the most expensive nasi lemak ever paid for, but the most satisfying
introduced to us from an Indonesian friend from church, this humble restaurant is the ONLY MALAYSIAN food (yes, THE ONLY) found in this region (Slovakia/Austria). the place is Millenia/Millenium City, Vienna (1hour’s drive away from Brats) and is among one of the Asian outlets available at the food court of this mall.
the food is acceptable for Malaysian standards, especially so if you’re ‘near to death’ from your ceaseless cravings and you just got-to-got-to-got-to-GOT-TO-GOT-TO have it!! the owners (chef & asst) are a husband and wife team from KL and they speak Cantonese. they were really friendly with us and with Arielle around, we shared some common ground as they have a 3 year old son. they conversed mostly in Cantonese (much to my discomfort) but even so, it’s always nice to meet people from our home country. nothing beats Malaysian hospitality (MH – hahhaahaha) as they offered bio-juice and chocolate pudding to Arielle.
too bad it’s only 1 shop, we confirmed this fact when we were at the Malaysian Embassy getting our driving licenses done (coz Slovakia doesn’t accept International Driving license anymore…*pppphhhh*). but on the other hand, at least something than nothing right.
anyone interested in opening a M’sian restaurant here in Brats? 🙂 Slovaks are quite open-minded with trying new kinds of food. a bak kut teh shop alone will probably thrive here as well – Japs love them and so far, my place is the only fix they can get; wonder how much i’ll get if i charge per bowl. hmm….
just think of ice kacang shavings – not in a bowl but on the car! some of the snow was stiff on the window, ice lah… and we had nothing to scrape it off. since it was our first time experience, we didn’t know what to do with it.
Ayl looking into boot for help
that morning it was this situation; ‘there are times when you needed one particular thing the most and you just can’t find it/just don’t have it, but all the while it has always been there when you don’t need it’. we needed a scraper badly, and all the while we had it in our house back home… IN MALAYSIA! hah! so Ayl just used a plastic thingy and pushed off the snow from the front and back windows.
it wasn’t good enough when we got into the car as the front windshield was still covered, so he turned on the wiper… which we later found out from Yooni that that was a bad thing to do coz it will spoil the wiper blades. woops! too late…
a layer of ice on the ground, slippery & dangerousother snow-covered cars; now we know why the garage is so usefulsnowing and windy, good thing Arielle had her snowsuit on. my winter coat my ex-colls bought for me from Winter Time is really good; lightweight and very warm!
we wanted to go to the Christmas bazaar which happens only once a year, organized by IWCB. there will be food from different countries and souvenirs as well. but when we got there, the line for the ticket was so long; and since it was freezing, we decided we didn’t want to queue and to join Soo and Yooni for lunch.
we ended up in Vienna for Japanese food; highly recommended!! Tenmaki (name of the shop)- really fresh seafood! Soo ordered and ordered and ordered, and she kept telling me the portions are small, and when all the dishes came, they had to be placed on the stove/hotplate for teppanyaki. LOL! it was a lot of food, but we finished everything, it was really very yummy! best Jap food i’ve tasted and with the widest spread as well.
we each had a lunch box set consisting of tempura and sashiminom nom noma lot of foodmy salmon teppanyakiayl's chicken teppanyaki
if you notice, his is near finishing while i still haven’t touched mine. i think i could understand Ade at this point when she said there are too many things and she’s confused which one to ‘disect’ first. hahahaha!
fried chicken plate which was nearly goneavocado and raw-fish sushi... so good it melts in your mouth, no joke!
then, even with our stomachs so full, we went to Starbucks!! i haven’t had Starbucks since i got here, coz there’s none in Bratislava!!! can you beleeeeeeve it, ahhh! they only have Coffee & Co. i haven’t had good coffee & cheesecake for the longest time!! so i tahpau (pack) back!!
christmas cherry mocha & espresso, the muffin is absolutely yummylicious - cheese in the middle and dark choc with choc chip all overArielle KO while we had coffee standing (full house) and then through the 1hr journey back home
when we got back to Bratislava, the snow has stopped but the temp was freezing!! can’t imagine it getting colder in Jan and Feb.
on saturday we made a trip to Vienna to check out the infamous fresh market we’ve been hearing from friends. we made our move after breakfast and drove about 1 hour by highway to get there.
our first stop after parking our car was supposed to be a Jap/Korean restaurant offering buffet; not sure where so we just walked around and hoped to find it, but along the way, we got really hungry so we just picked the nearest restaurant that serves Korean/Jap food.
the place looked small and empty and there was only 1 person managing the shop who i’m assuming, to be a woman in her late 50’s or mid 60’s. ayl was thinking like a typical Msian; the ‘kiasu’ syndrome;
‘let’s look for a place with a lot of ppl!’
so much for that, we were starving and near death what with the cold wind blowing. inside the restaurant, the lady is a Korean, so we reasoned that we better order Korean (they serve Japanese and Korean). you wouldn’t want to order your dim sum from an Indian chef right? the place is called Nagoya.
the lady was really friendly, is it because we’re the only customer there? hehe…
we ordered miso soup, 1 small chicken dish (japanese) and 2 other main Korean dishes. soup came first and at the first sip, all prejudices we had against the restaurant vanished! then the lady brought a bowl of rice and some soya soup in it…and she mentioned it’s for Arielle. how sweet is that!! i’m convinced that most Korean women like children. either that or Arielle’s really cute; coz she’s got pretty big double-eyelid eyes…quote unquote Soo.
big bowl and super tasty Miso soup
fresh and delicious Kimchi
Arielle’s special dish
blurred Japanese dish
Korean side dishes
spicy beedf on sizzling hot plate
spicy pork on sizzling hot plate
clean plates from my side
Arielle sitting with rest lady while we ate
heh-mo-ni….
Nagoya Restaurant
Nagoya inside
jackets, belts, scarfs
fresh veg
fresh fruits
Peanuts from Thailand
all kinds of spices including curry leaves, kafir lime leaves!
fresh flowers
we gobbled everything up when the rest of the food came, along with oh-so-delicious Kimchi!! with nearly every bite, ayl and i were like ‘mmmmm’, ‘aiyoo…’, ‘so nice!’, etc… we just couldn’t stop. and i must emphasize one thing, the genuince Kimchi that i had that day is nothing like what we have in Msia. it’s sweeter (but not with sugar), and it doesn’t have that strong vinegar smell. it’s so good that even ayl has gotten a liking to it, much to my surprise.
the best thing of all is, when all the dishes came and we started eating, the lady came and offered her hand to babysit Arielle! oh wow… that was the best, could be the reason why we enjoyed eating so much coz everytime we go out, one of us need to finish the meal first in order for the other one to eat in peace. Thank God!! you won’t understand the relief that is unless you’re a parent yourself.
after i’ve finished eating i went over to ‘talk’ with her, she speaks Korean and German, no English, and saw a Bible on the table she was occupying with Arielle. 🙂 God bless her kind soul! according to Soo, 60% of Koreans are Christians.
i don’t know how to explain the feeling we had after the meal – but, it sure warmed us up inside and it felt like home. we’ll definitely be back.
we made our way to the fresh market after that, and was surprised to find sooo many things! lot of chinese shops here selling all kinds of stuff from Asia. so happy to find them and get ingredients from here. but it’s kind of far to be making the trip all the time. but the thing is, we can’t find any of these here at Bratislava, but some of it Soo has it at her shop in Seoul Food.
yea, pictures are blurry coz i took it with my handphone. last min the cam battery gave up. all in all, it was a good trip. just that the highlight of our day was taken over by the food we had at the restaurant – hehehe… what to do. we’re Msians!
we made our first trip to Vienna on Saturday, by train. it’s only an hour’s (or for some 45mins) drive away from here. Vienna is also known to be cheaper for shopping than in Bratislava, so we went there with the thought of getting a gps for the car.
unfortunately, the only place we know is the city centre which is also the hottest spot for tourist, so rationally the prices there will be much higher. we walked one part of the town, but only found ONE shop selling electronics. we didn’t get it tho, thought we better ask our korean friends where would be the best place to buy it.
Vienna is beautiful! the most magnificent building in the city center is St. Stephen’s Cathedral; the architecture of the building is out of this world! the building is so big, one pic couldn’t fit. but it was bloomin hot, and there were so many ppl. i think it was 32deg and we were walking under the hot sun; which the angmohs luurrve so much to be under. oh man…
there are a lot of things to see there other than the buildings. one of the main attractions also were street performers, well i’m not sure what else to call them. ahhaa… if you’re like me, first time there and sakai, you would definitely like to take pics with them. they’re ‘still’ performers, so most of them either stand/sit on a box until you throw them some money in their hat and they move and you can take pictures with them. otherwise they just stand still; a bit kesian right but also a bit amazing how they can stand so still and not move. what happens if they got itchy somewhere? :P~
as we walk along the paved streets we also see some really nice statues/fountains. there was one with angels which was coated with gold paint… really nice. suddenly both of us were in awe that we’re actually here in Europe and sight-seeing in Vienna! we’re so thankful to God that He has made all these possible, His favour and His love is indeed beyond our imagination. never in our minds have we thought we would be able to do this as a family.
stepping into Austria, signs, posts, everything is in German; which is really good because it is a bit more familiar compared to Slovak. both of us did a beginner’s course in German back in uni so at least a little bit of understanding here.
we went into a boutique called H&M and omgosh the stuff there is cheap! i think you girls will go ga-ga there coz the clothes/accessories are nice and cheap. e.g. a pair of khaki shorts is only 9.90 (earning and paying in euro of course), jeans 39.90. bleh! oh no!! *must control*
just for info’s sake, here’s my opinion of the fastest way to Vienna city centre from where we are at Kramare, Bratislava.
bus no#32 to HLAVNA STACNIKA -> train ride for 1 hour directly to WIEN (Vienna); it’s like our Msian commuter train but faster so it stops at all the stations in between -> get off at SUEDBAHNHOF, which is already Vienna -> go down one floor to buy the ticket for the underground train -> take U3 SIMMERING station -> get down at STEPHENSPLATZ and you’re at the city centre!! yay!!
since it’s so near, we’ll prolly make vienna our shopping place, coz that’s what the ppl we know here do!!
light&love 