Kimchi Peudeus @ Bt Timah

Today we've taken long lunch. My colleague brought me to Korean stall at Bukit Timah. She said that this small restaurant is managed by Korean family and the food is pretty authentic, plus cheap! So there were we ordering bbq chicken & pork, rice cakes, spicy seafood+tofu soup and famous Korean seafood pancake. While waiting for our meal, we were nibbling kimchi, free-take-as-much-as-you-like-from-pot kimchi. This kimchi is great, fresh, sour, spicy and you can't stop eating it. Then came the bbq thingy, which also tasted great. One thing that I didn't expect: they're all quite spicy. Then the rice cakes arrived. This one also had element of spiciness. Then the soup came. This one was even hotter & spicier. I started sweating, which normally only happens when I eat Padang or Manado's food. And still you can't get enough nibbling the kimchi! The last meal to arrive was the seafood pancake. It also came with spicy sauce! Well-well-well, what a heavy and hot lunch we had! Nett-nett, taste-wise: great for those who can stand spicy food; price-wise: thumb's up, it was quite cheap. Will be back someday.

Btw, nibbling too much spicy kimchi apparently hazardous to my stomach, after several hours it started to turn and growl... and I ended up rushing to toilet. :)

Pomade Antik

Nemu benda ini di kamar mandi Borneo Backpackers. Pas pertama gue liat yang kepikir di kepala: busyet dah ini hair cream jaman kapan ya? Packaging-nya antik bener, lengkap dengan tampang mas-mas berambut agak mekar klimis dan kumis. Kayaknya ditinggalin sama backpackers angmoh amrik. Kenapa amrik? Soalnya selidik punya selidik, ternyata pomade ini buatan Chicago. Varian Nu Nile yang ditinggal ini ternyata salah satu pomade spesialnya. Keterangan di website-nya begini: This hair slick is perfect for creating the "wet" look. Use for parting, lifting and styling hard to manage hair. Provides shine and control for all day hold. Great for waves, curls, bobbed and straight hair styles. Plus tergolong pomade yang heavy duty, yang bikin jambul tetap mumbul biarpun diterjang tornado. Mungkin salah satu pomade andalan gangster2 jaman Al Capone. Ga nyoba sih seberapa ampuhnya, tapi yang jelas packaging-nya keren euy!

Bisa liat produk2 andalan lain dan tips2 gaya rambut di sini

Kwetiau Pinggir Pantai dan Sate Jawa

Bener2 enak deh. Liburan, nonton sunset di pinggir pantai Kota Kinabalu sembari makan kwetiau seafood goreng. Benernya rasa kwetiau ini ga lebih enak dari buatan uncle di hawker-center hdb block. Tapi berhubung suasana liburan dan rasa lapar, jadi wenak. Hah!Malemnya setelah berkeliling kota mencari sekaleng gas masak, perjalanan berakhir di kedai makan melayu, memesan sate daging (sapi) dan ayam. Dan kali ini satenya bener2 enak. Ga semanis yang ada di Singapur. Padahal sempet skeptis ngeliat bumbu cocolnya yang bau2 kari. Ga heran 20 tusuk langsung tandas dengan cepat. Yang menarik pas bayar kita denger si abang tukang sate ngomong jawa ke asistennya. Jawa? Ya, ternyata tukang sate ini asalnya dari Jogya dan udah 8 tahun di KK. Lha, pantes satenya berasa enak!

... and I failed

As the title said, I have not made to the top of Kinabalu. Sigh! My summit attack journey ended at Sayat-sayat post (400 m below Low's Peak), as cold wind kicked in and my left knee felt like jelly.

During our summit attack, we met peeps who decided to abort and went back. One of them said that he was physically fit but not mentally. I guess that applied to me too. Plus I am not that physically fit :)

Nevertheless, this is quite a big achievement for me, never thought that I will be climbing up mountain before. Well, they said there's always next time. Yeah, they're right, but on second thought, I dun think I'll be back again... enuf for mountain, let's bring sunny-white-sand-beach :)

It starts on Monday...

from wiki: Mount Kinabalu (Malay: Gunung Kinabalu) is a prominent mountain in Southeast Asia. It is located in Kinabalu National Park (a World Heritage Site) in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, which is on the island of Borneo in the tropics.

In 1997, a re-survey using satellite technology established its summit (known as Low’s Peak) height at 4,095 metres (13,435 feet) above sea level, which is some 6 metres less than the previously thought and hitherto published figure of 4,101 metres (13,455 feet) [1]. The mountain is the third tallest in Southeast Asia behind Hkakabo Razi of Myanmar (Burma) and Puncak Jaya of New Guinea - Indonesia [2], and is therefore also the tallest in Malaysia and on the island of Borneo, which Malaysia shares with Indonesia and tiny Brunei.

Four-o-nine-five meters mountain. And on Monday me and mah 3 buddies will scale it up to the top. Bloody hell, this is my first ever climbing trip and I have choosen the tallest mountain in Borneo! Plus with only minimal preperation (that's also if circling MacRitchie Reservoir and walking up to Bukit Timah's top once a week can be classified as preperation!). Gonna need all luck that I can find!

Above image is captured from Google Earth.

Es Jolly Korea

After having lunch, we went to this Korean grocery shop. My colleague was longing for Korean seaweed snack, while me, I didn't plan to buy anything. As I wondered around shelves full of instant noodles, funny-looking snacks and dried seaweed, I bumped into the chiller-box and saw this yellow-colored ice in odd bottle-shaped plastic container. Kinda reminded me with es jolly, which I had when I was in primary school. Cool! So I picked it up. The aunty-shopkeeper told me that it was a banana flavoured ice. That's even better! Taste wise: great, more sophisticated than the old-jolly-ice (which only contained water and syrup) my Korean-ice-jolly used milk as well. Nyah-nyah-nyah!

Dolma! Dolma! Tolong bawa saya...

At last, we found it! We have been looking for dolma for a while. Last time we had it, it was in 2005! Since we somewhat accidentely found dolma, we didn't prepare anything to go with it, so we had it with cheese and ham. Next time when we're more prepared, we'll have it with gyros or octopus and yoghurt... Yummy! Yummy!

from wiki: Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions, including Turkey, Armenia, the Middle East, the Balkans, Greece, and Central Asia.

Pelajaran dari Sosis

Ya, ini pelajaran dari sosis bahwa duit ga bo'ong. Ceritanya di bilangan Novena ada kedai sosis baru. Selain sosis juga jual esgrim. Kalo siang sih lumayan rame, setidaknya 4-5 meja sih ke isi. Penasaran dong, apa bener sosisnya enak. Jadi suatu siang pergilah kita makan ber-3 dengan Pak Panda. Ada lunch menu, pilihannya sosis dengan spagetti dan sosis dengan rosti. Plus minum dan sup. Gue pilih rosti. Sosisnya ok, cenderung enak. Tapi rosti-nya be ajah. Sup-nya bener2 ga ada isinya. Ya, gimana ya namanya juga mau murah.

Nah, pembandingnya adalah semangkok sosis di resto di bilangan Bukit Timah. Pas masuk resto-nya ada bau khas yang biasanya kita cium di toko2 makanan di Jerman. Hmm... Kayaknya ga salah kalo pilih bavarian pot with sauerkraut. Harganya ga lunch-menu price. Ampir triple gitu deh, tanpa mimik. Tapi bener2 wenak. Satu mangkok isinya 5 macem sosis plus mash-potato dan sauerkraut. Mustard-nya pas bener peudeusnya, jadi inget kedai bratwurst di Huerth Park. Sauerkraut-nya juga yummy. Apalagi abis mamam di tutup dengan dessert serba coklat. Emang duit ga bo'ong=)

J-Lo in da Coco

As Jennifer Lopez decided to retire her famous J-Lo trademark name (and probably will be known as the artist formerly named J-Lo), my collegues told me about J-Lo Coconut. Not a related whatsoever with the singer, but delicious J-Lo is a jell-o, and you can find it inside a coconut. Nope, it is not part of a magic show nor debus. It is a coconut delicacy.
Basically the fresh coconut was cut open, then skinned the meat a little bit, mixed the coconut water to form the jelly, then put it in the chiller... and ready to be served. Dunno where it originated, but what I know is Carrefour sells it. And as a coconut lover, I have to try this. Result: not bad, although the jelly is a tiny-little-bit too sweet for me, but actually I have expected something sweeter than this. So taste is better than expected. Well, I still prefer eating fresh young coconut. But if you haven't had it, can try lah.