I know you guys have been waiting for this – the result of my “experimental” chocolate brownies for that someone. Due to the excitement nervousness, I kept forgetting to take pictures to complete my “report”. I have 3 recipes to choose from, one contributed by one of my blog readers – Romantic. Since it was my first time baking, I opted for the first recipe since it looked easier and simpler.

Time to time, I checked the oven and the brownies were expanding and “popping” up like a small hill. It was all good until…

When my mum tested it not long after I took it out from the oven, it tasted quite good. It was fluffy in the inside, just like others’ brownies’ textures and crispy on the outside.

However, after nearly 6 hours, the brownies were sort of being “punctured”, and became quite thick and very concentrated. The fluffiness wasn’t there anymore. The brownies surface cracked even more, just like those dried up lake. It was quite sweet as well.

Her feedback was similar to my conclusion as well. If I were to rate myself out of 10 points, I would give a 3 out of 10. As for her, a 5 out of 10, with sympathy marks some more.

In conclusion, it was one ugly birthday brownies ever made and I failed. –frowns-

Any constructive ideas on how to “compensate”?

“Longkang Mee” is one of the food that I like to eat when I am back in Tampin. As its name says, the noodle is cooked with “longkang” water. That shows how clean the “longkang” water in Tampin is. We can cook with the water scooped up from the drain. How cool is that? Wait till you see our Tampin river, its cleaner and clearer than the sea around Pulau Redang. The government should award Tampin citizens with the cleanest river in Malaysia award.

Ok, if you believe that, flush your head in the toilet bowl. The actual name for “Longkang Mee” is “龙江面”, loosely translated as “Dragon River Noodles”. If you pronounce it in Cantonese, it sounds exactly like “Longkang Mee” and coincidently; the stall that sells this noodle is set up right beside a “longkang”. No, I don’t see any dragon swimming in the river or in my noodles.

“Longkang Mee” is like the normal dry noodles that you can find anywhere. The difference is that they don’t put black soy sauce in it. It tastes a little bland but not completely as it has its own unique taste too. It comes with a few sticks of vegetables, a few pieces of “Char Siew” (Barbequed Pork) and a small spoon of “Yok Sui” (Minced Pork). The amount of “Char Siew” and “Yok Sui” is so little that I consider it as pathetic. I would chip in extra RM1 for extra minced pork to have that extra kick. –grins-

Sarawakians who are studying in Multimedia University, Malacca would sometimes come here to eat this. They say it resembles a little like their “Kolok Mee”, which also doesn’t use black soy sauce, but with totally different side dishes. Although I don’t see any resemblance between “Longkang Mee” and “Kolok Mee”, most likely is because these Sarawakians miss their hometown food. Well…

How much it costs? RM2.20 for small and RM2.80 for medium. Very cheap and filling, I can say. At least, I haven’t ordered large before.

P/S :

Life in Tampin is tremendously, extremely and freaking bored, so bored that I had fall sick. Not sick, just a little bit of cough due to eating “Yau Char Guai 油炸鬼” for tea for 2 days continuously. Other than running errands and cleaning the house as requested forced by my mum, I basically just watch television, eat and sleep.

I think I should have my hair cut already. Hmm… I kinda like it bald, you know. Maybe you will get to see a bald Jason in the upcoming gathering.

Warning : This post contains 37 photos, which is EXTREMELY dial-up not friendly.

A good friend of mine, Jose Lee whom has migrated to Manhattan, U.S. with his family 5 years ago came back to Malaysia for a short holiday. I have once blogged about him in this post, so I shall cut straight to the day we met and things we did. I accompanied him for 20 hours (From Saturday 12PM until Sunday 8AM.) that day, including shopping, meeting friends and having meals.

My girl friends – Pei San and Suet Lei fetched him down to Malacca on New Year Eve. Since I was in Malacca, we agreed to meet each other in Mahkota Parade. For those who don’t know, Mahkota Parade is the only and one prominent shopping complex in Malacca. Pathetic, I know. –sighs-

After 5 long years, we finally met again. He has gained weight significantly and bigger size, which made him look like The Rock. The body is bigger than the head itself. Ha! Before he left for U.S., he couldn’t converse in English. Now, his English has the American’s ascent and is now better than mine.

He didn’t have enough shirts to wear and wanted us to accompany him to do a little shopping. We went into the Giordano shop and picked a stripe shirt for him. It fitted and he decided to wear it on the spot. (He hadn’t change since the night before.) Therefore, the sales girl asked him to take it off so that she could iron them. When the sales girl passed the shirt back to him, Jose handed out a RM10.

Jose : “This is for you.” –handing out the RM10-
Sales girl : “Har?!”
Jason : “Oi… What you doing?”

Jose : “Service charge mah!”
Jason : o.0″
Sales girl : “No. We cannot receive any money from our customer. It is part of our service.”

Jose : “Are you sure?”
Sales girl : “Yes. Thank you.”

Jose : “So nice. In U.S., service charge of USD10 just to iron the shirt.” –keeping the RM10-

We went to a few more shops to get him some decent clothings.

“I feel so rich now. I can shop like nobody business.” said Jose.

If you don’t understand, remember the exchange rate is USD1 = RM3.80?

Then we went to Starbucks for some coffee and chitchat. 5 years is a long time, there are so many things to talk. After spending 1 hour sipping slurping our coffee, we went to Kenny Rogers Roaster Chicken for our second round of lunch and chitchat. With the girls around, there was no quiet moment at all.

Right after we came out from Kenny Rogers, Jose saw the Sushi King restaurant and he said he wanted to eat sushi. There’s no sushi in U.S.? –ponders- Since my “machine” is 24 hours / 7 days on standby, I had no problem with that but the girls were making a little bit of noise. However, they went in also and ate for the third round. -rolls eyes-

After spending almost 5 hours in Mahkota, we drove back Tampin because Jose had a reunion with his ex-classmates at 8PM. Again, yours truly was invited. Thus, in 2 seperate cars, we rushed back to Tampin. Because I had to go back to my house to collect my stuff, I took the other route which is longer yet I was faster than them by almost 20 minutes.

We arrived at the restaurant and 5 Science 2 classmates were there already. Therefore, the reunion started with photo taking, with my camera. The whole restaurant was filled with our laughters, especially one crazy girl’s voice. -sweat- Let’s not go into details, she’s really loud.

Everything was good except the food. Futhermore, I’m picky about food nowadays. -grins- There were claypot “taufu”, “sambal” prawns, sweet and sour pork, lemonade chicken, steamed fish Hong Kong style and 2 types of veges. The bill came up to RM120+ inclusive of drinks and white rice.

It was almost 12 midnight when we parted ways. Jose wanted to look for another old friend - Sze Min. Sze Min was our senior in school and Scout. For your information, Jose, Ven Soon and me were scouts. I got to know him through scouting first. In fact, he was my team leader during my first Scout camp.

“I always remember the first time I got to know Jason. He woke up on the first night asking me for food.” said Jose.

-sweat-

Before I forget, Ven Soon is one of my good friends since Form 1. Jose, Ven Soon and me had a lot of fun during Form 4 and Form 5 when we would cycle home from school together, steal some coconuts from a plantation, got chased by an old lady for stealing her coconuts and etc. It was one of my happiest moment throught secondary school life.

We talked for almost 3 hours there before Ven Soon needed to take the 5AM train to go back K.L. He’s one bugger who can’t stay home for more than 24 hours. He came back to Tampin at 8PM, Saturday to meet up with Jose but went back to K.L. at 5AM, Sunday. That is less than 12 hours! Although Ven Soon and me are good friends, but we haven’t seen each other since Chinese New Year. -lol-

After sending Ven Soon, Jose’s plan to visit everyone in Tampin has come to an end. I brought him to my house for a short nap so that he won’t be so tired later as he needed to go Johor Bahru with his family to visit their relatives at 8AM, by bus.

Before I dropped off Jose at one of his relative house to meet up with his parents, Jose gave me a souvenir. A USD10 note.

Thanks a lot, Jose. It may be only USD10, but the meaning behind this is greater than USD10. I will keep it until the next time you visit Malaysia.

Make sure you keep your promise, that you will come back to Malaysia and visit us within 5 years time from now, OK? Take good care of yourself over there and we all love you, no matter what.

Cheers!

P/S :

This is a back dated post.

That’s one heck of a long entry. I wanted to spilt into 2 parts, but I suppose most of you won’t be too interested with it. That explains the 37 photos in 1 post. However, I have removed as much text as possible and let the pictures do their work.

My semester holiday has official started a few days ago. 3 weeks from now, I am basically free from exams (At least, not until my result is released.), studies, assignments, lectures and tutorials. By the time you read this post, most likely I am already back in my hometown - Tampin already. With no internet connection, I am leaving a note behind for you all.

To my dearest readers,

I am going back Tampin to practice baking chocolate brownies for “her” as I need to make a taste-not-so-bad chocolate brownies before Saturday night (21st of January). So, wish me luck and of course, I will keep you guys updated with my experiments. (Thanks to everyone who helped me one way or another in that post! You people are the best!)

I will be meeting up with Auntie Shiau Lin, Uncle Lee C.S. and their son, Zhi Xuan when they are back from Beijing on the 20th. Auntie told me she bought me pirated Beyonce’s CD. -grins-

If you see the number +60126842434 or my name - “Jason” appeared on your handphone screen, means you are in trouble! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! -evil laughs- So, people like Philips, Tiu Nia Sing, Egghead, Loc Kee, Carol, Juliana, Twinsmom and etc. should watch out. Off your handphone, unplug your telephone line, shut your door, go outstation or hide if you want to, because Jason is coming to terrorize K.L. town. But then, I am low on cash to move around. ~!@#$%^&*()

I will attend the Kepong’s Bloggers’ Gathering which is scheduled on 4th of February at Milwaukee Steak Corner and Family Restaurant. Again, you ask? Yes, again. No thanks to the organizing chairman - Egghead. Details should have been announced at his blog by the time you read this. (Please keep yourself updated at Egghead’s blog for the comfirmation details.)

My blog will have less updates (Not like there are a lot of updates too.) and might take some time before you see me replying your comments. However, I have scheduled a few posts during my absence. On the other hand, Chinese New Year is approaching. I doubt many people will blog and online also. Ha!

I have less time to read blogs, subsequently, no comments from me. But that doesn’t mean I will miss out all the updates, OK?

Just in case I couldn’t make it (I mean couldn’t get online, not dying.) in time, I wish everyone Happy Chinese New Year 新年快乐, Gong Xi Fatt Chai 恭喜发财, more money rolling in 财源广进, stay healthy 身体健康, smooth sailing 一帆风顺, get what you want 万事如意, always on good luck 福星高照 and ………… (Fill it up yourself.)

Love,
Jason

I don’t hardly blog about my family members. The main reasons are

1. I’m not very close to my family members since I was a kid, which leads to…
2. I don’t spend time with them, which resulted in…
3. Me staying in Malacca most of all the time.

and thus,

4. I took my parents for granted.

However, today is one of the 4 special days in my family. Today is my dad’s birthday. Again, I don’t think I want to write an “up close and personal” post about my dad.

To summarize, to say my dad is the best dad, its vain. I know, in our hearts, our parents is suppose to be the best. But to me, all I know is he has done AND is still doing his best, in terms of monetary, luxury, effort, responsibility, emotionally and everything in order to take care the Lioh’s family, including me.

That… is just one of the little yet biggest reason that I am proud of my dad.

Thank you, Pa and of course, happy birthday!