Cantonese Pan Fried Noodles

Cantonese pan fried noodles or "Kong Hu Char" as we say in Hokkien* is one of my favorite food.

When I first moved to New Jersey, Adrian said that he could cook a pretty mean "Kong Hu Char". Of course, I had to taste it before I could evaluate his culinary skills. After 4 years, I am still eating it. So, it's darn good!

Tomorrow is our fourth wedding anniversary. It is a blessing to be married to a husband who knows how to cook :) You can take a rest when you're sick of the kitchen and whenever you feel lazy.

"Happy Anniversary Adrian!" What are you going to cook for me? Nah! I'm kidding.

*local Chinese dialect widely spoken in my hometown and in the Straits States of Malaysia (i.e. Penang & Malacca) and in Singapore.

Glenmont - Edison National Historic Site

Last Sunday, Adrian & I visited Thomas Alva Edison's home and final resting place. Glenmont is located in a private (gated) community in West Orange, NJ. I had to talk to the Security that we, the ever avid local historians of Jersey, wanted to see Edison's home.

After clearing security, we drove up a steep hill and made a right towards the only red house. We got our tour tickets from the counter near Glenmont's green house and proceeded to the porch. Ben, our tour guide explained to us the history of the house, Edison's family and his work. He was probably happy to see us in an otherwise rather boring and frigidly cold afternoon. Nobody else was there except for the National Park staff & us. Anyway, he did a good job and the tour was very informative although it would be impossible to record down everything he told us.


The many angles of Glenmont - Edison's home for 45 years until his death in 1931.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Edison was that he invented the light bulb. In fact, he improved the light bulb based on earlier designs he bought from several inventors. His finished product - the incandescent light bulb or lamp was publicly demonstrated for the first time in his research lab at Menlo Park, NJ in 1879.

He created Edison General Electric Company, now General Electric (GE) Co.

He also dabbled with many other inventions like the telephone (unfortunately he did not continue on with this project; it was eventually improved & developed by A. Bell, A. Meucci & P. Reis), the phonograph, motion picture projector (yes! without Edison there would be no movies) and etc.

Edison's tin foil phonograph and projector exhibited in his home.


Edison's office on the second floor - the workaholic inventor continued to work here until late at night after leaving his Menlo Park Laboratory.


Edison's bedroom and where he died. We learned from Ben that Edison was Agnostic while Mrs. Edison was a strict Methodist.


Thomas Edison and his second wife, Mina's grave site - behind Glenmont. Unfortunately, the last living descendant of Thomas Edison (his son, Theodore) died in 1992.

P.S. Sorry for the blurry photos of Glenmont's interior rooms. Flash is prohibited to avoid damage to the timeless art pieces and other historical furniture. Should have brought the tripod :(

My Current Read



I found my current read quite by accident last year. I was surfing the internet and came across a free book offer. Who could resist it, right? Anyway, I signed up for the book just before my trip back to Malaysia and guess what?! It only came through my mail slot last week. Yeah, it took them almost 3 months to send it to me but I didn't pay a single cent for it so I should just shut up right now.

Back to "The Nasty Bits". So far, I have read the first two chapters and I am quite impressed by his style of writing, mixture of sometimes dry, sometimes witty humor and above all, his brutal yet honest revelation about what goes on behind the kitchen door.

Apart from his day job at Brasserie Les Halles in NYC, Bourdain travels extensively and visited several South East Asian countries in Seasons 1 and 2 of his travel & food show: No Reservations.

Another reason why I brought him up is because of his courage to travel to these remote places sans-frills and luxury of other travelogues ala Samantha Brown, Burt Wolf, Weekend Explorer, etc. His willingness to get down and dirty and visit the interior places of Sarawak, Borneo (my hometown included) is admirable. Best of all, he adores durian. The fruit he comically referred to as the "stegosaurus-shaped stink-fruit of Asia" in his online photo journal. Yes, the fruit I mentioned earlier in my Singapore entry. Now, how many Caucasian person would have an affinity with this fruit? Not many by Asian standards. Most would do a 100 metre dash or a Houdini act once they caught a whiff of its scent.

Enough said. Time to catch up on my reading.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

Two weeks ago, we hit spring-like temperatures. It was the warmest day since December 1888 at 72F/22C. Yes! 119 years ago. Was there global warming back then? Anyway, plants became confused and started to bloom.

So, where's good old winter?

Well, after a snow-less and very mild December, winter is FINALLY here. On Wednesday, we had a cold snap - below freezing temperatures the entire day. Flurries started coming down yesterday afternoon and when we woke up this morning, there was about 1-2 inches of snow accumulation on the grounds. Yeah, the plower came and woke us up. Grrr...! Adrian's off to another "casual Friday" workday and then we continue to FREEZE over the weekend.

Yes, I am back to "My Jersey Life" routine.

A Short Trip to Singapore - Final Part

Chinatown


Harbourlights is only 2 MRT stops from Chinatown. We spent an evening there visiting the Chinatown Heritage Museum, eating, shopping and browsing.

In the past, Chinatown was known as "Bullock Cart Water" or in Hokkien "Gu Chia Chui". This was the place where new migrants or "sinkheks" stayed, worked and played. They brought with them their culture, religion and lifestyle which eventually influenced and shaped the lives of Singaporean Chinese. Nevertheless, the place was also a melting pot of economic and social activities for various races like Arabs, Jews, Europeans, Indians and Malays.


Bargain hunt and dine along the streets of Chinatown.


One of the many, many outdoor carts/stalls selling local delicacies.


You can even select your dim sum menu on the shop house window shutters.


I love these Chinese inspired bedroom slippers.


Welcome to the dark side of "Gu Chia Chui"...

The opium pipe - Chinese migrants had a penchant for smoking this stuff.


And not forgetting gambling, gangs and prostitution (sorry I've no photos of "ladies of the evening" here).



Clarke Quay, Boat Quay and Merlion Park

Another must-see while in Singapore are the attractions along Singapore River.

Colorful shop houses along the Quay.


Odd-looking weaved people sitting on the bench.


Although it's the monsoon season, restaurants along the Quay were big on these Sri Lankan crabs. We gave it a pass. I would rather go to where the locals eat their seafood and I'm not telling. Haha!


I love this authentic turn-of-the-last-century sign on Cavenagh Bridge. It shows how far we've come from cattle and horses to automobiles and jet-planes.


More sculptures along the River...





Side track a bit here: People from the region I come from just adore eating durian. Durian - a seasonal thorny king of fruits with a very pungent smell (nice or not, depending on whether you like it or hate it). Personally, I am ok with it but I don't crave for it though. However, Adrian loves it to death.


Over-eating this creamy fleshed durian will result in weight-gain. Yes, I am not kidding! You can also make ice-cream, cakes, etc. out of it. Versatile.

So, it's no surprise that Singapore built an Esplanade in the shape of this "King of Fruit". Locals gave it the nickname "durian". Esplanade: home of the performing arts theater. Just imagine this headline - "Il Divo at the Durian" or "The Durian presents - Luciano Pavarotti". Hmm....


The durian...

And, the other "Durian"



Merlion Park

The Merlion - poster boy, national identity and mystical creature. Merlions are everywhere in the form of souvenirs & sculptures big and small. This is the first one (see below) at the Merlion Park.

I'm MERLION, see me spout water...


Merlion's mini-me. Looks a wee bit like King Tut to me.


And most recently, there's also the new mega size version by Sentosa Island. Told you so. He's the poster boy here.

A short trip to Singapore - Part 2

Singapore is so densely populated even mediocre food stalls have a long queue. This was my friend, Elaine's observation of most food courts there and it's true.

Our trip was filled with many gatherings with friends and relatives over dinners and lunches so I will be writing about what else? FOOD. There's not much difference between Malaysian and Singaporean food because we are of a similar root or as the Malays like to put it: "serumpun". I think the former is tastier while the latter tend to be sweet. Me, biased? Nah...it's the plain truth.

You won't get hungry in Singapore because food is abundant and yet 90% of the women there are stick-thin. Either they are bulimics, have super-duper high metabolism or spend 24 hrs a day in the gym.


FOOD REPUBLIC

One can get dizzy for choice in just seconds. It's like a shopping mall for food inside. I won't post pictures of the stalls because it'll take forever and ever...and ever.

My breakfast on the second day - Mee Rebus.

Elaine's breakfast - Lontong.

SOUP RESTAURANT

Soup Restaurant is immensely popular and they have many branches all over Singapore including one restaurant in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Their specialty - old cucumber soup with pork ribs; served in a cute clay pot, steamed fish and sweet potato leaves in sambal.

Their super delicious and famous "Samsui ginger chicken". Drool, drool!

Named after the "Samsui" woman from Kwang-tung, China. These women took up jobs at construction sites in Singapore during the 1920s. They were as strong as a bull or rather the men and a rare breed. Unfortunately, many are well over their 80s and live in poverty.

PENANG BUFFET at Copthorne King's Hotel

This buffet has been around for many, many years and is still going strong. They rely mainly on word-of-mouth advertisement. You have to go early to get a seat. Buffet starts at 12 noon but the crowd start pouring in by 11.45 a.m. Ironic, you might say - that I come all the way to Singapore to eat Penang food? Strange but true.

Locals and non-locals come here for satay. It's still the same (XL size like kajang satay and yummy) after all these years. So this was the first thing that I took. Forgot about soup and appetizers.

Push cart stalls serving teh tarik (foamed-tea) and many other Penang delights. Neat!

An old fashion dessert called "Apam bokwa".

Mini pulut (glutinous rice) cakes with kaya (coconut jam) and ang ku kuih. Sorry I haven't got the translation for ang ku kuih.

Cheng t'ng or clear sweet soup with longan, gingko nuts and sweet red dates.

I've more photos of food at the buffet but I'll spare myself and you the agony. Have I done enough damage to make you feel hungry? Well, I am rather hungry myself so I'm going to heat up some left-over chicken for lunch now. Bon Apetit!

A short trip to Singapore - Part 1



Adrian & I took a quick trip to Singapore while we were in Malaysia last month. X'mas was just round the corner so shops and malls were buzzing with holiday excitement. We stayed with a friend at Harbourlights Apartment opposite the latest mall to open in Singapore - VIVO CITY


Vivo City - "Singapore's largest retail and lifestyle destination". Not my choice of word but indeed their advertising catch phrase.


Here's Adrian inside Vivo City standing in front of some weird looking modern, spiraling and intertwining structure.

Since we stayed within walking distance to the Mount Faber & Sentosa Island cable car station, who could resist not going over to the island for a day of fun?!

Sentosa Island, here we come.

Ok, I admit I was a bit nervous sitting in the cable car. Why? In 1983, 2 cable cars plunged into the sea when a Panamian oil rig hit the cableway. I hate my selective memory sometimes. Argh!





I tried to keep myself busy by taking awesome pictures of the Lion City ("Singa" in Malay means lion; "pura" in ancient Sanskrit means city).


Felt much better when our cable car passed the mid-way point.


Underwater World










Siloso Beach

This is where the locals come to rest, relax, play and party during the weekend. There's limited beaches in Singapore unlike Malaysia. Sometimes you've to leave your country in order to appreciate the resources you have in your backyard.


I remember my Dad used to keep a small turtle in a huge salted egg jar at home and it would snap at us all the time; especially when she's hungry. So when I came across this warning sign, I couldn't help but let out a sinister chuckle.

Chomp!

Truly a force to be reckon with. What a beauty! Mother nature's pride and joy.