Leading the wild into the ways of the man…
HB 
I came back to KL over the weekend and my girlfriend surprised me by picking me up from the airport. It’s a really nice feeling to have someone you love do that. 🙂
I guess all Arians are closet romantics and I tried to make the weekend special for her too.
I just want to say that I love you Rainie. <3
I returned to Tom’s Too for lunch a couple of days ago with a friend. She hasn’t been there before and I wanted her to try the food here. It’s just my second time eating here too and I was eager to check out more of their offerings.
Tom’s Too has a range of Italian sodas and I asked Charles (one of the best waiters there – speaks good English and friendly) to show me what they were made of. It’s apparently just syrup from a wide range of flavors mixed with soda water.
I had the Butterscotch Italian Soda (RM 8.90) which came in a clear, sparkling liquid. It *did* indeed taste like butterscotch, and reminds me of the old flavored soda fountains of old. I’m kidding, I wasn’t even born when those were around. 😉
My friend has Tom’s Freeze (RM 9.90) – a house specialty concoction that features lychees as its main ingredient. She said it was good. I don’t know, I don’t like lychees. You know those old Chinese banquet dinners that serves lychees with peaches in ice as dessert? I only ate the peaches.
We both shared the recommendations for mains – she has the Chicken Cordon Bleu (RM 27.50) which was quite good. The chicken was done well and has a slice of ham inside and lots of oozing cheese.
They used breast meat – Chicken Cordon Bleu is supposed to use boneless breast meat – not exactly my favorite cut from our favorite poultry but I rather enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure I ate more than my fair share.
The other main we had was the Lamb Shank (RM 32.50). I’ve beard people telling me that it wasn’t so great – complains ranged from it being too tough to not having mashed potatoes to go with it but I found it delicious. The meat is tender on the inside and my only regret it…
…not ordering a side of mashed sweet potatoes. Arthur did that – it’s not on the menu but apparently you can ask for it from the chef. I shall endeavor to do that next time. The gravy is slightly sweet so I’m sure it’ll go very well with mashed sweet potatoes.
Dessert was a slice of Oreo cheesecake (RM 11.90) from their counter deli. It’s pretty good for Sibu standards, but I wouldn’t write home about it, I’ve had better.
A great meal nevertheless and we ended up talking (or I ended up talking) so much that it was nearly 3 pm when we were done. The meal cost about RM 100 and my friend insisted on picking up the bill. Thanks for lunch! 🙂
I had a glorious lunch of braised pork, four emperor vegetables, and buttered prawns with the famous suituapui a.k.a. Arthur a couple of days ago. He suggested either Ming Mei Shi – a Chinese restaurant I haven’t been to, or Payung Cafe and I went with the former. It’s relatively new and one of Arthur’s favorite places to eat so I wanted to check it out.
Ming Mei Shi is owned by the chef of the now defunct Blue Splendor (a famous restaurant in Sibu). Word is, the rent at Wisma Sanyan was raised to levels he found unacceptable, so he opened a new restaurant at a different location.
Four emperor vegetables
This is a dish made with four different types of vegetables – brinjal (eggplant), lady’s finger (okra), baby corn and long beans. It tasted really good and I ate most of it, much to my surprise, since I’m not usually a huge fan of vegetables. It’s the mixture of sticky starchiness in the eggplant and okra combined with the sweetness of the baby corn and the crunchiness of the long beans that did it for me.
Homemade silk tofu
Okay, I don’t actually know what this homemade recommendation is called. It was the special of their day and I wouldn’t call it tofu at all. I hate tofu and this is awesome stuff. It has tofu in it but also surimi (crab meat) and a plethora of other flavorful ingredients all mixed together before being quickly deep fried, creating a very fine and silky tofu medley piece that goes well with the mayonnaise served on the side.
We didn’t really know what it was so we only ordered one piece each. I wish I had ordered more as it was excellent!
Creamy butter prawns
Our version of butter prawns is not deep fried with butter but cooked in a sweet and creamy butter sauce. Ruby Restaurant does this really well but I love Ming Mei Shi’s version too. Arthur preferred Ruby’s but I was rather taken with the sweet butter prawns the cook dished out. Perfection!
Braised pork belly with man tou
This is the signature dish of the place and it’s a huge chunk of artery clogging pork belly. The waitress cut the string binding the porcine goodness and used a pair of scissors to dissect it into manageable pieces. You’re supposed to eat it with the warm man tou (plain steamed buns) as a sandwich of sorts.
It is tender and flavorful, with a thick starchy sauce that goes very well with your rice. I enjoyed this dish tremendously.
I polished off everything – there wasn’t a morsel left when I was done with lunch – a testament to Ming Mei Shi’s delicious culinary offerings. The bill came up to about RM 50 for all that, which is very reasonable for the dishes we ordered.
Just look at this fine specimen of perfectly cooked pork belly! I highly recommend every single dish that we had that day. 😀
Ming Mei Shi is located behind Rejang Medical Center in Sibu.
You can get up to all sorts of fun in a supermarket while doing your weekend grocery shopping. Supermarket trolley skating is one of them. It really makes getting around the large hypermarket a lot easier. The only problem is, it’s hard to get locomotion (unless you’re wearing stilts) and the security guards tend to tell you to stop. 😉
…but look at how fun it is!
You wait for an initial push (or you can do it yourself before climbing aboard)
Navigate the aisles for healthy nourishment (usually instant noodles for me) and then…
Slowly cruise to the checkout!
(Sword not included)
It got me thinking about how you can go supermarket trolley surfing without:
…and after 3 seconds of meditation, I got the answer.
I’ll use a Ford Ranger to tow the shopping cart. This would be done in a private cordoned off road which has curves and steep inclines – you can surf down *and* up fast with the towing capacity of more than 3 tonnes. There you go – all three problems solved! 🙂
The Malaysia Ranger Challenge is a simple contest where you can write, photograph or film a short entry about how you’ll put the All-New Ford Ranger to the ultimate test. A team of professionals will help you realize the challenge if you’re one of the finalists and you just might be one of the first in Malaysia to own one!
Surf on over to The Malaysia Ranger Challenge to get more details. You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook. BTW, that really was my entry. 😀
I don’t know…is love supposed to make you feel this bad? It’s a Friday night and my bros are out but I begged off saying that I have a touch of food poisoning.
…which is partially true but not entirely the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I’m greatly troubled with my It’s Complicated (TM) relationship. I can’t seem to get her off my mind and there are…complications which makes me feel a rather strange and unusual emotion (!!!) – sadness, loss, pining, and all that romantic crap.
I guess I’m trying too hard, which is a mistake I should have learned by now. But I’m really into her and I want this to work out.
I don’t know, there’s a lot of issues that I’m not at liberty to say and I wish I could be like Barney and go “When I feel bad, I stop feeling bad and feel AWESOME instead“.
…but that doesn’t work in real life.
I’m probably 40% sick and 60% lovesick (probably the wrong term, it’s fear, uncertainty and doubt, very karma feelings which I never feel when it comes to girls) and it is a damn strange emotion for me I’m supposed to be this badass player and feelings like these are only experienced by sorry, self-pitying, pussy-whipped boys.
It’s karma, I tell you.
I’m supposed to go out partying with my bros and feel awesome.
…but instead I’m at home, thinking of her and feeling like crap.
P/S – My sister actually reads my Facebook feed quite religiously and starts every morning with a clumsy attempt at bonding by saying “Hey, I saw on your Facebook that (insert stuff that I posted)“.
Please do not do that Yih Jia. I do not wish to discuss this matter, least of all with you. It’s just going to make me very uncomfortable and it also ruins my “Huai Bin is invincible, an veritable emotional fucking cornerstone when it comes to girls” image. so I’ll appreciate it very much if you could pretend you didn’t read this. kthxbai
P/P/S – Seriously, don’t talk to me about it sis. It’ll be very awkward and I probably would deny I even wrote this.
That was a re-post of something I wrote on Friday night. I still feel less-than-awesome so I’m putting this up and heading to bed. It’s verbatim from the Facebook page so I’ll insert a photo in lieu of writing 1,000 words. That is a bottle of Bowmore Enigma, a 12-year-old single malt Scotch whiskey from Islay. I got it for about SGD 58 from duty free – the Enigma expression is a travel exclusive.
Back to the post:
Has anyone ever told you that you look like a star?
It seems like everybody’s got something I have not – a reason not to die.
– NOFX
I’m not a huge fan of fries. I used to love them but somewhere along the line I stopped craving for it. However I had fries with a burger at Tom’s Too and it was surprisingly delicious! They salted the fries so much that it was saturated with sodium. *clicks on Like
Tom’s Too is the sister outlet of the renowned Tom’s in Jalan Padungan.
I asked the waiter for a recommendation and he enthusiastically prescribed the Chicken Burger (RM 12.90). I thought they were well known for their beef ones and I said so but he was so adamant about the awesomeness of the chicken burger that I went with it.
It’s made with an entire chicken thigh and is deep fried with perfection. The chicken has a very smoky, burnt BBQ flavor which is actually quite good. If you like your food salty and packed full of sodium you’re going to love this.
I also headed down to Maple Leaf Fusion Cafe last night to catch up with Francine. I’ve known her since 1998 and I had drinks with her at Tom’s Too, er…too. I didn’t know where Maple Leaf was at that time and she told me it’s…just around the corner. 
They’re apparently famous for their Giant Volcano Lava drinks, which is a huge 1 liter (or close enough) thick concoction. I had the Chocolate Lava (RM 11.90) which the waitress recommended.
It just so happens that yesterday night was the introduction of their new line of Alcohol Milkshakes. They had Kahlua, Irish Cream and Midori. I went with the Midori Milk Shake (RM 26). We both assumed that its been on the menu for ages but the waitress told us it just debuted yesterday.
I didn’t think much of it though – it’s overpriced and there’s not enough alcohol in it – you can taste it, but you certainly can’t feel it. It’s paying cocktail prices for a milkshake. Granted, it was a very good milkshake, but as an alcohol milkshake, it needs a bit of price tweaking.
The highlight of the night was the Fried Durian Cake (RM 12.90). Divine! It’s made with a crispy jala-like pastry that’s deep fried with a rich durian flesh filling.
It’s a good thing Francine doesn’t like durian so I ate it all. There are six pieces and each bite was like a taste of heaven – it’s fluffy and light, with a creamy durian center that oozes out. It’s…perfection. 😀
I met this girl at TDH last Saturday morning. I was early (actually everyone else was late, I was late by 45 minutes myself) and I got there first. I saw this girl laughing while watching a movie on her iPad so I went over, said hello and ended up talking to her for an hour.
It turns out that her name is Rainie – I added her on Facebook and got her number. I said I’ll call and we’ll meet up for lunch or something next week…and today, that’s exactly what we did. There’s some epicness in the middle but for the sake of length, I’ll leave that out.
This afternoon, on the 14th of February, I went out for lunch with “the TDH girl” (as she will be affectionately known) and made plans for dinner.
It was very casual, the plan was no plan and we ended up having dinner at Wong Kok Char Chang Teng (of all places!) coz she was sick and wanted to eat porridge. There wasn’t any porridge so she made do with ramen and hot lemon honey juice.
I think we spent 3 hours there talking until the movie started. She’s someone I can click with and there’s definitely something going on here.
She looks different every time I see her! It’s like she turns more attractive each time I meet her. It kinda scares me coz I don’t recognize her for a split second each time she waves at me!
I don’t know what comes next. I won’t pretend I do. We’ll see if this works out.
I’m just glad:
…a lot of things would have been different if any of those decisions were made differently.
I’m just glad things turned out the way they did. 🙂
KL represent! This was inspired by a New York (NY) gesture that I saw a skater throw and I suddenly got an inspiration to do one for KL while we had drinks over the weekend. Lorraine (second from right) said that the L part of KL is terbalik (upside down) and she told me to invert it and took this photo on her BB:
Lorraine’s KL sign.
Which one do you think looks better? The first “inverted” one or the second one?
Betrayal
The story of the little gangster that could
Homo Ahbengus
Native to: Malaysia, Singapore
Mating habits: Often and indiscriminate
Social behavior: Hunts in packs
Sanctuaries: Sibu, Kuching, Miri, Klang, Cheras
Ultimate goal in life:
To own a semi-automatic handgun (preferably wrapped in newspapers, the classic but rather cliched method of concealment).
Job description:
Loan shark. Getting usurious money lending interests or gambling debts by property destruction, kidnapping, intimidation of the borrower, family and extended family (and pets if they have any).
One day, after getting a RM 3,600 interest from a borrower, his IQ 64 brain creaked and slowly came to the seeds of what he thought was an ingenious idea.
“I’ve got it!”, he exclaimed after 3 solid hours of hard thinking as the sun began to set in the horizon, still holding on to the wad of money.
Several startled birds flew off at his personal eureka and a couple who was doing the horizontal boogie in the abandoned car park furtively looked up and started quickly dressing.
He has worked long and hard to become the right hand man of the boss. General consensus was that he’s an asshole (which makes him Employee of the Month material in this line of work), just not very bright.
The latter was in fact the primary reason his boss trusted him with a handgun, though he did not know it.
Thus, when he concocted a cock and bull story about how one of his borrowers ran away to the freezing wastelands of Siberia and left only a RM 10 note, it was not altogether surprising that his boss looked at him in increasing incredulity and growing annoyance.
The boss expressed that annoyance in very reasonable discourse…using his fists.
Now, our protagonist did not think that was right. He has worked hard and risked his life (or so he would like to think, his victims were mostly degenerate gamblers who cringed when he raised his voice) and made his second intuitive leap of the day.
He thought it would be nice to be the boss for a change.
He slowly walked towards his boss as he slipped a very sharp knife out. He has a gun but unfortunately no bullets to go with it. His boss, being a little bit smarter, had only given him 3 bullets and he had used them all in a previous assignment. There was a gang war then and come to think of it, he didn’t think it was an accident that he walked into a room with four armed men and a gun with only three bullets.
He mulled on that piece of information as he stabbed, slashed and generally butchered his (now deceased) boss.
Then, he shook a cigarette out and smoked it ponderously as he thought about how wonderful it is to be the boss with a large gang beneath him. As I have previously mentioned, he is a bit slow.
Thus, when a random police patrol passed by two hours later, they saw a man sitting on top of a dead man, both of whom was very well known around these parts largely due to their criminal enterprises.
The man was covered with blood and appeared deep in thought.
________________________________________________________________________________
Notes: This was a photo shoot I did over two days during Chinese New Year. Willie of I-Concept Event Agency introduced me to Jason, who runs Jasongs Photography. I’ve known Willie for years (he’s Jeanie’s brother) and when he asked if I could do him a favor by being a model in a photo shoot, I was happy to help out.
Jason and Willie just got into a partnership and they do a lot of wedding photos and family shots. They wanted to do a high pass shoot – there was a lot of fake blood (which is permanent if it gets on your clothes), location scouting, multiple flash units to light everything up and early mornings. That is not a real gun – it’s a Beretta 92F replica. It was a lot of fun to do and we found this really cool abandoned house which would be great for photos.
I wrote this tongue-in-cheek post when I saw the photos just now. I agreed to help with the captions so I have an alternate post on Facebook with completely different text. It’s more serious and gritty, you can view and read the photo story here. Let me know which one you think is better. 🙂
Yes, it’s that time of the year again! 🙂 This is the annual Chinese New Year fireworks and firecrackers roundup for 2012. There’s a lot of quirky fireworks this year – gift hampers, old firecrackers which I haven’t seen for decades and fountains which goes up over one and half storeys high! 🙂
Sibu has a fine selection of retro firecrackers and fireworks this year. However, the ever popular multishot fireworks cake barrages are the most prevalent and there are multiple places selling it openly…in the morning, despite the massive RELA and police presence due to the recent murders. Well, that’s Sibu for you. 🙂
All Chinese to English translations kindly furnished by my dad.
Chinese firecrackers (RM 100)
We have here one of the old skool Chinese firecrackers – the extremely noisy ones than produces massive amounts of smoke and tons of red paper.
This weighs 12 kgs and is unique in the sense that it has a large firecracker braided *on top* of two rows of smaller firecrackers, making a formidable stack of 3 in the string.
However, I can’t bring myself to use the word “smaller” with this since even the smaller firecrackers are about 6 times the size of Shun Lee Hung firecrackers.
See the grandma walking past? She was followed by a woman who told her in Hokkien “Ah Ma walk faster, he’s letting off the big firecrackers.”
…and being the neighborly sort I told them not to worry, I’ll let them pass before I light it and CNY greetings were passed. That’s the spirit! 🙂
I was standing quite far away (about 2-3 meters) coz my dad was holding the digicam and I had to walk back to him, but some of the firecrackers went past me, showering me with Chinese New Year cheer (and the possibility of grave eye injury). I like!
It was still smoldering on the ground after it finished its barrage. I let this off on the morning of the 1st day – woke up early just to do this. 😀
Fireworks cake barrages / repeaters
These are the aerial firework barrages which comes in a “cake” configuration. It has several tubes which launch the projectiles into the air. It’s very popular in creating a sustained barrage (which is why some people call it that) of aerial fireworks and depending on the artisan’s imagination, can range from being mundane to impressive.
However these things has two major flaws:
1. Susceptibility to wind conditions
It is advisable not to let these off during high wind conditions. The initial propellant that shoots up the shells sends it from 75 – 150 feet (depending on the primer). However, the aerial shot itself is quite light and wind can send it in a totally unpredictable direction (usually diagonally) and limit its apogee, which can be quite disastrous. I’ve seen one send shots that explode 12 feet above and let me tell you, that is quite an experience since it’s supposed to go off 10 times that distance.
It had us all watching nervously and asking if anyone has a fire extinguisher and telling cars not to pass.
2. It can explode on the ground if poorly constructed
I actually wrote an article about it. One of my firework cakes exploded on me.
Despite those flaws (everything has a downside), firework cakes are probably the greatest invention since sliced bread in pyrotechnics. 😀
Beautiful Mountain and Rivers (RM 220)
This 2 feet long, 68 shot beauty comprises of multiple artillery barrages that has mortar sizes ranging from 3” to 1”. It produces a rather nice finale and it’s this year’s crème de la crème of fireworks cakes in my stash – it even beats the more expensive ones above with the fanning effect (angled mortar tubes).
It was at the stroke of midnight that I let this one off so there is a lot of competition from other sources. However, you can see the effects of this aerial barrage quite well. 🙂
The finish was amazing, I love the “sparkling rain” kind of effects for an ending.
Well worth the RM 220 I spent though as you can see this class of fireworks barrages is not exactly meant for you to see (the optimal viewing angle is too high) so maybe if you live down the street, you’ll appreciate it more.
Celebration (RM 35)
This is a fast 36 shot fireworks cake barrage. It’s simple, effective and quite awesome. It sends up to 6-7 aerial shots in a row up which explodes in a burst of color up in the air.
It’s over in a few seconds but classic. 🙂
Glowing Beautiful Woman (RM 25)
This 200 shot baby is quite impressive despite the small mortar tube size and height. It’s 1/9 the size of my largest fireworks cake and it’s easy to dismiss this wonderful piece of carefully arranged barrage. Fireworks cakes are like flower arrangements…the mediocre ones are blah but the good ones is a work of art. This is the latter.
It doesn’t go very high but has a nice mixture of spinning whistlers, star bursts, and sparkling rain – it’s quite fantastic. I bought several of these and I’m glad I did.
It’s well worth the price, I’m grabbing more next year if I see it. Highly recommended!
Stepping Up (RM 35)
This one is representative of the general small fireworks cakes. It would be nice if it didn’t blow up on the ground though.
Stepping Up was the multi-shot fireworks cake barrage that blew up on me. I had to pick up pieces from 25 meters away.
Prosperous Family
I don’t know the price to some coz it was a gift or a throw in after a large purchase. This is one of them. The retail price should be around RM 35-40. It has a variety of different effects and launches it quite high up – you can tell from the size of the fireworks cake and mortar tubes.
I like the part in the middle where it “fans” out the aerial shots and the ending. Nice.
…and yes, we let off the cakes in the middle of the road in Sibu, which is why you shouldn’t drive on CNY eve at midnight. All the locals know that but just in case you’re visiting, be home by 11 pm or wait till 2 am. 😀
Fireworks gift hampers
This is another unusual development this year. It’s priced at RM 85 and comes with a smorgasbord of fireworks – mostly directed towards children.
There are:
The total price of the items inside exceeds RM 85 commercially. It’s quite a good gift for kids, and it has a lot of nostalgic fireworks inside. I like the variety and there’s even one multi-shot cake/fountain inside.
Fountains
This is a typical example of a fountain. It’s a small tube about the size of a salute (e.g. Thunder King) that you set on the ground and light with various effects.
The color on top of the fuse shows what it’s going to look like.
Desert at Night
I don’t know which category to put this in as it is quite atypical. It’s a fountain with very nice effects and it has 7 aerial repeaters built in.
Thus, you get a combination fountain and aerial shot cake. 🙂
Cone fountains
Violets and Crimsons
Pretty mediocre. This came out of the fireworks hamper and is the smallest of the fountains. It’s barely taller than my lighter.
Volcano (RM 20)
Very impressive. This retails for RM 20 for singles and it slowly shoots up to a very respectable 1 ½ storeys high.
It’s worth the display. 🙂
Soaring Spirit
I wouldn’t buy it myself but it came in the gift hamper. Interesting display.
Conic Fountain (RM 20)
I bought a pack of this for RM 20 – it contains 5 fountains and it’s supposed to have a different effect for each.
I found out the hard way when I let one off which is a plain fountain and another when my two year old niece was watching where it had loud reports. There is no sign of what you’ll get – you have to light it to find out.
Tube Fountains
Krakatoa Fountain
This cylindrical fireworks fountain has height going for it but ultimately only has one effect.
Butterfly Flower
It’s quite typical of a fountain, nothing to write home. I couldn’t find the fuse at first and just lit the entire paper on top before floundering around with it. I also used the tube for something else. More on that later. 😀
Box Fountains
Large Golden Flower
It’s quite mediocre.
Peach Flower in Spring
This is quite good actually! It starts with a screaming effect and just when you thought it was over, it keeps on going to another effect. I like. 🙂
Windmill / Spinners
Da Feng Che
This is supposed to be attached to a stick but I broke the stick so I lit it on the ground. Haha!
Honestly, I’m not sure it’s even safe to put on a stick coz I vaguely remember accidents from my childhood from the wheel actually spinning off the stick and flying off due to the rotational speed.
One of the fireworks I played with as a little kid. It has a dual (single?) fuse e.g. the fuse burns simultaneously into *TWO* tubes. That’s the interesting bit.
Ground Bloom Flower
This US made spinner is a fast one with various effects and colors. It’s a typical example of a spinner. I liked it.
Salutes
Thunder King
There’s a new batch of Thunder Kings this year which is quite a bit smaller than the original ones. I made a loudest firecracker comparison.
Chinese firecracker
I wouldn’t call this a salute per se – it’s just one of the firecrackers that dropped off the roll. I’m just showing how large and loud it is compared to the typical Shun Lee Hung firecrackers. Old skool is gold skool. 🙂
Triangle Firecrackers
This is very, very old school. It’s a simple firecracker that contains flash powder wrapped into a triangle shape – the construction is easy and you can get bags containing 100s for little more than spare change. There are some strange imports this year though – Triangulinor which is definitely not from China.
It’s loud and effective. Fun to play. I had some fun playing fireworks with the neighborhood kids with this and one of the first videos I filmed back home was with my dad above. That’s what Chinese New Year is about. Family, friends and fireworks!
Hope you’ve all had a great Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fatt Chai everyone! 😀
