Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Loaf and MOF

The Loaf, Pavillion




















Cheese varieties of some of the common (and not so common) flavours found - green tea cheese, tiramisu cheese, oatmeal cheese, choc cheese, blueberry cheese, etc etc to name a few. From memory there was also Milo cheese (called the Coco Loco or something), strawberry cheese, banana cheese, durian cheese etc etc (although they go, of course, by slightly fancier stage names that place) . So far, I've only tried the Blueberry and Green tea. The blueberry's okay. So's the green tea (more matcha, people! more!). But not fantastic. Especially given the fact that it was RM15 for six of those cheese-in-a-cups. Not to mention each cup was like, half the size of a normal English teacup. Uncannily enough, there was a layer of pastry (cookie crumbs as the base, I presume) at the bottom, with the intention of making it into a mini cheesecake-in-a-cup, or an attempt at making it a cheesecake muffin of some sort, perhaps. The idea's not bad. The only fault with it is the fact that the pastry's a little misplaced - I encountered a whole chunk of the pastry smack in the middle of the green tea cheese...a whole, misplaced chunk. Try one. It won't hurt. And hey, you've got something to talk about at the water cooler, or at the coffee table with your colleague. "I've tried those lil cupcake thingies at The Loaf. Y'know, the one Mahathir's got a share in. Hyuk." It's RM2.80 for one of those lil monsters, by the way.

MOF, Pavillion




















Matcha milkshake with softserve. Again, one of the "chef's recommendations". There's a reason for the drip. I uploaded the wrong pic. I thought it gave the milkshake a bit of an artistic outlook. Before I start my usual analysis, there's something I need to get out of my system.

WHAT THE HECK IS THE PURPLE STRAW DOING THERE??

...Sorry. Purple just isn't harmonious with green, and never will be. Not in the colour charts, and especially not in my eyes.

Okay, back to the milkshake. It's not bad, but it could've used a lil bit more of the matcha taste. I think it's probavbly because of the softserve. If it had been matcha softserve or something in there, it would've been better. And, over time, the matcha taste wouldn't have been further diluted by the creamy milkiness of the softserve's flavour. It was either around RM10 from memory...I'm not too sure. But nope, give me Starbuck's green tea frap, or the Green Tea Freeze from JCo anyday over this one.















Hot choc which gyuushi. The combo looked a lil weird. Well, to me, at least, since I've never seen gyuushi served with hot choc before lol. For the uninitiated, gyuushi is well, pretty much a glorified Japanese version of the turkish delight, although arguably less sweet, and probably a little less gummy :P















Tonkotsu-flavoured tuna with wasabi sandwich. A novel choice, given we were in a place that specializes in Jap desserts. Sandwiches, by definition, do not fall under that category. Strange, indeed, especially how both mom and dad ordered that. Not to mention the lovely folks from the table beside us, and God knows how many others. I didn't try this (and will probably never will), so unfortunately, only pics will be available.


































Matcha Zen. I'm not sure how in tune into nature the combi is, but essentially, it's a serve of matcha ice cream surrounded by a moat of thickened azuki (redbean) soup and buoys of glutinous rice flour balls. To be honest, I was kinda half-expecting the redbean soup to be warm, probably 'cause I'm a sucker for unique hot-cold combis. But anyway, the entire dish was cold (not surprising for a dessert dish). I'm only a little disappointed that the glutinous balls were plain; again, I half-expected them to contain traces of peanuts or at least something, but maybe that's just the inner chinese side of me crying out. I never did quite understand what the obsession was with combining matcha with azuki. Everything "green tea" has a little of "azuki" inside - matcha/azuki cake, matcha/azuki daifuku, matcha/azuki icecream....the list goes on. Personally, I think the azuki flavour ruins the matcha, probably because the azuki flavour tends to be overbearingly strong and tends to mask the matcha taste (*hint hint* especially *hint* OChaCha). Since it was the "chef's recommendation", and it did look quite tempting from the pic (oh, when will I ever learn?), I gave it a go. I think it was RM11. I think. Or was it RM15? Anyway, it was definitely more than 10 bucks. Nope, not worth it. Taste aside, the presentation was nothing special. So what if there was a redbean moat and a couple of misplaced glutinous buoys floating around it? By Japanese pattisserie standards, it's more than a fail. Jap desserts are awesome. They taste awesome, and they look awesome. Unfortunately, this one didn't make the grade for either standards.















This one was a real lulz. When I saw it I was like, What. The. Hell. LOL. (In a good way, though). It was really nostalgic. The tables were desks! Desks with like, a compartment space underneath, just like my old high school desk! lol. I just had to take a pic.

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I wasn't too keen on the dimsum in the morning....until I saw the little chicks, that is :P What can I say? I've got a soft spot for cute stuff. They were so cute that I couldn't resist a nibble. Unfortunately, I still can't quite figure out the exact contents of the chick I sampled. Sugar, definitely. Sweet potato, possibly? And some other things, I guess. According to sis, it was a weird-ass combi between Planta and mash or something. LOL.

Totally random moment:

I want a Sasuke plushie for my bday! It's going to be a boring birthday. Forms. Phone calls. Medical appointments. Paying the Aussie high com a visit. Post office. More forms.

Random pic














Quick snapshot taken from my home :P

Saturday, November 29, 2008

I forgot. Earlier I'd mentioned that if I ever graduated on time, I'd rename Demon Marker L to Angel Marker L. Well, there you have it. Amendment done. One point away to distinction for that particular subject, uncannily. Oh, the irony. And, 4 years of uni and I got my first "pass" only grade. Three marks from credit. I didn't even recognize the grade code because I'd never seen it on my academic transcript before :( Four marks from distinction for another subject, and four from 1st class honours. It's probably more than that since the results were cumulative, but still. Sigh. A far cry from results from the first half of my course.

Now that I've got all those out of my system (sort of), time for a delayed cry of celebration:

I'm graduating :)).

My status has officially gone up from lowly pharmacy student to lowly pre-reg pharmacy graduate :) (the title's still not too appealing, but I'm still happy) :))

The Little Bites

I can be quite hard to please when it comes to food. Only at times. Sometimes. Especially when it comes to restaurants. And I hardly remember the names of restaurants I don't frequent regularly. Or those that I particularly have a poor opinion about.

Unknown restaurant #1 (located on the ground floor of 1u, opposite some Houseware/DIY shop - something about Thai food and steamboat)















Soft shelled crab - it was ok for RM9. I was expecting a tiny one about a quarter of that size, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when it arrived. Size aside, I found it quite greasy. It went well with the sweet chilli sauce that was served with it, but that wasn't quite enough to mask the oily taste. While it's probably not the worst thing I've tasted, it's probably not the best, either. Somehow, there's always going to be a better equivalent dish for each type of dish that I try, but this one's not too bad. I guess.




















SK trying to hide from view :P















Pandan-leaf chicken. It's ok for RM11. Again, not the best considering how the flavour's a little overbearingly strong since they were rather generous on the salt, so I'm on the fence on this one. I'd probably lean more towards a negative review, but maybe it's just me.















Seafood tomyam - this is probably the only dish among the three which will have a positive review from me - positive, as in, I won't nitpick into the fine details. It was sweet. It was sour. It was spicy. More sweet than sour, and that's probably the reason why I was quite fond of it. People who enjoy a perfect balance of all three flavours probably aren't going to be too ecstatic about it, but for those who enjoy a slighter sweet-tinged variety of tomyam soup, you probably would. I didn't try the prawns, mainly because I didn't want to risk having a swollen face and rashes covering every square inch of my body, but I ursurped most of the squid in the soup. Personally I enjoyed the squid. Tender, yet a little chewy. Just the way I like it. Not too squishy that it tasted like mush, nor too chewy that it tasted like oversized rubberbands. The seafood tomyam wasn't the only thing I liked about the place. I don't have pics, but the ambience was alright. The service was good and timely, with glasses refilled promptly, helpful recommendations provided, timely serving of the dishes, and smiling, pleasant waiters. I usually give restaurants a plus point if the waiters are friendly and actually bother smiling. I usually piss on the restaurant if otherwise. Probably has something to do with the fact that it's extremely unpleasant when someone in the service industry looks upon you with the hugest, fugly frown you've ever seen, looking like you're actually paying them for it. Like, from experience, waiters/waitresses who look like you'd just slapped them as you walked in, or those who turn away and pretend that they never saw you waving your arm towards them. Or certain salespeople in retail outlets who really shouldn't be in the business. Anyway, I deviate. Bottomline, I found the service pretty good.

Overall: On the fence

Unknown restaurant #2 (some Vegetarian restaurant located opposite TGIF that I didn't bother finding out the name of)















Fried (disgusting) rice - okay, I admit I like whining when it comes to food. I like food. I really do. I just hate it when people mess it up - myself included. Anyway, I'll name a couple of things wrong with this dish. The burnt corn. The rotten peas that oozed with a bitter taste as you bit into them, like it was something they just decided to chuck into the wok with the rest of the ingredients a day or two after it had gone bad. Oh, I realize now that I should've flipped a the bits of burnt corn over just so that you guys could have a look. The strangely dehydrated carrots. I'm also quite dubious about any other possible "extra" additives. Uncannily enough, 10 minutes into my meal and even after downing a full glass of soymilk, my throat still felt parched. Normal meals don't leave me feeling like a stranded traveller in the midst of a dessert thirsting for a single glass of water. MSG, however, I suspect, has such an effect. RM9's not the most I've had to pay for a plate of fried rice. However, it's probably the most I've ever had to (and hopefully will never have to again) pay for such an awful meal. I'd prefer the AUD11 fried rice from White Box any day over that - double the portion, and at least quintiple the palatability.



































The interior design, however, was quite a contrast to the meal itself. I found it rather pleasing, with the intricate petal designs that stretched across the walls and ceilings. The atmosphere is quite pleasant, too. I can't say the same, however, about the service. C'mon, hire a couple of waiters/waitresses that can speak English. And chefs that can actually cook. It's not that hard, is it? If you can afford such lavish expenditure on the interior design, surely you can invest a couple of bucks into the cuisine and quality of service. While I realize that a single dish of fried rice is usually insufficient to provide a thorough analysis on the store, that single dish is also the main reason why I probably may never re-visit that place- not just because it sucked, but also because I was supposed to have another dish besides that plate of horror. That was where the horrible service came in.

In addition to the fried rice, I'd also ordered the Emperor's Tofu since it looked considerably impressive on the menu. I waited until my rice was warm. And then cold. No sign of the tofu coming. Only waiters loitering around the restaurant, conversing and chuckling amongst themselves. One yelled something in mandarin, another just stood, bent over the counter, conversing in the same language to another colleague. I'm not familiar with mandarin, but I'm pretty sure that the person who'd yelled wasn't yelling anything like: Get your lazy asses back to work. I was halfway through my meal when mom decided that she couldn't bear the wait any longer. We both tried flagging down someone, but unfortunately, they were too engaged in their own private conversations to notice 2 unimportant customers waving at them. After several frantic waves and a couple of "Excuse mes", someone finally looks up and saunters our way.

"We ordered the Emperor's Tofu, but it's still not out yet." The waiter heads back to the kitchen with a muddled look on his face, and a couple of minutes later a waitress comes up to us and asks if we actually ordered anything else besides the fried rice. Wonderful recording system. It's a miracle that they'd managed to somehow misplace our order, especially since the place had like, only one other customer besides us. Mom was pissed. She immediately cancelled the order. And that was it. No apology. Not even an apologetic look at the very least.

Judgment: Appalling.

Moral of the story: Don't be fooled; never judge a restaurant by its interior design.

...Oh, yes. Someone please remind me to tear down Pasta Zanmai's reputation. They got lucky that I was lazy that night. Maybe if I'm up to it I'll continue on the Adventures of Shredding Restaurant Reputations.

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-Just some random yam pic-















...Purple yam! It's been quite a long time since I've had any XD

Seriously, sometimes it's the insanely simple foods that're the ones that keep me happy.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Ochacha and dinner at Eastin hotel

Ochacha at The Gardens, Midvalley















Their signature cake, the Matcha Azuki cake..................

....was a complete disappointment.
Rule #1: Never lie to your customers. Ever. Because they'd get extremely pissed.

Waitress: This is our signature cake. Green tea with redbean.
Me: Hmm...I don't know. I've read previous reviews stating that the redbean taste overpowers the green tea taste in such a way that you can barely taste any green tea at all.
Waitress: Ohhhh no, no. You can taste the green tea, definitely.
Me: Really, now. Alright; I'll try one then.

Despite my better judgment, I bought the disgrace of a cake. There goes RM9. If I cross analyze the cake, it's actually composed of redbean paste coupled with cream and green tea flakes, in rather awful proportions, if I may add, in such a way that (like other reviews have stated) completely masks the green tea taste. The only thing you taste is the redbean. Redbean. And cream. Not green tea. Redbean. I tried dissecting the cake, thinking that I might somehow be able to salvage the green tea layer, if I excluded the entire slab of cream and redbean paste in between. Even then, there was no green tea taste. Spongy, yes. Green tea flavour, no. Obviously they haven't skimped on the colouring, but stinged heavily when it came to the flavour. Shame, for a shop that claims to "specialize" in green tea products. It's sad, seriously. The green tea cake in Melbourne was at least 10x better than that glob of green colouring.

Total points?
False impression/deception: -5
Green tea flavour: -5
Presentation: +1 (By nature, I'm rather picky with presentation, but it wouldn't look good if your total score was a negative, now would it?)




















Pic above: Green tea latte (top) and green tea soy milk (bottom)

The green tea latte isn't too bad. It's on par with the one from Starbucks. Unfortunately, since you're running a shop that specializes in green tea, I expect a little more. It doesn't leave such a good impression when your green tea latte's on equal grounds with Starbucks.
As for the green tea soy milk? No green tea taste. Mild at best. I could taste the soy milk, but what happened to the green tea? This one can probably give the one from Surry Hills, Sydney, a run for its money - they're both equally bad.

Recommendations for Ochacha?
Negative.

Unhappy customer? Affirmative.




















Note that the smile was BEFORE I bit into the green horror.















Ochacha interior






























Dinner at Eastin Hotel

Okay, I'm not ashamed to say that I didn't bother even looking at the restaurant's name as I walked in. After all, it's not my first time there. I don't mind as long as the food's good. And heck, it's the only Chinese restaurant in the hotel. Went to celebrate mum's birthday, expecting good food. We ended up ordering the set menu since everyone was lazy to scan through the menu. This was what we were served for RM78 each:















Starters: cawanmushi and a little "moneybag" at the side.
The cawanmushi wasn't too bad, with basically some sharkfin soup overlaid by a layer of steamed egg and mushrooms. While the "moneybag" was alright, I found the fact that it was jampacked with meat a little less appealing, when compared to the ones I've tried in Hobart and Launceston, where the flavour and overall texture had a better balance.




















Next was the sharkfin soup. Not really my cup of tea, especially since the pepper taste was a little too strong and had masked most of the soup's original taste. What a waste. I'm not too sure about the order of this dish. It was relatively filling, and it may've been a little better if it had been served towards the end instead.















The marinated pork dish was probably the best dish among all six courses. There was a nice balance between the traditional herbal taste and the slight tinge of sweet sauce. If I had one complain about the dish, though, it'd probably be the fat. I'm aware that some may actually like the tenderness provided by the fat that accompanies the lean meat, but I'm not a big fan of that. The juicy taste of the chewy yet gelatin-like substance of fat together with the well-marinated lean meat....well, hmm....















Next was the crispy cod fish. I can't quite remember the name of the sauce that they used, but it reminds me of a certain Thai sauce that's quite commonly used with tofu. Not too bad, but to be honest, deep fried codfish just isn't right. The thing about codfish is...the oil. It's always the oil. It doesn't matter how crispy it tastes, or how the creamy texure was there to begin with - deepfrying codfish always leaves a slimy, oily taste.















The mushroom fried rice was the secondlast, right before dessert. Under normal circumstances, I'd say that it tasted like it was dehydrated, but given the fact that it was placed right after the codfish, I'd say the lack of dryness/lack of oil was quite a welcome. It was so-so. It didn't leave me disgusted, but on the other hand, it didn't make me crave for more.




















Dessert was the longan and strawberry served in the usual syrup, intermingled with clear jelly. It's the typical kind of dessert you'd get at the end of a wedding dinner (plus some strawberries and jelly).















Random teapot pic :P















The Mom ^^















The Dad (lol @ the kungfu hands XD)

If anything, the each of the courses were served at an appropriate pace, and the service was generally good and timely, with affable staff. The atmosphere was generally pleasant and serene, with minimal background noise (unlike the buzz you'd get at a typical chinese restaurant elsewhere).

Value for money? Probably not. But hey, you pay for the ambience, the presentation, and the services in addition to the food.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Please.learn.the.meaning.of.a.word.before.arguing.

"It's NOT your job to diagnose. Doctors do that."
So who the -censored- is arguing about that? When did I diagnose anyone?

Did I diagnose her with high intraocular pressure?
No.

What I did - I'll tell you straight on in plain English right now, since I was too bloody pissed to tell you in your face earlier on - was notice that certain constituents of her medications contained active ingredients that could potentially worsen her increased intraocular pressure.

"I've got pharmacist friends too. And they agree that doctors should be doing the diagnosing."
Yeah, no one's arguing about that. WTF. AGAIN, who said I was trying to diagnose, huh?

Layman terms. I get it. I need to use layman terms. It's called "Identifying an ADE" on our terms, but so that you can understand what that means, it basically means the drug's not the best choice, given the circumstances.

"Let the doctor handle it. Let the doctor handle it." - is a -censored- chime I hear from you. So what if you've got doctor friends? So what if you've got pharmacist friends? Either you've been severely misguided as to what a Pharmacist does, or -no offense- your pharmacist friend is severely misguided.

Docs don't do drugs. Who's supposed to know what adverse effects drugs cause? Pharmacists. Docs diagnose. Sure, they prescribe, but they prescribe according to what? The Guidelines by Drug Reps 1001. C'mon; you're not the only one with docs as friends. Hell, my entire apartment and practically half of the floor during my college days were populated by med students.

Go on. Lather on your corticosteroid cream (which you were chiming on about it not being a corticosteroid cream) onto your arms. And lather it on three times daily as advised by your specialist. Daily. Forever. As the SPECIALIST advised! *gasp*

...Just don't come crying or anything if you're suddenly diagnosed with osteoporosis in 10 years' time or something. According to the Code of Professional Conduct, a pharmacist is obliged to offer professional advice, but of course, the patient/consumer/public/whatchamacallit isn't obliged to follow it. Thank God. It's bad enough trying to do all the convincing even though it's backed by evidence; can you even possibly imagine what it'd be like if a pharmacist was obliged to make a consumer take advice? The horrors.

And oh, I admit I'm not an encyclopedia of knowledge. Neither am I Ms. Perfect. Just do yourself a favour - stop trying to downgrade others, because you don't have the ability to. You know what it sounds like to me? Maybe you can't imagine it, but I'll break it down to simple terms for you to understand. It's like me trying to say you do a -censored- lousy job with your CSS. How do you like 'em apples? Or it's like me saying, "You can't do that. CSS is not your job". You complain about how others know nuts yet they're trying to do your job. Oh, the irony in it all. And before you start sprouting your "it's-not-your-job-to-diagnose" rant again, don't. Just don't. No one said anything about diagnosing, so go back, re-learn the definition of diagnosing, then come back. I'll be glad to duke things out with you again.

Maybe when you've gained a better understanding of pharmacists. Then you can complain. Just maybe. Until then, stick with your IT stuff. Or pole. Whichever you like better, dude.

Oh, by the way. It sorta makes me wonder. What do you think pharmacists do, by the way? I know I'm going to regret asking this, but you know, curiosity.

(I'm kinda curious as to whether I'll get the "Pharmacists-are-shopkeepers!-They-sell-vitamins" kind of answer)

I don't like assuming that a person is blameless because of ignorance, mainly because by assuming a person's ignorant about a subject, you're assuming that they're at an idiot level when it comes to a certain subject. But I make exceptions, when the circumstances are right.

...And I'm amazed. This is the first time I've actually placed expletives in a blog post. Seriously.

1ST BLOG POST WITH EXPLETIVES! CONGRATS!
WHEEE Can't you just feel the sarcasm oozing out from every inch of the screen?

After calming down quite a bit, certain bits of the post have been censored. Yeah, I know. I've got anger management issues. ><

hyW od I syawla aveh na eliv mkris wneh Im' nrae fdoo?




















For those who thought that I was trying to be cryptic with my title, lol, no. It's just that my comp went berserk and everything I typed came out in a rather messed up order. For the anagram-lovers, you would've realized by now that the title read something like "Why do I always have an evil smile when I'm near food" lol.



















Can't.get.Matcha.out.




















The Matcha ice cream beside mum's Mango/Strawberry smoothie :P




















Unfortunately, Mr Matcha wasn't great. The ones from Brissie, Tassie and even Umaiya tasted better :(















Love them rounded seats :P















Wanted to take a pic of the bar with the entire "Desserts Bar" logo, but it was a lil difficult given the angle















Mom and Dad :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM :D















The cactus choc I pinched from my sis :P Apparently it's from Jeju Island (or so the packaging says)...There's only 1 term I can use to describe it...Slimy choc? Maybe it's made of cactus slime...who knows?















Crabs :P (and the edible kind, too!)















Tiramisu from La Manilla...again, I can name quite a few which're by far better, but heck, this one's probably better than the one from The Cave in ss2 :S















The Killer Bookmark (with my name engraved on it :P). I never realized until my dad pointed it out to me, but it can be quite deadly, especially given its pointy tip















Baa 2 ^^




















The Green Tea egg tart from John King, 1u :P It could use a lil more of the matcha taste, but it's not bad















Okay, this pic and the pic below was what I had for brunch like, the day after I arrived in Malaysia. Not the healthiest meal (nor smallest). I'll admit to at least that :P

*Drumroll* Here comes da Beng-Mobile!!

Almost 2 weeks in PJ, and I see my first BENG-MOBILE! (short for Ah Beng Automobile) XD

Seriously, it was the most beng-mobile I've seen in my 21 years of life so far...it was already heavily modified, for starters - the fact that it was completely surrounded by flashing blue lightblubs (yes, imagine the same fairy lights you see on christmas trees) that made it look like a Xmas advertisement on wheels didn't help much.

Me: Wanted to take a pic but there were a whole bunch of dudes around the car doing God-knows what kind of ah-bengness. lol
WS: haha you miss hospital smells you go take pic lah
Me: yeah no doubt they'll chase me to the end of the earth with their beng-mobile to bash me up
WS: then your ministry of defence mom will settle them
WS: haha

Friday, November 21, 2008

One of the lucky few :/

I'm allergic to the weirdest things.

Cephalosporins. Prawns. Stupidity. And now...artificial tears. :((

I found out the hard way today. About 2 drops into each eye, and about a minute later, I find my face puffing into a massive red balloon, and my entire body starts to itch, from head to toe.

C'mon; how many people you know are actually allergic to artificial tears? Artificial tears, of all things :( (okay, or rather, the preservatives in it)

As Puffzilla heads towards the mirror she finds her unrecognizable self staring back, with eyes looking like someone had just used it for target practice, and a warm, bloated red face with bumps all over that were practically the itchiest things she'd ever encountered ever since the last allergic reaction. And if that wasn't bad enough, the next thing she realizes is that the itching around her neck, back, arms and legs weren't just her imagination - the little red dots, according to the Magic Mirror of Truth, confirmed that. Not to mention, the red, bleary eyes. And the congested nose. Puffzilla (and every sane individual around her) knows that it's probably a good idea to pay the local GP a visit.

Allergy checklist:
Red, puffy face - check
Bleary red eyes and congested nose - check
Massive itching all over body - check
Shortness of breath - nil (thankfully)

And the end result? A jab near Puffzilla's butt and another 2 types of medications to add to Puffzilla's little goody bag of drugs. It's been a terrific holiday so far. Orthotics. Gastritis. Allergies. Possible dopamine agonists next year. And Puffzilla is now forced to sit on a pillow because her a** still hurts. There goes tomorrow's horseriding trip. And tomorrow's eyepoking session. Hopefully next week's results don't add to the lot of misery that keeps piling up so far. Maybe it's Karma. Who knows.

Puffzilla's only salvation at the moment is the fact that she's still looking forward to paying a visit to a certain Ocha shop that boasts a variety of green tea products.

This is Puffzilla, signing off to take her anti-Puff medications.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Absolutely.Disgusting

People naturally flock to the best.

...Or so they say.

Then could somebody please explain to me as to why on earth would people even consider going to the abomination of a hawker's place known as 'William's'?

It's bad enough that the place stinks like a sewer, and that roaches scurrying across tabletops are a norm, and that rats storm across the pitiful excuse of a 'roof', making you wonder if they'd just fall through and land in whatever mess of a dish you have in front of you.

...Now you're expected to fork out good money for that?

It's okay if you fork out money to dine at places where you have the ambiance and taste to back it up, or at least provide some remote form of justification (or at least, it wouldn't hurt as much). But this...this is just simply amazing. Horrid to the extent of being amazing, that is.

9 bucks for 2 drinks and 1 garlic cheese naan (and a wrongly-ordered drink, at that - and not to mention, the fact that it took AGES for the damn orders to arrive). And apparently another friend had to fork out a similar amount - only for a sad miserable plate of spaghetti.

Did I mention the fact that there were individuals who were gladly contributing to my daily intake of secondhand smoke? Individuals that seemed to surround every inch square of that ungodly place? And oh, the stench. You have just got to love the sewer-like stench that wafts throughout the place.

My only regret is not taking snapshots of that place, and its 'dishes', so that I can continue to TEAR that place apart with my post.

We're all gluttons for punishment, aren't we?

I'm just surprised that no one has actually been hospitalised due to bacterial gastroenteritis or something. I swear, just sitting at that place for 5 minutes was more than enough to exacerbate my gastritis.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Gelato cake :S

A cheesecake is not considered a cheesecake when it tastes like a blob of gelatin.

Yes, my friends. That's what the RM6.30 slice of oreo "cheesecake" in Secret Recipe tastes like. I was eyeballing the cake with YR one fine day. Our greatest mistake was that we actually purchased the damn cake (sorry YR. Thanks for the treat, but unfortunately, the cake was a slice of fail). You should've seen our expressions as we took our first bite into the blob. Hard to describe, actually. Imagine biting into a slimy mess of gelatin with soggy, infrequent bits of oreo. And imagine having to call that thing a cheesecake.

Oh, yes. A friend suggested that I start blogging about food since I liked criticising lots of things - food included, of course. Not a bad idea. I think I might, from time to time...How does the heading "The Sporadic Chomp" sound? heh XD I'm not too sure if I can afford to fork out ratings for the food that I try...I reckon that not many would get a passing grade.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

You know that you're back in Malaysia when....

1) ...You arrive at the KLIA airport, and the first thing you do is subconsciously cover your belly fats

2) ...You find that salespeople (some...ok, most) scowl at you

3) ...It takes a whole 10 minutes for a single page to load

4) ...You get a message from facebook....in MALAY (...wtf?)

5) ...You spontaneously start sweating like a pig, despite the fact that the only part of your body that's exercising are your fingers >_<

...List to be updated! Stay tuned, folks :P

And ohhh ohhh, Mr Baa Baa officially has a twin brother :3

Saturday, November 08, 2008

4 years' worth of junk! :S

I've got so much junk that it's amazing.

Some clothes which I never knew I had, items that I'd forgotten about, boxes of biscuits and sweets, semi-painted canvases abandoned at the corner, bits of the remnants of my Honours stuff, and not to mention, about 3.5 boxes' worth of clothes....the list goes on :S

Goes to show how much stuff can accumulate in such a short time. I wonder how I'll be able to finish packing by Monday "-__-

The biggest question is, how am I supposed to transport Mr Baa Baa to Ally's place without getting curious glances? >__< Will probably stuff him into some box temporarily and smuggle him into a cab all the way to Ally's *sheepish*

Thursday, November 06, 2008

:D

Most unusual day today. Tired from the exams due to the lack of sleep (mind you, I didn't get a blink of shut eye the night before), and the paper was unexpectedly difficult. But thankfully, the aftermath was fortunately quite pleasant. Some fingerfood and 2 drinks at Onba at North Hobart with my classmates (thanks to Erin for organising it :D), and got a chance to laugh at HY because when we were paying our bills, a classmate snickered when he heard HY's bill (AUD30) and said, "Soft" (meaning, she only had 1 drink since everyone had to pay AUD15 for the fingerfood). LOL.

And today I saw double rainbows :D Nicely stretched across the sky, and parallel to each other. Cool. I regret not taking a photo of it, even if it was in the blasted rain :(

Anyway, takoyaki soon :D Can't wait ^^

Saturday, November 01, 2008

5.23 am post :P

Too tired to study, but too awake to sleep :S

I feel one step closer to graduation...sort of? Must be due to the fact that I just sat for my first exam yesterday...

Why the heck do I feel that it wouldn't have made a difference, whether or not I'd studied for Therapeutics? I knew I should've utilised that time to study Clin Pharm instead (heck, even studying for Pharm Sci might've been better)...That said, the exam didn't feel too bad...at least, passing shouldn't be an issue (hopefully)

Argh, why's the reunion thingie going to be conducted on the 13th of dec? That's like, a day after I leave for melbourne...I swear, it must be some sorta conspiracy :X

YJ received a huge snoopy soft toy for her grad from YR! And those cute soft toy flowers! I want one toooooooo :S Time to hint to the folks :3 *hint hint* (lol, I didn't realize that her convo was 2 months back...if they didn't post comments about the pic I wouldn't have known)

I really shouldn't be wasting my time blogging, or thinking about how to invest in shares, or thinking about my hopefully-will-jadi horseriding trip or my hopefully-to-come singapore trip, or my takoyaki stall in the ss2 pasar malam, or.....etc etc etc

Really, this goes to shows that wants, needs, and random thoughts peak during exams :S

And oohhhh, geek-o-info of the day! Apparently 600-900 mg/day of standardized garlic extract, if taken regularly for about 12 weeks, will result in lesser episodes of the common cold, and quicken recovery rates!

Lol...who the heck's gonna walk into a pharmacy asking for "standardized garlic extract", read the labels to ensure it's within the range of 600-900 mg, and proceed to have garlic breath for 12 weeks? And this one's new to me; I never knew that garlic could actually reduce the frequency of tick bites in high doses.

...The things people research about. It never ceases to amaze me.