Transit plays at Zeta Bar - KL Hilton

Its been a while since I partied at KL Hilton ... A few of us Oldhamites gathered in Kuala Lumpur for E+J's big day, and celebrated the wonderful event with a night out at Zeta :-)

KL Hilton

Add: 3 Jalan Stesen Sentral, Kuala Lumpur Sentral

Tel: +603 2264 2264

Opening hours: 8pm - 3am 

  

Zeta has always had good bands ... Transit was no different, they rocked the house!
Transit's season at Zeta this year: 02 Jul 2012 - 29 Sep 2012
Timings: Fri-Sat, 10:15pm - 2:15am (They also play on Tues-Thurs)

A Michael Jackson impersonator runs onto the stage - The security team tried to remove him, but Transit kept the fella on the stage!

Is that Pit Bull? Haha...

The band played all the latest hits ... and the crowd loved it!

 

Transit is made up of ...

Leader - Bassist and lead singer, John Deschenes

Backup vocals - Jehan El-Dabbagh, with Lafonda Jackson

Keyboard - Andrea Spolti

Lead guitar - Francois “Frank” Pellerin

Drums - Justin Jackson

 

Sultan - Mandarin Oriental, KL

My first visit to Sultan at the MO in KL ... I think I actually preferred Casbah to this place!

Located: Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603 2179 8966

There's a DJ (In fact there's 2 I think - If I remember correctly, its all a blur now!) spinning tunes "live" from an elaborate (supposedly gold-plated) centre console, and there were probably 60 people in the entire place by the time we left in the early hours of a Saturday morning. Not busy!

My Oldham bros trying their hand out on one of the two custom-pool tables ...

Casbah - Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur

Oldham Hall 23rd year reunion / ET's wedding weekend ... Party Number 1 was at Casbah on a Friday night, after dinner at Menara Hap Seng's Elegant Inn :-)

Hotel: Mandarin Oriental
Located: Near KLCC, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2380 8888




We had whiskies, beer, stout, and many cigars (Thanks to duty-free prices and ET's generosity, I brought these back from AUH International) ... ET was the guest-of-honour, myself + WL + NWJ + RF joined him, and TC arrived in time from HK as well ;-) For about 2 hours of drinking, the 6 of us spent about RM$450. Not too bad!

Service was excellent throughout the evening. Music was interesting though - They played Rick Astley and other 80s tunes most of the night, which of course I loved - However, it seems they played more "contemporary" stuff after we left ... Wonder if the old-school music was just for us!

Elegant Inn - Hong Kong cuisine, Menara Hap Seng KL

Add: 2.01 2nd Floor, Podium Block - Menara Hap Seng, Jalan P Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603 2070 9399

Recommended by: Lyrical Lemongrass and Fat Boy Bakes

Walked by the very lively Hakka Republic as we were walking in ... Realised this was actually my first time in the much blogged- and talked-about Menara Hap Seng in KL.

This is Elegant Inn ... venue of our Oldham Hall mini-reunion (That means you ... NWJ, WL, RF, myself and our host ET - TC joined us for drinks after). A nicely decorated restaurant, which has elegant and not so chintzy furnishings and decor!

The starters - Soft shell crab and white bait, very delicious ... and a fantastic HK-style soup, with the pork ribs served on a plate, which simply fell off the bone. Amazing!

 

As I had just returned back from the UAE that evening, we had MORE porky dishes of course ... Good spare ribs to continue the evening!

 

Next came my 2 favourite dishes (After the wonderful and flavoursome soup!) ... Pork patties (Infused with ham yue and sah kok) and US rib-eye pan-fried with garlic slices.

 

 To balance the meal off ...we had some veges too!

The To-fu dish as well as the Yee Mee with Seafood were equally good too - Hong Kong style, and got a thumbs up by our resident expert, RF!

 

Time for dessert ... Barley fu-chuk in Soya milk (Beancurd-skin), and a light Ma-lay koh.  

 

Overall - an excellent meal, made better by the fact that it was our 23 year Oldham Hall reunion ... We watched our national hero, Lee Chong Wei, demolish Chen Long of China in the semifinals of the London Olympics .. And, thanks to ET for the wonderful treat :-)

Belgian Beer Cafe - InterContinental, Abu Dhabi

Add: Intercontinental Abu Dhabi - Al Bateen, not far from the Corniche
Tel: +971 800 423 463
Reservation: Recommended ... The place was 2/3rds packed by the time we got there at 8:30pm, and was full by the time we left at 10pm!
Opening hours: Daily, 5pm - 1am
Review: Previous visit a month ago
Entertainer: YES! 2012 edition (Entertainer costs 350 AED or RM$280, and is a book of vouchers which allows us to dine for buy-one-get-one-free at many places in Abu Dhabi).

Yes ... I believe Belgian Beer Cafe is one of Abu Dhabi's BEST porky-places, delicious!

A bag of warm bread is served in a paper bag with some fancy butter, before your meal is served ... Yes, my Oldham Hall (1989 - 1993) bro visited us in Abu Dhabi!

Belgian Cafe's finest .. Kwak (About 35 AED I think) - Love the unique glass!! And ... Leffe Brune (45 AED for a very large glass) - My choice each and every time, bbG's favourite!

Wikipedia ... Pauwel Kwak is an amber, 8.4% abv Belgian beer, brewed by the family-owned Brewery Bosteels in Buggenhout, Belgium. It is named after an 18th century innkeeper and brewer, Pauwel Kwak. As with other Belgian beers, Kwak has a branded glass with its own distinctive shape. The Kwak glass has attracted attention because it is a round-bottomed, hour-glass shaped glass that resembles a stirrup cup or 'yard of ale', which is held upright in a wooden stand — rather like a piece of old scientific apparatus.
AND,
Leffe is a beer brand owned by InBev Belgium, the European operating arm of the global Anheuser–Busch InBev brewery giant. There are several beers in the range, and they are marketed as Abbey beers. Leffe Brune has 6.5% ABV.

And ... our meal selection, Ron had Mussels in Roquefort cheese and Cognac ... and I had the excellent Pork Festival platter, consisted of sausages / loin / belly. They each cost 130 AED and 120 AED respectively, best of all we only had to pay for the more expensive of the two dishes, whilst the other was free (Entertainer voucher!).

Amarone Bottega - Italian red wine

Thanks for the treat, Ron :-) Oldham Hall mini-reunion in Abu Dhabi, over many glasses of red and the incomparable Infernal Affairs 1 and 3 on DVD!

Description from Wikipedia ... Amarone della Valpolicella, usually known as Amarone, is a typically rich Italian dry red wine made from the partially dried grapes of the Corvina (40% – 70%), Rondinella (20% – 40%) and Molinara (5% – 25%) varieties.

1975 Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases to celebrate an Oldham Hall reunion, HK

One very special evening in Hong Kong, with some special vintages and best of all ... an Oldham Hall reunion :-) Thank to TC for being the host again!

Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases
St Julien, 1975

Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou
Grand Cru Classe de Medoc
Saint-Julien, 1994

Coulee de Servant
2005 ... Our first ever tasting of a Biodynamic wine!

Henschke
Keyneton Estate
2006, Barossa

Oldham Hall, 1989 - 1993 :-)

Grand Cru de Sauternes
Chateau Lafaurie Peyraguey
1975

Best curry noodles - Xin Quan Fang Ipoh, Oldham Hall reunion

Add: Ipoh town ... Jalan Sultan Iskandar Shah (Hugh Low Street), right opposite Yin Yau Kui Hakka Noodles, and Gerbang Malam arch entrance.

This has been my family favourite curry noodle place for some years now :-)
Thanks to ipohchai.com for the map below.


The new shop, which moved to its present location 3-4 years back.


Yummmm ... our bowls of hot dipping sauce (darn goooood!) and a bowl of "liu", which included charsiew, chicken, siewyoke et al.


LK chose (What I thought was sacrilegious) the Chee-suy aka Soup variety, and it was actually really good.


Here's a large bowl of that epic curry noodles ... I like hor-fun, but many prefer the mee-hoon/mee variety.


Kon Curry style ... Dry curry. Mega!!


Ain't cheap ... our five large bowls of noodles and a bowl of "liu" came up to RM$45, but this is what dreams are made of ... the BEST curry noodles in Malaysia!

My Oldham Hall bro, ET, actually drove up all the way from KL for this meal, and all of us thought it was well worth the journey :-)