Ramadhan Buffet

This fasting month, my fiance and I has this one routine, having our break fast together twice a week. We would like to try nice food and buffets this month. Fuiyoo kopak duit. hehehe. I thought you can save money during fasting month. Wrong!!

As the organizer of any formal or informal events, (rolling my eyes) I went to search for the nicest break fast buffets that any place can offers.

Our first Ramadhan buffet was in Intekma Shah Alam next to UiTM campus. The buffet lines was at the swimming pool area. A guest entertainer, probably Intekma's staff is there performing the latest local songs for you. They even have song dedications. Hehe. We felt like we are still in school. *giggles*

With RM35.00++ per person, they served you variety of malay cuisines, from murtabak, fried mee, char kuay teow, bubur lambuk, nasi putih, chicken rendang, gulai masak lemak and ulam2.

We went on Tuesday, so their special dishes was 'nasi kebuli' and 'ayam asam pedas'. I have never heard of both meals. Nasi kebuli was okay, tasted like nasi minyak. So nothing new or impressive but I didn't like the 'ayam asam pedas'. Quite bland. My asam pedas was better. *grin*

They also served raya cookies for desserts besides cakes, puddings and local traditional kuih. I love their bubur lambuk, rojak buah and fried mee. If you are looking for traditional malay dishes with a reasonable price, this place is worth a try.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera at that time, so there're no photos to share.

Yesterday we were thinking of having a different menu for our break fast. So we went to this new place called Pizza vs Satay in USJ 9. I searched on the internet about it and the review was good.

They served western and local cuisines. Their specialities is off course (obviously by their restaurant's name) the pizza and satay. And I admit, the pizza is very nicely done, thin crust, hot-from-oven pizza is definitely my favorite. Their satay is okay, but not so much on the sambal kacang. A bit salty.

It is quite nice for a change in tastebuds for break fast. Tired of the normal break fast's meals.

We also tried their nasi lemak yesterday. OMG the nasi lemak was yummy and so was the sambal. But it was too damn hot for me and my fiance definitely cannot tahan the pedas. "sampai kepala" he said. hehehe.

But overall, no complaints from me nor my fiance. We love the food and the price too. With 29.90++ per person you can have variety range of western dishes such as pizza, mushroom soup, pastas, mashed potatoes and grilled chicken. Not forgotten they also served their specialities- satay, nasi lemak with the spicy sambal and chicken rendang and last but not least fried mee hoon. I love their dessert as well - bubur pulut hitam, cakes and their puddings was very nice.

Here are some of the photos.

Among the western dishes on our table




Desserts and their nasi lemak with spicy sambal.
(They used dried chillies for the sambal, no wonder it was super duper hot!) Thumbs up!

Bubur pulut hitam. Yummy, loved this one!

I fully recommend this place! Have a nice meal guys!

My next stop will be Saloma Bistro and Ikea's Ramadhan Buffet. Will update soon. Have a nice buka puasa!

The Exotic Krabi, Thailand

As usual, every year my company organized a company trip. This year, we went to Krabi, Thailand for 4 days and 3 nights. Beautiful place and friendly people! That is their tagline. Krabi is famous with their white sandy beaches, small islands and limestone. With 60% of Muslim population, we didn’t have much problem in finding ‘halal’ foods.

We arrived in Krabi at 10.30 am about 11.30 am Malaysian time. Our tummy had started growling, so the tour guide took us straight to have lunch at the local restaurant. It’s more like a ‘warung’ though. They served duck noodles and seafood fried rice. Well the duck food it’s not halal, so all the Muslim (3 of us) took the seafood fried rice.

Since the check-in time is at 3.00pm, the tour guide then took us to visit the “Tiger Cave Temple” I wasn’t sure about the rules for Muslim entering temples. My intention is just to take photos, so I guess, should be all right.

Tiger Cave

After 30 minutes at the temple, we then went to Krabi town to do early shopping. The bus brought us to “Vogue Supermarket”. I didn’t buy much except for “Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard”. You can’t resist having a cold ice cream in the hot weather. The small blizzard cost me about 190 baht (~RM1.90).

Hmmm.. I love Dairy Queen. Btw saw this beauty shop on my way to the market. Porn De Beaute? WTH??

I went to the nearest fruit market and bought sweet Thai dokong. The dokong is quite big compared to Malaysian’s and cost only 250 baht per kilo for dokong (~RM2.50). Cheap huh!

The bus then took us to few souvenir shops, which was quite pricey. We managed to window-shop only. I really cannot ‘tahan’ the weather. Damn hot! I rather sit in the bus with full blast air-conditioner on.

We reached Ao Nang Bay Resort and Spa at about 3.30pm. Settled ourselves in the room, had a cold shower and 45 minutes nap, we then went to have our dinner at a famous local restaurant. They served Thai cuisine. We make a stop at a local snack and souvenir shop on the way to the restaurant. I bought few sweet Thai snacks.

The dinner was superb. We had steam fragrant rice, tom yam goong, deep fried fish with thai sauce, green curry, mango salad (kerabu mangga), crab meat with curry sauce, stir fried veggie and local Thai delicacies for dessert. It was so fulfilling till can hardly walk. I’m not kidding!

The next morning, we went for a boat trip to 4 Islands: Raylay Beach – sightseeing and rock climbing, Chicken Island – snorkeling, Tup Island – picnic lunch and swimming and Poda Island – swimming and resting. It was fun and extremely hot. Instead of sunbathing, I showered myself with sunblock lotion. *grin*

On the boat to Raylay Beach. That 'thing' is part of a ceremony for a goddess @ Raylay Beach





Snorkeling @ Chicken Island A friend took the marching fish using her water proof camera

Ang-moh having a hard time doing the rock-climbing @ Railay Beach.

On the third day, we rented a jeep, a very tiny jeep to go sightseeing. I do not know how Thais can actually squeeze 6 people in that jeep. Our legs and back went numb just after half an hour journey! But for 900 baht and since it’s the only vehicle left to be rented, we just go on with it.

Pity our friends had to squeeze at the back of the jeep for the entire day. And the weather was hot!

With a not very friendly map and confusing signboards, we managed to get to the first stop, which is Gastropod Fossil. It is a shell cemetery beach. I’m not sure why it was called that way. We couldn’t get in to the beach; well honestly we don’t want to waste our 200 baht to pay the entrance fee. Ridiculous! They do sell a lot of shell-made souvenirs. I spent my money on the souvenirs instead. I even bought myself a chime made from shell. Kinda nice.

Scenery from the shell cemetery beach

After sightseeing and had our ice-cream at the shell beach, we continued our journey to the next province to visit Emerald Pond and Hot Spring. The journey took about an hour. We stop at the town to have lunch. After having my ‘phad thai’, we went straight to Emerald Pond. It is a crystal clear small lake in the midst of a jungle about 20-30 minutes walking distance, but it worth a sweat. The water was refreshing and cooling. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

Swimming at the Emerald pond. Crystal clear water.

Then, we went to Hot Spring about 5 minutes drive from the Emerald Pond. You can even feel the heat from miles away. We tried to jump to the hot spring, but it was too hot. We then realized that we need to dip our body slowly in the warm-hot water. After that it was heaven! A good therapy indeed!

Mineral content of the hot spring

The rest of the day ended up with shop and a good massage. We went to a place called “Palm Tree Massage” which offered 300 baht ~ RM30.00 for an hour of aromatherapy massage. It was good.

The next morning, we flew back to Malaysia. Kinda miss Krabi now.

Loss

My deepest condolences to my friend, Mieza and family for their loss. Her mother passed away on 1 Ramadhan 1428H.

Al-Fatihah

Happy Fasting

I would like to wish all my Muslim friends - Happy Fasting! May you have a wonderful and peaceful Ramadhan this year.

Jangan puasa yang yok dah lah. lol

Btw, I just got back from Krabi Thailand. Will post some photos soon.

Baby Iman Umar

I would like to congratulate my good friend Ckin for her newborn. Baby Iman Umar was born on Aug 26th, 2007. Mommy is doing fine and hopefully getting better each day.

I feel very happy for Ckin. With her wonderful hubby and new love of her life, little baby Iman, she's living a good life now. A happier life. Alhamdulillah!

Iman is like a magnet. So geram!! I feel attracted to him and very touched by him. Not in a wrong way ok! lol. I just so want a baby rite now. But can I skip the labour part? huhuhu..

Here are few of his photos.

We tried our best to wake him up. But he "tak layan". Sleepyhead Iman! lol