My nephew one-year-old birthday party @ Coffee Obsession, Kuching

So my baby nephew was turning one the other day!

And his parents threw a birthday party for him at Coffee Obsession along Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce in Kuching.

Coffee Obsession is a rather new cafe in Kuching so I guess not many people will know about its existence.

It has a very cozy ambience.

Here's a glimpse of the spread they had prepared for the guests...

And some close up shots of the dishes...

Mushroom Carbonara

Black Pepper Beef

Boxing Chicken

Stir-fried Longevity Noodles

My elder sister is very creative when it comes to meticulous artworks. She spruced up and decorated the place all by herself. For instance, She made this scrapbook for her son,

 some very nice lemon tarts,

Cupcakes, cheesecakes, agar agar,

 and this birthday cake.

 

PEACE!

22 days in Canada: Vancouver

 I was in Canada in early June 5 years back with my family. We departed for Kuala Lumpur from Sibu at 7 in the early morning to catch our next flight, which was in the afternoon to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. From there, we embarked on our long grueling 11-hour flight to Vancouver, British Columbia. The entire flight duration (from Sibu to Vancouver) including two stopovers spanned over 28 hours!

Outside of Vancouver International Airport

My uncle and aunt from Edmonton picked us up at the airport. They would be our tour guide throughout our 3-week stay in Canada.

Outside of Vancouver International Airport

It was already 7 p.m. in Vancouver (Malaysia is 15 hours ahead of Vancouver, BC) but you could still see the sunlight because it's late spring so night fell at 9 p.m. usually. As someone who had to bear with the off-putting scorching hot weather back in Malaysia, I immediately fell in love with the rather mild weather (15 Degree Celsius) in Vancouver. We checked in to Hampton Inn & Suites in Downtown Vancouver and called it a day soon after.

The next morning, we drove around downtown Vancouver before heading to Chinatown. 

Downtown Vancouver

On the way to Chinatown

Chinatown

Vancouver boasts the largest Chinatown in Canada. It is mainly comprised of older generation of Chinese Canadian in British Columbia. On the other hand, the younger generation has been dispersing to other nearby areas especially Richmond over these few years. We did not linger long at Chinatown before heading to Gastown (a designated historic site in Vancouver) which was just a stone's throw away.

Steam Clock

Perhaps Steam Clock is the most prominent landmark in Gastown. It would produce a whistle chime every 15 minutes. This steam-powered clock is one of the few steam clocks around the world which is still functioning to date.  

Our next destination was Grandville island.

On the Way to Grandville Island

Sitting on Grandville Island is a very famous public market, literally called Grandville Island Public Market.

Grandville Island Public Market

Inside, you could find an array of seafood caught fresh from ocean, fruits, vegetables, cured meats, dairy products etc.

Grandville Island Public Market

Well, lastly, speaking of Vancouver, Stanley Park was another highlight. It was regarded as the best park in the world by Tripadvisor in 2013. This renowned public park is extremely vast; taking up a significant portion of the north-west Vancouver peninsula.

On the Way to Stanley Park

On the Way to Stanley Park

Stanley Park has a good panoramic view of Vancouver's high-rise buildings 

Stanley park was so vast that it's almost impossible to stroll through the entire park in one day. There were a few options to travel around Stanley Park, namely hop-on hop-off bus and horse-drawn carrier.

Horse-drawn Carrier

There were some interesting totem poles erected in the park to commemorate the area's first inhabitants but I did not have any photos of them (too bad I was not even thinking of blogging 5 years back). We walked to Lowden's Lookout which was an observation point to take a scenic view of the famous Lions Gate Bridge.

Lions Gate Bridge is a very long suspension bridge that connects Downtown Vancouver with North and West Vancouver. I do not have a photo of it so I just take it from one of the websites out there. 

Photo courtesy of http://thewandererschuckandkate.blogspot.my/

To Be Continued...

      

What did we do in Ipoh?

It was already past midnight ( 3 a.m.) when our Ipoh friend, Jenn suggested an impromptu road trip to her hometown. So, off we, Team Spontaneous went! We departed from KLCC in Men Yew's car. Well, he's not only a seasoned hiker and good swimmer, but also a professional driver! I immediately fell into a deep slumber when the 2.5-hour journey started (I could only fall asleep if the ride was smooth). The other friends, on the other hand, kept engaging the driver in conversation to keep him from sleeping. LOL

We arrived at Jenn's place at 5:30 a.m. Her parents were awakened to a phone call from their daughter, and they were so surprised to see their daughter came back home with 3 little cute boys. Of course, we were kicked out of welcomed into the house (so nice of her parents!). Jenn's mum swiftly neatened up a bedroom for 3 of us to stay in. *Lights off and we (excluding me) could finally get a nice sleep*

We had our breakfast in the late morning at one fairly renowned (not the best according to most food reviews and critics I read from the Internet tho) Dim Sum eatery, Chooi Yue Dim Sum.

Chooi Yue Dim Sum 翠月楼点心  @ Ipoh Garden South

Image courtesy of www.hungrygowhere.my

There were quite a number of patrons on that day (Sunday if I'm not mistaken) but not full to the brim probably because we came a bit late (around 11 a.m.), and there were not many choices available from the Dim Sum menu.

Ernest was excited to indulge in Dim Sum 点心!

There was a trolley carting some Dim Sum dishes for us to pick for. We did not really bother whatsoever and just simply picked a few dishes that came into sight since we would have lunch at Jenn's parents' restaurant after that.
 

I have to say that we did enjoy some of the Dim Sum dishes at Chooi Yue like this dumpling

 and this.

CaterBest Restaurant @ Jalan Bercham

We made a beeline to Jenn's restaurant, CaterBest Restaurant after our pleasant light breakfast at Chooi Yue. CaterBest is one of the few certified Halal restaurants serving Chinese cuisine in Ipoh, and it has been in business for over 15 years. Jenn's dad is the chef.

Take a glimpse at what we had! *Excuse my bad photography skill! I was busy eating so I did not make it a point to take decent photos!*

If you asked me if the food was nice, I would probably tell you YES because after all, it's free!


AIS KEPAL a.k.a ICE BALL @  BITS & BOBS, Kong Heng Square

Well, this famous ice ball was literally a huge ball of compressed shaved ice drizzled with flavoured syrup of your choice.

I opted for Sarsi flavour. For the uninitiated, this huge ice ball has a long history in Ipoh, making it one of the fondest childhood memories among the baby boomers and Gen X in the good old days of Ipoh. Today, located in the heart of Ipoh old town (Kong Heng Square), Bits & Bobs brings back the joy and reminiscent of this childhood dessert at the price of Rm 3 each (it used to be 10 sen 20 years back!).   

However, it was nothing too fancy; in fact, it would be quite messy to eat as the ice ball would melt in no time!


IPOH WHITE COFFEE AND EGG CARAMEL CUSTARD

White Coffee is the icon of IPOH! And I urge you all to travel to Ipoh to sip on a nice hot cup of white coffee with old-fashioned toasts by the side before you die! I used to think that people were just exaggerating about how different the white coffee in Ipoh is from other places; but believe me, it's really different in terms of the coffee aroma! *I have no idea where this coffee shop was* By the way, I did not really enjoy the egg caramel custard.

Take a closer look...

That froth tho...


TAU FU FAH @ FUNNY MOUNTAIN TAU FU FAH 奇峰豆腐花

Now, this place is very very famous for their Tau Fu Fah (Soy Bean pudding)

We bought 5 bowls for 5 of us and had it in the car.

Rm 1.20 for 1 small bowl. I would say that it was very nice considering that it had a very nice silky texture, perfect to wash down our meal.
  

Kai see hor fun & Nga choy @ Onn Kee Restaurant 安记芽菜鸡沙河粉

This was our last stop before heading back to Sunway, Selangor.

Another signature dish in Ipoh is Nga Choy Kai (芽菜鸡Bean Sprouts Chicken), but we did not bother to order that when we were here at Onn Kee because we just wanted to have something plain and light since we were still full. So we ended up ordering Kai See Hor Fun (鸡丝河粉 flat rice noodles in clear broth) and Nga Choy (Bean sprouts dressed in light soy sauce as well as sesame oil). This restaurant seemed to be very popular among some celebrities from the film industry but in my opinion, they should improve some of their workers' attitude towards their customers.  

From the left, Jenn and her friend