Wrap in Red

Ever wonder why the sliced papaya we buy from the fruit stalls are usually wrapped in red plastic bag instead of transparent plastic?


My burning curiosity had led me into scorching through the websites for answer, but the initial Google search had come up with some irrelevant results  until I tried searching with Malay keywords instead.

http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=1998&dt=0421&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Rencana&pg=ot_05.htm

To summarise the above Malay article and answer to my own question, the red plastic bag is used by most fruit sellers to make the papaya aesthetically more attractive to the consumer. Since the plastic beg is red in colour, it can also hide the dull orange/red colours of papayas which are yet to ripe.

Hence, it is true to say that the red plastic bag is used as a tactic to get more business rather than for any health benefits.

Apom

On a  one fine morning when I was diligently working in the office, calling from clients to clients to collect the magazine materials, at a quick peep of my Facebook,  a picture posted by my friend had instantly grabbed my attention.

This is not the exact picture posted by my friend, but it is definitely the food he was having.
(picture courtesy to GOOGLE image)

You may start thinking is this Apom (the food in the above picture) is my favourite food or I have some kind of addiction towards it.
No, the answer is no. It is not my favourite food.
However, there's a Manis (sweet) connection of this food to my childhood.

The food reminds me of when my sisters and I were still children and had our overnight stays at my grandmother's house during school holidays. It was like a customary thing in our family that my cousins and us would visit our grandma and stay there for a few days, a few times a year. My cousins, my sisters and I would play, fight, chat together from day to night. Sometimes we also eavesdropped on the topics being discussed by the adults after we were exhausted chasing each other in the big old house of my grandma.

Every morning when we woke up in a fully crammed gradma's small room, (imagine a small room with one single bed and one queen size bed but being crammed with  9 people), my mom would wait for the moving Apom stall to pass by her used-to be house. The Apom stall was run by an Indian woman/ man ( I can't really remember the gender, but it was definitely an Indian). My mom would order for 50/ 100 pieces of Apom for the few families in the house. Since it is not easy to make such many apoms instantly by a small stall, it could take up to an hour to complete our order. The young mischievous us would then bring batch by batch of Apom into the house, eat the sweet crispy breakfast and started our new day with more games and fun activities!

A Dog & Its Owner

A reliable dog, loyally guarding his wheel-chair bound owner.
A boy who happened to walk behind them, saw him near himself to the flower pots, grass patches, lamp posts on the road side; by raising its hind leg in order to relieve himself. But before he could let out the water, when he returned his watchful eyes to his owner, the owner had already moved well ahead of him. Worrying that his vulnerable owner might get harmed, the anxious dog dashed towards its owner again.

The boy serenely watched the loyal dog carrying out its duty, failing to ease itself, repeatedly, until their paths diverted.

メガリザードンvsミュウツー Mega Charizard vs MewTwo in Pokemon Origin

メガリザードンvsミュウツー

メガリザードンの青い火はかっこいい～～～

What I had for lunch and dinner

Singapore Laksa

I am always a fan of Penang Asam Laksa. After having this Singapore Laksa, though I must admit it is quite delicious, it still can't replace my love/addiction/obsession for my Penang Laksa. When I told my friend that Penang Laksa is my most favourite food in this world, he retorted there are still many places for me to travel and food to try. What he says is true, but I really doubt anything can replace it! I do love chocolate very much, but if these two are put together in front of me, of course I will eat them both! LOL

Chicken.
It comes with special cranberry sauce + wasabi  which compliment the dish very well!
Don't know the dish name since it was ordered by my sister bf, but i shared half of the chicken with him.

 Went to Poulet, a French dining restaurant, at Chinatown Point, to have dinner with my sister and her bf. I was literally on cloud nine to have such LUXURIOUS dinner. Believe me, I am not trying to exaggerate the LUXURIOUS here. But being jobless currently, what I have for meals now are just economic rice....So I am BLESSED. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

French fries.

 I love their fries...Because it tastes so potato...(lol, compared to what I usually have in Mcd)

Vanilla ice cream bathed in thick indulging chocolate, with finishing of almond flakes.

No explanation needed. The dessert was totally a foodporn.
Have I used the word "foodporn" correctly?? I see people always hash tag the word but I dont really know its meaning. What I know is that the food is so absotively (absolutely + positively,  pick it up from Desperate Housewives) and fantabulously scrumptious.


That ends my hunger for nice, delicious food and this blogpost too.

Sushi Flash

I am not going to pretend to write this post in the point of view of a customer of this restaurant. Firstly, let me clarify that I had a very short working experience as a servicing worker in this restaurant and the following opinion about the food is completely mine and not influenced by the employer. And No, I am not forced to write this.

Sushi boy. I rarely wear a cap or hat because i think my head is too big for them. But I had gone all out this time to wear this red cap and I kinda instantly becoming younger with my short fringe peeking out of the cap.

Using phone while working?? NO....Look the shop is already close.

Learning to make Maki with the amiable Malay colleague

The photographer insisted that I should look into the camera.

And a more 'professional' hand shot!

Sushi Flash takes over Tutti Fruiti and has maintained the previous shop interior except by adding some, new furniture, sushi conveyor belt and Japanese themed decorations.

The interior of the restaurant

 This is how the restaurant logo looks like. Isn't it cute?

Sushi Flash, Eat Like a Boss

 As the restaurant's targeted customers are the students from the vicinity colleges and families (during weekend), every plate of sushi is priced  at RM2 or RM3 only and hence the slogan "EAT LIKE A BOSS". There are three types of plates here; beige, red and black. For sushi on the beige plates, they are priced RM2, whereas those on black and red plates are RM3.
If you always hanker for the Sushi Bonanza that will only come once in a few months and hate to wait and queue with the crowd during the promotion, here you don't have to wait for Sushi Bonanza in order to enjoy devouring on the very affordable sushi-s!

Myriad of sushi on the conveyor belt. 

 As an ex-worker here, I got to eat the leftover after the shop closed. As I am an avid Japanese food, cuisine and sushi eater, the daily binging on sushi had started to accumulate (thanks to the vinegered rice!) fat around my belly, though I only worked for a short period of time.

Salmon Belly - Who can resist a succulent piece of raw salmon??  People that dont eat raw things, you surely miss out some good thing here!

 By the way, I heard from a customer who has a travelling experience in Japan, say that the raw Japanese food in Malaysia isnt as RAW as those in Japan. He said that he was not used to and somehow felt disgusted to eat a whole chunk of big raw salmon in Japan. But his words wont tarnish my aspiration to go Japan in future and taste their food!

Jellyfish in some kind of sweet, spicy sauce. I prefer another dish, scallop skin, which is quite to this.

RM2 for 2 pieces of Salmon sushi?! Give me more please!!

California maki which cant be found on their menu. You have to be lucky enough to spot this sushi on the conveyor belt or be lucky enough to read this blog and order from their sushi maker.

Don't be deceived by this fiery red dish to be spicy. It is called shrimp salad and it's sweet!

Scallop skin with rice ball and seaweed. If you prefer the scallop skin only, they have that in their menu! I love the sweet spicy scallop skin

Lobster salad...I am sure they don't use real lobster in this sushi...ermmm...How can a dish be RM2/RM3 with lobster right?

Another simple dish that I never grown tired with. Love the simplicity of the tamago slice.

Abalone sushi...Not my favourite pick because I reckon that abalone slices are only good in soup and steamboats! 

There's no Unagi in the menu, but this sweet Anago resembles quite close to it. 

Ebi Fried Maki. Love the crispy fried prawn wrapped in layer of rice and seaweed. The mouthful of crispy fried prawn, tinted with taste of seaweed and vinegered rice is irresistible! There is a soft-shell crab maki which is as delicious as this one! 

Ika sushi...I love the feeling of chewing this plastic-ky squid....

Customers's favourite (but not mine). Sauced octopus on top of rice ball and seaweed.

If you have enough of vinegared rice, choose this sauced octopus instead~

Corn Mayo Gunkan or simply corn in mayonese. The corn instantly becomes 10 times sweeter in the mayonese but it's fattening!

Tuna maki. Indulge yourself as the aromatic taste of sesame with tuna explodes in your mouth!

Customers' favourite. The reddish Ebiko Gunkan. I guess people like to chew on these little prawn ball that pop between bites? 

If you're eager for some hot fried food, dont hesitate to order this Fried Salmon and another quite similar dish - Fried Salmon skin. One of the top customers' favourite pick also.

Edamame- my favourite. This dish is steamed and hence lack of oil or sauce. You may request for sprinkle of salt on it but i prefer the pods in their most natural and healthy taste!

Takoyaki....But meh....It's hard to find delicious takoyaki...

Will always have this Inari (sweet beancurd) wherever sushi or Japanese restaurant I go. It is simple, cheap and delicious!

Golden egg- Hard boiled egg with a crispy fried layer, topped with mayonesed crab meat. It's insane as the sweetness of mayonese and crabmeat spread in your mouth as you sink your teeth on the sinful-but-content crispy fried egg.

There are still many sushi that I have not mentioned here, like handrolls, sashimi, and etc....Feel free to go over the shop to experience by yourself and pick your favourite sushi out of the many sushi available in their menu.


Location of the shop: Subang SS15. Beware. You're warned that it's difficult to find parking space at daytime during weekdays!
Wifi availability: Yes. Passoword: sushiflash88
Food price range: RM2 and RM3 ONLY.
Baby chair availability: No

#AnnoyingTravelBoy6 - Day 1 in Taipei

To fulfill my promise (to myself) of writing at least two blog posts per month, so here we go....

My friends and I woke up early to catch a bus to go to Taipei from Taichung. While waiting for my friends who seemed to have late habit, I was sulkily (not that serious la, may be coolly) eating this bread I bought from FengYuan Night Market. 

Bread with cheese filled and ham/bacon. This was one of the most delicious bread I had in Taiwan!! It goes into my list of stuff that is worth every NTD i spent! 45NTD for this yummilicious bread. 

As we arrived quite early to the Taichung station, I had decided to try the local McD. I had this simple cheese + bacon/ham (i seem to have problem differentiating these two meats) burger. 

 For your information, Taiwan has a high speed rail （臺灣高鐵）system that travels around the country at fast speed but also with a relatively higher price than bus or normal train. Since we intended to cut down the travel budget, we chose to go to Taipei with bus. The journey is around 2 hours, similar to that of travel between Penang and Ipoh. I was impressed by how spacious and comfortable the bus we took. Not only did every seat come with individual visual audio system (like the one in air plane) there was even a toilet at the back of the bus. And the ticket for the bus was only 170NTD.

Taipei MRT.

Freaking 33degree that felt like 40 degree (according to the weather apps in my phone)!!

I decided to leave my friends and rest alone in the backpacker hostel (at XiMenDing) just to stay out of the scorching heat. 

And finally, I  狠下心腸  and bought this cute Line sticker. I had been mulling over for weeks before I came to decision to buy this sticker....

After an hour or two of rest, when I came outside, the city had turned dark with imminent downpour. Of course, I got very excited with this weather and the rain that came afterwards. It was like an instant mood boost when the weather turned cool and I became active and lively again to explore whatever that was about to unfold in my lone journey.

As it was raining cats and dogs, I went into a Japanese Restaurant to try out their Japanese food/sushi. I had done a lot of comparison in this trip by trying lots of stuff that I frequently do in Malaysia but this time in a complete new place and setting. 

However, the food didnt turn out to be nicer or fresher as I had expected. I always thought that as Taiwan is so heavily influenced by Japan and located nearer to it, the Japanese food there would be a lot nicer than those in Malaysia. I was proofed wrong! The set of sushi cost me around 280NTD. With the same money, I could have satisfied my hanker for Japanese food by dining at Sushi Zanmai!

Thanks to the God of rain. 

While my friends were enjoying their time watching sun setting at TamSui （淡水), I tried to explore the vicinity of XiMenDing by myself. Grabbing a MRT system map in hand, I had gone to quite many places in Taipei, alone....To be frank, I was quite moody for that whole week. I was trying to adapt myself to the hot weather and when my friends started to bother me with this and that, I became so agitated. Not wanting to lost control of myself or being harsh to my friends, I chose to travel alone most of the time. Though I had missed out a few attractions that they went to, I had my freedom to try, see, visit and experience the local stuff that they never got to enjoy because of focusing so heavily to travel to every destinations that were recommended online.

This dessert was just so so.

I love Taiwan fruits, though. Most of the fruits there are sweeter than their counterparts in Malaysia. But I also realized that the fruit prices are a bit higher too. 

The famous "Ah Zhong Mian Xian" which was also SO-so only. May be i didn't like the ingredients ( pig liver  & etc). I would prefer it if it came with dried shredded squids and dried scallop... 

This is how the outlet/branch of Ah Zhong Mian Xian looks like in ShihLin Night Market. They only have stools for their diners.

If you ever want to try the Mian Xian, please do not come to this branch. Many people recommend the one in XiMenDing.

Very alkaline lemon juice! Always make me feel good after heavy meals, especially after I had eaten myriads of street food in the ShihLin Night Market. 

I was to meet my friends in the night market, but girls like to shop, so I went back to the hostel early to rest earlier and recharge for the coming days of trip.