: : Granny's Cooking : :

I'm amazed at the amount of different dishes my granny cooks everyday. The variety, the taste, yum. So, here's a look at the dinner menu for today :

Stir-fried Bittergourd
Beancurd Soup
Sweet and Sour Fishball
Kacangma
Chicken Kurma




Stir-fried Bittergourd
To tell you the truth, I do not like bitter stuff. Still, it look delicious enough so here it is. Granny cooked it with pork, some garlic and I think some black beans.



Bean Curd Soup
Another favourite clear soup. The bean curd is actually from dried soy bean. The bean curd is sold dry and needs to be soak in water. Then it'll become soft. Granny also added in black fungus : soft and crunchy. Apparently, the black fungus to good to prevent heart problems.



Sweet and Sour Fishball
A Westernised Chinese Dish. At a Chinese Restaurant, one can find sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour beer, sweet and sour fish, sweet and sour pork. Boring. But still, this one tasted good. Simple to do as Granny used Maggi's tomato sauce. She also added in strips of cucumber and onions. Note that the cucumber core must be removed. No need to add water as a lot of it will come out from the cucumber.



Kacang Ma
This is an extremely potent dish!! It's a herbal soup mostly taken by mothers during post pregnancy. Auntie Lucy gave us a pot and it really knocked us out tonight! This one was totally cooked in samsu(Chinese Rice Wine : used for cooking only)!! Definitely full of alcohol. The herbs are bought in bottles at cheap prices. It is fried dry and later grinded. Pounded ginger and the ginger juice is also added in with chicken. The alcohol can be substituted with more ginger to get a non-alcoholic wallop! Looks like I cannot sleep tonight.



Chicken Kurma
My sister's favourite. Kurma is a type of curry that is not hot at all. The curry is actually a grey-brownish colour but still very tasty. A cholesterol bomb because of the coconut milk that is added. The curry is simmered until it thickens but by then, the kurma taste would have already been in the chicken. Yummy yummy!

: : Red Peach : :

Bad day at work starting with yesterday's emergency. So, decided to pamper myself a bit with some Asian junk food. Got it from the nearby timbang place at Big Fresh Supermarket, Tabuan Jaya. Loved this SO much when I was young. Yep, the amount of things that can be eaten by a child is simply amazing. Granny gets the credit for introducing all the preserve fruits and snacks to me. But since she's missing her teeth, well, harder for her now to eat these things. Also makes you wonder whether it's healthy to eat it. :p



Anyway, this is preserved fruit is called Ang Tho or translated as Red Peach. It's both sweet and sour at the same time. Can't really describe the taste without one actually trying it. Years back, there were concerns regarding the red colouring used as it might be harmful for health. This particular one was okay as the colour was only on the skin. If you are looking to try out the different Asian junk food, this is a good choice.

: : Granny's Cooking : :

Was so tired last night that did not put up any pics of granny's cooking. However, it's going up today. Typically, a meal would have soup, stew or curry, fish (common for us as Uncle C is usually out fishing during the weekends), one or two veggie dishes and rice. Last nite's menu was :

Bak Choi Soup with Fishballs
Stir-Fried French Beans with Slice Carrots and Fish Cake
Assam Fish Curry



Bak Choi Soup with Fish Balls
Another clear soup that is easy to make. Bak Choi is like a cross between a lettuce and cabbage. The leaf is very wrinkled but the stem is firm. Granny added in fish balls to it. Basically, it's cutting the vegetables into rectagular pieces, boiling the water, put in the veggie and fishballs, add salt and pepper and boil until the veggie is soft. Easy.



Stir-Fried French Beans with Slice Carrots and Fish Cake
One of my favourite veggie dish. The French beans is sliced diagonally into small pieces whereas the carrot is sliced very thinly. Although not seen here, chopped garlic is added into the dish. Garlic is added to any Chinese veggie dish to get rid of any unwanted smells and tastes but at the same time acts flavour to it. About 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic is sufficient for this dish. Fish cake was also added in. It's actually made from fishball paste which is rolled into a rectangle and then deep fried. It is sliced thinly here.



Assam Fish Curry
Hmmmm.... This dish is sweet, sour and spicy at the same time. An all-time favourite. Usually, it's cooked with fish head as well but as Uncle C didn't come back with a big fish, Granny used normal fish instead. Assam? It's a fruit that is extremely sour but adds great flavour in cooking. Assam can be preserved and eaten just like a pickle. Had a great time eating this curry. Did you know curry is great with bread? Try it. That's why Indians always eat some sort of bread with their curries.

: : Halal? : :

A few friends brought up some concerns about places that are halal and non-halal that are mentioned on this blog. Well, I was thinking of doing it when I move over to my new home where I can have a bit more webspace to play around a bit. So, I didn't want to put in too much effort to this website until the move over.

When will I be moving? Pretty soon. The space is up already but some problems with uploading the blogand files there. Am awaiting feedback from my cousins but since they're busy, I can wait. No big deal.

Back to halal and non-halal eating spots. Actually, a number of restaurants do not cook pork but they do not put up the Halal sticker. Reason is that they do not have a chief Muslim cook. However, the ingredients that is used is, of course, halal. This can be seen from the noticeboard that is placed nearby the cashier.

While waiting for my website problems to be settled, I'll just make a quick mention in my current blog on whether the place is halal or not.

: : Chilli Peppers : :

After yesterday's dismal lunch, decided to follow some collegues out for lunch. Desperate times call for desperate measures!! Well, not so desperate.

Today's lunch spot is a coffee shop called Chilli Peppers. It's a halal coffee shop with a variety of food. Here are some of the drinks and meals we had.

Iced Barli
Iced Longan
Ice Lemon Tea
Thai Bee Hoon
Kolo Mee
Sambal Fried Rice
Thai Chicken Rice



Iced Barli
A really cooling drink when one is feeling hot and heaty. It's also a nutritious drink that can be taken when one has sore throat or when one is feeling dehydrated. Also great for making ice lollies! Just put some in the freezy and take it out when it's frozen. Think it'll also make a great sherbet.



Iced Longan
Another great thirst quencher! Yummy! Longan is similar to laici but firmer and the skin of the seed doesn't stick to the flesh. It's usually just the fruit added with water and some syrup.



Iced Lemon Tea
An old-time favourite everywhere. The lime used has a similar taste to a lemon but not so sharp. At least this iced lemon tea was made from real tea and lime rather than the instant version. Nowadays, coffeshops in Kuching are using the instant one which is tasteless. Can't even taste the tea.



Thai Bee Hoon
This is a slightly sour dished and not fried at all. The bee hoon is prepared before and water is drained away. Then, the garnishings are added on as shown with lime and chilli as well. Then, the entire meal is mixed up before being eaten. The noodles is made out of rice and has a lower cholesterol level compared to the yellow noodles.



Kolo Mee
Here is another version of the famous Sarawak Kolo Mee. This time, the noodles used are the curly ones. A favourite of an old friend in Penang. She couldn't get enough of it.



Sambal Fried Rice
This is the normal fried rice cooked with shallots, egg and chicken. The secret to a great tasting fried rice is the shallots. The best one to use is the small purple ones. It's hell to cut them up but the crying effort is worth it. Of course, there is the usual sunny-side fried egg and popadoms. Popadoms are the Indian crisps : light, thin and crunchy. Notice the sambal sauce on the right hand side? This is great! The chilli is fried with pounded dried prawn, onion and belachan (prawn paste). A great compliment to the meal. We kept asking for seconds!



Thai Chicken Rice
The rice was the normal chicken rice but it was the chicken that was different. Chicken is deep fried and a sweet sauce was later added on. Caution : Extremely sweet sauce! However, still very tasty and comes with soup.

The address for Chilli Peppers :

No. 12, Block B, King's Centre,
Jalan Simpang Tiga,
93150 Kuching,
Sarawak, Malaysia.
Tel : 082-576910

Directions to get there : It's located at King's Centre, the location of many shophouses. It is a few shops down from Systematic College, near the Simpang Tiga roundabout.

: : Places to Eat : :

Just came across a directory for interesting food in Sarawak. Someone obviously has not been updating it. Yes, you can find German food in Kuching. Surprise? Arrangements can be made at Carvery a few days in advance. Also, Oktoberfest is a very big event every October with an omm-pa-pa band in Kuching and Miri.

There are at least 3 Japanese restaurant, 1 Italian restaurant, 3 Korean restaurants and countless seafood outlets! Good Western food is also available and many many hawker stalls!

Hmm... now I have an idea to set up a directory. Will start planning to do it once I've moved to another web server.

: : Yesterday's lunchie : :

Decided to put yesterday's lunchie because today's lunch was worst! Urgh! Cafeteria food. The only decent thing was instant Korean noodles: kimchi flavour.

Anyway, yesterday's lunch was kuah chap. Mentioned early, it's a pork stew but not thick at all. Usually cooked with herbs, pork meat as well as intestines, pork stomach, pork skin and really big pieces of rice noodles. The noodles are similar to the kway teow except that they are cut in square pieces. It's also accompanied with half an egg.



This dish is a great breakfast dish and quite filling. Definitely not one for those who are not used to the unusual ingredients though. It is both sweet and salty at the same time as dark soy sauce is used to make the soup.

To finish the meal, I had a cup of Ribena 7-up!! Some Ribena syrup was mixed with the 7-up. Great way to end a meal eaten outside on a hot hot hot day!!

: : Peanut Soup : :

A bit more about this peanut soup. I'm a Chinese so we cook it with pork. However, I think it should be okay with chicken.

It's a common soup made at home and very easy to do. However, might take some time to do it because the peanuts need to be soft. Not too soft that it disintegrate but still soft enough to bite through without the crunchy sound.

Most homemade Chinese soup are clear i.e. no cornflour added inside. So, it's a very light soup and not too heavy. This peanut soup is very good for one's health although I have to check with Granny what it's good for. Sometimes, instead of peanut, she puts in red kidney beans. The taste is slightly different but still good.

A typical Chinese meal at home will have soup. I know my Dad needs it! Throughout the coming days, I will start putting up other types of soup. Nowadays, these soups can be eaten at the foodcourt which sells different types of clear soup like pork stomach with pepper, chicken soup with carrots, bittergourd stuff with meat soup and others.

Still, the best soups I've tasted so far is always at home!

: : Grandma's Cooking : :

Bit late today so think I'll skip the lunch menu for today and save it for tomorrow. It was a lousy kueh chap anyway (pork soup cooked in soy sauce, garlic with flat noodles).

Today, Granny cooked my sis' favourite soup : peanut soup with pork ribs. So, here it is!



Actually, the peanut is very soft. Granny's simple instructions :

Boil the raw peanuts in water over a slow fire. DO NOT PUT SALT IN!!! Need to ensure the peanut is 3/4 cook by tasting the peanuts. If not enough water, add more in. The soup will turn slightly reddish brown but that's okay. It's also to cook the peanut with the skin on. If you want more peanuts, put more in.

Add in the pork ribs and boil over slow fire. DO NOT PUT SALT IN!!!

Once pork ribs are cooked i.e. soft, add in the salt, pepper and Ajinomoto. Ajinomoto = MSG but only a little bit i.e. a pinch should be sufficient. For those who are not used to taking MSG, then you can skip this step.

The shiny stuff in the soup is actually the fat coming from the pork meat as well as some from the peanut. Throw in a cabbage leaf to soak up the fat and then throw away the cabbage leaf. At least, I remember it was a cabbage leaf. Or was it lettuce?

Granny doesn't give much measurements for the cooking ingredients. Everything is added in as per each person's taste so will leave it at that.

Anyway, sis, here's looking at you!

: : Granny's Cooking : :

Special request from my sis : pics of Granny's cooking!

Starting tomorrow.

: : Crime Scene: :

Cast : Grandma, Wena

Time of Crime Occurance : 10 p.m.

Grandma : Wei! Come and eat Kuku's (Uncle's) Kolo Mee.

Wena : Eh? Thought he wanted to eat later?

Grandma : Nanti basi later (Will turn bad). Come, I eat with you.

Wena : (Hmmm... using me as an excuse to eat the mee. Oh well. No harm. I get the mee. )

: : Mega Food Court : :

Grand name. Foodwise, I'm not too sure. Below are some fares from lunch, also with collegues from work. Mega Food Court is at King's Centre, near the Simpang Tiga roundabout.

Tang Hoon Soup No. 2(another one)
Salad Chicken
Indonesian Fried Kway Teow



Tang Hoon Soup No. 2
The great thing about tang hoon soup is that you can order whatever you would like to have in it. EL decided to have it with only fishballs and seaweed(red ones!). A LOT of fishballs. Usually, it's the soup that matters most and this one didn't quite make the mark. I still say the one that the temple, Carpenter Street is a lot better. Gotta take a snapshot one day.



Salad Chicken
This is the latest -in- food for the chinese : Thousand Island Sauce with fried chicken and rice. Bit bizarre for me but my love affair with Thousand Island Sauce was way over. Seems like Thousand Island Sauce is the latest favourite everywhere. You can even find it in Chinese Restaurants where it's mixed with prawn and fruits! Hmmm...



Indonesian Fried Kway Teow
I'm not quite sure whether this is the REAL Indon cooking or not. But, the stall is apparently famous for this style of cooking. Although the noodles aren't cooked as dark, it's still very spicy. Lacking in garnishing but it was okay. Cannot beat Uncle's cooking.

Food wasn't that bad today. A bad lunch = lunch at the company's cafeteria. Urgh!

: : Insults : :

[M] : alamak.. i just realised
[M] : your blog is about food

...Some people really...

[M] : i tot it was a phase

...oh, the insults...

: : Asian Junk Food: :

Thought I'd put this up just for the heck of it. Yes, Asians do have their own version of junk food. In fact, it's been around for years and years.

Dried Plum Version 1
Tapioca Crisps


Dried Plum Version 1
There are so many different types of plum out there it's hard to list them all. This snacks reminds me of my childhood days of buying snacks at the school canteen during break-time/recess. This is sweetened but nowadays, artificial sugar is used rather than the real stuff.


Tapioca Crisps
One of the best I've had so far. It's not oily. It's crunchy. Very spicy from the chillie. Not too sweet. Not too salty.

Both snacks were bought at a Timbang Outlet (Timbang = Weighing in Malay) at Big Fresh Supermarket, Tabuan Jaya. All snacks are bought according to weight. Kinda like a sweet soup but this time for junk food.

: : Expert : :

Went to Tabuan Jaya for lunch today with some collegues from work. Had to persuade them to give me some time to take shots of their meals before tucking into them.

Hurry up, Rowena! Hungry lah!
Okay okay okay.

Tang Hoon Soup
Kolo Mee Pok
Chicken Rice


Tang Hoon Soup
Direct translation : glass noodle. Yes, it is transparent, made from rice. PL got it from the Fish Ball King stall. It's not the best tasting Tang Hoon Soup but will do. For a better choice, there is always the Chinese Temple at Carpenter Street. Anyway, the soup also has a lot of other extras inside : the fish balls, meat balls, deep fried fish skin, tauhu stuffed with meat, plain tauhu, deep fried tauhu, crabsticks and others. At this stall, you get to choose what you want to eat although I always make the mistake of taking too much!!


Kolo Mee Pok
Mee Pok is the flat egg noodles. Cholesterol bomb but definitely tasty. The mee is first cooked in boiling hot water. Then, it is mixed with salt, soy sauce, sesame seed oil, pepper. Garnishes include char siew (sweet roasted pork), minced pork, fish balls, spring onions. Sarawak Kolo Mee has a unique taste to eat and is a big favourite among the locals and West Malaysians!


I had this from the Singapore Chicken Rice stall. The good thing is the chilli-garlic sauce by the side. Very nice. The rice is cooked with chicken fat and chicken stock. It's accompanied with roasted chicken and a bowl of soup.

Well, that was lunch! Expert Hawker Center is at Tabuan Jaya, behind Bank Utama and next to Thompson's Corner. It's so-so but it's a typical lunch spot.

: : Other stuff : :

I decided to put up pics and commentaries of other interesting foodstuff found in Kuching, Sarawak. It's not easy having to go out and have something to eat all the time. Also, quite painful for the purse.

: : Custard Apple : :




Saw my granny eating this apple this afternoon. Well, it doesn't look like the usual apple that one sees everyday in the supermarket. Called Custard Apple because of the taste. It's actually very sweet with the light custard flavour. Also known as leng kim in Chinese. To open the fruit, one just needs to pry off the skin which is actually very soft despite the tough-looking exterior.

Granny has two plants in her garden so decided to take a pic of it. It can be grown easily from one seeds found inside the fruit.




Where to buy the fruit? The wet market, of course. Haven't seen it in the major supermarkets, probably because it's a local fruit.

: : Pau : :

Got pau downstairs! Still hot! Better eat now! Granny shouting from downstairs. One of her friends just passed it to her. Ah! Another photo opportunity!



The pau is a steam, soft, fluffy, white bun filled with chicken marinated in the sweet sauce used for char siew (roasted porkmeat). There was more pau than white meat but it still tasted good. Other types of pau filling are char siew (local favourite), tau sa (very sweet red bean paste) and kaya (local jam made from eggs, pandan and sugar. A cholerosterol bomb : ten eggs for one small bottle of kaya).

Pau is served hot in many coffeeshops and also with dimsum (Chinese breakfast comprising of many small, different types of food. Similar to hors d'oeuvre).

Along Jalan Pandungan in Kuching, there are at least 2 coffeeshops selling tua pau (big pau). The filling is chicken minus the sweet sauce but a quarter of a hard boiled egg is included. This serving is enough for one meal. Usually, the pau size is small.

: : Cheer up LG! : :

This message is for LG who was feeling a bit down as she just turned 30 years old.

I am older than you by 45 years
Yet we share the same namesake
I am of simple taste
Yet appreciated by young and old
I have a steady stream of admirers
However, my looks have not changed much for the past years
Although I am very Asian
The British loved me
I was around during the British Empire
And was known to be seen at fine dining locations in Asia
Today, I'm still here
So hang in there babe!

Lingham's Chilli Sauce has been around for a really long time. It is spicy and sweet at the same time. Unfortunately, most people prefer Maggi's Chilli Sauce these days so not many people are familiar with this particular chilli sauce. However, the old folks will remember it from bygone days.

Well, hope that cheers you up, LG. Took me awhile to find it. Finally found the chilli sauce at Big Fresh Supermarket.

[Postnote : Took another look at the bottle and realised there is a little 'h' there. Sorry LG!]

: : Tea Ceremony : :

Was telling KSL about yesterday's dinner at Life Cafe. Found out that he was also into tea-drinking. So, sometime next week, will be taking more pictures of tea-making and a step-by-step description of the meaning of each step.

: : Life Cafe : :



Since LG was still in town, we decided to go to this quaint little shop we saw while driving through Carpenter Street. The name of the place is Life Cafe. Met AL and NT having some snacks there.

It's a little tea shop but with really good Chinese cuisine, just like the way it's made at grandparents' home. We ordered quite a fair bit, including a pot of Chinese Tea :

-Traditional Claypot Rice
-SzeChuan Noodle Soup
-Celery Omellete Pancake
-Fried Dumplings with Spicy Soy Sauce
-A pot of Oolong Tea



Traditional Claypot Rice
This was great. The rice was served with chopped chicken, sliced black mushrooms, shallots, spring onions and chopped dried prawns. It's supposed to be mixed together before eating it out of little bowls. Why the little bowls? Claypot is hot and you will accidently get burned. Having said that, the rice didn't looked like it was cook in the claypot but who cares? As long as it tasted good, I'm not bothered.


SzeChuan Noodle Soup
Marvelous! Couldn't quite make out all the ingredients but there definitely was chopped chicken, spring onions, spicy salted vegetables (kiam chai). Not spicy for those who can eat chilli. In fact, my granny makes it more spicy but it still tasted good.


Celery Omelette Pancake
As its namesake, definitely a pancake that was eaten with chilli sauce. However, we kept eating it with the spicy soy sauce that came with the fried dumplings.


Fried Dumplings with Spicy Soy Sauce
It looks like the Japanese dumplings guoza and the sauce as well. AS told us that it was definitely spicy but maybe because we did not order it correctly. Still, it was the sauce that was a big hit but we could only finish half of it. Too full from the noodles and rice.


A pot of Oolong Tea
Now, for the star of the night : the Oolong Tea. Have to check with LG what's the name of the tea later on. The waitress was kind enough to show two ignorant Chinese gals the art of making tea. A small burner was used to ensure that there was always a kettle of freshly boiled water available. The amazing thing thing was we felt less full after drinking tea!!


We also had some tools available for use : a spatula, tweezers and scoop. The spatula is for removing the tea leaves from the teapot. The sharp end is to unblocked the spout which might be blocked by the tea leaves. The tweezers are for handling the hot cups after washing them with hot water. The scoop is for measuring the tea.


Step 1 : Put all the cups onto the plate. The taller cup is for inhaling the tea fumes for appreciation. The smaller cup is for drinking it (ahem... I know it's corny but it's my blog. So there! :p)


Step 2 : Pour hot water into the white jug. Make sure that the water is freshly boiled!


Step 3 : From white jug, pour hot water into the teapot. Then, water from the teapot is poured over the cups. Using the tweezers, pour the water into each cup one after the other. From the cup, pour it into a bowl so as not to fill up the plate.


Step 4 : Pour in approximately 2 scoops of tea into the teapot.


Step 5 : Pour freshly boiled hot water into the teapot. Close the lid. Then, pour a little bit of hot water over the lid. I think the last bit was to ensure the teapot is heated up to create a slight vacuum seal. The seal will prevent the lid from falling open.


Step 6 : After a minute has passed, pour the tea into the taller cup first. Then, put the smaller cup over the taller one and quickly turn it around! Tricky but takes practice. Then, inhale the tea-smell coming out of the tall cup to appreciate the fragrance. Lastly, drink the tea!

It was an adventure for the night but as usual, I forgot to take some pictures. This time it was the tea in the cups AND the facade with the tanglong (red lanterns)! I'm pretty sure the staff must have thought I was weird taking so many photos and asking for help on tea-making i.e. a tourist. Still, it was a popular place with many locals and tourists popping by to try the food and tea. It was a cosy place but not that many tables were available. They also had 2 seating placing for customers who want to sit cross-legged or Japanese style. There are seating areas inside the shop (air-conditioned) and outside (2 tables only, open air).

The address :
Life Cafe
No.108, Ewe Hai Street,
93100 Kuching,
Sarawak,
Malaysia.
Tel : 082-411754
Mon-Sun : 11 am - 11 pm
Close on Sunday

The place is located in the old Chinese shops near the Waterfront, along a Carpenter Street. Parking is a bit of a trial since the streets are very narrow with cars and big vehicles parked everywhere. Still, worth the drive down!

: : Carvery : :

LG was in town so we went and had dinner at a quaint restaurant called Carvery. The concept is based on Argentinian/Brazilian serving. As usual, I did not take much photos as we were busy eating. Also, the photos aren't that great with my little camera.

The chef, Mr. Walter Frostl, has been working in Sarawak for many years before opening up this restaurant with other partners.



Homemade Bread eaten with the Mushroom Soup
oohhh... very very tasty. The soup was very thick with a lot of mushroom blended inside. Went well with the bread. All the bread is homemade and is very tasty. One of the few restaurants in Kuching that makes it fluffy and not too salty.



Salad from the Cold and Hot Sald Bar
There are two salad bars in this restaurant : cold and hot. Fresh mushrooms. Baby carrots. Alfafa sprouts. Sometimes, you can find corgettes (my fav!!). The pic isn't the greatest but trust me when I say that the food was excellent done. Other than veggies, they have pasta (both hot and cold), Thai beef salad, and others.



The Carvery
Right, onto the main dish. About more than 10 dishes of different kind of meat was available. The meat are all cooked in-house so here is a quick rundown on what we had tonight :
•Chicken Sausage
•Beef Sausage
•Mussels
•Breaded Fish
•Lamb Chop
•Rack of Lamb
•Beef Ribs
•Chicken cocktail sausage wrapped in Beef Bacon
•Beef Ham
•Chicken Ham


Sauces
It was simply delicious especially the mint sauce! All the sauce are made in-house so definitely authentic all the way. And the flavours that comes out are simply ummmmmmmmmmmmm!

Dessert
There is a dessert menu available but of course, yours truly settled for a delicious bowl of Haagen Daaz Rum Raisin Ice-Cream. Probably the only restaurant that serves this ice-cream. Forgot to take a picture, as usual.

All compliments are more than due to the chef, Walter Frostl. He has been in Sarawak for many years, cooking in various hotels and giving customers full and satisfying meals.

Address :
Carvery
Lot 2069, Jalan Utama,
Bintawa Industrial Estate,
93450 Kuching,
Sarawak.
Tel : 082-345428, 345429

Enough said. My stomach is full and it was full paying the money for it. The restaurant is also open during lunchtime serving very reasonable priced meals as well as Set Lunches. Try it out! Definitely worth the money.