About 2 weeks back, I received an email invite for a FREE Durian Buffet from my webhost so I decided to jump on the chance. PiggyBeng was of course filled with excitement and can’t wait for the day to arrives though he has been having durian buffet almost every weekend ever since we returned from the US! It will definitely be different since he don’t have to pay a cent and yet can enjoy to the max!

On that day (25th of June), we decided to go early (the event starts at 2pm) so we can get a good parking. It was a hot day and there were no sheltered parking unless we park across the road which we did not. We just make do with the parking lots available.

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Photo courtesy of Exabytes

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This is actually our first time coming to this location. It is pretty near to the usual durian farm we frequent at Titi Kerawang. This place is of course more spacious and the best is, they also served assam laksa! A bowl of assam laksa after having those creamy durian is a must! *slurp~*

Since we were early, we have to kill time by looking around the place. Discovered that this place also sell a varieties of stuff…

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I also went around snapping photos on what we will be having later as I know I won’t have the time when the makan-makan starts!

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The invites are for 50 pax and each pax is allowed to bring a partner so I estimated about 100+ people attending the event that day with a handful of Exabytes staff attending as well. The durian above were meant to be finished by us!

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I was more than happy to discover that they also includes rambutan, mangosteens and cempedak to the event! Since I don’t really fancy durian, I can eat the rest as I am a huge fancee of rambutan!

After the welcoming speech by one of the Exabytes’s staff, most of us went to queue up for a bowl of laksa…

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It is not the best assam laksa but hey! It is free so no complains!

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Even Darrius wanted a bowl!

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The rest of the people (PiggyBeng included) went to queue for the durian which were opened by the stall’s staff…

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I am not sure which varieties we had that day but I certainly remembered the ‘Ang Hay’ or Red Prawn in Hokkien which has tiny seeds!

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Even our little Miss Samseng was having the time of her life enjoying these creamy stuff together with her daddy!

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Darrius on the other hand was not too keen on the fruits but rather on the cold drinks served. He ate a little of the laksa and complaint that it was a little too spicy and drank lots of nutmeg and preserved plum drink.

Glennedine was of course having more fun than her kor-kor since she enjoyed durian as much as her daddy. I even threw her some rambutan to disturbed her!

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We stayed on till about 4pm before we decided we have had enough. Everyone was full… especially PiggyBeng since he ate the most! He was extremely pleased too! In fact, I even ‘tapau’ (take home) a bag of rambutan since they can’t finish and the boss just want to clear everything off.

Aaaah! What a good ending to a wonderful event!

Thanks again to Exabytes for inviting us!

On 22 January 2011, we finally set our foot onto the beach after a very long hiatus. I can’t remember when was the last time we were there but it was definitely way before we conceived Baby G. We did went to stay at Bay View Resort when I was at about 3 months gestation with Baby G which I did not blog about it here.

It was actually an impromptu decision to go to the beach. All because we wanted to go to the buffet dinner in one of the beach hotels that triggered us to bring the kids to the beach. The weather was good (though it was a little hot and humid) and timing was just nice (the afternoon sun was blocked by the hill) which suited our plans.

We set off around 4pm from our place since it takes about 30 minutes for us to get to our usual beach spot. That day the tide was high so sea water covered most of the sandy areas so we were left with limited spots to choose from as there was another family occupying the spot which we intended to go for.

After changing the kids, PiggyBeng placed Baby G onto the sand… her first encounter with sand…

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Baby G froze for a moment and refused to budge when PiggyBeng pulled her forward as the funny feeling from stepping on the sand must have gave her the fright. She stood there for a long time before taking another step forward.

As for Darrius, he was so impatient to start his ‘expedition’ with his ‘tools’…

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After about 5 minutes, Baby G has warmed up and chose to sat on the beach to play with sand…

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It was so darn cute to see her exploring those sand that she scooped up with her hands. She was literally studying those fine grains! We also caught her putting sand into her mouth many times too! She is indeed one very curious baby! I don’t remember Darrius was that detailed on his first beach experience. Darrius was much older too when he first experience sand in his hands.

After playing on the sand for a while, I pulled Baby G up again and made her walk about and I was quick to notice that she was all clamped up! You can see how uptight she was by looking at her ’stressed toes’…

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While I was busy with Baby G, PiggyBeng and Darrius was busy digging a small pond away from the area where the waves hit the beach so that Baby G can play in there…

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Baby G was excited… I presumed! She did not make any noise nor any weird expressions. Just that I still find her a little frozen when I noticed her toes were curled up this way for a loooong time in the water…

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Cute right???

And after 30 minutes or so soaking in the water, her toes turned this way…

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Hehehee… all crinkled up!

After the pond dried up, we decided to bring Baby G to the area where the waves washes up to let her experience water splashing onto her feet and body. Well, she don’t like it one bit!! She started screaming and crying…

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Since she don’t like the earlier water splashing experience, we brought her back to the sand where she started to play happily again… this time became more daring by standing up and walk about a little…

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We thought she is more or less toughen up after the many new adventures in that afternoon and decided to put her back to the waves…

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And poor thing, she still scream like as if it is the end of the world! At one point her expression told us that she was pleading with us to pick her up from the waves… but the daddy was persistent in trying to toughen up his little princess! He even covered her feet with sand! hahahahaha

We stayed on for almost 2 hours including of washing up. It was a great experience and a fun day out. We left around 6.30pm and drove to the hotel for the buffet dinner which I will blog about soon!

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We used to patronize Red Tea frequently before we have Baby G but gone less since that Samseng don’t sleep much so we would try to keep her in bed if she can sleep on. If we do go, we have to leave the house at 8am as the weather here is just too hot and humid to stay on after 9am at those open space food places.

Red Tea is open everyday except on Monday… if I’m not mistaken. They are operated by the same boss of Red Bali. The dim sum items are nothing the shout about as they are more or less the same with other dim sum operators but they are unique in their own ways… they often comes out with new recipes and designs to entice their customers. On weekdays, they will serve the customers but on weekends it is self-service since they have more than 100 of tables!

Here are some of the items we usually order…

Meat patty on bread – deep fried with bread crumbs sprinkled with mayo

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Scallop on minced meat…

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PiggyBeng’s favorite – Scallops & Prawns rolls (wrapped in bean sheet)…

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They also serve fried noodles on request but sometimes they will do a big batch on weekends. This is fried beehoon with fried fish slices which tasted damn good with some sambal belacan!

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Their yam puffs or ‘wo-kok’ is among the better ones I’ve tasted.

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Besides that, they have a few varieties of steamed paus which are really good. PiggyBeng loves their char-siew-pau and siew mai very much (if you noticed from the 1st photo on this post). For myself, I will normally go for the yong-tau-fu items as they were really good especially the stuffed brinjal or aubergine. Sometimes, I will order their cheong-fun (steamed rice rolls) too but theirs is still far from those I ate in Hong Kong but beggars can’t be choosers right???

On Darrius’s actual birthday after we had breakfast (the famous beef noodles in Taman Tayton) and dropped PiggyBeng at the KLIA Express station, we adjourned to Kidz Sport at Bangsar Village Shopping to celebrate his day with his cousin, Adrian. At the same time I wanted to check out Marmalade Cafe after hearing so much about it from fellow blogging mommies. So, after checking the kids in to Kidz Sport, together with my parents and my brother, off we went to Marmalade.

It was not that crowded when we arrived so we got the bench seat on the platform area. While everyone was checking out the menu, little Ms Samseng do not want to lose out too so kau-fu gotta entertain her…

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I would say the ambiance for the place was quite pleasant… bright and cheery since it was situated at the corner of the building with glass windows around. I was told that there is a children play area but silly me has forgot to check out that place since the kids were not around except Baby G. Anyway, I managed to see the kid’s area on another occasion which I will blog about later.

Since we just had breakfast not too long ago, my dad said he don’t want to have anything which is too heavy so he decided to order from the bakery. He had their bread pudding cake which came with some cream and a scoop of ice-cream. According to dad it tasted quite good.

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Next it was what my mom ordered. For the very first time she had beef lasagna! She was never a beef eater previously but turning into one lately. Must be my dad been telling her that she has missed a lot of great food if she do not want to eat beef!

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The lasagna tasted quite ok too though it was pretty rich with all those cheeses and cream! After all, we had late breakfast that morning! Mom can’t finish on her own so dad helped her (that was why dad did not order any main dish as he knew mom can’t finish her food!)

Next was what I ordered…

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It was some Masala chicken with fried brown rice. Ok, I must say that the fried brown rice tasted a little weird… kinda sticky. However, the Masala chicken tasted quite ok too. It came with a small jar of gravy, some vege and a piece of papadum.

My brother only had a cup of tea as he had brunch just before he joined us.

And here is Ms Samseng with her signature pose…

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Most of the main dishes are less than RM20 so I would say they are quite affordable since the cafe is nestled in a so-called high end shopping mall. The pricey items are their drinks which cost at least RM8/glass (juices) except soft drinks. It is a nice place for catch-up sessions with friends with kids since they also have Kid’s Menu which I did not get to see on that day but ordered from on another day.

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So, what is the verdict? From my experience, their egg tarts were really nice so I ordered some again this round. Not too bad but I found they are not ‘baked’ enough compared to the time when I had my steamboats. I found the char-siu-sou tasted better as the skin was really flaky.

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Another items which I found to be slightly different is these…

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Mini yam basket with scallop. The yam basket/crust was so-so as it was too thin. Tasted a little burnt too. The filling is the same as char-siu-bao just that it has a slice of scallop on top.

We also ordered these…

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They looked really crispy but they were not when I bite on them. The air has made them tough instead so they were quite oily! The filling were minced prawns with some meat if I’m not mistaken.

Then saw something flaky looking and got one to try. It was a salted lotus paste fried dumpling. Tasted quite ok but the skin was not as flaky as it looked.

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And lastly, ordered a plate of cheong fun to try and I’ll have to say the sauce was not as good as the one at Red Tea House but the texture of the cheong fun was pretty good. At least it was thin and soft.

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Will we go back? I don’t know. The place was extremely crowded and service was pretty poor since they have only minimal staff on duty. It took a long time for them to clear the table and the ordering process was a little screwed up at the counter. Maybe other days of the week the crowd will be tamer but Sunday is not a good day dining there. However, they have a small playland for the kids but it was FILTY! Nonetheless, Darrius rather play in there than eat! O_0

]]> http://www.ramblingmoo.com/2010/12/23/dim-sum-town-steamboat-restaurant/feed/ 3 http://www.ramblingmoo.com/2010/10/20/stop-and-smell-the-flowers/ http://www.ramblingmoo.com/2010/10/20/stop-and-smell-the-flowers/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:14:20 +0000 Angeleyes http://www.ramblingmoo.com/?p=3903 On 10.10.10, after our scrumptious vegetarian meal at PiggyBeng’s aunt’s place, we decided to pop by the Air Itam Dam for some light workout since the weather on that day was beautiful. Cloudy but no rain and not warm so it was a perfect time to visit that place. It was Baby G’s first time visiting too.

The last time we went up there was more than a year ago. Kinda miss the place not that it has anything attractive like Christmas trees growing… though we prefer to get artificial christmas trees if we wanted any! It was so nice to breathe in the fresh air and to smell the flowers…

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Beautiful white hibiscus

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Beautiful red hibiscus

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A close up shot of Baby G who enjoyed the outing tremendously. She was so excited throughout the walk which took us slightly more than 30 minutes to complete.

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I brought along a loaf of bread and we went to the damn side to feed the terrapins as well as fishes. However, we only noticed the terrapins but not many fishes though… wonder where were there?

And before we left, I asked the little monkey to pose for some photos and he did all those funny poses… *sigh*

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Yesterday we went for dim sum breakfast at our regular dim sum place. Ever since Baby G’s arrival, we hardly go there or any hawkers as it is difficult to place her since these places can be very cramp… well, not condusive for babies! In fact, this is our 3rd time there this year! We used to go at least once a week before Baby G’s arrival! Not that I miss the place… just that I felt a little sick with the noodle soup that PiggyBeng packed for me each weekend!

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Before Baby G knows how to sit unsupported, I would rather eat whatever PiggyBeng buy for me at the comfort of our home. I don’t want to trouble myself to fuss about her when we are eating outside though PiggyBeng don’t mind to carry her while he eats. Anyway, now that she can sit and even ‘feed’ herself, we can all enjoy our meal… at least for just a little while!

Finally after so many years, my buddy from Singapore came to Penang for the very first time with her family. We have been talking about this trips for years and finally it materialized. The reasons it took so long was because it was difficult for her to take leaves which has to coincide with her hubby, her MIL, her son and her hubby’s nephew!

The much awaited day came 3 weeks ago then they finally arrived on 15th July. This was also her boy’s first time on a plane so the little boy was very excited. Little Matthew is Darrius’s buddy as they we born on the same year, only a month apart. They met almost every year with us going to Singapore the past 4 years since PiggyBeng gets to go there for business and we can tag along.

I went to the airport to fetch them when they arrived on SilkAir’s first flight of the day. Since it was a Thursday, Darrius has to be in school so he did not get to follow. I sent them to the hotel and we did not meet until the next day as PiggyBeng has to be in night conference so he has to take a nap before the conference call.

On Friday morning, I went to fetch them and brought them to Kek Lok Si. Told them we’ll be back to pick them up for our durian party at Balik Pulau. When we met up, we found out they have missed visiting the Pagoda at the top of the hill so PiggyBeng drove up and we spent a little time there for photo taking and let the kids warm up to each other…

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After about half and hour, we proceed with our plans… to Balick Pulau for DURIAN! My friend and her hubby are huge durian fancees, so this is one thing that they don’t want to miss. They have neverbeen to a durian farm and have never seen durian hanging on the tree before thus, this is an eye opening experience for them!

We first went to this Kompleks Pasar Awam in Balik Pulau. The durian fest has ended, therefore not many stalls were opened. We saw a man selling some rambutans (which I bought a bundle) and a few durians so PiggyBeng went to ask about the ’species’. It was a ‘che-kak’ or green husk which is amont the premium species there. We tried one…

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My friend and her hubby enjoyed the new found taste since they can’t find this in Singapore. Even their little boy enjoyed his first bite…

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After we were done, we drove to the Balik Pulau town for laksa. Here they get to tried 2 different types of laksa – asam laksa and Siam laksa with has coconut milk. Though they don’t taste as good as our regular asam laksa hunt, nonetheless it was a new taste for my friends.

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After the laksa, we went towards Teluk Kumbar way in search for new durian farms and we found one near the site where a new via duct is being built. This farm belongs to ‘Liu-Lian Yee’ or Auntie Durian. She is selling durians, rambutans, cempedak and durian dodol too! The boys were having a good time playing and Baby G was cam-whoring with Auntie D while daddy was bargaining with Liu-lian Yee!

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PiggyBeng got a very good deal from her, 3 durians for RM25 which were from an old tree. The durians were great… and since it was too much, we even packed some home! Then we saw her cempedak which were very fragrant. We bought one… the Golden Cempedak due to the very bright orangey color…

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After we were done with this farm, we drove back to Balik Pulau and up to the hill to our regular durian farm which we have been visiting the past few years. The farm – Titi Kelawang Organic Farm is our regular durian hunt during the season as they have really good durians most of the time. I remembered we went for their durian buffet once!

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So after choosing from the wide selection available on that day, PiggyBeng finally decided to get the ‘Yip-Chi-Mei’ aka Amy Yip, the voluptuous 3rd category Hong Hong’s prono movie star. I can tell you… eat 2 pieces, you’ll feel so full you can’t eat any more!

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Can you see how fleshy this Yip-chi-mei??? We can’t have any other after eating that one so we left once we are done. We drove down hill towards Batu Feringhi and thought of visiting Hard Rock Hotel but there were some events going on and we were asked to park opposite so we decided not to go at the end and drove back to town. We then popped by New Lane for these…

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Then on the next day, we brought them to the Reclining Buddha and the Burmese temple along Burmah Road…

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After the temples we went to Weld Quay and borded the ferry. This is a first time for my friend and her family. They really enjoyed the ride since they have never been on any ferry that can take in cars!

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We toured a little of the Mainland but it was rather boring so we headed back to Penang via the bridge. Was stuck for almost an hour on the bridge as there was a car exploded in the middle of the bridge. Too bad there were no wireless cctv cameras on the bridge else we can get to see what happened before we reach the incident’s site. No idea why the car exploded and it was not reported in the news…

It was already 1+ when we finally crossed over so we headed to Batu Maung for seafood lunch at Ah Chai’s…

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Food was so damn good! The salted eggs crabs were to die for!!!! Can’t seems to get enough… even now when I am typing this I am salivating! We sent them back to the hotel after lunch as they wanted to go to Kimberly St for dinner which we did not join since we can’t bring Baby G for hawker food yet.

We picked them up again on Sunday after the check-out and popped by the hawker at Free School Rd for lunch before bringing them to our place. We managed to catch up more with the boys having fun feeding the chicken behind our house and playing some PC games. Had dinner at the coffee shop nearby before we dropped them at the airport.

We hope they enjoyed their trip here to the tiny island!

PiggyBeng cooked his famous BBQ pork ribs for the occasion which was lip-smacking good – as usual! So much better than you know which place! Well, initially he suggested we go there but I reminded him that kids don’t eat free on weekends and their quality is unpredictable!!!

And this is our meal…

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For a sumptuous meal like the above, we don’t need to pay RM45/plate! Though we have to do the cooking but all easy peasy since the ribs goes into the oven and I just need to boil the vegetables and stir fry the baked beans.

Even Darrius has his own share…

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And you can see from his face that he can’t wait to dig into his stick of rib though his lips are still swollen from ulcers!

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If we were at the restaurant, we’ll probably have to pay another RM15 for his kid’s meal! Now we can all enjoy a good meal at the comfort of our home and everyone enjoyed with no complains.

Then the next day, we went to Perda in Mainland. This is Baby G’s first time to Perda as the last time we were there was about 10 months ago… which means Baby G was still in mommy’s tummy. How time flies!

And if we want to get the free ‘push car’ with the steering wheel still attached, we gotta be early! And so the 2 little monkeys enjoyed their own ‘cars’….

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See the number on Darrius’s push car? hehehhee… see, we have to be that early to get the good one! They go off pretty fast since it was a Sunday with lots of kids in that area. Even the baby trolley that Baby G sat on was gone in minutes! Baby G likes it a lot as it is much higher than her stroller and best is, this one can recline up to 150 degree which our city stoller can’t!

Baby G looked really grown up in there hor?

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PiggyBeng was a happy man that day. He saw some ceramic pots on 70% off and we grabbed 2 pieces! Normal price was RM70 each and now we paid less than RM50 for 2! hahaha Don’t know what he wants to cook with that 2 pots! We had lunch at Old Town Kopi Tiam but it was another lousy experience. It was just 1pm and their curry chicken and curry noodles already OOS! The restaurant manager must be a real lousy planner! How to last till dinner time?

Then, before we leave, we let the elder monkey to relase some of his energy here…

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The inflated mega gym has changed a nex set of inflates so PiggyBeng said to let Darrius have a go there. He played for about an hour and decided that he has enough. While Darrius and PiggyBeng stayed on for some sand art, I brought Baby G to the newly opened DIY shop next to it. Found lots of interesting knick-knack there but found that their exit alarm a little annoying when people go in and out of the shop.

After we left Perda, PiggyBeng decided to bring us for dinner nearby which turned out to be another huge disappointment. PiggyBeng’s friend raved about this shop (May Fong – selling Ipoh horfun) but their food is so plain and bland that I don’t think they are any better than the hawkers!

Remember when I first blogged about our very 1st experience at Chicago Rib House in Gurney Plaza on this year’s Father’s Day? We were all happy with their food and service though they were not excellent.

Because of that reason, we decided to return the following week just for their ribs! You must have thought that we are nuts to eat at the same place for 2 consecutive weeks but we did as there aren’t much eating places that attracts us around that area. It is either Chilis or Chicago.

So, after the movie we had our dinner there. We ordered a burger and a full rack of pork ribs this round thinking that we can share among the 3 of us. The first time it took about 15 minutes for our orders to come but this round it took more than 30 minutes! The restaurant was not full (about 4 tables) at all with most of the diners half way through their meals.

I think we asked the waiters at least 3 times for our orders but none came back to tell us when they will be served! At that time (Friday at 5pm) is not a peak period either. There were at least 5 to 6 waitresses either walking about or congregate at one corner chit-chatting. About what, I don’t have any idea!

Finally at almost 40 minutes, our orders came. And when I look at that plate of FULL rack of pork ribs I have a shocked!

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If you compare the plate of FULL rack above with the half rack I had the previous week, you can see the huge difference and will also wonder why one would want to pay an extra RM15++ for it! I felt short changed!!!I was baffled by the size. If I have known, we will just order the half rack. Seriously… don’t they have some kind of STANDARD for their food? I’m sure the hogs/pigs are being reared till a standard size before they are slaugthered.

So, I decided to count the amount of bones/ribs in that full rack. There were 8 in total. I thought a full rack has 12 sticks of bones so I decided to make a check on Wikipedia. Then I view back the ribs we had in Cafe Cartel in Singapore. I found they have better standard control as their plate of full rack of ribs are of about the same size even at different outlets. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that it was so burnt that not much meat left on the ribs!

Then came our burger… Well, it does not make me feel any better! For almost the same price we paid for burgers at Chilis, we got this…

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It was the least appetising and most pathetic burger I’ve ever seen! And mind you, this was supposed to be a gourmet burger! If this one from McD, I won’t have anything to say. Even that slice of lettuce looked so limp!

And the taste? It tasted weird!

Will we go back again? I don’t know… probably some day. For now, I think we will go back to Chilis. No more pork ribs outside but luckily I have my own chef at home who can do better ribs than Chicago! And yes, it is cheaper too!!