Foody goody

This is yet another food post! Since the Hills shopping mall opened, we have a new place to go for lunch. Marry Brown, Sushi King, Wan Chai (didn't like it btw), and Food Inc. What else?



This is Food Inc. It is a mini and still almost empty food court. There is a stall that sells bubble pearl milk tea and the like. There is also a stall operated by Kim Bay at Spring that sells egg tarts (photos below).



But I am here to talk about this now:


Takoyaki

Quote from Wikipedia "....Takoyaki (literally fried or baked octopus) is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps, picked ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, ponzu, mayonnaise, green laver, and katsuobushi (fish shavings)...."

This banner said its the first and only in Kuching. No its not. Probably they meant the brand (Japan Boat Takoyaki) cos there is a little stall selling Takoyaki in Saberkas too.



So we bought a box. Cos of the bold words: the first and only in Kuching.


In this box, there are only 2 Takoyaki's left, which are hidden under the huge pile of fish shavings.

There are only three balls inside and they cost RM 3.20 per box. Buy 2 boxes for RM 3. Quite pricey, no? Because I have not eaten any Takoyaki from Japan or even Taiwan, I think yea they taste not bad. Pretty good when still warm. But very oily though..

When I showed these photos to Winnie, she smirked at me and said: I will be going to Taiwan to try the real ones in July. *smirk*

Bitch.



Another stall at Food Inc., is the Kim Bay egg tarts. I didn't try these.



There are seven flavors to choose from: original, pandan, orange, yam, chocolate, lemon, and durian. He bought six in the box below: 2 original, one each of pandan, orange, chocolate, and lemon.



I don't really like egg tarts so I asked him to describe them to me.

CS: The original one is nice. The original one first, and orange second. The rest not nice. The chocolate has no chocolate taste. The egg tarts are not too sweet.

Amy: Not too sweet should be good right?

CS: Not too sweet means no taste.

So there you go. I sometimes think cs and I are too picky.



Ya, this is the original/custard one.

I thought it looked mediocre only compared with the Portuguese egg tarts. I know I should not compare. But look!



This just looks so much more yummy compared with the ones above. I want these egg tarts.

Another reason to go to Hong Kong and Macau soon.

First reason is winter. Yea I must go there in the winter. Why? Cos I miss wearing winter clothes and boots and HK/Macau is one of the more affordable countries with four seasons that I can go to, aside from Taiwan. Not too far away some more. Another reason to go in winter: how else can I go shopping the whole day outside and still come back in the same shade of skin tone?! Must be winter. I refuse to get tanned.

Second reason: Disneyland!

Third reason: Everything else is in the third reason category. (Holidays, no need to work, shopping, egg tarts, spending money, you get the gist) hahaha

That's all for tonight. Proper update tomorrow!

I miss you...

Its not even his one month anniversary yet; its on Friday. He passed away on 19 Feb 2010. I miss ah boi. Each of us, including my parents, we just keep looking at his photos. The other day, dad suddenly turned to Winnie and I and asked us to open ah boi's photos and the three of us just stood there cooing over how cute he was and reminiscing over what happened when we took those photos.

Here are some of my favorites:


#1 This photo is still mum's wallpaper on her phone. He looks like a puppy still when he's an old man. That's the good thing about shih tzu's I guess. Cute forever..


#2 Mum playing with him



#3 Contemplating whether or not to go down that step. He does that sometimes. He might just sit there and wait for someone to carry him down. Sometimes after contemplating for some time staring at the steps, he decided to turn around and walk back where he came from.


#4 This photo is to show just how short he is. Short, round and fluffy..


#5 This photo was from way back. His younger days. How can I tell? He is so much fluffier and his hair/fur is still so curly..When he was younger, he is so so pong. He has so much fur and it is always so hard to comb him after his bath. I used to dread having to cut and comb through all the knots in his fur. Mum and I used to sit there for hours combing through all their hair. (We had a lot more dogs at home before).

Have I told this story about our generation of dogs before? No?

So. Mum and dad came back with a cute male shihtzu (His name was Lion) one fine night..After a few weeks, we decided that he was bored. So we went and bought him a wife (We named her Kitty). Also a shihtzu but slightly taller than him, a bit mixed with terrier we think. They mated (a few times) and she gave birth three times.

Her first birth, she gave birth to four puppies. The first one died at birth. The second is ah pui (who has lived with us ever since and died in 2006. In the photos below). The third and fourth lived with us for some time but they died much earlier than ah pui. I don't remember which year. For a few years, we had 5 shihtzu's living with us at home. Not easy to take care of.

Second time, she gave birth to six pups all of which we gave or sold to others (mostly to our neighbours actually). I don't know what happened to all of them..

Third time, she gave birth to four or six pups. I only remember that ah boi was one of them.

Most people are surprised to hear this story. We love and care for our dogs. They were born in our own house in the middle of the night. I still remember. When we knew that their mother was going into labor, we woke up in the middle of the night to peep at her. Mum was the midwife (? I don't think there is a correct term for this) helping our dog. We watched from the staircase as the pups came to earth.. They grew up with us in our home (old house).

Sigh. Outliving your pets suck! How could we not miss them?


#6 He is older here. This photo is from more recent years. The difference is quite obvious from the photo above..


#7 Doesn't he look like a mini-bear? Soo..adorable!


#8 Here he just looks conceited. Stuck up. Living up to his title: prince.


#9 It is actually quite easy to take a photo with ah boi, and to make him turn whatever angle you want him to. Just hold the food in that direction. Observe.


#10 See..he just follows his food around..


#11 So cute.


#12 This is ah pui. Boi's older brother. I love this photo of him. Cute.



#13 They look so dirty and sleepy here. I like how ah pui looks here (the one sitting up) cos he looks so guilty. He always looks like that when he did something wrong, for example, like when he peed in the study room. When I go in search for him, he already has this guilty look (with his ears slightly down) whenever I find him. And you just know he is the culprit. That he was the one who peed in the study, and not ah boi..

Its too bad we all don't have much photos of ah pui. After he passed away, Winnie kept taking photos of ah boi. She said something along the lines of: When he's gone, at least we have all these photos of him. I always regret not taking more photos of ah pui.

So true. Must remember to take more photos of loved ones people! Preserve your memories!


#14 Cute but slightly grumpy here. Looks like he just woke up.


#15 He is the Simon family prince. Everyone loves him..


#16 Laying in mum's arms. So contented.

Mum's little baby. Our little baby.

Food and Fun

Last night the whole family went to Grand Margherita Hotel, you know the revamped Holiday Inn. I went there a few months back (think it was last year end) for the buffet at Orchid Garden but during that time, they still have not started renovating the place yet, except the lobby.

Last night though, it was pretty obvious of the changes made. Orchid Garden now has a whole new look.



Sorry for the lousy camera phone quality.. But see..the decorations kind of remind me of Four Points Sheraton Hotel. They separated the sections: Salads, Soups, Japanese, Teppanyaki, Prawn Mee Soup (plus some chicken/duck rice I think), Italian, and Desserts. I am categorizing them exactly as they are placed.





This place was so in contrast with the Four Points buffet that I went to last month which was almost empty. It was full house last night. Which begs the question, how was the food there?

Don't take me so literally though. I am a very picky eater and have yet to err broaden my err food horizons haha..

Dad says: There is less selections than before. Of the main courses, I agree. There is less selections.

Kevin: Ate too much. So full. (Kevin eats everything and everything tastes good so ignore him)



Mum is the one in the purple top queuing up for the Japanese food. I like this part about Grand Margherita compared with Four Points. Both has the Japanese food section. They each have a selection of freshly cut sashimi: salmon, white tuna, octopus, unagi and I don't know the names cos I only eat those.

Both places of course serve prawns and oysters but ehh typical Chinese people a.k.a me, compare sizes of the prawns and oysters. Grand Margherita wins of course! Huge succelent pranws and they are seemingly never ending even though people grab them by the plateful.

At Grand Margherita, the chef cheerfully prepares whatever you ask for. Handroll, Maki, Temaki, sashimi, everything.

At Four Points, when I ask the chef: Do you make anything? Can I ask for something? Special order? He just points to the selection of the already hardened/stale sushi in front of him and shakes his head. No. Sad. Tragic. So what are you doing there standing there? Getting rid of the flies??

Mum spotted a waiter walking past with a plate of Pizza. She hurriedly pointed this out to me (the pizza lover), and waited for me to stop every proceeding waiter: where is the pizza? where? How come I saw someone walking about with Pizza??

The manager pointed me in the right direction. Turns out it was special order. You request whatever toppings you wanted and they make it for you. I didn't wait. They brought out a platter of Pizza and people came crowding around. I was right in front of the Pizza dammit and a woman grabbed the spoon which is right in front of me to serve herself first. Fine Never mind. She has a kid in tow. Let her grab first.



The Pizza actually turned out ok only. Not that nice but aiya I cannot say no to Pizza. Its mum's fault. She passed her pizza-loving gene down to me.

My turn. There was a woman beside me waiting. I tried not to look at her. Cos I err..took the whole plate. There were only three very small slices left!!! How? What was I supposed to do?? What if I took one slice (like I am supposed to), then go back to my table where Kevin, Winnie, and mum steal my Pizza. How? So I took all. Sorry woman. Tough luck. Wait for next round.

Remember I talked about the ais kacang at Four Points Buffet? They have an ais kacang machine!! (SPK)

At Grand Margherita, they have a waffles machine! Hahaha..competition much?



Freshly made hot waffles with peanut butter and chocolate. Kevin and Winnie liked it. It smells good. But I thought it was boring. The waffles are soft, chewy or quite soggy and tasteless.

I think its cos I have yet to find waffles that top these:



The ones I had in Norway:



This is so so good. They are thick and crispy. Even though I had these in Norway, I think these resemble Belgian waffles more to Norwegian waffles. Cos I saw waffles like these everywhere in Brussels. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I didn't take a better looking photo. But see that woman is holding the same waffles that looks thicker and crispier.



Anyway. Back to Kuching.

This is my little plate of desserts:



The two tarts thingy on the right mostly contain egg. Tastes ok. I don't know what they are supposed to be. That is a little hot dog bun in the center. And the shit-like thing which is actually chocolate mousse tart is soooo good.



Ta-daa..so good it deserves its own solo shot..

Dad joined the Prestige Club thingy and we used up four of the complimentary buffet vouchers. So we paid for one person only. Oh we got a free 500g cake too. I called two days in advance for them to "prepare" our free cake.



Have not started eating it yet but it looks suspiciously like normal chocolate sponge cake. I know that its free and I should not complain. But! It just screams boring and hastily made, no? You have a reputation to uphold Prestige Club. We paid expensive membership fees. Look at the pitiful amount of fruit as toppings. No decoration to speak of. Taste-wise I don't know. I will complain or praise you next time..

**************

OK. Time to steer you away from all that food..



Just started reading this but it seems quite promising. Let you know when I finish this..Copied this from the back of the book:

Shanghai, 1937. Pearl and May are two beautiful, modern, carefree sisters - until their father tells them that he has gambled away the family's wealth. In order to repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to two "Gold Mountain" men: Americans. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, they must travel across Southern China, in and out of the churches of brutal soldiers, and across the ocean to a new, married life in Los Angeles' Chinatown.

******************

I'm on a roll here so might as well continue writing since I got nothing better to do this boring Sunday afternoon. Sundays are boring. Mostly, I stay at home to online the whole day and night. I used to play badminton on Sunday noons but they take up sooo much energy out of me that I always want to sleep by 8pm at night wtf! So useless haha!

Oh yes there is an European fun fair at MJC. Batu Kawa. I don't know if it is open to public yet or not. This time, in addition to the normal fun fair stuff they have:



A mini water park Kuching version. Cool eh..



An old/ugly/mini version of Sunway Lagoon. Hahaha looks so tempting though. Something new in Kuching. This should attract alot of the kids to the fun fair...

Thats it!

Spill allll

I want to blog about something. But I am so tired. Sleep? It is 9pm. Too early to sleep. At least wait till 10pm. The bf is still at work. I am randomly typing whatever is going through my mind, and jumping from topic to topic. Cos I am tired. Friday is supposed to be the last day of work. I hate working Saturdays. I hate "crunch" period. I have to survive March without falling sick again!

Came home from work and laid down for 15 mins before dinner of some Taiwanese egg pancake that mum made. No photos cos I post more photos of food on this blog than my own face. Heyy just realized that is true. I should take more photos. I will. Tomorrow. The egg pancakes are called "Dan Bing" in Mandarin.

Ahh what the heck! Googled and stole photos:



This is what it is supposed to look like. There is typically spring onion and meat floss sprinkled over it. But mum didn't put meat floss in ours. Just spring onion which actually is enough. The sauce is important too. I don't know/too lazy to describe it.

If you want to look for it in Kuching, I only know of one place that sells it. It is the kopitiam at Hui Sing. Err..near the police station. Same row as the church. Its not the corner kopitiam, its the one in the middle. There is a little Taiwanese food stall inside run by two young girls. I like their "ma lak mien" and beef noodles also. Go try. Cheap! I don't know other places that sell it. This place is good enough for me.

Photos from a million years ago taken at Bar Zing. I forgot the occasion for these photos. That night seems so hazy to me already. Thought for a while and gave up. Can't remember. So, I asked Winnie: where are these photos from? What was the occasion?

She glanced at the photo below and glared at me: My BIRTHDAY!

Hahahahhahaa....Why do I always do things like this?!



I wonder what did she drink. Wait. I go ask her: (Winnie says Tequila)

It is all coming back to me now winnie. If I remember correctly, I was at Pavillion drinking with cs and friends, waiting for Winnie to make her grand entrance. The party was supposed to be at Bar Zing but she arrived close to midnight.



I like this photo below! Even though its the toilet. Even though the sweet is making my teeth yellow.



I have a funny story to tell!! Mum was just talking about it! When my late grandma (mum's mum passed away many years ago) wanted to come to Kuching to visit mum, she was soo reluctant. Cos mum told her that she is actually living in the trees. Lol. Cos 20-30 years ago, Kuching is still very un-developed. Most of the commercials, tourism places just portray Kuching as sort of behind the times, in the jungle and what not.

So my grandma believed mum. She actually thought mum is living in a tree house. When mum asked grandma to come to Kuching, she was soo reluctant, and she even asked: err do you have electricity at home?

Haha my grandma is so cute.

Grandma came to Kuching once. Her impression? She said Kuching people are so lazy. Why do they close shop so early? Why not work longer? I think cos Taiwan has a lot of night markets that go on till past midnight and they are always bustling with people..

My grandfather came to Kuching once, and refused to come again. Said its too bloody hot and boring. When he was here, he took a chair out to the garden daily to sun bathe. Hahah so cute right.



Unrelated photo. But the people in that office building should be used to people doing this..

When my cousins come, we can't try to impress them with shopping malls or food. They do try our local food though, such as laksa, nasi lemak, mee goreng, etc. Actually, one of them gained so much weight from eating in Kuching that he couldn't fit into his jeans after a month here, on his day of departure! Haha its nice to know Kuching food is appreciated...



Shopaholic much?



I want to go swimming. Whine. No, not at Waterpark. The last time I was there, one girl slipped and fell on the floor beside the pool. She fainted. Good God. When she came to, she threw up and kept asking what happened? what happened? Why did I fall? I don't know if she is all right in the end, cos they called an ambulance and she went to the hospital.

But this really serves as a reminder to all of us. Be careful when walking across slippery surfaces!

Straw Berry? Blue Berry? What is that name?

My lunch hour, like most of you out there who is stuck in the office, is one hour only long. I try to squeeze as much as possible out of that one little hour. I hate the traffic jams in the lift, which is why I always leave the office early (excuses excuses). Actually not that early. But I just wanna avoid the crowd. Another reason is kiasu, die die must make as much of that one hour as possible.

Today, cs brought me to Zest at Petanak for lunch. I blogged about this place before: its the old Blue Berry, Best Berry, Straw Berry, Black Berry (either one) at the end of the row. Same row as Madam Tang and Bombay Masala. I have been there so many times and just about tried nearly everything on the menu. I like that they have a set meal of the day!

Today, it was Cheese baked rice with Ice Lemon Tea. Came to err...RM 7.90 (I'm guessing the price cos cs always pays so I don't remember! Sorry!)



It is quite different from your average cheese baked rice found everywhere in Kuching, eh? The cheese sauce/topping was very soft and creamy. Cs said the black stuff on top was: they burnt it on purpose. I dunno. I liked their fried rice cos it is always quite full of seafood. Quite obvious from the photo right?

To be honest, I prefer the average cheese baked rice (ACBR) found everywhere cos the cheese is slightly golden brown..But cs says this is better. Cos for the ACBR, you get kinda sien by the time you're halfway through simply cos the cheese taste is too strong and you get sien of the cheese already. But aiya cs is so picky. He gets sien of almost anything if he eats too much of it. I feel so sorry for myself, you know (future wife).

So.

After lunch, we went to Hock Lee. Cos we had 30 mins more to spare! The food comes out very fast at Zest. So cool rite? A bit smug right now..

We went to Hock Lee and went down to the arcade to work off some calories. By playing BASKETBALL!!!

Changed RM 2 with two tokens and off we go! It is one token each per game.

Trivia: Did you know that you get a free game if your score is above 60 points?



Check out the score when he started playing. High score was 72.



The bugger broke high score on his second attempt..



Third try, he broke his own high score..Haha both of us in office wear! We don't do this everyday ok.



So he got two free games in total. Lucky shot!!

My turn! Of course I can break his high score (scoff)





I got half of what he scored. Hahaa..



Ahh well this was my first game. I will win him next time. This is easier to beat than badminton anyway..

Oh oh oh...Before I sign off for tonight, let me gloat a bit. I made these myself! Crystal, fake roses and all..



It is really easy to make!! All you need is:

1) A SHITLOAD OF PATIENCE!

2) A SHITLOAD OF PATIENCE!

3) A SHITLOAD OF PATIENCE!

Once you have all three, the rest is easy. Piece of cake!

Seriously I am not cut out for anything that requires patience and tolerance. Throughout making these nails, I kept muttering to myself, mostly foul language. And how do manicurist earn a living? How do they have so much patience every day? Do they ever lose their temper? Do they wish they could just turn the table over and scream: do it yourself! to their customer? Cos I do! Bloody hell! No patience!

So, what you need: Just 2 shades of pink of your fancy, and a transparent base+top coat. Some crystals and plastic roses and a toothpick.



I don't need to explain, do I? They are pretty self-explanatory. My nails are actually pretty simple, the more I look at it. I tell myself that I have saved RM 60 just by doing my own nails! Then I spend more on buying different shades of nail polish, and nail pens and accessories. Still saved on service fees though. Haha..

I have to keep reminding myself to: be careful! No sudden or quick movements lest I lose these babies..