and mass produced, the price of rubber plummeted and this forced my father to come to the mighty Kuala Lumpur to earn a living. The rest are family history.

On October 14th, 1989, I was brought out to this world after I'm inside mother's womb for 9 months. Being the first son, my father's side grandmother fought for my guardianship. However, my mother disagrees and I was then raised in Kuala Lumpur by a babysitter at Petaling Jaya till the age of 4. I only have vague memory of my child hood life. I remembered my home isn't this complicated back then. It was simple with only the basic necessities such as a tele with no video tape player. Life was simple back then and when shopping, I will be denied almost everything I wanted because of financial constrain. I still remembered I used to cry like there's no tomorrow when my mother denies me a candy bar or cookie.

When it is the time I step in primary school, I was only given 70 cents per day as pocket money. Those days, a bowl of noodles costs 50cents and the gardenia "EVERYDAY" bread is 30 cents. I got my allowance increased to RM 1 when I am in primary 3 and when I'm stepping into Secondary 1, my daily allowance was increased to RM20/week, RM 30/week when I'm in Form 2, RM40/week when I'm in Form 3 till Form 5. It was when I started working, my perception about money begins to form.

to be continued... =]

Raya

Well, its second day of Raya. Some of my friends have came back to malaysia and some even went oversea to travel around. Initially, I planned to work at Sony just for the sake of 3x pay. However, I backed out the last minute because I wished to spend more time with my family. This is extremely important, because once I'm officially start working back next month, I'll have lesser time for my family and also, friends.

This year, I spend my two Hari Raya at home painting. The walls in my living room was given a new fresh coat of paint in preperation for Chinese New Year. Yes, I do know that CNy is 5 months more, but hey, its freaking 5 months!!! Time passes by rapidly. Today is second day of Raya, next two weeks is Mid Autumn festival, then followed by Deepavali, Christmas and then Chinese New Year. Painting the living room was the first thing to do in the list. Next is the doors and windows. Then as CNY comes near, I'll have to shop and make cookies (due to the fact that I'm able to make certain types only).

After two days of painting, I'm all worn out. However, those efforts pays off because my living room is such a comfortable place to live in now. Coupled with Warm White lighting, the ambiance is simply fantastic.Now I only know why some people love to spend their holidays for home improvements.

Vivo

Allow me first to apologize, because this post, by now, should be the post with the most food pictures. My apologies again for making you hungry. I've been to Times Square on the Raya eve with Cypher, Dope and Max and to be joined by Wei Zhen sometime later. We had lunch at Vivo, which is situated at LG floor, opposite to the crappy Room 18 restaurant. Vivo is an American style Italian restaurant.

We had mushroom soup as starter. Soup was creamy, and there's some mushroom chunks as well. Definitely not those served straight out of a can of Cambell's.



A mushroom soup isn't complete without garlic bread.



At almost RM 1/piece, I'll say its quite small. But hey, it certainly smells good and makes a good dip for the mushroom soup.

Dope's main course came first, which is the Chicken & Mushroom Baked Rice.



From the looks and smell, it is great. Taste? I don't know because I didn't "curi makan".



Cypher's Meatballs Spaghetti came right after and followed by Max's Baked Meatballs Spaghetti



These two might look similar, but the baked one carries more cheese and has a slightly better aroma due to the fact that it has gone through the "oven torture".



An empty table on my side, watching them enjoying their own respective meal. =[

5 minutes later, my Tropical BBQ Chicken Chop was served right in front of me.



It comes with well fried crinkle cut fries, a huge portion of salad and two grilled pineapple slice. The grilling of pineapple slice further brings out the sweetness of it but it is too sweet because the pineapple slice is from a can, not freshly cut.

I even have a bowl of mashed potato thrown in as well.



The mashed potato was done perfectly. With the right amount of cheese and seasoning. However, the chicken was a let down because some part of the chicken is overly seasoned with too much pepper. The pepper just overpowered the sweetness of BBQ sauce. The same chicken chop I had last few months tasted so much better with the right amount of pepper and the sweetness of BBQ sauce seeps right into every flesh of the chicken.

The beverage which accompanies my meal is the Sparkling Lemon Kiwi juice. Tasted funny and extremely sour. Avoid at all cost.





Damage done was RM 110.65. However, this is definitely more worthy than Room 18 situated opposite. By the way, Cypher's friend encountered a cockroach in his Kai Lan when dining in at Room 18 a few days ago. Another reason why the outlet should be shunned away.

Alive!!! =D

Yes. My T-Rex. It is finally ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best part is, I don't need to travel up to Rawang just to get it done. What I did was simply swapping the optical drive with my current computer and tadaa.....





Windows XP ahem version installs perfectly smooth. However, after setting up the XP, I had a hard time finding drivers for audio, Ethernet and on board VGA display. Took me nearly two hours to search, download, install and restart the machine.

Perfect time to enjoy it with my brand new mouse.



Went over to Low yat Plaza today to buy parts to assemble a new PC for my cousin. Couldn't resist the temptation to grab one. XD

Cookie

This time, I’ll go much more in depth about this famous in Ipoh biscuit shop. This shop was set up back then in 1949 by Ching Han Guan’s father who is a baker from China. This shop is currently being run by Ching Han Guan himself now.

Trust this old label.

Inside the shop, it was the typical traditional set up. Glass cases decorate the wall and huge glass bottles filled with various cookies such as peanut cookie, chocolate cookie and cream crackers. There are also ready packed biscuits such as the shop’s famous lotus meat floss biscuit (肉丝莲蓉), the traditional Heong Peah (香餅), Sa Ke Ma (薩騎馬) and Hap Tou Soh (核桃酥).

Cui Mah Fah

Forgotten what this is called. Inside is filled with gula melaka. My sister’s favourite.

Egg Biscuit (Kai Tan Peang) was flavourful and very "sung" too. Best served with a cup of ceylon tea.

Rice Biscuit (Mai Chang). One of my friend joked that eating three pieces of this is equivalent to a bowl of rice. lol

Sa Ke Ma. Enjoyed this sweet delight ever since I was a kid. I will always request my father to get some home whenever he went to Ipoh for business purposes many years ago.

Dragon Pearl Biscuit (Loong Zhu Peang). Looks exactly to Penang’s version of heong peah (Tambun biscuit) but both has their own specialty. However, I still prefer Penang’s Tambun biscuit, especially the one made by Lim Wah Thai at Gotlieb Street.

The famous Ipoh's Heong Fah Peang. Looks like mini Hup Toh Soh, but it is actually soft cookies with lots of sunflower seeds in it. I tasted the similar Heong Fah Peang from Foh San too, but I like this one more.

The gem of all biscuits. My favourite biscuit among all biscuits. Looks very plain and drab, but it is bursting with rich flavours and aroma.

There are three types of fillings if I am not mistaken but the best is still the one pictured above with Pandan Coconut filling. I bought this together with Mai Chang for each of my aunties and uncle. This cute little biscuit is so delicious that one of my cousin finished it in one day while watching television! (and got a tongue lashing from my uncle as a result)

When you got the chance to visit Ipoh, make sure you don’t lose the opportunity to visit this biscuit shop. Their biscuits might look drab and plain, but it is actually a hidden treasure. It is located on the same row as Yee Hup Biscuit shop and only 5 minutes walk from Lou Wong Beansprout Chicken Restaurant.

Kedai Biskut Ching Han Guan

钟汉元饼铺

145, Jalan Sultan Iskandar Shah, 3000 Ipoh, Perak.

Open 9am till 6pm (8pm on weekends and public holidays)

Tel: 05-2545126

Engrish

Todai I iz see my fwen's blog lo. He blog food one. But his blog hor, very nicer because not of the pictar, but the england using lo. Make me oso wanna activate mai super england.

http://thegutterfood.blogspot.com/

Go copy and pasta on your browser and start laughing ah. Niasing I edi raff out roud whole dai now wanna shitbrixx edi.