I will be heading back to Sibu tomorrow so I wanted to have an
early Chinese New Year celebration with Mandy. I’ll be meeting her in Kuching
on the 4th day of CNY but we wanted to do something here first. We
saw a fireworks stall while eating chicken rice the other day. They also sell
CNY snacks like ngaku (arrowhead chips) and we bought a container of that while
browsing their selections. We went back again over the weekend to get some
fireworks to let off together.
The guy said the large fireworks cakes were not in stock yet, and
the only ones they have are the smaller 25-shot ones for RM 58. I’ve lit
similar configurations and they have a pretty nice ending so we got one of
that. We also bought 20-shot Roman candle tubes for RM 45 and some dragon eggs,
Pop Pop bangers, and sparklers. We saw a neighborhood park near our condo and
thought it’ll be nice to let these off there.
Well, all except the fireworks cake that is. This one is louder
and slightly illegal, and people are apt to complain if we lit this in a
residential area. I went to the shophouses opposite and stopped the car at a
dark corner before lighting the fuse.
Our own mini fireworks show. This is the 25-shot Happy Boom Shoot
fireworks cake.
The finale tubes are nice.
We then adjourned to the neighborhood park to play with the Roman
candles. These don’t produce a salute or bang so it’s alright for residential
areas.
Mandy expressing childlike delight at the Roman candles. Haha.
We also tried doing a synchronized video.
These are the Dragon’s Eggs.
It was really fun! I’m glad we had our own small CNY celebration before I went back to Sarawak. I like seeing how Many enjoys playing with fireworks and it’s nice to do things like these together as a couple.
I went on a day trip to Sekinchan with Mandy last week. Sekinchan is a small village with fishing and paddy cultivation as its primary industries. It’s a sleepy small town where everyone seems to know each other. One of their most famous landmarks (?) is a tree by the Pantai Redang beach called the Sekinchan Wishing Tree. This is an old looming tree that has strands of red hanging on its branches. People write on red threads and throw it into the air so it hangs from the tree. It’s a wish fulfillment thing.
It makes for a really nice picture!
There is a Chinese temple beside this tree where you can get the
red strands of clothes. I can’t read Chinese but there are recommended donation
amounts for things like joss sticks. The threads are freely available for the
taking but you’re supposed to put in a donation into the box. The donation can
be any amount you feel like giving.
You take the red strip of cloth and write whatever you want on the
provided table. This is usually a wish you want fulfilled. Mandy wrote both my
name and hers in Chinese. Coz this is an Oriental tree, you see. It may not
understand English. Haha.
The red cloth has two round metal weights at the end so you just
need to lead one and it’ll hook around something. I managed to get it up on the
tree on my second try.
Our names in Sekinchan for all eternity, bound by the red threads
of fate. Or until a strong wind comes, which is more likely.
Pantai Redang is not a swimming beach. The sand is quite dirty and
the water is polluted. However, it’s a nice place to chill and walk with your
loved one.
There are stalls at one end of the beach selling seafood dishes
and drinks. We got a coconut and took it to a hut by the beach to enjoy.
The best thing about taking leave to come on a weekday is the lack
of people around. We had the beach hut all to ourselves and we spent a good
hour here talking with our arms around each other. It’s fun. There’s a cool sea
breeze, the smell of salt in the air, the warm indirect sun beside you, stray
puppies coming to sleep by your feet, and a refreshing drink of coconut within
arm’s reach. Bliss.
There’s also an abandoned café (I think) made of red Coca-Cola
shipping containers which makes for a good photo opportunity. It has the Coke
tagline and Sekinchan on one of the sides. This is my #emoforever contribution.
My beautiful Mandy does it better though. <3
There’s not much to do in Sekinchan. Like I said, it’s a sleepy little town but another place people go to is the Sekinchan Paddy Processing Factory and Museum. The road here is lined with paddy fields.
This is actually just a rice processing factory which has a small
museum attached. Entry is RM 5/person and comes with a free small packet of
Sekinchan rice.
The tours are guided, which an option of Chinese or English. I
learned that rice factories add in 5% broken rice to meet government
specifications. The technology is already there to produce 100% unbroken rice
but this is more to keep with government regulations on rice price controls.
There are also 3D photo walls inside the museum where you can take
photos.
…as well as various old scenes from Sekinchan past. It’s worth the
45 min or so coz there’s little else to do in Sekinchan.
You can also get cendol made with their special Sekinchan brown
rice and ice cream there.
Of course, another popular destination in Sekinchan is the No. 16 Sekinchan Bus Café. I’ve written about it in a previous post.
The best part of the café is the photo ops, not the food per se.
Definitely worth a trip if you stick to the cakes and drinks though.
It’s a great place to get the perfect shot for Instagram.
You have to try Sekinchan’s local seafood before you leave. We choose a restaurant at random and ended up at Restoran Pantai Redang. This is a family run seafood location near the beach.
Mandy wanted to have their crabs. This is a crab of around 600-700
grams that’s simply steamed to preserve its original flavor.
It’s very good! Juicy and succulent, much better than the crab we had in Pulau Ketam. I love the Shaoxing wine flavored sauce too.
We saw the owner carrying in two huge fishes. They looked fresh,
so we ordered two slices of that as well. It’s also cooked with minimal
seasoning. I don’t think Mandy liked it but I really enjoyed the simple, clean
flavors. You can only get fish as fresh as this in a fishing village.
Lala cooked in taucu and chillies were very decent as well.
We also ordered huge ass mussels steamed with garlic and rice wine. This was my favorite dish of the meal. They’re only RM 2 each and perfectly steamed so they’re still juicy and plump. This isn’t one of those overcooked mussel dishes you normally see – Mandy made sure to tell the owner to steam it for a short while so it’s barely cooked. Delicious!
It’s important to note that there’s no fancy techniques or complicated sauces at this restaurant. The food is cooked and presented simply, allowing the freshness of the seafood to shine. We both enjoyed the meal and it only came up to RM 127 including beer. Food alone was just RM 93 which is a great price for seafood of this quality. Sekinchan may not be for everyone with its slow pace of living and relatively uncommercialized tourist attractions but both Mandy and I enjoyed it immensely. I love going on trips with her.
“Do you want to go to the bus café in Sekinchan that’s inside a real vintage bus?” I asked Mandy. “Oh! That one lots of 小妹妹 (xiao mei mei) go one.” The irony of her reply is that she’s also quite young. She’s 24. Haha. I’m clearing my annual leave so I took yesterday off to go to Sekinchan with my Mandy. I’ve never been to Sekinchan. It’s about 1.5 hours away from KL/PJ and we had fun in another rustic, rural setting (Pulau Ketam) so I thought we’ll enjoy the day trip.
I timed our journey so we’ll arrive at Sekinchan Bus No. 16 Café right when they open for lunch. The café is an air-conditioned bus that’s mounted on a few shipping containers.
The kitchen is inside the shipping containers and the shell of the
bus contains the café proper. There’s also al fresco seating at a small balcony
to the side but the main draw is the authentic, vintage bus.
These are the types of buses that used to ply Malaysia’s roads. We
had the exact same bus in Sibu! The green ones work the Lanang routes. I lived
closer to town so I took the red Sungai Merah buses but the fittings are the
same.
I remember the dingy interior, faded seats and the large “PRESS
ONCE” button you push to let the driver know you want to get down at the next
stop.
It’s very nostalgic!
It’s one of those themed cafes that people come to for the perfect
Instagram shot. They’re not exactly known for their food. I knew that coming in.
I’ve been to a few character cafes in Japan (where the food is generally
excellent), only to be disappointed by their dismal attempts at a meal.
You’re here for the environment, not the food. You need to have
this mindset when you come to No. 16 Sekinchan Bus Cafe coz the food is very
subpar.
They have a very limited and streamlined savory menu under “No. 16 Sekinchan Bus Bento Boxes”. We ordered the chicken chop meal and the Korean fried chicken wings. Unfortunately, they said the Korean fried chicken wings weren’t ready yet so we switched to the Korean-style Chicken Bibimbap.
Mandy had a mango Barbican soda and I had their White Coffee. You
can’t go wrong with bottled soda but the brewed white coffee was extremely
diluted and borderline tasteless.
Mandy is laughing here coz she thought the shaved ice in the
bucket meant to cool your drink is for pouring the drinks into, until I
corrected her. Haha.
I thought both our food orders were horrible – I honestly don’t
have anything good to say about the mains we ordered except that they’re both
dreadful. Food isn’t their forte. I compared it unfavorably with airline food!
Service was also spotty – the Chinese girl was disinterested and low-energy but
the Malay girl fared better. Another gripe of mine is that the bus was way too
stuffy during the afternoon heat despite the air-conditioning going full blast.
I shudder to imagine how hot it’ll be with more people inside.
We also ordered their Dark Chocolate Cheese Cake with a LEGO chocolate dude on top. I did enjoy the malty chocolate cake – it tasted like it was made with Ovaltine, which is a nostalgia tinged memory for me. This was the only thing I enjoyed. I recommend you go for the cakes and drinks if you want to meet the minimum RM 30 per table spending. This minimum spend is only for weekends and public holidays though. We were hungry so we ordered a full meal. Our bill came up to RM 59 for two.
I really like the ambiance of No. 16 Sekinchan Bus Café. You can get excellent photos here. It was also empty when we came so we could take as many photos as we wanted. Don’t come here for the food coz you’ll be sorely disappointed. Think of it more like rent for use of their photography studio e.g. the bus café. I loved going with Mandy coz she’s really good with photos and she’s interested in taking nice photos so we had fun here.
Whether you’ll enjoy it depends on what you want to get out of this experience.
Poon choy with abalone, Korean oysters, scallops, tiger prawns, fish maw, mushrooms, soy chicken, siu yoke (roasted pork belly), quail eggs, broccoli and daikon radish.
I love eating poon choy. I’ve had it in 2014, 2015 and 2016. I only paused after that coz this isn’t a dish you can eat by yourself. I’ve always wanted to try making my own version of poon choy. It’s not difficult, just labor-intensive coz you need to cook all the ingredients separately before combining in a big bowl. Nothing that can’t be done with proper planning. I nailed down all the ingredients I wanted to have inside and how long it’ll take to cook each one and came out with a shopping list and recipe.
I had ordered all the dry seafood the week before via online
shopping. I got large dry scallops, Korean dried oysters and huge dried
mushrooms from a specialty dried produce store. I read mushrooms need to be
soaked for a day prior to cooking so the preparation started the day before I
started cooking. I even timed when I needed to get the fish maw (12 hours),
dried oysters (8 hours) and dried scallops (2 hours) into the soaking basin.
I also prepped the tiger prawns by deveining and removing the long
feelers. This took longer than expected coz I don’t have much experience in
deveining prawns. I usually get the frozen and peeled ones. It’s quite
intuitive though and after this episode I’ll be able to do it a lot faster in
the future. At the end of it, I didn’t even need to cut open the back – I could
just twist into an opening in between the shell and pick up the vein. Next
level up is doing it with a toothpick.
The prawns are cooked in a mixture of Japanese sushi vinegar,
mirin and sucralose. I also boiled the quail eggs in this sauce. Mandy helped
peel the shells of the quail eggs, which was her only contribution to this
endeavor. Haha. To be fair, I actively told her not to assist me coz I wanted
to be the one to cook her this poon choy feast.
The only two ingredients that wasn’t cooked from scratch are the
abalone and siu yoke. The former came already pre-braised in a can. The latter
I tapau from one of the chicken rice stalls near my house coz there’s no way I
can make better siu yoke at home, considering I don’t even have an oven!
Next was the “master stock”. This was a mixture of oyster sauce, dark
soy sauce, chicken stock, coriander, Shaoxing wine, fish sauce and sucralose
but at the end of it was heavily flavored by the dried oysters, scallops, fish
maw, and mushrooms too. I started with the plump rehydrated mushrooms before
adding in whole chicken legs.
I also chopped up the stems of coriander leaves to add that
distinct taste into my braising stock.
I then added in the rehydrated Korean oysters. This added SO MUCH FLAVOR to the stock. Dried oysters have the essence of umami inside them and they contribute so much savory taste to the braising liquid. It’s uncanny! I would say this is one of the most important ingredients in poon choy.
I also dumped in the rehydrated fish maw while chopping up the
daikon radish. I really enjoyed the fish maw – it absorbs up so much of that
delicious broth. It was one of my favorite things to eat in this poon choy big
bowl.
The daikon radish goes in last and I let this whole pot simmer at
low heat for about 30 minutes before adding in the scallops. Rehydrated
scallops are very fragile so I used a strainer to keep them together. This
makes it easier to scoop up and also prevents other sturdier ingredients from
bumping into it. You want them plump and whole to be displayed in the poon
choy.
All that’s left after that is arranging the ingredients into the
bowl. There’s abalone, Korean oysters, scallops, tiger prawns, fish maw, soy
chicken, siu yoke, mushrooms, quail eggs, broccoli and daikon radish. I also
heated up a bit of the braising liquid with tapioca starch to make a gooey
gravy to go with the poon choy.
It’s really delicious! This came out way better than I expected. Everything tasted so good! 10/10 – a success. 👏
Unfortunately, I’ll be eating poon choy till I go back for Chinese
New Year. At least I have Mandy now so she can help out a bit. I wouldn’t have
cooked this before she came into my life coz it’ll be impossible to finish by
myself. Haha.
When did I start having feelings for Mandy? I’ll say around the time we went to Pulau Ketam. “I only wanted to eat you at first. Eat then throw away.” I told her half-jokingly. Except I wasn’t kidding. Haha. She’s a young and delicious 24 year old. I’ll be stupid if I didn’t make a meal out of her. But I didn’t, for many reasons, and by the time I did, I was already very much in love with her.
What do I like about her? She’s bubbly and down-to-earth. She’s an honest person with a good heart. She’s fun to be with. She makes me laugh. I enjoy hearing her laugh. She’s also a Sarawakian and having a shared heritage/identity is nice. I love her smell. I find her beautiful and I enjoy waking up next to her and kissing her face. Love can’t really be distilled down into a single why. It’s usually a combination of things you find attractive.
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It’s funny, these things. I’ve been single for almost 3 years after the break-up with my ex. I’ve had a couple (okay, more than a couple) of partners after that but there was no one I connected to on even a most basic level. It was just for the sex while watching some Webcam sex . I haven’t met anyone I was even remotely interested in dating long term in these 3 years in the wilderness. In fact, the sex wasn’t that good!
I even have been harboring an unpleasant suspicion that I have developed
ED in the past few years. I’m pleased to report that this isn’t true. I was
just forcing myself to sleep with ugly chicks that I had no interest in or love
for and my dick was protesting. Sleeping with someone you truly love is a
magical experience and I really feel like I’m in my 20s again! My nether
regions were rejuvenated. It was like the Energizer battery ads – tough and
long lasting. Hehe.
But enough about that. In my whole life, I’ve only met 2 people I
was willing to marry and have kids with. Mandy is the 3rd person
that has made me feel this way. I’ve had relationships with many girls I had no
intention of marrying or having babies with. It was more like a partner to pass
time with. I’ll let the relationship reach its natural entropy point and leave.
It’s rare for me to want to put a ring on someone, much less make mini mes
with.
Recently, I’ve been acutely aware of my age and my diminishing
chances to be a father. I’ve been seriously thinking about freezing my sperm
and surrogacy with an anonymous egg donor to fulfil my fatherhood dreams. I’m
also concerned that our age gap is a little high but there’s a reason why guys
are attracted to younger girls – they represent the best chance for
procreation.
I’m not going to think too much about that though. We’re happy and
that’s all that’s important. I’m glad I managed to find someone I love and
cherish. It feels like forever since I’ve felt this way about someone. I
honestly feel blessed to have her in my life.
Nakiryu means “Screaming Dragon” in Japanese and they’re the second ramen shop to get a Michelin star after Tsuta. The ramen they do is very different from the light tasting Tsuta – Nakiryu’s tantanmen is unapologetically heavy, spicy and rich. I’ve eaten a previous version of their instant noodles (also by Nissin) in 2016. This was before they’ve won their Michelin star and the Nissin version then was in cup noodle format with all the seasoning and dehydrated protein bits inside the noodles. There was a sachet of hot oil to finish the ramen with and it tasted really good and nutty.
Their latest is a collaboration with 7Eleven Premium Japan. The
recipe has been refined and inside the bowl ramen is a packet of powdered soup
and dehydrated meat, a sachet of hot oil and a pack of finishing oil. You’re
only supposed to put the powdered soup + dehydrated meat inside with the
noodles when hot water is added. The other two goes on top of the lid to absorb
residual heat and they’re only added when the noodles are done.
Nakiryu’s broth is so thick and creamy it’s almost like a starchy
stew! There’s also bits of dehydrated meat inside to add texture. This is a
type of ramen called tantanmen which is a Szechuan inspired ramen dish. It’s
spicy and flavorful and there’s nutty undertones in the soup base. This isn’t a
refined and gentlemanly ramen like Tsuta – the Nakiryu instant ramen is
overpoweringly in-your-face.
I liked it but the previous discontinued cup version had a better ratio of dehydrated meat to noodles. The portion in this variation seems miserly in comparison. The powdered soup base also didn’t fare as well as Tsuta’s liquid soup base. I must compare these two as they’re both Michelin starred ramen outlets that produced an instant ramen version by 7Eleven Premium. I’m glad I tried it but both Mandy and I felt it’s overshadowed by it’s much superior and delicious tasting Tsuta instant ramen sister product. Or maybe I just don’t know how to appreciate these Japanese-Szechuan flavors – I was also decidedly unimpressed by 2 Michelin star Shisen Hanten.
Tsuta is the first ever ramen shop to get a Michelin star in 2015 and they’ve retained that star every year since. They recently did a collaboration with Nissin and the 7-Eleven Premium line of instant ramen to produce a ready-to-eat version of their famous noodles, sold exclusively at 7-Eleven Japan. As a Michelin star chaser, I owed it to myself to taste this interesting instant ramen. I shipped a few bowls in via personal shopper at a cost of around RM 400, which works out to RM 45 per bowl. Spoiler: It was damn worth it!
As the name suggests, Tsuta doesn’t serve typical ramen – they do soba noodles in ramen style. The broth they use is a chicken and clam combination, which is a lot less heavy than the typical pork stock. They’re also famous for finishing all their ramen with truffle, and this holds true for their faithful instant ramen adaptation too! This isn’t just a meagre drop of truffle you can barely taste – the broth is richly infused with truffle flavor and it shines through with every slurp of the ramen.
There are 4 packets of inside the bowl – a vacuum packed sachet of
bamboo shoots, a piece of dehydrated pork belly with green onions, a sauce soup
base and a foil of truffle oil. There are no powdered flavorings here. The
thin, curly noodles look different from most ramen too. You’re supposed to put
the dehydrated chasiu + green onion into the noodles and add hot water for 3
minutes. All the other packets go on top so it gets indirect heat and they’re
only added after the noodles are cooked.
I love the light tasting broth that’s packed with umami flavor. You can really taste the seafood and chicken in it and there’s yummy notes of truffle in every mouthful that elevates this instant ramen head-and-shoulders above all its peers. This is truly the best instant ramen I’ve ever eaten – no contest. My housemate Mandy loved it too. Nothing comes close, not even its sister 7Eleven Premium instant ramen by 1 Michelin star Nakiryu. Tsuta’s instant ramen is breathtakingly delicious! 🤤
I’ve recently refined my mac and cheese recipe to product a thick,
gooey sauce that sticks to each macaroni piece like delicious glue. My cheese
sauce not only has cheddar, but also chicken stock, fish sauce, Shaoxing wine
and sucralose, so it packs a real punch. I would not be remiss to say that
anyone who’s tasted this is instantly transported to FlavorTown. Since then, I’ve
worked more on the sides to find out the best pairing for this decadent treat.
This time I’m testing out fried chicken drumsticks with BBQ sauce
as the side. I never bought cooking oil until my housemate Mandy moved in. I
finally caved and purchased a small bottle of corn oil since not everyone likes
the healthy no-oil taste. I poured in a measure and fried a couple of chicken
drumsticks inside. I use a Happy Call Pan – a type of flappable pressure pan.
It browns the skin and cooks the interior very well.
I served my mac and cheese with plain, unseasoned prawns the last
round and I wanted to experiment with a heavier flavor profile this time. I
tossed the cooked and rested fried chicken legs in some hickory smoke BBQ
sauce. I really liked how well this tasted but unfortunately Mandy isn’t a fan
of BBQ sauce. I had to wipe away the sauce for her portions of the drums.
The secret to my cheese sauce is flour. A lot of people omit this
step but it’s essential to making a thick cheese sauce. You first melt butter
in a saucepan then stir in the flour slowly to make a roux. Milk or cream is
added next, stirring all the time so it combines well. I also add Shaoxing
wine, fish sauce and chicken stock at this point. Cheese is added last and as
soon as it melts, you pour the entire saucepan over the cooked macaroni.
I also had a side of broccoli to cut down on the heavy flavors. It’s
simply microwaved with a bit of water so it’s still crunchy – the way Mandy likes
it. It’s delicious! I like how the BBQ chicken drums go together with the
creamy mac and cheese. Mac and cheese is another recipe that I’ve mastered and
I can say with confidence tastes good.
“Why so early CNY stuff come out dy?”. I hear this refrain every
year without fail on my Facebook. Let me share a recent finding by Google I was
privy to at work – search interest in Chinese New Year picks up 3 weeks before
the actual date e.g. now. Thus, the decision by marketers to do CNY early is based
on solid data. As someone who loves Chinese New Year and listens to CNY songs
starting Christmas, I’m one of those who definitely gets into the mood early.
I love Chinese New Year. I adore everything about it – the lou
sang, the reunion dinner, the gettogethers with family and friends, the yearly
display of fireworks, the sojourn back to our hometown. I’m going back to Sibu and
Kuching this year so I’m extra in-the-mood. I was talking to my housemate Mandy
about how much I like CNY. She doesn’t feel the same excitement, and I realized
that my passion for the Lunar New Year has remained relatively unchanged since
I was a kid. What can I say? I’m a romantic when it comes to CNY.
I went to Carlsberg’s “Prosperity Begins with a POP” Chinese New Year dinner/launch event last night. I’ve seen these bottles with the brightly colored caps around. Lots of brands do CNY-specific SKU refreshes and it’s nice to see what’s coming every year at the grocery aisles. I also enjoy these dinners with lou sang so I jumped at the chance to go.
This was held at Hao Xiang Chi Seafood in ICC Pudu. It’s a huge event with a grand stage and lots of tables. I hear they invited 500 trade partners and media guests to the dinner. There were pop-up bars serving the entire Carlsberg range as well as food stands serving siu yoke, chicken wings and other finger food before the banquet dinner started. I was honestly impressed by the entire thing.
Oh! I also saw Crystal Ong of the CNY group M-Girls. This is the second M-Girls member I’ve met this year!
We also got the chance to play a replica version of “Probably The
Best CNY Shopping Experience – You Shop, Carlsberg Pays!”. There was a huge
Carlsberg Smooth Draught can that we popped to get a chance at the top prize of
RM 800 worth of groceries and beers paid for by Carlsberg.
I managed to win the second prize of a 6-pack of Carlsberg Smooth
Draught!
This activation will be held at participating supermarkets and hypermarkets
on 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 24, 26 and 27 January 2019. There have been 65 lucky winners
who’ve won the grand prize of RM 800 worth of groceries paid for by Carlsberg
thus far. You just need to buy RM 200 worth of Carlsberg products to get a
chance to pop the can!
Somersby Oriental Yee Sang.
We ended up spilling more yee sang on the table than eating it but
it was fun! This is my first lou sang of the year.
Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc Lobster Salad. I really enjoyed this dish! It’s a mixture of lobster meat and various fruits. One of the guys at our table had a shellfish allergy so I ended up eating his plate too. Best.
Asahi Superior Soup with Scallop. A beautiful bowl of chicken, huge Shitake mushroom, scallops, and an abalone. Luxurious.
Carlsberg Smooth Draught Braised Abalone. I love braised abalone! Nothing says CNY more than abalone.
Carlsberg Steamed Estuary Grouper. I’m a huge fan of grouper too. I think all Chinese will have a fish dish during the CNY reunion dinner coz it sounds fortuitous.
Connor’s Pork Ribs Stew. I was quite full at this point but I like how they provided a glove for you to eat this. Very thoughtful.
Carlsberg Superior Chicken Rice. I honestly can’t remember how this tasted like. I had indulged in quite a few drinks and I was too stuffed to be able to appreciate more food.
You’ll get a chance to win frantastic grand prizes like electronic
mahjong table sets that auto shuffles and sorts the game tiles for you! There
are also limited edition mahjong sets, RM 100 ang paus and playing cards! All
you need to do is check the winning icon under the bottle caps when you enjoy
Carlsberg or Carlsberg Smooth Draught big bottles at coffee shops and food
courts.
You’ll also get a mahjong set by topping up RM 88 when you buy two
cartons of Carlsberg or Carlbserg Smooth Draught AND one carton of Somersby (any
variant) OR one carton of Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc. Tesco is giving these mahjong
sets away FREE when you spend RM 600 on Carlsberg Malaysia products.
“Prosperity Begins with a POP” also has a bistro, restaurant and pub activation – enjoy Carlsberg or Carlsberg Smooth Draught at these places to get a deck of playing cards and stand a chance to win a RM 100 beer voucher! Check out www.facebook.com/CarlsbergMY or visit www.probablythebest.com.my for more information.
The promoter girl asked my Chinese zodiac when I registered. It turns out they had a personalized gift pack of 8 cans of Carlsberg and Carlsberg Smooth Draught featuring the four festive colors with my name written in calligraphy and zodiac on it. Pretty cool!
I went to check out Nuromen Cafe with my housemate Mandy last night. I saw a video on Facebook and told her about it. To my surprise, she said she’s been there many times! I was puzzled coz she just arrived in KL 3 weeks ago and I’ve been out with her almost every time. I know I haven’t been here. It turns out that Nuromen Café in Uptown PJ is the official branch of Nuromen in Kuching. It serves Sarawak style beef noodles and Mandy’s a regular at the Kuching outlet.
As an illustration of how small the Sarawakian community is, a
friend tagged the artist who drew this mural (also from Kuching) when I posted
it on Facebook yesterday. Both Mandy and I are from Sarawak too. I guess
Sarawakians just have an incestuous tendency to stick together.
I miss Kuching style beef noodles. I believe Open Air Central
Market in Kuching serves one of the more definitive versions. That was my first
experience back when I was living in Kuching as a kid. My sister was actually
born in Kuching and our family lived there for the first 7 years of my life. I
was born in Sibu due to an accident – my mom went into labor when they came to
Sibu for Ching Ming. That’s also why my birthday is in Ching Ming. Haha.
Nuromen Café also serves a few Sarawak classic drinks like Teh C Special (RM 4.50) and Teh C Pandan Special (RM 4.50). This drink was created by a coffee shop in 7th Mile, Kuching. We got both to try. It was diluted, not the best representation of Teh C Special.
The interesting thing about Nuromen is the way they do hot pot
style beef noodles. You’re given a simmering bowl of beef soup a la hot pot and
you cook your own beef slices inside. It’s a cross between hot pot and beef
noodles. Mandy told me she usually orders this to eat with rice. You can also
pair it with noodles.
We ordered their signature Premium Sirloin Beef Platter Special (RM 42) – it’s a set for 2 pax with 160 gram premium sirloin beef slices, stewed beef, assorted vegetables and beef stock. Nuromen claims all their beef is sourced from Australia and NZ. It’s not local beef or Indian buffalo. This set comes with the more premium marbled sirloin cut. The beef slices are ultra thin so it cooks in just a few seconds.
There’s a separate bowl of cooked stewed beef. We didn’t quite
like this. I think my buffalo stew is way better.
I also made a separate a la carte order for 100 grams beef slices (RM 11.50). This is a leaner cut of beef. I wanted to see the difference between the sirloin and regular beef. We preferred the sirloin.
Of course, it’s not beef noodles unless you have noodles. You can order their garlic tossed kolo noodles for RM 3. This is the classic beef noodle pairing. I love the strong scent of garlic and the familiar smells and aromas. This is my kind of comfort food. The noodles are the proper kind we use in Sarawak too.
The staff gave us free ice cream when they saw we’re finished with
our meal. This happens in Kuching too according to Mandy. It’s a nice touch.
The food at Nuromen Cafe is pretty good – some misses on the drinks and stewed beef but their signature noodles and beef slices are legit. The bill came up to RM 68.50 for two with drinks. It’s an authentic Sarawakian taste that we’ve both missed. We’ll be back for sure.
