Carl's Jr @ 1Utama

Gosh... It feels like a life time since I've last blogged. It has been a pretty hectic month as the team is under pressure to perform well before the year end in June. Hence, my disappearance from the blogosphere.

Despite the madness at work, I managed to squeeze some "me time" to go shopping/movie on a public holiday last week.

Well... EV calls it happy time, but I would like to call it otherwise.... **HEHEHE**

After a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG walk, carrying all of the EV's supplies, (Yes, she does need to supplement her diet with some human food....) we ended up at Carl's Jr.

I remember trying a Carl's Jr burger some 10 years back and recalled that I had the juiciest burger then. The outlet subsequently closed due to poor business and when I heard that this franchise was back in Malaysia, I wanted to try it again!

I heard a "rumour" of sorts from my colleagues that the burgers cost > RM15 and above. So, I wanted to see why the burgers cost so much to dispel the rumour or support it. Perhaps the cost was high because they decided to convert the prices in USD to MYR??

So, is Carl's Jr a "posh" burger restaurant??

Well, to date, the most expensive burger I've had is at either Chilli's or TGIF where burgers cost anything from RM19 and above....

EV: What you having???
Me: Chicken-la.... Looks like grilled chicken for me... Can't take your unhealthy food-le..
EV: Wow... The chilli burger looks so good! All the meat oozing out.
Me: **SPACED OUT** **WIPING SALIVA OFF MY FACE** Huh?? **SLURRP** Don't tempt me woman! I'm going for the grilled chicken sandwich.
EV: So, which size? We take medium or large?
Me: Wah liao??? Large is like.. RMXXXXXXX!!! You siao-ar???
EV: Ok ok... Take the small-la. Don't think I can eat so much.
Me: (Yeah, you take other forms of nutrients.. Hehehee)

So, in the end, we both ordered a set. Took a small and medium set with some onion rings. The small is like the McD's regular size. Yep, we get US-size portions here. Eep!

The cashier took our order and gave us a number. Rather than keep a long queue going, they prefer to serve your food to you at your table. So, chances are, your food is made fresh, unlike other fast food outlets where the burgers are pre-made some 5-10 minutes before the rush hour.


There was this flyer which displayed 1 of the burgers... looks delectable. BTW, it's a double-decker!!! Love the tagline.... "She'll tell you size doesn't matter. She's lying." LOL!!!!

When I got my burger, it was wrapped in another sheet of paper. It was lovingly wrapped. I just had to take a photo of it before I sank my canines into it!

Note that the bread is different from the burger buns at other places. My grilled chicken burger used a brown ryebread which was a healthier option. From the sheet, you can see that there isn't too much grease on it. Yep, I didn't feel THAT guilty when I ate it!

EV's burger was also lovingly wrapped in a sheet of it's own. It sure looked delectable. The burger is HUGE... I can't recall what was her burger, I think it was the Superstar or something.

I dissected my burger to put in some tomato ketchup and yeap, there was a bit of cheese on top of the grilled chicken breast. Well, we have to indulge once in a while... Doesn't the cheese and chicken bacon look great?? **SLURPP**

The onion rings were fantastic! It was made fresh again and didn't have that yucky aftertaste like some other onion rings at another burger joint. The onions were large and sweet, unlike some outlets which has smaller varieties of onions which didn't taste as sweet.

This "blurry" monster you see is EV's burger. It had chicken bacon and also a juicy, slab of beef burger meat sandwiched between two ideal sourdough buns.... **SLURRP*** Yes, she was trying to tempt me into taking a bite!

The fries are another item to die for! The fries are not the pre-processed, generic starchy strings we call "french fries" but these were cut from the potato with the skin on. So, at the end of each fry, you get a nice crispy skin which tastes so yummy.

Unfortunately, my camera phone lacked the proper macro-zoom focus to take a good shot of the lovely fries...

Carls Jr also had the beef chilli fries but I lacked the additional 3 stomachs to taste it. (^ ^) Next time, perhaps?

In the end, both EV and I managed to satisfy the carnivore inside us and thoroughly enjoyed our meal. We felt that the price of RM50 for the burgers and onion rings was really worth it!

This burger joint does offer quality goods and I hope that the outlets will continue to maintain a high standard for their food unlike other outlets which has compromised quality to lower costs to increase their margins.

Although the menu items are a bit costly, but I find that the price justifies the quality of food and service provided. Besides that, they do offer alternative "healthy" menu such as salads with plenty of leafy greens too.

Gosh... Looking at the photos, I'm convinced of making the trek to Pavillion to get my Carl's Jr fix!!!

A New Day Dawns...

** Celine Dion's song "A New Day Has Come" rings at the back of my mind**

I was up until 3:00am waiting with bated breath for the latest results. Certainly, I was shocked beyond words to find that my home state has gone to the opposition!!

I was looking around the forums and alternative new sites for any interesting bits on the latest seat counts. Amongst the posts of people congratulating everyone and posting up messages of hope of peace, unity and new cooperation, there were the usual few who still injected negative comments of "those who vote opposition, kiss your opportunities goodbye for no funds will come in".... -__-"

Why all the negative talk?

Focus on the positive. Sure, Selangor is now under opposition but if we work hard enough, perhaps it would be even better than when it was under the ruling coalition? It is up to us to make that happen.

It is a historic day and I am very glad to have been a part of it. A lot of my peers have opted out of registering as voters and some have even said that it would not benefit me at all as it's all money politics. Yes, absolute power corrupts absolutely and corruption will always be there as long as there is money in the world. However, now that there is an opposition in place, wouldn't that help put the system in check?

Now is the time to work together. Like the Celine Dion song - A New Day Dawns...

Let the rain come down and wash away my tears
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears
Let it shatter the walls for a new sun
A new day has come

To the successful elected candidates, we the people, your "Employers" have given you the opportunity to prove yourself. If you don't perform, like in any company, we can kick/vote you out - though we have to wait for another 4-5 years.

WTF... ANOTHER SMS SPAM FROM BN???!!!!

Wow.. This is too much!!!!

Right after I cast my vote in the afternoon, I had another SMS from this spammer!!

Please click on the image for a larger view...

I've checked the message details and found this...

I did my vote at around 2pm... Isn't it strange that the message was sent at 8:03am? Looks like they started to "thank" people right after the polling started to thank the masses of the impending BN win?

Anyway, the shocking part is that my colleague's girlfriend, who has not registered as a voter at all, got this SMS as well!

Hmmmm... :think: :think:....

WTF... SMS SPAM FROM BN???

March 8th has finally come... Happy International Women's Day... and also, Selamat Mengundi 2008 (Happy Polling 2008)...

I woke up this morning feeling rather excited about participating in Malaysia's 12th General Election as it will be my second time voting. I wasn't eligible back in 1999 because my name wasn't in the SPR registration despite registering back late in 1998, about 6 months before the 10th General Election. So, when 2004 came about, I was excited as well to vote for the first time.

Anyway, this time round, I knew where to go and felt like an "old hand" at this. (^___^)

It's so easy. You just go to the SPR Kerani who is sitting at the table, hand her your MyKad to check for your registration and she'll give you the room number to go and vote.

Once you get in there, they'll check your registration number and name, before handing you the slips to vote.

After that, casting your vote into the ballot boxes (transparent plastic box, this time around) and you're done!

However, just before I left for the polling centre, I checked my mobile for any messages and found that I received one....

I thought it was just one of the usual SPAM SMSes one gets about some promotion or something... Certainly, this is a promotion of sorts - TO VOTE FOR BN (BARISAN NASIONAL) today!!

Here's a closer look at the message they sent to me...

I'm not going to black-out the phone number as I want to show that this number is not from any local SMS shortcode or local SIM. The number seems to come from some SMS-gateway or something.

I'm not sure how they got my mobile but I'm not surprised at how they may have gotten it.. They probably bought it from some company who keeps a database of numbers - much like how insurance/credit card companies get hold of your number from the bank or some financial institution.

I wanted to see what time this message was sent out, i.e. in technical terms - "what time did their spam batch job started"...

It seems that the SMS-C (SMS Centre) has received it at 4:28am. The job probably ran around the clock since they have to spam notify millions of subscribers of the 3 mobile providers in Malaysia.

Well, I have to say that I don't check my mobile at 4:28am and since I had my mobile turned off, I didn't see it until much later in the day.

Did this message persuade me to vote for BN? Well.... I can't say... My vote is private.. For me only to know and NOT FOR YOU TO FIND OUT!!

Happy Voting folks. You've still got about 2 hours more to go!!!

Vote Wisely...

Vote wisely.. Like what the catchy song of the "Undi Song" which we hear on radio/TV during every election...



Here's the video..


For it is our duty to exercise our democratic right to select the people who would represent us. Hence, we're choosing people who should work for the people and not rob from them.

Having heard the arguments of both sides, choose wisely as this decision of placing your "X" will impact you and your family for the next few years to come.

Happy Voting folks!

A New Member...

Election fever is gripping the nation. I've yet to write some comments on it. Even if I did, a lot of folks have commented on it. (^.^)

All I have to say is Vote on Your Conscious. Remember that you'll be stuck with your decision for the next 5 years!

A couple of weeks back, I wrote something about change and so, there was a change in my life. A new member has joined the family!!

He's a little rascal of sorts..

Don't let his baby brown eyes fool you! He's a rascal through and through!! - Snoopy

Both Snoopy and Rusty seems to get along pretty well. Well, as least Snoopy has accepted him into the family now... Except for meal times when Rusty thinks that whatever everyone eats is his food!!


I'll try to post some other stuff later. Got some thoughts on my mind...