Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Some Chinese Cuisines

Some Chinese Cuisines I had during my visit to China.
This is one of the dessert. The butter cream coated yam paste. The culinary art is awesome but the taste is so so...

What is this? It was served with porridge in hotel at Hangzhou. I was so curious, I thought it was a kind of edible escargot. I tried tapping with my spoon but it was soft. I got one and tried. Ceh, a kind of preserved veg called 'luo si cai'.

These are what we had for breakfast at most of the hotel in China.

A very famous cuisine in China ~ Salted water duck( 盐 水 鸭). Do you notice that the skin is still fledged? Yuk! Yuk!

I prefer roasted duck rather than salted water duck.

Hahaha, an erected "du ka"!

This fish from Xihu really tastes odd, it has the earthlike savour.

Sweet sour fish ~ more to Malaysian favour.

"Dong po rou" ~ succulent pork prepared in the clay pot is the favourite of our group.

Curry pork? Have you ever tried before? A lot leftover!

A pair of Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crabs ( 阳 澄 湖 大 闸 蟹)which cost rmb120. The tag marks the genuine crabs from Yangcheng Lake.
The hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake near Shanghai are
one of the most coveted Autumn delicacies for the Chinese. Since it was the beginning of winter, we were able to hunt for this delicacy. The hairy crabs are famous for the tender meat and tasty yolk (ovary and digestive glands). I devoured this pair. Wow, yummy! yummy!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Cool place...Wuzhen

Time flies... It has been half a month since I came back from China.

I took a 9D 8N tour to China~Hangzhou, Wuzhen, Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and Shanghai. Stories about the Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong"s visits to Jiangnan area disguised as a commoner are welly known. The places where Emperor Qianglong had sojourned are raised with graceful, refined weeping willow trees near the river bank.

The most impressive of all is the Wuzhen Village. Mandarin translation of the place "Wuzhen" is "Blackened Town". The houses are unique. The wood of the house is fumigated to avoid termites' feedstuff. All the houses are built with blackened wood. The stilts are standing on cement blocks so as the dampness of the earth would not wear away the wood. I noticed that all the wooden stilts are still in fine condition.

I have taken some photos at Wuzhen, so enjoy viewing.


The entrance of Wuzhen .


The street of Wuzhen ~ I am naughty, I peeped through the cranny hole and saw refrigerator, television, lazy chair... huh, a new modern furnished room!


Does this village look cool?


A cobbler found in the village.


Does this look like Kampung Air?


The water is still and the whole village is in stillness. I experienced a peace of mind here.


The weeping willow trees along the bank.

Friday, December 5, 2008

The incompetent man

After working for almost a year, I came across an incompetent man yesterday. A short dark sturdy man came to my office who had an unpaid open tiket in our hand. He wanted to confirm a flight seat which is operated by Maswings from Mukah to Kuching on the 6th of December.

I came to know that the flight is fully booked on that day and seat is only available on the 7th of December. He kept on telling me that he MUST be at Kuching on the 6th to attend a seminar which was already planned by him. I had the mood to joke with him that if the aircraft is solely owned by me, I would brought him to Kuching on his quest.

I was all the while alone, he backbit his nephew in law, a converted muslim lady and commented my Iban fellow worker. I felt I had the paroxysm of throttling him. I managed to mollify my anger and pitched my voice low.

After about an hour of dealing such a stupid idiot, one of my honourable guest popped into my office. I thought that would come to end. What did that idiot do? He raised hell and protested my service. He claimed for the serious loss of his time. What a hell he was talking? Eventually he left my office with a chesty smile on his * celaka* face.

Weird, weird, that stupid idiot returned to my office before I left. He asked me about how I felt. I was so frustrated and gave voice to my feeling but probably I gave him a sarcastic grin. I told him that he who had shown his own disesteem to a certain extend that my customer disgraced him for what he had done. I questioned him, "Are you conscious of your discourtesy in public?''

He shoke his head and walked away in silence. I think his muteness was a consequence of his gaucheness. This soul really exhausted me!