JivaRhu spa massage

masseuse

I just had a very relaxing massage at JivaRhu spa in Tanjung Rhu Resort. Yes, I’m staying here for 3D/2N and I’m lovin’ every single second of it!

jivarhu spa

JivaRhu spa is nested in a quiet corner of the resort and you can feel the breeze from the sea and various birds chirping (not muzak, these are real birds) while you’re served with a cold towel.

jivarhu massage

There are various rejuvenating massages on the menu – everything from Swedish massage to Shiatsu and even exotic sounding ones like Shramonash massage. The 50 minute massage session costs RM 250. I opted for the Malay Traditional Massage (Urut) since I am in Langkawi.

foot massage

This is my masseuse – her name is Irati and she’s from Bali. The session started with a foot bath in warm water. The service here is excellent, you don’t even have to do anything – the masseuse will soak your feet and gently wash and dry it for you.

The Urut massage was great. It started off with the masseuse applying pressure with her nimble fingers…working the knots in your muscles on your back. I asked for more pressure and despite her diminutive size, she managed to apply enough force to loosen all the tension on my shoulders. The session progressed to Irati using her forearm to gently rub along your oiled body down to the spine before moving to your legs and thighs.

Her fingers worked magic and I fell asleep at one point before she woke me up and asked me to turn over. The Urut massage is quite comprehensive, I liked the reflexology elements where the masseuse put your feet up on her shoulders and rubs the soles.

The warm oil and the soft caresses of the masseuse gliding over your skin of your body while the sounds of nature lulls you into a Zen-like state is pure heaven!

I found a baby snake!

baby snake

I was out planting trees yesterday when I spotted what appears to be a fast moving earthworm after shovelling earth into my bucket. I quickly scooped it up for further examination. It moved like a snake instead of an earthworm – it was really fast, slithering instead of contracting.

It has a cute little forked tongue!

small snake

I eventually let it go coz I have no idea what to feed a snake of this size. I wonder what it eats when it’s this small.

Falling off could result in severe injury or death

falling off the wagon

I found this sign hilarious. It was on a buggy (or a wagon, if you will). Falling off (the wagon) could result in severe injury or death. Well, no shit Sherlock!

No dual meanings, I’m still on the wagon but my sleep addled mind is sprouting all sorts of crap which doesn’t even make sense to me.

charity eh

Anyway, I was looking through my BB and found this photo of me and a kid (tween?) in an orphanage the last, last time I did some charity. The previous one was also an orphanage but tomorrow I’ll be doing something different!

2 hour bus ride to an island to plant some trees! I need to wake up early, and yes, that is my cue to stop writing. I’ll update again tomorrow night!

damn sexy tshirt

One last random photo – I love statement tees, but unfortunately all the ones I have are gone due to an unfortunate trip to KK where my baggage was lost. πŸ™

Lobster and clam pasta with mango and bacon wrapped French beans

lobster and clam pasta with mango

This was originally planned as a yee sang cooking session which somehow mutated into a lobster fest. We were at Cold Storage searching for fish when I saw this awesome looking lobster for RM 59.88. It’s bright, colorful and knobby in all the right places. I stood there marveling at the crustacean instead of looking for fish. I was still staring longingly at it when Eiling came out of the pork section.

lobster

Thus, we decided to forgo the fish and went for lobster instead. I was concerned this wouldn’t fit into my pot and contemplated going for Cambodian lobsters instead. Cambodian lobsters are much smaller than regular lobsters, and doesn’t look like it has a lot of meat in it. There’s a live lobster in the fresh seafood area too, for RM 78 but that monster is definitely too big for my pot.

lobster going into pot

Besides, it’s regular red instead of this wonderfully hued lobster. =D

ingredients

Anyway, when there’s Eiling, there’s always wine – she brought along a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Brut and a bottle of Cadet d’Oc by Baron Philippe de Rothchild. This is what we used to cook the CNY (?) meal:

Lobster
Clams (la la)
Streaky bacon
French beans
John West anchovy fillets
San Remo spaghetti
Garlic and parsley infused olive oil
McCormick Season All Salt
Ripe mango

spaghetti

We started off by cooking the spaghetti until it was al dente with lots of McCormick’s Season All Salt. This is drained and left aside while the other dishes were prepared.

french beans

The bacon wrapped French beans is a concoction of Eiling – she shows how it’s done here. The beans are sliced into hors d’oeuvres sized pieces before being dipped in boiling water. Don’t overcook the veggies or it’ll lose the crunchiness!

rolling bacon

It is then rolled in a raw bacon slice.

bacon rolled

This is how we roll in KL. πŸ˜‰

bacon rolls

The bacon rolls are then fried with olive oil on low heat until it cooks. It is important not to overcook it, you don’t want crispy bacon, but something nice and chewy that drips with mouth watering lard.

cooking bacon

Next up: Lobster!

lobster pot

Okay, this motherfucker is a bit of a challenge to put into my pot so I cooked it tail first with the head sticking out. The water is seasoned with LOTS of salt so it would impart some into the lobster (or so my rationale goes).

lobster cooking

The lobster needs to be boiled for about 30 minutes or so – we turned it over to let the head cook and found out that after cooking, it is possible to stuff the entire lobster into the pot!

mango

Take a break and dice the mango at this point. Choose one that is firm, yet sweet and juicy.

clams

The clams go in last since they’re quite easy to cook. Make sure your lovely crustacean is cooked before you chuck in the clams. I have no idea how long you should cook it, we just guesstimated and it worked out very well!

You should reheat the pasta at this point – we used the broth from the lobster and the clams to reheat it, and it really imparts some flavor into the spaghetti!

aglio olio

Now it’s time to make the aglio olio sauce for the spaghetti. Remember the frying pan you used to cook the bacon wrapped beans in? That’s perfect as a base due to the flavors imparted by the streaky bacon. Just add in the infused olive oil and pour in a bit of the anchovy fillet grease and you’re set!

fried lala

Dump the clams into the aglio olio sauce, fry it for a bit and pour the mixture onto your pasta!

serve

Don’t forget your anchovies to add a bit of zing (salt) into your spaghetti!

anchovies

Eiling was a bit doubtful about the addition of mangos into the dish but I managed to convince her that it’ll taste great. It did!

lobster and clam pasta with mango final

I really loved the lobster – it came out just nice, and the flesh is sweet and juicy. Digging into the lobster’s head and eating the stuff inside is pure heaven.

french beans rolled in bacon

The bacon rolled French beans were great – the beans are crunchy and fresh while the bacon was done just right. The mango cubes worked very well too, providing a sweet and juicy burst of nectar which goes very well with the lobster and clam pasta.

lobster tail

There’s a saying that all the meat in lobster is in the tail and I agree…but all the taste is in the head of the lobster!

Purchasing probabilities

4d

A burning urge to buy 4D overwhelmed me as I was sitting at home just now. Sunday is a draw day so I decided to get my ass out of Park and drive out to SS2. I got several numbers, including various permutations on 24XX (alas didn’t think to go for XX24).

I also went for the 4D Jackpot with two separate numbers, which obviously didn’t win the RM 28 mil grand prize. Putting it close to the yee sang dish didn’t work. >.< I didn’t even get close – those wouldn’t be the digits I would have gone for. 1065? WTF? I get low probability numbers like 6661 (triple repeating – website says last time THAT came out was in 2003).

I don’t believe in stuff like this but according to the gurus behind numerology, 6661 is the dream symbol for…

karma

Yep, karma. πŸ˜‰

There is no spoon

spoon

This is supposed to be a much longer post with a lot of photos and videos but after much thought I decided it was best to pull the reins until the reincarnation of The Other Blog Which Shall Not Be Named. πŸ˜‰

Why would someone subject an innocent spoon to high temperatures on a stove?

Good times in Sibu during CNY.

Fat Mum

fat mum

Fat Mum Coffee Shop is practically an institution in Sibu. It caters primarily to people from the clubbing scene wanting to get some grub in their stomach before they head home for the night. They close relatively early compared to the other establishments like the one below Today Hotel (5-6 am) but it’s a great place to eat what you would dub dai chow in KL in the wee hours of the night.

fat mum coffee shop

This place is strictly for those who observe the closing hours of nightspots. Fat Mum’s kitchen closes at 1:30 am while the others stay open till 5 am. I think their rationale is to attract the ethanol brothers instead of the chemical brothers – the latter being more apt to party late and be rowdy.

fat mum kitchen

It has a simple kitchen setup and while the food isn’t anything to write home about, it does the job. You head to Fat Mum coz you want to soak up the alcohol you’ve consumed with rice and dishes, not coz you’re up for some fine dining at 1 am in the morning.

fat mum owner

Meet the owner!

fat mum food

Fat Mum was still very packed at 2 am, perhaps they made an exception for CNY since I don’t remember them opening this late last time.

fat mum dinner

The best thing about Fat Mum is that like all other dai chow places, you can STILL drink while eating supper. It also features Sibu prices, dinner for four inclusive of beer is only RM 62. Heh!

Two weddings

four seasons

This 4 seasons dish in a boat is more unwieldy that it appears to be. One of my friends turned the Lazy Susan and the bow of the boat immedietely spilled Coke all over another guest. Haha!

smk methodist

This CNY, I went to two wedding receptions on the 3rd day. The first one is a school mate’s – Ita and Constantine’s wedding.

ita constantine

This is the happy couple!

aaron

This is Jesse, Ita’s brother. I drank 3 glasses of Chivas neat in a row with him in commemoration with his sister’s wedding.

doris wong

Oh and strangely enough I met Doris Wong who works in KL. Okay, it is quite difficult to describe our relationship – she knows my ex-girlfriend (the one who’s name is inked on my arm), is related to Ita, and we’ve only chatted on Facebook. She’s in an agency too – similar line of work, and I was quite surprised to see someone smiling at me and dredged my memory to remember who the fuck that is while at the same time not wanting to appear rude. Sorry Doris! It was good finally meeting you! πŸ™‚

4 seasons

I think I was still tipsy when I went to my cousin’s wedding later that night. I only capture the first dish – four seasons, coz that’s the BEST dish, hands down, at every Chinese wedding reception no?

cousin

My cousin (from my mother’s side) and her husband.

Yam seng!

sixthseal.com wishes all a Happy CNY!

firecrackers

Yes, it’s that time of the year again, with reunions, pressing questions thinly disguised as guises for getting you hitched, and the liberal firecrackers.

firecrackers CNY

I’ve used up all my firecrackers at night but I wanted to get a morning shot – this is the classic mass produced firecrackers – not the fast and furious ones that comes in a reasonably roundish shape. I got this from my friend Ting Chuan who has a lot of spares around his house.

It’s fun to let it off anyway, didn’t need to go hunting for a pole, we do it the old skool way – that is to say, on the fucking floor. I also got quite bored with this slow burning firecrackers which leaves an equal amount of mess. I pity the maid. πŸ˜‰

firecrackers banner

The banner fell off when the larger firecrackers exploded but fuck it la, not superstitious that way.

Happy CNY to all the readers of sixthseal.com whether you celebrate it or not, coz when you think about it, it’s not about 1Malaysia, but MORE HOLIDAYS, something we can ALL relate to eh? πŸ˜‰

Chinese New Year in Sibu

chinese new year reunion dinner

Chinese New Year in Sibu is unfailingly celebrated by the liberal ignition of various combustible materials packaged in the form of firecrackers and fireworks. The Lunar New Year is literally heralded in with the people’s version of the 21 gun salute.

This is the view from my house:

Fireworks at midnight to usher in Chinese New Year 2010. I live in a fairly active neighbourhood so you can see the enthusiasm of the people resulting in a cloud of rolling smoke covering the area.

You’ll be hard pressed to see from the man made fog at this point but true to the spirit of my hometown, a police cruiser rolls down the street, giving various warnings to no effect. There’s just too many Chinese in Sibu and it’s been our tradition since time immemorial (oh well, since I was born at least) to let it rip during CNY.

With the police settled, feel free to entertain yourself with the sound of firecrackers and the lovely sight of fireworks from the balcony of my family home.

One last encore.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Gong Xi Fatt Chai and all that. w00t!

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