Okra (Lady’s Fingers) chips – very unusual whole okra vegetable snack

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okra_chips_shelves.jpg

Okra (commonly known here as Lady’s Fingers)
is a long green vegetable, much like chillies, except it’s green and
it’s not spicy. I noticed fresh (as in structural integrity) whole
vegetable snacks made in Taiwan on the shelves of the supermarket and
it caught my attention due to the unusual natural configuration of the
vegetable snacks.

okra chips container

The freeze dried okra snacks retails for RM 5.95 and comes in a
see-through plastic container which reveals the complete structure of
the lady’s fingers – the okra is preserved well, with the stem on top
tapering down to the vegetable proper.

okra chips fresh

The interesting thing about these okra chips from
Taiwan is that it’s made from fresh okra. The range of products from
this manufacturer runs the whole gamut of the vegetable and tuber
family – all with the original structural integrity present.

okra chips lid

There is a green colored lid (the different vegetables are color
coded for your convenience) which opens up to reveal a standard pull-up
ring.

okra chips whole

Here’s a close up of the okra “chips” – the lady’s fingers has been
preserved nicely, and all the okra is naturally green and whole (I
still can’t get over that). I ate one of them and the crispiness of the
okra is very pronounced. It tastes like the real vegetable and it comes
with seeds and all still intact.

okra chips seeds

This is what the inside okra chips looks like – it looks like the real thing, with the seeds and all…heck, it is the real thing!

The wonders of modern food processing…

😉

Frito-Lay: Lay’s KC Masterpiece BBQ flavored STAX potato crisps

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lays stax product range

Lay’s crisps are some of the best potato chips in
the category. I’ve never really cared for crisps – I don’t like
Pringles or other potato chips…perhaps its due to the fact that I was
raised in Malaysia and Malaysian snacks have always been very
salty, compared to the low sodium and minimal (relatively) food
flavoring offerings in other countries – a point I’ve stressed numerous
times while I was in Australia.

lays stax container

Lays crisps is big in the United States – it’s the #1 snack in that
market. Frito-Lay has partnered up with another food condiment company
to produce potato chips flavored with KC Masterpiece Barbeque sauce [kcmasterpiece.com]. It seems to be a trend in the snack industry as I’ve seen Smith’s crisps in Australia [sixthseal.com] partnering up with big names in the food condiment industry like Heinz tomato sauce while I was in Melbourne.

lays stax kc masterpiece

Lay’s came out with a new container called STAX that looks very much
like a standard Pringles can but it’s made of pliable plastic and has
an ergonomic easy grip (the top and bottom is extended out, leaving a
thinner middle portion). It’s a resealable crush-resistant blue
container and it retails for RM 7.65 per can. The range of Lay’s crisps
STAX is filled with a healthy repertoire of flavors – original and
other food condiment partnership flavors.

lays stax bbq crisps

The product is actually made in Mexico instead of the United States
– just a little bit of (useless) trivia. Lays KC Masterpiece BBQ STAX
potato crisps “slides” out from the middle and each crisp is curved
perfectly with a healthy sprinkling of KC Masterpiece Barbecue sauce
seasoning in the middle.

Lay’s KC Masterpiece BBQ STAX crisp tastes great!
It’s salty and it has that mouth watering smoky BBQ sauce flavor – the
barbecue sauce is replicated perfectly!

Concerned Citizens should fuck off and die

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http://www.tranungkite.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3552&mode=&order=0&thold=0

The most self-righteous letter from a “Concerned Citizen” I’ve seen to date…

I’m seriously puzzled…do they really have that much time on their
hands? I’ll love to learn their secret coz between work and work I
haven’t got much time to write “Letters to the Editors”.

CareBee Pure Honey + Vinegar bottled drink

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restaurant shauiya 24h

I has my breakfast this morning at the 24 hour mamak place downstairs and had my usual mee maggie goreng pedas sotong. I was going to order the usual teh tarik when I saw this poster:

It was advertising an unusual concoction of honey and vinegar (!). CareBee Honey Drink with Vinegar
sounds interesting on the sole basis that it had vinegar in it. I was
wondering what a drink of honey and vinegar would taste like

carebee drink maggie

Thus, I ordered the drink instead of teh tarik.

carebee drink stubbie

CareBee Honey Drink (with vinegar) comes in a small, stubby bottle and claims to be “full of energy” with “no added sugar”.

carebee drink sample

It tastes like a VERY sweet honey drink – I could not discern the vinegar in it (if any) and the URL of the company is invalid.

Hmm…

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino Light Blended Coffee Christmas Special

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starbucks christmas drinks

Starbucks has this sign proclaiming that The Christmas Drinks Are Here
in a nicely decorated chalkboard design full of holiday cheer (Joy to
All) at their Midvalley Megamall franchise just now, and we went in to
sample this year’s seasonal lineup while waiting out the heavy rain
earlier this evening.

starbucks christmas drinks 2005

There are two new offerings for the Christmas season in the
traditional two drink format (one hot drink and one cold one, usually a
frap). There is Crème Brulee Latte for the ones who
prefer hot coffee in sizes of Tall, Grande and Venti for RM 11, RM
12.50 and RM 13.50 respectively. The ice blended offering for this
Christmas is the Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino Light Blended Coffee that also comes in sizes of Tall, Grande and Venti for RM 12, RM 13 and RM 14.

starbucks christmas cheer

The Christmas decorations seems to have been put up too, despite
being still a good month (and then some) away from Christmas day, but
that’s pretty standard since consumerism reigns king for the most
profitable holiday season for most retailers. The airwaves were also
filled with Christmas carols, inspiring a yearning for material
oriented spending in this glorious holiday, which has pretty much lost
its significance a long time ago. 😉

starbucks peppermint frappe venti

Anyway, being one to contribute positively to the country’s economy
(er…patronizing Starbucks franchises in Malaysia counts as domestic
spending, right?) I ordered a large (Venti) Peppermint Mocha
Frappuccino Light Blended Coffee. It comes with whipped cream and red
sprinkles on top to add more color to the festive cheer.

starbucks peppermint frappe sprinkles

The Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino Light Blended Coffee
tastes surprisingly good, despite my initial impression that Starbucks
didn’t seem to be very innovative with this year’s Christmas lineup.
The mocha based Frappuccino retains a strong chocolate taste, and the
strong peppermint sneaks up on you with a strong minty aftertaste with
each drink.

I don’t know what peppermint has to do with Christmas though, but hey, it only happens once a year… 😉

Little Penang Kafe @ Midvalley Megamall

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little penang kafe

little penang kafe is a rather large eating
establishment in Midvalley Megamall – which doesn’t lead itself to this
impression at first glace. The place actually has two spacious areas on
the sides (hidden from view) and an elevated eating area with a view
outside the mall, and another dining area on top of that. It can accommodate more people than the first impression gives…

little penang kafe red ruby

This is Red Ruby (RM ?) a dessert I ordered – it’s
concocted of sweet evaporated milk, coconut milk, red colored jelly,
and jackfruit in shaved ice. It’s good stuff…the local tropical fruit
gives this dessert a great twist.

little penang kafe mee

I also ordered Penang Hokkien Mee (RM 9) and was
surprised to see that it came in a SOUP! It seems that Penang Hokkien
Mee is a soup based dish instead of a dry noodle dish like the KL style
Hokkien Mee. This one from little penang kafe has a lot of large prawns
in it and it tastes great! Spicy.

little penang kafe rojak

This is Penang style rojak (again) that we shared. It’s RM 7 and it tastes like rojak.

little penang kafe napkin

Little Penang Kafe is a nice place for hawker style food in a mall
(which defeats the whole concept of hawker food, but I digress). A lot
of people seem to like it anyway, the place was packed when we arrived
there just now and customers kept on streaming in. That’s gotta say
something…and there are photos of the Agong’s wife and Dr. Mahathir
patronizing the outlets and that probably says something as well (or
not).

Anyway, I’m a little bushed today due to waking up at 3:35 am in the
morning to catch my flight to KL. I was sedated, stoned and drunk last
night too, so congrats to Cherie and Valerine on actually managing to
get me drunk. 😉

Thanks for the beer Cherie and thanks for the Kent MINTEK 1 from Thailand, Val!

OK, I can’t think straight right now, so I shall consume some DF-118
kindly furnished by the clinic opposite my office in KL and go to
sleep. I have another appointment tomorrow morning. Later…

Ipoh Special Rojak and other rojak stories

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ipoh special rojak stall

Ipoh Special Rojak is a stall at Hai Pa Wang,
a popular seafood restaurant in Kuching. I didn’t even remember going
there until I saw the pictures and from that I deduced that the
combination of the remainder of an eighth of Shine On Georgia Moon
together with 4 tablets of Dormicum 15 mg (midazolam) and smoking weed
with Cherie collectively gave me anterograde amnesia.

cherie me

I seriously did not remember anything about going out last night
until I saw that there were images in my digital camera from last night
and then it all flashed back to me (no pun intended). I went out in a
daze at approximately 10 pm in search for nourishment (nutritionists
use the terminology “food”) and dropped by Luconia to meet up with
Cherie before going to Hai Pa Wang. I wanted to eat fish.

ipoh special rojak girl

This person approached our table as we were seated at Hai Pa Wang
and asked us if we wanted to try some “Ipoh Special Rojak”. She said
that it’s totally different from the Sarawak implementation, and having
developed symptoms of a serious case of the muchies, I said alright,
bring it on.

ipoh special rojak

She brought it on…the rojak is stoner’s heaven man, like totally.
Excuse my temporary lapse in linguistics. Anyway, the Ipoh Special
Rojak was topped with sweet rojak sauce and pork floss, creating a
wonderful topping. There were several unusual things in the rojak as
well, which I could not identify in my state of intoxication but there
was something very interesting with a chewy texture. Highly recommended!

…and God damn it, no pun intended. 😉

fish feat

Anyway, we ordered quite a lot of seafood, overestimating our
cannabis induced appetites and there was this huge fish (gestures with
hands) that we ordered and NO ONE had room for it anymore. It all boils
down to one person…someone of great testicular fortitude (or
gastronomic fortitude rather) to finish the damn thing. That person
also happens to be me, unfortunately drawing the shortest straw.

fish feat start

I started digging my way into the fish, and it was a bit of a
challenge to finish even one side of the fish, but I was determined to
finish the fucking thing. I started working my way though it…

fish feat half

…and finally managed to get one side of the fish into the deep,
dark bowels of my intestines. I’m very optimistic at that moment and
I’m sure I could finish it with my cannabis induced appetite…even if
I had another half of a large whole fish to eat.

fish feat other side

The fish was flipped over and I was initially overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fish that I still had to eat, but not being one to renegade on my words, I firmly planted my will into consuming the damned fish.

fish feat pwned

…and by the grace of God (or weed), I did it! Jesus Christ, I
can’t believe that I forgot all about that when I woke up this morning
and only remembered my gastronomical feat when I reviewed my digicam
and all the memories came rushing back.

Eating a whole fish is not something to sneeze at. I totally pwned that fish kau kau…

Anyway, I’ve gotta go to the toilet now…I’ll be flying to KL early
tomorrow morning on a business trip and I’ll be there till the weekend
so you know the number to call.

…er, actually, you probably don’t since I changed it. It’s 016 888 3166.

Paralgin Forte – instant relief from your friendly neighborhood pharmacist

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paralgin forte mag baggie

Paralgin Forte is a preparation containing 400 mg
of paracetamol (APAP) and 30 mg of codeine per tablet. It’s available
at some pharmacies with the appropriate license to dispense codeine
containing preparations and it’s the most common codeine formulation
around Malaysia. It’s a restricted (quite so, especially in certain
pharmacies) pharmaceutical due to the high codeine content per tablet.

paralgin forte baggies

There is one pharmacy (which doesn’t look dodgy at all, by all outward appearances) who will sell packets of 5 (five) pre-split Paralgin Forte tablets
[sixthseal.com] for RM 3 per packet with an enforced maximum purchase
of two such packets per customer. The pharmacy seems to have targeted a
particular segment of the pharmaceuticals market (namely, people like
me) and pre-package two packets of the Paralgin Forte in a little
magazine insert (ironically, Discovery Travel and Adventure) and sells
it for RM 10.

paralgin forte baggie dose

It’s instant relief for pains real or imaginary, with one hell of an
effect. The packets are sold, no questions asked, at the abovementioned
quota of two packets per customer per visit. I usually take much more
codeine to get off, but without opiate tolerance (or with diminished
opiate tolerance) 300 mg of codeine coupled with benzodiazepines can be
your best friend for about 4 hours. 😉

I don’t even bother to do a cold water extraction – I’ve taken 4.4
grams of paracetamol (APAP) routinely without adverse effects and at my
highest (which collaborates with the lowest point of my life) took 8
grams (20 tablets for 600 mg of codeine) without kicking the bucket. It
should be noted that the “ceiling dose” (the dose where you stop
getting anything more from codeine) for codeine is 400 mg – thus, in
hindsight, it wasn’t a very wise thing to do.

Disclaimer: sixthseal.com is not responsible for
massive liver damage and/or end organ failure and death resulting from,
or indirectly caused by, taking massive quantities of paracetamol
(APAP).

The official guide is 4 grams per day, maximum, for a healthy adult,
and not in one sitting (staggered dosing), but what do we care, eh? 😉

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