Tuesday 26 December 2017

#MakanReview : Laksa Pokok Limau [Kuala Kangsar]

I tried Kuala Kangsar's laksa once and I hated 'em.

Don't judge me. 

Judge my husband who despite being born and bred in Kuala Kangsar seems oblivious about good eateries there 😋

The laksa I had previously was very 'soupy', I can tell there's only a smidgen of fish in the broth.  Bottom line, awful.

Some people said kuah laksa Kuala Kangsar memang cair. But then, that doesn't justify isi ikan yang maha sikit. Kuah rasa bland. And the laksa itself, keras macam tak properly masak.


After some research on the internet, many people recommended this place, Laksa Pokok Limau. 

The best thing, it is located near my MIL's house. Hahaha

It's a proper shop beside the main road.


And I love it!!!!
Kuah pekat, laksa lembut, telur sarang tak berminyak.

And for the price, it can't get any better.




Credit : notmadeinmykitchen

It's even better than those I had in KL. 

Will be my favorite laksa spot from now on!!

Highly recommended! 💕


Closed on Friday.
Saturday - Thursday :11.30am - 7pm
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Monday 25 December 2017

#MakanReview : La Juiceria Superfoods [Mont Kiara]

Been here a couple of times and honestly, I love this place!

My ex boss is really into healthy food and he recommended La Juiceria Superfoods (in fact we had our department get-together here a couple of times). 


Location
It's at Verve Suites Mont Kiara. The parking is only RM1 per hour so ..... that's a plus. Tho traffic may be bad at peak hour (but still manageable).


Food
Keeping with the healthy theme, the food are freshly prepared with natural ingredients. They offered quite a big range of menu; All Day Breakfast, Super Bowls, Pasta, Cold Pressed Juice, smoothies and desserts!


A page out of the menu

They also had a Build-Your-Own-Gourmet-Salad option which I love!

Custom made so you can make sure you'll finish off every single thing in your bowl!

I ordered this the first time

Second visit, still opted for the salad (what do you call salad with no greens?) 

To be honest, my choices did not differ much. Haha
But I could tell the ingredients are fresh. The smoked duck is very good, and the portion is big!


Acai Berry Bowl RM24
Quite a pricey dessert but it is soooo good! And the ingredients are good for you too!
Brazilian Acai berry, bananas, cacao nibs, granola, strawberry, bee pollen, coconut and chia seeds. 

But I do wish it comes in a bigger bowl for the price. 



Teriyaki Chicken Soba RM18.90
N had this and I knew he'd fallen in love there and then. The grilled chicken thighs are succulent and crispy, soft boiled kampung egg at the side, flavorful soba, just a perfect combination.


Carbonara Mushroom Pasta RM20.90
Perhaps the unhealthiest of the healthy menu here. 😉

Their carbonara is to die for and this is big guys, coming from someone who always had an issue with this dish. Still drooling when I thought of it now. Definitely, the best carbonara I had so far. 

The perfect blend of creamy and cheesy. The soft boiled egg complement the dish perfectly.  



Decor / Ambiance
Very fresh! I love the deco with the purple base. Screams energy!

Credit to : chasingfooddreams




Open from 8am to 10pm daily. 

Sihat dan sedap!

Will definitely come again! 
[There's another branch in Avenue K as well!]
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Tuesday 31 October 2017

How to Be a Chartered Accountant in Malaysia

Siti Eva Aman CA(M)

Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.. 
Just got the formal admission email from Malaysian Institute of Accountant (MIA). So now I'm a Chartered Accountant! 😁😁

Membership Routes
There are a few ways for you to become a Chartered Accountant under MIA. The easiest one is to graduate from a local university with a Bachelor in Accounting (Hons) and gain 3 years of working experience (not including internship). 

The second route is by being a full member of the accounting body (ie MICPA, ACCA, ICAEW, CPA, CIMA etc).

And the final route is catered for non-accounting, business and finance graduate; you will need to sit for the Qualifying Exam (QE). But accounting modules must be at least 60% of the total courses in your degree.

There are a total of 4 papers for the exam; 
  • Business and Company Law
  • Auditing
  • Taxation
  • Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting
And each of the papers consists of workshops and a final exam. 



Statistics


Currently, there is approximately 33,700 Chartered Accountant in Malaysia.

20,000 of them are professionally qualified (ACCA, ICAEW etc).
And out of these 20,000 only 8% is Bumiputera 🙇🙇

Of course, there's a lot of professionally qualified Bumiputera Accountant out there who doesn't bother to register with MIA but this organisation is the one used by the government as a yardstick. And at the moment, the goal is to have 60,000 registered accountant by 2020 which is almost double from the current tally. 

Of course, the push is for all the accountants to be professionally qualified [which at the moment, you can be Chartered Accountant without having ACCA etc certification via Route One].

And for you to be a practising Accountant in Malaysia, you MUST be registered with MIA.


Application Process



Technical Aspects of the Application

3 years of working experience
Any employment period of fewer than 6 months or 'part-time' experience will not be included in the 36 months working experience. By that virtue, internship experience shall be excluded.

MIACare
The applicant will need to complete the CARE program online [documentation of working experience to be verified by mentors and supervisors].

Mentor MUST be an existing MIA member, in or out your organization (networking is vital!).
The supervisor can be anyone you are directly reporting to. 

With that being said, thank you Sir Azwan, Richard and Kak Balqis! 💕
You guys made this easier!!


Fees
Admission Fee - RM500
Annual Fee - RM350
Online Induction Course - RM180

Total - RM1,010 
[Check with your company whether this amount is reimbursable. Majority of companies will reimburse the fees in order to get you qualified]



So go get your membership if you're qualified. Fast!
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Monday 30 October 2017

#MakanReview : Ana Ikan Bakar Petai Ken Rimba [Updated]

Update December 2018 : The place is closed. 


I went to this establishment last weekend, and oh my lord it has changed so much!!

You can read my previous review here.


And I sincerely think they've turned for the worst. 😠

No more 'choose-the-seafood-yourself' section (which I think really sucks). One; you don't know how fresh the seafood are and secondly, you lost the freedom to choose!

We only ordered a few dishes.

Crispy Fried Tempura Squid (Small) RM25
This right here, is good value for money. It's a lot!!! However, the tempura itself is a bit bland. I think they didn't add any salt 😅 


Compared to my previous visit, I can tell they are serving way less keropok lekor. But they slices em more, so you got some annoyingly thin strips of keropok as well. I really believe they're doing some cost cutting measures. 

The fried rice is superrrrrrrr oily!
Service
So so bad!!!

We ordered 2 fried rice. We got 1. Waited another 20 minutes to get another portion. It's not like the place was packed.

Then the waitress served the keropok lekor. One of it fell and she has the audacity to pick it up and put it back on the plate. Whattttttttttttttttttt!!??


That's it. Not gonna come back again. 


The menu;



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Friday 20 October 2017

#MakanReview : Fancy Breakfast Club [Bangsar]

Looking at their Instagram feed, one can't stop drooling.
At least I can't.

Everything looks so nice and decadent!

Lemme share some posts from their Instagram.



Location
It's in Bangsar, so you can imagine the traffic and difficulties in finding parking 😅
We nearly missed the place since it's on the second floor. LOL

Decor
It's a nice quaint place, not too big, I think it can fit around 30 customers at one time. The theme is minimal, but not boring. The natural lighting definitely boost the place. Bear in mind however, you'll be seated with other customers on the long table. Not much privacy I would say.

Menu
They offered a limited menu but hey, if everything is done perfectly, you can survived with having even a 5-item menu right?


Food
Breakfast Board
A combination of minimum 5 items (at RM6 each) that comes with hummus, baguette and tomato chutney. [Last year, it was RM3 per item; such a steep increase in price]

I don't think it's worth the RM30. My gullible husband thought this whole platter cost RM6 🙈


Rating : 3.5/5


Mariana Trench Pasta
I ordered this and it was great!!! Squid ink pasta with prawn, mussel, lemon crumbs, chilli paste and udang geragau (RM32).


So, soooo good! It takes a while to serve this but worth the wait! Will definitely visit again just for this.

Rating : 5/5




Thanks Anis Manis for the treat! 💗

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Monday 16 October 2017

#MakanReview - Station 21 [Bangsar]

I. Love. Lamb.

This place right here, is famous for its lamb chop.

Location
Inside Masjid Saidina Abu Bakar (Bangsar). I knowwwww, weird right?
Parking may be limited [inside the mosque compound itself].
It's at the back of the building, at the cafe.

Menu
They served western fares, especially famous for their lamb chop and chicken chop.


Review : Lamb Chop



Generous, generous, generous! ❤
I swear it felt like the lambs were never ending. Such a huge portion at a reasonable price, RM22.

I usually hate black pepper sauce but I kid you not, this sauce is the best I've tasted. Ever!
The peppery taste is not too strong, everything just blends nicely.

Rating : 4.5/5


Review : Chicken Chop



N ordered this. Again, quite a big portion (RM14). We chose the oriental sauce, a bit sour but I love it!


Rating : 4/5


The service may be a bit slow, they don't wipe the tables unless asked 😐
But the chefs were very professional, in their proper chef attire. (I heard the owner is the chef himself).

Operation Hours : Noon - 11pm [Monday-Saturday]

Verdict : I would return in the future, though one would need to tolerate the service 👀
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Saturday 30 September 2017

Anniversary Trip : Aceh

Me and N spent 5 days in Aceh, Indonesia for our anniversary trip. It is always a big ordeal since we're celebrating my birthday as well. Hahaha


We took the first flight out to Aceh at 7am (the next flight is at 1pm).
The tickets cost RM200 per person (return).


Upon arriving at the airport, our supir had waited for us.
On hindsight, I kinda regret taking on his service.

Yeah, sure it makes everything easier. But for the level of service, totally not worth it.
Aceh is not as developed and accustomed to tourist as Bali, so the supir service is still subpar.

Nonchalant, smoking supir.  😒
We paid nearly RM200 for a 6 hour service [not even for a full day] 🙏
And the attractions were not that far apart.

From then onwards, we traveled using Grab.
Cheap and efficient.

We did cover all the famous attractions.

The one that I like most was Masjid Raya Baitulrahman. Contrary to popular belief, there were more than 1 mosque that survived the 2004 Tsunami and this mosque was one of them.

Post Tsunami 2004

Excuse my robotic pose. They had giant foldable sunshades, like those at Masjid Nabawi

Clean, air conditioned, comfortable 💖

Google 'What to Eat in Aceh' and Mie Razali will definitely comes up.
Aceh is famed for its Mie Aceh (duhh) . But the most famous version is the one served by this eateries.

Basically, it's fried noodle. But I reaaaaallllly love it.
Approximately RM10.


The next morning, we took the fast ferry to Pulau Weh which cost RM25 per person.
It took 45 minutes.

[FYI, locals usually refer to Pulau Weh as Sabang]

Our transport from the port was arranged by Iboih Inn.

We were brought for a short tour around the island before we checked in. We kept stopping now and then for pictures.









THE. VIEW. WAS. AMAZING!


Then we had this amazing dish called Ayam Tangkap. Oh my lord, it was sooo soo good!!


Now on to the accommodation at Pulau Weh.

I have shortlisted two resorts, Iboih Inn and Freddies.

They are located at different part of the island.
Freddis is at Sumur Tiga while Iboih Inn is located at .. well Iboih.

The one I circled in green is the ferry port

Freddies Sumur Tiga
Freddies offers 3 types of accommodation; Bungalow (RM100), deluxe bungalow (RM110) and family room (RM130).


Pros
Hot and cold showers, beautiful view, decently priced, restaurant with fabulous reviews, beautiful beach, very very accommodating and helpful owner, no deposit is needed

Cons
No air conditioner (can be hot), quite far from snorkeling spot, no tv


Iboih Inn
Iboih Inn offers 7 types of room, covering both deluxe and budget traveler. The price ranges from RM90 - RM200 per night. The most expensive room is waterfront room with air conditioner and hot shower. 




Pros
Near snorkeling spot (literally 1 minute boat ride away), air conditioned, decent restaurant, amazing view, hammock

Cons
Deposit is a must, no tv, a little pricier than most resorts on the island but still cheaper by our standards, no beach per say, need to ride a boat to the resort (you can hike through some hills for 20 minutes), water dispenser is only replaced every 2 days (you need to pay if you ran out earlier), limited breakfast choice


In the end, I chose Iboih Inn although the owner of Freddies was waaaaaaay more helpful. Reason being, I can't imagine staying in the heat throughout our stay there. But no regrets, our stay at Iboih Inn was great! 


Boleh terjun mandi terus at the dock. They also provide all the snorkeling gears for rent.

View from our room. Tips : Book the place in advance. Selalu penuh!!

No filter needed whatsoever







Many people came here to snorkel / dive. We engaged with Ijul, a local snorkel / dive guide for RM150. That includes pick up, guide, equipment rental and GoPro 4. He brought us to the snorkeling point, basically we just swam while he dive around as our photographer. Haha

I kid you not, the water is crystal clear!





We had sate gurita and pisang goreng.

[Image from google]
Sate gurita is sate made of octopus, but it's so tender you can't differentiate it from beef.
And the pisang goreng I tell you. I can't have enough of them 💖

While we were at Iboih Inn, we had our lunch / dinner at the restaurant. Nothing fancy, good enough for our liking.

When we were finally back in Banda Aceh, we stayed at Seventeen17 Hotel.
Amazing value!


It's a new hotel. Clean, comfortable, impeccable service. One of the best in Aceh.
I would really, really recommend this hotel.

It's 500m away from Muzium Tsunami.


That's it for my mini review  ✌

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