Vogue

I ain't so good at reviewing food, because usually at buffets, I am the kind who would just pile my plates and devour everything as soon as I am seated. You won't see me carrying a DSLR, taking snapshots of the food on my dinner plate. So here it goes...

I was back at Renaissance's Vogue once again. What can I say? The food there is just the best! They serve a mixture of local and Western food. Oh and we wanted to finish off the vouchers. Yes, my mom signed up to be a Prestige member (costs RM400++ annually) which entitles us to these booklet of vouchers which carries discounts and freebies worthed so much more than the fee itself. Read staycation for more...

I think Vogue serves one of the best buffets around. Like the first visit, they served cream pasta (only with a different type of pasta), lamb, chicken, fish, assorted cheese, sushi, bla bla... I can go on forever.. I will just show some of the pics I took.

L -> R: 1) Caesar's Salad. One thing cool about this is that at the counter, there is this really huge bowl for you to prepare and mix your own salad. So, you can decide how much veg you want and top it with stuffs like olive oil, crutons, cheese, bacon, shreded chicken, anchovies, mayo, etc. 2) This is the ultimate guilty plessure, chocolate mousse! SO creamy and chocolatey. Every bite melts in my mouth and tinggles every receptors on my tongue. Absolutely delightful! 3) I had so many of strawberries. It's like a healthy snack. Really couldn't stop eating.

I don't have a picture, but the raw prawns and salmon at the sushi corner tasted so good as well. Also the oysters! Yum! The first visit had chowder. I loved it. At the second, they served something different, mutton something, but it was still good.

So most of the food which were served were about the same. So, it was up to me to do some improvising. For example...

I took some lemons from the sushi corner, and made my own iced lemon tea.

I ate the green curry mussels with the pita bread I got from the bread section.

I scooped some Chocolate Haagen Dazs (Yes you heard me... Jogoya isn't the only buffet serving it) and added some stuffs from the dessert section - chocolate tipped marshmallows, strawberries, and some dark chocolates.

Oh yea.. at the dessert section, they have these jars of chocolates. There are dark chocs of course, which chocs corn flakes, milk chocolate, green tea chocolate, etc. I wish I could have taken the whole jar of dark chocolates back home, man!

At each time, they only serve two different flavours of Haagen Dazs ice cream. By the time I started savouring the desserts, there were chocolate and green tea. And of course, Haagen Dazs is famous for their vanilla. During our first visit when they first brought in the vanilla ice cream, everybody was suddenly queuing up for it! Because of that, and also because I was too bloated, I did not manage to eat it. So I made sure I had enough space for some vanilla this time around. Patiently we waited...

Until finally my mom, on a rather high volume side, commented to the 'Captain' that we were tired of waiting for the vanilla flavour ice cream to come out. I was like - You.. not we.. But the 'Captain' was such a nice fellow. He said he will get some specially for us! Then playfully he asked my mom what will she give him for it. My mom just said she's a member. After he left, my mom was like so bangga she was being hit on. Swt..

Our vanilla Haagen Dazs ice cream. MMmmm...

So the cost of the buffet for four of us? Zilch! Zero! RM0.00. Not a cent! We went home with a huge tummy and a huge smile on our face :D Oh yea... parking is a bit expensive. RM12. So make sure you get your parking ticket chopped at Vogue to slash the cost by half.

I know what you are thinking. That's all great for us but what's the actual price? It's about RM100+ after taxed. A bit steep I would agree, but if you love food, this is worth trying. But I would be a Prestige member first ;)

But if buffet is not your thing; if you want something lighter, you can try Vogue's Mediterranean set lunch. To me, it was fabulous. For buffets, all you want to do is stuff yourself silly and make sure you get your money's worth. But eating their set lunch, you will be able to truly taste and savour every flavour with each bite of your food. I highly recommend it. You have 3 options in each of the starters, main course, and desserts. Sorry I can't remember what they are exactly called, but I will try to describe them. So here's what I ate/chose...

First up was the complementary bread/bun basket. Just like at Italianese, the buns/bread may actually make you full before your main course comes out. But you have to try their bread, really English! I said English.. because what do I know about Mediterranean?

For my starters/entree, I had a plate of salmon salad. The salmon looked raw, but I wasn't sure when I ate it. The salmon, mixed with honey mustard tasted so good, and chewy! Best salmon I ever had by a mile!

My dad said his mushroom soup was very creamy. I tried it and I must admit; it's not like Campbell's at all. You could taste the mushroom in Vogue's.

Our courses came in one by one. You could request them to do otherwise. But they will surely pay attention to you. We were like the only customers there... actually literally! Well, most of the hotel patrons of course would prefer to eat out rather than in the hotel for lunch. Anyway, we didn't have to wait long for each course to come out.

For my main course, I had lamb shank. I requested for medium rare. You can ask for well done if you want. Anyway, I have only rave reviews for the lamb! I say kudos to the chef. He really made my day! Excellent and tantalising! It's prepared with mashpotatoes and the lamb shank topped with mayo and marinated with mushroom sauce.

My dad had the seabass with ratatouille! Now.. I wonder who's the chef.

Maybe a certain young rat named Remy?

Anyway my dad said it tasted alright. Haha. Ratatouille actually taste like pasta sauce.

As for desserts, I had the fruit custard pudding. It was pretty normal. But I love strawberries and pudding.

My dad had this. Looks gorgeous huh? It's a cake layered with choc mousse, with some more chocolates sticking out. It was rich. So I didn't let my dad finish it :p

Again, this meal was completely free! Yet another benefit being a Prestige member :D I wouldn't say we were very full; satiated. But good enough to last till an early dinner. Normal price? RM60 something nett.

So, are you feeling hungry now?

pretend-pundit predictions

Hoorah!! BPL season is back!! Boy, weekends have been such a dull since May. Well, the first week have been played.



How did you team fare? It's only the first game, so don't get carried away/be too upset and blame the refs again.

Starting week 2, I will be sacrifising my reputation by posting up my predictions of the games to-be played, which includes the scores and players to watch out for. Well.. ok.. I shall try one week first. If I get at least 50% correct, I will go on for another week, until I deem my predictions to be unreliable. So let the fun begin!

Sunderland-Chelsea
0-3. Should be fairly comfortable for Chelsea.

Wigan-Wolves
2-1. N'Zogbia (Insomia :p) will definitely be lively.

Birmingham-Portsmouth
1-2

Hull-Spurs
1-1. Watch out for Crouch!

Burnley-Man United
0-2

Liverpool-Stoke
1-1. Reds could struggle in this game. I can't see them winning.

Bolt

Had he gotten to a better start, had he not turn to look at the clock before crossing the line, who knows how much lower the 100m world record could have been slashed?? 9.4s perhaps??

But Bolt still manage to finish the race ahead of Gay in 9.58s!! Still an amazing feat!! Best of all, he beat the previous world record (which he set in Beijing in last year's Olympics), by a monstrous 0.11s!!

By my calculations, Bolt was running at an average of 37.578kph or 23.350mph! To put into perspective how fast that is...

In Malaysia, for school areas, the speed limit of 35 kph (20 mph) is applicable during rush hours. Bolt, would not be allowed to do any sprinting near any schools. He might get a speeding ticket from patrolling officers (if can catch him). Also, running at that speed would trigger automatic cameras installed in the area.

But jokes aside, Bolt, once again, I am a huge fan!

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You may want to read these:
1) zappp!
2) Beijing strucked again
3) super footballers

cockroach

Cockroaches are so adaptable and resilient. They live just about anywhere on Earth. Just leave a pack of Maggi in your room; and you might be asking for trouble. Forgot to empty your trash after more than a day? A whole colony could move in with you.

Someone wise once said, "If you see one cockroach, you can bet there are about another hundred scurrying somewhere near."

Late last night, before going to bed, I decided to get a cup of water from the kitchen. And right there just below the sink was the fattest, biggest cockroach you ever seen. I approached closer to it to see if it was dead or not. I was startled when he started to flutter its wings. Nothing was worse than a flying fat roach! So I grabbed my trusty Shieldtox and started to spray at the bugger (pun unintentional). So it begin its usual scurrying-for-its-life all over the kitchen. I decided to tail it to watch it die find out where it was going to die (have to retrieve the body the next day). Boy, this is a tough one. It's not giving up. So I gave it another good 10-second spray. DAMN. It's on the windows now. So I cleared the cups and water tumblers. I didn't want the roach to die in there. If not I definitely have to throw them away. GROSS. It's on top of my cereal box! Thankfully it is still sealed. Then it was on the microwave's side. So I gave it a quick spray, and it fell turn-turtled. That's that. I was just about to get my cup of water when it went back to its upright position. This fella damn reluctant to give up, man. Another 5-second spray and I literally see it chocking. It was now struggling to get back upright. Nearby, I heard a lizard's tik-tik-tik.. I got down and watched. I know... damn sadistic. But then, an effect from the spray, I think it lost control of its bowel movements and started pooping in its pants. P-U man... I got up, get my water, and went upstairs to sleep.

If we were like cockroaches, we will be capable of living without food for a month and can survive on just the glue on the back of stamps if necessary. And most famously, not even 5-star hotels or nuclear explosions/radiations can stand in the way of cockroaches (because they are simpler organisms; we are considered complex). Supposedly the latter should occur, they stand to inherit our Earth. Needless to say, cockroaches are the ultimate survivor.

blonde or brunette

After 67 years, the seemingly never-ending love conundrum between Archie Andrews and both high school hotties, Betty and Veronica, is finally solved!

As you may or may not know, blonde Betty Cooper is the sweet, laidback wholesome hometown "girl next door," and someone with a big heart, in other words the 'true American girl'...

c

in contrast...

x

...to brunette Veronica Lodge, a sophisticated, spoiled and often selfish rich manipulative brat with a mean-streak.

Guess who will Archie pick?

In Issue 600 of “Archie,” the iconic comics teen gets down on bended knee to propose to rich Veronica Lodge — and breaks long-suffering girl-next-door Betty’s heart.

There you go; a resounding "Yes!" by Veronica. Poor Betty. Strangely or maybe not; this situation isn't far off from reality. It's quite realistic if you have been following Archie.

I don't know about Betty Cooper but...

I love you, Beth Cooper!

staycation

"Good afternoon! Welcome to Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel. We do hope you enjoy your stay here in Kuala Lumpur."

All I can say is.. "HAHA. Thank you."

The hotel is only located 18 minutes from home. So staying there for one night over the weekend will make lots of sense...

Wait. I wasn't being sarcastic. Look what they have to offer...

• A luxury hotel in Malaysia with one of the biggest Olympic-sized swimming pool in Kuala Lumpur.
• Hotel offers the largest state-of-art fitness centre (24hrs) in Kuala Lumpur.

And of course the food!! Buffet dinner at Vogue was absolutely heaven sent!

And I forgot to talk about our room. It's huge!! It's a bedroom suite worthed RM800 per night. Not bad at all... for free! Yes FREE. From the word freedom...

The room view

Well not exactly. We signed up for this Renaissance Prestige, a loyalty membership, which costs an annual fee of RM400. SO... it's a pretty good deal, considering the amount the vouchers are worthed.

Part of the huge room. It had two of this flat screens!


Random picture.

Okay... back to the buffet. We got a 40% discount for being a Prestige member. And at RM62 per person after taxed and discounts, I would say worthed every single cent, except one cent doesn't exist in Malaysia anymore. But it was money well-spent (trying not to use the word 'worthed' again)!

I don't have the pictures to prove (not much of a food blogger), but you have to take my word for it. So many varieties it's hard to list everything down.

"So full!"

*GRUMBLE* *GRUMBLE*

(Went to get more full)

"MMMmmm... so good... but so full."

That's how we all were. Okay.. I'm going there again. Maybe I can get some decent pictures this time.

And I had the opportunity to use the gym, which was huge!! It is so well-equipped. Again no pics. I went twice in the 24 hours we were there. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to swim. But the pool was great.

My morning 'breakfast' before workout. 'Juice' and 'crackers'.

But on both occasions, I was beat after just an hour. And that wasn't even cardio. *Sighs* I came a long way from the half-marathon runner stamina of yesteryear. Anyway, while I huffed and puffed at the resting lounge, the gym manager offered me an apple. More importantly, it was complimentary... Yay (It's a Chinese thing). The changing room at the gym was also 5-star! I was so tempted to use everything, like the hair gel, comb, lotion, etc. Only thing missing was mints. Also something happened there... let's just say this 'Richard Hatch' felt his jacuzzi was too hot for him the moment I came in.

Anyway, it's all about the food :D

finger licking

Damn... the H1N1 mortality rate in Malaysia ain't slowing down huh.. 38 deaths in 2253 cases. That's like 1.69% mortality rate. I think the rest of the world shows a 0.80% mortality rate.

So... in Malaysia... it's pretty serious. Twice as deadly! But unfortunately not many people are taking this report seriously yet. In the recent PC fair, you could actually count the number of people only wearing masks.

Well, I guess people still feel safe as long as they do not touch their eyes, nose or mouth. Truth be told, I also believe in that. Malaysians are a bunch of risk takers.

Hmm.. if it gets any worse, I would have to stop picking my nose. It's hard to kick a habit. But maybe nose-picking isn't so bad...

Wait for it...



... as long as you eat your booger.

Ok. Let me explain..

According to Professor Dr. Friedrich, a lung specialist in Austria, picking your nose and eating it is healthy for two reasons:
1) Obviously you will be able to reach for every nook and cranny better than if you were to use a handkerchief. Especially if you use your pinky.. longer nails better :p
2) Eating the dry remains will boost your body's immune system. The nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria is collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a vaccine.

See.. don't have to wait for those experts to prepare the vaccinations. Just pick the nose of a H1N1 patient at Sungai Buloh, do a quick check to see if anybody is looking, and quickly shove it into your mouth with a big smile on your face.


Well, who could be for certain this crazy idea won't work? Any volunteers? :p


P/s: This actually reminds me of a joke...

Why do gorillas have big nostrils?
- Because the have big fingers :p -

united

What is it about long lost friends and relatives, and old flames?

Somehow, they are always not forgotten, and sometimes, when you least expect, paths will collide, loved ones reconnected, and relationships rekindled. That's how things work... That's how good stories/movies are told/made...

Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid to fulfill his boyhood dream, but his heart will forever be with us... What are the chances of him coming home?

The new season will be starting this Saturday! Support your favourite Red Devils with me!

P/s: Have a box of tissues by your side before watching the video below...

Christian the Lion

to celebrate 12.34:56, 07/08/09

Cool tshirt!
Click on the image to go to their site.

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Haha! That actually happened. In something else related...

download your Ecofont for free!
Yeap... that cheese-holed "ECO" in the picture is the font. Pretty cool huh? Modern-edgy. Loving it.

By using Ecofont, we can all play a major role in reducing carbon footprints, and at the same time save up to 20% of ink otherwise normally used.

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I was on Yahoo just reading through the news when I stumbled upon this ad. I think I might try this out. I have many d*wnl*aded music and movies. Why not try audiobooks? I think audiobooks are great gifts, especially for people who are always on the road. Instead of listening to the loopings on radio, they could try listening to stories or even motivational audios. I think it's even possible to finish one whole course of your studies in our KL traffic.

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Have you seen the Alice in Wonderland trailer??



Awesome right??

Well, if you can't wait for March 5th, 2010 any longer, have fun with this "pop-up book" version of Alice in Wonderland by clicking on the picture above.

of steamboat, zoo, and dejavus

I have been away for quite awhile. My pc got "spoiled". So the last one week have been spent on things I wouldn't have normally done had my pc was still up and running. Oh. Did I mention my Astro decoder was also spoiled?

Anyway, on Friday, I joined my friends at Bukit Jalil (dejavu) for dinner. We had steamboat at a friend's place in one of the Vista apartments (IMU) and at the same time bid farewell to Weilun who would be flying back to Indon (future doctor okay!). We makan-ed until nearly 11pm... and yet there were still food left. Anyway we downed everything we cups and cups of soft drinks... not alcohol, I swear! I left a bit later and was home by 12.30am. It was about that time that I realised my pc was "fixed". All I could muttered was... OH.

I quickly got myself cleaned up, read a few chapters of my book (darn.. so close to the end), and had the lights turned off by 1.30am. I knew I had to get up early, try 6am. I will be going to the Zoo!! On other days, it (my conscience) will be like...

Zoo??!! Are you for real?? Not Zouk ar??

Soon it was 2.30pm... and then 3.30pm... and I was like...

What turf man.. Why am I still awake??

So after much tossing and turning, I on my night lamp and began reading a few more chapters. After awhile, I began yawning. Ah HA! That's my cue to sleep... I thought...

*Tick tock* *Tick tock* WHAT??? 4.30am??!

It was about then, after telling myself that if I do not get enough sleep, I was gonna be so exhausted at the zoo, that I decided to just on the light and finish my book. You see... I had volunteered my Saturday to help out the zookeepers at Zoo Negara. Last time I was there was about 10 years back. The irony is that the zoo is only about 5 minutes journey from my house! Anyway, by the time I finished my book, it was already 5.30am. So I just closed my eyes and tried to relax... I think I managed to doze off.. only a little, before my alarm blared at about 6am. *Stretches and jumps off bed*

So we started gathering at 7am (Evonne and Vee Mae (birthday girl) were there so early!) and then got our t-shirt. Quite nice colour I would say.

Gathering...

Then, we were briefed and divided into groups... Felt like kids the way we were seated...

I was switched groups 3 times before I was put under the supervision of the zookeeper in charged of...

Seladangs

I could have totally laughed at the irony and coincidence of this had I not have been running on adrenaline since morning. For the benefit of you whom have no idea what I mean... well... Seladangs happened to be on a certain school badge. And the students can also be called the Seladangs, because of their rarity and strengths like of these creatures.

For this particular Seladang, have a look at its horn. Weird huh? The pairs are completely 90 degrees to each other. I asked the zookeeper why was it like that. He said when this Seladang was a calf, it knocked its nuggen on this rock (also in the enclosure) real hard. So it became deformed like that.

Anyway, let me show you in sequence what we did in the Seladang enclosure (I was still running on adrenaline... so not scared at all).

Scooping the Seladangs bullshit and dumping it in the bin.
Huh... that sounds funny... yet it could be quite metaphorical to the Seladangs... (if you know what I mean ;))



The dung is quite a huge sucker. Soft... I think I got some on my hands... eww...
We also did clean up the rest of the enclosure. Took lots of hosing and raking.
Anyway, they would send the dung to this place where they will be turned into fertiliser for the plants around the zoo. Not for sale... I have asked.


More pictures of the mighty Seladangs.

We also fed the Seladangs (Twice! But I don't think enough. Once in the morning, another in the afternoon.). Along with them, we fed some deers and pademelons (These are cute!! Google them.)

Oh... and true story... I was nearly killed by one of the deers in the enclosure! I was preparing its food when one of the male deers got spooked. All I remember seeing was it running towards me with its antlers "aiming" for me. Again, I think it was because of the adrenaline, I nonchalantly dodged it. It ran passed me, narrowly missing me, instead colliding with the metal fence so hard, its nose started bleeding!! Poor Bambi...

We also had some time to go around by ourselves. And I realised that the animals there have learned to rely on the us, humans, too much for food. They seemed to have lost their instincts to hunt or scour for food by themselves. Okay they are trapped... maybe that's why. Anyway, I could fool them easily by just standing by their enclosure and they immediately thought that I was going to feed them, like these hippos and otters.

Some of us also had a chance to pose with a python. Mind you, this isn't the one at the patting zoo section, this one was from its cage. Luckily it wasn't that stressed, so we were allowed to take some pictures with it. However, I was pushing my luck, when I grabbed it by its neck (that would be the area near the head) and tried to outmuscle it. Luckily it didn't feel threatened.

So, at about 4.45am, I left, feeling dirty, sticky, smelly, unhygienic, yucky, itchy, but rather happy to have experienced this with Raleigh. I would say I enjoyed this experience. It really feels like being as a guest star (wtf) in one of the episodes of "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe".

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Oh.. and at night, I went to Mandarin Hotel for dinner... (dejavu again). Then, went back home, by which I have completely exhausted myself out of adrenaline that I was essentially staying up because of will power. Hmm... that was why I was sooooo tired the whole of Sunday...