Category: Uncategorized

We did a simple steamboat dinner at this restaurant in Pavilion. It is a nonya steamboat place and they have a dinner buffet set at RM 88.

Unlimited servings of beef, chicken, lamb, prawns, fish and vegetables with your choice of soup. I have been here before and I liked it and so I was happy to recommend them this place. Glad they enjoyed it too.

Thereafter we had some Chinese tea in my favourite tea shop,Yu Yan, in Pavilion. We were lucky that they were serving a 2003 raw puer tea. We drank a few cups of tea and talked about the different varieties of tea and their differences. I bought a 1999 da hong pao tea. I shall try in on Tuesday back in the office.

As part of their collection of photos which showcased the special tea sets they have gifted to dignatories, there was one photo featuring our current PM and Min Faishal. That must be a very old photo as they both looked so young in that picture!

I now think one of the greatest gifts that one can be bestowed with is to be in a position to be able to help others. Not everyone gets this gift but unfortunately not everyone who is given this gift uses this gift wisely.

You have to be blessed with some wealth in order to be able to help out others in financial need. Over the years, through my years doing community work, I have seen so many wonderful people contributing generously to help the poor, the sick, the elderly and students from disadvaged families. Even some of those who are not that well endowed financially, give whatever they can to help out. If they cannot help financially, they give their time to do good work, like keeping elderly people company, bringing them around, distributing food to the needy or cleaning their homes for them. On Thursday evening at our Club 100 dinner, I met a friend who is a contractor. He gave a large sum of money in cash to help the needy but in his capacity as a contractor, he has done many renovation and upgrading works for free for elderly homes. And he asked me to let him know if any such home needed help.

Sometimes we are blessed with talents that can help others. Doctors and lawyers in particular are blessed by virtue of their education and training to be able to help. People will always need medical help. I do know of some doctors who spend time during the weekends doing community work, such as free eye checks for the elderly and answering their questions on health. But I don’t know how many of the wealthy doctors in private practice find the time to help the needy with the skills and training they have been bestowed with.

Lawyers are another such profession. People often need legal advice. Either with a criminal matter or in a civil matter and sometimes all they need is to have someone show them the way. Legal advise can be expensive and many cannot afford such advise. But at least when someone approaches you for help, one should hear them out and give them the best help you can and show them what they need to do without always thinking of everyone as a means to make money. When a lawyer or doctor refuses to offer any help unless he is paid then I think you have completely wasted the gift that was given to you.

As I write this, I remember that in the early 2000s, I used to subscribe to Time magazine and there was this one agent who used to service me. He would talk to me about renewals and the new rates and what free gifts were offered as part of my renewing the subscription. I started traveling quite a bit after 2003 and I remember having stacks of the magazine unread at home. After a few years I stopped subscribing as I felt I was just wasting money subscribing to something that I wasn’t reading.

The financial crisis of 2007 came and people were cutting down their expenses. I remember the agent called me sometime in 2008 asking me to take up my subscription again. I said no. It was a fairly short conversation.

A few years later I called up the company and asked for him. I wanted to take up an Economist subscription. The lady told me he had committed suicide during the years of the financial crisis. I have often wondered if his call to me was one of desperation. Of course I don’t know why he committed suicide. It may not even be related to his financial means but nevertheless it was a lesson. Listen and help if possible. If you cannot help then try and show them a way they can find help.

After durians, the driver brought us to this place for some dim sum. This is at SS22. Actually all we wanted was some Chinese tea to wash down the durians.

It is quite a large local restaurant with not much ambience. It was already packed and there was quite a long queue waiting to get in. It was a bit warm inside the restaurant because they were having some problems with the air-conditioning. But that didn’t deter the crowds.

We ordered puer tea, a large fish porridge and 5 dim sum.

The food was really good. And with an added bonus of a local HK atmosphere.

And for all that we paid just RM 81.

This place was recommended for good durians in KL. It is located at SS 2 and it is open for business by 11am.

They have set up this place so well. Well ventilated, strong fans, free drinking water, coconuts, good and clean seating, spacious and of course lots of durians. It is a pity we do not have many decent places in Singapore where you can order and then sit down comfortably and eat your durians. I can understand why tourists would want to come here in big groups and with their families and eat here.

The place is well patronised by locals and tourists alike, especially the Chinese.

We arrived there at about 11am and already they were many people there eating. Surprisingly I did not find the prices there cheap. It was comparable to the prices in Singapore. But having said that, the quality of the durians was very good.

We had a musang king, black thorn and tracka. To me the tracka was the best, followed by the musang king.

People always say the best durians come to Singapore. But with the demand for these fruits in KL now from the Chinese tourists and with the prices being what they are, soon the best durians may well stay in Malaysia.

Came up to RM 600 for 3 big durians.

Tonight’s dinner was at the Culina. Fish and Chips, spaghetti, crab cakes topped with a fruit dessert.

Again it was quiet for a Saturday night even though they are having lots of promotions at the restaurant. I do think they need to find better ways to promote the place. Such good value for money as our entire dinner cost RM305.

We walked from the Pullman hotel so it was some form of an exercise for today.

No one wanted to walk after dinner so I walked over to Starhill Gallery and spent some time browsing at the book store.

Lunch was at this restaurant. Not really a restaurant but a stall in a coffee shop with outdoor sitting. Not air conditioned. But a Michelin bib gourmand restaurant. Famous for the crispy pork belly and char siew.

It was packed. You have to queue to pay first. Then you get a number and the food will be brought to you. A fair number of tourists were there trying the food. And they are only open from 12 pm to 3 pm!

No ambience just good food. I found the roasted pork only so so. It was a bit salty for my liking. The roasted chicken was much better. For the four of us, with char siew, roasted pork, roasted chicken and 4 lemon juices the price came up to RM 205.

We just started our 3 day kl road trip this morning. This is supposed to be a eating trip. We have the driver with us throughout the journey and he is supposed to recommend good places to us.

We were picked up from our homes. My pick up was at 550 am. We entered JB via Tuas. The Singapore side was clear but there was a bit of a traffic jam on the Malaysian side. We cleared the immigration within 30 minutes.

Someone was hungry early in the morning and so we stopped for breakfast. We went to this place about 10 minutes from the checkpoint near the Iskandar side. It opens at 730 am and it was already packed early in the morning.

Very good service and decent food. Nasi lemak, toast, eggs and coffee. Good start to the trip!

Tonight was this dinner at the Orchid Country Club. This is an annual event, organized by the NWCDC, to raise funds for Club100 and this year, more than $750,000 was raised through this golf event to help needy residents in the NW district. This is in addition to the 750 plus members who contribute a monthly sum of at least $100 a month, some of whom have been contributing since 2008, the year this initiative started.

When this event first started many years ago, the fundraising target used to be $250,000. Last year we hit $600,000, which I already thought was a big wow but now even that amount has been surpassed.

It is good to see so many people opening up their wallets for worthwhile causes in this country.

Tonight I was invited to a graduation dinner by students from this school.

So Malaysia has an outpost of this famous Paris based culinary school, Le Corden Blue. It is part of the Sunway campus and the school conducts full time and part time classes and many people from around the region attend this school.

Tonight’s dinner was by the graduating class. A simple occasion and I was also given a feedback form to evaluate the food. Felt a bit like a MasterChef judge!

It was a 3 course dinner. Decent dinner but I didn’t think it was outstanding. Would have rated all the dishes a B. I just felt the food, although cooked adequately, lacked imagination. Anyway just another experience to be able to rate food cooked by full time students from an outstanding institution.

As I was walking in KLCC, TRX and Pavilion, I realized there are just so many more Chinese visitors to KL now. There always used to be Middle Easterners at this time of the year, fleeing from the heat in the ME at this time of the year. But now they are so few and far between. They are overwhelmed by the Chinese.

Especially at Pavilion. Possibly because that shopping complex is bigger and also because there are so many good hotels within walking distance.

And they are buying things. Not just the branded goods but also the mid tier brands and pharmacy products. They also fill up the snack and dessert shops. So far I see them confined to the shopping centers. And that could be because of the language barrier because at the shopping centers, the sales staff can speak to them in Chinese. But it must be a huge boost to the Malaysian economy to have so many of them coming here and supporting the local economy.

I don’t think they are into sightseeing or local food yet. And apart from the Oriental Kopi, which is always packed, I don’t see them at the local food shops eating nasi lemak or Indian food. But a lot of Chinese restaurants, especially those serving mala and spicy fish dishes have opened to cater to them.

I met a Chinese lady with her children at the optician at Avenue K. I found out that during the summer months, they bring their children to KL for a month or two to learn English. Apparently that is getting very popular now amongst the Chinese now. And of course, she wanted to know where to get good durians at an affordable price! Malaysian durians are a big draw for the Chinese tourists.