''Fine dining" in Kuching

There's not much to talk about fine dining in Kuching, except that its exorbitantly priced for the local people, and its caters for tourists who're a bit iffy against trying our hawker food.

My uncle who just came from Singapore a few days ago treated me for dinner at the Steakhouse in Hilton Kuching. It is supposedly one of the better place to go for steak in kuching

I won't mention much about how much it costs, but suffice to say, its as much as my monthly paycheck!

Scallops with some salad


I ordered some battered oysters wrapped with salmon. Tastes quite good actually!


I ordered a 500 gram chunk of T-bone steak. OK, it took me a while to finish it up, because I rarely eat steak.

Those 2 little green balls are creamed spinach, and they only gave a [miserable] piece of potato. Gosh.. are side dishes really that dear now adays?!


Comparing the portion of potatoes and salad with the ones in Melbourne, I'd say Melbourne still wins hands down. That little mush in the foreground is mustard.


This is 250 grams of grain or grass fed prime New Zealand steak for you..

The next evening, my family and relatives organised a dinner at Hornbill Restaurant, Sarawak Club in conjunction with my grand parents' 55th wedding anniversary.


As requested by my dad, they decorated the table with a nice bouquet of flowers.


The first dish for a chinese meal is typically fried noodles or rice. This one is a more sophisticated version of Kuching's ''char zhui me" (fried soup noodles) with plenty of seafood. Thumbs up from me!


Next on the list is beggar's chicken. The original recipe states that it was originally wrapped in lotus leaves and herbs, and cooked in the ground , with a fire above it. The end result is a delicously aromatic, full flavoured chicken dish.

I guess the kitchen could present this a little better by removing the aluminum foil and plastic wrapping from the chicken.


Greenland halibut with honey sauce. An exquisite fish with a texture that simply melts in your mouth. At rm8 per 100 g, its not a fish you can afford to eat everyday, unfortunately.


One of the signature dishes from the restaurant - butter prawns. The batter adds a delicious texture and taste to the prawns.


Yam duck. I feel the duck isn't given enough prominence in this dish, so its only satisfactory in my case.


Sizzling beancurd - no different from the beancurd dishes that my mom cooks, but it tastes alright here.


Lotus roots & Sweet peas with XO sauce and almond. The dish has a really long name, but its nothing spectacular here. The lotus roots were a bit too crunchy for me, in my opinion.

Some readers have commented that I was a bit too ''savage'' in my previous post. Oh well, we all have ''stupid mouths'' at one point of time or another, don't we?

My stupid mouth
Has got me in trouble
I said too much again
To a date over dinner yesterday
And I could see
She was offended
She said "well anyway..."
Just dying for a subject change

Oh, another social casualty
Score one more for me
How could I forget?
Mama said "think before speaking"
No filter in my head
Oh, what's a boy to do
I guess he better find what soon

We bit our lips
She looked out the window
Rolling tiny balls of napkin paper
I played a quick game of chess with the salt and pepper shaker
And I could see clearly, An indelible line was drawn
Between what was good, what JUST slipped out and what went wrong

Oh, the way she feels about me has changed
Thanks for playing, try again.
How could I forget?
Mama said "think before speaking"
No filter in my head
Oh, what's a boy to do
I guess he better find one

I'm never speaking up again
It only hurts me
I'd rather be a mystery
Than she desert me

Oh I'm never speaking up again
Starting now... Starting now

One more thing
Why is it my fault?
So maybe I try too hard
But it's all because of this desire
I just wanna be liked
I just wanna be funny
Looks like the jokes on me
So call me captain backfire

I'm never speaking up again
it only hurts me
I'd rather be a mystery
than she desert me

oh i'm never speaking up again
i'm never speaking up again
i'm never speaking up again
Starting now, starting now...

I do have a very stupid mouth, but I'm not shutting up anytime soon.

Laters.