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.

Pawn Shop Stories

You know what a pawn shop is, right? Whenever you’re short on cash, you bring something valuable to the shop, the old man at the counter assesses its street value, lends you some money, keeps the item as collateral. If within a period of time you don’t come back to redeem the item, he keeps the item.

At least that’s how they used to work here. In some other countries, pawn shops, instead of dying out like a sunset industry, have mushroomed by becoming second hand item traders and antique restorers.

I’ve been watching a series called Pawn Stars (cool name, eh?) about a family run business in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its a reality show that follows the day to day dealings of a pawn shop. The cool thing is that they people coming in to sell rare and strange stuff, and they’ll get an expert in to appraise it, meanwhile telling a bit about the history of the item.

Cool show, its now showing on the History Channel. And that guy Chumlee is funny.

Back To The Future [1985]

As a serious movie buff, I’ve watched plenty of them. And if there’s one that come close to the perfect movie in my mind, it would probably be the 1985 teenage scifi comedy, Back to the Future.

I watched it in the cinema as a kid, and a couple of time on video and reruns on TV2, and just last night thanks to axxo. After 25 years, its still funny, exciting, and the dialogue still fresh.

For those who don’t know about this 80′s classic, Michael J. Fox plays Marty McFly, 17 year old teenager who goes back 30 years in a time machine Doc Brown builds out of a Delorean. Back in 1955, he bumps into his dad, and accidentally prevents his parents from meeting, thereby jeopardizing his future existence. He then seeks out the younger version of his good friend Doc Brown. After some convincing the eccentric doc, they set out to send Marty back to the present (1985) by harnessing the power from lightning striking the town clocktower. In the meantime, Marty’s mother had become infatuated with him, fueling a hilarious Oedipal-complex situation.

Marty and the doc succeed, and when he returns to the future, he realizes a lot of things have changed in his family due tohis intervention of the past 30 years before.

Of course looking back now its easy to spot all the plot holes (we’re talking about time travel here), but the whole premise is deliciously appealing to me – if we could go back in time to see how our parents lives were, and how things would be different had some small little change took place. Or, in a more extreme premise, what would I tell myself 20 years ago that I know now that would change my life?

Worst Yau Ja Guai (油條) EVAR

I love yau ja guai (油條). But since it isn’t healthy, if I were to eat it, it has to be REALLY good.

The only place I buy it from around here is from that guy Leslie, his stall is in front of Lim Mee Yoke (formerly Chow Yang) in the mornings. The other stall is the pasar malam near my house (which isn’t as good as Leslie’s, but what the heck its convenient).

So today, first time in Empire Shopping Gallery (meh. I’ll be going back to Subang Parade) we passed by this stall called I Love Yoo! (really, the name should have tipped me off) at the lower ground floor selling yau ja guai and the usual accompanying stuff. So since I was craving for it, I tried it.

WORST. EVAR.

It tasted HORRIBLE, and inside it was FLOWING with oil. Didn’t even finish it. You guys have been warned.

Android or iPhone?

Been looking at some smartphones these few weeks.

Initially it was at Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire. But the iPhone-using friends have also been mounting a credible persuasion…

My main purpose is the free apps (besides the usual call and camera functions, etc) – i need to use them frequently, I’m a I-need-to-know-that-NOW kind of guy. And some cool free games to keep my kids when we’re waiting for our food.

So… any suggestions?

‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ by Ernest Hemingway

When I tell people I read a lot, they often ask me “What’s your favourite book?”. Rather than tackle that question, I’d always answer, “Well, the LAST good book I read was…”

And the last good book I read was Hemingway’s ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ (why, yes, there IS also a Metallica song with the same name).

The book is about the events in a 3-day period during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Robert Jordan is an American volunteer who joins the republican guerilla army as an explosives expert tasked to blow up a bridge. Jordan journeys behind enemy lines with a small band of guerilla fighters. Over the few days, he gets to know his comrades and why they fight, and ultimately realize that they will not survive this mission.

While the plot is simple, Hemingways skillfully tackles the issues of death, suicide, courage and inevitably, the brutality of war.

I have to admit, this wasn’t an easy book to read (I tried and gave up some years back before reading it recently) but it is fulfilling to finish it. Everytime i watch scenes of war on the TV news, I am always reminded of the characters in this book and why they fought and were willing to die for their cause.

As with all my favourite books, it has a good ending (not necessarily happy, though). I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read it.

Memories Of World Cups Past

Come to think of it, I’ve watch many World Cups, here’s a rundown of what i remember of each one of them.

Spain 1982

I was a small kid, not into football yet. All I remember was watching a replay of the Argentina-Brazil match and my uncle saying that it was a ‘dirty game’. I also remember thinking the name ‘Boniek’ was pretty funny.

Mexico 1986

This was the first World Cup that I really got into, I was Form 1 at that time and everyone in school was football crazy. This was the World Cup of Maradona, Socrates, Scifo, Platini and Lineker. Not to mention the Hand of God.

Italia 1990

Form Five, a few months before SPM, but that didn’t stop us from watching the matches at an ungodly hour of 6am. In retrospect it turned out to be a disappointing World Cup, but at that time it never struck us as boring at all. Two teams that stood out was Cameroon with Roger Milla doing that (mildly disturbing) jig at the corner flag, and Jack Charlton leading Republic of Ireland who reached the quarterfinals without winning a single match. Also, Stuart Pearce blasting the penalty kick into the sky.

I remember clearly we started collecting Figurine Panini commemorative stickers which were pretty cool back then (not to mention expensive).

USA 1994

Everybody was like ‘What? USA?!’ Personally i was hugely disappointed when they didn’t have basketball-style statistics flashing across your screen during the game. That would have been cool!

I was in university, games were 3am and 7am I think (of course when in university, staying up through the night was pretty normal). While everybody had to pack the common room to watch matches in the small TV shared by hundreds, my pal Ray smuggled a small TV into my dorm. That meant I got to watch every single match, even the boring 3/4 placing. I was partly supporting Nigeria, coz I had a Nigerian friend in uni at that time.

I remember watching the game in my room with pals Ray and Dave. We were all supporting Brazil, when Baggio missed the penalty, Dave started dancing in the room.

France 1998

All in all I didn’t really follow this World Cup that much, since I had just started work. The highlight was probably France’s Zidane leading his team against Ronaldo’s Brazil. I also remember clearly that in this campaign, most of France’s goals came from midfielders and defenders.

This was also the World Cup with that annoying Ricky Martin song. You know, the one that goes “Go! Go! Go! Allez, allez, allez!”

Korea Japan 2002

I was working as contractor in a construction site. Most of my colleagues watched the matches with the Indonesian workers at the canteen, I watched it in the comfort my subcon’s air-conditioned cabin. It was also my first World Cup with Astro at home. By this time the broadband was widespread in Malaysia already, so football was everywhere and anywhere.

Did anyone ELSE think that a mediocre South Korea reaching the semifinals was a bit fishy?

Germany 2006

Strangely, with this being only 4 years ago and me having watched most of the games, I can’t really remember much about it. Maybe it had more to do with me going off football in general during that time. But I do remember all that unnecessary fuss about Wayne Rooney’s broken toe and Cristiano Ronaldo getting him sent off. Oh and also that Zidane headbutt.