Restoran Ansari Famous Cendol, Taiping

We get our cendol fix from Ansari's Famous Cendol every time that we are back in Taiping. From the many newspaper articles proudly displayed on the walls, it's clear that Ansari is a well-reviewed spot. Being just a short walk away from hubby-to-be's old school, it was a firm childhood favourite.

The cendol guy at work.

Thick santan in the tub with cendol strips soaking inside.

Loads of red kidney beans.

Pulut.

The final assembled product, complete with ice shavings and gula melaka. This cendol is superb due to the creamy thickness of the fresh santan, and the cendol strips are soft and well soaked in and completely infused with santan. All the yummy ingredients are at the bottom of the bowl.

The price list......cheap! This place sells pasembor too.

The shop we went to was on Jalan Barrack (the HQ), but there are several branches.

92, Jalan Barrack, Taiping

122, Jalan Taming Sari (Side), Taiping

Gerai Stesyen Keretapi Taiping

80, Lorong 4, Taman Marisa, Taiping
Tel: 05-8080907

We give Ansari's creamy cendol 4-bams.

Weekend Cat Blogging (Week of 29th December 2007)

Hic hic......Mandy has Christmas hangover......

Hic hic........just need........some.....sleep......

Mom's famous rich chocolate cake

Mom-in-law-to-be bakes delicious chocolate cake (amongst others) for sale, mostly during festive seasons. For Christmas, she had quite a list of orders, and yesterday she completed a batch.

Freshly baked chocolate cake cooling on the rack.

Once cooled, the cake is decorated with a spread of thick melted chocolate and a generous layer of chocolate shavings. The cake is moist and rich, with a melt-in-your-mouth quality, and remains a perennial favourite amongst her ever-growing clientelle, family and friends.

Food from Taiping that are tapau-ed for breakfast/tea time

Lazing in Taiping often means takeaway food that are brought home from various parts of the town for breakfast and tea time.

Spicy mee combat (aka mee goreng) (RM2.50/pack) from the Larut Matang hawkers' centre brought home by bro-in-law-to-be.

Hubby-to-be's all-time-favourite. Chee cheong fun from the Pusat Penjaja Taiping, next to the Taiping bomba (fire department).

Char koay kak (RM1.70/pack) from Sening Garden Taiping.

Fried durian-flavoured balls from a roadside stall near the house......just batter mixed with some durian flesh and deep fried. We weren't too fond of this....too much batter, too little durian.

Kedai Ais Kacang Merah Raex, Jalan Toh Khay Beng, Taiping, Perak

This place is a favourite haunt everytime we are back in town. Raex has several stalls serving great childhood hawker delights at amazingly cheap prices.

The ice-blended red bean drink with milk (RM1.00) is the hallmark of this place. Deliciously thick and frothy, more of a dessert than a thirst quencher, this is a must-have for anyone visiting Raex.

The lok-lok is really cheap at RM0.50/stick.


We chose our usual favourites; quails' eggs, sotong kangkung, cockles and tofu. The stall owner cooked the bunch for us, and delivered all with 2 plates of condiments. Top left is the prawn paste sauce, the same type used for rojak. Top right is the sweet chilli sauce rich with peanuts, reminiscent of satay sauce, except sweeter. The best way to enjoy the lok lok is to dip in both sauces and let them mingle in your mouth.


We also ordered a roll of vegetarian popiah (RM1.00). As it was vegetarian, it tasted slightly bland compared to the one we had at Restoran Air Kacang Taiping.

The drinks menu, ambra (a type of sour fruit) juice is a drink we have never found in KL.


Kedai Ais Kacang Merah Raex is located a few roads behind (and parallel to) The Store supermarket in Taiping town.

Our rating system for overall satisfaction with what we eat and where we eat....
1-bam = don't even bother

2-bam = good enough to fill the tummy

3-bam = a very good restaurant in its category

4-bam = excellent cooking, worth a detour

5-bam = exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey

We would give Raex a 3-bam rating.

Popiah @ Restoran Air Kacang Taiping, Jalan Panggung Wayang, Taiping, Perak

This popiah is delicious (RM1.20/roll). I never eat popiah in Kuala Lumpur, but here, we gobbled this up in 2 minutes. What makes this popiah extra special is the delicious bits of tofu and lard rolled up inside. As its name suggests, this kopitiam is also famous for its home brewed soya drink.

Restoran Air Kacang Taiping is a corner lot situated in the epicentre of Taiping town, a few blocks away from the Taiping bomba (fire department), and a few shops away from Maybank in Jalan Panggung Wayang.

Our rating system for overall satisfaction with what we eat and where we eat....

1-bam = don't even bother
2-bam = good enough to fill the tummy
3-bam = a very good restaurant in its category
4-bam = excellent cooking, worth a detour
5-bam = exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey

We would give the popiah a 3-bam rating.

Merry Christmas!

For Christmas this year, we cleaned up and converted the old rabbit hutch (the bunnies went over the rainbow bridge sometime back) into a double-decker bed, and presented new red Ikea kitty cushions to the 2 kids (Merry Christmas, babies!).

Mandy gets the bottom bunk, 'cos Mankie's claustrophobic and Mandy likes to huddle and "hide" anyway.

Mankie gets his favourite top bunk, and looks very cosy in his new bed.

He was soon fast asleep.....


We are currently back in our hometown for Christmas, and Streamyx only just got installed, up and running here yesterday! We've stashed all the gifts under (and around) the Christmas tree, Bam and Binky are keeping watch over the loot. I'm gleefully anticipating opening the prezzies later tonight. Today is Christmas eve and we are all lounging at home, eating and watching tv, mostly....there appears to be a Gordon Ramsay (The F Word) marathon on AFC. Tonight's the Christmas eve vigil mass at our old Church, the whole family's looking forward to that. Wonder what mom's cooking for dinner!





To everyone reading this, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thomas Western @ Restoran Ong Lay, OUG, Kuala Lumpur

A friend introduced this place called Thomas Western to me, and we went there for a quick dinner the other night. As its name suggests, Thomas serves all the usual western dishes; chicken & pork chops, chicken Maryland, fish and chips, etc.

Hubby-to-be had the grilled pork chops (RM9.00) with black pepper sauce and magic potatoes. 2 pieces of pork chops drowning in sauce turned up, with a side of half a baked potato in jacket. The baked potato was unique in that it had pieces of potatoes that were scooped out, and stir fried with slices of shittake mushrooms and cream of mushroom. Everything was then put back into the potato jacket which served as a bowl of sorts.

I had the grilled chicken chop in BBQ sauce (RM8.00), also with the magic potatoes. Hubby-to-be fancied the BBQ sauce on my chicken more than the black pepper sauce on his pork. Well, so did I. The grilled chicken chop was pretty good, still tender and juicy with a slightly charred skin.

Thomas Western @ Restoran Ong Lay,

Overseas Union Garden, Medan Hujan Rahmat,

Taman Overseas Union, 58200 Kuala Lumpur

This place is directly behind the OUG Public Bank, adjacent to the wet market, and perpendicular to Steven's Corner.

Our rating system for overall satisfaction with what we eat and where we eat....

1-bam = don't even bother

2-bam = good enough to fill the tummy

3-bam = a very good restaurant in its category

4-bam = excellent cooking, worth a detour

5-bam = exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey

We would give Thomas Western a 3-bam rating.

Lucky @ Beigey @ Boy Boy

This is our beloved parish dog. We call him Lucky, but Father Daniel calls him Boy Boy. According to Father Daniel, his official name (as registered when getting his license) is Beigey. He has cataract on one of his eyes (I think the left one) poor dear. Lucky likes to wander around the Church compound, looking for people to pat him and fuss over him.....very friendly fella, this one. We gave him a large tin of Pedigree doggie food for Christmas, hope he has a feast and starts his own doggie food blog!

At Last.........

The rings are bought.

The date is set.

The invitations are sent.

At last ...my love has come along

My lonely days are over

And life is like a song

At last the skies above are blue

And my heart was wrapped up in clover

The night I looked at you

I found a dream that I could speak to

A dream that I can call my own

I found a thrill to press my cheek to

A thrill that I have never known

You smiled, and then the spell was cast

And here we are in heaven

For you are mine at last....

Playful Mandy

Mandy was in a playful mood.......

Here she is....rolling over.......

Just louging around without a care in the world.....it's good to be a cat.

Mandy does her chipmunk impersonation.

Kheng Heong Hainan Cuisine Restaurant, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur

We recently stumbled upon a restaurant in Brickfields serving excellent Chinese food which also happened to have appeared on the weekly TV show Ho Chak, in an episode featuring their famous steamed fish head.

Their butter squid was exquisite, soft and fresh on the inside, light, fluffy and crispy on the outside, with loads of the crunchy, salty batter bits fried with curry leaves. We loved it! At RM12.00/plate it was a pretty big serving for 2. Succulent boxing chicken. The 4 pieces of chicken were nicely deep fried to perfection, leaving the insides tender and juicy. We tasted crispy salty skin, seasoned with soy sauce and 5-spice powder, we think. It was good to the bone, and the 4 big pieces cost just RM5.00 in total.


The claypot tofu (RM 10.00) had assorted ingredients - sliced meat, prawns, baby corn, carrots, snow peas.....the gravy was just rich with the flavours of all these ingredients. We loved this simple yet hearthy dish.

We were so utterly stuffed and satisfied by the end of our meal. We are SO coming back here to try out all their famous chiu pai dishes!



Kheng Heong Restaurant
Stall # 297-8, Jalan Tun Sambanthan,
Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-22741032
Mobile: 012-3051888


This restaurant is one of many restaurants in a single row, facing the Brickfield's police station.



Our rating system for overall satisfaction with what we eat and where we eat....

1-bam = don't even bother
2-bam = good enough to fill the tummy
3-bam = a very good restaurant in its category
4-bam = excellent cooking, worth a detour
5-bam = exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey



We would give Kheng Heong a 4-bam rating, we plan to be regulars here.

Cute marmalade

Kitty caught lounging in a restaurant, on a chair, under a table. Poor kitty had a chewed-off spot on its tail.

Kitty realised paparazzi was around.

Cooking at home

Over the past couple of weeks, our kitchen has been somewhat busy.........

Yesterday, we slaved into the night, cooking a huge pot of ayam masak merah (using 2 chickens and my mom's recipe!) for a potluck party that we're attending today.

With the same masak merah gravy, we slathered these hard boiled eggs.

Fried belanak fish, our childhood favourite. Fried long enough, the fish becomes uber crispy and can be eaten in its entirety, bones, head and all!

Tiger prawns cooked in black bean sauce.

Hubby-to-be's weird attempt at Pad Thai.

Fried french beans, carrots and oyster mushrooms medley.

A variety of fried fish.

Chilli prawns with an eggy gravy.