Limpets? Limpeh? Lim's Pet?

When I was visiting supermarket one day, I came across a canned food called Limpets. There were Chinese characters written on it but my mandarin was not that good because I was a quarter of Banana – yellow (Chinese skin color) outside white (Western skin color) inside. Actually I dropped my mandarin lesson after Form 3 public exam because it was the only subject which I did not score an ‘A’ (I ‘kiasu’ - scare of losing), in fact I scored a ‘C’.

 

So, at first I thought it was a local food targeted the locals because the name same as Hokkien word of saying ‘myself’ - ‘Limpeh’.

 

After checking wikipedia, I then realized that it was a kind of snails which Chinese love to have it on steamboats.

 

Silly me, thinking that this expensive stuff is a pet food for Lim’s Pet.

Ipoh Beansprout Chicken (Restoran Onn Kee)

From Penang to KL, you need to pass through a state called Perak. At Perak, there is a town famous for pretty girls, Ipoh.  Ipoh is also famous for one particular dish – Beansprout Chicken (Tauge Ayam).

 

With this 2 attractions surely I would stop by this little town. The shop we visited called Onn Kee Restaurant. Time for me to examine how tasty is the beansprout and how tender is the chicken.

Entering the restaurant, there was a wall of famous folks – a photo of Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong superstars who had visited this place! Before tasting the meal, I could already feel that it must be something! Good first impression. Don’t know when my photo will be there? Next next next next life maybe…

The main dish, steam chicken was really tender and tasty. I guarantee that when you put the chicken inside your mouth, you would only spit out the bones.

Accompanying the chicken was of course the beansprout. They were bigger than the normal beansprouts and you could feel the crunchiness and the natural sweetness when you bite on them.

As for side dishes, we ordered Char Siu Sauced Pork, which comparatively same par as the main dish because of the juiciness and sweetness of the meat; 

and meatball soup that was so juicy that you could feel the juice spitting out into your mouth when you bite on it, truly a heavenly feeling.

Another thing that we should not miss was the sha ho fun (a kind of noodle made famous in Ipoh). It was available in soup 

or dry.

I did not try the dry type (my bro had that), but the soup one was cooked with chicken, so essence was all there.

 

 Fuuuuulll (*breathless*), the end of one of the greatest battle of my life! This was the aftermath. And I still said want to keep fit!

Bouncy Meat! Guess What?

What’s this? Any Idea? Here is a hint: from a bouncing animal.

Look closer… Yup! Kangaroo meat! Apparently in Australia, kangaroo is like rare dogs in Malaysia. They kept being knocked over by cars over there. Therefore, it is not rare we could find its meat in Australia.

By the way, it seemed impossible for me to spot a live kangaroo in Australia, except for the dead ones by the roadside. So, as a revenge (for them hiding from me), I eat their meat! Ho ho ho! (Gee, I sound so evil…)

Well, it really took a long time to fully cook the meat in the oven. Look at the picture below, what does it look like? Something familiar, right? Something you made from the toilet everyday? Well, what I can tell you is that, it tasted exactly what it looked like but just so hard to chew it off… at least for me!

This should be the last time I taste a kangaroo meat! Yuck!

Hilton Kuching Seafood Buffet

I really don’t expect such places exist in Kuching. Before having to experience the Seafood Buffet at Hilton Kuching, I always thought good buffet could only be found in West Malaysia. I was wrong!

Dreckker treated me to Hilton Kuching Seafood Buffet on Friday evening. Thanks again, bro!

There are good varieties of seafood, ranging from Japanese Sashimi....

….to freshly grilled seafood and meats…

… to pan-fried butter fish….

…and others.

Different coffee could be made by the pressing of a button at the coffee machine. Then, you could hear the machine blending the beans and output fresh cup of coffee.

As for dessert, the choice could easily make cake lover go crazy.

For chocolate lovers, there is a chocolate fountain there! Yipee!

I took in a lot of Grilled Rock Lobster. Fortunately, the Captain was still smiling at us when we left the place. Hopefully they would not close down the buffet. If they do, it might be our fault.

Dreckker and I was there from 7pm till 10pm. And I went to toilet for more than 5 times. In other words, the buffet almost kill me!

Pizza Hut India - Punjabi Pizza

Not a good morning for me today. I woke up feeling not so well, might be caused by the pizza from Pizza Hut I had last night. To make thing worse, Hertz did not arrange a driver for me today. I kept calling their office but the line was busy. When it was available the receptionist was not friendly at all. The late arrangement forced me to only depart from my hotel at 9am.

Yesterday I ordered pizza as takeaway from Pizza Hut. I went for a medium-sized lamb pizza called Goshtaba under Punjabi Pizza selection. I brought it back to my hotel, opened the box and lost my appetite for food.

Except for my pizza handling skill that messed up the topping, the ingredient and looks did not attract me at all. The meat looks like it was scooped out from a lamb, the chillies were in big chunks, onions all over the pizza and finally covered with Punjabi sauce and cheese.

The taste? Did not suit me at all! The lamb tasted like it was fed with curry before being slaughtered. Not an enjoying meal but I finished half of the pizza since my stomach was growling, emmm… correction, barking! I guess it is safe to say that I am now a Punjabi-man!

And I was not feeling well the next morning….

Most Embarrasing Meal in Bangalore

Lion pointed out that if all I ate was hotel food, sure everything would be more expensive. So, setting aside the local stalls that I was informed of 80% chance of getting diarrhea, let me blog about one time where i had the most embarrassing meal in Bangalore.

One day I was craving for Italian food; so I went to a decent shop. The appearance looked like a café than a restaurant where some people dressed very casually.

So, I went in sit down and had a look at the menu, and lost my appetite straight! Everything was 3-digit rupee! I stared at the menu for a long while, trying to decide what to ordered. The menu was in Italian with small English description.

Trying not to look stupid, I looked at the soup category picked the cheapest one and same for pasta. For drinks I ordered Ice Lemon tea.

Lemon tea was the first to arrive. It tasted okay, but what I did not understand was how come there was a leaf over there. Maybe it was for decoration, a way to make the ice lemon tea less ‘lemon-tea looking’.

Next, the soup arrived. Together with it was a cake, or should I say looked like a cake, smell like a cake but did not taste like cake. The soup was good but a bit salty so I drank it with the cake-like thing, and still tasted salty.

Finishing the soup, it was time for my pasta. The restaurant was called Spaghetti Kitchen – The Italian way. So I was really eager to taste how good the pasta would be. Even took a photo of myself while waiting for the main course.

When the waiter placed down my pasta, I was shocked!

5 dumplings in butter sauce? Trying to make it worth every rupee I was chewing as long as I could for each dumpling. But I was still hungry, so I asked for the menu again. Then I realized that the Pasta and Soup were actually under the same ‘Starter’ category. Did not want to show that I ordered the food wrongly, I ordered Tiramisu, hoping at least the cake could fill my almost empty stomach.

And what I got? A cup of chocolate and coffee flavored whipped cream!

As for the bill, I better not to talk about it….

Chinese Food, The Cure for Homesick Soul

I just realized that Wednesday is a holiday in Bangalore. So this means that I have an extra day to lock myself in my hotel room! Should I say ‘Yeah’ or ‘Boo’, anyway I have 10 days left in Bangalore, so I guess I should start appreciating my moment here because I don’t think I want to come back in the future.

Anyway, I was so busy today until I skipped lunch. So, after came back from work and there was only one way to cure my hunger and homesickness – Chinese food (Now you know why I am round)! But Chinese food here was extremely expensive, I ordered Prawn with XO source, Seafood Sweet Corn soup and a bowl of steam rice. And the cost? 1800 rupee! Although it exceeded my daily food budget, it gave me the feeling of Penang (and the feel of also wallet got burnt).

So, before eating anything, I should take some photo. Oh ya, they gave some appetizer but I did not want to spoil my appetite with that.

The sweet corn soup was sticky with some fish, prawn and crab meat.

As for the prawn, it did not taste alcoholic at all, wait was it XO or OX sauce. Let me check… yup, it was XO. But it tasted good with all the king prawns unskinned.

Overall, it was a happy meal!

McDonald India

Today is the first time I woke up late and missed breakfast; because I was working on some tasks last night until 5am. The 3rd hotel bill had just arrived and again I settled them happily. I guess I would need to find some time to file them.

I was hungry so the first place I knew to get cheaper food was again Brigade Road. So again I headed to Brigade Road. Sunday was usually a traffic free day but not for the auto-rickshaw drivers, still offering service and some even knew where I lived and remembered that I was around this area yesterday. Creepy! Anyway, a tip for tourists and visitors who are traveling in this city and want to avoid auto-rickshaw cum taxi drivers, try to walk against the traffic.

Yesterday I had KFC, so today I aimed for McDonald –“I’m loving it”…I hope. When ordering, one particular set caught my eye , Chicken Maharaja Mac; WOW, the name itself seemed beat Malaysia’s Big Mac! Who knows I might feel like a King when I eat it.

So, let’s see what I got – Burger, French Fries and Cola for 127 Rupee (about RM10).

Un-wrapping the wrapping revealed a burger with orange crown! Does that means I should wear it on top of my head when eating it to get the feel of a king?

De-crowning the orange crown showed a poorly-decorated burger, the person preparing this burger must had hated his job! Or me!

Okay, don’t judge the book by its cover, so let me taste it. It did not taste like chicken at all! It tasted like a meat heavily-enriched with sate and curry sauce. Bangalore is a place without rats roaming around so I guess was still chicken; or this theory worked another way round?

The specialty of McDonald is that they love to localize their food; meaning the food is usually prepared to suit the locals. So, understandably it would not suit me.

Finishing my meal, I wondered how would Ronald McDonald looked like in India. I seemed to miss him on my way in. Well, it is the same…

…instead of like this: