Adelaide

Early this month Scott and I went to Adelaide on a Thursday morning for our product training. It was an early morning start. I got up at 4.45am and we caught the 7.10am red eye flight on Virgin. To cut a long story short we struggled through the day, yawning, eating a lot of lollies, gulping cups of coffee. We had dinner at The Strathmore (opposite the Casino) at their Balcony Restaurant. The Stonegrill tenderloin was tender and awesome. We got to grill our steak the way we liked it on the hot stone placed in front of us on our table! That was the highlight and things went south after that.

Well, Adelaide is only a small city of a million people. The things I remember most about her are the beautiful Barossa Valley wineries, brown landscape in the summer, hot and steamy days.

I chose The Ambassador Hotel on King William St in the CBD area on price.Scott was complaining that I was tight. I told him I had to because John our boss, was not keen to spend a lot of money on accommodation! Ha ha. After all it was only for one night. We would be out on our 7pm flight back home on Friday!

The bed had clean sheets and firm. I liked it. I slept well and fairly early at 11pm whilst Scott, Dean and Rod went for more beers and played at the Casino.

The lollies helped me keep awake

Home sweet home, on Virgin

250g of tenderloin + different types of sauces .... mushroom, black pepper, chutney. Yum.

No cooking - dinner at Dumpling King Box Hill

Nowadays SM and I tend to eat out on Thursdays and Fridays .... this takes the pressure off her having to cater to my culinary needs and more pleasant for us as we have 3 cooking duty nights and 2 nights off. Saturdays + Sundays are normally spent with my folks or other activities and we again do not have to worry too much what we have to cook for dinners. 

This night we have our favorite 水煮鱼

Brazil

I watch on ABC1 Michael Palin's "Brasilia" and it appears Brazil is an interesting country to visit with all its diversity of peoples, cultures, history, landmarks and food. Today's program is on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's 2nd largest city; several of its landmarks are easily recognizable ... Coca cabana beach, the Sugarloaf mountain with its cable cars; and of course the giant statue Christ the Redeemer. Hmm, a wonderful city to visit one day .....

Miscellaneous

I do like to take my coffee breaks during my trips to see my customers or driving past industrial sites. Nothing beats a little peace and quiet, a bit of catching up with the news, and a respite from the busy things I have to do.....

The unwinding does a lot of good to me. I used to do that in Singapore, stopping by at kopitiam for a teh with a colleague. Nowadays I enjoy it even more when I am on my own .....

More coffee ....

I took the following pictures one day during one of my many trips across the city on the way to the west side of Melbourne. These ones are on the West Gate Bridge and some are approaching the Domain Tunnel.

 

This one after crossing the Tunnel on the way back to the South 

SM cooked this nice salmon dish one night

Last Sunday we went to Queen V Market and had my favorite Bratwurst + coffee

Dad and us went for lunch in Chinatown when mom was in hospital. Somehow things were different when mom was not with us

禱告

禱告 因為我渺小
禱告 因為我知道 我需要 明瞭 祢心意對我重要
禱告 已假裝不了
禱告 因為祢的愛我需要 祢關懷 我走過的祢都明白
有些事我只想要對祢說 因祢比任何人都愛我
痛苦從眼中流下 我知道祢為我擦
在早晨我也要來對祢說 主耶穌今天我為祢活
所需要的力量
祢天天賜給我
祢恩典夠我用

KL food and friends

My memories of food and friends ......

Dinner with Capt Chow and Eunice + Mirazo @ Subang Jaya SS15. The drink of choice with Chow nowadays is The Famous Grouse ..... @ RM65/bottle, great value.

After dinner we go to Little Bally - a cozy bar/pub/bistro nearby with pleasant live music. It is breezy and we are in shorts and sipping beer.

I am showing off the t shirt I am wearing that night with the Rocket logo. This makes Capt. Chow a happy man. He is a huge supporter of change for the better. Where I got that t shirt is another story.

The very last evening in KL we decide to go back to that same favorite SJ restaurant and have 2 large plates of steamed eggs, hokkien mee, kankung belacan, and "salted fish fried with pork belly" .....

Smooth, light, eggy steamed egg dish. Light soy sauce on top and some cooked oil + chopped spring onion. Beautiful.

I obviously enjoy the food very much, and feeling tired as it shows on my face.  It' the end of my trip, after all. Looking forward to going back to "normality".

On a Thursday morning Chow, Miraz and I travel to Seremban (on my recommendation) to eat the famous Stall 748 Pasar Besar's Seremban Beef Noodle, Stall 810's Hakka Mee, and Haji Shariff's Cendol.

Stall 748 Beef Noodle. One of its kind and kopi. Blissful and filling. It's worth the side trip.

We only order one bowl of Hakka Mee to share as we have already had our beef noodle.

Morning breakfast one day with Miraz of CKT in Subang Jaya near to Olives Residences.

Friday 弟弟 and I go for a movie (Cold War) at KLCC but before that we meet up with Julie and Ellie @ FM. We decide to have lunch at Original Kayu Nasi Kandar at Aman Suria Damansara thinking that we can eat our favorite roti canai and J has a strong yearning for it.

SM will be disappointed to know that we cannot get roti canai there before 3pm at this outlet like we used to..... The nasi kandar is not bad and we get to enjoy sharing the fried/grilled sotong, fried fish, chicken masala(?), and a mutton dish. Ellie tells me that she brought RM100 worth of KFC back to Flores during a recent trip back to her kampung and her relatives who met her at the airport were more thrilled by the KFC than her. He he he.

I later on googled and found out that the airport is located in Maumere. There is at least one flight daily from Denpasar (Bali) to Maumere.

It took the welcoming party and Ellie 4 hours to walk back to their kampung.......

Lunch before a movie (Silent Hill; lousy movie) on Saturday with Chai Yun and Miraz at Din Tai Fung, Mid Valley/Gardens. It is raining cats and dog. We hide in the comfort of the Mall.

The Xiao Long Bao @ DTF is superb, better than the ones SM and I had in Taipei. It's steaming hot, and the pastry is excellent. The special fried rice is .... special. The Siew Mai is not so great, the pastry is a little thick and the prawn, overcooked . The service is efficient as is the norm with any DTF outlet.

Sunday night I am back in Oz. The trip goes by quickly. I also manage to call a few friends when I am at the airport waiting for my flight home that I am not able to meet this trip; Raymond Chen, Phang, Yeo and Mun Teng. 

It is an early morning start on Sunday for me. By 6.30am Miraz has sent me to Sentral to catch an ERL to KLIA. By 7.30am I am already at the Premier Lounge sipping a latte and eating a banana cup cake.It is not hurried, calm, nice.

Thanks also to Mitch and Khoo and Kee Mun for the meals and times we shared although I did not get to take some photos with them for remembrance. And I did not even meet up with my STOBA friends for a drink or get together as I thought it would be inconvenient for them to arrange a gathering given a short notice.

1 of the 7 nights in KL

ZHI TOU AND I HAVE DINNER AT MY IN-LAWS' AND for me it is great to see him again. He is having his school holidays until end Jan OMG that is so nice huh?

We have a great dinner with lots of discussions on the Malaysian political and business inefficiencies. We sure like to talk about them because they are so plainly so wrong. FIW says the G.E. has to be called soon maybe on the 11 Nov it would be called. It would appear some of the people in power are worried about losing their seats and all the dirty linens will be hung out for all to see; leading to them losing everything. Many people say, everything means EVERYTHING. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. The people so wish the pollies will drop like a pack of flies. On the one hand here will be rejoicing and jubilation but on the other hand there may be greater uncertainties and hardships ...... 

It will be an interesting year 2013 as far as the G.E. is concerned. However we concentrate on the food. Tonight we are served mostly my favorites by the MIW ..... there's sambal belacan petai, brinjal, fried fish, timun and soup. Yum. No fried prawns though.

Anyway my In-Laws served me this French red "Baron de Sillac" which is a Merlot, vintage 2009. It is fantastic wine... comparable to the Penfolds 128 or 28.

Apparently this wine is brought into Malaysia in casks and is bottled in Kepong by Guan Chua Industry so it has Buatan Malaysia on the label. Good grief, made in Malaysia red wine from France but it is a darn good wine. Cheers!

The next day I am brought by Capt Chow and Mirazo to this shop in Brickfields selling all sorts of alcoholic drinks; mainly wines, beer and whiskey.

It's on the same street where you find blind messuers.  Jalan Thambapillay, I think.

There it is on the shelf this Baron de Sillac. Ha ha. I am also very surprised to find out that the trader sells a 1 liter bottle Glenfiddich 18 years at RM185 which is some RM100 cheaper than the same product sold in an airport duty free shop. I do the maths and cannot completely fathom how they do it except to come to a conclusion that the single malt whiskey must have a questionable origin or quality.

.......... more likely it's the questionable origin.

Quick in and out and back

"How about steak at The Ship?" Miraz texts.

I am on a quick visit to KL this week. He is looking after me so is Julie who offers friendship and assistance. I am lucky to have friends like them.... the same with Mitch and Jonathan who do not ask for anything in return.

"We are both hungry and we can eat a cow"; I am game for a steak on a Sunday night. So off we go and of course I come prepared with our Penfolds. This one is a Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz.  Vintage 2003. I have kept it for 9 years and now we are pulling the cork out. I went to Dan Murphy's a few days ago to check out the Penfolds Bin 28 but they only sell the vintage 2007. It would have set me back $35.99.

At The Ship I am so shocked when the "captain" says "Sir, the corkage is RM24.99". OMG. I have to accept it, in dejection. That is obviously too much when i judge it by Australian standard. Lucky I bring this bottle of wine from Oz! 

Anyhow we enjoy our escargots, grilled sirloin and our 28 very much. Although we agree that the steak we had in Bintulu (ala Marco Polo restaurant ) was much more substantial, and less "chewy" than this one. And the escargots are not piping hot which they should be.

Beggars can't be choosers; we know from long ago when I stayed in Bintulu for 6 months and Miraz & yours truly scouted everywhere and tried many steaks. But I am also sure that there are fine dining restaurants in KL that offer much better steaks but they will not be at 53 bucks a slab .... maybe 2 to 3 times more costly but I don't see the point of doing that whilst I can get fresh (not frozen) scotch fillets at A$15 a kilo. 

I digressed. The point is we have had steaks on a Sunday night in rainy KL this time of the year and had a nice bottle of wine with friends...... on a night when I should have been at home in Oz. Oh well.

It does bring back memory of my free-and-easy days ........