blurpenguin

heh... it looked fine enough... tasted quite fine... but definitely NOT fine dining.

well yesterday, we went to Great Eastern Mall to check out this place we saw... It's a new home-deco shop on the first floor. It has impressive looking expensive fake plants, branded cutlery, china ware, cool photo frames... & also a bistro area.

we noticed the place here few weeks ago... so yesterday we sampled their seafood fried rice and beef tenderloin. prices were on the high side... and we didn't expect the "fine"-ish kind of style... so i have to say... i was still hungry after the scant pieces of meat (it was nicely done though - "medium" done). Julie's meal also didn't fare too well also ... fried-rice with 2 mussels, a prawn on a mix of onions mushroom stock.

we would have sampled their pastas if we hadn't already eaten spaghetti for lunch in the cafeteria... their "ogio" sounded nice...

a bit overpriced i must say... rm28 for meat, rm15 for rice... my 2 cents will say, they won't be here for long...

yesterday... we went to 1-utama... yep! we know... it's the other end of town... a-kin to the distance of travelling to Taiping from Ipoh... but we wanted to head to a toys-R-us to check out a sitting contraption for phoebe... bad decision... for some reason or other the management decided to still open for public whilst doing renovation to the premises... either the malaysian manager is duh... or worse still orders from above... anyways... we didnt find what we wanted and we will head to the Avenue-K branch later next week...

BUT... we had decided to try out the Ms Read's Deli-cious for dinner! We have passed them before but never went in... after numerous raves by a couple of friends... dang! had to try lah...

upon arrival we headed straight to the restaurant located on the first floor (new wing)... WHOA!... FULL HOUSE! put name in waiting list (1/2 hour wait!)... & off we went to toys-R-us. On our return... the restaurant was now more manageble and we immediately got a seat.

i couldn't figure out what to eat... as everything was, well.... tempting...

after serious contemplation, my end we ordered...(Julie was getting impatient)

for starters we took a side dish, fried potatoes in rosemary and garlic... out of this world!

i took the kerabu set with ayam percik and ulam! the chicken was good... and notice the greedy fingers flicking the keropok away...

Julie took the beef mushroom pie... it was good!

we shared a tall latte with our dessert...

our desert choice this time... heh... chocolate cake with vanila ice-cream... look at that ooziinnnngggg chocolate... yum!

we're back in ipoh this weekend for my mom's birthday... darn short trip... one night only...so after work... we rushed back to ipoh... without lunch... not exactly... julie bought some sausage & sardine buns from Giant for us to eat on the way...

It was suppose to be a dinner treat for my mom, so we had initially planned to try find a nice place to eat in Greentown area... many places that have sprung out in the new shops there... but after several circles around the block we still had not decided on one... or none of the shops looked interesting enough for us to stop...

then my father suggested we head back to ipoh garden area... near J.Jusco... so off we went...

the heading - BeaconPoint

u would never expect such a restaurant in such an obscure place... it was like in the middle of nowhere... or you can say, in the middle of a housing estate.

let the pictures do the talking...

the choice of set dinners available

carrot cream soup with crackers (part of the set meal), nice and creamy... was piping hot too... a rarity these days...

complimentary garlic bread to go with your soup i suppose... normal but hey! it was free...

hannah's kids portion spagetti... looked really good...

the fish (gratinated fish fillet topped with tomato and cheese melted over) my father ordered...

Beef stew set@rm24 Julie ordered (they didnt have sirlion steak that day)

the lamb shoulder my mum and i ordered... mine was with red wine sauce... the burnt look is from the paprika... awesomely done...

the dessert : carrot cake.

the newest item in our McDonalds menu is not so new actually... from the product shots... the copyright date is stated 1995... OMG! it took 12 years for a product to reach Malaysian shores... at least A&W brought in their waffles since the very beginning...

this is a typical american offering. I guess, Only they eat hotcakes for breakfast or dessert...

IMHO... the A&W waffle is more worthwhile then McD's offering.

FOR RM6 u expect more then this i guess... but ignoring the price...what u get is 3 flapjacks/pancakes/hotcakes steaming hot! together with 2 pieces of butter and "fake" Mapel syrup. the flapjacks/pancakes/hotcake is nice and buttery... eaten with a dap of syrup and butter... really yum!... ADD ice-cream from a sundae or cone... even better... they do have their own ala-mode... with strawberry ice-cream... but they won't give u the syrup and butter if u take that.

Do try it for once... if u haven't.. just for the taste... it's nice.



p/s: available in selected McDonalds outlet (most of the 24hrs ones)

this was the first time for both me and julie to go to her office in Kuantan... it was like a reconnaissance visit.


after about a 15 minute drive from the hotel we came to the industrial area of kuantan, Gebeng. Whoa... the plant was HUGE... it was the first time i have seen such a plant... clean though... very clean... (what u see coming out is vapour)


after signing in (security is quite tight in such plants) we went to the office or admin block which was a separate building. There we went to all the 3 floors of the office... Julie's collegue showed us around. It was a cosy and nice office. Very modern too.

Overall our Kuantan trip was an eye opener... it's a bit bigger then i expected, but still abit ulu... we did go to the major shopping mall in Kuantan, Berjaya Megamall with Parkson Grand as the anchor. It really felt like Pertama Complex or Maju Junction at its best... trafic condition was as expected... low... but the traffic lights were annoyingly long.

Our main minus for now is the housing areas. Most of Kuantan is made of small/tiny housing developments... ranging from just a row to several rows of houses per patch all slowly growing into a "Taman"... like patchwork... with no playgrounds in the middle... not your proper taman. only the newer ones which are further away are planned as such. Since we had little time, the ones we managed to see left us wanting...

living expences in Kuantan seem like KL prices, maybe just slightly cheaper on certain things...

the Pluses so far is u get BLUE skies everyday and great beaches at a stones throw...

when we first heard, that it was just recently refurbished... and at julie's corporate rate of rm340 for 2 at a seaview room inclusive of breakfast... we were expecting some bit of luxury...

abeit to say... we were somewhat dissapointed.

firstly... the refurbished rooms are ONLY for the Regency Club Wing... the even more expensive rooms...

secondly... the rooms...

Hyatt Kuantan is beautiful... from the moment u step in, the wind will greet you and the lobby grand enough... step inside a bit and u can see the first pool and the beach on the horizon.... a very beautiful beach...

alas... this is a 27 year old hotel... and the age of the rooms do show... it's well kept but not up to standards in my opinion plus they were tiny...

granted... if u just stay outdoors... the beach and amneties is top notch... just don't expect to stay in the room... it's strictly just for knocking off...

when we arrived at kuantan... "food" was our first agenda... since it was kinda late, we had stopped twice on the way... once to refuel and another cuz phoebe was getting really restless and wailing...

so we decided first to straight head to a restaurant recommended by julie's collegue... it wasn't where it was supposed to be... so we decided just to stop in food court and just eat anything... "Teluk Sisik Food Court" it was... there was a "Tai-Chow" shop and we ordered.

we had : stir fried tapioca leaves,


marmide "phai-kuat wong",


"kam-heong" lala


& steamed "hong pan".