One of my favorite food: Indian Mamak Food

During my semester break, I went back to Malaysia for a month. I managed to enjoy some of my favorite food and one of them is called Indian Mamak Food. Indian Mamak food is very popular in Malaysia and the food comprises of Nasi Kandar (yellow spiced rice with a variety of side dishes such as chicken curry, fish curry, mutton curry and beef curry that you could choose from), tosai (pronounced as "toe-say" : thin soft and crispy bread), roti canai (crispy bread with curry), mee goreng mamak (fried noodles), naan (toasted bread) with tandoori chicken and roti tisu (extra thin, crispy and sweetened bread). There are plenty of different mamak food chains in Malaysia and the following are a couple of shots from different shops.

Take note of the writings below the TOSAI word. Yes, it says TOSAI ANACONDA SPECIAL! I did not know what the heck was an ANACONDA tosai until I asked the guy. He told me that it is an extra long tosai bread, just like an anaconda snake! I did not order that tosai because we could not even finish our various different dishes on our table. Perhaps I will try it next time when I return to Malaysia.

Here is a photo of the Roti Canai that I mentioned earlier. They are basically made of flour and toasted on a hot plate to make it crispy. Similarly, by adding eggs the Roti Canai will become Roti Telor. Murtabak is made with beef and onions inside the bread.

The following photo shows you how tall a Roti Tisu (thin like tissue paper). The guy had to sprinkle some sugar, condensed milk and honey around the conical structure before laying it down on 2 plates prior to serving it to customers.
This Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar was one of the earliest shops to be established in Penang. When we moved to Klang, they also had branches there. I am sure the franchise has spread all across west Malaysia by now.

I am pretty sure the profit margin of these mamak shops are good because most of the different variety of food are mostly made of flour. Flour is cheap in Malaysia and these shops charge a couple of dollars for a dish. Mamak stalls reminded me of one of my ex-colleagues who used to eat dinner there every night (without fail)! This single guy spends most of his after work hours watching football on the mamak stalls' flat screen TVs (one of the methods to attract crowds).
After posting this photo, I realized that this mamak stall actually had a plastic bag to wrap up the leak on their water pipe! Noticed the red bag in front of the stall?....LOL!

Missing In Action

Wow! It has been such a long time since I put up any posts on my blog!! Anyway, I was very very busy with my full time studies for my Masters in Integrated Water Management from the University of Queensland.

Studying never used to be so tough. Despite doing the course full time, I never had the privilege of the full time student benefits such as what I used to have during my undergrad studies. Officially, I am a full time student but I still need to help manage 2 kids (a 6 month old and a 3 year old). However, I was fortunate to live with my in-laws and they really helped a lot in terms of giving me some spare time to study. Normally my "study time" at home is from 8pm-11:30pm when the kids are asleep. I have never read so much literature in such as short period of time in my entire life. However, all the information about water is so interesting. Studying in this course feels as if I am trying to take in as much water as I could from a water hose shooting into my mouth (quoted by some former student of the course)!

Anyway, let me try to load some photos to remind myself what have I been doing for the past few months that I did not have time to blog....

Ah, this was a nice shot of Brisbane city from the City Cat catamaran that ferried us from our field trip back to the university. The Brisbane River is so amazing. Every time I cycle past the river, it gives me a sense of serenity and joyfulness.
This is the Wivenhoe Dam, approximately 2 hours' drive away from Brisbane. It is one of the major dams that provides water supply to the Southeast Queensland region.
Brisbane had its annual Dragon Boat race back in April. 20 over teams from all over Brisbane came to compete in this event. I was there with my eldest son to watch the event during that weekend.
Besides the dragon boat races, they also had dragon dances as well. My boy was pretty fascinated by the "dragon" since he always listen to stories about these mythical creatures.
Lastly, North Stradbroke Island... located off the coast of Brisbane, NSI was the location that all of the integrated water management students spent 3 nights (our 1st field trip).
I have to catch a flight later tonight, so I will stop here and perhaps continue after my one month break! Stay tuned...;)

Photos of the month - Feb'10

Once again I apologize for not blogging for such a long time. Time flies! Especially when we have plenty of activities and visitors around. My wife's aunt and my wife's friend came to stay with us in Dec'09 and Feb'10 respectively. With a blink of an eye, it has been 3 months since I moved from Palembang to Brisbane and now I have 2 kids! Perhaps one of the reasons I failed to blog was the lack of internet time as well. In Brisbane, I had to share the PC with my wife at night and most of the time it is limited to 1 hour. Sometimes we had to catch something interesting on TV or some of the downloaded series like Gossip Girls, Desperate Housewives or Brothers and Sisters... Anyway, here are some shots with comments to summarize what happened for the past few weeks:

We started to let our 3 year old son attend gymnastics sessions. 45 mins per week of instructed "play" to test the toddler's "stretchability" has been the weekly Wednesday morning activity. I am one of the only 2 fathers bringing our kids to the session. Majority of the mums were there as their dads all go to work! Lucky me for being able to fit this father and son session into my non-classes day.
We also brought our son for swimming lessons. He used to be very confident in water. In Cairns last year, he even dived into the pool without any goggles. However, this year he began to fuss more about water entering his eyes. He even refused to attend one of the swim lessons until mom stepped in and brought him there every week (plus a box of orange juice from the swim school every time he goes).
I managed to bring my son to Sea World Gold Coast a few weeks back. We managed to get the 6 month multiple entry ticket for $100, which is very worth it as every normal entry would cost $70. Here's a shot of him with the polar bear.

Of course, we won't miss the main event which is the dolphin show. Too bad there's no Shamu or Killer Whale shows like the ones in Orlando. However, I read that some rogue whale killed its trainer last week.....

Since the arrival of our 2nd son, his elder brother has been very excited. The elder one keeps asking us to carry the baby (which worries us!). Sometimes, he just gets too excited and acts rough towards the baby. So we always need to keep an eye on both the BIG and SMALL babies!
Other than nights with intermittent sleep (waking up every 2 hours), we have days where the baby take us by surprise! Leaky nappies and thunderous farts just make the day very interesting!

We enjoy good food especially when my wife's friend who stayed with us for 3 weeks decided to cook a few meals for us. Yummy yum yum chicken rolls....

Figs - my first time eating figs was a very palatable one!


Living life is about experiencing events & how we make a difference in other people's lives. Pessimistic people see life as boring and routine. That's why we need to consciously make it more eventful instead of let life pass you by. Routine is sometimes good but never too long. See you again in March'10!

Photos of the week - Dinosaurs & Crazy Sales

The museum had this DIG DINOS event and one of the attractions was the LIVE T-REX. It made roaring sounds that scared the shit out of my son - look at the lady's legs!

Boxing Day Rush - everybody had to queue up to get onto the escalators and there were wardens to monitor the "boarding" process so that it won't break down.

A storm was brewing sometime before Xmas day...... wished we had more rain this summer. It's getting too darn hot!

Milton Park - 5 mins ride away from our house. The place for my son to play train master!

Cycling - the most common activity for father and son bonding.

Brisbane City

Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland Australia, is my current stop. We should be staying here minimal for another 1.5-2 years, so I should call it HOME for now.

This 2 Million population's city has a very good bicycle path. It takes me only 15 mins to ride along the Brisbane riverside to the City. Driving to the city often incurs hefty parking charges. Therefore, cycling is the best mode of transport (FOC). Other means of getting to the city include via the City Cat ferry, by train or by bus if you do not want the hassle of looking for car parks.

In Brisbane, people seldom need to go to the city because every suburb has its self sustaining facilities like shopping malls, parks and shops. So far, I have cycled to the city to visit the museum, the man-made beach, government and banking institutions. Below are some good shots of Brisbane City downtown. The photo with the multiple colored buildings is the City Council Library. The one with the old architecture is the Treasury Building where the city's Casino is located. City buses and City Cats could be seen as well. I was really proud of these last 2 photos as they looked like post card shots! I took them from my bike on a 30C sunny afternoon.

Santa Brought Us A Gift

Sorry for the long absence in blogging. I was pretty preoccupied with Santa's gift in 2009 until now.

We were expecting our new child sometime early Jan 2010 but my wife started to have contractions on the early hours of Boxing Day. I have always thought that the Boxing Day (day after Xmas) was related to the boxing sport until I finally had time to google boxing day. It is a day whereby the old Victorians used to put gifts into small boxes to give to workers like postmen, garbage collectors and other public servants.

Boxing Day is also the day where huge sales are everywhere. There were really people who lined up from 5am outside the department stores waiting for them to open at 8am. Initially we were also planning to get to the shops for some loot, but the plan was slightly changed with my wife's contractions that started at 4am. We were packed and ready to go to the hospital but the contractions slowed down. My wife rang the hospital and the staff advised her to wait. In the end we decided to go shopping instead. I was a bit worried that she might give birth at the mall! I had a pen and paper with me recording all the times of her contractions while we walked and shopped.

After lunch, we had to drive to the hospital because her contractions got more frequent. However, as soon as we arrived at the hospital, the contractions started to slow down again..... I waited with her until I got kicked out from the hospital at 10pm. I managed to get some sleep until 1am on the next day when she called to say that she is about to give birth. I rushed to the hospital to find that she was already at the delivery bed. Within 30 mins, she gave birth to a charming baby boy! We really thanked and praised the Lord for giving my wife a safe delivery to a healthy child.

The next day, we informed our family members and they brought along our 3 year old son to see his baby brother. He was pretty excited to see and hold the baby. This is the start of our "new" life with an additional family member. Stay tuned for more news to come and what happened between 27th December and 15th January....;)