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!!

London and Paris - a new perspective

Had a wonderful 11 days in London and Paris and immensely enjoyed it. More so since Elaine C also joined my family and I in our holidays. Having her along meant a slight change in the normal things we did. In all our travels, all our schedule was set by me with little or no input from the wife. My son would only have a few places to go to, like London Dungeon. With Elaine, we also put in a few days of shopping in London and Paris as there was the Christmas sales, the Boxing Day sales and end of year sales. We literally walked till we almost dropped.

My sister has a 2 room house in Walthamstow and all four of us (wife, son, Elaine and I) took up one room in front. this room has the best view as it overlooks the forest reserve and in the wee hours of the morning, you can see the foxes wandering around. Some of the convenience that we are used to had to have some adjustments. For example, there is only one bathroom and one toilet. So bath time was one long waiting session.

For friends and friend of friends, you would probably have seen my photo narrative on facebook, so I am not going to duplicate that here.

It has been a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for the company Elaine. I hope you enjoyed the holiday as much as we did.

London in December 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May all of you have a Blessed Christmas and may the new year be one that is filled with Health, Wealth, Happiness and Peace (not necessarily in that order!!)

For the first time (in a very long time that I can remember), we are spending Christmas away from home. My wife, son and God daughter Elaine C joined me in London for the Xmas week. We are crashing out in my sister's house in Walthamstow. I have also planned 2 days in Paris and am keeping my fingers crossed that Eurostar is back to normal before we depart to Paris on the 28th!.

We flew L class on MAS, which I dub the Low class, since there are so many restrictions on the ticket. To make up for that, I had 4 vouchers to access the business lounge. 2 were courtesy of CIMB and 2 were redeemed from MAS Enrich points. So we all had breakfast in the lounge before the flight.

For Elaine, this is here first trip to London or that part of the world and she was certainly bored during the 13 hours it took to get to London. Now she knows she will need something to occupy her for the trip home.

So far (I am into day 5 today on Christmas Day) it has been drizzling or snowing except for one day. I was almost hopeful for a White Christmas!! But that was not to be. It's a nice chilly morning today and much of the snow has melted or washed away by the rain. Darn. Still, it was great to have been able to capture the landscape blanketed with snow. Alex even managed to make his first snowman (looking more like a snow alien).

Ah well, I think that is enough to hang you up high and dry wondering what else we did.

Updates later - Xmas lunch is almost ready.

Xmas around the shopping malls in KL

Christmas and Chinese New Year are when the shopping malls are beautifully decorated. There is some level of decorations during Deepavali (or Divali) and Hari Raya Puasa (or Eidil Fitri), but they do not look as nice as during Xmas or CNY. Maybe that's coz I am bias!!.

For this year, I took photos at

Sunway Pyramid. They had some kind of a French theme for this year. A lion was walking around with 2 pretty girls giving out sweets. I think it was a lion from one of the food snacks sponsor. Santa was everywhere. This particular Santa shakes around a bit when triggered by sound. It should be a good advertisement for exercise as the belt seems to have fallen off due to excessive exercise!!

Then there was The Curve - along with Ikano Power Center and the other parts linked together. I like the centerpiece of The Curve - colorful and full of Xmas trees!! Even their tenants decorated their premises, like the one shown here- at The Marche.

Mid Valley Megamall and The Gardens was just as nicely decorated. The Gardens had a bird cage theme. I also noticed bird cages sold all over the place in KL. Mid Valley had a more fairy tale setting, with castle, hanging candles and even fairies walking around for shoppers to take photos. They also had a stage in front of the castle to accommodate shows- like a fashion show by Elle. The number of pro/ semi-pro and amateur photographers was astounding!! One guy opened his bag to prepare his gear and you can see that it was a dedicated bag just to hold all his paraphernalia.

Last but not least, I heard that The Pavilion was quite attractive. It was not bad with attractions both inside and outside the shopping complex. We arrived around 5pm because I heard that most of the attractions would be lit after 6pm. By 7pm, the place was crowded - almost impossible to get a photo without a bunch of strangers in the background! At 8pm, they even had pseudo snow generated. I wouldn't want to stand under a bunch of soap bubbles being spewed from about 5 stories up!! and the floor became very slippery after that.

One last comment. I like the standardized cart that Famous Amos put up. I saw the same thing at the Curve and at Mid Valley.

Shanghai !! Oh Shanghai!!

I was in Shanghai during the last week of November - for work, not pleasure. On the day I was supposed to leave, I heard that Elaine C's brother was tested positive for H1N1 and he was just back from Shanghai!! Not wanting to take any chances of disrupting my plans for the end of the year, I wore a mask all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai. I only removed the mask after dinner and when I was back in my hotel room. Call me paranoid, but better to be safe than sorry. I had enough masks to last me 2 weeks!

The trip was a training trip to learn up a new instruments that we were introducing. I was on a train-the-trainer as I had committed to deliver the training in March next year. There was this girl that I have known since she was knee high to a grasshopper (okay okay - since she was a baby). She is married now and stays in Shanghai with her mum and 2 kids. Charmaine's hubby works in another province and is home only on weekends (i.e. a weekend husband). The reason they stay in Shanghai is because that province does not have an International school for the kids.

Life is not too bad for Charmaine. She got her driver to pick me up from the hotel, went to her apartment for dinner and then had the driver send me back. 2 weeks before my visit, her Malaysian cousins visited her too and spruced up the place with a lot of live flowers and plants.

It must have been at least 2 years since my last visit to the factory in Shanghai. There were some new faces and a whole bunch of old ones. I am glad they still remembered me. At one time, there were 4 of my previous reports in the same room. It just goes to show that organizational relationships can and will change with time. I also managed to FINALLY meet up with another lady who helps me in my work. Pham - if you are reading this and you want to know who is Helen Sun and what she looks like - tah dah!!!

And Mark P. was in Shanghai a few days earlier than me - conducting interviews for Khoo WK's replacement.

Last but not least - I managed to meet up with my "niang" on the first day before she disappeared to Beijing. Niang means mum in Chinese. How did this lady become my niang? It happened about 2.5 years ago when both of us were on a high achiever trip sponsored by the company. She had brought her daughter along for the cruise from Singapore to Phuket and back and her daughter just took an instant liking to me and stuck to me throughout the trip..

That's how I got a "niang" much younger than me!!

One last comment - Shanghai is not a destination you want to go to now. Most of the tourist spots are under going renovations in preparations for EXPO 2010 which will happen from May 2010. The bund is a mess!! The old temple complex next to the Yu Yuan gardens has half the shops closed for renovations. Even the famous Nanxiang Xiao Loong Bao has half it's capacity as they work on upgrading the restaurant.

Be fore-warned!