Déjà vu…

It was certainly like some kind of a déjà vu considering that we had lunch here in December last year before my daughter left for New Zealand and I took a photo of her then…

*recycled pic*

…and the other day, we went there again and like on our previous visit, this time around, I also took a photo of her…

Any difference? Not much, I reckon – she still looks more or less the same, don’t you think?

If you may recall, we found the food prices a bit steep then…and on my previous visit which happened to be my second time at the place, I still thought that it was somewhat expensive to go and dine there.

However, I did notice then that they were promoting some quite affordable set lunches, so my daughter and I decided to stop by to give it a try. They have quite a number of choices on their set lunch menu…

…with prices ranging from RM5.90 to RM8.90, served with free keropok (prawn crackers) and acar (pickles) and iced tea…

I ordered the sambal chicken with rice (RM5.90)…

…and I must say it was very nice – not too strong on the sambal, just nice, and quite spicy, plus there was so much chicken that I would think it was indeed value for money – not expensive at all.

My daughter had the garlic chicken with rice (also RM5.90) and it was also very nice – something like sweet and sour meat with cloves of garlic in it…

All in all, at such prices and considering the nicer and more comfortable air-conditioned surroundings compared to our regular kopi tiam (coffee shop)…

…I would think this is a good place to stop by for lunch…and most importantly, the food was great!

I’m sure we’ll be stopping by there again pretty soon to try the other items on the menu. Anybody wants to tag along?

Different from the rest…

Most Sibuians, coming home from abroad or even from the peninsula, would head straight to the nearest kampua stall to have their fix…but not my daughter. She has never been a fan of the noodles but she does have a soft spot for the kolo mee in Kuching and also the Sarawak laksa.

She already had her favourite pian sip (dry) in town earlier…and last Sunday, I took her to the Thomson Corner outlet opposite Sacred Heart School for the laksa there.

This was the Sarawak laksa – seafood special (RM6.00) that I had but she, being a small eater, only wanted the regular- RM4.00, and RM5.00 for a large bowl. It is no longer selling the RM7.00 special with the three giant udang galah (freshwater prawns) but this was pretty good too and well worth having.

I thought she would love the assam prawns (RM5.00) that I bought from my regular Malay food stall at Bandong…

…but she did not seem too keen on those. Most people love prawns of all shapes and sizes but I suspect she did not like the idea of getting her hands all dirty from trying to remove the shell.

She loved the assam fish curry though…

I had asked for RM5.00 of it but there was enough left that day for around RM7.00-RM8.00…and the nice man gave me ALL of it for RM5.00, bless him!

I also bought Melissa some sambal brinjal (RM2.00) that has always been her favourite…

…and true enough, she ate a whole lot of that. I’m o.k. with it but I prefer brinjal steamed and eaten ulam-style with sambal belacan.

I guess that’s part of being human – we are all different in our own ways.

Keep on trying…

My daughter first tried the Uncle Miki’s Japanese baked cheesecake a number of years ago when we were on holiday in Singapore. They had a stall at the entrance of Cold Storage (Centrepoint) and I bought one back to the hotel. She loved it and after that time, I bought it again once at their counter at Isetan, the supermarket at the basement in Lot 10, KL but she said it was not as nice.

We have had some pale imitations at the local bakeries here but it was only quite recently that we found one that we really liked at this bakery. If you remember, I mentioned in my recent post that we bought one not-very-big oval-shaped one and it cost RM14.00 – definitely not cheap, that’s for sure.

Anyway, my daughter and her friends tried making it in Wellington, New Zealand but something went wrong. When they took it out of the oven, the sides sank…so in the end, they had something that looked like a flying saucer…

She said that it tasted all right but it was not the same. Later, they tried to bake it again and it seemed that it was even worse than the first time.

Now that she’s home for the holidays, she was determined to give it another try and with the supervision and guidance from the mum, she was quite sure she would get it right and she did…

It certainly looked good but after it had cooled, the surface seemed to have wrinkled a bit…

But it did not matter as the cake was just right and tasted really good…

Well, if anyone’s interested, you can get the recipe from this link or this one and give it a try. Good luck!

What’s cooking…

Gosh! It’s Saturday again…and it has been two Saturdays already since the Saturday when Melissa flew back to Malaysia from Wellington via Auckland. How time flies!

Well, before she and I flew back to Sibu the following day – Sunday, the mother had cooked some chicken curry for her to enjoy when she got home, so we had that to eat for dinner for a couple of days and since Wednesday last week (17th November) was a public holiday – Hari Raya Haji/Adiladha, she was able to cook something else – this braised pork leg in soy sauce with five-spice powder…

…and she fried this plate of salted vegetables with pork belly…

My daughter was o.k. with the pork leg – not really a fan but she enjoyed the salted veg dish a great deal and it certainly had been quite a while since she last had that.

Over those few days, since we had the meat dish for our dinners – the chicken curry and the braised pork leg, all I had to do was to fry the vegetable dish to go with it. There was not much of  a choice of vegetables in the fridge though – some greens and a few strands of long beans. I sliced a few of the latter thinly and fried it with egg…

…and Melissa liked that. She said that they did not have long beans in Wellington so over there, she would have to eat french beans instead.

On a different day, I cooked the rest of the long beans. I broke them into lengths of around 1 inch and fried them with dried prawn sambal…

…and as there wasn’t much left, I added an egg to it so as to make it more substantial and there would be enough for all three of us. Melissa loved this too.

And since we’re on the topic of homecooked food, I remember Philip asking me a while ago whether there are alternative ways of cooking broccoli. Well, since I saw the photo in a recipe book of Chinese cooking, I would boil the veg in water with a pinch of salt – do not overboil so it will still be nice and crunchy. Then, I would arrange it in a circle in a plate and in the middle, I would fry some meat with ginger in thick soy sauce gravy and pour that in. Lately, I’ve seen them doing that in the restaurants but they would have mushrooms and pacific clams in the middle.

My daughter loves mushrooms, so when I cooked the broccoli the other day, I fried some abalone mushrooms with prawns and fishballs in oyster sauce and poured that into the middle like this…

My missus would fry everything together which would mean that the taste would go into the broccoli. Otherwise, you would have to dip the veg in the gravy while eating…or it will be somewhat bland.

I also cooked this braised pork in barbecue sauce…

…and if I remember correctly, I had a post on something like this not too long ago. My daughter saw it while she was still in Wellington and was grumbling that she was drooling  away over there. Ah well…this is one of my easy-to-cook recipes and I could whip it up in no time at all. No sweat!

After some 9 months in New Zealand, away from home, it certainly appears that Melissa thinks everything she eats here, be it at home or outside, tastes so great …and I’m glad, real glad…

Three days in a row…

On her third day back in Sibu, Melissa wanted to go for the sambal char kway teow (RM3.80) at Kopitiam Fantasy. While in New Zealand, she had seen it in one of my posts and had been dying to give it a try…

Well, she was not disappointed and found it to be very nice indeed.

I wanted to try something else, so I ordered the lor mee (RM3.80)…

…which came with this garlic and chilli dip…

Perhaps it was because I had never been a fan of lor mee so as a result, I thought it was nothing really great and not something that I would want to have again.

It was Hari Raya Haji/Adiladha that day, a public holiday…so my missus was not working and was able to cook. Thus we had our lunch and dinner at home.

The following morning, Melissa wanted to go for some pian sip dry…

*recycled pic*

…or what is called kiaw in Kuching and is something like wantan in the peninsula. She wanted hers dry – the same as before she left for her further studies overseas. I had the pian sip with mee pok (flat noodles) in clear soup (RM2.20) for a change…

…and for lunch, we went for some nasi bryani at this cafe…

Normally, we would not come here for that but I had heard a number of people praising this one to the skies. In fact, we used to eat it here a long time ago when my daughter was still in primary school but somehow or other, we eventually switched to this other place.

Well, that day, Melissa had the mutton bryani (RM7.00)…

…while I had the chicken (RM6.00)…

…and both were good…and though I would not say that it was so much better than our usual bryani place, it was definitely better than what I had here.

Gosh! Are you all bored yet? It certainly seems that since coming home, all that Melissa has done is eat…eat…and eat – but unfortunately, only the dad puts on weight! Sigh!!! LOL!!!

The second day…

My daughter and I did not go out for breakfast on her second day home as I had to attend the farewell assembly in honour of my ex-principal but we did go out for lunch. We went to that bak kut teh place at Kampung Datu here and she had the bak kut teh noodles (RM4.50)…

…while I decided to give their dry bak kut teh (with rice – RM8.00) a try…

The meat was very nice…

…but there wasn’t any sauce or gravy and I had a hard time struggling with that bowl of plain white rice. Melissa, needless to say, enjoyed her noodles a lot.

On the way back, we stopped by her favourite, the WeCare Bakery and I bought this Japanese baked cheesecake…

…which is something like Uncle Miki’s.

I prefer this type of cheesecake to the chilled ones which I used to like but somehow, these days, I find them too rich and not to my liking anymore. It was not cheap though – RM14.00 for that but it was nice and anyway, we are not going to buy it too often, that’s for sure.

I also bought these pillow-shaped rice dumplings at RM2.50 each…

…but they were nothing like what I had before.

They turned out to be something like ordinary bak chang (meat dumplings)…

…just that they were not made in the usual conical shape and tastewise, I think I can buy nicer and cheaper ones elsewhere. Let’s just say that this is something I will not be buying from there ever again.

So that was the second day… Wanna know what we had on the third day? LOL!!!

The first day…

The first day Melissa was home in Sibu, she had roti canai and murtabak for breakfast…

*Recycled pic*

…from that stall at Bandong that I frequent quite regularly. By the way, the guy said that he would be going back to Penang with his family for the school holidays and would resume business in January, so don’t bother dropping by till then – he would not be around.

For lunch that day, we went to Chopsticks for the chicken rice that she used to love a lot. I asked for some roast pork to be added…

…and for myself, I also had the lor nui (braised hardboiled egg)…

Melissa loved it so much and she commented that it was so much nicer than what she had in New Zealand. They gave plain rice and fried kailan (Chinese broccoli) with her plate of roast chicken and roast pork…

…and she said that the pork was not as nice either – plus she paid NZ$11.00 for that and that would come up to around RM27.00. Good grief! I paid for what the two of us had that day and it did not come up to that amount – RM11.00 for the rice, RM14.90 altogether, inclusive of the extra egg and the drinks.

We bought these for afternoon tea that day – some cucur udang (4 for RM1.00)…

…and some cucur sambal (also 4 for RM1.00)…

from my regular Malay kuih stall at Bandong…and needless to say, she enjoyed them a great deal.

Well, this was just the first day… Do stick around for more! LOL!!!

Fit for a king…

The night my daughter was to arrive from New Zealand – Saturday, 13th November, 2010, Mandy, my very dear friend from our years on national radio, picked me up at the hotel in KL and drove me all the way to check in at the Concorde Inn KLIA. Zee, another dear friend from the “radio family”, was so nice as to take her time off to tag along…

*Photo shows Mandy & Zee leaving it all to the Big Boss to order dinner while smallkucing enjoys her iced Chinese tea…*

…and Zul, yet another friend from the same gang, joined us at the hotel and we made our way to the KLIA to wait for the flight to arrive.

I am never a fan of the stuff they sell at those fast food franchises but we had not had dinner and it was almost time for the plane from Auckland to land, so we decided to just have a bite to eat at the Burger King outlet which is located near the international arrival gate at the KLIA…

I had the double cheese…

…which tasted…like a burger…

…and there were side orders of fries…

…and onion rings…

…as well as two boxes of chicken nuggets.

I also ordered a Swiss mushroom double cheese for Melissa just in case she was hungry after the long flight…and she had that for supper later in the hotel.

If I’m not mistaken, it was Mandy and Zul who picked up the tab for the orders, so thanks to the two of you for the treat…and thanks also to all three of you for coming along with me to the airport. Melissa was so delightfully pleased to see a “welcoming committee” there to welcome her home…instead of just me alone. It certainly meant a lot to her…as much as on 8th February earlier this year – the day when she left for New Zealand and Mandy and Zul were there too to bid her farewell.

*recycled pic*

I am indeed blessed to have friends like you all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart…

Seeing double…

I spent one night in KL proper before my daughter arrived from New Zealand…and I stayed at the same hotel where I had always stayed on my last few trips. For one thing, it is the cheapest among the better hotels in the vicinity of Bukit Bintang in KL…and is much better than some of those shady looking ones around.

However, this time around, the room rate had gone up by around RM10 or so…and I was given a much smaller room – one that was slightly bigger than a queen-size bed. The rooms where I used to stay in previously were much bigger and nicer…but since it was only for one night and I was travelling alone, I did not bother to complain.

It is cheaper to book through a travel agency in your town compared to booking online and it is even more expensive for a walk-in guest. It certainly seems that the hotel is extremely popular – I was there on a Friday…and it was full on Saturday and Sunday and while I was waiting for a friend in the lobby, I overheard somebody calling and the receptionist told him or her that there was no room available on Sunday, just one on Monday – and that one was instantly snapped up.

Well, the location is good and you get free breakfast for two even though you are occupying the room alone. Shirleen seems to know me so well that the first thing she asked when she commented the other day was whether I had a double-breakfast again…

I will be honest about it – I most certainly did! I went for the breakfast as I needed the coffee to wake me up in the morning…

…and I had two cups of that.

I was also given a bigger glass of orange juice since I was having the double…

The others were served a smaller glass, kesian… Muahahahaha!!!!

The American breakfast (and also the Malaysian breakfast aka nasi lemak) was priced at RM13.50 on the menu which I thought was extremely pricey and I would not want to go and pay that kind of money to go and eat there. However, since I was getting it free and I had two breakfast vouchers, I requested for two American breakfast on one plate…

But hey! Where were my eggs – bull’s eye or sunny side up? I never asked for an omelette!!!

And I thought they did not give me any ham/bacon/sausages until I discovered the two buried under the toast…

Ah well, as the English proverb says, “Never look at a gift horse in its mouth,” and often has it been said also that the best things in life are free…

What you gave me…

When I met up with my blogger-friends for dinner in KL, it was like there was some kind of barter trade going on. I brought along some kompia, terbaloi (sago biscuits) and keropok (prawn crackers) from Mukah, terung dayak (Iban/sour brinjal), Sarawak laksa and masak hitam paste and souvenir t-shirts for the kids.

Cynthia gave me her homebaked chocolate chip cookies…

…but they never reached Sibu. When I checked in at the Concorde Inn KLIA, my friends, Mandy and Zee, and I made coffee and I decided to let everybody try them but once we started, we just could not stop. In the end, we almost finished the whole lot except for a few pieces that I saved for my daughter who also agreed that they were really nice. Well, if anybody’s interested – for Christmas perhaps, Cynthia is selling them and you can click this link for the details. Incidentally, do not hesitate to ask me if you need my mailing address. Muahahahahaha!!!

She also gave me these – mousse of different flavours: vanilla and mango slices, raspberry and chocolate…

Unfortunately, they were starting to melt, so during the dinner, we ate all that was in the big tub that she gave smallkucing…while I generously gave mine to my cousin and her friends who happened to be having dinner at that same restaurant that night.

And talking about smallkucing, she was there too that night with her Big Kucing and her Little Kucing…

She gave me these bamboo charcoal tambun biscuits…

I have not tried them yet but since they’re from that Bisgood Company, I bet it’s going to be good – so far, I’ve liked all the products from the company.

She also gave me this glutinous rice cooked with soy sauce and all the ingredients…

…but I was really full after dinner that night and there was no fridge in the room, so I could eat only about half of that.

It was the same also with the Coke chicken that Cleffairy gave me…

Pretty nice, sweet…but very cold – should be a lot nicer if eaten piping hot.

She also gave me these…

…but I think the novel was for my daughter and she would be getting the t-shirt as well. There would be no way I could fit into that small thing. There were some badges too, all in a very girly shocking pink bag. Well, that was not all – inside, I also found what I thought was another book – “God’s gift”…and it turned out to be a collection of readings from the Bible. I wonder if Cleffairy is trying to tell me something… Hehehehehehe!!!!

Last but not least, I got these from my very dear friend, Mandy…

What a relief – she did not give me any perishables…so I was able to cart all of that home with me to Sibu and enjoy eating them slowly one by one.

Thanks, everybody, for everything. I do hope you all liked what you all got… Let’s see what I can bring over from here next time.