BBQ..... FINALLY!!!!! And oh.... MERDEKA!

For those who knew me well enough, they should know immediately what this is all about. I've waited for this for over 2 years, before I even came to Germany to work. It's pretty much the only thing I wished for before I got off the plane, and yet time just don't fit sometimes. So finally, thanks to my friend Giacomo, he's made this arrangement after finding out that the weather was going to be great on the entire Saturday. I love BBQ, I like grilling and playing with the fire so this is much like a dream come true for me. And after eating, we were playing Call of Duty 4 until almost 2am in Sunday morning. So yeah, Happy Merdeka Day to all Malaysians too!

Just meat here! They are mostly pork(believe it or not, it was not possible to look for chicken or turkey anymore!! EVERYONE was doing the same!!!) supposed to be for 4 adults and a 7 year old girl. I knew it was a little too much ^^

Assorted sauces and some salads. Let me see, BBQ sauce, thousand island, some curry spicy sauce, Thai garlic chili sauce, tomato sauce, Zaziki sauce(with a lot of garlic here), Pasta noodle salad, and Kraut Salad. We didn't have all of these, but it was great to have them around.

And the grilling starts! A lot of smoke there, because the marinated juice were dripping all over.

From the look of it, it seems good... no open flame, I was almost certain that we'd have some really nice looking grilled meat... I was thinking a little too early -__-;; Charcoal was just perfect and right until the fat from the meat started to drip...

FIRE!!!!! >______<

In the end, it was great. We're all contented, the food was great, the evening was nice and cooling. It's something that I had been dreaming about for a long time, perhaps even better ^^

New Toys and Pizza

Last weekend my friend invited me to his house to have a game and pizza night. I don't think any boy can say no to that kind of offer. So here are the toys he just bought ^^46" Toshiba Full HD

PlayStation 3

A whole bunch of FPS games

Sadly there's only one controller. Good news is that PS3 already came out with the DualShock 3 controllers. I am very delighted ^^

My pizza (think it's about 30cm in diameter and that's standard here) with artichoke, champignon, and salami.

That's my friend's pizza. Onions, salami, and I don't know what else :D

And my conclusion is that, YOU HAVE TO GET A FULL HDTV IF YOU WANT TO GET A PS3. Why? Because the graphics is awesome, and I would totally wait until the PS3 slim version is out. I know it hasn't been confirmed yet, but it's Sony's trend. The come out with everything fat, and then slim later. PSOne, PS2, PSP... they all have slim version, so I wouldn't exclude PS3. ^^

My rides... USA

So my trip to USA was a sudden one. I didn't plan it, and a lot of sacrifice had to be made, but it's something needed, and I'm glad I made the trip. But this time I'm taking a different airline . Unlike the previous airlines namely Delta and American Airlines which forced me to take off from Frankfurt, this NorthWest airline which partners with KLM flies from Cologne to Amsterdam, and then to Memphis, and finally to Lafayette. And the best this is that, KLM uses Fokker 50 planes for regional flights.... PROPELLERSSSSSSssss! ^^ So does Northwest Mesaba in the USA, they use Saab though... but look how cool these planes are!You could already feel the vibration even before the engine started.

It's already almost 8pm at local time in Memphis when I took this. And you could feel the humidity absorbing into your skin once you got off the plane and walk around the terminals in Memphis International Airport.

And when you're in the sky.

And so, this is it. This is what this post is all about. My ride in USA ^^ Because we got some issues with my gf's old 3.0L V6 Toyota Avalon, her dad's kind enough to provide us with his brand-spanking new 5.3L V8 320hp Chevrolet Avalanche. It's a fullsize pick-up truck, and trust me... this one can go pretty damn fast. I told him I've never driven a truck before, or anything nearly as big that has four wheels, or a tank. He gave me a 5 minutes crash course, and handed me the keys. >__< I was nervous of course. I mean, it drives like a bus. You feel like you're sitting on a giraffe on the road, bodyroll is felt in every turn you make so it handles like an elephant too. And you think you're driving like 30kmph, but when you look at the speedometer, it's close to 100kmph!!

Yeah, I hate to say it, and I hated driving it at first, but I love the truck. It takes fuel like an ever thirsty camel taking water. I got at least twice low-fuel warnings while driving that beast(never before in my life I drive with low on fuel in a car...never because it makes me nervous). It has a tricky GPS navigational unit to mess around with, it even has a rear view camera and parking sensors all over, that takes about 5 seconds to do"assessing hazards surrounding the vehicles", and I get a lot of strange looks when I was behind the wheels. I guess it's strange to see an asian dude driving a $45k truck that guzzles fuel... Honda Accord, or Toyota Camry should be more like my kind of ride, but Chevy Truck... it's truly a truck built for big guys ^^ and you get attached to it quite easily too.

Pix from the Camp

This is Lily. She's a Jack Russell Terrier, and she's just a coupla months old. She's the dog that I help babysit, whenever I'm in the camp, which is called Catfish Heaven. Actually I'm there most of the time anyway, so that means I was spending lots of time with this girl here. And she's is so very hyper ^^

Flashing her with my camera is already funny enough, but this is always the same "Huh?! What are you doing?" expression whenever a dog is curious ^^

Yeah she's a pretty dog.

Some of the vehicle registration number plates from a lot of states collected and displayed in the restaurant.

See some of them are really really old, the brown rusty one is dated way back in 1955

A lot of things hangning around in the camp activity hall, namely fishing tools and flags, and a huge TV.

Not to forget a few animal heads too, and yeah... please ignore that Singaporean flag there.

I was trying to get a steady shot of the fullmoon that one night, but my compact camera is just not good enough for the job I guess.

The Mall in Baton Rouge...Cafe Des Amis in Breaux Bridge

I didn't go to these two places on the same day, but rather more than a week apart from each other. The first two pictures shows the mall in Baton Rouge, which is the capital of Louisiana, and the rest were taken in a small town called Breaux Bridge in Lafayette, about 40 minutes drive from Baton Rouge.Just as a comparison, the Mall sells all kinds of goods. The stores are big, and lots of spaces to move around. Most of the departmental stores sell international brands that we are familiar with.

This is possibly one of the biggest Apple store I've ever seen.

And here we move on to Breaux Bridge. It just reminds me of those cowboy movies, in a small town where everyone knows everyone. The hanging traffic lights could be a little confusing for tourists though.

Yeah, like I said... something like cowboy movies right?

I like the lights hanging around this Bistro. And the sign is hand drawn which makes you feel like... ahhhh... it's special.

So this is our target here. Cafe Des Amis, one of the nicest restaurants around here.

Inside the Cafe Des Amis is just amazing. You have all kinds of arts, hand drawn paintings, and the pillars were signed by tourists passing by from all over the world.

In one corner there's this long wooden tables with wooden chairs. It kind of gives away the medieval feel while dining.

Some artistic paintings on the walls. I am really considering contributing a piece there^^

That the small bar there, not a lot of drinks I see.

Just simple, nice and warm feeling in the cafe. They are very famous for their breakfast.

That's where I was sitting, the chair in the middle. No prize for guessing who that lady in yellow is ^^

Trying another shot in B&W.

So here's my breakfast. I don't know what it's called, but it's 2 slices of baked eggplant, in Crawfish Etouffee, mashed potatoes, and corn salad. It looks small in portion, but it's very filling.

Since it is Louisiana, you'd usually have a lot of these homemade sauces. Most of them are very similar to Tabasco sauce... hot and steamy spicy, and I love all of them!

Some of the stuff I ate in USA

I must say that I didn't really take a lot of pictures of the food like I should when I was in the States this time round. But I ate a lot of different cuisines this time, from Mexican to Italian, from Chinese to French, from yummy home cooked meals to super fast fastfood. Most of the time I didn't take any pictures because there were too many people in the restaurants or I just forgot to whip out my camera until I finish what's served on the platter.
My gf's grandmother prepared this one. I believe it's called Pasta with Crawfish Etouffee, and the brown stuff on the sides were sweet potatoes... it's yummy! ^^

Another home cooked chicken by my gf's dad. It has a lot of spices on it, and just thinking about it makes me drool. ^^

One day we(me, my gf, and her brother) just decided that I should watch the new Batman movie. So before the movie we ate at Jason's Deli. This is what I ordered, super healthy Turkey Salad wrap. ^^

This is Chicken Panini I believe. It's something like chicken sandwich, with toasted rolls.

This is Beef Panini with Cheese melts. ^^

Caesar's Salad. Gf's all-time favorite kind of salad.