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Some of you may have found out from Facebook or Twitter that Ms. Clover and I took a short weekend trip to K.L, just to relax and get away from things for a while. It has been a stressful period for the both of us and so with a long weekend coming up, it makes perfect excuse to go up North :)

Cheap air fares from budget airlines made traveling in the region so much easier: just click and go basically. Armed with our passports and 1 set of clothes, we headed off to explore KLCC. Not very adventurous this time coz' we just want to go away from our sunny island... only to land in rainy KL for the evening.

Trader's Hotel was our top choice due to its concept liken to G-Hotel Penang but Trader's, being more of a business hotel, lack the cosyness and funkiness of G-Hotel and the spa can't really compared to Danai Spa also.

Okie. I'm being biased here. Its a great hotel to stay in: 4 minutes to KLCC's Suria Mall, 7 mins to Pavilion KL, lovely view of the Petronas tower day and night, lovely view of the garden park in the golden triangle, the staff are professional and warm, love the interior decor of the business centre, executive lounge and the cafes... etc.

Here's some pics from the Ricoh GrD v.1 to share:

Labels: BnW, Clover, Food, Hotel Interiors, Images, Inspirations, Photography, RICOH GrD, Thoughts, Travel, Us, vacation

Posted by ShutterBug at 20:58 | Permalink | Comments 5

Finally, the blogger interface is fixed... thanks to a link given by TonesOfPink! Apparently Singnet's proxy is the culprit *grrrrr...* but it's okie... as long as I can start blogging again...

Nope, I've not gone to Timbuktu and lost contact with the world (still Twittering and FBing) but this little proxy thingy set me back for quite sometime till Jojo came to the rescue!

So here's a backdated one from the recent trip to Penang's G-Hotel:

It was a short trip over the weekend to get away from Singapore for a while... tix were bought like very early this year from TigerAir for S$0.00 so we made the best use of the cheap airfare to revisit some of our fav. haunts in Penang + some more recommendations from friends!

We decided to stay in G-Hotel this time round due to the fact that we couldn't get a single booking at our old favourite Northam All Suites over that particular weekend as it coincided with the Penang Run as well as Heritage Weekend so most hotels were full. Why G-Hotel was spared the bursting room demand.. no idea but I think cost is one. We couldn't get a normal deluxe room so we had to up the budget to the Executive rooms which we had no regrets upon reaching the establishment.

Totally worth the money spent! More pics here !

Labels: Clover, Images, Photography, Ranting, RICOH GrD, Thoughts, Travel, Us, vacation

Posted by ShutterBug at 11:11 | Permalink | Comments 5

I guess it was one of those nights when we wanted to try our hands on making some of our favorite food and we decided to go cruise the supermarket for something simple to make.

From a simple shabu-shabu beef asparagus wrap idea, we headed down to the eggs section when suddenly, we hit upon an inspiration of making the ni-tamago which we both love. Ni-Tamago is basically a sauce-seasoned boiled egg that has nice firm whites with a runny center which accompanies your bowl of ramen in most authentic Japanese ramen restaurants.

In fact, I also remembered Vinc, C, Jean and I had an 'indepth' discussion on how to make it on the day of their pre-wedding shoot.. heheheh....

So we bought like 14 eggs (10 medium + 4 large) to go home and experiment. Thankfully, the recipes and techniques are no lacking on the internet but I remembered ChubbyHubby's version and went on to experiment with his technique while I also did another version of my own to see if there's a difference.

Our 1st 3 attempts were failures coz we tried different volumes of water, different cooking timings as well as overcooking... and using chubby hubby's method, we also managed to end up with Onsen Tamago after 18-20 minutes.

The trick is the timing and the method which you cook the eggs. CH used a slow-cook method which yields an even texture throughout the whites of the egg while my method is flash-boil cooking which yields a slightly firmer exterior (which is great for removing the shell later on).

Basically the methods are pretty similiar but here's my flash-boil variation:

• a) Bring to boil about 4-5 cups of water (enough to cover the eggs)
• b) When the water's bubbling away, lower the eggs into the water gently to prevent cracking them on impact
• c) Cook for 5 - 6 mins (medium eggs), 7 - 7.5 mins (larger eggs) on high heat
  
• d) Prep an ice bath (volume enough to cover the eggs totally)
• e) Once the cooking time is up, just scoop the eggs up and dump them gently into the icebath to stop the cooking process
• f) Ice the eggs for about 3 - 4 hours while you prep the seasoning sauce.
• g) Gently peel off the shell of the eggs before steeping them into the sauce and leave them in the fridge for at least 4 - 6 hours. I left them for 24 hours actually) - the longer you steep them, the better the taste :D
• h) When ready to eat, leave the eggs to room temperature (you can also heat it slightly in the microwave but dun cut the egg open 1st and then add to your rice/ noodles/ etc
  

Sauce:

• a) Combine Japanese Dashi sauce (in accordance to how many eggs you have) with 4 tbs of Teriyaki sauce, 1-2 ts of Mirin, 2-3 tbs of sugar, water to dilute the mixture a bit and 8-10 slices of old ginger. (I actually used Tempura sauce coz I can't find Dashi)
• b) Bring the whole mixture to boil and set aside to cool
• c) Transfer the sauce to a deep bowl to immerse the eggs for the next 4- 6 hours or more

Try it out and let me know if it works for you!

Labels: Clover, Ranting, Recipes, RICOH GrD, Thoughts

Posted by ShutterBug at 20:56 | Permalink | Comments 9

Labels: Bangkok, Canon 5Dmk2, Clover, Images, Photography, Travel, Us, vacation

Posted by ShutterBug at 15:24 | Permalink | Comments 4

A short update from the Land of Smiles as we made our escape to Bangkok this morning. Nothing much to our itinerary (in fact, there's no plans at all!) - just go where our feet and eyes take us :)

We decided to check out a new hotel in the Sukhumvit area called DREAM Bangkok which didn't really impress us that much as from the website but the interiors are starkly decorated with nice clean lines, very nice services, good room pricing and pretty near the BTS/ MRT station. Apart from that, it's a little like the boutique hotel, Cosmos, in HongKong.

I didn't take any interiors of the room coz we crashed almost immediately upon reaching the hotel... Too little sleep the night before and too short of a flight to sleep on the plane which was exceptionally uncomfortable with a bunch of overly excited youths and their b*tching about some classmates' plight.... but the place is comfortable overall, room service food was good and best of all, ample space to even include a L-shaped sofa as seen on their website. Shot the following with the Canon 5Dmk2 to test out the high ISO response... so far, Loving It!

Anyway, here's some pics to share:

Labels: Bangkok, BnW, Canon 5Dmk2, Clover, Food, Hotel Interiors, Images, Photography, Travel, vacation

Posted by ShutterBug at 02:55 | Permalink | Comments 2

A pleasant surprise was hatched in a shroud of secrecy complete with radio silence, secret code names and a whole bunch of people whom have come together to give this ole' bug a wonderful surprise @ Pasta Inc tonight :D

Labels: Celebrations, Clover, Food, Friends, Occasions, Thoughts, Us

Posted by ShutterBug at 02:59 | Permalink | Comments 11

Actually I have the RAW files which Ead shot of us in Japan for some time already but never really got down to looking thru' them in details and when I did, they are so full of memories and it truly recorded us in that frame in time... That's the power of photography and that's coming from a wedding photographer himself as well as from Ms Clover herself (thanks Ead! :D)

So I did a little quick selection of the shots that caught my eyes and put them up here. The DI is minimal so credits to Eadwine Lay of Plush Photography :)

Labels: BnW, Clover, Friends, Images, Inspirations, Japan, Photography, PreWeddings, Thoughts

Posted by ShutterBug at 06:59 | Permalink | Comments 13

I'm not an idealist in romance... but I believe in chance encounters. The odds are indeed staggering if you really think about how 2 persons of different backgrounds can meet, fall in love and be united as one.

If not for that little plucky courage to send an innocent sms to Ms Clover 8 years back in Mar 2001 that started it all, I wouldn't have met the woman who later then became my best friend, soulmate and wife.

So let this youtube clip inspire you.... :) I was smiling and truly touched while watching it.

Labels: Clover, Inspirations, Thoughts, Youtube

Posted by ShutterBug at 02:40 | Permalink | Comments 1

We are an odd pair... :)

When Ms Clover wanted to do a salad for dinner to bring to work (she is on shift tonight), I decided to pitch in but we have very different ideas of how the salad should turn out and so, we decided to make it a competition using the same main ingredients and do a Salad-2 ways.

The main ingredients consist of Baby Spinach, pan-seared chicken breast & Yellow bell peppers. No time limit and we can use any spices or methods to achieve the end results.

Ms Clover did a warm salad using a Bacon + Sherry vinaigrette toss while I went for the healthier Mediterranean-style salad that uses flavoured olive oil and sauteed bell peppers with spices.





No winners yet coz I liked them both :D

For anyone who's interested, here's my recipe for the Mediterranean-style salad:

Ingredients -

~ Baby Spinach leaves
~ 1/2 to 1x Middle size Bell pepper (yellow or red), de-seed & cut to thin strips
~ 1 piece of Chicken breast, sliced to bite size
~ Fresh basil leaves (about 3 will do), chopped finely
~ French Sea salt + freshly grinded Pepper to taste
~ Basil & Sundried tomato flavoured Olive Oil
~ Lemon juice (adjust to taste)
~ Lemon zest
~ pinch of thyme (dried or fresh is fine)

Cooking -

~ season chicken pieces with a bit of shoyu (soya sauce) or teriyaki sauce, sugar & freshly grind pepper
~ Saute the bell pepper strips with a bit of sea salt and sugar without oil and then add a pinch of Thyme.
~ Pan sear the chicken pieces after seasoning. You can have it a little charred on the surface if you like. No need for oil, just a good non-stick pan will do fine.

Combine the Bell pepper strips, Baby spinach, chopped Basil leaves into salad bowl. Drizzle the flavoured Olive oil over them and toss the combination till even. Squeeze lemon juice over (adjust to your liking) and add sea salt and pepper to taste. Toss the combi one more time to even out the dressing.
You can also add the chicken in at this stage or leave till later.

Serving:

Just before serving, you can add the chicken pieces on top and grate some lemon zest over :)

Labels: Clover, Food, Home, Images, Inspirations, Recipes, RICOH GrD, Thoughts, Us

Posted by ShutterBug at 19:53 | Permalink | Comments 2

...left us both gasping for more... ^.^ from the moment we stepped into the restaurant, the familiar smell of being in Japan hit our nostalgia glands and instantly, we were transported back to the delicious eateries in Osaka and Tokyo... apart from the mix of Japanese/ English spoken by the staff, we were mesmerised totally by the magic of this place.

I have always wanted to come try the food here after reading Imp's gastronomical accounts of the delicious authentic Japanese food here... and decided to bring Ms Clover for a little Omakase meal on Saturday evening. The presentation of the food, the freshness of the sashimi (okie, it's still not as fresh as we expected coz we had super fresh sashimi from Tsuikiji Market before but this is really the closest we can get to getting top-notch Japanese food) and the service quality of the staff.

I'll just let the pics from the Ricoh GrD whet your appetite a bit:




The experience left us wanting more and of coz, a much lighter wallet but I must say, it's all worth the experience! We will definitely return for the lunch bentos as well!

* got an sms from Tatsuya (Ronnie) this morning on thanking us for patronising them... wonderful service this is!

Labels: Celebrations, Clover, Food, Images, Local, RICOH GrD, Thoughts, Us

Posted by ShutterBug at 23:17 | Permalink | Comments 8