Ninja Joe @ The Gardens

A pork burger fast food outlet would be quite a novelty here in Malaysia, it being non-halal and all. Despite this, I reckon that it must be doing well, as its business is expanding. Besides the outlet at The Gardens, there's a branch at the Tropicana City Mall with another on the way at Sunway Pyramid.

The burgers are called Ninjas, and they are quite small in size. Bro claimed that he could finish one off in 2 bites. Lol. There are 6 flavours to choose from - original, oriental, spicy, sweet and sour, teriyaki, and black pepper.

That day, we ordered 3 Ninjas, a lemonade and a small fries to share.

 Our order

I had the Teriyaki Ninja.

My Teriyaki Ninja

Opening the wrapper .... ta-da!!

The pork patty

Basically, the burger made up a piece of pork patty on a bun in your desired flavour - in this case, it's Teriyaki sauce, a slice of tomatoes and some lettuce leaves.

Well, I did actually enjoy the burger a lot. The pork patty was very soft, and the tomato slice fresh and lettuce crisp and crunchy. The Teriyaki flavoured pork patty was soft and sweet - much like Char Siu.

During my previous trip, I had tried the Spicy Ninja, and comparing the two, I think I prefer the Spicy Ninja which was less sweet. Instead the it was a tad savoury and fiery.

Anyway, 3 Ninjas, a drink and fries set me back by RM16.80. Do try Ninja Joe if you happen to be in KL.

Pasta Zanmai

It was my first time at Pasta Zanmai to try the Japanese take to the Italian pasta. We ordered 2 set meals, which consists of 2 mini dishes in each set. Each set costs RM23.00.

Mini Hotate Pizza

Hotate is scallop but to be honest, I doubt there was any scallop topping my pizza. There seemed to be more mushrooms and other unidentifiable stuff on it. Lol. The crust was thin and crispy, for which I liked.

Mini Teriyaki Chicken Pasta

I'm not so fond of this as I thought it tasted pretty ordinary. Served together with the pasta was an onsen tamago or a hot spring egg, basically a soft boiled egg. Hmn. I liked the egg though.

Mini Ebi Tempura no Gomadare Pasta

Gomadare is a sesame sauce usually used as a dipping sauce for Japanese steamboats. But here, the pasta is served in the Gomadare sauce and then topped with ebi tempura. The sauce is nutty and savoury, and I quite liked the way this thick sauce coated the pasta, it made each slurp really satisfying. ;p

Mini Unagi Onsen Tamago Rice

The portion of unagi was reasonably large. Again, I liked the onsen tamago that came with the rice. The rice was served with miso soup.

Miso Soup

Well, I guess of all the four dishes I tried, I liked the Ebi Tempura Gomadare pasta the most! I wouldn't mind eating it again ;p.

2 set meals with a jar of iced green tea and 10% service charge and taxes came to RM56.85.

Plane Food Yet Again

I was on a flight to KL this morning, and this is what I was served. Between fish and chicken, I opted for Chicken Masak Merah with Fried Rice. Such unwieldy name. But behold!! It disappointed me as it sounded better than it looked and tasted.

 Standard fare

Chicken Masak Merah With Fried Rice

The vegetables were soggy and tasteless. The chicken was salty and that was pretty much it. The rice was alright, at least it was light and fluffy, and I could taste the egg they fried the rice with.

Overall, one of the not so impressive plane food that I'd ever had. No offence, just sharing.

Memorable Last Day of Semester 1

Expect the unexpected. That sounds rather cliche. But cliches do occur once in a while.

Today was the last day of school. As much as I had anticipated the unfavourable things that would happen today, little did I expect that today's highlight would be theft and how we combed the whole school in search of the culprit and to recover the missing items.

At roll call in the school hall today, my colleague had carelessly left her purse on a bench while she spot checked the students' bags. Immediately after spot check, she discovered that her purse was missing. She panicked. Inside her purse were her IC, driving license, ATM and credit cards. She also had about RM300.

But by the time I found out about it, it was already too late. Being the teacher on duty today, I had released the students back into their respective classrooms to begin their exam. Had I known about it, a sensible thing to do would be to quarantine everyone and to do a search there and then. Now that the students were released it would be so much harder to locate the loot.

Half an hour later, we decided to go ahead with the search. The first place we went to was the toilets. And guess what? The emptied Bonia purse was found in the boys' toilet. Hence, we decided that our culprit was a boy, and he was in the lower secondary level. This was so because the lower form students who came late often stood near the bench where the purse went missing.

Then all the teachers who were free were rounded up. They went from class to class to search the students and their bags. Some went to comb the hall and the area around the hall. Standing at Level 2 and looking at the scene before me felt somewhat like an episode of CSI in the school context.

My VP had another approach to investigate. He checked the record of the latecomers that day, and then called up a few targeted boys to interrogate them one by one. Finally it bore fruit as we got a name. We zeroed in on the class, and got everyone to empty their pockets. True enough, this Form 3 boy had more than RM300 in his pocket. Subsequently, all the cards were retrieved from a toilet tank in one of the cubicles.

The boy's father was contacted, and the school is going to propose to the Education Department that he be expelled.

Many of us teachers were shocked that a student that young would be audacious enough to steal his teacher's belongings so publicly. But for me, what scared me was the boy's response to his offence. I was there when the VP took the money and counted it in front of him. There was no remorse on his face whatsoever. He was cool and collected, and claimed that the money was his. When the money was taken away, he even had the cheek to tell the VP that he needed some money to buy food during recess! Is this a monster in the making?

For many of us, we were also glad that this boy was not our own. He was transferred earlier this year from a private school, and it was because of discipline problems as well. It was no wonder that he would do such a despicable thing.

the wrong way

my hand
clutched at my heart
a strong grip
to numb the pain
as it appeared

my fort
still holds
the well of tears
threatening to pour
oh how long can i endure

all triggered
by a mere glance
in the wrong way

even after so long
i thought i was whole
alas
i assumed wrong
now i am forlorn

In My Radar : SSH & KTH

Hallyuwood is never short of good-looking actors. I do always wonder how they manage to look so hot!! And recently, after having watched MBC's My Princess, South Korean actor Song Seung Heon has totally won me over!!

Hmn. I remember watching him years back when he was the leading actor in Autumn in My Heart. Yeah, I remember him being handsome, but there wasn't much about him to be crazy about otherwise. Perhaps the story of Autumn In My Heart was just too tragic and hence, I shut everything out from my mind.

Since Autumn in My Heart, Song Seung Heon's been acting mainly in movies, but his acting skills did not really receive much praises. I read a translation in the Chosun Ilbo that he does not bring enough depth into the characters he portrays. Well, you can read the translation here.

~ Pic from Soompi forums ~

Recently, however, he received mixed criticisms for his performance in My Princess. For me though, he did a great job with his character, Park Hae Young. I loved the myriad of expressions he portrayed - amusement, exasperation, arrogance, etc. Looks wise, Song Seung Heon would not be lacking. He wears his designer suits with style!! Of course, he's got a really hot body - six packs and all. It would be fair to say that Song Seung Heon has females swooning all over. I also loved his bickering with the lead actress, the beautiful Kim Tae Hee, which was super CUTE and fun to watch.

Song Seung Heon & Kim Tae Hee in My Princess
~ Pic from imbc.com ~

Likewise, I first encountered Kim Tae Hee in Love Story in Harvard. But it was another tragic story which I felt was really burdensome to watch. Hence, Kim Tae Hee, though very pretty, did not impress on me much too. In My Princess, she was totally goofy, bubbly, cute and so very lovable. She wore pretty dresses but I think what stood out the most was her beautiful hairbands which are now popular accessories in South Korea.

Well, My Princess despite its plot loopholes is a success with South Korean viewers, and it has sufficiently kept me entertained. I hadn't enjoyed myself watching K-drama since the 1st Shop of Coffee Prince (my all-time favourite!!).

Hence, Song Seung Heon and his female lead, Kim Tae Hee would be another two South Korean actors I will keep in my radar.