Missed me??? part 2

So what else was happening while I was in Singapore?

Coincidentally, Elaine C was also in Singapore at the weekend that I was there. An ex colleague from (Singapore)logistics was having his wedding dinner on Saturday night and many of those who had worked with him in logistics were invited (but not me, since I was not really working closely with him). Elaine was supposed to stay with her ex colleague from Thailand. I offered her and another friend CM to stay with me and both of them accepted since the hotel I was staying in was a lot more central. And it would have been a lot more luxurious and comfortable. In addition, we could also explore Singapore together.

On Sunday, we went to St Andrews Cathedral for Church service. I like the cross that was made of a couple of tree branches. The morning sun caused an effect like a bird was flying across the cross.

Elaine has an aunt who stays in Bishan and we also visited her. She asked us to join her for dinner and we had that at the hawker center in Bishan. There was this stall that had between 15 to 20 people queueing for it's chicken rice/porridge. And all the other stalls neighboring it was relatively empty - essentially swatting flies!. CM just had to find out if the chicken rice was really that great. Honestly..... it wasn't!! Don't understand the fascination of Singaporeans for that chicken rice!.

But the main reason for my presence in Singapore was to help the local training center setup the instruments again after they had been relocated from NUS. The gas plumbing and wiring were a real mess. I named the mess - Spaghetti!! During the re-installation, I found a couple fo instances where the lab could potentially have had a fire hazard. Suffice to say, the quality of work done by the local engineers (and I hope it was the newer ones who had made those mistakes) leaves much to be desired.

Towards the last day of my visit, some of the older local engineers were on hand to help re-install some of the other instruments. I commended one for what I thought was a neat job. He said " I was told to do this to Tam's standard"!!! WTF!!! LOL!!!

Sigh!

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!!

Mid Autumn Festival 2009

Is it me or just a sign of the times? This year's mid autumn festival just don't have that air of expectation. For once, I did NOT buy any mooncakes. Those darn mooncakes have become too commercialized, too darn expensive and while innovative, seems to have lost the meaning of the mid autumn celebration.

I kept hearing this commercial on radio from a company HYT who had re-branded as casahana or something - like they were such an established brand. Most of my friends and I have never heard of this brand!! We see mooncakes made with fillings of durians, jelly, ice cream, and some fillings that were like - yucks!!! Just give me the traditional lotus paste, bean paste and I am happy. Call me old fashion if you like, but nothing taste better than the original.

This year, just like last year, we celebrated at Madeline's in-laws. Just our 2 families. Only difference we had was that instead of the normal scrawny candles, Madeline and I separately opted to use the candles in the aluminum container that is used during Xmas. They last longer (about 4 hours) and that freed our time to do other things.

It was also easy to place them all over the gates and railings.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival everybody

Zheng He Tea House and another day in Malacca

A couple of months ago, Leong T. asked if I could host some visitors from the UK office. They were coming to Malaysia for a holiday. I figured, sure. No problem. So I started communicating with one of them, Tracey B via email to make the arrangements. They took me up on an offer to do a 1 day tour of Malacca.

When 26th Sept came around, I was to pick up the party of 4 (Tracey B. Paul C, Mark and Helen) from Traders Hotel. Couldn't believe that I was so careless. I had NO idea what they looked like. I called Traders to check if Tracey had checked in and was told " she had reserved a room in June, but.... had cancelled". Cor Blimey!!

Luckily Tracey did ask Leong for a photo of me, so she could recognize me. Phew!! Turns out they had booked in under Paul's name. not Tracey's. In addition to the party of 4 from UK, I had also invited Alexandra W to tag along if she wanted to get material for a Malaccan writeup. She accepted and so, including my son, we had 7 for Malacca that Saturday.

I had written about Malacca in general just a couple of weeks ago and so this time, I would like to highlight Zheng He Tea House (pronounced as Jerng Her). The tea house is part of a complex of the Zheng He Cultural museum, the Tea House and a Mazu Temple adjoining the museum.

2 weeks ago, we kind of stumbled upon the tea house when we were walking along Jonker street. We came across this strange entrance that was less than 1m wide, with the grilled locked up. Strange entrance, we thought. There was even a thought that this was an entrance to a brothel or something similar. The narrow walkway stretched about 50m in, with high walls lined with creepers. By the evening at 6pm, the grills are unlocked and a tiny Indian lady invites anyone passing by to step in. And that's how I made a new friend in Malacca - Bianca.

As you walk in, you will pass a room made up like the ship hold, with urns on one side for storage of food and a very tall giraffe on the other (or as one of my friends wrote - "come face to face with the BUTT of a giraffe"). This was to represent the ship that Admiral Zheng He used in his voyages to discover the world in 1421. There is a guided tour of the museum (fee not free) that is arranged by the museum people.

Bianca Pak, her husband, Mr. Laiand 3 kids run the Tea House on behalf of the museum and also takes care of the Mazu temple too (again on behalf of the museum). Unlike that very narrow entrance at the back, the front is a very normal entrance with 2 stone lions guarding it. The entrance to the Mazu temple is locked from the street and entrance is only via the Tea House as the Mazu statue is an antique.

Within the ground floor, you can find a 600 year old well, a huge bronze bell in the courtyard, a puppet theatre which shows the voyages of Admiral Zheng He and another area upstairs that exhibits photos and pictures (free not fee).

For a small fee (RM20 or RM30), you can get a pot of tea, with Bianca and family showing you how to prepare and indulge in Chinese Tea drinking. If you have been like many tourists, walking all over the Stadhuys and Jonker Street for a better part of the day, the Tea House offers a short respite to rest your weary legs while enjoying quality Chinese Tea.

I have just learnt on this visit that there is a 2nd floor (3 floors in total) and neighbors of the museum had only just recently fedback that they have been hearing children playing in the museum past midnite. There had also been instances when the drums were beaten around 3am. BUT...... nobody stays in the museum or tea house when it close for the night!!! The Chinese 7th month (also known as the Month of the Hungry Ghosts) just went by. You go figure.

And for this visit, Alex also made a new 'friend'.