Sunrise Seafood Court

What a lot of people eating here!! Sunrise Seafood Court is located at the intersection at the Boulevard Commercial Centre. It is a new addition to the many cafes and coffee shop that are already there.

We heard that the guy who used to sell Western food at Jing Wood Cafe had moved to Sunrise Seafood Court. Hence we wanted to try him out, to see whether his lamb chop was still as good as it was. The lamb chop was RM11.00 here, and it was exactly like the one Jing Wood used to serve. The standard had not dropped, after all.

Lamb chop in sauce ... a bun, french fries, baked beans and salad on the side

The lamb was quite tender, and the sauce quite flavourful. But I had really liked the little bun, as it was fresh, soft, and had a hint of buttery taste to it. It tasted almost like deep-fried crullers or doughnuts.

Besides the Western food, there were plenty of stalls selling all kinds of food, like the kolo mee, fried kueh tiaw, chicken rice, and so on.

My friend thought the Ipoh Curry Noodles looked impressive, so she decided to order it, RM5.00 per bowl.

When the bowl was set before me, a waft of aromatic curry gravy filled the air. It really smelled good. The curry was topped with some herbs, I think it was mint. Just as my friend was about to tuck in, the lady came back with a bowl of cockles, saying that the cook had forgotten to put them in the bowl a while ago! Lol.

Ipoh Curry Noodles

My friend loved the noodles a lot, her only grouse was that there was too little gravy.

I couldn't resist the fried kueh tiaw, fried Penang style with chives, Chinese sausage, prawns, cockles and eggs. Hence, I ordered a plate, which cost RM4.50.

Fried Kueh Tiaw

The kueh tiaw was good, but somehow, I think it did not have enough wok hei. I still think preferred the Uncle's fried kueh tiaw at Pelita Hai Ma.

I would love to come back to this shop for dinner some time soon. I have yet to try the kolo mee, the claypot noodles, among other things.

Brunch @ Season Motor Canteen

Ah Nga stall has been in business for more than 45 years. Now it is located at the Season Motor Canteen, Piasau here in Miri.

What's really good here is the Fried Kueh Tiaw and the Anchovies Fried Beehoon. You see people tucking into these two variety of noodles on almost every table.

I had been craving for the Anchovies Fried Beehoon for a while now. In this dish, rice vermicelli is fried with cangkuk manis and eggs, and topped with crunchy fried anchovies. Only a few ingredients are used, but don't underestimate the simplicity of this dish. It's super yum and surprisingly very filling!!

Anchovies Fried Vermicelli

It takes skill to produce a good plate of Anchovies Fried Beehoon. At Ah Nga's, the noodles are very fragrant, neither too greasy nor too dry. The noodles are pale in colour and just lightly salted, to complement the salty and crunchy anchovies.

Anchovies Fried Beehoon is served with some belacan paste, which added a pungent and spicy kick to the noodles. If you happen to be nearby Piasau, do head over to this unassuming canteen and try out the noodles. It will definitely leave you feeling satisfied. Anchovies Fried Beehoon was RM3.50 per plate.

I am still looking for good kolo mee in town. So I decided to order kolo mee from Ah Boy's stall. After I place my order and sat down, a saucer of chilli sauce was sent to my table. My friend and I looked at it and knew not to expect too much. For me, good bowls of kolo mee don't come with chilli sauce. It had to come with seasoned cut chillies.

Presentation wise, this bowl of noodles passed the test with flying colours.

Kolo mee

But after the first mouthful, my friend and I agreed that the noodles were too dry and too peppery. We did not like it at all.

Easy Homemade Beef Patties

My friend wanted to make some easy beef patties tonight. She used 800g of minced beef, seasoned with pepper, salt and a bit of sugar.

Seasoning added

Mix the seasoning well, crack in a whole egg, and add 2 tablespoons of chopped onions.

Ready to shape

Next, shape the mixture into patties, and coat them lightly with flour.

Ready to fry

Heat some oil in a shallow pan, and deep fry the patties till browned.

Fry till browned on both sides

Serve hot with chilli or tomato sauce. You'll love the crispy burnt bits on the edges.

Ready to serve

You can in fact buy some dinner rolls and make your own miniature burgers with these patties. Throw in some cheese, tomatoes and lettuce for a wholesome meal.

We ate the meat patties with some homecooked spicy fried rice. Yum.

Fried rice

Dinner @ 99 Cafe

My friend and I ate at 99 Cafe last night. Cafe 99 is located at the Boulevard Commercial Centre intersection here in Miri.

I always see a lot of people eating there, but I have never eaten there before.

There were a number of stalls there, selling many types of food like economy rice, chicken rice, porridge, dim sum, and others.

Having never eaten there before, I did not really know what to order. I did not know what is the specialty there. And for me, the menu displays were not very clear. I see people eating laksa and lalapan, but I could not locate the stalls that sold them. At the end of my meal, I saw satay being served, yet I had earlier failed to even notice that there was a satay man at a corner.

Having walked from stall to stall for a few times, I settled on the yong tau foo and glass noodle soup. It was quite ordinary, something you will be able to order from any other stalls at any other cafe. It was RM4.50 a bowl.

Yong tau foo & glass noodle soup

My friend also did not know what to order. She ended up ordering mee sua with red wine chicken soup, a Foochow specialty, also RM4.50 a bowl. I had a spoonful of the soup, and it was sweet with the taste of red wine evident.

Mee sua with red wine

We also ordered some snacks from a stall outside the shop. The deep-fried seafood tofu was RM3.00 for four pieces. We both did not like them as they tasted like fishballs. Nothing special. The deep-fried siu mai was superb, however. 4 pieces sold for RM4.50. The famous Kuching Sim Kwang Heng siu mai were deep-fried till they were crispy on the outside. Best eaten hot, dipped in chilli sauce.

Deep-fried siew mai and seafood tofu

B.B. Cream

Somehow, cosmetics were cheaper in Hong Kong. One of the things I wanted to buy was B.B. cream.

B.B. cream stands for blemish balm and it is really popular nowadays. It works as a foundation to regulate uneven skin tone, and to give it a natural glow.

My cousin, who recommended me SK II, also recommended Skin79, a Korean brand which is quite renowned for its range of B.B. cream.

At Bonjour, a popular cosmetics chain in Hong Kong, I found the product I wanted. It was only HKD82, so that was about RM41.00.

B.B. Cream

At the same time, I saw that they sold the Skin79 miniature set too! The little bottles were too cute to resist. And so I bought a set too. It was HKD55 per set.

Skin79 miniature B.B. cream set

After using it for a week, I found that although the B.B. cream covered blemishes, it did not give me any glow. Lol.

SK II Treatment Essence

(Source : http://www.sk-ii.com.sg/global_gateway.php)

They call the SK II Treatment Essence a miracle water. But I have never had the urge to try it.

Last Chinese New Year, I was catching up with my cousin, and she recommended me this brand. She said for her, the effect was immediate!

Wow, I thought. I know various international artistes have endorsed this product. But the impact is much greater when it comes from someone you know very well.

If my cousin said the SK II Treatment Essence was good, I just had to try it! However, it was pricy, and I had put off the notion to buy it time and again.

When I went to Hong Kong, I decided to buy a 250 ml bottle for HKD748. It was slightly cheaper than that in Malaysia.

For the past week that I've been using it, I've been very impressed with the result. It keeps the skin moisturised, making it softer and more supple, and lightening the freckles. Wow.

And I've only been using it for a week! If I continue to use it, I am confident it will improve the quality of my skin. Yay to healthy-looking skin!

Food in Hong Kong

So much has been said about the good food in Hong Kong, and I had intended to sample at least some of the must-try delicacies, such as 糖水 desserts, dim sum and others.

Unfortunately for us, we did not have much time to eat in Hong Kong. We were too busy visiting the places of interest in our list. And so, much of the food that we ate were those that we came across, in the midst of our sightseeing adventure.

At the Hong Kong - Macau Ferry Terminal, we had our lunch at Florinda Cafe, an outlet operated by Macau Restaurant. In a hurry, we just ordered set lunches. Each set lunch came with a hot drink and a Portuguese egg Tart. Each set cost HKD43.

Pork chop rice

Soy chicken rice

Barbecued pork rice

Coffee

Portuguese egg tart

I liked the barbecued pork and the soy chicken, which were both very yum. The coffee was good too - smooth and thick. The egg tart of course, was not as nice as Choi Heong Yuen's.

At The Peak, us girls decided to go for Burger King. My Whoppper Junior meal came to HKD37.00. A Whopper meal was HKD47.00. Expensive, eh?

My Whopper Junior set

At a roadside stall before Ladies' Street in Mongkok, we bought some snacks from the roadside stalls.

Grilled octopus

Deep-fried Yong Tau Foo

I found the Yong Tau Foo too greasy. Besides that, there were no sweet sauce provided. Only chilli sauce was available.

We found a small little outlet to have our breakfast, just round the corner from our hotel.

The kitchen from where the food is prepared

We ordered Chee Cheong Fun 豬腸粉. There were just plain rice rolls served in a savoury sauce. It was actually quite tasty when eaten with ground chilli. But none of my friends liked it.

Chee Cheong Fun

Siew Mai was another item we tried here. None of us liked the siew mai either. They were not like the siew mai we have here, where the siew mai wrappers arefilled with minced pork, shrimps or seafood. The siew mai that we had the texture of a fishball. Yuck!

Siew Mai

The char siew bao was ordered to share. The steamed bun shaped like a flower. Cute!

Steamed char siew buns

The char siew filling

The filling was rather dry, and so it was another no-no.

I ordered the beef noodles.

My bowl of beef noodles

Flat egg noodles were used, and they were blanched till soft. The broth was plain cabbage soup, and pieces of stewed beef were ladled onto the noodle soup. My friend ordered the same beef noodles, but with the addition of white radish.

Beef noodles with white radish

At another outlet just down the road from our hotel, we had breakfast on the second day. The shop is called Super Restaurant Kitchen. As usual, we could not read the menu in Chinese. But here, the waitress auntie was kind enough to produce an English version. So kind of her. I ordered Set A for HKD22.00. Set A had a buttered toast, ham omelette, vermicelli soup with preserved vegetables and pork slices, and a cup of hot drink.

Toast & ham omelette

Vermicelli soup with preserved vegetables and pork slices

I liked the omelette and the toast, but I'm not so used to the vermicelli soup. It was alright, I suppose.

My friend ordered Set C, also for HKD22.00. It had toast, a sunny side up, a macaroni soup with ham, and a hot drink.

Maraconi soup with ham

But I liked my hot drink a lot. I ordered a yuen yong 鴛鴦, which is a mixture of coffee and tea. It was hot and smooth and rich and creamy. Yum.

My cup of yuen yong

My last meal in Hong Kong was again at the ferry terminal, before we boarded our ferry back to Macau. We ate at the Maxim (美心MX) outlet. It was real packed with diners at about 2.30 p.m. in the afternoon.

I ordered the 六宝饭, translated to be Six Treasures Rice. It was HKD29.90. The rice came topped with 6 items. There was half a salted egg, char siew, roast duck, roast chicken, sausage slices, cuttlefish slices, and a strip of choy sum. Lol. Though it said six treasures, I counted seven items, including the vegetable.

Six treasures rice

Turn the plate around ..

I had to be really hungry, I supposed, as I walked the whole morning! I found my rice and all its roasted items to be yum! I did not like the sausage nor the cuttlefish, though.

After lunch, it was bye-bye to Hong Kong, as we made our way back to Macau.I guess our I will have to wait for another time to sample some other gastronomic delights in Hong Kong.