BunutBoy's 1st Place Satay in Brunei

I was introduced to this satay-eating spot at BSB by the riverside by BunutBoy, he swear by their peanut-satay sauce. I have to agree with him (evem BunutBoy's MOm agree.. they drink the sauce with anything and everything.. :)

I like that we can go to the Kg ayer without a huge crowd to enjoy the great food as well as the environment. My bb BunutBoy was so happy to eat his fav satay after ~ a couple months not having them. BunutBoy and his mom swear by the sauce and up til now, the dinner conversation go towards ' What exactly is inside the sauce!'.

Micheangelo~

This restaurant lie in between the walkway in Pavillion KL, which I visited most time I went to KL. I stumbled upon this place when I went earlier with another group of friends. I have to say I like their Kiwitini which is taste quite 'innocent'- dangerous~!All in all, for me and BunutBoy, when we get tired walking around in Bukit Bintang or even Pavillion, we liked to sit down here to 'people-watch' and have a drink. The staff are polite and attentive. The other day we had dinner there- BunutBoy had their Chicken Breast and I had their Cod Fish. Both of us enjoyed the food as it was prepared well and not over cooked- which I hate...(i got one very bad overcooked Sea Bass lately... :p)

KL trip~

Alas~! now I am jumping to KL trip from the Taipei trip... Me and Bunut Boy need our 'Get-away' Trips to stay insane after work for a period of time in UBD. Just to share that we had an Italian lunch near the KLCC: the Trattoria Cucina Italiana @Jln P Ramlee. Bunutboy did his research earlier on before we went on this trip. I have to agree with BunutBoy that the restaurant feels pretty authentic despite being in the most busiest and central area of the capital city.

BunutBoy's Steak lunch was highly approved- well done Beef Steak Slices with Potato Wedges.. BunutBoy's cocktail was delicious~!

I ordered oven-baked fish with vegetables.. nicely done!~ :)

HungHwa Teppanyaki Steakhouse

Its been quite sometime since the last post.. I have yet to finish the post for our Taipei trip before- we went to this restaurant at Taipei 101- Hung Hwa teppanyaki Steakhouse. NO particular reason or recommendations but just because we were hungry and i think my parents should be alright with Teppanyaki. It turn out that my parent really liked the food here and we went there twice.

We really enjoyed the good service at this restaurant and comparing to proper teppanyaki restaurant in other countries- it was well worth the money and simple good food cooked infront of you.

Bunut Boy and me really liked the complimentary never-ending chopped onions. The onions are marinated in a vinegarette-type of sauce that makes it so addictive. Once the chef came to prepare our course- the attention given from the waitress were top-notch.

Poor BunutBoy had to endure the metallic 'clanging' of the spatulas when the chef was cooking- as he had this 'weird feeling' in his teeth when metals clang with one another. But then he fully enjoyed the food.

The lunch/dinner menu were already set and we did not see any ala-carte menu. It was quite a fit for me to even take half the course! I ordered the seafood lunch menu with cod cooked to perfection as well as stir fried bean sprouts towards the end.

I would highly recommend this place as it served good, fresh and affordable Teppanyaki food at such a central area- Taipei 101 building.

The first dining post for taipei. Me and BunutBoy stumble upon this barbeque dining place in XiMenDing- One of the more 'youngster' hang-out district in Taipei. The place is known as 'Seven Dragons' roughly translated from Japanese 'NanaJyouTatsu'.
We were very very surprised to see the menu with 'Bear Shrimp from Brunei'!!!!!
We did not ordered it though... hehe We ordered the chicken as well as the Beef Slices with Onion.

It was very good and BunutBoy was very impressed with how the chicken slices was so tender and flavorful. Beef Slices was good as well. Both of us were also impressed at the soup which was given free and as informed by the staff- no MSG was added. The soup was so clear and comforting. We are thinking that we will definitely go back to that restaurant when we go back again :)

More post soon~!

Long Awaited Taipei Trip~!

BunutBoy and me are back from our long awaited Taipei trip with my parents. I have to admit that I was quite stressed up thinking of making this trip a good and smooth one for my parents. Sometimes, I make myself too stressful over little details.

But anyway, we finally made it there and the first trip to their supermarket had already made us bought all the snacks and drinks that we have never seen before. Looked at the drinks we bought. Look at the bb pocari~!!!!... SO CUTE!

The revenge of the Pailang Barbeque~!

You would have thought the second time round would be better than the first... but it wasn't the case for me and BunutBoy.. The second time ended pwetty sad... the 'Cheaper' charcoal ended up burning poorly and we could not sustained a proper barbeque and luckily we have our snack- Shoyue Mee (will post the snack later)

However that was before my holiday without BunutBoy to KL, we vowed that we will have 'The Revenge of the Pailang Barbeque!'- Cue the evil laughter~!
Anyway, the week I was back, on a Friday, we went for our 'Revenge' barbeque.. with all that we could have prepare before hand i.e. drying out the charcoals in the morning sun~

All in all, what can we say.. it was a very good and successful barbeque with garlic sausages, chicken sausauges, my burger patties and BunutBoy-marinated-chicken Breasts~ Look at the Grilled Marks- BunutBoy was very very pleased to see that and I have to agree that the taste of the marinate was very nice.

We both had a very 'Full' and satisfying revenge and hopefully it will be soon when we go for our next BBQ outing!

Roasted Chicken Rice

Eversince me and BunutBoy got together, Rejoice Chicken Rice had been another regular eating spot for us. BunutBoy definitely think the portion of the roasted chicken is well worth the money and I agree. We regularly visited the Gadong Branch although it is sad to know that not too long ago their Kiulap Branch was closed down.

With our regular Roasted Chicken Breast Rice, is the Ngau Nam Soup- Beef Brisket Soup. The soup is very flavorful with soft tender beef meat. We were both thinking that in cold winter nights, this will be the ultimate soup to have.
It warms up your tummy and it satiates your appetite. There is a choice of the Szechuan one and the non-spicy one. We both tried the Szechuan before and it doesn't taste too bad but we still stick to the non-spicy one (even ME who LOVE spicy food).
This is what BunutBoy call his staple comfort food~

BunutBoy's #1 Wet Fried Mee in Brunei

The title of this post says it all- BunutBoy's favourite Cha Mee Tam- translated as Wet Fried Noodle. This is a small restaurant near BunutBoy's house that serves a huge variety of local food like fried noodle, Ko Loh Mee(which is also very good), ChaoChu Mien, Chicken Rice and so on.

The noodles are all provided from the noodle factory located just next to it!~ So first couple of time that BunutBoy brought me there, I would just stare at the factory making all different types of noodles- Egg Noodle, Kuey Teow and so on. This is good assurance that the noodles are freshly made and is evident when we order the food.
Again, Many thanks to BunutBoy for introducing me to this nice eatery.

Typical japanese order

Whenever we go to the Japanese restaurants in Brunei, BunutBoy and me tend to order similar things. We both agreed that for this particular 'famous' and mostly packed Japanese restaurant i.e. Excapade, we both prefer the branch in Gadong.

Menu: Yasai Salad- Very well worth the money for so much roughage:)
Beef Teppanyaki
Salmon Teriyaki
Miso Soups

Verdict: All in all, this is one restaurant that cater for the Bruneian taste with its ever expanding menu as well as good service (at this particular branch). As BunutBoy is not a fan of raw food, we both tend to try out the typical teriyaki or teppanyaki. For this Japanese restaurant, this particular branch manage to keep its consistency and good customer service.

Barbeque!~

The long awaited barbeque with BunutBoy, and we were adamant that we will definitely have a barbeque some way or another. The weather was doing us a favour, in the sense that there are not rain and no dark clouds in sight~!

We gotten a nice spot and finally tried to get the fire started!~ I didn't realise it is not a simple task getting the coal hot and ready to cook!!! But then it was well worth it. We brought BunutBoy homemade Beef Burger Patties, My Chicken-carrot patties, salmon fish some roughage as well as my vice- cocktails~~



BunutBoy's Mom made us the steam peanuts... which both of us enjoy a lot. It is such a childhood snack and it seems so rare to get to eat such a snack nowadays. The peanuts here was cooked using pressure cooker and it had just became nice and tender~

Happy 11th Month~

To the Pailang,

Happy 11th month of the 'Pailang-ness'

Bento Al fresco~!

We started out having our bento lunch outdoor last week.. Haha me in the past would have scoffed at the idea of being out in the noon heat eating; but after meeting BunutBoy things have changed =) We were planning to go Tungku Beach for our first bento lunch but changed our minds when we saw the long jam due to a road accident. So instead of u-turning to Tungku, we went over to JPMC carpark facing the beach. We sat under a tree and it was surprisingly not as hot as i imagined with a light breeze blowing. Bunutboy and me is the romantic...=D thats how he would have said it.

Today was our second time and we decided to go to Tungku this time. We even brought a folding table that we got from the shop. Its so cute(blue) as you can see from the pic. Its a shame we forgotten to bring our own foldable chairs but nevertheless we found a spot to sit.

Bento Menu:
Boiled assorted veggies with herbs roasted potatoes
Oven baked salmon with Japanese black pepper sauce on a bed of thinly sliced cabbage (i tried my best :P) along with blanched spinach.
BunutBoy's beef Burger~!! first time- nice and moist with bits of pine nuts which made a very nice change to my type of burgers. Oiishi!
Note: BunutBoy reckon he will revise and improve his burger recipe *watch out*- it will be Gooood.

Sunday Brunch For ManggisGirl

Today is Sunday~ ... Every friday, Bunutboy has to fulfill his craving- his comfort food... to him.. its David's Kuew Tiow... I shall post it up soon.

And for me, I came about to love Yu-Wat Mee Hoon Soup(Assorted Fish) - introduce by BunutBoy's Mom.. at Spg 66.. That is what it is known to them.. And I shall call the restaurant as "Simpang 66 Yu-Wat". Yu-Wat basically means there are fish slices, fish ball, fish maw, fish-tofu" cooked in preserved vegetable soup.

The portion is huge and the fish ingredients were plentiful.. well worth the money. Soup (which is the most important) was done well and flavorful without the strong smell of fish. Have to really thanks Bunutboy for accompanying me there to have my comfort food. *HUGS*

The night of Yip-Man 2

Last night, Manggisgirl and BunutBoy had a plan- to watch Yip-Man 2 despite the fact its a Saturday night, Salary Out and 2nd day Premier of the movie....
Nevertheless, we made it early to dinner at Misato restaurant so we can catch the movie later... Before we went to dinner we made the effort to get the tickets... But Alas~! 'Our Master Plan was Thwarted!~~' So of we go for our dinner...

Menu:
Miso Soup x2
Spicy Tuna Sushi for me
Bimbimpap
Beef Teriyaki
Salmon Teriyaki

I came to love their Spicy Tuna, which is very much different from the other restaurant. I like the one at Kiarong- Kaizen but this was different. It was much simpler without any tempura crumbs and no mayonnaise. The tuna was fresh and the hot sauce was... HOT~!!! but good!


BunutBoy love their beef teriyaki... the meat was better, cooked better than other restaurant-(the ever so popular one with their many branches)

We even met my brother, sis-in-law and my dearest nephew, Ian... haha so the food is truly good.

Final Conclusion: Yip Man 2 was good~! Empire had seats---though we were two rows infront of the screen but... worth it!!!!

My own Chocolate Banana Cake

I am a baking-whore..hahaha sounds rude but then I love to bake when I am free, when I am stress, when I am happy or sad. Obviously, the outcome each time may differ depending on my mood and also recipes. I am not much of a 'pastry chef' as in I have never came up with my own recipes, being not much of a creative person. However, this time round after getting a good recipe on 'Blackout Cake'.
Info: Blackout cake
"Chocolate Blackout Cake is a rich chocolate cake that has a filling of Rich chocolate pudding and is frosted with the same rich pudding and covered with some of the cake crumbs, made popular by Ebinger's bakery that had stores in Brooklyn, New York"- from The History of Food.

I love this cake, despite the messiness of melting the chocolate,making the pudding, crumbling the chocolate cake (more complain from mum when she saw the crumbs and chocolate smears everywhere). Incidentally, (no surprise here) I like chocobanana cake too. And Voila! I came out up merging those two. By putting in sliced bananas in between the cake layers with the chocolate pudding... Well, people who tasted them seems to like them~ so no complain for me

Trader's Cafe- Beribi

BunutBoy and me went out for dinner two nights ago at Trader's Cafe at Beribi, near Supasave. Again, in the past I seldom go to that restaurant, maybe just once~! Anyway, with the introduction from BunutBoy, sometimes we go there for lunch and sometimes dinner.

In this instance, we ordered their Baby Kailan with Garlic, Sweet and Sour Fish Slices and Sweet Corn Soup. We are both impressed and happy with the generosity of the fish slices and they were not coated with a thick batter leaving just a thin slice of fish meat(like most restaurants). The fish meat was succulent and fresh, without the sauce drenching (flooding) the whole plate. However,I would have preferred the sauce to be more 'sweet & sour' as I can mostly taste only the sweet. The vegetables was done nicely, not overcooked and even the corn soup was done quite well. I never really ordered corn soup outside as I loved home cooked corn soup.

All in all the meal was good and price was reasonable. Not to forget to mention, sometimes I go there for their Ban Mian~ nice...

Prawn Mee- HAE MEE

The Hae Mee that I thought vanished from Beribi near Supasave, I found it.. thanks to Bunut Boy's Mom. It is near Bunut Boy's house just ~5 minutes away... You can either choose to sit outdoor or indoor, and this choice prove to be great for BunutBoy as he used to have to hold his breath when he went to the old place (only indoor).

I used to remember about their Hae Mee Koh Loh Mee with their LEGENDARY belacan chilli...wahhhhh... Yum Yum.. The prawns are still huge in size and flavorful. This time round I tried their Hae Mee Soup- the broth is strong in flavour however it should be taken as quickly before the soup gets cold; otherwise it gets too salty to take.

This is probably the only restaurant in Brunei that i order Prawn mee and am still quite happy with the taste of it. And I also realised that there are a lot of eating places in Bunut. So more hidden restaurant reviews to come soon~!

Bento Post No 2

I have not been posting recently due to... as usual... heavy work load. Now that I can have a breather, I am going to put up my post of my bento.


1st Bento
On the Menu:
First Layer- Mini Sausages with Scrambled Eggs (done using the microwavable egg cooker)& Potato Wedges
Second Layer- Oven Baked Salmon with Teriyaki Sause (in cute piggy sauce bottle)& Boil Broccoli and baby carrots.

Fruits: Strawberries & Persimmons




2nd Bento
On the Menu:
First Layer: Potato Wedges & Salad leaves w Semi Dried tomatoes
Second Layer: Revised Beef Burger Patties and new Tsukune (chicken) burger patties with Black pepper Sauce (success!~)

Bunut boy likes the new more spicier black pepper sauce =)
New suggestions: to replace wedges, getting tired of it... hmmm perhaps roast potatoes with rosemary, fried rice, or brown rice...

Been blog-hopping at bento-blogs.... waaa.... so cute... can't resist going online shopping for bento supplies. The problem with Brunei, its hard to get proper Bento supplies. There used to be a Daiso at the Kiulap Mall but then it has close down quite some time ago. Now I can only scourge for bento supplies at certain supermarkets that might stock up some taiwan/japanese goods.. or ONLINE SHOPPING~~

Third Day at Kuala Lumpur

The days just sort of flew by when we are both enjoying the holiday in Kuala Lumpur, we shopped and shopped and of course our main aim (as usual) is to get good food.

During the third day in KL, we were both in MidValley. We weren't sure as to where to go especially for lunch. We ended up going back and forth, round in circles to actually settle down on which restaurant to it.

Place: Fong Lye restaurant- who serve Taiwanese Cuisine (and it was Packed!~~).

Menu: Beef Noodle Soup Set (BunutBoy)
Spring Onion and Ginger Beef set (ManggisGirl)

Verdict:To me, it was done really well and worth the money.

Very good lunch and by the time we gotten back from lunch, we went to Pavillion for my HUGE glass of 'Hooergarden'

KL Trip Day Two

I would think to blog about the whole of 'the pailang' trip in detail is a tad bit too over. However, the highlight of the second day(food-wise) was dinner time. We finally track down 'Beef Noodle'. In actual fact, before we both set out to KL, we actually did research and look at blogs on KL food. We then came across with a blog that actually introduce Beef Noodles, and coincidentally I also came across the same branch of Beef-ball noodle soup in Lot 10, Bukit Bintang.

Bunut Boy ordered a small-noodle with beef ball soup as can be seen from the photos. I ordered from other stall :P not too great, I can't really recall what I ordered at that time actually, So i won't bother to... hehe

I tried the noodle from BunutBoy and we both agreed:

1. Noodle with Beef minced Meat
Verdict: We both really liked it, not only the noodle having a nice bite to it, the minced beef meat on the top of the noodle was really very good. I think you don't need any more 'little bit of soya sauce' to it.

2. Beef meatballs in clear soup

Verdict: I liked the meat balls, although we both agree that the soup was slightly too salty for our liking.


All in all, Bunutboy ordered another small kohlomee.

Another great day of food in Kuala Lumpur...

CockTails~

Bunut Boy would very agree that I like to go most places to try out their Lychee Martini~~.... WOnderful drink..... I had my first one last year at Four Season Hotel at Singapore and I was hooked.

First Pailang KL trip- Day One

This post has been in my 'draft' post for quite sometime now. I have finally decided to post it now, the trip was beginning of March. Anyway, the hotel we stayed at was Hotel Maya near KLCC. Although they kept us waiting way past the check in time, we were very happy with the upgrade that they automatically gave to us. As you can see from the pic, Bunut Boy is happy with the view of the room!~.

Regardlessly, this blog is obviously about travel and FOOD!~ The first night we decided to go to Zipangu at Shangri-La hotel Level One; not too far from our hotel. We both were super impressed by the hotel's interior.

But lets get on to the important part:
Our dinner menu:
Drinks: Glass of Savignon Blanc 1998 White wine for me
Appetizer
(for me): Raw cuttlefish with kimchee
Verdict: Right portion for me, love the tangy spiciness although poor BunutBoy seems disgusted. Tad bit salty.
Vegetable Clear soup for two
verdict:Very good soup, its very clear and simple but it seems to warm both our tummy.

Mains:
1. Tori-Galore! Chicken Wings, Chicken Meatballs, Chicken with Leeks
Verdict: very very good tori- BunutBoy Loves Tori.. and he approve of it!~~

2. Beef Teppanyaki tenderloin
Verdict: very well done and succelent. Do not need extra sauce!!

3. Grilled Cod Teppanyaki
verdict: Very Very good. Both BunutBoy and me loved it so much.Its not often we get to eat Cod and this time when we ate it, it was done perfectly.


That was what we had for dinner at Zipangu-Shangri-la hotel at KL. We finished off dinner with a cocktail each at the hotel's lounge. Me with my Lychee Martini and.. BunutBoy always try it for me to ensure I would like or dislike the cocktail.

Hereby, end the first night of BunutBoy and ManggisGirl in Kuala Lumpur. More food to come soon...

Yakitori

This yakitori place was introduced by Bunut Boy's friend Azi in Singapore. It was a place where I go all the time to just do my favourite past time: Shopping. This place is Far East Plaza at Singapore. So very often, we all just went there for shopping, shopping and shopping. Without realising there is a yakitori place up on the 3rd level: Nambantei. There are other eating places like Chicken Rice and as well as Shi Lin Taiwan Small Eat Stall at Far East.

When we go there at lunch(1st time), Dinner (second time) and lunch (third time), the place is always almost fully packed. Well, the food is indeed worth the wait. Bunut Boy told me initially before going in to take a careful look at how the chef cook the yakitori. We got nice spot just sitting at the counter in full view of the chef cooking. Well, I only finally got what he meant, the chef (japanese) is so skillful at throwing almost equal amount salt on different pieces of the yakitori~!! I was pretty amazed and stared for quite some time at him....

Beef Yakitori~~~ was the one of the best I ever had, succulent & flavorful pieces of beef. The picture shown is one of their more lunch bento set which was very worth the money. But if you love yakitori like us, you won't just stop at set lunches. We went on ordering ala carte- with chicken wings, chicken with leeks. All very nicely done.

So far, how many times we went back to Singapore, each time I said to Bunut Boy, we have to go back to this place and I added 'Perhaps an 'Asahi' Beer on me as well? :)

First Post~!

With permission from Bunut Boy, I will begin with our first post. I was thinking whether to start off the post with our latest trip which was Kuala Lumpur. However, maybe I am being a narcissist... :) I will put up a picture of one of our bento lunch. As both of us have different teaching times commitments, we have to compromise and stay back at office to have lunch. Both of us are just really glad we stop procrastinating and FINALLy gotten to making bento~...

And on the menu........

Steam Rice, with Broccoli and Black Pepper Meatballs (made by moi from scratch~!)

Verdict from Bunut Boy was 'Very Goood'