Last 27 July, our company/chamber had our Branch Annual Luncheon held at the Magellan Sutera's (Sutera Harbour Resort) Grand Ballroom. I got back to work on 1st July (from my 2 months maternity leave) and only had like a month to organise this event. The luncheon was attended by about 370 people including the Chief Minister of Sabah as our Guest of Honour and other VVIP guests (sorry can't post pics of them).
We had western set menu. I missed out the food tasting session in June, so I thought the menu was just okay this time...not up to my likings though. Pictures here that tells....
The Appetizer - Grilled Vegetables Antipasto with Grissini Stick & Balsamic Vinaigrette: The Main Course - Herbs Crusted Reff Fish Fillet with Tomato Butter Stuffed Chicken Supreme with Harisa Sauce Young Garden Vegetables & Pesto Mash Potato:
The Dessert - Chocolate Jaffa Volcano:
With my collegues from the Sabah International Expo 2010 (SIE2010) Secretariat - Sonia and Christy:
With guests from KFC (Sabah) Sdn Bhd - Regina (a friend of my friend (Dolly) and Datin Anna Au:
After the event - over and done with:
It was a rushing thing to do but at the end it was well organised - over and done with. So I'm quite satisfied with myself (ha!).
I've yet to find the best and tastiest nasi lemak. It's one of my fav food! Now I'm pregnant at 7 months, my cravings for nasi lemak is even greater. So far I think the nasi lemak at Restoran Sri Sempelang @ Jalan Sinsuran is one of the tastiest and I missed eating the RM1.50 nasi lemak from Tea Time Cafe' (formerly based at Centre Point Sabah Shopping Mall last year - don't know if they either moved to other mall or closed down) cos they cooked the anchovies with honey and the sambal is so good (I think I blogged about it before).
My sister and I tried out the nasi lemak at 'Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Kampung Baru' located at Suria Sabah's basement twice, the previous week and last Monday. For me, the taste was just okay...but Debbie liked it so much. So whenever I go to a new eating place, I will at least try out their nasi lemak (if they serve any) and if it's good I'll come back there for sure. Another pregnancy craving and also my fav food is the curry laksa - the best ones I tasted & loved is at Restoran Yun Fung, Palm Cafe at Centrepoint Sabah, and a restaurant at Jalan Sinsuran and Hilltop, Luyang(sorry forgot the name).
My all time fav 'kuih' - cekodok pisang and one of my fav drink - 'horlicks ping' (been drinking alot of this since I got pregnant)
Hey...if any of you know where I can find the tastiest again among the tastiest nasi lemak, please let me know ya!
This is a long overdue post but I still wish to share and put this up on this online journal. Anyways, My family and I had a getaway trip to the mountain side (Kundasang area) during one of the August weekends. The weather was pretty cloudy and there was a lil downpour. So we could'nt even view Mt. Kinabalu and the trip was just okay. But what's interesting was we visited a mini resort called the Kiram's Village where they have cute chalets for rent. I told my husby, if we were to build our own family vacation house someday...I want a cottage-like home like one of those chalets/cabins. So cute! Here are some photos of those cute homes...
Before we reached Kundasang, we stopped to have lunch at the Bamboo Restaurant to have one of our fav family dish - the chicken tuhau mayonaise. The food was not as good as before (dah merosot)...and they should hire a better chef. No wonder, less people are going there to eat.
Chicken Tuhau Mayonaise
Carmen admiring her 'cats' which she grabbed during our stopover at Pekan Nabalu
Will plan another family outing sometime in the future and this time we'll spend the night at Kiram's Village.
Why 09/09/09 is so special? This article was on Yahoo! today. I didn't realize today's date looks pretty...in fact it's pretty a special day cos it's my younger brother, Danny's 22nd birthday. Yesterday was my younger sister, Diane Chrissie's 27th birthday. Has wished them both. So we the older siblings already bodek both of them to belanja us a Chocolate Indulgence Cake from Secret Recipe - Yummy! (kekeke).
Anyways, looking forward to a special reunion with my childhood friends and singing group 'Bestfriends' (a singing group we formed in our teens & during high school). We are invited to sing one of our hit songs (aisehman) at our school's homecoming event this weekend. Awesome...will post some picture of us soon (then & now).
By the way, I finally done a make-over on meself...no not on my face but my hair. I tried the 'Meg Ryan's ringlet' - finally. The look is not as what I expected it to be (keriting maggie pulak jadinya) but at least I got rid of my old & boring hairstyle.
I've mentioned in my earlier post about the dessert at my last function (MICCI Sabah Annual Luncheon). Okay, here's a picture of the dessert ' Strawberry Cheese Cake with Wild Berries Sauce'. I thought it was a pretty presentation but then I realized that it actually looked rather funny and odd. What is the pastry chef thinking? For me it looks (sorry, I'm not sure what the exact words to describe it) 'sexual'...don't you think so?
The long thing in green is a harden sugar syrup which is pointing/placed through the round thing (white chocolate) and the sauce looked like a sperm. OMG! I don't know if I'm just being too imaginative or is it the chef trying to symbolise something?!
Bickie is short for biscuit as Australians Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman alikes calls it...as seen on the Oprah Show last weekend while they talked about their movie epic together "Australia" - bought the DVD but haven't had time to watch it yet...soon:)
You've got to taste this bickie Arnott's Tim Tam (my fav bickie) Creme Caramel...its a lil pricey but yummylicious...totally sweet surrender! Don't you know Arnott's Tim Tam is Australian product...no wonder there are one of Hugh & Nicole's giveaways for Oprah fans. Mama rock so heart this bickie!
Last night I watched a very warm and sophisticated Vietnamese movie "The Story of Pao" at Astro's Kirana Channel, about a young ethnic Hmong woman named Pao who sets off to find her mother. The story develops the concept of love from different points of view, both traditional and modern, and seeks to share an intimate look at Vietnam and the Hmong people. The magnificent mountain ranges of Northwest Vietnam, engulfed year-round in an immense veil of fog, provide a rich cinematic setting for this vivid and moving film. This movie won a few film awards such as the Special Jury Award at the Asia Film Festival in 2006 and suppose to be nominated in the 2007 Annual Academy Awards (Oscars) in the Best Foreign Film category (if I'm not mistaken lah). The music in the film is uniquely great. Check out the trailer here:
What interest me most about this movie is that it shows the beautiful part of Vietnam - the highlands of Sapa and the culture of the Hmong Tribes...just fascinates me! I would really love to go there and live with the locals for a few days..I can already imagine the adventure...glad that my sister Deb might organise a trip to Sapa someday/sometime soon.
The magnificient scenery of Sapa
The Hmong people in their colorful costumes...I like...I want!
Anyways, I'm still recuperating from this irritating cough (it's been two weeks) but I still have the heart to eat ice-cream from Karamell Almondo, the newest soft ice cream concept bar in town. Strange that I'm recovering already after eating them...and then I'm off to buy Slumdog Millionaire's movie soundtrack and probably buy a Korean movie or drama to watch for the weekend.
Just recently and 'suddenly' my husby Zo loves to cook and been testing his cooking skills and then kind of showing off to me about it. I think and admit that he cooks better than me (muahaaha). I prefer eating his cooking than mine. I became the so called 'food taster' of these 2 dishes he cooked (of course he pakai recipe orang that he took from the net & newspaperlah) a few weeks ago.
1st dish is 'Fortune Fish Melody':
Method: Wash the red dates and shred into small pieces, soak dried day lily in water for two hours and wash. Tie dried day lily into knobs and rinse. Soak ear fungus for 30 minutes, wash and cut into small pieces.
Clean the Garoupa and dry it with a towel. Place the fish on a plate, steam it with boiling water for five minutes.
Ingredients: Grand Garoupa – 1 kg Red dates – 20g Dried Day Lily – 20g Ear Fungus – 10g
Take it out, drain away the gravy, then add pieces of red dates and dried day lily on top of the fish. Continue to steam for another 8 to 10 minutes
Seasoning: Oyster Sauce – 2 tbsp Cooking Oil – 1 tbsp Honey – 1 tbsp Water – ½ Cup
Heat the wok, add seasoning sauce with low heat. When the mixture boils, pour it onto the fish. Serve hot.
And 2nd dish is 'Fried Bangus Fritters'....hahaha....saja-saja bagi nama...actually we both don't know the exact name of it...but for sure we know that it is a Philipino Cuisine. I did the creamy mayo sauce only.
Ingredients:
1 whole bangus (white fish), about ¾ kilo 1 tbsp. of finely minced garlic 2 onions, finely chopped 2 skinless sweet pimiento (canned), finely chopped 1 tsp. of finely chopped parsley 3 slices of bread 1/8 c. of milk 1 egg beaten Salt and pepper to taste ½ c. of cooking oil
How to :
Steam or boil bangus. Cool. Pick the bones. Flake the meat.
Tear bread slices into very small pieces or grate in the blender. Pour milk over bread and mash. Mix all of the ingredients together. Form into small logs, about 3” in length and 1” in diameter.
Heat skillet (frying pan). Pour in cooking oil. Heat until it starts to smoke. Set heat to medium-high. Fry fish logs in batches. Make sure that there is enough room in the skillet to roll them while cooking. Cook fish logs until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve with Creamy Garlic Mayo.
To make Creamy Garlic Mayo: Mix together ½ tsp. finely minced garlic, ½ c. or mayonnaise, ½ c. of milk, ¼ tsp. of finely chopped parsley, salt and pepper.
Both dishes tasted really good....keep up with the cooking dear!
I've been eating and chillin out with some friends alot prior to the CNY holidays last month. And so gaining weight and losing weight is totally uncontrollable at that time. But how could I possibly not love eating....maybe I can still love food but be strict on my diet (aiseman)...I love anything that has cheese and mayonaise on it...gosh...you've got to stop girl! Losing weight is in my to do/to be list this year...please don't laugh but pray for me and wish me luck..HA!
Anyways, I went out eating German food with my girlfriends at Gunter's Gasthaus...a cottage-like restaurant located along Jalan Tuaran. The food was just okay and lil pricey but still affordable (if my pocket belum berlubang lah or in other words pokai) They should have a better or interesting beverages menu though and makes the price worthy (and not like a cuppa of coffee @ RM6 - too much!)
Check out the cool stuffs you can see there and thanks to Emilia and Mimie for being my photo shoot model wannabes (you gals rock - stay DDG (drop dead gorgeous)!)
Two of the dishes we had - Black Forest Style Potatoe-Mushroom Casserole and Fish Fillet Au Poivre Noive:
And then in early January, my company organised a "Talk on Economic Outlook" at the Marina Club, Sutera Harbour Resort. I had a nice lunch at their cafe with a pretty view and the food was good but heavy....and our function went well with more than 70 attendees...good response and a great time to start the new year. I had a better and yummy version of Pineapple Fried Rice and my colleague had Nasi Goreng Makcik...nice food presentation.
I also had a farewell lunch for Emilia together with my boss, Stella and Mimie just recently at Promenade Hotel. No doubt their buffet lunch is a thumbs up....loving their dessert...look what I had (greedy huh....I know I'm killing myself)!
The Main Course - Herbs Crusted Reff Fish Fillet with Tomato Butter Stuffed Chicken Supreme with Harisa Sauce Young Garden Vegetables & Pesto Mash Potato:
The Dessert - Chocolate Jaffa Volcano:
With my collegues from the Sabah International Expo 2010 (SIE2010) Secretariat - Sonia and Christy:
With guests from KFC (Sabah) Sdn Bhd - Regina (a friend of my friend (Dolly) and Datin Anna Au:
After the event - over and done with:
