48KaoLak!!!

Pantang Business

2012-11-16T17:56:00.002-08:00

This week went back to Teluk Intan with my brother. We chat a lot about family, life, career, business, finance...etc. We both have a very different view on everything.

Blog about my parent's business, they sell wonton mee and noodle soup. They own two units of stall space not far away from the wet market. Its a small business, and we want it to be small and slow! Both me and my brother have our own career. The main purpose of my family business is to have something for my parents to do, socialize with people, and continue to calculate the numbers to make their brain stays active.

Thus, they found a very pantang location. The rent is cheap, and people don't want to do business there because the place was just opposite of the Taoism funeral ceremony site. People hesitate to visit and eat there, many food stall failed in the business. Plus, my family selling non-vegetarian. We all expect that if we have our business here, my parents will have more relaxing time since less people will visit. As long as they have something to do, it is okay to have a non-profitable business.

However, things doesn't turn out to be the way we wanted to be... Everytime I went back, the stall always crowded with customers. It doesn't make sense. We know that our parents make some very tasty noodles, and they tag them in reasonable price. They do so, because they just wish to make some old constant (almost permanent) customers, or should be called - friends, to feel happy to have a meal.

It's true that people 'pantang' to sit and dine at our place. People will still come and order a take away. Some order dine in, but sit far away from our stall. And the people who attend the funeral, will just choose to sit and dine at our place. In the end, our stall is always crowded.

This is not the first business by my parents. When we were young, they once started a restaurant at a very 'Ong' location. They choose a nice shop lot with a very 'Huat' numbers. All the Feng Shui expert says it will be the best location of all... It turns out to be a failure... Until now, that location is still slow and unable to 'Huat' after many changes of ownership.

Feng Shui doesn't mean anything in business... The location is 'Huat' or 'Pantang', as long as you make some really good product, people will discover it and come to it.

I've told my brother that I've gave up the desire to persue a Master Degree. The reason is, I want to focus on learning the knowledge without burden of assignments. After all, with or without the Toilet Paper, I believe as long as I provide great contribution, people will discover and come to me. Same concept as my parent's wonton mee.

A bowl of noodle, if you package it, decorate it, put it on sale at a fancy location, if it is not tasty, people will go away. A bowl of noodle soup, with humble presentation, sold at a 'Pantang' location, soon, more and more people will come, just because it is tasty!

Hunting for Thai Food in Singapore Part 4: Food Republic

2012-10-27T08:24:00.003-07:00

Initially, I was looking for a restaurant named Siam Kitchen at Causeway Point. That was what my 'Guna Pun Sesat' recommends me for Thai food in Singapore. However, they had closed their shop and moved to somewhere else. To satisfy my craving for Thai food, I found one at Food Republic!

This particular Thai stall actually have variety of Thai dishes available.

The Thai food stall named Rama9, I have some low expectation over the food in shopping mall food court, but this one is not really disappointing at all. The Tom Yum soup taste good. Not the best, but just good enough, compare to Thai Express and Soup Broth Asia, this one by Rama9 is way better! I like that they included a fried omelet with the Tom Yum Soup set. It taste good when it dip into the soup. The thing which is not good is, the seafood is not cooked together with the soup, and the rice is normal white rice, not the fragrant Thai rice.

While the Tod Mun Pla they serve, is not nice at all, its like normal fish cake. The Som Tum is not nice also, they didn't put in the dried shrimp flakes.

The overall, consider location, environment etc... it's a little pricey for this quality of food.

Tom Yum - 3/10
Omelet - 6/10
Tod Mun Pla - 3/10
Som Tum - 3/10

Overall x4896 Tasty Rating: 4/10

Hunting for Thai Food in Singapore Part 3: Lemongrass @ The Alley

2012-10-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

After a few bad experiences, finally I found a proper Thai Restaurant around Pasir Ris area. Lemongrass located at The Alley @ Downtown East. At first, I feel that they were a bit over priced by looking at the photos in their menu. When the dishes was served on table... the size is just so big! Enough for 2 person shares. So I didn't order the rice, but I kind of regreted that because, when they serve the rice to the other customers sitting nearby, OMG! Those fragrant is just so nice!

The Tom Yum soup simply just nice! The seafood is fress enough, the flavour is good. Their Tod Mun Pla is huge in size, S$6 for 2 huge pieces. Those which I normally seen are all 1/4 size of their fish cake. The texture is just right! Fishy but the flavour still missing something. The Thai fish cake is very different in its size and flavour. The Red Ruby Coconut ice, they are not using fresh coconut milk. The good thing is, they put in some jack fruits.

Tom Yum - 6/10
Tod Mun Pla - 7/10
Red Ruby Coconut Ice - 4/10
Overall x4896 Tasty Rating - 7/10
Lemongrass Official Website
Pasir Ris Branch1 Pasir Ris Close
#01-41 The Alley @ Downtown East
Singapore 519599

Tel: 6583 2112
Fax: 6583 1221

Hunting for Thai Food in Singapore Part 2: Thai Express

2012-10-27T05:51:00.004-07:00

My experience with Thai Express in Singapore is totally badly disappointed! Don't be mistaken it with the Siam Express in Malaysia, the quality of their Thai food is totally different!

I'm not going to waste my time typing about Thai Express, let me just summarize my experience...

Tom Yum - Tasteless!
Tod Mun Pla - It would be more proper to be called fried flour dough rather than a fish cake.
Red Ruby Coconut Ice - The ice is coarse, the coconut milk they use are those pasturized (not fresh).

Overall x4896 Tasty Rating: 2/10

Don't waste your money and time for such terrible food!

Dr Richard Teo Keng Siang (1972 - 2012)

2012-10-26T04:32:00.005-07:00

Dr Richard Teo Keng Siang (1972 - 2012)

Below is the transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who is a 40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 lung cancer but selflessly came to share with the D1 class his life experience on 19-Jan-2012.

Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse, so please bear with me. I thought I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I'm a medical doctor. And I thought I'll...just share some thoughts of my life. It's my pleasure to be invited by prof. Hopefully, it can get you thinking about how... as you pursue this.. embarking on your training to become dental surgeons, to think about other things as well.

Since young, I am a typical product of today's society. Relatively successful product that society requires.. From young, I came from a below average family. I was told by the media... and people around me that happiness is about success. And that success is about being wealthy. With this mind-set, I've always be extremely competitive, since I was young.

Not only do I need to go to the top school, I need to have success in all fields. Uniform groups, track, everything. I needed to get trophies, needed to be successful, I needed to have colours award, national colours award, everything. So I was highly competitive since young. I went on to medical school, graduated as a doctor. Some of you may know that within the medical faculty, ophthalmology is one of the most highly sought after specialities. So I went after that as well. I was given a traineeship in ophthalmology, I was also given a research scholarship by NUS to develop lasers to treat the eye.

So in the process, I was given 2 patents, one for the medical devices, and another for the lasers. And you know what, all this academic achievements did not bring me any wealth. So once I completed my bond with MOH, I decided that this is taking too long, the training in eye surgery is just taking too long. And there's lots of money to be made in the private sector. If you're aware, in the last few years, there is this rise in aesthetic medicine. Tons of money to be made there. So I decided, well, enough of staying in institution, it's time to leave. So I quit my training halfway and I went on to set up my aesthetic clinic... in town, together with a day surgery centre.

You know the irony is that people do not make heroes out average GP (general practitioner), family physicians. They don't. They make heroes out of people who are rich and famous. People who are not happy to pay $20 to see a GP, the same person have no qualms paying ten thousand dollars for a liposuction, 15 thousand dollars for a breast augmentation, and so on and so forth. So it's a no brainer isn't? Why do you want to be a gp? Become an aesthetic physician. So instead of healing the sick and ill, I decided that I'll become a glorified beautician. So, business was good, very good. It started off with waiting of one week, then became 3weeks, then one month, then 2 months, then 3 months. I was overwhelmed; there were just too many patients. Vanities are fantastic business. I employed one doctor, the second doctor, the 3rd doctor, the 4th doctor. And within the 1st year, we're already raking in millions. Just the 1st year. But never is enough because I was so obsessed with it. I started to expand into Indonesia to get all the rich Indonesian tai-tais who wouldn't blink an eye to have a procedure done. So life was really good.

So what do I do with the spare cash. How do I spend my weekends? Typically, I'll have car club gatherings. I take out my track car, with spare cash I got myself a track car. We have car club gatherings. We'll go up to Sepang in Malaysia. We'll go for car racing. And it was my life. With other spare cash, what do i do? I get myself a Ferrari. At that time, the 458 wasn't out, it's just a spider convertible, 430. This is a friend of mine, a schoolmate who is a forex trader, a banker. So he got a red one, he was wanting all along a red one, I was getting the silver one.

So what do I do after getting a car? It's time to buy a house, to build our own bungalows. So we go around looking for a land to build our own bungalows, we went around hunting. So how do i live my life? Well, we all think we have to mix around with the rich and famous. This is one of the Miss Universe. So we hang around with the beautiful, rich and famous. This by the way is an internet founder. So this is how we spend our lives, with dining and all the restaurants and Michelin Chefs you know.

So I reach a point in life that I got everything for my life. I was at the pinnacle of my career and all. That's me one year ago in the gym and I thought I was like, having everything under control and reaching the pinnacle.

Well, I was wrong. I didn't have everything under control. About last year March, I started to develop backache in the middle of nowhere. I thought maybe it was all the heavy squats I was doing. So I went to SGH, saw my classmate to do an MRI, to make sure it's not a slipped disc or anything. And that evening, he called me up and said that we found bone marrow replacement in your spine. I said, sorry what does that mean? I mean I know what it means, but I couldn't accept that. I was like “Are you serious?” I was still running around going to the gym you know. But we had more scans the next day, PET scans - positrons emission scans, they found that actually I have stage 4 terminal lung cancer. I was like "Whoa where did that come from?” It has already spread to the brain, the spine, the liver and the adrenals. And you know one moment I was there, totally thinking that I have everything under control, thinking that I've reached the pinnacle of my life. But the next moment, I have just lost it.

This is a CT scan of the lungs itself. If you look at it, every single dot there is a tumour. We call this miliaries tumour. And in fact, I have tens of thousands of them in the lungs. So, I was told that even with chemotherapy, that I'll have about 3-4months at most. Did my life come crushing on, of course it did, who wouldn't? I went into depression, of course, severe depression and I thought I had everything.

See the irony is that all these things that I have, the success, the trophies, my cars, my house and all. I thought that brought me happiness. But i was feeling really down, having severe depression. Having all these thoughts of my possessions, they brought me no joy. The thought of... You know, I can hug my Ferrari to sleep, no... No, it is not going to happen. It brought not a single comfort during my last ten months. And I thought they were, but they were not true happiness. But it wasn't. What really brought me joy in the last ten months was interaction with people, my loved ones, friends, people who genuinely care about me, they laugh and cry with me, and they are able to identify the pain and suffering I was going through. That brought joy to me, happiness. None of the things I have, all the possessions, and I thought those were supposed to bring me happiness. But it didn't, because if it did, I would have felt happy think about it, when I was feeling most down..

You know the classical Chinese New Year that is coming up. In the past, what do I do? Well, I will usually drive my flashy car to do my rounds, visit my relatives, to show it off to my friends. And I thought that was joy, you know. I thought that was really joy. But do you really think that my relatives and friends, whom some of them have difficulty trying to make ends meet, that will truly share the joy with me? Seeing me driving my flashy car and showing off to them? No, no way. They won’t be sharing joy with me. They were having problems trying to make ends meet, taking public transport. In fact i think, what I have done is more like you know, making them envious, jealous of all I have. In fact, sometimes even hatred.

Those are what we call objects of envy. I have them, I show them off to them and I feel it can fill my own pride and ego. That didn't bring any joy to these people, to my friends and relatives, and I thought they were real joy.

Well, let me just share another story with you. You know when I was about your age, I stayed in king Edward VII hall. I had this friend whom I thought was strange. Her name is Jennifer, we're still good friends. And as I walk along the path, she would, if she sees a snail, she would actually pick up the snail and put it along the grass patch. I was like why do you need to do that? Why dirty your hands? It’s just a snail. The truth is she could feel for the snail. The thought of being crushed to death is real to her, but to me it's just a snail. If you can't get out of the pathway of humans then you deserve to be crushed, it’s part of evolution isn't it? What an irony isn't it?

There I was being trained as a doctor, to be compassionate, to be able to empathise; but I couldn't. As a house officer, I graduated from medical school, posted to the oncology department at NUH. And, every day, every other day I witness death in the cancer department. When I see how they suffered, I see all the pain they went through. I see all the morphine they have to press every few minutes just to relieve their pain. I see them struggling with their oxygen breathing their last breath and all. But it was just a job. When I went to clinic every day, to the wards every day, take blood, give the medication but was the patient real to me? They weren't real to me. It was just a job, I do it, I get out of the ward, I can't wait to get home, I do my own stuff.

Was the pain, was the suffering the patients went through real? No. Of course I know all the medical terms to describe how they feel, all the suffering they went through. But in truth, I did not know how they feel, not until I became a patient. It is until now; I truly understand how they feel. And, if you ask me, would I have been a very different doctor if I were to re-live my life now, I can tell you yes I will. Because I truly understand how the patients feel now. And sometimes, you have to learn it the hard way.

Even as you start just your first year, and you embark this journey to become dental surgeons, let me just challenge you on two fronts.

Inevitably, all of you here will start to go into private practice. You will start to accumulate wealth. I can guarantee you. Just doing an implant can bring you thousands of dollars, it's fantastic money. And actually there is nothing wrong with being successful, with being rich or wealthy, absolutely nothing wrong. The only trouble is that a lot of us like myself couldn't handle it.

Why do I say that? Because when I start to accumulate, the more I have, the more I want. The more I wanted, the more obsessed I became. Like what I showed you earlier on, all I can was basically to get more possessions, to reach the pinnacle of what society did to us, of what society wants us to be. I became so obsessed that nothing else really mattered to me. Patients were just a source of income, and I tried to squeeze every single cent out of these patients.

A lot of times we forget, whom we are supposed to be serving. We become so lost that we serve nobody else but just ourselves. That was what happened to me. Whether it is in the medical, the dental fraternity, I can tell you, right now in the private practice, sometimes we just advise patients on treatment that is not indicated. Grey areas. And even though it is not necessary, we kind of advocate it. Even at this point, I know who are my friends and who genuinely cared for me and who are the ones who try to make money out of me by selling me "hope". We kind of lose our moral compass along the way. Because we just want to make money.

Worse, I can tell you, over the last few years, we bad mouth our fellow colleagues, our fellow competitors in the industry. We have no qualms about it. So if we can put them down to give ourselves an advantage, we do it. And that's what happening right now, medical, dental everywhere. My challenge to you is not to lose that moral compass. I learnt it the hard way, I hope you don't ever have to do it.

Secondly, a lot of us will start to get numb to our patients as we start to practise. Whether is it government hospitals, private practice, I can tell you when I was in the hospital, with stacks of patient folders, I can't wait to get rid of those folders as soon as possible; I can't wait to get patients out of my consultation room as soon as possible because there is just so many, and that's a reality. Because it becomes a job, a very routine job. And this is just part of it. Do I truly know how the patient feels back then? No, I don't. The fears and anxiety and all, do I truly understand what they are going through? I don't, not until when this happens to me and I think that is one of the biggest flaws in our system.

We’re being trained to be healthcare providers, professional, and all and yet we don't know how exactly they feel. I'm not asking you to get involved emotionally, I don't think that is professional but do we actually make a real effort to understand their pain and all? Most of us won’t, alright, I can assure you. So don't lose it, my challenge to you is to always be able to put yourself in your patient's shoes.

Because the pain, the anxiety, the fear are very real even though it's not real to you, it's real to them. So don't lose it and you know, right now I'm in the midst of my 5th cycle of my chemotherapy. I can tell you it’s a terrible feeling. Chemotherapy is one of those things that you don't wish even your enemies to go through because it's just suffering, lousy feeling, throwing out, you don't even know if you can retain your meals or not. Terrible feeling! And even with whatever little energy now I have, I try to reach out to other cancer patients because I truly understand what pain and suffering is like. But it's kind of little too late and too little.

You guys have a bright future ahead of you with all the resource and energy, so I’m going to challenge you to go beyond your immediate patients. To understand that there are people out there who are truly in pain, truly in hardship. Don’t get the idea that only poor people suffer. It is not true. A lot of these poor people do not have much in the first place, they are easily contented. for all you know they are happier than you and me but there are out there, people who are suffering mentally, physically, hardship, emotionally, financially and so on and so forth, and they are real. We choose to ignore them or we just don't want to know that they exist.

So do think about it alright, even as you go on to become professionals and dental surgeons and all. That you can reach out to these people who are in need. Whatever you do can make a large difference to them. I'm now at the receiving end so I know how it feels, someone who genuinely care for you, encourage and all. It makes a lot of difference to me. That’s what happens after treatment. I had a treatment recently, but I’ll leave this for another day. A lot of things happened along the way, that's why I am still able to talk to you today.

I'll just end of with this quote here, it's from this book called Tuesdays with Morris, and some of you may have read it. Everyone knows that they are going to die; every one of us knows that. The truth is, none of us believe it because if we did, we will do things differently. When I faced death, when I had to, I stripped myself off all stuff totally and I focused only on what is essential. The irony is that a lot of times, only when we learn how to die then we learn how to live. I know it sounds very morbid for this morning but it's the truth, this is what I’m going through.

Don’t let society tell you how to live. Don’t let the media tell you what you're supposed to do. Those things happened to me. And I led this life thinking that these are going to bring me happiness. I hope that you will think about it and decide for yourself how you want to live your own life. Not according to what other people tell you to do, and you have to decide whether you want to serve yourself, whether you are going to make a difference in somebody else's life. Because true happiness doesn't come from serving yourself. I thought it was but it didn't turn out that way. With that I thank you, if you have any questions you have for me, please feel free. Thank you.

Hunting for Thai Food in Singapore Part 1: Soup Broth Asia

2012-10-25T20:39:00.003-07:00

Over 151 countries, Singapore ranked number 90 in HPI (Happy Planet Index 2012), and Malaysian lives happier. If you ask me why Singaporean not happy? Well, I never done any extensive research about it, but one thing for sure, they lack of tasty food! :P No nice food sure not happy lar! I'm so happy to use 'lar' in my blog.

Recently I have some huge craving over Thai food. I really miss the Tom Yam Bihun back in Kuala Perlis. I miss Black Canyon Coffee's Thai Fish Cake (Tod Mun Pla). Ever since I moved to Johor Bahru, I never had a great Thai food before. There's one nice cozzy Thai restaurant over the JPO, but it doesn't taste good and very expensive, not worth it!

I have very limited accessibility to places around Singapore. Since I'm not very familiar with the roads. I only hang around Pasir Ris area. It's quite difficult to find a nice Thai Food Restaurant here. Thus, to satisfy my craving for Tom Yum, I just hang out at Soup Broth Asia.

x4896 Tasty Rating: 2/10

Their soup is clear and I would say... tasteless! I suspect they didn't boil the seafood togather in the soup. At the end, I unable to satisfy my Tom Yum craving... :( for this Tom Yum, I would give 2/10 points... Forget about the 'No MSG' sign, if they boil the herbs longer in time, it'll taste better... not just plain water with some lime juice and hot chilli.

x4896 Moving Forward!

2012-10-22T19:10:00.002-07:00

Moving on to the south of Malaysia, get my new job, settled my new life. I didn't really have much time reviewing all the restaurants or cafes in the town! The numbers are terrifiyingly huge... I don't even know where to start.

Many things comes into my mind, there are many things I wish to blog about. I previously owning more than one blog... sharing different things. Seems like this is the only blog I keep on updating. I type lots of random stuffs here, and this is the place I express myself in a more sincere way. May be this will be the path I want x4896 to be. A record of my thoughts I want to share.

Recently an old friend of mine just started her blog: http://limleeyuen.blogspot.sg/

It's kind of inspires me to blog about something which will do benefits for the people who will read my blog. Something light and easy for the public.

Few days ago, I went to a school teaching some youths about science. They were all given homework to search for information. Of course, during my old days, we only have library and books to seek for information that we want. Nowadays, people use Google, Wikipedia, and probably something light and easy to read.

The problem is, back then when WWW just started, everybody is so eager to share information for free. Nowadays, not much people left to do the sincere job of sharing knowledge. Most of them who shares, actually jobless and looking to build up their own portfolio for a better job opportunity. The numbers of people in the open source, open education circle reduces each year... Some information left without any updates for more than 10years.

May be in future, I'll blog more about some serious topics in this x4896.

Free and Easy Weekend

2012-08-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last blog entry here. I've moved to the South and settled my life and got myself a new job. Everything still good and actually better.

Living in Johor is very different compare to Penang. Life is different here. The land is huge, and I dislike going outdoor to discover the places due to horrible traffic jam. Yes, Penang does have traffic jam but it's not as severe as JB -SG jam. Even going to grocery shopping at Giant nearby will make me caught in traffic jam. Thus, I prefer to do the gracery at Cold Storage which is at walking distance.

Due to my change of lifestyle, my mom complain that my skin turned dark. I do realize that since I'm now walk more than driving, and have more exposure to the sunlight. I'm not so concern about my own skin tone, but more exposure to the sun also might cause me to have more "volcanoes" which is the scary part.

I bought EB few years ago from a friend. This thing really is something worth 'invest' for people who lazy to go to beauty saloon to do facial. Although, I'm a lazy person who doesn't really use it often (I only use it once or twice a month) the machine still works great.

The microneedle however, is not a good investment. It claims to remove ance scars, even sunken scars, but it doesn't really help much. I've been using it for about 8 months, the EB itself do a better job then the microneedle by reducing the scars visibility. Recently, more and more people are using microneedle. I just wish to share a friendly reminder. Do remember to disinfect the microneedle everytime before and after using it!

As for the experience of using expensive skin care products, they do have a big difference compare to cheaper drugstore products. I only keep a small travel set and only use it once a week. I use Simple, Skin Food, Olay, Bio Essence etc daily. Can't really afford to use Dermalogica daily.

So that's it for today's blog update. Too many good food in Johor. May be next time I'll continue to post about food :P Have a nice day.

[48HoChiak] Italiannies, Gurney Paragon

2012-05-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

Recently I'm crazy about spaghetti. Italiannies actually has many branches at KL. This restaurant at Gurney Paragon, is my new favorite! The food taste great, the services is good, the price is reasonable.

The piccolo plate is actually enough as one meal for a lady. Everything served is so perfect! The pasta is in right texture, the sauce taste great.

Their signature tiramisu, however, taste normal. I personally thinks that they should add more Kahlua in it. It is very fresh, and nicely done. The taste just right, but still lack of something...

Overall: 7/10! This place is a must try!

[48BorHoChiak] Via.Pre ~ Over-ratted Over-priced

2012-05-11T20:37:00.002-07:00

I really have some deep doubts on Penangite's taste buds! I keep on getting good reviews from the Penang locals about how good this place was. I had visited Via.Pre TWICE and they gave me double disappointment! Despite of the good looks, and the high price, this is really not a place to enjoy good food.

Environment: Nice cozy environment but not the best. I dislike how they layout the tables. They should have place the small tables near to the wall, not the large tables. Consider that most large tables are used by a group of people. People will have hard access to their seats when the large tables are near the wall. Plus, when the small tables are in the middle, single or couple visitors may feel so isolated with the large space around them.

Service: Bad English! When I make the reservation, I have some very very very difficult communication with the person who take my reservation! They failed to explain what's on the menu! And they failed to fulfill my request! I have to tell them so many times, that I'll arrive at 7pm! For my first visit, I do have bad experience over their services. Very slow, and difficult to communicate.

FOOD: NOT WORTH THE PRICE TAG! I do believe that they use some expensive ingredients. I would blame on the chefs.

Here's what we had ordered in our first visit:

Breads:

A bit hard and stale in taste. Plain olive oil.

Mezelluna Di VIA PRE:

Fish ravioli, this is the best so far, but my mom's homemade sui gao taste better than this one. Nothing so special about this dish.

Tagliata:

A bit stinky! In Cantonese, I'll call it "Chow Sow Mei".

Salad VIA PRE:

Acceptable, not a bad combination, some tuna+mayo dressing.

Calzone VIA PRE:

No comment... speechlessly... plain in taste!

Creme Brulee Set:

Ok............. nothing special...

Tiramisu:

Ok................ not the best but just pricey.

Here's what we had ordered in our second visit:

Aglio & Olio Tutto Mare:

Most of the regular spaghetti have a large portion enough for 2 person. This is how Michelangelo and Italiannies serves their spaghetti. Thus, with the extremely small portion, Via.Pre is extremely over-priced. The pasta is too hard, seems like it's not well cooked. Overall, the taste is still good, the seafood are fresh. With the price tag, I'm not satisfied!

Tiramisu (Caffeine Free berry version):

I personally thinks that this is the best dessert in Via.Pre. Something really special and worth order. It's strawberry flavored, but without real strawberry chunks in it. It has some tasty sweet wine in it.

Overall: 3/10 (7/10 for the strawberry tiramisu - but they do not make it often) You must make prior reservation if you plan to visit. They rarely serves any walk in customers. I personally thinks that this place is all about the "surface environment". You may saw some Eurasians 'working' at the bar, and one dressed up like a chef slicing meat. If you're really looking for some great Italian food, consider Italiannies. My next quest will be the Penang famous Bella Italia. Via.Pre no more! Kena tiok kao kao twice, given them second chance, no more third chance!

29 Febuary 2012 - A day stuck in Penang Gurney

2012-03-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

Initially I plan to go Gurney Plaza to get myself a pair of boots for my travel next week. Been to Tokyo last year with my Bata, and got my own feet freezing cold. With my special member discount on my birthday month and extra RM5 vouchers, I can get a pair of good boots below RM100.

Things doesn't went really smoothly when my car battery died in the car park, which can be considered lucky, that it didn't died in the middle of the road or highway. I got helped unfortunately the foreman only able to attend me after his dinner hour.

So I've spend some time hanging around Gurney Plaza. Having some expensive dinner at favorite Paddington's Pancake House.

This one is a vegetarian friendly place. Withe the mushroom spaghetti above. It taste light, full of mushroom bites. However, I think this spaghetti is a bit expensive, but still satisfying.

This dessert is totally great! Although it is in dessert category, it is enough for a meal! Price? Totally worth it! It is below RM10! Although I understand the ingredient which makes the pancakes isn't expensive, the value it has, is the nice tasty fluffy pancakes they made!

The best chef's recommendation in the menu, their pancake burger is totally amazing! The portion is large! with 2 burger bun sized pancakes and an oversize pattie! Just look at the picture below! No photoshop effects added! The pattie is grilled till juicy shinny tasty!

You might have doubt, how am I going to finish up so much food ordered? Well, i ate alone, but it doesn't mean I ordered at the same time. The photos is from the same Paddington at Gurney Plaza. The first 2 photos above, I took them long time ago. I only ordered the burger on that day. Thus, I've visited this restaurant quite some times, and their performance is very constant. Good food, good service and worthy of re-visit.

After having dinner, I went to the top floor of Gurney Plaza, and found this little place selling Macaron. I love macarons, but this one is just over priced. Good quality and perfectly shaped macarons sold in Pavilion KL only cost RM2.60 per piece, while this not so colorful, not so perfectly shaped, very rustic macaron sold at Gurney Plaza cost RM3.00 per piece!

So what happening at Gurney Plaza on this very special leap year day 29 Febuary 2012? Well, I wasn't a big fan of automobile, am just trying to see see look look view view.... I think the girls aren't look as good as in the photos with their thick make ups. They put those 'invisible silk stockings' which makes their legs looks very sexy and perfect on photos, but in real, it seems like a thick layer of powder on their legs. O_O""""" The next day I saw their photos by Gurney Plaza's official FB page, they all looks very very pretty. Have to salute the photographers, and the photoshopers.

Actually there's nothing much to see, as in Gurney Plaza, space is very limited.

我不知道自己在想什么。这天，被困在这个地方，仿佛就是在告诉我什么的。最近，我的运气还不错的。认识他，难道也是幸运的一件事？我所认识的他们，都选择离开上帝，离开基督，放下圣经。有者改信佛，有者堕落在烟酒世风尘界里。其实，我自己与还不是曾经在教会闹个哭哭啼啼过吗？选择了上帝的人，都拒绝了自己。还能坚信上帝，接受自己的人，是很难的一见的。我希望，他不会是一场骗局。

Simply busy days...

2012-02-25T21:36:00.001-08:00

I didn't visit any restaurants recently. Quite busy at work, and have lots of things need to be done. Here's some really nice but unhealthy food to share:

Vegetarian Kam Heong Prawn. It really taste good, sweet, and spicy. Why is such vegetarian food is not healthy? Simply due to the use of 'vegetarian prawn'. People shouldn't eat this for regular basis. Long term vegetarian should avoid this. Overall, it's still tasty, I would be glad if they use tofu to replace the vegetarian prawn.

Here's some Kulim Takoyaki! It's not cheaper than the one in Queensbay mall, but they have more octopus inside! Less vegetables. I still prefer the one by Tako Tao. I love crunchy vegetables! This version of Takoyaki by Zoshin at Tesco Kulim, taste better than Sushi King's. I personally thinks that Sushi King actually "fry" their Takoyaki O_O".

Heading to the wet market to get some really fresh vegetables! I prefer shopping at the open wet market compare to those indoor supermarkets. They are fresher, and cheaper too.

Water crest soup with peanuts and tofu! This is how my recipe of water crest soup should be! It will always comes with a piece of tofu, boiled until it's stiff and chewy! You won't get that taste using those packed tofu sold in supermarket. Must get those fresh tofu at open wet market! They will have some soy fragrant in it! Who saids tofu do not have any taste?!

This one, it's not as good as my mom's. She can boil the tofu until they turn into light brown greenish color. May be I still need to let it boil for another 2 hours. mmmm :P

2011, All wishes came true - opposite way.

2012-02-19T03:11:00.000-08:00

I never really blog about my trip to Japan 2011. It was a stunt, I went oversea alone, to a land using a language that I don't really understand, and a place I've never been. I wish to blog about my wishes made at Ueno Park Shrine. Where strange things happened.

1. I wish for my parents to be happy and healthy. Outcome? My dad's hernia operation wasn't successful for the first 2 times admitted to hospital. I ended up out of patience, government hospital keeps on postponing his surgery. It wasn't a wish come true, after all, it is my hard time. He had been done CABG in the pass, any other surgery for him, will be considered as high risk.

2. A wish for my brother's success in his career. It wasn't good at all. After I came back from Japan, he told me that his project was canceled. Then, in the same year, he change employer. Still a bad wish.

3. Friends and relatives to be happy, it happened that my best friend also had told me that her career wasn't work well. She changed her employer too. Going downwards for some months, she changed employer again. It wasn't going well.

4. This one, is a serious one. I had wished for good weather. I think the most obvious thing happened is, the 311 earthquake, right after I came back to KL on 10 March 2011.

5. Wishing for a better Malaysia. 2011 wasn't good at all. With the police brutality during the yellow event, seems like our future will be hopeless.

This is the only thing I wish for myself. This thing is actually bright pink in color. Yes, it is for fate and love. Of course 2011 until now, I'm still alone. Thus, nothing really happens. Somehow, I put it in my car and tell people that it is for traffic safety.

Some of my friends really gives lots of meaningful insights to me. For instance, I do pray for something sometimes, but not everything is under our own control. For example, I wish to have a new hand mixer, it can be bought using money, so I can work for it, to earn money and buy it for myself. However, for things like world peace, natural disasters, luck and fortune, it is something not under our own control, where we unable to ask for it. I can't expect all people to have same level of conscience to have world peace. I can't tell the earth not to do have earthquake tsunami cyclone or whatever. I can tell Mr. Lim to let me win the casino game. After all, love and fate, is something not under my own control.

I think this person is nice, it doesn't mean that this person thinks that I'm nice. Love takes both side to have that common feeling of wanted and belonged.

What will be my wishes this 2012? Nothing... I wish for nothing. I think, that's the best for everything. :)

在办公室的情人节

2012-02-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

就这么过了一天。我依然是光棍。当然，偶尔很期待收到布偶或是巧克力。看到FB里头，朋友们收到的鲜花，布偶，巧克力，一大堆马币，名牌包包，香水，护肤品，高级餐馆，温馨自煮佳肴，白面包。。。等等。。。你说，我心里怎么不会感到寂寞？那些不寂寞，不妒忌的，自认清高无比潇洒的，应该是出家当尼姑和尚修女神父的料啦！

在办公室的情人节，普通的过。。。

48HoChiak! Black Canyon Coffee (Jusco Seberang Prai City Mall)

2012-02-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

Black Canyon Coffee
Location: Bukit Mertajam, Penang.
48HoChiak Level: 8/10
Cuisine: Thai Fusion
What's Best: Most of them are great!
Price Range：RM8++ Mid eco range

My favorite place of all time, their chef is good, nice manager and waiter (handsome and friendly from Bangladesh who can speak little Mandarin). The food on menu are all fusion Thai style, but you can make authentic Thai food orders.

The bad thing about their food, is they use a lot of herbs. Those herbs might not be consumable. You might need to remove them. For example, their Tomyam Noodle Soup, they use a lot of blue ginger and lemongrass. However, you may tell the waiter that you want them to be removed, but i personally prefer them to be served, because they do give some great taste to the soup.

Today, I ordered the special Thai Fish Cake, the photo is not on the menu, but they are listed. This appetizer is actually quite expesive, RM12.90 for 5 pieces. Once you have a bite, you will realize how good it was!!! Succulent, juicy, fresh coriander and long beans adding in some crunchy texture, with a slightly chewy fish cake texture... totally awesome! Even I was already full after the Fried Seafood Fettuccine above, I still able to finish this up and wanting for more! It is so so so addictive!

Black Canyon Coffee! Must try!

48HoChiak! Goku Raku Ramen (Gurney Paragon, Penang)

2012-02-12T06:51:00.000-08:00

Friday, working at Penang and hiding myself from traffic jam at the bridge. I went to the other side to visit the new open to public high class resident at the Gurney area. Not much to see here, but there's some interesting foodie places.

Goku Raku Ramen
Location: Gurney Paragon, Penang.
48HoChiak Level: 7.5/10
Cuisine: Japanese
What's Best: Ramen!
Price Range：RM18++ Mid range

Overall, this place wasn't bad at all. Their green tea is refillable, open kitchen... luckily the kitchen hood is strong enough.

I've tried their signature Goku Raku Ramen, small size. The bowl did came out small in shape, as you can see on photo, but wait, the bowl is actually tall in shape, thus, their small size is our daily regular size, and the large size, should be the Sumo size. RM18.90 for this 'small' bowl can be considered worth it. The soup is really great! Savory, thick and most importantly, even though its heavy, it won't make you feel thirsty! However, their garnishes are out of my expectation. The Char Siew is not tender enough, and the egg, supposed to be flavored but it's not. If you love plain and fresh garnishes, you might love it. I prefer the traditional way, tender meat and well flavored egg.

Overall, I'll be back! Too bad it's not Halal! This is not a vegan friendly place.

48BorHoChiak! 17 Saloon, Gurney Plaza, Penang!

2012-02-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

17 Saloon Cafe, Gurney Plaza, Penang

Location: Gurney Plaza, Penang.
48HoChiak Level: 1/10
Cuisine: Fusion
What's Best: EXPENSIVE!
Price Range：RM18++

PS additional information added 12 Feb 2012: I heard from a friend that it is not a common style in this restaurant to ask the customer to pay first. I would take it as I was disrespected that time. After much consideration, I degrade Saloon 17 to 1/10. Not a good place to stay, and expensive low quality food they serve. Thus, I've made this a separated post.

Here's the expensive food! 17 Saloon near Starbucks at Gurney Plaza. Saloon??? I don't know why they call it "saloon", it doesn't seems like giving you some great hairdo. The decoration is what attracts me.

Moment of truth! The food! It's a bit disappointment. The portion is so small and it can be considered PRICEY! Expensive and not worth the price tag! I would prefer to go opposite have some expensive Michealangelo Than having this simple spaghetti! They are nearly at the same price! This one only have 2 medium size prawn and 4 medium size calamari rings!

The drinks! is the best! I ordered their mocktail, cranberry something, it's great! Though, it's still a little bit pricey! I won't visit this restaurant until they improve their recipe. The food is just too expensive!

17 Saloon is not halal. They serves pork! Another annoying thing is, they ask people to pay the bill first before the dishes came to the table. Not to forget, the price tag is expensive, so it's kind of reverse effect of their marketing strategy. For example, normally, we eat first, then we pay the bills. When the food is good, we pay the bill in high price, then we won't feel bad. If the food is bad, and they have expensive bills, they will get really angry! Let say, if people pay expensive bill first, and then they have great expectation on the food. Instead, they found out that the food is actually bad, however, they might not feel that bad, because full belly makes them more patient? I'm not sure of the logics and psychology involved, but I'm still not happy because the food is too expensive! Not because of the taste, its simply due to the price tag. If you looking for expensive, yet satisfying and reasonably priced food, better go for Michaelangelo opposite of 17 Saloon.

48HoChiak! Sushi Kitchen (Sg. Ara, Penang)

2012-02-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

Today, we are celebrating one of my colleague's birthday at Sushi Kitchen. This is a very interesting place, a vegetarian sushi cafe, hidden at a quiet place, far away from mainstream attraction. Though, this place is pretty well known for the vegetarians.

Location: Sungai Ara.
48HoChiak Level: 7.5/10
Cuisine: Japanese
What's Best: ???
Price Range：RM6++

The dining environment is very pleasant, with some soft romantic English songs and a bit messy old retro antique decorations. It is some strange combination.

The food, they are light and served in right portion. The sushi taste a bit sweet and light. The pricing is quite expensive, twice higher than the regular sushi compare to Sushi King. Although they did some nice vegetarian combination, I don't think its worth that price tag due to some of the ingredients are readily bought, such as the sweet tofu pockets. They use all organic products in their cooking.

For the other dishes, their noodle soup and friend rice does seems better.

Japanese Udon with light miso soup and seaweed

Sweet Potatoe Noodles. Their soup is made of smashed sweet potato. It kind of reminds me of the Mee Jawa, where they boil the potato until it melts, creating the thick gravy soup.

Spicy Fried Rice, they use brown rice.

Loving Vermicelli Soup. It is light sesame oil and wolfberry soup with some love shape carrots.

Low Beauty Roll and the Family Sushi set. The "Low Beauty Roll" is actually fried taro roll. Overall, the food taste great, light and healthy.

I bought this Matcha Anko cake at the Bread History (Queensbay Mall). The cake taste nice, light and fluffy and not much 'girl's enemy', What's the girls's enemy' here, CREAM of course! I bet most of the girls dislike thick cream on their cake.

View Larger Map

Thaipussam at KL

2012-02-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

Although its a holiday in KL, most of the KL people went to Batu Caves for Thaipussam celebration. Left the city center quite pleasant, and the best of it, no traffic jam! The Shopping centers are not so crowded as it should be. Thus, best for window shopping.

At first, we went to Sunway Giza, there's nothing much to see. Not even for food hunting! The buildings are nice though, especially Full House restaurant is there, and also Saloon 17, the restaurant which I poorly rated previously! I'm still angry about the 3 medium size prawns,4 squid calamari, and a piece of lettuce spaghetti which cost me RM17.90 not including tax. Thus, we decide not to dine in any of the restaurant there.

So we head to Pavilion Mall at Bukit Bintang. I was "amazed", shock and couldn't believe my own eyes! What had happened? Such high class shopping mall in the largest city of Malaysia, and their car parking system doesn't even have those parking lots sensors? And the parking fee here is way higher than the malls in Penang! (Both Queensbay and Gurney Plaza and even my company's car parks in Penang have those sensors to help use finding empty lots)

Enough complains, we have a great shopping and food hunting at the Tokyo Street. There's a huge lantern decoration, reminds me on the Asakusa Temple. Overall, not bad!

So we had our dinner at Cafe Takahashi, serving some fusion style pasta. The price of the pasta is at RM21.90, with a portion just right, lots of mushrooms, olives, and 6 medium size prawns for the fettuccine. While the scallop asparagus spaghetti looks good too, in the same price. 7/10 taste great and it's in Pavilion! I have to revise my review for Saloon 17, giving it 1/10 instead.

I've tried some sweets at the Tokyo Street, macaroon and meringue cookies. They are same type of sweets, made of egg whites and sugar, but macaroons have better texture and has some almond taste compare to the all sugar meringue. If you dislike sweets, better not try it!

I forgotten this delicious Daibu Mee near Salak South area. Next time I'll ask more info about it! :P That's all for my KL trip! Hope to have holiday again... T.T it's going to be far far away.

Final CNY Holiday at KL + Klang

2012-02-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

It's going to be the final CNY holiday. During this final hour, must collect the final amount of angpao as much as I can. That's why, this week, I've visited KL.

There are the final Dragon & Lion Dance at Petaling Street. I really miss the Dragon Dance. They are not performed often during CNY. In fact, not many people able to hire a Dragon Dance, since it needs a team of people (more Angpao needed). This year, it's the year of Dragon, thus, Dragon Dance is more common.

Petaling Street is a beautiful place, and it's a great place to shop and food hunting. Recently, the merchants selling lots of fake birkins, and they are not cheap. The best I can get is about RM100 and the quality of the fake isn't good at all. Besides, Gucci is the one brand having most of the high quality fake bags here. All are not in my liking, I was looking for a trolley luggage with Mickey Mouse prints on it. Last time, I saw those a lot, but not this time. Somehow, the trend is changing.

Heading towards the KTM station around Pasar Seni, here's some of my favorite street food. Keropok Lekor nipis! They are expensive but really fresh and delicious! 5 pieces for RM1! The snack is made of fish and they are fried fresh!

Later having dinner at Klang, visiting one of the famous Bak Kut Teh restaurant in the town! I'm not going to rate this restaurant due to my short visit. However, there are some Bak Kut Teh tips I wish to share here. Fong Keow Bak Kut Teh at Taman Rashna, overall, not bad! 7/10!

There's lots of option in every Bak Kut Teh restaurant here. Normally, the best time to have Bak Kut Teh is during morning hours, where the soup is still clear and full of the Chinese herbal flavour. During the end of the day, the soup will have more meat flavour. Besides, you have lots of options to choose, single bowl of soup, or clay pot bowl. Soup or dry, with You Teow or intestines... etc... Just be sure of what you want and make your order clearly.

Handmade Noodle Soup with my BF on it!

2012-02-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

Taiwan is a very special place, creating various strange romantic stories. However, I think there are some very dramatic difference between the modern days compare to the old days popular stories.

Some common old days Taiwan love drama:
So she was born into a poor family, her mother died young and she was sold to a wealthy family to pay his father's gambling debt. She become the wealthy family's servant girl, and the best friend of the wealthy family's only son. As days goes by, they grown up, and the wealthy boy fall in love to the girl, and the wealthy family members oppose the love and they started to torture the girl... etc etc...

Here's some common modern days Taiwan love stories:
There is local girl working as a sales in a small noodle stall. One fine day, she was riding her bicycle to deliver orders and unfortunately, some ridiculously rich, handsome but arrogant guy nearly ran over her by accident. She splash the noodles on top of his luxury car and he went out have some quarrel with the girl. Don't know what had happened, this guy fall in love to this girl, and there's always be another 3rd party, particularly some rich and beautiful young lady who was also in love with this guy. She became jealous and trying whatever insane way to hurt the poor girl, but the guy will always suddenly came out of no where, showing of his awesome martial art skills and saves the poor girl.

"Typing" of noodles, here's some homemade noodle soup. Yes, with my BF's face on it! LOL. By the way, Doraemon is not a good "life partner", in fact, he got lots of girl friends, from Mii-Chan, to Mimi, whenever he saw some feline girls, he will try to woo her. Thus, he is not a good idea to be a used in any of the Valentine's Day gift. If you really want a faithful and great cartoon character, Mickey is the best! He loves Minnie for over a decades and never changed.

Brandy Konnyaku Coated by Dark Chocolate

2012-02-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

So today is still in Vday mood. Dreaming about the scenes in the common Hong Kong drama....

From some common HK drama:
So the day is Valentine's Day, the girl went to work as usual. During the office working hour, the delivery boy came with a big bouquet of roses, calling for her name. With all the attentions she gets, she gracefully signed and checklist, and said "Aiya, I already told him not to waste so much money on flowers, he still bought it, haiz, really a difficult person." with a smile on her face, in front of all her colleagues. Colleague A, will reply: "Wah, you mah good lar, got rich boy friend, buy you expensive flowers. Sure you no need to work and become siu lai lai in future lar.". And colleague B will said: "Aiyo, I'm still single. I wish one day I can find a guy as good as your boy friend lor". Then the girl open the letter, and exclaim loudly: "Tzek, haiz, he even reserved a table at XXX restaurant wor. I already told him tonight I'll need to work OT."

Ok, that's all for the Hong Kong style Valentine's Day. I believe many people reading it would feel like wanna puke. Well, that's how it happens for the Hong Kong style Chinese people here in Malaysia too. Expensive flowers and expensive dinner.

Ok, here's today's dessert. Though the recipe is a failure. Brandy Konnyaku Coated by Dark Chocolate is my latest invention! Yay! Too bad, the surface of the konnyaku is too wet, the chocolate doesn't stick well on it. The size of the chocolate is too big.

I only use the Cap Crocodile Brandy in the middle. It's a local wine made in Penang. So it's relatively cheap. After cooking, the Brandy still have it's pleasant flavor. I'm not expert in these type of liquor, I play better using Chinese wine. The result of Brandy + Dark Chocolate is really good. Overall, due to the chocolate unable to stick on the wet konnyaku surface, I have to spoon on the chocolate.

Half Valentine's Day Bento 2012

2012-02-02T04:24:00.000-08:00

Since I'm still single, it should be made half. Actually, I think the Japenese Valentine's Day culture is very nice and romantic. The girls have to hand made something for a guy. Here in Malaysia, the we normally celebrate it by with the guy buying a bunch of overly priced flowers and send it to the girl's office or work place with a letter of invitation to an expensive dinner at some high class restaurant. While I prefer the Japanese (Anime/Manga) way.

From some random manga classics:
So It's Valentine's Day, the girl carefully make a lovely bento for the day having a picnic at the garden nearby (local gardens at Japan are all clean and beautiful and cozy, not like those in... ya know what I mean). So she cuts everything in heart shape, carefully roll everything and decorates it nicely. Of course, there will be lots of extra parts of the food left. She throw all of them into her stomach, and that's her meal of the day. She happily dress herself nicely, and went on to her picnic date. The guy saw the beautiful bento, and he ate it. He said, "It's delicious, why not you have some too!" She gracefully replied, "I've ate at home, just let me watch your cute face while you eat."

Ok, I know, I wasn't a good writer, probably somebody will get goose bumps reading my blog. But there's something very meaningful here. A girl who will take all the leftovers and keep the best for her love one. That's the most romantic Valentine's Day gift ever. For my bento, I cut out the dragon fruit using heart shape cookie mold, then I throw the extra parts into my stomach. Of course, after taking the photo, I ate the bento myself. LOL

So the Japanese Valentine's Day is all about a girl showing her love to a guy! They have another Valentine's Day on 14th March, called White Day, is the day where the guys have to make something triple as good as the gift he received on 14th Febuary. So there's a come and go. Both have given something, and receive something. It's like my ideal love story, like the Gifts of Magi.

With Love ~ Soo Huey

Oh, the pink plum paste mix with wasabe, taste really awesome with the sweet tamago!

Please Help to vote me for this contest! TQ

2012-01-31T23:21:00.000-08:00

If you have facebook account, please click on the link below and vote for me, TQ: Tebal muka aku!

https://apps.facebook.com/visit_japan/contests/188606/voteable_entries/43062792

Need help! Please answer the survey below!

2012-01-29T20:20:00.000-08:00

Business Survey

I'm doing some research! Please help answer the survey above. Only for people who work as employees. Not applicable for business owners. Thanks! ~ Ria