Vege Fish Farm Thai Restaurant, Cheras

Yvonne has been telling us about this place, so we decided to make a trip down to Hulu Langat over the weekend for delicious Thai food. Further, the lunch is going to be on a friend who had just won RM1,000 cash during her recent company annual dinner lucky draw.. so, it’s pigging time!

The very obscure signboard

The place is indeed out of civilization! If you miss the small sign pointing leading to the restaurant, that’s it. You probably would not find it. Even Yvonne who has been there a few times with her family and colleagues also slowed down to look for the place. I think we passed by this place during one of my photography trips.

When we made a turn into the place, we were greeted with greenery and lalangs. LOL. It was indeed a very sangkalah place. The moment we reached the restaurant overlooking the pond, we were excited. We were amazed that such place could be found in the middle of nowhere. We went “Wahhh…” and were delirious even when we got down the car and couldn’t wait to sample the food.

Since we were early, there were still many empty tables. We decided to sit at a corner overlooking the pond. The ordering process started with ordering of tody (fermented alcoholic coconut drink). Haha. I felt like we are hard core drinkers. Anyway, stout in cans were out of stock, we didn’t want to order one whole bottle and couldn’t finish it. Stout is nice to go with tody. So we just ordered one small bottle of tody to be shared among us.

We ordered the seafood tom yum, grilled salted fish, spicy chilli lala, grilled cockles, kerabu sotong, black pepper crab, grilled crab and a plate of vege. The seafood is quite fresh here, so I guess that’s the main factor that brings in the crowd, despite being located in such a secluded area. For so many dishes, the damage was about RM160+. Quite ok lah for fresh seafood. (Ratings applied from 1 to 10 – 10 being very yummy! Based on consensus’ taste among 4 of us)

Tom Yum Seafood (6/10)

Grilled Salted Fish (6/10)

Spicy Chilli Lalas (8/10)

Grilled Cockles (3/10)

Kerabu Sotong (4/10)

Black Pepper crabs (9/10)

Grilled Crab (7/10)

A quick search on the internet shows there are many listings pointing to the restaurant. So, this is nothing new. Here’s a blog with pretty decent pictures and write up. If you would like to know how to get there, perhaps you can try using a map here.

My take/tips on this place.

1. The seafood is fresh. So it earns many bonus points here.

2. Price is quite reasonable.

3. Not advisable to visit during rainy days, I guess the tracks could be slippery and dangerous.

4. Not advisable to visit at night. My friend said, this place is infested with mosquitoes at night. And the drive there could be treacherous as there is no road light leading to the place.

5. Paku pakis – the favorite order for vege is always out of stock.. so perhaps you should try coming on weekdays instead of weekends or maybe, bring your own paku pakis? Haha!

6. Tody has quite an interesting taste. Perhaps, should try one with stout next time.

7. Kids will love it here! You can buy fish pellets and feed the fishes in the pond.. before you eat them. Haha!

8. The black pepper crab is a must order! So is the chilli lala! The grilled salted fish is so so to me. The cockles were overcooked. My mom makes better kerabu. They have this really good condiment for dipping though – made from chilli, garlic and sour plum.

9. The down side is probably the presence of flies. I was told by a friend during his visit, it was infested with flies. We did too, but a few flies here and there, nothing major though.

10. I think there are many better seafood restaurants in KL, but what makes this place special is probably its ambiance. Lau Heong is STILL my favorite in terms of price, location, service, taste and quality of food.

Your Parents Miss You

As I was folding clothes while watching tv, mom came upstairs wheezing heavily. She complained shortness of breath and the need to rub ointment all over her joints when she finally settled down to rest after a laborious day. I told her to leave the clothes downstairs and we will help her to carry it up whenever we are back from work. I told her not to carry the pail of clothes upstairs but she wouldn’t listen. In fact, she never listens.

Yesterday was the first time I heard her genuinely complained about being tired and old. Most of the time, she refused to acknowledge she is aging and would do all things as if she were still in her 40s or 50s.  She’s 65 this year.

Since she sprained her left arm some five years ago, she no longer able to carry heavy things with her left arm. Even stirring the wok causes her pain. Thank goodness for my cousin brother who is the “executive chef”at home – he coined this for himself. He likes to cook, so he helps out a lot during weekends whenever he comes to my house to stay for the weekend. I am very bad at cutting things, so my mom or aunt always shoo me away from the kitchen. So, I made it a point to sweep and mop the floor on weekends whenever I could and do the laundry. And also, try to spend less time on the computer to talk to my mom.

As both of us are watching X Men on tv, she asked me questions – why is Storm’s hair white? Is Magneto the bad guy? Why is Cyclops wearing the sunglasses at night? I find her questions hilarious but it’s better than having no conversation at all. Then, both of us doze off in between the scenes and let television watched us instead.

I think I am the very few people who are lucky to be still staying together with parents. In fact, Time Magazine said, one of five things the U.S. can learn from China is, looking after the elderly. In China, children are still staying with the parents even when they are all grown up and being married. This has cultivated virtues of filial piety. How does filial piety help China’s economy? It was said that, they have a self funding system for the elderly i.e. home care as opposed to the U.S. whereby most senior citizens are cared for in old folks’ homes which are getting too expensive to be administered.

Okay. Before I deviate, what I am trying to say here is, I am fortunate enough to be witnessing the aging process of my parents’ everyday. Dad – despite his eccentricity at times, I think he had been quite a responsible father. Mom has always been there for us when we were young till today. She still worries for us constantly even when we are all adults now, making our own money and taking care of them. A slight change of routine would put her on edges. Even contemplation of getting a new job worries her. What if the new boss is an ass? What if it rains so heavily, you might get caught in the flash floods? Mom will always be mom, I guess. She will never cease to worry till her last day on earth.

Ask yourself this question – When was the last time you visited your parents?

Sunday Incident

As I was chatting with my cousins and mom in the kitchen while eating heong peah bought from Taiping, I heard a soft knock. It sounded like someone opened the window. Since cousin sis was sitting next to the window, she opened the curtain to look but didn’t see anything. We continued chatting briefly till our Indian neighbour shouted at us. We quickly ran to the wet kitchen to see what’s going on.

There were three Malay teenagers slowly cruising away on one motorbike while waving and laughing happily at our Indian neighbour, as if they were taking a slow evening stroll. Thinking they might be some teenage boys playing the fool, we didn’t suspect much. But our neighbour kept talking non stop and pointing their fingers. So we thought they must have scratched our neighbour’s car so we went out for a look.

We were shocked when we saw pieces of glasses strewn all over the road. It was our neighbour’s Vios. Our Indian neighbour’s grandson ran out with his late grandfather’s cane and ran after them.

The small commotion had many neighbours curious. They came out to check what was going on. Some of them shared stories with us that they suffered the same fate too. Those who are living behind my house, facing the playground are living in fear. 3 of their lorries’ batteries were stolen within a year. So much for buying the property for peace and quiet, huh? Just last week, a family was held at parang point when they came home. They gave everything to the robbers they claimed, one of them even have a gun! Lucky they were not hurt.

The police came after 10 minutes of report. I was surprised. So, I went out to chip in to the police report of what I saw.  Our Malay neighbour saw them first actually. He was strolling along the road when it happened. He saw one of them opening the locker in the car and started shouting at them. Instead of speeding off, the three of them nonchalantly rode on their motorbike, slowly and passed behind our house. We could hear them laughing. That was why we thought they were playing the fool. It was then, the Indian neighbour’s grandson ran out with a stick and chased after them. The three juvenile waved at him and said BYE BYE to him as they laughed and sped away. Criminals are getting bolder and bolder by the day because the police cannot do anything about them!!

When the police came, I went to talk to my Indian neighbours to ask if they saw the faces of the three youngsters and also to check if one of them is the Malay guy we saw masturbating beside our house last weekend! Then, a Chinese man who helped the victim to call the police came over to me and demanded me to talk directly to the police. He asked me to SCOLD the police and demand for more surveillance patrolling. Hello? If you are so smart, you go and scold the police lah. Why ask me? Chibai! You think by scolding the police will do any good?

I told the police what I saw – the three guys and at the same time, also informed them, there was a pervert who always walked by my house. The police asked me what did the pervert do? I said, “Masturbate”. A few of my neighbours laughed except the police because he doesn’t know what “Masturbate” is. I should have said, “Melancap!”

My mom saw the pervert lurking at our back lane many times already. The worst part is my mom didn’t want to call the police. She explained, “What is the point? They cannot do anything other than stopping hapless Bangladeshi who is collecting refuse and old newspapers and demand for money!” My mom saw the police stopping Bangladeshi many times behind our house. She is very angry with the police and whenever she sees this happening, she would open our house window on purpose and stares at them! That would usually stop the police from asking for bribes from the Bangladeshi and pretend to scold the Bangladeshi and let him go.

It’s really sad what our country is reducing into. The police are supposed to protect innocent civilians. I was very devastated to read about the lady who knocked down and killed the snatch thief who robbed her; prosecuted for causing the death of the perpetrator. Instead of being glorified as a heroin for doing the useless police a favor by snuffing the life of one criminal – who might have killed many by snatch theft, she might be put behind bars.

So what did the police do? They took report on the spot. Just took 30 seconds’ look at the broken window. The two boys – the Malay and the Indian heros looked at the car and saw many finger prints. We demanded the police to lift the finger prints but they did not, of course. No cameras to take the photos even. Nothing. Just look. They dare not give their standard reply, “Oh, ini sudah biasa berlaku. Biasa lah tu,” because there were a mob of people there looking at them.  Tahu nahas pun! They just took down a report and made a few calls. I hope they call their counterparts to look for the vehicle as soon as possible and try to nab them before they go out on a smashing spree again.

We could only hope.

Interviews on Elm Street

I hate going for interviews. The butterflies in the stomach, the sleepless night the day before, need to do some grooming, wear high heels, etc. I am sure most of us have our own fair shares of interviews in our lifetime. Here, I am sharing with you the questions, some of them totally moronic, that I get in interviews.

Can you forge signatures?

This was the first time I went for interview in a small professional (actually, not professional at all if you read on) firm. The lady boss there asked me this question and I was in a state of shock. Apparently, the named secretary is not attached to the firm and he charges a few ringgit per signature. Little did this bugger know that, the lady boss is so much more cunning than he expected her to be. So, she asked me this question so that I could help her to save a few bucks whenever clients ask for a certified true copy.

Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 (worse!) years’ time?

I bloody damn hate this question. It’s not that I am being interviewed for a RM10k job. I am merely applying for a lowly paid executive job. I hadn’t even graduated from my professional exams yet that time. The best part is, they have three-panel interviewers asking me a RM10k job question.

In my line of work, this is a trick question actually. If you mention to them, you wish to be a company secretary in 5 years’ time – then, your hiring boss will think that you are such a big threat and decided not to hire you for being over “ambitious”. If you mention that you hope to see yourself continue working here, they might think maybe you are lying or probably a non-performing staff because you are not ambitious enough. So, macam mana? Either way, you still lose.

Why do you want to change job?

I really don’t understand the purpose of this question. People who come for interviews have various reasons to change their job. To look for better prospects, for better pay (they will think you are materialistic), can’t stand the current workload (they will think you are lazy), have outgrown the current company (they will think you are overly ambitious), the current boss is a fucking moron (this is normally the case of changing a job), oh, just for fuck’s sake lah etc. I am sure not many people could handle an honest answer like – the current boss is a fucking moron – so, please don’t ask this stupid question.

My way of answering this is – to ask another question – why did your staff leave this company? Normally, that made them scramble for an answer, eyes darting up and down, side ways and eventually, shuts them up.

Your friend is so skinny. Doesn’t she eat?

Actually, I was warned before even going for this interview. I was warned that this boss is super pintai and might give me hard time if I were to take up the offer. I didn’t know how pintai the boss was till I came for the interview. It didn’t help either when the HR personnel sitting in for the interview was equally a douche bag who should be fired.

Yeah. I got this question when I was interviewing for a job in the company my friend is working in. Mind you. This is MY interview. I don’t see the point of you asking me this question. I was very offended and said, can you please ask questions related to my job and not the physical attributes of my friend? Then, I know I would not get the job. I didn’t want it either. I just want to know my net worth. The two goons went on and on and on sticking their noses into my friend’s secret diet regime. I should have shot them the answer, “Oh, she’s on a diet plan called anorexia nervosa. You should try it yourself sometime, you nosy bitches!”

Do you know so-and-so?

In this line of work, the world is very small. We seemed to bump into each other, unfortunately, some of them are enemies. In an interview, I could smell trouble when the financial controller asked me if I know this person, that person. I was well aware that she must have found out something unfavorable about me from this or that person that she mentioned about me.

The thing is, if you already heard “bad remarks” about me, you might as well save your time as well as mine and reject my application at the first place. It’s really despicable to put me up on a stage and stone me. Worse, she was not listening to both side stories and already found me guilty. Well, it’s karma really. I heard that, the department is forever changing staff. Who would want to work for people who never give anyone chances and one track minded. For the record, I didn’t do anything bad. I admit I am a rebellious person but I am not a rebel without a cause. I always uphold what is right, give you things to think about, ways to improve methods of working, and give 100% at work.

So, what horror stories you have for me, from your interviews?

Unfriend

Found this article here and it had me in stitches.

‘Unfriend’ is New Oxford American word of the year
Tue, Nov 17, 2009

WASHINGTON – The New Oxford American Dictionary named “unfriend” – as in deleting someone as a friend on a social network such as Facebook – its word of the year on Monday.

Oxford University Press USA, in a blog post, said “unfriend,” a verb, had bested netbook, sexting, paywall, birther and death panel for the honor.

“Unfriend has real lex-appeal,” said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford?s US dictionary program.

“It has both currency and potential longevity,” she said. “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for word of the year.”

Previous words of the year include carbon neutral, locavore and hypermiling.

Locavores are people who eat locally grown food while hypermilers modify their cars and driving techniques to maximize gas mileage.

******

I friend you.

I unfriend you.

Can I refriend you?

*LOL*