Sing Siang Lai Restaurant (新香来)

Sing Sing Lai Restaurant (missing the character 'lai')

We went to the above restaurant for a birthday dinner celebration tonight. 

Sing Siang Lai Restaurant is located in Stutong area.  I have been to this restaurant once for a baby's full moon party but the food served then were buffet style and not a sit down dinner like what we had tonight.

There were eleven of us and every seems to be rather small eater and not very adventurous so we didn't order a lot but having said that, what we had were rather good, with some hits and misses but there were a lot more hits than misses so I'm not complaining.

Mongolian lamb shank

First up was this wonderful, flavourful, tender and triple yumminess of a lamb shank.  We have to pre-order this dish one day in advance and is one of the signature dish of this restaurant.  It was really nice and three shanks are enough to go around for eleven people.  The shanks were served with a refreshing honeydew drizzled with some mayonnaise.

'Kay see mee' aka chicken strips noodle

Since we are celebrating birthdays, a birthday noodle ala Kuching style is a must.  I must say the noodle's quite nice and I enjoyed it with bits of chicken, mushroom, cabbage and carrots.  Pretty standard dish but was nice.

'Muichoy kau-yuk'

We also had the pork belly in preserved vegetable served with mantau bun but say it wasn't very good.  The meat wasn't really tender and the fat didn't really the melt in mouth which is my benchmark for such a dish.  I think I can cook better for this dish.

Other dishes include changkuk manis fried with egg which was very good, braised tofu, steam fish but I was too busy eating and forgot to snap the pictures!

No, the candles do not represent my age!

We ended the meal with some fresh fruits served by the restaurant but we also had the New York Cheese cake that we bought from Taka Bakery, which I must say is rather good too.

All in all it was a really nice dinner experience in this restaurant. 

I might consider coming again in the future to try their other signature dishes. :)

Good night!

Pinang Nyonya Restaurant

For some reason, I just feel like posting here after returning from dinner at the above restaurant.

I have been busy of late due to the festive celebration and also some new compliant at work that I need to work on, something related to data protection.

Anyway, this restaurant has been in operation for a few months, if not mistaken. It's situated along the new shops near OneTJ in Kuching.  We have passed it many times but never went in to try so when the hubby decided that we should try it tonight, I was quick to agree and I do love nyonya food from either Penang or Malacca.

Tummy empty and rumbling, expectation way up high, off we go to Pinang Nyonya Restaurant.

These are what we ordered :

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 Tau yu bak @ RM14.90...one hard boil egg, one taukua, few pieces of ribs and pork belly.  It was quite nice in terms of flavour but the meat wasn't very tender.  We order it as it's one of the few items on the menu that wasn't spicy.

The hubby wanted ju hu car. At RM11.90 which was a mixture of turnip, dried sotong, carrots, black fungas and I'm not sure what else. It is quite pricy as the portion is rather small. It came with the sambal and thank goodness the sambal packs a punch and added a much needed dimension to an otherwise rather one dimensional and oily dish.

I wanted the sambal fish.  This fish cost RM7.90 and it was nice as in it's fresh and the sambal that's stuffed in the fish is rather sweet and spicy and goes very well with the fish.  The only issue I have with this is that the sambal's too little.

The daughter wanted the inche kabin. If not mistaken, there's about three wings and a couple of keropok. Priced at RM11.90, the chicken's nicely fried and are very juicy.  You might say it's expensive but then chicken wing goes for RM2.50 to RM3 a piece even in hawker stalls so I'm all good with this.

We also a soup of the day which was pork bones and watercress soup.  All soup of the day is priced at RM7.90 and you have to check with the waitress on what's available.  The desert of the day is 'tong yuen'.  All desert of the day is at R4.50.  We didn't order it.

Rice is RM2.50 per person and you can ask for complimentary top up if you are a 'rice bin'. :).  Pickle papaya is RM2 which was served the minute you are seated. Drinks ranged from RM3 to RM6 depending on what you order.

Our bill for three person comes up to RM70 but we can't finish the chicken wing so we doggy it back home. It will be part of my lunch tomorrow.

Other items on the menu are kapitan curry chicken, assam prawns, ngohiang (meat roll), sambal ladies fingers, sambal changkuk manis, among others.  Favourites such as otak-otak, fried kueh teow and cendol are absent from the menu.

I'm not sure if I would go back again.

Home Recycling Project 1 - Wrapping Papers

I won't call myself a recycling freak but I do enjoy the challenge of reusing and recycling what I have, prolonging their lives and extend their usefulness before throwing them away.

However, I am not really the type that like to make crafts out of such recycle materials but instead rather to use them practically.  One of such materials that I usual reuse are wrapping papers from presents that I received.

Now, I am the type that sees no joy in in ripping the wrappers off the gifts with great passion and trash the wrappers afterwards without any further thoughts.  I am the type that gently unwrapped the gifts with such tenderness taking care not to tear any of the wrappers (so that I can reuse them) and wait patiently as the gifts revealed itself :)

I must clarify that I do not use these wrappers to wrap gifts to others.   I know of others who do that but not me.  I have other more usefulness for these beautiful wrappers :)  One common practice would me for me to use them as drawer liners, to line drawers and cabinets and like what I did today, I use these wrappers to line my new shoe rack.

These are various used wrappers that I have kept since Christmas last year. They are of various sizes and textures and colours, slight tear here and there but nothing a tape can't fix.

What I did was to wrap the plants of the shoe shelves with these papers, combining the ones that are of smaller sizes and where possible, use the whole wrapper for a neater look.    All I need are just some masking tapes which I use to tape the papers to the bottom of them planks.

The wrapped planks will keep the shoes from dirtying them and 6 months or a year down the road when the papers get dirty and torn, all I have to do is to re-wrapped them.

One happy and clean shelves - a new home for my shoes :) and *ka-ching* money saved from having to buy drawer liners :)

Premium Popcorn from Garrett

I didn't know that popcorn can also go designer.  While shopping recently, I popped (pun intended!) into Gerrett Popcorn Shop to try the famous gourmet popcorn that I have heard about but never tried.

I bought the Chicago Mix - mixture of salty cheese flavoured and caramel flavoured at RM16 (US4) for a small packet for the family to try.  We all agreed that having just the caramel would be too sweet for our tastebud but the mixture of sweet and salty is to our liking.

This certainly brought enjoyment of popcorn to a different level!

Happy Winter Solstice Festival

Dong Zhi Festival is celebrated today, 22nd December this year....so here's a bowl of tong yuen just for you.

I must clarify that I didn't cook this.  I took the picture from an email that I received and it actually reminded me that today's the day for making tong yuen.

Tong (Sugar) Yuen(Ball) is a traditional colourful Chinese dessert made and used to celebrate the Harvest Festival of the Padi and welcoming the arrival of winter season.  In modern day context, it's a good reminder that Chinese New Year is round the corner as Winter Solstice Festival is exactly one month before celebrating Chinese New Year.

Dong Zhi literally means The Arrival of Winter season and has been said to celebrate much merrier and grandly than the lunar Chinese New Year during ancient times.  The Ancient Chinese believed that after a year of successful harvest, it is the occasion for thanksgiving to the Mother Nature for her blessings. So,it is an occasion to celebrate.

I have to go and make my dong yuen now. So, here's wishing you and your family members happy get together.

Will I ever be a food blogger? - part 1

I must be honest to myself and admit that the possibility of me being a food blogger is extremely small. For some reason, I always forgot to take photos of food served in front of me or food that I cook.  How to share how wonderful the food is without the photos for like they say 'a picture speaks a thousand words'

For example, for a long time I wonder why do I have a photo of this juicy lamb chop in my photo album.  Then I remembered that I grilled this pair of wonderful chops for dinner one day and pair it wilth mix vegetable of carrots, celery, tomato and apples.  (Yes, try stir fried your apples especially green apples.  It taste great but remember not to over cook it.)

Where's the finished product?

Do I have a photo of the finish product?  No.  I forgot to take a photo.  And that is why I will never be a food blogger.  A food blogger worth his/her salt would have taken a fabulous photo of the perfectly grilled lamb chop and the delicious side vegetables.

There are more reasons.  I'll save it for next time.  Let me go and throw away the balance of what would have been a pretty good looking and tasty lunch (mee siam from Old Town White Coffee) but then again, I forgot to take a photo of it looking tasty and delicious.

Empty lunch box

Is there light at the end of the tunnel for me?

Christmas Tree 2011 - Singapore

I love Christmas trees.

During our short trip to Singapore recently, I managed to go on a Christmas tree hunt and these are what I managed to capture.  There are many more in different malls and hotels but we can't be going to all.  Enjoy and get into the Christmas mood.....:)

Outside Plaza Singapura

Outside Suntec City Mall

Outside Suntec City Mall

A small tree in a shop

Park Mall, Orchard Road



Inside Takashimaya



Resort World Sentosa

Same tree - during the night

Lobby of Festive Hotel

Lobby of Michael Hotel