Dining in Thai @ Lemongrass (Kiulap)

4 Items on our dish that day.

- Panang Curry (Chicken)
It taste like ... green curry ... if you've tried that. Probably is the same thing ... Maybe I just don't know Panang is the same thing only? Owel ... I actually don't like green curry as it has this kind of fragrance taste on it. It tends to make me ... icky. But this one is not so strong and quite acceptable. The sauce was ample enough to juice up all the chicken pieces too. Doesn't taste spicy. Quite acceptable, but just not my type of food =)

- Curry Taste Fried Rice
This stuff is oily. It doesn't look as oily as it is too. Infact the fried rice felt hard. The taste of the curry was non evident and spicy was missing. Don't know what happened to them. Sure it had the color, but I'm sure you'd prefer more taste then just color?

- Tom Yum Soup (Seafood)
I'm no fan of Tom Yam Soup neither and I'm especially no expert in it too. But I like it still. Especially for that price, they include quite a lot of squid and prawn for us =) Lucky maybe?

- Fried Vermicelli/Tang Hoon
Hmm ... The name of this dish doesn't tell you much at all of the real deal this meal will give.
It's damn sour! And I mean awesomely sour! The taste is similar to the appetizer in Dim Sum Gadong from my previous post. It's sour (the sauce is the source of the sourness) ... sweet ... and with sliced chili in to the dish, carries some hot taste in it too. I definitely like this dish. One of my favorites. Do try it out when you're there, especially if you're into sour stuffs too.

Otak Otak @ Nyonya (Gadong)

No comments from me or my partners.

We don't really know how to eat this and we don't really want to comment on it cuz it'd be unfair.
But we sure as hell don't like it ...

I personally dislike the taste and the mixture in it.

Better Judge it yourself =)

Dim Sum @ Nyonya (Gadong)

Not worth commenting over these 3 Dim Sums ...
But guess I'd do a little from what I remembered when I ate it ...

Har Kow, or the Shrimp Dumpling, the skin has absorb some of the shrimps taste. Taste quite good cuz it adds to the flavor and the salty taste. But sadly, the taste is so little, you'd miss it when you chomp on it. The Skin is thick. Well, thick isn't bad, but if it's thick, rough and too much spoils the whole taste, then please don't ...

Shark Fin Dumpling, Couldn't remember what we don't like about it so I'll skip.

Seaweed Roll, the sauce ... it's always the sauce ... many people just don't understand that the sauce plays an important role as well. make it stickier, yummier, saltier or sweeter ... just to enhance the taste of the whole. Why? Cuz the seaweed rolling over the meat is thick. And that thickness brings a lot of it taste with it making it conquering the whole as a taste. If anyone wanted to just eat and taste seaweeds, they can just dip the seaweed in it's sauce for a while and eat it without the meat ...

And the meat, sigh, seaweed spoiled it already ... it didn't seem like it'd taste extraordinary anyway. Didn't like it either ... bah, never mind the meat, it's a seaweed thing ...

Fried Tang Hoon @ Nyonya (Gadong)

Hmm ... Not much comments about this ...

All I remembered is that we complaint that it sticks to each other too much.

Reminds me lots of Singapore Fried Mee Hoon, which makes displeased of the lack of capsicum, red & green~

No distinctive taste to allure me to have another meal too ...

And finally the price ... how unsatisfying for the stomach vs pocket ratio ... :(

Cantonese Soup Noodle @ Nyonya (Gadong)

The soup is quite bland and a little awful. Only got a little sip on it.

The chicken meat is a little rougher compared to the Watan Ho in my previous posts. A bit tasteless since its mixed with this soup base ...

Too bad i can't comment more on this dish as it wasn't mine. Only tested the two mentioned above. But i'm quite certain that that's enough to tell you whether you'll like the meal or not.

Sizzling Japanese Taufu @ Nyonya (Gadong)

The sauce and the egg mixture is nice as its not too salty and taste quite nice.

There's not too much salted fish as well so it doesn't spoil the taste too much. Thats probably why its not too salty too.

The taufu is another matter thou. As with all other taufu, they don't soak in the taste very well, or at all. In situations like this, they could consider making the sauce sticky and saucy. This could help the sauce to stick more onto the taufu as you eat it, giving it more taste. They could also consider cutting the taufu into thinner slice to give the sauce over taufu ratio a better balance and more taste. The thinner slice is because a higher taufu ratio will nullify alot more taste from the sauce. I thinner slice will reduce the ratio.

I noticed another thing about the taufu. The texture. It's a bit rough and grainy. Not sure why. Maybe it's another brand? Cuz i've tasted a lot smoother one.

Watan Ho @ Nyonya (Gadong)

I usually eat Watan Ho in almost every place I go that has it in Brunei.
I don't know why thou.

It doesn't look impressive here, especially in the picture taken above. It looks pale, yellowish pale from the egg yolk. Aesthetic fail, but we're talking more bout the taste here, aren't we :)

We first tested the sauce ... definitely nice. Salty enough, although it looks so yellow in color too.

The Chicken meat was nice too. It was soft and chewing it was easy. It breaks apart nicely while still maintaining it's solidity. Mixed with the sauce, the simple chicken meat can do wonders.

Sadly, the Kuay Teow was badly fried. Chinese would refer to that as under fried, meaning not fried enough. It was white, and not so much of a fried taste.

But after only sampling is for a bit, I left it alone and tried the other dishes.

When I came back to it ... everything was horrible already.

The sauce dried up, all absorbed by the Kuay Teow and some probably evaporated (not likely thou). Everything went down hill then when I ate it. uck. Haha, shouldn't have waited, thou it wasn't too long.

One thing they could have done thou, is adding more sauce to the dish. First by frying the Kuay Teow further more, then pour the sauce onto the Kuay Teow and let it simmer for a while under low/medium fire maintaining the heat there. Alternatively, they could also add more starch to the sauce to make it ticker to accommodate the lack of sauce issue.

Just my Food for Thought ...

Seafood Fried Udon with Black Pepper @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Black Pepper sauced Udon eh?

The Black Pepper taste was there. It was weak, but it's definitely there. But that's cause it doesn't have any other taste that's distinctive at all. No sweetness, no saltiness. Nothing. Just Black Pepper and a little bit hot.

Seafood doesn't make it any special either. It's just Black Pepper ...

Udon does nothing as well, since it's tasteless ...
Whats the difference then if its any other kind of noodle?
Sure, the thick smooth and soft feel and texture of the Udon is nice, but first, at least, the dish must not be so plain of taste with only black pepper sauce all over it ...

Too plain, too boring.

Fried Chicken Pao @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Small little Bun with chicken meat in side.

When we tried. 2 out of the 3 chicken bun had an odd taste inside.
It tasted like the chicken went foul or something.
The Bun is nice thou when you eat it together, althou it had that odd taste ...

The funny thing is that when we split the 3rd one and tried, there was no such odd taste.

Hmm ...

Beef Ball @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

You know how beef has that strong smell to it? Yeah, but not these thou.

These balls of beef is pretty pale if you compare to some others.

They mix a lot of onion cubes in this one. So much that it's all over the inside of the balls.
Not everyone likes onions. And not everyone wants too much onion on any dish. Especially if the onion is not fried first ...

Prawn & Mango Roll @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Hmm ... interesting combination actually.

The skin is soft, not the scrunchy type. But maybe that's because of how obliviously oily it is. ugh.
If you've had more than one of this, you get nauseous instantly. That how bad the skin is ...

Inside, you'd find the tasty prawn. 2 of them infact. Along with the prawns are a strip of orange colored mango and some shreds of carrot that probably mistakenly gotten inside, or perhaps to beautify it.

We can't really eat these thing as a whole as the skin was so horrible. We had to dissect it and eat it's contents only ...

Prawn is nice. Mango ... well ... it's a mango that gone under alot of heat. The mango only retained a bit of its sweetness. So little, you'd not taste it, or it's flavor, if you ate it with an equal amount of prawn. Well, unless you took alot in your mouth of course. The carrot ... was pointless. Probably got in there by mistake? Hmm...

Assorted Siew Mai @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Assorted eh? Well, there's 3 different toppings for the siew mai.

You get (as you can see in the picture) :
- Prawn (Shrimp as they call it)
- Crab Stick
- Scallop Slice

The Siew Mai I've already mentioned before previously. Not bad.
This time is a little better, with more defined taste and the texture is slightly harder and smoother.

The only different for this is the additional toppings, which ... does not make any difference at all.
It doesn't make the taste any special or changes anything to the siew mai. It's like, a decoration you can eat, like some biscuit flower on a cake ... Except for making you feel like your eating a variety of siew mai and happy about it, it really does not do any good :|

Also, with the regular Siew Mai, you get 4.
Assorted you get 3 and with the toppings.
And the Assorted is more expansive than the regular Siew Mai ...

Go figure which I'd choose the next time I want Siew Mai there ...

Sweet & Sour Roll @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

The fried dried taufu skin is tasteless ... Nothing special bout the meat inside too.

The meat taste like nuggets from Ayamas. The kind of taste that you'd get when the processed chicken meat has been frozen, and before cooking it, had not gone under sufficient time for defrosting ...

If when you try this, don't forget to dip the sauce as it'll lessen your burden when you taste it.
That's cause the sauce is the only thing that's sweet ... and sour ... and the roll is like, the burden ...

Fail when you eat it separately, and nothing special when you eat it together ...

I'd forgo this ...

Lau Sa Pau @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

The lady said this is a tasty little Bun with a mixture of salted egg inside and once you bite it, yummy juice will flow into your mouth.

Well, hmm ... not to my liking. Neither does my partner.

Be wary of the juicy part, cuz damn, it very very juicy.

The Bun is quite tasteless, and the contents inside taste like a mixture of lotus, butter, kaya and salted egg mixture.

Interesting. But we don't like it one bit.

Appetiser @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

This is the appetizer that they'll give you once you're seated.

It's sour and a little sweet. Something out of lime I think.

Here's what I found in it :
 - Taufu
 - Cucumber
 - Grind Nuts
 - Peanuts
 - Mang Kwang (Wonder what's it called in english ...)

It's not quite bad. I'm not really into appetizers, but me and my partner will finish this any day we have a meal here. Disappointingly, I heard my partner say that they charged 2 bucks for it ... hefty fine for an appetizer ...

Har Kaw @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Went to had another try of the food, and Har Kaw was the first thing I ordered.

The taste is a bit different this time.

The skin is thinner than before and not as salty or tasteful as the last time.
But it seems to absorbed more of the taste from the prawn giving it a yummy yum to it still.

The prawn is still nice like that day, which is my main purpose of testing it, but it seems to have dropped 5% of its freshness compared to the last time.

Still nice, and best of all, I got the picture for it this time.

Har Kow & Dried Shrimp Dumpling @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

These 2 dish is the first dish I had actually, but I forgot to take a snap shot of it.

I just had to mention this 2 dish cause of it's taste.

Har Kow and the Dried Shrimp Dumpling are actually quite similar despite the name.
Both have prawns inside and both are covered by the same type of skin.

Usually, these food, when taken elsewhere around here, you'd taste a tasteless piece of skin and rough too.

But this skin here is different. It has a taste! No more tasteless skin! It has a nice salty taste to it. Taste not bad in fact. It's considered smooth to what I've eaten around. Smooth and Soft. Not smooth enough of course. Still a little rough when you chew it. But highly acceptable. (If you want to try a smoother one, Miri's Grand Palace is the place, but their's tasteless.)

The prawn in them are the fresh one's I've been talking about too. Mmmm ...

The picture looks normal in the menu. And when the Har Kow came, first thought we had was like, woah, it shrunk or something. Phew, very small Har Kow. lol. But it sure taste nice :)

Too bad I've no pics to share.

Lo Mai Kai @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Lo Mai Kai. A kind of sticky rice with chicken.

Well, there 2 of them and they are really small.
The one here is not so sticky too. The rice isn't all melted together with some stickiness.
Infact, it's like normal rice with added flavor.

Digging in, you won't see much of a chicken, just a little. well of course, it's small, you won't expect too much anyway. I caught a glimpse of shrimp in it and my partner found some salted egg in his.

My partner finds it nice and likes it as it's not so sticky (or at all).
I find it, a little not to my liking. I kinda like it sticky ...
I find this one a little more to the tasteless side and can't really comment much about it.

The chicken inside, I think is the same as the Roasted Honey Glaed Chicken I mentioned earlier in my previous post. Only that it's a small amount and chopped up without the honey taste.
Hmm ... I think I didn't taste anything at all. Maybe cause I've already had a lot of other dish before I tasted this.

How say you? Are you Sticky? or non Sticky?

Roasted Duck with Bean Curd Skin Roll @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Like the "Chi Chuk Kin", this one comes in duck flavor.

Soaked in sauce, these food is expected to be very juicy when you bite it.
To me, the true taste of these kind of food lies heavily on the sauce that it's soaked with.

The taste for this derive from duck and the mushroom thats colored in black and grey/brown that chinese called " Mo Ko?".

Juicy like the normal "Chi Chuk Kin", when you bite it, you can taste the flow of its juice flowing into your mouth with it's unique taste of duck flavor as u sink ur teeth in it. The skin has totally absorbed the sauce and the mixture of the taste is quite tasty.

I'm not really a duck person thou. I don't like eating duck because of the taste the strong taste of duck meat.
I don't like the mushroom as well due to the same reason. But this dish is acceptable. The duck/mushroom taste is not as strong, but the mixture of the taste gives it an ok from me..

If you're a duck person, you may want to try it out.
If you're not a duck person, then maybe you can give this a chance and see if you're ok with this.

Siew Mai @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

A blend of chicken meat and prawn. The meat and texture is a little soft and does not have a springy feeling and the taste is not that strong, but is not that bad as i'm sure anyone has tasted horrible ones before. This one is awesome compared to those.

The prawn is mixed in and not really grinded with the meat, so it's actually possible to pick out the prawn even. And only a small piece of the prawn is used and not really a whole prawn. As my previous post mention of the prawn, it's the same here in the siew mai. yummy fresh prawn.

This is not so bad actually. Thou it failed in texture, the taste is ok.

As with normal habit of calling Siew Mai as the regular food when eating Dim Sums, I'd not be calling this Siew Mai if I'm eating here as there are other foods more worthy of the very limited space in our stomachs :) ... and pockets :P

Bean Curd Skin Roll with Prawn @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Well, it actually came in 3, but my partner already took one.

The Bean Curd Skin is crispy! Carries a little saltiness in it. Slightly Oily, but very acceptable.

The skin is rolled up several time to hide 2 fresh prawns in it.
You can see a little of the prawn on the picture above. The prawn is very fresh. It's so fresh, it almost taste like the prawn in Miri's Grand Palace where you can eat Dim Sum too.

All it takes for us to know the prawn is fresh is to just plunge our fork into the prawn. You can feel the texture of the prawn. Solid! Smooth! and a little springy.

Take a slow bite into the prawn and chew thoroughly and you'll see the prawn does not have that strong smell/taste like any of the others. Smooth textures you don't see in regular coffee shops. Nice.

The Bean Curd Skin Roll is not bad itself, but the prawn is what I really like in this. Mixed together, I'd say it's not so bad itself.

Roast Honey Glaed Chicken (Roasted Honey Chicken Char Siew?) @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Here's a dish with a unique name, Glaed? I think a more common name for it is Roasted Honey Chicken Char Siew?

First look at it in person, and I thought, it doesn't look roasted enough. Looks soft. Looks fatty.
Well, I'm right! It's not roasted enough to be called roasted!

The skin is soft. Making it fatty and slightly yucky. Well. I don't like fat and soft skins you see.
The sauce is on the sweet side with a mixture of honey in the taste.
Texture of the chicken is ok, but I'd remove the skin if it was that icky.

Only problem with this is still the roasted parts. I don't consider this roasted at all.

Just imagine if it was roasted enough, you'd chew even the skin!
Slightly salty taste from the roast mix with a sweet taste of te sause with honey.
ummph. But too bad that ain't what happened.

If anyone get the chance to eat it wholly roasted. Heck. Describe it to me ...
I'm ok with the taste, but it was way below par and slightly icky being an "un" roast dish.

Deep Fried Paste Shrimp with Salted Egg @ Dim Sum (Gadong)

Hmm .. never tried anything like this before. It looked awesome on the menu, but when the dish came, look at the screenshot. It looks like it shrunk and shriveled or something. Lost a lot of volume and spunk compare to the picture in the menu. lol.

The skin is fried. Kinda solid and hard to chew off too. Salted Egg in the center. And underneath the salted egg is a piece of dried seaweed covering the bottom of the salted egg.

The first thing I noticed as I ate this ... was what I mentioned above ... hard to chew off. You also can't really taste the Shrimp as the taste of the Seaweed has covered or overwhelmed the Shrimp. The salted egg is what it is. Just salty.

Perhaps when you guys reading this post reads it, you can try dropping the whole thing in your mouth and see if the mixed taste any better then what I initially tried?

Found some pic of a pc back in 2008

Here's a pic i've not seen in a long time. One glance and you can see the ultimate word on the PSU. Lol. I recall thats a cooler master UCP 700W PSU. But the first glance was probably the red ATi 1gb 4870 from HIS. I think its a turbo version too!