Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle All The Way

This year's Christmas celebration was quite simple but yet, a memorable celebration of the year. I've been through a boring days for the past few weeks (life without internet)! However, on the night before Christmas.... something surprising happened... Not that the big red guy with white mustache jumped down from the chimney and appear in the furnace. Its.... the appearance of FOODS !!

 My junior housemates (my temporary housemates due to ROBOCON) surprise us with a feasting of some grilled chickens and self-made tom yum soup (they got it from some female 'chefs'). It was a simple gathering with only 5 people.

The next day, after having our lunch in a friend's open house (free meal, yeah!), we went to have a look at the scenery of Waterfront during Christmas. Actually, this is just a coincident. We are actually heading to the location of Kek Lapis Dayang Salhah which i had a post here. We need to use 'perahu tambang' (sampan) from the city area to go across the Sarawak River to get to Kampung Gersik where the cake factory is located. It is one of the cheapest route to go across the river with only RM0.50.

This is the Durian kek lapis from the Kek Lapis Dayang Salhah. Its only RM10. When we are at the factory, we tried various flavours from 'masam manis' (sour and sweet) and 'sisik ikan' (fish's scales) to cadbury (Cadbury chocolate). And yes...its free! For me, i think the 'sisik ikan' and cadbury flavour is the best but it is also costly at the price of rm25 each (2.5 times pricier than standard layer cake)

 Lets view some Christmas decorations in The Spring

 

 Eskimo castle

 

 Eskimos

Two giant racquets/rackets which i found interesting when i was window shopping.

P.S. - I just realized that Kuching actually have 3 cinemas. Star Cineplex (owned by Hock Star Entertainment Industry Berhad), MBO cinema, and LFS Cinema (Lotus Five Star). LFS cinema is located at the top floor of Parkson Grand Kuching.


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Taiping - Penang (PC Fair)

Location: Penang International Sports Arena (PISA)
Event: PIKOM PC Fair (4, 5, and 6 Dec 2009)

PIKOM PC Fair 2009 started on the 25 November 2009 at Dewan Merdeka, Seri Manjung, Perak and went all the way, until recently, to PISA. The schedule for the PIKOM PC Fair 2009 can be viewed here which scheduled to end on the 10 January 2010 at Stadium Indera Mulia, Ipoh, Perak.

The journey started in the morning by taking the TransMart bus from Kamunting, Taiping to Butterworth, Penang at the price of RM7 per ticket. Prior to the purchasing of the TransMart ticket, we realized that Konsortium Express Bus is more pricey which cost RM7.70 per ticket. Additionally, Konsortium busses gives most of us bad travelling experiences.

At Butterworth, we travelled by ferry to Penang at the cost of RM1.20 for adult. It is a one way payment. Which mean we do not need to pay again when we return later. Upon reaching Penang, we meet up with our friends. One of them is our food hunter tour guide in which, she happen to have a food blog here. We uses the "hope in for free ride" bus which routed around the Georgetown area.

This is Kek Seng's famous hand-made durian ice-kacang. At the price of RM3.50, one could savour the shaved ice covered with rose syrup with a lot of cream corn and red beans on top of it. Also comes with a multi-layered jelly and the well-known hand-made durian ice-cream. This shop is located along the old rows of shophouses in Penang road. They also offer Assam Laksa, Char Kueh Teow, mee rebus, popiah and chicken rice.

 

This is the Penang famous cendol covered with generous sum of red beans and coconut milk. This stall is located at one of the corner of the rows of shop houses nearby the Penang market. Just ask anyone nearby the area and they will point you to this place as this place is also famous for its Assam Laksa and this place is always swarming with people.

 

This is the main entrance of the Penang International Sports Arena (PISA) where the PC Fair is held. The journey from Penang to PISA took about 40 minutes by bus at the price of RM2. This place is crowded with people from all over the nation and there is only a small pathway to walk through it. On the journey to the center of this fair, you will be greeted by the promoters from P1 WiMax to Maxis and then to the yellow man (DiGi) and finally reaching the Celcom. The promoters there are an eye washer for men. ^^

 

I bought an earphone costing me RM15. This earphone comes with the casing as shown in the picture above.

 

This earphone is using the traditional ear plug as I do not like the suction type of ear plug which isolates the sound from outside.

 

Also bought my printer ink which cost me RM46. It comes with free HP glossy paper. However, after surveying around the fair, I found that there are cheaper price of the same product. The cheapest that I saw is only RM41. However, maybe it did not come with a free gift. Nevertheless, nothing could be done as I have already bought mine.

After spending the whole day at the fair, my friends bought four 500GB 2.5-inch Seagate portable hard disk at the price of RM288 per item, a Kingston 8GB pendrive at the price of RM53 and an external notebook fan for only RM5. It also comes with a free card reader per item. Then, we went back to Komtar (Prangin Mall) for some shopping spree.


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我是香蕉人 (Wo Shi Xiang Jiau Ren)

We are 香蕉人......or Banana man. 

We are not ABC (American-Born-Chinese).

What is 香蕉人 (Xiang Jiao Ren) ?

香蕉人 direct translation to English is "fragrant banana people" or "banana man". But, the true meaning behind 香蕉人 is that it is a term made for category of people who are born chinese but do not know chinese. It could be half 香蕉人 or full 香蕉人 where half is that person do know how to speak in chinese, verbally, but do not know how to read and write in chinese. 

Why name 香蕉人 (Xiang Jiao Ren or banana man) ?

What I understood from all the information that I have gathered, it was named after the banana colour. Most 香蕉人 are from English educated Chinese. Caucasian man who is white in color (as opposed to the Asian "yellow man" or the African "black man").

As we can see in a banana, the outer layer of the banana skin is yellow in colour when ripe while the inner part of the fruit is not white in colour (partially yellow, mostly whitish in colour). It resembles the meaning of 香蕉人 in a way where the appearance of a Chinese guy symbolized by the yellow colour on the skin of a banana but has an English educated background symbolized by the white colour in the fleshy part of the fruit.

I'm in the category of half banana man or 一半香蕉人 (Yi Ban Xiang Jiao Ren).

1. Being 一半香蕉人 has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages are:

• making a conversation more interesting
  
• imposing an indirect training on the body language
• can act dumb sometimes (especially towards conversation that you did not wan to proceed further)
• eavesdropping other people's conversation (very useful in identifying potential gossips about you)
• surprising yet disappointing people that have the conception that Chinese people must know Chinese language
  

The disadvantages are:

• possibility of making the conversation more difficult - unable to understand what others meant
  
• could not perform some jobs that require the usage of Chinese language
• difficulty in reading directions when travelling to countries that fully utilizes Chinese words (such as China and Hong Kong)
• often caused misunderstanding when using the Chinese language which are inappropriate in the spoken context due to lack of Chinese language understanding
• unable to sing Chinese songs when joining friends in karaoke session

2. Three golden words when you are unable to understand what another person is saying but you still want to continue the conversation and you did not want to exposed that you are 香蕉人 are:

• "yuen lai..." (signifies that you understood what he/she is saying)

• "shi meh?" (really?)

• "ohhh...." (also signifies that you understood)

3. Sometimes there is a need to add some catalyst to make the person believe that you understood what he/she is saying and at the same time making him to speak in a simpler Chinese words:

• "shen mo?" (what? or pardon me?) 

Then the other person will repeat what he/she is saying in a clearer manner and then it could help you to understand more of what he is trying to tell you. If you still having a big question mark in your mind, do not bother what he/she is trying to say. Just reply:

• "ohh..." (i see)

 4. When you really do not understand what he/she is trying to tell you but you feel that its a very important message that could affect life and death of a person or could lead to the catastrophic phenomenon , then its time to exposed what you truely are by saying the magic word:

• 我是香蕉人 (wo shi xiang jiao ren - I am a banana man)

5. Sometimes its hard being a 香蕉人 and sometimes its fun being a 香蕉人. But, acceptance of being who we are is the utmost important.

6. Do not feel upset or lacking in confident especially when communicating with others if you are a 香蕉人!! Because you are not the only one! Look at the bright side. Being a 香蕉人, helps you to understand that in communication, whatever language you are using is not really important. What is important is that the message that are being conveyed are successfully passed on to another being. At the same time, creating a world that has no language barriers.

7. Some will say that mastering a language helps to achieve a better communication. But, what do you think of a salesman that is very good in his Chinese language mastery but could not convince his customers to buy his product due to the message did not passed on successfully? It is said that 60%-70% of communication lies on the body language or non-verbal language. If a 香蕉人 is able to make the conversation more interesting in his own way, it will certainly attract the attention his customer and eventually influenced him/her to buy his product.

8. By the way, just for some information on the usefulness of banana fruits, it saves lives. When someone is attacked by asthma, and there are no medicine available nearby at that critical moment, use banana! This is because banana is rich in potassium which helps in body functions such as regulation of blood pressure and of water content in cells, transmission of nerve impulses, digestion, muscle contraction, and heartbeat.

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Cigarettes

Do you know that:

1. Cigarettes kill more than 400,000 Americans each year.

2. Smoking killed about 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century.

3. Cigarettes kill more than the combined deaths caused by alcohol and drug abuse, car accidents, homocide, suicide, and AIDS.

4. Cigarette causes lung cancer somewhere in the world every 30 seconds where it is the ninth most common cause of death in the world and the most common form of cancer.

5. Cigarette companies provides a lot of job opportunities (Philip Morris employs more than 150,000 people worldwide!!).

6. Cigarette companies contribute a lot to the country through taxes and philanthropy. (Phillip Morris averagely paid over USD 4 billion per year on taxes).

7. It is estimated that one in three adults smoke, with over 1.2 billion people smoking worldwide.

8. More than 105 billion cigarettes are sold every week — that’s ten million per minute.

9. Cigarette is one of the most addictive and destructive, over the counter drugs known to modern man.

10. Smoking is the biggest single cause of preventable disease.

11. Smoking not only harm the smoker but most importantly the people around the smoker - 2nd hand smoke!

12. Within eight hours after you quit (if you succeed), the level of dangerous carbon monoxide gas in the blood returns to normal. Also, within the next 24 hours, your chances of having a heart attack begin to decrease dramatically.


So.... QUIT SMOKING NOW!!!!


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Tian Pian Hu

Location: Siang Siang, 7th mile, Kuching

This food is called Tian Pian Hu which I recently found in Kuching, Sarawak. Its name is in Foochow language. This specialty was originated from Fuzhou City, China but was brought to Sibu, Sarawak by Mssrs.Tie Yang. This Foochow’s cuisine was quite a famous food in the 50’s and 60’s.

Inside this soup, there lies various kind of different delicacies. Meat balls, fish balls,  squids, fishes, seaweeds, chicken and pork meats, and some kind of mushy kueh teow.

 

This Kuching Tian Pian Hu’s soup has a lot of pepper taste and it is also very oily. The ingredients are also not that much compared to the price that I’ve to pay which is RM4. Also, with an extra RM1 they will add in an egg. The squids in this cuisine taste like….something RAW!!!

 

However, I was told by my friend that the Tian Pian Hu in Kuching was not the same as the Sibu’s. According to him, there are not much soup in this cuisine and also it has more ingredients in it and it also taste better.

 

Overall, it’s something not worth to try but you could try it if you want to taste what an imitate tian pian hu is like. :D

 

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The Manhattan Feast

Location: The Manhattan Fish Market
Event: Birthday Celebration
Total Price: RM300++ (9 teenagers with monstrous appetite)

The Manhattan Fish Market

Nothing special....just a fish chasing the squids. Fish eat more squids become tastier and then the fish will be hooked up by the fisherman and be taken to the Manhattan Fish Market and be served and eaten by us - customers.

However, the process of catching fresh and tasty fishes have some risks. The sea creature, such as in above picture, will harm those innocent but cruel fisherman's ships that roam around the sea. So BEWARE!!

The fishes will be served on this specially branded round wooden foodware (don't know what this is called)

Alright, finished with the 'talking crap' from previous photos. Lets begin with the sauce. Do you know that sauces are very important in Spanish foods? Opss....this is not Spanish foods by the way. The black colour sauce is the soy sauce and the white colour sauce on the right is the tartar sauce. The red colour sauce is none other than the sauce you were served when you ate chicken rice at the hawker stall - chilly sauce.

 

The Fisherman's Giant Fried Platter set (enough for 2 or 3 people). There are variety choices of scrumptious and crunchy sea foods in this platter. Including are fried prawns, fish, calamari, mushrooms with tasty chips and also garlic rice for those that yearn for appetite satisfactions. What I can say is that I love the fishes on the left of this picture. It has tender but crispy layer of fried skin and the most important is the fish is very fresh. When it enters your mouth, you will feel the abundant of fish meats splattering and swimming in your mouth while massaging your tongue and the sauce from the toppings will intrigue your mind to savour every bite of this well cooked fish.

 

This platter is served for 2 person and it has perfectly grilled fish, calamari, big prawns, oysters and of course garlic rice as a wholeness of this set. What is different with this platter and the previous is that this platter is grilled. Which mean its healthier and suit for those that are sensitive towards fried foods.

 

Before this two platters are served, the waiter and waitress will perform some exciting and eye opening demonstration to the customers. The prawns and fishes on the platter will be burned with a highly flammable Bunsen burner which will bring out the aroma from the foods on the platter especially the prawns and the grilled fishes with special sauce on top of it. Burning it with a high degree fire instantly will create a sense of smoothness on the fishes and blend the sauce and the grilled/fried fishes together as a whole creating a newly formed, perfect aroma which will entice everyone within 99999km radius.

 

Three sets of dishes from Manhattan Fish Market. By the way, we ordered peach drink. For your information, it is refillable. We do not know this until one of our friend went to refill. You can actually share a cup of drink and having unlimited refilling of the peach juice. (only certain drinks)

Clean and Clear. Shining and Sparkling. (**Cleaned the plate because we do not have enough $ to pay...**)

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Mutated apple?

Just a simple post to show an apple that I bought recently that is very big and huge. It cost me RM2 for this Fuji apple which I normally bought it at a price of RM1 to RM1.50.

 

Observe the size of a typical cloth clipper on the right side and compare it with the size of the apple. Since I am quite free, I measured the size too. It is approximately 7cm height x 8.5cm width x 27cm diameter. Almost twice as large as a normal apple.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away"

Are you asking why? Below are some answers:

“Apple is full with antioxidants that could reduce the risk of cancer and reduce damage to cells”

“Apples are known to reduce the risk of degenerate conditions such as Alzheimer’s”

“Apple is rich in vitamin C and E”

“Apples are fat, sodium and cholesterol free”

“Apple is full with fiber – good for digestion”

“Two-thirds of the fiber and lots of antioxidants are found in the apple’s skin”

So, EAT MORE APPLE!

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