It's the Company that counts

Went for a poon choy dinner yesterday at a small village in Sg Buloh... The place is called Restaurant LYJ. If you do not have GPS, I think it's easy to get lost in that area especially if you are not familiar.

And it wasn't a pleasant experience at all because:

1) Traffic Jam. Even though we had carefully planned to delay our meal time from 7 to 8:30 to avoid the Friday jam, we were stuck right before the NKVE toll and the jam stretched for about 2 km. Try being hungry and stuck in what seemed to be an endless jam... and you'd know what i mean.

2) We were running out of fuel. We were so near yet so far, we were unable to get to Shell station which was located just after the toll due to the jam, (since the GPS says that our destination is only 6km away, we thought we could make it to the next petrol station as we were unaware of the stretch of jam ahead) and we had to check and recheck the GPS to see if there were another petrol station nearby. When we finally reached the petrol station, the petrol station's systems were all down. Bummer. Had to queue up for manual service.

3) The roads towards the restaurant were so narrow but the cars were driving like they are on a highway!

4) There were no more parking in front or nearby the restaurant. Had to park quite a distance away.

5) When I stepped out of the car, me with my open toe sandals went right into a puddle of dirty water.

6) As we tried to cross the road towards the restaurant, we nearly got hit by the cars which were driving at highway speed on a very narrow road that has cars doubled parked on both sides. Yep, we nearly got hit..... twice... (it was a 2 way street or should I say highway) !!!!!

7) The washroom was unisex but the toilet cubicles were wet (flooded is a more appropriate word). So I had to clean my wet leg outside the cubicles. Had to hurriedly clean up so that no one will see the ugly sight of a girl in mini skirt wiping her legs... yuks. Surely lose appetite when you see. hahaha.

8) The restaurant was sooo busy and noisy. It was a full house yesterday night and so you can imagine the noise level. We could hardly hear each other speak. Felt rude as I shouted "THANK YOU!!" (a few times) when tea was served to me.

However, we still had a lot of laughters (especially when we fight for the "jewels" in the pot) and the food was good for the price we paid. Only RM32 per person even though all 8 "hungry ghosts" were very very full after the dinner. And there were enough leftovers for Marianne.

Despite all the unpleasantries, when I reminisce the night now to write this blog, it is with a warm and funfilled feeling.

And so I can conclude that, it's not so much the food, the place, and the price. It is the company that counts.


Viva la Company! :)

Mother's Day @ Lala Chong

SAT 3 MAY 08 - Celebrated Mother's day @ La La Chong at Terminal 3 Subang… (I know, I know… you’d all say “Celebrate what mother’s day? Have you been a good mother?” Ok, I admit that I haven’t been one…so today’s celebration is not for me… It’s for my mom!!! She’s been a good mom alright, just look at me and you’d know AHAHAHHAHAHA…. )

Incidentally Mother's day isnt until next week, so don't panic, lightning wont strike you because you have forgotten nor have you missed the celebration. We just wanted to beat the crowd and celebrate a little earlier... (also partly due to gluttony ahhaha)

We ordered the infamous signature dish - “Snow Mountain Fly Lake Fish” but was quite disappointed because I expected it to be as exquisite as it’s name… but it was just a grilled salted “kam foong” fish…And it wasn’t salty nor does it have any gravy nor does the stuffings have any effect on the taste…. But I guess it’s healthy, since it’s grilled using sea salt… It seems that every other table also ordered this fish dish.. so we thought it was good... Hmmm... so much for mass influence...

We ordered Siong Tong Lala (lala in soup) where the soup was delicious with a tinge of Chinese cooking alcohol, but the lala was a tat too small for our liking. If they were bigger, it would be better but then again, since it tasted fresh, we happily gulped down every tiny bits of it.

We didn’t order any crabs coz everyone in the family thought it’ll be messy to eat crabs .... (even prawns also ordered de-shelled ones)… so can't comment on that… But the butter fried prawns was ok. My sister told me the previous time they ordered butter prawns with gravy which tasted even better.

There’s a “jiew pai” tofu (signature tofu dish), cannot remember it’s name… which was quite special. Starchy and looks like sharks fin soup and tasted alright. The children loved it for it goes well with rice. Soft and gentle that matches their little tastebuds. The children also loved the soft crunchy young long beans with dried prawns, even though I find the beans a bit too “thin”. Taste wise was alright, not too salty and the beans were crunchy and soft.

I liked the claypot chicken .. which was soft and tender to the mouth and the pungent black sauce was great to tease the tougue.

We can't resist the food, that we forgot to take pictures BEFORE we ate! :P

Total came up to RM176 for 7 adults and 2 children. Quite cheap I suppose for the portion and the non-air conditioned restaurant. The place was already filled with people up to brim at 7pm. Forgot to consult God of Food a.k.a. LV on what to order... thus end up with ordering mediocre family type food. All in all was good, and from their menu, they seem to have loads of other choices, so definitely will go there again sometime.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there... You deserve it.. :P

Homecoming King err... Keng

The early birds a.k.a. the hungry lot... The late comers who have to foot the bill :D

NOV 14, WED: Peter is back. Each time we look forward to his homecoming as it means "chow"time. (Of course, we also look forward to him bringing back the the goodies which we ordered from the US to be sent to his US address...hahaha). As seafood ala Malaysian style is rare in the US, our first reunion meal is usually Seafood... and crabs is a must-order dish. Deric (Marianne), these pictures are just for you since you're stuck in the Philipines.

Fresh Steam Crabs with Eggs, Salted Egg with Cereal Crabs

Milk Prawns, Sotong ala Thai Style

Frogs in Essence of Chicken, Brussels Sprouts with Enoki Mushroom
Mui Choy Pork

This year we had our mini reunion at Mei Keng Fatt in Ampang. I mentioned "mini" because only 9 were gathered out of the 60 strong contract programmers we had back in 98. Yeah, those were the days when Contractors ruled the IT world. ha ha.

Gosh how time flies.... , next year marks our 10 anniversary since we got to know each other! We've been through many thick and thin (both in terms of events and physically) and share many bitter sweet memories. Hmmm.... I shall let the photos do all the talking while you guys wipe your tears reminiscing the good old days!