Surfnux's Weblog

Makan Sutra Singapore’s Famous Hawker Center

surfnux — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:57:11 +0000

Apart from Newton Circus hawker center that is well know to everyone inside and outside of Singapore, there is another nice hawker’s center in Singapore that is less crowded and has almost every Singapore’s signature food and drinks. That is the Makan Sutra which is located just beside The Esplanade, or behind the Marina Square shopping center.

Me and friends often goes when we feel like having outdoor dining, especially when we are bored with the Indonesian foods. It is best when the weather is cool, and after rain.

Take a look at the surroundings and the settings. Its a nice place for dinner with friends. After dinner, you can always visit Esplanade for a theatrical movie, or walk around the bay, or go to the Merlion. And of course shopping around Marina Square and the other malls surrounding the City Hall. (more…)

Lotek (Noodle in Peanut Sauce)

surfnux — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:43:49 +0000

Lotek, is one of traditional food in Indonesia, that has steamed yellow noodle, steamed potatoes, fried vegetables, cabbage, and covered with thick peanut sauce.

To add in more taste, people usually add on minced green chilli (chili padi).

It is almost like Gado-Gado, but Lotek has noodle in it. That’s the difference.

Anyway, planning to go to Singapore soon. Perhaps for a weekend only. Just have to settle some stuffs there, and back again to finish up my preparation for the new-coming business. Yayy!!!

Dumai City Scenery

surfnux — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:42:07 +0000

Some random shots at different time and location, which I took sometimes ago while going around Dumai. Actually there are a lot of nice spots to take pictures on, only people never think of it or realize. I shall take more to share with you all. Check it out yo!

Pictures taken with Canon Ixus 65, using ISO 200, manual.

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Nasi Padang Gulai Bauang @ Jalan Sekolah

surfnux — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:20:54 +0000

Another great Indonesian food in Pekanbaru, particularly at Jalan Sekolah in Rumbai. This place, if you come after 12.00pm or 1.00pm, one thing that is sure finish is the Gulai Bauang. It might be quite far from Pekanbaru, but the journey worth the food.

The restaurant is like the many other wooden house kind of restaurant, and not that classy if I can say. Its just like the normal neighborhood restaurant. But, the food is awesome. Price wise, affordable.

First, let me show you the nice Gulai Bauang…

Next are two different fried fish, both are really crispy and can be eaten as a whole.
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Ayam Bakar Selegie

surfnux — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:59:37 +0000

Ayam Bakar Selegie is another Indonesian restaurant that is operating in Singapore. It has been there for quite sometimes, more or less about half a year. We came to know this from another Indonesian restaurant’s owner sometimes ago, and just not long before I left singapore, we arrange a time to drop by to check it out.

It was located at Paradiz Center. The nearest MRT is Dhoby Ghaut station, walk to The Cathay, and take the sidewalk all the way to Paradiz Center.

The restaurant design is simple enough, and standard seating availability.
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In Search for Free Hotspots in Pekanbaru

surfnux — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:23:12 +0000

Been wondering where else I can go for free hotspots in this town (Pekanbaru). KimTeng no longer has free hotspot access, and now it is locked with the need to purchase a prepaid card. Its called i-VAS, which is provided by Telkom.

So, being sick of surfing at Ciputra Mall, with the only free hotspot left at Gloria Jeans Coffee, but not reliable, I then shifted to SKA Mall. With that, I was hoping that I could surf the net from J.CO Donuts & Coffee, but nooooo… after ordering a cup of Americano with a complimentary Glazzy Donuts, I then ask the cashier. It was so sad that there are no free hotspots available there.

The only one available in SKA Mall is at KimTeng Cafe and Excelso Cafe. So, I then try to browse through each Wifi signal available, and found that each of them is also using a prepaid method. Sadly, no i-Vas ticket is available, cos all were sold out. So, I tried to purchase i-Vas through my handphone provider. Got the username and password, connect, and logged in.

To purchase via your Kartu Halo or Flexi phone, send sms to 4827, with this message: ivas (10000 or 25000 or 50000). The amount will be deducted from your phone credit, or billed to you at the end of the month on your handphone bill. After successful, you will be sent SMS with the username and password in it.

The Login screen. Click for clearer view

Sadly, the connection really SUCKSSS!! It got disconnected from time to time, that can be every 1-2 minutes. There are still some problem, either with the hotspot system, the Wifi Connection, or the settings. Most probably is with the hotspot system, because my Wireless connection stays at full all the time. Or, it could be the wireless router/access point’s firmware problem that experience packets being dropped every 2 minutes. Yeah, it is consistently dropping packets every 2 minutes, for 5-10 seconds. Sigh…
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Nasi Uduk with Fried Chicken and CatFish

surfnux — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:39:19 +0000

One of my most favorite food when I came to Pekanbaru, is the Nasi Uduk by the road side. There are plenty of Nasi Uduk’s stalls you can choose, but only some are really great and might suit your taste.

Nasi uduk is similar to nasi lemak, that it is cooked in fragrant coconut milk and other herbs. It is really nice taste, and has a great smell.

When talking about nasi uduk, you have it with fried chicken or fried catfish with the nice sambal, vegetables, bean curd and tempe (fermented soy bean).

First, let me show you the typical road side hawker look-a-like. Its common here, and they are not only nice, but they are cheap too. That is if you put aside the hygienic of everything.
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Accessing Free Hotspot @ Gloria Jeans Coffee PKU

surfnux — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:03:10 +0000

Being bored and feeling super slow browsing the net through my “still at GPRS speed” of Telkomsel Flash, I decided to go to the Mall again, that is Ciputra Mall. It is always the nearest to my uncle’s home. So, for the past few times, I have been always using KimTeng Cafe’s hotspot.

Apart from its fast connection and affordable food and drinks, KimTeng is filled with smokers and exhaust fan is just not enough to handle all of them. So, its been really unhealthy sitting too long there. For the past few times, I could have utilized more than 2 GB bandwidth only while in KimTeng Cafe.

For some of you who are still wondering what is KimTeng Cafe, it is the newly opened branch of the local coffee shop in Pekanbaru, which has been in operation for very long. Previously it was just a normal coffee shop at the market. Now they are using Cafe’s concept and open it around malls in Pekanbaru.

Okay, back to Gloria Jeans. So, being considerate and not wanting to keep high profile at KimTeng Cafe, I decided to try out Gloria Jean’s free hotspot this time. With a cup of Camomile tea (SGD 2.5 / Rp. 15000), I am seated nicely in this sofa, browsing away to the internet world.

After browsing smoothly for a little while, things started to get weird. Imageshack.us is showing Tours and Travel website, and Google.com is showing that “this domain services has been discontinued”. And slowly after, no sites can be accessed. What the hell is happening here. So, I try try and try, and I gave up finally. Its time to move back to KimTeng. Back to KimTeng, I still can’t surf at all. Its either they have activated the prepaid account for the hotspot, or my Macbook has some error in the system. So, I tried my Telkomsel Flash again, it got connected, but still can’t surf at all.

It got me worry a lot and takes up very long hours figuring what can be wrong. After cleaning up caches, cookies, and everything, still the same. And then I look for terminal code to flush DNS. And I did that. After that, things are better, at least now I can surf again. Wondering what is wrong here. Could it be a spyware? Malware? Does Mac OS X.5 prone to it?

Its still a mistery and I shall find out more.

No more KimTeng, no more Gloria Jeans free hotspot. Next, if I really need one, I shall go to J.CO already. It sux when you have own internet but very slow, and you rely a lot at these free hotspots. I am going to subscribe to Telkom Speedy soon. Damn.

Cafe Cartel @ Siglap Road

surfnux — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:22:55 +0000

As most of Singaporeans have already familiar with this Western food restaurant called Cafe Cartel, which is always packed during weekend especially.

I can say I have not been there a lot, and can be still counted with fingers. On the 26th of March 2008, it was my farewell party with my colleagues. Thanks guys for arranging it. I really appreciate it, although I have not been in the company for long. (Well, if you guys happen to stalk on this post :P)

We had lunch at Cafe Cartel which is located at Siglap Road. It was housed in a dedicated building and in a row with other restaurants and bank nearby. Number of people turned out was more than 20 and actually the whole office that turned out, except the big big boss.

Should have took some pictures with the group, but didn’t manage to. At least I got a picture with my team members.

Anyway, took some pictures of the food that we had, mostly are big portion.

Lets start with the free flow bread which is part of the set meal.

Follow by the soup of the day…. (more…)

Teng Teng Fruit Rojaks

surfnux — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:00:45 +0000

Teng Teng is a name used to represent Fruit Rojaks. As usual, your choices of fruits will be cut into small pieces and served with a side dish of the rojak paste.

The Rojak’s paste with a mix of ground peanuts

The favorite fruit that we choose here is Ciku / Sawo / Sapodilla fruit. Its really sweet and watery fruit.

The only fruit…

Apart from Ciku, there are many other fruits that you can choose though, like pineapple, apple, guava and many more.

How it looked like after you mixed with the rojak paste? (more…)