Day 1: Road Trip

Last Friday, I spent the weekend at Bukit Metajam and then Pulau Pinang to celebrate St. Anne's feast at St. Anne's church. Actually, my main story was supposed to be about the grand church at Bukit Metajam, but the road trip was so eventful and full of surprises that day that I just had to share it with you!

In the beggining, I was hoping to get a picture of the highway, but because I was in the car, there was no way I could get a good picture so I forgot all about it. How did I get the picture above?

The car overheated.

My dad stopped the car by the side of the road and so we had to wait for about 20 minutes or so. After a REAALLY long time (5 mins), we got tired of doing nothing in the car and decided to fill the tank with water.

To open up the tank, one should wear something to protect their hands because it could get hot. So armed with a towel and an old underwear, my dad bravely went and opened up the bonnet of the car to open the cap of the tank. As soon as he opened it, the tank exploded! Luckily, no one got burned or hurt. Its too bad I didn't get a picture of it!

Well, maybe I exaggerated a little, the tank didn't really explode, it kinda 'spat' out hot, boiling water.

Not long after that, a tow truck came by.......uh oh........

Just kidding! He wasn't gonna tow us away, much to my relief, he just came to help. Luckily, he had a bunch of water bottles so the car cooled down quickly.

After being stranded out at the side of the highway for about half an hour, we were on the road again! On the way, we stopped at the highway stop and bought some longans. Unlike most longans, the skin of the longans we bought were hard while most of the longans I get from the market and such are soft. One thing I can say about it is; best longan ever.

The reason why most longans are soft is because they're usually soaked in water so that they'll be heavier in which the person who sells it can charge his customers more for less. We finished it all by the time we reached our destination.

Along the way, we saw a badly damaged car by the side of the road, and I MEAN badly damaged. The car was totally crushed and the strange part was that there was only one car and not two, so how did the car get crushed?

The answer came as we moved on. A dead cow.

It must've been a real shocked to the driver and I really feel sorry for him rather than the cow. Nobody would expect to drive on the highway and get hit by a cow! There was no herd of cows to be seen anywhere, so, this cow might be a wild one. Another great pic that I couldn't take!

Gingerbread House!

Just now, and organiser of an orphanage saw pictures of our gingerbread house from last year's Christmas party and wanted us to make another gingerbread house with the kids! Actually, my mom, brother and I decided to create our very own gingerbread house for fun last Christmas and auction it off or eat it up. Here's a photo of it;

How bout another one?

We were pretty proud of it, specially when we put all our hard work on it and I think it turned out beautifully. This is what it looked like before its finished:

It took us an entire day to finish it, and that's just the base. We had to make several batches of icing and buy lots and lots of sweets. (about 2-3 kg, I think or maybe I'm just exaggerating.) In the beggining, the icing was a lot of trouble because it just couldn't stay firm and it wouldn't turn hard, so, it was pretty frustrating at first. Then, we realized that we were missing an ingredient and we used the wrong type of sugar.

Later on, as we were putting up the fences, we used biscuit sticks, dipped it in hot chocolate and stik it on the pile of icing on the base. It looked good at first, but there was a fatal flaw; the biscuits won't stay still and it turned soft later on because they're biscuits!

Because of that, we had to take out all the 'fences' and replaced it with marshmallows instead. I thought the marshmallows looked ten times better after that. Don't you think so?

By the time we finished it, people weren't the only ones who were attracted to it; so were the ants. We had to blow them all away without destroying anything of the house and wrap it up so that it would be airtight. It wasn't an easy job let me tell you this.

It really took a lot of time and patience. Although it was rather tiring, it was definately worth it and the results are rewarding. Merry belated Christmas!

Belanga

So this time, I went to Mid Valley for lunch and not forgetting shopping with the family last Sunday. We went for lunch first at the Belanga restaurant at the ground floor.

In case you didn't know, this is a malay restaurant, which means its gonna be Rendang for me cause its my favourite. Also, this restaurant is my mom's favourite restaurant in the whole building. She comes here so often, that the people who works there recognizes her.

The restaurant is well organized and decorated in a malay style theme. Its kinda pleasant to look at because it has this homelike feeling to it.

The menu has most of the tradisional Malay food.

Like I said before, I ordered the Beef Rendang and I chose mango juice for drinks.

And here's my dish!

The dish is well presented for one thing, but the taste is the most important part of it all. And I have to say, it passed the test. I really enjoyed the Rendang! Not too spicy, not too dull, just the way I like it.

The mango is just as good. Not too sweet, not too plain, just right.

My dad also ordered oxtail soup for everybody to share.

Although it looks and smells great, I find it a bit too spicy for my taste. Too much pepper I think. But my brother and dad doesn't seem to mind it. So all spicy food lovers, you gotta try this oxtail soup. On the other hand, other than the spicyness, the meat is soft and tender.

My mom ordered this kuih Jala and asked me to try it.

Heehee, sorry bout the half eaten one there. It was too late by the time I snapped that picture.

The kuih was pretty good with the Rendang actually.

All in all, everything tastes wonderful and I'd give a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Great job guys!