Knit FO: Basic crochet bolero No.1

Finally, I've grabbed the chance to take some pictures of my crochet bolero, which is named No.2 because I have a No.2 which I made for my cousin Vanessa.

I've worn it a few times now so it's somehow loosened up along the way but the yarn is really soft and comfy!

Project details:
Yarn: Sublime cashmerino silk aran in olive green.
Hook: Japanese hook size 7.
Notes: No.2 was made following the simple single crochet border pattern (the picture on the left in the book) whereas No.1 was made with the frilly border (picture on the right). - see my post on No.2 for pictures of the book.

P/S: Shen, notice that Coach bag in the corner? New luggage!! (Coach is on sale now and Ma's bought quite a bit. Prada starts its presale on Monday.. Die die die.)

R.I.P., Uncle Loke

I would just like to offer prayers for my Uncle Henry Loke, who has just passed away after a long battle with cancer. May you rest in peace.

For my Auntie Theresa, Su Yen and Su Ling, Allen, Ashley and Nicholas, my condolences and prayers are with you too.

No details about the wake service or mass as yet. Will update when I have them.

*** Edited on 28 May:

Apologies I was unable to provide details until now. Too many things going on at the same time.

We had Uncle Loke's funeral mass today in St Ignatius Church, Kelana Jaya. Su Ling's eulogy was very touching and moved almost everyone to tears. In my mom words, she said Su Ling described her father perfectly. After that we headed to the Nilai Memorial Park for the burial. Uncle Loke now rests just down the road from where gonggong and porpor are.

Knit FO: Chantilly Baby Blankie

Doesn't baby Mikayla look all snug and comfy? Her mommy Olivia posted this on Facebook and so I just had to put these up here since I realised I hadn't taken many pictures of the blankie before it was given.


These photos were taken at Mikayla's full moon party last week, which we couldnt attend as we had something on... So we're having Part Deux of the party over in our house tomorrow. Can't wait to meet baby Mikayla!!

Details:
Yarn: Katia Chantilly (Super soft and machine washable... perfect for newborns!)
Needles: 4mm circs
Pattern - just simple garter stitch rectangle because I tried various patterns but they didn't show up nicely since the yarn is pretty fuzzy...

Piggin' Out: Ri Yakitori, The Gardens

Restaurant: Ri Yakitori
Address: Level 7, The Gardens Hotel (you have to take the lift inside the hotel to get there)
Tel: 03 2268 1188
Other reviews: AWOL, Masak-masak, Cher-ry

When I first heard from my colleague Geraldine that there was a new Japanese restaurant in The Gardens, I was so happy. Finally! A new place to try in my usual weekend hangout. The rest of the restaurants were getting a bit boring and some even dropped in terms of standards. What's more, it's a kushiyaki place.... and my dad LOVES kushiyaki. In fact, all of us love it (right, Shen?). We pigged out a lot when we last visited Japan.... and we declared the best kushiyaki to date was this little roadside stall called Okamoto in Fukuoka.

Anyway, back to this... A quick google led me to boo_licious' blog, masak-masak, which pretty much sealed the deal for me. I'd heard about it on Wednesday. 2 days later, I dragged Rommel and my parents there for dinner.

For starters, they served us cute little portions of potato salad and some rolled up tuna thingy which was really nice. (Okay bad description but I can't remember what it was!)

Then they served us 2 slices of tuna tataki... (all on the house so far, just to start us off while we decided what to order).

The condiments were salt, togarashi and miso.

I'd read about the cold sake and the interesting contraption that it came with. Of course I had to check it out!

Each person gets to choose their own sake cup and this was mine... Pretty innit?

We had the chicken meatballs in soup. Pretty tender meat, rather mild and refreshing soup.

My staple at every Japanese restaurant: the fried chicken or tori karaage. The one here wasn't as crispy, a bit soft and tender. I won't say it's not nice... just different.

The wagyu was not too bad. Not the best grade of wagyu but since it's grilled this way, it's a bit of a waste to use anything better I suppose.

Ri Yakitori specialises in everything chicken. So we ordered the omakase or chef's special of the day. RM58 for 12 sticks I think it was. The staff will ask you beforehand if you eat chicken innards or not so if you don't, not to worry, they've got the usual wings and breast etc..

The shitake mushrooms... I love mushrooms, cooked in any way. Here it's sprinkled with bonito flakes.And the piece de resistance..... foie gras with strawberries! Amazing combination! *swoon*

We'd read that Ri Yakitori's salads were pretty good too so we ordered the daikon salad and the chicken salad. Yum.... I've always liked Japanese-style salads...
The okonomiyaki was so-so only though... I think I make better ones.. (Speaking of which, I haven't made them in a while. And I have yet to try out the takoyaki maker my sis ordered online and got it shipped home! Takoyaki party anyone?)

We also tried the ramen and the zosui for our carbo portions. My picture of the zosui didn't come out nice but here's the ramen... We found the soup really salty and mentioned it to the chef... But we were asked to eat it sort of cold soba-style where you lightly dip the ramen in the soup and slurp it in... Don't leave the ramen in for too long or it'll be too salty. Other than that, it was nice and something different.

We also ordered the braised kampung eggs. Again I found this too salty... Am not sure if I even like this.

For dessert, my dad squeezed a free scoop caramel icecream out of them.... Slightly bitter aftertaste but it was actually a good thing.

We also ordered matcha icecream and goma icecream... both served with azuki beans and mochi, and sprinkled with peanuts and matcha powder.

Will we go back? Yes, I'm looking forward to it already. Too bad this place closes on Sundays cos that's the day I'm usually at Gardens watching a movie (like today we watched Angels and Demons, last week we watch Star Trek and the week before we watched Wolverine.)

Piggin' Out: Cristang, 8 Avenue

Restaurant: Cristang
Address: B-G-19, 8 Avenue, Petaling Jaya (behind Courts Mammoth, Wisma Thrifty)
Tel: 603-7956 7877
Cuisine: Eurasian
Previous review *here*
Other reviews: absolut ginger
Check their Facebook group *here* for more details

Rommel and I went back to Cristang a week after our first visit and got a few friends to join us. Unfortunately, the rest already had their lunch and weren't hungry... So we ended up just ordering the starters...

I love the otak otak.... really soft, oily but not too oily, served with crackers that seemed to go really well with it.

The deep fried calamari was not too bad too. Crispy, fresh and not tough to chew.

And the Devils on Horseback, which we ordered the last time too.. Grilled back bacon wrapped over asparagus spears

*yum*

Piggin' Out: Chicken rice at Supertanker

Restaurant: Extra Supertanker
Location: Bukit Utama Golf Club
Previous review here

My dad has been talking about the chicken rice cooked by the chef here in the new Supertanker... whom we know as Kou Lou... He was previously from the Overseas Restaurant in Armada and my dad had heard from some of his friends that Kou Lou's chicken rice was pretty good.

An opportunity came when we had bring over all the stuff for the Roof fund-raising dinner. We'd already spent the whole day getting everything sorted (not to mention the weeks of preparation before that). So everyone was pretty tired by the time we got there and wanted something simple..

My dad had already expected this and pre-ordered the chicken rice. We had two types of chicken - neutered chicken and kampung chicken... Couldn't really taste much difference actually.

We also had a platter of siew yoke, char siu and roast duck, deep fried squid, deep fried brinjal and stir fried veg...

And the verdict? I quite liked it. The chicken was alright... and you could tell it was good quality chicken. The rice was fragrant (which meant a lot of fat was used). The chilli sauce was a bit disappointing. I think we make better chilli sauce at home.

Will I order this there again? I dont think so. I'm happy with the one we cook at home. Simple and nice.

Isetan sale starts today... and Dr Sebagh

The Isetan 11th Anniversary sale started today with the Members Day. I made sure I had my Isetan card and my credit cards and headed there at lunchtime. I wasn't interested in everything though. In fact, I've never actually been for a Member's Day sale and was worried about the crowds. But, Mom wanted me to get some stuff from the Dr. Sebagh counter in Isetan KLCC since the offer (for today only) was a free gift pack worth RM588 when you spend RM1000 and above.

Who is Dr Sebagh? Here's the results when you google him up.

My mom and I were introduced to his brand at a child's birthday party in the Shangri-la KL a month ago. While we were a bit out of place given that we didn't have any kids with us, our hostess (the birthday boy and birthday girl's mother) has always made sure that the parties were not a boring affair for adults. The kids were kept busy with some glass painting at one corner, an inflatable castle in another corner and a PS3 corner for the older kids. Of course there were clowns and cutesy cupcakes and kiddy snacks as well. But for the adults, this time, she got the team from Ken's Apothecary to set up tables and we got free hand masssages using Laura Mercier products. We also got to buy the Laura Mercier products at a great price (and I'm a sucker for a bargain) so Mom and I bought some shower gel and body lotion sets.

They also had a Dr Sebagh counter because our hostess has been using their products and found great improvement to her skin. Mom of course decided to try (you'll never find out if things are really good or not until you try them for yourself). She got the Serum Repair and the Vitamin C powder and they gave her the moisturiser sample to try out.

After two weeks of using, our regular hairstylist, Florence (of A Cut Above Midvalley), asked Mom if she'd done anything to her face because her skin was looking firmer. So if Florence can tell a difference (she's been seeing my mom every 1-3 days for the last 8 years so she knows her pretty well), that says something.

The person who talked my mom into buying the Dr Sebagh products that day is Maggie. I first met Maggie, who is based at the Dr Sebagh counter in Bangsar Village, a few months back in Bangsar Shopping Centre where I, in a random splurge phase, bought a bottle of Annick Goutal's Petite Cherie from her. She recognised me that day at the birthday party and so it started from there. She's also recommended me the eye cream for my dark circles and fine lines (sigh I blame my job) but she didn't have it with her that day.

So I was supposed to go over to BV one of these days to buy the eye cream there but when we spotted the offer in Isetan, I thought, why not? And so...... here's the damage done today:

Eye Expert for Mom - RM319,
Extreme Moisturise and Serum Repair set for Mom - RM1309
For Your Eyes Only for myself - RM519

Total = RM2147

Let's just see if my eyebags and dark circles really go away....

Piggin' In: Lok-lok at home

For our post-Easter celebrations with the RCIA team, we decided to have a lok-lok (literally translated as dip-dip) party at our home. We had our first lok-lok party experience in my Uncle James' house in Setia Alam during Christmas and thought it was a fun idea!

The lok-lok van arrived at around 6.30pm, as scheduled and the guy quickly set everything up. Look at all the stuff we had!


We also ordered barbecued and deep fried stuff as extras... I must admit I'm actually not a big fan of lok-lok, I dont know why, maybe it's because I've never been a fan of fishballs. So, all the fried stuff was great! (not great for my diet though)

We welcomed the newly-baptised with a carrot cake made by godbrother Calvin...


Just in case the lok-lok wasn't filling or was insufficient, we ordered slabs of siew yoke which I'd blogged about yesterday.... 5kgs worth of it. I was put in charge of chopping them up..


We also had fruits to serve for dessert and in case anyone needed their carbo portions, Rommel and I bought charsiu wantan mee from the DDP food court.

I also brought out my bubble machine and the kids had fun with it...

And finally, I leave you with a picture of cute little Gabrielle....

Coach - the new season

Shen, I know I was supposed to do this ages ago but hey at least I'm finally doing it! Here you go... Pictures of the Coach bags Ma bought on her Singapore trip last month.

First is the Leather Olive from the Bonnie Collection. I haven't had an occasion to use this yet but it's cute and not too small so I can still fit all my junk in it.

Next is my favourite thus far.... the Bonnie canvas tote. Huge, lots of little pockets and absolutely perfect for weekends.

And the third bag Ma bought was the Bonnie signature foldover crossbody. Quite nice to use too... I pair this with my Bimba and Lola ballet pumps which happen to be in the same shade of pink!


And then, the Mother's Day present I bought for Ma this weekend... I can't seem to find a picture of it, even on the Coach website so the closest resemblance is the Parker Leather Tattoo Print Clutch, pictured below. Similar except the body is made of straw I think and the leather trimming on the one I bought was baby pink and the clutch is a foldover. (Do you get it?) Anyway I'll take a picture of it soon I guess...

** Pictures courtesy of www.coach.com

Knit FO: Ashley's bag

It was my niece, Ashley's birthday last weekend and I wanted to make her a little bag but didn't have much time to do it. Snuck a couple of minutes over 3 nights and here's what I came up with:

Something small and cute that she can maybe play with. I'm not sure. I'd used it as a projects bag but what can she use it for? I'll check with her when I next see her if she liked it. But I think she would have preferred the Barbie Kelly doll and pony that I got her too...

Details:
Pattern: The base was from one of the Japanese knitting books and I made up the top part.
Yarn: Leftovers from various projects.
Crochet hook size: 4mm

The best siew yoke in the world...

... by my standards, that is..... can be found at the address below:


If you can't read the address, it's No 94, Jln Rukun 2, Tmn Gembira, Kuchai Lama, KL. Call Kit at 012 633 8614 if you get lost.

For a very long time now, I've been selfish. Because I didn't want anyone else to start patronising this establishment which has been to me, all these years, the best siew yoke ever. As it is, everything's usually sold out before 1pm and you have trouble getting a table. Lucky for me, the uncle who runs the place is my dad's schoolmate from Rawang and so I get "special" treatment. Then I found out that he's my boss' wife's uncle when we once had a debate about... what else... the best siew yoke in town! Talk about what a small world it is!! So my boss obviously gets better treatment than I do! Haha..


Just look at that perfection....

P/S: The pieces look like they were chopped a bit too big. That's my fault! We'd ordered like 5 kgs of siew yoke for a party we had at home and I had the honour/duty of chopping it up for the guests. 5kgs of it no joke......