Wooden Dolphin Keychain (Part 2)

This will be a relatively short post (compared to the previous) because a lot of the pictures did not turn out nice.

The breakfast at the hotel was nothing out of ordinary... the usual Asian cuisine, fried noodles/rice, cereal, bread, and stuff like that...

After the snorkeling trip (which i did not go because I was not feeling well.... and it was not that nice according to the other group members, only a few kinds of fish and dead corals) we ate at this hut on the beach. The view was lovely... looking right out at the ocean... I could just stay here the whole afternoon... very relaxing.... the food is not bad too and is cheap :D

Duck Noodles

Won Ton Mee

On the way back to KL, we stopped by Bidor for lunch. We went Pun Chun Restaurant which is suppose to be very famous for their duck noodles... since I am not a fan of duck, I opted for won ton mee instead. My noodles cost 4.20 which shocked me because it looks so miserable but then I took a bite of one of the four won ton and found generous prawn fillings!! Yum!

Finally before reaching home, we stopped by Jejantas, Sungai Buloh rest stop for satay. It was as good as its reputation. Nice! Fast service, good sauce and of course good satay (a lot of meat and very little fat)! However, the ice kacang is completely different story. It only contains syrup, corn, peanut and peppermint ice-cream. Absolutely F-A-I-L!!! Especially since I do not like peppermint flavour :D

Basically in Pangkor itself it will be seafood all the way. I finally satisfied my squid cravings (sort of). We had squid for both dinners (in big portion) and even the normal fried rice (like the one from lunch) has squid and prawns.... and it is all very fresh! Squid is bouncy but not overly difficult to chew...

Log off dreaming about squid,

Valerie

P/s - I got a souvenir which is a wooden dolphin key-chain (namesake of posts) but no camera to take a picture

Wooden Dolphin Keychain (Part 1)

Hello!!!

Just reached home from Pulau Pangkor. I stayed at Teluk Dalam Resort.

This is going to be quite a long post so take your time reading it :D

First impressions are very important and theirs was good. The person at the counter selling the ferry tickets to the island (we arrived at a different port from the main Pangkor one) was very friendly and helpful. He came with a trolley for us to put our luggage and tagged them. The luggage went directly to our rooms in the resort! So efficient!

Our bags on the porch... and no, the pink suitcase is not mine....such a pity....

Once we reached the island jetty, we were ushered into a van which took us to the resort. There was another staff there waiting at the top of the stairs with a cool welcoming drink. The lobby was soothing, wood structure with typical Malay design and soft Balinese music playing in the background. Most of the staff were wearing a smile and it was nice…

The entrance.... the people on the left side of the pictures are receiving their welcoming drink

Even though we reached early, before the check-in time, we were showed to our chalet within 15 minutes. The chalet is like a Malay kampong house, made of wood and on stilts. It has two rooms; both with bathrooms but only one with bathtub (the other has a shower), two single beds, cupboard with safe box, dressing table and luggage stand. There was a bar sort of breakfast table with three tall stools, tea making facilities for four, fridge, television and rattan sofas.

Cempaka chalets

Beautiful view outside my chalet

Overall the cleanliness was good. The floors were squeaky clean and under the bed were not too bad… a little dusty but that is it (one hotel I went the last time had a plastic bag of chilli sauce, one disposable slipper, and other disgusting stuff… ewww…). The bathtub had some insects in it and there was a big lizard in the TV cupboard but I guess that can be expected for chalets near the jungles.

Facinated by the weaved ceilings

However I am not without complaints. First off, the air-cons are rather noisy. Then for some strange reason, the shower head can’t be placed into the holder (the connection is too short…it was not even long enough for me to hold it over my head, making hair-washing hard), the sink in the bathroom is too high (making it very difficult to wash face and brush teeth), the beds were uncomfortable (one of the room had two single beds put together so three of us slept on it… unfortunately the bed was not stable and a gap kept appearing between the bed…also the beds were springy and that made sleeping uncomfortable and I woke every time the other person moves… surprising since I normally sleep through thunderstorms… though I guess that if you are sleeping on one bed on your own it would be not too bad… just a backache…) and the chalet was not fully air-conditioned… only the rooms are (the website is quite deceiving on this fact).

I would love to know the genius who fixed this up....

The resort area on the other hand is quite beautiful in some areas. I really like their shower for the pool (not very effective to shower down though), the pool area is spacious and there is even a small water slide and waterfall for the children, there’s a tower to take a different point of view, there are a lot of places to sit and chat with friends, gorgeous view of the lush green mountains, nice view of the ocean from the café, and they have a bird feed (hornbills and swiftlets came for the bread and fruits). I am very impressed that it is very considerate of less-able people. Every I went around the resort could be accessed by a person in a wheelchair, except the chalet itself.

The showers for the pool

A pavillion of sort... life music at night...

Handicapped Accessible...

However, the beach was disappointing, it could hardly be called a beach, look at the picture below. The water was also not clear (my expectations are rather high after going lang tengah). Talking about water, the pool water was also cloudy… I am too used to swimming in clean and clear water.

This resort is a great place for nature lovers. My favourite spot for this holiday is the porch of the chalet where I can see a beautiful mountain. Also, abundance of swiftlets can be observed flying about the area in front of the chalets. When my room window was open, one of them actually flew in and went a few rounds on the ceiling before flying out again (be warned, if your windows are opened, anything…and probably everything…can and will enter your room).

Waterfall... lush mountains... clear blue skies....

HORNBILLS!!!

While I was here, it rained late during the first night and the morning of my third day. During these time, it is very nice to sit on the porch (remember to bring big mats… so everyone can huddle together) and just listen to the rhythm of the falling rain (also remember to bring mosquito repellents). We were eating breakfast when it rained that morning… imagine drinking hot tea while watching and hearing the rain and ocean waves, besides feeling a slight spray of the rain when the wind blows.

One of my favorite photos.... thank goodness i did not delete it just after i took it...

(the dew could not be seen on the camera screen)

That should cover the resort well enough, look out for my next post about the food and places outside the resort! For more technical details such as travel and price, please take a look at their website: http://www.pangkorresorts.com/
All three above are great places to hang out with friends and chit-chat

Till then, cheers!
Valerie

Grill Cheese Sandwich with Iron

"What to eat outside? Kind of bored with the canteen's food :( Too bad the hostel didn't have a kitchen. Sigh... I guess it's maggi mee again"

Sounds familiar to you? Not anymore now! Being a cheese lover myself, I surf around the net for some delicious easy prepare cheesy meals. And guess what I found? Grill Cheese Sandwich (already sound mouth watering?)... prepared with clothe iron!

Yes! the goody handy clothe iron that almost every household has, or what u needed in when you're staying in a hostel ;) Curious as I am, so I tried and tested it's workability. And so, here you go...

What you need is:

2 slices of bread (or more if u're real hungry)

1 slice of cheese/cheese powder

butter

ham/bacon (optional)

aluminium foil big enough to wrap your sandwich

clothe iron

Start buttering up well the bread on one side, lay the buttered side face down onto the alu' foil and butter up the other side as well.
Tear the cheese into small little pieces and spread them evenly on the bread. Don't lay them too close to the side though, you won't wan the cheese to melt out and stick only the foil.
Optional to add in slice of ham/bacon. If you do, make sure it's thin slices.
Buttered up both side of the other bread as well.
Fold the alu' foil so that it wraps closely to the sandwich. You might wanna put some heat resisting material below the sandwich. I used a chopping board.

Set your iron to the highest (cotton/linen) Put it on top and let it 'grill' the sandwich. You can constantly check your sandwich so it won't fry up your bread. It takes quite some time though. Or maybe it's just that my clothe iron is old and not hot enough anymore :/

Tadaa~! Your grill cheese sandwich is ready to eat! It doesn't look that good being all squashed, but it's definately taste great :D Careful of the steam collected inside the alu' foil. Best served hot of course.

I know, it looks flat and mushy. But trust me, it taste gooood. It's not really mushy as long as you don't leave it on the plate for too long.

You can just try this at home for the sake of fun or just so happens your stove is broken. I wouldn't recommend it to be an all-time-preparing-sandwich-way. It takes longer time than what the website says. Definately not that electric saving as it claims. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Grilled-Cheese-Sandwich-With-an-Iron Oh well, another 'recipe' busted :p

It's just a change of taste for those students where the hostel doesn't have stove to cook. Yes, cheddar cheese do melt without fridge. So you can use cheese powder instead. As for the optional ham/bacon, it's either you buy it fresh and make the sandwich right away or hmmm... use dried meat? (long yuk) I dunno how's the combined taste though :p

I had a fun time preparing this for my parents and bf as breakfast. Hope you guys can enjoy it too~ cheerio!

Ashley smiling away~

Michaelangelo's Italian Kitchen

Hello!

This time around, we took a look at Michaelangelo's Italian Kitchen in Sunway Pyramid. The first impression is quite good; friendly waitresses, soothing music, clean environment. The bricks and wood decor also gives a warm and homely feel.

We sat in one of the booths as you can see in the picture. I find it nice that their booths can fit six people instead of the usual four. It was just nice for our party :D. Since we went off-peak hours, it was quiet. This plus the soothing music made it a great environment for a meal and to catch up with friends.

We ordered 3 sets which was shared by 5 people. Each set consists of an appetizer, a main course and a drink (soft drink). And we can add dessert for RM1.20. Each set is around RM20 to RM30. Since I don't take soft drinks, I ordered an orange juice (picture above). It looks weird... like they added milk and blended it. The texture is rather bubbly and not so much of liquid... not the fresh orange juice I had in mind.

Next are the appetizers. We had mushroom soup, minestrone soup and garlic bread. The mushroom soup is not the typical cream of mushroom but it has less body and more texture to it. It is not smooth but rather lumpy. Minestrone soup is nothing out of ordinary but the garlic bread is nice... if it had more garlic... it tastes like toast butter bread... crunchy though :)

Now for the main courses... we had seafood pizza, chicken something and seafood baked rice.

The pizza was definitely something different from common pizza places. It contains real seafood such as prawn, calamari and muscles... crab stick is so not seafood. The pastry is thin and crunchy, the cheese is just in the right amount, enough to dangle when you pull a slice of pizza out but not too much till you get sick of cheese....It also seems more natural to me... I have gotten weary over the cheese stuffed pizzas, cheese dips and what-nots from pizza hut... just find them all too artificial. Overall it is a nice dish.

Next the the chicken something :). This dish came with a drumstick with spaghetti. The chicken itself seemed fresh. The sauce is something different, I am not too sure how to describe it... I guess you have to go try it yourself. But the spaghetti was not done to al dante. It was still rather hard.

Our third main was seafood baked cheese rice. The seafood is a combination of squid, oyster, and prawn. The appearance is lovely, two oysters on each end of the dish, big pieces of squid and prawns... but deceiving. The squid was a bit on the chewy side and the oyster was tasteless... I did not eat the prawn so no comment there. Again the rice was not cooked properly. It was still hard.

Finally we had dessert...Crème brûlée (french for burnt cream). This is also my first time eating this but I liked it... liked it enough to try making it, after all I've already got the ramekins (the bowl that holds the Crème brûlée) at home. It has a sweet hard caramel top, smooth cold custard underneath. Their version is plain vanilla. Perhaps we can enhance the flavor with a bit of chocolate?

In a nutshell, Michaelangelo's Italian Kitchen has excellent environment and good food presentation but needs to improve on their food in terms of taste.

Cheers,

Valerie

Queen and Knight Chess Piece

‘Equality vs. Chivalry’

I was just recently thinking about this statement. Here we are talking about gender equality which means that both genders should receive the same treatment, regardless of their apparent differences. Chivalry means very polite and honourable behaviour, especially shown by men towards women. Definitions are from Cambridge dictionary. Examples of chivalry is opening doors, pulling out chairs and giving up seats for women.

Even from the definition, there are contradictions. Chivalry is only directed to women but equality says that both men and women should have the same treatment. My friend would say that we ladies just want our own way in everything :D

Women’s role in the world has changed greatly. They are no longer fit to only be kept in the kitchen but out in the corporate ladder. We now have women in all work sectors, and one woman even tried to break the highest glass ceiling in politics.

Some guys argue that if women can do everything that men can, they can open their own doors and so on. Some women even feel insulted when a guy opens the door for her, because she feels that it is patronising. Guys also complain that they do not get acknowledgements when they are chivalrous.

Perhaps I am a bit old-fashion or conservative, but I find nothing wrong with men being chivalrous. It’s refreshing actually. Most guys nowadays don’t know the meaning of the word. Perhaps they are too caught up in the rush of life and everyone is a competitor. For example, on trains, it is everyone for themselves. People will shove anyone else just to get on the train.

Yet I know some people that behave chivalrously, naturally. This friend of mine actually gets down from his car and opens the door for girls that he fetches, not only his girlfriend, but all the female population… unless it is raining hehe. Then there are those that wait till the person is inside the house and not the house compound before leaving, especially at night (when sending back home).

In my opinion, equality should cover chivalry also. This means that everyone should be nice and polite to everyone else. Take the train again, seats should be given up for those who need it more (though it is irritating when they reject and someone else takes your seat)… and when heading out of the cinema, hold the door to make sure the person behind does not get hit by the heavy door reflex.

Till the next time,
Valerie

Secondary school gathering

Gathering! yes, me and Val went for our secondary school gathering+yuen's belated bday+some welcome back thingy... I guess. Lol, I'm not quite sure myself. Anyway, we went to have our dinner at this steamboat buffet restaurant in Sunway. Nope it's not the infamous Yuen's Steamboat. (too much of that... need a change)

And so, we're in Chong Qing Steamboat buffet. It's at the area opposite Sunway Piramid. Somewhere near Yuen's Steamboat. To be exact, it's opposite Yuen's Steamboat. The food ain't bad, but there's not much variety. The soup is quite nice. I like the 'clear soup' coz it has little bit of herbal taste in it XD







Didn't take much pics, coz I'm super hungry! I just keep shoving food into my mouth XD This is the time when u're really glad that it's buffet. But then something happened. It started to rain =(

All the wasted food, wet tables and chairs...


We're sitting outside and there's not canopi. Lucky for us, we're quite finish with the food, just not satisfied yet. Hahaha. So we got a discount for this little tradegy. Original price is RM19 per adult. Now it's RM12 coz of the rain :p

I wouldn't recommend this place much. Just another so-so, not bad place for a little steamboat buffet.

Of course that's not the end! We headed to Bangsar for some drinks. This time, it's D'Haven. Dim lighting, not so noisy surrounding (not till we arrive XD). But... BUT! I don't like the drinks =/ The ice lemon tea tasted weird. According to Michelle, the Sex on the Beach is small compared to Laundry's. I'm not really an achohol or pub person, so I can't judge much on it. Price of drinks, mostly around RM20++. Oh, and they have sisha too.

The very first thing that caught my eye :p


Sex on the Beach








Pub is not my kind of place to hangout. But once in a while would be nice. Just for the sake of it. Hahaha~

Ashley snoozing off...