I love visiting all kinds of Chinese temples. Even in my travels, most of them include at least a visit to the temple.

Over the festive holidays, I took the opportunity to visit this particular temple located at Sitiawan, almost an hour’s drive from Ipoh. Truth be told, I have never set foot in Sitiawan for more than a decade, so I vaguely remember what we did the last time we were here. Lumut is another place I have not seen for a long time. Perhaps, another time.

Back to the story, the temple is located deep inside a kampung by the coast at Pasir Panjang. The main attraction drawing crowds of local and out-of-town visitors are 98 statues of deities and animals from the Chinese lunar calendar on the well-landscaped three-hectare compound.

There are also 11 giant statues facing the sea, and flanked by smaller statues in front of the cement courtyard.

There is also a path called Monkey Garden where you can take a stroll along the concrete path surrounding by mangrove trees. Perhaps due to human negligence, most of the mangrove trees were dead. There were a lot rubbish in the mangrove swamp too, what an eyesore.

And a video for your viewing pleasure.

Tua Pek Kong Temple,
Kampung Pasir Panjang, Sitiawan.

Today is the thirteenth day of the CNY, also marks the start of the water dragon year. We are now in the second month of the year. Time passes real fast, hope everything will be smooth sailing too.

The festive mood continued with another dinner on a fine evening, this time at New Formosa Restaurant located at PJ SS2. Having read so many positive reviews and with the fact that the restaurant has been in operation for more than 30 years, I was rather upbeat with the decision of dining at this restaurant, but somehow ended up with slight disappointment.

Since there were only five of us, we couldn’t order the CNY set menu but some CNY dishes can be ordered as ala-carte.

My third toss of the year, and the first dish of the night was the salmon yee sang. To be frank, I prefer Ben Tdi Wei’s version very much. It tasted quite sourish to me and the salmons were not that fresh.

We ordered four main dishes and the first to be served was this signature deep-fried chicken with sesame seeds Taiwanese style. Crunchy because of thick batter, however it overpowered the fragrance of the sesame seeds.

Next on the table was Formosa healthy vegetarian bean curd which consists of braised loofah (勝瓜), golden mushroom, seaweed sprouts and bean curd skin. It was too salty for my liking and we could hardly finish it.

Our third dish was ordinary stir-fried vegetable consists of snow peas, pumpkin, lotus root and asparagus.

We also ordered a steamed tilapia with sweet and sour sauce Taiwanese style. Accompanying the fish dish was a loaf of deep-fried mantou (bread). The fish was not fresh, however the mantou deserved a praise here. One thing I don’t understand, the sweet and sour sauce doesn’t really complement the bread at all.

For the desserts, we had muachi Taiwanese style. This is the first time I tasted a salty version of muachi. I even had to ask the waitress to confirm that they served the right thing. Apart from it being salty, I really liked it for being soft and it kinda melts in your mouth. Awesome.

Sweet yam in honey sauce Taiwanese style is also quite an interesting dessert. Yams coated with caramel, honey and sesame seeds are dipped into icy cold water to harden the caramel and thus making them look like candy. The yam was still warm and has the right sweetness.

The same cannot be said for pumpkin yam ginkgo pudding. Served warm, the mashed yam did not really click well the pumpkin paste and I can’t even describe the taste after mixing both.

For an establishment that has been in operation for 30 years, it is kind of unfair for me to judge because it is also my first visit to the restaurant. It could be the taste of Taiwanese food that I found rather unsuitable for my liking. I might still pay a visit again to sample their signature hot stone steamboat which received raved reviews but then of course, with lower expectations.

Reservation is a-must as the restaurant is quite small and usually jam-packed even on weekdays. Some signature dishes need to be ordered in advance too.

New Formosa Restaurant (新寶島餐廳)
46, Jalan SS2/24,
47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +603 7875 1894
Mobile: +6019 335 3274 (Jeanie Lee)
http://www.newformosa.net/

Today marks the seventh day of the Chinese New Year. It is known as everyone’s birthday, or 人日. Since it was weekend and most of us are already back in the city, the time was just right for a dinner to celebrate the joyous occasion. This time, the dinner took place at Ben Tdi Wei (本地味), or loosely translates as local delights. A little fact about this restaurant – it is related to its bigger and more established Extra Super Tanker chain of restaurants.

Some little unfortunate stuffs happened before the start of the dinner and by the time the first dish was served, we were already famished.

Jelly Fish Yee Sang with Snow Pear

We opted for RM598++ set so instead of raw salmon, we got jelly fish. It was nicely done, the snow pear combination was fantastically done. My second “lou sang” of the year. I know, lame right?

BTW Two Combination

Not to be confused with the word BTW (stands for Ben Tdi Wei, not by the way), this sweet sour thingy (fish paste if not mistaken) was wrapped with thin layer of smoked bacon. The other combination was deep-fried beancurd which was mixed with chunks of water chestnut and fish paste and wrapped with something I would say, “dragon’s whisker”.

Double Boiled Pork Soup with Brazilian Mushroom

The other patron on my table was puzzled at the ingredients in the soup because it looked exotic. Turns out, it was Brazilian mushroom after we referred back to the menu. It was loaded with pork ribs and scallops as well to make an interesting soup.

Fried Red Snapper Roll with Spicy Salad Sauce

Interestingly, we weren’t served a whole red snapper but instead, the chef made them looked like sausage rolls. It was served with sweet watermelon and honeydew.

Crispy Roast Duck

We slowed down tremendously after feasting dish upon dish, but the lovely arrangement of this simple dish made us craving for it. Oh, and perfectly done too. Great.

Stir-fried “Kai Lan” with Choy Po

After the first few meaty dishes, it was time to balance out the meal with simple Chinese broccoli, or aptly named “kai lan”.

Fried Glutinous Rice with Waxed Meat

It tasted a bit bland to me, perhaps it was due to the first few dishes that were heavier on taste. We could barely ate half of the portion.

Sweet Red Bean Paste with Lily Bulb

Sweet dessert as sweet ending to the dinner. The red bean was grinned to make the soup thicker, and with added lily bulb or as we called it “bak hap”. Again, what a waste as we couldn’t finish it.

Overall, it was a pleasant and enjoyable dinner. I wouldn’t mind to return to try their regular dishes.

Ben Tdi Wei Local Delights (本地味)
Lot G1 & G2, Ground Floor Centrepoint,
3 Lebuh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +603-7727 7733 / 7727 1811

Unpretentious and still going strong after more than 20 years in operation, Keng Nam Coffee Shop is the perennial favourite of local people of Ipoh. It used to be our favourite place for breakfast on weekend but given that we had to jostle for a table among the notorious crowd, we just had to let go our hope.

Why life’s simple pleasure you may ask? Well, the answer is the goody good kaya glutinous rice. A definite order every single visit unless sold out. There is a curry version which is also good unless you are not a fan of glutinous rice.

Another old school favourite of mine is the dry curry noodles. It doesn’t taste as good as it used to be, but I just can’t help eating simply because I’m their regular patron for the past 20 years.

Kedai Kopi Keng Nam
127, Jalan Raja Ekram,
30300 Ipoh.
Opens for breakfast til late morning.

… it is known as the beginning of the new year, or 开年. I lit up my very first firecracker. Don’t believe? Luckily I shot a closeup video of it. You can watch it below, however the sound wasn’t clear enough due to the camera being enclosed in a case. The quality of the firecracker also left something to ponder, but it was still good.

Happy Chinese New Year!