Villa Salika, Phuket.

Arrived at Villa Salika which is Mohan's weekend hideout from KL. We were each given our own bungalow. Mohan has here created something very special, it is far better than any other five star establishments I've been to.
Kudos to you Mohan, and thanks for entertaining us to a great weekend!

We arrived just in time for lunch. The springrolls, beef noodles and chicken curry laksa was so good I ate it all. Dinner was still a few hours away!  As lunch was finished we set about to get some fish from the market. Harold was cooking fish curry for tomorrow's lunch.

Malaysian family style dinner.

We had a simple dinner at uncle Hugh and Judes house with some local delights. My favourite is siew yok, char siew and roast duck from Bob Wong's in Pudu. He cooks the juiciest and tastiest siew yok, the best I have ever had. In fact it is World class! It is so good that every day he is sold out by early afternoon, unless you call ahead and reserve some.... Just have to remember for future reference that he is closed on mondays. Which I duly discovered when I went for lunch the day I was leaving KL.
Anyhow that evening I had a stall food dinner at Selangor club. They have good tandoori chicken, satay and Anchor draft there.  Followed that up by having a few quick drinks at Hakka Republic, it being ladies night and all....
I had been smart enough to check-in my luggage at KL Sentral earlier, so all I had to do was hop on the train a little over one hour before departure. Very convenient, but only if you are flying with MAS. Why have I not been using this service before amazes me. All they need to do now is to be a bit more flexible with overweight luggage. Had to leave my golfclubs behind! Why? I had packed too many roti canai's and spices. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure what was more important.
My cousin Renusha from Colombo was also in town together with some of her friends. Just a quick trip over the weekend for some serious R&R. Shop to you drop just got a whole new meaning...!

Kerala highway truckstop. A far cry from our contemporary American and European "choke & puke" stops.

Driving down from Cochin to Kollam we stopped for lunch. My uncle knew of this restaurant. He had been here previously, something like fiftheen years ago. So he made sure the drivers knew where to go. Never mind that we didn't see granny's old family house. The food was excellent. I particularly liked the fried fish, aviyal and the tapioca. The rice too was very different from what I have previously tasted.

I can't get enough of Malayalee cuisine. It is just amazingly good. I have been eating as much as possible the whole trip. If there is appam or puttu available, you can be sure I'll be having some of that too, also a  favourite of mine for breakfast.
My uncle called me "Jaws" as I was constantly hungry for more of any and everything we were eating. This of course this landed the poor fellow in deep trouble. This prompted my uncle a quick rebuke from my aunt!

Hakka Republic

My first of many visits to Hakka Republic. I ate plenty here. Tried the whole sunday lunch buffet which was tasty. Only the Yorkshire puddings were a bit dry. They don't benefit sitting around! Desserts are always welcome with me, so I was happy to see healthy variety too. The bread and butter pudding was excellent. Eventually we had to leave as the group was getting increasingly agitated watching me stuffing myself. Just as well, as I was flying off to India in a few hours anyway.

One of my favourite restaurants.

I always enjoy our lunch outings to this particular joint. The trick is to arrive here early, preferably just before they open at 12. They cook and serve by the table. We have been ordering the same dishes for as long as I can remember. Which is just as well. This is great food! We like eating deep fried ikan kurau, deep fried wan tan, steamed spare ribs, fried rice, omelette, kai-lan and kangkong belacan.

Their deep fried ikan kurau is something else!

The kitchen in which the magic happens.