Cameron Highlands... All About Food

One impression from this visit is Cameron Highlands is not a place for exceptional makan-makan. But it's quite amazing how most of the makan places are able to have a variety of western and local dishes on their menu. Food is okay but you don't get wowed much. Maybe being in the highlands, the repertoire of choices is kinda limited. Coastal cities usually seem to have a more diverse and tasty cooking. Accessibility being one reason I supposed. And the tradition kinda remained, I guess!

Anyway, our first pit stop was this stall, known as Yong Teng Cafe in Tanah Rata for pancakes, recommended by a few friends. It was lunch time. The wonders of the internet age; it's easy to get good recommendations. This stall is run by a deaf and dumb couple and serves a variety of local and western food. They are nice people! My girl was fascinated to see us communicating with them.

We ordered the strawberry (pic) and pineapple pancakes. It's okay-lah. Daughter says my pancakes are better... 8). I use milk and butter as main ingredients. Most shops don't.

From the pancakes we moved to Excellent Kafe for our second lunch for the day.. this time to try their Mixed Grill; recommended by Karyn.

This is the Mixed Grill @ RM15. The mutton was exceptionally tender. I'm a mutton fan! And this one, I like. The chicken has a nice smell. Reasonably priced!

Also ordered this... beef soup noodles with tripes. Cannot smell the beef in the mee. But at RM4, can't complain much.

That was followed by dinner at TCafe in Tanah Rata. It's quite difficult to spot as it is on the upper floor, right above Mary Brown Restaurant. Access is through an alley beside Mary Brown Restaurant.

It is popular for their scones and apple pies. We decided to go with the recommendations. Can't go very wrong if so many have said that it's worth a try. Daughter had the above; strawberry scones with cream. She's crazy about strawberries... so this trip has been more about strawberries than anything.

Other Half took the apple pie with ice cream. Pies with ice cream is always nice. So this one is also nice. Only thing is it's hard not too feel the cold in this hilly cold weather; eating ice cream some more. He also tried their chicken sandwiches... he's a sandwich fan. The filling was nice; chicken was just right but toasted bread would have been nicer. Cos the bread wasn't strong enough to hold the filling in. They kept dropping out!

I was carbo-hungry by then since I had gone 2 days without rice. So I tried their Claypot Chicken Rice. They had capsicum and veg in it, quite different. It's okay but Other Half and Daughter liked it.

Saw this quaint little 'prayer' hanging on the wall... TCafe will change name to My Lord's Cafe soon. A Mat Salleh couple was playing card games when we got there. One of the things we noticed is how they seem to make time to sit down and play games, read a book... you know, do the non hurried stuff. Whenever I see Asian tourists, they're always rushing to go somewhere... it's like they are trying to get their every sen worth of money paid for the hols. Kinda defeats the whole purpose of hols, I feel.

The place has a rustic and homely charm about it. Ambiance reminds me of the older days when everything moved slowly. The dining area is divided into different sections - it's probably because the upstairs area was partitioned into rooms for residence. The owner did not knock them down. Oh ya! At 50 sen for 10 minutes, one can use the computer to check their email. At Equatorial where we were staying, it was close to RM15 for one hour access. High speed or no high speed, if you are planning to be on the the go, get yourself a broadband connection... much cheaper. Equatorial's daily internet access was almost RM40! Almost like daylight robbery.....

After that we drove around a bit and went for our second 'dinner'. This is Cameron Highlands. Everywhere you go you see steamboats; they actually taste good in this cold weather. We had heard about the famous Charcoal Steamboat but decided to give it a miss and go for something else. So we went to Jin Jin. Steamboat - can't go very wrong. Only need to boil your food. Their prawns were not fresh. Probably being in the highlands has something to do with it too. Jin Jin is adjacent to the Butterfly Farm and just a few hundred metres from Equatorial, where we were staying.

Breakfast on the morning before we left was with the Forum Mamasan... an old-old friend from our schooling days. We met for breakfast at Downtown Kopitiam at Tanah Rata.

One of their set meals. Other Half had this.

Yoke Leen's turkey sandwich. In touristy places it's always good to go to places such as this... where portions are set to the price set. In some of the Chinese restaurants, portions and prices may differ time to time.

So, makan-makan in Camerons.. it's another experience, a treasured moment nonetheless.... 8)

Touristy activities @ Cameron Highlands

This weekend away was for our Little Gal and also for us to spend some time with her. We've been thinking that we should start trying to make some short trips so as to spend more time with our kids. One will leave soon.... so, it's good to create memories while we still can.

One thing we like about Cameron Highlands is the weather. You don't sweat. Therefore you smell okay almost all the time. One can probably go a day without bathing and still not be smelly, I should think.

The places that we went... they were all on one road. Multi Crop Central Market, Butterfly Farm, Time Tunnel, Cactus Valley, Boh Tea Plantation, Kea Farm Market, Brinchang Night Market, various tourist stops for cactus, plants and all the other knick knacks (but these days everything seems to come from China), Tanah Rata where we visited a memory lane of our youthful days.... tried lots of stuff - everything strawberry, fried mushroom among others.

But one that really stood out for us was the Galleria Time Tunnel. Entrance was RM5 for adult and RM3 for kids. It was really a walk into time... a time that I grew up in, so long ago.

Remember these rubber balls. We used to keep a few of them at home to play. Even played 'kom-piang' with it sometimes and they're really painful if you kena 'piang-ed' by these balls.. And they were also a 'staple' for PE lessons.

I got all excited when I saw this. My dad got us one of these manual calculators. He was always game for gadgets, I remember. Only thing was we did not have enough money to spend on such luxuries. But occasionally he'd still get something for us and this was one of them. I wonder whatever happened to it. Have forgotten about it till I saw it here.

Tikam-tikam... we'd pay 5 cents or 10 cents to pull one of the tabs at the bottom of the card and hope to win something big. Play tikam-tikam, gambling in a way.... throw in a sum of money and hope to strike it big. Kids and adults, it's the same, it's not difficult to harness that gambling streak in all of us.... cos it's all about hope.... hope of striking it big!

And these drinks... who can forget them, huh? But I was just telling Other Half, natural stuff all degrade... these still look as pristine as they were 20-30 years ago. So each time we take a swig, just think what kind of stuff goes into our body....

Sarsi, anyone?

Before we had insecticides in our present form. I would sometimes be asked by mom to fill up the spray above and then go round the house to spray the rooms. Filling it can get a little messy sometimes. So I had to always do it outside the house. The insecticide came in a metal bigger metal can which can be poured into this gadget above.

And this cupboard of treasures from the past. I could identify with many of the toys. As kids, me and my bros would get toys each time we visited our maternal grandmother. Second uncle ran a sundry shop and toys used to hang in there... before we left for home, we usually would be allowed to pick one toy despite mom's protest. Some of those toys brought back this memory.

And looking on, we spotted these rings in one of the display cabinets. Kids used to covet these rings. We'd buy sweets and the ring would be the 'free gift'. Some of us would go to great lengths to save our pocket money for these sweets so that we could collect the different colours. These days kids would snub their noses at such cheapos.... but it was enough for us. I guess marketing used to be a lot simpler those days!

The time tunnel.. indeed it brought us back in time for a while. And it also brought back with it many memories, things and events which are faded in our memories. There are many of old stuff in this place which stirred up lots of those almost forgotten memories. Other Half calls it an in-between museum.

Remember the predecessor to XBox, Nintendo Wii, etc...? You know how museums store all the really old things... things which you don't have personal experiences of. You relate to them because you have read about them. Here, in this Time Tunnel, you are transported back into your past, relive that innocent childhood days prodded by the sights of the things you used to hold as a kid, memories which would have faded into the recesses of your minds and forgotten... You ooh and aaah here and there, when you see something you've held, played with or had when you were a kid. Nice! This place was really worth the visit. I'd rate this as the highlight of our visit.

Next Stop... Cameron Highlands!

After Ipoh, it was Cameron Highlands. The last time we were here was almost 2 decades ago, for our honeymoon! We have fond memories here. I attended 2 MYF Camps here... stayed at Ringlet at Ah Chye's Bungalow when I was in Form 3 and at SK Convent in Tanah Rata when I was in Form 5 (I think.. can't really remember which year). Other Half were at both places too but for the latter, it was at a different year. This time, the little one came along. She was so excited! Big bro is still at SUSOM.

With the Simpang Pulai road, getting to Cameron Highlands was actually a breeze; unlike those days when they had only one road up via Tapah. But the road up was littered with rubbish. That's Malaysia for us... we just cannot keep our roadsides clean.

My first impression was Cameron Highlands is over-developed and the vegetable farms with their plastic coverings are really a sore to the eyes. The municipal authorities should have some sort of environmental friendly policies.

On our way up, I noticed too that many hills have been blasted for their stones and soil. In one generation, we're already undoing nature's millions of years slow transformations. And who is going to know whether this activity will bring some form of consequences to us some day... maybe shift the weight of the tectonic plates and also the fault lines closer. The plates after all are floating on seas of magma.

Anyway, because Ipoh is so near, we got arrived early and promptly got down to doing the touristy stuffs. 8)

The first stop was the Boh Plantation at Sg Palas. Nice place... the plantation has done their part by incorporating tourist attractions into their plantation. No need for tourists to pay to enter....

From an ant's eye.... even the midget bushes can seem mighty tall. Illusion can be so easily created with pics; as in life too.

I like the plantation though. There is this lookout point which is part of the 'walk through the plantation history and production processes. There is of course a shop where you can buy their products, which I did, of course.... since I had become a tourist. Boh tea fresh from the factory! LOL!

They even had this pathway among the tea bushes for tourists to walk. One gets to be super fit going up and down the undulating terrain. Guess the workers here all are!

There was even this little one-row Tamil school right in this ladang teh. It was very well maintained. Noticed too that many of the workers seem to be Indians. But mind you, the road leading to the plantation is rather narrow... many stretches can only accommodate one vehicle. We had practically the whole stretch of road to ourselves going in.. but it wasn't that breezy going out cos cars were coming in droves.

Ipoh Tauge... (Ngah Choi Gai)

...best taken scalded and spiked with Chinese sauces and complimented with kway teow, pek cham keh (boiled chicken).

This is in Ipoh at the popular Lou Wong Tauge Ayam Kuetiau Restaurant. We arrived at almost 9 p.m., quite famished. But looking at the number of tables surrounding the shop and also the crowd, it was easy to tell that this place is really popular. Thanks to the GPS we found this place.. though we did get sesat a bit cos we didn't turn when the sultry voice told us to. Not obedient enough apparently. Anyway, the GPS brought us back on the right path after some sightseeing turns.

There was a night market beside the makan place also and shops selling the famous Ipoh pomelos were also still opened. Come to think of it, this seems to be one of the more lively spots that we came across at night. Ipoh seems quite dead at night.

Okay.. the food. We took the kway teow soup, instead of the dry one. I noticed some people ordered plain rice to go with the side orders. It was okay. Soup was a bit sweet. I thought there'd be a lot ajinomoto. Okay-lah. I wasn't that thirsty after the meal.

The taugeh (bean sprout)... people rave about Ipoh taugeh. I was even told that they don't serve it with their roots. Actually they do.. just a tiny bit of it. Taugehs are nutritious... in some places they feed the cows with taugeh to fatten them. This one is okay-lah. Nothing really spectacular but it's nice enough.

The fish ball and meat (beef) ball soup. The meatball is really nice, springy. Much nicer than the fish ball which had a fishy after taste. The soup was really sweet... maklumlah, same base as the kuay teow soup.

The pek cham keh or boiled chicken. The sesame seed oil wasn't too overpowering. And the texture of the meat was just nice. For all the above, the price was RM20.60, and another RM3.60 for 3 glasses of herbal tea. Food in Ipoh is rather reasonable I think.

We stayed a night not too far away from Lou Wong. It was quite interesting... the hair saloon remained 'opened' (with the doors closed) even at 10 p.m. The patrons were Ah Guas.....

The Last Eunuch of China..

..the life of Sun Yaoting by Jia Yinghua. Thomas kindly sent the book to my house a few days ago. I just finished it this morning. My second book of the year (not bad, huh?), a narration of the life in the Imperial Palace as well as its last days in China. How was it? It was interesting enough for me to finish it over a period of 4 days. Actually it took 2 days as I was too busy to pick up the book on the other 2 days. I supposed that is indication enough of the book's readability.

It gives more than a glimpse into the lives of eunuchs, or castrated males. My childhood stories of eunuchs were these guys had their manhood were cut off so that they could serve in the Palace and the ladies would be safe from extramarital affairs. But life was far from the rosy pictures painted. Enter the world of the Forbidden City and you find that it's intrigues and complexities are not much different from the outside world. Only difference is they are heaven mandated. Also, it's true this saying.. in the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. The peasants were ignorant. The (self-mandated) 'nobility' had the brains and knowledge; and they knew how to manipulate the fear in man. The one with knowledge rules!

A couple of things caught my interest in this book. First, the Imperial Family memang was too decadent to be of any real use to China. I guess China's descent (or ascent, depends from which perspective you look at it) into communism was necessary to purge the country of that largesse and excesses. It must be really fun to have all that power over their subjects. Imagine having eunuchs eat at your bidding and then you clap in glee!

Second, the eunuchs are no better. All the cheating, stealing, falsifying that took place right under the Emperor's eyes. But the Emperor was a mere puppet. The puppeteer was the Empress Dowager and the other court officials. Guess they must have found the Son of the Heaven idea rather convenient to own so as to command all that rights to Chung Kuo. And of course, if I were a puppet, I might as well live out my life minus the cares and woes... but Pu Yi (last Emperor of China) cut a sorry picture!

Third, poverty makes people do desperate things. That is nothing new too. Eunuchs' families dream of better life for the sons they castrated. Yet with the castration came shame cos these half-guys were considered a freak by the normal people.

Fourth, the importance of sons in to a Chinese. It's a curse not to have sons... that I know. But these days, as I grow older, I think sons or daughters - they are the same. Filial piety is expected of the son but these days, I see daughters being more filial than their brothers. Empress Dowager controlling the emperor? That's biasa... So many of the eunuchs adopted sons so that they will have sons to bury them. But unfortunately, many these 'sons', having grown up in a single-parent family and also great comfort, turned out to be your regular wealth disintegrators. They squander their adopted father's wealth in no time!

Fifth, eunuchs despite castration still went on to keep concubines, have weird sexual inclinations and normal ones too... the system of patronage existed too among them. In their hierarchy, the senior eunuchs did become very rich too. Sexual favours were also forced from them by the the Imperial household members. I learned that the testicles which were castrated were preserved so that when the eunuchs die, the testicles be buried with them, placed in their 'original place'.... so that when they are reincarnated, they'll be complete again. So these eunuchs carry their 'treasure' with them wherever they go. And many of them moved around a lot in those last days of old China.

After the Second World War, China was ripe for a revolution. The taboos, hocus pocus beliefs shackled the people, right from the top to the bottom. And like the Roman Empire, the Imperial Family was so decadent that by the time, as the rest of the world opened up and started looking for more land and resources, China was ripe for the plucking.

There are lots of insights to be gleaned from this book. It's interesting cos it's a historical narrative, one that tells me that human nature has remained the same. Sun Yaoting died in 1994 and with his death, the last eunuch. I'd give this a read.

Tuitions and the rat race..

I've just been told by my gal's tuition teacher that my gal knows nothing... her exact words. May I add 'in Chinese and BM'. And because of that she has been caned. My two kids struggle with these two languages though my elder one started picking up BM okay in secondary school. In fact he found BM manageable enough.

My gal knows a lot actually... she can tell me that a lime in the fridge will remove bad smell. She reads Little Women and finds it enjoyable that she reads it repeatedly. She asks questions out of the blue like.. what is the kidney for? She loves Enid Blyton books and reads quite voraciously. She is willing to try new things and finds joy in learning even the many things I take for granted. She loves to swim and also squeals with laughter when she thinks she is better than her papa in squash... The problem, all of these things are in English.

In the other 'Chinese' world, she is lost. She's in a Chinese school. In this world, she 'knows' very little. Hence, her life becomes regimented by the tuitions. Learning takes on a new dimension... the rote kind. The kind where kids are sandpapered according to the mill specifications. They are varnished with the same kind of varnish, all bumps and telling marks are removed.... eventually their individuality and creativity will be stripped to the minimum. If she does not rebel, she might become good at regurgitating out whatever is expected... she might even do well. However that's still some way off. She, however will be imbued with traits like hardworking, stamina from long and arduous tuitions.

There is a high probability that she will end up like a product housed in common packages with plain paper wrappings. Her creativity, individuality and originality will mostly be covered by the wrappings. The demands of our society now..... we produced them in the specs we feel the market demands.

Yet when we look at old furniture... it's not those uniformed and beautifully sandpapered and varnished furniture that are priceless. The priceless ones are usually those who have the grains of their original wood showing through or those which followed the contour of the wood... those furniture that has been shaped with the type and shape of wood in mind.

We agonize over what is good for her and 'needful'......

Death...

I am back on the morbid topic of death... recently I got Mitch Albom's Have A Little Faith for a friend and it has gotten me to think this topic again as I explore it again.

You know how it is. Whenever someone experiences a death in his family, we'd start exploring the need to prepare for death. And what would the preparation involve? Often, the little plot measuring 6"X8" or little space in the columbarium. We start looking for a place for our earthly body. We look for a resting place for that body of ours which begins to return to its dust form the minute we breathe our last.

And they don't come cheap. Places like Nirvana Memorial Park can cost a bomb. In today's world, everything costs money. They make money at birth and even death too! The better the feng shui the more it'll cost. But I wonder if it makes any difference to the dead.

Cos the final resting place may not be that final. After all we've read about former cemetery plots being converted to housing or industrial purposes. The world is after all for the living. And the needs of the living still takes precedent over the dead. So, who is to tell after a generation or two that the graves will not be dug out and be recycled? Death is after all good business too for there is no shortage of demands. Common sense will tell us that with the population explosion that we've been experiencing, they won't be enough burial plots unless we recycle.

I supposed preparation for death would also mean the donation aspect. In a Chinese funeral, there always seems to be donations given out. My friend said that is to allow the decease do a final good deed on earth. Does it? In death too there are many elaborate rituals over a period of a few days. To honour the dead? For the living to mourn? For show of piety? I am a bit of skeptic these days. Every now and then I hear of the aged living in deplorable state... yet in death, a great show is put up! It's like atonement, not for the dead but the living.

Or is it for the feel good factor for the family members. Sometimes the deceased would have lived out his last years in quite kasihan conditions.... yet at the funeral, large sums might be donated.

But recently I attended a wake service. I was touched by how the old lady was blessed to have a grand daughter who would clean her sores and sing hymns to her in the last months of her life. So which one? To have (huge) donations given out after you are dead so as to be seen as doing a good dead deed (and also for 'water face' of the living) or to be surrounded by loving and kind deeds of family members in the last months (years)?

So, preparing for death... this is only one facet of many.