The one item that I have miss from Taiping is the Char Koey Teow.  For more than 10 years since I have not lived in this sleepy town, so much have changed.  Tesco, Starbucks, Taiping Central and 24hrs Mc Donalds now rule the city.  There were once 3 main source of Char Koey Teow that we frequent.  The one that we loved most was across the Lido Cinema.  We always call that the Lido Char Koay Teow.  We always had to que to get our fix and it was never dull.  I like it even more when it was kept in the refrigerator over night.  I could not find any memory of the stall closing nor I knew what happen to the stall.  All I know is that the stall was not there anymore and there goes the great Char Koey Teow of Taiping.

There was another stall that I enjoyed much in my childhood, it was located across from the Taiping Boys Home and was only open in the evening.  The grandfather house was used to be in the city and this stall was just a short walk away.  My parents would spend many evenings polishing the Mahjong with family members and I would feed the mosquitoes there.  Once a while, I would walk over to the stall and buy myself a RM1.20 Char Koey Teow.  Those were the days one would say, and my child hood are just filled with such memories.  Similar to the Lido Char Koay Teow, I have no memory of what happen to this stall.  No idea where they moved to, if they are still frying today.  About 100m away from this location is now where the famous Dolly Koay Teow Basah is.

I could recall the days when I visit the market below Larut Matang Supermarket.  This is where the unique Char Koay Teow stalls are located.  Charcoal fried, and the uniqueness is height of the stall.  There used to be a few stalls, and I remembered it slowly shrink to one or two stalls.  The guy would sit on a stool that is half a foot tall and fry the Char Koay Teow and they were good.  I remembered the stall was taken over by the son and I don’t know what happen to them now.  The market is still there, and some of the old stalls are still there, but not the Char Koay Teow that sits on a stool.

Taiping was where I grew up and where my love for Char Koay Teow grew.  Having Char Koay Teow from all over Malaysia, Penang, KL, Melacca and even Singapore.  None of them beats Taiping Char Keoy Teow, well, none brings me back to my child hood days.  This is how unique Taiping Char Koay Teow is.  So, what’s so special about Taiping Char Koay Teow one may ask.  Its the Carbon, all the great fryers use charcoal and the Char Koay Teow is dry and the carbon taste is strong.  This is how I grew up with and my love for Char Koay Teow.

Maybe there is still hope, a few weeks back I heard of this famous Char Koay Teow in Simpang that had a line of people everyday.  I got to seek this stall out.  Hopeful, in the near future. Till then, Gone are the Good Taiping Char Koay Teow.

Khunthai received raved reviews and was very popular among Penang folks.  You just need to Google for Khuntai and will find loads of review and almost all ends with praise.  We decided to try out this restaurant for lunch today and made our way over.  We navigated through the busy Raja Uda road and arrived at the fame restaurant almost an hour after leaving Penang Island.  There were not that many people, in fact when we arrived, there were only 3 tables occupied.  But when we left the restaurant was running close to 40% occupancy.  The restaurant had a high ceiling and fans at every table.  The cooling environment was very relaxing and couple with Thai pop music, the mood was lively.

We ordered our favourite Coconuts and went through the menu.  The menu was extensive, though was Thai based, I could not help to observe the vast Chinese influence in the dishes.  Its also a Seafood restaurant with tanks of fishes and edible Sea Creatures.  We ordered Seafood Tom Yum, Deep Fried Kang Kong, Deep Fried Prawn Balls and White Rice.  We did not had to wait long for the food, looking at the lack of patrons, it would be un-natural otherwise.

Tom Yum was the first dish that came.  The sour taste was overpowering and was not spicy.  After a few sip, it grew on us and we enjoyed it much.  It was not the best we had, it was ok.  The Seafood was fresh and the ingredients was abundant.  The soup was also thick and was not water down.  The little burning charcoal kept the soup warm through out our gastronomical adventure.

Next came the deep fried kang kong and the deep fried prawn balls.  Yes, they do not look like balls, infact, they were actually strip prawns covered with flour to shape like a full prawn and deep fried.  The deep fried kang kong was quite oily and taste of oil after a few mouth full.  We left the dish 3/4 full when we paid the bill.  We finish the prawn, but we dig out the prawn meat as after a few pieces, the flour was over powering.

All in all, the Tom Yum was the only dish we enjoyed.  The dishes did not taste that authentic to us as suggested by the logo, in fact, it was more of a Chinese Thai rather than Thai Thai, if you know what I mean.  Also, the Chinese characters on the logo is already a strong indication.  Khunthai is a lively Thai-Chinese Seafood restaurant.  Unfortunate for us, we did not enjoyed the food that much and did not feel that the dishes were Authentic Thai.

The restaurant received 2 star out of 5 from us.

Photos taken with iPhone 3GS.

After successfully settling down, we just accept the offer of the first cart that came by, some kind of cheong fun with pork and prawn.  It was much better than the regular prawn cheong fun that they served.  We ordered a few more fried and steam stuff before picking up our tab and left.  The food was cold and the service was horrible.  But we understand as there are just too many people.  I don’t think any restaurant can give proper service and food quality in such capacity…

[Show as slideshow]

Tiananmen Square, 20 years ago, students revolt against the China Communist Government.   I was too small to remember anything, but one picture that has always stuck in my head or associated with Tiananmen Square 1989 protest were the ‘Tank Man’.  One guy standing in front of the tank fearlessly.  I’ve learnt today that this guy’s identity is unknown and till today, no one know what happen to him nor what he is doing now.  I have thought the photo of the Man vs Machine to be somewhat inspirational.  At one part, the machine holds enough firepower to blow the guy into pieces of melon squash on a concrete floor.  At the other, the bravery the man display, the David vs Goliath, the hobbit vs Sauron, and this is the inspirational part.

Often in the mundane working like, one less encounter such bravery.  One less encounter where one need to put one’s life at risk for one’s believe.  And hence, one gets lost in living life itself.  Actions like the Tank Man, brings inspiration into the mundane life.  Reminds one self that life, is what we make of it, and we must dare to grab life by the throat and choke every ounce of breath out.  Take more risk, be brave to face to storm, be fearless to stand your ground.

Photo by Balakov

Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 (Wiki)

Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen

Tiananmen Square and Two Chinas

China: From Tiananmen through today

Update:

Time 100: The Unknown Rebel

My brother inlaw wedding was around the corner, next week to be exact and the thing about the door gift for his wedding was still uncertain. May Lin offered to make door gifts through mum and the closest we got to a yes was the brother said he will called back to confirm. Our initial thought was to make potpourri, something nice for the guest to take away. That was last week, and almost the end of the wedding gift idea or offer since we did not receive any call back. Saturday morning, as usual, we set out to our usual B’fast, and after that, we didn’t want to just go back, so we went over to OneStop, one of the ailing shopping mall in Penang where we rarely visits. On the concourse, there was a China Vase exibit/sale, a nice Chinese Vase as a wedding gift perhaps, well, we found ceramic chopsticks, and beautifully painted chopsticks I must add. This was the beginning of the weekend quest. The price was reasonable, and it was somewhere close to what we paid for when we made our own wedding dinner door gifts. Before this, May Lin’s colleague already tip her about a Chinese wedding ‘stuff’ shop near Komtar. So, after One Stop, we went over to this place and found chopsticks as well, nicely decorated and packed, And the price was also reasonable, cheaper than what we paid for when we DIY. It was between wooden chopsticks and ceramics, and price in fact almost the same, we went for ceramics.

Before we went back, a quick phone call to the brother to ensure he has not made or ordered his door gifts yet. Back to OneStop, we manage to bargain the price down to almost the targeted level. We bought 250 pairs, for 25 tables. The chopsticks were plain and did not have any gloves or anything to keep them together. It was bought bulk anyway, and not fit to be just given like this. So we first added some ribbon decorations, and later a sticker as a thank you note. The ribbons we got it from Popular Bookstore and the red string (elastic) was from Kamdar. The sticker was printed on the spot over at Gurney Plaza, a small stall that offer sticker printing. Saturday was a shopping day. When we got back, it was already rather late, so we did not get much done. By Monday, all was done, then we felt something that was missing. During my wedding, I had a small card made stating the significance of chopsticks, and we tie a card to every pair. It was too late to do the same, so we printed 25 A4 size cards to be folded and place on each tables, the cards again was bought from Popular Bookshop. The result, as shown in the pictures. It took our entire weekend to finish all 250 pairs, but it was fun and fulfilling. Anyone else interested in Chopsticks as a wedding gifts, we don’t mind taking orders.

Do nothing is just what UMNO and Abdullah Badawi did after Ahmad Ismail, UMNO Leader of Bukit Bendera said that the Chinese are immigrants and squatting and therefore can expect the same treatment.  Today, Najib on the other hand apologizes to the Chinese community and said that a meeting will be called to decide the type of action to be taken on Ahmad.  More delay, and the longer they do nothing, the longer evil prevails. 

Zailnol Padzi from UMNO Perak Youth wing said that Ahmad’s comment was not representing the party, and it was Ahmad’s own opinion.  If this is so, why did Najib apologizes for Ahmad? And where is Ahmad? he has made the comment and then fled.  Is “I am Sorry!” so hard to say? His boss has obviously apologizes for him and owns up to the comment.  If Ahmad is not commenting on behalf of UMNO, then why did Najib apologizes for it.  Looks like UMNO is condoning it, they are not taking any immediate action, they want to discuss first.

Is this kind of language and thinking tolerable? Absolutely not, if we allow the seed of hatred to grow, then we shall all perish in our own anger.  Ahmad needs rehabilitation.  He first needs to be strip off his datukship.  Firstly a Datuk is not a racist, and certainly, the Datukship should not represent one.  Secondly, Ahmad needs to be rehabilitated.  He needs not apologize, he is hating the Chinese so much to make such remarks.  He has his reasons, we should all understand his reasons.  Maybe some Chinese guy have done him wrong in the past, maybe it was how the system have poison his mind about the Chinese.  What ever it is, he needs to understand that this is wrong, and this will only leads to he end of him or the all of us. 

So, how long do we have to wait for someone to step up and do something? So far, it is just all talk. 

Out of the box, the device came with a sleve, earphones, charger, usb cable and a user manual.  All looks like the real thing.  You can check out a video I made unpacking this thing.  There are so many “iPhone” models over at Hua Qiang Bei, All the model except this one supports dual sim card and they comes with two batteries.  However they are much thicker and the dimension are much bigger.  But they have much more functions, some could even change song when shake, like the sony handphones when it first introduced. 

There are a couple of things that might turn you off, first there seams to be a lag on this phone, you will notice it on my video.  Secondly, the phone battery indicator can go up and down, especially if we let the phone hibernate, the next time the phone wakes up, you will notice the battery indicator shifts up a little.  This phone only supports single sim card, while other models support dual cards. Lastly, there seams to be a problem with the phone where after some time, the music player would reset the phone whenever I click on the music player icon.  The shop guy first says it was virus, then he said the mp3 format not compatible, which is all loads of BS.  Somehow the Chinese Songs that came with the phone seams to be fine.  So there goes, want perfect working beautiful iPhone, stay away from fakes.  if you dont mind this, then, it is a cheap glamour phone for you.