Month: November 2004

Grand Malay Restaurant

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grand malay restaurant

Grand Malay Restaurant is a buffet style establishment located at Jalan Satok catering to the lunch crowd. It is also known as Restauran Anak Melayu Sarawak
which translates roughly to the Restaurant of the Malay people of
Sarawak. I was there with a group of my coworkers and a client.

gmr door

The place is located on the first floor of a non-descript flight of
stairs. The doors form the arching entrance to the unassuming
restaurant, which has a reputation from good Malay cuisine.

gmr interior

The place seems to be working on a booking basis. One minute there
was no one, and in the next, people were jostling to get a prime
position in the buffet line. The interior is decorated with minimal
fanfare…just clean table linen with a Malay inspired piece in the
middle.

gmr rice noodles

This is the start of the buffet line. Here you can see the
obligatory steamed rice, Malay style fried noodles, bamboo cooked in
coconut milk and mixed vegetables.

gmr ulam

Further down the line, there’s an assortment of raw vegetables
(ulam) which I had a portion of. The sauce that comes with it lends the
ulam with a healthy Oomph! There’s also soup and very good rojak.

gmr umai

One of the small dishes contains umai (raw fish slivers marinated in
chilli and other spices), which the chef urged us to try. It was good.
There are also some vegetables, stewed beef, curry chicken, assam fish
and clams.

gmr rose orange

The end of the line offers rose syrup or orange juice.

gmr plate

Here’s a look at my heaped plate. I had a bit of everything.

gmr dessert

The dessert table offers bananas (the small, sweeter variety),
pandan agar agar, a big cauldron of very fine tasting bubur cha cha,
banana bread, and lime oranges.

gmr coffee

The buffet ended with the waitress serving steaming hot cups of strong coffee.

Grand Malay Restaurant comes highly recommended by Sufian, one of my
coworkers. I don’t know how much the buffet charge per head though,
since my CTO paid the bill.

LL Banana Leaf review

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ll banana leaf

LL Banana Leaf is a place serving South Indian food. This
establishment has been around for quite some time and it is famous for
its banana leaf rice, which is said to be the most authentic and best
South Indian fare around these parts.

ll banana leaf food

There is a wide variety of dishes to choose from. These are the
dishes that you choose to complement the banana leaf rice. We had green
curry chicken, chicken masala, tandoori chicken and lamb curry.

ll banana leaf serve

The most interesting experience of LL Banana Leaf is when an actual
banana leaf is folded on your table and the waiter starts to pile on
the various condiments that come with banana leaf rice on the banana
leaf in small, neat piles.

ll banana leaf condiments

There is complimentary mango chutney and other things I couldn’t
identify. We were also given a cracker, the actual name of which eludes
me right now.

ll banana leaf rice

The process is then repeated by another waiter, this time bearing
gifts of steamed rice. The waiter scoops out bowls of steaming rice
from a large rice container and this is refillable. The service here is
good; the rice person goes from table to table, offering to replenish
depleted stocks of rice.

ll banana leaf dish

This is the view of the final banana leaf presentation. There are
various condiments, rice and a cracker on the side of the naked banana
leaf.

ll banana food

These are the dishes that we had.

ll banana leaf mango

Naturally, it’s best washed down with a nice, cold glass of mango
lassi. It’s a yoghurt based drink that tastes great! I love the mango
lassi here.

LL Banana Leaf is a great place to go for authentic South Indian
food. Go for the banana leaf experience itself, it nothing else.

Chix floss egg roll

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chix floss egg roll

This is chix floss egg roll. I forward a proposal to behead the person to coined the term chix in place of chicken.

chix floss egg rolls

Chicken floss egg roll looks like a solid roll of omelet egg filled
with chicken floss. It costs RM 1.70 each at Taka bakery. It’s good for
breakfast, these things.

chix floss egg open

It opens up to reveal soft a soft bread roll, slathered with that
semen consistency Special Sauce (okay, so it’s mayo :p). The egg covers
the entire pastry, providing a chewy texture to the chix floss egg
roll. The bread roll is covered with mayo and given a generous dusting
of chicken floss at the sides.

chix floss egg close

It’s divine.

cilipadi review

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cilipadi

This is cilipadi – a place that serves mainly Malay food. We went
there for lunch since I’ve never been here before. The place serves
Malay style fried rice as its flagship dish. There are a wide variety
of different variants and styles of cooking to choose from.

cilipadi suffian

This is Nasi Goreng Kampung. It’s described as “Spicy fried
rice with egg, prawn, vegetables, and chicken. Sufian ordered this dish
and it tastes good – spicy and nice.

cilipadi elvinna

This is Seafood Claypot Rice. It’s served in a clay pot and
came piping hot. The infused flavors are excellent and they don’t skimp
on the seafood. Elvinna’s order – this is the best dish that I tasted
during lunch.

cilipadi hb

This is Nasi Aruk. I ordered this one and it’s described as
Sarawak style fried rice with egg, prawn, vegetables and chicken. It
tasted less spicy than Sufian but it has a hint of other spices in it.
It came with a sunny side up egg, half done, just the way I like it.

cilipadi robyn

This is Belacan Fried Rice which Robyn ordered. It’s fried
rice with “prawn paste” (that’s belacan), egg, chicken, squid, prawn
and green vegetables. The belacan is good, it always goes well with
fried rice.

cilipadi huygens
L-R: Sufian, Robyn, Huai Bin (me) and Elvinna.

cilipadi menu

cilipadi – the name is derived from the small chilies which
diminutive nature will surprise you with the intensity of the hot
chilli. It’s a great place for lunch.

Taiwan Siau Jou (Taiwan Porridge)

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taiwan siau jou

Taiwan Siau Jou translates to Taiwan Porridge (or congee if you want
to be anal about it). It’s just opposite where I work and it’s an
eating establishment that specializes in…porridge. Seriously.

taiwan siau jou interior

This is what the interior looks like. I went for lunch with a couple
of my coworkers. I actually went from person to person and asked “Who
wants some porridge?”. 😉 It seems that porridge is not very popular
for lunch. Hell, I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t want to review the
place.

taiwan siau jou choices

Taiwan Siau Jou has a large choice of dishes to choose from, to
complement the porridge. You basically choose what you want and you get
a bowl of congee to go with the choices. It’s a very unusual system for
me. There are dishes that you wouldn’t normally relate to
porridge…meat dishes, vegetable dishes, you name it…

taiwan siau jou porridge

This is the main dish – watery porridge (congee). It comes with bits of sweet potatoes and tapioca embedded.

taiwan siau jou dishes

Here’s what the three of us shared for lunch. The choices are varied to allow an accurate review of the establishment.

taiwan siau jou meat

This is a Chinese style meat loaf (roll?) sliced and served with chili sauce.

taiwan siau jou vege

We also ordered some vegetables – this is kacang botol.

taiwan siau jou floss

Here’s a staple for congee dishes – pork floss.

taiwan siau jou egg

This is another classic complement – century eggs with slices of ginger.

taiwan siau jou squares

We also had a meat dish made with minced pork. It came with a generous portion of gravy.

taiwan siau jou ribs

This is the final meat based dish – it’s spare ribs in sauce.

taiwan siau jou huygens
Here’s the Huygens Asia lunch crew.
L-R: Elvinna, Mancy, Huai Bin (me).

Taiwan Siau Jou is a great place for a light lunch. It won’t put you into a post-lunch coma like other lunch options will. 😉

KFC Popcorn Chicken Shake

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kfc popcorn chicken shake

KFC has launched another new product line based on their popcorn
chicken. This time, it’s called the Popcorn Chicken Shake – I presume
some advertising d00d thought that Popcorn Chicken Shake (with an
inverted e) would speak the target demographic more effectively. 😉

The promotional tagline goes “The more you shake it, the better it gets!”

kfc popcorn chicken shake crotch

This is very disturbing considering the numerous instances of
pictures depicting a boyish persona doing a “Look ma! I’m shaking the
Popcorn Chicken Shake using a hand under my crotch!” maneuver, which
I’m sure is an advanced trick managed only by high level Popcorn
Chicken Shaking enthusiasts.

popcorn chicken shake promo

Well, I wanted to try all four flavors so I ordered all of them. The
first one is free, there’s a RM 0.50 charge for additional sachets.
Popcorn Chicken Shake. It comes in a customized cup, which is the 22 oz
cup that you usually get served drinks by. It’s made of the same
material and only the top is different – this one has a Starbucks like
dome cover, but without any holes.

popcorn chicken shake cup

Popcorn Chicken Shake is basically Popcorn Chicken, which has been
used in many KFC products before. This time, it comes with flavor
sachets to add…well, flavor to the popcorn chicken. There are four
available flavor sachets – fiery Curry, zesty BBQ, tangy Tomato and
authentic Tomyam. Again, I’m not sure what the KFC promotion department
is thinking with this “caps only on the second word” thing. I thought
l33t sp34k died in the 90’s.

popcorn chicken shake fill

The popcorn chicken comes in the usual box and I poured it into the Popcorn Chicken Shake cup.

popcorn chicken shake add

I tore up and poured all four flavor sachets into it…

popcorn chicken shake dome

…and I shook! My friends gawped with admiration (or maybe it was
embarrassment) when I tried the expert level “One handed shaking it
under my crotch” maneuver. It resulted in this mess. The powdered
flavor sachets were evenly distributed amongst the popcorn chicken.

popcorn chicken shake finish

I nearly died of Chinese Restaurant Syndrome from the excessive MSG
content from four flavor sachets. I’m still recovering, but I’m not
impressed with this new KFC offering.

popcorn chicken shake it

Shake it, baby…

Lauder’s finest scotch whisky

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lauders scotch

Lauder’s blended scotch whisky comes in red packaging. This is a
duty free 1 liter bottle of this fine ethanol product from Scotland. I
had kept this in my room and forgot all about it until when I was
packing to come back to Kuching. Imagine that! Ethanol products go forgotten
in the sixthseal.com household! I could hardly believe my own eyes when
I saw this premium scotch from God knows when sitting lonely in my
table, which coincidentally was covered with cloth.

lauders scotch scotland

I suspect my mother had put that supposed “dust filter” on, for
nefarious purposes. What a sight to behold when I flipped up the cloth
and found this gem, which I immediately packed and earmarked for
consumption in Kuching. 😉

lauders scotch bottle

The bottle looks beautiful! It’s molded with concave areas on the
four sides of the bottle with the label at the bottom. Very unique.
Nice to see, nice to hold, once broken, considered sold!

lauders scotch label

Lauder’s scotch is a product of Scotland and contains 43% alcohol.
It’s a 1L bottle coz it was purchased by my dad from one of his trips –
only duty free liquor are sold in 1L bottles. I don’t know why my dad
buys liquor coz he doesn’t display them and he doesn’t drink. I take it
that he’s purchasing it for my drinking pleasure. Heh! Thanks dad! 😉

lauders scotch unique

It tastes really great…premium scotch is always wonderful,
compared to the el cheapo alcohol I’m forced to drink right now due to
dire financial straits. This one has a nice aroma, with complex flavors
and a nice bite. Nice is the word to describe it. The bottle is so
beautifully designed that it’s almost too good to drink…

lauders scotch drink

I said almost. 😉

Pentium M 1.5 Ghz (715) – my new notebook

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micromedia sibu

I bought a notebook at Micromedia in Sibu. I was struggling between
two ASUS models – the new A3000N (Centrino, integrated
camera/microphone) and another model based on the ATI Radeon 9100 IGP
chipset before finally choosing the latter. It looks better due to its
15.1 inch LCD compared to the A3000N 14.1 inch (which makes it look too
small). I also wanted it to be a desktop replacement and the 128 MB
graphics card does well in that.

dorthan notebook

It’s not full Centrino system, but it’s running on a Pentium M 1.5
Ghz CPU (Dothan) and off the top of my head it has IEEE 802.11b/g, an
Agere dial up modem and a LAN port. It also has 4 USB 2.0 ports, an IR
port and two IEEE 1394 (FireWire) ports. I upped to RAM to 512 MB and
I’m surprised at the fast speed of the Pentium M 1.5 processor. It came
with a bundled optical USB mouse and the obligatory pack. I also got a
thumb drive as a free gift.

apacer mp3 thumb drive

I also got a 256 MB Apacer MP3 player which also doubles as a thumb
drive. It all cost less than 5k. Before anyone jumps on me, I don’t
have that much money to shell out on a notebook. However, since my home
PC died, I am in severe need of a personal computing system and I went
for a notebook due to its portability and I can use it for work as
well. I’m paying for this on a two year installment plan, first year
interest free, and the second with interest. That means I shell out
about RM 179 or so every month, through a third-party (the notebook was
purchased and paid in full at the retailer).

micromedia ling

This is the one of the proprietors of Micromedia – Miss (?) Ling.
Thanks for being very helpful and willing to put up with me doing a
hard bargain. 🙂

sixthseal notebook

This is the sixthseal.com notebook in action.

Full Body Condom

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full body condom

This silvery pack contains a revolutionary product known as a full
body condom. I got it for RM 12.50 – well worth the price, if you
factor in the total area of coverage. 😉

full body condom cont

Here’s the contents of the full body comdom. It has the red “full body condom” itself and an Operator’s Manual.

full body condom man

The manual proclaims this product as “The Choice of a Safe
Generation”. Heh! This is Brit humor at its best, although this product
is manufactured in the US.

full body condom 1

It shows step by step “instructions” on how to…er, don
the condom, as it were. The first step shows a divine entity and a
caricature of a man having the Fear of God (TM) struck into him in a
series of hilarious pictures.

full body condom 2

The second step shows outrageous and totally rib cracking funny text
and pictures proclaiming the “protection” this full body condom
provides.

full body condom 3

Here’s the third step…

full body condom 4

…the fourth,

full body condom 5

and the final step. I’ll let you read the manual yourself, it made me laugh so hard.

full body condom red

This is the actual “full body condom” – a gag which is made from a red thick plastic bin liner with a hole cut out on top.

full body condom start

Well, being the safe sex proponent that I am, I tried out this
magnificent product that will ensure protection (though at what cost,
I’m yet to ascertain ;)).

full body condom wear

I’ll tell you something…this full body condom is a tight fit, no pun intended. 😉

full body condom full

I finally got it on…it’s so hot in there, they weren’t kidding in the manual.

full body condom haircut

I must say that I find the full body condom to be extremally restrictive for any activity…that’s my new haircut btw…

full body condom off

I couldn’t manage to keep it on for more than a minute…at least it tore off easy. 😉

Full body condom – it’s a wonderful concept, but ultimately fails in the deployment stage. Heh!

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