Home made Fish Tacos by Eric

We were so honored to be invited by DT's counterpart SRM Eric Stjern to his house to have a home made dinner - all prepared and cooked by himself!

The peaceful neighborhood...


Eric was such a nice and wonderful host not only for making such a delightful meal, but also the fact that he insisted to have a few rounds of the fish tacos for all of us before either him or his son gets their share. We were so phai seh for his warm hospitality!


The really, really, really YUMMY Fish Tacos - with both tortilla and fillings straight out from the pans - fired up with extra jalapeno too! :)


THANKS so much Eric for the wonderful meal and hospitality!

Got to know another colleague and also both his sons, as well as his cat and his dog. All of them were so friendly (yeah including the pets)

We had a friendly ping pong match to digest all the good food too :)


One for the album!

IHOP @ I-35, Austin, Texas

Our first meal that we had upon touch down at Austin was @ the 24-hour chain restaurant - IHOP. It was 3am by the time we reach there (read: 5pm MYT) so it's our supper or breakfast? Whatever~

Kel and DT with the rest of the traveling crowd we had :)


Sauces and etc..


So now we know how it actually looks like when you're feeding a Kampung...


We shared a Loaded Potato & Bacon Soup ($2.99)


Creamy potato and bacon soup topped with Cheddar cheese and sour cream. The texture is rich and creamy - not too bad as it's something different from what we have here. But it sure is something you could easily get jelak with

I ordered something labeled New! on the menu - Philly Cheese Steak Stacker ($7.99)



... which is grilled ribeye steak and onions topped with melted American cheese on a grilled roll

When this landed on my table - that's when the first culture shock set in - it's so HUGE! I heard a lot about the portions but this is kinda like humongous O_o

The steak was nice but I couldn't finish it. Onion rings were not bad too but again I couldn't finish it even with Kel and DT's help

DT's Country Fried Steak


An 8 oz. fried beef steak smothered in country gravy. Served with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli

Kel's Quick Two-Egg Breakfast


Two eggs, hash browns, toast, plus two crispy bacon strips which Kel is going all out to eat while she's in the States :)

Kel ordered this for sharing as well - Double Blueberry Pancake


DT actually ordered something else but it did not make it to our table, and just when we were hoping that they would forget it for good coz we were just too full, the waitress recalled it and was so apologetic to DT that she served him this - on the house! Haha~ That's the reason for his gloomy expression

But it turned out that the dessert was pretty good :) - it's called Crispy Strawberry Banana Cheesecake


Creamy cheesecake layered with caramel and chunks of banana, quick-fried in a flaky pastry tortilla. Topped with cool strawberry topping, fresh slices of banana and whipped topping.

We were just simply too stuffed to finish past the 50% mark :(

Food @ Hong Kong International Airport

What we had during our transit @ HKIA...

Someone's Japanese Ramen set (forgot who)



My Tomato Scrambled Egg with Fish set from Tsui Wah Restaurant



I loved the sweet and sour flavor of this together with the eggs, onions, etc - definitely fired up my otherwise bland tongue at that point of time

Pesca on the River @ Mokara Hotel, San Antonio

Moving on to another memorable meal, this time at the very romantic River Walk at San Antonio, Texas...



There were just the 3 of us - Da Tou Derick - our super nice honorary driver, Kellin and myself

Settled down at this fine looking restaurant just by the river


The view we had while we dine...


Introducing the complimentary bread and butter spread :P



Very hard indeed - i had to use my main knife to eat it and gave up after 2 bites - but the taste is nice

Derick's Blackened Prawns with Macaroni


The blackened prawns were juicy and flavorful, macaroni pretty well done too with just the right level of creaminess and soft


Kellin's Scallops


By the look on Kellin's face, you can tell she loved the gigantic scallops and for the right reasons - juicy, huge and just mmmmm.....


My Grilled Market Fresh Fish ($25)



The slab of fish was of a decent size - thick and it was very fresh too! Enjoyed every bit of it

What a great dinner to end our day tour at San Antonio! ♥

Rudy's Bar-B-Q @ Austin, Texas

I'm going to kick off my strings of food encounter during my business trip to Austin, Texas 2 months ago - with the BEST BBQ I had thus far!

Introducing... Rudy's Bar-B-Q

I like this tacky tagline "Worst Bar-B-Q in Texas" :D

This particular chain store is an extension of Shell gas station where there is a country store attached to it as well. People dine on wooden bench chairs on wodden tables - really a nice BBQ 'feel'

Let's move on to the food!

I ordered Baby Back Ribs, a side of Cole Slaw and a Banana Pudding as dessert

All main meals come with bread slices and they give you a minimum of 4 at a go - most locals go for double that amount :S

4 slices are way too much and at most we can only take 1-2 at most with the rest of the meal

Close up of my 1/2 lb. Baby Back Ribs ($7.99):-

Kellin ordered St. Louis Pork Ribs

The pork ribs were really bbq-ed perfectly, the surface fragrant yet the meat within tender and juicy - paired with its Bar.Bq Sause - makes this THE ultimate in Barbeque masterpiece! Everyone who tasted this would never disagree, imagine that!

Being my first lunch after touch down and with merely a few hours' sleep - this is how I looked like (-_-)"

The superb Rudy's Bar.BQ SauSe that goes with all its Bar-Bs!

They sell these babies too! Too bad I can't lug them back :P

This is one-of-a-kind Rudy's handwashing sanitizing system where you just stick both your hands inside and there will be a 360 degrees water spray cleaning your hands for you! (Really for lazy folks), and you can then certify yourself with its sticker "I Have Clean Hands" :)

So amazed with the affordability vs. food quality of the BBQ here - check out the price range:-

• 1/2 lb Beef Brisket - $ 6+
• Pork Ribs and Baby Back Ribs - $8+
• Side orders of cole slaw, potato salad etc - Small at $1.84 (more than enough for 1 person)
• Desserts of Banana or Chocolate pudding at similar price range as well

We had Rudy's again before our trip back coz it's just that good! OMG I'm so craving for it nowwww~~

SIXTY9INE Mansion @ Batu Ferringhi

After what seemed like ages, finally managed to have dinner with Peter. Had a good 'sial!' remark from him coz I didn't suggest a good enough place to eat so he suggested 69 Mansion instead.

For a drinker like him, he'd only been to this place for none other than booz so it's his first time to try their restaurant out along with my very first visit to this much hyped about establishment.

We set out with a pouring rain welcome once again (what's new?). The rain just suddenly started and there was no turning back.

When we reached 69 the car park was pretty much deserted (it was pouring remember?) and I couldn't believe my eyes and ears when the high class attendant seated within the premises asked for an RM 5 car park fee!! WHAT A RIP OFF! We're dining here and we have to PAY to PARK?

OUTRAGEOUS.

In we went to our table and it was just beside the POS system - fine. The lightings were totally club lighting and the table settings were definitely not what I had expected them to be - so UN-refined.


Check out the surroundings... (since it was raining outside I couldn't take pictures outdoor)


The table cloth was not secured and it made food serving challenging as it kept moving around.

The chairs definitely look like they are meant for outdoors?

The candle. This is the worst part. They're nestled within a Tiger beer glass which is in turn settled upon a JTI ashtray (-_-)" - what a turn off!

Table setting:-


We took turns having 'challenges' with the damn knife coz of its odd-shaped handle - i dropped it on the floor once and he dropped it into his main course plate twice (!) Annoying.

Whatever. Anyway - we had...

Drinker's Tiger Beer


My Orange Juice (which comes with a Hennessey + Soda stirrer *d'uh*)



His Clam Chowder


He said this is not bad though I didn't try it myself as he didn't want to spread his flu

My Lobster Bisque


Did not like it as the seafood smell was too overpowering. Soup was not thick enough as well

Peter's Lamb Shank with Risotto


"Risotto should be very creamy and should not be cooked with normal rice - this looked and tasted too dry" - that was from the guru himself :P


Lamb shank's meat was too hard to his liking too, though I liked the tiny portion I took as a sample from the other end of the lamb shank - it was tender

Risotto guru's rating : 5 / 10

My 12" Honey Peking Duck Pizza


This was what Peter said his friend said was nice. Kena duped. It was just alright for me.

The pizza was just special in a sense that it's made with Peking duck as the main ingredient. Other than that, it's just normal pizza to me. The crust was so hard (I was told they made it themselves) that the odd-shaped knife had no chance of cutting through it. I tried and tried then gave up. Used my bare hands instead.

My rating for the pizza : less than 5/10. His rating : whatever my rating + 1 point when added with generous amounts of Tabasco - ha!

The total damage was about RM 124+ - definitely not worth it.

Been so long since we took a photo... Thanks~~


I must mention our negative experience here which drew a conclusion that the staff here were dishonest.

Peter left a souvenir that I gave him within a white paper bag on our table and he only recalled when we reached Island Plaza :(

So I called up 69 in hopes that they would still keep it. The man (who was the one serving us earlier on) said he would look for it and will give me a call back.

Few minutes later he called back and said it was nowhere to be found. And he even added that they checked the dustbin and asked every server - Nothing.

I was sad but immediately my sadness turned into rage. This simply proved that someone who cleared the table must've taken the white paper bag. The other patrons wouldn't be the ones who took it coz our table was the furthest from all the other tables and all the nearest tables surrounding us were empty when we left. Nobody would know the content unless they were to keep it first with the intention of finding out what's inside later and keep it for good.

I'm definitely not making any come backs here - for the simple reasons of rip-off car park fee; dishonest staff and below-average food quality vs. the price

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Went Tutti Frutti afterwhich for dessert:-


It's a flavored yoghurt D.I.Y. establishment and we made our yoghurts:-


His Strawberry yoghurt with strawberry + kiwi + grapes topping

My Vanilla yoghurt with kiwi + longan + mango topping

The D.I.Y yoghurts are charged by weight and ours came up to RM 31 for both (!) Fancy healthy stuff comes with a hefty price tag these days