My New Year Afternoon

Happy New Year! Year 2009 is finally a past tense and here comes 2010! Today is the first day of the year, I managed to wake up pretty early as I skipped the New Year Eve's celebrations in those major shopping malls or pubs. There are times I would prefer to stay away from the crowd and the massive traffic jam, hehehe...

I had a great time hanging out in one of my favourite shopping mall, Ikano Power Centre. I love to be there especially during afternoon because of the relaxing atmosphere and warm sunlight, thanks to the huge glass panels in place of concrete walls in certain sections of the ground floor. There were plenty of people in the mall but nobody seem to be in a hurry, guess most people are on their 'rest mode', even if it's only one day, it wouldn't hurt to take a break. :)

After visited Ikea to spend my cash voucher on some cooking utensils and a chair for Ben, we stopped by The Bakery Moments for tea time. I had a Strawberry Bolle while Ben had Mocha Bolle ('Bolle' means bun in Norwegian). The bun seemed to be more filling than the normal ones I had from other bakery shops. I'm not sure if this has something to do with the fact that they use wholemeal flour in all their bread products.

A closer look at my Strawberry bolle with icing sugar sprinkled on top... The filling was strawberry jam, but I secretly wished it was strawberry cream instead.

Like the rose prints on my dress? It's a summer dress that I just got from Cotton On @ One Utama yesterday. I purposely picked it for a New Year's afternoon as it looks so happy and cheerful!

Before heading back home, we went to Popular Bookstore and I got a few books and magazines, including one that taught us how to make those beautiful lanterns using red packets, which you can normally see during Chinese New Year. I'll share some pictures with you next time after I completed one or two of the projects in the book.

Just Another Eating Trip

I visited Sushi Zanmai at The Gardens, Mid Valley for the second time about three weeks ago. This is not a serious food review, so I won't be commenting much about the taste of the food. But frankly speaking, although the food tasted okay, there's really nothing much to shout about. Here are some food pictures that I've painstakingly taken with the ultra-sensitive digital camera...

This is the Kakiage Don (small) that I ordered. The topping of the rice as you can see in the picture, is supposed to be tempura made with mixed vegetables and prawns. Sadly all I ate was a little bit of vegetables with thick layer of flour and I can hardly see the prawns; well okay, there were a few tiny ones.

Ben ordered Sukiyaki, which consisted a hot pot of soup and vegetables, a plate of thinly sliced beef and a bowl of raw egg. He was rather suspicious when I told him that the raw egg is for dipping the ingredients before eating. :) Anyway, since he's not a person who is used to the idea of consuming raw food (fish, meat, egg etc), at the end the whole egg went into the hot pot instead!

I didn't had a very pleasant time with Ben sitting beside me having Sukiyaki. The truth is I've phobia with the portable mini gas stove, which in my personal opinion doesn't look very safe at all. If you've seen the email with photos of the seriously injured and disfigured victims after a gas stove explosion accident that were being circulated around the Internet about a year ago, you'll know what I mean. Yup, they were having steamboat/hot pot in a gathering and they were using the same portable mini gas stove you can see in the picture below... Maybe it was just an unlucky accident, but I still prefer electric stove, at least nowhere near the fire, haha!

A Hearty Meal of Couscous

I cooked couscous for lunch the other day. It's a pretty simple dish, as I used instant couscous that takes only 3 to 4 minutes to cook. Instant couscous are packed in boxes and sold in nearly all major supermarkets, so you wouldn't have a hard time looking for it. :)

The couscous has to be cooked in hot water until fluffy. I added a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of butter for richer flavour. Other ingredients (chicken meat, sausages and frozen vegetables) were cooked separately with dried herbs and then served with the couscous. All it took was only half an hour, and "tadaaaa"...! A deliciously healthy meal.

Events from the past 2 weeks

It's been more than two weeks since I last updated my blog. Plenty of things happened during this period and I really don't know where to start, so I guess it'll be easier to make a list instead...

• My wardrobe arrived a day late due to some transportation issues on the furniture store's side. It's not the ideal size, but guess I've to accept the fact that I'm short of cash to get a larger one.
• Quite a number of people in the company were retrenched. I'm not one of them. Is this good or bad for fishes in a bowl of stagnant water?
• Coach is having a sale and I succeeded in resisting the temptation to get one!
• I had my first visit to an Izakaya (a Japanese style bar); Izakaya Shuraku in Solaris Mont Kiara. The place is pretty small and crowded, nice for chilling out with friends, but definitely not one for a nice and quiet dinner.