Yummylicious Nails @ HRH Nail Studio

I have been frequenting this new nail parlour called HRH Nail Studio as they offer really great value for money manicure and pedicure services. Currently, they have 3 branches - Section 14, PJ; ss2, PJ and Section 17, PJ.

Their nail art are affordable (starting at RM20 and above for a whole set) and they are willing to draw whatever you want...let's say u saw someone's nails online...all you just have to do is send them a message with your nail art choice a few days before you go in for appointment and they will customise the nail art for you. You can also choose from the many nail art designs in the nail art magazines.

Here are some of the designs that I have done with them recently.

Ultra-Delicious looking, aren't they? The 10 fingers nail arts + manicure + pedicure and 2 more nail arts on my toes cost me around RM120 to RM130.

Bunny Goes to Penang in Aug 2010

It's time to revive my dead blog...*CPRs* the blog....here I am propped up with a badly twisted ankle...can I only settle down to blog.

The Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival or "Phor Tor" happens around the 7th month of the Chinese Calendar and this is when the gates of Hell opens and the ghosts get a month long holiday to roam around. The peak day happens on the 14th day of the Ghost Festival month. If you go around the neighbourhoods, you will Chinese families praying by the roadside or just outside their house gates. By praying, they usually offer food and joss sticks to feed and appease the hungry ghosts passing by and in a way asking them to not disturb the occupants of their house.

I went on a crazy weekend with a few friends to Penang in August for the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival. It was a 2 day 1 night excursion and the reason being that Penang being a small island and more Chinese-fied is more focused on the dying Chinese arts of celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival. They have schedules of traditional Chinese operas and puppet shows. The shows in KL and PJ mostly show scantily clad babes performing to appease the more modern ghosts and horny human males.

We stopped at Ipoh's Foh San for brunch but I really have to admit that the dimsum standard has gone downhill. This was my favourite...the Chives Prawn Steamed Dumpling.

We reached Penang just in time for lunch and our guide cum driver took us to Penang Street to have the famous Cendol, Assam Laksa, Prawn Mee (Penang Mee) and Char Kuay Teow. I was pleasantly surprised at how they serve the Prawn Mee. Unlike the reddish broth I get in KL/PJ, this was came in a very tasty clear prawn broth. It was so delicious that we ordered another bowl.

1st Bowl....

2nd bowl

Then we tried the Char Kuay Teow....it was yummy also...

Lastly, we finished off with the Asam Laksa which was served in a clear broth as well...it was very delicious as it was just the right tangy sweet salty taste. What I didn't like was the fish was all minced at the top, I would have prefered some bite-able fish pieces as well.

I can't remember how much exactly they cost but they were expensive for the small servings.

After that, we checked in to Tune Hotel. My recommendation is not to stay there. Although they are clean but their walls are so thin and not soundproof at all. We could hear our next door neighbours talking, the people outside walking on the corridors...u get the idea? Being a no-frills hotel and after all our add-ons, I could just paid an extra RM50 more to enjoy more comfort and privacy at Berjaya Penang Hotel instead.

We rested for a while before meeting some Penang photographers for dinner. They took us to Macallister Lane for delicious Kuay Chap. What is Kuay Chap? They are actually internal spare parts of pig and in this case, duck as well cooked in a broth and served with flat rice noodles...."Kuay" is the flat rice noodle simmilar to Kuay Teow...and "Chap" means mixture of stewed organs or spare parts.

It was like tasting heaven...!!! So delicious and well prepared. You must go around 6.45pm to enjoy this dish and they are usually sold out by 8pm!

Please keep an eye out for this stall and his loads of innards....very delicious...

Such a huge bowl of stewed pork intestines...well cleaned too...

A huge bowl of pig ears and snout....yummy.....

My bowl of kuay chap with duck meat and coagulated duck blood....next time i will just call for chap....I was also suprised that the broth was liquid and not starchy like the ones I ate in Singapore. You cannot find Kuay Chap in KL or PJ...or maybe is because I don't know where to look....

My most favourite dish....a plate of sliced pig ears...non fatty and full of collagen

After such a wonderful dinner, we set off to look for some opera sights. It was my 1st time watching an opera close-up and I was so surprised that it was in Cantonese. Usually, the operas in Penang are in Mandarin or Hokkien. The title of the opera was Golden Phoenix, The Lady Bandit. In short, it tells of a righteous lady bandit who steals from the rich and helps the poor. She meets the incognito Emperor of China who has lost power temporary due to his evil relative. The script was very funny as the performers have inserted modern terms into the script as well.

Here are some scenes from the opera...

We didn't stay for the entire show as we were tired. It was an eye opener experience for most of us.

Next day, we had dimsum in Penang but it was only so-so and cannot be as tasty as Foh San in Ipoh. Here are some of the stuff that was offered from the dimsum trolley.

After Breakfast, we went to Khoo Kongsi. It was a meaningful visit. The Khoo clan house praying place was very meaningful. Each decoration on its wall depicts a moral value story. The paintings of deities on the walls are at least a century old. There were also secret compartments on the staircase for luck and fortune. Too bad I don't own a wide angle lens...it was truly a beautiful sight and I hope to visit there once again.

If you looked properly, there are also Gurkha statues within the walls and surroundings of the clan house. This is because back in those days, they already believe the power of Gurkhas in providing safety to their clan house. There are also carvings of many animals admist the clan house with each character giving a different meaning of luck, prosperity, strength and other good values.

Notice anything different of the picture? There are actually swallow heads embedded in the chinese character

This window has the literal meaning of "Wishing You" .... or in cantonese, "Chuk" - Bamboo; "Fook" - Bat

and next to this window was this carving...which carries the meaning of "Peng Onn" or Peace/Safe Life. "Peng" is depicted by the flower vase and "Onn" means stuck on the wall. So the whole meaning is "Wishing you a safe and peaceful life".

We met Bee Yong and her bf (now fiance) and they took us for very delicious fish head curry and other dishes for lunch at YMCA.

After seeing Bee Yong and Fiance off, we went to Spice Garden and Teluk I-forgot-the-name. After that, we left Penang at 4pm...on the way back, we were hungry and stopped by one of Ipoh's oldest restaurant - Hoong Tho for dinner. The deep fried fish wantans were spectacular as usual and we ate heartily.

Freshwater Prawns Yee Mee. The Yee Mee was delicious as it was deep fried in fresh oil and didn't have that aftertaste of rancid oil. The Prawns were fresh and succulent.

Hoong Tho's signature fish paste dumpilings. Light and crisp and bouncy freshwater fish paste was used.

My favourite "Gui Fa" noodles...I prefer the Yee Mee version more though. This dish was using glass noodles. Full of wok-hei....nice :)

After dinner, we headed back to PJ. It was a nice trip but if I were to do it again, I would opt for at least 3 days 2 nights trip instead of weekend trip.

Bunny Eats Bak Kut Teh @ Teluk Pulai, Klang

After the highway was completed, we finally can eat our favourite BKT again in Teluk Pulai. Yummy!!!

We ordered soup and dry bak kut teh for 1 person portion each. I really love the dry one here as it's so flavoursome and the soup's not bad...but I prefer a herbier tasting soup base.

As usual, when our rice comes, we'll load it up with fried onions and pour a ladleful of soup on it.

A plate of blanched veges to decrease our sinfulness...

It cost us around RM30 for this satisfying meal.

Bunny Eats Steamed Fish @ Lan Jie, Kota Damansara

Hunny's family and I made a visit to Lan Jie (the famous Lan Jie in Rawang)'s branch at Kota Damansara. We arrived there quite early at 11am plus and the 2 shoplot restaurant was half full. We sat down and placed our orders of fried wantons (don't order as all u'll get are deep fried wanton skins!), 3 x 400grams fish, and a plate of veges.

There were 4 of us and by right, we should get a 4th fish but Hunny wasn't a fan of steamed fish and he shared the fish with me. The fish comes in many sizes but my Hunny's sister insisted on the 400g one. She made a good choice.

It took a good hour for our dishes to arrive as apparently, the fishes are only slaughtered when we place an order. By the time our dishes arrived, the restaurant was fully seated with a waiting queue outside!

The steamed fish was delicious. There was no fishy or muddy taste to the fish. The ginger and soy sauce based topping was perfect and the fish was steamed till just right.

After eating this fish, my tummy felt so nice, warm and cozy. Is it worth the wait? Yes, it is! The bill came up to about RM60 plus which was ok as we had other dishes too.

Bunny Makes Express Dried Tomatoes...

I really really hearts hearts hearts sun dried tomatoes. They taste so exquisitely flavoursome and the chewy texture really brings the food it's been paired up with to a higher level of blissfulness. The tartness yet caramelized sweetness goes well with sandwiches, pasta, pizza, breads and many more stuff. However, the price for sundried tomatoes in Malaysia is really expensive ranging from minimum RM12.90 onwards for 100 grams!

Luckily I was reading a food blog and came across a recipe for homemade dried tomatoes using the oven. I would like to thank the flogger behind The Hungry Caterpillar for highlighting the recipe out from Flavours Magazine.

I was afraid to buy too many tomatoes just in case the recipe turned into a flop. I bought some plum tomatoes, cut them into half and deseeded them. Other recipes in google highly recommended Roma tomatoes as they are meaty and tastes the best. I will use Roma tomatoes the next time I do these oven dried tomato beauties.

 
Next, my condiments include Olive Oil, Black Pepper, Mixed Herbs and salt (not shown).

Mix in the olive oil, dried mixed herbs (they provide a more intense flavour than fresh herbs), black pepper and salt. No exact measurements as I used my instincts. The salt is added to help draw out moisture from the tomatoes faster.

Then line the tomatoes on a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 220 degrees fahrenheight or 100 degrees celcius. Put in the oven and start your timer. Smaller tomotoes require about 5 to 6 hours of slow roasting whereas the bigger tomatoes will require 7 to 8 hours in the oven.

After 1 hour in the oven, the tomatoes start to loose its juices and become wrinkley.

After 2 hours, they look like this...

Then disaster struck! My mum thought it was a waste of electricity to use the oven for so long and she decided to help save some time by putting the tray on the top most shelf whereby the heat is the hottest. My poor tomatoes were charred before they lost enought juices... :(

Always maintain the tray in the middle rack whereby the heat is more evenly distributed. My tomatoes were pre-maturedly roasted and I had no choice but to stop roasting them and I took them out...after only 4.5 hours...

Sigh..sigh..sigh...but what is done is already done. The rich smell of roasted tomatoes fill my kitchen. You have a choice of peeling off the skin or leaving them intact. They are easier to peel off when they are still warm. I left some on and peeled the blackened ones off.

Here are some of the ready ones. You can store them away in the freezer as it is or bottle them up in olive oil. I chose the latter as the former have a higher chance of going mouldy due to our humid weather here in Malaysia.

I filled up the jar...it's only a small jar. So my next tryout, I will use triple to quadruple of what I used this first time so that I can make more using the same amount of electricity.

This is after I filled it to the brim with olive oil.

My next attempt, I will add 1 to 2 whole cloves of unpeeled garlic for a more flavoursome oven dried tomatoes saked in olive oil. Stay tune for my yummy BET (Bacon Egg Tomato) sandwich made with herb bread.