Schools

I had been super busy in the final week of the school holiday. Registration of schools, collecting textbooks etc. Normal stuff to do before schools reopened on 21st March. 

But somehow Jay's registration to preferred school (Jan's secondary school) wasn't smooth so I needed to run here and there to appeal again. Did my 1st appeal via online on the 1st week of the school holiday but rejected so I needed to do it manually 2 weeks later. 

So for 3 days, I was driving between 2 secondary schools and the Kuching education department to submit my case. Submitted to education department on Wednesday and finally got the approval letter on Friday. Immediately dropped the letter to the school in the morning and by evening, I got the list of class with his name in it!! Thank God!! Thanks to the teacher for the quick work and effort!! And that same evening, my phone was bombarded with Telegram from different teachers!! My first time using Telegram app. 

Now less headache for me as Jay is now in same school with the sis although he is in afternoon session while the latter is in the morning class. For now, both will be doing online classes till they going back to school on 1st week of April.

The youngest has been going back to school, but he wasn't that pleased with him going to school while the others stayed at home and doing online classes. Lol!!

One morning last week, I was too busy to prepare lunch so I went to buy takeaway from Singapore Chicken Rice.

Fried rice plus egg RM9.50

Jan wanted its fried rice and requested a fried egg to go with her rice. I went for fried rice but without the egg. 

Fried rice RM8.50

The boys had the roasted chicken rice for lunch. 

Roasted chicken rice RM7.40

They are back!!

One minute, they were gone. Next minute, they are back!! That is the case of Taiwan's famous street snack chain, Shihlin!

Just when I thought I would not be able to enjoy its street snack anymore, they were back, opened a couple of outlets in Kuching.  One was in Emart Batu Kawa, my favourite hypermarket that we usually do our grocery shopping. 

But with cases going up again, I would not be thinking of going out as often. And to satisfy my craving for Shihlin snacks, I got Grab to settle for me.

Initially I wanted oyster mee suah but look like they were run out of it or it was not available.  Anyway, I ordered 1 XXL Crispy Chicken (RM15) and 1 Sweet Plum Potato Fries (RM11). But  I used the Grab offer, so in the end, I only paid RM15 for both.   

Same taste, same flavour. You could detest the strong spices on the breaded chicken. 

The size of the XXL crispy chicken. Just nice to share with my kids. 

This was my first time tasting its sweet plum potato fries. I liked sweet potatoes so I rather enjoyed these fries. The strong taste of plum sauce, which kids didn't liked much but no problem for me to finish them up. 

Fried and foot

Kwong Hup Cafe, located not far from Aeon Kuching. Hubby and I went for breakfast there one Sunday after went to ATM in a nearby bank. 

Whenever I was here in the past, I would usually ordered the fried kway teow. So, no exception that morning. Initially wanted fried kway teow with clam but clams were unavailable so we settled for prawn and extra fried egg instead. 

RM5.50 for normal plate but my guess it is around RM6 or RM6.50 since we requested 1 fried egg on top. 

The disappointment was only 1 big prawn in our kway teow!! Imagine that!! Lol. Otherwise, we would just settled for normal kway teow instead. Lol. 

We tapaued 2 fried kway teow for Jan and Jay while Jamie will settled for kolo mee. Beside that, we also bought home yue tiaw, chai kueh and popiah. 

After dropped the food at home, I brought my man to a Chinese physician to check on his right foot. He woke up, wincing of pain. Geez. How can one injure himself while sleeping, I have no idea.

Anyway, leaving with no choice and the Chinese acupuncture we had been to in the past wasn't opened on Sunday, we settled for a nearby Chinese physician instead.

Upon checking, it was the nerve, so the physician wrapped some herbs and medicine onto hubby's ankle. Left it wrapped for at least 5 hours and took some tablets and syrup to relieve the pain. Total damage RM120!!! An injured man was a nagging man, I said. Lol. 

Popping

He bought this pack of popcorn by accident. Actually, not really an accident. He meant to buy for the kids but he didn't checked it properly. 

He bought this RM17 Anas premium popcorn in one of the Petronas on the way home from Samarahan not long ago. It stated hot & spicy!! But to our surprise, it wasn't spicy at all. We thought it was really spicy as the pack stated but upon checking the ingredients, there was not a single chilli or spice in it!!

Somehow it turned out good and tasty. Addictive. Sweeter but not too sweet. Popcorns were crispy.

Locally made, in Kota Samarahan. Wow!! Must support Sarawak-made product!! 250g, sold at RM17 in Sarawak, RM20 in Sabah and West Malaysia. 

Maybe because it did not have any preservative so the expiry date was pretty near. Hubby bought on the 11 March and the expiry date is today (20 March). Don't worry, we settled the popcorn in less than 3 days!! Lol.

Change its name

From Xing Xing Cafe to Xing Xing Wang Cafe. Not sure when they changed the name but we haven't been patronising this food court for quite long time. Definitely not much since MCO 2 years ago and even longer prior to date. 

Not till last week, when hubby and I went there for breakfast, did we stepped foot into the foot court. Few stalls remained the same but new stalls are operating. Somehow the business has picked up since. Good to see that.

Maybe because of more stalls are opened. Or maybe because of this Kueh chap stall.  

Read about this stall the day before in FB. Guess social media has been a good advertising tool, it sure attract curious patrons. Lao San Kueh Chap. Since it was recommended by Borneo Food Hunter FB page, I bet it was worth the try. 

We were there around 830am. Pretty late than our usual time as hubby woke up late. He was late the night before so I let him sleep in slightly longer. 

It took quite some time for our Kueh chap to arrive on our table. Noticed business was good and fee customers waiting for their takeaway. But we were happy when our food came as the Kueh chap turned out good.

Small bowl for me, big bowl for the man. Milder taste of the broth which we both liked. The chilli dipping was spicy and sourish with zest of lime in it.  RM19 total for our Kueh chap plus 2 pieces of yue tiaw that we tapaued home. 

These were the yue tiaw that we tapaued. Mostly gone into Jay's tummy as he ate them with his kolo mee.

Feedback from my noodle lover boy, the kolo mee was so-so. Not the same guy operating the kolo mee. Last time, the stall used to serve kolo mee and kampua. Now a different person, a young man mending the kolo mee stall.

While we were there, we also ordered our takeaway lunch. Yup, no need to cook lunch for me so we ordered our favourite food that we used to buy in the past from Xing Xing Wang Cafe 

3 packs of fried rice which the kids enjoyed. I also liked it, the fried rice was tasty and fragrant.  RM16 for the fried rice. 

But I didn't have fried rice for lunch. Hubby and I had the curry mixed  rice. RM12 for 2 packs of the curry mixed rice. 

That was what we had last Saturday. A satisfying breakfast and lunch for us.

In case you are wondering about Xing Xing Wang Cafe location, it is the food court next to Batu Kawa Klinik Kesihatan in Jalan Stapok. The food court is directly across the road from the HK Square (where New World Grocer is).

Since that year

An overdue reunion and catch up!! I entered college in 1996. I started off with LCCI diploma. Studied for a year and got my double diplomas in Accounting and Economy. Then I pursued my degree in Marketing for 3 years before entering the job market. 

Since that year when we graduated, it has been more than 20 years that I haven't met my LCCI classmates. Most of them went back to their hometowns and lost contact.  Although few are in Kuching, we hardly meet up. The most we did was connected via Facebook and Whatsapp. 

And so a friend tried to organise a reunion for those in Kuching not long ago  but somehow we ended up with only 4 of us. Others were unavailable. Since it was only 4 of us (all girls), we decided to go to a quieter place for a lunch last Sunday. A friend was a member of the prestigious Sarawak Club so she suggested it as our lunch spot!!

So, the 4 of us met up in Sarawak Club last Sunday. This was my 4th visit and dining here but the last one was many years ago, when I was working in my 1st company. And my first time having lunch there.

My friend did the ordering since she was the member there. The 4 of us had 5 dishes in total .

The signature cold dish plate, which was the star of our lunch. Cold jelly fish in the centre with chicken and mango salad with meat crisp around it.

The fried needle mushroom rolls were also recommended as they were unique yet appetizing.

Butter fried prawns were equally irresistible as I had many of these buttery prawns. 

We also had this tasty fried beancurd. We could taste the salted fish in the gravy. 

Lastly, was the stir fried celery, peas, carrots with squids. 

Besides the delicious feast, we also spent a good time reminiscing on old times, catching up with current lives. We promised ourselves that we will make it a once a month meet up and hopefully able to get other old classmates to join us too. 

We just got to try

When my man saw a food post in FB not long ago, he had been thinking of driving all the way to Sentosa for breakfast.

Hao Jing Cafe in Sentosa; on its right was 77 Mart and its left was Hong Leong Bank. It was a Sunday morning slight before 8am when we reached the coffee shop but it was pretty packed with morning goers. Not far away was the wet market, so we expected jam and crowds.

We were lucky as we found an available table. The last table at the end, next to a Malay stall. Otherwise we may ended up tapau our breakfast instead. 

This was the reason we came here. Ho Lee Fried Stall. This stall was next to the Malay stall, where seated not far from. 

The FB post mentioned and recommended its tasty and flavourful Hokkien Mee. I ain't a big fan of Hokkien Mee, and since hubby ordered that, I decided to try other dish.

Hubby ordered the special for his Hokkien Mee, requested for more pork lards and a fried egg. 

The noodle was fried so well that you could taste the wok hei. The lard added extra flavour and texture to the noodle. Overall, it was really good and tasty. 

As for me, I went for the wat tan hor. Yummy as well. So generous with the egg gravy. Good to take on a cold, cloudy morning.  We waited pretty long for our food, as business was good. 1 young man cooking all the dishes and people were patiently waiting for their food. Would we be coming back for more?? You bet, but only when we are craving for a good fried Chinese noodle. Not anytime soon I think, as it is about 30 minutes drive from my place. 

 

Now they have

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. Last Sunday of February 2022. Hubby and I woke up around 7am, what a nice day to sleep in. 

Anyway, we spotted that my MIL has also woke up, so we invited her for breakfast in the city centre. Same time, we shown her the new Borneo Cultures Museum (the largest museum in Malaysia) which is opening to public soon.  

Kim Joo cafe. Who doesn't know the well known Kim Joo's mixed pork noodle?

So the 3 of us drove all the way there and since it was early, we had no problem finding parking behind the General Post Office. The designated parking bay behind the Hainan Association building.  My MIL reminiscing on the old days as we walked along the old Chinese buildings to the coffee shop. 

Our breakfast arrived in no time as few tables were occupied that time. Each of us had its mixed pork soup and vinegar noodle set. How I missed its taste!!!

The younger girl that helped out in the shop was telling us of its baos. Yes, now they have handmade baos. Bak baos and char siew baos. 

We bought 3 bak baos and 2 char siew baos home to try. Jay, after finished his noodle, took one of the bak baos. So here was how the meat filling in the bak bao. He finished his bao by himself!!! 

Hubby and I shared one of the char siew baos. There was egg in the char siew bao, which I always like. You could see the char siew chunks in the bun. 

 

Taste-wise, both baos were nice. The bun was soft and there was quite a filling in it too. You could give their baos a try whenever you drop by Kim Joo for its noodle.

Next door

It was a Saturday. Everyone woke up late so by the time hubby and I reached Rock Road, it was way past 8am. 

We went here for our breakfast. Both of us seated in front of Cheerful Cafe, the next door shop was Blossom Cafe. Hubby used to patronise both coffee shops when his office was nearby. So he was familiar with both operators.

We ordered the drinks from Cheerful Cafe but breakfast from Blossom Cafe. Sarawak laksa for both of us. 

We took our time slowly in Cheerful Cafe  since hubby said to wait for its economy rice to be ready. He was thinking of lunch while we were having our breakfast!!!

Other than economy rice, the owner recommended it's freshly made popiah. We bought 2 to try, and they were tasty. We quite enjoyed them. 

 

Our economy rice for lunch. Few packs with different dishes, so everyone got to choose what they want. Of course, hubby choose the most dishes for himself!!