One month!

 A month of not blogging goes to show I was too busy to open blogger and start writing. Its a shame really because I still take pictures of everything I do. But, its just pictures kept in my phone. As time goes by, even I forget where or when that picture was taken.

Whats new?

- My hair is now at a managable length.

- I have lost weight but still have more to lose.

- I realise I have become 1 cm shorter!! aka growing old with bad posture :(

- I bake every weekend

- I am busier till I do not have time to even read the newspaper

Whats not new?

- I still love food

- I crave for Japanese food everytime

- My blog ratings are decreasing due to my hiatus and I don't think I care anymore

Introducing my new favourite sushi restaurant- Ichizen. It is located in Pavillion and they currently have 20% discount for any sushi till 30th November 2013.

I loved the food. I liked their service. They come round almost every minute to check if you need to refill your tea. For a new restaurant, it was really packed and there was a queue outside. They do have a good choice of lunch sets which comes at a reasonable price. But, for this month, I am definitely all out for their sushi.

To die for at Ichizen - Salmon mentai sushi and Unagi sushi

Of course, I still enjoy Sushi zanmai. Afterall, Zanmai will always be cheaper. But for more variety, Ichizen is the next best place.

Recalling delicious food from Zanmai:

Besides Japanese food, the craze for burgers has not stopped. This new place called Fuel Shack sells fantastic lamb burger for RM14. There is one at suria KLCC food court and another at the convention centre.

For a meal that is affordable, head over to Restoran Deen at Taman Melawati for some fantastic naan and tandoori.

On another note, The Petronas twin towers turned pink for breast cancer awareness month in October. I loved it that way :)

PIHCS 2013 was a wonderful learning experience.

Brothers Cider

Another pink coloured cider which taste awesome. It is a pear cider mixed with berries. It felt like I was drinking a fruit juice. Drink cider if you dont like the bitterness of beer. 

No, I did not finish the whole bottle alone.

On another note, its annoying to see people draw their own conclusions on someone else, especially when its fabricated. Just shows your own stupidity.

Day trip: Trier and Luxembourg

It was the first day in Luxembourg where I could be jacketless because the temperatures outside pretty decent.

It was my second trip to Trier so this time round it was not about touring the place but to pick up my friends. It was burning hot with the clear skies and sun shining that one of my friend already had 9 scoops of gelato ice cream by 3pm.

Trier is filled with shops and nice architectures. Most shops were closed on Sunday though.

Trier's cathedral was massive and beautiful inside. It was also free entry making it a more worthwhile visit than other cathedrals in UK i have been to which charges a fee for entry and photography.

The next stop was Luxembourg City. Again, I have gone through the tunnels and toured the city previously when I was in Luxembourg in Easter 2012. This trip was mainly to show my friends around with the short amount of time they had.

One new thing I learnt during this trip was that some buildings in the city had the year of when the building was built made of metal hung on the walls of their building.

The day ended with barbeque at my aunt's place and a walk around the neigbourhood. 

Met some slugs on the pathway while walking. My friends and I were walking with our eyes on the path as to not step on any of those slugs.

Afternoon tea @ Ocho on the canal, Glasgow

I went to Ocho on the Canal again today. This time instead of fish and chips, we had afternoon tea. The difference between afternoon tea and tea break is that afternoon tea means 12pm, the other is at 2.30pm. Basically, we had lunch at Ocho :)

Fish and Chips was fantastic the last time Ann and I tried it. This time round it was tea with five Thai girls and two Malaysians. Lovely time spent with new friends and one hour with a table of six ladies chatting is never enough.

The food served was ok. We had the voucher from Living Social so it was cheap. Otherwise, I would say its always not worth paying for tea as its just scones, cakes and sandwiches. Everything could be made at home. I'd recommend the scones at Ocho but the sandwiches were tooo tiny and the filling for each sandwich was pathetic.

Other than that, the company was great and the service was good as last time.

Elia Greek Restaurant, Glasgow

Elia is located at George Square. It is a Greek restaurant with pretty good reviews. The staff were so friendly! You know I have been getting some good service in the least expected places in UK.

I loved how attentive the staff were at Elia and the timing from getting us seated to the food till getting the bill was perfect.

For starters, we were served slices of bread with olives and oil. I have a Greek friend who told me that it is customary for Jews to have bread, olives with oil amd a cup of red wine as breakfast on Saturday mornings. At first, the thought of dipping bread with oil did not sound appealing to me. But then again, I do eat french toast and roti canai for breakfast which are definitely more oily than what the Jews had ;)

Besides bread, we also ordered Grilled halloumi cheese and Dolmathes.

Grilled halloumi cheese: I was introduced to this delightful appetiser by my cousin from Luxembourg. Halloumi cheese is a slightly springy white cheese traditionally made of sheep's milk. I first tasted it in Nando's Glasgow. I loved it so much that when I was in Nando's London and Nando's York, I just had to order it. Unfortunately, Nandos in Glasgow halloumi cheese tasted the best among the other places.
Then, at Elia, it was definitely my first pick from the menu as halloumi is Greek :) The halloumi cheese tasted freaking delicious in Elia that I want more. Furthermore, it came with three huge slices on top of tomatoes. It was good as meal too.

Dolmathes: Rice, herbs and minced beef wrapped in the leaves of grapevine.
I think dolmathes was an acquired taste. Eating grapevine leaves was.... like eating leaves lol. It was definitely filling as an appetiser due to the rice.

For the main course, I had the Lamb souvlaki while my friend had Kleftiko.

Lamb souvlaki: Grilled lamb pieces with rice and vegetable. After looking at Kleftiko, my dish looked too simple! Nope, I would recommend Kleftiko as its worth the same price.

Kleftiko: Slow cooked lamb on the bone with tomato sauce and served with oven potatoes or chips or rice and salad. Sounds awesome just reading the description. Tripadvisor also recommends this dish. The portion for this was so big that my friend could only finish half the lamb and he had to takeway the rest. But it was really good.

We could not stomach any dessert. But we were really happy and satisfied :)

I would go back to order the halloumi cheese and Kleftiko. I think that will be enough to share between two people.

Scottish chicken pie

Someone made an amazing chicken pie and I am going to learn from him. Can't wait!

St. Patrick's Day 2013 in Dublin

I had such an amazing time in Ireland thanks to the company. I was there for St. Patrick's Day and the 'green' vibe was felt even days before. Historical buildings were litted up with green lightings at night and people were dresses up in green accessories in conjunction with St. Patricks. The parade was a colourful occasion with dancing and bands playing along. The crowd was massive eventhough it was raining and very cold. Our feets were frozen after the parade and it was actually hard work to walk to Yamamori for lunch with frozen feet lol
The parade began at 12pm and lasted for two hours.

A decade

Over a decade of friendship.
We travelled from different parts of the world to one city - Dublin.
We hardly met. We rarely spoke.
But once in Dublin nostalgia hits like a bullet. It was meaningful and worth the journey.

Till we meet again :)