Lunch Buffet at The Islander

Posted on November 1, 2009
Filed Under Food | 1 Comment

Last Friday, we had a buffet lunch as a small get together among the folks of my team in my current company.

We had the buffet at The Islander, Traders Hotel. The buffet was for RM45 nett per head and the nice part was The Islander was giving a buy 1 get 1 free promotion, therefore, we only paid RM 22.50 nett per head. Cool eh

Before I went ahead to enjoy the meal, I managed to take some shots on the dishes available there.

As a starter, we have soup. The soup of the day was the Herbal Chicken Soup. It was sweet and best of all, not salty. Simply sweet to start the meal with a bowl of the Herbal Chicken Soup.

After the soup, here comes the main dishes. Among all the main dishes, I loved the mutton, beef and the curry salmon head the most.

There was a teppanyaki counter available. There were fish fillet as well as calamari served at the teppanyaki counter.

Also, not forgetting, there was a counter that served chicken and duck meats. The roast duck was the nicest among all those available at the counter.

Once done with the main dishes, it’s always nice to complete the meal with some nice desserts. They have ice-creams, fruits as well as mousse and pastries available. Last but not least, you can also request for a bowl or two of the local favorite, ice kacang.

On the overall, everybody had a great lunch with the lunch buffet. Most importantly, we had a good time getting together … away from work.

Technorati Tags: The Islander, Traders Hotel, buffet

Stir Fry Chicken with Oyster Sauce and Basil Leaves

Posted on October 13, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 2 Comments

Yesterday, I did a relatively simple chicken dish with basil leaves. I love every bit about basil leaves. It has a very strong fragrance and goes very well with meat. If you like basil leaves, you can consider to try this dish too.

What you need:

200 – 300 gms of chicken meat
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 clove of garlic (sliced into small pieces)
1/4 bowl of water (small bowl)
Basil leaves

Method of preparation:

First of all, cut the chicken meat into small chunks and put them in a bowl. Marinate the chicken meat with oyster sauce. Add a few pieces of the basil leaves into the chicken as well. Mix the chicken and sauce evenly and leave it marinate for about 15-20 minutes.

Next, heat up the wok / frying pan with some oil over a medium flame. Put in the garlic and stir fry till they develop a light shade of brown. After that, put in the marinated chicken meat and stir fry the chicken meat evenly.

Once the chicken meat is cooked, put in the basil leaves and stir fry the chicken and leaves for a short while till they are evenly mixed.

Lift the chicken and basil leaves of the wok / frying pan and serve.

This is how the dish looked like when it’s served:

Technorati Tags: basil leaves, basil, chicken, oyster sauce, stir fry dish

Explore Japanese cuisines with Buffet at Kampachi

Posted on October 7, 2009
Filed Under Food | 2 Comments

It’s been a while since the last time we dined at Kampachi. Therefore, we decided to have lunch there last weekend. If you are a fan of Japanese cuisines, Kampachi is one of the nice place to go in Penang.

Kampachi is located on the LG floor of the Equatorial Hotel Penang at Bukit Jambul. Kampachi is popular for it’s weekend buffets. You’ll get to enjoy a selections of various Japanese dishes freshly prepared by the in-house chefs.

Have fun with the pictures I took during the lunch buffet then

There will be more varieties available for the dinner buffet as compared to the lunch. That, of course will come with a different price tag. The time and price for the buffet lunch and dinner are as below:

Buffet Lunch (Available on Saturday and Sunday)
11:30 am – 2:30 pm
RM62.00++ (Adult), RM34.00++ (Child)

Buffet Dinner (Available on Saturday only)
6:30 pm – 10:00 pm
RM86.00++ (Adult), RM46.00++ (Child)

Rates are subject to 10% service charge and 5% Government tax. The price above are accurate at the time of posting. For the updated details, kindly refer to the hotel’s website here: Equatorial Hotel Penang.

Technorati Tags: kampachi, japanese buffet, japanese+cuisine, Equatorial Hotel

Weekend Day Trip Up Cameron Highlands

Posted on September 23, 2009
Filed Under Holidays | 5 Comments

Last Sunday, we took a day trip up to Cameron Highlands. It was still a bright and sunny morning when we drove up. There were occasional drizzles along the way up. When we were near the top, we were greeted with a heavy down pour. The rain stopped after a while. It was raining on and off throughout our trip on Cameron Highlands.

Due to the long weekend holidays, it was crowded virtually everywhere on Cameron Highlands. Moving around and finding a place to park our car during holiday seasons like this was an ‘adventure’ in Cameron Highlands. Long queues were expected virtually everywhere.

Nonetheless, we still managed to visit a place or two during our short day trip there.

We visited one of the many cactus gardens up in Cameron Highlands. Cactus gardens are one of the attractions up there. You’ll get to see all sorts of cactuses available in the gardens. Below are some photos taken inside the cactus garden we visited.

Another activity that is nice to do up Cameron Highlands is to visit the many tea plantations there. You should walk around the plantation and enjoy the scenery of the plantation along the way. There are also tea houses available in the tea plantation for you to take a short break and have a cuppa nice tea. These are some of the photos I have taken at the tea plantation we visited.

Besides the above, one can also visit the honey bees farms as well as the various marketplace up in Cameron Highlands. You should try the sweet corns widely sold there. They are very nice and sweet when eaten fresh.

You can also visit the many strawberry farms up in Cameron Highlands and have some fun time plucking strawberries yourself.

There you have it. A short day trip up to Cameron Highlands. On the overall, it’s a nice place to relax and also get away from the busy city. Anyway, I would recommend a visit to Cameron Highlands during non-peak seasons or during week days. The traffic on Cameron Highlands can be pretty nasty during peak seasons and long weekend holidays.

Technorati Tags: Cameron Highlands, cactus garden, tea plantations, strawberry farms

Hungry Ghosts Versus 090909

Posted on September 10, 2009
Filed Under Life, Thoughts | 4 Comments

As per the Chinese Lunar calendar, it is still the Chinese 7th month now. This also means it is still the month of Hungry Ghosts Festival which will be a month-long festival. It’s said that the gates of Hell will be opened and ghosts/spirits are allowed to roam freely in the human world for a month.

According to customary belief, since it is a ‘ghostly’ month, usually grand celebrations like new shop opening, new project start up, marriage and so on would not be done on this particular month for fear of bad lucks.

This year’s Sept 09th, or more fondly known as 090909, there seemed to be an exception. Despite the fact that it is the 21st day of the Chinese 7th month, we saw hundreds of Chinese couples getting married on this particular day. In Chinese, the number 9 has a similar sound to ‘long’ (in term of time). Therefore, 090909 will naturally sounded like longevity. I guess the temptation to tie the knot on this very special and auspicious day is far greater as compared to the current hungry ghosts festival that is still going on. A lot of the couples tied the knot on this day with an inspiration/hope that their marriage will last forever, just like 090909.

Well, as the ghosts are still having fun during their holidays, I would like to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Marriage to all the couples who had tied the knot on Sept 09th 2009. I guess it would be more special for those that actually said the wedding wows or signed the certificates on 09:09:09 am, right? Those will have a whopping 6 9s or 090909090909 blessing

Technorati Tags: celebration, festival, hungry ghost festival, seventh month, marriage, 090909 celebration

RON – Research Octane Number

Posted on September 3, 2009
Filed Under News | 1 Comment

With the recent change of fuel standard in the local fuel pumps, there were much hypes on things like what RON is, impact of the change to the cars and so on. I’m not a petrol head myself but I’m rather interested to find out more information on those stuffs. I did some readings and decided to have those compiled under this post for your readings too.

RON stands for Research Octane Number. It’s a common type of octane rating being used worldwide. The rating number or RON is determined by running the fuel using a test engine with variable compression ratios. The process is done under controlled conditions and results are compared with those of other mixtures of iso-octane and n-heptane. Iso-octane and n-heptane are the chemical compounds that made up the fuel. Compression ratio represent the ratio of the volume of the combustion chamber; from the largest to the smallest capacity.

The octane rating is a measurement of the resistance of gasoline and other fuels to detonation (better known as engine knocking) in spark-ignition internal combustion engines. High-performance engines like those available in sports cars or racing cars will have higher compression ratios and is more prone to detonation. Those car would require higher octane (or RON) fuel to resist the detonation. However, a lower performance engine will not perform better even if higher octane fuel is used in the engine as the compression ratio of an engine is fixed by the engine design. This translate to the fact that all the cars that can run on RON95 fuel would not need to use RON97 fuel because even by feeding RON97 fuel to your car, it will not perform better and it will mean an unnecessary waste of money too.

How about pumping fuel with a much lower octane rating compared to the minimum octane needed by your car? Well, burning fuel with a lower octane rating than required by your car engine will result in reduction in power output and efficiency. In layman term, it simply means lost of power in your car. When an engine begins to detonate (knock), that reduces power and efficiency. Also, when you the engine knocks, it will rapidly suffer major damages and thus rapidly increase your engine’s wear and tear rate. That will also mean that you’ll need change to a new car much sooner than you thought.

On the overall, if you are using a fuel that meet your engine’s minimum octane rating (RON), then it’s the quality of the gasoline as well as the addictive used will be the ones that is likely to affect the rate of the engine’s wear.

There you have it. So, spend your monies wisely on fuel. Some might say that the few cents in price won’t make much of a difference. But again, why pay more when you can get the required performance with a lesser cost?

Technorati Tags: Malaysia, RON, research octane number, fuel

Real Life Haunting Story

Posted on August 28, 2009
Filed Under Life | 3 Comments

I went hanging out with a friend B last night during dinner. We had casual chats and also mentioned about our friend C whom we haven’t chat with for a while.

B then told me something rather scary on C. There was one incident where B went out with C together with another friend E. According to B, he has known E for a long time and he’s known to be ‘gifted’ with the ‘third eye’. Therefore, it’s normal for E to be able to see “things” that are usually not visible to normal eyes.

According to B, during their outing with C, everything was just as normal until C left the scene. After C left, E told B that as C walked into the restaurant, there was “something” following him in right beside of him. Throughout the whole evening, the “thing” was just beside C. E just pretended not seeing anything and tried to act normal. When asked further if E managed to see the look of the “thing”, he stated he was not able to see it clearly eventhough from a very near distance. It’s appearance was really blurry and unclear. It has a shape similar to a person. As C walked off from the restaurant, the “thing” followed him out.

Apparently, the “thing” follow C everywhere he goes. Till now, B has yet to tell C pertaining the incident for worrying that it will freak him out.

Isn’t it scary to know if there is “something” following you around without you knowing it? I really felt a deep chill down my spine when hearing that from B last night and I still feel the chill as I’m writing this post.

Scary isn’t it?

Technorati Tags: haunting, ghost, spirit

Sambal Anchovies and Prawns

Posted on August 26, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 1 Comment

Last week, I did a simple dish of sambal anchovies with prawns. If you like spicy food, you can check this out and give it a try.

What you need:

60-80 gms of anchovies
3-4 tablespoons of sambal
200 gms of prawns
1/4 bowl of water (small bowl)
1 pinch of salt

Method of preparation:

First of all, soak the anchovies in some water to clean them. Next, once that is done, oil your wok / frying pan. Once the oil starts to heat up, put in the anchovies and deep fry the anchovies. Continue to stir fry the anchovies till the color turns golden brown. After that, lift the fried anchovies up from the wok / frying pan.

Next, put in the sambal and stir fry it over a medium flame. Continue to stir fry the sambal till you can smell the fragrance coming out from them. At this point, put in the prawns and stir fry the sambal / prawns until the both items are evenly mixed. After, add in the water and stir fry the mixture till it boils.

Lastly, put in the fried anchovies into the mixtures and add in the pinch of salt to taste. Stir fry the mixture to have them mixed well. Once they are properly mixed, lift them up from the wok / frying pan and serve. This step need to be done in the shortest time possible to ensure the crispiness of the anchovies.

Check out the dish when it’s done and served: