Pork Burgers!

Ninja Joe is a new burger joint in Malaysia that specializes in pork burgers. We've been wanting to try it but never found the time. We finally made the trek to a local mall to try it.

We were greeted with the Ninja Joe sign and another poster advertising that pork burgers were avaiblable here. Kent loves the Ninja Joe logo.

  The interior was decorated with catchy posters all about pork and pork burgers.

The burgers come in 6 different flavors. Since we were hungry, we ordered a set of 6 burgers. A set of 6 burgers with different flavors costs about RM 23.00.

The burgers were individually wrapped in Ninja Joe designed wax paper with the flavors specified with a sticker. The cute thing is that the burgers came in a brown paper bag with the words "Ninjas Inside".

The burgers are not large (more like small sliders), but definitely packs a punch of flavor. The buns were soft, chewy and had a slight of sweetness to it. Each burger came with its' own flavor profile, a slice of tomato and slices of lettuce.

Kent appears very happy with his burgers. I think he enjoyed it more than I did. Even though the burgers were not large, eating 6 of them in one sitting was definitely an overdose.

After that all pork, we just walked around the mall to burn off some calories. All in all, a good experience and we look forward to eating more pork burgers at Ninja Joe.

"Yuk Kuat Cha" (肉骨茶)???? You betcha'!!!

Sunday morning breakfasts are a big thing here in Malaysia, especially for the Chinese. Usually the image of a Sunday Chinese breakfast would usually be Dim Sum, but for some Malaysian Chinese, it's "Yuk Kuat Cha" (肉骨茶) or Bak Kut Teh in the Hokkien dialect.

To quote from Wikipedia, "
Bak-kut-teh (also spelled Bah-kut-teh) is a Chinese soup popularly served in Malaysia, Singapore, Mainland Chinese and Taiwan.....The name literally translates as "meat bone tea", and, at its simplest, consists of meaty pork ribs simmered in a complex broth of herbs and spices for hours....Bak kut teh is usually eaten with rice or noodles (sometimes as a noodle soup), and often served with you tiao / cha kueh for dipping into the soup. Soy sauce (usually light soy sauce, but dark soy sauce is also offered sometimes) is preferred as a condiment, with which chopped "chilli padi" and minced garlic is taken together"

So what did we do this cloudy yet balmy Sunday morning? Well..what else? We drove to a city by the sea called Klang (about 30 minutes away from Petaling Jaya) to have us some Bak Kut Teh. As mentioned above, the dish is usually served in an herbal-based broth but we have heard of one restaurant in Klang (also touted as the city best known for Bak Kut Teh) that have a "dry" version.

Without further ado....

A google map pictorial of our Sunday morning journey to try some good Bak Kut Teh

And got down to business by ordering our tea

 And trying new drinks such as Sparkling Fuji Apple, getting our condiments ready (chili padi with soy sauce) and our yu tiao.

Dad and Kent looking at the menu...lots of other foods apart from their specialty.  

Finally....the moment we have been waiting for - the Dry Bak Kut Teh. If you like the herbal based broth of the traditional Bak Kut Teh, then you would probably like the dry version. It's like a 10x concentrate of the tradtional Bak Kut Teh.

 

We also ordered the traditional broth-based Bak Kut Teh (left), pig innards (center) and some stir-fried vegetables just to be healthy.

Happy after a good meal!

Till next time guys......

A summary of my manifest destiny...

So I have now finally arrived into Malaysia for about four days, and slowly but surely the transition is starting, first with the time zone adjustment, and then the weather acclimatization, and finally getting administrative paperwork done (immigration, accounts, driving, etc). Here is just a sample of what I had to do to get to the point I am am now...

This was my last major holiday meal with my family back in Boston. Not seen in the picture are my many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews who took time out of their day to send me off. As you can see we had a nice spread of turkey day fare to last a while. To this day I still yearn for them...

Here is my friend holding my Virgin America ticket to Los Angeles CA the day after Thanksgiving. I didn't do any shopping as my luggage was already maxed out and more, so I had to shuffle some things around to get under the weight limit. Luckily Happiness didn't add too much of a burden, besides his big head...

On board VX I helped myself to free food and drink during the flight, as well as entertainment beyond imagination (okay it was just Green Lantern and the Hangover 2 but still awesome)...

My arrival into LAX before pickup by my aunt/uncle/cousin headed towards Orange County for the weekend. I ended up staying in the LA proper area afterwards.

Just a sample of my large extended family having a nice meal on my cousins. It was a wonderful experience overall in Southern California for the most part, until...

... the day before check-in to my flight on Malaysia Airlines transiting through Taipei, Taiwan. As luck would have it, high winds were expected throughout the Los Angeles area thanks to Santa Ana, not Santa Clause...

As you can see, those high winds cause a backup of flights, resulting in mine taking off at 1:30am on Thursday morning rather than 11:10pm on Wednesday evening.

When I finally managed to settle into my seat, and what a seat it was... I was not dissappointed, to say the least... an awesome satin blanket, comfy pillow, and the capability to lie down instead of angling to sleep a few hours on a thirteen hour flight definitely helped the cause.

While in Taiwan, our transit was shortened by half an hour, so there was not time to explore the area or grab a souvenir, besides this shot of my gate. Strangely enough they made us step out of the gate just to re-enter for security purposes at the exact same boarding...

Here's my transit pass and original stub to show I actually belonged on the the flight.

This is proof that I finally made it to Asia...

And the wonderful Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I live about half an hour outside the city, in a place called Petaling Jaya, which is a city in itself, but the trek to the federal district was nice.

Karen and I are finally re-united. Imagine that... two K's managing to come back together after a long duration apart.... now if only the other two K's can do the same (Koreas: North and South).

I wanted to say that I still miss Boston and my whole family back home, and hope that you all have a good holiday season coming up ahead. Please also do visit the area, even if not KL, but within the connecting regions, we welcome you the only way Malaysians do, with great hospitality! (Thanks to Malaysia Airlines for the paraphrased catchy slogan...)

A report from the Western front...

So, I am now, 2500 miles closer to my wife Karen, and so far the trip has been nothing short of note worthy. I flew Virgin America direct BOS to LAX Friday night, and arrived a bit earlier than expected, but of course the luggage carousel took longer to unload to things all balanced out.

Once my aunt Sharon, uncle Ngok and cousin Michelle picked me up, I was on my way to the O.C, and the wonderful suburban vibe of Irvine CA. All I can tell you for now is... WOW. The setting was pretty much all you could ask for to have the recognition of a top place to settle down in. You just have to come here, either to visit your family or to make friends with mine in order to enjoy all it has to offer.

So after an incredibly deep and comfortable rest I woke up to the tune of mid 60's and sunny skies, quite a contrast from New England starting around this time. Don't get me wrong, Boston will ALWAYS be my home, but this definitely was a treat. After a brisk stroll around the area with the fam, I met up with my other cousin Howard and his two great kids. We took a tour of his place (up until this point I thought the first place was grand..), drove down to a wilflife sanctuary a place close to Newport

So a nice fusion lunch around the area, then after returning home for my fam to rest I met up with my friend Brian and his fiance Jamie to head over to Huntington Beach. Some reminiscing and a wonderful send off by the two of them and I returned to the fam for another lovely meal.

Sunday was pretty much an all day extra fam day, with me seeing my Aunt Janet, uncle Sammy, cousins Gary, Wendy, Betty along with a whole bunch of lil' runts (just kidding!) and then some more chatting amongst everyone. Here's the thing about the Southern California area... you may say you live close to LA, or even just an hour's drive away... what distinguishes this from other cities with more density, like Boston or New York, is that the freeway traffic and congestion don't allow for frequent get togethers,or as much as you would like... that's why I was amazed when all my family were able to get together at one central point, stretching from the OC through Alhambra, up to the San Fernando Valley, and be so happy to see each other again.

I saw family, but in addition I got to see the Beverly Hills-esque area of San Marino with the rows of palm trees along the streets, block after block of cultural shopping plazas, and one of the largest concentrations of Asian communities this side of Boston *wink wink*

All in all, this has been a great experience for me, but I still miss my East Coast family, and hope everyone is doing wel back home - mom, dad, sis, bro-in-law, baby Nathan, the in law fam, uncles and aunts, cousins and "cousins", little tykes, college/high school friends, and those close family friends... in just a few short days I will be back on the plane to Asia, and my connection with this country will be limited to Skype and EMail for the time being... until that moment however I'm going to soak up the California sun as much as I can, in spite of its 9% sales tax and outrageous gas prices hehe.

Take care everyone, and know that the same is being done for me here!

Regards,

Kent

Dim Sum Fun

A few of us woke up bright and early one weekend morning and made a hike to an area called "Old Klang Road" to have us some delicious Dim Sum breakfast. Now I love Dim Sum; nothing is as good as filling one's empty and growling stomach with some of those bite-sized, tasty morsels. I'll try not to say too much but rather, let pictures do the talking.

One of my favorite Dim Sum dish is what I personally call "Fried Har Gow" (note: depicted in the top right picture). It's really what I call it - a Har Gow, only fried and there is a sweet, lemon-based mayonaise that you dip it with. I have not been able to find this dish in Boston. Funnily, this Dim Sum dish was abundant in Montreal chinatown. I don't need to explain what the center picture is since you probably know what it is if you are a frequent Dim-Sum eater. The top left dish is a butterflied shrimp on top of some pork. Yummy. Again, I have no idea what it is called.

Just some other dishes that we ordered. The dish depicted in the top right are clams stuffed with meatballs. I have never seen a dim sum dish like that; it was pretty darn good.

And now, onto my new found love...something which we call "Mango Whiskers". Just imagine a springroll stuffed with juicy (and sweet) mango paste and then wrapped with crispy noodles and deep fried. It's perfection.

All right...after all that good food, I am heading off to do some reading and then out for a run. Till next time.....

Food...Glorious Food!

I simply have to agree that one can travel the whole wide world, and yet still be spoiled for choice at the abundance of food available in Malaysia. Due to its strategic position along the spice route, Malaysia was colonised by the Portugese, the Dutch and finally the British. Not to mention, the Chinese and the Indian immigrants to migrated to this area. As a result, the food we get here is a delicious blend of years of intermixing of european, chinese, indian and south east asian influence.

One of the protege of this so called racial blending is what the locals call "Western Food". Sure you can get your filet mignon and your steaks at the Steakhouses, but if you are craving for cheap yet incredible satiable "western" food, then you head to the "coffee-shops" or "kopi-tiams" as we Malaysians call it.

Last weekend, we went to a local restaurant to have some Malaysian "western food".

The menu for the "western food" was simple and fuss free. You can't see the prices very well but it about USD 3.00 to 8.00 depending on the type of meat and style of preparation. Our meal came with complimentary toasted butter rolls. And of course, no meal is complete in Malaysia without some form of heat; in this case, the infamous Maggi Chili Sauce.

From left to right: Garlic Chicken Chop, Mexican Chicken Chop and Fish & Chips. Portions were generous and filling. Of course, this isn't a 5-star Michelin meal, nor is it anything fancy. But for the price, it was good. What more can one ask for.

Carb overload

I woke up this morning and had a craving for some chinese steamed "bao". So my parents and I made the short journey to a local restaurant. There, we bought the typical char siu bao but when I was there, there was a new (at least to me) type of bao called "volcano bao". To put it simply, it was a bao stuffed with glutinous rice and meat. Imagine a "loh mai kai" stuffed into a bao. And to be honest, it's darn good!

Sweet, gooey and fragrant glutinous rice stuffed with meat, mushroom and a salted egg yolk. All this goodness wrapped in warm doughy bread.

And of course, what breakfast would it be without the infamous loh mai kai.

And mounds of char siu bao.

Seriously....this is one big carb and fat overload!

Waiting is no easy job

116 days

That’s how long KW and I have been apart. Five years of being together, add in 2 years of marriage, we were lucky we never had to spend time apart.

When we made the decision to relocate (due to a conglomerate of reasons), it was agreed between me and KW that I will go to Kuala Lumpur first and that he will join me in approximately 5 months.

In the beginning, we thought this was easy. Sure we can do it. After all, 5 months is a really short time. Besides, time flies. 5 months apart was going to be a walk in the park. Easy Peasy!

Or so we thought. In reality, time seems to be moving at a snail-speed. I now have a new found appreciation for families who have to be separated due to work and responsibilities as well as all the couples in long-distance relationships. It's not easy. Trust me on this.

However, being a glass half-full kinda person, it's only 27 days  before we're reunited.

Trick or Treat by Mother Nature? More like a Trick...

It's not even Halloween in the United States, yet the Northeast is experiencing it's first significant snowfall of the year as a fluke Nor'Easter is hitting. For those who don't know what a New England Nor'Easter is, here's the definition in a nutshell - a warm and moisture filled-storm heading up the eastern seaboard of the United States comes into contact with a drainage of cold dry air whipping in from the Northeast, creating a hurricane like effect circling the area, and the combination of the two conflicting forces creates a significant amount of precipation in its path.

The effects are compounded and more noticeable during winter time when the cold air creates wet mushy snow rather than the light powder. You can imagine how annoying that gets for people around the area as it can cause power outages by downed power lines, closing of schools and other non-essential public services, and a backlog of traffic problems. Usually these do not occur until the full force of winter hits upon the area including colder temperatures and a shifting of the jet streams. Ironically the ideal conditions are temperatures just around the freezing mark (O celsius, 32 farenheit). For such a storm to develop and hit us so early in the season is a rare occurence, our plow and snow removal services aren't even fully prepared yet!

For a sample of this nuisance, take a look at the pictures below. Please don't mind the darkness, it's evening, and my phone camera is not the highest resolution...

I guess Mother Nature decided to let me know that I won't be getting away that easy.... oh well.

Kent
2011 29AUG

Authentic Americana amiss...

So while I am abroad in Southeast Asia the culture of food will be both different and the same simultaneously; on one hand I don't have to worry about starvation or fear of going hungry in the middle of the night - stalls open til the wee hours. However what I will definely miss is the authentic Americana - classical college style pizzas, comfort fried chicken, creamy clam chowders, and last but not least those greasy homey USDA grade beef burgers...

I just went to Boston Burger Company last night with some friends, and my taste buds just totally savored every morsel of our bites from this awesome local joint in Davis Square, Somerville MA - near Tufts University. Below are just a sample of what the next two years will not bring me sadly enough...

First a starter, courtesy of Andrew Choy: spicy barbecue boneless chicken wings with cool blue cheese to tamper the heat...

Next we have the mail course: the Inferno burger - Homemade habañero salsa, cheddar cheese and spicy chili pepper mayo topping a 100% Angus style beef patty on sandwiched between a toasted bun. Paired with homemade potato chips (Crisps for you Englanders...) and a side of baked beans with bacon essence.... man you can't go wrong here.

As I go along the next three weeks I'll try to profile other items of culinary interest which I will miss having on an "as-needed" basis without having to go to a "Western food outlet"...

Of course, this will be a complement to the wide array of food offerings that I will get to sample from the local society, and I will not beg or choose between any of them... this will be my world travel experience, after all...

Until next time, keep your friends close, and your favorite foods closer!

The Festival of Lights

Today is a public holiday in Malaysia to celebrate the Indian Festival of Lights. It's known as Deepavali in this part of the world but it is also called Diwali or Divali.

My parents and I woke up bright and early to have a free breakfast at one of our favorite neighborhood indian restaurants, Sri Paandi. As part of tradition and as a gesture of thanks to its' customers, the owners arrange an "Open House" annually for the customers to come and literally eat to their heart's content every Deepavali.



A sign as you enter the restaurant wishing everyone a Happy Deepavali.
(I love the almost rustic feel the old wall fan adds)



We arrived at 7:30am and there was already a crowd. I could go on and on regarding the food....literally there were many types of curries, and Indian breads such as tosai (or dosa), roti canai (or roti pratha), idli, putumayam......I'll let the pics do the talking.

Enjoy!

Goat curry...what can I say, the gamier, the better!

My portion: Roti Canai with goat curry and a cup of hot "pulled tea". In the background,  you can see my dad eating his roti in a very Indian way - with his hands!!

Clockwise from top: Vadai (indian savory donut/fritter snack), idli (compact lentil and rice cake) and putumayam (a  form of indian vermicelli - made of idiyappam flour and coconut milk)



The food is all laid out on banana leafs and you pick what you want!



 Lets just say we went home fat and happy.

Here's to next year's Festival of Lights....

and oh, Happy Deepavali!



A post from my office...

So I am now just making our first entry into the blogosphere, and I'm going to make it short...

I've got literally one whole weeks worth of my position in Cambridge until I call it a siesta from working in the year 2011. The next time I do so will most likely, and hopefully be early 2012 in Malaysia. During the next week and a half I will keep busy at work with the daily routines as well as making sure things stay as tidy as possible for the next person in my position, IF there is a next one...I'll also be waiting for my flash card shipment to arrive so I can actually understand what the heck my Becker FAR book is telling me.

Over the last three months, I have been meeting up with many groups of friends, both old and new, from the close proximity of the Longwood Medical Area, to the rural outskirts of Hampshire County out in Western MA. I have enjoyed catching up with many of them, and I only regret not having more opportunities to do so for the next few years, unless of course they come visit!

In addition while I prepare for the big move, I'm making one last trip with some boyz to the great gamblin' town of Las Vegas, wagering away my savings for an opportunity of a lifetime!...

...Okay so maybe not, but I'll have some fun in the sun at the very least.

That's my entry for today, tune in for more as the days go by. Either Karen or Myself will be making entries in here, so don't be caught by surprise when you see boy blue vs. pretty pink variances in material. Until next time, stay fresh, stay sound, and most of all, stay friendly

The purpose of the name...

So here it is....the first post. You may wonder what's with the name? Boston Boomerang?

Well it's simple. Both of us (KW and KC) lived/or still lives in Boston, and we'll be travelling to the other side of the world for a few years. Hopefully when the stint ends, we'll be back in Boston.

Just like a boomerang.....you let it fly but it always comes back to the point of origin

Hence, this blog is really about being there and back again.

So who are we? We're a couple of 30-somethings. Both Chinese. One's Malaysian, the other American.  One's into numbers, and the other works as an endocrinologist.  KC is originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but has spent many a year in North America. KW is a Bostonian pure-bred, having lived all his life in Massachusetts. We'll be based in Kuala Lumpur for 2 years and this blog is to capture our life in Asia as well as the adventures that come our way.

This is our story.......

P/S - We hope you'll enjoy your stay with us!