Remember 126
Aug 18, 2008
This weekend was really thrilling, and enlightening. Thrilling because we went to Genting, the city of entertainment in Malaysia. And enlightening as we spent a nice and quiet evening with an elderly malay-chinese.
Thrill
The theme park in Genting led me to do some of the things I have always dreamt of. Falling freely and feeling the power of gravity on the space shot, corkscrwed and going through loops of a roller coaster and what not! Some things are best said in pictures. Check my flickr stream for more.
Enlightenment
Sean-Lok was the chinese colleague who drove us to Genting in his car. We met his father, a 40yr veteran of Exxon. The evening spent with them in the "126 restaurant" was great.It was my first real interaction with a chinese family. I had authentic chinese food, not the Indian chinese, but chinese chinese! Rice and prawns with soya sauce and chillies washed down with a cup full of chinese tea.
During the course of our conversation, I realised vegetarianism was an alien concept to Malaysia. Sean's dad was surprised to see "healthy" Indians (my friends) who were veggies. He always believed veggies are lean and skinny and very frail. They were further surprised to realise that my friends family had been veggies from times immemorial. A tradition, a lineage of veggies! That was simply incomprehensible. He felt impressed and inspired by them and decided to learn cooking pure veggie food.
By the way, 126 in chinese means "no less, no more"
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Batumalai Sri Subramaniar Swamy Devasthanam
Aug 12, 2008
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Skybridge Walk
Aug 9, 2008
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08:08:08 08/08/08
Aug 8, 2008
And it has finally happened! The moment the whole world was waiting for the past four years atleast! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!
I am back in my hotel witnessing the live coverage of the inauguration ceremony with Chinese commentary.
A pretty eventful day today. An early morning walk to the office with a bunch of Malaysian kids is a complete stress buster. I realised that today. Most of the office day, as usual, was spent indulging in the pursuit of excellence in furnace design! Sigh! Mid way during the day Su Be came up to me and asked what date it was. And then I realised, it was the day whole of Malaysia was looking forward to. For a country that has won a sum total of three medals in all the Olympics it has taken part in the past, that is quite unique. It reinforces the Dutch proverb that says " Wining is great, but its the spirit of participation that counts!" Brilliant. 
Evening arrived, and with it awoke the epicurean in me. I decided to indulge myself by treating myself to a 7* meal. I walked into Hotel Nikko and went straight to the buffet table. HUGE is a small word to describe the length of the buffet! I counted 18 different animals in the food, and I was still half way through the line! 90++ ringgits for a a dinner made me feel slightly jittery. I finally decided against it and walked out. On my way out I bumped into a pack of photographers running helter skelter trying to get the picture of a Malay celeb. I decided to join in and ran along with them! A Silver-Grey Bentley slowly made its way through the crowd towards the entrance. The nameplate read "SUPERSTAR" and I half expected Rajini to walk out. Heavy expectations! Out popped an obese lady. The locals were shouting out something strange and a few shook hands with her as she briskly made her way into the hotel. I still do not know who she is!
After this slight detour, I walked into Shin Nichin on Jln Ampang. Cuisine for today: JAPANESE!
I walked in very gingerly. The hostess, who understood that it was my first time in a traditional Japanese restaurant, walked up to me and wished me. She escorted me to a nice spot in the middle of the room and offered me some snails which she informed were appetisers. She then served me some mango juice and a green colour fluid that was supposed to be a substitute for water in a Japanese meal.
I found a fancy name on the menu and pointed it to her. She smiled and was back in a jiffy with a small pot with white jelly like material in it. I hesitated to ask her the contents and fiddled with the spoon. She walked over to me, mumbled something that sounded like "stem ekk" and at the same time pointing towards my spoon and mouth. I fished out some of the jelly from the pot and dumped it into my mouth. EGG EGG EGG!!! It was steamed egg in some weird translucent sauce. Tasted as much weird.
Finally my main course came in and the look of it was worth the wait. Some Japanese soup that I drank straight out of the bowl and another weird sauce. Grilled chicken on a side plate that was marvelous, just the correct smell, the correct colour and the perfect taste!Beside it were two huge prawns, golden fried, dipped in another white sauce that resembled mayonnaise. And finally some fruits to finish it off. Japanese food was a revelation. It had rice, it was spicy, and it was mouth watering (except for the snails part)
On my return to the hotel I found a Malaysian Government vehicle waiting with 20 police bikers as a convoy. I rushed in and found an important Malay minister (whose name I forgot!!Damn!) escort his old mother into the car. I was too late to get his picture :(
I could get the royal car.
I pretty tiring day. Lots of running across the roads involved! An hours swimming with a bunch of kids from Kuwait! Japanese food! Chinese Celeb! and a Malay minister!
Tomorrow is my first weekend in KL and I hope to take complete advantage of it.
Posted bySandeep Sekharamantri at 6:06 PM 0 comments
Labels: cuisine, japanese, kualalumpur, malaysia
KLing
Aug 7, 2008
I attended the Lifestyle Expo'08 in KLCC today. Highlight of the day: The world's largest LCD at 108" priced at a modest RM388,888 + taxes!!!
After an eventful day of culinary pursuits I realised two awkward truths.
Awkward truth 1: If I am going to stay in a foreign country and not be with foreign food, then what's the whole point of living here.
Awkward truth 2: I cannot survive with malaysian food.
A logical derivation from both the statements would be that I can survive with a foreign food other than malay in KL :)
And thus I made a list of restaurants with varied cusines. Thai, Indonesian, Sundanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Burmese (even they have a cuisine :O ), Lebanese, Syrian and basically every Asian country other than India. No wonder they say Malaysia is truly Asia. Its hard to kill the gourmet in me you see. You can suffocate and strangle it, but it always re-emerges like a phoenix. And thus I began my culinary adventures with Al-Marjan, the taste of Lebanon. Some chicken cooked in various sauces, some fish (I never knew Lebanon had a coast!!) in white sauce, Lebanese Coffee, meat in eggplant stew, some cookies and deserts to finish it off.
Tomorrow Vietnamese!!!
Posted bySandeep Sekharamantri at 7:22 PM 0 comments
With the man who saved UPA
Aug 6, 2008
Posted bySandeep Sekharamantri at 7:00 PM 2 comments
Nasi saves the day
Aug 5, 2008
It took me just 30 minutes into KL to realise that my famous tummy wasn't invincible after all. The gourmet in me was laid to rest on my first breakfast in KL. The look made it shiver, the smell suffocated it and finally the feel killed it. I had to suffice with chocos and some strange blanche fluid which they called low fat milk.
I rushed to my office and looked forward to eat something more sane during lunch. After all it was Shell. Another horrible truth dawned on me. Offices in Petronas towers aren't allowed to have their own canteens. To top it all, my team mates took me out to have a proper malay meal. Char Kua Teow, that is what I had. A concoction of noodles, prawns and cockels in vinegar and thai sauce. I gulped it down with some coke. I decided I have had enough of malay splendour and decided to treat myself to some good old crispy chicken in KFC. But as all things malay, even that had a sweety slimy touch to it.
Breakfast today was also like yesterday. Some chocos and low fat milk. I resigned myself to the fact that malay food is not for me. And just when hope hit rock bottom, I discovered Nasi! Malay for Rice!
I found two restaurants, nasi penang and nasi blah blah blah, both within a kilometer of my hotel. I gorged on Nasi and chicken for lunch and dinner today for as cheap as RM6.5 = 80 INR!!! :)
Loong live Nasi!!!
Posted bySandeep Sekharamantri at 6:30 PM 0 comments
