All posts by wena

One fine day in 2003, I decided to start a food blog to tease my sister and my mother who were both living in the USA. Somehow, along the way, I ended up feeding a lot of people just via the food pictures that I put up everyday. In 2005, I decided to take a break from blogging and just take it easy. So there were sporadic posts from my travels in the US as well as Germany and England. Now in 2009, I'm trying to pick it up again and start chronicaling my journey towards a better lifestyle that is more healthy than what it currently is right now.

: : The Venue : :

Sina’ (Mother in Kelabit) and Dad came down for Emeline’s wedding tomorrow night. Ben and I picked them up at the airport and sent them over to my Auntie Mimi and Uncle Kwang’s house to drop off their luggage. Then, off we went looking for a seafood place that has terubok. Decided to go to the Venue and see if we could get it there as the food are really good and the pricing very reasonable.

First order that arrived was the midin cooked with garlic and chinese wine. Taste a bit sourish but as we were all hungry, we wallop it pretty quick.

Of course, Sina’ and Dad definitely went for the oyster omelette. Tasted delicious and again, everything was eaten heartily.

Sina’ : Is that our fish on the counter? Aiyo! I wish they hurry up and bring it to us before it gets cold.

Well, it came a bit later compared to the first two dishes. As I was pretty hungry, I completely FORGOT to take a picture of it. By the time I remember, we finished half of it already. So, apologies if the picture doesn’t look so appetizing. Click here for more information on the fish terubok. It’s an extremely boney fish so the only way to eat it is with rice. The bones stuck in one’s throat will stick to the rice and be removed. Ben told me that most of the terubok fish found in restaurants around Sarawak doesn’t come from Sarawak but rather from Bangladesh! This is because there aren’t enough fish population to sustain the demand for it in Sarawak. The flesh is very sweet and juicy, but like I said, very boney.

They actually got our dish wrong here. We ordered Baked Crab but the orders were mixed up so we ended up with Fried Crab with Egg instead. Still, it tasted pretty good so we didn’t complain so much after that.

About The Venue, the last time I was there was back in the month of June. At that time, there weren’t so many diners there compared to now. It was pretty packed this time both inside and outside the restaurant. It was chaotic and took sometime for our orders to be delivered. Later, we found out from Auntie Mimi it’s because they’re not organized and she was right. However, if one is not so picky, the restaurant serves extremely good food. Unfortunately, it is non-halal as they cook pork leg there, which looked pretty appetizing but it sure was a lot.

Address of the restaurant :

The Venue

RH Plaza Commercial Center

Lorong Lapangan Terbang No. 1

Off Jalan Airport

93250 Kuching

Tel : 082-452186, 012 808 1186

That’s it from me on Sunday night! Off to bed now! Nite nite!

: : The Servant : :

Update on 13 Sep 03 : Found out that it was a vegetarian restaurant. Posting was not amended so that viewers can have a good laugh. HAHA!

Missed posting this last night as was too tired after dinner and the session at Monsoon to post anything up.

Bernard was in town for a brief stop so BJ and I took him out to dinner. It was a nightmare getting to Harbourview Hotel (where he was staying) on Saturday evening due to the Mooncake Festival being held at Carpenter Street.

Anyway, we managed to pick him up before it got too late and off we went to try out a new place called The Servant. It’s located along Jalan Abell (Abell Road) near Sin Hian Chia. It is behind Pandugan Street where there are some chairs and plants located outside the restaurant. I’ve been asking friends and collegues whether they’ve been to this place before and the answer was always NO. So, we went to try it out that night.

Upon sitting down, we were given a very nice welcome drink. It is Chinese Tea although I did not write down the name of the tea as the waitress spoke Mandarin and I don’t. Even Bernard was hard put to translate it for us. Anyway, all I could gather was that it was some kind of tea that tasted like coffee. Hmm… after the first sip, I’d have to say that it has a mild coffee aftertaste that was pleasantt. We were also given some sumboi (dried plum) sweets.

This is the menu given to us. Looking through it, I realised it’s a non-halal establishment so, Fina, guess we cannot meet up here. Hmm… anyway, it’s one of the few restaurants in town that does not use MSG in their cooking and all the food that we ordered were pretty good.

While waiting for the food to come, took some pictures of the restaurant.

BJ : Err… Wena, better put down the camera. Like, NOW!

Luckily, the food came pretty fast. And it was still steaming hot! Yum!

First one was the Fried Golden Needle Mushrooms (or as it says in the menu). At first, we all thought it was the Fried Squid but didn’t look like it to me. When the squid came, then we realised it was the mushroom. We ate all the meals with rice which was very soft and tasty. When one is out eating Chinese food, the rice makes a lot of difference to the overall meal. If it’s hard or half-cooked, it spoils the entire meal.

This was the Assam Fish. It’s actually tuna fish patties shaped to look like a big fish slices. Still, they did use assam seasoning and added in pounded ginger for added taste. Very tasty.

We thought that we were going to get Sabah Veggie as the waitress mentioned Vegetable A listed in the menu was that. I did think that RM6 for a small dish of Sabah Veggie was dirt cheap. However, when the dish came, it was actually Chinese lettuce! Still, it was tasty with the right amount of seasoning. Oh well.

Finally the fried squid came! Apparently a specialty of the restaurant, it tasted great. It comes with a spicy soy sauce which we were using to dip the fried mushrooms in!

By the time we finished the meal, all of us were pretty full! Here are some pictures of the restaurant that I took while waiting for the bill. When the bill finally came, we were all kind of shock to see that it only came to RM34 (US$8.90)! Not bad for a great meal. The portion do look a bit small but believe me, it was worth every penny.

Restaurant Details :

The Servant

Lot 105, Abell Road, Kuching.

There was no telephone number on the bill and they had no namecards to give out. Oh well. Pretty easy to fine although parking is a bit limited. Think there was only about 6 lots for carpark space so if you wanna go here, better go early.

That’s it for The Servant! Enjoy eating there!

: : Mooncake Festival at Carpenter Street : :

A quick notice : Mooncake Festival at Carpenter Street, Kuching, will start tomorrow 6 September 2003 starting 6 p.m. until 11 p.m. The festival will last until 11 September.

Parking will be a nightmare as usual as the roads in the middle of town is pretty small. Here is map of the town centre and location of Carpenter Street.

Best carpark spot would be Star Cineplex but watch out for when movies end. Traffic jam in the carpark for sure!!

: : Mooncake everywhere! : :

To Pascale, my number one supporter of : : mum-mum : : in the office. One of the sweetest gal around.

1:15 p.m. (after lunch at Thompson Corner, Tabuan Jaya)

Location : Big Fresh Supermarket, Tabuan Jaya

Pascale : Wah! A lot of mooncake everywhere. Why don’t you take a picture?

Wena : Hmm…okay. Wait ah. Here, hold this.

Pascale : Okay.

Pascale : Nice display.

Wena : Yeah, I like the paintings.

Wena : I wonder what this?

Pascale : Hmm… something sweet, I think. Maybe mooncake?

Wena : Maybe. Never eaten it before.

Wena : Wei! Don’t run away lah! Stay with me lah. I malu stand by myself to take photo.

Pascale : Okay okay. (Rush backs from around the corner).

Pascale : Wah! These mooncake look really nice and cute.

Wena : True but bit expensive lor.

Pascale : Yeah true. Oh well.

Wena : Okay, I’m done. Time to head back to office.

Pascale : Okay dokie.

5:00 p.m.

Location : Office

Wena : Wow! Nice tin lah. Mooncake is it?

BJ : Yeah, you got one as well. From one of the vendors.

Pascale : Hey! It’s the tin from the supermarket.

Wena : How did you know?

Pascale : Aiya! Price tag is still there mah! Can I have the tin? Can I? Can I? Can I? But take picture first for mum-mum.

Wena : Sure but I wanna show Granny first. Then I pass it back to you on Monday?

Pascale : Oh okay. 🙂

7:30 p.m.

Location : Home in Tabuan Jaya

Wena : Vendor gimme mooncake liaw! So much! How to finish ah?

Granny : Aiya! So many people gimme mooncake one! Better I didn’t order earlier.

Wena : Nice tin eh? Have to give for my friend on Monday.

Granny : Good lor! Too many barang (things) in house already! Karat (Rust) only lah! But still too many mooncake lah!

Wena : Okay okay, I give other people.

So, Pascale gets a nice nice tin. 🙂 At least someone will appreciate it more than me and Granny.

: : The Book Review Blog – Blog, Blog, and Away! : :

Well, yours truly have signed up to be a reviewer of reading material at a blogsite called The Book Review Blog. Brainchild of grace of You is Stupid fame. Read all about how she started doing it.

Now, Wena must seriously not write about food books there! Hahaha! There are currently about 10 reviewers and already 4 of us have already put up some book reviews. Except moi, of course. Posted about a link that suggests the book the reader would want to read instead.

Do pop by and have a looksee. It’s still in its early stages but we hope to have interesting reviews other all sorts of reading manuals. Perhaps even the Proton Saga instruction manual? Hahaha! I’m sure it will be a bundle of laughs all around.