#TSDayOut to Skypark Subang

Every month or so, the awesome peeps from Tourism Selangor will organize a fun day out. It’ll be somewhere in Selangor (of course!) and it will probably be at a place you never thought of going to for a day trip. That’s the whole concept of the #TSDayOut, short for Tourism Selangor Day Out. Now, I have been following @TourismSelangor on Twitter for some time and I have always somehow seen posts about the TS Day Out, but I never did have a chance to join them. I never thought I could, because I never came across a place to sign up for it.

Until one fine day, of course. It was a fine day indeed; the skies were blue, the sun was shinning and the birds were chirping when I actually came across a tweet by Tourism Selangor that, the applications for #TSDayOut was open. Yay, like finally! I signed up for it, waited patiently with fingers crossed that I will finally get to for it. And ….

Ta-da! Obviously, since the post is titled as such, you would have known that I was selected to join the Day Out but still.. Haha. It is pretty exciting to finally get to head out one of these trips, I’m like a virgin #TSDayOut-er. And this time, we are brought to the Skypark Terminal of the Lapangan Terbang Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah. Do you know what my dad (or maybe almost everyone else I know) call this place? The old airport.

Completely honest, I only vaguely remember going there once when I was really really young. I don’t remember much since, but the airport didn’t that much of impression on me. Years later, going back there, I am surprised at how modern it looks like. It almost look like a shopping mall, if I’m not mistaken they have refurbished it.

So, what did we do in Skypark Subang?

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We started the Day Out with a tour of the Subang airport, with each of us being given a pass, allowing us access to the areas of the airport. Apparently, if you lose this pass a police report has to be made. It is that strict, but hey, this affects the airport security. Hence, the need for that.

And this is the check-in counter. All together, there is only 13 counters for check-ins, significantly less than KLIA since there are less flights operating here. If I’m not mistaken only Firefly and Berjaya Air fly from this airport. If anything, the whole check in process seems a lot less stressful than in KLIA. Something I’d greatly appreciate especially before I take off to my vacation destination.

Basically, for the airport tour we started the tour from the passenger’s perspective, starting right from the check-in counter, and then moving on along to the security checks before heading to the departure lounge.

And at the departure lounge, we met these gorgeous air stewardess from Firefly decked in the signature color of the airline, bright cheery orange.

The highlight of the tour would of course, be seeing the propeller fan airplane on the runway strip. :) An airport tour wouldn’t be complete without seeing an airplane, right? This is my first time seeing a propeller plane up close, and it was indeed interesting to see it took off as well. However, we weren’t allowed to get on the runway and we had to stand on the walkway. This picture was shot, zoomed with my Olympus EPL kit lens.

And another picture, before take off. During the take-off, it can get a bit noisy. I do wonder if the noise can be heard from inside the plane. I have never flew with Firefly before, so I can’t tell. I do wish we could have a tour and perhaps, a ride around Kuala Lumpur in the plane. :P Now, that would be fantastic. We could probably have airplane food for lunch, and maybe a crash course on how to be air steward or stewardess?

While we were there, we managed to catch the pilots and the stewardess from the previous flight which just landed. I have to say the Firefly stewardess are really friendly and cheerful. :) They were smiling for us, once they saw the lot of us standing by the walkway armed with our ‘weapon’ of choice. Ahem, our cameras.

And, that wraps up the airport tour. The first one I ever been one to. Now I didn’t have any expectation on the tour, prior to this. While it was nice that we managed to walk around the airport, understanding a bit more of the process, I would have loved if we managed to see more behind the scenes of how the airport works. This is in terms of the operation. We were brought into the Firefly control room, but we didn’t manage to see how the control was being handled and no pictures were allowed there. I supposed that could be confidential information there. Even so, it would be nice to hear how the control was being organized. Maybe a mock up would be good. I mean, I have seen those in movies, but I do wonder if it works the same way in reality.

Ah, another thing I would like to see in an airport tour is how the food is being loaded into airplane and how does the stewardess prepares the meal when on board? I always wonder how they do that. Where do they keep hundred packs of food in the plane? I know they are packed into tiny boxes, but still, right? Oh, oh and also the flow of the baggage. You know how you check in your baggage? Where do they go to after that? Is it like in the Monster’s Inc movie, where you have tonnes of door flying around? So, maybe there were tonnes of bag on the conveyor belt?

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This is just some of us, and going around the air port wearing matching T-shirts feels like I’m back on a school trip to somewhere. Haha. This was shot when we were on our way to the SimFlightKL

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If you would love to try to fly a plane without going through the hassle of going to a flying school, you can do that in SimFlightKL. It’s basically a simulation, but definitely much more advanced than those video games one, the controller/buttons/stuffs on the control panel is actually from a real plane. So this is as real as it gets. I tried my hands on trying to land the Boeing 737 and well, I didn’t crash the plane! Haha, it landed but it was off the runway by a bit. Okay, maybe a lot. Haha.

This is the Boeing 737 simulator. A pilot will sit next to you explaining what and how the controls work. And they would basically guide you. As you know, I never been one to play games or like flying, so when she explained, I didn’t understand a thing! I bet the boys would be better at this.

And this is the Airbus A320 simulator. They actually fitted the whole cockpit into the place, and this simulator actually moves. The Boeing one doesn’t, that is just stagnant. This one follows the airplane movement and of course, the screen changes according to where you’re flying to. This is really as real as it can get. You can choose to fly from almost any airport at all. Super uber cool! Didn’t get to try to fly this, but oh well.

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And that’s a wrap of my first ever #TSDayOut! It was a really fun and different experience, visiting the airport again after so long and trying my hands on the simulator. After the session with SimFlightKL, we headed over to the Peugeot lounge to have lunch served by Bubba Gump Shrimp and Co. I love their other food more than their shrimps, to be honest. Heh.

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Till next time, lovelies. (Also, I can’t wait to go on the next Day Out!)

Eat: Smashies (Burgers!), Setapak

Like fashion, there are trends for just about anything else. It was trendy to get an iPhone when it was first launched some years back. Of course, now Samsung spawns devices every few months. It’s getting hard to catch up, you know. Just like how there are so many burgers joint mushrooming faster than I can say “Buuuurgers”.

Honestly, I have lost count. The first I know was myBurgerLab, thanks to a friend who was very fond of them. Next thing I know, there are places like Burger Junkyard, Burgertory… you get what I mean. And now, will you be glad to know that they is another burger place called Smashies? The peeps in Setapak would probably be, considering the other burgers places are in PJ.

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I Am Single, RM11 | Black bun, single beef patty and cheese (veggies too).

This was my first bite from Smashies Burger, i.e the one that sets the first impression for me. I like the beef patty, it was juicy and chewable soft. As the name of the restaurant would suggest, this burger joint ‘smashes’ their patty to cook them, hence Smashies. From what I understand, there is a technique to smash cook these patty. Leave them too long, they would be too dry. But these patties I had here, were juicy, nice and fresh.

Lord of the Mess, RM17 | Single beef patty with cheese, fried portobello mushroom, fried nachos

This was something different with nachos, but because the burger was so huge it was difficult to eat them all together that I ended up eating them bits by bits. As usual, I loved the patty. I wished they had more portobello mushrooms for this, though.

Hot Chicks, RM14 | Single chicken patty with cheese, pineapple, sunny side up egg, hot sauce.

This is one hot gooey juicy goodness, I can’t get enough of. I had no idea there were pineapples in them, until I took a bite and then, the sweet pineapple taste coupled with the tangy hot sauce… ahhh, so good. It is very very messy, use all ten fingers to fully enjoy the experience. Haha. Chicken patty was okay, nothing fantastic.

Hot Chicks, RM14 | Another picture because it’s too delish! You can see the golden juicy goodness here. Trust me, it’s not too sauce-y.

Chicken Run, RM12.50 | Fried chicken, pineapple, tartar sauce and hot sauce.

I didn’t try this because I personally am not a fan of fried chicken patty.

Twillight Bella, RM11 | Single grilled portobello mushroom with cheese.

The buns for these were really soft, it almost felt like sponge cake. Especially since it was the orange flavoured ones. The mushrooms were good, but I’d still pick patties over this. If you’re a vegetarian though, this is quite nice and something different.

Shroom Bomb, RM17 | Double fried portobello patties with mozarella and cheddar cheese, tartar sauce

This was so so freaking mega huge. Like really huge I cannot imagine even eating it. Haha. I didn’t try this, but cheese lovers should. It has no meat, vegetarian since it is just mushrooms and loads of cheese. Some commented that the batter masked some of the taste of the cheesy mushrooms.

Shroom Bomb, RM17 | It is oozing with cheese, overloaded with them!

Red Moo, RM19 | Single patty with cheese, hash brown,bacon, sunny side up egg

I didn’t get to try this, but it does look really good. I mean it has bacon, patty, egg and hash brown all in one burger! Can it anymore perfect than that? I will probably hop by there again and will try this the next time.

 One More Night, RM18 | Double patties and double cheese

Red Moo, RM15 | Single patty with cheese, hash brown, fried egg, extra hot sauce

Fries (300g), RM7 | Cajun seasoned, served with cheese and hot sauce.

I didn’t like the fries one bit, it wasn’t fluffy or soft. It was bit hard and just plain salty. The sauces were also just mediocre. I don’t think it complemented well.

Onion Rings, RM7 | Served with the same sauces as the fries.

Never fancied onion rings and after having these, I still don’t. So, you can say it was just okay. It’s onion rings, not that mind blowing of a food if you ask me.

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This burger joint may just be another burger place, with a couple hits and misses but it would still be worth a shot. Especially for burgers like Hot Chick. That is probably one burger I would actually have cravings for, because it is that good. :)

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&. Thanks to Foodirector and Smashies for having me. +

Eat: Sakura Kristal, Subang Jaya.

I’m never been a fan of “shopping mall’s food”, which basically means any food/restaurant found in shopping malls. With a few exception, of course. Somehow, I always prefer to eat out at restaurants; those located in row of shops and etc.. well, you get the idea. Why don’t I eat in the malls? For a start, the food are not the best ones around. They can sometimes be overpriced as well. For the same type of food, I could get it elsewhere and tastier too.

So, before I attended the food tasting session in Sakura Kristal, located inside of Giant Hypermarket in Subang Jaya, I was tad skeptical about the food. Something I know I shouldn’t do, because I should be objective.. bla bla and all that. But I just can’t help it. I’ve grown a distaste for shopping mall’s food since so-long-I-don’t-even-remember.

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 Peranakan Seafood Curry, RM20 | Curry with prawns, crabmeat stick, fish fillets, clams, squid, brinjals, okra, long beans.

This is was the first dish served and I don’t know if I was too hungry but I felt that this is the best dish from all that was served. It’s really good. The gravy was thick, flavourful and filled with spices. They don’t stinge on their ingredients to make the gravy and neither do they stinge on the portion of the food. The whole claypot could very well serve two pax. I have tasted claypot curry before, but none have gotten me this smitten that I have already made a mental note to return and order this next time.

 Pan Seared Dory with Vinaigrette Sauce, RM17 | Picture is descriptive enough that I don’t need to describe the ingredient. :p

This was something I would order after looking at the menu. Then again, the pictures on the menu are always for illustrative purpose. It certainly looked the same like in the menu, but the taste fall flat in comparison. It was marinated in salt, grilled and then topped with their homemade sauce. Personally, I have never tried or heard of the sauce, (still exploring these Western food) so, I can’t compare the taste. But what I do know, is that it tasted bland. The meat was bland, but the crispy grilled part tasted like caramel popcorn. It could be the sauce. I would say that this dish is just okay, edible but not fantastic.

 Black Pepper Beef Fried Rice, RM12 | Fried rice with beef, dark sauce, carrots, capsicum and garlic.

This was something rather unique. Yes, I have seen so many different types of fried rice but never one with beef and in this colour too. I love beef, so I thought I would like this. I did love the beef in the rice but the rice itself tasted just like rice mixed with sauce, which is not quite the fried rice taste.

 The Indonesian Treasure, RM12 | Fried rice with papadom and fried chicken.

You know the saying the goes something like this, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” ? Well, this looks like the most ordinary fried rice, something you can get anywhere. It looks so simply done, almost effortless, but after my first bite, my senses were literally like fireworks exploding (If you watched Ratatouille, you would I made reference to a scene in the movie). Why so? Because it was the most delish fried rice I have eaten in the longest time. It was one that I could gobble down one plate, and another and another. Yes, it is that good.

 Thai Fried Soh Hoon, RM10 | Fried glass noodles with prawns, squids and veggies.

This is somewhat similar to Singapore Fried Glass Noodles (Xing Chow Mai) with the ingredients similar to it. I liked how it was really well fried; well cooked would be a better way to say it. The glass noodle was still tad springy, and not too soft.

 Tofu Jongkong Emas, RM14 | Tofu, flour and fish.

I don’t like this. It’s too soft, and I don’t taste any fish or even tofu. It’s a dish which tried to be something (with a fancy name) but end up being lost.

Mango Crispy Chicken, RM18 | Fried chicken cutlets, with mangoes and sweet sauce. 

I’ve never been a food of fruit main dishes and this wasn’t an exception. There was more flour on the chicken than needed and the mangoes didn’t quite work with the chicken. Maybe the lemon one would have tasted better.

Crispy Brinjal, RM12 | Fried brinjal with chilies and dried shrimps.

This falls flat, the picture I have to admit is bit deceiving. It looks better than it taste. Almost tasteless, and not so crispy. I also felt that the toppings didn’t make much difference to the dish. It was probably stir fried together to give it taste, but the brinjal tasted just like fried brinjals.

And finally, all meals would never be complete without desserts! It’s like a gaping hole that can only be filled with desserts. :) While the desserts look pretty and so photogenic, there wasn’t anything fantastic to shout about them. When it comes to describing desserts, I am handicapped only because I am extremely picky with the desserts I eat. I generally don’t fancy sweet stuff. So, yes.

Bread & Butter Pudding, RM9 | Topped with fruits and served with Vanilla ice cream.

 Chocolate Volcano, RM9 | Chocolate brownie served with Vanilla ice cream.

Strwaberry Tower, RM9 | Chocolate sauce, strawberry ice cream, cornflakes, whipped cream, strawberry sauce

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While I really enjoyed some of the food, there were others that were just okay. Even so, I would drop by again to eat the Peranakan Seafood Curry and The Indonesian Treasure. Although, I could eat the curry with the fried rice instead of white rice. Best of both worlds, ftw!

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&. Thanks to Foodirector and Sakura Kristal for having me. +

march 2013 | project 52

Just like that, March is gone. It wasn’t an easy month, but it has come and gone. During this project (so far) there are times, where I struggle. Struggle to find an inspiration, struggle to reproduce the images I have in my head, struggle to get the settings right, struggle to get in the mood. But here is the March pictures anyway.

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[#9] Mugshot

[#10] Feel

[#11] Try

[#12] Fly

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For January 2013 pictures (#1 to #4), click here.

For February 2013 pictures (#5 to #8) click here.

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For every pictures, there is a quote or lyrics that best reflect how I felt at that moment. You can read them here.

Eat: Kelantan Delights, Sooka Sentral

I love eating local Malaysian cuisine, I mean it's only natural for myself being a Malaysian (almost, true blue one) to love all these amazing local food. We have the Nasi Lemak, Mee Rebus and and I would never be able finish this post if I went ahead to list down all the food I could think of. So, last weekend, I was at the first ever Tastebuddies by Nuffnang gathering and we were invited to Kelantan Delights.

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I must confess that I know nuts of what Kelantanese food are, so I had no expectation of any sort and I was pretty much excited to know how different Kelantanese food were. So, anyway we started off with appetizers first.

 Sirih Daun Kaduk | Fried popiah skin and daun sirih, filled with dried shrimps, roasted peanuts and chili padi in special sauce.

My first thought when I saw this was, do I eat the leaf too? It’s a pretty much abuden, but I have never tried eating leaves before. Somehow I have this impression that they taste mighty awful, only to be proven wrong after I had my first taste of this. It didn’t smell too leafy, probably masked by the special ingredients. The sauce, the peanuts and the shrimps blended well with the daun sirih and I really liked it.

Tomyam Kelapa Muda | Tomyam soup with prawns and coconut flesh.

My favorite soup! What is there not to love about Tom Yam soup? ‘nuff said. (Except that in Kelantan Delights, there is an added twist because coconut flesh is served along with the soup). The soup has a tangy sourish spicy taste. It was served in shot glass which makes me want to gulp it down in one shot. :p

After the appetizers, there was an option to choose either Nasi Kerabu Ayam Percik or Nasi Dagang Gulai Ikan. Seeing that I just had Nasi Kerabu the day before that, I decided to choose the Nasi Dagang instead.

 Nasi Kerabu Ayam Percik | Ayam percik, with ulam, salted egg and keropok ikan

Nasi Dagang Gulai Ikan | Nasi dagang with gulai ikan tongkol, acar timun and egg

Compared to the Nasi Kerabu, I have to admit that this looks rather plain. The rice was rather hard, (I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be like that) and the gulai ikan was just okay. There wasn’t enough gravy for me, because I like to eat my rice with more gravy. When I asked for more gravy, I was given chicken gravy. Which I then said my dish was gulai ikan and the waitress simply said, it works for both. erm, okay. =.= Needless to say, I didn’t like the Nasi Dagang one bit.

I managed to try the Nasi Kerabu, and my, that was like a gazilion times better than the Nasi Dagang. The portion of the ayam percik is rather huge, so it’s best to share the dish. Taste wise, it was good but not the best I have ever tried.

Nasi Tumpang | :) I love how unique the Nasi Tumpang dish is and there is a story behind it.

In Kelantan Delights, a fried chicken is served along with the Nasi Tumpang. I'd welcome this with my whole heart (or appetite would be a better word to say it). You can never go wrong with a well marinated fried chicken, crispy on the outside and still juicy inside. Because of how tedious the process of making this dish (approx. 3 hours.), only 18 pieces are made.

Nasi Tumpang | This is how it looks unwrapped.

Back in those days, farmers would be hard at work in the paddy fields for the whole day. The wife would pack food for them in these banana leaf coned shaped package. The cone shape allows it to have different layers, and it was to be eaten from the top much like the Wall's Cornetto ice cream cone. The top layer is filled with shredded egg with rice. This is breakfast. Then, there's Gulai Ikan and Sambal Prawn in the second layer. Again, this whole Nasi Tumpang is filled with rice all over. Lastly, there would be Serunding and that's for tea! What a novel idea it was to have 3 meals packed into a humble cone. The banana leaf would allow the food to be kept for hours long.

By the time Nasi Tumpang was served, I was practically stuffed to the brim. I just ate bits of it but I do love the novelty of the dish and I would definitely come back just to try this again, with an appetite of course.

 Laksam | Noodles in fish gravy with chicken floss.

Another dish I love from the menu is the Laksam, where flat noodles (almost similar to the Chinese Chee Cheong Fun) is served with blended fish and herbs gravy. It was a rather plain looking dish, lacking interesting colour to add attitude to the dish. One bite into this, I can immediately imagine how this is comfort food for me. And for all I care, my comfort food can be rainbow in colour I would still eat it because it makes me feel good.

Laksam | Closer look on the noodles.

And finally, desserts! Dessert was Ketupat Sotong and Lompat Tikam, when we first read that on the menu, we all went what is Lompat and Tikam? Jump and stab? Such a weird name for a dessert. I really couldn’t wait to see what it looks like, and ta-da…

Ketupat Sotong and Lompat Tikam | :)

So, the brown stuff with tentacles is the Ketupat Sotong and the contrasting green kuih and pink rice ball is the Lompat Tikam. When I asked about the history of the name, apparently that was how the Kelantanese call it. But I’m pretty sure there’s a history to it. If you do know, please tell me cause I’m curious how a name like this came about. Honestly I didn’t like either the dessert. The squid was weird to eat with ketupat and it was also sweet. The Lompat Tikam was pretty much kuih and glutinous rice. Not exactly my type of dessert.

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Here is the address for the restaurant if you’re planning to visit;

1-5, Level 1, Sooka Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur [03 2785 1945]

Note: It’s closed on Saturday and Sunday. You can visit the Subang Jaya branch on weekends.