Eastin Hotel Japanese Buffet...

It's a new opening hotel in Penang island and me and "tham chiak" colleagues decided to take a try on its Friday Japanese buffet. The cost RM65 + 10% + 5% (government & service taxes). If you have Citibank/Maybank/AMEX credit card, you will get 10% discount then. :-)

We went on public holiday, 27th Nov and initially the staff @ payment counter said there is no discount on public holiday, somehow i think due to new opening and also to provide good impression to customer, they say yes at last.

The buffet start from 6pm to 10.30pm, when see at a glance, there is not much variety of japanese dishes being served. Basically there are 4 sections, main course section, Teppanyaki section, dessert & sashimi section and coffee, tea & ice cream section.

@ Main Course section, What do we got here? okay, we have Kushiyaki (串烧), Tempura (vege & shrimp), fish fillet with fresh vege, Miso soup, cooked conger eel fillet (鳗鱼), fried rice, fried noodles, smoked salmon head, cawamushi & Beef. The food taste of this section? I would give poor comment on the Miso soup (not taste like miso soup) & Tempura (never refill the shrimp) :( but the cooked conger eel fillet (鳗鱼) is good.

@ Teppanyaki section, we can choose either chicken or fish for chef to cook for you on the spot. Beside the teppanyaki, there is sushi roll corner where the chef is "rolling" the hand roll. The food taste of this section? The Teppanyaki is nice to eat. :-)

@ Dessert & Sashimi section, it's more variety of dishes compare to the other three. I like the dessert the most as they serve a lot of delicious cakes, especially cheese cake, green tea cake & banana carrot slice. For the sashimi, we only can have 2 kind --> red tuna and salmon. On the serve table, there are some other dishes like octopus on tart, 凉面 and few types of sushi rolls, salads & fruits.

@ Coffee, Tea & Ice Cream section, we can have hot tea, coffee and 5 type favour of ice cream with standard topping. THere is no green tea except you ask the waiter or waitress to serve you one.

Overall, I would not rate the buffet high as the not much variety of japanese food is served there. I didn't see the sign of udon, grill saba fish, teriyaki unagi or ika which are all my favourites.

Here are my rates: 5 stars the most

Food Variety 3 stars

Food Refill 2 stars

Food Taste 3 stars

Service 4 stars

We had wrote down our feedback on the food and hopefully this was take into consideration by the hotel management. If you happen to try it after mine and found improvement on food & service, do drop me a note. Thanks first ya!!! :D

Swift real swift >>>>>>>

Finally i had bought it, my new car fair white SWIFT in 15th September this year. Start my research and survey in mid of July, was wandering between car model - Toyota Vios, Suzuki Swift, Hyundai Getz & Honda City. As i am budgeting my purchase price within 60k to 70k ++, i have to exclude out those car model that exceeding this price range, even i am really fancy new Honda Jazz, light blue sea color, my dream car..probadly that will be my next car. :p

Being dreaming to own sporty car like Honda Jazz, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Latio, Hyundai Getz & Swift, but those car prices are real expensive, either near or over 100k, more expensive than aeroback car except for Hyundai Getz & Swift. Hyundai Getz is the first that i drop out from the purchase list as it ease lots of fuel and required high maintenance cost.

Then weekend in those months, was being busy, walk in those Toyota Vios, Suzuki Swift & Honda City car dealer, comparing the car price and deal from each dealer. I need a car with at least with standard safety facility and most important is within my budget price range, and not lack of style or sporty feature. And so and so and so.....i chose SUZUKI SWIFT. :D

After decision made, it is headache time to think of what color to select. I first fancy at red color after viewing its broucher showing red chili shining swift, so charming! But then when view actual car in real, it was actually melon color which a way out of my expectation. It took 1 night to wander what color is the best, tell me if you also have the same experience like me..hee.....

And finally i change my initial color - blue to white (not pearl white but fair white), i am picking blue color upon car purchasing. I know i am a bit indecisive in this case. :p

I am officially drive on my fair white Swift on 12th October. Everything became easier and faster right now, and i finally realize why the car named as such, cause it's really swift! like a fast wind!!
Here are reason why you need to choose Swift: Not offencing other car model...
1. Keyless entry start (with immobiliser)
--> This is just the right feature that suit me very much, i no need to take car key in and out neither starting the car engine nor lock or unlock the car, as long as the remote is within the workable area.
2. High speed performance car
-> Good pick up and high speed performance car, that's why it called swift...
3. Car Stability
--> The curb weight is 1030kg, that's mean the car is very stabil when go on bumpy road.
4. Fuel Consumption
--> 14 cents per km, quite ok for me.
5. Car Height 1510mm
--> This height figure is a way higher than other cars like city, vios and etc....And it just suit a tall gil like me. :)
6. 6 speakers
--> For a gil that pretty much love music like me, it keep me awake when i felt sleepy while driving.

And this car also come with almost the full spec of other car model such as:
Dual Airbags
ABS & Brake assist
Audio control on power steering
Retractable side mirror with signal indicator
Information display in terminal - fuel consumption & outside temperature
Electromagnetic tailgate opener
Foldable rear seat

Okay, here is my fair white SWIFT.

Pretty woman with my Swift...

It's my "Cow One"...with frens

It took quite some while for me to update this blog. Guess being busy quite a while till now only i am able to update my wonderful dinner time with my close friends. It is a pre-celebration for my birthday! :D

Gang had pick Strada for the dinner spot, it is a not-so-big restaurant situated @ Pulau Tikus, same row with Police station there. If you notice, when u look outside Strada at the glance, you might have the feeling that is a Prada shop. :)

Well, i like the interior design of the restaurant. With the light peach and blue green color wall paint, under the soft white light, making it nice for photo shooting. Before the dish ordering, my very professional friend took some shots, which i like it very much!

My pretty girl friends...

Here, table of 12 is reserved!

Shoot before the dinner...

Me & Irene, it's a farewell dinner for her too! Cheers...

My order - Grill Salmon RM27.50 - Dry a bit but the potato is nice!

My drink - Pink Lady RM8.50, taste sweet, nice!

Appetizer - Calamari with tartar sauce for 4 course meal (appetizer + soup + Seafood Paella + dessert --> RM35)

Seafood Paella - cheesy fried rice, don't expect it will like chinese fried rice!

Seafood Marinara RM22.50 - This is nice, it's also the chef signature dish oh!

All the girl friends...:)

Chiew Ling Gal & Kevin...

Singing the birthday song...

That red singlet, is my birthday gift...:)

Making birthday wish...

It's a fun night with close friends gathering, laughter and jokes from them...I know they are tired of celebrating my birthday and urg me to find my Mr. Right as soon as possible to replace them for the celebration. But i know they don't mean that, because all are with big smilesssssssss on that night. After that, we went to Segafredo for second round event. i had a great night! :D

By the way, To get to know the menu in Strada restaurant, you can visit http://www.strada.com.my/. You can try the lunch over there too, its price is RM16++ onwards, reasonable price!

It's my "Cow One"...with colids

This day, i had been told to spare time after work for dinner. And the only thing that i know is just i am going for dinner with 4 colleagues but never been told a single clue on the venue, and what's the whole plan.

So i sit in my dear brother's car and let him drove whereever he wish to. And finally i figure out what is the diner place when the car turn in QB mall.

It was a surprise for me when i step in OXO CafeLab seeing there is a long table reserved and my team member is present there. I then realize it was a little "beautiful" lie from my brother that to make the team gathering a surprise for me! :)

From left: Ah Hoo, me, Sze Sze, Sultan, Miss Ling

Me & Sze Sze who came across the sea for the dinner, so touch!!!

Me & my order - i only remember the item code A15

Here it is, the close up of my ordered dish

The dessert, taste real nice! Thumb up oh...

Me cutting the fruit cake

After finish up the dessert, i got the present from the gang..:D Put it on for photo-ing....heh heh

Here it is, the necklace

Don't misunderstood, the birthday girl -me- is 2nd from the left. Sze Sze, next time don't wear prettier than birthday girl ha...

Ta la...Here is the gang...

And the OXO models...

This night, i enjoy myself very much, with the good food, birthday songs, photoshots and laughters from the gang. Actually i am happy enough to have them for my birthday celebration. Thank you gang, you all are wonderful! YOU MADE MY NIGHT...:D

"Cari Makan" @ Pulau Aman 18 July 2009

9 sharp in the morning, i had woke up to prepare myself heading to Pulau Aman, an island that situated @ Tambun. Honestly i never heard of this island before and since there is email forwarding saying it is a place that famous with Mee Udang, so we never want to let go any chances of good food, decided to have a try. :-)

We a group of 9 peoples gathered @ roadside just before the roundabout that turn in to Tambun Jetty and when everyone is arrived, clock already ticked @ 10++am. Hamba is leading us from the gather place to Tambun jetty. We first turn in 9 O'clock of roundabout and drive for about 5 minutes time. After that we came to a red soil road that seem to be having some construction as lorries are back and forth on the road.

And you can see from below picture, the red soil is flying upwards after car drive through, and you can imagine how's our car be, yea...it is a mess dirt with red soil covered up all part of the car. That's not all, we thought we can reach the jetty after a short while but the further we drive in, the sign of jetty is hardly to see. Then, we realized we are in the wrong path. Holy cow!

Here we are, 9 of us...:-)

At last, and finally we reached the jetty. We took some shots here...

While we walking toward jetty, we saw many jelly fishes in the water.

To reach the floating restaurant, we need to take engine boat for about 15 minutes journey time, the ticket cost us RM6 for 2 way. Here it is, the floating restaurant that famous with its Mee Udang.

And then we discovered there is a school located on this Pulau Aman.

Here is the overall map of Pulau Aman.

And there are actually a lot of chalet or acommodation (including the school), real cheap! Some only cost RM150 for 10 persons.
Wow, a lot of people here. We thought it must be very delicious at the glance. First we ordered of course the Mee Udang and Mee Goreng.
After the try, mm...most of us felt "so so" nia not as delicious as stated in the forwarded mail. Okay, the "kuah" of the Mee Udang is quite nice but by the time we eat it, the "kuah" already get cold.
Other than these 2 dishes, hamba went to order the mantis prawn at the corner just before the entry to the restaurant. Look, the mantis prawn is still alive!

And all i can say, these mantis prawn are fresh and yea...taste good! :-)

Each of us have 2 mantis prawn and thought that is the best taste dish of the day. Overall i can conclude that Pulau Aman is small village with a few populations live on the island. There is no water activity here but you can explore a few spots on the island like Telaga Mas, Kubur Purba, Jungle Trekking & fishing... (Refer to the map) As for us, we still need to hunt food at other place, so we left after lunch.