A Day Trip to Sg. Chiling

Sg Chiling makes a good day trip from the concrete jungle of KL. It's at Kota Kubu Bahru, on the way to Frasers Hill, about 1.5 hours trip from my place. To trek up to the waterfalls, you need to cross 5 river crossings. The trekking part was just a walk in the park.The river-crossing was pretty fun, albeit slippery so need to take good care not to step on slimey rocks. It's advisable to wear slippers or sandals for this trip as you'll need to get your feet wet every time you cross the river.

At the end of the trek, you'll be rewarded with the refreshing waterfall and ice cold river to bathe in . I wasn't too impressed with the scenery so to make the most out of my trip, I experimented on taking waterfall photos by playing with the shutter speed. Short shutter speed will be able to capture water spray and droplets clearly whereas long shutter speed will make the falls and water flow seem silky. See the difference it makes here, both taken at almost the same spot but the effect is totally different:



There's also a photogenic little frog by the river that caught my attention so I entertained myself for awhile by stalking the frog and taking photos of it. Here's the 'fauna' of Sg Chiling for you:




After Sg. Chiling, the highlight of the day came late >>> FOOD!
Since Kota Kubu Bahru is very near to Ulu Yam, before heading home, we made a little detour to Ulu Yam Lama to have a taste of their famous Ulu Yam Loh Mee and fish paste. Apparently, every other shop here sells exactly the same thing -- Loh Mee. We went to the shop Yuin Kei, the best in Ulu Yam Lama, as recommended by the local. It was indeed VERY yummy! We ordered the Lam Mee, 3 Zan Bak (3-layers pork) 'sinful' Fried Bee Hoon, Fried Fish Paste with Fu Chok, Fried Fish Cake, and yes, just 2 of us and we managed to lick the plates clean! I must highly recommend the fish cake, it's so 有弹性 it could almost bounce in your mouth!

Also worth a mention was the drinks here! The juices are fresh and reasonably priced, and they have Sarawak pineapple juice! It's absolutely refreshing and thirst-quenching after our long trek today.


So if Sg. Chiling didn't manage too impress you, the food at Ulu Yam certainly would! Don't forget to pay this shop a visit, it'll definitely make your trip to Kota Kubu Bahru worthwhile (pardon the humble little sign post, but believe-it-or-not, this is the only sign stating the name of this shop!) :

Unfrozen Feelings

Hai Ning's incident affected me deeply. I think I spent my whole 2 weeks in december mourning and doing nothing except 颓废 infront of my PC just waiting for her news, or to have PK's company online.

I decided that I needed some distraction to tear myself from my PC so I made my virgin cheesecake. It's a lemon cheesecake from Catherine Lau's cheesecake recipe book.

Here's my version of the lemon cheesecake recipe:



Base:
170g of finely crushed pieces of my heart mixed with digestive biscuits & cornflakes
2 Tbsp of sweet memories mixed with brown sugar
100g diced Sorrow Butter

Feeling (Filling):
500g diced Cream Cheese of loneliness
120g Castor Sugar of faded hope
50ml lemon juice of helplessness
Lemon zest from 2 lemons grated with pain
500ml Thickened Cream of despair
1.5 Tbsp of powdered gelatine dissolved in 100ml of tears (water)

Refrigerate the prepared cheesecake in chiller overnight, take extra care to freeze the 'feelings'.
Unfortunately the cheesecake filling turned out to be like ice cream. Looks like 'feelings' are not as easy to be frozen as I conveniently thought...

寂寞篇 - Smiley Minced Pie

寂寞时，做个笑脸来娱人娱己，也蛮好玩的！
LES,HL,CSP and my colleagues,感谢你们的moral support! I know they are si pek ugly, and they don't taste very nice, but you guys still 很开心地把它们吃得一干二净。

P/S: Pastry recipe from Jamie Oliver's sweet pie pastry, the sweet minced meat filling leh... 小小声告诉你, actually I bought from Marks & Spencer. Hehehe I didn't tell you all... :p

Confessions of a Travel-holic

Recently, I volunteered to be one of the editor in my company newsletter 'waZZap'. I'm lucky enough to have a column to myself to write about travelling. Here's my article for our first publication:

Be warned, this is not your regular travel guide!

Air Products headquarter is located in a small town in Pennsylvania, East Coast USA. It’s a 20 hours flight from Malaysia and approximately 1.5 hours taxi ride away from the port of arrival.
Imagine taking this long journey from Malaysia to the States. One would think jetlag is inevitable, and would normally spend the next day snoozing away in the hotel room. Not for me.

As a travel-holic, I tend to squeeze every bit of my time overseas to get the most out of the trip. You might wonder how I overcome that annoying jetlag. As soon as I arrive in Allentown (most flights from Asia arrive in the evening and you have the next day free before you start working), I would go straight to bed and pass out until the next morning. On that very next day, first thing to do when you wake up is to adjust your watch and most importantly, your body clock to US time. You need to accept the fact that you are already in a new continent. Forget about Malaysian time. Trust me, it’ll make your life less miserable.

Next, I would usually head right out to Allentown airport to collect my rental car. For Malaysians, driving in the US is a whole new experience. They drive at the ‘wrong’ side of the road, with the driver sitting on the left side of the car. Hence the term Left-Hand Drive. It takes a little time to get used to it, but once you got the hang of it, you’ll be fine. One tip to remember, the left lane is the fast lane. If you are on a 2-way-street and you find yourself nearing the road shoulder on your left, you are driving on the wrong side!!!

So now you got your rental car, it’s time to fill up your day with activities that keep you awake! For me, what gets me ticking most is SHOPPING! Of course, for non-shoppers, you could always fill your day with some other activities like sight-seeing, sports etc. Just try to stay away from the temptation of your hotel bed until the sun sets.

For the benefit of you shopaholics out there, here’s a list of shopping centres that I frequented in the vicinity of Allentown:

Lehigh Valley Mall: http://www.lehighvalleymall.com/
Promenade: http://www.thepromenadeshopsatsauconvalley.com/
King of Prussia: http://www.kingofprussiamall.com/

For better bargains, head out to the premium outlets in Pennsylvania. They are around 1 hour’s drive away from Allentown and they make a perfect one-day-trip. You’ll be so excited seeing those affordable prices of branded items back home, you would forget about your jetlag, at least temporarily. The following list shows my personal favourite outlet stores:

Philadelphia Premium Outlets: http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/store_listing.asp?id=75
Crossings Premium Outlets: http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=59
Lancaster Tanger Outlets: http://www.tangeroutlet.com/lancaster

Shopping tips:
1) Look for tax exemption for tourists. Macy and some other big departmental stores offer this and you could get the tax rebate immediately at the customer service counter.
2) For the factory outlet stores, check out their websites for discount coupons and bring it with you when you shop.
3) For some premium outlets, you could join their VIP club for free and print out those coupons to get members-only extra discounts! Isn’t that exciting?!
Now that you have overcome the first day of jetlag, the following days would be up to your own determination to stay awake in day light. This method works for me every time. It might or might not work for you, but good luck trying! :p

Happy Birthday My Dear Friend

Hai Ning, Happy Birthday to you!
I heard you had been busy reading our friends' blogs when you were drifting in and out of your long slumber in Africa. 'Hong Soh' as you, I'm sure you will keep yourself busy to know what activities we are up to! So I also chao kiasu now, I want you to read my long-abandoned blog. I've stopped writing few months back when our 'blog craze' has subsided. Never thought that I had to wait for this kind of incident to motivate me to de-moss my blog. Sigh, life is so unpredictable...

The other day when you were still sleeping in Africa, I got Hao Zheng to read you my letter, maybe I'll show you again here just in case you were 'ginko' because I know he must have read you soooo many letters from us PK:

**********************************************
Dearest Hai Ning,

I don’t know how to begin writing our stories….
You know, you are my first friend in standard 4. You made me feel at home in a totally new environment as we just got to a new class. In standard 5, remember you showed me 4 strawberry erasers. 1 red, 1 blue, 1 green, 1 yellow. And then you told me to keep 2, and you yourself will keep 2. Years later, if we happened to have drifted apart and forgot about each other, we could remind each other of the strawberries story that we’ve been close friends. Hai Ning, now please answer me which colour of strawberries you are keeping? Do you still remember? I still have the 2 strawberries erasers you gave me, carefully kept in a little box, it’s like a treasure of our friendship. Please... I’m waiting for your answer. I know you do remember.

I looked back the emails you have sent me and the advises you gave me all these years. I realize although we are far apart, our hearts always stay close because I know I could always come to you whenever I want someone to talk. And you never fail to give me a whole new perspective in life. At one point in life, I was very lost and kept wanting to search for a purpose, you told me: ‘I don't think there's really an ultimate purpose of life, it's not meant to be found, that way we will always keep searching, keep living our lives. It's the thought of searching that keeps us going.’ Although I still haven’t found that purpose in life, I’ve stopped feeling lost because I’ve taken your advise: to keep living our lives. Hai Ning, I know you’ve found your purpose in life, now you just have to live it. I’m soooo looking forward to celebrate life with you. Come on, wake up and let’s go play...

Hai Ning, I’ve got so much to talk to you. Let’s not trouble your brother to read it to you anymore. I’ll talk to you personally when you wake up ok? I promise I won’t show you my 粗话脸 ever again. And thanks for putting up with my 衰样 all these years and despite all that, still loving me as who I am.

Love you always,
meisan

*******************************************

It was meant to be a letter to motivate you to wake up to continue your wonderful life, to empower you to live on. At that point, I really believed you will never leave us. How could you? It's ridiculous! You love us and will never leave us! That's what I thought.
Until Behkim told us how severe your condition was, until Min reminded us that we should let you go, I only realized it's really time to bid you goodbye. What Min said really made sense: we were all just losing 1 Hai Ning, but you were losing so many of us, including your parents. It must be really a struggle for you to let it all go. We should help you in the process of letting go, not making it more difficult.

It was so painful to love you and let you go. We have consoled ourselves that we should celebrate your wonderful life instead of mourning our loss.

You are immortal now Hai Ning, for you have integrated into our lives and live on in our hearts forever. Fly now my beloved friend, my heart will soar with you...

Four Seasons@Caps Square

10 years ago, I had my best ever siu ngap (roasted duck) in Four Seasons Bayswater, London. This shop was hugely popular among Londoners as well as Malaysian students in the UK. It was like a pilgrimage site of mine when I visited London back then.

10 years later in Malaysia, I heard that Four Seasons has opened its 'flagship' brunch in Malaysia! I was exhilarated! I immediately went to try it out with my family.

Upon arrival at Caps Square, I was impressed with this newly refurbished building. It's quite happening with many restaurants and an upmarket grocery store.
Four Seasons is at the quieter side of Caps Square, facing Alliance Bank building, not at the same row as the other pubs and bistros. From the outside, it immediately brought back the reminiscence of the Bayswater Four Seasons. A glass window with the famous roast duck, roast pork and roast chicken hanging, and the chefs chopping away the mouth-watering roast meat behind. I was thinking to myself, good sign. The exterior looks 90% the same...

As we entered the shop and looked at the menu, my high expectation plunged to the abyss! How can they not have their signature dish - the aromatic crispy duck?!! And they don't even serve the famous Sang Har Mien (Lobster noodle)!! It's completely unacceptable!

Disappointed, we made do with the roasted duck, which was actually quite good for Malaysia standard but of course incomparable with the one in London. I must comment that the chilli oil was awesome! Love that!

Among all the roasted meat, my favourite is always Char Siu. Unfortunately, the char siu in Four Seasons already sold out that day!! It was only 8pm then! How ridiculous! I think it's solely bad supply chain as there were not that many customers anyway. I ended up ordering the white chicken marinated with chinese wine (guai fai kai 贵妃鸡) instead. Surprisingly, I quite liked the chicken, especially the fragrance of the chinese wine and ginger sauce. Yum yum! However, my cousin thought otherwise, he complained that the chicken tasted funny...


Worth a mention is the Ngao Lam Pou (claypot beef stew), which serves very juicy and tender beef brisket, beef tribe and tendon with turnip. The tendon especially, was heavenly!

Besides all the meaty dishes, we also ordered some light dishes like Salt & pepper Tofu, which was very nice and crispy. Also some green vege and a bowl of dumpling soup which were ok but unremarkable.


The most disappointing was the seafood noodles. Being Four Seasons, they not only don't serve the famous Sang Har Mein, their version of seafood noodles sucked big time! It was so bad I would rather eat in a roadside stall!

At the end of the meal, they didn't even provide the complimentary fruit platter like what the Four Seasons Bayswater practise. That was such a let down too.

So, conclusion is, the Four Seasons was just an over-priced chinese restaurant with passable food, and nowhere near the Four Seasons standard in London.

Now come to think about it, maybe the Four Seasons at Bayswater wasn't all that good afterall. Maybe back then we poor students were deprived of good Chinese food, maybe we were just looking for the taste of nostalgia...

Awesome Dried Bak Kut Teh at Sentosa

Ok, first of all, let me clarify, the Sentosa here doesn't mean Pulau Sentosa of Singapore. Sentosa is actually an area in Shah Alam, and they've got the BEST dry bak kut teh I've ever tasted.


The shop name is Yap Eng, it's a corner shop off the main road of Sentosa.





We came all the way there for the awfully good dried bak kut teh. It should be renamed as dried bak kut as there is no sign of 'tea' in this dish. It's actually pork seh kee kut (small bone) in thick soya sauce fried with dried chilli, jiu hoo si (cuttle fish finely sliced), ladies fingers and garlic. The aromatic smell and taste was utterly delightful to my tastebuds.


The soupy bak kut teh was not such a big hit. The soup was nice, the pork was the standard Klang pork which is very tender and juicy, but any other Klang bak kut teh shops could serve equally good, or better soup bak kut teh for that matter. So I would say I wasn't too impressed with this dish here.



We also ordered the side dishes like Vinegar Pork Trotter (too khah chor) and Home-made Taufu.

They are both quite good; the too khah chor very tasty and the taufu very smooth. Just that they were not 'spectacular' enough to leave an impact on me. To me, these are just the icing to the cake as the spotlight is still the awesome dried bak kut teh which is really to-die-for!