Lean Gaik Hokkien Mee @ Chai Leng Park – Avoid it

January 3rd, 2010

If you happen to chance upon Lean Gaik Hokkien Mee at Chai Leng Park, all I can say is avoid it. Years ago when I was doing my industrial training at Perai, I went there once or twice before and decided that their Hokkien Mee was above average at best, didn’t really like it at [...]

 Lean Gaik Hokkien Mee @ Chai Leng Park – Avoid it
 Lean Gaik Hokkien Mee @ Chai Leng Park – Avoid it

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Happy Holidays

December 26th, 2009

Hope you are enjoying the holidays with friends, family, and mugs of spiked egg nog
xoxo

Mary

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Chinese Cuisines at Restoran City Star, Petaling Jaya

December 25th, 2009

I was invited by Ken for dinner together with his friends from Tour2U at Restoran City Star in Taman Mayang, Petaling Jaya during my Kuala Lumpur trip. This double shop lot restaurant owned by Mr CM Wong has a nice and clean environment with one section of the restaurant air-conditioned.
Our meal consists of several recommended [...]

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Because Time Waits for No One

August 11th, 2009


Friday 7 August 2009

I took out my keys to open the front gate, the corner of the wall was empty. It was an unbearable scene.
Gg Because Time Waits for No One

Rewind 9 years

Friday 2 March 2001
“I just bought a dog. You can have it. Yeah, from a client. No choice, a new way of entertaining client. Big business mar…heh heh”

That was from my cousin. I immediately ran to his house, which was a few blocks away from mine.

I was looking around, trying to spot a cute brown puppy. Could it a Golden Retriever? Or a Labrador? Hmmm…it could be a Terrier or a Beagle. I don’t mind. I was already grinning.
.
“Where? Where? Where? Where is the dog??
My cousin pointed at a steel cage. Behind the black bars was a fur ball in white…
Which looks nowhere near like a ‘dog’.

 Because Time Waits for No One

I showed my cousin a sepuluh sen face. “Huh? I thought you told me it is a ‘dog’?”
“Yeah. A Pekingese what. It is a dog, you dummy. Oh but it does look like a cat hor? Garfield..hahahah!”
The next thing I know is that something furry landed on my lap. It is her. She came towards my direction and cuddled up herself on my lap comfortably. She was not wary of me at all.

 Because Time Waits for No One

That was the sweetest thing I have ever seen in my life.

I looked at her in her eyes. “We’ll go home together, ok?”
She wagged her furry tail. I think she answered ‘yes’.
* * * *
I believe, Marley aside, she is by far the most difficult and fussy dog to keep.
She sworn by heart not to take any dog food. Pedigree premium biscuits, chewy sticks or chicken-in-can. She spat out whatever dog food that we bought.
Her peculiar eating habits will make you wonder if she reincarnated wrongly into a body of a white Pekingese. She really knows how to eat.
IMG 4177 1 Because Time Waits for No One
She likes durians. D24. No kampung. No thai.

gg1 Because Time Waits for No One
gg2 Because Time Waits for No One

Like owner, like dog? I don’t deny that.

My stay with her didn’t last too long. 2 years later when I finished my high school, I left her at home and moved to Subang Jaya to do my A-Levels. And then it was degree in Australia, followed by working in KL. Until now stationed down south.

Wherever I go, she remains the one closest to my heart.
.
 Because Time Waits for No One
Until the day when my mum returned home to find her laying on the floor in her usual position, but this time round stone cold.

It hurts me everytime to think about her departure. What really happened to her while no one was around at home, and the things that I would give up just to listen to her barking at the background whenever I call home or to see a running fur ball whenever I open the front gate.

 Because Time Waits for No One

I hope you had a happy life whilst staying with us.

Rest in peace, my girl.

7942843984143664549 4103781618249205889?l=klpeopleklfood.blogspot Because Time Waits for No One

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# 2 The Black Echoes

July 3rd, 2009

*
Read the first part of the Tales of Saigon here.

P6 # 2 The Black Echoes
That irritating sound won’t stop.

It just won’t stop bothering me.

258 was the number of days that I have been counting.

 # 2 The Black Echoes

There it goes … I heard the sound again, echoing in the tunnel.

I moved myself to the adjacent burrow. I can feel that it is coming towards my direction. Wait, something is not right here. From the back of my body.

……

Was I dead or did I just pass out in the dark? All I can feel is the numbness in my nerves.

I hate the sound of machine guns.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I grabbed the handle strongly, so strongly that I almost clutched myself to the seat right in front of me. The bus was rocking a hard way through the terribly uneven muddy path.

‘The absorber is worn out.’

Again, my head hit high into ceiling of the bus as it runs over a huge crater on the road.

We joined a day tour to Cu Chi and Cao Dai for less than USD 7. For that price, I certainly didn’t expect a long arse journey on the bus. I think my lungs, kidneys and stomachs sagged by 1.5cm after spending 5 hours travelling on the rocky road.

p7 # 2 The Black Echoes

Our Bobby Chinn look-alike tour guide was very entertaining.

‘Miss, whe du yeu kam frum?’

‘Malaysia’.

‘Ohhh…de land famous for robbers!’

Astounded by his reply, I found out later that he means ‘rubber’. Certainly one of the most interesting remarks in this journey.

The journey throughout Cu Chi was a remarkable one. I was particularly amazed by their perseverance and determination. Imagine a bunch of Viet Cong soldiers living in the dark, humid and claustrophobia-inducing underground. The American troop described the conditions within the tunnel as ‘black echoes’.

p12 # 2 The Black Echoes
We did try to explore one of the sections of the tunnel that has been expanded to accommodate taller/ larger sized tourists.

It ain’t fun.

I was a fool to believe that the tunnel has been enlarged to accommodate the big size us. *imagining walking around the tunnel freely like visiting museum liddat*

Half way crawling through the tunnel (I almost laid flat on the floor and creep towards the end), I was sweating and screaming in my heart…the tunnel seems to be never ending. How did the Viet Cong soldiers manage to survive in the tunnel for 20 over years when I find the dark claustrophobic atmosphere unbearable for mere 2 seconds?

I am a true brat spoiled by modernity.

After the exploration, I found something amusing. I really wanted to try that real thing. At least once. The guy recommended M16, so I bought 10 bullets (USD 17) for that.

p13 # 2 The Black Echoes
It still ain’t fun lorrrrr.

I was a fool to believe that ear muff works. The NRR (Noise Reduction Rating) is close to ‘0’. The impact of the shot was so powerful that every shot leaves my ear drum with a numb (wee wung wung…wee wung wung…) feeling.

Collages # 2 The Black Echoes

Special thanks to Hairy for capturing all my retarded looking moments.

Food was more or less the same throughout the 3 days. Pho, Pho & more Pho(s) which I enjoyed thoroughly.

p3 # 2 The Black EchoesP4 # 2 The Black Echoesp11 # 2 The Black Echoesp9 # 2 The Black EchoesP5 # 2 The Black Echoes

I’m glad that I insisted on trying out Nguyen Trung’s coffee on our last day despite the fact that we were supposed to rush to the airport.

p10 # 2 The Black Echoes

We ordered “The Legend” which was nothing like the ordinary Starbucks cappuccino. The coffee was really strong and bold, definitely one of the highlights of my trip. *Love*

Later on when we return to SG, we found out that there is actually a branch located at Liang Court, Clark Quay. *Double Love*

p2 # 2 The Black Echoes

My fave picture of all

*
For now, I’m more than happy to return to my comfort zone, happily munching on my routine subway ham and egg, surfing dumb websites, and crossing the road without the fear of being smashed by 58 motorbikes into a slab of tomato paste in the middle of the road.

Bar none, I still love you, Saigon.

p1 # 2 The Black Echoes

Yellow stars missing in sight …

-The end-

7942843984143664549 2970351531248779445?l=klpeopleklfood.blogspot # 2 The Black Echoes

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Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

May 21st, 2009

.
#1: Untold Secrets of the Message Room

When darkness falls, everything turns into a picture of dead silence.

passage Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

I stepped on the narrow staircase leading to the underground.

‘Shhh…be quiet…you don’t want to wake them up…let me show you the way.’

boy Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

I saw this young boy when I stumbled upon this place. In fact, I saw him everywhere. From the main door, the message room to the combat officer room… He was there, everywhere.

I lost him soon after.

‘Tub…tub…tub…’
The floor is so thin that I can feel the tremble. I heard that coming from the back.

passage+2 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

‘Dooom…’

untitled Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

When darkness falls, everything turns into a picture of silence … a dead silence.

.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

I didn’t dwell myself too long in that B-grade horror flick as I walk through the underground tunnel of the Reunification Palace.

Oh by the way, I was at Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) for 3 days. Thanks to the free air tickets from the lucky dip.

viet+1 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon
The first, second, third and fourth floor didn’t excite me. There were numbers of meeting rooms, conference rooms and dining rooms of different themes, a place previously resided by the presidents.

rp+3 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon
We were just wandering around the Palace and stumbled upon one eery staircase that leads to the dark underground. That really intrigued my interest.

r+p+5 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

There were secret rooms (or message rooms) with bulky and dusty switchboards, the very 60s phones and the good old typing machines.
Hairy attempted this shot ala Wong Kar Wai mode that inspired the series of dark tales.

passage+3 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon
The young boy is definitely not from our hallucination but he was really everywhere. Everywhere that we went. He loves blocking our way, interrupting at the background when we were shooting photos and looking at Hairy with a creepy smile.

‘Sekali you see him in one of the black & white pictures hung on the wall’ said Hairy with a blank look.

How interesting.

Obviously we didn’t spot him in any of the pictures, in fact the pictures shown were depressing and disheartening. Nuclear bombs, massacre and concentration camps. I just want to get out of that place.
Back to reality, we were caught in the middle of the junction with motorbikes coming from all 4 directions and with 58 bikes honking at us at the same time, as if we were blocking their ways *sweat*

nm+4 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

Funny mode of transport in Vietnam
.
.
I was literally distressed, I think a bowl of piping hot noodles would be a good cure.

We dropped by Ben Thanh Market (we call it the ‘Beh Tahan Market’) and zoomed straight into the food section.

bth+3 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

Tell me about pracitising food hygiene, there were a few dead cockroaches lying under my seat.

bth+1 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

To eat or not to eat? Gulp…There goes my first bowl of pork knuckle noodles in Vietnam and L-S (diarrhea) on the very next day.

At night, we strolled along the night market street and the dai chow stalls came into sight. Born to be gluttons, we settled for another round of food.

nm+2 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

nm+3 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon
The return of the alcoholic.
nm+1 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

Can you believe that a bottle of Saigon beer costs only 90 cents (10,000 dong)?

But that 90 cents can only give you a taste of gassy plain water. I stopped at one bottle.

Oh well, the journey didn’t end here. In fact it only started the next day – a five hours helluva extreme journey that can only be found in Vietnam.
To be continued.
rp+4 Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

Photo credit to the legendary Hairy from Black Tie White Lie.

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Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

May 11th, 2009

 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan
 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

Early in the morning , we headed to Hoi Yin @ around Teluk Cempedak for breakfast which is one of the places where ho chak recommend in their program. Hoi Yin is one of the shop with Ho Chak recommended the curry mee at the nearby shore of Teluk Cempedak

 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

-the shop -

From wat I can see, the business is real good where everyone coming in waiting for sit and they served non- stop. It is hardly you can get a place to sit if you are not fast enough on your legs and eyes is not sharp enough.. so u can imagine how good business is it??

 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

-the stall -

After we get a seat, I din waste any of my time doing wat ? Snapping pictures as well and taking pictures with dear.. since each of every moment of both of us .. we wanna have a photo memories.. together…

 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

-me and dear -

The food can say is not bad.. the soup is not as pedas. as well as not much coconut milk they put.. so can say the curry mee is kinda healthy one lo.. and the taste is not bad.. oishi

 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

-the curry mee -

Overall the taste is kinda good. Wat we rate:
Taste: 3/5
Price: RM 3.50


Posted By : StrawberrY Gal
Homepage : malaysianfoodie
4155351108002578985 8706903731301014164?l=malaysianfoodie.blogspot Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan
 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan  Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan  Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

 Curry Mee @ Hoi Yin,Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan

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That 3 Days in an Island

April 21st, 2009

Different from what the title would imply, I’m not writing a hopelessly romantic getaway post. In fact, the trip was initiated by a not so amorous reason – to clear Fishy’s annual leave for the first quarter of 2009.

Hokkaido was in the list.

1578311 Rainbow field Hokkaido That 3 Days in an Island
Koh Samui looks not too bad either.

image009 That 3 Days in an Island

Infomercial break: Visit http://www.pranaresorts.com/ , a newly established boutique resort by my company in Koh Samui :D

Whatever it is, the plan was to fully utilise our passports and travel out of Singapore. Ding dong here and there, after all the cost and time factor consideration, we ended up here…

 That 3 Days in an Island
Bintan Island.

An Indonesian Island that is blardy near to Singapore and is the well-known beach holiday travelling spot for Singaporeans, something akin to Malaysian travelling to Port Dickson.

The island has become so popular among Singaporeans that all prices are denoted in Singapore dollars. And nothing is cheap here.

IMG 0428 That 3 Days in an Island
Lunch was in the resort beside a muddy pool.

Trying to be adventurous, I picked some funny looking fruits from the buffet spread counter, thought it would have tasted something like lychee. But yiaks…the flesh was so hard and it tasted like one semi-sweetened garlic. To date, I still have no idea what is the name of this fruit. Shit, or was it only a plastic display.

bintan1 That 3 Days in an Island
After all the funny food and fruits, our next plan was to show off our assets.

I mean the colourful bikinis that we brought.

B8 That 3 Days in an Island
For that 3 days we took the risk to ride on the ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) or known as the quad-bike.

 That 3 Days in an Island
The ride was a rough and tough one, across the muddy pool, sandy pathway, up the hill, down the stream, and the whole vehicle was so hard to navigate that I almost crashed myself right into a tree. .
.

15 minutes on the road and we regretted. Blardy hell, we even paid for one full hour of ride that cost us SGD 80. We suffered through the whole ride with aching fingers, dirty black face, dusty eyes and cuts – I think I hurt myself when I lost control and drove passed one thorny branch.

The evening was spent on the beach attempting beachy jumps.

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Piggy did the “pray-while-you-splash-water” jump.
.
 That 3 Days in an Island
I attempted the “as-if-I-did-yoga-by-the-beach” pose.
DSCN3972 That 3 Days in an Island
Why am I always so determined to make myself look stupid.

 That 3 Days in an Island
Oh, and we saw an island swam us by…

The holiday was not too bad after all, albeit abit commercialised as the whole island is dedicated to earn monies out of Singaporeans.

I had fun.

We had fun.
:)
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Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

March 31st, 2009

hklamma Lamma Island, Hong Kong.
Idyllic Lamma Island

Even before I planned my HK trip itinerary I knew I wanted to head over to Lamma Island (???). Afterall, quaint, peaceful, tranquil etc has all been used to describe this charming island. Furthermore, it’s only a 35 min ferry ride away from Hong Kong (Pier 4 at Central ) which we shared with mostly Caucasian kids and their Filipino maids (before realizing Lamma island is a haven for expats!). Our afternoon there was probably one of the most memorable excursion during our 4 day HK break where even the foggy weather we encountered gave way to clear blue skies. Reached the northern village, Yung Shue Wan (??? or Banyan Tree Bay) and followed the picturesque walking trail towards the eastern village of Sok Kwu Wan (???). Due to the gorgeous weather, we decided to take a break near one of the pavilions along the trail to watch the sunset and it was definitely a humbling experience to see the island washed aglow in the golden light.

hklamma1 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

Most of the shops along the main street of Yung Shue Wan village sold food or souvenirs. We passed by this fella selling Egg Waffle Balls (???), Waffles and Takoyaki balls and opted for the egg balls @ HKD 10 per portion.

hklamma2 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

The egg waffle balls were pretty interesting as it had a slight crisp crunch to it, yet was somewhat chewy and soft on the inside. Probably not the best in HK, but it sure made a nice snack as were walking down the street.

hklamma3 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

Having read on a touristy pamphlet that Lamma Island had great tofu fah (???), we spotted this eatery on the main street and decided to have tea here. Only one table was occupied by a bunch of locals and they were talking at the top of their voices but that only added to the charm of Lamma Island.

hklamma4 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

Had to have the specialty and ordered the tofu fah and leong fun (??). The syrup on the tofu fah had a orangey-red tinge to it which we later found out was due to the ginger. Even the sugar was in the same shade of colour! Very smooth and not too sweet. And the leong fun was very refreshing.

hklamma5 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

As we made our way towards Hung Shing Yeh beach, we spotted this shack also selling tofu fah and then only realised that this was the famous Ah Po Tofu Fah that was mentioned. Haha. But we were quite pleased with what we had earlier and didn’t stop by.

Continued our walk and Hung Shing Yeh beach was gorgeous. Couldn’t resist climbing the rocks (even though I slipped and scratched my Ixus badly hence its new nickname – Scratchy) and sitting on them while soaking our feet in the ice cold water. By the time we reached Sok Kwu Wan after our few detours, it was already getting dark. Sok Kwu Wan is less picturesque than Yung Shue Wan as it’s more of a fish farm, lined with seafood restaurants. Even the ferries don’t run a frequent enough service here in comparison to Yung Shue Wan.

hklamma6 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

We still decided to experience seafood dining the HK way while waiting for the next ferry and chose Rainbow Seafood Restaurant (??????), the largest seafood restaurant there. And lucky we did as they ran their own ferry shutter back to HK and we managed to get a free ride back, while enjoying the brilliant night view of the HK skyline in the cool breeze.

hklamma7 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

It was fun picking out the live seafood from the tanks but we couldn’t afford to have much as we still planned to go to a couple of restaurants upon returning in HK. This plate of Flower Snails (??) was very fresh as it was scooped out from the tanks just mere minutes before being served. At HKD120.

hklamma8 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

This prawn dish was prepared with a dry garlicky soy sauce and was very yummy. This dish cost around HKD 180 for 4 large prawns.

Despite the steep price tags (in comparison to M’sian seafood lah), it was still quite a dining experience and the seafood can’t get any fresher as all of them were picked from the live tanks. Service too was top notch and the free ferry shutter def. helped.

Other review on Rainbow Seafood Resurant ;
- the gobble gazette
- asianish

 Lamma Island, Hong Kong.  Lamma Island, Hong Kong.  Lamma Island, Hong Kong.  Lamma Island, Hong Kong.  Lamma Island, Hong Kong.  Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

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Penang Food – Dim Sum @Aik Hoe Restaurant

March 30th, 2009

The day started with a “yum cha” session at the old eatery, Aik Hoe Restaurant located in Carnavon Street. This restaurant which occupied two shop houses still managed to retain its old nostalgic charm after fifty over years. The fixtures of old ceiling fans with flooring of small squares of blue and white tiles still [...]

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