Homecooked Local Fare

My colleague N is a great cook. She cooked for us this local fare which I enjoyed very much.

Yummy homecooked food

There was rice served with :

1) Kedondong, carrot, green apple kerabu - it was sweet and sour and spicy and aromatic with the use of ginger flower in the dish. Loved it.

2) Acar rebung - Bamboo shoots with spices - the thinly sliced bamboo shoots were very crunchy. The spices were quite "heavy" in flavour but they suited the bamboo shoots just fine. Loved it too.

3) Chicken rendang - soft and tender chicken pieces coated with dry rendang paste. Yums

4) Stir-fried mixed vegetables 

 Acar rebung

My first time eating this and how I loved it .... I'm going to ask N for the recipe. 

N even made for us bread pudding!! I'm amazed at how she could have cooked so much food so early in the morning! Didn't she need to sleep??? 

Lovely freshly baked pudding for dessert 

I totally enjoyed the meal so much. Thanks N!! Cook more often ;P

Meeting Up With The Boys @ Sharing Downtown

The 2 boys were in town for the Medsi exam - not sure what that was .... but the test was to determine whether they were suitable to be teachers. Lol.

I brought them to Sharing Downtown for dinner .....

 Chicken Supreme

Cheezyland 

I did not eat because I had eaten my dinner ....... the two boys had their dinner but neither commented on the food .... so hmn .......

Lunch @ Xin Kung Fu

There was buffet lunch at Xin Kung Fu @ Premier 101. Pay RM12.00 and one can eat their fill of the dishes served. We were there at 1.00 p.m. ..... and we glanced at the dishes inside the tray but did not feel like having them. So we sat down and ordered ourselves these dishes ....

Cantonese-style Beehoon, RM7.00

Tasted good! The noodles had a smoky flavour, and the consistency of the sauce was good! There were meat slices, surimi crabsticks, sliced fishcake and vegetables in the gravy. Honestly, I couldn't tell whether the meat was pork or chicken. It tasted too hard to be chicken, so it my guess would be pork. But then, it had a bit of  powdery texture at the end much like chicken breast meat. So my conclusion - the pork slices were unfresh or the chicken was overcooked.

Seafood fried rice, RM7.00

We both did not like the fried rice as it was soggy. The rice wasn't fluffy at all, so the texture was ruined. Then, we couldn't find any seafood at all in the rice. Where were the fish, prawns or cuttlefish? In their places were only surimi crabsticks and sliced fishcake. That accounted for seafood?? There wasn't even any meat (none of those unidentifiable meat from the noodle dish here!) in the dish  ........ sigh .....  

Braised pig stomach with salted vegetables, RM5.50

I did not like this dish too, as I felt tha the pig stomach had a neither here nor there flavour - not really absorbing the flavours from the salted vegetables ..... 

We paid RM27.05 for our meal with 2 drinks - iced lemon was RM3.00 and barley was RM3.00. GST was RM1.53.

Other comments :
1) I walked into the restaurant alone because my friend wasn't there yet. But none of the staff who was sitting around bothered to greet me or asked what I wanted. How hospitable.

2) I enquired about the buffet so they thought that I had wanted to eat that and they left me to my own devices. But in the end I decided to order a la carte ... and had to go and search for the menu and all. I would prefer to have a staff in attendance to see customers to their needs first,

3) I cannot tolerate passing off processed food as seafood. It was deceiving. I felt cheated. So it tarnished my impression of this restaurant. It was stated "Seafood Fried Rice" in the menu - so naturally we would expect morsels of the real thing. There was none whatsoever in the dish. I almost ordered the "Seafood fried beehoon" - which fortunately I did not. Otherwise, I would really have made a scene.

Catching Up @ Bing! Padungan

My favourite girl, CN, was in town. She had to attend an interview or entry to the Law Faculty of UKM. Law? Gasp! She had never said a word and I was taken aback. I never thought she would want to read Law.

So of course, I brought her out for a drink and chit chat. She had to fill me in with the happenings after I had left them abruptly last April. 

We went to Bing! at Padungan.

A pot of chamomile tea, mocha frappuccino, and green tea cheese cake

I did not like the cheese cake ..... smelled egg-y and tasted sour. My girl said the mocha frappuccino was alright. 

The next day, she texted me to say that her interview went smoothly. I was glad for her ... and I prayed that she would be getting the offer that she wanted. All the best, dearie! 

Kolo Mee @ Sweetie Pie

I was rather happy with the laksa here at Sweetie Pie, located just next to Thompson Corner at Nanas Road. Because of that, I had wanted to try the kolo mee here - just so that I would know whether it was nice or not.

RM3.00 

Unfortunately, I found the kolo mee to be just ordinary.

Noodles - springy and not overcooked, very Q
Garnishing - reasonable amount of char siew and a dollop of minced meat
Lots of broth underneath all the noodles to moisten the noodles, quite aromatic ... just lacking that oomph.

Nonetheless, a reasonable bowl of noodles to eat. :))

Happy Gawai 2015

My colleague S cordially invited us to her open house at 10th mile Kuching this Gawai. She even drew us a map in case we did not know the way. Well, I surely did not know the way ... so I was glad that there were a few of us going together.

At about 10.30 a.m., we set off to her house at Kampung Simboh. It was a smooth drive out of the city, and it took a mere 30 minutes to reach there. Amongst us, my colleague R had been there before, so he sort of guided us.

We were just in time for lunch ..... for inside the house was a huge spread of food!

 Curries and meats and vegetables .... all homecooked by S' family

I opted for my favourites ..... 

 Homegrown kampung rice with ayam pansuh and pounded tapioca leaves, and some beef in dark soy sauce ... nothing beats homecooked local fare! 

Homemade Kuih Jala

S' sil made the kuih jala herself .... and she only makes it during Gawai. It was fresh and not soggy, so crunchy and not sweet. A very enjoyable snack indeed!

We left after a short while and made our way back to Kuching. :)) Happy Gawai to everyone. Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai.

Dinner @ Chai Seafood Pending

Bro, Sil, Berry and I were at Chai Seafood Pending for dinner the other night. Service was fast and we had our food served within 15 minutes of ordering.

With our rice, we ordered these dishes ....

 Stir-fried midin with red wine, RM8.00

Portion was reasonable, and I loved the fragrance of the red wine in the dish. 

 Oyster omelette, RM15.00 

The omelette was alright .... but quickly became soggy. I thought the oysters were too dry ... 

 Buttered prawns, RM28.00

Yummy sauce to go with the rice! 

Sweet and sour crabs, RM35.00

What tiny crabs ...... hmn ...... 

Of all the dishes, I liked the prawns the most - large, succulent and drenched in a creamy, buttery sauce. Berry liked it too and kept asking for it.

The lady asked how many crabs we wanted - and I told her 2. Then came the dish and I realised the crabs were tiny. Hmn ..... she should have told me the sizes or I could have and should have asked her the sizes of the crabs. I'm certainly not sure where we can get chilli crabs in Kuching? I've had some VERY GOOD crabs at Restaurant Gui Lin in KL ..... spicy and sweet and savoury and so shiok. These sweet and sour crabs ..... sigh ..... certainly could be better.

Rice was RM1.00 per bowl .... and drinks were on average about RM3.00 per glass. I ordered the kedondong juice which I had enjoyed very much.