Anyway, we drove from Penang to Kampar first to stay overnight before continuing to KL on the next day. Thankfully, the whole journey was pretty smooth, except for a few idiots crossing my lane without warning and causing me to brake forcefully when I reached KL. The unpacking part was another headache! But I love the new place that I’m staying in. I’ll show you the picture in my next post after I upload them ok?

Yesterday when Saucer was out working, I had the whole apartment to myself. Since I was bored, I tried to be brave and ventured to the nearest Tesco to do some grocery shopping for dinner. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous driving alone in a foreign area. Armed with the hand-drawn map by Saucer, I started driving and realised that it wasn’t that difficult at all. The fact that I went out during working hours was probably helpful as well to avoid traffic congestion.

I bought a lot of stuff from Tesco, but the most significant item was the wok. I wanted to get a good quality stainless steel wok like Dory’s but Tesco had very limited choices available. There was only one type of stainless steel wok available and I grabbed the size that I thought would be suitable. It was only RM26! When I got home after that, I started preparing ingredients before cooking.

The wok was washed first and then heated up over the gas stove. When the wok was hot enough, I poured in some olive oil and guess what? *Pop* It was the loudest noise I ever heard! I was so shocked! Then I thought maybe my hand was a bit wet and the water and oil mixed over the hot fire. Fine, I dried my hands and continued cooking. Everything went well for my first dish of stir-fried mushroom chicken. After completing the first task, I carried the wok to the sink to clean it before moving on to my second dish.

After cleaning, I placed the wok over fire again. After a while, I noticed something weird on the base of the wok. I suppose the stainless steel was too thin that under heat, part of the base bent inside! Can you imagine how it looked like? Imagine squeezing an aluminum can. The base was internally bent under the heat hence, it was not flat. That wasn’t the worst. After the wok was dry enough, I poured oil into it again. And this time… *POOOOP* It was MUCH louder than the first time I heard. And I actually screamed because I thought the base of the wok exploded. The whole kitchen was filled with smoke. I almost wanted to give up then and there, and then I noticed the wok was still in one piece. It was the heat that caused the bent base to expand OUT this time and back to its original position. It was really scary. And I hated that the smoke filled up the kitchen with droplets of oil and smell everywhere. *sigh*

When Saucer came back, I related the whole incident to him and we agreed that it must have been the thin steel wok. Dory’s wok was multi-layered and hence didn’t face this situation before. We are going to return the wok later on to Tesco, hopefully they’ll allow us to exchange for other items. Really, never trust cheap stuff if it’s too cheap to be true. *LOL* The experience gave me a phobia towards stir-frying with wok now. I think for the next few weeks, I’ll stick to boiling and steaming. Maybe I should get non-stick pans to avoid the explosion sound. What do you think?

It’s my 3rd day here and I welcome everyday with an open heart. New challenges in the form of driving without a GPS (Saucer needs it) proves to be more stressful than it seems. In another 2 days, I’ll report to my new company. I’m excited!

Now the question is, what is there to do in Kampar that requires you to stay overnight? In my opinion, the hotel was built mainly to cater to the family members of the nearby UTAR (University Tunku Abdul Rahman) and TARC (Tunku Abdul Rahman College) during occassions such as orientation, graduation or holidays. The hotel looks impressive and grand from the outside, because it is still brand new!

We went to visit the place early this month, since I was back in my hometown and we were deciding where to go for my birthday dinner celebration. The Grand Kampar Cafe seemed like a nice place to go for a quiet dinner with family members.

The hotel lobby was deserted during the time of visit. I liked the shining marble floors though!

This was the restaurant in the late morning. On a weekday, there were no patrons at all.

Anyway, after looking at the menu, we decided to give this place a try. After all, we’re bored of always going to the same few Chinese restaurants in Kampar. Those places are always noisy with the local crowds, and worst of all, there’s always someone singing off-tune karaoke in the background. That is a total earsore!

We were there at half past 7pm, and there were only 2 tables filled with customers. Coupled with soft music in the background, the ambiance was just perfect for a night out with family members, up for a lively chat.

One of the must-try in the Grand Kampar Cafe is their freshly squeezed fruit juices. At RM4 a glass, the juices are made by order and you could even ask for a combination of fruits. The best part of all? They don’t add any water to it! So the juice is purely from the fruits themselves. Isn’t that amazing? Very reasonably priced too. The star attraction of this place, I’d say.

A picture with my dear parents.

And we move on to the food! Our party consisted of 9 persons, so it was quite a chaos while we made our orders. The first dish that arrived was the chicken wings. The chicken wings came with french fries as well, good combination. My grandma loved the chicken wings which were not done too oily.

Next up was the spaghetti carbonara with turkey ham, as recommended by the waiter. Do not order this next time! The picture from the menu certainly looked different from the one we saw. The taste was very normal and you couldn’t really see much fillings inside. Turkey ham was miniscule!

On the other hand, the spaghetti bolognese with grilled chicken was the total opposite! The sauce was just nice without making the pasta soggy, and the grilled chicken was definitely better than the non-existent turkey ham. If you fancy pasta, this is the dish for you.

My mom ordered the grilled fish, which looked like frozen fish fillet to me. Not a good choice again.

My brother ordered the lamb chop. Presentation could be a little better eh? But for the price of less than RM15 in a hotel, I guess we really can’t ask for more. The lamb was juicy and well-marinated. I wouldn’t mind eating this again next time.

My father and aunty ordered the chicken chop and both gave different reviews. My aunty said it was pretty good and she was impressed. My father, on the other hand, didn’t really like it. He said it was sub-standard even. *LOL* I don’t know who to trust. Both have different taste buds I guess.

This was what my grandfather ordered: Chicken chop with sweet and sour sauce. In other words, it’s oriental style chicken chop, which is more suitable for more conventional people. He told me it’s not bad, and judging from the way he finished the whole thing within minutes, I guess it’s either very good or he’s just very hungry.

As for myself, I didn’t know what to order, so I chose the mixed grill! It was a combination of everything: sausage, chicken chop, lamb chop, steak and an egg! I liked everything except the lamb, which was a little too fatty.

Besides Western food, the cafe prepares local delicacy as well, like the fried noodles that my grandmother ordered. She gave two thumbs-up for this and I don’t disagree. She just sat opposite me during dinner and her plate of noodles emitted a very aromatic smell the whole time! Definitely a must-try dish.

Finally, my uncle ordered the mee mamak, and he was impressed! I didn’t get the chance to try it out but my uncle was giving really good comments on this dish. I guess for those who love spicy dishes, this would be perfect for you.

After dinner, it was time for birthday cake cutting. The ice-cream cake was bought from this shop in Kampar, called Justoeat. It was freshly baked and full of ice-cream goodness within, I love!

The hotel entrance at night.

Overall, it was a pretty relaxing and comfortable dinner. It is difficult to find a place with good environment and reasonable food in Kampar, where you could just sit down and talk to each other without shouting. I will definitely go to this restaurant again in the future, if not for the environment, then it would be for the fried noodles.

Look at all the residues this explosion resulted in. They even landed on my desk and on my bed. I was so thankful that I wasn’t in the room when it happened. Or it would have scared the hell out of me.

Never really thought this could happen.

Lesson to learn: Always ensure that the floors do not produce hollow sound. Else, change to wooden panels for safety. Imagine what would have happened if I were in the room during the explosion? I might have suffered cuts.. and worse still, trauma.