Dining With Jewelle

I actually wanted to try out a different Indian restaurant but when my chauffeur cum food connoiseur threatened to drop me off the highway if the place I chose is not up to par, I gave in and so we found ourselves at Choice, as recommended by another friend.

I felt a bit wary at first of an Indian restaurant that did not have an Indian name and when we saw that the place was practically empty, save for one table, I thought it didn’t look very promising too.

But to cut a long story short, I am glad to report that we were totally satisfied (up to the point of bursting actually).

The menu was not very extensive, and I think their variety is more kedai mamak rather than Indian fine dining. We each took the biryani rice, mine with chicken and Vee had the mutton briyani.

Because we are greedy, I asked for my favorite Indian dish, the aloo gobi (potatoes) and Vee opted for the fried bittergourd.

As for drinks, they were very generous with their ingredients. You won’t get such thick slices of lemon in any lemon tea drink anywhere else!

Their poppadum were slightly different than most. They are small in size, like keropok, and the daal that came with it was delicious.

All these cost us RM45+ which I thought was a good deal.

Half way through, a big group came and when we left, there were about 3 other tables totalling about 40 patrons but because the place was so huge, it still looked very empty. I was told that it’s usually that way too.

I’m not sure if they consulted their Vashtu Sastra on the layout of the place but I think from the feng shui point of view, perhaps the location of the toilet has something to do with it? Because I really don’t see any reason why this place shouldn’t be popular. The prices were competitive, the food was delicious, the service was quick and the place was clean.

So those of you who haven’t tried it before should really drop by. Don’t be fooled by the empty tables.

I got home in one piece so obviously she too was satisfied…

Last Sunday, I coaxed hubby to try out the Secret Recipe at Warisan Square. When I first tried this place months ago, I quite enjoy their lamb shank and wanted hubby to try it.

Luckily when we arrived, it was not as busy and we sat just besides their Wall Of Accolades where they put up all the awards that they have won, from Excellent Food Award to the Superbrand Award. Very impressive.

So in addition to their signature dish, the Lamb Stew, we also ordered their other award winning dish, the Tom Yum.

The Tom Yum has a light broth and huge prawns, which my eat anything but fussy food judge claimed were not quite fresh. It tasted delicious but was super spicy that I think hubby was thankful when I offered to exchange.

The lamb stew was as I remembered it, tender and yummy. I was told that the same dish at the Secret Recipes in Kuala Lumpur taste slightly different and I’ll re-confirm that when I next go over.

We didn’t get to try out the cakes this time as hubby is not a cake person and I’ll need the girls over for that kind of eating spree.

Even though we’re not regular wine drinkers, I think Wine Rack are one of the cool accessories to have at home. I like flipping through home decor magazines and I noticed that most of the more elegant homes will have a drinks bar and they also have the wine racks filled with bottles.

Hubby and I like the idea of entertaining friends at home and perhaps when it is possible for us to have our own living area, we have agreed to have a bar. But since my knowledge of drinks is limited to the pubs cocktail menu and hubby’s even worse, we’d only need a small wine rack and guess what, I found the perfect one, complete to the size, design and price at the Vine Store!

That’s the Bordeaux Collection - Petit Chateau which is less than $30! It sure made me wish that I know more about wine! In fact, browsing through this site, I became quite engrossed in their other products like the corkscrews, glasses, decanters among others.

For those of you wine drinkers, I also found a great set of tools called the “Wine Essential Deluxe Toolkit” which includes 5 items i.e stainless steel corkscrews, bottle stopper, wine pourer, drop ring and foilcutter. I’m not too sure what some of them do but since it’s essential and it’s less than $30 too, it’s a great deal to me.

Gone are the days when you tote a bottle in a paper bag or worse, a plastic bag with the name of the supermarket printed clearly at the front. This is a Bring Your Own Beverage (BYOB) bag for the stylist wine drinkers in Cranberry.

But the coolest item I found in this store has got to be the “That Wine Is Mine Charm” or little trinkets that you attach to the base of the stem to help you recognize your wine glass. This is the Girls Rule charms and aren’t they cute?

Of course, hubby will not miss going for a Japanese food when he was over at Singapore last week. But since he was only there for one day, he only managed to check out the Ichiban Sushi.

Here, hubby thinks he has found the origin of our Brunei’s Excapade Restaurant

From the layout of the menu to the variety of dish, he thought it was a Brunei Excapade with a Singaporean size. He declared that the salmon sashimi portion was, I quote, “pathetic” as compared to Excapade’s.

I guess that was why he didn’t take any picture of that dish!

Yesterday was the “Ko Chung” or “Kueh Chang” or simply Dumpling Day to me.

Despite having spent the last 7 years of my life with a Chinese family, I’m still pretty bad at remembering all the festivals and I was only aware that this festival is due when a family friend came to sent us some!

As usual, our family had a slightly more than usual makan although we were one short this year as my other brother in law is still enjoying his Texan steaks.

This year we received two bunches of kochung from 2 family friends. On this subject, I learnt something new about the  Chinese custom on kochung. I was told that in the event of a death, the family members are not allowed to make their own kochung for one year. This is because since each kochung requires tying, this action will, superstitiously, bound the legs of the dead up in heavan too.

I am not someone who pays much attention to ancient superstitions but I do love knowing about them! And isn’t this interestingly creepy?

I read somewhere that to make a bedroom exudes elegance, the beddings should be in soft colours, preferably embroidered and definitely not loud prints.

But even if you don’t have the means to keep changing your bedding sets (good quality duvets can set you back hundreds), you can always opt for quilt covers at stores like the Terry’s Fabrics!

Personally, this is a lifesaver for me too because it is such a hassle to keep sending the duvets to the laundrymat. By using covers, I simply change them!

There is a site called the Terry’s Fabrics which stocks a huge range of lovely and most importantly, very reasonably priced quality items such as their embroidered duvet sets which starts from only GBP18!

Just check these out :

Last weekend we decided to try out the Misato, the Japanese restaurant in Kiulap after a prominent local journalist claimed that this is the best Japanese restaurant around.

This place has actually been around for several years but for some reason or others, we never really got to try it (not that I was eager to!).

This place occupied one whole unit of shoplot, with an upstairs and downstairs sections. When we arrived at noon on Saturday, I was a little surprised that it was quite empty.

Hubby ordered these for our lunch :

Food wise, they were ok and I thought the Eel Tempura was good. Hubby thinks the Salmon Sashimi was very good and Eu seems to have no complain with her “fish roe”.

But for some reason, I didn’t quite like the ambience of this place. Perhaps the staffs, friendly and helful that they were, were a bit too coffee-shop type and doesn’t quite suit the feel that this place tries to project.

Being the car-enthusiast that he is, hubby is one of those guys who can spend hours fiddling around the car engine and he has a quite an extensive set of tools full at home. But because we live near the sea, rust is quite a problem and although his tools are okay, his tool box is not.

I think he needs to get a Stainless Steel Tool Box like those sold by the Car Guy Garage. Not only do they look sleek, they are functional and most importantly, will not rust or corrode.

All of them certainly look very heavy duty but I think hubby should go for those with wheels for mobility. Having so many drawers are not so important as he’d probably just dump everything together!

This one looks like the one that he will most likely get. The 4 Drawers Garage Roller.

I’m not familiar with prices for tool boxes, especially stainless steel ones and that garage roller cost $550! I think it is quite high to me. But I guess it they can last a lifetime, it will be a worthwhile investment.