So a little over a week ago, I participated in what was my first blog related contest after successfully sending an entry about why I wanted to join this particular contest. I'm sure you'd know by now what I'm talking about due to the over posting of posts last time round. So this can be something like a 'director's cut' version of what happened. Btw, I don't think it's necessary to post pictures what we ate again right?
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| The Amazing Food Race... |
We arrived at the meeting point right around the stipulated time on the email for registration, briefing, etc. But in true, typical Malaysian fashion, not all the teams were there. I think the last team reached only about half an hour after later? So as a result, everything was pushed back roughly 40 minutes. After the registration was done, breakfast was served followed by the briefing. Now, I've never entered any treasure hunt race before but from my time watching The Amazing Race, I pretty knew what to expect.
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| The team in high spirits before the race, after however... |
Points were awarded based on the quality of the post, order which we arrived at the venue (1-5,6-10,11-15), tweets and facebook updates. In a nutshell, we were suppose to: 1) get to a designated checkpoint 2) get the clue from that checkpoint and solve it for the location of the restaurant 3) Once at the restaurant, taste the food, blog a review, update Facebook, Tweet, take pictures and once all that is done get the clue for the next checkpoint. Then repeat all those steps for all 5 destinations till we get back to the starting point. Sounds easy enough eh? So after a group photo section, the race was on and sad to say, we got off to a very rough start.
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| Awaiting the briefing... |
Since non of us are familiar with KL-KL roads, getting to the first checkpoint proved quite a troublesome task for us. A few wrong turns here, a few 'ah should've taken that road' there was all it took to get us driving in circles and at times the opposite direction from the destination! Oh, if you could be a fly in the Myvi... the number of cuss words coming out... I think Erica got shocked (if u did sorry ya!) though it was nothing new to us. And thanks to Erica and her long list of contacts, we manage to find the place which was in a part of PJ none of us were familiar with therefore reaching the first restaurant a cool 12th out of 15 places. I'd expect us to be last actually... hahaha...
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| Scouting the opposition... |
Anyways, in all honesty the food there wasn't all THAT great. In fact, nothing special oso... wasn't bad tasting food but for a food race, I'd expected more. Although I don't know how much was the meal, anything more than RM7 per person I'd consider a rip off. Oh, for all the stops, we didn't get to finish the food let alone enjoy it. I suppose that being a race, it's expected right? Though that didn't stop me and DonN (and I suppose the other 2?) to be slightly upset by that. So off to the second place which was located in Sunway Pyramid.
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| Organizers put up a good effort hosting this event... |
So being close to last, Yong decided to put the pedal to the metal and drive like someone from the Fast and the Furious. And this was how he drove throughout the race, I may be used to this but can't say the same for the other 2! But hey, he was relatively safe and manage to cut a whole load of time from the other teams k! Another thing that ticked most of us off was the types of riddles/clues we were suppose to solve. I'd expected more like a food knowledge quiz or food tasting challenge in order for contestants to get the clues but it turned out to be pretty simple and routine quizzes with NOTHING to do with food. Possibly because I watched too many cooking contest shows on tv d... expectations too high o.O?
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| DonN taking one for the team... |
Any how, the second venue was much better as we had the chance to taste some authentic Lebanese food. From what I ate and drank, I certainly enjoyed every bit of it. We didn't have to bodek on that review. Possibly one of the places that I'd come back again with the guys though the location in Sunway may prove a little troublesome, than again, I'm not the one with the car. After quickly eating and submitting the mandatory post to the officials, we were off to the next venue @Damansara Uptown. Yong was bragging before the race got on that if it was anywhere along the LDP, we'd be there in little to no time!
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| Felt like in a reality show with all the cameras around... |
Boy was he true! By the time we reached to the satay Kajang restaurant, we manage to close the gap from 12th to 5th! Of course with help from several contacts and keen observation of tweets along the way la. For me, there was nothing much to shout about for this venue as there is another same branch right behind my condo. But it is good la, for 60 sen a stick (last time I ate) pretty good value for money. And the peanut sauce is to die for! Kinda think of it, they should've use the restaurant behind my condo instead, baru la challenging finding the place!
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| Enjoying every little bite I could get... |
Finding the next venue was a bit of a challenge though. Luckily it was in the area where contacts were easily available but deciphering the clue proved meddling for all but DonN who got it. Though actually finding the place took longer than expected therefore costing us a place or 2. The Thai food served here was pretty decent, worth a revisit if we semangat enough to drive all the way here. Again, we didn't exaggerate on the review.
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| Serious faces all around... barring one... |
Our last stop was a Indonesian cuisine restaurant located in the posh Bangsar Shopping Centre. By then, we were still about 6th place so we were still feeling pretty good about the outcome though the tension and seriousness in the team can be chopped with a meat cleaver! The food here was good but given the location, I'm sure it'll cost a bomb if we'd had to actually pay for what we ate. Not a place we'd revisit simply because of pricing reasons. Finishing as quickly as possible, we headed back to the starting point with just 5 minutes to the cut of time when we arrived.
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| DonN hard at work resisting temptation... |
So the race was officially over and all we could do is sit and wait while the results were tallied. Yong practically crashed and stoned on the chair while I was finishing up the blogposts. In the mean time, there was also an individual contest going on whereby they gave each team a plate of tortellini and a sheet of paper with a list of ingredients. We were suppose to taste the dish and check as many individual ingredients we can taste. Now this la the challenges I was hoping to face the WHOLE race. Felt like a contestant on Hell's Kitchen/Masterchef weh! Though it was suppose to be an individual challenge, we gave a collective input and as a result, our answers were almost the same with a few variations due to uncertainties.
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| Yong trying to act cute... |
Soon after, it was the time we were all waiting for: the results! First was the runner up in the individual contest. I was shocked for 2 reasons when my name was called. Firstly, cos I manage to actually win something for the first time! Second was, if I was the runner up, got someone with a better palate than me meh?? Then they announced the winner: Yong! ZOMGBBQ!! Yong mehhhhh... aih... but never mind la, at least it stayed in the team right (if you want details on how he actually won, ask him la :p)? As a reward, I got RM100 makan voucher from Modesto's while Yong pocketed a cool RM400 makan voucher from a selection of places. So while we didn't get first or 2nd, we can consider ourselves to be 3rd place overall la (FYI, they didn't announce any rankings after 1st n 2nd).
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| Unplanned shot that turned out well... |
As a whole, given the circumstances, I thought we did pretty well actually. After reading some of the winners blogs and comparing with ours, I think they won only because they had better picture quality. I feel that DonN did a good job posting rather entertaining reviews which merited high scores. Also, we felt it was a bit unfair (though due to time constraints can be understandable) that all the venues were in the PJ area. Then again, shouldn't complain la. If somewhere in the near future there is this sort of race, it's safe to say we know what to do and what not to. And besides, being the only other team to win something, pretty darn happy weh! Lastly, even if the race/event ended, hopefully our friendship stayed intact... there were some tense moments along the way XD.
P/S: As you might've noticed, there were no post-race pictures... mainly cos we were too freaking tired to take/pose for any. And there actually is some Nuffnang appointed photographers and cameraman for the event though any pictures or videos are yet to be found online... anyone know why or where I can get a hold of em??
