Dining With Jewelle

A few weeks ago, we decided to have lunch at the Hua Hua Restaurant in Kiulap.

This is one of those places which suit our taste buds when it comes to Chinese dishes and especially dimsum. The only reason why we are seldom here is because we rarely come to Kiulap.

Besides there is the attraction of the Escapade just a few blocks away.

I knew that Hua Hua is one of the old restaurant in Brunei as it is one of those chicken rice place frequented by my family in law in the olden days when making shopping trips to Bandar Seri Begawan (from Belait) - besides another restaurant called Thien Thien which according to my husband, still at the exact same spot since 20 years ago.

But I never expected that Hua Hua restaurant has actually been around since 1953 - as printed on their blind!

This Kiulap branch is of course only several years old and despite their basic Chinese non-fancy decor, the food is good and weekends is proof of its popularity.

These last few months, I am especially partial towards fried noodle and I adored theirs. Even the look of it could already make me salivate.

The carrot cake which we ordered was delicious but it was spicy. Eu loved the “siew mai” dimsum and I don’t remember what Qi-the-picky-eater enjoyed - if any.

I do however remember her, as usual, monopolizing the waitresses attention without doing nothing more than smiling at them and saying “hello” once in a while.

If only she eats as much as she flirts, I know that she will surely be one bouncy fat little girl.

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.

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.

One of the benefit of having native Iban family as one of our neighbour is that we get items that are not common for typical Chinese family.

Such as the homemade loofah - which was actually a new discovery for me too.

The most interesting “gift” was perhaps the wild boar meat which are commonly found in this part of Brunei and was given to us by our neighbour a few weeks ago.

Being exotic (read : not something my Chinese family would voluntarily buy from the market) my mother in law had quite a challenge figuring out how to cook it. She fried some with soy sauce, bean paste and garlic which turned out popular - until she announced its origin and even I felt a little squemish (for no reason!).

Then just the other day, she cooked a curry out of it.

One of the thing that we like about Singapore (as tourist) is getting basic stuffs and food is not a problem at all.

As you know, we went to Singapore a few weeks ago. On the first night after we arrived and as soon as we checked into our room, my husband went for a walk to find the nearest 7-11 convenience shop.

At 10 p.m.

In less than 30 mins, he came back with some magazines and packets of food.

In 30 mins!

Apparently, our hotel was connected to another hotel called Allson Hotel on Victoria Street via the second floor and outside this other hotel was a 7-11 store on one side and a food court on the other side.

Because this food court was so close by, we regularly bought food from here for tea time snacks and the one Indian food stall there served dishes that suits my taste bud - even Eu loved their Garlic Naan bread (even though she hates garlic). My husband also bought me Bak Kut Teh from one of the stall here but it was terrible - all I could taste was white pepper.

This place seemed to be packed every night and I like the Four Faced Buddha altar that is in front of the food court - which on this trip we saw two.

The only time when we actually went there to eat was on Easter Sunday after Church. The place was empty and some of the stalls were closed as this is a 24 hours joint and I supposed, those are the night time operators.

The stall that we picked specialises in “Specialty Noodle” which my husband ordered. But we didn’t see what was so special about it except that it came with huge fish balls. I ordered the “Laksa” and I thought it was good but my husband thought the coconut milk overpowered the rest of the taste.

This place also have dim sum stall and one stall looks like it serves the full range of a typical Chinese restaurant. I don’t know if I overlooked it, but I didn’t see any stall that sell chicken rice or herbal soup here.

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

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…

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 (?).

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.

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. 

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!

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.

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