: : Mum-Mum : : Eat-Eat : :

: : Halal? : :

A few friends brought up some concerns about places that are halal and non-halal that are mentioned on this blog. Well, I was thinking of doing it when I move over to my new home where I can have a bit more webspace to play around a bit. So, I didn’t want to put in too much effort to this website until the move over.

When will I be moving? Pretty soon. The space is up already but some problems with uploading the blogand files there. Am awaiting feedback from my cousins but since they’re busy, I can wait. No big deal.

Back to halal and non-halal eating spots. Actually, a number of restaurants do not cook pork but they do not put up the Halal sticker. Reason is that they do not have a chief Muslim cook. However, the ingredients that is used is, of course, halal. This can be seen from the noticeboard that is placed nearby the cashier.

While waiting for my website problems to be settled, I’ll just make a quick mention in my current blog on whether the place is halal or not.

: : Chilli Peppers : :

After yesterday’s dismal lunch, decided to follow some collegues out for lunch. Desperate times call for desperate measures!! Well, not so desperate.

Today’s lunch spot is a coffee shop called Chilli Peppers. It’s a halal coffee shop with a variety of food. Here are some of the drinks and meals we had.

Iced Barli

Iced Longan

Ice Lemon Tea

Thai Bee Hoon

Kolo Mee

Sambal Fried Rice

Thai Chicken Rice

Iced Barli

A really cooling drink when one is feeling hot and heaty. It’s also a nutritious drink that can be taken when one has sore throat or when one is feeling dehydrated. Also great for making ice lollies! Just put some in the freezy and take it out when it’s frozen. Think it’ll also make a great sherbet.

Iced Longan

Another great thirst quencher! Yummy! Longan is similar to laici but firmer and the skin of the seed doesn’t stick to the flesh. It’s usually just the fruit added with water and some syrup.

Iced Lemon Tea

An old-time favourite everywhere. The lime used has a similar taste to a lemon but not so sharp. At least this iced lemon tea was made from real tea and lime rather than the instant version. Nowadays, coffeshops in Kuching are using the instant one which is tasteless. Can’t even taste the tea.

Thai Bee Hoon

This is a slightly sour dished and not fried at all. The bee hoon is prepared before and water is drained away. Then, the garnishings are added on as shown with lime and chilli as well. Then, the entire meal is mixed up before being eaten. The noodles is made out of rice and has a lower cholesterol level compared to the yellow noodles.

Kolo Mee

Here is another version of the famous Sarawak Kolo Mee. This time, the noodles used are the curly ones. A favourite of an old friend in Penang. She couldn’t get enough of it.

Sambal Fried Rice

This is the normal fried rice cooked with shallots, egg and chicken. The secret to a great tasting fried rice is the shallots. The best one to use is the small purple ones. It’s hell to cut them up but the crying effort is worth it. Of course, there is the usual sunny-side fried egg and popadoms. Popadoms are the Indian crisps : light, thin and crunchy. Notice the sambal sauce on the right hand side? This is great! The chilli is fried with pounded dried prawn, onion and belachan (prawn paste). A great compliment to the meal. We kept asking for seconds!

Thai Chicken Rice

The rice was the normal chicken rice but it was the chicken that was different. Chicken is deep fried and a sweet sauce was later added on. Caution : Extremely sweet sauce! However, still very tasty and comes with soup.

The address for Chilli Peppers :

No. 12, Block B, King’s Centre,

Jalan Simpang Tiga,

93150 Kuching,

Sarawak, Malaysia.

Tel : 082-576910

Directions to get there : It’s located at King’s Centre, the location of many shophouses. It is a few shops down from Systematic College, near the Simpang Tiga roundabout.

: : Places to Eat : :

Just came across a directory for interesting food in Sarawak. Someone obviously has not been updating it. Yes, you can find German food in Kuching. Surprise? Arrangements can be made at Carvery a few days in advance. Also, Oktoberfest is a very big event every October with an omm-pa-pa band in Kuching and Miri.

There are at least 3 Japanese restaurant, 1 Italian restaurant, 3 Korean restaurants and countless seafood outlets! Good Western food is also available and many many hawker stalls!

Hmm… now I have an idea to set up a directory. Will start planning to do it once I’ve moved to another web server.

: : Yesterday’s lunchie : :

Decided to put yesterday’s lunchie because today’s lunch was worst! Urgh! Cafeteria food. The only decent thing was instant Korean noodles: kimchi flavour.

Anyway, yesterday’s lunch was kuah chap. Mentioned early, it’s a pork stew but not thick at all. Usually cooked with herbs, pork meat as well as intestines, pork stomach, pork skin and really big pieces of rice noodles. The noodles are similar to the kway teow except that they are cut in square pieces. It’s also accompanied with half an egg.

This dish is a great breakfast dish and quite filling. Definitely not one for those who are not used to the unusual ingredients though. It is both sweet and salty at the same time as dark soy sauce is used to make the soup.

To finish the meal, I had a cup of Ribena 7-up!! Some Ribena syrup was mixed with the 7-up. Great way to end a meal eaten outside on a hot hot hot day!!

: : Peanut Soup : :

A bit more about this peanut soup. I’m a Chinese so we cook it with pork. However, I think it should be okay with chicken.

It’s a common soup made at home and very easy to do. However, might take some time to do it because the peanuts need to be soft. Not too soft that it disintegrate but still soft enough to bite through without the crunchy sound.

Most homemade Chinese soup are clear i.e. no cornflour added inside. So, it’s a very light soup and not too heavy. This peanut soup is very good for one’s health although I have to check with Granny what it’s good for. Sometimes, instead of peanut, she puts in red kidney beans. The taste is slightly different but still good.

A typical Chinese meal at home will have soup. I know my Dad needs it! Throughout the coming days, I will start putting up other types of soup. Nowadays, these soups can be eaten at the foodcourt which sells different types of clear soup like pork stomach with pepper, chicken soup with carrots, bittergourd stuff with meat soup and others.

Still, the best soups I’ve tasted so far is always at home!

: : Grandma’s Cooking : :

Bit late today so think I’ll skip the lunch menu for today and save it for tomorrow. It was a lousy kueh chap anyway (pork soup cooked in soy sauce, garlic with flat noodles).

Today, Granny cooked my sis’ favourite soup : peanut soup with pork ribs. So, here it is!

Actually, the peanut is very soft. Granny’s simple instructions :

Boil the raw peanuts in water over a slow fire. DO NOT PUT SALT IN!!! Need to ensure the peanut is 3/4 cook by tasting the peanuts. If not enough water, add more in. The soup will turn slightly reddish brown but that’s okay. It’s also to cook the peanut with the skin on. If you want more peanuts, put more in.

Once pork ribs are cooked i.e. soft, add in the salt, pepper and Ajinomoto. Ajinomoto = MSG but only a little bit i.e. a pinch should be sufficient. For those who are not used to taking MSG, then you can skip this step.

The shiny stuff in the soup is actually the fat coming from the pork meat as well as some from the peanut. Throw in a cabbage leaf to soak up the fat and then throw away the cabbage leaf. At least, I remember it was a cabbage leaf. Or was it lettuce?

Granny doesn’t give much measurements for the cooking ingredients. Everything is added in as per each person’s taste so will leave it at that.

Anyway, sis, here’s looking at you!