Speak pidgin, anyone?

No, I don't mean speak pigeon. Who wants to speak to a bird anyway? If you still don't know what I am talking about perhaps this movie poster might help.

I am not reviewing this movie either but I am rather fascinated by Captain Jack Sparrow's love-affair with this pidgin word "savvy'. I thought that since Jack Sparrow is such an uber-cool pirate, he should have a suave saying that goes with his persona and "savvy" is close to suave, right?! No, no, no... I am JUST KIDDING. Commonsense will tell you what it meant. Understand, comprehendo?! Ok. Let's move on.

So, I discovered further that the word "savvy" is a mix between English and the Portuguese word "sabe". Hmmm...now does that make Singlish, Manglish and Spanglish pidgin too?! Well, unfortunately they aren't. You see, pidgin is a contact language created by European merchants back in the Middle Ages to communicate with the locals or other foreign traders. It is like a second language. Singlish, Manglish & Spanglish hardly qualify because it maybe incomprehensible to those outside it's own community. Can you imagine if I said, "Don't play-play" (Singlish phrase made popular by Singaporean Phua Chu Kang) when I really meant "Please be serious" to a Caucasian American or British?! Awkward....

However, there's a light at the end of the tunnel for some Chinese originated pidgin words or rather Chinglish. You might be interested to know:

• long time no see (everyone says that so no problem here)
• no can do (like that Cool and the Gang song, I forgot the title ?)
• no-go (we use that all the time in everyday American English)
  

Now, let me thank Wikipedia & Webster for helping me fully understand pidgin...SAVVY?!

From Culture Club to culture shock

"Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon, you come and go, you come and go..."
You are what you sing, George. Now you see him, now you don't. Boy George is not as famous as he used to be in his Culture Club Days. For those of you who grew up in the 80s, like me, we remember him best like this.

But, whenever BG is in the news, he must be doing something outrageously worth commenting, like when he tried to revive his musical career on Broadway with this freaky "wet-paint-drippin'-over-the-face" look. The show - Taboo, closed less than 3 months after opening. Would you waste your $60 just to see this?! I didn't think so either.

And finally, we woke up to this photo on the internet, newspaper and television. U-huh! BG sweeping the sidewalks of lower east side Manhattan. Poor BG was ordered by the court to 5 days of community work for falsely reporting a burglary in his apartment earlier this year. Why, why, why??? The police found drugs instead. Oh..oh!!! (I thought BG would be smart enough to chuck them out before the cops came).

Yup, he IS wearing capri pants. You have to give him A+ for humility though. Hey George, while you're at it could you mop my apartment too? It's smaller than the Depot, really.

Fort Lee Historic Park


I should have written about this event last November but I hadn't started blogging yet at that time.

Remember what it was like to learn history in school? Yes, all those torturously thick history books containing unattractive black & white texts and photos of dead historical figures. And, not to mention the memorizing we had to endure just to pass some pop-quiz or public exam.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to go outdoors and see with our own eyes how past people lived and what soldiers do during times of war?

Here's some interesting stuff I gathered from the Retreat Weekend at Fort Lee.

We learned about keeping cannons clean and prepping it for fire. Cannons were strategically placed here, at this spot, in the 18th. Century to defend New York and the Hudson Valley from the British during the Revolutionary War.

Ka-boom! An extremely loud explosion which left my ears ringing and my heart thumping vigorously for a few seconds. Poor Adrian took this photo while I had my two Peter Pointers in my ears. Haha!

Ladies sitting by the camp. Yes, they helped out during the War by doing sewing, cooking and tending to wounded soldiers.

P.S. Just pretend you didn't see the yellow pick-up in the foreground. Photo spoiler! :(

A Hessian soldier and a lady. Hessians were German soldiers loyal to King George III. King George was of course of German descend from Hanover. About 30,000 of them fought in this war against the New World (American) soldiers led by George Washington.

American Continental army.

Militia in the Revolutionary War. Just like Heath Ledger in "The Patriot". Hee..hee!

Lovers taking a break from the hussle and bussle of war. Awwww....!

The anti-climax at Fort Lee is that eventhough it was a stronghold for George Washington's army, it never saw any serious battle at the site. The area had arsenals of military weapons but Washington was forced to abandon the Fort and retreat through New Jersey in the winter of 1776-1777; whereby they eventually defeated some intoxicated Hessian soldiers on Christmas Day. Prost! or Zum Whol! Hic...hic!

N.B. If history lessons in Malaysia were that interesting, I would have passed my exams with flying colors. I would probably have appreciated it a lot better too (*sigh*).

Wonderful Wondee's

Adrian has been coming to this Thai restaurant to eat since he moved to New Jersey in 2001. It is located at Main Street, Hackensack - about 15 minutes from our apartment. I am not a big fan of Thai food although I like their green curries and desserts.

Anyway, the food at Wondees is great and reasonably priced. I have some favorites now :) We were there last night and ordered...


Pla Lard Prig; deep fried whole fish (sea bass is our preferred choice) with sweet and sour chili sauce. We always ask for extra sauce because it goes very well with white rice.

Our new discovery; Kar-Na-Moo Grob (stir fried crispy pork belly with Chinese broccoli). Noh, our favorite Wondee's staff recommended it to us.

And,

Thai ice-tea; just like Kuching's three layer teh-si-peng (milk tea).

Other superb dishes from Wondee's:

• som thum (green papaya salad with lemon juice, chili, peanuts, green beans, tomatoes and dried ground shrimp);
• hoi jaw (fried shrimp, crabmeat and pork roll - just like ngor hiang)
• pad thai
• pad see iew (similar to M'sian char kway tiau)

New York Subway System

One of the biggest disappointment for tourists traveling here from South East Asia is that they expect to see clean, comfortable, air-conditioned subway stations like Singapore's MRT, Hong Kong's MTR, Malaysia's LTR, etc.. I don't blame them because they probably didn't know that the NY Subway System is more than a 100 years old - second to London. So don't expect any modern structure & comfortable amenities here.

NY Subway has the most extensive system of rails in the world; hence making any future upgrades an unimaginable effort; costly and time consuming. To describe it less glamorously, it is a complicated, mishmash network of tracks. The subway lines are like colorful threads coming out of a half-done tapestry work (see MTA map below).

A bit about the subway:

Who operates it? Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

How many stations are there? About 468 stations.

How many miles/kms of tracks? 842 miles or 1,355 kms covering Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island and the Bronx areas; with some limited lines to Connecticut and upstate NY.

[P.S. For my fellow Sarawakians, the track distance is like driving from Kuching to Sabah. More or less.]

This is my handy MTA map. It's almost as big as my floor rug but when folded up, it fits in my handbag very conveniently :)

The subway is the most uncomfortable place to be in summer. It is hot, humid and smelly. Smelly, can be 365 days depending on which line you're on. If there's a major power outage like the one last August 2003, you're DOOMED! Yet, it is the fastest and easiest way to get from one place to another in the City. No traffic-jams & simply time-efficient. We like that!

Therefore, an average of 4.8 million people ride on it everyday because New Yorkers are always in a hurry. They walk like they're running. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the subway is extremely crowded during rush hours. Like packed sardines in the carriages. If your fellow rider has bad B.O. (arggh!). Say no more, say no more.

I love those brightly colored "Jews for Jesus" posters on the right side of the wall (if you see carefully in the video). What a riot! Here, at the "land of the free and home of the brave", you don't get in trouble for expressing your views. Everyone can love or hate Y'shua...


Litter on the tracks. At one point we saw a rat crawling out to find some food but the train was coming so no photo-op there. Damn! Btw, the rat to human ratio is 6:1; making that 48 million rats in the City. Remember "Willard"? Plus, no need to go to Deshnoke in Rajastan, India to pay hommage to the Rat Goddess. Just come to NY City.



Our purple #7 ride to Grand Central Terminal. Ok, gotta go...ta-ta!

Kolok Kway Tiau

Although I can order almost every authentic Malaysian dish here, there are a few exceptions. Specialty dishes that are "uniquely Sarawak", for example, kolok mee (egg noodles) and kolok kway tiau (flat rice noodles), Sarawak laksa and tomato sauce kway tiau are not on your typical Malaysian restaurant menu. So, what do to when one cannot get them ready made here? Well, make it yourself and pray that it turns out ok. All toes and fingers crossed.

Yesterday while blogging about NY Chinatown, I felt like eating something with char sio (roast pork). I was having flash backs of the roasted pork, duck and chicken hanging by the shop's window...drool, drool!

Luckily, I did marinate a few pieces of pork loin with "Lee Kum Kee - Char Siu Sauce" over the weekend. Kolok kway tiau immediately came to my mind. But, freshly made kway tiau or rice noodles is hard to find. So dried ones will have to do. The cooked texture is starchier, so I've to be extra careful not to over-boil and turn it into mashed kway tiau. That would have been a "what-not-to-do" case study on Hell's Kitchen**.



This is the best char sio sauce I've tried so far. The taste is similar to the char sio I used to eat at home. I've tried other brands which made the meat too red...eeeeew! You know, the kind that gives you food color poisoning just by looking at it.





Ta-da.....! Home-made kolok kway tiau complete with fresh cut chilies soaked in vinegar and light soya sauce. Bon Appetit!


**Hell's Kitchen - Fox Reality TV show on cooking with one very mean world class chef, Gordon Ramsay. He is so cruel and heartless, it makes you feel so sorry for those wannabe chefs. He makes Simon Cowell look tame.