January 2007

The Archives

• Chinese New Year – Yee Sang

  01.29.07 | Permalink |Food| 11 Comments

  I loved to eat Yee Sang. Yee Sang means raw fish and in CNY terms, if you read it backwards (Sang Yee) meaning business. It is a mixture of salad and raw fish with sour plum sauce. Usually Chinese gathered around to toss the salad up high. The higher you tossed, your business will have more profitable and successful, and that is the Chinese belief. You are not allowed to say negative things while tossing. Once my cousins utter “It is so difficult to toss” Everyone looked at him. Opps, meaning the business will be difficult. Oh well, I believe no such myth, I just like the dish.

  There are not many restaurants that served good Yee Sang here. Now I can get it from Jusco Penang. Jusco used to sell it at the Sushi counter, next to the Japanese stuff. I believed the imported salmon are in big portion and fresh.

  The dish consisted of Yew sang (Raw Fish) – main ingredient, peanut, green kua ying, yellow ginger, red ginger, sliced yam, pok choy, pickled leeks, sweetened lime, sesame seed and gourd wax. There are other versions of it, I have eaten some with apples or with white radish or with Japanese jellyfish. I am starting early this year, not that I own a business. :good:

  
  

  
  

• Half Boil Egg Gadget

  01.27.07 | Permalink |Shopping| 6 Comments

  Half Boil egg is my favorite. Sorry I don’t have any cholesterol, so I can eat as much as I want. 😛 I never know how to make perfect half boil egg. Sometimes it turned out to be hard boiled egg or not cook at all, with the transparent slimy part of the egg. :sc:

  I discovered this gadget that makes perfect half boil egg. It cost RM9.90. I first saw it in Ikea when I was there for breakfast. I saw this funny looking orange plastic container with eggs in it. I peep over to someone who was making his half boiled egg and learn from him. It is real easy.

  	The Half Boil Egg Gadget
  	Add boiling water and fill about 3/4 of the container
  	Add in as many eggs as it can fill.
  	Wait till all the water vanished. Actually there is a little hole for the water to flow down.
  	The Perfect Half Boil Egg 😛

• Little Penang Street Market

  01.26.07 | Permalink |Penang, Shopping, Travel| 2 Comments

  This is NOT a sponsored post.

  I got this email from my friend and if you are in Penang, do go and visit little Penang market. It has a lot of local traditional crafts, hand-made stuff, decorations for your home and heritage food. Little Penang promotes Penang’s unique lifestyle & talents. It has a live band to promote local music. It will be interesting for you to come and visit especially for tourist. Little Penang is a non profit organization to promote culture and a platform for local talents in arts, craft, design and music.

  
  
  

  This Sunday! 28 January 2007….

  Location Map Here

  Penang’s trendy arts & crafts bazaar is getting bigger and better!

  Programme

  10.30 a.m. Kolam presentation by Hindu Sangam

  12.00 p.m Teaching workshop on Kolam Drawing

  Special Artist: Chinese Caligraphy Spring Couplets for Chinese New Year

  
  Market times 10am-6pm and More than 60 vendors ranging from
  Artists ~ Crafts Makers ~ Demonstration Crafts ~ Clothes ~ Scarfs ~ Accessories ~ Jewellery ~ Hand-made Gifts ~ Batik ~ Songket ~ Home décor ~ rattan, Labu Sayong, hand-painted ceramics, mats, tablecloth, lamp shades, flower arrangements, crystals.
  

  KID’S CORNER: Kolam making activity ~ Face Painting ~ Colouring Paper bags ~ Mr. Ee and his aeroplanes! ~ Mr. Wee and his Chinese puzzles!

  Info: www.lestariheritage.net/littlepenang

  Have Fun!

  
  
  

• Sakae Sushi

  01.21.07 | Permalink |Food| 6 Comments

  
  
  A new eatery has landed in Penang Queensbay Mall. It is a Japanese restaurant called Sakae Sushi. It has a sushi conveyer, much like Sushi King. One thing I like about this place is every table has a computer for you to order. Very high tech. You can browse through the menu there and order on your own without a staff. However, the software is not very user friendly, it doesn’t have a page that shows you all the items available. It goes by category and all the food is listed by that category. It has pictures of all available items. Not bad eh? For those not IT savvy, you can wait for the waitress to take your order.

  However I am not sure whether it is new or what, the service sucks big time. It is slow and takes forever for the food to come. My hubby’s order never arrived. We follow up with the waitress 4 times. At last one waitress came, after 30 minutes, told us that the beef ran out and asked us to change to chicken. We asked them, how long would that take. She said another 30 minutes. My hubby decided to cancel it. She could have told us early that they were short of beef.

  The food, it was ok, nothing special. I must say they have quite a lot of variety on their menu. They served children’s menu in special tray, like aeroplane, bus or train. However the children menu is not suited to children’s taste.

  Price, as pricey as all the Japanese restaurant here.

  
  
  

  

  Eating The Japanese Way
  
  

• Japanese Pancake

  01.20.07 | Permalink |Food, Shopping| 3 Comments

  There is a Japanese pancake store in Jusco Queensbay mall Penang. My children is fascinated with that store. It has machinery displaying how the little pancake is made. My children stared at it from start to finish. The pancake comes in different option of fillings like jam, peanut butter, red bean, chocolate and kaya. It cost RM1.30 for a piece. My children loved it.

  
  

  

  

• MAS – Mana Ada System

  01.19.07 | Permalink |IT, ProductReview, Service, Travel| 5 Comments

  I don’t mean to down grade MAS but I think the online booking system needs a revamp to make it more user friendly for their customers. I guess this is one part where they are losing out to their competition the BIG AA.

  I went to their website, hoping to see some good deals on flights to KL during CNY. However I came back confused. Look at the pictures.

  They offer 2 choices Availability or Low Fares. Of coz, one will choose low fares but only for adult. Anyway, I selected 4 adults. The cost came up to RM1K.

  To do a comparison, I chose Availability, selecting the same route, same dates and the same time for 2 adult and 2 children. The cost came up to RM1.6K. Now figure it out, 4 adults are cheaper than 2 adult and 2 children. :sc:

  Tell me how am I to book the flights? Choose 2 low fares and 2 availability fare for children? Or choose 4 low adult fares, can children be treated as adult? I think I will drive down. :snooty:

  Availability Vs Low Fares:

  

  Low Fares:

  

  Availability Fares:

  

  BreakDown Fares:

  

• Travel Tips – Space Maker

  01.17.07 | Permalink |ProductReview, Shopping, Tips, Travel| 6 Comments

  Something innovative, I want to introduce to you. Look what a zip lock bag can do. This is a special kind, don’t use the grocery type, hehehe…it won’t work. It is a special roll up compression bag.

  You know how bulky and heavy 1 piece of winter clothing is. If you dump it in your luggage, it probably takes half of the space. Here is what you can do to create more space in your luggage so that you can put more shopping stuff in. 😆

  You can use this special bag to help you store your big bulky comforter, soft toys and blankets in a compress manner. It creates more space in your cupboard for other stuff. It cost RM19.90 for 2 bags. Mainly used for traveling.

  	The compression bag.
  	Fold the bulky item nicely.
  	Insert into the bag.
  	Use the white piece of plastic to seal the bag tight by moving left to right and back again.
  	Start rolling from the seal to the other end, the other end will let out some air to make it a vacuum inside. Flip it over and do the same.
  	Tada, a piece of flatten item.
  	RM19.90

• Winter Clothing

  01.15.07 | Permalink |Service, Shopping, Travel| 8 Comments

  Today, I took half day leave to do some banking stuff and shop for winter clothing. Of coz I did some paktoring (dating) with my hubby without the children. 😀 I will be going to US for business trip and that place is having winter now, I heard below 0°C. A month ago, I heard some snow storm over there. I am a bit worried.

  Anyway, we went to a few shops in Queensbay Mall to survey. One of the shops did sell close to what we wanted. Others have limited choices. The shop is called Universal Traveler, take note. It looked to me all the sales assistant there are new. One of them keep following my hubby closely, he was a bit annoyed. New SA always does that, not sure to scare away their customer or what.

  I am trying my luck to ask them to give discount. He replied no discount. Another shop, as I was browsing, the SA came and said this have 10% discount. This is what I called “good customer service”. Never mind, we took the one we wanted and asked him for a new piece. He went to the store and came out with another color. He said the color we chose is the last piece. I attempt again and said “Since it is the last piece, you should give me a discount, it has been displayed. Furthermore, lots of people have tried it.” He replied “No, not many people come in here”. Opps, indirectly telling me business is not that good. :giggles: I asked for the manager but he was no where to be found.

  My hubby couldn’t wait anymore, we decided to pay. As the new SA cashier was punching the machine, I kepoh their catalogue. Wow, I think God was helping me. I flipped to the last page and saw a promotion on the one I have selected. It has an offer saying I get a free long john with that piece I am purchasing. I questioned the SA, he kept quiet, as if he didn’t know what I was talking about. I didn’t make a scene, just went and tried out the long john. :snooty: I know what you are thinking off, I could have just walked out. I didn’t want to waste time and petrol mah.

  
  

  

  
  

• New Pair of Eyes

  01.12.07 | Permalink |Penang, Service, Shopping| 8 Comments

  
  
  
  Look at my new glasses, not sponsored by PPP but by my other rice pot company, one of the yearly benefits. My son broke my glasses after I told him not to go near it. He stepped on it. It was partly my fault too by putting it there.

  By the way, what do you think of the optician shop out there? Do you think that they charge a fairly exorbitant rate for glasses? Last time I went to this shop, their frame price is always 40-60% above the cost price. The sales person took out the calculator and punched a 40% discount to make you feel good. Or at least he tried to psycho you with a big discount and you will be crazy to reduce it further.

  Another shop which my MIL just got her glasses from. She was told that the frame is only RM1. What’s the catch? The lens cost a BOMB.

  I know this reliable shop called Intan in Level 1 BJ Complex Penang, the owner gave me a very good price for the above glasses. I didn’t even negotiate with her because she gave me a very good price. It was about 40% less than the broken pair and the new pair is branded too. If any of you is using Biomedics55 contact lens, she is the sole distributor for it. It is really dirt cheap.

• WYSINWYG

  01.06.07 | Permalink |Food| 11 Comments

  Have you heard of a term call Wizzy-Wig as in WYSWYG, What You See Is What You Get. I am not getting what I see. WYSINWYG is What You See Is Not What You Get. Look. 😡

  What You See:
  

  What I get:
  

  I think the roadside Ramli Burger is worth much more than this. Now the price of the above burger here is sky high. I just hope the MD corporate of this chain do something about the quality of the burger sold to their customers.