Category: Charlie & Friends

Grilled goodies at Yakiniku

Thanks to Ah Ring, #porkgang got to enjoy some yakiniku at Yakiniku, Pandan Indah. It’s very near my parents’ place so I was pretty excited to discover a new place to eat near where I grew up.

To go to Yakiniku, just drive as though you’re going to Steven’s Corner. Once Steven’s on your left, go straight and turn left at the traffic lights. Then turn right when you see Hong Leong bank. Yakiniku is right opposite the bank.

# Some porkers.

# 2 porkers.

Food was pretty good, especially for the price. Like a plate of pork bacon slices goes from RM5.90.

# The grill.

# Yummy mussels with butter, pork slices and enoki mushrooms.

# Spot the awesomesauce marinated chicken gizzards. I practically nommed the entire plate.

# More chicken gizzards with sweet corn.

# One way to eat the delicious grilled meat is wrapped in lettuce then dipped in the special sauce.

Besides grilled stuff, they also serve other ala-carte dishes.

# Kimchi fried rice. If you love kimchi, you’d love this.

# Kimchi soup. Wholesome and tasty.

# Deep fried soft shelled crab. Crispy!

# Chicken katsu don. Delicious and light.

Yakiniku also has a huge selection of rather sweet but very addictive drinks. If you want to lay off the sugar, they do have good old green tea and fantastic sour plum ice blended.

The best thing about Yakiniku?? It is pet-friendly! Charlie, Fatty, Ally and Koyuki were sitting INSIDE the restaurant with us. Of course, if you’re thinking of bringing your furkids anywhere, make sure they are well-behaved in the 1st place ya? :)

I’d highly recommend Yakiniku. True, the food is not amazingly great but really exceeded the quality you might have expected with the price. It’s a place to go when you’re bored with your regular choices of food. The atmosphere is nice and comfortable, service is great and it’s dog-friendly.

p/s: pictures were taken with my Bold2. Not too bad aye? :)

Restaurant Yakiniku
20G, Jalan Pandan Indah 4/8, Pandan Indah, 55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03 4295 4833

#emocharlie has separation anxiety

Charlie my beloved mutt has separation anxiety. There, I’ve said it.

We spend RM300 every month just for a dogsitter to look after him on the weekends and I’ve basically given up on a full time job just so I could be with him on the weekdays (okay, I really do not like working full time also :P). Which explains why he has to be at the sitter on the weekends, because I need dog-free activities like eating at non-dog friendly restaurants, catching a movie etc.

Leaving him for a 1/2 hour alone would mean that he would be barking ferociously at the closed door for a full 30 minutes until I’m home. Though I don’t work full time, I need to go out to meet clients on the weekdays too and whenever this happens, I in turn become the one with the anxiety problems :P

Yesterday someone offered me 2 tickets to watch a new movie tonight and imagine how ridiculous I felt when I had to decline the tickets because my dog cannot be left alone?

My greatest fear is the neighbours complaining and eventually getting us into trouble but touch wood, that has not happened yet. A neighbour did voice out to us about a barking episode a while ago though. And I had strived to stop that from happening again.

English Cocker Spaniels are a great breed but they are infamous for being needy. They need constant human contact, very very affectionate animals. Something which I had no idea when I got Charlie. Trust me, if I had learnt to research on dogs’ characters before getting a dog, I would not have gotten him at all. I’d get a cat instead, JUST KIDDING! But alas, it’s fated and I have to live with my decision for at least 15 years :)

So anyway, due to Charlie’s separation anxiety, I’ve been avoiding going out at all. I know it’s unhealthy for me but to be honest I was pretty happy cooped up at home with just my dog.

Then suddenly, I was swamped with work and had to go out a couple of times a week. Luckily my friend, Ringo could look after him. Another time the bf took leave to do it.

But today…today I couldn’t find any help. So it’s just me and Charlie and then Charlie alone from 12.00pm – 4.30pm. Frankly, I was worried to death. I took a chance by leaving the wooden door open hoping he won’t feel so trapped in our tiny apartment.

And when I got home, he wasn’t barking which was not really a good sign as I had learnt because it probably meant that he’s exhausted from it. I decided to ring a neighbour’s doorbell and according to her, he didn’t bark but instead he howled. In fact he howled for a while like he’s asking for pity. Then I asked her whether the howling disturbed her and she answered, “Nope”.

At that very moment, I was filled with pride and happiness that you cannot possibly imagine. I guess leaving the wooden door opened really worked!

Yes, I have reached a new milestone with Charlie :)

And possibly getting my social life back!!!!!

Sewing Project #1 – Gong Xi Fa Chai Cape

Just a couple of days ago, the #porkgang was having the daily talk cock session on MSN. Haze and I somehow got into talking about taking vocal lessons together and then I suggested that we should take sewing lessons too. Suddenly she was like, “Ah, you want to sew ah? You take my sewing machine ah! I give you everything!”. I was like, “WTF? Are you serious?”. Later on, we met up for dinner and true enough, the back of her car was filled with sewing machine, loads of fabrics, mannequin and other stuff that I don’t even know what they are yet. SHE GAVE EVERYTHING TO ME!

Mannequin, fabrics and more fabrics!

My current apartment is really tiny and to be honest, I don’t really have space for a sewing machine. I ended up moving my laptop to the right of my study table and put the sewing machine where the laptop was. I think I made a good decision because as it turned out, it’s a very comfortable space to sew :)

I’ve got a sewing machine! I’ve got a sewing machine! I’m smiling from ear to ear :D

I spent an hour learning how to wind the bobbin and thread the machine. Thank goodness the manual was very, very detailed and I didn’t encounter any problem. Not to mention, Haze’s very clever to get the Brother XL2630 because it’s equipped with a quick-set bobbin and a needle threader! Great for blind asses like me :D

Threading the machine…

I tried out the machine and managed to sew a line without hurting any finger. Suffice to say, I was very, very proud with myself. Considering that my last sewing experience 10 years ago was nothing short of a failure. It was already about 2am by then but instead of going to sleep, I decided to embark on an impromptu sewing project!

Check out my awesomesauce drawing.

It was not as easy as I had imagined it to be. At first I thought of making an actual dog collar with buttons to fasten but I didn’t have any button. So after a bit of mucking around, I decided to make a collar cover instead. I chose a crimson red oriental patterned fabric for my project :D

First, I ironed out the wrinkles so I could with it more easily.

Then, I cut out a length of fabric with Charlie’s current collar as a reference.

After that, I roughly drew out the size of the triangular cape which will be attached to the collar.

And now, ladies & gentlemen, it’s sewing time!

My sewing skills suck to the max. Just look at my stitching :( I had to sew a few lines over each other to make/mock a straight line. If you’re in my situation, don’t fret because you’re turning the fabric outside in, so no one will find out :P

Now that the easy part is out of the way, it’s time to sew the collar cover. Imagine it’s like a mini bolster cover la! You sew the fabric end to end to form a cylinder shape. Make sure you leave space to attach the triangular cape though.

Took me 4 hours to get this:

And 15 minutes to clean up this mess….

and this mess too.

But it’s all worth it to see Charlie wearing something made with love on Chinese New Year :)

How’s my side profile, mummy?

Nah, lying down so you can see my Gong Xi cape clearly!

I can be a manly cowboy on Chinese New Year too, mummy.

I don’t like to model mummy, it’s so exhausting!

Till my next sewing project, thank you Haze for giving me this opportunity…I <3 YOU SO MUCH! +++ /UPDATE +++ Just got permission from QQ's owners that she could celebrate CNY with us for a couple of days. So I made another collar just for her :) It took me much faster this time, about 1.5 hours from start to finish. Check out my latest model :D Pink is so my colour!

More angpows please :D