Meet up with a counterpart from DHL SHA

A counterpart of mine happen to come to Malaysia for holidays last end of November and Penang was one of his stops.  So I went to meet up with him and another travel partner of his. Peter is from Shanghai and his travel partner is Catherine from Chengdu(not from DHL). Brought them for dinner and shopping in Gurney Plaza. Very nice people, he even brought me a souvenir from Shanghai EXPO 2010.

My previous meet with DHL counterpart was with Cindy from Guangzhou. We planned a meet up during my last trip to Hong Kong 2008. She also gave me a souvenir for Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games. I have nothing happening from Malaysia to give them lo! :(

Anyways, both nice counterparts and Catherine invited me to visit them soon… but I’ve gotta plan for Guangzhou first… haha.. else Cindy will scold me loo.. :P

Oh ya.. just came back from Hong Kong trip last week …yes, Hong Kong again… enjoyed the cold weather and I’m missing it already!!! I felt that I did not shop enough this round.. and i freaking sprained my ankles… bumped into few celebrities… Bosco, Woo Fong, TVB celebrities mainly and Alan Tam in the airport… din manage to take photos with all of them though… photos soon.. i hope… procrastinating again :P

CNY PROJECT : Lotus root chips!

After making the ngaku(arrow root) chips, I got so semangat I went to the market the next day to get some nice lotus roots! Never tried making them before so it was intended to be just an experiment… and it turned out not bad :D it’s easier that you don’t have to peel so many but it has slightly harder texture, so it’s more difficult when slicing in.. need to have firmer hands to hold on to the slicer and the lotus root on each hands… it takes less than 30 minutes to fill in the container… easy eh… just that I have an extra work which is to mop the oily floor :P

DHL Express PEN GTW New Year Family Day – BBQ Outing by the beach

It’s an annual thing for the PEN GTW team to organize a BBQ on new years day… i think.. haha.. i missed last year’s because I had a house warming party to attend.  This year, the organizer folks were kind enough to invite again to join them. Thanks guys!

The day was sunny, with cool breeze luckily.. i thought i was just going to stop by for a while but i ended up staying the whole day till late! Agreed to met Lorna at 1pm, and good thing it’s only 5 minutes drive form my place :D to Pantai Jerejak, nearby the jetty.. never knew there’s a place for picnic… the beach is not clean though… and besides us, there were many different big groups having their BBQ functions too!

Lotsa food!!! Chicken, sausages, squids, tiger prawns, all so yummy!

Ada fried bee hoon (fried vermicelli) and fried rice too! And they ordered laksa and rojak towards the end of the day from the nearby stalls… the laksa.. erm.. tak sedap lo!

Chef of the day and head chef monitoring :P

The Gateway and Ops clan, also invited, the CSE clan :P  No function is complete without….booze!

Day and night at the beach…. this is a good way to bond with each other.. it’s in fact during working hours we sometimes argue lot on the phone and emails, between both clans…. but end of the day, we can all sit together and eat, chit chat and have fun together. Well, it’s just a job after all!

Bobo Cafe Hokkien Mee, Taman Lip Sin

There are arguably several nice hokkien mee (prawn noodles) in Penang, some say the best would be the one opposite Pulau Tikus police station near the morning market, some say Sg Dua Ah How’s Hokkien Mee and the list goes on.

One hokkien mee stall I’ve noticed in my neighbour hood that have his fair share of regulars is the one at Bobo Cafe, same row with Klinik Bersatu Taman Lip Sin, adjacent to the market and also Sunshine Lip Sin. This is the one I enjoyed eating too. I’ll usually stop by on my way home after a visit to the morning market , well depending. If I see many customers still waiting, I’ll just walk straight home instead :P

The stall offers both, hokkien and lor mee or mixture of both. Open during the morning until noon. Usually even when I go for take away, the wait would be around 15 to 20 minutes, sometimes more.

To me, this stalls hokkien mee is just as good. The soup is sweet (not sure if it’s MSG but i noticed they used generous amount of pork and ribs in their soup ) and it is very flavourful.  The prawns used are also fresh, not very big but at least it’s in a whole.. some stalls’ prawns are sliced to thin bits… you can opt for additional condiments, like the prawns, eggs slices, pork slices or even adding the soft ribs.

A normal bowl cost at MYR2.50, large one at MYR3.00, and additional for extra condiments.

This stall work non stop from opening to closing. So far, I’ve never seen them taking a break.. customers come in non stop for eat in-s and also take away-s.

Yummy hokkien mee you should try. Must remind them if you order does not come in 15 minutes, they might forget about you sometimes :P

Worth a try for hokkien mee lovers. Perhaps you’ll like it too :D

Eating healthy - Garden Pasta Salad

I enjoy eating pasta.. in fact any kind of pasta… of should i say… i love Italian food… from pasta, pizza, lasagna, tiramisu.. and perhaps more to explore…
This time, i opt for something healthier… pasta salad…

Ingredients:
Tri-coloured spiral pasta, boiled with some olive oil and salt
Broccoli – cut into small florets, with quick blanch into hot boiling water
Capsicum – Red and yellow ones, since you already have broccoli cut into strips
Carrots – Julienned to thin strips, poured over quickly with hot water (if you don really like raw carrots)
Onions – thinly sliced


Extra virgin olive oil, Italian herbs, salt to taste (can directly use Italian/French salad dressing too if you love the sour-ish taste)


*you can add in any kind of vegetables of your preference.. like radish slices, olives, tomatoes, celery, coriander (cilantro/chinese parsley) for the extra taste  and even add bacon, salami, boiled eggs and cheese.


Toss everything over in a salad bowl, no specific measurement.. all depending on your taste buds.. leave it to cool and chilled before serving…


and there you have it.. colourful healthy bowl of pasta salad…. simple, easy and quick!

CNY PROJECT: Spent the weekend afternoon making ngaku (arrowroot) chips!

Just came back from HKG a few days back and I’m missing it already… wishing I’m still there enjoying the cold weather, shopping (which i did not do much this round, now i kinda regretted it :( ) and best of all get away from work…

And yes, I’ve been away from blogging for some time and it’s not consistent anymore, thanks to my *#%$&@ JOB, thrown to a new account cos the original “owners” left.. so it’s me alone to battle it all…sheesh…

Anyways, since HKG trip is over, the next thing I’m looking forward most is… CHINESE NEW YEAR! and it’s in less than a month! YAY! more holidays, great food, get to be back home and spend quality time with family… and Valentine’s day falls on the same day too! to the one’s celebrating, happy planning.. time to spend and enjoy the festive season with family, friends and loved ones… must appreciate them bits! After all, if you don’t love them, who else would you love?

Alright, back to my ngaku chips, I was in Jusco when I noticed ngaku (arrow root) was sold at only MYR2.50 per kg. and surprisingly, there’s no one there to berebut wanna buy.. compared to few years back when ngaku craze hit. During that time you see one whole big bunch at the ngaku corner and they buy like the whole trolley of it! The chips are still sold in markets and supermarkets at around MYR13 to MYR15 per medium container, which is so expensive!  

I bought a MYR14 total of ngaku, and I’ve made approximately 8 medium containers! a container itself cost me around MYR 1.30. So if I were to average out, the cost of a container would be around MYR3.50. So imagine the profit they are making!

Ngaku chips are easy to make, seriously… it’s not that tedious also… you buy them home, wash and peel the skin off and then just slice them into hot oil and viola! remove them from the oil and off to the kitchen towel to remove excess oil.. i do it twice, from the wok to the first kitchen towel “station”, shake shake and then to another fresh kitchen towel “station” where i then sprinkle fine salt, and haha… mine is slightly different, i put in garlic powder as well :P  for the extra kick… if you like it with a hint of italian, sprinkle italian herbs in! haha… in fact, you have loadful of choices.. from black pepper, paprika, tomato power, any dried herbs and anything you can find at the spice rack! can experiment all you want! I love my spices and herbs!

End of the day, i’ve got myself 2 big containers, and 4 medium ones… and yes, i tried making the shredded crabstick too. My sis and I actually finished one container already :P and i got her to bring back one for my mom, since also like to makan.. :D  So I’m left with this… enough for CNY i guess… we’ll see if the mood strikes again, I might wanna make more… hehe… coming up… urm.. i might wanna make ribbon kuih (gai dan san) too.. and my pie tee cups! CNY will not go without jiu hoo/mangkuang char.. so the pie tee cups fit the purpose just right :D Actually my sis challenge me to make it la.. so I’m just gonna make it loooo!

Can’t wait for CNY!!!!!