Best vinegared pig trotters (so far?)

After a rather long hiatus, it’s about time I started blogging again. But before I continue with my Europe trip, I have a lot of food pics to post!

First, Ipoh.

Last year we visited Mom’s de Pot after discovering it via Grab dine-out offers. It was so good that my mother had been dreaming about it since. So when we stopped at Ipoh on our way to Kuantan, we decided to go and eat this.

Different from before, now they have lunch sets at a flat price of RM14.90 each if we order two sets or more. In addition, if we order two lunch sets, we can order oiled veggies at RM5. So we ordered three lunch sets and added the oiled veggies. (Note: They didn't allow us to use Grab dine-out with the set lunch. But this is cheaper; we're not complaining.)

Just like the last time, we ordered vinegared pig trotters and assam fish. And we decided to try black bean sauce pork. They were all good, but the first two were still the best! The fish was practically not spicy; I could eat the sauce on its own.

And just like the last time, we took photos of all the dishes before and after the meal.

During the previous visit, we ordered only one set meal, and received one dish of acar. This time, we ordered three sets and also only received one dish of acar. So it isn’t linked to each set lunch? Pity…the acar was nice and crunchy.

The rice was free-flow, but the three of us asked for only two bowls of rice…because we knew we were not going to eat so much rice. And as you can see in the “after” photo, even though the other dishes are clean, there is still some rice left!

Downhill to the Douro river

Porto is rather hilly, and we can see it in these two photos. 

See how the road goes downhill and then uphill again?

See how the windows become shorter and shorter as the road goes uphill?

We passed those on our way towards the Douro river, together with a few other sights.

Palácio da Bolsa (Bolsa Palace)

There was a queue of people waiting to go in. We didn't.

In the garden across the palace, there is a monument called Monumento ao Infante Dom Henrique. 

Parish Church of St. Nicholas

one of their famous trams

Then we reached this church which had a nice view over the river.

Church of Saint Francis

There was a fee to go in further, so we didn't. Instead, we snapped a bunch of photos with a view of the river. 

some big names across the river (take a good look, you will see their signs)

the famous Luis I Bridge that takes us across the Douro river

You can see the metro crossing the top of the bridge. If you look closely, you can even see people walking across! We wouldn't dare to cross that high up...but we did walk across the bottom level of the bridge, which is used by cars as well. We took care not to look around too much; it was scary looking down at the water...

looking up at the famous monastery, Mosteiro Santo Agostinho da Serra do Pilar

the view back after crossing the bridge

Next post, we will explore the area that we painstakingly crossed the bridge for!

Can someone explain Filipino food to me?

The other day we went to a Filipino eatery called ChicGirl Inasal. I had noticed it on the map, and reviews were very good, all saying that it was authentic Filipino food.

Five of us went there for lunch one Friday. The restaurant was empty when we arrived (a couple of other customers came in later while we were waiting for our food), and the sole employee (it seemed) took our order. After that, we waited a long long time for our food…we were saying that not only did they have only one employee, they must only have one stove in the kitchen… :P 

I ordered a grilled chicken with rice. The chicken is supposedly grilled Filipino style (aka with their spices?), and the set comes with soup as well. From the pictures on the menu, there are some vegetables on the side, and it turned out that those are pickled vegetables which are placed on every table. On the table, there is also a squeeze container containing sourish liquid with onions inside. We didn’t like the smell much, but I actually planned to try a little…and then I forgot until after I had finished my food.

pickled vegetables on the left, and the pinkish liquid (in the blue-topped container) is the one with onions inside

When my grilled chicken arrived, I felt it looked good (and it tastes good as well), but I had difficulty figuring out the "proper" way to eat it. :P 

the soup

For example, what is that yellow sauce? I tasted some, and it felt very oily. I tried putting some on the rice, but it did not seem to have much taste.

I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to squeeze the lime onto the chicken, into the yellow sauce, or…? Nor could I figure out whether I was supposed to dip the chilli into the sauce, or squeeze lime onto it, or…

In any case, I put some soup onto the rice because the rice was a little on the dry side, and I squeezed the lime onto the chicken.

My friend ordered chicken chop (actually three of them did, just with different side dishes. Why go to a Filipino place then? :P ), and when he requested chilli sauce, the sauce came with lime too. I guess they like lime in the Phillipines?

Rock-climbing experience: Mission accomplished!

Almost twenty-three years ago, I had my first experience of rock-climbing. We visited MFI (Malaysia France Institute) during our three-month French course at INTEC, and one of the experiences they let us try was rock-climbing. I remember it being an outdoor wall, and an instructor (or more than one?) taught us how belaying worked, and then let each one of us try climbing with a belayer.

I couldn’t get up; I remember being scared after I seemed to drop a bit and had to grab the wall. After the session, the instructor gestured toward me and remarked, “she could do it, but she was just scared”. I didn’t think much about it then, but years later, while conquering a few height fears (nothing extreme, just as in still feeling scared but managing it anyway), this came back to me. And I thought, what if I gave it another try?

My goal was not to scale a high wall… it was just to climb up a bit off the ground. Because physically I am not in bad shape; why wouldn’t I be able to climb? The only obstacle should be my fear of heights…

But rock-climbing is not a popular thing here…so this stayed a thought for many years. Rather recently Project Rock opened at IKEA Batu Kawan, and I started thinking of going there to give it a try. They even have low walls (they call it bouldering, climbing around two or three meters without a rope since there was a thick mattress underneath to break our fall).

And then I heard that they were going to open another branch at Bayana, near our office. Even better…so I decided to wait instead of going to IKEA. I mentioned it to a few friends, and they seemed rather interested too.

Project Rock opened at Bayana Hub (a short distance away from Food Bayana) not long ago, and coincidentally another friend suddenly brought up the subject. He told us that there was a ladies’ night promotion on Wednesday nights (6-10pm), when ladies could get a buy 1 free 1 promotion. Also, they have a corporate discount, where three employees could enter for RM100. A day pass costs RM42 per person (we can go in and out on the same day), with an extra RM12 for rental of climbing shoes and harness. (The harness is for the high walls where belaying is needed.) So two ladies could enter for RM54.

We went there two weeks ago. My friend and I arrived earlier and went in first (another guy arrived even earlier than us, but he had to wait for the others to get the “three for RM100” promotion). They had someone there to give us an initial briefing. Getting us our shoes, he told us that climbing shoes needed to be a little tight, making our toes curved. And we could take them off while walking around, if they were uncomfortable. (yes, they were) Then he took us to the simplest bouldering route, where he explained the basic rules and how to fall down.

I didn’t know this, but it turns out that there are fixed starting points for bouldering routes. We have to start with our hands on the fixed points, and feet off the ground (on other points on the wall). To consider a route completed, we have to place both hands on the highest point and stay stable for three seconds. (he said we could ignore the 3-second rule here since it wasn’t a competition)

It turned out that having hands on low starting points made it a little more difficult to start (because we needed to pull ourselves up more). For some of these, I ignored the starting points and just started higher up… (not that I made it very far, since I am limited by height from the ground :P )

Anyway, after the briefing, the staff demonstrated the climb and the fall, then asked us to try one by one. My friend went first without any problems. Then I tried, and left the topmost two points untouched (climbed a bit down and then made the fall to the mattress). The height was still challenging for me…even though it wasn’t really very high, when looking up from the ground. :P 

But I already managed to climb a bit, which means I had fulfilled my whole purpose of going there. After that I did manage to get one point higher, and for another route I managed to reach the topmost point (though I can’t remember whether I only touched it with one hand or both hands…it was never my goal to challenge the actual rules anyway).

We also tried the auto-belaying wall, which my friends seemed to like a lot. I had never tried auto-belaying before, and somehow I found it really uncomfortable with the rope pulling me up. My friends actually said that the auto-belaying made climbing easier because the rope helped pull them up a bit, so they needed to use less strength.

(Psst…during the briefing, the staff told us that if we climbed to the top and didn’t dare to drop down, we could just yell out and they would come and help us down. No one had that problem when we were there though…not even me, because I didn’t climb up that high! Haha…)

I only climbed a little of the auto-belaying wall, then decided not to continue because of how uncomfortable it felt.

There was a bigger wall for manual belaying, but none of us tried that. That one needs someone with actual belaying skills, and most of us were first-timers. We didn’t ask to learn it, and the staff did not suggest to teach us either. :P 

There were quite a number of staff there, all climbers, it seems. I feel like the place is operated by a group of climbers. A great way to earn a living, if you ask me… you can hang around, be cashier or barista or cook (there is a small cafe there, sharing the same “island” as the rock-climbing entrance counter), and your hobby is right there whenever you want to take a break.

Here is the auto-belaying wall, with my two friends preparing to climb.

The auto-belaying ropes have to be attached to the flags at the bottom, because if they are not attached to anything (either the flags or us), they will go straight up to the top.

They reset the walls every month or so…updating the routes so that regular climbers won’t get bored, I guess.

While driving home after the session, I found that I couldn’t grip the steering wheel as usual; some parts of my palms were rubbed a little raw, so it hurt if they touched the steering wheel. I was using my palms and the tips of my fingers instead. 

It’s not very clear in the photo above, but if you look carefully, you can see that the parts of my palms behind my knuckles, and the first section of my fingers, are slightly redder. 

I expect that my friends had it worse, since they climbed a lot more than I did. Our most seasoned climber (who may have climbed the most that day as well) had band aids on his fingers the next day, and on the fingers that did not have band aids (aka they weren’t the worst), the skin had been rubbed off. He said that towards the end of the session, the skin had already come off, but he still kept on climbing...that probably explains why he could no longer reach the top of the auto-belaying wall. 

They had racks for us to put our belongings, and also shoe racks separately. And I spotted a Magikarp chalk bag! 

Luckily I took a photo when I did; almost immediately after that, the owner left with it. 

I didn’t mention it above, but chalk is used to dry the hands when they become sweaty from climbing. We could supposedly rent chalk for RM10, but they let my friend have one used pack for free. Not sure whether it was because there were in total ten of us; 4 girls and 6 guys.

Anyway, my friends who were first-timers seem all very happy with the experience, and they plan to go again… As for me, I don’t plan to try it again unless I don’t have to pay for it. It does not seem worth it to pay (even half price) to go and try to convince my brain that the height is not a problem…

I had a thought after the session; if we were a little sci-fi and the floor could go up with me as I climbed, keeping me just a foot off the ground at all times… I would probably be able to climb more. :P Since in that case, I would only be challenging my strength and not my fear of heights!