Sibu

Tom’s Too

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toms sibu

I returned to Tom’s Too for lunch a couple of days ago with a friend. She hasn’t been there before and I wanted her to try the food here. It’s just my second time eating here too and I was eager to check out more of their offerings.

charles

Tom’s Too has a range of Italian sodas and I asked Charles (one of the best waiters there – speaks good English and friendly) to show me what they were made of. It’s apparently just syrup from a wide range of flavors mixed with soda water.

butterscotch soda

I had the Butterscotch Italian Soda (RM 8.90) which came in a clear, sparkling liquid. It *did* indeed taste like butterscotch, and reminds me of the old flavored soda fountains of old. I’m kidding, I wasn’t even born when those were around. 😉

toms freeze

My friend has Tom’s Freeze (RM 9.90) – a house specialty concoction that features lychees as its main ingredient. She said it was good. I don’t know, I don’t like lychees. You know those old Chinese banquet dinners that serves lychees with peaches in ice as dessert? I only ate the peaches.

chicken cordon bleu

We both shared the recommendations for mains – she has the Chicken Cordon Bleu (RM 27.50) which was quite good. The chicken was done well and has a slice of ham inside and lots of oozing cheese.

chicken cordon blue

They used breast meat – Chicken Cordon Bleu is supposed to use boneless breast meat – not exactly my favorite cut from our favorite poultry but I rather enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure I ate more than my fair share.

lamb shanks

The other main we had was the Lamb Shank (RM 32.50). I’ve beard people telling me that it wasn’t so great – complains ranged from it being too tough to not having mashed potatoes to go with it but I found it delicious. The meat is tender on the inside and my only regret it…

lamb shank

…not ordering a side of mashed sweet potatoes. Arthur did that – it’s not on the menu but apparently you can ask for it from the chef. I shall endeavor to do that next time. The gravy is slightly sweet so I’m sure it’ll go very well with mashed sweet potatoes.

oreo cheesecake

Dessert was a slice of Oreo cheesecake (RM 11.90) from their counter deli. It’s pretty good for Sibu standards, but I wouldn’t write home about it, I’ve had better.

toms

A great meal nevertheless and we ended up talking (or I ended up talking) so much that it was nearly 3 pm when we were done. The meal cost about RM 100 and my friend insisted on picking up the bill. Thanks for lunch! 🙂

Lunch with suituapui at Ming Mei Shi

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ming mei shi

I had a glorious lunch of braised pork, four emperor vegetables, and buttered prawns with the famous suituapui a.k.a. Arthur a couple of days ago. He suggested either Ming Mei Shi – a Chinese restaurant I haven’t been to, or Payung Cafe and I went with the former. It’s relatively new and one of Arthur’s favorite places to eat so I wanted to check it out.

Ming Mei Shi is owned by the chef of the now defunct Blue Splendor (a famous restaurant in Sibu). Word is, the rent at Wisma Sanyan was raised to levels he found unacceptable, so he opened a new restaurant at a different location.

Four emperor vegetables

four emperor vegetable

This is a dish made with four different types of vegetables – brinjal (eggplant), lady’s finger (okra), baby corn and long beans. It tasted really good and I ate most of it, much to my surprise, since I’m not usually a huge fan of vegetables. It’s the mixture of sticky starchiness in the eggplant and okra combined with the sweetness of the baby corn and the crunchiness of the long beans that did it for me.

Homemade silk tofu

tofu mayo

Okay, I don’t actually know what this homemade recommendation is called. It was the special of their day and I wouldn’t call it tofu at all. I hate tofu and this is awesome stuff. It has tofu in it but also surimi (crab meat) and a plethora of other flavorful ingredients all mixed together before being quickly deep fried, creating a very fine and silky tofu medley piece that goes well with the mayonnaise served on the side.

We didn’t really know what it was so we only ordered one piece each. I wish I had ordered more as it was excellent!

Creamy butter prawns

butter prawn

Our version of butter prawns is not deep fried with butter but cooked in a sweet and creamy butter sauce. Ruby Restaurant does this really well but I love Ming Mei Shi’s version too. Arthur preferred Ruby’s but I was rather taken with the sweet butter prawns the cook dished out. Perfection!

Braised pork belly with man tou

braised pork belly

This is the signature dish of the place and it’s a huge chunk of artery clogging pork belly. The waitress cut the string binding the porcine goodness and used a pair of scissors to dissect it into manageable pieces. You’re supposed to eat it with the warm man tou (plain steamed buns) as a sandwich of sorts.

pork belly slices

It is tender and flavorful, with a thick starchy sauce that goes very well with your rice. I enjoyed this dish tremendously.

suituapui sibu

I polished off everything – there wasn’t a morsel left when I was done with lunch – a testament to Ming Mei Shi’s delicious culinary offerings. The bill came up to about RM 50 for all that, which is very reasonable for the dishes we ordered.

perfect pork

Just look at this fine specimen of perfectly cooked pork belly! I highly recommend every single dish that we had that day. 😀

Ming Mei Shi is located behind Rejang Medical Center in Sibu.

Need more fries / alcohol milkshakes @ Tom’s Too / Maple Leaf

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fries

I’m not a huge fan of fries. I used to love them but somewhere along the line I stopped craving for it. However I had fries with a burger at Tom’s Too and it was surprisingly delicious! They salted the fries so much that it was saturated with sodium. *clicks on Like

toms too

Tom’s Too is the sister outlet of the renowned Tom’s in Jalan Padungan.

toms too sibu

I asked the waiter for a recommendation and he enthusiastically prescribed the Chicken Burger (RM 12.90). I thought they were well known for their beef ones and I said so but he was so adamant about the awesomeness of the chicken burger that I went with it.

chicken burger

It’s made with an entire chicken thigh and is deep fried with perfection. The chicken has a very smoky, burnt BBQ flavor which is actually quite good. If you like your food salty and packed full of sodium you’re going to love this.

maple leaf cafe

I also headed down to Maple Leaf Fusion Cafe last night to catch up with Francine. I’ve known her since 1998 and I had drinks with her at Tom’s Too, er…too. I didn’t know where Maple Leaf was at that time and she told me it’s…just around the corner. smirk

giant volcano lava

They’re apparently famous for their Giant Volcano Lava drinks, which is a huge 1 liter (or close enough) thick concoction. I had the Chocolate Lava (RM 11.90) which the waitress recommended.

midori milkshake

It just so happens that yesterday night was the introduction of their new line of Alcohol Milkshakes. They had Kahlua, Irish Cream and Midori. I went with the Midori Milk Shake (RM 26). We both assumed that its been on the menu for ages but the waitress told us it just debuted yesterday.

maple leaf

I didn’t think much of it though – it’s overpriced and there’s not enough alcohol in it – you can taste it, but you certainly can’t feel it. It’s paying cocktail prices for a milkshake. Granted, it was a very good milkshake, but as an alcohol milkshake, it needs a bit of price tweaking.

deep fried durian

The highlight of the night was the Fried Durian Cake (RM 12.90). Divine! It’s made with a crispy jala-like pastry that’s deep fried with a rich durian flesh filling.

durian cake

It’s a good thing Francine doesn’t like durian so I ate it all. There are six pieces and each bite was like a taste of heaven – it’s fluffy and light, with a creamy durian center that oozes out. It’s…perfection. 😀

The story of the little gangster that could

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Betrayal 1

Betrayal
The story of the little gangster that could

Betrayal 2

Homo Ahbengus
Native to: Malaysia, Singapore
Mating habits: Often and indiscriminate
Social behavior: Hunts in packs
Sanctuaries: Sibu, Kuching, Miri, Klang, Cheras

Ultimate goal in life:

Betrayal 3

To own a semi-automatic handgun (preferably wrapped in newspapers, the classic but rather cliched method of concealment).

Job description:

Betrayal 4

Loan shark. Getting usurious money lending interests or gambling debts by property destruction, kidnapping, intimidation of the borrower, family and extended family (and pets if they have any).

Betrayal 5

One day, after getting a RM 3,600 interest from a borrower, his IQ 64 brain creaked and slowly came to the seeds of what he thought was an ingenious idea.

“I’ve got it!”, he exclaimed after 3 solid hours of hard thinking as the sun began to set in the horizon, still holding on to the wad of money.

Several startled birds flew off at his personal eureka and a couple who was doing the horizontal boogie in the abandoned car park furtively looked up and started quickly dressing.

He has worked long and hard to become the right hand man of the boss. General consensus was that he’s an asshole (which makes him Employee of the Month material in this line of work), just not very bright.

The latter was in fact the primary reason his boss trusted him with a handgun, though he did not know it.

Betrayal 6

Thus, when he concocted a cock and bull story about how one of his borrowers ran away to the freezing wastelands of Siberia and left only a RM 10 note, it was not altogether surprising that his boss looked at him in increasing incredulity and growing annoyance.

Betrayal 7

The boss expressed that annoyance in very reasonable discourse…using his fists.

Now, our protagonist did not think that was right. He has worked hard and risked his life (or so he would like to think, his victims were mostly degenerate gamblers who cringed when he raised his voice) and made his second intuitive leap of the day.

Betrayal 8

He thought it would be nice to be the boss for a change.

Betrayal 9

He slowly walked towards his boss as he slipped a very sharp knife out. He has a gun but unfortunately no bullets to go with it. His boss, being a little bit smarter, had only given him 3 bullets and he had used them all in a previous assignment. There was a gang war then and come to think of it, he didn’t think it was an accident that he walked into a room with four armed men and a gun with only three bullets.

Betrayal 10

He mulled on that piece of information as he stabbed, slashed and generally butchered his (now deceased) boss.

Betrayal 11

Then, he shook a cigarette out and smoked it ponderously as he thought about how wonderful it is to be the boss with a large gang beneath him. As I have previously mentioned, he is a bit slow.

Thus, when a random police patrol passed by two hours later, they saw a man sitting on top of a dead man, both of whom was very well known around these parts largely due to their criminal enterprises.

Betrayal 12

The man was covered with blood and appeared deep in thought.

________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: This was a photo shoot I did over two days during Chinese New Year. Willie of I-Concept Event Agency introduced me to Jason, who runs Jasongs Photography. I’ve known Willie for years (he’s Jeanie’s brother) and when he asked if I could do him a favor by being a model in a photo shoot, I was happy to help out.

Jason and Willie just got into a partnership and they do a lot of wedding photos and family shots. They wanted to do a high pass shoot – there was a lot of fake blood (which is permanent if it gets on your clothes), location scouting, multiple flash units to light everything up and early mornings. That is not a real gun – it’s a Beretta 92F replica. It was a lot of fun to do and we found this really cool abandoned house which would be great for photos.

I wrote this tongue-in-cheek post when I saw the photos just now. I agreed to help with the captions so I have an alternate post on Facebook with completely different text. It’s more serious and gritty, you can view and read the photo story here. Let me know which one you think is better. 🙂

Happy Chinese New Year 2012 everyone!

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10:30 am

firecrackers for chinese new year

Setting out the fireworks and firecrackers for tonight to dry out in the afternoon sun for the last time. Yes, this actually has a logical basis behind it. I’ll explain some other time. Heh.

3:00 pm

Went to see Ah Beng The Movie – a Malaysian production. It’s a Chinese New Year movie, wanted to catch one before the reunion dinner later. Anyway, the ticketing counter wrote Cineplex 2 on the stub and we waited until 3:10 pm and finally went to ask at the counter if the movie’s starting.

It turns out it was at Cineplex 3. The person made a mistake. I complained and the person at the counter gave us RM 7 tickets instead of RM 9 – got RM 2 each back and got the RM 7 “movie night” tickets instead. I was pissed off coz I hate missing the start of movies but that’s the best they could do. Oh well, that’s Sibu for you.

It’s CNY eve so it was good to catch a CNY movie. 🙂

5:45 pm

I’m about to head out for the extended family reunion dinner. I’m bringing some Chinese firecrackers along, it’s a tradition to let it off before the dinner. I can hear my neighbors already – the sound of firecrackers going off is almost unbroken, everyone starts burning the long Chinese fireworks before the CNY eve dinner.

My dad filmed me playing with this old skool traditional triangle shaped fireworks. It’s called Judas Belt in the Philippines when it’s in a long string, but we get single ones over here – the Chinese name translates to “triangle firecrackers”. I do not recommend you play with firecrackers like I do, I’m actually pretty blase about these things coz I’ve been letting them off for as long as I can remember.

The video is actually quite funny, you can hear my dad’s commentary. Heh.

6:30 pm

cny reunion 2012

The Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner! This is my grandma. I really like her. She’s one of those people that’s cheerful and jovial against all odds. Always love spending time with her when I’m back.

We’re Heng Huas and one cultural thing about the CNY eve dinner is that we don’t eat rice. We eat longevity noodles tossed with lard. It’s not the Foochow type where you eat it in soup – that’s actually totally not cool with Heng Huas coz eating soup during the reunion dinner is supposed to make it rain.

heng hua noodles

Heng Huas eat dry longevity noodles tossed with lard and some deep fried shallots for the reunion dinner. I love the stuff, it’s very flavorful and tastes good with the dishes. That’s one of my favorite on the plate – braised pork with fatt choy (it’s a type of bacteria, seriously).

I’ll keep on adding stuff until tonight!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! 😀

Running around like a headless chicken

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running around like a headless chicken

This idiom is actually quite accurate. My aunt was slaughtering chickens yesterday and I thought it was pretty interesting so I wanted to try it out myself. However, when I slit the chicken’s throat, I did it rather enthusiastically and nearly took off my own thumb with it. -_-

how to kill a chicken

Basically, you’re supposed to dump the chicken into a bucket after you kill it coz it thrashes around quite violently. I didn’t manage to coz my hands were slick with blood and I accidentally let the chicken go. I swear, I didn’t do that just to see if it would run around like a headless chicken. smirk

plucking chickens

Anyway, the chicken sorta flapped around all over the place when I *unintentionally* let it go. It was messy. I damn near decapitated the chicken with a very eager hand behind the knife but it still lived. It lives! Well, kinda. I finally caught it and dropped it into the bucket where it was soaked in hot water and plucked of its feathers.

I didn’t do much after seeing if the idiom was true though.

My mom said: Stop clucking around – if you’re not going to help and you’re just going to make a mess, go away.

I went away. action

Glenfiddich Solera Reserve 15 year old

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glenfiddich solera reserve

Glenfiddich is one of the most common single malt Scotch whisky there is out there. I believe I read somewhere that every 1 in 3 bottles of single malt sold is a Glenfiddich. However, just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it automatically isn’t good.

I *struggled* to choke that sentence out. I’m a huge Macallan fan, quite loyal to it since it was my very first single malt Scotch and I had it at a very special time.

glenfiddich 15 solera reserve gift box

Glenfiddich Solera Reserve can be had for around RM 245 – 285. There’s this promotional gift box that comes with a 700 ml bottle, a 30 ml miniature and a tumbler. The 15 year old is generally accepted to be a benchmark of sorts and has one of the best price-performance ratios. I first had it in 2006 and wrote about the Glenfiddich Solera Reserve which I got to celebrate a pay raise.

whisky durian

Oh, I nearly forgot this photo.

trollface

Proof that eating durians with alcohol won’t kill you

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spinning deck

Okay, now this is an established fact. Anyone who believes otherwise is an:

1. Idiot
2. Superstitious idiot
3. Ignorant idiot

(Sorry grandma)

Anyway, I have eaten large quantities of durian and drank prodigous amounts of alcohol at the same time to no ill effects.

Except a hangover…but that’s to be expected.

durians

I was out during the weekend with my friends and but before that I helped my dad open a couple of durians and ate some.

pan2 eddy

We started drinking and playing pool at a lounge and then moved somewhere where they have a…

…livelier live band. smirk

I started drinking this beer called Zoror Beer (RM 20 per jug, can’t beat that) in earnest and I knew I drank quite a lot because I have stupid photos in my camera.

pan2 jo

Me and Jo. These are not my glasses. They are Eddy’s – he put them on when I asked him about this chick – thing is he doesn’t need them. Thus, I put it on and went out front to see if it would make the girls look hotter or whether its the beer goggles.

mahal kita

Jo giving me a cheat sheet on Tagalog. I keep forgetting and she keeps telling me and finally she just wrote it down.

pan2 pinoy chick

As the night goes on, the memory becomes rather hazy…

BUT

I remember eating three whole durians when I got back, drunkenly stuffing myself full of the King of Fruits before I went to sleep. After all that drinking.

…and I’m still alive.

truestory

Live for today, deal with it tomorrow!

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coin toss

I just got a pair of adidas Originals jeans right before I was about to fly back to Sibu for the Mid Autumn Festival and an epiphany just came to me – I’ll wear the jeans during the entire 5D/4N stay in Sibu.

The fact that I haven’t packed no doubt contributed to this decision. smirk

adidas originals denims

This pair of denims is a low crotch and slim leg selection from the adidas Originals Collection and is very aptly called the Mad Cab Skinny Fit jeans. It looks like a crazed genius designer cut apart two pairs of jeans and stitched them back together in segments, much like a caterpillar.

design

The effect comes off as extremely hip (no pun intended) – it has that edgy, urban look that I don’t have in my entire denim attire.

airport

Well, I’ve been told that I’ve been losing weight…in fact, almost EVERYONE who sees me says I’m skinnier right about now. Allow me to let you in on a little secret. I was just afraid that I won’t fit into the jeans so I started to eat less. I asked for a size 30 and to the best of my memory I haven’t worn a size 30 since college. Heh.

crash

Okay, I’m kidding, I didn’t go on a crash diet or anything, in fact, I don’t know why I’ve lost weight. Like Cindy says, perhaps the most apt word is that I “ter-lose weight”. That’s Manglish (and a newly coined word to boot) for losing weight without realizing it.

mad cab skinny fit

I know I can fit into a size 30 so thus begin my chronicles. I’m sure you don’t want to see me in various camwhore poses so I’ll focus on the jeans instead. 😉

mad cab fit

Mine comes in black and is very distinctive – there are little details all around the jeans that I really like.

plane

It’s very comfortable too. I didn’t sleep before my flight coz I had to finish everything before I came back to my hometown so I took a two hour nap on the plane. The ground staff that attended to me was kind enough to reserve the entire aisle for me. The conversation went a little like this:

Check-in counter: Would you like a window seat or an aisle seat, sir?
Me: Can I have both so I can sleep on the plane?
Check-in counter: Sure.

Trust me, I am just as surprised as you are. She put me in the middle seat and blocked off both seats at the side so I can recline completely on the Boeing. Bliss.

pool

You just can’t go wrong with a pair of jeans. I’ve worn it out to casual lunches and nights out and I’ve gotten interested comments about the unique design of the Mad Cab Fit.

mad cap fit design

Someone actually asked me where I got it when I was out for drinks. Heh.

lunch

Well, another great “feature” of the black pair of denims is that if you accidentally drop some food on it, you’ll just need to brush it off…

oops

…and it’s as good as new.

no stain

You won’t even see a stain. 🙂

me

I went EVERYWHERE wearing this. I also got my hair cut, washed and colored (it was an impromptu decision) and I think my old t-shirt from my university days living on campus in Melbourne sums it up.

live for today

Live for today, deal with it tomorrow – Roberts Hall 2000

adidas originals

That’s the spirit of the adidas Originals line of denims and this Mad Cab Fit is becoming a fast favorite of mine already. It’s comfortable and cool, which are two words you don’t usually see in the same sentence.

trick shot

…and yes, I really sunk this trick shot. 🙂

Tower Chocolate Double Cheesecake

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tower chocolate double cheesecake

Before Secret Recipe opened up a branch in Sibu, the place to get quality cakes for birthdays and other celebrations was at Tanahmas Hotel. They have pretty good cheesecakes in Peppers Cafe (the hotel’s cafe) and I revisited the place with Anthea right before flying back.

jelly pisang sibu

I was here a couple of days ago to explore the mythical Sibu Famous Jelly Pisang. I had the exact same thing this time around. Heh! I noticed that the entire bottom is made out of jelly – probably a good 1/3 of it, and I really liked how the entire shaved ice dessert goes.

anthea goh

This time around I also ordered one of the cakes that caught my eye from the glass display counter.

tower cake

This is the Tower Chocolate Double Cheese. It’s a tiny cake about the size of two stacked Tiffany boxes – half of it contains their famous cheesecake and it’s topped with a layer of chocolate mousse. The entire shebang is then drizzled with chocolate sauce, a piece of their kitchen-made chocolate and a maraschino cherry.

chocolate mousse

It’s really quite good and reminds me of why Peppers Cafe used to be the king of cakes – if you wanted one, that’s where you go in Sibu. 🙂

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