Dinner @ Cafe Cafe Sibu

Just had a good dinner with some friends at Cafe Cafe tonight. I personally feel that this is a more "luxury" choice to have meals where the foods here are more "pricey" yet they are comparably reasonable with some other newly established cafe around Sibu.

The place has a very nice ambience where I will reveal in the coming write up. For this time, I will just concentrate on the foods we had.

This is what I ordered. The Oriental Grilled Chicken served with potato wedges and fresh vege in gravy sauce.

It tastes good with the flesh texture still soft and easy to chew but the taste itself didn't give me too much surprise. I more impressed with the potato wedges served with its rind. You won't have the feel of the rind when biting them.

The size of the grilled chicken was a bit too small. I still remember in my last visit to this cafe which is around a year ago, the size of the chop was much bigger than this. Well, maybe this is the impact of economy recession where the price remained but the portion deducted?!!

No wonder one of the friend was complaining to have Kampua Mee after this dinner la! This grilled chicken chop costs RM18.00.

For drink, i ordered watermelon juice which is my favourite among fresh fruit juices. It is just an ordinary glass size of juice costs RM8.

The following food was not ordered by me but other friend. It is called Fish & Chips which is deep fried breaded fillet of fish served with French fries, side salad and Tartar sauce. This set costs RM19.00.

Oh ya! It is stated clearly in the menu, ordering western cuisine such as chicken chop, fish & chips or lamb chop required minimum waiting time of 30 minutes. So, if you are in a rush, make sure you don't order these foods or you will walk out the shop with all kind of "dirty words"!

We also had some side orders. Deep fried cuttlefish which is very crunchy...

... and also lady's fingers fried with spicy sambal!



p/s: I would like to apologize if you feel uncomfortable with the quality of photos as my camera really can't snap good photos in the dark ambience.

Swan City Toastmasters Club 7th Installation Dinner @ Tanahmas Hotel

I had been invited to attend Swan City Toastmasters Club 7th installation dinner last night. It was held at Tanahmas Hotel, Sibu.

Swan City Toastmasters Club is a English-based public speaking organization and also one among few toastmaster clubs available in Sibu. The club gives you a platform to sharpen your English public speaking skill, trains you to become a better leader and also boosts up your confident level.

Don't get me wrong! Personally I am not the club's member. I went there for foods really! But as far as I know, if you have interest in public speaking, if you wish to be a better speaker, if you are preparing yourself to be a politician, then I think this is a club you should turn to.

The guest of honor for the night was Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh. Usually I don't really listen to politician's speech but I would say I was quite impressed with his speech on the night. He didn't touch about politics, instead he gave few good examples on the importance of speaking skills, including how world greatest leaders such as Zhu Ge Liang, Zhou En Lai and Sukarno used their speeches to influence the world. His speech matched 2009/2010 toastmasters club theme "Speaking Your Way to Magical Transformation" well.

The sworn-in ceremony for new committee was witness by the guest of honor. The symbolic ceremony which was passing "Office of the President" gavel supposed to be done by the immediate past president to the new president, but somehow the Area Gavernor was "kepo" enough to did that on behalf of the immediate past president which I felt very illogical!

The group singing of toastmasters medley which consist of few very well-known songs including "I have a dream", "Mama Mia", "I will follow you", "I'd like to teach the world to sing" and also "We are the world" by the committee and the members was nice to listen, but I was not sure how many had pay attention to its modified lyrics.

An interesting "Generation Gap" game had been held to cheer the dinner up....

... and also Poco-poco dance by the committee members. This dance was origin from Indonesia, but somehow it was quite famous and always being performed in official occasion nowadays. This is not the first official event I attended which showed this dance.

I guess it was not too hard to learn, just have to familiar with the steps and follow the rhythm. It was very nice to watch!

Highlight of the night! I won a lucky draw with the lucky number 9520! Although it was not expensive stuff but for a person who hardly won any lucky prizes, I think I shouldn't complain more, should I?

So, for those who have interest in Swan City Toastmasters Club (either on the handsome/pretty committee members or club's activities), you can meet them as follow:

2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month
Place: Wisma Huawen Du Zhong, Sibu
Time: 7.30pm - 9.30pm

Buffet Dinner @ Shogun One Utama

Shogun is a Japanese buffet restaurant located at One Utama shopping complex, Petaling Jaya.

Last night we were invited by Chamb and his newly married wife to the restaurant for a buffet dinner on their treat. Actually it was a replacement wedding dinner as we couldn't make it to the actual dinner on 2nd of May in Sibu.

The buffet dinner started at 6pm, but we went in about 6.15pm. Quite packed inside the restaurant maybe because of mothers' day. This is my first time trying Japanese foods' buffet and I was looking forward to it.

[Outside view of Shogun Japanese buffet restaurant]

[A corner inside Shogun]

Sushi - the most symbolic food in Japanese cuisine. That's why, in the first round, I went for sushi! I think this is the most sushi varieties I ever see so far. I spent some times walking around the sushi area and finally took some which were more eyes-catchy to me.

[Sushi and sashimi section]

Certainly you cannot take too many sushi as they are made by rice and rice will make you feel full. This is a very basic trick when having buffet, isn't it? I tried few including the original salmon fish sashimi sushi and also a beef sashimi sushi. Yes, I never know beef can be sashimi or being eaten raw! Not too bad taste perhaps you should try out.

[Various kind of sushi]

[Beef sushi]

After finished eating a plate of sushi, I then tried out the roasted duck roll and some grilled sea eel. These dishes were prepared live by few cooks inside the restaurant. Both of them taste delicious! I highly recommend the roasted duck roll!

[Live sea eel cooking and roasted duck rolls preparing section]

[Raw sea eels going to be cooked]

[Roasted duck rolls]

[Inside the duck roll]

The restaurant also serve quite a lof of seafoods. So, for seafood lovers, you should try Shogun! I tried 2 raw oysters which have strong fish smell. That's why you need to apply some lemon juice onto the oysters to minimize this smell. However if you dun like the raw oyster, you can request for baking the oysters with cheese! Yes, this definitely taste nicer!

[Fresh and raw oysters eaten with lemon juice]

[Baked cheese oyster]

I also tasted other types of seafoods such as spicy lala (clams), soft shell crabs and also korean sea snails. I would say they tasted good!

[Spicy lala]

[Soft shell crab]

[Spicy Korean sea snails]

There were more dishes to choose from actually, such as teppanyaki chicken, lamb, prawns, tuna, cod fish and so on. There were even Thai cruisine being served inside Shogun.

[More dishes]

[Other dishes]

[Thai delights section]

If you are tempura lovers, Shogun serves various kind of fresh tempura including prawn, soft shell crab, sweet potatoes, yam, vegetables and so on. I tried some.

[Assorted tempura and some other Japanese foods]

[The section where tempura and teppanyaki were cooked]

Near the tempura section I found this quite unique. Small bowls covered with aluminum and put inside the hot water. I was curious about it, therefore I took one to have a try. Well, it was actually called Chawan Mushi, some sort like a steamed eggs.

[Chawan Mushi soaked inside hot water to keep warm]

[Chawan Mushi - steamed egg]

For desserts, the choices were quite a lot as well. You can have fruit cocktail, honeydew with coconut milk, peanut soup, various flavour of ice-cream, cakes and fruits.

[Desserts section]

We spent about 2 hours eating inside the restaurant before we gave up. It was worth actually, but the bill was a bit expensive with about RM70+ per head inclusive of taxes. I was satisfy with the foods there, just that I wished I have 4 stomachs to try out all the foods. There was only 1 think I quite regreted - I didn't try the tepanyakki because my stomach really cannot accomodate even a little more!

[Another view inside the restaurant]

It was a nice dinner though thanks to Chamb and Lilian!

Victor Grace Wedding On 3rd Day Of CNY @ Golden Happiness Restaurant

Attended one of my secondary school old time buddy's, Victor wedding lunch at Golden Happiness Restaurant yesterday, which was also the 3rd day of Chinese New Year.

[Outside view of Golden Happiness Restaurant]

Golden Happiness Restaurant is described by Sibu people as the best restaurant in town for various occasion especially for wedding banquet. That's why, in order to held wedding lunch or dinner at this restaurant, you need to book the place at least half a year to one year in advance especially during peak season.

[Table presentation - better than some hotels]

[A view inside the restaurant]

Victor was my classmate from Transition class to Form 5. We were having great time study in the same class as he always become the center of laughter for his "siao siao" and playful characteristic! He's a very smart person but his "craziness" sometimes caught us in shock! He was once glamor among the classmates for his Batman-style-upside-down-hanging-on-the-door and also Superman-running-on-corridor-edge stunts! Nowadays whenever we talk about Victor, these are the thing we never forget to mention about and became a good laughter among our gang!

I think this is what made Victor so special among our friends. A happy-go-lucky guy and not easy to get angry. You see, he even showed his clown-look on stage when everyone was preparing for "Yam Seng" session during his wedding lunch! He noticed that I was taking photo on him, that's why he showed me this face (as in photo below). I said that look more MONKEY than CLOWN! HAHA! The most not serious bridegroom I ever met!

[Gatcha MONKEY!!]

Yesterday Victor was wearing a neck tie with a lot of small froggies printed on it. I felt curious, thus I asked him, "Why froggies, Victor?". This is how he answered me, "Because I am prince of frog (青蛙王子) ma... ". HAHA! Very logic and good answer!! You win this time, Victor!

[Froggies neck tie]

Then, Victor was caught reading Keadilan Press (Gong Zheng Bao) at his wedding lunch! Hii Tiong Huat, Sibu maddest man somehow sneaked into the banquet and busy selling Keadilan Press from table to table. I was too busy with eating, that's why forgot to take a shot on him! As a bridegroom, Victor somehow got a copy of the press then started to read it instantly on his VIP table! Didn't I tell you he is the most not serious bridegroom I ever met?!

[Gatcha Victor!]

[The bridegroom continue reading his Gong Zheng Bao]

Victor's mother, Mdm. Yew was our Biology teacher in Form 4 & 5. She was a great teacher who was very serious and dedicated in her teaching, most-student-would-scare type. Yet outside the classroom, she is not scary at all! She is a very friendly person who even join us for laughter when we visited his son on Chinese New Year! So as his dad who like to join us laughing. Victor's elder brother, Vincent and younger sister, Caroline are equally friendly person as well! That made them a happy and fun family!

The wedding lunch was great in term of the foods as well as the time we have. This year we didn't do visiting, so this lunch gave us the chance for a small gathering among secondary school friends!

[The dishes - Left-bottom shows the most delicious shark fin soup among restaurants on town]

[Other dishes and desserts]

As his buddy, I truely happy for Victor and his family. Finally his family's dream came true and his dad need not nag us to introduce a girl to his son anymore! ;p I sincerely wish Victor and Grace have a Happily-ever-after marriage. We hope next year when they come back from New Zealand for Chinese New Year, they will bring back a small Victor or small Grace or both!