Fu Siang Lai

I was caught up with chores the whole morning ..... well .... and glad to have AT to help. We went to Giant Stutong afterwards to buy some stuff .... and of course before that, we needed to eat. I hadn't eaten the whole morning!

Nearby Giant Stutong the other day, there weren't many coffee shops which opened ..... and we settled for Fu Siang Lai.

We ordered ....

Chicken curry rice set

Quite thick and rich aromatic chicken curry, and the gravy was not too salty; not bad but still lacked some oomph ..... 

I had .... 

Deep-fried fish slices beehoon in milky broth

Looks alright ...

The fish slices were quite thin, and I think the batter wast thick .... hence the taste of the fish did not quite come through. The beehoon was tasty enough, I suppose, but it was certainly not to my liking. I prefer a sweeter and richer broth .... this one seemed to lack in flavour. 

What I did like was .... 

Chive dumplings .... 

Yummy 

One could have the dumplings pan-fried, steamed or cooked in soup. I ordered mine steamed .... and I was glad I did because the skin was softer and nicer to eat that way. The filling was made up of chives and minced meat and was tasty.

I would recommend the dumplings over the curry rice and the fish beehoon.

Tian Lee Food Centre

We had just finished watching a a movie .... and AT wanted supper. It was about 11.30 p.m. .... and we drove around town ... and noticed that there was a coffee shop still open. It was the last shop at Jalan Padungan near the cat statues. The name of the shop was Tian Lee Food Centre.

Apart from the kolo mee stall, there were stalls selling burgers, kueh chap, laksa, lok lok. AT wanted kolo mee.

Kolo Mee

Even at this late, this kolo mee was not bad .... very springy noodles in aromatic and fragrant sauces and oils. The kolo mee came with slices of char siew, some minced pork and fish cake slices. I had a few mouthfuls of AT's bowl of kolo mee ... and found the noodles to be quite palatable. 

So if anyone is in dire need to satisfy his cravings for kolo mee late in the night, head over to Tian Lee at Padungan Road. 

Life Cafe

I saw a group of people barbecuing at Matang Family Park and caught a whiff of the aromatic smoky scent of food cooking .......

What do you want to eat for lunch? AT asked me as we drove away from Matang Family Park.

BBQ, I replied.

AT said that would be difficult to get ..... lols.

We drove into town and were along Jalan Keretapi, and decided to eat at Life Cafe. Lots of people there at lunch hour ....

Honey Lemon, RM4.90

I loved the drink very much ..... a refreshing, soothing and cooling thirst quencher. 

Life's Milk Tea

AT found the taste strange, but I quite liked the milk tea. It's not too thick and not too diluted. I could actually taste the milk in the tea concoction. 

Chicken Chop with Life's Special Sauce, RM15.90

I would say that it was a bit pricey, huh? The portion of the chicken was not that much .... but the meat was tender and coated with a crispy layer of batter ... the sauce wasn't really that special, just concocted using fermented soy beans among some of the ingredients. And I did not like the miso soup. 

Served with cabbage pickle and miso soup

The cabbage was crunchy and tangy and tasty, quite refreshing I would say and therefore I loved it.  

Classic Spicy Noodle, RM7.90
The transparent noodles were rather unique .... it's somewhat like a thicker and more elastic version or the ordinary glass noodle, quite smooth and pleasant was the texture. I just did not quite like the flavours in the dish .... it tasted pretty strange to me, most probably because I was not accustomed to the intense flavour of chilli oil. The dish had a slight tangy flavour as well ....  

Life's Spicy Wonton, RM8.90

I also did not quite like the taste of the chilli oil used in this dish .... a bit sourish, I suspected that it's tossed in the same ingredients as the previous dish.

There were 3 dishes for the 2 of us to share ..... a bit too much. Hmn .... AT reprimanded me going overboard. Lol, cause in the end, he was the one who had to finish them all. Oops. :P

Matang Family Park

Where to? AT asked.

Matang, I replied.

We did not know the way, but the signs were sufficient to bring us to the Matang Family Park. Surprisingly, there were lots of people there as the car parks were full! We had to park by the side of the road ....

And at the entrance, we paid RM4.00 to enter the park ....

Looking down from the deck to where the action is .... I was eager to dip my feet into the water as well! 

There wasn't much of water ..... perhaps it wasn't the rainy season? Not sure ..... 

I made my way carefully down the rocks, slowly ..... as I feared that I would fall if I lost my balance. 

And finally did manage to soak in the cool water, so enjoyable indeed.  

Ahh ..... love the water lots! 

It wasn't every day that I got to be so close to nature .... looking up to see the canopy of trees ... 

Love the lush greenery .... 

A beautiful dragonfly ...

A tadpole ... 

A baby crab .... 

What a majestic butterfly ..... 

We spent about an hour here ..... and then we left. Lovely to revisit after so many years. :)) 

RJ Ayam Bakar

AT and I went there, simply because we saw a lot of people there. We made the wrong decision, because the drinks weren't nice. The food was also not nice. It was late already, and the shop had ran out of fresh vegetables with the rice .... No vegetables, and no discount? Simply a "sori, sayur sudah habis" seemed to have sufficed.

Iced tea and teh tarik

RJ Ayam Penyet
The whole thing looked so sorry ..... one of the worst that I had ever come across. 

The chicken was a tad too dry and did not have much flavour, .... and the spicy sambal was not memorable at all. While paying, AT gave feedback to the staff about what he thought about he food ..... and the reply was ....

"Datang awal sikit, ayam dia lebih steady .......... "

Eh??? No quality control here? 

We aren't going back there anymore. 

Shan City Kopitiam

What a long morning .... we'd zipped here and there, and then we'd gone to City One for a movie .... and I was hungry after that.

We headed to Fullhouse .... but exited after we flipped through the menu. Hmn .... no offence but I did not feel like having fusion food ...

We merely drove across the road and I picked Shan City Kopitiam to have a meal ....

Our drinks, lime juice and teh c

Snow fungus and longan dessert

The condiment : pickled chilli in soy, blended chilli, and chilli flakes

Ban mian in soup

Yummy .....

I thought the bowl of banmian looked really good and it did taste really good too. I especially loved the soup very, very much. 

Dry banmian, served with a separate bowl of soup 

I added in lots and lots of chilli flakes and yet I did not find the noodles to be spicy at all .. 

Of the two types of banmian, I think the soupy version is yummier. Hence, I would recommend that, rather than the dried version.

Breakfast @ Song Corner

AT and I headed for breakfast at Song Corner ... because I wanted to eat Aunt Angela's laksa. There were many coffee shops there at the Stutong Commercial Centre, a busy place indeed in the morning.

Regular Sarawak Laksa, RM6.00

The presentation was good, and the taste of the gravy was alright - lemak indeed. But it could do with more gravy .... perhaps just half of another scoop. The prawns were succulent; not bad indeed was the laksa, but it was certainly not the best in Kuching, and it did not leave me craving for more. 

AT ordered from the next to Aunt Angela' .....

Sharon Handmade Noodles

I loved the springy noodles a lot as they were coated in very aromatic oil and sauces ... The fish balls and fish cake slices were also springy and delicious; I liked the chicken slices, but AT did not. I'd not hesitate to order the noodles here next time.

I also ordered popiah to share ..... 

Popiah 

Freshly wrapped and yummy

I loved this :))

This was a pleasant place for breakfast ..... AT and I sat for a while longer to enjoy our coffee .... and then we were off!