Kuching Festival 2007

Hmmmm ... this year's Kuching Festival doens't seem to have any more changes than all the previous years. In fact, it seems even emptier than all the other previous years. Tek and I went over today to check out the food that are for sale there. Sadly, there seems to be quite a lot of stalls that aren't around. The last 2 years, there were a loooottt of "sio bee" stalls. This year, there weren't as many "sio bee" stalls, but then a lot of other food stalls seems to be lacking as well. The crowd wasn't what it used to be as well. There were actually vacant tables around!! And it was around 7pm when we were walking around, which normally is the most packed time during the fest on any other years.

One of the things I normally look forward to during the Kuching Fest is the Thai Restaurant's stall that sells their Thai desserts. I love those! However, this year, I've not seen them around, though the Thai Restaurant stall is around. Their dessert stall seemed to have been replaced by a new thing that hit Kuching (though I've not been to the shop yet) IGLOO. The stall sells flavoured shaved ice. I wasn't expecting much when I bought myself a cup (sorry, no photo available) but I was very much pleasantly surprised. The shaved ice was really really flaky and it melted the moment you place in into your mouth. It is quite a pleasant sensation if you ask me. The flavour that I bought was the champagne flavoured one. I was recommended the green tea flavoured shaved ice which is suppose to be their signature flavour. The colour kinda scared me off ... so I opted for the champagne flavour! It was pretty good!

The other thing that I look forward to would be the sticky mango rice. I had this in Thailand before and I still think that the one in Thailand is a lot better than what they offer here. Maybe its due to the mango. However, the mango in Thailand seemed to be more succulent compared to the mango here. Hmmm .. maybe I'm just being bias. But then again, the mango wasn't as sweet or as juicy. Still, I'd say its not bad. But the rice definitely wasn't as nice. The coconut milk as you can see in the photo isnt premixed into the glutinous rice. Maybe that's why the flavour isn't as rich as those I had in Thailand. In Thailand, the coconut milk is already infused into the glutinous rice. I'm also guessing that the rice that they used might have been cooked with some pandan leaves or pandan essence added because there's this fragrant pandan smell to their rice as well compared to the one that the Thai Restaurant sells which lacks it.

Tsui Hua Lau's stall has been sadly diminished to a pretty small and miserable looking stall compared to how their stall USED to look!! Somehow, this time around, Tek and I weren't just that excited by the festival anymore. :( We both had the LL Banana Leaf Briyani. At the very same stall, I bought this canai thingy which was sold in a very shocking RED colour! I found it a tad too sweet though. But if you happen to be a sweet tooth, I think you'd enjoy it very much. However, the colour does seem a tad shocking @ the very first sight!

Papadom that is given together with the briyani rice we ordered. One order can have one piece!

The "canai" that I told you about which is sweet. But its the colour that's scary!!! So red!!

I also bought this "bun" like thingy from the Korean stall. Its deep fried and covered in sesame seed. Nice! Inside of the bun, its filled with bean paste. So it has this sweetish flavour to it. However, theirs a slight salty taste on the outside and the sesame seed definitely gave it some fragrance. the whole "bun" is covered with sesame seed. The dough of the "bun" itself is some kinda sticky dough which has a chewy texture to it. Which I do happen to like. In fact it is quite similar to an entry that I have done earlier on this month about "chewy ball shaped" food stuff that is sold over @ Sin Wan, Jalan Song. The only difference is that the one sold over @ Sin Wan is more chewy in texture, but the one here, is fried I think a tad more intensely thus giving it a crispier feel upon the initial bite into it. The one over @ Sin Wan also has a sweeter taste to the dough used compared to this one.

The texture outside is chewy. And inside its filled with bean paste. Sweetish. Nice combination all in all. A tad oily though.

Oh...oh.. and there's the Dragon's Whiskers!! Apparently this only available twice a year! Yeah ... I asked the stall owner's before, but they only sell like twice a year! Once during the Kuching Festival and the other occasion will be before the Chinese New Year when the Chinatown (Pandungan) is closed to traffice and opened for people to set up stall! Liddat also can!!!! However, I'd recommend that you try to buy them fresh. Because if they've been prepacked and left there for awhle, the "dragon's whiskers" which is actuall some kinda candy thingy will be exposed to moisture and leaves it sticky instead of the nice cottony texture that it should have. So ask for freshly made ones instead! The insides are filled with peanut bits. Personally, I wish I can just buy the candy cause I'm not too big a fan of peanuts. Well, nuts of any kind. :P

The inside of the "dragon whiskers". The peanut bits filling. As you can see, it does look a tad soggy @ the bottom of the candy already. It isn't suppose to be like that. It should be as how its name says ... whiskery looking!

On another another note ... nothing to do with the Kuching Fest @ all. I suddenly am craving for laksa!!! Laksa from Fuyu Cafe!!! (tummy *growls*)

Mmmm... I like loads of lime juice in my laksa!

Hungry....

Because I'm so hungry now .. I shall blog about food. Right now I'm so craving for something that I'd already had for lunch. Mee Sua! Hmm ... how should I describe mee sua?



This is what is said about Mee Sua :



Mee Sua
Mee Sua is basically a breakfast dish, much like Mee Kolok. It is a variety of rice noodles served with a chicken drumstick in chicken/mushroom clear soup and usually some Chinese white wine.



This thin, delicate noodle is made from rice flour, and is usually sold dried in boxes. It takes no time to cook, and is generally served in a soup. Representing 'long life', it is customary to serve a person Mee Sua soup on his or her birthday in Nyonya homes.



As a Peranakan Hokkien who married into another Hokkien family, Mrs Yong Eng Swee explained that noodle dishes such as Hokkien mee is a ''must have'' dish for major Chinese festivals like the lunar New Year while mee sua is served to commemorate birthdays and when one needs a change of luck. ''The Hokkiens will always serve mee sua with a pair of hard boiled eggs to denote good things come in pairs. (Oh..oh .. and due to this excerpt, allow me to digress a bit!) I have always thought that Mee Sua is a Foochow dish. Where I come from, it seems t be. Until I found this article here that says its a Hokkien dish!! And here I am, a Hokkien (pure-bred nonetheless) and thinking that the dish I so love is a Foochow dish. But who cares who's dish it it??? Its just yummy!!! To read the article click HERE!



Anyway, ok, the mee sua that I so love to have in Kuching (at the moment) is @ this coffeeshop known as HOW-YOU. I think the owner forgot to insert "are" in between the "how" and the "you". But what do I know right? Back to the story, there's this lady there whom in my opinion makes pretty good mee sua. I have always loved mee sua. But after a certain episode that happened a few days ago has made me wonder if its time for to change stalls. I need to find a new mee sua stall. The lady seems to be getting stingy. I love having strong chinese red wine flavour in my mee sua (most people add chinese red wine and not chinese white wine into their mee sua). Then ah .. this lady, for leaves like this itsy bitsy little few drops of chinese red wine in the bottle that she gives out to customers who ask for extra red wine. I have this thing against stall keepers who are super kiam siap! (super stingy type!) Due to this .. I shall look for new stall liao. :( Sacrifices must be made!!



This is how mee sua looks like before it is cooked.


Sorry, but I took the photo off the Internet.


This is how mee sua looks like after cooked and is served up. Though different people do serve it up differently.


This one also taken from internet. My mee sua looks much much nicer one!


This is how I like my mee sua served! This is from the stall that where I have frequented for my mee sua. The egg is supposed to be boiled one. But then she was out of boiled eggs. So she kinda like cracked open an egg to my soup and boiled my egg in there. Works for me still. Oh..oh .. and then today even worse!! I didnt have any extra red wine to add to my mee sua @ all!!! Grrrr... so disappointing.


I'd already finished all my mee sua. The dish is normally served with chicken

Due to my hunger pangs .. I'm feeding myself Ferrero Roche. I used to love them so much, but somehow, I find them not that nice anymore ler. I need new chocs to satisfy me. :(

Cafe Cafe - Sibu

During my recent trip to Sibu with Tek (due to my work), tek's colleagues over there brought us out dinner. I truely do recommend anyone who's going over there or who are there and has yet to try out this place to GO NOW!! Its called Cafe Cafe. Its situated @ Jalan Temple and facing the river. Next to the row of shops where it is situated is the "pagoda" in Sibu. It isn't very difficult to locate. The owner of the shop is apparently a very entreprising person. The food served there is heavenly and the prices charged are really cheap considering the size, the portion and the quality. Comparable indeed to some other restaurants that I have been. The food that they serve there is a fusio styled food. East meeting the West concept. If I were to compare the prices with another fusion restaurant that I have tried out (Bla Bla Bla .. over in Kuching) Cafe Cafe is a lot cheaper. The design and the concept of the interior of the place is also unique. They are currently renovating the upper floor for as a VIP reserved place. It looks extremly spacious and can sit up to 20 guest(s) @ a time.

They also do catering or buffet style dinner for you if you have large number of guest(s) that you'd like to invite and budget is of concern to you. They actually do package as low as RM16p/head. Which I feel is extremly cheap considering the food that they will be serving out. We were also give the understanding that the owner's mother herself is a renowned chef who has written her own cook book as well. Though some of the food served may look simple ... the taste is definitely nothing simple. For example, I HATE bittergourd. I never take them. Ask a'one who knows me well. I NEVER touch bittergourd. However, (I do admit, initially it was totally out of courtesy that I forced myself to take a piece) for the first time in life, I can truly say that the bittergourd was absolutely delish! The bitter flavour of the bittergourd was still intact but due to the other ingredients that were added to the dish, the other flavours actually enhanced to bitterness to a yummy sensation (sounds weird ... I know. But it was GOOD!!!)

The dish that I absolutely loved best was the the Thai Fish Fillet Salad. It is a must have dish I say should you frequent Cafe Cafe! Oh .. oh .. must also have the Bailey's Ice cream after all your other dishes (sighs ... I miss it) I LOVE Bailey's! So if you love Bailey's as much as I do, this is defiitely a dessert that you MUST MUST MUST order!!! So simple ... yet so yummy. Other than that, this is the other place so far (to my knowledge) in Sibu that serves Jelly Pisang other than Tanahmas Hotel. I have to say though, that I prefer the Jelly Pisang that is served over @ Tanahmas still. I think this is due to the "jelly" used over @ Cafe Cafe. It is actually "agar-agar" (taste like it) compared to the jelly used in Tanahmas hotel.






The Tom Yam noodle was a bit of a dissappointment to me as well. The sourish taste I felt was too subtle for a Tom Yam dish. To me, any dish that says it is a TOM YAM dish must be infused with spiciness and sourness too. These are 2 most important flavours which should stand out.

So, should you drop by Sibu, try this place out!!!

Magnum!!

Its been ages since I'd last had Magnum's ice-cream. The problem with the ice-cream for me is that its too huge. So after eating it, I always feel like barfing. Its like OD-ing on ice-cream for me. So after quite a while of keeping my distance from them, I'd one given to me the other day. And .......................

I've forgotten how good it taste!

However, I couldn't finish it. :P Tek had to finish it for me in the end. I bit off all the chocolate only! Hmmm .. why can't the make it like lots of chocolate and less ice cream! Grrr.....

Yummy chewy balls @ Sin Wan

Edwin, I know that you'll love these. I think you would anyway. So you should go try it.

The balls are selling for 5 balls (your choice of flavour) for RM2.50

Discovered this particular stall over @ Sin Wan over @ Jln Song. Its the coffeeshop that is in between Peach Garden and Expert. Was browsing around for food when I saw this tiny stall next to Scotland Western Foood (Scotland Western Food is also @ Kenyalang Park. Not sure they shifted or if this is branch).

Anyway, back to the yummy balls. They have basically 4 different flavours. One that is filled with "tausa" or bean paste, butter (similar to those that you find in butter buns), sesame seed/oil (my mandarin isn't so hot, so I'd problems understanding :P) and also pork balls. I gave the "tausa" and "buttermilk" one whirl. Since I myself kinda like chewy textured food, I liked it. However, I do prefer the "buttermilk" filling balls instead.

The one with the "tausa" filling

The "tausa" filling inside the glutinous rice ball

They are actually similar to those glutinous rice balls with filling served in sugar syrup cooked in a mixture of water and ginger ie "tang soi". The only difference in how these versions are done, are basically, they're deep friend. So its glutinous rice balls filling - deep friend.

The "buttermilk" filling glutinous rice ball

The "buttermilk" filling ... (yum... *drool*)

I know that the next thing that I'm going to say is going to be totally irrelevant .. but whataheck.. I LOVE NANGKA!!!

NANGKAAAAAA!!!

Fresh dates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have always wondered how do fresh dates look like? Well, not always but I do wonder from time to time. Personally, I do not like dates much. Chinese cooking normally has dates in it, be it soup or your average Chinese dessert as they believe dates are good. (I suppose they are…) Muslims take dates a lot too especially during the fasting month.

I have however now discovered that I do like fresh dates!! Especially those really fresh ones from China! These are the fresh dates that my uncle bought for us. It sorta reminds me of cherries. I guess its just the shape. The texture itself reminds me of apples. Just slightly yummier. Well, different kinda of yummy.

The downside … they’re expensive!! Somebody, buy me more!!

Durian!!!!!

The durian season is like more than halfway through and I've yet to even taste it .... How sad is that!?! Must must have durian before the season is over! I dont want to have Thai durian. Somehow, I think they lack the flavour and the exquisite "aroma" durian in Kuching!!!

Casa Davide

If you love big @ss steaks, head over to Casa Davide over @ Jalan Padungan or as it is known now as China Town. Ok, besides the big @ss steak what can you get there? There are a variety of pastas that they served there. I do not however recommend the Carbonara. (I think I make better carbonara .. Hahahaha!!!) However, the rest of other pastas they serve there are quite ok. I just don’t recommend the Carbonara. Tried and tested by trusted friends a couple of times and each time it comes through bland. There doesn’t seem to be much improvement done to it @ all even though commentaries have been made, it seems like they aren’t taking it into consideration. You can’t really taste any flavour in it and its just bland.

I do however, recommend a steak that they serve there which is cooked in red wine. I can’t remember what is the name of that dish but just read the description of the dish. If you like your meat tender but not bloody, tell them to MEDIUM. Because if you tell them MEDIUM-WELL, it becomes well done and it spoils the meat. It becomes very tough.

The recommendable steak with red wine sauce. Too yummylicious for words!!

If you like a LOT of meat, then order the big @ss steak! It’s the one that says that it weighs more about 500g! I ordered it for Tek and considering the amount of meat he can pack away, he still got a bit sick by the end of the meal! Hahahahaha!

BIG @SS STEAK!

The Caesar salad is not bad @ all. Give it a shot. But have it with chicken instead. Oh .. do not try their recommened soup. Its not very recommendable. The mushroom is ok (not great, but ok). The pumpkin soup wasn’t that great. I wasn’t the judge of that since I HATE pumpkin soup, but Joe does. So he tried it and told me that it sucks.

This is my beloved dish ... "mee siam". Unfortunately the only mee siam or so called mee siam that i can find in town now (not anymore anyways) is a mutated version. I dont know what this particular stall did to the mee siam their selling, but geezz .. but if there are really mutated tasting mee siam, they would taste exactly like the version of mee siam that's being sold. As shown below :

Looks can be very very deceiving and believe me, the above picture is full of deceit!

My first bread!!!

Ok... it isn't something to be bragged about. When I got the breadmaker I was real happy (?!?! .. a breadmaker makes me happy??) and I couldn't wait to make my 1st bread. You know, its like having a brand new toy!! And so the breadflour, butter, yeast and what-nots that are needed to bake a bread was bought.

My new breadmaker!!! Yayness!

Got home. Mixed everything and instrusted ....

Turned the machine on ... and it started doing its thing.

And 2 hours later..........

How disappointing!!! Not to mention the embarassment. But then ... 2nd hand turned out .. TAAAADAHHHH.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My perfect bread!!!

Dim Sum in KK

Thanks to my work, I get to travel to a few places roughly about once every month. Sure I'm not going all that far, but still food elsewhere does slighly differ from food from home.

One of the best things that I love each time I go over to KK is the dim sum place which is near Likas area. Apparently this is one of the most famous dim sum places in KK. The dim sum served is defintely nicer than the dim sum that I've got here back home which really ... is just yucky. Plain yucky.

I dont want to sound ungrateful, but KK seems to have more perks than Kuching does. Seems like the variety offered there is a lot better. Shopping there is actually more fulfilling as well. Not to mention that they've got Burger King there too. I know. How miserable can this be?? There isn't any Burger King where I come from. Tell me how much more deprived can I get? I live for fast food.

During my last trip to KK, I've also been introduced to the night spot over @ Tanjung Aru. I've always known that Tanjung Aru is a beach area for families in KK. But I never knew that there was also a night life version over there. Its really nice too. There are rows and rows of tables placed right @ the beachside. You get to sit there, sip your drinks slowly while catching up on gossips and news with friends with a pretty good live band playing up front. Its a great way to relax and the atmosphere (should the weather be friendly) is just totally relaxing and great.

We need more neat spots here.....

Yummylicious dim sum!!

I love glutinous rice. Basically any form of glutinous rice. But this is definitely one of my fav.

Footloose!!! Chicky feet! That's Anthony's dish. I've yet to to be able to stomach such delicacy.

Part of the decorations found around the shop


They've got potraits of past Emporers who had ruled China before lining their walls. And the guy looking @ them is Anthony.

The last Emporer of China. Emporer Puyi

The description @ the bottom of his photo.

By the way, all these photos were taken with my very handy Sony Ericsson W800i. So far the clarity of photographs taken by this phone has not ceased to amaze me.

Entrance to Tanjung Aru Beach, KK.

A park like area on the left side of Tanjung Aru, KK.

The beach that you get to enjoy @ night as well.


The cafe / pubs where you can enjoy your drinks @ night.

Sorry peeps, but seems like something went wrong with my dumb-ass memory stick. My photos of the night view of Tanjung Aru (which were real nice) are allllllllll GONEEEE!!! *sighs*