Seremban Seafood Village

Rachel is in Seremban today on her one-day assignment auditing Philip-Morris, the international tobacco company situated next to Tesco Hypermarket (previously Makro) in Seremban 2. We decided to go for crab for dinner. Our regular devillicious salted-egg crab place was closed, and our second option was naturally the Seremban Seafood Village which is a few metres down the road.

Seremban Seafood Village is located in Seremban Town, behind the Seremban Wet Market. If you drive along the road from Terminal One, you will notice a stretch of seafood restaurant on your left once you pass the wet market on your right. We normally go to the first seafood restaurant called Choy Kee Food Stall for their delicious salted-egg crab but it's closed. Seremban Seafood Village is one of those restaurants along the stretch, but their salted-egg variety sucks.

We ordered four dishes. Veggie came first, this is the fu-yue yao mak (lettuce with pickled tofu and garlic). This is my all time favourite veggie. If anyone ask me to order veggie in a chinese restaurant, it's sure a fu-yue yao mak!

Next came the pai kuat wong (King's Spareribs, abosolutely non-halal). This dish is essentially pork loin rib chop cooked in sticky sweet and sour sauce. Very tasty, succulent daging babi! One of the best pai kuat wong I've ever tasted. Kuat kuat lari!

We didn't feel like having rice, so we ordered their house specialty fried sang meen (fried wantan noodles). So much for house specialty! It didn't taste good at all and it took forever to come, and there's nothing much other than noodles and shredded cabbage.

And the maincourse - kam heong style crab (crab cooked in chillies, dried shrimps, curry leaves, and spices). The crabs are fresh and succulent. Crabs of this freshness should be ordered grilled (ketam bakar) or baked. The kam heong is too overpowering. But nevertheless, it's still good crab! I rate this dish 7 out of 10.

We ordered 1kg of the crab - there's 2 bijik of crabs on the plate. 500g each? Look at the crab's brain! Tasted like oyster! It goes well with the provided special chilli sauce dip. Syiok!

The veggie and fried noodles cost RM6.00 each. Pork ribs was RM10.00, while the crabs cost RM40.00 (RM40/kg). I'm surprised restaurant like this also charge 5% government tax. The bill came at a total RM66.78 inclusive of 2 glasses of plain water and a plate of ground nuts.

Proton "Sand-Scooper" Wira

Why would anyone turn an innocent looking Proton Wira into something so horrendous-looking, such as these...???




And I thought I was being a bit "over" with my front bumper. This clinched it! The all new Proton "Sand-Scooper" Wira 1.5GLi-xxx. Available at every Ah Beng Car Modify Shop near you.

Bumper tajam: +10bhp.

The Wrath of God

The article was on yesterday's Sunday Star. The fallen tree was shot in Section 14, the housing area near the Jaya Supermarket. I was in the vicinity too, in SS1 driving towards Jalan 222 (off Federal Highway) after picking Rachel up. It really was a freak storm!

The wind was very strong, my lowered suspension and race-specced Wira wobbled as it cruised along the street at a slow 40km/h! The torrential rain blurred visibility, it was a cloudy white in front of my windscreen.

Tree branches were flying across the street. There were fallen road signs too! Some stretches of the road were swollen with rainwater.

It didn't look deep until you were in the middle, deepest section of the flooded road. I had to yank the throttle at 1st gear to boat my Wira through. Mighty Wira nearly died on me! Crossed two shallow rivers (literally)! Lowered Wiras are not good amphibians.

Rachel was scared shitless speechless. Then, my brakes felt rubbery. Floor the brake pedal and the car glides forward as if it's still in water. By that time I was already on the Federal Highway, and there was only a slight drizzle.

I had to floor the brake pedal a few times and do some wheel locking (of course after checking there's no Mat Tailing and Mat Rempits behind), to wake the made-in-Malaysia a.k.a. BolehLand brakes up.

My Wira survived the ordeal! Caught loads of rubbish with the fish-net installed on my front bumper.

Am sure disappointed. Ikan bilis (anchovies) also don't have!

Oh, and the cracks on my front bumper had widened! Going to install back my original bumper soon. Sigh... lesson of the day - never install a fibre-made aftermarket bumper! Go for the soft PU type!

New Balance RT901

Got myself a pair of New Balance running shoe over the weekend. It's called the Race Trainer 901. Originally priced at RM299, I paid 20% less at RM239.20. Not exactly cheap eh?! Got it from Cheras Leisure Mall on Saturday and headed straight to Fitness First's treadmill for its virginal 5km run. Completed another 13km run yesterday on the 901. First impression - it's LIGHT!


The 901 has been around for quite sometime now. It was first released early last year, and had since been succeeded by the lighter and more efficient 902 released this year. The price difference is of course huge, with the latter priced around RM350++++ (before a 10% discount).

There are other New Balance models to choose from too. The salesperson recommended the 1222 and 1061 series, for higher mileage comfort in the former, and better cushioning in the latter. Both retail close towards RM400. No deal!

The 901 would definitely be better than my superheavyweight Nike (which I used for the recent PD Half) or the Timberland Trail/Off Road shoe (used during my last year's Mt. Kinabalu climb, now used as a weekend shopping trailblazer!). Acquiring the new 901 also means that I'd have to put my faithful old Reebok to "sleep".

Now that I am fully equipped, Mr. Kenny Sia would definitely be in shame. Nike DryFit cap, New Balance running singlet and shorts, MP3 player, 901, all check check check. Fat free, check! Muscles, check! Shameless pose + contracting pectoralis major, check! Pointy nipples, no check!

I had to edit my face in the shameless pose photo above, it gives me goosebumps standing next to Kenny Sia while imitating his "muscular" pose. And yes, he's shorter and wider than yours truly. Ha ha ha...

So Kenny, see you in Penang Bridge Marathon!

Home-cooked Goodness!

Mum likes to bug me every now and then during weekdays, asking me to go home for dinner. It is during the past one-week closure of Far Seng Restaurant, our regular dinner haunt, that I realise how I missed a wholesome home-cooked dinner. Not that Far Seng serves good food anyway. Just that we had McD, Sushi King and KFC the past one whole week for dinner!

Being a mummy's boy of sort (yeah right!), I complaint my situation to mummy dearest. And mummy promised a sumptuous dinner back home. And home I went.

Mum's Style Brinjal - steamed, then skinned, with lime juice + secret recipe added (see below).

I dunno what fish this is, but it's caught fresh from the sea. I name it Orgasmic Steamed Fish.

This is how it looked like when it's all ready to eat.

Mum's Style Smoked Salted Kampung Chicken, sungguh shiok! Very aromatic. The experts describe it as full of homeland chicken aroma. Haha.

Next, Stir Fried Clams with Garlic... ichiban!


Mum's Specialty Cabbage with Fish Meat Filling:


And the dinner is incomplete without a huge pot of soup. This is Mum's Style ABC Soup!
You guys hungry yet? Let's have a look at last week's dishes. My fave, Sweet & Spicy Crab!

Humongous Prawns in Curry:

Chicken (wah, I'm sick of chicken mum!)...

And I go back to Seremban a happy mummy's boy each week. Wuahaha...

Iraqi Dinar

My mum showed me one of her many prized collections recently - a few pieces of Iraqi dinars in 25 denominations. By few pieces I mean a stack of them, the height of a set of poker cards. She got them from one of her friends. Anyone know how to differentiate the "real" Iraqi dinar from the fake ones?

I did inspect and analyse every one of them. They looked genuine. But I don't see the point in collecting unuseable currency. What a waste of real money! Unless someone is interested to fork out a fortune to get it from me! I have THREE pieces of the "Twenty Five Dinars" with the head of Saddam Hussein on them! Who want? Saddam's head is priceless y'know...

PD International Half Marathon

I MADE IT, I MADE IT!!! Made it to the finishing line before the cut off time of 2½hrs! It was an amazing run - it was tough, required a great deal of mental strength and physical endurance, and it sure pains like hell for a first timer like me. But overall, I had FUN!

I was told that this is the first marathon that saw the largest number of participants from IMU, a staggering FIVE. They're from the left: Azman, yours truly, Kasfhil, Fahmi, and Chee Yoong.

[Photo grabbed from azmanrocks.blogspot.com absolutely without prior permission.]

The pic below was taken when all five of us were warming up for the run, at 6.30+ in the morning. Who's that chick wearing the bright red outfit on the left? Athletic posing! Sangheetha is that you?!?!

[Photo grabbed from iamfoo.blogspot.com. Sue me!]

I was chewing my second PowerBar and smiling for the camera at the same time. That's Chee Yoong on the right, looking all psyched up for the run. I was darn sleepy...

The run was supposed to start at 6.30am, but was delayed till 7.15am. Waited for the dunno-which-VIP to fire the gun. Biasalah, Malaysia boleh ma! Next pic - standing with Chee Yoong at the starting line, adjusting my MP3 earphone. It had started to drizzle!

By the time the VIP fired the gun, it started to rain like cats and dogs. My first marathon, and it's a run-in-the-rain marathon. As we ran further, the rain became torrential, and the NikeAir I was wearing (decided last minute to wear Nike) turned into NikeStone. I was soaking wet from head to toe. But it was cooling, and I liked it...

I clocked a decent 2:20 at the finishing line. I was given a "Certificate of Achievement" and a cheapskate + ciplak medal for running 21 km in the heavy rain. My Sony MP3 with its built-in pedometer function (it's splash proof! Heard Azman's MP3 kong edy kena rain water) clocked 24290 steps, 29.1km, and 1712kcal burnt. I thought it's a 21 km marathon?! No wonder I took so long. Could have made it under an hour!!! Must be due to my greatly reduced stride-length during the second half of the run. But I didn't walk mind you, I ran the whole 21km.

Chee Yoong finished ahead of me and clocked 2:13. Here's a pic of us right after the run, waiting for Azman. I was forcing myself to smile as my quads, calfs, hamstrings, and glutes felt like they're necrotising.

I had a few sips of the provided "tap water + rainwater" along the route, and almost instantaneously after I crossed the finish line, my tummy ached like hell. So I went to the nearby Admiral Marina & Leisure Club to empty my bowel. After shitting I go look at ships and yatches. The view was breath-taking!

Azman clocked 3:21, his personal best. And he's got a medal too. See how horny happy he looked in the following photos:

So you heavy arses and couch potatoes out there, if you guys wanna experience what pain really is, join a marathon. I think I might join the Seremban Half come May.

Acknowledgement: Special thanks to Ms. Leng Lui (Chee Yoong's gf) for being the photographer of the day!

• More on PDIHM'07: Read Azman's and Chee Yoong's posts.
• Read these too: Half Marathon! and PDIHM Goodie Bag.

Update:-
Post-marathon Day 1: Mild bilateral myositis of lower limbs. Left knee joint tenderness. Lower back muscle ache. Diarrhoea from contaminated drinking water provided by PDIHM'07. Overall feeling: Priceless! Would I do it again? Absolutely a YES!