Haji Shariff's Cendol, Seremban

It's been a while, slightly more than a 2 month break from updating this blog of mine.  I decided to make an attempt at resuscitating this blog...hahaha...Having blogged about the cendol I had in Port Dickson back in my post dated August 21, this reminded me of one of my visits to Haji Shariff's Cendol in Seremban in one of my day trips around Malaysia.

Cendol is big business here! Occupying a corner shoplot, business runs at a fast and furious pace...especially on a hot day!

The group of us ordered a few different varieties of cendol and of course...rojak too! Our orders were sent to our table at a rather fast and furious pace too though the place was packed.

Good old conventional plain cendol @ RM1.30 a bowl (USD 0.40) which came out rather...err...plain when compared with ...

Cendol Kacang and Jagung (Red Bean and Corn) goes for RM1.70 (USD 0.50).  My favourite order whenever I have cendol. There is simply more to munch and enjoy when compared to a plain cendol

Sin Yee Kee Beef Noodles @ Pasar Besar Seremban & Legend Premium Tower

Enroute to Port Dickson last month with Ash, we decided to stop by the Pasar Besar Seremban for yet another beefy adventure at Sin Kee Beef Noodle stall.  I have been here several times (blogged about my first visit to this place a long while back in 2006 using my little Samsung camera! Check out my ancient post and old pics HERE).  As usual, I ordered my fave beef noodles with beef balls and tripe.  I love the gooey gravy and the whole works here (something Ash was not accustomed to and didn't enjoyed as much as I did).

Look out for stall no. 748

RM5 of gooey goodness in a bowl :o)

Avillion, Port Dickson

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 18 AUGUST 2006

I am away from April 11-22. Jason has kindly offered to assist me in republishing some old posts (back at a time when only a handful of people read my blog. Hee hee hee...) for this period. Comments are still and always welcomed but I will only be able to reply when I get back after the 22. Thank you all!

After our Singapore trip, Mrs Pitt, Zahara and I went to Port Dickson and stayed in Avillion. Mrs Pitt had stayed in Avillion's water chalet when they first opened in 1999 (I could be wrong about the year). At that time, we managed to get a cheap intro rate for the water chalet at RM150/night. Fast forward 7 years later, the water chalet is going for 3 times the rate. Talk about inflation!

Anyway, Mrs Pitt wanted to have a quiet retreat in Avillion, knowing that there really wasn't much to do in Port Dickson itself. On arriving there, we checked into the room and stayed in till it was time for dinner. We ate at Crow's Nest, one of the few F&B outlets in Avillion. It's a two tiered restaurant and they had a 3 piece band performing light and easy tunes on the spiral staircase. By that time, we were so relaxed and if we were to relax any further, we'll be dead! LOL....


We then retired early as we really enjoyed staying in. The water chalet had a king size four post bed and another queen size bed by the window. It rained that night and I woke up to the sound of the loose wooden panel windows banging against the frame. The problem was rectified with stuffing some folded paper to ensure that I would not be awaken the next night.
We woke up around 8 am (though it was really hard to leave the comfortable bed!) and had breakfast in Village Court. The buffet spread consisted of nasi lemak, roti canai, sausages, hash brown, omelettes, porridge, fried noodles and the usual spread of salad and bread with different spreads. What did we do after that? We went back to the room and stayed in again. It was really hot outside and we had fun playing charades till about 6pm where Zahara went to the pool for a swim.
We then had our dinner and retired early again, checking out the next morning after our breakfast. Gosh, time sure flies! However, I did spend some time taking some photos of the place earlier, pretty much the only other thing I did do!




I took some night pics without a tripod, trying my best to keep still for up to 15 or 30 seconds. It's slightly blurry but it turned out quite okay considering that I had no tripod (by the way, went to PC Fair and got myself a tripod for RM19.90 - WoW2 said to be careful about the light tripod as the tripod might fall over easily!) The moon was out that night and it was just picture perfect. Sadly my pictures weren't. Ha ha ha ...







So, we really spent most of our time in the water chalet, not doing anything at all (except going out to eat). It was nice to just sort of really have some R&R, we need some vacations like that once in awhile.

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.
~ Spanish Proverb

Empayar Seremban Siew Pow - The Journey Home

After having brunch earlier in Johor Bahru, we did some last minute shopping in Pelangi Mall and started our journey back to Kuala Lumpur. We had actually arrived in Seremban and wanted to go into town for dinner. However, upon turning into Seremban, we were caught in a massive jam! Then nature decided to call and soon from looking for our dinner place, it became a frantic search for the nearest restroom!

I recalled that Empayar Siew Pow (Siew Pow Empire) was somewhere nearby and suggested we detour there. Luckily enough, Munch had a rough idea where it was and soon we reached our destination. We jumped out of the car and made our way to the restrooms located there. We were all so relieved after that (I came out singing "What a feeling...."! Hahaha) and soon we wandered around the "empire". Well, it may be called an empire but the section that sold the famous Seremban Siew Pow (baked pastry with BBQ meat filling) wasn't "empire" huge :o).

We bought some siew pow and egg tarts home. The egg tarts (I heated them in the toaster oven) tasted better than the siew pow, maybe it's cause I overdosed on siew pow some time back...hehehe!

They also sell plenty of snacks for those interested in grabbing some other goodies

There was still a traffic jam out there (we could see the traffic from where we were) and we decided to abandon the plan of going into town. We saw quite a number of diners at the hall area of this place and decided to eat here to save ourselves the trouble. We had wanted to order some fried noodles as we weren't that hungry but were told that noodles weren't available. When we pointed out the nearby table of diners who were having it, we were told that they were tour guides and such food items are not cooked for "normal diners" during dinnertime (meaning it's available at other time?). We found it rather odd in a way, forcing customers to order a la carte dishes but of course this is a tourist stopover, hence such a policy.

We ordered the Special Tofu with Mushroom & Vegetables - The tofu is mixed with a paste of fish and prawn, dip in light batter and fried. This was actually very tasty.

Apart from ordering a standard plate of vegetable we also tried the staff's recommendation, Salt Baked Chicken. The kampung chicken was a bit on the dry side and there wasn't enough gravy. Seems that there are quite a number of special dishes whipped up by the resident chef. Check out the menu along with other info HERE.

So, dinner was okay and prices are higher than usual but this place serve its purpose well as being a one stop centre for us; toilet break, famous Seremban snacks and dinner!

Empayar Seremban Siew Pow
LG1-57, Lower Ground
Pasar Besar Negeri Sembilan
Jalan Besar TBK 4
Taman Bukit Kepayang
70200 Seremban
Negeri Sembilan

Tel : 06-60163089

Well, I arrived home and never felt more relieved to be sleeping in my own bed after that horrendous day I had in Singapore after getting ill. I must say, there's no place like home and after a few days of rest, I was all well in time for Christmas celebration. I know, it's March now and I still have lots in my photo archives ;o).

Where we love is home,
Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Homesick in Heaven

Beef Noodles @ Quinn, Jalan Toman, Seremban

I thought I should post about my eats during my recent trip to Johor Baru and Singapore. Starting our journey at around 10 a.m, Munch told us that he wanted to do a stopover in Seremban for beef noodles. The rest of us couldn't agree more and looked forward to lunch. Munch gave us three places to choose from and we settled on Quinn Seremban Beef Noodles located at the corner of Jalan Toman 6. Hence, this is part of my continuation on Beef Noodles from my previous entry.

Different from my usual Seremban stopover for beef noodles place, this place was definitely cleaner and cooler (air conditioned, as compared to the au natural place of the market).

Hahaha...this is like some sort of signature shot from me whenever I take photos of sauces (the rule of odd numbers!), in this case the chili sauce.

The beef noodles were quite good but I still prefer the one from the market. It has the same special gravy (albeit a bit starchier) and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The noodles were slightly softer; I would have prefer it to be a bit more springy (cooked al dente). The beef cuts were okay on their own merit but if I did a comparison again, they were not as tender as those from stall 748 at the market. Of course, the best meat cut I have tasted is located right in Section 17, Petaling Jaya itself.

The beef balls were nice and springy, pretty standard quality at most beef noodle stops but the soup wasn't as beefy as I hope it would be.

For one looking for a bit more comfort when chowing down beef noodles in Seremban, try Quinn's. I know of some people who just won't go to the market to eat! ;o). Oh, Quinn serves a mean Nescafe tarik too. It was very nice and smooth, just look at it!

Quinn is open from 9.30 a.m till 6pm and closes on Tuesdays. Munch did mention that they have another outlet in Seremban but not sure where.


The journey continues....

Seremban - Prologue to Malacca

Had recently gone for a trip to Malacca with TML and YSF after YSF lamented about work and said that she needed a break from it. So, off we went over a weekend last month after making some quick arrangements. Since it was my first road trip with them, we will either come out of it as better friends or enemies for life! LOL....We'll just have to wait and see. Ha ha ha....Anyway, one thing that we truly have in common for sure is the love of food. That gave us a good start to our trip when we decided that we must make a stopover at the Seremban Market for Beef Noodles along the way.

This stall had so many different types of biscuits! (It goes round the corner on the bottom left too!)

I was looking forward to the detour here as I have had a bowl of the famous Seremban Beef Noodles since the family trip there last year in June. It's been awhile indeed and this time, we went to stall no. 748 (we had gone to stall 742 earlier).

The difference is that the sauce in 748 is not as thick as 742 (I ordered the dry version) but apart from that, there isn't much difference. Well, at least not to me - I'm just glad to be in Seremban, eating it! :o). Once again, the peanuts and the sesame seeds really gave this noodle an extra edge over it's Klang Valley competitors (namely Ngau Kee, though it's a different version). The noodles, covered with the gravy slipped into my mouth easily and was cooked al dente! The beef balls were firm; served in a bowl of delicious broth with spring onions, they were delightful.

This time round, we also ordered an additional plate of Sotong Mee Hoon (Cuttlefish Vermicelli) to share. Very much like its Cantonese Mee Hoon counterpart, there are differences. Firstly, this mee hoon's gravy doesn't have egg swirls. It's also more peppery and of course, the main difference is the meat. Cooked with slices of char siew like meat (BBQ pork)and sotong, it was a nice change from the usual Cantonese style. I didn't care much for the slices of pork though. The char siew like meat tasted bland (I say char siew like as it didn't taste like char siew at all!); eating it together with the noodles and some chilli helped. If I were to ever order this again, it'll be plain sotong for me.

After our breakfast, we continued our journey to Malacca....


To be continued ....