Berbuka Puasa With Colleagues

My bosses are very considerate and would generously host big dinners for the staff during the festive seasons like Chinese New Year, Hari Raya & Christmas on a grand scale. Last year, we all enjoyed the breaking fast dinner with our Muslim colleagues at Shangri-la Hotel's Lemon Garden which seems to have the best spread of food varieties in KL.

1. This year, they decided to change the venue to somewhere closer to office so that we won't be stuck in crazy traffic jams again. We went to the Bukit Kiara's Equestrian Club!

2. This clubhouse has a very nice playground for the polo players on horses!
It reminded me that history has recorded horse playing was a popular
ancient sport in many arenas of Pompeii, Genghis Khan and the Maharajas of Jaipur etc.

3. This clubhouse is now a popular venue for breaking fast and they set up many
outdoor canopies to cater for over 2000 diners that night.

4. The buffet spread tables were long like a bullet train from Shanghai to Tibet! 

They lined from indoor of the coffee house all the way out to the poolside in the outdoors.

5. There was a closed section for a political party's function too and the popular
former Minister of Federal Territory - Raja Nong Chik was there to address the guests.
I always liked his boyish and friendly smiles!

6. The colourful & sweet desserts was a must for my Muslim colleagues
to eat first when they broke fast after 7.30pm.

7. There were so many varieties of food but this Malay Salad Ulams section is
my Top Favourite. Probably it is so identical with my upbringing of
Thai food consumption since small.

8. My right hand man, Ameer posing with a Nasi Kunyit Section which had so many
plates of elaborate side dishes to eat with the yellow rice.

9. We were very fortunate to get a private room for our gang of 40 hungry diners.
2 Mak Datins were busy playing hostess.

10. I drank almost 6 cups of beverages they had - Nescafe Tarek, Teh Tarek,
Ais Bandung, Juices and lain lain lagi. Free punya! So shiok nia!

11. This stall was very popular with a long beeline of diners!

12. This Laksa Buyong was popular too but I didn't try all the food as my tummy
would burst.

13. My collegaues enjoyed eating so much roasted meat, seafood barbeques and
European food to their hearts' contents. I am sad to say that there was so much food
wastage from their unfinished plates in our room and outside too!
This is sinful and I told them off with my fiery volcanic CB mouths!

14. My lady boss pointed out that I am very fierce at work and
the staff are all scared of me! Look at them all, wanting to pose with yours truly.
My department's staff teased me as their God Father pula because
I never failed to help & protect them all.

Selamat Berbuka Puasa & Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri 

to Mak Lina and all my Muslim friends. 

Maaf Zahir & Batin. 

Happy Holidays to all the other blogger friends too!

....

Annual Charity Dinner Show

Every year, my bosses would support the veteran Chinese Diva Mary Sia Ling Ling to organize her charity dinner shows. Last Saturday was the 4th year I attended her dinner shows with my wife, best buddy Desmond Wong and my entire office colleagues.

1. They always picked this HGH Convention Centre in Sentul which has got all the good criteria to hold big events like ample parking lots and very cold air conditioning system. The above photo was borrowed from here by me without permit and all photos below were taken by my Samsung S3. Just pretend that my photos looked good and nice wokay.

2. They raised a lot of money this year in aid of Sau Seng Lum Haemodialysis Centre and Liang Liang Temple, Rawang. I could not find the other photo that flanked all the total mock cheques. Anyways, they are my bosses Datuk Simon (1st left), Datuk Hong (3rd left), Mary Sia (4th left) and Datuk Brian (5th left).

3. I must say that her concert has improved every year and this year was the best with better showmanship, dancing & singing.  

4. Mary Sia was famous during the 70s in Malaysia. She gracefully posed for me to snap this photo and inset was her album which I found inside eBay!!! Still laku, oh boy! I am not Chinese educated but could appreciate her beautiful voice which still attracts all her loyal aunty supporters in KL. I had lunch with her & my bosses a few times and she is indeed a very humble, soft & friendly lady with a flawless complexion.

5. It was a "Double Kings And Queens" dinner show where Diva Mary Sia had teamed up with Michelle Xie Cai Yun, Chiau Hwa and Yang Ping. Do you them all?

6. This singer was very artistic and changed costumes many times! This one looked like a Mermaid.

7. He also had feathers on.

8. We all enjoyed the entertainment very much. It was worth my night and our VVIP table was tagged at RM5,000.00!!!!! Many thanks to my dear boss Datuk Simon Lee.

9. That was the end with encore for them to croon the latest numbers.

10. As usual, I was busy until I forgot to snap the food photos as I am a lousy food blogger. 

Here is my fried rice with a rose!

....

Hakata Folk Museum - Doll Making

It was Spring in Fukuoka and the weather was chilly around 10 degrees. You will see pretty flowers at every corner of the street. I always feel happy to see beautiful flowers and would offer them in my altar at home. Sometimes I bought 3 pots of blooming chrysanthemum plants in red, yellow and purple to offer them to the heavens!

The Japanese are very good in planting flowers and landscapes!

 

 

It was a rainy day and we decided to visit the famous street in Hakata. There is a row of neat & traditional cottage museums housing the souvenir shop, doll making and drama plays!

 

They still carry tourists for short rides on the ancient Japanese 

trishaws in many quaint towns in Japan. 

We entered this doll making factory where the famous craftsman was working on his latest collection. He was silent, very patient and focused into all the pieces in fullest details.

The dolls are very delicate and beautifully painted on the finest porcelain clays. 

Look at the cute cat playing with the lady.

Here's the cabinet display showing a typical street scene of Japanese made into dolls. 

Hakata is the most famous place in Japan for making all these bisque dolls.

I spent a long time studying and admiring all the finest pieces.

 

The cute Japanese girl was also staring at them excitedly.

 

This Doll Making is an ancient art in Japan since the Edo Period (1603 - 1867)

They are nice and expensive to own so I would rather snap 

the photos to keep the memories instead.

Thanks for reading!

The World's Best Durians

I was invited by the rich Tai-Tai aunty of my wife to eat durians last night. I arrived in heavens instantly as it was the best durians I have tasted for the 3rd year now. This year's harvest is better due to the long spell of hot and dry weather that helped to produce durians with stronger fragrance and texture! I felt that it tasted a bit of alcohol due to its strong carbo reactions.

Yes, they drove all the way to Raub, Pahang to collect their carload full of Grade A - Musang King durians from a private durian orchard. The seller or land owner only deals with pre-orders from familiar friends and clients from faraway overseas! They claimed that you could no longer get them anywhere else now from these same-seedling trees for its top notch quality as regular buyers book them all before harvests.

What surprised me was this well known orchard sends yearly supplies to Macau's Stanley Ho who would also share the durians with his HKG's buddy Li Ka Shing. You can read the rest of the story HEREhttp://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/?file=%2f2010%2f8%2f7%2fcentral%2f6805195&sec=central

Happy & Wise Shopping My Way

The world is getting sick with so much disasters, wars and political circus performers growing each day. All this would definitely trigger our global economy's inflation which will result in affecting our lifestyle and food on the dining table. I have started to pay more attention to every dollar I spend now. At least, I could still enjoy my lifestyle but with careful & wiser spending. I am a real bargain hunter for anything from hotels, air tickets, food and even my underwears!

You can call me "Aunty" for shopping online often, buying dresses and stuffs for my wife too! She is too humble and thrifty to pamper herself, so I took over her wardrobe and replenish them. I watch a lot of Korean dramas and observed their fashions there. I ended up buying for her & myself too. I do enjoy shopping online as they could save me valuable time to search for updated designs besides getting best price offers. I have seen their 'behind the door' operations and would highly recommend to shop online sometimes as they have little overhead for shop rentals and manpower.

Another all time favourite is going to the ColdStorage in OneUtama often. I must confess that I would always head to their shelves that displayed all the "Clearance Goods". It could excite me! Their expiry dates are close but still edible and perfect!

Look at this good example of the jars of dressings from USA! They are clearing for 99 sen each!!! Just add your own taste and create your own flavour dressings for your salad or whatever! Innovative experiment!

 

Here's many cans of soups to clear. I often bought many types of canned and bottled food that were aliens & new to me for taste experiments. I was curious to try and they only costs like under RM3 for American Potatoes or Chocolate Sticks & many other delights. With every dollar saved, I would be fighting inflation and hopefully go for more holiday trips!

 ........

Beggar's Chicken - A Luxury Dish

Does anyone here knows where this luxurious Beggar's Chicken Dish originated from? I went to China many times and read up the claims made by different provinces. One claimed that a thief in Hangzhou stole a chicken but he was too poor to cook it without pots & pans. So he thought of this brilliant idea to wrap the chicken in leaves and buried it into the earth filled with flames of burning wood. The taste was so delicious as the gravy & fragrant smell was intact when eaten the next day. Soon, the whole village picked up the recipe after smelling it.

Another claim was from the Changshu Village in Jiangsu Province which claimed a beggar caught a wild chicken and figured a way to cook it by burying it inside the mud clay before setting fire on it overnight. So the story goes on and on until it has reached many restaurants of the remote towns in Malaysia.

A close relative on my wife's side visited us from Singapore for his monthly visit to the Highland's Casino to collect his table dividends. This popular uncle and wife were treated to feast on the Beggar's Chicken dinner. I was always fortunate to be invited to tag along for free makan. Why should I refuse?

All 3 car loads of relatives sped all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Ijok, Selangor which took us more than 1 hour as the traffic was very jammed during the near Buka Puasa time. My wife was the compass to direct me there.

New Beggar's Delicious Restaurant must be cooking new dishes invented by a New Generation's Beggar.

 I drove too fast and was too early as no one had arrived yet.

 By 7:00pm all the customers had arrived in big flashy cars like Alphards, BMWs and even Bentley!

 

I had to sneak inside their kitchen to observe how the beggar had baked the marinated chickens.

He carried them all inside with a wheel barrow from another place. Look at the clumps of baked mud clay.

 Arrgh! This Beggar Chef is from Bangladesh and not Jiangsu in China. He used a hammer to smash hard on all the clays.

 

 He peeled the cracked clay pieces apart to bring out the wrapped chickens in foils.

Look at the yummy Beggar's Chicken in marinated dark sauce with its tender meat and tasty herbal gravy. Slurpss!

This is the original Beggar's Chicken in marinated Chinese herbs & wolfberry that oozed fragrant soup that could boost our health.

 

They also stored many jars of hidden treasures at the back room!

 

Those jars were pickled lime plums that are sold in small bottles too. A good remedy for your throats and general well being.

 

 Many thanks to our nephew Alexander Lee who hosted the memorable dinner. A young entrepreneur in his 20s, he is already a father of 2 lovely kids and drives a BMW to his mobile phone outlets at LowYat Plaza.