The next time you go to a Japanese restaurant, you might think you are eating Tuna Sashimi when in reality, you are eating Tilapia.
I’m not lying!
According to Fishy Business, 25% of fish sold in the market are wrongly labeled. Tilapia is mislabeled as tuna, hake is mislabeled as halibut, and the most outright scam is Atlantic farmed salmon mislabeled as wild salmon.
Nic has a theory that when you have a wild craving for a certain food, it is your body warning you you are deficient in a nutrient that can be found in the food.
May be he is right. May be my body is deficient in chicken thighs which is why I craved for Ayam Penget at 2am last night.
Nyum Nyum!
Step One: Choose the freshest fish from the ice-box and feel gleeful that your fish is the most delicious of the pile.
Nic and I should just quit our day jobs and work as waiters at Aoyama, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur. We went there for dinner again, and as before, were blown away by how unique and delicious Japanese food can be.
This time, we didn’t blow the bank account though. Instead of getting the chef to plan our menu, we took matters into our own hands. We picked and chose from the extensive menu.
Despite that we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore, the bill only came up to about RM60 per person.
After the dinner, we asked a young waitress for our favorite dessert - the Cherry X.O. Ice Cream. She informed us that they were out of Cherry X.O. ice-cream and recommended that we try their Chocolate Berries ice-cream, instead. We did.
But after scrutinizing the Chocolate Berries ice-cream over and over again, we unanimously agreed that we couldn’t see any sign of berries in this ice-cream.
Then we tasted it, why, it tastes just like chocolate ice-cream drenched in Bailey’s.
On May 9th 2008, Krisandro watched two episodes of Blogger’s Treats and posted his review on his blog.
His exact comment about me?
I thought Krisandro must be joking since no one has ever said I’m an aggressive woman before. So I left a fun reply,
“Who say I agressive hur?” to which he replied,
“*smiles sheepishly*”
Smiles sheepishly? Now I’m not sure if he was joking or serious. If he really meant what he said, Krisandro is dead wrong.
Speaking of dead, on another note, I found an old photo of me chopping up a dead wild boar for dinner.
This Penan warrior had freshly hunted, killed, slaughtered and skinned this boar for me.
Bloody delicious! *droolz*
Every year, Nic’s parents will invite us for the Khoo Kongsi Clan annual dinner. It’s an evening of speeches, scholarships, food and karaoke.
Last year, Nic’s dad brought his own DVD for the Karaoke session. Strangely, this year, he was contented to just sit by the table and listen to others croon away.
For Nic’s family, the highlight of the evening is the speech. Ever year, Nic’s dad will deliver a message to inspire the younger members of the Khoo Kongsi Clan.
Nic’s Mum always looks forward to his speech. She always looks at her husband admiringly when he delivers the speech. He usually shares a simple made up story that’s packed with deep meaning.
Meanwhile, I’m here to banter and joke with Nic’s cousin and sample the good food.
This chinese restaurant restaurant is at Tanjong Katong Complex. It is a simple place with minimal decoration but the food tastes pretty good. Shark’s fin is served though.
We always wipe every platter clean. Partly because the food tastes good. Partly because the older generation refuses to let anything go to waste.
Last night, Nic and I were in Plaza Singapura. By the time we could eat, the only restaurant still open was Cafe Cartel.
I love eating here because they serve the most scrumptious bread in Singapore. I asked Nic not to order too much because I wanted to stuff my face with fresh-out-of-oven bread and not much else.
Nic got us one set of pork ribs and one plate of spicy pasta.
I asked the waitress if there’s student price. She wanted to know why would we ask such a question. Now why would the waitress ask us why would we ask such a question?
We got $1.39 off the $13.90 pasta with the student card.
Last Monday, Nic and I traveled north for three days. The first night, we stopped at Melaka for dinner on the way. The second night, we were blessed with dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant in the whole wide world!
We were first introduced to Aoyama by Chris of Geek Terminal who is a die-hard Japanese food connoisseur some time last year. 
We learned from Chris that when you get here, you won’t even need to look at the menu. Just tell Chef Jovy you want his very best. The chef will ask you for a budget, you can expect him to floor you with a totally unexpected combination of flavors in every dish that he serves.
In fact, Chef Jovy enjoys it when you trustingly request for him to plan and serve your entire meal. He even took the liberty to serve only one portion of the larger and more filling dishes so that we have more room in our stomachs to try more variety of his foods.
Above: crab meat, straw mushrooms and goodies that Chef Jovy had expertly combined, baked under a shell of cheese
Below: An interior view of the same decadent dish
Below: Chef Jovy’s twist to the traditional sushi. This dish got me speechless for a few seconds.
We oohed and aahed at how duck meat could be so tender
We snacked on vegetable fritters
With a side dip of coarsely ground chili-peppers
One of Nic’s favorite japanese dish is garlic rice so even though Chef Jovy did not include it in our meal, we ordered it individually. Just look at the chunky dried garlic Chef Jovy sprinkled on for extra oomph!
We ate a few other indescribable dishes which I forgot to photograph. (Sorry!)
For dessert, we had Cherry Rum ice-cream which totally stole our hearts. If you haven’t been to Aoyama, I urge you to GO. You MUST make a trip here at least once in your lifetime.
It is not difficult to get here at all. If this map is not helpful enough, feel free to email me via my contact form or simply leave a comment here. It is my life’s mission to make sure you successfully get to Aoyama, I’ll be more than happy to help.
So where are you? I’m at Starbucks Mid Valley! If you’re in the area, come on over, who knows if you might catch me red-handed.
I’m soaking in the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, I bet when I walk out of here, my hair and clothes will smell of freshly brewed coffee. Nic is going to get so high when we meet in a few hours. This reminds me of a lame joke silly old Nadnut posted on her blog. 
I walked up to the counter to place an order for my chamomile tea. The guy behind the counter informed me there’s an insect resting on my head. Forgetting that it’s April Fool’s Day, I totally believed him.
He didn’t know I’m the sort who’s unfazed by insects. I said to him with a big grin,
“Oh, don’t worry, I love insects!”.
“Oh, you got it. You knew it’s April Fool’s Day.”
Can someone help slap the sweat off my forehead?
Dove Cresswell is a Hollywood North dog trainer. Some of the feature films she's worked on include: Saved! and Sam's Lake; TV shows: Romeo, Behind the Camera: Charlie's Angels, and Cougar Crossings; and commercials, including: The Source.
Like me, Dove is a dog lover. You can tell from her enthusiastic voice. :)
Learn from her, I highly recommend following her online tutorials.
