anakbrunei

My sincere thanks goes to the folks at akadnikah.com for featuring me on their monthly focus column. Thank you indeed for the kind words and I aspire to become better and better at this passion of mine, primarily for myself, but if others derive a sense of satisfaction from my work, then that is a truly welcome bonus. This is the Bruneilicious philosophy. It is and shall continue to be my service philosophy for this budding new media and photography venture of mine :)

The Brunei Adventure Race 2007 mini teaser this morning was a resounding success. Over 80 people turned up to try out the race and I think they got what they came for... ADRENALINE! It was totally action-packed from start to finish! Age was definitely not a factor this morning cos a team of 40 somethings actually beat many of the other younger teams to grab fifth place! Congratulations to the BAR 2007 team on a job very very well-done! I can't wait for the actual race in November!! Much more pics here .

More here , here , and here .

Another guest blogger gives a candid account of a meal at Matadoe Restaurant and Cafe in Mata2 Gadong: Having been to Matadoe at least a dozen times, I headed there today for lunch with 5 others fully expecting to enjoy my food as I had my heart set on the signature Matadoe spicy fried rice. Service was competent enough by a waiter who seemed to be new. We ordered 2 sets of the abovementioned dish, American Fried Rice, Wet Fried Kway Teow with beef, Lasagna and Baked Macaroni. Read the rest of this review here .

Continuation of the original post .

Kamayan is an interesting word in Tagalog. It can mean eat with hands, but it also means having fun as its more literal meaning is shaking hands or getting acquainted. I'm not sure if the current owners knew this before they took over Seri Kamayan Restaurant all those years ago. The Gadong branch was one of my favorite haunts pre-1997 and I suspect it was a favorite of many others as the place seemed to be always packed whenever I went. I hadn't been to Seri Kamayan in years and last night da missus and I were invited to dinner at their remaining branch at Utama Bowling. The restaurant overlooks the bowling alley which means you can watch the bowlers in action while you eat :) The food we ordered was based on the recommendation of the staff and it did not disappoint! It was a bonza meal enjoyed in great company. What more could one ask for? Read the full review of the meal here . Check out my other reviews:

The gang and I braved the typhoon tail last night and gathered at the newly opened MOD Cafe on Jalan Jerudong last night. The crowd at the restaurant was testament to the fact that Bruneians will brave almost anything for a 50% discount on their meal! The place was jam-packed and parking was almost impossible. Good thing da sista made reservations earlier. As we settled in to our table, a quick gaze around gave me the sense that we were in for a loooong night. Tables were left uncleared, people were left standing at the front counter, and eventually turned away for lack of reservations. The service staff, including the owner, were clearly out of their element and unprepared for the hungry hordes coming in for their half-priced feast! Some of the customers even walked out in a huff when the wait for their orders proved unbearable (kalau omputih nda pulang batah tu rasanya menunggu 'sal bisdia panjang becerita heheh!). Perhaps it would not be fair to judge the service at this junctur...

Today's post was submitted by my first ever guest contributor, Da Sista. I will be happy to receive more guest contributions from readers on all Brunei related topics from today onwards. So if you're itchin to have your say on something, but can't be bothered to set up a site, then by all means, send it to me! (fine print applies here heheh!) Hope the pics will be useful, inda lagi ku pandai mengambil fancy2 shots. The best I could do...hehe! My plate had slices of lemon cake and carrot cake (under it) which were absolutely divine! The brown eclair was called Chocolate Caroline (yummy!), green cake was Green Tea Financier (really really good!) and the last was a Strawbberry Tart. There were also scones with apple bits made by the Le Meurice pastry chefs served with cream, strawberry jam and blueberry jam, and finger sandwiches with different fillings - smoked salmon, cheese and chicken. Kanyang eh - macam dinner bah! For drinks L had the Meurice signature regular hot chocol...

Night before last, Da missus and I ventured a little outside of our usual dinner haunts in search of some out of the way gems and find one we did. Zar Zar Cafe is located among a row of newly built shophouses at Simpang 173 along Jalan Mulaut on the way to KL (Kuala Lurah). It was a pleasant surprise to find the area quite happening when we turned into the simpang. It was bustling with activity and the carpark was quite full. Anyways, the interior decor of the cafe is classic kopitiam style with a modern touch. You can see paraphernalia lying around from the fifites and sixties including an old radio and a bicycle. There was even a huge poster of Jesselton which reminded me of my dad's hometown. The owner, Zainal, is a splendidly charming retired police officer who is realizing his long time dream of setting up an eatery together with his wonderful missus. He talked to us about the challenges he faced while starting up his business and how his special honeyed beverages have become ...

Was at the Sheraton earlier today and there was a bazaar happening there. Bumped into a fellow Jing Chew patron who is now bringing in these really neat new toys for kids called ZOOB s . They remind me of LEGO but they're so much better! The whole system is based on these 5 types of components that snap together in 20 different ways making for literally endless combinations of static and moving parts. Way cool! We bought a set for little Arief although I suspect I'll be having some fun with it later as well heheh! More about ZOOBs here and if you'd like to grab some before they run out, call Wan Chin on 8728007 !

How many of you HAVEN'T visited CNET Asia for the latest tech news and gadget reviews? If you haven't then I fully recommend it for the best reviews and priceguides which are relevant to us, since Singapore's just across the pond. Anyway, CNET now has a new blog dispatch from Brunei Darussalam :) Feel free to send me ideas and suggestions for posts on Kurapak Teknologi which are tech oriented and relevant to Brunei!

Earlier today, I attended the opening ceremony of Dream Cones , a new gelato cafe located smack bang in the middle of Q-Lap (same row as CAM). Free samples of gelato served in miniature cones were handed out and I helped myself to quite a few of the available flavors. I started with the ferrero rocher, an absolute treat of chocolate and hazelnut. Then came the Nutella flavored gelato. Who doesn't love nutella eh? Heheh! To ease my conscience, I had a healthy green-tea gelato next. I found the green tea flavour slightly over-powering. They need to reduce the intensity. Having eased my conscience, I then went for the tiramsu gelato. Yum yum. You can taste the coffee. Nice! And finally I couldn't leave without trying the teh-tarik flavoured gelato. It was sheer heaven in a cone!! Just the right intensity of tea flavour surrounded by a milky base-flavour. Thanks S for inviting me!

Pics are from yesterday's ceremony to announce the 5 candidates for the Princess Rashidah Young Nature Scientist Award 10 (PRYNSA 10) which took place at MIPR. Took da missus to watch the much hyped Jangan Pandang Belakang last night... yawn... the highlight of the night was the siew mai we snacked on before the movie. The movie somehow reminded me of old Indonesian horror flicks (like sundel bolong ) where you have some bloke reading some verses from the holy book with heaps of echo added in for good measure. The plot was wafer thin, and the acting left a lot to be desired especially the female co-star who played Seri. Perhaps I should have walked into the movie with different expectations but the fact that this film was rated "the scariest malaysian horror movie so far" did set a pretty high benchmark to start with. The crowd that we had the honor of watching the movie with made me feel like we forgot to bring costumes and umbrellas for the rocky horror show. There was ...

Seems like the theme of the month is food heheh, but thats ok, I haven't done enough of those for some time. Anyway, da missus and I decided to immerse ourselves into the Andaman experience after reading all the good things that have been said here , here and here . Read the rest of my review here Check out my other reviews: