Chengdu how-do-you-do

#1. I used to think that a job which allows me to fly here there everywhere is da bomb. I'll be one of them with a jet-set lifestyle, hopping to different capital cities in different continents every month. Oh, the places I would visit, the people that I would meet, the stories I would tell (and the envious stares back home I wouldn't mind getting)! Glamour aside, travelling for work is basically just that, for work. And it's tiring.


#2. Everything else aside, being above the clouds still takes my breath away. When I look up, all I can see is a blue as deep as the ocean, and I imagined it blending with black, like watercolour art, as it merges with the darkness of outer space.


#3. Airasia’s on-flight meal is really tak glamourous langsung. All I got was that box of chicken rice; no appetizers, no desserts, not even some water to wet my lips. But, it’s one of the better plane food I’ve had, even better than MAS’s chicken or fish.


#4. We touched down around 6pm. It was really foggy in Chengdu (and apparently it remains so pretty much throughout the year, with about 10 days of sunny not-so-foggy weather) so it’s no surprise that flights to/from Chengdu are frequently delayed. I've experienced it before. Above are not just random people but, random people dancing in the street, a common sight in China.


#5. For dinner, we went exploring at 宽窄巷子 (literally: wide narrow alley) or China Lane. It's a collection of restaurants, bars, retail shops and even a B&B housed in renovated/refurbished traditional mini courtyards. While some of those buildings look really old and deserted and creepy, I read somewhere that they're mostly newly built.


#6. Grand entrance to a restaurant. Like a traditional Chinese courtyard, it opens up to a square space in the middle with adjoining buildings along the 3 sides. Since this is a restaurant, table and chairs were set up in the middle court for those who prefer al-fresco dining.


#7. Pretty cool Starbucks. Looks traditional from the front, but totally white, square and modern at the back :)


#8. Next morning we flew into Panzhihua. The airport is quite special in that it's located on a hill or mountain and thus has a short runway, and it only service flights to/from Chengdu. As you can see, the plane is parked just behind the terminal. We saw them unloading our luggage and we reckon it would've been faster for us to just grab it from the carts instead of waiting for it to get on the conveyor.


#9. I’ve not taken a good look at Panzhihua before mainly because I usually sleep during the journey, hehe. It's not a touristy place and the environment's rather dusty and dry. Mountains are brown and tree-less, something I find... strange. But on the way down from the airport that day, we saw this breathtaking landscape of endless mountains and valleys.


#10. That’s the airport. I reckon it must be the only one in the world at such an altitude.


#11. Huaping is where we're at again. This is the town taken from the roof. My mum thought it looks like some Italian village. I thought it looks more like Hanoi, without the mountain range :)


#12. Biggest shopping complex in Huaping consist of several stall operators selling handphones and jewellery and a supermarket...


#13. Where one can find Lays of all flavours! – lime, cucumber, blueberry , spicy Sichuan, braised pork, roasted chicken, etc. The fruit flavours are interesting but I'll go with any of the meat flavours anyday.


#14. We had barbeque for supper that night. Barbeques are especially popular during winter time coz the heat from the food and fire instantly warms you up. We wanted small portions of everything we ordered but they came in huge bowls. The chicken itself was about 6.6 kati (one kati = about 600g) and for that alone they charged us 250 yuan! It's more expensive than a nice roasted chicken at a good and famous restaurant in Shanghai. Kena conned big time.


#15. This is an elevator mat. It's changed daily to reflect the day of the week. I can't fathom why they do it save for to remind people what day it is. It's a China thing.


#16. Is it a hidden Mickey??


#17. It's a panda! On our last day in Chengdu, we had a chance to visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It's about an hour away from Chengdu town and it's an absolute must-see coz pandas are sooooo cuteeeee.


#18. The first panda we saw was a sleeping one. To be fair, this is not a lazy panda as they sleep most of the time. Conserve energy and what nots.


#19. This is a tooooo cuteeeee red panda, also an endangered species. There were about 6 or 7 in that enclosure and the park keepers were trying to capture them, for some reason. Those buggers were treading slowly but their dodging techniques are first class. They're also very good tree climbers.


#20. Where the park keepers were not kacau-ing them, they were chomping non-stop without a care in the world. I suspect red pandas are native to China. Look at those Chinese eyes, haha.


#21. Sleeping with their paws dangling, haha.


#22. Sleeping with their butts facing passing visitors, haha.


#23. Ah, finally, a non-sleeping one. He/she was chomping while lying on its back, so relax can.


#24. Tulips of all colours. No need go Holland to see!


#25. This is a young adult panda. They're super active and chomp a lot. We got lucky coz it was feeding time when we visited ^__^


#26. So that's why they're all awake and chomping! Pandas have an artificial thumb that enables them to hold bamboos with one hand/paw while they eat. Like a monkey! Or you and me! :)


#27. Chomp chomp chomp.


#28. My favourite panda picture of the day!


#29. The caption is so cute, hey.


#30. Young adult pandas having some fun time.


#31. After all that cuteness overload, we head over to Jinli Street for some shopping. Jinli Street is similar to China Lane, except 3 or 4 times the size. From the Travel China Guide portal, "it is recorded that as early as the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC), Jinli Street was the most famous place for baldachin - a rich, ornate cloth. And it was one of the busiest commercial streets during the Shu Kingdom (221-263). Hence, it is known as 'First Street of the Shu Kingdom'."


#32. I also read somewhere that Jinli was constructed around 2003/2004. I really don't know where is the truth but I like the idea of walking down an old trading street. Since Chinese New Year is just around the corner, there's a festive feel to the place with all the lanterns and stuff.


#33. Nearing the end of the maze is a long stretch of tea houses and street food. They're by far not cheap at all but it's a good way to sample Sichuan fare. For extra kick, give your skewered meat a dust of chili powder. It's soooo good in the cold weather.


#34. Wishes for good health, good luck and wealth hung on branches.


#35. When night came, the area was aglow with soft orange and red lights. That's how they do it in the olden days before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. I was told a poem was written onto the lantern. My Chinese language knowledge obviously very lacking here, hehe.


#36. Making the dragon beard candy. It started out with one huge ring of warm sugar and he stretched it multiple times until the sugar become fine threads. It's like making lā miàn except he used sugar instead of flour. Geddit? It's the best dragon beard candy I've tasted! Those packaged ones sold in supermarkets just does not do it justice.


#37. The 23:55 flight out of Chengdu, also the only international flight that night. Bye-bye Chengdu.

girly colour

One day, my friend texted me. He was travelling to Surabaya for business.

"Do you want a polo tee?"
"Ooo... yes please!"
"What colour and size?"
"Eggplant purple or coral red or shades of those. Size shud be M kua."
"OK"

A few days later...

"Got your tee!"
"Cool... thank you thank you"
"The colour of your tee... don't know how to describe it but it's girly colour la"
"Okay.... thanks!"

This is my tee.



It's light purple.

It's true, that guys only see primary and secondary colours.

three cups of this and that

Heeding my out-of-nowhere burning desire for culinary pursuits (for a couple of weeks now), yesterday I took to the kitchen. Now, I would like to think I'm a good cook who doesn't practice enough, that's all ;O)

One of my favourite food discoveries last year was the Three Cups Chicken or 三杯鸡. I first had it at Fong Lye and I thought it was a Taiwanese dish. Turns out it originated from the Jiangxi Province of China but is really popular in Taiwan. The aroma and taste of the dish was so unique I can't quite catch what goes into it. I thought it would be really hard to make but it's actually so easy peasy!



I got the recipe for Three Cups Chicken from this website. Because what chopped up chicken pieces I have looks like half a chicken, I reduced the recipe to 1/5 cup of everything. After all the simmering and the sauce has evaporated, the chicken was left soaking in sesame oil! What's good about sesame oil though is that it doesn't leave an oily aftertaste compared to normal cooking oil. Still, I'll cut down on the oil next time and I'll use proper rice wine or more shaoxing jiu. I'll also pop in a few gizzards coz they would taste soooo good in this pot.



Not quite Fong Lye standard but I kinda like my version better ^___^ And because my mum saw me taking pictures of my Three Cups Chicken, she insist I take pictures of the night's dinner. So here's some fish.



There are many other things I would like to make and that I think I know how to make, so look out for more cooking posts in the future! Well, provided this burning desire keeps on burning, that is.

Oh yes, the reviews for my Three Cups Chicken.

Dad: [Busy eating so no comments]
Mum: Not bad [Mum's a great cook so a "not bad" from her is seriously not bad]
Bro: Chicken very tough [It's kampung chicken, they're tough like that]
Bf: Regardless of what your bro said, I think it's good [Yayy]

a tale of 3 cities

#1. I flew into Kunming last week, and was immediately whisked away to a place called Panzhihua.


#2. On the way there, we stopped for lunch at this hole in the wall place just off the highway. Doing it like the Vietnamese, we dined al-fresco under the sun and in the cool air. So cool in fact that it got pretty cold not long after. But when the wind stopped blowing, it got too hot T___T


#3. What's famous here are their roasted chicken. Skin roasted to a crisp perfection, as crispy as Peking Duck.


#4. Beautiful golden crispy skin.


#5. After years of sticking plastic 桃花 (tao hua) or peach blossoms onto dead branches as Chinese New Year deco, I finally see real ones! I guess it's a bit cold coz most of the flowers looks kinda shriveled. Or maybe because it was growing next to this..


#6. A toilet without doors!

This would be my first of several encounters with doorless toilet in the course of this whole trip. Some are very rudimentary, with just two holes in the ground (to accommodate two squat-tees) and no flushing system (many thanks to the river system). Others look like your modern squat toilets minus the doors. In a 4-stall toilet, one of us would be in the first while the other in the last. And we wait OK, we wait until we both finish our business before we walk out.

The one above is actually quite interesting. See, the drain there is for you to pee/poop in and it's an extension all the way from the mens' toilet. Yes, it's one longggg drain. The toilet automatically flushes every few minutes, with water gushing like a fearless river carrying everything in its way. Interesting, right?

Word of advice is, wait till it finish flushing before doing your thing.


#7. The scenery along the way is just beautiful.


#8. The sky's so blue and the clouds are like a delicate lace veil, thinly spread across an otherwise empty sky.


#9. You'll know you're in Panzihua when you see lots of dust on the roads, in the air, on the trees, on dogs, on everything! It is after all a major steel manufacturing town and lorries from nearby mines comes in droves each day.

The next day, we moved on to Huaping, where we will eat shit and sleep for the rest of our stay in China. It's two hours away from Panzhihua. Here comes the food...


#10. Oh, how I miss you my mala (super-hot) hotpot. I miss you, I miss you, muacks.


#11. Black corn. Tastes like normal corn except not so starchy.


#12. A bug. I don't know what kinda bug but it taste... green, like grass kinda green. Apparently it's good for health but thank you very much, one is enough.


#13. Lunch fit for a wedding feast. This is only half of what we had.

See, eating in China takes on a different meaning, especially when you entertain guests. For the Chinese, it's about saving face. If your guests doesn't have enough to eat, i.e. plate is clean and all the dishes sudah sapu clean also, you would come across as stingy even if that may not be the case. So they will usually over order, and will continue to order even if there's unfinished food on the table. Yes, a lot of it goes to waste but that's their culture.


#14. We stayed at the best hotel in Huaping. As you can see, it's very basic. Actually, those are courtesy of the clients to ensure we have a comfortable stay. There's also two big and two small bottles of water, packet milk drinks and fresh fruits everyday. It's a nice touch and made me feel really welcomed.


#15. They even thought about this. For a fresh lemony lime scent on my laundry.


#16. This is what I'm up to in Huaping - mine site visit. A piece of coal modeled by my colleague.

How can you tell it's coal and not some random rock? Coal has shiny surfaces, ta-dah!


#17. A locomotive carting out coal from the underground mine.


#18. An instrument to measure density of the coal. I still grapple with how it works.


#19. Coal is gold.


#20. Orange so fresh that it still have green leaves at the stalk.


#21. Cute girl living with her family at the mine workers' quarters.


#22. Simple lunch at the mine consisting of black chicken, potatoes and forest tubers. A bit oily but it was soooo good.


#23. Coal carts. And that's the end of all things related to mining.


#24. As we had to catch our flight back to KL from Kunming, we hit the road after breakfast that morning as the journey will take between 5-7 hours.

The road from Huaping to Panzhihua is dotted with tunnels and bridges across valleys high and low. Some of the tunnels have dual-carriageways. This is the only one that doesn't have lights. It's scary coz you can't see the end when you enter it and you rely solely on the lights of vehicles in the tunnel.

Oh, digress a bit. We've got the coolest driver! See, customer service in China is actually very good. Even the attendant at the toll is super polite and pretty and smiley. Example:

"I received 100 yuan from you sir. The journey's cost is 60 yuan. Here is your change of 40 yuan sir. Have a good day."

To all this, our driver just stared blankly ahead and drove off without acknowledging the person at all. Wah, damn lansi.


#25. It was late by the time we got into Kunming. So we did dinner, a spot of shopping at Carrefour and camwhoring with Ronald.

It was absolutely freezing that night! It has to be something like 2°C or 3°C. Luckily the client has prepared some jackets for us.

See, they came to KL in mid December last year and the receiving party told them that it's a little cold in KL for it has been raining lately. For guests who came to Malaysia with swimming trunks (thinking that KL has a coastline), they were a little concerned upon hearing that. What's the temperature, they asked. 25°C. When they went back to Huaping, they bought some 20 down feather jackets ahead of our visit, haha.


#26. The next morning in Kunming, we wandered off on our own in search of some local breakfast. So tired of hotel food by now. This shop is nearby our hotel and is crowded with locals.


#27. Their signature dish is the 过桥米线 (guo qiao mi xian) or "over the bridge noodles". It's famous in Kunming and nothing too special in my opinion, but it's spicy just the way I like it!


#28. It says an chuan tao, which is basically condoms. The interesting thing about this vending machine is, it's on a public street and mounted next to a primary school!


#29. And that's it for this trip. Till the next time I'm in China again.