Mandarin Oranges

Last year, I did something similar - but only for about 3 months. This year, I am going to try this experiment till all 9 Mandarin oranges becomes rotten or dehydrated.

Since 3rd Feb, I had collected about 12 Mandarin oranges- straight from the carton, and left them on my cubicle divider. 3 has gone rotten within 2 monthsToday- 9 of the oranges are ALL looking as good as new. Some do feel lighter, but I have no way of confirming that as I did not weigh them before my 'experiment' started.

But if you consider that more than 3 months later, the Mandarins still looks as good as new, you have to question what do the farmers put on them. These oranges are not in leak tight packaging. They are in the office environment 24 x 7. And the office air-conditioning is only switched on from 8am to 6pm from Mondays to Fridays. It is a sauna during the weekends and on certain nights.

What in the world are in these oranges??

Chinese New Year 2010

Every year, it is the same. I will visit you and you will visit me.

So this year, we did something a little different. We still visited - but we went a lot further than normal. We went to visit the Soup family at Sungei Siput - Woh Foong in Cantonese (or Snails River if you translate that literally). And I call them the Soup family because the name Thong in Cantonese means soup!.

Woke up no earlier than usual and set off North towards Ipoh. Took us 2 1/2 hours to get to Woh Foong. Oi Chan was in. Oi Yin, the younger soup sister was in Cameron Highlands doing a bit of bird watching in the jungles. She called back and said she could make it back for lunch. So we waited.

Lunch was another 45 minutes drive to a place called Sauk (turn off from the highway to Kuala Kangsar, in the direction of Lenggong). The place is supposedly famous for seafood (mainly freshwater fish and prawns). As you turn off into Sauk new village, you will see a restaurant located at the corner named the NEW Lau Kai. That is NOT the original. Turn left and go another 20m and you will come to the original - Lau Kai Restaurant.

We started off with a fish paste prepared in 2 styles. Then the soup sisters ordered a prawn in claypot that came with a spicy tasty soup. The soup is NOT made of coconut extract (santan). Instead, fresh milk was used, which made it light and tasty. We also had fish belly in spicy sauce. We noticed the other tables had steamed fish (the whole fish), but there was only 5 of us and Oi Chan reckons we cannot finish a whole fish and eat other dishes at the same time.

She then ordered a claypot farm chicken - actually that's what the Cantonese name translates as (teen kai). It is really FROG (not toad).Must be because it taste like chicken.

And there was also free range fried chicken, a green veg dish to make sure we get enough fibre and a cuttle fish dish in satay sauce. That was the only dish I did not photographed.

And after all that, what else can we say except BUUUUURRRRRRPPPPPP!!!

Next year, maybe we will plan for a trip to the South - Malacca?? Batu Pahat?? Muar?? Kluang?? Any offers?

A basin of vegetables

Poon Choi - literally a basin of vegetables. This is a dish that is peculiar to the Hakkas ( a dialect group of the Chinese).

(Eagerly waiting for the dish to be served)

I have heard about this dish for such a long time but never did get to eat it - until last night.

I was always under the impression that everything was cooked together.

(The dish when served - before we attacked it)

Last night's experience showed me that I was wrong.

(Photos first before we start)

Having eaten the poon choi last night, i think i can make a reasonable effort to duplicating something similar for the coming Chinese new Year.

(about half way through)

The dish we got yesterday was essentially layer after layers of different meat piled one layer on top of the other.

(the last layer)

By the time we got to the bottom layer, it was kind of saltish and oily (all the oils oozing out from the fatty parts of the meat.

We had our poon choi at Restaurant LYJ (in Chinese, it's Lei Hoong Kei) in Sungai Buloh New Village. It cost RM480 per dish and you really really really should go with at least 10 people or you may not be able to finish the dish.

Burp!!

Sales shows their appreciation

Finally I have time to do some updates!!

Sales did pretty well for fiscal year 09 (which has ended for us). And they had a series of thank you meals for the key players. Yours truly got invited to all 3, I guess because I am neither here nor there in terms of department or function. Or maybe just coz I am regional. In any case, i appreciate Soh's invitation to all those thank you meals.

First there was an appreciation dinner for the Sales team (who else??). We had that at Reunion in Bangsar Village ll. The signature dishes of Reunion was ordered. Maybe it's because of the ladies in the team, but despite being full to the jaw with food, there was still quite a bit of leftovers. After that, we adjourned to Francis Kanner on another street for a round of drinks. We had our photos taken before, during and after the beer and it was obvious that as the drinks went in, the inhibitions went out. I even managed to get a shot with one of the patrons who was (in the opinion of the group) bigger size than me.

Next, we had appreciation night with the Support team in Neway karaoke in 1Utama. The place offers buffet dinner as part of the package.Yes, everyone enjoyed themselves. Only one comment that I have about their beer- I think it is diluted with barely an essence of alcohol. It must be because NOBODY got drunk or even looked drunk despite many rounds of beer (except for maybe Danny)!!

The last appreciation dinner was with one of our key distributors. For that, our distributor also invited a local politician who is a frequent patron of Unique Seafood 23 located at Jalan Kemajuan. Why? Because Jason would know what were the good/great dishes to order. We also had a few lessons from him on the art of drinking wine, as well as the good parts to eat on certain fishes. That was certainly an eye opener! For example, I never knew (and neither did most of the rest) that the best part of a Chat Seng Ban (7 star garoupa??) was not it's meat. It's the maw and areas around the head. And for that we pay RM40 to Rm80 for a reasonable sized fish at the market!! Wow!! Give me the flesh anytime. I am okay with that. This was one of those rare occasions when Izan joined us. The place is halal. Dinner ended with karaoke as we had a private function room.

I have been literally croaking for the past few weeks now.

Missed me?? part 1

I know several people missed seeing an update(s) on my blog. Sorry folks - been busy lately. After almost a year of blissful lethargy, my workload has crept up and I find myself having little time to do much (other than my assigned work).

It started with having 2 positions to be hired. This was originally slated to be reporting into the Malaysian Support team. But then, my AP boss told me to take them under my wings. So I ended up sifting through resumes, conducting interviews and even did one long distance interview where I went to Kuantan to interview the prospect. Turned out to be a fruitful trip as he will be reporting for duty by the end of the month. I still have one more position to fill!!

And Deepavali (or Diwali as it is called in India) happened. Kah Leng sort of celebrated by inviting the department to her pad for BBQ. Wonderful night and company. Some of the inital chicken wings were burnt due to the hot BBQ, but in the end, everyone got to eat a lot. Some of us brought other homecooked food along for others to try. Delicious!!

Then I went down to Singapore for a variety of reasons.

Pham was teaching a single Q class there for 2 weeks.. I needed to pick his brains on getting my new people developed and so I planned to intrude into his class only from the second week onwards. The first 3 days there was a food fest (for me)!!

First, a select few of us were invited by Chef Tan to savor CT's handiwork. What can I say? If CT decides to open an outlet, I would be a constant customer. CT had 4 main dishes and a soup. All 4 dishes were cooked just right. The soup (not shown) was just the tonic to wash down a good meal.

Next night, Pham had his class graduation. There is this regular place that we go to for good seafood. That night was no different at Casuarina Road near Upper Thompson. For some strange reasons, either the crowd was very hungry or they just gobbled down the food because Pham gave them an exam (which some did till midnite or so after the meal). We finished dinner early - around 7.30pm!! But I am very sure that the food we had was not the reason the dinner was over so early.

And on the third night, I had Thai food with Carolynn, Nate and Sombat. Carolynn will be leaving the company on Nov 8 and in a way, it was my farewell to her since I don't go down to Singapore that often. The food was great, though I have to admit a tad spicy hot!! I was sweating so much, I think I must have used up at least 10 tissues to wipe my face during the meal.

Okay - enuff about the food on this update.

Steamed clams anyone??

A couple of the office mates were talking about this place in Klang that served very good steamed clams. Nicky and Danny swears this place has one of the best steam clams in town. STEAMED clams?? Occasionally, I do a fried clams dish, with shredded ginger, chillies and garlic and small onions in preparing the oil. Steamed?? I have not tried this.

So on Wednesday evening, after work, 5 of us made our way to Klang town - about 20 km or so from the office, but with the traffic jam, takes more than 45 minutes to reach. It did not help that Klang town is undergoing major roadworks with many of the streets turned into one way streets. Our target for the night was
Restoran Boston Baru (or new Boston Restaurant)
Jalan Kapar, Klang
(Opposite KWSP, Same row as Lembaga Tabung Haji)
Open at 7.00pm
016-268 3104/012-905 3523

We ordered the signature dish of course - Steamed clams, Nestum Mantis Prawns (this is essentially de-shelled mantis prawns coated with oats and deep fried), Hokkien Fried noodles and Brussels Sprouts. The Brussels Sprout was ordered just to provide some fiber in our food!

Our food started arriving within 15 minutes with the first dish - steamed clams (or lala as we call it locally). There was the shredded ginger, with a liberal sprinkling of fried garlic. Tasted the soup and found that there was rice wine added to the dish. The soup was great. I think we almost drained all the soup in the dish.

Hokkien Fried noodles? I have tasted better. This dish was served too wet that night. There was also liberal pieces of lard - which provides it that oomph in taste. It is also a recipe for a coronary!.

The Nestum Mantis Prawns had a sweet twang to it. Maybe that was due to the oats.

Halfway through the meal, Danny ordered one more dish which I have not tried before - a fried Tapioca Noodle dish. Interesting texture and if not for the fact that we were told it was tapioca starch, not the regular wheat starch used in making noodles, we would be wondering why the consistency of the noodles was different.

After I posted the photos on facebook, a few more colleagues wants to try this place.

Maybe next week ya!!