Zestful One

100 Things About Me

Posted by IcedNyior on April 25, 2011  |  2 Comments

It’s was a Monday, 25 April and while we’re all dragging ourselves through the day, I thought of this idea.

There was this hashtag on twitter #100thingsaboutme but I think its kinda silly do it on twitter, mostly because of the lack of space (140 char). Not to mention that it felt rather spammy.

I was interested to do it but decided to do it on my blog and update this one post periodically with photos and interesting facts. Now lets see how long it takes me to get to 100 things. Hehe!

25 Apr – Fact 1: I collect cat figurines

This is not really a common hobby I think. But I started when I was staying in Sabah and everytime I went back to Kuching, I’d buy a cat figurine. So now, most of the time when I’m travelling I try to find a cat figurine to buy and take home. The above pic also has figures of other stuff collected from travels

Hurts is coming to Kuala Lumpur!

Posted by IcedNyior on April 23, 2011  |  2 Comments

Hurts is described as that British synthpop – which to be honest, I’m not familiar with music genres so I don’t know how to describe it but Wikipedia says it’s a “genre of music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument”. They consist of two guys who look like total opposites:  Adam Anderson – laid back and serious, Theo Hutchcraft – the poker face man in the suit. Both always look calm and collected.

I first heard of this duo a couple of weeks ago and I must say that their music is not something you hear often. Their music Its more relaxing calming music, almost lounge-y. Its the kind of music where you enjoy a glass of wine with. Their music video and visuals always have this vintage, oldies feel with black and white effects, featuring a lot of women and  each telling their very own dramatic story.

Now on to details about the concert! After successfully bringing in The Whitest Boy Alive, TOPMAN and Junk will be bringing the latest in the BY DEMAND series – Hurts! The concert will be held on Friday, 6th May 2011 at 7.30pm in Mist, Bangsar! Check out the poster below:

Want to meet them in Person?

There will be TEN PAIRS of Meet & Greet passes to be won for Fashion Fast Forward Members who purchase the MusicTicket+ together with the RM105 TOPMAN Concert tickets (Only at TOPMAN outlets)

For more information, visit www.junkonline.net

Malbec World Day Wine Tasting by Entwin3

Posted by IcedNyior on April 22, 2011  |  No Comments

I got invited to a Wine Tasting event last weekend (yes I really was the busy bee last weekend. tee hee hee!) at Opus Bistro in Bangsar. Malbec is a grape variety that is grown/cultivated (sorry not sure of the term, I have no green fingers) in Argentina and the Malbec wine produced are of exceptional quality.

The Malbec World Day Event was a series of events which included tasting masterclass, wine tasting, brunch, dinner and tango but I only attended the afternoon session of wine tasting and brunch.

The Brunch was mostly Italian with pastas, lasagna and salad. The carbonara was pretty good actually. Should go to Opus and try out the food there some day.

For the wine tasting, everyone was given a glass of wine with lables of their names. Pretty smart coz I’m sure people will leave their wine glasses then forget whose glass is whose. The bottles were all covered in foil and labeled with letters. we then had to taste each of the wines and rate them.

Its actually my first time doing any kind of wine tasting – I’m more of the hard liquor girl myself – but luckily they had a guide on how to taste wine, which I actually only read/realized after I was on my 6th or 7th type of wine. Haha!

Basically, as you can see from the pic above, there are three steps : (1) See the colour (2) Swirl and sniff (3) Sip to sample. Also make sure you rinse your glass between tastings and also drink water to keep your palate refreshed. Also nibble on bread to recondition your tastebuds for another round of tastings.

We were all given scoring sheets as above. I obviously couldn’t make up my mind on which wine I liked, hence all the scribblies. Oh, also we were given “Cabarnet (Wine) scented pencils” – how cool is that? The scores were all tabulated and the top three favourites were:

1. Wine M – Kaiken Ultra Malbec 2008
2. Wine P – Catena Malbec 2008
3. Wine N – Zuccardi Q Malbec (tied with) Wine T – Luigi Bosca Reserva Malbec 2007

All in all, it was a fun and interesting experience. We also took home some interesting magazines (which I haven’t had the time to even open the plastic yet) and that wine pencil.

If you’re a wine drinker/enthusiast/curious, follow Entwin3 on Facebook for updates on future events and maybe stand a chance to win free bottles of wine. Alcohol + Free = Very good!

Croatian Lamb Peka – The Best Lamb in Town?

Posted by IcedNyior on April 21, 2011  |  No Comments

I got invited for dinner at Dubrovnik Restaurant in Solaris Mont Kiara last weekend and we were treated to their signature dish, Croatian Lamb Peka.

Now, what is Lamb Peka? It’s a traditional Croatian dish of lamb shoulder rubbed with a mix of Croatian Spices and baked in a wood oven under an iron bell. Iron bell? An iron bell is basically like a cover to seal in the juices.

Head Chef at Dubrovnik Restaurant, Chef Zoran Djumic, explains the process of cooking the dish.

So what do I think?

Some restaurants that have the really strong “gamey” smell in lamb but this is not. Also, the presentation might look thrown together but it really is a yummy dish. The meat is tender and flavourful and has an interesting taste that you probably won’t get else where due to the special spices. I love the potatoes and veggies baked together with the lamb.

They have this on Fridays and Saturdays but on normal days, you would have to call and order in advance (03 6203 6780) as it takes three hours to slowly cook. Its RM55+ and you can also get a Chicken version though I’ve not tried that.

For more information on the other lamb dishes they serve, check out http://www.dubrovnikrestaurantkl.com/best-lamb-in-town. I’ve had the Lamb Croatia and its pretty good too. Love the green pepper sauce.

Check out my review on their other dishes at Zestful Eats!

Note : So is it really the best lamb in town? I think its quite high up there but gotta bring some of the #makangang (cc: @KhirOmar) to test out the lamb and see what they think.

Gadget Review : Energizer XP2000 Powerpack

Posted by IcedNyior on April 7, 2011  |  4 Comments

I’ve been using this Energizer Energi To Go XPal XP2000 for more than a year now I think. Yea, yea slowpoke, I know!

I’m actually quite surprised that a lot of people are not aware of this thing. There are actually a couple of different brands for power packs/external battery pack but I choose Energizer because it is a reputable brand. You don’t want to buy a cheap power pack only to plug it into your expensive smartphone and spoil it!

I initially bought this for my iPhone 3Gs and HTC Desire but I’m always lending out to friends to charge their blackberries and Nokias. The Charger also works for the iPhone 4. I did notice once that when I plugged it into a friend’s 3Gs, it stated that the accessory is not compatible but that was fixed by re-plugging it.

It claims to contain 1x charge for smartphones and 3x charges for normal (dumb?) phones. I’m sorry I forgot to test out exactly how much power it contains. The pic above shows the size in comparison to the name card/ business card box on the left.

I’m not sure how much it is overseas but its RM120 (or so) in Malaysia. I’ve seen it in shops like AllIT and IT hypermart (in e@curve). The charger comes fully pre-charged out of the box. Oh, I must give a shoutout to the All IT store in Ikano where I asked the guy if the iPhone can be charged and he actually took it out of the box to test it on my phone.

Package Contents

• XP2000
• USB Charging Cable
• Cell Phone Tips – Mini USB, Micro USB, Nokia, Samsung, LG, Apple 30 pin
• User Manual
• Welcome Card
• Travel pouch

As you can see, you will receive 6 charger tips for various types of phones. Don’t fret if you are missing any of the charger tips. After buying the Power pack, register your product at EnergizerPowerPacks.com/my and you can order FREE replacements for life! I believe you are limited to 2 tips a year.

I tried ordering a MicroUSB tip last year before my first year was over. I only had to pay for International Shipping – can’t remember how much exactly but it was quite cheap (as in under RM15) if I’m not mistaken. As you can see, it is well packed in a sturdy box and sent via airmail along with a small brochure of their newest products.

Tech Specifications

• Battery Cell : Lithium Polymer
• Power Capacity : 2000 mAh
• Rated Input : DC 5V, Max 500 mA
• Rated Output : DC 5V, Max 500 mA
• Recharge Time : ~4 hrs
• Weight : 0.16lbd/ 0.07 kg
• Dimensions : 3.34 x 2.28 x 0.51 Inches / 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 CM

All in all this is a great product. In fact, a lot of my friends have bought this after they seen/borrowed it from me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Footnotes :

i) Energizer should totally pay me for influencing a lot of friends to buy

ii) Maybe I should start charging for usage of this battery pack. lol

Theme Change : Polaris

Posted by IcedNyior on April 7, 2011  |  No Comments

Yea, its yet another theme change. I’ve lots my mood/time/inspiration for blogging and usually a theme change does the trick.

Its really hard to find a theme that isn’t full of huge photos (I don’t really post up a lot of photos on my blog so it seems like there’s no point if my theme features photos) or a magazine style. I settled for this one instead.

Previously I was using simplista (pic on left) but currently  using Polaris by WPCorner. Free theme of course

The admin page for this is rather confusing as there are extra options for mobile and Menus. Odd. But I guess this is ok for now. Needs more tweaking though – mainly the header to change the logo and also the categories above.

I also upgraded my PHP version to v5 so I’m there are no errors *fingers crossed*