another bestie got married... o.O

 You know its time to beef up your savings and do a checklist on yourself that time is not always on your side when you noticed and witnessed friends walking down the aisle one by one. I have a few friends had their weddings and ROM this year. And some are into getting their own house. As I look into my bank account, I see the need for some savings as  this day would come soon... or rather, get a partner first. o.O

The latest to the addition is my course mate Wei Theng, who had her ROM on 10.10.10 but the traditional ceremony and wedding dinner towards the last month in 2011. The dinner was held in Hee Lai Ton Restaurant with an estimation of 60+ tables.

 Food in Hee Lai Ton tastes just slightly above average this time compared to Keem & Eric's wedding dinner on my birthday last year. Perhaps I have been dining in Mun Choong for 3 times in the span of 2 months. Well, the banquet hall seems grand (not much inferior compared to Tropicana Tai Thoong) but Mun Choong is undoubtedly the best option for your money if you really want GOOD and TASTY and well presented food in your wedding banquet.

 Only few of us who are "STUCK" in Ipoh made it for the wedding. Outstation friends are just too lazy to drop by. But looking back, that was one heck of a week. Christmas performances, rehearsal, 2 wedding dinners back to back with a wedding reception in church the morning after the Night Of Carols event. Gosh.... That's the tight schedule excluding events which I have to pass due to clashing with the weddings, like my company sports carnival in KL and my ex-factory's year end appreciation dinner.

The next morning I have to wake up early for the "fetch the bride" (jip san leung) ceremony. Yup, due to some pantang thingie and some auspicious date, this event was slot the day AFTER the wedding dinner.

Dress code was supposedly to be "pinkish purple" but I had trouble getting a decent purple shirt for myself. Giordano's designs are too "mass produced" as you can easily bump into a stranger wearing the same shirt as you on the streets. (Remember the "ME" series few years back?) Well, the search came to an end with me making a maiden purchase in G2000, a shop which a person with fresh grad earnings like me wouldn't dare to step in to make purchases.

*NEWS FLASH* The "ginger icon" series has finally reached the shores of Malaysia. My friend got this for me during her trip in Hong Kong's Giordano few months back. This marks the end of the period if being exclusive and unique =p

The best man(s) dress code - in pink tees and white pants. Gearing up to make a dash and take up the challenges we have in store for them before the groom is allowed to enter and meet the bride.

It was a fair game, 11 in pink versus 11 in purple. This is the lineup of the bridesmaids. So who do you think emerged victorious on that day? ^^

MeRRy chRistmAs

Chose this song for this morning I as led worship..... only to know that....

This is the Mandarin version. Another good friend of mine was singing this during the evening service in her church. Great mind thinks alike, don't we? =)

A simple post to wish my readers a BLESSED CHRISTMAS! more post to follow up soon since tomorrow is still a holiday.... =)

Ayam Penyet de Garden Ipoh

Finally, I found the opportunity to dine with some friends in Ayam Penyet De Garden Ipoh. Most of my friends, including my parents, are not fan of Malay/Indian food. Hence, it took me a huge delay to try it after its opening almost a year ago? AP is currently having some good lunch sets from RM9.50 which includes a drink. Ok, let's see what Indonesian food got to offer....

Kick started the meal with Gado-gado (RM4.50) which is abit similar to Indian Rojak. You get crackers, julliened cucumber, beansprouts and hard boiled eggs in a thick and rich peanut sauce. The degree of spiciness was not even mild, even a kid could handle this dish. Good for sharing but nothing spectacular to shout about as I still prefer the local Indian rojak.

This is their signature dish which the shop is named after. Ayam Penyet (or Flattened Chicken). The chicken is not deboned but you get a whole full drumstick (with the thigh) fried to get a crisp and dry exterior but maintaining a slightly succulent interior. Unlike the usual Ayam Goreng Berempah you find in your fave mamak shop in your neighbourhood, the flesh is not fried till very dry. Tastewise, it is mildly marinaded and not as flavourful as I would expect. The crispy flakes from the batter is supposed to be be "bumbu" izit? But it paled in flavour compared to the health hazardous bits of batter from your typical mamak Ayam Goreng Berempah. One set of this cost RM9.50. Ala carte comes at RM7.50 without the iced tea and the rice. YES, you would have to fork out another RM1.20 for the white rice if you go ala carte.

 There are other sets available.... My colleague had the Udang Penyet (RM9.90/set) Thank goodness the prawns were not flattened! Haha... Besides white rice, a portion comes with sides of kangkung, shredded cabbage, cucumber slices, fried tau kua (dried beancurd), tempe (fried preserved soya bean) and a dollop of a killer sambal. The sambal is tongue and lip numbing.... The cucumber slices and iced tea do not seem to be doing their part in dousing the red alert flame!

If you prefer something with gravy, try out their Rendang, available in chicken or beef. I'm not sure whether all portions will be served the drumstick part of the chicken, as all 3 plates of our orders received the drumstick portion. If you fancy some greens, try out the Sayur Masak Lemak (not my cup of tea due to the coconut milk). Come try AP! Well, after Burger King closed down (and Boston reduced their operation area to half their usual size), who knows who will be next in the guilotine list. This is Ipoh after all. Its tough to sustain for a above averagely priced F&B outlet. Merry Christmas everyone~

My Malaysian Christmas - Perak Combined Church Celebration 2011

This is a brief review on the Perak "My Malaysian Christmas" celebration which took place in Perak Girl's School Hall last Sunday night. It's an event participated by different churches in Perak, comprising different ethnic groups by under one umbrella, which is the body of Christ. Credits given to CT Ang Photography for the crisp clear snapshots of the night. I was having a tough time to handpick a few photos for a writeup here. You can search him up on Facebook for the full album of this event.

Christmas is a time to promote the spirit of giving. Well, you can say that I'm a skeptic but the only time politicians go into the spirit of giving is when elections are drawing near. I was somewhere at the backstage or loitering around but I knew its some land titles for Christian cemeteries presented by some local authorities or councillors I think. Nevertheless, we thank the state government for sponsoring this event as a platform for us to evangelize and to spread the meaning of Christmas.

 

Event started at 8pm sharp, or maybe earlier. I was there about 8 something, as my slot was on the second half of the night. The hall is said to be able to accommodate around 1500 people. And it was quite full when I arrived.

Event kick started with some cultural dances from different ethnic group. Well, 1Malaysia ma, what do you expect?  =p

Our Indians brothers giving an energetic dance. Perak was literally shaken, SERIOUSLY!

Well, even representatives from Nepal, Vietnam and Myanmar took part. This shows that foreign workers ministry is growing since they have been a part of our community. I'm sure they found sheer joy to have a Christmas celebration away from home....

Another cultural dance.... Well, the story of Christmas revolving the birth and life of Jesus Christ was presented in BM by the Orang Asli group. The sketch was backed by powerful vocals from the children and adult choir, belting familiar tunes like You Raised Me Up, Silent Night, I Will Follow Him and You Are My Hiding Place.

The children in........ 1Malaysia costumes (again)

The choir...

A wide angle shot of the whole choir group.

Not forgetting those working behind the scenes. The orchestra. If I'm not mistaken, this is NOT the full piece orchestra which made its debut earlier in January in Stadium Indera Mulia for "last year's Christmas celebration"

The musicians which provided a more "upbeat kick"

The finale - flag bearers. The army of Christ marching on, making a stand in present society. Well, If you noticed, my writings on elaborating the photos are suddenly getting shorter. This is because I try not to "politicize" this event.

Well, I missed the sermon session shared by the President of NECF, Dr Eu if I'm not mistaken. I heard he gave a powerful message and was bold to speak his mind. Hopefully those people "up there" gets the message of integrity and see where we stand in working towards a better nation and country, in terms of governance and policy. oooppsss... politics. my lips are sealed now...

Having said that, why not go for a more independent event, a so called privately organized event by FGA Ipoh? If you missed out the Christmas Celebration on the 11th Dec, we will be having another one on Friday 16th Dec night. You will be hearing from Pastor Kenneth Chin on the meaning of Christmas. Trust me, he is an energetic and lively speaker and you will wanna hear from him more compared to a politicians speech on racial harmony and acts of fishing for votes.

Hence why not make a date this Friday. Well, good things don't come free, but at a small fee of RM10 onwards. Yup, tickets are still available in FGA Office and Perak Society Of Performing Arts. The event lineup will be fully in English. Get serenaded by the Genesis Orchestra, playing in full orchestra formation. You will be entertained with lively praise and worship, witness the powerful vocals of the choir and also live performances from top notch singers which have performed in many musicals production, namely Marianne Poh and Shirley Lee who sung in FGA's ARISE album. Juwita Suwito will be performing too and will duet with my friend, a handsome lecturer from UTAR by the name of Darren.

And, you will witness the months of preparation of the dance team. Yours truly have spent weekends and weekends of practices, sacrificing the liberty to be away from town to have a shopping and eating spree in KL. Well, for His Kingdom purpose and His glory, it's worth it! =)

Yup, this is the dance team which performed on the 11th Dec and we will be on stage again on 16th Dec to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. So mark on your calendar and get your tickets (I heard they will set up a booth on that night itself for walk-ins, but perhaps RM30 and RM50 tickets only available for walk ins). Hope to see you there! =)

This is the sneak preview of the event flow:

Evening Programme

Venue : Dewan Leong Wan Chin (Perak Girls' School)

Time : 8.00pm - 10.30pm

8.00pm - Opening Prayer (Pastor Ong)

8.10pm - Star wars theme/Joy to the World/Gloria/Hark the Herald (Instrumental)

8.20pm - Oh Holy Night (Acapella) The Picasso's

8.24pm - Breath of Heaven (Ms Shirley)

8.28pm - Away in a Manger (Instrumental Violin Solo)

8.32pm - Come all ye Faithful (Jeremy Guitar Solo) Band

8.37pm - MC introduces choir and conductor

8.38pm - Choir (Medley)

8.41pm - Choir (Silent Night)

8.45pm - Dance

9.00pm - Interval (15 mins)

9.15pm - Pie Yesu (Ms Marianne Poh)

9.19pm - Noel (Ms Juwita)

9.23pm - Believe in Him (Ms Juwita Suwito)

9.27pm - The prayer (Mr Darren Wee and Ms Juwita Suwito)

9.31pm - Sharing and altar call (Ps Kenneth Chin)

10.15pm - Closing/We wish you a Merry Christmas (Mr Kelvin Ooi)

For enquiries, please contact: 05-5472994

www.fgaipoh.weebly.com

Tickets are also available at

Perak Society of Performing Arts

No.28, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, 31400 Ipoh, Perak

Tel: 05-5487814

Ipoh ALSO Got Talent 2011

 Rendition of Wang Lee Hom's song. He got the Korean baby face look but could improve more in expression and interaction with the crowd.

 The B-Boy group... Well, I felt that they were in the finals because there's only one group representative which is dancing. Their moves were not well synchronized and executed neatly, full of flaws.

 12 year old kid in colourful costume resembling Chinese opera singers. He is bold and confident throughout the whole period he was on stage. Literally treating the stage as his own yard, he is one tough contender at that moment. Belting out a upbeat number "Bian Nian", this little kid has strong vocals...

 A multitasker. Hoola-hooping, doing a some gymnast/ballet routines while singing. When asked later why she wanna make herself so occupied in the performance, she answer OVERconfidently "I think we should cherish every single talents, if you have MANY talents, then make full use of them..." yada yada yada....

 Singing duo performing an unknown number. Well, if only they took our advice and belted a more down to earth number by a group/singer in their age, say M2M, they could've connected with the crowd better....

 My church friend, Aaron doing his dance medley comprising MJ's imitation, a hip hop infused mime, popping and locking.... and last but not least, SHUFFLING! Spiced things up with some humour in the medley.

 Meeting him backstage... This is his attire during his shuffling mode. If you have viewed Party Rock Anthem MV, you should notice a "robot" towards the end of the video.

A violinist doing "HIS WAY", singing "My Way" in 2 different octaves... yes! a "duet with his alter ego, an annoying female voice" 

Juwita Suwito was one of the judges that night. She sang two songs from her upcoming album while the votes for the winner and score was being tallied. In the meantime, Marianne had a duet with another guy for the song "The Prayer" made famous by Celine Dion. Both of them will be performing for A Night Of Christmas Carols on the 16th December.

Yup, I will take the opportunity to give a final push about this event. Yup, despite being just hours away from performing later at PGS Hall for the Perak State Combined Churches Christmas Celebration, I would like to highlight and extend my invitation to all my dear readers to this event on this coming Friday, 16 Dec night. The event starts at 8pm in PGS Hall. Tickets are still available, starting from RM10. The PGS Hall can sit about 1500 people and we are anticipating a full crowd as we wanna make full use of this event to share the gospel and the true meaning behind Christmas in an artistic manner. Having said that, rest assured your tickets price are worth as there will be orchestra, choir and individual/duet song from reputable and talented singers. Yours truly will be also be staging a dance! =)

Having said that, lets get back to the report on Ipoh Also Got Talent. These were the top 3 from the 13 finalists on that night... Try to make rough guess on their standings position.

Yes, the winner is the small kid. First runner up is the guy being a human beat box machine. The second runner up is the 10 year old Malay girl. Well, in such competitions, I kinda expected age is somehow a strong influencing factor in determining who wins. For those who find their forte in dancing, go in a dance competition instead and those who are good in singing, participate in a competition for singers solely only. At least you wont be beaten by the "cuteness" factor.... or other factors such as.... *let's not touch on that here*

The winner flanked by the VIPs. One of them is the President of YMCA. He got himself a trophy, hamper and a 42 inch TV and a DVD Player? I got a glance that the TV brand was HISENSE. Somehow, I felt that you should reward them with prizes from reputable brands at least.

Last but not least, a souvenir presentation to my buddy Kelvin Ooi for being one of the panel of judges throughout the competition. All in all, I find this competition a bit better than the "IDEAL TEEN" competition held years back then. At least, people from all walks of life and background are "eligible" to take part in a talent contest, compared to a "pageant"-like "IDEAL TEEN" competition whereby if your parents are rwell known in the community, then...... *again, I shall cease my tongue from commenting further*

For a more thorough and detailed articles with better photo coverage and reporting, do have a read in the Metro online of The Star: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/7/metroperak/10038769&sec=metroperak

Bricks and Barrels

(photo grabbed from Bricks and Barrel's FB page)

Bricks and Barrel just had its soft launch earlier this month and had its grand opening along the shops behind St Patrick Irish Bar. Currently they are running some beer promotion with happy hours whole night long. Perhaps they feel the pressure not only from St Patrick Irish Bar but the newly opened OverTime opposite the Bangunan Sri Kinta/Old Fire Brigade Station which had their opening on the same weekend as well. Compared to OverTime, B&B seems a bit inferior as OT is a chain pub and has some foothold in the Klang Valley.

Ratatouille (RM20) is a sautéed vegetable dish comprising eggplants, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, garlic, green peas, carrots (depending on the recipe and the cook, it may be baked or simmered to make it a stew). The version served in B&B is accompanied by a pork sausage and a slice of buttered toast. I find the garlic toast complemented the vegetable stew very well.

We poked a few jokes on the English Roasted Pork. Why need to bear the tag of being “English” like how Berlin Bier House tagged theirs as “German” since Siew Yoke is a common item among Chinese in Malaysia. =p Taste wise, we are still hooked on the fresher version made by the Chinese stalls. The crackling skin and savoury marinated meat made me crave for some now. But the version served in beer bars must be those pre-prepared, frozen type. Hence, they are not near the good ones we normally have.

MeZZaLuna Pizza (RM28) - Hope I got the name correct. I did not get to take a bite into this but it seems like a fully vegetarian pizza with generous portions of mushrooms and olives. Very Mediterranean-ish....

The Hawaiian Pork Pizza (RM30) is more of my preference. Thinly sliced pork sausages with some charred and dried sides provided great smoky aroma which complemented well with tangy pineapple cubes. The pizza base is even thinner than a Mac Book Air lid. Seriously, its a great snack and one person can easily whack a whole regular serving by himself. But its very considerate of them since if you were downing booze, thick pizza dough will cause your stomach to bloat in no time. So this thin and crispy is just brilliant!

 The BB Chicken (RM26) is something similar to Chicken Roulade. Whole chicken thigh was encasing a filling of chopped pickled vegetables (looks like preserved Chinese vege). The chicken meat was tender with a slight smoky aroma on the surface. It was well presented with a drizzle of minty and herbs dressing, alongside assorted vegetables and mashed potatoes. Overall, this dish is slightly above average but not extraordinary.

Closer view of the filling inside the chicken.

Currently they are having happy hours ALL NIGHT LONG! But I do not find their promotional price much appealing, at RM80nett for a tower of Tiger. Eurohouse is currently running at RM60 for 3-7pm and RM70 from 7-9pm, RM80 for 9pm onwards if I'm not mistaken. A bucket of 5 bottles of Tiger here at BB is at RM60, which I feel its quite expensive when you brag its a "promotional price". Perhaps a lot has been spent on the decor/renovation here, that's why prices here is a bit steep for Ipoh market.

I did not manage to get many photos on that night because there was a electricity breakdown at some circuit points, causing the bar area to have a night club atmosphere. There was NO live band on a Thursday night, neither were there any background music. Later around 9pm we left because there was a TOTAL BLACKOUT! Tough luck, but I doubt I will be back again on my own initiative. The crowd here is mainly comprised office crowd. If you are hunting for "successful men in their career", here's the place. But if you wish to ogle at younger gals, go to the pubs in Ipoh Garden East's Bandar Baru Medan, or like my own preference, EUROHOUSE. =)