Salt N Pepper

Hohoho!!! Christmas is around the corner.....Salt n Pepper would like to wish all our readers and friends 'A Merry Christmas'. Last weekend, there was a Christmas Parade held in Kuching around the city centre area.  Over 4,000 members joined the parade. Unfortunately it was a rainy night, however, the rain did not dampen the parade members' spirits. Below are some of the photos taken during the parade.

Once again, wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Salt is currently blogging from outstation about his outstation working trip to Miri, the Resort City of Sarawak. He will be in Miri for about 1 and a half week and have the chance to stay in the newly opened Imperial Palace Hotel, which is the sister hotel of the Imperial Hotel and Suites. The location of the hotel is pretty strategic as it is located at Pelita Commercial area and there are a number of eateries, nightlife hotspots, convenience stores and supermarket at this area. As this blog site is more on foods, Salt won't go into details blogging about the hotel and its rooms but more on the foods that he has tried in Miri. However, uploaded a few photos of the exterior, lobby and room photos for viewing pleasure.

 For the first night, Salt tried out the Western cuisine at the hotel's restaurant named Menawan Restaurant which is located at the lobby area. He ordered the grilled chicken chop and comes with a complimentary garlic bread. When the meal arrived, the looks of the dish did not disappoint as it was nicely arranged and decorated. For the amount of money spent, it is quite worthwhile.

Grilled Chicken Chop

Garlic Bread

Second night, Salt visited Menawan Restaurant again but this time around he ordered Chinese cuisine. He ordered the Yong Chow fried rice and a claypot of braised bean curd with chicken meat and salted fish. The portion of the claypot was quite a lot for 1 person and did not manage to finish it.

Yong Chow Fried Rice

Braised Beancurd with Chicken and Salted Fish

After having two (2) meals at the hotel's restaurant, is time for Salt's to venture around the surrounding for other foods. He stumbled upon a shop named QQ Beijing Roasted Duck Specialist. I guess everyone should have heard about Beijing Duck. But a famous Beijing Roasted Duck happened to be found in Miri City instead of Beijing City? Hmmm... Would love to give it a try. Based on my observation, the coffee shop is fully packed with people during lunch hours. As the shop's name suggest, Salt ordered the roasted duck and also the roasted pork. The duck was nicely roasted and the meat was tender.

Roasted Duck and Pork

The next cuisine that Salt tried was the Japanese cuisine. This shop has a branch in Kuching City as well. However, am not sure which branch started business first. Previous tried out at the Kuching branch was OK and Salt decided to give the Miri branch a try also. He ordered the Inari Maki and also the Kara-age. They were both OK.

Inari Maki

Kara-age

The routine is back to eat something new at the hotel's restaurant, Menawan. This time round, Salt ordered the dry fried noodles with seafood. It tasted nice. The served portion was just nice also.

Seafood Fried Noodles

One of the lunches I have nearby client's office. Just happened to spot the coffee shop and saw that the crowds were not bad so might as well give it a try. Ordered the pork leg rice and the crowds indication really did not disappoint. It was nice.

Pork Leg Rice with Egg

A set of Pork Leg Rice

Planned to have a quick and easy dinner tonight. Can't think of anywhere and suddenly recalled this shop named Double Star. Walked in and ordered Salted Fish Fried Rice. The meal came a short while after I ordered. It was quick. Star rating for the food? Two stars? Hmm.....

Salted Fish with Chicken Cube Fried Rice

What's next on the eighth night. Went to this cafe called 9 to 5 and seems like the shop's name suggest that it is operating only from 9am till 5pm. But the time Salt was there was already 7.30pm. It was still opened! So what is the 9 to 5 means then? Maybe next time should ask the boss... Anyhow, Salt ordered the Honey Chicken with Rice. Upon food's arrival and started to eat, started to feel a bit hot and saw 'cili padi' in between the chicken. From sweet taste now it became spicy taste. Just concentrated on eating and finished it.

Honey Chicken with Rice

I am back to Kuching already.  Would continue with Kuching foods blogging for the next post.

*** Warning: A non-halal post ***

On a rainy day, it is best to have a pot of hot soup to warm ourselves. Thinking of this, what comes to Salt n Pepper's minds on one rainy day was to have Bak Kut Teh (literally means Pork Rib Tea). Next question in mind would be the place to have it.

Without heavy thinking, we both decided to go to the bak kut teh stall at BDC. The stall is located inside a coffee shop named Hiong Man Low. The coffee shop is just beside the BDC Taka Cake House and opposite BDC Everise. One should not miss it as the location of the shop is quite visible when one turns into BDC Everise Supermarket.

The shop is usually fully packed with people during lunch time and most of the visitors would order bak kut teh although the coffee shop has other stalls such as chicken rice and kolo mee. The Bak Kut Teh stall is located at the end of the shop and same as any other coffees shop, you would have to go over the stall and order for yourself.

There are a few types of meats to choose from (can see from meats on display at the stall counter). Just let the order taker knows your choice. No harm also to ask what other available choices of meats. A bak kut teh meal would be incomplete without a bowl of rice. The Bak Kut Teh served here comes with a bowl of garlic rice. To us, we think their garlic rice smells nice and tasty.

For Salt n Pepper, our choice of meats is pretty simple. One type only and it is the 3-layered pork. The pork is really tender with the right level of layers so that you won't really taste a 1-layered or 2-layered pork which is filled with fat and thick skin only without the lean meat portion. The meat is also well cooked as there is no heavy pork smell.

Bak Ku Teh

Garlic Rice

You can order a bowl of you char kueh as side dish as well to dip into the soup.

You Char Kueh

Be sure to reach early if you want to enjoy a pot of tasty and aromatic bak kut teh as the stall can finish selling as early as around 1pm.

On the lookout for a reasonable, valuable and tasty western cuisines?  Search no more other than Westwood.   It has been quite a while since we last visited Westwood and noticed that it has just undergone some renovation (with closed door air conditioned section now).  As Christmas is around the corner, the shop has also started to put on X'mas decorations.


This is how the interior of the air-conditioned section looks like. On the night we visited, there were not many customers so that's why you can see quite a number of empty tables in the photos below. Maybe it was due to heavy rain earlier so not many people came out.


We ordered Mushroom soup, Fish and Chips and Mixed Grill. Salt especially likes the Fish and Chips here as he thinks the portion is big enough and the fish fillet is deep fried till perfection. It tastes even better when dip into the tartar sauce. The price is just RM10.

Fish and Chips

For Pepper, she usually has some difficulties in ordering what she wants and would end up ordering the Mixed Grill. This can save one from having headache as it consists of  chicken, beef and lamb. Isn't it nice to be able to taste three (3) different kinds of meats in one (1) plate and guess what, it just costs RM20. There are two (2) sauces which you can choose from, either black pepper sauce or mushroom sauce. Not sure if one is also having difficulty to choose the sauce, can we request for yin-yong (mixture of both)... :P

Mixed Grill with mushroom sauce

Pepper thinks that the mushroom soup served here is one of her favourite. The soup is creamy enough and filled with the right sized and quantity of sliced mushroom. However, it does not come with a garlic bread so one would have to order separately if want to.

Mushroom Soup

Address of Westwood:

The shop is just located on the ground floor of the KFC office.