Xmas Dinner

I was about to leave the hospital to get back to the apartment for a quick shower and microwave dinner when I found out that Anita and the boys would be out with my in-laws for dinner. The boys wanted Chinese, so we went to my Dad's favourite at Corus Hotel.

Anita had just arrived at the restaurant when I called her. And since I was already in the car, I decided to head to the hotel as well. Luckily the traffic wasn't too bad, although it was a crawl in front of Sunway Pyramid.

The hotel was packed with people having their Christmas dinner at the main cafe, full of singing and drinking. There were live bands playing, and people mingling about. The Chinese restaurant - Ming Palace - was a lot more sedate. And we were able to have the dinner in peace. The food was already served when I arrived, and being hungry from work, I went straight for the food. Much better than the microwave dinner I would have otherwise in store.

By the time I was done with dinner, I already had a couple of patients waiting for me at the hospital. I went straight in, and was back the apartment by midnight. Shower only came after that ....

Ming Palace

This was a favorite Chinese restaurant of Anita's family since she was young. As far as she can remember, this has been the spot. Anita's father was an army officer and they as a family used to live at MinDef nearby. The restaurant users to be the flagship of Ming Court Hotel. For the past 10 years or so, the hotel was taken over by the Corus Group and has been renamed accordingly. However, they still retained a couple of famous eatery there - The Ming Palace where we ate last night, and Kimuro, a Japanese restaurant who served a mean tappenyaki - shamed that I did not like tappenyaki, even thought I love Japanese food in general. I just probably prefer them raw maybe.

Last Monday was Idlan's seventh birthday, while Thursday was Mum-in-laws. It was her idea to have Chinese and the choice was obvious. Ming Palace it was.

The food there has been consistent for the last few years. The Peking Duck was excellent although we did not have it last night. The steam cod was heavenly, although expensive. The buttered prawn was not too bad either. In fact, the food were reasonable across the menu. We had soup to start things off, and for the last 10 years, I have been against shark fin soup, so I had some corn and crabmeat soup, which was a firm favourite. We ordered seven items amongst us last night, a variety of beef, chicken, prawns, vegetables and fish. The Kung pow beef was excellent, a new find for us.. Lemon chicken was good as well. The disappointment was the vegetables. The asparagus was rather overcooked. I did not taste the fish as we ordered steamed Latin last night, and I got this thing with fresh-water fish!

We had an excellent time. My brother-in-law was also present. We we're really too full to order any desserts. From what I know, the main attraction of the place was the excellent din sum lunch they offer. I have sampled them on a couple of occasions and the service was quick and friendly. In fact, the waiters and waitresses the knew Irfan and Idlan by now. In fact a few of them watched them grew up over the years, and remembered how t prepare their favourite Chinese Fried Rice.

I must confess that it was not the cheapest joint in town. In fact, do be careful if you were ordering for fish and you may be caught staring at the bill ........ Certainly for the business types, the private rooms offered privacy.

Corus Hotel is located along Jalan Ampang, opposite KLCC and right next to the now oh-so-quiet Avenue K. Ming Palace was located on the first floor of the hotel. The parking can be a pain as they charge you RM 10 per entry!

Thaipusam

Woke up this morning contemplating taking my camera out and drive the 4 km to Batu Caves. It was arguably one of those local festivities that was known worldwide. I have seen Discovery Channel documentary on the event from years past. Even the photograph of the day on BBC featured the celebration in Batu Caves.

Instead, I decided to stay home as I promised to take my in-laws out for lunch. My Mum wanted to have Yee Sang, a traditional Chinese sort-of-appetizer where the everyone toast a selection of nuts, ginger, salmon into a thick splash of sweet honey. We do it almost every year. I already had a Yee Sang on Thursday night at PJ Hilton after the MSH Council Meeting. So I was kind of slow for this one.

This year, we had it at Corus Hotel. It used to be called Ming Court, and since Anita was a child, she was fond of the place. There was also a Japanese eatery at the same hotel, but we prefer PJ Hilton for that. The Chinese dinner here was not bad, and today was no exception. Rather than taking the set meal, we decided just to order a few items as there only 4 of us, an the children.

Later in the afternoon, Anita wanted some retail therapy time, Abd we went to BB Plaza. I wanted to get some new DVDs, but apparently, the place was under surveillance. No pirate DVDs for the day I was afraid. Anita made up more than that from her shopping though. Getting in was murder and I had to park the car around Jalan Alor. The entrance to the BB Plaza car park was closed and getting around the place was almost impossible.

While Anita was shopping, I had a quick wander round to Low Yat. I wanted to check out the Nexus S. Unfortunately, only a single dealer ha it in stock and he offered it to me for RM2500. I thought it was a bit steep. I would give it a couple of weeks and see if the price would come down. I was hoping for something around RM1800. Impossible I guessed.

It was a nice relaxing day, but it will be back to the grind tomorrow. My partner, Bee will be off and I would be looking forward to the big Friday clinic. I also have a stem cell infusion due tomorrow morning as well as other planned tests for the patients. I will then be on call on Saturday. Looking forward to a busy weekend then ...... not!

Anniversary Dinner

It was not actually our anniversary - yet! We celebrated my in-law’s 50th anniversary the other night, but unfortunately none of their other children were able to make it. We took them out for dinner, just the four of us and them. We initially wanted to bring them to Seri Negara - the other, some might say the better, half of Carcosa Seri Negara. We got in the act rather late, hence the place was already fully booked with a corporate event.

The next choice was Shangri-La. Again, the places were already fully taken up. We had to settled with our usual Chinese eatery at Corus Hotel - used to be called Ming Court - the Ming Palace. Anita did the booking, but we let the happy couple do the ordering. The dinner was delayed by the unexpected heavier traffic than normal leading out of Jalan Ampang. The boys were already grumpy by the time we reached there.

The condimentsIdlan just about managing it with the chop sticksMing Palace serves mainly Szechuan cooking, but the thing we likes about the place is the fact that we can modify the orders if we like to and even order off menu. This is important so that the boys can get what they wanted to eat. Corus has a few other eateries, such as the Japanese and Thai downstairs. Therefore, if Puan Anita decided to sneak in some tom yam if she liked to, she can just order. No issue. The service was also very prompt and most of the waiters already knew my Dad-in-law from his various visits there entertaining his business clients. The lady who served us also remembered Idlan from his birthday dinner we had here last year. 

The food for the boys arrived first, and after the finished up, there started to go hyper. I ended up having to chase them around the rest of the evening! Spoilt brats.

For starters, we had four season salad and crabmeat soup - I’m not a fan of shark fin. The best order for me that evening was the steamed cod. It was lightly marinated by soy sauce and some ginger, but otherwise left untouched. I ended up finishing it off and sipping the sauce. For dessert, we had longan and sea coconut. The ambiance was what you would expect from a decent, established Chinese restaurant, and so was the price. It was on the expensive side I must say. The service was prompt and the waiters certainly knew their menu and helped in making up our order.

The sea coconut and longanIt will not be fair to ask me whether we will come here again, since it is one of my in-law’s favourite joints. They have private rooms to accommodate business dinners, and family occasions. My children liked the privacy of the rooms. They can run around the table without the worry of knocking anything. As mentioned, the price was a bit on the steep side, but they do great seasonal discounts and good deals with credit cards payments - you get discounts of up to 20% with certain credit providers. But, no, I will not be taking friends here - it was far too expensive!

Happy Birthday to Me

090620 KL Butterfly Park 12, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

I had a long day yesterday. Woke up early to send my maid away from the LCCT in Sepang. SHe is going home for around 10 days to visit her family before the coming Ramadhan. Got back home just in time for Jumaat prayers. Luckily there were no delay.

It was the first time I have been to the LCCT. It certainly was .... low cost. Completely different to the grandiosity of KLIA, it more resemble a branch of Tesco for a lack of a better description. Bear in mind that you are there just to catch a flight, not doing anything fancy at the lounge or duty-free shops.

The rest of the day were filled with answering emails, SMSes and facebook messages. Many thanks for those who took the time to write. I have tried answering all of them, but I am sure I missed a fair few. I will try to get round yo that. We went to dinner, just the four of us after Idlan's music class.

Today, we had a celebratory lunch with my father-in-law. Due to some freak coincidence, he was also born on the 10th of July. I guess that's how I manage to get her daughter's hand for marriage you see. We had a Chinese at Corus Hotel. I must say that this meal was better than the one we had here for Idlan's birthday. I guess it was because this being a lunch rather than dinner, and there were no other guess. Food was excellent and the waiters looked after us very very well.

Thanks again for the warm wishes.