sixthseal.com

The graveyard outside the window

It's surrounded by lush greenery and it really seems like a nice place to rest...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:03 PM Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBack

Capri Menthol Superslims cigarette review

I received notification of a package sent to my old workplace address and went to pick it up today. It's a gift from Mr. Lim in Langkawi, who frequently sends samples of cigarettes which are always very much appreciated, especially with rumors of a RM 2 tobacco price hike to be announced on Budget Day. ;)

It was sent in a POS Malaysia Pos Express Document Packaging and it felt strange to the touch. I opened it up and discovered the reason behind the unusual tactile sensations - the cigarette pack is ingeniously put into an envelope and sandwiched between two VCD's about a Buddhist society.

It's remarkable how the Capri Menthol Superslims cigarette box is concealed in a Next Day Service document package. The VCDs helped to buffer the tell-tale shape and size of a cigarette pack. These are Duty Free cigarettes (Langkawi enjoys Tax Exemption status from tobacco and alcohol) and shipping them requires covert and innovative methods, such as this. Nice...

Capri Menthol Superslims are manufactured by BAT to appeal to the female target market. It's packaged in a very slim and compact box - here's a size comparison between the Capri Superslims 20s and a pack of NEXT King Size 20s. The Capri Superslims is visibly longer than a standard pack of smokes and the thickness is about 1/3 of a standard dimension cigarette pack.

Capri Menthol Superslim Filters also comes in a 20 pack and has gold lined features with minimalist abstract art in front. The entire pack of Capri cigarettes oozes (or exudes, rather) elegance. The small diameter size of Capri Superslim cigarettes is an interesting aspect, perhaps its most defining feature.

Here's a photo of a Capri Superslim cigarette beside a standard King Size cigarette. The extraordinary length and diminutive size is more contrasting in real life. It feels strange to hold and smoke such a long and slim cigarette.

The unimaginably long and slim Capri cigarettes also contain an astoundingly long filter at its base. It's a good smoke, but I must admit that I felt a little self-conscious holding the long and slim cigarette in my hand. ;)

Posted in Ethanol and tobacco by Huai Bin at 04:32 PM Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBack

Cannabis in a cube

This is the most interesting packaging I've seen of cannabis to date - it's a small compressed cube, about the size of the Knoll's stock soup cubes. It was a gift from a friend in KL.

Here's a look at the packaging with flash enabled. The remarkable similarity of this to a soup stock cube tickled me to no end...

It's very tightly compressed, as is most Malaysian sourced weed and the quality of the cannabis is relatively good.

I managed to get it through customs too. ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:00 PM Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBack

Danny's All American Gourmet Hot Dogs @ Hartamas Square

Danny's All American Gourmet Hot Dogs is located at Hartamas Square and sells authentic gourmet hot dogs. I went there with Grace [graceshu.com] during the weekend to check out the place.

Danny's All American Gourmet Hot Dogs [dannyshotdogs.com] is run by an American expat living in Malaysia. Larry also has a blog [blogspot.com] and I got to know him during one of my trips to KL earlier this year. He's very passionate about authentic food and quality control so I was intrigued by the invitation to sample his gourmet hot dogs.

The key ingredients for the hot dogs have been painstakingly sourced from various places (including importing in some components) by Larry and there are about six different hot dogs from the various implementations in the different states in the US. The menu items goes for RM 7 - RM 9 each and it's an appropriate price for the portion and quality of the hot dogs.

This is the Texas Style BBQ hot dog with beef bacon on top, which is this week's off-menu special. It has a huge gourmet hot dog inside (as all of Danny's All American Gourmet Hot Dogs have) and is topped with BBQ sauce and pieces of crispy beef bacon.

Here's a closer look at the Texas Style BBQ hot dog - I've long extolled the virtues of BBQ sauce (which I consume liberally) and this is one of my favorite hot dogs. It's perfect for a more sensitive palate as it isn't as spicy as some of the other hot dog offerings.

This is the Famous Texas Chili Dog which I've had the pleasure to sample the previous time I was in KL. It's an authentic Texas Chili Dog with all the toppings that the name implies. The chili is made of a "special blend of imported spices and chilis consisting of Pasilla, Ancho, New Mexico, as well as Jalapeno and Cayenne chilis to give it it's authentic and unique taste".

Here's a closer look at the Famous Texas Chili Dog - it's filled with chili and peppers (chillis) and it's just right on the spiciness scale. The onions and peppers adds a lot to this hot dog. The recipe is a closely guarded secret and although the hot dogs may seem to be priced higher than commercial "hot dog" franchises - it is important to note that the premium is for authentic and uncompromising quality ingredients!

The next hot dog that we tried is the Dallas BBQ Dog. It's a little similar to the Texas Style BBQ hot dog (at least to my untrained palate) but with slightly sweeter notes.

Here's a closer look at the Dallas BBQ Dog. It's a great hot dog, I've always found that BBQ sauce enhances everything in Western (as in popular lingo) cuisine, like MSG enhances the flavor of Eastern cuisine.

This is the Quissential Chicago Dog - it's a minimalist hot dog in comparison to the Texas style hot dogs. The Chicago dog contains pickles, mustard, tomatoes and light sauce instead of the more palate intensive Texas style hot dogs.

Here's a closer look at the Chicago Dog...it's a light hot dog, perfect for those who like more conventional hot dogs. It also comes in a poppyseed bun. Mmm...poppyseed. ;)

Larry was kind enough to provide different samples of the hot dogs for our consumption and one testament to the quality of the food products an eating establishment produces is that the proprietor eats it himself. Go to Danny's All American Gourmet Hot Dogs at Hartamas Square to check it out!

Thanks for a great night and the chance to appreciate real American style hot dogs!

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 12:04 PM Permalink | Comments (44) | TrackBack

Come look at the RM 28.50 plate of nasi kandar!

This is a huge plate of nasi kandar (with nasi briyani) and two gigantic whole squid in hot sauce, another massive squid in curry, several pieces of large beef steak pieces in sweet sauce and a mammoth chicken drumstick to top off the thing.

It's excessively decadent, and it cost RM 28.50 but it's worth every cent. ;)

Posted in Local food by Huai Bin at 04:03 PM Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBack

Roti Cheese - That umami taste!

This is Roti Cheese - it's basically roti canai made with a slice of cheese. The roti cheese at the mamak near my office makes a really crispy version of it.

The cheese and roti fusion creates that perfect umami taste. The taste "which is common to asparagus, tomatoes, cheese and meat but which is not one of the four well-known tastes of sweet, sour, bitter and salty".

It's great for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and some say, supper. ;)

Posted in Local food by Huai Bin at 09:22 AM Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack

dsk Cafe review

dsk Cafe is located at Taman Danau Desa in KL and serves dim sum, desserts and mains. I've been determined to review the eating establishments in Taman Danau Desa since they're a lot of them over here.

dsk Cafe has air conditioned indoor seating arrangements as well as al fresco dining areas to the front for smokers. It has a very nice ambience, and features various Olympic Games posters on the wall, both vintage and recent.

I started off with some dim sim. This is the Emperor Har Kow (RM 3.50) and it's an appropriate name for the best har kow I've had in recent memory.

The Emperor Har Kow contains one huge prawn inside and it's sweet and succulent, with all the flavors preserved well. This is a must have if you go to dsk Cafe.

The Fresh Banana Prawn Roll (RM 3.60) is also deliciously innovative. It consists of a large prawn and fresh bananas rolled with a thin wrap and deep fried.

The Fresh Banana Prawn Roll is also another highlight of dsk Cafe. It comes served with a side of mayonnaise and the sweet banana and succulent prawn works very well together, creating a synergetic taste.

I had one of the dsk Set Menu items for the mains. The waitress recommended the Minced Meat Noodles (RM 7.50). It's a simple dish with minced meat on top of noodles and two vegetable strands to the side. It reminds me of the dish Steven Chow prepared in the movie "God of Cookery".

That's the second movie reference I've made in as many days. ;) Anyway, the Minced Meat noodles is good, very filling and the garlic sauce gives it that umami taste. It's a little oily though...

I finished off with the Sesame Curd (RM 3.00) tong sui (dessert soup). I'm not sure what it is, but it's a thick, coagulated mess and it tastes wonderful. The black sediments and heavy texture of this dessert soup is intriguing...

dsk Cafe is an affordable place for dining and their unique dim sum entries makes this establishment a must visit!

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 10:04 PM Permalink | Comments (27) | TrackBack

mr.clean

Mr. Clean is a laundry services operation with outlets throughout the Klang Valley. There is one in Taman Danau Desa, and after a thorough evaluation of the mound of dirty laundry I have accumulated since I arrived in KL, I decided that a visit to the launderette (or Kedai Dobi as we Malaysians call it) was in order.

The operation of Mr. Clean surprised me - it wasn't the run down kedai dobi that most laundry and dry cleaning service operations are. This one is fully air conditioned, clean and professional. I had a laundry bag containing about 3-5 kgs of unwashed attire (we don't have a washing machine here) and the Mr. Clean receptionist only quoted me RM 10.50. That's a very cheap price for KL.

The basic laundry services which I opted for is a same day service so I went to collect my laundry just now after dropping it off this morning. The night lighting affords a better view of the operations inside and the industry is palpable - there is a man ironing a shirt, another one hanging it on hangers and one woman standing there scratching her head.

The laundry I dropped off this morning was already waiting for me and everything was neatly folded and put into one of their mr.clean bags. Amazing! I don't even fold my own clothes! ;)

There even have complimentary mints on the counter to boot! mr.clean comes highly recommended from me. It's a great place, nice and clean.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:13 PM Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack

Snapple Iced Tea

Snapple Iced Tea is made popular by their aggressive product placement marketing techniques in several popular TV series like Crashdown Cafe, Sopranos, and The O.C. I saw the original Snapple iced tea and a new Lime Green Tea one in the 7-Eleven located at Taman Danau Desa.

The Snapple Iced Tea comes in the distinctive large glass bottle with a capacity for 473 ml. It's a rather unusual, odd number, which I found interesting. The Snapple bottles can be easily recognized by the unique large base "Robusto" shape. I bought both of the Snapple Iced Tea bottles for RM 6 each.

Snapple Iced Tea Lemon, the original flavor, tastes remarkably similar to Nestea. The Snapple flavors have different anecdotes on it, depending on the flavor. The Snapple Iced Tea Lemon is meant as a summer drink and appropriately has the text "Not to scale." pointing to the sun logo. It's a nice and refreshing drink for hot days.

The Snapple Lime Green Tea bottle has an arrow pointing to the "GREEN" word on top and the text "Other Limes are Green in Envy". The Lime Green Tea version tastes even better than the original lemon Snapple. It's not as sweet and provides a refreshing lime and green tea aftertaste with no excessive sweet or sour notes.

The most interesting thing about Snapple is that they have Real Facts printed on the top of the bottle caps. It's like a fortune cookie, in a bottle. ;) This one states that "Antarctica is the driest, coldest, windiest and highest continent on earth." I already knew that.

The other one states that "A Camel has 3 eyelids". Hmm...that's new to me! It's educational as well as thirst quenching! ;)

Snapple Lime Green Tea comes highly recommended from me. It's a great drink in the Snapple lineup.

Posted in Food by Huai Bin at 01:04 PM Permalink | Comments (28) | TrackBack

Jelly Coconut !

I saw some small coconuts packaged with a plastic soup spoon in the fruits section just now, as I was getting some water for the night. It looked interesting and I thought it's the regular coconuts they sell at food courts with some jelly bits.

The brown fiber colored small coconuts looks like the coconuts from Thailand and the size is comparable to a grapefruit. That's pretty small for a coconut. The Jelly Coconut retails for RM 3.30 for a single coconut and a spoon wrapped in Saran wrap.

I opened it up from the perforation at the temple of the coconut and was surprised to see that the "jelly coconut" seems to have the coconut flesh pre-shredded. The flesh appears to be suspended in the coconut juice (or so I thought).

I looked closer and realized that the entire content of the coconut is made of jelly! There I was, holding it carefully so that it won't spill, but it turns out that the laws of physics (or solid state food, I forgot which :p) would make that impossible.

The coconut jelly is actually made of coconut juice which has been solidified to become jelly. It has all the coconut juice taste, without any of the spill. ;) There are pieces of coconut flesh embedded inside the coconut juice jelly too.

The inside of the coconut is carved with interesting patterns which makes for an entertaining distraction while you're eating, much like the puzzles behind cereals. The jelly coconut (not coconut jelly) is a great concept. It's coconut juice jelly inside a real coconut with coconut flesh inside.

It makes for a great, filling snack!

Posted in Food by Huai Bin at 11:00 PM Permalink | Comments (28) | TrackBack

Hong Kong Food Culture review

Hong Kong Food Culture is a Hong Kong cuisine inspired eating establishment in Low Yat Plaza, KL. There is a large photo of a street scene in Hong Kong as well as the eatery name printed along the side of the restaurant (which is closed off - the main entrance is further down the mall). I went there for a late lunch earlier today.

The main entrance is a small doorway situated in the front of the Hong Kong Food Culture restaurant. There is an average looking middle aged woman standing in front of the entrance, either contemplating the meaning of life or more likely the special of the day, which is Duck Rice with Ribena for RM 4.90.

This is the interior of Hong Kong Food Culture. I thought that the name is rather unusual for an eating establishment, but it seems to fit the general theme of the interior design. The walls are adorned with a large wall sized photo of the Hong Kong skyline. The place seems to be quite popular and there are various patrons inside ranging from high school students to middle aged couples.

I started out with HK French Toast (RM 3.90 not including the 15% surcharge). It's the similar dessert produced by Kim Gary's. The Hong Kong French Toast (as I like to call it) is made popular by Kim Gary and it's a sinfully delicious version of French Toast with a generous slice of melting butter and golden syrup. It's best eaten when it's served, while it's piping hot and swimming in melted butter.

The HK style French Toast differs from conventional French Toast due to the innovative usage of peanut butter inside the HK French Toast. It's not made in single slices like French Toast but with two slices of bread with peanut butter inside and batter coating the outside, and it's deep fried before being served with melted butter. The Hong Kong Food Culture implementation is comparable to Kim Gary's, though subjectively the latter tastes better, if only slightly.

I had the highly recommended Baked Seafood Rice (RM 12) for the main dish, which was served in a clay pot with the contents tightly wrapped in foil to keep the baked rice and seafood ingredients warm.

The baked seafood rice contains creamy rice topped with all sorts of seafood ingredients such as prawns, mussels, squid, fish pieces, egg and bits of ham.

The creamy rice came out perfect - the baked seafood rice has a rich creamy taste that's just wonderful!

I also ordered Egg in Boiled Fresh Milk (RM 3.50) coz it sounded unusual. It looks like normal milk...

...but the fresh warm milk has an egg cracked into it that makes the entire drink taste like a rich, non-alcoholic egg nog.

It makes the milk thicker and richer, which went down very well as an unsweetened dessert drink. The texture is akin to creamy milk.

Hong Kong Food Culture Review is a great place for casual HK cuisine in KL. It offers an alternative to the Kim Gary chain of restaurants.

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 12:13 AM Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBack

Sarawak's Own

It would be gross negligence if I did not put up a dedicated XX Chromosome entry for this MAS attendant.

She was the angel in the dark hours of delayed flights. She's Sarawakian too...and more importantly, she's from Kuching. ;)

Posted in XX chromosomes by Huai Bin at 07:21 PM Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack

The mind-numbing trip to KL

I'm writing this from KL now...I have just arrived after more than 7 hours (!) of delayed flights and reschedules. Our flight was due to depart at 2:05 pm today (technically yesterday) and an hour later, it got rescheduled to 4:35 pm. It's just a two hour retiming so we decided to wait it out, not knowing of the unholy wait that...er, awaits us.

The flight was then further rescheduled to 6:45 pm and dinner vouchers were issued out to the (rightfully) irate flyers. The announcement for our ill-fated flight was then retimed to 7:30 pm just before we decided to go out for dinner instead of eating the slops usually served at airport cafeterias.

The reason cited was an "engineering failure" in the plane we're scheduled to board and we decided that two hours couldn't justify going out so we went to the cafeteria and got our MAS sponsored food. There's a rather Draconian rule that says meal vouchers are only redeemable for a dish of plain rice with two choices of meat/vegetables or fried kueh tiaw and ONE meat or vegetable.

I went for the fried kueh tiaw and a piece of fried fish. It was then that the announcement was made that the our flight was further delayed until 8:40 pm. I was practically fuming at this point, as were most of the other passengers. It is UNACCEPTABLE to have someone wait that long and its bad taste to give out staggered delay reports instead of announcing straight out what time the fucking plane is going to fly.

I went to the counter to make my feelings heard and the attendant tried to placate me with another meal voucher. I just ate an hour ago, for fucks sake!

However, I took it anyway and redeemed it for char kueh tiaw (again) with beef stew. ;)

The flight was (yes, you guessed it) DELAYED again to 9:40 pm. That's 5 (five) consecutive flight reschedules. (!!!) It wasted a good 7 hours of our time. It was well past midnight when we finally arrived in KL. I have a meeting at 9 am tomorrow in Bangsar and it's nearly 3 am now.

The only thing that stopped me from running amok and start killing people was this friendly and cute doe eyed MAS attendant...

Mmm...MAS attendant...

/me drools... ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:01 AM Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBack

Nyonya Sambal Mooncake and other local mooncake variants

The Mid Autumn Festival this year has yielded a lot of interesting new mooncake experiments in addition to the already significant variants of more "traditional" mooncakes. I just found out that the differing regions of each Chinese province produces a slightly (or significantly different) version of "their" mooncake.

It seems that every concoction, even the ones we get throughout the year are being called "mooncakes" to target this significant Chinese celebration. It's not actually incorrect, as I've been told...these things are actually mooncakes eaten during the Mid Autumn Festival in their respective provinces in mainland China.

There are several variants that's being produced throughout the year by local mooncake manufacturers though, coz they're actually biscuits and the consumer market seems to have a demand for these products throughout the year.

Kuching has a mooncake to call its own, called the la ko mooncake. It comes in black and beige colors and it's sprinkled with sesame seeds and something that looks remarkably like maggots dipped in pink food coloring.

The best implementation of la ko is arguably the ones made by Biscuit Factory, Kuching.

This la ko has sesame seeds on top as well as kuaci seeds and the abovementioned quasi-maggots.

It also contains lotus paste inside. It tastes remarkably like nien kau, the sweet confection that's eaten during Chinese New Year. It's good, and most importantly, it's a mooncake to call our own. :)

The Nyonya Sambal Mooncake is another new mooncake filling that came out this year. It retails for RM 11.50 each or RM 23 for a elongated tin box of two which comes with a cutter.

The stroke of midnight yesterday marks the Mid Autumn Festival and I went out with a group of my friends to enjoy the sambal filled mooncake at a pub.

I also bought a cheese filled mooncake made by the same manufacturer - this time the cheese mooncake comes in the conventional "wrap" instead of a jelly wrap.

This is the Cheese Mooncake - the mooncake tastes sweet and the cheese filling complements the mooncake well. It's definitely a mooncake that bodes well to repeated consumption.

This is the Nyonya Sambal Mooncake...there is a visible core of sambal paste and the sambal is spicy. This may seem like a weird combination, but I prefer the word unique. ;) The sambal mooncake tastes surprisingly good as well - the spicy sambal is offset by the semi-sweet mooncake covering. It's tasty, the manufacturer manages to fuse unusual fillings into edible mooncakes.

Have a great Mid Autumn Festival everyone!

Posted in Local food by Huai Bin at 03:22 PM Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Ramune - the glass marble drink from Japan

Ramune is the famous Japanese drink which has a glass marble inside. I've had Ramune in Australia (from Asian grocery shops) and fish_fish [blogspot.com] was kind enough to bring back a bottle of Ramune from Japan from me about a year ago. I didn't think Ramune is available here until I saw it on the shelves of Ta Kiong.

Ramune retails for RM 5.80 for a 200 ml bottle and the unique bottle design is as much of an attraction as the drink itself. I got the original flavored version of Ramune which tastes like soda and bubblegum.

The instructions for opening the Ramune bottle is printed on both the bottle itself...

...and also the cover wrap on the bottle neck for Ramune virgins.

The top of the Ramune bottle has a "false cap" on top which contains the pop-out device to open the bottle of Ramune.

Ramune is unusual due to the unique glass marble that acts as a stopper and a liquid flow control device when it "drops" down to the first chamber (the top of the glass).

The glass marble on top of the Ramune bottle keeps the bottle pressurized until the push-down device (shown above) in the "false cap" is detached to release the glass marble.

There are various ways to open a Ramune bottle - some people like to push the glass marble down into the chamber and hold the stopper in place for a couple of seconds until the pressure stabilizes before drinking.

Personally, I like to just push to glass marble down and immediately start drinking - the fizzy bubbles will come out when the glass marble is forced down into the first chamber so its best to hold the Ramune bottle ready if this method is used.

There is a technique for drinking Ramune - notice the two indentations in the bottle chamber on the top? It can be used to hold the glass marble in place or release it, which controls the liquid flow rate.

Ramune - the drink that's as much fun to open as it is to drink. ;)

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 03:51 PM Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBack

Let's have hot sake tonight!

I saw this Japanese snack on the shelves and couldn't resist getting it due to the highly amusing tagline which goes "Let's have hot sake tonight!". The phrase tickled me to no end, but then again it doesn't take much to amuse me. ;)

It's a cod fish snack with white sesame embedded into the individual strands. It's like our local flagship Dahfa Snek Ikan (Dahfa Fish Snack) except the fish strands have a sesame paste sandwiched inside.

It retails for RM 19.80 and contains about 130 grams of cod fish strands arranged neatly in a pull out plastic tray. The packaging is very nicely done, as with most products of Japanese origin.

I did not have hot sake handy, but the cod fish snack tastes great with cold beer as well. :)

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 11:29 PM Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack

Kambly Mont Choco

Kambly is Switzerland's largest biscuit manufacturer and I saw a whole range of their products on the shelves with interesting names like Sublime, Caprice and Butterfly. Kambly [kambly.ch] has a range of both sweet and salty biscuits and crackers.

The one that caught my eye was the Kambly Mont Choco - a butter biscuit with a tablet of Swiss milk chocolate with nougat pieces. The tablet is molded to look like a mountain range, which I presume is made in the likeness of the Alps.

The long box of Kambly Mont Choco contains 10 biscuits and retails for RM 8.80. It is one of their premier product lines and is described as a "Light butter buscuit with a tablet of Swiss milk chocolate with slivers of nougat.".

The Kambly Mont Choco biscuits taste delicious! The mountain range shaped chocolate on top can be detached with a slight nudge from the tongue. It tastes like pure chocolate. It's a good thing that my gf does not like the chocolate tablet but doesn't mind the biscuits. Thus, I just ate the chocolate tablets. Mmm...chocolate. ;)

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 09:42 AM Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Pokka Pasteurized Carrot Fruit Juice

Pokka has a huge bottle of nice, radioactive orange colored carrot fruit juice. It's available in most hypermarkets for RM 9.20 and it tastes great! The interesting bit about Pokka's Carrot Fruit Juice is that carrot is not the only fruit inside, although it's the one with the highest concentrations.

Pokka Carrot Juice also has orange juice, apple juice and cane sugar in addition to the carrot juice. Pokka Carrot Fruit Juice is made from the combination of carrot and fresh fruit juice and that gives it a distinctively unique taste. It's supposed to be high in Vitamins C and E and also contains Beta Carotene (from carrots).

I think they got the carrot to other fruit juice ratios just perfect for the drink is amazingly refreshing. The taste of the carrot juice (which I love) and cane sugar dominates the initial swallow, but it leaves a tangible citrus bite in its aftertaste, revealing orange and apple fruit notes. It's a great drink!

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 07:59 AM Permalink | Comments (25) | TrackBack

Bourbon Bean Cheese

Bourbon Bean Cheese is a product of Japan and retails for RM 11.80 for a plastic tray of individually wrapped snacks.

The packaging goes on to describe something about having three beans on top of cheese, which is in turn on top of a cracker.

I think it's just me...

...but like all Japanese snacks;

It looks great!

...but the taste leaves much to be desired. It just taste like cheese slices and beans eaten with crackers. :p

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 01:39 PM Permalink | Comments (20) | TrackBack

The RM 13 crab craze, white phosphorus (WP) in sparklers and other semi-coherent writings

This is going to be a short one as I have to wake up real early tomorrow morning to catch my flight. Anyway, I'm still in Sibu now, decided to go for the RM 13 per kg of crab craze that everyone in Sibu is talking about for dinner just now. The place is Hong Fu Seafood Restaurant and Cafe, and Jesus Christ was it packed!

There were people in tables lined right along the row of shophouses, extending to the very (unlit) end. I asked for a table for two and the guy had to roll out a new table from the store room and advised me that my order would take quite a while as the long line of tables (as far as the eyes can see) has not been served yet. I decided to call it off and went to the seafood place behind it called Sweet Family Seafood instead.

The food there was alright, and the service terrible, but I still wanted to try the RM 13 per kg of crab mania that seems to be sweeping through the residents of Sibu from the looks of it. Hong Fu is the place that's doing that and it's a big crowd puller...we saw people eating just crabs for fun, it was crazy, the amount of people there. I would avoid SF and go to Hong Fu instead.

I just came back and decided to light up a couple of sparklers that I bought this afternoon while out shopping with my gf.

It's the old skool type of sparkler - wire with a coating on top that produces sparks very similar to what white phosphorus (WP) burns like. The instructions on the sparker packaging advices immersion of the spent sparklers in water to prevent spontaneous reigniting, reinforcing my belief that it's a WP or a substance containing WP.

It burns bright (white high intensity flame) and fragmented bits of it can burn the exposed skin. It has interesting potential as a source for harvesting cheap (got the sparkers in packs of 10 for RM 1) WP as a potentiator in Molotov cocktails (not that I have anything to do with those of course).

Well...my break in Sibu is over, I'm going to take a shit, get some sleep and fly back to Kuching again tomorrow.

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 12:06 AM Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Ligo Pomegranate Juice Cocktail

Ligo is the brand synonymous with prunes over here and it seems that they also have a beverage department. Ligo Pomegranate Juice Cocktail is a cranberry red colored juice in a small glass bottle and it's made in Canada.

The pomegranate fruit translates very well into juice. The pomegranate juice cocktail by Ligo is great on a hot afternoon - the tart pomegranate is supplemented with a sour and thirst quenching bite.

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 03:47 PM Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBack

Sibu airport run

I went to the airport to pick up a friend from Kuching who is flying in to see his girlfriend (also from Sibu) this morning. I don't usually go out of my way to do morning airport runs, especially when I'm officially on vacation, but he's the same guy who drove me around to find my keys a couple of days ago. Anyway, he wanted it to be a surprise visit and I couldn't discern where his gf is actually at from her name card. I had to call for directions from other people who are more familiar with the area...

...before I realized that the location is exactly where my gf lives. It's located at the row of shop houses in front of the residential area which I pass by every single time I pick up my gf. No wonder the name of the auto spare parts shop sounded familiar. The photo above (which is actually the first photo taken, chronologically) seems to show that at least he had achieved the surprise bit. ;)

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 10:25 AM Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Sanctuary

Sanctuary. The word means different things to different people.

It's a place where I can have unfettered access to various pharmaceuticals when the inferno inside my mind gets too crazy for me...

...a place of rest and peace, while I recuperate.

Posted in Sibu by Huai Bin at 07:09 PM Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBack

Strange and unusual mooncakes

There seem to be a lot of experimentation with mooncakes with each passing year, yielding interesting and unusual mooncakes which departs from the austure (blase?) lotus and yolk staple.

The mooncakes for the most part requires refrigeration and stray far from the orthodox mooncake designs. I have personally taken to task the daunting act of eating these mooncakes (with the assistance of cannabis, of course).

This is a cheese mooncake with a jelly coating.

The cheese is made from Philadelphia cheese.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cheese mooncake - it tastes amazing!

The cheese mooncake comes in a twin pack with a chocolate mooncake as its mate.

The chocolate mooncake is also jelly coated and contains a chocolate base.

It's delicious as well, but I would choose the cheese mooncake for its unusual implementation. It's a good combination pack though - cheese and chocolate.

The next mooncake is the chilled "snow skin" mooncake with dragon fruit filling. The snow skin has hints of dragon fruit and the base is made with dragon fruit paste. There are visible manifestations of dragon fruit in this mooncake - the unique seeds can be seen in the paste.

The snow skin dragonfruit mooncake tastes explosive, leaving a unique and pleasant tingly aftertaste akin to mint.

There is also a jelly variant of the dragon fruit mooncake...the striking red color dissuades the palate at first...

...but the taste is something else altogether. It's very nicely done. Dragon fruit mooncakes tastes good; it's hard to go wrong with this marvelous fruit.

The next mooncake that was recommended to me is the green bean paste mooncake with jelly. I didn't expect much from this but the proprietor swore on his mother's grave (well, he didn't exactly use those words, but he was definitely raving about it) that it's some seriously good shit.

He wasn't kidding...the green bean paste tastes like custard! It also leaves a tantalizing aftertaste. It doesn't taste like what I expected it too - the tangible custard features makes this mooncake a winner.

It also seems that mooncake manufacturers are coming out with unorthodox designs this year - this is a pig and a rabbit shaped mooncake.

Posted in Local food by Huai Bin at 11:37 AM Permalink | Comments (40) | TrackBack

Mini fruit tart

There's nothing like something sweet in the middle of the afternoon to tide you over until dinner. This is a chilled mini fruit tart with apple chunks, kiwi fruit slices and pineapple segments. It's about the size of a 50 cent coin.

Posted in Food by Huai Bin at 03:37 PM Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Squid and Stingray

Squid and stingray are some of my favorite things to eat during supper. This is squid soaked in salt water before being served.

The squid is rather large, as you can see from the comparison with the weighing machine. The two squids go for about RM 10.

This is stingray, another common supper staple over here. It comes in large flat slices and the price is dependant on the size and weight of the stingray cut.

Here's what the squid looks like after it's been cooked.

This is how stingray is usually served - with a thick topping of belacan and lime.

Stingray flesh is tender and the cartilage is edible.

I love squid and stingray.

Posted in Local food by Huai Bin at 02:46 PM Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBack

Locked out! (A series of unfortunate events)

I'm so glad that I'm typing this out on my notebook at home right now. I just came back from a 1 1/2 hour search for the workshop that I accidentally left my keys at. It was quite funny in retrospect and props must be given to my friend Ah Lung for driving me around in search for that elusive workshop.

It started at 8:30 pm when I sent my car to the workshop (it's unsalvageable, that's why I'm getting a new car). The car cannot start due to complete engine failure and one of my father's friends drove his car and the mechanic he knew drove my car and I drove the mechanic's car, tailing them coz I didn't know the place the workshop is located at is.

I had planned to meet up with Ah Lung to look at the BMW again and it's a good thing that the process of getting my car to the workshop took so long that I called him and told him we're stuck at some landmark that I promptly forgot but luckily he remembered. I had taken Rivotril (clonazepam), Dormicum (midazolam) and codeine before going out and suffered a severe lapse in memory.

When we finally got to the workshop, I gave my WHOLE SET OF KEYS to the mechanic. That's the pair of keys that includes my house keys! The problem stems from the fact that the mechanic was driving my car and I was driving his so I just forgot about the keys (thanks a lot Dormicum :p) and left without thinking about it.

My father's friend dropped me off at where Ah Lung was waiting at a bus stop and we went out for supper and drove around and popped in to look at the BMW. It was 11:30 pm when I got home. I walked up to my place and searched my pockets with increasing horror as I realized that I didn't have my keys with me and I couldn't get into my place! I dropped everything and fumbled for my cell phone...

My cell phone has been running on Low Battery mode since this afternoon and it died on me there and then. I desperately attempted the "Last Activation For One Last Call" trick and managed to get through to my friend to tell him that I think I left my keys in his car. I got cut off in the middle but he was intuitive enough to turn back.

We searched the car and couldn't find the keys. It suddenly hit me that I must have left my keys with the mechanic since he was driving my car and I didn't get the keys back from him. I didn't know my father's friends number nor the mechanic by heart so I frantically switched the cell phone on for one more time, hoping that the last call would have his number.

It's another miracle that it turned on for 3 seconds and I quickly memorized my father's friend's number. I tried dialing it but he was probably asleep coz no one answered after at least 10 repeated dials.

To make things worse, a police patrol car pulled up beside us and asked us why we were blocking the road. You've gotta be shitting me, I thought, my mind thinking about the codeine that I took and the self defense weapon that I had on me. I would have tested positive for opiates, benzodiazepines and carrying a weapon and probably would have had to spent the night in a small cell in the local police station. It seems like someone up there hates me.

The police stopped us and asked what we were doing. I said that I misplaced my keys, which prompted suspicious looks from the police, who proceeded to ask "What keys? The car you're in is running". They probably thought it was a stolen car or something. Luckily, we managed to convince them that it's my HOUSE keys that was misplaced by relating to them the series of unfortunate events.

Thus, we went in search for the workshop, turning around and back again for a good hour and half in search of the obscure workshop who held my keys. To cut a long story short I was about to give up and check into a hotel when after the 1 1/2 hours of turning into small lanes around the area I think the workshop is located bore fruit.

I managed to spot my car after that and shouted for the mechanic (who was deep in slu