Kemaman Kopitiam

Kemaman Kopitiam

Jalan Beserah

25300 Kuantan

Pahang Darul Makmur

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Today, Ive decided to be a food critic (part time only lah...) So, the gang decided to head off to Jalan Beserah. We were driving around surveying for a restaurant, but found none to our liking. "Where you want to makan?"... the usual answer..."..anywhere lah!". So we ended up in "anywhere lah!" Kemaman Kopitiam (KK), Jalan Beserah. Pls note that Kuantan has got 3 KK branches and this critic is over at their Jalan Beserah branch.

Mee Hoon Goreng Berlauk...where the heck is the lauk? You call sambal kerang lauk???!! Really pathetic....

Chicken Pasta...have you ever tasted pasta with our local papadam, acar timun and hard boiled eggs? It was tasteless and oily. The portion was not even enuff for a rat to eat....damn miserable.

Nasi Lemak Burung Puyuh....of all the dish that was served, this was the most presentable one. Served with ordinary nasi lemak, bull's eye egg, a pair of fried burung puyuh and the normal cucumbers, papadam and nuts.


Kopi Peng.....tasteless, too much ice.
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The total cost for this miserable lunch was RM37-20....a little bit expensive for 'le miserables. The gang was pretty upset and vowed never to step in the kopitiam again.....*sigh*

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Ratings :-

Service : 3/5

Food : 2.5 /5

Presentation : 2.5 /5

Price : 2 / 5

(still very lenient hor....)

Vulgarism..

!!!???@@@### Screw you! wtf!! asshole!!!
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How many times do you swear in a day? As for me, countless. I know, i know.....a christian is not supposed to swear. But I cant help it at times. It just comes out. When im with my chinese friends.....lan, tiu, niamah, niaseng...with my malay buddies....pukimak, tokmu, brengsek...whereas for my english bros.....fuck, asshole, shit. And there are tonnes more that you cant even imagine. Back in my younger days, my friends and I would sit down and create vulgar words for the "gang" to use :)..

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Now working, it got worse. I tend to end almost all my sentences with at least one vulgar word. I even almost said the "f" word to a customer...not that I was angry or such. IT'S CONTROLLING ME!!!! lol..

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So, in order to curb this infectious language disease, I made a plan. I made an agreement with a buddy of mine, Bigdaddy Khairul, that whenever he's around and whenever he hears me swear, he'll give me a punch. Not to the face though.....just on the arm. But I swear he hits me just for fun.....lol...

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Sometimes i wonder......how did the "f" word began, where it originates, why cant we say it in public. wtf!!! okok....this'll be the last wtf! i use in my blog.....alamak! ter-use again :P uncontrollable...*grin*

Which one haar....??

Of late, I have been fantasizing of becoming a photographer. But to start off, I have to get my gadgets in place. I've called many, many friends who are so called "professionals", who gave different views on the types of cameras in the market today. Of course, to take decent photographs, you need to have decently built cameras, which comes with SLR lenses (what the heck is SLR!!) and with decent mp (at least 7mp). So, I window shopped last nite and come to 2 conclusions.

Canon EOS 20D

Nikon DSLR D200

I really have no idea on which to buy. What say you?

Mercs for Protons

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This is really great. We Malaysians are complaining on the high price of petrol and cost of living, the Terengganu government went on and bought 14 new Mercs. They complained that Proton's maintenance if too high compared to the Mercs. RM1million for maintenance......wth! Proton claims that the cost should not have been that high. And now Proton is under ACA probe. According to their investigations, the Terengganu govt did not send the cars to authorised service centres. Who the heck cares where they send their cars for maintenance. What we want to know is why the state govt fellers spent so much on unnecessary heck of stuff. Talk about being patriotic ??!!

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Our "beloved" PM already announced that the Terengganu govt cannot use the Mercs for themselves, instead the cars are only to be used for guests of state ro foreign delegates. Still, today the govt fellers used the Mercs because they said the ACA seized 8 of their Perdanas (so no transport woh) ...no car use taxi or bus like everyone else lar.

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I really do not want to blog or brag about our government (very sien already). We the rakyat are supposed to fully back them up, they on the other hand are supposed to back us up. Win, win mah....But ever since the last election, things has been from bad to worse. A minister opens his mouth, and eventually ends up eating up his own shoe...no pun intended pun its a fact.

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This is to the Terengganu govt fellers.....this is how you repay your loyal rakyat who voted for you. And for the rakyat.......any regrets voting for them/him? Think about it.

Pro-mark Sticks...the essential

For all drummers, another essential tool that they need of course is the drum sticks. They are many companys around the world who manufacturers excellent sticks. Among them are Vic Firth Sticks, Vater Sticks and Zildjian Sticks. As for me, being a semi-profiessional (coughs!), endorses (cough, coughs!!) Pro-Mark sticks, as their tag line said it all....the world's finest sticks.

Pro-mark was founded in 1957 by Herb Brochstein. The types of wood used to produce their brand are American Hickory (a type of hardwood from Southeastern US), Japanese White Oak (also known as Shira Kashi) and Maple. Other woods sometimes used for drumsticks include birch, ash, rosewood, lancewood, and ebony. The three main woods used differs in sizes, different specific gravity and moisture content. However, this does not mean that the the woods are better than the other, it is the drummer's personal decision. Choosing the "best" drumstick is a very personal decision. Many drummers have not yet discovered how much better they could play using the correct stick. It's not unusual for professionals to use 2 or 3 different models or more.

....and here's a picture of Pro-marks founder, Mr Herb Brochstein. Mr Brochstein has been in the music industry since 1941-- including work in live performance, television, and commercial recording. He's also been a teacher, a drum shop owner, and full time music retailer. He started his drumming interest from the age of twelve when WWII started and most of the pro-drummers were drafted, he began getting calls to play....for money of course! While in Chicago, Herb met Buddy Rich (a legendary drummer) and formed a close friendship that lasted until Buddy's death. (excerpts taken from http://www.promark-stix.com/company/behind.cfm)

TX3RW Wood Tip

One of the American Hickory Sticks endorsed by Peter Criss (legendary Kiss drummer)

TXR3JW
Another Peter Criss's endorsement using Natural Hickory wood

TXSD9W Teddy Campbell

TX717W Rick Latham series
My personal favourite. Currently, I have 4 pairs of these at home. Been using this since 2006.

R Rods
Mostly used to control the acoustics in a small gig....eg Eric Clapton's acoustics concert. R Rods are constructed of bamboo dowels surrounding maple handles and movable "O" rings. The result is a unique feel, excellent rebound and added durability.

S-Rods
A different type of rod made of nylon bristles and feature solid "O" rings. The sound produce is much softer than the traditional Hot Rods.

Dubbed SMAX™, these new specialty sticks are available in soft (stock #SMAX), medium (stock #SMAXX), and hard (stock #SMAXXX), and are made of high-impact poly-vinyl. The handle is made of premium grade American hickory. The hardness variation produces a unique range of sounds from somewhat delicate to sharp and aggressive.

and of course...the drum key, for tuning your drum heads fast and is durable.

"Ray Luzier" endorses AHW5B Series

Ray has been tonnes of experience and has played for many, many musicians. Among them are Richard Patrick (Filer, NIN), Billy Sheehan (DLR, Mr Big, Steve Vai), The Nixons, John 5, Slash, Seal, Kirk Hammett, David Lee Roth and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Currently, he has is performing live concerts for Korn and is touring the US.

DW Drums....my dream machine

Many of my friends knows that I am a drummer. I started off drumming when I was in my fourth form. Like any other ordinary youth, my main aim at that time was to attract the gals....why the heck not? The girls' school was only right at the back of mine, there are tonnes of chicks to choose from, and it was one of the "thingy" to play music. One of my pals, Manokumar played drums (actually...only one type of beat lah). So he taught me for a week and I took on from there. Little did I know the wanna-pick-up-chicks-at-school stuff made me hooked on drums. Maybe because drums are really loud, or maybe its cool, or maybe its a way in which I could express myself. Enuff about me......see the logo up there. That logo represents one of the finest drum manufacturers in the world. If you are interested to know how the company began, click here (http://www.dwdrums.com/about/index.htm)

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Here are some of their beautiful products

Collector's Series Maple Drums using Fiddleback Eucalyptus Exotic Wood

Collector's Series Maple VLT

One of their Bamboo Series snare drums

DW Drum Pedal 7000 Series

DW Drum Pedal 8000 Series

Also not to forget the famous professional drummers endorsing their product....Abraham Laboriel Jr. The son of Abraham Laboriel Sr. (a briliiant bassist who endorses Yamaha Bass), Mr Abe Laboriel Jr has played for Paul McCartney, Sting, Chris Isaak, Jennifer Love Hewitt, k.d. Lang, Natalie Cole and the ever famous Manhattan Transfer.

Durian fiesta...(belakang RHB only lar)

5pm......Zarni shouted..."Woi!!! Geng....makan durian!!!". So off we went skipping away singing "Bapaku pulang dari kota..." to the back of the Bank to wallop durian sponsored by Mr Stanley Goh, the boss of Twins Furniture Sdn Bhd.

The Bank fellers walloping...

This dude also known as "Bigdaddy"...looks may be deceiving, he's an Aikido master (wachaaa!!!)
Hidden behind the cam...our "kopek" the durian king, Loga

from left...the "kopek" king bro loga, phua (looking up the sky), zarni (blocking "bigdaddy" khairul), bigdaddy, shamzury (tu, tu bukak yang tu...) and our East Coast Region boss Pn Fatimah (shot from behind...candid mah)

from left....Pn Fatimah, Pn Hafizah, Jaja (suka main sorok sorok..), Husna, Ayu (nyah nko...happy holidays babe) and the lady wannabe Zahimin.
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At about 5.45pm, the clouds were grey, our stomach's filled with durian (terasa nak kentut pulak) and everyone was burping. At 6.00pm, it started to drizzle and by 6.15pm, it was already raining heavily......darn! I wanted some more. All in all, the durians were delicious....after all, it is free.

Consultation..

Since our wedding last 28th June, I have been worried about Rach's health. Why? Was it me? Did I give her stress? You see.....Rach did not have her menses for quite some time now. Rach was speculating on the possibility of her getting pregnant. Ah??? So fast ar..... we planned to start our own family next year. If the baby comes, our plans might have to be postponed. But as for me, I'm all willing to be a father...ooi I'm already 32 this year. Not getting younger anymore.

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So, Rach went over to Watson's to buy a pregnancy test. She tested out negative. Reluctantly she informed me. "Why dear?" I asked. "No lor...if pregnant also good mah. I thought I'm pregnant". Standing beside her, I can sense her dissapointment...but God moves in mysterious ways. We shall wait and see...

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After a while, Rach was complaining that she feels uncomfortable and her back was aching. So we decided that she should consult a gynaecologist. So this morning, Rach and I went to Dr S T Chong, one of the famous gynae in Kuantan at 8.30am. The nurse informed that Dr Chong is very busy and if we are ok is we can consult his assistant, Dr Maizatul. After about 1/2 in the consultation room, Dr Maizatul prescribed Rach 2 types of medicine, one for her menses and another for her hormone. As we were about to pay for the prescriptions, Dr Chong wanted to see us....ok lah. In his office, he asked Rach "Wah! Why you want to take medication for your menses? You want to get pregnant now or later.....if you take the med for menses now, if next month never come, you eat again ah?...No need one. Let it come naturally..." and so I said "Ok lah doctor. You the man..". But based on his advise, he needs Rach's blood samples so that he can check for Hepatitis B & A, as well as for Rubella. We need to see him back next Thursday. All in all the consultation fee costs me RM180 bucks. Now I realised that to have a baby is one thing, the cost of producing one is another.......

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but anyways, a big Thank You to Dr Chong for advising us. Gladly advertise his clinic to others...

Klinik Dr S T Chong

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No. A-2632 Jalan Alor Akar

25250 Kuantan

Pahang Darul Makmur

Tel No. 09-5672928 / 5673928

Fax No. 09-5679757

Food blogger in the making

There's not much that happened these past few days. I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what to blog about. Politics? Crap. Work? Crap. Foodstuff? Fashion? Darn....really no idea.

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Anyways, one of my friend, nicknamed "Bigdaddy" also joined in the Blogger community just recently and guess who had to help him. Yup.....me. Can't blame him, he's new. Would suggest to take part of his adverts income for myself...hehehe. So you "loyal" readers out there, I would personally recommend you to surf thru his site and give comments, suggestions and critisisisms...hell, anything you would like to know about him.

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Its been weeks since I've posted jokes in my blog. So here it is......

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Joke of the day :-

Two guys were discussing the new secretary at their office. John to George: "Man, I dated her last Tuesday and we had wonderful sex. She's a lot better in bed than my wife!"

Two days later. George to John: "Well, I dated her too and we had sex as well, but I still think your wife is better in bed!"

Food, food and more food...

Everyone walloping the Baba n Nyonya dishes

Front top : Sate Bakwan, Sambal Naneh, Masak Buah Keluak, Chap Chay and ordinary vegetables.

The delicious "Masak Buah Keluak"
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Calvin !!!!! Tumbuk sambal belacan !!! Aiya...lu tak pandeh tumbuk sambal lar....pi potong naneh !!! - (typical nyonya conversation).

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My mom is a 100% nyonya. I on the other hand is a half breed, 50% hainam and the other baba. We converse in Bahasa nyonya most of the time and poor Rach had to quickly learn the language otherwise it will be at her dissadvantage...(we can talk at her back mah...hehehe)

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Just so you know, mom offered some of our church friends for a feast of original Baba n Nyonya delicacies weeks back. Before my wedding, mom called some of our Singaporean relatives to buy for us Buah Keluak (not sure if it is spelled this way).....a flower seed (kinda like a black shell) used in one of the dishes. I did not have the chance to enjoy this particular dish since my grandma passed away years ago. We were hunting for this "Buah" all over Malaysia but did not find any. I was told that it only grows on mangrove type of trees in Indonesia.

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OMG, the tedious work that had to be done just for this dish......it took almost a week for the preparation but only 1/2 hour for it to turn into dung....lol.

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Mom invited only 2 families, basically the Francis Tan family as well as the Peter Koo family. Bro in law started with a thanksgiving dinner and its wallop time everybody.

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Also not forget mentioning the other dishes....sambal naneh (nenas pronounced in nyonya), sate bakwan (pork! of course), and chap chay.....after a long and rigorous session of stuffing ourselves to death.......burp!!!

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Time for fellowshipping. So i took out my Bali coffee, Bali ginger tea, Alline brought some keropok and we tortured our stomachs again. Desserts were delicious Dragon fruit and we all had "lipsticks" on by the time the fruits were ate up. Fellowship time was basically talking of funny stuffs and food (like we didn't had enuff !!), but changed the topic to demons and evil spirits. Sis and the others shared on those scary and victory moments and how we should prepare ourselves for "the Battle" against the evil ones. All in all, our fellowship ended at about 1am. We had an enjoyable time and looking forward for the next. Mom said there will be another in 2 weeks time, of course with different dishes......mouth already watering...cheers.

Movies : Hancock

I've always enjoyed watching movies by Will Smith. Ever since The Prince of Bel Air till today, Will Smith has been one of my favourites. Last Sunday, I suggested to Rach that we should bring along Low Giong (http://lowgiong.blogspot.com/) for a movie, since his darling is away in Europe. We decided that we should all watch Hancock...(initially wanted to watch Hellboy 2, but the tickets were all sold out).

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For all you avid fans of Will Smith, the dude did not dissapoint at all. His facial expressions and his "tidak apa" attitude throughout the movie, made him one cool dude that everybody loves. Now back to the movie. It's all about being a superhero with an attitude, if you don't like me...then to hell with you. All in all, the movie was captivating and visual effects superb. A must go for all Will Smith's fan.

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Will Smith trivia :-

Do you know that Will Smith earned a whopping USD80m in 2007, beating stars like Tom Cruise and Tobey Maguire (Spiderman)

Back to work

After an absence of 3 weeks, it's time to get back to work...sigh. However, during my annual leave, I kept mumbling and grumbling about how boring life is without a job and how I wish I was back at work.Monday came and voila.....aiya, why so soon ah? Funny how the brain works.

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Back in the office, I tried to catch up with things. But i was so "lembap" and sleepy. I ended up drinking 5 cups of coffee straight. Yup....but it felt worse. Thankfully, i met Hussairil during lunch and made plans with him for tea later in the evening at Coffee Street :) - you're my savior bro.

On Tuesday, i met up with my customers and prospects in Gebeng. Also twitched my laptop with an additional 512mb Ram and a 160gb external hard drive. Later at nite, fetched Rach back to Kemaman and arrived back in Kuantan at about 11pm. Met up with Low Giong (old ginger) at Meng Yong Restaurant for our usual Kopi Peng.

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Tonite, i'll be travelling back to Kemaman to fetch Rach and head off to watch Hellboy 2 att 11pm....after 3 long weeks of non-movie sessions, we decided to go all out for movies this week. Eye bags again......lol

Bali...our honeymoon trip

Initially, our honeymoon was planned on the 3rd of July. But our tour was delayed because the hotel we were supposedly staying in was fully booked. The tour agency regretfully informed us that we had to reschedule our honeymoon to the 6th. It was ok....just another 3 days of anxious waiting. It was Rach's 1st time flying, and it was the 1st for me to go overseas. You should have seen us....it was like two little children scurrying here and there packing our stuff. "Dear, you think we should bring this or not? How about this? And this? And this?". "How about packing the whole stuff???" "Good idea".....and so we jammed in a heck of a lot of stuff that we eventually didn't even use.

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We drove to KL and met up with lovely Ruth and headed to TGIF, One U for dinner. If you want to have a look at what we had, do look up Ruth's perutbesi blog (http://perutbesi.blogspot.com/). Enuff said, enjoy the pictures...

Dinner with Ruth at TGI Friday, One Utama.

Our tour pass and passports.

1st dinner in Bali

The menu, stir fried "Flying" garoupa, steamed rice in banana leaf and local soup and vege.


Our hotel...White Rose Hotel. A prayer plague for the Bali bomb blast. Many of their guests, Australians to be exact, were the victims...sigh.

The memorial site for the Bali bomb blast in 2002. The site was only 20m from where we were staying.....gave me the chills. Can't remember exactly how many victims, but a majority are Australians (88 to be exact...)


Day 1...travelled 45 minutes in an APV to watch the Barong dance. Accompanied by their hideous tiger, monkey, as Evil god, a goddess, a prince, the evil cronies and a bunch of ugly fellows...lol


Next stop...an active volcano. Our lunch site was facing directly at the volcano. Our tour guide informed that the volcano last erupted in 1939. Notice the black patch on soil on the volcano. Farmers and developers used the soil for plantation and building their houses.

We stopped over at a local farm. Various plants from coffee beans, cocoa, vanilla, bettle leaves, ginseng etc...We tasted their coffee, cocoa and ginger tea. Being a coffee freak that I am, bought 2 large packets of coffee powder and a box of ginger tea...(so that can kentut more...lol) from left Vee (fm thailand), Zurah (orang Penang noh...), Rach & I.

It took us IDR350K for a glass boat ride to Turtle Island. My model pose with a young turtle. Funny how every turtle reminds me of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.....one of my fav cartoons when I was little...actually still is...:)

Rach and her turtle.....look how happy she is. "Turtle, turtle, come to me, I'm with my honey here in Bali....."

Rach was brave enuff to handle the python. Me on the other hand, trying to be act as macho as I can (almost pissed in my pants......:P)

Our 2nd day lunch at Pacung Restaurant....buffet only. Wanted to try their local babi guling but no chance. A muslim lady was touring with us.....shucks !!! The view at the back was gorgeous. The restaurant was built on the cliffs overlooking a landscape of padi fields. A beautiful sight. Not forgetting the chilly wind.

Standing between the doors of good and evil. It was said that the centre opening is to balance the two elements on earth.

A windy affair at Tanah Lot temple. Too bad the cameraman took the photo with us completely blocking the temple.

A view of the Tanah Lot temple.

Our 2nd day dinner at the beach front, Jimbaran to be exact. Kinda romantic. But we were shocked to know that the site was actually the site of the 2nd bomb blast in 2005. Gave me and Rach the creeps later that nite.....

Kuta beach....a must go for surfers and surfers wannabe..like me. Notice...I have no neck (wth!!)

Last day in Bali, cost of a 1 small Bintang beer, apple juice and french fries IDR35,000 = RM12. The beer is tasteless but you can't complain, it's very cheap. You'll have to pay a hell lot more for a Heineken or Guinness.

View of the Monkey God temple. Our tour guide warned us to be careful with our belongings here. I even had to take off my glasses. Why? Just so you know, the place is filled with wild monkeys. It was said that the locals trained the monkeys to steal your belongings esp glasses. The locals would then "try" to get it back and charge you about IDR500K for the return...a real cut throat. Guess, it's part of their income.

The "Kechak" dance...consists of 70 male voices for the entire 1 hour (6.30pm to 7.30pm). No musical instruments, just the men saying "check check check". It was funny at first, but I realised that it is not easy to arrange the music as all of them has different timing and tone.

The beautiful sunset view from the Monkey Temple (Indian Ocean). This site is also one of the fav spots for surfers as the waves comes in heights of 5m to 7m. Notice the horizon. The sun is not setting at the horizon.....funny eh?

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Overall, the trip was good. Learned a lot from the tour guide that Bali to this day still practices hirarchy. The royalties, the brahmins, the middle class and the lowest class (kulis). 90% of their income comes from tourism, 5% on padi and the rest on fisheries. The road is very narrow throughout the town and they only inport Japanese cars. Suprisingly, not a Proton is in sight even though we export Proton to Indonesia. 90% of their population are Hindus and the rest are Muslims, Christians and Bhuddists. All in all, the food in Bali was scrumptious and very much cheaper than in Malaysia. We didn't have the chance to try out other local delicacies as we were dead tired when we reached the hotel.

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Rach & I spent almost RM1K = IDR2.9m, buying their local stuff and such. Negotiating with their local people was a breeze, I even bought a pair of handmade slippers at IDR15K from IDR65K = RM5. For the 1st time, I met Europeans from almost every country, not to mentioned beautiful Japanese babes wearing bikinis. It could be because of my "kiasuness", I did not even blink but drool just watching them, with my wife beside me of course....:)

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On the last nite, I had a chance to try out their Bali massage. I was sceptical at first as I did not like the fact being touched by a stanger. Rach managed to convince me and I obliged, reluctantly at first. We headed to Shinkei Spa after receiving a brochure from their doorstep a few days before. The cost for each person is IDR95K for their local Bali aroma therapy massage. That's about RM30 for a full body massage. Unlike many traditional spa centres in Malaysia, just a back massage would cost you about RM60 min. Suprisingly, the massage was excellent and I was not touched by a lady. A rather gayish Balinese young man took me instead. Thank goodness he's not gay cause he mentioned that he is married with 2 kids. Rach & I was very satisfied with the service and would recommend you readers to drop by the centre should you plan to go there. Last but not least, the way Bali says thank you for dropping by.....pay IDR150K in taxes.

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The bottom line was, Rach was happy, and so was I....."I'M HAPPILY MARRIED".