Fast Food Mc Donalds @ Labuan Airport

Another CNY travel mission, its our arrival to my island sweet island. Again after my last trip Jul/Aug 2008. Touched down at Labuan Airport about 11am, on the 3rd day of CNY, after a very early morning 7:35am flight, which ended up delayed for close to 1 hour. Moving across the clear blue skies....

Besides waiting for our luggage, my mission was to check out Air Asia ticketing counter if I am able to change my departure flight to an earlier flight next Monday. When I first stepped out the arrival hall... guess what I saw?

Ta da... it's McDonalds situating on my left corner! It had been many many years I (may be others) that waited for this fast food made available to us in Labuan. We had KFC about 10+ years ago, and Pizza Hut only almost 10 years ago, when the Financial Center building started its
operation.

Hereby, we will have greater choice in the island. Having the chance to enjoy nice chilling cone ice-cream sundae here in the hot and sunny island. What a great idea. Anyway, this was an eye opener. I am following impressed with the airport building, seeing it transformed from its skeleton building without airconditioner, into today's fully airconned and proper arrival hall with more shops around. There was improvement.

I even recall the olden days Labuan airport.. in which it was a very runned down traditional hut style. Located at the other end of the runway. That was even an embaraced type of airport at that time. Let's see if I have the old pic to share with.

Traffic Jam @ Taman Metropolitan, Kepong

Traffic jam has always been a headache in the metropolitan city like KL, especially during festive and holiday season. On the 2nd day of CNY, it was expected there being lots of traffic movement around, reason being most traditional Chinese society has been moving around, across cities where its being the "wives" family visiting days. Don't ask me why there is such tradition, if I am allowed to voice my opinion here, there will be a long debate over it.

Alright, back to the topic above. It was 2nd day of CNY evening. We were heading back home from the east coast, can't avoid the MRR2 highway at Kepong. Again, we saw a massive traffic jam... to be exact, we have been to couple of traffic slow down and jam all the way on east coast expressway and Karak highway. This has been the last one.

Why? Let's take a look closely what is there in the sky.... its kites, about 100+ or greater!! This has caused many onlooker along the road slowed down drasticly, amiring the nice scene especially with the evening sunset.

I was not able to capture any nice picture was we didn't slow down much. Just barely snapped some of the photos, hopefully could get a best out of those.



Exact location of this park, namely Taman Metropolitan, Kepong. GPS coordinate : N3 13.701 E101 38.998

Click map to enlarge view

To those who are interested with kite playing, this is the place where you could see great crowd. To me, I would prefer a place which is less crowd, preferably at a nice beach in my hometown, Labuan... Shhh... to be honest, I have not play a kite before.. hehehe

Mustafa Cendol Corner, Kuantan

I remember visiting this Cendol stall once, some time 7-8 years ago. It was located about the similar location as today, but it was just a small stall located at the road site. Today, it has different look and has been relocated into a food court area.

Again, this Cendol has its Point of Interest (POI) located in MFM map. So if you have the map in our GPS device, you won't miss this point.

This stall serve good Cendol as well as Ais Batu Campur (ABC). As you can see in the picture below, its Cendol, the green jelly based sago is quite fine compare to normal cendol. During hot season, this kind of dessert is among its favourite for the locals. It is very chilling.

However, I had it when it was drizzling on the afternoon, eve of CNY. So, it was over chilled. By the way, we had ordered its Indian rojak as site dish too... Overall, in my opinion, its serving are just about average. May be chilling stuff is just not to my extreme liking afterall. My intention was just to "wonder" around for food and blogs.. hehe

The stall


ABC and Cendol


Indian Rojak and price list

GPS Location : N3 48.944 E103 20.543
Along the way at Jalan Teluk Cempedak, next to Shell Station.

Restaurant Zaman Nasi Lemak, Kuantan

It had been a must to dine or take away Nasi Lemak and Nasi Dagang each time we are back here. Initially, I didn't intend to blog much initially, since this has been a common place for us. My mood came by that morning, in which I'd brought my camera along for photo taking.

The restaurant is always crowded in the morning till noon. Serving its most popular Nasi Lemak and Nasi Dagang. I have been introducing Nasi Lemak in several posts. Since their Nasi Lemak is tasty enough and by appearance, it does not have any difference from our "normal" nasi lemak.

Hereby, I would like to introduce a famous dish among the east coast community. Although there are several version between the Kuantan/Terrenganu and Kelantan servings, in general they are serve with fish curry. The mixture of glutinous rice and its curry blend well. However, to be honest personally I still prefer the nasi lemak over nasi dagang. Since I am not East Coasterner... but an East Malaysianer...

View from outside and inside...


Nasi Dagang & Roti Canai


Long queue for Nasi Lemak, ~phew...


Ayam Goreng, fried chicken

The exact location of the restaurant. In case you have MFM or MSM map, this is part of their Food POI. GPS Coordinate : N3 45.738 E103 12.834 Locates along Jalan Gambang nearby Kuantan Airforce Base and opposite Kuantan Airport.

(click map to enlarge)

Wishing everyone, Gong Xi Fa Chai..... Happy Chinese New Year!

(pic taken @ MidValley center court on Jan 16, 2009)

GONG XI FA CHAI !!!

It's Lunar New Year, greatest celebration among the Chinese Community, as the start of the year of each Chinese Zodiac sign. This year is the year of Ox. To those celebrating this remarkable start of new year in Malaysia has 2 days public holiday, Monday Jan 26 and Tuesday Jan 27, 2009. Whereby, to those working in the area of Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan (my hometown!) we will have another additional public holiday on the Feb 1, replacement on Feb 2. Therefore, most of us will enjoy the long holiday season for 10 days, with just 3 days extra personal leaves applied in between.

However, one most irritating moment of this celebration is the traffic condition on most highways heading to urban area, out from the heart of Kuala Lumpur city. Movement of traffics in between cities will also be heavy. Most airports will be crowded especially on the eves. Most shopping malls were crowded at least 1 week before.

Unfortunately, I am one of the victim to those traffic conditions happened 2 days before Chinese New Year. It was just yesterday when most people will travel on the road. Take a look at the traffic chaos at East Coast Expressway (ECE) below. At kilometer 91.2, there was an accident happened causing the massive jam like this..... oh dear..

But good thing was, I had got the chance to enjoy nice blue skies view like this... just a time killing tool :P

Hereby, wishing all the best for the year of Ox.. enjoy your holidays and vacations. It's time to recharge ourselves before the "bulling" year starts and get active again. As leisure, you might want to know your Zodiac and Horoscope sign prediction here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

New - Pulau Ketam Nasi Lemak

What's so special about this Nasi Lemak? Is it that it is so special there in Pulau Ketam that everyone from the island would know, or someone from Pulau Ketam had invented that dish? In case you might not know where is Pulau Ketam (Ketam literally means Crab, so its called Crab Island), its an small island located outside of Port Klang. The so-called important port of West Malaysia.

Anyway, it was a coincident we bumped into this hawker center in Bukit Tinggi, Klang. As I mentioned it was coincident, the restaurant we bumped into was called "Soon Lu 顺路", in Chinese means "on-the-way". We were on our way to Tesco Bukit Tinggi for Chinese New Year groceries shopping.

Since we had never tried this restaurant cum hawker center stalls all together. It's time to observe what other customers are having. We noticed most of them having this newspaper-wrapped food. Not quite sure what was that... then happened to noticed there were self-serviced stall with wrapped Nasi Lemak and fried bihun.

What's there in the nasi lemak? I could see white rice, 1/4 boiled egg, sauce fried onion, little shrimps and ikan bilis, not to forget some dried and fried sambal-like chilli. Indeed a special type of Nasi Lemak which don't think I had ever had before. The bihun is packed with the same sambal too.

Some picture for sharing....

By the way, I stopped by another shop and found there is an interesting restaurant, again... serving Pulau Ketam dishes. Not sure why, the area of Bukit Tinggi Klang as got many restaurant serving Pulau Ketam dishes, including seafood steamboat!

Where are all these places... don't really know their location exactly, there are all within the vicinity of Lorong Batu Nilam 3.

Pork Knuckle Lunch @ Bavarian Bierhaus, UOA Jalan Pinang

This was not our first time having lunch at this place near office. This time round, we were introducing a pork lover friend with this porkie meal. Indeed, with no surprise, we all knew he will like it very much and had a very satisfying lunch.

We all like the pork knuckle served in this particular outlet. Its served with much crispy skin of the knuckle, its ceasar salad always serve with grilled bacon and lil pork, potato salad and grilled bacon are also our favorite. Time round, we tried its sausages... indeed were all yummy!

Here are the pics for sharing... don't drool ya. Non-halal...

The Star newspaper here had ever advertise this place, but we did tried it out even before it gets published in the paper.

By the way, it seems I had 2 pork knuckle meals in just 2 weeks time! Managed to try both Bavarian Bierhaus at The Curve and UOA Jalan Pinang. Personal preference, I would prefer the one at UOA Jalan Pinang. In fact, both have different menu and dishes serve. Pork knuckle at UOA seems more crispy and its salad is great. At times, I can even have just salad here as my lunch.

Bavarian Bierhaus
8 Ground floor
Wisma UOA II
Jalan Pinang
Kuala Lumpur
Business Hours: noon to 11pm, daily. Sun, 3pm to 11pm
Tel: 03-21667268.

DIY - Fried Seaweed Popiah (海苔薄脆)

Chinese New Year is around the corner. Believe lots of people are preparing themselves, no matter going shopping, getting ready with the "mood", baking cookies, buying new cloths, etc...

I'm sure some of you could have seen this type of CNY crackers before, probably for the past 1-2 years. Apparently, this is something which is extremely-easy-to-make! Some could have sell this one bottle for almost RM16! Imagine that, if you calculate the ingredient carefully.... the cost of this bottle of crackers will be barely RM3... good business huh... you can obviously try this at home.


Note : This is just a trial version of the product. It was produced with only 3 slices of popiah skin and 1 slice of large seaweed. Anyway, it tastes good... can't stop eating after 1-2 pieces....


Ingredients:
Frozen Popiah (Spring roll) Skin - 1 pkt/50 pieces cost ~RM4

Seaweed - 1pkt/10pieces cost ~RM4
Egg - 1 cost ~RM0.50
what else.... little pepper and corn flour...

Methods:

1. 1) Beat an egg into a bowl, add some pepper to taste and little corn flour (optional)
   
2. 2) Take a slice of popiah, surface it with the beaten egg above (preferably with a baking brush)
3. 3) Stick on a slice of seaweed on it
4. 4) Use a scissor to cut them into thinner and long pieces. Dependable on which size you would prefer.
   
5. 5) Fry them into a frying pan, just like frying dried crackers
   
6. 6) Serve when cold and store.
   

海苔薄脆

面糊（打匀）：-
1粒蛋
30g面粉
1/4小匙胡椒粉

材料：-
10片冷藏春卷皮（中型）
5张海苔

做法：-
1-摊开春卷皮，涂上少许面糊，铺上海苔，再涂上少许面糊，最后铺上春卷皮。
2-用剪刀将春卷皮剪成12小片，中间剪一条缝，再由一端向中间穿过拉直。
3-烧热油锅，以中火炸至金黄色，捞起沥干油分，待冷收藏。

DIY - Star fruit & Star fruit Enzyme ( 杨桃酵素)... safe to consume?

Star fruit (Averrhoa carambola), kind of a unique shaped fruit named by its shape. Anyone knows how to grow or how its growing three looks like? Well... to share with you its small lil fruit and flower before it gets mature and ripe. Took this pic while I was visiting my grandmom couple of months ago.

Also months ago, I made myself a jar of Star fruit enzyme. Pictures below as proof.

• 1) Make sure fruits and utensils are washed and 100% air dried.
• 2) Cut the fruit into slices
• 3) Place layer of fruits and place brown sugar (with Oligo) and some honey in between layers

• 4) 1 week later, enzyme juices produced.

However, I did some googl'ing on Star Fruit before consuming them.... this particular article had prevented me from consuming this particular enzyme. Why? Continue reading this - Start Fruit can be toxic for kidney patients @ The Star.com.my. Experts out there, probably you could tell me if this is safe to consume.

Oh no.. what should I do with this bottle of enzyme, which practically been fregmented nicely....

Well, next step is to treat it as non-edible enzyme, just like what been posted in my garbage enzyme DIY post. Uses it as bathroom wash as well as floor moping. It smells good with fruity fragrance too.

Some write ups about Start Fruit - http://thaifood.about.com/od/introtothaicooking/ss/starfruithowto.htm

Posting below is my first garbage enzyme done during my year end holidays. Looks nice? Indeed... it has been full of fruits skin, i.e. lemon, orange, apples, sweet corn, etc...

The usage of Luffa Sponge (丝瓜)

Starting my 2009 new year with more healthy foods and products. It has been part of my new year resolutions, trying to achieve a healthier living as well as healthier diet throughout the year. Tell you a secret, I even dreamed of having nice and beautiful sandwich for my lunch, one day when I was still enjoying my new year holidays!

Appetite changes, that seems to be a good sign. But somehow, I still can't resist on some of my junk foods. Also, some adventurous 'babitarian' (pork meals) with my food buddies. We need to pampered with and enjoy foods out there once a while.

Anyway, I am not writing on food this time round. It's an introduction of the second Luffa sponge (干丝瓜) which I had bought recently. The first one was introduced to me by my Yoga instructor, and I got it for RM8 from an organic shop.

Luffah, also commonly known as Loofah or cucumber sponge, vegetable sponge or gourd sponge. It is an annual climbing vine which produces fruits just like cucumber, but it containing fibrous vascular system. When it gets separated from the skin, flesh and seeds, it can be used as bathroom sponge, dishwash sponge, packing material, making craft or as filters.

I am current using it as bathroom sponge, very good body scrubs with some particular techniques thought by my Yoga instructor. Based on some chinese beauty sites, the exact instructions are as below.

“洗刷刷”减肥法 5分钟减掉500卡热量

详细的洗刷刷方法如下：先从离心脏最远的右脚底向上刷，脚部、腿部，按照由外侧到内侧，由下至上的方法轻轻刷，然后是上半身，注意先从腋下开始，然后是脖子，腹部，刷的方向都改成由上至下，最后是肚脐周围的皮肤，要沿顺时针方向轻轻洗刷。

Starts to scrubs from the body parts furthest from your heart, best to start from your right foot, up to the tights and so on. Followon the upper part of your body, then your neck and chest towards your heart. Finally around your belly, best is clock wise direction.

References:
http://www.avogel.ch/en/plant-encyclopaedia/luffa_operculata.php
http://baike.baidu.com/view/30646.htm (Chinese)
http://nature.berkeley.edu/blogs/freshfaces/2008/02/loofah_explaine.php

Coming next, this will be my mission:
http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=689

Horoscope & Zodiac Prediction for 2009! [Update : 20090126]

Compiling these for you as a New Year sharing...

English - Zodiac

1. 1) http://www.fengshuiweb.co.uk/advice/chineseanimalpredictions2009.htm
2. 2) http://apps.facebook.com/chinesezodiac/
3. 3) http://www.geomancyhut.com.sg/Zodiac%202009.pdf
4. 4) http://www.wofs.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=40&task=view&id=637
5. 5) http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/1/26/lifeliving/3024898&sec=lifeliving
   

English - Horoscope

1. 1) http://www.lifepsychic.com/Horoscope/Predictions.aspx
2. 2) http://www.horoscopezodiacsigns.com/ (with Zodiac predictions)
3. 3) http://apps.facebook.com/cutehoroscopes/
4. 4) http://www.foreverhoroscopes.com/
5. 5) http://www.kamalkapoor.com/horoscope/yearly-horoscopes/
   

Chinese - Zodiac

1. 1) http://www.dajiazhao.com/astro/2009yuncheng.asp
2. 2) http://www.face21cn.com/net/2009nianyuncheng.htm
3. 3) http://mindcity.sina.com.hk/MC-animal/ox.2009.html
   

Chinese - Horoscope

1. 1) http://sunfate.sina.com.tw/FREE/12zodiac_year/index.asp
2. 2) http://vitaminc.e-channel.info/read.php?801 (click next page for other horoscope sign)

Feng Shui

1. 1) http://sunfate.sina.com.tw/hotnews/hot_show.asp?ano=20081231151829

By the way, received this via email.... (disclaimer : reference at your own risk, source of this chart was not traceable)

(Click for enlarged viewing)

If you happen to come by with good prediction site to share on, kindly email me at purpledee929[at]gmail[dot]com.

Foods @ Kota Kemuning - The Gelateria

This was my FIRST meal of the year & the ONLY meal of the day, on Jan 1 2009 !!! I skipped my breakfast that morning, as I woke up almost 11am. Because of this heavy brunch, I would have to even skipped my dinner. At 1130am, I was called for lunch at this particular newly opened Italian cafe. Immediately, I've got ready myself with a camera, make sure I captured the cafe's setup as well as their food. Special thanks to a friend who treated us this fabulous lunch in Kota Kemuning. It was great!

In fact I have been noticing the cafe's advertisement banner around the commercial areas in Kota Kemuning. But somehow I was not able to track them. Believe this blog could help some food-adventurist out there to locate this place much better.

I could consider myself as a pasta lover! .... but not very in particular crazy for ice-creams. I have heard of Italian Gelato ice cream lately, this is the best opportunity for me to try out their signature product. According to the owner, they have their own ice cream machine in their shop. Producing varieties of ice cream favor fresh from their machine. The do provide training lessons for industrial gelato producer.

The idea of setting up a cafe, serving Italian food especially set lunch/breakfast is to suit the local lifestyle. As one will not walk into a shop just for the purpose of getting a scoop or two of ice cream, unlike the European culture.

So, we now have the opportunity to taste both good food as well as ice creams, just under the same roof!

Quick pictures introduction below, as we go along introducing the foods and ice creams.

Cafe setup - Indoor, Outdoor tables


Bread & Spagetti aglio e Olio (Garlic)


Hungarian Beef Gulasch & Deep Fried Temura Fish


Farmer's Omelette & Lamb Chop


Varieties of Gelato & current Set List


My coffee & Gelato ice cream

It seems that this cafe is running a couple of promotions lately. First is for HSBC card member. Visit HSBC credit card promotion newsletter (page 2). Valid till 31st Jan 2009.

Second is their Opening Promotion - I planned to try its Spaghetti-EIS (Ice cream), anyone? The serving looks interesting. Details also available at Malaysia Food Promotions blog.

Business Hour : 10am - 8pm (Tue - Sun, Close on Monday)

Location :

No. 6, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla V31/V
Kota Kemuning, Seksyen 31
40460 Shah Alam, Selangor
Tel : +603-5122 1206

GPS Coordinate : N3 00.362 E101 32.187

Featuring the owner :

Eduard Horvath at below pic..

Disclaimer : This is an independant review and any opinion published is based on personal tastebuds, it may vary with others.