This is a 'must read' Written partly in 'Manglish'-- Malaysian English

Hawker food to make my day

FOOD TRAIL WITH SAM CHEONG

Hard at work: Nelson at the wok.

WHEN it comes to good and cheap food, Salak South Garden is a place that is begging to be discovered. I found out about this place from my friend Lawrence Leong, who owns a small business there.

But prior to my visit, the namesake was a place that gave me the impression that it was far and away. This stigma had remained in my head since my secondary school days when a schoolmate had told me that he lived in Salak South.

Each time he mentioned the place, my reaction was: “Wah! So far ah?” That was back in the 80s when the road transportation link was not as good as it is today.

Now, this idyllic residential area is like a worn-out human heart – full of inner and outer ring roads bypassing its surroundings.

To get there alone, you will need good navigational skills. I'll get to that part later. So, what is good here? Well, there are many thing; let me start with two makan places in a specific area within this suburban setting.

Cheap and good: Nelson's 'masterpiece' char koay teow is priced at RM3.50 per plate.

Okay, first – there is Fatty Mok's Hakka Yong Tau Foo shop off Jalan Hang Tuah 1. According to my friend Leong, this eatery is well known for its curry laksa, yong tau foo (stuffed tofu and vegetables) and chicken soup noodles.

So, with that in mind, I made the necessary arrangement to catch up with my makan-kaki (food buddy) at his office.

But, I was not so lucky because there was a production hiccup in his daily schedule. “Sam ah! Eh, you carry on lah, mention my name to the shop and they'll know what to do. I cannot join you lah, sorry ah!” he apologised.

With or without Leong, I was determined to check out Fatty Mok's curry laksa, so when I got there after parking my car at the road kerb, I wasted no time in telling a Myanmar worker there what I wanted.

Service was prompt and as my bowl of noodles was delivered, I went snapping away with my pocket camera. While I was at it, the diners around me watched my actions closely.

I caught wind of two guys behind me having a conversation on a lone diner having his laksa and snapping away with a camera.

Good laksa dish: Fatty Mok's curry laksa.

“Eh, mutt yeh yan ah?” (in Cantonese: who is this guy?) one of the patrons asked. It felt intrusive, but a man has to do what he has to do when it comes to getting the job done.

Now, Fatty Mok's curry laksa, in my humble opinion, fulfilled my criteria for a good laksa dish. Why? The gravy is creamy and tasty, there are enough cockles for you to lose count, plenty of taugeh (bean sprouts), fresh tau foo pok (fried bean curd) and – best of all – enough char chee phei (deep-fried pig's skin).

A small bowl costs about RM4 and my complete meal cost only RM5 with a chilled glass of soya bean milk thrown in. Besides curried noodles, the shop is also known for its ching thong meen (soup noodles).

I would recommend this if you want something less spicy and well, having tasted it in an earlier session, I would say that the soup noodles are as good as the laksa offered by the shop.

Moving on, there is another stall located nearby which came highly recommended by Leong. And, his instruction was simple: “Go across fei loh Mok's and look out for the chap fan stall.”

He was referring to Nelson's Char Koay Teow and to the untrained eye, it is not easy to locate this stall. Which was why I brought my hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to lock-in the coordinates of the fried noodles stall.

Anyway, I made my way to the stall and the first thing I noticed was a hidden signboard that read: “Nelson's Char Koay Teow, open 8am–4pm, closed on Sundays.”

My immediate reaction was: “Yat teep kuai teow meen, tor-tor ngar choy” (a plate of koay teow and mee with plenty of bean sprouts).

Dumbfounded, the stall owner paused for a moment and then he went to work right away when the order was made. I watched as Nelson, the stall's operator, started stirring and clanging away at his wok.

It took less than five minutes for the noodles to be served on a plate lined with a piece of banana leaf. And, what I noticed was the hallmark of good fried noodles.

My father, who used to run a Hokkien mee stall at Lorong Bunus, off Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, had taught me the finer points of identifying a well-done dish.

He said the noodles should not be too flat; it must have body and flavour and it should not be soggy or over-fried. What I saw at Nelson's was a masterpiece.

The char koay teow was tasty and rich in flavour. There was a generous serving of cockles to go with it and to nail it in the head - plenty of chee yau char (pork rind) was added.

And, at a price of RM3.50, it was unbeatable. The extra plate of noodles on top of my curry laksa at Fatty Mok's made my day. Soon, I would join my colleague Stuart Michael in his Beginner's column as a prime candidate for weight loss and management. By the way, I congratulate Michael for raising funds to support a charity home.

Okay, back to Salak South Garden. To get there, take a drive on the New Pantai Expressway, take the right exit to Jalan Kuchai Lama and when you approach the Ajinomoto junction, turn left and head straight for about 800 metres.

Once you get to a traffic light junction, turn left and take the left exit towards a hill slope and you are there. For those who navigate with their automobile GPS receivers, key in the following coordinates: Longtitude: N 03 05” 062', Latitude E 101 41” 687' and your navigator will do the rest to get you there. Good luck and happy hunting!

Earth warming solution

"Australia's methane emissions come primarily from 28 million cattle, 88 million sheep and a bunch of leaky coal mines. The livestock emissions, on their own, will cause significantly more warming in the next 20 years than all our coal-fired power stations."

This extract was taken from the Age dated10th July 2008.

I have added this, as a matter of interest, following the story about carbon footprint which I wrote some months ago.

How do we overcome this problem. Eat less meat. Reduce the number of sheep and cattle which number into the millions.

Why green?

The world-first study asked 22 men to eat 400 grams of broccoli a week for a year, in addition to their normal diet.

Tissue samples were taken from their prostate gland before the start of the trial and after six and 12 months, and analysed.

The study found the broccoli had a big effect on the expression of particular genes in the prostate associated with the formation of cancer and inflammation.

The research's leader, Professor Richard Mithen, said other vegetables and fruits also reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer, though probably in different ways.

"Once we understand these, we can provide much better dietary advice on which specific combinations of fruit and vegetable are likely to be particularly beneficial," he said. "Until then, eating two or three portions of cruciferous vegetable per week … should be encouraged."

The research was published in the online PLoS One journal yesterday.

Eat Green to live longer

Enzymes need to be a big part of any anti aging strategy. And that means that raw foods, especially fruits and vegetables, need to be an important part of your daily routine.

And more photos

Peggy and William
Tom in the company of his girl friend and her mother
The male members of the Tan clan -- Vincent, Kevin, Leslie and Leslie's sons

More photos of the occasion

Christine, Linda, Terrance, and Robin














Friends and neighbours














Tashy














Tashy, Wendy Linda and Paul

Christine's 80th birthday party, 2007

Christine's birthday party was celebrated on the 21st of December 2007 simply because her actual birthday, which falls on the 24th, was too close to Christmas.

We, Peggy and I and the Hunt family, Wendy, Paul and Tashy, from Canberra, were there to help make the occassion a really grand one. Others, namely Kevin Tan and family, of Western Australia helped to boost the number. The Shankey family-- Linda, Ron, Tom, Michael and Rabecca were there being the closest members of the Metcalfes. Leslie Tan family of Moony Ponds was also present. June McKenna hailed from SA. The rest present were friends and relatives of the birthday girl. The dinner was held at the Flower Drum Restaurant, in the heart of Melbourne. It was an occasion we will never forget.

Carbon Footprint

How green are you?
Seems like a funny question.
Don't get me wrong. I don't mean how naive or easily deceived you are, nor do I mean how envious you are of others of what others have or possess.
If I can put it simply, are you a tree hugger? More pointedly, how large is your carbon footprint?
What is a carbon footprint you might ask.
Well, carbon footprint is the aggregate amount of CO2 each of us produce directly or indirectly each year. This could amount to approximately 10 metric tonnes (each year, my dear).. It is the total amount of carbondioxide we breath out, or expel as a result of excessive gas produced in the alimentary canal. (Sometimes referred to as flatulance, pang phooi (Chinese), kuntut (Malay), etc, etc), as well as gas produced by the cars we drive, or the amount of CO2 produced as we allow our appliances, viz. Plasma, or 200 watt lamps to burn unnecessarily every 24x7 with no end in sight. Incidentally the millions of heads of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs also produce greenhouse gases known as Methane. In fact, they produce more methane than we produce CO2, believe it or not. The good news is there are methane consuming bacteria that can digest the methane and turn it into a non reactive substance. That is a plus for our environment. Methane gas can also be used as fuel for home use for cooking as well as for the production of electricity.
How do we offset our carbonfootprint? How do we counter the excessive amount of CO2?
Trees, my dear. We grow more trees.
What is the connection between trees and the CO2 we produce? The trees absorb and store the CO2 in their wood and leaves and fruits as carbohydrates. They store these products during photosynthesis and in return give off O2 which is what we breathe in to stay alive. The expression is carbon sequestration, the storing of CO2 in the plant so that it will no longer be available to react with other gases. (locked up for good, in other words.)
Where are we going to find enough space to grow more, our backyards being so small? I already have five trees in mine. More would just see them remain stunted and depressed.
The other solution is to offset the CO2 we produce by paying some organisation to grow more trees in areas which have been deforestrated, not necessarily in our country; it could be a neighbouring country where the forest has been expoited for timber, for cash. How many trees? As many as the world can hold - as many as you can afford in dollar terms.
Think of what you can do for the health of the world and not just what you can exploit from mother earth.

Cherokee Legend

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience because each lad must come into manhood on his own.
The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. May be even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it. Our Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

~Author Unknown~

George Carlin's View on Aging

George Carlin on age.

IF YOU DON'T READ THIS TO THE VERY END, YOU HAVE LOST A DAY IN YOURLIFE.

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. 'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. 'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21.Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!! But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you soundlike bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed? You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on thebrakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there.Into the 9 0s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.' Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become alittle kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!! HOW TO STAY YOUNG 1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age , weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.' 2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down. 3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil'sworkshop.' And the devil's name i s Alzheimer's. 4. Enjoy the simple things. 5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. 6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you arealive. 7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge. 8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help. 9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is. 10.Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

Rather than sending to different people I have decided to publish it on my blog so that it will reach out to a wider circle of relatives and friends.

Melbourne cup day

We did enjoy Melbourne Cup Day -- not Melbourne cup race. It was a holiday and that was what Tashy longed for --- me too (from Metooism). Peggy's gift to me, just before the race started, was Efficient (horse No 6). I thanked her for her generosity-- OH what a gift that was -- it came first in the exciting finish. Did I put any money on the horse?? No Lah.

Views of the City of Perth

At church before our departure from Perth

Kevin with his son, Vincent, and daughter, Emily, and wife, Jenny, Peggy and WilliamActive fellowship after the church service.

A gathering of Kulim folks at Stewart's residence

Stewart and his wife, Amy. Stewart happens to be Teddy's classmate in St Patrick's School, Kulim. He was about to fry koay teow.
Peggy, William, Agatha, John Loh, Stewart and Amy. This was taken just before dinner

Views of Perth

Peggy and Michael in King's Park with the view of the city in the background
Entrance to the esplanade

Skyline of the city - northside of the Swan River

Visit to Perth -- 7th ---14th Oct.2007

It was a worthwhile trip. The above pic was taken when Chong Yew (Peggy's brother) and his wife took us out to lunch. Pictured above are Chong Yew, Celilia and Peggy.
This was taken at Hay Mall, not far from our hotel.
Peggy and Michael ( Peggy's brother) at King's Park. Perth is clean abd very beautiful. We had a wonderful time enjoying hawker food (and very cheap too)

Birthday bash:PM: Defend the spirit of Merdeka

KUALA LUMPUR: This land and sky above it belongs to all Malaysians, and it is their home and shelter. It promises a strong foundation and a bright future for all citizens to live in unity and full cooperation, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
The Prime Minister said the country’s independence was fought for by all races in Malaysia and their joint effort had been the basis for the country’s success.
“Malaysia will continue to be developed together in a spirit in which we will not allow any narrow interpretation of the people’s identity, religious extremism, injustice against any citizen or uncertainties on the future or any citizen,” he said in his speech at the Merdeka Mammoth Celebrations at Stadium Merdeka here last night.

All ready: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, together with their wives Datin Seri Jeanne and Datin Seri Rosmah, waiting for the arrival of the King before the start of the 50th National Day Parade in Kuala Lumpur yesterdayHe said that it was at Stadium Merdeka where “Merdeka” was first hailed 50 years ago and it continued to be shouted for another 50 years.
“The acclamation will continue forever, as long as there is a moon and sun,” he said, adding that the independence of the country and its people must continue to be defended.
“We must continue to sow the Merdeka spirit. As of last night (Thursday), the first 50 years have passed. Today is the first day in our journey into the next 50 years,” he said in calling on Malaysians to pledge not to allow their motherland and their mentality to be ruled by others.
Abdullah added that it would be the various communities who would continue to steer the country’s future and progress.
“We will continue to ensure it is a peaceful and stable country, practise moderation and have mutual understanding and respect among the people of various cultures.
“Malaysia will strive to foster good relations with all countries and not take any action to spark animosity. Malaysia will bring the voice of peace in international issues,” he said.
Abdullah called on Malaysians to reflect on the country’s success and be thankful that the people of all races, religions and cultures had come together to build one country and one nation – a Malaysia that has become a model for success.
“We must be thankful for the prosperity enjoyed by so many of us, prosperity which is still just a dream to people in many countries in the world,” he added.

Surprise, surprise. Read all about it

Kulim, the town where I come from, is to have LRT system and airport by 2020.

Kulim is poised to be a Smart City by 2020 complete with a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system and a regional airport.
The proposals for such mega projects are included in the Kulim Local Plan draft dubbed Kulim 2020, drawn up by the Town and Country Planning Department.
The proposed LRT system from Bertam in North Seberang Prai to Kulim Hi-Tech Park in Kedah through Padang Serai will complement the development of Penang's integrated transport network, said development planning unit 1 project manager Mohd Sharif Che Din.
A regional airport for light and medium aircraft has been proposed in Padang Meha, he said.
“The proposed airport will not create air traffic conflict because it is located 50km away from the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas and 100km away from the Sultan Abdul Halim Airport in Alor Star.
“It will cater for private jets, community airline services such as Malaysia Airlines' FireFly and medium-sized cargo planes,” he said.
Other proposed mega projects to boost development in Kulim include the Central Spine Highway, South Kedah Highway (LEKAS), a spacious 112.22ha container depot in Padang Meha and an extended railway system linking Penang to Kulim.
The Central Spine Highway is part of the Kedah Structure Plan to construct an alternative central highway stretching from Jitra in the north to Bandar Baru in the south.
LEKAS will link the eastern part of Kulim to Selama in Perak through Mahang and Baling.

Winter solstice

To-day is the last day before the sun starts its journey southward towards the Tropic of Capricorn. It is marked by what is called the winter solstice ( or Summer solstice in the case of the northern hemisphere. This is the time of the year when you can view the sun at midnight if you happen to be on the Acrtic circle). It is the shortest day of the year here in Australia ( not just in Australia but also all the countries south of the tropic of capricorn)
The days will start to get longer although it will not be very perceptible for the first few days. The good news is it will sooner or later get warmer -- what a pleasant thought. The fear is it will get warmer than usual due to global warming as we experienced last year. Whether we have left the steps taken to combat global warming too long remains to be seen.
Have a happy winter solstice day, whatever you have planned to do.

Global warming is the question.

The winter cold is beginning to bite but not too severely. It is now June.
Legend has it that the cold spell usually sets in a day or two after Anzac Day but, of late, the weather has remained quite warm. The cold spell is just setting in and it is already the second day of winter ( June 2nd). The days have been warm and the nights cool with a few exceptions when the temperature dropped to -1.
The plants are showing signs of uncertainty. I think they are misreading the signs too. Usually May remains the most beautiful months for Canberra when the leaves of deciduous trees turn yellow and red but this year, being very dry, the trees are completely bare of leaves. Some of the diosama shrubs are actually flowering when it should only happen in Spring. The rose shrubs are shooting new leaves as if to welcome the warm spring-like weather. The only Canadian maple in the back yard is showing young buds but they appear to be holding back because of the cold nights of late. There seems to be a general state of confusion. The roses are blooming gloriously when they should be going into hibernation.
I will be watching the birds and smaller insects to see if they have detected any change in the cyclic nature of the climate. Please report to me if you have noticed anything unusual.
Will keep you informed.