Food Recommendation : Super White Coffee

Recently, I stumbled upon this White Coffee brand; Super, which was cheaper than the usual 2 big brother brands (Old Town and Chek Hup) by 35%, costing only RM0.55 per cup. After trying it, I elevated their status up to my no. 1 choice, overtaking my previous fav Chek Hup.


> Big pack (15 pkt x 40g)


> Sachet (40g)

As usual, 1 sachet comes in 40g and you can have a well mixed, tasty and flavourful cuppa using a 300ml cup. Some of my close frens claimed drinking it in a smaller cup made their heart beats unusually fast. So beware...


> Perfect cup size to enjoy

Check out its funny advertisement, with an interesting tagline; "我叫你试！“ shouted by the below auntie. Dare you not try??



How it fared? 5/5 for the taste and price.

Selangor : Super League Champion 2009

OLE! OLE! OLE! OLE! KITA MENANG, KITALAH JUARA!!

This was one of our slogan in Stadium Shah Alam whenever Selangor plays. Selangor achieved the Super League title on the 2nd last match, after defeating Police. They were crowned and received the prestigious trophy on their last match at their home ground, scoring the biggest victory of the season by defeating Pahang 6-1.


> Victorious photo session (adopted from The Star, 25 July 2009)

Just before wrapping up, here's the Selangor Soccer Fan song. I will try to find a way to upload the song in this website later.

MERAH KUNING LAMBANG KEBANGGAAN
SELANGOR MERANCANG KEJAYAAN
GEMURUH SORAKAN MENGGEGARKAN
CABARAN DISAMBUT DENGAN KESUNGGUHAN

KECEMERLANGAN, KECEMERLANGAN
KECEMERLANGAN JADI KENYATAA

MERAH KUNING KEBERANIAN
MEREMPUH SEGALA CABARAN
SEKALI MELANGKAH BUKTIKAN KEMAMPUAN

MERAH KUNING KEBERANIAN
MEREMPUH SEGALA CABARAN
SEKALI MELANGKAH BUKTIKAN KEMAMPUAN
SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN

SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN!!

How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 4

3) Select the Dates

The dates depend very much on your own preference of the season, or the time you can spare with your annual leave.

(a) Spring : Mar ~ May
(b) Summer : Jun ~ Aug
(c) Autumn : Sep ~ Nov
(d) Winter : Dec ~ Feb

For Malaysians, I would recommend a long trip during spring or autumn. If it is a short one, try winter. I can't describe much on this, but my recommendation is based on my principle of "doing things differently, and what you don't have and can't do in your country".

> In spring, you can experience 23 hours-a-day during daylight savings
> In autumn, you will have 25 hours-a-day
> Whereas in winter, you can experience snow and test your endurance in eating ice-cream during snowing

How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 3

2) Shortlist the Places

Italy will always be in everyone's list of favorite. The reason was mainly because of its history and romantic tag. It was 2nd in my own list. My initial picks were obviously Rome, Venice and to some extend Milan.



(2a) Rome is 3rd in Yahoo Travel ranking of most famous cities. The central of Rome's attraction should be Colosseo. Wonder why the olden days people can build so many wonderful buildings that can last for 2 Milleniums but some of our Malaysian buildings can only last for few months, even before it was open for used.

(2b) Venice is ranked 8th, and it was also known to be a romantic city. It is every girl's ambition to enjoy the beauty of the canals with gondolas as props.

(2c) Milan is a big northern city, and it is more posh than Rome. I was told that it is also much safer. But I scrapped it off my list due to limited time allocated for my time in Italy.

With another 4 days to fill in my schedule, I chose Spain. To my knowledge, Spain wasn't that famous to Malaysian travelers, but I liked it very much. It is the most visited country in Europe. It also has the most sites listed in the Unesco World Heritage List. One advantage I noticed in traveling in Spain was that you were able to make a day trip to some small cities/towns that have their own distinct attractions within 1~2 hrs traveling time.



(3a) Barcelona is one of them, whereby you can move out to the beautiful hill of Montserrat or to Figueres to hunt for the egg-roof Museu Dali. Barcelona is my top pick, mainly because I want my partner to enjoy Antoni Gaudi's works as well. Few of his works are listed in the Unesco list.

(3b) Another recommendation is Madrid. But I prefer to press on for the side trips, rather than the city itself. Segovia is a good one, and it is famous for its 1st AD Aqueduct. Another one would be Cuenca, where you can view the Casas Colgadas (Hanging Houses).

How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 2

1) Pick the Destination
There are many ways to pick the right destination to start your Europe trip/league. First choice of course will be your own preference, like where you like or heard other people liked. But I don't rely only on this. One of my reference was the Unesco World Heritage Site website (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list).

It lists places that are famous, endangered and/or worth while to visit. It is my aim to set my footstep to as many sites as possible. So far, I have managed to cover 13/890 sites (1.5%), namely in Cambodia, France, Italy, Macau, Malaysia, Spain, and Thailand. For my previous Euro trip, I selected France, Spain and Italy.

2) Shortlist the Places
For France, I started by shortlisting my picks; Paris, Nice, Monaco and Mont St Michel. Then I did literature survey to determine if they should stay or go off my list. Another useful reference is Yahoo Travel.

(1a) Paris is a world famous city, ranked no 1 in the Yahoo Travel, Europe list, which is also very high on the most romantic city list. It also has one of the most famous and glamorous icon, Tour Eiffel. With so many "FAMOUS" titles, this should be a good choice.



(1b) Nice and Monaco are located at the Cote d'Azur, south coast of France. They are cities for the rich and glamour. Nice is a bigger city, but Monaco is much more well known. My 2 reasons; Formula 1 (yearly in July) and it is the 2nd smallest country in the world.

(1c) I first read about Mont St Michel many years back from the Guinness Book of World Records. It stated that it is a castle built on a hill outcrop, and it becomes an island during high tide. The next time I saw it was in Astro 707, Travel and Living. It showed a group of people walking from the mainland to Mont SM during low tide, and I was captivated by this mysterious yet wonderful place. I made it my target to go there and walk on the land bridge during low tide.


> Mont St Michel from Google Earth

Judging by the time I wished to spend in France, around 4 days, I decided to only stick to Paris. I wanted to keep Mont SM, but considering taking a train from Paris to Rennes, then bus to St Malo, then another bus to Mont SM, I would need to use 2 days and approximately RM700+ for a return journey per person. This would left me with 2 days in Paris to cover Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Pompidou, Sacre Coeur, Musee Du Louvre and Arc De Triomphe, which was very risky.

How To : Malaysian Do Europe

Travelling to Europe has always been in my life goal. The first time I did it was all by myself; own finance, own plan and self guided. This was back in 2002, and I could say that this has opened up the possibility in me to venture anywhere on my own. My 2nd time happened last year, and this time it was own finance, own plan, self guided but not a solo trip anymore.

In the coming posting, I would like to share the know-how that make it possible for anyone to do Europe. I believe many have done so in their own way, but I know there are many who think that it is something difficult and impossible.

My motto; Money should not be the problem, but attitude is the likely stumbling block.

Food Recommendation : Naiyu Fish Rice

I had Naiyu Fish Fillet Rice dish for dinner today, and I think I should recommend it. Having butter with fish and rice is a special experience. The rice was slightly dry because the butter was not meant to be watery. But the down side was that the dish doesn't have much things, only fried fish fillet, butter flakes (Naiyu), chilli leaves and cili padi. Price was RM5.50.



Overall, the taste was good but don't expect to have it too many times week after week. You may be scared of butter later.

Click on Nuffnang Ad : Hyundai

This is an interesting contest from Hyundai. If you are a photo enthusiast, click on the Nuffnang ad and check out the content. There are few kinds of tasks you can perform; either take photograph, be photographed or vote for photograph.



But not just taking the normal style photos ala old school, you need to be "most creative and outrageous photo of yourself with any Hyundai vehicle", as what they said in the contest page. You can get some idea on how outrageous and brilliant some people could be to stand out.

The grand prize is mouth-watering; A trip to Europe for 2. You can also be a double winner by becoming a voter to win an Ipod.

Kopi & Teh Hailam : KL, Chinese Village

This posting will surely be liked by local coffee and tea lovers, especially those who has somehow started to get bored by the normal kopi at kopitiam or cappuccino at Starbucks. I was first introduced to Teh Hailam by an acquaintance back in 2003 and the place to find it is Chinese Village Food Court, opposite of Pasar Rakyat, KL. I explored the place myself and also found Kopi Hailam.



Teh Hailam is different from the normal teh susu in terms of its taste. It's gao (thick), with strong Ceylon tea and some added kopi taste and a special salty taste. Kopi Hailam also has similar salty taste. After consulting a Hainanese fren, she explained that the distinctive salty taste comes not from salt, but santan (coconut milk).

A packet cost RM1.80 (could be higher now), and it can be shared by 2 person by adding hot water.

How it fared? 5/5 for both Kopi and Teh Hailam.

Hazy Morning : Puchong @ 7.30am

It is very hazy this morning, and too bad I don't have a camera to capture the condition. There is also wind, not sure it brings in some more haze to my area or to help blow them away. Based on my prediction, the pollution index could easily be above 100 at the moment. Not good at all to go outside, more so to go jogging without wearing a mask.

This haze thing is like tax. You will meet them every year, though you don't look forward to. Better for the authorities to use the word "minimize" in their report or press conference, rather than "eliminate" because we have been hearing it every season for the past 15 years.

Malaysia will soon have 4 seasons, currently at 3; Hot, Rainy and Hazy.

Pan Mee : PJ, Sungai Way

This pan mee (flat hand rolled noodle) can be found in a house at Sungai Way, PJ. This area is a Chinese New Village, and common to other villages, you can find houses being used to do business. I first went there last year with some colleagues. You surely need the map below to find it because it's hidden and located at a deep end of a village road. A landmark to help you is the Sungai Way Nine Emperor Temple, which is just in front of it.



We liked the pan mee texture, where it was not so thick but nice to chew, and the soup was tasty. A big portion would be the appropriate size for a guy, as you not only have noodle, but minced pork (yuk soi), leafy green vege (shee jai choy), marinated monkey fungus (muk yi) and crunchy fried anchovies (kung yi jai).

The other highlight of this place was their super gao kopi. I usually order ice kopi, and tapau hot kopi for tea time. A packet of hot kopi can be divided and shared among 3 person. Just pour out and add hot water, and for the price of 1 pack, 3 person can enjoy it. A big bowl of pan mee cost RM4.50, and ice kopi is RM1.60.

How it fared? 4/5 for the pan mee, and 5/5 for the kopi

Concorde & Michael Jackson

There has been many MJ tribute concert and MTV for the past 1 weeks, and I watched almost the full 2 hrs of the Bucharest 1992 Dangerous concert on TV. It gave me a feeling of a missed opportunity of not getting to watch an MJ concert in my life. The feeling is very much the same as not having the opportunity to board a Concorde plane that has ceased operation since 2003.

Sayang...

Steam Fish : KL, Salak South Baru

This place is near Ti-Ratana charity home in Salak South Baru, KL. I first went there in 2007, and it was introduced by my supplier. For the direction, refer to the maps below. Briefly, if you are on KL-Seremban Highway south bound, turn left into Desa Petaling, and head to the right side of Desa Petaling.



Rarely I hear people serve steam fish during lunch, especially in a normal kopitiam. This kopitiam's main dish is steam fish head, and only someone who's familiar with fishes know what type of fish they are serving. The kopitiam itself is not very visible from the road, so you need to spot the tables and umbrella by the kerb.

The 2nd time I went there, I had the head portion, and it was simply flavored using soy sauce and garnished with coriander leaves and ginger slice. The plate served to us was roughly 1 foot long. So you can imagine how big was the fish, and that was only the head portion. We also ordered side dishes, consisting of bean sprout with salty fish, and choy sum. The total price came to RM31.

How it fared? 5/5 stars for the fresh fish, the big portion and the price.

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If you are a Digi subscriber, take note of this and click on the latest Digi ad in Nuffnang. They are offering a free personal insurance for Digi user up to RM10K. Registration is easy, just log into their website or SMS.



If you need RM50K and RM100K coverage, click on the Nuffnang ad to check out how.

Rome to Doha : Flight Home : 29 Oct 2008

This was a "sad" day, as we were preparing our stuff to head home after 2 weeks of mini-touring Paris, Barcelona, Venice and Rome. We left the hostel early after breakfast, and took the metro to Stazione Termini. The Leonardo Express train disembarked from the dedicated Line 24 to Fiumicino, also known as Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in roughly 30~40 minutes. Generally, the airport was full of people, very much like Changi Airport. We did not see any familiar skin type of faces, which made us felt that we are still very far from home.



We were 1 hr ahead of the check-in time, and had another 2 hrs to wait before boarding. We took the extra time to do VAT/IVA tax return, which was quite troublesome for first timer. Italy's VAT was roughly 8~12% depending on the goods purchased. For an LV Everfull M-size, this worked out to RM1.8k compared to RM2.4k before VAT return, and the price in KL was RM2.7k.

We flew off at 12 pm Rome time, and reached Doha at 7.30pm. The journey took around 4 hrs. Doha airport was kind of small one, very much like our old Subang airport. We saw many familiar type of faces such as Malay, Chinese, Indian, Nepali, Filipino and Indonesian in the airport area. I thought this could be the same everywhere else in the Middle East, whereby the local people are tourists, while the foreigners are workers.



Since our transit flight was more than 5 hrs from our touchdown time in Doha, we were entitled for a free meal at the cafeteria. Even the coupon dispenser lady looked like a Malaysian. The dinner was just plain rice with curry vege, but I dare to say that it was one of the best meal we had throughout the trip. We eventually got to eat something familiar, which was white rice after we last had 14 days ago.



At last after a 5 hrs wait, it was our turn to board the plane for our flight back to KL at 1.30am. We touchdown at KLIA at 3pm Malaysian time, after a 10 hrs journey. Below are the list of things that could make us feel nostalgic.

Things we liked:
1) Tour Eiffel
2) Arc de Triomphe
3) Paris weather
4) Temple Expiotari de la Sagrada Familia
5) Paella
6) Venice Pizza
7) Gelato
8) Tiramisu
9) Colosseo
10) Rome capuccino

Fish Head Noodle : KL, Off Jln Maharajalela

I discovered this place with a fren back in 2001. It is located at a lorong off Jalan Maharajalela. Glad that I got the chance to go back there again yesterday.



The boss is a man with a pony tail (last time it was a woman), and you need to know Chinese to find his stall. Or at least identify these 2 words: 鱼頭 or 鱼头 (Fish head). The wonderful thing is the size of the bowl, which is as big as those complimentary soup bowl that you get when dining in Chinese restaurant. It costs RM5/bowl.

You can choose 2 variations of the fish; with Fried fish or Raw fish (生鱼）. Other places normally serve the noodle in soup with evaporated milk, or just plain soup with rice wine. I think ours came with both evaporated milk and rice wine.

How it fared? 4/5 stars for to the huge 10 inch bowl and raw fish.

C-3-Drei-Tres

This is the 3rd wave hitting my blog; to do listing on food. However, not all my blog writing will have photo as I don't carry a camera all the time. The best could only be pictures taken with my 1.3 megapix phonecam.

Mine will be slightly different from many of those out there. I will talk much on how I came to know about the place and how I felt having a meal there. With the help from Google Earth and Google Maps, I will put in the location map for everyone's reference.

Jom pi makan! Tabete kudasai!