Potsticker

A few weeks ago, we finally went to Bei Dou Squid Snack which WW had been suggesting for a long time. He would usually suggest it when we were wondering where to eat, but then we would pick another place to eat because Bei Dou is rather expensive.

But that day we wanted a light dinner, so we decided to give it a try.

We ordered the potsticker which is the most popular/famous dish.

Basically it is "sui kow" (aka dumplings), six in a pan.

This is what the bottom looks like.

braised pork on rice
This is a simple dish, the cheapest to fill up the stomach. :P

thickened soup with coated pork (aka "bak kee" but not exactly the same)
The soup is thick with a texture like shark's fin soup.

This photo is just for size comparison. The soup arrived the first, so it was almost finished by the time the other dishes arrived.

Basically the potsticker is the best. The other dishes are quite good as well, but the price is just not worth it.

Playing tourist in Kuantan

Kuantan has a new tower. New to me, at least. This was the first time I have gone back to Kuantan since it was built. There is a park at the foot of the tower (the park existed before the tower) called Laman Teruntum.

There are some information on why the park is called Teruntum, and other stuff about Kuantan.

Even the dustbins are graced with the teruntum flower.

The park is beside the river.

Not really sure what this is for.

Looking back at the tower from the green dome.

I really don't get this "Saya Malaysia", "I am Amsterdam" kinda thing. People are not a country (or city), they make up a country (or city). I think it's silliness (and probably a publicity stunt) to say that a person is "Malaysia". There is a reason the word "Malaysian" (or "orang Malaysia" in Malay) exists. *eyeroll*

Note: The sky is gloomy because I refused to go to the park when the sun was shining brightly :P

Turtle at Sri Jaya

When I was in Kuantan, we drove out to Temerloh (my father had business there), and on the way back, stopped at Sri Jaya for lunch. And yes, as the title says, turtle was on the menu.

Looks good, eh?

claypot turtle

potato leaves

steamed catfish

It was all very yummy!

More Kuantan food

It's about time I posted the rest of my Kuantan food pics.

This satay is very good: Satey Warisan Marto Pekan. I feel that it is the best satay in Kuantan now.

We also tried Mee Tarik Warisan, which is a chain that is not found in Penang. It sells China-style ramen, but some dishes probably have a bit of local twist. The owner/founder (I didn't do much research) is a Chinese-Muslim.

their signature ba bao tea

another photo to better see the ingredients floating on top

beef noodle soup, this was very good!

chicken dumplings, not good (looking at how small the dumplings are, we finally understood why they sold the dumplings by plates of twenty!)

stir-fry spicy noodles

We also went for Western food at Cherating Steak House.

braised lamb shank, RM43

fish and chips, RM33

neapolitana pizza, RM41

And on the wall was this congkak decoration, in a glass case.

I felt that the seashells replacing the playing marbles makes it look really nice as a decoration!

Lots of nasi kerabu

When I went back to Kuantan, my parents were going to take me to eat a good nasi kerabu. Coincidentally, the Firefly in-flight magazine recommended a nasi kerabu too. So we ended up going to both.

First up, Nasi Kerabu Mekla.

with beef slices

with ikan keli (catfish)

kambing bakar (grilled? mutton)

The one recommended by the Firefly magazine was Nasi Kerabu Kemira. This turned out to be a place where my mother's friend had recommended her the nasi dagang (but not nasi kerabu).

with chicken... I think it is ayam panggang madu (honey roasted chicken)

with sliced beef

nasi dagang

After trying both, I feel that Mekla's nasi kerabu is better. The veggies are very important! Kemira's didn't have much on it. Kemira also did not have fried catfish. However the chicken is very yummy! (and Mekla doesn't have that) It was so good, we went back to get another piece. We saw most people taking the chicken too.

As for the nasi dagang, it was good as well.

Poke bowl

Some time ago I tried my first poke bowl at Tummy Bowl.

I had ordered it for takeaway, and it came in a paper bowl (above). My mother said it looked good, and I really liked the taste too.

As for my mother, she has tried and liked the poke bowl at Arabica. So when I was in Kuantan, my parents brought me there to try it.

smoked duck with sesame sauce

teriyaki chicken

I felt it was good, but I preferred the one that I had at Tummy Bowl.

So when my mother came to Penang, I took her there.

We ordered the same salmon bowl, and a tuna bowl.

shoyu salmon bowl

spicy tuna bowl

Both were signature bowls; you can see the list of ingredients below:

photo courtesy of Crisp of Life, because I'm too lazy to snap my own photo :P

But my mother said it didn't look very good when it arrived...taste was only so-so as well.

As for myself, I prefer the salmon bowl to the tuna one, probably because of the side ingredients. If I'm ever taking tuna again, I will customize the sides myself!

More from Lay

Because he's worth it. :P

I just discovered two other songs from him. Older ones, from 2016 and 2017 (What? I was watching (and kutuk-ing) him on Go Fighting! without knowing he had these songs?!). They are sort of a "set"; one is a question and the other is an answer.

The question is What U Need?



The answer? I Need U



The videos are good too... especially the second one! It's sweet when you realize what is going on. According to Wikipedia, the second song was dedicated to his grandparents and they are the ones in the video :O

Discovering a new Kitchen

Recently I went to a new eatery called Nenda's Kitchen. First I went with Doris. It was good, so I went again when meeting up with Lai Shin.

Here's what we had:

chicken patty

signature fried rice with ayam percik

I liked my fried rice. It was very flavourful indeed! The ayam percik was taken from the breast meat, but luckily it was not tough, and the flavour was good as well.

Doris's chicken patty was too dry for my liking, but she liked it very much (since she dislikes oily parts anyway). She also took the lunch set which included mushroom soup and ice-cream, and she said both were very good (specifically coffee ice-cream...not sure what other flavours there were).

Then when I went with Lai Shin, I tried the chicken chop while she took the fish and chips.

black pepper chicken chop

fish and chips

Both dishes were good! Each of the dishes we've had cost around RM15. There were more expensive options, but we didn't choose those. :P

With Lai Shin, we took a photo (we had realized that we had hardly any photos together from our previous meet-ups, so now we're catching up) :

(This restaurant is by the same management as David Brown's on Penang Hill. Is that why the quality is good? Minus the cost of taking the ingredients up the hill? lol)

Analysis of the proposal

I just want to write down what happened in that proposal video that I shared in my last post (a blow-by-blow account, if you will), because it is just too awesome and I want to remember it even if the video gets deleted or something. :P Lay's expressions are priceless. The MC and the girl are probably on cahoots in this one, everything went so well!

So it was a live stage, and at first when the MC told Lay that someone wanted to ask him to marry her, Lay already looked surprised and was looking around a bit, probably wondering what he was going to do.

Then the girl steps up with her cardboard proposal. At the top is written "LAY ZHANG", then there is a marriage licence (not sure how that works, maybe once they both sign it, they're legally married?), and below it, "WILL YOU MARRY ME", followed by two checkboxes, the first one with "YES" written next to it, and the second one with "YES" as well, except that on the next line there are opening and closing brackets with some space in between.

I didn't manage to read that whole cardboard properly the first time I watched the video. Neither did I manage to catch all of Lay's reactions. That is why I watched it again, and then again till I figured out what was going on... and why waste all my effort? So I'm transcribing it :P

So we have the girl standing there, the MC talking to her and joking a bit (doing an MC's job basically), and while they are talking you can see Lay leaning forward in his chair, trying to read the words on the cardboard, and he goes "Are you serious?" (I expect that is when he has finished reading)

The girl then introduces herself as Yasmin and says "I know we've just met, but I'm your future wife."

Here we can see Lay's eyes and mouth opening wider and wider... then the girl goes on to say that the options are "yes" and "yes" (referring to the cardboard), but that she is open to suggestions, which is what the space between the brackets are for. (she even gives an example of a suggestion: "get married later")

Here Lay goes "oh my gosh" and starts laughing (uncomfortably?) a bit, and then the girl says "I also brought you a ring," then Lay's eyes go wide again.

Another awed "oh my gosh" from Lay, and he gets up as the girl walks up to him, but the girl actually goes down on one knee to give him the ring (which is a tacky green ring with a huge red "diamond" that she has just taken off her finger).

Here I think Lay was feeling extremely uncomfortable, not knowing whether to stand or sit. I really feel sorry for him, this is a difficult situation!

Then Lay was actually stretching out his hand to take the ring (after some hesitation... I think he was probably worried about being rude if he ignored the girl giving the ring to him :P ), and was luckily rescued by the MC who helped him take the ring and said he would hold on to it while Lay makes up his mind.

After that the girl is walking away when the MC asks her where she's from. She says she's from Kenya, and says that "hakuna matata" is from Swahili, which is spoken in Kenya. The MC then says "That can be the first dance at your wedding" LOL

During that exchange between the MC and the girl, from Lay's face he seems to be trying to figure out what to do next. When the MC thanks the girl, Lay also thanks her, then hesitantly asks the MC, "How do I answer this question?"

The MC (he's so kind, thank goodness) tells Lay to think about it over the weekend because it's a big decision. Then Lay turns to the girl and says (here's the gem), "I want to be a responsibility (sic) man, you know, so let me think about this question seriously." Hahaha so this is how to respond to a proposal!