TGIF (Queensbay Mall)

I had dinner in one of the weekdays at TGIF in Queensbay Mall about a month ago. When I was there, TGIF had this promotional meal set, which is a 2 course meal (one appetizer and one entrees) for RM29.90.

The selection of appetizers and entrees available for this 2-course meal can be found here:
http://www.fridays.com.my/html/whatsnew-1.html

For appetizer, I picked 'Fried Mac & Cheese'. And for entrees, I picked 'Sizzling Chicken & Cheese'. Both orders also have cheese in it...yummy...I loves cheese so much!



Fried Mac & Cheese

When I had my first bite on the 'Fried Mac & Cheese', I was very disappointed to find macaroni in it. I hate macaroni! Aiyah..I didn't know 'Mac' means macaroni. Nvr mind...the macaronis are covered in cheese and fried crispy outside...but then when I had my 3rd piece, I felt so 'jelak' with it that I cannot continue eating it anymore.


This is my 'Sizzling Chicken & Cheese'. Tasted ok, but I'm not a big fan of chicken breast meat.


Hubby and sis did not order the RM29.90 2-course meal. They picked their choice from the main menu.


This is hubby's order, 'Jack Daniel's Chicken' which is around RM29.90. There are 2 pieces of chicken breast, served with sweet sauce in the small teacup. The sauce tasted weird. I don't quite like this order compared to my 'Sizzling Chicken & Cheese'.



Sis ordered grilled lamb which cost RM29.90 as well. This is the best order among the 3 that we've ordered. The lamb meat was so tender and juicy.



With the 2-course meal that I ordered, I can add on 2 choices of mini desserts for RM6. I couldn't resist the temptation and ordered the 'Strawberry Parfait' and 'Mocha Latte'. I like the 'Mocha Latte' as it has some bitter coffee taste in it.

I don't like the limited choice of orders available for the 2-course meal. The food overall tasted average.

Oh..gosh...I am very much toxicated with bad food in that week itself, a day before this late night meal (we had our food served at 9pm) in TGIF, I had 4 slices of Dominos pizza for lunch, and a day after this, I loaded myself with lots of free food during the EDN seminar in EQ hotel, and the subsequent day, I had Thai food in Cherry Blossom.

Disfigured and Handicapped

These are the 2 words to describe my feeling now. I was like strucked by a series of mishap that left me 'disfigured' and 'handicapped'. First, the acne breakout on my right cheek which started more than a year ago and later a knee injury which happened about 3 months back.

The last acne breakout I had was when I was a teenager and now this is the 2nd breakout to hit me. Can't believe that it hit me now when before this, I was never even bothered with much skin problem except for some dark spots which appeared after I crossed 30 years old, and acne that easily subside and only pops up once in a blue moon. I wonder why acne is called 'youthful spots' in mandarin when it can hit anyone irregardless of their age...hmm. And thinking back, I suspected my hair had caused this breakout. It all started when I first had my hair cut short to below shoulder level (that was also my first time having a short hair). With this hair length, the end of the hair tends to brush on my cheek. It's either the friction of the hair on the cheek or my dirty hair brushing on my cheek, which started the breakout. It started with one pimple, and then later another one started nearby to it, and later another, and another....and more growing and started spreading. Or is the breakout caused by hormonal change in my body? I don't know, but I guess not, if it is, then why the acne only inflicting on only one side of my cheek, but not all over my face. But recently it had started to spread to another side of my cheek, gosh. For more than a year, I have been suffering from this continuous pop up of fresh pimples every few days on my right cheek. It seems to me more of a bacterial infection, those bacteria is like breeding underneath my skin and getting ready to infect my skin anytime....sigh. But I was very very lucky that it subsided a little before my wedding but that was because I control very very hard not to prick or touch them. I got very itchy fingers that tend to prick at them especially when it had dried up and hardened at the top....I need to control myself and not let the fingers touching my face anymore!!!. But now, it got worst and the only nightmare now is whether those scars will become permanent....... sigh. Why so many women out there have smooth and good skin one? I envy leh. Is it because of my diet? My sis said it's likely due to my diet. I don't deny I have bad eating habits... I like fried food and junk food. I used to be on junk food eating spree almost every weekend....the whole can of pringles or mister potato would be finished while watching tv, or the big packet of RM3 Twisties all gone within hours. I also tend to eat more meat than vegetables, and not taking enough fruits. But how come last time my diet also that bad mah, and yet no pimples one...sigh. Or is it because I don't go for facial? Or is it because when young that time I don't take care of my skin? Can anyone with good skin share with me your secret?

And little did I know that our knees can be so fragile until I injured myself 3 months ago when i hiked down a hill. I hopped and ran all the way down the steep tar road at the Tokun hill in Bukit Mertajam, when it started to rain heavily, until we reached the foot of the hill. It was quite a long journey down the hill because we tooked 45 minutes to hike up there. I still didn't realize I had injured my knee because all I thought was that it was a normal after-hiking pain. A few days later, I went to the gym and continued sprinting on the threadmill with the pain on my knee. I only realized that I might have injured my knee when the pain did not subside after a week, plus it was not the usual pain that I experienced after my usual exercise routine. I had pain when walking down the stairs or when walking too frequent or too fast. I found myself limping instead when I tried to walk fast. Gosh...i felt like handicapped! I went to see a orthopaedic in Gleneagles and the doctor diagnosed my injury as 'Chondromalacia'. It's an injury of the cartilage. Cartilage is the soft tissue that lines the bones in joints, which acts as 'shock absorbers' to absorb the impact of the upper leg on the lower leg and also help to improve smooth movement of the knee. I was given a daily dosage of 1500mg of glucosamine sulfate and some B12 vitamins. My injury has been almost 3 months and I have taken the supplements for a month already, and I still have this pain, although it had got better slightly. My worst fear would be whether the injury will become permanent or whether it will render my knee weaker and not sustainable anymore for my usual intense training in the gym. This will be my next worst nightmare. I felt so sad now that I cannot go exercise coz all this while, I never missed not going to the gym more than a week or two. I would always dragged myself to the gym at least once a week, no matter how busy or tired or hungry I am, or even if it is past 8 at night and haven't had my dinner. For almost 3 months now without exercising, I felt flabby all over, especially my butt which gets bigger and heavier...sigh. Also, I felt less energetic and I bet my cholestrol level is at its peak now with my current eating habit.

Harvest In Cafe

Looking for a nice and cosy air-conditioned ambient for lunch and dinner and yet not have to fork out too much money for a meal of western food? You can try Harvest In cafe. I went to this place once for dinner and found the food not bad and not too expensive considering it's nice ambient.

The facade

Outside of the cafe, view taken from inside the cafe.

Inside the cafe

I had mexican roasted chicken, RM14.90. It comes with mashed potatoes, some carrots,cauliflower and broccoli. The chicken tasted good and tender, and the skin is crispy.

Hubby had this set called Bombay chicken, RM13.90.


I love the food here, and its environment. However, I am quite disappointed with the serving portion. Look at the one little slice of carrot and 3 small cauliflowers/brocolli. It is as if those are so expensive. Hubby's bombay chicken meat is just one piece of the chicken thigh. Mine, the mexican chicken is slightly bigger in size. However, I was still hungry when leaving the cafe, and finished off half a can of mister potato at night for supper....keke.

This is the dinner menu. Only managed to take one photo because the waitress quickly came to me for order when she saw me taking photos of the menu. I guess they don't want the menu to be seen by their competitor outside.

This is the lunch menu. We realized that the menu for lunch and dinner quite different, and what is more different is the price. Yes, lunch is more cheaper than dinner.

Map to the cafe.

Definitely a better choice to go this place for lunch instead, coz the price at lunch is about the same as the outside hawker western food. Also the food here is without taxes and service charge.

Hawker Western Food

I found out of this hawker stall selling good western food during one of my frequent visits to the bridal shop before my wedding. Whenever we visited our bridal shop along Jalan Bagan Jermal, we never failed to stop by the food court opposite Phor Tay school for our favourite western food there for dinner. The food court is only opened at night, so we usually arranged our trip to the bridal shop in the evening so that we can have dinner there.

Why I loved this western food? Because it served spaghetti and fruit salad as the side dishes besides the mash potato. You don't get these side dishes for the same price that you pay at other western food hawker stall. And the usual salad served is usually made up of cabbages, but here they served pieces of apple.

Honey lamb - RM10. The lamb meat tasted good.

Morrocon chicken. There are many other varieties that we had tried like garlic chicken, honey chicken, black pepper chicken, all at RM7.60 each if I'm not mistaken, but sorry no photos coz the glutton me always forgot to take pics and only realized when the food already went into my stomach.

This is the western food stall.

Before we knew of this stall, whenever we thought of good and cheap western food to eat, we would thought of the famous western food stall near to the cemetery at Fettes Park. But now, this stall will be our prefered hawker western food. Served with spaghetti, this western food definitely is much more filling than the other hawker western food and worth the money paid.

For Seafood Lovers

I loved seafood so much! Crabs, urinating prawns ("lai liu ha" in cantonese or "hair ko" in hokkien), fried squid, kepah, etc...those are my favourites. Two and a half months back, we had seafood dinner at "Hao You" in Teluk Kumbar to celebrate my hubby's birthday. Business there was good, it was crowded with ppl when we arrived, just like usual. And as usual, my visit here will not be complete without crab dish. I don't have pictures of the food to show here as my sis had already deleted the photos from her camera phone because they were left there for too long. I used her phone to take photos as I left my phone at home. Anyway, this post is to update seafood lovers (might be only applicable to those who are price-conscious) of the price of the crabs....hmmm, although this is not so up-to-date. Food prices overall has increased over the years. So, being the price-conscious consumer, I enquired for the price per kg for crabs before I confirm my order. I was told then that they have 2 types of crab; small crab and big crab. Small crab cost RM40 per kg and big crab cost RM50 per kg. So expensive...i remembered a year back when I ordered crab here, it only cost RM30 per kg, and we were served with big crabs.

Here is another seafood dinner we had in Tambun on the eve of my wedding day.

Crabs sold here is cheaper than in Penang island, but not any cheaper. RM30 per kg for crabs. The crabs served were big in size. Seafood in Tambun no doubt is fresh, but the prices there is not so cheap anymore. The 'urinating' prawns we ordered tasted so good, the flesh is so succulent, but it costs RM8 per piece. I have forgotten what fish that we ordered, and it cost us around RM40 for the fish. There is this restaurant's signature vegetable dish recommended by the waitress, that we ordered, and we felt like kena cheated because it cost us RM24 for a plate of fried broccoli wrapped in yam. Definitely not worth the price to pay because vegetables sold in market or supermarket is so cheap. Yam may be more expensive, but I still don't think this dish is worth RM24. I forgot the name of this restaurant in Tambun, but just beware the next time if the waitress recommend you any special vegetable dish when you dine in Tambun area.

My wedding photos

Dear friends,

I have uploaded my wedding photos to the following site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/linglinglye

Some of the pictures are a little blurry as I don't have professional photographer to take photos for me during my wedding day and dinner. But overall the pictures turned out quite ok as I have my 2 sisters, sis's bf, brother, brother-in-law, and a colleague of mine as my amateur photographers. Thanks to them! :)

I am especially glad that my makeup and hair-do for my wedding dinner in Alor Setar turned out great because I had randomly selected a makeup artist for that day without going for a trial and with no knowledge whether he is really good in makeup and hair styling. I scouted for the makeup artist by checking on some of the hair saloons near to my house area, and I finally made my pick on a little boy, yeah, not boy but adult, but he really looks like a young teenage boy. He told me he is 26. He looked very young, like someone just out from school. It was his young appearance that made me chose him as I thought he must have just graduated from his hair/makeup school and he should have learnt the newer makeup and hair styling. Yeah, I will be very worried if that someone I engage is an auntie that would apply her 20 years back makeup and styling technique on me. On top of that, he uses Bobby Brown makeup and only charged RM140. This is much cheaper than the other makeup artist that usually charge around RM200 or more for bridal makeup and hairdo.

However, he made me panicked a little when he was so cautious in his makeup on me and took more than 3 hours to finish his work on me. Yes, more than 3 hours! He started my makeup and hairdo at around 3.15pm and only managed to finish around 6.46pm, which caused me to arrive a little late for my event that night. My dinner was supposed to start at 7.30, but I only managed to arrive 10 minutes earlier, at 7.20pm. But nevertheless, I was relieved that his work turned out satisfying and the event went on well that night.

Dimsum buffet at Cititel Penang

I had dimsum buffet in Cititel ZhongHua restaurant about 2 and 1/2 months back. I had been there usually to have their ala-carte dim sum dishes, but on this visit, I saw them having buffet at only RM16.80 per person for the first time, and quickly I decided to give it a try since my usual visit here was never disappointing as food here was always good.

The dim sum available for this buffet is limited in variety compared to their menu for ala-carte order; they have the typical 'siew mai', 'har kow'(prawn dumpling), 'loh mai kai' (glutinous rice with chicken), 'char siew pao' (steamed bbq pork bun), 'pai kut' (pork ribs), chicken leg, fish balls and etc.

Besides dimsum, they also served some other dishes like roasted duck meat, 'char siew' (roasted pork), grilled chicken wings, fish head, deep fried prawns in flour, 'char koay kak' (fried radish), 'bei tan' porridge, some fried vegetables, and etc.

The typical pastries that were usually available in dim sum restaurant.

Some deserts; salad, fruits, red bean soup, jellies, sandwiches, and self-service ice kacang.

Chicken wings, 'har kow', 'siew mai' and steamed pork ribs. The chicken wings were quite cold and hard. 'Siew mai' and 'har kow' were the best among all the other dimsums available in this buffet.

Some 'char koay kak' (fried radish cake), 'char siew', fish head in black bean sauce and fried prawns on my plate. Nothing special, but the little fried prawns in flour tasted good and crispy and the prawns were succulent.

'Char siew pau'... I tried to resist not taking this as the 3 paus could easily fill up our stomach. But hubby couldn't resist when I told him the 'char siew pau' here is very nice. I tried one eventually, but then it doesn't taste as good as the usual char siew pao that I ordered here from the ala carte menu. Cheat one....the 'char siew' filling was so little! I bet they made different char siew pao for the buffet, with reduced 'char siew' filling.

There was one thing that we didn't dare to try because of the large serving. It was the 'loh mai kai' (glutinous rice). The serving was so huge here in the buffet, I remembered it wasn't so big portion in the ala carte order. This is again their trick!

Meat wrapped with seaweed.

Chicken feet, carrot cake and don't know what the crispy thing next to it called. One of the must order item when you visit here for ala carte dishes is the fried carrot cake! However, I was very disappointed when i tried the carrot cake in the buffet. There was supposed to be someone there attending to the buffet and help fried the carrot cake, but no one was there. I couldn't wait any longer and took the unfried carrot cake.

Baked 'char siew pau' and 'wu kok' (char siew filling wrapped in yam). 'Wu kok' is my favourite, I always ordered 'wu kok' whenever I had dim sum here or elsewhere. However, it doesn't taste as good as the 'wu kok' that I had here before. It was not warm and crispy enough.

Overall, I don't quite like the buffet dimsum compared to the ala carte dimsum available here. The same food served in the buffet and from ala carte order was somewhat different in taste. The dimsum buffet is more suitable for someone who prefer quantity over quality, as 1 plate of the ala carte dimsum already cost you around RM3.50 and having 5 plates of the dimsum cost you more than the price you pay for the buffet.

The total bill included RM2 for some titbits that they placed on our table, RM1.50 per person for the chinese tea that we ordered and RM0.60 for one piece of the cold towel. Service charge of 5% and govt tax of 5% was also included.