Review: Penang Farlim Shell Station Laksa

I went back to Farlim, Penang for the famous laksa there once again today. It was introduce by one of the forumer, kenkan73 from BolehVpn forum.



The laksa here are also quite different from other famous laksa in Penang. Most of the famous laksa in penang, the soup will be full of minced fish. However, for this, the soup does not have as much minced fish as the other, but instead, they give you the whole fish. It's one whole "ikan kembung" for each bowl of laksa!!! I never see any other shop/stall offering this type of laksa before!

The laksa is really really good, it's one of the best Penang laksa that I eaten before! I really love the soup, and the "laksa noodle" too. Some place the "laksa noodle" is hard and crunchy, which I don't like, but this one is the type of "laksa noodle" that I love.

My rating "Penang Farlim Shell Station Laksa": 7.5/10



Look at the huge fish!!



Besides the laksa, they also sell "fried popiah". The "fried popiah" is already very nice itself, but if you dip it inside the laksa soup and eat it, the taste is even more awesome!! A must try besides the laksa here.

My rating "Penang Farlim Shell Station Fried Popiah": 7.5/10



Notice the big steel tray? Inside it is full of "ikan kembung" for the laksa!!!



Overall, I love the laksa and "fried popiah" here. Everytime I think of eating laksa at Penang, I will come to here and eat, until someone recommend me other place which are better and I will go try. :)

Total damage:
"Laksa" - RM3 for each bowl
"Fried Popiah" - RM1 for each

Going down KL tomorrow !!

Am going down KL tomorrow for few days until Monday. Anyone want to catch up with me just give me a call. :)

Still no car.....

Until now I still can't get my car although the salesman promise me that I will get my car by Friday, but today already Friday liao, and yet I still bo car, which means, I will have to delay my KL trip to next week already :'(

Reasons given was that the AP was sent to their shop on Wednesday, but they waited it for whole day yesterday and it still haven reach. Without the AP, they can't proceed for registration at JPJ....sigh....sad case...

I really need a vocation, why o why.....

Review: Seaside Lok Lok at Chai Leng Park

What makes a "Lok Lok" good? First is of course the variety of food available and the freshness of it. Second will be the sauce available for us to mix with our food.

The sauce available always play the most important role for "Lok Lok", and it's the thing that will bring customers come back to your shop again. Therefore, here I recommend all of you to the king of "Lok Lok" - Seaside "Lok Lok" at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth!

Seaside "Lok Lok" is quite easy to go. After you pass by Pacific Megamall on your right, go straight down until you can make a U-Turn (over a flyover). After that turn left on the first junction you met (you will see a sign board saying turn left into Chai Leng Park). Go straight for awhile, and on the 3rd junction turn left, go until the end turn right and right again, you will reach a whole strech of street selling all kinds of food. Seaside "Lok Lok" is the second stall selling "Lok Lok" at the street.

First, I would like to apologize for the poor picture quality, as I didn't thought of reviewing any food today. I and my parents are just going to Prai area to see some sofa, therefore I did not bring my digital camera with me, and the pictures taken are using my iPhone only. However, I find that it's a sin if I did not recommend this food to everyone, as it's really the best "Lok Lok" I ever had. Besides, this is also the first food I gave a 10/10 rating in my review!

My rating "Seaside Lok Lok": 10/10

Don't go to the wrong kampung, this is the one that are famous! The other stall selling "Lok Lok" are just beside it, and usually that stall don't have much customers.



Look at the variety available to choose! You can choose to deep fry some of the dishes available there, and they will fry it for you free. If you don't know which one tastes better for deep frying, the owner of the shop will recommend you too!



Pardon me, I never thought of reviewing a food when I am out today, therefore I only take it after I almost finish the food. On the left is deep fry prawn, mantis and pork ear. Right side is prawn and cockles.



As most of the stall selling "Lok Lok" only offer 3 to 4 types of sauce, Seaside "Lok Lok" offer a total amount of 7 type! And each of them taste differently, and all of them taste great!

1st picture: Satay sauce, Spicy satay ikan bilis(taste something like that), Tom Yam


2nd picture: Thai spicy, Spicy thai lemon - both are my Favourtie!!!

3rd picture: Some sort of satay sauce (difrent from 1st picture), Normal sweet sauce




Besides of just having "Lok Lok", I also order some "Hokkien Char Dai Luk Min" from a nearby stall, which also taste very very good! Although it only have some squid, chicken and prawn as it's ingrident, but it's seriously good, especially if I mix it with the sauce for the "Lok Lok". The "Hokkien Char Dai Luk Min" also have loads of "fried pork oil" which makes it taste awesome!

My rating "Hokkien Char Dai Luk Min": 7/10



Overall, I will not only revisit this shop whenever I got a chance, I will also recommend this "Lok Lok" to everyone I know!!! Great place to eat, and not to mentioned the service is good, and the owner of the shop is very friendly too! :)

Total damage:
"Lok Lok" - RM39.80 for 3 person
"Hokkien Char Dai Luk Min" - RM7 for 2 person

Review: G.Tiang Steam Dua Ban

G. Tiang "Steamed Koey Teow", or Choy Dua Ban (read in Hokkien) is one of the famous food at my hometown. The shop name is G.Tiang Restaurant, located at a small town called Bedong, at the Sungai Petani district in Kedah.

Although the shop been there for years already, and I already heard of it's name for quite some time, but I only had a chance to eat it this year after my friend pin pointed the location to it, and since then I been there for 3rd time already.

I saw that this shop have the "3 layer milk tea", which is the current trend of my hometown now. It was invented from one of my mum's friend's father, and my mum highly recommend it. The 3 layer milk tea consists of tea, milk and some special ingrident. I did asked the waiter what was the special ingrident made of, but he also don't know.

The tea turn out quite nice, as compare to normal milk tea it taste better. I can't tell you how it taste like though, as the taste is quite special.

My rating for 3 layer tea: 7/10


At this shop, I of course order the famous "Steamed Koey Teow". The waiter introduce me to add in some frog leg as they are fresh, and so I listen to their advice. With extra ingridents, it really makes the dish more delicious. The soup is way sweeter than what I had last time! I can say I really really enjoy it. It's really one of the better food served in Sungai Petani.

My rating "Steamed Koey Teow": 7/10

Look at the ingridents got in it!!



The fish meat was fresh!!!



And the frog leg were really tasty, the meat is really sweet too.



Another dish I ordered to go with the "Steamed Koay Teow" is the "Taiwanese Sausage with Thai Sauce". It turn out not bad, as "Taiwanese Sausage" generally taste better if compare to normal sausage, as it's sweeter, and meatier. This dish really blends well with the "Steamed Koay Teow".

My rating for "Taiwanese Sausage with Thai Sauce" : 5/10



Overall, I will revisit this restaurant again soon, as I really love the food. One thing about this restaurant is it's quite some distance from my house. Oh by the way, at this shop, the waiter will not come and serve you, but you will have to go to them and order yourself, but what the heck, most important thing is the food is nice!!

Total damage:
Rm26.90 for 2 person

23rd is the day!!!

Woot....23rd is the day!! Woot woootttttt


Latest update: NOOOOOO......23rd might not be the day!! It might be 26th !! :'(

Car No. Plate registration

Today I went to JPJ to register my car plate. This is the first time I do this myself, as normally my parents will just ask the salesman to help us to get a number we want, and he will normally charge us for quite some money.

Upon arrive at JPJ, I went to the counter and get the form to fill in. After that, I was lead to the waiting room to met the officer and choose the number I want.

When it was my turn, the JPJ officer show me a list of available number that nobody choose yet. Many of the nicer number are already choosen. All single digit number, and almost all double digit number are only available for tender. Those double digit number that nobody tender were also being chosen. That left with only 3 digit number. As there are not much choice, I just simply find a number that I like, which is 6xx

I only need to pay for Rm200 for the number, as now the number are still in the 3 digit range. If I were to choose something more than 1000 as my car plate, I will need to pay for RM300.

After that, I went out and wait for my turn to pay and get the receipt. It was a very very long wait, as there are many runners (those people who help others to register their car plate) also in the queue. Some runners got 5 to 10 cars to register with, and it really makes the wait longer.

When it's my turn, I pay RM210 (RM10 for the processing fee) to the officer, and I get my receipt in a while. I need to give this receipt to the salesman that sold me the car, and he will do the rest of the job.

Review: Floating Seafood Paradise

Well well, I will start to review about some nice restaurant, or restaurant that I found worthy to mentioned start from today. Therefore, if you guys got any nice restaurant, please tell me, so that I have the chance to taste more food.

I had went to the Floating Seafood Paradise Restaurant at Bukit Tambun twice before this, and both time the food serves there are really awesome. Therefore, I decided to revisit it once again.



The Floating Seafood Paradise is a big blue building on your left when you are heading towards the dead end of the road. Most people will miss it as although the building is big, but most people will not know that the big building is indeed a restaurant, and the small sign board won't help it.

The main attraction of this restaurant is that the restaurant’s dining area is sitting on a huge man made pond with lots of live fish swimming around. Therefore, it gives you a feel that you are dining on a boat.



One of the main thing you will see at most of the restaurant when you dine in Bukit Tambun is big blue plastic that got live fish,prawn,crab in it. It shows the customer that the dish they serves are fresh!



The first dish that came was the vegetable, "菜丹咸鱼" (Vegetables cook with salted fish). Seriously, this dish is really below par. Well, I can't blame them as they are famous for seafood only I guess.

My rating 菜丹咸鱼: 3/10



The fresh oyster is the second dish that came. Seriously, I can't understand why most restaurant can't serve fresh oyster as their first dish.Fresh oyster is like a appetizer to me, and it should serves well before the main dish come!

And amazingly, for such a dish that needs absolutely no cooking skill, it fails me! Firstly, the size of the oyster is small, way too small for my liking, and most important, the oyster is not really fresh too.

My rating for fresh oyster: 2/10



Look at how small the oyster are!



The third dish that came are prawns cook with white pepper. According to the waiter, they made their own sauce with white pepper, and she recommends us that it's good. And AGAIN, another dish that fails me. The prawn are overcooked, and the sauce is really normal only. Nothing special with it.

My rating "prawns cook with white pepper": 4/10



The next dish are meat crab cook with "kam heong". Well well, another dish that failed badly. First, the waiter says these are meat crab, but the size of the crab is small, and really not much meat on it. Secondly, I find that it's a bit tasteless, but my mum says it's ok.

My rating for "kam heong crab": 4/10



Finally, the dish that keep me coming to the same shop for 3 continuos time at Bukit Tambun, Lemon Steam Fish. Well, sad to say, although this dish is better than the rest of the dish we had, but it's not up to par from what I had ate the last 2 times. It's not as sour as what I had before, neither it's as spicy too. The fish is fresh though.

My rating for "Lemon Steam Fish": 5/10



Overall, I will not come to this shop again if I were to have seafood at Bukit Tambun next few times. I will give other shop a try, and maybe after some time I will revisit it, but definitely not in the near future.

Total damage:
RM98 for 3 person

Decision made!!!

Well, after some consideration, I already made up my mind! Further details will be given when time is correct.

Anyway, the poll had concluded, with RX8 04' wins with 4 votes, and 1 vote each for Mazda 3 and Swift Sport. Lancer are the poor loser with 0 vote.

Anyway, guys and girls, please give some comments about the new blog look, and see how I can improve on it :)

Rx8 or mazda 3 2.0l Sport?

Sigh....choose choose choose...whats your take?

The day of car hunt

Well, since my E46 325i was sold already, and the car will be driven to the buyer this coming Friday, I am in need to find a car fast. Therefore, here I go for a car hunt at Auto City at Juru and Penang Island.



The first car dealer I went to is Mercedes-Benz, as I heard that the new C-class is really a not bad car. The car I saw is the W204 C-Class Elegance. It had a 1,796cc inline-four engine, with a nice 181hp at 5,500rpm with 250Nm usable from 2,800-5,000rpm. However, although the new C-class emphasize on being young, but I just can't have any interest on it. I still don't like the outlook, neither I am impress with the interior. The C200 does not have the substitute for the I-Drive which the BMW E90 offers, and in my opinion, the interior still looks uncle.

Besides the C-class, the salesman also recommend the E-Class as they are doing promotion now, giving a whooping RM50k discount! This is due to the new E-Class is coming out soon, and thus they are trying to sell the car fast. With the discount, the new E-Class only cost RM300k++, which is very cheap considering the BMW E90 323i is already RM275k! However, with only a 2000cc engine which produce something like 180hp++, this car is way under power in my opinion although I did not test drive it.

Therefore, since Mercedes-Benz can offer me nothing interesting at my budget, I decided to move on.


Summary of W204 C-Class:

Price: Rm240k ++
Exterior: 3/5
Interior: 3/5
Power: N/A
Handling: N/A
Conclusion: Ditch it aside



Volkswagen was the second car dealer I went to. I went straight to look on my once beloved Golf GTI and look on it again. As this is the same model I saw before, everything is the same. I still don't like the interior, as it looks very dull. My mum does complain that this car looks ugly and ask me don't get it. I however find that it does have it's own special look. Well, what does woman know about car??

However, at the price of the Golf GTI, I would really get another car. Since besides the GTI, the showroom only have the Jetta, Beetle and the Touareg, I decided to move on.

Summary of Golf GTI:

Price: Rm200k
Exterior: 4/5 star
Interior: 2.5/5 star
Power: 4/5 star
Handling: 4/5 star
Conclusion: No more GTI for me unless a totally new one

]

I give Naza a visit next, and amazingly they got the latest GTR inside!!!! Which is really my dream car, but since it had a hefty price tag at RM650k, well...I just have to work harder.....

So just move on.

Summary of Nissan GTR:

Price: Rm650k
Exterior: 7/5 star
Interior: 7/5 star
Power: 7/5 star
Handling: 7/5 star
Conclusion: Pardon me for giving all high marks, as it was my dream car, and although I did not get a chance to test drove it at all...but I doubt anyone will complain me for giving such high star on it! I dare you!!



After still drooling about the GTR, Audi was the next one. When I reach the showroom, the new A4 was not there. The salesman told me that the car was being test drove, and I have to wait for a while to see it. Therefore, in the mean time, I go have a look at the Audi TT. Although it's the old model, but it still looks good! The TT was a showroom car at Japan, and was manufactured in 2003, therefore they are only selling it at RM180k, while the new one cost RM360k!!

I had a chance to test drive the car, and this is my first time driving a sports car, although it's consider an entry model. The power of the car is really there, and the handling is awesome! A real sports car is really different from all the cars I had drove before. The car really stick to the floor well! However, as it's a old model, I just test it for fun and won't consider it at all.

After a while, the A4 is back, and time for another test drive! The outlook of the A4 is really awesome, especially the lights in front!!!!! Really love those. However, the interior is abit dissapointing, as the A4 also lack the subsitute of the E90's I-Drive.

However, once I test drive the car, god, this car is a beast! Although it's engine capacity is only 1800cc, but it was turbocharged with a Borg Warner K03, giving the A4 have a peak power of 160 horsepower which can be achieved between 5,000rpm and 6,200rpm. You can really feel the power of the car when the turbo kicks in. The Audi A4 is also the first time I drove a turbocharged car.

Besides, since Audi got it own workshop opened at Auto City, servicing and maintaining the car at Northern area is easier now. Therefore, I am seriously considering the A4 as I really love it!!!!

Summary of Audi TT (2003):

Price: Rm180k (Showroom car)
Exterior: 4/5 star
Interior: 3.5/5 star
Power: 4/5 star
Handling: 4.5/5 star
Conclusion: Nope, I won't even get the new TT if I got the money, so no way for this.

Summary of Audi A4 1.8T B8:

Price: Rm235k
Exterior: 4/5 star
Interior: 3/5 star
Power: 4/5 star
Handling: 3.5/5 star
Conclusion: Yes, this will be a great and fun sedan car to drive!



Finally, I left Auto City and went to the newly open Mazda showroom and workshop at Penang Island, and GOSH, my beloved RX8 is there!!! Sparkling new facelift version!!!!

The looks, outside to inside is really awesome. Even my mum loves the car, and well, this car really serves well as a chic-magnet! :D

I got a chance to test drive this car too, and another first for me, to drive a rotary engine based car! Well, the car power is really there, and it also handles well. I had the chance to test drive it for a longer time compare to the other car I tested today, and although the jam at Penang, I still manage to test at some straights at the Jelutong highway. I can say I really fall in love with this car. I really don't know how to type out my excitment when I drove this car, but gosh, it's great!!
I will definitely ditch the A4 to a side if my budget allows me! :D

Forget about reliability as it comes with 3 years warranty from Mazda, and well, since there's a Mazda workshop at Penang, servicing is easy too! I already program my mind to forget about the FC and resale value too.

Summary of Mazda RX-8:

Price: Rm225k after RM15k discount
Exterior: 5/5 star
Interior: 4.5/5 star
Power: 5/5 star
Handling: 5/5 star
Conclusion: A car I will definitely get it budget allows!

Iphone 3.0 OS update!!!

The new iPhone OS is finally announced (before the announcing of iPhone 3Gs actually)

Many of the featured that many of iPhone fans dreams of are finally here (and yes, means we don't have to jailbreak our iPhone for these function already!)

Cut, Copy and Paste which works with all apps. Landscape keyboard now also works in email, notes, and messages.


MMS, which looks so cool with iPhone unique chat style SMS layout:


Spotlight searches all of your contacts, email, calendars, and notes, as well as everything in your iPhone.


Internet tethering where you can share your Internet connection with your laptop with Internet tethering via Bluetooth or USB. It however does requires carrier support, where Maxis are INCLUDED among the carriers, which is a big YES for Maxis user like me. :)



Well, the best release in my opinion of the 3.0 OS is still TomTom, which means iPhone now have the real GPS. It now have turn-by-turn feature in it GPS and text-to-speech to announce directions! It will be available this summer, and will be released with national and international maps. But the big question is still when Malaysia map will be release? Even if it was release, will it be something like the BMW E90 built in GPS that I test drove few days ago, where many area are not covered? Or will it be like Mapking and Garmin which cover more location?

Iphone 3Gs announced !!

Yeah.... the new iPhone was announced at the WWDC2009! :D

New code name, iPhone 3Gs, the s stand for speed. :)

The design is the same though, no matte design, and well, no front camera too!!



However, the iPhone 3Gs does get a camera upgrade, and its now have a 3-megapixel camera. It also have a built-in autofocus and a handy new feature that lets you tap the display to focus.

The camera are also capable of capturing video at 30FPS . Besides, it also have auto white balance and auto exposure.

However, no flash is still useless though.



One of the cool new feature of the iPhone 3Gs is the built-in digital compass. It means it can automatically reorients maps to match the direction you’re facing, which is COOL!.


And well, voice control is also another thing that the past iPhone miss out. But the new iPhone 3Gs got it all.


As for iPhone users, battery life is always one BIG issue if you use 3G a lot! But well, the iPhone 3Gs do have better battery life.



And lastly, the iPhone 3Gs will be launch at 19th June at USA, Canada France, Italy, Spain, UK.

The price is the same with iPhone 3G, which is $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB (Oh yes, iPhone 3Gs got a larger HDD option), which hopefully I am able to buy the iPhone 3Gs at the same price I bought my Singapore set iPhone at Malaysia. :)

BUUUTTTTT................



What the???? Malaysia on the list????????

And on July 2009??? You gotta be kidding, but I will keep my finger cross on it.

Anyway, I am kinda disappointed with the new iPhone 3Gs though. Same design (where is my matt black design?), no front camera, no flash for the camera......

Sigh....

Home cook food....

Well, it's been a long time since I last cook myself, and today is the day I cook all by myself again!

I decided to cook steamed pork ribs with soy bean paste and 油麦豆腐乳.

The steamed pork ribs is one of the easiest dish to cook, and it taste nice whenever my mum cook it.

For the 油麦豆腐乳, it was one of my favourite dish and I will order it whenever I can when I was eating outside. However, at my hometown, most restaurant either they don't cook this vege in this style, or it taste bad. Therefore, although I had no idea how to cook it, and the ingredients needed, I decided to cook myself when I saw it at Cameron Highlands around a week ago.

For the steamed pork ribs, I first seasoned the ribs with light soya sauce, sugar, rice wine, spicy Taucu soy bean paste and cornflour for 2 hours. Just before I steamed it, I put in some oil, garlic and chili.



As it need to be steamed for 45 minutes, I went and watch television while waiting for it.

For the 油麦豆腐乳, it's another easy to cook vege. I started to cook it 10 minutes before my steamed pork ribs is ready. After the oil is heated, I fry the ginger first and then the garlic until the smell of both the garlic and ginger is out. After that, I pour in all my available 豆腐乳 (Shezcuan beancurd with chili and sesame oil) into it. After that, I throw in all the vegetables into it and stir fry it awhile....Done!!

At the same time, my steamed pork ribs is done too....

Steamed pork ribs with soy bean paste:



油麦豆腐乳:



And everything on the table:



Everything into stomach!!!!!



And well, finally someone who didn't cook but eat will have to wash everything up... :D



My girlfriend rates the dish at 7/10, while I myself rate it at 6/10. The steamed pork ribs with soy bean paste is not spicy enough, and the pork ribs were not seasoned enough. Besides, the ribs are also not fresh itself too.

For the 油麦豆腐乳, it taste not bad actually, however, it still not up to those I ate at KL. My 豆腐乳 (Shezcuan beancurd with chili and sesame oil) is not enough for me to cook, therefore the taste is not enough.

I will try harder again next time...!! :D