kuching

Jojo Cafe

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jojo cafe

I went out for dinner with a bunch of people from different age
groups yesterday night at Jojo Cafe. I guess the best word for it
is…networking, cliche as that may sound. It was enlightening; got to
meet people from different fields e.g. management, design, publishing,
education etc. and exchange business cards.

jojo dinner network

I’ll like to give the person who first thought of the concept of
business cards a big hearty slap on the back, coz I won’t remember
names and numbers the next day otherwise. 😉 Anyway, back to the food,
Jojo Cafe is located at 3rd Mile, Kuching and serves really good curry
chicken (or so I hear).

jojo curry chicken

This is their curry chicken – the meat was tender, and the curry was
tasty. There’s nothing wrong with it, except for one thing…it doesn’t
have the spicy curry oomph that I like. It’s a good curry dish for
people who don’t take spicy food though.

jojo kailan

Here’s the kailan (a type of vegetable, stating the obvious ;))
cooked with salted fish. Now this dish is good, and hearing me say that
a vegetable dish is good means it’s really good, coz I’m not a big fan
of vegetables at all. The veggies was fresh and crunchy, and still
retains the original moisture and taste without any salted fish
contamination (unless you eat that of course).

jojo mutton soup

Next up is the mutton soup. It’s cooked with a variety of spices,
red dates, mushrooms, and all sorts of stuff. It’s basically mutton
soup, Chinese style.

jojo mutton soup bowl

I didn’t find anything noteworthy about the mutton, but the soup was well broiled and tasted great!

jojo tofu egg

This is tofu cooked with egg and vegetables, lying on top of a
lettuce bed. I can’t comment about tofu, coz long time readers would
know that I don’t like tofu. Well, I don’t like the edible kind of tofu
anyway, but the other kind of tofu… 😉

jojo mango fish

Now this is the main dish – mango fish! The fish was smothered with
a delightful mixture of unripe mangos, peanuts, raw onions, shallots,
and spring onions. It creates a wonderful fusion of colors, flavors and
different textures, and the fish was fresh to boot. This is easily the
best dish of them all – highly recommended!

jojo left behind

After eating all that, should you feel the call of nature,
management reminds you not to leave the left side of your ass behind
(though how that is possible eludes me).

Ice Shop Asia

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ice shop asia

Ice Shop Asia is the once great empire that has seen its famous
plastic cup and straw mammoth logo emblazoned all across town. Outlets
after outlets were built, expanding like the rise of Rome, swathing a
path of destruction over premium retail space like the Nazi blitzkrieg,
and taking over the outlets like…er, the British Empire.

ice shop asia dark

Alas, the glory days of Ice Shop Asia is now over, and like the rise
and fall of civilizations, Ice Shop Asia now maintains a single
battered looking outpost in the town of Kuching, the once proud metal
cup dented and fighting off rust. The single lonely remaining outlet is
the pioneering one, and there wasn’t any electricity when we were
there…

ice shop asia girl

However, there was an aesthetically pleasing young female behind the
counter, so we decided to get a drink despite the dim interior. 😉 I
ordered a passion fruit snow shake and a chocolate ice shake with
pearls. A snow shake is ice blended and does not come with pearls while
an ice shake is basically bubble tea made with ice cream instead of
syrup with optional pearl balls.

ice shop asia ice

The ice is shoveled into their standard plastic heat sealed cups…

ice shop asia ice cream
…and added with ice cream for an ice shake

ice shop asia syrup
…or added with syrup/flavoring for a snow shake/bubble tea

ice shop asia machine

Unfortunately, the device that does the ice crushing was not in
operation due to the power failure and neither was their patented,
really interesting heat sealing device (shown above). That thing
automatically heat seals the top of your plastic cup with a poke able
plastic cover, so you have to poke through it with a straw. I had so
much fun with it last time. I didn’t get the chance to do that though,
coz the machine requires electricity to operate.

ice shop asia drinks

Thus, here’s the naked (hey, didn’t came with the heat sealed
plastic cover) Ice Shop Asia drinks – the chocolate ice shake with
pearl balls is on the left and the passion fruit snow shake is on the
right.

The girl apologized for the unfortunate circumstances and I didn’t
mention anything about not being able to poke things through thin,
flimsy other things. 😉

This post is so loaded with double entendres and innuendo…

Seafood at Buntal Kuching

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buntal lim hock ann

Buntal is a fishing village about 35 minutes drive away from
Kuching. Buntal Seafood Village is a very popular place for seafood, as
it is located right on the beach and the produce is about as fresh as
it gets – straight from the sea. Lim Hock Ann Seafood is the longest
standing and most popular one in Buntal.

buntal fresh seafood

There’s a lot of fresh seafood; fish, crabs, prawns, lobsters,
oysters etc. Basically, if you can get it from the sea, they have it.
Lim Hock Ann is also popular due to it’s unique seating arrangements –
they actually have a platform suspended over the sea, with waves
lapping at the bottom while you eat!

buntal platform

Unfortunately, it was raining yesterday, so the platform was closed.
I was surprised to find a mini entourage of people waiting for me when
I came back from Sibu. I had called a friend to pick me up but when I
exited the arrivals hall, I was accosted by my friends who came in
several cars to whisk me off to Buntal. Jesus…

buntal dinner

Anyway, this is what the suspended platform looks like from one of
the photos in the popular Lim Hock Ann seafood center in Buntal:

buntal old

This outlet has been here since forever, or so it seems. It still
retains its old skool wood structures that I remember seeing when I was
still young.

buntal wood counter

Anyway, here’s what we ordered:

buntal kailan
Baby kailan
It’s a type of vegetable, very nice.

buntal butter prawns
Butter prawns
It came out very crisp and tasted divine. The granules are caramelized butter, it’s heavenly, I tell you.

buntal oyster pancake
O Chien
This is oyster pancake. I like Lim Hock Ann’s implementation of this
popular must-have seafood dish. It’s moist and there are generous
amounts of oysters scattered all around the pancake instead of just a
couple in the middle.

buntal crabs
Crabs cooked with egg and chilli

Here’s a video tour of Lim Hock Ann in Buntal:

buntal seafood

Download: Buntal Seafood [sixthseal.com]

buntal snap

I had a snapping good time, pardon the pun.

Kuching haze

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kuching haze

The haze in Kuching is getting a little (a bit of an understatement)
noticeable. I wouldn’t know what the visibility level for todayis like,
last I saw (no pun intended), the papers quoted something like 100
meters.

haze kuching

This is taken from the top of the DBKU building, overlooking
Kuching. This shows the hazy conditions towards the residential areas,
the first photo shows the town area. If you squint a little, you might
notice two distinct fires going, from the smoke plumes going up.

haze open burning

No doubt caused by open burning on our side and not just our friends down under.

I don’t mind though…haze makes everything look more misty and romantic, sorta. 😉

Atlantis, Kuching

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atlantis kuching

This is Atlantis in Kuching. Atlantis is located below Junkyard.
It’s billed as a “music cafe” but it’s more like the homogenized
pub/disco/lounge/club with a pool table and TV set unholy
conglomerations that have proliferated in this part of the country.

atlantis interior

We were there on Saturday night, drinking Chivas and beer – it’s
someone’s birthday, but it seems like there’s one every weekend so I
don’t know whose it is. 😉 Here’s another shot…

atlantis inside

…and a video clip.

atlantis

Download: Atlantis, Kuching [sixthseal.com]

Serotonin depletion…but it’s worth it. More on that later.

Ice Sculpture Exhibition

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ice sculpture fest

The Ice Sculpture Exhibition is dubbed “The Coolest August Festival”
and they mean it literally – the temperature inside is -8 degrees
Celcius. That’s minus eight degrees below zero to prevent the ice
sculptures made by the ice carvers from Harbin, China from melting.

ice sculpture tickets

The ice festival feature amazing works carved out of gigantic blocks
of ice and is housed inside a temperature controlled room. I managed to
get a half priced ticket (RM 10) by using my old uni student ID card.
😉 The normal admission price for adults is RM 20.

sweater change

That’s inclusive of a free sweater, and an unlimited time inside.
The coats are handed out before you enter the freezing enclosure.

ice 2004 kuching

The first thing that greets you (besides the blast of freezing air)
is this huge cat made completely out of ice. I was amazed by the size
and finesse that must have gone into this piece of work. It’s based on
the Kuching cat, one paw raised in greeting.

ice nativity scene

This is a nativity scene showing the birth of Jesus Christ
(bananas). Look at the intricate design of the hay in the manger
interpretation. The cot itself has a lot of carved patterns on it. It’s
amazing!

ice eiffel tower

The Eiffel Tower of Paris is also featured in the ice sculpture exhibition. The scale of it is amazing, it towers above people.

ice gates me

Here’s another massive ice sculpture to show you the scale of the
interior. This is me standing in front of the Beijing Ceremonial Arch.
The entire interior is made out of ice!

ice pheonix sun

This is another design I like – it’s a piece of work called Phoenix Facing The Sun.

ice turtle

Turtle: OMG, the world has frozen around me and I can’t get up!

Here’s a mini tour of the ice sculpture exhibition, a longer video will be available at the end of the post:

ice inside

Download: Ice Exhibition Interior [sixthseal.com]

ice an pergola

This is another marvelous piece of art – the An Pergola. I give this Best of Show. The design is impeccable.

ice chairs

Lest we get tired, there is ice chairs located inside for people to
rest their weary legs. The entire bench is made out of huge blocks of
ice.

ice barren trees

The side of the interior is decorated with barren winter trees and
small piles of ice. It really contributes to the ambience of the ice
sculpture fest.

ice 12 zodiac

This is a long display of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. I have a movie featuring the ice sculpted animals here:

ice zodiac

Download: Ice 12 Chineze Zodiac [sixthseal.com]

ice me rooster

I was born in 1981, so that makes me a Rooster.

ice maze

There is also an ice maze made out of blocks of ice in the middle of
the exhibition. It’s wonderful, the variety of interactive sculptures
available inside.

ice palace

Speaking of interactive sculptures, this is the ice palace, with
steps leading up to a balcony which overlooks the entire exhibition…

ice slide structure

…and an ice slide down to the bottom! 🙂

ice slide

I went down the ice slide twice – they charge a nominal fee of RM 1
per slide, and you get a mat so your pants won’t get wet and make your
underwear all soggy and all that.

ice longhouse

There is also an intricate ice sculpture of a longhouse – possibly the most complicated sculpture inside.

longhouse detail

Look at the detail the ice carvers put into this one – it has a proper structure, with rooms!

longhouse very detailed

It’s very detailed – steps going up into the longhouse and windows on each room.

ice slideway russian 1

Here’s another complicated ice sculpture – A Slideway Russian Style Building.

ice slideway russian 2

It also features a mini ice slide, this one is free, but the slide
is too short for most adults. I would recommend giving the long curving
slide a go instead.

ice liuhe pagoda

This is the Liuhe Pagoda – a massive structure that competes with
the Eiffel Tower in size. I liked this one more, the lighting is better.

Here’s a video tour of the ice sculpture festival:

ice tour

Download: Ice Sculpture Exhibition Tour [sixthseal.com]

ice snake end

I would highly (no pun intended) recommend a visit to the Ice
Sculpture Exhibition if you’re in Kuching. It ends on the 15th of
August and it’s located at the MBKS grounds. I’ll rate it as a must
visit – you won’t be disappointed, it’s beautiful in there!

Kuching Festival 2004

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kuching festival

Kuching Fest 2004 is the annual Kuching city festival which starts
on 1st August 2004. I was there last night with a couple of my friends
and this is the coverage of the event on the first day. The main focus
is on the food fest – that seems to be the most popular one every time.
There are also two videos for download – one with the fireworks display
and the other with two girls singing on the stage.

This is the video of the fireworks display to start of Kuching Festival 2004:

kf04 fireworks

Download: Kuching Fest 2004 fireworks [sixthseal.com]

This is a video of the fireworks display of Kuching Fest 2004 on the
first day. It was good – lasted for about 15 minutes or so and some of
the fireworks were impressive.

open air food court

The ground of Kuching Fest 2004 is largely taken up by a massive
open air food court. There were numerous stalls offering everything
from Iban Bamboo Cooked Chicken to Taiwan Sausages (with spicy, regular
and sweet options) lining the sides and tables and chairs in the
middle. There is also an indoor and outdoor area for exhibitors but I
did not find that noteworthy, so this will mainly cover the food fest –
the one which everyone goes to Kuching Fest for! 🙂

food court people

The stalls offer a staggering amount of food options and we were
spoilt for choice…so we had a bit of everything. I remember eating
crab claws, yam prawn, blueberry yoghurt, ice cream, nasi kandar,
Taiwan sausages, sour duck, lok lok, roti susu, and something called
“love noodles”. It was a feast!

sausage iban food

L-R: Double Dragon Taiwan Sausage stall, Tenggiri + Pork Sio Bee/Mua
Chee stall (delicious), Iban Food stall with tuak (native rice wine at
RM 6), and chicken cooked in bamboo, amongst other things.

taiwan sausages

Here’s another stall selling Taiwan sausages at RM 2 each. Very,
very nice. It’s much better than the first one. I think there’s at
least 4 different stalls selling Taiwan sausages there.

briyani cafe

Briyani Cafe offering different rotis, murtabaks and briyani dishes.

lok lok

Lok lok!

ching chen noodles

Ching Chen and their Cinta Noodles.

mukah seafood

Mukah Seafood Center was there too. They have umai, a local raw fish dish.

regular sausages

Sausages galore! This is the regular ones though.

seafood cha kueh

Asian BBQ Seafood stall beside a hawker stall selling cha kueh, fried kueh tiaw and other staples.

richmond place

Richmond Place offering New Zealand Fish and Chips. There are also other franchises like Sugarbun and KFC there.

yoghurt stall

There is a stall offering Natural Home Made Yoghurt. I was a bit
dubious about this, due to the odd color of the yoghurt. It looked more
like agar agar than yoghurt to me. However, I got one and was
pleasantly surprised.

yoghurt blueberry

The blueberry yoghurt is surprisingly good. It tastes like what
proper yoghurt should be and the blueberry adds to the texture of the
yoghurt.

emperor dragon whisker sweet

Emperor Dragon Whisker Sweet. It’s those little balls of rolled confectionary.

sour duck

Batu Kawa’s 1st Sour Duck.

banana leaf

Banana Leaf – offering dishes served on…well, a banana leaf.

tables of food

Proletarians like us can only dream about seating in this cordoned
off area. 😉 The tables are filled with the various stalls offerings
and are for invited “guests of honor” also known as the “I paid RM
100,000 for this Datuk title” club.

food eating competition

The proles had their own eating competition though.

crab claw

Crab claw with minced chicken and yam prawns. The former didn’t have
much crab in it and but the latter was good – prawns fried with a yam
batter.

sweet corn

This stall offers a novel twist to the standard sweet corn snack – it’s barbecued. The stall beside is Emperor Grill Chicken.

ice cream

This is an ice cream cone with two scoops of chocolate and corn
flavored ice cream. It’s topped with a wafer, a single cherry and nuts.
Divine.

indon asam kari mee

There are all sorts of culinary delights at the fest – this one is Indon Asam Kari Mee. There’s a stall selling paus beside it.

Here’s another kind of feast – one for your eyes:

kf04 stage

Download: Kuching Fest 2004 Stage [sixthseal.com]

This video shows two girls singing the Sha La La song with choreographed movements on the stage in Kuching Fest 2004.

kuching fest crowd

The festival ground was packed – people, people, everywhere. Each
one of them jostling to walk past the mass of humanity that was
present. It seems that Kuching denizens came out in full force for the
first day, don’t expect to park anywhere near the location since the
roads were lined with double parked cars.

kuching fest 04

It was worth it though – Kuching Fest 2004 lasts for a month, and you won’t be disappointed if you drop by.

Hock Huat Chinese Pasty

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hock huat chinese pasty

Hock Huat Chinese Pasty is an odd name for this establishment. They
have a couple of token pastries of Chinese origin but what the stall
really sells is chiffon cakes. It’s the flagship item.

hock huat cheddar chiffon

Now, I’m not a big fan of chiffon cakes, coz I used to eat a lot of
mediocre ones when I was younger. However, I decided to try one of
these, since a cheddar cheese chiffon cake does sound rather intriguing.

hock huat cheddar prune

The proprietor told me they specialize in two kind of chiffon cakes
– cheddar cheese and prune ones. It’s sold in halves for RM 5. That’s
half a cake, enough to fill most people, it went down just nicely for
me.

hock huat himself

This is the owner of the place. I think he might very well be Hock
Huat, but I didn’t think to ask. Instead, I asked to go into his baking
space and take photos.

hock huat chiffon prep

He showed me this large steel bowl which had a lot of oil (or melted
butter) and a tiny sprinkling of flour inside. There’s an automatic
beater preparing this one, which I was told is the first step.

hock huat chiffon make

Here’s the important second step – the one that really matters. I
know, coz he told me three times. I think it had something to do with
the indirect heating (double boiling) method. He was very enthusiastic
about stirring the chiffon cake mixture too. This one is the prune
chiffon.

hock huat chiffon

I bought half of a Kraft cheddar cheese chiffon cake for RM 5. It
made me instantly discard my long simmering prejudice against chiffon
cakes. It’s delicious! The chiffon cake is very soft, with a
melt-in-your-mouth texture. The cheese flavors came through just
nicely. I was amazed at how soft the chiffon cake is, it practically
disintegrated when I put it into my mouth. Highly recommended!

Snow Flakes

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snow flakes

This dry and unbearably hot weather warranted a visit to Snow Flakes
@ Tun Jugah Food Court during lunch hour. I decided on Sour Sop.

bring me ice

Bring me ice! Lots of it. Make haste! I’m burning up…

soursop snowflake

This is what it looks like – it has dragon fruit (again! w00t!) over
a bed of nice, refreshing sour sop, pineapples and a lime in the
middle. It’s heaven. Heaven, I tell you…

my snowflake

Perfect for a hot day.

snow flake 2

This is what one of my co-workers had. I don’t know what he ordered but I’m sure just looking at the photo will cool you down.

snow flake 3

Here’s another one, the heat wave made us walk to this oasis. This
place is really good, the snow flakes (a pretentious name for crushed
ice) is milky sweet.

In other related news, I’m now Senior Systems Engineer. I just got
back from work. Go secure that RM 3 million in VC funds tomorrow, team!
Go go go! =D

Central Market, Kuching

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central market

This is Central Market in Kuching. It’s only open on Sundays. I was
liberated from my slumber from one of my friends to go along with him
and his girlfriend, and I thought, why not…

upside down plants

There are all sorts of things there, strange things like this upside down plant.

sugarcane drink

It was a hot day, iced sugarcane drinks are a must…

central market us

L-R: Huai Bin (me), Miriam, Ah Lung

I know my pants are falling down; most of my attire doesn’t fit anymore without a belt.

keropok lekor

We ate our way through the market. This is keropok lekor, which I
assume is some kind of fish. There were samples and I thought it was
pretty good, so I got some. It tastes like real fish.

strange stuff

There were strange stuff on offer…these are edible.

assorted kuih

Here’s a stall with assorted kuih. The long phallic looking things
in the middle is a derivative of the fish keropok, or so I’m told.

drinks stall

This is a drinks stall with old skool 60 cent bottled sodas.
Memories…back when I was young, we didn’t have enough pocket money to
buy anything but these.

textiles

Textiles…

rm 160 dogs

RM 160 canines…

cacti

Cacti – none of them psychoactive, unfortunately.

cats

My favorite – cats!

quails

These are quails – note the quail egg at the side. I’ve never seen quails this huge before.

feline

Stop looking at me like that, feline…

goldfish

I’ll give you some goldfish to eat if you want?

pearl grass

Pearl grass at RM 10 per plot. Jesus, the grass at my house back
home looks exactly like this. You can have that for free if you want.

parang

Here’s some parangs for sale.

parang exposed

Doesn’t look all that sharp to me. I’ll stick to balisongs, thanks.

figurines

Scary figurines to bring the wrath of the god(s) down on yourself or
to bring good fortune to your enemies. Or is it the other way round?

huge rabbit

Fuck, this is one HUGE rabbit. It scared me.

vegetarian drumsticks

The stall owner told me these are “vegetarian drumsticks”. I got one to try.

veggie drumsticks

It’s pretty good actually, and the “bone” is made of a slice of sugarcane…sweetens the whole thing.

salted fish

Salted fish anyone?

deep fried stall

Here’s a stall offering deep fried stuff.

goreng pisang

I saw they just got a batch of goreng pisang out, so I got some of that.

huge sotongs

I also had some of these huge sotongs…it’s a WHOLE sotong on a
skewer. Note the body at the end and the tendrils (or whatever
appendages they have) on the front.

I’m heading out again, will reply all the comments later. See ya!

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