vietnam kitchen

I have this habit of sharing food with friends. One, I think it's always better to have a variety of food for a more fulfilling gastronomic experience. Secondly, there is no issue of food going to waste. A lot of eateries these days seem to cater for the American tummy. TGIF's and Chili's are good examples.

Having said that, let me share with you my recent makan session at Vietnam Kitchen. I've been to their Taipan outlet with my family before, and found their offerings to be rather authentic. There are some Vietnamese restaurants with seemingly oriental ambience and menus, but pale in comparison when it comes to the real deal.

Most restaurants have a similar theme and layout in all their branches, but I was surprised to find that the 1Utama outlet looked really different from its sister branch in Subang. Chernie wanted something "rice or noodle", so we decided to stop by and check out their food. I did have quite an ok experience in Subang, and wondered if this was as good.

Glowing farmer's hats neatly arranged in rows form the decor for the side wall

It has a dark exterior with lots of wood and warm colours, accentuated by non-oriental interior design. The other wall had these purple cheese-holes for partitions, and paper lanterns adorning the center.

This must be the modern version of Vietnamese interior design

We quickly sat down to order our food when we realised we must've looked like suaku's taking pictures of the place. For appetizers we had the Fried Mango-Banana Shrimp Roll, which was something new for me. One roll had bananas wrapped with fresh shrimps, while the other had yummy mangos also with shrimps, spinkled with something which tasted like wheatgerm.

This is one appetizer you must check out, it's recommended!

Both tasted good with the right amount of mayo. I had the water chestnut drink with what looked like egg pieces swirled in the glass while Chernie had Chinese tea which she claimed was actually Jasmine tea.

We shared the Seafood Fried Noodle for the main course. It looks like our Chinese Yee Mee, except that their noodle is slightly harder in texture. Served with generous amounts of broccoli, calamari, green pepper and more shrimps, it was just nice for the both of us.

The Vietnamese version of our Yee Mee

Before we left, we decided to take one more picture. For this, I had to endure the stares of patrons sitting near the bar. But at least I got one which showed the other part of the restaurant, where the theme was bamboos with backlights and heart shaped tanglungs.

Heart shaped tanglungs at the bar

All in all, it was a really good meal. Much better than most Vietnamese restaurants around the Klang Valley, not that I've been to all of them! But looking from the queue that lined up waiting outside the restaurant, and the gorgeous looking food everyone else was eating, I give it 3.75 stars.

he ain't heavy

I'm happy. :) Eve said she will "take care" of my brother while he's based in Singapore.

I messaged her about my brother working there, and to ask her to look him up. After all, this is his first time going overseas by himself, and he was really looking forward to it. It would be a good chance for him to be (more) independent. I know he's enjoying this short-lived sense of freedom!

He hasn't been going to church for some time already, so I was quite worried that it would be even easier for him to stray if he's away like this. Thank God Eve managed to talk to him, and got him to share some stuff. At least he's opening up a little.

I guess, maybe God's using this opportunity to, well.. to draw my brother back to Him. I don't know, it's quite hard, on the rest of us, we've been praying for my brother for years. I really hope something good's gonna come out of this.

When I see whole families going to church together, I want that for my family as well. The only memory I have of us doing that was many years ago. I would like to relive that memory again. And yes, that's my prayer right now.

palatable plucking

Guitar learning has been getting more fun of late. There was that initial period of excitement and anticipation of learning new stuff. Then came the period where it wasn't so shiok anymore because fingers were getting painful, there were more things to catch up whenever classes are missed, and discipline was required in order to stay on top of par with the rest of the class.

Now I'm slowly beginning to see the fruits of my classes. We're entering the 2nd semester and things are gradually picking up. Learning more chords and various strums. It's such joy just getting them right and listening to nice music coming out from the guitar.

I must confess I am nowhere near performance level, I always play better when I'm practicing alone. I get a little nervous in class, especially with that grrl who's supposed to be in the intermediate class. She seems to already know whatever the teacher's teaching. I secretly think she's there to give the rest of us unnecessary pressure. Maybe my teacher paid her to sit in and show off her skills, so the rest of us have no choice but to buck up. In a way we're actually better than the other beginner's class.

2 weeks ago, we started plucking. I find it quite tough controlling the fingers to pluck at the right string. At this point of time, the challenge is to get the left fingers to get the right chords, and the right fingers to pluck the right string for the various inversions, and at the same time concentrating on the score sheet in front of me.

Our first plucking piece was "As The Deer". We started with strums, slow ones, and it was ok. But once I picked up plucking, it became apparent that plucking was reallllly nice! Just perfect for this sorta song.

Just hearing the raw tones vibrate through the instrument is good enough to motivate me to better myself. It's still a long way more before I can even play smoothly. But as they say, practice makes perfect. It's still painful, still frustrating at times, but I think more palatable music's on the way :D

random thoughts #2

:) Thanks for all your concerned messages. I'm fine, and I'm alive. Hehe...

Turns out that I was not just having muscle cramps, but something the doctor described as "stomach flu". Seems that there have been cases of food poisoning going around, and I must've caught some virus/bacteria/germs that caused my tummy to react that way.

Took half day off that day, had lots of porridge and soup. I think I've lost about 2kg from this! Oh dear, can't even fit properly into my jeans. Hope I'm well enough to eat more this weekend :D

Speaking of which, I'll be off for a training in PD (yes, in that rundown thingy which my company calls our training resort). Will be back tomorrow evening. Hope to reach in time so that I can go for the Jazz Fest! :D

My brother who's stationed in Singapore for a new assignment will be back tomorrow, but leaving again on Monday. Dad will be off for a leaders' retreat in Malacca after church. There's some canoeing challenge with the iB group this Saturday, but I'll have to miss it! :(

I'm on duty again this Sunday, with Ps Adam in the team! And with the training + jazz thingy slotted into the weekend, it's gonna be hard finding time to practice. Oh well, this is where His strength comes in. And I'm gonna need loads of it!

Have a great weekend, y'all :)

stabbed in the uterus

Urgh. I'm dying. This is horrible. I don't care, I'm gonna blog about this, without caring about grammar nor sense.

Today I wish being a grrl wasn't so difficult. So torturing. Childbirth better be easy if this is what I have to go through!

Driving to work felt like er, how shall I put this? It felt like I was stabbed with a knife, in the uterus. Now and then, the knife is twisted to an angle, slowly at a time. And a part of me dies with each twist. And all the while, I'm bleeding. To my death.

Whatever perkiness I had in the morning disappeared with the sharp pangs of pain. Could hardly concentrate on the road. The music felt so loud, everything seemed so surreal. I didn't care, I tried to take my mind off by singing to the music. Massaging my abdomen with my thumb. It felt a little better, but the knife is still there.

Can I just use the knife and take out my uterus? Spare me the pain of more pain.

zombified

I'm trying my best to look awake at work. Trying not to resort to coffee coz it ain't good for health. Plus, I'm so sensitive to caffeine that just 1 cup will keep me awake till the whole night!

Reason for my zombified being is my extra happening weekend. I played host to a missionary couple from the Philipppines. This elderly couple were down in town for a week's holiday.

I've never personally had foreigners as guests before (well, my family did, when I was much younger). Plus I've never met them, though I was supposed to have met the husband while my missions team were in Mindanao 2 years ago. Furthermore, I'm supposed to pair up with this guy who was in the team last year. I barely know him, and only actually talked to him for the first time the previous night.

We were having the Passion concert on Saturday, to coincide with the launch of our new young adults' service. Just after the concert, I found out from one of the pastors that the itinerary for the couple included Genting Highlands. If I had known earlier, I might have just skipped the concert. Coz after the concert, we went out for mamak and ate and drank until almost 2am.

Then I forgot that I was also sensitive to tea. My ice lemon tea kept me awake till about 5! I also conveniently forgot that I was supposed to be in church early for music practice. So there I was groggy and dazed, standing at the keyboard with barely 3 hours of sleep. It was a miracle that I pulled it off. The children seemed to be having fun at the worship session, so I guess it wasn't so bad. Heh!

Anyways, Jesse, the guy whom I've only talked to for about 5 minutes the night before, met up with me after service. We went to look for the couple and promptly drove them for lunch. Imagine 4 strangers in a car. Us trying our best to keep them entertained and them soaking in the new culture. Well, not 4 strangers exactly, coz the couple aren't strangers to each other! There I go, not being coherent on a Monday. :D

So off we went to KLCC. After downloading their pictures at the Fuji kiosk, we brought them upstairs for lunch. Madam Kwan's was packed, so we went opposite to Spring Garden. It wasn't exactly a place I'd bring people to. Firstly, it was quite upmarket and us two, being half-bananas, weren't really familiar with ordering Chinese dishes. But since it was getting late and we were hungry, we decided to give it a try. I have more experience ordering pastas and sushis, and at that moment I wished I'd pay more attention when my parents ordered their food!

Frankly speaking, the moment the waitress left with our orders, I'd already forgotten what I had ordered. Jesse conveniently left me with the task of getting something edible for our guests. I just remembered some chicken thingy cooked with herbs and sea cucumber and abalone, some mixed vegetable dish with lotus root, celery and black fungus, and some sizzling japanese tofu.

Thank goodness I managed to pull this one off too. They enjoyed the dishes and were stuffed halfway through even though it was only 3 dishes. Even though I didn't quite like what I myself ordered, but seeing them compliment the food was good enough!

Next stop - Genting Highlands. See, I think both of us have not driven up there before. But we've been there countless times. So trusting on our instincts, we managed to find our way up there in one piece. It was chilly and breezy. We decided to just walk around the theme park. If they were younger, they might have wanted to take the rides. So intead of being up in the rollercoaster screaming our lungs out, we just looked at the terrified faces of people waiting for their next round of adrenaline rush.

After awhile we realised we couldn't go further unless we paid for the tickets. While walking back to were we started, Jesse and I cracked our heads thinking what else to do in Genting. Kiddie/water/rollercoaster rides were out of the question. Neither would they want to go for Ripley's Believe It Or Not or the Motion Master. Then we thought maybe we could just drive them around and take in the cool air.

We bought them some Starbucks coffee and drove off into the clouds. Along the way we saw a signboard pointing to a mushroom farm. We thought, oh, perhaps this might interest them. What a disappointment, there was no farm in sight. Even if we did arrive a little after the closing time, the area around it did not bear signs of mushrooms, farming elements or people who look like they were mushroom farmers. All we saw was a little store selling among other local produce, packed mushrooms labelled "fresh".

Clearly Genting wasn't a place for senior citizens, but it was the closest to KL. With a packed schedule and Bangsar next on the itinerary, this would have to do. But they didn't really mind. I guess they just wanted to see a little of what our country had to offer.

Our last stop was the Bangsar Seafood Garden Restaurant. Another church member and his family played host this time and treated us to some really delicious seafood. If only we didn't feel so tired after all the driving around. I would have enjoyed my buttered prawns more! Our last stop was really durians for dessert. But seeing that the couple was also exhausted, we decided a walk around One Bangsar would be nice to end the day with.

All in all, it was an interesting experience. Us being such amateur tour guides, fumbling and learning at the same time. But if they did manage to have a good time, I guess it wasn't so bad after all. Running around on low batteries, I was pooped at the end of the day. Please remind me to sleep early tonight!

jazz fest 2005

Click here to find out more about the schedule. I wish I can go for all the shows and workshops!

freezing finga

Our elevators in the office building works by sensing heat from the fingers when touched. When you want to press the button to get you to a particular floor, it will only respond when body heat is felt. If you try using a pen, or any other inanimate object to do likewise, the respective buttons will not be lighted up.

My fingers were so cold from the aircond that there was no response from the buttons. I had to press a few times and even tried rubbing my other warmer parts of the finger to activate it. Really, my fingernails are this shade of purple!

my purple fingernails hexacoded at #C8ACD3