My first Omakase (a.k.a Back to Iketeru)

Accompanying drink: Grilled Pufferfish fins in warm sake (fugu for the purist. Sorry, forgot to snap photo of the fins in the sake, but they are in there. Trust me, the drunkard)

Screw the wine, this was perfect (not to mention super heady) to warm those feeling a bit chilly from the non-existent winter in KL. The sommelier also ignited the sake to make it hot to the tongue. How does it taste compare to normal (warm & cold) sake? Well, first thing, this one burns on your tongue. And when you swallowed, it really burns the back on your tongue and the throat. Give it another minute, and wham, your face blushes and your brain heats up.


Starters: Pufferfish skin & Anglerfish liver
Garnished with some orange-dyed white carrot gratings.
I can see why Japanese prefer the Anglerfish liver (R) over French pate. The flavour can be heavy and flavourful; and can be lightened up with just a dash of lime to make it tangy, yet rich.
The Pufferfish skin (L) was very chewy, strong to bite yet deliciously flavoured in the ponzu sauce.


Sashimi: Fugu sashimi
The chef told me that the fugu meat was not prepared here because Malaysia bans the import of live fugu, so the meat arrived pre-depoisoned. (Note the transparency of the meat that you can almost see the platter it lies on).
I experimented with different quantities of the sashimi and found that I like it best with 1 or 2 slices lightly dipped in the ponzu sauce. The meat is strong in flavour but you should not dip too much into the ponzu sauce lest the flavour becomes too sour-tangy (Unless you do 3 or more slices at a go). Slightly less chewier than the skin but I am still amazed by the deepness of the flavour in the meat. Definitely my favourite dish of the night.


Sashimi (again): Sea Urchin, Toro & Prawn.
The Prawn this time tasted much better than the one I had at MIGF; The tuna belly (Toro, the two slices behind the Sea Urchin) was tender as it melts in your mouth (it should always do that, which is why I am skipping cheap sushi franchises these days); My first taste of Sea Urchin really takes the cake because the softness melts in your mouth like pistachio gelato with a aftertaste of sea saltiness. (more Sake please!)


Steamed dishes: Pufferfish roe, Grilled Yellowfin Tuna, Chinese King Crab
The roe of the Pufferfish (L) was sliced in half and served on Japanese lime; the outside sac was chewy but once the roe spill out of the sac until your tongue, it was like tasting erm....erm.... sweet, runny tofu?
The grilled tuna (M) was well marinated in its sauce before being grilled and the skin was crisp but the meat was slightly dry.
The crab was the tricky part of this dish. I had some sort of picking fork (hidden behind the bowl and sauce dish) to flake out the meat but I am a hopeless klutz at it. The attempt on the first two pieces was bitsy pieces of meat that I couldn't taste the flavour. I had better luck on the next two pieces when the meat has firmed up somewhat, but by then, the meat has lost some of its taste. (must resolve to learn how to use implement in the future)


Oily dish: Deep Fried Anglerfish
Oh why, why?! why does this thing have to taste so good.
Sprinkle a dash of the japanese lime to eliminate the excessive oil, and I tasted something sweeter than lamb, richer than beef and chewier than pork. Kiss good-bye to all those fish fillets that you deep fry for your fish and chips (and lousy McD meals). A close second favourite dish for the evening.


Main course: Pufferfish chabu-chabu & porridge.
This dish comes in two parts.
The first part was the chabu-chabu made with pufferfish bony meat, seasonal veggies and tofu. The broth made from the chabu-chabu was deeply flavoursome, but the meat was hard to get one especially the nicer bits found on the pufferfish gills and cheek.
They then took the empty pot (with broth in it) and made a porridge with rice and egg. The egg overshadowed the broth when I tasted the porridge, I don't know which flavour the chef wanted to highlight, but the competing flavours toned down the dish somewhat.
There was another option to this dish, which has 3 different variety of sushi. I opted for the chabu-chabu and porridge for a change from what I ate last time.



Dessert: Good old musk melon
Nothing much to say, except that this one tasted fresher than the one I had last time (I wonder whether this one was imported just recently, or maybe it was the season, or maybe I don't know anything)




Along the way, I spoke with the sommelier, three attending waiter (including a pleasant waitress, Tomiko from Japan, about the infamous Tokyo fish market, Sashimi being a household dish rather than a restaurant dish, Japanese produce, etc before I sent her to bring Chef Ricky Kamiishi)

Chef Ricky Kamiishi was as gracious as always, willing to listen to me prattle about and compliment his dishes. But then again, he is the chef, why should he listen to me?

PS: still not a gourmet, so sue me :P

Back to the GYM

Okay, went back to the GYM last Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (moving up to a 4-days workout from the regular 3-days one)

Just some numbers:
Classic snatch: 65 kgs
Power snatch: 60kgs
Classic C&J: 80 kgs
Power C&J: 75kgs

Snatch Pull: 100kgs
C&J Pull: 110kgs

Front Squat: 100kgs
Back Squat: 120kgs

Press: (a measly) 50kgs

Beijing 2008, Here I come (Yeah right!)

A feast around East Asia

Followed up the Japanese Gourmet on Friday with a family gathering on Saturday at my brother's favourite Korean Barbecue restaurant in Ampang (where there is a proliferation of them due to the concentration of Korean expat families there).

We arrived late because we were too busy getting lost and tracing concentric circles in the traffic grid.
By the time we arrived, the party has already started.
So, just hop right into barbecued-unmarinated meat, spare ribs, surlion, rib eye, green onions (with accompany side dishes of kim chee, kim chai, miso paste, pickled radish, pickled summer vegetable, soft tofu, soup).

So excessive of us typical chinese, there was definitely more on the table that we can handle.
So gungho of us typical chinese, we dig into the whole thing.
So specialized of us typical chinese: The granddaughters were nibbling on pickled vegetables and decorating their food; the daughters and daughter-in-law were tasting everything and nibbling at the meat while concetrating on conversation; the sons were eating everything to stretch the money's worth; the parents were mothering each other (well, mum was mothering dad more often than not).

And smacked right in the middle of the table was this 3kg mass of kim chee-drenched noodles, fried with escallops, octopus, prawns, crabs, cockle shells (We tried to conquer it, but no luck for this family of nine).
So what happened to it?
The restauranter picked out the seafood (and the family piled it all on my plate, so nice to be the sacrifical lamb - NOT) and fried the noodles, kim chee sauce with rice for us to take away.

So bloated of us typical chinese after the meal is over that I could skip breakfast and went straight for the feast of a chinese lunch in our family institution, Sek Yuen, along Jalan Pudu, just down the road from our family doctor's clinic (in case we need emergency medication for bloatedness, indigestion, excessive eating, etc. And that was assuming that you survived the 200m walk to the clinic with a bloated belly).

So 11.30 am: My elder sister and I took a detour to Mydin and we got lost thanks to her navigation (She kept on rambling that it was on the left side of the road, left side of the road, left side of THAT road on the right hand side of THE road; which...you know what I mean). So dropped her off at that shop at 12.20pm, and traced concentric circles and figure-8s in the downtown traffic grid. Picked her up and went straight to the restaurant (which she kindly dropped references to mum breastfeeding me at one of the tables post birth, how illuminating. I recall playing with my godsisters in Sek Yuen thanks to the wonders of photographic evidence, but breastfeeding in plain sight in the family restaurant in 1980 Malaysia?).

So resume to the new and improved 11 (or was it 12) course Chinese feast.

Crispy chicken skin on a bed of minced chicken meat, skin was perfectly crisp (Ricky would loved this) but mince chicken filling was chewy, bitey and less flavoursome than the skin.
Tai Shou (a.k.a pig-meat-in-crispy-soy-skin style dim sum, Ricky would so die for this)
Chinese Chicken Soup: So typically barbaric of chinese soup, you can see the chicken chunks in the soup. So typically poor of chinese soup, you can see the bones on the chicken chunks. So typically flavourful of chinese soup, you can taste the double-boiled strong broth (which also means the chicken is overcooked, hence tougher than leather). So typically pure (or wasterful) of the chinese soup drinkers, we drink the soup and pass on the chicken leaving nothing but a pile of bone and meat in the bowl.
The usual Char-Siew-Siew-Yok combo (honey glazed meat and roasted meat)
Kai Lan in oyster sauce
Hakka style Lamb spare rib (and the granddaughters said that I look barbaric just sucking on the marrow of the ribs)
Fried Vegetable in a Yam Basket (who substituted MY chinese dried chillies for that digusting capsicums and red chillies, and one of the granddaughter has her first 'bite' of red chilli)
Butter fried prawns (the messiest thing in any feast)
Wax rice (just kidding, it is actually Duck rice with chinese sausages, for those with no iron mouth and tongue, beware for this thing has duck feet and duck neck). So waxingly good that I will waxily wax lyrics about it waxiness, waxing down your throat into your gullet as it waxes your intestine.

Now that comes down to just nine dishes...What were the other three? (Bloated Horror experience blocks out the other dishes)

So Japanese on Friday,
Korean on Saturday,
Chinese on Sunday.
What an exercise in digestion.

My most expensive dinner to date (for two)

Okay, booked a table for two (Me and Rose) at Iketeru in Hilton KL, Friday evening, ordering the Festival menu (I paired mine up with wine)

Starters:
Two dishes
The smoked duck breasts tasted sweet thanks to the succulent pickles that was paired with it.
But the eye catcher was the pike in ponzu sauce decorated with mushrooms, veggie and salmon roe.
Soury smoky yet enjoyable

Soup:
Forgot to ask the chef what stock he used but the clear soup had a trace of oyster masked by plenty of japanese white radish and baby mushrooms.
The spanish Sherry that was paired with it really gave it some depth to tease out flavor of the soup.

Sashimi:
I love the richness of the tuna belly, so tender that it breaks apart in your mouth yet chewy too. (Rose says that one piece was more than enough for her)
The sea bream was thinnly sliced and lightly dab with fragrant sesame oil.
The Hokkaido prawn was interest when eaten raw with a hint of olive oil.
The Italian white wine that went with this one was a mismatch because it suited the fishes, but not the prawn.

Steammed dish:
Just learned that Wagyu is actually the name of the region that produces the meat (just like Kobe beef comes from Kobe).
This dish is probably one of the highlights for me that evening.
Again, meat so tender that it breaks apart on the slightest touch from the chopsticks, yet to juicy and tender and full of saucy flavours. (Rose says it's too sweet for her but I do like my meat sweet)
The French red wine also went well with the meat (just wish that the waiter could actually serve the wine beforehand and introduce me to it instead of me asking them to 'erm-herm')

Hor d'oeuvre
A selection of Japanese autumn delicacies wrapped and steammed in a Hoba-leaf, the aroma was still lingering in the air throughout the dish (and even after it)
Top marks for the grilled tuna cheek generously lathered with a robust white miso paste (Rose detected brandy in it, so prayers won't be heard for 44 days). And the selection of prawn tempura, gingko nuts and fried sweet potato chip was excellent. But the piece that took the icing on the cake has to be the brandied chestnut, nestled in it roasted shell (which was edible too!)

Sushi:
I was curious to find out what the Toro in Toro Sushi means, and chef Ricky Kamiishi explained it to be Tuna belly (again).
Yet all three sushi tasted different from the Sashimi earlier, so chef Kamiishi highlighted the different preparations of each individual meat, including marinating the first, grilling the second and salting the third. The garnishing of Wasabi (first), ponzu (second) and roasted garlic (third) really compliment each of the sushi.
The change from an australian white wine to a italian sauvignon failed to excite me at first until I sipped the chilled wine. Now that was truly refreshing.

Dessert:
Was alternating bites of the lime sorbet, musk melon and japanese sweet pastry (Rose wants it softer and bigger portion eventhough she failed to finish the tuna sashimi earlier) but I beg to differ.

Grilling the chef:
Chef Ricky Kamiishi was wonderful enough to brave our interrogation of his dishes, Rose has a lot to say to him and we truly enjoyed his company. He even pointed out that he is bringing in the deadly Pufferfish (which is a winter dish) soon. I will definitely have to come back for it soon.

Souvenir:
Shamelessly asked for a copy of the Festival menu, now in the hands of Rose.

Last words:
I am not a gourmet, so sue me :P

Bond is good, Girls are hot, Gadget-free-Action-lite movie was good, but Plotline was predictable

Spoilers to follow, throughout the whole thing.

No criticism of Daniel Craig here, but I would really wish the producers would stop offing the BONDS girls so quickly. Three leading ladies gone (except for the d.a.m.e) and I am left wondering about the future plotline.

Back to the story first, Vesper as a possible (supposedly the) mole was pretty predictable and I caught the idea the moment she started punching in the secret password to the account number (Bond used her name, but anyone who was scrutinising the keypad when he was punching it in would have known), but I didn't have the exact reasoning (as some would have deduced the same time as Bond had, before he got captured; So nice of him to fill in the blank spot. Hint: I make a bad criminal detective, absolutely no deductive reasoning, just pure leaps of brilliance/enlightenment/realization).

Since someone leaked the secret to Le Chiffre, it was either Vesper or Mathis (then again, it could have been both, courtesy of Bond again). Despite Mathis being off screen most of the time, Vesper's on-screen tells were not very subtle either, so must have probably been the director dropping hints left, right, up, down, centre, here, there, anywhere, everywhere? (Note to d.i.r.e.c.t.o.r and producers: I hope you are planning to bring back something S.P.E.C.T.R.E-ish)

Let's see, how many hints did they drop about SPECTRE anyway.

• Mr White mentioned it at the terrorist camp.
• M mentioned it in her apartment.
• M hinted at it in her briefing of Bond in the Bahamas.
• Le Chiffre pleading for his life from Mr White. (note to self: please find the definition of Le Chiffre to see if it corresponds to any known colour. Same goes for Gattler? SPECTRE was numerically order, maybe the new one may be colour-coded?)
• Oh, and the climatic battle-destruction-carnage scene at the end when Le Chiffre has already died (by the way, whatever happened to the poor fellow pinned by the elevator when Bond went to rescue Vesper, there was absolutely no sign of him. But then again, I am myopic, so it may be my eyes. It must be my eyes)
• Mr White, walking off with the case of money (pretty easy for him to make a switch with Vesper before she met Gattler; or perhaps Gattler when they ran into the building. In case you thought he went through the rubble but no, he was not wet.)
• M in her debriefing of Bond (dropping hints of kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, murder, etc. Where have I heard this ranting before?)
• Bond not killing Mr White (why shoot him in the leg unless you want to interrogate him about the organization. But then again, maybe Daniel Craig may be the one to give Bond a sadistic streak. Hint: He enjoys pain and Bond-age somewhat)

So, anyone willing to offer odds on the revival of SPECTRE?

If they are, I do hope that they bring back better superiors (all of the original ones were too cheesy. Well, some of them were nice, just that they diedly cheesily).

And Jeffrey Wright is the #-what incarnation of Felix Leiter? (or is that an interchangeable alias for all CIA field agents and superiors?) So beware of anyone introducing himself as Felix Leiter.

If there is anything I like about this Bond movie, it was the inclusion of free running (a.k.a parkour). Thank you Sebastien Roche for one of the nicer (no-car) chase scene in any Bond movie.

And if you are wondering why I called this Bond movie Gadget-free, it was because the car had no machine guns-missile launchers-invisibility cloak-remote control driver-interchangeable license plate-whatchamacallitjig that most Bond movies had AND Bond's watch does nothing, absolutely nothing.
Same goes for the bug, I just don't get the timeline from the time Bond preps the thing until he tracks it down in Le Chiffre's room. Most directors will show Le Chiffre pockting his inhaler for crying out LOUD!
But if you want to talk about the defibrilitator, the antidote for digitalis, Bond tracking our hand phone SIM cards via Sony VIAO laptops (wonderful product placement, never missed it for a single second).
Now if they will only invent a handphone with a built-in EMP generator to fry my SIM card before I expired, I bet that a lot of terrorists will just die to acquire one of those, not to mention including the protocol in all future terrorist manual: REMEMBER - Always FRY your SIM card before you D(eliberately/) I(nadvertently) E(xpire)) etc.
If you still want to quibble, then fine; I will go as far as to call it Gadget-Lite.

Last words: I love the look on Daniel Craig face after the bomber realized he turned himself into a suicide bomber.

PS: IF you people were really kepoy about who I watched the movie with, it was with the staff at the hotel that I am working at. Yes I got the seat ALMOST (I emphasize ALMOST) under the screen but then again it was the PREMIERE theatre so I enjoyed it with a modest serving of caramel popcorn (badly covered, not enough caramel) and a smoothie (poorly made, the flavored water and fruity mush separated after leaving it lying around for thirty minutes).

Last, Last words:
Good Trailers: Eragon (too choppy though)
Bad Trailers: Deja Vu (lousy concept of the trailer, even lousier movie concept)
Ink Attack "Mo Gong" (not enough meat in the trailer)
Cicak Man (I no longer have any idea why people adore Saiful Apek)
Good Ads: Heineken (Unchanged since 1873, love the six-pack
Bad Ads: just about everything else!

Bad Things comes in pairs

Never would I have expected that my family (read Dad) emergency would be coupled with my own personal emergency.

So was at home, up late at night (Okay, I lied, it was 2.30am in the morning on Saturday) tending to Dad (while watching anime, which has been hopelessly dubbed into English without any of the usual Japanese emotional dialogue; at least no more squeals).

Rubs eyes,
washes eyes,
pain in left eye,
wash eyes again,
dry out eyes and look into mirror,
Is that a gray transparent patch in the outer corner of my left eye?
What is this sticky line doing on my eyeball?
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, wake up mother.
briefed her,
attempt to remove sticky line, (she fails, I succeed)
went to nearby government hospital for free consultation (Thank God, I lived in Selayang)
(And Thank God I didn't go to Penang, where I got struck down with a viral infection earlier this year)
Waited 3 hours and 23 minutes before I see the doctor.
Eye infection, okay.
Nothing serious, good,
just contagious, even better.
Get medicine (still have to come back on Monday to pick up the eyedrop)
Go home, put in medicine.
Sleep.

All in the course of one morning.

PS: Thank you doctor for the MC, it was total invaluable when my boss harangued me in the afternoon. After hearing the medical diagnosis, was put on MC indefinitely for the next few days.
(Thus explains this new post because I only post from work and I just came over to try to give my boss the infection)

Emergency! Emergency!

Okay,
Trip to Penang, check!
Car, check!
Luggage, check!
Scrabble gear, check!
Winning mentality (despite knowing that Aaron will be there), check!
Family emergency, check!
There goes my plan to make Premier division, check!

Life really throws you a screwball to mess up not only your best plan (more likely, your only plan).
It also has to strike it where it hurts the most.
Oh well, at least my Dad is more important to me than Scrabble.
(and he is half a century older than me)

And God, if you are listening. I want my Free Pass to Heaven right now.

The Laws of Traffic

Just some feeble-minded attempt at updating my blog.

Fact:
Was travelling to work today.
Just 2km outside my home before the Great Selayang Wet Market, I am overtaken by a Green Proton Saga aeroback(?) model driven by an elderly Sikh with the usual Sikh decorations (ie Khalsa symbols) on his car. Traffic conditions was a mere crawl.

Immediately diverted to usual backroad behind the market and headed straight for lunch at my favorite curry restaurant about 200m away from the jam. Rejoined the crawl (with a full belly,) 12 minutes later and 500m down the road. Noticed said Sikh driver and his car immediately on my right hand side, crawling in the fast lane.

Mr Singh overtakes me again somewhere in the crawl and I lose him. 5km later when I hit the freeway, I find him driving 4 cars ahead of me again being held up by some other car in front of him.

Hypotheses to be discussed:
1. Selayang Traffic Jams are so bad that you can actually have lunch at a wayside restaurant in exactly the same time it takes you to crawl 500 meters.

2. The Fast lane only allows you to go faster than most other cars for less than 10kms until you crash into some slowcoach driving in the fast lane at half the speed limit.

Discuss in the comments boxes please :P

Who moved my thumbdrive?

Searched my pockets this morning - no thumbdrive.
Went through my backpack - no thumbdrive.
Riffled though my drawers, clothes on the floor - no thumbdrive, nope!
One room upheavel later - still no thumbdrive.
One house rampage - no thumbdrive yet.
Vacuum the car (I really did it) - no thumbdrive yet.
Went through the dustbin - no thumbdrive at all.

Let's face it, this tiny little miracle of technology somehow has managed to turn my life upside-down when it decides to play hide and seek. It does contain a lot of important business documents (among other things like music, personal CV, blackmail material; all crammed into just 256 MB of disk space. I really want to upgrade to a 1GB thumbdrive to make space for more incriminating documents to blackmail other)

And I found that it was still sitting at the same terminal since last night......

At least no one has bothered to access my files. (or a secret stash of XXX, which is also password protected anyway)
Sometimes, I wish I wasn't so absent minded these days.

10 reason why I am a lousy Scrabble player

I can't think of one.
Why don't you readers post as many reasons as you can think off (in the comment section) and I will choose the 10 best ones.

The actual reasons:
1. Can't win a game to save my life.
2. Can't see common everyday words.
3. Can't draw decent tiles
4. Don't have enough time to study
5. Can't even beat a computer at this game (Record against Quackle thus far: Quackle 378, Me 0)
6. I get distracted easily.
7. I talk too much.
8. I always overtime.
9. I play phonies (all the time).
10. I failed every spelling test since 6 years old.