Travel, Interior Decoration, Photography and Food

This final part of post on Athens covers various part of the ancient city including morning up to midnight scenes. Not much texts will be posted here.......enjoy the adventure :-) Koulouri, the plain, sesame- or sunflower seed studded circular bread is the preferred breakfast of many Athenians. Each bread cost at Euro 0.50. This is not a soft bread, so make sure you have a strong tooth. A stall selling koulouri Two types of koulouri, sesame- and sunflower seed- studded circular bread Fruit stalls at the Monastiraki Square An antique shop at further Ermou street (near Monastiraki) A shop specialised on chairs at further Ermou street (near Monastiraki) The modern shopping high street of Athens at Ermou The Athens Flea Market, the main entrance from Monastiraki Square The olive tree, signature of Greece The junction between Amalias and V. Olgas with a view of Lycabetus Hill Late afternoon open air tea break Al fresco dining, th...

This is my first sharing on imflight airline services. For my worktrip in September 2015, I have earlier booked my flight from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Istanbul (IST) with Malaysia Airlines System Berhad (MAS) as my first choice. Nevertheless the booking was rescheduled and reassigned to a different airline as MAS is no longer fly to IST starting September 2015. This route cancelation was partly related to the new formed Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) in 1st September 2015. Image edited from upgrd.com MAS has redirected my booking was Turkish Airlines (TK), the change was easy with full assistance ftom MAS. Like MAS, TK airline also has received great review by many passengers. So nothing to worry regarding the overall flight experience. Outbound KUL-IST: Late supper with prawn, steamed rice and mixed vegetables Outbound KUL-IST: Breakfast with scrambled egg and cheesy toast But this is my personal comment on the overall experience with TK long-haul flight KUL-IST...

The serabai with sweetened coconut milk, RM0.50 per piece A very nice lazy weekend of the Malaysia Independent Day Holiday (the Merdeka Day 31st August is tomorrow) in my hometown Melaka. Wake up very early in the morning for local favorite breakfast, too many choices in Melaka. Hurmmmm! Why not trying the 'mee bodoh (simple plain fried noodle)'.  The lontong, RM3.00 Drove to the stall located in Tengkera, arrived at around 9 am, huhuhuhu sadly, the queue was toooo loooong and no seat! Too many people standing waiting for seat, ayoooo! cannot wait with hungry tummy. Next option was Warung Siti Idah located at Balai Panjang, Melaka. This will be my first time trying their food. When we arrived, there was lines of cars parking on the road site. It shows a level of popularity of the joint. The crispy roti canai, RM0.80 The hospitality was quite good, only the croud will delay your order but the waiting time is no too long. We ordered three dishes, lontong (c...

Choices of reasonably tasty char kuay teow (the saucy type) in KL are limited. Among the popular one is 'Mali's Corner' at Downtown Danau Kota, Setapak. The journey from my house in Sri Permaisuri to Setapak which will crossing the city centre of KL would have killed my appetite.  The nasi lemak with fried chicked As usual, mister know everything i.e. google search, recommended some thing near to me, Pak Teh Stall located at Taman Tenaga, Bandar Tun Razak, around 4 km from Bandar Sri Permaisuri. Without further delay, I went there and ordered TWO dishes, the famous char kuay teow and the nasi lemak with fried chicken. Did I said I ordered both, ohhhh noooo! Tasted both and, yes, the dishes can be a very good option for Mali's Corner. Although the prawn in the char kuay teow not as plenty as Mali's Corner, but it was value for money with reasonable portion. The nasi lemak sambal also taste better not too sweet and not too hot. BUT do remember this is not a ...

Another baking project for the weekend....."Now anyone can bake". Open my refrigerator and saw two pears that are still firm, just thinking what to do with them. Cake! but how to incorporate the pear with cake? So I just browsed the internet to look for recipe.....looking at what I have some adjusments here and there.....below is the final recipe. For pear topping: 2 medium firm-ripe pears (photo 1, peeled and sliced, photo 2), 1/2 cup of melted butter with some honey. For cake: 1 1/2 cups of plain flour 1 1/2 tsp. of baking powder 1/2 tsp. of ground ginger 1/2 tsp. of ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp. of salt 1/2 cup of whole milk 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract 120 g of butter, softened 1 cup light brown sugar 2 large eggs Preparing the baking pan and topping: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 180°C. Butter the bottom and sides of a 22 x 5 cm round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a round baking paper and butte...

The scone baking project was to fulfill the weekend afternoon, and not because of the "doughnut story".....hihihi. Here I share the basic scone recipe. As I have mentioned earlier "Now everyone can bake", as such the recipe is easy to follow. Ingredients: 2 cups plain flour 1/3 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter 1 egg (medium) beaten with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup whole milk 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1:1 ratio of egg:milk wash Method: Pre-heat the oven to 180-200C. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (photo 2) and then follow by the egg and vanilla. Add in the milk slowly to form a firm soft dough that can be roll out. Stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add in the dried cranberries and raisins. Roll out the dough on floured surface to 2 cm thickness. Using a 5 cm round scone cu...

Dinner tonight??? No clue what to have? Then I asked "Mr Know All" or google search obviously, who else to ask?. In the list of answers, it showed Mee Ketam KL or KL Crab Noodle. Ohhhh I was so excited to try, when I googled the location, actually this gastronomic place situated in Shah Alam, that is about 30 km from Kuala Lumpur City Centre. Quite far from KL and traffic can be quite bad. Thinkingggg for awhile on the distance issue, but due to my curiosity, just go to try. Several bloggers recommended this Mee Ketam KL, they also listed the prices. The normal Mee Kari Ketam or Crab Curry Noodle (shows in photo) will cost you at RM9.50 or USD2.30, quite reasonable. Other types of curry noodle include the one without crab, with nipah crab and lobster (the later two priced based on per 100 g of nipah crab or lobster). This is my personal review on this gastronomic joint. Location from KL: 3/5 Restaurant feature: 3/5 (quite clean, quite small stool to sit) List...

In this post, I will share the second cake recipe, the Cinnamon Pumpkin Cake. Due to pure laziness again…..I just used my previous post as a template for writing, so more time for baking…..as “Now everyone can bake”.... Kitchen tools that you will require, electric mixer at least the hand held, large bowl, fine grater, mixing spatula, and non-stick round baking tin (9” x 2”) or other shape of baking tin that you like. Ingredients to prepare earlier: (1) use the fine grater to make ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg, and (2) 1 ½ cups of mashed yellow pumpkin, peel ½ medium size pumpkin, deseed and cut into small cubes. Boil and steam the pumpkin with ½ cup of water in a covered pot under medium fire until soft. Do not use a lot of water.  Now I will describe the method to prepare the cake batter. What you need to do is (1) put the ingredient one by one from (a) to (i), and (2) mix with the electric mixer after each addition of ingredient. The ingredients: (a)...

As requested by many, here I share the recipe for the Moist Plum Cake. Due to pure laziness, the apparatus and method to mix the butter has been simplified. So, “Now everyone can bake” .... Kitchen tools that you will require, electric mixer at least the hand held, large bowl, fine grater, mixing spatula, baking paper to line the baking tin and round baking tin (9” x 2”). Ingredients to prepare earlier: use the fine grater to grate ONE orange or lemon zest and stoned and thickly slice (about 0.5 cm) THREE black plums (purple or red type also suitable), mixed thoroughly with TWO tablespoon of self-raising flour. Now I will describe the method to prepare the cake batter. What you need to do is (1) put the ingredient one by one from (a) to (i), and (2) mix with the electric mixer after each addition of ingredient. The ingredients: (a) 125 mg or ½ blocks of salted butter (b) ½ cup of fine granulated sugar (c) ½ cup of light brown sugar, mixed until fluffy (...

Poster from Sony Entertainment An inspiring movie born in 2010, rich with crazily vibrant colours, chaotic in feelings, and drooling delicious Italian dishes. A "must watch" movie to ease your stress, confusion, sadness and madness OR just to elevated your happy mood to grandious affect. I have been watching the movie several times, never get bored....and continuously managed to melt the heart. Eat Pray Love is a romantic comedy-drama film starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert. The film was co-written and directed by Ryan Murphy. other casts include Javier Bardem as Felipe, Billy Crudup as Steven, Richard Jenkins as Richard, James Franco as David, Christine Hakim as Wayan and Hadi Subiyanto as Ketut Liyer. The movie was an adaptation form a novel "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia", a 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert. The memoir chronicles the author's trip around the...

Jojgakarta, one of the downtown residential areas The official name of Yogyakarta is less popular than Jogjakarta or Jogja. It is one of the major tourist destinations in Indonesia and the capital city of the province is in the south of Central Java province. Tugu Jogja or Tugu Golong-Gilig Tugu Jogja is the most popular landmark of Jogja. This three centuries old monument is located right in the center of the crossroad of four major roads. It keeps significant history records of Jogja. The t ugu was built around one year after the construction of Yogyakarta Kingdom. At the early time of its construction, it clearly described the philosophy of the unity of God's creatures that means the spirit of togetherness of commoners and authorities to fight colonials. This monument was also known as Tugu Golong-Gilig or Tugu "spirit of togetherness". The mount Merapi, an active volcano Jogja lies in the ring of fire and has thus repeatedly been struck by...