First Food Review..Ahem

For starters, I've never been a fan of meat. With this I mean authentic 100% beef and not those beef burger patty kind.
And if I do order real meat, it'll be so well done, it's crispy on the outside and inside, taste nothing of beef and salty. And there's a particular place in Kampung Baru we go to every now and then to get this daging bakar.
Other than that, I usually avoid beef dishes.

They kinda have that strong smell especially really fresh beef. It's worse if I see the actual animal before being slaughtered off because sadly I'll be too squeamish to ever be able to stomach it. In short it's okay if I don't see it alive beforehand. So every AidilAdha, I'll be that sad loser moping around poking at my nasi impit and kuah kacang while everybody else is polishing off the 'so-called' delicious beef rendang and sup tulang and rubbing it in my face.

But after watching show after shows of Gordon Ramsey marveling on how delicious a good piece of steak is, I felt that I gotta be fair and give a real good steak a try. A. Real. Good. Steak.

And not the ones you usually get from your local restaurants listed in the menus under 'western food' and their idea of a steak is a thin piece of beef, cooked to the core and is so tough that it distorts your fork while you cut into it. Or a tiny piece of beef that tastes like what my husband calls  slipar berperisa black pepper. Or as they sometimes spell it 'Black Paper' or 'Black Pipper'.

Alas, when we heard about this quaint little restaurant called Me'nate Steak House that promises real fresh wholesome steaks and that their beef are fresh from the farm, chilled not frozen, we thought we ought to give it a try. Somewhat in an attempt to restore my faith in locally prepared steaks.

Masuk je , ambiance ok. Some patrons even took the liberty of dressing up to eat at this place. Which to me is kinda weird. Tapi mungkin they dress up like that on a daily basis and I'm just an out of town hillbilly so who am I to judge.

Layan Gambar :

This arrived first, Curly fries. A whole mother load of them

 Next: Real fresh beef sausages. No beef smell ! Presentation-wise: could be improved. They look more like kopok lekor. Taste great though.

 WW's wagyu tenderloin .

Cooked medium. Cost a bundle. Worth every penny.

And no, for the record ,the wagyus here are not fed beer. 

I could never in my life imagined I could stomach meat with a little redness oozing out but surprisingly this tasted great and without the beefy smell. Hurrah!

The beef was really, really tender. And you get to choose your meat before they cooked it for you.

 My grain-fed ribeye. Besaunya mak ai. 

Cooked well done la, apa lagi.

It was so tender and tasted really good even without the brown sauce.

Perfect. Almost converted me into a beef lover. Almost.

I couldn't finish the whole portion because it was too large and I was getting dizzy from all the beef.

That's what husbands are for.

The kids' beef Olio. Big portion

Sorry, sangat kusyuk makan sampai lupa snap gambar bila mula dihidang. 

Sedap but I imagine my mom would've commented that we just ordered an overpriced plate of fried noodles.

 Some coffee to finish it all off. 

Best thing is the beverages are, get this..FREE.

And they're free flow. With the condition you finish it or they'll charge you RM 8 per glass.

My verdict 8 out of 10. Layanan Ok. The Executive Chef goes around to ask about the food. The waiters are helpful enough. You have to get your own drink at the drink station though, but that's okay for me.  It's quite pricey tapi bukan tiap-tiap hari nak makan a great good slab of meat kan?

But if you're a little bit on the queasy side like my son and I, better avoid looking around as the walls are full of pictures of cows. Real, big fat cows. And you might want to have a seat facing the main entrance because you wouldn't want to eat facing a large meat chiller stacked full of fresh bloody meat, of all size and portions.

But then if you're not a wuss like me, then feel free to be seated anywhere and look at everything.

Tapi at the end of the day, after all that juicy delicious steak that made me finally believe there is such a thing as a melt in your mouth piece of beef ( and I thought Chef Ramsey was always bullshitting), I still prefer my Kampung Baru daging bakar. Well, well done, Crispy from the outside and inside, taste nothing like beef and salty.

 Yum.

(with this, my husband slaps his forehead) 

***Hey, wait a minute, you might say. Sejak bila dia ni jadik food blogger? Saje je. Sejak ada handphone that allows me to discreetly take pictures of my food and it would look like I'm just nonchalantly texting. Hehe

 I'm shy shy like that.

Konon.

And with that I end my one week holiday. 

Back to working out. 

DNS Tapi Pulang Modal.

Ha. Didn't think there'll be a race report, kan?
Yes, as some of you have read in FB, I couldn't quite make it to PBIM.
The night before the last day of school, my son complained that he had a stomach ache and felt nauseous. I was quite sure it wasn't food poisoning as he ate the same thing as the rest of us did and we were all fine.
Well, he started vomiting that night, and continued to feel bad the next morning. He couldn't stomach in anything solid for the rest of the day but felt fine on Saturday.

Manala nak tau it was actually the stomach flu and it was contagious. After my race that Saturday morning (tell you about that later), I had  a nap, konon nak get some snooze before PBIM. It was funny that I tossed and turned for  ages before falling asleep because everyone who knows me close , knows that I fall asleep easily. Lepas tu after an hour of napping, bangun je , pening nye mak ai. And suddenly I felt sick.
I tried to brush it off. Said to my WW that it's probably something bad I ate at the food fair that morning. By 7.00 pm I was vomiting my breakfast and lunch and felt crappy but I still had my hopes high. We thought that by 10:30 pm, if I felt a bit okay, we'll head out to Penang and see how it goes from there. But after staring blankly at my McDonalds dinner, and feeling nauseated after a cup of sundae, the only thing that I can force myself to eat that night, I made a decision to abandon the thought of racing altogether.
Macam suicide je pon kalau pegi. Not much fluids in my body. Carbo-loading jadi more like carbo-dumping. It'll be like me running on empty.
Kang tak pepasal ada orang bergolek atas jambatan. Hodohnya pemandangan.

So racing plans aborted.,balik rumah terus tengok bola Indon lawan Vietnam. Pastu went to bed, and woke up at 2 ish with tummy cramps and I thanked God Almighty for giving me some common sense.

Oh ye, this is supposed to be a race report jugak kan?
Okay so on Saturday I raced for my department in Larian Kesihatan Perak. It's a 5K race held once in every 2 years and the participants are solely KKM staff from all over Perak.
Aku masuk suka-suka je. Boss aku suruh masuk  untuk menang.
Aku pikir, kalau tak menang pun takpe sebab the coming Monday tu aku cuti, so takdela dia nak membebel. Heh heh.

Gun-off bajet race kecik pukul 8:15 am. Cuaca nasib baik ok. Tak panas, tak mendung, sejukk je. Participants tak ramai, dalam 100 orang. Yang paling best apa tau, korang? Yang paling best my family was there to support me. Nothing beats standing at the starting line with your spouse and children screaming words of encouragements at the sidelines. Baru semangat nak lari.

Majlis tajaan gomen takkan lengkap tanpa senbamrobik dan skirting bunga raya

My main rival (cheeeewaaaahhhhh) during the race was one particular girl from Hospital Teluk Intan, a KKM state runner called Anu. Now, I've been in 2 races with her prior this race and twice I fell to second place. But don't get me wrong, it's totally  friendly rivalry.We're good friends and  for 2 years, she's been trying to get me to try out for her team. ( macamla aku layak)
Tahun ni, jeng jeng jeng, to her dismay (because she loves a good competition),she saw that I'm in a different category.Yaa , tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, saya finally masuk kategori Senior Women..huhu. And she, being only 27 is in the Women Open.

Anu dan err..pakcik enterprem kat belakang

Satu lagi benda best , this year's run is held at Taman Tasik Taiping. So route yang agak familiar. Like I said, lepas gun-off maka  larilah kami. Me and Anu initially paced each other and had a bit of a conversation about races at the first 500m, pastu seperti biasa she eased her way in front dan saya seperti biasa malas nak kejar awal-awal , biarkan je sebab saya takut kepancitan
Sepanjang race, I noticed Anu asyik pandang belakang to me je, I'm not sure whether to see  if I was okay or to see whether I was close enough to overtake her. At some point when she glanced back, I gestured for her to go on ahead sebab perut ku senak. Sakit jugak wo lari laju  (sket dari biasa) and trying to maintain it for 5K, but I remembered WW said that a 5-10K race is supposed to hurt so I pujuk diri je.

Seperti biasa dalam 500 m nak abis baru teringat nak summon turbo tapi bila Anu nampak aku dah makin dekat, dia pun pasang turbo. Dan..seperti biasa, I lost to her by 10 seconds kot. Tapi sebab kami different categories, dia dapat nombo satu dan saya juge dapat nombo satu..hehe.

Women Open leader kat depan. Senior menyusul di belakang sana nun. Maklumla, senior..

Best tak? Team Chiam and Adik tukang sorak.

Deme ni senyum sebab lega akhirnya kami dah sampai.

Yang bestnya bila tengok Garmin, I got my PB in 5K 27:35. For you guys out there mungkin tak laju benor, but for me kira okla tu (by my standards la) Huhu. Dan at her defence, sebab korang mesti pikir , takkan KKM state runner standard 5K 27 mins je kot. I truly felt that she held back and wasn't running her full potential

Yang tak syoknya bila dapat placing kena tunggu dapat hadiah, lamanyaa . Biasala, tunggu all the formalities and ucapan pembukaan. Katanya majlis serah hadiah pukul 9:30, alih-alih nak dekat 11 lebih diberinya hadiah lepas VVIPs makan-makan. Hadoi. The kids were getting a bit cranky but lepas dapat hamper saiz dinosor, depa happy balik. Dapat la jugak a bit cash money, pulang la jugak modal tak pi PBIM..alhamdulillah..hurhur.

Ada jugak Walkathon held at the same time as the larian in a different location.

Budak PLKN pun dipaksarela  dijemput masuk. Huish macam berpiket pun ada.

Itu je la kot. Now for that one week holiday..

Retro, Pseudo and Pocoyo

A few days ago, my childhood bestie posted a picture of our gang back in the day.
I cringed when I saw this pic.
Ugh.

Thing is, this wasn't me at my biggest.
Sure, you can say that it was like 13 years ago. Justin Beiber pun tak lahir lagi ( eh, yeke?) But on bad days, after I'm bloated from all the food that I practically inhaled, or when the numbers on the scale goes slightly up, I still feel like I'm the same girl times 100.

Last two days, I was almost shocked when I saw I've gained almost 3kgs from the weight I had during marathon training. I say almost because well I kinda expected it due to all my eating and comparatively less training but I was hoping the weight gain wouldn't happen. Pocoyo kan?
Trouble is, I'm still in my marathon carbo loading mode, even after a year.
Trouble is, back then, my running was complimented by weight training and strength exercises.
Trouble is, a year ago I was a health freak, counting my calories and almost became a pseudo-vegan (?).

I'm eating everything now. The once banned nasi goreng in my diet is back on the menu. Sure I still watch my portion sometimes.. But all the food around me seems soo gooood, it's kinda hard not to indulge.
Right now, as I'm writing this, I crave for an ice-blended cappuccino topped with vanilla ice-cream from Nelson's. Argh.

You may say, " 3kg is not worth all the drama" but for a person who was once overweight, this is kinda an issue.
I'm baring it all when i confess that sometimes I run just to keep the weight off. When I feel bloated, I run 6 times a week. Sometimes, after a 'heavy' meal, I'd go for a 2 mile run even after I've had a run earlier before. I know it's just junk miles, but at least, I think to myself, it'll burn some amount of calories.
How do I put it? It's like being unhealthy in a healthy way. It's not like I don't like running but it's like I like running for the wrong reasons.
Or is it the right?
I dunno.

Irony is, I know what's wrong and I know how to solve it. I just wish the numbers on the scale wouldn't be an issue throughout my life.
Even after 9 years of being in the 'normal' range and having a healthy (?) lifestyle, 8 years of marriage, 7 years of being a mommy, I sometimes still feel like the fat kid I was once before.
And it sucks, even it it's only  for a millisecond



Okay, I feel better letting this out.

On a lighter( no pun intended) note : Remember the graffiti In Taman Tasik Taiping I've posted before. After raya, we noticed that they've changed the graffiti to a Hari Raya theme. But last 2 weeks, somebody vandalized the whole graffiti and the creepy rabbit had the word f**k sprawled across its poor face.
Bodo punya mat rempit atau sape-sapela yang buat.

Before vandalism - creepy rabbit masih tulus, suci dan murni 

But last Saturday, when we were out running for the so-called 10 miler turned 10K in the rain, I've noticed they've re-done the graffitii. Yay! Bless those RUN TPG people, whoever they are.

  After - and they omitted the creepy rabbit!

Itu saje. 

.

No Harm

2 weeks from a big race, baru terhegeh-hegeh nak training. I'm doubting these two weeks will make any difference, but hey, no harm trying right?
Last year I had a planned schedule magnet-ed on my fridge door , dammit. Even for a half marathon.
This year, the only schedule on our fridge is my son's jadual waktu.

After weeks and weeks of 20 ish K mileage per week, last week I succeeded in getting 35K. Tu pun jenuh nak tweak my daily schedule.  This week, with my longest LSD of 10 miles (je?), it'll be twice as hard to commit especially during the weekend. Dengan jiran tetangga nak buat party barbecue nya, dengan nak servis keretanya, dengan nak send back WW to stesyen basnya. Nasib baikla my son has finished his exams, boleh la take a breather sikit sebab tak payah bertukar profession jadik cikgu waktu malam

Why am I semi-committed of training this time? Be-cause believe it or not, I have two different races on the same day (almost) and I can't decide which I will pour my  commitment to.
The first run, my larian jabatan will be held on the 19th. There's not a day gone by where I am not reminded of this race by my staff and colleagues. My boss points to my forehead and says he's counting on me - exclamation mark. Now what am I supposed to say to that? Sure, it's just a 6K, but it'll have to be a fast 6K - and very painful.

And then on the 20th, not even the next day after , rather the following early morning, I have PBIM's halfie. I feel that I have to do my best in this one too because it'll be my last race for the year as I've reserved December for vacations, reunions and back to school shopping sprees.

I'm thinking will I be able to complete both in the timing I've planned? Ke I'm setting my hopes too high? Being too optimistic? Being too analytical ?

Kalau tanya WW, he'll say " Hantam saja la" but this is coming from a guy who thinks that training for a March marathon starting from November is still 'not enough'. Hantam saja la? Alih-alih aku yang kena hantam. Pitam pun ada.

Poyo je kan? Pocoyo pun ada.

 Bole ka tarak bole?

p/s A big thank you goes to a certain Mr FS , who kindly decided to take over WW's bib. If you see a guy wearing a bib with WW's name on it, give him a big cheer and a pat on the back.

The Rise And Fall Of The Urban Fixies

Once upon a time, in this part of town, there lived a small group of young riders fondly (or secretly) known to the locals as ‘the urban fixies’.


As said, they were riders, free-spirited and young ( late teens  to early twenties)with their DIY fixies spray-painted to perfection. They did not ride but rather flew through town, with their dreadlocks,afro cuts, loose shirts and bowler hats. Their tanned faces sometimes glistening with sweat under the warm sun and their calves  rippled to every crank. They came from nowhere or anywhere. You'll see them when you see them. But when you do see them, either riding in the sun or gliding through the night, you will be awed.

Awed by their simplicity. Awed by the way they carry themselves. Calm. Collected. Focused. Too cool to care. You seldom see them talk. They say , the urban fixies communicate by gestures, by grunts, by eye twitches.  They will stop long enough, not to hang around, but to regroup. Once they are one, they will flock elsewhere.

You could tell, sometimes from afar, that they were happy. And they were peace-loving beings. Non- believers of nuisance and nonsense. They were law abiding citizens, only an eyesore to old folks who fail to understand their self expression.

 But one day, like black clouds creeping in on a beautiful sky, a small new group of riders infiltrated the town. First in small groups of 5s, then 10s, then 20s until it seemed that they were everywhere. It was understood that they were  initially  imitators. As mimics of the urban fixies. They came into town from miles away, riding their neon coloured generic fixies readily available from Kedai Basikal Ah Ba. These bikes were pitifully tasteless but deemed awesome by the new riders now known to the townspeople as 'kampung fixies'; no disrespect to the kampung people.
But as uber cooless could not be replicated or imitated, the kampug fixies failed to carry themselves wisely. They were simply wannabes. Not trend setters. Everything was overdone.

They spun into town making a racket. Flocking the streets as nuisance.They were ruthless, rowdy at times. Loitering and tastelessly hogging parking lots and conquering the roads. An eyesore, an ear sore and a stick in the behind.

What happened to the urban fixies in the mean time? They stood watching as their town was taken over. But as peace-loving beings, they did not reciprocated. Instead, to avoid territorial conflict,they dispersed. They disappeared, one by one into the masses.

Until one day, they were gone. All of them, dreadlocks and all.( **cue dust and debris scattering and rolling bushes for dramatic effect)


And to this day the kampung fixies still roamed the town. Terrorizing people with their hazardous wheelies and lameness. Most are only young ‘uns, not even through middle high,clueless ,trying so hard but alas, are greatly annoying.
God help us.

I believe one day, when the craze has ended and the madness has ceased, the urban fixies will be back. Emerging one by one from the crowd. Slightly older, slightly worn, but they will come back. With their dreadlocks, afro cuts, loose shirts and bowler hats. With their beautiful DIY-fixies, spray-painted to perfection.

They will be back, flying into town, coolness oozing from their ears.


Sekian sessi bercerita saya pada hari ini untuk melepaskan geram kepada kampung fixies yang sangat menyakitkan hati di pekan saya yang terchenta

The Mysterious Watcher

Short post
No time.
On call.

Quick question.
Would somebody please tell me who runs Penonton.blogspot.?

I know Bro Haris runs Run. Mix. Burn and I think I have a vague idea who's running Chap Ayam website but who the heck is in charge of Penonton?
Puas aku cari kat blog dia, talak jumpa ma.

Takde la, bukan nak saman ke apa.
Just want to say that you're doing a very good job.
What will we runners   ( or cyclists or triathletes) do without Penonton.
Gigih cari pelbagai race untuk di upload almost everyday.

Syabas, sir/madam.
You, my friend, are truly appreciated.

Hugs.
JJ & WW (ok, he offers his handshake)

Bonkety Bonk

Hi.
You read it right. I bonked.For the second time this year. Heh heh. It's SCKLM Half revisited minus the hot sun.
But difference was, this time I had fun.
Serious.
It's kinda weird how you could feel so bad and have fun at the same time. I guess last week was a good week. Maybe that explains it all.

Pre-race I guess I was kinda asking for it. We had a late breakfast and then decided before dropping off our kids at my sister's, we'd have our lunch late at Bangi. Manala nak tau semua orang Bangi nak makan Domino''s jugak at 3 :30 pm. As a result pizza sampai lewat, so we ate at around 4 ish. Pastu we polished half a can of my brother's "slimming mixed nuts". I don't get the concept of eating nuts to make you slim but hey, who can resist eating really expensive roasted almonds and pistachios especially when it's not yours.

Anyway, we got to Putrajaya at about 7. By that time, perut rasa kenyang lagi from all the pizza and nuts so I just ate a quarter of my prerace snack, a cream bun. Pastu, because during my last half, I didn't take any gels and only ran with a bottle of Gatorade, I figured I'd do the same in this race and managed to talk my husband in doing the same. Ya, satu lagi bad choice.

At about 8 berlegar-legar at race site and we bumped into our old schoolmate . Sembang-sembang, kutuk-kutuk, gelak-gelak , last-last terlepas nak cheer on the Full marathoners. Aisey.

Then at 8.10 pm , we went to line ourselves at the gantry. Baru la nampak the famous KakJune with her fans. Gile semua beratur nak tangkap gambar ngan dia. Tinggal diorang nak mintak sign autograph je lagi, Kak June oii..hehe. Had a quick chat and then we were off lining ourselves behind the starting line cam cattle.

Mak ai panasnya. Tak padan ngan malam cuaca lepas hujan. Tak start race lagi pun kiri kanan bau ashem.
Aku konon nak try pace 10:15/per mile. Up sikit la dari last HM.
Huh, hareeemmmm.

Mula-mula start lagi takde countdown apa pun. Sedor-sedor je 'pom' bunyik gun.
The thing I don't like about big races is, there's too much crowd (duh!)
Dia ni himpit dia ni. Dia ni pijak kasut dia ni. Dia ni pasang muka saiko nak menang. Dia ni  siku dia ni.
In small races, everyone is friendly. Almost everyone is like, " Hey, have fun". And the runners are more cheerful.
Yang ni, mula-mula race je pakat pasang game face masing-masing. Adoyai.
Tapi  not everybody la. Korang yang baca ni aku tau tak buat..heh heh.

But the thing is in big races, you'll meet all different kinds of interesting people on the road. Ramai gak yang tegur WW's barefootedness. WW pun pantang tengok rakan sekaki ayam, mesti pakat sembang and then aku pun terkial-kial nak catch up.

Anyway, frankly speaking I didn't really like the route. Sebelum ni pi Putrajaya tak penah pun perasan the rolling hills. Mak ai, route dia asyik naik turun je. Well, WW claimed dia naik turun but I felt that It was like 60% naik je. Naik elevation banyyaaaaakkkk, pastu turun ade la ciput pastu naik balik sampai kadang-kadang tu aku ingat diorang ni nak suruh lari sampai Genting kot. Define your inner strength konon.

Somewhere along the way I said hey to AzHana. Azza, I have this ability to 'cam' people from their backs. Don't ask me how. I just know. I can even cam some of the regular runners by the way they run. Anyway, man, she was doing so good. Aku ni macam separuh mati nak kayuh lagi 10K , dia steady je. Tabik!

After 10K mark which I felt took forever, my legs felt like jelly and I suddenly felt hungry. So walaupun, I was guzzling Gatorade every 2 miles or so, I downed half a pack of Powergel and washed it down with Gatorade lagi. Dapatla sugar rush dalam 5 minit pastu hancus balik. My tummy started churning pulak pastu side stich ada datang mari pulak. It was freaking hot and there was no breeze. But you know what helped?
The random conversation with strangers and fellow runners along the way. Best jugak sembang-sembang sambil lari-lari anak ni. Bila sembang-sembang buat lawak sambil bitch about the hills, sedar-sedar je your already on top of the incline and you're your way down.

What I loved most about this race is the support crew. Fuh, memang tip top. Dengan kumpulan gendangnya, dengan cheerleaders nya, dengan music Pittbull pasang full blast tengah-tengah God-knows-where, dengan metalic-mime people ( I don't know what you call them) sitting creepily atas jambatan cam hantu boncengnya, dengan volunteers yang sangat cheerful if not very helpful and committed nya.
In short, memang BEST GILE.
Aku yang separa nak tergolek atas jalan pon sangat terhibur.

Anyway, I lost count how many inclines we had to go through because I sucked at all of them. Tu la, sapa suruh tak training hills. Padan muko. Dekat nak habis pun ada bantai kasik incline lagi. Masa tu aku redha je la. I promised myself this time, tak larat camne pun taknak jalan We met Kam Kasturie along they way, who gently said, " It's okay, jalan je la". Haha, that's really easy to say coming from a guy who walks with the same pace as my running.

I hate hills shows on my face

(pic courtesy of Kam Kasturie) 

Racing towards the end was the nastiest part. It was a long straight road where you can see that you have to run towards the digital clock but it seems like it's light years away.

So lari lah daku pada tahap kura-kura with WW running backwards to support me. Dekat end of the line,  bila ada banyak orang at the sidelines cheering us on, baru la aku pasang turbo anak penyu nak masuk laut.
Maka bolehla dapat timing sub 2:30. Haha

End of the line, One nice volunteer said to me while handling my finisher's shirt,
" You're an S"
" Nope, " I said. " I think an M"
" Takde la kak, You're definately an S"
She made my day the most.

 With Azza and KakJune. Get to finally chat with you guys. Sorry as usual got to go early for the kids.
Sorry gambar blur sebab pakai C3 jo 

I finished at 2:29.
I wouldn't call this a personal worst. It's a all out effort in a condition that I can't control. I guess I just can't handle overheatedness and too many hills. That's all there is to it.
And the idea bijak bistari Gatorade made it all worse.
Because when I got back, I threw up all my Gatorade. One whole bottle of it.
Heh