Sorry dear readers! Was away for the weekend and have been busy with proposals and plans lately. Anyhoos, here’s the dirt on what I was up to one night – having gastronomic voyages as usual, but this time it’s in no where else but Bulgaria.
With an adorable Bulgarian serving me drinks!
Yup, I made a teeny weeny short trip to Penang for this much anticipated event. I was invited for the Penang Food Bloggers Food Gathering held on the 15th August 2009 in a very authentic restaurant called Vintage Bulgaria. For those who are geographically familiar with the Penang, it’s located in Hillside, Tg. Bungah.
Humble on the outside; but get in and you’ll be pretty impressed
There were altogether 3 levels of this Bulgarian Restaurant. The Penang Floggers had booked the entire 3rd level for 30+ pax. Oh and FYI, the dress code was either red, white or green as it was Bulgaria’s national colours.
Prior to the event, I went for a little walk around the whole 3 storey restaurant for a sneak peak at its interior. So guys, Imma take you on my lil visual tour now aye?
Upon entering
The bar
You dine here!
Families enjoying their dinner on both the levels seperated by a semi-spiral wooden staircase
Very authentic aye? I adore the wooden furnishings, pebble walls and the wheel-shaped chandelier. Makes you feel so at ease – just like in the comfort of your own home. Now, this is the kinda setting that completes a wonderful dining experience.
Street lamps
Couldn’t resis camwhoring with it
Lights, camera, let it roll!
Anyway, remember the adorable Bulgarian that served me mango juice? Well, that’s actually the restaurant manager – Andre. He personally made his rounds to entertain and helped the guests.
The drink that kickstarted the event
We were served an entire set meal which consists of a few choices of entrees, main courses, desserts and drinks. I OBVIOUSLY chose fish as my main course being a hardcore fish lover – but Imma share all the dishes that we had anyways.
The waitress serving our choices of soups
Choices of : Mushroom Soup served with vintage garlic bread and Seafood soup
I preferred the Seafood Soup anytime, very much better than most Seafood Chowders I’ve tried. The Mushroom Soup was not to bad as well, with that piece of vintage garlic bread, they can never go wrong.
Time for the main course! Here were the choices :
Chicken Stroganov It was boneless chicken drumsticks cut into strips cooked with mushroom, cream, wine, herbs and spices
Chicken was relatively tender and I absolutely love those capsicums. The sauce had this tangy and unique taste too. Not a bad choice for poultry lovers!
The Bulgarian Platter There were a mixed grilled trio of Bulgarian sausages and pork fillet
I found this rather bland, which tasted like almost any other pork fillets and sausages. It wasn’t a favorite among my tablemates as well. It wasn’t bad though as it was pretty filling, but could be better.
Plovdiv Ribs They were tasty pork ribs grilled till tender
My grandma would love this. Pork ribs had always been a usual for our family dinners back at home, and this one was grilled to its finest and had the authentic taste of how pork ribs should always originally be.
My choice of dish Baked Codfish with Creamy Mushroom sauce
Two words – AMAZINGLY FRESH. Love the texture too. Sorry but hey, I’ve always been partial to fish. So what else can I say but give a biased opinion about this dish? LOL anyways, the peeps at my table had a bite of my fish and all of them agreed in unison.
But as much as a hardcore fish fan as I am, nothing comes close to this winner
Bulgarian Pork Djolan It’s their traditional roasted pork knuckles
Succulent, bursting with flavour and unlike any other. All of us gave this Pork Djolan a thumbs up and even requested for more. This was all before I was told that it was an all-time favorite among the previous crowds of customers.
Good till the very end A must try – no doubt about that!
As a wrap to our heavy portions of main courses, came the desserts. We had choices of Chocolate Soup and Chocolate Creme Brulee. They were both cocoa based, but my choice would definitely be the Chocolate Soup… hands down!
The smooth and creamy taste of chocolate is now drinkable!
We set to work the cameras, pens, notebooks and our tummies. And even camwhored along the way! Well, all work and no play makes bloggers a dull one, no?
Pic courtesy of Ken
She mastered d art of camwhoring on the 1st lesson! Woots jie!
With Restaurant Owner Sylvia & Restaurant Manager Andre Woo hooo for Bulgarians in the house!
This event was also sponsored by a local cake house, Winter Butterfly Homemade Cakes and a gellato outlet, Gelatisimo. Gelatisimo outlets are branched in Penang’s Gurney Plaza and KL’s Mid Valley Megamall.
Rich and abundant Oreo crumbs My fave of the day
Camwhored with the Gelatismo boss Great idea of opening his outlet in Gurney!
HAPPY 4TH TO THE PENANG FOOD BLOGGERS! Thank you for a wonderful time
It was in 7pm in the evening and there was a huge commotion at Laundry Bar, The Curve. What could that be? The one and only giveaway was its distinctive bright yellow splashed all over. DiGi Music Unlimited takes center stage today!
I was invited to this launch along with a few other bloggers. We had a pretty good time there – despite the fact that many of us were a lil crestfallen. Apparently the special appearance by the All American Rejects turned out to become nothing but a rumour!
Gimme that!
Sorry – I totally lost the plot NO ONE TOLD ME WE WERE SUPPOSED TO MAKE A FACE!
They fed us well and pumped up good music.
That’s his REAL height /smirks
There was a light dinner buffet with yummalicious dessert! Perfect for all the sweet tooths out there. Check out some of my faves of the night
Loved the capsicum, sausage & tomato combo
Yummsters go to the mini chocolate brownie & cheese tarts
Despite having a wide variety of other food which was enough to go around. Nigel seemed to be on a very strict diet. His entire plate was empty except for a single stick
I wonder who he’s trying to impress?
My, what thick Dolly Parton lips ya’ got there pal Sexxay can I? haha
Caprice was in the house to kickstart the event with an opening performance! His usual crew of masked men in formal – semi formal attire would break those beats with their show-stopping dance moves.
I wanna go DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN A remix of Akon – Right Now (Na-Na-Na)
This is where I shut my ears as an entire hoard of tweens would prolly go gaga over him whenever he has a performance anywhere
Still, I must give him a thumbs up for having a really good on-stage personality as well as having his own interactive methods of crowd control. Kudos!
Then Albern Murty came upstage to give us an introduction! Pretty nice name if I have to say so myself. Anyhoos, he’s the Head of Products & Segment Marketing. Three cheers for ya!
Together with the Head of Segment Marketing, Mr. Koay, the both of them started giving a pretty good sharing session on what this new entire digimusic.com.my was all about and what privileges & benefits it has in store for its users.
THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
For just RM5 a month, DiGi users can enjoy unlimited downloads from digimusic.com.my with an extensive music library from 2 of the world’s largest music labels, Universal Music and Sony Music.
That’s not just it! The DiGI Music Unlimited customers needn’t have to pay any data charges – browsing and downloads – when they visit the webbie to personalize and share playlists/tracks with friends via SMS, email & other social networks.
Talk about spreading the love for music!
Music is love!
The DJ at the console kept us going with latest tracks fresh off the billboard charts. Well, what would DiGi Music Unlimited be should there be no music aye?
Those fab songs matches his bubbly personality!
Soon after that, we had a group tour on those DiGi Music Unlimited kiosks. It was a laptop and we were asked to compete against one another to see which group manages to follow all the instructions to download and share music in the fastest time.
Say HELLOOOO to Group 1
On our marks, get set…. GO! GO! GO!
Ohmy. What a candid. Gahh. Pardon the stupid expression.
In the 1st round, we were the winners! Glad as we may be, all there’s left to do is to see if the 2nd round of contestant groups did not beat our time. Unfortunately, they did! RAWR. As a reward, they bagged a pair of spankin’ new headphones each. Congrats pals!
Being 2nd place didn’t win us anything but we’re all still winners at heart!
Log onto digimusic.com.my to take control of those tunes and share them to anyone! Trust me, it’s too cheery and bright not to pay them a visit.
Unlimited music, what more can you ask for? If you say an iPhone, I’ll smack the cookies right outta your head.
An Afro-Chinese. What ever happened to the Yellow Fat Man? I ate him whole
Malaysia had it rockin’ this time round as MTV World Stage was held at Sunway Surf Beach for the veryberry 1st time. This round, we saw the likes of Kasabian, Estranged, Pixie Lott, Boys Like Girls and my all time fave, The All American Rejects.
If I’m not wrong, the stats had 30K people in the house raving hard to these fabulous MTV rockstars. And guess what? For once, I wasn’t part of it – choosing to make my parents proud and attend my graduation ceremony instead of rockin my head off at this prestigious gig 🙁
Rockin my graduation when MTV world stage was flying high
I’m somehow glad I made this decision though. You toiled through 2 and a half years & are finally at the end of the tunnel, don’t you want to receive your scroll on stage proudly in a proper convocation? I do. And so do the rest of my classmates.
With this, I bring you KDU Penang’s Graduation Ceremony 2009 held in Traders Hotel, by Shangri-La. It was to me, more of a Harry Potter fan club gathering than a convocation as we all had those wizardry cloaks to wear.
similar much?
I arrived the earliest (haha righhttttt) and luckily Nadia and Ms. Felicia helped me out with my Harry Potter cloak graduation robe. Gosh, I had no clue that it was that complicated to put on. Oh and FML my robe kept slipping off and the safety pins kept popping out for chrissakes.
Thanks muchie!
The students were all rounded up into the holding room – where no parents walk the earth. LOL anyway, what else could we do in that room other than to adjust our robes, chat, adjust our robes, make-up, adjust our robes, camwhore, adjust our robes and adjust our robes.
Darn those oversized garments!
Ron, Hermione & Harry
Myself with the MILF Kindly ignore the oversized robes which make us look 100lb heavier.
Hey! I just noticed this multi-racial photo! Malaysians : Chinese, Malay & Indian
One of my fave lecturers – Mr. Irwan He’s so bubbly I tell ya, but remember to run a mile as his moodswings can put a thunderstorm to shame
Myself with ex-‘Blondie-Shake-Head’ Kumar and Leo tumpang glamour in the background!
Mr. Mark trying to pick up a fight when Kumar made fun of his extra-shiny and polished head
I have a strange tendency to play with my lecturers’ motar board Damn what dya call that dangling mini-broom again?
I’ve always thought ONE Enrique was enough Dubbed the ‘short Chinaman with funny hair’ by Mr. Ken
During the graduation rehearsal & the ceremony itself, we cannot deny that at some points, it bored us to tears (and hunger) But Keira and I kept each other company as we were placed nearby in alphabetical order
wheee! I love my sunflower bouquet Thanks mom!
It was almost time! Most of us had butterflies in our stomach as the dramatic music played, imminent of our entrance into the Grand Ballroom. Oh randomly, WHY WASN’T IT OUR TURN THIS YEAR TO GET THE BLACK & RED ROBE? roar. It’s my favorite color!
Communication students walking the aisle That’s me on the left if you hadn’t noticed. heh.
Once we sat down, it was the series of long speeches by the principal, a minister of something-something, the president of the IMI Switzerland thingy and many other VIPs. Sorry for not remembering as I completely tuned out during the formalities – having only 3 hours of sleep the night before. FML
Then we were signalled to turn around and give a welcoming applause to our parents
One by one, names of students were called out from various diploma/degree programmes under many departments such as the school of Engineering, Science & Technology, the school of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts and the school of Arts & Social Sciencesto receive their scroll.
i can haz scrollz
The next moment made mom & dad proud. One student will be chosen from each school to be called on stage to receive an extra award. With joy, I was selected to be the receipient of the Book Prize from the Department of Mass Communications. Couldn’t have done it without my lecturers Mr.Mark, Mr. Ken, Mr. Irwan, Ms. Felicia, Ms. Ruby, Mr. Shen-Hoei, Mr. Aaron, Ms. Goh and Mr. Soohoo. My grattitude goes out to all of you!
This is for my family, my lecturers and myself bwahahahha.
Looks like being a nerd in college paid off!
I know a few of our juniors are reading this right now too. Heyya loves, you’ve only got a few more semesters to go, so ace your exams and get that boom boom pow going! Work hard while you’re at it. But don’t forget to party harder! Woots
Quote of the Day by Mike’s Mom
“Mike, before you return your gown you better make sure you take picture with us first ah!?! I want ah! Remember, you know? Must ah!”
Okay, must must auntie.
We were all then rounded up like sheep again to the stage for a large group photo with the principal and the VIPs Can you see me & Abigail posing?
Once I exited the grand ballroom, there were big smiles plastered across my face the moment I saw mom, dad, goddy, both my grampers and my kakak. They showered me with two bouquet of flowers and an enourmous graduation teddy!
I swear I will build muscles by the time I get home. Carrying this everywhere I went was an uphill struggle as dad wanted agazzilion photos of me with the family, lecturers & friends.
I had to walk everywhere like this … no thanks to dad!
I was touched, as grampa came all the way for my graduation – being a person which prefers to rest at home 24/7. I hardly express the soft side of me but… I love you gung-gung! Shuddup don’t laugh wtf.
Always loved you and always will. Your presence at my graduation means so much.
Out of so many photos of me with both my grampers, I chose this one. Why? Because it thoroughly depicts their individual characters which are so fascinating, yet ones which I’m so fond of. Lemme show you what I mean –
Gramma always seem to have something to talk about Grampa always looks elsewhere when his photo is taken
Both my folks & I Living under the same roof & tuning in to nag.fm for 20years of my life I’m more than ready to face university now, thanks mom & dad!
The Godmother, affectionately known to me as Goddy. A prominant maternal figure in my life & one who whips the asswipe outta me. Fierce at times, but adorably cute when she’s tickled.
Thanks for piling academic pressure on me yet approving of my constant partying You never thought I could balance both – and I proved you wrong didn’t I? If any mom rocks harder than her, I’d have to pierce my nipples & tattoo my nose
The nanny, of which I call ‘kakak’ She’s been with us since I was a kid of 3. That makes it 17 years now, can you bloody imagine that?
Definitely part of the family – love her to bits.
The motley crue. Wished Uncle Mike was here to complete this wacky tribe!
I have an idea, let’s just all say ‘hello’ to Uncle Mike in a form of a teddy.
SPOT MEEE! SPOT MEEE!
All’s well ends well. I’m glad I’ve finally graduated from the school of hard knocks! Well truth be told, college life wasn’t really that bad. It was fun at the same time. I will never forget that carpark Uncle who scratched people’s cars & our Maggi Goreng in that mamak store at the open aired carpark. Damp & oily noodles but still loved by our batch of Communication students.
I honestly wonder why.
Next stop – Moving my sweet and sour arse into The University of Melbourne to take on a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications (Hons.) majoring in Journalism. Let’s rock Down Under yo. G’dday!
Gahhh my chinese name -__- Photo Creds : Daniel Ong
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FELLOW CLASSMATES WHO COMPLETED THIS JOURNEY WITH ME. MY SUCCESS IS YOURS & YOURS IS MINE AS WELL we did it!
I‘m pretty sure those of you who are familiar with the American Top-40 music charts or even MTV musicwould have defintely heard of Boys Like Girls. For those scratching their heads thinking who I am rambling about, fret not.
They are such heartthrobs!An American rock band from Boston with their 1st self-titled album in 2006 and is now on tour promoting their 2nd studio album, Love Drunk. Boys Like Girls have also recently toured across USA with emo-rock band Good Charlotte.
Ta-daa! There they were in the flesh yesterday at Sony Centre in The Curve, Damansara for a meet-and-greet autograph session with their fans! Hordes of peeps, consisting of mostly young teenaged girls (and their apprehensive parents LOL) holding posters and CDs were flocking the entrance.
I also dig similar Alternative Rock music like the All-American Rejects, Greenday, Fall Out Boy, Nickelback, Secondhand Serenade and Switchfoot.
At least they’re not like some other threesome lolli-poppish boy band from their American counterparts with sissy looking prettyboys. Whooops. Now, I didn’t mention any names right? Heh. I think you know who they are already
Heck, I’ve always had a thing for piereced and tattoo-ed whiteboys with emo hair. Haha. Every girls has their fantasies, no? Let’s check out these bad-ass cuties in the shots I captured.
That’s Martin Johnson. He’s the lead singer of the band.
That’s Paul DiGiovanni He’s the lead guitarist & my fave member! *swoons*
This is John Keefe. He’s the band’s drummer
Finally, check out Bryan! He’s the bass ist for Boys Like Girls
Pretty cool how I’m blogging this with their songs ‘Great Escape’ and ‘Love Drunk’ blasting on my headphones. And please, do me & yourself a favour and watch this. YOU HAVE TO! DON’T LEAVE MY BLOG WITHOUT AT LEAST WATCHING THIS ACOUSTIC VERSION! Please?
I melted at his first few lines
Even if I didn’t catch them live in person yesterday or have no clue of how they look like, their music gives me an emo, punk-rock vibe which I forsee consisting of rockish looking band members.
Sadly though, I didn’t manage a picture with them as they were too busy autographing their younger fans’ CDs, posters, band merchandise and even at the back of their Tshirts!
But behind those eye-candy shots, lies the gurl and her precious gear
Time for some guilty pleasures! Moments with a group of my best buddies here when I’m so far away from home. We often meet up a few times for gatherings annually, as some of our kakis aren’t residing in KL or Malaysia.
Dim Sum in the morning! FML I despise mornings. I find waking up at an unearthly hour on a Saturday morning by the blaring sound of the alarm clock a pain in the you-know-where.
You guys will prolly kill me after seeing this but but but I know you’ll still love me all the same!
No worries yea? There’ll be a compensation for ya’ll… of me with my mouth open greedily just like you *grumbles*
So we headed down to DJ for some morning DimSum… who could miss sucha bright yellow corner of a building along the street?
Shot this at a wide angle from my solitary position It’s the Jin Xuan Dim Sum shop!
Despite finding waking up in the early morning a wretch, I woke up anyway as you can see.*biggrin* Only for the sake of fellowship with ’em SSloves of course!
For this 5th SSgathering, we initially had a very ambitious plan of a BBQ night in Port Dickson and then staying for the weekend. But due to the wretched epidemic of everyone falling sick, some of us caught the bug as well and barbequed food is definitely a no-no for recovering peeps.
So the tribe has spoken and this time, it’s down to the 8 of us.
Of chopsticks and dumplings? Let the games begin.
So now you have us, the 8peeps who could make it for this round
The rest of de gang, come join us next time!
When the 1st round of food came, it’s time for our nom-nom session!
Hungry lads
The couple of the century like, yeah. Seriously!
*Gobble gobble gobble*
Better be fast! We eat with the speed of light
Vendearie & I
Cathy & Chris asking for more!
Chris having sand in his pants after not getting what he wanted (okay, I made that up. muahaha)
Despite waking up so early in the morning I think I can pull off a happy face too?
United – hand in hand with a plate of Dim Sum
I especially liked the yam cakes, egg tarts and the broth. Chee Cheong Fun tasted alright too! And the yellow Dim Sum is yummy, I love it but can never seem to remember its Chinese name.
FML God knows why they always do that since our 1st gathering
Be a good little TeckWeng and stay with your woman okay? DO NOT come near my man.
Ducclebears & I
I spotted something that looks goooooood
I think they have something in their mouths Chewing halfway!
Okay fine. I know you’re still waiting for this. I’m fair and square! Did not forget okayyyyy. *clears throat*As a punishment of editing the 1st photo together, I now present you..
My unglam moment as well Hey stop shoving food in my direction!
We camwhored a little on our way out :
much love Cathydear!
This photo is horribly unfocused but I like the fun in it
When we all exited the Dim Sum restaurant. It was time for a breakdown. Guess how much our bill was? With the superb mental calculation of stepsunny YingYang, ducclebears Josh and smellyexpired Cheez, our bill was affirmatively RM123.40
1234 Any superstitious peeps in for a lottery?
We bid our goodbyes and exchanged our hugs & kisses just like always.
Nooooo! Not like that! (Check out the child in the background)
Unlike us babes *cough* We are slightly less PG13 in public! (You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors)
Yes dudes. You heard that right.
Bloated. Talk about a friggin’ heavy breakfast
Here’s another one for our collection! Since the beginning and as usual, I have done our family photo. Out of lovvvee babeh… out of lovvveee.
Hi! Welcome to TheJessicat.com - an urban lifestyle blog established since 2005, written from the perspective of a Malaysian blogger. Discover the latest and all that the city has to offer! Do bear with her occasional rants & musings though. Happy reading! ❤