How You Hold Your Glass?

The way you hold your glass can reveal your personality, according to Dr. Glenn Wilson, a consultant psychologist in UK.

Find out more details here.

Fab Friday : Microsoft + Yahoo

Last February, when the news of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal first broke, people were sceptical about it. Yesterday, the deal was closed.

Yahoo shareholders have transfered $2.9 billion to Microsoft shareholders. Yahoo knocking $2.91 billion off their market cap while Microsoft adding $2.94 billion to their market cap.

So net/net about $30 million in new value was created by the market. All of that plus Yahoo got Binged.

Snappy Snapshot : Munchy

I've been munching this lite cream crackers during tea-time for the past two weeks. Munch 'n seal. It's so convenient for an OL like me. I'm loving it! (If this looks like an advertorial for Munchy, it isn’t.)

Kedai Makanan Yut Kee @ Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur (Revisited)

If you were to patronize Kedai Makanan Yut Kee often enough, you will notice that it's always packed to the brim, even on weekends. Sometimes you will have to wait quite a while for a table.

In fact, most of the time, you will have to share your table with strangers. My friend and i shared a table with a Chinese old couple and an Indian old couple. The food is served in a jiffy despite the crowd.


When the Hainanese were employed by the colonial masters as cooks, they had to adapt to their natural cooking senses to dish out western dishes. And the founder of Yut Kee is one of them. His portrait is hang on the shop's wall.



The restaurant is passed on to Mr. Jack Lee, and eventually his son, Mr. Melvin Lee, who stand behind the cash register all the time. It was said that most of the kopitiam's dishes are prepared from the founder's original recipes.


My friend ordered French Toast @ RM3.00. Many of the old-styled kopitiam don't usually carry French Toast. This French Toast is not really French Toast in the traditional sense, with slices of white bread dipped in egg and deep-fried till golden brown. It was soft and fluffy despite not nicely done.

We were quite surprised that the French Toast comes with kaya. The kaya was a bit lumpy and looks greenish. It was sufficiently rich and eggy. However, i prefer my kaya smoother in texture.


As for me, i ordered Hainanese Pork Chop @ RM9.00. The flattened piece of pork cutlet is lightly coated with egg batter and pan-fried. It is served with onions, potatoes, peas and carrots, drizzled with a peppery sauce.

It tasted quite good although the gravy was slightly watery to my taste. They could have done with lesser gravy. There are only a handful of restaurants in Kuala Lumpur which sells Pork Chop, for that i think Yut Kee is worth a visit!


Both of us ordered Iced Coffee @ RM1.70. The traditional brewed coffee packs an oomph you would never find in a coffee chain outlet. It was a thick, smooth and heavy brew. Somehow, it gives me a very homely taste.


This is where the coffee was brewed, in the hands of the brewer, surprisingly, an old lady with a passion towards her work.

When the rest of the restaurateur so quickly to discard the old and embrace the new cuisines and service models, a small shop in Kuala Lumpur stops time, causes one to reflect, and savour the traditional tastes.

Add: No. 35, Jalan Dang Wangi, 50100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2698 8108
Opening Hours: 8am - 5pm (Closed on Monday and last Sunday of the month).


[Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are based entirely on personal taste buds, view and preference and may vary from others.]

Poem For Two

A WOMAN’S POEM:

Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man who’s not a creep.
One who’s handsome, smart and strong,
One who loves to listen long.
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who’ll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he’s rich and self-employed,
And when I spend, won’t be annoyed.
Pull out my chair and hold my hand,
Massage my feet and help me stand.
Oh send a king to make me queen,
A man who loves to cook and clean.
I pray this man will love no other,
And relish visits with my mother.


A MAN’S POEM:

I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac
with nice body who owns a bar on a golf course,
and loves to send me fishing and drinking.
This doesn’t rhyme and I don’t care.

Hold My Hand

A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge.

The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter,

"Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river."

The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand."

"What's the difference?" Asked the puzzled father.

"There's a big difference," replied the little girl.

"If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."


In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. So hold the hand of the person who loves you rather than expecting them to hold yours.

LYG Dessert Restaurant @ Taipan USJ, Subang Jaya

If you are looking for a place with simple good food at an affordable price, just head to LYG Dessert Restaurant. It is located on the same row with a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet and next to ONKING Electrical Shop in Taipan USJ, Subang Jaya.

LYG Dessert Restaurant is originated from Taiping, Perak and has passed on to the third generation. It is an air-cond restaurant yet you can hardly feel the chill and it can be quite stuffy at times.


The restaurant offers all sorts of Taiping Tong Sui (Chinese desserts) and simple dishes. They are famous for Taiping Koey Teow Soup (flat white rice flour noodles in soup), Economic Fried Beehoon (rice vermicelli noodles), Curry Chicken Mee, Dry Loh Mee (noodle soup of a gooey broth made from tapioca flour and egg) and Yam Cake.

The Taiping Groundnut Tong Sui (太平土豆仁汤(花生)) is the hot-selling item. I've tried it before on my previous visit and it is definitely recommended!


Curry Chicken Mee @ RM4.50. I was told that it was delicious. The curry gravy was thick and flavourful. It is served with 3 huge pieces of curry chicken.


Dry Loh Mee with Shredded Chicken @ RM4.50. It was good. The gravy was thick, with no excessive dark soy. I think it taste better than normal Loh Mee.


Economic Fried Beehoon @ RM3.00. It is served with a fried egg. I have experienced very lousy economic fried beehoon elsewhere whereby the rice vermicelli noodles were hard as wire and tasted bland. However, this "Economic" Fried Beehoon was alright. The rice vermicelli noodles were soft and well-fried flavourful.

Economic Fried Beehoon with Curry Chicken @ RM4.00. The curry chicken taste similar to those in Curry Chicken Mee. Similarly delicious.


Black Glutinous Rice Tong Sui @ RM1.80. Coconut milk is added to bring fragrant to the thickish Tong Sui.

Red Bean Tong Sui @ RM1.80.


Mung Bean with Sago Pearls Tong Sui @ RM1.80.

All the Tong Sui (Chinese desserts) tasted very nice. Rich yet not too sweet. Just nice for my taste buds.

It's a good place to visit if you fancy some light meals. The service is good and speedy. The lady boss somehow will speak to you in Hokkien, which is rather rare, considering this is Subang.

Add: No. 41G, Jalan USJ 10/1A, Taipan Business Centre, 47620 Subang Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: 012-310 3397, 016-652 1128 (Mr. Loh)
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri: 10am - 11pm; Sat-Sun: 9am - 11pm.


[Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are based entirely on personal taste buds, view and preference and may vary from others.]

A True Malaysian

Malaysian award-winning film director Yasmin Ahmad has died at the age of 51 after suffering a stroke. A true Malaysian who left us footages that represent the true spirit of Malaysia.

Sharing one of the works by Yasmin Ahmad, the commercial for SPCA below was intended to discourage people from being cruel to dogs but had been banned by the Censorship Board.



This commercial delivered a positive message! It's sad that instead of moving forward, we are regressing back to the dark ages.

Fab Friday : Skype Headset

Skype is great, but it’s also kind of frustrating if you’re talking to someone that has a crappy microphone. Recently, the company unveiled the FREETALK Everyman headset, a USB super wideband audio headset.

While the goal was to ensure great call quality, Skype also notes that this headset is a cheap headset that anyone could use, anywhere and anytime.

Tien Kee Restaurant @ SS14, Subang Jaya

Once in a while, after living away from home for years, one would yearned for some home-cooked soup. One which make them just like how our mother prepare them at home.

That is where Tien Kee Restaurant, which is located at SS14 in Subang Jaya, comes into the picture. It is a brightly lit air-cond restaurant offering healthy soup and porridge.


There are 14 types of porridge on the menu, Pomfret Porridge (白鲳鱼粥) is their specialty, and it features a whole fish. Along side with Ikan Parang (Wolf Herring) Porridge (西刀鱼粥), Braised Duck Porridge (特制鸭粥), Wonder Soups (好味住家汤), noodles, rice and other house specialities.

Apart from porridge dishes, they offers other side dishes as well, mostly prepared in Hakka style, such as Hakka Soon Kueh (客家筍粿), Braised Pork with Black Fungus (焖炸肉), Pork Knuckle with Vinegar (猪脚醋) and Hakka Abacus (客家算盘子).


To kick-start the meal, we ordered Hakka Soon Kueh (客家筍粿 - Hakka bamboo shoot dumpling) @ RM2.20 per piece. It was served to us shortly after we placed the order. This is something new to me. I have never came across such kueh.

The Hakka Soon Kueh was filled to the brim with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, black fungus, dried shrimps and minced pork. It taste alright to me, albeit a bit salty, and the ingredients were indeed generous. Not my cup of tea though.


My friend ordered Mixed Pork Porridge @ RM6.00. The porridge is in Teochew style and thus are more of rice-in-broth rather than congee. Teochew porridge doesn’t appeal to neither of us as we prefer the Cantonese way of cooking porridge. I guess slurping the steaming hot soup redolent of fish gravy and good stock is what Teochew porridge are all about.

I opt for Pork Soup Noodles with Bitter Gourd and Tofu @ M6.50. The soup is prepared using the same stock as the above, with combined ingredients such as bitter gourd, tofu (bean curd), salted vegetables and pork. The soup was delicious and very subtle, with generous portion of other food stuff.

The price is a bit steep, and undoubtedly (i’m a little biased here) my mother's home-cooked soup still taste the best!

Add: No. 94, Jalan SS 14/1, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: 012-232 0028 (Raymond), 012-373 2262 (Jacylyn), 012-210 2468 (Michael).
Opening Hours: 10am - 3pm and 6pm - 9.30pm.
Closed on Tuesday.


[Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are based entirely on personal taste buds, view and preference and may vary from others.]

Snappy Snapshot : Culture

Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are.

Rabbit vs Turtle

There are two important characteristics in life: Patience and speed. It’s important to realize that patience isn’t the same thing as being slow. It’s a mindset thing, not a factor of how fast you are moving.

Jack Ma of Alibaba said in this 2000 Forbes interview, “One must run as fast as a rabbit, but be as patient as a turtle.” Interestingly, Jack Ma picks the good attributes of each animal: The speed of the rabbit but not the impatience and cockiness. And the patience of the tortoise but not the slow speed.

While one may be baffling on how that patient mindset co-exists in a world that moves so quickly, it is interesting to learn more about how these two traits manifest themselves in our daily lives.

Tappers Caffe @ CapSquare Centre, Kuala Lumpur

Went to Times Book Fair at CapSquare Centre last Saturday. There were loads of cheap books for sale, mostly in good condition. I managed to grab some interesting books at the Book Fair.

CapSquare Centre is a newly built social and dining destination in Kuala Lumpur. There are still many vacant lots, and the crowd flow is not heavy. If you are looking for a quiet place to walk around, have a meal and watch a movie, then this is the place.

Settled my lunch at Tappers Caffe which is located at the Ground Floor of CapSquare Centre. It is a charming colonial-designed cafe which offers local and western cuisine.

White is THE colour for this cafe. Everything was in white, which made the whole cafe brighter rather than gloomy. There were white walls, white tables and white rattan chairs with black & white photo frames and antique-designed lamps adorned one side of the wall.


Tappers Kopi Ping @ RM2.80. The coffee was thick and smooth, but a tad on the sweet side. Wonder why their Kopi Ping has got so much of bubbles...


Tappers Mini Chicken Chop @ RM7.80. I ordered a "mini" version and obviously the serving is small. Just to give more room for food-testing. Ironically, Kedai Makanan Yut Kee which is famous for its Hainanese Chops is located just a stone's throw away from here.

This is said to be a northern Hainanese-influenced Chicken Chop. Battered eggs is used to wrap the Chicken Chop and pan-fried. The Chicken Chop is bland piece of chicken breast topped with steamed potatoes, steamed carrots and green peas, doused with sweet sourish tomato-based sauce. The dish was just average. The sauce could have been thicker and lesser.


A point of interest. The Tappers Mini Chicken Chop comes with a plate of plain toasted bread. I've never seen anything like this before. I mean... eating chicken chop with toasted bread?

I even told the server: "Errr... I don't think i ordered this (pointing at the bread)..." Then, the server said: "Ohhh... This is to be taken together with the Chicken Chop. (*smile*)" I guess the bread is for me to finish-up all the sauce on the plate. But this is some sort of Malay-infused culinary creations which just seems a bit odd to me.

Original French Toast with Honey @ RM2.80. Instead of normal toasts, i ordered original French Toast with honey syrup. The French Toast was evenly fried and the colour was perfect. It is topped with a thick slab of honey syrup. It tasted fragrant when eaten with honey. However, if you are not into food that are a tad on the sweet side, then it is not recommended.

Overall, i had a satisfactory meal.

I’ll admit that i loved colonial-designed cafe. It reminds me of my first 12 years childhood memory of living in an estate. It's very hard to get authentic colonial-designed cafe in Malaysia these days. The fact that Tappers Caffe is just 50% succeed in depicting a cafe from the colonial era would still warrant a praise.

Add: Lot G-21, Ground Floor, Cap Square Centre, No. 7, Persiaran Cap Square, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Capital Square, 50100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2691 2888


[Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are based entirely on personal taste buds, view and preference and may vary from others.]

Snappy Snapshot : Pepper

It is not very often to find a whole basket of huge size yellow pepper being sold in the hypermarket.

Isn't it HUGE?

Snappy Snapshot : Park At Your Own Risk

You can choose to park beside this car if you don't mind your car being dented at the side as the middle-aged driver will just kick-open the car door with all his might when he alight from his car irregardless of the car beside. Of course he don't mind the whole world to know about his ubiquitous selfish act as this kind of bastard never knew the meaning of "SHAME".

Break A Leg!

You know you are over-weight when...


...the leg of the chair break.


Need to exercise more regularly to avoid further damage... to some other chairs.

De Happy Land Restaurant @ USJ 14, Subang Jaya

Introducing the cheapest chicken rice in Subang. It's Poh Kee Roasted Duck/Chicken, a stall inside De Happy Land Restaurant in USJ 14, Subang Jaya. The restaurant is a corner shoplot in the second row facing the back and located next to Vision School USJ 15.


Chicken Rice with Siew Yuk @ RM4.50. The Chicken Rice comes with a bowl of clear soup. Poh Kee Chicken Rice serves roasted chicken and roasted duck, but not steamed chicken.


The portion is considered quite substantial, with Siew Yuk on the left and roasted chicken on the right. The chicken and Siew Yuk tasted average, decent enough for the price paid.

Restoran De Happy Land
Add: Jalan USJ 14/1L, 47620 UEP Subang Jaya, Selangor.

[Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are based entirely on personal taste buds, view and preference and may vary from others.]

Fab Friday : It's 250 Million

It was only three months ago that Facebook announced that it had reached 200 million users worldwide. On July 15, 2009, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social network has passed 250 million users.

Facebook’s offical user count is now 250 million. Wow!

Hainan Chef Kopitiam @ The Summit Shopping Complex, Subang

Spotted the sign "Jalan Jalan, Cari Makan" on the banner outside the Hainan Chef Kopitiam while i was at The Summit Shopping Complex the other day and straight away went in without hesitation. It is a cosy little kopitiam located at Lower Ground Floor.

It was said that the roots of the Hainan Chef Kopitiam started way back in 1933 as an established kopitiam at the Seremban railway station. However, that coffee shop was closed in 1993.

I didn't order their Hoilam Char or Roti Kiap which is what Hainanese kopitiams are all about. I choose something different instead.

White Coffee @ RM3.00. The aroma of the White Coffee was pretty mild with heavy milk-ness which does not suit my appetite.


Hoilam Bun @ RM2.00. They claimed that the Hoilam Bun are spread with New Zealand butter and home-made kaya. The Hoilam Bun was soft, with acceptable sweetness of flavourful kaya.

I had a short conversation with the owner of the shop and he said most of his food suppliers were Hainanese in which the authentic taste are well-guarded. Coffee and bread aside, i feel that the prices are a tad expensive though.

Add: Lot LG 06, The Summit Subang USJ, Persiaran Kewajipan, USJ 1, 47600 UEP Subang Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: 016-322 1550
Opening Hours: 9am - 10pm daily.


[Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are based entirely on personal taste buds, view and preference and may vary from others.]