Italianese @ Midvalley

Went to Midvalley last week to have a dinner with ex-uni mates...Suggested there as some of them never try it... Bread was served while we looking at what we want to order...
 
Bread was dipped into a mixture of olive oil and soy sauce. Some might not like the smell / taste of olive oil but that is what makes it great and Italians...
We ordered Mussels Fra Diavolo (Mussels in spicy tomato broth) and Sicilian Chicken Salad (Diced chicken breast, mangoes, red grapes and pine nuts, tosed in Lemon-dijon dressing on crispy romaine lettuce) as starter


The Mussels didn't turn out to be as delicious as I expected. Because of the Mussels used I think... It was not as tasty as the one I ate on my previous visit. But the salad is quite nice... (",)
Then for main course, we had Seafood Cioppino (Mussels, calamari, clams, and shrimp sauteed in white wine and tossed in a spicy marinara sauce. Served with fettuccine pasta) and also Shrimp Linguine (Sauteed shrimp served with marinara sauce).
The Shrimp Linguine was great... With fresh and big shrimp as you can see in the photo... (",)


As for desserts, we had their famous New York Strawberry Cheese Cake and Tiramisu


Yummy Yummy... total damage is RM210 for 6pax

Seremban Siew Pow Empire

Back to the last destination before we came back from Port Dickson... we managed to go to famous Seremban Siew Pow Empire to have our lunch.
 
 That place is kinda crowded during lunch but luckily we still able to find a table...
We ordered a few dishes and the food there was great...
First we have this vegetable topped with mayonnaise... Nothing special but can be treated as appetizer due to a sour taste of mayonnaise...

And we have this Kam Heong Lala... Lala is Eric's favourite and that's why we decided to order it... Unexpected though that he ordered Kam Heong instead of Sheung Tong Lala... Hehe

And we also have prawns... Prawns there is what they called "Kei Lun" Prawns... Phoebe recommended we order these because she tried it before. These restaurant is generous giving about 20+ prawns for the price of RM30+ and the prawns are fresh...

And we have tofu...

And Hakka Cha Yuk... (Hakka Fried Pork)

The food are so great and it's only RM115 for 7 Persons (include 7 cans of 100 Plus)... Highly recommended if you are at some where near Seremban.

Before we leave the place, we bought some Siew Pow and Durian Egg Tarts...


Went home and I ate the Siew Pow and Durian Egg Tarts as my dinner... Hehe...

Port Dickson Trip - Part 1

We started off our PD Trip on a beautiful Saturday morning having dim sum at Kuchai Lama... We talked about going to PD for quite some time already... But because of projects on hand and many activities, we postponed this until last Saturday...

The food at Kuchai Lama was awesome... better than the one at Connaught I can say... here are some of the pics of the dim sum... prepare your tissue to wipe your saliva...









I know you are cursing me! Me myself felt hungry while writing this too... hahaha...

We drive to PD using Sepang route. It takes us 1hr+ to reach PD. When we reach PD, it was raining so we had to cancel our plan to Wan Loong Temple and Ostrich Farm... Sigh!

We rest in our apartment until three something then we go to a kopitiam at PD town for a break. At the kopitiam, we had some toast and half boiled egg.





Honestly, I seldom eat like this even I like to... because most of the tea times I was busy working in office... Nowadays... I guess 90% of working adults don't have "tea-time" la...

Stay tune for updates on places I visited in PD... hehe... don't want to put everything in here or the post will load like for a thousand years...

Traditional Recipe Restaurant @ Kuchai Lama

Ever thinked where can you get a delicious rice dumpling (bak chang) when u need it? Well... I'm not sure whether this place, Traditional Recipe Restaurant in Kuchai Lama have nice rice dumpling or not... but it did offer many varieties of rice dumpling and even have those abalone, scallop, shark fin rice dumplings. If you happened to try them, remember to tell me ya?


The Menu

What I've tried in this restaurant is steamed chicken with Nu Er Hong("daughter red"). If u don't know, Nu Er Hong is also known as Hua Diao Jiu("flowery carving wine") and is a kind of HuangJiu("Yellow Wine") originates from Shaoxing, in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. For me, it is a bit too salty and the chicken is a bit overcooked (cooked till a bit old is what we say in chinese)... but the taste is quite good.
Maybe this time when I eat it accidentally make it not nice la... Haha


Steamed Chicken with Nu Er Hong

I also tried the chicken floss roll... This one I can tell u that it's nice. It is you tiao inside, covered with chicken floss then wrapped with cheong fun.


Chicken Floss Roll

Besides, there is also this longan ice blended... This one is standard la... Nothing special about it... Just longan + milk + ice, blend together only...


Longan Ice Blended

I might go and try the rice dumpling someday...

Thai Food @ Dataran Dwitasek

Couple of weeks ago... I went to try out the Thai Food at Dataran Dwitasek, Bandar Sri Permaisuri (The area where Kayu and Pappa Rich located). If you've been this place before, you'll know a coffee shop called "Yi Nan Mong". After a few months the coffee shop "gulung tikar", this Thai Food opened. I can say that the price is not very expensive and not cheap, just average. A fried rice (taste like chinese fried rice) is around six ringgit and seafood tom yam about nine ringgit. But the price for drinks a bit expensive la... Teh Tarik / Nescafe costs about three ringgit.

Hmm... the taste of the food is ok la... Can give a rating of 7/10. So if you all can't think of what to eat, then can try this. Hehe..


Tom Yam


Fried Rice


Mango Salad

Location:

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Amazing Thailand

It was weeks ago when I went to Midvalley they have this Amazing Thailand festival. Thailand, our neighbour country, is full with excitements, full with exotic foods, and arts. When I went to Hat Yai, I did tried some of the food and it taste special. Some of them were really nice. And Thailand is some where really worth to visit.

Actually every country has it's own culture... in Thailand, you can see that they very respect their King. You can see that their King's posters everywhere. And there are many temples in Thailand. They prayed a lot. Not like what we are doing... played a lot... Haha...


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The beauty of Pasar Ramadhan

It's Puasa time again... and for Malays, many will turn on hibernate mode at home (if no need work) then go out to buy foods from Pasar Ramadhan when they are about to Buka Puasa. And for other races, many will join the fun buying foods from the Pasar Ramadhan too. There are many varieties of foods available ranged from light such as agar-agar, kuih, curry puff, etc to heavy like rice and noodles. One of my favorite food is the Ayam Percik which is hard to find if it's not during the Puasa month.

The Pasar Ramadhan was once quite popular with their cheap foods. But due to rapid increasing of living costs, we can see that the prices had gone up quite drastic years back. A pack of noodles sold at RM1 each is now selling RM2 each. And the fried chicken from RM1.50 each piece is now selling at RM2 or RM2.50. Chicken rice from RM3 to RM4 each box.

This changes I guess most of us aware of. But we just pay the price as we know that was the market price nowadays. But there are beauty lies in this Pasar Ramadhan, which most of us can't see it. You'll notice something is different with the bargains after 7pm. I was there observing the changes. People are start to shout "Last Call! Last Call!". Yeah... it's now the best time to spend your money. The sellers start selling their supplies at "Exit Price". They need to liquidize their inventories. At this time, you can see that those stuffs selling at RM1 each normally are selling at RM2 for 3! Agar-agar which you buy RM1 for 3 pieces are selling at RM1 for 4 pieces now.

But of course there are risk if you want to wait them to sell at lower price. It depends on factors such as total supplies, total demand, and whether they have their way to manage the unsold foods. And if you observe for a few days, you'll know which stalls that always sell the foods at lower price when they about to Buka Puasa. But if that day there are many demands, or lower supplies, you might not get what you wish to eat. Haha.

Anyway, Happy Buka Puasa for muslim and non-muslim (",)

One Night in Hat Yai

I'm back to Malaysia from a "What an experience 'luan lai' trip". Called this trip in such way because I went to Hat Yai หาดใหญ่ with some friends, and experienced a lot of thing that YOU might have not experienced before. Ahem... when I say "might" means maybe you experienced before. Hehe. So what I did was I took KTM to Hat Yai... Yeah... KTM. Walao eh... it was a more than 10 hours in KTM trip. But it was really a good experience. This is the train that I took:
and place we sleep:
The best experience in this train was... IT WAS ON FIRE in the morning. The incident happens when everyone was asleep... Suddenly I heard sounds like firecrackers "Pak pak pak pak pak..." so I looked out the window and I saw FIRE! Not long after... the train black out... electricity turned off and found out that it was because water dripping on the wire. Didn't take a picture because still blur that time. The train stopped at Bukit Mertajam for quite long, waiting for the technician to come. A few minutes after the technician came, the train operates as usual... Sweat... We waited for so long and the technician settle it in a few minutes.

After a few hours, the train reached Padang Besar... And we have to change to van to Hat Yai because the KTM people said that they have to fix the train in Malaysia. No choice... Stamp passport and take van to Hat Yai. As soon as we reached Hat Yai... We had a KFC lunch. Prices not much different from the price in Malaysia. But there are more choices of food in Thailand KFC... Not only have fried chickens... They have Shrimp Burger, Roast Chicken Burger, Thai Chicken Rice, etc. But didn't take photo also because too tired and hungry already. Hehe. Since the KFC is in the same building with Robinson Complex, we went into Robinson and walked a while.

After that we took Tuk-tuk to Wat Hat Yai Nai วัดหาดใหญ่ใน... The Reclining Buddha there is very big... Bigger than those I see in Malaysia:
Look into the eyes of the guy in the pic... Erm... He's like very sad... Hahaha... Help him add dialog "Please bless me more as I spent 100 Baht (RM10) on this incense sticks and flower." Haha.
Building nearby:
After that... we went to the famous Fountain Circle วงเวียนน้ำพุ as planned... But when we reached there... It was a really big surprise... The fountain... NO WATER! =.='''
Then we walked to the Clock Tower... another surprise... It was under renovation...
Fountain Circle without water:
Clock Tower under renovation:
Then we head to our hotel and had some rest. We stayed at Golden Crown Hotel. At first we went to Golden Crown Plaza... Then only found out that we went to wrong hotel =.='''. When reached the right hotel, the receptionist requested for our passports. They said will give us after they printed the receipt. So after we bath, we go to take our passports. Then they say can't... must pay deposit for it. The deposit then will be paid back to us in Baht when we check out. Really sweat =.='''. That is the reason I still have Thai Baht after I come back Malaysia now. Conclusion... this is definitely not a good place to stay. Sakura is much better.

Around 4 something... we went for massage at Lee Garden Complex.
It was not bad... But I think Sakura Hotel's is better. Last time when I went to Sakura, they really pressed on the accurrate pressure point... This 1 a bit not accurate. Spended 240 Baht for 1 1/2 hour massage and 20 Baht as tips.
Then we went to Savoey Seafood Restaurant... Had some coconuts, beer, some dishes and Tom Yam Goong there.
Overall the tastes of the food there is quite good. Just that the Tom Yam Goong is not as spicy as expected. Maybe they think we (tourists) can't eat so spicy.
After finished our dinner, we planned to go to Odeon, but it was under renovation. Aiks... Why so many places under renovation??? So no choice... walked around then went into Lee Garden Complex. In there we sit and have some drinks at Anita de Fortay Coffees. The tastes of the drinks is quite nice and it's not too expensive.it only costs about 50-70 Baht / drink.
After that... we went into The Oldest Bookstore in Thailand... Seng Ho Bookstore...
Then we go to Pink Lady Complex to have some fun. We went there to have some drinks and watched some show. Drank some beer + juices only cost us about 310 Baht (RM31).
And of coz we won't miss the Durian/Manggo Glutinous Rice and also the Fried Seafood and Chicken.
The end of the night...

The next day... Went to Kim Yong Market
Aftter finish buying stuffs, we check out and ate duck noodle near the hotel we stayed.
Then we walked to the Clock Tower to take bus to Padang Besar. The bus cost us 40 Baht each. And during the ride, we passed by Hat Yai City Municipality Park. Lucky we didn't go there as we see that all gate was locked. Then we passed by Carrefour, Hospital, University of Prince Songkla, and a few temples.
When reached the Custom, we stamped our passport and we walked to the Malaysia's Custom. Yeah... WALKED. Have you experience walking from Thailand's border to Malaysia's border? Haha... Stamped and back to Malaysia... straight go to KTM station, buy some snacks and food then board the train back to KL.

Yeah... That's all about my One Night in Hat Yai trip... Adios...