Dinner at Ms Saigon

Went for a dinner at E-Gate's Vietnamese restaurant - Miss Saigon. I've never actually been to any Vietnamese restaurant before nor I have tasted any Vietnamese dishes elsewhere, so this will be my first try.

Actually we didn't look at the menu outside of the restaurant, just headed straight in...

Walls deco

Wooden table and chairs

Wall lighting, a bit dim but not too dark

The deco for the place looks quite nice, although I didn't really notice anything that resembles Vietnamese. Everything looks modern, with lighting all over the ceiling, wooden chairs and tables.

Even the utensils are made of wood, nice touch

Kitchen Area and Cashier counter, nothing Vietnamese here either...

The manager seated us in a 5 person's table and handed us the menu. Initially I wanted to try out just individual set meals (as I always would) but then the manager insisted that we try out some in house recommendation. And so we did, ordered 3 different Vietnamese dishes and 1 Vietnamese drink.

Behold, the lemon grass drink... tasted a bit sweet (not too sweet) and smells quite nice, like drinking fragrance. Recommended for a taste

The rolls platter (not the actual dish name)

Erm, the platter recommended by manager. I forgot the dish's name but it has 4 vegetable rolls (I actually typed vege rows, omg... worked till short circuit.. =_=!) . Vegetable rolls tasted quite okay but I think they included a kinda 'smelly' vege which I can't quite stand the taste inside, so yucky for me but it's unique. Next, 2 more rolls that looks like spring rolls here and tasted quite okay with the crunchy wrapping which is very crunchy compared to our local spring roll's wrapping, this dish accompanied by sweet and sour sauce.

The emperor's noodle

I think that's what the menu saids, it featured crunchy noodle shaped noodle, shrimps, scallops topped in a kind of sauce (looks and tasted a bit like char hor fun's sauce)... slightly slimy... overall quite nice...

Last dish of the main courses was this... cat fish

Cat fish dish had the cat fishes chunks fried and wrapped inside 'pandan' leaves. Tasted quite nice but a bit bland for me, so I dipped them into the sweet and sour sauce. It has some vege dressing and the side and some cauliflowers accompanied by a scoop of fried rice. I must say that the fried rice doesn't taste sweet or salty at all, in fact almost no taste but it does have smell, quite nice fragrance. A bit unique, unlike the fried rice we normally have.

Apple Pie dessert with 2 mini cherries

As we're done with our main courses the manager saw we snapped a lot of photos along the way then suggested we try out their dessert which we ordred. He said "when the dessert comes, I guaranteed that your camera will starts snapping..." well manager my man, even if it was bland or good or bad, I'll snap it anyway and post it here. hahahhaa, so better make sure it looks and taste good. It was the apple pie dessert. Looks nice, tasted okay for me as I'm not a big fan of warm fruity desert.

Overall, the above meal with 2 lemon grass drinks and 1 cup of plain water costs around RM10x over. A bit expensive but expected from such fine dining restaurant. Worth a shot if you wanted to try out some Vietnamese cuisines. Check it out, It's just a few shops after Old Town cafe at E-Gate.

Have a great weekend ahead! ; )

Dillema

My phone's battery are dying... have been using this phone for the past 2.5 years. Since this is a rare brand and model, nobody seems to carry the battery around here. Well actually I've bought the phone in KL... perhaps I should look there.

Nokia - N82

Anyway, went to check out some of the phones online and also went to shops and ask around price. Actually I was hoping that my new phone will have GPS feature and or 3G connectivity. Camera if good ones also a plus... which leads me to Nokia's N82. The price tag for this is around RM1.5k for original version... still quite expensive to me, I've never bought any phone that's more than RM1.2k so far...but then again its feature loaded.... almost like a multimedia computer and its camera is among the best among its competition.

Sony Ericsson - k770i

If I were to go for a slightly cheaper medium end phone, the one that caught my eye was Sony Ericsson's k770i. The one with no joystick for their series as I always heard joysticks usually are the first piece that broke down. I think it looks good... has a 3.2mega pixel camera with LED flash and a front camera for 3G calls. It's priced around RM650 for AP set (third party warranty).

Since when does buying a phone becomes such a difficult choice? well, at least it's difficult for me, I'm wrestling the features I want vs my budget... I guess I better hold on first, wait for further price drop and get the one I wanted without paying for premium price.... hahaha, I better start carrying the charger with me everywhere I go... and charge whenever I can.

Peace~

Revisitting

Went back to my old company to help out my friend, briefed her on the system I did with another colleague. Unfortunately, I left first... then I didn't transition this particular system because the other guy was still around, the thing is... when he's about to leave.... it was within 1 short month of notice period... he was tasked to finished on hand work as much as he could and I guess this left little to no time for him to transition all his stuff... and so there I was.

Well, I dun really mind cos both of them are my friends. I'm more than happy to lend a hand or two. I did my best to recall what the system was about, setting up some programs for her and guided her through the systems as much as I could.

Then I walked around the office, went to where I sat last time... hmmm... the monitor I used was on the left, and there's added LCD monitor.. how nice :D, new desktop too...

Then I walked around other part and saw this drawing....
Hahahaha... that girl on the drawing was my colleague who used to sat beside me. She gave me that kinda expression she used to show when she successfully solved a difficult task. haha, the joy... the excitement, yeah.. most of us been through that... a lot. Brings back a lot of nice memories. I was kinda surprised that this is still around the white board panel each of us had on our cubicle wall. hahahahaha, appreciate it. Either they're too lazy to wipe it off or they really think it's cute so they decided just to leave it there. I'll take the latter and thanks for the compliment.

: )

I like nostalgic memories...sweet...bitter...sour...ahh.....life : ) Where's the last place that you went to recently that you have never been to again in the recent years? places to eat? old office? etc...

Blossom @ A2 Gallery

A2 Gallery, the mood is just right for an art gallery visit! about to rain... haha

Hmm, let's see... when exactly was the last time I've been to an art gallery. Well, I think like never? haha.. and so this is my first visit to an art gallery.

Titled: Blossom

Went with my friend last Saturday, for an alternate view at the scene you can visit her blog here. Blossom or so it was titled is actually a charity art exhibition, meaning all or partial I'm not that sure of the sale of those art pieces will be donated for Soroptimist International Penang for charity purposes.

At first glance, the map isn't drawn in er... user friendly kinda way, it was small, small wording, small roads with a lot of unwanted branches of smaller roads in between... but then with my understanding therefore I've successfully decipher the map! phew... (yeah, I'm a Penangites.. lol)

Notice the old grill decoration of the door and window

The gallery was situated inside one of the terrace old building renovated and painted in white. I do drive pass this street but barely pay attention to the surroundings.

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The rest is tour around the gallery, have a look.. I'll give some brief description of each piece I post here...

The first center piece that greeted us was this... it's kinda huge as you can see it occupied almost the entire wall

Well, er... some other paintings that I took in from side angle trying to express my artistic side~

This piece is quite special, as you can see from the blurry background.. there's actually 1 tiny butterfly at the bottom of the piece flying towards the flower. I think its titled buttery and flower

you know those oil paintings, well a closer inspection reveals that they actually use some kinda paste in different color to paint the painting. Notice the bulging here and there? pretty cool although I'm not that into abstract oil paintings.

There are a few door which can lead outside to other small area such as 1 side door which leads to Garden Room with the word imprinted on the glass door, kinda neat

On more on 1st floor which leads to a balcony - Balcony Rest, sadly the door was locked and I couldn't go outside

Last one from the side of the building which is 'Garden Terrace', can see the Siam temple structure nearby

Found this piece of art near the toilet area... this guy appeared to have 10packs! omg... is that even possible?

Ahh, the 3 piece set which I think are linked together from left to right, right? Looks Like corals

One of my favourite piece, looks Japanish

This one as well, just beside the one on top

Almost all of the art pieces are accompanied by this tiny insert which shows the artist's name, art title, size, type of painting, year it was painted and price as well.. hmmm, when would I be able to paint something worth RM6k...

There's a table on the side of the staircase which gives away some brochures and invitation card for other exhibition as well... grabbed a few of them, looks exquisite~!

Staircase leading up to 1st floor, more arts!

Hmm, it saids I miss you... a lot of them... kinda neat. The artist must have missed someone dearly while painting this

'Good Bye Astroboy' or so it was called

Last but not least, here's an interesting piece. The type of material used are a mixture of cloth, paint and i think color paper too. Can you spot them?

That's just about it, for those who are interested take note of the details:

Blossom
a Charity Art Exhibition
for Soroptimist International Penang
1st July 2008 - 18th July 2008
10am - 8pm, closed on Tuesday

Thank you and have a nice day! :)

Appreciation dinner - Hai Boey Seafood Restaurant

I've been treated to a lovely seafood dinner at Hai Boey seafood restaurant around Batu Maung there. It was quite a distance from our company but hey, I'm not the driver... just a guest. haha, no complaints there. Took us a while to figure out the place after a loss by following the sign board. But we got to the place eventually after a bit of guidance.

Normally seafood restaurants around Penang are located just beside seashore and this is not exception. Took some photos around the area while waiting for others and the meal to arrive.

There's a big tree just by the sea and they hanged some swings for your swinging pleasure

A view to the open horizon

It has been a while since I last set foot near Penang beach, a sense of freedom

Ordered my V-Soy soya bean

Hmmm, the prawn called "heh gor" in hokkien. Let's see... 1 for RM28, not something I'll eat every now and then

Some of the tanks holding the catch to be cooked instantly to maintain freshness

The er... 'lala' or should I say clam? cooked in sweet and sour sauce, nice!

Err, if not mistaken this is the cucumber stuffed with some kinda meat or something, excuse me... not a big fan, just put 1 into my mouth and forgotten bout it =_=!

Ahh, any guess what these are? probably not cos the pic's quite small. It's the "heh gor" prawns worth RM28 per piece I showed above. cut in little chunks... the expensive dish! taste okay cos not really interested in it

Next comes the fish, in curry... sorry again, I didn't really bothered with the name... just show u guys the clay pot it was in, this is the lower part of the fish as according to the staff, the fish was too big to be put into a single pot so we gotta have it splitted up to 2 pots

This is the "pai kut ong" a.k.a. pork rib cooked in sweet sauce, the meat was quite tender

ahhh, the main dish of any seafood outing! the Crabs... crabs are served into 2 plates of 1 natural flavour and 1 more in Thai sauce

Ppersonally I prefer Thai sauce cos it gets rid of the smelly flavour but then again you can't really taste the 'natural/smelliness' of the crab cooked in Thai sauce

Vegetable, plain and simple

Hor fun.... the largest plate ever served to me... of cos I gave it a pass as I didn't like eating it so can't really comment on the taste but the rest of the people did finish most of the plate somehow so I guess its probably good

Overall a great treat by YS, WH, Felicia & HP!

P/S: Felicia actually help me took the last photo and it appears a bit dark as my phone's camera has no flash and later on we did shot a nicer one which I won't post here but on my facebook later on. Thanks Felicia for the help on some other photos of the dishes too! An able assistant! kakaka... Peace!