And The Celebration Continues....

[WARNING: CONTAINS NUDITY, NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 40]

Afterall, how often does one turn 40? For that matter, how often does one turn any age?

Celebrating one's 40th is a Western Ideaology. Chinese don't normally celebrate 40th one. Ask any traditionalist. But anyway, we'll indulge her. Afterall, she's only part (chinese).

Turns out, this clump of dates is quite a popular time to be born. Wife & FOTY 2007 are born a day after Queen DSLR, hence making it a perfect time for a joint celebration. We also needed a smoke screen to distract Queen from the surprise planned by Bald Eagle, so we had actually set up another dinner date, ostensibly to celebrate HER 40th, on Saturday night, at a place called CWZJ in Kuchai somewhere. Twas also to give a chance to Hairy Berry to celebrate the Queen's 40th. The place was recommended by Mrs FOTY, who in turn referred us to this post.

Not that the place was bad or anything, but it really WOULD have been quite sad if this was really the ONLY 40th celebration she was going to have.

We convoyed, in rather good weather, I might add, to this unknown place in Kuchai Lama. I am amazed at the number of very interesting F&B outlets that have mushroomed in the area. Certainly worth a dedicated visit just to check out some of the places. All the ladies were dolled up, because we were to adjourn for drinks at a happening place after dinner, so were worried if they looked overdressed and overmade up for dinner at CWZJ. They breathed an audible sigh of relief to see that the place was air conditioned.


I guess when you have this much eye makeup, I would actually carry a tank of liquid nitrogen around to prevent a complete melt down of mascara.

The restaurant is an intermediate shoplot, adequately decorated, and rather cosy. Apparently CWZJ stands for Heavenly Kings Tea House....or something like that. My Mandarin is only slightly better than my Tamil.

We started with the Double Boiled Ginseng and Chicken Soup, a lovely fragrant clear soup (after they fished out all the ingredients), with lots of stuff to provide a delicious stock. Dried scallop, imitation abalone (whatever you call that impostor clam), chicken, pork ribs, ginseng, etc.

My only complaint is that the soup wasn't piping hot. I like my soup piping hot, the kind that can do serious damage to your larynx and tongue and lips if not careful.

A crispy deep fried pork dish.... hint of 5 spice powder, this dish just cries out to accompany alcohol, so it's a good thing we had a bottle of JW Green Label with us. They charge RM30 corkage for the bottle, but it comes with a 1litre bottle of Panna mineral water, which actually makes it alright I guess. Other establishments have charged even more corkage for less in return.

Seng kwa, (petola, or loofah), ....I think it's steamed, with some bits and bobs on it. Gosh, I really ought to write these things down. Tasty, and tender.


Some kind of beancurd dish, in a sauce that resembles a savoury custard. All these dishes go very well with rice, that evil killer we were talking about in a previous post.


Mmmm, lovely spare ribs, cooked in oolong tea. Flavourful and tender, this is definitely a must order dish.


Smoked Duck. Someone remarked it was like the Chinese New Year Lap Mei-s. A tad salty, but tastes good.

And now, the clincher. The manager recommended us CHEE YAU CHAR FAN. The deaf one chirped, ooh, that sounds good, but then we realised her moniker was actually a highly appropriate one, coz when the dish came, she went, EUGHHHH, chee yau char fan??

Anyway, it's deep fried pork fat rice. How sinful can that sound? The manager preempted our reservations by saying, "yes, I know it sounds terrible, but it actually tastes very good". Well, who said it sounded terrible? Anything with chee yau char (deep fried pork fat) is like christmas come early for me.

Surprisingly, despite its lardy da sounding name, the rice was EXCELLENT. Not too oily, (I know, a miracle in itself), and the deep fried pork fat (I think lard has been wrongly used all this while, coz lard is like ghee, and not the raw pork fat) was like a poor man's foie gras.

Dinner was very kindly bought by FOTY 2007. Thanks a bunch. Apparently the bill came up to 300 plus. We also had a tapioca dessert, which the deaf one loved. Maybe it reminded her of the days of the Japanese Occupation.

Speaking of Japanese, The Girl From Abu Dhabi had called me frantically on Thursday, asking if I could "deliver" a surprise gift to Lemongrass for her. She would have the stuff delivered to my place, and I had to bring it to Lemongrass for this fake 40th birthday dinner.

Lo and behold, I nearly balked when I saw these!!!!

These amazing sugarpaste cakelets, shaped as sushi and various other things, are made by MAMAMIN. Check out her blogsite at www.mamamin.com . My first reaction was to gasp at the creativity of it all. I had no doubt that Lemongrass would be thrilled to bits.

In case you're wondering, the one at the far left upper corner is a torso, with a skin colored blanket, covering something that protrudes out.

After getting over the initial awe, my emotions then turned to seeeeething envy and jealousy. I sms-ed Girl From Abu Dhabi, and bemoaned the fact that HOWWWWW could she have forced my pooooor Anna Pavlova into the sideline, by giving Lemongrass such a beautiful present?!!!! Sigh, poor poor Pavlova. Would I need to hide her in a paper bag, .......!!!! Anyway, then I decided, heck, since its a birthday celebration for 2 others apart from Lemongrass, I shall present THEM with the Pavlova instead.

We have here the recipient peeling off the blanket from the torso and checking its contents.

I leave it to your imagination as to what she's doing in the picture. The thing on the palm is a bum with a g string.