sugar

Its my birthday and ill work if i want to.
actually no i did not want to work 4pm-12am on my 23rd birthday but hey, c`est la vie,non?

On a more serious note, i felt so much love coming from all the ppl from all over the world well-wishing me on such an occasion. thank you.

what would i do without you....... facebook reminder.

hypo

the geeza finally comes out of his little hole. his a free man.



been there, done that, got the t-shirt. aint doing it again!

p.s. no pub food for awhile geez

digestive

Happy New Years Sweethearts

Hope 2008 brings more love and peace for all
As we blanket over the shit of 2007
Bo Selecta Lads

estd 1759

the geeza and 32ct counterparts would like to wish all a merry and jolly Christmas.

May you stuff yourself with turkey and its trimmings, and wash it all down with mulled wine and eggnog. Over indulge on pressies and carols.
pictures will be added once the geeza stops `sante-ing`.
bo selecta

Magic

Checked out the Bunker Bar just off Covent Garden last night, after being recommended by Isk. Its a nice chill out place to enjoy a few pints/glasses before a nite out. Place wasnt packed and it was layed out on the likes of a beer hall with wooden tables and benches to go Skoll on.

They make their own lager in their microbreweries which you can see to the back of the hall, having three flavourful Freedom biers to choose from amongst other european bottled beers. Full of flavour and smooth the beers, wish i could say the same about the food. Service staff a bit slack too.

Oh well a decent place to head back to.

P.s. dont ask for a pint of Guinness here. Its impolite.(from experience)


On another note, i just watched Top Gun again for the ive-lost-count time, and i cant stop being amazed and glued to it. God, as corny as it sounds, wouldnt it be nice to pick up a hot lass at the bar by serenading the Righteous Bros` You`ve lost that loving feeling`?

On another nother note, damn nikki for introducing me to Placebo. On repeat is Pierrot the Clown. Damn you woman. Damn

Puzo

ah a december post, finally. we`re getting nearer to christmas and everyone seems to be all jolly at work.(referring to xmas carols blasting on the kitchen radio) where else moi cant be shiot(as usual) to do anything. i just blame the miserable weather which just makes you so screwed up, u end up holed up in the comfort of 32ct for the whole weekend.

Was never really much of a `gig going` person in the past. Something about the word `gig` which makes me think its gonna be loud trashy music, with the only ones on a `high` are the `musicians` playing. For some odd reason, i relieved my stereotype self some time back to check out the London Gig hosted by the kids at Imperial College.

The music at first was trashy, which made me seek refuge in watered down cheep booze, but after awhile the music became more acceptable. (except the geeza who played the OC Hallelujah song twice in a 10 odd minute set). Everyone was rooting for Rendra who it seems, performs in KL and has a following in London.

sarah,joe,nani

Then after a double shift on thursday and friday, it was off to turnmills in farringdon to join the boys for some intense beats being spinned. To be honest, not really down with the whole garage/house scene as have always been an oblivious rnb goer. but im getting there man im getting there. This place is massive with 3 rooms playing and it was a matter of `cucuk langits` till 6am, with a really good line up(i was told). tho after awhile i realised the ratio of guys to girls was really really reallly bad. and doing this after a double shift so freaking had its toll on em old legs on saturday.
Oh well, anyone up for xmas party part 2 this friday heh?
the crowd goes bo` selecta...............

picture taken from nyet

perrier

Been occupying myself with movies in recent times. I find it awfully therapeutic, to switch off and be part of the various characters, scenarios and locations seems awfully appealing at the moment. Its either that, or its an easy excuse not to get down and dirty with the growing workload of a student.

Watched Wes Anderson`s The Darjeeling Limited some days backand am still trying to figure out if i enjoyed it. Yes i think i did enjoy the Royal Tenenbaums back then, yet i find myself on a half/half on this movie. It was colourful, funny, yet with meaning and substance inter-laced. (just a matter if you got it). Yes, this was definitely an arty farty movie, if you catch my drift. *pooot*

American Gangster was wicked(my man, my man) but im looking forward to the french movie coming out in mid december about a lovey dovey menage trois relationship with characters falling into duets throughout the movie. Something like Huit Femme(8 Females) i suppose.

Being a movie buff at this precise moment, makes me wonder. With the Oscars coming in February, we should nominate really good and enchanting actresses whom have caught our hearts in the many scenes and roles played so far. The `Airport` scene was heartfelt, the `Numb` scene was played flawlessly, captivating viewers through words and emotions, where else the sincerity of character in the `Serious Talk` scene was just mind boggling. Put your hands up ladies and gentlemen...........

bupa

i read this somewhere and i liked it.

Its true that light travels faster than sound.
When i first met you, you came off as a bright person.
but god fathers, when words finally came out.....


Last Saturday-house party-boris-tower bridge-converted loft-spacious-60 odd ppl-good crowd-red-white-beer-bad lesson-mixing-no no no-

nani,mel,hafiz

cha,joe

yaz,boris,nani

celups

After getting my shit together on sunday, went to go watch a french movie at the curzon soho. Curzon shows some really good international movies, that lil breather when you just get a lil fed up of hollywood. highly recommended.

Watched Blame it on Fidel, which is a french movie set in the 70`s about the life of a girl raised by pro-communist parents. Good characters, good story line.

Next on the list,
Bricklane
Les Chansons D'amour
My Kid Could Paint That
The Kite Runner
The Darjeeling Limited

Any takers?

Liguria

Thank you to the people who made it to Pillars tonight. Couldnt have made it without you guys.
Restepa.

3:32

Event Info

Name:	Dinner Event at Award Winning Pillars Restaurant
Tagline:	One night only of Menus inspired by the Roux Brothers
Host:	BSc Culinary Arts Final Year Students
Type:	Party - Dinner Party

Time and Place

Date:	Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Time:	6:30pm - 8:30pm
Location:	Pillars Restaurant, Thames Valley Restaurant
Street:	St Mary`s Road, Ealing, W5 5RF
City/Town:	London, United Kingdom
	View Map

Contact Info

Email:

taufikrazak@gmail.com

Description

A 3 course dinner organized by final year Culinary Arts degree students.
A really good deal taking into account immaculate service, semi fine dining ambiance, and top notch food.
The menu for this Wednesday would be:

Starter
1. Creamed Artichoke and Cep Soup.
2. Spicy Fresh Crab Salad served with Peppered Tomato Mousse.
3. Pan Fried Foie Gras with Spiced Breadcrumbs
4. Salad of Rocket, Parmesan and Truffle.

Main Course
1. Wood Pigeon in Red Wine with Baby Vegetables and Crushed New Potatoes.
2. Escalope of Veal with Walnuts and Roquefort .
3. Roast Fillet of Sea Bass with Parsnip Puree and Caramelized Garlic.
4. Baked Potato with Creamed Morel Mushrooms and Vegetable Tagliatelle.

Dessert
1. Hot Chocolate Soufflé served with Dark Chocolate Sauce.
2. Whisky Jelly with Orange and Drambuie Sauce
3. Roast Figs with Honey and Pistachio served with Vanilla Ice Cream.
4. White Chocolate Mousse with Passion Fruit Bavarois.

Tables are Limited, reservations are advised.
Reservations and enquiries can be made at: 020-8231-2200 (Pillars)
07956458178 (Joe)

About Pillars Restaurant- http://www.thl.tvu.ac.uk/thl/restaurant/restaurant.asp

Dove

a lil raya do at number thirty two.

last sunday saw the occupants of 32ct playing host to a lil raya get together. knowing joe for his enthusiasm in celebrating raya, i just wanted to get it over and done with. turned out it wasnt that bad and it was a good night after all.

it was fun cooking up for the family open house back in kl during raya. thats because you had ppl coming expecting lontong, rendang,etc, and i served up the likes of home made pizzas, lasagna, pommes gratin and thai green curry and to get the bemused looks on some of them, u just know their thinking `what the fuck?`.hehehhe. the food usually went down well with the younger relatives. my justification is, you go for 3-4 open houses in a day on a sunday, u really wanna eat the same stuff everytime?

anyways, this time, Yazmin made the laksa lemak (that oz is getting too malay for gods sakes), i had the honour of making the chicken rendang and ketupats, and there was also malaysian posted kuih rayas/cakes and milo panas/ sirap bandung in between. oh it was a nite of indulging.
pictures galore.

faheem and yaz in gear

eddie (in gear) and omar

joe in his baju melayu with apek

jez and naj

uncle rahim content

doing the raya robot dance

kitchen invasion

pukka tukka

sham and patrick

acab and renee

boris and joe

omar, nani and fytrushka

Bombay Mix

it was Hari Raya yesterday in the uk. happy happy joy joy. no, on the contrary. I have personally lost interest in the celebration ages ago. Before one mutters blasphemy, let me explain.

Back in the day, Hari Raya was fun. Actually enjoying and anticipating to go back to kampung. Being able to hang around and play mercun with the cousins, the `maaf zahir and yeah whatever, give me em green packets' moments, the non-stop eating, the uncles and aunties who go `dah besar dah` everytime they see you, and everything in between.
We were young, we were free.

Fast forward that along the years, and you have almost a charade of the whole balik kampung thing. You are much older, you discover that maybe you dont have much in common with the cousins, family spats are more common amongst the big familia ( u gotta remember whos talking to who), cousins get married and opt out to celebrate with their new families. You dont want to go back,period. but then it matters if i dont go back to `celebrate` as we are forced to give a shit if others bitch of our absence.

Raya last year, like the two years before, saw me doing the whole protocol thing in the morning, and spending the rest of the day in a dodgy snooker parlour in town with a cousin or two. that bad, that bad. Then, why stay another couple of nites like u would back in the day, just come up with some cock and bull story to all who gives a shit, that uve got work, exam, etc the next day. so then, ur off the hook. balik kl and dont need to do the whole `act` till Hari Raya Haji.

Today, I was heavy hearted to go to Malaysia Hall for the prayers as i felt i hadnt the right to go (due to obvious reasons). but i chose to go, just to see if i can get some sort of raya feeling out of it. I didnt. Prayers had finished by the time i got there. Lotsa kids hanging around outside. I left after 20 minutes. I did meet a friend from KL which was pleasant. But yeah, enjoyed more working in the kitchen later in the day.

We need to sort things out. I would like to enjoy and truly be part of Hari Raya in the future.

A year ago, i received a msg wishing me Happy Raya and the msg also had something on the lines of `forgive everybody and hopefully everyone forgives you`. It meant alot to me as the whole maaf, zahir and batin thing had been said for granted all this time. Part of the protocol what?

From there, I would like to play my part, and sincerely apologies to the people ive done wrong through out the year.

Wishing you a blessed Eid.

Regards,
Joe

Dual Alarm

say hello to my little friend...

no this isnt my latest pick up line. its my current daily liner, amongst `niamah` and `par punde`.
got myself a little inspired by a recent 32CT visitor who seems to indulge herself with really old movies. SO, i thought what the hell, ill give it a try. there were a few movies on my mind, thus splurging something like 350 ringgit on 6 dvds. oh well, can lar.

I really enjoyed Scarface which keeps me wonder y lar i didnt pick it up much earlier on. Though it was a bit funny seeing a younger Al Pacino and Michael Pfeiffer. His character had some sort of gay vibe in it which was amusing, and she played a real bitch well. To be honest , part of her character reminds me of someone. oh well, not a film critic so ill just end with , iz good shit.

Breakfast at Tiffany`s next.

lager

i was called last nite at 2am by a concerning friend from Brunei, whom thought my last post about the carnival including the booty shaking terms, made me sound like a 'dirty old man'. let me clarify that, i am dirty but im not old.
no seriously, that was how it was man. no other way of putting it niks. thanks for the call tho. call again sil vous plait.

100 sheets

notting hill street carnival 2007. one word to describe it. WICKED! one of the biggest annual european carnival in london was held over the weekend. monday being the final day for miles long of booty shaking Caribbean and afro music. 1.5 million ppl was reported to have flocked the streets for this booty of a carnival.
i dunno but theres a weird chemistry between booze and drums. a sense of all hells lets loose. everyone was having a good time, shaking this and booty pumping that. extraordinary.
lotsa colourful costumes, intense beats, and alcohol sums up the event. and the food which was very carribbean with jerk chicken and the likes. unfortunately, didnt get some this time as the lines were longgggggggg.
was reported in the papers today that 2 dudes got shot at and another stabbed at this year. the organizers continued to say its been the best carnival so far without much incidents, killings,etc.
PAR PUNDE.

the area we hanged out had 3 cops changed in over the duration of a couple of hours as we kept getting the dancers to harass and booty shake them. one copper replied to a `OH YEAH!` when i asked him if he was enjoying himself yet. good man.

cant wait for next year.

100% cotton

getting 3 hours of sleep,
awoken to the housemate leaving for his flight home to kl,
working a 15 hour shift till midnight, oh not that bad, had half an hours break along the way,
sleeping at 2am, looking forward to another 15 hour bliss in the kitchen tomorrow on a scheduled sunny sunday.
happy happy joy joy.

ey, im yellow!

this is suppose to be me in the simpsons. have a go here to get simpsonized (it wont look like u, but who cares, ur yellow and u can go 'd`oohhh'?)

un, deux, ménage à trois?

The progression of the past weeks have seemed awfully stagnant. With the summer hollies, (and the fact that the chef at work found out my current situation) i find myself working an average of 4 to 5 days a week now. To be honest, i find myself joyfully settling in with this restaurant. As mentioned before, it isnt a michelin or rosette star restaurant, but still has the courtesy of serving customers decent and most importantly fresh food.

I, refered to as `student` or `2-fik` by the superiors, is currently incharge of taking care of the 'middle' section. Part of the job includes making full monty brekkies and egg benedicts in this 'breakfast all day establishment'. It does get annoying doing a freaking fried breakfast at 8pm, but thank god we dont do black pudding in the brekkie. The job does however has its perks. Most importantly, freshly ground black coffee in my grasps as easy as a lil pls to the servers. It is heavenly good to drink decent coffee as oppose to the instant shit i can afford at home.

With the job, i also have realised that ive commited myself to a responsibility, a responsibility that needs me up at 7am on some mornings. a responsibility that sometimes and has been from 9am till midnight. a responsibility which sees me shit tired to do anything condusive for my self amusement. I....I.....feel like a person who works, earns money, grows old,dies.(with all the 'minor' details sewn in between).

I got myself out of that state last nite. It was Faheem's birthday. Had dinner at this small but good restaurant in Ealing called charlotte. It was a semi fine dining restaurant i would have thought. Thats until i saw most servers blundering all over the floor. This sweet french girl had eyebags, overworked, running around always in a hurry, literally plonking things here and there as she went along. The best was when she took our orders while scratching her well arched out tummy. And i was just next to her trying to give a straight face. Par Punde.

Then there was the other dude who replied to eddie's queries of an alcohol free beaure blanc to go with his fish. I qoute, "you can either have another sauce or you can go for the beaure blanc, because the alcohol would have evaporated anyway, so it would be OK". I was in shock. Yes i am aware of the sciences of cooking with alcohol, but it is the principle of the whole act which he did not seem to understand. This answer by the server despite a notice in the menu encouraging customers to request for their own dietary preferences. Oh yeah, he also got the year wrong when introducing the red. Par Par Punde.

Food was simple, yet satisfying scrumptious and definitely cheap.( had the 3 course set for 19 quid). Go for the food and enjoy ur company, leave the high standards of service at home).


Pictures galore...

-whitebait and garlic aioli.


-braised beef pie with seasonal baby vegies

-chai pannacotta with berry compote


-its easy peasy to know when im happy.


-a glimpse of dissaproval. i agree. served too warm for my palate.


-with 32CT's guest, Bobbi.


-machas

*pictures courtesy of part time photographer and part time marlboro man, eddie.

summer daze

forgive me for my abrupt absence,
for i have found myself in a state of daze,
for i am a man, a virgin to seasons,
caught in the summer breeze,
enjoying the scenary wonders of bosomy summer.

hyde parko

On Sunday, went for a lil needed breather in Hyde Park. A nice warm sunny day for a picnic with yaz, fytrushka, eddie and faheem. Lotsa people as usual, free music from the 02 festival, great Belgian lager, cheap nachos and a football. i like hyde park sundays. ppl just chilling out, enjoying themselves and doing their thing. question: why dont i choose to hang out at the serene parks of klcc or titiwangsa? parks are a big interest to londoners for a stroll, exercise, lunch, picnic,etc. but for kl-ites, the parks arnt really worth going to unless u want to get posted in the malay tabloids for close proximity or some shit like that. Though, elaine did mention of the park in KLPAC which was suppose to be good. To be honest, the only piece of green i miss of kl is the surroundings of Royal Selangor Golf Club(RSGC).Untouched, Natural, Quite, All in the middle of the hustle and bustle of KL.

damn paparazzi

ahh.....hyde park


team USA


girls and ball


stella and ball


hyde park lake

swan feeding

beautiful creatures

after a long day of doing nothing and lazing about in the park, we were hungry.
Four Seasons, Bayswater. Just order duck noodles. nyum nyum.hehehehhehe. Par Punde!

*pictures courtesy of eddie