Capucino Cafe

Ah, finally, one less back logged post! This time, its just a simple review on Capucino Cafe, a cafe opposite Elim Gospel Hall, same row with the M Salim Mamak. Well, do not be mistaken with the Fantasy Cafe along the same street.

The "Ying Yong Pa" (Fish Fillet and Chicken Chop Combo) RM14.90. The chicken is grilled to the right degree, the skin is dry and slightly smoked in aroma but maintained the tenderness of the meat within. However, the slight drawback was the frozen meat came with a slight unpleasant odour. Yes, those typical frozen meat smell. Compared to the chicken, the fish was fresher! I don't think Dory is used here as the flesh is abit flaky. The breadcrumbed crust is fried to perfection without being oily, locking the juiciness of the fish within. Squeeze in the lemon and/or dip it in the orange mint sauce. Lovely!

Black Pepper Chicken Chop (RM9.90). Well, most of the main course can be upgraded to a set meal for an additional RM3 so that you get a drink (peach tea/green tea), soup of the day with a piece or two of garlic toast and some lackluster artificially coloured pudding as dessert

I kinda forgot what sauce is this, but most probably its Oriental Chicken Chop Rice. Hmm... Seriously, I don't really fancy frozen chicken meat being used.

The prawn paste fried rice is another half hearted effort. The rice was too moist and do not have any wok hei at all. And I hate frozen green peas and carrots! Ish....!!! So I think throughout this review, only the fish fillets is noteworthy in Capucino. So much for this post! Looking forward to my visit to EUROBAR tmrw! =D (pending posts next: INDULGENCE!)

Manhattan Fish Market Promotional Sets and Students Privilege Meals

Uncertain of what to eat in Midvalley while waiting for the return train back Ipoh, I finally brought dad to try Manhattan Fish Market considering we had a meal full of poultry, mostly red meat the night before. Besides indulging on seafood, the price is quite friendly to the pocket... Enter lunchtime, you could hardly find a reasonably priced eatery with empty tables in Midvalley.

Then I found out why Manhattan was packed to the brim, not to mention the queue to get empty tables! Initially I thought of ordering the Grilled Platter For 2 - which had the mussels, tiger prawns, calamari and fish fillets with sides of herbed rice and chips. On second thoughts the economical sets are too tempting to resist. Each set comes with a drink (soft drink/iced lemon tea) and a soup of the day

For the first set, we ordered the Quad Delights, a entree platter to savour different items at one go. You get fried calamari, fried shrimps and fried mushrooms. There are 3 dipping sauces to go along - the chilli, tartar and sour cream. These lightly seasoned and battered bite sized items are totally irresistible, my fave being the mushroom+sour cream combination! But wait a sec, how come it's called Quad Delights when this dish is incorporated with 3 items only? =p

Next, we decided to go for some fish. And preferably done by baking/grilling since we had some fried stuffs already. And the Manhattan Baked Fish is the answer. A slab of Dory was baked with just simple condiments - chopped garlic and some herbs and drizzled with some oil. Squeeze in the lemon juice and you can taste the fresh and juicy flesh of the meat to go along with the buttered rice and vegetables. A complete wholesome meal, especially a pick for those health conscious group!

Considering that we have some budget from the two economical set meals, we decided to get something from the ala carte menu. Finally we picked the Louisiana Sauce Prawns. The de-shelled prawns are pre-fried before arranging them on a hot plate. The sauce is poured in front of our very eyes causing a sizzling sound and aroma which grabbed attention from the surrounding tables. The sauce is slightly creamy, abit like your typical cream of tomato soup but with some hints of paprika and other condiments. A complimentary serving of french loaf toast is served for you to dip into the appetizing sauce.

Last but not least, we decided to give them a benefit of the doubt by trying out their desserts. We had the Chocolate Mudpie (RM7.90) and found out that it was quite a small serving but with great fire power! It was very sinfully rich and sweet. Though it was almost slightly bigger than 3 inch by 3 inch, but it proved that it was best shared by two person. The slight drawback was it was preferably ordered earlier so that the staff can "thaw" it. It was slightly frozen when it arrived immediately upon ordering.

So what are you waiting for? Fancy for something more unique other than McD and KFC without worrying to burn a hole into your pocket? Head to Manhattan now. If you are a student, flashing your student card during lunch hours on weekdays will get you sets at RM10 with bottomless drinks. However, I would still strongly recommend the RM16.90 sets, which has a soup of the day and better food. Students only get sandwiches and smaller servings of seafood. =p

Old Town Group Annual Company Dinner

Finally, it has been another year for me working in this company. Annual dinner is reminder that a full cycle has been completed and thus marks time for performance appraisal and increment too. This year, the Annual Dinner for Old Town Group of Companies was held at the Royal Perak Golf Club. Alas, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't held in KL as all these years it was in Ipoh, hence no opportunity for clubbing travelling to a fresher environment.

This year's theme was Retro 50-70s. I think it suits most of us in the company since they are born in this era, but younger blood like us have just the slightest idea about it.

I think the organizers have done a great job in getting this year's Annual Dinner a success. I was not involved in this year's committee as I would like to enjoy the dinner as a whole without running around. But.......

Well, things never change. The custom of having a table Ang Pow, 10 packets each containing cash ranging from RM10 to RM100 in denomination of RM10 difference. This year, I only managed to get RM40 compared to last year's lucky pick of RM90...

The dinner kicked off with some performances by a Music Studio sourced from outside, belting out oldies. A boring effort to fill in the time while waiting for the VIPs to arrive. To officiate the opening of the dinner, our Group Managing Director gave a speech over laurels and milestones of OldTown Group and its path towards listing in KLSE.

This is another snapshot of another Director. The friendliest boss I met among the rest. See how sporting is my boss to dress according to the theme of the night. Its not a surprise why he is flanked by the 4 beautiful ushers!

The RPCG Jubilee Ballroom does host a grand atmosphere with a total of 44 tables altogether that night, combining colleagues from Ipoh, KL, Penang and JB. But how does the food fare???

The food was disappointingly below average. Well, perhaps it's hard to find HALAL Chinese food. To have one that taste good, it's almost impossible! Having said that, I did not bother to review bout the food served during the dinner banquet, prepared by Fairway Restaurant. I had a look at the quotation and the menu before this and I can confidently say that, the taste and the food itself did not justify the price tag.

Okay, screw the food then. Let's move into the highlight of the night. A showdown between the Northen Region and the Central Region Teams. Each region are to send 3 groups to battle in 3 different rounds, 1 sketch and 2 dances! And the grand prize of RM5000 awaits the winning team. Here, you see the opening act/cheer from the Ipoh Team (left) and the KL Team (right)

The KL Team gave a rousing appearance in their entrance and with their first round of performance. The Ipoh Team was stunned and shaken a little by their colourful costume and upbeat tempo coupled by the blowhorns and cheerings from the audience.

I mean, if you were to compare to costume like this. Its quite a clear cut who has the upper hand at first. This group from Ipoh staged a 1Malaysia dance, a remix of the 3 major races portrayed in a medley of cultural dance. Seriously, I don't buy this "1Malaysia" race harmony theme, but since our distinguished VIPs consist of more than 1 race, perhaps hypocrisy it may work.

Next, the groups respresenting the Ipoh Team staged a sketch with the Black Rose - Lei Kei theme. Quite funny indeed. Well, at least they managed to stick by the theme, and I guess they put up a great effort compared to the KL groups which staged a P Ramlee-ish sketch. I seriously couldn't recall what they are staging, just that they are good in flattery, more of a OTWC advertisement with a mamak shop setting. In the third round, the Ipoh Team again turned things around with a Grease-inspired dance medley to retaliate against KL's dance of Para Para -Nobody Nobody. DUH!

The Saturday Night Fever from Team "Go Go Grease" sealed the win for the Ipoh Team, bagging the RM5000 to be shared by 3 groups inside the team. On top of that, the best performing group walked away with RM3000. The Lei Kei group won 2nd prize and the 1Malaysia dance group with 3rd prize with RM2k and RM1k respectively. Seems a bit cruel to the visitors that homeground does plays a slight advantage with the Ipoh groups making a clean sweep of the competition. Now this proves that flattery brings you nowhere! Make sure you follow the theme of the night. Better luck next year! As we the Ipoh-ians will try to stomp in your own yard and win all the prizes again!

There - a group shot of the Ipoh Team. I was told that a team member from the best performing group each got around RM600+ after dividing the cash prize. They proudly claimed to have practise around 8 sessions only prior to the competition. Say.... 32 hours of practice in in exchange for RM600+. That makes around RM150 for 8 hours (standard working hours). Damn! It's even pays out better than my daily wages! I shouldn't have declined when they wanted to rope me in their group initially. =

Nevertheless, I also received a simple RM100 for impersonating some Retro popular figures for the Grand Lucky Draw segment. Not bad, costume is sourced for me, I get an angpow for auspicious purposes because of Chinese custom, its "supersitious taboo" to impersonate the dead. No prizes to guess what character I was assigned to impersonate. =p

These are some of the people impersonating the celebrities- P. Ramlee, Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee, Teresa Teng, Marilyn Monroe. Ironic huh? The famous sex symbol of the 60s is played by a guy here! =p The lucky draw finale of RM3000 for the grand prized ended the night for some..... As some made their way back to KL, some back home/hotel to sleep, some went to check out the OTK Karaoke Studio.... and some went to club. =p

Snowflakes - Taiwanese Desserts

I was at Pavillion again to kill some time before catching my train back Ipoh. Deenie accompanied me since she has finished her thesis. As a mark of celebration/freedom, we decided to go for something sweet after our Char Siu lunch earlier. We wanted to try Godiva Chocolatier but after browsing through the price, we decided to keep that in the future to try with our special one respectively. =) We finally settled for something more economical! Snowflakes - Taiwanese Dessert Secets!

The Cold Snowflake Best Seller (RM6.90) - comprises grass jelly, taro balls and creamer on top of grass jelly flavour shaved ice. I really love the taro balls. They come in 2 variant of colour which taste has a slight difference in taste apart but both are equally gummy and slightly chewy. Its like a cross between ma chee and tang yuan. A very addictive stuff indeed.

I had the soya ice series. Soy powder is used to flavour the shaved ice. You can choose different combination of topping to go along. I had the Kidney Bean+Pearl+Black Glutinous Rice. The combination work quite well to me as I enjoyed all the toppings alongside the Grass Jelly.

Besides icy desserts, you may opt to choose the tou hua series, being served hot or cold. After browsing their website, I would definitely return for more(they have quite a number of branches - Sunway Giza, SS15, Kuchai Lama to name a few) The next time, I will decide earlier before walking to the counter. I would love to try their toh hua with 3 different toppings. And my pick would be Taroballs (of course!), pearls and Ocha Balls! I'm deeply fond of those gummylike balls =)

*Do check out their creative way of ensuring they serve the customers accordingly and how they prompt you to collect your orders. The have this unique UFO beeper which they pass to you after you paid at the counter. Take a seat until the UFO flashes and walk to the counter to collect your desserts. You may view the photo from Motormouth's post here

Not your average Joe

Pork burgers became a hit item for quite some time in the metropolitan foodhunt but I have yet to start my review on single one of them due procrastination of dropping by KL more frequently. I've read many blog posts and many agreed that Nambawan's porky delights still reign as one of the tops. After a light meetup in Nyonya Colours, I was still searching for something to fill up my stomach as a late lunch. In Midvalley, I've tried more or less all of those within my budget in my last 4 years studying in UPM. Finally I decided to give Ninja Joe a try.

With a very limited menu, you are basically left to turn left or right only. Go for the original "Ninjas" or the "Big Boss". Feeling the need to have a meal which enough to keep the hunger pangs away till supper, I opted for the Big Boss. Diameter-wise, the Big Boss is the size of a burger you normally find in McD, and for the "Ninjas", its probably those cheopo-sized KFC Colonel OR Fillet Burger, gone in 2-3 bites. For good measure, I bundled it up with a drink and crinkle cut fries.

For even better measures, I even add on a slice of bacon to go along with my burger. By default, the Big Boss comes with a juicy pork patty, an egg, tomatoes and onions. I do not have any recollection of any mayonnaise but one thing for sure is.... the burger is without any accompanying sauce unlike its Ninja counterparts. Bacon and cheese can be added with extra charges. The pork patty was juicy and had the right proportion of minced meat and fats. The streaky bacon added in a smoky touch to every mouthful. A complete set of bacon added Big Boss is about RM13.

Bear in mind that there is nothing else except PORK! The "Ninjas" is priced at around RM5 to RM6 per piece depending on how many pieces you order at one go. There are various accompanying sauce to differ one from another. (teriyaki, spicy, oriental, black pepper) You can read more from my friend, Sue Ann's blog post here. There are also light snacks in form of shuriken fries and nuggets to try out!