Satisfy the Cravings for Japanese Feast @Aoki Tei Japanese Restaurant (青木亭放题）; Sunway Nexis

Maya Angelou said it best, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” A great dinner treat from the head of department for recognizing and acknowledging each members' hard work for achieving sales target in the previous financial year. On that night, it was a celebration of achievements for all! The dinner was held at Aoki Tei Japanese Restaurant; Sunway Nexis. A well-meant gratitude had been expressed by the boss before everyone started to fill up each stomach with food.

Aoki Tei Japanese Restaurant; a good venue for satisfying the cravings for platefuls of sashimi,mix of raw fishes, sushi, seafood drenched with cheese and etcetera. The a-la-carte buffet priced at RM58++ for lunch and RM78++ for dinner. Bottomless drinks including green tea, sake and beers were available at Aoki Tei.

A red Kimono was hanged at the main interior as decoration and above it was the Aoki Tei 's sake.

It wasn't the typical buffet that had full range of dishes served at one side, but Aoki Tei offered ala-carte buffet which was made-to-order. A better way to remain the freshness of food. While there're more than 70 dishes to be ordered, yet each stomach had limited capacity to try all. Here's some of the Japanese feast that we had on that night. 

いただきます!

Umai Chinmi was good to be served as appetizer before starting the feast.

Seasoned octopus was very flavorful, while not many of us fancy with the seasoned jelly fish.

Grilled mackerel fish with salt (Saba Shioyaki) which was served with a slice of lemon to enhance the taste.

Chawan Mushi or Japanese steamed egg

California hand rolls

Top Glass Salad with shredded chickens and assorted vegetables.

It was ordered to balance up the meals as not all would like to be carnivores! :)

Sashimi (5pcs)

The most satisfying feast of tonight was the thick slices of  fresh sashimi. I had eaten 5 thick slices of it and regretted for not ordering one more platter.

Delicious sizzling seafood comprised of tiger prawns, salmon and squid legs topped with cheese.

 Cheese Baked Oysters were very scrumptious and we had topped up few orders after the first try. 

The tasty oyster topped with melted cheese. 

Gani Cheese Fried ordered by the next table.

I was anticipated for unagi yet there's no eel fish served here.

Mini chicken pizza

Well, it's like a heaven for sushi and sashimi lovers where the next table had been serving with jumbo platter and crystal platter. According to one of the eaters, nothing was very top notch about it, but good enough to satisfy one's cravings for sashimi.

Jumbo Platter

Crystal platter

8 kinds of seafood are included in this set and it's definitely worth ordering for feasting since this dish was costed RM199.

Takoyaki - The famous Japanese street food was served piping hot.

The flavorful diced octopus was crispy on the outside.

Prawn tempura with too much batter flours.

The batter was thick, tasted heavy, covered the taste of prawns which was suited my taste.

Soft shell crab hand rolls

Crispy crab, lettuce, Terriyaki sauce and mayo.

I had tasted two hand rolls of this due to the orders were mixed up, yet delightful of the taste.

Edamame beans- great healthy snacks when your stomachs need a rest after filling up with too many meats.

Miso soup (Japanese bean paste soup)

The feedback from the eaters that the miso soup tasted much more flavorful compared to Gyu Suji Nabe.

Inari sushi with salad dressings 

Sake Kurage Maki-Jelly fish rolls wrapped inside-out with salmon and avocado.

Hmm, nothing much special for me but those who didn't fancy of fresh raw food were satisfied with it. Desserts were available with the 4 different flavors of ice-cream i.e. vanilla, matcha, chocolate and wasabi. The matcha ice-cream was too good that I had the 2nd scoop.Mild bitterness with the nice green tea scent.

Chocolate flavor ice-cream was good for sweet-tooth.

Matcha ice-cream here yielded a perfectly sweet with mild bitterness, creamy dessert.

The celebration would not be exciting without the free flow of sake and beers. Raising up the glasses of beers/ sake or cups of green tea to cheer for the good achievement, hoping for the best to the current year! The celebration for those who born in April and May had heated up the party at the end.  

One of the group photo I liked the most.

ごちそうさまでした!
ありがとうございます!

Address:
Aoki-Tei Japanese Buffet Restaurant
Unit D-GF-05, Sunway Nexis
Jalan PJU 5/2, Kota Damansara
Phone number: 03 61436868- Table booking recommended

Appetizing Pasta @ The Morning After Coffee Company, T6 Light Grey Mall,Sungai Buloh

Every working day, I usually anticipate for the lunch hour for meals and a 30-minutes walk with dissociated minds. The long lunch hour during Friday is the best moment for ranting or chatting before working productively for the rest of the day. Sometimes, I hope that the hustle and bustle of work life open doors to new ways of thinking yet the change is still needed to be self-initiated.

Anyway, last Friday was special in which we left office earlier to eat lunch and switch gears. It's the first departmental lunch for welcoming new bosses and new joiner to the team. The place to have the lunch session was pre-booked at The Morning After Coffee Company; a hipster cafe located at T6 Light Grey Mall in Sungai Buloh.

The rustic and industrial theme decoration of the cafe with an exposed brick wall stating the cafe's name.

Above our heads, there's a big lamp which looked like from operation theater's. *Just kidding*

The menu was provided once we were seated and we promptly placed in the orders. I shall not share much details related to the work. Therefore, let's see the pasta we had ordered. Each pasta was made to order with nice firm at each bite. The pasta here were worth to try, each platter of pasta came with a large portion with generous amount of ingredients.

Grilled Chicken Pasta in Creamy Pesto Sauce
Grilled chicken breast meats and sun-fried tomatoes smothered in a creamy pesto sauce with pasta.

The Signature Soft Shell Crab pasta with Neapolitan sauce and rocket salad
The pasta with the highest price was served and its high-stacked presentation had gained the attention from most of us.

The pasta was scented with lemon grass and tossed with tomato and garlic in a spiced prawn oil. The tangy sauce was quite similar to bolognese pasta's and well-matched with the large portion of crunchy deep fried soft-shell crab.

 Spicy Aglio Olio with Grilled Prawns and Zucchini 
My choice of spaghetti with salivating prawns and sliced zucchini. For the 1st dining experience for the Italian cuisines, I usually ordered their simplest yet classic Italian pasta recipe. As the name suggested, the pasta was cooked with olive oil, grilled prawns and speckled with chili flakes. It's appetizing with the spiciness jazzing up the taste department. Well, I was delighted of my choice of meal with many plump, fresh, and juicy prawns on pasta.

Nice presentation of the food

Creamy Beef and Mushroom Pasta
The pasta topped with generous amount of sauted mushrooms and beef slices, tossed in classic creamy carbonara sauce.

Smoked Salmon Pasta

This pasta would be great for those who like to eat salmon slices and spaghetti enriched with tomato sauce.

A massive platter of pasta smothered in some kind of luscious sauce made one overwhelmed with happiness to end this weekend. It was delightful to have department lunch once awhile, to satisfy stomach and to socialize :)

Address:
After Morning Café at T6 Light Grey Mall

9, Jalan LGSB 1/1,

Pusat Komersial LGSB, OffJalan Hospital,

47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor

Hari Raya Puasa Potluck

Hari Raya Puasa is a religious festival that commonly celebrated by Muslims every year. This year, Hari Raya Pusa potluck was organized by my Malay colleagues. Simple dishes like chocolate brownies, lemang, ayam rendang and ketupat rice were served.

Lemang which is a traditional Malay (Indonesia and Singapore Malay) food. It's made of glutinous rice, coconut milk and salt, and cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaves to prevent the rice from sticking to the bamboo. My family used to buy the plain lemang, however my Malay colleagues mentioned that lemang tasted better along with meat particularly ayam rendang. Well, the price of lemang has been increased incessantly till RM12 or more for one bamboo of lemang.

Ayam rendang slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices until the chicken meats absorb all the condiments.

Ketupat rice is like dumpling as it's wrapped inside the woven palm leaves. It reminded me of satays. Oh yea, why satays are not included? :P

The chocolate brownies which was handmade by Leen were definitely a great pleasant to us.

Chocolate brownies

Lemang and ayam rendang

Ayam rendang which is best matched with ketupat rice and lemang

My stomach was almost exploded with delight! Oh yea, today is Friday!!

Happy weekend ahead.

Today my dad had brought back nice vegetable buns and fried taro puffs.The fried taro puffs has crispy skin which looks similar like crispy curry puffs. The delicately crisp exterior with the seasoned pork make these taro puffs having epicurean taste. Note: Calories**

巴生小食館

地址：10, Jalan Lima, Kaw. 16, Taman Intan, 41300 Klang, Selangor.

The Annoying Visitor

Today is Black Thursday! The heavy rains poured right after jogging with my mom at Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) for one round and we had the Hobson's choice to run towards the car park within a short period. On the way running towards the car park, we could see many aunties and uncles who had the strong spirits were still insisted to continue their canopy trail at FRIM even though the dark clouds could be seen above our heads along with strong wind and rains. We got back home and we were shocked to find that the floor of the living room was dirty with sands asunder. As usual, my mom kept mumbling that the great act was done by my sis who wore shoes in the living room.

Okay, the climax of the story of the day is... During this depressing weather, the best activity to have at home will be sleeping. I took a nap around noontime, and I was awaken by sensing something was dropped on my legs. ( I felt blessed as having blanket covered my body as usual). Huh.. I went down from the bed and found a dark piece of stuffs on the floor. It looked like a poop of animals! It's weird as my mom just mopped the floor few minutes ago. Hmm.. After having lunch with mom, I continued with my computer work + tvb drama session. Out of sudden, I found a black stuff looking at me from the corner of my eyes. Perhaps my scream had made it frightened, and it ran towards my bed! At the same time, I found the poop on the same place that I just cleaned off just now! AH.. Disaster!

Gosh! It's neither Jerry nor Mickey Mouse that were created by Walt Disney!

 

It's a real creature, a real mouse!
...And it's huger than the mouse below!

Finding the fat mouse was the activity of day later! Mom asked me to lock the mouse inside my room!Ish!!! I thought the poop was from lizard or smaller animal! I moved out my clothes, laptop and cellphone from my room with the hope that my dad will catch the mouse when he's back from work later.

Huh... The night time was terrible. Along with the spoilage of lamps in kitchen, mom cooked the meals with candle lights, and I had my first attempt to wash dishes in the pitch dark surrounding with the only aid- the candle lights. The war against the mouse was unsuccessful! My dad kicked the furniture, luggage, cupboards and my bed in the room, hoping that the emitted noise could attract the mouse out. My dad just said," the mouse had disappeared la...you see, no mouse coming out", then he went downstairs. Thanks to my mom who came up to help me to pull out the stuffs to check if the mouse still there! Huh.. okay, with no finding in my room and another poop found in living room, we assumed that the mouse should have been leaving my room to living room and escaped away already!

It was a sleepless night! I couldn't fall asleep as scaring that the annoying visitor may still exist in my room. I guessed my dad was right, it's time to lodge a complaint to DBKL as the neighbour is being over-selfish! There's high probability that the mouse were come from there. Ish.. I couldn't understand why he could maltreat his dogs, place many stuffs at the lanes and disallow others to park cars at there by claiming that the lane belongs to him! I hope he could buy more mouse traps! I HATE MOUSE COMING TO VISIT ME!

Pterygium

Anyone heard of pterygium? Based on the wikipedia, it refers to a benign growth of the conjunctiva. My dad had complained about the pain and redness of his eyes more often since I came back from BP. On Saturday,   my family and I had gone for shopping at Metro Prima, intending to purchase some books from the bookstore. I was shocked when I found my dad's eye had a flesh slightly protruding out in his right eye. It came to our concern where he might have some severe eye infection.

On the next day, we brought him to the nearest eye specialist clinic to have a check-up and he had been diagnosed to have pterygium which is caused by long-term exposure of sunlight, dusts, low humidity and etc. The doctor said the right eye's pterygium is aggressive as it grew hostilely towards the cornea. Dad had been advised to undergo the operation as fast as possible. Huh!!! Terrible~~ I just couldn't bear with the explanation of the surgery! I felt the pain!

Anyway, dad had undergone the surgery on Monday for his eyes and the doctor said the condition was quite good. However, the redness of the eyes will remain for at least 3 months, and dad had to stay at home for a week. I could feel he was bored. Looking at him kept wiping up the teary eyes and he had to bear with the scar on his cornea, it made me felt upset as I couldn't help anything for that. What I can do is praying for his health and hope that his eyes will be recovering faster!

Sorry, dad!

If you weren't worked so hard and be exposed to long-term sunlight just to earn a living for us,

 you wouldn't have got the pterygium! Love you always! 

( Although I didn't mention it verbally)

Stay healthy!!!

Outing with buddies

TGIF..THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY! It's the second week of the semester break holidays and I was still lagging behind. I was overwhelmed with lazy mood as I just didn't go accordingly to my scheduled plan which I should have completed my questionnaire design of final year project (FYP). Uh.. It's a huge difference between the working speed of mine now compared to the working speed when I was in my hostel.

Nah... Were I overworked when I was in hostel? HAHA..Since the day I came home, I found that I tend to sleep longer than I was in hostel! My mom started to nag on me, wanting me to work already. Well, I didn't plan to work this semester holiday, hoping that I can settle my FYP part 2 in this holidays. Hehe.. I wanna be  faster ahead than others! =)
_________________________________________________________________________________
Well, it's friday morning and I was on holiday =P That's quite unlikely I will get a stack of books to work on my FYP today or reading up my novels. Indeed, I went out for party XD. Perhaps being emancipated from FYP for a day could motivate me to put efforts on it after coming back from having fun.


YY had stood us up today, leaving only HH, Wai Min and I went to Neway Karaoke; One Utama. The lunch deal was of great value as we could order a set of main meal and a drink with free buffets at the catering side.After we placed our handbags in our room, Wai Min and I went to the buffet catering side and started to piling up our plates with soups, meehoon, mixed vegetables, corn soups, salads with different types of sauces and porridge. I had added some garlic bread cubes in my porridge and it was delicious!


Considering the price ranging from RM8++ which includes not only a set of meals plus a lunch buffet, but also 4 hours of karaoke, I would say it was a great deal. Moreover, three of us were given one microphone each and we had enjoyed very much to live out all our rockstar dreams! At 2pm, Wai Min and I were exhausted and we ended up chatting with HH continued soloing.


After the karaoke-session, we went for window-shopping as Wai Min will need some apparels for her internship in the following week. I was glad to find out Uniqlo's singlets have limited promotion price @ RM19.90 instead of RM39.90 which I saw in MV on Tuesday! There has no more purple premium cotton tank top which I tried on Tuesday, hence I purchased the blue one. I love the design of the singlets which perfectly cover the weakness of my body and its good quality. Both of the girls had bought two singlets from there! As usual, guy will be waiting at outside of the store, playing with his own mobile phone =P I just realized that Starbucks had promotion of half-price frappuccino blended beverages during 5pm-7pm. Such a good offer, right?! And yea, the girls had headed to grab the 50% off frappuccino beverages before we continued our next shopping journey to Brands Outlet.

My Mocha Frappuccino!
Thanks to the recommendation of  HH; the richie who drank it  before Happy Hour!

Okay, Wai Min grabbed her skirt @ Nichii and it's of good quality and could be matched with any type of blouses. I would say it's worth the price! Here's the apparels that I bought on the day!

Purple 2-way singlet and blue premium cotton tank top from Uniqlo ;
and a blouse from Nichii ( which I attracted by its unique design)

The end of shopping during this holidays as I am broke!

Meet up with old buddy

It's summer break for friends who study at UK! Yesterday, I had bumped into an old friend whom I knew her during English tuition years ago. I felt it's amazing as we did not have awkward silence when we met up. We met for lunch @ Kim Gary Restaurant; Mid Valley after a long discussion on where shall we meet up on the previous day. She didn't want to eat Japanese cuisine and western foods and we came to consent whereby we chose to have our lunch at Kim Gary together.

Could I say 'great minds think alike' to describe the situation where we chose the same venue to meet up, the same restaurant to have lunch and the same set of dishes of the day? haha.. we chose the set lunch of cheese baked pork chop rice with red sauce (I think it's salsa sauce), borsch, dessert and Hong Kong Style Ying Yong (cold).

The set lunch we had for the day =)

Nah.. this lady is having her beloved cheese baked pork chop rice!
Yaya, no doubts, the lady is li-chen!

My turn to have photo with my cheese baked pork chop rice =)

French toast is one of the MUST ordered food @Kim Gary.
The French toast is perfectly coated with egg and fried, and served with syrup and butter on top of it.

The French toast was obviously too big for us to finish eating it up as we ordered the set lunch as well.  FATTENING?  Well, eat this once in a blue moon should be no harm. Moreover, it's worth for the price (based on the size).

Reconnecting with old friend is always amazing especially with the one who always appear to concern you even from far distance. I still remember how she consoled me after she saw my blog post two years ago, and this had made me appreciating this friendship even more. Li-chen; a friend whom I knew her from English tuition and she used to sit next to me during my form3-form5 English tuition class; so it's great to getting reacquainted with her again. It is veracious to say that a friend in need is a friend indeed, I would say that I do enjoy very much by chatting with her on studies matter and future career matter. Informative opinions regarding the matters are gave by her and she had also shared her experience in UK; the place I wished to be landed to one day. 

After having our lunch @ Kim Gary, we went to Jaya Jusco and window-shopped at Uniqlo, F.O.S and etc.  I miss the purple singlet from Uniqlo! nah, i like the white tube too, as it fits nicely! well, but I resisted to buy them at last, thinking that singlets not worth to buy at rm39.90 each. Yea, I am regretted now.

Well, I think she will blacklist me to go out with her as I spent more than half hour hanging around in F.O.S and I came out with empty-handed. Haha.. at the end, I used up another twenty minutes to enter back F.O.S.  to choose my white singlet which I want to match with my jackets and long-sleeved shirts. 

Bought a white singlet from F.O.S ( I would say that uniqlo's is much more better in terms of quality)
and I had bought myself two nice belts from F.O.S. 

Thanks to li-chen for the souvenir a.k.a. shortbread fingers from Scottland.
 Tasty but abit too hard for me to bite =)

We will find it hard to meet up when we grow up as we have own directions, own future, own career path, thus meeting up with old friends can be a difficulty. I truly appreciate friends I met in my life, and do hope that we able to keep in touch no matter we become rich/poor or have diverse career.

Last but not least, here's some words for you, li-chen!!!

STAY CHEERFUL and KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU HAVE ME AS FRIEND!

HAPPY GRADUATION and ENJOY YOUR CAREER!