Another year to be grateful for. Another year to look back on and reflect.
Thank you, God, for the gift of life.
Too bad I'm not too fond of fondant. Design-wise, I would have loved a cake like this ;) Image from Leapula's Flickr page.
Only In Indonesia…
…can schoolchildren drive themselves to and from school in motorbikes.
Underage. No licence. No helmets. I don’t even know where to begin… *sigh*
Photo taken in Tanggerang, just outside Jakarta.
Yeli Xiali Uyghur Restaurant In Shanghai
During my recent business trip to Shanghai, I had the opportunity to sample Chinese food of an entirely different type — Uyghur cuisine — at a restaurant called Yeli Xiali.
Photo from http://chinabites.com/
The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group living primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China. As most of the Uyghurs are Sunni Muslims, the food is predominantly halal.
That night, we sampled flat cake with hummus, fried rice with beef jerky, three types of dumplings (fried/steamed/baked), and spicy mutton kebabs.
Our verdict? The flat cake tasted like paratha, only not as oily, and the hummus was not really outstanding. The fried rice was rice stir-fried with soy sauce, a bit of mixed vegetables, and dried beef pieces; it was okay but the rice was a bit on the chewy/hard side. The dumplings were all nice BUT they all used mutton filling cooked in different ways so if you’re not that fond of mutton, consider yourself warned. Oh, and you must order a minimum of 4 dumplings per order.
The spicy mutton kebabs were the most unforgettable of all — the meat was tender and flavourful, they were not too spicy to burn your tongue but just enough to give it a nice kick and mute the mutton’s usual odour, the amount of meat per skewer was generous, and the meat was very tender. At only RMB3 (~USD1) per skewer, the kebabs were a great bargain and such an unexpected treat. Even my colleague who normally does not eat mutton admitted that she enjoyed the kebabs very much.
Pic from http://www.englishbaby.com
Unfortunately, it was a business dinner so I didn’t have the chance to take any pics, thus explaining why I’m using pics off the internet for this post.
There were plenty of other dishes on the menu, including duck, chicken and beef, from practically all conceivable body parts of those animals, offal included. The restaurant is halal but served alcoholic drinks and the clientele was very varied — Caucasian tourists and expats included — and not necessarily only Muslims seeking halal food.
Yeli Xiali Restaurant
Branches in Shanghai:
No. 411, East Tianlin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai * Tel: 021-64519797
No. 147, Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai * Tel: 021-64038882
No. 106, East Nandan Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai * Tel: 021-64686079
2F, No. 762, Tianshan Road, Changning District, Shanghai * Tel: 021-62748367
No. 918, Dongfang Road, Pudong District, Shanghai * Tel: 021-50201057
No. 680, Zhaojiabang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai * Tel: 021-64668388
For best results, print out the card below and show it to the taxi driver (click the image below for a bigger version for printing). Ask your hotel beforehand which branch is nearest to you. Bon appetit!
‘Mama, Don’t Go To Jakarta!’
“Mama, jangan pergi Jakarta!” (Mama, don’t go to Jakarta!)
Twin1 greeted me with these words the moment I reached home yesterday. He was smiling his usual cheeky grin so, for a moment, I thought he was just pulling my leg, especially when he added, “Don’t go anywhere farther than the airport!”
But later that evening, when he barged into my room wailing “Mama, jangan pergi Jakarta!” once again, it just broke my heart. I braced myself, knowing that I had a lot of convincing to do.
I couldn’t blame him for being upset; I’ve been traveling way more than usual for the past month — to Dubai and Oman on the last week of September, followed by a short jaunt in Jakarta the following week, then to Shanghai last week, and now, yet another trip to Jakarta.
But how do you explain adult concepts like ‘work’ and ‘commitment’ to a 5-year old? The easiest thing would have been to say “All right, I won’t go” just so he’d stop crying. But then I knew that I’d still have to fly anyway and that just might only make things worse for me in the end.
So I sat down and took him in my arms. I looked at him in the eye and told him as gently but as firmly as I could, “Abang (Big Brother), Mama has work to do in Jakarta. Mama does not want to go but Mama has to go.”
As expected, that made the wailing rise to a crescendo. But I persisted. “But next week, I promise I won’t go anywhere. I will be home the whole week next week.”
The tears just continued falling. “Jangan pergi Jakartaaaaaaaa….”
At my wits’ end, I held him tighter and decided to go with the truth.
“Abang, Mama has work to do in Jakarta and Mama has to go tomorrow. Would you rather have me lie to you and say I’m not going but go anyway?”
Tears streaming down his face, he shook his head.
“But can you come home Wednesday?” he sobbed. Ahh…finally! A glimmer of hope.
“My plane ticket is for Thursday but I will try to come back Wednesday.”
At this point, his younger twin piped in, “Because sometimes there is no aeroplane, right, Mama?”
And just like magic, Twin1 stopped crying altogether and switched back to his usual exuberant self, asking me to read the two of them a bedtime story.
This morning, when I dropped them off at school, I hugged each twin tightly one by one. After Twin2 skipped away to his class, Twin1 lingered behind for just one more hug. I embraced him fiercely and reminded him that I’m off to Jakarta today, would try to be back Wednesday but if I can’t make it, will be home by Thursday. Beaming, he turned to me and whispered in Tagalog, “Mahal na mahal kita!” (I love you very much!)
Moral of the story:
1. Children are capable of understanding more than you think they can.
2. The truth really does set you free.
3. But the guilt that a working mother has to deal with? It never gets any easier.
Ni Hao From Shanghai
Hello from Shanghai! I’m here for yet another business trip. Thankfully, I managed to squeeze in some playtime in between work.
Last night, we went to a market that felt like a cross between KL’s Petaling Street and Central Market. My friend only knows its Chinese name but from my Google search this morning, I believe we’ve been to Yuyuan Market a.k.a. Shanghai Old Street.
The whole place felt like Old World China, complete with upturned eaves and carved columns. But there seemed to be a McDonald’s in just about every street corner…and — oh what sacrilege! — even a Starbucks outlet!
The market is an endless array of little shops that sold everything from t-shirts to fridge magnets to Little Red Books to tea sets to qi paos and just about everything else under the sun.
Some haggling skills is of paramount importance. From their initial offer, I’d counter with a price about half of what I’d pay for, one that’s bound to elicit a laugh and a counter-offer. And the parrying goes back and forth until such point when the vendor would refuse to go any further. I then start to walk away…and if they try to stop me and give me a final offer, that’s just about the right time to buy. A word of caution: if you don’t intend to buy it, don’t haggle just for the fun of it lest you earn their ire. For pricier items, it helps if you look around a bit to compare prices before sealing the deal.
My favourite buy of the night? A customised stamp bearing my name in English and Chinese characters — Mimi on top, 美美 at the bottom. It was fascinating watching them do the entire thing in less than 5 minutes…and it’s mind-boggling how they can carve minute mirror images of those intricate Chinese characters.
The most amusing part of the trip so far? Everyone keeps mistaking me for a local and talking to me in Mandarin :)
Okay, gotta run! Work beckons for now!
About Me:
Selamat datang (welcome)!
I am Mimi -- mother, careerwoman, incidental world traveler, photography enthusiast, self-confessed gadget geek, and aspiring linguist (7 languages to date).
I'm a Filipina married to a Malaysian. Kuala Lumpur has been my home since 1993.
You may reach me at mimi[at]sleeplessinkl.com.
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