Mmmmm... Donuts!

When I was buying groceries after work, I saw this donut place that my office mate told me about. Went into the place and wanted to order 3 donuts but I ended up with 6 donuts instead. In case you're counting the donuts in the picture, there's only 5 there. The 6th donut (Snow White) has been devoured by me :) It's a nice and cosy environment to relax and enjoy the donuts and boy, the donuts tastes real good! Good stuff...

Azlin & Hakim Happily Married on the 17th of January 2009

Went to Muar Town (also referred as Bandar Maharani) in Johor with 3 of my friends to attend a 'Kenduri Kahwin' of my long time friend, Azlin whom I have known since 1992. The ceremony was very lively with traditional Malay dancers entertaining the event. Azlin and her husband looked very elegant in their traditional Malay dress.

The Malay dancers with their colorful clothes and elaborate jewelries.

After attending our friend's wedding, we went to Tanjung Emas where we took some pictures.

The Sultan Ismail Mosque at Tanjung Agas.

We had some light snacks before heading for our early dinner.

Amy (left) and Miss J (right) posing for a glamour shot at Muar estuary :p

After the photoshoot, we went for 'Murtabak Singapura' located on the other side of Sungai Muar (Muar River), Tanjung Agas.

Amy (left), Miss J (center) and Naz (right) in front of Murtabak Singapura restaurant.

Moments before digging in... Murtabak originated in India or possibly the Middle East. The one we're having was made of minced beef, onion, garlic, lotsa eggs and some other spices.

The cook preparing the Murtabak. Note the ketchup dippings in front of the pan.

Cupcakes

Went out with my sister yesterday and she wanted to try out some cupcakes from a place she found on the internet when she was surfing at her home in Swiss! I typed the address in on my GPS navigation device and it guided us straight to it.

This is from my sister's selection. Looks very yummy indeed!

'Clown-ish' cupcake

For that lovely feeling

Pina Colada. The most unattractive of all but the most delicious

The box

Lamb Steak Marinade

On the way to home yesterday, we dropped by Tesco to buy some stuff. As we were shopping, I came across some fresh herbs and thought "Hey, I think I wanna do some BBQ with some home made marinade". I whipped out my Nokia N95, opened Opera Mini and searched for some marinate recipes. The website stated dried herbs but I chose to use fresh ones instead.

Marinade sauce (good for 6 portions):

• 1/2 cup apple vinegar
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 handful fresh oregano
• 1 handful fresh mint
• 3 cloves of fresh garlic
• 1/2 handful fresh thyme
• 1/2 handful fresh rosemary

Place all of the above into a blender and process it until it emulsifies. Prick and marinate the lamb and store it covered in the refrigerator for 24 hours, turning occasionally. After 24 hours, bring back the meat to room temperature and grill it. Easy.

Fresh mint

Fresh rosemary

Fresh oregano

Fresh thyme

Fresh garlic

End product :) 

Pictures were taken by me on my Canon EOS 450D with 50mm prime lens. Aperture was set at f/1.8.

Reached home on the 2nd October 08

Been back from Sarawak for a few days now and I had some time to select some good looking pictures and do some HDR shots to post in my blog. I'm still new in this HDR imaging and these are some of the first pictures. Basically HDR imaging is photographing the same scene many times with a wide range of exposure settings (e.g -2EV, 0EV & +2EV) and combining those separate exposures into one HDR image. This will make the dark shadows all the way up to bright lights or reflected highlights properly exposed. If you want to read more, click HERE.

No HDR here. Was going to cross the river heading towards Kuching from Sibu. Stopped at the roadside and took pictures of my GPS navigation device and the bridge itself.

View from our hotel in Sibu. HDR image.

Sibu town. HDR image.

Sibu town. HDR image.

HDR image of a building from Waterfront, Kuching.

Calm before the storm. HDR image.

Waterfront, Kuching. HDR image.

Waterfront, Kuching. HDR image.

Waiting for the rain perhaps? HDR image.

HDR image.

This picture and the following pictures are shots of 'Sarawak Layered Cake' or Kuih Lapis Sarawak. Looks wonderfully yummy ain't it?

A long drive

To Sibu. We went to Sibu from Kuching today to visit my father's elder brother, Pak Long. The drive took about 6 hours of 460km non-stop driving with the help of my GPS navigation system. Strangely the drive didn't tire me very much. I guess my mind was absorbed in memories of me when I was a 10 year old kid with my 4 family members travelling in my father's Mitsu Pajero on mostly gravel road from Brunei's Kuala Belait border to Kuching. That was year 1988. Now, the road condition has very much improved (tarmac), travelling in a much refined late model Toyota Prado with me(!) as the driver and with only 1 familiar face from the 1988 trip. It has been 20 years...

One of the low cost hotels in Kuching

View of Sibu town during the day

Sibu town at night

Grilled fish being cooked at one of the Ramadhan bazaar around Sibu

And some grilled calamari

Honey roasted whole chickens mmmm

Some of the grilled foods being sold

I ordered 20 beef & 20 chicken satays

My Pak Long with my father at the background

Some of the food that we bought to break the fast with Pak Long. Chicken with tomato paste, satay, grilled fish & cuttlefish, Briyani rice and some appetizers. We had a wonderful dinner with Pak Long :)

Significant other checking out graduation pictures on the wall after breaking fast. I'm in one of the pictures

Satok

My father had a meeting today at about 4 and unfortunately ended close to break fast time. We went to a few restaurants to try our luck but all of them are full. I suggested Secret Recipe in Satok. Luckily there is a table for 4 pax and its the only one left.Wheww... We then had carrot cheese cakes and some drinks before having our proper dinner at Saddat's located nearby.

I prefer blueberry cheesecake or apple pie cheesecake but this one is ok

Some of the festive cookies being sold by street vendors of Satok

Also the famous Sarawak Layered Cake or locally known as Kek Lapis Sarawak are available here in Satok

Yummy

Went out with some of my friends to Taman Tun on Saturday and had lunch with them. I ate Nasi Daging Merah and as I was ordering my drink, I saw this strange looking picture of a drink in the menu. I ordered it and wow, it looked much better than it was in the menu. On top were ice shavings, on the middle was orange fizzy drink mixed together with ice cream soda (i think)and at the bottom were some red jellies/jello. It was thirst quenching in the midday :)

Had these fresh water prawns for lunch today. I experimented with some ingredients; rosemary, Sarawak black pepper cooked in a pan with a little bit of olive oil. It was good :)

To wash down my lunch today, I made myself and my wife ice-blended chocolate drink I learned from my sister when I visited her in Switzerland back in May. Ice blended swiss chocolate drink with a hint of premium coffee and a hint of vanilla, topped off with generous amount of whipped light cream and sprinkled with swiss chocolate powder. Mmmmmmmm...