Peanuts

Something playful today...

If someone were to say to you "Peanuts-la".. Is this what you think of?

LOL!! Hope that you will have a great week ahead where your tasks are like "Peanuts". ^.^

Fusion Japanese & Italian @ Pasta Zanmai, Empire Subang

It's ashamed that Japan never met Italy in the World Cup this year. However, you can always try a mesh of these two countries at Pasta Zanmai.

Empire Subang is fast becoming a very popular spot for us locals around Subang Jaya, Sunway & USJ. The lower ground floor is dedicated to food and it is home to a couple of big restaurant franchises - Chilli's, Italiannies and Rakuzen.

What a Lovely F/22 Day

It's a bright, sunny Sunday morning.

Makes you feel like sitting in some shade, having a great brunch.

However, I'm out of bacon and eggs & so, had to contend myself with a slice of waffle smothered with peanut butter and kaya.

Snoopy, on the other hand enjoyed her morning sunbath along with her brother Rusty.

Japanese Food Fired Up @ Sushi Zen, Gardens MidValley

Another post on food... Haha!

Actually, I wanted to post up this picture I took while having lunch at Sushi Zen, Gardens Midvalley.

We happened to sit at the counter for lunch and had a good view of the kitchen. So, we could watch all the food that were prepared for all the customers.

It's not everyday that you get to see a blowtorch in action. The dish prepared was probably grilled salmon tataki or grilled cod roe on salmon sushi which is delicious.

Anyway, we ordered some boring stuff...

Yasai tempura....

Unagi don...

Both were absolutely delicious. Anyway, Sushi Zen is just another name for the Sushi Zanmai franchise and so, the food was expected to be of good quality at a reasonable price.

Yum... It certainly prepared me for the "Mad Hatter's Tea" later that day. :-)

Sweet Temptations @ Cupcake Chic

Just to demonstrate how "evil" EV can be... Last week, after a scrumptious lunch, she said she had to satisfy her cupcake craving; with full knowledge that I can't have sweets.

She had already declared that she was too full from lunch earlier but when we got to The Curve, she remembered about the little cupcake place just next to Gloria Jeans.

Yep, we checked out Cupcake chic...

No, I did not indulge with her. Only took 2 spoonfuls to taste the cupcakes and frankly, it is just too sickeningly sweet for me. There is only so much sugar, my system can take. After those 2 spoonfuls, I had a sudden craving to do a 20-min run on the elliptical trainer... -_-"

The first cupcake she chose was "Back to Basics". It is a vanilla-based cupcake with vanilla frosting.

The next cupcake EV chose was "Naughty 'n Nice" - a vanilla based cupcake with chocolate frosting. The sugar rice sprinkles completed the dessert.

I'm not a huge fan of cupcakes but if I could have any frosting on top my cupcake, it would have to be a lemon-based frosting. The zesty lemon taste goes pretty well with a moist cupcake base.

Anyway, since I'm not allowed to have any sweets, I can only dream of such desserts.

However, I do enjoy taking photos of these desserts. ;-)

It's FRIDAY!!!!

Smile folks!! It's finally FRIDAY!!!!!

Hope that you folks will enjoy the weekend. Well, it's about 1 month to CNY and so, I'll be going around to take photos of those lovely decorations again. Hmmm.. Wonder if I should get a new lens first before I go around shooting.

Anyway, have a great weekend!!!

New York, New York Deli @ IUtama, PJ

Time to post something a little more light-hearted...

Lately I've been posting a lot of pictures on food. LOL!! Well, it was the Christmas season and so, being out and about, one cannot get away from eating out, right? :P

I've been to New York, New York Deli before for a quick bite but I didn't quite indulge in anything sinful unlike what I'm about to share with you folks...

New York, New York is a cafe which provides a slice of "Americana" cuisine, i.e. popular food from the US. Well, the menu serves up a lot of American classics like burgers and hotdogs but also some other American favourites like chilli con carne, fried chicken and ribs.

The cafe is a lot different from Chilli's or TGIF where the selection of items does not have a lot of Texan or Mexican items. In a sense, New York, New York offers a different slice of American Western cuisine.

This is a "disgusting" looking drink but in fact is quite yummy... Well, the "fake" blood definitely suits EV who, being an emotion vampire would find this drink absolutely nourishing...

The name of this drink - Bloody Eyeballs. Yes, EV dug up those eyeballs for me to see. Quite scary to sip a drink where you have 2 eyeballs starring back at you. But for EV, this is a relaxing drink. LOL!!!

Ok... Sinful food here. Prawn fritters. Need I say more? :P

I can't recall if it came with some sauce but the prawns were fresh and sweet. The batter was brilliant too. I only had a few pieces. This was after all, EV's snack before she had her main course (which I forgot to take photos of)

Since my diet was blown to hell... I just ordered the Teriyaki Beef burger. Absolutely delicious with the lettuce and tomato. What was lacking was a pickle and some onions. The portion of fries accompanying the burger was just right. There is only so much carbo we can absorb at one seating!

I cannot recall the price range but it is somewhat between the RM12 - 50, where RM50 gets you a large main meal of steak or ribs. My burger costs just below RM20 which is reasonable as the burger patty was made with real meat and not the generic burger meat you get elsewhere.

Will I go back there again? Definitely YES but will go for some healthier options. ;-)

BTW, the above shots were taken with my 50mm lens... Just love the bokeh...

50mm Fun @ Garden Lifestyle Store and Cafe

Hope that everyone had a great break over the long weekend.

I still have loads of photos to process as I took a short trip up to Bukit Tinggi...

I had some 50mm fun some weeks back when I met up with EV to discuss about the Raya holiday break. I brought my camera and laptop to do our research.

My 50mm which is a prime lens has a very lovely "bokeh" despite having a f-stop of only f/1.8 but it was a steal at RM350 from Canon!

I've been to this cafe previously but never had the chance to try out the desserts. So, this time round, EV and I decided to have a late lunch together with some cakes...

I believe this is the cappuccino mousse cake which was a tad bit dry but quite good. I may be wrong as I can't recall if we ordered tiramisu or the mousse cake.. Hmmm...

The green tea cake was quite good. It came with the red bean paste or azuki bean paste which is slightly sweet to complement the slight bitterness of the green tea flavour.

Before our desserts, we had a small lunch, where I ordered the Black Pepper Chicken Chop which was pretty good. The portion is a bit small for guys but for gals, it is just nice. ;-)

I had some potato craving... (aii.. carbs.. my nemesis) and so, had to order the side-order of potato salad.

I didn't quite like it as it had too much mayonnaise and not enough chives. The various garden greens is a great complement as it took up most of the mayonnaise. EV liked it though.

All of these photos were taken with my 50mm lens. This means that in order to take these photos, I had to maneuver the items as well as my position in order to take the photo. This certainly is teaching me how best to compose my photos.

Anyway, practice makes perfect... My previous post was done with my 50mm lens as well... ;-)

I would recommend those who are starting out with photography to have in your "arsenal" a good prime lens, and the 50mm is a good buy.

I'm still targeting either the 60mm or 100mm macro lens but both lens require significant amount of investment...