DAY 1458-1463

 Aug 29 - Sept 3

1) The past few days have been utter bliss. Since coming back, I've been very well cared for by my parents, and I've settled into my new routine back home. It genuinely is such a joy to be back in the environment that I am most familiar with, and to marvel at all the new buildings and shopping complexes. There have been some casualties from the COVID-19 pandemic though; both Syeun Hotel (where I used to go for piano examinations) and Heritage Hotel Ipoh have now closed. On the bright side, many new cafes and small eateries have sprung up, and you can bet your last dollar I wouldn't miss an opportunity to go exploring. 

2) Over the weekend, my parents took me to some of the usual eating spots we used to frequent whenever I return home. These include the stadium, Gourmet Square, and a restaurant whose real name I can't recall but which I've nicknamed "Morning Glory" because one of the stalls sells a similarly named spaghetti dish. On Sunday, my mom took us all to a newly opened cafe called HBR Cafe (Mandarin: 海南仔) which sells authentic Hainanese cuisine. These include kaya and butter toast, glutinous rice, and Hainanese-style chicken chop with rice. I really liked the owner's concept of converting an old single-detached house into a cafe, complete with decor from the 60's and 70's.

3) In addition to the food trips, I've made some short stops at all my old schools, from kindergarten all the way to high school. I stopped by Cator Avenue and Anderson Middle School (my primary and secondary school respectively), before hopping over to Baptist Kindergarten for a quick photo. None of the institutions were open as it was Sunday, but I still managed to get some nice photos in front of my past schools. The only school I haven't visited yet is Tenby International School (where I did my A-Levels in 2014/2015). I'll definitely be looking at making some trips back to visit my teachers, in the coming weeks. 

4) On Monday, my uncle invited my mom and I over for afternoon tea, at Kinta Riverfront Hotel. It was a Merdeka-themed meal, with a lot of local favourites such as roti jala and satay (skewered meat) replacing the usual sandwiches and scones. For just RM38 for 2 pax (or roughly 7 GBP for two), I'd say it was definitely good value for money, not to mention an excellent opportunity to reunite with all my relatives after one long year. In short, I had a really nice time.

5) That's about it for this edition of my blog. Hoping to create as many memories as possible before heading back to my medical programme in the Pearl of the Orient - Penang! Thanks very much as always for visiting, and enjoy the many pictures below. Have a nice day, cheers!

Afternoon tea with my maternal grandmother, my uncles and aunts, and my many cousin brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces - @ Kinta Riverfront

"X" marks the spot - three generations of the Chan family reunited after a year :)

Ten-Good Japanese Restaurant

Ardent followers of my blog will remember how I often visit this Japanese restaurant whenever I'm back on holiday

I tried something new this time - the hamburger steak set!

(as you can see, the set comes with many different side dishes, including miso soup, steamed egg custard, fried chicken (karaage), salad, and dessert)

A very enjoyable experience indeed

My mum brought back some food for lunch today - two different types of noodles (the thicker yellow egg noodles and thinner rice vermicelli) on the left, and some spring rolls (popiah) on the right, complete with some ice cold coffee

Iced coffee

Today my mum made some wonderful chicken rice to go with her equally excellent ABC soup (basically potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes)

Last Sunday, we went out to a restaurant which I've nicknamed "Morning Glory", as one of the food stalls sells a spaghetti dish named as such

I had my usual cheese and mushroom omelette - a staple of mine whenever I come here XD

For lunch, my mom brought us to this new cafe called HBR Cafe - which specialises in Hainanese cuisine

(case in point, this excellent "kaya" pau - sweet buns with coconut jam custard - delightful!)

This is glutinous rice with kaya - other versions serve the rice with chicken curry instead

My mom giving the thumbs up to the dish :)

I tried the Hainanese chicken chop - which infuses a bit of Eastern flair to a Western recipe, for example by marinating the chicken in soy sauce

My dad had the dry curry chicken noodles

This is kaya and butter toast - simple, but goes exceedingly well with a nice cup of coffee or tea!

Back to school! My primary school where I spent most of my formative years

Honestly the colour scheme seems a bit strange to me - when I was a student the school was painted in a nice beige tone

My secondary school - where I spent the better part of five years

With the famous clock tower in the background

The sign (in Malay) reads: To arrive with hope, and leave with success

Celebrating our nation's 63rd Independence Day (Merdeka)

Back to Baptist Kindergarten - where I spent my very early years

It's such a strange feeling to be back here after almost 20 years!

Dinner at Parkson Grand Food Court - this is Japanese style omelette with curry

Breakfast at McDonald's (or as we Malaysians call it - Mekdi)!

Some traditional Chinese biscuits

(we had egg tarts, coconut tarts, kaya puffs, and pork meat tarts)

all washed down with my mom's wonderful "pak kor yee mai" (barley and gingko nut dessert)

A close-up of the delicious snacks

Here at Kinta Rivertfront today for afternoon tea :)

The usual suspects have been replaced - we now have (from the bottom tier: roti jala with chicken curry, chicken and lamb skewers (not visible); mid-tier: grilled salmon  sandwiches, decadent brownies; top-tier: some sloppy burgers!)

Just noticed that the colour of my cup matches my shirt

Very happy to meet up with everyone again :)

Chicken rice @ the Stadium

Some satay (skewered meat - usually served with peanut sauce and accompanying cucumbers/onion slices)

Our very own version of deep-fried prawn crackers, served with dark sweet sauce and crushed peanuts

Lunch at Gourmet Square. I've had the opportunity to sample the chicken rendang set - which comes with two different vegetable sides, a hard boiled egg, and a heapful of pandan rice topped with a mix of curries. 10/10 would recommend

DAY 838-841

Dec 18-21

1) So I'm finally back! It's still such a shock waking up to a different environment, surrounded by my family and familiar sights. As I'm rushing to catch up with my blogs, I'll let the pictures below (and their captions) do the talking. Suffice to say, one of the main attractions in Malaysia (or at least, my home town) is the food, and I've been getting a lot of that lately XD. Enjoy the pics, cheers! :D

What a lovely sign <3

My family orders catering everyday, and this is one of the dinners. Ignore the other two dishes (steamed egg (right) and pork patties (top)), the star of the meal is hands down the "Chai Boey" a.k.a Mustard Green Stew. Besides roast pork belly, the other pertinent ingredients are kiam chai (pickled mustard greens), gai choy (mustard greens), dried chilies, and dried assam gelugor (tamarind slices). I cannot stress how out-of-this-world amazing this dish is, especially when accompanied with a steaming hot bowl of fragrant jasmine rice. It may not look like much in this picture, but trust me when I say this dish is exploding with so much flavour it could power the Saturn V rockets to Flavourtown and back! <3 <3 <3

The new and improved Badminton Courts in the stadium are state-of-the-art impressive!

Just look at how new and shiny everything is ^^

Our fridge magnet collection - with the latest edition (from Belfast - guess which one XD)

Day 2 - Trip to Sushi Mentai - a franchise selling cheap and delicious sushi

(this is their zarusoba - boiled and chilled buckwheat noodles (soba) served on a bamboo basket (zaru), with accompanying mentsuyu sauce (noodle soup base) and garnish.

Again, one of my favourite meals on a hot, summer day (which is EVERY SINGLE DAY in M'sia) 

Different types of sushi, all equally delicious - sorry I've forgotten their names XD

Spade's Burger - originally from Penang, it has been serving affordable 

daily gourmet-quality burgers since 2013 

Presenting the "Dark Knight" burger - pork or beef patty with two fried cheddar crisps and bacon bits, served with their signature cocktail sauce (sweet-chilli mayo), accompanied with a side of crispy fried bacon strips! Is there anything more delectable? Answer: Yes... XD 

With beloved mom :))

What a beauty! ^^

Space Park - recently opened in Angsana Mall (formerly called UO Superstore)

Malaysian flag ^^

Space Park

Fancy an ice-cream at Marrybrown after all that huge meal! Established in 1981, Marrybrown is the first local fast food chain to franchise its business in Malaysia :))

Pasembur (foreground) is a Malaysian salad consisting of shredded cucumber, potatoes, beancurd, turnip, bean sprouts, prawn fritters, spicy fried crab, fried octopus or other seafoods and served with a spicy nutty sauce. On a hot day, you'll want to wash your new erythematous tongue with our famous "cendol" (background) - an iced sweet dessert containing droplets of worm-like green rice flour jelly, sweetened red azuki beans, coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. I usually like mine with an extra serving of pulut (sticky glutinous rice) because it pairs really well with the rich, creamy coconut milk. Literally to die for! ^^ 

Again, everything is delicious but I'd like to point you to my mom's special ABC soup - a nourishing soup cooked with copious servings of potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions and pork ribs/bones. Cooked properly (i.e. with a mother's love for her son who just came back from overseas), the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender, while the soup is as flavoursome as the "chai boey" I described earlier hehe 

My parents and myself in our kitchen :)

Beautiful view of the evening sky, with Bukit Keledang (Keledang Hill) in the background (my dad and I used to hike up there during the weekends - at the peak is the RTM station used for broadcasting)

Those are papaya trees - and the sharp eyed among you will spot the mischievous monkey climbing the tree on the furthermost right of the picture

This is the neighbourhood I grew up with - with Keledang Hill framed by the thick evergreen trees

Day 3 of my return to Ipoh - and we're in Gourmet Square (what a name!) for lunch. My dad is having something called "economy rice" - which refers not to any specific dish in the Malaysian pantheon of cuisine, but rather to a type of food or food stall commonly found in hawker centres, street vendors or food courts. Economy rice stalls typically consist of a glass case containing anywhere from 10-15 troughs of cooked food, including meat, vegetables, eggs, and tofu. Customers select any combination of these dishes, which are served accompanied by a portion of steamed white rice. My dad has gotten steamed minced pork, curried potatoes, a huge dollop of thick curry sauce, and a portion of steamed white rice, served with their complimentary soup of the day. Very cheap (even by our standards) and very satisfying ^^ 

This dish is called chee cheong fun (rice noodle roll) - a Cantonese dish from southern China and Hong Kong. I'll let this excerpt from Wikipedia explain the contents of this dish... "Ipoh, being another food capital of Malaysia, Chee cheong fun is mainly served in two ways, the dry or wet versions. In the "dry version", it is served with bright red sweet sauce and in most cases, chilli sauce as well as pickled green chilli. In the "wet version", it is served with (a) curry with pork rind and long bean (which is what I got here), or (b) minced meat and shiitake mushroom gravy. Both dry or wet versions are topped with sesame seeds and fried shallots."

The bottom pastry is called a "kaya puff" - which is a puff containing kaya - sweet creamy coconut spread made from coconut milk (a.k.a. santan) and chicken eggs (which are flavoured with pandan leaf and sweetened with sugar). The top two pastries are called "curry puffs" - which are small pies consisting of curry with chicken and potatoes in a deep-fried or baked pastry shell. The curry is quite thick to prevent it from oozing out of the snack. If none of this makes any sense, all you need to know is that they are both supremely delicious. Period.

The inside of a curry puff - thick creamy chicken and potato curry!

KFC - nothing to elaborate here as it can be found pretty much everywhere XD

One thing to note is that I've never seen coleslaw as any of the side options in KFC in Dublin...

Secret Recipe - described by Wikipedia as a Malaysian halal-certified cafe chain company established since 1997, but known to me (and other Malaysians) as a purveyor of all cakes worth our selective tastebuds.

Their carrot cake comes filled with grated carrots, walnuts and raisins, topped with the most delectable (but surprisingly light) layer of cheese.

Something I haven't tried before - their newly introduced salted caramel macadamia cheesecake - the perfect fusion of salted caramel and cream cheese, all finished with a layer of salted caramel glaze... and you wonder why I miss food at home...

Day 4 - in Gourmet Square again, this time for their Japanese Bento (lunch box) sets. This particular set is called an "Oyakodonburi" - literally meaning "parent-and-child donburi" - where donburi means Japanese riche bowl dish in which chicken, egg, sliced scallion, and other ingredients are simmered together in a kind of soup made with soy sauce and stock, and then served on top of a large bowl of rice (in this case, covered with a perfectly cooked sunny-side up egg). The name of the dish is a poetic reflection of the fact that both chicken and egg (i.e. parent and child) are used in the dish. The set includes three different kinds of "gunkan" sushi, a side of salad, and a bowl of miso soup. Price of all this? RM 12 - or €2.50! 

My mom brought me to a "pasar malam" or night market near her laundromat shop. Due to the hot  Malaysian weather during the daytime, the Pasar Malam has become a nightlife activity that attracts local community after working time and tourists looking for cheap hot foods, clothing, groceries etc. 

Lok-lok is a dish consisting of various deep-fried foods such as meats and vegetables that are served on a skewer. You choose as many (or as little) as you like, dip them into the boiling pot to cook, and then drench your food in the wide selection of (usually) spicy sauces and chomp away. There are priced affordably too, at around RM1.00 (€0.20) a skewer. 

Waiting for the food to cook...

With my mom ^^

Fruit stalls selling a wide selection of tropical fruits

You can find all kinds of food at night markets

I found a food stall selling "Fa Sang Woo" - or groundnut soup (creamy rich peanut soup made from ground peanuts). Maybe it sounds odd to make a soup out of something that is usually savoury, but do I care? Not one bit - I'm too busy enjoying my soup :)