Izakaya Kushi Raku, TTDI

It seems I'm in some "alcohol luck" recently, must be due to my friends who likes to drink surrounding me and spreading to me their "alcoholic aura". lololol. But I'm glad to be around them as doing things that I don't usually do end up I discover Foodink and also being invited to good places, like Izakaya Kushi Raku!

There goes my virgin visit to an Izakaya, lucky you Kushi Raku! haha

Since it's my first visit to an Izakaya, I always imagine how Izakaya would feel like, based on reference from Japanese manga and animation... And I would say Kushi Raku is pretty close to how it would felt to be in an authentic Izakaya. The decoration, the atmosphere, is pretty Japanese with some modern touch here and there, even their furnitures are custom-made to fit in the Izakaya theme and ambience.

Izakaya, means Japanese bar in Japanese, which white collar workers in Japan would pay a visit after office hours to have drink and wind down the stressful working feeling for the day before they head home. Usually one or two drinks accompany with some skewers as snacks to spice up the taste and probably, blunt life of a workaholic. 

Although I'm no white collar worker, but I'm definitely looking forward into trying the chicken, beef and pork skewers serve by Kushi Raku. But first, we were being serve with two types of appetizers while waiting for chef to grill our chicken skewers. 

Front- Snail Meat, RM9
Back - Skate Fin - RM10

Snail meat tastes a bit exotic, but they aren't actually "snail" snail, more like those you saw served in Chinese restaurants. It is serve as cold dish, perfect for pairing with your cup of sake. Skate Fin, which commonly known as sting ray, are dried, salted and grilled then sliced into slices before serve. I really love the skate fin I keep munching on them non-stop!

Kim, our chef of the day
Preparing our skewers, ご苦労様でした！

It's so hard to be Izakaya chef as trying to grill that amount of skewers at once is such a huge challenge! Each has to barbecue to perfection, not too raw not too well-done, Kim did such a great job on that day, serving us fine skewers that I'm still craving for them now! Let me show you some of the skewers that we had that day:

Chicken wing (salted) - RM7/stick

I didn't know that except barbecue chicken wings ala Chinese style, Japanese chicken wings skewers can be this tasty too! Salt on the chicken skin made the skin texture crunchy after grilled then soft and tender chicken meat on the inside, it is one skewer that you should never miss if you like to eat chicken wings.

Pork belly special - RM7/stick

OHMYGOD this gotta be my favourite skewers on the menu we got served that day! Its crunchy and caramelised skin layer got me eating them non-stop! Fresh pork belly grilled to perfection, from crunchy outter to soft inner, each bite is another satisfaction added to my taste bud sensation. Yums yums! I couldn't help but order this skewer again after I finish my portion. That shows how much love I have for this Pork belly special skewer! Hahaha!

Thigh meat wasabi mayo - RM5/stick

For the wasabi lovers, this tender thigh meat wasabi mayo is definitely your cup of tea! Each boneless thigh meat covered with load of wasabi mayo on top. Although it is not as choking as fresh wasabi, but still it's challenging for me to eat it without feeling all teary eyes. Hahahaha but I love to challenge my taste buds, and definitely a fun dish to try!

Cherry Tomato - RM4/stick

Soft and juicy cherry tomato, but wait, it is salted on the outside and grilled for short amount of time, each piece of cherry tomato is so juicy and soft it melts inside your mouth! Freda love this cherry tomato so much you can hear her squeak when she saw the dish being serve hahaha. It kinda amazed me that beside meat, vegetables and fruits can be grill and serve like this, paired with sake that we're drinking, it freshen up our taste buds after few consumptions of meat skewers!

Beef rib eye miso - RM11/stick

Tender rib eye glazed with miso sauce on the outside then grilled to medium well, this beef rib eye miso are customers' favourite. You can taste the freshness of succulent beef as well as the Japanese miso sauce that were absorb in it. To discover such Japanese flavour skewers at a local Izakaya make me feel I'm closer to Japan. lol.

Hahaha~ Did I mention to you that skewers aren't main course? I was shocked too because I felt pretty full just by eating those skewers and yet here are some of the main course waiting for us:

Squid stuffed rice - RM27

First time in my life ate such fried rice stuffed into the squid's body and grill'em together. The fresh, unique squid taste were absorb into the fried rice that were stuffed into it, then it were sliced into ring size, which looked like sushi rolls. The chewy, aromatic grill squid fried rice ring is very special, totally fit all the criteria needed for the perfect "seafood fried rice" lol.

Yaki Onigiri Salmon - RM7

Another favourite dish of mine! It's my first time to eat a crunchy onigiri as it was glazed and grilled after stuffed in the salmon bits. Topped with seaweed and furikake (Japanese dry seasoning), this onigiri is superb delicious from outside to the inside. Not to mention it is quite big in size, immediately I felt like I couldn't eat no more at that time. lol. Okay it was a lie. I could eat another yaki onigiri!

It was a fun food review session, especially with my girl Freda, both of us eat and drink and took lots of silly photos with our food, Kushi Raku definitely is a fun place to chill out at! We hang out at Kushi Raku until 11pm that night! Crazy bunch!!! Felt hungry during dinner time and ordered this specialty of the day which wasn't list in their menu:

Salmon Mentaiyaki - RM25

Kushi Raku serve udon, sob, Japanese curry rice, tempura, skewers as well as some signature appetizers. Also they have some seasonal special (like the salmon mentaiyaki above) which you have to check with the chef. They only offer fresh seashells and seafood which are in season, to ensure that their customer enjoy fresh seafood and good drinks for a happy, fun time at Kushi Raku.

Really fun time I had with Freda:

Good food, awesome ambience and a cup of good sake, we're both happy girl enjoying the weekend! Aside of sake, Kushi Raku too serve signature drinks such as Sparkling Sake and Kirin Ichiban which you can hardly get at any bars around. Their sake range really shocked me, you can check it out with the owner when you visit, I'm sure the owner will be gladly explain the sakes they have in store for you.

KAMPAI!!!

For more information:

Izakaya Kushi Raku

Address: 28, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 2, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, 60000, KL.

Phone no.: 03-28569200

Business hours: 

Monday - Friday 12p.m. - 1a.m.

Saturday 4p.m. - 1a.m.

Closed on Sunday

Izakaya Kushi Raku Official Facebook Page

Omakase + Appreciate, Ming Annexe Building, Jalan Ampang

If you know me well, you should probably know I don't drink any sort of alcoholic beverages as I tend to get drunk easily. I guess that pretty much sums up my social life too - no bar, no happy hour and so. Surprisingly, my friends are pro-drinkers, some of them can drink so much and still stay sober, almost God-like! 

Thanks to them, I get to explore one of the most hidden bar located in the heart of KL, which you may not heard of as they don't really promote themselves much and mostly people know the place by viva voce. Sounds mysterious isn't it? That is why I gotta pay a visit to this mysterious bar!

Me, Jean, Freda and KJ decided to go to Omakase + Appreciate on this Friday night. Jean lead us to Ming Annexe Building which located at Jln Ampang and I was like, so empty this place, not even one living human being spotted around except the guards of the building. lol. After parked our car in the building and take lift to the main entrance, I was like: where is the freaking bar!!! Jean continue lead us to this basement which looked like this:

Photo stolen from Jean's blog

I was anticipating it and I took snapchat but not photos, hence gotta steal the photo from Jean's blog lolololol. The bar was hidden behind the door which has the No Admittance sign on it. Kinda build up the adventurous feeling to push open the door isn't it? Anyway, there it is, the mysterious Omakase + Appreciate bar that serve one of the finest cocktails curated by well known bartenders of KL!

Omakase + Appreciate started their business in April 2013 started with two renowned bartenders - Shawn Chong and Karl Too, serving customers with their perfect blend of cocktails liquors from both East and West, as well as teaching their customers to appreciate the glass of cocktails in their hand. I was kinda intimidated to see such variety of alcohol displayed on the rack inside the bar...

Okay I surrender.

It was a fine Friday night, hence the sofa seats around are full with tourists and locals who pay a visit after work, so we settle for the bar area, and it was one of the perfect seat to see the bartenders work out the magic in your glass.

Our bartender of the night - Shawn Chong
Jean's favourite bartender!

In fact, as one of the co-owner of Omakase + Appreciate, Shawn Chong is one of South-East Asia's best bartenders and he just came back from Cape Town, South Africa in September after competing in Diageo Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year 2015. I guess you can never get a better glass of cocktail from elsewhere in Malaysia than in Omakase + Appreciate.



Omakase + Appreciate constantly bring in new menu monthly to satisfy customers' hunger for perfect glass of cocktail. 4 bartenders, 4 different blend, specialty and classics from 4 different personalities, I guess even people who are alcohol-intolerance like me can't resist a glass too. So we decided to order one glass of cocktails each to toast for my bravery of trying their cocktails and also for the Friday night that we're enjoying!

Guess which one was mine?

Since their menu change monthly, hence you might not see your favourite cocktails on the menu next month but you can always request them to curate the special cocktail for you which suits your taste. I purposely tell Shawn I wanted something that is very low in alcohol percentage, low in bitterness and sweeter, I'm guessing the OS from Shawn will be like: Can you go to some place that's not a bar to request for juice please you noob drinker. LOL. But I wanted to drink cocktail, enjoy it and stay sober becaue I'm driving... *pouts*

I barely can remember the name of the cocktails we ordered that night. I spent whole night trying so hard to drink my glass of cocktail, and occasionally swap glass with Freda to let her drink mine more so I don't have to down the whole glass myself hahahahaha. Stupid things I do when drinking but it was a fun night. It was also on that night, I witness the drinking ability of Jean and KJ which is almost God-Like! While I was struggling with my one-and-only glass of cocktail, they keep ordering cocktails whenever they saw some interesting liquor bottles on the rack, like this one:

Arak Bali

I guess Shawn was pretty much up to the game to mix and blend different types of cocktails using different type of liquor on that night for both Jean and KJ. I'm constantly feeling sleepy on the other side, trying to stay awake by chewing away the bowl of snacks they provide for customers and Freda was mumbling bout silly stuff and selfie all the time. Hahahahahaha. 

One of the perks of having alcoholic friend - You get to try different cocktails without have to down the whole glass yourself.
I'm trying very hard to recall that this cocktail is called Spring or Summer.

Drunkards

It was a really fun night out with them, to chill and hype up the happy feelings for the weekend. We talk about silly things, girls problems, work issues over the glass and I guess Shawn pretty much know the secret of customers there hahahaha. When the bill came, almost got me by heart attack, because just by drinking cocktails the amount is RM550! LOL! Well, the unique experience at Omakase + Appreciate pretty worth the bill I would say.

Too drunk to stand straight, have to support by the wall hahaha

If you're searching for a good cocktail bar, Omakase + Appreciate will definitely be the place you gotta pay the visit at least once in your life! But Jean have this lil selfish thought of not sharing this wonderful place to the public as it is already so crowded and often fully-occupied, she wanna own the place by herself! Hahaha. Gosh~ I'm feeling like drinking already! *alcoholic spotted*




For more information:

Omakase + Appreciate Official Facebook Page

Business Hour:

Tues-Fri:
17:00-01:00
Sat:
21:00-01:00

Address: LG floor, Ampang Bangunan Ming Annexe, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

NARS Fall 2015 Color Collection

This mark my first purchase of NARS cosmetics too hooray! Ever since NARS opened their first store in Pavilion, me and my friends dropped by to visit their store quite often to check out their cosmetics and latest collection. Most of my friends have been buying their lipsticks, blushers and all but for me, I'm quite dilemma of what to buy and finally, NARS Fall 2015 Color Collection had my eyes on them!

Yay to my first NARS purchase lololol

Okay the nail lacquer isn't from the Fall 2015 Color Collection but I find it makes perfect fall winter colour and I'm loving the colour to bits! Was having some hard time deciding what colour to buy as I want something darker shade but not too feminine, more on the cool chic side, and this colour catches my eyes!

Purple Rain

Loving the subtle glimmer that shines

Loving the colour!

This nail polish from NARS had my heart since I first try it on in the store, as it is formulated with quick dry technique and also the colour, oh I just love the colour so much! Instantly made my hand look fairer and the colour just pop out so much. 

Usually I paint my nails 2 layers and it tends to be a bit hard to dry and sometimes with my restless behaviour of wanting to do things before my nail colour even dry completely, my nails will look horrendous with all those scratched nail colour. With NARS, one layer of painting is all I need to get my perfect nail colour and it dries out so fast! I'm amazed! 

Thinking of buying another nail polish from them again soon... Thinking of what colour~ Probably something more Spring Summer-ish? 

Next, from NARS Fall 2015 Color Collection which I think matches with my nail colours perfectly: Dual-Intensity Eyeshadow - Pasiphae

Pasiphae from Fall 2015 Color Collection

Pasiphae, in Greek mythology is the daughter of Helios, The Sun and she is the Queen of the city Atlantis who possessed the power of witchcraft. I guess this pretty sums up my feeling towards this colour - dark and mysterious and yet charming. This shinning peacock burgundy colored eyeshadow changes colour from different perspective and under different lighting, its sophisticated colour really bring life to my eyes.

Under fluorescent lighting

Natural lighting

The dual-intensity eyeshadow can be apply in two method - both dry and wet. You can do a dry application for daily look to achieve a soft and sensual eyeshadow colour and to intensified your eye game, apply the eyeshadow using the wet application for mind-blowing impact and high shine finishes.


I really love how the eyeshadow changes it colours on my eyelids from different angle and it makes me feel like I've everchanging, like a chameleon! Definitely something that suits my style and personality, forever changing to one style and another and never settle down. I guess from looking at my cosmetic purchase you'll roughly get the idea what type of personality I am lololol.


For more information:

NARS Official Website

NARS Official Facebook Page

AsterSpring Sparkling Secret's Journey

Christmas came rather early this year! Thanks to AsterSpring, I've embarked on discovering their Sparking Secret's Journey last month and have learnt so many things about glowing skin health tips which helps beautify me from inside out. It was a fun event happened at AsterSpring One Utama centre and I saw so many familiar faces during the event. 

Ohai Kim Low and JQ and all the pretty girls I've met during the event

When I got AsterSpring's email inviting me to this event, I was a bit confused as it sounded like a journey to a trip, and yes indeed, it was a trip to rediscover how to be beautiful and glow radiantly from inside to outside as a woman who cherish and pamper herself. It was a rather informative event for me to gain more knowledge how to take good care of myself and look beautifully and be healthy.

AsterSpring Sparkling Secret's Journey

My first stop will be - The Innertreats Zone

It's all about enzyme

Vitalzyme, a 100% au-naturale enzyme drink suitable for daily consumption was introduced to us and I was amazed by its ingredients. 100% natural blend of 120 types of fruits and plants, combined with 54 types friendly bacteria, which provides your body various type of antioxidants, organic acids and phytonutrients for daily wellness. Vitalzyme was created with a 180 days triple fermentation process without any contains of alcohol, preservatives, artificial coloring, artificial flavoring nor sugar. It is a creation of an old-time, traditional methods of antique cypress barrels while the enzymes are improved by modern Japanese technology.


Vitalzyme is suitable for everyone to boost their immunity as well as provides antioxidants, vitamins and minerals to our body for stronger and healthier physical. All of us get to curate ourselves a glass of Vitalzyme with our preferred juices during the event.

By just looking at the display I instantly felt healthier already hahahahaha

My glass of Vitalzyme: Vitalzyme, lemon juice, cranberry juice and mint leaves!

This glass of Vitalzyme totally suits my taste! I like anything sourish, it helps refresh my senses and taste buds, of course, I kinda link sour to "non-fattening" and also helps slimming down. Hahahaha. I bet it would be great to drink a glass of Vitalzyme every morning as a great kickstart of the day.






My second stop will be the Skincare Zone.

Say Hi to Dermalogica

Well, I thought I knew what I knew about my skin, but guess this skincare zone proved that I was wrong. As skin changes along with the hormones in your body and also weather and environment, I will never know what are the changes that my skin is going through and it is always good to keep updating yourself of your skin condition by getting your skin checked by Dermalogica's staff. 

She gently examine my face and skin to come up with the best solution of how to take care of my skin

I've got combination type skin which make it harder to deal with. My skin needs extra care at some areas and little less attention at some, and the staff kindly suggested that I do light exfoliation every 2 to 3 days to keep my skin fresh and anew, so that the oily skin areas can take a breathe for lessen up dead skin cells that's been piling up and also unclog the oily pores. She suggested that Daily Microfoliant from Dermalogica is able to help better my skin condition. 

Was given these to try at home

I'm not a big fan of Dermalogica due to unfamiliarity towards the brand but most of my friends are! They've been using Dermalogica for quite some time and I've heard positive comments bout the brand now and then. It is a number one brand when it comes to professional skincare industry and has been around the market for 29 years, established positive results in improving skin health and also through education, innovation and professional recommendation.



Its plain design proves that Dermalogica achieved their goals by real result instead of marketing and packaging, and it is a product free from common irritants that prones to breakout such as lanolin, SD alcohol, mineral oil, artifical colors and fragrances. Hence Dermalogica is proven to improve the condition of your skin and also available at qualified skin therapy professionals such as AsterSpring centres.




Right after Skincare Zone, I was greeted by a bunch of happy, bubbly staffs and guess what, it is Skin Fun Zone next!

Toss and win!

Each of us were given three rings to toss at the board and you can win yourself your favourite products that are currently available at AsterSpring. I've only managed to get one out of three rings lol but it was an Aroma Smoothing Treatment session! Woohoo! Can't wait to try out their treatment session soon. 

Next is mark my favourite zone of all - Relaxing Zone.

I've lost track ever since when, massage has become one of my favourite relaxing moment when it comes to revitalising and rejuvenating my body and mind. This Relaxing Zone made me miss Thai massage even more! 

My masseuse of the day

My my she has a pair of soft and gentle hands and yet she manage to find those tired spots and nerves of mine and soothe them out with massage and also using Tisserand Aromatherapy oil. The award winning Tisserand essential oil is 100% pure organic, wild-crafted and ethically-harvested. It was the number 1 therapy-based brand back in UK and can be found across Europe in over 20,000+ stores!



While massaging, my masseuse asked me if recently I was sleep-deprived or stressed-out, that pretty amazed me as I was really undergoing stressful environment and insomnia attacks during that time, and she recommended me the Sweet Dream aromatherapy roller ball to help me get a good night sleep. I'm so thankful for her concern and kindness of my well-being.

Tisserand Aromatherapy Roller Ball

The Sweet Dream aromatherapy roller ball I got has calming and soothing effect due to its contain of jojoba, lavender and ylang-ylang oil, which promotes relaxation and is ideal when you need a good night sleep or some off-time for yourself. Rolling it on your pulse point like the back of your ears, inner wrist or even on forehead. It is none-greasy and puts you into a relaxation zone that I very much enjoyed ever since I got it from the event. 

Skin Fitness Zone comes after, and it looks like this:

Gosh am I seeing a dentist or something! NOOO!!!

It is not about dentist, but rather a comfortable sofa chair for you to sit on and let the machine do their job so your skin can be firmer than before. What? Just by sitting on the chair and skin can gets firmer? How does that even logical! Yes it is true - by using the modern Endermologie treatment of Mobilifit M6 by LPG introduce by AsterSpring into Malaysia skin wellness market.

Feeling honoured to try this Mobilift M6

Endermologie treatment of LPG system is a cellulite treatment system that combines firm massaging, rolling and sucking at the skin surface to attempt breaking up the fat cells that's caused cellulite dimpling and gathering. The skin of my hand was so soft and smooth after the treatment I just can't stop myself from touching the skin myself. 

It is a pain free, relaxing treatment which you can see the result in 10 minutes, almost instantly compare to other traditional and complicated procedure. It is also 100% natural without any usage of medication or oils, because by undergoing this treatment, it will increase the hyaluronic acid synthesis by 80% naturally, giving you soft and smooth skin that will amaze you. The machine is only available in selected AsterSpring centre, be sure to check out this advance technology of beauty innovation.

Second last stop of the day - Haircare Zone

Well, one of the shortest stay among of all zones - Haircare zone. Due to my heavily bleached hair, there's really nothing to take care of except to keep my hair frizz free and shiny. But still, an examine of my hair growth condition is needed, I'm kinda worry that bleaching will cause hair loss or something so let's see....

Hair condition examine device

And the result is quite promising! I don't have hair loss problem, and I guess my hair growth is in a pretty healthy state despite I've been bleaching my hair for more almost two years. My only concern is that my bleached hair are getting brittle, pretty damaging if not taking good care of it. Thanks to staff of Davines gave me some moisturizing shampoo and conditioner to try at home.



Founded in Parma, Italy in year 1983, Davines is one of the leading professional hair brands which are available in more than 80 countries. They create their products with attention and respect for environment, using only high grade, natural ingredients and strive to deliver products that connects their customers through the balance combination of scientifically, naturally and emotionally.




Our last stop of the day - The Beauty Zone

Philip Luq, came all the way from USA and introduce YoungBlood cosmetics to us

YoungBlood Mineral Cosmetics

Many didn't realize actually how lucky they are for not having allergic reaction towards cosmetics (people who are lucky like me) and this is why Pauline Youngblood, a paramedical aestheticians from California decided to create mineral cosmetics that actually protects skin cells and tissues. Using minerals like Malachite, Rhodolite, Hermatite and Zincite, paraben free, cruelty free, talc free, fragrance free, oil free, gluten free and using vegan products, YoungBlood mineral cosmetics has become a big hit in USA they are even appointed as official cosmetics for KARIGAM in New York Fashion Week!

Makeup demo by Philip

It is through the makeup demo by Philip only I realize how powerful the coverage of YoungBlood mineral cosmetics is. It is lightweighted and yet gives full coverage to your skin, protects you skin and make you look beautiful at the same time. They provides a full range of cosmetics that you can choose from and able to create any looks you like from their products. I'm so, so, so close into getting their eyeliners already! Same goes to Freda in purchasing their foundation set. 

The Sparkling Secret's journey ended with a short makeup competition where we can create our favourite makeup looks by using YoungBlood makeup. 5 girls a team trying to doll up an AsterSpring staff, kinda tortured by us I guess hahahaha sorry! Anyway it was fun to help others do their makeup, especially with full range of products available for me to choose from weeeee!!!

Thank you so much AsterSpring for this wonderful Sparkling Secret journey. It has once again taught be to be beautiful from inside out and I'm definitely gaining more knowledge about the products as well as skincare tips than before. Always a fun one when you get to be beautiful together with your friend ain't it?

For more information:

AsterSpring Official Website

AsterSpring Official Facebook Page

Dermalogica Official Website

Vitalzyme Brand Info

Tisserand Aromatherapy Official Website

Davines Official Website

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics Official Website

*products mentioned in this blog post can be purchase in selected AsterSpring centres