03 Dec 2011 - Red Pot and Ma Maison

Got out of the house on this day to retrieve a key for a friend. Apparently, the friend's obnoxious colleague had withheld the key on purpose. Had a long wait before they finally could go off for a meal.

Enticed by the advertisement of rice noodle set with 15 sides, they walked into Hong Guo at Bugis Junction. Ordered some drinks to quench their thirsts first.

Salt rimmed mango margarita, $3.80++. Mock-tail version. The waitress initially got him a glass of some lychee drink, and left him trying to figure out which part of it was mango.


Mango freeze, $3.80++.


Shanghai dumplings, $5.80++. This dish had fillings of mince meat and chestnut.


The mains, $8.50. Condiments such as scallions, dried baby shrimp, were also included in the count. Anyway, this had prawns, 2 or 3 pieces of squid, ham, cuttle fish shreds, button and shiitake mushrooms, quail eggs, can't remember them all. Meat and eggs were to go into the big bowl of hot soup first, followed by the vegetables and lastly, the rice noodles. Just a regular bowl of noodles, he wouldn't eat this again at that price.


Went for a walkabout after the meal, and she had a ball of a time at the cosmetics department. Shan't go too much into that else it will never end. Let's view a picture of Christmas lighting outside the departmental store.


Had dinner at Ma Maison after her friend knocked off from work. It means "My House" in French, thanks to googling on his Android. The menu cover seemed to be of leather.


The table setting. Someone help name the design of the lamp-head? It has slipped his mind. The place was dimly lit and had soft music, love the ambience.


Starter of garlic butter escargots, $9.50++. The aroma was so distracting that the middle-aged couple at the next table kept looking over.


The soft and chewy morsel lasted for merely a few seconds. But the garlicky smell lingered in the mouth.


Tonkatsu for $15.90++. Lightly breaded, so it was not too oily. Meat was also succulent. He doesn't really have tonkatsu much, but enjoyed this. The shredded cabbage refreshed the palate, gearing him up for more food. Just kidding.


Black pepper sirloin steak for $22.50++. The beef-eater had this medium well, yet it was still juicy enough. It was a 200g portion, but looked slightly bigger than what they usually have.


Beef Stroganoff for $14.80++. Her friend had good comments for the beef, and lapped up the sauce with the omelette rice.

30 June 2011 - To Tunjung Mas Bungalows and the long stroll

After a three night stay at Nefatari, it was time to move hotels. Reluctant as they were, they didn't have much of a choice, since Nefatari had been fully booked. Let's view some breakfast pictures from the final day at Nefatari.

Omelette, sausage and bacon.


Bubur Ayam, arranged slightly differently from the previous.


Mie Goreng again for him


The final morning spread at Nefatari. Their watermelon juice was good, sweet and pulpy, a regular with their meals.


Ayu processed their check-out and the bill came to USD440 for lodging package, 350,000rp for the 2 hour spa and 188,000rp for Bebek Betutu dinner with Bintang and watermelon juice. Gede ferried us and a Caucasian lady who wanted to head to Starbucks. Our destination? Tunjung Mas Bungalows, lodging for the final night of the trip.

Finally reached Tunjung Mas Bungalows.


While processing their check-in at Tunjung Mas Bungalows, they were served with fruit juice. Cool and refreshing.


Her contribution in brighter colors.


They did not engage the driver as they did not know what time they would be done with checking in. The driver did not seem keen on the half-day (2pm-7pm) job either. His worries were unfounded though, as the check-in was a breeze. After a rest, they prepared to go explore the area and visit Ubud market again. Komang kindly provided a photocopy of the area map, and it was a reassuring asset. It would prove to be a very long walk...traced in red.


Monkeyed around at the batik store just outside Tunjung Mas before turning right of the hotel, heading north on Hanoman. Lots of shops and restaurants, they also passed by Bebek Bengil, but it was too early to eat. After what seemed like hours, they finally reached Dewi Sita. By this time, they were already hungry and stopped by Warung Kacu.


Ordered Nasi Campur, Soto Ayam and Sate Babi, all for 45,000rp. Affordable, but would it be good?

6 sticks of Sate Babi for 15,000rp. The sauce is more savoury as compared to the sweet peanut sauce used back at home.


Nasi Campur for just 20,000rp. Consisted of one stick of pork sate, half an egg, some fried chicken and fried anchovies.


Soto Ayam for him, 10,000rp. More soupy than the version he knows, but contained a generous serving of shredded chicken.


Continued on the journey to Ubud market, and it was lucky that they closed at 5pm. Spared him the agony of nagivating the maze. On the return route, they took the Jalan Monkey Forest route, and encountered some screeching monkeys fighting and running across their paths in the dark. When they finally got to Jalan Raya Pengosekan, their stomachs started to complain. Browsed the restaurants for sate lilit, but couldn't find any. They ended up venturing further south and checked into the relatively empty Warung Ubud.

Got the platform seating right beside the road. The restaurant had really dim lighting and tea light candles on the table.


Beef Stroganoff for her, cost 32,000rp plus tax. Lighting was insufficient and it was difficult to focus. Sorry about the pictures.


BBQ pork ribs for him, 35,000rp plus tax.


The fulfilling meal marked the last dinner in Bali.

brinjal with mince beef and omelette rice 01 Feb 2010

fried omelette rice using the new frying pan - egg was too dry, but rice was just nice, as she added the condiments in a controlled manner, rather than throwing them in all at once without tasting.


brinjal with mince beef - she tried to deep fry the brinjal with a lot of oil, and after cooking, the oil seemed to have dried up. a very unhealthy meal awaiting...oil-charged brinjal with mince beef

multi-course dinner

yet another day of sleeping in. got up late noon to start preparing for dinner.

brought out the stuff from carrefour the day before, and realised that he had mistaken kangkong for spinach. how embarrassing.

had the wife's special fried rice again, this time with some "flowered" curry flavour chinese sausages.


two "flowers" - on her request


the kangkong that she made


radish soup with pork ribs (maybe a little too much green onions)


xue mei niang - anyone knows the english name for this? used cornstarch, glutinous rice flour, wheat flour, sugar, milk, whipping cream and cherries for this.


there's another dessert in the fridge, sweet potato mash cake, but let's not disturb it now.

[UPDATE]
here's the picture of the sweet potato mash cake

last dinner of 2009

he took a shower and slept after reaching home from the office. suddenly, he was rudely awoken by a frantic sounding wife. got up and went with her to see what happened. turned out to be dinner time, and some of it were ready to eat. happiness.

egg wrap (omelette) rice - wife special fried rice with curry-flavor chinese-style sausage. she refused to disclose the recipe, but it contained some dried shrimps. very fragrantly done. the egg wrap? she made him help her with frying some egg, and he just went ahead with frying his regular eggs, that's why you see it's not really that wrapped. maybe it should be called "egg covered rice" instead.


close up of the content


"hi tiger bye ox soup" - 100 grams of beef brisket, chicken essence cube, some star anise, ginger chunks, rice vermicelli. not too bad, but maybe the star anise made it a little weird. name of the soup is such to welcome the year of the tiger while the ox takes its break. sounds a little malicious though, when there's beef in the soup and she and he are born in the years of tiger and ox respectively.