Food in NZ

New Zealand was memorable for so many things. Among which is the food we had there! Here is the list of the wonderful food we had, in no particular order:-

1. Whitebait

This is something special at the West Coast area. Whitebait is something like "ikan bilis". It was used as bait until people realise that it is delicious on its own. The pics above show the pattie made of whitebait fish. Yummy!

2. Salmon sashimi

Kinda ironic that the best sashimi i've had all my life is in New Zealand!!!! But it's no surprise when the sashimi i had at Lake Tekapo was just down the road from a salmon farm!!!

3. Fish and chips

We had fish and chips at a few different places - and it's all pretty good! The fish is just so fresh!

4. Abalone

The locals call it "paua". We were wondering what it was and when told it was abolone, we decided to try some. Dun be put off by the weird colour - it was really delicious!!!

5. Steak

The beef in NZ is really nice. I opted for this beef fillet mignon (with gourmet potatoes, pea puree, onion marmalade and red wine jus) for our dinner in one of the vineyards (Marlborough Vintners Hotel). It was cooked to medium perfection and the taste of the beef was simply lovely!

6. Fergburger

You HAVE to try Fergburger when at Queenstown!!!! If you do not want to take my word for it, just ask the many people who stand in line queueing up for a burger on a daily basis!!!

I had the one with almost everything - 2 beef patties, bacon (of course), fried egg, lots of vege. Satisfying!!!

7. Hot chocolate

The best hot chocolate in the world? Well, if i take into consideration the view we get when sipping the pipping hot chocolate on a cold winter's night, then i would say yes. The hot chocolate at Patagonia in Queenstown is soooo rich! We even tried the lavender flavoured hot chocolate! Lovely! The same taste with the smell of lavender!

8. Pasta at Queenstown

We went to this place - The Cow Restaurant in Queenstown - for the pizza - but to me, the pasta way better!!! The seafood was so fresh and the cream was just nice! It has fish, prawns and mussels in white wine sauce!!!!

9. Farm tea

We went for a farm excursion and in the middle of it, we were treated to a farm tea meal. With tasty pikelets! Lovely!

10. Pies at Arrowtown

Arrowtown is a nice place to visit if you're in Queenstown - and one of its main attractions is its pies! Lovely!!!! I opted for deer meat pie as the deer meat is also something recommended in NZ. It was so tender and juicy!!!

11. Brilliant breakfasts!!!

We had English breakfasts at many places - yes, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, toasts... yummy!!!!

12. Cheese platter

This was an interesting dessert i had - but wonderful!!!! Different kinds of cheese with crackers, honeycomb and grapes. The combinations were endless and each of them delicious!!! I had this after i had the steak in no. 5 above.

10 reasons why Bangkok is better than KL!!!

1. Elevated pedestrain walkway!

This makes it so much nicer - shielded from the sun and rain, we didn't have to
descend to the road level at all at times!!! Much safer too!

2. Their train system is so much better than the LRT in KL!

The aircond is much better and people
actually QUEUE UP TO BOARD THE TRAIN!!!!

3. Yummy food!!!!!

You can see one of the main factor is pork!!!!


Starbucks there offer Peppermint Mocha!!!!


My personal favourite - Coconut water by the roadside everywhere
and it's really cheap and so delicious!!!!

4. Shopping is great!!!!!!

Roadside stalls everywhere, every night!


You can walk into a shopping mall and buy a Lamboghini!!!!


Chatuchak market!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can get anything!!!!! For a good price too!

And if you run out of money, there's always the mobile bank around!!!

5. Nice river cruises with nice views!

We took a river cruise + buffet dinner. Nice!

6. Clean(er) and dry toilets!!!

7. Tuk-tuk

So fun and so fast too!!!
(Pic taken from the net)

8. Their sky bar is much better and nicer than the ones in KL

We went to the Lebua State Tower. Wonderful place!!! Great service.

9. You can take a photo with Leonardo!!!

And if you have money, you can take photo with a
whole lot of other celebs too - at Madame Tussauds!

10. Nice signs (see the one for toilet)

Oh, they also have a cool "Turn off your mobile phone" clip before the movie which is pretty hilarious, involving a tiger (no pun intended) - but i can't find the clip on Youtube.

Highlights of trip to Madrid

Went to Madrid last month. It was a wonderful trip. Here are the highlights of the trip:-

1. Flamenco

We went for a flamenco performance and it was probably the main highlight of our visit there. It was truly wonderful When guidebooks say that you have to watch a flamenco performance when in Madrid, they were really stating a fact!

The dancers were wonderful, the costumes were colourful and the music fantastic. But when you put them all together, it was truly awesome. Flamenco at the end of the day comes from the soul - the emotions and passions were evident and it really gave us a taste of Spain!

2. Taking walks at the El Retiro park

We spent a lot of time there. It was a wonderful place to just take long walks. The weather was not too cold and the leaves just changed colours.

3. Having a meal at Plaza Mayor

We had a simple snack of tapas and churros with sangria and chocolate - but what filled us was the atmosphere there. It was so alive and so full of history - we imagined the kind of things that took place at this very square centuries ago.

4. Paella

I LOVE paella!!!!!! Yummy!!!!!!

5. Shopping at the El Rastro

It is said to be the largest market in Europe! It was certainly huge!!!! We found some good deals there. What was impressive was the range of things that were being sold there - and the number of people who were there on that Sunday.

6. Eating delicious roast suckling pig at the oldest restaurant in the world!

Yup, according to the Guiness Book of Records, Botin *is* the oldest restaurant in the world that is still operating - established in 1725!!! Eating there was a wonderful experience - the place really had a nice ambience. The waiter who served us really good and professional!

The pig? The best that i've ever had! Really!!!!! The skin was so crispy and it broke easily and the meat so tender and juicy.

7. Las Ventas

This is the bullfight stadium in Madrid. Unfortunately, we did not get an opportunity to witness an actual bullfight as the season closes during winter.

Still, it was worth our Euro to enter into the stadium and tread where bullfighters only dare to do. It was also a very informative tour - the guide was pretty impressive!

8. The ICERI conference

This was the main reason why we ended up at Madrid (would rather have gone to Barcelona instead). It was quite a good conference - very well run. Food was wonderful! Hehe. But it was most memorable as it was the first time i've presented papers at an international conference - and it went quite well IMHO.

9. Puerto de Sol

This square is always happening!!! So nice to just hang out there.

10. Dia

Nope, i'm not kidding. I stumbled across this local supermarket and found that it was pretty decent. We ended up going there time and time again to buy groceries and food! Cheap and pretty good stuffs!

11. The Royal Palace



To be honest, it wasn't as grand as some other palaces we've been in - but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Some of the rooms were really beautiful - the paintings, the carvings, the wallpapers etc. Too bad we were not allowed to take any pics. But the exterior was beautiful too, especially of the gardens at the back of the palace.

12. Good flight!

Went by KLM. First time we took KLM and we were thoroughly impressed! Good food and comfortable seats with plenty of room! Good quality video screen too! =)

We also stopped by Amsterdam for a short while - it was so nice to see all the X'mas deco up - and we did some really good duty free shopping too!

A really good holiday!

It wasn't planned but when the time drew closer, we decided to go down to S'pore during the short term break that i had recently. It was arguably my best trip down to S'pore!

1. It was a real holiday - we slept until we could sleep no more and then only got up to go out! =)

2. There was not need to rush back home at night to prepare for the next day at work or to get sufficient rest. We just took our time each nite and only went back when we were too tired to do anything else.

3. FOOD!!!!! Lots and lots of good food!!!!! =P

4. Shopping! tGiF bought some clothes for a bargain. I almost got a nice 3 piece branded suit for SGD250 but decided against it since i do not need so many suits. But i did get a really cool action figure!!!! My fav character in the HP series who also happens to be one of my fav actors!

Also, i manage to find the CD i have been looking for for some time - and could not find it anywhere in M'sia.

5. Spending almost every moment of the day with tGiF!

6. The only morning we had to get up early was to go to church - and we had an interesting and edifying time in the church we visited. Better not mention the name tho cuz i may want to blog about it another time. It was indeed an interesting time there too!

7. We did a LOT of walking. And i love walking! We even spent some time at the outdoor "gym" at the place where tGiF's aunty lived.

8. We had to travel far each day and it gave me an opportunity to think and pray, especially regarding my sermon which i was to deliver when i got back.

9. Perhaps the most important thing was that we had the time to catch up with frens. Again, as we did not have specific plans, we could spend the whole afternoon just chatting with frens. We even went to visit and see one of my fren's new baby!

10. I got a stamp on my passport! =)