Eat, ate, eaten in Ipoh!

[Continuation post of CNY in Ipoh...]

Ipoh, they say is a factory that manufactures leng luis which I cannot deny (*ahem, shamelessly points self) but more distinctively is a land of good food. I shall not harp on the obvious as it is already a very well known and accepted fact :)

Even Wikipedia says so.



We brought HB to our favourite Kai See Hor Fun (Shredded Chicken Hor Fun) stall which is run and managed by E's music teacher at Lok Wee Kui coffeeshop, just opposite the famous Salted Chicken. I've blogged about this here. Seriously, this is one bowl of kai see hor fun that I will not be sick of. It's just so darn good, I love the added shrimp oil for the extra flavour and colour! It was so good I had a regular bowl on Chor 2 and a big serving on Chor 3 before embarking home...



One of the must have in Ipoh would be the big fat juicy beansprouts, known only to be grown and available in Ipoh due to the natural limestone water. HB isn't a big fan of beansprouts but he gave his 2 thumbs up!



At the same coffeeshop, HB and Z had the Chee Cheong Fun in just sesame oil and a little soy sauce with some fried shallots and preserved green chillis. We have always grown up to love this version of the CCF as it is 1) simple 2) delicious 3) delicious 4) delicious 5) erm, delicious???

The only place where I found this style of CCF served is in Petaling Street, blogged previously here.





At the same coffeeshop again, we ordered some fried wantan, fu pei, meatballs, fishballs and fishcakes. It was nothing worth boasting, maybe because when we eat at Lok Wee Kui, we only go for the kai see hor fun and nothing else. For these 'liu', we'd prefer the ones at Dai Shu Geok. I miss the fried 'liu' so much!



Another famous item on the list is Ipoh White Coffee. We went to the place where Ipoh White Coffee was born, somewhere along Jalan Bukit Timah where all the famous coffeeshops are located- Sin Yuan Loong, Nam Heong and Kong Heng. We went to Nam Heong as Sin Yuan Loong was closed. There were 4 of us but only 3 white coffees and a herbal drink. Guess who didn't have the white coffee despite telling us that Wikipedia said Ipoh White Coffee is famous? ;)



Ipoh Char Kuey Teow to satisfy our CKT cravings!



And a bowl of assorted Yong Tou Foo to have a try on alittle bit of this and alittle bit of that ;) Oooh, note that the fishballs are not in conventional 'ball' size but flattened! Looks abit like those black white pieces in Go (a board game). The YTF taste pretty good, with the fish paste fresh and springy.



Quite miserly, right? An eggtart into 4 quarters. Nah, we were too full to have one ourselves. Tastewise, it's decent but my favourite would still be the ones from Hong Kee @ Cockman Street which is rumoured to have 40+ layers of pastry. Unbeatable. Yum yumm.

Just when we thought it was impossible to get anyone to snap a picture for us (there was an absolutely crazy crowd, packed like sardines, busy waiters... HB assured us that someone will be able to take a picture for us, he can ALWAYS get one.



So, yeah a kind hearted soul snapped a picture of us thanks to the persuasive power of a famous blogger :)

Read HB's take on Nam Heong Coffeeshop, from a Sibu boy point-of-view.

Chinese New Year '09

Red packets lining up

Meant to write on the first 3 days of CNY sooner but laziness got the better of me, as usual :D


Test shot using the tripod

CNY this year was no different from the previous years, the CNY Day 1 tradition prevails:
1) Serving tea,
2) Say some auspicious wishes,
3) Get ang pao, and
4) Mission accomplished!


Here's wishing you...

I wished my Dad in Mandarin this year, putting to use what I've learnt in Mandarin class afew days back. My wish to him was (translated to English because obviously I can't type in Mandarin), "Gong Xi Fa Chai, may you have plenty this year, big prawns and big fish to eat. May the stock market rise up and goes down as you please, everyday you'll have big prawns to eat."

If you translate in to Mandarin, it actually rhymes (though not a very good rhyme but whaddaheck, my Dad doesn't understand anyway! haha).

To my Mom, it was, "May you be healthy, wealthy and lucky!" I love rhymes :D


Obligatory Family Picture

After the neccessary procedures to get our ang pao, we had the obligatory family picture. This time around, it was much easier than engaging a neighbour to snap a photo for us as we have a tripod! And a dSLR! Big smiles :DDD


Dad and I

Later on, we headed back to Ipoh. Our special guest for this year (not that we have one every year) was Huai Bin, better known as sixthseal.com! He was family-less for CNY this year due to some last minute compulsory leave announcement and crazy airfares (even AirAsia couldn't help him), so Eiling invited him to have The Ultimate CNY with The Lim Family.


Q+A+2+A+7 = 21!!

... where he got coaxed to be the banker and had some tough times getting his returns on his investments ;) Nevertheless, I think he had a great time being the God of Prosperity, did you HB?


HB with EZY + Cousins


EZY + HB

But of course, being the gracious hosts that we are, we even brought HB to Mom's old classmates gathering (Read: Get more ang pao) but we were only treated to instant noodles, KFC, free flow of packet drinks and lucky for HB, free flow of Martell. The Martells were opened after what seemed like 30 years, according to the owner.

We left soon after filling our tummies knowing that there won't be any harvest that night :(

It should be made a Universal Rule that married adults hand out ang paos as soon as they detect unmarried children (sorry over 30 years old cannot). Now, who's with me?


sixthseal.com in action!

Well you know what they say, "If you have not try Ipoh food, then you have not been to Ipoh!" We brought this Sibu boy around town to savour the best of Ipoh food- Char Kuey Teow, Beansprouts, Kai See Hor Fun, White Coffee, Chee Cheong Fun... and even Chinese Restaurant Food! Another post on that later ;)


Best girlfriend, Yi Fang & I

On the 2nd day, the whole entourage tagged along to Yi Fang's place which is well known to be THE Place to hang out or have friends gathering/reunion because of the lush and spacious compound for a bunch of twenty-somethings to fool around. Cliche I know, everyone has grown up. The number of people turning up for such reunions decrease every year (according to statistics) due to the many of them being abroad and such.


Happy birthday to me... again!

To compensate for my sad birthday last year, Yi Fang made it all up for me by buying quite a few boxes (note the red boxes in a plastic bag behind us) of cakes and had me blow the candles like I turned 21 on that day. *sniff sniff* Thanks woman!


Ipoh friends, sisters, and a famous blogger

Before we bade farewell and what seem like forever before we see each other again, we had to take a group picture!! Well it's not always an everyday affair you get the best of 3 worlds together in a picture, eh?

We had initially planned to stay for a night in Ipoh but ended up extending our stay to 2 nights as some relatives had come down from JB. To end the trip on a sweet note for HB, we brought him to the famous Funny Mountain for some super good Tau Foo Fah.



Click here for HB's side of the story:
CNY in Ipoh
Ang pow collection for CNY

Because BLINGS rhymes with...

LINGS :)


http://lingsnblings.blogspot.com

This is a pimp for our online boutique :)


We are reviewed at Shopping Critique!

Everything is handmade by Eiling and I. So if you're interested to buy a gift for someone or to bling up your life, do head on to our site at http://lingsnblings.blogspot.com. If we know you personally (ie. online/offline friends) we'll even throw in a 10% discount for you! At the moment, we have a range of pendants and earrings in our collection. I am also making cufflinks and wine markers as well.

/ends pimp

CNY Re-NIU-on Dinner

During those olden days, maybe about 8-10 years ago when grandma was still much healthier and stronger (and when we were still living in Ipoh), my sisters and I would be anticipating for CNY Reunion Dinner. Every year, we would be looking forward for the Chinese festive season as we would get to meet and play with our cousins from KL (though things change when you get older, like now) and CNY would also mean Good Food. Grandma would head the kitchen section and whip up awesome CNY dishes such as the obligatory Steamed Chicken, Braised Sea Cucumber, Mushrooms, Prawns, Roasted Pork Belly etc. But as years passed, so did her age and her health, we started eating out.



This year was a little special though as grandma didn't join us for Reunion Dinner as she headed back to Ipoh much earlier and those residing in KL didn't want to join the CNY Traffic Jam Frenzy and decided to stay on till Chor 1 to go back. Mom took on the position of Head of Kitchen this year, a position I suppose noone wants to assume given the stressful nature of the job eventhough it comes by only once a year.



My aunty took on the task to prepare a homemade Yee Sang. I know it's nothing big to shout about since every household probably is doing the same (Read: Recession, Global Economic Downturn, Gloomy 2009, Unemployment, No Money) but 2 thumbs up for the effort as every ingredient is grated so finely it is almost as good as bought. I love the abundance of crackers and the vibrant color! It makes all the gloominess of the economy fade away even if it's just for a moment...



In total, we had about 10 courses. All at one sitting. Or rather all at once in a Big Pot. Yes, you're right, Mom made Pun Choy this year. I don't think there's a suitable translation for this in English but literally translated, it means Big Bowl of Goodies. It was quite a blood and sweat painstaking effort to prepare this as evidenced by my mom taking 2 days to prepare all these. There were the obligatory Steamed Chicken, Prawns, Vege, Roasted Pork Belly, Sea Cucumber, Pig Skin with Fish Paste, Mushrooms, Abalone and Scallops. Most of the ingredients were braised and then topped it off with the steamed items. The gravy at the bottom was excellent and bursting with flavours to go with the rice. Everyone loved the Pun Choy and it was done at a good budget too.



Two big pots of this were polished and we even had another pot to spare which was prepared to be taken back to Ipoh for grandma to savour. Finally we have someone to takeover the Head of Kitchen position for CNY though I am doubtful Mom will assume the post next year as it is really taxing and tiring to prepare a feast for 14 mouths.



We had 2 bottles of French red wine to go with the dinner- Chateau Haut-Carmaillet (Haut-Médoc 2000) and Vosne Romanée 1999. Red Wine is the new Chinese Tea for Chinese meals now :D After the feast, my dad led the older kids to a new experience of smoking cigar-illos. These kids (actually it's just my 2 cousin brothers who's in college now) were asked to give smoking a try right in front of their mother's face. My dad, who was quite a smoker back then quit smoking in 1999 proudly breaking his 10 year 'no-smoking policy' and had his first cigar puff. My cousin brothers followed suit (much to the disappointment of their mother who said, "No wonder you all like to come here. Every year got new things to try out.") Back then when colored hair was the in-thing but we weren't allow to dye our hair in school, we taught them about it by buying brushed on hair color and that CNY all of us had pink, blue, blonde and red hair- it was quite a traumatizing LaLa sight.



Now with a feast and a puff, what's next? A drink and a friendly pre-CNY card game of course! ;-) We had the Macallan 12 Yrs which I got free from my liquor supplier at work. Truth to be told, the 12 Yrs wasn't that awesome- we found it not too smooth and palatable due to it's rather spicy note. But well, beggers can't be choosers.



We also opened a bottle of Absolut Citron and Absolut Blue from the Absolut Dream Team collection. Eiling made us some cocktails using lemon, 7 up, Ribena and shaking them up with the Absolut Shaker. Drinks were on the house that night. We should have charged RM30 per drink, on par with Skybar haha.



While the kids were busy indulging in some money-making activities, Mothers United (MU) were busy decorating cupcakes for somebody's Quarter of a Century Old Birthday.



Yes, she is OLD. It wasn't even her actual birthday but fortunate for her, she claims to be born on the First Day of Lunar New Year (Chinese birthday I think?) and always demand for extra ang pao, hence our ang pao collection can never match hers eventhough we have the same number of relatives! Such is the unfairness of the world...

Anyway, mom made these cupcakes for her and I quite like the martini glass candle! Just perfect for an alcoholic like her on her birthday ;-D

The party ended just before 12am and we headed back to Ipoh the next day while also playing host to a special guest. More on how the first 3 days of CNY is spent on my next posts! For now, I am going to savour the remaining 4 days of holidays before crawling back to work.

There's No Free Lunch...

... But definitely FREE LIQUOR!


/cue for banana emoticon dancing


A bottle of Piper Heidsieck (worth RM100 dutyfree price) and Macallan 12 Yrs, Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (worth circa ±RM140) and a bottle of Otard Cognac (worth circa ±RM120) as CNY gifts from my liquor suppliers from work. I have been wanting to try the Macallan for ages and the wish has come true, without my own expense! OoOh and the Piper Heidsieck champagne too... which I was too shy to help myself to at the Golden Lounge. I'm planning to give away the Otard though when I go for house visiting and I have exactly a house in mind *wink*.



Anyway the above picture is a teaser for a forthcoming post on the family's current liquor collection. More pictures of our alcoholic hobby soon!

p/s: Nolah we're not that alcoholic... there's a difference between buying then keeping and buying then drinking ;)


Work is out! CNY is in! Happy Chinese New Year people! Start eating, drinking and gambling... but don't get too fat, wasted and poor!

/ends banana emoticon dancing

the SOCIAL @ Bangsar

Where would be the perfect place to meet up with friends you have not seen for a long time? Not wanting to go to a place I have been before, I settled for the social at Bangsar, just next to the famous Nirvana Maju banana leaf house.

the SOCIAL is a bar, restaurant and a poolroom. 3 venues in one place. But perhaps because it is 3 venues in one place, we found the restaurant tad too noisy for some decent conversations without having to repeat our words and/or raise our voices to be heard. Maybe it's because the table next to us was just too loud.


Shepherd's Pie- RM24
Minced lamb and carrots, topped with mashed potato
and cheese served with salad garnish

Mel had the Shepherd's Pie which we all thought was lasagne or something from the look of it.


the SOCIAL All-time Signature Dish- RM30
Aromatic Crispy Duck


Aromatic Crispy Duck
House speciality of crispy duck served with homemade
pancakes, sweet plum sauce, chilli oil and julienne of spring
onions and cucumber

Khian and I had the SOCIAL all-time signature dish, Aromatic Crispy Duck. When it arrived, I was quite impressed at the portion of meat and don't we all love whatever that goes with those paper-thin pancake. I think the dish is supposed to resemble those peking duck wraps except at the SOCIAL, they don't give you the crispy skin, instead tender duck meat were used. Another misconception between the dish name and the actual dish itself is there was nothing crispy about it!

Overall, tastewise, I think the dish is alright. There are about 8 pcs of pancake wrappings so it was quite filling for us.


the SOCIAL
57-59, Jalan Telawi Tiga,
Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2282 2260
www.thesocial.com.my

~

We found the SOCIAL getting a little noisy for us to indulge in some proper down memory lane conversations, so we headed to Ronnie Q's down the road for some drinks.


Mojito- RM25


Glenfiddich 12Y- RM15.90

While I found the Mojito served here a bit sourish (maybe they were too generous with lime juice) and has little taste of alcohol, our friend Khian managed to turn all red after her drink. Maybe she has over-indulged *wink wink* My glass of Glenfiddich 12Y was nothing fantastic as I think they offered me too much 'rocks' making the drink a little bit too diluted. I would like to try Bruichladdich next as according to my lady boss, it is one of the best single malt she has had before. And lucky for us (or maybe her) we just met up with a supplier of this very rare single malt whisky!


Ronnie Q The Pub
RA House, 32, Jalan Telawi Dua,
Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Opens Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-12 midnight

[disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are based on my personal views, tastebuds and preference and may vary for others. please dont sue me, i dont have money. kthxbye.]

Flying High with MAS Golden Lounge

MAS Golden Lounge Satellite

2 weeks back, I was asked by my boss to have a field visit to KLIA, in her exact words, "to see what other people are doing". In my own interpretation it would be, "no need to go office and work, yay!"

I suppose one of the things that I enjoy being in the travel retail industry is having a pass to enter the insides of the airport freely, where most people would need a boarding pass and passport to do so. Although I do not have the privilege to own the real airport pass, having a "Pas Pelawat" does the trick too ;-)


First Class Lounge

So there I was in KLIA, armed with my camera. Eiling who was in KLIA that day promised me that she will bring me in to the exclusive Golden Lounge- where only First Class and Business Class passengers and the Very Very Important People are allowed access. The Golden Lounge is located at the Satellite Building (after stepping out from Aerotrain). Upon entering, there is a reception to greet you. Payphones and empty cubicles line along the way for you to make calls with a bit of privacy. Further inside, on the right side will be the special Platinum Lounge for the VVIPs and on the right is the lounge for Business Class passengers. Straight ahead, the largest lounge would be the First Class area (as shown above).


Buffet spread

There is an eating area where a buffet spread is ready for consumption. Here are what the buffet spread has to offer:


Clockwise from Top (L-R):
Assorted Malay Kuih, Assorted Desserts, Assorted Fresh Fruits,
Xmas House made from Fidani Chocolate, Hot Soup, Assorted Sandwiches


Salad Bar

Then there is also a salad bar for those who can't live without greens!


Appetizers

And some appetizers. There's the Coriander Ginger Fried Shrimp, Garlic Bruschetta with Roasted Tomato and Morrocan Fartoush Salad.


Assorted Cheeses, Plain & Fruits Yogurt

For those who love dairy.


Liquor Bar

And a liquor bar offering free flow of booze for the alcoholics or those who are deprived of booze on the plane (eh but I think if you're travelling First Class, they do offer you liquor on board right?). Johnnie Walker? Check! Chivas? Check! Absolut? Check! Jack Daniels? Check! Bombay Sapphire? Check! Grey Goose Vodka, Bacardi...



Assorted chilled wines for your unlimited consumption.



... Piper Heidsieck champagne included!


Ice cream Cakes, Non-alcoholic beverages

For those who prefer nothing alcoholic, there is always the soft drinks, lassi and juices chiller to fulfill your needs. Like me, I think many of you are more drawn to the liquor corner eh... If you prefer hot beverages like a cuppa cappucino or hot chocolate, you can always order it through the staff.

Oh there's also ice cream cakes, eat all you want and eat all you can! Not Baskin Robbins though but I don't think they will compromise quality when you're in a place called The Golden Lounge!


Fish Porridge

There was a menu on the table which lists the items available for breakfast and lunch. I wanted to have the Taiwan Beef Noodles but it was only available for lunch, so I had to settle for the Fish Porridge in the breakfast menu. Nothing fantastic but having fish porridge for breakfast in an international airport for free is quite a luxury to me already.


Coriander Ginger Fried Shrimp

Again nothing fantastic, though I really love the presentation of it!



Decided to make a move when my tummy's full and it was back to my assignment of the day- "seeing what other people are doing" instead of spending the day hanging out at the Golden Lounge! Tq E for the priceless visit, a place where I can only dream of!

On an unrelated note,



If you're traveling, do remember to stop by this shop just right after immigration and bag scanning. It is no doubt one of the best airport liquor shop in Malaysia! Note the creative use of martini glasses stacked on top of each other to create a very "glassy" perception.