A Not-So-Daily Combo

There's this nasi lemak stall near the Sunway University College which we lovingly call Auntie's Nasi Lemak or Corner Nasi Lemak (we invented the name =P). The Indian lady who runs the stall is a very friendly and shy person. =) She actually recognizes me and my boyfriend because we frequent her place, like, almost every day during our lunchtime. Back then, when the boyfriend was still studying here, he used to order nasi lemak ayam goreng and nasi goreng pattaya (Pattaya Fried Rice, well, it's erm, the usual fried rice, fried using all those frozen vegetables that we've seen in the supermarket, chicken chunks, and wrapped in thin sheets of egg) . Meanwhile, I used to either order nasi lemak sambal sotong or nasi goreng kampong (Kampong Fried Rice, it's a kind of spicy fried rice with water convolvulus, fishcake, chicken chunks, and generous amount of anchovies =D) , but never, the nasi lemak ayam goreng.

I started to eat her nasi lemak ayam goreng only after the boyfriend was not here. Weird hor. ^^; I have a habit of developing someone's eating habit in order to recall things about them. Don't get me? Heheh, well, I eat nasi lemak ayam goreng to relate to the boyfriend and I eat McD's Spicy Chicken McDeluxe to relate to my brother. When I saw Van Houten Chocolate, I think about my dad, and so on. These are only some of the lesser known facts about my healthy (or not?) obsession about food. =P

So anyway, back to the nasi lemak ayam goreng. =) To be frank, the auntie's nasi lemak shouldn't be qualified as nasi lemak at all. Nasi lemak is supposed to be cooked in coconut gravy, giving it some glossy appearance, but the rice that the auntie serves is actually only.. well, white rice. What makes me so forgiving about it then?

Well, this auntie makes the best sambal ever. =D She will give me a generous amount of sambal, peanuts, anchovies and the fried chicken breast, and then top the whole thing with a half-done sunny side up. However! Because everything seems to be on top of the rice, I'm always confused as to where I should start eating. ^^; When I eat, I usually put all the dishes and gravy beside my rice. When I look at her nasi lemak ayam goreng and ponder away my time, the thought of Korean Bi Bim Bap suddenly crosses my mind. Ok, I know it is so out of place to relate a traditional Malay staple to a Korean stone pot rice (never mind me =P), but their food arrangement are the same! =D So I start mixing up everything in the nasi lemak (except for the fried chicken breast), like what I would have done to the Korean stone pot rice. The end result was yummier than if I don't do anything about it. Oh how I enjoy poking the egg yolk with my fork. Ohohohoho~ I do get quite a few stares from people sitting at the other table tho.

I've tried eating the nasi lemak in this way for a few times, and I could say that it was best when the rice is still warm. If the rice is already cold, you'd get a stomachache by eating it this way. Lagi best if you drink teh tarik afterwards. =P

Was strolling around Mid Valley Megamall yesterday when I suddenly have the cravings for ice cream. Well. I used to get an ice cream every day in a week, so basically, the word 'cravings' was an understatement. I skipped Baskin & Robbins because I've always thought that their ice cream were overtly sweet. Ew. I passed Haagen Dazs too because, erm, I was too lazy to climb the stairs. So! I settled for Gelato & Fruity (they used to be known as Lecka-Lecka, but I didn't know why they changed their name). They have this very nice range of fruit flavored ice cream, well, some of them are non-dairy sorbets, but really! They are very good overall. Low fat too.

Here's the fun part. I was waiting at the cashier after I placed my order, and there was this young shopkeeper who got very fidgety while stealing glances at me. I looked at him and smiled. He smiled back happily at me. A little while later, he suddenly said, "You look soooo beautiful." I chuckled. People often made remarks like 'pretty' to make me fly over to the moon, but this is the first time a total stranger used such a big word as 'beautiful' on me.

I thanked him and walked away happily with my praline-flavored ice cream. It was like a toned down version of Kinder Bueno, less sweeter, much more yummier. Ah, an ice cream has never tasted this good. It did a great job of feeding my cravings and also, boosting my female ego.

Fear the vanity of women.

Rolling pig, if translated literally, but no, this is one of the many famous dishes known in Bali, the roast suckling pig. There is also kambing guling (roast mutton, in this case) which is equally popular but I yet have the chance to try it due to my uber packed holiday schedule. So yes, I had this chance to visit Bali, Indonesia, last July. =D My parents and I stayed at a decent hotel at the Kuta area, near the previous bombing location, yes. =P We had quite a hard time asking for the locals to direct us to the place that sells this special dish. We past by a cafe and decided to inquire about this menu, but it turned out that they wanted to charge us millions of rupiahs (about thousands of ringgit) for one whole suckling pig. Thus, we declined. We happened to meet a senior taxi driver who was kind enough to drive us to a warung (you can say, it's a kind of Indonesian kopitiam XD) which serves the dish by portion and at a reasonable price.

Believe me, the picture below doesn't do any justice. When the food first came, what I thought was, "What's with these dry-looking shredded meat?", but when I scooped them into my mouth with the rice, it's an Oh My God o_O!! The flesh was supperrrrr tender, and the skin was sooooooo crispy but too bad they gave us only a little of them. The best part was the condiment that came along with the suckling pig. Until today, my parents and I couldn't quite figured out the exact thing that they had mix in those. We could only guess that they might have used pickled red and green chillis, fried onion, fried garlic and finely shredded lemongrass but we were dead sure that those were not all - it had a strong spicy flavor over the sourness, gah, I didn't even know what I was trying to say here. The soup was great-tasting too! And again, the ingredients were one of a kind ^^;. After the meal, my dad asked one of the food servers whether they had used kuncup bunga pisang for the soup and they nodded in affirmation. Now, I didn't know what the English was for kuncup bunga pisang (the flower bud of banana? Pardon me. ^^;), and I didn't even know how it looks like before it is cooked ^^;. We ordered a portion of many different kinds of lalap (side dishes, consists mainly of boiled vegetables, but in this rare case, they gave us some fried stuffs too) as the 'dessert'. The whole course during that day tasted very very very foreign, yet addictively delicious. Can you imagine just how good they were that we even tapao-ed back three portions for our dinner? Amazingly, after dinner, we still craved for more. XD.

Fuyoh. Even though it's been months since I had those delicious but not-so-yummy looking dish, the thought of it still leaves me salivating *gulp*. Hey, because I'm nice, I even save the address for your future reference =D:

Warung Bakas
(khas Klungkung)
Jl. By Pass Mumbul
Nusa Dua - Bali
Indonesia
Phone: +62 361 777 142

I strongly recommends everyone to visit Bali. It's the paradise of Asia.

Or diarrhea. Or something like it. I might have contracted one. -__- For as long as I remember, it wasn't caused by the food sold at the cafe on the basement of my apartment. I've been eating lunch and dinner there for weeks and there hasn't been anything strange. I suspected it started last Friday night, when I dined at Manhattan Fish Market. I ordered Butter Fish with Paprika Creme sauce or something, and the fish.. smelt.. well, fishy. I didn't think it's fresh. The garlic rice also tasted quite yucky yucky, because it's like lumps of moist rice. Akh. The horror.

Coupled with the fact that I swam for at least two hours using butterfly kick before the dinner that day. Glorious. The abdomen muscle cramp and stomach ache combo. It's such a turn off when I ___, I saw___ on my ____.

Took some medicines to prevent any more unnecessary trips to the toilet just now. I'm boycotting that restaurant for good.

Omg. I never knew that MSN Spaces has changed so much. I haven't checked this site, lately, kekeke. There's still a pending entry about a special dish that I've had when I was at Bali last month. =D

I am testing the wireless connection at the university's foyer at this moment. Was actually waiting for the tutorial members to show up for the discussion just now, but my stomach couldn't tolerate the hunger anymore. And so! I broke my always-skip-breakfast-diet (who cares, right. =P) and bought an egg muffin at San Fransisco Coffee @ Sunway / Monash University Cafeteria. I thought that I was going to get some scrambled egg being sandwhiched in between lots of mayonnaise, but what I was wrong.

It was something even better! Instead of mayonnaise, they gave me quite a big piece of ham to top the egg and a generous amount of MELTING CHEESE. *kyaaaaaa!* I didn't know how to describe the egg, though, it was the same sort that we usually ate when we had breakfast at McDonald. I reckoned that the fried the egg in a round-shaped mould.. or something. =P I'm going to try their cakes, next time. Their chocolate brownies look very tempting. =P

Ahnyway, the breakfast made me poorer by RM5.20. *sigh*. Bye-bye, lunch fare. ='(


Note: No, I'm not going to skip any meals later. Lunch and dinner are compulsary! =D I, erm, eat very well *mock*, just like Miss Puerto Rico. =P