Over Cendol.....

Am I back with a vengeance blogging? I really don't know...I have been putting off blogging as I need to do some housekeeping for this blog of mine...Currently it is really misleading and tweaking it is so time-consuming. Let's see whether I can keep the momentum going, time-permitting.

I have 3 hours to kill while waiting for Khadijah sit for her MARA entrance exam at a quaint little place in Seremban...Haji Sharif Cendol. This could be the cendol near Sembilan Supermarket which we frequented almost every Saturday during school term sold from a mobile stall with the ice manually shaven. I'm devouring my second bowl now! The cocunut milk is not too creamy and the coconut palm sugar syrup is sweet enough and no after taste for the cendol bits. This place is running on a full house even though it is only half three in the afternoon. I'm sharing the table with a couple from Hongkong! Everybody seems to be having a version of Haji Sharif's cendol and mee rojak! My bb is acting up hence no pics can be uploaded now.

I have just been told that Haji Sharif used to operate from a mobile stall near A&W/Telekom...and not near Sembilan Supermarket.

Three paragraphs is good after a three-month-hiatus? I think so too.

It remains a notion

Last weekend kicked off, on Friday night, with a b'day dinner Mrs N, Mr N, wifey and I hosted for superwomanwannabe, my work partner at Il Tempio . It was cosy and intimate. The ambiance was, according to wifey, like in her kampung - well, she's right but with a luxe-touch; the tag-line of the restaurants of tamarind group is after all "Jungle Luxe". It was meant to be a surprise dinner for SW but we had to really inform her and huby ahead of time as they are one active family...one might end up surprised oneself to spring such dinner! We also got her "wrapped" presents which she hinted..he he he! I enjoyed myself very much..the food was slightly below my expectation but good nonetheless...most of all it was great company! Happy ....th b'day SW!!

The following morning I was dead exhausted (for lack of calories throughout the week, I think) to wake up for the pasar tani-weekly-ritual and gave it a miss. I asked Ib to accompany wifey to be her caddy boy. Saturdays at our household is spelt madness with a capital m! Ferrying the kids around to and fro as far as Taman Tun, Damansara Heights etc and we, as parents only would clock out about 9pm (i.e. after fixing them dinner). Last weekend, however, we were too dead beat that we asked them to give everything a miss (which is so unlike us) to prep ourselves for the big event the Saturday night. We even missed Umar's sports day! For wedding dinner pictures, click here. Oh yes, Khadijah sprained her ankle while playing volleyball that Saturday morning which dashed her hope to put on her heeled slippers for the wedding...She substituted them instead with a pair of crutches! It was a sight to be immortalised; alas she did not allow us to.

Surprisingly I successfully got out of bed pretty early that Sunday morning...Breakfsat was on the table by half seven....! More driving around later part of the morning; sent Yusof for his tuition and Khadijah to mak cik urut's house! Brought my two younger boys to a hypermarket to get their badminton rackets; assisted wifey baking carrot cupcakes etc. By five pm, I decided to give the garden its long due tending. I finally decided to prune and lop my ficus tree which wifey has been irritated with! Anyone out there who wants a matured ficus tree which currently stands (after the lop and prune) at about 10 feet in height, do contact me! I'm re-landscaping the garden with may be bucida variegated and/or my all time favourite plumeria (I just love the foliage of this tree). I retired from gardening after we had Ibraheem...Last weekend may mark my return, I think..(to the relief of wifey!). All this while I have been relying on Rahazi, my plant supplier! Ah...that reminds me, I have to do the courtyard this weekend....orchids may be? We'll see the transformation soon! I pray I will persevere and finish this new project!

Last weekend was topped of with a dinner of greasy and fatty food. I had read about it winning the best stret burger award in the 2009 Fried Chillies award here and completely ignored it until wifey, whose colleague had shared this piece of information with her, brought up the topic of Burger OM, a street burger stall (of course Ramly burger it carries) located in Ampang Jaya, last Friday. So we braved the night and drove to Ampang Jaya which is less than 10 minutes away. It was an easy find as we always frequent this place for Mak Jah's breakfast and the nasi kerabu stall next to Mak Jah's. Had to wait for quite a bit as there was a long queue..I ordered three double burger specials and three hotdog specials. The buns are slathered with sinful amount of mayonnaise, the burger pan fried with a whole year supply of margerine (ok this is a slight exaggeration - but if you are a health freak - don't bother coming here), the cooked burger is then wrapped with lightly pan fried egg with melted cheese and this ensemble is then dashed with chilli sauce not before shredded cabbage and sliced onions is strewn over the ensemble! My verdict......the cheese and sauce just ooze out of the burger and it made me feel like I was on the gastronomical seventh heaven! My weekend ended with the movie Inkheart....Off to snoozeland thereafter!

A quiet weekend remains elusive till this day....and it remains a notion.......

Fun & Food - Pontian Kechil & Kukup

This time around, (our 3rd visit to Ayer Baloi after so long), I was determined to visit Kukup and savour Ah Lai's sweet and sour crab dipped with bread/bun. We planned to have our dinner the first day we arrived but we were too knackered to move a limb! This was all because we had to do our grocery shopping in Pontian Kechil (15 minutes' drive from Ayer Baloi) plus getting new pillows and blankets for the house as well as bicycles for the younger two, when we arrived, sans kids. The last time I went shopping in Pontian Kechil was possibly 30 years ago! Pontian Kechil used to be a cowboy town with shops lined on either side of the road. Not anymore when we went; there are shops running along at least three roads parallell to the main road (on either side)! There is also Pontian Besar which is just before Pontian Kechil. It's an irony of names....Pontian Besar being small in size and vice versa.

While exploring Pontian Kechil with wifey, we bumped into a baking supplies store which is quite a biggie for a small town like Pontian Kechil. I actually asked whetehr there were baking activities in Pointian Kechil and the owner said "you'd be surprised!"; I WAS indeed! Wifey, needless to say, went beserk! That's her craze now! She's been using the oven in the last two months more than she had used it for during the tenure of our married life! My persuasion (for her to bake) for the past umpteen years, finally showed excellent results!

Anyway, wifey bought some baking wares and ingredients (as if we could not get them in KL)! I must admit they were a lot cheaper! If you happen to be in Pontian Kechil, it's located along Jalan Taib! We had to go back the following day (after our Kukup visit) to buy some cake boxes and ramekins!

Whilst looking for pillows and blankets, we chanced upon an old wooden building with about 4 lots of shops selling stuff from China. That's where we bought kapok pillows (which cost RM6/each), white cotton pillowcases (RM9 for a twin pack), pyjamas bottoms (RM13/a pair), pagoda t-shirts etc etc! The Chinese shop owners thought we were Singaporeans! They charged us less when we said we came from Ayer Baloi!

We were introduced, after a phone call to my parents, to Waslee (a supermarket) where we bought lamb (for the barbie), fruits and such! There I was shocked to see that they sold passion fruits- one of my favourites! A tray of three passion fruits only cost, on average, RM3! I have been buying them for RM1.95/fruit from Just Life at Ikano Power Centre! A passion fruit would cost about RM4 from Hock Choon opposite my office! Unfortunate for me, there were only 3 trays left! I took them all!

Back to Ah Lai's crabs - we drove all the way to Kukup (about 15 minutes from Pontian) for lunch on the second day. The last time I ate Ah Lai's crabs was when I was 7 or 8. My parents would bring us for our monthly (? can't verify this) fixes of seafood to Kukup as then (when we lived in Benut, a pekan about 12km north of Ayer Baloi, until 1976), there was only Ah Lai's! I remember one visit in particular when my mom asked my brother what he wanted for his drink and answered without a blink of an eye - "Anchor Beer!". Everyone just broke into a frenzy of laughter, including my parents' friends who were with us. That was the exposure of Singapore TV to us - all those beer commercials! Ah..those were the days.....! Ah Lai's shop has a different name now...for the life of me it somehow has slipped my mind (a telltale of old age). Drive through the road to the jetty/immigration, it's the last restaurant on the right.

I was quite surprised that there are a lot of things to do in Kukup. For one, there is Tanjung Piai (the most southern tip of South East Asia) boasting a National Park (which we did not have time to visit), there are also boat cruises to the kelong, mangrove forest etc. And if you are adventurous enough, bring your passport and travel to nearby Pulau Karimon, which I have not visited but Khadijah and Yusof have (where we still have relatives there), where you can tailor make curtains for a few hours at ridiculously pasar malam prices. For golfers, there is a golf resort nearby! Wifey has also written about our food folly in Kukup here.

I can't seem to be bored writing about our Ayer Baloi trip. May be, one last posting after this!

The Highlight : Sweet and Sour Crab


Looking really hungry
Fried Mantou

Prawn Nestum


Baby squids doused with lemon sauce and honey

Beehoon basah

Bakin' muffins....

House elves with their reward

Bought stuff for Khadijah's blueberry muffins....After performing maghrib prayers...Khadijah was pestering to start the baking session...At least she took the initiative to kick-off the session...Ib the house elf was more enthusiastic. Took out the eggs from the fridge and ladle from the drawer etc etc....Frankly, I was a bit claustrophobic with all of them in our small kitchen...But it was fun nonetheless.

The muffin pre-mix did not come with step by step instructions. We had to guess what to put in first...My idea was to put the pre-mix in the mixing bowl and gradually stir the eggs, vegetable oil and water after making sure the pre-mix wasn't lumpy..Since we were too lazy to sieve. Much to our surprise, wifey thought otherwise and of course being our kitchen guardian, we followed her method..i.e. mix the egg with the oil and water later and pour the pre-mix slowly.

Mm....like I guessed, the muffin batter became all lumpy...and extra work for Khadijah.....Luckily we have hand held electric mixer...It was done in a jiffy!

Erk...we only managed to bake 25 muffins rather than 40 as told by the shop assistant! The house-elves had fun...

Read Khadijah's entry on Canteen Day here.

Dua Musim

Hopped over to the Immigration at Pusat Bandar Damansara a few days ago in preparation of applying for a new maid. It was lunch time and surprisingly I got attended to in a jiffy (10 minutes witin arrival) - I was impressed! Since I finished early, went around to get lunch and I saw a big crowd at this cafe - Kafe Dua Musim which is right above Giant but the eating area spills over to the court yard..You have to take the staircase which is next to Giant. This cafe does not only sell food but garden furniture too...Quite nice!

Naturally i wanted a quick lunch to be able to dash back for a meeting. The owner, I think, recommended plain rice with any of the dishes (the menu is quite loooong). Fried rice/noodle were out of the question as there was a long wait list! So I chose seafood green curry. Considering the number of customers, I was served very quickly....

Not what I expected...the green curry....but a generous serving (can be shared between two)! It was more like seafood kurma. But I enjoyed it....The sambal belacan served was too hot for me but nice..Wanted to eat more of it...but my tummy couldn't cope...

I have no qualms going back there and try other dishes/food...!

Duri-licious

I am born into a family who are just crazy over durians!

When I got married to my wife, somehow my cravings for durians dwindled over the years up to a point where my mom and dad were extremely perplexed over this "pehenomenon". Me refusing durians? Unheard of!

Wifey just can't stand the smell and taste of durians despite being born in to a family who owns uncountable durian orchards in Baling (where both maternal and paternal grandparents reside). She used to boast (before marrying) or perhaps trying to impress my parents (whom she knew love durians) that "Di kampung I dughian penuh satu dapoq. Tak larat nak makan" (In my hometown, the durians practically fill in the kitchen up to a point where we don't really eat them"). And by the way it's now durian season in Baling. Luck has it that we are busy with work and can't make time to go back!! : (

The first time I went back to Baling - My god...I never saw so many durians in my entire life, in a home that is! And the taste of the durians - HEAVENLY! I went ga ga and wallopped loads!

BUT when your partner hates something, you try to compromise and sacrifice....

There are only two exceptions, though, which wifey has made in eating durians- her first pregnancy with Khadijah and this pregnancy to my dad's shock and horror! Naturally, Khadijah is the durian lover in our family now due to the overdose of this smelly fruit when she was in the womb!

Since wifey is in to durians at the moment, I have no grouses as I can bring home durians freely now! Just this morning after sending Yusof to school, wifey made an offer to buy me durians at the corner of IIU and Sg Pusu Road. Unfortunately, they were sold out...And what touched me, she asked the seller when is the next batch coming...So this afternoon...she's buying me durians! Yeayy!

I sort of have this craving for durian fritters.......(wifeys mum used to make them). AND guess what....? Wifey took the trouble to find out from mum-in -law how to make them!

Can this pregnancy last two more years, please? LOL!

NB: Picture is nicked from my daughter who posted on her daily photo blog. BTW the durians are from my bro-in-law's house in M'cca!

Friends. The relatives of today

Ruby Ahmad's recent entry lives to each and every word of it in my life today. Well, not just today....It happens a lot of times in my almost 40 years of living. It happened again a day after I read her entry on "friends". NOTE : The title of this entry is verabatim of her said entry! Sorry Ruby in lifting word for word!

A blogger friend, Xis, whom I have never met before but with whom I communicate with through my and his blogs as well as via sms, texted me today to say that he wanted to drop by and meet me to give me some home-cooked goodies whipped by none other than his mom, who I gathered via his writings, an accomplished "cook"! I'm a number one fan of Kelantanese delicacies and of course I was thrilled to the hilt! He gave me a whole carrier bag of murtaba', akok and piana. That's a lot of food, I must say! It's my first time eating piana and I love it!

Well Xis - THANKS a million!

Prawn Briyani 101

Mmm not exactly a tutorial on prawn briyani.

Spent half the morning yesterday, on my birthday, in an unlikely place for me - the kitchen! Wifey had an order for prawn briyani for 50 people...I decided, with her condition (5 months' pregnant) it was a husbandly duty to at least accompany her in the kitchen....It was an enlightening one for me too....At least I knew roughly how one of my favourite dishes is cooked...If you asked me the ingredients now - i'd say prwan, basmathi rice, onions, some spices, ghee, mint and corriander leaves, evaporated milk and pureed tomato. I'm sure there's more but I wasn't a good student yesterday! LOL (if you want the recipe, e-mail me ....!)

Wifey cooked a separate pot for us to wallop....Invited a couple of friends for a mid-night snack (how can I call it a snack when we devoured at least 3 plates each) last night....Even though we only had the rice and dhall (normally wifey would make raita or achar and spicy deep fried chicken , we left the pot clean to the brim!

The prawn and onion

Spices for the rice with screwpine leaves before the basmathi rice is mixed with them

The dhall

Mumbai Se...NOT... Mumbai Grill

This is Mumbai of a different kind. It's Mumbai Grill at The Ampwalk, Jalan Ampang (it's part of Passage Through India restaurants). Stumbled upon this Indian eatery when I was scouting for new office premises.

Mumbai Grill offers Bollywood fusion food hence the dedication to Bollywood actors and actresses on a huge wall of the eatery which is the focal point of the restaurant. I could only recognise Aishawarya Rai, her father in- law and Salman Khan as I don't follow Bollywood movies. It's strange that Sharukh Khan was not on the picture collage. But then again I may have not recognised him there....

They serve set lunches ( at least there were seven varieties) as cheap as RM11.90 before taxes (Note : MONDAYS to FRIDAYS only and not available during public holidays). The set lunch comes in the form of a soup, main dish and a drink of your choice.

I had difficulty in choosing my food. The chicken briyani ("Dum Briyani") appeared brilliant as it's cooked in a sealed mud pot over coal (at least that is what was described on the menu). My first choice would be lamb...Apparently they don't cook the lamb the "Dum" way. It's cooked separately from the rice briyani (which is cooked using the "Dum" method). Of course I was distracted a bit and wanted to try the Persian set which consists of two kebab rolls, one chicken and the other lamb....I didn't bother looking at the rest of the sets for fear of having to spend three long hours mulling over which one to choose. Had the chicken "Dum" briyani in the end and Mango lassi to go with it (the soup was a clear but spicy chicken soup which is quite different - that's fusion for you! The service was really fast....

Verdict - the briyani was very spicy which I love...The chicken (three chunks of them) were tender, fresh and succulent and of course spicy to the bone. The side dishes were raita (with a twist - I couldn't tell what was different to this raita unfortunately), some pickles (extra spicy), half a boiled egg and pappads - excellent!

Mumbai Grill is located at G-02, Ground Floor, The Ampwalk, 216 Jalan Ampang. Tel : 21623885

Nice and very clean restaurant

The set lunch menu

Yeehaa...Chicken Dum Briyani

Down memory lane

Wifey and I were wide awake quite early last Sunday morning at my mom and dad's. We felt like taking a break from the kids and we decided to have breakfast on our own at our favourite kopitiam opposite TNB, Jalan Temenggung Ahmad, Muar. It happens to be my late grandad's fave too!

Decided to walk 2km to the kopitiam just in case our kids would hear the engine of the car revving. Luckily they were glued to the idiot box and we managed to sneak out of the house after whispering to my mom that we were leaving the kids in her charge.

Walking the 2 km brought back my childhood years in vivid colours (see the pics below). My parents used to teach in Batu Pahat, a town in between Ayer Baloi (dad's hometown ) and Muar (mom's hometown) which they consciously had to decide as a compromise. BP was home for a good 20 years for all of us until mom got a bit lonely without her siblings around after I got married. I was only physically in BP 24/7 for a good 4 years as I was "sent" away to a boarding school. Mmm..not really, it was my decision which I regretted during the first year in boarding school. Dad "refused" to let me return as he wanted me to be responsible for my own decision. At the end of my first year, I surprisingly, enjoyed being away and staying with friends for a change!

Anyway, I was hit by the simplicity of life which one can have whilst taking the stroll with wifey - in particular the life in Muar compared to the hustle and bustle life in KL. But Muar is fast being hit by rapid development. One thing which I wish that will be preserved for the mankind are the pre-war shophouses. The local council has done relatively well working with the shop-owners by asking them to apply fresh coat of paints every now and then.

Seriously, I have not justice to Muar with these few photos below. There are other interesting places and buildings FYI!

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - breakfast after our 2km walk.


This bakery has been here as far as I can remember. My mom used to wait for freshly baked bread before we return to BP during weekends in Muar. Believe it or not the bakers were kneading the dough on the table in the five foot way.

Mango trees are mandatory for all the houses in Muar. We (my cousins, brother and I) used to nick mangoes from the neighbourhood and eat them with plenty of sugar immersed in dark soy sauce (chilli is optional!) whenever our grandad's tree would run out of them.


This is Muar's answer to Cold Storage. They stock yeast for making bread (this was the only place in Johore then which sells yeast), frozen food, imported canned fruits, philadelphia cheese etc etc.....

Muar has a Trade Centre now with Secret Recipe as one of the tenants. This used to be the UMNO building.

Another kopitiam in town - my parents' fave as the lontong and nasi lemak are nice.

Sate grilling stations are prevalent along the five-foot-ways in Muar

Breakfast haven

The towkay with his dose of daily news whilst his wife busy attending to customers

Only in traditional Kopitiams : where strangers, regardless of race and creed, become friends

Despite the fact that my hometown, Muar (a not too smallish town down south), is only 2 hours' drive away, I only return once a year (on average) for the mandatory exodus of KLites during the Eid celebration. We are meant to do it more often but kids' activities over the weekends have prevented us to do so. And the fact that my parents are always up here in Kuala Lumpur doesn't help either.

So, a khenduri organised by parents and my mom's siblings was good enough a reason to officially ask my kids to skive, which didn't meet with any objections, and drive back to Muar on Friday night after work.

Of course, Muar is very famous for the "heavy" breakfast served in various kopitiams in the town centre. The one which wifey and I like is opposite TNB Jalan Temnggung Ahmad (this happens to be my late paternal grandad's fave place too. He would cycle his black Raleigh bicycle to this place every morning to have breakfast and order takeaways for us at home). We only made our way here on our second day, though. For the first morning we went to a kopitiam called Chin Hong & Co which is in the same block as Paris Hotel along Jalan Temenggung Ahmad right smack in town due to some request for a takeaway by my mom. We had soto, nasi lemak, mee rebus, sate, lontong and toasted bread with kaya (not very nice) amongst us! During visits like this my health conscious self is lost within me.....LOL!

On our second day, wifey and I decided to take a 4km (to and fro) stroll to the koiptiam opposite TNB to have steamed and toasted buns spread with butter and kaya, nasi lemak and sate. The nasi lemak bungkus was bought along the way at a stall which cost 50 sen. Did you know that you can still buy a 30 sen nasi lemak in Muar?

Apart from Kota Bahru, Kelantan, Muar must be the best breakfast haven in Malaysia! I know of people who drives all the way down to Muar for the breakfast...Give it a try - it's only 2 hours' drive (but look who's talking....I do it once a year! LOL). BTW read this entry by Robyn of of EatingAsia for non-halal food in Muar.

Soto in Muar (or rather in Johor) is served with clear soup rather than the ones served by its Indonesian counter part.

Wifey's sate with slightly chilled longan drink for breakfast

My nasi lemak bungkus with slightly chilled longan drink. The nasi lemak was 50 sen!

The buns are toasted/grilled using charcoal


Buns are steamed on top of the water boiler! (This is the towkay's wife)

The buns used here come individually wrapped from the supplier

Our heavenly steamed buns

Coffee cups are sterilised in the slots next to the boiler

Keramat's malay eatery

WARNING : Another food entry.....

Many moons ago, my best friend's friend brought us to a busy malay food eatery along Jalan Jelatek (opposite Jelatek LRT station), Restoran Salim.

Had to send my daughter to school two days ago as my friend who usually ferries her to school had her son hospitalised. Thinking hard after sending my daughter of places to eat and Restoran Salim came to mind. I would say that this is one of the finest malay food eatery around Keramat area and entering it is akin to stepping in to your own mom's kitchen - the aroma is just divine. The variety of spread is an attraction indeed and they use fresh ingredients - tiger prawns, crabs, chicken, beef, fish roe etc etc....

This eatery has been here since god knows when, apparently! To be able to survive that long means something aint it?

The food station

Moi plate

Restoran Salim is located opposite Jelatek LRT station and housed along a mini post office within a four storey walk up City Hall flats.

Sunday Lunch

Ch** Y**n and Ch**s, our good friends and ex-neighbours, invited us over for lunch to sample their latest offering at their Kopitiam (Traditional coffee shop), mee hailam (noodle cooked in soy and oyster sauces with prawn stock). Their most recent addition is also ayam masak merah (chicken cooked in tomato sauce) which basic recipe is wifey's! Our Sunday drive from to their abode was exceptionally smooth! We brought along kuehs from Mak Jah's (next to SPCA Ampang) and my all time favourite, sun-dried tomato loaf from the Bakery.

Upon arrival we were greeted with their ever verdant and very well-kept garden. What do you expect from two garden enthusiasts? Wifey and I both were inspired by them when we moved to our current home.

The mee hailam was gorgeous - a mixture of oyster sauce and dark soy suace in prawn broth with Sarawak black pepper poured over yellow noodle, greens, chicken strips, sliced fish cakes and sauteed prawns.

Our boys had fun playing with Tz* M*nn, R* An* and J* An*. They didn't want to go back....I hope we didn't overstay the hosts' hospitality. We made our way back when Umar cried to go home.....! Umar is a home-body you see.....and he will always be the one giving cues to dismiss our fun time.....

Mee Hailam

Home made soy bean milk

Home made tofu fah served with palm sugar and grass jelly.

Time to say goodbye