Kopi Cine

My first visit to Kopi Cine is on BB's birthday. We planned to have dinner at Ingolf actually but Ingolf is as full as usual. Being a usual food blogs bleader, I can easily think of several new restaurants (not really new lah, but those that I've never tried before) to try. So we ended up at the quite street of Stewart Lane. I've read about Kopi Cine many times and from the photos that those bloggers posted, I am expecting romantic warm straits style. I am correct :) I especially love the huge classic old counter, reminded me of all the old kopitiam that I visited as a child.  

Kopi Cine has an interesting menu, where they have separated section for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have very limited choice of main courses for dinner (less than 8 to choose from). However, I'm sure, with this, they are more specialize in their food and the quality is great!

BB and I decided to share a mezze and a main. Their smoked salmon bruschetta is simply satisfying. I really missed the soft, fresh salmon and the simple combination of taste. The Parmesan Chicken Schnitzel is very interesting, with layers of texture and taste. The salad sauce is very refreshing too.

If there's only one thing that I can complain about this restaurant, it is their price! Of course, it is not really sky high but with both of us ate for almost RM100 with one mezze, one main and one drink each! At least, with this price, I would love to relax in air conditioned environment.

Smoked Salmon Bruschetta

Parmesan Chicken Schnitzel with Mash and Salad

Anyway, I went to Kopi Cine again last weekend, unplanned. (and hence without my DSLR). We were having Amelie Cafe in mind. We wanted to have a relaxing brunch and extremely long chat before I send Xiu Mei to the airport. However, to our surprise, almost ALL the cafes in Georgetown are close on Sunday!! We went round and round and round, until Kopi Cine finally came into my mind. We were so glad that it's open.

I had The Day’s Special -- Lamb Pie with Mashed Potato and Salad while Xiu Mei had Mushroom Bruschetta with Chedda and Parmesan Cheese. Both taste so good that we actually cleaned the plate despite being so full!

I regretted that I don't have my DSLR with me. It's a beautiful Sunday morning and we had great time there (the only complain I have is -- why there's no air-cond?? We are in Malaysia!!) It's so hot that even the cool refreshing lemon and mint frappes can't help to cool me down!

The brunch cost us RM66. Again, though it may not be sky high but it's definitely REALLY expensive for Penang standard. Having say so, I guess I'll still go back there once in a while. You gotta love the food quality that they offer.

我不是要唱衰（四）有风味的泰国餐

槟城贵为美食天堂，要吃一顿美味的食物实在不是什么难事，只是，有时候我觉得有些部落客未免太夸张，好像凡是他们到步一尝的餐馆都是人间美味。总有一些中等或中下水准的吧？

比如说，那天我们就去了一家网上相当有名气的泰国餐厅。对我个人而言，这餐厅的地点决对是一流的。你想想，餐厅就在其中一条姓氏桥的尽头。我们到达的时候，老旧木桥配上蓝天白云，我们仿如浮在水面上，感觉特别有味道。

只是哦，食物一送上就大打折扣了。食物水准普通，Green Curry Chicken和东炎贡份量特小，我们一行七人，碗里头的鸡肉和海鲜都不够分我们一人一块呢！最令人失望的是那一碟lala，炒得太老，蚌类的特有鲜美香味尽失，可惜得很。还好蔬菜炒得还不错，只是份量也是特小的，小虾三两只、菜一两条……槟城人虽然以吃东西份量小著名，但这也未免太过分了。

食物水准普普通通也就罢了，价钱可一点都不便宜哦！我们七人吃了以下六道小小道的菜肴，和一人一杯的Ribine，总共花了RM138。

你要是和我一样，是为了拍照而去，那倒无妨。否则，免了吧~

It's a New ME!!

I love to find every available reasons to celebrate this beautiful life, and what is the better excuse than my own birthday??

This year, I started early.

On the 31st October, instead of celebrating crazy Halloween, I invited 3 friends who share the same "birthweek" with me to my house for a self-celebration-birthday-breakfast-party in my garden. It's bliss to have my mum's fresh-from-the-oven-scones and cheesecake for breakfast, followed by "loh mee" for lunch.

We had great chat, laughter and tears. We shared secrets in the nice cool breeze.....

On the first day of my birthday month, En En and I persuaded mum to have early dinner. Why?? Because both of us want to make good use of my Haagen-Dazs Birthday Month 20% Discount Voucher. We can never resist ice-cream! We drove straight to Auto-City right after dinner. Despite heavy rain, taking home 4 pints of ice-cream is pure satisfying :-)

To make full use of Deepavali holiday, my colleagues had planned for birthday BBQ party for November "birthdayers", and of course, we invited Sasi too, since his birthday fall on Halloween. Thanks to James and his mum, we had great variety of extremely delicious food, and of course, great fun too! To our surprise, we can have the panoramic view of Kulim at Jame's house. When the clock strike 12am, Deepavali is officially announced with unstoppable fireworks!



Birthday present from Wah Chan

Wei Wei, En, Ah Chi, Ah Yuan and Ah Yao accompanied me to watch Megamind for my birthday-eve-celebration. As usual, we bombarded the cinema with our uncontrollable-unstoppable-laugh. After the movie, I collected my birthday present from Wah Chan. (OK, I think I really owe them an free advertisement: I bought a platinum necklace for Wei Wei as her graduation present a few years back. Ever since then, every year, I'll receive an absolutely free birthday present from them. Really, no purchase required! From time to time, I'll receive cards/sms regarding the members' day special. Of course, if you plan to buy some gold or real jewelries, they will give members some 50%~70% discount. However, for non-jewellery lovers like me, you can always go for free gifts, free Starbucks coffee and free sandwiches. I've had a lot of free stuffs at Gurney Plaza Wah Chan for these few years.)

I went for meeting / training as usual, and had another round of birthday cake cutting and birthday song singing session on my birthday-eve. It's a simple celebration but it's sweet to have a group of highly-motivated-positive-thinking-enthusiasts around, singing super high pitch "恭祝你福寿与天齐......"

After the meeting, after our usual post-meeting drinking session, finally, we headed to Uncle Zack by the beach at Parkroyal Hotel.

Wei promised that I can "thong" her on my birthday (and I'm kind enough to remind her to set a budget for me before I decide where to go). With her budget, there are lots and lots of choices in Penang. However, with my new Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G (oh, yes, I do buy birthday present for myself every year), I am dying to test the lens. Uncle Zack definitely is the best choice -- good food at beachfront of Batu Ferringgi. Unfortunately, it changed from drizzling to raining by the time we reached Uncle Zack's. We have no choice but to move to Cool Banana. There's no sunset or romantic candle-light dinner photos to share here but at least I still have the food shots to show off :)

On the actual day of my birthday (finally!), we had breakfast in the garden (yes, AGAIN!). Wei made me a cup of latte to go with the mango cheese cake that mum made a day earlier. Not only that, mum also made "Chai Tou Kuih" (raddish cake) and "Gu Chai Deh" (leek pancake). I can't resist so I end up had breakfast and lunch in one meal.

Latte

My favorite - Gu Chai Deh

Mango Cheesecake

Chai Tou Kuih

After the unplanned brunch, Wei started to get bored. She insisted that she MUST go to hair saloon, almost IMMEDIATELY. Not that I dislike going to hair saloon, just that I didn't see the point to be rush. I am still enjoying the lazy Sunday morning.....

En En is kind enough, willing to be her driver. He dropped her at the hair saloon first while I took my time to shower, chit chat at FB, continue eating, reading newspaper etc. 

When I finally joined Wei at the hair saloon, I requested to have my hair style change, again. The hairdresser probably already run out of ideas on what to do with my head. I guessed that's why he asked his assistant to dye my hair first, and he will come back to me later (take some time to think??). However, I think he likes my adventurous. It must be fun for him to have one or two customers that always challenge him to create something different, or always willing to try something new. When he's cutting my hair, he kept on explaining the style "I made here more bob, here more layered, here longer etc etc etc". He must have thought that I love to change hairstyle because I love fashion. Sigh..... pity him. "Playing guitar to the cow". I love changing hairstyle simply because I love changes :p I hardly understand 80% of his hairstyle-talk actually.

Anyway, I love my new hairstyle. It made me feel fresh. It made me wanted to shout "It's a new me! It's a new me!" as Donald did.

For finale, mum introduced a new recipe -- "酿鸡翅"(Chicken wings with glutinous rice stuffing).

This is a snapshot of how I celebrated my birthday - never ending eating and never ending fun. I am never a real fan of my own birthday celebration actually. I enjoy more on planning birthday celebrations for others. However, I love the feeling that I know I'm loved. I love the fact that life is always full of surprises. I love the self-reminder that I'm a new me every single day.

You still can.....If you BELIEVE

Just love this short film......

三星堆的诡异

三星堆博物馆是我和薇此次四川行程上“非去不可”的地方。（每一回自助游，我总会要同行的同伴们把“非去不可”的地方都写下，好让行程安排上可以尽我们所能，即使绕个大圈子也在所不惜，尽量不让大家失望）

为什么我们俩都觉得这是非去不可的地方呢？因为打从我们第一次看见三星堆那些诡异的青铜面具，我们就爱上了那种远古的神秘。

走进三星堆博物馆，你必然会被五千年前的精致手艺给征服。我实在想不通，那个年代，他们究竟是以怎么样的科技，方能制造出那些或是精致小巧、或是威武刚猛的青铜器。当然，大家都喜欢那个“三星堆是外星人遗留下来的文化”的说法，虽然很不学术，但很科幻。哈哈！

博物馆的第一个展览馆为综合馆，循序而渐进地讲述着三星堆的历史和文化。当中包括了农业发展、商业活动、陶器、玉石器等展出。其中最令人叹为观止的，就是那个象征古蜀人智慧与精神的通天神树！我孤闻寡陋，不知道原来世界上许多古文明，包括埃及、印度等都相信“宇宙树”可以让人神互通。通天神树全是用青铜铸造，高度在4米以上。神树分上、中、下三层，每层有三枝，每枝上面挂满了栩栩如生的铜鸟等精美独特的工艺。

通天神树

第二展览馆是青铜器馆，全馆以“人与神”为主题。一进入一号展厅，你必定会被纵目青铜面具群给镇住。这一批一批的人面具与兽面具如众星拱月，列队布阵，围聚主体展品，非常神秘。而且，是在搞不明白，明明是面具，搞得比我还高，也不知道究竟是怎么用法？

不过，最诡异的，仍然要数二号展厅。一走入黑漆漆的二号厅，进入眼帘的是一字排开的森森群巫，暗红色的灯光柔柔洒满天花板，一颗颗青铜头像被腾空关在玻璃罩内。一不留神，还以为是荷里活科幻片内那些外星人标本。我们缓缓的，一格格玻璃柜慢慢欣赏，每个头像皆有不同造型，但除了其中一个头像比较像现代人之外，其余的全都没有人样。真搞不清，当年，他们究竟是崇拜着谁？摹拟着谁?







请你也读：
浪漫三国
悠游锦里
远去的.宽窄巷子
难以抗拒的可爱
蜀道难，难以上青天
错过木格措……
我心目中真正的香巴拉
来了就不想走的地方
乐山风云
三星堆的诡异

Bong, happy birthday!!

‎Sasi, happy birthday!!

诗桄，你一路走好……

我一直记得大山脚大街上那家书店。总是昏昏暗暗的。文具都蒙上薄薄一层灰，仿佛从来没有人真正经营似的。书店里靠柱子的位置总是坐着一个文质彬彬的中年，不修边幅的，自顾自的翻看着乐谱。收音机总是传来我们熟悉或不熟悉的乐曲，那些被遗忘的、那些跳跃的、那些触动人心的调子……我不知道有几个大山脚人真正认识这位巨人。他们心目中这只是一位脾气古怪的店主，还是大家都知道他对大马华乐的无私贡献？他有着典型的艺术家脾气。一幅不闻世事、不食人间烟火、不为五斗米折腰的高傲。要一种怎么样的激情、热忱和信念，才能不问收获地在马来西亚这一片国土上默默为华乐这亩地耕耘？

他回来母校当指挥的时候，我正处于想要放弃又依依不舍的尴尬阶段。我对于突然之间有人对我们的音乐有着追求完美的苛刻要求而寻获了一种无法言喻的精神上满足。于是，我留了下来，像其他人一样那么地离不开乐团，像其他人一样把这儿当成自己的家。

他教会我们如何音乐的真谛。我记得我们时常为了无法表现出乐曲所需要的感觉而花上一整个下午反复练习那几个音符，当然也深深记得在我们一气呵成地把乐章奏毕且感动了自己后大家激动的掌声。我时常觉得，他所教会我们的，其实远远超出了音乐的范围，我们都因为他而从此深信在成功的道路上努力不懈是必然的……

后来，其实我也忘了后来究竟是怎么一回事了。反正，他走出了日新中学华乐团的圈子。很多人亦然。

在接获他逝世的消息的那个晚上，我躲在房里哭了一晚。我还欠他一句谢谢你，一句对不起。

向诗桄致敬！

缅怀我们的指挥，黄诗桄先生~~~

简介：著名马来西亚指挥家。曾任大山脚日新国民型中学华乐团、太平华联国中华乐团，威南华都中学华乐团，居林觉民中学华乐团，吉兰丹中华独中华乐团，登嘉楼中华维新国中华乐团及马来西亚华人文化协会《登州分会》音乐导师及指挥。
早年师从音乐家许元良先生学习基本乐理及和声学，亦随名指挥温文京先生学习小提琴。擅长演奏多种中西乐器，尤以高胡、二胡及中胡的造诣最深。
1973年以二胡独奏《畅想曲》荣获由霹雳留台同学会主办的第一届全国华乐演奏比赛总冠军。1979年赴香港音乐专科学院，主修理论作曲，副修钢琴。
他的名字已被收录在 《中国音乐家辞典》及 《马来西亚华裔人物辞典》二书中。

"Unforgettable" Fish

What would you say if someone wants to buy you dinner with "The Unforgettable Fish" (忘不了)as the main dish?
My first response is "eerrrr......apa itu?"

"Empurau is known as the most expensive fish in the country. Its prices can reach as high as RM1800 per kilogram in Kuala Lumpur."
My next reaction is "YES! YES! YES!!"
 
Well, honestly, I have been looking foward for the dinner ever since. I am curious. How great must a fish taste to cost RM900+/600gram?? How great must the texture and aroma be for one to think it worth RM900+/600gram?? I am sure that even if I am a multi-billionaire, I woudn't spend RM900+/600gram on a fish, but I really don't mind trying if someone wish to buy me dinner. I really don't mind try this once in my life :)
 
The "Unforgettable Fish" that we finally tasted is about 1.5kg (do your maths!). After I had the first bite, the host ask me "what do you think?". Well, that is one of those embarrasing moments that you wish you can just disappear. I think I'm rude to say "good" or "tasty" (I guess after you spend more than RM2000 on a fish, you would expect someone act like those Japanese/Taiwanese food channel host, making the orgasm expression and praise the fish in joy and tears) but I do not want to violate my principle to start to sing the praises as well. :)
 
To me, the most unique thing about this fish is that the scale is edible. It is actually very tasty but I have to say, it is WAY over-rated. To me, even paying RM500 / fish is already way too much! I'm not sure if those think that this is the best-tasting fish they have ever, ever eaten in their life tell you the truth, or they just simply say this because of the unbelievable high price.  

We had an unforgettable dinner, we had great fun that night. The fish stays unforgettable due to the price :)

If you are looking for a great gourmet experience with RM3000 budget, please, just skip this fish and you can eat like an emperor!!

乐山风云

或许是因为风云吧，我总觉得男生都超爱乐山大佛的。

我们由于懒惰，呆在成都无所事事好多天，到最后，搞到我们只能在乐山、峨嵋、青城山和都江堰里头选其一。看在毓豪陪我们吃尽了苦头的份上，我们决定‘轻轻松松’到乐山走一趟。（是的，在中国，要爬像乐山这样‘只有’71米高的阶梯算是很轻松的了！）

乐山的公车超级便宜。我们从肖坝客运站乘10号公车到乐山大佛，车子兜兜转转走了老大的圈子才终于到达乐山大佛，才1元人民币呢！下了车，我们正犹豫着该爬山还是乘船（爬山怕人多什么都看不见，乘船又怕烟霾也什么都看不见）。最终我们还是做了正确的决定，付入门票爬那陡斜梯级算了！还好当天人潮不算太多，我们倒是得以很从容地游了一圈。 大佛虽然实在令人叹为观止，但不如我想象中那么令人震撼窒息。

乐山于我一种肮肮脏脏的感觉。或许是因为当天空气污染指数太糟，或许是她真的就是那么的脏。反正我们拜过了大佛，西坝豆腐也不敢吃了，跑到KFC吃一顿干干净净的安全食物。而且，最重要的是，我们碰上了秋老虎，热呆了，我们只想躲在有冷气空间哪儿都不想去……


请你也读：
浪漫三国
悠游锦里
远去的.宽窄巷子
难以抗拒的可爱
蜀道难，难以上青天
错过木格措……
我心目中真正的香巴拉
来了就不想走的地方
乐山风云
三星堆的诡异