Penang BBQ Pork Noodles @ Sing Long

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sl bbq stall

I have been told that there’s a really good BBQ pork noodle stall at a coffee shop called Sing Long (Tian Long in Chinese) and the three of us headed down for breakfast to check it out. The stall has an impressive repertoire of BBQ pork products displayed at the see-through stall casement.

sl chef

The chef hails from Penang and serves authentic Penang BBQ pork noodles. The noodles are hand made and not the regular ones we get over here, but the ones from Penang/KL. The texture and diameter of the noodle is much thicker – it’s akin to Hokkien noodles.

sl breakfast

The stall doesn’t just serve BBQ pork noodles but also BBQ rice. However, their forte is definitely the pork noodles. It’s their signature dish and it would be heresy to order BBQ rice instead of noodles, which one of my coworkers did. A lot of people throng the coffee shop before office hours to eat breakfast so you have to go quite early to avoid the crowds.

sl bbq pork noodles

This is their famous Penang BBQ pork noodles (RM 4.50). I have seldom sung praises about coffee shop stalls, but I am yodeling now. It just has to be experienced – the sinful crunch of the crispy pork, the tender juiciness of the meat and the sprinkling of spring onions on top creates a dish that is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Best place for BBQ pork noodles in Sibu. Hands down.

sl bbq pork noodle

Got pork?

Ferry Kebab – The quest for meat

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ferry kebab meat

…one Saturday evening

kebab autumn

16:20 – Autumn does some mental arithmetic in her mind collaborating her menstrual cycle to evaluate the safety of a bout of carnal gymnastics at the back seat of my car without prophylactics.

16:23 – I storm the pearly gates with the purple-headed devil. She gave me the mark of the beast.

kebab lovebite

16:42 – Play hide the hot dog while pondering on what to have for a snack after skipping lunch. Making grass sandwiches (+6 bonus points if you get this euphemism) made us think of kebabs so off we went.

ferry kebab

16:50 – Ferry Kebab is a popular kebab stall in Sibu that is renowned for its delicious kebabs.

kebab meat

16:51 – Kebabs over here are not chunks of meat on skewers but a huge mass of meat which is sliced off into a hotdog bun.

kebab mix

16:52 – The meat slices (you can opt for chicken, beef or a combination of both) are mixed with onions and cucumbers (both finely diced) as the filler for the bun.

kebab squirt

16:53 – Generous squirting (of the chilli sauce bottle) is applied on the bun and it is wrapped in a plastic wrap.

autumn kebab

16:56 – Autumn with her chicken kebab. She’s not a big fan of beef.

kebab naked

16:59 – A closer peek at the resplendent folds of Autumn’s luscious wet, pink…kebab. 😉

kebab feed 

17:06 – Ferry Kebab is delicious! It makes for really messy eating, but it’s fun to eat it at the roadside in the car for the authentic experience.

ferry kebab stall

17:13 – I drove back to take a photo of the stall coz I forgot to take the entire Ferry Kebab stall setup.

…a different kind of food review. Kaizen! 😉

Snail mail from Nicole Tan

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nicole mail

I just came back from a really enlightening conversation about life and relationships in general to a dark house and picked up two pieces of mail – one was for my car insurance premium for RM 1,704.60 (=_=!!!) which I have to pay before next month and the other was a padded largish envelope.

star metro

The writing at the back says “Sorry it took so long, but here you are”. It’s the autographed copy of The Star from two months back with a feature of me by Nicole on sixthseal.com.

star leaf

I have read the article in the online version of The Star and was surprised at the more positive key in the actual paper.

sixthseal

The front page Saturday Metro text has “Drug blogger turns over a new leaf” which is a much better angle than the “Former drug blogger comes clean about his past” headline that the online version features.

star metro kissed

I asked Nicole for an autographed copy of the paper and she finally got around to sending it to me. 😉 The article is an interview about sixthseal.com and my experience as a drug blogger in the past and how I’ve turned my life around.

nicole auto

Nicole wrote “To Huai Bin, Hope you continue to thrive in life, be happy in whatever you do” on the top of the article…

nicolekissed

…and autographed the bottom with “You’ve been Nicolekiss-ed!!” 🙂

Thanks for sending me the papers Nicole, much appreciated! I like the article in the off-line version, it’s much more positive.

Harian Metro

Well, at least it can’t get any worse than this. 😉

Tiger FC Fantasy League 2009

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tiger fc

I would imagine that any red-blooded male would have played fantasy football at some point in their lives. It’s practically a religion over here with the Premier League, UEFA Cup, and World Cup as the Holy Trinity of sports. 😉

I’ve seen the banner ads for Tiger FC Fantasy League for this season and signed up subversively at work. I have been nefariously building my team during office hours and it’s doing relatively well for this season.

Anyway, for people unfamiliar with the concept of fantasy football, it’s a game where you assemble a team based on real life players. The fun in this is that the scores you get are actually based on the real life performance of the players during that season. This is like building your dream team and watching how it plays out during the league. 🙂

players

You can start playing anytime during the season and get ranked with other player’s teams. It’s quite fun and addictive even if you’re not a football fan since it’s like managing a football team. I’m sure some management skills can be gleaned from the game. 😉

My current best player is Emmanuel Adebayor. My team (Team SixthSeal.com) has scored 7 goals and conceded 6 goals thus far. You get to transfer players at scheduled times and the first one that’s getting the boot (pun intended) from my team is John Terry. He’s not carrying his weight in the defender position. 🙁

team

The Tiger FC Fantasy League also allows you to create a mini-league(s) to challenge other players. The Nuffnang bloggers are joining a league together – you can challenge our player lineup if you think you’re better than us. The login details are:

League Name: nuffleague
Password: tigerfc

The Tiger FC Fantasy League is surprisingly addictive. I’ve found myself checking the papers in the morning to see the scores and then logging on at work to see how my team is doing.

tiger

I’ve even taken to logging on with a Pocket PC while dining out just to check on how my team is doing.

You can get some of the action too by signing up. You think you’re better than Team SixthSeal.com? Prove it! 😉

Pasar Ramadan

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pasar ramadan

Ramadan is the holy Muslim month of fasting, where practitioners of the faith abstain from food and water from dawn until sunset. Malaysia has a sizable Malay population and the best part about Pasar Ramadan (Ramadan Bazaar) is the sheer amount of food available. The Pasar Ramadan is a setup consisting of independent stalls selling food, and most of the consumables are excellent.

pasar ramadan stalls

I always make it a point to visit the Pasar Ramadan every year. It’s held annually during the puasa (fasting) month and a lot of good eats can be found concentrated in the bazaar. All cities and towns in Malaysia have a Pasar Ramadan setup a month before Hari Raya Aidilfitri, which is the most important celebration on the Muslim calendar.

pasar ramadan girls

I went to the Pasar Ramadan with a couple of buddies yesterday evening to check out the place. Pasar Ramadan is only open for several hours in the evening and I figured I should go this week since Hari Raya Puasa falls on next Wednesday. Thus, it’s just about a week left before the annual Pasar Ramadan shuts down for the year.

pasar ramadan camwhore

The people manning the stalls are generally a friendly lot and being the quintessential blogger that I am, camwhoring is a must on the To Do List. I can’t help it – I’ve been blogging for six years! 😉

pasar ramadan drinks

The Pasar Ramadan sells food and drinks of all sorts. I have noticed a trend this year where the local shaved ice drinks like ABC Special, Chendol, etc are all sold in huge packs. It’s at least 1.5 liters of fluid in there! I guess it’ll look appealing after not drinking the entire day, but still, that’s a lot of liquid!

pasar ramadan otak

The sheer variety of food at the stalls is amazing. There is everything from otak-otak…

pasar ramadan lekor

…to keropok lekor, a fish cracker originating from Terengganu.

pasar ramadan noodles

There are also more conventional fare like fried noodles and nasi campur cooked on the spot.

pasar ramadan cake

One other trend I spotted this year is that the cakes sold at the Pasar Ramadan has been given the Premium Treatment (TM). Gone were the days of kueh lapis (layered cakes) and other delicious but aesthetically lacking cakes. The cakes sold are now topped with cheese or encapsulated in pudding.

pasar ramadan roti john stall

I also managed to find a Roti John stall. I haven’t seen Roti John in Sibu ever! It’s RM 2.50 each and comes with either a chicken or beef filling. The etymology of Roti John is quite interesting – it was created for Caucasian tastes during the British Colonial rule and the name came about from the colloquialism for Westerners at that time.

pasar ramadan roti john

Caucasians were referred to as “John”, a very common English name and thus Roti John was born. It’s literally translated as John’s Bread. 🙂

pasar ramadan me 

I love Roti John and have only seen it in KL, so it’s nice to eat it again. It’s basically a sandwich with a minced meat patty inside. Sarawak has a version of Roti John, which we call kebab. It was fun to walk through the Pasar Ramadan again, since I missed it last year. It’s just so chill and relaxed, and I like the throng of crowds buying food during the two or three hours it’s open.

pasar ramadan koran

You Don’t Mess with the Koran, er…I mean, Zohan. 😉

My best fiend

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sms text

I’ve had a best fiend since high school. I did not make a typo, fiend as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary is:

Fiend
(noun)
Devil, demon, a person of great wickedness or maliciousness

I have in fact dedicated two entries in the annals of sixthseal.com about my best fiend. The one post I remember back in 2004 was about schadenfreude – the German word for gaining pleasure out of other people’s misfortune, which he personifies.

Anyway, my fiend has been talking behind my back and generally spreading rumors about me. I was amused for a second this morning when someone related to me a really funny rumor that was so untrue (since the time line does not compute) but the bulk of what he said really annoyed me.

I called him this morning but he didn’t pick up so I texted him:

You have nothing better to do than to backstab me, spread lies about me and create false stories about me izzit? Is your self esteem so low or are you so jealous of me that you feel the urge to talk shit about other people? I’m not pissed off at you. I pity you.

It’s a bit harsh, granted, but friends, I mean, fiends, should be able to give honest opinions about each other right? 😉

…and I really do feel a little bit of pity for him. He doesn’t just do it to me, he does it to all his friends. He would talk about other friends behind their back, putting them down derogatorily, usually with other people who doesn’t know the person around. He never does it in front of the person, he pretends to be nice to everyone but he’s well known amongst our group of friends as being a backstabber.

I used to accumulate an excess of temperature beneath a circular, tight fitting clothing component (Get hot under the collar in unpretentious terms ;)) by his behavior but I’ve come to terms with it and not be bothered by it, since most people who have known him long enough knows what he’s like.

My friend (this is a real friend, not fiend, and different from the person mentioned in this entry) told me never to text or write or react when I’m angry, which is good advice. However, I look at things in the Drawing of the Three.

The Drawing of the Three by sixthseal.com
1. Is the relationship worth it?
2. Can the person help you in the future?
3. Will the person help you in the future?

If it’s no on all three counts, then by all means, flame away. 😉

The most important aspect of it is #1 and #3. #3 is more important in a business oriented sense. Just because someone can help you in the future doesn’t mean that he will. My fiend is definitely not someone who is willing to help any friends, since all he cares about is putting them down.

It’s like he’s trying so hard to be the good little boy that he doesn’t even realize the social skills and PR required in the real world. Well, it’s not my problem anyway, and it’s not my job to tell him, since I’ve tried that before and he never changes.

It’s like sending dense shelly concretions through the air to fall in front of stout-bodied, artiodactyl creatures. 😉

Pat yourself on the back if you can decipher that last bit. Heh!

Do you have a fiend in your life?

Give me Libertas, or give me Death!

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liberty or death

Libertas is a South African Cabernet Sauvignon bottled at the West
Cape. I have been taking advantage of the new 5-day work week
implemented by our company to chill out on a Saturday afternoon after
sleeping in late.

libertas kfc

Melody brought some KFC over to my house and we ate the
X-Meals (is is just me, or has KFC burgers shrunk over the past
decade?) while I opened up the bottle of wine. I have now acquired the
discipline of keeping liquor around the house without the temptation of
consuming it immediately, which my addiction counselor would term as Progress (TM). 😉

libertas

Libertas is Latin for liberty, and the title of the post is made popular by Patrick Henry. Anyway, a 5-day work week may be the norm in KL and other parts of the country, but over here in Sarawak, it’s cause for celebration! =D

David Bak Kut Teh Cafe

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david bak kut teh

David Bak Kut Teh is a coffee shop specializing in bak kut teh (pork rib tea). There are a lot of bak kut teh establishments springing up over here now, but David is the oldest and most recognized of them all. It’s located at the traffic cop magnet beside the fire station in town so be prepared to move your car frequently if you park at the yellow line right in front, since parking is scarce at that area.

david david

David is the proprietor of the place, the waiter and the cook all rolled into one. The man is a very friendly person with an amicable personality. He’s not actually a cook by profession, he came over from JB eons ago and worked in a department store as a salesman. Story goes, he tried his hand at cooking bak kut teh and spent four years perfecting his recipe.

david stall

His first operation was in a stall at the coffee shop beside his current premises. His bak kut teh was so popular that he finally expanded to his very own place…right next door. 🙂 He runs the entire place with the help of his wife, and despite all the work, he’s a very jovial man. I’m quite impressed by his tenacity when he moved over to Sibu and the hardships he went through.

david signature

Anyway, enough about him. I had lunch with Autumn there and had their signature dish – bak kut teh. I like my bak kut teh with everything inside it, so there’s pork ribs, pork intestines, pork belly etc. Basically everything in the oink oink is inside the bowl of soup (tea).

david bkt dish

It’s pretty good, the bak kut teh is done well, and I remember the distinctive taste from my childhood as how “bak kut teh” should taste like. It’s hearty soup with pork, served with a kickass combination of soy sauce and chilies.

david chicken

Autumn opted for the ma yu chi lou (Sesame Oil Chicken) which is another one of David Bak Kut Teh’s specialties. She’s not a big fan of pork, beef or lamb so chicken is just about the only option she has. It’s served with rice and is surprisingly good. The only beef I have with the dish (haha) is that she requested for lean meat (breast meat) while I prefer thighs. No innuendo intended.

david us

David Bak Kut Teh is a nice place to have lunch if you don’t mind dining al fresco in Malaysian weather at 12 noon. Autumn had to take off her sweater and was even considering going further if not in public. 😉

Ode to the Stickman

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WORK_productivity

The key to juggling things in life
Being able to be happy and shine
To not get bogged down by strife
And be in a positive frame of mind

The art of balancing work and play
Or just to be happy in school today
Is to not let your thoughts stray
And take what life offers day by day

WORK_sleepy

I wake up early every morning
Just to shower and get ready for work
It all seems a little bit boring
Especially with my manager being a jerk

When I’m feeling especially down
I take a break and log on to Compaq City
And in doing this I’ve found
Makes everything a little more pretty

screenshot

I walk down Play Avenue
Just to meet up with the Compaq Stickman
Who’s always there for me in his red hue
I think I’m getting to be his biggest fan

A game or two on Work Street
Gets me through the dreary day
I think it’s my biggest treat
When I get high scores, hey!

wallpaperLEARN3

I take a virtual stroll down Learn Boulevard
To answer the questions before time runs out
Being a graduate, I didn’t think it was that hard
But the questions sometimes make me pout

I like the Compaq range of product
And in fact I own one myself too
My Presario notebook is on till it gets dark
I only shut it down when it’s one or two

wallpaperWORK4

It has never given me a problem
And I don’t think it will give you any too
Compaq is much more than an emblem
And I’m not just saying that coz they told me to

My Compaq and me are pretty tight
It’s affordable and it looks mighty fine
Check it out on their website
The Presario starts at just RM 999

Enjoy Cafe & Restaurant

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enjoy cafe

Enjoy Cafe & Restaurant is a relatively new eating establishment that has been doing an advertising blitz at my workplace, with flyers on the windscreen wipers of all the cars parked around here. I’ve been there once but never got around to reviewing it. I went again last night to check out the place, since the first impression wasn’t strong enough to warrant a review.

enjoy ambience

Enjoy Cafe & Restaurant has a nice ambiance with mood lighting (which makes it a nightmare for photography). The place has a fixation with blue diffused down lights, which I kinda like. It somehow makes the place more calming.

enjoy booths

There are also silk screens to act as a privacy buffer in between the booth type seating arrangements. The place is pretty empty due to hefty competition from Sushi Tie, Mitsu Tea House and other popular eating establishments within the same commercial complex. There were only two other tables of diners besides us.

enjoy juice

I like the classic juicer and fruits on display at the bar counter. Enjoy Café & Restaurant serves a wide variety of fruit juices. I went with a group of friends the first time and we ordered:

enjoy first

Enjoy Cocktail, Egg Drop Noodles, Beef Noodle Soup, Hot & Spicy Beef

enjoy second

Hot Lemon, Stir-fried Mixed Vegetable, Mince Meat Rice, Hot & Spicy Squid

enjoy waitress

It didn’t particularly make a good impression on all of us, but I went again last night with Mary to do a second review. The service was great this time, perhaps due to the aesthetically pleasing waitress designated to our table…

enjoy me waitress

…which inevitably led to an XX Chromosome post. I passed her my blogger name card to boot. I can’t resist! 😉

enjoy double dragon

I asked the waitress for their flagship dish and she recommended Tie Ban Shuang Long (Steel Plate Double Dragon). It’s calamari and pork ribs mixed in a delicious sauce with an egg cracked into the hot plate. It’s priced at RM 20 and comes with a bowl of steamed rice. It’s delicious!

enjoy forever happiness

Mary recommended the Tien Chang Di Jiu (Forever and Ever – though it’s translated as Forever Happiness in the menu) dessert, which is priced at a very reasonable RM 4. It’s a sticky mass of extremely hot yam and sweet potato in starch. The dessert is served with a bowl of iced water filled with ice cubes and it’s supposed to be eaten like this:

enjoy dessert

You’re supposed to spear a piece of the sticky and piping hot pieces and then dip it into the bowl of ice water. This immediately cools down the dessert and “solidifies” it and it’s ready for consumption. I found it to be an interesting ritual, and quite a lot of fun too.

enjoy us

Enjoy Café & Restaurant is actually a pretty nice place to be chilling out at with a relaxing atmosphere and a laid back ambiance. The food is great too – it has improved by leaps and bounds since my first foray there. The place is lacking in the clientèle department though, due to the stiff competition from the other major eating establishments in that area, but it’s definitely worth a visit. Cheers!

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