Burgermbira

Teluk Chempedak, Kuantan. Those who buy burger at this stall are supposed to be happy.

Cruise Tasik Putrajaya

My mom, dad and eldest brother are having fun in Penang. My youngest brother is having fun in Singapore and JB. Me stuck in Subang Jaya. Tak boleh jadi ni. So yesterday after brunch, I had this crazy idea and suggested to Mr D - cruising at Putrajaya lake. Mr D, as usual, agreed to it so off we go to Putrajaya. 

 Frankly, this is my first time experience with this cruise tasik.. haha.. rumah tak jauh mana pun dari Putrajaya, pergi Putrajaya selalu, but never thought of it. Haish. We reached the counter at about 1pm, and we had to wait for the 2:15 cruise so we had plenty of time to pray zuhur first before boarding the cruise. The ticket was RM30 per pax. Nothing much lah the cruise, so nak paste gambar-gambar yang I've taken along the ride je lah.

Thai Food @ La Kasturi USJ 8

I just love Thai food. Luckily we can easily get it around KL, either in posh restaurants or just some stalls in the food court. But when it comes to stalls type of Thai food around Subang Jaya, I love this stall called La Kasturi, located at the food court behind the Metro Bus depot in USJ 8. A very simple stall, nonetheless the quality of the food is good considering the cheap price. I think Mr D and me visit this stall perhaps every week.

 The owner, as I understand it to be, is from Pattani. Hence, you can expect to have quite an authentic southern Thai taste served on your table. The owner and their children are very friendly, and they speak Thai to one another, though they speak in Kelantanese dialect with the customers. The service is quite fast, you can expect the food to be served on your table within 10-15 minutes if there's not many people around, unless you order something fancy like steamed fish and all.

La Kasturi has quite a number of varieties of method of cooking for fish, but, the picture above is our favorite - steamed seabass in lime juice - siakap stim limau. A very simple dish, with not many ingredients in, but very refreshing. I think siakap is the best selection of fish for this dish. It is hot, it is sour, it is sweet at the same time. Very simple yet very nice. Speaking of fish, I've tried ikan goreng halia but I think that's not their speciality - it was quite a disappointment then. So we better stick to Thai type of fish, but their sweet and sour is nice though.

 And this is another favorite of mine - seafood kerabu. I do sometimes order kerabu sotong as well. Very simple dish but it is one of the best simple kerabu I've ever tasted. I do sometimes ask for lime steamed squid as well, it tasted almost the same but I think the kerabu taste better. 

And this nasi goreng ladna is my favorite of all. I love nasi ladna but it is kind of difficult to find nice nasi ladna around. But for those who love nasi ladna, try to come to La Kasturi. To me, their nasi goreng  ladna is the best. Simple, yet the soup is very tasty. Mr D loves it as well. 

The other thing about La Kasturi is their vegetable selection. How many stalls around Klang Valley include asparagus and broccoli in their menu? La Kasturi, despite being a small simple stall, has that in their vegetable selection. I love asparagus with prawn, though the asparagus used is kind of baby in size.

But like all other stalls, there are probably some items which needs improvement. Its kailan ikan masin for example, to me, includes too much salted fish. Similarly, its 'pedas' selection e.g sotong / udang pedas, is kind of too oily though the taste is nice. I haven't tried their tomyam though, so I can't comment on that. 

Kuih Muih @ Tanjung Lumpur

Everytime I am in Kuantan, I must buy kuih-muih @ Tanjung Lumpur. The choices of kuih in Kuantan is of course not as much as what is offered in Kelantan, but in Kuantan, Tanjung Lumpur is the place if we want to buy East Coast's type of kuih. There are 2 stalls I normally visit if I go to Tanjung Lumpur for kuihs, that is Karipap Panas Peramu and Gerai Mokna.

Karipap panas Peramu

Karipap panas Peramu is famous for its karipap. This stall is located in Kampung Peramu. It is easy to find this stall, just drive from Kuantan, through the bridge to Tanjung Lumpur straight through until we can find U-turn where u U turn and can find the stall on your left. 

 
This stall is famous for its karipap. It sells variety of karipap like Karipap Daging, Karipap Ayam and such. The size is slightly bigger than the normal size we can find here in Kuala Lumpur, but is is sold at 50 cent per piece. The karipap is nice, though don't expect to find meat in your karipap though the name suggests it. I think the portion of the meat perhaps is so insignificant that I never find it in the karipap all the time. I can only see potato. 

There are quite a number of other varieties of fried items sold here as well, ikan celup tepung, goreng pisang and all. And if we thought of eating something heavier, nasi lemak, mee goreng and nasi minyak is available as well.

 Gerai Mokna

This is another place I will visit if I want to find fried items or East Coast type of kuihs. There are variety of kuih choices we can find here, from cik mek molek to kuih bakar to akok and all. The akok is not as nice as what is sold in Restoran Molek in Shah Alam though. Perhaps because that is pure Kelantanese one.

There are also fried items sold here.. with a more variety of choices because it covers from the goreng pisang, to fried balls, to fried seafood items. I like fried seafood items no matter where it is sold. Here in Gerai Mokna, we can find fried sotong, fried crab, fried prawn on top of the fried fish. And the best part of it is the kerak lah kan... kerak tu yg kalo makan tak sedar dah makan sepiring. Very dangerous indeed!

Mee Calong Beserah

I always heard about mee calong from my brother and my sister-in-law, my brother loves it very much. Mee calong is supposedly very famous in Kuantan, especially in Beserah area. But the fact remains, I didn't know how mee calong looks like despite the fact that I am married to a 'Kuantan'ese. Not for a week, not for a month, but we will be celebrating our 10th year anniversary very soon! And when I suggested to Mr D to visit any mee calong stall last weekend when we were in Kuantan, he admitted that he didn't know what mee calong is. Even my mother-in-law never tasted mee calong her whole life. 

So to satisfy my curiosity, we googled, and found a direction to go to one of the stalls selling mee calong in Beserah. It is called Joe Warung Mee Calong & Keropok Beserah. This stall is located at Kg Alur Tuan Haji, not far from Petronas at KM8 Kuantan - Kemaman. This stall is just a simple stall, and apart from mee calong, it also sells keropok lekor and nasi kukus as well. There's an option for mee calong, either you want it with the yellow stick noodle, or the normal meehoon or vermicelli.

We reached the stall in the morning, it was about 10am then. I haven't had any breakfast, so it became our brunch that day. So what I can say about mee calong, it is like mee soup, but with an addition of fish balls, keropok lekor and stuffed tofu. It is eaten with special chilli sauce, soy sauce and pepper. But I think makan dengan sambal kicap lagi best kot. I think the soup is made of maybe fish or prawn stock. Taste wise, yeah, I like it because I love clear soup. But it is not so fantastic to make me dream of it the way my brother feel.

Milford Sound at a glance

I did some cleaning to the files in my netbook, and found this video which was taken at Milford Sound, during my last visit to New Zealand a year ago. I blogged about it in here.

Though the weather wasn't really nice back then [it was wet and dim], this video still captures the uniqueness of Milford Sound. The uniqueness of the fjord formed by the glaciers, the uniqueness of the long white cloud which looks like it is just above our head and the beauty of the waterfalls surrounding it. The view should have been better if the weather is good.

I remember taking a couple of videos during the  same trip of dolphin jumping around our cruise but can't find where I saved it!