Collateral Damage Or Just Plain Baby Killing

I have mentioned before that I no longer have the werewithal to write about the atrocities that is happening in the land of Philistines. Thus I am happy to find the following article that accurately express my feelings. So like most of us, I am taking the easy way out and re-producing the article in the whole, may it at least make more of us understand what is really at stake here.

The Star Online >

Lifefocus Sunday January 11, 2009

Enough is enough

STRAY THOUGHTS WITH A ASOHAN

Do what thou will, but people, leave them kids alone!

OKAY, time for a rant. Don’t expect a well-reasoned argument or a nuanced stance. Don’t even expect coherence or professional wordcraft here. Forget about journalistic objectivity or a professional code of ethics, seeing both sides of the story or walking in another man’s moccasins. I don’t care about the supposed political complexities, cultural sensitivities or historical subtleties.

Not when you start killing innocent people. Especially not when you start killing children.

A few years ago, when I was at the Asia News Network – the alliance of leading English dailies in Asia, including The Star – one of my colleagues did a special report on the use of child soldiers in conflicts across the region. Most of these centred on Indo-Chinese nations, but it also included reports on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or the Tamil Tigers, in Sri Lanka abducting children to train them to kill.

When you take children away from their families, put guns in their hands, and tell them to kill other people for the glory of your cause, you’ve lost all moral standing. Your cause is lost with me. You don’t deserve victory.

An Associated Press article published in The Star on Thursday reported that out of the 75 people killed in Israeli attacks on Palestine, only five were confirmed militants. That’s right, 70 were civilians: Innocent men, women, and children. As of that date, more than 300 of the 670 Palestinians killed since Israel began its aggressive military campaign on Dec 27 were civilians.

And at least 130 were children aged 16 or below.

And we’re not even talking about the strike on the school earlier this week. The Israelis said that Hamas militants were taking refuge there, but can’t explain why many of the bodies pulled out of the rubble were that of teenaged boys and children.

Oh yes, Hamas started it by raining rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli targets. I don’t care. You’ve killed children. Toddlers and infants. Your justifications ran out there.

And if Hamas militants were using children as shields hoping that their enemies had a modicum of morality and plain old human decency, then yeah, both sides have gained my greater contempt as well.

The Israelis and the Palestinians are not the only ones. There are the Americans and their few allies in the war to destroy Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass distraction, air strikes against Afghan wedding parties, and the Western media’s pandering to such atrocities by allowing the US military to describe them as collateral damage.

See, I don’t care if there were glitches in your stupid “smart weapons”, or that your intelligence gathering was just plain dumb. There’s no excuse.

Their enemies are as much to blame, whether they are Muslim, Christian, free-thinking, or atheistic terrorists. When you plant a bomb knowing that innocent people are going to be killed, then you deserve the Gitmo treatment.

In a message to world leaders, Jordan’s Queen Rania Al Abdullah, who is Unicef’s (the United Nations Children’s Fund) Eminent Advocate for Children, said: “Our humanity is incomplete when children, irrespective of nationality, are victims of military operations.”

“More than 70 dead children, close to 600 injured,” she said, referring to the Gaza death toll. “What does the world tell their mothers? That they are collateral damage? That their lives don’t matter? That their deaths don’t count?”

The United Nations and the International Court of Justice should just get off their asses and declare this simple truth: That any combatant who harms children in any conflict under any circumstances whatsoever is guilty of crimes against humanity. They should be hauled off to face justice. They should be treated no better than the Nazi war criminals were.

And the same goes for those who support them ideologically, militarily, financially, or politically.

This is not an issue about religion, despite how some are painting it. No, neither are these atrocities against the Muslim world, despite what some politicians say. Such beliefs have led to a mess of misconceived statements and intentions, such as boycotting American products or sending in the troops to fight for a regime that doesn’t have an exactly spotless conscience either.

No, this is a humanitarian issue. It’s as simple as this: There is a bunch of people killing children.

What is the world community – what are we – going to do about it?

A. Asohan, New Media Editor at The Star, can’t think of anything else to say.

Can we at least pray the DOA QUNUT NAZILAH AT LEAST?

اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنَا فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ ، وَعَافِنَا فِيمَنَ عَافَيْتَ ، وتَوَلَّنَا فِيمَنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ، وَبَارِكْ لَنَا فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ ، وَقِنَا شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ ، إِنَّكَ تَقْضِي وَلا يُقْضَى عَلَيْكَ ،وَإِنَّهُ لا يَذِلُّ مَنْ وَالَيْتَ ، تَبَارَكْتَ وَتَعَالَيْتَ

Allahumma inna nasta’inuka wa nastaghfiruka, wa nu’minu bika, wa natawwakkalu alayika, wa nusni alayikal khaira, wa nashkuruka wa la nakforuka wa nakhla’u wa natruku manyafjoruk. Allahumma iyyaka na’budu wa laka nusalli wa nasjudu wa ilayika nasa wa nahfidu, wa narju Rahmataka wa nakhsha ‘adhzabaka; inna adhabaka al-jidda bi al-kuffari mulhiq

O Allah! We seek Your assistance and ask for Your guidance, and we beseech Your forgiveness and return to You in repentance. We cherish faith in You and place our trust in You. We attribute all goodness to You. We are grateful to You and refuse to be ungrateful to You. We abandon and forsake all those who reject You. O Allah, You alone we worship, unto You alone we pray; unto You alone we prostrate, and for You alone we strive. Unto You alone we flee for refuge. We cherish hope in Your mercy and we fear Your retribution. Verily, Your punishment is bound to catch up with those who reject the truth.

“Ya Allah, berilah kami petunjuk sebagaimana orang-orang yang telah Engkau beri petunjuk. Selamatkanlah kami dalam golongan orang-orang yang Engkau telah pelihara. Uruslah kami di antara orang-orang yang telah Engkau urus. Berkahilah kami dalam segala sesuatu yang Engkau telah berikan. Hindarkanlah kami dari segala bahaya yang Engkau telah tetapkan. Sesungguhnya Engkaulah yang menentukan dan bukan yang ditentukan. Sesungguhnya tidak akan jadi hina orang yang telah Engkau lindungi. Engkau wahai Rabb kami adalah Maha Mulia dan Maha Tinggi.” (HR Thabrani 3/123)

A Day Of Being Thwarted

Sometimes you do get a day of Black Monday where nothing seems to go your way, doesn't it. Well today was a day that held a lot of disappointments that started when I wanted to change the name of beneficiaries of my EPF scheme, so I thought since I had some time before a series of meeting in the afternoon, I would go to the EPF building in Jalan Raja Laut and purposely walk from the Masjid Jamek station to the building so that I can visit some food haunts along the way that has been unvisited for too long. Well on the way to the EPF was the first in my series of disappointments of the day, as my favourite shawarma stall at the old Kamdar along Jalan TAR do not only seemed closed for the day, but closed down. To me this stall is the best and most authentic shawarma stall in the country, serving genuine shawarma and maintaining the food as one even before the dish was corrupted to a 'kebab' by everybody else. I really hope that the stall is only closed for the day and it was just my bad luck to come on the wrong day, and not the latter as this would be a great disappointment. Need to make a return visit real soon to ascertain the truth.

Anyway the string of event of being thwarted continued at the EPF office where instead of the simple queuing and filling the form at the counter in the pre-electronic age(ten years ago methinks), now it seems that not only you have to queue to get the form, you then have fill the form and prepare supporting documents like a copy of your IC before queuing up again to get a number after the reception is satisfied that you have filled the form correctly. My how going electronic has increased productivity as it now makes me work more to do such a simple beneficiary change, and since I only allocated a short time to be there as I thought that the system was still so simple, I decided to come again another day to do the job. And the irony is that EPF themselves are always campaigning for their members to update the beneficiary list in order to safeguard their interest, but if the process is this time-consuming I am not surprised that nobody would actually do so. EPF, buck up will you and make the process simpler, it is not as if I am actually withdrawing some money from your precious vaults.

Well I then decided to go for my favourite chapatis at Santa's located at the little hole in the wall along Jalan TAR. Well this time I can confirm that the shop is no longer operating there, as the whole building has been brought down. Anybody out there knows where the stall has moved to? This Santa aa and not the other Santa Chapati's around town as to me this is the best version amongst all of them. Anyway this is second chapati stall that I like to patronise that has closed down and moved to locations unknown, and I am running out of places that serves good chapatis to patronise in KLlah. Well since Ibrahimsha was just besides the place and still open and since I have been reading about how they supposedly served Penang Nasi Kandar that somehow till now I have never tried, I decided to give the place a try to see if it was as good as they said. Well it was a typical nasi kandar stall, and they do serve the nasi kandar Penang style with a ready serving of round papadum with you plate of rice. Even though their roasted chicken looked savoury, I decided to give them my personal taste test of beef "masak itam" or in black gravy and accompanied by fried omelet and veges and when I asked for some belacan, they served it with some ladies fingers or okra. This was a plus point as I must say the okra they serve actually met my palate that even though I usually forego the okras at other mamak stalls as they were usually mushy or too raw, here it was perfectly done that I polished them off. Nonetheless overall the dishes were just ordinary to me, good enough to be considered as genuine Penang Nasi Kandar but not as good as the excellent P Ramlee nasi kandar store further down the road. And this would not be a place I revisit anyway as their price is too rich for my taste, as would you believe the plate of rice shown here with a limeade to drink cost me RM10.90. This is one mamak stall that has not followed the call to reduce prices eh.

Well on the way back to the LRT station I stopped at Jai Hind, my second visit since I wanted to confirm why I did not like the place on my first visit but other writers and bloggers seem to give the place such high ratings. Well what else should I test it on again right but to ask for my avourite sweetmeat, laddu. As they had two types of mortichoor laddus that differs in the orange tinge, I asked the guy at the counter what is the difference because I was a bit surprised that the other was already pre-packed. When I asked whether I can mix and match both type, he was non-committal and kept pushing me to buy the pre-packed ones, insisting that they taste the same and cost the same. Wanting to test his sincerety, I agreed to his suggestion but I must say I should have insisted on the fresh ones on display, as these photos would evince the fact that the pre-packed ones are definitely not fresh, too crumbly due to its dryness and definitely not creamy as it should. Well Jai Hind, I stand with what I have felt about you from the first visit, and I will revisit you no more.

Well the day ended with the meetings that I was supposed to have, and luckily this time it was me who thwarted a potential silly mistake by one of the visiting mission members that could have jeopardised all the marketing efforts we had mounted for months before. I though that would have cut the string of bad luck, but still it niggled at me when the chocolates that was given to me as a visit souvenir actually contained alcohol, so tomorrow it will be my kid's kindie teacher that will enjoy the treat. Well at least I still did some good eh, and that is what matters right.

Chronicling A Budget Airline Holiday - Part 4

The last chronicle that will be written about this trip would be about a woman’s greatest joy that is shopping. When we were there were only three main items that we were looking for ; batik, tudung bawals or sequined hijabs as my wife has intentions to start wearing them this year and for me especially, local food stuff that could be taken back home.

Our hunt for batik started with a cursory visit to Buluh Kubu Bazaar that unbeknownst to us was actually Kota Bharu’s batik market central. Therefore we only passed through a row of shops owned by a single proprietor that Iskandar said offered the best batik there, and we had to agree that the designs there was beautiful but the pricing was a bit stiff, so we decided not to buy yet as we wanted to check out other places first. This is because we had all the intention in the world to return there the next day, but circumstances dictated otherwise. Well we will do so in our next trip then. Nonetheless we managed to buy the desired batiks elsewhere, and we must say that even though at a glance Kelantanese Batik does not seem able to compare with Terengganu’s Pasar Payang design, there are places that feature beautiful designs on exquisite fabric that actually beat Terengganu’s designs. The next place we visited was Cik Minah Songket where my wife was not enamoured with their batik designs but their men’s batik shirts was quite nice, but to my regret these did not come in my sizes but I finally found a beautiful one at Nordin Batik that I bought that fitted me comfortably. Nonetheless Nordin do not seem to have a trove of batik for the ladies with only a limited selection and this disappointed the wife. Yes the uncut ladies batiks are the ones stocked in those clothing cabinets in the photo on the right, and they only had four of these in the whole complex. This does not seem surprising as this shop caters more for the tourist crowd and possibly most are from the government staff tours, and this is why the Batik Shirt section is well stocked for the Government Batik day use. The designs are also much nicer than the ones available back home at a much higher price. Nonetheless on the last day we checked out the batik store beside the hotel called Hazel Silk House and the wife was enamoured with their designs and bought her fair share. The best thing was this shop has a branch at Buluh Kubu Bazaar so our disappointment of not being able to shop there was actually assuaged. Is it not ironic that the last place we shop at due to its close proximity actually was the one that satisfied us the most?

Referring back to Cik Minah Songket even though my wife was not attracted to their batik designs, she was attracted to the Siamese style silk fabric that the shop had on offer, made of a different type of silk material and lighter and more suitable for the local weather. In addition the reason Iskandar brought us to this place was that it was the only songket store along the so called songket street that had a songket making demonstration that also allowed visitors to try their hand at the loom, even for children. My wife took up the offer but the kids were too shy to try, and my wife can now at least boast that she has tried making songket. I must comment on the artist who was very eager to show her art, and was very encouraging to the wife after she found out that the wife was an aficionado of the art of cross-stitching that shares similar techniques, so they started to get technical amongst themselves. Thus even though we did not buy batik or the more expensive songket there, we did go away with some fabric making memories courtesy of the shop. It was too bad that we were too short of time to try batik making at Nordin Batik that has a similar demonstration program, so this will also be an activity for our next visit there.

As for the tudung, we went to Wakaf Che Yeh night market to buy some cheap versions while the more expensive ones were bought at Rantau Panjang and at Hazel itself. After checking out the prices for similar tudungs in Kuala Lumpur, my wife found that the prices in KB averaged half the price in KL. Some of the sequin patterns in KB have also not arrived in KL yet, thus at a cheaper price the tudungs bought can give off the air of exclusivity when worn here. On the shopping rounds we were also taken to a silversmith shop called KB Permai where we saw a simple demonstration of silver smithing as that day was a day more for polishing the silverware rather than making new stuff up. Yet the ladies of the family took the chance to splurge on silver chains as they were much cheaper than in Kl and with more intricate designs. Nonetheless although I was impressed with a framed silver model of a Malay Junk, that is something that to me that is to be admired than bought because it cost a few thousand ringgits though cheaper items like kris and such can be had. This basically wrapped up our quest for non-edible stuff.

As for the food trail, like I mentioned before we had a short visit to the famous Siti Khadijah Central Market and at the local delicacies section I had bought some local sweet meats. I also managed to buy some of the rubber leaves wrapped tapai that I had blogged about before, in a small quantity supposedly to sample but since we never made it back there again during the visit, it had to suffice this time. Nonetheless we felt the tapai in Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan tasted better than the ones in this market, and unless someone can tell me where else in KB I can get better ones we will satisfy ourselves with those from the nearer locations to KL. The same cannot be said about the spicy beef floss or sambal daging as it is called locally or serunding elsewhere. We were taken by Iskandar to THE PLACE in Kelantan for the serunding, and I must say that it is definitely amongst the most delicious commercially available (my sisters’ in-laws have access to homemade versionslah). We were taken to Hajah Ramlah Salleh’s serunding workshop a bit further up the ferry jetty and were shown a demo of how the serunding was made. Then we were invited to sample the different types of serunding made here, beef from local cows and imported buffalo beef, and also chicken floss. Here we could taste the difference between local beef serunding and the imported beef serunding, as the local beef was sweeter and finer than the buffalo beef. This justifies the higher price for the local beef serunding as it was like comparing lamb and mutton. We were again unfortunate that the local beef was still being prepared (by pounding) to be made into serunding, and it would take another five hours before it is ready. Thus we had to console ourselves with some balance stock from the day before that weight less than a kilo for our own consumption, and we bought an additional two kilos of the buffalo beef for souvenirs. And that’s a wrap for our shopping spree finally but before I forget I must mention about the paus or steam dumplings we had at Wakaf Che Yeh, this betters even the Tanjung Malim Yik Mun paus currently and quite reminiscent of their taste twenty years ago. Too bad these are not available frozen like Yik Mun’s or these would be hand-carried back to Kl already.

The only other activity that we undertook was a visit to the War Museum, but this was quite a short trip as the exhibits were mainly posters rather than actual artefacts and it was quite a breeze to move through it, while we were locked out from the outdoor exhibits as the grounds were starting to flood. Nonetheless looking through the fence there was nothing that would have excited us as other than the replica of the pillbox, the rest of the items are quite commonplace in the local museums as the museum also archives the history of Kota Bharu since their war exhibits is in short supply. However I must comment that I find it strange that there was no mention about the fact that our own Royal Malay Regiment first went into action in Kota Bharu itself and this should have deserved its own section, but instead it looked like the war in Malaya was only fought by the British Army only against the Japanese. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Are we still over-glorifying the Mat Sallehs even in our own museum? Let’s hope this shortfall would be rectified soon as I am not sure if there are veterans still around to tell their story. Anyway I hope that you have gained something from reading these chronicles, and enjoyed yourselves to boot!

Chronicling A Budget Airline Holiday - Part 3

It is now time for me to get on with the next chronicle of the Kota Bharu trip, by mentioning of the pleasures of food that is the highlight of this trip. KB is a food paradise if you do not have any pre-disposition about what you eat as the food here is quite different from the west coast or even the more southern east coast states in fact, so much so that even if the item is familiar the way it is served may be different. This was the case with the first meal that Iskandar brought me to try on the first day of the visit when we wanted to discuss the trip itinerary, which is to the famous popiah stall in the city stadium. There I found out that the spring rolls are actually served as part of two types of rojak or mixed salad, cut up and mixed in with the salad. Even though I did not try it this way that time and ate it the normal way by dipping the rolls into the chilli dip, I did try the popiah later in the Kelantanese way from another stall near the hotel, and must say it did make the meal more substantial this way as the spring roll was generously filled with meat that added to the salad.

For dinner we tried Middle Eastern fare at the A.M. Tarbush restaurant, and it was so good that we returned there for dinner on the third night. On the first night I had the mutton kofta set while the rest of the family had their briyani rice with honey glazed barbecue chicken as we played it safe in ordering familiar dishes, and these dishes were done so well that the younger actually asked for the briyani again for the second outing. We were informed by Iskandar that the proprietor was an Egyptian man who married a local lass, so I guess that the dishes had their authenticity enhanced by catering to local tastes, as per their tagline 'Arabic food Malaysian taste'. Anyway on the second night we had the Arabic pita bread to eat with the meat dishes of chicken kofta and lamb shish kebab that came in the form of lamb chops, as Iskandar had mentioned that the bread was to die for. We totally agreed with him as this was no ordinary pita bread, tasty and soft in its own right and great to eat with the meats. And I forgot to mention that the rice or bread can be ordered separately from the meats, so you can actually mix and match all the food here if you come in a big group.

Anyway our local culinary adventure began when Iskandar took us to the famous Nasi Ulam Cikgu at the arts and craft museum, but we were unfortunate that we arrived there a bit late after a morning of sight seeing and shopping and in a heavy shower, resulting in a large crowd at the restaurant even though it was already 3 p.m. and the ulam itself that remains are the balance of other people’s picking. Nonetheless I must commend the fact that their kitchen kept churning out hot replenishment to the food line to satiate the demands of hungry customers, and it was quite satisfying to eat a hot meal in the driving rain. No photos as we were too hungry to wait in devouring the hot dishes of flour coated whole catfish, fried chicken, asam pedas patin and ulam with the budu tempoyak dip on the side in the blinding rain. A very satisfying meal indeed. This was followed up with breakfast the next day at Warong Nasi Berlauk Khekuk under the cherry tree (khekuk) as we swore off having breakfast at the hotel and thought it best to spend our money on local delicacies instead. Though they are famous for their gargantuan portions of nasi khawen or mixed white rice and nasi dagang that Iskandar and my wife had, I satisfied myself with their nasi dagang and gulai darat that was excellent. Again sorry no photos as we concentrated on eating as there were people waiting, and I counted two packed executive cars leaving the place after waiting awhile in vain for an empty table.

However we have photos of the famous Mee Kuah Kampung Pek which is a type of mee rebus that if you take the special becomes another version of my favourite prawn noodles, and it was a satisfying meal as I now know where the style of mee rebus that my mom makes comes from as she must have learned the method when our family was based here for a while a long time ago. But I must say that you should insist for your noodles to be served in individual portions, as otherwise they would serve the ordered portions in one big bowl like the one shown here with additional prawns and the quantity of the noodles seems to be reduced this way although the gravy and its trimmings was generous. I do pity the wife who asked for the mee hailam as a precaution in case the kids would not like the mee kuah, but they actually loved it so much so that I had to share the mee hailam and left the rest of the mee kuah for the kids. Well the next time we are there this is one noodle store ripe for a re-visit, in addition to a mee celup restaurant near Tesco that we did not have time to visit that Iskandar assures me was great as it is prepared using charcoal fire.

Anyway that afternoon Iskandar invited us for hi-tea at his house where he had made a special order of Murtabak Diraja from a famous caterer called Seri Mas Diraja. This was a take away only joint that serves famous Kelantanese sweetmeats like Jala Mas, Tahi Itik, Buah Tanjong, Akok and such while the Murtabak has to be pre-ordered before collection. I must say that the sweetmeats here are excellent without any compromise on its ingredients, as I must say that I had bought some of the sweetmeats from the vendors at the Siti Khadijah Central Market and they definitely cannot compare with delicateness of taste and texture, the just right sweetness and overall quality of the food here. Too bad that food here is either take-away only or pre-order basis as I understand they make a great roast duck suitable for a picnic basket, and we surely will make an order the next time we are in KB.

On the way to Iskandar’s house, we also stopped at Yati’s Ayam Percik Restaurant because my wife was asking where she could get a good Ayam Percik she had in her last week to KB during the schooldays at a night market called Wakaf Kubu. Iskandar informed us that the proprietor has since set up a restaurant chain and we are visiting of the branches, but we were forewarned that the taste may now be different from last time. At the restaurant we were surprised at the variety of percik roasted meats available, in addition to Gulai Kawah meat gravy dishes and the sweetmeats on offer. It does make your eyes loll in wonderment but since we were already heavy with food for the hi-tea, my family only purchased some ayam percik, pulut berinti and satar to top-up for the hi-tea and snacks for later. Nonetheless later at the hotel my wife commented that although the ayam percik is good but was not as good as she remembered it, so she resolved to also make a special order at Seri Mas Diraja on the next visit as Iskandar also informed that they do take orders for ayam percik. Another thing to look forward to for our next visit.

On the last day we were in KB, we decided to take breakfast at one of the Kopitiams that we understand is now a mushrooming culture there although most of them are of the home-grown variety. As we no longer had any transport on that day, we went to the nearest one called KB Kopitiam and sat down to kopitiam with an east coast twist as similarly to the Kopitiam at Kemaman they serve local delicacies in packs like nasi dagang, nasi daging kerutub etc while serving delicious kopitiam fare like tuna toast that called for an extra order, kaya and butter toast though my wife said their French toast was a bit too oily. I had the nasi daging kerutub that was ultra delicious that made my daughter asked to be tapaued back to the hotel while the black pepper beef curry puffs there can give any beef pies a run for the money as they were solidly filled with hundred percent beef. It may surprise you that these are actually fried frozen curry puffs but unfortunately I forget the brand or I would be looking up for them in the frozen section of the supermarkets. Since we had a heavy brunch and since check-out time was extended to 6 p.m., we lounged in the hotel room afterwards until around two as it was raining the whole morning that our original to laze at the swimming pool was thwarted. Anyway I braved the rain to check-out the Malay food stalls nearby that Iskandar also mentioned served good food and one of the them was where I bought the spring rolls that I personally feel was actually better than the one at the stadium (sorry Iskandar) and nasi kukus or individually steamed rice paired with fried kampong chicken with two extra pieces of chicken. All these were packed back to be eaten at the hotel room and I must say the steaming rice with organic check tasted out of this world. Man KB is a real food heaven that it was so sad that on the way home that evening, dinner was plain old KFC chicken as we had to go to the airport early and that was the only food store at the airport, as we were informed that it would be jam-packed with people welcoming home the people returning from the Haj, and it was really packed so it was touching that Iskandar and family actually made a trip to the airport to send us off that night.

Harking Back To Old School Malaysian Steakhouse

We were in Kajang Prima during the weekend to pay our bills and since it was around lunch time, we wondered where we could get a decent meal. What do you know while driving away from the bank, we saw a branch of the Windmill steakhouse chain further down the block, and since it has been ages since we ate at a 'contemporary' homegrown Malaysian steakhouse in the ilk of The Ship, Victoria Station and Jake's and their generation of steakhouses before the advent of the current crop of mostly foreign origin steakhouse, this gave us a chance to relive old memories of eating what basically is the local Hainanese chef's take on a western meal. The verdict is simple, they may not compare in terms of authenticity with their western origin, but their recipes do cater to the local palate and may make it easier for novices to get accustomed to western dining.

Anyway let's get on to the meal where we started with the complimentary soft bread and butter that I think is the vestiges of English dining that is still maintained by these sort establishments. I had wanted to order the baked scallops for starters for the kid's consumption but then I noticed the menu is now quite comprehensive with even a local Chinese meals section, and thus in the seafood section they also had fried scallops as an entree. Thus I went with this for the younger while the elder had the Windmill's version of spaghetti bolognaise or as they call it the spaghetti with meat sauce. For starters instead we ordered two types of soup, the mushroom cream soup from the three types offered and the French onion soup with melted cheese on top. My wife then had the T-bone steak with additional order of black pepper sauce while I had the spare ribs.

The meal started with a surprise complimentary vegetable salad for the meat orders that is as old school Malaysian style as it gets as you are served with a piece of pineapple and a piece of sengkuang under the vegetable cuttings that is topped with thousand island sauce. This may not win any stars for the chef but in its own way is quite comforting in its homeliness, the only complaint would be that the pineapple slice is not matured enough to be eaten while the sengkuang was quite scrumptiously fresh. The mushroom soup made an appearance that while the kids initially complained that the soup seems to be from a can, after a taste I did not agree as it had actually a substantial amount of chopped button mushrooms with a milk-based creamy consistency and the kids actually devoured it later to the last drop. We were then surprised with the delivery of the black pepper sauce that I initially mistook as the onion soup, until I noticed it was too thick to be a soup. Anyway it was strange that the sauce came before the steak, but the taste itself was not so bad. Then the onion soup finally came and it tasted a tad too sweet, probably not solely from the beef broth and the onions itself was only found at the bottom of the bowl. Nonetheless since it has been a while since I could order a French onion soup, it was still polished off despite its failings.

The entrées started to arrive complete with the their quaint toothpick flags with the fried scallops, breaded and looking like nuggets if you did not know otherwise. Nonetheless looks can be deceiving and the scallops were delicious as they were fried just right, not overdone with the still soft centre juicy with the sweetness of the scallop flesh. It goes without saying that this dish was consumed without nary a complaint from the kids, a rare occurrence indeed. This shows that the chef has a deft hand with seafood and this would be our choice the next time we dine here. The reason being is that if it was the same chef, he was a bit heavy handed with the meat courses as evidenced with the beef dishes, with the elder unable to finish the large portion of spaghetti served as it tasted too beefy to her without sufficient tomato sweetness to even out the meaty taste, leaving a fair portion of the noodles behind. As for the T-bone steak, my wife said that although the chef tried to show the cut’s tastiness by serving it naked, it would have been heavy going without the black pepper sauce especially since the medium-ness still had some red bloody portion. In the meantime, the spare ribs was strangely served with the meat cut off from the bone, I do not know if this was because I asked it to be prepared medium also or this is the regular way it is served. This makes it inconvenient to cut at the char-grilled tendons as I did not have any meat to cut into, and since this is my most favourite part it was a waste to leave it behind as I could not even gnaw at it. The sauce is a typical Hainanese chef take on barbecue sauce, though the underlying taste mimics a Tex-Mex recipe there was still a cloying sweetness that betrays its origins. Nonetheless the overall meal was quite belly-filling though just satisfactory, and at a price of almost 200 ringgit for four was a bit steep for a step back to the past. This would mean that it will be a while before it is time for a re-visit.

Helpless To Help The Hapless

Well the Israelites has now again steamrolled into hapless Palestinian lands and again the world goes through the motion of political protestations, protests, calls for boycotts and such against Israel and her patron the good olde USA. But growing up through the longest running international conflict that now straddles two centuries, I am now quite inured to the fact that there will not be any political solutions to be found, as factionalism and political self interest within all involved parties will again trump any resolution that may be lead to a fair conclusion to the affair. As it is, it seems that the Israelites can only be stopped once they suffer a bloody nose as evidenced by their last foray into Lebanon, thus a military solution would seem to be the only way to bring the Israelis into line with world opinion. Yet again the so-called military powers on both side of the extremist field will not commit their warriors into the fray to help their brethren, merely satisfied to use the Palestinian cause to justify their actions elsewhere, thus giving the Israelis free play again in the Palestinian land itself. Contributions of aid in the form of cash or kind also seems to go nowhere toward the furtherance of the Palestinian cause, thus I am now hardened respond to new calls for aid. The fact is if the Palestinian people themselves still do not pull on their bootstrap and help themselves in order to be helped as promised by God, then to me it is their comeuppance as it would continue to make the rest of us helpless to help the hapless Palestinians.

Chronicling A Budget Airline Holiday - Part 2

Well it is time to recollect my visit to Kota Bahru or KB as it is more commonly known and for this chapter I will concentrate on the journey and the hotel stay. As it was, Kota Bahru was not flooded during the four days we were there but there were continuous showers, so it would be a good idea to bring along a jacket or at least quick drying clothes with caps when you move around town. Thus it is no surprise to find Kota Bahru people wearing jackets as if it was winter over there. Nonetheless our stay was made more pleasant by the attendance of my forum friend Mr. Iskandar who owns the tourist agency PHK TRAVEL & TOURS (M) SDN BHD over there, who facilitated a lot of things while we were there and we owe him and his family a great debt of gratitude.

Let me first talk about the logistics of the trip shall we. For luggage we brought along a large sized oyster shell bag, two carry-ons and a back-pack. The reason for this is that despite the bags being practically not even half-full on the way in, it provides you a lot of space for the things you buy when you are in KB since the town is well known as a shopping haven. It is all the more important when you fly with Air Asia in order to take advantage of their generous baggage allowance since you will be charged 10 ringgit for every piece of luggage checked-in, so even though the oyster shell bag practically doubled in weight on the return journey with various bought items packed into it, we only had to pay the same 10 ringgit charge for checking it in. This tip would be very handy for you who intends to amass the popular Totos or Siamese comforters when you visit the border town, as it leaves your carry-on allowance to bring these practically weightless Totos on board instead of needing to check it in, as otherwise the ten ringgit charge would no longer make it sensible to buy it all the way over there. One word of caution, you are not allowed to bring on Kuini mangoes on board even if you pack it in your check-in luggage, and we had to eat the ones given by Iskandar at the airport rather than disposing it.

As for transportation, we had arranged for a town taxi to take us to the LCCT and I thought that the same taxi could pick us up when we returned. However the driver told me that there is a consortium of taxis for LCCT like the ones in KLIA main terminal that even though they are the same red and white cabs as the town taxis, the town taxis themselves are not allowed to pick up passengers unless there is a shortage of taxis when they are in the terminal. So there goes poof of that plan and we had to use the consortium taxis when we returned. At this point I would like to caution you to be aware of being baited and switched by the taxi consortium, as they try to make you upgrade from their cheapest taxi service to the premium service under the pretext that your luggage will not fit into the cab. Still I insisted on buying the budget coupon as I do not believe in such Shylock reasoning as I have travelled with such luggage in other taxis without problem, but again the at the taxi stand there seems to be a conspiracy to make me upgrade when the taxi usher and the first taxi driver driving a Wira insisted that the luggage will not fit into the taxi. This made me put my foot down and I said if the budget taxis there do not want to take me, I demand a refund as I will make my way home in another way. Luckily one of the other taxi drivers waiting came over and said that he will take my luggage, and what do you know the luggage fits into the boot of the Wira he is driving despite the earlier claims that it will not fit even into their larger sized Waja and Nissan Sentras that were also in the queue. Thus do take note of this cautionary tale and insist on your rights as a consumer, otherwise you can be taken for a ride by the LCCT taxi operators.

In KB meanwhile, we faced no such problem with the airport taxi but be forewarned that KB is not a city with an in-town taxi service so you would do well to reserve with your hotel concierge for a taxi to take you back to the airport as you cannot hail any taxis by the roadside. So there goes my usual method of hiring a cab driver to take me around town. Luckily I had made prior arrangements with Iskandar to reserve a car if we needed it, and this came in handy at this stage. So if you feel you are confident enough to drive yourself around on your own, my suggestion is to rent a car while you are in KB, otherwise you might get stuck without access to transportation. Nonetheless KB was a total blank for me even though part of purpose of the trip for me was to look up my growing up places since my first five years was nurtured there, and Iskandar volunteered to take me around instead and I only drove around myself on the last night of my visit. So Iskandar was heaven sent as will be chronicled later in the last part of this series.

Lastly I want to write about my disappointment with the so-called five star hotel we stayed in. what can I say about Renaissance Hotel KB is that you may have good hardware but your software needs more work. I do not know whether the poor service shown was because we were staying there under a low cost carrier package or because the more junior staff at the front desk consider the locals as beneath them, so much so I had to pull rank and showed my status by speaking in English in demanding irritating faults like not sending my daily newspaper and getting the wrong type of newspaper be looked into by the senior management. It is as if that if you cannot speak proper English like a foreigner, you are assumed to be someone who are unaccustomed to a proper hotel stay and can be treated differently rather than differentially as it should in a five star hotel. This even extended to their housekeeping staff who only delivered my extra towels an hour after the request was made with an insincere apology when they replaced only two towels for the existing four towels that I turned in for replacement after two days stay, a problem that would not have cropped up if they used their common sense to replace the same number of towels with the number of towels turned in. as it was it was only the duty manager and one senior front desk lady staff who showed true five star caliber and took care of the problems. My thanks to them. I must also comment on the hotel’s breakfast spread in Palm Terraced Cafe as it was rather disappointing in both taste and choices. It is common for me to look up local delicacies in the spread as otherwise I may not get the chance to taste them especially on business trips, and usually the ones served are good representatives of the locality, but here they only served one type and it was tasteless to boot. This to me again shows the hotel tendencies to faunt on foreign culture as I feel we were having breakfast in foreign hotel. So much so we decided to forego the free breakfast for the remainder of our stay and we were able to indulge in excellent local fare shown by Iskandar this way. This even extended to our other meals as we were also informed that the dining options in the hotel was also not that good. On a final note I would like to point out that do not be surprised by cashiers intruding into your breakfast with cash bills despite your thinking that the breakfast is all-inclusive with your stay, as this another of the hotels peculiarities that ask you to sort out this issue when you check-out instead of dispensing with the matter in the normal breakfast coupon way practiced by the other hotels.