Ipoh – Penang – Ipoh trip (10.10.09 – 12.10.09) Part 1

it’s the annual local trip for me and my GF at this time of the year. since last year we had been to Melaka and Cameron Highland, we decided to go to Penang or a purely glutton trip.

but of course, how can you skip Ipoh in a glutton trip? because of this, we stop by at Ipoh town to have dim sum breakfast.

let’s see, there are 3 main dim sum restaurant in Ipoh old town. the nominees are (Drumrolls)…

1. the most popular and newly located Foh San.

2. the 2nd most popular Yoke Fook Moon.

3. and of course, Ming Court which is very popular among Ipoh people.

our choice of the day was Yoke Fook Moon coz it was our 2nd choice anyway haha! besides, i don’t have the patience to wait at the crowded Foh San to have a few plates of Dim sum

look how many people is waiting for their turn!!!

compared to Yoke Fook Moon. i think most of the business went to Foh San now.

did not order much though. just a few normal items:

1. my favourite pork ribs. it’s a bit oily but at least they put a few yam slices at the bottom to absorb excess oil. yummy

2. Wo Tip. not really a dim sum dish. but it is still tasty even though it is not that crispy (coz it has been fried for quite some time). and instead of serving the ginger separately, they stuff it inside the wo tip.

3. char siu pau. the pau is definitely sweeter and with more filling!!!

. 4. siew mai. this in my opinion tastes the same as what we usually had. but GF said it tastes good.

5. and the last one is definitely har gao. they are bloody generous with the prawns there. each har gao contains 3 prawns. and the prawn’s texture are crunchy and fresh too!

what’s the damage?

RM20.90. tad too expensive. but with the generous portions and fresh ingredients, i don’t really mind.

after stuffing my tummy with dim sum, what next? let me give you a hint: Sin Yuan Loong or their rival Sin Yuan Foong? or…

Nam Heong?

we are too full to eat anything anyway, so i just went in to tapau white coffee from Sin Yuan Foong.

but there’s only one thing, everytime i drink coffee, i will get dizzy. but who cares right? it tastes great.

their coffee tastes great but the same cannot be said to their plastic bags.

the two corners of the bag got punctured by the straw when i was drinking it. causing a mess in the car. damn it.

and with a messy car, we continue our journey to Penang.

and…

just before we reach to the jetty, it…

rained heavy. visibility was down to less than 7m.

but miraculously, once we are in the jetty, it stopped.

view from the ferry.

and of course, we stayed a a budget hotel. looks old and with bare necessities.

but at least it has a balcony

and a great view too!!!

but enough about the hotel. lets just go straight to the food.

the 1st food that we crave for it asam laksa. where to?

the one which is located in Air Itam of course. and we spent the next 20 minutes going there (plus RM2 for the parking)

remember to look for this sign and you know you are in the right stall

the photos of the pot may gross some people off. but don’t let it deceive you!

the half eaten asam laksa. this is one of the tastiest asam laksa that i have eaten so far!!! just that the noodles are not springy compared to the one in KL. but still, i will rate it 10 out of 10!

in a nutshell, it is worth the 20minute journey!

next thing, it is time to go back to Penang Road and have the famous Cendol there.

nothing like a icy cendol to cool down the temperature before continuing our journey to Prangin Mall.

i noticed this in Komtar. do you noticed anything odd?

plagiarism at its best. haha!

for dinner, we went to a stretch of road just below Sunway Hotel.

it’s just a small stretch of road but the food there was good. better than those in Gurney Drive (more on that later).

food from top clockwise: seafood char koay teow, rojak, oo chien and satay (chicken and pork).

it’s our first time eating there, but i must say the food is good! although some of it are a bit pricey. but hey, if it taste good, i don’t really mind,

bought something back to hotel too.

it’s just an ordinary apom that you can get in pasar malam (just that it is fatter). but what i like is the presentation of it. they actually serve it on a banana leaf.

and oh. it rained on a saturday night… damn.

but fortunately, the weather is kind enough to stop not long after that. coz i wanted to take a stroll at the Upper Penang Road nearby.

coincidentally, it is the 10th anniversary of the Road. there were some shows and Lim Guan Eng was there. but i didn’t saw him though. below are some chicks dancing…

and yeah, that was where i stayed and that was my butler coming to me.

yeah right… i wished…

end of part 1. phew. what a tiring day…

trip to the dentist

ok, this is not the trip that i wished for. but i really had no choice.

a chip in my tooth and an old filling that reach its 'expiry date' had caused me unlimited pain and agony everytime i eat.

and so begins my journey to the dentist to get a new tooth filling...

the mere sight and the smell scared the shit out of me. even the dentist can see it in my face.

and so...

with the various 'torture equipment' on the table and the 'automatic chair of death', i'm ready to face the drill...

and after all those drilling and saliva-sucking and poking and gutting out old fillings, i thought i'm ready to go back with a brand new tooth...

but then, i was wrong...

the dentist told me that she just put a temporary filling (with med) in the tooth. the damage is quite extensive.

please come again a month later and we'll decide whether it is feasible to put in a filling or to pull the bad tooth out.

"and oh, you have a few cavities here ad there too"

that means there will be more torture for me. yikes...

let's see what happens in a month time.

13.10.2009

today is my birthday.

of course i will get a present from GF. the 1st one will be a last minute gift from GF:

complete with gift wrapping service from Queensbay Mall Jusco.

  woo hoo~~~ at least i don’t have to rotate my office wear so much. haha!

 

and the 2nd present, as usual, GF who is cupcakes-crazy nowadays will bake cupcakes for my birthday.

below is her cupcakes collections for BadAssMonkey’s birthday this year:

and as usual, there are failures in making some of the intended decorations.

at first we wanted to make a cupcake in the shape of a monkey and a pig.

but the monkey decoration did not materialize. instead, the one below the pig came out.

you have no idea how much time was spent putting the icing and correcting it over and over again. in the end, we have to cover the mistakes. haha!

but anyway, below are the close-ups of the cupcakes:

 

the above seems like something from breast awareness day or something related to it. haha!

 

i like both of this.

 

it’s not X’mas yet, but we ran out of ideas anyway.

*birthday will end soon. which also means that i have to get back to work tomorrow… aiks…

Homemade Cupcakes 2

Made cupcakes again few days ago since i was on leave. This time, i will not need to worry that the icing will melt in room temperature,. Hehe! Because the owner of the shop that i usually buy baking ingredient taught me to use Krimwell instead of butter. So this is how it looked like…

Im quite satisfied with the result of the cream made by krimwell. Although i was cracking my head to think of designs to decor the cupcakes. ;p

Below are a few close shots…

The above design was actually created accidentally. I was cracking my head thinking of what design can i make. So i just sort of twisted the pipe over and over till i got the above design. In the end, this is what i got. Something nice, right? So i continue doing it with 2 more color.

Pink Piggy… 1st attempt on designing an animal face! The surface is not very smooth and not really perfect though.. Because my hands were shaking like hell!! Haha!

Left: I got blueberry toppings.

Right: This is actually a failure. I was trying to draw squares. Then i plan to put the silver edible beads on each of the squares. But then i my hands were shaking that im not able to put 1 each in a squares. To cover my defect, i sprinkled choc chips on it. Hehe! But i think now, it looks like worms coming out from the cakes! Wahahah!!!!

And.., others….

That’s all folks! Hope to post more new designs soon!!

Dos & Don'ts During Pregnancy

Today i want to blog about pregnancy... No.. Don't get me wrong. I'm not pregnant (yet)! Haha! It's just that for the pass 1 year, i have a few pregnant ladies in office and personal life. Therefore made me learn quite a lot of "free" classes on what is the Dos & Don'ts during pregnancy in order to delivery a healthy child. Here are the few basic and common sense things that 1 should obey during her pregnancy on WHICH i know there is 1 particular person i know who do not obey or more like able to bend the rules so that she can get away with it:

Rule #1: No raw food and ice PLEASE! In Cantonese "sang lang yeh".
Excuse #1: "Aiya, only once in a while mah"! - Take note: Empty stomach in the morning!

Rule #2: No nail polishing, hair rebonding, coloring or curling PLEASE! - because the chemical will effect the baby.
Excuse #2: " Rebonding is allowed because the the chemical will not reach the scalp!" wahahah!
* Few of my pregnant friend actually told me that government nurse actually will scold expecting moms with polished nails or dyed hair etc!

Rule #3: If you are not allergic to dairy, drink those milk which is made for expecting moms.
Excuse #3: "Milk is smelly, i can't take it" i'll drink soy base product.." wei.. those product do not have DHA and other vitamins which is important for the growing embryo leh! Want to take vitamin pills to substitute? wahaha!

Rule #4: For God sake! Consume the vitamin tablets that they provide you during you checkup. Because they know what the baby need more that you do. Unless, you are rich to go get it from pharmacies.
Excuse #4: "The pills are smelly, i can't take it!" Shit! what the baby's gonna eat ah?

Rule #5: Have the least Fast Food as possible because it's widely known that Fast Food is not healthy.
Excuse #5: "It's the pregnancy crave, nothing to do with the mom.. Blame the baby"! HA HA FUNNY! Doesn't mean should eat Fast Food so frequent kua!

Rule #6: Be good! BE very Good! because whatever you do or think will indirectly effect the womb! They call it "toi kau" in cantonese.
Don't #6: Never ever call other people's son STUPID, DOG, USELESS or GO EAT SHIT! - Pregnant or not, it's still wrong to do that! Normally what old people like to say is that, the more you say bad about other child, the more likely your child will be like that, or even worse! We call it karma. So, let's do good, shall we?

So, those are the ABCs & 123s of pregnancy. For more info, please do not hesitate to ask your doctors! Hehe.

Although i have never been pregnant before. But i think the most important period to determine whether a child will be healthy in the future is during the child's growth in the mother's womb. No matter what, it's a mom's responsibility to make sure the child is healthy when he or she is brought into this world. But then again, i really do hope that this "unique" expecting mom that i mentioned knows what she's doing. And i hope the baby will be healthy when he or she is out later.

Those old times

I still remembers that i really loved eating at A&W comparing to KFC or McDonald's... The main reason will be it's Rootbeer Float of course. And not forgetting the onion rings too (although i don't really like the onion).. Normally i will pull out the onion.. Shhhhh.... Hehe!

But then i was really dissapointed when i visited A&W outlet at Sunway Pyramid yesterday. I ordered 1 combo set of grilled chicken which comes with Rootbeer & fries...

The whole set which is more expensive than a chicken set in McD, but the portion was much much more smaller then McD... the Chicken fillet was so thin that i almost can't taste the fillet when i bite the burger...The chicken fillet is so thin that the ketchup packaging size is almost the same as the fillet.. Haiz...

And also, besides the fillet, between the 2 bread is actually only 1 pc of vege and some mayo.. That's it?? I really rather have Ramli burger!!
Then guess what i saw on the burger wrapping?

"MORE THAN THE USUAL"??? Sure boh??

i think other than the Rootbeer.. there is nothing in A&W that is worth for me to go for.

friday night

ouch… procrastination got the hold of me. i should have posted this on friday night.

rainy days are bane for us KTM Kommuter passengers. last friday was one of those days…

trains will definitely delayed if it rains heavily. worse thing is, even the announcers don’t even know what time will the train will arrive (for all destinations).

the killer move was out when the announcer told us to “Take other types of public transport and will refund back the tickets bought”.

damn, after waiting for almost an hour, this is what we get…

with nowhere to go and raining heavily, i decided to wander around before making the next move.

KL is a nice place to walk if you don’t mind the filth and some bad hats around the are.

anyway, i walked to Putra LRT station coz i was thinking of taking it to bandaraya station.

but i scrapped the plan.

instead, i walked around the station for half an hour. nice graffiti there.

this is only a part of it. and yes, that is the famous Yasmin Ahmad on the wall. i think most of you had seen it on the papers or on the TV.

so random photo that i took. just standing there watching people walking in the rain somehow gives me a calm effect. not to mention fun. haha!

went to Central Market next. decide to skip Petaling Street coz i don’t think there will be much to see there on a rainy days.

do you know that there are various kind of show in the Central Market at night? i only knew it on that day. but i did not waited for it. plus, i don’t think they can perform anything on a weather like this (it’s an open air performance).

since i’m at Central Market already, i might as well took a bus home. plus i don’t think trains will be a very efficient transport on a rainy day. not worth taking the risk anyway.

but then again, taking a bus is a risk itself. after all, how many times have we read in the papers that there are daylight robbery in the bus and yet nobody is willing to help.

and i have not taken a bus ride for more than 3 years. that’s a big risk. yikes…

the above is a bad photo. it’s actually me inside the bus. haha!

daylight or not, i still took out my PSP to kill time coz in KL :

rain + public hols. = massive jam.

but the journey is still fast considering that i’m taking a Selangor Bus (or was it Metro Bus?). doesn’t matter. the speed of these two buses are the equivalent to F1 racing.

and these smart asses even skipped a few routes to evade the jam. but of course, they had warned the passengers beforehand that they will skip that particular route.

reached kepong in an hours time. feels a lot better than waiting for the train for an hour!!!

photo taken while i was waiting for GF in Kepong. can’t complain the quality of the photo much coz i was using my old handphone to take this.

left office at 5.30pm, reached home at 8.10pm. that’s a great friday!!!