North Borneo Frog Bounced to Ipoh, A Foodie Indeed! Part Two

After a good night sleep, we're ready to fill in our empty stomachs with more delicacies! Firstly, we headed off to old town area for traditional breakfast. We had steaming hot white coffee, toasted bread with margarine and kaya spread, and mom importantly, half-boiled eggs!

Of course we did order some other food like curry noodles and fish noodles soup, but eating toasted bread with the egg was the best! 

After a hearty breakfast, we hang around Ipoh and I remembered a friend telling me to try local soya pudding. I asked a young man and followed his instruction and there we found the best soya pudding in town!

There was already a line in front of the small shop. The soya pudding was freshly made and I could smelled the aroma of the warm soya pudding. They also sell soya drink. We bought both and both were not sweetened but tasted naturally soy.

We left Ipoh before noon heading back to Selangor. I had a good time eating, I hope I will be back one day.

North Borneo Frog Bounced to Ipoh, A Foodie Indeed! Part One

Ipoh, the capital of Perak, one of thirteen states of Malaysia, is a modest city. It was a rich town in early years as tin mining was blooming. Now it remains quiet and humble. Anyhow, it does has its fame for foodies.

I spent two days one night at Ipoh with my family, and we're there to search out those delicacies. We arrived Ipoh in the late afternoon after almost three hours casual drive from Selangor. The first delicacies we encountered was afternoon tea break, Ipoh style.

The egg tarts were of superb quality, must try. And the iced White Coffee was creamy and not too sweet, loved it! Popiah was just fine. Remember to come before five pm because the egg tarts are selling fast!

For dinner, we're having Ipoh's most famous dish, Taugeh Chicken Rice. Because of the type of rock formations in Ipoh, its water is rich in minerals, thus the taugeh grown here are fatter, rounder and crunchier! Besides taugeh and chicken, we had a one big bowl of pork and fish meatballs. It was indeed a satisfying meal!

After dinner, we walked over to a pastry shop selling all kinds of traditional Chinese pastries. We bought some as souvenirs.

That's all for my first day foodie trip in Ipoh, and please follow through to my next episode!

North Borneo Frog Eating Babi Guling in Bali

On 27 September 2014, I stepped on the friendly ground of Bali. I had been longing to visit this island of gods. Here I was.

Friends had been telling me the Balinese food was spicy and hot. I was not a single bit worried, for I had grown up taking in spices and chillies. Anyway I was quite surprised how delicious Balinese sambal was. It made everything tasted good.

Pork satay with sweet peanut sauce and spicy soy sauce.

I especially love the sautéed shallots in soy sauce, I could just eat it with a plate of white rice! But later I met one heavenly dish, the Babi Guling or "Rolling Pork". I supposed they slowly grilled one whole pig over open fire.

Babi Guling

On the plate, different body parts of pork were served with steaming white rice, some sautéed vegetables, and sambal, together with a bowl of flavorful soup. Once I started eating, I couldn't stop praising how nice the food was. The meat was tender and juicy. The pork skin was crispy. The soup just added more flavour and enjoyment to the meal. I ordered a bottle of local beer, Bintang. It was mild and light, just a perfect match with the pork. It was the best culinary experience I had in Bali.

Now I'm back to my homeland, and I am still thinking about Babi Guling. 

A Frog Enjoying Pork Noodles

Besides beef brisket, pork noodle is another delicacy found in Kota Kinabalu. And very much loved and savored by the Chinese.

One famous pork noodle Kopitiam is called Jia Xiang Zu Za 家乡猪杂 , Hometown Pork Noodles. It is originally opened at Lintas, now it opens a branch at where I stay, Inanam new township. Just next to Jia Xiang Niu Za 家乡牛杂.

This morning my husband brought me there for our first pork noodles. It is almost full but we managed to share one table with another couple. They had ordered right before us. But quite funny our noodles arrived first. They were very unhappy and grumbling. Their noodles arrived minutes later.

We both ordered konlou mee干捞面, dried noodles in sauce, but with different pork products.

One bowl of konlou mee costs MYR7.50, noodle soup is MYR7.00. And you could order stuffed tofu, MYR1.50 per piece. 

We ordered one glass of special milk tea that is sweetened by gula melaka or palm sugar, MYR3.50.

Humble Frog Enjoying Vegetarian Meals

Becoming vegetarian is not only being healthy now, but trendy. In Kota Kinabalu, most people are carnivorous. So finding pure vegetarian eateries is a challenge.

I happily had come across a handful of good vegetarian restaurants, meaning eating vegetarian in proper nice restaurants. One is Beyond Veggie. It is a famous national chain restaurant, so it does stand at above average. Of course a proper meal will cost you a small small fortune.

Nice potato salad and greens in sesame dressing, MYR15++

Super delicious pizza, MYR25++

To die for pistachio cake, MYR12++

Now another vegetarian restaurant just opened and I brought my family to sample it. It's within the establishment of Sky Hotel. Only a few choices on the menu and so we ordered almost all the dishes on the menu.

Sky Vegetarian Restaurant

Nash Lemak, MYR10

Green Curry Rice, MYR10

Vegetarian Rendang, MYR12

Spaghetti Olio, MYR12

Potato Cream Soup, MYR8

Grilled Vegetables, MYR8

Overall food and dining experience was average, and we got 20% discount on their opening month. 

We got up to 14th floor of the hotel to look at the so-called the highest infinity swimming pool and gym room in town.

Infinity Pool overlooking city view

Doing gym with a night view

Borneo Frog's Favorite Beef Noodles

I don't eat insects or flies or spiders, I eat beef noodles. And today I just had a very nice bowl of beef noodles right at my hometown.

Firstly, I will talk about this beef noodles I had for lunch. It is called Jia Xiang beef noodles 家乡牛杂. It's been around for years but at the other side of the city. And it is always fully packed with loyal customers. Several months ago, I asked the lady boss is she ever came across her mind that a branch to be opened at the other far side of citu. She gave me a timid smile and quickly walked away. I thought my dream would never ever come true. The good news is, now they do open a branch right here!

So to show my appreciation and support, I came to this brand new nicely renovated shop, and it was full of customers. I managed to find seats for my husband and myself and quickly ordered my beef noodles. I chose flat rice noodles, instead of the usual yellow round noodles.

Here came my bowl of beef noodles! Mine was beef meat mixed with beef brisket and stewed radish. Every spoon was satisfying delicious! And they provide super hot chili sauce that makes you sweat like you're standing under the mid-day sun.

This bowl costed me MYR8.00.

I had it, I was a happy frog.

A frog attending a banquet

I am not a loner, I like to socialize with people I meet for the first time. And wedding banquet is one good occasion.

Tonight I am attending, with my husband, his cousin's daughter's wedding. This makes me sound old, which is in fact not true. Anyway, it's not about me. It's about the banquet.

Guests arrival time start at 6:30pm, only the hosts, bridegroom and bride and their parents show up at, maybe before 6:30. The time frame for guests arrival usually stretches to 5 minutes before the banquet starts, normally by 8am. Experienced guests wisely have some snacks beforehand. Me, too. And the hosts have been standing and welcoming the guests since they arrived.

By 8pm, finally the hosts get to sit down at the table. And the guests finally is starving no more. If we're lucky, the food is served straight away. Often, we have to listen to some speeches from some honorable guests, first.

Now, the food is finally served, course by course, a total of eight courses. In between, we have to pretend enjoying the amateur performance, usually karaoke sessions, by the guests. But most people pretend to interact with people at the same table, whether they know each other or not.

The banquet normally ends by 10pm, that is if we're fortunate that the hosts don't want to perform on stage.

The happiest moment is leaving the banquet.