EATING OUT - GOING KOREAN

I had planned my weekend before hand but only looking for a friend who is crazy enough like me to try a foreign cuisine. I called a friend and fortunately was available and we went to Likas Square for a Korean cuisine. I was always tempted to try Korean dishes whenever we had lunch at Graceville, Sembulan but haven't ordered it.

When we reached Likas square and entered the Korean restaurant, the restaurant assistants bow to us as a sign of Korean greeting. I bow too as a respect to their culture (although the assistants were local).



They were serving healthy foods as what was printed on the paper envelope. What was inside the envelope were a silver spoon and chopstick.

Earlier, I did not looked around the restaurant as I was busy looking at the menu as we don't know what to order. Only after lunch did I looked around and noticed unrecognised pictures hanging on the restaurant's wall.

Me : Adik, gambar yang itu menunjukkan arah Korean sembayang kah? (arah ke bawah)

Waitress : (Ketawa) Bukan ... itu hanya gambar, sia pun tidak tau apa maksudnya.

Me : Ingat arah Korean sembayang, mungkin ada maksud bah tu kan.

There are few of the pictures but I just took the picture nearer to our table.

We called the waitress to tell us which dishes are popular and she recommended as to try the lunch set which have few dishes. I asked for pork ribs set and my friend tried Kimchi Stew set and another side dish which was Pan fried fish.

A very elaborate menu with pictures but you need somebody to recommend what dish to order. Good to the eyes but very different to the taste.

The Kimchi Stew set consists of mix vegetable soup, radish, black beans and chilli. The soup tasted like tom yam and the others just very foreign taste. Thankfully I didn't asked for this set.

My lunch set called pork Ribs set which consists of Pork ribs, Radish (Lobak), black beans and julienne chilli. The Chilli and black beans were sweetend and there was no taste of hot chilli.

I was trying to taste the texture of fish in this Pan fried fish but I couldn't. I could not describe how the taste like.

Me : Lain rasa ini, macam ada gam bila dimakan. Kau rasa sedap kah?

Friend : Betullah lain dia punya rasa, memang tidak sedap.

The radish was crunchy but the problem with me was to adjust to its taste. I don't like the taste of the marinate or gravvy. I didn't finished it.

Although I didn't like much of the dish we ordered but the ambience and atmosphere of the restaurant especially the cleanliness was superb. I like the small sets of food served on a very small bowls and plates. It was not the last of my craving of Korean food as I had only tasted a small fraction Korean dish. My next outing would be trying Japanese food.

BLOG VISITOR ANALYSIS

After analyzing visitors to my blog through Sitemeter which I introduced late last year (2008), I would say there are visitors to my blog everyday mostly from West and East Malaysia. I would say quite a number of the visitor are outside of Malaysia.

Breakdown of visitors;

Sabah/Labuan 36%
West Malaysia 30%
USA 8%
Belgium 3%
Unknown 3%
India 2%

1% is from Switzerland, China, United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey, Singapore, Argentina, Cyprus, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Indonesia, Romania.

JALAN JALAN 3

On our way to Beaufort we stop at Sub District of Membakut for drinks as my friend have not taken his breakfast. We depart Kota Kinabalu very early in the morning. I was surprised to see picture of Jesselton town way back in the year 1900 hanging on the wall of the restaurant.



The last time I visited Membakut was a long time ago and was relieved to see rows of new shop. After breakfast we looked for the petrol station to fill up our petrol and there was the old wooden building still with its owner doing business as usual. I read about an article about this building in the newspaper and it would not be known when would it be demolished for other development in the district.

We reached Beaufort town at lunchtime after few stops and we looked for a restaurant, a good one as told by my friend. We ordered KOE ROU or Yam with Pork, fish and vegetable.

The Koe Rou was very delicious to my taste as it had a very mild but tasteful and the gravy was quite thin as compared to the Koe Rou that I usually bought from a stall at Bukit Padang. The Koe Rou at Bukit Padang has a strong flavor and a bit dry although you can pour the take away gravy. To those who do not like strong smell of Koe Rou can visit Beaufort to try this dish. Sorry, I forget the name of the restaurant.

Below Pic Koe Rou of Bukit Padang.

This was a simple sweet and sour fish dish but imagine how three hungry person share this little amount of fish. The plate was really big though.

I will post the last part of my journey and will be looking foward to another trip to other district.

KOMON OYO

Ungkapan ini mungkin asing kepada generasi muda tetapi kepada golongan ‘belia’ dan kini ‘beliau’ pada masa itu, ianya satu yang amat popular dan kerap kali diucapkan.

Saya teringat kembali ungkapan ini apabila menerima email yang menyeruh kita untuk meningkatkan lagi prestasi syarikat supaya dapat menyemai atau melebehi sasaran .

Selalunya Ungkapan ini adalah bahasa lawak apabila sekumpulan belia yang melihat wanita berjalan, mereka akan bercakap ‘KOMON OYO’. Nah pasti wanita tersebut akan berasa malu bila diajukan bahasa sedemikian dan mungkin akan berlari..

Kalau diteliti maknanya betul-betul, ungkapan ini adalah baik sebab ianya satu dorongan, suntikan untuk membuat sesuatu ke tahap yang lebih tinggi. KOMON OYO – membawa kita untuk berkerja lebih kuat lagi untuk mencapai prestasi yang dapat memajukan diri serta ekonomi Negara.

Tahun ini kalau mengikut kalender Cina adalah tahun LEMBU. Kita ketahui bahawa binatang ini kuat bekerja dan kita sebagai manusia perlu bekerja kuat untuk mendapatkan hasil daripada kerja yang kita usahkan dengan gigih. Jadi kita mesti bekerja kuat pada tahun ini dan kita perlu sentiasa ingat ungkapan ini.

KOMON OYO ... Let's do it ....

ANAK SINGA TERLEPAS DI TAMU

Pada hari ke empat tahun baru Cina, saya ke tamu Donggongon untuk melihat apa yang boleh dibeli. Agak lama juga saya tidak dapat berkunjung ke Tamu sebab tamu diadakan pada waktu pejabat. Ramai juga yang datang sebab masih ada yang bercuti panjang termasuk saya juga.

Tiba-tiba kedengaran bunyi macam ada beberapa tin yang terjatuh dan budak budak berlari menuju ke satu tempat di kawasan tamu. Saya pun apalagi sebab sudah sedia camera dalam poket untuk tangkap gambar. Rupa-rupanya tarian Singa yang ditarikan oleh seorang budak dan menundukan kepalanya kearah penjual di Tamu. Kesian juga itu orang kampung yang menjual ubi kayu sebab terpaksa bagi angpow kepada penari Singa dan kumpulannya. Penari tersebut tidaklah menari seperti dibuatnya selalu. Ianya tundukan kepalanya beberapa kali dan dapat angpow. Bagus lagi bagi dia seringgit sahaja. Apa apa pun at least kita di Sabah nampak tarian Singa di Tamu.

JALAN JALAN 2

My next travel brought us to the District of Papar. We followed the old road hoping to see some tropical fruits on sale by the roadside but there was none. We got stuck for sometime due to an accident but decided to jump queue as we apply 4WD and squeezed our way to a small opening of the blocked road. We were followed by the bigger vehicle then to pass through.

We arrived at the station we visited and the first thing I saw was this beautiful trees with its colourful fruits. I approached the security guard asking about the fruit.

" Encik, buah Cherry ka ini dan boleh dimakan kah ini " I asked while plucking the fruits.

" Tidak boleh makan itu tuan ... beracun, buah ini bukan Cherry "

I snapped the fruit tree and post it here just for our information and to remind readers that this fruit is poisonous.

Another plant that caught my attention was this Chilli or Cili padi which was planted by the secutiy guard manning the transmission station. The chilli padi were so many and we help ourself to plucked it for our hot sambal.

On our way back from Papar, we stopped at a small stall selling agricultural product and amazed by the beauty of the plant and fertilizers on sale. Since I don’t have any plant at home and don’t want to start planting anything, I just clicked on my camera while waiting for my friends to buy whatever for their plants at home.

Some of the organic fertilizer on sale. Good for fertilising flower-pot or indoor plants.

Here are some of the pottery at the stall for sale. Usually they use this for making rice wine, storing pickles fruits (Bambangan) or flower vase.

When we reached Kota Kinabalu (Tg. Aru) I saw this big signboard where love is in the air as what was written on the board. A very unique and expensive way to express your love to one another. I think this is the second signboard after another fellow asking his girlfriend to marry him through the signboard also. Is this a new trend here in KK?

JALAN JALAN 1

It had been a hectic day, one week before Chinese New year as I was doing Auditing work with official from KL which brought us to travel as far as the boundary of Sabah and Sarawak. As far as blogging is concerned, it’s been slow but I will try to update as often as possible. As we are aware this year is the Ox year according to the Chinese Zodiac. The Ox is a hard working animal but we have to work hard to earn whatever we had planned.

I will post pictures that I took from my visit to the various places that I visited and write short reviews of each picture.

We started at Kota Kinabalu with the Majestic view of Sutera Harbour Hotel and part of Kota Kinabalu city taken from a top of a building.

We went to a remote hill station around Telipok and I remembered my drive to a resort in Inanam which I had to abandon. I had no worry as we used a Toyota four wheel drive vehicle. The road was bad due to the rainy season but we managed to reach the station without problem.

On our way back, we went to 1Borneo for a short rest. I’ve been there twice before but every time I went there, I forget to bring my camera. I took pictures of the lantern of the Chinese which symbolizes the coming of the Chinese New Year.

On our way back, as we park our vehicle on the side of the main road, I took pictures of 1Borneo building.

By the time we were in the vehicle, the sky look gloomy and sign of raining. This is the end of part one of my Jalan-Jalan.

CUBE

I wrote about my visit to CUBE restaurant the other day and I received SMS from them that there will be a CNY promotion. The Clip from the sender of the SMS was just CUBE and the food promotion is as follows;

Double Happiness – RM15+, Good fortune (Abalone) – RM20+, Season of Joy (Lamb) – RM20+, Reunion Ye sang – RM18+

Anyone interested, just tell them that you read about this on my blog and surely you will have a good service. You have to be a member to get discount though.

HAIR CUT TELLS THE TRUTH

Here’s a good one I received through my email and would like to share with you all …

Once, there was a very kind old barber in New York ....

One day, a florist goes to him for a haircut. After the cut, he pays
The barber but the barber replies:

'I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service.'

The Florist is happy and leaves the shop.

The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, there is a
Thank you card and a dozen of roses waiting at his door.

A policeman goes for a haircut and he also pays the barber after the
Cut. But the barber replies:

'I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service.'

The cop is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber opens his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting at his door.

A Malaysian software engineer goes for a haircut and he also pays the
Barber after the cut. And the barber says:

'I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service.'

The Malaysian software engineer is happy and leaves.

The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, guess what he
Finds there....

A dozen Malaysians waiting for a free haircut ....( MALAYSIA BOLEH )

Moral of the story : We Malaysian are used to free services … we expect everything is free.

EATING OUT - The Cube

Last Sunday I went to KK Mall with a friend after noticing that the traffic to the Mall was not bad. I usually tried to avoid going there during weekend after experiencing traffic jam and lack of parking spaces when I went there the last time. What made me went there was about the low price offered by Giant Hypermarket to its ventilating fan.

When I inquired with the sale girl about it, she looked at the price tag and removed it and said;

" Offer itu sudah habis kelmarin lagi ..."

We looked at her and said;

" Ooh ... sudah habis!

Since we were there and I was craving for Japanese food, which I never tried before, we tried to look for a Japanese restaurant but instead found Cube Restaurant and Wine Lounge, which I read its reviews from a blogger’s blogspot.


* Chicken Chop

When we were seated by one nice ‘fellow’, I told him that I read about reviews of his restaurant from a blogger and he did asked for which blogger but I guess I did told him whose blog was it. We were given a very good service after that and after each dish, he will ask me to take the pictures first.


* Fish and Green salad

My friend was having a good time and we joke about the service rendered to us. So guys out there, when you dine at this restaurant or any other restaurant, feel free to tell them that you blog and write reviews. Surely you will have a good service and maybe invited to be a member of the restaurant and will have discounted price.


* That's how they prepare their coffee. The top cup act as a sieve to drips coffee to your glass.

Since it was still early for lunch, I opted to order a fish and green salad and my friend ordered chicken chop. I ordered Sweetie Sesame ball with egg yoke (duck egg with custard – yellowish) for dessert and a cup of Vietnamese coffee. We had Liamau Kasturi and Asam Moi as our drink.


* Vietnamese coffee - I am not fond of coffee. I prefer Nescafe.

I won’t indulge of what I thought about the food as I am not expert in it as I am only like to eat. If you want to find out just drop or visit the restaurant and make your own assessment.


*Normal Sesame ball that we can be found in any market that uses dark bean paste. At Cube it uses duck egg yoke mixed with custard.

As a good customer, I was invited to be a member and given a membership card as a token of appreciation from the management. Next time I will be getting discount when I visit it the next time around. Looking forward to the next visit.


* Sweetie Sesame ball with duck salted egg custard.

When driving out from the parking lot later, we found the Japanese restaurant just opposite the Cube restaurant, which was just on the left-hand side of the Mall Hypermarket. That will be visited during the next visit to the Mall …

*The Privileged card which entitled me for a discounted price.

SOCIAL NETWORK - FRIENDSTER, ORKUT, MY SPACE OR FACEBOOK

When you see the title of this posting, many of you are a member of this social network. It is a global network that emphasizes friendship and discovery of new people, discovering of long lost friends near and far.

Time and time I was invited to join this social network and most of the time I tried to evade from becoming a member. I had registered myself a long time ago with friendster and there was a time that I couldn't’t remember my login and password. That was what made me evade of registering to other social network group again.

Recently, I registered myself with ORKUT after a friend tricked me of joining it as there were some uncompromising pictures posted at his ORKUT page. Anyway there weren’t any pictures in it as what was promised to me.

I also registered myself to facebook late last year and I am a passive member of Myspace and maybe my user and password is already lost in space. In comparison to the entire social network I joined, I thought ORKUT is a much friendly to use as compare to the rest. In ORKUT except for a friend, all friends and family members all signed to facebook, which makes me lonely and alone, and inviting them is not on my agenda at the moment. When accessing Facebook with my home Internet connection I find it slow to boot which makes me frustrated and that is why I hated traffic jams. Using my office Internet connection is out of question as all connection to this type of webpage is blocked. Is it because Facebook server is facing congestion or my internet connection is slow but why is it that I can surf other social network webpage without much problem.

Whatever our choice of social network depended totally on our choice and most probably very popular amongst the Internet surfer. As long as we can get connected to our friends and family that should be okay I guess. The choice is in our hands ….

DO YOU KNOW WE ARE IN THE TOP 10?

Survey Finds Malaysians Are Entertainment, Media Junkies

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 (Bernama)-- Malaysia has emerged as the top 10 media-consuming nation out of 52 countries surveyed by the Nielsen Company to unearth entertainment technology ownership and usage habits of global citizens.

Malaysians were found to be avid and experienced users of the Internet, actively downloading and streaming free entertainment and media content, ranking them among the highest in the world.

Nielsen Malaysia's Consumer Group managing director, Paul Richmond said Malaysians were real entertainment and technology junkies as they consume copious amount of home entertainment, music, video games and digital media.

"The tech-savvy locals are thoroughly hooked on the Internet, streaming and downloading digital media content on a regular basis," Richmond said in a statement here today.


When it comes to consuming digital media, Malaysians rank fifth out of the 52 countries and ninth where downloading entertainment content from the Internet is concerned.

According to the Nielsen report, 53 per cent of Malaysians have streamed or played content such as full-length movies, video clips, TV shows and music videos while 41 per cent have downloaded the same variety of content from the Internet over the last month.

The survey has also found 89 per cent of Malaysian own at least a TV set while 87 percent had at least one personal computer.


Hence, the so-called digital divide between emerging and developed economies worldwide may not be that wide after all as the survey found that while Western countries tend to be heavy users of media hardware, next generation devices are more popular in the up-and-coming markets particularly in Asia, added Richmond.

MORAL OF THE STORY

I read this article and would like to share it with you all just a point to ponder.

One morning a husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, his wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.


Along comes a Game warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says,

‘Good morning ma’am. What are you doing?

‘Reading a book,’ She replies, (thinking, isn’t that obvious?’)

‘You’re in a restricted fishing area,’ he informs her.

‘I’m sorry officer, but I’m not fishing. I’m reading.

‘Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I’ll have to take you in and write you a summons.’

‘If you do that, I’ll have to charge you with sexual assaults,’ says the woman.

‘But I haven’t even touched you,’ says the game warden.

‘That’s true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment.’

‘Have a nice day ma’am,’ and he left.

The moral of the story?Never argue with a woman who reads. It’s likely she can also think.

2008 Ending …….

Happy belated New Year 2009 to all. I didn’t post anything the last few weeks as most bloggers does the same thing especially every end of the year. Hopefully with the year of the Ox (Chinese Calendar) which the sign symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Those born under the influence of the Ox or Buffalo are fortunate to be stable and persevering. The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character.

Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness that the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task. Ox people work hard without complaints at work or at home. They know that they will succeed through hard work and sustained efforts, and do not believe in get-rich-quick schemes. Hopefully I will be hard working this year just like those people born under the Ox of the Chinese Zodiac.

CHRISTMAS

I attended Christmas Eve night mass on the 24th December 2008 for the 8.00 pm mass not at my usual Church but different church which start earlier. As usual we depart from home just after 6.00 pm and reached before 7.00 pm but alas it was already full but luckily there were still some empty chairs outside the Church. The mass ended less than two hours and it was a fine weather, which made the mass celebrated smoothly.

After the mass we had dinner at one of the restaurant near Bundusan hotel but that was the lousiest restaurant I had my dinner. I was complaining to my family members about the food but it seems that they don’t care because they were complaining to me that they were starving all the way.

Every year I was very fortunate to have understanding family (Siblings) and every year I was called to their home for lunch or dinner. I spent my Christmas time at home this time as my mum was often sick. Usually I don’t prepare much but this time I did prepare some drinks, cookies and cakes as my family members will pop in uninvited with their children but this time I was well prepared.

Some of my family members came to wish mum Merry Christmas and they did brought with them some tit bits and what have you. In the evening my mum grandchildren and great grandchildren came too and I missed my elder brother invitation to his house for dinner.

NEW YEAR

Waiting for the year to end and welcoming the New Year with BBQ was like a tradition amongst family and friends. We were at my sister’s house for the occasion with BBQueing, Cha-cha dance and firecrackers.

Bathing and dipping yourself in the new year was no longer practiced and I remembered my parent asking to take a bath every new year. Time changes and so are we …..

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO FRIENDS AND ACQUANTANCE

ROJAK LANGUAGE ON FM RADIO

It was reported that the use of ‘bazaar language’ or ‘rojak’ should be reported to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Dewan Negara was told. The radio station had been warned but no stern action had been taken yet. They are monitoring the situation to ensure that the national language is not marginalized in the dissemination of information to the listeners.

There are a few radio stations that use bazaar language but the most glaring and daring dj must be KK Suria FM. Only early this morning he spoke in English, Chinese, Kadazan, Dusun and bahasa Melayu Sabah.

In my personal opinion as there are many radio station in the country that uses proper Bahasa Malaysia, it is alright to have one or two stations that uses bazaar language in their medium of communication. When listening to this station, some of the callers spoke to the DJ with their everyday language with their local slang of which was sometimes hilarious. When you speak freely with the DJ (minus the bad word of course), the listener is entertained of what there are talking about.

I had the opportunity of talking to a government radio station ‘dj’ reminding him of the competition from private radio station which posed a great treat to their based radio fan. They are aware of it and do not deny about it but they could not do anything to counter their onslaught as they are bug by regulation, guidelines and concept of the radio station. They have tried to change their style of presentation without altering anything but sometimes they were warned by the officer in charge to stick to the style which was used since the 60’s.

Hopefully the popular radio station will not be warned and action taken against it as has a lot of following and popular with the listeners.

VERY VERY LAZY

I was really lazy to post anything this few days/week as when I started to write something, I deleted it again. I'd like to borrow a phrase from someone powerful and influencial when he answered some question and answered 'no inspiration yet'. I think most probably this laziness is due to Christmas mood and looking foward to my long leave.

I like to share with you this picture which bring out some message. Happy holiday to all who's on holiday.