The end is nigh

Comes as no surprise if I said that I would miss the food in Malaysia when I’m leaving for UK this September. As much as I like to try new food places, there really is something comforting about going to somewhere you know, sitting down and knowing exactly what you want to order, getting your order and having no nasty surprises.

Have been quite blessed to make friends here with similar food-inclined interests, will be going on quite a foodie weekend trip this weekend actually, to Penang *happy grin*.

Anyway, actually in quite a contemplative mood whilst writing this post now. The second last week of the semester has just ended, it’s less than a month to my first paper. Soon, I’ll be leaving this place, and perhaps will never come back again. We just had our pharmacy farewell party yesterday and it just struck me, wow two years here have just passed, just like that. And another two years will pass just like that and I’ll be graduating!

*Ah ok, insert random photo to maintain interest*

Ok everyone, say hello to Grace. Photogenic girl who has an internal detector for cameras, she makes a good subject. And on a dSLR, mmm. Have been having opportunities to fiddle around with a Canon 450-D recently, this photo was taken with a prime lens. Me like the bokeh… And the lighting at Starbucks was pretty nice and soft. Aah..

Approaching the last few weeks of being here, I come to realise more and more of what I’d miss about this place. And it’s not just the food, okay. I’ll miss the people as well. I’ll miss having the luxury of sleeping a bit more since lecture rooms are only 10 minutes walk away. I’ll miss having the swimming pool less than 5 minutes walk away. I’ll miss walking around seeing familiar faces. Ok stopping here before I become more emo.

See, I can write a post without featuring food, though this is not very substantial. But substantial posts shall wait until some time when life is not such a distratction yea. Until then, tata.

The Melaka Roadtrip

Hello world. When was the last time I blogged? I can’t remember. Blogging really isn’t that satisfying anymore. My new gratification is writing mini-essays as my facebook status, mini-updates of my life, kind of like Twitter I guess. It’s more gratifying in the sense that there are actually comments from people, sometimes extending into a spam/comment-marathon, fun.

What to blog about today, Melaka trip or the “best of Midvalley in one day with my family” trip? Hmm, Melaka trip first then.

This Melaka trip started off with just two confirmed members, Grace and me. Just a few days before, then the roadtrip increased by two members, and then finally we got a willing driver. Well one fell sick in the end and didn’t go. But wow, so much for me researching about buses to get there, wasn’t needed after all. I knew Melaka wasn’t far from campus, but I didn’t know it was that near, only about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there. Not bad.

We got up quite early in the morning and by the time we got to Melaka, it was time for breakfast. Oh yeaa…

Chicken rice balls it was, not a very conventional breakfast but the good thing about getting to this place early was that there was minimal waiting time. When we walked by this place later around lunch time, there was a queue of people waiting to get into the place. Wow.

The wonderfully flavoured chicken rice balls which are cooked in chicken stock, was a hint of ginger and duno what else. The balls are are made of glutinous rice, you dip them into the chili sauce provided and when you sink your teeth into it, mmm… It’s really aromatic and savoury, not very good with explaining the taste but you get what I mean. Don’t look down on these balls, I had 9 and I was so full. The chicken that comes with it is quite lean and not so tender, which seems to go well with the rice.

This is the place, Chop Chung Wah. Last time I went to Melaka, I went to one a few minutes walk from this place on Jonker Street that has a life size cardboard model of some TV food show host. But there’s something about eating in an old-school place with marble topped tables and wooden chairs that’s kind of comforting.

Then after breakfast, the weather was still nice and not too hot. And so started the touristy part of the roadtrip. Just a short walk away from where we had breakfast, was the St Peter’s Church, A Famosa and all those touristy places.

My friend took this shot, me like.

And I took this shot of my two friends, I have something about taking shots of people’s backs.. I don’t know why…

Oh and a bit later, we met up with a friend from uni who lives in Muar, walked back to Jonker Street and walked into any curious little shop that caught our eye. Quite a few of those.

Fast forward an hour or two later, it started raining. A sign that it was time to take refuge in another eating place for a late lunch.

This is where we went to, some place on Jonker Street. Which coincidentally I’ve been to more than two years ago when I went to Melaka with my family…

One thing good here is the cendol, oh my the gula melaka was so thick, the ice was finely shaved. The whole thing is just great to have after walking around Melaka on a hot day.

And this is some kind of lemak laksa or curry laksa? Whatever it is, it was nice. The gravy/broth had a very delicate, exquisite taste, not overpowering.. Just there. It had hints of spices and tuna, somehow a very complimentary mix, not too spicy either. When the tofu pok soaks up the gravy and you bite into it, heavenly…

After lunch, again there was a few hours of not really knowing what to do till the next meal. And since it was raining, and there were 3 girls on this trip as opposed to 2 guys, we ended up at a shopping mall, Dataran Pahlawan. Surprisingly, shopping at Melaka is quite good. Me who normally buys nothing when going shopping actually got something, maybe I was just in a good mood.

When we got to Dataran Pahlawan, the first shop we set our eyes upon was Daiso. Boy were we surprised they had a Daiso, this wonderful Japanese/Korean shop where everything is sold at RM5. So wonderful, no need for price tags. Everything from household products, cosmetics, hardware, stationary… all at the same price. We spent a fair bit of time in that shop, walking up and down the aisles looking at the amazing things RM5 can buy you. In the end I only got two things though, a sketch book and a lan cable since mine got spoilt, so practical. Haha.

Then we spent some time looking at the other shops, not bad. I ended up getting a skirt from Brands outlet, I think it was RM39 for a blue checked skirt with dark blue lace trimming and a matching dark blue checked sash to tie into a ribbon around the waist.

Finally, dinner time! We already knew what we wanted to it, Satay Celup, it was just a matter of finding the right place. Don’t know why but there’s this place called Capitol that seems famous but our friend was against going. We ended up at this place instead, of which I have forgotten the name *Bad blogger*.

Yummy food on sticks dipped into a spicy satay sauce, mmm. And white bread dipped into the sauce was really nice. And the meal wasn’t as expensive as I imagined, not bad.

And there ended a very satistfying road trip to Melaka. My last visit to this place, in probably years… Sigh, my last semester here at this campus and still so many places to go, things to do, things to eat.