Sam Jaya Mini Zoo

A decision was made to visit this mini zoo after hearing its name for sometime but yet to have a chance to visit. Its my holiday and outing time with my siblings thus we explored this place.

Its location is at Mile 16, Sg Gum Gum, Sandakan can be found using GPS. We saw Sam Jaya Supermarket on the left side of the road (from Sandakan) before we turn in and saw the mini zoo on the most left hand side of Sam Jaya Supermarket. Its name is actually Natural Park.

There is a small sundry shop at entrance where we bought our entry token at RM4 per pax. If you wish to feed the fish later, remember to grab the fish food here at inly RM 1.00 per pack. Before we went in, we visited the the toilet. Toilet is below standard and we were charged RM0.20 per entry. 

  

The first animal we saw was long-tailed macaque.

One macaque was catching mites for another.

Then we saw a fenced playground which was closed that day.

This place is not really well-maintained, perhaps due to lack of visitors. Spider webs with a spider clinging on it was seen. I cannot imagine if i accidentally bumped by face on it...

Porcupine in the culvert.

A low fence garden with a variety of ducks running around. And yes, we saw the ugly ducklings :)

Then, we reached the Bird Park. There were many bird species but I just managed to capture a few which were willing to pose for me. This bird, oh I forgot what's his name, was the most talkative and attracted most of our attention. He said hello, Assalamualaikum (greetings in Malay), bye bye...but he is so smart that he only spelled out a new word when we wanted to walk away from him, lol.

Another cute species seen...

Guess what! This is an eagle!

And one of the 3 biggest species of owl found in Sabah.

The walkway in bird park, indeed most of the walkways are roofed to protect us from the hot sun.

A small garden for us to sit down and relax.

Then we reached a fish pond, we spent some good time feeding the fish.

We met Mr. Lizard there, mistakenly thought that a baby crocodile escaped to the walkway at the fish pond, pheeewww.

The landscape at the pond.

Fish feeding session.

Then we continued the walk and we saw this owl at the walkway.

We were still in the bird park, this is the largest place where a whole lot of chicken species are living in it. This bird/chicken caught my attention due to its beautiful colour and its size.

See? His size compared to a normal chicken. I wonder how to balance the body weight with the legs in front, I think it would be tiring,hmmm...

Oh please, don't look at me that way, we are friendly visitors, lol.

Another view as we rounded the place. The chickens were so friendly, they followed us as we walked around the place.

After saying goodbye to the chickens, we headed on and found another fish pond.

A few species of weasel i think, apology as I really do not care about the names lol. We had a chance to observe their feeding session.

Then we continued our walk to exotic fish pond.

We tossed a few coins and made some wishes, but be careful not to knock their heads, ouch...

Snake room

Another fish pond with wooden walkways.

The walkways looked endless. They lead to a few rest places.

One leg width bridge for us to cross.

 

It leads to a beautiful rest place. We think it is good for barbeque.

 

A wooden staircase with a tracking trail above. Looked like nobody has been there for sometime, the trail looked unaccessible, so we did not explore further.

 

We were about to the exit, saying goodbye to the stagnant crocodile.

 

Just for fun, there were really lots of spider webs around.

 

There we were! The exploration ends. In my opinion, this Natural Park is worth a visit due to its affordable charges and that the animals are well taken-care of. However, the place needs a boost if wants to attract more visitors. I did not notice a different charges for non-Malaysian, so I presume its the same. We went to the supermarket to get some drinks before heading off.

 

Cheese Stick

Prep Time : 15 minutes

Cook Time : 15 minutes

Yield : 10 sticks

Freezer Friendly : No

Ingredients:
1cup all purpose flour
2tbsp cold unsalted butter, chopped
1/2cup grated cheddar cheese
1tbsp Parmesan cheese
4tbsp fresh milk

Steps:
1) Pre-heat oven at 180 degrees.
2) Sift flour into breadpan. Press Mode 6:Knead (10 minutes), then Start.
3) Add in chopped butter, then cheese, then drizzle milk.
4) On a floured kneading mat, roll dough using rolling pin into 0.2cm thick. Cut into 2cm wide strips.
5) Gently twist strips and place on baking tray lined with parchment paper.
6) Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack.

Original Recipe:
Donlim Breadmaker Recipe15

Avocado Banana Ice Cream

Preparation Time : 20 minutes
Freeze Time : 6 hours
Yield: About 7 scoops of ice creams
Freezer Friendly : Yes

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas
1/2 avocado
1/3 cup coconut milk
2 tsp grapeseed oil

Steps:
1) Cut the banana flesh and avocado flesh into chunks.
2) Put all ingredients into blender, blend until smooth.
3) Put in freezer. Remove every 1 hour, stir for at least 6 hours.

Original recipe:
http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/ice-cream-for-baby.html

Natural Playdough

Prep Time : 20 minutes

Cook Time : -

Yield : 3 playdough

Freezer Friendly : No

Came across this recipe in pininterest and decided to have a try with some extra time during Chinese New Year holiday. The dough is said to be suitable for kids with ezcema.

Ingredients:

3/4cup boiling water

2/3cup quaker oat

3tsbp olive oil (original calls for coconut oil)

1tbsp honey

2cups cornflour

Green tea powder

Cocoa powder

Steps:

1) Mix water, oat, honey and oil. Stir for 2 minutes or until smooth. At this stage, the mixture can be used as scrub to treat ezcema before bath. 

2) Slowly add cornflour to make a dough.

3) Add natural colourings like green tea powder and cocoa powder.

4) Play with plastic cookies cutter to add fun.

For more natural colouring options, pls refer to below:

http://nourishingjoy.com/homemade-natural-food-dyes/

Original Recipe:

http://pagingfunmums.com/2014/04/25/natural-play-dough-recipe-sensitive-skin/

Banana Muffins

Prep Time : 15min

Cook Time : 20 min

Yield : 10 muffins

Freezer Friendly : Yes

Ingredients :

1 1/2cup all purpose flour

1tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

3/4tsp ground cinnamon

6 small bananas, mashed

3/8cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/3cup olive oil

Steps:

1) Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees celcius. Line muffin tray with muffin liner.

2) Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

3) In another bowl, beat bananas, sugar, egg and oil.

4) Pour wet mixture into flour mixture slowly and combine with spatula.

5) Spoon batter into muffin liner evenly. The batter is thick so the shape will not look nice after putting it into the liner. It is ok as the cake will rise nicely after baking.

6) Bake for 20 minutes

Original Recipe:

http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/banana-muffins-recipe/

Nian Gao

Prep Time : 15 min

Cook Time : 20 min

Yield : 4-5 servings

Freezer Friendly : No

Made this again 8th February 2016, the 1st day of Chinese New Year! A warm

breakfast that cannot be missed!

Nian gao, or Chinese New Year Cake is a Chinese New Year delight which all the Chinese families would eat as it is tradiotionally believed that adults will have  good career success and children grow taller after eating it :)

It is best to have it with a cup of hot herbal tea as a good start as Chinese believe that eating a lot of fried food or crackers during Chinese New Year wil cause heatiness which will lead to health problem like sore throat and fever, and thar drinking herbal tea will neutralise the heatiness.

Ingredients: 

1/2 medium size nian gao

2 eggs, lightly beaten

6 tbsp all purpose flour

3tbsp olive oil

Steps:

1) Slice the nian gao into 6mm thick, square or triangle shapes, size is really up to you. Mine is around 6cm x 6cm

2) Cover each slice with flour. This will avoid pieces sticking together and it will taste better.

3) Heat 1 tbsp oil in non stick pan.

4) Cover the slices with egg before pan dry under medium low heat. Pan fry 6-8 slices at one time.

5) Pan fry each side for about 1 minute or until a little burnt effect on the surface. Pan dry the other side.

6) Repeat until finish.