September 2004 Archives

Behold! RM 3,072.25 - that's three thousand and seventy two dollars, twenty five cents. =D

This is my paycheck for September 2004. It's the largest legitimate paycheck I've ever received. w00t!

I got a letter today from the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC).

It has the Red Ribbon Media Awards logo in the upper right corner of the envelope so I knew it was about the RRMA Media Awards [sixthseal.com], where I was nominated for the Main Award Winner for the Non-Traditional Category - Blogs category.

There was a card inside with a see through window cut into the cardboard with the words "Thank You Luncheon".

Here's a closer look at the invitation. It's for a Thank You Luncheon at the Pacifica Grill and Bar at Mandarin Oriental, KL at 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm this Saturday (2nd October 2004). It's an invitation for two - it goes "Poh Huai Bin & partner", and although I would very much like to go, I won't be able to make it, so I emailed back to tell MAC so.

I work on Saturdays so I'll have to take leave if I were to go and I already applied for leave later in October. I appreciate the gesture though and I'll like to say a big Thank You for Ely Azyze for everything that she's done for me. Thanks! :)

I was interested to find out that this shrimp rice cracker actually has a whole shrimp inside it. Usually, rice crackers only have flavorings, but these ones are different - the contents actually lists shrimp and it is fully visible through the rice cracker.

There are two rice crackers in each individual pack, so it's good for snacks on the go.

Here's a closer look at the shrimp rice crackers. The rice crackers are paper thin and crispy and the shrimp is embedded into it. Nice.

I noticed this box of Liushuiyin Herb Blend cigarettes at a coffee shop one day. It's an unlicensed product - there's no MY watermark on it and it's imported in by a Sarawak based company.

The box says Liushuiyin but the Chinese characters read as Zhong Nan Hai or Central South River. The actual translation should be Central and Southern Seas or Sea Palaces. Liushiyin translates to flowing water music.

This product is made in The People's Republic of China; or just China damn it, no point in typing five words when one would do just fine. ;)

Here's what the cigarettes look like - the traditional white filter for mild cigarettes instead of the brown filters for full bodied cigarettes. I noticed an array of air intake holes at the filter point. The name of the cigarette, which is Central and Southern Seas, is printed on it.

There's also a strange serial code of some sort towards the end of the cigarette. Yes, I pack it, smokes better, lights better. Anyway, all the serials in the pack are the same T4 - 31. I don't know if it's a batch code or something.

I sacrificed one of them to look at what this "herb blend" is all about. There's something else inside besides tobacco, but not psychoactive mind, just a flavor additive. It actually tastes like sweet herbs when you smoke it. It's good for a fun smoke, but I'll pass for daily smoking - it doesn't pack much weight in the nicotine department.

One of my coworkers passed me this greeting this morning. I can't read it, but she translated it for me.

Here's the continuation. Can someone translate it for the readers? I can't do it. Thanks!

Bernice passed me one of these...I'm not really good in Chinese (the written and reading comprehension bit), so I didn't know what it was. She got two while visiting someone and I assumed that it was a plum or something like that.

It looks like a plum from the way it's packaged. Perhaps a nice, rare juicy plum, individually packaged for freshness.

It wasn't plum. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the tiny pack and saw what looked like meat. Mmm...meat. ;)

I only knew that it was liver after I got her to read the packaging. It's preserved duck liver. The wonders of food technology! I was amazed that it was still juicy and tender, very tender, after being packaged in this manner. It tasted fresh too, not like something out of a can or something.

Well, she managed to get some more of these preserved duck livers and I thoroughly enjoyed every single pack. It's not available here; she told me the person she got it off from just came back from a trip to China. It's really good. The texture isn't like one of those beef jerky types, but like an actual succulent piece of deli meat.

It doesn't taste like liver too, but here's another shot of it during the second taste test. It does look like liver once you open it up and take a real good look at it. Good duck liver, with bits of fat intact and did I mention how juicy it was?

I hear preserved duck liver is considered a delicacy in China, where this product is made.

I was in Parkson with my friends X and Y (names changed to protect the guilty ;)) when we saw this group of girls sitting at Giant. I took a photo and unfortunately, the flash went off...

The girls looked at me and I smiled at them and shrugged and when I took the second shot (without flash - better skin tone), they giggled and turned away. One of them jokingly said to the other girl that I was interested in her. Nothing of that sort, of course, I just like street photography.

Anyway, by sheer coincidence, we bumped into them again, this time upstairs. I approached them and got them to pose for a photo. I'm not a big fan of posed photos, I much prefer candid shots of people doing what they do. I asked them where they were from, and they said they were from the Guangzhou province of The People's Republic of China.

Well, after that, one of the girls asked if they could have a copy of the photos. I said sure, and gave them my number. X and Y, who were standing at the sidelines (they're kinda embarrassed when I pull shit like this ;)) was harassing me to get their numbers. They were interested in the girls, but I wasn't, but hey, they are my friends, so I got their numbers.

I also took a photo with them, got Y to take the photos. X was the most interested party and I gave him the number and he got Y to call the girl. I'm not interested in anything beyond this point, I just like to take photos and that's it. It's for the XX Chromosomes category, see. ;)

Well, Y called up the girl and the girls asked us to take them to another shopping center and walk around with them. I'm not falling for that shit, so I said I'm going to bail, but X insisted that I stay around a bit. Well, I told X that I'll just stay till the duration it took to get me home, and the girls talked to us a bit.

Classic dodgy stuff, standard modus operandi, but X was interested, so hey, wtf, I talked to them until I got home. X and Y later went out with the girls to the shopping center, and later that night, they called me and told me about what happened. It's the characteristic ruse that these girls pull; I know coz I asked them about their line of work and why they're here while in the car. I laughed so much I was in tears.

Somehow, "I told you so", just wasn't quite enough. ;)

These are Prime time little cigars, which I saw retailing for RM 2.90 each. There are three flavors for these "little cigars" - cherry, vanilla, and chocolate mint. I got one of each to try them out.

Prime Time Little Cigars - Cherry Flavored

The mini cigars all come in a plastic tube that's the size of a normal cigarette. They have an interesting twist open top that reveals a little cigar with a filter.

The "little cigars" looks remarkably like a cigarette. It has the same design, except these Prime Time little cigars are wrapped with tobacco leaf instead of cigarette paper.

The filler is tobacco that's not very unlike what a normal cigarette has. The only difference is the wrapper.

The little cigars have a filter too, which immediately disqualifies it from being a cigar. I would not call it a cigar by any stretch of the imagination.

I tried the cherry flavored one first and it did have hints of cherry when inhaled. The taste is stronger when it's smoked cigar style instead of cigarette style. There's a nice nicotine hit when you inhale it though. Prime Time little cigars burns perfectly...just like a cigarette. I would have expected burn lines like cigarette for it to achieve such a feat but I couldn't see any.

Prime Time Little Cigars - Vanilla Flavored

There is a slight hint of vanilla extract on these ones. I rolled it about it my mouth and took my time in tasting it before exhaling and it did have a vanilla taste, it's just not very noticeable. This one tastes like a normal cigarette, just a little stronger.

Prime Time Little Cigars - Chocolate Mint Flavored

Chocolate mint! I loved these ones. There's a definite chocolate taste to the little cigar, and it leaves a wonderful chocolate mint aftertaste that lingers on. It's like one of those after dinner mints - it tastes exactly like that. It's very nice, this flavor is the best of the batch. It's chocolate! It's mint! It's chocolate mint! :)

Oh, and The State of California would like to remind you that this product contains/produces chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm. ;)

S.H.E. is the Taiwanese three girl pop group that seems to be quite popular. They have come out with a range of three moon cakes, each bearing their likeness - one each for Selina, Hebe and Ella. The three mooncakes have different flavors, which I assume is for their different personalities.

This is a licensed product by HIM (which I assume is their management) and it's for charity. There are two versions of the mooncakes...they're actually both the same, there's just a difference in packaging. Mooncakes are eaten during Mid-Autumn Festival, which is based on the Lunar Calendar, and falls on the 28th of September for the Gregorian calendar this year.

The RM 48.50 version comes in a single tin box which has the three individual mooncakes inside. The RM 52.50 version is more "collectible" in the sense that there's an individual metal tin for every single person in the pop group.

I bought the RM 52.50 one for the individual printed Selina, Hebe and Ella tins. The downside to this version is that it comes with cheap plastic packaging.

However, the packing lists down the nutritional facts and other details at the back. It's interesting to see the calories difference between the mooncakes. There are three in total, for the three artists in S.H.E. and here's the three mooncakes.

This is the Selina mooncake tin. It has a pink design and has a cartoon version of her likeness imprinted on the tin.

The mooncakes tins all contain a mooncake packaged in an air tight plastic wrap with a moisture absorber inside. The Selina one doesn't seem to be working because I see what looks like mould...

Here's a closer look at the Selina mooncake. It definitely has mould growing on it, but I ate it and it didn't give me a stomachache so I guess it's alright...

Mini Lotus 1 Yolk (Selina)

Here's the Ella collectible tin. It has a blue motif and is also consistent with having a cartoon version of her on it.

The mooncakes all are embossed and designed with the cartoon version of the character and their name on it. This one has Ella's likeness and her name.

Black Sesame Lotus (Ella)

This one is the Hebe green tin.

Here's what a close up looks like...I think I accidentally took out a bit of her hair. It got stuck to the wrapping. Oops...

Green Tea Mooncake (Hebe)

I liked the Hebe green tea mooncake one the most, and most of my coworkers agree. Mooncakes are traditionally cut into eight equal slices, but I didn't have a cake cutter, so I used my el cheapo balisong (what they call a "butterfly knife", due to it's folded but fast flipping deployment) to do the job.

I have a better Benchmade balisong, but I don't carry that around...it's reserved for...special occasions. ;)

Arabian Delight is the new offering by Rasa Ayamas and it retails at RM 7.50 for a meal consisting of 2 pieces of Arabian Delight and crinkle fries.

Here's what it looks like. It's actually something like a KFC Twister being cut in two so it's really one piece instead of two. Arabian Delight is also served with secret Dakkous Sauce, whatever that is.

Here's a closer look at Arabian Delight. The meat is nestled underneath so you can't actually see it. The wrap is warm while the filling is cold. It didn't taste all that good to me.

This is the last KL post, I had this at KL Sentral before flying back to Kuching. I've cleared all the backlogs. Posting will go back to real time as of now. ;)

The Sega2/McDonalds mini video game promotion has ended. McDonald's released a new mini video game made by the Sega team every week on Thursday. It's a joint promotion that continues where the first one left off, thus the name Sega2. The mini video games retails for RM 6 each with every McDonald's meal purchase. There were six different mini video games in total, and it's all reviewed and linked here:

Sega2 Mini Video Games #1 - Sonic Skateboard [sixthseal.com]

Sega2 Mini Video Games #2 - Cream Flower Catch [sixthseal.com]

Sega2 Mini Video Games #3 - Tails Soccer [sixthseal.com]

Sega2 Mini Video Games #4 - Shadow Basketball [sixthseal.com]

Sega2 Mini Video Games #5 - Amy & Rouge Tennis [sixthseal.com]

Sega2 Mini Video Games #6 - Knuckles Baseball [sixthseal.com]

The Sega2 series is a definite improvement over the first Sega series. I'll love to see a third promotional run.

The Kapitan's Club is a restaurant that is set to look like the heydays of old world Malaya. I've been intrigued by the interior decor ever since I saw it, but never did get around to eating there until recently.

This outlet is located in Pusat Bandar Damansara. I went with my girlfriend during my last day in KL. It has a nice (really) old Chinese coffee shop ambience to it.

The tables and chairs are the old skool type you'll expect to find in some obscure coffee shop in a small town that time left behind.

There's even a huge portrait of a regal looking woman covering one of the walls.

I went for the freshly brewed coffee (RM 4.50). It's good coffee, strong and served piping hot with milk and sugar.

This is Nasi Lemak with Kapitan Chicken (RM 10.50), which we both had. It's served with acar, sambal ikan bilis, and coconut flavored rice with Kapitan Chicken. Kapitan Chicken is their flagship dish that is described as a delicious curry cooked with at least 20 different spices. It was good.

I think the primary attraction of this place is not its food (which isn't anything to write home about), but it's ambience...

I was intrigued by such a delicacy, which I'm told is a whole deep fried soft shell crab in a burger. One of my coworkers told me about it and I've been chomping at the bit to try it ever since. We went there after work last night.

The eating establishment that serves nude crab burger is called D'Alif Restoran Sejahtera and it's a restaurant by the Kuching Riverside that has crabs as it's flagship meal and claims to have invented the nude crab burger.

The readers in KL might be interested to know that nude crab burger is also available in Bukit Bintang. This establishment opened up a new outlet at BB from the literature the waiter passed me.

Back to the restaurant, the place has a nice ambience, two tiered dining areas made to look like a serene rainforest.

It's a good place for dinner; it has an al fresco feeling even though it's indoors due to the massive outside ventilation and no artificial air conditioning.

D' Alif Restaurant also has a live crab display on their premises. This is not the soft shell variety used in the nude crab burger but mud crabs, for normal crab cooking. This place specializes in crabs, and crabs only. You'll be hard pressed to find a non-crustacean based meal here.

I ordered the D'Alif cordial for my drink...its iced rose syrup with a lemon slice inside.

This is D'Alif fried rice, which Bernice ordered.

Here's the Crab Delight that we shared - its two deep fried soft shelled crab on a bed of salad, with Thousand Island dressing liberally applied.

I also ordered Deep Fried Soft Shell crab which says "Tired of cracking the Crab shell, try our special deep fried fresh Soft Shell Crab coated with Egg & Flour mix topped up with Thousand Island Dressing. You can eat the whole crab including the shell".

Indeed you can, the shell can be eaten. Here's a look at the inside once it's been bitten into.

Finally, I present to you, the dish we've all been waiting for...Nude Crab Burger!

There is a whole soft-shelled crab inside, as promised.

I strongly endorse nude crab burger! *thumbs up* ;)

Nude Crab Burger - World's 1st Soft Shell Crab Burger.

La Bodega in Bangsar is supposedly the first authentic Spanish tapas bar in Malaysia. I went there on my final night in KL to celebrate my RRMA win. The ambience in Bangsar was as lively as usual, despite it being a Sunday night.

La Bodega tapas y vinos is a bistro restaurant that serves their flagship tapas as well as other Spanish cuisine.

The interior is nicely designed, with bar style seating arrangements around the bar, and tables on the side.

The walls of La Bodega are covered with B&W pictures, showing life, as it were. I liked it a lot. There's also something very interesting, if you look up...

The top of La Bodega in Bangsar is custom fitted with a wine rack! There are literally bottles of wine hanging on top of you. Nice!

We placed our orders and I got a bottle of champagne to celebrate, but they were out, and the attendant recommended Torres Grand Coronas Cabernet Sauvignon, which was okay with me, coz I like red wine.

We ordered from the hot tapas and raciones menu as well as from the paella menu. The photo above shows the various tapas that we ordered. It all tasted good, the sauces were soaked up well by the bread.

Pollo al ajillo (Chicken sauteed in olive oil, garlic and parsley)

Chuletas de cordero a la parrilla (Grilled lamb cutlets gratinated with garlic mayonnaise)

Albondigas "Saint Climent" (Lamb meatballs in a rich brandy sauce)

This is the main meal - Paella Valenciana mixta. It's prawns, chicken, mussels and clams cooked in a paella with saffron, peppers, peas and rice.

Here's a photo of it with flash. This dish requires a minimum of two people and a 30 minute wait, but that wasn't a problem with us as we all had this for the main.

This is what it looks like after it's mixed. It's counted per person, at RM 18, so if there's four in your group, the dish is RM 72.

Here's a clearer photo, with flash. It's surprisingly filling and they were generous with the ingredients. It tasted wonderful.

This is a group shot of us at La Bodega in Bangsar. L-R: Alice, Richard, Louisa, Huai Bin (me). The bill came up to about RM 300, but it's worth it. Good food, highly recommended!

I've often passed by this eating establishment, coz the place to pay utility bills here is just beside it, but I've never been there for lunch before. I went today with my coworker for lunch.

The ambience of the place is alright, it's pretty crowded during lunch hour and the popularity of this place surprised me. The cuisine is self-dubbed Taiwanese.

This is the main counter. I found the mix of ancient Chinese tea cups and wine glasses to be pretty odd...

I had a concoction called Drunken Lady for my drink. I can't establish what is inside i.e. what it's made of, but Bernice says she tasted Ribena, but I didn't.

This is what I ordered for my main meal - Taiwanese Style beef noodles. It was recommended by the waitress as being their flagship dish and the most popular one. It was alright, but nothing to write home about.

This is what Bernice had - Spicy noodles. We both agreed that it wasn't spicy enough. It seems that we're similar in this sense...we like to eat ultra spicy food. Heh!

Jade Pot Tea House. Pay your utility bills and eat at the same time!

This is the last mini video game in the Sega2 mini video game promotional tie in with McDonalds - Knuckles Baseball. It just came out this morning and it's the sixth and final one in the series.

The packaging of this one has a slight difference from its previous five predecessors. This one opens up at the top and bottom instead of from the sides.

Here's what Knuckles Basketball looks like. It has a dark orange color scheme, with the usual transparent cover. It only has two up-down directional buttons though, to make Knuckles go in three possible positions to catch the baseball.

The manual indicates that this is a simple game, and true enough, I finished it on the first run.

Here's the pre-printed color background. It shows a baseball field and Sonic as the batter.

I caught your curve ball Sonic, try harder!

This is the promoter giving out free samplers of the new line of Bugles chips (or crisps, depending on which country you come from). She was very insistent on giving us every flavor - off the top of my head there were classic, BBQ and corn.

It's all packaged nicely in a Bugles custom made cone. This was at Berjaya Times Square. I love these things - these custom samplers.

This is Coca-Cola's low carbohydrate alternative to the ubiquitous line of Coke drinks. Coke C2 claims to have low sodium and half the carbs and calories of a normal (classic) Coke. Cola claims the name C2 stands for 1/2 the carbs, 1/2 the cals and all the taste of regular Coke. It sure looks better, I like Coke C2's colors and design.

The medium carbohydrate Coke C2 seems to be following the trend of low carb products to target people on the Atkins diet. It retails for RM 2.19 each here and Cold Storage has a promotion where you get three for the price of two. It's the outlet in Suria KLCC, I haven't seen Coke C2 elsewhere. It seems to be available in the US only and the ones we get here are imported from the US.

Well, I got it just coz I haven't tried it before and this is my verdict - it tastes just like Diet Coke (Coke Light). That's not a bad decree, coming from me, since I like the taste of Coke Light. I find regular classic Coke to be too sweet and unpleasantly fizzy. Coke C2 is great. I liked it.

Chocz is located in Suria KLCC and the place has a very good reputation, from the various reviews that other bloggers did. I was very keen on checking out this all chocolate specialty establishment, particularly the much lauded chocolate nectar drinking ceremony.

Chocz. (with a period, it seems) is unique in the sense that it offers a wide variety of almost exclusively chocolate products. They offer a wide range of chocolate and chocolate based products from drinks to moon cakes.

There was also a promotion going on when we went there - Strawberry Fantasy. Chocz had a mini table selling pre-dipped strawberries at RM 2 each for regular sized ones and RM 4 for large ones. There are also pre-bagged options at RM 10.

The establishment also has seating arrangements for the ones who want to indulge in chocolate at the premises. There are comfy sofas and chairs for groups as well as couples. The seating area isn't exactly private, but it's nice to watch the world go by.

The flagship drinks are the chocolate nectar drinking ceremony and tchocolat1 and we ordered both. The photo above shows the paraphernalia used in The Ultimate Drinking Chocolate. It comes with a quote from the Aztec Emperor Montezuma extolling the virtues of this nectar chocolate drinking ceremony.

It is served in a special hand made burner, each set with a special stainless steel spoon straw, metal cup, ceremonial tea light, chocolate chunks and a serving of warm milk. There are three options for the chocolate chunks - dark, milk and white. We opted for dark chocolate.

The 5 Steps to Chocolate Heaven literature describes how to make the drinking chocolate nectar:
Step 1 Begin the ceremony by lighting the flame.
Step 2 Fill half of the metal cup with warm milk.
Step 3 Add chocolate chunks until desired density.
Step 4 Stir constantly with the spoon until smooth dense chocolate is achieved.
Step 5 Relax...now you are ready to suck the sweet nectar through the straw.

Thus, we added all the dark chocolate chunks into the warm milk (heat comes from a candle beneath the burner) since we wanted a very dense and thick nectar. We stirred until the white milk turned into dark chocolate. I tried sipping it through the spoon straw hybrid and nearly scalded my tongue.

It was indeed very nice, worthy of being called nectar...it's like drinking pure chocolate with just enough liquidity to be sucked into a straw. My girlfriend didn't like it though...she's generally not very big on chocolate but I did get her to drink the tchocolat1, which is the other flagship drink of Chocz.

Tchocolat1 is described in the menu as a powerful concoction regarded as the drink of the gods. It is served in a ceremonial drinking mug and there are several variations, of which we chose the Aztec version, which is "dark bittersweet chocolate with a dash of red chili spice". I immediately took a big gulp from it while it was still hot and I pronounce it GOOD! The chili was very discernable and provides a unique kick to the drink.

We also ordered from the Strawberry Fantasy promotion. There is the set option of Strawberries & cream for RM 15++ and Strawberries with hot chocolate for RM 18++. We chose the latter, and it came in the form of a bowl of fresh strawberries and a burner with a lit candle on the side providing hot chocolate for dipping the strawberries in. It was nice, but the Aztec tchocolat1 overshadows this comparatively simple offering.

Chocz is a great place, but there is too much of a good thing. I was craving for water, just plain water, please, by the time we finished the chocolate based cuisine. ;)

The Red Ribbon Gala Dinner is a charity dinner where the Red Ribbon Media Award winners get their prizes. I was fortunate enough to be part of this - RRMA is a biannual award and this year, it was DaimlerChrysler who sponsored the event.

The Red Ribbon Gala Dinner is a very formal event organized by the Malaysian AIDS Foundation (MAF) and the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC). It's a very expensive dinner - thousands of dollars per head, as this is a charity dinner to raise funds for the Malaysian AIDS Council.

I liaised with my primary contact at MAC - Ely Azyze, who was kind enough to arrange everything from the air tickets to KL and the stay at Mandarin Oriental to smooth what was a very short notification of my winning entry due to my tardiness in checking my email. I didn't know I won coz I didn't even enter the contest.

The evening started off earlier for the award winners - I didn't manage to attend the morning rehearsals so I was very quickly briefed about where to stand on the stage and who to shake hands with. I still remember my spot - second duct tape marker on stage, and the order with whom I was supposed to shake hands with...it was Dr. Mahathir first, followed by Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir and the DaimlerChrysler president.

I got my red ribbon and handed over my invitation and signed in the guestbook...

The pre-public evening started with some rehearsals from the speakers and I could see the table attendants from Mandarin Oriental setting up the tables. The motif of every table was different, each has a set piece on it to be auctioned off at the end of the gala and the table decorations go with the motif.

Download: Red Ribbon Gala 2004 tables [sixthseal.com]

The gala dinner was held in the Grand Ballroom of Mandarin Oriental, KL. The place was large and two big screens were also put up so that people could see the speakers.

There was a special table in the middle for the guests of honor, which includes the previously mentioned VIPs as well as YAB Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Download: Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir speach [sixthseal.com]

I was interviewed by an Astro Ria anchor and unfortunately, I didn't think I managed to get my message across due to my lack of sobriety coupled with being slightly uncomfortable with a microphone in front of me and a camera man standing smack dab beside me pointing the business end of the video camera at me.

The evening started off with a cocktail reception at 6:30. There was wine, beer, non-alcoholic beverages as well as hors de ours (sp?).

I had several glasses of red wine and I met Meesh, who won the Special Mention in the Non-Traditional Awards - Blogs category.

L-R: Chris, Huai Bin (me), Meesh

I also met a really nice guy called Chris, who sat at the same table as me (he won an award as well). I think he got the broadcast media award. He's really friendly and was the life of the table. :) I talked with Meesh at the staircase and we were not quite sober and took photos of each other:

Meesh.

Me.

The dinner started after that. I was at Table 11 - the winners are divided into two tables, Table 11 and Table 66. My table had Audrey, the winner from The Star (Print Media), Chris and some other MAC staff.

There is a gift pack from MAC (Malaysian AIDS Council, not the cosmetics label) on every chair. It seems that they arranged it so that there are alternate male and female oriented packs so some swapping took place.

This is what it contains. Mine was the right one, since I sat between two females, so my MAC pack was a male pack, so to speak. The female version has lipstick, foundation and some other stuff.

Download: Red Ribbon Gala 2004 [sixthseal.com]

Let me introduce you to the people in my table:

This is Audrey and Chris.

This is Shazlina from MAC and me. Ely was also sitting at the same table, as was a journalist from the Malay Mail.

This is another winner of an award from Oriental Daily or Daily Oriental, she's an ex-journalist and seemed as inebriated as I was. ;)

The Red Ribbon Media Awards goes after the Red Ribbon Gala Dinner, so I was admittedly not quite sober by the end of the night, due to the free flow wine, which I took advantage of. Every dish was paired with a wine and the dishes are specially prepared by "Asian Master Chefs". It sure was different and interesting.

There were several varieties of bread and liberal amounts of butter to soak up the liquor, er...I mean to start things off. It was alright. It's bread.

This is the starter, which I absolutely loved. The martini glass contains chicken bits hidden in shaved ice. It was like nothing I ever had experienced. Divine. This appetizer was paired with Jacob's Creek Chardonnay Pinot Noir.

Here's a photo taken with flash version of the dish so that everything can be seen. The Red Ribbon Gala dinner literature describes it as A Symphony of Gourmet Appetizers, by Jereme Leung from Shanghai. It's Poached Chicken with Chilled Soba Noodle Salad with Five Spiced Shaved Ice, Chinese Tea Smoked Egg White, Apricot Smoked Salmon topped with Sevruga Caviar Foie Gras Terrine with Garlic 'mantou', Apple and Citrus Compote. The description made my head spin.

Shazlina from MAC who was sitting beside me, is a vegetarian, so she got different dishes from us. Me and Chris tried to decipher just what exactly her dish was but the results were inconclusive...All I know is there's asparagus in there.

This is the second course, by Sam Leong from Singapore. It's Puree of Yellow Pumpkin infused with Superior Chicken Consomme and Crabmeat. The pairing wine is Jacob's Creek Reserve Riesling 2003.

This is what the vegetarian version is...it tasted like tapai, but richer and sweet instead of sour.

The third course is from Jimmy Chok of Salt Restaurant in Singapore. It's Baked Miso Chilean Seabass crusted with preserved Chinese Cabbage (Mui Choy), sauteed Japanese Mushroom, Fava Beans and Sweet Soy Glaze. The wine is Jacob's Creek Reserve Chardonnay 2002.

The vegetarian version for this course is equally puzzling but it contains beetroot.

The next course is from Cheong Liew from The Grange of Adelaide, Australia and is Medallion of Kampong Chicken, Lobster and Sweetbread with Shitaki, Abalone Mushroom, Liver, Roast Garlic, Chicken Jus paired with Jacob's Creek Reserve Shiraz 2001. This was very, very good.

The dessert was prepared by Bong Jun Choi of Lai Poh Heen Restaurant of KL and it's Chilled Snow Skin Lychee Ice Cream Delight, Warm Jasmin Marinated Plum and Morello Cherry Praline Mousse. The presentation was great, but the mousse was not.

We went up for the RRMA award ceremony after that - I won the Main Award for Non-Traditional Media, and got...

A specially engraved huge pewter bowl (which we affectionately dub the salad mixing bowl, but of course we'll do nothing of that sort) from Dr. Mahathir

A Certificate of Excellence from Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir which has my winning blog entry Guide to HIV testing in Malaysia [sixthseal.com] as well as her signature on it.

A check for RM 2,500 for being the main winner.

The Special Mention winners get the same thing as the Main Award Winners, except their pewter is a plate and the check is RM 500. I wished I got someone to take a photo of me standing up there, but the MAC staff and all the winners were on stage so no one could.

The charity auction for the table displays happened after that and most of the winners left, and I made my leave soon after