Vanilla Winnahs

Image from The Daily Loaf

Sorry for this late post announcing the winners of my vanilla bean giveaway. My schedule’s been very erratic lately (case in point: buy plane ticket 10 am, pack clothes 10.30 am, check in online 12 noon, fly 5 pm the same day) and I haven’t had the time to sit down and write a proper post until today.

And so, without further ado, the winners are…..

1. Caryn – Tokyo, Japan
2. Joana – GenSan, Philippines
3. Sheng – GenSan, Philippines
4. Lola – Denver, Colorado
5. Odette – Dublin, Ireland
6. Fortuitous Faery – New Jersey, USA
7. Janet – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
8. Mama Safiyyah – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
9. KG – Manila, Philippines
10. WitsAndNuts – Dubai, UAE

Thank you for participating, friends. I hope you enjoy the vanilla beans for your next baking project, for making vanilla sugar, and/or for making your own vanilla extract.

More importantly, thank you very much for taking the time to let me know what you think about my blog. It’s nice to know people are actually reading and enjoying what I’m writing. As I was telling RB the other day, sometimes I feel like updating my blog is a waste of time because it’s like talking without having anyone talk back to me…then I get feedback like these and I’m once again inspired to continue doing what I’m doing.

Maraming salamat po, terima kasih banyak-banyak, merci beaucoup, muchas gracias, shukran, thank you!

Tags: giveaway

About two weeks ago, I was in Bali very briefly for a meeting. By “very briefly”, I mean for only one night. And since one night is too short to explore the hotel that I stayed in, try its services and make a comprehensive review of it, I will just post some of the photos that I managed to take.

This is the Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel in Kuta, Bali:-

The hotel, which is conveniently located some 10 minutes’ drive from the airport, has a beach right in its backyard and a small mall right next door.

Unfortunately, the inclement weather made swimming — or even wading — downright impossible.

This photo shows just how close the hotel is to the beach:-

Here are two photos of the superior room (USD150 per room per night, as of this writing):-

And here is a photo of the huge pool and its sunken bar:-

This is the restaurant where breakfast is served:-

They also have themed dinners in the very same restaurant. Italian pasta on some nights, seafood barbecue in others. At an added fee, of course.

The hotel grounds are very green…

…and well-maintained.

The bonus? Free WiFi. A must for a netaholic like me!

If you need a hotel in Bali that’s close to the airport, I highly recommend the Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel.

Tags: Bali

Air Suam (Warm Water)

I just realised how Malaysian(ised) I’ve become — I now drink air suam (warm water) with my meals, despite the sweltering heat and high humidity that characterises typical Malaysian weather.

It’s a very Malaysian thing, you see. Warm water, that is. You can actually order it from any restaurant, hotel or roadside food stall. It’s such a standard item that it’s not even in the drinks menu and yet you can order it without batting an eyelash or feeling shy about it.

I never really understood why Malaysians have a penchant for it. But now I realise that:-

1. Warm water makes me feel fuller faster. (Great news for dieters out there!)
2. Warm water lasts longer than a cold drink does — i.e. it can last you for the entire meal, as compared to a cold drink that you can slurp down long before the appetiser arrives — especially since air suam in many places is close to boiling hot rather than on the tepid side so you end up sipping it slowly and carefully so as not to scald your tongue.
3. Warm water does wonders for wind in your tummy. Enough said :)
4. When your tongue is on fire due to a chili overdose, warm water actually works better than cold water at giving you relief from the chili’s capsaicin, the chemical in chili that’s responsible for that burning sensation. Initially, your tongue will scream in protest upon contact with the warm water. But before long, the burning sensation from the chili slowly dies out.
5. Warm water is good for these tough times because it’s cheap; sometimes it can be had for free.

The funny thing is, it took me some 14 years to actually like drinking warm water. And I thought it was bad enough for me to take 2 years to get used to air sirap!

Tags: about me, Malaysia

(Sunrise over Mina)

I miss lying down on the cold, hard ground under a mute, starless sky, waking up at midnight to find myself staring at a moon that looked as though it’s been cut perfectly in half.

I miss sleeping in a tent with total strangers, six of whom became very close friends in the end, one of whom became akin to a sister.

I miss walking in the footsteps of learned men, as millions have also done time and again, thousands of years before I even existed.

I miss feeling hopelessly lost in a swirling sea of humanity — all of us different, yet all the same.

I miss finding the most unexpected silence enshrouding me like a blanket in the midst of utter chaos.

I miss being overwhelmed by emotions so strong, it took all of my strength (and so much more) not to get swept away.

I miss the countless hours of inexplicable solitude, complete calm, intense humility,  profound gratitude, pure bliss, and total surrender.

I miss the unbidden, uninhibited, yet strangely comforting seemingly endless flow of tears.

I miss the magic hours of the last third of cold, cold nights spent in silent devotion.

I miss the nearly tangible and almost palpable proximity to the Source and Meaning of it all.

And I hope and pray with all my heart and from the very depths of my soul to find myself back in that magical place again. And again. And again.

Tags: reminiscing

I’ve been the lucky recipient of a huge bunch of vanilla beans quite recently. They’re of the Vanilla planifolia species from Madagascar, more commonly known as “Madagascar-Bourbon” vanilla. They were given to me neatly tied up in strings just like in this photo that I found on the internet.

I was astounded to read in Wikipedia that vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron due to the extensive labor required to grow the vanilla seed pods. Apparently, these Madagascar beauties retail at $60 per pound (!) at vanilla.com.

In Malaysia, these vanilla beans are sold in the supermarkets at RM27.25 (USD8) for a small jar with 3 scrawny vanilla beans. Yes, they were pathetic scrawny little things, nowhere near as long or as big as the heady-scented magical black pods that I have back home.

Then a small light bulb lit up in my head. Why don’t I share my vanilla beans with you? I mean, it would be such a shame to put all that lovely vanilla to waste, considering that I’m just a weekend baker sort of person. There’s simply no way I can finish off all the vanilla beans that I have in my stash even if I baked every weekend for the whole of 2010 and made vanilla sugar for everyone in our neighbourhood.

So that’s just exactly what I’ll do! I’m giving away 10 vanilla bean pods each to the first 10 people who leave a comment answering this very simple question:

What would you like to see more of in this blog? More travel-related stories and photos? More stories about Malaysia — its sights, its food, its culture, its people? Or is it fine the way it is now — a hodge-podge of my ‘adventures’ with my 3 passions in life: travel, children and photography?

Then please tell me the city and country where you are from, just so everyone else will get to know to which corner of the world the vanilla beans will be shipped.

Easy-peasy, right? On your marks…get set…go! :D

………………….

P.S. And while we’re on the subject, please head on over to The Girl With A Curl’s blog to read a wonderful write-up that she has in her archive about vanilla entitled “The Real Thing“.

Tags: giveaway