Kecil-kecil cili padi!

Another picture of the bird peppers (chilli padi) — small but the it is in fact, quite hot on the scoville scale. There is even a Malay expression of “Kecil-kecil cili padi” , literally means: do not underestimate its hotness though the bird pepper is small in size. So size doesnt matter? Just like David vs Goliath!

We also found a photo of cili padi on the net — almost about the same thing i.e. home-grown cili padi :-) Yay! You can read them here: http://pixen.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/chillies-chillies-more-chillies-d/trackback/

More albino chilies!

Capsaicin, the compound that gives hot chili peppers their zip, kills cancer cells in a test tube and slows the growth of pancreatic and prostate cancers in mice, two studies show.

A University of Pittsburgh Medical School team led by biochemist Sanjay K. Srivastava implanted pancreatic tumor cells from people into mice. The same day, some of the mice began receiving oral doses of capsaicin while the others got saline solution. After 38 days, tumors in the capsaicin group were half the size of the tumors in the mice getting saline. Although spicy, the capsaicin didn’t cause any gastrointestinal problems, says Srivastava.

In a similar study, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles implanted human prostate-tumor tissue in mice. Some of the animals subsequently received capsaicin orally while others didn’t.

After 4 weeks, the tumors in mice getting the capsaicin were only one-fourth the size of tumors in the other mice, the scientists report in the March 15 Cancer Research.

The findings are provocative because this particular prostate cancer came from “quite an aggressive cell line;’ says study coauthor James O’Kelly, a pathologist.

“But we’re not advocating that people start eating a lot of hot peppers to treat their prostate cancer;’ he says.

Lihatlah kebun ku..

Still remember that popular childhood serenade? Though these are white chillies, its a great feeling to have them self-grown on your veranda!

Lihat Kebunku
Penuh dengan bunga
Ada yang putih dan ada yang merah
Setiap hari kusiram semua
Mawar, melati, semuanya indah

Sirih leaves, gambir, tobacco and chalk

These are the typical ingredients for sirih chewing — a common habit amongst the Kadazandusuns women, as common as smoking — in other parts of the world, the sirih chewing is quite similar to tobacco chewing.

The chalk (made from burnt and crushed seashell), gambir and sometimes betel nuts (pinang aka areca catechu); are all wrapped in the betel leaves (sirih); and chewed for about 3- 5 minutes; the paste is then mixed with the tobacco where it forms about a pencil-tip sized ball, to be placed on the mouth for its bitter, and pleasing (??) taste.

The sap from the sirih ball actually makes the lips red (yes, this can be a traditional form of lipstick); and also stains the teeth.

And this is what my mom has been consuming for more that half-century now… and she does own a beautiful sets of stained teeth.

Tada!!

Tada!! How do you like your surprise gift? Muffin loooves boxes. Big box, small box, even shoe box she’ll just dive into it and fell asleep almost instantly!

We have not found the most concrete scientific reasons why cats love to be inside a box or to play with them. Probably for Muffin, she just thinks that the box can be used as a great hiding place, and was trying to temp her to play the hide-and-seek game. Some just doesnt need explaination!

total pleasure, zero guilt

Life’s full of irresistible enticements.

And we’re proud to grab yet another .. on photo. (btw, the first two sentences are almost 100% honda taglines. total pleasure zero guilt – this is a honda tagline indeed). This CRV comes with full leather and modulo sets.

lok lok STREET steamboat

this is on the first row of shophouses, on the opposite ends of CIMB, Citibank and OCBC lots in bandar puteria. this is our first time here, thus this place got its special place in this mobilephotos (pic below is snapped on n95).

again, like the typical makan (eat) place in malaysia, lok lok is a great example of communal dining – this place has clear chicken soup and tomyam soup; and they offer a wide range of fresh foods such as prawns, meat, cockles, quail eggs and others — skewed and arranged on a large stainless steel plate that resemble the back of a lorry — cool enough, it has a real lorry head on its other end!

if you like masak-masak, then lok lok is a great do-it-yourself makan place.

btw, we noticed there are 3 or 4 more steamboat places close to this one: competitions and everyone — just like us, all cari makan!

Food & price: great — will come back again!

Lok Lok Street Steamboat
No 9 Jalan Puteri 1/4,
Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong
Tel: +603-8061 3959

boredworkers.com has done quite a good review of this restaurant — they have more pictures too, including pictures of the lorry head and the plates.

you should go ahead and view them here: http://www.boredworkers.com/2006/06/19/lok-lok-street-steamboat/

Updated Entry: we went back here again yesterday (Oct 6th 2007) — this time we tried the herbal chicken soup and the food was excellent, as expected.

The only drawback (quite a disappointment) was that one of the skewered cockles was not fresh, making us to discard the two sticks we grabbed. The shop was so apologetic and had taken these two sticks out from the bill.

This was a great experience and how honest we felt when the manager came over to apologize — good food, good service, friendly staf … we would definitely come back!

aim for the sky

This is probably the 120th nap-style that muffin was perfecting for the whole day! We call this one: aiming high for the sky.

what a catnap!

mms from kampung

lunch with tambunan durian, rambutan and the coldest beer in the world: that’s what they say :-D, we were tempted to go pass airasia dot com and be in tambunan on time for the remaining half of that king of fruit — especially that this is the merdeka weekend anyway; but the wallet was a bit hesitant.

** so listen up now, hey we heard durian and beer do not mix well together. be careful!

Merdeka Day 2007: Fireworks @ Putrajaya

More pictures here.

1st try at capturing fireworks on digital camera – the fireworks were launched from an area next to the Putrajaya Convention Center and these pictures were taken from across the Putrajaya Lake; at Cyberheights Villa where we stay.

for those that were not told before, aug 31st 1957 is the date where the federation of malaysia got its independence from the british rule; and on 16th sept 1963, both sarawak and sabah (on the borneo island) joined the federation to form the country of malaysia. happy birthday malaysia!

cat in a box

So cats do really like to be in a box — muffin for one used it to hide and she thinks no one can find her there. She was hopping sideways and racing all over the house for a while, and ended up sleeping in the box.

She is also probably dreaming that she is on tv now!

arab street, sg

My first time to Arab Street in Singapore — a prominet non-shopping building is this Sultan Mosque – this is probably one of the most beautiful mosque in singapore that I have seen at this time of the day. Adjacent to this is the Istana Kg Gelam, the palace of the Sultan during early 19th century. I think this is now converted to a cultural or heritage center.

ps: it’s obvious that i am still learning how to capture photos using this new mobile… seems there is a lot of bluish hue to the pic.