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August 24, 2014

Nando's Peri-Vilege



Do you like Nando's? It's quite hard for me not to like the food, every time I passed by the restaurant, the smell keep twiddle my nose and it started to make me miss the food. There are sure few times in a year that I dine in Nando's either with my family or friends. If you read my previous post here, you will know I sign up for their membership before that cost around RM10. 
This is the card design I got myself (out of 4 designs), let's talk about the old peri-vileges that I got through the membership. Once I sign up the card, we can choose a date as our anniversary day with Nando's, you will receive a SMS/e-mail from Nando's that you entitled for a quarter chicken set during that month. Not only that, during your birthday month, you also entitled another quarter chicken set, it's so cool to have free food right for just sign up that membership. Once in a blue moon, you will receive another SMS/e-mail/postcards that inform you what promotion is on-going in their restaurant. 
This month, I received their letter that Nando's going to upgrade their peri-vilege system, it means no more using the card I got previously; okay will just keep it for my collection then. On the envelope itself, you will know the new method is something related to apps/software once you read that "slide to unlock...". I'm quite enjoy the old method and it served me well, but I understand people need to improve, and let's enjoy the new peri-vilege we got here. I'm going to share how you can sign up the membership for FREE and enjoy their peri-vilege like me, in case you do not have this kind of information. 
First, you will need to search the app "Nando's MY" in App Store (if you are android user, search it in Play Store), the size is only 30MB++, wouldn't eat your space too much. Wait patiently until the next move. 
Open the app once it completed download in your phone, slide to left or right until you see this "Peri-Vilege" on your screen and tap it.
Just forget about the old peri-vilege if you did sign up the card like me previously, the new system means you need to register again.
Once you tap "Register", it will switch you to Safari app (mine is like that, ain't sure if yours are the same or not), fill up all your information and there is a column stated as "optional". I recommend you to spend few seconds to fill in the information as you will be rewarded a Chili once you completed the column; will tell you how the Chili work in later part. 
You are almost there! You will then receive a SMS with the Verification Code, key-in in the Nando's MY app and that's it!
You will have your own membership number. What you need to do is flash this app with your membership number on the screen upon ordering to start collect Chilies. These chilies are for you to earn your rewards; spend a minimum of RM30 (in single receipt, excluding government tax and service charge) and you can get a Chili. Like I told you earlier, you are entitled a Chili after you fill in the optional information while registering the membership, tap "View My Chili/Rewards" to check total of chilies you have earn so far. 

What rewards you will get from the Chilies? Here's the answer:
  • The 3rd Chili gets you 1/4 chicken
  • The 6th Chili gets you 1/2 chicken
  • The 9th Chili gets you whole chicken
After you've collected 9th Chili, Nando's will restart your Chili journey from 1st Chili while all of your saved rewards remain in your membership account. So now I have 1 Chili in my account, 2 more to go then I'll earn my 1/4 chicken, how worth! For more info, you may just read Nando's peri-vilege website here to know how to redeem the rewards. Wait no more, take your smart phone now and download the app! 



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We made pizza for lunch just now! Om nom nom.




August 23, 2014

Re-visit Sushi Zento . dinner treat



I went to Sushi Zento located at Precint 10 like million times, you may read the previous post here and here to know my previous experiences. I always went there during weekdays so I do not experienced bad service like what I read from other blog(s), weekdays = lesser diners in the restaurant mah. So this time we went there during weekends (nah, we didn't purposely plan to go there during Saturday night), for the sake of eating Japanese food after so many Korean stuff nowadays. Of course, to avoid the waiting time in Sushi Zento, we called earlier to make reservation, this is a must whenever you are about to dine there, no kidding. 
This was my first time sitting in their "glass room" partition instead of inside the restaurant. The you will ask, will it be troublesome when you feel to get some sushi since there is no conveyor belt in the glass room? I'll say it will be if it was last time, but now they are no more using the conveyor belt service in the restaurant, so no different for you to sit near to conveyor belt or the glass room. This is to ensure all the sushi plates they served to diners are fresh and in good condition, I kind of love this idea as sometimes I do not know how long is the sushi been putting on the conveyor belt and ain't sure if they are still fresh to eat. Thumb up for you.
The caterpillar-like of wasabi. There is no sweet sauce on the table, if you need it just wave your hand to the staffs. Talk no more, will straight away go to the food part. 
Shake Yaki Meshi | RM10
My all-time-fav in the Sushi Zento, the price for the salmon fried rice still remain the same as 2 years back, this is why I love it more. The normal fried rice cost you around RM7, why not add a bit to have better taste than just normal fried rice right? Personal thought. The salmon fried rice isn't greasy, every bite you have you can still feel/taste the diced salmon, wonderful I would say. I still remember I posted this before and said that it was quite salty 2 years back, but now I think it is not, maybe they change the recipe a little bit or my taste-buds just gone haywire. It is just up to my liking now. 
Buta Kakuni Ramen | RM20
I seldom have ramen in Japanese restaurant, if really want to have noodles I'll go to udon first instead of ramen; I always thought that the ramen taste is quite insipid. But we give it a try this time, and it totally blow my mind. The noodles is served together with stewed pork belly, flavoured half boiled egg and Japanese fish cake that at first should be cooked in soy sauce broth according to the menu. The friendly staff suggested us to change the soy sauce broth to Kyushu soup (pork-bone soup) as it will make the ramen double heavenly and she is right with that! The soup is so 'creamy' and rich that I would just finish it after I've done with the noodles. I would recommend this to you, so good and I just couldn't forget the taste of the stewed pork belly, so soft and melted in mouth. 
Wakadori Teriyaki | RM16
My first try the pan-fried chicken with teriyaki sauce was at Edo Ichi, so I kind of in love with that taste after my first try, this is why made me to order this that night. Same taste and the chicken is so juicy! The chef is so generous for giving more teriyaki sauce in this dish, you may dip the pan-fried chicken with that sauce to make it tastier. 
Una Cheese Roll + Shake Tataki Roll | RM26
At first, we just wanted to order the Shake Tataki Roll, a reverse roll topped with seared salmon; when we placed the order, the staff again asked us whether we want to exchange the another half to Una Cheese Roll. which topped wit sliced eel and cheese. One roll consist of 8 pieces of sushi, then we decided to change 4 pieces with another flavor; we pay same price to try 2 different flavor, worth! I was then asked her are all the rolls can be exchange, then she said only this 2 can be mixed, the rest are not, we were lucky to order that btw. Both taste good especially with the herbs on top of the roll, it enhance the taste. 
Yaki Gyoza | RM9
The must order dish in Sushi Zento, I'll definitely order gyoza whenever I'm in a Japanese restaurant, and the one in Sushi Zento is the best I had. Always, people tend to like the gyoza which stuffed with more minced pork and vegetables, but I feel that a good gyoza doesn't need to have a lot of stuffing, the portion of vegetables and minced pork must be in proper ratio and the soy sauce is also important to enhance the taste of gyoza. It's up to my liking so I would like to recommend you as well, but if you like more stuffing in gyoza then you might not like it tho. Overall, I feel that their service is good even during weekends and there were full house when I was there, I still feel that the staffs trying hard to serve us and they are quite friendly. 

I'm the person who willing to spend more on food, as long as they are worth the money, you might think that I'm so rich and are able to spend so much on food but this is how I enjoy my life. Some people prefer to spend theirs on make up kits, clothes, accessories and etc. but I prefer to spend mine on food. You might think that I didn't control my diet and grow wider compare to last time, but you didn't notice that I was actually too thin few years back, I feel healthier and stronger this way. Nah, just my midnight thought. One shouldn't judge others by its cover, if you really care about them, you should care their happiness but not their weight. END.


Location
Precint 10, 10-A-11 & 12, Jalan Tanjung Tokong, 10470 Penang.

Business Hours
11am - 11pm (Daily)

Contact Number
04-899 2725

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抱著太大的期望看LUCY,結果...




August 22, 2014

Chun Cheon Dak Galbi Korean BBQ



I always need to squeeze my brain juice to write a prologue for each post, it is like every post with a prologue make it perfect or complete; yet I can't think of any for this one so I'll just straight away introduce the new Korean restaurant - Chun Cheon Dak Galbi that I went with my sister few months back (yeah, I'm quite updated with new restaurants/cafes, just I always procrastinate the writing part). If not mistaken, this is the first ever Korean restaurant in Penang that serve Dak Galbi, a popular Korean dish that made by stir-fried marinated chicken in a gochujang sauce, gonna show you how it looks like on the later part of this post. 
Do not worry about parking lot since the Vantage Desiran Tanjung commercial building is rather empty, not much shop-lots are open there during the time we went, thing that you really need to worry is availability seats in Chun Cheon, reservation is recommended. The restaurant is divided into a few partitions and I got the interior design photo after all the diners were left, yeah my sister and I were the last diners to leave the restaurant for their lunch session. 
Kimchi-Jjigae | RM18
I'll just skip all the crap and start with the most exciting part - food! That was our late lunch, if not mistaken it was 1.30pm when we reached there and we do not have time to ask ourselves whether how hungry we were because the lunch session is until 3pm, what we can do is to order as soon as possible. Kimchi Jjigae or any soup based food is a must whenever I went to a restaurant, it comes with a steamed white rice. This dish never go wrong as long as they seasoned it with enough doenjang and gachujang, so loved as they put a lot of beancurd slices in the kimchi jjigae. We were quite regret for ordering this, not to say that it doesn't taste good, it really taste good, but we can't finished it as the dak galbi made us bloated; the steamed white rice just remain there untouched. 
Dak Galbi | RM26/pax, minimum order of 2 pax
The legendary Dak Galbi that I keep mention in this post, it looks 'pale' here but trust me it will make you drool after they are cooked on the hot plate. We kind of got shock when they served this, the portion is so huge but it will shrink a bit when all the ingredients (cabbage, sweet potato, marinated chicken thigh and tteok aka Korean rice cake) are cooked in the gochujang sauce. Do not know how or hate the hassle of cooking? Over here, what you need to do is just sit there and the staff will settle the cooking for you, they will inform you once the dak galbi is ready.
Fried Rice | RM6 . Cheese | RM8
There are some add-on choices for you to include in the dak galbi, so we had these. Practically that was not fried rice, it is white rice topped with gochujang sauce and seaweed, but once the staff mixed it with the dak galbi ingredients, it will become fried rice. Will try ramen next time. No idea why we ordered cheese? Me either. My sister browse through some blogs, and most of them recommend this so we also did the same for the sake of trying. Scroll down to see how they cook all these together. 
Once the food are almost cooked, the staff will separate the chicken from other ingredients and pour the cheese on the chicken, it started to look yummeh right? Cover it for around 5 minutes to wait for the cheese melted, then the staff will ask you to take some chicken to try, writing this post in this hour really a bad idea, so hungry looking at the photo. If you want to take all the chicken, you may, but we left some on the hot plate so that it can mixed with rice and the veggies. 
If you went to Korea before, you might not feel that this dak galbi in Chun Cheon is heavenly, but for me, it is really good since it was my first time to have this. Looking at the photo now make me drool non-stop and tummy started to play some music; mum when is my lunch ready?! After discuss with my sister, you will surely visit Chun Cheon Dak Galbi restaurant again, but with more people joining us, we can only try more food by doing this and merrier!


Location
No. A1-6 & A1-7, Vantage Desiran Tanjung, Jalan Tanjung Bungah, 10470 Tanjung Tokong, Penang.

Business Hours
11am - 3pm; 6pm - 10pm (Daily)

Contact Number
04-890 8749


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What's the plan today? Movie marathon, hunting hawker om nom nom, enjoy life to the max while others are working. Laugh




August 16, 2014

GTF 2014



Hi lovelies, it is going to be a busy week as my uni-mate aka my 'sister' is out in Penang for her exam and we are going to meet up! Apart from that, I just went to Lost World of Tambun, this was a short getaway and I shall post what I experienced during that short trip over here real soon, like if you want to know. Before that, I'm going to share another event that is held at Penang right now (basically this whole month of August) - Gerge Town Festival 2014
George Town Festival is a month-long festival that has turn into a proudly Penang arts institution, I googled it. So, you can enjoy those arty stuff in this month such as films, dance, music, photography, theatre, workshop and etc. Still not sure/don't know what is all about? Just visit their website, you can know what is it all about and you might find something caught your attention when you browse through their programmes list. 
Before the GTF 2014 started, Penangites might noticed that the organizer were setting up a #GTFWORDS campaign to get people hunting for the alphabets. I found some, the rest were too far and I was too lazy to walk under the hot sun to get all alphabets in the heritage areas; it means I didn't win myself a pair of entrance ticket to those films/music performances. Now, the campaign is ended, if you are wondering where they keep the alphabet, you may just go to Dewan Sri Pinang, they have all the alphabets there lining up as "George Town Festival 2014". 
Photo credit to here
I can skip those performances as I'm not 'art' enough to understand that, but I can't skip the workshop and one of it that I participate is "Binding & Weaving Pages of History" workshop. From here, we can know how to weave our handmade books with Japanese stab binding or long & link stitch binding. Sound fun? If you are interested on this, please visit here and you will know how to register yourself in this workshop held on 29/Aug and 30/Aug. Hope to see you there in the workshop!


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More trips me wish!




August 12, 2014

I ♥ George Town . 1st Avenue Mall Penang



Every time when people say food at which state are good or places at which state are nice to hang out, yes I do not deny they are good but still I love them all in my island the most; not because of they are not good at other states compare to Penang, it's just I use to everything in my island, that's what I call it home. Whao, I just couldn't believe I write it this way. Plenty of events/contests are held in this island from early of the year until year end, don't worry of getting bored in this island, you should just worry how you get more time to participate in those events/contests. Sometimes shopping malls will have small contests for shoppers so that consumers not only spend money on their needs but also the chance to win away prizes from the shopping malls. 
Something big, meaningful and fun is coming its way in 1st Avenue Mall Penang now and the event is I ♥ George Town, something quite suit me right? You can get the leaflet and car sticker as shown in the photo from 1st Avenue Mall at Info Counter (ground floor), the contests started when you got yourself the car sticker! My car full of stickers now and then but lovely as long as those stickers didn't block your view while driving. 
How to participate the contests to win yourself prizes from 1st Avenue Mall? Basically there are few ways and I'll write it here in case you can't read them in the photo.

1. Selfie & Win LAH!
You've seen the Oscar Selfie (I think ussie is more appropriate here). How about your selfie? Show them your creativity when you take a selfie/ussie with "I ♥ George Town" car sticker at your car. Share your photo at 1st Avenue Mall Penang official Facebook page, hashtag your photo caption with #ilovegeorgetown and #1stavenuemallpenang
Contest Period
4-Aug until 28-Sept 2014
Prizes
FREE TGV movie passes (10 winners will be selected each week)

2. Tote Bag Invasion
Redeem a FREE "I ♥ George Town" tote bag when you purchase RM150 and above in a maximum two combined receipts, exclusive only at 1st Avenur Penang.
Event Period
23-Aug 2014 onward (while stocks last!)

3. #OOTD
Stand a chance to win RM500 worth of H&M, Padini Concept Store, Charles & Keith, Cotton On & Hush Puppies Apparel vouchers when you snap your OOTD (outfit of the day) with your tote bag. Bonus points will be given for the most stylish fashionista. Winners will be announced at the end of October.
Contest Period
1-Sept until 26-Oct 2014
Prizes
Cash voucher worth RM500

Now, only the first contest is carry on in 1st Avenue Mall, you may follow their facebook page for more details on how to participate on the OOTD contest. Get excite from the prizes part? Wait no more, just go to the mall and get your car sticker now to participate the contest! Good luck and hope you get the prizes home with you.
Here's the sneak peek on the "I ♥ George Town" tote bag (photo taken from here), I want it so badly but normally I just keep all the tote bag I got for collection. So it's a yay or nay? A big YAY for myself! For more information, please follow 1st Avenue Mall Penang official Facebook page here and good luck! Don't say I bojio because I'm jio-ing you guys to join this contests/events.


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Short trip! Short trip! Yippy yeah yeah!




August 10, 2014

Hearty Recipe from Gaviscon



Hola lovelies, my company dinner had come to an end last night, glad that no one actually spoil the event and I think our committee team did better than last year, hope that we didn't get any complain on coming post-mortem meeting. Too bad, I did not get any lucky draw this year but I'm still happy to see others get away great prizes like cash or gadgets, again thanks to our committee team for working so hard to look for sponsorship; it was like a great Raya gift to them, every one of us still in the mid of celebrating this festival. 
Talking about Raya, I didn't went to elsewhere to celebrate it as most of my Malay colleagues went back to their hometown, does it means I can't enjoy all the Raya food since I was not going to open house during the period? Nah, normally food just comes to me automatically. Laugh. After the Raya holiday, they brought the ketupat, lemang and curry chicken to office so that we can had it for hi-tea (a good excuse for idling our work around 30-45 minutes), how sweet! Apart from this, I'm loved as I also got a lot a lot a lot of homemade Raya cookies from my underling; unlimited small bites are available here but remember to drink more water since cookies are heaty! Each year Raya, I'll see lots of family dining in Nando's or any restaurant related to chicken, it's like every meal with chicken only can fulfill the tummy and hey they just smell so good everytime I pass by those restaurant. 

I was then come across with a recipe about 'Baked Chicken and Wild Rice', the name itself already sound finger-licking good somemore it's low-fat recipe of chicken and rice. Before I test it out at home, I wanted to share the recipe to all the lovelies who are reading this before the Raya feast end, so that you could cook this at home and on nom nom with your family, the most important: to enjoy!

Baked Chicken and Wild Rice
Ingredient:
  • 1 pound white chicken breast meat cut into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 1 cups sodium free chicken broth
  • 3/4 cup uncooked white rice
  • 3/4 cup uncooked wild rice
  • 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon (or dried) - click here if you wonder what is this, thanks to Google
  • 1 teaspoon organic chopped ginger (or ground)
Instructions:
  1. Pour 1 cup of chicken broth into a large non-stick pot. Add the chicken, mushrooms, celery and spices. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 8 minutes or until chicken and veggies are tender.
  2. Let the mixture cool.
  3. Pour the rice into baking dish and add vinegar and the remaining chicken broth. Let it soak for 30 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit (~160 Celsius).
  5. Add the chicken and vegetable mixture to the baking dish and stir well.
  6. Bake for 60 minutes, checking at 45 minutes to make sure the rice is not getting dry - of it looks dry, add more chicken broth.
  7. Serve the dish on your dining table. (added by myself, laugh)
Nutritional Information:
Calories 330, total fat 3g, saturated fat 1g, sodium 180g (are you kidding me? this is so healthy!)

This is how the Baked Chicken and Wild Rice is going to looks like if you follow the recipe above, looks tempting right? Thanks to Gaviscon for sharing this hearty recipe, going to test it at home as if I have time. Never try wild rice before but now my family totally switch it to brown rice from white rice, of course we cannot control it at restaurant as  most of them serving white rice. 
Gaviscon not only comes in liquid bottle and tablets, now they also come in a convenient liquid sachet format so that you can bring it to anywhere you want. I prepared 2 sachets in my Tupperware bag and bring it to company every now and then so that it can heal my indigestion if I happened to suffer from this. I did try it before when I suffered from indigestion, it tastes like mint so it's not hard to drink/suck it, and I really felt better after a sachet of Gaviscon. Just visit their website for more information. 


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Go 24 hours without complaining, not even once... Then watch how your life starts changing.




August 7, 2014

me . the postcard collector



I didn't manage to share something here last week as I need to work on Friday, I just have 2 days weekend left to settle my own errand and company annual dinner stuff which I procrastinate until lately to finish it, can't imagine that the dinner is actually on this Saturday. Hope that it goes well and I can live freely without bother it anymore until next year. Also, I'm kinda addicted to another game after the Brave Frontier (a RPG game which is more suitable for boys as per my bro-in-law) and still playing, new one is Hay Day! I know I'm quite late to join the game, somemore I saw most of my friends' farm with level that far away from mine. This also a little bit distract me from blogging, laugh

The guilt strike me for not blogging here last week, not that I want to maintain my pageviews but sometimes I do feel upset for not seeing any new post in my own blog, will you feel the same? Instead of only post about food, I feel to write something else which is about myself or products review only if I find it useful so that all the lovelies who come across my blog can get extra information about me that is useful for oneself. Thanks for your patient and bear with me on the wordy post; from the title you might already know what the post is all about - postcards! So if you don't get excite from this, you may just ciao after scrolling through the photos. 

Sure you will know I have a thing towards postcards if you follow any of my social platform, and it would be a good news to me if my friend told me that I can get some limited postcards selling in a short period of time. It was March when I got this set of postcards, I know it was long ago, and I promise to share any upcoming event on time so that all the lovelies can get the same information. *Cross finger
During the opening day of Penang 2nd bridge, there was an art exhibition by teacher Chong Hon Fatt called [ Impression . The 2nd Bridge ] held at DUN Penang; this art exhibition is held for almost one week and I manage to visit it on the last day. Teacher Chong is the only person that was allowed to go up the unfinished 2nd bridge and get his oil paintings on the bridge done, from the early stage until the bridge was fully constructed. There were almost 20-30 oil paintings being displayed in DUN, teacher Chong is so friendly and keep introduced his artwork to us and tell us some stories he faced during the painting days.
I got the one set of postcards (18 in total) regarding the 2nd bridge but only 6 of the teacher Chong's oil paintings printed on the postcards, the rest were those photography done by reporters.Since he was there in the art exhibition, I couldn't miss the chance to get his signature on those postcards with his painting printed on it, his signature is quite similar with my dad's. Two ink stamps were available during the art exhibition, you can just chop in on all the postcards like what I did. So, my friends sent some postcards but I decided to keep all especially those teacher Chong's postcards; I can give you anything except postcards lol
Just want to show some of my postcard collection, the one I heart the most would be this one: Keep Calm and Carry On which I got it from Dulcetfig, Haji Lane during my birthday trip to Singapore. Normally people only collect postcards with some greetings and stamps from friends, I do collect that and brand new postcards; whenever I feel the postcard is nice, I'll grab it home without second thought. 
Another type of postcard that I also heart is those wooden one, it's cool right? I got some wooden one and all of them are sent from Taiwan; sometimes when I know my friends go to travel, the only souvenir that I requested is postcard from that country. I didn't show all my collection if not you will just leave here out of boredom. Seldom write things other than food, so the first time always sound awkward; practices make perfect btw. Hope you enjoy!


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People who love to eat are always the best people.
-Julia Child-