De Malaya - North Ryde

My brother in law loves Singaporean and Malaysian food, luckily, so does most of our family. So when his Singaporean friends recommended De Malaya, we just had to give it a go. A last minute decision meant I had to leave work early to get home in time, so we could try and beat the peak hour traffic to North Ryde.

45mins later, we finally pull up to De Malaya. Luckily my brother in law knew roughly where it was, because I would've driven right on pass. De Malaya is situated almost in the middle of nowhere, with houses on either side and not another restaurant in sight. There's a small car park next to the restaurant making it easier for us to usher the kids in and out.


We were the second table of people there and practically had the restaurant to ourselves (considering we outnumbered the other table 2 to 1!). This is a truely a no nonsense buffet style restaurant.

Plate #1

Chicken curry, otak otak, ham and chicken roll, paper baked chicken, chicken satay, fried chicken wings and hainese chicken rice.

As you can tell, I love my chicken. A lot of the food was really nice and authentic even though the quality suffered a bit being in a bain marie. Since we were the early group there, some of the food had started to get cold. But as the night went on and more food came out, everything was piping hot and so fresh. My absolute favourite would be the fried chicken wings and the fried baby fish (in photo below - bottom left corner).

More fried stuff

Salt and pepper prawns, char kuey teow, satay chicken, cold mussels, fried chicken wing, spring roll, fried tofu, ham and chicken roll and fried baby fish.

Laksa

There were heaps of other non-fried dishes available, like DIY Laksa, Bakuteh, heaps of salads and other cold entrees. I didn't bother taking photos of everything, I was too busy eating!

Anyway, I was so stuffed by the end of the meal, that I barely had room for dessert:

Dessert

Fruit, pickle, fried banana and agar agar

De Malaya
122-124 Wicks Rd
North Ryde NSW 2113
Phone: (02) 9878 3833

Day 15 - Bike riding before going home

My niece had piano practice today, so me and my sister took the boys out for breakfast.

Bakuteh - Pork rib soup, preserved vegetables, pork hock and fried dough sticks

The boys on the phone with their dad


After breakfast, we drove to the local Bishan park for bike riding. We hired a bike each, with the exception of my sister. She's going to be running behind my youngest nephew again today. I went for a few kilometer ride around the park with my older nephew, whilst the youngest one learnt how to steer and brake. He actually did quite well by the end of the day. He stopped crash landing.

We went home to rest up afterwards. I did some last minute packing to make sure there's nothing I've forgotten and spent some time with the kids. When it was dinner time, we decided to go back to the Chicken Rice place we stopped by the other day.

A whole Hainese chicken

Boneless chicken feet and kidneys


Chilli bean sprouts


Lime juice

Since I don't appreciate plane food, I grabbed a box of chicken rice take away to eat on the flight. I was already really fully, but my brother in law wanted to have some strudel at the Applebee strudel shop that was next door. He went and ordered a durian strudel, but after one bite, I was full to bursting. And my coffee hasn't even arrived yet! And when it did, I thought I was supposed to wash my face in it. Look at the size of the cup! My hand doesn't even go half way around it!


We get back to my sister's place where I spend some time with the kids and have a quick shower. When it was time to leave, my nephews and niece gave me big hugs and even asked me not to leave. Its always hard saying goodbye to the kids.

I get to the airport in record time and check-in without any problems. Even though my suitcase was 27kgs. And my hand luggage was 17kgs. I was planning on doing duty free shopping, but because of the stupid liquid restrictions, I can only buy liquids an hour before departure. The reason is they need to seal the goods in a plastic bag and they will deliver it to the gate for you. Since there was only an hour left, they reckon they can't deliver to the gate so I miss out on my duty free shopping.

I get onto the plane and spot a row of 4 seats next to me empty. The minute they closed the cabin doors, I jumped seats and claimed all 4 to myself. And when the seatbelt signs went off, I raised all the arm rests and laid down for a good nights sleep. I even skipped breakfast since I knew I had my chicken rice.

It was a short 2 weeks, but I'm glad I took the time to go to Singapore and spend with the kids. Even though I had all the problems going on at work, I think it was probably good that I missed most of the tension in the office. And now, to diet and detox.

Day 14 - Good Friday gorging

Its Good Friday, and the whole family is off to church whilst I stay home to pack so I know how overweight my suitcase is. I duck downstairs to get a big breakfast to keep my energy up in dealing with my shopping:

Noodles with fish cakes and chicken wings

Shredded turnip dumplings

It took me a good 2 hours to pack my suitcase, which involved removing all wrapping and price tags from my goods and checking all the DVDs I got. By the time I had everything done, it was time to meet the rest of the family for lunch. I cab it to the church where I hop into a car with my brother in law to go to lunch.

A bunch of their friends came and we went to a Hakka Yong Tau Fu restaurant. We lined up for 3omins before we got a table. And to be honest, the food was pretty ordinary. I don't know why its so popular. Actually, my brother in law hated the food and went home to eat bread instead. Of course, their friends took us there, so we all had to be polite.

The original plan was to go back to East Coast for bike riding. But again, its storming. I spent the rest of the day lazing about, reading, watching tv and surfing the web. The rain dies down around dinner time, so we make a dash to a cheap seafood restaurant next to the Roti restaurant we went to yesterday.

Its nothing flash, plastic tables and chairs, but the food is GOOD. Plus, the price of seafood is half the price you would pay at the touristy places.

Sizzling beef stir fry

Prawn paste fried chicken wings

Sweet and sour pork

Steamed mantou (Plain buns)

Butter fried crab

Singapore Chilli Crab

The crab was good, but the sauce was better. I got a big bowl of rice and drenched it in the sauce. God that was good. Really good.

Day 13 - Pampering ourselves with Indo food

We were going to go shopping today, but to be honest, my suitcase is bursting at the seams. And I haven't even packed everything into the suitcase yet. So I asked my sister to book us a facial, except we couldn't find a decent place for a facial. So we opted for a full body massage instead. Since I was going to be kneaded like bread, we went for a light breakfast:

Hot coffee in a bag

Noodles with vegetables

Chwee Kueh - Steamed rice cakes with preserved veggies

We arrive at the salon only to find that we don't have a booking. Looks like my sister called their new branch instead of the original store. We still managed to squeeze into one of their slots. The next hour was.....amusing. The woman's English wasn't that great and I didn't speak Mandarin. When I screamed out in pain, she's like "its ok......I'll use one thumb only" and then proceeded to bruise me.

She also climbed onto the massage bed and straddled me for awhile. Whilst that was uncomfortable, it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as her whipping the sheet off my chest to give me a.....errrrrr...massage. *cough*

I walked out of there feeling like a tenderised piece of meat. I limp to the car where we go pick up my nephews and niece from school. Before we picked them up, we stopped by a really nice Chicken rice shop and got a take away pack that the both of us shared whilst in the car. It was going to be at least another 1.5hrs before lunch. We took the kids, and one of their friends to a sushi train for lunch:

Chawamushi

Agedashi Tofu

We took all the kids to go watch Spiderwick after lunch. I actually enjoyed the movie, but my youngest nephew had his eyes covered for most of the movie! hehe

After the movie, we decided to go for dinner since my Brother in law will be staying back late at work. My sister drove to a local Indonesian restaurant where we played charades and pointed at random stuff for dinner.

Lime juice

BBQ Pepper chicken

Assam sting ray

Grilled squid

Stir fried french beans

Sambal fish

Fried potato cakes

Beef rendang

Gado Gado

Bean sprouts with tofu

Oxtail soup

The star of the night had to be the oxtail soup. I've never had such a flavoursome soup before. Its almost like the Pho soup, but with added vegetables to lighten the whole dish up. I was bursting before the soup came out, but we all ended up fighting over the soup anyway. I can't wait to learn how to make this!!

Day 12 - More shopping and my favourite Bugis

All the kids are at school today. So me and my sister headed off for some shopping. Not before breakfast at her favourite Roti house:

Kopi

Mutton Murtabak and chicken curry

Roti Prata with curry sauce

Nasi goreng

We drove to Sim Lim square where I was hoping to buy a new camera lens, tripod and other accessories. But the prices were way more expensive compared to me ordering it from New York. Instead, I went and bought a new digital camera for the kids. Just a little cheapie for them to go play with and take on excursions. We also grabbed a few blood pressure monitors to use at home.

After that, we went across the road to OG where I ended up buying a wallet that cost more than my camera bags, which cost more than any handbag I've ever owned!! We ducked across the road after an hour to grab a quick lunch:

Hawker centre

Fish head noodle soup

Fish fillet noodle soup

After lunch, we quickly drive to my niece's school to pick her up. In Singapore, they start at 7am and finish at 1pm. We swung by to pick up my nephew before sending him off to Violin practice. It was at this time that it started storming. I'm not talking about just rain. I'm talking lighting and thunder, the type that makes you drop your glass and rattle your window.

Luckily, the plan was to stay home for the night and I helped my sister make BBQ pork for dinner:

The rain died down, so I grabbed a quick bite and ran off to the MRT to go to my favourite shopping centre, Bugis. Don't ask me why I like the shopping centre, I just do. I think its one of the first few I used to go to all the time whenever I visited Singapore. Its more sentimental value than actually good shopping I think. Didn't stop me spending up a fortune though.

My sister has also been raving on and on about the MOS fish burger and how its better than the maccas fillet-o-fish. Since I only had a light dinner, I ordered myself a fish burger and a piece of chicken:

MmMmm cheesy......

This was a whole chicken breast!

I was expecting a chicken strip or something small, little did I know it was going to be a whole piece of chicken breast. It was also incredibly moist. I bit into it and it squirted chicken juice everywhere! I also saw a stall making fresh cut potato chips. They literally cut the potato up in front of you and then fry it. I just had to get myself a small cup, which they drenched with wasabi mayo. Can anyone spell tears?