The weather is turning cold. And the flu virus is back. C was down with fever and flu. I wanted to make her chicken soup, and remembered my mom once said; when one is with fever, should not eat chicken. Though it’s an old wives’ tale, I am not taking any chance. Whenever C is down with fever and flu, it really flat her out like a punctured balloon. I decided to make her the good old chicken soup, minus the chicken and substitute it with pork. I skipped the step of frying the onions, carrots and celery, in order not to make it oily.
I boiled the pork soft ribs in a pot, adding in the vegetables when the stock starts boiling. I used carrots, celery, corn and onions, throwing in a few bay leaves (dried). Bring it to boil, then simmer for an hour or so. Add salt to taste. This is really simple and good for for someone with not much appetite.
This is the last part of my Bandung travel.
Paris Van Java was name given by the Dutch when they colonised this part of the Indonesian archipelago. I can almost imagine this place looking like a nice Parisian town during those times. From the black and white photographs that were displayed in our hotel lobby, Bandung did look like a nice clean place, with spacious roads and well constructed buildings. It was a contrast to what we see now. There are still some old architectures around, mostly converted into government buildings. And we visited a nice old church too.
Nearby to our hotel, there is also a mall named Paris Van Java. We were there on our second day, having coffee in Starbucks while sending off emails. There is Carrefour supermarket, a cinema and many known brands. Judging from the long stretch of cafes and restaurants, we guess this could be a hang out place for the chi-chi crowds.
With a meeting soon, we settled to have lunch here. Most of the restaurants were kind of empty when we walked by. We decided upon a Chinese restaurant named ‘The Duck King” as it had the most crowd. We ordered the Peking duck. It came in two separate dishes. One is the skin, eaten with thin crepes and condiments. The other is a choice from any of the duck dishes offered. The duck skin was nice and crisp, but miserably thin with no meat at all. Unlike other restaurants that serve the Peking duck sliced, with skin and meat, then using the same duck and make into other dishes like a soup and some stir fry. These two duck dishes were definitely not from one whole duck. Hence I felt a bit cheated.
We also ordered a prawns cheong fan and spinach soup with eggs. The spinach used here were old and fibrous. A far cry from the one we had before our departure in Singapore airport. C was totally engross with their menu! It was nicely printed, with glossy pages of photographs featuring their dishes. Almost life size, she exclaimed! Unless you are desperately craving for duck or can’t find anything else better to eat, you can give the ducks here a miss. I reckon their dim sums were more palatable.
Whimsical display in Paris Van Java mall
Skinny Peking duck
Fibrous spinach with eggs
I was on my way to Mersing. It is about 2-3 hours drive from Singapore, depending on the the traffic and speed conditions. Along the stretch of road that I have travelled upon umpteen times, there is this Bak Kut Teh joint. Smacked in between the journey from JB to Mersing, this eating place is mostly frequent by people who travel on this stretch of road, looking for a bite. Out of the many times I drove past, it was always closed. This happened to be my lucky day, it was open for business.
The menu on the wall
A steaming hot meal!
A clay pot of Bak Kut Teh
It was a raining day, and the best way to warm up is a hot boiling pot of Bak Kut Teh (pork rib soup). It comes in a little clay pot, ribs and all with some small pieces of fen chang (small intestine). I like the fen chang but I don’t find the soup base exciting. I ordered a separate pot of liver and kidney. They added quite a bit of chinese wine and it overpowered the taste of the Bak Kut Teh soup. My eating companions ordered tau pok (dried bean curd) and chai ber (salted vegetable). These two simple dishes were better than the mains.
Most of the people I know who past by this road would stop here for a bite. I don’t find anything here to shout about. Perhaps there is just nothing much to eat around here, and the closest place you can find any decent food is more than an hour drive away. This is what I called, ’strategically located’. I probably won’t stop by for a bite next time, unless I am really famish. Otherwise, I will rather hang on for another hour or so.
I love seafood. Anything that has shell and lived under the sea, will just make my go hungry by looking at it.! I am not so much a fan of fish and prawns, unlike C who can be very happy and satisfied if you feed her a whole fresh fish. She can almost meow like a contented cat.
My mom has taught me her way of cooking squid, a dish she would cook when she comes across fresh big ones, especially during the spawning seasons. It is simple, easy and just the way I like it! The only troublesome part is cleaning the squids. You have to remove the heads, pull out that plastic spin, clean the pouch where it stored the undigested stuffs. If you happens to see some clean white clear gluey stuffs inside the pouch, do not remove them! Those are the eggs! Yum! Yum! Yum! C never knew she could eat that until she met me. As for the head, there is this hard bit between the eyes, take that off. I was told that’s the teeth. You can also find the tiny little ink bag among the entrails. Carefully remove it and use that for cooking. Then stuffed the head back into the pouch and seal it with a tooth pick. It should look like these.
Squid after cleaning
Here are the spices: garlic, shallots, galanga (blue ginger), lemon grass, and chilies, all cut up as shown.
Spices needed.
A pot of squids in ink.
Then all you need to do is heat up the pan, add some oil and thrown in all the spices. Stir it around, add in the squid and the ink bags. Stir, then season to taste with soya sauce, a little bit of black soya sauce. Close the lid, let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Viola! Yummy squids in ink.
It was a usual afternoon, hot and humid. C and I were walking around the city centre. We went into a mall for a look. There wan’t anything exciting and we were so not into shopping. I saw one of my favourite Indon fast food joint that sells bakso (meatballs) with noodles or rice. I wasted no time and dragged C in. I love the texture of their meatballs, with noodles in a simple clear broth. (Sorry, no pics. Another time!) Reminded me of those meatballs you can find in Thailand. In Indonesia, I must always have my avocado drink. Most of the places serve them really sweet, and with chocolate (Yuck! I always ask for mine without the chocolate). Unless you are on your way to become a diabetic, do remind them to cut down the sugar level.
After the quick bite, we walked out of the mall. I was surprised to see a row of street peddlers outside, lining along the main road (they weren’t there when we went in). We walked over for a look. They were selling just about everything you can imagine! From young eagles, to hamsters, lizards of different species, spiders, snakes, chameleons, and also the household pets like puppies, bunnies and so on. Much to our horror, there was also a slow loris, separated from her newborn that were for sale. Slow loris are nocturnal primate. The mother and newborn pair looked terrified. The surroundings, the noise, the on-lookers that were trying to stroke them or hold them and that bright sun light, they were obviously traumatised! We reckoned the baby could not survive for long in the way it was exposed and man-handled. We felt so helpless. The last time I felt this way was in a local market in Sulawesi, watching the dogs caged up, beaten to death (some were half dead), torched (some were still alive after the beating), and sold as meat.
The sad fact in poorer countries is, the rich biodiversity is so often exploited by communities to eke out an existence. Do we blame them or the local governances? Living in the city, we talk about climate change, saving the earth and blah blah blah… We condemn these people for cutting down trees, for dumping waste and polluting the environment, for raping the jungles and so on. Do they care? If you don have a square meal a day, with no roof over your head, with a future you don’t even dare think about, would you care?
I do not condone the acts. But in order to really save the earth, there are much more to be done.
How can you play you part as a Responsible Traveller?
I have been having jelly fingers lately. Each time, with my trusted tumbler on hand, I would somehow spill the water content all over. It had happened thrice, with me and the sofa all soaked. Good thing I was drinking only water. Yesterday, I wasn’t so lucky. I was on my desk working on my laptop. As I was looking over my screen, with my tumbler on one hand, slipping water at the same time, it happened again. As if some invisible force gave me a pushed on my elbow and “SPLASH”, water all over my desk, AND MY LAPTOP!!! I ran for a cloth to clean up the wet mess. Thinking I had a keypad protector, it should be fine. Little did I realise that the laptop had slurped up the water from the speakers. The screen fizzled, blinked and closed its eye on me. Coma.
I brought it to the shop today, hoping to resuscitate any life that was left in it. It was pronounced dead. I managed to save the heart (hard disk), only to find out not too long ago that the most important stuffs I need was on the desktop. Need not say, it R.I.P with the motherboard. I could just bang my head on the table and curse at not saving it elsewhere. Anyway, I emerged smarter now. Got myself a new external hard disk, I will double up everything from now!
Looking at me now, beaming is my brand new 21.5 inch. The latest imac that just emerged from the freight boxes. Suddenly, everything looks BIG and bright! I am still mesmerised with it, especially the wireless keypad and that Magic Mouse. At least tonight, I will have something to smile about.
Goodbye my G4, thank you for slogging with me for the last five years. I won’t miss you!
As I was reading Terri’s blog about her pie, it came to me that I had pie too this afternoon. C made me a tuna pie and we walloped it up for lunch. It looked delicious. So delicious that we polished the pie dish clean, all the while with Moo huffing and puffing under our table cos he did not get any crumbs of it. And yes, I forgot to take any picture (again! damned!) while I was mesmerizing in it.
When C is in her pie making mood the next time, I promise to post all profiles of it!
Thank you C, for the lovely pie!
This was a business trip to Bandung. We have been hearing about the place. Or rather, the factory outlets in this place. Mention Bandung, and we were told every thing about the factory outlets here.
C and I managed to squeeze out a day from our busy schedule, and headed down to Jalan Riau for a shopping spree. The whole street is peppered with individual bungalow houses which are being converted into a little shopping mall. After walking in to a few, we both got really bored and lifeless. What shopping haven?!! It’s more like pasar malam went uptown. They sell mostly imitation of known brands and many that I don’t even know or recognised. If you are a sucker for polo tees, especially branded ones, you can probably grab some here. I do notice a lot of ardent shoppers from Malaysia and Jakarta (it’s on one and a half hour drive away). By the time we walked into the fourth outlet, we lost every desire to shop. I suggested grabbing a bite in a nice looking house.
© taken by C
Upon entering, we felt like we had stepped into someone’s house. There are the living rooms (one even has a fireplace!), the dining halls and rooms, and a big spacious open area at the back with alfresco dining. We chose a round corner seat in the front of the house and ordered some finger food. The buffalo wings turned up looking red and fiery. That was about it. The spicy sauce that it was coated in tasted like starchy chili sauce.
The prawns on the salad looks miserable. It was overdone and the salad leaves were drenched in the soy sauce. I wondered how long it was ’soaked’ before serving.
By the time we walked out, we were losing interest in every part of this street. C checked with a waitress and found out about another street called Dago, which supposedly have more interesting outlets. I suggested going towards Hyatt hotel area, to check out what is over there. No more Riau for me. There is another area called Cihampelas. You can read more about outlets shopping here by another blogger.
To be continue…
C and I have been heading out to Changi Airport every so often for a bite, especially during our lazy modes. It has become our unofficial hang out place. We would swing by for a coffee break or a meal, or whenever we feel like it. After all, it’s near to where we live.
Terminal 3 has been our favourite stop. It is new, spacious, has a nice food court, enough coffee joints for our rotations, and some restaurants that we don’t mind eating in. Most of all, minus the crowd. Having dine there numerous times, we realised that despite travelling through this airport frequently, we have not really take a walk on the other side after the checked-in gate. A typical scenario will be rushing for check-in, then running off to the boarding gate. C would always nag at me for being late, thanks to my illustrious records for holding up the plane, getting my name (or ours) announced and missing my flight altogether. Well, not that all those are intentional… My mom is bigger legend! (okay, I will write one about missing our flights another time!).
This trip, we were all set and ahead of time. We had our bags checked-in and headed out to explore T3 over the other side. As it was a noon flight, we decided to have our brunch at the stretch of food joints we had been eyeing, through the glass panels. We settled for Chinese La Mien. I ordered drunken chicken, which was devoured the moment it was placed on the table. Left with bones, so I gave the shot a miss. It wasn’t that good anyway, we were just hungry. C and I ordered the same course, dry noodle with dumplings in sichuan sauce. It was pretty good, not spicy. Noodles was in the right constancy. The little bowl of soup they served with the noodle tasted like a good chicken stock. Maybe we will order the soupy noodle the next time.
We also ordered a vegetable dish for fiber. We both love spinach done this way, with three kinds of eggs (salted, century and a normal egg). Nice and soupy, this goes perfectly with rice or porridge too.
We left after eating. Along the way, we stood to watch an Airbus 380 taking off from the gallery. This trip, we still have some time for our caffeine fix before boarding. Okay, next time I will be way early for my flights. That is, for departures from Changi Airport only.
My old aging beagle is turning deaf. I have not notice it until today. Poor old boy. No wonder he is in such deep sleep lately. Nothing wakes him up, unless someone pokes him. He is not able to hear me talking to him anymore, telling him he looks handsome, and how much I love him. We would cuddle together and he will listen to whatever I whispered into his big floppy ear. Sometimes he would respond with his growling mumbles, and I answered back with whatever thoughts I had in my head. My heart aches at the thought of him deaf. I have been preparing myself mentally for his departing. Moo is thirteen years old. No matter how much I tell myself he will eventually pass on, it still break my heart today to know that he is deaf.
I started teaching him the usual commands with hand signs couple of years ago. Thank God I did, now it really come into use. Moo still responds, I just have to make sure he sees me. I pat him more than I used to, so that he knows I still love him like I always do.
Though Moo can’t hear, I will let my actions speak louder than words.
Living on a little red dot, I explore wherever my feet takes me, with my partner and our beagle. 
