Giant is Coming to Ipoh Parade

Giant is coming to Ipoh Parade, occupying the basement floor where previously operated by Cold Storage. Opening on Deepavali day i.e 17 October 2009.

Yik Kee Restaurant @ Karak

I was driving to Kemaman with my colleague on Sunday, 27 July 2009. As we were taking the Batang Kali old-trunk road, we have to go up to Gohtong Jaya at the basement of Genting hill and down hill to Karak highway.

As recommended by my colleague, before entering East Coast Expressway to Kuantan, we got out and turn to the old trunk road to Karak town for dinner. We stopped at Yik Kee Restaurant, an old established restaurant famous for its pastries (especially the Durian Bomb) and Sang Har mee.

The Sang Har Mee is tasty and the prawn is big and fresh! The gravy coloured by the prawn roe is sweet.

We were also recommended to try its fried Yee Wo Wan Ton, i.e deep fried wanton in soup. The wanton is big and the filling contained a mixture of minced prawn and meat.

After the meal, I was looking at the famous 'Durian Bomb' placed inside a heated pastry rack and packed some for my supper.

This is my first time testing the 'Durian Bomb' and it is good!

Yik Kee Restaurant has several branches, one at GohTong Jaya and one in Petaling Jaya.

RM0.80 for Roti Canai & Teh Tarik @ D'Sungai

The best deal in Ipoh for a set of 1 piece of roti canai and 1 cup of teh tarik at RM0.80 only!

The special deal is available only from 4 pm to 6 pm at D'Sungai located at Kinta Rivefront, behind St Michael school and beside Kinta River.

Kinta Riverfront is a commercial riverfront project by the Morubina Group.

How is the roti canai? For that price, we should not argue whether the roti canai is good or not.

Wonderful Kinta Riverfront views from the restaurant.

Be fast, the special offer will be until the start of Puasa!

2009 Wesak Day

This year Wesak Day, was celebrated on Saturday, 9 May 2009.

I brought along my mum to the Siamese temple "Wat Siribunya Maggarama" at Jalan Tambun, Ipoh for early prayer to avoid the crowd.

As a norm in Wesak day, all devotees will bathe the Buddha!

Then we went over to the Tibetian temple "Enlightened Heart Buddhist Centre" at Tambun, Ipoh to pray and to participate in the "Carry Buddha" ceremony.

This is Mum first experience and she was glad that she participated in the Carrying Buddha ceremony. As the ceremony needs to walk around the Budhhist Centre, i'm worry whether Mum can finish the ceremony. However, she did it and commented that even though she was tired but did not felt the Buddha behind her back!

After the ceremony ended, we joined the Devotees for some vegeterian food and wait for the next ceremony scheduled at around 12.00 noon.

There are some devotees offering small bottles of oil for burning to get Buddha's blessing, while some offering candles.

At around 12.00 noon, the ceremony to bring out the South East Asia biggest Buddha Mural (60m by 12m) for the Sun ' bathing' has begun. The mural was heavy and needed a minimum of 20 strong guys to carry it out from the temple to the temple outdoor carpark. Yours truly in one of those strongman to carry the Mural. Children and ladies are prohibited to carry the Mural.

Upon taking out to the carpark, the Mural was slowly rolled out and to soak in the Sun. According to the practise, the Mural will draw power from the Sun once a year. Devotees will run under the mural to receive Buddha's blesssing. After 15 - 20 minutes out in the Sun, the mural was rolled back and carry back to the temple.

Farewell Uncle Kah Yong

Uncle Kah Yong, my father's brother, has passed away on Tue, 31 March 2009, evening in Kampar Hospital due to old age.

My cousins performing the prayers before sending Uncle Yong off.

The grand sent off! Farewell, Uncle Yong.

Hor Hee @ Kedai Makanana Lok Wee Koi

Kedai Makanan Lok Wee Koi, located at the junction of Jalan Raja Musa Aziz and Jalan Mustapha Al-Bakri is one of the old established restaurant in Ipoh new town. I remember going to this restaurant with my grandparents during the 70's and the 80's. My favourite drink during that time was 7-up float i.e 7-up with syrup and a scope of vanilla ice-cream.

I still patronise the restaurant and one of the stalls there selling Hor Hee is my favourite. In Penang, there is Koay Teow Thyn (Koay Teow soup) but over in Ipoh, we have Hor Hee (Hor Fun with soup). The Ipoh's Hor Hee has slices of fish cakes, fish balls and 'fish wanton' while the penang Koay Teow Thyn has the normal pork or fish meat.

However, my favourite is not the Hor Fun in soup but dry yellow mee with soup. Seldom people order this but trust me, you have to try it. It is good. The soup is a bit sweet due to the cutter fish added in as the base stock while the slices of fish cake are the best that i have ever tasted! It is cruncy on the side and tender on the meat! The fish meat wanton is different from the normal meat/prawn wanton with the thicker skin.

You have to order the big bowl (RM4.30) of the dry version to get a bowl of soup else they will just add all the fishballs, fishcake and fish wanton into the dry noodle.

Restoran Yum Yum

My office colleagues and I went to Restoran Yum Yum for lunch today. We selected this restaurant as it serve 'halal' food. Dishes ordered were Nyonya Gulai Fish (RM52), Vietnamese Garlic Chicken (RM23), fried Brinjal with sambal (RM13), Yau Mak with garlic (RM12), Claypot Japanese Tofu (RM13) and Thai Style Egg (RM14).

The dishes are nothing to shout about as my colleagues complained quality of food drop and expensive.

Last minute we were informed that today is our colleague, Weng Kiang's birthday.

Happy birthday Weng Kiang, from all of us in 7th Floor!

Restoran Korea Yea Won

Took my family to Restoran Korea Yea Won at Medan Ipoh Baru, Ipoh behind Tesco to experience Korean food.

We ordered Mo Dem barbeque pork set with enoki mushrooms and big thinly sliced onions. The set comes with spread of kim chi and side dishes i.e dipping sauce and condiments to go with the barbeque pork. As some of the side dishes are spicy, it did not go well with my children.

As for my wife, she is a health freak and as expected did not appreciate the barbeque pork as it consist quite a lot of fat!

The barbequed pork was tasteless as it was not marinated but it goes well with the vegetables, kim chi and the side dishes!

Earth Hour 2009

My family and I are supporting Earth Hour 2009!

My commitments:
1) create awareness by putting up an Earth Hour 2009 banner in my blog;
2) will switch off all lights in my house from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm on Saturday, 28 March 2009;
3) ensure all electricity consumed appliances (including fridge) will be off from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm on Saturady, 28 March 2009; and
4) signed up with Earth Hour 2009 so that they can achieve their aim - to get 1 billion people in 1,000 cities around the world to join them

If you have not join them, please do so!

Sunway City Ipoh Boleh!

Sunway City Ipoh, the best gated community in Ipoh and with the best infrastructure eg water supply as per above picture.

Lukiest Sports Toto Outlet in Perak

It is located in Ipoh! This is the best branding or product differentiation that i ever encountered. As we are all ware, all Sports Toto outlet is the same. This outlet advertised itself as one of the luckiest in Perak with RM1.56 million has been won here. As a gambler or should i put it a 'habitual gamer' will definitely be attracted by this advertisement. It is working, and the outlet is full of people.

Wanna put your bet at this outlet, drop me a mail and i will tell you where is it located in Ipoh and if you win, don't forget to award me!

My Exercise Equipment

My doctor advised me to slim down. I'm obese, a bit on the fat side, but i'm exercising. Need to change my lifestyle, my food intake (huh?) and do more exercising, beside taking my regular medicine to lower down my blood pressure (Micardis 40mg), to reduce my cholesterol (Lipaco 20mg) and to protect my liver (Livolin). My blood pressure is at 130/80 while my sugar level is at around 6 (after food). Not bad!

To catch up with my few years back, New Year Resolution, to exercise more, i've bought the following sports equipment, a training shoe, Nike Xccelerator TR (RM199) and a 26' mountain bike, Nexus XDS 1.0 with front suspension (RM500). The cheapest option for me instead of joining a sport club or gym with personal trainer.

I believe in my own will power! I will go for an hour walking/bicycling around my area daily at 8.00 pm and will go for a 2 hour round on every Sunday, morning.

Wish me best of luck!

Happy 12th Birthday Ernni

Happy 12th birthday, Ernni. May all your wishes come true!

The birthday cake, an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbin. It was Ernni and Ernnes first time eating ice cream cake!

The birthday meal, ice cream cake and Ms Donalds!
The birthday present, a new Philip hairdryer.

MP Steamboat Restaurant @ Ipoh Parade

Friday, 29 August 2008, after shopping with my family at Ipoh Parade, we went to the new MP Steamboat Restaurant located at the Ground Floor near the concourse area. The restaurant was just opened, sometime in June 2008. The restaurant is operated by Movenpeak, a leading steamboat restaurant chain based in Ipoh.

The restaurant have set menu, i.e economy, chicken, seafood, lamb and beef set. We ordered the chicken set @ RM11.80 and chicken soups. They recommended MP Exotic Chinese Herbs (RM1.00) to be added to the chicken soup to give a delicious herbal soup. We have also added a side dish, fresh salmon sashimi (RM18.00) to go with the steamboat.

Chinese teas (cold and hot) are served immediately, while waiting for the soups to arrive. The electronic controlled steamboat boiler is a bit sophisticated. You have to learn how to switch it on, to increase/decrease the heat and to wonder which control is to control the steamboat boiler. On our table, there were 4 boiler and we were guessing which switch is controlling the boiler. However, instructions are available inside the menu, which we did not know in the first place!

The soup came and follow by the chicken set which i think is adequate of a small family like us, 2 adults and 2 children. There were chicken meat, vegetables, one egg, one noodle, bean-curd, meatballs, fishballs, taufu pok and mushroom in the set. The food and especially the salmon sashimi were fresh! Not forgetting the tasty chili-paste to go with the food.

The specialty of this place is that they have a conveyor belt (just like those Japanese sushi restaurant) with plates of all food, i.e vegetables, meat, noodles, fuchuk, bean-curd and etc for you to try the rest of the food. The price based on the colour of the plate, ranging from Rm1.00 to RM4.00.

Total bill, RM57.55, inclusive of 10% service charge. Overall, i give a high rating for this place for good fresh food, reasonably cheap prices and good service. I'm also happy with the restaurant hygiene as you may know that some steamboat restaurant, especially those old restaurant is not that hygienic.

Special Merdeka Day Promotion from Telekom Malaysia

Telekom Malaysia is offering FREE TM fixed line calls all over Malaysia from 0000 hrs to 2359 hours on 31 August 2008.

Wall E

I took the opportunity of the school break to bring the children to watch Wall E at TGV cineplexs at Kinta City Ipoh.