Well, I can’t blame him, this dark and sweet sauce is really not bad, especially when they chopped up some bird chilies (cili padi) and mix it with kecap manis, just take a little with your rice or dishes, taste really good. Its also good for cooking with things like squid or prawns.

I googled around and I was surprised that they even sold it on Amazon.com!!! Its not expensive, I brought back the small 140ml bottle, cost about RM1.20 and you don’t really need a lot to go with your food. On the label you can see some of the main ingredents are things like sugar, water, salt, soy bean, wheat and sodium benzoate (aka preservative).

Yesterday, during tea, Joe was telling me that when he was kid he remember, we used to have a similar kind of dark soy sweet sauce here in Malaysia as well, and I sort of remember vaguely that I used to had something like this when I was young too! Any idea if we have something similar here in Malaysia?

During one of the dinner, I was brought to this place, its known as d’palm Restaurant which serve Sundanese food which are the natives of Western Java. Some of us refer this place as the KOI pond place, because at the back garden, you will find a beautiful garden with the KOI pond running from the entrance to the back. They built wooden walkways on top of the pond and canopied seating areas as well. So as you sit and dine, just a quick turn to your side and there are KOI swimming around, imagine that ;). The building design is modern, a lot of glass and upstairs even have a stage for singing and performance.

You run through d’palm website, you can see the various menu of Sundanese food available, so I am not gonna elaborate on that. I tried one of the drink here, “es jeruk kelapa muda” which is basically a young coconut added to a citrus drink with ice! Its very good, sour, sweet and a little salty at the same time ;).

Now dining here, is a bit difference, we order the dishes we like as usual, here a lot of words is different from Bahasa Malaysia… we have things like cumi = squid, gurame = kind of fish, buntut = no, not backside but tail of the cow! The unique thing is that for rice, they have a varierty to select, the usual nasi putih, then nasi merah, nasi timbel, nasi liwet, nasi bakar, etc. Oh, the one thing I really like here is their gado-gado, the flavour is light yet very tasty and not too filling.

Its quite a unique experience and I find the pricing to be quite ok for a nice environment and pretty good food ;). So if you are in Bandung, try to go to No.45 Jl. Lombok and give it a try, do reserve the seat next to the pond :).

Well, during my last trip to Indonesia, I found out that the Food Garden, which is the building outside the LCCT terminal is not a bad place for meal. If you come out of the terminal, its just after the bus stop where all the bus to KL Sentral are parked.

This time, I was early to the airport and I decided to try out the food at the terminal, as expected, the food is not great, but its not that bad. I got a little greedy and went for the Nasi Lemak set, at RM5.50, I get the usual nasi lemak serving of rice with some sambal, cucumber, peanuts and fried anchovies plus a piece of fried chicken of my choice. The rice are warm (kept in rice cooker) but the chicken is cold though :(.

But how to complaint, at RM5.50 got nasi lemak plus big piece of chicken, I pay double if I go to McD! The food court is also offering their teh tarik (from the nescafe machine one) at RM1.00 per cup and I got a 500mil bottle of mineral water at RM0.80 (RM1.50 if you buy in the terminal)!

So I spent a total of RM7.30 for breakfast at LCCT for nasi lemak plus fried chicken with a cup of teh tarik and a bottle of mineral water, still cheaper than any McD meals and I am trying not to take fast food. So, its kind of affordable to eat here if you are stucked in LCCT, oh… if you want to save plain fried rice is RM2 ;).

GPS: N2 44.267 E101 43.278

Firstly, they will make sure they set everything on the table properly, including menu, plate, chopstick, etc. before bringing you to your table. Service is fast, as they are a lot of people working for a small place. They are also a little high tech, using a PDA to take your orders ;).

Price wise, not to say cheap, not to say too costly, above average but the food quality is really good! I ordered a Spider King Ramen, its basically your normal ramen, but they put the whole fried soft shell crab in it. But I thought its a little too salty, because they have some kind of meat floss looking thing added to the soup, otherwise is ok. Its RM19.90 for that bowl, but if you are not greedy like me, the normal ramen starts at RM11.90.

The sake sushi aka salmon sushi is priced at RM6.00 for 2 pieces, but the salmon are fresh and the serving is thick on the sushi rice. Their bbq squid is not bad too, I thought its a little costly at RM14.00 but its superbly fresh and soft, so quite worth it ;). Their soft shell crab handroll is about RM9.00 if I remember correctly.

So price wise, a little above average I would say but they compensate with a good surrounding (nice decor and setup), fast service and good food quality. Oh ya, 1 thing I don’t like is their appetizer cost RM5.00 and is not really nice, if you do go there, tell them you don’t want the appetizer, add a buck more and you get sushi :P.

GPS:N2 59.655 E101 26.624

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Today, I got a surprise! Its already August, 1 month before my flight, I did not receive any email notification or telephone call from Firefly, but guess what, they had cancelled the flight! Gosh… I was about to book and pay for my hotels and car rental but lucky, I did the sensible thing, login to Firelfy’s website to confirm my bookings! The below flight status appears when I login, its cancelled!

I mean I can understand how budget airlines works and if the route is not profitable and you have changes to your plan is fine, but at least inform the effected customers? What if I had paid for my hotel and the tour packages?

When I called the call center up, only then I was informed they are stopping their flights to Langkawi from Subang… they now offer me to either get a full refund or route through Penang, meaning I have to fly to Penang wait there for 1 hour plus (from schedule I checked on their website) and then fly to Langkawi from Penang. I really don’t know what to do now… really felt lucky that I login to check before I prepaid for my hotel!

If Firefly would have call and inform me the moment they cancelled the flight, I wouldn’t be so angry at them, for the rest of you, I urge you login and check your flight! I wonder if I didn’t check, when would they tell us? I thought coming from MAS, they would be better than AirAsia, looks like I am wrong!

I tried to check for alternative now, but because its only a month away, even AirAsia or MAS will cost a whole lot more, if they had informed me sooner, I would have switch to AirAsia. So now I guess, I either have to go through all the trouble of flying through Penang and waste time at the airport or forget about going to Langkawi! Looks like I am gonna ask for a full refund and think of elsewhere to go or just cancel my leave :(.

But Elaine was right, its prices are alright for Chinese dishes in PJ… we ordered a steamed talapia fish “cheong ching” style which is basically covered with a thick sauce after steaming. The steam talapia cost RM12.00 which is quite ok. The fish is fresh and the sauce is not bad, appetizing and not too strong.

Next is RM8.00 for a plate of tofu, its fried tofu covered with minced pork on top. The minced pork are plenty the tofu, it’s superbly small in size and you get 8 of them! According to Elaine, the portion have shrunk a lot since the last she came, everyone trying to cut cost? Damn fuel prices…

Their salted fish pork cake looks pretty good on the menu, so I thought we gave it a try, RM8.00 as well for 8 pieces but the size is more acceptable for this one. You don’t really eat chunks and pieces of salted fish but the moment you take a bite, you get a nice hint of salted fish fragrant.

We stopped our orders here (we also want to cut cost!), because they offered free soup to their customers and that particular day its old cucumber soup. But the waitress, then told us they are having a promotion now, RM3.00 for the vegetables of the day! So how can we resist? ;).

Overall we are happy with our meals, taste is good and price is acceptable :).

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GPS: N3 07.194 E101 36.000

Their kembong fish (Mackerel) are always big and fresh, it is deep fried, then covered with minced garlic and chili padi with a light soya sauce. The fish is crisped so usually not too much worry on bones and it goes very well with rice.If you don’t fancy kembong they have a various other type of salt water fish choices but the only difference is its a whole lot cheaper and the fish size are small. So if you have a big crowd, there may need to serve 2-3 fishes but good thing is when there is only 2-3 persons, you can sit order the fish :).

The other regular dish here are their hakka stewed pork which are basically pork, marinated then deep fried before being stewed with black fungus and other sauces, this is a traditional Hakka dish ;). They also have a variety of other home cooked style dishes and you can also order other big fried thing like a certain dish on rice or noodles.

I discovered a new dish here, its “tau foo mun chap” which means tofu mix braised. The tofu (which in my opinion is super soft) is braised with a mix of prawns, pork, pork intestines, etc. Quite a nice dish. Our order of 9 kembong fishes, hakka stewed pork, tofu mix braised and 2 regular fried vegetables’ bill comes up to RM99.00 for 9 persons including rice and drinks.

The only thing is, if you want to come here, be prepared to be smoked! I usually smell like fried noodles after I makan here :P.

GPS: N3 05.219 E101 37.401

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Anyhow, after consulting the local worm, Soh Cicak, we decided to go to Taman Sg Rasau and I chance upon Fong Keow which used to be a corner shop but have now transformed into a 3 shops BKT place! They also serve a variety of dishes besides BKT, talk about diversification! The corner unit doesn’t change much from the old place but the 2 new unit is very nicely renovated and decorated! Doesn’t look like a BKT place at all!

Besides BKT, they have like fried prawns which goes for RM21 per plate, herbal steamed chicken, seafood tofu, etc. Since there are only 5 of us… we ordered the normal BKT for 3 pax, added some straw mushrooms. Side order is a plate of vegetables and the seafood tofu. All these came up to RM58.00, oh ya, thanks Boon for buying!

The BKT here is alright, a lot of mushrooms and I like the fact they added some greens in the BKT too. The seafood tofu is quite tasty but a little oily, oh well, fried stuff. We brought our own tea, thanks to our tea expert Soh Cicak whom contributed good tea for us :D.

GPS: N3 03.361 E101 28.468

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As the kids are watching a Million Stars Taiwanese singing contest on TV, the parents are at the door manning the stall. For 70 cents a piece, you get fresh and steaming hot putu piring serving right up to you. Its better to eat it hot, so we wasted no time and had it as soon as we reach the truck. Its very good combination, the sweet palm sugar with the salted and rich grated coconut, yummy!

The stall also sells other stuff like curry powder, home made kaya and of course, Melaka’s famous palm sugar!

GPS: N2 12.062 E102 14.351

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Anyhow, for most locals, this used to be their childhood cendol place as the street used to be the main shopping area when it comes to festive or school opening times (just like how Jalan TAR used to be for KL folks). I read from a blog that ice shaver they used, have been around since 1928!

From the outside, you don’t see any signboard and as we were passing it at 11am plus, the uncle and aunty just started to open their doors. The shop maintains most of its fittings and furniture as it is, really giving you an old Melaka feel. They still have the bottled coke here, but we got fooled, the uncle told us its brand new and Melaka still has it, he even showed me the receipts from F&N to prove it, hehe… really friend I must say!

This rustic place serve up some old fashion rojak, basically a mix of fruits and some vegetables with tau pok in shrimp and chili paste. The taste is different from the Penang style, its salty and spicy. There are a list of cold icy drinks to choose from, the cendol is pretty good, I like it.

I guess time have forgotten such places and people nowadays have too much choices to places like coffee bean, shopping malls, fast food, etc. Much of this old cultural food places have been forgotten. However, over here, they still serve it the same old style, maintaining the shop this way as well. I would really encourage visitors to try things like cendol and pat poh ice here, the authentic way!

The aunty and uncle are really friendly, especially the uncle who is very sporting, kept asking me to get my camera ready as he is about to shave the ice, hehe.

GPS: N2 11.843 E102 15.063

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