Finally!!! The official photos have been released for public consumption. The whole lot took up 4.3GBytes. I managed to compress the whole lot down to 250MB. I'll just post up the photos here that have Agilent people in them, so they can see themselves in all their finery of that day. As Godfather, close friend and colleague, I get to be in many of the group photos. Like the saying goes - a picture paints a thousand words.
At this rate, I am going to double up again in a relatively short period of time. Time to go for an apple a day diet!!.
We start the week at Gardens on Sunday. I brought my family along to help setup the seminar venue for the innovation seminar that would start on Monday. After setting up everything, Soh treated the team to Madam Kwan's. I must say that the quality of food at Madam Kwan's has dropped.
Monday morning, I was there again. We had cookies and biscuits for the morning before the seminar started. That was followed by dim sum and finger food for the morning tea break. Lunch was at the Spread. They served buffet with a tag line - "eat what you can see. And what you can see is a very wide spread of good food. This place is way better than Hilton for seminars! And then there was afternoon tea break with chicken boxing and chicken gyoza. I am not sure if we are stuffing up our customers just to keep them fat, dumb and happy or what. Thankfully, the seminar moved on to Penang after the Monday session and I did not participate. We had to quickly dismantle, pack and send the instruments to Penang by road. I heard that they had durians on the same Monday evening, followed by Nasi Kandar at the original Kayu. Much as I love that, that would be way too much!!.
The rest of the week passed rather uneventfully (food-wise) till Friday. Friday afternoon, Elaine W had to pick up her car after servicing was done. So I sent her there. First stop was Oriental Pavilion at Jaya33. We had roast pork and a really delicious Sang Har Hor Fun (big prawn flat noodles dish swimming in prawn roe). This was followed by a Tong Yuen in Ginger tea. Burrrpppppp!! No photos taken. Didn't plan on this lunch.
Evening, we drove up to Ipoh in preparation for a Malaysia Sales/Support meeting. First stop was Pusing Public seafood Restaurant in Ipoh town. Despite all the years of visiting Ipoh, because my 5th Uncle stays there, I have NEVER really explored Ipoh for it's famed food. This time, I was going to try as many famous outlets as possible. Pusing's captain was ethical!! She actually asked us to cut back on our orders as, in her opinion, we would be wasting a lot with our original order of 8 courses. The servings were big!! Even after cutting out 3 dishes, we were still full to the neck! Some of us had made plans for supper later that night. Obviously that plan was scuttled.
Next morning, a few of us (not all as that would entail logistics for almost 26 people) made our way to Foh San for Dim Sum. Foh San used to be located somewhere else in Ipoh and we visited the new site that had just been opened for 3 days. Congratulatory garlands were all over the place. It was only 7am and car parks were jammed, traffic was crawling and there were hordes of people waiting for an available table. It would seem that Foh San is so popular, the people in Ipoh don't mind waking up early to grab a table. They open at 6am and I hear that at that time, almost all the tables are packed.
After stuffing ourselves, we waddled back to the hotel for the meeting. Before the meeting started, I took orders for the famous Aun Kheng Lim salt baked chicken. You had to reserved in advance or they may not have enough chickens to sell to you. I had orders for 30 salt baked chickens! During lunch, we managed to park nearby, had lunch at a place that Kah Leng recommended - for Hor Hee and then picked up the chickens. Try to google Hor hee to see what this is all about. I did not take note of the name of the restaurant. It is near to the Salt baked chicken place.Hor Hee dish is a flat noodle dish in palatable, tasty soup, with meatballs and fish paste. I don't mind going again.
After we had collected the chickens, we stopped over at a "drive thru" soya bean outlet. It's called the Funny Mountain Soya Bean.It is so popular that we ended up waiting in line for almost 15 minutes. Then it was back to the meeting again.
After the meeting was over, the team split up and most went back to KL. A few of us stayed back longer to - buy Heong Pang (fragrant biscuit) from Gunong Rapat. I have always depended on my Ipoh friends to supply me this Heong Pang and today, I finally found out were the correct outlet is. You can get the same at many other outlets, but getting it from the original outlet is always an experience. Even Roger from Singapore bought quite a bit. - purchase Pomeloes. They look like over sized grapefruits. Again, in all my travels to Ipoh, I have always been buying this (and getting slaughtered price wise) at the Sam Poh Tong (or caves). Today, Kah Leng brought us to the wholesaler at Tambun. Prices were cheaper by at least 20% - And dinner before before we headed home. My uncle stays near the Ipoh Stadium BUT he had never brought me to this place near his house. Locally they call it Toong Koo Theng (mushroom stalls??). Officially, the place is called Gourmet Square. The place is appropriately named. Good food can be found in almost all the outlets. The locals in our team recommended Meng Wa Seafood for its' oyster sauce crabs and fried lala (a bivalve) in sauce. We also had Sotong Kangkong (Squid with morning glory) and ikan bakar (BBQed fish). The fish we had was stingray.
And after all that gorging, we all said our goodbyes and headed home separately. I see opportunities to visit Ipoh more often to try more food at different outlets.
I brought my family along to help setup the seminar venue 
for the innovation seminar that would start on Monday. 
After setting up everything, Soh treated the team to Madam Kwan's. I must say that the quality of food at Madam Kwan's has dropped.
Monday morning, I was there again. 
We had cookies and biscuits for the morning before the seminar started. 
That was followed by dim sum and finger food for the morning tea break. 
Lunch was at the Spread. 
They served buffet with a tag line - "eat what you can see. And what you can see is a very wide spread of good food. This place is way better than Hilton for seminars! And then there was afternoon tea break with chicken boxing 
and chicken gyoza. I am not sure if we are stuffing up our customers just to keep them fat, dumb and happy or what. Thankfully, the seminar moved on to Penang after the Monday session and I did not participate. We had to quickly dismantle, pack and send the instruments to Penang by road. I heard that they had durians on the same Monday evening, followed by Nasi Kandar at the original Kayu. Much as I love that, that would be way too much!!.
First stop was Pusing Public seafood Restaurant in Ipoh town. Despite all the years of visiting Ipoh, because my 5th Uncle stays there, I have NEVER really explored Ipoh for it's famed food. This time, I was going to try as many famous outlets as possible. Pusing's captain was ethical!! She actually asked us to cut back on our orders as, in her opinion, we would be wasting a lot with our original order of 8 courses. 
The servings were big!! 
Even after cutting out 3 dishes, we were still full to the neck! 
Some of us had made plans for supper later that night. 
Obviously that plan was scuttled.
Next morning, a few of us (not all as that would entail logistics for almost 26 people) made our way to Foh San for Dim Sum. 
Foh San used to be located somewhere else in Ipoh and we visited the new site that had just been opened for 3 days. Congratulatory garlands were all over the place. 
It was only 7am and car parks were jammed, traffic was crawling and there were hordes of people waiting for an available table. It would seem that Foh San is so popular, the people in Ipoh don't mind waking up early to grab a table. 
They open at 6am and I hear that at that time, almost all the tables are packed.
You had to reserved in advance or they may not have enough chickens to sell to you. I had orders for 30 salt baked chickens! During lunch, we managed to park nearby, had lunch at a place that Kah Leng recommended - for Hor Hee and then picked up the chickens. Try to google Hor hee to see what this is all about. I did not take note of the name of the restaurant. It is near to the Salt baked chicken place.
Hor Hee dish is a flat noodle dish in palatable, tasty soup, with meatballs and fish paste. I don't mind going again.
It is so popular that we ended up waiting in line for almost 15 minutes. 
Then it was back to the meeting again.
I have always depended on my Ipoh friends to supply me this Heong Pang and today, I finally found out were the correct outlet is. You can get the same at many other outlets, but getting it from the original outlet is always an experience. Even Roger from Singapore bought quite a bit.
The locals in our team recommended Meng Wa Seafood for its' oyster sauce crabs 
and fried lala (a bivalve) in sauce. 
We also had Sotong Kangkong (Squid with morning glory) and ikan bakar (BBQed fish). 
The fish we had was stingray.