real scent of holidays!

ZheRong (visit his blog here) is back in town, so asking him out for a drink is a must! Something in my gut told me that he has never tried Belacan BeeHoon before, so yesterday, we headed to ChungHua Primary School No.3’s hawker center to taste the it! Besides that, eating ais kacang, ABC, Metahorn and White Lady (names of cendol-like beverages but are nothing like cendol of West Malaysia) is also a must!

Metahorn served with cendol, fruits, barley, jelly, grass jelly and a final touch of lime slices. The taste is somewhat soury sweet and refreshing.

With nowhere to go, no idea of where to hangout, The Spring is the best option again to go hangout.

The atmosphere of festival has begun to fill the air. Just yesterday I witness the transformation of the shopping mall into a white-colour themed place to be in.

Ice castle made from paper I think, I didn’t get a closer look…

Christmas trees here and there…

For most Kuchingites, The Spring still remains the best place to shop, loiter and to get a glimpse of the latest fashion. Served as a high-end mall, I love to hangout here as well.

My friend YangLip was finishing his lab research around 4 pm in the afternoon, so we decided to meet up at Kota Sentosa (where most Kuchingites refer to as 7th mile) to drink the famous three layer iced tea. The three layers are consist of tea of course, the bottom most layer is the Gula Apong, or Palm Sugar (made from Atap Palm three) and the white-coloured layer is creamer or milk.  

The quality control of the drink is superb because the taste hasn’t change everytime I drink it! Thumbs up for it! The Kopitiam (coffee shop) selling this iced tea is the pioneer before other kopitiams try to improvise their own version and selling this drink. Recently I noticed that somewhere in KL, there is a Kopitiam selling three layer tea already, but the taste……………..

Kuching Square Tower is again accompanied with colourful fountains which has stop operating for quite some time.

Later last night, it is supper time again! With my usual supper kakis, we first went to Jalan Astana to have Mee Sapi (beef noodles) which taste superb and then to Sambal, a sort of like mamak but not exactly one operating 24hours.

That’s was not it! The time was 1.30 am and we left Sambal for our third stations…

Look how empty the street is when we left Sambal which is situated at downtown Kuching.

It’s been a long time that I didn’t able to spend the whole day with activity like yesterday. Finally I can sense the real holiday mood now!

Reviving my cooking skills…

 

I cooked authentic 潮式蚝煎 (not sure what it is called in english, whether it is ’oyster omelette’ or ‘pan-fried oyster’). This Teochew version of 蚝煎 is nothing like the ones available in seafood restaurants around Kuching (the crispy type) or the ones they serve in West Malaysia (where they basically fried corn starch mixed with water with eggs and oysters), it has a more creamy and soft texture which taste fantastic with soy sauce and white pepper. Although the recipe is simple – corn starch, water, plenty of eggs onions or spring onions and main ingredient, the oysters, the mixture of corn starch is vital to ensure that the texture is perfect and the outcome is satisfactory…

I learned this from my Grandma since I was little and I have been always a big fan of 蚝煎. No matter where I go, if the words 蚝煎 pop up, it is a must try for me…

another guilty night out… :)

It’s been our new trend to have our late night drink at Jalan Astana. In fact, I believe that Jalan Astana has become our latest must-go supper spot in Kuching. Remember go there with one and only one aim – to tackle the unbreakable 100 sticks of satay record!!!

Now what’s supper without multiple ’supper stations’ right? Next stop is the Lok-Lok cafe behind my ex-school – Kuching High School.

A glimpse of what they have for the hungry kuchingites that crave for really late night snacks…

Well no matter how much you ordered, they will be gone eventually

Burger calls!

So it was a hang out time again with my so-called ’supper kaki’ (according to them, not anymore) after I came back to Kuching for holidays. There were some usual activities that we did just a little while ago – limteh-ing (literally means drinking tea in Hokkien) and finding some cool late nite bites around the sleepy city of Kuching.

So last night, there we were again with our car stopped by the empty street just before heading down towards Main Bazaar, to buy what is being rumoured as the BEST burger anyone has ever taste in the whole Kuching – Azza Burger.

I have to admit, the malays really owns their special brands of roadside burgers. Contrary to those western versions or burgers where they usually are served with mayo and pickles with tomato slices, our local roadside burgers are moist inside out with heavy spread of tomato, oyster sauces (at least I think it is) and instead of pickles, huge chunks of onions are added and the final touch up will be large spread of mayo!

Gotta go back for more, and because its usually open in the late evening until really late at night, this Azza Burgers are usually eaten as late night snack…

2 in my life

2 more papers to go…

2 bacteria to be identified…

2 things I need to do after exams – laundry and cleaning room…

2 days before I am heading back to Kuching!!!

a week of bacteria culturing

Was in the lab culturing bacteria of unknown species, we are required to identified 2 species that were given to us yesterday. Now, yesterday was pretty much simple and laid back with routine lab procedures whereby we streak bacteria broth onto media plates (a type of agar so that bacteria can grow), incubate at 37 C and that’s it, nothing else can be done but to hope that today, those bacteria streaked onto the plates will grow vigorously.

So as usual, proceed to the lab and I got my media plates… and guess what, bacteria on one of the three media plates grow pathetically few colonies. I became panicky for a moment not knowing what to do next. This is just the least that was happening to me earlier, another media plate, I am suppose to roughly identify the bacteria with reference to the haemolysis zone (breakdown of RBC within the agar) sp the bacteria I got were suppose to be of Streptococcus sp.

BUT…

There were no haemolysis zone… gosh! I went blur just now!!!!!

Nonetheless, I kinda sorted out my problem and went on to do the plates streaking… this lab practical test is killing me bit by bit right now…

Now, I just hope that my bacteria will grow to perfection tomorrow because if it is not, well… just hope that it will…

我想回到童年！

相信大家在成长过程中有一首伴着我们的童年歌曲吧…

这里一首我特别喜欢的童年歌曲 – 踏着夕阳归去。

童年是我人生最开心的一段时间。

one more week it is!

… Reach KLCC around 8 pm Saturday night …

… KLCC after rain …

Weather in KL these days is strange but I kinda like it very much. I used to complain that the weather in KL is scorching hot but lately, the weather has revert towards a more soothing and cool condition. With heavy downpour everyday around 3-5 pm, the bed simply calls out for one to take a nap…

2 weeks had passed since my paper started and well, to be honest, I kinda lost the urge to revise again (having 2 more papers and a monday-to-friday-bacteria-culturing lab practical exams. 1 more week it is before I am on my way back to Kuching.

I thought of releasing myself a bit from the entangling stress I was experiencing for past 2 weeks, so grab my camera and shoot some photos around KLCC before I headed into Suria KLCC for some relaxing walk-around.