Wonderful Fried Chicken in Menglembu

Who’d knew this trip back to Ipoh, I’d end up in Menglembu for supper.

Menglembu (or as locals pronounce it, “Meng-ge-lembu”) is famous for many things, including peanuts. Now you can add ‘fried chicken’ to the list.

The stall is somewhere in town, just ask around where good stalls are (someone brought me there).

I think this one is called Jalan Tranchell.

At a busy road corner, you’ll see the stall just next to a DVD shop. The sign says that in two weeks time, they’ll be moving to a proper shop just a few doors away.

What do they sell? Delicious fried chicken, and honey roasted chicken. And lots of other lip-smacking (and unhealthy) goodness like french fries and fried chicken skin.

We tar pau-ed some fried chicken drumsticks and two pieces of honey roasted chicken.

Gotta say, best fried chicken ever. Sure beats all those pasar malam ones you get here where they have thick batter on the skin.

Old Calculator Trick

Here’s an old trick with a calculator that my dad showed me when i was small. Works with any digital LCD calculator (not your handphone one, though).

142 (key in ’142′) Americans are battling 154 (then key in ’154′) Arabs over 69 (and then key in ’69′) Gallons of oil times 5 (multiply by 5) trucks that are carrying it. What oil is it??

Press equals for the answer and turn the calculator upside down for the answer.

Haha. The things we amused ourselves with those days before the Internet…

My Long Search for a Book

It all started a few semesters ago during PT, when I learnt from Ron about Menyelek I and the African Jews. The legend goes like this – back in the days of the Old Testament, When Queen Sheba visited King Solomon in Jerusalem, the legend goes that she went back to Ethiopia pregnant with the good King’s baby (wow, this Solomon is one smooth player).

The kid, Menyelek (or Menelik) grows to inherit the throne of Ethiopia, goes back to Jerusalem to find out the truth from Solomon. Solomon tells him the truth, and Menyelek manages to steal the ark of the Covenant back to Africa with him. Its a long and epic story, you can read a summary here. All this is found in the Ethiopian holy book, Kebra Nagast (apparently you can find it in any bookshop there today).

Anyway, the story, or legend, however fanciful it was, fascinated me, as with the many claims that the lost ark of the covenant is still kept in one of many locations across Africa.

So one day i walk into Borders and see this book by Tudor Parfitt, the Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of London. He goes on an Indiana Jones-style (minus the most of the dramatic action) to trace the actual location of the Ark and verify the claims.

What follows is a fascinating story that brings him across Africa and as far as Papua New Guinea to find the fabled ark of Moses, and also the lost tribe of Israel.

I read the book and immediately wanted to buy it. Unfortunately, it was bloody expensive – about RM60. So i thought, lets wait for awhile, i maybe able to get it at least 5-10% off during sale, if the book is still around. So that was almost 1 and a half years ago. Unfortunately, i never got to buy the book – either it was out of stock during sale, or it was at full price. I even thought of getting it from Amazon and have someone bring it back for it, but it was only just marginally cheaper and probably not worth troubling my friends. After awhile i resigned not to get to read the book.

Until today – I went to BookXcess to get some books for my kids. I always thought of that place as somewhere to get cheap books, especially during their Big Bad Wolf sale – but you never really get the good you REALLY want. But I take it back – I got the book I WANTED! AT TWENTY BUCKS!

So that was my story to get this book. Kinda sad in a way, but that’s life when you love to read but too skint to buy books at full price

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I’ve lost my reading mojo a little in the past 2 months. Partly due to lethargy, partly because i was stuck with this book.

I tried to power thru the first few chapters, but the description of the mundane life of kids in a privileged English boarding school was too inane to get my interest going. There was something special / weird about them, but the hints were to scarce it was getting a little infuriating.

After leaving it for a month or and spending my time watching TV series and old movies of my hard disk, i decided to finish the book 2 days ago.

Conclusion – yes, the start is difficult, but all in all, Ishiguro is a genius and this is a masterpiece.

There is not much I can tell without giving away the surprises in the book, but it amazes me how Ishiguro can write like this. So patient and nonchalant, his storyline weaves from the present to the past to the present and to another past.

There’s a big reveal at the end that explains almost everything, but by then you would have long realized that the strange setting of the novel isn’t the driving force of the book – the relationships between the 3 main character is. And how the cope with their perception of life through memories.

I hear there’s a movie from this book coming out this year. Gotta watch it.