Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Gift of Life

The most precious thing on earth... is to have a newborn... to give life to someone... to nourish and care for that someone... that small little angel... something that is so fragile to hold that you're scared you'll break her bones...

Well wishes and congrats to my dearest friend Mei Ling on the birth of her little princess Benize.




Went to FHM'09 (Food and Hotel Malaysia) which is held bi-annually. Ony went for like one hour during split shift. But manage to see Chef Chong and chat for awhile :) Didn't really browse through everything but just took a few shots of stuffs over there.



Satay machine




I missed out this but it seemed to be the talk of the whole FHM. A gold winner with distinction, meaning it scored 100 points... The only one I think. (Picture credit: Roderick Wong)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Miley Cyrus - The Climb

Can't believe I actually sat down and watch Hannah Montana: The Movie the other day. It was a nice show actually. Though I only watch the ending a bit. Now the song is in my head the whole time. "The Climb" & "Butterfly Fly Away".



I listen to this song for motivation when I'm down now... emo emo emo~

Miley Cyrus - The Climb

I can almost see it
That dream I’m dreaming but
There’s a voice inside my head sayin,
You’ll never reach it,
Every step I’m taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an up-hill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I’m facing
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes might knock me down but
No I’m not breaking
*I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m gonna remember most yeah
Just gotta keep going
And I, I gotta be strong
Just keep pushing on
Cause...

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an up-hill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an up-hill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It’s all about
It’s all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Bidor 190709

It was an eye opening, stomach filling, sweaty hot trip. Dad's friend decided to bing us for a day trip to Bidor to look around. I have not gone into a plantation before, and I've not seen sooooooooo many mango trees, tapioca plants in my life before. Fantastic trip indeed. Learnt a lot, and even plucked our own ciku and nangka to eat!

Started our trip at 8am, slept all the way in the car. Dad used the old road to go to Bidor, passing by Sungkai and Trolak. Reach Bidor town around 10am and stopped by at Pusat Makanan Mee Wah for wan tan mee.





Uncle Yap (dad's friend) told us that the lady works non-stop cooking the mee from the time the stall opens until closing. As we sat down and order and eat, it was true that she did not stop down at all. One hand cooking and flipping the noodles in the boiling water, the other hand arranging the plates.


Slightly different from KL wan tan mee. Less dark soy sauce. The serving size is not that big, so it's just right for breakfast/brunch portion. And the wan tan is good!

Saw a pomelo plant and some different chili plant outside the food court. Cute! First time seeing these plants.


Next, we proceed to a new village called "Cold River New Village" 冷水河新村. Don't ask me why the name, but there must be some interesting stories behind :) Heard it used to be a very lively town, with a beautiful landscaped park at the entrance of the village, but now not being taken care of. It's situated about 5km away from the Bidor town.


Makan time again! "Thunder Tea" (lui char 擂茶) at Restoran Sui Lee 水利茶餐室.


The 'mortar' used in olden days to make the 'tea' paste. Modern use blender.

Curry chicken... so so...


The condiments for the thunder tea.

This is thus the best best BEST lui char I've ever eaten. The vege smell is not strong, not like some. Healthy, pleasant taste, fragrant, lovely, DELICIOUS!!!

Then we head to Uncle Yap's parents house. They have some tapioca plants, papaya tree and potato plants at their residence. So cool!



Pineapples at Uncle Yap's friend's house.

I think most of them really make full use of empty lands... planting veges, food, fruits and even making own detergents!


Then, he brought us to visit the plantations nearby. It was the first time that I actually see plantations. There were abundance of tapioca plants, mango trees, long beans, lady's fingers, kedondong, bittergourd etc.

I think this was long bean.


Mango trees!


Can you see the bird nests on the tree. Plenty of it. Uncle Yap told us that the nest is weaved by the male birds to attract female birds to mate. If it's a nest of a tear-drop shape, means the male bird is still looking for a mate. If there's a protuding nest underneath means it has succeeded in finding a partner. That hollow space is for the female to lay eggs.





Kedondong (sah-lei)


Tapioca plants

Can you see the lady's finger? Next to the flower in the center.


Wild nangka tree. We plucked a huge one from here!


I don't know what gourd is this called... all I know it's often used in indian cuisine.

We then visited Mrs. Yap's sister's plantation, which was quite run down, I think it was left there without anyone taking care of it. Many of the plantations were the same, weeds metres tall, fruits rotting, what a waste.


At first glance it looked like white rocks, but they're actually spoiled melons... Not sure what, but looked like winter melon.

The flower of the above melon.



Ciku tree!




Basil



Dragon fruit


Limau purut


Rambutan tree




House for the swallows to make birds nest!




So hot and sweaty! We then went back to Uncle Yap's house again to eat nangka! HUGE nangka! but yummy!


To end our trip, we head to Pun Chun for the famous wu kok and duck leg noodles... Kinda disappointed with the noodles, jatuh standard kao kao... but the wu kok is yummy stuff!



Interesting trip indeed. If only we went to Teluk Intan for chee cheong fun at night. That would be superbly perfect.

I heart traveling! I heart seeing new things! Heart heart heart. Any trip in the future please include me ya? Hehehe...