Restoran Aminah Arif

Back again with another installment of foodiez~! For starters of this month (other than the crappy article that I posted about tea), we decided to entertain my friend's craving of ambuyat, which is a local Brunei delicacy way back when.

This be the signboard of the store that was said to sell the best ambuyat in town. It is situated in the Kiarong area right beside GT Store (I think that's the name) and slightly beside the building where my hubby works. LOL!

Apparently ambuyat was one of the most famous and most staple of foods back then in Brunei during the WWII area. When the Japan dominated the food supply and most of the locals escaped into the jungle, they basically soaked starch with water, turning it into a gooey substance and hunt or grow whatever they can to be made as side dishes to flavour it up and go with the tehcnically tasteless ambuyat, making it something like a substitute for rice. Since then, it officially became Brunei's local delicacy, though my friend said that there was once a tourist who claimed to say it was the worst local food ever! XD Maybe coz he never came to this place before



This be the interior of the shop. It definitely has a Malay feel to it, and being that the population of people here were Malay, it really makes for the atmosphere. While making and waiting for our order, we noticed that the most gender that dominates this customer group was women! Guess it's true that we are getting more daughters than sons nowadays.


We got our ambuyat scooping chopsticks. It's technically a training chopsticks for beginner users, and I even have some at home that I use to cook instant noodles. Heh.

Our dish has arrived. This is our first side dish, which is a type of acar basically made from raw carrots and cucumbers with chili paste as dipping.

This is the official dipping for ambuyat. Guh! I have to be honest, I didn't like it. It's got a very terrible after-taste and it almost has a durian-ish smell to it. Blergh~! I let my friend have it all.

This is pakis, or fern. Tastes pretty good. It's fresh and crunchy, and the sauce is proven a better dip on the ambuyat than the official dip itself, along with sauce of other side dishes as well. It's been a while since I ate this though. I guess this is really one of those Malay dishes

Mince beef chunks on the house! And mostly the fatty part and the tendons too! Mmm~! Sinful indulgence!

Here's the life of the party: the grand ambuyat itself. It really looked like something we'd see inside those starch glue we saw when we were kids during arts and crafts. The way to get to it is to stab the chopsticks into the goop and twirl it around as you pull it up, almost like what you'd do if you're eating spaghetti, only it's a pile of goo. And speaking of which, it really is totally tasteless, and I am really just eating a pile of goo and the sauce is the ones that makes it tasty. Even real rice has more flavouring than this goo, but it's an interesting experience.

Mmm~! My favourite that I ordered as a side dish to go with the ambuyat, which is kangkung~! Ever since my mom-in-law fell for the story about kangkung having bugs that'll kill you in the gut in forwarded mails, kangkung was banned from the kitchen! My most fav veggie banned from the kitchen~!! GAH~!! And I thought you were supposed to eat all kinds of veggie

Then we have the fish which was also part of the ambuyat official side dish. Tastes pretty good. The sauce seemed like a mild version of the official dip, but tastes more of the sweet & sour kind, though I think they need more salt.

So, if you got a craving for ambuyat or just feeling a little patriotic and want to eat and get to know Brunei's local food, go to this restaurant to have the best.

Are you drinking the right tea?

1. People who use their 'brain' to work or students who study hard day and night.
--- Should drink more Chrysanthemum Tea.

2. People who need a lot of body energy to work or those people who exercise a lot everyday.
--- Should drink Wu Loong Tea.

3. People who travel on a bike or work in dirty and polluted places.
--- Should drink Green Tea.

4. For people who like to sit down all day long and not do anything, even exercising

--- Must drink Green Tea and Flower Tea.

5. People who smoke and drink a lot of alcoholic drinks.
--- Should drink more Green Tea.

6. Carnivore (i.e. People who must eat meat at least once a day, or feel sickly)
--- Try to drink some Wu Loong Tea.

7. People who go to the washroom too often or not often enough.
--- Should drink more Honey Tea

8. People with high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
--- Wu Loong Tea, Green Tea.

9. Those who work with computers everyday.
--- Need to drink a Lotof Tea (any tea will do)..

Whenever you are working with the computer, you should make some tea; drink it when you are free.

Drinking Tea is healthy, it can protect and prevent the harmful Ultraviolet light from harming us (when using computer).

Furthermore, it can also relief us when we are tired and help make our body feel fresh again.

Thiam Hock Restaurant

After hiking, my friend and I went to meet up with a couch-surfer from the States working in South Korea and decided to have lunch at one of Brunei's most famous Chinese restaurants: Thiam Hock Restaurant

This be the signboard of the restaurant. It's in Gadong area behind The Mall right next to Restoran Anee Puri Sdn Bhd, and yes, our food seemed to mostly originate in Gadong now, doesn't it? It has a reputation of serving the best curry fish head in all of Brunei, despite being a regular Chinese restaurant, and those who come here to have big dinners tend to order curry fish head most of the time





This be the interior of the restaurant. They have both downstairs and upstairs dining, but the upstairs is only allowed for group dining of 10 people and above, so we had to settle for dining downstairs instead. It has a very nice Chinese restaurant feel to it, almost high-classed, but not so high-classed that it might scare the budget people away. Though I have NO idea what that seashells on our table are for. Definitely not eating, but not exactly decorative either

This be the menu of Thiam Hock. Standard issue size, at least not like the one in WyWy. LOL!


This is what my friend ordered: Pai Gu Wang with rice. It's pork chops with (probably) barbecue sauce and tomato and cucumbers for condiment along with rice. It looks delicious,and my friend said it to be delicious as well. Wonder how it really taste like. I never tried it though

This is what our couch-surfer ordered: Curry fish head noodle. After hearing all of us praising how it is famous with its curry fish head, he decided to give it a shot and tried their signature dish, and he was glad to have followed our recommendation coz he thoroughly enjoyed. Made me wish I'd ordered it

This is what I ordered: Sweet and Sour Fish Head Noodle Soup. I've always been intrigued by tastes such as these and I definitely gave this a shot to see how this version taste like. It's rather tasty, to say the least. Not too sour, not bland, quite flavorful and the fish was so good to gnaw on. Mmm~!

Attempt to capture steam: FAIL!

So if you have a craving for fish head, or you'd like to go to one of the best Chinese restaurants in the Gadong area, be sure to aim here.

Ideal Cafe & Grill

My friend and I went to watch "Date Night" afternoon show, so before that, we went to grab a bite for lunch at Ideal Cafe & Grill

This be the signboard of Ideal. Ideal is a local fast food branch that had a lot scattered around Brunei, but since we were to watch a movie at The Mall, which is in Gadong area, we went to the Gadong branch, and it's just right across the street


This be the interior of the restaurant. Looks just like any standard fast food interiors, just the fact that it was bloody narrow and all.


This is what I ordered: Ideal Plate. It's basically spaghetti with sauce and grated cheese, a piece of chicken, some french fries and a drink of your choice (I chose lemon tea ping). Served in a rather small portion, but it's all good. I like the french fries though. Very crispy


And this is what my friend ordered. Basically the same as mine, minus the chicken

I would recommend to go if you're interested in local chicken made into ala American fast food style, or if you're not a big eater or just not really too hungry and want something just right

La Mee Restaurant

We were in a spot for noodles, so we decided to go to one of the best noodle restaurants in town: La Mee Restaurant.

This be the signboard of the restaurant. It's located in Serusop and is labelled as one of the few Chinese restaurants that Malay people can actually go in to eat because the chef is a Muslim-convert from Taiwan, if I'm not mistaken. There's another branch in Gadong area, but the noodles are not as good as the main branch here, that's why we prefer eating here.




This be the interior of the restaurant. They have a see-through window where you can see the chef do their magic pulling and kneading the dough to make the noodles for us. So even though it's a long wait, it's worth it because you would know that the food is fresh. In fact, anything that can be made from the dough of the noodles were all done here as well

This be our drinks: Teh-C Ping Special. It's basically milk tea with three layers: the tea, the milk and the sugar, in which they usually use gula Melaka, which is uber sweet, almost as sweet as rock sugar. They serve it in the three layer mode and you have to stir it to mix all the layers together, or else you're gonna get a really weird flavour

This is what I ordered: Tom Yam La Mee. It's not as spicy as I've hoped, but it's got the great sourness a tom yam usually have, and the texture and taste of the noodles is just sublime and tangy to the mouth

This is what my friend ordered: La Mee with Fish Fillet and Coleslaw. Basically it's their signature La Mee with fish fillet and coleslaw as the side dish. The skin itself is nice and crispy, just the way we like it


Close up pics of my friend's food. I wanted to capture the steam actually, but it was too thin and fine to be caught on regular camera

So, for the best noodles in the whole of Brunei, be sure to drop by here. You won't regret it, trust me. After eating this sort of noodles you will want no other, seriously.

Millennium Fast Food and Restaurant

More entries for you guys~! Today's first post will be on Millenium Fast Food and Restaurant, since my friend had a very big craving for burger and claims this place to have the best burger in Brunei, compared to McDonald's. LOL

This be the front door of the restaurant. It's actually split to two sections, the fast food section and the restaurant section (obviously). The fast food sells burgers and set meals that you'd mostly see in fast food restaurants, while the restaurant section mostly deals with high-classed eating like ala carte and buffett





This be the interior of the place. As you can see, it's just like any other fast food restaurant, it's just that it also has a fine dining restaurant at the side and it's both under one same company. I have actually tried eating the fine dining when I was a tour guide and taking my tourist or accompanying them to have lunch before the next tour. For $9.80 you can actually have pretty good buffett deals there, though it'll probably be one of those first-come-first-serve and you have to grab fast.


This be the burger we ordered, which is the Mighty Temburong. Well, as you can see it is rather "mighty", especially the size of it. And it is so much more filling with more stuff in it than the usual burgers we always eat in McDonald's. Although they could be a little bit more generous with the fries...

So, got a craving for burger but feel that the ones you usually eat is not filling enough? Come here and eat your heart out