Amsterdam, Netherlands - May 2012

It's about 30 minutes train ride from Den Haag to Amsterdam. After last year's fiasco, we didn't get to enjoy Amsterdam. Well, a year later I still didn't enjoy Amsterdam. Orang beribu-raban! Hehehe tapi masih berjaya menjejaki HRC ye. Bagus jugak sebab ada sign everywhere... just follow the cookie crumbs. One thing that I like about Amsterdam is the selection of souveniers. Nak apa je, semua ada. Magnet dia pun cantik2, memang rambang mata.

Anyway this time around, we did something different. We joined a tour visiting places outskirt of Amsterdam. The tour company office is very near Amsterdam Centraal. Within walking distance. You can see all the tour busses lining outside.The tour took about 5 hourds and cost 36 Euros per pax. Quite fun actually.

First stop - Zaanse Schans ...

to see the Windmills. The old windmills was moved here to make sort of a park/ musuem? There's quite a number of attraction here (which I failed to discover). Wanted to go inside the windmills to see what's going on, but it seems far and I'm worried that I might missed the bus. You can also take the normal bus from Amsterdam Centraal and spend the whole day exploring this place. I have an officemate who spent half a day here.. which received a puzzled look from me. What the heck did you do there? All i did was take photos (and used the loo). And that last about 30 minutes? Hahahaha

I also spend time taking shots of this bicycle. Macam tak pernah tengok basikal. Ni la padahnya tak membaca before visiting a place. Tak tahu apa benda. Tak reti nak appreciate apa benda.

Next stop - Volendam

This is a fishing village. With boats and seafood stalls.. the works. We had our lunch here. After overload of kebab, seafood is a welcome change. Plus this stall ada Thai sauce. Then we also had this thing call Poffertjes. It's like small pancakes.. very light, very sweet.. very manis. Yummeh. Kat sini nothing much to see or do, except makan.. and take the ferry/ boat to our next destination. From the pier, we can see a lot of sailboat. Agaknya semua orang weekend pergi sailing. Also we notice a lot folks were out on racing bicycle. Another favorite past time I suppose.

The small village of Volendam. Taken from the boat to Marken. Macam nak hujan, and it was cold!

Final destination - Marken.

Marken was a sort of an island previously. But now there's a highway connecting it to the rest of Netherlands I suppose. Over here we can see how the people live in the traditional sort of way. Think the Dutch lady..milkmaid sort of outfit. All the houses here are quaint wooden houses. We visited a cheese and clog factory. The dude making the clog so the chomels (check him out below.. gambar kasi besar bior nampak)! And we had free tasting of the cheese. That was fun. Sebab free. Hahahahha. The boat ride from Volendam to Marken kejap aje, but it felt ages sebab it was cold. We set on the deck at the top of the boat when the wind is blowing in your faces, memang taubat kejap la.

From there, the tour bus was already waiting to take us back to Amsterdam. If you want to read more about the tour read here)

The Hague, Netherlands - May 2012 - Part II

Scheveningen

There's a beach near den Haag. So one fine day it was a holiday and it was sunny. We took the tram till end of it's line and came to the beach. It was overlooking the North Sea. Coolness. Literally. Sejuk ok, though the sun was out. Not many people as it was quite early. There's a long pier with interesting shops and eating places. We had an earlier lunch at a seafood joint. A lovely break from eating kebab... kebab and more kebab.

Madurodam

Another attraction here is a miniture park called Madurodam. It's a the next stop after my office if not mistaken. It has small scale of everything in Netherlands... from Schipol airport, to the duct, to the AJAX stadium. Kids would love this place. We sort of completed the whole place in like 30 minutes and dah penat. After making endless joke about being Godzilla around the miniture buildings, we were out of there. Hahah tak senonoh.

Cooking session with the team

One my 3rd day in the office, the team suggested that the whole bunch of us should go out and do something. The do something .. is going to this cooking place, where we are going to cook our own dinner. Exciting at first, the jet lagged just sets in. And I don't bloody trust myself with a knife or anything to do with fire! And bugger I thot I would be good at this, rupanya mcm terbanggang ok. We always see all those cooking show that seems so easy - aku pun boleh buat tu... Naah... not when you are with people you just met pastu ngantuk gila babi. Nak pecah telur pun malu2 kucing... (ok maybe that's just me). The menu looks doable (tapi ingredients all in english, some of it I have no idea what they are), so I ended up with goreng telur dadar aje. Hahahahahahahahahhahahahaha. They were all looking at me sideways... "I thot Malaysians all cook at home". (Not this Malaysian apparently). Turns out semua orang sangat terror. Even the guys! Malu akak yo! It was fun actually. We had  pumpkin soup, shrimp, lamb (i had tuna steak instead sbb lamb tak halal kan) pesto, guacamole, chocolate pudding (which I think had rum in it.... tapi aku tawakkal je la). We also had creme brulee. Aku sepantas kilat nak volunteer memblow torch the sugar! I'd put the pictures of everyone so engrossed in cooking, but nanti kang this will be traced back to me, so I put the picture of what I prepared je la.

The creme brulee (aku tolong pukul telur and heat the milk I think).. and burnt it to death

The disgusting looking turd... hahaha pesto in omelette by Moi 

Little Pocket of Happiness

Looking at how sux (to quote Penny Hartz, if I may) the year had kicked off, these little pocket of happiness have been keeping me sane (in no particular order):

1. Happy Endings (season 2 just got better)
2. Penny Hartz  (..Ding!) and Max Blum
3. Barney Stinson
4. My Ipod playlist
5. Winning 1 million Deal or No Deal on iPad.
6. Discovered an 'aMahzing' blog - hollywoodspinster
7. Visit to bakeries...for one of these bad boys. Yummeh!

..so what's your current pocket of happiness?

Getting Crabby

We always wanted to eat Chilli Crab in Singapore. Tah berapa kali pergi asyik tak sempat aje. So this time around, dah siap-siap google nak cari Chilli Crab yang halal. Surf punya surf, a lot of people recomended this place, along Changi Road name Kampung Chai Chee Restaurant . Check out their website

Walaupun aku tetiba telah demam and had breakouts all over the body. The symptoms were all pointing to measles. Gosh bila yang aku pergi Singapore tak sakit. And we also had to ditch the idea of going to USS. This happen masa pergi tengok Belinda Carlisle and gang. Alhamdullilah diberikan jugak kekuatan and rezeki and dapatlah merasa chilli crab ni. Kitaorang naik cab aje pergi. Bagi address kat cab driver. Habis cerita.

Chilli Crab cecah dengan fried bun. Sedap gila bun tu!

Closer look

Nasi goreng kampung yang masih terkenang sampai hari ini

Memang sedap and price is reasonable. Tapi if nak belanja orang kat sini accept cash aje. So if rasanya nak melantak tak ingat dunia, bawak la duit banyak-banyak ye. Will definitely come back next time.

Jogja - 19 to 22 Oct 2011 - Part 2

Today is activity is to explore Candi Borobudur and Prambanan and it's surrounding area. I just found out that Sungai Solo ie. from the song Bengawan Solo.. is a few hours away. Tapi tak ada apa pun kat situ. Even the tour guide/ driver said that "Di musim kemarau ini...", which we echo " tak berapa airmu?". Hahaha. Kay pulak fascinated nak jumpa long lost aunty dia nama Suzana somewhere in Pantai Parangtritis, which is also not far away I suppose from Jogja. But we thought, let's take it easy and see how thing goes. The main agenda is visit the chandi mandi.

We got the driver from the hotel's contact. Punya la malas nak cari suruh orang hotel cari. So the guy call us up and pick us up the next morning. It will be 500K rupiah for the whole day. Boleh la, malas punya pasal kan. First thing we ask him to do is to take us for breakfast. He stop at a shop along the way. Makan nasi dengan lauk pauk. Sedap gila ikan keli tah masak apa ni

Borobudur

The tour guide/ driver help us to obtain entrance ticket into Borobudur. Mahal jugak la. Dapat la discount a few RM by buying from him. I have been warned that the place will be swarmed with penjaja-penjaja who will pester for you to buy things. Beli dari sorang, satu bukit kejar kau lepas tu. I know that drill. So it's game face! Bring it on!

It's about 200 meters walk perhaps across the yard heading towards the tourist office and entrance to the place. Turun aje dari van, dah 20 orang tunggu. Dengan payung, topi, baju, ayam, itik and tah apa benda lagi. Aku memang hati batu sebatunya. I have indeed perfected my blank expresionless face. Just block all the sound and look straight ahead. They smell fear and emotion. One thing to note, never say anything. Not a word. If you say, "nanti la.. karang", kau balik nanti dia tunggu la pulak. Hahaha. Si Jiben telah diwarn tak payah la nak membeli. Tapi dia tumpas juga, nak membeli topi. Ha ambik kau sekali aku pusing dah macam kena kerumun dengan gremlins. Akhirnya semua berjaya masuk dalam tourists office dengan jayanya.

The driver left us there after passing us the ticket. Nak masuk kena pakai kain la pulak. And tetiba the guard there asked us,

   "Surat mana?"

   "Surat apa?"

   "Ya surat begini.. (pointing to a stack of papers). Kena ada surat baru boleh masuk"

    "Habis ticket ni nak buat apa?" (dah la mahal)

    "Kena ada suratnya juga"

Maka high blood pressure aku pun go upstair!

    "Surat yang macam mana? Siapa yang nak kena tulis surat ni pulak? Kertas apa nak pakai tulis surat ni?

Apa bezanya ticket yang dah beli berapa ratus rupiah ni dengan surat? Surat beranak? Surat cinta? Dekat mana nak dapat surat ni? Bila masanya nak dapat surat ni? Siapa yang nak kena sign surat tu? Raja mana?" ha ambik kau...

"Ya tadi beli.. tiada surat?"

"Saya beli ticket bukan surat. Tak tau, driver yang beli ticket. Dia bagi ticket aje"

In my mind, kalau nak masuk tempat ni pun nak peleceh memang nak kena la kan. Nak suruh aku menyuap pulak ke? No way. Aku sudah bagi icy stare dekat guard tu. Sikit lagi mungkin aku kena tembak pulak kat situ. Nasib la si Kartini sangat bertenang. Dan guard tu baik ati nak callkan driver kitaorang. Berlari la pulak datang driver dengan the so called surat. Serious shit lama sikit, akan aku suruh guard tu baca segala surat yang ada kat situ... apa benda la yang ada dalam surat tu. Yes I am an ASS. But seriously explain kat aku apa rasionalnya aku membeli ticket tapi still tak boleh masuk. Kalau tak nak bagi masuk, jangan jual ticket tu.

Anyhoo, setelah friction tersebut, we made our way to the Chandi. Sangat panas ye kawan-kawan. Jauh pulak tu nak jalan. Along the way ada lagi gerombolan yang nak jual-jual benda. This time offer nak sewa payung and yang lagi best, service nak tolong dukung budak-budak kecik naik atas. Bila kitaorang senyap aje, tak paham-paham bahasa dok pester-pester lagi. Aku dah geram, aku tanya dia, "kalau angkat saya boleh? Berapa rupiah?" Terdiam kejap mamat tu. "Ya yang kecil aja.." "Ha kalau nak angkat saya boleh. Kalau tak payah". Bengkek gila mamat tu. Pastu mesti dia maki kitaorang sebab si Jiben sudah tergolek masa naik tangga. Nasib tak apa-apa.

Seriously tempat tu panas and tangga-tangganya sangat steep. Macam nak luruh jantung aku memanjat. Ada 7 levels, each represents something. And every level tu aku kena take a break. Finally sampai jugak la ke langgit ke tujuh katanya. Samapai la ke level-level stupa yang macam loceng-loceng tu. In the recent Amazing Race, they had to count the buddha statue with the different hand gestures. Aku rasa kat bawah, macam ada info board yang tulis all this info. Memang ngok mat salleh tu semua nak kira satu-satu. Ada beribu benda tu around the place. Photo shoot pun bermula. Baju aku dah lencun dengan peluh. Nak turun pun macam nenek tua. Kalau tergolek, kena la panggil balik brother yang nak offer angkat budak tadi!

Assortment of pictures at Borobudur

Merapi

Next destination is to Merapi. Kitaorang semua tertido sikit punya sedap dalam van. I think I might have even snored! Pastu terkejut dengar dengkur sendiri. Hehehehe.

It was about a year ago (25th Oct 2010) that the mount erupted. We can still see the path of destruction along the way up. There's a lot of black sand that is being mined from the river nearby for construction. Pokok-pokok semua dah nak tumbuh balik, tapi pokok-pokok yang terbakar dulu tu still ada lagi. It was very cloudy that day, so tak nampak puncaknya. You can go on motor ride (motor scrambler no less) along the mountain's path to take a closer look. Macam gatal je nak pergi. Tapi kang sape pulak nak cari aku atas gunung tu if anything happen. So lepak-lepak kat bawah je. Despite the hot sun, the temprature up there is very pleasant.

Greens yang dah mula tumbuh among tunggul-tunggul pokok yang terbakar dulu



Very cloudy day, so tak nampak puncak Merapi (kata tour guide tu la)

Untuk celebrate kejayaan dapat melihat Gunung Merapi, kita makan jagung bakar. Terbaek!

Prambanan

Another must visit candi is called Candi Prambanan. Like Borobudur it is also listed as a World Heritage site. The place here is more bertenang and suitable for picnic. This candi is actually a Hindu temple while Borobudur is a Buddist monument. But these days majority of folks in Jogja are Muslims.

Nak masuk, kena beli ticket lagi ye. Kitaorang dah pergi ke kaunter meant for local folks. Baru terperasan that the entrance fee for the locals is way cheaper. We could've easily pass as local as well. Aku pun pernah terbaca blog sapa tah yang berlakon-lakon jadi local and got to buy the cheaper tickets. Memang tak senonoh. Unfortunately, aku terlupa that fact. And masa si Kay dah senyap-senyap beratur, aku terpanggil plak dia. "oit awat kau beratur kat situ?" Hahahahha pecah tembelang. Sorry kak non, lain kali kalau nak berlakon sila brief supporting cast sekali. Hehehehe.

There's a few separate site for the temples. The structures are not as high as Borobudur, but man the place is huge. Jauh gila nak jalan. Jiben at one point, "Kenapa kita dekat sini? Saya nak balik hotel". "Saya pun nak balik hotel" Hahahahha. Nasib kat entrance tu ada tempat makan. Mari la makan dulu. Though tak sesedap tempat breakfast tadi, lapar punya pasal. Layanz!

Assortment of pictures at Prambanan

Si anak kecil yang hampa kerana tertipu kena jalan berbatu-batu (ironically... sambil tengok batu). In the background, si ibu yang masih tegar membeli belah

 UGM

 By the time we got out of Prambanan, dah petang dah. But it's still early. We still have the driver till 5pm. It was just 4pm. So we asked him to take us to the largest and oldest national university in Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Known to the local as UGM.

Coolness! The campus is just like UM in KL. The faculties are located along the the main roads around the city. We could see all the students lepaking and riding their bikes. Ada macam-macam fakulti. Aku nampak Perhutanan la... Medical la.. Falsafah la. We even stop for photo op. Pastu ada sorang budak sudah nak merajuk sebab mak dia nak posing sorang-sorang. Hahahah kesian dia.



Budak kecik yang hangin dengan maknya yang asyik nak posing and tak bagi dia 'enter frame'

  

Famous landmark. Mesti ambik gambar, macam la grad dari sini kan

 

Don't you just love the localized English word? Prioritaskan.. sekali baca ingat Senorita :P

Bandung Lagi - 23 to 25 July 2011

Aku kembali lagi. With a Vengeance!

Hahaha. Katanya dah tak nak datang lagi for the next 5 years. Tapi 2011 menyaksikan saya kembali lagi ke Bandung untuk kali yang ke-4 since 2007. I'm here with Ija and Rosli. If you are looking for suggestion for a cheap trip, please read elsewhere. We book ourselves on MAS flight, check ourselves into the Premier Lounge before boarding and stayed at a decent 4 star Apartment Hotel in Bandung. In total, we paid about RM600 per pax for the flight and 3D2N stay at the hotel.

We stayed at Grand Setiabudi Hotel & Apartment  along  Jalan Dr. Setiabudi. Which means near Rumah Mode :). The rooms are small. Luggage kena letak luar. The room that we stayed in ada 2 bilik, 1 with queen bed and the other with a single bed. Ada living room and small kitchen. Kitchen masak maggie and buat milo je la. Ada small dining area juga. Just nice for the 3 of us. Lupa pulak nak snap photos of the room sebab by the time ingat, bilik tu dah macam kapal karam.

To me acceptable la, sebab naik MAS which you don't have to worry about food and baggage charge etc.Tapi excess baggage, tetap excess baggage. Apakah! MAS hari tu serve cous-cous and daging masak apa tah. Sedap!

And we also got ourselves a driver for the whole day for 500K. Mahal kot, coz I heard someone manage to get 3 days for just 1 Juta. I have totally lost my bargaining skill. Or perhaps yang dapat 1Juta for 3 days tu, actually cewek-cewek yang muda belia yang senyumannya mengoda. Senyum kitaorang ni tak laku dah. Hahahah.

Highlights of the Trip:

1. Hotel's Buffet Breakfast

Plenty of choices and sangat sedap. My favorite as always is the bubur nasi with assortment of condiments and sup. Ija pulak hilang akal dengan segala unidentified sambal. There's also selection of continental breakfast. Setelah membelasah segala fruit juice, fruit, toast, omelets and bubur, sambal, keropok, tempe, wedges, yogurt tah apa lagi.... mari pergi melabur. Baru bersemangat nak kick off the day.

2. Joyride on Angkutan Kota

Wheeee.... sekarang dah expert sket naik Angkut. Plus our hotel location is perfect for Angkut to go to Rumah Mode. It's about 500 meters (ke?) from Rumah Mode and its going downhill. Nak jalan boleh jugak but dangerous sebab banyak kereta, motor and tah apa lagi. So baik naik Angkut. Nak lintas ke rumah Mode tu memang tahap gila. Kalau nasib baik, polis ke jaga dari Rumah Mode tu will stop the traffic and help us cross the street. Nak balik pulak kalau jalan kaki naik bukit so baik tak payah. Jauh sikit kalau naik Angkut and it will stop across the street. Nak lintas tu as usual sangat mencabar, so pandai-pandai lah ye. Trick aku selalu lintas dengan orang local. Heheh.

3. Benar-benar Hilang Akal di section kain di Pasar Baru

Aku rasa aku dengan Rosli memang dah kena sampuk hari tu. Kena sampuk dengan brother kat kedai kain. Sekali dia tebar kain tu, seribu kali mata kitaorang rambang. Aku rasa dia memang letak dadah dalam teh botol yang dia bagi free tu. Sudahnya, aku beli 5 kodi kain, Rosli beli 3 kodi. Kain kaler oren pun nampak cantik. Padahal kat Malaysia lagi murah! Rosli lain kali, sebelum masuk kedai kain kita kena ingat baca doa banyak-banyak. Jadi macam Ija yang dah taubat. Langsung tak nak turun floor kain tu. Sudahnya kena tunggu kitaorang sampai 3 jam! Dah tidur dalam cab, pun kitaorang tak jumpa lagi jalan pulang. Apa dah jadi dengan kain 5 kodi aku? Entah.....  nak hantar pergi jahit, tak hantar-hantar lagi. Sighhh

Check out hasil rampasan perang kitaorang. Siap kena panggil potter tolong angkat barang. Boot kereta tu penuh gila!

Then, on to more exciting activity iaitu memeriksa hasil rampasan perang

4. Makan - makan
Got the chance to try out places yang tak sempat nak try. Discovered a very interesting name for a kuih. Aku gelak non-stop. Ni la rupa kuih tu. Macam karipap-karipap cinta kan?

Cuba teka apa nama kuih.. or kue tu dari menu ni

Then kitaorang ada juga try Sundanese food. Ok la.. pedas campur manis-manis.

Nasi dia bungkus comel-comel macam ni

Pastu lauknya mix and match sesuka hati. Ni mix of tempe, ayam and tah apa lagi.

5. And... the mother of all highlights:

Sebelum aku cakap apa dia. Ini adalah sedikit nasihat dan juga peringatan untuk diri sendiri. Apabila anda dah shopping non stop dari pagi sampai petang, kalah orang menoreh, kalah orang bajak sawah, please take 5... if not take 30. Kerana apabila penat... jangan terkejut kalau ini berlaku

Ok gambar ni cilok from Facebook Rosli. But notice anything funny? Look closely on bahu Ija..tiba-tiba ada no 3... Percaya tak, dalam sibuk pilih-pilih baju, ada orang tu lupa nak bayar! O... M... G! None of us perasan till dah kuar dari kedai tu. Boleh tu ala-ala tak bersalah letak baju atas bahu... pastu jalan kuar selamba. Masa bayar tadi cashier tak perasan, masa keluar pak guard tak perasan. I suppose yang lagi kelakar ialah muka kitaorang yang panik. Aku dah terpikir yang worst je...ie kena tangkap plak masuk jail. Nasib selamat balik

To Rosli and Ija, I had a great time! Thanks for everything. Ke mana kita lepas ni? Jakarta or Surabaya? Apa-apa pun, tolonglah bantu kawan korang ni supaya jangan excess baggage lagi!!!

Anugerah Turun dari Langit Part III

These are some of the pictures captured from the recent Raya Haji and Fasting month, when we were down in Batu Pahat. In no particular order...

1. Chicken Chop from Jeng Kuan

Kedai ni dah wujud since I was little. So is the Chicken Chop. Many eon years later, it's still taste the same. Muah!

2. Sirap Bandung from Mat Syah

Dah makan nasi beryani, kena minum air sirap bandung. 1 part sirap, 1 part susu cair and 1 part ice cream soda. Ice secukup rasa. Rasanya? Macam turun dari langit.

3. Nasi Ambeng Makcik kat Param Depan Kelab

Perghhhh. Terbaek wa cakap lu! Murah dan meriah pulak tu. Sadly, makcik ni kata next year dia tak nak berniaga dah. Dah tak larat. Oh makcik.. you will be missed :(.


4. Lontong Makcik kat Param Depan Kelab

Mutu dan keunggulannya sama dengan Nasi Ambeng tadi.

5. GP Jalan Zabedah

O.M.G - tiada kedapatan goreng pisang yang bertaraf lima bintang ini di mana-mana. Kena cecah dengan sambal kicap pulak... ....lost for words kejap.

6. Mee Rebus Pasar

Pasar ada banyak kedai. Hehehe ni kedai yang betul-betul sebelah kedai jual suratkhabar and magazine.

7. Satay Pasar

Ianya tak sedap. Ianya Sedap Gila Babas.

Uihh dah la... Kita simpan yang lain untuk masa lain pulak. Sekarang sudah lapar. Sendiri padan muka.

Freaky Friday

..well, that was yesterday.

I wore baju kurung to the office today. The last time I wore baju kurung was I think more than 3 years ago. I have been there for almost 7 years. I ditched Baju Kurung after a good part of a year, simply because malas nak gosok. My normal attire would give the cleaners at the office a run for their money. Hehaw. Everyone was giving me the look. If I recall correctly, these were some of the remark:

- "Tebiat ke apa kau hari ni?" Accompanied by an arched eyebrow.
- "Why you dress funny today?" (my favorite).
- "Eeiii...baju kurunggg. Eh ni first timekan you pakai baju kurung?".
- "Aikkk. Ni apasal pakai baju kurung hari ni?" Accompanied by suspicious look.

Little that they know, sebenarnya aku nak pergi open house petang semalam. But before that, a lunch date with kawan-kawan lama dari zaman U. Mula-mula nak makan kat Saba...la tutup pulak Friday. Nasib kedai sebelah Ariania, serving Iranian food bukak. Sedap jugak makan kat situ. Sahabat-sahabat, thank you for a good time and lunch. But the funny thing was, of all the days, semalam la nak hujan lebat pulak. Langsung stranded dalam kedai sebab takde payung. Baru je cakap.. harap tak hujan...the sky opened up and pour it's content. Creepizoid... tapi sebenarnya suka sebab boleh lepak lama lagi....tapi lama tu dah jadi lebih sejam, melampau la kan. Nak tak nak kena la redah jugak hujan with high heels, baju kurung and all... Habis rambutku yang penat blowdry tadi. Tapi alhamdulillah, none of us jatuh tergolek dalam hujan. That will be the mother of all horror!

Later in the evening, a few of us from the office pergi open house pulak. This is the best part of all. Ada LAKSA JOHOR accompanied with SIRAP BANDUNG ICE CREAM SODA. Entah berapa gelen aku minum, sebab tuan rumah keep it coming aje. Heheheh. Pastu memang mengaku, akak makan laksa 3 round, complete with sambal belacan and condiment yang cukup segalanya. Gambar tak sempat nak ambik, sebab concentrate makan.

Yati, if you are reading this... THANNKKK YOUUUUU :) Memang best gila laksa kau tu. Nanti satu hari yang indah I shall attempt recipe laksa kau. In the meantime, now you know where to send the laksa if ada leftovers. Rain or shine, ribut taufan... akan kugagahi jua pergi ambik ;). I said it yesterday, I will say it again, laksa kau tu telah membuat Raya aku tahun ini lebih bermakna... Heheheheh.

Balik office pastu, melambak issue. Tergolek-golek jawab email, jawab phone. Ambik kau! Tapi tak kisah... sebab hari ni dapat makan best :)

Berlalulah sudah Ramadhan...

Selamat Hari Raya

Maaf Zahir & Batin

Special shout out to 1. Brader Razak from Pesta and Mak Nani Roti Jala from Bukit Pasir. Without uols, maka kebuluq la kami sekeluarga. (Bawah ni gambar Roti Jala, sepingan RM3 je!)

2. Juga tak ketingalan pada orang yang masih buat old school kuih sugee :)

3. Wishing Amirah and Anis - Happy Birthday!

Last sekali, baik-baik bila main mercun yang bosan raya ni.

Di mana dia Laksa Johor saya?

I wanted very much to go to Dewan Perdana Buka Puasa buffet. It's the only place that I recalled, served a mean Laksa Johor. Cukup sifat and rempahnya. Unfortunately, in 2009 it was fully booked. Fully booked nak duduk makan kat parking lot pun dah penuh.

So last year we went to Concorde Inn KLIA, all the way in Sepang. Not a bad spread at all. Not bad sebab ada goreng pisang cecah dgn sambal kicap to save the day. Ooh.. pastu dia ada serve grilled Venison. Hebat!

This year I vow that I must have the laksa johor at Dewan Felda. Dengan darjah kepoyoan yang tinggi, it was 5 days before puasa... I made the booking. At first tak jumpa pulak no phone Dewan Felda ni. The number that I have seems no longer valid. Surfing the net, high and low... I finally found it. Yippee.. So I call them up, tanya ni Dewan Felda eh.. Orang tu kata ye. So I made the reservation. Bangga gila uols. Bangga sebab konon macam pandai la buat booking awal-awal.

Tibalah hari-hari yang dinanti-nantikan. Pagi tu, ada orang call nak confirmkan petang ni datang. Mesti la datang dik ooi! Pukul 6 petang, semua orang dah keluar rumah sebab takut jam. Punyalah la kiasu, akak siap guna SMART Tunnel tu walaupun tak jam sangat. Sepantas kilat dah sampai. Lagi poyo, parking kat basement Dewan Felda pulak. Konon takut hujan. Naik lift dari basement, nak pergi ke ballroom. Bila pintu bukak... Haikkk... apasal semua orang berbaju kurung, bersampin songket tenunan melayu bagai ni. Lantak korang la.. akak datang nak makan je. Takde masa nak iron baju kurung. Sambil orang yang dressed up to the nine to ignore kitaorg, kitaorg pun jalan la masuk dewan tu. Haiiik kali kedua. Mana pulak orang reception ni. Meja kitaorang no berapa ni. Eh.. ni macam lain macam je. Macam private function je malam ni. Kitaorg pun keluar balik. Tengok kat board tu.. memang ada private function. Haik haik haik haik.

Nasib kitaorang sampai awal. Sempat la stop semua orang dari masuk hall tu and jadi sama malu dengan kitaorg. Call balik number yang call pagi tadi. Dik.. yang akak book ni, kat mana ni dik. Oh.. ni kat Anjung Felda. Ha? Anjung felda? (Where the *bleeep* *bleeep* freaking *blleeeeeep* is that? APAKEJADKEJADHAR is anjung? Aku nak pergi dewan. Tak nak duduk kat anjung-anjung rumah orang ni.) Ha, dekat dengan entrance nak masuk Dewan Felda ni kak.

WHHOOTTT? Kakak aku pun start la membebel as usual. So semua orang pun start looking around, mana pulak Anjung ni? Pusing-pusing parking lot tu.. takde la jauh pun. Akhirnya jumpa la Anjung. It's like a small house tucked away in between Dewan Perdana and Dewan Merak Kayangan. Loorrrr. Mana pulak pintu masuk ni. Rupanya kitaorang masuk dari belakang. Finally, we found the reception and got our table no. No 44. Ya salam... but it turns out to be a great spot. It's inside, far away from other people and near to the surau ladies. Food was not bad either. I went ga ga over the Mandy Rice and ayam rempah. They also had pulut durian and tempe.

And at first glance, ingat ada Laksa Johor.. but turns out to be Mee Kari. Oh no! Tak merasa lagi Laksa Johor nampaknya. Damn it. So near yet so far :( Ni la yang dinamakan takde rezeki.

Fuhhh.. tapi, lepas melantak... all the poyo and blame game had melt away. Sorry lah ye seluruh kaum keluarga. Kesilapan teknikal telah berlaku. Tipah tertipu! Turns out Dewan Perdana had a different number. And is slightly cheaper than this place.

This year our buka puasa get together coincide with Hanani's 15th birthday.
Happy Birthday, kakak!



Laksa Johorku, sesunguhnya tiada jodoh jugak tahun ni.Next year perhaps? Semoga dizinkan Allah hendaknya. Aminnn.

Morrocan Meal at Tajine

No. This is not a food blog per say...but I'm in a 'let the pictures do the talking' kinda of mood. Or in this case..'let the food to the talking'. This is from my 2nd visit to Tajine at Souq Wakif. I had to come back again because I wanted to try the camel. Plus the restaurant had an aircond blower fit to blow off a 747 into take off. Panas gila, tapi nak makan punya pasal, keluar jugak.

Mixed cold starters. Mostly unidentified object (because I'm not sophisticated enough to bother to read the menu properly and remember what they are :P) but I think there's chicken liver thrown in there somewhere. Sedap gila.

...and it must be eaten with bread. Bread also comes with this sambal and olives. Again, not food savvy enough to eat the olive as a whole (normally picked out mine from pizzas). So mostly cecah the bread with the sambal. Sodap.



I don't know what this is called, so I shall named it myself. Murtabak ayam morrocon style. It is fried, filled with tasty chicken filling and the best part, it is covered in honey and almond on the outside. Since we ordered an assortment of everyting else, tak berdaya nak habiskan. If I ever get the chance, I will only eat this and this alone (ya right)


Tajine (or tagine) is actually the name of the special pot used to slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce.

So here's the first end result. Lamb with prunes. Superb.


Then, here's the camel that I have dreamt about. (Slightly disappointed) it tasted like lamb curry. Aik?. I thought it will excite my palate to a different kind of taste. Or did I order the wrong thing? And actually order lamb. Whatever, as the record states. Aku dah makan daging unta. Yang sangat sedap, by the way :)


By the time desert came, dah nak pengsan dah. This is actually lempeng with ice cream filling

Exotic? Hah, kat KL pun ada. Check out this link