Sweet inspiration…

During my childhood days, we would grow our own corn in the vast empty space in one corner of our house compound. We would germinate the seeds first by soaking them in water and I particularly loved the part where one of us would use a stick to poke a hole in the ground and the fella behind would put in two or three of the germinated seeds.

But the variety of the corn we planted was not so nice – best eaten when still young but if it was a bit old, it would be hard and I did not like the taste so much. These days, we have nicer varieties like what they call the Ligo type which is sweet and nice regardless whether it is young or old.

They used to be quite cheap – RM2.00 for a bundle of 6 or more…and the price has been increasing and increasing. But I did manage to get 9 the other day for RM5.00, 9 freshly-cut ones from the kampung and I cooked them right away…

It is best to keep the most inner layer of the ear leaves intact, plus a bit of the silk hair when boiling the corn in water, adding a spoonful of salt to enhance the taste. I hear that those parts of the corn have some medicinal value.

It only takes a while to cook. Just peel off the leaves and remove the hair and sink your teeth into it – removing the kernel from the cob and savouring the sweetness…

Some people love dabbing it with butter or margarine and eating it like that, but not me. What about you?

Happy Birthday…

It was my brother-in-law’s birthday on Sunday, so we all went out for dinner at the Sweet Family Restaurant where the food is cheap and delicious…and the service is ultra-fast!

There was a birthday cake, of course! The daughter ordered this blueberry chocolate cake from Marcus…

…this guy who runs his business from his home at Delta Estate here. He only makes a few types of cakes – three or four to the most and they are all so very nice and popular that if you want one, you will have to place your order days in advance.

We had the  sizzling venison on a hot plate…

…and the salty and crispy prawns (kiam sor hay)…

…as well as the sweet and sour fish fillet…

…and the deep fried sotong (squids)…

My daughter would love it cooked this way but personally, I think I would rather have it fried with dried chillies and soy sauce…and like all those severely-deprived Sibuians working in KL, my niece simply must have the fried midin (wild jungle fern) before flying off that very night…

…and we washed all that down with the sea cucumber soup…

…which was exceptionally nice that night and just look at the pieces of sea cucumber in it!!!

As always, all the dishes were superb and we all enjoyed the dinner a lot. We actually ordered for five people even though there were 7 of us but the servings were so huge that we had to tapaoed quite a lot home. I love the Philippine pork leg there but unfortunately, nobody else wanted that. Tsk! Tsk! LOL!!!

Altogether, inclusive of drinks and rice, it came up to only RM117.00. That certainly was a steal, don’t you think?

What I want…

When I was in Kuching over a week ago, my cousin, Lindy, gave me these – Scottish all butter shortbread, Royal Edinburgh Brand…

She knew how much I loved them – well, who wouldn’t, after reading all my posts on them? Hehehehehe!!! Actually, she gave me another packet of shortbread fingers of the same brand as well, but I had eaten those all up before I remembered that I had not taken a photo of them.

This brand is definitely cheaper than Walkers’ and around the same price as Mcvities’ and is just as nice, or perhaps even nicer. Well, it claims to have had over 50 years of baking excellence…so one can definitely expect it to be good.

These are the petticoat tails…

…and at over RM8.00 a box, it certainly is a steal. You can never get anything from Walkers’ at that price. Just open the box and you can actually smell the rich buttery fragrance…and just one bite of it will send you to seventh heaven, believe you me!

And last Saturday, my ex-student, Xavier, dropped by my house. He’s such a nice boy and never fails to remember me wherever he goes. Before there was Secret Recipe in Sibu, when he was in Miri, he bought me a few slices of their cheesecake all the way from there to give to me. Well, he’s back from Shah Alam on a two-week break and this time around, he gave me these…

Truffles – nope, not those mushrooms that are worth their weight in gold, but chocolates made into a shape similar to that of the mushroom…

They’re very nice – cappuccino flavour…but a bit too sweet for me, so I can just take one at a time…sparingly. LOL!!!

Well, thanks so much, Lindy, for the shortbread…and Xavier for the chocolate truffles. They’re really very nice. Ummmm…..!!! LOL!!!

Johnny be good…

Well, unfortunately, it wasn’t that good…

I am talking about the Roti John that I bought the other day. I’ve seen the name at a lot of places, even at roadside burger stalls, but I never bothered to check out what on earth it actually was. So I bought one the other day, D for “daging” (beef)…

…and it was not cheap – RM2.50 each. The other option was A for “ayam” (chicken).

Wrapped up inside was a bun…

…and in the bun were some bits of meat – beef, I guess…and some dressing – most likely, mayo and chilli sauce…

It was o.k. but I wouldn’t want to go for that again if I had a choice. For RM2.50, I can go for kampua noodles and still have 30 sen change.

I also had the nasi kerabu the other day…

This one was pale blue in colour unlike what I had the first time and it wasn’t yellow either – like the nasi kerabu from some lady from Johore.

There were two pieces of chicken inside instead of the usual fried fish and it did not have the stuffed green chilli either. Generally, it was not as nice as what I had before and it was not cheap either – RM3.50. I would much sooner settle for the nasi lemak at only RM1.50 a packet, which is so much nicer and satisfying.

My daughter would love these bergedil at only RM1.00 for 3…

…but I do not really care for those – a tad too oily for my liking. I would rather opt for these kuih basong, also 3 for RM1.00…

…even though they have shrunk in size. Those that I had in my younger days were at least three times bigger…but these were nice and I would not mind having them again. I was told that one VIP, either a senator or an ex-senator, staying in the neighbourhood would buy those for breakfast every day.

I used to love these tempeyek too…

They’re sometimes called rempeyak, so I was told. For RM1.00, you can get a packet of 10…but I prefer those that I used to buy at another place long, long ago – one whole tin of those but the stall is no longer in business. These are o.k. – beggars can’t be choosers! LOL!!!

I guess I do not have to keep telling everybody where I would go to get these things – that same ol’ kuih-muih stall at Bandong (GPS coordinate: 2.314074,111.825693) in the morning!

Let’s put it all together…

Chap-chap means a mixture of everything and that is what this soup dish is called…

True to its name, you can find a little bit of this and a little bit of that in it. In this one, there are some pieces of liver, fish balls, piansip or kiaw or wantan, whichever you choose to call it, fried tofu and some veg. You may find more at other places, for instance, meat balls, pig’s intestines, tung hoon (glass noodles) and so on.

Usually, these are available at many kampua noodle stalls in town…and this one is from a coffee shop at Delta Estate (GPS coordinate: 2.307942,111.825264) named after the residential area where it is located. It is only RM3.00 a bowl and I would say it is pretty good though I would prefer a bit more stuff inside like the one here (GPS coordinate: 2.310536,111.831315).

I had mentioned the kampua noodles at this particular coffee shop in a post sometime ago. It is different from most other places as they use lor bak (meat braised in soy sauce) instead of the usual imitation char siew (red-coloured boiled meat). Pricewise, it costs a bit more though – RM2.40 compared to only RM2.20 at most other places. The complimentary soup is very nice though which is more than what I would say about the ones at Rasa Sayang Cafe or Soon Hock Coffee Shop.

The first time I had the noodles there, I did not really like it owing to the strong taste of ginger but I had gone back there a couple of times and found that it was not always so. So far, it had been o.k. and I would not mind going back there again and again. For one thing, its location is very convenient and I can easily stop there for breakfast on my way to my parents’ house which is just round the corner.

The other day, I had kampua kosong (without meat) with the chap-chap and that cost me RM4.80 altogether, RM1.80 for the noodles and as I have said earlier, RM3.00 for the chap-chap.

That was certainly most filling indeed. Maybe you would like to drop by and give it a try?

This old town…

It has been exactly one week now since I came back from my weekend trip to Kuching; my missus and I flew back last Sunday morning. My brother-in-law and his family of two sons were staying at the same hotel – the 360 Hotel and they only had two complimentary breakfast vouchers, so I gave mine to them so that the whole family could go together and eat at the Horizon Cafe.

We got to the Kuching International Airport pretty early as we took the 7.15 a.m. shuttle from the hotel. So we decided to go and have breakfast first before checking in. On the arrival level, there are McDs and also Only Mi…but eventually, we decided on this one, another of our very own Malaysian franchises…

I had eaten at one of their outlets in Sungai Petani, Kedah before but I never knew that this was their tagline…

…and they literally took their time.

We chose a table and took our seats but nobody came to take our orders. There was a form on the table for people to tick what they would like to eat or drink but there was neither a pen nor pencil provided. I had to go to the cashier’s counter myself to borrow a pen to tick and hand in our order slip. Our coffee came quite fast…

…but I did not like it at all. It was black but the coffee taste was nothing like the coffee that I would go for back in Sibu. Definitely nothing like STP’s coffee at the Ruby Restaurant in Sibu.

Then we waited…and waited…and waited and finally, our nasi lemak came.

I just could not understand what took them so long considering that nasi lemak is usually precooked and all that they had to do was to put everything together and serve…and there were no other customers at the time.

The sambal was very spicy hot but nowhere as nice as what I can get from the Bandong stall for RM1.50 a packet in the morning. Of course, the rice and the condiments would be much less…but getting two packets would only come up to RM3.00, minus the chicken and poppadums. Anyway, I did not like the chicken…nor the taste of the batter used in frying the meat.

Having said all that, the coffee was RM6.78 for two glasses and the two nasi lemak cost RM17.04. I cannot, for the dear life of me, figure out where all those sen came from. It was probably in the menu but unfortunately, I did not take note of the prices before ordering. Whatever it was, those figures certainly appeared kind of odd. On top of that, I had to pay an additional 5% tax. I thought that the government had waived that following the current economic slowdown? And that’s not all! When I walked over to the cashier’s counter to pay, she was not there…and somebody waiting at the tables shouted, “Tunggu (wait) ah!”

All things considered, it certainly was a disappointment on all counts and I certainly would take my time before I would ever set foot at that place again.

Lost Horizon…

This is an extension of my earlier post on the 360 Hotel at Hock Lee Centre in Kuching.

When I phoned in to make my reservation, I was informed that the government rate was RM135 nett per room, inclusive of continental breakfast for two. “Continental?” I thought…and I imagined a cup of coffee and two pieces of toast to eat with butter and jam. An American breakfast would, at least, be a more decent meal to start one’s day.

That day when I checked in, they told me again and added that it would be at no, not the Lost Horizon (I wonder if the disco, thus named, at the Shangri La, Singapore is still there or not?)…

…but the Horizon Cafe on the 18th floor from 6.30 till 10.00 a.m. The 18th Floor? Now, that would be very high up, so I decided that I would drop by the following morning just to check out the place and have a cuppa.

That was exactly what I did the next morning…and was not disappointed at all with it. The glass walls all around provided a bird’s eye view of much of Kuching city…

…and they did not just serve some miserable continental breakfast!

It was not a full-scale buffet like at many hotels…but there was a porridge counter with all kinds of yummy condiments including hard-boiled egg. I would think that if one is having porridge, omelette would have been more appropriate. Then there was a bread and bun and muffin counter, a cereal counter and you can help yourself to the half-boiled eggs by the side and there was a fruit section too. On top of all that, you can also have a choice of fried rice, fried mihun, fried cocktail sausages and wedges.

We would be heading to my sister-in-law’s place in a jiffy and she specifically said that she would want us to have breakfast there, so I just had a light one to sample some of the stuff…

It seemed that the hotel itself was not running its own restaurant…so the food for breakfast was catered from this place called “Little Lebanon”. I noticed that the waiters were wearing the uniform, so being the busybody that I was,  I asked. According to the sweet young lady “captain” (who doubled as the receptionist at the hotel), after 10, hotel guests would be free to spend their leisure at the place just to sit around, enjoy the view or read the newspapers and magazines and help themselves to the tea and coffee. She did not say anything, so I reckoned those would be on the house.

Well, whatever it was, it certainly was much better than what I had expected – a continental breakfast!

Tonight, I celebrate my love…

I attended the wedding banquet held to celebrate the marriage of my sister-in-law’s son to his radiant bride at this restaurant in Kuching…

There was, of course, the cutting of the wedding cake…

…and the pouring of the wine…

…followed by the toast…

The dinner started off with the Four Seasons…

…which included some sushi – but Japanese food has never been my cup of tea and I’m not a fan of the pickled jellyfish either while the other two items in the dish were a bit too salty for my liking.

The not-to-be-named soup was pretty good though…

…and I had seconds!

Then came the roasted suckling pig…

…which was absolutely heavenly especially the nice crispy skin!

The tempura prawns and salad dish was not bad…

…while the steamed fish was quite good…

…and I liked the duck too…

I gave the broccoli a pass as usually, when you get this dish in the restaurants, you will find an overload of msg…

The honeydew sago cream that was served for dessert was fine, this much I would say…

All things considered, I think the dinner was somewhat expensive – at RM550.00 per table but then again, that could be the standard in Kuching. At any of the leading restaurants in Sibu, we definitely would be able to get something a lot nicer at RM450.00 or maybe even less.

This is the last in my series of three posts on the wedding, so all that’s left for me to do now is to wish the newly-weds, Alfonso & Wai Fun, yet once again – congratulations and may your days together be filled with showers of Blessings and abundant happiness. CHEERS!

Hot lunch…

After the tea ceremony and the photo-taking session at my sister-in-law’s place on Saturday morning, it was time for lunch. They had the food catered by some restaurant at 3rd Mile – I do not know exactly which one it was as the guys doing the home delivery were only conversant in Mandarin but I did manage to find out from them that it cost RM16.00 per head.

There was the fried rice…

…with lap cheong (Chinese sausage) which was o.k. – nothing special as I would be able to cook that myself at home…and in the next dish, underneath all the ingredients and gravy, you would find the noodles…

I guess this is the Cantonese style where they deep fry the noodles till hard and crispy and then pour the sauce all over them. It was o.k. too – I did not have seconds…if you catch the drift.

The butter prawns were pretty good…

…and they also had this chicken dish…

…but I found the meat a bit over-fried and kind of hard. This next one was the fish fillet…just that you cannot see it in the photo buried under all the onions and stuff.

The mixed vegetables were the most colourful of the lot…

…but I did not have any as I’m not a fan of the dish.

I liked the salad…

…that was prepared by the groom’s sister.

On the whole, it was a fairly good buffet spread but I do think that they should do something about their presentation and try to make their dishes more colourful…and look more appetising.

Secret Love…

We interrupt our usual programme for a commercial break… LOL!!!

Malaysia’s own franchise, Secret Recipe, has opened its own outlet here in Sibu…

It is located at the Sibu Bus Terminal vicinity in the newest shop lots to the right – facing the main road (Jalan Pahlawan) next to Pahlawan Cafe…and for those who are familiar with the area, Baba & Siam is in the block right behind (Estimated GPS coordinate: 2.302861,111.849575).

The outlet is not really complete yet, so you may get to see people doing some fine tuning here and there. Why, they have not even put up the big sign at the top in front. Kinda strange, I would think…as generally, that would be the first thing people would do.

So, all of us here in Sibu can now enjoy the yummy cakes and other things that they have on their menu anytime…

Incidentally, does anybody recognise the lady buying the cakes at the cake counter? If you can guess correctly, you get to win a prize – you win the special honour of taking me there and giving me a treat! LOL!!!

I bought my favourite – their heavenly white chocolate macadamian cake…

…and also their chicken cornish, spicy…

…which was nice with lots of filling with a whole lot of chicken meat…

…but personally, I think I prefer the chicken pie at Aroma Bakery.

So, when are you all dropping by the place? Give me a tinkle and I’ll tag along. Hahahahaha….

Normal programming will resume after this…