Dee Nasi Kampung, Pumpong Alor Setar

Alor Star views

I came back to Alor Setar (AS) on 31/12/08; my father was scheduled for a minor surgery at Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah on 1/1/09; because of his age he was admitted to the hospital on 30/12/08 and the operation date was on 1st Jan 09. He was admitted earlier because he has high blood pressure and doctor need to make sure he's fit for operation.

Views from my father's ward

However on 1/1/09, his blood pressure was 220 and the operation was cancelled. He's still at the hospital as his bp is still unstable. They'll only release him and schedule another surgery date once his bp issue is addressed.

Food? Well I love Kedah food - prepared by kedahan and cooked in Kedah :-) Had an enjoyable dinner prepared by my sis-in-law - Kedah Laksa, sambal belacan (prepared by my niece), Ikan Masak Asam (Fish cooked in tamarind sauce), Ikan masak sambal (fish in chilly gravy), sayur sawi mustard leaves) and fried fish. Simple and tasty.

For lunch the next day 1/1/09 we went to Dee Nasi Kampung (my fav restaurant whenever I'm in AS). For me all their dishes are tasty. I packed these dishes back - fried chicken with honey (my nephew loves this so much that he asked my sis in law to cook the same dish again for lunch the next day), fried chicken, fish head curry, salted fish curry, bamboo shoot curry, fried salted fish, asam pedas keladi, vegetable soup with fish balls, grilled catfish and ulam. Only RM88 and can feed 20 hungry diners! For location refer to google maps below.


View from the back of the restaurant (left), Dee's lunch spread

Malay salad spread (ulam) - top left paku rawan, bottom left jantung pisang, bottom right kerabu daun selom and top right daun putat and lettuce.

Salted fish curry (left) and fish head curry (right)

Fried chicken (left), Ikan masak lemak cili api (right)

Our lunch for today - fried chicken with honey, fried chicken with batter, chicken curry, ulam, stir fried mixed vegetable and hati masak lada (cow's liver with black pepper sauce).

Dishes were prepared by both my sis in-laws - DELICIOUS!!! Sorry no pic, too busy eating he he.


View Larger Map

Other bloggers' view on Dee's

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298282-d815918-Reviews-Dee_Nasi_Kampong-Alor_Setar_Kedah.html

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/3/30/sundaymetro/20757111&sec=sundaymetro

http://specialgift-emil.blogspot.com/2008/07/dee-pumpong-nasi-kampung-restaurant.html

http://asiavalley.com/MalayCuisine_Wheretoeat.htm

http://geniomalvado.blogspot.com/2008/07/pumpong.html

E san Kitchen Taman Seputih

Few days back my ex-boss texted my ex-colleague NMM, suggesting dinner with his family. He invited 5 of us and only 3 could make it as the other 2 had other things planned.

We met up at TH's house in Bangsar and NMM picked us up. It was quite fast to get to Old Klang Road from Bangsar, I know that we could cross Tmn Desa to get to Tmn Seputih but tonight we couldn't find the right turning, in the end we decided to use the 'straight forward road' and headed to Jln Syed Putera and then headed towards Tmn Seputih.

My ex-boss gave quite a good instruction and we managed to find the place - it is called E San Kitchen a Thai restaurant. My ex-boss and his family were already there when we reached the restaurant.

We were served pandan flavoured water when we sat down and the waitress kept on topping up the drinks through out dinner - I don't like it. I prefer plain water ha ha. According to my ex-boss they served different kind of food from those we normally sampled in KL.

My ex-boss then proceeded with our order - fried egg salad, grilled haruan fished (grilled with lots of salt), tempura kangkung (not sure what the menu called it but looks like tempura to me), fish cakes, green curry (beef) and minced chicken salad. I didn't look at the menu but I supposed my description is closed enough to what was described in the menu.

Well...my ex-boss was right, the food was certainly different from what we normally called 'Thai food' - the dishes were on the sweetish side, I guess E San is like Thailand's Terengganu...you know? I mean Terengganu folks love sweetish dishes ..:-). But I'm sure NMM begs to differ, she's from T'ganu and she's not a fan of sweetish food.


Fried egg salad - basically fried eggs tossed with lime juice and fish sauce and topped with tomato and coriander leaves. Pretty dish. Taste? sweet...


Grilled haruan fish - big fish! surprisingly even though it was grilled with lots of salt, the fish was not salty at all. Why? they removed the skin covered salt before serving the dish. The fish tasted ok to me but the sauce (served separately).. again on the sweetish side.









Tempura kangkung - well..deep fried kangkung in batter...also served with sweetish sauce (served separately).









Green curry - the beef slices were tender, quite nice but the gravy...you guessed it..sweetish!









Fish cakes - not bad at all, chewy and we can taste the herbs blended with the fish..so far my fav dish here.








Minced chicken salad - well the name described it quite well, minced chicken tossed with fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and garnished with thai basil leaves...



Finally dessert..basically same base ie cooconut milk but with different filling - water chestnut, cendol, tapioca, yam, pumpkin and few other varieties. We ordered 5 different varieties. Actually I like the dessert - not too rich, not too sweet...

What do I think of the restaurant? Hmm...I'm from Kedah and I like spicy and hot food (cili padi hot), so I guess for those who can't tolerate hot and spicy food this is the place for you to sample Thai food without sweating buckets......:-)

I can't find any blogging about this place except here http://preciouspea.blogspot.com/2008/11/e-san-kitchen-taman-seputeh-kl.html . Better pictures here and complete with address and map.

Seafood Stall Jalan Imbi revisit

Ha ha I just visited this place on 23/12/08 (5 days ago) and today 28/12/08 I'm back here. Last visit, I visited the place with my nephew after my visit to Dr Ting (btw the black spot on my cheek just dropped off yesterday while washing my face).

Well today I visited the place with my dearest bf. Well he was not feeling well and asked me to fetch him from his house, so I did and we drove to Jln Imbi.

We sat down and while waiting for the waitress to take our order we could here shoutings from the next table. The diners from the next table feasted on seafood and just walked away without paying! the stall owners kept on shouting after them to pay up but they just walked off! Bad bad bad men tsk tsk. I guess the hawkers should demand for payment upon delivery of food...quite a lot of opportunists out there....

As for us..Well today we ordered kam heong crabs, mussles, fried rice and spinach and for drinks we ordered coconut and bottled water.


How much? My bf paid and I didn't notice how much he paid. The mussels were big and juicy and tasty...but the sauce a bit watery. The crabs...hmm don't really like it. We can taste the curry paste (not cooked long enough) and quite salty too. I guess the cook was distracted by the non-paying customers. Poor man...We tried his sweet and sour crab before, tasted much better than tonight's kam heong.

Portion quite big and we couldn't finish the crabs and we tapau (packed) it back..

As per previous posting, I couldn't find a lot of blogging about this place...strange though I noticed lots of diners everytime we visited the place. Last night we were there about 10pm and they already ran out of prawns and siput sedut (snails)...


Update 10/3/09:
Finally found what others said about this place:

1. http://cher-ry.blogspot.com/2009/01/seafood-at-back-of-imbi-road.html
   
2. http://facekraft.typepad.com/thefacestyler/2008/07/sea-food.html (with map)

how to get there - the food court is sited between Jalan Padang and Jalan Walter Grenier. You'll not miss it, from afar you can smell good food and you can see big flame when the cook is working his magic http://maps.google.com.my/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=136,+Jalan+Imbi,+Kuala+Lumpur,+Wilayah+Persekutuan+55100+

Santai Restaurant and Café , Taman Tun Dr. Ismail

I don't cook..well I cooked once in a while if I feel like it but I don't really know how to cook small portion, so when I cooked it will be a lot and I'll keep the leftover in the fridge and I don't have to cook again for days......:-)

Sometimes my bf feels like eating home cooked meal and I'll cook our dinner but most of the time we eat out...Santai is one of our fav eateries. They serves typical Malay-Thai food - tomyam, kerabu mangga (mango salad), Ikan Tiga Rasa (Fish with 3 types of flavour), Ayam masak halia (chicken cooked with ginger), sambal petai udang (prawn & petai sambal), paprik dishes, fried kailan with salted fish etc.

Those that I listed? well..those are what we normally ordered. Their tomyum - one of the better ones that I tasted in KL.

I used to frequent their branch in Tesco Mutiara Damansara when it was one of the stalls at the food court (now they operate full fledge restaurant inside Tesco complex); the stall was always full with diners queing for their food...so when we found their outlet (or rather parent co) in TTDI, told my bf the food in Tesco was good so TTDI must be good too. Since then, we frequented the place whenever we feel like having hot, freshly prepared dishes (well when we are hungry and can devour a cow or two ha ha).

The price? well not that cheap..more expensive than than those street stalls but the place looks clean and the food is tasty....so we don't mind paying a little extra.

Images from http://www.rasarasa.net/articlePrint.cfm?id=14878

Others' take on Santai:
http://juliansi.blogspot.com/2008/10/santai-taman-tun-dr-ismail.html
http://www.lessthanten.net/2007/07/17/37/
http://epicurious.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/santai-restaurant-cafe/
http://cal-san.blogspot.com/2007/04/santai-taman-tun.html
http://food.malaysiamostwanted.com/venues/santai-restaurant-and-cafe-malay-taman-tun-dr-ismail-kl
http://juliansi.blogspot.com/2007/03/santai-taman-tun-dr-ismail-kl.html
http://food-4-thot.blogspot.com/2007/03/santai-ttdi.html
http://forum.fooxion.com/index.php?showtopic=280
http://www.rasarasa.net/articlePrint.cfm?id=14878
http://www.hmetro.com.my/Current_News/myMetro/Sunday/Ekspresi/20080727112152/Article/indexv_html
http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2005/07/santai-restaurant-and-cafe.html
http://www.nst.com.my/svcs/forums/fcForum/view_html?forum_loc=382595293069&topic_id=904215677283

Homst Restaurant TTDI

About 2-3 weeks back, my bf n I decided to go for dinner at Santai in TTDI, went there and they were closed!

So, my bf suggested that we tapau food from the pasar malam (night market) instead, we couldn't find anything interesting there as most peddlers were already packing their stuff (well it was already 9ish)...

So, we drove around the area and spotted Homst a chinese muslim restaurant, quite a lot of diners inside (we noticed the place in our previous visits but most of the time the place was empty), anyway we decided to give Homst a try though my bf remarked "I don't think it will be nice, it is probably full because Santai is closed." He agreed to try the place because we were too lazy to drive elsewhere :-)

We ordered 3 dishes - telur dadar (omellette), kangkung belacan (water convolvulus cooked with shrimp paste) and fish head curry. Ha ha the restaurant surprised us! The service was efficient and the dishes were actually quite good though we had tasted better curry at Jalan Pudu. Our lesson for the day...Never judge a book by its cover...in this case never judge a restaurant by the number of diners inside the shop (though most of the time this rule serves us well ie empty restaurants equal to bad food). We'll definitely visit this place again.

Images from:
http://www.backstreetgluttons.com/2007/11/fish-head-curry-kl.html
http://www.saltnturmeric.com/2008/08/malay-styled-omelette-telur-dadar.html
http://morselsandmusings.blogspot.com/2008/06/kangkung-belacan.html

Homst Restaurant
Cuisine: Chinese
48, Persiaran Za’aba, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours: 11.30am to 3.30pm and from 5.30pm to 10.30pm daily
Phone: 03-77280760

Others' take on Homst
http://makanbyte.com/2008/09/homst-a-chinese-muslim-cuisine/
http://www.sitimariam.com/2008/05/homst-kota-damansara.html
http://gom2j2.blogspot.com/2008/05/homst.html
http://mayonnaise-stories.blogspot.com/2008/10/homst-chinese-musllim-cuisine.html
http://my.88db.com/my/Services/Post_Detail.page/food_beverage/restaurant/?PostID=67181
http://shopaholicsinful.blogspot.com/2008/03/lunch-with-bell-farid-shen-homst-ttdi.html
http://aisyahzaini.blogspot.com/2006/06/homst-burger-king.html
http://asnida.blog.friendster.com/2006/10/

Italiannies 1U

Just got back from 1U...guess what I was there for 6 hours! Took my niece n nephew there for lunch...well.. to thank them for fixing my blog :-) the new look? their contribution...

We had our lunch at Italiannies 1U..well really late lunch...4pm! We had Shrimp Aglio (RM26.90), Calamari Caesar Salad (RM25.90), Ice Cafe Latte (RM7.90), Strawberry Colada (RM8.90) & Yellow Birdie (RM6.90) ohh n bottled water (RM3.90).

As the norm here, we were served bread with olive oil/vinegar before the main course....how's the food? Hmm if there were to be an award for most blogged restaurant, Italiannies will grab the first place....no contest. I guess you can taste the food even without visiting the place :-)

Anyway, today was my nephew n niece first visit to Italiannies, so I guess I'll let them review the place..:-)

Hey readers...

It's Croesus's nephew here... Our nice aunt took my cousin and i to one utama and treated lunch at Italiannese... Our first time, but I think my aunt's a regular there... We met up at 4ish, why so late? We had our own adventure of getting to 1U.. Well my house is in U-thant and my cousin's is in Ampang, so we took the lrt to Kelana Jaya(KJ) before taking a cab to 1U... At the KJ LRT station, one cab driver tried to con us... He's asking us RM15 to get us to 1U.. We thought that was too expensive and decided to find a cab that uses meter instead.. Luckily at the opposite side of the road, there were cabs lining up and we managed to find one that uses meter... We told him about the earlier encounter with the cabbie and the RM15 fare, he laughed and he said it was a normal thing... The fare was RM7, half the fare of the earlier cab..

Once we reached 1U, our aunt called and told us her location.. We checked the directory and found the place, without realising that our aunt is trailing from behind... We thought that she was already in the restaurant...

It's already 4 and our stomachs are already growling, and after we had our seat, we discussed on what to order... The waiter served some bread with balsamic vinegar+olive oil while we were discussing... We were so hungry that we cleared the plate in seconds... Ha ha..

The waiter took our orders and we chatted as we waited. Waa, the service was super-fast, beverages arrived and followed by the food, in less than 10 mins..

The moment of truth... First up, the Caesar's salad... The appearance is quite bland and normal like any other salad, but with some calamari on top... The taste? Quite good, the leaves are crunchy, the dressing not too wet, just as i like it and the calamari, very crispy... There's some artichoke present, my first time having it, so jakun rite... Ha ha but it tastes like pickles to me.. All in all, it's a very well put salad and great for starting a meal...

Up next, the Shrimp Aglio... Looking very tasty, with plump juicy shrimps lying on top of the pasta bed... Some contrast from the olives and tomatoes really magnified the fantastic appearance of the pasta... And for Italiannies virgins, note this: the servings are not to be eaten alone... So single guys & ladies out there, bring some company so you won't end up bloated at the end of your meal... Ha ha ha... Now for the taste, the pasta was cooked al dente, just right... And the shrimp, tastes fresh and juicy... I like it that they are not too oily... Just enough to bind the flavours altogether...

We gobbled down the food as if there's no tomorrow... Ha ha it's already 4 and we haven't had our lunch.. So you know the drill... Take a peek at the clean plates below... ha ha proof of how hungry we were!"

My cousin ordered the Yellow Birdie.. Which to us tasted like 100plus + pineapple juice... A bit on the sourish side.. I had the Strawberry Colada, basically a banana-strawberry smoothie... It's fragrant and smooth.. As for our lovely aunt, (have to suck up so get more treats) an iced latte... A normal iced latte... My aunt is totally a coffee person.. No wonder for her choice...

My aunt asked whether we would like to have desserts.. We check up the menu, but the desserts doesn't look very good.. Cheesecakes and chocolate cakes... We decided not to have any... I think if they have some ice-cream it would be very nice...

After the enjoyable meal, we walked around 1U and played tourist... The Christmas deco was very enchanting... Trees, trinkets, snowflakes... The atrium at the Oval was decorated in 'Alice in the Wonderland' theme, with playing cards, hedge mazes and characters from the fairytale... Looks so whimsical.. Especially the main Christmas tree display, it was very large, white and sparkly... The extravagant-costume-clad characters staged a mini-performance (lip-syncing to be exact) and gave out free candies to the children.... After a few sessions of snapping pictures, we went to tapau some chicken wings at Chilis.. Unfortunately, the place was filled with throngs of diners, and we cancelled our plan and decided to go home...by the way our dinner? fried kueytiaw, fried rice n fried mee from a stall in Ampang called Cangkirr...cool name huh? The drinks? fresh orange juice, neslo and apple juice. How much? RM25.00.

All in all, it's a very enjoyable outing... Thanks to our aunt for the meal... We love you!



What others say about Italiannies:

http://www.barghers.com/archives/2008/12/italiannies-the-gardens/
http://kampungboycitygal.com/?p=421
http://blogs.setupiak.com/dianne/index.php/2008/11/30/the_ugly_truth_of_what_happens_when_ital
http://ping.sg/item/Italiannies-The-Gardens-Mid-Valley-City
http://kimiessu.livejournal.com/171241.html
http://wordpress.com/tag/italiannies/
http://ieatclub.com/italiannies-828/review.htm
http://j2kfm.blogspot.com/2008/04/italiannies-curve-kl.html

http://bryanlyt.com/2008/11/13/nuffnang-sharing-session-italiannies-the-gardens/
http://www.superwilson.net/2008/11/nuffnang-sharing-session-italiannies.html
http://www.shun2u.com/2008/08/nuffnang-sharing-session-italiannies.html
http://rojaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/italiannies-mama-miaaaa.html

http://simonseow.blogspot.com/2008/11/italiannies-gardens-mid-valley-city.html
http://bearbee-foodstop.com/?p=113
http://wanderinggourmet.net/?p=270
http://azlan.anilezfa.com/early-dinner-at-italiannies-the-curve
http://www.foodpoi.com/2008/05/italiannies-at-1-utama/
http://www.hot-screensaver.com/2008/04/07/italiannies-one-utama/
http://food.malaysiamostwanted.com/venues/italiannies-the-gardens-mid-valley-city-lingkaran-syed-putra-kl

http://ipohwav3.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/birthday-bash-part-1-pre-birthday-celebration-italiannies-the-gardens-mid-valley-city/
http://www.weatethis.com/2007/12/16/italiannies-italian-food-pasta-pizza-and-salads-the-curve/
http://vortrack.net/2007/12/christmas-eve-italiannies/
http://jasonmumbles.com/2007/12/italiannies
http://randomalphabets.com/?p=89
http://blog.benghan.com/2007/08/italiannies-1-utama/
http://www.kennysia.com/archives/2007/05/cheesies_birthd.php
http://cheeserland.com/2007/04/my-best-birthday-in-italiannies/
http://klpeopleklfood.blogspot.com/2007/03/italiannies-one-utama.html
http://www.malaysianbabes.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t11900.html

http://www.celineyap.com/notebookv2/2006/11/08/dinner-at-italiannies/
http://3meals.wordpress.com/2006/11/05/italiannies-pasta-pizza-vino/
http://cheeserland.com/2006/09/italiannies/
http://limmeiyen.blogspot.com/2006/07/italiannies-da-curve.html
http://danielyc.com/?p=145
http://kucailiah.fotopages.com/?entry=812164
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderinggourmet/3009643875

http://www.dinemalaysia.com/rest_italiannies_thecurve.html
http://forum.fooxion.com/index.php?showtopic=58
http://www.friedchillies.com/fc/forum/threads.php?id=1306_0_2_0_C
http://www.waisikkai.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=48
http://wp.peachjon.com/edition_2004_06/2005/02/italiannies-pasta-pizza-and-wine.html
http://asmafood.fotopages.com/?entry=434515

and many more....

Halal restaurants in Brisbane / Gold Coast

Image from http://www.freekoalapictures.com/wallpaper/3.html

G'day mate!! Did you guys watch Food Safari on channel 707 (Astro)? Amazing isn’t it? I mean the varieties of food/restaurants that Australia has to offer.

I guess Australia is one of the ‘western’ countries my parents do not mind visiting – not that far and halal food is easily accessible.

Now, with Air Asia…..so much better :-) Say, you book now for travel plan to Brisbane/Gold Coast in May 2009, the fare (rtn) is RM1,867.00 nett per pax. Hotel? Hmm depends on where you want to stay…cheapest USD82? Look around for bargains online. I used http://www.asiarooms.com/australia/brisbane/cbd-area.html?sort=rates&extraSortRate=80-120%20US$ for my travel before and their price can be quite decent (depends on when u book).

Gold Coast – Brisbane not that far about 45min-1hr drive (80km).

What can muslims eat in Brisbane? Well your choice - indonesian, malaysian, indian, turkish, middle eastern, mediterranean, portuguese fast food (Nando) etc.

If you wish to cook, plenty of butcheries selling halal meat around.

Excerpt from http://www.qut.edu.au/about/lifebris/lifebrisint/intfood.jsp :
“…Off-campus Brisbane has many cafes, restaurants and food outlets providing food from all over the world. Halal food can be purchased in many grocery shops and butchers around Brisbane. Chinatown in Fortitude Valley is only a short distance from the Gardens Point campus. Here you can find grocery stores that sell Indian, Fijian, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Malaysian, Japanese, Filipino and Thai goods.”

Excerpt from http://www.wayn.com/travel/guide/Australia/t2014318-Brisbane_hotels_restaurants_photos_reviews_nightlife_clubs_flights.html
“Brisbane is a nice place. hope to be there again. but things is as a Muslim it's so hard to get the Muslim halal food. I couldn't accept the Kebab and falafel all the ways. But overall Brisbane has lots of interesting and good spot of sight seeing compare to Perth, Darwin or Adelaide...”

Excerpt from http://syafisafiya.blogspot.com/2008/12/halal-food-options-while-having-fun.html
“Since we had lots of fun during our trip to Gold Coast recently, we would like to now share some information regarding halal or Muslim dining options available. In Australia, getting halal food is not difficult, and almost every shopping centre or area provides this option, but the menu is usually confined to kebabs, Indian food and Nando's. Thankfully though, these options are tasty and delicious to eat!

Amazingly, both Sea World and Movie World have restaurants which are halal certified. The menu ranges from fast food (imagine eating a halal chicken burger in Australia) to a la carte dining. Both the theme parks offers international menu including Asian selections. Really good news for Muslim Asians like us!”

Excerpt from http://www.qibt.qld.edu.au/index.php/about-us/testimonials.html
“The lifestyle in Brisbane is friendly, the shopping hours are different and I tried lots of new food. There is plenty of Halal food available for Muslims in Brisbane.”

Excerpt from http://emilahud.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/hanya-ada-satu-merek-roti-halal-di-australia/
“….Roti putih yang seluruh kandungan bahan tambahan pangan dan bahan utamanya diyakini kehalalannya itu adalah roti putih merek “Coles Smart Buy” (White Bread). Demikian hasil survei mahasiswa program doktor bidang sains pangan Universitas Queensland (UQ), Hoerudin (Dede).”

Excerpt from http://www.adsafrica.com.au/institutions/GriffithUniversity.cfm
“Most types of food are available in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, including Halal food. There are plenty of places to shop for food or eat out.

For example, Queen Street Mall in the city offers a diverse cluster of restaurants that offer modern Asian, Australian and European menus. The Mall's eateries are open very late and are licensed. The large indoor/outdoor dining areas promote a vibrant cosmopolitan vibe having everyday prices and niche bars and pubs.”

image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Street_Mall,_Brisbane

Excerpt from http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/668672
“staying 4 nites in GC is a waste of time...i would advise you to stay 2 nites in Gc, 2 nites in Brissy, 1 nite in Outback ( out site of Brisbane ) and 1 nite in Sunshine Coast. GC, brissy and SC is within 100 miles radius so getting a car is useless....and might land into trouble...aussie is very strcit abt the road....take public transport instead..it's very very very convienent and very punctual...they even have GPS install in the busses to tell the exact time of arrival and delay.”

Good choice for revising your plan...but actually no point taking car in Brissy....just take the train from GC to Brisbane...and wahlaaa!..u in the city centre already.....

my recomendation for places of visit?

GC

- Habour Town ( ultimate shopping paradise...nike is so cheap here an still in fashion for malaysia )
- Dream World / Movie World ( u can't finish both in one day, so i were u i dont bother to go )
- Surfer paradise
- ripley's Believe it Or NOT
-Redcliff
- Jupiter casino ( if u need some pocket $$$ )

Brissy

- OUTBACK ( never go never been to Sunshine State )
- brisbane Bronco Stadium ( Rugby way of life in aussie )
- Lone Pine ( world largest Koala Santuary )
- Queen Street mall ( shopping shopping )
- SouthBank ( nice park )
- Mount Cootha ( nice place to over look brissy )
- City Cat ( Nice Boat ride along the river, and it;s cheap to ride along )
- Treasury Casino ( nice to lose some $$$ here, u will know what i mean )
- Sunshine Coast


Images from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_meat_pie and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamington

Halal food in Brisbane (Queensland)
http://www.halalfoodbrisbane.com/
http://www.eatability.com.au/au/brisbane/cuisine_features/halal_food.htm
http://www.ourbrisbane.com/food-and-drink/cuisine/Halal%2BRestaurants
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1430/halal.html
http://www.queensland.com.sg/iss/singapore/experiences/food-&-wine/halal.cfm
http://www.qguide.com/story/brisbane/Mecca-Bah.php
http://www.menulog.com.au/browse/halal/brisbane_qld/brisbane_qld_2
http://thelocaltourist.com.au/seq/Dining_Out/Middle_Eastern.htm
http://ausis.org/v3/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=48
http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26203
Bombay Dhaba(West End) (Indian) - www.bombaydhaba.com.au
Bombay bliss - http://www.totaltravel.com.au/travel/qld/brisbanearea/brisbanenorthernsuburbs/directory/restaurants-cafes
Halim’s Indian Taj http://www.vervah.com.au/Brisbane/Restaurants/Restaurant/347/Halims-Indian-Taj-Restaurant.html
Little Malaysia http://www.bestrestaurants.com.au/restaurants/QLD-Brisbane-littlemalaysia.aspx
http://www.qldmuslims.org.au/modules/xdirectory/singlelink.php?cid=179&lid=1545 – this diner has a very bad experience with Shahi Thali

Halal butcheries in Brisbane (Queensland)
http://www.startlocal.com.au/retailfood/halal/qld_brisbane/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080601043737AAZ5vNH
http://www.aussieweb.com.au/directory/directory.aspx?cid=3989&lid=60002
http://www.crescentsofbrisbane.org/the_good_caterers_guide.htm
http://uk.holidaysguide.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-82458-halal_butcher_poultry_brisbane-i

Madrasah / Mosques in Brisbane (Queensland)
http://www.qldmuslims.org.au/

Halal food Gold Coast
http://www.eatability.com.au/au/gold_coast/cuisine_features/halal_food.htm
http://www.gcfoodguide.com.au/index.cfm/page/restaurant_detail/id/335
http://www.gchalal.com/Default.aspx?tabid=173&action=cat&parentID=10 – restaurants certified halal by Gold Coast Halal Certification Services

Tips
Australia halal info http://www.islamicport.com/australia.html
Halal thread http://muslimvillage.com/forums/index.php?s=f6db3fba7c53de67a0a25e9f7a56315f&showtopic=38338&pid=764161&st=0&#entry764161

Brisbane Tips
http://www.synergylyn.com/2007/11/my-brisbane-and-gold-coast-experience.html
http://www.ourbrisbane.com/see-and-do
http://www.brisbane-australia.com/things-to-do.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g255068-Activities-Brisbane_Queensland.html
http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/destinations/brisbane/things-to-see-and-do/things-to-see-and-do_home.cfm

Image from http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/3a6127/

Gold Coast tips
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/holiday/top-10-gold-coast-activities.html
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Australia_and_Oceania/Australia/State_of_Queensland/Gold_Coast-1875847/Things_To_Do-Gold_Coast-TG-C-1.html
http://www.verygoldcoast.com.au/
http://www.gold-coast-australia-travel-tips.com/best-time-to-visit-gold-coast.html

List of halal eating places in Queensland
http://www.visit-queensland.com/iss/emerging-markets/travel-info/mosques-and-halal-restaurants.cfm
http://www.zabihah.com/ls.php?id=171
http://www.pakoz.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=138

**Bonus links - while surfing for halal places for Brisbane/Gold Coast, I stumbled onto these sites:

List of halal eating places in Sydney (New South Wales) & Melbourne (Victoria)
http://www.studentservicesdirect.com.au/halal.aspx

Halal food in Sydney (New South Wales)
http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/cuisine_suburb/?action=home&url_landing=cuisines&url_region=sydney&url_criteria=halal

Halal eating places in Melbourne (Victoria)
http://www.mycen.com.my/malaysia/restaurant_overseas.html
http://yourrestaurants.com.au/cuisines/melbourne/halal/

Halal eating places in Canberra
http://canberra.citysearch.com.au/restaurants/1137463436760/yarralumla+halal,turkish+pide+house

List of halal eating places in Australia
http://www.afic.com.au/Halal%20Outlets.htm

If you don't fancy any of the restaurants listed above, you can try vegetarian restaurants:

Vegetarian
http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/cuisines/brisbane/vegetarian/
http://www.vegsoc.org.au/restaurants_category.asp?RestaurantsCategory=Brisbane&vegetarian=False
http://www.happycow.net/australia/queensland/brisbane/index.html
http://www.brisbanecitylife.com.au/bcl/wand-vegetarian.htm
http://www.brisbanegovindas.com.au/
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2748712-pu_kwong_vegetarian_restaurant_brisbane-i
http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/Australia-Vegetarian-Restaurants/Brisbane-Vegetarian-Restaurants.htm
http://www.veggieplaces.co.uk/vegetarian_restaurant_brisbane_au.html
http://www.vegguide.org/region/199
http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/Australia-Vegetarian-Restaurants/Gold-Coast-Vegetarian-Restaurants.htm

Seafood Stall Jalan Imbi

Yesterday I took leave to go to Ting clinic at Jalan Imbi. Nothing serious, I just had this irritating bump on my cheek which I hope Dr Ting can fixed. Guess what? Reached the clinic at 12 noon, my number was 80. The receptionist told me to call at 5pm just to check if my turn is almost there or not (but she mentioned most slightly you'll be attended to at about 7pm). Anyway, took my number and went to my bro's house at Jalan U-Thant to wait there.

Reached his house and film crews were busy shooting at his house (outside the house)..ha ha he's a happy man now, he has been earning side income for allowing film crews to use his house as their studio of sort.....I think so far 5 films (tv drama) used his house........and counting, more are making enquiries and arrangement....

Anyway, I had free lunch yesterday since the crews had their own caterer and provided food for the house owner too. I always thought (from tv shows), that the actors and crews will enjoy lavish food - buffet style.....but their lunch actually was quite simple - yeterday they served sambal tumis sotong (squid in spicy sauce), gulai ikan kering (salted fish curry - Kedah specialty, I guess special request from the crews because I heard lots of them conversing in Kedah dialect), kangkung belacan (water convolvulus with shrimp paste) and rice! A simple fare (according to my nephew, that's how they eat everytime shooting is in progress). Taste? Quite delicious actually.....:-)


Images from http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd183/ixora_xr/masakan/100_3360.jpg and http://bestfoodnetwork.com/blog/clay-pot-loh-shu-fun-mama-kitchen-restaurant-ttdi

Anyway, back to Dr Ting story, I called the clinic again at 6.30pm and told them I'll be there around 7.30pm. Guess what? Went there at 7.30pm and I still have to wait a while, my turn was at 8pm. I asked the nurse "do you close at 9pm?", she said "no, we closed at 6pm but if we couldn't attend to everyone on time, we'll close after we finished with everyone." My consultation and procedure only took me like less than 10 minutes! Cost me RM90.00.

After the clinic, I remembered a great seafood stall just behind the clinic (food court opposite Bintang Palace night club, not right in front, the other one, the one you've to walk in slightly (if you remember one case about travel agent who ran off with their clients money? opposite their office - Wisma Excellence, 28 & 30 Jalan Padang Walter Grenier, Off Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur).

This place is one of our fav places (my bf and I), we always have their garlic prawns, lala and sometimes siput sedut or crab (that's all that the stall has to offer - you just order prawn or whatever but they only serve same style of cooking - you can't be asking I want prawn cooked in A style or B style or whatever, you eat what the cook serves you). To accompany the dishes, normally we'll order fried rice and drinks from other stalls. Ohh the operator is actually a husband (cook) and wife (waitress) team (they've indon helper too)...it must be the heat...every time I visited the place, the couple will never fail to provide 'entertainment' to diners....they shout to each other, sounded like fighting (and nagging) but I guess that's how they communicate with each other....:-)

Anyway, last night I ordered prawns (garlic prawn) and siput to tapau (pack) back. Not cheap, both dishes cost me RM50.00. Actually, wanted to let my sis, bro and nephew to try the food. They love it. But for those who hate garlic (vampires?) this is not the place for you.

I didn't take pictures, but here are pictures from http://beloudandheard.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html.