Because Time Waits for No One
Friday 7 August 2009
Rewind 9 years
That was from my cousin. I immediately ran to his house, which was a few blocks away from mine.
That was the sweetest thing I have ever seen in my life.
. D24. No kampung. No thai.
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.
I hope you had a happy life whilst staying with us.
Rest in peace, my girl.
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# 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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
I’m glad that I insisted on trying out on our last day despite the fact that we were supposed to rush to the airport.
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*
*
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.
Yellow stars missing in sight …
-The end-
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Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon
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#1: Untold Secrets of the Message Room
‘Shhh…be quiet…you don’t want to wake them up…let me show you the way.’
.
.
.
.
.
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.
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.
We were just wandering around the Palace and stumbled upon one eery staircase that leads to the dark underground. That really intrigued my interest.
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.
We dropped by Ben Thanh Market (we call it the ‘Beh Tahan Market’) and zoomed straight into the food section.
Tell me about pracitising food hygiene, there were a few dead cockroaches lying under my seat.
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.
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.
Photo credit to the legendary Hairy from .
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Bak Kut Teh @ Gurney Plaza ( RO KU CHA WANG)
- The Shop-
Cuisine: Chinese
Non Halal
Location: Level 4, Gurney Plaza, Penang
RM15-20 per person
Rou Gu Cha is better known as Bak Kut Teh” in Penang. We were having lunch in Queensbay GP since we are kinda bored by those fast food .. and we decided to try something new.
- the menu -
The restaurant offers a variety of Bak Kut Teh from pork to chicken and even vegetarian (Yes, you heard me right – a vegetarian “Bak Kut” teh with a touch of spice). And from Bak Kut Teh with soup to dry ones.
We found something different and we ordered a dry Bak Kut Teh (Gan Rou Gu Cha) @RM12.90+ per set and a soup variety one which is the normal Bak Kut Teh @13.90+
-Ginger and the chilly paddy -
- Fried dim su- fishball -
- the set of ro ku cha -
Sets comes with steam rice, seasonal bean sprouts, dim sum, herbal jelly and chinese tea. Gan Rou Gu Cha has pork ribs, streaky pork, cartilage, meat ball, mushroom, beancurd stick, cuttlefish, lady finger, dried chili, vegetables. Hong Jiu Rou Gu Cha has pork ribs, streaky pork, cartilage, hock, meat ball, mushroom, beancurd stick, traditional beancurd and vegetables.
- the soup style ru ku cha-
- Mee Style Bak Kut Teh-
Other than that, Anna ordered the Mee Ro Gu Cha.. which is kinda special . According to her, the mee is reall nice as well is yummy
-Dry Style Bak Kut Teh-
-The shop ( front view) -
Taste:4/5
Price: RM 48 for 3
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That 3 Days in an Island
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.
Koh Samui looks not too bad either.
Infomercial break: Visit , a newly established boutique resort by my company in Koh Samui 
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…
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.
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.
I mean the colourful bikinis that we brought.
For that 3 days we took the risk to ride on the ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) or known as the quad-bike.
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. .
.
The evening was spent on the beach attempting beachy jumps.
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.
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Fu Sing Dim Sum, Hong Kong.
i actually heard about this place only after reading “” and was curious to see how it fared in comparison to the old school places recommended so I went to seek it out. Got out at the Wanchai MTR station to find that Lockhart Road is actually quite a long stretch, with tile shops, bathroom ware shops etc lining the road and we were on the wrong side (better to come out of Causeway Bay MTR station). So we had to walk (much) further down to find Sunshine Plaza, which is in actual, quite nondescript.
Despite the walk down so many blocks, we were still a good 30 minutes early! They open only at 11am. The staff were only setting up the tables etc so we sat at the waiting area and twiddled our thumbs. Heh. However as soon as they were ready, we were ushered to a table near the window. And slowly, groups of dim sum lovers trickled in…
Instead of the usual peanuts and pickled vegetable appetisers we Malaysians are used to, we were given this small dish of chilli beancurd with cubed ham. A pleasant change and it tasted quite good. Was delighted to bite into the dark coloured cube to find that it was chinese ham. Yum.
I decided I wanted good ole chinese dim sum and ordered THE typical dishes of siew mai (??) or pork dumplings, and har gao (??); shrimp dumplings. As these were steamed upon order, waiting time is considerable.
Even the look of the siew mai entices with the yellow, green and orange. Packed tightly with minced pork, shrimp and vegetables, this was indeed a parcel of steamed deliciousness. The meat was juicy, with a bit of a crunch and topped with a pea, bits of salted egg and diced mushrooms.
The har gao was also wonderful with it’s very fresh prawns and translucent skin. Apparently a good shrimp dumpling pouch should have 7 to 10 pleats and I think this was achieved here.
Pinkpau also raved about the polo char siew bao (?????) so I decided to go ahead and order it and I must admit I am glad I did! It’s really as good as she claims. The skin and texture of the bun is akin to a mexican bun’s and smells really aromatic and inviting. The warm, fluffy bun couple with the char siew filling is really enough to send any char siew bao lover to heaven.
As sang chow lor mai fun (?????) or Stir fried glutinous rice is one of my favourites in M’sian dim dum restaurants, couldn’t resist ordering it when I saw it in the menu. If I thought ours was good, this certainly trumps it by miles. Not only is it not oily, the aromatic rice is a sight to behold with the bits of mushrooms, diced lap cheong (waxed sausages), piquant green onions and stringy egg omelette. Paired with , which spiced things up a little . A wee bit on the sinful side perhaps, but nevertheless a much appreciated indulgence.
Actually we also ordered a portion of the char siew but our order was overlooked (thanks to the slip of paper falling to the ground unnoticed) so we were given a complimentary dessert. I opted for my favourite, the Mango Pomelo Dessert (????). Even though it was creamy and milky, I wasn’t as wowed as I hoped to be. Instead the pomelo pulp infused a light bitter aftertaste and we joked about having to export to HK for that much needed sweet note. Hehe.
Total damage was HKD 212 which is on the high side. But we probably had the best dim sum here during our 4 days in HK. Everything was fresh and well prepared and had that dainty finesse that I have come to expect of these steamed baskets of tiny meat parcels. During our wait, I also overheard the maitre d’ taking orders for dinner reservations, suggesting that this place is also quite popular for their other Cantonese dishes. They have also recently been featured in the 2009 , recommending their stewed abalone and goose web, braised cow’s tail in red wine.
Fu Sing Sharkfin Seafood Restaurant ????????
1/F, 353 Lockhart Road,
Sunshine Plaza,
Wanchai, Hong Kong.
?????353?????1?
Open : 11-3pm, 6-11pm.
other reviews;
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By Invitation: Karaikudi Restaurant at Market Street, Little India
My family and I eat regularly at , but we’ve never gone to the original outlet at Market Street. I’ve always enjoyed the food there which serves Chettinad cuisine and immediately said yes when the invitation came in from PenangTuaPui. I was excited to see what the original outlet had to offer! The menu for the night mainly focused on South Indian cuisine and we were told that the food is cooked fresh everyday!
First up to whet our appetite was a Chettinad style Vegetable Soup (RM3). It was a light clear soup with cauliflower, carrots and french bean. The soup was a great start to the meal! We were told that the soup had a yellow tinge due to the use of dhall.
Next up was Bitter Gourd Chips (RM6). This was a surprise as it was sliced really thin and crispy to the taste! I’m not a big fan of bitter gourd though cos I don’t like the bitterness and this was plenty bitter!
The Squid Fry (RM8) was dish I really enjoyed. Squids are very easy to overcook. But there was no sign of hard rubbery squids here. Even after it cooled down substantially from all the photography, the squids were still nice and tender.
Meanwhile, the chicken cutlet (RM6 for 2 pieces larger than the photo above) is easily my favourite appetizer of the lot. The cutlets were very flavorful thanks to the generous use of spices with a slight tinge of heat to it. And there were also very soft with a slight crisp edge. I would definitely order this again!
The luciously thick Mango Lassi (RM4 – comes in a bigger glass than the photo)
The Ladies Finger Pepper Fry (RM7) was an instant hit! The ladies fingers were finely chopped and had a surprising chewy texture. The generous but not overboard use of black pepper gives the dish its zing. I’ve never had ladies fingers cooked in such a delicious manner!
The Kadai Vegetable (RM9) was an assorted vegetable dish cooked in a rich slightly spicy gravy. I tasted beancurds, tomatoes and lots of button mushrooms in the dish. We were told that Kadai is the big vessel that is being used to cook the dish, hence the name.
The Mutton Chukka Varuval (RM18) is another one of Karaikudi’s specialities. This turned out to be the spiciest dish of the night. But I loved it! The mutton pieces were scrumptiously tender and very well marinated with spices. I wouldn’t hesitate to order this again as I found it paired very well with naan bread.
Next was the Chettinad Potato Masala (RM6) which was a mild dish. It would go well with the spicy mutton dish too! I liked the fact that the potatoes here were not too mushy so there was still a bite to it.
Continued here:
Yu Lin Seafood Restaurant @ Kampung Baru, Bukit Mertajam
Yu Lin Restaurant is a new Chinese restaurant I visited during the last Chinese New Year with my family. It currently occupies the same building in which another old and established restaurant used to operate in Kampung Baru – Mei Xiang Way.
Although Yu Lin is new, it has already received good recommendations for the good and cheap Chinese dishes. One of them being my close friend and another my family members themselves who have been there before this.
While browsing through Yu Lin’s menu, we noticed a unique dish called Claypot Duck with Yam @ RM15. Generous portions of duck meat and chunks of yam were the main ingredients, as the name suggested.
If you have a perception that duck meat is tough and tastes gamey, this dish would change your mind. I wasn’t too thrilled with the taste because I am not a yam fan, but my parents loved it a lot.
Surprised by the cheap price of RM9 for Fried Shark’s Fin with Egg, we simply had to order this because all of us loved this since young. It tasted great and for the amount of ingredients like mushroom and shark’s fin used, RM9 is a steal!
Oiliness is one of the shortcomings I noticed in this dish prepared by other restaurants. But Yu Lin certainly did a good job in controlling the amount of oil used, which was very evident from the photo itself.
Next was a personal favorite of my sister, Salad Prawns @ RM21. There are generally two versions of salad prawns, either steamed or fried. The former usually consists of steamed de-shelled prawns and served with honeydew, while the latter is deep fried to a crisp with the shells still intact.
The prawns were fresh from the sea and had a succulent, sweet tasting flesh. Simply an enjoyable dish, nothing to be complained about.
Kam Heong style is one of my favorite methods of cooking seafood, especially if cooked with lala clams. Since clams were not available that day, we had Kam Heong Squids @ RM12 instead.
This dish reminded me of a wonderful curry squid I had once in Penang, where the squids were also deep fried first to a really crispy, crunchy texture. After this, the squids would be transferred to another wok to be fried with Kam Heong sauce. The fragrance and spiciness of this dish is bound to whet your appetite, best if taken with white rice.
We also tried Yu Lin’s Signature Seafood Tofu (beancurd), costing only RM12 for a huge portion like this. Crispy on the outside but soft and warm inside, it was even nicer if dipped in Thai chili sauce.
Because all the food was great, we proceeded to order another two dishes – Stir Fried Chicken with Curry Powder @ RM8 and Fish Meat Yin Yong @ RM7. The curry chicken was a slight disappointment for the saltiness, but at least the chicken meat was tender. I guess this dish was not meant to be eaten on its own but with white rice as well to even out the flavor.
This gotta be one of the nicest Yin Yong Kung Fu Chow (Cantonese style) I ever had. It packed enough ‘Wok Hei’ and the egg broth was simply delicious. But the speciality remains that fresh fish slices and prawns were used instead of pork.
Overall, a very happy and satisfied meal. Very recommended for those looking for good and reasonable priced Chinese restaurants in BM.
Restoran Yu Lin
No. 2836 & 2837,
Jalan Kampung Baru,
Taman Tampoi,
14000 Bukit Mertajam, Penang.
Tel: 04-5386389
Located opposite along Jalan Kampung Baru, a few shops away from Ah Nam’s Claypot Frog Porridge.
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Penang Hawker Food – Lorbak @Kheng Pin
Another Penang food that most people enjoyed eating is the Penang Lorbak. It is an appetizer, a side dish of fried mixed stuff of fish fritters, fried beancurd, spring rolls, fried octopus, preserved century eggs and the lorbak roll.
The lorbak roll itself consists of chunky bites of marinated five spiced pork wrapped with bean curd [...]
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Dessert | Mat Toh Yau Dessert & Food’s Milky MTY
It is as if a revisit towards the past as we walk back the memory lane for this place. Nearly a year ago, we published a review about this which happened to be one of our earliest postings then. Fast forward to the present time, we came back again to this leng lui tong sui stall to introduce their latest offering, dubbed “Milky MTY“, which MTY stands for Mat Toh Yau.
Most of us who have patroned this stall will remember this place as leng looi tong sui even though the actual name of the stall is Mat Toh Yau. After all, it was the pretty sisters that used to operate the stall here at Jelutong and at Taman Free Schools (near Caunter Hall) then and the sight of beauties whipping up sweet delicacies seem to be perfect match, right?
If you ever pass by this area, be it day or night, this building will be very attractive and attentive given the colour scheme used on this building which is mostly pink with shades of bright yellow. Even the signboard and mascot of this Mat Toh Yau tong sui is quite cute and adorable. Every passer by can tell you this place is definitely easy to locate, after all this place emits its own radiance while the surroundings are normally placed with normal white lights.
Even the lighting at the stall is pretty bright and eye catching which can be great crowd puller. This stall is a pioneer in selling cheng poh leong for nearly 20 years but the name Mat Toh Yau was coined in 1996 when a Hong Kong show artiste Hor Sau Sun came to review this stall. Yes, this stall is not just a crowd puller but also a celebrity puller stall.
Mat Toh Yau earned its nick name leng lui tong sui thanks to its pretty daugthers who used to operate the stalls. The name was given by a group of USM students who used to frequent that area. After all, with pretty girls in sight and sweet desserts in the hand and mouth, who can possibly resist the temptation?
The owner, Mrs Ng, has been fortunate to have her children to help out with the stalls that they gradually expand to another branch in Taman Free Schools and also all the way to Klang Valley. The demand for tong sui has been strong and successful that her eldest daughter is running a business of 10 vans in that areas. That is a signifance worth to mention and salute! The Jelutong stall is run by Mrs Ng herself with the help from her daughter-in-law.
The sight of the ingredients showcased on this minivan can easily leave you amazed and at the same time swallowing your salive. Looking at these ingredients, comprised of different colours, shapes and varieties seem like a good blend of “rojak” dessert. Yes, these are all the ingredients you will get in your order of tong sui and we are not kidding either…hehe
Take a guess of what do you think this ingredient is? Well, it looks like leong fun but it is not. Mrs Ng explained that this black jelly is actually Gui Ling Gao (herbal turtle jelly). Unlike other tong sui stalls that uses cheaper ingredients like leong fun, you will get to taste gui ling gao at Mat Toh Yau tong sui.
The other ingredients used include sago, gingko, longan, red beans, potato, lychee, winter melon and few others. We were told in a bowl of tong sui, it contains a total of 12 ingredients. Yes, that is quite a lot of ingredient types for a bowl of tong sui.
The sight of the ingredients is just too appetizing especially for sweet tooth persons.
Besides gui ling gao , the other specialty ingredient is winter melon which is home made. It uses fresh tang kua (winter melon) which we believe have been soaked with syrup juice from the longan.
This is the latest offering from Mat Toh Yau, named “Milky MTY“. Judging from the name itself as well as the colour, you can tell the latest offering actually contains milk. Instead of the regular tong sui that filled with longan syrup, Milky MTY uses milk.
The use of fresh milk actually make this bowl of tong sui highly desirable especially for the ladies. It is quite fragrant and taste nice especially for those who like milk. Also, with the use of fresh milk instead of the syrup that we normally do, we find that this bowl of Milky MTY can be a rather healthy bowl of tong sui with minimal use of sugar.
This is definitely a good news of health conscious people or those who prefer less sweet desserts. The milk version can be considered quite nutritional as well. The ingredients given were pretty generous as well as it covers the whole bowl till the top. Even with the ice that adding up to the bowl, it is still a good bowl of Milky MTY tong sui.
The Milky MTY is a new addition for Mat Toh Yau tong sui and recommended for those who prefer an alternative to sugar based tong sui. Each bowl of Milky MTY cost RM4.00.
The winter melon added into the tong sui is a thumbs up.
Guo Ling Gao, which is the other specialty ingredient can be quite cooling and healthy which just make this tong sui edging towards healthy dish scale.
For those who prefer the conventional tong sui minus the milk, you can still order it.
The ingredients are the same as Milky MTY and comes with generous amounts of ingredients as well. Because of the syrup based, some ingredients like potato tends to be a sweeter here than the milk version. Huat Koay feels the potato cannot be blended well due to its extreme sweetness but for Fei Fei being a sweet tooth person, finds the ingredients well blended especially for the milk version.
Oh, did we mention as well, that if you prefer extra sweetness, you can always add honey is which freely available too. The normal version of tong sui costs RM2.50 each while large size one costs RM3.70 per bowl.
Another dessert, the fu chok yee mai (beancurd skin with barley) is also worth trying especially with the beancurd skin being very smooth and soft just like tau fu fah. It also contains pieces of water chestnuts (mah tai) which makes this dessert chewy. A caution though, the fu chok yee mai is slightly sweeter than the tong sui so its good to let them know if you prefer less sweet version.
The latest inclusion of Milky MTY into the Mat Toh Yau’s offering is really something refreshing and unique although the idea is just simple and easy to make. We like the fresh milk used as the syrup based instead of the typical longan syrup and this is indeed much healthier alternative too. Even our female companion finds this version much appealing and fragrant. With this new release to the market, we believe the others will be following closely as well to provide such offering when the demand for milk version gets its popularity.
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