Have you heard of V-diet?

It’s a diet program developed by the t-nation folks with mainly these goals in mind:

1) Lose weight fast
2) Lose fat, and not muscle, and lastly,
3) No pain, no gain

I added the last point, because that is what I’ve concluded after reading on how this diet works. Here’s the gist: Keep an accurate track of food intake by the nutrient, and exercise. Simple? Well, here’s the catch: The diet would consist of protein shakes, fish oils, fibre supplements and vitamins for 28 days (1 month). For every 7 days, there is an allowance of 1 meal consisting of healthy solid food. With the food intake, the diet also consists of 3 workout days evenly spread out over a week.

Crazy huh? Well, the diet is designed such so that food intake is controlled. Calorie count by itself is not enough. In order to build and maintain muscle, the protein intake has to be sufficient. In order to burn fat, the carbs intake has to be minimised. In order for the body to function, the body needs to have enough good fats for nutrients and minerals & vitamins to work. What way would be better than to use protein shakes and other supplements to control intake? I would say that V-diet is the liquid version of Atkins diet, except that V-diet is more structured and includes strength training.

I’ve read through some online articles about this diet and after some thoughts, decided to give this diet a try.

Again, it’s not an easy diet, that’s for sure, but I reckon if I have the discipline to keep to the regimen, I damn well deserve a better looking body.

Is it a flawed diet? Well, all diets are flawed one way or another. Some diet works, some diet don’t. But I suppose if you never try, you’ll never know.

I’ll keep a diet log, and hopefully diligently report on the status and progress. I shall psych my mind and body now, “It’s gonna be just 28 days~~It’s gonna be just 28 days~~~”

Have been pretty busy and tired, so have not been blogging as often as I would want to. But I just have to blog this down.

This afternoon, I went to one of my clients’ main office for a lunch barbecue after a morning meeting. It was a great lunch with excellent food. And the highlight is Wagyu beef.

Wagyu what you say? Well, Wagyu is the breed of cattle that gives us the famous Kobe beef. I’m not sure the piece that I had was from Kobe, so technically, I can’t call the one I had Kobe beef.

And yes, it is pretty expensive meat; the one I had was a whopping SGD140 per kg!
Looking at this, and considering the piece I had was at least twice the size, it would mean that it would have cost me at least SGD70 if I had it in some restaurant, and if it’s a ‘fancy’ one, it could easily be SGD100! LOL

Anyway, was it any good? It wasn’t good, but excellent. Truly, it’s a gourmet meat, truly tender and juicy, and nothing like any beef that I ever had. I can even still remember the taste in my mouth… Yummy~~

Would I want to try it again? Perhaps, if I spot a good deal at some restaurant. Else, it’s just too expensive for me. LOL

A few weeks back, I went to this steamboat place Marina for dinner.
At the price of less than SGD15 per pax, the place is pretty well-known among Singaporeans. It’s a great place to hold large gathering among friends, especially for youngsters. It’s al fresco ‘dining’ so be prepared to sweat it out. They serve a whole range of food, but the popular stuff is the seafood, ranging from crab to seashells. Cooked food is served as well.

The food isn’t all that fantastic as they are not that fresh. Chances are, the seafood are of low grades, or ‘defects’ from restaurants. At such cheap all-you-can-eat price, the customers ain’t complaining so much. In fact, you might see how some customers ‘wrestle’ their way through the chilli crab and other cooked/ uncooked seafood once the waiter brings them out of the kitchen. Yup, Singaporeans are kiasu that way…

Having stayed in Singapore for so long, that was the first time I’ve visited the place. I wasn’t all that keen, but knowing that the place will be gone by the end of the year, making way for the Gardens, I decided that I should pay the Singapore social icon a visit. LOL.

There’s only one bus serving this area, so be prepared for crowded bus trip to and fro the place. Due to its rustic charm, it’s a nice place nevertheless, but some people might not want to go again once experienced.

Food: 2/10, Price 9/10, Ambience 7/10, Overall 6/10

I’m not sure what this is called except ‘butterfly’:

It’s basically flour with sesame seed, fried in oil. But this is the best aftermeal food that I’m having now. Best accompanied with iced tea, kopitiam style.

It cost 50cent and this one from Bukit Batok is really good.

I’ve been to the eating place at Bukit Batok St. 11 a few times now, mostly during weekends for lunch. Besides the lor mee, the hokkien mee is pretty good too. Unlike in most part of Malaysia, the hokkien mee is as shown, whereas the version in Malaysia is the black sauce version with thick noodles.

This version at this stall pretty nice. So good that they charge $0.50 if you ask for more chillies….
I’m gonna give it a rating of….7/10

After watching Our Makan Places: Lost and Found on TV, I decided to try the Tiong Bahru lor mee where the stall had relocated to Bukit Batok St. 11. Since the stall only opens in the morning till lunchtime daily, I was set to be disappointed when I decided to go to the stall at around 1pm. Nonetheless, I was happy to see that the stall was still open and serving.

As expected, there’s a queue, but luckily the service is quite fast. It costs SGD2.00 for a bowl, a bigger bowl will cost SGD3.00.

Normally, I’m not a big fan of Singapore lor mee. The dark sauce is normally too starchy for my liking and I’ll get ‘jelak’ even before I finish the whole bowl. I’ll normally put alot of vinegar to mask the starch taste as well. That’s how I have my lor mee, until this. This one tasted pretty good. The sauce is good and it has quite a good amount of ingredient. The lor mee also has a good amount of chopped garlic in it, which really gives it a good aroma and taste. I give it a rating of 8.5/10.

Besides lor mee, I also ordered popiah. It costs SGD1.00 a piece.

It’s not as tasty as others that I’ve tasted previously, but nonetheless, it’s pretty good. The chilli paste used is surprisingly hot, which is unusual because most of the chilli paste used for popiah in Singapore is mild. I’ll still order it next time, and I’m giving it a rating of 7/10.

I’ve always thought that a girl who can cook- especially when she can cook very well- pretty sexy. I search around and found this girl who’s currently in Australia…

Michelle, a.k.a TheSariPartyGirl

You are featured in hottestblogger.com. How hot are you?
Hot is not me. They will take it down soon. HaHa.

Why do you like cooking so much?
It must be that masak masak set my momi gave me when I was a toddler~

What’s the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done with food?
Poured a jug of water into my beef stirfry just because I was in a bad mood. It ended up in the bin of course.
PMS?
School work.

What’s your worst cooking experience?
I was lazy. Insteading of folding in, I used an electric beater for my swiss roll batter.. turned out like biscuit roll! Hahaha~

Your cooking, your friend said they were nice? Are they just being nice?
Yeh all da time… that you have to ask them, but my bf is the best critic~ He will tell me stuff like you can learn from my mom for this dish.. hahaha

To capture a guy’s heart, first have to capture the guy’s stomach. What’s the best food for that?
For my boyfriend, brownies did it!

Where’s the coolest restaurant that you’ve been to?
Ciao Italia!
Its in Perth. Hehehe~

Is it important for a guy to know how to cook? What food from a guy would impress you?
Not important, but its useful. Heeheee~ A Birthday cake for me is great! Heeheee~

You have a lot of photos, but you don’t think you are self-absorbed. Are you just a closeted cam-whore?
I’m a cam whore! I love taking pictures, its fun!

You like chocolate; for its aphrodisiac property?
It doesnt make me happy seriously .. I’m addicted to caffeine~ Hahaha

But you’ve featured quite a number of entries on chocolates, surely there’s something to it?
Yeh, I dont know~ I like the taste … hehehe dats all~

What’s your favourite dessert?
Carrot Cake!

Which music/ album always put you in a good mood?
Any Bhangra tunes will do~

Slow music to slow dance to?
Love it too!! I like smooth jazz! but not when I’m in a clubbing moood… hehehe

Do you want to own a restaurant in the future?
Yeh I’m thinking bout that in my dream always.. like a Bollywood inspired cafe~ … a cafe that makes you feel like yr drinking chai at a roadside stall~ …. We will play the latest Bollywood tracks, lots of magazines.. we will serve lassi, butter chicken, roti and everything I like… Heehehe~

Or maybe a cookbook of all your favourite dish?
I can give you the recipes for free.. so a cookbook is not needed. I have created a few recipes of my own so far.

What’s the worst thing a guy could do to food?
Adding just instant sauce to chicken.

What about the guy who ‘did it’ in American Pie?
Hmmmm, is that the worst? Hahaha

Any accompanying photos?

FC: Boo doing wat? Want to go yum char?

Me: Nothing. Go where?

FC: You come and fetch me?

Me: We meet somewhere in the middle lar.

FC: We go to Subang and look for you.

Me: Ok. Where you want to go?

FC: I go look for you. You bring us to Shah Alam.

That’s basically the SMS exchange- not word-by-word though- that I had with my friend this evening, and FC, his girlfriend and I ended up at the Shah Alam Buka Puasa bazaar. FC ended up driving to Shah Alam instead because his girlfriend needed to run errand before going; fine with me

The bazaar’s pretty big, and we kept buying and buying and buying… so so much food…. cannot finish…. LOL

[Sorry, no pics, too busy buying food stuff….]

I came back from dinner at Tai Thong Imperial China Restaurant at Ritz SS17. It was one of my granny’s birthday; she’s 88 this year, if it’s not wrong… Initially, the plan was to go to Oversea Restaurant, but decided at the last minute to go to this restaurant instead.

We had one of those set course meal, which includes a bottle of red wine.

The place looks pretty nice. Being a Saturday night however, I would expect the place to be rather filled with people, but it wasn’t really the case. Perhaps the place is still new?

While waiting for the food to be served, my cousin fooled around with his digicam. It was a Sony Cybershot (don’t remember what model, nor whether it’s a 5 or 7 MP)

Generally, I like the food. It’s not much to shout about though, but I like it, because by the end of the meal, I didn’t feel bloated. I think the food wasn’t too salty or oily or too much MSG…

The sharkfin dish was so-so. The prawn dish was pretty good. It was served in a large bowl, and the prawns were basically ’swimming’ in some kind of herbal broth. I like the duck dish, as well as the chicken. Both were done up with pretty well- the meat’s tender, and the skin’s crispy.

The bill came up to about RM650. I suppose that’s about the price for such meal…

I believe it was a Tuesday, on the 17May05 (please correct me if I’m wrong), me and 2 other colleague went to this Restaurant for buffet dinner. It was a pretty decent dinner. The choices are plenty. I’m pretty accustomed to excellent sushi, so it’s inevitable for me to feel not-so-delighted about the not-so-good sushi. Nevertheless, I think Saisaki’s sushi passed my minimum criteria…

Overall, 3.5/5 stars for the dinner…

Restoran Saisaki Japanese Buffet
Unit No.1-9, 1st Floor,
Wisma UOA II, No.21 Jalan Pinang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It was Friday when I finally could let out a recuperating relief. After the last person’d left the office apartment, the whole place got silently still. Finally…
I then took a long comforting shower, leaving dusk to come and go quietly. It was already dark when I got out of the bathroom. Got dressed, and before long, I was out walking in Chow Kit area, looking for some place to have my dinner. I settled for ç‚’æžœæ?¡ (auntie, ä¸?è¦?虾…) and teh si ping at this corner coffeeshop.
It was a simple satisfying meal- loved it. After that, I went to get myself a bottle of vodka, and a bottle of Coke before heading back. I was also in a mood for a slice of cake so I got myself one from Secret Recipe. Sweet…
After getting some other stuff and newspaper as well, I headed back to they apartment, ready for a quiet night.
Nice…

To say that it’s a tiring week is an understatement. I was at Singapore for the Vesak weekend and reached back in KL on Monday 230505. Since one of my colleague, JA would be coming by the following day, I cleaned up the place a li’l; might as well so since my bosses would be coming over later during the week.
At first, I was told that bosses WK and PY would be coming over on Thursday, but on Tuesday itself, I was informed that WK would not be coming; instead, boss KH would pay the office. The bosses’ visit was brought forward to Wednesday as well. Okay lor…
JA’s visit was basically to provide some kind of training to my team here in KL. My bosses basically have their own agenda and I would normally leave it as that; it’s not really up to me to question their intentions anyway.
And in additional to all that, I was told that DK, my boss’s friend and the true tenant fo the apartment, would be coming over from Spore as well. Again, okay lor…

Anticipating the apartment to be pretty ‘crowded’ on Wednesday, I decided to have a rather quiet Tuesday night, especially that it was raining then. JA and I went to this vegetarian place for dinner. The restaurant is called Beancurd Restaurant, or something like that. The food’s alright- nothing fantastic- ‘passable’ I would say.

Came Wednesday, and by the evening, those who were supposedly around were present. I decided to head towards Sungai Wang/ Plaza Low Yat area after work to get myself a Bluetooth adapter. My colleague and JA came along, and we had dinner at Causeway Bay Restaurant (Lot G5-G5B, Plaza Low Yat, 7 Jalan 1/77, off Jalan Bukit Bintang, Bukit Bintang Central, 55100 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: (603) 21410881).
I ordered this seafood with rice dish. The portion is pretty good, but the taste is so-so- nothing to shout about.

I bought this blue Bluetooth adapter for RM65, after considering other adapters for ages. (looking at it right now, I thought it’s an awfully expensive piece of small gadget…)
We all then went to Sungai Wang, where JA bought some DVDs from Uncle Ho. And to complete the day, JA and I went back, and had a ‘chat session’ with the bosses.

Thursday. Everyone’s pretty occupied with something or other… And as for dinner, my colleague and I brought JA to The Colliseum. I supposed it’s the place to bring each Spore colleague who come by to KL…
Three of us- me, JA & CW- had Sizzling Ribeye, Steak & Lamb individually. And following the custom of the restaurant, the three of us had to wear napkins around our neck. This is the first time I’m ordering the popular sizzling dish and it’s pretty good. HL ordered fried rice. I tried a li’l, and it’s also done up well.

On Friday, I joined the bosses to view this soon-to-move-into office at Menara Mutiara Bangsar. The financial director (whom I met for the first time) was present as well. I was told that he had been pretty much the guy managing the overall KL branch’s financial matters. The place is in a move-in condition and I supposed that’s what appealing to my bosses.
While looking through the office, I made some mental notes on the office itself. It has many rooms partitioned off, and it has a toilet of its own, which I don’t quite prefer. The office will be getting some hot sun in the evening. I didn’t get the chance to explore much of the surrounding; so I’m not sure what eateries around. Overall, I would rate the office space as OK, not too great, not all that enough to raise some kind of excitement in me…

After settling some issue and paperwork for the office, my bosses and I proceeded to get some furniture. We went to this second-hand shop, hopefully abled to get some good bargain. And from the discussion with the furniture shop owner, I came to know of a J, whom will be sharing the office at Bangsar as well.
By the time it’s done, my bosses and I were back in PWTC area just right for lunch time. I was pretty tired to say the truth by then. And during lunch and for the whole day, I wasn’t in the mood for anything, or at least till my bosses left for Spore right after. I told my colleague about the new office place, and showed them photos taken using my new SE K700i.

So, that pretty much sums up the whole week. I was pretty much burnt out; it was really as if I was working 24-7 for the whole week with my bosses around. I didn’t even have a private space of my own as I was sharing the room.

Anyway, while writing this entry, I took a break and got myself Mee goreng for dinner/supper from this place at the corner of Jalan Raja Laut and Jalan Chow Kit. It was pretty decent. I requested for a fried egg as well. It costed me RM4; pretty reasonable I would say…
Today’s a pretty much R&R day, which I did absolutely nothing but glued myself in front of the TV and surfed the net. I watched A Very Long Engagement and it was a pretty good film. I enjoyed it, though I’ll most probably be watching it again as I didn’t pay my full attention to this French film. And just now, I watched Hitch. It’s a feel-good-nice-to-watch film. That’s about it…

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…… |-O

I finally tried the Grilled Chicken Foldover from McDonald for dinner.

It’s not too bad, but perhaps more herbs should be considered to enhanced the taste? McDonald’s marketing it as a healthy food. Yes, I agree to a certain extend, but by offering it as a meal with fries, and the heavy serving of mayo to make it more palatable… Well, it certainly isn’t the food for weight watcher.

As another blogger went on a trip to Cameron Highlands, I myself decided to take a layback drive to Seremban. I went alone; geting people to join would be pretty daunting and frustrating itself.

After travelling for about an hour or so from my place, and paying RM7.20 for toll, I finally reached Seremban. My first impression was that it’s a developing town, being greeted with done-up landscape upon arriving.

The local town council building was fitted with a display screen in front.

I drove around and took some pictures of the town.

The place somehow reminded me of my own hometown. I like how Seremban still has its old buildings, but I thought better restoration work should go into preserving them.

The old charm can be seen in many aspects, including this signboard design.

I really like looking at all those old buildings. I was actually driving pretty carelessly as I marvelled at them. As it was a Sunday, the people were out and about on the street.

Then, I decided to drive off-course, pretty much getting myself lost on purpose. I stumbled upon a school, where some kids were playing football. This particular school has a hostel and I believed that they are the residents. Notice the graveyard at the back? I suppose it’s quite a frightening experience at night, especially if it’s during orientation times and the seniors have very mischievous ideas.

I stumbled upon another school, and took this picture.

As I drove on, I passed by the Seremban Prison, which looks pretty new. I would thought that the high walls would be visible, but I didn’t really notice them.

And this is a picture of the bus terminal. Not much to comment since I was paying attention to the road.

After driving around Seremban for quite some time, and after having a pretty decent bowl of laksa for my late lunch, I then head back to KL. With the company of the radio- reception wasn’t that good though- I drove back at around 6something, close to 7pm.

And how can I forget to buy the all-famous Seremban Siew Pau? I wasn’t sure where to get them, so I bought two types from two different brands- Kee Mei and Seremban Siew Pau. I would say that I prefer the Kee Mei version, simply because they look more appertising with the sauce spilling out. It tasted pretty good, though are a little too sweet. The Seremban Siew Pau version doesn’t look as good, but nevertheless, the it was pretty tasty.

I gave some of the Siew Pau to my aunt, and also my brother. Perhaps for breakfast tomorrow?

During the longer weekend due to Labour’s Day, I went back to my hometown for the weekend to celebrate my aunt’s birthday. A semi-surprise birthday party was thrown as my aunt didn’t know that some of us were going back as well.

We went to this Chinese restaurant. Our previous experience wasn’t that good; we had dinner at this particular restaurant during Chinese New Year this year and the food’s pretty terrible. We decided to give this restaurant another go though since it has a private room, and my mom did the arrangement to ensure that the menu’s good.

Nevertheless, the food’s pretty alright, except for the Sharkfin soup.

If anyone’s watched Lost in Translation (2003) (here) by Sofia Coppola, you’ve most probably heard of the phrase: For Good Times, Make it Suntory Time.
Well, I tried this brand of Japanese whisky called Yamakazi by Suntory at the party and I think it’s pretty good- not that heavy, kinda smooth, but perhaps coz I put in a lot of ice…

It’s pretty much a pigged-out dinner.

My brother and I decided to be a bit silly at the party and we took this picture:

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

This evening, I decided to buy some coffee drink from Starbuck as I was feeling pretty sleepy. A walk to the Starbuck joint would be good, and certainly, a dose of coffee drink would be good too.

I decided to try the Espresso Rhumba Frappuccino.

It was a pretty alright drink. Not too sweet, not too bland, though I would certainly appreciate more coffee taste or at least coffee aroma then.

Certainly a drink that’s rich, though somehow lack the “umphh”… Overall, I’m giving this drink 3.5/5

Went to this bak kut teh place for lunch yesterday. the place is somewhere at chow kit area. it’s actually some house, being converted to some eatery place. My colleague and I ordered bak kut teh and fish head noodle. Though we had not-so-good seats, but nevertheless, I supposed we all enjoyed the food as it’s pretty good. Even my collegue from Penang (fussy food critic) commented that it’s not bad, a.k.a. good.

The bak kut teh’s pretty nice. The soup’s not too cloudy, and it tasted sweet; I realized that red dates were added. There were mushrooms and other pig’s parts in the claypot, which is very nice. All in all, a pretty good dish.

The fish head noodle’s also pretty nice. I’m not a big fan of this dish but nevertheless, I pretty like it. Perhaps the choice of fish parts is not that good though; I would prefer fried fish parts without so much fishbones though. Other than that, I think it’s pretty good as well.

The bill came up to RM24.00. The Chinese tea- though rather bland- is free.

Do message me if you want to know the place.

Had dimsum on Saturday morning with my cousins. It’s more like brunch actually, because by the time we reached the dimsum place, it’s already pretty late in the morning. The dimsum place is somewhere in SS2, not too sure where it is exactly. The food’s pretty good, and if given the chance, I think I woul visit again for some decent dim sum.

Went to this restaurant called Coliseum Cafe & Hotel on Friday for dinner; over the years, it’s no longer just a cafe, and the hotel is most probably gone. It’s one of the last few remaining western food restaurants around that still retain its pre-Independent atmosphere; the waiters dress in white top and black slacks; the smoky atmosphere from steaming sizzling dish and cigarette smoke; the white table cloth, some with holes, over the sturdy table; the high ceiling and the stained glass window; the small laid back old leather sofa in the lounge area.

Cheev, HL and I took the table at the back of the restaurant and we were given the menu.

The selection was pretty extensive, including kid’s selection of food, complete with cute names such as “Mickey Mouse”, “Minnie Mouse” and “Snow White” for Kid’s cocktail.

And so we ordered as as below:

Not in the picture: Pineapple juice

While waiting for the food to arrive, I looked around. Some of the customers were spotted with napkins around their neck. When their food arrived, then only I realized that they’d ordered sizzling dish and the waiters have provided them that to protect their clothes.
After some time, the food arrived. HL’s fish dish looked kinda soppy, mine is an all-ordinary fried food (fried chicken, friend banana, french fries, etc), and cheev’s lamb chop was perhaps the most mouth-watering of all. The garlic bread was so-so; perhaps this was how it was done by the local in the 20s or 30s?

Before:

After:

After all that, we got ourselves a dessert:
Pancake and maple syrup

Overall, the food is not pricey. Not only that the place is dated, but so is the food itself, whereby the way it is being prepared and served, you can no longer see that elsewhere. The whole experience is very retro indeed.

98-100 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman
50100 Kuala Lumpur