Archive for September, 2006
Singapore-Malaysia Trip: Pepsi
I am having a miserable time once I got out from the air-conditioned airport. It’s so incredibly hot and humid here in Kuala Lumpur. Sigh … I’m all sticky. Been taking cold showers but to no avail. The moment I step out from the shower, I start sweating again.
So, within the first hour at my parent’s house, I went to Jusco (a supermarket) to get some soft drinks and stock up the fridge. Found some Pepsi (I prefer Pepsi over Coke anytime) on the shelves.
First there was the normal Pepsi. Then there is two other types of Pepsi which I have not come across in Canada. The Pepsi Max and Pepsi Tarik. I am pretty sure that Pepsi Tarik is only available in South East Asia because Tarik is the Malay word for “pulled”.
The Pepsi Max, oddly, is the no-sugar version of Pepsi. I would have thought that a more apt name would be Pepsi Zero, or Pepsi Min or something like that.
Now the Pepsi Tarik, I am pretty sure, is only sold in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s a blend of Pepsi with Coffee. The taste is weird to me. If anything, it does not taste anything that resemble coffee at all. Maybe it’s just me.
I am not having a great time. For a long time, I had not come across cockroaches at all. Also, I have not been bitten by mosquitoes for so many years. Now I am swatting mosquitoes all night long. Those blood sucking mosquitoes are huge and drinks pints of my blood! Sigh … not to mention there are ants … scurrying all over my precious Pepsi.
Singapore-Malaysia Trip: My Comfort Food
I just realize something about myself.
While waiting for my connection from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, I had a few hours to kill at the Changi Airport. I am impressed with the Changi Airport and do think that this is really the best airport in the world. They have won countless awards over the years. Just this year they were awarded the Best Airport by Skytrax. Why, they have almost anything a traveller would need — they have internet stations everywhere — for free. The internet stations are even equiped with video cam.
After checking out the airport and the shops, I headed to the 24-hour food center. It was late and not many stalls were opened. I thought I grab something to eat, sit down and do some reading. I ordered the BBQ pork noodle soup which costs $7.
Man, I suddenly realize how much I missed a simple bowl of noodle soup. Despite the gourmet meals I had on Business Class hours ago, this simply beats them hands down. I felt so good and it suddenly hit me how close I am to “home”. This is truly my definition of comfort food.
Singapore-Malaysia Trip: Business Class on Singapore Airlines
This was one long haul trip. I was travelling from Vancouver to Singapore a few days ago on work. Since Malaysia is just minutes from Singapore downtown, I will be taking at least a week off work to visit family and friends — and most of all eat all the food I so missed all these years.
The trip took a total of 19 hours. At least I was travelling in Business Class. Singapore Airlines’ Business Class is known as Raffles Class. I normally dread long-haul flights but this time I really enjoyed myself. The food was great, the service was superb. I felt so pampered and full rested by the time I got to Singapore. What made the difference the most was the fact that I could sleep on flight because the seat could actually recline!
Even before I got to settle down, the stewardess came around with a tray of champagne, juice and cocktail. I chose the Golden Spice cocktail which was really refreshing. This appears to be a lime cordial with a spicy relish, pineapple juice and ginger ale. I had a lot of drinks during the flight and tried to try every one on their menu.
The flight has an in-flight entertainment system which includes movies, TV shows, and Nintendo games. Each seat has its own personal television. The movies and TV shows were the on-demand type where I could pause, rewind and so on from my seat control. There was a selection of 80 movies of various kind. On the flight I caught the Da Vinci Code. I like computer games but the Nintendo games was downright childish and game that a miss.
Next they issued me socks. Nice touch. It felt so good taking off the shoes and donning the socks.
Of course, there is the obiquitious packets of nuts.
There are a total three meals served throughout the 19hr flight. Two of the meals are full meals while one is what they called a light meal — which is not light in every sense of the word!
For the dinner menu, I started off with Satay with onions and cucumber.
Oh yeah, they actually setup the seat tray with table cloth. The tray was large and I really had the meal in comfort.
Next came the Marinated Prawns salad. The prawns were succulent but I am not a great fan of cold prawns.
They came by with a basket of various type of bread. The garlic bread looked really good. They looked better than it tasted. I mean, I had much better garlic bread before. I prefer garlic bread which is crusty but this one is a soft.
For the main, I selected the Poached Chicken Breast with garlic mashed potato, sauteed spinach and creamed morel. I selected this primarily because the menu indicated this is an exclusive creation by Nancy Oakes (who?) of San Francisco.
I also had the coconut and mango ice-cream. The taste was unique but too airy.
They next came with a push cart of some gourmet cheese selection. I asked for one of each to sample.
For coffee, I chose the Kenyan AA Kilimanjaro coffee from their gourmet coffee menu. This is a very dark brew with an intense flavour. It was so good that I ordered this two other times during the flight.
To end the meal, they came by with a nice tray of chocolates. I felt like asking them to leave the entire tray with me!
That was just one meal. Frankly, it was too much food. By the third meal, I could not finish what was on the plates. You know, I had weighed myself before I left for the airport. At the rate I am going, I am afraid I will have gained quite a lot of weight.
Anyway, I really had a great time on the flight. There are a few more pictures of the food I had on the flight. Click on the link below for them.
Vietnamese Sub from Hue Cafe in Richmond
I’m off to catch a flight to Singapore. The flight is in the afternoon and I have not have a confirmed ticket yet. Calling the reservation office yesterday, they told me I should have no problem getting a seat on the flight but I need to be there as soon as the checkin counter opens to get onto the wait list.
The family wanted to see me off at the airport. So, we decided grab something to eat at the airport while waiting for my flight to be confirmed. There’s this new Hue Cafe little shop we notice along No 3 Road each time we drive past the Richmond Center. We would not have given that place a second thought if not for the big sign that reads “Vietnamese Sub: 4 for $10″. It was just what we wanted — sandwiches to-go for the airport.
They have dark windows and you could barely see the insides. However, when we got in we were pleasantly surprised how clean and tastefully decorated they were. It’s much better than the many Vietnamese restaurants we frequented.
They have limited menu — primarily subs and pho. The prices were very cheap too. Their pho is only about $4.50 each. We ordered the 4 subs for $10 and decided to choose different types. We chose pork, chicken, beef and meatballs.
The bread is the baquette, hard crusted type. There are not much meat and you can see lots of the carrot, cucumber, etc.
The subs were surprising very good. It was just rightly moist which is due to the fish sauce they used.
All of us enjoyed it. Will certainly go back to the little shop and check out their cheap pho one of these days. The joint was owned by a friendly and charming young lady who had kids at the age of our boys. We chatted about our kids.
Here is their address: 6620, No 3 Road, Richmond, BC.
Stay tuned … I am away from home for the next two weeks on business in Singapore and also making a side trip to Malaysia to meet up with family and old friends. It’ll be a hectic trip but I am looking so much forward to this trip for sometime now.
Itty Bitty Cheeseburger
Suanne is supposed to blog this entry. She and I had the agreement that I blog the dine-out entries when she handles the recipes and food reviews. I somehow got conned into agreeing to blog this. Don’t know how that happened. As usual, she had a certain charm she employs to get the way she wants things done. So here it is.
Suanne bought a new type of burgers called Itty Bitty Cheeseburgers from Costco last week. These are mini-sized burgers. We like the novelty of such small burgers. Seems like a fun food and great for parties — perfect as finger food.
From the picture above, it does seem a lot like regular burgers. The texture of the bun, cheese and the patty looks great. It’s quite juicy, trender and savory. We know that Arkensen and Nanzaro would love this. What more it’s something they could make themselves if they want to have a quick snack.
These comes frozen. All you need to do is to place the frozen burgers on a microvable plate, lined with a paper towel and pop them into the microwave oven. Easy and clean. It takes 20-25 seconds to make 1 burger and 3 minutes for 12 burgers.
Each box of 24 mini burgers costs $10.79. Why, that makes it out to be only 45 cents each. Each burger is just 35g and had an estimated 110 calories.
So, how itty-bitty is it? Here it is:
Banana Walnut Brownies Lollipop
I made a Banana Walnut Brownies for my kids’ after school snack today. This is a super moist, chocolatey and banana fragranted brownies. To make it a little bit more interesting, I cut out the brownies in small rounds and use two toothpicks to hold the brownies like a lollipop.
Do you think your kids will love this?
The Banana Walnut Brownies Lollipop is also great for kid parties.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 eggs, beaten lightly
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 medium size bananas)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or chocolate chips)
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Dried Ginger
This is just a filler entry. A quickie to make sure that we have a blog a day while we take a couple of days off from our regular blog.
We came across this Dried Ginger from one of the Asian Stores in Richmond. This apparently came from Vietnam and costs only $1.39.
Ginger root is an effective treatment for nausea caused by motion sickness, and it also contains many antioxidants. Chinese women eat lots of ginger during their confinement month after giving birth. It is believe that ginger will help to get rid of wind after child birth.
There must have been about over 40 pcs of thin slices of ginger each about 3-4cm in the container.
The dried ginger actually tastes better than we expected. There is a hint of ginger, not overwhelming at all. What we like is the accompanied sweetness from the sugar coating. The heat of the ginger does linger in the throat and tongue for some time.
This is something that once you take a piece, you just keep on eating one after another. Very nice.
