01 July 2011 - Finale of Bali trip

Breakfast came on time at 8am at their lovely garden terrace. Birds chirping, butterflies fluttering, morning sun providing a sliver of warmth lifted spirits. Nasi Goreng for her, Mie Goreng for him. He found it too oily and sweet, did not enjoy this as much as the one whipped up at Nefatari.


Checked out and went touring at 9am. Visited Pura Taman Ayun and Tanah Lot for some sightseeing.

Statue at the entrance of Pura Taman Ayun. Entrance fee was 3,000rp per person.


Note for ladies entering Pura Taman Ayun...


The merus


Pura Tanah Lot - entrance to the temple is viable only at low tide. Entrance fee was 10,000rp per person. There was a relatively cheap market in the area., with tee shirts going for 10,000rp up.


Crash happy waves, spotting the people on the cliff will tell you how high the waves crashed.


A more violent one captured.


After all that sun, they headed to Krisna in hope of getting some souvenirs. Huge store, but couldn't find anything suitable. She bought a "love bali" tee shirt though.


Grabbed a quick lunch at the cafe just outside the store. Finally got to order sate lilit, but this was cold and not grilled on lemongrass sticks. Still nice anyway, tasted like "otak" back home. 10,000rp for 8 sticks.


Rice with self picked sides of fried shrimp, vegetables and some crispy anchovies. 20,000rp. Sounded cheap until I saw the menu on the board. See next picture.


Could have been overcharged, since that stall actually offered sets which include several sides and drinks, the most expensive being 20,000rp. Coincidentally, the lady who served him is looking at the camera from behind the glass. Also bought a chilled bottle of 1.5L mineral water at 6,000rp for the rest of the journey. Prior to that, they had finished a similar bottle had for 3,500rp from a convenience shop.


Carried on with their journey to Uluwatu's Padang Padang beach. Drove up and down many steep slopes before reaching the destination. And guess what? More steep slopes. You have to climb down many steps before reaching the beautiful beach. Saw more people on the beach than suggested online.


View of the cliff and Mount Agung (?) in the distance.


A better view of the clouds surrounding Mount Agung (?).


Enjoyed themselves so much with checking out the amazing marine life in the reefs that they overshot the allocated time. The climb back up was very taxing, got some muscle aches after that.

The driver told them they only had 20 minutes for their last stop at Pura Luhur Uluwatu, costing 15,000 per person.

Got some BBQ corn with savoury kecap manis (soy sauce?) from the motorcycle stall just outside Pura Luhur Uluwatu. Yummy stuff, especially when they were tired and hungry again. He has some corn in the fridge and is thinking of making some right now.


Some tourist bought the corn just to offer to the monkeys. This one apparently enjoyed it a lot too, taking big mouthfuls.


A monkey drinking from a bottle it uncapped. Yes, it knew how to unscrew the cap of the bottle.


If you ever visit, please be careful of the mischievous monkeys. The driver told them not to wear spectacles, shades, hats or have anything in your hands. This particular monkey snatched a Japanese tourist's shades, only to drop it onto the ground after being offered food.


This little one perched stealthily and ready to grab this Caucasian lady's hat. She got away after he warned her about the threat. However, she was quickly surrounded by more monkeys because she had food in her hands. A local walked towards the monkeys with his arms raised and they all scampered off.


And then, it was time to say goodbye. Not that smoothly though, got jammed for an hour or so before reaching the airport. Here's food on the return flight...tata, Bali.

informal reunion dinner 12 Feb 2010

arrived home and saw this nicely laid out on the table. a healthy steamed dish of broccoli, corn kernels, abalone slices and razor clams. corn was sweet but the seafood was salty. not sure if it was a good combination, but the plate got polished off soon enough anyway

stirfried pork and meatball soup 29 Jan 2010

stir fried pork with salted bean sauce


meatball vegetable soup - finally used up the remaining vegetables in making this soup. one of her many diet meals in recent

chicken salad and capsicum beef 28 Jan 2010

met the wife at the supermarket to pay for groceries, and then headed back to make dinner.

chicken salad - made up of freshly removed corn kernels, diced carrots, celery and chicken breast. very fulfilling, but without the sense of guilt.


stir fried beef with capsicum and salted bean sauce - capsicums seem to be the standard companion for beef over here at the moment. and he likes his capsicums cooked longer.

brinjal with spiced pork cubes, asparagus with chicken thigh, rojak soup 26 Jan 2010

brinjal with spiced pork cubes - cut reasonably large chunks of the brinjal, scooped the pork cubes out of the can and layered onto the brinjal. put it to steam for 15 minutes. maybe you should try this one of these days, cheap to buy, simple to make, good to eat. any savoury topping would probably do.


asparagus with chicken thigh slices - this was the first try at color retention. peeled the asparagus and blanched for around 10 minutes, before setting them in cool water. chicken was marinated with salt, pepper and some corn flour. cooked till opaque in the wok before adding the asparagus for a quick stir-fry.


rojak soup - why? essence of chicken, pork ribs, corn, carrots, potatoes and celery were all used. somehow the sweetness of the corn was not evident in the soup, it smelt more of the chicken essence and a little bit of celery. carrot was cooked enough to be mashed easily by the tongue, oozing sweetness while at it.

stuffed chicken breast and mixed vegetable

breakfast of vermicelli and meatballs again. with the new addition of an egg. to be honest, he wouldn't get sick of eating the same thing everyday, not yet at least.


stuffed chicken breast - stuffed with cheese and ham, then coated with cereal before frying. still the super delicious treat with creamy cheese that oozes out with each bite. this time round, butter was added to the oil, which made the aroma even more tantalising.


mixed vegetable of broccoli, carrots and baby corn. cooked with a slab of butter and some water. corn and broccoli still crunchy while the carrot was softened enough.


heart shaped watermelon - made using the same mold that molded the heart shaped stuff you've seen in this blog. she's contemplating buying a flower mold in the near future...


the victim - still looking good.


he had also made porridge with diced pork loin and pork liver, but it didn't look too good. also, he had forgotten to marinate the meat, so it didn't taste that good in the end. the failed dish of today. no pictures.

homecooked dinner 19 Dec 09

bought chicken gizzard, red and yellow peppers, broccoli, sweetcorn, asparagus, carrots.

took a nap before waking up to prepare dinner.

she washed the gizzards, boiled them for a bit before removing slicing them. chopped up the other stuff that she needed, red and yellow peppers, ginger and garlic.

for his always-chapalang-dish, he chopped up broccoli, carrot, asparagus, garlic, yellow onion, and sweetcorn. the more interesting aspect was remove the kernels from the corn. googled for "kernels off the cob" and found this method of using a knife to remove around 2 rows at a time by cutting through the kernels. however, he only sliced 4 times to get all the kernels off, and achieved a rectangular corn cob. sadly, that got thrown away instinctively, and he didn't want to get it out of the rubbish bin for photographs.

stir-fried chicken gizzards - the stuff were boiled once before stirfrying with the garlic, ginger and peppers. no bad smell, and tasted superb. got him wondering why he objected to buying the gizzards earlier on.


super mixed vegetables - browned garlic and onions before throwing the rest of the vegetables in. melted some butter and sprinkled some salt to taste. mixed them evenly before serving.


wife commented that the onions probably spoilt the sweetness of the corn and butter. however, the broccoli tasted good, maybe because it had absorbed more of the butter with its head of "hair".

homecooked lunch on 18 december

dinner on the previous day was a disaster. perhaps they had tried to make something too difficult for them at this stage in time. only the broccoli with butter and salt tasted fine, the xiao long baos tasted like dough and the meat hadn't been seasoned enough.

but, she managed to rebound the very next day. got up earlier than him and cooked minced meat beans, sugar-coated yam and corn soup with minced meat.

corn soup with minced meat, and dissolved yam. tasted good enough.


sugar coated yam chunks. too thick, some were not cooked enough to bring out the sweetness, and he felt that too much sugar was used. those that were done well had a good aroma once you bit into them.


the best dish - minced meat with beans. she chopped garlic and chilli to suit his taste, how sweet. beans were still crunchy and complemented the slightly salty meat well.