Heigh Ho…

Last night, my family and I had dinner at Mr. Ho’s at Crown Towers in Kuching. I understand it is a West Malaysian franchise…and they’ve got an outlet at Mid Valley. Somehow I never noticed it…and so far, I only had dinner once at Master Choo’s in Sungai Petani, Kedah but I don’t think they’ve any connection.

For one thing, I liked the open kitchen concept…

In most restaurants, you will never know what the chefs are doing in the kitchen.  This guy was very interesting to watch as he prepared all the dishes…and I noticed that when he cut the meat, should there be any loose ends, he would just pop them into his mouth. Gee! I wouldn’t mind working there!!! LOL!!!

We went there with Sophia and her daughter again. We really owe her one for taking the time off to take us around and to all the best dining outlets to eat; otherwise, we’d probably end up having our meals at places near the hotel. Kpg Nangka Boy’s sister, previously known as Cooking for STP, joined us as well…and she had that Mr. Ho’s signature dish, the Curry Laksa…  

She had heard fave reviews from her acquaintances and so she decided to give it a try…and she loved it.  My daughter had this pork chop bratwurst dish…

The portions were so huge that she could not finish…so guess who cleaned up the leftovers.  The pork chop was ok…but I loved the sausage because I could taste the flavours in it. I know! I know! Don’t keep telling me what it resembles, but don’t all bangers look like that? Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Sophia had the pork steak while my missus had the roast pork dish…but the photos didn’t come out too well, so I will not be inserting them in the post. Sophia’s daughter had this…

This is the prawn pasta and it got the thumbs up from her too. Now, what did I have? Well, I decided to try the lamb shank (Gee! I wouldn’t dare go to New Zealand now…for all the sheep would attack me for sure for eating up their siblings!!! Hahahahahahahaha!!!! Didn’t I hear them saying that about dogs? LOL!!!)…

It was nice but the meat was slightly a bit too tender. The gravy was a bit spicy; it tasted good but I still prefer the one at Junk. My one complaint was the carrot was raw…and I could not cut it with the knife. The brocolli was also on the hard side but it was nice and crunchy. I wish they had been more generous with the mashed potatoes like Junk. On the whole, Junk wins hands down…with its yummy gravy that goes well with the mashed potatoes and the salad vegetables and all…but this one is defintely nicer than Westwood with its mushroom gravy/black pepper sauce options and a lot better than what I had at Mum’s in Sibu. I liked the Irish stew at Secret Recipe…but I’ve heard complaints about quality control and things served while they were still uncooked inside, probably because the employees did not defrost the meat/fish properly.

All right, Cibol! Stop calling me flogger!!! Brings to mind those sadomasochism stuff. Hmmm…probably he is thus inclined, I won’t know! But what I do know is that the next few posts will NOT be about food…!!! (But somehow I’ve a feeling that it won’t be for long!!! ROTFLMAO!!!)

Back home again…

As in that John Denver’s song, yeah…it’s good to be back home again! Gosh! I’m totally worn out and I really wonder why people go for holidays to rejuvenate and yet come home more exhausted than before they went.

Anyway, to wrap things up, yesterday Sophia took us to visit a relative and after that, we went back to the Sarawak Club for lunch. It was almost 2 then…and I was famished, so I totally forgot to take pictures of what we ate except for the pasta carbonara that my daughter had…

She said it was nicer and creamier than what we had at Blue Reef…and immediately after lunch, we went back to the hotel. Gundot was back from celebrating the Gawai festival in the kampung, so she came over to take me to India Street…and we ended up at the Open Air Market for Jiuhu Engcai (Cuttlefish and kangkong)…

I noticed that the Ah Mui stall is no longer there but there’s one “Gu bak terng” (beef soup) stall which wasn’t open at that time. The famous/infamous sio bee and pau stall was enjoying roaring business though I wonder why! I do not like those, nor the ones at Fock Hai now at Padungan…near Soho. There was a kolo mee stall open…but I was toooo full already and wanted to save some tummy space for dinner. Dinner was at Mr. Ho’s at Crown Towers but I think I’ll have a separate post on that.

It was a good thing that we were leaving because at the hotel, I think the chef had completed one cycle already and we were having repeats of some of the things we had the first morning we were there…

There was the sayur lodeh (that didn’t taste as good today) and beef curry, the ketupat (which was too soft and soggy this morning) with satay gravy…but they had fried rice instead of the tomato rice the first morning, and I didn’t want any…and the kway teow wasn’t really tasty either. In fact, I prefer the kway teow in West Malaysia which is finer and translucent and tastes much nicer regardless whether it is served in soup or fried. There were two choices of dimsum fare but they were not great either…

It was raining, otherwise I would have gone to that wooden shop next door where they sell one of the best Sarawak laksa in town and the Chef in Black described the kolo mee there as the best noodles he had ever tasted! Thumbs up for the popiah there too!!! And around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, you can see all the cars parked by the roadside;it seems to be a popular place for the authentic kaya and toast (roti kahwin) too.

Anyway, we’re home sweet home…..but I will be posting on some other things in the next few days, so do stick around, ok?