Friday, August 01, 2008

Jolene Restaurant 2008

Last Friday we had a family dinner in Kuala Belait to celebrate a birthday and a "birthday".

These two birthdays were actually my mother in law's birthday and my father in law's anniversary since he retired. While at first my mother in law surprised me by suggesting that we have Japanese, she then changed her mind and decided on Jolene Restaurant.

The only Chinese restaurant in Kuala Belait which they approved of - and where we had my father in law's birthday dinner last year.

I am beginning to think that we are the only family who always dine out early as everywhere we went - especially in Bandar Seri Begawan - the restaurant is always empty when we arrived. And when I commented on this, my husband will always replied, "What time is it now..." - and true enough, an hour later there would be more people.

But is 6.30 - 7.00 pm really that early for dining out?

Anyway, this time I requested that we pre-order some herbal chicken soup. And later at the restaurant, the two birthday couple ordered sizzling deer meat, winter melon shoots and bean curd.


The vegetable was not popular though because I thought they were a bit old and tough. Also it's more sayur kampung than typical Chinese dish so the others were not very keen on it. The bean curd was good.

And I am still amazed that we can get deer meat so easily here in Brunei as this is one of my favorite dish.

But these days, I have extra cravings for noodles and maybe that was why although the customary noodle dish for birthday very delicious, my portion was seriously pathetic and I could have eaten much more.

As for the highly anticipated herbal chicken soup. Total letdown. There was no herb smell and no herbal taste - basically it was not brewed long enough. Did not deserve a picture at all.

As usual, this was a favoured dish and they ordered it again - and it did not disappoint.

Well, it had better not disappoint because this was the most expensive dish - for those two slices of steamed cod fish!

Our total bill this time was below $150 (after some birthday voucher of 7% off) and was actually cheaper than last time - which was a whopping $200.

Because my two girls were so ready to sing the birthday song - I was told that while I was in the loo with Eu - Qi had been warming up with her songs a few times as soon as the cake was on the table.

So it was no surprise that their voices were the loudest when we finally had the sing song - and do you need to ask who helped to blow the candles? My nephew did not stand a chance - and luckily it was not his birthday!

We would like to think that the staffs were "entertained" by the girls antic - especially Qi who was tired and was extra boisterous...

It was another good birthday dinner outing.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 16:00:26 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Watercress In A Chinese Soup

I developed a love for herbal soup when I worked in Keningau and there was one restaurant which always serves bowls of ready-to-eat "tun tang".

This was where I learn of ginseng soup, peanut soup and watercress soup.

Back in Sabah, as far as I know, watercress seems to be considered a low rank vegetable, not the kind you'd find at supermarkets. My mother used to get ours from those roadside stalls in Tambunan or sometimes Kundasang and I've grown up eating this vegetable cooked in soup and stir fried - the Kadazandusun way.

The funny thing is, my Kadazan family calls this "Sayur Hong Kong" or "Tan Choi", names which my Chinese family found strange. In fact, my mother in law refers to it, to me, as "watercress" and until today, I don't know its actual Chinese name!

But names aside, I get my stock from Supa Save which offers imported watercress, definitely not like those found on the Tambunan roadside.

And from my mother in law, I learn the proper way to cook this soup to get maximum taste and nutrients.

The taste actually comes from stalks so this is the part to slow cook with meat (either pork ribs or chicken) and dried red dates or Chinese wolfberries (salt to taste) for a few hours.

When its ready to be eaten, remove the stalks and put the watercress leaves for only few minutes (to retain its nutrients) and serve the soup!

This is a "cooling" soup so it's perfect after a hot day.

If you have never eaten this vegetable, read its nutritional values or try this detox recipe and keep a look out for restaurants or food stalls which offers this soup.

I'm sure you'll love it too.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 17:34:13 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Singapore : Bugis Village Hawker Food

Because we made it a point to return to our hotel in the late afternoon to let the kids rest, we usually have our dinners around the surrounding Bugis area.

One of the evening, we walked along Queen Street towards Bugis Village and saw a few open air food courts. But the one we chose to dine at was at the side of the largest street shopping in Singapore, Bugis Street.

Outside this building was another Four Faced Buddha Altar (which interest me) and a Mitsubishi Evo IX (which interest my husband).


Interesting sights for me and him at Bugis

As for the foodcourt, I was surprised that it was pleasant and cool inside despite it being open air. It was also good as it was not too busy and if there is one thing that I dislike about Singaporean food court is that, you have to wait in front of the stall for your food to be cooked.

And only once was I told to take-a-seat-first-and-I'll-send-the-food by the hawker.


I had my only Singaporean chicken rice here and also something which I am very fond of lately - chinese dumpling! The stall where I got mine sell theirs at $4 for 10 pcs. I didn't really fancy the sourish mango sauce but the dumplings were delicious enough and panfried just the way I like it.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 17:01:04 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Eve Dinner

Part of my parents in law Chinese New Year shopping routine was to get roast chicken and roast duck from across the border city for our reunion dinner.

But this decades old tradition was broken this year with news of an even stricter border checks and so for perhaps the first time after many years, we had home roasted chicken and duck for our recent reunion dinner.

My father in law decided to cook the duck this year and our kitchen sure smelled so good the whole afternoon as the duck was being roasted.

Since I have the double-barrelled reasons of being busy with the kids and having not much interest in the kitchen, the food was prepared by my in laws - single handedly.

Roast duck, roast chicken, roast pork, "mah kui" (our special family springrolls) were all prepared in addition to our steamboat - and you can imagine our table groaning under the weight of all those food!

Being an aspiring chef, my father in law even took the trouble to garnish all the dishes :


Even without the steamboat, the table was already full

And my mother in law, immediately assigned me the job to photograph our lovely albeit 90% meat dishes!


So much meat!

I didn't much of these meat as I was more into the steamboat - I could still taste how good my soup was with sliced cili padi that night...
Posted by JeWeLLe at 22:55:45 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, February 01, 2008

Nam Wah For Breakfast

One of our Saturday morning routine since Eu started school, was to have our breakfast in town.

And one Saturday, we decided to try out the breakfast fare at our favorite Chicken Rice kopi tiam (this is where we always get ours). I've never had breakfast here and since my husband assured me that they do serve the morning diners, we decided to give this place a try.


One good thing about this place is because it faces the car park, parking is a breeze and there are days when our ol' Seria town can be very busy.

And because it is quite a small place, with only about 40 seating capacity, the place always looked busy and there are times when we had to cancel lunch here because there are no more seats. But despite the small place, you'd be surprised with the number of very alert and efficient (in all my experience) waitresses this place has. Is it any wonder that even though its rather basic and non-air-conditioned, it has been steadily operating at the same location for at least 20 years?

Of course, we love their chicken rice too.

I was a little adventurous on that day and without thinking twice, decided to order the first thing that came to my mind - "wah tan ho" which meant kuay tiaw in egg gravy (?).



Of course, it was too heavy for breakfast and although it was tasty albeit a little too salty, my husband very kindly swapped with his. Now I know what to order and not to order for breakfast.
Posted by JeWeLLe at 14:29:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, December 17, 2007

Tuaran Mee

On Sunday, my friend and I drove to Tuaran town to meet another friend and dropped by the town for the famous local fare, Tuaran Mee.

This coffee shop that we went to was at this block of old wooden shoplots which despite being slightly rundown, looks more interesting than rest of the new concrete shoplots around it.


My friend told me that this outlet is supposedly where Tuaran Mee originated from.

As you know, this thin and flat noodle known as Tuaran mee is available throughout the state although to be honest, I'm not sure what is so special about it besides the unique shape of the noodle.


When we reached the place at 11 am, it was quite full and although I was not too enthusiastic about the condition inside the shop, I was keen to find out the taste of the original Tuaran Mee.


My friend commented that she tasted better Tuaran Mee elsewhere. I actually prefer this as the taste is not too strong and much like the Seria ko lo mee which to the unseasoned tongue will taste bland. Besides you know that most things that tasted especially well are usually because they are heavily seasoned with MSG.

So in short, I like this Tuaran Mee.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 23:31:51 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Seria Mee Is Not Longer $1.50

Since it's a Saturday, I thought I'd let you in on our Saturday family ritual.

As with most of our neighbours, it is my parents in law's weekly ritual to go to the Saturday "tamu" (open market) at the Seria market ground. Of course it doesn't only involve shopping for fresh produce but perhaps, most importantly, it's an opportunity for these old folks to exchange news with their friends.

In fact, we often get news of faraway friend's courtesy of their parents sharing the news with my parents in law as well as other community news - all from the Saturday "tamu"!

After the "tamu", most of these shoppers would either have their Saturday morning breakfast in town. My parents in law however would buy take-away packets of noodle and these are our expected breakfast for nearly every Saturdays.

Last month, I got to know from an indignant Nonnie that the price of this noodle has increased by 30¢.

This to me is only fair since the last price hike was more than 10 years ago and besides, since the Seria mee stall operaters moved to the new building, they had to pay a higher rental fee.

Well, Seria folks who are overseas, that well known Seria mee is now selling for $1.80. 

Posted by JeWeLLe at 15:03:36 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, October 26, 2007

Beans At Thiam Hock

When I am in the mood for Chinese food, one of my favorite place is of course, Thiam Hock.

The food arrives fast and rarely disappoints, pretty wall decorations and the of course, this is still the only place I've ever been to that has a fish aquarium in their ladies.

So last weekend, when we were in Gadong - before the dangerously nearby salmon-related place is mentioned - I quickly asked for Thiam Hock. Besides it's been a while since I last had their fish head curry and this is one dish that I can crave for once in a while.

However this time, there was a new addition to their appetizer. We're not sure what these are and we didn't try it either! Anything to do with raw green beans are not my kind of thing!



As for the rest of our dish, we had the usual :



There is no way will I go to Thiam Hock without their fish curry!


Did I ever say how surprised I was when I first came to Brunei and found that deer meat is not exotic and can be found in most Chinese restaurant? Unlike in Sabah then? I'm not sure about now - but back then, if you have a hankering for deer meat (which I do sometimes), you have to know the right places and one of them was the Gunung Emas stopover (halfway between Penampang and Tambunan) - which was also a spot for other exotic meat dishes, then.

Well, as for our Thiam Hock visit - it satisfied my curry craving for the time being.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 23:40:26 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) |

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Jolene Restaurant

Did you know that one of the perks that special bank account holder gets for their birthday is a gift voucher that amounts to B$50? One of the local establishment that accepts this voucher is the Jolene Restaurant - or more commonly known among the Chinese as "Chuk-Ling" - in Kuala Belait.

So that was where we had our dinner to celebrate the patriarch's birthday recently.

Jolene is on the second floor - see the pretty red lanterns outside their window?

Jolene is perhaps the best Chinese restaurant in KB according to my family since the 11° Sports Cafe is not really to their taste, while Cottage Restaurant and Min Fang Restaurant have not been in the short list for years when we're deciding on restaurants for family dinner.

When we were there a few Saturdays ago, it was raining heavily and the place was quite vacant. The place is small and there are perhaps only 8 tables, big and small, to accommodate perhaps 50+ pax at one time.

We thought since it was a rainy night, it would be a quiet night. How wrong we were when the place filled up in less than an hour! So nobody minded the rain after all.

I didn't managed to take much pictures because the lighting was poor and although my family is used to my photographing our dishes - in fact even MIL told me to take a picture of a particular dish - I was a bit shy about using too much flash.

We had the usual Chinese fares - fried noodle for longevity, fish maw soup, mixed vegetable with what-looked-like ham, claypot dish, deep fried prawns and sizzling ostrich meat. The ostrich was good and I thought it tasted no different from deer meat.

Eu, predictably exclaimed "Euww! I'm not going to eat ostrich meat! I want them as pets!" but she did finished her share and proclaimed it delicious.

We also had one special and very expensive dish which MIL thought probably costs as much as their gift voucher :

Steamed Cod Fish : MIL insist that I photograph this

We've always had good impression of the food here and on that night, we were not too disappointed in terms of taste. The fish was tender and fresh - fish lover would definitely like it.

But at B$200 for those 7 dishes including drinks, wet tissues, peanuts etc, I thought it was quite expensive.

I think my more penny-saving banker was also not too happy that the receipt did not give a cost breakdown - especially for such a big amount.

Anyhow, the food was good, the environment was cosy and the service was prompt.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 15:50:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Teo Chew Restaurant

We had dinner at the nearby Teo Chew Restaurant recently and this place still amazes me.

For such an eatery that is really out of nowhere, the food that they have here are on par with any good restaurants in the country. The selections are great and the quality is quite impressive for such a simple place.

My two brother in laws couldn't make it for the dinner so we ordered individual rice dishes :

Rice With Spare Ribs In Plum Sauce
Rice With Butter Prawn

Since the nearest town Seria is about 15 mins away, our community in Lumut and Sg. Liang (a neighbouring suburb) are not more used to going out much at night - unless if one is young and single and bored to death at home, I guess!

That is, business at eateries around our community are rather quiet at night.

However, Teo Chew Restaurant, although never jam-packed, always has their share of customers even for night dining which I think really says something about their dishes. Check out the dishes we had for one of our earlier trip here.

So if you haven't been there, you should give it a try.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 00:18:16 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |
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