Wednesday 20 January 2016

Eating Out @ Dubu Dubu (Korean Fare), IOI City Mall

Stole some hours for a quick dinner with Mom and Sis in November last year. Walked for hours in the enormous IOI City Mall looking at stuff and window shopping.

Worked up a huge appetite in the process and suddenly the usual fare/shops had no appeal no more. So we walked around a bit more and came upon Dubu Dubu (cute name!).

The hostess was this incredibly kawaii little lady who sat us down and patiently showed us the menu and made recommendations of what to order.
The menu had a-a-carte items as usual, but the set meals
were recommended to us by the hostess. Looks like a fair spread too.
Our set meal!
Ultimately the three of us took the good-for-4-persons set meal of Seafood Jigae (seafood in kimchi soup), Beef Bulgogi, Spicy Topokki (say it wrongly and it becomes a popular Malay cuss-word!) and Korean Spicy Wings. We also added an a-la-carte dish of Pa Jeon. Just in case tak cukup lauk. Hahahaha.


The rice was first to arrive, a bowl of densely packed rice speckled with red grain rice (reminiscent of the red rice used to make Nasi Dagang) with portioned kimchi and pickled vegetables.


Then it was the Seafood Jigae, a bubbling cast-iron bowl of seafood in spicy kimchi broth. Spicy kick, with the sharp tang of pickle juices from the Kimchi and the warming seafood broth.
Mom going for the kill!
As soon and we tucked into the rice and soup, the other dishes came in succession. The Beef Bulgogi (always choose the beef option when it comes to meats, it carries such a rich umami flavour when done Korean style) had a soft fried egg on top, complete with gloopy egg yellow (Yeayy!).



Then the Spicy Chicken Wings came and was amazingly crunchy too, despite being coated in the sticky chilli vinegar glaze. Quickly followed by the Pa-Jeon, which is nothing more than the humble egg and flour omelette that had julienned vegetables thrown in. This had a zingy, sour dipping sauce on the side. Something that lifts the overall experience from meh to wow.

Pa-Jeon!
The sharp soy and vinegar dipping sauce. 
Last came the humble dessert. A seemingly unglamorous tau-fu-fah. However, this turned out to be one of the Champion dish of our dinner. The beancurd was so smooth and silky it was like eating wet clouds. The best part, those yellow strips in the bowl was actually candied lemon peel in sweet syrup. Together the plain tofu was elevated to sublime levels due to the interplay of milk, citrus, sweet and faintest of bitter derived from the lemon peel. I had 2 bowls of this. It was SO good.



Thursday 7 January 2016

Public Service Update: Save A Life. All Lives Matter.

Please pass this along. And always watch out for our fellow man.

Anonymous: What Happens When You Kill Yourself?

Anonymous: You wanna know what happens once you kill yourself?

Your mother comes home from work and finds her baby dead and she screams and runs over to you and tries to get you to wake up but you won’t and she keeps screaming and shaking you and her tears are dripping onto your face and your dad hears all the screaming and runs into the room and he can’t even speak because the child that he loved and the child that he watched grow up is gone forever and finally your little sister runs into the room to see what all the fuss is about and she sees you dead. The person she looked up to and loved. The person she bragged about to her friends, the person she wanted to be just like when she grew up, the person that made her feel safe. But she’s never really going to get to grow up and smile and laugh and love because she’ll always be consumed with this feeling of missing you. And now there’s something missing from your family and they can barely look at each other anymore because everything reminds them of you but you’re gone and hurts more than anything. and you think that your mom never cared because she was always busy and yelling at you to finish your homework and clean your room and forgot to say I love you sometimes but really, she loved you more than anything and she doesn’t leave the house anymore, she can’t even get out of bed and she’s getting thinner and thinner because it’s too hard to eat. Your father had to quit his job and he doesn’t sleep anymore, every time he closes his eyes he sees his baby dead, and the image never goes away no matter how much alcohol he drinks. And at school your best friend sees that your seat is empty and she gets this sick feeling in her stomach and that’s when she hears the announcement. You killed yourself. And suddenly she’s screaming and crying in the middle of class and no one even bothers comforting because they’re all busy sitting there staring at your empty seat with tears dripping down their cheeks and all she wants is for you to hug her and tell her it’s gonna be okay like you always did, but this time, you’re not there to do it, everything is dark now that you’re gone and her grades are slipping, she barely goes to school anymore and she ended up in hospital after taking too many pills because she wanted to see you again. the girls who used to make fun of the way you dressed feel their throats get tight, they don’t talk to each other anymore, they don’t talk to anyone, they’re all in therapy trying so hard not to blame themselves but nothing works. and your teacher who always gave you a hard time stares blankly at the wall, she quits her job a few days later. And then your boyfriend hears the news and he can’t breathe, he still calls you a lot just to hear your voice and he talks to you on facebook but you never message him back, he can’t fall in love again because every girl he meets reminds him of you, he’s never going to get over you, he loved you and he cries himself to sleep every night, hating himself and slicing his skin because he couldn’t save you and he’s never going to hold you in his arms or hear you laugh again. Now everyone who knew you, whether they were a big part of your life or someone you passed in the hallway a few times a week, they carry this aching feeling around inside them because you’re gone, and they miss you, and they don’t know why you left but it must’ve been their fault and they should’ve stopped you and they should’ve told you they loved you more and that feeling is never going to go away. And so you killed yourself

But you killed everyone else around you too.

And that is why it is an unpardonable sin, not because you are gone, but the wreckage of hearts left behind.

Wednesday 6 January 2016

Coincidence?

Brought my staff over to the LADA building in Kuah today, for a Children's School Uniform sponsorship program.

The initiative is created in an effort by the local government to help families manage the costs associated with school-going children.

Personally, I am impressed that the local authorities would even think up of such a program, on top of the existing school-books and school-food ones.

However, while in the parking lot, I noted there were many more cars than usual in the normally vacant lot. I guess, there are may takers of the program.

Then I realised, too many of these cars are in even better shape than mine, which led me to think, are they here for the free school uniforms as well? Assuming they are, the follow up question would be, Are they entitled?



I find it hard to accept that families that own VWs, Hondas, Toyotas, Mitsubishis, and the usual Malaysian brands being greatly in need of free uniforms for their kids.

I am probably silly to make these assumptions. Unfair perhaps to think that far too many are here for government sponsored freebies.

But I cannot escape the feeling that because of these freeloaders, actually needful people might get passed over.
posted from Bloggeroid

Sunday 3 January 2016

Really? Blame The Government?

This sad infograph image was used to support the argument that the Government is not properly managing its funds, leading to price increases everywhere.

I will admit that there is a bit of truth in that comment, however to blame the Govt for everything is too short sighted and ignorant.

What about my share of the taxes, being used to subsidised your 'right' to have children.

Shall I blame you for not practicing coitus-interruptus which led to your lot of kids? Is that the fault of the Goverment too?

Or should everything be kept cheap at levels equal to 20years ago because you feel you have a right to cheap school supplies for your band of mini-mes?


posted from Bloggeroid

Friday 1 January 2016

Post Lunch Feels

The family had Lunch at our favourite seafood steamboat place.

Then I am reminded of how someone used to crack a raw egg into a bowl as a dipping for the piping hot seafood.

Weird. Despite it being done by many other people too.

Strangely enough, I kinda miss his open attitude towards food and his keen 'hangriness' if his food is late. Hahaha.

All things change I guess.

God knows best.
posted from Bloggeroid