A Prom(pt) Update.

Hello folks!

Just a quick update and sort of reminder.Loads of people have been asking me about the availability of prom tickets. So to those who're interested, here's a little update.

Prom tickets (SMKTS Prom Night '08, obviously) are selling really fast. To those who're still interested in purchasing a ticket or tickets, please, if possible do, make your purchase by this month of October to avoid disappointment. Availability of tickets cannot be guaranteed after the month of October.

Thank you and all the best in preparing for the upcoming SPM examinations.

Laters.

Reason or Rhyme.

I wish I'd be able to come up with a recipe everyday to blog about and share with you guys but alas, time constraint and the fast approaching SPM examinations have kept me from doing so. And also because I'm still a student, not a practicing chef as some readers would've thought. Haha.

Okay before I go on, here's a little disclaimer: the following is NOT in any way an advertisement or a means of free publicity.


So here's the gist of it. Or rather to put it simply. My guitar mentor, Adrian Chew, is in a band called Crimson Epiphany. Yeap, the guy who owns the Gretsch Duo Jet. You might or might not have heard of them and if you haven't, here's a little peek into their music.

Anyways, they've been making waves on the local charts and they're within a whisper of claiming top spot in the Malaysian Top 10 chart show, Met 10, on hitz.fm. They've come a long way and have worked ever so hard, so i believe that they deserve to claim pole position this week. To vote for their song, click HERE. The song's called Reason or Rhyme, by the way.

Support your local music industry. Who knows, one day you might be standing in line to purchase a Re-Pulse CD ? *Wishful thinking* Haha.

Laters.

Razor Clam Pasta (Spaghettini).

This post has been a long delayed one.

This is merely a serving suggestion; and also one for the album ;)

Check out the size of those clams; massive eh?

Yea it's time for another recipe. I've tried this pasta a little over thrice and tweaked and played with the ingredients and flavours along the way.

The freshest produce and ingredients are always a joy to work with. Get the freshest seafood for this dish, not necessarily still swimming but as fresh as you can get, it really makes a difference. But if you're hard up on time and you've got to get some chow on the table, defrosting your seafood is fine too, just that you'd lose a bit of its sweetness and 'seafood-y' flavour. But don't despair, all is not lost.

This pasta dish is sort of like a cross between an aglio olio and a pasta con vongole, garlic olive oil and clam pasta respectively. But I've added a rather peculiar and unconventional mix, using Chinese Cooking Wine (Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chiew) instead of white wine. Reasons being that I actually the heady taste of it and there were no white wines around my house at the time of cooking. Yes the latter is pretty sad. Cos my parents are pretty devoted fans of red and I'm well not of legal age. (Hmm..?). Back to the Chinese Cooking Wine; if you don't like it, you can leave it out, no problem. This recipe also doesn't require the use of cream.

The prawns; I coked them separately and later added them to the clams and pasta. But you can cook them together with the clams as well. Spaghettini is a thinner version of spaghetti, often referred to as 'angel hair pasta'. Fret not, spaghetti or linguine can be used as well.

Okay enough talk, here it is.

Razor Clam Spaghettini
Recipe by Tan Kel Vin.

(Serves 4)

- 2 heaped tablespoonfuls of finely chopped garlic
- 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1-2 fresh chillies, finely chopped
- A large handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

- 1/2 a lemon
- Some olive oil
- 500g good-quality dried spaghettini or spaghetti
- 800g-1kg of razor clams, preferably the large ones,
cleaned and debearded
- 8-10 large king prawns, peeled, heads removed and deveined
(save the heads to make seafood or fish stock, very flavourful)
- 1/2 a cup of Chinese Cooking Wine; alternatively a large
wineglass of white wine.
- Salt and black pepper

First of all, soak clams in salted water for a few minutes. Drain and pick through the clams, removing any impurities and barnacles. Discard the bad and nasty-smelling ones, obviously.

Cook the spaghetti or whatever pasta you'd be using according to packet instructions in a large pan of salted boiling water. When cooked al dente, drain the pasta in a colander. To cook pasta al dente, simply cook pasta 1 minute less than packet instructions. And using salted water to cook pasta is a MUST.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a splash of olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions. Then add the garlic. Once the onions have turned a little translucent, throw in the clams and prawns with the white wine or Chinese Cooking Wine. Cover with a lid and give it a good shake. Cook for a couple of minutes until all the clams have opened. Discard the ones that remain closed. Toss in your cooked pasta and stir around, adding a little more olive oil if necessary. Squeeze some lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper while tossing the pasta around. Serve immediately.

To garnish and add a little more flavour to the pasta, sprinkle the chopped chilli and parsley all around and over the pasta.

It's that simple.

Laters.

Love & Beauty.

Sorry had to steal this, Keane!

I still can't get over how they managed to squeeze and compact an abstract focal point into one hour. Many were left dazed and slightly gaping . Some thought it was riveting. I thought it was riveting. Kudos Chee Pang and Ollie! And also espesh Chris Ling.

The cool thing about this play is that the director, Chris Ling, told the cast to add their own flair and individualistic styles to the whole thing. So the lighthearted scenes were typically and entrancingly familiar, they had "CHEE PANG" written all over it. Haha. And the sex scene was disturbingly realistic too. Like wow. Like devout Jais officers would sooo flip at the sight.

I can even imagine my moral teacher gasping "Astagafirullahazzzim..!!". Or exclaiming it, more like.

Anyways, I'm no critic so I'll say no more. But I enjoyed it.

Laters.

I'm Hungry for Home.

Well err, I actually feel kinda shy talking about this.

So for full story, check out the missus' blog.

I can't believe I'm actually shy to talk about this. Haha.

Laters.

Your Blissful Ignorance.

Yea, look what that has gotten you into. Oh wait, perhaps you don't even notice. Gosh, wake up dear boy. It ain't doing you any good. IN fact, you're digging your social outcast hole a little deeper. Don't go wondering at the end of the day as to why you'd be at the receiving end of seemingly nonchalant cold shoulders. You're not living alone; you can't just do as you please, pissing everyone off. You've been bloody warned.

On a lighter(if I may call it) note, SPM trials have begun. Oh, the joy. More like agony and unabashed nail-biting nervousness.


The crunch papers have yet to come, the science subjects. Haha. This is what a seventeen year old Malaysian goes through.

Laters.

Illuminate.

Above is the invite to Shirts4Real's 'Illuminate' range launch.

When? 12th September o8', 3PM
Where? Positive Cafe, Subang.

Be there. They aren't just another T-shirt label; the designers create each piece with one reason in mind; which is to impact the lives of others. For more details and a more accurate account of Shirts4Real's origins, click on their blog.

For full details on the launch, go visit their website.

See you there.

Laters.

Sulking No More.

Dimitar Berbatov, more affectionately known by fans as 'Berba' or Berby' has finally put to bed his supposedly unending transfer saga (albeit after months of speculation and unrest) and penned a four-year deal for £30.75million.

He's actually smiling!!

I can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Why? Cos' Manchester City made an uncharacteristic and superbly late bid for Berba too. And also cos' the Red Devils are really looking like toothless piranhas up front. Which is pretty paradoxical considering the stupendous amount of goals racked up last season. Oh yea, that was when that boy Ronaldo was in sensational form; experiencing a seemingly infinite purple patch and ruthlessness in front of goal.

But we've got Berby now!

As always, there was a mad rush before the transfer window closed. A plethora of last ditch signings were made and at the centre of all that drama was (believe it or not, I can't actually), Manchester City. Oh yes, Thaksin did finally leave; only to be snapped up by Abu Dhabi United Group. And City's new owner, Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, was quoted saying' "I'm the new Abramovich." Hello mister, just about every owner of BPL clubs have been quoting that. But well, at least Dr Sulaiman's a realistic man, appearing to acknowledege that the real hunt will begin nest season though the club has had a promising start to the season.

Loads more happened before the close, though.

For the complete lowdown, click here.

Laters.

Panic, Sial.

It has been a week now since my interview with Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco was featured in R.AGE. Check it out here. It's actually been a month already since I interviewed Brendon but R.AGE was on a 3 weeks hiatus then so it was only published after that.

It's not the biggest of deals, really. I'd consider getting to play(or actually only just getting the feel of playing) a Gretsch Duo Jet w/ Bigsby a bigger deal. Haha. (The very fortunate owner of that brilliant piece of musical craftsmanship is none other than Adrian Chew of Crimson Epiphany).

The very good people at The Star, the Youth and R.AGE section helmed by Niki Cheong in partuclar, gave me the opportunity to meet Panic and I jumped at the chance. I had to, as did all the other BRATs, send in an essy stating my reasons why'd Panic'd be my dream interview. To cut the long story short, I got it. Thanks guys, once again.

Yeap, that's Brendon.

Oh the link? Here.

Laters.

Never See Birthday Before Ah?

Today's the 20th. Means that tomorrow is Sheng Li's birthday! Wait. Is it? Oh yea yea it is.

We've deflowered Sheng Li. No no, not in that context la sicko. All we did was just treating her to lunch at Jogoya and buying her a nice little birthday cake with all the trimmings. She even asked the missus to come along =) So nice of her, eh?

As happy as a kid in a candy store. Haha.

Yes, she had trouble cutting the cake. She went like "EH WHY CANNOT CUT?!"

Check out the missus' blog for a short video. But the dumbest moment by far and probably the highlight of the whole time was when Aaron (of Aaron i stupid no_) happily and very loudly went "Never see people celebrate birthday before ah?!!" when the other customers shot us peculiar glances while we sang Sheng Li her birthday song. Oh, yes that whole little commotion was caught on video too.

No food photos/ shots as everyone was busy either stuffing themselves silly, making repeated trips to the bathroom, or having fagging breaks in between.

Jogoya hasn't changed much; their forte is still in their extensive selection of the very fresh sushi and sashimi. And they now serve Haagen Dasz ice cream in place of Movenpick.

Yes, they still serve young Thai coconuts.

Laters.

When We Do.

We never know when it's going to strike. But when it does it takes you out so fast and cold you're left in a daze, shaken, bewildered, somewhat amused and utterly traumatised by it all. It's tragedy waiting to strike. Then we wonder.. "what if"..or "I could've, would've, I might already be..wait that's a scary thought.. Then it strikes; how precious and incredibly fragile, this, what we call and refer to as life.

It is undoubtedly scary. Terrifying even. But thank God, you're alright.

I'm not revealing what all this is about. I won't want to steal my very dear friend's thunder, so wait up and check it out here in about two days at most. Considering if I even still have a following/ readers. Haha. But please do check it out.

Thank You for every moment that I'm still breathing.

Laters.

Set The Twilight Reeling.

Hello folks, form 5's of SMKTS in particular, prom tickets are now on sale! The theme for this year's prom is "Set The Twilight Reeling", based on your votes. 

Details are as follows; 

Time : Doors open at 1900 hours; 7 p.m.

Date : 12th December 2008

Venue : Millennium Ballroom, Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur

Tickets are priced RM150. Early Bird Tickets are priced at RM130; only 33 Early Bird Tickets are up for grabs so, better hurry.

Yes I know you guys'd start whining, griping and complain about the price but before that please please take note the rice and petrol price hikes earlier this year and just recently respectively have directly and significantly altered the price of the tickets. Do understand, people.

But i can definitely assure you that it's going to be great and whomsoever partaking in attendance will have a blast and walk away feeling pleased and maybe a little reminisce. That's a promise. And oh here's a little sneak preview.

Spiffily posh innit?

So, be there or be square!

Laters.

Whattheff.

Check out Re-Pulse's new site; revamped, reconstructed, redid, well basically we deleted the old account and started afresh. Remember to please check out our demo's. Many thanks!

Oh heck. I hate this. Schools' starting tomorrow. And with it comes renewed drive and initiative to focus more and be that extra bit more diligent. Hopefully. Actually I could use some of that. Heck, I absolutely NEED that!!!

Just got back from Singapore not long ago. And by going down south I missed Click 5 in concert and The Star's Green Fest. Not that I'm a huge fan of Click 5 but the missus was going so yea.

Down south was very enjoyable. 3D2N trip. Last ditch trip before school reopens after a two-week hiatus. But Singapore was a welcome and refreshing change to KL. I visit that country every year save for the last but only on this trip did it hit how very different it is from Negaraku. And how quite far behind we are from our brother down south. I mean Singapore. We're at least 6 years behind?

And it's a welcome change to see, for example instead of the 'culturally challenged/confused' you get to see at Sungei Wang on weekends, you are treated to instead women and men alike impeccably and trendily dressed, textbook stuff, off the magazine pages- skinny jeans, that 'in' bag, suedes, the works. And men carrying totes are not at all a rarity. In fact, you find them in abundance. Espesh men carrying Gucci's. And oh, I stumbled upon this dude slinging this incredibly cool one around. 

All I could nail down is this picture, I tried googling the 'brand' but to no avail. But yea, it's cool innit?

Singaporeans can reeeaaaally shop. But it's unsurprising. They have a higher spending power and income per quota and dollar-to-dollar compared to Malaysians. So I was told that's it's a common sight to see long queues at LV, Prada, Gucci, Aigner, Miu Miu, Chanel, Kenzo and the like. And young professionals and older folks alike lugging around bags and bags containing all their designer barang's.

Another reason to "readily" embrace this country is for the streets and public places are unbelievably safe . Well it's much safer than ours over here. No fear of your tote bag being snatched while tucking in at Taka's food court, definitely. 

And the cabs over there are uber efficient. Two thumbs up. And oh, no such thing as motorcycle gangs and such. Sweet.

Their quirkiness is also noteworthy enough. Like, ever come across a restaurant with a Chinese name translating into "Mafia's Lair"? But in English it comes across much simpler, aptly named "Bosses".

If you can read Chinese, what does it mean?

Table came with a spectacular view, though.

Anyways, there's also this funky little shop called New Urban Male down at Vivo City. Their stuff, (mainly their tees) are wicked. They have this particular line called David and Goliath. And it's supposedly a spoof of Mr. Men and Little Miss. Some go:

Hehe.

Eh?

Yeap yeap. Oh yea, Tony Roma's over there serve pork ribs in place of beef!! Damn good. Must try.

And oh before I forget, KLPac's having this play, and me as a friend of a few of the casts would like very much for as many people as possible support it. Go go!

Laters.

Bright Rovi.. BRATs la!

I wouldn't at all be surprised if i were the last person from the Penang Workshop to blog about BRATs. But let me say this, joining BRATs has got to be one of the better decisions I've made thus far this year. No shit. By the way BRATs stands for Bright Roving Annoying TeenS

In case you're wondering, BRATs is a young journalist/writers program held on a yearly basis by The Star, a leading daily in the country. it’s been around since 1993, which makes this the 15th year since its launch. every year, applications are open to youths all over Malaysia from the ages of 16-19, to participate in camps in a variety of places.

I'll be talking about this whole workshop experience from a personal point of view or rather, my point of view.

To be honest, I headed north to Penang (where the workshop was held) without much expectations and even less enthusiasm. But there was still a slight measure of zeal and excitement la, of course. What more when it's going to be held in Penang, my all-time favourite among the states in Malaysia thus far.

Well to put it simply, the BRATs workshop was plain awesome. I loved and enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.

There's just so many things to say about the workshop. The people, activities, games, tasks, assignments and what not. And I'm damn lazy to talk about them all. Among the people I know who've "properly" blogged about the workshop are Sandra, Michelle, Sandheep, Joye and Qisthina.

 

So yea, go ahead and check them out. 

Euphoric.

Finally something worthwhile shouting about? Hell yeah.

The holy grail of European club football. Sweet sweet sweet.

The sheer ecstasy of landing the thier (or OUR, collectively as fans; one UNITED, baby!) fist Champions League title in almost ten years. Years of hurt vehemently erased in a single night; a night of what dreams are made of. But, it wasn't that simple, mind you. It's been a gruelling season, one that has tested many a footballer's virtues; physically and mentally. No lest can we forget that moment of madness from one Ivorian. Well, he didn't do a Zidane but it was just as bad. Lesson learnt, Serbian-slapper? 

It was great la, well done Man united. 

Rising to the big occasion. That boy Ronaldo.

Glory glory Man united.

Markerchowhigh.

We're inevitable victims of our own bloody system.We nevertheless and almost too often nonchalantly let them pry, pick and play with our seemingly unaware minds and actions. It's bloody sickening. We do, from time to time question their authrotiy and such but heck, what're words when they're not implied. Dare to talk cock but not do it. So what's best? Turn a deaf ear, close one eye, gag up, I guess. I won't haress nor pinpoint any particular individuals/ parties/ bodies/ etc. We've got people like Patrick Teoh and Rocky to do so. So it's best to just shuddup lo..

But why oh why make us go back to school on sarturdays for 4 consecutive weeks? Please la fellas. Argh. Wanna give longer school break just ammend la. It's uncalled for to make us replace the school days. Extra stress. Markerchowhigh. Espesh when you have parents like mine who force you to attend on saturdays given that there's school.

No food review this time around. Haven't uploaded pics yet. But I've got a recipe for you guys to whip up. It's what most blokes'd cook when they're feeling plain lazy. It's good comfort food too.

All Day Breakfast Hash.
- 4-6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, roughly torn (plain porks one'll be fine)
- 4 white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 3 fresh shiitake, thinly sliced
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 1 large tomato,roughly chopped
- 1/2 red pepper
- some carrot, diced
- some day-old crusty or sandwich bread, lightly buttered
- 1/3 cup pureed tomatoes (optional)
- Dried oregano (optional)
- a little sprinkling of gruyere or parmesan cheese (optional)
- A few knobs of butter (I'm sure you'd be able to estimate)
- Some olive oil or any other oil
- salt and pepper to taste

1. Throw about 2-3 slices of bread into oven or toaster for about 3-4 minutes at most.

2. Heat pan. Once pan is heated, throw in a knob of butter and a little olive oil (Remember NEVER to use extra virgin olive oil for frying). Sweat the onions a bit. Seasoin with a little salt and pepper. Throw in the bacon.

3. When the bacon is at your desired crispness, the mushrooms go into the pan. Let the mushrooms sweat a little before adding the tomato puree (if using).

4. Once the mushrooms have softened and absorbed the juices from the bacon and onion, add the red peppers and chopped tomatoes.

5. Get your toasted bread and add to the pan. The bread will sort of absorb all that lovely juices from the earlier ingredients already cooking away in the pan.

6. Throw in the carrots at this point. Carrots are the last to be cooked cos you'd want a little crunch against all that slight mushiness of the tomatoes and stuff. Sprinkle with a little dried oregano and the above mentioned cheese(s) before serving. You can omit the cheese and dried oregano, it'll still turn out fine. Serve warm.

Simple eh? For me, it's got all the stuff I love; bacon, mushrooms, onion, tomatoes, cheese. Brilliant. It's a typical bloke's kind of comfort food.

Laters.

Biar Betul.

I'm 17. Will be sitting for SPM this year. And heck, it probably'd be much more than a common thing for others my age to lament, sulk, complain and bitch about the already obscene amount of workload given to and expected from us. But, I'll just let the others do the complaining.

Today's Awal Muharam so obviously, there's no school; it's a public holiday. And suffice to say, I haven't done anything much of particular productivity as of yet. Haven't heard from the band guys, the missus' busy entertaining some mates, keane's being a twat, traffic's probably killer today, no one's feeling sporty to play futsal today, I've ran out of dvds to watch, there's nothing awesome in the fridge to whip up or create, so technically, it's a pretty screwed up day i suppose. i hate just sitting around and not being able to move about or get or go out.

So I decided that I'd just do another food review.

Let's give the French a run for their money.

That above, is a Hong Kong roast duck. Where to find it? Loong Foong Restaurant, SEA Park, Petaling Jaya. It's a corner shop lot, on the way to the Taman Paramount LRT Station. It's not a typical 'Tai Tong-ish' restaurant but rather an open-air 'tai chow' place. Back to the duck. Why's it good? Cos they serve their ducks straight outta their own door-less oven. And the meat is firm but tender and has the right degree of juiciness. Nothing short of good. They sell an average of up to more than 50+ ducks a day and is usually sold out before 2030 hours. Bookings and reservations recommended.

Beijing or Peking roast duck is not to be confused with the Hong Kong version. The Beijing version is smaller in size and after roasting, it's skin removed to be eaten with egg pancakes or crepes. In my opinion, I'd prefer the Hong Kong version as it has a more robust aroma and flavour, especially the ones sold at this particular outlet. The French like their duck rare and pink, but we Chinese believe in cooking our food really through. All in all, the Hong Kong roast duck served at this outlet hits all the right notes in the aroma, taste and texture department. And oh, it'll set you back RM40 for a whole bird, which will comfortably feed 4 or 5. If you're a fan of duck meat or dishes, this won't disappoint.

Laters.

Crunch Time.

Pinch me. It's 2008 already. Wait, school's started already. It really does feel weird going back to school, unusual; surreal almost. It's not that I'm complaining- it just feels queer at the end of the 2 months break we've been given; to return to the routine we were given a hiatus from in the first place.

Anyways. I'm sort of like bumming around waiting for the rain to stop (so I could get out and go play soccer) so decided I'd blog to kill a little time. Yes, very unlike me. But, I tweaked and played around with some itty bitty settings on my laptop and voila, I'm able to access Blogger now. (In case you're wondering, it has never permitted me to blog for some unknown reason.)

As my parents, sisters and some close friends can testify (or even complain or detest), I critic food like hell. I take pictures of them and stuff, very much like a typical food reviewer, save that reviews aren't done incognito. So here are some of the better eats I've had the chance to sample these past few weeks.

First up, is the Nasi Lemak sold at the coffe shop behind Maybank at SEA Park, Petaling Jaya. Take note that it only opens at around 7ish in the evening till late, so that even hungry clubbers and the like can grab a bite after a night out as it closes around 3 to 4ish in the morning.

How good can a Nasi Lemak get? For me, this has got to be one of the best tasting Nasi Lemak's I've tasted in a long while. The rice itself, is cooked damn well, laced with the right amount of coconut cream and given a further lift with knots of pandan leaves thrown in. It is served with a pece of fried chicken and 'mata kerbau' egg or sunny side up, (chicken and egg optional, of course), slices of cucumber, copious amounts of fried silver anchovies and groundnuts and of course, sambal at the side. For me, the fried chicken is awesome, no shit. It's that typical ones that you get ar mamak joints but imagine a mile better, extremely juicy, tender, crisp skin and straight outta fryer. Lovely! But, the sambal's a tad too watery though. But all in all, a definite must try. Sheng Li, Aaron and EmoJo love it. So most people I know.

Wait, the rain's stopped already. That's my queue to go. I'll leave the other food reviews for another day.

Laters.

You are what you eat.