SF: e.g. Conference Day 3

April 14, 2012

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Nice sunny day, still cold, but people sat out during the breaks.

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Early turkey.

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Artisan beers.

Stone Brewing provided 3 kinds of beers for the conference. To be honest, I tried one beer on the first day and couldn't drink it. Turned out that that was the most bitter beer the company makes. On the 3rd day, I tried the other two beers and was blown away. The beers didn't taste anything like regular beers! The flavor was so strong and so good,the only analogy I can think of is artisan bread versus regular bakery bread.Craft breweries artisan beers (beers made the traditional way) are just so much tastier and so totally different from regular beers that but like how some people in Asia think white bread in cellophane bags are the best bread, I think craft brewed beers will take a while to catch on here. I hope the craft breweries will lead a revolution and change the way beers will be made in future.

(part 3 coming up)

Latest Recipe, Le Meridien KL

Latest Recipe is the all-day dining restaurant in Le Meridien Hotel KL serving international cuisine such as Northern Indian, Chinese, Malay, Japanese and Western Cuisine. Although the buffet spread includes over 150 dishes, we wanted a light lunch and ended up ordering from the a la carte menu (we were here for work and dined at Latest Recipe by invitation from the hotel - this visit was sometime ago but definitely still worth blogging about).

To start, Hubby picked the Gourmet Salad (RM35), a large serving of mesclun, walnut, fresh mushrooms, avocado, shaved parmesan cheese and grilled smoked chicken breast. A tangy roasted tomato-olive oil dressing completes this ensemble. A very nice salad.





The porcini soup (RM30) that I ordered was smooth, rich and creamy.. an excellent starter in my books. I also like the complimentary warm bread served to us at the start of the meal - soft and fluffy and went well with the soup.


Porcini soup withMediterraneantwist stick


Complimentary bread rolls


For mains, I had the pan fried black cod (RM65) served with eringi mushrooms, brocollini and yuzu dressing. The cod was perfectly cooked, the flesh coming off in flakes. I expected the dressing/sauce to be tangy but it was on the sweet side. Hubby had the Chicken Tikka (RM45) which was probably the most delicious mains out of all that we ordered. The chicken pieces were cooked in a mild tomato sauce with Indian spices, but the flavours were very good. I couldn't help stealing a few bites. Our fellow diner had The Ultimate Nasi Goreng (RM35) which consisted of fried rice with seafood, chicken perchik style, fresh water prawn, asparagus sambal, Asian moulded omelette, young papaya and mango kerabu.


The Ultimate Nasi Goreng


Chicken tikka - uber yum.


Served with steamed rice


Black cod with yuzu dressing



After our lunch, I went around the restaurant to take some photos of the buffet spread on offer.

Raw oysters

Sashimi


Teppanyaki


Chinese dim sum


Northern Indian cuisine


Cute salad dressings in tubes


Chocolate fountain


Cake


Malay kuih


While snapping photos, we saw ExecutiveChef Antoine Rodriguez at the pasta live cooking station. I observed the diners follow Chef Antoine wherever he goes - if he's cooking, the food will be good! Needless to say, he got quite a few orders from diners for pasta. After he finished at the pasta station, he kindly made us one of the delectable waffles topped with vanilla ice cream.

Everyone wants a piece of Chef Antoine's cooking!


Delectable waffles

Pork-free.

Price: RM69++ for buffet breakfast, RM98++ for lunch on weekdays and RM108++ on weekends and RM108++ for dinner on ! weekdays and RM118++ on weekends.

Location: Latest Recipe,5th Floor, Le Mridien Kuala Lumpur, 2 Jalan Stesen Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Directly opposite KL Sentral station and next to KL Hilton)

Tel: 03- 2263 7555

Parking: RM8 for the first 2 hours, RM4 for every subsequent hour.

GPS Coordinates: 3.135685, 101.686524

Website: http://www.discoverlemeridien.com

I won a Fujifilm Polaroid Camera on Chika Pow Wow!

Two weeks ago, I blogged about the launch of a new online bidding site ChikaPowWow, which you can read about HERE. I mentioned that I would start bidding and Ill keep you guys updated about it.

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Well, I am very pleased to announce that on my second day of bidding itself, Ive gotten myself a Fujifilm Polaroid Camera for the price of RM1.13! Yes, your eyes arent fooling you! I won the camera for 91% off its market price of RM330.

Has this caught your attention yet? :)


Yes? Great, let me explain to you how this works while also sharing with you a few tips on how to get amazing prizes at such a low price.

Some of you might be doubtful and wonder, Is there a catch behind this? Trust me I got a lot of tweets asking me about it!

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The answer is no, depending on how you see it. The only requirement is that you need to purchase a minimum amount of tokens before you can start bidding. This is a norm as other online auction sites have the same prerequisite too.

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To begin, click on the Buy Chikas button on the top right corner of the page. The minimum amount of tokens (or Chikas) you can buy is 25, which costs RM37.50. (Note that all payments done on ChikaPowWow are through credit cards.) When you register for an account, you will receive 15 tokens for free too. So add them up with the ones you have bought and you will have 40 tokens to start with.

Then head on over to the home page where you will be able to view all the auctions that are on- going at the moment.

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The one product up for auction that first caught my eyes was the new iPad2.

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I used my first token to bid (or Pow) on the iPad. Here I had thought rather innocently that I could actually get the iPad for just RM0.10 when I placed my first bid. I thought I could remain as the top bidder til the end of the auction.

17 hours after I placed my first bid, everyone else started bidding for the iPad as well as it was nearing the closing bid time.
I took another strategy; where I just sat back and watch the others bid against each other. Hopefully they would waste their tokens and I could just come in at the very last minute and make the winning bid.

The auction was supposed to end at 2pm that day, but due to the amount of Pows, more and more time were added to the clock (every Pow adds 20 s! econds).
In the end, I just gave up on the iPad as I cant spare the time to sit in front of the laptop and keep an eye on the bid.

Yes, half the battle is won for those with patience and whos got plenty of time to burn; both of which Im sorely lacking.

In the end, though I would have love an iPad, it turned out to be a wise decision to let it go as the auction only ended late at night!

Once I gave up on the iPad, I took my attention elsewhere. With everyone concentrating on the iPad, the lone Polaroid camera was neglected.

I applied the knowledge I obtained from observing the iPad auction and only started Pow-ing at the last second, conversing tokens and time.

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In the end, persistence prevailed! My competing bidders gave up after a while and I got the camera! I have spent 20 tokens to Pow in that particular auction; and as you can see from the screen shot above, the 20 tokens cost me RM30. There is also a shipping fee of RM12 for the camera, but it varies depends on the prizes.

Long story short, after summing all the numbers up, I only paid RM43.13 for the camera, which I think is a really good price since Ive saved almost RM300! Like Ive said before, ChikaPowWow is a great place to get cool gadgets and products at a really low price!

So, this is the story of my first online bidding experience! Ill keep on trying to bid on other stuff and who knows? Maybe Ill get lucky again! :P

If any of you decides to check out ChikaPowWow and has either won or participated in the auctions, do leave a comment! I would love to hear about your experiences, too! :)

CPWs Web:


Little Yum Yum but Great Food @ Kota Damansara

Do not underestimate this shop, it's normally full house during lunch time, comeearlierto avoid any disappointment and the food is so good that you will not regret coming to this place.Bendi (Lady Fingers) Sambal - (RM10) -Crunchyand delicious.Kerabu Paku veggie with organic wild fern, prawns, cashewnut, grated coconut in tangy sauce (RM15.00). What an interesting and exciting taste of this Nyonya kerabu. I like it.Gulai Tumis (RM36.00) with pomfret fish was the best among all, the fish was fresh and taste of Gulai Tumis was top of the world.
Pandan Chicken(RM19) were tender, well marinated and the aroma wasgo! rgeous.< /span>Sambal Petai with prawns & squids (RM19) - both the prawns and squids were fresh. The size of the prawns was averagely big. I am amazed with the size as compared to most restaurants.A lunch with my colleagues.I guess the portions served here are relatively big cendol for two person (RM8) shared with 5 heads. Just nice and filling for a great lunch at Little Yum Yum.Barley withginkgofor all of us.Their main branch is at Greenhill Drive Ipoh (5, Persiaran Greenhill, Ipoh Tel: 05-243-5737)
Little Yum Yum Restaurant(halal)

E -45-G, Jalan Teknologi 3/9,
Bistari DKota (Off Persiaran Surian),
Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
Business Hours: 11.30am-3pm. 5.30-9.30pm
Closed on Mondays
Tel: 03-6148 3936

GPS :3.164681,101.574435

GUERLAIN MAKE-UP MY DAY

Guerlain hosted an exclusive Bloggers Get-Together with its international make-up artist from Paris, Maxime Poulin recently at Alexis, The Gardens one sunny morning.

Maxime, who works and trains directly under Guerlains Creative Director, Olivier Echaudemaison showed attendees the art of make-up using the brand's sizzling summer collection, Terra Azzurra.

Karen Tan welcoming Maxime to the Guerlain eventAfter showing how to gently massage and apply acupressure to our delicate peepers' ! area, he proceeded to explain in length about each Guerlain products, highlighting their key benefits such as the inclusion of natural ingredients, water-based primer that reflects light but gives a matte finish and Guerlain's meteorites highlighting powder that makes skin look flawless under all lighting conditions.

Maxime also regaled us with the creative collaboration between Guerlain and Emilio Pucci's daughter for the Terra Azzurra range. Apparently, the dazzling colour palette was drawn from Mother Nature especially the brilliant blues of the sun and sea, and vibrant corals and pink hues in Portofino, Italy.

Emilion Pucci's famous print design is featured on the packagingPolished walnut case with magnetic lid and Emilio Pucci's print pouch complete this sleek blush powder caseMaxime touting the exquisite eye shadow shades from the current rangeGuerlain's ingenious mascara case comes with a tiny pop-up mirror!

As Maxime took us through each of the products used, we were given first-hand feel of their textures. We were also taken by surprise by the sheer ingenuity of certain packaging like in the case of Guerlain's mascara and lipstick casings.

After plying us with drinks and finger food, every attendee trotted happily home with little gift bags containing a Guerlain eyeshadow set and lipstick in each.