i-City Night Lights Photography Competition

Just found out about this competition and also that there is a Persatuan Fotografi Selangor dan Kuala Lumpur (Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Photography Society)!  Anyway, it is a little late but for those who catch this blog posting today, the competition is from 7pm-12am, where i-City will be light up!

The competition is for the creative capturing (I can think of long exposures moving!) and prizes are reasonably attractive.

• Competition time frames: 7pm-12am (yes, there’s life up to midnight in Shah Alam!), 6-7 February 2010
• Venue: i-City, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
• Theme: i-City, the City of Digital Lights
• Prize:
  • Grand Award: RM5000
  • 1st Runner Up: RM3000
  • 2nd Runner Up: RM1000
  • Excellence Award x5: RM500
  • Merit Award x5: RM200

Location as below.  For those who are not that familiar with i-City, it’s the Selangor Government’s attempt at building an intelligent city within it’s capital city of Shah Alam.  It’s MSC-Status designated area.

View Larger Map

More information can be found here.

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Restaurant Lek Lek, Seri Kembangan

It's the weekend! So instead of eating in, which we already did for lunch, we decided to venture and find a reasonable place for food!  Well, we have heard of this Restaurant Lek Lek, located at No. 12 Jalan PSK4, Pusat Perdagangan SK, 43300 Seri Kembangan that serves a few signature dishes.

First off the line … the Foo Yong Tan (egg omelette) @ RM6.00 for the little gal.  Nothing really special about it, friend with some sliced char-siew and onions.  Nothing special but nothing wrong with it either.

Next to arrive, the garlic stir-friend nai-pak @ RM12.00.  It’s definitely fresh, crunchy and not oily!  Well done.

Then came one of their signature dishes, minus the fish head!  We ordered curry vegetables @ RM16.00!  A tad expensive for a mixed vegetable curry. The curry is very aromatic, thick, nicely spicy BUT salty.  However, it will go very well with plain white rice.

The next dish took some time to arrive after the first 3 and whilst waiting for the stuffed ma-yau yee @ RM24.00, we ordered another house speciality, the sweet and sour pork @ RM10.00.  Firstly, the ma-yau yee is basically fish paste made from a fresh fish, stuffed back onto the fish head and tail, deep fried and served with soy sauce, spring onions garnishing.  It also comes with a nice light piquant chilli sauce.

The stuffed fish paste is really springy, tasty and quite unique.  It is worth the RM24.00 as the amount of work is quite significant.  You just need someone to dig the fish paste meat from the fish head!

The house speciality sweet and sour pork gave us some mixed feelings.  It is no doubt tasty and what’s important crispy.  However, it feels like it’s made of deep friend flour, hence a vegetarian version instead of having any real meat in it.  Having said that, we wiped the dish clean as well.

Considering that we are 2 adults with 2 young kids, we actually cleaned out 5 dishes!  And nothing to doggy bag and nothing left on the table either!  I just that’s a simple enough testament to whether we will return to this place.  The food is not perfect or elegantly served but it’s above average.  Bear in mind that after a few hours, not a single one of us is thirsty … which is kinda unusual in these joints.

Burp …

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Alpha Mount is 25 Years Old?

I am not too sure but I have been told that the Alpha Mount in the Sony DSLR series is 25 years old!  That’s a lot older than I thought.  The first camera with the Alpha Mount was the Minolta Maxxum 7000 (or Alpha 7000 in Japan).  Other notable first for the Maxxum 7000 are:

• First in-body Auto Focus
• First SLR with fully automatic film handling

Other interesting facts is that older Alpha Mount lenses have five electrical contacts whilst the latest once (have been told since 1991) have 8 contact points.

A picture of the Minolta Maxxum 7000.

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YogiTree @ The Gardens, Mid-Valley City

This is one really hidden restaurant in The Gardens mall.  It is located on the 1st floor, on the Isetan wing.  As you exit Isetan on the 1st floor, it is on the left.  I have only been there twice, it is a place to have some healthier “sinful” food. I guess that’s how we can describe it as they do serve items that are variants of nasi lemak and curry laksa.  However, they use organic, low cholesterol and low fat items.  Generally speaking low fat would translate to low in taste but I guess they make up for it in other ways.

Although it is hidden, there seem to have its own crowd of clientele comprising of mainly ladies and from all nationalities.  Other than the three of us, there was only one other guy dining there!  The prices are on the higher end for local delights but I must say that the ambiance, the taste and the service makes up for the higher prices.

We ordered some drinks, the cappuccino seems normal but the chinese tea came in a nice small tea pot.

They serve Italian, e.g. spaghetti carbonara (above) and others western mains such as vegetable moussaka (below).  Both were very well cooked, presented and tasted … how do I put it … right.  It just taste correct! (If there is such an way to explain the feel of the food).

The portions are of reasonable sizes and they are quite generous with the garnishing or sides, for example the extra mozzarella cheese for the spaghetti carbonara.

Of course, there’s the local delights as mentioned.  We also had an order of mee siam and unlike any other I have seen, it is made from thicker vermicelli and with lots of other ingredients.

Overall, as long as you are ok with the prices, it is a place to dine “healthily” and I would definitely recommend at least 2 visits there.  Two as the menu is quite wide and I think you would also be able to give it a fair comment or review after going there to try the western offerings initially and then the local offerings the 2nd time.

That’s all for now. 

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The All New Volvo S60 … 2011

Volvo Cars have been sold to the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.by Ford Motor Co. and most of us wondered what will happen to the “For Life” tagline.  Will the phrase For Life still represent Lifestyle, Forever and most importantly, Safety?  (Note that it is only for Volvo Cars and not Volvo Trucks which Ford never owned in the first place).

One thing for sure, the above video release seem to at least address the Lifestyle part of the “For Life” and we just have to wait and find out whether the Forever and the Safety aspect still remains.

I miss my 240GLM … but this 2011 S60 will do nicely.  Love the Maserati looking rear lights and good to know that the broad shoulder look of the Volvos remain.

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