Home is where the heart is ...

When I visit Malaysia, the first stop has to be ... Home!

Mum and Kak Y prepared such a nice homely feast for me ... Sambal petai udang, stir fried HK veggies, my favourite stir-fried cabbage and ... Pork Chops with Black pepper sauce. Deeeeeeeelish ... PUKKA!

And in Tg Malim, the feast continued :-) Home-reared chicken (steamed of course), and various other magical goodies! I love home!!

Hokkien Mee and Roast Duck - Damansara Uptown HSBC

Located: Damansara Uptown, opposite the open air carpark adjacent to Uptown 1
Business Hours: Daily 5.00pm - 2.00am

The not so good ... Cantonese "Kong fu" Hor Fun / Yin Yong. Too starchy!


Better! The tradtional choice ... Hokkien Mee aka Fey Meen (Fat Noodles!). RM$6 portion.

My favourite ... the Hokkien Fried Mee Hoon :-) Again, a RM$6 portion.


And best of all, Chef Onn Guangzhou Roast Duck is located in the same shop. We got started on duck before any of the beforementioned noodles, tender, tasty, really good!

Test drive and stories about the Proton Persona

Whilst I was home recently, I was handed the keys to a brand new (Only 1,200km on the clock) Proton Persona 1.6 Manual. This is infact the replacement to the very popular Proton Waja.

Wikipedia ...

The Proton Persona is essentially a saloon based on the Gen-2 hatchback introduced in 2004, and inherits the Persona name from rebadged Wiras sold in certain countries. It addresses several main flaws of the Gen-2, although the Gen-2 itself remains in sale.
The most noticeable difference of the Persona from the Gen-2 is the a separate, larger boot, making it better suited to the local market, as Malaysians prefer saloons (an obvious fact overlooked by Proton's former management). More importantly, the roofline slopes less, addressing the many complaints on the lack of rear headroom.

My first impression was the smart looking exterior, and was also pleasantly surprised by the modern (albeit slightly plasticky, but it is miles better then the Waja it replaces). Firing up the car, it felt really easy to drive, and I had no problems with the clutch control despite not having driven a manual aka stick-shift in yonks! Have to say that the gear-shift could be more positive, but at least Lotus got the suspension right, erring on the side of comfort.

More Wikipedia...

The good news! With a more attractive price tag that ranges from RM44,999 to RM55,800 (about RM10,000 cheaper than the equivalent Gen-2), demand of the Persona continues to outstrip supply. Over 2,000 pre-launch bookings were made.

Within two weeks after launch, the figure increased to 11,000 bookings. Demand hit close to 19,000 bookings barely 2 weeks later. Originally intending to produce Personas at a rate of 4,000 cars per month, Proton has pledged to ramp up the production to 8,000 units per month to meet the unforeseen demand.
As a result of the Persona's debut, sales for the Proton Waja and the Proton Gen-2 significantly slowed down, causing Proton dealers to offer large amounts of discounts up to RM 9,000 to sell off the remaining models of Waja and Gen-2. This has been somewhat offset by the release of the new CPS engine in the Waja and Gen-2, which attempts to place the latter two models in a slightly higher market segment.

The bad news... March 14th, 2008 from The Daily Telegraph

LONDON, March 14 — An industry mole is leaking sensitive and revealing documents — not that I’m complaining.
The latest submission arrived in the usual brown envelope and comprised eight A4 pages that spelt out last year’s best- and worst-selling cars in Britain. As the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders officially publishes the Top 10, the popular cars are not of great interest. But the worst performers are a different matter...
The Proton Persona (four sold), Mitsubishi Shogun Sport (three), Kia Cerato (two), Maserati Spyder (two) and MG ZS (two) were among the contenders for the worst-selling unused car in Britain award, but the joint winners (one sale apiece) are the Chrysler Neon, Daihatsu Charade, Dodge SRT-10, Ferrari SuperAmerica, Fiat Croma, Hummer H2, Hyundai Terracan, Hyundai Trajet, Rover 75, CityRover, Smart Cabrio and Tata Safari.
If one of these models was sold and registered to you as a new vehicle between January and December last year, congratulations. You landed yourself one of the most exclusive cars of 2008.

Juliansi.blogspot.com says ... Perhaps the FOUR were compulsory buys by the Malaysian High Commission along Belgrave Square!

How much would you pay for ... Placenta!?

I find this very odd...



Why?
1) People are willing to put PLACENTA aka PLASENTA (Bahasa baku!) on their faces ... and shudder where else
2) These models are willing to lend their mugs to such an advert :-)

The Perak Kaya Shoot-Out

In the blue corner ... Tanjung Malim's finest homemade kaya!


And, the superheavyweight ... in the red corner ... it's the Ipoh-mali Homemade Kaya :-)


The winner is ... Well, I know lah!


The verdict - Creamy, eggy, coconuty, divine magical kaya ... Slurp!

Pork v Chicken Sandwich

Droool ... my home-made (Malaysian imported of course!) pork sandwich :-) Or as cousin Kev calls it, my Porky Croissant!

Or... how about a local "chicken" sandwich ala kebab. Deeeeeelicious! 5 AED, but a wee bit small :-( Next time I will have two!

Sarhad Restaurant
Add: Abu Dhabi , PO Box 35287
Located: Opposite road from Mourouj Serviced Apartments, Muroor area
Tel: +971 2 641 8316

Char Siew Shoot-out! 747 or SFS v Famous Seremban Favourites FSF, Sunway Mas

Nothing like a good shoot-out, and this one is based on the Char Siew category. One of my favourite meats ... ever!

The setting ... Sunway Mas
The location ... These two shops, which will one day become institutions, are only located a short walk from one another!
The winner ... Wait and see!

This is SFS, or 747 Kopitiam, making waves across all char-siew loving folk :-)
Add: 747 (SFS) Kopitiam, Jln PJU 1/3C, Sunway Mas, PJ





For a little more then RM$8, we had two glorious bowls ... One wan-tan mee with incredibly delicate and tasty Char Siew, and a bowl of superb curry mee with ... yes, more char siew. Perfection!


Slurrrrrrp... Pukka!



And the contender, Restoran FSF ...
Add: Famous Seremban Favourites @ 80-1 Ground Floor, Jalan PJU 1/3B, Sunway Mas Commercial Centre, PJ
Tel: +6017 279 8582
Opening hours: 7.30am till 4.30pm daily (Beware! char siew available only after 10am)


In fact, we were looking for the beforementioned 747, thanks to pork loving (A man after my own heart!) and legendary FBB, but drove past this glorious display of all things pork ... so we had to pop by AFTER our visit to 747!


Sticky, tasty, but lacking the ooooomph that is 747's Char Siew ... This is still pretty good stuff, and I can understand why so many rave about it. Here's our RM$6 portion, which includes a plate of lightly scented rice.



The Winner? Yes ... Undoubtedly, it's SFS (Seven Four Seven) aka 747 Kopitiam. We likeeeeee!

Lembah Beringin SSG Golf - Near Tanjung Malim

Add: Lembah Beringin, Kuala Kubu Bharu, Selangor
Tel: +603 6460 0016
Located: Take the North South highway, when travelling from KL towards Ipoh, its the exit BEFORE Tanjung Malim

Not the most difficult of courses, but reasonably scenic, we played on a Saturday morning, and it cost me RM$160 for green fees and buggy. Not cheap!

I shot a dismal 62 in the front nine (We played back to front, so this meant holes 10-18), having laid off golf for some months whilst being in the desert, and improved to a 52 in the back nine. The secret? Four curry puffs at the half-way hut aka Clubhouse!

CCY potong rumput!

Seats for Monks - Krabi Airport (KBV)

Hmmm, what do we have here? Seats for royalty? I didn't think so...


I took a closer look ... they were seats for monks!


At least 5 other tourists took photos of these seats :-) Heh heh...

Krabi Airport (KBV) serves up some decent Thai food!

Here're some facts I dug up about Krabi Airport or KBV, which is located 15km from the city-centre, could have sworn it felt a lot further then that!

Krabi Airport is a gateway to Thai beach resorts on Had Yao, Ao Nang, Rai Leh and Koh Lanta. Thai Airways operates daily direct flights from Bangkok, Air Asia from Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. Tiger Airways flies direct to/from Singapore and Darwin.
Krabi Airport is conveniently located on the main highway - Route 4. New international terminal has been officially opened in 2006.

Anyway, here's our lunch before we flew off, don't forget to get some makan BEFORE you go through security scanning, otherwise you are stuck with Black Canyon Coffee! Seems this cafe is run by Thai Air, nice :-)


Our Tom Yum Koong, not cheap at 170 THB, but rather good!


My Pad kaprao (as always!) was really good...


Alas, the Pad Thai was too sweet, and rather poor!

What's the big deal about Thai Banana Pancakes?

Hmmm... seem to have forgotten what the fuss was all about, perhaps this 20 Baht Krabi street-side Thai Banana Pancake I had was slightly TOO healthy when I told the lady less sugar and no condensed milk!

Simple seafood restaurant in Krabi - Next door to Esan

Located: Next door to Esan Seafood, on the other side of the beach, past the tourist police.

Our online research showed that Esan was regularly recommended by locals as having excellent Thai food, serving a wide range of northern and southern specialities. However, it wasn't opened when we arrived for an early dinner, before 6pm on our last evening in Krabi. So we ate next door ...

Phew... glad they had Khao Niaow Ma Muang (Thai mango with sticky rice), our preferred dessert :-) Slurp, had to feature this first, though we had it last! Heh heh...


Simple is good!


Mmmh... another large bottle of Thai Heineken, fabulously chilled and much needed! 110 Baht? Well worth it!

The fish was recommended strongly, and despite it only costing 250 THB (About RM$25), we were slightly dissapointed as there was a slight bitter fishy taste to it. Nevertheless, the method of cooking with lime and other spices, including fish sauce I reckon, was good.

Pad Phak Luam - Glad I could still remember some Thai, stir fried mixed veges. We enjoyed this, full of "wok hei" or fire!

Best dish wasn't the Tom Yum Koong ...


But in fact turned out to be the Khai Yang (Grilled Chicken), simple tasty perfection!

ps. Overall, the meal came up to about the same price as the smaller dinner we had at Wangsai Seafood the night before. I would say the quality isn't as good as Wangsai, but its a close second :-)