Sunday, October 31, 2010

I'm a Daddy's girl!

After going out with Deardo for a year, and when we are both few years away from reaching the age of 30, it is no surpirse if I tell you we are already talking about marriage.
Since we are from the same hometown, he always say it's so convenient when it comes to going home for festivals like CNY. But once we get married, I will have to stay in his house in stead of mine in Taiping...

This morning out of nowhere, I thought about this and started to cry. I thought of how is it going to be, when I'm so near to my own house with my dearest Papo and Mamo at home and I have to be at someone's house with someone's parent. I thought of how normally on a Sunday morning we would always wake up earlier to go Dim Sum with my parent and Grandma but in the future I might have to abandon them to go to the church on Sunday mornings... Even typing these words made me cry...*wipe tears~*
I think only until todayI reali zed how much I love Papo and Mamo. Only until today I realized, like it or not, I'm actually a Daddy's girl down to the root! I cannot imagine Papo staying at home without seeing me when he knows that I'm not too far away. I cannot imagine how we both would cry gao-gao on my wedding day. I don't even want to imagine that man! I mean, my dad was the one who cried the gao-gaoest when my family sent me off to Perth back then. My dad was the one who wanted to make sure I come home after my studies in Perth!

Man I don't want to leave my Papo!!! :'(

I don't know lar, I just felt like sharing this to ya all you see. I know in the end things are going to change anywayz. But I just need to crap a bit so let me do this please!!!

By the way, I'm now in the office on a Sunday afternoon...

Saturday, October 30, 2010

XO Sauce Fish Head Noodles @ Home Made Fish Head Noodle, Dataran Sunway

Deardo's sis is always very particular about places to eat, she would make sure it's at least a clean restaurant. If not for her recommendation, I think Deardo and I will never thought of having our meal at this Home Made Fish Head Noodle restaurant, despite seeing it all the time at Mid Valley.We visited the Dataran Sunway's branch the other day for Sunday lunch.XO Sauce Fish Head Noodle.
If you don't like fish head, go for this one with the fish paste. I think the fish paste looks pretty yummy too.
Sui Gao to share.
Black Bean Fried Beef Hor Fun is one of the many other choices at the restaurant if you are not a fan of Fish Head Noodle.
I think I took a brave decision to have my favourite Fish Head Noodle in XO Sauce and milk. Luckily it was actually pretty nice! It's just a spicy version of the noodles, without the salted vege. The fish was not too bad too! I tried Deardo's sis's clear soup(not even milk) and didn't quite like it. I prefer to have it with a heavier flavour actually. Perhaps I'm too used to the one with milk. The Sui Gao we ordered to share were so-so and Deardo definitely made a wrong choice with the Black Bean Fried Beef Hor Fun! Well, he isn't so much a fan of things with lots of bones, so yea no choice! :pUs noming... Nom nom nom nom...
With a bowl of Fish Head Noodles at around RM10, yes, you get the clean and cozy environment. In fact, I enjoyed my bowl of XO Sauce Fish Head Noodles quite a lot, although we all actually thought it will be better if they also have the thick mihoon. But yet, if I can pay a few more bucks to have the one with cod fish in Puchong, then why this one?
Oh by the way, I TOTALLY DISAGREE with Deardo's sis on picking the right place to eat. To me, most of the time the best food comes from some dirty and uncomfortable stalls! Agree?

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Places @ KK, Sabah

What first comes into your mind when I talk about Kota Kinabalu? Well, I would say Mount Kinabalu!
When I first agreed to go KK with Deardo's family, one of the plans was to climb the mighty Mount Kinabalu. Even my dad did it at his 50s' so why can't I??? But ah well, not everyone is as adventurous as us, thus, my trip in KK was done without the climb... Big sigh... *shake head~*

Without the amazing Mount Kinabalu climb, the best place we've visited in KK was The Tip of Borneo, which we only decided to go on the last day of our trip in KK.Yeas, we've made it to the tip of Borneo, right at the tip of the cat's ear on the map!
It was a long and exhausting three hours drive from KK to The Tip of Borneo. Mind you, the three hours drive aren't even highways, it's like rocky and narrow kampung roads! But I gotta say, all the traveling was definitely paid off once we reached the place!Need I say anything more??? The pictures themselves tell you how breath-taking the view is at The Tip of Borneo!
Unlike other beaches or islands we went before that, over here the sea is blue and extremely clean. Perhaps because not many people are willing to drive so far just to visit a place, this place is free of pollution! The beach doesn't have many people too due to the lack of trees so yea that is why I got so sun burned... :S
All I can say is, The Tip of Borneo is like the only place we think is worthy of a visit in KK! And!!! It's totally F.O.C!!!

We also went to...
Kinabalu ParkWelcome to Kinabalu Park... Pay first before you go in!
This is actually somewhere that will lead you to the place where you start your climb to Mount Kinabalu. As you enter, you have to pay entrance fee, then somewhere there you can go into some botanical garden, which is basically just some trees but you need to pay for entrance fee too.Next time if we are to go to KK again, it must include the Mount Kinabalu climb! I don't care!!!
We also went to the hot spring spa which is about one hour drive away. Also very lousy but you need to pay too.. The hanging bridge or whatever you call it was lousy as well. You need to even pay for your camera or video camera!!! Like around RM10-RM50!!! Bloody hell, the view aren't even nice! Who want to take picture of video of that lar? Ish...On the way back to KK town, we managed to snap some gorgeous Mount KK and sun set pics.
IN KK, YOU NEED TO PAY FOR EVERY SINGLE PLACE YOU GO! EVEN CAR PARK FEE HAS SOME BLOODY TAX INCLUDED!

Manukan Island
From KK, we paid for a speed boat ride to two islands nearby. I cannot even remember the name of the first island, but the Manukan Island is the famous one. Again, we had to pay for both island we've visited. Happily taking pic before finding out we actually need to pay to enter the bloody island! Grrrrhhhh...
When you have to pay you definitely don't expect to be welcomed by this...Right at the jetty as we arrived in Manukan Island, we had an early lunch of a mixture of Nescafe, Mee Sedap, Roller Coaster, etc...
Sea water is badly polluted. Beach aren't very beautiful too. Snorkeling aren't very fun when halfway through you will find yourself stuck with some black plastic bags... For the first time I swam in the sea, the snorkeling experience was cool yet the corals and fishes aren't very special in Manukan Island. Big disappointment for both Deardo and I actually... Haih...Without me knowing, a short swim in the sea got me very badly sun burned...
Tourism in Sabah already sucks big time because of all the entrance fees. Yet they didn't give people the right impression that people are expecting... Sigh...

The Green Connection
The Green Connection is quite a new eco-park kinda place set up by a group of Australians animal lovers. They are very passionate about saving living animals, especially fishes, corals and reptiles.Deardo Wong was very excited to have a chance to play around with the python! I was like aiyer don't you come near me~~~~!!!
There is this huge aquarium with daily presentation during the feeding period.
Because they are surviving on the RM15 entrance fee without much help from the government and because they are doing something good to the earth, it's actually the only place in KK that I think I paid willingly to enter.
Nice place to visit if you love animals a lot and don't mind it being very simple yet educational!

I didn't have high expectation before the trip so yea it was actually pretty much up to the low expectation. In fact, there were more disappointment than amazement in KK! From food to places, only a few made me go 'wow~'. The most disturbing thing is all the entrance fees which make no sense to me at all! It's just like you go to Sungei Wang and pay to enter their toilet which is old, dirty and smelly! In KK most of the places that you need to pay to enter offer you some shitty stuff...
If there is a next time, Deardo and I are soooooo going to climb the Mount Kinabalu! Time to challenge ourselves!
Bring it on man~~~!!!

More photos go to my FB album 1 and album 2.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Switch

Picked this movie because of Jennifer Aniston and also because there aren't any interesting movies recently...
The Switch is quite a common romantic comedy movie. I agree not many romantic comedy starts with the main actress having a baby, but then the rest of the movie are just too normal and too expected. In fact, I didn't really think the movie is very funny.
Thomas Robinson, who plays the cute little boy called Sebastian is my favourite character of the entire movie. It was also a joy to see Juliette Lewis again! Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman gave just a decent performance, nothing interesting. As a Jennifer Aniston's fan, I really really hope that she will realize that acting in romantic comedies all the time wouldn't help her build a better acting career! Come on Jen, I know you can do better than this!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Food @ KK, Sabah

Just in case you haven't know, I just came back from a short 5 days trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. It was sort of a family trip, but it's Deardo's family trip with me tagging along. All of us in front of some very high end hotel that I totally forgot the name...
Since I'm still a little busy with work and life, I'll start with the makan-makan part in KK first. Just like what I did with my Taipei trip, here comes a list of food we had and I think are worth trying, plus some no-no food.

1. To-die-for Beef Noodles, Kah Hiong Ngiu Chap, Likas
Before I went to Sabah, everything I heard from people are SEAFOOD, SEAFOOD, SEAFOOD... But honestly speaking, the best thing I've had there is this dangerously sinful yet bloodily yummy beef noodles!!!Very simple restaurant with extremely yummy stuff!
Selling at RM7 per bowl, the beef noodles is actually more expensive than those here in KL, but it also comes in bigger portion. Choose any noodles (the mihoon in Sabah are slightly thicker) and you can have them with soup or have it dried. Then you can have it with the beef balls, beef or a variety of innards. For me, I always go for a mixture! Deardo's sister had the Beef Balls Noodles.
My yummilicious Beef Noodles with beef balls, innards, beef and Chinese radish.
The dried version was awesome too!
Always have the noodles with some Super Hot Chili Sauce!
What I especially like about the beef noodles at Kah Hiong is the fact that it has very flavourful soup with some Chinese radish in it (which reminds me of Taiwanese beef noodles). The innards, beef balls and big pieces of beef are basically pretty normal but the pieces of thinly sliced beef are just simply wonderful I went "wow~this is GOOD~!". I especially love the minced beef that comes with the dried noodles but the soup is still better. RM7 per bowl? Totally worth it!
It was soooooooo good we visited the restaurant twice!


2. Gayang Seafood Restaurant

Gayang Seafood is located about 20 minutes drive away from Kota Kinabalu's town itself. We had a great dinner there and went there for early dinner just before we left for the airport on our last day there but we reckon the greatness actually lies on the dishes you choose. Not all dishes are good.The restaurant is like a floating restaurant with a nice view!
Out of so many dishes we tried, only these two are worthy of my recommendation:Steamed or boiled? Prawns are fresh!!!
In KK apparently, they are used to having their prawns boiled and to go with some special sauce that I don't really know what is the content. I have to agree that they are really tasty! You can taste all the freshness in the prawns! They are somehow very crunchy!Butter Gravy Mantis Prawns is bloody good!
The butter gravy mantis prawns we had there are simply unforgettably fresh! See, we had a very bad experience when we first dined here as we had a deep fried mantis prawn that were too oily and all, but this one is just simply satisfying, although I must say, still a bit fattening lar. But ah well, nice food are always unhealthy anywayz!
The deep fried soft shell crabs we had here were a big disappointment. Not crispy and already cold when they were served.

3. Yummy hawker food @ Kedai Kopi Lotus
Having too much of seafood made us sick. So on one of the nights, we decided to have hawker food for dinner. So Kevin brought us to Kedai Kopi Lotus for some SUPER NICE Wo Tip (dumplings), SUPER CHEAP AND YUMMY Siu Yu (BBQ fish), and so-so-only chicken wings and fried noodles. Small kopitiam with loads of treasures...
OMG I love the Wo Tip~~~!!!
Apparently Wo Tip is one of the specialties in KK. As a fan of Wo Tip, I actually waited for days to finally tried these in KK!!! And you know what? They are f**king delicious!!! You know how the common Wo Tip always have very thick skin and are often quite oily? The ones in KK are not like those! They are actually thin and flat dumplings and some part of them are crispy! Best of all, not oily at all! Yay~! :D I was so tempted to order more!!! Oh I'm missing them now... :(Super fresh BBQ Fish.
The BBQ Fish is Deardo's favourite he even said it was the best food he had in KK! I thought it was fresh and bloody cheap! Only RM30 for 1kg of fish!!!Some chicken wings for dinner too.
And oh the crunchy Sabah vege!!!
Look how sun burned I am???
I also tried the Sabah vege and am totally in love with them! It's a bit like Sayur Paku here but the texture isn't so rough lar. Man too bad they cannot be found in KL too, just like the Wo Tip! :(

4. Malay food @ Ligawu Restaurant, Kinabalu Park
Ligawu Restaurant is like the first restaurant located at a tourist spot I tried that is really good! I'M SO FREAKING SERIOUS! You know how those stupid restaurants at tourist spots always serve lousy food to cheat those Mat Salleh who would blindly think they are bloody yummy? Ligawu is amazingly nothing like that...Cozy atmosphere at Ligawu Restaurant.
It's actually located somewhere in the middle of the mountain with a very nice environment. Feels like you're eating in the middle of a jungle, with fresh air and wind blowing. The restaurant itself is classy and we are definitely happy with the food and services.Nasi Lemak and Ligawu Fried Rice, yummy~!
The Nasi Lemak is a bit small in portion for the price of RM18. But man the curry chicken is so damn nice! It's tastes like home cooked one! The Ligawu Fried Rice, also RM18 is more worthy of the price as it comes with pickled vege, keropok, two satays, chicken wing and a fried egg! And I must say it is really not bad! I especially love the satays! Yummeeeyyy~~~!!!
A restaurant at a tourist spot without lousy food and lousy price, Ligawu is definitely worth a visit!

5. Fried Mihoon, Steamed & Toasted bread @ Kedai Kopi Fook Yuen, Damai PointChoose what you want to go with your noodles/rice!
Apparently people will come Q-up for their very famous Steamed and Toasted breads on weekends and I myself witnessed it! Well, to me, they are nice, but not fantastic.The very famous toasts...
My RM1 plate of fried mihoon.
But as a fan of economic fried mihoon, I couldn't resist but to try the ones here since everybody is eating them! I was especially curious about the white coloured mihoon which is apparently with fish sauce. It was actually pretty nice hey! And as economic it is, a plate of fried mihoon only cost me 1 buck! Good deal!

We also tried the famous Sang Yok Mien (Pork Noodles) at Kedai Kopi Jia Xiang. I thought it was nice but not fantastic.
And then another famous Kolo Mee at Kedai Kopi Wah Juan near the airport. It was so packed when we arrived that we had to stand and wait for a table! But man, I really don't understand why is the bowl of noodles with some pieces of pork done in different ways can be so famous... No offend to Sabahans, but to me, this is really not worth the wait...Though I'm not impressed with the food, I'm impressed with their hygiene practices...Unfortunately, I didn't see the same thing in other restaurants in KK...

Overall, KK's food aren't all bad. But most of those that they claim are super yummy and must haves turned out to be some disappointments. They kept saying seafood in Sabah are damn cheap but my experience told me you have to pick the right places and right dishes lar. While I think I wouldn't be going back to Sabah again for no reason, I'll be dying for some beef noodles, Wo Tip and some Sabah vege if I get to visit Sabah again!