Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Arabian Night

My university is filled with lots of international students. When I say lots, I mean LOTS of international students. Its not a handful where you can count them easily. Regarding to that, mamak stalls near my university is getting lesser and are replaced with arabic restaurants. There are still chinese and mamak stalls around, it just takes further walking distance.

One new arabic restaurant caught my attention. Its always packed with diners from the moment it opens at 9am or 10am til the moment it closes at 1am. So I went there to check out what all the fuss is about.

I ordered as below:


Mandy Meat RM17
(Grilled mutton served with colorful Basmati rice)

Mandy is grilled with spices til cooked and dry. The outside is dry but the inside is still moist and juicy. The rice for the Mandy has the grilled smokey taste as well. Besides mutton, there's also chicken RM10. Chicken is cooked so perfectly til the meat just falls off the bones.



Kabsa Meat RM14
(Slow cooked mutton served with Basmati rice)

Mutton is cooked slowly with spices til moist and tender. The meat just breaks apart easily. The rice is also cooked slowly with spices til dry but still very moist. There's also chicken RM8 and the meat just falls off the bones easily.



Traditional Dipping Sauce
(Blended tomatoes, chilli and cilantro leaves)

My comment:

Wow!!! Marvellous!! The mutton is really tender and juicy. The rice is just nice. Neither too dry nor too wet. The whole meal is best eaten with the sauce. Perfect.

Beside these two dishes, there's also one more dish called Pressured Meat or Chicken. This dish is served in a very large portion. There's only two prices. Meat : RM20 or RM40. Chicken: RM15 or RM30. Why is there two prices you may ask? Well the first price is the amount for a 2 -3 persons portion. The second is the amount for 4 - 5 persons portion. The dish is served in a traditional way where everyone eats from one huge plate placed in the center of the table. At first I found it weird that they do that but when I asked a friend who has been to Arab, he said that everyone there does that. He says that they serve the rice with meat in the center on a huge tray and everyone shares. Fun and interesting but of course I wouldn't mind sharing the same plate with someone I know closely. With strangers I'd think twice or even thrice. Hehehehhe...


Saturday, October 11, 2008

~Vegetarian Anyone???~

Last time when I was a little girl, my grandparents tried to persuade me to eat vegetarian food. As any little kid would, I was like eeewww vegetarian not nice. Tasteless. I only eat meat. But as I grew up, I start to like eating vegetarian food. Not many people know how to make vegetarian food taste good, but for those who knows how to cook it, really finger licking good.



Everything cost RM25.50.

When I first moved here to Melaka, my first friend is a vegetarian. Wait a minute, no my first friend was a Sarawakian girl from Miri. My second friend was a vegetarian. He was my senior and I met him during my orientation programme. Since he was my senior and he should know Melaka well, I asked him where's the best place to eat which is also a walking distance from my house and university. He told me there's a vegetarian restaurant nearby that serves really good food. So he brought me there to have dinner. The restaurant was really small, air-conditioned, very clean and packed. The owner is a devoted Buddist so in the restaurant she played soft music with the sounds of monks chanting in the background. She also sold religious books and cds and pure 100% vegetarian products for customers to puchase.

When our food came, I was surprised with what my friend ordered. He had ordered fish, chicken and mix veg. The fish looked almost like fish and it did taste almost like fish. Chicken looked almost like chicken cut into cubes and it taste almost like chicken. Really delicious. Since then I got hooked and have been going there whenever I feel like eating vegetarian for a change.

A couple of days ago I went back there to order take away. I was too lazy to cook at home and I knew that the restaurant will be pack as usual. So this are a few dishes that I ordered.



Fried Chicken with Dried Chilli.


Assam Fish.


Fried Baby Kailan.


Fried Abalone Mushroom with Butter.

Looks yummy right. I can bet you if I were to bring any of my meat lover friends here to eat, they will sure change their minds about going vegetarian once in awhile because I sure did.

~Evil Is Coming~


As you all know Halloween is coming. I found this cool devil horn head band to wear during my upcoming Halloween party. I thought to myself since I'll be going back to my hometown soon, maybe my friends would like one too. I'm not so sure how much do people sell this way back in Kuching. So if any of my friends are reading my blog, if you guys want one do please tell me so I can go buy one for you guys too.




Wednesday, October 8, 2008

~Dark, Sweet and Addictive~

Awhile ago my boyfriend's parents went on a trip to Langkawi. When they came back, as any normal Malaysian would, bought tons of goodies. It's a tax free state, who wouldn't splurge money there. His father bought a few cartons of ciggies. His mom bought lots of really nice plates and silver ware (in a non-tax free state would cost hundreds) and to my surprise a small suitcase full of chocolates. She purposely brought one extra suitcase espacially for chocolates. The chocolates aren't all for her to eat of course, she gives them out to all her nieces and nephews and to me. Happy lucky me. Here's a few that i got.













My favourites are the mousse chocolate and the toblerone. Yummy. The center of the mousse chocolate is filled with mousse. Really light and melts in your mouth. Although all these chocolate aren't so special like imported from overseas but they still get the job done when you're craving for something sweet. Now I'm off to get me a piece of chocolate.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

~+Food Craze+~

Gosh its been soooooo long since I last posted something here. But don't be down, I've got good food destination you can find in Melaka. I've just been too busy to post it up. Just keep in mind that all of these wasn't eaten in one day. Imagine how much weight I gain if I did eat all these in one day.

I start first with my trip to breakfast heaven. It was during one weekend morning when we (me and my housemates) were up so late from playing a game called Taboo. Instead of heading to our rooms to sleep, we went out to eat. We went to eat dim sum nearby my university in Bukit Beruang, Melaka and we ordered A LOT of food. After we ate, I stacked all the dim sum basket on top of each other so that the Tauke can sum up everything. All cost RM36+ for 4 people. Cheap right..


I give you Dim Sum Twin Tower

Next is food fit for a king (for me a queen ;p). This was actually a promotion done at Nandos, Jaya Jusco Melaka. The picture was quite tempting so I just took a chance to try it.


This is how the picture looked like


This is what I got. Really huge chicken kebab, rice, potato wedges and grilled vegs. I couldn't finish it so I requested for them to pack it up for me. A little late night snack for me. Heheheh...

Once in awhile we crave to eat a 5-star meal. I decided to eat at K5, an outdoor coffee house at Equatorial Hotel Melaka. K5 is actually short for Kaki Lima. Hehehe cool rite. One thing really unique about K5 is their menu. Its made like a newspaper from the 50's or 60's with made up news from the olden days and the real menu list printed somewhere in between. So if you wanna order you got to really read carefully. They serve local food such as fried rice, nasi lemak, kueh teow/mee goreng, teochew porridge and western food such as rib-eyed steak, fish and chips, pastas. Really really good food. Portions of the dishes are really worth it.


Sizzling Rib-Eyed Steak with Blackpepper Sauce. The steak was really thick and tender. The meat just melts in your mouth.

Fettucini Carbonara with tomatoes, turkey ham, asparagus and basil and garlic bread. Sauce was creamy and finger licking good. The best way to eat the garlic bread is to dip it into the carbonara sauce. Ummph delicious.

Another 5-star like restaurant is a really small Italian restaurant called the Coconut House, Jonker Walk Melaka. Its really small and nobody really notice it. When I noticed it I quickly jump to the opportunity to try it and I was really satisfied.


The front of the restaurant.


An introduction about the restaurant and the owner.


The clay wood oven used to cook all the pizzas.


A full view of the wood oven. Really classic.


A small private area for lovebirds to enjoy dinner. This is upstairs.


The sound of flowing water below to soothe diners in the private dining area.


The little door that leads to the private dining area.


The traditional baba nyonya house structure. Upstairs corridor with windows. Usually in the house there's an open air area which separates the front and the back of the house. The windows upstairs is just a way for air ventilation (I think). The houses here in jonker walk are long front to back but not wide left to right.


More tables for dining upstairs.


Stepping into the past. Untouched original staircase.

That's a peek of the interior. Now a peek of the food.



For starters, a fresh garden salad and wild mushrooms.



Speciallity drinks Lime Smoothie and Mix Fruit Juice (mix any two fruits you desire).

Types of pizzas. This one is Chicken with Rosemary.


Tuna Capero


Red Hot Chilli Pepper
(Really spicy-chilli padi, green papper, hot sauce and crushed blackpepper)


Look at how thin the crust is. Perfection.

Other dishes offered.


Seafood Carbonara.


Chicken with mushroom. Very rich tomato pasta sauce.
I recommend eating this dish with bread.


Beef Pramigiana
(Beef steak coated with fresh herbs and bread crumbs topped with mozzarella and tomato pasta sauce.)

For dessert.


Baked red wine pear with homemade vanilla ice cream.


Hazelnut Pudding.


Homemade chocolate pudding with homemade vanilla ice cream.





Irish Coffee. Perfect combination of liquor and coffee. Look at the layers.

From Chinese to South African to Italian food. Now we come to Japanese food. When we talk about Japanese food, we always think about sushi. Well instead of always eating sushi, I wanted to try Japanese BBQ and steamboat buffet at Sibaraku Mahkota Parade, Melaka. Each person only have to pay RM29.90++ and you can eat all you want. (Wastage will be charge according to gram)



Each person will be given this charcoal burner for those having the Japanese Charcoal Barbeque.


This is what each person will get for them to BBQ. When you're done with this, you can order more stuff by marking the amount you want on a list of seafood and meat given by the waitress.


This is what you get for ordering the Japanese Shabu-Shabu (Steamboat). You can also order for more from the list of seafood and meat.



Sometimes I just can't resist not eating some sushi.

Well that's about all of what I've enjoyed so far. Posting this really has made my mouth water. Tummy is rumbling right now so I better go make me a tuna sandwich. Hope you readers enjoyed what I've posted.