Lemang with rendang

Hari Raya Haji is around the corner and lemang stalls are seen mushrooming along Jalan Ipoh/Chemor. You can only find lemang stalls near Malay kampung. Mom and I were scouting for lemang this morning for our guests who are visiting in the afternoon. We tried getting it at the stadium where the Malay community has their morning market. But we were a bit too late as the stall already closed. We were late because we went to Parkson for a brief shopping session. :p

Well..if you do not know what is lemang and have not try one, you should. :) A brief explanation of Lemang according to Wikipedia :Lemang is a traditional Malay food made of glutinous rice and coconut milk. It is cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaves. This way, the rice won't stick to the bamboo. It is best eaten with chicken rendang.

Before and after the lemang is cooked.

Both photos from other blogs.

We found the lemang stalls along Jalan Ipoh/Chemor and we bought 2. Guess how much they charged us? RM12.00 per stick! Gosh...i think they overcharged us because we are Chinese? Anyway, we asked the lady if she knows anywhere we could get chicken rendang and hola! she's actually selling some. So, we happily bought 3 packets for RM9.00 and we paid RM30.00 for everything. :)

Here are the lemang after cutting into small pieces.

And the delicious chicken rendang to go with it. Slurrppp..

Stroopwafel

A colleague brought back Stroopwafels for us!! All the way from Amsterdam! :D Ever since I tried it in Amsterdam during my uni days, I missed the waffle so much! The aroma is so appetizing..emm....

The way to eat this right is to melt the caramel first..place it on top of a cup of hot tea, wait till the caramel melt, and savour it slowly... It may be a little bit too sweet to some but if you eat it together with tea, it's super yummy! :D

Look at the melted caramel... ! slurrrpp...

Dentist in Ipoh (2)

A follow-up to my previous post on "Dentist in Ipoh"...

I've found two reliable dentist in Ipoh. If you are interested to try out, you can check out Kuan Dental Surgery at Ipoh Garden South. They have different doctors on duty for normal tasks such as scaling, cleaning or filling. I'm doing orthodontic treatment with Dr Lee at the same clinic.

Address: No. 38, Lrg Taman Ipoh 1, 31400 Ipoh, Ipoh, Perak.

Tel No.:05-545 7033

Another recommendation is KLINIK PERGIGIAN LOKGA. 2-A Medan Kidd, Ipoh 30200, Perak
p: + 605- 2418103 f: 05-2418103

They offer the following treatments :-
Full Mouth Rehabilitation
Dental Implants
Dental Whitening
Dental Crown and Bridges
Root Canal Treatments
Dentures or Prosthetic Teeth
Gum Therapy and Scaling
Surgical Removal of Wisdom Tooth and other Impacted Teeth
Orthodontics

Opening hours
Mon - Friday 9:00 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 18:00
Saturday 9:00 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 17:00
Sunday 9:00 - 12:00

Jogging on early Sat morning - My First Experience

It's my first time today. lol. Been dragging it for ages cuz you know the reason.. ahem... i'm too lazy to get up on a Sat morning!! And missed my precious sleep! :p Nonetheless, i set my alarm to 7:15am as I made a date with mom to go jogging with her at the pologround at 7:30am. Mom actually woke me up at 6:30am when she woke up. I heard her going into the washroom..afterwards, i fell back to sleep. But this 45min sleep was so tiring. I was just dreaming of driving to the pologround. It was a frustrating dream cuz i took the wrong road, drove through some unknown places trying to find the way to pologround! Was i nervous for my first time ? haha.. i'm not sure..

At 7:30am, the place was already jammed up. So many people were already jogging and working out. The parking was totally full! I was lucky to get a parking but was taken by someone in the beginning. He said he didn't see my signal light. But everybody else did and just drove pass me. He was just making excuse! Anyway, thank God he's kind enough to move out from the parking and let me have it since i saw it first.

As it's my first time, i didn't jog. I just walk in a faster motion than normal walking. :p No sweating but both of my legs felt so itchy. I thought it must be because I didn't do stretching or warm-up before and i don't usually go for exercise after i wake up, that my blood circulation was slightly abnormal. Causing my legs to feel itchy. So i just ignored the itchy feeling and kept walking with mom. We walked one big round around the polo-ground. Then, another smaller round. After that, we joined the aerobic group and followed their steps. That was when i sweat slightly..;p Oh, and we met someone we know. She was just doing aerobics beside us but we didn't notice her. Oops... Btw, aerobics start at 7:30am and ends at 8:30am, taught by a group of Malay ladies.

When we stepped into our car on our way home, only then i realized i have a lot of insect bites!!! Now i know why i felt itchy earlier. It didn't look like mosquitoes bite cuz the bites were bigger, and in abnormal shape. Luckily, after taking shower and putting on "Burnol", an antiseptic cream, the bites start to 'fade off'. I guess i can just forget about it..cuz it doesn't feel itchy anymore.

Will I continue doing this every Sat? Hmm...let's see if I can commit.. ;D

Kopi Luwak

Have you tasted the Kopi Luwak before? =) Apparently, it is the most expensive coffee in the whole wide world!!! Adapted from Wikipedia, it says that Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee, is made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet, then passed through its digestive tract. Passing through the civet's stomach and intestines, the beans are then defecated. Eeeeewwww.....! And i was drinking a cup! Look at my cup of Kopi Luwak!

Well...i'm a coffee lover, but not an expert in drinking coffee. So, i don't know what's the difference between the normal coffee and this expensive coffee. Wikipedia says that after gathering, washing, drying, roasting and brewing, the beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness (erm...i guess i don't know how to appreciate this precious coffee, haha) and widely know as the most expensive coffee in the world with prices reaching $160 per pound.. wowo...

Actually, my aunt got it as a gift when she was visiting Indonesia. I was 'lucky' to have a cup from her. :p Below is the nice packing the coffee was packed in.

This is how the cat looks like. Look at their feces !! I got the feeling i was drinking their feces, that's why it couldn't go through my throat smoothly.. lol

Photo Credit to (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Experience in Buying a HOuse

This entry does not tell you about how to buy a house or what to look for when buying a house. Because I'm not an expert in that. I just choose a house which is affordable, big enough for me and my small family, not too big to take care of and the area which I like. What I wanted to write here is my experience in getting all the documents and loan ready.

While I was deciding which bank to apply for the house loan, a friend who worked at a local bank came to my mind. Well, i thought i should do it with someone I know. He/she could be of help when i need to in the near future or at least, i'm helping her/him to fulfill a part of the sales target though my loan amount is not big. But then, I find that my friend is not very experienced in this field and does not provide the proper advice that a banker should give. Furthermore, he kind of push me into signing up the so-called free credit cards which I don't really need. Now, i have to make sure i use the card to some extent in order to waive off the government tax.

First thing... i asked this friend (i'll refer this friend as my bank agent later on) for advice whether it is better to engage the same lawyer for my loan agreement as the Sales & Purchase agreement lawyer. Which i think would ease the documentation work and also, save my time as I don't have to go to two places to sign agreements. Well, my bank agent told me it's the same whether I engage the same lawyer or use two different lawyers as the system now is very efficient. So, I followed the advice. BUt in the end..it's very troublesome for me as I need to make 2 appointments for signing the agreements, wait for a long time for the signed agreements to be ready as both the lawyers need documents from each other to proceed with their tasks.

Secondly.. my bank agent didn't even tell me that I can use the bank "letter of offer" to apply for EPF withdrawal! I was waiting and waiting for the loan agreement to be ready while in the meantime, i was actually almost late for my downpayment! I thought I'm supposed to withdraw the EPF money first, then only I pay the remaining downpayment. I received a letter from the property agent one day that I need to pay up a certain amount before due date otherwise, they will impose 10% interest on me! Wow... But my property agent was also at fault. He confused me by telling me that I need to bring the loan agreement to KWSP for the application.

Anyway, I settled the EPF withdrawal application and paid up the amount required the next day. For those who are thinking of purchasing a house and need to apply for EPF withdrawal, these are the documents required :-

• S&P agreement (original and duplicate)
• IC (original and duplicate)
• Bank letter of offer (original and duplicate)
• Bank book (original and duplicate)
• EPF withdrawal application form