A Day Before Eid

I lost 3kg during Ramadhan. Too skinny now :p


The only time of the year where there are more than one customer at Bata (Not counting the year end before the school reopen).


Berani kau! Melakukan onar di siang hari ramadhan. Wajib bayar kaffarah!

The spreads and all for only RM62.10nett

The stalls were laid all around the pool. There were cooked dishes, and there were cook to order dishes.


Almost all of them were Malay/Asian dishes.


With good mix of traditional and modern Asian dishes.


Except for the desserts. There's a mix of Western and Eastern desserts.


When I first saw this I thought it was something else (not a lamb). Unlike others buffet, Marriot provides at least 7 types of drinks (Syrup, Bandung, Soy Bean, Sugar cane, Dates Juice and the tarik + Coffee and Tea)


My dish.

For that price, I would say its a money worth spent (not that Im paying anyway)

Farewell, for me

As I mentioned before, I had moved to the new dept. Naturally, my ex colleagues celebrate my departure.

The occasion was meticulously planned by Suriani. however, due to her prior engagement (not to mention nicer foor over there in PJ Hilton), she couldn't join us..


It was a little bit unnerving when I arrived at 6.30p.m and there were only 6 of us.


Do they really hate me that much?


Fine and dandy then. So, I just walked around, mystified by rows and rows of food being served that night.


Fortunately by 7pm, the crowd had swelled into 16 people. Phew...


We broke our fast with good food and laughs.


Reminiscing the good old days in Midrange. (NOT!)


Everybody was happy.


Each got a chocolate.

Part of me was happy to leave the group. But I felt that I could have done better in that group (ranking wise). technically, I'm as competent as those on the table. But I wasn't that visible.

She (my ex-Supervisor) said, she believed I would be flourished in this new assignment and she really want to see me being somebody. 4 years with 3 job rotations under her (eBus, QA & Midrange), she really knows me that well.. I'm touched!

Now, people can no longer say, wherever she goes, she will bring me (and CT) along.

I'm free and I'm scared. Changes could be so daunting. :p

Meraba Aku Dalam Kegelapan

It was Monday at 5am when I woke up sweating and panting. Why is it so hot? Tried to switched on my bed lamp.. nothing!

Dang, no electricity!

Went to work, found out that the Singapore server didn't work. There was an outage on Sunday. So when the server was rebooted on Monday, it wasnt really properly configured. There's one ultra high priority file waiting to be transmitted, therefore the pressure is on. Spent about 3 hrs to troubleshoot that one.

Then, there's this idiot who deleted the password file already. Therefore we couldn't move into the new server as planned. He even got a cheek to ask me to request the password from the owner. I told him to fly kite.

On top of that, I was assigned a new task for the new job (I moved dept already, no longer doing midrange, I'm a brick layer now) and was expected to deliver ASAP.

And out of the blue, I got nagged by someone saying that the recipe I gave doesn't really work. I just ignored the message, thinking it will go away.. NOT! Turned out that I forgot to put a cup of sugar on that recipe. *rolled my eyes*

I just turned off my IM.


Luckily Tuesday was better. Well, the morning part was a nervous rack one because we all got a notification to attend the Mandatory briefing at 1p.m. It sounded so serious, i thought either:
1) We were moving to Cyberjaya (I'll quit because there's no life there),
2) Some serious safety incident had occurred (The difference between trauma and no big deal: A trauma is when it happens to me, No Big deal is when it happen to others. SO yeah.. Its a no big deal then, maybe except I wont be getting a new knapsack for hitting the 2million safe hours record)
3) We all gonna loose our jobs, just like those folks at Lehman Brothers. (Shite...)

I attended my new Manager's briefing. So, around 1.04pm he broke the news. Something about winning proposition, bla bla bla. And he handed out the envelopes to all of us. Yippeee.. (It's not bonus)

Well, my name wasnt in his list. Therefore I had to go upstairs (to my old manager). When I arrived there, he hadnt finished briefing yet.. ah typical him. always has tales to tell.

True enough, afterward he called my name. Took the envelope and leave. Suddenly hell broke loose. Everybody was booing at me and chant "ingrate!". Bewildered, I wondered why.


Turned out that each of us have to shake his hand in gesture of gratitude. Some even kissed his hand. I was like, WTF? He's paying my salary gah?

So, again, I did something so unMalay, upsetting him terribly. Oh well, I was already on his black book anyway. But I did turned back and shake his hand.

Anyway, went for iftar with Ritz (what a tarty nick) and Ezami. Carl's Jr Pavillion.

And of course, the Chicken

For the chicken
================
1 chicken
pinch of salt
1 - turmeric powder
2 - curry powder

For the gravy
================
(4 - Dry spices)
3 cloves
3 cardamoms
5 cm cinnamon sticks

(blended)
2 large onions
6 cloves garlic
4 cm ginger

1 tablespoon chili paste (more if you like hot)
1 can of Prego's tomato sauce
150 ml thick coconut milk
salt to taste

(Ground ingredients)
1 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorn


Marinate chicken. Heat oil; deep fry till half cooked. Remove from heat.


Remove half the oil and sauté the dry spices for a minute.


Combine the blended paste; stir till fragrant.


Then mix in the ground spices, chili paste and tomato sauce. Cook till the oil rises to the top.


Pour in coconut milk. Season to taste, then add chicken pieces.


Stir occasionally till the mixture boils and the gravy thickens. Dish up and serve.

And now the Rice

Nasi tomato
Make 6-8
Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Part 1: Blended:
1 - 2 Onions (Medium size)
2 - 1 clove of Garlic
3 - 1/2 inch ginger

Part B: Sautéed:
1 - 1 onion
3 - 2 slices of ginger
4 - 8 pods of Cardamom
5 - Star Anise
6 - 1 inch Cinnamon stck
7 - Olive Oil. Original recipe uses Ghee oil, but i don't like the smell.

Part C:
4 cups of water
Salt
10 - 4 cups of Rice, washed and tossed.
8 - 100ml Evaporated milk
9 - 125 ml Tomato Puree

Part D: Garnishing:
11 -Raisins
12 - Roasted cashew nuts


Heat the oil. Sauté the Part B till fragrant, add in Part A (Blended). After 2 minutes, add in water. Leave it to boil.


Add in Milk, Tomato puree and salt. Stir them well.


Combine the rice. Stir occasionally till almost dry.


Serve rice with cashew and raisin.

10 More Days to Go

Had a fun iftar with friends yesterday.

I cooked Nasi Tomato, ayam masak merah and veggie salad for the main course.

For the dessert, we got plenty. I did the Egg Pudding (Agar2 Telur). Marul baked the brownie. Bella brought the muffins and cookies. And Badrul bought the watermelon.

Bella was the first to show up at 6pm. DisturbingWatching me cooking. Then Badrul came at 7, followed by Shidee and Marul.

We had so much fun, getting to know each other. There was an initial silence because most of them didn't know each other, but after they tasted my food, Bella and Marul turned to their true self, i.e., the chatter boxes.


Menu for that day. Veggie salad, Chicken in Tomatoes gravy and Muffin. With Pineapple cocktail to quench the thirst.

Yum yum.


The first dessert.


The final dessert.


Went well with the vanilla ice cream. Yummilicious.

We ate till we almost collapse. My my, this is the most food I'd eaten during Ramadhan.

Seadanya

Believe it or not, I will be contented having only these for iftar:


Soy Bean Custard (Tau Foo Fah)


and wheat grass


In juice form that is.

Had them on Monday, no dinner and a glass of soy bean milk for sahur. And it lasted the whole day!

Tripple F-X Iftar Day 11

Off for iftar with fellow bloggers at Madam Kwan, KLCC.


All except one arrived there at 6.30 and we made our orders.


F and X were having the Nasi Bojari (No Finger Rice?)


The other F was having the Fried Kway Teow with cuttlefish parts. "Make sure there's no chicken, or i'll throw tantrum!" threatened Mr Fashionably late.


The chillies mix that goes with the kway teow.


My simple meal. Sambal udang petai (prawn sambal).


With crispy & aromatic fried chicken. Its so crispy, while I was munching on the bones, X thought I was eating keropok (chips).


And kailan in garlic.

Actually we started with some desserts:

Piping hot Banana Fritters with vanilla ice cream.


and sweet Sago


Only then, off we went to the real dessert. NZ natural. From left: F, X, F.


And I had this! Raisin and Strawberry. Heaven!


This year's decoration for Eid! Huduh!