Prosperity in My Pocket ^^

Chinese New Year atmosphere is in the air.

The Thaipusum (did I spell it correctly?!) holiday, everyone must have outta for CNY goodies, clothes and preparation. I wish I could do a little shopping, joined the crowd out there and inhaled the air of CNY…

But I could only sob with books. This is killing me. Heavy workloads and exams and tests all came in a sudden. I am suffocated and could hardly breathe through these hectic lifeless killing-ness studies.

Yes,
Inhaler, I need you.
Extra O2, I need you.

NoNoNo,
Brain Juice, I need you.
Enthusiasm in books, I need you.
Focusing and concentration, I need you too.
“PASS”es in exam/test, I need you MORE.

.






Hence, I stopped myself from reading and drove out for McD’s drive thru for the Chicken Prosperity Burger Set which consisted of a Large Curly Fries, Large cool ice Green Tea and the Peppery Grilled Chicken Burger.








Fiery Peppery Grilled Chicken topped with slices of onions and sandwiched in between long sesame-d bread.








The Curly Fries where I got my extra ‘Ohmmm’ to continue.



Ahhh… here comes my prosperity.

PS: Happy that McD comes out with chicken prosperity set for me to try out. They have beef burger set too. These sets are introduced before and during CNY only.


AND…

It was a disaster in the test this morning. Sigh…

Mei Chi Xuan @ Kota Damansara

It was another food bloggers meet up last month. This time we were heading to Mei Chi Xuan upon Sid’s invitation. Thanks Sid and also Chef Steven Cheng for preparing us a wonderful hearty meal. We truly enjoyed it.

At first I thought we (Christine, Chris and I and Sugar Bean) were there quite on time but got surprise when we saw other food bloggers were already seated and chatted with one another. ‘Oopps’ were we late?! My stomach screwed a little. Besides KampungboyCitygal and Big Boys Oven, we were introduced to Foodie Lianne and Joanne. It was sooooo nice to meet you ^^


Shall we begin our dinner?!





The dinner started at 9pm and I was extremely hungry. Firstly, we had the …

What’s this?!

Yeahhh… you got it, that’s the Lobster Sashimi (priced at Rm 13 per 100gram) was firstly served. Note that a week of prior notice is needed. Do call up and make your reservation.

I have tried Lobster Sashimi for several times in the very Japanese style where I had it with Wasabi. This was my very first time having Lobster Sashimi by simmering the sashimi in a pot of Superior Soup. The soup was prepared by lou gai 老鸡 (“old-chicken”?! It’s kinda hard for me to translate it into English), lean pork 瘦肉, chicken feet鸡脚, kam wah fo tui金华火腿 and double boiled for 2 days. TWO DAYS!!! No wonder the Soup was full with essence of each ingredient. kam wah fo tui 金华火腿 was used to give the salty flavour to the soup while the chicken feet鸡脚 was used to provide the stickiness and gelatinous to the broth. Preparing such an essence-full broth was never an easy task.

The shimmered Lobster Sashimi tasted juicy and ‘bouncy’ and lively. You just can’t resist having more if you love seafood.

“Quack quack” here came the 8 Treasured Duck 八宝鸭 priced at Rm 80.

It was a dish that took up 2 hours preparation time and was stuffed with 8 treasures inside its stomach. There were chestnuts, lotus seeds, mushrooms, lap cheong, carrots…
Hmmm… the duck meat had the fragrant of each ingredient. I supposed not many Chefs can make this flawlessly nowadays. Yum! ~

Lobster Noodles was prepared by using the remainder Lobster head and shell from the Sashimi we had earlier and so, there won’t be any wastage on every parts of the Lobster.

Hmm, it was so yummylicious. The Yee Mien was boosted up by the fresh Lobster.

Slurp-slurp, each of us had some plates.

Next up, the Dried Oyster with Stuffing “Hoi See Fatt Choy” priced at Rm 50.

There was the dried oyster stuffed in the fish cake and had concentrated light sauce decanted over the dried oyster with stuffing.

Golden Pumpkin with tofu 黄金满府 at the price of Rm 20. There were soften-pumpkin slices in between the tofu. Chef Steven was using own made tofu to cook this dish. Chef Steven loves to share his experiences and recipe with us. As I noticed, he was animated when he was explaining us the ways of making tofu. There were sparkles in his eyes when we were having conversation on food and cooking.

Needless to say, this tofu was fabulous. The yellowish gravy was actually the natural colour from the blended pumpkin. And this dish resembles one of the Chinese New Year dishes. 黄金 = gold, 满 = full, 府 = house… That’s why Chef Steven came up with this. Besides this, the Dried Oyster with Stuffing is only available in Chinese New Year menu.

While we were enjoying the tofu, the upcoming dish was the Boneless Fish with Meat Paste 无骨胶鱼 priced at Rm 18. The fish has to be de-boned first and its flesh is taken out. The flesh is then added and mixed with pork and seasoning. And they are stuffed into the fish skin before cook to its perfection.

The concentrated sauce prepared was actually their special barbecue sauce. The used of tomato sauce gave a little sweeten flavour to the sauce.

Deep Fried Fish Baits, Pak Fan Yu (Rm 20) had my attention too. This fried stuff looked alluring. Aiks… we should have this first before the Boneless Fish with Meat Paste as the strong flavored barbeque sauce of the Boneless Fishpaste had overtook the taste of Deep Fried Fish Baits.

I was really full and only able to have a mouthful of this Fried Potato with XO Sauce (priced at Rm 15). There were potatoes, green peppers, carrots and chilies are cut into tiny slices and cooked with the right amount of XO sauce. hulalaaa, I love this as it was slightly spicy. Too bad that all of us were full-up and weren’t able to finish up this Fried Potato with XO Sauce.

Finally came in the dessert. The Coffee Agar-agar with kiwi seed. This was new to me too! Coffee flavor and kiwi seed in the jelly. Maybe I shall try it out at home and share up with family?! ^^v

Is that only these?!!!

No-no-no, the very thoughtful Sunny from Big Boys Oven prepared us these gorgeous desserts! He named it as Lychee and Chestnut Light Cheese Cake.

Yes, there was slightly light lychee flavour and chestnut cream surrounded the custard cream on top of the cake base. The cheese cake base was a little dense but they were irresistible. Yummy! I love Big Boys Oven’s cake! Guess what?! Esiong from Sugar Bean had 2 cakes!

And… we had a small celebration with Christine for her birthday which was a day earlier with all the food bloggers that were present.

Thanks to Chef Steven for hosting us such a hearty and scrumptious dinner and thanks to Sid’s invitation and thanks to Sunny for the gorgeous Cheese Cake. The dishes we had as above (minus the dessert from BBO) is released a month before Chinese New Year. If you like the idea of Pumpkin with Tofu and the Dried Oyster with Stuffing, come and visit this place as they are only available during Chinese New Year


Mei Chi Xuan 美食轩海鲜饭店
No. 32A1, Jalan 5/10,
PJU 5 Dataran Sunway,
Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor.

Tel: 03-61416122
H/P: 016-2783089 (Steven)

Afternoon Tea Birthday Celebration

Gosh, I am delaying post again. I am really very sorry about the delaying posts due to my very hectic time table which I could hardly cope or breathe through it. You will never believe how terrible my lectures and lab sessions are! I have lectures or labs from 8am to 6pm DAILY! In between, there are only 1 or 2 hours lunch break. At most only 3 hours break a day. Imagine how horrible it is and I am exhausted after classes (don’t think about revising and doing reports or homework anymore!!!). Honestly, I have the feeling that working is more enjoyable and relaxing than studying. Sigh sigh sigh…

Back on food, I think I really have to make this posted up quick and fast before getting “nags” by my 2 best-besties, Wen Ching and Ting Fang. It was after 2 days after my birthday, both of my best-besties brought me out for a belated birthday celebration. At first we planned to have a lunch together but ended up with an afternoon tea celebration for me!

Wen Ching and Esiong have choosen the place for us. We, who are the big fans of Green Tea agreed to have a drink in Ochacha which is located in The Gardens (near Isetan side).

The interior is green in colour suits the theme of Ochacha very much. It is just simple and refreshing.

Wen Ching had a warm Latte Signature Premium, where it was the Matcha (Green Tea) in steamed milk.

As for Esiong, he had himself a cuppa of Freezie Cream Matcha Blended with Ice. That was indded a good choice for a rather warm atmosphere in here. (Yes, it was a little warm at where we sat.)

For me, the main character of the day (HaHa!) had the Mondo Almond where it was a warm beverage which only tasted this good with matcha and powdered Almond. It was a great combination that I fancied.

Ting Fang then had herself a cuppa of Silk Matcha with Soy Milk with the caption, Indulgence without guilt. It was nice too but I do prefer the Mondo Almond and Latte Signature Premium. All the same looks? Yes, All the hot beverages had almost the same appearance but in tasted very differently.

They also treated me with 2 slices of cake, Azuki (the signature and recommended cake) and Strawberry Matcha Cake.

Strawberry Matcha Cake was layered with fresh strawberry in between each layer of green tea based sponge cake. It was fresh and sourish in taste. Definitely went great with our cuppas.

Azuki Matcha Cake was layered with special type of Red Bean paste aired from Japan. It was slightly sweeter. I myself prefer the little sourish Fresh Strawberry Matcha Cake.

Me and my 2 besties~

Thanks gals for the lovely present specially selected for me. I love it very muchie! Thanks a lot gal! You gals are very sweet (Amai-ne)! Love you gals a lot! Muackzzz!

The celebrations with friends were great! My primary besties spent me an amazing afternoon tea while my Murni Gang had taken me out for dinner on my day. How about Suria gang (my high school friends)?! Where are you guys?! You guys owe me a BIG BIG BIG meal!!!

Ochacha

Lot T-237A, Third Floor,

The Gardens,

Mid Valley City,

Lingkaran Syed Putra,

59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-22829694

Fax: 03-22829598

Turning on 22...

What a day! Turning on 22 is not an easy thing for me as I experienced serious trauma last year when I stepped myself into my 21st. good thing is that this year I didn’t suffer from serious ‘sick’ but still, there was a minor one.

Date: 4th Jan 08
Time: 7pm
Venue: Marco’s Pizza
Dress code: casual
Theme: dear Ai Wei’s Birthday

That’s the message I received from Christine with no questioning but just informing me.
So, on Last Friday, my lovely friends a.k.a. Murni gang brought me out for a dinner at Marco’s Pizza. I have longed to eat-in in Marco’s and Christine has planned and brought me over for my birthday celebration. What a thoughtful best-ie she is!

As it was raining cats and dogs on that night, me and Yen were stuck in the traffic and arrived late. As we were still in our traffic, Christine, Chris and Velix took opportunity to order for us. But then… they have come up with lots of food for just the five of us.

The bright cosy interior

As always I will have a glass of Fresh Lime Juice while I dine in any Italian restaurant.

Meanwhile, they have the Italian Soda (from left to right) raspberry, vanilla, and passion fruit. The raspberry Italian soda was sourish and refreshing; passion fruit tasted passion and the vanilla fragrant with vanilla. Certainly I like the raspberry flavour.

As for starter, we had the Rosemary Chicken Salad. There were chicken chunks, green veges … honestly, I can’t recall what’s more inside. Simply love the dressing as it went well with the fresh greens.

We had 3 bowls of Wild Mushrooms Soups scented with grape seed oil (to be shared) which were highly recommended by Chris and Christine. I agree with them. This was special and aromatic with mushroom-sy taste. This was not the ordinary type of mushrooms soups others pizza house served. They were made by blended wild mushroom which gave the dark greenish colour. Some might love it while it was still warm but I like it when it is cooled.

Here comes their Signature Pizza --- Marco’s. It was topped with shredded turkey, ham, country chicken egg, mozzarella and plum tomato sauce on thin crust. Yumz. It was so cheesy-licious and crunchy! This definitely has our votes! Another a Must to order if you come here!!

Next, the Four Seasons (Chef Choices) and there were 4 choices of toppings in one pizza. We had red and green peppers, pineapple (should be Hawaiian type), mushroom and seafood flavour.

Also, Spaghetti Carbonara came with traditional creamy pasta with beef bacon, garlic, and egg and parmesan cheese. Oh-oh… there were beef bacon in the carbonara. Me and Yen couldn’t take this.

Our considerate friends ordered the Penne Alla Royale for me and Yen. It was Sautéed farm chicken meat, wild mushrooms, garlic, and tomato and pesto sauce. Tasted good too but I find that there very strong parsley (er… not sure, hopefully not mistaken) in this plate which I don’t really like it.

La-la-la… candle-blowing time arrived. They have prepared me slices of cakes. (ps. Christine, I can know the name for both cakes? I have forgotten :P)

Thanks dears. I finally could blow off candle. Let me count… there are about 4 years I have neither cakes nor candle blowing session on my birthday. There were joys, cheerfulness, gladness, delight on my special day and this special year!

Thanks, thanks, thanks and million thanks to Christine, Yen, Chris, Velix and Khee (who are now in India) for the wonderful present for me. I love it very muchie and I will treasure it (tak sampai hati to use it. How?!) Love you guys a lot and thanks for being with me on this day and being with me all the time. Muacks! ~

The Murni gang! Velix, Yen, Me, Christine and Chris (and minus out Khee who is now in India). Love you guys a lot!!!

Map to Marco’s!

Marco’s Pizza
No: 81 – 85, Jalan SS25/2,
Taman Bukit Emas,
47301 Petaling Jaya,
Tel: 03-78035000
Fax: 03-78033805