Black Friday & The Phantom of the Opera

Instead of camping outside Best Buy for 18 hours or getting trampled to death at the doors of Wal-Mart and the likes, we spent the day after Thanksgiving far away from obsessed shoppers and the madness of Black Friday.

Here we were in the comfort of Bubba Gump, once again, just before our afternoon matinee of Phantom of the Opera. After all these years, I finally made it to the most widely acclaimed musical on earth. Phantom is now the longest running show on Broadway. It celebrates its 20th year this year and what a treat! We found very good seats (Front Center Mezzanine) in spite of the last minute purchase. I won't vouch the same for Equus though. Lines for Equus snaked outside Broadway & 8th. Avenue. Yes, throngs of people lining up to see Daniel Radcliffe baring all on stage. Would have also been interesting but Phantom is still won me over.

The Theater District

Majestic Theater

Broadhurst Theater

Shubert Theater

Rebecca Judd (Madame Giry) & I after the show

Some of the casts were selling CDs and other merchandise to raise funds for charitable causes. Unfortunately, the Phantom, Christine and Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny didn't come out to meet the fans.

I did my part for charity and bought a piece of Phantom memorabilia.

The 20th. Anniversary Poster

What's good and bad? Being such an old theater - 80 years, the seating in the Majestic is extremely crammed and the slope of the stair case is quite extreme. However, the superb performance from the casts and amazing theatrical effects made up for it. Was it worth every $$$? YES!!! After all these years, I am still entranced by the music and story.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2008 - The Empire State Building in happy, fall colors

Another year, another Thanksgiving. This year, I gave my apron the day off. While my apron hung quietly at home, we headed over to Pointin Still at Main Street, Hackensack for an Irish Thanksgiving dinner.

Also, we thought we might as well do something different and lay off turkey-lurkey until we go home for X'mas this year. So, who made our Thanksgiving meal instead? Chicken Little and Porky ;)

Chicken Kilarney - the Jalapeno, whiskey cream sauce was perfect

Broiled Virginia Ham with glaced fruits - very delicious! Highly recommended.

The down side: I think these 2 dishes are only available on Thanksgiving Day :(

For dessert, we shared a slice of Bailey's Irish Cream Cake :) To our surprise, the sweetness was just right!

Overall, Pointin Still was an excellent choice for our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Malaysian Cuisine at Penang in Lodi, NJ


After not being home for almost 2 years, my supply of spices and pastes are running extremely low. I'm out of Sarawak laksa paste and my once filled to the brim curry powder bottle will soon be a distant memory. Thank goodness, I'm going back to Malaysia in 4 weeks :) Time to restock!

All right, back to Penang. When Penang opened up in Lodi earlier this year, it was a dream come true. We had heard rumblings of Penang from a fellow Malaysian we met at a local eatery. At least, we don't have to drive all the way to Hoboken or Edison to satisfy our satay, roti canai, nasi lemak, etc. cravings.

Several weeks ago, we went to Penang for a nice Sunday night dinner before heading back to our usual work day routine. Adrian is more of a regular than I in Penang because his office is only 5 minutes away from the restaurant. Did I mention that Penang is also a good place to eat if you are looking for an express lunch? Anyway, back to dinner...

Doesn't this look like kampua mee? The dish is called BBQ roasted pork lo mee* (dry).

*Mee = mein = noodles.

Hint: Could have been better if the soy sauce doesn't have a slight bitter after taste.

Steaming hot Bak Kut Teh

Our favorite dessert - peanut pancake with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream *yum*

Colonial Williamsburg & Yorktown Battlefield State Park

With very little leisure time in my hands these days, I'm struggling to keep an up-to-date blog *sigh*. However, I'm glad to have completed our Virginia road trip photo album. I hope our photos will inspire you to visit this "Old Dominion" that Sir Walter Raleigh named after Elizabeth I.

Scenic Drive

More fall foliage adventures this weekend! This time we started off nearby at Hackensack River and then, drove further north on the Palisades Parkway to Sunnyside in Irvington, New York. For those who are not familiar with Sunnyside, it was the home of Washington Irving - author of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, etc.

Sunnyside was the only home owned by Washington Irving. He bought the house (then a neglected cottage) when he was 52 years old and added extensions to it over the years. Irving never married but came close once. Unfortunately, his intended fell ill with tuberculosis and passed away. Although Irving remained a bachelor until his death on the eve of the American Civil War, Sunnyside was never empty. He had many nieces that stayed in the house and the kitchen was one of the most modern during the classical/romantic eras, with running hot water and a kitchen stove.