CNY 2021

This is a summary of happenings during this year CNY under the new normal.

Self-entertained/bai nien with myself and had snacks that we bought for CNY...

Here, i finished the whole canister of crabstick crackers...ALONE😀

Then, annoyin' sis brought her home-baked choc chip butter cake for us on CNY eve.

limited edition, since her oven couldn't accommodate a large cake.

she also brought some cookies and a pack of mushroom (the packet on the right) which she bought in Petaling Street.

The price of each cookies/biscuits is labelled on the cover.

Had Zoom bai nien with relatives/cousins locally and abroad on CNY chor-1...The 'meeting' involves 3 generations, some i have not met for years.

On CNY chor-2, i went for solo dine-out at A&W. Parking was easy and FOC since it was a public holiday. I parked right in front of the shop.

Ordered a beef burger set meal for RM10.50 nett. Got a free gift - colour pencils!

Then, for dinner we had Ayamas chicken - black pepper and percik flavour....I prefer the percik one.

some weird decoration at home....this is definately not my job!

and on CNY chor-12, we opened a can of Eu Yan Sang abalone to cook with mushrooms and romaine lettuce....Just a weekday meal, nothing special about this day.

By CNY chor-14 (today), i'm back to the office and manage to lousang with colleague...It was a last-minute plan as we are sort of doing a farewell for a colleague. Will post up pictures in my next post...

Dinner @ Zhen Liew Siang, Sentul Raya

This dine-out dinner happened sometime last year....It was a treat from BIL.

We've been here previously...The dishes that we ordered are almost similar to last time too...

We ordered hotplate of prawn and squid in banana leaves...the sauce tastes like kam heong, though i'm not sure of the actual name for this dish.

stir fried sweet potato leaves

claypot tofu with assorted veggies

curry fish in claypot

and nam yue deep fried chicken wings

The dishes taste good but some are too flavourful to our tastebud, especially the fried chicken, fish curry and the squids & prawns...

This place is quite popular among the KL folks, not only around Sentul area...Business is so good that they even limit the time period for dine-in, with each table allocated a max of 45 mins dine-in period. This is to control crowds and queue during the pandemic.

While we were there, there was a long queue of people waiting outside for tapao despite the downpour.

Total price for all the above including rice & a pot of warm water for 5 pax:  RM131.75

Random Updates

It has been almost 2 months since i last went to the office....Since the beginning of 2021, i have been WFH and is still continuing that until 'dunno when'...as the HR have yet to issue any memo that the office will reopen.

The below is my final meal in the office pantry on 18 Dec 2020...

Weird combo with keropok lekor, begedil, omelette and stir-fried long beans....from the nearby food court.

I miss this cheapo meal....i think it is around RM5...

The eateries in that food court suffer decline in business due to most people working from home...

I don't think i will be seeing them operating again (when i'm back to the office on this year)

There goes me and my lunch box on a single seating table at the pantry....kinda lonesome! LOL!

Meanwhile on another occasion...there seems to be some super low-price items on sale in AEON Big every now and then....

Previously i have blogged about 50 cents ice-cream and 20 cents waffles....

This time it is somewhere 15 cents mini potato crackers

thin slices of crackers in tomato flavour....to crunch on while WFH....

Unfortunately we only managed to get a pack....and the other day when we went there again it was sold out.

Meanwhile, during the MCO, we have seen many eateries suffer a decline in business, especially those Chinese seafood restaurant where customers usually dine-in to enjoy freshly cooked seafood. Since dine-in no longer allowed during MCO, some restaurants opted to close temporarily after considering that delivery is not making much profit.

Our next-door neighbour are a group of staff & chefs operating such restaurant...Due to the sudden MCO, they have plenty stocks of fresh fish kept in their freezer. While they can cook it for their own consumption, some were given away to their relatives/friends....

They also gave us 2 huge fishes and a fresh spring chicken....

Depending on how long the MCO goes, they might decide to close down business for good...after almost a year long of roller-coaster business (with various dine-in restrictions during MCO/CMCO).

Hopefully the economy will recover and business will be back as usual after the vaccination....

Dinner @ Tasty Wok, Bukit Jalil before MCO 2.0

Before the second MCO starts, we had a round of family dinner eat-out at our fav place - Tasty Wok.

We ordered 5 dishes, they are:

Stout pork ribs

my fav deep fried squid in salted egg

claypot tofu with assorted veggies

assam steamed fish

and stir-fried romaine lettuce

let's dig in....nom nom nom.....

This place has become our fav eat-out for 'dai-chow' coz the food is priced reasonably and not much msg used. We don't feel thirsty at all after the meal.

Service was quick and the place is clean with plenty of space for social distancing.

The young boss is very cordial and even joked with us.

Total price: RM100.40 nett for everything including rice and tea for 5 pax, but we only paid RM100 (the boss omit that 40 cents).

BON APPETIT!

24 Hours Vietnamese Restaurant

The name of the shop is '24 Hours Vietnamese Restaurant' but in reality it operates until the permitted time allowed during MCO.

I went there on last year end (during CMCO), eventually wanted to try out a Thai restaurant recommended by annoying sis, but it was closed, hence ended up at this place.

This shop is run by Vietnamese who are fluent in Chinese mandarin. The chef and staffs speak in Vietnamese among themselves and they also sell some Vietnamese food products (noodles, coffees) in the shop.

My default order in a Vietnamese eatery:

Beef pho

which came with a plate of raw greens and blanched beansprouts.

Good that they provide mint leaves to 'cover' the gamey beef taste.

There are bottles of sauces (chili oil/flakes, sriracha etc) available at each table too.

Halfway eating...i dumped the greens and beansprout into the pho to soak up

I m greedy to order another item - spring rolls!

the fillings inside....taste good with the chili dip!

There goes my extravagant meal!

Total damage: RM24 nett for everything.

BON APPETIT!

A&W

Had A&W a few weeks ago for lunch. It was an impromptu purchase as annoying sis passed by A&W on her way home.

She bought a Mozza burger set meal which comes with curly fries & root beer. We had large size for fries & root beer for sharing.

My fav curly fries since kid.

This is my first time trying Mozza burger. It is huge with thick beef patties (yes, 2 pieces of patties!)

The burger is almost the size of a Carl's Jr burger.

She add-on the order with ala-carte fried chickens - spicy and non-spicy. Can't differentiate by looking at them...

Not sure of the total price, but roughly less than RM30 for all the above.

Besides, she also bought a box of light cheesecake (RM15) from RT Pastry House.

soft and fluffy...similar to Japanese cheesecake....we put it into the fridge to be eaten cold.

On another note, I recently tried Julie's Le-mond chocolate hazelnut sandwich biscuit....It tastes awesome like Ferrero Rocher....i mean...a cheaper version of it😍

BON APPETIT!

Fine Dining @ Le Mei, Meridien Putrajaya

Sometime last year (17 Dec) we had team lunch to finish off our team fund at some fancy Chinese restaurant.

The place is so 'atas' till no customer in sight...except us...

The entrance with huge red door....I think they have these red lanterns decoration throughout the year

We booked a private room with 2 tables...each table accommodates 7 diners

back then the was no MCO/CMCO in Putrajaya area, hence there is no limit of the number of diners per table.

We had set lunch each....and it is not cheap....somewhere RM138++ per person.

hotel standard price konon...

nice ambience, other than that nothing to shout about

well, i believe the price is inclusive of printing the menu on the cardboard for each diner...which is not necessary...but that was part of the table settings.

the menu....

here are the food pics:

Seafood soup with bamboo pith and dried scallops

Assorted dim sum

Cantonese stir-fried green chives and dried shrimp with extraordinary sauce

nothing extraordinary about this except that the portion is super small on an average size plate.

Fried organic brown rice 

the portion is equivalent to a small bowl of rice....

as for dessert....we had Mango puree with vanilla ice-cream, pomelo and sago

i would prefer if they pair it with mango ice-cream coz the vanilla ice-cream is too strong and overpowered the mango puree taste.

so, there goes our 5 course meal ala 'fine dining' style

Throughout our dining, it was all quiet coz the restaurant was empty, such a contrast to the next door restaurant (which serves lunch buffet)