Ah Ying eh Blog - 阿盈的部落

Sunday, 29 March 2015

Cheng Mai Restaurant

THIS, is one of the reasons I return to Kelantan:

Chengmai Thai Food Restaurant at Kampung Kulim

To be more accurate, THIS is the reason:

Steam prawns with bamboo shoots in curry with coconut milk

I came here with my family in my previous trip, fell in love with this dish, and we repeated order during the same meal. This time, we fell in love with this dish, and we came back on the second night. This is how good this dish is. I cannot understand how this dish is not their signature dish.

First of all, the fresh bamboo shoots are crispy. Secondly, the prawns are fresh. They cooked it so well that the it is still springy. Most importantly, the way they cook the coconut milk curry is very different. It is thin and you can drink as if you are drinking soup, but the fragrant is so thick that you are going to love the after taste!

So, if our favorite curry prawn is not the signature dish, then which is?

Of course is the photogenic flaming volcanic chicken (火山鸡). Almost every table ordered this dish. The chicken is served "standing" and "burning". The flame dance and you will see phones and cameras in action.

The waitress here are not very good in marketing. They don't know how to introduce their dishes and that's why we didn't order this in my previous visit with my family. Until we were almost done, we saw the standing chicken flaming in next table... We regretted for not ordering, and we always wonder how it taste.

Finally, the truth is out: the chicken is well seasoned and juicy. Deserved the flame :)

I'd say their another signature dish is Kheng Som, Thai style asam pedas fish. They know everyone loves the soup so you are allow to refill as many times as you wish, FOC. My gang love sour and spicy food so this dish is one of the more popular ones.

All the other dishes that we ordered were great too. We love all of them. However, our favorite, steam prawns with bamboo shoots in curry with coconut milk, overshadowed the others.

Lime sauce sotong

Pad ped catfish

Deep fried 'pork hand'

Deep friend kangkung

All of the above, including 2 jars of drinks and rice for 6, cost us RM179. Very satisfying.

As I said, we love the steam prawns with bamboo shoots in curry with coconut milk so much, we returned on the second night.

We arrived late so we suspected the better chef already went home. The curry is still good but we have less bamboo shoots and more mushrooms. Still good, but a bit of disappointment for not having enough bamboo shoots for everyone of us.

We noticed that we didn't order tomyam on the first night. How can one not ordering tomyam at a Thai restaurant? So we tried the tomyam and it was very ordinary. Not bad, but just ordinary. Slightly below our expectations.

Even the lime sauce lala taste bland as compared to previous night lime sauce sotong.

lime sauce lala

The one that surprised us was their signature toufu. Very fragrant, very soft. The garlic and chili bring the best out of the toufu. Lovely!

signature toufu

These 4 dishes, rice for 6, 2 jars of drinks cost us RM92.

How to go?
1. DO NOT follow Google Map. See the big red cross that I marked on google map below? That's where google thinks Cheng Mai Restaurant is. The huge red arrow I marked below is the actual location.
2. Set your GPS to go to Restaurant Kampung Kulim, and Cheng Mai restaurant is just another 2~3 minutes drive away.

Saturday, 28 March 2015

Nasi Kak Wok

(Kelantanese, please don't kill me for this post!)

Maybe because Kak Wok already passed away and her heirs' cooking is just a little bit off, or maybe I have set too high of expectations, this meal was not as good as I imagined. Good, but not extra ordinary.

This is a shop without sign. I came to look for it during my previous 5D4N "Half" Peninsular Malaysia Self Drive trip but it was closed on Friday. This round, to make sure we won't miss this place, I got my Kelantan friend to sit beside me and confirmed the shop on Google Street :)

This, is the original Nasi Kak Wok at Kampung Lundang, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra:

We arrived late, most of the pots are empty. Luckily there were still some pre-packed nasi kak wok asal selling so we quickly grabbed 6 packs!

The curry is slightly sweet and the fried chicken is a bit salty so the taste is layered and fragrant. Good and unique, but not something that can make me return to Kota Bharu :)

Note: their drinks are too sweet for our liking too.

Friday, 27 March 2015

桌面花卉绿植

总觉得办工桌上必须有些青葱蓊绿点缀，让每日三分之一的时间都生气勃勃。

最近，以这理由，我又买了尾巴吸水小盆栽。我们有人买动物喝水的造型的，也有尾巴吸水的，但只有尾巴吸水的有送小杯子一个。

收到的货品开封后的模样

我个人觉得压缩泥土好神奇，小小一片药丸似的，泡水后分量正好放进小动物的背篓中。把泥土放好后，撒上种子，就可以静静地等它们长大啦~

“药丸”泥饼

我懒惰，直接把泥饼放在背篓里泡水

几分钟后泥土膨胀灌满背篓，可以播种咯~

我在上个星期三播种，星期五傍晚就看见幼苗破土而出。兴奋死了！

看见幼苗了吧？

星期一回到办公室，幼苗都已经茁壮成长！

近看，还可以看见依旧破土而出后的幼苗叶片依旧沾满泥土呢！

就这样子，我的桌面又多了一小片绿油油的喜悦。

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Sony Xperia Z3 - The Waterproof Smartphone that Can't Survive in Water

My brother bought his Sony Xperia Z3 around November last year. Last weekend, he finally decided to do some photographing inside the pool. I asked if he is sure (I never trusted Sony :p) and he said "WATERPROOF PHONE" la~

I was with him when he was having fun with his toy. He took photos in the pool for around 3 ~ 5 minutes, and placed it at the side of the pool and continue to swim. After a few minutes, the phone became unresponsive and went black. He dried up the phone, checked the flaps and there were no indicators that showed the phone had leakage.

We went to Daiso to get some silica gel and buried his phone inside, hopefully it can totally dry after the incident. After a day drying in silica gel, the phone shows no sign of improving.

He complained to Sony Mobile MY and the explanation they gave is because the pool contained chlorine!!

So here I am, checking his phone specification on Sony’s website, and these are what I get (print screen from Sony website):

Very impressive! Dive into new experiences it says. The advertisement even tell you that the Xperia Z3 is the premium smartphone that you can dive into the pool on a sunny summer holiday! And the advertisement also encourage to "take your device swimming"

"If your smartphone is IPX8 standard (my brother's smartphone is IP68), you can use it in a chlorinated swimming pool." So why does Sony Mobile MY trying to shoo my brother away by saying that "because the pool contained chlorine?!

Of course, there is always a catch. They says "however, avoid keeping the device in the pool for too long and remember to rinse it off thoroughly with fresh water once you get out”. So how long is too long? How long is considered still under the period that they will honour their warranty?

See the "Highest Waterproof Rating"? I wonder what it actually means. Anyway, good enough to make layman consumers like us believe that this product is "waterproof".

Oh, and you have to read their specifications online! The specifications says waterproof too! (but with a lot of scary *****)

Here, it says you can take pictures with the best smartphone camera while swimming in fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

So, based on whatever stated in SONY official website, my brother's "waterproof" phone specification allow him to go into a chlorinated swimming pool. But why is it not working now? My non-water-resistance-iPhone 3GS survived it's toilet bowl falling!

Friday, 20 March 2015

妈妈不在家之食谱（八）：生菜肉丝海鲜豆腐

绝对懒人食谱：5分钟搞定！

把用剩的最后半粒生菜丢到锅里烫一烫，取出（我喜欢介于熟与不熟之间的口感）。把海鲜豆腐丢下煮熟。捞起，摆盘。
淋上鲍鱼汁、撒上肉丝（这是我从吉兰丹买回来的牛肉serunding）。这样就可以上菜啦！

Thursday, 19 March 2015

妈妈不在家之食谱（七）：火腿生菜

仍然是在努力清仓，在冰箱里找到这不知名的海鲜贝类。而且还有一粒生菜呢，弄半粒来玩玩吧。

把锅里的水煮沸，把生菜和那不知名贝类丢入烫一烫取出摆在碟子里。

另一边则用蒜米爆香，淋在生菜上，已经热了的锅正好煎切条状的火腿。

这样就一碟菜肴了。哈哈！

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

A Relaxing Trip to Kelantan

I love road trip, I love East Coast Peninsular Malaysia, I love Kelantan food. Hence, our recent 3D2N trip to Kelantan is a perfect trip for me. (My sister said Kelantan Government should hire me to work in their tourism board. I can't agree more. Haha!)

Here's the itinerary and expenses for 6 pax (unless specially mention otherwise) for your reference:

7th Mac 2015 - drive from Penang to Kota Bharu
We started very early. 5:15am departed from Bukit Mertajam, aiming for magnificent cloud formation view along East-West Highway. We were lucky. Big, round, clear moon light up the mountains and valleys before sunrise. Surreal and peaceful, like some vivid dreams of mine.

We reached Hentian Titiwangsa (rest stop) at around 7:45am. No more cloud formation, but still great view.

The rest stop has no signs of business. Can't have our breakfast here as planned.

We ended up took tons of photos, and had a simple "picnic", clearing our biscuits and tidbits.

The driving route from Hentian Titiwangsa to Kota Bharu is a pleasant one. First of all, of course, it is a downhill drive. Secondly, you just learn to fall in love with Malaysia all over again with the simple yet lovely scenery.

By the time we reached Kota Bharu, it's already lunch time. We headed straight to Nasi Kak Wok at Jalan Masjid Lundang for lunch. We then dabao (take away) Lim Siong Kee beef noodle and dabao rice from Meena Curry House before we checked in to Pasir Belanda Resort. Had another round of lunch at the river bank terrace of Pasir Belanda.

This is where we had our second round lunch

Our initial itinerary was to cover 2 temples at Tumpat and have some great afternoon snacks there. However, everyone falls in love with Pasir Belanda and refused to leave. So we relaxed in the resort instead. Some swam, some played table tennis, some took tons of photos, some sketched, and of course, some slept through the afternoon.

After everyone got their battery charged, we headed to the legendary Cheng Mai Restaurant. This restaurant definitely needs another special blog post! So stay tune.

(Pasir Belanda Resort for 2 nights - RM968; Nasi Kak Wok RM31.70; Curry rice from Meena Curry House RM17.50 for 2 packs; Lim Siong Kee beef noodle RM6.50 per pack ; Cheng Mai Restaurant RM179)

8th Mac 2015 - Batik, Kraftangan, Temple & Beach
We started our day with a hearty meal at the legendary White House. I'm sure every Kelantanese can tell you tons of stories about this decent kopitiam.

After breakfast, we went back to Pasir Belanda Resort, had the worker guided us to a batik workshop. Great fun!

Relaxed at the resort again before we headed to Museum Kraftangan. Not for the artworks (Seriously, the museum got nothing!) but for the super yummy Nasi Ulam Kampung Kraftangan.

Colourful Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah

Had a brief stop at Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah (Siti Khadijah Market) to survey the market price of keropok and lekor, then headed to Wat Phothikyan at Bachok.

We then drove south along the coast line, and stopped at an unknown beach for a relaxing time. I always love South China Sea......

For dinner, we went to Kampung Kulim Restaurant to have our first round dinner, and followed by Cheng Mai Restaurant (yes, again!) for our second round dinner. Before heading back to Pasie Belanda, we went to Yati Ayam Percik (wish to dabao for supper) but they were cleaning the shop and nothing left (that was around 10pm). So we turned to Suria Satay to dabao our supper.

Bridge with the width of a car

Waze decided to show us somewhere new so it routed us through housing areas. Before we knew, we were in kampung and the next moment we were challenged with bridges (can anyone help me to translate "titi" into English? Those 'bridges' that we passed by are definitely "titi" and not "bridge"!)

We wandered in the middle of no where and can only have faith that Waze knows what it is doing. Well, at least I felt safe. This is Kelantan!

(White House breakfast RM51; Batik Workshop: RM35 per pax; Lunch at Nasi Ulam Kraftangan RM38; Dinner at Kampung Kulim Restaurant RM57; Dinner at Cheng Mai Restaurant RM92; Suria Satay RM0.70 per satay)

9th Mac 2015 - Time to go home
We started our day at Kopitian Kita. Too many rice!!

We were lucky that when heading back to Pasir Belanda, Waze decided to show us the same route as last night. At least we have chance to see it under broad day light! Lovely lovely countryside! Too bad I drove and didn't have much photos to show here.

We relaxed at Pasir Belanda after breakfast. We collected our batik, we swam, we slept, we went crazy, took tons of photos again, and finally it's time to say goodbye to Pasir Belanda.

I insisted to go to U-lang corner for lunch (best khao jam in Malaysia!). After the satisfying meal, we stopped at The White House to buy kaya (wanted to dabao coffee for the driving trip back but we reached the shop at 1pm sharp, they were closing so no more kopi. Luckily they still willing to sell their kaya and roti)

Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah is the final stop for last minute shopping. After that, almost everyone in the car went coma. Jenny stayed awake for another 30 minutes or so, and went coma too after her coconut drink.

The oldest among the group, and the main driver, surprisingly, is still the one with the most energy after 3 days trip. Haha!

While the others charging their battery, I had lovely view accompanied me along the way.