Tire Puncture :(

Look what happened to my tire? Luckily I wasn't the one driving the car when the tire had punctured. Nevertheless, as the owner, I had to rescue my car. As the car was stopped next to a highway, it was pretty dangerous changing the tire.

Even with the car parked all the way onto the grass, and only a quarter of the car on the emergency lane, I assure you that, you'll be shocked at how close those Trucks and Lories are travelling to the emergency lane.

I parked another friend's Mivi about 10 feet behind my car, to block and give better visibility to the truck drivers. It took us about 15 min to change the tires.

Pot Luck at Eric's

As you would have realised, my parents are away and wont be back for another week or so. While they are away, I could got some friends over for dinner and drinks. More like a social gathering, or at least that was the plan. As you can see from the photo above, we were all enjoying ourselves.

I cooked some Tom Yum friend rice, and some carbonara... again (as requested). Even before all the guest arrived, I had to recook more carbonara. Venice and her housemate, Yin Yin made an excellent Fruit Salad, topped up with some Nata De-Coco. Yu Jeen brought the drinks along. Mun Fong has some jelly and ice cream for dessert. Jennifer brought some chicken wings and her friend Penny brought along some chocolates and mud cake.


As you can see, after dinner, we had some party games. We played card games, and the not so fortunate was punished to drink alcohol! Not too much, between the 8 of us, and 2 hours, we only finished 1/2 bottle of the Black Label. Honestly... that is nothing to be proud off.

Had a very enjoyable evening. Had nice food,, enjoyed the party games and drinks. An enjoyable evening for the all of us. For the most of us, this is our first time meeting each other. Cheers everyone! :D

Eric Cooks Dinner... Disaster?

My parents are away on a trip to visit my sister and their 3 grand children...
FREEDOM!! Yes the cat is away, and the mouse is here to stay!!

Decided to cook dinner for some of my friends. Got really ambitious and invited like a bunch of people. But since it was so last minute, only a few showed up.

Dinner was almost a disaster... Normally I would be like cooking 1 item. But NOooo... Tonight, I decided to have Soup, Salad, Mash Potatoes and Carbonara...

Normally I would get cream to cook carbonara and used the remaining cream from the Cream of Mushroom soup. Yes it is the same one from Campbells, but the secret is... some cream and fresh mushrooms... yummy

DISASTER struck... the soup tasted funny... WHY? why was it sweet? OMG... the soup is sweet, how could it be... I checked the cream, and it was sweetened... FARK... I am so screwed, I just poured the remaining cream into my bacon used for the carbonara...

I tried adding some salt into the soup, to neutralise the sweet taste... NOPE... it could not be salvaged... It just tasted weird... the soup was salty but had a sweet after taste... weird isn't it?

The disaster was far from over. I now had a huge serving of carbonara which tasted sweet. What could I do? I tried adding some salt, but soon realised that it was a complete write off... All my time preparing for my carbonara... GONE...

OK, don't panic Eric... I quickly went out to the store to purchase more bacon and cream. Yes I double checked the new cream. NO MORE SWEETENED CREAM...

The soup was GONE. There was no turning back... Into the sink it went...

The Japanese style Mash Potatoes turned out well. Had some when I was in Penang at some high class Jap restaurant. I know my business partner Adele would be impress if I made some for her!! :)

I also prepared some fresh salad. We had the freshest Lettuce and the sweetest Cherry Tomatoes. Topped up with some cucumber and Italian dressing (from the bottle), it turned out perfect... phewww...

Now, for the finale, the carbonara, my main dish... how was it? Shouldn't be too hard, as I have cooked it many times. One of my specialty dishes... "Excellent Eric!!"... A pat on my back... :)

Dinner overall was OK. I manage to return from the grave. I just had no time to prepare the Cream of Mushroom soup, even though it was from the can. Maybe next time, I would be more ambitious and prepare it from scratch. I have read the recipe... not a simple dish, but not impossible...

Yes, I do enjoy cooking. I enjoy cooking for my friends as we could all sit around and chill out after. Come on, if someone invited you for dinner, you may turn them down... but if someone is cooking for you, would you turn them down?

I am sorry, there are no photos of tonight's dinner. Promise to capture some the next time.

An Afternoon At Synn's Place

It is the time of the year again. Normally every year, at about Christmas time, we would all get together at Synn's place. Yes, to some of us, she is also known as Cindy Siah. This year, it came a little early. Synn would be back only for 2 weeks, and she decided to have a lunch gathering instead. It was a great afternoon spent as we were all able to catch up with each other.

Hmm... have I really lost weight? A few people mentioned that I have lost weight... what do you think? I do eat alot nowadays, especially junk food. I am constantly consuming Mamee and Twisties... the few possible reason why I may look thinner is that I am really stress from work, or my Tshirt just look a little tight :p

Synn works in Singapore and hardly comes back to KL. We all had the opportunity to meet up with her this trip, but the gathering was cut short as she had to spend some time with her boy boy.

Yi Ling is back from Melbourne for a few weeks. Didn't get to catch up with her much. She was too busy gossiping with all her gfs.

Ai Wei looked great and congratulation to her on her new job... one that is more relaxing and gives her more time for herself. She is now a CONsultant at her new company...


Poh Yee as usual, beeing her cheery self. We may have a "date" next week... hehe... maybe accompany her to Genting on one of her stock take trips up :p ... Uncle Lim, here I come!!

Look who showed up? Hui Ni wor... surebo... I managed to take her new Blue VW Beetle for a spin. It is a cool car... but the real car that I would love to try is the Red VW Golf GTI. 200bhp I was told, and a real pocket rocket. Yes Li Lian hint hint!!

Mee Goreng @ Bangkok Lane, Penang

Anybody staying in Penang, would have heard of the Mee Goreng at Bangkok Lane. It is Famous... so famous that even my mom eats there... my mom ... no kidding... well as you can see, good food does not distinguish between the age, as well as the great generation gap :)

In general, I am not a fan of Mee Goreng at all. Situated at the corner of Bangkok Lane, where my new retail Chai now resides, I had to give the Mee Goreng a try. There were not many options, but I was told that if you ordered the "chili" version, get ready to be blasted to the Moon, as it was seriously out of this world spicy. Then again, maybe its just the general Penang standard of spiciness...

I as usual, ordered "no chili" version. When the food first arrived, it looked very moist or a little on the wet site. The colour of the mee, looks as if the noodles were glowing orange... They too served the whole table at once, showing that they cooked in bulk.

"Didn't I tell them no chili? Hmm anyway, here it goes..."

The Mee Goreng is excellent! It may look wet, or a little on the glowing orange side, but it was great. It had small squids in the mee goreng which taste good too. Finally I understood why, there were a long queue for the take-away.

The food is not over-rated! Overall I will give the Mee Goreng a 4.5/5 stars. I was impressed with it, as I normally don't eat Mee Goreng. This would be an acception!

Out of towners, do give it a try. You'll not regret it.

Pork Noodles @ Sunway

Today we will do a review on the Pork Noodles I had for lunch near my office the other day. It is situated at the Mentari Business Park block, just round the corner of the McDonalds. I must say that, not all Pork Noodles are created the same! The only other great tasting Pork Noodles acceptable to my taste buds, is the one in PJ State.

The one that I had, is a little different and best ordered with Instant Noodles (Vits), instead of the usual Yellow Noodles and Mee Hoon. Please add the optional Egg into the soup if you prefer it. It tends to give the soup an egg yolk taste. Like all other Pork Noodles, it will be served with pork balls, mince meat, some intestine and some vegetables. The soup is really tasty and goes extremely well with the instant noodles.

The Pork Noodles is so delicious till I have to lick the bowl clean.... joking... I reckon it must be drugged or something. Actually, probably a whole ton of MSG, as I do get quite thirsty after the meal! Hmm... does that mean, anyone can be a Master Chef by just sprinkling some MSG?

Poh Lian seen eating with the optional Egg in the soup

Conclusion

It is one very delicious Pork Noodles! Although it may contain a little excessive MSG, I reckon it is one of the top Pork Noodles around. Overall, I will give it a 4/5 star.

Where is my Sunshine?

It has been the most gloomy last couple of days. It seems to be gloomy and rainy in the last couple days. This morning, I got up and it was drizzling... I went to work, it was drizzling... I went to lunch, it was drizzling... I went for dinner, it was drizzling... I went for supper, it was drizzling...

Ohh... I just got home, and its 3:32 AM... and its STILL drizzling...

"WHY? Sky... are you against me?"

Anyway, where is my Sunshine? I hope I will see you tomorrow... I wished that you would just brighten up my morning and the whole week...

New Food Blog!!

Just got back from a week long trip from Penang. Will post some interesting stuff over the next few days. Posts will include the wedding I attended, and some on the street food that I had over there. And not forgetting the bachelor night photos!

Over the trip, I had a discussion with one of my close friend, and we have decided to start a new food blog together. We would start with a 3 person team, with a dedicated writer, video/still cameraman and also a food reviewer!

We had a long discussion and it sounded like a great plan. So I'll be blogging most of my food review at the new blog. Now all we need to do, is to get it started!! Can we? Are we?

Chai Boutique is now Open!

I managed to sneak into the shop early one morning to capture these photos. As you can see from the photos, it extremely well done up and very cosy. I must give full credit to my business partner Adele, for organising all the renovation and everything else. The time and effort used to select the simplest items, from the curtain material of the fitting room, to the cushion covers on the sofa. Even the antique tables and chairs chosen goes well with the place.

Bangkok lane is actually a residential area. A very nice area, just at the border of all the Pulau Tikus commercial hub. As it is an old house, from the 1950s, it retains an British heritage feel. You'll notice the front door comes with colour glass panels and the floor of the hall has some really antique tiles!

Friends who are in Penang, please do drop by my new retail shop. It has a wide selection of ladies clothing, as well as accessories and shoes. We'll be adding evening wear and dinner gowns within the next few weeks.

Adele's Birthday @ Chai Boutique

It was a Saturday afternoon, just after lunch. Most of us, are taking a rest from the previous nights Wedding dinner. Some had massive hang overs, while others were busy catching up with local Penang food.

It was the first time for the most of us to have visited the Chai Boutique as it was not officially opened. Only close friends were invited for the little gathering. A few were back from Australia to attend Kevin & Mei Yee's wedding, while the rest were from KL.

Most of the ladies had a look at the dresses, accessories and shoes while the guys just chilled out at the cosy area exchanging stories. It was a relaxing and cosy afternoon. A little surprise birthday cake was organised for Adele as today was her birthday.

We had a really good time chilling and hanging out at Chai, but it all had to end early as we had to attend the Kevin and Mei Yee's open house. We would also have a long day tomorrow, as we would be doing the traditional "Wife Pick Up" ceremony. I just hope the bridesmaid don't prepare any Wasabi for me!!