Mei Xiang Lou

Somebody recommended this shop to us. It is located at Jalan Krokop. We went there one Tuesday night, and ordered 4 dishes to eat with our rice.

I'll start with a dish that I don't like. ;p

Sea Cucumber Thick Soup

The consistency was good, the ingredients were generous. It was the taste that was lacking. I think it was due to the poor quality black vinegar used here. It spoilt the soup. What a pity.

I enjoyed all the other three dishes.

Fish Curry

This portion was for two. Unbelievable! There were more than enough for the three of us. The fish was fresh and was sweet. The curry was rich, with just a little sourness to assault the palate. The other ingredients were aplenty - tomatoes, okra, eggplant, and beancurd sticks. Yum. We enjoyed the dish.

Specialty Tofu

As I helped myself with a piece of deep-fried tofu, the fragrance of the dish blew me away. Yum. The deep-fried egg tofu was as soft as custard, and cooked in a thick sauce of minced pork, diced Shiitake mushrooms and dried radish. It was the salty dried radish that lent a unique savoury flavour to the dish. 

Bitter Gourd In Three Eggs

The thinly shredded bitter gourd was stir-fried with egg, salted egg and century egg. The vegetable was crunchy while the flavour the eggs rich. Absolutely delicious. 

We ordered 2 plates of rice to share and 3 drinks. The bill? Only RM48.00. What a steal!! We enjoyed the meal and we would be back!

Fratini's

My friend and I were talking about pasta that afternoon .... so inevitably ... we wanted to get some for dinner. Hmn ... any idea where to get some GOOD pasta in Miri? Choices are really limited here .... and my friend and I ended up at Fratini's.

All my years here in Miri and I had NEVER eaten here before. Till now.

My friend and I arrived at about 6.00 p.m. We did not make any reservations, but there were plenty of vacant tables as it was still early. Then we were shown the menu .... from which we ordered 2 mains ...

Linguine Al Frutti Di Mare, RM27.00

Linguine with seafood, chilli, fresh herbs and tomato sauce. Well, the pasta was al dente, and coated with sweet and tangy tomato sauce, and delicately flavoured with fresh herbs. Seafood ingredients included prawns, cuttlefish and a single mussel. Not bad, but the portion was relatively small.  

 Pizza Del Macelaio, RM32.00

This translates to be "The Butcher's Pizza" or more aptly, the meat lover's pizza. It had tomato sauce, grated cheese, beef rashes, peperoni, chicken sausage, beef salami, chicken pastrami and minced beef. Hmn .... the crust was not too thick and crispy ... but well ... I did not think I bit into any minced beef at all. Was it yum? Hmn ... I'd say not really.

While my friend enjoyed a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice ..

Orange juice, RM9.00

I had a glass of cafe late ... 

 Cafe Latte, RM8.50

I liked the ambience ... it was rather relaxing, and my friend and I had a great time chatting away. We both enjoyed the pasta more than the pizza. We paid RM82.00 for the meal. It was very pricey indeed. 

Tangy Chicken Stew

I prefer to stew or braise my meats. It's easier as I do not have to watch over the fire. Just leave it to boil and boil and boil .... and then it's done and ready to eat.

I had a piece of chicken breast, and I was cracking my head as to what to cook it with. As I was browsing around the supermarket, I saw some pickled vegetables, and an idea came to me. Why not? I told myself.

Sour mustard, tomatoes and chilies

Very easy ... wash and cut pickled mustard, tomatoes and chillies. Cut aromatics which include garlic, shallots and ginger. Clean and cut chicken. Then saute the aromatics, dump in the chicken and the vegetables. Add in water, some seasoning and then let it stew. ;p

Oh ya .... do enjoy the play of aroma as it cooks .... that distinctive flavour of the sour mustard and the aromatics and the chicken .... 

Tangy Chicken Stew
The sour taste of this dish made it really appetising to eat. Serve hot with steamed white rice. 

Sao Paolo Cafe @ Permy Mall

My friend hangs out here most weekends with her laptop. She will purchase food and coffee, and then she will spend hours at this cafe, taking advantage of the free wi-fi available.

Where? Both of us asked. Sao Paolo? Hmn .. we're in Miri longer than she had, but we had not heard of the cafe before.

It is in Permy Mall, she said.

No wonder. I had been to Permy Mall only twice since it opened last year. I did not even know that there was a book store upstairs till recently. Did you know? ;p

Anyway, the other night, both of us tagged along to hang out at the cafe. Indeed, my friend parked herself at the corner where the power socket was, ordered a drink, and then happily went online. Meanwhile, the both of us preferred to sit at the comfy armchairs at the front of the cafe. We both had the Cookies and Cream.

 Cookies and Cream, medium, RM13.00

Hmn ... the drink was thick and rich with the taste of chocolate. Quite indulgent, in fact. Like drinking ice-cream. But it also made me feel guilty as it was full of calories which I did not need. Only this time, I vowed. But who knows when I will succumb to temptation again. Lols.

The cold drink made me feel chilly .... next time I'd bring a cardigan or a scarf, I thought. In addition, mosquito repellent may come in handy ... cause there was certainly mosquitoes flying around. Perhaps because the cafe was located just next to one of the main entrances to the mall ... and the automatic glass slide door was kept opened for a long time as people kept walking in and out of the mall.

Both my friends found the wi-fi to be very fast ... both were happy that they were able to download all that they had planned to download. But somehow, the wi-fi wasn't that accessible on my device .... I wonder why. Could it be because of the corner of the cafe where I had sat? Next time, I'd sit somewhere else and see! Oh yeah, and bring an emart members' card to get 25% discount on drinks! That's a lot, don't you think so?

Pizzas @ D'Light Bread House

Today, I was out running an errand ... and on the way back I picked up some pizzas from D'Light Bread House for lunch.

Chicken Pizza, RM2.50

Tuna Pizza, RM2.50

I thought the pizzas had a reasonably substantial amount of topping, and was rather tasty. Of the two, I preferred the Chicken pizza, which I felt had more bite and texture. You can see for yourself the chicken dices on top. 

Chicken Stew

The girls went out for dinner at Marina Seahorse Bistro II the other day ... and I found that the quality of the food was different. The kampung fried rice, for example, did not taste as nice as it used to be. New chef? Hmn ... not sure, but flavour was sure lacking.

Then, we ordered a chicken stew to share.

Chicken Stew, RM15.00

We got a whole chicken thigh ... I think it was baked and then served on a vegetable stew. I found the chicken to be quite dry and thus very hard. There wasn't much taste to it, but I suppose it was meant to be eaten with the stew. I could see some vegetables and mushrooms in the stew, but I did not like the taste, which I felt was overpowered by the use of too much spices. Also on the platter were a dollop of mash potato with a piece of tapioca cracker stacked on it, and some coleslaw which for reasons unknown to me was covered by the cucumbers and tomato.

Cooking Again

It's back to preparing meals for myself ... can't be eating out every time, right?

Dinner

I advocate simple meals which can be cooked quickly. And I like to braise my meats because it's a fuss free way of cooking. Tonight's dinner was plain rice, steamed broccoli, and braised chicken breast in spicy gojuchang, soy sauce and sugar. Lols, the chicken tasted better than I expected it to be. Of course it was very spicy, and so that made it all easier to stomach.