Mum's Place - Damansara Perdana

I arrived late for Combat class on Monday night. I was just recovering from a back ache due to bad ergonomics design of the Proton Waja which I been driving up and down to Lipis and back. It was a terrible ache, so I decided to skip Combat. Got to the curve, ngam ngam 830 saw Calvin after class chatting with his girl friends... Said hi and off to shower.

After that, Wookie said he wanted to makan some stuff, then only I realised he was actually going off to USA for a fortnight on a business trip. He suggested Mum's Place, Peranakan/Nyonya Food. Hmm.. ok la since long time no eat nice nyonya stuff jo.

It looked like a normal restaurant from the outside. The motive is very retro, all furniture is made of carved wood, Marble tables ( just like granpa dining table ), hand carved wooden dividers, a little indoor fountain and slow nice music. The restaurant also sells these furnitures and some paintings. Anyway we were there for food so we sampled some good stuff.

Cencaru Petai

Four Angled Beans Fried with Sambal Paste


Sotong Honey Stars


Chendol with Red Beans

The overall cooking was good, I liked it, not sure about Sayang.. keekke.. The food was hot and spicy for most of the dishes we ordered. Oh ya we also ordered Kangkung Belacan , which I thought was done pretty well. The price here is so so, quite reasonable considering the fact that, it was clean, very nicely decorated, and the food was good also.

Location wise, a bit far for a Cheras fler like me la. But this place really is nice. Unique so to speak and is definitely worth a drive to sample the food here. Will come back to try more dishes here.

Batu Talam Results

Victorious: Abdul Aziz and Najib being hoisted while (from left) Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein (partly hidden), Adnan, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Wanita Umno deputy chief Datuk Shahrizat Abdul Jalil celebrate in Raub on Sunday. Pic from TheStar

Results:

Abdul Aziz Kiram (BN) - 6,276 votes
Ng Chee Pang (Ind) - 419 votes

Abdul Aziz Kiram wins by a majorityof 5,857 votes.

So as expected the BN candidate won this election without much problems. However so, as we could see from the media coverage, noticeably, everyone else, DPM, Datuk Sharizat, Khairy, and Hishamudin who gets most of the limelight of Abdul Aziz's victory.

Well good luck to En Abdul Aziz , and I hope you serve your friends in Raub well. And Ng Chee Pang, maybe now you should have spent the 5,000 bucks elsewhere, like opening a few crates of Hennessy or something like that, lol.

Now I get to drive up to Kuala Lipis without too much fanfare around this Kampung area.

Ikan Kenerak; Kuih Kodok

Its been quite a challenge nowadays to find more good food in Kuala Lipis. The town is a dead town . I had the honour of having to have to wait 1hour 15 minutes for my food to come. The 3 of us ordered single serving meals, mine was Tom Yam Bee Hoon, and yet we had to wait so long for our food to come. I think this has something got to do with the Batu Talam Elections. You suddenly have an influx of visitors, and these restaurants are just not ready for the volume. Sigh !!

So during my trip down, I heard something very disturbing . One orang asli fisherman, approached my contractor and wanted to sell him Ikan Kelah for Rm25/kg. Contractor asked, boleh murah lagi ka ? He got cursed , org asli probably spit at him and went off. In my mind, alamak, wasted opportunity to try this fish. This fish can fetch about RM100 / kg in the market. The other fish is Ikan Jelawat, rated at RM 300 /kg grade. My friends said, if you manage to catch a Jelawat, you normally don't eat it, you bring it to a market and sell it. So I told my contractor, you must have peas for brains, 25 bucks you should buy all the fish he has. Open shop and sell ikan kelah la...

So I managed to eat Ikan Kenerak. Ikan Sungai Ori.

Kenerak Cooked in a Spicy Broth ( extra hot and spicy)

It was one huge fish, and it sat in the serving tray. I was unfamilliar in the broth/gravy it was cooked in.

So I asked, Ikan Sungai KA ?
Lady boss, nods. Then said, pedas ni.
I gleefully took the fish, then replied, aku tak takut pedas punya !!!

So I asked Ikan apa ? Besarnya...
Ladyboss said, besar lagi pun ada , ini kecil punya. Nak Tengok ?
Ok.

Definitely not a very handsome fish, and it was huge. I suspect they eat baby monkeys for breakfast. The meat is thick and tough. Skin too hard, so I threw most it away. But the style of cooking is so hot, you quickly forget about the mud smell you get from River fish over here.

Kuih Kodok was the other interesting food I had. But it was for breakfast. This trip, we couldn't get any of our nasi kerabus from our favorite TNB station stall. My guess is they were unable to get their ingredients due to the floods. I noticed a few vegetable farms by the side of Sungai Lipis, flooded last week. Its just normal crepe with udang kering in it. Simple but very very tasty.

Good Boy

Ikan Kenerak from the River

Kuih Kodok

Move aside Coca Cola !!

Who needs F&N Oren Crush, or Coke Cola when you can have Felda Cola. Been working around in Felda Sg Koyan the past few days and as usual we were on our business as usual demeanor. Which one ? - Jalan Jalan Cari Makan one.

Took the wrong turn and went into the estate's Post Office which had a row of shops ( wooden and single story). I was looking for a Malay stall that serves good Malay mixed rice ( authentic masakan Kampung estet ). Then I saw a shop equipped with one huge water filter and lots of bottles filled with orange color liquids !!! Did I discover a Kampung Cola bottling plant ?

So we got off the car and decided that we could do with some carbonated drinks. Apparently they entertain refills, which are cheaper as compared with buying a whole new bottle from them. They had Durian Belanda flavour, the lady was nice enough to let us try, YUCKS !!

Orange Crush - Ok la so so only. It is really not that sweet.


Homemade Cola 1 - Preparing the Syrup

Homemade Cola 2 - Making sure its not too sweet


Homemade Cola 3 - The finishing move

The plant with the water filter on the right

Making sure not too much or too little Syrup is poured in

The Black Juice is now ready to be carbonated

Carbonating the Juice under the watchful eyes of the young padwan

The Chinese Founded America !!!

What would have happened if the Chinese decided to colonize the Americas ? To me it would be simple, just many sleepless nights trying to live with or without the Native Americans. That has just been what I been doing while everyone has been sleeping at night recently.

I have downloaded FreeCol, an opensource developed Game which is a Free version of Sid Meir's Civilization Series. With that I immersed myself into a world back in time, imagining short Chinese warriors (ala Gay Chou) fighting against Tall, Skinny Long Haired Native American warriors ( starring Lou Diamond Phillips). LMAO !!

It took me a while to get used to the interface, because it is less intuitive and is less informative as compared to the Pirated Sid Meir's Civilization II ( I think the last one I played was Civi2). The current Civi4 has got video requirements too high for my PC to play. So, while I was browsing for free software I could use on my office notebook, I delightedly found this title, FreeCol.

Instead of putting in English names like, Georgetown, or Ducth names like New York, I decided to name the New World, China. And to use names like Shanghai , Xian , and so forth. Its pretty fun and very very addictive.

At the end of the day, this is free software, the developers, hmm I do not believe they wrote this during their collective freetime I believe. So I won't complain so much, but its a warning, it will take many hours of your life away from gym, and sleep.

Summary: Graphics not so nice, abit like Civi1 , Gameplay very very similar. Of course if you buy Sid Meir's latest Civi Title , you probably have to buy a new PC to come with it.

Batu Talam By Elections

I have decided to analyze, because Ng Chee Pang the latest election candidate for he is only 22, decided he wants to contest. After analysis I will come up with a quick forecast of the election results.

DAP, Keadilan and PAS has all chickened out from this election as the Opposition Coaliton accused the EC of mal running our elections. Meanwhile the PM says they are cowards for running away from this election. Instead, one Ng Chee Pang, 22, decided he wants to contest as an independent candidate. Read more, I like to contest (BERNAMA) .

In the text, he said I felt lije contesting. Loose jo also nevermind, as long as I competed. Then who is funding your electoral campaigning ? My dad. Who happens to be Pahang DAP, Treasurer. Ironic eh ?

Who is the BN candidate ? He is Special Affairs Department field assistant Abdul Aziz Mat Kiram, 47 years old. I think this fellas son could be as old as Ng. Not much coverage could be found about En Abdul Aziz except that his face was on RTM1, RTM2 , TV3 , TV8 and TV9 , Astro Ria News, when DPM Najib accompanied by 10,000 BN supporters accompanied him for the nomimations.



The above are pics from the Electoral GroundZero. Its filled with UMNO and BN Flags. Big billboards stating, Thank you for voting for BN are aplenty and is clouting the roadside. I hope after the election those jokers still have the budget to clean the rubbish up.

BERNAMA has got a website up for this Batu Talam Elections

FORECAST

So after jalan jalan around ground zero and reading some news, as a substitute Political Analyst, I think the BN fella will win, by more than 3,000 majority, as DPM Najib wants it. Other wise, sia sueh la this BN fella. If BN don't get their 3000 majority of votes, it would signal a victory for young Mr Ng Chee Pang.

Good luck to both candidates.

QUESTIONS in my mind now :-

When applying for a job, they are always a minimum requirement for Education level; ie:
Must have minimum relevant University Education; Must be under 35 years of age; Must have 3-5 years of relevant experience. Even to apply for a job as a Mat Despatch alla professional Mat Rempit also you need SPM qualifications.

So these two candidates got what kind of Education ?

Kacang Goreng Sempalit Raub

I was driving up to Kuala Lipis when I entered Raub town, then shortly after passing through the Raub town center, I drove past Sg Sempalit. Then it struck my mind, Raub was supposed to be famous for some kinda Nutz.... Sempalit Nuts or something like that.

Sure enough, 5 minutes of a slow drive away from Raub towards Benta, I saw this Kacang Goreng Factory. Its called Kebun Sea Loy, Kacang Goreng Sempalit.



Now , this is funny because the factory was closed, but right next to it, they have one stall, that sorta sells fruits. I have driven pass this factory numerous times, I just did not realize that it is a Kacang Sempalit Factory.

Okay what's so special about Kacang Sempalit ? First thing first, they do not have an agent in KL. So it is of limited availability to us people in KL at this moment.

What do you think off when I say Groundnutz ?

So when we talk about groundnutz, first brand we think of is Ngan Yin. What is wrong with Ngan Yin ? Firstly, too salty. The nutz are too small. It is so small, it slips out of your fingers, and sometime it gets lost in your mouth. You remember this logo ?



That brand/picture has always associated with nice tasty ground nuts. Can't remember any other peanutz brands leh ? After trying out the Kacang Goreng Sempalit, my impression of Ngan Yin groundnutz became like this.



Whats the big deal with Sempalit Roasted Groundnuts ?

Size. Its much bigger compared with Ngan Yin's nutz.
Taste. Much better not as salty as Ngan Yin.
FReshness. Much better, not as many nutz lao foong , like Ngan Yin.
Definitely much better quality control when it comes to cracked nutz in the packing.




There you go, some pictures to indicate the size of these nutz. And the packaging although is silvery , glittery stuff, I still think Ngan Yin looks better from outside. But then, once you have gone Sempalit, you wont go for Ngan Yin again...

One Noodles, Kepong

Shrimp Wanton Noodles
Szechuan Dry Noodles

Kepong is considered by most a food haven. Why ? This surburb has got the highest concentration of "good food" stalls. It is not like anyone has made a survey of some sort, but looking for good food in KL can be tricky. You find food stalls at every corner of every street in KL. Which one is good which one is not ?

One Noodle, as the name of the eatery suggests, it serves noodles. The pictures above shows two types of noodles. The shrimp wanton soup noodles and SzeChuan Dry Noodles. The noodles are so so only. Their SzeChuan is not sour and spicy enough for my liking. Perhaps they have to tone down on the powerness of its Szechuaness taste, to adapt to the Malaysian Chinese's tastebuds.

The favourite dish is still the Seafood NoodleSoup which comes in Dry/Soup/Curry and Tom Yam. This is a must try dish, their most expensive one in the menu. Of course if you like to try their starters (dim sum) do try some of the stuff they have.

Over the years, KTZ have grown in popularity, however so , the quality of their food has gone down. I remember those days when KTZ was a small little stall by the main road of Kepong.

Maggi Goreng Sardin @ Jinjang Selatan (closed Down Already)

THIS PLACE CLOSED DOWN LIAO... ANYONE KNOWS WHERE THE STALL HAS MOVED TO ?

Maggi Goreng

The Stall

This stall in Jinjang gets my vote for best Maggi Goreng in Malaysia. They serve really tasty maggi goreng. Their Maggi Goreng is not the normal type where the mamak goreng for you. This maggi goreng is made in a pot, similar to the maggi soup pot. They add their own sambil ikan bilis, their own Maggi Curry Bumbu, and Sardin.....

One more thing is special here, their Nasi Lemak Panas, but have not got the chance to try that yet. Very simple, just sit around the stall and watch what those people eat over there. Order the same thing most people are ordering, you can't go wrong...

Johor and Pahang areas visited, luckilly not flooded

I set off to Batu Pahat on Tuesday morning to do our first installation of the EMS, Environmental Monitoring System. Name only canggih, but thats how the client likes to refer to it. Before going down , everyone was worried about the flooding situation and so forth. As such my installation for the Pahang site will be slightly delayed. But nevertheless, we were to finish installtion at the Johor site and I had to be back in Pahang ( appointment already made) on Friday morning.

On Tuesday, it rained the whole time we drove down, but the client was having meetings so he delayed us one day. So the next day, lucky for us, we were "blessed" with good weather, in other words, hot and sunny. Little did I noticed it until we got back to our hotel room, that I realized I got sun burnt, on my neck and face. Darn !! Kononnya good weather la.

FOOD

The first night we were on our own, and with a little research and talking to the locals, Briyani Gam, is famous here in this region. Had to try it, and found out there is this restaurant called, Beriani Power Restoran. Got directions to go find this place, but it took us 45 mins to finally find it. It was fragging closed at night. Mahai !! nobody told us they were not open at night. So we ended up having food at a mamak stall in town. Restoran Meriyiam, Nasi Kandar. But there weren't selling Nasi Kandar, Sup and Nasi Lemak saja ada !! Ok lor, ordered Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng and Zup Campur ( Ayam, Kambing , Daging Campur wo). Nasi Lemak wasn't good, because their sambal was burnt, like my face. But their Ayam Goreng, fuiyooo, punya la bes rasanya. Its along the main road in Pusat Bandar Batu Pahat, opposite of Maybank. Ayam Goreng panas... bes !!

When you drive to Batu Pahat, you have to try their APAMS and Putu Bamboo. Where ? After exiting the Air Hitam Toll Plaza, you will see very prominent signs put up by stalls there, at this moment there is only one and that stalls sells superb apams and putu bamboo. They are nice and cheap. On Thursday, it rained in the morning, until the evening , non stop. We rushed to finish installation and testing of our equipment before we headed back home. All wet and soggy, we began our journey home after a quick change of clothes. As we reached Air Hitam town we stopped by a place for lunch. Thats where we saw a goreng pisang stall there. Pisang Tanduk prominently displayed on the booth. I call them Pisang XXX , why ah, you go figure out yourself la. The Pisang goreng was superb. This one from Air Hitam town. Go for the pisang tanduks, the huge ones, because they are very sweet and aromatic.



After lunch we left in a hurry. It has been raining the whole entire day , as far as we were concerned. The little lake where we installed the equipment recorded a 0.6M rise in level. I had to be in Kuala Lipis the same night.




The black marking is the road up to Kuala Lipis. Its via Bentong, Raub, Benta and then you will finally reach Kuala Lipis. Siti Town they call it. Spent the night day before I began on another crazy day, of driving up to Kuala Medang ( Felda ), visit 2 sites. From there we had to drive back down to Kuala Lipis en route to Jerantut. Red markings , the Ikan Patin Trail I call it. Why Ikan Patin ? Simple, you drop by any Malay stall, you are surely to find Ikan Patin sold. My favourite style too, Patin masak Tempoyak ... yummy.. The kicks come after eating the dish... when you begin passing gas !! hehehe

On the way down to Jerantut we were met with a long queue. Wondering what the commotion was , I took a slow stroll to see what was happening. It is not common for this alternative trunk road to be congested like this. Then we saw this. It had some sort of a fiesta feel to this.


Some smart ass decided to set up stall to sell his Petais. So this is the first time I had so much company driving on this road to Jerantut. Lucky for us, all this lasted no more than 15 minutes before we began to inch our way through. The Crane decided to stop rescuing for awhile so that the kilometer long queue could move.



We then drove up to the Sg Tembeling area, pretty much very close to Kuala Tahan. Here if you are lucky, you could catch yourself Ikan Kelah. Apparently this fish has been fished out to almost extinct. It is an endangered species now, however so, the Wildlife department has set up many Kelah Sanctuaries in Taman Negara's rivers. This because Ikan Kelah can not survive in dirty or turbid waters in the wild. Therefore, the only place it could survive is in National Parks like Taman Negara, where the river is clean.

So I came back via Jerantut - Temerloh highway to the New EastCoast Expresway. Nice drive back home and it took me only about 2.5 hours to reach home from Jerantut.

Basically I have never seen so much rain before, I mean in KL everything seems to just pour out and stops. In Johor it just never seems to stop. Luckilly there were no floods at the places where I visited. Even for the Pahang rivers, they did not seem to be as high as when they were in December.

Vietnam Kitchen - Neither here nor there

Have you been eating a lot of good food lately or your tastebuds are becoming increasingly picky ? Thats the first question I asked myself when I looked at the bowl of noodles the waiter. It wasn't even aromatic, instead it smelt like blend soup with hor fun in it.

I have had two other unsatisfied visits to this restaurant, Vietnam Kitchen ( Leisure Mall branch). Name only Vietnam, but instead it actually serves up a Vietnamese - Chinese fusion cuisine. Whatever the want to claim to be, they do not serve good food, neither do they serve authentic food.

I ordered a special Beef Noodle Soup. I could easilly quote two other places , Jln Alor and Jalan Silang Beef noodle stalls that serves much better beef noodles than this restaurant. And those are only Standard beef noodles.

The other dish is Special Seafood Fried Noodles,at first sight came to me instantly as Kong Lam Mee with Seafood in it. Alamak, how lame can a Vietnamese restaurant trying to be ? Viet trying to be Chinese or Chinese trying to be Viet ?

My recommendations for Vietnamese Fusion Cuisine - Go to MidValley , CoDo... you will enjoy the food, its really a twist of Chinese and Vietnamese Cuisine combined, with a very nice environment to savour your food in.

Six Treasure Drink

Special Beef Noodles

Stir Fried Seafood Noodles

Saravana Bhavan - Food Undertakers

It was one of those Sundays which we decided we wanted to be lazy and not do anything. So after sleeping in and all went hung out around Bangsar and ended up in MPH. Its that corner bookshop which is 3 floors high. Looked really huge from the outside, had lots of books in it, but not many titles in it. Sayang bought a FITBALL book , so now hopefully we can complement our training program with a few fitball exercises . Yeay!!

Opposite of MPH I spotted this Indian Vegetarian Restaurant, called Madras Woodlands. Just a few doors away from McDs. Wanted to go put something in my mouth, but Sayang, suggested why not we go to Saravana Bhavan's !! I was like, eh whats with this place la... ok la lets go try it.

When we arrived at the place, I found out that Saravana Bhavans are undertakers of food. Or according to their signage, they cater for Outdoor Undertakers ?




Anyway they might have some superb Indianglish, but they do boast of serving many types of Indian food. Its a vegetarian restaurant, which obviously means, no lamb, mutton, beef, fish, etc. In front of their cashier counter , they put a fridge, just like secret recipe would. Instead of cakes they put sweets. Indian sweets are definitely not something I like to try. Why ? Imagine eating something sour.... your face will smudge rite ? Mine would after eating indian sweets, because they are too sweet. Then they have another counter where they sell, murukus, nuts, and so forth.




This is a first for me, Indian Ice Cream, Kulfi. This one is Almond Flavour. Has got lots of nuts and lots of milk in it. It tastes good though. It also comes in more fruity flavours. I wasn't over whelmed by the smell of almond, neither was the milk. So all in all, pass la. My first time with it wasn't a bad one , means it is good.

Almond Kulfi

Now when you walk into a vegetarian restaurant, you have to try their Dosa/thosai, their dhal. We ordered a serving of the Dosa Masala. The Dosa was huge, and the filling was of adequate proportions. Just nice to me, although some places might give you a thicker filling. It comes with a small bowl of Dhal, and the usual 3 types of chutneys that acompanies a Dosa. I gotta say the Dosa was ok, so so only, but the Dhal/ sambar, and chutneys when combined with their Dosa, the taste was almost heavenly. Some of the better Dosa Masalas I have had.

Dosa Cut In HalfDosa Masala Filling

This place, got me hooked. Must go back and try their again sometime. This restaurant is situated a long the same row of shop houses as Maybank. Or when you reach Bangsar just ask around, its supposed to be famous.

Kopitiam in Bangi

When the word kopitiam is said, what rings in your ears ? Kopi-O Ping, Kopi Cee Ping, Teh Cee, Teh O, etc, right ? The other thing that comes to mind, and I begin to visualize, Ah Hia, Ah Pek and Ah Bengs playing chinese chess, or a bunch of Ah Peks playing Mahjong.


Oh well, I must learn to strip myself of these stereotypes. I was in Bangi Seksyen 8 recently, looking for a 120Ohm Resistor ( Pasar Road too far), but instead I found this Kopitiam.



The decorations were all nice , floor tiles were the ones bercorak corak, marble top tables and kopitiam style chairs, everything in there gives you a retro feel la. Even the lighting was nice and dim. The owner definitely spent quite a bit on renovating this establishment.

So now even Bangi also got kopitiam, but I don't know yet, what they serve in there.

Resolutions - A bloody waste of time

Why do people make resolutions at the beginning of the year ? Most people I know will forget about their resolutions by Chinese New Year. Why can't we make up resolutions as we journey through the year.

Why annual resolutions instead of monthly or perhaps a habit of making weekly resolutions ?

How many of us review our resolutions every month or every half a year ?

Do we make new resolutions , set new goals should we meet them earlier ?

For those of us who have made resolutions please feel free to read this

or you can look at the Top Ten New Year Resolutions

Tau Sar Pneah

Tau Sar Pneah - Penang Wan

Pic from Doctor Chan's Flickr Chest

Other than memories of our trip to Penang, we brought home some authentic traditional Tambun Biscuits. What gifts do you get your family when you go to Penang ? Tambun Biscuits and Nutmeg. Not only did we get these stuff for friends, we also got one box for our own consumption.

Coincidentally, my brother has also recently went up to Penang for a short holiday and brought home some Ghee Heangs. As for me, I followed Scully's advice and brought home a box of Him Heangs. GH's packaging is somehow more thoughtful as compared to HH's. GH packs them in fours and sealed so that we can store them longer. HH gives them all to you in one box.

Taste wise, I really can't tell the difference. Personally I am not a Tambun Biscuit Fan, as such, has not much experience as to which one is better or how Tambun Biscuits should taste like. When it comes to the question of who makes better Tambun Biscuits, GH or HH ? You will divide the Penang people into half.

The box of HH's we bought, although was not warm, but it was crispy when we opened it, almost immediately after we purchased it. That was just how fresh it was. Then another thing struck me as I finished the last piece of HH. Something is written inside the HH box. It says, that HH does not appoint any agents to bake or sell their biscuits. These biscuits can only be purchased at their HH shop in Jalan Burmah in Penang (I was dumbfounded). No wonder GH more popular then HH la.

However so, I believe these two GH and HH are the most popular Tambun Biscuit sellers in Penang. Of course they are other players too, for example, Halal biscuits are now available in the market for the consumption of our muslim friends. Which to me, tastes a lot sweeter and instead of putting lard, it is substituted with Onion Oil. Still very tasty, but I bet not many people tried it, because it is not as famous.

Penang Trip - Part 3

Our next destination takes us to , another great tourist attraction, Kek Lok Si temple. For a more politically correct explantion click on this , Kek Lok Si. The picture is taken upon the arrival at the foot of the hill which the great temple is located on. Found a car park usherer and followed his directions, RM5 please, non negotiable. Private parking ma, so pay lo.

As we made our way up we had to walk past small little stalls before we reach the courtyard of the temple. It reminds me very much of my last trip to this temple which was more than 15 years ago. It hasn't changed much. Still selling junk to rip off small kids. The only things that have changed is that they now have Chelsea Football Jerseys for sale at this stalls, it used to be Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United Jerseys only.

At the half way point you will reach a small, filthy pond, filled with tortoises. The water so filthy it was green and sticky, just imagine slime. One guy was seen arranging vegetables , tied up in rubber bands. Caught his eye and he spoke in English, RM1 for each to feed the turtles. I said no thanks. We walked on.



We walked further up and we managed to see a very nice vegetarian restaurant. Looks posh but I wondered who would be eating the food in there. Took a peep, and found it to be empty. It was about 1pm. I thought this restaurant might signal that we have arrived at the temple site itself. But we reached another landmark, a mini pagoda, with two Buddha Statues, open air one. I believe this to be the actual court yard which leads to the main temple grounds. We found another attraction. There were a few persons sitting by the walkway, I assume they were attractions too, but when I tried to take a picture, the old lady snarled and spoke in perfect English, " No Pictures Please !"



Okay , the was something I did not expect. But a short climb of a few flights of stairs ( the beginning of many that day) we arrived at the actual Temple grounds. Kek Lok Si, is nice, beautiful , and we managed to get to the summit of the Pagoda. Then we went on to the site of the huge Kuan Yin Bronze Statue, located at the summit of the hill. Awesome sights. Tourists here and there, but for us we just took a few pics and left before we have to que up again to go back down the hill. Oh ya , we donated a few bucks to see the Pagoda, and then we donated another a few more bucks to use the Horizontal Lift to reach the Kuan Yin Temple. Walking is no longer encouraged. There was a prayer room specially dedicated to the different types of buddha too. I thought this temple is one of the nicest compared to Thean Hou Temple in KL.




So after visiting the temple, we managed to sample Air Hitam Market's Asam Laksa. Personally I think that this Asam Laksa was quite tasty compare to the Pg Road one. It looks dirty, but surprisingly no LAO SAI after eating this. We also managed to find , Tau Sar Pneah, Halal Ones. We grabbed a few boxes for our office colleagues. I must say these biscuits are quite tasty, my colleagues loved it.

After temple, we met up with Scully. He brought us to Balik Pulau to try his favourite CKT. But the stall not open. So we came back, and had Lrg Selamat Big Prawn CKT instead. Yum yum. But the highlight of the day was Roti Babi, home made from his house. When he mentioned his aunties were making Roti Babi, my eyes widened. Most superb tasty Roti Babi.



We got back by 7pm. Sun set was never spectacular in Penang, at least thats the impression you get from the view in the hotel room. We made arrangements with Tamiya, to meet up later that night. He will bring us to sample , what they claim to be the best WanTon Mee and Best Hokkien Mee in Penang. So they brought us to one eatery in Third Street. After trying it, so so only. Cheh. Prawn mee oso, like that only. I just noticed something. Penang Hawker food serves their chili sauce, prawn sauce, sambal , in the soup spoon. In KL, they will give you a little saucer to store your kicap, chili sauce or sambal. So in Penang they expect you to pour everything into the noodles.


We had a little party at a place they call SS. The mood for partying also SoSo only, just likes the initials of the place. Anyway the next day we were heading towards Jerejak Island. I like to call it the Island off the Island of Penang. Before we went to the jetty we headed towards Feringgi Beach, then off to Balik Pulau to find that illusive CKT and Prawn Mee and Pasembor. All three also we found, and the food was awesome. Although the CKT was probably not the same one Scully mentioned, but it was nice. We found this kwai lou trying the famous Asam Laksa for the first time. It was so tasty, his lack of ability in using the chopsticks didn't stop him from eating his asam laksa.


After lunch we headed towards Bayan Lepas to the jetty. Our tummys turned on us once we reached the island. Must have been food poisoning. Overall the island was relaxing and slow. The service was nice, and place was quiet. For two days, Sayang wasn't feeling very well. We had to look for something light and watery to eat for dinner. So we drove around town for awhile and we found this porridge shop. Unlike most CKT and Prawn Mee Stall owners, these fellas do not speak Cantonese. It means , it is not very popular with tourists.

We ordered Teo Chew style porridge, the ones made with long rice and was very watery type. Ordered black meat ( something like char siu but is not), mui choi ( nice one), ordered one vege and we had Stewed Phoenix claws ( chicken feet la).... wakakaka. Everything was nice. Definitely stumbled upon a gem here. This porridge stall is located at Lrg Selamat and open only at night.



By the next morning we were eagerly going to check out after breakfast. Tummies still not feeling very well. We happilly left Penang Island as soon as we got into our car. Heading south , we were comtemplating whether to stop by Ipoh or not. In the end we did.

Onn Kee Taugeh Ayam. From no appetite , also made us got appetite. I ordered a bowl of Kwai Teow Soup while Sayang had her rice. She finished everything (not bad for someone who has tummy ache), that just proves how good the chicken was. Simply the best la.

Overall the trip was a success. My face was round before the trip , and it got rounder after the trip. We managed to try out some of the best hawker foods in the country. Best chicken from Ipoh. I certainly did not realize how cheap the food was until we came back and had Chili Pan Mee in Chow Kit. It was RM4.60 per bowl and we had to order 3 bowls for the two of us.

Our friends from Penang , definitely made this visit a special one. They really brought us around and showed us around really very well. Special thanks goes to Karyn and Shades(wink). Of course Scully who provided us a piece of his Roti Babi.