David Bak Kut Teh is a coffee shop specializing in bak kut teh (pork rib tea). There are a lot of bak kut teh establishments springing up over here now, but David is the oldest and most recognized of them all. It’s located at the traffic cop magnet beside the fire station in town so be prepared to move your car frequently if you park at the yellow line right in front, since parking is scarce at that area.
David is the proprietor of the place, the waiter and the cook all rolled into one. The man is a very friendly person with an amicable personality. He’s not actually a cook by profession, he came over from JB eons ago and worked in a department store as a salesman. Story goes, he tried his hand at cooking bak kut teh and spent four years perfecting his recipe.
His first operation was in a stall at the coffee shop beside his current premises. His bak kut teh was so popular that he finally expanded to his very own place…right next door. 🙂 He runs the entire place with the help of his wife, and despite all the work, he’s a very jovial man. I’m quite impressed by his tenacity when he moved over to Sibu and the hardships he went through.
Anyway, enough about him. I had lunch with Autumn there and had their signature dish – bak kut teh. I like my bak kut teh with everything inside it, so there’s pork ribs, pork intestines, pork belly etc. Basically everything in the oink oink is inside the bowl of soup (tea).
It’s pretty good, the bak kut teh is done well, and I remember the distinctive taste from my childhood as how “bak kut teh” should taste like. It’s hearty soup with pork, served with a kickass combination of soy sauce and chilies.
Autumn opted for the ma yu chi lou (Sesame Oil Chicken) which is another one of David Bak Kut Teh’s specialties. She’s not a big fan of pork, beef or lamb so chicken is just about the only option she has. It’s served with rice and is surprisingly good. The only beef I have with the dish (haha) is that she requested for lean meat (breast meat) while I prefer thighs. No innuendo intended.
David Bak Kut Teh is a nice place to have lunch if you don’t mind dining al fresco in Malaysian weather at 12 noon. Autumn had to take off her sweater and was even considering going further if not in public. 😉
The key to juggling things in life Being able to be happy and shine To not get bogged down by strife And be in a positive frame of mind
The art of balancing work and play Or just to be happy in school today Is to not let your thoughts stray And take what life offers day by day
I wake up early every morning Just to shower and get ready for work It all seems a little bit boring Especially with my manager being a jerk
When I’m feeling especially down I take a break and log on to Compaq City And in doing this I’ve found Makes everything a little more pretty
I walk down Play Avenue Just to meet up with the Compaq Stickman Who’s always there for me in his red hue I think I’m getting to be his biggest fan
A game or two on Work Street Gets me through the dreary day I think it’s my biggest treat When I get high scores, hey!
I take a virtual stroll down Learn Boulevard To answer the questions before time runs out Being a graduate, I didn’t think it was that hard But the questions sometimes make me pout
I like the Compaq range of product And in fact I own one myself too My Presario notebook is on till it gets dark I only shut it down when it’s one or two
It has never given me a problem And I don’t think it will give you any too Compaq is much more than an emblem And I’m not just saying that coz they told me to
My Compaq and me are pretty tight It’s affordable and it looks mighty fine Check it out on their website The Presario starts at just RM 999
Enjoy Cafe & Restaurant is a relatively new eating establishment that has been doing an advertising blitz at my workplace, with flyers on the windscreen wipers of all the cars parked around here. I’ve been there once but never got around to reviewing it. I went again last night to check out the place, since the first impression wasn’t strong enough to warrant a review.
Enjoy Cafe & Restaurant has a nice ambiance with mood lighting (which makes it a nightmare for photography). The place has a fixation with blue diffused down lights, which I kinda like. It somehow makes the place more calming.
There are also silk screens to act as a privacy buffer in between the booth type seating arrangements. The place is pretty empty due to hefty competition from Sushi Tie, Mitsu Tea House and other popular eating establishments within the same commercial complex. There were only two other tables of diners besides us.
I like the classic juicer and fruits on display at the bar counter. Enjoy Café & Restaurant serves a wide variety of fruit juices. I went with a group of friends the first time and we ordered:
Enjoy Cocktail, Egg Drop Noodles, Beef Noodle Soup, Hot & Spicy Beef
Hot Lemon, Stir-fried Mixed Vegetable, Mince Meat Rice, Hot & Spicy Squid
It didn’t particularly make a good impression on all of us, but I went again last night with Mary to do a second review. The service was great this time, perhaps due to the aesthetically pleasing waitress designated to our table…
…which inevitably led to an XX Chromosome post. I passed her my blogger name card to boot. I can’t resist! 😉
I asked the waitress for their flagship dish and she recommended Tie Ban Shuang Long (Steel Plate Double Dragon). It’s calamari and pork ribs mixed in a delicious sauce with an egg cracked into the hot plate. It’s priced at RM 20 and comes with a bowl of steamed rice. It’s delicious!
Mary recommended the Tien Chang Di Jiu (Forever and Ever – though it’s translated as Forever Happiness in the menu) dessert, which is priced at a very reasonable RM 4. It’s a sticky mass of extremely hot yam and sweet potato in starch. The dessert is served with a bowl of iced water filled with ice cubes and it’s supposed to be eaten like this:
You’re supposed to spear a piece of the sticky and piping hot pieces and then dip it into the bowl of ice water. This immediately cools down the dessert and “solidifies” it and it’s ready for consumption. I found it to be an interesting ritual, and quite a lot of fun too.
Enjoy Café & Restaurant is actually a pretty nice place to be chilling out at with a relaxing atmosphere and a laid back ambiance. The food is great too – it has improved by leaps and bounds since my first foray there. The place is lacking in the clientèle department though, due to the stiff competition from the other major eating establishments in that area, but it’s definitely worth a visit. Cheers!
My friend of over 20 years just got married on Sunday and I was slated to be one of the “best buddy” for the groom entourage. It’s a HK tradition where the bride is barricaded (willingly, of course) inside her house along with her group of (all female) friends. This group is known as the zhi mui (sisters) while the groom team, consisting of me and a couple of others are known as the heng tai (brothers).
The mission is to get into the bride’s bedroom in her house from the groom’s house. We started arriving early in the morning to Ting Chuan’s house where the wedding preparations has already been set up the night before. The groom team is meeting up at the groom’s house before the fleet of cars led by the wedding car drives to the bride’s house.
My first question upon seeing this old friend of mine: HB: Eh, bro, it’s your big day. Why haven’t you shaved? TC: I did! I shaved at 12 am last night so there’ll be a stubble. It looks more manly.
Naturally, being the opportunistic person that I am, I talked to Celeste who works at Ta Ann. She was the only female in our entourage.
I got an XX Chromosome post out of it too, it’s a bit out of place in this post, but hey, someone told me weddings are the best place to meet new people. :p
Anyway, we departed for the bride’s house in several cars and arrived without the customary mass honking (which I was told was only done after the bride has been secured and transported back to the groom’s house).
There are a lot of traditions to be followed in a Chinese wedding ceremony – a piece of cloth is laid upon the wedding car and the car is reversed so it’s facing out. Lanterns (representing the future offspring) are also tied to both of the side mirrors.
The groom’s entourage (us) sat down for a meal of longevity noodles with chicken soup.
My friend (the groom) was presented with an egg each by the father and mother of the bride.
We ate at the table together – this is the meal to energize us for the task up ahead…securing the bride.
Our heng tai (brothers) entourage is expected to pass three stages before getting to the bride’s bedroom. The bottleneck is the staircase up, which is manned (womanned?) by a representative from the zhi mui (sisters), the friends of the bride.
Ang pow (red packets containing money) are expected to be given out at every stage and one of the sisters has even prepared some in advance just in case the groom didn’t have enough. Heh!
I kinda like how this one was done – the representative said that there are four stages in a married couple’s life and the groom is expected to “go through” each one metaphorically and literally in advance. The sour stage represents the arguments that will inevitably occur in every relationship and the groom has to drink a bottle of calamansi lime juice to pass that.
There are also questions posed at every stage, with “punishments” rendered out if the groom can’t answer the questions. Ting Chuan couldn’t remember the exact day, month, and year he met his bride-to-be and had to eat a wasabi spiked kampua. The groom has the option of asking his buddies to take the punishment for him, since there’s a lot meted out.
He passed the wasabi noodles to me and as the brother (“best buddy”), I took one for the team. It tasted quite delicious actually, but the first bite made my eyes water. They were really serious in putting the wasabi (horse radish) into the noodles. The sisters took pity on me and told me I didn’t actually have to finish it, but I did and it tasted delicious. I even asked for the recipe from them after the event. 😉
The salty stage involves the groom drinking salt water and the bitter stage is represented by bitter gourd extract. There were a lot of questions during the various stages, which he luckily got right, since they had an arsenal of wasabi laced kampua noodles up there. Thus, after the mass handing out of ang pows (red packets) to the sisters, we finally got to the final stage.
This is the sweet stage – it’s orange juice that the groom has to drink. Sour, salty, bitter, sweet. I love the imagery behind this custom. The last gauntlet was to call out for the bride and asking her for permission to enter.
The sisters finally granted access, and the door was opened.
I present – Siew Ling, the bride! 🙂
Ting Chuan has to propose formally to her and the fun isn’t quite over yet as the sisters made them kiss for 10 minutes.
It was finally negotiated down to 10 seconds, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the footage coz I was changing memory cards. It was very sweet actually, and that was the catalyst that made me want to get married.
The father of the bride escorted her down the stairs…
…and officially “handed over” his daughter.
Chinese custom has a form of ancestral worship that is widely practiced over here and the newlyweds have to bow three times to the late grandparents of the bride for blessings.
Respect is also rendered to the parents of the bride by bowing three times, upon which the mother of the bride clasps a gold necklace around the groom’s neck. This is foreign to me and I don’t know what it symbolizes.
The newlyweds proceeded out of the bride’s house…
…to pose for a group photo with relatives of the bride.
Thus, our entourage escorted the bride with a red umbrella into the car for the return trip to the groom’s house.
The wedding car drove out and reversed three (3) times before stopping for the mother of the bride to present a key to the bride. I don’t know what the accelerating and backing up of the wedding car symbolizes but the key to the bride is a token reminder for her to return home every Chinese New Year on the second day, and also taken to mean that she is welcome home at any time, even though she’s now “married out” and part of the groom’s family.
Our entourage arrived back to the groom’s residence where firecrackers were lit for the celebration.
The bride and groom have to wait until the firecrackers end before alighting from the car.
The newlyweds are the first to step into the house with their shoes on (while everyone else takes off their shoes) and bow three times into thin air. This was related to me as a request for the blessing of their matrimony by “ti gong” (a saint/god of sorts).
That being done, the bride and groom goes into their room and sits down on the marriage bed. I think this is to represent the consummating of the marriage. 😉
The exchanging of rings is done at the groom’s house…
…and the newlyweds kneel down on cushions to serve tea to the parents of the groom as a token of respect and to seek their blessing on the marriage.
The bride and groom are given a sweet soup (tong sui) to drink to mark their new journey in life together.
It was a fun experience and it really made me want to settle down and get married too. Congratulations to Siaw Ting Chuan and Wong Siew Ling on their union. Cheers bro! 🙂
My best friend just got hitched yesterday with a fellow coworker. I’m really happy for him, and I have to admit, a little bit envious coz I’ve been trying so hard to find The One and not really succeeding. Ting Chuan has been my friend ever since time immemorial – we have been buddies since we were in Primary 1 (7 years old).
The wedding banquet was held at Sheraton but I’ve been the “best buddy” since early morning. The writeup for that will be up tomorrow – it’s much more interesting. The “best buddy” system is a HK custom where the groom with an entourage of friends goes through obstacles created by the bride and her friends to gain access to her room and bring her back home.
It was a lot of fun since it was the first time I’ve ever been involved in such an event. The custom isn’t Malaysian, it has just gained popularity recently due to the influx of HK and Taiwan serials. 😉 There are a lot of interesting Chinese customs that I was exposed to and I will be writing about that with videos tomorrow.
I found the couple to be really sweet, they’re very nicely matched. Ting Chuan and Siew Ling just look so happy together that I couldn’t help but be happy for them. It’s nice to be married and settled and having kids and all that. It’s the life I want – that’s the purpose of my life, to leave behind my life of excess and find a soul mate who can tame me and domesticate me.
The lunch reception started out at 12 noon and the first dish is the obligatory Chinese appetizer/sampler dish. It has prawns, abalone, fish and other dishes on a huge platter divided physically into sections.
The second dish is “black chicken” soup – which is a kind of free range chicken that is renowned in Chinese cuisine as being more nutritious than regular chickens.
I’m not sure if it’s the same thing as kampung chicken but it’s usually served during celebrations such as birthdays, weddings and festive seasons.
The third dish is fish – a staple of all Chinese banquets. It’s a mixture of pan fried salmon and deep fried breaded fish. It’s surprisingly delicious, but then again I was famished from waking up in the morning for the entourage to the bride’s house. 🙂
The next dish is a Peking duck type affair with the waitress taking rolls of soft, warm and fluffy bread (called man tou) and filling it with a piece of duck, spring onions, and then drizzling it with sauce before serving it individually.
I liked this dish. It’s the sauce that makes or breaks the duck and the sauce at Sheraton is really good.
The fifth dish was a combination of two items – there’s sweet and sour pork on one side of the dish and sea cucumber served in half a pineapple on the other side. It’s supposed to represent the yin and yang.
The next dish also follows the yin yang concept with deep fried prawns on one side and abalone in a ring of broccoli on the other side.
The lunch wedding reception ended with a fruit platter and a mooncake and yam dish. They got married during the Mid Autumn Festival so the mooncakes were there as a nod to the occasion.
Congratulations Siaw Ting Chuan and Wong Siew Ling!
I will post the pre-wedding customs that started in the morning tomorrow – I found that experience to be much more interesting, as the “best buddy”. There are heaps of photos and lots of videos to upload, so I did the reverse chronological thing and posted up the lunch reception first. 🙂
Project Ferrero Rocher Mooncake was initiated to commemorate the Mid Autumn Festival tonight. I haven’t been cooking in a long time and I took advantage of the season to create a dubious sixthseal.com style culinary delight. 😉
Ferrero Rocher chocolates Top Gun Exclusive Wine Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka liqueur Ocean Spray cranberry juice Golden Circle baby carrots RugenFisch Mackerel Fillets in tomato sauce Ideal milk (evaporated milk) Pudding mooncake premix and molds
You don’t actually need the Ocean Spray cranberry juice, I got that for a friend for her UTI problems. 😉
The first step is to pour out several shots of the Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka liqueur (RM 120 at respectable bottle shops) for consumption. You will need it for the tedious task ahead. 😉
Next, measure out 300 ml of water for the pudding mixture. The recipe calls for 700 ml but I decided that the remainder should consist of Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka for more oomph, so don’t drink too much of that first, start with the wine.
Top up the measuring cup to 700 ml with Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka. This will use up more than half of the bottle but fret not – it’s worth it.
Dump the pudding mooncake mixture into a saucepan and put the H2O with ethanol beside it. This is to avoid mistakes during excessive consumption of the latter liquid.
Put the saucepan with the powder in it on low heat on a regular stove and pour the liquid in slowly.
Stir the mixture slowly while keeping it on low heat for about 10 minutes. It is important not to let it burn or “bruise” the mixture by stirring too hard. I’m not sure about the latter statement, the person in charge told me that.
Pour the liquid into the small mold after 10 minutes and let it set for about 15 minutes at room temperature before chucking it into the fridge for an additional 10 minutes.
You’ll know it’s ready if it doesn’t fall out of the mold when you turn it upside down.
There is a technique to extract the small mooncake without damaging the integrity and aesthetic design which involves massaging the sides, but I never picked up that skill.
The small mooncake with Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka (which is meant to emulate the “egg yolk” in traditional mooncakes) should look like this when it’s done.
The next step involves making the larger mooncake, which uses a different premix that requires Ideal milk (evaporated milk).
250 ml of Ideal milk is added to 400 ml of water and poured into the powdered premix.
The usual 10 minutes of stirring on low heat is applied before the mixture is scooped into the larger mooncake mold. It is essential to only scoop the liquid to half the mold capacity, as it has to hold the smaller mooncake as the “yolk”.
The smaller Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka mooncakes is to be placed into the larger mooncake mold upside down (design facing down).
I took the liberty of adding a Ferrero Rocher chocolate as the “yolk” of one of the mooncakes to make my own variation.
The Ferrero Rocher chocolate is surprisingly resilient…it doesn’t even melt in the boiling hot temperature of the liquid pudding.
It’s much better than M&Ms – melts in your mouth, not on the stove. It’s amazing!
The larger mooncake mold is then filled to the brim and left to set in the fridge for a full 30 minutes.
Once that’s done, extract the Ferrero Rocher mooncake from its mold and place it on a plate. Garnish with baby carrots and the mackerel fillets in tomato sauce.
This is the “balls of fire” bit to the recipe – mixing in salty and spicy elements to the dish…and the alcohol (Dooley’s Toffee and Vodka) of course. Serve with wine for a complete meal.
I have been thinking about beating the current record for Most Ferrero Rocher chocolates eaten in one minute which stands at a meager five (5) chocolates consumed. I have gone through the details and to quality, you have to unwrap, eat, and swallow the chocolates within one minute. This is my attempt:
I was too ambitious and ended up biting off more than I could chew (haha) but it’s quite possible to beat this record and get my name in the Guinness World Records book with a bit of practice. This was done in the afternoon while making mooncakes (post up tomorrow). I’ve been a bit busy lately making mooncakes, being the best buddy (which is different from best man – it’s a HK custom that has found its way here) for a friend’s wedding, attending said friend’s wedding, and the Mid Autumn Festival lined up tomorrow.
Happy Family Ice & Refreshment House is a small, sterile eating establishment occupying a side lot of a shop house unit. This is a vegetarian establishment that does not serve meat.
The interior looks very common, with generic seating arrangements. The proprietor obviously believes in the absurd concept of having ceiling mounted air conditioning units in an open space. The air conditioning units are never turned on, which makes one wonder as to why they were installed in the first place.
The food warmer units ridiculously occupying the entire left counter is almost empty, suggesting that the place is doing less-than-brisk business for a reason. The original stickers were also left on, which displays deep fried cholesterol, carbon and oxidant laden chicken. I would think that the proprietor would have taken the trouble of replacing the placeholders with vegetarian fare, but apparently, the sliding mechanism proves to be too complicated.
There is also an opportunistic retail section that offers vegetarian fare from the dubious food factories of China.
The Vegetarian Rojak is tasteless and has no redeeming value at all. It also seems that the concept of presentation is lost on the cook.
The Vegetarian Laksa did not bring back wonderful childhood memories of my late mother cooking for me.
I find the dish a putrid mockery of this established Sarawakian dish. It is not merely tasteless, but undercooked.
The Roasted Cheese Noodle is translated as Italy Noodle. I would be amused if not for the blatant ignorance of simple pasta like spaghetti.
The establishment also confuses the word “roasted” with “baked” and should take English lessons. The shitake mushrooms did not infuse enough flavors into the dish and the pasta was not al dente, which is essential to prevent sogginess in al forno dishes.
I find this establishment an insult to my taste buds!
The Grim Eater is not happy at Happy Family Ice & Refreshment House.
However, Autumn did bring a (single) tear to my eye. Hmph. It’s the only reason I didn’t look my usual grim self.
I went to pay my cell phone bill during lunch break just now and was presented with a rather impressive amount of RM 477.90. Jesus H. Christ. I remember my highest phone bill being about RM 2,000+ (converted from Australian dollars) back when I was in Melbourne but that was coz I was in a long distance relationship.
Oh, and I also defaulted on that payment. 😉
I’m surprised at how I can run up a RM 477.90 bill with my current usage and I think it boils down to the way I handle calls. I tend to call instead of texting someone due to the easier communication pathway. I’m also on a plan that favors same operator calls (DiGi 1Plan, which makes it free to call 016 numbers once the amount is past RM 123) but most of the calls I make are not within the same network.
I use my personal cell phone to make official work related calls as well, which is probably not a good idea and something I shouldn’t do doing anymore (since I don’t get reimbursed for it). I have to curb my spending habits and it should start with my cell phone usage.
/me tightens belt.
Hmm…come to think of it, I need a new belt. My two belts are both a little on the loose side, which I’ll like to think of as an indicator that I have lost weight. 😉
Anyway, the HDS posts from 2002 – 2006 have been updated up to today. Selected posts:
I was in KL about a month ago to…er, attend to my sister’s wedding arrangements and met up with Cheesie at O’Briens before I was scheduled to fly back home. I have gotten a new external hard disk and while transferring photos over, I realized that I have several shots with Ringo after lunch.
Cheesie left me with a very good impression, she’s very down to earth and has a bubbly personality, which makes for a great dining companion. 🙂 Anyway, we went outside for a bit of camwhoring after lunch – some of the photos were taken by passerbys at 1U but Ringo has perfected an excellent technique of taking photos.
She taught me how to take self portraits of us using one extended hand, which I never really got the hang of. It’s her 4th blog anniversary at her own domain so on head over and wish her a happy blogniversary. 🙂
