Three Things To Talk About

i am currently back at Martian’s apartment, where there are simply not enough snacks or tissue paper. sometimes i don’t know how he exists in such impoverished conditions. i got so fidgety that i couldn’t stand it and went to the supermarket this afternoon to buy some Hello Panda biscuits and tissue boxes back -____- oh and i also found PODS!!! did you guys know that Singapore now has PODS!!! i am munchin’ away with much joy.

i’m eating and sleeping properly again, as i always do when i am back in the care of Martian, and it feels good. the other day i woke up feeling faint and i only realized a while later that it was because that i hadn’t eaten for 2 whole days. i was so busy and stressed out with the pajama party and the public speaking competition (more on this soon) that i simply forgot to eat. incredulous. i think i need to take better care of myself :\

there are so many things i wanna blog about, i don’t know where to start.

okay first topic: advertorials! i saw Michbaby’s post about people who complain about advertorials, and she really hit the nail on the head when she said it is irrelevant whether or not a blogger is being paid to write a post. i cant agree more, and really and do not see why there are people who insist it is only ‘right’ that bloggers write ‘THIS IS AN ADVERTORIAL’ at the top of each sponsored post.

alrighty, i can’t speak for other bloggers, but i will only write about products that i actually use and like, or if i think this is a product that i want to tell people about. every word that i write in my advertorials is purely the truth of what i think of the product; clients CANNOT tell us to write good things about the product if we don’t actually like it in the first place. take my LipIce post for instance - i mentioned that i love the product and i have been using it since i was young, which is the truth. does putting that stupid ‘THIS IS AN ADVERTORIAL’ sentence at the top of the post change anything or lend some kind of validity to my opinion of the product?

some girl mentioned somewhere that i should ‘give room for readers to make judgment based on the fact that part of the reason i am writing about this is that i am being paid for it’. aiyah what is this overreaction lah. yes, we write about certain things cos the brands pay us for the post, but seriously, what is the relevance here if the sole purpose of following a blog is to read the blogger’s opinion? so you’re getting the opinion wat! -___- and you are being exposed to a good product that the blogger genuinely likes and wants to write about, why are you complaining!

look back on all my food posts and restaurant reviews- would it have mattered whether or not i was paid for it, if at the end of the day people who read the post got to know about this certain restaurant and its services, and became more aware about KL’s food scene? same thing, yes? just like i choose to blog only about restaurants i LIKE, i also choose to blog only about products i LIKE.

and it’s not like the brands give us a whole press release that we merely copy and paste onto our blog. we actually take the effort to explore and write about the products creatively and truthfully, as per our own opinion. so i dont see why there should be a credibility issue.

at the end of the day right… this issue of ‘THIS IS AN ADVERTORIAL’ is such a small and itty-bitty thing that i don’t understand why people wanna throw a big fuss here and there. i think there are bigger things to worry about in our world, rather than ‘why is this blogger getting paid for a post but then no disclaimer!!!11′. sigh damn petty lah.

second topic: Malaysian Dreamgirl! i’ve been following all the 4 episodes, and here are my favourites so far:

this is Fiqa, a Malay-mixed-Chinese girl with really stunning features and a quiet confidence. i was very impressed by how articulate she was in her audition, and i really like her type of look - intense, cool, with a little bit of androgyny thrown in. i warmed up to her even more when i saw in Episode 4 how she told her aunt not to let her mother watch an upcoming episode where she would be dressed in really tight shorts. so sweet :)

Valerie, who came onto the show with this really big frizzy ‘fro and with all this PERSONALITY :) from the episodes i’ve watched, she’s very bubbly and likable, and very unique. definitely the kind of girl who’s special without even trying, and the sort whom everyone wants to get to know. for her makeover, she got her big hair cut off, and she’s got this sleek slightly-pixie cut now that really complements her eyes and facial features. it’s great!

Jean, my favourite from the very beginning. not only is she so cute, she’s also smart. she’s studying pharmacy in IMU, and from the way she talks, you can tell this girl has substance. i immediately sit up when the camera is on her and she’s giving her opinions, because i know it’s going to be a good answer - no waffling or ‘dont know lah..’ kinda answers, but strong and spot-on opinions, but never aggressive. i love how she can look both cute and hot - she looks so adorable in the sportswear shoot, and then how stunning is that B&W picture? so yes, you can imagine how disappointed i was when she announced that she pulled out of the show. yes, Jean pulled out. my favourite pulled out. i can’t believe this T____T it’s really a great loss to the show. you can read her note on her withdrawal here.

some other random commentary: i actually like the camerawork on the show! it’s pretty good, especially the editing. but there are some parts that gets draggy and a little bit filler-ish, like the part where the girls went to Bar Savanh and there was like a good 1 minute of them doing nothing but dancing. and the judges can be a little bit long-winded sometimes. also, where is Sazzy Falak!!

okay who’s everybody’s favourites!!! faster say!!

third topic: Martian and i are going somewhere cool (literally) today.. :) hehe. our plane leaves at 7 a.m, and i’m supposed to wake Martian up in about an hour. i’m very excited cos i haven’t been to this country in a very very long time, nor have i been to this part of it. actually i didn’t even know that part of the country existed until Martian booked the flights on a whim. ahhh i can’t wait!!!

eh actually i was given the task of researching the trip but i haven’t done it. shit shit shit see lah shouldn’t have spent so much time eating Pods today :\

Comments March 19th, 2008

Lipbalm and Me

lipbalm and i go back a long way :) it started when i was just 10 years old, and using that pink-tinted lipbalm made me feel a little bit more grownup. then there was that first ski trip to Mt Buller in 2001, where i had to hide my tube of lipbalm in my sock cos my dad kept taking it and using it on my brothers (urghghghg). and 2 years ago when Martian and i weren’t officially going out yet, i’d accidentally left my watermelon lipbalm in his HK apartment, and he playfully accused me of purposely leaving it there so that he would always have to think of me. and then there’s now - that same watermelon lipbalm is still with Martian, but i am not, because he’s there and i am here.

i also had my first kiss with lipbalm on! i was 14, and it was the kiss that got me my first boyfriend :D i had on the apple-flavoured LipIce that i used to wear all the time, and that kiss just went on for HOURS. best first kiss ever, and the fact that it was apple-flavoured kisses made it a lot more special and exciting. (sieutheng, thank you for leaving us when you did :P otherwise this kiss would never have happened… hahaha)

that was a long time ago, but even till now i’ve still got a real penchant for lipbalm. LipIce, for obvious reasons, is my favourite brand and just about the only one i ever use.

so, a little bit of pimpage for my favourite brand :) LipIce has this Color Lipbalm range that I currently use and really like. it is a range of tinted lipbalm that moisturizes your lips and dresses them up with light colour at the same. there are 6 different colours, and my favorite is without a doubt the one called Candy Apple. i love the hue of it – it’s such a natural and healthy shade of pink!

LipIce Color Lipbalm in Sweet Rose

tinted lipbalm is great for girls like me who don’t like the fuss of lipstick. gimme light and sheer colour over lipstick stains any day :) it’s great for lazy and fuss-free days too, because it brightens up my face on its own so nicely even without any make-up!

haha the above is me bored at the airport and applying lipbalm over and over again. lipbalm = travel necessity!!! i have naturally dry skin and lips, so i always have to have lipbalm with me to keep my lips soft and yummy. regular use of LipIce has given my lips mucho health and conditioning over the years. no more chapped lips! sexier, softer kisses!

and this is the LipIce Color Gloss and yours truly at a dinner event, mid-gawk at some gorgeous model onstage

for the lip gloss fans, LipIce also has 3 kinds of lip gloss out in the market. i used to buy all this really expensive lip gloss, but with LipIce Color Gloss, i don’t have to hurt my pocket so much :D going for RM 13.90 a tube, it is but a fraction of the cost of those expensive lip glosses. can save money!!! yet still have gorgeously glossy lips!!! i know a make-up artist who actually uses tubes of LipIce gloss on his clients because he says it’s good quality yet so much more affordable. such a clever man :P i shall steal your secret.

lipglossing in Timtam’s car hehe. Timtam you know you love LipIce too!!!

i now always have an emergency tube of lip gloss with me. the Summer Pink one has the nicest color! i’m also quite addicted to the taste of it. it’s damn nice and tastes like watermelon, yum yum.

speaking of watermelon lipbalm… okay lah actually it IS true that i left my watermelon lipbalm at Martian’s on purpose so that he would always have to think of me ;) sigh sometimes my boyfriend is so good at seeing through me. but don’t tell him I said that because he can get so smug.

Sergeant Pinkpau wearing LipIce Color Gloss in Fresh Peach! :D saya polis anti rasuah!!! matlamat saya adalah untuk membanteras jenayah peragut beg. dan juga mencuba semua warna LipIce Color Lipbalm :\

Comments March 11th, 2008

D’lish Desserts

i have chanced upon a secret. and a very deeeeeelish secret it is :P

it’s common knowledge that Delicious (1 Utama, Bangsar Village 2) has great desserts, right? and i’m sure most of you also know by now that Delicious is also the proud parent of a new line of delis called D’lish.

the concept of D’lish is fast and healthy; great for the busy and overworked who constantly find themselves calculating in their head the quickest possible solution to the lunch-hour dilemma. with D’lish, you can forget about your usual grab-and-go lunch of sandwiches (bleahhhh) or nasi bungkus (bwarghhhhh), because they’ve brought to the jaded lunching crowd a whole new array of lunch possibilities ready to go in under 5 minutes :)

salads? check.

soup? check.

pasta? check.

sandwiches, but of courseeeee? check.

pies and quiches? check.

nasi kerabu and nyonya mee siam? check :P

the best part is that the heavier stuff like the soups, pasta and rice already come packed in nice and neat microwavable bento boxes, which you can just grab and pay for. no need to wait for them to cook everything, or for you to get back home or to the office and discover that your lunch is one big mess of soggy condensation. wanna eat at the cafe itself? no problemo, the staff just pop the bento boxes into the microwave oven and you’ll be lunching in 2 minutes flat.

BUT ALL THAT IS NOT WHAT I’M HERE TO TALK ABOUT.

i’m here to talk about the besteststestststs part of D’lish, which is :

THE DESSERT

#2 one day’s array of cupcakes at Dlish

#3 sigh dont these look divine!

i’m always on the lookout for new dessert places, and ever since D’lish opened i’ve been a huge fan of theirs. the stuff there is just on par with the excellent quality of desserts from Delicious, not to mention that the opening of D’lish in Mid Valley solved my long-existing problem of never knowing what to eat at Mid Valley. (er.. but now that Gardens has opened..)

Delicious, always more famous for their chocolate cake and banoffee pie, was never well-known for their cupcakes. but what with the cupcake craze that hit KL last year, i suppose they decided to cater to that craze with D’lish - and believe you me when i say they did an extremely good job out of it. they ditched the whole pretty-looking, bad-tasting formula; and instead focused more on developing new combination of flavours using the old Delicious recipes, with only minimal effort being put into the aesthetics.

the result? some of the most scrumptious cupcakes i have ever had.

#4 Raspberry Cheese Cupcake with White Chocolate Curls. even though raspberry is not quite my thing, this cupcake actually made me like raspberry.

#5 Double Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Ganache and Marshmallows. sigh. this is pure heaven in a paper cup. PURE HEAVEN.

#6 Flourless Orange Cupcake with Marzipan Orange and Sticky Date Cupcake with Butterscotch Frosting. the topping on the former just MAKES the cupcake :) the latter is not bad, but pales in comparison to many a sticky date pudding out there.

#7 Rocky Road. several times i’ve gone into D’lish and seen people buying up the whole tray of Rocky Road. my friends all love it, and i do as well, but it can be a little overkill after the first several bites.

#8 Baked Banana Cheese Cupcake with White Chocolate Curls. the name itself just draws you to it like bees to honey (oh hahaha i just watched Bee Movie it’s so bloody funny hahaha please go watch it!), and i absolutely LOVE the combination of the banana, cream cheese and white chocolate. sometimes i eat this and the texture is a little bit off, ie too hard, but other times i eat it and it’s fluffy and just nice :)

#9 Banana Cupcake with Butterscotch Frosting. ooooooooh this is one of my favourites :)

#10 Chocolate Banana Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting. surprisingly i think this is the only cupcake in D’lish with peanut butter. there is a peanut butter bar very much like the Rocky Road though, but i have yet to try that. anyway this cupcake is yummy :) not fantastic, but still yummy. the staff say it’s a popular favourite.

i never got around to blogging about D’lish despite always wanting to. but today i went there for a late dinner and discovered something that made me decide i absolutely HAVE to blog about this place NOW.

because between 9pm and 10pm EVERYDAY, EVERYTHING in D’lish is 50% OFF.

NO JOKE. SO ONE CUPCAKE IS NOW ONLY RM 3.25 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

that was just such unbelievably good news to me, i was practically bouncing off the walls. then i started wailing at the waiters for not ever telling me beforehand despite me being a regular. eh RM 3.25 for one of D’lish’s cupcakes is extremely worth it okay. if you’ve tried any of Delicious’ or Dlish’s desserts, you’ll know what i’m talking about. if you haven’t, well GO TRY ONE and you’ll totally agree with me. i promise :D

okay so yeah that was the good news i wanted to share with the world, that D’lish cupcakes (and everything else they serve) are actually 50% off after 9pm :P as a lover of all things sugary and chocolatey, i just had to spread this bit of joy. forget that Starbucks latte lah… you can buy 4 cupcakes with the money you would have spent on your coffee. that said, i heart Starbucks and always will.

sigh. cupcakes.

D’lish
- Ground Floor, Mid Valley (opposite Starbucks)
- Ground Floor, Bangsar Village 1 (next to Village Grocer)
10am - 10pm daily

Comments November 15th, 2007

Bisou Cupcakes

when i tell people that my new workplace is at the Asian Heritage Row, they always think that it’s such a job perk to be working where all the clubs and bars are. that was what i thought too at first - that we could hit the clubs after an extra couple of hours at work, or that all our meetings would be held at the nearby bars.. but no no no, let me tell you what the best perk of working at the Asian Heritage Row is :P

it is Bisou!!!

i pass by Bisou every day on the way to work, and i’m always very attracted by the window display of pink and white cupcakes. yet, it took me one whole month before i finally went to check out the place! seriously, i think i would have been a much happier intern had i gone into Bisou sooner, because their cupcakes really and truly are the best cure to work-blues!

Bisou is a little shoppe that does cakes, cupcakes and cafe-like food such as salads, sandwiches and pot pies. it’s actually run by the same people who started Bijou, that poolside cafe/restaurant at Mont Kiara Damai; not that you couldn’t immediately tell, because the names and deco scheme are so similar! meaning ‘kiss’ in French, Bisou is supposed to be the more flighty and fun of the two, and according to their flyers, is set up to ‘bring out the naughty side in all of us’. yum yum :D

both the exterior and interior of Bisou oozes classy neatness. they’ve got a counter where they display the available cakes and cupcakes of the day, and it’s hard not to squeal at the array of delectable desserts. the variety is just perfect - not too little that you get bored, and not too much that you feel overwhelmed.

i’ve been joyfully going back to Bisou over the past few days just to sample their lovely cupcakes :D here are some of them :

Dark Secret - chocolate cupcake with dark chocolate icing. i REALLY love it. unlike many cupcakes out there, you can actually taste the ooey gooey chocolate in this one!

Love Me Tender - chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing. good, but the one at Dlish is better.

Eye Candy - vanilla cupcake with lemon icing.

Nutella - chocolate cupcake topped with a generous amount of creamy Nutella! my other favourite, because anything Nutella is fabulous

Zest You Up - orange cupcake with orange icing. tasted okay only lah, but the piping of the icing is rather impressive! it looks like a rose O_O

cupcakes all go for RM 5 each. i really like the taste and texture of the different icing - it’s smooth and sweet, not that greasy buttery stuff that only looks pretty but does nothing for the taste. the cupcake itself is moist and soft with subtle flavour, which is great. they’re very generous with the icing too :D

there’s PLENTY of stuff that i have yet to try, for instance the banoffee pie, brownies and banana bread. i had the carrot cake at Bijou some time back, and here i assume Bisou serves the same one, but it’s no match for the carrot cake at Marmalade, which never fails to convert people to the love for carrot cake every single time :D

as for Bisou’s food, i’ve only had the creamy chicken pie and the mashed potatoes, and both were pretty darn good! what i’m excited to have are the sandwiches.

service here is fantastic :) the staff are very warm and friendly and very intuitive. haha and the funniest thing happened the first time i went to Bisou. i was taking photos of the food as per usual, and one of the waiters actually came over to ask if i was a BLOGGER. muahahahhaa it was the most awesome thing ever. being asked by the staff if i’m a food reviewer from a newspaper or a magazine is pretty common, but NEVER BEFORE IN MY LIFE have i been asked if i was a blogger. damn cool lah. that was the moment i knew i definitely had to blog about Bisou.. hahaha.

another reason why i like Bisou is the opening hours. they open till really late - 11pm on weekdays and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, to cater to the clubbing crowd, and also to the late-night dessert-craving crowd i.e ME :P

i know i’m gonna keep going back to Bisou until i’m all cupcaked out. what to do lah, it’s so tempting and summore it’s just 5 steps away from the office. i wasnt kidding when i said the cupcakes make you happy; everytime i feel sad at work i just pop down for a cupcake and i’m all good again, ready to take on whatever shit the Boss throws at me. no lah no lah my boss very nice wan. except when he asks me to do things i dont want to do, like answer Help Desk questions wtf. i hate Help Desk!!!!! how can people have so many stupid questions to ask!!!!!!

die lah craving cupcakes now. eh you know what i wanna do.. i wanna do a compare and contrast of all the cupcakes in KL, seeing how they’re all over the place now. what a great excuse to buy cupcakes and to force all my friends to eat them together with me :D

Bisou
Asian Heritage Row
58 Jalan Doraisamy
50300 KL
Tel : 03-2697 0131
9am - 11pm (Tues - Thurs and Sundays), 9am - 2am (Fridays and Saturdays)
Closed on Mondays

Comments September 16th, 2007

Gwen Stefani’s Sweet Escape

there is no doubt about it - Gwen Stefani kicked ass last night at Stadium Putra. i exaggerate not when i say it is possibly the best concert i’ve ever been to in KL.

everything was great from start till finish. parking was easy peasy, and surprisingly we didnt have to queue for entrance. we’d originally planned to go a little bit later so we didnt have to sit through all the boring opening acts we had no interest in seeing anyway, but thankfully we didnt do that! BECAUSE! there were NO boring opening acts! no sponsor gimmicks! :O and best of all, there was no wait. it was so unbelievable but true - after a cute opening gambit of a cops-&-robbers chase, Gwen came onstage immediately at 9pm.

dressed in a b&w prison-striped suit and black leggings, she opened with none other than The Sweet Escape, which of course drove everyone wild. everyone leapt out of their overpriced arranged-seating seats and sang along, cameras a-flashing and hands a-flailing. hehe i couldnt contain my excitement either! then she did Rich Girl, after which she reappeared on stage clad in a cute apron outfit - complete with chef-hat - her first wardrobe change of many to come.

Comments August 22nd, 2007