Sun Swee Kiong Restaurant, Tanjung Tualang, Perak

On 12 April 2015, my 3 schoolmates (noticed that I didn't mention former, that is because I still treat them like my schoolchums...schooldays...best days of my teenage life), embarked on our inaugural 3D/2N food trail from Subang Jaya to Bidor to Tanjung (Tg) Tualang, which is what this blog is all about. 

Oh, we stopped here for good? Nahhhh....after lunch, we headed north to Penang for an overnight stay and thereafter to Ipoh for the second night before heading to central. For that, you'll have to wait and look out for the next few blogs....as they say in the movies...Next change....hehehehe. Yeeeeah, I know I am kinda cruel. What to do???

I chanced upon this place when I saw a friend posting his food trail in Facebook called Tg. Tualang. Huh? Where is that? But looking at the food, I told myself, I had to be there! And I did! I googled and then planned our trip. FYI, I chose this restaurant based on another blogger's blog.

What I liked about my 3 foodie buddies is that they left it to me to plan. They Whatsapped me "Surprise us!!" when I asked if they had wanted the itinerary. Well, they are in for a surprise, alright. 

Displayed in tanks fronting the restaurant. 

Yooooo....they are still swimming, ok!!! They'll be cooked based on order taken. Awesome isn't it. THIS is truly FRESH!!

From left : Evelyn, Rowena & Christina

My guinea pigs!!! Yessss!!! Conned into this food trail roadtrip with me...HAHAHAHAHA!!! *sinister look* They are smiling now but later...hmmm...they kept telling me they can't eat anymore!!! This is our second meal since 9am. And it was only noon! Yes, not only am I cruel, I am also a food sadist!!! Wakakakakaka.

First dish that arrived was the Pucuk Paku vegetable. Literally translated : nail vegy. 

It was really fresh, crunchy, cooked just right and the taste was superb. We all liked this dish. Huge serving.

Next was ......

Prawn sautéed in soy sauce....hmm...mmmm...

The size of the prawn is incomparable with the one we had at Sinki Restaurant, Dengkil. The prawn wasn't to our fancy because it was chewy & too springy, not tough, just springy. Only when we paid were we told that the fresh river prawns are supposed to be springy....Aaaah...makes sense, they (the prawns) work out just like free range chicken, hence the texture. Well...it was an eye opener for the 4 of us. Well, we learnt something new that day. Good. Needless to say, we finished what we had initially left behind.

For a kilogram, it costed RM120...worth it? Still thinking...

Following the prawns came :

Tg Tualang's version of "hakka mee"

Despite it's plain looking and lack of 'dressing' look, it tasted really good. More springy and flavourful than the plain Hakka mee. This huge serving was meant for two.

And then something made a grand entrance to our ooohs and aaaahs.....Crab? Nope!

Patin fish steamed in soy sauce.

The flavouring was just right, not too salty nor too sweet. The fish was steamed just perfect. We gobbled up quickly before the fish catches a "cold" and not so palatable by then. This was truly the perfect dish for the day.

For RM40, it was worth every Ringgit. In fact, we expected it to cost more.

Last but not least...the grand old dame :

Salted egg yolk Crabs

This was a disappointment for a few of us. I particularly find that it lacks the "omph" when one digs into this dish. Firstly, there weren't enough salted eggs. Secondly, the dish was too wet instead of dry. Thirdly, the salted egg & its complements flavour just wasn't there. Plus, there wasn't much flesh to dig in. Also, the crabs were small. An anticlimax when it should have taken over the "show" like what most crabs do. HAIZ!

Apart from the fish, I liked this : strange looking teapot.

The aftermath, in spite of it being our 2nd meal within 4 hours...

The damage???

Happily sated, we brush our butts and made our way to Penang. 

Before we left the town, we made sure we savour the.....pineapples!! Tiny little ones (from Thailand). About the size of a lady's fist. Pricey for RM5 per pineapple but it was really sweet and juicy. Just buy them from hawkers retailing along the roads.

Do come back for more goodies next week. 

Until then...I leave you with this saying "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach"....wise words!!

BURP!!!

Lorong Macalister STREET FOOD, PENANG

Everyone knows Penang is famed for their street food. My favourite place is Lorong Macalister. For quick location search, google for Sunway Hotel, Georgetown. This hotel's frontage is a food haven at dusk. This is where the locals & smart Malaysians eat. 

This was what 4 of us ate recently on our Penang/Ipoh food trail roadtrip from 12-14 April 2015. 

Popiah

Popiah as described by Wikipedia is commonly eaten in Fujian, China (Hokkien province) as well as in Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore. According to Wikipedia it is eaten during QingMing or tomb sweeping festival. However, times has change. Popiah is eaten daily nowadays.

Popiah is made up of a round piece of wafer thin pancake akin to crepe made from wheat flour. The ingredients normally consists of : (depending on makers)
1) Lots of finely grated turnip that has been stewed with finely minced meat (to add flavour) over slow fire for a long time. Key ingredient in making of popiah.
2) blanched bean sprouts
3) sautéed shallots
4) thin slices of Chinese sausages
5) thinly diced french beans
6) shredded / thinly sliced omelet
7) thinly sliced fried dried tofu pieces
8) lettuce
9) grounded peanuts (optional)
10) Bean paste (salty)
11) Chili paste (for spiciness)

This popiah only had items 1, 8, 10, 11 and lots of scrambled eggs. It did not taste at all like the popiah we are familiar with. One of the best popiah I've eaten is in Seremban. Now, that will be another blog for you to look out for. Hopefully, I can locate the stall as they have moved from their current premises as the place has been bought over.

Back to Penang, we also had "Or Chien" a typical Hokkien word. Loosely translated, it is "Or" mean Oyster. Chien simply means fried. So, it is fried Oyster. But the main 'partner' with the fresh oysters must be eggs!

Or Chien = Fried Fresh Oyster with eggs

We all relish and concur that this was one of the best Or Chien we have eaten. Lots of fresh oysters and lavish amount of eggs. The eggs weren't over cooked and the oyster was still 'watery', fresh and so tasty.

Next :

Grilled chicken wings

Penang Lobak & prawn fritters

Penang fruit Rojak 

The well marinated and timely grilled chicken wing was delectable. The chilli sauce complemented the dish well. We ate our share of 1 chicken wing each. Finger licking good.

Now, the Penang lobak or five spice roll. Loosely explained ~ it's a different kind of Chinese sausage with well seasoned pork meat and some add prawn in as well. The sausage or roll is deep fried and should be eaten hot. There will always be a special sauce to complement this roll and a special chili sauce to make the dish even more mouth watering good. The lobak was really good. However, the prawn fritters were disappointing as the batter was flat, tasteless and too moist. I much prefer it to be crunchy. Well, perhaps Penang does it differently or the particular stall serves it in that manner. Oh well....to each its own, I guess.

The Penang fruit rojak. Rojak by the way means mixed, in Bahasa Malaysia or the Malaysian national language. Suffice to say...it is mixed fruits with a special Penang rojak sauce. The Penang rojak sauce is made up of "Heh Koh" or a pungent prawn paste (for many, the aroma of the prawn paste can truly turn one off!!! Serious!). It tastes spicy, sweet, salty and sticky. 

The sauce is garnished with grounded peanuts & roasted sesame seeds to the fruits - mainly guava, pineapple, cucumber, green mango, papaya, rose apples or jambu air as we all know it here in Malaysia, water convolulus or kangkung, Chinese crullers or yau char kwai, wild ginger flower or bunga kantan & soaked dried cuttlefish. 

The rojak was mediocre. I have tasted better ones.

Hmmm....some regular Penangnites or travellers must be wondering that something is missing from the menu. Yes, the famed Penang Char Kueh Tiow or Stirred Fried Flat rice noodles is no where to be seen....??? For that...am afraid that you'll have to wait for the next blog to find out.

While you drool over this...I would have started on the Char Kueh Tiow or the many versions of it :
- Char Kuey Teow or
- Char Kway Teow or
- Char Koay Tiow....and the works..

Until we meet again....always fast a day before going to Penang for the awesome food there is so tantalising and tasty, you'll probably need a cow's stomach to savour all the great food in 24 hours. Trust me on this, I ain't lying. I almost burst a seam within 6 hours in Penang.

TAMARIND SPRINGS RESTAURANT, AMPANG

We celebrated our daughter's birthday here sometime in Feb 2015. Rocker57 received a good performance bonus, so, we decided to splurge a bit. Our darling daughter suggested Tamarind Springs and we were game for a change from our usual food 'hunting' ground.

The restaurant is a long way in after you have reached Ampang Jaya. As it was my daughter's second visit and she's not familiar with the twists and turns getting there we had to use WAZE; the world largest community based traffic & navigation application on real-time traffic & road info. WAZE is a wonderful & indispensable app these days.

Seriously, we were anxious and did not know what to expect.

No worries, once you have WAZEd yourself there, there is a dedicated parking lot for patrons. Then, you take a nice easy stroll and soak in the back-to-nature ambiance.... Really spectacular because you would have just passed by rows of residential link houses, then bungalows and all of a sudden, you come to a stop opposite a low rise condominium/apartment. Viola...back into the woods!!!

Walkway from Restaurant to carpark. My picture doesn't do justice.

My iPhone really doesn't do justice to the actual setting. But since I have taken the pictures, do allow me to share it as I do not wish for you to imagine the worse. Hehehehehe.

On the left of the lantern-lit path as you enter into restaurant

Welcome to Tamarind Springs

Accolades and awards sit on the right as you make your entrance

The lap pool is just below the deck where the restaurant sits. Chalets for rent

Romantic table for two overlooking the pool / forest.

The bar.

As it was around Lunar New Year, we were obviously recommended the "Yee Sang" or "low Sang" both in Cantonese. The first literally means "fish alive" while the latter simply means "toss alive". Why so? Well, if you ain't from around here...it is supposedly a meaningful dish. A so-called "prosperity dish" and the first dish one will normally order during Lunar New Year. And yes, fresh Salmon slices would be the 'ideal' choice for fish but it has been replaced by other variants over the decades. 

Those who are not into sashimi or raw fish, can opt to 'kill the germs' by squeezing lime over it, while others even have it pre-cooked before being served. Yet others who find it gross to eat anything raw will refrain from picking up the few slices of fish meat amongst the other mixed combinations or just give it to those who are game for the raw fish.

Do check out Wikipedia for elaborate information on Yee Sang. As for the origin of it, I'm not here to argue who created it first, whether Malaysian or Singaporean. I live to eat, remember? If I had wanted to argue, I would be a barrister, duh!

In Tamarind Springs, all ingredients are made fresh; that is according to the waiter who served us on that day. Hmmm....fresh? We shall see. As we know, most ingredients are made a month before the month long Yee Sang promotion in most of the restaurants, in here it is fresh....Hmmmm....

Yup, everything is fresh. Fruits, vegetables, groundnuts & roasted sesame seeds.

While tossing one is expected to say positive words

This is one dish I know of that makes almost 30% of most of the restaurants' businesses annually. How come? That's because the ingredients are cheap while the price is 'exorbitant'!!! Most will say "Aiyah...once a year mah". They then utter good wishes so that it will come true...prosperity, promotions, success, marriage, $$$$ , etc. Well, all the well wishes going into the restaurant owners pockets. HAHAHAHAHA.

Well, how was the food? It was really good. We devoured the whole dish because it had all those flavours - sweet, sour, salty & good crunchy feeling. It was a 10 out of 10 points from all 4 of us. Yes, our son came along too, isn't it obvious? Family gathering, duh!

While you are waiting to be served, they provide you with tasty tapioca chips with Indochina dips:

Next was this awesome soup :

Tom Yum soup.Tom Yum soup is a Laos & Thai clear, spicy & sour soup...Indochina staple I guess. It was rich, flavourful, spicy, sour and I being a 'chili padi' myself...well, it certainly is GOOD!. They were generous with the ingredients but kinda stingy on the soup. *sob sob*

Forgive me, age catching up. I cannot recall this dish!!! OMG!! It is either Ostrich meat stir fried with cashew nuts or some meat type. It was well marinated, full flavoured and a tad too sweet for me. But when mixed with rice, it blends well. Meat was tender and the gravy....really good. Huge serving of meat until we had to 'force' ourselves to finish it. "Thou shall not waste as many around the world are hungry."

And then, we had this :

Following that, we also ate this :

Mixed vegy with tofu.

And we had these for desserts :

Mango with sticky rice.

Dragon fruit with a ball of ice cream.

All the dishes & desserts were delectable, tasty and flavourful. Unfortunately, the desserts were a disappointment as the servings were small yet the price....????

The damage was RM368 for four. If I remember correctly, the mineral or drinking water was RM8 per bottle! I might be wrong but I do remember that it was pricey.

Personally, I feel that the ambiance was splendid, the price too steep for something I wouldn't call spectacular or mind blowing. But don't mind me nor let me influence you in not trying. Go check it out for yourself and then decide if you will return or not. 

As for me....well, I still have lots of places yet to explore. Do remember to look out for my next blog. Better yet. Follow me on G+ or my facebook.

Until the next food trail...take care and eat well, folks.

Details :
Tamarind Springs
Jalan 1
Taman TAR
68000 Ampang

Tel : +603 4256 9300
Business hours : 12.00 - 2.00pm & 6.30-10.30pm (daily)

Mr. & Ms Cafe, Ara Damansara

Pretty unique name for a cafe I must say. How did I come to know about this cafe? Well, I patronised it because my son worked there for a short stint while he was waiting for a permanent job.

He told me it was packed daily. My guess, food had to be good or price reasonable or both. So, Rocker57 and I made a trip there.

Service was excellent despite the crowd. All the waiters and waitresses were young, alert and quite knowledgeable about the cafe's food selection. We weren't served by our son as he was waiting at another table by the time we've decided what to eat.

Meantime, while waiting for our food, I looked around. Most of the crowd were below age 40 except for us. The cafe is family friendly as they have several baby chairs ready on standby despite a few tables already having baby chairs for their toddlers. As it was crowded, I didn't dare take too many pictures of the interior for fear of the patrons staring at this elderly lady trying to be 'in' with photo-taking.

This bottle and the cafe's signature logos were placed on each table. Simple yet meaningful. Sums up the whole Mr. & Ms. thingy.

For starters, we had bruschetta pronounced as Bru'sketta. An Italian antipasto or stater dish. Basically, it is grilled bread rubbed with garlic, topped with tomato, salt and pepper. However, Bruschetta does come in many variants eg with cheese, cured meat, beans, etc.


We ordered the creamy mushroom and smoked salmon combination. 

Bruschetta

close-up shot of the salmon bruschetta

Borobudur, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

"License" to enter

So...what is Borobudur? As the ticket rightfully says - the BIGGEST Buddhist Temple in the world. Wikipedia describes it best :

Borobudur, or Barabudur, is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist Temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument consists of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.^[1] A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues each of which is seated inside a perforated stupa. It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple,^[2][3] as well as one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. 

To know more, click Borobudur

I have been wanting to visit this world heritage place for sometime now but it has always been shelved when other places of interest pops up. Finally, we made it! On Nov 29, we step foot into Borobudur. It was built in 750A.D using architecture of India. The architect's name was Gunadharma.

We chartered a car for our day's tour. We intend to visit all key places within a day and leave the next day free and easy to tour the town. 

Yogyakarta township

Enroute to Borobudur 

Our transporter bought the tickets for us

It was hot yet drizzling, hence the cap & umbrella

Majestic and so inviting. Yet I felt at peace.

Do's & Don't!!!

As we did not have any tour guide, we went at our own pace and saw what needed to be seen and took some photos to remind us. 

Here at Borobudur, every wall tells a story. If I were to read and understand each and every wall...well, I would have been a historian and not a blogger. Hehehehehe....

The drizzle made it cooling to walk around but had to be careful as the floors were wet and staircases a tad tricky to climb. Some had railings while others do not. So, do hold on to the walls as you climb, just to be safe.

Below are some pictures which I thought was good to share. Enjoy ya.

Such precision even back in 750A.D.

Peek-a-boo.....the chinese will say good "Feng Shui". 

The stupors...

I just had to do it. Felt great.

After seeing my feat, quite a handful of visitors imitated my move. Copy cats!!!. Rocker57 asked me to act my age....oh well, let's just say I never left Neverland and that Peter Pan comes to visit once awhile. What can I say??? I am a lunatic?? Naaaah...just living my life and enjoying what I can when I still can.

But you have to admit it right? At 51, I am ok, right? No? Shhhh....keep your thoughts to yourself ok? Wakakakaaka....

On the way out, most of the souvenir shops were closed as we were early.

Seriously if you were to ask me, was Borobudur mesmerising, enchanting or captivating? Well, it didn't move me like when I first saw the Coliseum in Rome back in 2009. That sent goose pimples all over me. This monument somehow was just normal. Perhaps it could be because I've seen just too many in recent years. 

Don't let me influence you. Why not you go there and check it out for yourself? Perhaps, it may give you goose pimples...who knows?

Like all the places we visited, we bought a miniature stupor for our travel collection.

Borobudur gets a tick in my bucket list. How about you? If you have not visited, plan it now. And if you have trouble finding accommodations, why not try Grand Aston Yogyakarta Hotel.

Catch my next jottings on Prambanan Temple & Mendut as well as some food we ate. Until then....

Live to ride, Ride to live. Vrrroooooom!!!