Making "Roti Canai".

Had a chance to try out preparing roti canai this Chinese New Year at my sister's home, she had a food caterer in this year to actually cook it in house.
It was an interesting experience, the flipping over and over of the dough to make it into a thin layer making it fluffy while being cooked on the hot plate, is not as easy as it seems.
Even with assistance and advise from the chef, I still manage to somehow create holes on the dough while flipping it.
The wife was luckier.
I think I should stick to my day job.

The cure all plant.

In my garden, there is a cure all plant locally known as Pegaga or Centella Asiatica if you want to get academic.
This plant is indegenous to the warmer climates, grows rampantly in the right environment and has a strong root system, getting rid of it from your 5 star lawn is a challenge.



If it is grown for the asthetic appeal, it is best done in pots to contain it from spreading like wild fire.


Traditionally, it is consumed fresh or crush into a juice. It can also be consumed in its crush and dried form, it seems efficacy in both forms are the same.
In my humble opinion, both forms will not make it into the top 1000 culinary delights known to mankind.
It taste exactly how you would imagine it would taste like, imagine crush spinach juice or better still, the green algae saturated water from my 1 month old unclean aquarium. The commercial juice version popularly available in most coffee shops in Ipoh sweeten with sugar and most probably supplemented with green color dye and diluted is not the real thing.




The cure all properties, reputedly is good for loss of memory to herpes zoster, what ever that is. Of course, no cure all plant is considered good if it doesn't claim it can cure cancer too.
Speaking as a full fledge meat eater, anyone who can stomach the ordeal of drinking this stuff, deserves to be cure of all illnesses and absolved from all past sins.

My Wag Tail Platy

I have been maintaining aquariums for quite a long time and through the years I find the easiest fish to keep is no other than the Red Wag Tail Platy (Xiphophorus Maculatus).

It originates from Central America and they are extremely well suited to the local Malaysian weather.

Playful, active, hardy and easy to take care of. The ideal fish to keep for beginners and for people who are busy and can only spare limited time to pursue fish keeping as a hobby.

I started with 2 pairs, after about 3 years occasionally separating the babies from the adults to prevent the adults eating their own, the population now is in the hundreds.

Feeding is easy, alternating between flake or pellet fish food and freeze dried tubifex worms.

National Service in Kem Etnobotani, Gua Musang.

After 11 years of formal schooling and now waiting for her exam results prior deciding on her next step, my daugther Yan Yee was eagerly waiting to be called up for national service. It did not take long, after about a month after her final exam, her name was found listed and her assigned base camp is at the Etnobotany gardens in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

I am glad she was finally called up, she told me it would have been dissapointing if she was not. Only 80% of the qualified candidates are actually called up this year. The training will last from late December to mid March and it will be her first time to be that far away from home for such a long duration.

As a father, I was worried whether she could survive the tough environment and challenges she is going to encounter soon as all this while, she was leading a sheltered life shielded from the harsh realities of life in society. But at the same time, I know deep down there will come a time in her life where she will need to and must learn, that there is no running back to papa or mummy everytime she come across an obstacle but to face it and cross that bridge by herself, there is no better way I can think of to start being independent than being in a supervised camp performing her national service.

On her 3rd week at Kem Ethnobotani, parents were invited to be there for a formal family day visit. From Taiping we drove 240 km to reach Gua Musang, passing through part of Cameron Highlands via Simpang Pulai. It was quite a scenic drive throughout with a number of bends and corners encountered along the way which make it that little bit more exciting, the journey lasted for about 3 hours.

(National Service Personnels assembled for the commandant's review)

(March Pass)

(Obstacle course demonstration)

(Yan Yee with her friends)

(The Family)
(Private Yan Yee resting her tired legs)

On the drive home, I was rather please she had adapted reasonably well with camp life and I have no doubts what so ever that she will do well and survive it. Our baby girl has grown and became more mature in the last 3 weeks, the time for us to let go gradually and be less protective has begun as she enters her next phase towards adulthood.