Malaysia, My Home, Our Land~!

Thank you Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes for your brilliant work in birthing AirAsia with the tag motto of 'Now Everyone Can Fly'. No matter what others say about AirAsia, I only have praises to sing to AirAsia. Never late for any flight I was in. Thank you once again. 

It's the time of the year where we head out of the island, flying to the capital of Malaysia. We read in the newspaper that it's advisable to be at the airport two to three hours before for domestic flight. Thus, we make it a point to be early and there was no crowd at all at the airport. So we ended up being too early thus, the photo taking session. I was walking around, leaving the hubby to snooze on the chair. He's so comfortable he can sleep anywhere. I was looking for a bottle of mineral water and I found Dunkin Donuts selling bottled drinks. A 500ml bottle of Spritzer cost RM4.15. I told the cashier that I would continue fasting since it's still the month of Ramadhan.

My precious brought along her school work. I did not ask her to bring any of those. I did not even know she brought them along. She's big enough already so I no longer pack her luggage for her. She decides what she wants and there... her assignments tagged along. Hubby and I were betting that she wouldn't get anything done on a holiday. Hehehehe.... we were partially right~!

I did not book any window seat as I thought we've seen more than enough of Malaysia from the sky above. But the passenger beside me found it quite troublesome to get into his window seat since we were already well seated in our B and C seats so he decided to sit behind us at the aisle seat. Thank you for that. Greatly appreciate the opportunity to view Malaysia from above once again. That's the first Penang Bridge. As the plane soars above, my pride soars with it. I am really proud to be a Malaysian. Greatly honoured to be able to call this our home, our land. It is really beautiful.

Shall we just put the political scenes behind and just take in the beauty of this land. We are indeed blessed compared to other countries which have to make use of whatever's thrown to them. Our education may not be top notch, but don't forget that our students are not hardworking and do not take the initiative to learn. We're blessed with plenty of food, with all kinds of cuisines from all over the world. Malaysia is well-known now whether for a good cause or for all the wrong reasons.

A decade ago, many people who has never travel abroad thought that Malaysia belongs to one of Singapore's cities, now you know that Malaysia is a country on its own when our plane vanished into thin air, then our plan was shot down and you might have also heard of our political circus washing their dirty linens for all to see. As I look down on this land called Malaysia, I'm still proud to be living in it. I don't plan to migrate. I love this place. It's a hot country so I tend to stay indoor to avoid the scorching sun. 

That's the backbone of Peninsular Malaysia, the Titiwangsa Ranges which covered a few states with different peaks. I've driven across it, went up to two of its peaks and it's beautiful no matter what you say. There are bad people in Malaysia. There are bad people everywhere. One person's mistake should not kill off the good in others. To those who like the Chinese to get out, please don't do that. We were born and bred here. Where do you want us to go? It's very selfish to say that this land belongs to one race only. Didn't we contribute to the wealth of this nation as well? Our ancestors were buried here as well. By right, this land belongs to the Orang Asli. They came before everyone else yet they have been sidelined.

It's the Raya holidays and I booked an evening flight ticket because hubby and my precious were supposed to be in school in the morning. Well, the education ministry came out with the news that it's holiday for Wednesday but I couldn't do anything already as my tickets have been booked. If not I would have flew early in the morning. That's the second Kuala Lumpur International Airport, a big piece of an airport.

KL Food Hunt: Paradise Inn at Sunway Pyramid...

 We were in Sunway Pyramid to get to our Aeroline bus. The bus was suppose to go off at 5:30pm but we were about 40 minutes earlier. So, we were contemplating whether to try out Texas Chicken. We were really full to the brim thus, we decided to walk around. We got enticed by an advertisement outside a Chinese restaurant, one of the sister restaurants of Paradise Dynasty.

 The giant abacus and the giant bowl seduced me to enter. Really got China's Chinese mentality of everything gigantic in size. I like~!

I like lights don't ask me why. It's the same thing of being obsessed with shoes and handbags which I'm not obsessed with.

Actually we saw that steamed pork belly bun being advertised with extra discount for tea time. We didn't realize that the advertisement was also of China's Chinese mentality of think big~! Come to think of it, the advertisement was actually bigger than us. When the steamed pork belly bun came to us, it was kinda disappointing because the plate was big but the bun was really small. Yeah, what was I expecting? I don't know what I was expecting but the advertisement outside was so huge. *sigh* I got tricked by advertisement.

It came with a bowl of dessert. It was something with mango. At first we thought it must be some sort of custard base pudding. I'm not very adventurous with food. I pushed the bowl to my precious first. She took a mouthful and her face just lighted up like a light bulb~! She was it was really very good. Facial expression will never lie. If the food was so-so, my precious will be expressionless. If the food was horrible, she will just push the whole thing to my hubby. Hubby like rubbish bin. Anything any of us doesn't it, he will save the food from going to the rubbish dump. After finishing our so-called tea, we had 15 more minutes before the bus leave us for good. But I wanted to try something else, like soup. The waitress quickly gave us the menu for soup and my eyes caught sight of double-boiled soup. I have no idea what the heck double boiling was at that point of time. I didn't even know I have double-boiler with me all these years~!!!!

I couldn't really understand why this pot of the double-boiled soup must cost so much. What's inside that made it so expensive. The waitress said the soup was double-boiled for many hours. I didn't understand why must the soup be double-boiled for so long and what on earth was the meaning of double boiling? Hubby said something like steaming but without the steam. Hubby is my walking dictionary and also my kitchen encyclopedia but I thought he's talking nonsense that day.

I told hubby I must dig out what's inside the soup that made it so expensive. Got few pieces of babi meat, got few pieces of pumpkin.

Three chicken feet. Odd pair... can't run away... so sad. I remembered there were dried oysters used and a lot more Chinese herbs listed on the menu. I didn't bother to take a picture of the menu or else I could go home and double-boil my own Chinese herbal soup. 

The three of us needed so many bowl just to drink a small pot of soup. The waiter and waitress were very kind and understanding. The soup was really hot so while we were sipping our first bowl, the waiter poured the rest into different bowls so that it would cool down faster. They're so kind. Unlike some waiters who would refuse to give you even an empty plate or extra pair of chopsticks. I didn't want to rush into finishing the expensive soup so fast. I wanted to take small sips. We made it to the bus :D

Now, I truly understand what makes double-boiled soup expensive. I came back and for the first time in my life I realized that  I actually do have a double boiler. My precious' mom sent us a Eu Yang Sang's hamper during the Chinese New Year. There were instructions for double-boiling the soup. The best ginseng soup I've ever tasted. It took me 4 hours to double-boil the soup. Other than ginseng there were dried red dates, dried longan and chicken meat added. The ingredients were not expensive. Trust me. I've bought a few Chinese herbal ingredients from the Chinese drug store and there were only a few Ringgit but after boiling the soup for 4 hours, I would charge you RM600 for one bowl. It's not because it's hardwork. There's no human energy involve in waiting for the soup to be double-boiled but human sanity is involve here. During that 4 hours, you can't go anywhere. Can't even take a nap. I was so afraid I might burn down the whole house if I leave it. I could only sit on my piano and started playing random songs until my neighbours became deaf. The piano room is just at the kitchen. Yeah, if you can't cook then you'll have to pay for others. Now, that I can cook, I'm not willing to pay others who serve me food with no standard.

KL Food Hunt: Paradise Dynasty in Bangsar Village...

While walking aimlessly in Bangsar Village, we finally stopped upon seeing this Legend of Xiao Long Bao. We were full from Three Little Pigs but we just had to have those xiao long baos.

We were seated in one corner and while waiting for our baos, I played with the camera first. 

Nice place. We like Chinese cuisine anytime... if we didn't chance upon the Three Little Pigs, I would really like to have my lunch at Paradise Dynasty. After around 15 minutes, the steam basket came to our table.

I love colours especially those eye-catching colours. No doubt the shape of the xiao long baos look like the cartoon drawn 'shit', the colours made them cute.

Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao...

Original Xiao Long Bao...

Szechuan Xiao Long Bao...

Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao...

Ginseng Xiao Long Bao...

Cheesy Xiao Long Bao...

Garlic Xiao Long Bao...

Black Truffle Xiao Long Bao...

That's all... one for each different flavour. The three of us took a bite and passed the spoon around. Then, we quickly leave the place when it started raining cats and dogs. Outside of Bangsar Village became like a monsoon drain with lots of water. Scary... we did not want to be caught in a flash flood, missed our bus *our first time taking bus to KL* 

KL Food Hunt: Three Little Pigs & The Big Bad Wolf at Bangsar Village...

It was our last day in Kuala Lumpur. I Googled out three shopping malls and asked my precious to choose. She decided on Bangsar Village so we left Kuchai City Hotel and hailed a taxi to take us straight there. No point searching for buses. We didn't have time for buses. 

When we were walking towards the building, instead of heading straight to the main entrance, we were drawn to this grey door with those 'Three Little Pigs' wording. We were wondering what kinda place was that. We know about the Big Bad Wolf book sales but if they are selling books, why were the books non-halal? 

 The moment we pushed the door opened, the whole place looked so classy and we were both saying,"Oh, no~!" Yeah, oh no.... we're going to overspend. My precious thought that we should just walk out but then we were attracted to the piggies drawn with chalk on the wall. 

 We were seated at the nearest table, served by a really friendly Filipina. She gave us the menu and even the menu was attractive with a burger-menu bookmark.

 There were two chapters in the book and then because we were so hungry, I gave green light to overspending. Just order without looking at the price. And with that, my precious went ahead and ordered something really simple....

 ... such as the pumpkin soup. I was banging my head against the wall, in my imagination. I came back and made her a whole pot of pumpkin soup.

 Then, my precious ordered salmon with bacon sliced spaghetti with a poached egg which cost roughly more than RM30. When we reached home, I started grilling bacon and salmon. Since it's so much money spent already, why not have a hearty meal, according to the hubby.

 We liked that corner as well. While waiting for our food to arrive, we kept ourselves busy first.

The Soft Shelled Crab Burger...

Three Little Pigs may serve common spaghetti dishes but they served the best burgers. McJu from Yen's Kitchen bowed out the moment Three Little Pigs' epic epicurean burgers were served on the table. They were the best I've tasted. The soft-shelled crab burger was in the common menu though. Hubby loves soft-shelled crab... 

The Gladiator...

That's the Gladiator burger with pork burger. Those were not buns but macaroni with cheese made into the form of buns. There were the best of the best that I've ever had. No regrets. Thank God we didn't walk out of the place. 

The Emperor...

A double patty burger with ham and pork bolognaise. We shared those burgers among ourselves. Should have just ordered differently then I could wallop the whole burger. I don't intend to try making these at home. I just wanted to enjoy that moment.

Day 11: Southern Most Point in Taiwan...

~ 24th March 2014~

We were so excited to know that we were at the southern most point of the island. A 500m walk was quite short enough. There were many dead corals along the way in.

That was really huge. Was that just a rock going through the weathering process or was that really an old coral being lifted up during the quake? Couldn't remember what our driver told us. Our driver was kind quiet and I just wished my understanding in Chinese wasn't that poor.

That's the southern most point, yeah, pointing southwards. I don't really know what's that symbol. It's just a sharp point, pointing towards the sky.

There's no sandy beach but just rocky coast. We were okay with that but we really wanted to feel the Pacific Ocean, see how cold the water was and how clear the water would be. For a second, I was tempted to jump over and made a beeline to the water. I was civilized enough not to do that.

You know, when we were there we were so excited because we got to stand at the end of the island-country. Come to think about it, I've stood in many coastlines of Penang Island yet I did not feel the same excitement. Looks like it rings true that in a foreign land, you get excited looking at the different shapes of the dustbins, while our dustbin will always be that hideous green bin~!

KL Food Hunt: Welly Restaurant in Kuchai Lama...

Our first night in Kuchai Lama. Again, supper time. That's hubby standing there. None of us could read a single word of Chinese but we could speak so we were just asked the uncle to bring us whatever's left since he's about to clean up. I learn a thing or two from the uncle like the art of velveting the meat before dumping them into the boiling soup.

The best claypot braised pork....

Also nicer than Penang's bah kut teh....

Me like this drunken chicken~!

KL Food Hunt: Kotaro Sushi at Pearl Point

We just reached Kuchai Lama and we needed food badly. I was quite undecided what to eat until we reached Pearl Point beside Pearl International Hotel. I saw a Japanese restaurant from downstairs and I knew I needed that. We couldn't find the escalator leading to it because we were not familiar with the building but I was adamant enough to get to that Japanese restaurant. There... there.... finally.... Kotaro Sushi... 

Sushi is not something I will want but those were really good....

My favourite chuka idako...

A huge bowl of ramen which Stefy insisted of having...

I love this kinda sushi without seaweed...

My kind of grilled squid... can do it myself now :D

Soft shell crab sushi....

Deep fried soft shell crab for the hubby...

Tuna sashimi.... nicer than salmon according to me...