Iranian mates + Iranian food + Kuala Lumpur = Awesome

Acknowledgment for Ehsan and Marjan... you two are sweet and adorable...

After almost one year of "hi and bye...", out of expectation, came to a click with my Iranian lab mates...
Can't believe someone nearly 4000 miles away in another side of globe...we could sit together and share... totally frank chatting from religion, culture, lifestyle, business, family, thought and perception...

Though Ehsan claimed that he can cook better than these, but still I would like to share here, my first Iranian meal at Garden...

This is the typical Iranian rice served with fillet and grilled tomato...
The rice is not the ordinary one that we have in South East Asia...and the preparation is much more tedious according to Ehsan...not simply steamed with electronic rice cooker...each and every rice grains are so perfectly shape...with very light taste...slowly diffuse in my mouth...
Besides, there are salad (which is mixture of cucumber and tomato dressed with lime sauce) and also creamy barley soup... May be its too hasty to draw a conclusion, Iranian food are prone to sour taste with lime and tomato..

I am pretty much enjoy my fillet...while they have beef tenderloin and minced meat...

I am so full after ate half of the meal...but can you imagine normally in Iran, the portion served is two times bigger than this?

Life is full of surprises...

Paint ball --- truly pain but fun

I couldn't remember when was the last time I enjoyed team match game...
8 versus 7... 3 games... win or lose is not the main concern, but the feeling of being part of the team... fire... fight... run... squad... cross... shout... and of cause the pain we shared...

Heard a lot about how painful being shot.. how dangerous the paint if accidentally burst into eyes.. in fact I am very scared of pain... but to paint ball, it was not as scary as I imagine la...you would proud of getting the bruise of shot marked...hahaha

Anyhow, the rules of thumb is play safe and basic precaution must be taken... marker, mask, vest and other basic equipments are available for players, but you may use your own one as well (for advance players)... whereas for first time player like me, several things to prepared for happy paint ball match are:
1. Good camera... you may ask marshal's help to shoot the snaps when you are shooting.
2. Dark color jacket... the paint may burst on the shirt...and the dye is not easy to be cleaned off... long sleeves cover and protect your arms from direct hitting of the ball.
3. Long pants and sport shoes... easier for movement in jungle trail...
4. Contact lenses... spectacles may not be convenient to be covered in the protection mask.
5. Personal cleaning kit... such as shower cream, shampoo and towel.
6. Extra shoes or slippers... just in case... like this happened...=.="

We played four matches, three different missions and three different fields...we have 500 shots for each players (extra charges for top up). The game was really hectic and tense... thanks god its just a game... couldn't imagine its a real war...great team mates... challenging opponents... good experience...only thing not satisfying me was the so-called "buffet" food: rice, spicy fish, yellowish vegetable and watermelon... so disappointing... well ya... if its the real war, you should appreciate for this "two dishes" buffet lunch...

Fees: RM100 per person
Venue: Taman Pertanian Malaysia Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam

Penang Mee Sotong and Chicken Chop

Thanks to my dear friends from Sabah, I manage to eat around again in Penang...hehe. This is their first time visit Penang, besides shopping, eat is the most important activity to do in Penang.

Here would introduced the most popular Mee Sotong and Chicken Chop in Penang...well...people may wonder what so special about chicken chop, the western food in an eastern country's island??

Okay, we talk about chicken chop later...

Mee sotong at Esplanade has been recently voted as the best in Penang. Surely, a lot of people...we wait there almost 1 hour for just two plate...yeah...taste very good and the sotong (squid) really fresh...but its too spicy for me (yet "the spice girl" love it so much =.=")... hence eating mee sotong here must come with coconut milk shake...vanilla ice-cream plus coconut...the surprising combination...

In hokkien dialect, we used to ask for "pan gi", "tua te" and "ho chiak", which mean cheap in price, big portion and delicious... yes... cheap, big and delicious chicken chop here in Penang.

If you don't mind to have western food in traditional Chinese kopitiam seat, then you should visit this "hybrid western restaurant" -- Hainan Western in Mount Erskine or more commonly known as "Pek Hun Shua Chicken Chop".

There are almost 50 variety of steak, chicken, fillet, pork chop and etc on the menu board...really hard to decide... although its always full house here, the food serve very fast and hot from kitchen...

Here are a few that served to us... cordon bleu pork chop...barbecue fish fillet...fruity chicken chop...etc... and myself love cordon bleu pork very much :D... no other place that I know could find this!

Fresh, yummy, juicy, tasty...words can't describe...perhaps I was too hungry... and most importantly my Sabah friends were very much enjoying Penang culture western food here...

Price:
Mee Sotong RM3.50 - RM5.00 per plate
Hainan Western RM6.00 - RM14.00 per set

What's your G?

Along with McDonald's new launched Great-tasting Chicken Burger GCB, stand a chance to win RM5000 cash by joining "what's your G" contest at facebook McDonald's Malaysia.

Wake up at 4pm Saturday, I have not been enjoying such a lazy weekend for long time. Bring along with my brand new Lumix GF1, hehe, came all the way to McD for a snap shot of this legendary GCB...

I supposed that the crews were sleepy at Saturday late afternoon.. 3 to 4 of customers including me were have to wait about 10 to 15 minutes in front of the counter waiting the food to be served =.="...this is so called "fast-food" restaurant. Well, money paid, food not ready, and you have to stand there "watching" the robotic faced crews to serve you drink (2 minutes), fries (3minutes), burger (4 minutes), sundae chocolate (10 minutes, have to get chocolate from store behind!)...imagine I was fasted for 18 hours at that time...

Anyhow, I got my food finally..just forgive their bad service..

Well well well... "GCB" the first thing come across my mind was something rude...what the cb (cibxx)...opps...i m sorry.. its McDonald's chicken burger...

The chicken thigh grilled just nice, together with mayonnaise dressed fresh lettuce and soft bread... simple but complementary combined into Great-tasting Chicken Burger -- GCB... however, I think the patty is rather small, it tasted like Japanese terriyaki chicken, but I think the accent is covered by a bit "too much" of mayonnaise dressing...

So, what's your G?
I will say: Guess what? standing 15 minutes to grab one cb burger.

Set Medium: RM11.90+

New Era of "small" DSLR Camera

Since the pass two years, Micro Four Thirds system have been taking place on the DSLR market. The pioneer being Olympus and Panasonic, have set out a new course, which has obviously become a hit with the consumers like me. Well, almost one year I wish to have one Olympus E-P1, then finally (collected enough of "hobby fund") decided to have one which combines the size of compact camera with SLR image quality.

There is a lot of enthusiasm for Micro Four Thirds, causing others to also assign their R&D department to create a similar concept. Including Sony and Sumsung, with their introduction of the Sony NEX-5 and NX10 respectively. Despite of image quality, those manufacturer also aims on photographer at entry level, which with affordable trial price. For sure, I am so happy with that.

First of all, Olympus come out with E-PL1 which has its build in flash as demanded by most consumers and the price is much lower because of its plastic body (instead of metal). Then Lumix has its G series, DMC-G2 and its sister DMC-G10.

Lumix DMC-G10 is Panasonic's latest addition to its G family of m4/3 cameras. It is, in short, Panasonic's attempt at creating a strong competitor to Canon and Nikon's entry-level DSLR line-up and at the same time attack the entry-level consumer who may be in the market for an ultra-zoom point and shoot or, barring that, a standard pocket camera. The price for Lumix DMC G10 shall be around 599 USD (approximately RM 1940) compare to G2 which offer at the price range above 799 USD (approximately RM2800). The main different is that G2 features a brand-new touch-sensitive, articulating LCD screen, with touch controls.

After considering the price and the feature, I was hardly decided to buy Lumix DMC G10. Build in flash, view finder, handy, changeable lenses (though I don't know how and what lenses to use yet) and one more important thing is I like its user friendly operation buttons with rear dial, which I found easier instead of pressing plus or minus buttons.

The feature of Panasonic Lumic DMC G10 (See the main part of Lumix G10.)

Type	Live MOS Sensor
Effective pixels	12.1 Megapixels
Total pixels	13.1 Megapixels
Aspect Ratio	4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1
Colour filter type	Primary colour filter
Mount	Micro Four Thirds mount
Type	Contrast AF system
Exposure metering	Program AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual
AF modes	Face detection / AF Tracking / 23-area-focusing / 1-area-focusing
AF lock	AF/AE LOCK button or Shutter button halfway pressed in AFS mode
AE lock	AF/AE LOCK button or Shutter button halfway pressed
AEB	3,5,7 frame, in 1/3 or 2/3 EV Step, ±2 EV
Type	Focal-plane shutter
Speed	Still Images: 1/4000 ~ 60 and Bulb (up to approx. 4minutes)
Release	Remote control with bulb function by DMW-RSL1 (Optional)
Settings	Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Shade / Halogen / Flash / White Set 1,2 / Color temperature setting
Viewfinder	Live View Finder (202,000 dots equivalent)
Magnification	Approx. 1.04x / 0.52x (35mm camera equivalent) with 50mm lens at infinity; -1.0 m-1
Eyepoint	Approx.17.5mm from eyepiece lens
Dioptre connection	-4.0 ~ +4.0 m-1
Monitor	3.0inch / 3:2 Aspect / Wide viewing angle
Coverage	Approx. 100%
Brightness	Brightness (7 levels), Color (7 levels)
Hotshoe	TTL Auto with FL220/FL360/FL500(Optional)
Second Curtain sync	1st. Curtain Sync, 2nd Curtain Sync.
Still image type	RAW, RAW+Fine, RAW+Standard, Fine, Standard
Pict. bridge	PictBridge compatible（Print size, Layout, Date setting is selectable ）
Batteries	ID-Security Li-ion Battery Pack
Dimensions	124 x 83.6 x 74mm / 4.88 x 3.29 x 2.91 in (excluding protrusions)
Weight (body only)	Approx. 558g

Cool huh? 
But I have not seen any Lumix DMC G10 in Malaysia...and most of the camera dealers never heard of Lumix G10!! Is it my illusion??