If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.

I'm convinced that I've ruined Boy.

Before he met me, he ate food sparingly. Survived on junk food a lot. Was a fairly thin bloke (underweight for his height, if I recall correctly). Very picky and not too adventurous with his food, doesn't do spicy food or vegetables and the only pizza he liked was margarita pizza (cheese, tomatoes, herbs). And after getting together with me, being the Malaysian that I am, food is practically a hobby and eating is a form of socialising. I ate a lot and made him eat with me.

So here we are, two and a half years later, tending to eat too much for our own good and we actually do have at least two meals a day. He is actually in the healthy weight range now. Boy cooks various dishes, and some of them are spicy. He likes rendang and peri-peri chicken and black pepper beef and can tolerate curry. He no longer complains when I accidentally overpepper the dishes I cook. He loves eating out and does a pretty good job finishing the large portions that comes with eating out. His favourite pizza has changed from margarita to meat feast with extra spicy beef. He survived 10 days of eating various stuff in Malaysia, most, if not all, are completely foreign to him. In fact, now he has surpassed me in the adventurous bit - he likes trying out new places to eat more often than I do.

Today, we played Texas Hold'em poker against each other to decide what/where to eat. We ended up at Brewers Fayre, a chain of restaurant pubs in England. Took quite a bit of hunting before we found the place though!

This is what we had:

Minted Lamb Loin with Mashed Potatoes and Fresh Vegetables

Smothered Chicken with Garlic Ciabatta, Chips and Coleslaw

Garlic Ciabatta, Onion Rings and Garlic Mushrooms

Ultimate Sharing Dessert: Chocolate fudge cake with crunchy chocolate and honeycomb pieces, topped with profiteroles, five scoops of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce and topped generously with whipped cream.

I loved my main, the lamb. It was cooked to a medium rare, which was so melt-in-your-mouth tender and delectable, and the gravy complemented it nicely. The dessert nearly killed us. But it was so good. When we got to the profiteroles, I thought those were good. The chocolate fudge cake was even better, so I couldn't stop.

It's 6 hours later, and I still feel full and a little bit sick. :x

Oh, and since this is a food-related post (like most of my posts are nowadays), here's a random photo of a sausage, mash and onion gravy dish I made a while ago:

Sausage and Mash

If you've never tried it before, pork and bramley apple sausages are to die for. :) I've also experimented recently with baked chicken breast stuffed with sage and onion stuffing wrapped in bacon, which was pretty tasty but I have no photo of it, so I may make it again and try to remember to take a photo of it!

Trying out tuna steaks

After being inspired by Huong's foodblog with tuna steaks, I thought I might try them as I have never eaten tuna steaks before. In fact, the only tuna I've ever had is either from a can or part of a pack of nasi dagang. I suggested this to Boy as I know tuna is one of the few fishes he actually like (he doesn't like salmon) and we really need to have more than just beef and chicken on our diet.

So we went shopping today and bought some tuna steaks (half the size of the ones in Huong's entry!) and I marinated it in a combination of soy sauce, olive oil, orange juice, lemon juice, garlic and oregano for around 4 hours. Pan-seared it at the highest temperature my electric cooker will do for 1.5 minutes each side. The result is succulent, tender and juicy. Mmm!

Pan-seared tuna steak with sauteed vegetables and garlic bread.

It was so good. Because the steaks were quite thin to begin with, 1.5 minutes each side was overcooking it by a tiny bit, but it didn't turn out hard and tough like I thought it might! I would do this more often if it weren't for the price of tuna steaks - it was £4+ for two of those!

My first trip to Skegness

Last Thursday was my day off. It had been raining the rest of the week, but on my day off, the sun decided to shine. Which was awfully nice of the sun, but we didn't have any plans to go out that day, which kinda wasted it.

So we decided to do an impromptu day trip to Skegness, which is a well-known beachside resort in England. I've first heard of Skegness to be anything other than an ordinary town from MJ when she drove me back from her home to Lincoln last Christmas. We went past a sign pointing towards Skegness on the way and she went, "Oh, Skegness!"

And I was like, "What about Skegness?"

"Don't you know about Skeggy? It's like a tourist destination!"

Uhhh... ok. Nope, never heard of it.

So as not to waste the rare occurence of sunshine, Boy brought me there to have a look. It was around a 40-minute drive there, very warm with no air-conditioning but with his window down (and the window on my side was broken). When we got there, we had the biggest 75p ice cream known to mankind and took a walk on the beach, heading towards the pier where they had arcades and seats and viewing points.

The pier.

The beach.

Windswept.

The place was packed with people in holiday gear and bikinis holding beach balls and totes, probably because it's summer and it was a sunny day, albeit windy and slightly chilly. When we had enough of standing in the wind getting chilled to the bone, we wandered towards the fairground (called Pleasure Beach!) and I suggested we ride on the RockinRoller, which was a rollercoaster that has individual carriages that swing around whilst rollercoastering. A bit like a mix between a fairly tame rollercoaster with a waltzer. I had to coax Boy into it because I don't think he was too keen with rides, and I wasn't going to leave without at least going on one. It was either that or The Flume, which would most probably end up soaking both of us to the skin.

It costed us a fiver for the both of us to get on it, and it was pretty fun without getting too dizzy. The turns tend to take me unexpected, so by the end of the ride (which was far too short!) my ribs were hurting a bit from where I was rammed from place to place. :P Still pretty fun though!

Drive home was a bit crap since it started raining soon after we set off which meant we couldn't have the window open and it got really warm and humid in the car without air-conditioning. :( But oh well, good day out, can't expect much more from the British weather unfortunately!

LJ's birthday night out and a lazy Sunday with no hangover.

Ew. I've been lazy again. Have not posted in ages, and still haven't gotten Pt.3 of Malaysia trip post up.

Went to LJ's birthday outing yesterday. Met up at Varsity first at 8pm (turned out to be 8.30pm because everyone was running late), and then after a couple of hours and with a creepy old man staring at us we left and went to Trebles for Singles (3 shots of alcohol for the price of 1). After a drink and getting awfully warm since it was packed, we went to stand outside for a while whilst finishing our drinks and then went on to Walkabout, which was okay, but music was so-so. But because LJ had tickets to enter JJ/Ritzys/Pulse nightclub for £2/person before 11.30pm, we went into JJ and danced a lot to old, almost retro songs. JJ plays things like Wannabe, Danger Zone and Greased Lightning!

The girls: LJ, LF, B and I.

JJ was absolutely packed though and we were getting really hot and sweaty and the queue at the bar was... well, there wasn't a queue so much as a lot of people squeezed together, so we went upstairs to Ritzys, which plays dance music and was just a tiny bit less packed. Which was awesomer music IMHO, but LJ and gang prefers JJ-type music, so after sitting for a while for a breather we went downstairs again.

Boy spent most of the night talking to IC (LJ's fiance), doing their manly talk about cars, women, darts, poker, fights... etc. LJ was giggling at one point and said, "Looks like they're bonding."

We've been invited to LF's Halloween party, and Boy has been invited to IC's birthday do in a couple of months. Roffle. I also found it exceedingly amusing that Boy went from complaining that he has no friends or social life now to going out three times in two days and making six new (male, car-interested) friends.

We found out how expensive alcohol is though on a night out in Lincoln. IC told me that two small bottles of VK alcopops and a pint of beer came up to be £11 at Ritzys! It's a good thing I didn't get a drink there bar the one free drink that I had with the voucher. Despite that, I had a lot of fun, didn't get too drunk (had around 3 or 4 drinks in the five hours I was out?), and it has been ages since I went out dancing. :) I suck at dancing, but hey, when you're not paid to do it, it's about the enjoyment, isn't it?

My feet hurt like hell when I got back at 1am though. I'm so not used to wearing heels.

Speaking of enjoyment, woke up at 10ish today (a bit early for my taste on a Sunday), had a cheap breakfast/lunch of homemade fried rice and lazed around a lot on the internet and napping occasionally. My fried rice always seem to turn out a bit soggy... I think it's because I keep using freshly made rice instead of overnight rice, so it still retained a lot of moisture.

Fried rice with mixed vegetables, ham and eggs.

Boy went to meet up with some friends to talk about cars and stuff, and I just continued lazing around until he got back and we went out for dinner at the Homestead pub (where he met up with some guys yesterday for the first time, and he said the food was good). I had the 10oz rib-eye steak and eggs.

10oz rib-eye steak with eggs, onion rings, chips and beans.

Bloody hell, was it good. It was so tender it practically melted in my mouth. Rib-eye is officially my favourite cut of steak now. :P It was massive though! My stomach really hurt afterwards, but it tasted so nice! :(

Looking back at the photos, I'm hungry now. :( It was an early dinner at 5ish, and it's almost 1am now. Ugh.

The Long-Delayed Entry on Malaysia Trip Summer 2009 - Pt. 2

Thursday morning, woke up to a nasi lemak breakfast - very Malaysian. :P

Nasi Lemak

After breakfast, we went to shop for some footwear for me that will allow me into the casino at Genting Highlands because all I brought with me to Malaysia was a pair of flat brown boots and a pair of beach flip-flops. Shopping for footwear for me in Malaysia is practically mission impossible because I have fairly large feet by Malaysian female standards (UK6, but size 9 in Malaysia!), but at the same time, we needed something fairly flat and comfortable to walk in because we would be walking a lot for most of the day. And Kemaman isn't famed for choices...

In that shopping trip, I also learnt that Brother #2 has shocking taste in female footwear. :s He doesn't get it why I don't like his choices. Most of what he picked were granny shoes! He said they looked comfy. But as far as I can see, they didn't only look comfy, they also look like something only someone who gave up on bothering to look good would wear!

Anyway, after going through two to three dozen shoes that either didn't look good, didn't have it in my size, etc, we finally ended up with this pair:

All very PVC, I know...

In the same store, I was perving at the bags that they have (thank god bags don't come in sizes to fit you!), and I gave in to temptation to get myself another bag, this time in "apricot" colour:

Pretty double-zipped bag.

We headed off to Genting Highlands on Thursday afternoon, getting there early evening.

Where we stayed, courtesy of Genting Points.

The plan was to check in, rest up, walk around and then maybe head off to the casino later on. We got there, lazed around in the rooms until Brother #2 whinged at us until we got off our asses and went out walking about because "we didn't go all the way there just to spend all our time in the hotel room".

We walked around the Indoor Theme Park and came across a lot of places selling random stuff. Brother #2 and his wife saw this "smoking fish" that was quite cute. It's a wooden fish, the details and scales very intricately carved, with scented smoke swirling out of its open mouth. Lifting the fish from the base it was resting on reveals an aromatherapy cone thingy smoking gently. The guy wanted RM150 for it, but after a lot of haggling Brother #2 got it down to RM90. He ended up getting two, a big one and a little one, the former being a present for Dad. Quite a pretty piece, so I think he got a good deal.

Whilst they were busy bargaining, I went to the stall next door to look at their earrings. Got myself a pretty pair of earrings for RM10, which was a bit steep but it was very pretty. :P

By this time, Boy and Brother #3 were very bored and very tired, so I hurried Brother #2 and his wife along so we could go get some food. The original plan was to go to Be A Star (where you buy the food package and you get 2 hours of karaoke thrown in for you), but they were fully booked for the night so we ended up at KFC. I know, not very imaginative. Hehe.

Boy, Brother #3 and I went up to our rooms again to rest up until the parents arrive, whilst Brother #2 and his wife continued with their shopping. Just hung around and snacked a lot in the room and used the interwebs.

The last two morsels of the best chocolate chip cookies in the world!

When the parents did get here, we readied ourselves to head to the casino. I have never betted at the casino (even though I have been in there... I found it insanely confusing to walk around in because everything looks the same and you can possibly be trapped in there forever as you'll never find your way out!), but Boy was all excited to go and play. Poker was bigger stakes than we can afford, which I think he was very disapointed with, but after some tips from Mum, he did end up winning some money on roulette. Which he lost again after another half an hour. Roffle.

I think he wants to go again next time we're there. :P

Next morning, we woke up and decided to have breakfast. Unfortunately the buffet that we usually go to was bloody expensive even with the discount coupon we had, and the BBQ place was located in the casino which we were sorely underdressed for. We ended up having breakfast at the food court. Which is actually a better choice because the buffet is pretty poor food choices for such a hefty price tag - it's usually cold ham and bread and stuff like that.

Sizzling Plate Noodles

I had Sizzling Plate Noodles, which is yummy as usual. The metal oval plate is heated up to red hot temperature, dry noodles put on top of it and then hot chicken pieces with gravy is poured all over the noodles. The idea is that the food continues cooking and kept hot on the sizzling plate whilst you eat.

Chicken Chop with Chips

Boy had chicken chop with chips on a sizzling plate (we were aghast that it wasn't served on a Hot Rock as the store's name implied). He also had a taster of peppermint boba tea (or pearl milk tea), and he really liked it. It's such an Asian phenomenon five years ago (or more?) that everyone has heard of it, but to be honest, I don't think I've ever seen it sold anywhere in England!

We wandered around the place after checking out, planning on doing a bit of souvenier hunting for Boy's family, but when we passed by the Indoor Theme Park, we were distracted by a mass of arcade machines, especially the racing ones. So what did we end up doing?

Boy doing a drift on Outrun 2 (I think).

Yep.

Brother #2, his wife and Brother #3 caught up with us (somehow) and we all went to the SkyVenture Indoor Skydiving Experience place to book ourselves a place. Boy and I got booked for the 4pm session for RM38 per person (I think), but since we had a couple of hours to kill, we went to have lunch at the place we tried having dinner yesterday - Be A Star.

Got ourselves the lunch deal fairly cheaply and had the room for the five of us for two hours, which was pretty good deal.

Inside one of the karaoke rooms at Be A Star.

I think after his first experience with karaoke-ing (of recent times, that is), Boy is slightly less scared of karaoke now because he finally got the whole point of a friendly non-competitive karaoke session is to have fun, even if we're not very good singers. Lots of warbling, laughing, growling, coughing ensued from all of us. And trying to eat whilst doing all of that was pretty difficult!

Boy and I had to leave ten minutes before the session was over to make it to our prebooked session at the SkyVenture place, so we legged it all the way there to make sure we get there on time. We had to suit up and go through a few minutes worth of briefing on what we should do, how we should position ourselves, and what sort of sign language he'll be using since inside the air tunnel we won't be able to hear anything and all instructions will be done through signalling.

Whilst in the air tunnel, all I could think about was, Please don't let me smash into the grill, please no...

Yeah. But apparently I spun around in the tunnel so fast it was like watching a pinball and the instructor was having a hard time trying to keep me still, but it didn't feel all that fast to me. Roffle. Wasn't too bad anyway just for the experience!

After all that, we got a call from Mum telling us to meet her and we were going to head down to flatlands again and meet up with Dad (who went to KL for business) at the foot of the highlands. After meeting her, we drove down (it was very misty!) and got to the foot of the mountains. Had food there (again), and Boy learnt how to use chopsticks! Hehe. Initially when the waiter came to get our order, before he left he pointed at Boy and asked in Cantonese to the rest of us if he is okay to use chopsticks or should he get him a fork. Mum said get a fork anyway just in case, but from the way he was eating with the chopsticks with only a slight struggling, the fork was left untouched. Roffle. Good effort though, took me years to learn how to use the chopsticks properly (Mum never thought it was necessary to teach her kids how to use chopsticks properly because according to her it is supposed to come naturally, so Brother #3 and I in particular grew up holding chopsticks wrong!).

Dad got there eventually and we headed off back home.

On Saturday, it was family portrait day because my brothers have said that we all haven't had a complete family portrait since forever (the last known photograph was Grandma's birthday, I think, and the last studio portrait was when I was 10? A bit younger?) so we need one in the rare occasions we actually manage to get together as a family.

The photos have been produced, but the soft copy apparently is somewhere in Brother #3's hard drive but he cannot send it to me because his laptop is broken, so there you go. No piccies, but this time it is not my fault.