: : Is Something Burning? : :

A foodblog started by River of RiverBendBlog (Baghdad Burning) fame. The recipes are on middle Eastern dishes found in Iraq.

Something Najah and Kaz will no doubt find interesting. :) Not a lot of recipes yet but I'm sure it's going to grow preptty soon.

: : Korean Restaurant : :

A few weeks ago, I posted a birthday note to May Lin. Well, this was the Korean Restaurant that we went to have dinner. Can't remember the name of the restaurant because I accidently threw away the receipt. My brain is shot to pieces the past few weeks due to stress. Sigh. So, please feel free to post comments on the names of the Korean dishes. Would be thankful for the feedback from anyone.

This Korean Restaurant is the old Dea Ba Ru Restaurant located at Green Road. They've moved over to the new shoplots next to the BDC roundabout. It's facing the new BHC Fast Food Place (another Korean food outlet).



Now, what is a Korean meal without the usual kimchi and other vegetable dishes on the side? Refills are for free so I was eating quite a fair bit of kimchi. Just love the stuff.



Kimchi Soup : okay, it's obvious that I just love this stuff. Very spicy but yummy. Keeps one warm in extremely cold air-con restaurants and during winter time as well.



A plate of mixed-vegetable. We were very conscientious eaters that nite.



Now, what is a Korean meal without the famous BBQ pork? Hmmm...hmmm....HMMM!!



The pork strips are cooked on a grilled that is fired up by a small gas cylinder. No, not the big 12 kg ones from Petronas or SHELL but the smaller ones.



The slices are then dipped in sesame seed oil and put onto a leaf of fresh green lettuce. Then, add some bean paste to it, wrap it all up and eat it!

The head waitress kept giving us funny looks when we said that that's all we were having. Reason was that we still have a birthday cake to eat. Even then, we could not finish the cake and there were 5 of us.

: : Carelessness : :

Looking back through my folders, I've come to the sad realization that all the photos taken at First Cafe, Haagen Daaz, Genki Sushi, Octopus Sussy and YI Garden, not to mention pictures of friends and family and other interesting pictures taken, are now permanently deleted.

No sense in crying over spilled milk. Sigh. Still have some photos leftover but not much.

How could Wena be so stupid? Cleaning up folders is not easy. Carelessness, that's what it is. Blindness.

Oh well.

Smilies courtesy of minishorts after her interesting posts with meesh.

: : JOJO Cafe : :



Yesterday, had lunch at JOJO Cafe. An affordable Chinese Family Restaurant which is air conditioned! After standing outside the roadside fruit stalls, Kon and I needed some cold air to cool ourselves down.



We ordered a small plate of kailan which costs RM6.80 (USD$1.79). Wanted the baby kailan but could only get the adult version. Kailan is Chinese Mustard broccoli and is very crunchy and slightly sweetish.

Update : A bit more on Kailan after reading Dad's comments. After he pointed me to the right direction, I went off to the Cook's Thesaurus and got more information on Chinese Broccoli. You'll need to scroll down a bit until you find the Chinese Broccoli.



Both of us also had a plate of fried tanghoon @ glass noodles each. RM4.00 (USD$1.05) per plate. Although it look very pale, they cooked it with chilli padi so was extremely spicy! Accidently bit into the small pieces of cut chilli padi. BURNING!

Both gals felt extremely full afterwards. Too full. Sleepy the whole afternoon.

: : Red Night Sky : :



Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning
Red skies at night, sailors' delight.

I know it's not a food pic. Just too pretty not to put it on the matching red mum-mum page. :) The past few nights have been like this. Noticed that the sky turns red at around 2 a.m. Picture was taken from my room window.

Why?

Cardinal Light Phenomenoa
Visual Phenomena

: : I was a teenage murderer : :

I posted this up at ...nA : nU : nA : nU... awhile back. Searching for a link in my blog when I remembered this posting. Thought it would make a good laff here.

Speaking of crabs, Dad taught me the important lesson of killing them for the meal. Imagine a 12 year old with her dad behind the house, by the sink, with 10 crabs and a big kitchen knife (not the cleaver!!)

Dad : Wena, this is how to kill the crab. I'll show you how to do it for one crab and you do the rest.

Wena : Me?!?!?

Dad : Yep. Now, flip the crab over and push the knife through the belly.

Wena : Errr..... okay (looks extremely skeptical. Smokie the Cat was looking on throughout this conversation).

Dad : Here. You try it.

(Wena looking at the biiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggggggggg crab claws. Claws were tied up with string but crabs were frantically clawing and moving and... Definitely need tremendous courage.)

Wena : Do I have to do it all? (Starting to wonder where the heck is Jas and why she isn't doing it).

Dad : Yep. Then we eat.

Wena : Hmmm... (picks up one crab and pushes the knife through. Cannot do it.) Dad, too tough lar!

Dad : Eh, push harder. I know you can do it.

Wena : Humpphh! (Pushes harder. Knife goes in. Crab goes into death throes.)

Dad : Great work! Now, only 8 more to go.

Wena : Sigh.

Hi Dad! :)

: : Shiokadelicious! : :

What are you waiting for? It's another Food Blog! GO NOW!

: : Roadside Fruit Stalls : :

Went out of Kuching for awhile with a friend when we saw the fruit stalls at a busy road junction. Had to stop and buy some jackfruits. :) The stalls had a cement base with permanent roofing, believe it or not



Gorgeous red rambutans for sale!



Yummy yellow jackfruits! Unfortunately, the actual fruit stinks like hell. Rather, the skin of the fruit reeks!



Wild tapioca leaves! Goes great with belachan. Boil in hot water until soften.



Cangkuk manis! There's an interesting conversation regarding cangkuk manis in a forum somewhere. MudBug, do you have the link? Thanks.

Update : The link to the discusson on Cangkuk Manis at Asian Vegetables Garden Web Forum.



Pumpkins! Now thinking of creamy pumpkin soup cooked with curry powder. Wah!



Chilli padi! Hot stuff. Extremely hot hot hot!

Nite people!

: : My Handphone Number : :

Quick note to tell all that I have my old handphone number back. Finally got the SIM card back today.

Sigh. But still didn't get all the old phone numbers back. :(

: : 2nd day of Raya : :

Wena : Wanna join me to go to a friend's house in Santubong? Her mother is a good cook!

Granny : Okay! Wait ah!



Wena : Oohh!! Wait ah! Gotta stop the car and take picture of Kuching. Nice lah!

Granny : Crazy lah u! Stop by the road!

Wena : Not much cars mah! Besides, the clouds look so nice!

Unfortunately, my little camera didn't do the picture justice. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and interesting cloud formations.

Anyway, we went to visit Zee and her family. Wah! A nice spread of food with satay, rendang, curry chicken, ketupat, lemang, nasi lemak with great sambal, agar-agar and fruits. No pics as bit malu @ shy lah. Too many people around, especially the big bosses.



Walking to the car.

Granny : Taking pictures again ah?

Wena : Yeah lor! Can seldom find these malu-malu (shy-shy) plants anymore lah!



Granny : This one, flowers can be eaten lah.

Wena : Eh! Seriously ah? No sap meh? Always got white sap one.

Granny : They goreng (fry) flower. Anyway, me going to coffee shop to use toilet lah! Cannot tahan!

Wena : Cheh! How come didn't use in the house one lah!

Granny : That time no rasa (feel) one!

Anyone knows how the purple flowers are cook? There were no flowers blooming when I took the picture.



So, waited for Granny. Another collegue parked his car nearby, saw me taking pictures as usual. Asked me to take a picture of his family by the beah, so I did. The backdrop was the sea at high-tide. The tide comes right up to the parking area.



Again, no justice to the picture. It was a glaringly bright day so was very hard to take pictures of the sky. This is Santubong Mountain. Legend has it, it is actually a goddess lying down. Can't see the shape from this angle but believe me, it's a beautiful sight to behold and just awesome.



Granny : Eh! That old man at coffee shop remembers me lah! Ask me whether I'm Cyril's mother (my uncle).

Wena : Wah! When was the last time u were here lah?

Granny : Years ago.

Wena : You must have made a BIG impression on him lah. *BIG GRIN*

Granny : Choi! (Yeah right!)

My uncle goes down to Santubong almost every Sunday to fish. After that, he and his pal, Sydney, then takes a tea break at the old coffee shop shown in the picture.

That's all for tonite! Ciao!

: : New Paris Restaurant ~ KL PJ: :

TV Smith : I'm going to bring you to a place that is non-halal but the food arrives within 15 minutes. Food isn't that great but it's the concept that is different.



Wena : A lot of people lah! Do we have to wait for long to eat?

TV Smith : Don't worry. We queue up.



Wena : Wah! Got loud hailer some more. Haha!

TV Smith : At least they got a queue-ing system going on.





Wena : Wow! That's a lot of chefs in the kitchen.

TV Smith : Yeah lor. At least 20 of them.

Wena : No wonder they say 15 min.

TV Smith : They used to operate from a wooden shack further down the road but recently moved here.



Wena : Hmm... people do like coconuts here, don't they?





Head honcho with loud hailer : Person with surname *censored*!

TV Smith : Here!

Head honcho : Table no. 3. Over there.

We finally got the table after a short 5-10 min wait. Those people are efficient.

TV Smith : Know how I knew this was our table?

Wena : (Quickly looks around) Yeah hor! No table number, one. (I was really tired that day, having being through a stressful period of losing my handphone. ;p)

TV Smith : Look up.

Wena : Hahaha! No wonder. Numbers are on the ceiling.

TV Smith : Noticed that the table has a lot of plastic covering over it?

Wena : Yep.

TV Smith : That's so that they can clear the table faster. They don't wash the dishes until the next day.

Wena : Smart idea. How about those other tables? They have red tablecloths what.

TV Smith : Probably they don't have a big enough plastic wrapping to go around it.

Wena : Haha!

TV Smith : So, what do you want to eat?

Wena : You order lah. But order a plate of lala. :) No other shell fish though.

TV Smith : Wokay.

Note : I took the bill back but somehow lost it between KLIA and Kuching Airport. How's that for a tendency for losing things lately? Sigh.



TV Smith : This is the signature dish for the restaurant. They steamed the fish with a sauce made from lard (pig fat!!!).

Wena : Smells good. I think I taste ginger, garlic, chilli and, of course, sugar. Really tasty.

Note : Took awhile to identify the fish. Jeff mentioned it was Tilapia which seems right as the flesh was pretty soft and tender. Granny said that it was red snapper but didn't taste like a snapper. She also mentioned that they put some assam jawa into the sauce which would explain the slightly tangy flavour. Believe me, it was real good.



Wena : Hmmm! Tastes so good. Can't get this back in Sarawak.

TV Smith : Then you have it lor. I'm not a real fan of it.

Note : I ate about half the plate. :p They cooked it with some curry paste, soy sauce, chilli powder and sugar. The clams were a bit small but tasted really good though.



Good ol' kangkung belachan @ Chinese spinach cooked with the famous Malaysian butter. Pungent like hell but loved by all. It's the prawn in the belachan lah! Luckily, the kangkung didn't give me cramps that nite. Somehow, that old wive's tale always work for me. Darn.



Wena : Is that kiam chai @ salted veggie in there with the pork?

TV Smith : Nope, it's something else.

Note : At this point of time, my brain memory cells started depleting rapidly, hence forgot what was the name of the veggie. It's some sort of preserved veggie. So paiseh (bothersome) to call him up to ask lah. Anyone know what the veggie is? The dish brought to mind memories of my Auntie Joan's cooking. The dish that she cooked were layers of stewed pork with layers of yam pieces. Scrumptious!

Update : From chooki and others in the comment page, the dish name is mui choi kau yok. And, actually another signature dish of the restaurant.

Address Details :

New Paris Restaurant Sdn. Bhd.
No. 62, 63, 66, Jalan SS2/72
47300 Petaling Jaya
Selangor.
Tel : 03-7955 9180 / 0186
Business Hours :
11.30 a.m. - 2.30 p.m.
5:30 p.m. - 10.30 p.m.

After that, we met up with Jeff Ooi of Screenshots fame. Dinesh couldn't make it and neither could Shahrizal. Over beer mugs and glasses of green tea and Chivas (TV Smith: tastes weird lah!), we talk about many things under the sun moon at Bangsar. Had a great time with those two where everyone was mutual admirers of each others' blog. :) Suffice to say that they think that my Granny is spunky and cool. :)

TV Smith : Where did you get the money to eat all those food?

Wena : Most of the postings are my lunch meals outside at coffee shops or Granny's dinners lah. Also, a lot of unused pics which I save for rainy days.

The pictures of food and drinks are taken whenever the opportunity arises lah. I'm not loaded neither do I have a sugar daddy stashed somewhere. Besides, apart from eating at Merdeka Palace (which costs me RM38), everything else was cheap as costs were split between friends.

Ending this post with Granny's comment :

Next time we go to KL, we ajak (invite) this fellow along lah! I wanna eat too!

: : Morning Breakfast : :

Abridged version

12:47 a.m. MSN Messenger

joyce : ello

Wena : hi joyce :) how are u?

joyce : laksa! hahahaha now i want some. i was thinking of laksa for breakfast (Note : she saw the pic from the blog)

Wena : ok. No problem. What time?

joyce : 9:30 a.m. too early for you?

Wena : no worries.

joyce : i get gette.

9:40 a.m.

A sleepy looking Wena and Gette with a bright and cheery Joyce. Having a bowl of laksa each.

Wena : (finishing the bowl) Hmm... somehow when one gets to the bottom of the bowl, feeling hungry for another lah.

Joyce & Gette : LOL!

10:00 a.m.

Gette : Hmm... Now I know what you mean by that.

Wena : Ya lah!

: : Misc : :

My sleeping time clock has been shot to pieces since the KL trip. Arggh! Luckily, it's a holiday tomorrow.

Few things :

IreneQ has sent me this cute gif. Hahaha! Definitely appropriate. Going to use it for the post links.



Someone (sorry! Lazy to scroll through my archives to look for the comment!) once mentioned that I should crop pieces of my pic and post it online. So, here's my hair! Haha!

Now, off to force myself to sleep.

: : 1st day of Raya : :

9:40 a.m. At Kuching Airport

Wena : Hi Dad!

Dad : Hi! Let's go and grab some laksa for breakfast.

Wena : Okay. Where do you want to eat it?

Dad : How about Foody Goody?

So, off we went.





Foody Goody is a hawker food center in Tabuan Laru. The laksa available there is just nice. Well, for Dad and me, that is. They do not add in so much coconut milk so tasted real good. RM3 per bowl I think. Worth every penny. Definitely cheaper than the one available at Alexis, Bangsar. RM12 per bowl there! Aiyo!

After that, we went to visit two of his bosses as well as his Mum, my other granny. Then, we started to head back to my house to see the hamsters. :)

1:00 p.m. Along the road through the Sarawak Museum Grounds

Dad : Hmm... got any nice place to eat ais kacang (iced drinks)?

Wena : Sure, behind us at Jalan Nenas. We can go there.

Dad : Aiyo! Pass already lah!

Wena : Never mind lah. I can turn back and we go makan (eat) there. Besides, need to go to petshop to look for bigger cage for the hamsters.

Dad : Ok! We go!





Dad ordered some sotong kangkung. Sotong is squid but it was really cuttlefish with rojak and Chinese water spinach. Pop by the Pet Shop after that but they ran out of those plastic aquarium cages that I wanted. Will have to go there again. Came home, we saw the hamsters. He took some pictures on the BenQ camera he brought along. It was one of those Point and Shot cameras. He had some questions to ask me so we look through the manual. Nifty thing.

Drop Dad at the airport in the afternoon. Later on, went to another friend's place at Santubong. Posting pics later. :) Now, that visit was an interesting visit with Granny.



My Dad. :)

: : Ramadhan Bazaar ~ KL Version : :

Phone conversation in my cousin's car. Time approx. 4.00 p.m.

TV : Let's go to the Ramadhan Bazaar at Kampung Baru. You must see it.

Wena : Sure or not? Will it wet? Raining in Ampang and KLCC just now lah.

TV : Should be okay. Where do I pick you up?

Wena : Hmm.. Bangsar Shopping Complex?

TV : Okay. At 6 p.m.



So, managed to meet up with TV Smith of DuaSen parody fame. Insisted on taking me to Kampung Baru to check out the bazaar and it was pretty colorful. It was a pretty quaint area, packed with people buying food back for Buka Puasa @ Breaking Fast (not breakfast lah!). So, two people with cameras walking around taking pictures. Loads of pictures.



Same picture of the hawker taken by TV in this Photo Essay on Ramadhan. Just that it was at a different angle. His' was a lot better than mine. The stall owner was more than happy to pose for the photoshoot. Note that there was some coloring added into the watermelon juice. Look a bit too red for me to try it out.







The last picture : the hawker was actually holding up a bunch of veggie and posing for the camera. However, I messed up the shot so when I ask him to take it again, he chickened out and got another pal to hold up the veggie. Cheh!



Now, what is a festive season without some local snacks to munch on? I'm a junk food junkie. Having said that, I hate getting my fingers dirty so will occasionally use a pair of chopsticks to eat it. :p



Me and purple stuff. Including fruits. Private joke with many friends about the color purple. The above is a shot at the mangosteen at one of the many fruit stalls.



For lack of a better word, I'm just going to call this picture a pic of lok-lok. :p The cucur looks so tempting. I'm a sucker for cucur.



Love letters! They are thin wafer biscuits that are both sweet and extremely crunchy. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like kuih supit @ love letters. If you that person, you do not know what you're missing. Unless u're allergic to the ingredients, of course. :p







This is the mold for making the ketupat. Whole bunch of leaves were being sold at this one particular stall. The Muslim Community is now working throughout the nite, cooking massive amounts of food for tomorrow. Yep, the celebrations start tomorrow. Can't wait to try out rendang.



Dedicated to my mother : you have one ice-cream tub full waiting for you in the freezer when you get here.



Colorful Asian drinks. Didn't realised until today that TV also took a similar picture. Tried to look for the picture again and couldn't find it on his site. The poor guy behind the stall was so bashful. Didn't want to face the camera and got a lot of ribbing from his friends.



Another bashful guy. He was frying some cempedek with batter. Can you imagine someone bringing back cempedek on an airplane? Aiyo. The stink. Durian is bad enough. Should put signs up to warn people not to bring cempedek anywhere near an airplane.



Left to Right : Ketupats, belachan, chilli boh and last one I have absolutely no idea. Bit lazy to go and check out what it was. Didn't want to hear any sales pitch from the hawker.

That was the walk through the Ramadhan Bazaar in Kampung Baru. Not a lot of foodstalls compared to the one in Kuching but definitely more variety of stuff for sale. And to think I was thinking of not going.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri to the Muslims! Am doing the round with my Dad again tomorrow morning. He's coming in from Miri to visit a few people. I'm eyeing to eat some rendang @ dry beef curry and lemang @ glutinous rice cooked in bamboo.