Aboard

22/7 was a public holiday and being Sunday, we had a replacement holiday the next day. We were celebrating our Sarawak Independence Day on 22nd.

On the evening of 22/7, we went for a river cruise. We got free tickets last year and haven't been able to utilise them till this month.

Hubby and I have been to the river cruise once. When Jan was a small baby. A private function of hubby's previous company. Now that we have 3 children, it would be fun to bring them and let them experience and enjoy the river cruise together.

So on that Sunday evening (thankfully it was a good evening with no rain), we were all aboard the river cruise and you could imagine how excited the kids were. They hardly sat long and kept wandering off. The Sarawak river cruise departed from the Kuching Waterfront at exactly 530pm. The whole tour took about 1.5 hours.

It may be due to holiday as the cruise was full with passengers, local and international tourists. The upper deck was packed with passengers as everyone wanted the best seats for the cruise. After a short while, we went down to the dining room to sit and enjoy the window view instead.

Upper deck was packed!

In dining room below

We were treated to endless filling of kek lapis and juice. Once a while we would moved around the room and upper deck, felt the wind blowing on us and absorbing the beauty of the places that we've passed through.

We caught the sight of the sunset while we were on-board. The light made the river turned into a prevalent golden rush; what a picturesque view it made. Something we don't get to enjoy and appreciate often enough as we are busy with our daily grinds.

Sarawak kek lapis

The Sarawak river

Fishing boats

Mosque under construction

Old Brooke Dockyard

Astana palace

DUN at the back; next to Darul Hana bridge

Someone's houses

Yours truly 

Beauty of sunset

Next door

There was this old row of shops in Green Road (just after the Petronas) that has been there for many, many years.

The old building at the back of the Green Road bus stop where Goh Say Lak (grocery shop), Kim Lai Heng (coffee shop) and Lee Cafe are located.

My dad's shop was not far away but I seldom go there for breakfast. One, the parking is a pain unless one parks at the new shops and walk over. Secondly, I didn't know what good in those old shops and thirdly, they are indeed very old coffee shop so cleanliness is less desirable.

However one day I went to check out Kim Lai Heng as I heard from a friend that there was a stall selling nice nasi lemak that operated by Chinese. Chinese nasi lemak. That is not common here but I am always up to challenge to try new stalls.

So I had a takeaway of nasi lemak with fried chicken (RM5) one afternoon. For the kids, I ordered salad chicken rice (minus the salad sauce) from the same stall.

Nasi lemak

Chicken rice

The fried chicken was nice. I opted for thigh rather than chicken wing. The rice wasn't that "lemak" but soft and good enough with the crispy anchovies and sambal.

The following week, I went to the shop next door, Lee Cafe for lunch with my dad. The coffee shop looked better and cleaner than next door but choice of food is more or less the same.

Dad had kolo mee there and since I wasn't that hungry I had a takeaway. Chinese fried rice from the fried stall for me and my girl and kolo mee for my boy.

Fried rice RM5

Fried rice was alright; neither too salty or bland. Taste just fine to me.

Kolo mee RM3.50

Suffice to say, I would only drop by at this row of shops as it is near to my dad's shop and on the way to pack lunch before heading to school to pick the kids up. 

Miscellaneous Picture #81 : simply food

We went to Nanyang Food Court one morning and I had my usual, comforting kueh chap.

Back to Nanyang one evening for dinner. I had the ayam penyet rice from a new stall.

Yue tiaw (crullers) and lek tau suan (mung beans dessert) from Sungai Maong wet market.  Nice and salty crullers went well with the sweet dessert.

One of my favourite Sarawak laksa place is Sin Chong Choon Cafe in Green Heights. We seldom go there now, since we move to our current place. Sarawak laksa with its 3-layers teh-c peng is always my choice of breakfast there. 

One of the best lor fan (braised rice) around could be found in MJC weekly market. The owner operates a stall near 3rd Mile wet market but every Thursday and Friday, he would be in MJC. Simply good!

His roasted meat was the best. I never miss buying from him every month.

Snuggle

We had a good weekend over here. There was occasional rains to cool down the temperature. Sunday was much nicer and cooler after the big thunderstorm on Saturday evening.

Few days before the weekend, there was something wrong with the air con in my room; made my room like a sauna room! Since then we have moved over to the boys' room while waiting for the air con to be fixed which they did eventually on Saturday afternoon. By then, we decided to snuggle in the boys' room for one more night. ^^

I love the sleep in with the boys these few nights. We got to chat, argue, tell stories, play pretend and pray.  I am kind of missing Jamie in my room since he moved in with his brother. Actually I am missing both boys in our bedroom. Jay officially moved out from our room this April while Jamie started last month.

Now both stay in their room more, snuggling, grizzling and messing around. I don't know how I handle their brotherly dispute but most of the time, I let the boys settle themselves rather than getting myself involve.

I know. I am being whimsical here but I am slowly accepting the fact that my boys have all grown up!

In comparison

It was a school day last Saturday so only me, hubby and Jamie went to Megabite Batu Kawa for breakfast that morning.

Initially we mulled over where to eat at that area as my man wanted to get a haircut at the nearby hypermarket. In the end, we decided to go to Megabite to eat something other than kolo mee in Nanyang Food Court.

I shared the mixed soup + noodle set with Jamie from the Supreme Prince stall. I enjoyed the fine Angel's hair-like noodle and soup very much. Worth the price, RM8 with livers, lean meats and other parts.

Hubby on the other hand, went for the kampua stall that morning. He ordered the mixed pork soup set too but it came out like this! They called that mixed pork soup??

RM7 for this set, the soup was totally unappetizing in comparison to my order. Hardly any pork in it. Crab meats, fish cake, meat balls, fish balls to few slices of livers and pork meat. Totally not acceptable. 

Some more the noodle had a smell to it. Hubby commented the water that they used have that stale smell. Maybe they didn't change the hot water, so it had smell to it when they cooked the noodle. In end end, he ordered a black soy sauce kampua (RM3.50).

Still, the smell was there. But bearable for my man as he added lots of chilli sauce to it.  He did complained to the stall owner on the smell. 

Never would we ordered from this kampua stall should we come here again.

Hot day and weekends over here

We are currently having a hot spell here. I haven't see a single drop of rain for over a week now. It is nothing but hot day every day.

Since that day when we went to Borneo 744, the heat has soared to a certain discomfort. I hardly do my gardening lately; and I don't go to my morning walk anymore. Too stuffy, too hot (and too lazy! ^^)

I try to keep everyone indoor as much as possible with air con switched on most of the time and get everyone stay hydrated and cool. Now I bathe thrice rather than twice. And I lost count of how many times I cook mung bean soup for dessert over the weeks. Great dessert for such weather and some more, it is nutritious and cooling soup.

Lately, we are crazy over ice-cream. Maybe the craving for something sweet and cold got over us. Last weekend,  we have been stocking the freezer up with different types of ice-cream.

When the weather has cooled down slightly in the evening, we would have a dip in the pool. Our weekend routine is a round of swimming in the pool.

That's how we mostly spend our weekends over here. How about you? Any remedy to cool yourself down?

Cook our food

It was Saturday again! And that means, to binge on something as a family. Eat out!

We had our movie day that Saturday in Vivacity and after we were done, we went for an early dinner in the mall.

We spotted an outlet that we had not try before. Soi 19! Soi. As "lane" in Thai. So, we knew it was a Thai eatery.  And it was non-halal outlet that opened for business this year.

The place looked decent and clean enough and after looking through their menu, we decided to settle our dinner there.

We ordered a hot pot (moo kata) with pork and chicken set.

Soon, the stove came with the hot pot. Grill plate in the centre and shallow pot surrounding it.

And then, we were served with 3 types of dipping sauce.

Then, a plate of sirloin pork and chicken and another plate of mixed vegetables on our table.

So, without further ado, the cooking started. The kids did the cooking and mostly they enjoyed the cooking process more than eating. They were so happy to cook our food for once. Mummy and daddy just sat and enjoyed the food that they cooked. It was incredible to have them cook and serve us for a change. ^^

Worried that the set wouldn't be filling enough, we also had a plate of pad Thai, which was alright and sweet. They also served a small sauce of chilli flakes in case we wanted extra spice in our pad Thai. If you are wondering why the noodle looked messy, it was because it has been "tampered" before I took a shot of it. Lol.

If the pad thai was sweet, their pineapple fried rice was opposite. It was spicy. They added curry to the rice so the strong presence of curry in the fried rice.  I din't enjoyed it much. To me, I prefer sweeter pineapple fried rice, not curry taste. Maybe they had gone overboard with the curry in it.

Anyway, it was a change to have something different. A different cuisine once in a while. I don't mind. I like variety and find it is fun to get everyone to cook their own food. 

Soi 19 Thai BBQ and Steamboat is located at Level 3, Vivacity. Opposite Seoul Garden. 

Couple of days

It was the first day of the month. We went to our Sunday mass as usual.

Right before it started, my dad called me to ask us to collect kacangma later. So after we were done, we went over to collect our share.

My sil's confinement kacangma was nothing but wine, motherwort herb and ginger. Loved it so much that not a single drop of its bitter soup gone wasted!

Kacangma or motherwort chicken

We, Hakka would cook and give out kacangma and few red-dyed eggs to families, relatives and close friends after the baby's full moon. Right at the end of the one-month confinement period.

However, my sil did her give out few days early so my parents and brother could personally delivered them on Sunday. They weren't at home while we were there, so I helped myself to a big container of kacangma. We had it for dinner that evening and the next day. ^^

A couple of days later, together with my dad, we went to TM to apply internet line for the office. We were early so the queue was short and we were done with the application in no time.

Dad wanted to get medicine in Tabuan Jaya so we drove all the way there, and after that we dropped by the house to visit my mum. Dad asked us to go for brunch in Ah Yen Cafe in Wan Alwi road.

In the past, I usually had noodle from the kolo mee stall but I spotted a curry noodle stall there. Dad said the curry was good and he enjoyed it. So, I ordered a bowl to try.

RM6 per bowl. Amazingly, the curry broth was nice and spicy. More like Thai curry with a strong taste of lemongrass. I loved its roasted meat the most. So tasty and went well with the yellow noodle and curry. I think this is the best curry noodle that I have tasted in Kuching.

I added the lime juice to my curry to reduce the spiciness. I didn't tasted the sambal though as the curry was spicy enough.