Holiday Agenda

1. Enjoy Family-Phuket getaway tremendously
it’s a rare treat indeed!

2. Get back to Reading ENGLISH NOVELS

:: 4 books ::

3. make new passport
4. witness Thaipusam (for real this time)
5. head north place by place
6. meet the older clone Ms.Lim
7. BATIK order coming on for Jea
8. LOOK-OUT-POINT
9. Hospital Attachment
10. tinker-tanker with Dad’s DSLR camera
*oooh!!*

11. get the old body working out
12. Finish my unfinished pieces of Travelogue post
13. do something for the family
14. do something for me

It’s definitely going to be a REAL HIATUS this time since i’m going back later for the long hols! Swell, i blog lots during exam period. It has always been that way. Hahaha.

I seem to have a lot of things planned out for the extra week i spent here, but i use most of my spare time having moments for myself, besides going to campus too often to get some papers/documents done (hassling of course) what i did was:
1) reviving my oh-so-dead-keratin dying hair
2) Chill with some peeps that matter the most
3) went stressing over Gymnema sylvestre again!
4) Get back some of my novels and finish one book in a few days so far

So Sublime His Lovely Image

it’s been a month since i layed my eyes on this piece of art.
always get the sense of serenity when i admire it.

There are smallers two pic frame piece but this is worth it.
i’ve a sudden urge to get this before i board the plane tmr.

I’ve a feeling mom and dad will like it.
I wonder if they will?

Fancy “burnt fish”?

Actually what i meant is IKAN BAKAR that literally means burnt fish in Malay. Coming from the same ‘Kepulauan Melayu’, yes the dish is very much popular here in Indonesia too just like Malaysia! The cooking condiments are different though. Will tell more throughout the post

Ikan Bakar you can find it at most hawker spots, bound to meet have a few in every area. Usually this Ikar Bakar stalls are Al-Fresco, meaning outside never indoors. It’s the same in Indonesia. You can have Ikan Bakar by the beach (Jimbaran, Bali) and Al-Fresco restaurant but never indoors.

May I present you:

:: IKAN BAKAR 52::

It’s been open for nearly one year now. I’ve not been here before until today. The idea of coming to Alun-alun Malang for a meal never strikes me unless i got other matters to be in this place. Hustly and bustle of alun-alun is something i won’t look forward to especially under hot scorching sun.

I usually frequent the IKAN GALUNGUNG for ikan bakar because they have kick-sambal !! I’ve a high threshold for spicy food! Come to think of it, it was Ms.Carey the cousin who took me there. Haha… both of us had some great times there when it comes to glutonny.

What actually caught my attention of the restaurant one year ago wasn’t the food menu but the drink menu pricing on the banner placed outside the restaurant. I’ll show you why,

:: Teh Tawar Rp 100, Butt soup anyone? ::

There i was wondering… “Do they serve tea with tiny chinese tea cups? That one cup cost Rp. 100?”
I don’t drink much after a meal, only sip on drinks to wash off the taste of the meal and prevent from being overly full, obviously i was please to see that!

Check out the Soup section
Sup Buntut in Indonesia is known as Ox-tail soup in Msia aka Sup Ekor (BM)
Butt soup taste like any butt to me, no difference.

The most expensive drink only cos like Rp. 10k which is standard pricing in most restaurants in Malang.

Anyway there was this new drink that for the first time i come across it JUS TERONG BELANDA!!
Now does anyone knows what is that? Durian Belanda (BM) i know it’s called Sirsak in BI and Soursop in English but that? It’s hard to envision brinjal and soursop as one.

Oh ya… Es Mega Mendung is one of my favourites drinks around! MEga in Size and TAste if u have sweet tooth!

:: inside the restaurant ::

Waiters and waitresses all in batik uniform.

:: Dining Area ::

Don’t you love the ambiance? The Restaurant is really big! A place where you may like to have a group of friends to eat and be merry. They have a more secluded sitting area near the washing place but it’s rather stuffy in there.

what we ordered:

:: the satisfying package Rp. 2500 ::

ordered five of that… a basket of rice came for five and turned out we got cheated on our vegetable. For five people heck they gave us very little vege it was the size of small soup chinese soup bowl. As if Sawi is very hard to get now. It was the vege was cooked with urap-urap. By the way, after dinner, the neighboring opposite table i passed on my way out had a big bowl of urap-urap on their dining table which is untouch! Arrgghh… unfair treatment! We girls like our vegetables thank you.

:: Gule Ikan Kakap 1 ekor ::

Curry fish to die for! *YumYum* The shallots did wonders to this santan(coconut milk) dish! A must to order when u come! The best dish out of the four we ordered.
Logically, a person will come to an ” Ikan Bakar” resto to have some burnt fish, but for me i come just to have a fishy meal preferably none burnt. Staying on highlands, away from the sea, sea fish is hard to get unless u go to this kinda resto. If not the only fish you can get in warungs@ kopithiam will be fresh water fish or preserved fish. Why none burnt?
One of the small few reasons i don’t like the ikan bakar here is because after they burnt the fish, the size of the fish shrinks! There will be hardly any white meat to peck on. Secondly, the cooking style for fish are very few. The most famous and common local distinctive style will be using Kecap Manis as marination then bbq it or deep fried the fish. Ugghh… i miss good old steam fish!

One can never go wrong with sweet soya sauce in Indonesia. Practically in every food/ dish/ meal they use their sweet sauce. Be it the ABC brand or whatever.

:: Gurame Bakar Kecap/Kacang::

That’s the Kecap style only this comes with the kacang sauce.
Can you spot the carbon on the fish? Anyway Msia’s Ikan Bakar style we used lots of spices and the fish is wrapped up in banana leave when put on the bbq pit to be more precise it should be called grilled fish! Yum yum!

:: Udang masak Asam Manis ::

Tasted sweeter and there was no tinge or sourness. My grandma makes better one using Asam Jawa!
It was a disappointing portion for it’s price.

:: Sapo Tahu Seafood ::

I asked whether it was Japanese taufoo, waiter said yes.  LIAR! It’s either the waiter lied, the cook lied or the kitchen ran out of Japanese taufoo… Hmmppg. So far the best Japanese Taufoo would be in Matos (halal) an d Sukun Murni.

:: washing area with the secluded dining area ::

The total damage done???

:: Rp. 143, 935 for five people ::

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT TAX is RP 13,085??!

The VERDICT

If you fancy going somewhere for burnt fish but with an ambiance, this is the place you should check out! Not only the food is affordable and delicious, you are able to dress nicely and smell (smoke free) good after the meal!
IKAN BAKAR 52, Jalan KH Agus Salim, 11, Malang
It ’s the same road as Mitra 1 along the same row of Martabak Agung only slightly further down.

B

URP!!
BURP!!!

XL Centre

Yesterday i needed to go to Xl Center to retrieve the number that i’ve been using for a long while. So currently, i’ve not many contact numbers in my phonebook.

Trip to Xl Center was a long one. Yam and i got lost like twice but it was a pretty educating ride from campus to there and there to kost.

XL Center,  Jln. Letjen Sutoyo, Malang

The cozy offiice

Xl Center is situated in Belimbing area so transportation wise you can take AG, ASD and ADL there. It’s actually after Hotel Santika and before Mitra 2. You can’t miss it, cos the place is huge! But the office is small.

It cost Rp.18k to replace the SIM CARD with the same number and i had to wait 24 hrs later for the Sim Card to be activated in order to use it.

Friendly guards and workers they have there. It was easy to talk to them.

cracks beneath the surface

Recap: Thurs-Sat

THURSDAY
It was awful. Really awful. My Achilles heels is not having enough sleep. In stressful situations, sleep is one of the best remedy around, having to have exams then i could not have both sleep and exams to one level, one must be forgo.

Honestly, it is my first time getting blank out during exam due to anxiety attack. My guts felt that it was being twisted, pulled, and compressed the whole time day. How not to get upset when all the time and work poured went to waste due to sleep deprivation that brought memory failure. Aaaghh! If  I knew this will happen i would have sleep off and conserve my energy for more important papers.
The anxiety attack lessened during PH paper- psychogenic!

Felt numb and wasted until i had some sleep and proceeded to tackle Radiology paper.

I appreciate that the girls were trying to console myself out of the blue. The bits of hope they gave and hugs were therapeutic. It lifted my mood up a little.

FRIDAY
From anxiety attack to temperamental bowels and nausea. My fellow colleagues reckon i’m having wind in my gut because i complaint that it was making lots of gurgling noises, which they claim to be turbulence of air. My abdominal discomfort came with intermittent prickling pains. I was told this happens because of not eating regularly I usually have one meal and one snack a day on exam period which is enough to sustain energy.

Exam was at 7am! can u believe that?! Of all the exam time table to change, the schedule for that particular subject did not! It was one of the better paper, yet of course the Radiologist never gave us good results, even though most of the exam questions were of pass year that we have attempted. The last radio exam i set for, my classmates were told that only 9 pass with a C! The rest can say AsTaLaVista Baby! Which does not make sense…

I manage to curl up to a Yoga like position and nap awhile on one of the East wing floors of Gedung Baru. Sleep does not calls for comfort when I’m most tired, i can sleep anywhere as long i got something to rest on. The following exam was 1pm, it was ‘ujian perbaikan’ (heck i don’t know what is it call in English) for Methodology. For this subject, much sweat and tears were poured into it. The thesis proposal was the most challenging rolllercoaster ride! It was announced (today, sat)  that lots of people manage to get an A. I suppose my work paid off. Yet a few of us are feeling numb about the news because we have turned immune to expect the best after all the drama we went through. I’m counting my blessing.

By wee hours of the night or Sat morning, i was too nauseated that i barf dinner contents out! Felt so much relieve after that for the nausea was gone but the air turbulence still hung around. So much for taking food, it didn’t really help to lessen the air turbulence in me. Guess it does not work for me.

2 things by right:
one- Radiology is my last exam paper
two- The extra one week i sacrifice from my hols was to sit for some ‘ujian perbaikan’. To my dismay, there is none! Other
than the Clinical Pathology that i planned to take on Saturday.

SATURDAY
Clinical Pathology exam for two hours and 4 hours seminar of Methodology to attend.
An MOG outing which left me none to spare, although i manage to steal 15 minutes of sleep when i got back to my Kost to change. I was grumpy and whining, my watery eyes became smaller and smaller.

While everyone of my juniors mostly were so hype to get back to Msia, i on the other hand can’t wait to get on to my bed! Envisioning the soft pillows that cradles my head and the weight of my body supportted by my mattress was what i wanted most!
I planned to sleep the whole night away after MOG but i am awake now. Annoyingly awake!! Blardi mozz and messed up sleeping pattern!!