A Unique Taste Of Malaysia

(Photo: A different Martabak across the Causeway)

I am in Malaysia, KL, taking a week off before the New Year starts. On Christmas Day, I went out with my in-laws relatives to Putrajaya – The Government Capital of Malaysia to do some fun photo shoot and we came across a pasar malam

A Pasar Malam is a make shift market place that takes place on an occasional basis. You can find food stalls, vegetable stalls and others.

The food stalls were the main attraction of these pasar malams and they show you the unique Malaysia delicacies in full colour and smell.

The photo above is a shot of Martabaks in the making. Martabak is made of dough marinated in ghee with filled with stuffing made of vegetable or meat. The one above was soaked in thick egg yolk with a nice serving of vegetable mix.

And the best thing was it only cost RM2 per piece which is about SGD0.80. Most Martabak in Singapore comes with meat filling and they cost about SGD3.00 to SGD5.00 per piece.

(The making of Martabak..)

2010 is going to be scary for Microsoft

I was thinking about predictions and thought maybe I go back to my roots to write something tech.

As such, I am predicting that 2010 is going to be scary for Microsoft. Why? Because of Google; Android 2.0 OS for the phone and Chrome OS for netbooks.

Let’s start with the Android 2.0 OS. Besides being the free OS, I hear mobile apps developers focusing their efforts to create apps for the iPhone and Android mobile OS. Windows Mobile don’t seem to come up in any of these conversations.

I also heard of the iPhone Apps store and the Android Market Place, but nothing about a site that you can go and download Windows Mobile apps.

More mobile phones manufacturers are looking at introducing Android OS based smart phones in 2010 and even Google is rumoured to be launching their own phones.

The Android mobile OS is starting to look more like a plausible alternative to the iPhone OS and might help the mobile phone manufacturers to regain their sexy back.

Google’s Chrome OS should also be a concern for Microsoft especially for the netbook space. The straight to browser OS makes the netbook faster to start up and shut down which has been a bane for Windows XP because of the excess drivers the XP OS have to load or shut down.

Windows 7 seemed to have solved this problem but a home version seem rather heavy on the pre-requisites.

The straight to browser  OS might also be the glue that binds all of Google online applications and Google Docs might start to be more popular than Microsoft Office. That could be THE threat to Microsoft rather than the OS itself.

A straight to browser OS is also good for the flux of tablet PCs coming in next year. I don’t see tablet PCs making their mark for keyboard is like print, it will never go away.

Maybe Microsoft is doing something. It could be a case of Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger with Microsoft being the Dragon and Google being the Tiger.

The Animated Google Story

Found this rather interesting animation on the last 11 years of Google.

Avatar – My first 3D movie since Jaws

3D was made for Avatar. It cost a bit more, SGD14 for a ticket instead of the usual SGD9.50 but it is still worth the extra.

I was surprised to  see Sigourney Weaver in another alien movie, maybe I wasn’t paying attention to her when I saw the Avatar trailers. In her Aliens series, Sigourney keeps running away from aliens trying to mate with her. In Avatar, she tries to transfer her soul to the Avatar alien but fails to do so. Quite ironic in a way.

But the movie in 3D was visually pleasing and it brought the alien planet to “live”. Better than watching a digital version.

You soon get immersed into Pandora, the alien planet in Avatar. The creatures and plants were out of these world.

The 3D visuals will distract you from the predictable movie plot though. Paralysed Marine goes to alien planet, gets to walk again via the Avatars that look like the aliens, infiltrates the alien compound to get intel for higher-ups, falls in love with an alien and decides to save them instead from the grunt commander. We all know who the winner will be.

But I be disappointed if there isn’t Avatar 2, though.

However, it was much more better than the last alien movie I saw, Planet 51. I leave that for another post.

Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it. 

Colours to brighten up your food day..

Add a little dash of colours..

Balance it out with some dull colours

 

Give it a good mix…

A good mix..

VIola.. a bowlful of Boh Boh Cha Cha

History lesson from a photo

Above is a photo taken in the early 1900s.

My grandfather Yeo Tiang Hoon is sitting on the left and on this right is his brother, Yeo Tiang Hock. The man in the center is their father, Yeo Eng Kiat who passed away in 1972 at a age of 77.

Mr Yeo Tiang Hock was one of the victims of the round out of the local Chinese population during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. According to my grandmother, Mr Yeo Tiang Hock was shot after being rounded up by the Japanese but that saved his uncle’s life as he (Mr Yeo Tiang Hock)  was standing in front of him. The Japanese soldiers took away the bodies but never came back his uncle.
 
My grandfather Yeo Tiang Hoon celebrates his 87th birthday on 16 December 2009.

Chinese (Yong Tau Foo) or Western (NZ Ribeye Beef Steak)?

Lunch time is coming up. Have you decided what you going to have for lunch?

Yong Tau Foo is a Singapore favourite, light on both the stomach and wallet.It is like a potluck of sorts. You pick and choose of various variety, vegetables with fish paste squeezed into them or just plain vegetables. The next selection is whether you want it to served in a soup broth or dry. You round the dish off with a choice of Asian staples of rice or noodles.

At $0.30-$0.50 per piece and most stalls requesting that you order a minimum of SGD2.00 per serving, it is indeed light on your wallet.


Or maybe you might want to treat yourself to what we call "Western Food". We call it "western" because the dish do not include any of the Asian staples like rice or noodles. Usually, it comes with just a piece of meat or fish. "Western Food" is more expensive than your local dish.

A serving of NZ Ribeye Beef Steak like the one above would set you aside by SG12. That's like 6 times the cost of your Yong Tau Foo serving. Cheap compared to restaurant/cafe pricing which can go up as as $50 excluding 7% GST and 10% service charge.

Some stalls save on the greens, but this stall I had my beef steak serve with an abundance of broccoli. The sauce is nice, but it leaves you quite thirsty after the meal. Guess it is the amount of MSG that they might have used to create it.

So what are you having for lunch?

What can SGD1 get you today?

Look at your dollar coin. Have you wondered what SGD1 can get you today?

It is enough buy you The Sunday Times on a Sunday. Enough in the classifieds hopefully to get you a new job, car, house?

Same say it can bring you hope. SGD1 in 4D or Toto can give you a chance to thousands to millions.

Unfortunately the chance of you winning is not whether you buy or not, it only buys you a chance in a million.
SGD1 can get you three packs of tissue from the uncles and aunties who ply the hawker centers. However, it is difficult to part with SGD1 because we wonder why we need 3 packs of tissues at the hawker center.

Actually, these uncles and aunties should just sell one pack for 50 cents to those who have nothing to “chope” their seats during office lunch hour.

SGD1 can get you your daily caffeine fix. It depends on whether you put milk or sugar or none at all. A “kosong” (means empty in Malay) is black coffee without the works and that cost about SGD0.70 depends on where you are. The full works plus ice may go beyond the dollar.

So what can SGD1 get you today?

Coffee Addiction

I admit I am a caffeine addict. There is no doubt that I can’t stay awake without my morning cup of coffee each day.

My wife says it is almost as addictive as cigarettes. However, coffee is still cheaper, much cheaper, than cigarettes. Plus I don’t smoke.

A day without coffee can be quite a torture especially towards mid afternoon.

What type of coffee do I drink? Usually it is with milk without sugar. Hey, if you want to taste pure coffee, it should be all black right? Reducing sugar intake is also good too as to reduce diabetes.

When at home or at office, Nescafe Gold is just fine with me. Though, I do prefer International Roast at times.

Outside, the coffee from the Kopitiam would do. Once in awhile, it might be a Starbucks or CoffeeBean. However, coffee from the Kopitiam is about SGD1 while that at the gourmet coffee cafes sells for SGD3.50 for a regular cup. That’s like 3 cups of coffee at the Kopitiam.

I have seem to go back old school at the Kopitiam. Instead of asking for the normal styrofoam cup, I asked for the kopitiam to give it to me in a used tin can, usually comes from storing the evaporated or condensed milk. It just taste different coming from the tin can rather than the styrofoam cup. One Kopitiam owner also said that the tin can is more stable than the styrofoam cup and it is a bit more difficult to knock down the tin can given the heavier base.

There is so much you can talk about coffee. Yes, I do agree with my wife that too much is also not a good thing either.