Month: August 2004

KFC Satay Burger

by

kfc satay burger

KFC Satay Burger is a newly launched product – the latest burger
from the KFC fast food franchise, targeted at local market tastes. I
like the satay fan image behind the logo, it represents the fan satay
sellers use to manually fan the hot charcoal in the past, but they use
auto fans for that nowadays…it’s a trip down nostalgia lane.

satay burger combo cup

I couldn’t resist reviewing something like this of course, so I went
for the KFC Satay burger combo meal. It comes with a free KFC tumbler
and I had the red one. The KFC Satay combo meal comprises of:

1 KFC Satay Burger
1 Potato Wedges (4pcs)
1 Carbonated drink (R)
1 Cool Cup
(available in 4 cool colors)

Hey, don’t look at me like that. I wasn’t the one who wrote it. 😉

satay burger combo

This is what the KFC Satay Combo Meal looks like. I should explain
what satay sauce is at this point – it’s a peanut based sauce, with
predominantly sweet flavors and is used to complement satay, which is
meat skewed on sticks. The satay burger from KFC only retains the satay
sauce and cucumbers as the topping.

kfc satay burger wrapper

The Satay Burger comes in its own wrapping; the easy cone shaped
wrapper that has become the de facto standard nowadays – eat without
getting your hands dirty! You can think of satay sauce as chunky peanut
butter with a less creamy texture and with a saltier aftertaste to it.
It tastes better than it sounds.

satay burger cone

Now, we come to the meat of the matter (excuse the pun). The Satay
burger is basically a Zinger with satay sauce and cucumbers on it.
Honestly, I heard the KFC supervisor on duty say that. 🙂 The cucumber
slices are nice and crisp and I like how the satay sauce tastes like,
although it seems to confuse itself with sambal sometimes.

satay burger messy

It looks kinda messy, but it tastes great.

…and you get a free KFC water tumbler to boot. Mine is red. What’s yours? 😉

Sugarcane drink at Central Market Sibu

by

pasar sentral sibu

I arrived in Sibu late yesterday night, the flight was delayed
(again) due to an engine problem. I woke up early this morning and was
on site at 7:30 am. I’m on a break now and I went to Central Market to
get a sugarcane drink. It’s a hot day, and I reckon one of these would
go down well.

pasar sentral sugarcane skin

It seems that the coconut + sugarcane or cham cham as they
call it in Hokkien has hit Sibu. IIANM, the pioneer of this 1/2
sugarcane, 1/2 coconut juice with coconut flesh is the SKH food centre
in Kuching. It seem to have propagated to Sibu now, with even the
central market doing it.

pasar sentral sugarcane togo

I got one to go. I like this stall coz they actually skin the
sugarcane plant before grinding it in that grinder you see on the
bottom left. The majority of stalls just shove the whole sugarcane in,
but this one manually and painstakingly removes the outer skin from the
sugarcane before processing it, ensuring a smoother drink.

pasar sentral sugarcane

This is the reserve sugarcane bunches they have on the side.

MBKS news coverage – photos of me in major papers!

by

papers stack

I have managed to get my photo in SIX newspapers! =D There was a
press release yesterday afternoon organized by MBKS (South Kuching
Council) for the CCTV system we installed for them. Our company
actually specializes in remote surveillance solutions, but we can and
do provide conventional security solutions as well, and this one has an
option to upgrade to off-site monitoring and recording.

Sin Chew Daily

sin chew macro

This paper gave us (meaning me ;)) the best photo coverage. Although
it’s not front page, it more than makes up for it with the multiple
color photos. It’s on page five of today’s paper and I took great pains
to stand as close to the mayor as physically possible to increase the
probability of my photo appearing in the papers. 😉

sin chew 1

Here’s a close look at the first photo. It probably helped that I
gave out my business card to every press photographer and turned on my
charms on the predominantly Chinese female photographers. 😉

sin chew 2

This is the second photo. I can’t read Chinese, but my coworkers
told me that my name is also mentioned in there along with my position
(System Engineer). I was asked for my Chinese name, which I can’t
write, but a helpful reporter managed to get it right for me. 🙂 I can
recognize the characters, I just can’t write it.

The Borneo Post

borneo post macro

I got into the second page of The Borneo Post, which had a black and
white photo, but it was a good one nevertheless. It’s the largest
English daily over here too.

International Times

intl times macro

This one gave us front page coverage. woot! Color photo, and the caption has my name and position too.

Utusan Sarawak

utusan sarawak macro

The largest BM paper put us on page 3, with a B&W photo. I’m
“Jurutera Sistem Encik Poh Huai Bin”. 😉 The caption reads: Pilot
project…The mayor of MBKS Mr Chan Seng Khai (middle) listening to the
explanation of the functions of the CCTV system that was installed in
the MBKS building grounds from System Engineer Huygens Asia Sdn. Bhd.
(Huygens) Mr Poh Huai Bin (left). Also seen is the Marketing Manager
Mr. Ainsey Lai KC (right) in Kuching, yesterday.

See Hua Daily News

see hua macro

This one gave us a large front page splash and a large column. It’s good. 🙂

United Daily News

united daily macro

This is the paper that scooped all the others yesterday. It gave us
front page again, with a color photo. This is the sixth paper that has
a photo of me. There were other papers covering the press release, but
those were only text only or didn’t have photos. I managed to get into
every single photo that has the mayor in it. 🙂

I’m leaving for Sibu tonight

by

huygens sibu second

I’m flying off to Sibu again tonight to coordinate and oversee
another deployment. It’s a short notice trip, I only knew yesterday and
the company gave me the tickets today. I’m going off tonight, my
apologies for not having time to reply the comments and post more, I’ve
got a lot of work to do. Jasmine, please email me again, coz there’s a
huge amount of mail to sort through and I can’t find yours.

Update: Kuching’s most exciting police chase just
passed by and I missed it!!! It’s the photographer’s worse nightmare,
five police patrol cars with sirens and lights flashing, chasing two
people on a motorbike. The police were armed, and pointing at the
fleeing culprits (from what I don’t know) but they didn’t shoot. I ran
down, digicam in hand, just in time to catch two patrol cars with a
police leaning out with a firearm in the first and the suspects in
front, and pressed the shutter release…and it told me “Card not
present”. I left my CF card in the card reader upstairs.

Bombastic Cafe

by

bombastic cafe

Bombastic Cafe is the…er, bombastically named cafe where one of my
coworker’s girlfriend works. It turns out that one of my friends has
also worked there before. I went there for dinner with a couple of
friends to check it out, coz I heard they have really interesting
drinks.

bombastic interior

The interior of the cafe is nicely decorated, with very trippy
visuals adorning the walls. It got me wondering whether the mushrooms
in the rice I ate for lunch were the magical kind. 😉 The proprietor is
a nice guy too, talked to him and introduced myself, for no particular
reason, just coz I felt like doing it.

bombastic rome holiday

This is what I ordered – Rome Holiday. It’s a yam based drink with
pearl balls (is that what you call those? Taro.) which is ice blended.
Very nice. My friends had the other interestingly named drinks like
Gone With the Wind and Winter Sonata.

the bomba spagetti

I had two main courses – I wanted to try both of their flagship
mains. This is The Bomba Spaghetti. I like the dusting of parsley on
the side, it makes it look nice. The sauce was meaty and tastes great,
and one of my friends who ate some from mine concurred. She had a mixed
plate of some sort, which I forgot the name of, but it was nice too.

the bomba chicken

This is the second main I had – The Bomba Chicken. It doesn’t look
like chicken, it looks a little like lamb, but it tasted like chicken.
It was breaded and deep fried and complemented with a great sauce,
fries, coleslaw and other veggies. I found it delicious. I finished
both plates and then some, but that’s normal for me, I usually eat
double portions.

I would heartily recommend their flagship dishes, it’s really good.

Bombastic. Simply fantastic. 😉

United Daily News features photo of me

by

united daily huygens

I graced the pages of the United Daily News today. Unfortunately, it
was just a back shot of me. The article spans a whole page and the
photo of me is here:

united daily mbks

I’m the one in the purple shirt. The one in the blue shirt is my
coworker and the only one with the visible face is my CTO, Alex.

united daily photo

Here’s a closer look at the photo. I think the paper wanted to scoop
all the others by one day since the official press conference was held
today. Look for photos of me in the papers tomorrow, coz being the
publicity whore I am, I stood as close to the mayor of MBKS as
possible, thus increasing the probability of my photo appearing in the
papers. 😉

My apologies for not posting much and not being able to reply the
comments today, I’m swamped with work and I’ll have to fly to Sibu
tomorrow again to oversee another installation. It’s part of the work I
do, even though I mostly develop systems and do R&D, I also propose
solutions and supervise the deployment of it.

Chong Chon Biscuit Maker

by

chong chon biscuit maker

Chong Chon Biscuit Maker is nestled right in the middle of old
Kuching town and has been producing quality pastries for quite a while.
There is generally no one at the front of the shop in the morning, and
you have to shout a bit to get the proprietors from the back.

chong chon pastries

These are the common offerings that they have – pastries of Chinese
origin of all sorts, they’re famous for their sio pau (the ones with
flaky pastry). One little known delicacy they offer is Century Pie.
This is not normally available, you have to order it in the morning and
pick it up in the afternoon.

chong chon industry

The afternoon is when the shop goes into full industry mode. Here’s
a shot of the proprietor posing for the camera while in the midst of
making pies. I picked up the two century pies I ordered in the morning
and also had an egg tart while I was at it. There’s no seating in here,
it’s a bakery, but coffee shops are abundant nearby where you can sit
and consume the pastries.

chong chon egg tart

This is the Chong Chon version of an egg tart. It’s slightly baked
and the best way I can describe it is as a cross between a regular egg
tart and a Portuguese egg tart.

chong chon egg tart whoa

They’re very generous with the egg filling too, as you can see above.

century pie

Now, this is the real gem the shop produces – an acquired taste, the
century pie is made with century egg. It’s wrapped in paper, old skool
and they don’t advertise this product much. Century eggs are those eggs
that are glossy black, with a murky black egg yolk. The eggs are made
by packing it with all sorts of dirt and earth and fermenting it, so to
speak, for a while.

century pie inside

This is what the inside of the century pie looks like. It has meat,
veggies, gravy and other stuff in addition to the century egg.

century pie century egg

Here’s a closer look at the best part of the century pie – the century egg! 🙂

Kuching haze

by

kuching haze

The haze in Kuching is getting a little (a bit of an understatement)
noticeable. I wouldn’t know what the visibility level for todayis like,
last I saw (no pun intended), the papers quoted something like 100
meters.

haze kuching

This is taken from the top of the DBKU building, overlooking
Kuching. This shows the hazy conditions towards the residential areas,
the first photo shows the town area. If you squint a little, you might
notice two distinct fires going, from the smoke plumes going up.

haze open burning

No doubt caused by open burning on our side and not just our friends down under.

I don’t mind though…haze makes everything look more misty and romantic, sorta. 😉

The beautiful girl peeling onions

by

pretty girl onions

I saw a really pretty girl peeling onions while going to a
discussion session today. She was just standing there, skinning the
small purple bulbs, and smiled at me when I walked past. I asked her if
she would mind me taking her photo, and she kindly obliged. I’m sure
most guys would agree that this is one of the better entries in the
double X chromosome entries. 😉

Adem Finest Cuisine

by

adem.jpg

Adem Finest Cuisine is the latest Vietnamese restaurant to hit Sibu
and I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. I went there for
lunch today to check them out.

adem interior

The seating arrangements are divided into two areas – the inside
(shown above) which offers a pub like ambience and the al fresco area
outside (shown below).

adem al fresco

I chose the latter coz it was a bright and cheery sunny day and also
because I found the water lilies they had growing in the trough lining
the al fresco area intriguing and very peaceful.

adem water lilies

I saw that the umbrella covers were all showing Trung Nguyen Coffee,
and the waitress confirmed that it’s their specialty Vietnamese coffee
so I had that.

adem vietnamese coffee

It came in the form of some metal contraption on top of a cup and saucer.

adem coffee lift

Noticing the befuddled look on my face, the waitress kindly
explained the system…basically, it’s a coffee filter, and you open
the lid when the water has seeped through and put it upside down on the
table.

adem coffee side

The other two contraptions is then lifted and put on top of the said
upside down lid “to avoid the coffee from spilling” or something.

adem coffee strong good

The resulting coffee was fragrant, with a nice robust aroma. It was strong and good, just the way I like it.

adem trung nguyen

There’s coffee service in the form of milk, ice cubes and sugar, but I espoused that in favour of the dark, rich coffee.

adem garlic toast

It also comes with complementary garlic bread toast, and man…I
can’t describe the feeling of chewing on a bit of garlic toast and
taking a sip of hot coffee to chase it down. It’s divine!

adem vietnamese omelette

As for the food, I ordered “Vietnamese Omelette” to start things off…

adem omelette

…it was just egg and sausages, nothing to write home about.

adem beef pho

I also ordered their famous Vietnamese beef noodles, shown here in all its glory – hot, steaming pho!

adem pho condiments

The pho came with three condiments – lime, chilli sauce, and sea salt.

adem vietnamese noodles

The pho was absolutely fabulous…it’s the understated but rich
type, with nearly clear stock, but it was well made and the natural
flavours of the ingredients fused together to provide a superlatively
wonderful meal. 😉

Seriously though, their pho is good…go and try it!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...