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Archive for June, 2007

Yiing Ting’s Birthday @ Fifteen’s

by christock on Jun.18, 2007, under Food Galore

For Yiing Ting’s birthday this year, we’ve decided to do it a month before the real day ~~AGAIN~~, as you would recall it was the same for last year at Brighton. But instead of the plush stoney beach and pretty sunny seafood, we decided to do something a little more classy and sent ourselves instead to the doorsteps of Fifteen, a restaurant started by Jamie Oliver meant to help underpriviledged chefs… Does this mean I am eligible to apply to train there too?

We had the Taster Menu, which costed a whopping 60 pounds, but I thought all in all we had great food, great atmosphere and even better service from the elite waiters and waitresses there! Anyhow, once again we shall let the pictures do their thing! (Once again, click on the pictures to enlarge!)

The Menu looks impressive enough, and the choices for the meals are quite decent and full of variety!

A glance around gives a classy feeling, and rightly so as we were dressed up for the occasion =D

The Starter: Italian herb bread with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar dressing and pickled whole Olives.

James and Mel from LSE makes 2 of the 9 who attended this celebration.

Tell me if the setting doesn’t whet your appetite and I swear I’ll take you here to experience it!

Focaccia from ‘The Flour Station’
Mixed salumi flavoured with cherry, truffle, saffron and porcini

Left: Kimberly, Yiing Ting, Sonia
Right: Vinoth, Ka Shing, Boon Wy (aka Jon =P)

Pinkish cocktail menu makes the ladies very happy lol

Pre-Prima Course: – They surprised us with this, one spoon each of course… it was surprisingly yummy!
A spoonful of Scallop with
1) Ginger 2) Promogrenade juice 3) A hint of lemon 4) Olive oil 5) Coriander leaf 6) What else?

Starters:
Bruschetta of freshly picked Devonshire crab with crunchy celery, brown crab dressing and fennel tops

Verdict: The sweet meat of the crab flown from Devonshire could only be paired by the dressing, which made a sweet, tantalising combination.

Yet another starter:
Buccleuch beef tartare with radish salsa, wild rocket leaves and shaved pecorino
The Verdict: The raw beef which had a scent of sweetness coupled with strong flavours from the rocket leaves leaves nothing to imagination…

Prima Dish:
Risotto with Clams, Mussels and assorted others

Secondi Dish:
Shoulder of Welsh lamb with marinated aubergine, braised spinach and wild garlic pesto
The Verdict: An interesting experience, the lamb was perfectly cooked within the tasty skin, giving an explosive orgasmicly-induced sensation when chewed.

Of course, the birthday girl should be feature too hehe… HAPPY BIRTHDAY YT!

Dessert:
Vanilla panna cotta with honey roasted plums and shortbread. Sweeet!

The birthday girl and the lot of us were suprised when the waiter came out with this surprise, with candle somemore!
So tell me, how good is their service when we didn’t even request for this?

Dessert:
Amalfi lemon tart with lime syrup and yoghurt – Sinfully sweet (though it doesn’t look as good as Val’s cake!)

A choice of two cheeses (Goat and Burbuu), served with Medjool dates, lingue di suocera and fresh chutney
Perfect finishing for cheese lovers.. like me =P

Look at all those faces of contentment… lol… they let us stay till past 12am, so accomodating…

Suffice to say our trip to Fifteen turned out better than expected… Now, wipe those drool of your face, they look disgusting! Hahaha… well then, I guess I’m off to my last presentation in Imperial, do wish me luck, and before I go let me post this picture the last time I was at Fifteens (this was my second time)… AH CANNoT find la next time la okok can?!

And next up I promise you, Agong’s birthday & Birmingham trip #1!!!

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You know you’re addicted when…

by christock on Jun.13, 2007, under Random Muses

… you get Facebook requests as long as this…

So many application requests! It’s going crazy I tell you… but I may just join in the developing fun and create something cool =P

… you delete a bunch of anime and find yourself suddenly freeing 8 gigs worth of disk space, and when you defrag your disk you get something like this:

The whole chunk of space in the “before” analysis was where my anime was kept…
you can see what happened after it was deleted and fragmented… can’t believe I had THAT much of anime =P

… you find yourself conversing on posted photos, like this…

We’re not lame… just… plain bored =P

Birmingham Night Out

Just goes to show how interesting your life can be. lol. Up next? Agong’s birthday pictures and Birmingham stuff!!

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The Quicksand…

by christock on Jun.11, 2007, under Raving Rants

I feel the grounds beneath me quavering, with little tremors that get stronger in every passing minute…
It feels like quicksand, and the more you struggle, the more you get sucked inside that endless bottom…
That once sturdy ground where I place my hopes and efforts, supported by pillars I thought would never crack and covered with pretty flowery petals, has finally shown a few disturbing signs of endless cracking, threatening to pull down my whole road to life along with it.

And not for the first time I feel true fear. Fear for myself. Fear for my friends. Fear for my family.
In that fear I somehow lost myself, seeking for sympathy among others. Looking for encouragement where I might find them. Devouring that disgusting self-pity like a camel would in an oasis hidden between the dry and sunny Sahara.

Problems which I took for granted slowly revealed their crookedness, when I thought there isn’t any to begin with. Listing them one by one, I shudder with terror everytime I think that there isn’t anything I can do about them, with Time being my greatest enemy.

Degree: Will I finally receive my degree? Have I worked hard enough to attain it? True, I’ve worked harder than all my previous 3 years combined, but will it be enough? I’ve come all the way to the final phase of my academic life, and it is none other than my Individual Project, which is due this Friday. Unfortunately, it’s a far cry from being complete, and my mind has already lost half the battle… Will I ever see the light of day?

Career: I’ve lived on a promise. I’ve been hanging on to hope, uncertainty, refusing to think of the worst case scenario. All those backup plans I made are just excuses not to pursue what I’ve always been dreaming of: to work in the UK for at least 4 years and earn back the money I owe. Just last week, I’ve been told otherwise, that my hopes have been destroyed. Other similar attempts have been knocked out as I lack the time and the effort… What are the moves that are to be made now?

Accomodation & Storage: I thought I’ve settled pretty much on the arrangements for my stuffs, but the quaking grounds will not even let me have a single spot of peace… Options are running away, one by one, and I have no strength to grab them by the reins. Will I ever catch up to running opportunities?

Friendship & Power: Helping is my main objective. It makes me happy to see others happy. Everything else comes in a bonus. I’m fine with being alone, because without expectations in this area, you can do so much more things, uninhibited by people around you. However recently I’ve been noticing my dependencies on human interaction increasing to ends that I even wallow on their sympathy for my plights. Is that what I want? NO! Unfortunately, there is no mistaking it: I have become a person in need of people to listen to my rants. Essientially this is another problem I will need to rid off, or I’ll risk people telling me my efforts are to naught, working with UKEC and all that… Will I make it out from this dark hole?

To meet the ends of my solutions I have reviewed myself and made a few conclusions as well as decisions that I will update from time to time on this little blog of mine. At this very moment I will endeavour to do my best in some urgent situations, and also to start planning for the answers to future problems. My chinese name was not given to me for no reason: I will find my way out of this, and hopefully, I will rebuild my path again with stronger resolve and support.

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Post Exam Day 3: Rayani’s Open House

by christock on Jun.07, 2007, under Food Galore

There isn’t a day after my exams when I wasn’t filling my stomache with scrumptious and heavenly food! On the third day of Post-Exams Rayani had a cookout session, and how could I resist her infamous Ikan Bakar?! So apart from some UKEC work in the morning and afternoon, I found myself heading to her place at Edgware Road together with Khai and Zarif, thinking how would her place look like and of course, would my stomache be promised a gastronomical experience that night… let’s get the pictures to do the talking, shall we? *grin*

The three of us came an hour earlier to help out… KONON LA! hahaha.. Yani was just about to prepare…

This dish is called Pecal, an Indonesian dish. It contains Tau Fu Pok and Long Beans, topped with this special sauce made of Nuts, Lime and other assorted (hint: secret) ingredients!
Suffice to say, it was majorly yummylicious!

My favourite dish of all… Wait till you see the end result, and unless you’ve actually popped a piece of those lovethings into your mouth, you will never understand the heavenly expression I went through…

Of course, these went with the beef. Can’t you see they were beautifully cut?

The Star of the Show: What can I say? Look at the lovely, shiny skin, well chosen!

The Kitchen: what professionality, what neatness, truly, Rayani can only be the best housewife EVER ={P

I wanted to take a picture of the mirror. HoNeST!

Here’s Yani doing her thang!

Ikan Bakar is never complete without the complimentary bowl of chilli and sauce mmm…

The Stars all lined up, ready to be made into sizzling Ikan Bakars…

Tell me it doesn’t whet your appetite… heck, it’s not even cooked yet and I swear I wanted to take a huge bite off that fish!

While the Fish gets Grilled, I took a picture of her place… Can anyone dispute the loveliness of her abode, situated right at Edgware Road? I JELES!

And hence we kick off and digged in! There were about 12 around, all waiting with their salivas dripping out nonstop

That’s Yani for you, constantly making sure we were fed, and provided everything from drinks to snacks and even rented DVDs… What a HOST!

Among the few people around, all enjoying themselves and filling up their stomaches with pure goodness.. Suffice to say I stayed back till late and tar-paued quite a lot of food for my lunch and dinner the day after =P

Man, just writing this post has gotten me all hungry-ed up! Toodloos, am gonna get myself some good dinner Till my next post entry then, which will be on my trip to Birmingham… that’s FOOD and MORE POSING PICTURES with CHICKS *wink*

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Post Exam Day 2: Caryn & Kevin Day Out

by christock on Jun.07, 2007, under Food Galore

In leau with my celebrations, I will post up 2 entries today, Day 2 and Day 3 since my final exams! Suffice to say, I’d been having a lot of fun, eating a lot of food, meeting a lot of people AND spending a lot of money hehe… Let me elaborate in my pictures!