I maybe taking a month long break, but there might be one or two updates by the in-house guest bloggers within this period. Also, do subscribe my RSS feed now, you wouldn’t want to miss my impromptu updates, right? *grins*

So, see you guys after my break!

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However, just when I needed it the most for my up-coming “project”, it has to fail on me by giving me this error message. No matter how I clean the contacts, the same error message popped up.

I defintiely have to send it back to Canon Service Center and get it fixed as soon as possible. Still, I doubt they are able to fix it for me before my “project” on October 18 and the Hari Raya public holidays aren’t helping either.

Sighs.

All these crucial “events” have to happen now. F**ked.

It is not exactly in town, but rather outskirt and a good old 20 to 25 minutes drive is required. Moreover, one needs to go through small roads and easily unnoticed junctions before arriving at the restaurant.

Upon entering the restaurant, you will see a big BBQ pit and a stall filled with seafood that are mostly just caught / brought up from the fishing boats. All sorts of fishes, clams, shells, prawns and even crabs (Only flower crabs though.) for you to choose from. They are just one step below from selling live seafood or rearing them in aquariums. The tray is reloaded every three to four hours, about two rounds per night, and the second batch of seafood also comes from the returning fishing boat.

The price is clearly written on the whiteboard hanging above the seafood. However, there’s no need to look at the whiteboard as it is reasonably priced or rather cheap, seriously. Once you finish selecting the seafood, you have to then decide on the cooking style by telling the guy managing the stall.

Instead of ordering a glass for each person, I reckon it is much cheaper to order a jug of whatever beverage you want.

Also, they will serve you plates of their specially made sauce, using onions, soy sauce, lime and etc.. Not spicy at all, to me.

Together with the special sauce, a tray loaded with steaming hot nasi lemak is put on the table at your expense. Each packet is priced at RM0.50-RM0.60, if not mistaken. It is really small and I can finish the whole packet in less than five spoons. Normally, I have to eat like six to eight packets each time I have my dinner at this place. It is not those super fragrant kind of nasi lemak, just good enough to gobble down together with your seafood.

Again, the otak-otak here is no where close to the Chinese’s counterparts in Muar but definitely far better than those what you get from hypermarkets.

There are many styles for you to choose from, goreng tepung, goreng sambal, masak kunyit dan cili padi, bakar, bakar sambal, sweet and sour, steamed and etc.. You can mix and match for all the dishes, but I reckon the prawns should be grilled only. Only that way, you can taste the natural taste of a fresh prawn.

I have been patronizing this particular restaurant for almost three to four years. No matter how much I order, the price per head always come to an average of RM25 or a maximum of RM30, be it a group of three or four or even up to six or eight people. The price always linger around that figure.

Some prefer the further and slightly more expensive Serkam or the nearer to town but slightly expensive Umbai, I have tried both and I still come back to Alai’s. Considering the money I am paying and the distance just to drive there, Alai offers the best value among all three. I have brought a number of outstation friends here and so far, if not, all of them enjoyed the meal.

I have to admit, I can be really lifeless sometimes.

Someone sent me a link to this game and I got hooked up with it then.

Orisinal : Winterbells.

The objective of the game is to jump as many bells as you can and score maximum points.

To play the game, just move your mouse to guide the rabbit to the bells and move upwards. Every now and then, you would see a bird flying across the screen, jump on it and you get to double your points instantly. Of course, the bell’s size will get smaller and smaller as you go higher.

Of course, to top it off, I am challenging anyone to break my record. The reward, a really decent meal in KL, on my treat. Its either I decide what to eat or you can make the call.

Yes, you didn’t see it wrongly. Its 13,286,757,825,232,123. Anyway, that’s for the print screen. I actually broke the score till it came to a situation which the score won’t update itself anymore.

If you think your photoshop skills can help you claim the prize, I do hope, with your maths, you should know roughly how many bells you need to step before you can achieve such high score. Deal?

Didn’t I tell you, I can be really lifeless sometimes?

The resolution of my pictures in this blog is fixed at 420 * 280 or 280 * 420 and numerous times, I wanted to post a bigger resolution of certain pictures which to me, I think is really nice. Just like the few pictures below, do click on it!

Well, it won’t be updated that frequently but rather randomly. So, do bookmark or subscribe to my photo-blog’s RSS feed.

Again, its photo.jasonmumbles.com.

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy taking them.

We sat down and ordered our refillable iced green tea. Honestly, they certainly didn’t taste like green tea to me, more like plain water with a little bit of flavouring in it. As for the other picture, its the wooden chopsticks.

We sat next to the conveyor belt, where an endless and unlimited but not free sushi kept passing by, tempting us to take them and put them into our tummy. Funnily, we didn’t take any of them, not even a single plate.

Ah Kit had a difficult time thinking what to order as it was his first time there.

No sushi meal would be complete without unagi. For the three of us, we ordered the large unagi set, which came with eight slices of unagis. Not too sweet or salty, just nice to compliment both tastes. The white rice, after mixing it with the remaining sauce dripping from the unagis, tasted really good and it was emptied in no time.

Ah Yong suggested a cod fish dish which we had no intention of disagreeing with his suggestion. The same sweet sauce as unagi’s, but different texture. Pieces by pieces, we helped ourselves with the cod fish. Not too bad, but it could have been better as cod fish is best eaten steamed to taste the natural sweetness inside the meat. Kind of oily too! Just look at the layer of oil that gave the fish the shinny surface.

Upon seeing soft shell crabs on the menu, Ah Kit wanted to order it. Who were we to say no, right? However, I find it rather salty compared to its counterpart, Pasta Zanmai. Although under the same management company, Pasta Zanmai’s soft shell crabs tasted much better. Moreover, Sushi Zanmai’s didn’t really look like crabs to me, more like spiders.

Wanting to taste their superbly soft and smooth tofu, I ordered a bowl. It definitely didn’t disappoint me. However, I find Pasta Zanmai’s version is better in terms of presentation. Their tofu stood up firmly and didn’t wobble around, unlike Sushi Zanmai’s. On top of that, the outer layer was fried till a very light golden brown colour and has slight crispiness in it where as Sushi Zanmai’s were nothing but just a layer of skin.

Ah Yong wanted to try their sushi and he ordered a plate of assorted sushis. I had the salmon sushi and it tasted just average.

Not wanting to lose out, I ordered a plate of deep fried tuna sushi, which turned out to be really delicious. The fact that I quite like tuna made the sushi twice the deliciousness. Tuna and Japanese rice, wrapped with seaweed and then deep fried. Some mayonnaise to give the extra punch and presentation before serving. Crunchy yet a little juicy at the same time. I could eat two plates all by myself! It was that delicious.

Another sushi filled with soft shell crabs, just for Ah Kit. The soft shell crab in this particular sushi wasn’t crunchy at all and tasted just nice for me.

To end my lunch, I ordered a bowl of black sesame ice cream. Damn nice! Only available at Japanese restaurants, I assume.

The bill came up to just a couple of dollars above RM100. It was definitely lower than we hada expected from the beginning.

Overall, Sushi Zanmai didn’t disappoint me the second time and there’s no reason for me not to go back there again. Judging from Ah Kit’s happy face after we came out from the restaurant, I am pretty sure he would visit it again, with his parents.

Editor’s Note : Overall, Sushi Zanmai did not disappoint me / still pretty good although this particular round was a little off standard compared to my first visit. However, I reckoned that’s because it was a weekday and the sushi had stayed on the conveyor belt just a little bit longer than usual. I recommend their deep fried tuna sushi, unagi bento set and black sesame seed ice cream. The tofu and soft shell crab, somehow, Pasta Zanmai’s tasted better.

The smallest room (I assume.), superior queen, is priced at RM230 per weekday night. Despite being the smallest room available, it is really spacious with plenty of space to move around or even fit another queen size bed on the wooden tiled floor.

There are three different softness and thickness of pillows for you to choose from. If you are not happy with the tree, there are another five more to choose from by calling room service and ask for the pillow menu.

At the other end is the TV cabinet with a small sitting area with four more small cushions. There are more channels than I could watch, including HBO, Star Movies, ESPN, TV3, 8TV, MTV, NTV7, Disney Channel, Discovery Channel and etc., a total of 16 channels. I watched Project Runway, an hour of Discovery Channel before flipping to MTV for some musics while I chatted on MSN.

As usual, free 3-in-1 coffees and tea packets at one corner, with a mini fridge filled with ridiculously priced soft drinks, beers and mineral waters. You got to love the cup they provided instead of the usual tea cups that could barely hold more than three mouthful of liquids.

A full set of toiletries minus the toothbrush and toothpaste but replaced with a use-and-throw shaver is provided. It was quite an experience to watch Iron Man while soaking myself in a tub of hot water while sipping my chilled mineral water. Heh! The toilet is really clean. The tub was spotless and everything was in placed when I first walked in.

Most importantly, each room has a LAN socket for its free broadband facility. If it wasn’t for Internet, I would probably have hung myself in the room due to extreme boredom. While on MSN, Bryan kept trying to brainwash me to spend RM150 recklessly yet have some fun all by myself.

I had my breakfast around 9am the next day. There was the usual nasi lemak, roti canai, porridge, breads, ham and bacon, omelet, fried noodles, cereals, fresh fruits, chilled yogurts, salads and etc.. Pretty much the usual stuffs, I would say.

As usual, I whacked two bowls of KoKo Crunch with full cream milk after my plate of nasi lemak. It’s not really cost saving if I am to buy my own KoKo Crunch and milk for breakfast on daily basis. If only they serve cold milk instead of warm milk, it would have been perfect. The yogurts weren’t spared as well as I walked away with one in my pocket. Ha!

Overall, the room was really clean, neat, spacious and really comfortable. The staffs were very helpful and attentive as there was some minor problems during my check-in. The hotel is about five minutes walk to Mandarin Oriental and probably another five to 10 minutes walk to KLCC. Pretty convenient, I would say although it wasn’t fun to walk that short distance with an almost 3.5kg notebook on my left shoulder and another 4kg worth of camera equipments and clothing bag on my right shoulder.

More information at http://kualalumpurhotels.impiana.com/.

Most importantly, my transportation fee and accommodations would be footed by the organizers since I was coming from Malacca. In no time, I was walking towards Delicious @ Marc Service Residence, along Jalan Pinang.

The restaurant was closed for the event.

Everyone was there chatting away or busy looking at their own notebooks as I entered the restaurant, hoping to look for a familiar face until I saw Nicholas Chay from Nuffnang. I sat at the table and saw many familiar faces like Suanie, KY, Minishorts, Ringo and Chris Tock. Nigel Sia and Thomas Yap joined in not too long after that.

Spot any familiar faces.

In an event that both of us attended, I finally got to meet KY of kyspeaks.com.

Malaysian Dreamgirl Ringo or Cheesie of cheeserland.com. She’s so petite, even more so by standing next to me.

Another one with KY and Ringo.

Thomas Yap of yapthomas.com who supposed to handle my air tickets but ended up being asked to buy at MATTA Fair instead.

Nigel Sia of nigelais.blogspot.com, name that I seen a number of times in various blogs.

That’s Suanie of suanie.net in action, actually. Heh!

The event started with a presentation and speech by the head of virtual banking, Ahmad Shareza Abdul Rahman, which he showed us some statistics, histories of Maybank2U online banking, the steps and processes taken to create the all new Maybank2U 2.0.

Web 2.0 is all about user-interaction and personalization and Maybank2U 2.0 is geared towards this direction as well. In addition, apart from the usual internet banking, Maybank2U 2.0 is also branching out to the lifestyle categories which include movies, foods, lounges, musics and etc. The whole process of creating Maybank2U 2.0 took approximately six months to build where numerous tests, discussions, discoveries and prototypes were done before the sneak preview.

Before everyone realized, the speech has ended and Maybank2U 2.0 was launched.

According to Ahmad Shareza, there were more than 3000 templates used to create the Maybank2U 1.0 and for 2.0, the number was shrunk to four master templates and six sub-templates, significantly reducing the loading time of Maybank2U 2.0 by 50%. Site loading is extremely fast compared to its older counterpart, no doubt about that.

To test out the functions and interface, I made payments for my electricity bill and phone bill through Maybank2U 2.0. With the tabs nicely sitting on top of the page, its very easy to navigate from one page to another. With all the functions and services neatly categorized, its not difficult to find the proper link to make the payment.

Another interesting feature is Agent M, a robot that you can add into your MSN Messenger that can chat with you and more importantly, help you with any troubles during your internet banking. It is somewhat like a live customer service agent assisting you, but through an instant messenger. Head over to read the ermm, interesting conversation between Agent M and Nigel Sia.

Generally, I love the revamp of the clustered Maybank2U 1.0 website. Less text, more direct link and dive straight into the point, less mouse movement too! The tabs are a very nifty and good looking feature, whereas the old ones was somewhat javascript-ed. Most importantly, the website still loads at a significant speed even though my BitTorrent was downloading at 90kb/s. If it was the older version, you bet it would never load successfully until I quit my uTorrent.

Maybank2U 2.0 will be available to public for beta testing in one or two weeks time, just watch out Maybank’s homepage. It is currently scheduled to launch during October and it won’t be too long until your turn to experience the new interface of Maybank2U. Being the first bank to provide internet banking, Maybank is and has once again, set the benchmark for all other banks.

Now, if and only they have a branch in Bukit Beruang, I would definitely ditch CIMB for Maybank anytime. Too bad, they don’t and the nearest Maybank branch is like 10 - 15 minutes drive away while the nearest CIMB branch is only 5 minutes away from my house / inside my campus.

P/S : Some pictures are courtesy of Nigel Sia.

As promised, the cafe introduces new dishes and beverages every month and I was delighted to see more varieties this time. There were about 20 different food and drinks introduced within the span of two months. Probably the less popular items during the previous month are removed and replaced with new ones, and the cycle repeats itself till the menu is filled with good stuffs.

After some pondering, we ordered our stuffs and it didn’t take long for the food to be served. First up was the fish balls and spring rolls varieties, or more widely known as “Wu Xiang 五香”.

This dish definitely didn’t pass my standard. Not only the very diluted sweet sauce tasted weird, the fish balls didn’t have any texture or springiness in it. It was like eating mashed potatoes, soft and mushy. The crackers weren’t as bad as the fish balls though.

The Xia Men Spring Rolls 厦门春卷…

Was absolutely finger licking good. Crunchy on the outside, soft and meaty on the inside. It was like a fusion of nuggets and meatballs. Yes, meatballs covered with batter and then deep fried. It cannot be anymore awesome than that. This is going to be my must-order-item if I dine here in the future.

Another note though, chilies sauce goes better with this finger food than the sweet and sour sauce they provided. Isaac, do you sell ready made ones so that I can deep fry them myself? Ha!

Jian had the lemon grass chicken with rice set meal, that came with a free drink with every order.

The sauce used to marinate the chicken tasted really or closely resembled or perhaps was the same sauce used to marinate satays. I told Jian that they should have grilled the chicken on a BBQ pit instead of pan fried it to give the chicken a satay- taste and feel. Not too bad, as I managed to taste a bit by sneaking up on Jian’s plate.

I went for something normal, seafood fried rice, which turned out really delicious after all. There were quite a reasonable amount of meat, squids, a few tiny prawns. It was served with a small plate of coleslaw and sambal. The rice were fluffy and didn’t stick together into a lump. Prawns were really small though, an upgrade to a slightly bigger prawn with a cut down of the number of prawns in a plate would be better.

The owner, Isaac, was kind enough to let me sample another in house specialty of theirs free of charge, the Sze Chuan Hot & Spicy Soup 四川麻辣汤.

Issac : “The soup is really hot and we have toned it down to suit Malaysians’ taste buds. If you can take spicy food, I can cook the original version of it.”

Jason : “How spicy can it be, right? Give us the original one.”

Considering that I came from a family who eats chilies almost on daily basis, how spicy can outside food be, right?

How wrong I was and I went o.0””’ when I saw the pot of soup being served on our table.

A close up.

Yes, those red tiny dots were cili padis. Shit loads of them. Moreover, the amount of chili oil on top of the soup was “remarkable”.

Jian and I were literally sweating off while drinking the soup and finishing the fish fillets and potatoes in it. The soup was boiled using fish fillets, potatoes, cabbages, Japanese cucumbers, herbs and spices imported from Sze Chuan and other ingredients. Knowing that if I drink too much, I would definitely be having diarrhea the next day. I stopped drinking, fearing that it would affect my events tomorrow.

Honestly, it was horrifying. Haha! Yet, it was quite an experience to be able to taste the true Sze Chuan Hot & Spicy soup. It was numb-fying and definitely lived up to its name.

Last but not least, it was my chilled double boiled white fungus with red dates and lychees.

Instead of just putting ice into a bowl or chilling it before serving, Isaac went the extra mile by buying a bigger half-bowl to make ice around the tub containing the dessert. Here’s a close up picture for better description. The layer around the container wasn’t just water but ice.

The icy cold dessert was just nice to wash down the numb and spicy feeling that lingered on my tongue and lips. Just the right sweetness, coupled with generous amount of white fungus, red dates and two lychees (from those canned lychees), the price of RM3.50 was definitely justifiable.

The bill came up to RM26.15, including 5% service tax. Do take note that the Sze Chuan Hot & Spicy soup was on the house. Again, reasonably priced and I am definitely coming back for more. If you are a Malaccan and looking for good food, this is one of eateries that you can consider, albeit the distance.