It was the weekend just before Lunar New Year, Blamer extended an invite to me to join her friends for a trip up north. As there was too many of us to fit into Ryan's car, Blamer and me embarked on our first ever "crossing the causeway via public transport"
No offense to our neighbors up north, but I seriously dun understand the need for such winding roads to take us to the new Malaysia checkpoint named Sultan Iskandar Complex.
We can't take photos while crossing the customs, so sorry for the lack of pics, but overall the place is very new and clean and big! There's even a travellator like our very own Changi Airport.
More self cam-whore pics. Notice the two ppl in the red circle, recognised them even from this distance. Fling and Noel, our host for the day.
Last pic while taking the escalator down. Good hair day for me : ) Oh it was actually much faster crossing the causeway via public than car. Cos when we reached, Ryan and Co were still queueing at the customs.
First destination, lunch! Noel recommended this Bah Kut Teh store. As u all know what a 路痴 I am, I took down the signboard so that anyone interested can google for it. Ha ha.
I ordered the Lemon Jelly drink similar to 爱玉冰 that they have in Taiwan. I got the pretty cup while Ryan... ... Sorry bro.
This is steamed fish in bean sauce I think. Quite like this dish as it's very flavourful. The sauce goes very well with plain rice.
Blamer quite like the cute flowery rice bowls. Qian seems to differ... ...
The awaited Bah Kut Teh. Really different from those we have in Singapore. I used to think Malaysian Bah Kut Teh are the black herbal ones that are served in claypots, while Singaporean Bah Kut Teh are the peppery ones served in porcelain bowls. However, the difference is actually Hokkien and Teochew. The former being the black claypot ones and the latter, the peppery version. This Bah Kut Teh, on the other hand, is totally different. There's golden mushrooms, fish maw and pork belly instead of the usual pork ribs only. Not too peppery oso.
After lunch, we went Giant to grab some drinks for tonight's BBQ. Coincidentally we bought drinks that complemented our outfits. End up me and Ryan got to carry them.
Popped by Fling's new condo to pick up some stuffs as well as look around her new place.
Nice view from the balcony. You really get the seaview and can be sure it won't get blocked up anytime soon.
The amenities are surprisingly located on the 6th floor instead of the usual ground floor in Singapore. This is becos the first five floors are used as carparks. Malaysians are not into digging underground yet.
Lucky ZG with the pretty babes.
Oh and this is an interesting power plug we discovered at Fling's place. Heard from ZG this is available in Singapore as well.
A video to show u how this works. I think this is really handy around the kitchen or the study table where u can just shift the plugs around to cater to different electrical appliances.
Mohamed ZG???
Selfish Blamer 霸占 the whole couch to herself... ...
After visiting Fling's place, it's "walk horse see flower" time at one of the shopping malls. Blamer keep wanting to eat this ice-cream called baskin robbins.
This is their strawberry flavour, paid 12 over ringgit for it. Hmm, I think this amounts to SGD 5 plus for a scoop of ice-cream. Not really very cheap hah.
I reckoned Qian felt the same way too.
Noel and Fling dun really mind the price though, maybe they are used to it already ha ha.
The girls chanced upon this shoe shop (and many others that followed)... ...
While all smiles from the girls... ...
"Defeated"
Finally, for the main event! BBQ at Noel's place.
We din take a lot of pics of the house cos I thought it wasn't very polite. But man, I think the size of Noel's bedroom is twice or even 3 times of our normal HDB living room!
There's a large full size mirror outside of Noel's room. Not really sure wat's the use of it but it's a great place to take a group pic.
While waiting for the BBQ, we were treated to salmon sashimi and a most powerful 甜汤
If you think it's only gingko nuts and dried longgan meat, you are so wrong man. It's full of bird's nest! Good for my complexion... ... must eat more (gobble gobble)... wa ha ha ha.
Our old sch BBQ pit.
Noel is a seasoned fire-starter. Just look at how well the pit was set up and the strong fire.
I helped out too. By bringing the food out.
Rare case of Ryan helping out too (or so I was told), hence must take a pic for remembrance sake.
ZG was caught red-handed for lazing around!
While Blamer tried to be the "thorn" among the "roses", wa ha ha ha.
Another BBQ tip picked up from Noel, if u do not have enuf ice to go around, try immersing them in styrofoam box filled with ice and water, instant mini-fridge.
Blamer here is demonstrating another new trick. Using lemon grass to spread out the butter instead of the usual plastic brushes. Noel's mum thinks this is a healthier way cos u never know whether the plastic will melt in the heat during the BBQ.
The last trick as Noel here was explaining, the use of banana leaves instead of aluminium foil to wrap the food with before BBQ-ing. All natural and it also adds flavour to the food.
If u had read Blamer's earlier post on her BBQ outing with her colleagues, she has just proclaimed herself to be the "Prawn Master" at BBQs.
Armed with Noel's mum's secret sambal chilli... ...
Blamer decided to get her hands dirty to recreate her master piece: Sambal BBQ Prawns.
All set and ready. By the way, the friendly and cute girl beside Blamer is Noel's kid sister. She helped Blamer with the BBQ gadget.
Blamer showing her gratitude.
So it's happy BBQ-ing time:
Noticed this is the only BBQ photo with me inside. Tough being the official photographer. I dun get featured tat often : (
ZG was skeptical about the skills of the "Prawn Master" and initiated a challenge.
He's pitting his chicken wings against Sambal BBQ prawns
Blamer's prawns looking good... ... (and I think ZG abandoned his quest after tasting one of her prawns)
As if to celebrate her victory... Noel's bro took out some firecrackers. How I wish we can do the same thing in Singapore, beautiful isn't it?
Down to biz. Noel took out his newly purchased poker and chips set.
The ultimate winner turned out to Poker-faced Ryan. Joycelyn, you better be on your toes with him... (ha ha just kidding)
Finally, a group pic to conclude the wonderful night. Many thanks to Noel and Fling for having us over. Special mention to Noel's godfather too, who sent Blamer and Me out, till next time! (Kudos to the photographer who managed to capture the fireworks in the background)
Came across this Korean snack kiosk at Ngee Ann City.
Can't resist buying something from them while waiting for the rest to turn up.
Korean pancake.
And some meat skewers. Nothing really special about the meat or the pancake. I think their secret is the sauce though. Sweet and spicy the true Korean way. The sauce just makes everything taste good.
Our restaurant for the night. Actually, we wanted to go Sushi-Teh at Paragon. But being ever so popular, the waitress told Bli that we would have to be on the waiting list for at least an hour. Little did we know that Ken would be late for exactly the hour. By the time we sat our butts down and took our orders, Bli's mobile rang. Oh the irony... ...
This restaurant is famous for their Katsu. Be it pork or chicken or... ...
Seafood! Which was what I ordered. Prawns, crab and oyster.
Blamer was feeling quite full from our earlier Korean conquest, hence she only had their side dish, Smoked duck and kope the rest from my plate.
Must kope back. Ha ha. Another interesting thing about this restaurant is tat they serve free flow of miso soup and salad as long as you ordered a set meal. Blamer stopped me from having my third bowl of miso soup citing hair loss again. Argh, my 三千烦恼丝.
Bli with the "late-comer" aka Ken. Ha ha ha.
Group pic taken when we were signing the bill. Lucky razor-eyed Blamer discovered that we had been billed for the Chawanmushi that never came. Lesson learnt time and again, always check the bill before you sign. Nice meeting up and catching up with each other lives. We really should do this more often guys and Steven, next time dun fly kite. : P
