Chinese New Year 2015

The first day of Chinese New Year (CNY) this year fell on a Thursday. Therefore, thee was a long weekend for the celebration. However, time really flies during festive seasons, especially when we had to receive visitors at our house and also pay our relatives some visits. It was just like a blink of an eye and it is the fifth day of CNY already!

As usual, our house served layered cakes and cookies to the visitors. These layered cakes and cookies were home-baked by my sister-in-law which are one of the best that one can get in Kuching. You were very lucky if you could get to take your order from her this year.

For the CNY home décor, my brother brought back some peach blossoms from Singapore and the flowers are still blooming.

My bother's family had left for Singapore yesterday, so we had our final reunion dinner before they left. We had the garlic-butter giant prawns, scallops in abalone sauce and braised cabbage with abalone slices and shitake mushrooms. This was my third meal at home with prawns since the first day of CNY! It's time to do more workout to digest all those cholesterol intake.

Zalora Fashion Show

Zalora is an online fashion store that is growing stronger everyday. Recently, it has opened a flash retail store at the CityONE Megamall, a first time ever in Kuching. This flash retail store will be open from 16^th to 30^th September 2014. In conjunction with the sales event, there was a fashion show yesterday afternoon. The show was scheduled at 3:00 p.m. but the voice of the M.C. was not heard until 3:20 p.m.

The first part of the show was a song performed by a local artist. Her No. 1 fan was there and she was invited on stage to perform with her.

After the song, the fashion show was finally commencing. All the models were wearing all the clothes and carrying the accessories available in the Zalora online store.

Hakka Lui Cha

I have not taken lui cha (擂茶) very often because I have not acquired the taste for it, or maybe those lui cha I had taken before were not prepared authentically. Not until recently that my sister brought me to this place at Pisang Road West, it totally changed my view of it. This place is called Hakka Lui Cha (海南村客家擂茶).

The serving came with purple-colour rice covered in a variety of stir-fried vegetables, scrambled tofu and roasted peanuts. A bowl of finely-ground vegetable soup is served separately, of which you can ask for different level of bitterness. Some like to eat the rice and soup separately, but some like to pour the soup into the rice and eat it as porridge. I prefer to eat them separately.

The stir-fried vegetables were very well prepared and the rice was chewy. The soup of normal bitterness suited my taste very well, or should I call it bitterness at all? It's a kind of bitter-sweetness to be more exact. So, if you are looking for good lui cha, this is the place!

Sarawak Laksa at Lao Ya Keng II

Recently, I visited Lao Ya Keng again and found that the laksa stall had a different operator, so I ordered a bowl of the special edition as I was told that it comes with all the seafood in the display cabinet that looked quite tempting.

When it was served, I was quite shocked with the amount of seafood served in it. That was really a cholesterol booster! Well, with the price tag of RM10.00, the operator had to make my money worth and I shouldn't care too much of the cholesterol once in a blue moon.

Passionate about Hamburgers II

After having the great hamburgers in Hawaii, I started to scout for good hamburgers in and around Kuching. There is this place called Coffee Talk at Tabuan Laru that I have heard about having good pork hamburgers but I had not been to try them out until quite recently. It was some time in August that I made my first order at Pig's Barn (that's the name of the stall) and I was introduced to the new item on that day called the 'Cawabunga' Burger. It was a hamburger with mango sauce that went well with the pork patty, as the sour taste eased the oiliness of the meat. However, I found the patty a bit too soft, probably due to high content of Spam, but taste wise was alright. The bun was toasted and was quite firm when bitten.

'Cawabunga' Burger (RM8.00)

On my second visit, I went for the chef speciality, the Black-out Burger. The bun used for this burger contained edible charcoal powder which did not add additional taste to the bun. The pork patty was the same type used in the 'Cawabunga' Burger. I would like to add that the lettuce used was very fresh. If pork burgers are for you, don't hesitate to drop by this place as it is arguably the best place in Kuching for commercial pork burgers. However, the hamburgers are not served with potato chips.

Black-out Burger (RM8.00)

The other good place for hamburgers that I discovered recently is at the Picnic food court of The Summer Shopping Mall, the latest shopping mall around the Kuching and Kota Samarahan Divisions. This one is near to my workplace and I have tasted two types of their hamburgers. The beef patty was grilled whereas the fish fillet was deep-fried. The hamburgers here have balanced taste and potato chips are standard side dish. If you are in Kota Samarahan and fancy a hamburger, do drop by this place for a good bite.

Beef Burger (RM10.00)

Fish Burger (RM8.00)

Nuts about Chicken Rice

There is this coffee shop that sells very nice chicken rice near my workplace. The coffee shop is named Say Cafe. Anybody who goes to cafe will say something, and I think that's how it got its name. There are a few types of chicken rice to choose from which are reasonably priced at RM4.00 to RM4.50.

Black-pepper chicken rice

Chicken rice with plum and sesame sauce

Chicken rice with Thai-style sauce

Chicken rice with lemon sauce

Steamed chicken rice

If you are in Kota Samarahan and looking for something to fill your stomach for lunch, you are recommended to try this out at Unisquare.

Sarawak Laksa at Lao Ya Keng

Lao Ya Keng is a well-known food centre at Carpenter Street that has been around for more than half s century. There is this pork satay that has been around since my younger days. It was just recently that I had a chance to taste the laksa there.

The stock was milder than my favourite laksa but it was still good. It came with chicken liver which I dislike. If you are the same type of person like me who dislikes internal organ in your food, then don't forget to tell them to do away with it. The prawns were very fresh and the shredded chicken meat was also very tender.

On a five-star scale, I would say that it has a three-and-a-half-star rating.