Bersih 3.0 had been a historical event as Malaysians from different social strata, religious beliefs, and ethnic background, gathered together to protest against an unfair election system which serves to protect the ruling coalition’s seats in the government. Not only were the demonstrations held in Malaysia, there were at least 11 other locations around world where Malaysians gathered together to speak their minds.  The Malaysian citizens or the rakyat are tired of the ongoing corruption festering in the ruling coalition. Barisan Nasional has been in power since Malaysia broke away from British rule in 1957.

While Malaysia has climbed up the economic ladder since gaining independence, increasing levels of corruption and selfish pursuits of the ruling coalition as years passed has plateaued Malaysia’s growth and kept this country, rich in talent and natural resources from truly becoming an economic powerhouse. The rakyat is tired of the large misappropriation of public funds, lack of transparency in the nation’s management, poor administration of the country, and the thug behavior of those in power. The ruling coalition had forgotten to whom they are working for. Corruption at the top only breeds more corruption down the line.

I had driven down to the city and parked a few kilometers from Merdeka Square. Arriving about 11am, there were already many Malaysians walking from different directions carrying banners and flags, and wearing yellow or green clothing. Many shops remained open for business. Some had their shutters partially rolled down for quick closure. I dropped by an eatery for a quick lunch where I met a Vietnamese tourist who had arrived the night before and wasn’t aware of the impending street demonstration. She had planned to walk down with her husband to Merdeka Square to visit a church later in the day. I suggested she visit alternative venues just for today.

There were 6 meeting points designated around the city for demonstrators to meet and rally down the streets towards the square. All Bersih gatherings are meant to be peaceful demonstrations however the ruling coalition would always denounced the movement and deprived them of their chosen venues even though the right for public assembly and to demonstrate is within the Malaysian constitution and are part of the fundamentals of democracy. If the ruling government is fair, just and orderly, they should not be afraid of a peaceful public demonstration by the citizens to voice their minds. Police and Federal Reserve Units (FRU) should only be around to keep order and prevent riots from taking place.

Bersih 3.0 had been denied entry into Merdeka Square even with early applications made to respective public administrations. Can you imagine Malaysia citizens being denied from entering a national heritage for whom parents and ancestors were commemorated for defending, fighting and building the country. Can you imagine razor barb wires, steel barricades were put up at all entry points to keep all of us away from a patch of green lawn. Police and FRU forces had locked down the square and stood staring out at the rakyat. All this blockade paid for with public funds.

These ladies were ready for action

Environmentally concerned citizens ensuring the Bersih would be a really clean demonstration

Several choppers circled the skies around the Merdeka Square the whole day

A sea of Bersih demonstrators at one entrance to the Square.

Many got dressed up for the occasion

Intimidating looking riot police locked down another road entry

A breach of the barricades at about 3.30pm initiated a response by the riot control authorities to use water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds. Whether the breach was planned by some sects of Bersih or instigated by agent provocateurs linked to the ruling coalition cannot be ascertained. Earlier I had noticed a gentleman attempting to draw demonstrators closer to the barricades. When many around ignored him, he began targeting the youths with the same rhetoric speech to bring more people to the front. I left the area soon after.

Responsible demonstrators helped each other by offering salt to ease the effects of tear gas.

Bersih 3.0’s peaceful sit-down rally had been scheduled between 2-4pm. I kept to this schedule and so did many other law abiding and good willed Malaysians who came out with friends, families and strangers on the streets to display their discontentment with the government. The rakyat gathered together chanting slogans and singing patriotic songs. I came to observe and to be a part of the citizens wanting a reform in the election system and country management. Many others present probably had the same goals.

More images…

Australian-born Welsh served as Executive Chef in charge of Food and Beverage at Amanpulo Resort managed by Aman Resorts Philippines – coveted the last two years running by Condé Naste Traveller as the Best for Holiday Locations and listed No 1 in the Zagat Survey’s World’s Top Hotels, Resorts and Spas. He started his career as an apprentice chef in Australia, graduating from the Hunter Institute of Technology and worked in some of the most prestigious establishments in the country, such as Hugos.

Garth’s culinary adventures have also taken him to Fiji with the Vatulele Island Resort by Six Senses, where he is especially well known as a master of developing menus that are unique in concept and creating food, which sets the trends of the day. Here is our interview with him.

1. What were your favorite foods growing up?

Mangoes!

2. When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?

Very early on, I was probably 8 or 9.

3. If you didn’t become a chef, what would you be?

A rock star.

4. What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?

A good quality sharp knife, a cryovac machine, digital scales and a combi oven.

5. What’s your favorite new ingredient?

It’s nothing new, but I love using good quality anchovies in my cooking and in salads. It’s a problem I have as no-one else seems to like them.

6. If I’m trying to watch my weight and I’m eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?

Any number of things. I like to serve food that is tasty, yet healthy. You could try our House-Cured Wild Salmon with Shaved Fennel or the Chilled Asparagus Soup with Olive Oil Ice-Cream or anything on our Superfoods menus.

7. If its my birthday and I am being super-indulgent and the sky’s the limit, what am I ordering to eat from your restaurant?

Well, you might want to start with some fresh Irish Oysters, followed by Lobster Macaroni – it’s like macaroni with cheese only the sauce is made from lobster bisque and it’s full of fresh Boston Lobster. Then you could finish with the Chocolate Tart, Chocolate Crème Brûlée, Chocolate Sorbet and Nutella Soil

8. What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?

It’s hard to single out one, there have been so many. Cooking professionally is nothing like Master Chef (although that does look quite stressful at times).

Recently we had a group of 16 very important guests staying at The Westin for 3 nights. We wanted to make sure that everything throughout their stay was perfect – every breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and of course dinner and even the snacks for turn down in their rooms at night and the snacks in the cars to and from the airport and the hotel.
For their last night we did a dinner for them in our Chairman’s suite on the 34th floor.

We don’t have a kitchen up there so I blocked the room next door and we removed all furniture, covered the floors and all walls and set up a temporary kitchen. We had a deep fryer in the toilet, an oven on top of the bath and we did a great 6 course dinner. It was very tough work for the chefs but it was also very rewarding as the dinner went well and we received tremendous feedback. It sounds corny, but when you have put in such hard work, it does make it worthwhile when you know that your guests have left happy.

9. What was your worst restaurant disaster?

Again, there have been many and I won’t mention some of the worst disasters – I might turn people off eating in restaurants. I do remember working in a restaurant in Sydney that had a great big open kitchen. We could have literally reached across the work bench and touched some of our guests. Opposite the kitchen was the bar, a very big, long bar. This particular night was a Saturday and we were packed. I had already been bitten that night by a live mud crab and screamed so loud that all of the guests in the restaurant had heard me.

Anyway, a little later in the evening the chef working next to me gave me a nudge and nodded towards the bar. I looked across and saw a huge rat slowly making his way along the bar top, just taking his time and sniffing things out. We watched, horrified, praying that none of the guests would notice. He had almost made it to the end of the bar and we thought we were safe, when suddenly a woman noticed the rat and let out an ear piercing squeal and then at the top of her voice screamed RAT!!!

Everybody in the restaurant stopped what they were doing and I swear, every single lady in the restaurant that night ran like Olympian sprinters out of the restaurant. Some came back in not long afterwards after being coaxed by their partners, some never returned.

10. What’s the best restaurant you ate at in 2011?

Bentley Restaurant and Bar in Sydney. I love those guys. It’s the perfect combination of a great sommelier and a great chef getting together and doing their own thing. It’s quite laid back but they have a beautiful wine list with some really interesting boutique wines and Brent Savage’s food which is creative, refined, fun and so clever. I think they’ve been open for about 7 or 8 years and they just keep getting better.

11. What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?

I think everybody is trying to source as much local produce as possible and really thinking about where their ingredients have come from. Chefs are going back to basics.

12. If you had one more day to live, what would your last meal be?

That’s a hard one, probably Chilli Crab or a great steak.

13. From whom would you most like to take a cooking class?

Another tough one. The obvious ones I think for most chefs would be Ferran Adria or Heston Blumenthal but I have a lot of Aussie chef heroes too that I would love to learn from such as Christine Manfield, Neil Perry, Peter Gilmore or Shannon Bennet.

14. If you lost your ability to cook, and were to be exiled to a remote island, but could bring one Chef with you, who would it be and why?

Maggie Beer because she would know what to do with all of the ingredients growing on the island and would prepare and cook them in a simple yet comforting manner.

15. Finally, what is your advice for all those new, up and coming Chefs out there?

Don’t be fooled by all of the television shows. Cooking is hard work and you need to be tough, strong willed and dedicated to survive and you have got to genuinely love food and cooking. You need to be able to stick it out at the bottom of the food chain where life is tough and the pay is poor and you must always be trying to learn more, whether it is from your head chef, the chefs around you or cookbooks. You can never think that you have made it and you know it all. There is always more that you can learn. That’s one of the things I love about my profession.

Photo credit - all photos courtesy of The Westin KL

Menya Musashi.. true to form.. you have to queue for a seat at lunch time.. 

Menya Musashi is one of Tokyo’s best-loved ramen chains, and its founder Takeshi Yamada is often considered in the same league as Ippudo’s Shigemi Kawahara and Nantsuttei’s Ichiro Furuya. The shop is named after Musashi Miyamoto, one of Japan’s most legendary and revered warriors – he who famously wrote “The Book of Five Rings”. Illustrations of samurai with swords drawn can be plastered tastefully around the shop.

Now, this ramen holy of holies, has come to Petaling Jaya. Located on the 2nd floor of Isetan, the old-new wing of 1 utama the place is completely packed at lunch time. This entire second floor (a.k.a. Eat Paradise) is dedicated to Japanese and Korean dining, so it really is not unusual to be sandwiched between chattering Japanese ladies of leisure, slurping up on massive bowls of ramen. What makes Musashi ramen so special isn’t just their ramen, which is good to begin with.

A lot of times, eating ramen isn’t just getting a bowl of noodles to shove down your throat. The overall experience include the design of the shop, the service provided, and what I like best – the show that is put on in the kitchen. The open kitchen here is way cool, and the customers can watch the cooks preparing the ramen, behind a high counter ( you need to stand to see the hot pots of boiling water). When the guy that is cooking the ramen begins to drain the noodles, he lets out two super loud whopping yells, probably indicating the ramen is done. That’s just priceless – same as what is practiced in Shinjuku.

Open kitchen concept.. I love it when they put on a show!

two yells, and we’re good to go! With a swift motion of a samurai executing a blow in a duel, he shakes the noodles out of the water and puts them into your bowl! So much steam.. this kitchen looks like a freakin onsen..

Signature Ramen, not to be missed! Kuro Musashi Ramen, RM26.00

Who can fault noodles that are insanely bouncy and thick? Menya Musashi’s noodles are different from the usual Sapporo and Kyushu types, cooked until al dente, with a slight chewy bite. The soup is mad tasty.. and the marinated eggs, divine. The 2 massive cuts of thick cha-siu/pork belly are really decadent. Talk about gigantic chunks, soft and tender after being stewed in sweet Japanese wine and soy sauce for hours.  The murky broth of ramen that contained cha-siu, soft boiled marinated eggs, spring onions and bamboo shoots in tonkotsu broth was indeed a revelation. The light-brown broth, speckled with fat droplets had an orange-red hue to it because I chose the chili oil for my topping.

my Aka Musashi Ramen 

Now back to the name that comes from a famous Edo-era swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi, that operates on the five key ramen principles of chi, sui, hi, kaze and ku to create an ideal bowl of Japanese ramen. There are three types of ramen soup base to choose from – the white (original), black (black sauce) and red (spicy). The black sauced ramen is a thick and salty broth cooked from a mixture of pork bones and dried saury fish. Collagen-rich with bits of marrow fat, this one is great for your skin;) The dark orange or red oil topping, is flavoured with sharp chilli oil, and is known as aka. This was my ramen oil topping of choice.

Ajitama Chashu Tsukemen,  RM27.00

bloody massive portions and we are only having “small” ! Big eaters rejoice – you will be filled!

Popular in Tokyo also, are the ‘dry’ noodles – the Tsukemen, which is dipped in a richer soup-sauce.. salty as it is not meant for drinking. There are lovely fatty chucks of pork inside the soup which you are meant to dip and eat with your noodles. Another fab dish that is a must-order!

me and the super sleek samurai .. a.k.a. Chef Yamaguchi

Master Chef Yamaguchi is the boss of this ramen joint and he hails from Tokyo. He’s a cool guy, who speaks little English, but one of the Japanese- English speaking staff helped us get acquainted;) He was more than willing to take a photo with me! It’s times like these, that I wish I was “the ramen girl” cooking my heart out in the heart of the kitchen madness.

I like this place a lot, and not just for the dark and brooding samurai.  Whilst I could not see myself hanging out at other ramen joints in KL before this, now I think I can. I have found a ramen joint worthy of my time, and stomach!

Gerard Bertrand was born and raised in the South of France. Making wine with his father, Georges, since the age of 10, Gerard Bertrand offers the full range and diversity of wines from the region – red, white, rose, varietal, appellation, estate, still, sparkling, and also dessert wines.

the Gerard Bertrand wines

Nestled in a bowl in the hills is Chateau L’Hospitalet, the HQ of Gerard Bertrand. Gerard is something of a phenomenon in the south of France. A local boy made good, he first hit the headlines as a professional rugby player for Stade Francais and the French national team. Whilst still playing, he inherited the family’s wine business and has gradually built it up, acquiring vineyards and estates across the Languedoc. The jewel in the crown is L’Hospitalet, which he bought in 2002.

a short introduction to the wines, then dinner is served

The estate is surrounded by 52ha of vines but in addition to a fully functioning winery it also comprises a hotel, restaurant, conference center and public cellar door. Incredibly, it is the third most visited tourist attraction in the region, losing out only to the old city in Carcasonne and an African themed safari park!

the buffet spread and wines are nicely laid out at the conservatory of Le Meridien KL

What is even more incredible is that despite the size of the business and the obvious commercial push, the wines are outstanding. Not many wineries manage to combine quality and quantity, balancing the volume demands of the market with the desire to make brilliant wines that genuinely reflect their terroir. Bertrand and his team deserve a lot of praise for doing just that.

Of the wines we tried that night, my favourites were the Viognier L’Hospitalet 2009 – Rich, peachy nose with bags of flavour. Hints of spice and refreshing acidity. A ripe, summery wine. Easy to drink and chill out to, with your mates. I also liked the Gerard Bertrand Reserve Spéciale Carignan Vieilles Vignes 2009 - This red had a highly perfumed nose with ripe, dark berry fruit and sweet spice notes. Rich, full bodied and a well balanced wine, this red is acidic and full of supple tannins. Maybe I am biased because it went great with dinner!

the live pasta counter that I can never resist.. 

the super addictive carbonara!

great wine pairing for the night.. ciki approves! (photo credit : kyspeaks)

a great selection of starters – I never, ever pass on oysters! 

Enter the heavier mains and red meats that are my choice for dinner.. that and pasta!

All in all, a great night out! Don’t mind stocking up the wine cellar, on the Bertrands for the next couple of months!

Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous; is not proud; is not conceited; does not act foolishly; is not selfish; is not easily provoked to anger; keeps no record of wrongs; takes no pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. ~I Corinthians 13:4-7

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY MOM!!!
We Love You:)

(Also Wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mummy readers we have out there! Put up your feet and have a relaxing day – you’ve earned it!)