My Little HK Food Guide - Part 3 + Macau Bonus

Of Noodles and Other Carby Goodnus

Finally my third and final installment of my three part HK food guide. On this installment, I shall focus on my other favourite part of the food triangle - carbohydrates. Carbs are considered the most important part of a balanced diet, providing energy for daily usage but sadly also accumulates as layers of blubber under our skin. Carbs are, for me, a sinful indulgence. However, it is actually a sin to not indulge yourself with the best sources of carbohydrates, possibly in the world. Noodles!!

My Little HK Food Guide - Part 2

A Carnivore's Paradise

Above: RM 17 for the above, FRESH. Where to get in Malaysia??

HK is a carnivore's paradise, if you are a vegetarian, stray far far away from this meat loving city. Believe it or not, the dim sum in HK does little to move me. It is the meat dishes that actually get me craving for more. While a typical dim sum meal cost quite a bit, the dishes that I am going to blog about below are mostly averagely priced. Forget about the pricing, because everything you see here is worth paying the price for. Some are incredibly cheap compared to what we have to pay for the equivalent dish in Malaysia.

My Little HK Food Guide - Part 1

Dim Sum

HK is of course famous for its dim sum. After all, it is the place where the dim sum dishes are perfected . Back in Malaysia, it is a common affair to have dim sum for breakfast. However, despite having such a large Chinese community in Malaysia, I have to admit that our dim sum is among the lousiest in the world. Dim sum houses in Malaysia try too hard to invent new varieties, cheese siu mai and the like, which suck! Good dim sum can be easily found in New York or London or Melbourne, it is a shame that it is so difficult to find good dim sum anywhere here (Malaysia). It all boils down to the freshness of the ingredients I believe, and HK is just the right place to find fresh ingredients.

My Daily Roti was in Hong Kong.....again

Many do not know but my mum has her roots in HK even though she was born a Penangite. Those days everybody wanted a part of Malaya. Seeing the potential of this newfound "promise land", my maternal grandmother went to Penang and my mum was born there. It's amazing how things turned out the opposite after 50 years...lol. Anyway, mum only moved back to HK at about 13. Point is, due to her roots there, we get to visit HK quite often. In fact, once every year for the past three years. Still, HK never turns out to be boring for me. Especially with the shopping and of course the amazing food there. The variety of stuff on sale there is just massive compared to what we get here. From the affordable to the ultra luxurious. Its also rather nice to visit the aunties and uncles once in a while, good food, good wine, great bargains. I love HK.

    My next two blog post will be my little food guide to HK. A collection of the food I never fail to miss every time I'm there and also some newfound eateries. Dim Sum included of course, also roast goose, beef hor fun and many more. HK is food heaven. It's not a surprise that most food outlets in HK serve at least decent food. Rent is crazily high in HK and to survive you are forced to do your very best. Even around my hotel area, I've seen some restaurants being replaced after just a year. More to come soon, stay tuned!

My Daily Roti Movie Reviews - Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

Above: "Aiyo!" - Captain Jack Sparrow

I guess piracy is trending lately with so many countries in the world sailing to the east coast of Africa combating Somali pirates. The story is no different in Hollywood as yet another sequel to the Pirates of the Carribean had arrived. The first movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) was a success not only in terms of box office reception but also gained a fair bit of positive reception from the film critics. Then came the second, Dead Man's Chest (2006) and the third, At World's End (2007). Along with the sequels came confusion for me, I never completely understood what the plot of the movies were about. Usually after watching a Pirates of the Carribean movie I had to resort to Wikipedia to completely understand what the movie was all about, and then download and watch it again on my computer to catch everything. Perhaps it's the continuous use of riddles and biblical language that I cannot seem to fathom. By the third movie I felt like I just went into the cinema watching a Kung Fu movie with odd piraty music and weird costumes. Was it just me? Not really because the second and third movie gained pretty bad response from the geeky, overly serious movie fanatics, also known as film critics. 


    They said it was all over, Will was captain of Flying Dutchman, or the Black Pearl??? Or was it the...forget it. Anyway the end credit scene was that Will returned to his wife and son and happily ever after. Until 4 years later came another sequel. Bloom and Knightley are no longer a part of the crew. I have to be honest I haven't been paying attention to Hollywood thanks to the barrage of assignments. I only knew about this movie like last month?? It felt as if there was a Pirates of the Carribean movie launched every year.

    Anyway, again there were more action scenes. This time, it was as if the movie was all about flying here and there atop the masts of ships. Even Blackbeard (he is...or was a real pirate in the late 1700s) is keen on joining in the fun. Yes, again the effects were wonderful but the plot just wasn't right. It wasn't quite as confusing as the second and the third installment but perhaps the simplicity of the plot made it lose it's piraty charm. Perhaps it's time for the Disney crew to visit the Fountain of Youth themselves and create a proper plot before filming the movie. Another "Aiyo" for Captain Jack Sparrow and mates..."Aye??"

My Roti Rating: 5/10 (like Roti Hawaii, looks nice but confusing taste)

My Denim Adventure - The First Wash

Finally after weeks of thinking through, I have finally decided to wash my Dr Denims for the very first time. Washing is extremely important in the realm of raw denim as it removes the dirt accumulated due to months of wear and tear without washing. It also removes the smell attributed to the long hours of wear. Most importantly, washing allows the pair of jeans to display the fruits of your own labour.

Finally MyDailyRoti is back!....with a vengeance

This past 7 weeks have been torturous. Tons and tons of assignments done last minute took its toll on me. I didn't have time to wash my Dr Denims for the first time, my cicak eggs were thrown away by mum after they failed to hatch. I was completely exhausted and the urge to laze overcame the urge to blog. Hence, the blog had been left stagnant.......until now. And I am back with a vengeance, armed with a pair of scissors and clippers, I decided to take out my fury on my dirty, smelly Shih Tzu, Becky.

    Due to my hectic schedule, my dogs were pretty neglected. Dirty and smelly. Hair all sticky and matted up, I could take no more and I took matters into my own hands. I'm gonna give my dog a haircut...myself.

Above: My weapon of choice.

BEFORE

Above: Smells like dead rat and looks like a mat.

    A cheap, lousy pet clipper, a pair of scissors, hair all over me, some vacuuming, some getting wet and about 2 hours later. Walaa.....it's done and she's still alive. "After" pics after the jump =P

Look what I found...cicak eggs

While lazing around on a hot and stuffy Saturday evening at home, my sister suddenly called me to get my ass up and go to the kitchen to see something interesting. Peeked into the hole at the door frame and what greeted me was the presence of house gecko, or rather cicak eggs in the hole. A few were already cracked due to the door lock closing on them.

    Took two for use in my random secret experiments and another lucky two I decide to incubate. Placed them in a container, poked some holes and the wait begins. Another adventure begins for me, reminds me of the old days when we used to catch many different bugs and placed them in containers with holes, so much cooler than playing computer games like what kids nowadays do. More pics after jump

Got stitched up for the first time...=O - Part IV

Ahh...after a tedious time tending to my gangrenous wounds, they are healing very well and no longer oozing yellowish liquid turning medical cream ala thousand island sauce-like. A week or more and it should look like nothing happened. =)

Pictures after the jump, no longer disgusting but still not beautiful.

My Denim Adventure - Week 25

It's been 25 weeks since I got my first pair of raw denims, just a week past 6 months. Over the half year period, I have got them soaked in sweat, beer and other alcoholic beverages, juices, ice cream, oil and not to mention a variety of sauces, maybe even traces of liquid excretion at the crotch area??

    In that period of time I have got them dry cleaned once to get rid of the unbearable smell, raw denim lesson learnt was that every pair of raw denims are better off being hung inside out after a day of wear under the sun or fan to get rid of bad smells. Anyway, I'm rather dissatisfied by the fades produced in this 6 months of wear. Of course, the effective wearing of my Dr Denims is less than 6 months, halted by my travels and injuries. Anyhow, because of the dissatisfaction, I'm going to extend my wearing of my jeans further for another 6 months before washing them, but I shall get them dry cleaned first. =) Can't wait to get into my APCs though.

Pics of progress below.

Above: Coin pocket before (left)/after (right).

Above: Front/rear weekly progress.

Above: Visible fading on the thighs. Lighter blue lines on dark indigo.

Back to studies again...

No more partying, being a hooligan and driving around town at wee hours and worse of all updating my blog regularly. The long long summer break is over and I am officially stressing up. It's back to reading at wee hours and shit like that. Not nice. Will try to update my blog more often.

Got stitched up for the first time...=O - Part III

Well, today is the official day where I had to have my stitches removed so I went to the nearby clinic and had the doctor remove the stitches. Unfortunately, it was not all good news. Apparently, the doctor who stitched up my wounds got the stitches too tight and thus, they have gone a little bit infected. It's all red around the area where I was stitched up. Some bacteria though my wound looked like a great meal and so feasted upon them. So frustrating, another week of medication and feeding what looks like whipped cream to my wound.

Again, you can view the pictures after the jump. Do be warned though if you have just eaten or your food might end up on your screen.

My Daily Roti Movie Reviews - The Green Hornet (2011)

I never really got the idea of the Green Hornet until I watched the movie itself. I've always thought that it's just another superhero movie where the hero can magically throw flames or lasers out of his palms. All I knew all this while about the Green Hornet is that it was originally a tv series and the legendary Bruce Lee acted in it. In fact it was one of the very first English show that Bruce Lee acted in, it was actually his stepping stone into Hollywood.

    However, when I first found out who was to be playing the role of Kato, the driver who was played by Bruce Lee I thought to myself, "Oh God! What a screwup this would turn out to be!". It was Jay Chou. No, not Jackie Chan or Jet Li but Jay Chou. I'm not a hater of Jay. In fact I think he is wonderfully talented in the music field, being able to sing well and play many instruments faultlessly but acting is one thing he's not really being viewed as....talented. *Flashback* Initial D, Jay, a Taiwanese who speaks Hokkien tries to speak Cantonese. Now though, he's trying to speak English. I think of the producers' decision to include Jay in the cast is merely to attract Asians to watch the movie rather than believing firmly in his acting skills. Bad move. Jay was obviously the weak link in this movie, struggling to twist and turn his tongue to make proper pronounciations of English terms and some of his expressions are just plain odd. Seth Rogen did alright in the movie though.

Above: Bruce Lee as the original Kato.

    Moving on to the plot, I felt that it was weakly thought out as if they wrote the script in a matter of weeks. It was just trying to be a funny version of Batman(which is brilliant) where Kato would be Robin and the Hornet would be Batman obviously. Some parts were funny but some were just corny. There were way too many scenes repeated, fight scenes especially. It was worse when they did the stupid slow motion thing which I though was rather lame. It was also a waste of money that we decided to watch it in 3D, of course it was because there were no movies available at that time of night, but there really wasn't anything impressive about the 3D, gimmick!

    Anyway, the movie was mediocre for me, it did provide a few laughs but all in all it wouldn't be memorable. Hell, I forgot about most of the plot already. Kudos to Seth Rogen though who lost a few pounds to play the role.

My Roti Rating: 6/10 (burnt outside but soggy inside)

Got stitched up for the first time...=O - Part II

Opened up my dressings today to clean up my war scars. A little blood and a little pain. Anyway just to share some pictures of my ordeal. If you are afraid of ghastly images of terrible wounds or blood, or having your lunch or any meal of the day, it is therefore that I advise wisely against viewing the images that I have posted.

Got stitched up for the first time...=O

Above: Ouch.

Above: Ouccccch!

Had an amazingly fun BBQ the previous night, everybody was having fun until I had mistaken the dark tinted door for the night sky and walked right through it. *ping plang plonk* and all I remembered was sitting on a bamboo mat with blood gushing out of my hands and knees. Result? 2 stitches on my hand and 4 on my knees. Tough luck, glass doors and windows seem to have something against me. Anyway, it was an interesting experience at the hospital. Getting the anesthetic injection was quite painful but getting fixed is interesting. You sorta feel someone pulling your skin together without pain. However, I swear I'll be extra careful around glass doors and windows from now on. =(

Happy Lunar/Chinese New Year everyone from MyDailyRoti!!

As stated, according to the lunar calender, it's officially the first day of the year of the rabbit. Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!! Huat ah!!

I No Understand - The Little Toe

Above: Why are you still there??

I've always wondered why we still possess five toes instead of four, like a bird. Perhaps we have evolved in such a way that God had invested so much in human-brainpower that he forgot about a bird's; or a bird's feet that he forgot about our feet. To make you understand what I'm trying to make you understand...about what I think I understand, our little toe is useless.

    Yes, the little toe, the fifth metatarsal and smallest toe on our feet. It is the one toe that always gets in the way. Slamming itself into corners of walls, doors and anything slammable you can think of. Everybody had been there, and everybody can remember the agony and pain associated with accidentally hitting your little toe on something. Apart from being a pain in the ass, the little toe also acts as magnet for deformities, especially associated with wearing shoes (which 90% of civilized people have on their feet), of which you can see it all here.

    Being such a burden, what benefits you may ask, does the little toe carry?

    It doesn't act as balance, as I believe I can very well balance myself if my little toe is amputated, so will you. It is also lazy, not being able to move by itself without moving your four other toes, even so only moving a miserable few degrees in a horizontal plane. It doesn't help keep your nostrils clean, which is taken cared of by your pinkie, or more formally known as your little finger. In short, it doesn't do much benefit other than getting hurt and diseased, much like the appendix lying in some of your abdomens today, including mine.

    So why is it still present? My theory is that the little toe is nothing more than a remnant of our evolutionary past. To put simply, a vestigial organ. Very much like our appendix, which was once used to aid in the digestion of cellulose but today just swells up spontaneously, or otherwise, our coccyx (assbone) which brings much pain to our behinds when a friend plays the pull the chair prank on you or even sometimes when you do situps on the ground. Maybe sometime long ago our little toe was used to dig out grubs from a rotten log, to grasp onto branches of trees, to make us hang upside down and sleep. All we know is, it doesn't serve it's previous function anymore.

    So where do we go now? How do we deal with our little toe? For me, I would let God and nature act. Maybe someday, thousands of generations later, the little toe will shrink in size, which I think it has for mine, but not for a few of my friends. Maybe, just maybe, future humans will have four toes and birds can speak and the little toe will be embedded somewhere in our feet, much like a whale's vestigial hind legs, a reminder for us of its past. We never know.

    However, if your little toe is too big and unbearable, you can either head down to the clinic or hospital to get them amputated or save costs and do a little DIY at home. DO NOT forget painkillers and ice!!

Source: Medscape

Makaning - Instant Noodles

Instant noodles, you might hear people around you always telling you that instant noodles are carcinogenic and unhealthy. However, think about it, how would life be like without instant noodles? If ever you have one of those days that you just woke up late and have no idea what you would want for brunch, and at the same time you feel lazy as hell to just walk a few feet outside to your car, instant noodles are always the saviour in such emergency situations. Pop the bag, boil some water and 5 minutes later you have chicken soup noodles in front of you. It is no doubt that instant noodles are one of mankind's most brilliant creations and one of the most underlooked.

    In Malaysia, instant noodles are no doubt a hit, a staple diet among locals. Breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack, you can find people eating instant noodles at anytime of the day, even 3am in the morning at the mamak stall. Unhealthy? Who cares?

    Instant noodles also form a base to brush up our cooking skills. The first step in cooking every Malaysian child has to take is to learn how to cook "Maggi mee". They also serve as a base for food experimenting, you can fry instant noodles, boil'em and eat'em with home cooked soup, add any leftovers to them for added "nutrition" and nowadays some can even be eaten out of the pack when you feel too heavy to move more than 6 inches. Ask any Malaysian and they'll all have their personal preference how their instant noodles should be like and what ingredients are to be added. Same story with every mamak stall, they all have their different styles of Maggi goreng.

    Personally, I like to add my ingredients according to what is shown on the picture on the packet. I don't like to add seafood to chicken noodles or meat to seafood noodles. You might think that I'm mad but I don't care. Here, I am to share with you one of my favourite style of cooking instant noodles.

    I like seafood noodles and on this particular packet of instant noodles I had today, I see prawns in the picture. Furthermore, it's a Thai product and it's Tom Yam flavoured and Tom Yam always goes well with prawns. Dug out some massive prawns from the freezer and defrost them. Peel them and devein.

    Keep the prawn shells and head for seafood broth. Throw them into the pot with some fish bone and ikan bilis(dried anchovies) and boil them for at least 20 minutes.

    Orangey red broth will form. Drain the broth into another pot and throw away the shells and shit.

    Add some water to broth and cook instant noodles. Add any seafood, for today(prawn, scallop and fish). You can also add vege but I ran out of vege today. Thank God.

    Done and serve. Might look like a bowl of rubbish but trust me it's fine fine food.

  

My Denim Adventure - New Purchase!

Above: Finally my 1st pair of APCs, Petite Standards.

Got a pair of new denims all the way from the USA to break in after I'm done with my Dr Denims, and they are none better than APCs, which are famed among denim enthusiast for producing great fades. The difference between this pair and my Dr Denims is that they are much much more stiffer, more starch, better fades and they are also selvedged, a method of sewing associated with quality denim. Can't wait to get them smelly and break them in. =)

Above: Selvedge...my 1st pair of selvedged jeans, finally. =)

NY > Dubai > Home

Above: My last proper NY meal. Pita brad with loads of meaty shit.

Above: Still confused. Did I misplace my HK photos in my NY album?

Above: So this is how it feels to be on stand-by. Like shit.

It was a very tense moment while waiting at the airport for our tickets to be confirmed for the flight to Dubai. I could only sit down at one corner of JFK International and pray that we can get on the flight. I didn't really want to leave NY yet but I didn't wanna go back to NY after traveling all the way to the airport with our luggages all packed and ready. Went to the toilet and walked back to the place where my parents were waiting and our prayers were answered, we are going home after all. Exhaustion overwhelmed me. The only relief came in the form of the Airbus A380 that we were going to board to Dubai. Basically a really huge, double decked plane with massive wings that you can literally fit a futsal court onto. Got on the flight and it's 12 hours of agonising sleeplessness, stress and air sickness. I was so tired that I suggested to my parents that we should stay over in Dubai for at least one night, since my sister was also free at the moment, they agreed.

Above: Airbus A380. Two bridges, one connecting to the upper deck and one to the lower. Brilliant, and I sound like a geek now.

Above: What huge wings you have Mr Plane.

    Reached Dubai at about 8 or 9pm Dubai time. Waited at the carousel for our luggage but it never showed up. Dad then checked the boarding pass and found out that they actually checked us right into a transit flight on the same day back to KL, which means that we will not be able to stay back in Dubai which got me really pissed.

Above: Hi Dubai....bye Dubai.

    Anyway, went for a dinner with my sister and then took some shots and headed to my sister's apartment to clean ourselves up. Rested for a while and went back to the airport. Another agonisingly slow 7 hour flight back to KL. Felt sick and uncomfortable throughout the whole journey. Finally reached KL and 2 hours later, home. Home Sweet Home! Phew...nono....PHEW!

    I really hate flights. I wouldn't wanna get back on another plane for the next 5 months at least. Plane flights are torture for me, they are as comfortable as being stabbed. For now, I need some good rest. Jet lagged and feeling unwell.

NY Day 4 - Going Back??

Woke up this morning to find out that my sister had just informed us that our flight which was supposed to be on the 11th was overbooked and us, having bought unconfirmed tickets had a very slim chance of boarding. The only flight not fully booked is tonight's, so this left us no choice but to board the flight tonight, which we....hopefully can make it. Another few hours of sightseeing in NY and on to Dubai. =( I'll be back.

* Until I'm back in Malacca, there will be no further updates here.

NY Day 3 - Down South Manhattan

Above: Now...how have I ended up in HK?

Mr B. came and took us to visit Chinatown today. Had another Dim Sum breakfast today. Nothing much to talk about, but the Dim Sum is really as good as those in HK. Chinatown really reminds me a lot of HK. The sights and smells, it's really just HK with the streets widened and with more rubbish.

Above: "What cold, steely balls you have Mr. Bull"

    After our meal, walked a few blocks away from the Chinatown area to Broadway, a long street which spans almost the whole length of Manhattan from north to south. Along broadway lies many designer stores and the famed Wall Street which is a few blocks away from the site of the 911 attacks. Walked down  Broadway to Wall Street to look for the famous Charging Bull. Apparently grabbing it's balls will bring good luck. So, all of us did exactly that for a few snaps of the camera. =)

Above: Manhattan skyline.

Above: Need I say more? Statue of Liberty you idiots.

    Later, we walked a short distance to the pier to take a ferry to visit the Statue of Liberty. Bought the tickets, sailed over to Liberty Island. Although it wasn't snowing, the weather was freezing cold today which made it hard for us to enjoy our walk but what the hell, we were on Liberty Island after all and it's not like we can get here everyday. Walked around the island, snap snap and back to the pier.

Above: Big pieces of joy.

    Went back to Broadway, walked along Broadway up north, shopping along the way. Stopped by a restaurant for some very good pizza and lasagna. A taxi ride and ended up in our hotel room watching tv to find out who was murdered today. Decent day just because I came back empty handed. =)

NY Day 2 - Factory outlet shopping and shit

Above: Suede desert boots in snow....bad idea. These were as new as my boots looked before the snow totally ruined them.

We were supposed to be visiting Chinatown and the rest of the Soho district today but then as we woke up in the morning, it snowed. So at the last minute, we had a change of plans.

Above: Woodbury Wonderland.

    We will be going outlet shopping today. Basically, factory outlets are stores that sells clothing and other stuff that are either on clearance or already off season so you get better deals there especially for designer items. I'm a frequent visitor to Hong Kong's Citygate outlets near HKIA, however the USA will always be the country with the best deals all around and I was going to realise that I was right after all. I did some online research and Woodbury Commons Factory Outlets seemed to be the closest to NYC and also the biggest, it's also rather famous among tourists visiting NYC. We were told that in summer, the place would be packed with tourists, particularly Asians...lol. However it's snowing and it's winter now, so the place is less packed. The only thing bad is that the place is an open air mall, I knew this all along but I kept quiet just to prevent my dad from changing his mind. So...we went over to Port Authority Bus Station (which is kinda like Puduraya because both are near the Times Squares in their respective cities =.=) and went on an hour long journey to Woodbury Commons.

Above: It's getting dark? We've been shopping for 6-7 hours?

Above: Our haul for today. =) 

    I've always believed that I have a curse on outlets. I'm never able to find something that I really like at outlets and sometimes I just end up getting stuff out of desperation, which I will sell off in the end. It was the same here, I really couldn't find anything that I really like and those that I really like are always out of my sizes or out of my reach. In the end, I ended up with a pair of shoes bought by my mum.

Above: I swear I was at Times Square NY.

    Another hour of bus riding back to Port Authority and walked two blocks down to the legendary Times Square. Times Square is great, it really has a certain vibe and aura, it makes people feel happy and is just a special special place. There's just an indescribable feeling about being at Times Square, like the heart of the great city itself where all the activity is taking place. Hard Rock cafe is here, Madame Tussauds...great!

Above: A very big building called Madison Square Garden.

    Anyway, made our way down the streets back to our hotel and stumbled upon a big building named Madison Square Garden. =) Reached hotel, relaxing and preparing for tomorrow.