550ml jar of faith writes: Sometimes the body just needs to slow the eff down. And no, sometimes it's really not an option regardless of what work deadlines are looming or I'm inclined to have one more night out. When I blithely refuse to take heed after a few weeks in a row, the body will retaliate, I've learned. But enough about that, I've had enough loopy and lonely monologues justifying my feeble, febrile condition while detained up in recovery.Rewind to weekend pre-Illness: habitual breakfast hunt after noxious, hard drinking nights. This particular weekend saw a couple of tasty, under-the-radar, relatively unknown but solid Pan Mee finds. ...
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550ml jar of faith writes: Dogged by alcoholic wakefulness over the recent break in Penang, I would invoke the most random food cravings at odd hours of the night. However, eating out at my usual favourite kopitiams in the thick of Chinese New Year celebrations is strictly off-limits, given the certainty of decline in standards and jaw-dropping price hikes.One such morning, after a fitful night's sleep haunted by unprecedented hunger, I was fortunate to have the company of an acquaintance, who suggested early breakfast, at the first and oldest nasi kandar stall in Penang, no less. He had read about this here, amidst the abundance of content online celebrating the ever more popular Line Clear Nasi Kandar in town....
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550ml jar of faith writes: The word "Fusion" used in food is a source of great personal agitation. Kinda like badly cut pants that chafe at the thighs. Or the Malaysian persistent fondness for replacing the article "the" with "D'" and springing a whole host of D'ed abominations, like D' Pub, D' Shop, D' Bakery, D'Place where you don't want to be if you had a shred of sense in you. Or the inclination to bad spelling, like replacing the letter "S" with "Z." Appropriating the language of another is a necessity for our young lingual heritage but come on, this level of abuse is practically Defilement - another D word of epic popularity among the jesters we call politicians. ...
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550ml jar of faith writes: Our glorious land is stuffed to the brim with promise and we know, KNOW this. But buried by political opportunism and citizen inertia, we forget too easily and vicariously extol the virtues of giving up and taking off to faraway lands, padded by the belief that the grass (and meat) will always be greener, fatter on the other side. I had read enthralled about the highly inconspicious Nambawan off Old Klang Road from Masak-masak's post recently. A hidden pork haven in an area virtually unheard of at jaw-dropping prices, no more than a 15-minute drive from my humble neighbourhood... hello, did Xmas 2010 arrive 11 months early?! ...
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550ml jar of faith writes: I had my eye set firmly on Pedro's Place since I read from Eat Drink KL a very distant September last year. Took me this long to get around to it, because I'm tragic like that.Nevertheless, food blogs continue to compel me to eat and live better, albeit at a languid pace. Life seriously is waayyy too short to eat bad food or drink bad wine. Oh and not take care of our bodies too. Moderation moderation, yada yada. We arrived on a weekday night when all was quiet and impulses were under control....
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550ml jar of faith writes: Osaka and Okonomiyaki are synonymous so as soon as we arrived, checked into the hotel and got ourselves orientated around Dotonburi, we hunted down the pancake. It required practically no effort as the main street and alleys running off it are teemed with outlets offering this sizzling treat.It must be said though, that both of us, for some strange reason, didn't dig the idea of Okonomiyaki from our previous encounters. Neither of us can coherently explain why. Flour, eggs, shredded cabbage, meat and grease are all exceptional ingredients in our books, so mashing them all up together would be a shoo-in. Too much of a good thing, perhaps?...
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550ml jar of faith writes: While many have professed love for Lorong Selamat on account of its superstar Char Koay Teow resident, I remain firmly unconvinced of its merit and prefer to get my CKT fix elsewhere. However, there may be merit to this road's epicurean fame, beyond just that smug, goggled persona. On a recent trip, we stumbled upon not one but two noteworthy local bowls of finesse. One was a hearty bowl of Fish Head noodles from Kedai Kopi Baru which sits isolated from the congregation of the food stalls on the Burma Road end. ...
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550ml jar of faith writes: Barely two weeks of work into the year, I am already struggling to remember things that took place in December. All that drinking (which persists "because it's still January and if you even think about starting resolutions before Chinese New Year, you're just passive-aggressive setting yourself up for failure") is probably counter-productive but then again, since when did January and productivity make any sense together?I wanted to make sure I documented at least this meal, our first stop fresh off the plane, to the church of Japanese curry, Cocoichi. I have been in love with Cocoichi for a long, long time....
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550ml jar of faith writes: For the longest time, there's been a preoccupation across traditional and contemporary cultures with human mortality and the finiteness of life. Longevity, or a long life, is a highly coveted aspiration from Utopian ideology to Japanese traditional culture, as this delicious bowl of toshikoshisoba, handmade buckwheat noodles in hot tsuyu that was served in my older sister's home on New Year's Eve, symbolised. Who Wants to Live Forever, went Queen. Quite apt for ...
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550ml jar of faith writes: Warm Greetings for the Holiday Season!Eating and drinking in Japan to wrap up another year of great (and not-so-great) eating comes pretty close to perfection. We've eaten tons in the past week and I fear I will never get around to sharing everything in the detail that the experiences warrant. However, I didn't want to forget this, the last meal we had before we departed from Osaka yesterday for Xmas eve dinner back at Mag's. Tonharu is one of the many tiny food joints lining the underground arcade of Namba station, one of Osaka's main transportation stays. The place was packed with hungry and grouchy salarymen, a sign ...
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