Month: June 2010

Malevolent Magnum 4D

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Malevolent Magnum 4D

Magnum 4D is a game of chance where odds are heavily stacked against you. It is very insidious in that you can easily spend RM 3,000 in a single week for three draws without even realizing how ludicrous it is to go for such long (and desperate odds).

I must admit, I spent close to RM 1,000 on the last two draws (Sunday and special draw Tuesday). I usually bet RM 50 for each number coz anything less would just be sad considering the amount I’ve lost. You don’t even feel the cash drain unlike in casinos coz of the high jackpot prizes. I would describe it as life changing even – imagine putting RM 50 on Small for two numbers that came out in the top three.

You’ll be raking in:

RM 175,000 for the first prize
RM 100,000 for the second prize

in addition to the jackpot which is usually around RM 12,000,000.

12 million is is a life changing amount, which is what draws people in. Hell, even winning ONE prize without jackpot would more than cover my losses.

However, after a week of this I decided it was unwise and spread my bets – RM 20 Small for each number. It still ran up RM 400+ each draw despite getting only 13 numbers coz of the Jackpot option, which will rack up RM 156 for 78 possible pairs in addition to the 13 x RM 20.

I didn’t get any for today (you can purchase in advance during the weekends) and I’m glad coz none of my numbers came out. Oh, and photo taken using the Sony Cyber-shot TX-5.

NO MORE GAMBLING. Not even 4D. Hmph!

Do you have a shy bladder?

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taking the piss

I don’t. I can piss anywhere. In full view of incoming traffic. At the urinal while chatting with the guy beside me (much to his discomfort, I’m sure). Hell, I’ve even let loose from a penthouse suite in the balcony once in Melbourne. Contrary to popular belief (as most Asians who haven’t truly met Caucasians and think they are the epitome of the Son of God incarnated) it’s quite common to take a leak in an alley. It’s not “an uncultured Malaysian thing” (sorry to disappoint you girls, you just haven’t met that many Caucasians if you think that) but something that happens all over the world.

However, do you think it is culturally acceptable over here to piss like a racehorse when there are no toilets in sight?

A bad case of the flu

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flu meds

I’m currently coughing my lungs out, running a fever and feeling like crap due to this flu that I caught. It’s a good thing I followed my doctor’s orders and did not fly to Melbourne coz:

1. I might get quarantined (which won’t be fun)
2. This is just going to get worse (and she was right)

That was just the start of the flu, it’s been getting worse since then. I can’t eat anything coz I have no appetite and I’ll just throw it back up and my body aches everywhere – even in places I didn’t know exist!

fluhalt

I’m also being prescribed Tamiflu (generic oseltamivir made by Ranbaxy called FluHalt) as a precaution against H1N1. Photo taken using Sony Cyber-shot TX-5. I like this one, even though it makes me nauseous, it really helps in the body aches.

I hope I don’t have H1N1 though – that’s like so passe. It would be interesting if I was Patient Zero in a new influenza subtype from rats (kinda like the black death) from my rodent eating activities. 90% mortality rate and all that. Now that would be something new.
smirk

RM 4 chap fan – will cause food poisoning

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ss2 chap fan stall

There’s this place in SS2 that serves chap fan and since I was there, I decided to go for it. Note that the chap fan has:

Curry chicken drumlet
Lots of pork ribs
Even more pork belly
A fried egg

ss2 chap fan selections

Now, this is pretty cheap considering that I’m used to paying RM 10 for chap fun at my favorite outlet in SS6. However, the pork belly here leaves me wanting (it does not have the liberal hand that shakes the MSG, salt and starch from the good chef at SS6). All photos taken with the Sony Cyber-shot TX-5. I had food poisoning after that to boot.

ss2 chap fan

Anyway, I will be going to Melbourne tomorrow night. It’s technically Saturday since the flight is at 1 am but for all intents and purposes, it’s Friday night. As usual, I’m flying by the seat of my pants – haven’t packed, don’t have accommodation (fell through due to parental visit), but hey, what’s an adventure if not going to Australia with just my meagre savings without a place to stay?

Yup, if you said IT’S AN ADVENTURE, you’ll be 110% correct. 😉

Yangshuo beer fish

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yangshuo beer fish restaurant

Yangshuo is famous for beer fish – a local specialty that is cooked with lots of chillis, garlic, peppers and of course BEER! The fish is called Li River fish (another must-try if you go to Guilin) although I don’t know exactly what type of fish that is.

yangshuo view

I went to a rather touristy place to sample this awesome dish so I can’t vouch for the authenticity of it. The view is great though and we were each given a RMB 50 coupon to dine on. I was the only person traveling alone in that Li River cruise tour and this girl Kiko who was there with her mom and dad was kind enough to wave me over to share their table.

chinese menu

WHY DO THE MENUS ONLY HAVE CHINESE CHARACTERS?

yangshuo tofu

I left the ordering to them since I can’t read anything but I managed to order beer fish and beer to go along with it (it’s the perfect combo). It is obvious I didn’t do the ordering coz here you have tofu. REAL TOFU. As in the kind that comes without anything to somewhat mask the inherent tastelessness of tofu.

yangshuo shoots chicken

This is a vegetable dish cooked with chicken. It consists primarily of shoots and it’s not too bad but I’m not a huge fan of vegetables.

yangshuo local fern

Now this is an interesting one – it’s a local fern gathered in Yangshuo by the locals. It tasted bitter but I found it quite interesting and ate quite a bit of this. I think the fact that it’s indigenous to Yangshuo made me go against my vegetable principals.

kiko

This is Kiko. She’s with an MNC and was based in Malaysia for a bit.

yangshuo beer fish

I always leave the best for the last so here I present to you the famous Yangshuo Beer Fish!

yangshuo tea

You can actually taste the malt and hops from the beer fish and it surprisingly adds a lot to the taste of the tender and succulent Li River fish. The gravy was so good I drizzled it over my rice, which apparently is not compliant with the etiquette of Chinese dining, along with my propensity for sticking my chopsticks into the rice bowl. smirk

beer fish

I can’t remember how much the bill was but we had to top up about RMB 100 (about RM 50). I offered to pay since I was the only one who ordered beer (although Kiko and her dad drank it too) but they won’t have anything to do with that. I had to literally force my Yuan into the hands of the waitress, to the protests of the family and a lot of back and forth before I escorted the waitress away with my Yuan.

yangshuo beer fish end

That’s Chinese culture for you. Heh! Anyway, the family is not from around here too – they’re visiting from Guangzhou and their family was kind enough to ask me to visit anytime and they’ll be my tour guide (and a place to stay). w00t! I’ll be going after my Melbourne trip. 🙂

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant

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Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant is not located in Pangkor but it sure seems like it. It’s nestled somewhere deep within the recesses of Subang and is Aud‘s regular stomping grounds. The proprietor there even knows her coz her family eats there so often.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant interior

I am told this eating establishment offers extremely good curry fish head. The place is full of patrons digging into dinner and the four of us managed to find a table in the restaurant. There is an al freso area and an indoor dining section and most of the tables can be seen with the flagship curry fish head.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant Spinach with Garlic

This is Spinach with Garlic – which I tried to eat more of, considering I’m not exactly the embodiment of healthy living. It’s RM 8 for a small dish and RM 10 for a large one. I can’t comment much about vegetables, since I never clicked on the Like button on this particular food group ever since I was a kid.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant Honey Soy Chicken

Moving on to the meat of the post, this is the Honey Soy Chicken (RM 15, 20, 25 for S, M, L). It is endorsed by Ho Chiak as the sticker on the menu proclaims loudly (if words can talk that is). I found this rather good – the taste and texture is spot on. Sorry I stole all the good bits of the chicken. smirk

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant Fried Homemade Beancurd with Minced Chicken

The next dish is the Fried Homemade Beancurd with Minced Chicken (RM 10 for small, RM 15 for large). Beancurd to me belongs to the tofu group which I am not particularly fond of either. However, this dish surprised me with the exquisitely tender beancurn contrasted with the lean chicken meat. The gravy does the dish much justice too. I used Gourmet Mode on my Sony Cyber-shot TX-5 to take all the photos in this post.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head dish

Now this is the highlight of the meal – Curry Grouper Fish Head! It’s also bears the prominent lips, teeth and tongue logo of Ho Chiak and I stand here as witness that this is really good curry fish head.

There is no santan (coconut milk) added to the curry fish head – it’s cooked the Proper Way (TM). The price ranges from RM 28 – RM 75 depending on the portion. I liked the tender and succulent fish but the best part about this tai chow place’s signature dish is the curry sauce.

Pangkor Curry Fish Head

You can practically eat a plate of steamed rice with the curry alone – the medley of spices produces an opus of epicurean delight on your taste buds!

Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant can be a little hard to find so I’m going to list down the GPS coordinates:

N 03º 04′ 40.5″
E 101º 35′ 18.8″

I saved it so I can come here to eat the curry fish head again. You know the best thing about Pangkor Curry Fish Head Restaurant? It’s not only fucking good but it’s halal to boot!

How I got duped in China

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a.k.a. Monks with psychology degrees

china temple

Okay, I knew it was a tourist trap since it was one of the stops of the Li River Cruise. I wasn’t going to buy any of that crap anyway but since I was in a holiday mood and in high spirits (pun intended – was carrying a bottle of their Sweet Osmanthus Wine) I went in anyway.

joss stick

I picked one of them joss sticks (apparently they have this ritual where guys use their right hands but girls use their left hands) and it was tabulated against a book of sorts where I was given a piece of paper.

That paper, according to the people behind and ahead of me was Very Good (TM).

paper

Personally, I think the monk who attended to me is Excellent (TM). He must have a doctorate in Psychology from some Ivy League school. That or he’s just one of those who’s good in profiling people (NSA would do well to hire from this temple).

He just asked me how old I am and what I wanted to know. I answered career and romantic relationships (in that order).

laughing buddha

He looked at me and said:

I am a very ambitious person
I do not like to work for people
I abhor authority
It would be good for me to strike out on my own this year

I am not ready to settle down
I want marriage but cannot find someone that I can really connect with
Settle my career and the relationships would come along

I was a bit taken aback by all this profiling but I after a bit of thought it’s a no brainer:

I came alone to China – rules out relationships
My age and demeanour – obviously I am working and most people resent having to answer to a boss (I know everyone has a boss yadda yadda)
Striking out on your own – that’s what everyone wants, he’s just telling you what you WANT to hear

temple altar

Since I was nodding at all the right times, he rightly profiled me as a sucker and led me to a donation box. I was asked to donate RMB 300 at least. It’s either RMB 300, RMB 600 or RMB 900. I said no, but as a gesture of goodwill, I will give RMB 200 (which is about RM 100). I did that not just to go against the numbers but he has also said some things about me that I didn’t reveal and I’m still trying to figure out how he managed to profile that. smirk

He gave me this doohickey that I’m supposed to keep in my wallet for 3 days before taking it out. I forgot all about it and only remembered when I saw the imprint on my wallet.

Well, guess what? Right after I took it out, I lost RM 35,000. Lucky year my ass.

Disclaimer: I do not believe in organized religion. I would call myself an agnostic but one with ties to Christianity subtype Protestant genus Methodist. That is the official denomination of my family but I’m the only one who does not believe in a God per se. You know how it goes, using religion as a crutch. As the Scottish proverb goes “Danger past, God forgotten“. 😉

hello god

Hello God? Is that you speaking to me? I’m going to have to ask you to speak louder coz I can’t hear what you’re saying. smirk

The entire process of eating rat in China

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eating rat

This is a rat. It’s a rodent, but I can’t figure out if it’s a vole, guinea pig, bandicoot rat, Sikkim rat, Lesser rice-field rat or Tanezumi rat coz all rats looks the same to me.

It’s rather large, as you can see by the size of the motherfucker. I searched high and low to eat the infamous rat in Guilin, China and finally managed to get to the damn rodent.

poor rat

The best thing about China is that you can watch the entire process!

scalding rat

…which might be unsavory for all you PETA tree-hugging types, as they first club the poor rodent you choose for dinner to oblivion. BAD RAT! BAD!

…before weighing it (all the better to charge you with).

…and pouring scalding hot water all over it (just to make sure it’s proper dead).

rat hot pot eat

It’s served in a hot pot of sorts and the waitress comes over to refill the broth every now and then so you get tender and juicy rat at a reasonably warm temperature at all times.

rat broth

D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.

rat dish

How does rat taste like? Hmm…this is kinda like the Matrix question. You’ve got to eat it for yourself. I love the parts which has tendons attached – very chewy. It tastes a bit like bat but with a lot more bones than I’ll like to contend with.

eating rat china

It sure is a good experience though! It cost RMB 400 (about RM 190) and it’s worth every single cent!

Baking pizza at Linda’s place

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us cooking

I don’t know exactly how the subject changed so considerably from taking underwater shots to cooking but that was what happened one fine day when I was on MSN with Veen Dee. A relaxing weekend cooking (although as it turns out, I didn’t do much of that) at Linda’s place.

Thus, she rallied the rest and I was one of the first to arrive at Linda’s place (which does not appear on my GPS) together with Fresh. Rachel came after that. Anecdote time! Did you know that Rachel’s aunt used to own the Royal London Circus? I remember going to that as a little kid and standing on top of the bench (coz we could only afford to sit at the extreme back). There was an old man behind me who I totally blocked the view off, but he was so kind about it. T_T

rach

Anyway, this is Rachel who practically grew up in a circus and can regale you with tales of housekeeping staff coming out from unearthly realms to haunt good people in hotels.

firdy cooking

Veen Dee bounced in after that (gotta love this girl, she’s very entertaining to watch) with some groceries. (I was the Cup Bearer so I brought alcohol. smirk) and the rest soon dribbled in and Michelle started cooking.

linda driving

It seems that we ran out of mushrooms somewhere in the middle of the cooking session though so Linda drove me and Veen Dee to go get the mysterious fungi.

veen dee bbm

I say mysterious coz neither one of us know what kind of mushrooms they want and Veen Dee Twitpic a photo but no one replied her FOL so we just got what we thought was right and went back!

peeling tomatos

I remember discussions about the merits of dicing vs cubing but I think Michelle and Firdy did the bulk of the cooking. Heh!

cooking

All captions with exclamation marks now!

veen dee knife

Don’t do it Veen Dee!

the making of pizza

The making of pizza!

making pizza

Real bacon!

radioactive chilli peppers

Bright radioactive colored chilli peppers!

chefs

Too many cooks spoil the broth!

grating cheese

Grating cheese!

veen dee cheese

Veen Dee with cheese on her face!

looking

The curious chef!

taste test

The Taste Test (TM)!

michelle cook

Chopping garlic!

pizza

While the witch was bending down, Hansel and Gretel pushed her into the oven and cooked her!

baking

DND! Baking in progress!

baked pizza

A cooked pizza is a delicious pizza!

pizza slice

Actually the pizza was damn good lor and the soup that went with it (what soup is that?) FUIYOH, it really hit the spot!

wii bowling

Playing Wii bowling!

chess

Chess with David!

onion

I don’t know why I’m holding an onion with Anne and Yee Hou!

sara

Sara and her bf!

linda

Our host for the evening – Linda!

eat

All photos and videos taken using Sony Cyber-shot TX-5!

Related posts:

Pizza making at Froggybroon’s

Perth – The City of Lights

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perth

I’ve been to Perth several times during my university days in Australia and I am very impressed with the relatively relaxed pace over there.

fish-chips

Nothing beats having some steaming hot fish and chips at the harbor! Make sure you go to the one at Cicerello’s – it’s the original, and the best. Located at Fremantle, it also serves beer if you want something to wash it down with!

perth_swan

Perth is home to The Swan Bells. It was a gift from London according to Wikipedia (O Wise One) and it’s one of the largest musical instrument in the world – you can even ring it and let yourself be heard all across the city! 🙂

perth-map

Okay, geography lesson time. I nicked this photo from Wikipedia. It has a hover text that says “Perth is located in Australia”. Well, no shit Sherlock! 😉

clothing-optional

You can also drop by Swanbourne if you feel like letting your dangly bits down. It’s a clothing optional beach in Perth. smirk

However, Perth is not Western Australia. You can’t claim to have visited WA unless you’ve been outside of Perth city proper.

black-truffles

I must admit, I haven’t been to other places in Western Australia though. I hear it grows a lot of black truffles (gourmands take note!) – and you can buy fresh truffles during autumn and winter! These are not just plain black truffles but Black Perigord truffles – the real black gold. Expensive, but delicious!

simmos

There’s a cult favorite ice cream store called Simmo’s Delicious Dilemmas in Dunsborough and Margaret River. I haven’t personally tried it myself but Kristine tells me it’s good shit. Probably the best ice cream that has ever done the horizontal boogie with your taste buds.

margeret river

You know all that wine you’ve been drinking that says Margaret River? It’s also located in Western Australia! I would love to visit the vineyards over there to drink the tipple closer to the source!

kristine

…and do that I shall! I will visit Kristine later this year – gonna fly AirAsia straight to Perth and visit the rest of the Western Australia region that I haven’t been too. She’s been to quite a few places around the WA region, most of the pictures were taken by her (others nicked from Wikipedia). Thanks for tempting me with all the photos Kristine!

Stromatolites_in_Sharkbay

One intriguing place I’ll love to visit is Hamelin Pool – it is home to stromatolites – the oldest living marine fossils in the world. There’s only two places in this third rock from the sun that harbors stromatolites (no clue where the other one is) and Western Australia is one of them!
There is a bit of a mystery surrounding their origin and trust me, I’ll be there to unravel (oh well maybe not, but I’ll go take a look) the fossils.

shell-beach

We’ll go to the Coral Coast okay? I want to go to Shell Beach (formed from shells made from just one type in of animal and the only one of two in the world) and The Pinnacles!

The-Pinnacles

Just look at this photo!

A recent research revealed that taking a vacation has been shown to reduce work related stress by 66%, increase worker productivity by an amazing 92.86% and shaved an impressive 42% off arguments between couples over issues like leaving the toilet seat up. Of course, I pulled all those numbers from where the sun don’t shine but still!

beauty

I travel a lot coz I value experiences more than material goods. Life is short, travel the world! I’ll be going to Melbourne end of this month and Perth is next on my destination list – probably August or so. I’ll give you all a full trip report when I get there k?

You can find out more about Perth and Western Australia by following the blog of the Extraordinary Taxi Ride. Or you can just fly AirAsia and experience it for yourself!

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