Interesting

S.H.E. collectible licensed mooncakes

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she mooncake

S.H.E. is the Taiwanese three girl pop group that seems to be quite
popular. They have come out with a range of three moon cakes, each
bearing their likeness – one each for Selina, Hebe and Ella. The three
mooncakes have different flavors, which I assume is for their different
personalities.

mooncake girl

This is a licensed product by HIM (which I assume is their
management) and it’s for charity. There are two versions of the
mooncakes…they’re actually both the same, there’s just a difference
in packaging. Mooncakes are eaten during Mid-Autumn Festival, which is
based on the Lunar Calendar, and falls on the 28th of September for the
Gregorian calendar this year.

mooncake booth

The RM 48.50 version comes in a single tin box which has the three
individual mooncakes inside. The RM 52.50 version is more “collectible”
in the sense that there’s an individual metal tin for every single
person in the pop group.

rm 52.50

I bought the RM 52.50 one for the individual printed Selina, Hebe
and Ella tins. The downside to this version is that it comes with cheap
plastic packaging.

nutritional

However, the packing lists down the nutritional facts and other
details at the back. It’s interesting to see the calories difference
between the mooncakes. There are three in total, for the three artists
in S.H.E. and here’s the three mooncakes.

selina

This is the Selina mooncake tin. It has a pink design and has a cartoon version of her likeness imprinted on the tin.

selina wrap

The mooncakes tins all contain a mooncake packaged in an air tight
plastic wrap with a moisture absorber inside. The Selina one doesn’t
seem to be working because I see what looks like mould…

selina mooncake

Here’s a closer look at the Selina mooncake. It definitely has mould
growing on it, but I ate it and it didn’t give me a stomachache so I
guess it’s alright…

selina contents

Mini Lotus 1 Yolk (Selina)

ella

Here’s the Ella collectible tin. It has a blue motif and is also consistent with having a cartoon version of her on it.

ella mooncake

The mooncakes all are embossed and designed with the cartoon version
of the character and their name on it. This one has Ella’s likeness and
her name.

ella contents

Black Sesame Lotus (Ella)

hebe

This one is the Hebe green tin.

hebe mooncake

Here’s what a close up looks like…I think I accidentally took out a bit of her hair. It got stuck to the wrapping. Oops…

hebe contents

Green Tea Mooncake (Hebe)

hebe best

I liked the Hebe green tea mooncake one the most, and most of my
coworkers agree. Mooncakes are traditionally cut into eight equal
slices, but I didn’t have a cake cutter, so I used my el cheapo
balisong (what they call a “butterfly knife”, due to it’s folded but
fast flipping deployment) to do the job.

mooncake balisong

I have a better Benchmade balisong, but I don’t carry that around…it’s reserved for…special occasions. 😉

Nude Crab Burger!

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nude crab burger intro

I was intrigued by such a delicacy, which I’m told is a whole deep
fried soft shell crab in a burger. One of my coworkers told me about it
and I’ve been chomping at the bit to try it ever since. We went there
after work last night.

d alif restaurant

The eating establishment that serves nude crab burger is called D’Alif Restoran Sejahtera
and it’s a restaurant by the Kuching Riverside that has crabs as it’s
flagship meal and claims to have invented the nude crab burger.

d alif bb plaza

The readers in KL might be interested to know that nude crab burger
is also available in Bukit Bintang. This establishment opened up a new
outlet at BB from the literature the waiter passed me.

d alif ambience

Back to the restaurant, the place has a nice ambience, two tiered dining areas made to look like a serene rainforest.

d alif rainforest

It’s a good place for dinner; it has an al fresco feeling even
though it’s indoors due to the massive outside ventilation and no
artificial air conditioning.

d alif mud crab

D’ Alif Restaurant also has a live crab display on their premises.
This is not the soft shell variety used in the nude crab burger but mud
crabs, for normal crab cooking. This place specializes in crabs, and
crabs only. You’ll be hard pressed to find a non-crustacean based meal
here.

d alif cordial

I ordered the D’Alif cordial for my drink…its iced rose syrup with a lemon slice inside.

d alif fried rice

This is D’Alif fried rice, which Bernice ordered.

d alif crab delight

Here’s the Crab Delight that we shared – its two deep fried soft
shelled crab on a bed of salad, with Thousand Island dressing liberally
applied.

d alif soft shell

I also ordered Deep Fried Soft Shell crab which says “Tired of
cracking the Crab shell, try our special deep fried fresh Soft Shell
Crab coated with Egg & Flour mix topped up with Thousand Island
Dressing. You can eat the whole crab including the shell”.

d alif crab inside

Indeed you can, the shell can be eaten. Here’s a look at the inside once it’s been bitten into.

nude crab burger

Finally, I present to you, the dish we’ve all been waiting for…Nude Crab Burger!

nude crab burger inside

There is a whole soft-shelled crab inside, as promised.

d alif bernice me

I strongly endorse nude crab burger! *thumbs up* 😉

d alif nude crab burger

Nude Crab Burger – World’s 1st Soft Shell Crab Burger.

Dutch Sushi

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dutch sushi postcard

I received a postcard from Jasmine
[blogspot.com], who went to Amsterdam and is definitely having more fun
than I’m having. 😉 She knows what I’m interested in and I just love
the postcard cover:

dutch sushi

Dutch Sushi! Heh! Jasmine, can’t wait for you to come back to Kuching. 🙂

Central Market, Kuching

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central market

This is Central Market in Kuching. It’s only open on Sundays. I was
liberated from my slumber from one of my friends to go along with him
and his girlfriend, and I thought, why not…

upside down plants

There are all sorts of things there, strange things like this upside down plant.

sugarcane drink

It was a hot day, iced sugarcane drinks are a must…

central market us

L-R: Huai Bin (me), Miriam, Ah Lung

I know my pants are falling down; most of my attire doesn’t fit anymore without a belt.

keropok lekor

We ate our way through the market. This is keropok lekor, which I
assume is some kind of fish. There were samples and I thought it was
pretty good, so I got some. It tastes like real fish.

strange stuff

There were strange stuff on offer…these are edible.

assorted kuih

Here’s a stall with assorted kuih. The long phallic looking things
in the middle is a derivative of the fish keropok, or so I’m told.

drinks stall

This is a drinks stall with old skool 60 cent bottled sodas.
Memories…back when I was young, we didn’t have enough pocket money to
buy anything but these.

textiles

Textiles…

rm 160 dogs

RM 160 canines…

cacti

Cacti – none of them psychoactive, unfortunately.

cats

My favorite – cats!

quails

These are quails – note the quail egg at the side. I’ve never seen quails this huge before.

feline

Stop looking at me like that, feline…

goldfish

I’ll give you some goldfish to eat if you want?

pearl grass

Pearl grass at RM 10 per plot. Jesus, the grass at my house back
home looks exactly like this. You can have that for free if you want.

parang

Here’s some parangs for sale.

parang exposed

Doesn’t look all that sharp to me. I’ll stick to balisongs, thanks.

figurines

Scary figurines to bring the wrath of the god(s) down on yourself or
to bring good fortune to your enemies. Or is it the other way round?

huge rabbit

Fuck, this is one HUGE rabbit. It scared me.

vegetarian drumsticks

The stall owner told me these are “vegetarian drumsticks”. I got one to try.

veggie drumsticks

It’s pretty good actually, and the “bone” is made of a slice of sugarcane…sweetens the whole thing.

salted fish

Salted fish anyone?

deep fried stall

Here’s a stall offering deep fried stuff.

goreng pisang

I saw they just got a batch of goreng pisang out, so I got some of that.

huge sotongs

I also had some of these huge sotongs…it’s a WHOLE sotong on a
skewer. Note the body at the end and the tendrils (or whatever
appendages they have) on the front.

I’m heading out again, will reply all the comments later. See ya!

Goats respond to bleating

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i see a goat

I was driving to a client meeting with DBKU (which is the city
council for Kuching North) when I saw this goat by the roadside. DBKU
HQ is located opposite Kuching city (there’s a river separating the two
districts) and the area is less developed than Kuching, so there’s
still plenty of nature and animals like goats and cows (privately
owned, bred for food and left to graze on public property).

goat communication attempt

I decided to make some small talk with her as she looked lonely, and I was early for the meeting anyway.

The conversation went something like this:
Me: Mmmeeeeekkkkk!
Goat: Mmmeeeekkkk!
Me: Mmmeeeekkk!
Goat: Meeekkkk!

goat ignoring me

I seem to lack the linguistic capacity to communicate with the goat
though, because she turned her back on me and resolutely ignored me
after several unsuccessful exchanges. I think that’s rather rude of
her…I know I may not speak Goat well, and I may have accents which
further complicates the comprehension of my phrases, but that’s no way
to treat a well-meaning, friendly stranger. 😉

Anyway, if you haven’t had contact with a goat before (all you city
folks out there), yes, they do reply when you say “Mmmeeeeekkk” to
emulate a goat’s bleating. There’s this friend of mine who makes it a
point to roll down her car window and go “Mmmeeekkk!” enthusiastically
every time she passes by this goat near the race track in Sibu.

Goats really do reply.

I’m totally serious, try it next time you see one.

Magic book

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magic book

This, my friends, is a fine work of literature. I’m sure most of you
remember these things from your youth…they retail for RM 0.10 (that’s
a scant 10 cents, though it was a large sum when I was in the target
age group). They come in a variety of cliched incarnations like “Rocky
Stallone” (shown above) to “Desperately Seeking Susan” (the Madonna
film) for the ones amongst us who has started to “feel funny” towards
girls. 😉

magic book back

The instructions for the use of this book is fairly
straightforward…basically, you use a pencil or a coin to reveal the
pre-printed (but invisible, thus the word “magic” in “Magic Book”)
images.

magic book blank

Anyway, the images are not invisible per se when you hold it
sideways against a light, but normally, you won’t be able to see it
until you shade it with a pencil or use a coin to rub the pages.

Here’s an example of using a pencil to shade:

magic book pencil

The best technique is to run the pencil sideways to get maximum
shadage (if there’s such a word, reading these magic books does not
improve linguistic capabilities, obviously ;)).

magic book pencil done
This is the finished page. It depicts some scene in Rocky (the movie).

Here’s an example of using a coin to reveal the images:

magic book coin

It’s important not to rub the coin too hard against the paper, as
this can result in tearage (there goes my vocabulary again, curse you
magic book) or if too much pressure is applied, the picture would not
come out at all.

magic book coin done
This is the finished example of using a coin. It also depicts a scene from the movie.

Now the funny thing about these books is – there’s only one or two
pages with what the cover suggests it contains. The bulk remainder
consists of images of generic robots and other stuff that presumably
appeals to boys.

magic book robot 1

magic book robot 2

magic book robot 3

Interesting stuff, I tell you. It’ll keep you occupied for…er,
seconds. We were trying hard to finish the book once the nostalgic
factor wore off. I never did bother with coloring the images when I was
young, I just wanted to make them show. Books are good for you – start
reading young! 😉

Hello, ini Balai Polis, Jabatan Narkotik

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narcotics joke

It has turned into a full fledged meme amongst our group of friends.
I was the first to propagate this one…I had gotten a new fixed line
which no one knew about, and I called up Ah L:

Me: (serious and harsh tone) Ini telefon (his name) kah?
Is this the number of (his name)?

Ah L: Ya, siapa ini?
Yes, who is this?

Me: Sini Balai Polis Kuching, Jabatan Narkotik. Saya dengar kamu sana ada ice. Betul kah tidak?
This is the Kuching Police Station, Narcotics Department. I hear you have methamphetamine in your possession. Is this true?

Ah L: Tak ada lah.
No, I don’t have any in my possession.
(He really doesn’t touch methamphetamine)

Me: Hahaha! It’s just me.

Ah L: %#@&!%#@#

I then called up Ah B:

Me: Hello, ini telefon (his full name) kah?
Hello, is this the number of (his full name)?

Ah B: Ya.
Yes.

Me: Ini Jabatan Narkotik Balai Polis Kuching. Saya ada maklumat kamu ada jual ice.
This is the Narcotics Division of the Kuching Police Station. I have information that you sell methamphetamine (ice).
(He really doesn’t use or sell methamphetamine)

Ah B: Betul kah?
Is that right?
(He recognized my voice at this point)

Me: Ya, kumpulan saya akan sapu kedai dan rumah kamu hingga kami cari ice.
Yes, our team will raid your business premises as well as your place of residence until we find methamphetamine.

Ah B: Tak payah lah, eh…saya ada satu kawan, dia sangat suka ice. Saya bagi kamu nombor dia lah.
There’s no need for that, hey, I have a friend who loves meth, I’ll just give you his information.
(He was referring to me, but only kidding coz he recognized my voice)

Me: &!*!@%!@#!

narkotik joke

Just today Ah T called me from an unknown cell phone number:

Ah T: Ini Jabatan Narkotik Kuching. Saya dengar kamu ada banyak ice di rumah kamu!
This is the Narcotics Department of Kuching. I have reason to believe you’re in possession of a lot of crystal methamphetamine!
(I did not recognize his voice at this point)

Me: (knows it’s a joke, but cautious nevertheless) Hah? Tak ada lah, saya tidak main dadah.
Huh? That’s totally inaccurate, I don’t touch drugs.

Ah T: It’s me lah.

Me: %!Q!&@!&!@

It’s a highly virulent meme and not funny at all, if you’re on the receiving end. 😉

Happy Boom – exploding packets!

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happy boom

Happy Boom. Do you remember the packets that you squeeze and it
explodes when you throw it away? I finally found them! I’ve been
looking for this for ages, I’ve only seen it during my primary school
days and now I’ve found it at a grocery shop in Tabuan Jaya. Basically,
what you do is give these packets a bit of a squeeze, throw it away,
and it expands and explodes.

happy boom front

The Happy Boom packs go for RM 0.40 each. I got a couple to play
with. I had to take the photos in the egg containers in the shop coz
the lighting goes better this way.

happy boom back

This is the back of the package. It contains Sodium Bicarbonate and
Citric Acid Monohydrate. I prepped my digicam, gave it a bit of a
squeeze and got ready to take pictures.

happy boom expand

This is the Happy Boom expanding. Once you squeeze the packet,
friction combines the two components (shown later) together and it
starts to expand. It will explode soon after that, leaving no visible
remnant.

happy boom explode

We were too close the first time and when it exploded, it got three
of us, except Ah Boon. The discharge was not unpleasant, just a quick
wipe and everything’s fine. It got on the digicam lenses too, but I
keep camera wipes in there (amongst other things *cough*) so that’s no
problem.

happy boom contents

The back of the packaging says “Peket ini tidak boleh dibuka” (This
packet cannot be opened) which basically has the effect of telling me
to open the packet, and so I opened one up to see what’s inside. This
is what it contains – a small packet of sealed liquid, which I presume
is the citric acid and some powder, which I presume is sodium
bicarbonate.

happy boom break

I broke open the liquid pack, and the liquid seems cool, it’s no
industrial grade acid, obviously, so don’t worry about it. One of my
friends mixed the powder into the water while I snapped a photo:

happy boom froth

This is what the reaction would be outside an enclosed package – it
just bubbles and froths. I imagine Happy Boom works by making the
package expand with the gases made by the reaction between the two
chemicals to the stress limit, which makes it explode.

Thus, I’ve compiled the events of last night. Miriam and Ah Ann came
over. We watched Ju On (the first one) for a while. I generously
self-medicated with benzodiazepines, alcohol and *cough*. We went out
to meet Ah Boon. Then this Happy Boom experiment happened. After that,
we went to eat. I overestimated my stomach capacity and ended up
throwing up. Whoa, like, everything is clear now. 😉 All hail digicams
for memory retrieval!

Ikano Power Center and Ikea

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ikano power center

Ikano Power Center is a newly opened shopping mall in Mutiara
Damansara, which I believe is in Petaling Jaya. It’s connected to the
only Ikea outlet in Malaysia (correct me if I’m wrong). I went there
with my gf the day before I flew to Kuching, and didn’t have time to
write it up before now.

ikano entrance

This is the entrance to Ikano Power Center. The interior is quite
architecturally impressive. The lifts (elevators) are the same as the
ones that’s installed in KLIA – the transparent ones with full workings
exposed. The escalators are also fairly novel, a straight incline to
the next floor:

ikano escalator

Here’s a shot of the interior as you enter it:

ikano interior

Anyway, I didn’t feel that there was a lot of places to go to
inside. There’s a Harvey Norman but I’ve been to this chain too many
times in Melbourne. However, we did find one place that we liked – The
Pet Safari! 🙂

pet safari

This is the entrance to the pet store. The interior is divided into
several sections like small animals, cats (not available when we
visited), dogs, fishes and so forth. I liked the interior layout.

pet safari interior

This is what you see when you step in. I like this photo that I took of these midget hamsters (?):

cute midget hamsters

Me and my gf was wondering why they always huddle around together
like that. There’s one inside a sea shell, does anyone know why these
cute little things exhibit this behavior? It’s like they need to have
snug contact with something all the time. I wanted to get some but my
gf didn’t let me.

ikano bins

I liked the way Ikano Power Center and Ikea have these recycling
bins for plastic, paper and “others” (which is the things that don’t
fit into the first two categories, obviously ;)). Anyway, after that we
went for lunch at…Rasa Fiesta!

rasa fiesta

Everyday is a fiesta at Rasa Fiesta. 🙂 The food court has avant
garde (okay, so I just wanted to see if I can insert this phrase into
the post) influenced walls at the back – it changes color ever so
frequently. Look at the back of this picture of the interior:

rasa fiesta interior

I like the wash basins too:

rasa fiesta basins

It’s like this circular structure with four water outlets. Nice.

ikano ikea

We went to Ikea after that. Ikano Power Center is connected to Ikea via the passage that you can see above.

ikea locker

These are the refundable 50 cent storage lockers that you put your
stuff. We spent a good hour walking around Ikea – I finally see the
appeal of Ikea. You can do anything you want – lie on the beds, sit on
the comfy sofas without anyone tailgating you. It’s nice to look at the
arrangements and plan how you want your future home to be too! 🙂 Now,
we’ll go to the final destination – the Swedish Specialty Shop! =D

svenskt brannvin

This is Svenskt Brannvin vodka. It retails for an amazingly
affordable RM 30 for a 700 ml bottle of 40% vodka. I wouldn’t say that
vodka has a “taste” per se, but it tastes slightly better than Absolut
vodka and it’s very drinkable even at room temperature. I don’t have a
fridge and I chug vodka straight from the bottle in order to sleep, and
this is perfect. Too bad there isn’t an Ikea in Kuching.

op anderson

This is another value buy and it’s what you want to go for if you
want to taste your drink. O.P. Anderson Fine Old Aquavit at RM 22.90
for a 500 ml bottle. It’s 40% as well, and it tastes REALLY good.
There’s an aniseed taste to it that makes it go down all too well. If
you like aniseed candies (eg the chocolate coated aniseed rings),
you’ll love this – aniseed is the dominating character of this aquavit.
Very drinkable even at room temperature and it’s chuggable too (only if
you like aniseed).

op anderson entry

There is this bound and laminated booklet at the shop with details
of the products they offer. This is the entry for OP ANDERSON. There
isn’t one for Svenskt Brannvin…I triple checked the entire book.
Anyway, I was photographing everything and this lead to a funny
incident with security. 🙂

If I had a bottle of vodka for every time security told me that
taking photos is not allowed inside Ikea, I’ll be sorted for months.
Heh. Anyway, there are “No Camera” signs, but if you want to, just take
them anyway (I own a Nikon 5700 – bulky and no one would call it
discreet) and when security says “Sorry sir, no photos allowed.”, say
“Oh, I see. Sorry.” and continue anyway. I didn’t say I was going to
STOP taking photos, I just said I understood the store policy. 😉

They won’t kick you out or anything like that – most of them were
resigned to the fact that I was going to take photos at the Swedish
Specialty Shop, like it or not. FWIW, they’re just there to tell you
that, and by informing you once in a while about the store policy
regarding photography, they have already fulfilled their obligation,
they won’t go the extra mile and report you to the store manager or
anything. 🙂

That’s our visit to Ikano Power Center and Ikea. Oh, and please
remember that I write my posts and resize my photos at home (where I
don’t have a net connection) and only post it when I get into the
office. This means I can only answer comments during breaks or lunch,
not directly after posting. Thanks for understanding. 🙂

ikea

Ikea!

KL Sentral

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mas kl sentral

I went to the MAS airlines office in KL Sentral to get my tickets
changed. Unfortunately, I cannot say anything more about this since I
seem to have made an enemy who would love to get me into trouble (see
comments in veritas’s last post). Meanwhile, enjoy the Kenny Roger’s
post below and I’m sorry that there’s all this (one sided) animosity
going around. Have a nice day everyone!

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