The image above just sums it all and yesterday was one day I didn't realise that eating so much red meat was painful! Anyway, it all began when BK and Dinghy asked me whilst I was on a shoot whether I wanted to join some steak competition. Since I was busy at that time and was distracted, I said "yes, sign me up".



Fast forward that a month and I was sitting under the shade outside of Las Vacas at Mont Kiara looking at the crowd of 63 participants eagerly awaiting to eat their steaks. Funnily I was telling BK and Dinghy that I actually ate lunch at Kanna Curry House first together with a couple of my uni mates before going for the tournament. Biggest mistake yet, LOL!

There were plenty of season pros there who have attended the past steak challenges organized by Las Vacas so I was sort of the newbie.



Everyone was given 600 grams of meat first (each piece is 300 grams). I had to add on a little bit of sauce such as HP sauce, ketchup and HP BBQ sauce because I really couldn't stand the taste of just pure red meat steak. The first steak was easy to go down and by the time I completed the 2nd steak, it started getting tougher and tougher. Right after the 10 minute mark, the emcee announced that one contestant had already started on his 5th steak. Heck, I was only halfway through my 2nd!



I was sitting next to a couple of gentleman who was happily gobbling down their steaks while I was struggling to even look at my meat especially my 3rd steak which was pretty much extremely rare!



Yes, that is just how rare my steak was and it was insanely difficult to swallow the meat let alone taste it. I was resisting the urge to vomit it all out as the emcee announced that the leader was another guy who started on his 7th steak.



And just when the competition was about to end, the guy who was leading the group at the 1st half of the competition puked and was disqualified. The winner ended up eating 2.3kg of steak. He was still working on his 8th piece when the timer ran out! Congrats to the winner who won a 4D 3N holiday to Australia and also congrats to both BK and Dinghy who passed the 1kg mark.

Frankly, I think I can skip eating beef for at least a couple of months.

This was what I had for dinner last night instead :P



Some facts from the competition

• 63 participants in total, had to reject more or else the total number would be 137


• the average amount of meat consumed, 1.1kg per person


• there was a single female participant and she finished 4 pieces of steak!


• In total, 93kg of meat was consumed

Disclaimer

No animals were hurt during the writing of this blog post but plenty of cows did sacrifice their lives for the competition

During my recent travels to the Maldivian islands (read my earlier post here about where I was), I took a tour around the main city of Male. The city is extremely small but it is the most populous city in the Republic of Maldives and it is also it's capital.

We were provided with a personal guide to walk us through the city and explain to us about it's rich culture.



Male itself seemed to be a nice and quiet city, filled mainly with motorbikes and a couple of cars about. The streets were busy with children coming back from school and people just going about their daily lives.





One of the cars that I first saw in the city was this little Toyota IQ or what Aston Martin would have called a Cygnet. Was rather surprised that they had a car there in the middle of the ocean.



The citizens of Male are mainly muslims and hence we were brought about to the many mosques here on this island.









I think this was the president's house or home or home office. Can't remember exactly but yeah, these are one of those places that we were guided through.



Then there is the Sultan's Gardens which was a nice patch of garden in the middle of Male.



Last place of visit was the mosque, the largest mosque in Male located very close to the sea front. Then again, because Male is so small, everything is close to the seafront.



Center square located right next to the harbour. One thing about Maldives is that, the country is made up of thousands of islands. Because of that, you can pretty much guess that the fishery industry should be one of it's key. And you aren't wrong.



The harbour was filled with huge boats like these. They aren't the type that trawls along the sea with huge nets behind. No, they are actually huge fishing boats with 20-30 crew members on board who fish using fishing rods. That's right, FISHING RODS!



Apparently fishing with fishing rods are a better way to sustain the environment and to also prevent them from catching the young fishes hence sustaining the cycle of man catching fish. But according to my guide, they catch fishes with rods almost as effectively as catching with nets.



From the fishes above, I can really believe him. Look at the size of the TUNA! It's almost as large as the guy squatting by them. If in a weird bizarre world, I would have guessed the guy was bait for the fish instead.



Right next to the harbour was the market which was filled with fruits. So you must be thinking, where do they plant their fruits or are these imported? Well since Maldives is made up of a gazillion islands, some of these islands are used to be agriculture islands where just fruits and vegetables are grown there.



Well lots of bananas and mangoes though. There were these little chilli stuff as well sold there.



And right outside the fruit market was the fish market. Boy, you could actually smell it a mile away.



It was packed, surprisingly with people just staring at the fishes that were sold there. Heck even the guy above was carrying a fish around like his pet.



But the one thing I wasn't prepared for is that they sold all their fishes on the floors. Huge tunas and marlins were displayed on the floors which I can say doesn't look too clean but then again they cut the fishes and descale them all on the floor.





Notice the guy wearing his shoes on the same floor where the fishes are sold? :P



Still, fish there was extremely fresh and I ate raw fish and fresh steamed fish on a daily basis. It was absolutely the bomb.



The guy selling fish above looked like a bouncer, probably pissed off that I was there just taking photos and not buying any fish.



This guy decided to sell his stuff by the entrance of the market instead of being in the market. I could say that is a smart choice considering the stench coming from within the market.



After the whole guided tour, we decided to walk around the place to check out some stores about. Nothing really special, sundry shops and coffee houses littered the place. Till I chanced upon the shop below.



Yes it was a shop selling the iPad! This was the time when the iPad wasn't even launched in Malaysia. Speaking of which, most of the stuff that we saw at Male was imported from Malaysia. Furniture, computers and heck, even souveniers. If you are there, just look at the souveniers and you can see a price tag behind them in RM.



Anyhow, it was a great 4 hours spent at the capital city of Male. Lovely place and I would say the fish market was one of the highlights of the tour for me. Never seen such huge fishes up close before.

First check out VW's advertisement for the upcoming Passat for the US market below. This was shown during the Superbowl last Sunday where this was considered prime time for advertisements. At USD$3million for a 30 second slot, it better be eye catching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

Ranked 3rd in USA Today's 2011 Superbowl commercials ratings, this advert certainly did send chuckles through my spine.

Now check out some of the deleted scenes and bloopers which missed the final editing cut below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM3s37fZZts&feature=player_embedded

Talk about funny commercials!

Updated with the full commercial

Now who says advertisements have to be super long and have a lot of dialogue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVSvZztKIj0&feature=channel
As short as it is, it does keep me wanting to know more. Can't wait to see the new upcoming Beetle.

Thanks to my friend who yearns to be the dictator of China, here is the full advertisement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ulbjaKmKG0&feature=channel

But if you are the type that keeps up with some automotive news site, the new and upcoming Beetle has already been "discovered" a couple of times.

Source

Heck they even managed to catch it on spy video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-XnrTUA8IU&feature=related
Looks like the new Beetle isn't going to be that much of a surprise from everyone else but hey, VW Malaysia is giving out fantastic deals right now if you go and buy a Beetle. I saw a couple of new ones already in my office.

To everyone out there, I would like to wish you all a very happy chinese new year! May this year be a great and fruitful year for you all and that your dreams and wishes will come true.



God bless and take care!