This photo is our inside joke. I was wearing a shirt that Ling got for me. She’s wearing a shirt that I got for her (she really wanted to see koalas).
Quite a few people have commented that my updates have been infrequent since I’ve met her. Haha! We’ve been somewhat busy but I’ll be getting up to speed starting from today with regular posts. I’m catching a flight to Bali so here’s one last photo for the candy bar themed post.
This is a limited edition Cherry Ripe which comes with a blank spot where the candy name is supposed to go. It’s meant for you to write a message to your loved one in the (). I saw it and thought of her – wrote “LIFE, <3, (universe)” in the space and gave it to Ling.
I’ve been a huge fan of these absurdly sweet concoctions since I first encountered a variant of the diabetic-inducing delicacies in Sri Lanka. The first time I had it, I had a look of pure shock in my face from the insulin response. It delighted the Sri Lankan shopkeepers.
The SHEER amount of sugar inside will astound you.
I recently found one a place in town called Bakti Woodlands that offer similar sweets. It called mithai and touted as South Indian in origin, but most are from the continental Indian area (most of the sweets are similar throughout the region, with just different names).
They had a sample box of 10 different types of sweets for RM 10. I bought that and spent the night savoring the sweets and went back for more a few days ago.
They didn’t have the boxes anymore – I was told that the sample boxes are only sold during festive seasons. I knew what I liked and what I didn’t so I bought it a la carte at RM 1 each.
What I like about these sweets is that you can taste the different types of milk (goat, cow etc) inside. Here’s a sample of the sugar laden, ghee-infused concoctions that will delight (and challenge) everyone with a sugar tooth:
Jangiri
This is the most common sweet you’ll find around here. It tastes like a very light and fluffy doughnut and is made with urad flour and sugar before being deep fried in ghee (clarified butter).
There’s a stall just beside Bakti Woodlands selling it for RM 0.70 instead of RM 1 but I find the former to taste slightly better.
Mysore pak
This wonderful slice of sweet heaven is made with a truckload of ghee, sugar and gram flour/dhall flour. The interesting thing about dhall flour is that it’s gluten-free, which means my niece can probably eat it. This is my second favorite mithai (Indian confection / sweet).
The dude who was behind the counter didn’t recognize me at first until I brought up the topic of the sample box. He was intrigued and asked me if I was doing research. I wasn’t. Heh. I bought RM 30 worth the second time, and here’s the second video of him introducing the sweets – first one didn’t turn out right.
Laddu
There’s a type of laddu that costs RM 2.50 (as opposed to RM 1 for the others, like the one above). It’s a huge, fist-sized round ball made with brown sugar, cashew nuts and dried fruits.
There’s also a smaller type of laddu, generically named Ghee Ladhu here:
The word laddu means “small ball” and can contain almost anything. There are some with ground coconut (the red one) but I prefer the plain ones with raisins inside.
Halwa
This has gotta be my favorite mithai ever!
Halwa is a very generic term that describes a lot of sweets across the Indian subcontinent and even to the Middle East. The name itself is Arabic for “sweet”. I first encountered it in Sri Lanka. I’ve also heard it referred to as barfi.
I like the white almond slices that contains an obscene amount of condensed milk. Halwa tends to be crumbly and insanely sweet. I imagine the recipe for it looks a little like this:
2 tons of sugar
40 kgs of ghee
for a tray of sweets. Heh.
I’m particularly fond of the apple shaped halwas. I highly recommend this if you’re willing to test the limits of your insulin tolerance. It’s sweet, crumbly and has a distinctive milky taste that you can smell as well as taste. The “stem” of the “apple” is made from a clove stick! :)
You might need a shot of insulin to stabalize but its worth it! Melt-in-your-mouth buttery goodness! :D
The first thing I noticed was the K&G for Kimberly and Gareth ice sculptures which dominates the entrance to the ballroom where the wedding was held. There’s also an archway above with roses – nice touch, that.
This is my favorite bit – there’s lots of nostalgic candy with witty place cards at the lounge where wedding guests can help themselves to.
I haven’t had some of these since I was in primary school! It certainly brings back fond memories.
…so much so I had a brain fart while writing the guest book. Lives, not lifes. -_-
Kim and Gareth’s wedding was held at The Saujana Hotel last Saturday on the 27th October. I was there at 6:30 pm for the cocktail reception.
Vintage Coke bottles from Thailand.
Here’s Yee Hau with Yee Haw! That’s the tag for the haw flakes of our childhood.
Rabbit Candy! Anyone remember these? I still love them.
I think this was a really great idea too – having photo cutouts to take photos with while the bride and groom were busy, very tongue-in-cheek. Heh.
The wedding favors on the table were hugely popular too – we had an impromptu game of volleyball while waiting for it to start, made by Nicholas with the goo you can blow up into a balloon (also an artifact of 80′s babies – we had them in school).
Kim and Gareth both had speeches going and I thought it was really nice, what they said, weddings always makes me feel good.
There’s also an 8 course dinner, with the soup dish called “Save the Sharks Seafood Soup” – obviously no fins in there but it tastes surprisingly good with the mini abalone and other seafood inside and it’s a great departure from traditional wedding soups by being clear, yet flavorful.
A lot of us at the table went for second helpings, myself included…and I’m not even a fan of soup.
I love the single malt whisky that was offered too – had a dram each of Yamazaki 12 y/o and a The Glenrothers Select Reserve. I preferred the latter, despite the novelty of drinking a Japanese single malt whisky – it had more character and complexity.
Here’s the obligatory table-to-table yam seng session!
…and a photo with the (real) bride and groom at the end. Hope you have a wonderful life ahead together, Kim and Gareth! :)
Man, I had to dust off the trusty old thesaurus to find synonyms for eat to write all that. ;)
You know those Wrigley’s New Extra Professional Mints with ridges on the side? I thought it was there just for aesthetics until I was told it’s designed for a very pragmatic purpose. It works just like the tongue scraper you see at the back of your toothbrush:
I’ve been sucking on those mints all the time without realizing it! It turns out there is a Proper Way (TM) to go about it – the ridges should be against your tongue to reduce germs after a meal to keep your mouth fresh and clean. I was so excited when I discovered this (coz I felt stupid from not seeing the bloody obvious :p) that I’ve been going around doing this:
It’s essential to do the vigorous scrubbing motion while chanting “Scrub!” on top of your lungs every time you see someone finish eating.
It’ll be a compelling experiment to see many times you can do this to your friends before they get really annoyed by it. Trust me; it won’t take long at all, so unless you want to radically downsize your social circle, I suggest you do it online instead.
Wrigley’s New Extra Professional Mints is launching a contest where you scrub food from your tongue. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try to clean your mouth with a mint while burgers, popcorn, pizza and a plethora of other food stuff turns your tongue into their personal house party.
It is your job, as the steward of this very important organ (it’s not just for tasting the stuff you eat, ya know ;)) to prevent the food from using your tongue as their playground, running amok and getting into all sorts of shenanigans that would lead to your neighbors calling the cops.
The highest score wins a Sony Video MP3 player weekly and the grand prize is a Sony VAIO Pocket Style PC. Flex your gaming muscles and start playing here.
There are two leading brands of coffee candy containing real coffee
inside i.e. it have real caffeine and is made of coffee powder/extract.
These are good sweets – they’re marketed as “coffee on the go” and it
really does feel like drinking coffee (if you eat enough).
The market leader is Kopiko, which has been around forever
(figuratively speaking). It hails from Indonesia, our neighbors to the
south and the retail price is about RM 2.40 for a 150 gram packet. It’s
made in Jarkata, Indonesia and imported in. There is a local
manufacturer, but I prefer the imported ones.
Kopiko tastes sweet and I guesstimate that 10 of these little sweets
have the caffeine equivalent of a glass of iced coffee. It’s the most
popular coffee sweets and tastes good, with aromatic coffee notes. It’s
the cheaper one of the two and Kopiko has diversified into making real
coffee – instant coffee and coffee beans.
The other leading brand is a newcomer and is called United Coffee
Candy. Hailing from our neighbors to the north, this product of
Thailand retails for about twice the price of Kopiko at RM 4.40. The
packet is 200 grams though, and it’s imported from Chonburi, Thailand.
United Coffee Candy beats Kopiko in the taste department, from most
taste testers…now, this is one candy that tastes like real kopi peng.
United Coffee Candy is flatter in shape than Kopiko and but packs a
little more punch in the caffeine department. My qualitative estimate
puts 8 United Coffee Candy sweets as equivalent to the amount of
caffeine in a typical glass of iced coffee i.e. 10 mg per sweet,
assuming that a typical glass of coffee has 80 mg of caffeine.
I prefer United Coffee Candy over Kopiko but Kopiko has a large
distribution network, so usually I just get Kopiko. Of course, nothing
can substitute a nice triple espresso, but I think of these sweets as
“booster doses” – something to keep the caffeine levels high throughout
the day after your morning coffee(s). :)
I finished my morning classes in Clayton early and even managed to
run to Caulfield to grab some tute exercises that I didn’t need after
all and came home by 12 PM. Phew. I woke up at around 7 am, I’ve been
sleeping too much lately, but I’m glad to report that I only had 7
hours of sleep last night, like a normal person gets. ;)
Sleep is like a rollercoaster with me, sometimes I go for days
without sleeping and sometimes I get heaps of it. Hmm…that doesn’t
sound very logical does it? Well…you know what’s interesting? I got two
Kool Mints for the price of one from the vending machine today. It
always happens…the roundish stuff at the bottom of the vending machine
always gets misaligned and you can get two or even three for one if
they align just right, on top of one another.
Not sounding very coherent today. You know what awaits? Tute
exercises that’s what. I’ll better get them done before I lose all my
energy. Breakfast really does make a lot of difference, I always skip
it, but it really stops you from feeling tired before the day is over.
I’ve seen these things around for a couple of months now but it
never was stocked in large groceries until recently. This is Listerine
Cool Mint PocketPaks, sold as “oral care strips” but works like breath
freshener. Consuming something with a Listerine brand might seem
unpalatable, but these things are actually really good. You’re supposed
to dissolve one strip in your mouth and add another one “for an added
burst of flavor” if you want.
The back of the package
The strips looks fairly thick, but they dissolve quickly and easily.
The cashier at Coles asked me whether I’ve had them before and what
they taste like. Well, it doesn’t taste unpleasant, au contraire, it
tastes absolutely fabulous. I told her it tastes like really strong
mints, which is true, but it also has that Listerine effect where you
get a rush of tingly fresh air when you inhale.
Listerine PocketPak still in wrap
I like to take 3 of them in quick succession, I feel that is the
best way to do it. It actually makes you tongue tingle slightly and the
best thing about these things is it’s really small. The PocketPak is
about the size of a SD/MMC card. Or a postage stamp if you’re not
familiar with the size of those things. Great stuff. Mmm…tingly…
Listerine PocketPak with one of the strips showing
