By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy
"Aiyo. Is this the place ah. Very dark lah."
And then, we hear, "Allan, Nigel, come in." John waves excitedly. As he usually does. John put the evening together and got a few close friends of his to come by a friend's place to meet Vermi who runs a loose Christian network dedicated to healing.
We walk in to a house which has obviously borrowed Balinese elements with pebble wash driveways and railway sleepers embedded in white rocks. What were bathtubs are now tubs filled with water flowers, duck weed, water lillies. As you walk in to the reception area you're greeted with a cork board on the left strewn with notices and newspaper clippings. Flyers on the counter top amidst all the paper proclaim this to be "Blessing's Homestay."
As you walk further in, the house itself opens up into a dining cum gathering room which is strewn with paraphernalia of a whimsical collector. You feel a breeze blowing into your hair, or scalp, as the case may be, and you look up and out of a massive skylight which we learn later, is manually closed by a pulley and rope system.
Directly beneath her skylight is a pond with Japanese carp in it and a waterfall which adds to the serenity of the place with the plashing of water.
Dotted everywhere are lightly fanciful collectors items like this bird house chime hanging from wooden twigs.
1950s posters celebrating Sanatogen or "bedak sejuk" adorn the feature walls of burnt orange and antique lamps like the one below hang from the rafters. Yuen Mun proudly tells us that many of these items are cast offs and the lamp in particular is an Italian classic. The detailing is amazing and if you click on the pic, you'll see a gnome holding an anchor being blown by a wind elemental.
There are display cabinets against walls carrying some beautiful items of porcelain like the one below. And while Yuen Mun quickly exclaims that they're not originals, it doesn't detract from their aesthetic value.
Of some of the bric a brac around the house, a couple of large glass jars with copper lids seem to be Yuen Mun's proudest collectibles. Measuring almost 60 cm tall they were used for biscuits and dried goods in old chinese coffee shops.
The house is obviously a palate for her to sculpt and mold. She walked us through her master bedroom which she shares with her niece and with all the books and collectibles it reminded me of my speech and drama teacher who used to live in the Majestic Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, minus the dust motes. It was eclectic like this. Open air bathrooms juxtaposed with collectibles like old Nyonya porcelain. Old Italian lamps shine on modern wood floors.
John drags us back into the wet kitchen and very quickly introduces us to Yuen Mun who is obviously not ready to receive visitors as she graciously makes an apology and returns to cooking for her guests. A little while later she plonks these 2 items on the table with a satisfied grin, wipes her brow and eagerly invites us to tuck in. The Watercress and Mango salad is divine. Sweet chunks of mango readily combine with the spicy, bitter, nutty watercress to make a flavourful salad. The Chinese boil "Sai Yeong Choy" (watercress) with red dates and rock sugar as a tonic for coughs.
The "sui kow" or dumplings in soup were tender, pork and prawn morsels offered with a spicy sambal belacan which is as Malaysian a combination as they come. The Chinese would eat theirs with soya sauce or chilli oil.
Then the vegetable dish was a plate of "ulam" or a Malaysian style salad which accompanied, instead of a sambal, a fish pate made of cincaru or small mackerel. Absolutely heavenly!
The tomato rice, fluffy, slightly sweet and zingy from tomatoes accompanied a fantastic baked chicken dish which had two variants. One was served with a Chicken liver paté and the other was paté - free.
All in all a memorable evening of good fun, good company and of course, it took place around great food.
John & Kenneth
Wei Jun being himself
Pastor Lawrence
Eric smiling his inscrutable smile
Yuen Mun, the owner and all around bubblicious lady
Danielle rolling her eyes ;-)
Vermi explaining what she does
By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy
Time flies when you're working or having fun. This post has been in my drafts for almost a month now. In any case, it was still a fun night and worthy of a post. So here it is.
The RSVP Klue dinner was held in Ninja Jones. The food was decent (I'm not going into a huge dissection of how it went) but it was barely enough. It was fun hanging out with Lianne, Boo, Lyrical Lemongrass, Splashie Boy, and Bald Eagle.
Now, I'm usually suspicious of restaurants with "entertainment" settings like gimicky costumes because I've always felt that it distracts you from what should be the true star. Sure, a proper environment and setting for the food sets up the appropriate expectations but beyond that, ninja costumes and masks were, well, IMHO a bit excessive.
Having said that, we also had the opportunity to meet up with msiagirl who turned out to be a real gem.
I only really had one complaint; the salmon was overcooked. It was another laugh a minute night.
Splashie Boy
Bald Eagle
By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy
It's been 3 weeks of weddings, training, events, and negotiations. Needless to say, by the end of the day, I'm usually just too glad to fall face first onto my pillow and take the bus to dreamland.
It's been a lot of fun, but it also meant that updating my blog was something I had to put on the back burner. Having said that, there are a couple of blogs in drafts which I need to finalise and put up as soon as possible. Hopefully by tonight. As I finally have a moment to myself.
Poor Allan has been working so hard that his body finally told him enough is enough and decided to develop the flu. He's at home resting as I type this. So bear with me/us and we'll get round to relating some events that has been of some significance to us.
And wmw, I haven't forgotten that you've tagged me. Heart and hugs for being so patient.
By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy
Sipping my apple lime crush at Vivo, Pizza and Panini, a grinning, toothy, unkaleong and a slinky, hot Sze sidles up and gives me one of her lovely hugs. You know the ones I mean. A loving, affectionate hug that envelops you with the other person's aura. Not a "lean-forward-chin-on-shoulder-pat-pat-on-back-break-off-asap" type hug.
And that was the start to a hilarious evening.
From relationships to food, to sex (of course), and to alcohol, which of course then includes scuba diving, travelling, passports, our immigration officers, why women find gay men such a challenge, I don't think we left any stone unturned, any topic unexplored. Of course all this was done under the influence of a balmy night, with a slight cool breeze blowing; the after effects of an otherwise thunderous day.
It really was a great introduction to some new bloggers/friends;
http://beingmervs.blogspot.com
http://7-catsndogs.blogspot.com/
http://atonne.blogspot.com/
The rest, you know. Unkaleong, who has one of the most scintillating smiles I've seen in a long time, Jadedpoetry, who was her usual measured but knowing self, Lyrical Lemongrass, and of course the ever effervescent, ugwug or as she prefers to be known, wmw.
From soul baring to flaunting abs, you name it, the night air was to blame. New and old friends sharing a laugh, getting to know each other, and renewing bonds with only the impending end of the night to regret.
Lyrical Lemongrass very kindly loaned me the following photo, which really should be accompanied by her lyrical phrasing of the intent;
"And then there was Unkaleong who knew exactly what it would take to make us hungry. I later went home to eat some delicious wantan noodles with wild boar curry to satiate my hunger. But that's another story altogether."
Hmm sex, food, and fresh meat... Marie Antoinette knew what she was on about when she said "let them eat cake."
Photo Courtesy of
awhiffoflemongrass.blogspot.com
By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy
Daniel Yap took this pic - he named it Nigel and Allan - B****rd! ;-)
Allan and I had dithered all year about diving in the
Lembeh Straits last October.Sigh!
Daniel Yap took this pic - he's a damn good photog
Were we ever sorely tempted! But with Hari Raya coming and the rest of the busy season peeking round the corner, we decided that discretion had to be the better part of valour and we needed to earn some money instead of haring off on what was a glorious adventure with Allan's brother Daniel, his girlfriend Chui, and our madcap divebanana bunch!
Daniel Yap took this pic - crab feeding in anemone
If it were not for Allan's sensible arguments about well, being sensible, I would have dropped everything packed one pair of shorts, one pair of underwear and headed off on Air Asia. Sometimes, in your musings do you still wish you were 15? If you’re 15, don’t bother answering. If you’re in your late 20s and on up you know exactly what I mean. Actually, if you asked Allan he probably would say that I haven’t grown up…yet. Hey, we all live in hope.
In any case, at that point in time, our godson Jeremy was about to sit for his A levels. After hearing about our diving escapades he expressed an interest in learning how to dive…someday.
Serendipity strikes at times like these and since we were hankering for some bottled air as well as casting about for a “graduation” present for him, we thought what better than to get him certified and we would have one more thing to do together.
Fast forward to early February and we began searching for dive spots which basically had to conform to certain requirements. We wanted a 5 star Padi centre, a good instructor for the newbies (eventually there was more than one), decent lodgings, and beautiful dive sites.
Enter Redang Kalong and Alex.
Redangkalong promo pic
Along the way we also accumulated some new groupies. As things stand 9 of us will be heading up to Redang.
I’m chomping at the bit to get behind the wheel of our CRV and drive off into the night only to arrive at dawn at the Merang jetty to take the early boat over to the island. It’s for times like these that the phrase “sense of adventure” was coined.
It’s been almost 8 months since our lungs felt the rasp of metallic air through a regulator and it couldn’t be more timely. Diving is truly one of the miracles of our modern world. When you take the step off the boat and your head submerges you are instantly transported to another realm. A realm where weightlessness takes on true meaning, a realm which has inhabitants of its own in a social circle you will only ever be able to peer at but never to join. It is an alien planet peopled by the strange and the beautiful. The poisonous and the mundane. It is all blue/brown/grey at the depths we visit and that’s just up to 45m. But when you shine a light on them all manner of colours leap out at you. It's voyeuristic.
While we live on the fringes of the truly hard core divers (who hop from dive site to dive site and then return home for 3 months to accumulate enough money to barely survive for the rest of the year diving) it is without a doubt one of the most exhilarating sports that I’ve ever experienced. Skiing would be a close second.
Now if you’ve seen me, you’ll know that I’m not an athlete. As a matter of fact, the word “athlete” seems to have been coined with me in mind as the antonym. I was built for comfort, not speed!
Since December I've also been resigned to the fact that I would not be able to take any more underwater pictures this time around. I'd given up looking for our little digital camera. 2 days ago, my Uncle asked me what camera I'm using now and when I mentioned that I'd lost my camera my Dad pipes up chirpily "oh, you leave it all over the place so I thought I'd keep it for you." For 3 months! Without telling us.
Roll on 28 Mar and rubs my hands together in glee!
By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy
Sambal belacan for the Loh Hon Chye
Dinner for 8
Choi sum & garlic stir fry
We didn't have our friends FOR dinner. We had them over to have dinner with us.
It wasn't any special occasion but Mum had made something that's been a favourite of mine ever since I can remember.
Keluak curry.
Keluak Curry is a this little dark grey nut. Favoured by the Nyonya or the Portuguese Eurasians. It's more commonly made with Chicken. But in our family, pork is meat of choice. Or specifically spare ribs. The bone-in gives the curry a sweetness and richness that belies it's rather dark demeanour.
Keluak meat mashed into my riceEach person was given their own chopstick (singular) to dig out the meat inside the nut. The meat itself is black and tarry and for those on a low carb diet don't bother. It just does not taste the same without hot rice and the keluak curry gravy drowning the rice. Or as they say in mamak's, "banjir."
The taste of Keluak can be strange for Keluak virgins not knowing what to expect. It has a distinct earthy flavour with a tinge of bitterness. But the soft, oily texture is akin to adding buttery smoke to your hot rice. All the spices that go into the curry only serve to frame that flavour.
Loh Hon ChyeMum had also made Loh Hon Chye which is traditionally a vegetarian dish. But being the carnivores we are, she actually sometimes uses spare ribs as well besides a good deal of "lam yue" and dried oysters.
Sambal belacan on my Loh Hon ChyeWith uncharacteristic restraint, and a nod towards tradition, Mum deigned to leave out the ribs. But there was no way she was leaving out the delicious flavouring agent of the smoked, dried oysters.
I'm not certain how many people eat "Loh Hon Chye" this way, but in our family sambal belacan is laid out and you help yourself to liberal amounts to mash into the "vegetarian" dish. Amazing doesn't come close. The "lam yue" gives the dish such a smoky sweet sourness along with the heat of the chillies that my mouth is watering as I write this. No wonder I am the size I am! ;-)
We also had "Chee Keok Seen" or Vinegared Pigs Trotters. Since Mum didn't make this one dish I feel safe in saying that it was not the best I'd ever tasted. It lacked the bite of vinegar and the heat of the sufficient ginger. Since this dish is a confinement dish meant to put the heat back into a post natal woman's body, it also sometimes includes a dash of Benedictine Dom.
Chee Keok SeenBeing the ever filial son (I hope my mother is not reading this - she'd probably laugh herself silly) I must be honest and say with no bias (nudge nudge wink wink) that Mum's Loh Hon Chye and Keluak curry are the best.
Furthermore, no pig is safe with us. If you have a pig for a pet, keep it away from our house lest it become breakfast/lunch/dinner.
