Caffeine fix

How do you like your coffee?

Ask any coffee drinker that and you're bound to get very different answers. For me it's simple. I like mine thick and with enough condensed milk to just provide that lift to the flavour of the coffee. If I don't get what I want, I'd just have a few sips of the coffee and call the waiter for them to add whatever it is that was lacking. Of course, the coffee I'm talking about here is your kopitiam variety, not one of those fancy-schmansy designer places you pay top dollars for. While your local coffee shop may not have the extensive menu of places like Starbucks or Coffee Bean, you're not exactly short of choices. Just think of the ways you can order your coffee:

The base:

• Kopi O - Your locally brewed black coffee served with either sugar or no sugar.

Then, you have the add-ons to the basic drink:

• Kopi - The same coffee as above but with the addition of condensed milk. My kind of drink: smooth, and sweetish with just a hint of bitterness to it.
• Kopi/Kopi O Kaw - The same as either one of the drinks above, just with a bit more oomph. The 'kaw' literally means 'tall', which indicates you want your coffee to be stronger, thicker.
• Kopi/Kopi O Pok - Again the same drinks, but this time the opposite of 'kaw'. 'Pok' means 'thin', and so you want your coffee to be thin or weak, almost watery. (I can't understand how some people can actually drink this! You might as well be drinking water!)
• Kopi Susu - The same local brew served with milk instead.

All those choices are for the local brew alone. Now, if you're more the Nescafe kind of drinker, well the same choices are open to you! And let's not forget that highly original Malaysian concoction called Neslo: Nescafe and Milo.

Oh, if you're interested and you're in Kota Kinabalu, a Gloria Jean's Coffee outlet has just opened at Jesselton Point and is currently running a buy-one-free-one offer. The flyer says the promotion's on for a month.

Cup of hot java. I like.

P is for Pizza

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Tony's Pizza. All opinions are 100% mine.

Okay, raise your hand if you've never ever eaten a pizza? Thought so. Apart from that other famous Italian export - think long thin rods or strips - the pizza is a firm favourite for a lot of people. That includes me!

But what happens if you get a sudden craving for one late at night (guys get them too, you know!)? The restaurants are closed, and all the delivery guys have gone home. Well, that's when the frozen variety like Tony's Pizza makes a more than equal substitute. Want to feel that gooey cheese and those full-flavoured pepperoni slices tickling all those taste buds at just that instant? Nothing easier than just opening the freezer, taking the pizza and popping it into the oven. Almost instant gratification. Man, I'm making me hungry!

And that's just the savings in time. Those frozen pizzas can also save you some money. Think about it - you don't have to drive your car to the restaurant (saving on fuel and hence, money) and you don't have to pay whatever service charges the restaurant includes in the bill. Lip-smacking food at a lower cost. That's a great combination.

Now, a pizza's nice enough to be enjoyed on its own. But, what if you pair it up with something like bowling? I'd say that sounds like double the fun. And that's just what Tony's Pizza is offering right now - free bowling along with the pizza. Between throws, you can munch on a slice or two and plot your strategy for conquering the lanes. Who knows? That pizza may just be the needed extra boost for your game.

Did I say that Tony's pizzas also great for a movie night? No? Well then...I think it will!

Not so funky

I've previously posted about what I think are the three essential characteristics that a restaurant should have in order to attract new patrons and more importantly, keep customers returning. I think this is especially important if the restaurant or stall was new. You just need to make that great first impression on the customer, and if you pass that hurdle, then chances are he or she may just come back and bring their friends even. Nothing makes a business prosper like word of mouth. People like what you offer, they'll come back, they'll tell their friends about it, and those friends will come, and tell their friends about it, and so on.

Well, this evening the whole family decided to try out a new eatery here just in Damai. We got to know about it because, one day, as we were walking to another restaurant for lunch a couple of doors away, we noticed this new place and started looking at their menu. The owner happened to be sitting outside and started talking, telling us how his restaurant's prices were good. From the menu, I thought the prices were pretty standard, but since the place looked classier (not the coffeeshop variety), then it offered slightly better value - the ambiance being considered.

So, I filed this at the back of my head (this was maybe a month or two ago) and finally today, we decided to check out this new eatery. And the place is called Funky Town. If you know where Maple Cafe is, then Funky Town is just two doors away...I think.


We decided to sit inside and what greets you soon after you go in is a whiff of something strange. I couldn't quite put my finger on what the smell was: it was a mixture of something damp, and cockroaches. Not very pleasant. But we later found out it was nothing of the sort. It was the remnant of the smells of one of their offerings: Fried Sambal Meehoon. Apparently, customers had complained about the smell (it was actually the sambal) and so they decided to take it off the menu.

So, anyway we look at the menu and my wife decided to go for the fish and chips, and I decided to try out their lamb chop. Order done, we sit down and relax and I check out the place. It had pleasantly dim lighting, soft background music, and with not many customers at that time, the place was cosy enough to have a decent conversation without having to stress your vocal cords.

The first surprise of the evening was when the fish and chips arrived in front of my wife in about 5 minutes - that was fast! Before Adelle or my wife could lay their knife and fork on it, I whipped out my camera and snapped a few pictures of the dish. Here it is:

Fish and chips - wish they were bigger

First impressions. The fish pieces looked a bit on the small side (as I'm typing this, my wife's eating some instant noodles saying that the dinner wasn't filling at all), but probably the size of the plate didn't help either. The amount of food didn't cover the plate adequately so it looked a bit empty. Perhaps they could have added a lettuce leaf of something together with the coleslaw just to fill in the empty white spaces, or use a smaller plate, or better yet increase their portions! So, presentation was not quite there.

Taste? My wife took the first bite and said, "Frozen dory". I knew what that meant as I still remembered the time we bought home some and attempted to make fish and chips. You see, frozen dory is more or less tasteless, and I suppose the batter didn't help add much to the taste. Luckily there was the tartar sauce. The chips were a bit soggy as well, and the whole dish was a tad on the oily side.

So, that's my take (or rather my wife's take as I only had a small bite) on the fish and chips. How was the lamb chop? Well, I'm still wondering. My lamb never arrived. After waiting for about half an hour (and my wife and Adelle were finishing the last bits of their meal), I see a plate of lamb chop come out of the kitchen window, the waiter takes it, and proceeds to give it to a group of young people seated next to us who came and ordered much later. It was then that I decide to ask the waitress (the one who took our orders) to check on my order and also another order of chicken wings that we had made. She goes to the kitchen and checks and never informs me what has happened.

I wait.

Twenty minutes later, my food still hadn't arrived. Food was coming out of the kitchen so I know the cooks were preparing food, just other people's and not mine. The order of chicken wings finally came and I decided to cancel my order. He apologised. When the waiter put the chicken wings on the table, I stifled a laugh. Before us was a small serving plate with two pieces of wings and nothing else. No garnishing, no sauce, nothing...just the two chicken wings sitting on the plain white saucer. Here it is:

The very airy plate of chicken wings

The three of us shared the wings, and though they were tasty enough they were not enough to lift my mood. Just then, my neighbour and his family walked in. I was almost tempted to tell him to find another place to eat but decided against it. Perhaps their experience would be more positive than mine.

Experience and training were clearly lacking in the staff: a lack of experience in handling a clearly disgruntled customer because of a huge mistake on their part (if I were the proprietor, I would have offered a free meal or if that were too much, offered a free side dish or something for the whole family. After all, you're new and you desperately want your customers to come again!); and a lack of training because an experienced staff would have noticed that my order wasn't filled yet even after so long. The restaurant wasn't very busy, so if the waitress who had taken my order had been alert she would have noticed me just sitting and looking at my wife and Adelle eat and would have checked my order with the kitchen.

Just before we got the bill, the waitress who took our order came and gave us something on the house - a pot of frozen yogurt. She offers her apologies saying that the kitchen had forgotten about my order. So, the yogurt was offered as "compensation"- a peace offering. My wife and Adelle ate some, and I was left the task of finishing off my "meal" while my wife went to pay for the meal. The person in-charge (who happened to be my wife's ex-student) asked my wife how I was and my wife's reply was, "Well, put it this way. A hungry man is an angry man."

The giant and the dwarf - the "peace offering" that was given
next to a standard-sized mug of water.

How apt.

My wife's ex-student went on to say that the kitchen messed up the order, and I suppose she may have apologised again. We walk out of the restaurant, and I was thinking, "Should I ever go there again?"

Maybe, maybe not.

Verdict:
Service - Below average (especially after they dare charge the 5% service charge!)
Food - So, so. Portion could have been better. My wife thinks Fish and Co. offers better value if you want fish and chips: a bit more pricey but a whole lot more tasty and portion is larger.
Value: RM12.90 for the fish and chips and RM4.50 for the wings - not the best value but not too expensive as well.

Update: Well, what do you know? It looks like my boo-boo wasn't a one-off thing. My neighbour whom we met at the restaurant also had a similar experience. Telling my wife this evening, my neighbour said that somehow the waiter/waitress had forgotten to punch in their order of fish and chips, so that dish didn't come out until the error was pointed out much later. They also ordered a lamb chop but this one came out fast. Must have been my order...

Withdrawal symptoms?

Last week, we celebrated Eid ul Fitr (apparently that's how it's spelled in English). For many, it was a very welcome long weekend. For the privilege few (i.e. teachers like me), it was an even longer holiday - a full 10-blissful days of not having to go to school. Yet, a big celebration such as this (the other one being Chinese New Year) does have its drawbacks.

Among the citizens of Kota Kinabalu, we are proud of the tea-time culture that we have here. Go to coffee shops between the times of 3 and 5 p.m. and you'd have a hard time finding a place to sit. The popular coffee shops would be crowded with people - all having one common purpose: sitting down munch the many mouth-watering tea-time snacks on offer and chasing them down with their favourite cup of coffee or tea. One of the most popular would be Fook Yuen, which serves the best toast bar none, and one of the best places to go to for hot drinks - the coffee's strong, the tea with milk's just nicely smooth, and the Milo's just thick - the way I like it!

But, the thing is, when it comes to Chinese New Year, or the Hari Raya celebrations like last week, this shop closes. That's the drawback. Favourite eating haunts close during such occasions and for Fook Yuen, it closed for a week (even longer for Chinese New Year!). So, what happens to all those tea-time happy hours? What becomes of the people who need their fix of the bread and drinks?

I suppose we'll have to make source for other means of getting it especially during those 'those trying' times.

Swatting flies

We Malaysians love food, don't we? I think eating can easily be considered one of our most favourite unofficial pastime. But, having said that, we don't just gobble up everything that is laid before us. We choose, we pick, we select what is good and what is not. How else do you explain the fact that one restaurant can be bursting to its seams with customers when just a few doors away, the staff just spend their hours looking at the floor?

There has got to be something about that popular restaurant. I think it's all a matter of three very simple qualities:

1. Good food
The main reason you go to a restaurant or an eatery is to eat. You spend time, energy and money to get to a particular food joint and the least you expect is to get some good food in return. I mean, why bother going out for a meal if all you're going to receive on your plate is some crummy food which you could have cooked yourself is worst than your cooking?

2. Good service
The food served at a particular place can be the best in Malaysia (and some even say, Singapore), but if the service is horrible, then in my book, I'd rather spend my money elsewhere. How are you every going to enjoy the food if you're constantly getting frustrated by the inept staff that is supposed to attend to you?

3. Good value
You pay a certain premium for the food before you and you expect to be rewarded with a taste that is in proportion to or beyond what you have paid (although it is possible to get extremely delicious food at very affordable prices if you know where to go). Anything less, and the probability of you ever stepping into that restaurant decreases exponentially very quickly.

There you have it - three simple attributes for keeping your food business thriving. But, I'm sure you've patronised a number of eateries that don't quite achieve that mark. I know I have and there's one place in particular that I've visited not too long ago.

It's hard to say no to a delicious plate of chicken rice. And I'm always on a lookout for restaurants that offer great-tasting chicken rice with a decent price to boot. However, Jesselton Chicken Rice wasn't one of them. I've only ever visited that restaurant once, and that was more than enough. I had ordered a set which meant a plate of chicken rice with a drink, all for Rm8++.

The verdict: the chicken that arrived was cold, and not especially tasty. The drink, which was supposed to be some fruit juice, turned out just to be a poor syrup substitute. My wife's wasn't any better as well. If we had gone to a respectable chicken rice shop, we'd have gone out satisfied with spare change. We vowed that that would be the first and last time we ate there. And I thought, it'd be only a matter of time before this joint closes down.

When the whole family visited City Mall (where the restaurant was) yesterday for dinner, lo and behold, the prophecy has come true. The restaurant was dark, and on it's swinging doors was stuck a piece of paper which read "CLOSE" in red ink. Permanently,

I know I sound bad, but when it comes to food, I guess that's just the way it is. If your food tastes terrible, then people won't come. And when people don't come, well...it's just ta-woo-ying time (pardon my Cantonese. It's as bad as my Greek!) and an inevitable end.

p.s. Just in case you're wondering why the title to this post is "Swatting flies" - well, that's what ta-woo-ying means, and if my wife has taught me correctly, it refers to a situation where there isn't any work to be done. Hence, all you do is swat flies. :)

Eat to live, live to eat

The subject of food never fails to interest me - especially if it concerns new locations where you can find great tasting food. We Malaysians are willing to go to great lengths to search out that sometimes elusive motherlode of delectable delights. I mean I've heard stories of people who drive all the way to Ipoh early in the morning from Kuala Lumpur just to treat themselves to some dim sum there. That's a two-and-a-half-hour journey! Ridiculous? These people certainly don't think so.

While it is possible to get 'replicas' of those famous foods just about anywhere in Malaysia, there is nothing like the original. That's one statement I can heartily testify to. My in-laws live in the royal town of Klang, where a certain river that runs through Kuala Lumpur gets its name. It's renowned for a few things - like crows. Lots of them. It's also famed for it's seafood. But, as far as I'm concerned, Klang's most famous commodity should be its bak kut teh. It's simply second to none.

Now, you may snicker at this, but trust me, if you even have a slight liking for bak kut teh, even the tiniest, itsy-bitsiest fondnest towards that soupy herbal preparation, then you owe it to yourself to at least drive, fly,walk to Klang and try out the bak kut teh there once. It should be on the "100 things to do before you die" list. Every other bak kut teh I've ever tasted just pales in comparison.

So, when we had bak kut teh for dinner this evening, it was just a foreshadow of the real taste of the real thing when we go back there. My wife said that there was no satisfaction eating the bak kut teh here just now. And I agree. It's not like the bak kut teh was bad (after all, the shop we went to is one of the more famous shops here in town), it's just that we've tasted the best! So, every time the family goes back, my in-laws make it a point that we feast on bak kut teh at least once during our stay.

In case you're wondering, no, chicken just doesn't cut it.

Kota Kinabalu bak kut teh - good, but no where close to Klang's!

p.s. My wife also commented on how different people eat bak kut teh here in Kota Kinabalu and in West Malaysia. I think KK people generally eat their bak kut teh with big chilies, garlic, and a dollop of thick black soya sauce to eat with the dish. However, this doesn't happen in West Malaysia. There is chilli but it's the small variety, and there's not thick soya sauce - only the light one.

Sabahan-style eating with chilli (left) versus West Malaysian-style (right)

A round belly

It's been a long while since I've written something about one of my favourite activities eating. And since I'm actually feeling a bit peckish at the moment, I guess that this is the perfect reason for me to write something about food...just to build my appetite that much more (and maybe get your own mouth salivating in the process, hehe).

I've actually been wanting to write about one of my more interesting dining experiences at one of the local restaurants here in Kota Kinabalu but I've been putting it off till now. Sometime last month, we decided to try out some provincial Chinese cooking at a restaurant called Moon Bell. It's not exactly new; it's been in operation for at least two years now and that's what piqued my wife's and my interest. You see, the few times we walked past this particular restaurant, we always saw the empty tables inside. The restaurant was open, there were just no customers. You and I know very well what happens to empty restaurants, right? Be empty long enough and the owners will have no choice but to go out of business. Unless of course they are rolling in money.

Anyway, so this restaurant was quite empty every time we passed it, yet it had survived all this time. The restaurant two doors away which opened about the same time as this particular one is already into its third owner! So, my wife and I figured maybe people do come just that we don't see them at the times we actually pass by. So, we decided to try out the food.

Their speciality is this deep fried (or was it roast) lamb with a dip. I remember it being quite delicious though the portion was fairly small for the price: only four smallish pieces, I think, for about RM20. Then we ordered another of their speciality, some stuffed brinjal. This had a rather sweetish taste to it, but it was something we had never tried before and it tasted quite good as well. The price was in the teens, I think, and the portion, like the lamb wasn't very big as well. Anyway, I had rice to go with the dishes while my wife ordered plain (as in empty) soup noodles. The lady owner said that they made their own noodles so it was supposed to be better. We found it to be nothing special, and the price of RM4 for just a bowl of noodles with some flavoured soup didn't justify the cost, I think. And again, the portion was not up to expectations.

The lamb...small portion, but yummy!

A different kind of dish: the stuffed brinjal

Despite all this, we enjoyed the meal tremendously (what little there was of it, anyway!) and thought that maybe we'd come back again, minus an order for the noodles, of course.

Now, that was the Chinese restaurant. Just last Thursday, we went Japanese. It was at Hana, at one of the shopping complexes here in Kota Kinabalu. The food here is quite good, and the portions are reasonable. So, my wife ordered Chicken Teriyaki, which she shared (or rather, traded) with me; I ordered some beef thingy, and we oredered Adelle a kid's bento set. Adelle enjoys coming here as she can eat and be entertained by the train that goes round and round the track bringing plates of sashimi on its carriages. This translates to needing less attention by the parents, and hence, allowing the parents to get some decent enjoyment of the food before them. :)

Chicken Teriyaki


This is my beef dish. Don't remember the name, though.

There was a spot of trouble with our order, however. The picture in the menu for the kid's bento set showed a yakitori, but when the order came, they gave deep fried chicken instead. My wife didn't want Adelle to eat too much oily stuff so she queried the staff about it. They said that the menu was old and that they had replaced the yakitori with the chicken a long while now, Wife said they should have informed us when we placed the order, and asked for the chicken to be changed. The staff (a more senior one) refused. So my wife asked to cancel the order, and she also refused! Threatening to report this to the hotline made the staff to consult her superior (I'm assuming) and it was only then that they'd change the chicken with the yakitori.

This is the kid's bento set. That's the deep fried chicken on the right.

All this for a stick of chicken pieces.

But, we enjoyed our meal nevertheless, and this father was full at the end.

Burp!

Excess baggage

After the week-long break for Chinese New Year, it's finally back to school time. But, I think the holidays (and all the eating that came with it) have taken its toll on me - I'm now noticeably a lot bigger round my waist. And my wife just won't let me off quietly.

Yes. Perhaps I've eaten a bit more than my fair share of food the past year end holidays. Yes, perhaps I've been snacking a bit more. But, I can't help it. I enjoy eating! So, shoot me! (that's just a figure of speech, btw.)

My wife has just told me that I need to lay off rice a wee bit because of my growing paunch. She says I eat too much rice. I sometimes take my breakfast at school (rice with a meat dish and a vegetable dish) and usually eat rice again for another meal (either lunch or dinner), but sometimes I'll eat rice for all three meals. She says that three meals (even two) with rice is too much. She recommends I substitute a meal with either a Milo and milk, or an oats with Horlicks diet.

Now, while I have nothing against the diet she is suggesting, I'm thinking all this talk about my spare tyre really just boils down to the fact that I've been rather inactive. I usually get my weekly exercise through badminton games twice a week and for the past year, that more or less kept my weight (and tummy) in check. But, since it was the year-end hols and I was away, not to mention the Chinese New Year holidays as well, I wasn't able to get my weekly dose of work-outs.

So, I think it's just about getting back into the rhythm of things once again, and once that's accomplished I'm sure that whatever excess baggage that's clinging on to me will disappear as well.

Won't it?

Ocha on my mind

Edited: Pictures of food inserted!

This week is PMR (that's the Form 3 examination) week, so for my school the students in all forms except those sitting for their examinations are off on break. But, we teachers still have to come to school. It can be quite boring since there's nothing much to do, but at least we get to go back slightly earlier.

Anyway, the moment I arrived home today, Adelle calls me from upstairs. "Daddeee! Get readeee!". I ask her why and she reponds, "Go lunch!". So, I go upstairs and ask my wife what kind of lunch did she have in mind. Then, she replied by asking me if I had anything in mind (don't you think replying a question with another question is so normal?). I said no, and then she said she was thinking of going to City Mall (that's the place where I bought my Code 10 gel from. If you haven't read that story, click this). I immediately knew what she had in mind.

Earlier in the day, as is usual at school, I read the local newspaper which our staff club subscribes to. Among the many advertisements I saw, I saw one about Hana (a Japanese restaurant) having a promotion on some of its menu items. I remembered that my wife had been wanting to try it out but we just never had the chance. And since Hana is located at City Mall, and that's where my wife wanted to go for lunch, so logically, that's where she'd want to go right? Of course, I was right. And of course, I agreed. A gaping chasm was already forming in my tummy due to hunger, so all of us quickly got changed and drove to City Mall.

At the restaurant, we both browsed through the menu but I decided to leave the ordering to my wife. I told her I was hungry and that she could order anything - just as long as it would fill my tummy. So, she ordered three different dishes, and in addition to that, she took a plate of salmon sushi from the conveyor belt. Our dishes arrived quite quickly, so that was good. And as is usual, I also took pictures of the food, but right now, I can't share them with you. I usual do a bit of processing to my pictures before putting them here, but now I can't. You see, my monitor's screen has turned all greeny on me. I'm not too sure what's the cause. I've checked the connections from the monitor to the cpu and they seem okay. So, I'll just leave the monitor as it is for now, and see whether tomorrow, thing's will be whiter and brighter so that I can upload the pictures for all of you to drool on (hehe!).

The interior deco of the restaurant

My thoughts on the food? I would say the overall quality is quite good - except for the sushi. We found them quite hard to eat. The rice that makes up the rice balls don't stick together very well. And it doesn't help that you are using chopsticks to eat them. So when we try to put the balls into our mouths, the whole thing just breaks up. Probably the skill of those making the sushi is still not up to par? Also, my wife commented that the meat on one of the sushi balls was not very fresh. So, if I was looking for sushi, I'd probably find better quality elsewhere.

Food on wheels

But, we enjoyed the rest of the food. The sushi tempura bento was quite good, apart from the disingtegrating sushi, of course. The set came with rice, the tempura, the sushi, and a side dish of salad. We also found the ebi kushou don quite nice. This was rice served in a bowl topped with gravy, onions, sweet pea sprouts, and prawns. Appetizing.

Sushi Tempura Bento

Ebi Kushou Don

But, we thought the best dish was the watani gani maki. They looked like their sushi counterparts, but they were much bigger and they had different fillings (not too sure now what exactly those fillings were). They were also covered in bits of tempura which was a nice touch of adding some extra oomph to the whole thing.

Watani Gani Maki

At the end of it all, my wife was very full, and I was satisfied. We went to the 'low price leader in Malaysia' after that because my wife wanted to buy some french loafs. They were on offer at 99 sen each, but when we reached there my wife was told that the offer was only till 2 pm. It was already 2.45 pm then. So, we just bought 2 cartons of fresh milk and headed home and we did the the best thing to do on a full tummy.

We slept!

:)

Tummy Expansion

I mentioned in my previous post that this week would be a week for binging. And it has already started from the first day of the week - Sunday! Of course it's not the Raya fare yet, since our Muslim friends are still in the fasting month. But, that doesn't mean that I cannot have an early start in exercising my stomach muscles so that it will be able to expand to accomodate all those delightful Raya goodies and food!

So, you know what this post is going to be about...food! And like any good blog post on food, I am kindly and considerately including photographs of the food that has since inhabited my soon-to-be cavernous tummy. Now, if you're in Kota Kinabalu right now, there's currently a great place to go for your fix of Italian food.

The name of the place is Fratini's and just in case you're not too sure where it is, it's at Warisan Square (that more 'upmarket' shopping place beside Centre Point). Just walk to the block where Guardian Pharmacy is and you'll easily spot the red, white and green colours of the Italian flag which is also part of the logo of the restaurant.

Now, I use the word 'currently' because the restaurant is having a promotion on it's pastas and pizzas. I am sure that it's a good place to eat at any time of the year but what makes this place extra special right now is that you get 50% off of your orders of pastas and pizzas. How great is that? And the offer is good all through the day, not just at some odd hours which some restaurants are wont to do. But, the promotion ends very soon, like tomorrow (30 September)! So, if you are in Kota Kinabalu and want to sink your teeth into something authentically Italian - go, now!

So, this was the place where I had one of my first practice sessions for the coming open houses (my first was just the night before - a huge portion of lamb chops at the same restaurant I talked about previously). But, such extravagant feasts are best enjoyed in the company of friends so right after church, my wife, Adelle and I headed for the restaurant after a brief detour back home to get Adelle's lunch (it was a spur of the moment thing this). The friends whom we were supposed to have lunch with went ahead first.

The restaurant itself was pleasant with some Italian song playing softly in the background, and even though it was lunch time, it wasn't very busy which was good. Our friends had already ordered their food when we arrived so my wife and I made our choices from the rather extensive menu - which was quite difficult for me; everything sounded delicious based on the description in the menu. But, I finally made my choice after consultation with my wife and while waiting I proceeded to give Adelle her staple lunch of rice porridge.

So, here's what we had with accompanying pictures. First the pasta:

Penne Allo Zafferano (saffron and smoked salmon penne)

Fuisilli Alla Norma (pasta spirals in tomato and egg plant)

Linguine Al Frutti bi Mare (linguine with mix seafood)

Ravioli ai Gamberoni (Tiger Prawns filled Ravioli)

Now, the pizzas:

Supremo (half-topped with cream sauce, cheesem tuna, prawns tails, onion, chili and capsicum and the other half - tomato sauce, cheese, chicken breast, onions, capsicum and pineapple)

Hawaianna (tomato sauce, grated cheese, diced pineapple and chicken pastrami)

Now, I don't remember the exact taste of all those food I have mentioned, but I do remember that everything was absolutely yummy! I don't remember finding any fault with any of the food at all. Even Adelle, who was also eating the pasta after she had finished her porridge, enjoyed the food. Just ask her and she'll tell you! To chase down all that wonderful food, my wife and I decided to share a drink. We ordered a juice combo of avocado and banana. We found the drink to be average. We could hardly taste the avocado, and both of us thought that it was a bit too diluted.


Our friends had a dessert which had pancake, a dollop of vanilla ice-cream on a cut orange all laced with orange syrup. The result? All very sweet but not too bad.


So, that's about it concerning the wonderful lunch at Fratini's. A place that I'd certainly go to again for the delectable food.

Glutton!

The Loss

I've recently come across some terrible news - news so tragic it's bound to leave no eye dry.

What shall we do, what shall we do?

Let the whole world mourn for something utterly terrible has happened!

In case you don't know already, here's the devastating piece of news: White Rabbit Creamy Candy has been banned!

Whose eyes in Malaysia have not been given the honour of admiring the red, white and blue wrapping with that oh-so-recognisable white rabbit on it?

Whose fingers have not had the pleasure of feeling the smooth wrapping and so, proceeded to twist to open the delectable treasure inside?

Whose ears have not been delighted by the sound of the wrapper being opened with the sweet promise of sugary bliss?

Whose tongue has not had the satisfaction of rolling round the cream-coloured morsel, savouring the saccharine sweetness of it all?

We all have, and so it was with a heavy heart that I read that this legendary candy has been banned - again! Sniff!


...

Okay, that's enough melodrama for the day. But, I guess we all have eaten this candy sometime in our life. A close cousin of this white rabbit candy is the prawn candy. I remember being extremely fascinated by the paper-like translucent wrapping of the candy once the outer wrapper had been taken off. I always imagined that I was actually eating paper. But, somewhere along the line, I did find out that the inner wrapping is actually made from sticky rice. But, now, it seems that we won't be able to enjoy this particular candy anymore due to the ban. Well, at least for the moment.

And it's scary isn't it? Can you imagine eating plastic? That's what's supposedly inside the tainted candy (melamine) - along with all the horror stories we read and hear nowadays about poisonous infant formula and other dairy products coming out of China. How greedy can humans get? Extremely, apparently - to the point of sacrificing lives.

Now, if you read the last line of the short melodramatic episode above carefully, you'd probably have noticed that I used the word 'again'. Yes, this isn't the first time the venerable White Rabbit Candy has seen a bad patch. Apparently there was a scare last year of contamination as well, this time the news was that the candy was contaminated with formaldehyde (that's the substance you use to mummify dead bodies!), and the Philippine's food and drug administration called for a recall of the product in the local market. The recall took place.

China seems to be getting a lot of bad rep recently. There was the poisoned pet food scandal last year (the cause was determined to be melamine as well), the toxic colours used in children's toys, and tainted toothpaste just to name but a few. I've discovered a whole lot more bad news about Made-in-China things here.

It seems the insatiable search for wealth has made some of us into unscrupulous, selfish, murderous people. Will all turn that way?

The future doesn't seem very bright anymore.

Living to eat?

It seems I've been eating out a lot recently and this is another one about food (sorry, Nick). All of us went for lunch with some friends yesterday at Krishna's Curry House, and it's always a joy to eat there. The food is quite good, even better when you're being treated!

Food lovers

We had banana leaf rice so we had the usual yummy condiments that came with it. But, instead of white rice, we had briyani. Of course, a visit to the place wouldn't be complete without the fish head curry - the house speciality and very, very appetising. We also had mutton curry another dish I like, deep fried quail (which I didn't eat), and prawns in sambal (which were quite nice). To wash it all down, we had teh tarik (that's milked tea, but 'pulled' - can't think of any other way of saying it without going into a lengthy description - to bring out the froth) which is part of the meal and it can be replenished without any extra charges!

Yummy food!

Adelle enjoyed the food as well as the company though she seemed a bit shocked when we first arrived as I think she didn't expect to see so many people at the lunch. We had been telling her about it, but only saying that we'd be meeting a few people. So, Adelle wasn't very friendly and stuck to my wife. But she warmed up soon enough.

So, planning where to eat? Try Krishna's Curry House. Yum, yum!

p.s. Btw, in case you're wondering, I'm not getting paid for this post. Just sharing the joy of eating delicious food!

Rendezvous at Mango

As I'm writing this, the rest of Malaysia is tuned in on the Olympic finals of the badminton game between Lin Dan of China, and our very own Lee Chong Wei. Why am I not watching? I'm a badminton fan. I play badminton twice a week. So, I should be watching the game, no? But, the thing is, my tv is not connected to the antennae. Neither is it connected to Astro. And Adelle is asleep. So, being the responsible, sacrificial dad that I am (do I hear a groan somewhere?) I'm home manning the fort while my wife has gone to a friend's house to watch the game. So, I write.

Last night, my little family and I decided to take my parents out for dinner at a new-ish place called Mango Cafe. I got to know about it on Jacq's blog and they have their very own blog as well here. It's a Thai restaurant, located in Kompleks Asia City (another one of Kota Kinabalu's shopping complexes, but it seems like it's not doing very well. A lot of empty lots either for sale or rent). The restaurant has a simple and attractive enough deco with shades of yellow and green on the walls. I've heard good things about the food so that's why I wanted to try out the place.

Since they were five of us (Adelle included), so we could try out a bigger variety of dishes. For starters we had Ta Koo. I presume it's some kind of soft coconut pudding on top with water chestnuts underneath, wrapped with around with pandan leaves. Very good just to whet your appetite. Mom was keen on trying out the Phad Thai so that was the next dish that came out. Slightly different from your usual plate of char koay teow, this noodle dish has a slightly sourish taste to it, but it's really refreshing, not to mention delicious! Next, came the prawn on lemongrass stick which was deep fried prawn balls skewered with lemon grass. This wasn't too bad.

Ta Koo

Phad Thai

Kung Ho Takrai

After that, the main dishes arrived along with our rice: green curry with chicken, mixed vegetables with garlic, and pandan chicken. We all agreed that the green curry was very good (I had the honour to finish it up!) and very appetising. Just the curry sauce is enough to make you go for a second helping of rice. The curry is pretty mild, and apart from the chicken pieces, there's brinjal and also, this small roundish thing (a mini eggplant we're told by the owner). The mixed vegetables was the usual fare. Tasted very Chinese but that was to be expected, so not much to comment there. As for the pandan chicken, I thought it was alright. But my mom thought it tasted a bit bitter. And my wife was quite surprised to find only chicken skin when she unwrapped one. We reported this to the owner and he generously offered to give us another whole set. This time there were no problems.

Geng Gwio Waan Gai

Phad Phak Luem

Gai Hor Bai Dtoei

For dessert, we tried out Red Rubies. The dessert consisted of several pieces of red jelly-like balls (just like the ones topping the ta koo) complemented with thinly-sliced jackfruit all submerged in some pink water which reminded me of air bandung. Not too bad, I say.

Thap Tim Krab

And that was dinner. When we arrived the place was rather quiet (it was already about 8 pm then), but about half an hour later it got rather busy. So, it did take some time for our food to arrive on our table. But, we didn't really mind since we weren't on empty stomachs and we were'nt in a hurry. Just something to consider, if you do plan to visit.

All in all, we're quite satisfied with the food there, and it's reasonably priced. For all the food that we had, we paid slightly over RM50. We'll definitely go back again.

Oh, and on the way out from the place, who should I see but people whom I met at the Sabahan Bloggers Gathering. Julian, Fara, Dinoza...and I'm quite sure there was another person but I can't recall who. Hmmm...it didn't occur to me until later that I should have taken a photo with them. For remembrance, and also to help jog this brain to remember.


p.s. Just got word that Chong Wei has lost in straight sets: 12-21, 8-21. Well, the elusive gold medal for Malaysia still remains that: elusive.

I was going to do something else but I suddenly remembered about a funny incident. This actually happened last Sunday but I was contemplating whether to post it. Then I thought, why not. It's kinda funny (I think). Remember my post about us buying mooncake? Well, Adelle had her first taste of it last Sunday. We were all in the kitchen and my wife suddenly decided to let Adelle try the mooncake we had bought. She asked me to get my camera ready to capture Adelle's expression of her first taste of mooncake.

We gave here just a bit to try and did she love it! When my wife asked Adelle to share the mooncake, she turned her back on her! And Adelle actually stood up and went further away! So funny! So, anyway here are the pics!

Eating Gold

While the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is still some time away, you can already find the one thing that is always associated with it in plenty of shops: mooncakes. My wife and I absolutely love mooncakes! There’s just something about the whole blend of flavours that make the mooncake so appealing to us. And there’s a lot to choose from as well. Gone are the exclusivity of just the traditional fillings of the mooncake like lotus paste, red bean,mixed nuts and the ubiquitous orange egg yolk. Nowadays, there’s pandan, white lotus, green tea, the less sugar variety, and others which I can’t really recall. There’s also the jelly kind of mooncake, which I’ve tried but I don’t really like.

But, call us traditional because my wife and I prefer the originals. Nothing like a good mooncake filled with soft lotus seed paste, or one filled with all sorts of nuts. Just yummy! But don’t you like the ones with the yolk, you may ask? We like the ones with yolk as well, but we don’t really get them as they are so much more pricier than the others. My father in law once said that we might as well buy the mooncake and get a couple of salted eggs and take out the yolk. It’s basically the same thing, and you even get more lotus paste as an added bonus!

But, mooncakes are so expensive nowadays. Averaging RM13 ringgit for the plain lotus paste ones (cheaper for just the red bean), you might as well be eating gold! I mean here’s something that weighs less that 500g and you’re paying well above RM10 for it. There’s even the imported ones from Hong Kong which we can get at Tong Hing supermarket (a very old local supermarket chain) that costs over RM30. EACH! Brand name, Kee Wah. Now, I have never tried them, but are they so good as to warrant paying so much?

My wife and I just bought two at a supermarket just now. No, not the RM30 ones, but the more affordable ones, courtesy of my sister in law. We prefer the mooncakes from the peninsular as the local Sabah ones are not up to par, we think. We’ve tried Multi Bake, and Southern Bakery, the local bakeries here but we find the ‘skin’ of the mooncake either too thick or the filling is just not very nice. And they aren’t exactly cheaper than the ones we get from the peninsular. So, since they are priced similarly, we might as well get the ones from the peninsular, since they taste so much better. But even then, not all mooncakes from the peninsular are as good. We usually go for the more famous brands like Six Happiness, Kam Lun Tai, or Tai Thong (though among the three, we like Tai Thong ones the least – a bit too sweet for our liking). My wife tells me that the Hilton mooncakes are really good as well, though I’ve yet to try them.

My wife has just opened one of the mooncake packs. So I guess I’d better end this post here so that I can get my ‘fix’. Attack!

You can't touch this

Adelle knows that some things are off-limits to her, such as power sockets, the computer, wires, spectacles, etc. But, sometimes she needs to be reminded. My wife and I are not always aware of the things she ends up doing especially on weekend mornings when Adelle would already be wide awake and active, and Mommy and Daddy would still be trying to squeeze some extra time to sleep. I usually sleep with my glasses by my side and one fine morning, when both my wife and I were sleeping, Adelle decided to take my glasses and play with it. I don’t know what she did but my specs didn’t look the same after that: the ‘leg’ (what do you call them, anyway?) of one side seemed to be jutting out from the frame a bit. But, apart from that I didn’t see any other damage so I didn’t bother to have a closer look.

It was only much later that I found out that the hinge of that particular leg had broken, held in place only by the screw. I’ve only had the glasses for over a year, so they’re fairly new and I was hoping that they’d last until at least next year. But come Monday morning this week, that leg suddenly decided to detach itself from the frame. Luckily I had a spare. Went to the optician the next day to get another frame (the lenses of my now demised glasses were good so I decided to reuse them) and I went to collect just this evening. The damage? RM130. Not too bad la, but we’ll have to train Adelle again concerning playing with spectacles. Can’t afford to keep replacing them every time she plays with them!

After the optician, we went for a spot of shopping at Parkson at Wawasan Plaza (there’s a Bonuslink member’s day sale today). The wife got some skin care products, Adelle got a t-shirt, and I got nothing, which is okay since I had nothing to buy anyway. We went for dinner at an Italian restaurant after that. We had never been there before. It’s called Grazie, and it’s in the same building as Parkson, but outside. I didn’t bring my camera, so no pictures to show. But the food was quite delicious! My wife ordered a pasta dish (don’t remember the name now) and I had lasagna. We also ordered a large pizza to share (my wife and I are quite big eaters!). Everything was just absolutely yummy and we finished off everything on our plates. After that we had dessert: chocolate pudding. It was heavenly! Melted chocolate lurking underneath a thin layer of soft pastry. Mmmmm…!

The price wasn’t too bad. The pasta dishes cost RM18.80 each, the large pizza was RM23.80, and the chocolate pudding, RM8.80. The place was cosy as well, though a bit dark, and despite the hot day today, the whole place was cool and airy (it’s al fresco dining all the way, absolutely no air-conditioning, well, except for the toilets). Everything was very clean, the toilets were spotless. They proudly show off the 4-star rating they received from DBKK for their toilets!

All in all, Grazie is highly recommended if you’re into Italian food. Too bad there are no pics of the food to share, but of course if you really want, I could throw up and…

Riddle me this

What goes up but never comes down? The usual answer to that riddle is age. But, nowadays, we can add more than a few answers to that question. Petrol prices for one. Food prices is another. This is probably old news by now, but have you noticed how the prices of food have gone by so much but the portion either remains the same or has even become smaller? A plate of my favourite watan ho now costs RM5 (up from RM4.00); a mug of teh tarik from my favourite local coffee shop now costs RM1.50 (previously RM1); even the so-called 'economy rice' isn't very economical anymore, what with prices now hovering at RM4.50 for white rice with two vegetable dishes and one meat dish (previously RM3.50). And these are prices of food at local coffee shops! Such prices were unheard of just 2 years ago! You'd think you'd be dining at some upmarket restaurant or something for that kind of money.

But, such is the situation now and apart from eating in more often to avoid spending the money, there's nothing much we can do about it. There's supposed to be an interesting debate going on tonight between Anwar Ibrahim and Information Minister, Ahmad Shabery concerning the fuel price hike, but without access to terrestrial tv broadcast (is there such a thing as extra-terrestrial broadcasts I wonder?), someone will have to tell me what it was all about. Either that or I just wait for tomorrow's papers. But, come to think of it, what's the use of the debate anyway? The reality is the current fuel prices won't drop, so it's all just a purely academic but totally fruitless exercise.

I prefer a reasonably-priced plate of watan ho over brain-busting, verbal gymnastics anytime.

Please?

Another man's poison...

What's creamy-coloured, thick, tastes really yucky and comes in a bottle? Give up? Cod-liver oil. You ever eaten it? I for one have, and I know many of my cousins have as well when we were still growing up. And I just couldn't stand the taste then, or now. I still remember that there used to be a similar thing called Haliborange. Any of you remember that? Now, that was so much more pleasant and palatable than this yucky gooey liquid. I read that it's supposed to be good; prevents all sorts of diseases. A friend even told me it cured her of her rash when she was small! Amazing stuff this. If only it tasted better...

But that's just my (and a lot of people, I think!) tastebuds doing the talking. But, it looks like someone in my family absolutely loves it! No, not my wife, but my daughter Adelle! She takes it after dinner everyday, and as far as she's concerned, it may as well be honey from heaven. Yup, to her, it's lip-smacking, spoon-licking, don't-waste-a-drop-of-it yummy. Every time it's time to take it, she becomes excited, and starts saying "emulsion". I then pour it into a spoon and she insists on feeding herself. After that, she proceeds to lick every trace of it...

My wife and I are just amazed that she's taken such a liking to such a foul-tasting thing. But, as good parents we encourage her, and we'll keep encouraging her to keep taking it till perhaps one day, she discovers what probably millions others have - that it's just plain urrrggh!

But till then, here's to a healthy dose of the creamy goo!

Mmmm...this tastes so good! Seconds, please!

Another milestone

In 1985, we produced our very own national car, the Proton Saga. It was considered such an achievement that there was great fanfare all around when it was first unveiled. We have other objects too which we have bestowed the distinction of being called ‘national’ – subject of the nation’s respect and identity. A few come immediately to mind: the Jalur Gemilang, our national flag; the hibiscus, our national flower, the National Monument, a fitting tribute to our fallen heroes during the last World War.

But, just recently Malaysia has reached another milestone. Though probably not as profound but it is certainly no less worthy, we have our very own…national rice. Don’t believe me? Look at this photo.

‘Beras Nasional’, National Rice. Doesn’t it just instill pride in you? Where else in the world would you find rice that is deemed to belong to the nation? Now, don’t get me wrong. Lest you think I’m mocking this whole affair, I’m not. I’m glad, very glad, that we have such rice. I actually think it more important than almost all the other national symbols – without rice, this country will not move. We live on rice; no rice, no country. That’s why there was all the worry about rice shortage a few months back. We must have rice, cheaper rice – more so now than ever before, what with a 10kg pack of other ‘premium’ rice fetching more than RM50. I am thankful.

Now, if only Pos Malaysia would consider putting this on stamps, then we can consider the whole matter official.

The rise of the dough

Since acquiring an electric oven a few months back, Fen (that’s my wife) has been bitten thoroughly bitten by the baking bug. We don’t buy bread now because she bakes them. So much more satisfying and filling – just two slices will be enough to fill you up; four if you’re really hungry – though if you’re used to the fluffier and lighter kind, then you’d probably need some time to get used to the heavy, solid variety that she bakes if you eat them.



Just the other day, all of us (that’s me, my wife and Adelle, too) had a family baking session. We made cinnamon rolls. Adelle got to mix the flour, and she also had a hand (two, actually) in kneading the dough. She even kneaded her very own roll which she then heaped with lots of raisins (her favourite!).

Tonight, we tried something new: chocolate cheesecake brownies. The picture in the book looked very yummy, and there were only five steps! How hard can it be right? Well, the brownies turned out…wet. The texture’s more like cake than the normally harder brownie. So much for being simple…(perhaps it had to do with our extra ‘generous’ addition of butter..)

But, tastes marvelous nonetheless!