Chinese Recreation Club Restaurant @ Padang Victoria

My aunt threw my cousin sister a birthday dinner together with the rest of family at the Chinese Recreation Club, CRC. Nothing very spectacular actually, just a casual get together for all of us and a celebration for her. She ordered a cake from Secret Recipe, cheese based. I was guessing it to be either Oreo or Marble cheese.

"What till you see it.," she said in a glee.

Next, the box was delivered to our table. The waiter opened it and out it revealed....

*drum rolls*...

Tadaa! A combination of four flavoured cheese cakes.

...I kid you not, that was one of the most unique birthday cakes ever. While we were dumbfounded by what we had seen, my aunt explained that it was hard to please everyone's taste. She thought of buying some of each to meet the needs. I gave it to her for that.

So we started off with a birthday song to the birthday girl and proceeded with the dinner, so-called. Only a short wait and everything was served accordingly. Kudos for the prompt service.

The Four Season Starter.

The moment this plate made its debut, the entire table fixed their eyes at the orange salt dough instead of the starters. He became an instant darling and for the entire evening. We passed him around, patted him on the head and played around with him. Poor thing.

If you don't notice it yet, that he is actually pouting. Darn seductive, he is. :D

Stir-fry broccoli with chicken slices,

prawns, ginger and scallops.

The presence of scallops has sweetened the dish and the handling is just alright. The bite-sized broccoli absorbs the sauce very nicely, nonetheless crunchy. I'd say, scrumptious is the word.

Stir-fry chicken cubes with sesame oil,

topped with deep fried ginger strands.

The dish is slightly salty, but the taste blends well with the presence of rice. I suppose that the sesame oil is pre-mixed with oyster sauce to make it more aromatic. The chicken cubes are soft and smooth in texture as well. Very much a satisfactory treatment.

Tiger prawn curry with specially baked crispy bread skin.

Apparently, this is one of the highly recommended dishes, a popular order from the punters prowling here. The prawns are huge, meaty and the curry is good. The baked bread skin is very crispy and it goes really well with the curry.

Try it. Dip a portion of the bread skin into the bowl red spices. Send it into your mouth and savour the flavour. Mmm~ Haven~

The birthday noodle.

This is just the usual birthday noodle. Part of a formality for a birthday celebration. Too bad though, by the time this plate arrived I was so full myself. I did not try it. :/

Anyway, do drop by and give it a go. Quite a satisfactory dining experience. And who knows, you might have a chance to see the cute dough too!

Address:
Chinese Recreation Club Restaurant,
Jalan Padang Victoria, Penang.

Driving all the way back home. Alone.

It was pretty fun to begin with.

The next day after my finals I drove straight home because my internship would start directly the day after. Rushed around like hell. -_-

JonOw and I drove home together on our cars. My laoyah car couldn't go as fast as his new car, plus the amount of luggage I lugged back was a lot and heavy, so I was quite slow throughout the journey. Poor guy had to slow his car down to accompany me along the way. Hehehe.

My semester

...was mad. Kinda.

Endless lab reports throughout the semester, coupled with assignments and some midterm tests all packed. Basically all of us were very busy throughout those weeks and sleep deprivation was normal. Most of us were like walking pandas or zombies. Coffee was like my then lifeline, though still is on a certain timing. But luckily, all those torturous events had come to an end. Hence, we proceeded to prepare for our exams.

We were studying like there was no tomorrow, again with barely enough rest. Majority of the subjects were hardcore theories relying on pure memory work i.e. Instrumental Analysis, Project Management, Principles of Electrical Engineering and Engineer in Society. Those thick books sure did a great job squashing my brain into pulp, squeezing all my brain juice and draining all the energy away. With or without sufficient energy boost, I'd still end up sprawling on the table half- dead. I was fortunate to say that they were satisfactory, minus some silly and deadly mistakes that I'd done whilst answering the papers. Some parts couldn't recall the complete answer but they were majorly being written down correctly. Other than that, the papers were still very much alright for me.

Unit Operations I was  the only open-book paper for this semester. My lecturer did an amazing job setting up all the traps and waiting for us to drop inside. I almost got trapped myself. Surprisingly, I did not answer Distillation for that matter and I opted for Gas Absorption instead. It wasn't quite a wise choice actually. Maybe just maybe, if I wasn't being scared off by the Murphy's efficiency, I could've done better. Well, that was just a speculation. :|

The entire finals took me exactly 2 weeks to complete, inclusive of Hari Raya, at 28th September 2009. That was it and we were rushing to pack and return to where we came from for our individual Industrial Training programme.

These days life has been quite happening, I suppose there are even more eventful in months to come towards the end of the year.  I hope I could do well during this three months stint.. The same goes to everyone out there encountering the same experience like me. I'll post more about my experience soon.

Till then, all the best people!

Note: Happy Birthday, Henry. You're 20! :D

DIY dinner

Appliance(s):
1) Rice cooker.

Ingredients:
1) Bah Kut Teh Soup bag or others alike.
2) Fish balls, sotong balls, Hock Chew fish balls etc. (according to your own liking)
3) Meat cubes or fish slices etc. (according to your own liking) 
4) Tom yam paste (a small bottle will do).
5) Rice or noodles or vermicelli. (according to your own liking) 

Steps:
1) Boil the soup bag in the rice cooker.
2) Scoop a considerable amount of tom yam paste according to your own liking and add it into the boiling soup.
3) Stir to mix and leave it to boil for another 5 minutes.
4) All the ingredients (except lettuce) into the cooker and let it boil again for a few minutes. 
5) Finally, add lettuce and it is ready to be served. 

Tadaa!

Nothing very fancy here, no gimmicks or tricks. Just a simple, quick and student-friendly dinner with minimal budget. This is suitable for two to four servings depending on the amount of ingredients prepared. One good side of it is that everything is boiled and nothing is stir-fried, so it's considerably healthy. A good change of menu once in a while when the outside food in the neighbourhood starts to get a little boring, or when you are busy preparing for exams.

*salutes the rice cooker*

Note: 
Special thanks to CupcakeTan for the treat! :)

My flight got delayed unfortunately for almost 2 hours due to bad weather condition. So I got a little bored of waiting and decided to just walk around.

This is my departure gate...without the Boeing 737.

The culprit behind my delay. -_-

I thought having a coffee while waiting would be a good idea,
so I stopped by a cafe and ordered a latte.

It cost me RM7.00 with two sachets of white, Tesco sugar.
Ha ha ha...oh boy. 

It was a relief when I saw it arriving at the gate, like FINALLY.

Soaring high above the sky.

A refreshing cup pink guava juice and "goingplaces". 

Rainy afternoon in KLIA and I had to rush my way back for lunch,
being absolutely famished thanks to the delay.

It feels great to be back, greater when you're being received with warmth. Ah~

Note:
I find it weirdly coincidental that I always get to sit on the left-hand, window seat of the plane even without particularly choosing it.

Express Teppanyaki @ Food Republic, The Pavilion

Not quite a planned food hunt actually. I had a movie outing with LalaJohn, watching G.I.Joe in the afternoon.We were famished that time and the first eat-out place that popped up in our minds was Food Republic. As always, Food Republic was thronged with food lovers and we had quite a hard time finding seats for ourselves to settle down. LalaJohn poked me for my attention and pointed over my shoulder at the Express Teppanyaki on the other corner from where we stood. So, we went and sat down on the stools, joining a row of other patrons and placed our orders accordingly.

Frankly, it has been a while since I have encountered a good teppanyaki. The food is good and the price is reasonable. Quite affordable for us students with a budget and the portion is satisfactory too. Thumbs up.

Appealing kitchenware, butter and satisfied customers.

Impressive presentation by the chef.

Skillfully preparing our orders.

Grilled Salmon Teppanyaki.
Salmon slice grilled in flavoured sauce, coupled with vegetables.

Sirloin Steak Teppanyaki.
Bite sized beef stir-fried in flavoured sauce, coupled with vegetables.

Itadakimasu!

Go give it a try.

Express Teppanyaki
Food Republic,
Gourmet Emporium,
The Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

Note:
Vkeong has paid Express Teppanyaki a visit a few days ago and blogged about it before me. He shared a similar positive review too. Do check out his post here!

Messy messy study area during Unit Operation midterm revision at LalaJohn's.

I was actually having problem taking the picture because the books were all over the place and I couldn't get a clear view. So DavidOnn actually suggested me to stand up on a chair.

I have been on hiatus for a good three weeks (again). My workload has been crazy for the past few weeks, but luckily it's going to end by next week. One more midterm and one more assignment left before I am officially task-free until finals. .

Another task off to-do list. Yippie!