Gay Bacon Strips!

Apologies for the lack of blog posts. Exams just round the corner, intense stress and drowned in a pile of notes and hours of studies to catch up. But i did manage to spare a few minutes to watch a few youtube videos worth mentioning. Heard of EpicMealTime ? IF not they're a crazy bunch of guys up in Canada doing real serious crazy shit with the food they make.

As mad as some of their recipes sound but underneath it employs the very basic dynamics of cooking in the preparations of their epic meals. So it isnt just all crap bolted together with layer after layer of bacon. One of my true favourites would be fast food lasagna where they ordered 15 burgers from each fast food outlet and combined it together forming 70k worth of calories! How epic's that????

Anyways i stumbled upon a sweet confectionary which i think was similar to the ones used in one of their more recent videos. The guys at EMT are famous for using bacon (alot of it) in every single meal that they prepare. After watching a few video's you'd understand. But this video's meal was made purely out of candies so they substituted bacon with what they called Gay Bacon Strip but it isnt a sexually disorientated porcine form of candy but just a name given by the EMT guys to fruit strips with a different layer of flavours.

Gay Bacon Strips in action! Lots of 'em!

They even made a FB page for it as a spin off.

I found this particular candy in my local tuck shop on campus grounds. Not too sure if i have ever seen it in hypermarkets though. Its called sour power by Fascini. As the name says it, its has a really sour coating with some form of powder(similar to what you'd find on those sour skittles) and after a few bites you'd be able to taste different flavours of sweetness. Im guessing green apple, strawberry, blue berry and a few other flavours.

Damn gotta cut down on watching youtube vids and get back to studies. Proper food posts will resume after my exams early next month. Till then!

Epic Candy diabetes inducing meal! watch it!

Banana Leaf Lunch for charity!

Every so often charity drives for different causes and pledge comes knocking on our doors for donation or as they put it these days "token of appreciation". Sometimes its actually hard for us to differentiate between genuine ones and the less than charitable efforts. But then again it comes down to a matter of us knowing how to rationalise between the two finding the barrier between the lesser of the two evils. Last week i did manage to make it a point to support some of our batchmates who were the organizing comittee who came up with Banana Leaf Lunch as a part of the Indian Holi Week celebration. Which is suppose to be something like Sri Lankan's new year as i was told.

This idea of Banana Leaf brought to uni at a cost of RM10 for non veggies took my full attention as it was suggested to me. Damn good deal it is!

Not the usual people you'd see serving your banana leaf meal to you eh?

Even by the looks of it, it kicks the hell out of the everyday cafeteria food and fare offered by the roadside stalls.

Really did enjoy myself and kudos to the organizing committee for a successful event. MMm wondering if its possible to actually have banana leaf caterers full time in uni....

Song Kheng Hai, Kuching

Its one of those places where it holds itself as a clear memory in a small chapter in your past much like what this place has for me. Song Kheng Hai can be compared to a food court similar to Dai Pai Dong's which were relocated to newer locations for space and hygiene reasons. This essentially means good quality at a tight budget. Song Kheng Hai reserves itself as a special location not just to me but every other dwellers of Kuching, seeing that its located right in the heart of town and has been around since forever. The sights and bustle of the school directly opposite it, with the tranquility of the quiet rugby field under your nose(when its empty of course) and beating in tempo with the rapid development happening in its peripheries. That is the Song Kheng Hai i remember.

When i was home last week i headed down this nostalgia lane with fellow travel blogger, batchmate and Kuching-nite, Mr.M.

Interesting fact about this place is that its actually busiest in the odd hours between 2pm-5pm. I never really did believe this as i'd always paid my visits just in time for dinner but boy i was wrong. Its bustling with customers when i went there for my afternoon tea.

Correct me on this but this is one of the few places which i have seen shaved ice desert combinations apart from the usual fare of ais kacang and ABC. With names which belong more appropriately to car models like matterhorn, fairlady and snowwhite. And yes they are actually proper concotion of shaved ice deserts well thought out and tastes pretty good!

I ordered matterhorn which by its appearance has a slightly tangy flavour from a slice of lemon and pineapple strips. Fits perfectly for the ungodly heat of the afternoon sun.

This everybody is belacan beehoon, another dish unique to the cat city Kuching. The blend of boiled vermicelli, sliced cucumber, cuttlefish, and bean sprouts topped with warm rojak paste(fruit version or in KL pasembor) then propped up with the pungent belacan broth. To some it maybe foul smelling and vile and a love it or hate it presentation much like durian. To easily distinguish a good stall selling this is by simply using your olfactory senses. But to me, the radical idea of soaking vermicilli into a broth made out mainly of belacan which is a shrimp paste and chilli peppers served usually as a dip for local salad just gets my foodie courage worked up.

Left: Foochow Kompia, Right: Cincau, longan, sarsi and condensed milk

You have not had the real taste of Sarawak until you'd paid your visit to Song Kheng Hai. Yes im sure everyone thinks of Kolo Mee and Laksa when the idea of Kuching food snaps into your mind but its more than that over here. Mmm im missing it already.

Location:

Lorong 15
off Jln Padungan
Kuching, Sarawak 93100

The short lived love affair

No dont worry no one of the opposite sex nor the same side was involved here. Just a trusty camera which i borrowed from a friend a few weeks back. Even as reluctant as i was i returned it knowing that it had served me well.

Yeap the Olympus EP-1. Sure it has its obvious faults primarily the lack of a built in flash and the shutter speed of a cow crossing the road. But where it lacks for here it sure does make up in ergonomics with a sturdy steel body as well as the user friendly layout of the buttons. Im no pro photographer but this camera showed me a sip of what professional grade camera can produce packed into a dimension of a compact camera. I used it in for the IMU NTM post.

Yes a tough day for me indeed but this was just a small part of it. Gonna have to think of a new excuse to find a window of opportunity to borrow this again. hmm.....

When KFC does it correctly...

Time and time again major fast food outlets and franchise chains effortlessly spew out new variations from their usual menu sometimes out of probably curiosity and even daft nothingness. A prime example would be none other than KFC. I use to remember being flashed with advertisements of Colonel Sander's latest recipe of burgers and other side dishes which never failed to disappoint. Very much to the extend that after several occasions slagging it off Colonel's chicken has been the only reason why i haunt this fast food outlet.

Then came along KFC's O.R(original recipe) chicken chop. Their latest fresh out of the colonel's lap. So another marketing flop or success? Seeing that it was recently featured on a string of Malaysia's reputable bloggers which worked out pretty well for them so cant really go off so badly eh?

i swear the kfc here has the coolest playground!

With this in mind i touched down at KLIA from Kuching last weekend and since i had some time at hand and my unrelenting gastric secretions calling for some materials to digest, it was a good chance to try out this spoken new chicken.

I paid around rm 13 or 16 since it's usually more expensive in the airport with the extra tax and all but the regular street price would be RM9.90. For a dish over a tenner you'd get a side dish of sweet corn kernels, cheesy potato wedges, a cup of Mountain Dew(mmm good stuff) and the main feature of a chicken drumstick deboned and butterflied fried according to KFC's infamous original recipe then topped with the gravy similar to the ones you'd get on a mash potato floating with sliced button mushrooms.

Since i'd usually pair my original recipe chicken with the same gravy it wasnt really something that caught me by surprise and this has always been a good combination anyways. But the convenience of having your chicken deboned? now thats a good one. As for the side dishes sweet corn kernels has always given me a nostalgic sense of my younger years devouring corn straight out of the boiling pot, good times. Very nice touch i must say. I wont lie but i never enjoyed cheesy wedges, i enjoy the whole concept of chilli cheese fries the american way but when KFC adds mayonaise into the mix it sorta ruins it for me.

But overall it definitely was a good sign that KFC's being adventurous playing it by their strengths pairing up their ubiquitous original recipe chicken with their savoury gravy producing a delightful combination. Now thats a conservative attitude with aggression in a good way of course. Oh and did i mention KFC has also embraced the refillable soft drinks concept like Mc Donalds! So more Mountain Dew for me! My only qualm would be the serving size being a tad too little for me but it was fine on that day since i had a light meal onflight before hand. A success for the Colonel? Yes!



*not an advertorial. Check out KFC's website for more info

Speed Blogging!

Writing this post from KLIA's erl transit. Blimey this part of KLIA actually has a pretty good wifi connection provided by YES.

Just got back from Kuching and its already at the end of my one week break.  It was just as if i was busy packing after  the end of the day of uni with that great sense of excitement. Now im already back here and unpacking my stuff as soon as i get back.  It does justify the cliched quote of 'Time waits for no man'.

Was wondering something as i was walking around KLIA after my short lunch how did this airport manage to even win awards when the airport is relatively quiet compared to major airports like Heathrow, JFK and Charles De Gaulle? hmm...maybe you'd might help me shed some light to my inquisition of this eh?

But anyways its always nice to come out to a quiet arrival hall compared to LCCT's packed terminal with tourists of sorts cramped together in a terminal fashioned after a huge hangar.

Damn the trains already started its slow pace before launching into its hyperspace speed. Didnt really know why i actually penned this post but i suppose its good to be back after a short break ready for the final system of the semester the wretched RENAL =S

Best way to travel to and fro the airport, well for me anyways.

This was definetly speed blogging for me, whipped up as fast as it take to make cup noodles. Heh!
Normal food posts will resume shortly. promise.

PS: not an advertorial for KLIA transit or YES either. just penning it as i see it =)

iDrank: Leffe Brune Beer and binged eat PORK snacks!

Its been a almost a week that i have been home and sometimes its really hard to forgo such comfort of being dependent and it did dawn upon me when i was having conversation with my mum that i realized. Do parents ever get bored of parenting? much like how a student no matter how diligent they are at some point will eventually get bored of studying some more so than others =P.

But anyways that was just a thought, what this post is suppose to be about is me guzzling down one of the true elixirs of life, Beer and snacks which go along with it. The people that i meant frequently have a preconception that living in east malaysia particularly Sabah and Sarawak until i turn around and point out the obvious reason that obliterates such a thought. Its easily seen even from out national newspapers and other amenities like food products that they have a different quoted price for their eastern counterparts.

So do people actually earn more here then? Another obvious answer is No we don't, for reasons which i wont indulge into but the recent election results does speak for itself. But on a higher and sweeter note is that ethanol based beverages here are relatively cheaper compared to West Malaysia. Not just in Labuan for being a tax free zone but in parts of east malaysia and again for reasons which i wont question. hehe

To illustrate east malaysia’s major hyper market was having a promotion of Guinness Foreign Extra(bottle) for only rm5.50. Tell me that isn't cheap, the canned ones cost 1 ringgit more! So this scale extends its reach to imported beers as well.

One of those imported beers which i managed to procure is Leffe Brune beer from Belgium. Commonly found on shelves in most hypermarkets in West Malaysia i believe.
With Hoeegarden rapidly becoming a favourite among Malaysian drinkers i’d wanted to try out another brewery product of the same country.

Leffe brune beer, upon opening fragrant malty smell even standing in a distance never opened such a scented beer before, possess dark creamy taste lighter than the usual taste of a stout, slightly sweet aftertaste which settles to become nice caramel flavour. I’d reckon it’d be a nice pair with maybe a nice piece of sirloin or ribeye steak.

One quintessential snack which goes hand in hand with beers all over the world would probably be pretzels. This snack particularly caught my eye when i found it on the non-halal section of the supermarket. pretzel-strong smell of ham before i dived into it. taste reminded me of ham sandwich from subway. Didnt really taste much of the cheese tho. dominating flavour of ham. Was expecting the usual coated cheese layer of something similar but turned out to be the regular roasted stick pretzel sprinkled with powder.

But i wont recommend trying this porcine based snack by itself.

Until next time then. Cheers~

Did you know?

Phew had a relatively busy week last week and finally managed to catch my breath over the long weekend. Surely am glad that im actually having a one week break, much needed to catch up on studies which im admittedly falling behind in. And on a separate note its nice to be home, after a long arduous week in uni i flew home on friday night to the comforts of home. Home can be anywhere its where the family is that really matters to me.

Anyways in the last paragraph if you'd have the basic literacy skill you'd notice i'd mention that i was actually busy tacking a hectic schedule over the week. As medical student apart from the many strenuous hours of mugging that we put in its also about at times a relatively hectic schedule of lectures, medical museum sessions, clinical skills lesson and a few other elements in the curriculum which supposedly enhances our learning experience. But this week like all semester 4 student of IMU we were broken into smaller groups and sent off to different maternal care goverment clinics around Selangor and Negeri Sembilan area.

I was assigned to Seremban's Polyclinic. I wont bore you with the details of that visit but would probably share something about the public healthcare system which i till now never seen off.

Call me ignorant or anything but i never did knew how hard our government is actually trying to improve the healthcare system of our developing nation. Surely were all familiar with all the grim stories that make the headlines of our newspapers about doctor negligence in the public hospitals, the goverment milking every bit of energy out of the housemens and the cracks in our healthcare system.

Sure its easy to jump on the side that points the finger of accusation and hurl criticisms at the government for not doing enough for us. I admittedly was like that in actual fact until last week when during our clinic visits after the usual grilling session of questions by our attending tutors we were sent out to observe the daily routine of a nurse in carrying out their house to house visit for prenatal and postnatal mothers. But for this regular visits we could have been sent out to urban clinics for this observation but the clinics that were chosen was handpicked by the university as it was in a suburban community.

And to prove the point of this I heard the story first hand from my friends which followed a nurse to a construction site's makeshift settlement to follow up on a mother and her newly born child. Tell me that isnt dedication! But i was a little dissapointed i'd have to say that i didnt manage to see such a unique site on my turn but nonetheless the same dedication was dawned by the nurse that day when we visited a mother and her 8 day old child in their home in a housing area near Seremban.

Nurses here are in charge of a routine follow up for mothers prenatal and antenatal and the frequency of their visits depends on their living conditions. For single mothers or mothers with previously known complications the number of visits would be more.

checking for jaundice

Nurses here check the mothers health from blood pressure,diet and whether she's coping well in taking care of her newborn. Of course the obligatory check on the newborns weight, sleeping and eating pattern is also monitored.

After witnessing this small act of compassion and dedication i'd definitely have to give it up for the governments efforts in improving our healthcare system. It may not always be about bringing in the latest cutting edge technology in surgery or building more hospitals with more beds but every small efforts takes things a long way.

Ps: did you know the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 in Malaysia was 31 per 100,000 live births making it one of the lowest in the Asian region?(WHO)

-im in no way obliged in writing this post and not citing any bias to any party but its just a matter of opinion.