Fire outbreak + updates

There is a fire outbreak at my hostel on Wednesday and my fire source was one of the rooms on my floor and the whole floor is affected. 

The news is all over the Russian and Malaysian media. You can find it out. 

Currently they have cut off the electricity source for the affected floor and we are left without electricity and a place to stay. 

They haven't assign us new rooms and now I am staying over in my friend's room for the time being.

I would not be updating the blog until I get a new room and all settle down. 

Travel Diary : Sandakan, Sabah Day 2 : Dinner at Pasir Putih Baru

Day 2 is the most hectic day among our Sandakan trip. We have visited many tourist attraction spots and now it is dinner time,we are doing it Malaysian Chinese style. Feasting it big and grand.

Our dinner spot is Pasir Putih Baru which is beside the well known Ocean King restaurant in Sandakan.

After discussing with the tour guide and my uncle who has been to Sandakan. The elders finally end up deciding Pasir Putih Baru because of the cheaper price and the quality of food is about the same as compared to Ocean King.

The restaurant is built sea side so besides able to experience nice and fresh seafood, you get the view of the sea too.

"Wat Tan" Prawns.
Wat Tan is egg shimmered in starch based gravy. This style of cooking is very popular in Malaysia, Singapore and Southeast China.
If you have eaten fried noodles from the hawker stalls or 小抄 , you would probably been familiar with Wat Tan Hor (Flat Rice Noodles in Egg Gravy). This version instead of noodles, it is just purely prawns.

White clams stirfried in ginger and chives.

I have idea what is the name for this shellfish.
The kids leave the ordering to the elders. We will just eat what is served and we trust the elders. Ofcourse, this taste really good. It is different from what we used to. The shellfish is just baked without any flavours or seasonings. You could taste the freshness of the shellfish with every bite.

Stir fried greens.
I have no idea what is this vegetable called in English but in Chinese and Cantonese we call it 油麦.

More stir fried greens.
This is one special vegetable. I have no idea what it is called but it is native to this place. That means even me from West Malaysia will not be able to get my hands on this vegetable when I am back to West Malaysia.
I love the crunchyness of this vegetable, it does remind me of pucuk paku (a type of vegetable fern).
We do seem like we eat a lot of weird vegetables don't we?
Let me tell you what I do love about my country we have a huge variety of vegetables which makes the variety of vegetables in Moscow unbearable, how could people here survive with so little variety. There's no sweet potato for a potato loving country.

Deep fried fish cake.
Calorie laden comfort food for the soul.

Deep fried squid

Here comes the king!
Steam fish. My favourite dish when it comes to Chinese food. No restaurant meal is complete without steam fish.

Kam Hiong crab.
Time to get the fingers dirty and feast on fresh crabs.
In Malaysian Chinese culture, seafood dinner is not called a seafood dinner without the crabs. It is a must on the table.

Salted egg yolk crab.
Taste so good, I love salted egg yolk everything. Don't mind the cholesterol and calories. I am on a holiday.

This is how grand a restaurant dinner is in Malaysian Chinese culture. Neverending dishes, probably enough to feed a village of people.
How would I rate this restaurant. Well, it is not bad but I wouldn't say it the best seafood restaurant I have tried, just a different preference of taste. I do enjoy the Wat Tan prawns, Steamed fish and Stir fried green that is locally available in Sabah only. 

Spring makeup haul : Catrice & Vivienne Sabo

In the beauty shop, some spring collection of beauty products has creep their way to the shelves. Who isn't excited for Spring colours. I for one love the soft girly and also pastels of Spring colours. The new spring collection products are just too beautiful to past.

So, I picked up some items from the Spring collections of various brands from the beauty shop. 

I picked up 4 liquid lipsticks from Vivienne Sabo and Catrice's Absolute Rose Eyeshadow Palette. 

Liquid lipstick has been the rave in the beauty world right now. Every brand is trying to push their own version of liquid lipstick. This small little Russian brand isn't different and is on with the trend and released their own version of liquid lipsticks for their spring collection. 

Catrice Absolute Rose Eyeshadow Palette.

I have been eyeing on this palette for a long time eversince I knew that Catrice is releasing a rose version of their eyeshadow palette. I am glad they brought this palette over to Russia because I thought would not see daylight in Russia. I just love the colours on this palette.

I have to mention again that I love neutral shades with a twist of rose or pink undertones .It just gives the eyeshadow a twist of feminine and elegance.
This palette comes in six shadows. It range from beige pinks to smoky purple tones. Perfect for a daytime natural look and also sexy sultry night look.

Vivienne Sabo has release their range of liquid lipsticks for Spring. It comes in 4 shades and I got all four shades. I was lucky to be able to grab all of the four shades as some of the shades were the last piece left standing on the makeup shelf.

The packaging is not the most luxurious looking but I couldn't complain because the price is such a bargain. It comes in a plasticky packaging which isn't too flattering but it is not to the extend toy like. It has a plastic gold cap and gold printing on the plastic tube.

The shades do not have a name but they have a number code. I wish it come with names though, It would be more fun.

205 - A bright neon pink-coral
204 - Hollywood style red
203 - Pale baby pink
202 - Dusty rose

Here comes the swatches.
From top : 204, 205, 202, 203.

From bottom : 203, 202, 205,204

Among all the shades I woulsd say 202 is my favourite amongst the four shades that I have purchased. It is a beautiful MLBB shade and it is very feminine and elegant.

Happy Easter, Well belated Easter.

Happy Orthodox Easter or с Пасхой

I am probably a day late in my greetings.
Anyway, you might be wondering what is that muffin in my photo. It is a кулич (kulich), an Easter bread traditional to the Orthodox Christians.
It is my first time getting a kulich for the sake of trying it out. It taste like bread with sugar icing, there's nothing special, maybe because I bought a cheap one from Ashan, instead of the more expensive (maybe fancy ones) but definitely something to try out if you spot one since it is unique to the Orthodox Christian culture of Eastern Europe.

Easter is last week and to celebrate, I have the oh so famous Cadbury Creme Egg which I had smuggled all the way from London last winter holidays. 

Eating out Moscow : It is Gin no Taki again

I do not know if I have said this before but Gin no Taki is my favourite Japanese restaurant chain in Moscow.
This is not my first time visiting this restaurant but my second time. You can see my last blogpost regarding this Japanese restaurant

I had friends who has visited the Oktysberskaya branch and they were disgusted by the sushi at that branch. The branch that I always visit is near Ohotnyi Ryad which is really close to Red Square.

This time around I went with my other two girl friends. We also had a 50% off coupon.

The sushi is this shop is exotic, the blend is really unique. Who had thought of putting green chili in the sushi.
Eventhough unique the taste blend well and they don't come off as weird and disgusting.

My friend recommended the chili sushi, it is one of her favourite, I didn't try this sushi the last time I visited the shop.
I would say it is such an interesting combination, the avocado gives off a creamy taste whereas the chili gives off a fresh and spicy kick.

This is my favourite sushi roll set. It has eight rolls with different combination ranging from the salmon to caviars. It is for people who wants to have more choices on their plate.

This sushi roll isn't your typical Japanese sushi roll, it has a Russian twist in it with all the cream cheese. In the middle of the sushi there's chicken and mushroom in cream cheese sauce.
Not bad at all. Somehow it comes off as a straganoff-like tasting sushi.
Definitely very interesting combination and worth a try.

This sushi roll set isn't as interesting. It is your typical salmon cream cheese sushi roll with salad in the middle.
Salmon and sushi can never go wrong anyway.

We ordered this last two sushi roll set eventhough we were pretty full already.
We had the cucumber roll which I had before and I still like it, it is very refreshing. The other one is an unagi roll. It taste really good but it is a typical sushi roll. Still like it though

Overall, I really like Gin no Taki. I would recommend this restaurant over and over again. 

FOTD : That Birthday Outing

It has been a long time since I did a FOTD. To be honest, It has been almost a month since I last applied makeup. I haven't been going out aside from grocery shopping and running some minor errands, so, I am letting my skin breath and take a break from makeup.

For my eyemakeup, I has been all the same products, using all over and over again.
I am such a boring person. Sometimes I even feel there is no point talking about the products I use form my eye makeup.
For my eyeshadow I applied the Essence Effect Eyeshadow in 06 UK's Stonehedge with Catrice Absolute Nude Eyeshadow Palette. Mascara is the L'oreal Volumissime x5 for my top lashes and Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes Mascara for my bottom my bottom lashes. My eyeliner is the Maybelline Master Precise in Black.

I look pretty white washed in this picture, well, that is because of the lighting.
For my base, I applied the Etude House Face Conditioning Cream in Light and L'oreal Nude Magique Foundation. This is also one of my favourite foundation from L'oreal. Drugstore wise, I feel that Bourjois, L'oreal and Rimmel releases the best drugstore foundations, honorary mention to Max Factor too , I quite like their Facefinity foundation on days I need more coverage. On my better skin days, I definitely lean towards the L'oreal Nude Magique. It gives a very natural second skin finish look.
I set my foundation with the MAC Mineralized Skin Finish Natural. My blush and bronzer is the Vivienne Sabo Blush Duo in #13 and Highlighter is the Essence Sooo Glow Highlighter in #10.
Eyebrows is the Catrice Eye Brow Stylist in Date with Ash-Ton. My undereye concealer is the 3CE Full Coverage Concealer.

For my lips .I am using the Essence Lipliner in Satin Mauve.
It is a muted dusty rose with mauve undertones. 

Eating out Malaysia : Durian puffs

The durian cream puffs from Kafe Happy Meal in China Town, Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur are probably my favourite durian cream puffs I could get. It brings back a lot of memories everytime I get this cream puff.
I got to try this cream puff last summer when I dropped by with my parents to pick up my sister from school. Her school is located close to Petaling Street.

Everytime I see the cream puff stall, It just reminds me of my high school days how I used to roam around Petaling Street after school to get food and comics with my girl friends and then head to my tuition center. I had tuition for a short period of time, actually during my final year of high school for exams. So before my final year, I am a bad girl, I do sneak out to Petaling Street after school instead of going home straight and not telling my mum. But, we just want to have fun and enjoy. Those old school days. It kind of scares me that high school is such a distant memory and I am actually hitting quarter life soon.

Besides the durian cream puffs, I really like the tarts and sandwiches (especially the egg sandwich) from that store.
Still, the durian cream puffs is a winner.
The filling is really rich and creamy. You can taste the durian inside the cream. Blended to perfection. Sometimes you could even eat strands of durians in the cream.
Oh gosh I am so bad at explaining food.
If you ever stop by Petaling Street, the durian puffs are a must.

I am really missing the durian puffs right now. How I wish I could go home now and get myself some durian puffs. 

Mini loot : Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer

I did a haul again. Guilty? Not guilty.
The beauty store near my hostel was having a 30% off on all Maybelline and Garnier products.
I only own one undereye concealer that is the 3CE Full Coverage Concealer. The Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch has always been on my list of products to try out along with the L'oreal Lumi Magique Concealer. I heard lots of great reviews about them and they seem to be a great drugstore dupe of the YSL Touche Eclat.
There's a sale, so it would be a great chance to get the concealers.

I got the Dream Lumi Concealer in 02 Nude. I may look like a hoarder because I got two of them. They are usually not in stock since there is 30% off and they are in stock, I just took the chance to get a back up so that I wouldn't experience headache trying to find backups when they are sold out. The product also looks like it doesn't have much product in the tube.
From testers, this product applies like a dream, it is light but the coverage is great, very high coverage. I haven't try it out under my eye but I can't wait to give this product a testdrive, I can see that I will like this concealer a lot.