Music - Bossa Nova

Well, I'm gonna explain a little, our life is not just about food you know. Bread, Butter & Spices means...well...live a quality life and most importantly - ENJOY it. One of my friends once said, "Hey life's too short for you to work your ass off. Not worth it!" I partly agree with it. Don't get it wrong, it doesn't mean you do not need to work hard, it only means you do not need to work hard all the time, for the rest of your life. 


I'm always trying to balance my life, like how? Try not to be angry. Yeah, that's the way. How to not angry? Keep calm. How  to keep calm? Yes, listening to music. Phew, finally relate to my topic today. I'm CRAZY about Bossa Nova. I've been trying so hard to influence friends around me, I like to force them to listen to Bossa Nova. They might not be very interested to it, but at least i made them listened for the first time! Ha-Ha-Ha *Evil Grins* 


Bossa Nova originated from Brazil.It was developed and popularized during 50's  - 60's. It is generally a type of new style music, mixture of Jazz & Samba. Although I know nothing about Brazil or Portuguese, but I'm madly crazy over Bossa, I'm addicted to Antonio Carlos Jobim and  João Gilberto's creations. Couldn't stop to listen to them. 


The first Bossa Nova song I've listened to is "Maria Ninguem" by French sexy artist - Brigitte Bardot. This song was composed by the Brazilian musician, Carlos Lyra in 1956 and the lyrics express his love for Maria, such a unique woman despite her common name. Before ending this post, here I'm sharing with you my honorable readers, Maria Ninguem video and the lyrics below. Listen and watch (you can even sing along if you want), and I swear it will makes you happy! Ciao~~~

Maria Ninguem - Brigitte Bardot

Maria ninguém É Maria e é Maria meu bem 
Se eu nao sou Joao de nada Maria que é minha é Maria ninguém 
Maria ninguém É Maria como as outras também 
Só que tem que ainda é melhor do que muita Maria que há por aí 
Marias tao frias cheias de manias Marias vazias pro nome que tem 
Maria Ninguém É um dom que muito homem nao tem 
Haja vista quanta gente que chama Maria e Maria nao vem 
Maria Ninguém E Maria e é Maria meu bem 
Se eu nao sou Joao de nada Maria que é minha é Maria ninguem

Loves,
GF

Fukuharu Japanese Restaurant @ Terrace, Hock Choon

Every 30th of November is a long awaited day to be celebrated, because it is Her birthday, and a special day for me too :) This is her second birthday that we celebrated together, and we chose to celebrate this special day at Fukuharu Japanese Restaurant. Fukuharu is voted as the "Best Japanese Restaurant" by Time Out KL in 2010. The restaurant was crowned as one of the best Japanese restaurants in the country and it is well known of its authentic and unpretentious Japanese cuisine. 

Fukuharu is located at 241-B, Ground Floor, Lorong Nibong Off Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. It is a strategic location and you can easily find it beside Victoria Station and behind the Hock Choon Supermarket.

Fukuharu is decorated with the combination of few natural elements, included wood, stone, aluminium, and cement too. The interior design is also specially designed to meet the authentication of raw Japanese dining feel.

I believe that through tasting the Nigiri Sushi, it is the easiest way to find out the standard and quality of a Japanese restaurant. Fukuharu did really well in preparing the raw salmon and they also make it to the perfection from cutting the salmon and sending it to our mouth. FRESH INDEED !

Another highly recommended Nigiri Sushi is Tamago Mentai ! So far i only meet it in a Japanese restaurants before Fukuharu, which is Sushi Zanmai ! ( In my opinion, Sushi Zanmai @ Lowyat Plaza is the best among its branches ). Both of them also doing well in making Tamago Mentai, for Sushi Zanmai, i prefer its taste and for Fukuharu, i prefer its layering. :)
Meanwhile, the Fukuharu's salad also can be a mouthwash dish before you entering to the so called " main course ". The salad is fresh enough and the chosen ingredients were premium too! Topping with fish roe...It is a "luxury" salad for me :D

Then here comes the Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab, a simple yet delicious meal that able to reach our satisfaction! The Soft Shell Crab didn't feel lonely, cause it was accompanied by the radish aside! And also a slice of lemon, this combination is fresh and definitely can grab a thumb up!

Teriyaki Chicken is the upcoming dish and it is O-Yi-Shi too ! Fukuharu has it own way to make it different ! You have to believe it !

Time flies, here ends our wonderful night and it's time to buy the bill. The price is reasonable and it was not exceeded RM150, which is included a seafood fried rice ! (Not able to capture the image of the seafood fried rice that night). What to blame if RM150 can buy you happiness, enjoyment, fabulous atmosphere, great ingredients, romantic night, and also fill up your stomach ! Wooohhhhh !

We spent our 2nd X'mas at Ipoh :) 24th - 26th December 2011

BF and GF were chit-chatting, topic was surrounded on our X'mas trip, and hmmmm...where should we go after our previous Penang trip ? GF was thinking to have a nice and relaxing hot-spring spa during this romantic season, thus, after collecting the info and did the surveying, we knew that Ipoh is our next destination !

Here comes the long awaited morning of 24th December ! We set off early in the morning from Cheras, toward our destination - Ipoh and the journey took us about 2 hours. I don't really care how long it takes us to the destination, because GF is accompanying by my side :)


Hohoho, we landed Ipoh safely and definitely it was the time for us to take lunch. According to the itinerary that planned by GF, Ipoh's famous bean sprout chicken rice was the one that we were looking for after 
we reached Ipoh ! We chose to go Onn Kee Bean Sprout Chicken Rice (安记芽菜鸡), instead of Lou Wong 
Chicken Rice (老黄). Both of the Onn Kee and Lou Wong are located at Jalan Yau Tet Sin at Ipoh Town.
It is very easy to find. We were glad that Onn Kee did not disappointed us, we did enjoy it and the chicken was fresh enough to buy our
compliment. 去片 !

Lou Wong is just opposite Onn Kee, what a strong competitor and strategic location !  :)

Haha...sugoi !!!

Yea, we planned to taste the fresh soya bean milk after our lunch, which is a famous soya bean stall just behind the Lou Wong chicken rice shop. But it was boooooooooooo, out of stock !!! We were not able to taste it ! But we will pay visit again next time. And ya, it was a small interlude happened after we had our lunch, the careless BF - me dropped the car key and we had to proceed to the nearest key store to duplicate it !!! Grghhh...it spent us quite a long period and slowed down the itinerary. We checked in to the Ecotel Hotel, a brand new renovated hotel which is really comfortable and worth for the price ! It only cost us around RM200 for two nights ! 

The address of Ecotel Hotel: Blk B-G-28, Bangunan Perdagangan, Casuarina 1, Jalan Raja Dr. Nazim shah, 30250 Ipoh...Nice right ?  :)

Okay, sunset and we gotta welcome the night, we chose to spent our dinner at the famous Tong Sui Gai 糖水街 , located at Jalan Sultan Idris Shah (in front of SJK (C) Sam Tet 三德小学). There are around 50 food and dessert stalls can be found at here, choose what you want and eat as much as you can ! We tried few foods and i only took a photo of the famous Popia at here (because the taste of the desserts that we ordered were really so-so only). 

People take long queue just to buy this Popia, simple yet delicious ! 

From BF to GF  :)

Here ends our first night at Ipoh, and we gotta sleep earlier, because the exciting hot-spring spa was awaiting for us on the next day, and we knew we really need energy for the X'mas Day ;) Good nite ~

Hohohoho ! Merry X'mas, here comes the X'mas and Santa Claus is coming to town ! We began our X'mas with a tasty dim sum meal ! We chose not to visit the Foo Shan Dim Sum because most of my friends from Ipoh recommended me to Yoke Fook Moon Dim Sum Restaurant (玉福满点心酒楼), it is just beside Foo Shan only, and i personally like it very muchiieeeeeee ~ The price is reasonable and we spent around RM35 for the dim sumssss :)

Location of Yoke Fook Mun Restaurant: No. 67-69, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, 30300 Ipoh

Various choices of delicious dim sum !

Reasonable price and the taste not bad too !

Thickyyyy egg tart ! I like it !

How can we eat dim sum without Char Siew Bao ?!

Highly recommended ！芋角！

Our all time favourite - Siew Mai

HK Ju Chiong Fun :P

We said bye bye to the delicious dim sum and eventually, here comes our most awaited trip to Lost World of Tambun ! Here we gooooo ! It took around 25 minutes from Ipoh town to Tambun. Actually we didn't enter the Lost World of Tambun, we only visited the Tambun Hot Springs Spa, which is beside the Lost World of Tambun. The entrance fee is super duper cheap for the Tambun Hot Springs Spa, only RM15 per person, then you can enjoy the natural mineral hot springs until you bored with it ! According to the professional, do not soak yourself into the hot springs too long, it is not good for health  : | 

P/S: The opening of Tambun Hot Springs Spa for the public is during night time only, better visit there after 7pm

This is another hot springs resort - Banjaran Hot Springs Resort, which cost you above RM1k per night ! We tried to enter it but blocked by the security guards :O

Amazing ~

Beautiful of nature ~

GF...strike a pose !  :)

Inside the Tambun Hot Springs Spa

View 2

View 3

Spa-spa-spa !!!

Brrrrrrrrr...what a relaxing night after enjoyed the hot springs spa, it washed out the tiredness and freshen our night ! GF and BF were hungry till the max ! We decided to have a wonderful X'mas dinner at Secret Garden (erhemmm...this not the Korean drama "Secret Garden") ! Eolmana eolmana deo neoreul ! Haha...sorry, GF likes Hyun Bin's so much ;) 

Okieee, the Secret Garden is located at  42, Jalan Cheah Cheng Lim and it is nearby Ipoh town. It is a gorgeous restaurant and the atmosphere is romantic too, suit us best at this festive season :) Merry X'mas to you - GF ~ <3<3<3

Cute ~ 

This is quite special, Salmon Spaghetti, although the portion is small for me ~ X _ X

GF's clever choice, a super tasty and special fried pork chop... Perfect if serve with the sauce together..

Secret Garden's salad

Nice !

Time flies...here comes the last day of our trip, after packing our stuffs, GF told me a really funny thing, which the Ecotel Hotel receptionist misspell my name !!! 

Mr Hor Kah Hai...sounds rude !

Before we went back to KL, we chose to have an authentic local style breakfast at Ipoh town. An old coffee shop at Jalan Bandar Bijih Timah - Sin Yoon Loong 新源隆 was our last stop at Ipoh. 

Front view of Sin Yoon Loong Coffee Chop

胜友如云

炖蛋 with caramel, nice ! Worth a try. 

Authentic Ipoh White Coffee, rich in taste

GF's pork noodle

My Ngau Nam Min...Beef Brisket Noodle ! haha

I really love this !

BF and GF 's had to put a full stop on this wonderful 3 days 2 nights Ipoh trip. We passed this X'mas with happy and blissfully. Time to back to the hustle and bustle city life, but both of us knowing that, MORE and MORE TRIPS ARE COMING SOON !!! Buahaha ! See ya !

Your sincerely,

BF & GF 

Escapade to Penang 6th - 8th October 2011

Rise & shine! A special day to getaway from this ugly-betty city, to where? PENANGGGGG! Way to go!

This is like a couple packaged trip, because only 3 couples are joining. And the capable gf is the trip-planner, it's a happiness I reckon. :) 

First stop, couldn't runaway from the famous duck-meat noodles in Bidor while we're on the way. It didn't really match our expectation so we made it a quick one. Then, my adventurous girl suggested to go & explore the mysterious Kellie's Castle, located in Batu Gajah, it's just 20 minutes from Ipoh. 

Overview of Kellie's Castle

Incompleted building

Quite creepy though...

Signature here, ppl called it The Panda Tree. 

Then, we went to a random seafood restaurant in I forgot where. I totally forgot what is the name, so just wait TBC, ahaha! After seafood, we checked-in at Vistana Hotel in Bayan Lepas, near to Queensbay Mall. Like our spacious suite with 3 bedroom so much. And most importantly, the view. :)

Next-up, dinner in the famous Gurney Drive. Guess it's needless to say, definitely we have eaten all types of local cuisine like Asam Laksa, Fried Oyster (Chau-O-Jian), Char Kuey Teow, Satay, Prawn Noodles, BBQ Squid, Fried Chicken Skin (the bf's favourite) and etc. A romantic walk after dinner at Gurney Drive is a must, because it was awfully bloated.

Crazy !!! (Some of the ordered foods still pending  !!!)

Oh, the night is still young, one of our friends suggested to bring us to have some drinks. Without any objection, we moved to the following destination - Upper Penang Road, the well-known nightlife street. We entered a unique pub, that let us to dedicate songs and sing k while enjoying our nice drinking moment. Cheers !!! And there, we called it a day...

The Nightlife of Upper Penang Road

Having said that if you never went to Kek Lok Temple before, means you never went to Penang before. Nevertheless we both are very faithful to our religion & believes. In the next day morning, we drove to Georgetown & had our breakfast at a Asam Laksa stall near to Kek Lok Temple, it's just opposite the wet market so it's not difficult to find at all. Kek Lok Temple, undoubtedly the famous and largest temple in Penang, it can really amaze you ! Of course at the mean time, we stepped to the windy Bukit Bendera (Penang Hill) with gorgeous scenery. And so we walk walk, see see, pray pray a half day at these places. A picture speaks a thousand words, here you go......

Tasty, tasty, and tasty ! Highly recommended

The Kek Lok Temple

The Holy Guan Yin statue was still under construction

Bravo ! Pearl of the East is under my feet !!! (View from Bukit Bendera)

A garden conceptual cafe on Bukit Bendera. Leisure ~

After we said goodbye to the above attractions, we were ready to pay a visit to Batu Ferringhi Beach !!!  Yahooo...let's enjoy the wind that blow into your hair ! The distance between Penang Hill and Batu Ferringhi Beach is around 20km, approximately 25-30 mins drive will do. There are a lot of beach activities can be found here, such as jet-ski, banana boat, beach parachute, and more ! Let's discover it on your coming visit to Penang. :)


Besides, we also can't let off the chance to visit the famous Hard Rock Hotel Penang, which is located at Batu Ferringhi too ! It is one of the attractions at Batu Ferringhi, most of the tourists used to have some photo sessions here, including us. Tadahhh, let's proceed the photo slide show as below!

Here is the popular banana boat, are you ready ? :)

Hard Rock's signature 

It's beautiful ! It will keep changing colors!

This pool is specially designed to let you jump into the pool without stepping out from your room !

Time for dinner, table for six! Another hot spot in Penang is waiting for us ! Recommended by my colleague, we manage to find another food heaven. Located near to the tallest building in Penang - Komtar, the food street has a good landmark but has rather fewer stalls than Gurney Drive. Undoubtedly, the best food of all is the one and only "Tong Sui" stall. However, overall we think the food quality here is better than food in Gurney Drive; for sure we'll pay another visit here again! 

Well well well, guess that my sharing is more than enough? We had fun in this runaway-from-city trip, with lotsa food, sight-seeing & laughters! Too bad still gotta go back to the reality life now. Never mind, I swear we would be having another trip soon when our stress-o-meter is raising high again. 

Loves,

The BF & GF

***Upcoming post! Ipoh mari Ipoh mari! :P***