what do camels eat?

Today while having breakfast with officemates, one of my colleague suddenly asked, “What do camels eat?”. The question came about as we were talking about the upcoming Eid Al-Adha celebration (or better known as Hari Raya Qurban). Cows and goats are obvious choices for qurban. Several upscale mosques also offer camels, which are horribly expensive as they need to either import the camels from some desert halfway across the world, or get the ones that are reared here by one of those big farming organizations (very limited).

There were about 5 of us having breakfast together, none had the answer to the question. I guess camels eat hay, like horses, as they need to travel a lot. Kak Shuz thinks they eat grass. Though grass supply at deserts is limited, her theory is that camels don’t need to eat much anyway, so whenever they can find grass at some oasis they will eat as much as they can and store them in their humps. Sounds logical. Encik Kamal says perhaps camels don’t eat at all, they just drink. I think that’s too extreme, every living creature needs to eat, right?

So what do camels eat anyway? There’s no better “person” to answer this than good old Uncle Google. Uncle Google then directed me to his good friend Uncle Wiki who seems to have all the answer in the world. This is what he says:

“Camels eat a wide variety of plants over expansive home ranges. They have leathery mouths and can eat practically any vegetation including thorns, dry vegetation and salt bush that other mammals avoid also they eat harry dimo.” - Courtesy of WikiAnswers

Ah, they eat practically any plant they can find. Not very picky vegetarians I must say. What is “harry dimo” anyway? Once again, Uncle Wiki to the rescue:

“This question has not been answered yet.” - Courtesy of WikiAnswers

Apparently I’m not the only one in the world who doesn’t have any idea what it is ;-)

all-you-can-eat pasta

Last Friday I had lunch at Sanook with Zaza and Liza. I owe Liza these pix so I have put them up here. What’s great about Sanook is that they serve all-you-can-eat pasta for lunch on weekdays for RM 12.90 (excluding tax and service charge). On weekends, the place is open from 5pm till late on Saturdays and closed on Sundays. It’s located at Plaza Kelana Jaya somewhere opposite Malaysia Airlines Academy (which makes it convenient for us), facing the lake.


The a-la-carte menu front cover. Like many urban restaurants (i.e. TGI Fridays, Chilis, Victoria Station) it does serve alcohol, but the food is halal. We’ve checked with staff. In Malaysia, restaurants that serve alcohol aren’t allowed to display halal logo even though they serve halal food. Liza mentioned there was this one time she asked TGI Fridays to show her their halal certificate and they did, they just couldn’t put it on display.


The restaurant from the front (facing the lake).


If you come from the car park you’ll be entering from the back.


The soup is refillable.


My sprite and Liza’s iced lemon tea. Not refillable though.


You can choose one of two types of salad, Caesar salad or garden salad. This Caesar salad is yummy! Nope, can’t refill the salad either.

Now the good news, there are 10 different types of pastas to choose from and they are refillable! Each comes in a small portion, which is good since I love to try different things. Be sure to finish your current plate before ordering the next one, leftover food will be charged.


Zaza’s first plate - bolognese pasta with chicken.


My first plate and Liza’s second plate - pollo and funghi chicken with mushroom in pomodoro sauce and cream. The name is a bit redundant - “pollo” is chicken and “funghi” is mushroom, why repeat?

Liza had spaghetti vongole with clams in garlic sauce and silantro for her first plate, which was yummy and very suitable for those who hate tomatoes. Forgot to take a pic though.


My second plate - penne arabiatta with chili flakes and pomodoro.


Zaza’s second plate - paesana with turkey ham and capsicum in tomato sauce and fresh basil.


They do have Asian set for RM 8.90 and Western set for RM 18.90. Maybe next time we’ll try the Western set. I think it comes with steak or fish and chips, not so sure.

No, I did not memorize the names ;-)

Each pasta meal is absolutely yummy (well, at least those that we've tried). The place is very nice, facing the lake and all. Kids-friendly too. I bet it's quite "happening" at night. Even though we came in the afternoon and we sat outside it didn't feel that hot coz they have big fans all over the place. Definitely worth the price, with tax and all we paid about RM 15 per person. The prices for the a-la-carte menu are quite ok too, with a good variety of food to choose from. Love it!

two movies and a fun guy

There was a movie screening session during Spanish class today. I didn’t know we were going to watch a movie until my classmate Al told me so. I asked who told her about it, she said, “The other teacher.. you know the fun guy..” Hahaha! Fun guy! Al said every time she saw the teacher’s face she thought of fun things coz the teacher always looked like he was having lots of fun, hence the nickname “fun guy”. I thought it was hilarious! And I did agree with her, the guy did look like he was having fun all the time. Obviously me and my pals who came from Gonzalo’s class in Level A1 never got know the “fun guy” coz he wasn’t our teacher, but I’m pretty sure his name is David (I overheard other students calling him by that name a few times). The funny bit was after the class I wanted to go to the office to check out some Spanish books but the door was locked, so I turned back and walked with Perrin and Al downstairs. Perrin’s remark was “Maybe Gonzalo and the “fun guy” locked the door!” Hahaha! That’s it, from now on he shall be officially known to the three of us as the “fun guy” :-D

Okay, enough of señor “fun guy” (though I still feel like laughing out loud while typing this, you may not think it’s funny but believe me it was a lot more hilarious when it happened!), let’s talk about the movie. It’s called “Todo Sobre Mi Madre @ All About My Mother”, a movie by Spain’s most popular director Pedro Almodóvar. He was the one who made Penélope Cruz a star. The movie was pretty good. A lot different from mainstream English movies that I’m used to, but quite similar to several independent movies that I’ve watched. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in Academy Awards 1999 or so. Like many other Oscar-winning films, it’s kind of “heavy”, so if you wanna watch it be prepared to do some thinking.

The original movie poster, credit to Wikipedia.

After the class I went to join Zuzu, Wawa, Nina and Shima to watch Pisau Cukur at TGV Sunway Pyramid. That is one funny movie! I really suggest you to watch it while it’s still screening. So funny! Not going to spoil it for anyone, just go and watch it. It has English subtitles so even if your Malay is rusty you won’t have any problem understanding.

Oh my Dior! Oh my Gucci! Oh my Jimmy Choo! Watch it and you'll understand what I'm saying :-p

And speaking of movies, New Moon is coming to Malaysia next week. Sheri would have watched it in Aussie by now, can’t wait to read her feedback. First few reviews I've read on the internet aren’t too promising, they seem to prefer Twilight more. But it’s ok, I’m still gonna watch it anyway.

After watching Pisau Cukur we had a good meal at Pancake House International at Lower Ground Floor of Sunway Pyramid’s new wing, next to J.Co Donuts. They serve awesome waffles and pancakes.

My steak. The portion was a bit too small. Didn’t fancy the rice, just thought it was a bit weird to eat steak with white rice.

Zuzu’s plate was a lot better, wished I had ordered this instead. Spaghetti + fried chicken + fajita + garlic bread.

Wawa and Shima shared a plate of banana and walnut pancake. It was really good. Nina had cheese pancake, didn’t take a photo of that one though.

Vienna coffee and ice lemon tea.

I was so tempted by this pic of waffle and ice cream…

… I just had to order a serving for our desert! It was marvelous!

thank you mak ngah!

Dear Mak Ngah,

Thank you so much for the parcel! Little things like these really brighten up my day! Just a few days ago I ran out of sticky notes and I was thinking wouldn’t it be great if you’re coming home soon so you can help me stock up. Is my aunt a psychic or what?!

And Stitch.. awww! Guess I have to thank Pak Ngah for this one? Remember my Stitch fan (the one with water sprinkler), they go along well together!

Take care now, love you loads as I always do and I know you love me as much if not more.. hahahaha! And would you puhleeezzzz wipe off those tears from your face you kememeh! :-p

Say hi to your farm manager a.k.a. Pak Ngah for me ;-) I bet your Farmville is turning into a circus now with all the elephants and what not!

Kiss kiss,
Your ever gorgeous niece ^_^

Love em! Domo arigato gozaimasu!

You and mama being kememeh in the middle of Narita Airport. And Pak Ngah was like “Haiiiih… there they go again…”

winter in KL?

Got this from a forwarded e-mail. Will there be winter in KL tomorrow?


Dear Friends,

I don't intend to cause alarm but I think I need to share this with everyone. Whether this is a hoax or otherwise; as a precaution, may be good to have some warm clothings on hand and be home early on Friday, 20th November 2009.

Rumours are surfacing about a freak winter storm that is expected to hit the Kuala Lumpur city centre on Friday, 20 November 2009 at around 7pm.

Being near the equator, KL has never experienced such a cold weather phenomenon and residents used to the hot and humid weather are warned to take serious precautions.

Reliable sources think that there are reasons to believe these rumours following some unusual weather-related events that many parts of the world have experienced in recent history.

Those who have never experienced extreme cold weather are advised to stick close to one another for support. I suggest reading this article on How to Survive Being Stranded in Snow and other similar ones you can find easily on the internet.

As I personally know some of these sources, I will send out further notices as we get closer to the anticipated event.

Remember, mark 20 November 2009 in your diaries. In such an occurrence, there is safety in numbers so stay close to one another, especially after office hours!

Stay tuned.

Regards,


FYI the email wasn’t signed by anyone. There’s a long trail showing that it has been forwarded from one person to another for several days now. What do you think? Shall we all come to work in ski-gear tomorrow? I bet the price of winter jackets in KL will suddenly skyrocket tonight!

5th grade vs. tahun 5

I love watching "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader". I always try to answer the questions to see if I myself am smarter than a 5th grader. In a way, it makes me realise how far behind Malaysian education system is when compared to the US.

I perceive US 5th graders as nothing different than our Tahun 5 students. In fact they are younger, as US kids start their 1st Grade at the age of 5 or 6. By the time they reach 5th Grade, the amount of knowledge they have learned in school is massive.

Our Tahun 5 kids learn Malay, English, Maths, Science, Islamic/Moral Studies, Music and Physical Education. Over at the other side of the world, 5th Graders learn similar subjects (of course minus Malay and Islamic Studies) PLUS World History, American History, World Geography, American Geography, Social Studies and more.

Though some subjects are common in both countries' education systems, the depths of which they are covered in are far apart. I remember the days when I was in Tahun 5, the most complicated Maths topics that I learned were fractions and decimals. Little that I knew somewhere across the world a child my age was already learning algebra, which I didn't come across until high school. And that's only for one subject, and a common one at it.

Don't get me started with those subjects that even Malaysian adults haven't heard of. While the kids in "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader" can easily name the countries that Amazon River passes through, me a grown-up didn't even know that Morocco is in Africa (not in Middle East as I've always thought it would be) until I encountered a Morrocan a few weeks ago. A 5th Grader knows how many votes it takes to pass a bill in US parliament, they learn it in Social Studies. Here, we Malaysians only learn the difference between Dewan Negara and Dewan Rakyat when we get to Tingkatan 5, which is equivalent to Senior Year in US high school. And had I not been a fan of Jonathan Rhys Myers, I would never know that the infamous King Henry VIII was from House of Tudor, unlike the current Queen Elizabeth II who's from House of Windsor. Why Jonathan Rhys Myers? Because he plays King Henry VIII in the tv series "The Tudors" from which I learn a great deal about the history of Great Britain, something that a US 5th Grader actually learns in his/her World History class.

Well well well, do we really have to wonder why, even if Malaysian kids break their backs carrying textbooks to school everyday, in the end we are still far behind the developed countries?

halal feature: Maguro-Ya @ Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan

Okay, here’s my first featured halal restaurant. Those who have no idea what I’m talking about, refer to my earlier post under the label "halal".


This place is an awesome eat-and-go eatary serving sushi rice in a bowl with side dishes and soup. A small place in Tachikawa, located just outside of Isetan shopping mall. It's right next to Sunkus convenience store. Across the road is Takashimaya shopping mall.

How do I know it's halal? Because my aunt who lives in Japan says so :-) Come on, it's sushi!


In front on the place. What to eat.. what to eat.. so many choices!


Mama's salmon and scallop meal.


Angah had the one with tuna and salmon sashimi.


I had the one with a variety of sushi toppings.

If you wanna ask for direction to this place, note that Japanese addresses are written backwards.

In Japanese this restaurant's address is:
日本東京都立川市曙町２丁目５−１７

Foreigners read it as:
2-5-17, Akebonocho, Tachikawa-city, Tokyo, Japan.

To save you the trouble, here's the the location on Google map:


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