: : Garden Seafood Steamboat : :

Okay. Another farewell party for the same VIP as a week ago. Vivien's bye-bye party on behalf of the entire department. Took awhile to decide where we wanted to go and we finally settled on Garden Seafood Steamboat place where we can be noisy, rowdy and just downright undisciple when it comes to eating and belching. :p Yeah, we're a pretty disgusting group.



While waiting for the soup in the steamboat to head up, we started with appetizers. Appetizers were roasted prawn seasoned with chillis and pepper. However, we only had one plate as we were all too busy with the crab. Or rather, AMan was.



This was roasted crab, again seasoned with chilli and pepper. As well as a lot of MSG, could feel my neck and head shivering like crazy. As mentioned, AMan was eating crab like nobody's business and David was giving him a run for his money. They must have polished off ten crabs each! They had so much that they finished all the crab for the night! LOL!



Finally, the lid was opened and the steaming smell of tom yam soup was released. This steamboat joint is a buffet style of restaurant i.e. pick what you would like in the soup and just add it into the pot. Of course, one does have to pay for any wastage so be forewarned.

The steamboat we had uses charcoal for fuel rather than the common gas stove. In olden days, charcoal-fuel-steamboat is very common but not so much these days. Steamboat is actually a Mongolian dish that is absolutely wonderful during cold rainy days (which it was on Friday night) and wintertime.

Instead of tom yam soup, one can ask for chicken stock instead. One great thing about steamboat is that by the time the soup has been boiled for a long time, the soup itself would have so much flavours in it. The downside of steamboat is that one has to ensure that all the food is thoroughly cook else one gets diarrhoa.

For Westerners eating this for the first time, please do not forget your diarrhoa pills. You might be in for a nasty shock if you've never eaten this before. It can be quite upsetting to your stomach. Once you're over that hurdle, you should be fine. :)

Address Details
Garden Steamboat Restaurant
No. 28, Jalan Nenas,
93400 Kuching,
Sarawak.
Tel : 082 - 257777, 257962

: : Granny's Cooking : Pickled Cucumber : :

After reading Josh's posting on the cucumber salad he made, I got hungry thinking of Granny's pickled cucumber salad. Oooh! It's very nice on a hot day and I can just eat it with rice alone.



First, she cut up a whole cucumber and one onion. Put them in a bowl and mixed it up with 1/2 teaspoon of salt to dehydrate the cucumber i.e. remove the water. She let it rest there for about an hour. Note that the cucumbers found in Asia is different from the ones in Western Countries. In Asia, one has to cut off the tip of the cucumber and start rubbing the top portion on the cut section of the remaining cucumber to remove the sap (which makes the cucumber very bitter). The sap will start foaming at the top so cut off this part once the foam stops getting bigger.



Next, she chopped some chillis. Gentling moving the chillis to the side of the chopping board with the knife, she separated most of the chilli seeds from the cut chilli. Make sure that the knife is only touching the chilli and not the chopping board. The chilli seeds is the one that makes the chilli really hot.



Then, she poured out the water coming out of the cucumber and the onions. Put the chillis in after this.



The vinegar that she uses is the Rice Vinegar from China. Not sure whether it can be found in Chinse Grocery Shops in Western Countries but no harm trying. Else use malt vinegar. Granny doesn't recommend using local vinegar as it's mostly pure acetic acid which will cause bad gas strict problems. She's of the opinion that the China-made Rice Vinegar is made purely from rice.



She poured in about 2 tablespoon of vinegar to the cucumber, onions and chopped chillis.



Next, she mixed about 2 tablespoon (!!!) of sugar into the salad and mixed everything time. Then it goes into the fridge to be chilled for half an hour.



The finished product. Yum! I can eat this with rice only. For today, I had it with lemang @ glutinous rice that was cooked in bamboo.

: : Cat City Noodles : :

Was supposed to post this up last night but didn't have time to do so. What Wena and friends had for lunch on Friday the 3 of October in the year of the 2003 AD.

Pascale recommended Cat City Noodles to me a few weeks ago and that's where we decided to have lunch today. The coffee shop is located near the Stutong Rounabout, along the way to Kota Samarahan and UNIMAS (Universiti Sarawak Malaysia). The signboard above the coffee shop shows a white cat with the paw up and the 8th cue ball. :)



The interior of the coffee shop was quite pleasant and pretty cute. A lot of paintings on the wall with many pictures of feet. :)



Reminds me of two eyeballs floating up. Gross thought, ain't it? This was hot lemon tea ordered by Pat. Had sore throat, the poor thing. Hasn't quite recovered from her bout of flu.



Fresh lime with sumboi (dried plum). A thirst quencher on a really hot day. One thing that I always noticed is the amount of fizz that appears at the top of the glass. What is going on between the lime juice and sumboi?



This was very nice. Think the noodles resembled the Japanese noodle, Udon, but not quite as thick. It was fish ball soup with red wine added in. Yummy. Not a lot of red wine was added in which was a good thing. Would feel too hot afterwards. Hee hee!



D had this : Ipoh Oyster Sauce Hor Fun. It's kway teow noodles with some sort of sweet sauce mixed with oyster sauce. Is it suppose to be with oyster sauce? Never tried Ipoh Hor Fun so am not sure how it's suppose to taste like.



The rival to Life Cafe's Spicy Noodle. Only this time it's known as Taiwan Spicy Noodles. Not as tasty and spicy as the Life Cafe version but definitely less oily. Pascale was raving about this being so tasty. Which it is actually.



I had the Pan Mee Noodle Soup. It's not easy to find Pan Mee anywhere in Kuching. Only a handful of places have it. It was okay, more ikan billis (deep fried anchovies) than cangkuk manis inside. Still, the taste was essentially there. Need a bit more seasoning methinks but beggars can't be choosers in Kuching.

Well, that was the lunch menu on Friday. Friday nite's dinner was steamboat. :) Another posting later on.

: : Chilli Peppers : :

Quick lunch at everyone's favourite lunch spot.





I ordered the braised seafood noodles. Never ordered it before so wanted to try it out. A bowl of mee came with loads of gravy smothered everywhere.

After taking a bite, was wondering where have I taste this before? It wasn't cantonese style. Neither was it the fukkien style of cooking. Foochow mee? Nope, that's also on the menu as a separate listing.

Then it clicked! It's sizzling noodles WITHOUT the hot plate. Very very very tasty. :)

: : Native Food Fair : :

Yep, there will be one this coming weekend.

Date
Saturday, October 4, 2003
Time
7:30 AM-1:00 PM
Location
CHRISTIAN ECUMENICAL CENTRE OF WORSHIP
ASSOCIATION OF CHURCHES KUCHING
Jalan Laksamana

I recommend that one goes really early in the morning i.e. before 10 am to get the good stuff. The traffic jam will also be pretty bad in that area so go early. Am going to look for ayam pansor (bamboo chicken) and daun ubi goreng (fried wild tapioca leaves).

There will also be a lot of other native food available. Try it out. You'll be surprise at how good it actually tastes like. Am also going to bring along Granny. My usual food partner-in-crime.

Got an email from a collegue at work today with directions on how to get there.

UPDATE
Food Fairs organized by churches in Kuching are notoriously jam packed with cars and people. This food fair will have a LOT of people there so be forewarned. Parking space will be horrendous, even though there is a huge parking lot, it still will not be enough.

Yum yum yum! See you there people!

: : Thompson Corner, Tabuan Jaya : :

Gosh! Felt so hungry at lunch time. Su was also feeling faint from hunger. Never knew that could happen to anyone in the space of 4-5 hrs but there's a first time for everything.

Becca ordered some popiah!!





Yeah, we pigged out on popiah. What's popiah? Fresh spring roll a.k.a. egg roll. Same filling but not fried. Very tasty and nice. What was inside? Mangkuang, cucumbers, carrots and chopped peanuts. Had it with some delicious plum sauce.

Not the best in town but the hawker has definitely improved the taste since it opened last year. They've nearly got it right. Nearly but not quite.

Ah well. Who am I to judge considering I don't even know how to make the skin of the popiah. :p

: : Googlism : :

mum-mum is not going away
mum-mum is way too skinny (I am?)
mum-mum is a common word in chinese meaning eat
mum-mum is great
mum-mum is here
mum-mum is a food blog
mum-mum is worrking more than she expected to (got that rite)
mum-mum is a flash interactive map of food spots in malaysia (not yet lah!)
mum-mum is ok

via Auyongtc.

: : Blogger's Meet : :

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Tsk tsk *sniff*
You guys and gals don't ajak me...NSDS3 | | 09.29.03 - 5:44 pm | #

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aik! sorry! lupak lah woman...

wait a min... u never say u were from sarawak wor. *piak*

next outing is kuching jazz festival. wanna go?
Wena | 09.29.03 - 7:03 pm | #

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Date? I'm the person who is hard to go on outing.
NSDS3 | 09.29.03 - 11:05 pm | #

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then what are u complaining for? *Piak*

cheh!
Wena | Email | 09.29.03 - 11:35 pm | #

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Hey, I want to go, want to meet bloggers! KL is too far away!
NSDS3 | 09.30.03 - 1:00 am | #

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Soweee... wasn't awake when I posted that comment. Didn't see the word date there. Thought u meant u didn't wanna meet up. Okay, next bloggers meet, will let you know. And the rest of the world out there. :p

Although, seriously speaking, it'll probably be during the Jazz Festival. Wanna go?

: : Manic Mondays : :

Don't you just love Mondays. Busy with work after a great two days off. First it was the traffic jam. Then it was morning meetings. Followed by impossible datelines. Thought that lunch would be better. Was I wrong on that count.

It started with a group of us going to Chilli Peppers for lunch. The usual lunchspot, we thought we could just sit down, chat and eat. When we got there, the place was full! No spot to sit down. Saw a few tables that were supposed to be emptied but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the diners just had to stay seated and chit chat and just act cool. Kids. Hummph!

So, off we went to Da-Light Hawker Center which was 5 minutes away. Once there, found out that all the HALAL stalls were closed! Well, too bad for Harris and Ruby. So, we went another food court called King's Centre but still couldn't find a HALAL food stall around.

So back we went to Chilli Peppers, this time finding a table free. Was ready to blow by then. And the silly kids (college students) were still there. Grr...



I've taken so much pictures at Chilli Peppers that was trying to remember what was in the blog and what wasn't. Think this one wasn't in yet. Belachan mee hoon, ordered by Jacqueline. Definitely a person who enjoys her food. Well, she did eat everything up. :p

As for me, it was tomato kway teow again. Can't help it that I like it. :p

: : Elephant Cafe : :

Another meeting with bloggers. Don't know why but this week, am meeting up with a lot of them lately.

This time, the meet was arranged by the Hobbits. Let's see, there was Gette, Joyce, Sheebs and Andrea. Then, Maylin and Melvin decided to drop by, Melvin now being the only guy amongst all the ladies. Bin Gregory and Syazfina couldn't make so it was just us, chit-chatting the afternoon away. And, everyone is whipping up cameras to take pictures of people and (of course) food.



I had a Mocha Freeze to start off and Joyce had a Wild Tribe Mocha. Looks the same except that mine had more chocolate and Joyce's had more coffee. I later had the Wild Tribe Mocha.



Gette had this to drink : chocolate banana mix. Smelt so divine.... sigh... and of course, finished completely.



This is the signature drink for Elephant Cafe. A tea that is mixed with chopped orange peels, some lime(?) and sumboi (plum) powder. Sheebs had this.



Maylin ordered some hot tea but I didn't get the flavour. Oh well. It was strawberry tea. (",)



Melvin had spaghetti bolognaise. Quick a big portion. Think he shared it with Maylin but I'm not sure. Was too busy chatting away with the others on Bookcrossing and Jazz Festival and other stuff. Incidently Maylin signed up as a volunteer. Wished I had the time to do those stuff.



Joyce and Gette had the Mushroom and Chicken Fusili. Smelled so good.



I kept thinking this was chicken and everyone else had to set me right. It's Cajun Fish Fillet. Was still very blur from Friday's nite out. It came late and I suspected that they totally forgot about this. Cheh! Still, it was worth the wait but everyone had to wait for me to finish eating. Hmmm...



Looks like a cocktail drink doesn't it? It's just Sprite with Blue Caracao added to it. Interesting look anyways.

Next meet with the Hobbits will be after 19 Oct for Bookcrossing at Elephant Cafe and the Kuching Jazz Festival. Going to bring my Dad's videocam to try it out that night. Woo hoo!

: : Coffee Master, Somerset Gateway : :

I actually wanted to put up pictures of my dinner last nite at the Luna restaurant. Was a bit shy to take pictures in such as crowded area and with the possibility of the hostess screaming down my head. Hmm... garang (fierce) one that one. Yes, Luna is already opened for business. Dinner could be better but they're still new at it. BJ, UJ, CKi and I didn't want to offer any suggestions as everyone looked so stressed out. So, decided to post pictures from Coffee Master instead.



After the dinner at Hai Pa Wang, we were off to have coffee at Somerset Gateway. And you know what? I didn't even know this coffee place existed. Talk about being so blur for an entire year. It's a great place for coffee with cheap prices and great coffee, dessert and tea.



Melvin had this ice-blended coffee drink with pearls inside. Can't remember the name of the coffee. Something like black island with pearls or something. Was puzzled why the drink wasn't sweet until he saw the cup of syrup next to eat.



Of course, having a bottomless pit for the stomach, he still had space for a slice of Rich Chocolate Cake. Tasted great but extremely sweet.



I had some tiramisu other it was a bit disappointing in taste. Didn't realised it was going to come in a cup. Of course, this is the halal version i.e. minus the alcohol. Darn.



Still, the oreo-flavoured coffee was great. Looking at the top, the mashed pieces of oreos reminded me of black wooden chips found on the seashore. Urgh! Tried very hard not to think about it.



I think this was jasmine tea with lime. Lisa had this and it smelled so nice. The tea leaves and lime is put into a strainer and later removed after brewing in the hot water for awhile.



Jackson and Christina has green tea instead. Always a good choice. Also, found out that Yeo's Green Tea canned drink goes extremely well with Chivas Regal. Lovely, absolutely lovely. That was on Friday nite. :p Anyway, back to Coffee Master.



I think Maylin had this : Chrysanthemum Tea. A favourite found in many Asian countries. Notice the flowers bobbing about in the hot water? Smelled so nice. Very cooling when one has sore throat.

Details
Coffee Master
Level 4 Somerset Gateway
Residents' Lounge
No. 9, Jalan Bukit Mata
Tel : 250 958
Monday to Sunday
11 am - 11 pm

Note that the last order is taken at 10.30 pm.

It was a very nice coffee joint to end a very filling dinner on Wednesday nite. Wanted to go there again but went too late at 11 pm. Darned it! Oh well.

As for Luna, would recommend that one goes after a couple more weeks. Since it's a new establishment, everything is chaotic so don't be surprise with you have to wait for more than half an hour for your food to come. So, be patient with the staff if you want to go there now. Still, it's worth going to check it out. I'm sure the food will improve a lot after this.

Anyway, there's Elephant Cafe this afternoon with the Hobbits!