'Meet & Greet' with Amina (Masterchef Australia Contestant) @ Blu Med MIdvalley

I bet most of us will come across with television cooking show from time to time, some are pretty challenging while some are quite homely..  Have you ever wonder whether those awesome looking chef really have such good cooking skill or did those dishes that prepared on television are merely for display only? Well that’s one thing that I always wanted to know, which brings me to the following Nuffanng tastebuddies event--- 'Meet & Greet' session with Masterchef Australia contestant- Amina ‏:P

Being held at Blu Med Ristoranre e Bar, the meet & greet session was one of my highly-anticipated event as I finally had a chance to try out some dishes of this opulent setting restaurant which located right at the middle of Gardens and Mid Valley Megamall.. AND that’s not all, besides a simply meet & greet, we get to try out a specially prepared dessert by Amina! Awesome right :)

Blu Med @ The Boulevard MidValley City

So how was the event, is it great? Well yes & no.. A big Yes for the meet & greet session with Amina El Shafei & a regretfully no for Blu Med.. :9    

Watching this talented & surprisingly young (age is a woman's secret, so I won’t tell you that she is only 29..Opss :P) Masterchef Australia Contestant preparing dessert live is definitely an enjoyable experience. The passion this smart, funny & lovely lady for food, freedom & great life is definitely what I like the most, we somehow shared similar philosophy of life XD * hi-five*

Live dessert making session via Masterchef Australia Contestant Amina El Shafei :)

Walah~ done ^^ 

Steamed Pandan Cakes with Lychee

As for Blu Med, the genuine concept of Mediterranean + Italian fusion is impressive, same goes to its interior/design which is warm, simply & yet elegant. However claiming to be the new baby of renowned IronChef Yasuhiro Sasajima & have all their dishes executed by expert Italian and international chefs, the food just doesn’t really live up to my expectation.

Blu Med- warm & elegant 

Blu Med- interior

Since it is a Mediterranean & Italian fusion, I suppose freshness, unique/colourful plating and of course mouthwatering poultry, seafood, beans, pastas & Olive oil are to be expected. Well for Blu Med plating wise they did a good job & they do score well for the criteria of uniqueness as some of the dishes are quite special, but taste wise, a total disappointment with nothing to shout about for :’( perhaps the buffet style presentation for food tends to compromise some of their taste & quality?

erm.. at least the colour looks nice, I like blue :P

Roasted Baby Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary

Linguine with Squid, Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

Cutlet Dory with Ligurian Sauce

Chicken Breast with Mango Salsa

my own platting XD

Anyway, overall the event was great, thanks to Lifetime (Astro channel 709) for bringing in Amina & thanks to Nuffanng tastebuddies for the invitation, cheers~ b^^d

OpenRice MakanVenture @Plus One Shabu Shabu 1 Utama ^^

Founded in 1999, being known as Hong Kong's most popular dining guide with over 3,000,000 unique visitors and more than 75 million page views/ month, with over 34,900 restaurants on the site, OpenRice.com is indeed one of the best dining guide reference available online.. And the best part is since 2012 it is officially available in Malaysia! Check out >OpenRice Malaysia FB page HERE<  

After being an OpenRicer for a few months, finally I manage to join one of their MakanVenture event which were held at Plus One Shabu Shabu 1 Utama just the other day. It was a pretty enjoyable session by the way b^^d In case you guys wonder what MakanVenture is, well basically the name itself pretty much explain it all- ‘Eat Venture’, which is a weekly food tasting session held exclusively for OpenRice member, so that we food lovers can gather up to explore Malaysia’s best restaurant & foodsSss~ ;D

So here’re some shoots & review for my 1^st OpenRice MakanVenture *clapclap*

Plus One Shabu Shabu 1 Utama: Lot F 337-338, First Floor, Rain Forest, New Wing, 1Utama Shopping Centre,
47800 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Capacious, clean, nice & cosy interior.

Reaching there slightly late thanks to the always ‘wonderful’ LDP traffic =.=lll Most bloggers & OpenRicers were already there :’)

Kick starting the event with a brief intro on Plus One Shabu Shabu by the restaurant owner himself.

Jotting down soups base orders, they servers a verity of base (19 choices of nourishing broths in total), you would definitely find one that you like :P

such a pleasure to be serves by the boss himself, thank you ^^

Individual setting: a one-person-one-pot (HK) style. Hygiene is not an issue.

My Pork Bone with Corn Broth set ^^

Our drinks: Water Cress & Honey (a cold & sweet version of西洋菜汤).. Unique huh, & it taste pretty well too consider the fact that the jug is nearly empty while we’re just starting ;P

Vast variety of Homemade Sauces.. Hawaii, Thai Chili, Tom Yam, Fish, Sesame etc.. Taste even better when mix, do ask the owner for recommended recipes :)

Crispy Deep fried HK fish skin: One of my favourite, & it taste event better after socking in the broth b^^d

Golden Sand Squid, best eat while warm ^^

Drunken chicken

Black Pearl (HK Century Egg): ammonia strong taste of century egg, best goes with a slice of young ginger on top b^^d

Japanese Black Pork Loin, the pinkish complexion is just so tempting.
   

Overall taste: delightful & extremely satisfying, a nice place to drop by if you’re looking for a pleasurable shabu shabu restaurant. Y^^Y 

One for the record. Thnx to OpenRice MY for the invitation ^^

Rating: 7.6/10~

Jason Chen & Clara C Live in KL 2013~♪ ♫

There are tons of awesome people which did a vast verity of amazing covers on YouTube & when the question “what is your favorite YouTube Channel?” were ask, here’re some words that pop up in my head - some of the pretty cool channels which I has been following for quite some time: boyceavenue, MusicNeverSleeps, MadilynBailey's channel, Kurt Hugo Schneider, ClaraCMusic, Bri Heart Music etc..& the list goes on & on~ So do check it out & subscribe if you like :)  

Anyway back to our main topic of the post, just the other day I was so lucky to be able to attend a Jason Chen & Clara C live performance in KL thanks to the concert pass via Tian Chad.   

Listening to these extremely talented YouTube sensations singers performing live is definitely a pleasant experience & indeed it was an enjoyable night where I get to listen to some of the most euphonious music ever while doing some photo shooting *happy* ^^   

Both of them are awesome singers so there’s nothing much to comment on for the singing part, simply a melodious musical performance :) & here’re some shoots I captured during the concert, enjoy~ b^^d   

Settling down before show starts..

Not really a huge auditorium but a 110% FULL HOUSE ^^

Host of the night- Johan, a very talented & humour person :P 

Starting performance via pretty blogger/singer Charis Ow & Revellers band.

Charis & the band

Revellers Band

& Here we go~~~ MusicNeverSleeps on stage~0oo0 0oo0

Jason Chen ^^

You can feel a sense of anticipation as they steps onto the stage *crowd cheer out LOUD*

 Jason singing a song of Brian McKnight, can you guess the song from his gesture? :P

One~ I wanna be with you~

Part of Jason's play list: Back at One, Best Friend, when I was your man, 你不知道的事, 普通朋友, Still in love, Unexpectedly, Thank you~

Guitarist & bass player with super rich facial expression XD

Now who wants some nice T-shirts? :P

Bonus track by talented 9 years old Tiffany 

Clara on stage, unfortunately..  Technical problems.. & then she starts singing~Technical problems they keep following me~ Well guess I’ll juz have to move on~ Sing a song~ ♪ ♫ ♬

Clara spontaneous ‘technical problem song’ to kick start her session, brilliant! *clap clap*

Clara: “Can I have a little lights on.. So that I can see all those pretty face” XD

ClaraC- So she’s outgoing, playful and also a sensational singer, wonderful b^^d

Thinking hard for a nice Instagram posture :)

KL! 

Now that’s not something very often we see on a concert- unplug, pure acoustic performance by Clara (seriously, no wire at all except d human mic stand :P).

Rough performance as technical problems keeps popping up, Clara gets a bit emotional & start to shade her tears.. Don’t cry girl, you’re still awesome ^^

Clara: “I’m alright, it’s a pretty rough night for me, I don’t know why I cried.. May be my _____ is coming” -.-lll lol (have to censored a word here, those who really wanna know, try ask those that attended the show, unexpected & funny explanation XD)  

Pretty ClaraC: The Camel Song, Heartstrings, You’ve Got It All, Offbeat, Get Lucky, Fish (congrats to the lovely Fish couple engagement ❤ ♡ ♥ ღ ❣ ❥ ^^)

So it was a pretty enjoyable night, but it ends too soon though.. To Jason & Clara, you guys are amazing, eagerly anticipating for a duet via you guys in the near future, cheers~ :)