This blog entry was originally posted on my EveryoneConnects.net blog – get the first in gadgets and tech updates here.

I LOVE coffee! It’s no secret. That dose of black substance to me is like Superman and his sun – it recharges me – wakes me up and can keep me running like an energizer bunny…

I remember the first time I got to experience the wonderful world of FREE WiFi was probably 10 years ago at a coffee joint deep in the jungles of Sri Hartamas that had a picture of a strange green lady for a logo This strange green lady coffee place had free wifi that was equivalent to the speed of a typical streamyx connection today.

Remember, this was the time of 56kbps modems – you could hit enter, go make a cup of coffee, return, and there’s still the chance that the site is not loaded yet BUT not with this super swift hi-speed free WiFi, I could finally see my favourite HiRes Mariah Carey pictures in a matter of seconds… hellooooo MAMA!

So as you can see, coffee places played a huge part in my techie life growing up.

I recently discovered something new…
Like my discovery of the strange green lady coffee place that had super swift free WiFi 10 years ago, I believe I’ve discovered something else that made me go helloooooo MAMA! again.

Coffee Art. Check it!

This to me is the epitome of coffee drinking. Not many places in the world can make perfect cups of coffee like those – unless you’ve got Kato from the Green Hornet working for you

BUT… you can get it in Malaysia!
There’s this place in Malaysia that offers just that super amazing cup of coffee! Behold…

The Coffee Chemistry Cafe @ Cubic Platforms, Sunway Giza

This place is located in Sunway Giza Mall itself and if you recently bought an HTC product, you’d notice a sticker on the box saying “FREE training” at an official HTC training centre and this is the place!

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Cubic Platforms was built to create a more holistic experience when picking up a brand new HTC product, getting trained by a trained professional all that while sipping on a cup of hot beautiful cup of coffee – which sometimes comes complimentary!!!

The coffee… ooh the coffee!

Apart from the fact that they have professionally trained staff that come up with that PERFECT cup of coffee every single time… you’d also like to know that they serve specially imported Graffeo Coffee!

• Found in 1935 in San Francisco
• Sold to only 5 locations in the world – San Francisco, Beverley Hills, San Rafael, Singapore & now in Malaysia
• In Singapore, it’s only sold in a handful of exclusive hotels – one of which is the Sands, Singapore
• Coffee Chemistry Cafe is the only place in Malaysia where you get this coffee

So what’s so great about the coffee?
I’m not a coffee or food connoisseur but I’ve drank many types of coffee. From the artistic to the super black, super fat, local margarine fried coffee beans… BUT the moment you take a sip of Graffeo – ooooh MAMA! (sorry, new favourite term) you can taste the difference. I promise you.

Coffee is usually bitter – this just isn’t so – as a New York Times food critic described it “To me Graffeo Coffee is rich, full and never bitter”. It goes down so smoothly & leaves that scent, that taste, that satisfaction at the very end.

Best part is, it’s only priced around RM7 a cup!!!

It’s also a chill out place
Apart from coffee, they also serve food…

Has a nice out door balcony for those who are into fresh air or would like the other type of ‘fresh air’

You can buy your HTC products here & while chilling, surf for FREE through their super swift UniFi connection

Just hang out – apparently many people treat this as a hang-out and meeting place

I think I’ve found my next hang out spot… now all I need is a gadget, turn on WiFi and serve me a cup of beautifully crafted Graffeo at 7 bucks?! OH MAI GASH!

This entry was first posted on EveryoneConnects.net. Get first hand tech updates, tips at my ECYAT ‘house’ on EveryoneConnects.net!

If you’ve been following my blog, you’d notice that I recently said goodbye to the very capable iPhone 4 for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. Why? Checkout the full entry on EveryoneConnects.net here.

Brought it to Hong Kong a week back…
Apart from the slim body, the fact that it runs on Android’s latest OS – Gingerbread and many other features, one of the most prominent features is the Exmor-R technology. Don’t know what it is? Check it…

Instead of using my beloved Panasonic LX5 which I use as my primary shooter for everything, I depended 100% on the Arc instead to check out it’s imaging capabilities. Here’s a video I made – shot & captured using only the Xperia Arc with no further image or video enhancement. Everything was taken as is and edited using the iMovie.

Why are the people of Hong Kong so fit?
I unlocked the secret in this vid which also features a night shot using Exmor-R of Hong Kong ‘night view’ from my hotel room

What about the 8 megapixel shooter with flash in various conditions? Check it!
Click on any of the images to see larger size

Starbucks… here I am ‘stealing’ the wifi…

also surfing for free using phone booths! – I must say, the WiFi through these free locations in Hong Kong aren’t as fast as our Streamyx or UniFi connections here. I’m sure the hotel broadband connection would be better but I’m not paying 60 ringgit per day yo… NO WAY… I’d rather pay 60 bucks and top up a bit more for Streamyx for one whole month!

A spy shot of our home girl! Okay, she could be Indonesian or Singaporean or even Hongkie… I never spoke to her… I was pretending to take a shot of the map…

Went to this restaurant “Yung Kee” which is supposedly in the list of the top 20 of the must try restaurants in Hong Kong…

I went in… and I freaked out… here’s why…

860 Hong Kong dollars… that’s about RM 400 for 2 people! WAHHHHHH… Stella & I ended up eating 3 plates of Dim Sum, a plate of century egg & 2 bowls of duck rice…

and it came up to 214.50 Hong Kong dollars… still about RM 100! If you ask me, it’s nothing great to shout about. Would I go there again? Errr… nah, unless I get filthy rich… even then I might consider twice.

Oh, and then I had a mini sore throat and was looking for some lozenges when I found this!

but guess what? it was made in Malaysia!!!

BUT… we’ll never find it in Malaysia because it’s exclusively made for Hong Kong… where’s the love man…

Then of course I also visited this mall called CityGate in Tung Chung which is located really close to the airport – it’s really at some timbaktu location – very much like Sepang. The ride took a good 35 minutes by train BUT… once you arrive, you’d be AMAZED by the number of people… it’s the only ‘outlet’ shopping mall in Hong Kong… imagine all your favourite brands at MASSIVE discounts all year round!

Oh, I also saw this cool green sign – charging points for electric cars!

Hong Kong is really a shopping haven for wives, girlfriends, aunties and all of the female world… for the guys? well, it can be a torture if you’ve got nothing that interests you nearby and when they force you to wait for them – which I did. So I went around taking pictures of moving cars and macro shots of flowers…

We also checked out Mongkok – for me, it’s like Low Yat Plaza on streets – gadgets everywhere. You want the latest & the greatest? They have it – including the not officially released in Hong Kong – the iPad 2. Of course, they are charging some stupid prices like RM 3,800 for a 16GB 3G WiFi model which you can buy one for half the price.

This place is packed with people ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I wonder if these people work. Either that or they’ve been paid to walk around… it’s just incredible. Here’s a shot taken when it was almost dark…

My adventure wouldn’t be fully documented if I didn’t take food shots… so here you go!

1st meal the moment we touched down – tomato baked rice with fillet of meat

The infamous Hui Lau Shan mango dessert place! Stuffed mango balls & mango puree with sago and pamelo!

The alien sausage – it just looked interesting so I ordered it

Thinly sliced beef in special herby broth – ooh.. you moo when you taste it

Tomato galore baked with fried meat fillet

Wan tan noodle soup with wrapped mega prawns

So how did the battery last?
With all the HD recording and non-stop photo taking – at times with the LED flash, I’d say the battery held up pretty well. Since I was roaming and since I’m also cheap – I didn’t subscribe for international data roaming – I turned off all data usage on the phone (why pay when there are phone booths and starbucks I can latch on like a leech for free ).

The battery usually lasts from morning @ 8am till I return to the hotel around 10pm and it would still have at least 30% of battery.

Can this replace your compact camera?
I’d say the Arc does pretty well in most conditions but considering it doesn’t come a real Xenon flash, an optical zoom and lack of custom controls, the compact camera would still live.

That said, the Arc is a great companion when a compact camera isn’t readily available. Considering it has Sony’s Exmor-R technology, this camera readily brings out the detail in dark environments as promised.

You’ve seen the videos and pictures with absolutely no software enhancement. What do you think?

Wassup! So you must be wondering… what? Give back party?

Well, let’s just say we met up with the very very very nice people at GTower, KL which by the way owns the only Eco (Green) hotel in Malaysia – GTower Hotel, Club, Offices & of course their beautiful food area called the FoodHive! After a bit of talk, they decided to host Phat Fabes and I a party to give back to you the listeners & friends who have been with us all these years!!!

It’s a FREE PARTY! Invites NOT required!
Yes, it’s a FREE party… You don’t need to sign up for anything… all you’ve got to do is drop by, have fun, eat, drink, play games, checkout a whole fleet of LIVE performances by local bands, hot celebrities who will be checking out our event and loads loads more!

What to expect?

• Exclusive goodie bags for first 500 attendees
• Snacks & drinks
• Great music
• A fleet of performances by LIVE local bands like Reshmonu, James Baum, Senoritas, Altimet & more!
• Special appearances by lots of our celebrity friends
• Food competitions (involving tonnes of interesting food )
• Food hunts
• Lucky draw
• and more…

ALL FOR FREE! Just be there… thats all you need to do

When and where?

Date & Time
5th March 2011 (Saturday)
12pm – 4pm

Location
GTower Kuala Lumpur (next to Tabung Haji)
199 Jalan Tun Razak 50400 Kuala Lumpur
03-2168-1919

Train service available?
Yes, if you don’t have your own transport, take the LRT to the Ampang Park station (you can see it in the map). It’s about 5-10 mins walk from there to the Hotel.

View Larger Map

So set your date this Saturday, 5th March 2011 – 12pm – 4pm…
So bring all your friends, your family members, your cousins, your kampung… the whole GANG… See you at the event!

One more thing…
PS. If you might also want to know that Smashpop.net is giving away a FREE hotel stay at the exclusive GTower Hotel that comes complete with access to the club floor and the bridge bar… All by answering a simple question! Results will be announced on event day! All the BEST!

I’m a HUGE fan of breakfast… this is a place that was first recommended by my wife’s boss… she was claiming many great things about it… from this awesome french cafe to cheap to amazing pastries to fantastic macaroons…

2 things that don’t gel…
French & Cheap… BUT apparently this place has both and it apparently looks gorgeous!

Introducing Levain

It’s a bungalow-turned-cafe nestled in a quite corner in Jalan Delima (somewhere near Jalan Bukit Bintang – map below)… when I got to this place, I was like “WOW! how come I never knew of this place???”. You walk into the bungalow and you’re immediately greeted by tonnes of freshly baked pastries all over the place & the awesome smell of freshly brewed coffee… it looks like an expensive cafe you’d find in Singapore for France or wherever you think is expensive… BUT the prices are SO NOT.

I was salivating like I haven’t eaten for years…
This place doesn’t serve pork so if that was your concern… NO SCAT! Stella & I immediately grabbed a tray… picked up some of the pastries, went to the counter and ordered our ‘hot’ meal, drink and sat down…

While waiting for our ‘hot’ meal… we had this…

Strangely cut bread infused with maple syrup…

IT WAS SOOO GOOD… the outer bit is crusty while the insides are soft, strewn with maple syrup… then… we went for the roundish-bread with polka dots dotted with raisins… (sorry, I can’t remember any of the names)…

Another awesome one… and 20 mins later… the HOT food arrived…

My sausage with scrambled eggs, toast and garden vegetables…

There’s nothing really to shout about but I thought the presentation was nice and the scrambled eggs were done quite well… but WAIT… it’s the price tag…

The price? How cheap? How expensive?
Let’s do a quick recap…

• Awesome looking French cafe
• Beautiful environment with garden & indoor seating
• Heart of Kuala Lumpur
• 2 amazing pastries… one strewn with maple syrup, the other dotted with raisins
• 2 sets of the HOT breakfast – sausage, beef bacon / chicken ham, fresh veg, eggs made to your liking, toast
• 2 cups of separately ordered Earl Gray tea (we’re trying to feel high-class you see )

All for the price of RM 20 / pax NETT!

I thought that was pretty good wouldn’t you say?

Location map & contact details…

No. 7, Jalan Delima,
55100 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Phone: +603 2142 6611
Monday to Sunday 8am – 8pm

View Larger Map

My rating?
4 out of 5 baby! Give it a try. I think you’ll love it. Oh, just a tip – be there as early as you can as the place can get REALLY crowded…

Wassup! Just got back from Melaka. I was so excited when Fabes and I was told to host Leo Club’s Charity Concert Melaka. First thing that came to my mind was YAY! Chicken Rice Balls LAND!

So anyway, the day came… and the first thing I did was to go straight to the chicken rice balls shop…

There are apparently a few on Jonker’s Street BUT there is only one original…

and the meal… TADA!

The BALLS!

Simple but very tasty cabbage cooked with salted fish & baby prawns

Their famous asam fish…

Of course, I had to record a video to document this moment I’ve been waiting for… and here’s my style of eating Chicken Rice BALLS…

Later that night… I checked out the night market… since it was the weekend… this place was massively happening even after 11pm!

that’s where I discovered this strange looking snack…

They call it the tornado potato! It’s basically a fairly large potato that is put through this strange slicing machine; so the potato rings are still connected and they are put through a looonnng stick. It’s fried and flavouring is spread all over… various flavours are available from cheese to lime… did I like it? It was nice at first… then it got a little too ‘jelak’ for me.

The next morning… went for traditional Nyonya / Peranakan food…

and I must say, you can only find the best onde-onde in Melaka… freaking small, juicy, light and oooh… incredible!

And that pretty much wraps up my trip to the land of Chicken Rice BALLS! I’ll be BACK!!!

Luckiest dog in the world?

Girl-Girl my dog is possibly the luckiest dog in the world… around the same time last year, we brought her to this ‘fancy’ ice-cream chain & bought her a cuppa ice-cream to celebrate her birthday… she snubbed it…

So fine, this year, we decided to do it a little different… we went to a ‘fancier’ ice-cream chain… bought 2 pink mini heart shaped ice-cream cakes placed 2 candles next to it… and sang her a birthday song…

We thought she might prefer the ‘pink’ colour or the fact that it’s not a cup and it comes in a nice ‘cute’ shape… AGAIN she snubbed… both Stella and I ended up eating the cake. It was awesome, we didn’t complain… okay, deep inside, we were hoping for her to snub it again

And now… Ben’s blueberry sausage recipe…

Sometime last week, I was in one of those moods and decided to cook-up something quick for brunch… it’s 100% my own recipe.. and I must say ole’ chap… it was amazing! I call it Ben’s Blueberry Sausage + Gordon Ramsay’s Sublime Scrambled Eggs with a tinge of my creativity…

Ben’s Blueberry Sausage (Serves 2)

• Get 3 fat sausages
• Cut it in the middle and split it to halves (this is to ensure that the sausages CURVE sexily and cook easily)
• Drizzle a bit of olive oil into the pan
• Drop 2-3 tablespoons of minced garlic & 1 sliced big onion – cook till brown
• Drop in the sausages and cook till it curves & browns slightly
• Get any blueberry jam from the supermarket (preferably ones with chunky blueberries), drop 2-3 table spoons into the pan
• Cook for a minute or two then drop in a 1-2 table spoons of sour cream / creme fraiche – whichever is available
• Leave it in the pan for a few minutes… and VOILA!

Gordon Ramsay’s Sublime Scrambled Eggs with a tinge of my creativity…
In his recipe which I blogged about here,  he used Creme Fraiche – a kind of sour cream mixed with butter combo – to complement my sausages, I replaced that with Garlic Mayo like the one below…

The result? A light & fluffy garlic flavoured sublime scrambled eggs… mmm…

Try it… you’ll LOVE IT!

For the first time ever, my parents, my parents-in-law all lived under one roof – for the weekend… So being the son, son-in-law – I had to make sure they were well fed… on Saturday night, I took them to this steambot place which serves really colourful steambot called – Farmland Porridge Steambot in Pudu, KL… checkout the colours yo!

Location as follows…

View Larger Map

The following day, I had to feed 7 people including myself – first on the list was my infamous scrambled eggs with salmon for breakfast as taught by Gordon Ramsay (it’s touted as the BEST scrambled eggs in the world – even Google agrees )… I blogged about his recipe here…

BUT… what’s for lunch?
Good thing last week Nadia and I were sent for a demo cooking shoot for a client… and we cooked Tom Yam soup & Tom Yam fried rice topped with poached egg!

The Tom Yam soup…

Tom Yam fried rice with poached egg…

Look at the yolk oozing out… ooooh BABY!

So I decided to give it a try on Sunday… and the result? FANTASTICO! I’m now hailed as an ‘amazing chef’ fooiyoh…

Perhaps I should open a restaurant or cafe someday… mmm… or have my own cooking show… from today forth, I shall be known as Chef Ben… no no, call me Chef de cuisine Ben – YES… I like it.

Okay, it’s not so much of a secret recipe. If you’ve been following my posts, you would have noticed my recent… * BIG WORD ALERT * infatuation * small word alert * love for cooking. Ever since I got myself an oven, I’ve been experimenting on various personal recipes… some got cooked, some burnt, some strange… you name it, I’ve gotten through it.

So what are these 2 famous recipes? Not something I created but discovered… through @memeranglaut on twitter and through scouring YouTube, I found these two amazing recipes that are a MUST TRY by the infamous Gordon Ramsay!

It’s simple, doesn’t take too much time and is really really really good…

First, the SUBLIME SCRAMBLED EGGS…

Some of my personal notes

• Make sure you cook on medium > high heat otherwise it’ll take forever
• Go get your Creme Fraiche from our supermarkets – don’t miss out on this ingredient
• If you’re feeling experimental, have it with Smoked Salmon – add it in right before the Creme Fraiche – absolutely AMAZING!

Secondly… the Sticky Lemon Chicken – it’s not the chinese style… but Ramsay style…

Some of my personal notes

• Always pan fry the chicken with some olive oil first
• Don’t put too much lemon – it can REALLY get bitter
• Don’t put too much water – it’s not supposed to be boiled just simmered lightly

That’s it Enjoy cooking… lemme know if you’ve tried any of the recipes out… my personal recommendation? Try the scrambled eggs… it’s REALLY really good…

I’ve been so hooked on cooking lately it’s unbelievable. Perhaps it started after trying out my newly bought oven for the first time… I’ve had it for sometime but never knew how to use it… okay I admit it, I was just too lazy to use it…

It all started off with a Croissant
If you don’t know what croissant is… it’s a french pastry made with flour and loads of butter – rolled up and baked to perfection – it’s crispy on the outside yet soft on the inside. So Stella & I dropped by one of those pastry shops over the weekend and bought ourselves a pack of frozen croissants. The instructions said…

1. Heat oven to 170 degrees
2. Place croissants in tray
3. Place it in oven
4. Leave in oven for 17 minutes

Sounded simple enough… so baking began!

17 minutes later… TADA!

It was as good if not better than the croissants I’ve tasted in cafes… absolutely amazing and of course, two other plus points when buying frozen croissants is, you’ll ALWAYS get it fresh and you’ll ALWAYS get it cheaper than the pre-baked ones loovely…

And so… the baking escapade began…

I started baking cod fish!

1. Heat oven to 185 degrees
2. Take out a baking tray
3. Place some olive oil in tray
4. Marinade the slabs of cod fish with garlic, salt, pepper, thyme
5. Place slabs of fish on tray
6. Leave in oven for 35 minutes

I also discovered the art of making REALLY good and simple portobello mushrooms!

1. Heat oven to 170 degrees
2. Place some olive oil in tray
3. Place mushrooms on tray (white side down)
4. Sprinkle salt & pepper
5. Leave in oven for 12-15 minutes

I can go on and on and on… more recipes soon… I feel like a chef already! Call me Chef… Chef Ben

Okay, if you haven’t heard, Fabes, Nadia & I decided to challenge each other to a cook-off. The story is, because of the FIFA World Cup… everyone… from mamak stalls to restaurants have been claiming to have a ‘world cup dish’… which honestly was not up to our high expectations… fooiyoh… we sound like food critics. The story is, we’ve tried Nasi World Cup Brazil which was just Nasi Goreng with a lot of ikan bilis (anchovies)… then there’s the Roti Bola which is just Roti ‘Bom’. We got tired of it… and so the challenge was on… a few days ranting about the cook-off got the attention of Resorts World Genting… got a call from Jonathan from the resort who offered us a place to perform the challenge! He even offered 80 of our listeners to catch the World Cup finals in Genting Arena of Stars… free access to the Genting Theme Park and MORE!!!

So the day came… July 10th 2010…
I was early… the other 2 ‘cows’ as usual were late…

Stella was my sous chef… it was lovely… and I decided to cook-up what I call “Noodles della Coppa del Mondo” a.k.a “Noodles of the World Cup”… which such a beautiful name… I was bound to win

After 1 1/2 hours of preparing and cooking… I got the judges to taste… some got sooooo excited that they took it straight from the wooden spatula… that showed how AMAZING it was…

BUT heck… I lost… they apparently preferred Fabes’ ‘home-made’ boring Italian sauce… (I’m telling ya, he CHEATED! – the sauce was probably pre-made from home or he bought it from a supermarket!)… some votes when to Nadia who made a Portuguese dish… you know what, I’ll leave it to their blogs to describe their own dishes. Checkout the video that was recorded by the Fly team…

Recipe…
If you weren’t there… I’ll share the recipe with you. Try it yourself and YOU tell me what you think… You’ll LOVE IT!

The ingredients…
2 types of noodles – green fettuccine & any other noodle (something asian would be nice)
Butter
Garlic
Onions
Capsicum – both red & green
Some sausages – preferably Italian (local produce is fine)
White Wine (I didn’t use this at the challenge – but it’ll add a MASSIVE KICK!)
A carton of milk
A tub of Cream Cheese

Cooking steps…

Step 1
Follow the instructions on the packaging to boil both the noodles – put a cube of butter to ensure they don’t stick…

Step 2
Put some butter in a pan, put the minced garlic, onions, capsicum and sausages – and stir fry… add some white wine… Once done, set them aside…

Step 3
Now, get a pot, put 5 parts milk 1 part cream cheese into the mix – bring to boil… now add more white wine… salt and pepper to taste… finally put in all the ingredients you previously stir fried…

Final step!
Serve & voila!

Let me know how it went!