Amazing "Bebek" @ Bebek Tepi Sawah Restaurant, Bali

* NON - HALAL

Well, the last few days in Bali was amazing. I will try to post as much as I could as I'll be out of town again for work.

Bebek in Indonesian means duck.

We were brought to this lovely restaurant by the friendly tour guide. We wanted to have "babi guling" at first but due to the festive season in Bali, most of the shops were not open.

To compensate it, the driver brought us for lovely crispy duck @ Bebek Tepi Sawah Restaurant.



The place was lovely ( will update more pictures in weeks time) .



Grilled Pork Ribs Tepi Sawah - 51,500 rp. exc tax

The grilled pork ribs was good. The ribs itself was tasty without the sambal. Meat was tender and it was not over-grill or too dry.



We also ordered mixed sate / satay. A combination of chicken, pork and beef. The satay was good, it can be eaten even without the satay sauce. The satay sauce was different. Peanuts were blended to paste and mixed with the satay sauce. There's no crunchiness in the paste. Its Balinese style I guess. - 52,500 rp exc. tax



The star of the day should be the Fried Crispy Bebek (Duck) Tepi Sawah - 61,000 rp. exc. tax.

I don't understand how could they fried a duck to such crispiness. Duck meat is always hard to cook. The duck was obviously a bit dry, but meat was good. It was like eating fried chicken. Blend it with the sauce, it will be tastier. A must try dish!

The food was good, price was reasonable and the service was good. There's no reason not trying this place for their famous "bebek".

Address:
Jalan Raya Goa Gajah, Banjar Teges
Bali 80571 Indonesia
+62 361 97 6656

Hot Air Balloon Workshop in Kuala Lumpur

Last month, I was practically thinking that will I ever have a chance riding on a hot air balloon.

From there, I started to look at possibilities of doing that in Kuala Lumpur, KL. Luckily, I remember that there was a company organizing "Hot Air Balloon Workshop" by the name of Skyevents.

I managed to book it in time as I was told that the workshop was almost fully booked.

The workshop happened on the first Sunday of every month in Tasik Titiwangsa.



So then I woke up at 6 am, picked Rachel and reached the destination point of Tasik Titiwangsa at 7. Well, I came prepared with my Canon 20D DSLR. The place had a good view of KL Tower and I took my camera to start snapping pictures.



The organizer started to brief us about hot air balloon. Since it was a workshop, everyone was separated to 3 teams. From there, they were given respective assignments. Everyone started to get working! :)



The balloon is referred as envelope. This was how it looked like before the inflation.



The installation of the basket and the flamer. Everyone was helping to set up until...



... the fire was started. I can really felt the heat even a few feet away.



Once the team opened up the envelope....



.. a fan is used to inflate the "envelope". Reason being it will be easier to inflate with the flamer later.



The flame will be needed to make the envelope lighter but if the "envelope" was not inflated first, the flame might burned the entire thing.



After minutes of inflation, the envelope starts to float! Everyone was excited!



After more than 1 hour of hardwork, everyone decided to take a group picture....



The basket can fit 4 persons which depends on the weather. It was an amazing workshop. Going up with the hot air balloon was my first time and it was indeed a memorable experience.

It was really something new to me but I did enjoy the workshop.

After the ride, we were served by simple local foods and drinks as well.

For more details, please log on to www.skyevents.com.my.

The sky was really clear during the workshop and weather was excellent. Thank god it didn't rain!

Rojak Singapura @ Medan Hang Tuah, The Mall

* HALAL

I went to Matta Fair for the very first few times in my life yesterday.

After an hour of Matta Fair window shopping, me and Rachel went back to the Mall for food.

I told Rachel that I used to be in the Mall everyday when I was younger as my dad used to run a few events in the Mall in the 1980s.

Curiously, I went up to the top floor to check whether the food court was still there.



I was a bit surprised to see its still around. Without hesitations, I went in to have a look. Its like almost 10 years since I entered the food court. The designs and the structure were still there, but aging. Understandable.



I wasn't really that hungry but since I haven't got my lunch, I decided to look around. I found this store somehow interesting. Being a rojak lover, I must try out this rojak Singapura.



What so big deal about this rojak Singapura. Well, I paid RM 7.80 for it! I must say its not the common rojak mamak we had in mamak for sure. For rojak Singapura, they had potato, some fried bean dough, fish cake, "foo chok" with fish fillings, egg, cucumber and dough fritters. The foo chok alike was the surprise element to me as well as the fish cake. Normally, rojak mamak here never serves those. The satay sauce was also lovely, thick and not so spicy. It blends well with the rojak. I found this rojak Singapura unique, tasty in its own way. Even though similar to rojak mamak, but its different.

Address:
Medan Selera Hang Tuah (top floor)
The Mall

Yong Tau Fu @ Restoran Foong Foong, Ampang

* NON - HALAL

Well, few weeks ago I had this crave for Yong Tau Fu so we went to Ampang for it. There's a particular shop that I had been visiting since I was a kid. That makes around more than 20 years of history of this outlet.



My parents loved Restoran Foong Foong when we were staying in Ampang. Personally I haven't been there for at least 2 years.



We waited no more and ordered our foods. Dumplings came first. The filling was big, very mouthful. The filling was a combination of prawn and pork. This was good.



The rest came the platter of yong tau fu(s)! Lady's finger, bitter gould, tau fu, chili and fish ball. Fish balls were notable very "bouncy". I would say the platter will go well with a group of people. Rice will be an option to go with the yong tau fu. I prefer eating it plain with the sweet sauce and the chili sauce.



The fried dumplings and fried foo chuk was my favourite. The dumpling was hot. Every bite can feel the crunchiness of the cripsy skin and the mixed meat fillings. It was good but I would prefer them to mixed with more salted fish (I prefer it to be a bit more salty). Well, of course this is my personal preference. Foo Chook was also hot. Filling was rolled with the foo chook and deep fried. This was good as well.

Beware! This 2 items are very addictive! It will make you keep ordering!

The service was good, ordered in front of the counter, minutes later foods were served on table. Per piece was RM 0.70. Reasonable...


Address:
621-A, Jalan Besar Ampang,
68000 Ampang

Horrible Wedding Dinner @ Crowne Plaza Hotel (Oct 08)

It took me a while whether to blog about this. Well, I decided that this is the right time.

I attended a friend's wedding in October in Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. It was a lunch wedding. It was a lovely wedding until the food came out.

I'm not a person that loves to create trouble. But sometimes, trouble comes and find me. What happened was the food was served and I asked about the wine from one of the waiter.

The waiter replied... "We will serve the wine after the prawn. You know "udang", "udang" u know?" The waiter answered rudely.

Everyone on the table was very offended. How could a hotel like Crowne Plaza Hotel had services like this?

Another thing was they hired African part timers. Firstly, I have nothing against Africans but they couldn't even cut a fish properly. Its a sign of improper training.

Then, other tables were served with wine except us. We were upset and complained it to the manager (since we asked for it first). The best part was, after we complained nobody served us! I had to even go to pour my own tea!! And they were seen cleaning wine glasses off the boxes using dry clothes only without cleaning it with water. God knows were there cockroaches in the boxes.

This were the quality of 5 Star Hotel!

From that time onwards, I told myself, this hotel is really hopeless! I would NEVER host my wedding banquet in Crowne Plaza Hotel and do advise anyone on my experiences.

I do not want my guests to be offended with amateur services like Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Horrible!

Address:
Jln Sultan Ismail
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Japanese Food @ Hanazen, Jaya One

Last month, I had dinner with Jason in Jaya One.

I heard about Hanazen from word of mouth by a few friends. It would be a waste if I wouldn't try it myself.



The place was lovely. It was packed after we were there. Better to book in advanced next time to avoid disappointments.



Andy ordered a Soba with Chicken Katsu...



Chicken katsu was crispy and the meat was tender. Soba was good as well.



Yakizakana Zen was next. A combination of few raw fish and 1 grill fish. The fish was very fresh, lovely. The grilled fish was mackerel (if not mistaken), it was good.



Tori Teppanyaki Zen was ordered by Rachel. Chicken was grilled ala teppanyaki style. Chicken was tasty. Good stuff!



The whole table was packed with foods basically. Jason paid the bill, how lovely. I wished he could pay the upcoming food reviews though.

The food was good. Expect to pay around RM 40 and above for a decent meal. The service was good and place was really cozy. Do book in advance (my advice). A good Japanese place to visit in Jaya One area.

Address:

43-G, Block C, Jaya One,

72A, Jalan Universiti,

46200 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor Darul Ehsan

Tel : 03-79548000 / 03-79548111

Biggest Hoegaarden Beer Pint I've Had @ Brussel Beer Cafe, Jaya One

* NON - HALAL

I've heard about this place when I dine in Frontera Bar few weeks ago. It's famous for its variety of German beer and the huge serving of Horgaarden, Stella Artois and Guinness Draught.



Going to this place was just about having fun and lots of beer. I promised myself lots of beer.



We ordered the biggest Hoegaarden beer pint / glass I've seen. It was a total of 5 pints. It cost us around RM 128 (if not mistaken). The trick was the beer will goes flat in 20 min. So within 20 min, we must finish the whole glass.



Everyone was very excited but they kept their cool as I was taking pictures of it.

Well, how to drink a 5 pints beer?



Use straws. I know its weird to use straw to drink beer, what other options we had?



Well, we ordered some snacks. Bacon roll with sausage. This was good. Bacon + sausage + beer = magnificent!

Fat foods always taste better?



We also ordered German sausages. It was good as well. Sausages and bacons cost less than RM 20 per plate.



By the time we had 4 of the huge pints, we were really down. Imagine 4 x 5 pints beer!! I could barely walk after the beer feast.

The service there was good but very slow. We paid around RM 7++ for the beer feast.

It was indeed an unmemorable beer drinking night.

Address:
L-20-G, Block L
Jaya One
No. 72A Jalan Universiti
46200 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan

Tel 03-7954 2000

White Water Rafting @ Slim River, Perak (Oct 08)

Something that I almost missed out. This is a duplicate post from my main blog (www.superwilson.net). Story goes like this:

I was lost of words when I was tagged along for white water rafting last October. Reason being is I was too worried about the whole thing. Damn, I was so damn wrong!

I had to wake up early that day to pick up the girls to a meet up point where we had breakfast and begin our journey. Little did I know that the group was around 36 ppl...
We convoyed to Tanjong Malim and the organizer brought us to a meet up point...
I was basically driving with my gang, Anson, Angie and Rachel...

Once we were there, I was introduced to more friends... Like usual, waste no more time... Camwhore!!

Once we put our belongings, we will be transported to the starting point. Well, to make things easier we hopped to a truck to lead to our next destination. We really look like refugees here... Sigh....

Once we reached at the start up point, we grouped. There, we were briefed about the safety and the equipments. I must say these guys are really dedicated and professional. Basically, my worries and fear were gone once the brief was over. Mainly because they use top notch equipments and the safety briefing was a good one. From there I know that there was only ONE bloody thing to worry, its to have FUN!!

We got our safety jacket, our helmet and our paddle and once again, camwhore!!

We were then separated to 8 groups where me, Rachel, Anson, Angie and Joe is in our raft! Here we goes!!!
(Before we went to the raft, Rachel slipped and got a pretty bad cut to her hand, she was okay... but the rocks were slippery... beware)

At first I thought what I saw on ESPN about rafting is all about paddling, I was so damn wrong. In fact, its more to teamwork. Slim River is a Level 2-3 river, so its a beginner river. When in the raft, we were needed to move around to any four directions based to our leader to guide our raft when our raft stuck on the rock, so we needed to constantly moving around. Paddling is only to move the raft but once the raft is stuck, we needed to move around in the raft to move the raft.

Once we started our rafting, a group's raft went turtled and we managed to rescue one of the girl. It was not dangerous because there are a lot of people around standby but rescuing a person requires teamwork. Then we continue our journey and thanks to you we had this nice photo sequence...

We embraced ourselves as our leader telling us to get ready for a small waterfall..

We went down smoothly and we need to go down to another one!

We got stuck here!

We managed to break free and we were getting overturned!!

We still manage to hold on!!

And....
We made it through!!!

We were later given a break at the river bank as we were served with apples, power bars and Snickers. Then we continued our journey.

Later on, we managed to see the Orang Asli taking bath here.

Then, we ended our 2 hours journey. It was quite a moment and a very joyful adventure.
There were no big injuries and everyone had fun!

We were gathered at the one of Orang Asli village as we will be transported back at the meet up point. Rachel and me took a picture here...

After that we were served lunch and that was the end of the rafting.

The whole rafting was nice and seriously I don't mind doing it again at another river with the same level or slightly higher. However, I will only do it with my own group as we did had lots of fun in the raft. I think everyone should give this sport a try and getting the right organizer might plays a part as well. I will leave the organizer contact here once I finds it.
For now, I need to take a rest for tonight's Hari Raya house party. Thanks for reading....