Mom's specialty

Homemade acar....very high demand for this

by family + relatives especially during CNY.

Nice to eat with keropoks

Beaming with contention

..the craving is over. I finally get to taste those pretty cupcake I had been longing for. My office mate has been nice enough to get me one for testing when she saw a lady selling them at the putrajaya market.

Will post the pic up soon when I get a usb dongle to connect my hp to my pc. The cupcake is about to be slaughtered eaten during today's tea break so no time to source for a digital camera to capture it. Actually that one little cupcake will be shared among some office mates (cannot be selfish mah)..so I have to be contented with a little piece.

...unless my office mates decline...ahaks.

At the market

Saw a lot of unique local vegetables and fruits at the 7th Mile market in Kuching. They were so colorful I couldn't resist having their pictures taken. The stall owners were very amused though. Honestly, I have never tried a lot of these food before either so I can't exactly describe how they taste. Yes, shameful, I know. In fact, I have a hard time remembering the names of these items...which explains why it took me so long to post it here.

asam paya (a sour fruit) - can be eaten as it is (after peeling off skin, of course)...taste sourish.

buah jeling (sp?) - I have no idea what this is...

buah salat - snake skin fruit. This one I also dunno what it is.

terung dayak - also known as terung asam. Ahhh...this I know. This is sour round brinjal, usually cooked with asam, soupy style. Delicious!

Sarawak Pineapples - many west m'sians love these as they are very sweet.

Sarawak pineapples are costly in KL but in Kuching, they sell for RM1.00 each only. Dirt cheap! Too bad I don't fancy pineapple.

"Ang Moh Durian" aka "English Durian" aka Soursop - very expensive in KL but in Kuching, it is so cheap until nobody wants to buy them. Seriously...

I have no idea why there are loofahs sold at the wet market, of all places.

I was looking for sago worms at the market but I couldn't find any. Damn disappointed. Saw them before at this market but I guess now isn't the season..hmm...worms got season kah? These creepy crawlies make me shudder. So, since not able to take any pics, I have to make do with the below photo from the internet to show what sago worms are.

Sago worms can be eaten live, smoked or fried. Very popular among the native tribes, usually eaten fresh. Don't squirm....

Swak's Foodalicious

I promised a friend that I would post pics of some of the popular food found in Sarawak. There are actually a lot of local delicacies that one should at least make an attempt to try out while in Sarawak. I always believe that when you travel to another place, you should try out the food there instead of sticking to the normal rice staple.

A trip to Kuching will not be complete without sampling first and foremost, Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee, probably the 2 more well known dishes some West M'sians have heard of.

Sarawak Laksa sans the prawns..since I don't eat prawns.

Sarawak laksa is a combination of bee hoon and unique soup base, unlike the laksas found in West Malaysia. The gravy or soup base is a blend of chillies, sour tamarind, garlic, salt and lemon grass formed into a paste and mixed with santan into a pot of chicken stock. Laksa is served with steamed chicken strips, strips of fried egg, prawns, taugeh or bean sprouts and garnished with coriander. It is usually accompanied by sambal belacan, chilli paste and lime which add to the tangy taste of the gravy. A bowl of laksa can go anywhere from RM3-4 depending on size and additional ingredients..eg. extra prawns.

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The kolo mee above is the "mee pok" (flat mee) type.

Kolo mee is yellow curly noodle blanched in hot water, tossed in pork and shallot oil and topped with minced meat, vegetable & thinly slices of fish cake and barbequed pork. It is served dry and you can ask for a separate bowl of soup. There is no such thing as soupy kolo mee. If you insist on ordering one, the stall owner will try his/her best to comply but you will most likely be getting stares and raised eyebrows from fellow Kuchingnites. It probably won't taste as nice too. It's priced at RM2.20 per bowl. Where to find noodles so cheap wan...

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My favorite....don't be put off by its appearance...it's actually very syiok!

Another local delicacy is Kueh Chap. It's sorta herbly soup ala Bak Kut Teh, served with flat rice noodles, tauhu pok, lean pork, fatty pork, intestines, and sometimes hard boiled egg & chicken feet. The soup is hot and flavourful. I like my soup spicy so usually I would add more chilli paste in there. I normally order this without the intestines or chicken feet. It's priced at RM3 (small bowl..as pictured above) and RM4 (big bowl).

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Sarawak kueh tiaw soup (pictured above) is similar to kueh tiaw soups found in KL except that it has minced pork, char siew and plenty of veggies. The noodle is also slightly bigger in size. Normally eaten with pickled chilli slices...as pictured above. This bowl is only at RM2.00...so cheap! As the Teochews would say...phee ka lau sai...(cheap until you diarrhea)..*grin*

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Speaking of local delicacies, I like to introduce a local dish called wild pucuk paku aka Midin or Bidin as it's sometimes called, a native food. It's normally fried with sambal belacan ala kangkong belacan but it can also be fried with just anchovies. Eat with rice and it's just heavenly. Check out the before (a bit dark) and after pictures below.

Bidin sold at the wet market...only RM2 per bunch.

Bidin after it has been fried...yummy!

That was all I managed to capture. On my next trip, I shall try to capture pictures of Belacan Bee Hoon, Tomato Kuey Tiaw, Kachang Ma, Kam Pua, Dumpling Soup, etc etc.

So much to eat, so little time :-)

Korean BBQ

I'm a sucker when it comes to korean food. Last nite, went for dinner at Korean BBQ Restaurant or otherwise known as Dae Jang Gum at Bandar Puteri Puchong (behind Citibank, next to Giant Puchong), with Adrienne and Stephanie. In case you didn't know, Dae Jang Gum (Jewel in the Palace) is a popular korean historical drama. As you stepped into this restaurant, you can already see a big poster of Lee Young-Ae (the main actress in the drama) hanging on the wall. In fact, as I recalled, her posters are also everywhere in Korea...even at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul. This place has a simple decor. Each table has a suction fan hanging from the ceiling, placed over a BBQ pit. A plate of hot charcoal is placed into the pit and the fan will suck the smokes off the pit, when the meat is being barbequed.

We started off with BULGOGI, sweet marinated beef with mixture of soya sauce, sesame oil, black pepper , glass noodle and onion. This comes with rice and 8-9 side cold dishes, which is very typical in a korean meal. We have anchovies with nuts, spinach, bean sprouts, sotong in chilli seaweeds, several varieties of kimchi, mashed potato sweetened with apple and a few other dishes which I have no idea what they are but we makan saja. Unlike our local rice, korean rice is more starchy and moist. Nice! Just like in Korea, we can actually request for extra helpings but for the amount of food that we already had on the table, it was enough to satisfy our appetite.

We also had JOO MOOL LUCK (hope I got the name correct), thick marinated beef, cooked in the BBQ pit. You can actually attempt to barbeque this yourself but usually the waiter will be most happy to do it for you. This dish usually comes with dip and a basket of lettuce.

The kimchi soup is real tasty although a little too spicy for me. It has kimchi, tofu and lot of chillies. We also got complimentary dishes from the restaurant, GYE RAN JIM, an egg custard and kimchi cake (no idea what is the korean name for it). Korean BBQ served a variety of canned drinks, beer and of course, SOJU, which is rice wine. The restaurant served complimentary refillable traditional korean tea known as BORI-CHA.

(pictures are courtesy of Hayana)

I didnt get to check out the toilet in this restaurant but according to Steph, it's decent.

Korean BBQ is open from 11am - 11pm daily.

Article from Star

Nite at TGIF

I was craving for some good old western meal so I went to TGIF with sis and family on Saturday nite at Subang Parade. As we were quite early, the place wasn't very crowded. Niece and I ordered Smothered Steak....hers well done while mine is medium. Nephew ordered fish and chips. BIL and sis ordered burger and sauteed fish pasta respectively.

The last time I went to TGIF before this was about 2 years ago at Section 14 PJ. Service was superb with the waiter tending to our every needs. I can't say the same for TGIF SP. BIL asked for 2 glasses of hot water (he asked TWICE) but the drinks never came at all. How hard can it be to pour hot water onto 2 glasses? My sis' pasta came when the rest of us had already finished our food because the waiter forgot her order. BIL had earlier requested another waiter to kindly check on the pasta but still, the food came so very much later. The supervisor felt bad about this and offered complimentary dessert...which we never took cos we were already full. What a waste huh?

For drinks, I ordered Friday's Lime Margarita, on the rock. Tasted pretty much like plain old lemonade. No taste of tequila at all. A real disappointment. I wondered if their Cosmo would have been better. I think next time must go for a round of happy hour elsewhere. It's long overdue...

Overall it was lousy service, lousy drink, so so food only. Even BIL agreed that the service level has gone down at Friday's SP. Probably should have gone to Chillies instead.