The lunches at Burj Dubai and..sofitel

where am i now? huh, the past week has been a hectic and roller coaster of a week,starting from a trip to Miri,off to Dubai for few days and last 2 days in JB.At senai airport finally awaiting to go home sweet home.Dubai? What an amazing place, this the second time i went there ,the first trip was too hectic and all business for me to savour the atmosphere(Besides the desert safari ride of course).This time round more time to look at the place in retrospective,it's amazing really how a desert enclave of an area was turned into a mega city and place of excellence.Everything is all BIG BIG BIG ,they ve a 7 star hotel Burj dubai,and an almost complete tallest building in the world. What impressed me though was the apparent pursuit for quality thinking and culture.The place is literally run by foreign Indian workers but can sense that the discipline nature of their outlook and roads? All are sprightly clean. Kudos to the sheikh.Highlight of my trip? a buffet lunch hosted by a Sarawakian who has made it big in Dubai at the burj dubai. Even to go dining there you need to book and you are only allowed access to this prestigious hotel if you had a booking.how does one eat at such a place(wont mention the price per head for the buffet lunch!!). Somehow the grilled meat tasted different!! Another sarawakian friend working there brought me to the global village where they had various pavilions selling things from various countries. First pavilion that was visited India and i got a huge hug from a dvd store seller when i told him i am a Malaysian. You got it, yes they were happy(the Indians i mean) with Sharukh Khan getting a Datukship from Melaka!!! Ha so the criticisms are clearly unfounded,well done Ali Rustam (oops forgot,well done Datuk Ali Rustam).After the highs of that sumptuous buffet lunch in Dubai, my buffet lunch in Senai Sofitel JB yesterday was a real let down. I was down with food poisoning and now still suffered from it!!! Back to reality mate

Badminton, lepak and cup of tea

Last 2 nites i suddenly became an active sportsman(more of an obligation...) by battling myself in our company's badminton competition. can feel all the muscles aching now but then who said that badminton is no fun? The drop shots are still being executed with elegance(of course from my perspective!!!) and the smashes did pass over to the opponents area even if the shuttle seems to be hanging in the air for ages ,hey it's still a smash shot!
In actual fact i did play badminton actively but stopped this healthy ritual almost 2 years ago when i indulged myself with other 'healthy" activity( read...the Sarawak football). We had this motley crew of friends and we called ourselves the GBAT gang and without fail we played twice a week at the KGS courts and possibly for around 2 hours(if you include the chit chat in between games).The badminton though was just a prelude to another more meaningful and useful(to us anyway) activity lepak(or loitering) at Mat cafe. Our "lepaks" can last at times for more than the 2 hours and possibly Cinderella would have missed her midnite deadline if she ever was joining our lepak group. Without miss i would always order "teh O kosong(black tea no sugar please) for coffee is no go for me after 9 pm or else i would just lie awake like a zombie counting sheep as you struggled to lapse into a sleep. What actually did we talk about ? Honestly now i cant even remember a single thing ,one thing i knew that sometimes i do get the usual drubbing for my eccentrics on the court.
So? after the 2 years lapse and getting myself back on the courts i promised that my new year resolution later thsi month will definitely be to join back my GBAT gang for the weekly badminton activities, "lepakking" at Wan's ice cream(no longer Mat cafe,comes with the times maybe) and will still savour my cup of tea,no sugar please!!!

Linut and other indulgences..

Just came back from a ravishing dinner meal.sometimes i have this sudden craving for that sumptuous melanau staple dish,the LINUT(or sago "porridge" for the unawares of the term linut)
see pic... This peculiar habit of eating linut with sambal belacan is a unique Malay ritual of eating this delicious dish. I was told by my late grandmother before that 'musim jepun"(during Japanese occupation) when rice was a scarcity,most Kunchingites or Sarawakians for that matter resorted to have staple dish of linut or potatoes. Well it was my dear old grandmother who first introduced me to this dish and ever since it has always been a craving for me and whenever i had an urge to indulge myself in this palate i must find all ways and means to achieve that or else "kempunan",this is another superstituous Malay belief for this dish."Kempunan" means disaster or bad tidings may befall oneself if such craving is not satisfied or honoured. Well there is only one place that i frequented here in kuching for the Linut dish,at the Masja restaurant!!! Wonder the linut(or gum) will get stuck in your intestines(ha..).Other favourite jaunts in Kuching for me if ican list them include Secret Recipe(boring boring) but honestly this place offer you the best fish and chips and americano coffee(better than starbucks mark my word i am a coffee man). The fish is deliciously fresh.Another favourite dish of mine is the "hepia" or fried prawns fritters, fried tauhu, keribang and other fried (all fried lah) delicacies with chilli paste.The best place to have this?Rex Cucur at Rubber Road definitely a worthwhile place to have your hepia and as a side dish,the mee jawa is not too bad either.The mee siam at the kopi kluang station cafe at the springs not too bad either. Back to the evergreen linut i remembered once when i was a university student in Birmingham i managed to get my mum to send a packet of the sago flour(to make the linut porridge) and when myself and another Sarawakian friend was having our mouths full of this sticky paste,a bewildered housemate(orang Malaya,who else can be that ignorant on linut!!) couldnt believe his eyes and just stood there and stammered uttering the following words(after 20 years i can still vividly remember)..." apa yang hang makan tu?Gum ke?you berdua gila ke?" haha in loose translation what he muttered was "what are you both eating? is it gum? you both crazy?"
ha ha give me a dish of linut anytime man or else bad tidings will befall!!!

Blackberry...a best friend

This week i lavished myself with a new blackberry hand phone,the blackberry bold. This is a real treat and as most blackberry users will testify once you use one you cant possibly revert to another brand no matter what the nokias,samsung are to throw at you with their new offerings.I first used a blackberry 2 years ago incidentally more for access to my emails,well it's still the best for such usage in my view.My only complaint that i had with my earlier blackberry is its camera function which cant offer a worthy picture of sufficient clarity.Nowadays can you imagine a life without a hand phone? Remembered my first ever hand phone way back in 1995 was a nokia and like most consumers(and hand phone makers know this) you tend to change these gadgets as a young man will sometimes do when they savour a better proposition(ahem..).My repeated change of hand phones though was sometimes due to unpleasant circumstances,my gadget tends to get stolen !!!that first nokia i can still recall was stolen when i left it just for a few minutes at a coffee stall.Few years back i started to migrate on usage of PDAs and my first PDA an O2 was taken away when my car was smashed at the roadside while i was having my Friday prayers. What kind of jerks do this despicable act at the mosque precinct? Anyway my second PDA was also stolen ,a Dopod when i left again for a few minutes in a buggy after finishing a round of golfing.PDAs tend to be oversell in its functionality, a laptop in my view is still a better companion and convenience of use for your business work. Can you now imagine a life without a hand phone? Incredible and mind boggling just to think what kind of gadget will be on offer 10 years from now? As for now let me just savour my blackberry bold with its much improved camera functionality !!! a photo taken at Buntal yesterday(testing,testing..my blackberry)..

Coffee anyone?

i have earlier confessed to few obsessions ; football,books,movies and yes coffee.i cant recall when this particular obsession(or is it an addiction?) turns into a passion.Maybe it started during my university days as you struggled to keep awake amidst the pressure of meeting assignments deadline so not surprising if one chose to be addicted to coffee (the other option is a smoke!!!!). Then the discerning taste for a good cuppa takes over. Friends tell me i am crazy as i go great lengths in pursuing this passion of mine. I have sipped and tried to taste all kinds of coffee,i have savoured a great cup of Bali coffee at a beautiful restaurant overlooking a valley at Kitamani Bali. I have tasted Turkish coffee at its original best in the Cappadocia region as the belly dancers strutted their stuff.While most people viewed Indonesia as a place for batik and other shopping extravaganza, for me i pursued its coffee. Indonesia is renowned for its high quality coffee .In a movie scene'the bucket list" Jack Nicholson tried to tell all and sundry the meaning of real luxury..A cuppa of coffee Luwak.(read origin Indonesia).Once on a visit to Bandung i tracked down a famous coffee roaster and grinder shop,Coffee Aroma wow heaven man as you sipped a cuppa with the owner and as he relate to you the history of the place Coffee aroma.By now must have guessed how my day start...what else with a good cuppa of coffee from my machine at home.i though have not yet tasted coffee luwak because it is real expensive believe me!!

Significant other..or also known as Minister of Finance

As we aged and nearing that magic number 50, a favorite pastime is to reminisce of things past. An obvious item to reflect of course was how you met your significant other. One will tell you of his enduring love since at the school bench, one will reflect on that first date watching the bangsawan or one is forever grateful that after few failed relationships finally met the right one for his heart. A marriage is a sanctity that bonds one human being to another , it gives meaning to a life that will normally be just a passing through of navigating a roller coaster of ups and downs. It will be the family that will be our bedrock , it will be our children that spurs us to be an exemplary to the society,in all as I sipped my tea celebrating a dear friend's wedding anniversary of possibly 20 odd years, I can understand his remark that our children makes a marriage, simple but true.
The Susan sarandon scene in the movie' Shall we dance" tells it all, to me great dialogue on that particular scene,watch that movie(not just Jeniffer Lopez great dance moves!!)

Singapore...heaven and hell

Was in Spore for a few days,attending an oil and gas regional exhibition. Stayed around Bencoolen street area, love the mee mamak there at one stall that i will always patronise whenever am in town.ravishing and best mee mamak i believed that i ever tasted..saw an interesting scene at bencoolen street, a mosque side by side with a pub!!!! i did go to that mosque once for my Friday prayers during an earlier visit,couldn't understand a single word of the sermon(being conducted in Tamil! i believe) as for the pub wonder what will be an appropriate activity,hmm do one go first for a pint?? then move next door to repent?? interesting place Singapore. Another place that i will always pay a visit whenever in Spore was this second hand books shop at Far East plaza, wonder why such an enterprise not that popular in Malaysia, because for book lovers you can really find good bargains there. You will always be assured of finding some good old edition books to excite you as you browse through the bookshop. This time though did not buy any,end up buying a good read book(i believe) at the Times "theOutliers" by Malcolm Gladwell,interesting thought provoking book on defining success,was a bit hooked to it last night and finished halfway, reminds me of previous great read books that i bought and savoured, The Black swan and Fooled by randomness both books by Nasim Taleb.
Back to the pub story,if this happens in Malaysia,all well meaning politicians, academicians and the man on the street will be screaming with rage..the only missing jaunt in between the pub and the mosque is a yoga centre,ha that will really complete the story!!! Next time i pray there i make sure that during Isya, the pub is still closed,well they all say the devils is everywhere !!!