Sarawak cuisine by guest chef Jamilah – @ Paya Serai, PJ Hilton

I have been Sarawak-fied lately. Barely 2 weeks after I came back from Bintulu & Kuching, where I had the most authentically possible prepared Sarawak cuisine in longhouses & cultural villages, I was extended an invitation to the Sarawak Cuisine promotion at Paya Serai PJ Hilton.

Sarawak cuisine by guest chef- Paya Serai-15

Now, I’ve had the buffet here before & thought it was pretty decent.
For the Sarawak Cuisine promo, it is a combination of  the usual buffet spread but with an added area for the the Sarawakian delicacies.

Sarawak cuisine by guest chef- Paya Serai
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Bintulu Day 1: Evacuating the plane, getting lost, throwing up – all in my “experiencing Bintulu weekend”!

Reminiscing Bintulu…

(this was a while back 😉 )

As you may know, it was my virginal trip to Sarawak just a few weeks ago for the Bintulu Tune Hotels launch. Accomodation & itinerary was all taken care of by Tune Hotels and the local travel agent.

The trip itself was exciting enough, since it’s my first time to Sarawak & Bintulu. A planned itinerary which includes a belacan (shrimp paste) making factory tour & Similajau jungle trek seems my cup of tea.

But the real drama started as soon as we boarded our plane. All rev-ed up for take-off, we were all suddenly told to evacuate the plane as one of the engines were facing problems!

Darn, we had to evacuate the plane and ended up stuck in LCCT boarding gate for the next 2 hours. When the plane finally took off, I was famished and darn glad to be served Pak Nasser’s Nasi Lemak on board Air Asia.
The Nasi Lemak  itself came in a pretty good portion and tastewise; well, can’t complain for airline food.

bintulu jan2011 Tune Hotel trip

We landed at Bintulu airport an hour later.

bintulu jan2011 Tune Hotel trip-1
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EXPERIENCE ULTIMATE ROMANCE THIS VALENTINE’S DAY AT YTL HOTELS

Blame it on the recent island holiday ; I’m now addicted to islands get-aways & resorts holidays.

I used to be pretty much a city-hopper; with tops choices including Bangkok, Singapore, Korea & Hong Kong. This year, I’m eyeing Terengganu instead; since I’ve not been to the East Coast before; and perhaps Lang Tengah (as recommended by a friend) or perhaps another Sabah island?

Surfing around, a friend from YTL recommended their spa holidays and sent me some of their recent promos. Unfortunately it’s Valentine – themed, but heck, I thought I’ll just share it since it’s a pretty good deal.
I won’t be taking these packages as I’m flying to Melbourne this coming 17th Feb (wheeee! ) but I’m aiming for April for East Malaysia, since I was told that that’s the best season.

Tanjong Jara is high on my list.

Tenggol Island

So beautiful isn’t it? I’m definitely coming here soon. I’ve not heard a single negative remark so far about Tanjong Jara. Everybody’s been telling me about how gorgeous this place is!

Anjung Room Interior
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Rebecca’s Table For Four – Part II, & a recipe for Aioli!

This is me “playing the kitchen goddess” Part II, stemmed from my Part I, where Wine Actually sponsored me a bottle of wine. Read about that one HERE .  😉
We had a very creative “Grape Tofu” as amuse bouche, Pan fried Pork Tenderloin & Pumpkin Risotto, all somewhat infused with the red wine by Wine Actually as part of the theme.

For Part II, we prepared a full 5 course meal & the occasion was also a goodbye lunch for 2 culinary friends of mine; Brendan, who is currently interning at Resorts World Sentosa Singapore, and Rainier; who has left Cilantro @Micasa and is now attached with Jann Restaurant, Singapore, one of the respected fine dining establishments in the Lion City.

Another culinary enthusiast, Edwin is currently a final year student in Taylors University Sunway.

The cooking connoisseurs:

table for four Rebecca Saw-16
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Pulau Tiga Island, Sabah – the journey, the resort, the wilderness, the sea

Pulau Tiga’s meteoric rise to fame is credited solely to none other than being the first ever ‘secret’ location for the hit reality series, ‘Survivor’. And hence, the popular monicker of “Survivor Island” has stuck on ever since.

pulau tiga sabah-1

I was thrilled to be here, one of reasons being that it would be my first ever island holiday in the pristine waters of Sabah; another was just in awe that I am on the very island where the reality series was shot.

The beginning: THE JOURNEY.

Getting there meant starting with a 2 hours road ride from KK town, Sabah to Kuala Penyu.
As demonstrated by my fellow travellers Fei & Brad, do take a nap so you are rejuvenated by the time your feet meets the sands of Pulau Tiga. 😉

fei and brad
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Kuching Open Air Food Court, our arrival night supper…

After the initial shock of my lodgings arrangements, my mood wasn’t the slightest bit improved when I found out that dinner was just drinks & finger food.
God damn. I need to be fed and I need to be fed properly.

Thank god for kind Sarawakians like Pierce and Norman, who answered our SOS calls & whisked the hungry grouchy bunch of us to the famous Kuching Open Air Food Court for some local grub before any of us passed out from hunger!

kuching night dinner gang
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