Turning a year older...

This post should have been a week earlier but we've been very busy with work and some other stuff. But I'd like to leave you with pics on how we celebrated Kent's 30+ birthday. Please enjoy!

 We went to a chinese restaurant specializing in Shanghainese cuisine. We had mantou pow as well a "siu loong bao".

Off to the main courses (L to R):  Stir-fried chicken with dried chillies, lemon chicken (picture of the lemony sauce not shown), eggplant with a hint of salted fish and mince meat and beef with kai-lan.

 Picture of us about to devour our dinner

And of course, the best pic of the night. A picture truly tells a thousand words!

'Tis the season!

Hello everyone!

Cute cupcakes from a local bakery

I know it's a few days late but we've been mighty busy during this holiday season. Nevertheless, it's not too late to with everyone a wonderful holiday season.

We started off our holiday season by joining the local church's carolling group and went wassaling from home to home, singing christmas carols and well, eating! Later in the week, we attended Christmas Mass at the church and had a Christmas lunch with my grandmother and grand-aunt. Then, a day after Christmas aka Boxing Day, we went over to a friend's place for their Christmas party.

All in all, it was a simple celebration. Nothing over the top but definitely enjoyable.

Christmas decor in the various shopping malls in KL. * Pics from MSNBC*

Alright, after Christmas, it was onto New Year's. And nothing is more Malaysian than to celebrate New Year's with some durians.

Durians from a family friend

Being a pro at opening durians.



Aah....durians. And now we eat!



Per my mom, eating durians can make one too "heaty". To counteract the "heatiness" (for lack of a better word), one should drink salt water straight from the durian shell. I personally don't believe these shenanigans but nevertheless, both Kent and I drank from the durian shell to humor my mom. 

And finally, to bid adieu to 2011, I'll leave you with a pic of the KL skyline in the midst of the 2011-2012 New Year's celebration. Wished I could be cool and say that I was there but Kent and I welcomed the new year just like a boring, married couple would: in bed and fast asleep!

*pic courtesy of thesun.co.uk*

Happy 2012 everyone and have a good one!

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.....