Fine Dining in a Fine Mansion

Before last Tuesday, Suffolk House was just a name on a brown signboard I see every day when I drive along Scotland Road.  I had no idea it was a fine dining restaurant.

So when my hubby had a company function at Suffolk House, and the *spouse was invited*, I jumped at the opportunity.  With quite a heavy heart though, I had to leave my kids at the sitter’s for a few hours.

This is what Suffolk House looks like from the outside.  A gigantic bungalow with a huge expanse of land.

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I’d read that Suffolk House served as the residence to many governors in Penang in the 19th century, especially, so it was certainly great to be in a mansion that had all that history behind it.

Anyway….enough about all that….

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So when we arrived in the dining area, it was dimly and romantically lit…well, not exactly romantic, because it was not JUST the two of us, but there were other people from my husband’s team too.  But anyway, we were seated and given the menu to place our order.

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We only had to select our entrée though, because the appetizers and dessert was already pre-ordered.  You read right, it’s appetizers in the PLURAL!  A whole long list 5 appetizers, but it being fine dining and all, I knew the servings would be minuscule.

First, we had poached baby oyster in saffron cream as amuse bouche.  It was served in a Chinese soup spoon, and I couldn’t get a good picture of it, but believe me when I say it was delicious!

Got pictures of some of the other appetizers though…can you spot the ONE piece of ravioli? 😛

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The last item on the appetizer list was the Tomato sorbet, which I didn’t quite like. I thought it tasted weird, hence no pictures 😛
And this is what hubbs ordered for his main course:

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I chose to have the steak..I guess I was swayed by the term “grass fed” in the description.

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In conclusion, the lamb was the better choice, maybe because they made my steak well done instead of medium like I ordered.  But despite that the beef was tender and the potato cake was delicious!

Here’s our dessert.  We had not one, not two, but THREE different types of dessert, served in a longish plate with three sections.  Gotta love the plates they use here.

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My favorite was the pear carambola cake.  Tasted a bit like cheese cake but with a hint of fruity flavor.  The photos turned out a little bit grainy though, because of the poor lighting.

It was a fantastic fine dining experience, although the funniest thing was that after the dinner, while we were walking out of Suffolk House, I noticed this sign:

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Errr….can I say oooops? 😛

Posted in Drooling & Cooking, Relax & Celebrate, Thoughts & Scribblings | 3 Comments

Bringing the ocean to my living room

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We don’t live near the sea, … well, I can SEE the sea from my balcony, because I can see the Penang bridge, but I don’t get to enjoy the sea breeze in all its wonderment per se.

So we did the next best thing.

We got ourselves a brand new fan with the Yuragi function.  That’s sales talk for ocean or sea breeze.  I push the Yuragi function button, close my eyes, and I feel as if I am transported to the seaside…

Well, not really.

The fan is a little bit noisier than our old fan (which by the way stopped functioning a few days ago, hence the new one), but I attribute the noise to the pseudo *sea breeze*.

The new five-blader has SEVEN speeds compared to just three from our old fan, and it brightens up our living room.

Now all that’s missing is some sand, some seashells and the frolicking waves……

Posted in Close to Heart & Home | 2 Comments

Do Men and Women see different things?

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I wore my new tunic dress yesterday.  It has a vintage floral design with bell sleeves, with a V-neckline and buttons down the front till the waist, and comes with an accompanying sash.  It was a little too short to be treated as a dress, so I wore a pair of stretchy black pants too.

I love the dress and I think it is gorgeous!

But both my hubby and son didn’t like it. 🙁

Hubby said it is very old-fashioned and Ethan just said, “Mommy, I don’t LIKE your dress.”

So is it just me, or are the boys right?

Posted in The Fairer Sex, Thoughts & Scribblings | 12 Comments

How I got my brand new Kristin!

Before I start my story, I want to make it clear that my delay in posting this piece of news does NOT in any way reflect what I feel.  I had wanted to post this on the day it happened, but circumstances were not in my favor….anyhow, better late than never…

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Now, one of my Coach finds when I got back from the US was a chic white patent leather clutch, something I had always wanted and I could see myself getting a lot of *fashion mileage* out of.  However, I was a little bit concerned about it being white and how I could keep it clean, and as fate would have it, when I took it out of the wrapper I shipped it back in, I notice to my dismay, that there were purplish streaks on the clutch.

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I had NO idea how those marks got there because I had carefully packed the clutch in a plastic bag (which did NOT contain any purple markings, nor any color markings).  I was not sure how to clean it, because the instructions on the card in the clutch said to NOT use the Coach leather cleaner.  I tried to scrape it out gently with my nail, but it appeared STUCK to the leather.  I was mortified…see how horrible it looked?  It was worse because my clutch was WHITE!

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So I did what I knew was the best thing I could think of: I emailed Coach and explained the situation.

And got a reply within an hour!  And they’re located in Florida!

Anyway, the Coach representative told me to send the clutch to them to inspect, and then they would advise me further. I promptly Fedexed the item to them, and within a week, I received a reply from the person-in-charge to say that they had decided to give me store credit to purchase another Coach item, since I believe the clutch I had purchased had already been discontinued.

As soon as I received that email, only one word crossed my mind: Kristin.

I have been infatuated with the latest Coach Kristin collection since it was launched, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was gonna get myself one from that collection.  After checking out the collection, I decided on the crossbody bag.  At that time, I was quite taken by the unique turquiose shade of the Kristin collection, but after Paris, who personally checked out the collection at the Coach boutique in KL, told me the color was duller in real life compared to online, I decided to choose the Chalk/Silver bag instead.

However, when I emailed the Coach representative to order it, she told me they were out of that shade, and she told me to check back in 2-3 weeks’ time.

Hehe…I emailed her after 10 days. 

And 3 days later, I received the email I had been waiting for.  The Coach Kristin crossbody bag in Chalk/Silver was now available.  I gave the green light for them to ship it to me, and religiously tracked the journey of my precious bag.

One day before it was delivered to me, I received a call from DHL informing me that there was sales tax to be paid amounting to RM94.67…which I fully expected, it being a leather bag and all.

The next day, the DHL guy caught me just in time as I was about to leave the house.  I issued him a check for the tax and gleefully took the box in.

And…tadaaa!!!  I’ll let the bag speak for itself:

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Actually it doesn’t look quite as white as WHITE, but more on the greyish side.  I guess that’s why it’s called CHALK.  The leather is really SMOOTH and I love the signature clasp on the bag.  The inside has many many card compartments, so it’s very suitable for me….and what I like about it is that it gives me two hands free!

I haven’t taken my little Kristin baby out on the town yet, but I just might…very very soon!  PLUS they ain’t got this crossbody bag in the Coach boutiques in Malaysia, baby! 🙂

I couldn’t help smiling when I received a promotional email from Coach today that said:

Crossbody: The bag style of the year.  We think it owes its popularity to the fact that shopping requires two free hands.

I couldn’t agree more.  And taking care of two kids requires two free hands too, I might add! 🙂 

Posted in The Fairer Sex, Thoughts & Scribblings | 5 Comments

Lean on me, Glee, Love World Love Sloggi!

 

I was watching Glee a couple of weeks back, and as I was (again) marvelling at how truly talented the people in the show are, they brought it home once again by closing the show with a wonderful rendition of Lean on Me.  I’ve always loved this song in its original version, but Glee put a contemporary twist to it, making it SO singable.

Coincidentally, at that time, I had also just heard about Sloggi‘s new range of ecologically-friendly lingerie, which is made from environmentally-friendly fabrics, but instead of looking dull and morose, the Love World Love Sloggi range is both groovy, colorful and fashionable. 

So, in one of my inspirational moments, I married both the song and the lingerie collection together, and here’s what I came up with: a song entitled Love the World, sung to the popular tune of Lean on Me.  May it bring us all many happy bathroom singing moments 🙂

Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We’ll do our part for a better tomorrow

Love the world, help keep her strong
Right till the end
Save the trees, carry on
Recycle, reuse
That’s all we need
A planet to live on.

Please swallow your pride
Think of the Earth when you need to throw
For there’s always a way to be eco-friendly
Love World Love Sloggi, don’t you know…

So just call on Sloggi when you need a hand
You’ll get eco-friendly lingerie to put on
I just want to thank Sloggi ‘cos they understand
We all need a planet to live on.

Love the world, help keep her strong
Right till the end
Save the trees, carry on
Recycle, reuse
That’s all we need
A planet to live on.

Love the world…

 sloggi

Posted in Blogging, Thoughts & Scribblings | Leave a comment