Ibu Oka, Babi Guling, Bali

Had this at the main branch of Ibu Oka near the King Palace at Ubud.
In my opinion, it taste better than the branch further up the road.

Probably it is because the shop has less porky smell due to better ventilation.

I find that in Bali, tourist should explore more of the boutique restaurants there, which offers fantatstic value.

I also had a big mangosteen at the stall.
Huge juicy ones which we seldom find now in KL.

Hee Lai Ton Restaurant@Shaw Parade, Jalan Imbi

Apparently, Hee Lai Ton's branch in Shaw Parade is famous for its value-for-money dimsums. I am a BIG dimsum fan and was eager to see what this place had to offer. Our lunch coincided with the CNY luncheon for Air FM (...?) Never heard of the existence of this radio station before. The DJs were the MCs for the event. I had my lunch served with some lame jokes, performances and never heard of chinese songs.

Okay, back to dimsum. Gigantic siew mais, alright. Taste was average, but steal deal RM 7 just for their size.

They are famous for their char siew yoke. We were late, so this was the final kopek that we could get. It was, quite fatty for me. Urks. Those who enjoy fatty charsiews would love 'em I suppose. Overall rating, 6.5/10.

Oversized har kaus. 2 prawns inside woey! Steal deal. I salute its value-for-money deal. The only downside was, the prawns for this batch of harkaus might have been soaked a bit too long in the bicarbonate water. Chewy, tangy alright, but the prawns lost their flavour.

The CSPs, a let down. I love CSP alot and am quite particular about how they taste. Good ones, I will not add any sauce. Bad ones, I always resort to adding chilli flakes / chilli sauce.

The fried carrot cake dish was the worst. The chefs were probably overworked due to the radio station luncheon group, because they spent too little time frying my carrot cake. They were quite hard, and I believe they were a bit undercooked. We found this, quite hard to finish up.

Verdict: The aunty lady waitresses were honestly, quite fierce and most of the time, they may come across as rude, but I guess they were just being loud to be heard and not rude, else their voices would drown in the midst of the noisy packed crowd of patrons. You will definitely get your pennies worth paying for your meal here (tummy definitely full) and the taste for some dishes are not bad.

Yalumba Signature 2003

A shiraz cab blend from Yalumba. This was normally retailing at RM175.
On a lazy saturday stroll at Carrefour last week, I chanced upon this during a buy 1 free 1 wine clearance sale.

Somehow the wine manager offered me 2 bottles of these at RM75. This much have been the deal of the century.

I pop one the second night, and it was pretty much alive.
Dense dark blackberry nose, some spice from the Shiraz. Weighty body, thou the alcohol heat was quite overpowering initially, as typical Aussie does.

Great value @ RM37 per bottle.
Thanks you Father!

Isaribi Tei Restaurant@Burmah Road, Penang

 Quietly tucked in an alley, a tiny road branched from the busy Burmah Road, is a very interesting Japanese restaurant, called Isaribi Tei. From outside, it really seemed like a small rundown single storey house. When I stepped inside, the scene changed altogether.

 Apparently, the owner is a Japanese expat residing in Penang for years already. You could embrace his enthusiasm and love for his country from the decors. There were many articles which featured his restaurant.

 This is what I call a patriotic citizen with the spirit of helping his nation. Even from afar! How many of us Malaysians will do this for our country if we are residing abroad and a tragedy happens to our homeland.

 I ordered my favourite sashimi set, RM 35. I found the set served in a rather interesting manner, slightly different from the usuals. My soup had no coverings and the the chopped tofus were fried. The salad too, was added with some sourish spicy dressing, instead of Jap mayo. Sashimis were very fresh too. All in all, I was truly surprised and very much enjoyed my meal.

 Fried calamaris for RM 17. Golden ring goodies, nicely fried so that the squiddy rings did not turn out shriveled and chewy.

Chicken teriyaki. Nicely grilled sliced chicken, and not too oily either. A kick twist to its flavour was the addition of sesame seeds and oil. Thumbs up. RM 25.

 These guys make their own ice cream. I loved the green tea ice cream. Not sweet at all, which complemented well with the sweetened red bean paste served next to the green scoop. The paste was a little rough, with small chunks of red beans in between, I believe it was intentionally made that way to give its edge being home made.

Normally, I am not a huge fan of black sesame ice cream (sometimes the taste can be too heavy for me) but surprisingly again, this one was light, yet at the end palate, the sesame taste kicked in with a pow!

The only slight down side of this restaurant, personally, was its staff. The waiters were mainly youths, most likely high school student part timers/ college kids earning some cash during study breaks. The service was a bit of a let down and they weren't very friendly.

I would come back here again, if I am ever in Penang... keen to try out their other dishes!

Pierre Morey Bourgogne Blanc 2002

The winemaker of Pierre Morey makes wine for Leflaive as well.
Precise nose of citrus, butter and white floral..clean weighty palate..
It is gorgeous for such entry level wine, and definitely a steal considering Leflaive is retailing at a couple hundred ringgit per bottle.

Grab some if you can.
I still have some 99/02/08 and its Meursalt sitting in my cellar..