Friday, August 26, 2011

Klang for seafood

Klang - Lesley drove for over an hr to Klang for their famous and affordable seafood.   This is outside of Kuala Lumpur and is a predominantly a Chinese town.   Many shop houses and factories own by Chinese bosses are based here, also because it's near the port for easy shipment and transhipment.

The famous Klang seafood restaurant
Stir fried Tang hoon noodles with clams (La-la)

Bamboo Clams
Steam mud crabs
Marmite mud crabs
What's Marmite?


Found only in commonwealth countries like UK, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.  Marmite is a bread spread from a yeast extract.   You either like it or hate it.   Malaysia seafood restaurant are inventive and found creative ways to cook crabs.  Here we have an example of Stir fried crabs cooked with marmite.   You can really taste the marmite in the crabs and it's good.

This is what fresh bamboo clams looks like...

Delicious Char Siew

Petaling Jaya - Met up with Donny and Edward adn we went for lunch at Oversea Chinese Restaurant for their famous Char Siew (roasted pork).  This roasted pork is so delicious is simply melts in your mouth.
Char Siew and triple layer pork

View from my Hotel room @ Hotel Hilton Sentral.




Thursday, August 18, 2011

Gob Chang jib

Seoul - Back in Seoul, Young Jin and I went to have dinner at a Korean speciality restaurant.  This restaurant specializes in 'pig small intestine'

Gob Chang means pig's small intestine
Gob Chang jib means pig's small intestine restaurant
Soon Dae refers to a type of sausage
This fiery hot dish is so hot that I only tried a few pieces and the rest was finished by Young Jin.  Young Jin fnished every single drop of this fiery dish.

Fiery hot dish of Korea gob Chang
Soup of Pig's blood
I do not eat any animal's blood...so I skip this dish.  Since I could not eat the hot and spicy Gob Chang dish, I ordered another dish that is not hot and spicy.

BBQ Gob Chang

When Mr Lim came, we went to another another restaurant down the road which specialises in seafood.

Fried Calamari (Squid)
Raw Squid (Sashimi Squid)




To dine like a King

Geongju - We travelled to a nice traditional Korean restaurant for lunch.  The menu was given to us on a scroll.  There were many many dishes of fine food.

Menu on a scroll
apetitiser
Slices of beef
Korean style pancake
Delicious Beef stew
Served by the waitress with warious codiments
Slices of 3-layer pork
Soup with chestnut and carrots
Chilli squid
Fried fish
Entrance to this restaurant


What a pleasant stay!

Geongju - We woke up and was surprised that Mr Do had prepared breakfast for Young Jin and I - Boiled Kimchi with luncheon meat (pork) and steamed rice.  We discussed business till check out time.  Before we left this beautiful place, I took some more photos.

Beautiful contryside scenary

Entrance to the kitchen and toilet
Stacks of wood for the fireplace
A fireplace and a cooking area
Smoke chimney

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Gyeongju famous hanok

Gyeongju - Hanok means Korean Traditional house.    I was totally surprised when I was told that we are going to stay in one of Korea's heritage homes - a traditional Korean house.  This trip was full of surprises for me.  This house is around 100 years old.   You have got to appreciate the beauty of the iconic hanok architecture. 

Entrance to our home for 1 night
me at the entrance
Steps into the living room

This movie shows how you can ingeniously keep the doors wide open and allow breeze to flow through the house.

After exploring this beautiful house, we played a traditional Korean folk game.  I have seen this game during a Chinese movie called 'Red Cliff'. 

me taking a shot to enter the pot
arrow in mid air
My bedroom
Sleeping area with Mosquito net

We will sleep on the floor. The 'pink and brown' will  be the comforter to be slept on, the 'green' will be the blanket as it gets cold at night and the pillow are on top.  Only one for my head.   There is also the mosquito net which you need to mound up as there were many bugs in the middle of the night.  This Hanok is in the middle of the Korean mountain area.

Mr Do preparing our Ramen dinner in this  kitchen
After eating the Ramen, we were still hungry so we drove into town searching for food.  We settled for a BBQ restaurant serving beef and it was delicious.   We had lots of beers and Soju.  Finally,we had a dish of raw beef - Koreans love this dish but was urge to give it a try, which I did and it was tasty.

Dish of raw beef

Korea's sex theme park

Gyeongju - Yes, you read it correct.  I was utterly surprised for such a museum in conservative Korea.  The entrance was a bit steep at Won9,000 but worth a visit.  I will choose only the non erotic and funny images to show...

Entrance
Guards at the entrance...lol
Turtle with a funny head
The men's toilet
After you pissed, this is what will greet you when you wash your hands...don't get caught with your pants down.

Live Firing Range

Gyeongju - Mr Kim asked whether we wanted to shoot live rounds and so off we went to a firing range. 

The entrance
The Firing range
Behind the thick glass are 4 lanes of firing range.  Since today, we have 2 coaches so only 2 at a time will enter the firing range.  We choose our pistols - I chose Glock because I read about this company and heard of it's power.  Mr Kim and Young Jin chose the same while Mr Lim chose a heavy revolver.    Both Mr Kim and me went in first, one of the coach was able to speak English so he became my coach.  We were told of the basic of holding the Glock and how to aim.   For a 1st timer, my score was a poor 66.

The best was Young Jin that score an almost perfect score of 99.  9 shots out of 10 were bull's eye.  He was not boasting when he told me that he was a sharp shooter during his army days.

Young Jin at the firing range

City of Gyeongju

Seoul - Woke up at 8am with 1 hour to freshen up and get ready to check out of Mariott Courtyard TimeSquare Hotel.  Young Jin will arrive at 9am and we leave for KTX station bound for Daeju city to meet our customer.   I left my big luggage at the Hotel and took toiletries, T-shirt and shorts for this trip.  Both Young Jin and I are not sure what is in store for us as our customer insist on booking the rooms.

We had breakfast at the KTX station later board the high-speed train on platform 8 bound for Daegu. I had cold dry noodles - my first time.

Dry Naengmyeon

Daegu city is being host to one of the most popular sporting event in the World - 13th World Championships in Athletics - 27 Aug to 4 Sept 2011.  

Advertisement at Daegu KTX station

We were met at the station and was immediately driven to Gyeongju city about 1 1/2 hr drive away for our lunch.   The restaurant is very traditional Hankook (Traditional Korean house).

Our restaurant

Poster of an Anime at the restaurant
The menu on a fan
Some bean apetitiser
Kalbijim
Kalbijim is the 2nd most popular Korean beef dish after Bulgogi.  Meaty short ribs are marinated in traditional seasonings, then cooked long and slow until the meat gelatins form a deep, rich glaze. By the time it is done, the tender beef is practically falling from the bones, and the sauce is thick with flavor.

Next comes our liquor and it comes in a clay bottle.

Our liquor
And there was froth on top of the liquor


and more and more food.....

Rice with chestnuts wrapped in lotus leaf
Fish cooked in spicy chilli sauce
Rice with Gingko nut, red dates and mushrooms
Many side dishes of Kimchi and preserved tofu
Inside of the Rice wrapped in Lotus leaf
Refreshing fruity drink