Buy1Free1 chippie deal@

KL has not been kind to us, in terms of reasonable value, imported chips per se. however, on one of dogma's mindless trip around Mercato Hartamas, his eagle eye spotted the bundled packed of TIM's Jalapeno Cascade Style Potato Chips @ 14bucks for 2 packs.

Yes, it was nearing its expiry date.
Yes, it seems like noone is buying it. but quick witted Dogma managed to googled out a tons great review of this chips, rating it among the top 10 potato chips in the States.

Once opened, it releases a strong whiff of Jalapeno spiciness in the air, quickly suffocating any living beings in our small little room. It smell like someone just cut open a Jalapeno and furiously rub it against your nose tip, and i do mean, furiously..

It was spicy, and it was saltish.
It was anything but the greatest chip in the world,
but Tim's Cascade Style Jalapeno Potato Chips was a good venture away from the usuals Kettles, Ruffles and local Chipsters

Sekinchan Grouper Fish Head Restaurant@Cheras

DY, Ashley and Declan was visiting KL over the week. After trying the Tiger Fish restaurant in Puchong on their previous trip, we decided to bring them to Cheras for some good old Chinese Food..
This is the absolute favourite of mine at this restaurant, BitterGourd Fried Egg, with just the right amount of wok hei and bitterness on creamy egg.

next up was the signature dish of the restaurant, the Grouper Fish Head with Signature Sauce. It was a concoction made from chopped onions, parsley, and light soya sauce.

The fishhead was furious, big and fleshy.. Packed with yummylicious seafood sweetness in it. However, i would love to try the other flavours ( ginger, assam pedas flavour) the next time i visit this place. The fish head is a steal at only RM40 bucks for this gargantuan bodyless carcass

DY ordered a black sauce baby shark dish. This shark meat was cooked to perfection where it was moist, soft and packed with tangy chilli and onion marinates.

The last dish we had was the claypot yam chicken. You gotta try this to believe it... thick, creamy yam reduction sauce intermingled with charred salted fish mash..giving the tender chicken a good soak before delivering up to ur taste bud.. mmm mmm mmm, marvellous.............

Home Baked Bread Courtesy of RP's Recipe@YY's home

Demona: I've always enjoyed listening to RP speak of her baking adventures. Besides her never failing to speak with passion on her baking sessions (even if the finished product may end up as a big boo boo), she incorporates in lil' DIY tips and tricks, homemade to-do or not-to-do rules and these almost always gets me trilled and excited and motivates me to want to try baking with the given recipes.

I lack major experience when it comes to bread baking. When she gave me the recipe of the butter bread in which she swore her life (jk!) on its super-ultra-unimaginably tasty aspect, I'd thought I'd given it a try since it is also a part of my future dream of running a famous bakery. I should learn more from her if I want to make this dream a reality one day.

Demona: Worrying that I might have over beaten the dough, I lost patience and tenacity and poured the dough into the bread batter mould. At first, it did look fine to me, I assumed the batter was thoroughly beaten already. However, the cake turned out being a little soggy even though the hint of sweetness taste was truly... very well locked into the dough.

Demona: My first butter bread! Though the shape of the bread is way off the normal charts, but its taste could superseed certain bread that are commercially made today. I know what I needed to improve on if I were to re-do... beat the batter until its really smooth and light! Then I would have a really soft, light bread than the one above which was still a little heavy and damp, but a fairly delicious taste!

Super duper late lunch@Kuala Terrenganu town

on route back to KL from Pulau Perhentian, we stopped by Kuala Terengganu for a quickie lunch. I have to say, the food was quite a let down...
The above claypot mice noodle (loh shhh fun) was bland, saucy and nothing much to shout about..

The mice noodle was fat, but just taste of soy sauce.. SKIP!

Sensing our frustration in the food, Viv went and bought some minute pen*s like fish cake for us..the fish cake was pretty fresh and you could taste the minced fish meat in there. It wasn't full with gelattin/rubbery stuff like most KL/Singapore hawkers stalls do. However, the best part of fish cake was......................

The SMELLY ASS Chilly...I kid you not, taking a bite of the fish cake with the chilli, really "marinates" your mouth and breath well.. It was super stinko but yet alluring at the same time.....The remaining of the 4 hours trip was pretty mind refreshing, with all of us wide awake from the garlicky, fermented chilli smell...

Final night dinner@Pulau Perhentian

Demona: On our last night in Perhentian, we'd chosen to unzip our flies, loosen our belts, added extra folds on our tummies by having a scrumptous seafood dinner by the sea. The weather was kind to us. Despite hearing growling thunders, and dashes of lightnings in the midst of thick clouds up ahead, it did not rain. We had the whole chilly windy night to ourselves until the clock struck 12 to kick start the day our country gained independence.

There were several BBQ dinner places along the beach. However, being kiasu flers, we chose to dine at the restaurant which had the most patrons. Many people = Possibly better food and service.

Demona: Viv and Dogma went over to the BBQ area, where all the sizzling action took place. Readily marinated raw seafood were displayed on trays and all we needed to do was..point, point, point. Before you knew it, they had nicely landed on the hot BBQ grills heated by burning charcoal.

This was the parrotfish meat. Not much taste from the marination was locked in and the meat was particularly tough! It was my first time eating a parrotfish and personally, I wasn't sure if the fish was overcooked or the nature of its meat was tough itself.

Demona: This was another type of grilled fish. I could not remember what fish it was, Dogma, any assistance on this? All I could remember was that this meat had more flavours: sourish salty, slightly spicy with a hint of burnt grill taste at its ends. The meat was much more tender too, making it much more favourable than the parrotfish.

Demona: This was the sting ray meat. Somehow rather, the sting ray meat that you eat at foodcourts baring fairly famous names for grilled seafood stalls eg: Asia cafe, midvalley cafeteria etc could grill better sting ray meat than this. After the third trial of grilled fish, we lost specificity in the different tastes. They began to taste alike, except that one meat might be slightly tougher than the other, or more tender. Hmmmmmm....

Demona: We also had some grilled prawnies. Again, nothing much to shout about. The prawns tasted pretty bland... and boy oh boy, we were all too lazy to peel those shells off!

Demona: Each grilled dish came with a rice platter, comprising of some salad (horribly yuckified), a slice of watermelon, and a slice of banana cake...? This was my first ever encounter of having served banana cake with rice.

Thankfully, the few bland grilled dishes were rescued from further disappointing remarks from our fiesty, good food craving tongues thanks to their excellent home made spicy dipping sauce. Initially, it tasted sweet. Slowly, the fragrant onion taste started to unfold, and then.. KABOOM! Hot spicyness hit our tongues, caused by the chopped chilli padis.

Demona: Each of us also ordered a grilled baby crayfish/lobster? for ourselves. A seafood dinner ain't complete without one of these babies! The meat was quite tender and sweet, but I could not force myself to dig in and indulge on the roes that were still attached on them.

Demona: The squids were slightly over grilled also, making them tough. We surely were testing the durability of our teeth alright.

Demona: p/s: The fish with the tender meat description was almost immediately whalloped clean. What was left was its bone. Boy oh boy, we were human-like piranhas yikes!

Verdict: Even though the grilled seafood barely earned the rights to be name delicious, taste wasn't the priority in our to-do list for dinner. We truly enjoyed eating them, while having the salty sea breeze blowing on our faces, laughing at silly lil' jokes, gulping down cans of beers etc. The company and its warmth was what made this dinner most meaningful for this entire trip.
So Viv, Mich, Dogma. Let's plan our next beach trip, with more of us flers next time around. YK's suggestion: Nusa Dua, Bali. Or Cebu? Gosh. I'm excited already writing all these down.

Food store for 3 days@Pulau Perhentian

Viv, Mich, Demona and Dogma had a fabulous trip to Perhentian Island recently...Sunny day with cool sea breeze, White sandy beach loaded up with hairy apes.....What a great weekend getaway from the hustle and bustle of Kayel Life...

However, tough times calll for tough measures. We loaded up on self prepared food for the 4 days trip, which vanished is double quick time in the presence of these 4 hunrgy, chest stomping hairy apes....

The pictures was the only memory of the food we had on the first day of the trip, before they were abducted and devoured by the hairy apes...

Impromptu fully wully dinner@Chef Low Restaurant, Bangsar

after our usual rejuvenating swims at Tivoli Villa, we took a slow ride around bangsar hunting for food that would replenish our worn our muscles ( woot woot). Demona brought us to this little restaurant hide behind TMC Grocery at bangsar. The fried singapore beehoon picture above come in large portion, and filled with heavenly wokhei. The abundance of fillings in the fried beehoon was a sheer pleasure to eat with....

Fried Squid in Salted egg yolk: Yes... these are huge squid tentacles fried in salted egg yolk and curry leaves. However, it was quite a let down for this dish. The tentacles are huge, yes, but the texture was a tad too hard... Signs of frozen dead squid i guess. The taste of salted egg yolk was overpowering and too oily for our liking...... We quit at the 8th tentacles...

Hairy Pig Throters: I bet this is not from Chef Low but rather a restaurant at SS15...but i guess demona post this up bid farewell for this hairy piggy year... As you could see, the little hair/fur poking out from the skin was not the most appetizing view..Poor dogma (aka me) have to do the routine job of clearing the dish up...

Sunday Hearty Breakfast after hearty manna@Tengkat TongShin

Demona: The great thing about Sunday mornings:

a) traffic is a breeze
b) we rejuvate our heart, body and soul with manna of Sabbath's Day.

and...............

c) excuse to foodventure foodies in the KL city centre (usually we rarely make a trip downtown due to crazy traffic and distance, but since St. Andrews is in KL itself... yippie!)

Our usual brunch deciding style? Cruise along the roads around KL and stop to eat at any interesting looking eateries that caught our tummy juices's attention.

After having spiritual manna, we had a sudden surge of craving for physical manna. Toast bread! Preferably ala kopitiam style. We stopped by a corner kopitiam lot along Tengkat TongShin, which was packed with hungry ghosts. Looking at its popularity, there we went, "zoom-ing" our car to any slot available by the road side (illegal parking), and walked over.

Demona: The toast bread's presentation and performance crushed our craving almost immediately. Not only did the bread tasted horribly lousy, it was quite hard also. Even if a 5 year old kid was forced to eat this for his breakfast before he goes to school , he probably would be crying his heart out to his mommy, for ruining his favourite childhood food.

Demona: The meat balls were pretty average. Its taste didn't run far from the ones you usually get if you happen to order a pork noodle dish in an overly commercialised chinese food court.

Demona: The noodles earned fairly better reviews compared to the other dishes which we had ordered that morning. Adding minced meat into noodles could never any worse than, OK-LAH. Too much oil was drizzled over the noodles, but beggars can't be choosers! Dogma slurped every string of noodle anyway.

Undoubtedly, the only food left behind was the toast bread. Even the "i-feel-guilty-if-i-don't-finish-my-food-and-it-will-be-thrown-away" feeling that most food gluttoners almost always have (like us!) just could not possibly take another bite out of it.

Fellas out there, especially not so fussy ones... the stalls selling the main meals are average, but do try to resist the temptation of having toast bread on a Sunday brunch from this shop.. because the disappointment (like the one that we had) would really ruin all the great fun happy memories we all have, having to eat fragrant buttery toast bread, dipped in a hot cuppa' kopi sioh!

muga Reserva 2004 and Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin 1995

A quick notes on the famed Bodegas Muga Reserva 2004 that i had bought recently in KL. Priced at RM174.. Once open, the nose was beautiful, with tobacco, inky purple fruits, and pencil lead...However, you could detect some slight alcohol heat on the nose. I wonder it is accelerated aging form bad storage condition, which are typical of most wines in Malaysia.
On the palate, it was purrrfect..with grainy tannins coating your palate with good body weight... the finish was medium at best but an overall enjoyable wines...
Demona slurped this down real fast!!!

Rated: 92 by Josh Raynolds, Sep/Oct 08

Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

Deep red. Highly fragrant, Bordeaux-like bouquet of red berries, smoky minerals, flowers and camphor. Supple red and dark berry flavors stain the palate and are given spine by juicy minerality. The fruit expands on the finish, which is strikingly sweet, broad and persistent. This smokes pretty much any Bordeaux that I can think of for close to this price

I was browsing the net one day and chanced upon a bin end sales by a local wine distributor..I wasted no time and packed up my laptop and rushed to the distributor office in downtown kl to place my order of 3 bottles of vintage champage at an amazingly 70% off. (around RM150 each after discount)

The first bottle i had opened is the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin 1995 Rich Reserve.
Onced open, the nose was flat, full of soy and cat pee. The bubbles was almost non existent and there is not much fruit on the palate. A generally dissapointing wine that went dead right from the bottom. It must be the result of excessive heat while stored in the warehouse.

this bottle was a huge difference from the 1988 Rich Reserver Ponsardin that i had last year in Crystal Jade Palace, Paragon Singapore. That bottle was singing that night, with salt, biscuit, citrus and honey dominating the nose and with great long honeyed palate...

What a pity that this bottle was killed while in her sleep in the local storage facility.

Domaine De Chevalier & Jameson Wine

Domain De Chevalier Rouge 2003:
90 points Wine Spectator: "Intense aromas of blackberry, cherry, tobacco and milk chocolate. Full-bodied, with ultrafine tannins and a beautiful finish of ripe fruit and light earth. Very balanced and refined. Delicious already. Best after 2010." (03/06)
90 points Robert Parker: "Right Bank consultant Stephane Derenoncourt was brought in as the lead consultant at this noble estate in Pessac-Leognan. As a result, the tannins are sweeter, the oak is more subtle and better integrated, and the wine is more textured and complex. An evolved, complex bouquet of black currants, forest floor, smoked herbs, and sweet cherries as well as currants emerges from the 2003. It displays supple tannin, medium to full body, beautiful purity, and a classic, elegant finish. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2019." (04/06)

I got this bottle from Kenneth and after laying down for half a year, i decided to pop it a couple nites before shifting house..

Once opened, perfumed aroma of tobacco, cassis and black fruits filled up the room. Pencil shavings and cigar box detected as well. It just sings! On the palate, pencil lead, leather and cassis interwoven with black berry.Harmonious. at the end of the palate, there is a bitter mocha notes...
Superb, however, the palate could have more weight to achieve greatness..

Splendid wine!


Got this bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey from LCCT on my trip back from Shanghai.
Burning feelings in teh lung and bitter notes on teh palate..
It was a perfect accompaniment during cold rainy nites in KL....
Superb value for money!

O Fournier B Crux 2004

I have been quite a fan of O Fournier's wines, especially after a private dinner at Raffles Grill House with SH and gang...
Jose Ortega ( the vineyard owner) used to be a MD of an investment bank and invested a fortune in O Fournier upon retirement. According to Jose, owning and managing a vineyard is a far more difficult and cruel, compared to the beautiful chateau, classic glitzy wine and dine function that we have all accustomed to.. If i'm not mistaken, it cost more than Euro 15M -20M to start off the Fournier operation....

I'd opened this B Crux, from Mendoza Argentina recently with Demona... Fournier has been making wines in Spain, Argentina and if i'm not wrong, Chile as well.. I was deeply in love with the cultured and elegant Alfa Spiga ( Spain/tempranilo).

The B Crux ( Argentina/Malbec) was having the same O Fournier trademark.. elegant nose with hints of vanila oak and without the obstrusive alcohol and fruit heat. On the palate, it was very graceful, with blackfruits, silky tannins accompanies it. In terms of complexity, it was not as complex as the Alfa Spiga, but noneotherless, enjoyable as well. I would be interested to find out how will my remaining case of Fournier's (alfa and B Crux) will turn out 8years down teh road.

slurppy

Double Take of Mommessin and Follin Arbelet

Mommesin Bourgogne 2003: Bought this Pinot Noir from the local supermarket at a crazy price of sub RM60 * which translate to less than SGD25. It opened up with some typical cherry, without any complexity in the palate. The palate was rather diluted but was forgiven at this price point. It wasnt delicious on the first nite however, the palate dramatically improved on the second nite as more woody tannins and earth/stem note appearred, which covered up the hollowness of the palate.

Domain Follin Arbelet, Pernand Vergelesses Les Fichots, Premier Cru, 2004: I am a fan of Follin Arbelet entry level wines, which screams value for money compared to many Burgundy Producer. This Pernand Vergelesses was not an exception either, with a good damp earth tone, and some stemminess on the nose. the palate carries good weight, with cherry and later dark tea dominating the end palate. Good buy at around SGD65.

Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel 2006

almost all local wine shops in KL has severe overheating and bad storage issues...not to mention about the exorbitantly priced wines where typically the retail price would easily be cost price X 300% for the upper tier wines.

After our splendid dinner in Nagomi, we adjourned to Vintry at Jaya 33 where the Wine Czar SH joined from . SH and I used to open a Caparzo Brunello Montalcino that cost about RM300 here and we could not go furhter than 2 sips-- it was extremely tired wine, with much fatigue, flat palate and heat, most likely signs of accelerated aging from bad storage.

We opt to go for a safer new world wines this trip and SH spotted this highly rated yet reasonably priced Zinfandel from California. Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma County 2006 at around RM160.

Winemaker notes: rated Wine Spectator 91pts
Well-defined berryish fruit is the centerpiece in both the outgoing aromas and the full, fleshy flavors of this weighty effort, yet, for all of its volume and richness, it stays nicely on the varietal track with its background notes of dry spices and briar. It is youthfully exuberant and somewhat juicy in character, and it will be at its best in service with savory roasts of pork marinated in brine and basted with young port."

Dogmanotes:
Intense berry on the nose and noticiable alcohol heat. On the palate was dense, big blackberry..Palate after taste was silky and overwhelmed by blackfruits. Tannins was pretty silky..
A typical fruit forward Zinfandel but with pretty graceful palate.
Overall, was a good value wine at RM160 retail price in the awful malaysia wine industry.

Nagomi ShabuShabu@Jaya 33, PJ

Demona: A friend of ours, SinHui, is currently based in Malaysia for a while for some acting/singing etc. An upcoming star, whos got a great voice, just got back from Taiwan.. and whooosh. Major transformation. a star.. becoming more, and more refined. Dogma and I whispered to one another.

Demona: Psst... pssssssssst. Better get her signature and picture first before she no longer has

time for us.

Dogma : *snap*snap* See picture below.

Demona: She suggested Nagomi ShabuShabu. We arrived before her, so we went into the restaurant to get a table first. To be honest, we were slightly intimidated when we walked in and there weren't many patrons inside, plus the place was quite posh looking.

Dogma: Superstar ma!

We weren't sure on what to expect from this restaurant as we rarely have steamboat meals in Kl, even if they are local. As we flipped through the menu, nothing was below RM30, except the vegetarian steamboat set, which was a dollar less. Besides steamboat sets, they also offer famous japanese known delicacies eg: sushis, sashimis, etc. The prices were sky rocket high, thus we quickly looked at SH and showed our puppy sad eyes. *sniff*sniff*

SH: Let's choose the buy 3 free 1 steamboat set meals.

Demona&Dogma: Yippie Yay!

Demona: This was some awesome kick-ass spicy dipping sauce. A mixture of sour, spicy, peppery-like taste. Purrrrrrrrr-fect.

Demona: SH ordered the beef slice set... which we did not get a chance to try them out. The plate was placed a little further away from the maximum reach of the tip of our chopsticks. So.... we were.... a little too shy to grab some from it.

Dogma ordered the duck slice set, where as I chose the chicken slice set. They both gave similar tastes once dipped into the hot soup. The hot and spicy soup was really quite delicious! Although a little salty, but savouryyyyyyy. SLURPS. Bottomless soups BTW.

Demona: We chose salmon slice set for the free one. Bad, bad choice. Once added into the hot soup, the meat turned hard and the deliciousness tender factor just fizzled away. We did try, dipping the meat in the soup at a shorter time duration, but somehow, just we failed getting it cooked at the right consistency. I attempted eating it raw..... which was , uh oh, bad idea also. Dogma ala food cleaner helped finished it up, although even he, found it challenging to do so.

Demona: Besides the meat slices set, each one also came with a HUGEEEEE bowl of vegetables eg: cabbages, mushrooms, jellyfish strips, tofu, brocolli etc. Just one set, with a combination of both the meat, and vegetable together was enough to feed 3 girls. And here we were, 2 girls and 1 guy, attempting to finish 4 sets. Our tummies deserved a big round of applause for this.

I couldn't fathom anyone else ordering the vegetarian set after having this meal experience. I'm assuming the set would come with, 2 HUGEEEEEE bowls of vegetables? WHOW. Cows would grow green with envy if they ever see anyone eating that set.

The bill came up to RM 140, including drinks. A meat set, is priced at RM 30 plus, which I think Nagomi ShabuShabu 3+1 set meals would be a great choice for a group of maybe 5 or 6 friends, dining together and catching up, over steamy hot soups.

We had a good time there, and we did enjoy the dining experience that we had at Nagomi. I'm sure we'll come back again for another round, but we'll make sure that we have at least 5 confirmed growling tummies before we step in!

HomeCook@Kinrara

Again is the season for budgetary food experience. Equipped with a decade old oven in TS's gigantic mansion, we decided to cook a few dishes at home to liven things up...

First up was Dogma creation: Slow Grilled Chicken Breast topped with caramalized onions and melted cheddar cheese... sprinkled with some crushed black pepper and mustard sauce.. Oohh laa laa....The taste sure lives up to the dish name !

The assorted condiments that goes along with it: Ketchup, McDonalds Grape jelly and Freshly peeled local lime
Dessert: 3 jumbo sized local mango: Sweet to the bone!


Carbo Dish: Toasted wholemeal bread with omellete and mustard sauce..

Shiok..
Simple Dishes perfect Wishes

Budget constrained fish meal@Fatty Tiger Restaurant, Puchong

Demona: The images of rows and rows of fishes on this gigantic banner hanging outside the restaurant was definitely an eye catcher to anyone who passes by. So much so that even if you were standing on the other end of the lot, you could still faintly see it.

However, it wasn't the fishes which caught much of our attention. Instead, it was the two digit number that was printed next to the fishes, the beautiful number of 1 2 and the two alphabets before them, R M.

RM 12/ one full fish woey.!?
We could hardly believe our eyes. Well at least, for KL's price of fishes, that is.

Demona: Fatty Tiger was fairly packed, so we proceeded upstairs. Biz looked good for the taukehs here as several tables were occupied upstairs as well. The menu boasts of a huge range of river rishes, which a frog-under-the-coconut-shell person like myself, wouldn't know how to differentiate except some obvious difference in shapes and sizes between the several few.

Some fishes had golden bar price tags, potentially costing a mere fish head alone to be several hundred bucks (WOW!)

We hunted for the RM12/fish but couldn't spot it on the menu. The waitress came up and explained to us that there was such a fish at such a price. These particular riverfishes are reared by the taukeh and sold at a real good deal price, and they do not make much profit out of this. Instead, their profit targets are more on the higher end river rishes eg: the golden price tag fishes.

Demona: Poor RM 12 river fish, you. Fed to the right size, and scooped right out of its pond and in it went, into a pack of ice, waiting to be served fresh to the next customer...... US.

Demona: Sorry, fishy fish. You were the chosen one to serve us. Cooked assam nyonya style. Initially, the sauce was really spicy and sour, yet at the end palate, the sweetness of the pineapples showed up. The fish meat was fairly fresh. We had this fish, cooked plain steamed before, and my gf who joined in the dinner mentioned that there was a slight muddy taste to it but thankfully, wasn't obvious enough to put you off eating it further. With the assam nyonya paste, the mud taste was of course, covered.

Anyhow, in usual circumstances, almost all self reared riverfishes couldn't run too far from having the distinct muddy taste to their meat as they have less room to freely swim about, unlike their wild river fish brothers.

Demona: Dogma ordered a Dried Chillis Fried Chicken rice to eat along with the fish. The chicken meat was quite tender, with a nice fragrant aroma of ginger, onions and dried chillies absorbed into the meat. Deliciouso! As for me, the usual rice skipper.... I also stole half of Dogma's chicken slices away. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I'm guessing the owner will shake his head whenever he sees people like us coming in, as we chose the cheapes fish, and ate the least (some more share meal!). If there are more of us diners coming in, the restaurant's profit margin's going to decline drastically.

On the contrary, the owner came up to us instead, with a big sincere smile, explaining to us about the fish which we ate, as well as the other fishes that he was selling, and even brought those expensive dead fishes on a tray, just to show us. He did subtly mentioned that the profit earnings for the RM12/fish was not much but that did not affect him severely as this strategy also earned him more happy return customers who potentially have golden goose pockets, and willing to explore more than just the RM12/fish deal.

This is one restaurant that we shall always come to whenever we feel like having good olde' fish meat to eat and not having to burn our wallets too much.