Will be making my 2nd attempt to conquer Mount Kinabalu in March 2009.
Mt Kinabalu (Gunung Kinabalu) is located at Kinabalu National Park, a World Heritage Site in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. At 4,095 metres, it’s the highest summit in Malaysia and the fourth highest in South East Asia.
Cheow Sang was one of my most frequented restaurants in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, before I moved to Bukit Jalil in Sept 2007. In fact it’s almost a year since I dined there prior to my visit last Saturday (Nov 1).
The restaurant is popular for its Bak Kut Teh, spicy fish head and herbal chicken etc. Bak Kut Teh (literally ‘meat bone tea’ in Chinese-Hokkien) is a popular delicacy in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s primarily a thick herbal soup with pork, innards and ribs.
Cheow Sang’s BKT is just ok to be frank… what I like is their spicy fish head (pic) instead, which is cooked with fermented soy beans and fresh chillies. Not too spicy, but enough to make people sweating on their forehead… and its fish head (which was cut into cubes) is almost always fresh.
The bill was RM65 (~USD18) for three person.
Restaurant address: 24, Jalan SS 2/10, Petaling Jaya (Chow Yang area).
Phone: 03-7875 1998; closed every Thursday.
The floating village is one of the tourist attractions and cultural heritages in Halong Bay, Vietnam. People have been living in these floating houses for hundred of years with fishing as the main income activity.
The tourism boom in recent years should bring a bit of extra income for the villagers, but to be frank… what they get is only a very small chunk of the Halong travel business. Well, I guess a little is better than nothing.
Most of the junks and cruises would pass by at least one of the floating villages and would probably make a short stop at a fish farm where travellers can buy some extra seafood to supplement their meals on the junks, or perhaps just taking a peek into the basic living of the villagers.
Photos below were taken during my Vietnam trip in July 2008…
Quan Com Pho is a Vietnamese restaurant in Hanoi. Found this place via a travel guidebook during my Vietnam visit in July 2008, and the restaurant seemed pretty promising on some online reviews… thus giving it a try.
Their menu was quite different from what I had at other Hanoi restaurants; their food was kinda like a fusion of traditional Vietnamese cuisine with some new cooking ideas.
Dim Sum breakfast a couple of weeks ago at the Clan Restaurant in Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The restaurant’s signature dish is a creation of its own… the gai wo bao (鸡窝包 - literally chicken nest bun) which is basically a combo of two popular dim sum dishes i.e. the loh mai gai (糥米鸡 - chicken glutonous rice) and chicken bun.
To be frank, I am not a fan… it’s a clever idea, but the taste just doesn’t click for me. My sister kinda love it though; and judging from their business, lots of the folks seem to like it too.
These days almost all dim sum restaurants in the Sri Petaling area is selling this chicken nest bun, but Clan Restaurant is still the most popular place for the dish… originality still matters obviously.
For KL folks, the address of the restaurant… 140, Jalan Radin Anum, Sri Petaling.
Fast Food Fish Head is the (weird) name of a Chinese restaurant in Seri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The restaurant is famous for its steamed fresh-water fish.
Dinner with my family on Sunday (Oct 5)…
Halong Bay (Vịnh Hạ Long - Bay of the Descending Dragons) is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Quang Ninh province of northern Vietnam, famous for its scenic landscape with thousands of limestone isles in various sizes and shapes.
Halong Bay has become an international travel hotspot in recent years; there must be more than 200-300 junks and cruises that depart daily from the port, with thousands of travellers visiting the destination each day.
The weather was perfect during my July 2008 visit. My guide told me that the clear blue sky are normally seen only for two-three weeks in one whole year… and my Hanoi friends later reaffirmed the statement. In fact one of them have been to Halong Bay for five times and didn’t manage to catch a clear weather like I did. Lucky me :)
Some photos from the seaport and first glimpse of Halong Bay…
Hue Food is a restaurant that sells Hue cuisine in Hanoi, Vietnam. The restaurant is located at 6, Ly Thuong Kiet Street; found this via a local newspaper’s food column during my Hanoi visit in July 2008.
Hue is a historic city in central Vietnam and was the imperial capital of Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). Vietnamese food in general can be divided into three categories… the northern food, southern food and central food (which is often referred as Hue food).
One of the distinctive difference between Hue food and other Vietnamese food is the popularity of roundish vermicelli (bún) instead of the flat rice noodle (phở) in other Vietnamese region. Hue food also tends to be a bit spicier, but still mild in relative to Malaysian or Indian food.
There is a popular Hue dish called the bún bò Huế (Hue beef soup noodle), but I am not quite sure if the noodle soup I had at the restaurant was what I hope it was…
