HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ayis!

It was my brother, Ayis' birthday on 5th December 2010. As we already had other plans for Sunday, I decided to take my brother and his family out for an early birthday treat.

As I wanted to see my brother’s office first before dinner to check out the office space he has to use it on the weekends to run a bag making class (more details on that when I have things all finalised), we decided to try out this restaurant called Dangau Rumbia which is within walking distance to his office in Kota Damansara.

It has a long list of food that it serves, including satay, rojak, ABC and many more, but we decided to go for the thai dishes with rice instead.

We ordered Tom Yam Campur, Ayam Goreng Halia, Daging Masak Merah, Telur Dadar, and Kalian Ikan Masin.

It was a simple meal, but it was delicious. I just hope that Ayis and Sufia enjoyed the meal.

What was interesting and different about this place was that a part of the restaurant had small little huts or wakaf where you to have to sit on the floor to eat.

It was a like a little play house, and it was cosy. The only drawback was that it was hot as there was no fan in the little hut despite it being open air, and it was a hot night that night.

I might want to come again to this place, but, next time, we are eating inside the restaurant! LOL!

Once again, Happy Birthday, Ayis!

May you have great success in whatever good that you do, and may you have a long and healthy life surrounded by all the people that you love. Hugs!

A Brazilian birthday treat!

As promised by my hubby, last Saturday, 12th of June, 2010, my hubby took me out on a birthday treat. He wanted it to be different from the usual treat we would usually have at Victoria Station, The Dome or Outback Steakhouse. He decided that we should try Brazilian instead.

So, we made our way to Damansara Jaya to a restaurant called Carnaval Churrascaria. It is located in the same area as Atria Shopping Complex, should anyone be curious to want to give this restaurant a try.

It is buffet style, and you can take anything you want at the salad bar which also serves rice and other accompaniments, but, the highlight of the restaurant is not what’s served at the salad bar, but, the food that comes to you on a skewer served by the waiter and waitresses.

They come to you every few minutes to serve you all kinds of meat, garlic bread and pineapple on a skewer. The foods served on the skewers are unlimited for as long as they come up to you and you can eat as much as you want if your tummy can take it.

For drinks, we had Calamansi with honey and lime. Seen also in this photo are the sauces for the meat.

I had to stop eating even before they could come around for the second round as what was served up on the skewers were really a lot. They had grilled Garlic Lamb (my hubby had 3 servings of it!), beef, chicken, sausage, chicken ham, lamb (which was really delicious!), garlic bread (which was also very yummy!) and pineapple. I think there were more but I just can’t recall anymore, and my tummy was so full that I had to get up and walk around! LOL!

My son ended up having diarrhoea the next day due to eating so much food that night! LOL!

Thanks, hubby, for the birthday dinner treat with a difference!

I don’t mind going there again for the second time, only this time I am not going to take so much of the food from the salad bar so that I can enjoy the food served on the skewer more!

Eating, shopping and more eating!

Heheh...seems like I am talking about food all the time in my last few postings, huh? LOL! I sure sound like as if I have been doing a lot of eating lately. LOL!

Anyway, last weekend, we wanted to do something a little different than the usual Saturday activities of taking Aiman to his usual Saturday classes. I have been wanting to do some shopping for the house and the office. I have been so busy with work that the house is showing signs of being neglected and my office is starting to reflect the stress that everyone is undergoing to get the daily work done on time. It is looking dull and boring, an ambience not conducive, especially when we want to get people happy to come to work despite being under daily stress.

So, last Saturday, 1st May, 2010, we decided to let Aiman skip his Saturday class this weekend *grin* so that we can get a head start on the activities that we had planned for Saturday.

We started the day by having breakfast at Puteri, a restaurant in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) owned by my hubby’s uncle who is married to actress Rubiah Suparman. We didn’t actually plan on having breakfast there, but, as we were driving around trying to decide where to eat, we remembered the restaurant as our plans to go shopping that Saturday was at Mutiara Damansara, a short drive from TTDI.

My hubby’s uncle, Ayah Tik, was around and so, we decided to have breakfast there. It was a good start to the day as all the food served was really delicious!

I had Lontong which was really really nice and yummy!

My hubby had Nasi Lemak, and it was also really nice that my hubby wanted seconds, but, unfortunately they had ran out of the rice.

My son enjoyed his Roti Telur so much that he asked for seconds and finished every single bit of it! LOL!

After breakfast we made our way to Tesco Mutiara Damansara. While my hubby went to the gym, my son and I went to do some shopping at Tesco. I also went to do some shopping at IKEA, which is just across the street from Tesco.

I bought quite a lot of things at IKEA, among which is this black chopping board and strainer which can be placed over the sink.

I also bought two stools, some fabric boxes, rugs and some shelving. I notice that each time I go to IKEA, I could never walk away without buying at least an item! LOL! Such is the attraction of IKEA! LOL!

For lunch, we decided on Secret Recipe as I have a craving for the lamb shank.

My hubby decided to have the mushroom chicken which was served with rice.

My son ordered the Fish and Chips, from the kiddie menu.

It was a day spent spending and I think I spent quite a lot that day at Tesco, IKEA, and for the lunch while my hubby paid for the breakfast. My hubby said that the country thanks me for spending as I had just contributed 5% to the economy of the country! LOL!

Definitely not a letdown!

My mum’s in town to see her 13th grandchild (wow! 13 already!) born to my brother, Ayis and his wife, Sufia, on 24th April 2010. She was here since the 22nd of April, the day of Aiman’s birthday, but we did not get to see her earlier as we had already made other plans by the time we got to know that my mum was going to be in town.

So, on Saturday, 24th April, we made plans to meet up with my mum for lunch along with my brother, Azan, who picked up my mum to take her to the hospital to see her new grandchild, Nik Fawzan Shafizy.

BTW, Ayis and Sufia, congrats on the birth of your 3rd child!

From the hospital, my mum and brother went to Subang Parade to do some shopping. So, we decided to meet them there for lunch.

We had initially wanted to go for sushi at Sushi King, but it was full. So, we decided on Nando’s.

It was a simple lunch, but i think it was a far more enjoyable one compared to the one I posted on earlier about the Indonesian restaurant at Sunway Mentari. Definitely there was no case of a dish not being available. *grin*

This time, my mum ordered the ¼ chicken which was served with 2 side dishes.

My son, Aiman, ordered the kiddie meal of 2 chicken pieces with smiley fries..

His cousin, Ayin,ordered the hot dog with rice.

My hubby ordered the chicken burger.

Here is what my brother, Azan, ordered - chicken on a skewer served with rice.

I had ordered this dish which I have forgotten what it is called, but it was served in an unusual way in that it was served vertically on a skewer hanging from an iron rod. It was served with corn on the cob and fries.

There was nothing unusual about the taste of the chicken on the skewer, but it was an interesting concept.

Needless to say, everyone enjoyed their lunch.

We parted ways after lunch as we wanted to visit my sister-in-law, Sufia and the new baby and my mum wanted to go home to my brother’s house.

Ma, we will make another lunch or dinner date when you come down to KL again next time. Hugs!

A dinner letdown

I made plans a week in advance to take my mum and brother Azan out to dinner last Friday to the Indonesian restaurant where we took my brother Azan out about 2 weeks ago. I thought that it would be a nice treat for my mum as 2 weeks ago, the four of us – my hubby and I, my son and brother quite enjoyed the meal there, it being a little different from the places that we would usually go out for dinner.

My niece joined the dinner.

The dinner, however, unfortunately, turned out to be quite a disappointment for my mum. I think everything started going downhill when my brother overslept (trust my brother to oversleep! LOL! *grin*) and instead of picking up my mum very much earlier to bring her to meet us at the restaurant, he only arrived at my brother’s place at close to 8.30pm. By the time we all got to the restaurant, it was already close to 9.00pm and everyone was already very hungry and everyone’s moods were basically not upbeat anymore, and the attitude of the waitress and the cook of the restaurant just added salt to the wound.

After travelling all the way from Bukit Subang, a 20 minutes drive to the restaurant, and having to wait for my brother to pick her up for almost 2 hours, I can understand that my mum had very high expectations of the food. But, the first sign of problems started when most of the items we wanted to order were not available.

When we finally made up our minds on what to order, they got our orders all wrong and never even bothered to tell us about it. My niece, Kuya, had ordered fried Ikan Keli Sambal, but she was served Ikan Kerapu instead. Only when we inquired did they tell us that they have run out of Ikan Keli.

Couldn’t they have told us earlier that they were out of Ikan Keli instead of serving it up with the assumption that it will be okay with us? We could have wanted another dish instead, but, not wanting to kick up a fuss, my niece accepted the Ikan Kerapu dish as she too was getting to be very hungry.

The cook and the waitress put up a show of drama accusing each other for failing to let us know that they had run out of the Ikan Keli. Like as if it they did no wrong! They never even apologised for their mistakes.

My mum had ordered Avocado Juice earlier on, but, only after many minutes had passed by only did the waitress came back to tell us that they had also ran out of the avocado. In fact, many of the dishes listed on the menu were not available. I wondered why they even bother to have it on the menu in the first place. Just for show, is it?

The next problem came soon after that when, after waiting for almost one hour for my food, they came to tell me that the dish I had ordered was not available as they have ran out of lemon. I had ordered Lemon Chicken. Did it take them one whole hour to realised that they had ran out of lemon? Surely they would have known much earlier that they were running out of lemon if there were many orders for the Lemon Chicken, but the restaurant was hardly even a third full. Uurrghhh! I felt like screaming at them!!!!!

Again, they put up a show of arguing between the waitress and the cook when the cook accused the waitress for not letting us know earlier when she had already informed the waitress that they had already ran out of lemon when the order was put to the kitchen. That really got me really angry, and I almost felt like just walking out of the restaurant, but, as I was not eating alone, and I was feeling really hungry, I just told them to bring the same thing my niece ordered – Buttered Chicken with rice.

Did they apologise for their failure to let us know about the shortage of the lemon? You can bet the answer is a big NO! Uurrgghhh!

When the Buttered Chicken Rice finally arrived some 20 minutes later, I had already lost most of my appetite. I couldn’t even finished half of it. Luckily my brother was around to clean the plate for me. *grin*

My hubby had Ayam Penyet which was nothing to shout about but, as he was hungry, he ate silently.

I think the only person who quite enjoyed his food was my brother who had Bakmi Chicken served in the cracker plate with a bowl of soup.

When it was time to pay, we insisted that they give us a discount for two reasons – that they had failed to let us know well in advance that they did not have what we ordered, and that they failed to admit their mistake and apologize to us. Even after we told them nice that a restaurant of such nature should train their staff to have a little bit more of soft skill, the apologies were never forthcoming.

They first gave us a 5% discount, but after we kicked up quite a fuss, telling them that they will be losing more customers if they go on handling their customers like this, they gave us a 10% discount We paid, but not before telling them that this will be the last time that we will be dining there.

Very sorry, Ma, for the lousy evening. I hope the dessert at Benta Kaya Kuala Lipis made up a little bit for the terrible food and service at Baso. Maybe the next time you come down to KL again, we will take you out to a better restaurant to make up for that night. I also hope that at least the lunch a week earlier at Nando’s had been an enjoyable lunch. I will blog about that in a later posting.

18 years already, and still counting!

My hubby and I celebrated our 18th Wedding Anniversary on 17th April 2010, alhamdullillah. Like any other husband and wife, we have had our share of ups and downs, but none too terrible to erode the love we have for each other.

We didn’t have any big celebration last Saturady to mark the special occassion. We were so tied up with work that we did not have much time to plan, especially since I had just came back from Penang just the day before.

It was like any other Saturday where we would take Aiman to his usual Saturday classes, but, we did have lunch at a fancy restaurant - we tried out the Outback Steak House at Bangsar Village I.

Here’s my son covering up his face when my hubby and wanted to get all mushy and romantic. He got embarrassed! LOL!

I had ordered the Spring Chicken which came with this really nice sauce for dipping.

My hubby ordered the Teriyaki Skewer which was served with rice.

My son settled for the full portion of Buffalo wings.

Before I ordered the Buffalo wings, I had asked the waiter how many pieces is half a portion, and how many would I get if I ordered the full portion. I was told that there will be 5 pieces for the half portion and 10 for the full portion. We decided to go for the full portion as it was the only thing that my son wanted to eat for lunch.

When the order arrived, there were only 9 pieces. When we queried about the order, the waitress gave this unacceptable reply that the servings could sometimes be 9, could sometimes be 10, depending on the size of the drummets.

They didn’t tell us this before we ordered the food. Had this explaination been told to us when we first inquired about it, probably we could have accepted the reply, but since the earlier answer given before we ordered was that we would be getting 10 pieces, we insisted that the restaurant send us the missing piece.

The waitress refused! And then came this guy whom I presume could be the Manager for the day to also tell us the same thing, and that is that they cannot give us the extra piece as the drummets served were bigger size pieces than usual.

I don’t believe this in a fancy restaurant, a manager arguing with a customer!

It wasn’t that we were so hard up for that extra piece, but it was a matter of principle. We asked and you gave us an answer and we expect you to comply to your words, and not make excuses later on. I think these people need to learn some people and communication skills especially this being a fancy restaurant and in Bangsar!

Anyway, when we finished our lunch, we headed on to the Village Grocer. My hubby wanted to buy some groceries to cook a special dinner in honour of our 18 years together.

He kept saying that he is anxious in case what he intends to cook won’t turn out the way he planned it to be. He needn’t have worried. The diner was delicious albeit a little on the dry side. I especially love the garnishing that he had cooked to pour on top of the fish. I love the vegetables too!

In fact, I love everything about it, especially of the fact that it was cooked by my dearest hubby! It was so sweet and romantic, even though it wasn’t a candle light dinner and we had sat for dinner in our pyjamas! LOL!

I love you, Dia! I hope we will have 18 years and more great years together. I hope to grow old with you, and together we get to see Aiman grow up and be successful. May we have health, wealth and long life together. Amin.

Went restaurant hopping with a trip to Indonesia

Yeah! Right! Like I have the time to fly to Indonesia! LOL!

It’s actually a restaurant in Sunway Mentari called Baso Sapi Asli. My brother, Azan, joined us for dinner and my hubby had wanted to try out this restaurant, Jaring, which he had watched on the program A.M. Max over at TV3.

Unfortunately the restaurant was closed. So, we went around looking for an alternative and thought that this restaurant, Baso, looks interesting and worth a try.

I was initially disappointed when what I wanted to order was not available. So, I ordered an alternative and it turned out to be a good choice after all. I ordered Nasi Udang Butter which I thought was really tasty. The food came served in this very interesting bowl made from crackers.

My brother ordered Nasi Kebo Ireng which was black pepper meat with rice served in a cracker bowl. It was tasty too.

My son ordered Nasi Udang Sambal which was also served in a cracker bowl.

My son seems to like it although it was on the hot and spicy side. He commented that it was “sedap sedap!” (good! good!). *grin*

My hubby ordered the Baso Urat which was a soupy noodle with meat balls.

It tasted quite plain and bland at first, but after my hubby added all the sauces that came served with the noodle, it tasted so much better.

After dinner was done with, my hubby was still feeling hungry. My brother had earlier recommended that my hubby and I go watch a movie called Date Night as he felt that we should do something out of the ordinary once in a while. Taking cue from that, my hubby suggested that we go for dessert at another restaurant.

This time we made our way back to Subang Jaya and my hubby chose to have dessert at Benta Kaya, Kuala Lipis, Pahang. No, we did not go to Pahang, but the restaurant was named as such! LOL!

We ordered our hot drinks of Teh Tarik Ginger for my hubby, hot milo for my son and I, and Teh Shake for my brother.

The shake tasted funny. I guess I am not used to having tea made into a shake, and it looks more like Teh Tarik than a shake! LOL!

For dessert, we ordered Char Kuey with kaya and Roti Kok.

The Char Kuey was nothing to shout about, but the Roti Kok was really nice! We ordered two helpings of it! LOL!

Seen here is my hubby making a funny face as I tried to snap a photo of him with my brother.

Here's me with my precious!

We were done at 11.00pm. By then I was yawning and so was my son. We made our way back home, and after settling my son into bed, I sat to watch a movie on Astro with my brother which turned out to be an alien movie starring Nicole Kidman. I can’t recall the name of the movie though.

The movie was quite interesting although I find some scenes to be quiet disgusting when the aliens tried to inject the humans with virus via slimy saliva through the mouth. I almost wanted to puke and had to close my eyes each time scenes like that appeared! LOL!

I had asked my brother to spend the night, but he said that he has some assignments to hand in in the morning and wanted to get back to college to finish them up. He left soon after the movie.

Thanks, Zan, for coming over. I realised that my brother didn’t come over to my house solely to pay me a visit. He wanted me to mend his pants! I think that was the actual reason of his visit. LOL! *grin*

But, thanks for coming anyway, Zan. At least I still get to see you if even if you had ùdang di sebalik batu’ (other intentions) behind your visits. LOL! You pants will be mended this weekend.

Hugs and take care.