"Adventure in KL!"

Last Sunday nite, flew to KL to attend a training on Monday and Tuesday. I booked Le Meridien at KL Sentral:



This is not an artist's impression; it really looks so futuristic! Le Meridien is side by side with Hilton KL and just opposite KL Sentral, so convenient ;) I haven't been to KL in a few years, so it was kinda daunting to travel there alone. Thankfully, bumped into SzeTheen at Penang airport; she was heading to the same hotel as me and act as my guide there :P

Reached there quite late dy, check in, and straight head to find something to eat! I was pretty nervous on Sunday, so didn't have much appetite to eat. It's like you're always looking at the clock, checking if it's time to board the plane. Anyway, looked around Le Meridien, not many restaurants still open. One waiter told me, why don't you try walk over to Hilton, they still have shops open. I was like, "I can do that?" So glad I did: they are connected so I wandered around and found Noodle Room.

Modo provides a budget for food of RM246 per day (~USD65). The catch is, you can't spend it all in one go. No one meal should exceed 60% of the budget. No problem ;)



Fried wonton, RM12. Really nice! You basically take each spoon and shove down the whole wonton with the chili sauce and the parsley makes for a fragrant finish~~ Mmmm..



Claypot Loh See Fun, RM32! :D This tasted soooo delicious, and I'm not even a fan of Loh See Fun! Seriously, if I had to fork out money on my own, this will still be worth it~~



Still got budget, Red Wine!! RM40 for a glass! Pretty strong taste too..



Desert, Sea Coconut RM14. Too full dy... Total after tax: RM112, still within budget :P



Nice setting. After that, head back to the room and retired for the night.

Early next morning, I skipped breakfast and head straight to take a taxi to UM. Class starts at 9AM, registration at 8.30AM. Guess I was too excited, reached there 8AM, nobody...


Went to walk around the Engineering faculty. I have mixed feeling of this place. UM was my first choice university which I selected after Form 6. I didn't get accepted though. But being there at that moment, I felt thankful that I didn't get it! The buildings and facilities are so old. It just looks terrible. And if that's not bad enough, the food which the training provider served is from the canteen! To cap it all off, the toilet is flooded! I stepped into a 'pool' just before going back.... argh~~

Sis and mom came up to KL as well to meet up with me. Apa lagi, makan-makan la~~ ;)

We went to Din Tai Fung @ MidValley Gardens, since I've never tried it before. Din Tai Fung was once selected as one of the top 10 restaurants in the world. Rankings are one thing, tasting the food is what really matters!



vinegar, soy sauce, chilli



Their trademark dish, Xiao Long Bao. Tastes just as nice as it looks!



Hot and Sour soup~~ awesome



Cha Jiang La Mien. This is just average..



Doumiao with garlic.. looks normal, but it's fried so well!



A varient of XiaoLongBao... with shrimp.. nice, but still prefer the original



Tofu.. so-so.. the sauce is great though



Beef soup. This is insanely good! Thick stock and the meat is so tender, it melts in your mouth!



Shanghai Drunken Chicken. Err... it's a COLD dish. The wine smell is strong, but I can't get over the fact it feels like it just came out of the fridge :S



Pork chop fried rice. Rice is a bit on the soft side, but the pork chop is perfect!

The bill came out to RM133. What I really like here is the service. The captain will be going rounds checking every table to see if all your orders have arrived. And he will KEEP CHECKING. So you won't have to call them to remind them, hey where's my food. This is service I would pay for! After the meal, went to walk around MidValley and the Gardens.



Nice deco.. simple and elegant :)

After that, went back to the hotel. This is my room:






They have this nice one control to control them all! Air-con, lights and clock, so you won't have to go find where are all the controls...

Still got budget for the day, went to explore. This is Le Meridien's entrance.



Artistic? Hmm.. kinda weird looking to me though





Very fancy place not to mention pricey: my one night stay there cost RM320 corporate rate. But even higher end is the one next door: Hilton KL:





I went to their lounge and had this glass of Champagne... RM79 for one glass *cough, cough*

It was a really tiring day, and after the alcohol, no wonder next day can't wake up. Had the buffet breakfast at the hotel, just sample the food, then shoot off to UM again. Tuesday was the last day, and my flight back to Penang was at 9.15PM so there was one last chance to finish off the budget. Hehe... after surveying around, settled for Favola, a newly opened Italian restaurant at Le Meridien.

Very nice ambience.. homely yet classy.

"Would you like plain water or sparkling?" Sparkling. Shit, the waitress didn't tell me this cost RM16! I nearly exceeded my budget because I thought this was free -_-''

This was free though, a variety of bread and pastry. Like garlic bread.. some are spicy, some are cheesy.



Appetizer: Portebello, it's like some vege put on top of a mushroom and then put cheese on top. When the waitress brought it here, it actually smells bad... but one bite and all the juices and flavour squishes into your mouth.. heavenly~~~



Lasagna al Forno.. another superbly sinful dish with extra shredded cheese to top it some more



Venetian Pizza... no way I can finish all this food right... Just whack one slice and take the rest of the toppings: prawn, scallop, squid, clam... "Sir, is something wrong with the pizza?" the waiter asked. "No la, no more space in my stomach!"

This came out to RM139, very close to my 60% max budget. Phew~~

After the meal, rush to Sentral, take the train to KLIA, slept on the flight home. And blue for the next two days! Overall, it's pretty fun (food?) filled trip. The training was beneficial, though UM is a terrible venue. Couldn't have enjoyed this without Modo's extravaganza budget... Cheers to Modo! :D