dad's 71st bday in kampong

All of us recently went back for Dad's birthday celebration. 

 Good 'ol daddy turned 71 years old. Out of nowhere, Jade (younger sister of my sis' husband) whipped up a durian cake for dad. *jeles .. I wished i was the one with the honor of baking dad's cake. hehe.

Dad looking on happily, or was he in the middle of making his birthday wish?
I always wonder why is it no one likes to stand near the birthday boy/ girl...Dad looks so lonely here. haha

 aah, we must have then called upon mum to stand by dad's side. Sis still watching from afar...

 Look, lotsa "Angry Bird" cupcakes...courtesy of Jade too. Two missing from the box - they were in my tummy. 

 My favourite nephew (i only have one ok!)  Dave and his cool coooooool look. Loved his hair so nicely swept to the side.

 Meet Ian and Ryan - the first pair of twins to ever step into our house. These tiny tots are the kids of Jade.

 Their Daddy and maid (how nice got maid!) with one very excited twin who was clapping away like crazy as we sang the birthday song. LOL.

That's a lot of mee sua!

Darren celebrates with his grand-papa!

tee~hee...

Even got the chance to go out makan-makan the next day - dad's treat.
So sorry i couldnt recall the shop's name though....would add it here when it hits me ya.

my favourite dishes were the silky smooth chicken, char-siew and fried prawn wantan.

..and others...

Dessert was Irene's treat afterwards.
If the cakes below look familiar, that must be because you've tasted them before!
Presenting just some of the variety of 'Mille Crepe' (a thousand layers cake) from Nadeje in Melaka.

It was quite a large group of us, so we decided to divide the cakes to smaller portions.

The cake was too soft, it fell apart at the slice of a fork.

Hmm, not a good idea....nobody felt like touching this plate for a long time. haha.

The best part about this Melaka trip - 2 cousins discovering the existence of each other.

Darren's 'oh-so-round' head looks like a bowling ball compared to Dave's.

When Darren first met Dave, they were both as shy as a schoolboy.

Then very quickly, they were 'forced' to be best friends. lol!

Can't wait till they grow up and play some football together! =D

maiu for u

All ready to bring darren to his first ever buffet, one where he won't be the one queuing for food. Here we were trying to impersonate a koala bear hugging a tree. 

fail.   

As usual, darren enjoying car trips...

RM 43.80+ per person for a Japanese fusion lunch buffet was not bad a deal. The place is called Maiu in Sri Petaling, with another branch in Damansara Perdana. Probably not very popular as it operates out of just another row of shops, tucked in a residential area.

 Hence, the restaurant itself wasn't as big as expected. But, still spacious, which was important for darren ... and stroller. See what a nice parking spot we got for darren. =D

 Buffet's more fun when you go in a group, hence we called along 3 of Mark's friends.

 The best thing about their buffet - i did't need to rush to be in a queue for my salmon sashimi.
I just had to order them from the menu and those friendly waiters are ever ready to take my order. Fancy just ticking those boxes and waiting for the food to be placed right in front of me! And then just repeat the whole process again and again.

 Just some of the food we ordered...

This sort of 'ordering' method can easily lead to over-ordering and over-stuffing of food. I recalled we had a hard time finishing this, we had to resort to playing games just to make the loser eat dem up.

 At least they weren't stingy with their jellyfish and octopus.

 Unlike Mark, i'm not a fan of Shishamo (pregnant fish) as i find them rather tasteless ... and sad to be eaten.

 darren was oober excited that day - must be the 'Japanese feel' he got while in the restaurant.

 Or maybe he could sense the arrival of the S-A-L-M-O-N  S-A-S-H-I-M-I !!!
Believe it or not, Mark and i gobbled down this entire plate all by ourselves.

 And left none for poor drooling darren... ok, go 'awwwww' now.

 Wai Wah caught in surprise which then turned to dismay, when his order of salad came in 2 huge bowls!

 One of Mark's friends attempting to feed darren an edamame, to which darren replied....

 So full with so much more food on our table. Since wastage will be charged, we just waited for the food in our tummies to be digested before we 'ka yao' again,

 darren was such a good boy, he went to sleep after knowing that he wasn't gonna be getting any sushi after all. hehe.

 Overall, a cosy place to hang out while you savour endless plates of fresh sashimi. No unagi nor sake included in the menu though, but still worth the price you pay. Early reservations should be made as many regulars frequent this place.

Maiu
No.39-1 G/FLR, Jalan Radin Anum 2, 


Bandar Baru Seri Petaling 57000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel : 03-90575017

...and darren's 5 (mths) now

In a blink of an eye, and he's already coming to 6 mths in 2 weeks time.......

 Darren's even started reading now.

 Not to mention, he drools non-stop too. Especially when he happens to be in the same lift as a bunch of leng-lois in my condo. Never fails to make dem girls giggle and wave buh-bye to him as he's being wheeled out in his stroller.

 Soon, he'll be sitting up on his own.......Atta boy! ^^

toowoomba...tidakapa...

I love a good delicatessen. So there're places like Euro Deli and Jarrod & Rawlins who have been captivating the hearts of meat lovers, but i'm pretty sure not many have heard of 'Toowoomba Steak House". Why the funny name? Beats me. 

It opened not too long ago at Platinum Mondrian, Jalan Genting Kelang, Setapak - just 5 minutes drive from my condo. Our first time having steak at an unknown place...now, that's risky. I remember hoping they  can cook steak better than they can spell.

The restaurant has rather limited tables, probably because the kitchen and meat storage area already take up half of the entire place.

The wooden tables and chairs carry a rustic feel to this place.

The visible kitchen makes it interesting to see the chef who is cooking my meat.

Basically, they've got 3 grades of steak - grass-fed (cheapest), grain-fed and then of course, there's Wagyu (for the loaded!).

The Mushroom Soup (RM 8.90) tasted like it came from a can. Very watery and the mushroom bits in it felt tasteless and dry, it seemed like they were thrown in right after scooping the soup into a serving bowl.

It also seemingly felt right to try their 'Toowoomba Steak Soup' (Beef Soup) since it had the restaurant's name on it. This was slightly more costly, at RM 10.90. Unfortunately, another disastrous dish as it was too salty for my taste, it felt like i was gulping down a bowl of thick beefy sauce rather than soup. The combination of beef chunks with carrot dices and broccoli bits just didn't go well together as a soup. I think i enjoyed eating the garlic bread more.

Next came my Caesar Salad (RM 9.90), which i should have known, for that price, all i'd be getting would be lettuce leaves and croutons in salad dressing. This one had no hard-boiled egg and cheese shavings! Oh, how I missed Coffee Bean's version of Caesar Salad. And the dressing was way too acidic, every time i swallowed, it felt a burning sensation in my throat!

The highlight of our meal was their Rib Eye Steak (Grass-Fed) at RM 32.90. Now, THIS was quite appealing in terms of quality of the charring and arrangement of food on the plate. Looks good eh?

But then, medium rare....?

err, looks extremely rare for me.... *revolting look*

At least now i know that people should only come here for the meat. Forget about the side dishes. It's just not up to par.

staying in hanoi

So many hotels inside the Old Quarters, Hanoi - which one to choose?

With a budget set, i searched 'tripadvisor' for help.

The rather brand new Holiday Diamond Hotel came highly recommended for many reasons, mainly for its remarkable hospitality. 

For USD35 a night, we got an Executive Room located right at the back of the hotel. Looks cosy eh?

Nice wooden flooring makes it warm to walk around the room bare footed. There's even an LCD TV equipped with lots of station in Vietnamese. Don't worry, cable tv made American Idol available for my viewing.

See what i mean by getting a room at the back side of the hotel? You'll really appreciate the peace and quiet here, since it can get pretty noisy (mostly from the sound of horns) on the streets of Hanoi.

My favourite thing about my room - a PC and LCD monitor with FREE wireless Internet!

This six-storey hotel may not have a 5-star buffet spread, but the daily breakfast servings are just as delicious and wholesome as some of the bigger conglomerates. In fact, the girls behind the drinks counter of the restaurant would greet us in unison each morning.

The staff here (especially the one called 'Jenny') were extremely friendly and hospitable, they insisted that we  go for their buffet breakfast on the morning we were supposed to be checking-in. Hence, the very first local dish we tried was their Rice Noodle Soup.

Specially prepared with chicken slices and heaps of greens. It was very nice and full of spices.

The parents enjoyed breakfast so much that they wanted to eat it for lunch too.

Just one of my many rounds of breakfast...... hehe

yum~meh custard cream puff...

One morning, they served tender pork ribs with baked beans.

On the morning of check out, since we had to leave for the airport super early, we were kinda disappointed to be missing our regular breakfast. Much to everyone's delight, the kitchen prepared us a special breakfast set each right before we left. Just eggs and toast, but i still happily gobbled everything down. =D

This was also the first hotel i stayed in that offers complimentary fruits to their guests on a daily basis. It was nice that housekeeping surprised us with apples and bananas during our brief stay there!

Seriously, for the price we paid, we did not expect our experience here to be such a memorable one. I could never have asked for a friendlier staff, who'll answer any question you might have and who'll ask you about how your day went.

Stay here once, and i don't think you'll want to stay anywhere else.
Gahm uhn, Hanoi.... (means 'thank you')