Story on the fading sight of ‘yam coin’

She has just finished covering an evening function in Jonker Street. After bidding bye-bye to the photographer, she began to walk to her car, which was parked at another street nearby.

Suddenly, she got a tempting smell of live-cook ‘yam coin’ (算盘子) from a stall few steps ahead on her way. With a smile appeared on her face, she decided to follow her instinct…

Her: 老板娘，算盘子大的一份，打包。[Lady boss, one big portion of yam coin, take away please.]

Lady boss: 好，马上来。[Sure, right away.]

While the packet of yam coin was done and almost on its way to be handed to her…

Her: 老板娘对不起，我不要了。[I'm sorry lady boss, I don't want already.]

Lady boss: …… (looking at her speechless with the “why???” look on her face)

Her: 我忘了带钱包出来。[I forgot to bring my purse.]

With the fastest possible speed ever, she walked off with her ‘bengang’ face… heading to her car again.

“Damn it! Malu siol…” her heart spoken.

Sigh sigh sigh… why must the forgetfulness stroke when she finally got a by-chance opportunity to taste a Hakka delicacy that she’s been talking about all the while, ever since her last time of trying the food which were made by her beloved father more than n years ago…? Why happened when the stall was still selling the dish at that kinda hour although it used to be already-finished- long-time-ago. Why la…?

And yes, the Hakka girl in the end drove home immediately after the incident, without a single cent, without her IC and driving license… and without any yam coin obviously…

Mood: Blank
Music: Heartbreaker, by Bee Gees

 

Potrait

The beauty of lines & curves – painted by God.

 

The journey between before & after

Remember the post about “before & after” in Pengkalan Balak? Now let the in between journey comes in…

Before…

Walking on the path that leads to the island.

A 180 degree turn around, looking back at the shore.

A kind of grass seen while walking in between the jungle on the island.

Came out from the bushes and saw the land of stones.

Some close look at the small stones.

Big stones, with signs of oysters grown on it (or am I wrong?)… Sayng said it’s called “teritip” in Malay…

Look aside at the seaview, got trees nearby on the shore and there’s even another similar island further up. Pulau Konet Dua???

Back to the island, seen a small cave… I definitely cannot go in, haha!

A snapshot on the stones underneath our feet. Yeah, the fair ones are mine… hehee.

Proceeded crawling up higher, found a big stone with a big hole. Kinda wonder what happened to it…

Alright… the human being was not the focus and so better off concealling. Look at the beach, the stones as well as the panaromic view behind… Yeah, there were in fact a few people fishing at a far end (unseen, on the right of this picture) on this island.

Hehehe… Actually this place is very near to Tanjung Bidara. In fact, you’ll reach Pengkalan Balak first before reaching Tanjung Bidara. You can see there’s a power generator plant nearby…

There goes. After about 30 minutes we stepped out of the island.

Not much photos were taken after the previous one, as we were back to the front of the island and noticed that the sea water level were rising – half of the path was already unseen! So we need to be careful and fast to walk back to the path and get out of there. Else, we’d be trapped and need to wait until around 9 p.m. at night when the water level goes down again – I guess those fishing people also will leave at that time…

I still remember, the water level reached our knee and slowly above it while we were walking back… Ha! Felt so vulnerable!

 

Kacau dodol

Some time before Hari Raya, I got this chance to follow sayng to his friend, Sudin’s place in a Malay kampung (village) to experience this kacau dodol event. According to Sudin, his family use to do this every year somewhere before celebrating Hari Raya. Or else, the Raya mood and atmosphere doesn’t come in.

There were about 8 of us who took turns to stir the dodol. Including me there were only 2 ladies. We started at 9 p.m. and ended at 1  a.m. plus. It wasn’t an easy task although it looked as if it was. Stirring the dodol needs plenty of energy to make sure it’s evenly stirred and heated. And no doubt - a sweating task. But when I was tasting the dodol straight from the wok, it was so so so yummy and aromatic. What a wonderful first time experience!

 

Inyección

Yesterday after class I went for my thyphoid injection - it’s due to work requirement, no choice. Else who would wish to suddenly got poked with a needle on the arm…? Well nothing was much different when the job was done. So I carried on my day as usual, drove fast, walked fast, thought fast, laughed hard, smiled sweet, smirked quietly and ate big.

When the days got later my left arm begins to “fly”. I couldn’t even manouver my sterring properly when I was doing my side parking. When it was gently pressed, I could feel the pain in the muscle… the fly is somewhat annoying and I could’t sleep well on my left arm… Ugh sob. And then this morning, despite the aching arm, caught myself in a light fever… Ah, just like what sayng said – some people got fever after the injection. Mmm no good no good… skipped a morning class, but attended the evening Spanish class. Those masculine and feminine verbs with the grammars made me feel drowsy… ¡Ya no puedo pensar ahora!

Mood: Tired
Music: 穷途末路 , by林志炫

 

Before & after

Me and sayng found this island while we were visiting Pengkalan Balak some time ago. It was a very small island with lots of trees, big stones and small stones (pictures coming up later on future post).  We asked a local who stayed nearby, and he said they used to call this island “Pulau Konet” (and we were, “huh??”) hahaa… These are two photos taken, one before we step on the island and one after we step out of the island, with elapse of 30 minutes in between.

 

Puteri’s ikan asam pedas & masak sambal

*After a food posting on my photoblog… yet another post about food. arhh fat fat… 

Ever find yourself craving for asam pedas fish? Last two days, I had this longing for fish again… especially with that lovely asam pedas gravy. What more, again, me, Debbie and sayng headed to ‘Asam Pedas Puteri’ located at Batu Berendam. I claim it as the best asam pedas and sambal fish in Melaka.

This is the place we kinda frequent whenever we look for this dish. There are several places available in town that also serve the similar dish. But honestly, they simply couldn’t beat Puteri’s. Those places usually had their fish prepared. When you order they just need to scoop it out and serve. And if they’re not finish selling, they might keep it for the nect day. But at Puteri’s, fishes are fresh and you can choose from the fridge before they cook it. That ensures the freshness and excellent temperature of the dish while serving. The gravy tastes just nice, not overly hot or sour and it managed to open my appetite by just looking at it…

Ikan Pari (Stingray) used to be our favourite choice to go with asam pedas. Sometimes we go for other choices too, such as Ikan Jenahak (Snapper) or Ikan Kut that also belongs to the snapper family. Of course, other choices like Ikan Parang, Ikan Kembong, Ikan Bawal (Pomfret) and etc also available over this place subject to availability.

Ikan Pari asam pedas. Freshly served & steaming hot!

Other than fishes in asam pedas (ikan masak asam), Puteri’s also offers fishes in sambal (ikan masak sambal). This is also one of the must try in Puteri’s. Fish is firstly deep-fried before cooking together with their homemade special sambal with some sliced onion. Hmmpphh… fantabulously delicious! Other than fishes in sambal, veggies such as bendih (lady’s finger), kobis (cabbage) in sambal also can be found here. And of course, it is subject to availability and you’ll need to check with the person who take your order.

Ikan Pari masak sambal – Yummylicious!

With all these great dishes on the table, you can never resist to add more rice (at least one more plate shared by 2 persons) to make the whole meal more worthwhile. Hmm… stomach bloated la…

Errrhhh…! What a lovely meal. Ehee…

Mood: Anticipating
Music: Together Again, by Janet Jackson

 

老牙邻居 lousy neighbour

Distance from home to campus is around 25 minutes. Back and forth almost daily actually ‘swallow’ a great amount of fuel. Due to this reason I only go home on alternate days. Other days I stayed at a friend’s place which is much nearer. Yesterday I came home at night and study for today’s exam paper – Consumer Behaviour. I slept around 0430 in the morning, planned to wake up around 1100 later and prepare for the paper at 1430. Fine – Good plan it was, at least I get to rest for about 6 hours.

But then, something freaking 甘纳塞 happened.

Someone switched on the radio with that louder-than-usual volume – I was awake – It was only heavenly 0800 in the morning!!! Fark the monkey-faced who switch it so loud! 怕死没有人懂你家有电啊 ?! *&$^X#@+!!!!

It was from my next door neighbour. They just moved in around one month ago. And the place here is a 5-unit half-wooden-half-brick terrace house. Which means even if you cough a lil’ louder probably the whole row of neighbours will hear you. And not forgetting, there’s another 5 units at the opposite row.

That was not the first time they make ridiculous sound. The kids in the house were extremely mischievous. They like to use things to beat the wooden wall and scream even during midnight. In short, they’re hyperactive 不甘寂寞! The parents? Tremendously superb eyesight and hearing. 视若无睹. Even if they yell at the kids also it sounds like 不知所谓都不知道在叫什么春… The best thing is, the whole family had done a lot more gimmicks that interfere the norms that all the neighbours here used to maintain all these years… and eventually provoked us in many many ways… 总之是翻胃兼头痛。Tried to speak to them but also nothing much improved… 还用包租公的名字来压人…简直是汤猪凳! Hkctnspyt…!

好日不回来过夜，一回就kena这些不三不四的婆娘三八…变态啊！

Brother Kolin yesterday said, just endure for a couple of months more. The house is already completed, and they’ll handover the key in December. Mmm… less than 60 days – 忍耐啦！

 

Figs

Last two days I was empty-stomach when I reached home. And it wasn’t dinner time yet… and Mom was still cokking. So… I head to the fridge. While I was checking it out trying to search for something to chew on, I found this thing that rose my eyebrow…

It claimed itself snack… so means can just eat like that la…

I check with Mom, she said that was the thing she used to make the soup (which I said very nice) few days back. Brother actually bought it back. I was like – awh, make soup? It looked so different then! But I didn’t give it much thought… I just took out one. The surface looked as though it was very hard. Actually not so… You can actually just pop it into your mouth and chew it; or slowly open it and eat it bit by bit.

See its inside? If you eat dragon fruit before, then imagine 10 times or more small seeds inside your mouth. They taste a lil’ bit sweet, with that lil’ bit sticky texture. As a whole, it makes you feel healthy chewing this snacks – yeah like it’s said on the label.

Since it didn’t state what’s the name, I turned to the back of the package and I saw it written “Sundried figs”. Not knowing what’s figs, I check it our from my thick oxford advanced learners english-chinese dictionary. And it’s actually called 无花果. Ooohh…..

I was pretty happy enjoying the snacks, ended up jalan masuk satu buji, keluar pun satu biji… Eventually, “喂你不要把它全部吃完啊！你懂不懂这个东西很贵的，一包一点点要整十多块，我还要拿来煮汤的啊！”

Mood: Relaxed
Music: Chop Suey! by System of a Down

 

Of petals, leaves and thorns

I could still remember it was a bright early evening with no sun. As I stepped outside the house just to glance around, that nice and cozy breeze gently approached me and soon I was fully surrounded by a warm and comforting feeling from the natural world. The flowers were elegantly blossomed, and the greens were swaying in charm. Realizing this could be the time in life that you could only hoped for and not asked for, in no time I found myself embracing the bliss of that thrilling moments with the petals, leaves and thorns that were so sweet, gorgeous and even at times, bashful…

Featuring my favourite 3 babes that lives happily ever after since migration from Cameron Highlands in April 05. Growing healthy and fine…

Left is the long-lived momma as well as great granny for its numerous descendants on the right. See how giant it is compared to a fifty-cents coin? It has been here coming to 10 years, when its size was something like 2 fifty-cents coins…

These are all my Mum’s hard work, her charming babes. Regardless of their jungle-like habitat, they’ve been well taken care of all the time. The zealous and healthy blooms simply describe better than words.

Here ends my sharing of some taken pictures with the help of my sweet friend. All pictures were initially taken with 1024×768 resolution, fine quality. They were resized before posted. Shootings taken with manual mode with vivid photo effects, camera default exposure compensation (0) and shutter speed, 100 ISO speed, and macro for close object without flash. And appropriate zoom were applied for every picture for the best result… For more professional details you may follow each picture link to Zoto. Thanks for viewing. I’m going for my dinner now

Mood: Easy
Music: Sunny day, by Dou Wei