Just because...

...it's the best-looking scrambled eggs I have ever made.

scrambled eggs with cheese

The pan was maybe a little too hot when I put the eggs in, which led to some parts being slightly overcooked (like the egg yolk on the bottom-right). I didn't beat the eggs; I wanted the colours to be slightly mixed with different yellowish hues. I was going to add a bit of water to the eggs to balance out the cheese, but forgot. So maybe it turned out slightly heavier than intended. I added the cheese in last after switching off the fire, and stirred it in to mix (it took some time because I didn't shred the cheese). The ratio was 2 eggs to half a slice of Chesdale cheese. It tasted good but still felt a bit jelak towards the end. Still a nice breakfast paired with iced chocolate. :D

Lit

Guess what this is?

If you guessed my phone, then you are right. Those are the backlit keys with a bit of backlit screen peeking in.

While I was at it, I snapped a second photo of the whole keypad. Doesn't it look good? :D

("Official" submission is the first photo, simply because it looks more artistic :P )

Besides these lit keys, last night the moon was all lit up too. It was a full moon, and Mars is at its closest point to Earth (or something like that). I happened to look out the window and see the full moon, and a very bright star nearby. When I saw that, I suddenly recalled reading an article that mentioned that Mars would be visible near the moon, so I snapped a few photos. Sure enough, when I searched online today, I found that Mars would look like the brightest star in the sky. So I expect that this is Mars!

The sky was very cloudy, which is probably why the moonlight is so dispersed. It was hard to get a proper photo!

Right or left?

Last week's theme was signs.

I just posted this photo on Facebook, and my friend instantly responded with "right or left, which path you choose?" I like that comment, so I'm stealing it for my post title :P

I also saw another Photo Friday candidate on Thursday when I was buying my dinner at Pisa Corner. These IKEA salespeople are carrying signs!

I think I got spotted. :P I had found a parking spot some distance away, and used the zoom on my camera to capture this photo. I was hoping I'd be too far away for them to notice...but one of them seemed to be looking in my direction at the time. Too bad... I snapped the photo anyway, and then avoided looking at them when walking past them.

This wasn't all... as I was snapping this photo, a jeep (or something like that) had just arrived and was unloading more people and some flags. I didn't try to take any more photos of those...

A Dark creature

This week's photo theme is dark. When I saw the theme, I happened to be wearing my Umbreon t-shirt, and I immediately thought of taking it as this week's photo.

To make it really dark, I switched off the lights and shone a torchlight on the shirt, then snapped the photo. It turned out quite nicely! It would be even better if the ring of light was clearer, but I think that might be a little too hard to manage.

Still, I'm happy with the photo. It's a Dark Pokemon in the dark!

Mega Venusaur spotted!

Last Friday, there was a move in the office. Some people changed their cubicles (I was happy I didn't have to). The following Monday, I thought I saw a Pokemon sitting on the cubicle divider in the zone next to ours.

It wasn't until today that I finally went over to take a look (with the backup of a few people because I was shy to go alone; it was around lunchtime but there were still some people around :P ) I had thought it was an Ivysaur at first, but when I got closer I found that the flower had bloomed (which makes it a Venusaur); it was just drooping, which made it look like it hadn't bloomed. And then I checked online and found that it was actually a Mega Venusaur! (the Mega type has a flower instead of a leaf on its forehead, and those extra markings on its forehead too)

When we got back to my cubicle, we mentioned a teddy bear that Cindy had at her cube, not far from mine (she had just moved there). I had seen that bear numerous times, but Pawan (one of the backups on the Venusaur expedition) hadn't. When I asked whether he wanted a photo with the bear, he said "yes!" So we took a couple of pics.

In the first photo, he was strangling the bear, reluctant to let it go. Cindy said that his face was hidden and asked him to take another photo.

It's the same bear...the bear has a doggie hood!

Really sedap

Tried out a new restaurant today. It is quite new, called Zhen Hoachi (translated to "really delicious") at the shop lots near Pisa Corner. They say that their food is like restaurant-style food (the better kind of restaurant, not chu-char), at chu-char prices. Is that true? You can judge for yourselves ;)

claypot tofu, RM10

fish slices with mongolian sauce, RM18

kailan (leaves are deep-fried, stalks are stir-fried), RM10

lemon chicken, RM15 (the actual name is chicken chop with lemon sauce)

mantis prawns with salted egg, RM13

On the bill, in order:
claypot tofu
fish slices with mongolian sauce
kailan (leaves are deep-fried, stalks are stir-fried)
mantis prawns with salted egg
lemon chicken

We found that all the dishes were good. At first we only ordered four dishes, but the fish and mantis prawns came in small portions, so we decided to add lemon chicken. Turned out that the lemon chicken was a whole chicken chop, so it was quite big.

A study of Japanese food names

Sakae Sushi was having a promotion at RM3 per plate of conveyor belt sushi. I went with a friend, and here are some of the sushi we tried (I didn't take a photo of every plate).

aburi shiro maguro sushi (flame-seared white tuna sushi)

mentai shiro maguro sushi (mentai is the sauce on top of the white tuna sushi)

chinmi gunkan
Searching online, "chinmi" means "delicacy" and gunkan is sushi rolled in this way. This trio consists of chuka hotate gunkan (seasoned scallop gunkan), chuka kurage gunkan (seasoned jellyfish gunkan), and chuka wakame gunkan (seasoned seaweed gunkan). I like all three! ("chuka" seems to refer to vinegar, like "cuka" in Malay)

spicy chuka hotate maki (spicy seasoned scallop maki; maki being the rolling method. This one was actually quite spicy. I didn't like it that much because it wasn't that Japanese-y :P )

takoyaki
There were just a few small bits of octopus inside. Not that good.

our stack of ten sushi plates

The mentai shiro maguro sushi (the white tuna with sauce on top) was the best. Besides that, the trio of chinmi gunkan was good as well. I took a tako sushi (octopus on top), but the octopus was a little chewy. I actually started taking photos when my friend wanted to take a photo of the two white tuna sushi plates. Otherwise I wasn't even thinking of taking any photos.

Momo, anyone?

It's about time I wrote about our visit to a Nepali restaurant.

I found that the word "Nepalese" slides off my tongue easier than "Nepali". Looking these words up online, I found that the general word for someone/something from Nepal is "Nepalese", but the Nepalese themselves prefer to use "Nepali".

This place is called Momo Hookah, and is situated on the first floor of Golden Triangle. I didn't know what food they served, but a friend went there and told me that their momo (Nepali dumplings similar to "sui kow") are good and authentic.

So we went there and ordered their momo, together with two other rice dishes.

chicken momo, RM7

This was good, with crispy skin. The skin was different from the Chinese "sui kow". The filling was minced meat and was flavoured with spices. After some thought, we decided that it looked like "sui kow" but tasted like murtabak.

thakali khana with pork, RM9.50

The thakali khana set is rice with a round pappadam on it, and a few side dishes around it. In the picture below, clockwise from top left, we have raw cucumber/carrot/radish, some brinjal (which we liked), some pickled thing that we didn't like and suspect was a kind of melon, and some stir-fried leafy veggies which were not much different from Chinese cuisine.

The pork came in a separate bowl. Some pieces were tougher than others, but the taste was good. It was also very oily; there was a thick layer of oil on the gravy.

If not mistaken, the pork set costs 50 sen more than the chicken set.

khaja set with chicken, RM8

The khaja set was also with dishes around the plate, but came with flattened rice instead of regular rice. So the mound of rice was a lot smaller. Clockwise from left, we see the same raw vegetables, the same kind of pickle, some potato dish that was rather good, some groundnuts, and the chicken which was a dry stir-fry and quite good too, but not as good as the pork. And an egg with runny yolk on top of the flattened rice.

We weren't very sure that it was flattened rice at first; adding the soup that came with the thakali khana did not seem to make much difference. But in the end we found that we had to add a lot of soup! It turned out that the soup was refillable. We weren't even sure whether the soup was actually  supposed to be paired with this khaja set instead of the other rice set.

After that we ordered another momo set, buffalo this time. (there were four of us, and we had ordered three items first, to see whether we would want another one of any of them)

buffalo momo, RM7.50

The shape of the momo was different. Somehow it didn't taste as good as the chicken variety, although it wasn't bad, either.

Actually the rice sets were quite filling because there was a big portion of rice for both. In the end, the last momo set was probably not necessary to fill us up.

Saya Tok Gajah

Presenting the mascot of the 1996 Sukan Malaysia, Tok Gajah! The games were held in Pahang, and my cousin won two of these mascots (i.e. two medals), so she gave me one. :D

The elephant is actually in standing position (but unable to stand without being propped up). I had to hold it steady to keep its feet in walking position for the photo.

From that explanation, can you guess the theme for this week's photo? It's walk.

A colourful meal

We went to try The Leaf Healthy Recipes at D'Piazza. It is a healthy vegetarian restaurant. We heard of this place after receiving a 30% discount voucher on a Samsung app. Not a bad time to try out a new place!

Their Facebook page has their complete menu. We had already gone through their menu earlier at home, but still spent quite some time selecting our dishes. There were a lot of different choices! In the end, here's what we had:

kam heong eryngii rice, RM15.50

bak kut teh set, RM11.90

the rice that comes in the bak kut teh set

dumpling soup, RM6.20

popiah, RM4.50

We can add RM4.90 to convert to a set meal,which means to add a dessert and a drink. I didn't take photos of the drinks, but we took one organic soy milk and one rosehip hibiscus tea. (the tea came in a teabag... I thought it would be dried flowers) The organic soy milk was very good. The rosehip hibiscus tea was good too, but not as good :P (or maybe we just love soy milk)

fresh fruit konjac jelly (RM3.50 if ordered à la carte)

glasswort soup (RM3.50 if ordered à la carte)

The price came up to RM47.90, but with 30% discount we paid RM33.55. The portions were rather big; there were three of us and we were full and couldn't finish the rice. This is with only two set meals and two side dishes!