Foodview 02. Jade Hong Kong Cafe, Box Hill

When I think of Box Hill, I think of Shanghai dumplings. There is a Shanghai dumpling restaurant in Chinatown in the city, a few years back they were number 1 in my little black book of eating out, but after being closed twice for what I believed was for failing health inspections, the quality of their food has dropped beyond acceptable. They must have lost the passion for cooking or their secret recipe for making dumplings must have been eaten by rats. That chapter in my book is gone, torn that page and gave it to the rats to chew on it. Anyways, I walked past that restaurant -not to be named- just last week and it was actually packed full... Full of innocent victims who can't tell their dim sums from their dumplings.

Haven't eaten nor seen a Shanghai dumpling since... until today! I was reminded of the beauty of the Shanghai dumpling not in my mouth but from a picture on a menu advertised on one of the many Shanghai dumpling restaurants. I don't know why but the travelling party I was with (I did keep repeating -out loud- how I wanted to stuffed my face with dumplings) did not go to a Shanghai dumpling restaurant (Was it to spite me? Or did they just mentally blocked out every word I said that started with a 'D'?) but instead chose to enter the Jade Hong Kong Cafe

Observation : Clean and the tables were well-spaced. The place had a nice ambiance and packed with customers. The side tables for some odd reason reminded me of the restaurants back in Malaysia :) We didn't wait to long to be seated. The menu mainly consisted of Hong-kong style dishes like baked rice and spaghetti variants; there wasn't any particular specialty the restaurant was known for. There were televisions showing programs from a Chinese cable Tv network to entertain you from their rather boring food. I suspect that Handsome Jade may be the proprietor of this establishment.

I ordered a classic, "White and Red Sauce Baked Rice with meat". I was a bit worried what 'meat' I would end up getting. The sauces had mushrooms, corn & carrot bits, and thankfully they gave me chicken pieces which was baked over steamed rice. Careful the plate is hot.

My friends ordered Fried Kuey Teow with beef (that's right they didn't have to guess what meat they were gonna get), and Seafood chowder with a serve of toast with butter.

Service was slow, the taste was bland for my rice dish but the serving portion was just right. The noodle dish had almost no taste, could just taste a tiny tiny hint of saltiness but the beef was well done - very tender. I thought it was a bit pricey for 'home-cooked food'. I must note that the seafood chowder was milky as, I thought they given their cat's milk bowl. Overall I would not recommend this place.

Taste : 1 out of 5 stars

Value : 1 out of 5 stars

This review is a reflection of my thoughts and experience so please give this place a go before casting your own final judgment.

Foodview 01. Spicy Chilli Sauce (accompanied with fried chicken pieces)

(Please click images to appreciate in full view)

Here are some fried chicken. They look lonely. Perhaps a nice sauce would keep them company?

Today is something different. I will be reviewing my cooking. That's right, "if Yan can cook, so can me!" Martin Yan was one of the first cooking shows to appear on television (for me at least). I watched that show religiously. I learnt to how chop garlic from him. Yes I did.

So I will now incorporate 'foodview' - reviews about local restaurants, foods, recipes as well as my own cooking. Have I forgotten about gundams? Probably + Maybe = Promaybly. They do cost money unless my favourite gundam online store in the entire world walterhobby.com, sponsors me, I will take my time assembling my remaining gundams. I penned a famous quote before in blogs of yore, 'assembling gundams shouldnt be rushed but be enjoyed'. So let's start with my latest and very original catchphrase (work in progress), 'Let's eat this'.

Spicy Chilli Sauce Recipe

4 cloves of garlic (Finely chopped)

3 tablespoons of Tomato sauce

3 tablespoons of Chilli sauce

1/2 tablespoon of sugar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

100mL of water

Optional : You may add red chillies (Finely chopped) to give more a spicy kick to this sauce.

01. In a bowl mix all ingredients EXCEPT the garlic and/or chillies.

(Lesson learnt : You can play around with the amounts of water and/or sauces but always add water gradually rather than too much)

02. In a hot wok with oil, fry garlic until fragrant and/or nice brown colour.

(Optional : You may add the red chillies after this point and stir fry until chillies become fragrant themselves)

(Lesson learnt : Garlic (and/or chillies?) burn and go black very easily. This happens in milliseconds! Never let this happen otherwise you will score ZERO for food presentation and tasting)

03. Stir a few more moments or until sauce slightly thickens and serve immediately by pouring over your meat of choice.

I pronounced you, "Man and Wife"

Chicken were presented in a 'Shoalin warrior fan-array' fashion. This is ideal when presenting very little amount of food.

Scoop rice into a small bowl then placed upside-down on plate prior to serving. Rice must be hot. Huge presentation points.

Next, I pan-fried breaded chicken pieces and poured the sauce over it. I cannot take spicy food hence I omitted the chillies but I could still detect tinges of spiciness from the Chilli sauce. However, I highly recommend that you add chillies to make this sauce work.

A very basic and simple sauce that can be done in minutes if one is pressed for time and are looking for something spicy and not overly sweet. As mentioned before, an advantage of this sauce is that the liquidity can be easily manipulated by adjusting the amounts of water and chilli/tomato sauces.

5 out of 5 stars for this sauce and highly recommend you try it. I reckon I did a very good job of this dish and I give myself 5 out of 5 stars.

Review 0.41 Guitar Hero 5 PS3

A late Christmas wish to all friends and family! The only day throughout the whole year where everyone from work gets a day off and spend quality time with family, friends and food and celebrate this wonderful day!

Today's review is actually incomplete as I played only one of the game modes (We jumped straight in with Quickplay mode) and used only one of the many rules (We used "Pro Faceoff") within that mode.



Obviously to have a duel, one guitar is not enough so here is a Les Paul guitar



Side by side comparison shown with poor lighting



The buttons are the same width but the "sliding bar" is missing on the Les Paul (all black guitar) compared to the original and so this makes the Les Paul shorter in length.

Before I proceed with the review, I would like to declare that the duel that ensued between Mr.P and myself was of an unofficial capacity as my initial intention for that night was to review Mr.P's copy of the game (FYI Out of 9 selected songs, I won only 3). Therefore my record against my arch-rival stands at 0-1 :)

A brief history between Mr.P and myself. I met Mr.P at an internet rivalry site where one finds and challenges other players for pride and glory at various activities which I have beaten him in such as

- Bomberman

- Push ups

- Wearing tight shirts

We quickly selected 9 songs and I noticed the songs didnt't include the freshest hits. But compared to the Guitar Hero World Tour version, this version featured a better mix of familiar songs like Gorillaz's 2005 'Feel good inc' to the classic 1973 'Superstition' by Stevie Wonder that anyone in their twenties will recognise.

Now the "Pro faceoff" mode is really all about having nerves of steel, the key to this mode is not to miss notes. Those familiar with the Guitar Hero franchise will know about the 'multipliers' within the game. If one is not confident and keep missing notes then they will lose the song as their multipliers with plummet and stay at zero. But even if your opponent leading but fails to maintain their multipliers, you can still catch up provided you dont miss your notes and keep your multiplier up. A really good mode that is included in this game.

This is it for now for part one of this review

Review 0.3 Hydraskins.com laptop decals

I never planned on getting a skin for my laptop but making my yearly pilgrimage to the computer mecca known as 'Low Yat' in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I saw this decal featuring cats and I just had to get it.



I only love cool drawings of cats such as this one. I use to have a cat but then one fateful day, it decided to stroll over my aunt's place and eat her poisonous rat bait. It died a slow and painful death is what I am told. This review is dedicated to you, Funny. Rest in peace.

So here is a before shot of my trusty laptop.



Apparently all the art for the skins are submitted by real people like you and me. Actually not like me but possibly you because I am not artistically gifted enough to create cool drawings of cats. Did a browse through the website, and its pretty easy to navigate through the website. Quick thoughts on the site itself
a) the layout could be better but that's another review.
b) its a Malaysian based company, duh.
c) the prices quoted on the site are exorbitantly high, that or either the prices are for 40" sized laptops
d) following on that point, it seems that one cannot select sizes of the skins. This is strange because when I was at one of the reseller shops, the stand had various sizes. Bottom line, is I recommend you ask a Malaysian friend who visits Malaysia regularly to purchase it for you at a reseller shop.

I really dont care about the appearance of laptops because people will just look at the screens. I did it because of the CATS! The cats I TELL you! Anyways part of this review is to answer the question, "Is laptop skinning user friendly?" I attempted to find out because the only experience I have with skinning is with the sort that one wears for exercise or sport. Myself and Mr.P can testify to its ability to make the user "experience less fatigue, minimise soreness and recover faster" (Quote taken from official website).

Here is the back of the pack



So with zero laptop skinning experience, I opened my beautifully packaged hydraskins.com pack to check the contents



Skins for palmrest section and laptop cover and instructions which can be downloaded from website as well. The back of the skins have grids for marking and cutting perfectly. Nicely done.

Ok lets get into it

Stick the the skin face down and tape it around the laptop.

Mark where the edges of the cover of the laptop are.

Mark it at least three places apart to draw lines later

Use a really sharp blade, I found that the decal was thick and had to go over it twice

The decals separates easily. Very very good.

The instructions say to start from the middle and work your way out.

I needed a hand to hold one side while I was covering the other side so Gundam stepped in to help

With Gundam holding the left side, I rubbed the other side with a cloth to squeeze out any air bubbles as per instructions but there wasn't any. VERY very very good

Overall this process was pain-free except for the bit to hold one end while pressing on the other side. I am very impressed with Hydraskins.com laptop decals and it was easy and quick to apply it. The finish was very professional and looked as if it was an original cover. 5 out of 5 stars! I highly recommend you ask a Malaysian friend to buy these decals for you. Here are the finished pictures.

My only quip is that I wish the instructions or the website included tips on sticking decals around curves and rounded corners/edges on laptops. Maybe its out there somewhere on the internet.

Build 2.4 Gundam Striker Weapon System SD (FINAL)

PHEW! I am finally glad this build is over. My feelings for this kit were like a roller coaster. When I opened the box, I was disappointed with the colours of the runners and the details were badly done.

'Nevermind', I told myself. 'It's going to be ok'. I went on a high when I had the brilliant idea to spray it black and detail it gold. Spraying is fun. Inhaling fumes is not. Then it was onto the gold painting and during this time, I thought this is what playing with gundams was all about. Sitting with a cool breeze through my hair and the sun shining on my face as I paint the panel lines. I was in the zone, and not just any zone, THE GUNDAM ZONE. lol.

Then, I find that the pegs wont snap into the holes. I stabbed myself (in the finger and bleed so much, 30mL, I measured) while shaving the pegs so that it fit. Not a single peg would fit in its hole, every peg had to be shaved. And even after shaving the pegs, there were still gaps between the parts. The only thing holding this robot together is hope.

The sad thing after all this is that I wont be able to play with this robot, one slightest move and its arms or legs will fall out. I am all for pirated stuff or knock-offs but this particular 'brand' of gundam kits is just terrible plus horrible. What's worse is I have two more of this kits. But looking at it in its Black and gold glory redeems its many many sins. So as I end this woeful tale, instead of pictures, I thought I give my hand at my very first youtube video.

Build 2.3 Gundam Striker Weapon System SD

This is the woeful story of the golden Nintendo DSLite





Ok what the golden dslite is alluding to is that he is the only dslite of its type (the really shiny eye-blinding golden dslite - ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND IN MELBOURNE)

Finally some progress on the build. I have sprayed all the runners black


As you can see it camouflages with my carpet nicely.

And with my Midas touch...














I can guarantee you that this gundam will win the 2009 Bandai's Sexiest Robot of the year! All the female robots better becareful! I must say changing the colour of this gundam to black and gold was a nice touch.



One can compare the before and after colours of the runners by look at the previous entry here.

Blog 0.1 Guitar hero fight night

In 1974, one of the greatest fights in history took place in Zaire, Africa between Ali and Foreman.


L to R : Jaystin 'the DS' Ali; P 'the PS3' Foreman; Donna King the promoter

In 2009, a history-making guitarest fight took place in Melbourne, Australia between Jaystin 'the DS' Ali vs P 'the PS3' Foreman.


Pre-match fighting poses

However, I lost 97% to 99%. Ok so here's the deal, so back on 27th September 2009, I challenged P to a guitar hero duel as I was killing the game on my DS. This was followed up regularly with taunts and trash-talking (just like Ali) and the icing on the cake on the 2nd December 2009 with a 100% achievement on 'Are you gonna go my way by Lenny Kravitz' on medium difficulty on the DS.


My score on the first try!

Ok let me break it on down the loss
1. P tricked us into thinking he had not been playing nor practicing the GH and even going the extra mile by planting an old newspaper dated 27th September 2009 and saying that 'this newspaper proves when he was last here at this place'.

2. Even though I cannot prove it, I believe that he had been practicing at least half an hour every 2 days ever since I challenged him.

3. Our rivalry doesnt just end at Guitar Hero, I have beaten him many many times on Pro Evolution Soccer as well. Nat the metroboy can substantiate my claim on this.

4. I have been only playing on the Nintendo DS whereas he practices on the Playstation 3 .All to his advantage and it is his home ground.

5. I must note that I achieved a score of 97% on my first try but couldnt better it due to severe eczema (very painful) on my fingers plus I was extreme fatigue from working 13 hours that day and I had skipped dinner = no energy delivered to my fingers.

6. I discovered that night that the length of all 4 buttons on my Guitar hero DS peripheral is just equal to the length of 3 buttons on the PS3 guitar. A huge difference - that is one of many reason why I kept missing the blue button.

Anyways seaking of rivalries, there was another match-up. THE DRUMS!

L to R : Suzuki 'the super fast rally driver' Swift; Thomas Joe the promoter (a look alike of P); and TT 'the legendary tram stopper' HongLi (a look alike of Donna King).
Suzuki beat TT on the drums 78% to something... I cant remember

**
EDIT: Forgot to add couple more pics

Suzuki's killing it on the drums


TT's smashing it
**

One last thing is I reckon that Drummers are always cooler than the guitarist cos smashing the drums wailing both hands in the air is a much more awesome spectacle than see someone flicking their wrist up and down on the guitar.

Thats it for now until round 2. (Cue in music for 'Eye of the Tiger')

Build 2.2 Gundam Striker Weapon System SD

I have guests over at my place so I have to sacrifice what little time I devote to my gundams and be a nice host. However on my way home from the gym, today I bought two items...


The famous Tamiya Spray Can@$12 a can... RIPOFF!!I wont mention where I got this from because the guy who sold it to me is a member of the Gang Of Very Rude Asians (GOVRA). What a rude person. Throws my change on the counter and not in my hand!? It wasn't even a toss, he like Powerbombed my change on the counter. Very poor form.

As I stormed my way out onto eckersley's where I greeted by a very polite gentleman. Helpful and knowledgeable. That is called customer service! I must note that he was wearing really tight jeans. With his help, I bought a fine paintbrush



to add to my ever growing junk collection



Why talk about a can and a brush? Well, to be honest, after discovering colour mix-up, I have become disheartened and even disillusioned. :|

Ok maybe not, but I am going to modify the Gundam Striker Weapon System SD to become Gundam black-with-gold-bits Striker Weapon System SD! I am going to spray all the runners black and with my gold paint, I will detail the panel lines. How exciting!

Build 2.19 Gundam Striker Weapon System SD

Finally I am back in the gym. I think people that don't gym and even those who do gym but slack off should be prosecuted by the law. The mysterious right hand injury is healed miraculously... for now. This also means ranting about my gym escapades. Today is no exception :) I dont discriminate over-weight nor under-weight people in the gym nor the muscularly-blessed ones BUT there are some that causes me to be indifferent.

I cannot stand people who don't apply correct techniques in their exercises or those who use weights that are clearly too heavy for them yet they persist. Like today this little asian dude (note: In case you didnt know, I'm an asian so I can freely bag other asians lol) doing the pelvic thrust while performing a standing bicep curl with a 30kg bar-bell. This is so wrong. Even repeating it again is so wrong. Doing more than one pelvic thrust in public with shorts is wrong.

I dont get it, I pay $xxx.xx in gym fees every year and the fees just keep increasing each year. Why dont people just ask the gym instructors for advice? Are we paying them to just wipe down sweaty benches and put away misplaced dumb-bells? End of rant.

Master grade. I just love the sound of these two words together. (Lila commented that it sounded like masturbate lol) If James Bond planted a listening device on me on my way to work. He would like only hear me repeat over and over again, "Master grade" in my best Peter Cullen voice impersonation. Why? Because two days ago, I received my Master Grade Gundam Astray Blue Frame Second Revise with bonus backpack connector.



Thats enough teasing. Back to the current build. Well, this is just minor update on the build as I have discovered the one of many mistakes of this knock-off. I have overlooked the fact that the parts are not as defined as the Bandai ones but to mix up the colours!? That is unforgivable!





Can you spot the difference?