Bukit Mata Seafood at Permata Kuching on 6th March 2010

I had some time in the evening after visiting the Cat Museum, so I decided to drop by the largest and most modern mall in Kuching - The Spring. This is a pic of the building which I took from the car. The place was packed full of cars as well as taxis along the mainroad and I heard that the parking situation could get so bad that visitors would have to park across the road. The Spring doesn't sell branded goods (LV,Prada,Chanel and the like) but other mid-market brands like Levis, Mango and MPH. There is also a supermarket at the basement level and a cinema on the top floor - if I am not wrong, that's the only mall in Kuching which has a cinema.

After shopping, it was time to go for dinner at Bukit Mata Seafood Centre located at the top/6th floor of Permata Carpark. I had been here before (click here), and read all about it (click here) so I thought I knew what to expect but nah, I was wrong. There was massive renovation and upgrading works going on which meant that the popular stalls like ABC were closed in March 2010. A sign near the lift informed us that the renovation works would only be completed in July 2010 (if I rem rightly). (One should also note that the Centre doesn't open for business during lunch hours but about 6pm for dinner.) So, our group of 4 ended up patronising this stall "Ling Long Seafood" instead.

This vegetable below is unique to Sarawak (tried it for the first time in Sibu) and isn't available in Singapore at all. This is how the vegetable/fern looks before it is cooked.

And this is how the vegetable looks after it has been cooked. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The taste isn't bitter at all if cooked well and is rather tasty and mushy. But then again, I am partial to dark green vegetables. Still, it is very affordable (RM 10) and well worth a try. I can't figure out though why this veg isn't sold in Singapore and can't be grown here or in West Msia. Readers of my blog, please enlighten me.

The picture below shows the first four dishes which arrived - sweet and sour soup, the unique sarawak veg and another kind of very dark green veg cooked with egg. The other dish was ordinary butter prawns. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10 for the cereal prawns which wasn't too bad but tasted pretty much as any such dish from a local coffeeshop would. It might be more worthwhile for travellers to order the river prawns with blue claws instead.

Forgetting my less than excellent encounter with this species of prawns in KK, I ordered the biggest prawn available at the stall. The prawn filled the entire plate! I think I am into oversized prawns bigtime. :D

And here's a picture of the prawn after it was cooked. The Slog Reviews: 3/10. Do not, and I repeat do not order this dish from Ling Long. While the prawn was not stale (it was dead compared to the live one which we chose at KK), the method of cooking below as recommended by the stall, failed to bring out the flavor of the prawn at all...but then I'm assuming that the prawn should be sweet to begin with. The black sauce and ginger did not go with the prawn thus rendering the eating process a chore rather than pleasure. The cost was RM12/100gm.

I also ordered a fish from the many dead ones packed in ice arrayed nicely at the stall. The stall holder suggested a type of fish popular in Sarawak and which had fish eggs. This is how the fish looked like after it was cooked. The Slog Reviews: 2/10. Again, do not, and I repeat tiredly, do not order this fish with its unique scales - it was terribly bony without much meat and whatever meat there was was cooked to dry blandness. As for the fish eggs (see top left of the plate), the stall overcooked the eggs resulting in flaky tasteless clumps of eggs instead of the delight that this dish is supposed to be. I guess Shee Yaan Restaurant at Muar has spoilt my taste buds thoroughly - that is the restaurant to go to for the best fish eggs (and how cheap they are!) , assam fish head and otak /otah.

The next dish - black pepper crab. The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The black pepper sauce was so cloying and the style of cooking so poor that pne could not taste the sweetness of the crab meat at all. I have eaten black pepper crabs where the smooth slick freshness of the crab meat (esp the crab legs) contrasts pleasantly with the black pepper sauce on the shell. Unfortunately, like the many other nicer and higher-end places that one goes to, because of one's wealthy, well-bred and lofty food companions then, it is not quite possible to take photos of the food. Still, the subconscious has filed away the sights and sensations of the experience and I can say with utmost certainty that the cooking skill of the person who prepared this dish leaves much to be desired indeed.

And the last dish - 2 female crabs. As evident from the picture below, the crabs did come with plenty of orange eggs but....The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The eggs were overcooked and the meat so ordinary tasting. What a complete disappointment! All the garnishing did not serve any purpose or add any flavor whatsoever except pose as an additional step to clear away.

To sum up, one would be able to deduce by now that I would not recommend ordering one's fresh seafood from this stall if ever one goes by Bukit Mata Centre in Kuching. Try Stall 25 - that's the best, absolutely best stall for cheap and good seafood. The wait is worth it.

Kuching Cat Museum and 360 Hotel on 6th March 2010

Due to the change in flight timing by Airasia and my reluctance to take an extra day of leave, I ended up with less than 24 hours in Kuching. The shuttle bus to 360 Hotel didn't show up at the airport which caused a great deal of trouble and angst (the cost of a taxi to the hotel was RM30 vs the cost of the shuttle bus RM6 per pax). The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Without taking into account the shuttle bus which never showed, 360 Hotel at Kuching is value for money indeed. For RM88, one gets a clean spacious room with a comfy bed and clean sheets, a mini-safe, LCD TV and hairdryer. Although the room lacks a window/view, an alarm clock, refrigerator, minibar or bathtub, given the price and location of the hotel, I would highly recommend this hotel to travellers who are in Kuching for a short trip.

During my last trip to Kuching, I did not have enough time to go to Kuching's Cat Museum so for this trip, after leaving the bags in the hotel, I headed straight for the Cat Museum which is located quite some distance away from the main city and up a hill. The picture below shows the building where the museum is located with the state's flag fluttering at the top of the dome.

As per the picture below, the opening hours are from 9am to 5pm daily and while there are no entrance fees payable by visitors, if one wishes to use one's camera, one has to pay a nominal fee depending on the type of camera one uses. A sticker to be adhered to one's camera is given upon payment and it was quite a pain to scratch it off later so I would advise against pasting the sticker wholly on one's nice shiny camera.

Just outside the entrance to the museum (but within the buildling), three flags representing the state of Malaysia (left), the state of Sarawak (middle) and the town/city of Kuching (right) can be found side by side.

As I've said, the city is really into cats. The city's flag has not one, but two rather feminine looking cats eyeing a bird-like creature centered between them. Cat City indeed!

The pic below is of the entrance to the museum which is one level above the carpark. I had wondered about the vampire-looking fangs but after googling "cats and yawning", I realised that the structure of the entrance contains no hidden meaning but reflects accurately a cat with its mouth wide open. Despite the turnstile at the entrance, there are no entrance fees payable and therefore no tickets are required.

Near the entrance, if one is minded to capture one's face with ears atop a cat's body, one can play with the exhibit below although I would think that to get into the position for the bottom holes would be most uncomfortable indeed. Maybe the exhibit is meant for kids and the other folks who are not so particular about hygiene issues and willing to contort one's body so as to be captured on film with one's face above a cat body. Much as I have wondered about having a different sort of body, I was not tempted to play with this exhibit at all :D

As one walks further into the museum, one would come across a medium-large friendly-looking yellow cat mascot in a glass case. We learn from the little signboard that the exhibit, safe behind the glass walls actually has a name. The signboard reads "The mascot of Kuching Festival is "Alca" the cat. The name Alca is derived from the first 2 letters of 2 flowers - "Allamanda", the official flower of Kuching North City Hall and "Canna Lily", the official flower of Kuching South City Council."


Unlike Alca the Cat which has one hand on the hip, the other statues of cats which do not display such crone-like characteristics are not quite as well-protected and one is able to take photos of and with them. Below is a pic of the large cat statues placed near the escalator leading to the second floor of the museum which I left my fingerprints on, having being kept from doing the same with Alca the Cat. The second floor appears to be closed to the public.

The Cat Museum is filled with statues, drawings and paintings of cats and out of the thousands of cat/cat-related paraphenalia, one item is chosen as the artifact of the month. For the month of March 2010, the painting/mosaic below of a rather fearsome cat was chosen. One of the more interesting paintings I thought.

And then there is this section below which one should absolutely stop by and read "How Kuching City Got Its Name". A reading of the materials enlightens one that it was in 1876 that the town was officially named as Kuching and this was probably due to the abundant number of cats along the riverbank or due to a river flowing through the town center known as Sungai Kuching.

If one is minded to take a memory of the Cat Museum back at a rather inflated price, there is the souvenir shop located near the entrance/exit (both are located next to each other).

I was tempted for a monent to buy one of the charming bags below sold at the souvenir shop but common sense prevailed and I managed to keep my wallet closed. I didn't notice anyone buying anything from the souvenir shop at all and I really do think it has to do with the prices. I suppose a picture of what I might have bought agrees better with my wallet. :D

The Slog Reviews: 6/10 as an attraction. Recommended only to those who have time to kill in Kuching and those with a deep prevailing interest in viewing all things cat-related. The museum contains a lot more cat-related stuff than that I've posted obviously but unless one is really keen to see/read about cat-related materials, one could give the cat museum in Kuching a miss without any regrets. And no, there are no live cats in or around the cat museum at all.

Before leaving Muah - lunch at the best restaurant in Muah!

Where we would have lunch the next day after checking out of the hotel was a given. No fight, no contest, no dispute, no other feasible alternatives. Shee Yaan Restaurant (which is stored under the Favs Folder in my GPS) we headed for in an unspoken common understanding. This is a pic of the exterior of the restaurant. Note that the restaurant does not face the main road but is behind the row of shophouses housing Pizza Hut and The Look Hair Salon.

I have to say that the restaurant seems to be immensely popular, not just for dinner but also for lunch. We had to wait for a table and were asked nicely to move twice to smaller tables because there were larger groups (abt 5-10) which arrived later. The young lady boss was not surprised to see us again but her employee was most surprised when we insisted on ordering 2 packets of otah for lunch. She suggested half a packet, we reiterated that we wanted 2 packets and she countered with 1 packet. However, we insisted on having the 2 packets and her eyes grew wider still when we ordered other dishes like fried egg, fish eggs, kangkong and a big slab of fresh fish for the assam fish head. The pic below is of the dishes that arrived first minus the fish.

The assam fish (as per the pic below) came about 10mins later, fresh and tender in a soup so pleasantly warm and sour. I would recommend ordering the fish meat instead of the fish head because the meat is extremely fresh and tender. I think the meat is cooked seperately from the soup because the fish retains its own fresh sweet flavor which provides a thrilling contrast to the sourish soup. The cost of the dish below was RM 17.90 only.

The total cost of the meal below came to RM50.20 (SGD 21 only!!!!). Incredibly cheap for the sheer amount and kind of food. Two of us were more than satisfied (as we should be) after having cleaned every single plate. The assam fish cost RM17.90, the sambal kangkong RM4, the two packets/plates of otah RM16 and the fish eggs RM4.90. Rice was RM0.80 per bowl and can drinks RM1.70 each. I'm not sure if the egg dish was wrongly priced at RM2.40 as it says on the receipt though. The dessert in a bowl (iced longan) was complimentary.

Hand on my heart, I would solemnly declare Shee Yaan restaurant to be one of the best, if not the best restaurant to have a meal at if one goes to, or drives past the little town of Muar. The Slog Reviews: 10/10 for the food. The only thing one needs to be prepared for is the waiting time for a table and the even longer waiting time for the food (15mins) but as is clearly evident from the crowds and the pics, each morsel more than makes up for the waiting time. I'm counting the days till June when we next plan to go back to Muar!

Restoran / Restaurant Onn Kee Jaya

The result of 2 hungry individuals unable to decide on where to have lunch even after clearing the Msia customs = trouble. I knew what I didn't want, and yet what I wanted to have for lunch would mean a long waiting time so in the end, so I left it to the other to settle the issue of lunch, trusting in his familiarity with both my food taste and the city of JB.

Just after Plaza Angsana, he made a turn and we drove past the plaza's carpark to a rather rundown area of JB with narrow crammed streets and cars parked haphazardly along both sides of those streets. My impression of the place was rather unfavourable but the other assured me that the bak kut teh here was v good according to his colleague. This is the same colleague that intro-ed the other to Qiu Bo Curry House so I should have guessed, given how far apart our tastes are, that I would most likely be disappointed.

After parking the car along the road, we walked past a dingy coffeeshop which seemed immensely popular in the direction of the bak kut teh store when the strong smell of curry coming from this restaurant (?!!?) opposite the said coffeeshop stopped me in my tracks. Noting the air-conditioned dining area inside, I refused to walk any further in the blazing sun to the recommended bkt stall and insisted of having lunch here instead.

The young lady assistant was very helpful and friendly, and the air-conditioned area was a blessed respite from the merciless sun. We enquired about the origin of the delicious smell which turned out to be a huge pot of curry chicken that the uncle-chef was whipping up in the cooking area near the main road - what a way to attract customers! :D Although the restaurant had only 1 other table which was occupied when we came in, within 1/2 an hr, 3 other tables were filled, and not just with Chinese customers but Indians too!

The pic above is the chicken curry which enticed us to the shop. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. This curry is the dry sort so there is quite a bit more oil and quite a lot less gravy. The meat was alright - not too hard but sadly, not too tender either. However, the meat didn't appear to have absorbed much of the curry flavor so this dish would be at best, passable. We also ordered the shop's speciality which would be the klang-style of bak kut teh.

The Slog Reviews: 7/10 for the bak kut teh which came with innards and extremely chewy pieces of meat which gave our teeth quite a work-out. I prefer the soft melt-of-the-bone type of bak kut teh so I didn't enjoy the tough chewy meat in this pot at all. The tau kee, butter mushrooms and overall taste of the soup itself was, like the dish above, passable and nothing that one would be likely to develop a craving for. However, the service is good - the uncle noticed that we had finished most of the soup and on his own accord, added more soup.

The total cost of the 2 dishes above as well as 2 cans of drink and 2 bowls of rice was about RM25 (SGD 11).

Name: Restoran Onn Kee Jaya
Address: 78 Jalan Dato Toh Ah Boon, 81000 Tampoi Johor
Tel: 012-7560795, 016-7426978

Shee Yaan Restaurant in Muar - the best Assam Fish Head and Muar Otah!

I'm crossing my fingers that I will have a chance tomorrow to eat something that I've been craving for for quite some time (almost a month!). Nope, it isn't the assam fish head below (although this dish will most certainly be ordered too)...

Rather, it's this dish below - Muah Otah! As per my earlier post, I'm absolutely dying to eat this right now and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will be going to Muar tomorrow! And now that I know I can actually dream and drool over a dish, I probably will buy a lot of this back home to keep in the fridge for a couple of months and for the folks that matter! How can any dish be so simple yet so "orgasmically" delicious? The Slog Reviews: 10/10. The taste, how do I even begin describing that! The blend of fish meat, the right amount of paste and spice - savory, yes, the word is savory. Muah is famous for its otahs but there is no place that serves better otah IMHO.

Here is a pic of the dishes that we always order when we go to this restaurant for lunch/dinner - the assam fishhead, sambal kangkong, fried fish eggs and the muah otah. It is a good thing that we do not reside in Muar or in JB...or maybe it is a bad thing, because I probably would spend most of my free time eating there. The restaurant's setting is simple but it is air-conditioned and clean. There are more dishes of course, other than the ones we always order but because these are so good and Muar is a few hours drive from JB, we always order the same items and never once has the standard fallen. The Slog Reviews for them is of course 10/10. Do drop by this restaurant if you are at Muar but be warned though that the place can get very crowded with huge groups waiting for tables. It is extremely popular, esp among locals. One has to pick some of the food items (the fish head, fish meat, otah and fish eggs) from the fridge next to the cashier. The restaurant's staff are helpful (a mix of local chinese and malay employees) and the waiting time is reasonable - 15mins if the restaurant isn't crowded.


The Address:
30&31 Jln Pesta Baru 1
Pusat Perniagaan Pesta Baru
Jln Bakri, 84000 Muar Johor

Tel No: 06-9539014

Opening Hrs: 10am - 9.30pm

Restoran / Restaurant Pekin at Taman Sentosa

Wiser from the last experience when we lost our way looking for the place, getting to Restoran Pekin at Taman Sentosa this time was a breeze even without a GPS. Once out of the customs, we kept right and turned towards Stulang Laut. At the end of the road, we turned left, went pass a temple and and then took the costal road past the gated compound all the way in the direction of Permas Jaya. The restaurant is located on that side of the road (in the direction of Permas Jaya) so turning off the main road to the restaurant was relatively simple.

As was the case with its sister outlet at Sutera Mall where we had dinner before, the service was impeccable, the menu was impressive-looking and the food was priced much higher than if one had eaten at any other restaurant in JB. The variety of live seafood was rather limited on a weekday night - tilapias, groupers, oysters, ordinary mud crabs, crayfish and clams. There are three eating sections - the airconditioned area, the outdoor and without shelter area and the open-air non-airconditioned but sheltered area (for smokers probably). The second option should not be considered during dinner time because of the numerous large winged creatures buzzing about (attracted to light).

So, the dishes. The first dish we ordered and was served was lala (white shell clams) cooked in sambal chilli. There are other cooking options for this dish stated in the menu like chinese wine. Take note though that one has to order a min of 800gms for lala and given the price of RM 3/100gm, the dish below cost RM 24 (SGD 10). The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The chilli was mouth-wateringly delicious (mixed with rice) and the clams were cooked just right that one could taste how juicy and fresh each pc of meat was. As said, the staff service is impeccable and they cleared the plates very promptly. I would give this dish 10/10 cept that from the portion below, we were quite doubtful that this was 800gm worth of lala...maybe the shells which were indeed considerably large, weighed quite a bit.

We were temporarily torn between ordering kangkong and hotplate beancurd but after looking at the price of the veg which was 40-50% more expensive than elsewhere, and given my food companion's craving for beancurd, we had the hotplate beancurd with shrimps below. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Would not recommend ordering this dish at the restaurant. Nothing exceptional in terms of taste or presentation and each toufu wasn't "melt-in-the-mouth" quality.

Now, a word of advice on the next dish below - priced at RM10/100gm (which was more expensive than crabs which were priced at RM5.80 - 7.80/100gm), we had expected the three crayfish we selected live from the tank to be of outstanding quality. The Slog Reviews: 5/10. We had asked for the crayfish to be cooked in butter and indeed it was but ah, what a disappointment the dish turned out to be for the price (total RM 30 = SGD 12). Talk about way-overpriced for the tiny little strips of meat in the shells which while fresh and sweet-tasting, was absolutely unremarkable in taste and badly presented. Give this dish a miss.

As the name of the restaurant implies, the place to have pekin/ Beijing duck in JB would be pekin restaurant of course. They also serve duck dishes like pipa duck on the menu. Anyhow, we ordered half a pekin duck (RM 23 which is SGD 10). The duck came with the thin beancurd sheets. I couldn't take a better photo as both dishes were placed on the opposite end of the menu and I didn't want to get up just to take a pic since most of the tables at the air-conditioned area were filled with working pp (middle-aged and elderly uncles) and familes.

We realised the reason for the dishes being placed so far away from us was so that the waitor could prepare the dish in front of us. He started by putting on a facemask and one side of the glove. Here is a pic of him placing the meat on each thin layer of beancurd skin along with some veg and sweet dark sauce.

The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. The duck was cooked well enough but the meat was not tender or tasty enough and in fact slightly too dry. We asked for more beancurd sheets for the rest of the meat but were told that we had to pay for those so we declined. Still, this dish is very reasonably priced (could you have pekin duck at a nice restaurant in SG for just SGD 10?) and is worth having as a meat dish if one goes to this restaurant.

The total cost of the meal was RM 98+ (about SGD 42) inclusive of tax, 2 bowls of rice, 1 coke and 2 wet towels. While reasonable by SG standards (for live seafood and pekin duck!), this is expensive by JB individual-living standards indeed.

Kong Kong Taison Seafood Resort Restaurant

On a Sat almost 2 months ago, we were done shopping about 4pm at JB and decided to check out the restaurant that had been recommended as one of the cheapest/best places for seafood in JB. Amazingly and luckily, my GPS actually had the location of the restaurant and I would say that unless one has a GPS which can take you to the restaurant below, it would not be a wise idea to go looking for the place on your own but here are some directions which I hope will prove useful.

Firstly, get on Pasir Gudang highway in the direction of Plentong and Masai. Look out for the blue signboard on the left that says Kong Kong and turn left. Follow all signboards that say Kong Kong. When there are no signboards to direct you to Kong Kong, then take those that direct you to Tmn Scientex. After that, go straight till you come to a roundabout. Take the 3 o clock which means that the show village will be on your left hand side. At the end of the road, there is no sign board but you have to turn left. Go all the way straight then right to the very end of the road which is quite a long drive past some plantations on both sides of the road. There will be a sign that says Neleyan Fishing something at the end of this long 2 way 1 lane each way road. Turn right and drive a short distance keeping to the left side and you will come to kong kong seafood which is on the left hand side of the dirt road.

If one has never seen an arapaima ((dragon fish) or toman fish, this would be the place to go. Near the entrance, as one walks into the restaurant, one would have to bypass this:

And if one is minded or mildly interested in seeing the freshwater fishes, one should pause to take in the beauty of the two giant arapaimas in the fenced-in area. The rather large tomans are in the same pond but I didn't take a picture of them because of their unattractive color (black with strips) and that they can be easily found (and fished!) in Singapore. I took the pic of the arapaimas below by sticking my camera's lens through a hole in the fencing - truely beautiful and magnificent creatures these are! I had spent quite a bit of money in Nov 09 trying to fish for these creatures in Krabi but alas, luck was not with me so this below was my first close-up encounter with the arapaimas. I'm hopeful there will be another encounter - of me holding the arapaima that I caught successfully on line!

Now, Kong Kong Seafood Restaurant sells live seafood at a price cheaper than the prices quoted by restaurants in town. No surprise given how way out the restaurant is but what distinguishes this restaurant from other "way-out" live seafood restaurants is the variety/choices available to customers.
The pic below illustrates what I'm talking about. This is the only other restaurant in JB that I know of which sells stone crabs / crabs flown in from Canada as well as Geoducks. The price of RM 168 per kg for the Geoduck is way cheaper than the RM 270 per kg at the other restaurant and the stone crabs are about RM 30 per kg cheaper. Kong Kong seafood restaurant also sells Boston Sphiny Lobster which makes this restaurant a place to go to only with friends who love seafood and are willing to fork out the extra money.

The restaurant has indoor and outdoor dining. There are some rooms in the restaurant which appear to have karaoke and are air-conditioned but these appear reserved for bigger groups of guests. We had our dinner at the outdoor dining area which was on a platform on stilts above the water. If the tide is high enough, one can drop a fishing line from the railings around.

As my companion is allergic to most shell-seafood, and we were stuffed from a 9 course lunch at one of the most expensive seafood restaurants in JB that day (could not take pics because it was a company lunch), we decided to have a simple meal for dinner. The Slog Reviews: 8/10 for the kangkong and lala. The lala was ridiculously cheap at RM4 per 100gm while the kangkong cost less than RM10. However, the lala (clams) was very fresh because they had been kept alive until we ordered the dish and I have to say that at least 98% of the clams had meat in them. Even though the lala was fried in sambal, the freshness of the lala could not be masked.

We also ordered 300gms of prawns (min order) at RM 9/100gm. The Slog Reviews: 7/10 . I'd ordered butter prawns but somehow, they served me the prawns steamed in egg instead. Freshness was a given since I'd watched them scoop the prawns out of the tank and one can't go wrong steaming prawns. The lower score I'd given this dish wasn't because it wasn't tasty or good but that the dish lacked imagination (it is a most simple dish afterall) or the extra oomph to make it exceptional.

So, if one is a seafood lover, take note that the address of the restaurant is Lot 33, KG Kong Kong Laut 81760 Masai Johor and the telephone number is 607- 252-3366 or 607-254 3381. However, I cannot emphasize enough the need for a GPS to get there or to search for clear directions (eg on Google Maps) before going. I think I'll be going back to this place really soon if I can find more seafood loving friends willing to shell out the $ for higher-end seafood!

There are some really basic lodgings (without TV) with the price ranging from RM 48 to 88 located on the same premises as the restaurant if one is minded to try a bit of fishing from the kelong.

New York I Love You (2009) Movie

After watching The Men Who Stare At Sheep, I thought I was only missing the funny bone. However, the next movie I watched, New York I Love You ("NYILY") confirmed what I secretly feared - that I was born without another bone - the artistic bone. Other than the knowledge that I miss these two key bones which may have made a difference in my perception of life, I plod along well enough :D

Anyway, from those friends gifted with a sense of creativity and an appreciation for art and the finer nuances of life depicted in "arty-farty" films, I was inspired to buy the DVD NYILY and pop it in my DVD player as soon as I got home. Tragically, I fell asleep barely one third into the movie. Disbelieving that I could be so far from the lofty flightly artistic inner-crowd, I was most determined to finish the rest of the movie last night and I did it. However, it was a cruel unpleasant experience for someone without the artistic bone because I found myself alternating between wishing the movie would just end already, to resenting and cursing each artistic drawn out shot ( a building in shadows, billowing curtains) that I was made to suffer through. If I was ever teetering on the border of sanity and madness, NYILY is guaranteed to send me right over to insanity's all-embracing arms. The Slog Reviews: 3/10. It was that bad. Apologies to those who have raved over this cross-stitch of 11 short films put together (the only thing in common is that all were shot in New York City). I liked the old couple film, the prom-going couple film and the film with Shu Qi and the painter who died but this concept of watching 11 short snippets which aren't connected together (contra, the award winning movie Crash) isn't for those without the artistic bone.

The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009) Movie

94 movies of utter...I fear that I have lost my "humor" chip. This movie was apparently nominated for best comedy in one of the many industry's awards and yet it failed to inspire just the smallest guffaw out of me. My movie companion though was laughing-and-thigh-slapping during some parts of the movie which made me look at him funny, and him look back at me funny when he didn't see my teeth bared in laughter too. Oh well.

I shan't bother doing the plot synopsis for this movie because a fairly comprehensive one can be found here. In short, this movie is about a secret unit within the US army which trains psychic warriors (the New Earth Army) and a reporter who stumbles on two of the recruits. One of them manages to stare at a goat long enough to stop its heart and even has the ability to locate a kidnapped officer in Italy. One has spoon-bending abilities. And to me that's as interesting as the movie gets. The Slog Reviews: 5/10. Just rent the dvd - it aint worth the money watching on the big screen.

Eging / Squid Fishing - my squid jig is ruined!

I have come to the realisation that squid fishing / egining ranks way below fish fishing and prawn fishing. Like the previous experience that I had, it was difficult to find any takers for the squids and my haul back home was met with even more resistance by my mum than if I had brought back fish (the scaling!) and prawns (the snipping of the feelers). Remembering the nasty experience I had the first time washing the squids in the kitchen bathroom, I decided to wash the squids at my pool area instead. Here is a pic of the 5 squids that we caught with most of the squid ink washed away.

The one on the extreme right of the pic above looks to be the one which destroyed my favourite/lucky squid jig! It was a nightmare getting the jig out (I had to use pliers) and I think one of the eyes got twisted around. Ugh! When I got the squid (after 1 hour of casting and retrieving), I was over the moon with delight. I thought the squid had squirted out most of its ink when I brought it close to shore as it was squirting ink in the water, but when I landed it, it squirted out even more ink and stained my squid jig!

The jig was supposed to be luminous, with a blue back and pink sides (see a close up of it by clicking here)! But look at how it has been stained irreparably in the pic above! Argh! My shifu said that the jig could still be used but given how hard it is to land a squid (after 1 hour, 1 squid but maybe that's because my shifu wiped most of them out over the past week) I think I have got to go out and buy more of these jigs! Argh!

Clash of the Titans (2010) Movie

I watched the movie in 3D but I think one could have watched the movie in 2D and enjoyed it just as much. You can read the plot of the movie by clicking here.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Great acting, superb special effects combined with a legendary story - this movie is well worth one's money and time, esp compared to the rather awful movies which I had the misfortune of catching recently! If you need an escape from the drudgery of work, do catch this movie!

Qiu Bo Curry House in JB

Because of the Good Fri weekend, there wasn't the customary jam and getting to JB before 10am on Sat morning was a breeze. And because I had been having a craving for the Muar-kind of otah (click here) and I wasn't starving (which meant that we could drive a longer distance for brunch), we decided to have brunch at a place which sold both curry fishhead and otah.

We ordered the curry fishhead for two. This is a close up of the pic. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. This curry fishhead dish is for those who like curry fishhead with a strong coconut flavor - I could smell and taste the strong coconut milk in the gravy. Although it was rather pleasant smelling still, I dread to think of how many calories there are in this dish! As for the fishhead, it was fresh enough and had as much meat as a fishhead could possibly have.

We also ordered vegetables (choice between spinach and kailan) and were pleasantly surprised that it came with 4 large juicy fresh prawns. As for the otah, although it wasn't spicy, it was thick, wet, quivery and chockful of fish meat. I would give both dishes 9/10. The cost of the three dishes below (sufficient for 2pp) was RM 44. Rice for 1 pax is RM 1 while a cup of tasty home-made lime juice is RM1.50.



Qiu Bo Curry House is located some distance after Jusco Tebrau City and up a small slope. Although there is no air-con and the restaurant is reminiscent of the 1970s Singapore coffeeshops, the restaurant is airy and clean. There are 13 tables altogether and during lunch hours, the place can get very crowded. I have to comment that the toilets here are extraordinarily clean for JB restaurant toilets but maybe that is because we were the first customers of the day.

Here is the add and tel no of the restaurant:
No 2 Jalan Mutiara, Tmn Mutiara
81800 Ulu Tiram Johor
Tel 016-7819 566 / 019-7789 845

Prawn Fishing at Jurong Hill (2nd time)

A friend of mine who had never tried out prawn fishing before was game to try out my favourite time-killer and given my first positive experience there, we decided to go all the way to Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing. We rented one rod for 3hrs and then another rod for 3 hrs (but we used the second rod for 1 and a 1/2 hrs each) and although the bite-rate was pathetic at first (4 in the first hour), it got better as the rain let up. The pp working there told us that when the weather is cold, the prawns do not feed as often. Everyone else there had really bad bite-rates too (one couple didn't catch anything for an entire hour even) but there were certain more areas which were far more productive than others (the center of the pond is best).

At the end of the 4 hours odd, we had these prawns (22) and we actually lost 2 prawns which slipped out of the net from a hole at the side (where the side of the net meets the bottom). We both were flummoxed when despite our catches, there were only 3 prawns in the net each time we checked until my sharp-eyed friend spotted the hole at the side. I also suggested bbq-ing the prawns (which I'd never done before) and so we skewered the prawns (some were alive!) and put them on the tray.

Well, because neither of us had ever bbq-ed prawns before, we had to ask for help from the pp there who were most helpful in helping us start the fire and build the charcoal. However, bbq-ing was such a dismal affair because we burnt about 3 prawns, failed to get a roaring fire (the fire was limited to a small part of the grill), that we gave up after a terrible half an hour. We brought the prawns to the restaurant next to the prawn fishing area and they charged us an exorbitant SGD 13 to cook the prawns! However, at that time, it seemed like a really good idea to just pay and eat our catch compared to the bbqing - I think both of us swore that we would never bbq prawns again! :D The restaurant didn't do a half bad job of cooking the prawns in butter and my friend ate most of it with great relish. :D

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Jurong Prawn Fishing is a great place to chill. However, it can get very crowded after 7pm, esp on a Sat evening. Lots of uncles and aunties there and some of them can be really friendly - they offer their catch or prawn fishing tips to the pp they perceive as newbies. The staff aren't as strict as Sin Ming Prawn Fishing about returning the rods on time but the catch rates while decent fall short of Sin Ming's (click here to read my experience prawn fishing there).

The Tao Fighter: Woochi

It was a toss up between this movie (The Tao Fighter: Woochi ("TTTW")) and an English movie showing at the same time but since my movie companion was more enthusiastic about the former and I lukewarm about the latter, we watched the TTTW with about 10 other pp in the whole cinema. I guess Korean movies aren't very popular where we watched the movie at. At first I thought that there weren't any subtitles but sandwiched between the Malay words and Chinese words, and flashing by too quickly to be read were, thankfully Eng words. Or else, I think I would have left the movie halfway instead of suffering through the movie. But as it was, understanding 30-40% of what the characters were saying/doing was enough for me to sit through the movie.

You can read what the movie is about clicking here.

The Slog Reviews: 6/10. The last Korean movie which I watched (Chaw) and reviewed was marginally better. Although the special effects in TTTW beats those in Chaw handsdown (the goblins morphing and the multiple Woochis), I would give this movie about the same score because I didn't like the weak storyline, the, as my movie companion would call it "Korean comedy" and a "hero" whose acts of heroism are dependent on talismans. The characters failed to inspire, to touch, to emotionally connect and worst, to even spark any laughter. Ah well.

Eging / squid fishing with a squid jig

I was introduced to eging (Squid fishing with a squid jig) by my fishing shifu. The first time I tried eging was at an island off Mersing where we stood waist deep in the water casting and retrieving the squid jigs for about 4 hours. I didn't catch anything (erm, which was quite depressing) while my shifu caught about 8-9 pieces in all. So, one night this month where we were fishing at our secret spot and he had suggested baiting (to my surprise but he being the expert would know what fishes take lures) and a sotong took my bait TWICE. Despite my best efforts to bring in the sotong (the second attempt we saw the white body of the sotong rise to the surface), because I was using a single hook (with a prawn attached), there was no way to set hook deep enough to bring the sotong in. My shifu told me not to waste time trying to get sotong with the setup.

So, the next weekend when we went there, we brought some squid jigs. My shifu landed 6 pieces in succession after his first fish (he caught that using another method (not using a net of course)) and I, as usual, came up empty. My shifu taught me how to work the squid jig (the triangle method) and although after about an hour where I alternated between despair and hopelessness, I just kept at it, remembering the 10,000 hour rule. AND, then on my Xth no of cast and retrieve, I felt the jig get stuck at the buttom on the way back. For a moment I thought that my jig had sungkot again (stuck in/on the rocks at the bottom). I pulled harder and the "stuck feeling" disappeared but my rod (soft tip) was still bent with the weight of...something.

Totally excited, everything I knew about fishing left me and I was yanking upwards on my rod like a fool as if that would bring the sotong to surface - can you believe it, I forgot to work the reel! It was only like a full minute later that I realised what I should have been doing and reeled the sotong in and landed it! Here's a pic of my first sotong caught on a squid jig.

The squid jig that landed me this beauty is a yo-zuri squid jig size 3.5. It cost RM 20 (about SGD 8) - well worth every cent! I had learnt from previous fishing trips and all that one should always change jigs and I had changed between 3-4 cheaper (exori and surecatch brands) and smaller (size 2.5 to 3) jigs before opening up this yo-zuri one. My shifu told me that even the SGD 2 squid jigs work well enough to catch these sotongs but I guess he must have forgotten I don't have the level of skill that he has! In the hands of a master, miracles happen. In my hands, I need the best I can afford to get unfortunately. Here is a close up picture of the beauty, note the green eyes (why do squids have green large eyes - scary!) and the tentacles which are used to grasp its prey and pull it towards the mouth ( a beak which can give you a v painful peck so I read.)
My shifu returned after that from where he had gone to and we went to another area to fish. He hooked a todak but because of the shape of the mouth, it was impossible to land the todak (we were more than 4ms above the water level). My shifu gave me all the catch of the night which I swear, was a nightmare in all sense of the word. The squids/sotongs had so much black ink that the pail I put them in was stained black and when I put them in the kitchen toilet to wash them before I could put them in the sink, all the squid ink made such a mess of the walls and floor! I had to clean the walls and floors after that! Here is a picture of the catch for the night! My shifu told me the next night he returned and wiped out even more of the sotong clan - more than half a kilo worth of sotongs!