: : Googlism : :

mum-mum is not going away
mum-mum is way too skinny (I am?)
mum-mum is a common word in chinese meaning eat
mum-mum is great
mum-mum is here
mum-mum is a food blog
mum-mum is worrking more than she expected to (got that rite)
mum-mum is a flash interactive map of food spots in malaysia (not yet lah!)
mum-mum is ok

via Auyongtc.

: : Blogger's Meet : :

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Tsk tsk *sniff*
You guys and gals don't ajak me...NSDS3 | | 09.29.03 - 5:44 pm | #

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aik! sorry! lupak lah woman...

wait a min... u never say u were from sarawak wor. *piak*

next outing is kuching jazz festival. wanna go?
Wena | 09.29.03 - 7:03 pm | #

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Date? I'm the person who is hard to go on outing.
NSDS3 | 09.29.03 - 11:05 pm | #

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then what are u complaining for? *Piak*

cheh!
Wena | Email | 09.29.03 - 11:35 pm | #

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Hey, I want to go, want to meet bloggers! KL is too far away!
NSDS3 | 09.30.03 - 1:00 am | #

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Soweee... wasn't awake when I posted that comment. Didn't see the word date there. Thought u meant u didn't wanna meet up. Okay, next bloggers meet, will let you know. And the rest of the world out there. :p

Although, seriously speaking, it'll probably be during the Jazz Festival. Wanna go?

: : Manic Mondays : :

Don't you just love Mondays. Busy with work after a great two days off. First it was the traffic jam. Then it was morning meetings. Followed by impossible datelines. Thought that lunch would be better. Was I wrong on that count.

It started with a group of us going to Chilli Peppers for lunch. The usual lunchspot, we thought we could just sit down, chat and eat. When we got there, the place was full! No spot to sit down. Saw a few tables that were supposed to be emptied but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the diners just had to stay seated and chit chat and just act cool. Kids. Hummph!

So, off we went to Da-Light Hawker Center which was 5 minutes away. Once there, found out that all the HALAL stalls were closed! Well, too bad for Harris and Ruby. So, we went another food court called King's Centre but still couldn't find a HALAL food stall around.

So back we went to Chilli Peppers, this time finding a table free. Was ready to blow by then. And the silly kids (college students) were still there. Grr...



I've taken so much pictures at Chilli Peppers that was trying to remember what was in the blog and what wasn't. Think this one wasn't in yet. Belachan mee hoon, ordered by Jacqueline. Definitely a person who enjoys her food. Well, she did eat everything up. :p

As for me, it was tomato kway teow again. Can't help it that I like it. :p

: : Elephant Cafe : :

Another meeting with bloggers. Don't know why but this week, am meeting up with a lot of them lately.

This time, the meet was arranged by the Hobbits. Let's see, there was Gette, Joyce, Sheebs and Andrea. Then, Maylin and Melvin decided to drop by, Melvin now being the only guy amongst all the ladies. Bin Gregory and Syazfina couldn't make so it was just us, chit-chatting the afternoon away. And, everyone is whipping up cameras to take pictures of people and (of course) food.



I had a Mocha Freeze to start off and Joyce had a Wild Tribe Mocha. Looks the same except that mine had more chocolate and Joyce's had more coffee. I later had the Wild Tribe Mocha.



Gette had this to drink : chocolate banana mix. Smelt so divine.... sigh... and of course, finished completely.



This is the signature drink for Elephant Cafe. A tea that is mixed with chopped orange peels, some lime(?) and sumboi (plum) powder. Sheebs had this.



Maylin ordered some hot tea but I didn't get the flavour. Oh well. It was strawberry tea. (",)



Melvin had spaghetti bolognaise. Quick a big portion. Think he shared it with Maylin but I'm not sure. Was too busy chatting away with the others on Bookcrossing and Jazz Festival and other stuff. Incidently Maylin signed up as a volunteer. Wished I had the time to do those stuff.



Joyce and Gette had the Mushroom and Chicken Fusili. Smelled so good.



I kept thinking this was chicken and everyone else had to set me right. It's Cajun Fish Fillet. Was still very blur from Friday's nite out. It came late and I suspected that they totally forgot about this. Cheh! Still, it was worth the wait but everyone had to wait for me to finish eating. Hmmm...



Looks like a cocktail drink doesn't it? It's just Sprite with Blue Caracao added to it. Interesting look anyways.

Next meet with the Hobbits will be after 19 Oct for Bookcrossing at Elephant Cafe and the Kuching Jazz Festival. Going to bring my Dad's videocam to try it out that night. Woo hoo!

: : Coffee Master, Somerset Gateway : :

I actually wanted to put up pictures of my dinner last nite at the Luna restaurant. Was a bit shy to take pictures in such as crowded area and with the possibility of the hostess screaming down my head. Hmm... garang (fierce) one that one. Yes, Luna is already opened for business. Dinner could be better but they're still new at it. BJ, UJ, CKi and I didn't want to offer any suggestions as everyone looked so stressed out. So, decided to post pictures from Coffee Master instead.



After the dinner at Hai Pa Wang, we were off to have coffee at Somerset Gateway. And you know what? I didn't even know this coffee place existed. Talk about being so blur for an entire year. It's a great place for coffee with cheap prices and great coffee, dessert and tea.



Melvin had this ice-blended coffee drink with pearls inside. Can't remember the name of the coffee. Something like black island with pearls or something. Was puzzled why the drink wasn't sweet until he saw the cup of syrup next to eat.



Of course, having a bottomless pit for the stomach, he still had space for a slice of Rich Chocolate Cake. Tasted great but extremely sweet.



I had some tiramisu other it was a bit disappointing in taste. Didn't realised it was going to come in a cup. Of course, this is the halal version i.e. minus the alcohol. Darn.



Still, the oreo-flavoured coffee was great. Looking at the top, the mashed pieces of oreos reminded me of black wooden chips found on the seashore. Urgh! Tried very hard not to think about it.



I think this was jasmine tea with lime. Lisa had this and it smelled so nice. The tea leaves and lime is put into a strainer and later removed after brewing in the hot water for awhile.



Jackson and Christina has green tea instead. Always a good choice. Also, found out that Yeo's Green Tea canned drink goes extremely well with Chivas Regal. Lovely, absolutely lovely. That was on Friday nite. :p Anyway, back to Coffee Master.



I think Maylin had this : Chrysanthemum Tea. A favourite found in many Asian countries. Notice the flowers bobbing about in the hot water? Smelled so nice. Very cooling when one has sore throat.

Details
Coffee Master
Level 4 Somerset Gateway
Residents' Lounge
No. 9, Jalan Bukit Mata
Tel : 250 958
Monday to Sunday
11 am - 11 pm

Note that the last order is taken at 10.30 pm.

It was a very nice coffee joint to end a very filling dinner on Wednesday nite. Wanted to go there again but went too late at 11 pm. Darned it! Oh well.

As for Luna, would recommend that one goes after a couple more weeks. Since it's a new establishment, everything is chaotic so don't be surprise with you have to wait for more than half an hour for your food to come. So, be patient with the staff if you want to go there now. Still, it's worth going to check it out. I'm sure the food will improve a lot after this.

Anyway, there's Elephant Cafe this afternoon with the Hobbits!

: : Kolo Mee at Carpenter Street : :

Gosh, haven't been blogging for the past 2 days. Been so busy.



Last nite's farewell party was seriously a blast. But came back very tired. By then it was 2 am by the time I slept.

Woke up early this morning (7 am!!) to pass some tuak bottles to sotong dude and the idiot didn't turn on his phone. Luckily for the hotel operator and his pal was already awake to pick it up.

Dropped off the bottles, rushed back and change to go out with Lisa (a very very sweet and nice person and I think still single? okay, she's not ;p), Jackson, Melvin and Maylin to eat Kolo Mee at Carpenter Street.



We ordered the mee without any garnishings as we had it with soup. It's slightly sourish as a dash of vinegar is added in for taste.





We ordered two bowls of soup : one with spare parts (internal organs of piggy wiggy) and one without (for Melvin). Everything was polished off except for the kolo mee which was a huge helping in itself.

The coffee shop is pretty small and be prepared to share tables. It's the normal when going to that shop although when we went, there weren't so many people yet. For those who are not used to MSG, do not go here. There is a lot of MSG in the soup so if you're not used to it, you're going to be pretty dizzy.

After that we went to the Courthouse as the other haven't seen it since it was last renovated.



There was an exhibition going on about Chinese Muslim Calligraphy.



This picture was very intriguing. A boat written in Arabic. Will be putting more shots up later.



We later went to the other end of the street to there Artrageously Ramsay Ong Gallery. There was an exhibition of Ginny Sampson's artwork. My favourite was a piece called Strung Out. Think it was slightly over RM1000 but can't quite remember. Oh well. Should check it out. The pieces were great. Also, the gallery allows Sarawakians to pay by installments for their pieces. Interesting? Of course.

: : Meeting up with other Bloggers : :

Went out for dinner again with some bloggers from KL.

We went to Mukah Seafood to try out the umai there. No pics of the dinner as already covered in a previous posting. :p

Who did I meet?

frymysquid : cannot get over the fact that d'man is my cousin and screaming down the copper wires to him about it. needless to say, i will never have any rest in future from family. as for the tuak, he didn't want to carry back, so? :p

mun-mun : a sweetie looking for teak furniture. and fry kept saying that 'she's *beep* in da room!'

zaine : jolly green giant - malaysian version. and he managed to fit into my teeny weeny Proton Iswara. Hmm... then again, most tall people I know are softspoken and gentle. ;p You are what! Your other (shorter) flatmate more bising!

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Too many activities the next few hours.

1. Farewell party for boss at SoHo. Don't think I'll make it back sober. Hmm...
2. Early morning breakfast with the MMU gang : Liszt, Vampirem and gang. Going to famous Kolo Mee shop in Carpenter Street.
3. Afternoon lunch with Gette, Joyce, http://www.bingregory.com, Andrea and other Kuching bloggers. Keep getting the dates mixed up. It's on Sunday 2 p.m. but still at Elephant cafe.

Ciao.

: : Hai Pa Wang : :

Had dinner tonight with some of the MMU bloggers who were back for industrial training or have since graduated and is now working in Kuching. Went to a seafood restaurant called Hai Pa Wang in Padungan area.

I met them through this food blog. It started with Lisa @ Lizst who first started chatting with me. Then it was her housemate, Jackson, followed by Melvin @ Vampirem and another blogger by the nick bingbing who was not around. Jackson brought along his girlfriend, Christina and MayLin, Melvin's girlfriend (I think). All in all, there were 6 of us.



What was for dinner? Well, we started off with Fried Udon with Seafood, a house special. Very tasty and not too sweet. This was followed by a dish of sambal midin (fern).



Next came the homemade tauhu. This is another house specialty. The tauhu (soya beancurd) is mashed up and mixed with chopped water chestnuts. The sauce is made from sambal, I think but not too spicy.



We then had butter prawn. Very crispy, as usual. Simple but a firm favourite of everyone present. :)



Another house specialty : baked crab which was glazed with syrup. Yummy. By the time it came, we were all pretty full but still managed to eat everything.

Wanna see the bill? Exchange rate for US$1 is RM3.80.

Fried Udon : RM15.00
Baked Crab (4 pieces) : RM32.00
Homemade Tauhu : RM10.00
Sambal Midin : RM7.00
Butter Prawn : RM28.00

Address details :

Hai Pa Wang
No. 286 1st Floor,
Yun Phin Building,
Jalan Pandungan,
Kuching, Sarawak.
Tel : 255126, 235126
Fax : 429064

We later went to the Coffee Master at Somerset Gateway but that's for another posting. :)

Ciao people.

: : Thompson Corner, Tabuan Jaya : :

Well, wasn't the best but one is very hard put to find Penang Prawn Mee in Kuching.



The taste was definitely there but the soup was a bit diluted. Still, the mee, kangkung and prawn was good. :)

Ah well. Am hoping to get to eat this the next time I'm in KL. Best one I've ever had was in Kepong. Can't remember how to get there though.

Oh well.

: : International Kuching Jazz Fest : :

Whoever said Kuching was boring was dead wrong. :p

Did I also mention that it's free? :)

: : Mango Umai : :

Bekah made some umai during the weekend with her Dad. It was great! We had it for lunch along with other food we ordered at chilli peppers.



She used a type of fish called empiriang. I don't know the English translation but BJ will check it out for me with her Dad.

As she couldn't find any assam over the weekend, she added in some mangos instead. Boy, was it good!

: : Granny's Cooking ~ Fried Rice : :

Another step-by-step cooking posting of Granny's cooking. Did not managed to get all the steps in photos as the telephone rang at that time and she had already started cooking by then.



Some of the ingredients used : chopped long beans, shallots, rice. Not shown in the picture is the pieces of chicken and fish cakes she added in as well.



She also decided to try the Nasi Kampung Goreng (Village Fried Rice) mix by Ajinomoto. Yes, it's very cheap here and there are also other brands in the market for such mix : Adabi (which started it all), Maggi, Knorr, etc.

First, the onions are fried in onion until fragrant. Then she put in the long beans, chicken and fish cakes and fried them until they were soft. Add in the Fried Rice mix with some water.





Add in the rice (she put in more rice than what is shown in the picture) as well as some soy sauce and pepper. Mix everything together until the rice is of an even brown colour.

Easy to do and you can make your variations by using different ingredients.

: : Secret to Sarawak Kolo-Mee ~ ERRATA : :

sniffles: oi
Wena: hi!
sniffles: :)
sniffles: you lied one lerrr you said onion oil and then you posted garlic oil :D
Wena: hahahahahahahhahahahahahhah
Wena: i took granny's word
Wena: but come to think about it
Wena: u're rite
Wena: hehehehehhe
sniffles: i don't know, it's been too long since i had kolo mee
sniffles: :)
sniffles: i can try both
Wena: LOL
Wena: actually
sniffles: and see how they turn out
Wena: it is onion
Wena: not garlic
sniffles: sure?
Wena: yeap
Wena: use the purple onions

Gosh, I'm so sorry. Totally mixed up the garlic oil and the onion oil. Use ONION OIL for Kolo Mee.

Then again, lemme know if the garlic oil works. hee hee...

Here is a video of Granny making the garlic oil. Note that it's a hefty 32 MB as I pasted all the clips together.

: : Life Cafe : :

It's been 4 days since my last posting. Busy busy busy. For those who were waiting to be tempted, guess you were all disappointed eh? :p

Yesterday, went to dinner at Life Cafe with some friends from KL. One of them saw this interesting soup in the menu so decided to try it :

CROCODILE MEAT WITH GINSENG!!!





Anyway, the soup was very very heatty. Strong ginseng taste as well. Not too sure what was the crocodile meat. Looks kinda like kampung chicken but I was the chicken that night. Didn't want to eat the thing. My friend ate it and said he was no longer feeling cold! (It was raining and the nite was pretty chilly).

Pictures aren't that great I know. Ah well. This is a no-frills site, remember? :p

: : Secret to Sarawak Kolo-mee : :

Okay, I'm letting you into how the famous Sarawak Kolo Mee is made. Via Granny, of course.



Yep, you got it. Garlic. The stuff that makes you burp. The stuff that chases away vampires. The stuff which is so pungent. The stuff that makes vegetables edible. :p Well, not quite. It's actually onion oil that goes into Sarawak Kolo-Mee but the method to prepare it is the same way as the garlic oil is prepared.



First of all, separate out the cloves. Then, give it a big whack with the cleaver. BAM! Helps to bring out the flavour as well as making skin removal a lot easier.



Removing the skin.



Then, start chopping up the garlice into smaller pieces. Using a cleaver makes it a lot easier than the normal chef knife.



Heat up some vegetable oil and stir fry the garlic on a slow fire. Continue to stir the garlic bits until it browns slightly. And I do mean slightly!



Once you're able to smell the fragrance, close the fire and scoop out everything (including the oil) into a bowl to cool down. You now have made some garlic oil which can be added to soup or other dishes.

For the Sarawak Kolo Mee, just use onion instead of garlic to make oil. Mix the oil together with the noodles. Add a touch of vinegar (less than 1/2 a teaspoon or up to your tastebuds) and presto! That's how one makes Sarawak Kolo Mee.

: : QuickLAH : :

Am now an official contributor of QuickLAH a.k.a. VideoBlog or rather VoG.

Looking through my account, realised that I posted 30 videos up. Some food related ones but mostly non-food related. Amateurish shots. In the process of cataloging them.

Still, check out the site. An interesting read with other contributors.

No food postings up tonite dearies. I do have a 32MB video of Granny doing some cooking with Norah Jones in the background but not posting it online. Think it'll be too much for everyone just waiting for it to download.

Cheerio.

: : Mukah Seafood : :

Took an old collegemate who is down from Penang for work. She wanted to eat some of the local dishes so decided to take her to Mukah Seafood, Ban Hock Road.



We started off with some appetizers, namely keropok a.k.a. prawn crackers. These were made in Mukah and was actually quite tasty. Not too much flour in it.

We also ordered some midin but as there was already another post up, I decided not to take a picture. You can view the postings here of the cooked and uncooked version.



This is a Melanau dish called umai made from raw fish. The waitress didn't know what was the name of the fish in English but it's called ikan bulan (moon fish) in Malay. The fish is cut into slices and mixed with lime juice, blended chillis, purple shallots and some sugar, salt and pepper to taste. On the right hand side of the picture, is a small sauce dish filled with uncooked sago pearls. Yes, it actually looks like that after getting it from the sago tree bark.



This is a yam dish cooked with red snapper and other vegetables. Some yam is blended first to make the soup but pieces of it are cooked with the fish. YH ate quite a lot of this.

Details of Restaurant

Mukah Seafood Centre
S/Lot 4, Grd Flr, Sect. 47,
Ban Hock Road,
93100 Kuching, Sarawak.
Tel : +6082-417486

Cheerio!

: : Other Food Links : :

Popping by the Food Section, found that Josh had some interesting links posted up. I'm not going to put the links here as it's all in his posting. So, go there to find the link. Yep, I'm playing treasure hunt here.

The last blackout food story.
It's amazing how catastrophe bring people together. Then again, it also brings to mind how we all take our neighbours for granted and never get to know them better.

"Chocolate is no longer chocolate."
I can hear all the *gasps* and *choke* online right now. Then again, is there a real difference in French Chocolate compared to British Chocolate? Can't tell the differene. Then again, I'm not much of a chocolate lover. Resultant of a childhood whereby all chocolate consumption was regulated by parental authority.

Homemade Hisbiscus Flower Margahritas.
I will never look at our National Flower in the same way again. Wonder if it will ever be a fad thing during National Day?

Coffee on Film
Yo Fang! We gotta try and do this with tea! Hahaha!

"Famous chefs naked with their blender"
The lady looks great but not sure about the men. How come we never have such things in Malaysia? Do it for charity mah!

: : Mooncake Festival Part V : :

Well, more postings on the Mooncake Festival.



An evening picture of Carpenter Street.



Of course, balloons sold during the festival. But it's a pity that they haven't caught on with the idea of balloon hats. Now that would be a tremendous sell-out.







I was not allowed to leave until Granny saw some bonsai. Finally found them at the Old Courthouse. Very impressive.



We also tried free samples of Boh's Iced Tea. Tasted good but will take me and Granny forever to finish the big packet.



Granny : Cheh! Why got two boys cutting hair ah? Better to have old man lah! Not same lah!

Wena : Haiya! Old man die liaw! But still got lot of people leh!



Famous Kuching Siew Pau for sale. Tasted really good and no pork. :) Amazing isn't it?



Frying of keropok with peanuts in them. Can't remember the proper name so just made do with the word keropok. What that? Crackers. :) Deep fried, of course.



What can I say? The pictures speak for themselves. Too burnt for me. :p



Hee hee... Managed to persuade Granny to hold the ice-cream goyang-goyang (shaky-shaky) so that I can take a picture. Hee hee! Great Colgate advertisement.

That's all. Nite nite, or rather, morning!