Stulang, JB.

As promised, I brought the family out to Johor Bahru, Malaysia today, for dinner.

I intended to get some titbits as well, since I have some trouble keeping awake in class now that I am doing the morning shift until the end of June, when training finally ends. So we agreed to drop by the Giant Hypermart at Tampoi first.

We left home at around 3.30pm, and since we all know how near my home is to the Woodlands Checkpoint, we were in JB by 4pm.
No traffic jam, thank God.

And yes, we went via public transport.

We bought some donuts at Larkin upon request of my first brother, who said he craved for some Dunkins.
I only like J.Co’s while the youngest brother likes only Munchy Donuts.

Anyway, we headed for the Giant Hypermart at Tampoi after that. By cab, it was only about RM7 and since there was only 4 of us, we went everywhere by cab today.

I love hypermarts.

They have everything.
And when I mean everything, it’s really everything. From stationery to bathroom and household accessories, furniture and even clothes & shoes.

I bought a black pair of maryjanes, SilkyGirl foundation and lipstick for only RM50.
That’s about $20 in SGD.

Now you know why I like to go to JB.
God bless the currency differences.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Batam, Indonesia is an hour away and not so accessible unless via ferry, I think I would make it my other favourite place to shop and eat.

Anyway, we hogged the titbits aisle.

I had a trolley of my own.

It’s not in me to go for sweets but I find them a necessity nowadays since I keep falling asleep around 9am to 11am everyday at work.
I’m fine for the rest of the day. But just for that two hours, it seems like I’m fighting a losing battle with the zzz monster.
So okay, sweets are my new best friends.
And marshmallows.
And strawberry yoghurt flavored Cadbury chocolates.

That’s my mother in the background.

Anyway, as you can see, I have a basket in the trolley.
I have this love-hate relationship when shopping for groceries.

I don’t know what the hell has gone into the trolleys other than groceries but it always looks like there’s strange rust-looking yet gooey brown muck in every nook and cranny of a trolley.
It just gets me man.
I don’t want my stuff to get that on them.

Bleargh.

That’s my stepfather on the left, my mother and my youngest brother.

The other brother couldn’t make it because he had some interview going on.
He has too many activities we can’t keep track of.
His loss then.

My youngest brother is the tallest in the family, and he’s only 14.
By the time he reaches 20, we’d all probably need a periscope to make eye contact with him.

He’s in the “radio” phase where his ears are constantly plugged with his Nokia earpiece so that he can stay tuned into Perfect Ten FM.

Several times, I have had to yank out his earpiece by either side to get his attention.
I told you I hate repeating myself.

We took a cab to Stulang, to have some seafood. Cost us about RM8 to get there.

I don’t know why I love Stulang and Senibong most when it comes to freshly-cooked seafood.

For those of you who don’t know where it is, or thinking of trying some good cheap seafood, you might wanna head to Stulang.
If you ask me, I prefer the first shop in the whole row; Restoran Talam Thai Seafood.

We had (from clockwise, in the picture above) butter prawns, black pepper chicken, sweet and sour siakap (seabass), seafood tom yam soup, kangkong goreng belacan (watercress stir fried with dried shrimp paste) with piping hot white rice.
My brother had some fried rice with ikan bilis (anchovies) instead.

Seeing all that food laid out in front of us really whetted my appetite.

I especially loved the sweet and sour seabass. The fish was fried to a crisp, and peeled out in such a manner of presentation that we didn’t need to overturn the fish to get to the flesh. The sauce was fantastic and the tomatoes were sweet. Since my mother doesn’t quite like fish, it was up to me and my stepdad to polish it off.

The kangkong was rather spicy, because there was ground cili padi (mini chillies which are really hot!) but it blended well with the rice.
Prawns were nice too, but I think it would have been better if the butter sauce was a little thicker. But it fared well.
The tom yam soup was the bomb. My parents loved it too. A generous helping of squid and fish, and mushrooms as well.
Black pepper chicken, I don’t know. When I have seafood in front of me, ayam wa tak pandang. (I don’t give a hoot about chicken.)

And for all that food, I merely forked out RM63.30. That’s about $30.

I spent more at Swensen’s yesterday with the Mr, when I gave him a treat.
He ought to feel special.

Anyway, I plan to make this a monthly affair with the family.
It’s just another reason to eat out and shop more. Hehehehe…

3 days of seafood.
I had crab on Thursday when my mum suddenly decided to whip up lemak (coconut gravy) on a whim.
I had crayfish pasta on Friday.
And seafood today.

That’s it, I need to go on a diet for the rest of the month.

In my dreams.

Note: You’d probably noticed that most of the pictures did not have “captions” in them. Photoshop decided to go all weird on me and produced TEENY-WEENY fonts no matter what size I chose. So fuck Photoshop. I hate it now.