kuching

ABC Seafood @ Topspot Seafood, Kuching

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abc seafood

ABC Seafood (also known as Ah Seng Seafood) is arguably the most
popular seafood restaurant at Topspot Seafood, which is a whole level
dedicated to produce from the sea, located at the top of a car park.
ABC Seafood Restaurant is Stall #10, but you can’t miss it – it’s the
biggest stall in the place with garish neon lights that makes sure you can’t miss it. 😉

abc choices

There are a lot of choices to make the “main dish”, which would be
pickings from this large display of items. I usually head here first.

abc fish display

It has a large fish display, which we choose a fillet from. ABC
Seafood is popular due to their fresh seafood. There’s a large range of
fish on display, from small to big, whole to filleted.

abc lobster

There is also a wide range of large lobsters and prawns to choose from…

abc bamboo clams

Of course, bamboo clams are aplenty over here. You can’t miss out on
this if you’re visiting Kuching – it’s only available fresh from the
mudflats of Kuching.

abc pick

The best thing I like about eating here is the memorable ritual of
choosing what you want for the obligatory “vegetable” dish. There are
crab sticks, various fishballs, quail eggs (my favorite!), baby corn to
“sweeten up” the dish, peas in a pod, carrots and non-magical mushrooms.

abc pick mix

This is the dish that we had. You basically grab whatever you want
to eat and everyone does the same and piles it into the same dish. It
gets cooked by the cook and is the first one to be served. I remember
doing this even when I was little, while visiting Kuching. Nostalgic.

abc mixed dish

Here is what the mixed dish looks like after it’s cooked. There’s
quail eggs (of course), crab balls, crab sticks, sea cucumber, prawns,
pod peas, broccoli, baby corn etc. The restaurant always sprinkles
cashew nuts on top of the dish before it’s served. This imparts a nice
crunchy texture to the dish and a sweet aftertaste.

abc bamboo clam cooked

The second dish to be served is the acclaimed bamboo clam. Bamboo
clams tastes like mussels, and it’s usually cooked in curry powder.
This stuff is great, I tell you…

abc fish cooked

Next up, came the fish. We chose to have the fillet deep fried and cooked in sweet and sour sauce.

abc butter prawn

The butter prawns came next and I just love this stuff. ABC
Seafood’s butter prawns come with chilies, which adds a nice
spicy-sweet aftertaste. I must shake the hand of the person who thought
of deep frying prawns with butter. There’s this sweetness to the
“butter scrapings” that is just so memorable that I salivate just
thinking about dinner last night…

abc o chien

Of course, no seafood dinner is complete without “O-Chien” or oyster pancake.

abc giant fishhead

It’s a great meal, but I wish we had enough room for that gigantic
fish head. It looks radioactive blue and I bet it would be good in a
radioactive curry fish head dish…

Magenta, Kuching

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magenta door

Magenta is the premier restaurant in Kuching, nestled in a private
alcove off a little side street. This eating establishment has been in
operation for about a year, and it has a reputation for fine dining.

magenta entrance

The private car park leads up to a cozy wooden structure, all very
nicely decorated in a subtle yet elegant manner, nothing loud or
vociferous here.

magenta

Subtlety is the key in Magenta. Elegance and subtlety.

magenta buddha

The ambience inside is very warm, with ample space between the
various seating arrangements and a waiter waiting to greet you at the
door. Excellent service all the way, I was very impressed.

magenta ambience

The other thing I like is that Magenta does not pack the area with
tables and chairs for maximum profit like other eating establishments
out there, but leaves ample room between tables. The decor is nicely
done too…it exudes a feeling of warm appreciation.

magenta mango beer

I had a mango smoothie which was very thick and they don’t skimp on
the fruits. We also had several rounds of this foreign beer I can’t
remember. It’s RM 15 but the beer really pampers your taste buds with
after notes of honey.

magenta prawn tail
Spit-roasted Soy-marinated Prawn Tail on roasted Red Pepper & Garlic Coulis (RM 20)

This is the starter dish that we shared. Actually, we just ate from
everyone’s plate so that we could try everything. The prawn tail is
good, but it’s nothing to write home about.

magenta linguini
Linguine with Seafood in a White Wine sauce with Garlic, Chilli and Cilantro (RM 26)

The linguine is one of our mains – it’s excellent, the pasta is done
al dente, with generous portions of mussels, squid, cuttlefish and
prawns. The dish is sprinkled with oregano, a nice touch and what seems
to be the signature of the chef here.

magenta orecchiette
Orecchiette with Tomatoes, Prawns and Parmesan Cheese (RM 25)

This Puglian pasta dish looks simple, but it tastes very good. It
has a nice home-cooked Italian flavor and the sauce and grated Parmesan
cheese works very well with it. Jesus, I’m starting to get pretentious
in my food reviews. 😉

magenta duck leg
Duck Leg Confit & Shredded Duck Breast with Honey Wine Jus and Creamy Tagliatelle Pasta (RM 46)

This duck leg confit is recommended by the chef…and I was
certainly not disappointed. It’s a great main course, the duck is
cooked well and retains its natural flavors. The duck leg portion is
generous too and it does not have the rubbery texture of badly done
duck. Highly recommended!

magenta us

Magenta is a great place for fine dining and the food is great. The
chef comes out at times to speak with the patrons and the service is
excellent – right from the start where the waiter unfolds the serviette
for you to the generous allowance they provide the patrons (we were
rather boisterous). The bill came up to RM 200+ and it’s well worth it
for a place of this magnitude. Magenta gets two thumbs up from me – I
haven’t seen a better fine dining place in Kuching.

bing! lamb wrap

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bing bernice

I didn’t go out for lunch today due to a backlog of work that I need
to get done. I wasn’t hungry anyway, so I just figured I’ll skip lunch.
However, Bernice came in with a paper bag from bing!

bing lamb wrap open

She bought me a lamb wrap from bing! the coffee shop that everyone seems to like in Kuching.

bing lamb wrap sauces

The lamb wrap comes with a small tub of sauces – mustard, chilli and mayonnaise and the familiar orange bing! sticker.

bing lamb wrap opened

I’ve never had their wraps before – there’s a lot of crisp, fresh
lettuce with a bed of lamb meat. I like the taste of game, as she
knows. I like mutton.

bing lamb wrap

I just poured the tub of sauce into the wrap, rolled it up and ate it. It’s good. Thanks for lunch, Bernice! 🙂

Jade Pot Tea House

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jade pot tea house

I’ve often passed by this eating establishment, coz the place to pay
utility bills here is just beside it, but I’ve never been there for
lunch before. I went today with my coworker for lunch.

jade ambience

The ambience of the place is alright, it’s pretty crowded during
lunch hour and the popularity of this place surprised me. The cuisine
is self-dubbed Taiwanese.

jade counter bar

This is the main counter. I found the mix of ancient Chinese tea cups and wine glasses to be pretty odd…

jade drunken lady

I had a concoction called Drunken Lady for my drink. I can’t
establish what is inside i.e. what it’s made of, but Bernice says she
tasted Ribena, but I didn’t.

jade taiwan beef noodles

This is what I ordered for my main meal – Taiwanese Style beef
noodles. It was recommended by the waitress as being their flagship
dish and the most popular one. It was alright, but nothing to write
home about.

jade spicy noodles

This is what Bernice had – Spicy noodles. We both agreed that it
wasn’t spicy enough. It seems that we’re similar in this sense…we
like to eat ultra spicy food. Heh!

jade bernice me

Jade Pot Tea House. Pay your utility bills and eat at the same time!

Kuching Waterfront Merdeka Day 2004 National Closing Ceremony

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w04 waterfront

There was apparently some sort of big brouhaha going on at Kuching
Waterfront last night, due to our inability to achieve some semblance
of mobilization with the car due to the traffic massive congestion.
It’s Penutupan Bulan Kemerdekaan Peringkat Kebangsaan or Closing Ceremony for Merdeka (Independence) Day at the National Level.

w04 first

Since we’re effectively rendered immobile, we decided to brave the
throngs of people and see what’s going on in there. Kuching Waterfront
has been designated as the National venue for the end of Independence
Day celebrations.

w04 crowd

There was a huge police presence and an even larger crowd, probably due to the bigwigs, er, I mean, dignitaries that were there. 😉

It started off with a colorful boat parade:

kch wfront1

Download: Kuching Waterfront Boat Parade [sixthseal.com]

There were a lot of colorful neon boats floating down the river – 14 in all, each representing the 14 states of Malaysia.

w04 tie fighter
Here is one that looks like a Tie Fighter.

w04 biggest

There was also arcs of light to illuminate the skies, as it were. Here’s another video of it:

kch wfront2

Download: Kuching Waterfront Boats [sixthseal.com]

w04 bigwig arrive

There was a loud police boat escorting a yatch ferrying the
dignitaries after that. They docked beside the river and drove the fans
(?) crazy with all that flag waving and loud cheering.

w04 bigwig dock

I know the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was there, that’s the highest
royalty figure in Malaysia. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was there as
well, and that’s the top guy in Malaysia.

w04 bigwigs

The other entourage comprises of varies Chief Ministers and Heads of States. Political figures.

w04 performers
The performers waiting to go to the…

w04 float
…floating platform in the middle of the river.

There were people waiting dockside to go to the floating performance
stage (probably for security reasons) and there was some dancing and
singing after that. We promptly left. 😉

Hui Sing Hawker Center

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hui sing

Hui Sing Hawker Center in Hui Sing Garden is one of the most popular
hawker centers in Kuching. I used to frequent this place when I was
studying in Inti College last time, and it’s been a long while since I
revisited this nostalgic food center, so I went back with a couple of
friends last night.

hui sing my home

This is My Home Fast Food which serves chap fun or mixed
rice, which is also called economy rice, fast food, amongst other
things. Basically, you get a plate of white rice and you choose from
the variety of dishes available.

hui sing fast food

This is the very same place which I used to frequent and it has been
in business for a long time. They have a wide variety of choices and
IMHO, it’s the best one in Hui Sing Hawker Center.

hui sing cutlery

The cutlery from this stall is available from a hot water soaker,
pictured above. It contains fairly hot water, so it’s a good idea to
fish out the spoons and forks instead of reaching in with your fingers.

hui sing white lady

Hui Sing Garden also has very novel drinks, the most popular one
being a concoction called “White Lady”. It’s a mixture of lemon,
pineapple, laici, sago pearls and lime, with milk holding the whole
concoction together. It’s divine, and very deserving of it’s moniker.

hui sing cuttle

This is cuttlefish with vegetables, a popular side dish that one of
my friends ordered. This implementation is good – they slather the
cuttlefish and veggies with the sauce and grounded peanuts instead of
putting the sauce on the side.

hui sing cuttle mix

This is what it looks like after it’s been mixed. You have to mix it around to cover everything.

hui sing satay

The satay over at Hui Sing is also pretty good. It comes with the standard cucumbers, raw onion slices and ketupat.

hui sing food

This is what my dish looks like – I had pork leg, sweet and sour pork and stuffed bitter gourd.

Meet the new employees of Huygens Asia!

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huygens new staff
L-R: Ted Fook, Dominic Liew, Bernice Cheng Shu Yee.

Three new people come in today to join the company. We had a
recruitment drive and this is the new wave that passed the interview
stage. It’s the start of the month and my new coworkers are the new
batch of people to be part of the Huygens Asia team.

huygens bernice

This is Bernice Cheng, our new Marketing Executive.

huygens bernice me

Naturally, this being sixthseal.com, this is me with Bernice, the only female in this batch. 😉

Martial Arts Festival ’04

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martial arts fest

This is the annual martial arts event which spans all the
disciplines like karate, taekwondo, silat, wushu, and yes, even tai
chi. It’s held along a closed off street – I hear it’s always Jalan
Song Thien Cheok. I was caught in traffic congestion when they closed
off the street in the afternoon and cordoned off the entire area.

setting up

The actual event is held at 8 pm but they were already setting up
the stalls and preparing for the event way before the scheduled time.

little kids

There were lots of little kids…

senior citizens

…as well as some not-so-little kids.

molest tying belt

I saw little kids being molested…nah, I’m just kidding, the
instructor was trying to tie the belt on a funny kid who was trying to
run away.

ambulance

There was also an ambulance there, just in case someone…oh, I don’t know, gets muscle cramps or breaks a fingernail. 😉

tai chi

The event started with tai chi 18/4 (or something) which had
instructors getting a long line of people involved, as well as the
spectators. Watch the decidedly amusing clip here:

ma04 tai chi

Download: Tai Chi 18 4 video [sixthseal.com]

I promptly decided I have better things to do on a Saturday night after this, so I wrapped up the event. 😉

team prep

The teams were on the sidewalk preparing for their on-stage performances.

silat food

The silat (Malay martial arts) group told me that performing is hungry work.

I watched the Wushu team prepare for stage:

ma04 wushu prac

Download: Wushu team practise video [sixthseal.com]

black belt guy

I got a black belt guy to pose for me…

silat pose

…as well as the silat group

Lest anyone gets any ideas that sixthseal.com has changed its direction…

girls pose

…rest assured, I got some girls to pose for me too.

My vote goes to far left. 😉

RM 300 monthly salary increase!

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huygens rm 300

I now pull in RM 2,500 with this permanent RM 300 monthly “transport
allowance” that I just got. It’s a token of appreciation for my work in
securing proposals before the annual KPI salary increase, which I hope
will push me into the RM 3k region. 😉

One can wish. Heh!

Oh, and I thought up the company new slogan too – Huygens means assurance. Simple, but I’m rather fond of it. It’s going into our new batch of business cards.

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