A brief tour of Taiping

Petroleum is fun to be burnt. I spent my whole afternoon driving, as one of the newest competent drivers in town. I revisited the various landmarks of Malaysian’s wettest town in an exceptionally hot and sunny day.

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Pit Stop 1: My secondary school.
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I was supposed to get my Sijil SPM from the office and get rid of the school, but the fond memories of my schooling life prompted me to wonder around the largest school in town, even though the temperature was as high as in Saudi Arabia.

A miniature of my alma mater, courtesy of Friendster Groups: Hua Lian.

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My school had changed in certain aspects. It has a new awful theme of brown and white in some of the main buildings. Sigh, I came to the school at the wrong timing, which was why I met virtually all strangers; none of them were sixth formers. I saw some of my ex-teachers, and the canteen operators. Just as few years back, Mr. Papindar Singh was still wearing a typical red turban. Ms. Rosmawati was still teaching Kemahiran Hidup in a similar tone, at the same lab. Mr. KK Lim looked as strict as last time. The Canteen A operators still struggling to come up with turnaround plan to compete with Canteen B. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, minus a hundred of yawns. Hm, so here you are: Hua Lian revisited...
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Oh, my big 'brownie'. That's the administration block. The first two floors are offices, while the rest are class rooms. My classes were there for 3 out of 5 years.

A slice of Nature Supreme Pizza, in front of the school hall.

The inner-part, surrounded by hills. It has classrooms, more classrooms, basketball courts, and a better canteen.

Not-so-new-anymore Form Six block under a misleading cloudy sky - it didn't rain.
Hm, does Diamond water help in studies?

I revisited, I snapped, I sweated, I fled. Oh, gosh, I guess global warming is getting more serious. Having a school in the lake garden that surrounded by hills didn't help much. Duh.

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Pit Stop 2: Taiping Town

Taiping Lake Garden. This picture shows you the evidence of hidro-tropism. =p
On the left is the country's oldest market. On the right is a small food court, Siang Malam - a venue for 'rain-betting' activities.

Theatre Road. Nah, we no longer have theatre or cinema in Taiping, but we preserved the old name of the road. It's a heritage. :)

Main Road.

When my dad was a kid, he used to stay in one of these shop lots in Kota Road.

Kota Road.

St. George's Institution, the alma mater of my daddy and grandpa.

Treacher Methodist Girls School, the alma mater of my mommy.

SM Convent, my sisters' secondary school.

Oh, btw, what makes an ISO-certified school, huh?

Municipal Plaza. It houses the biggest wet market in town, where some housewives gather, gossip every early morning. It's our local version of Wisteria Lane. =p

Taiping Buddhist Temple. It operates a kindergarten which I studied. I met lotsa friends there on Tuesday's Vesak Day.

Beautiful sunset in Kamunting, Taiping.

What drives me? McFlurry! =p

P.s.: Click here for my posting on Taiping food!

Taste buds civilisation

Americans are really good in establishing their own F&B businesses and reformat our taste buds to be their creations’ best friend. French fries might be originated from France, hamburger from Germany, and the best coffee bean from Java or Africa. But it was Uncle Sam’s families who popularized them, and we heart them more and more, day by day.

I suppose the history of Malaysian and Singaporean’s kopitiams could be traced back to centuries ago, even before the first European explorers arrived in America. In fact, I believe Parameswara was holding a cup of kopi ‘o’ while resting under the Malacca tree in 1400s. Besides, I also believe that Portuguese navigator and statesman, Afonso de Albuquerque drank cups of iced coffee ‘o’ before seizing Malacca in one of the hot and dry day of 1511. However, it was Coffee Bean and Starbucks that managed to popularize them in 1960s and 1970s, respectively. Do you know why? I seriously don’t.

If Colonel Harland Sanders and Ray Kroc were still alive, they might have been the current Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States, if they chose to venture into politics, rather than just preparing the best fried-chicken, milkshake, hamburger, etc. Nevertheless, I could still see the bright future of our kopi ‘o’ (even I prefer frappuccinos), and the exotic varieties of street food. Yea, the latter is what I wanna blog about now (sorry for that long-winded introduction, =p).

Now, let me introduce you some of the really great noodles around my domicile.

A) Yee Fu Mee (aka 'He Fooled Me', =p)

A well-known street food among Kamunting folk. They have been selling their yummy menu since 1980s. 'He Fooled Me' is people's all-time favourite. Despite the large number of people standing near the stall waiting for their order to be prepared every night - for two decades, none of them has managed to duplicate their secret recipes! It has no name. So we usually call it: Esso, he fooled me! - because it's situated beside of the Kamunting's Esso station. Oh, fyi, they were not using Esso gas cylinder, it was Shell! It caters for weddings, too.

This was how he fooled me!

B) Wanton Mee
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This awful-looking restaurant houses the town's awesome Wanton Mee. It's situated opposite of Medan Saujana's 7-Eleven.

Ironically, it was the maid who made me the noodle. She has been working there for years, safe-guarding the recipes from being duplicated. Look, she stared at me furiously when I was taking pictures! Gosh, we need more maids like her.

One tonne noodle? Nah, the portion was less than 100 grams, just good enough for supper.

Craving for more? Let me bring you to the one of the hawker centres in my hometown - Taiping Casual Market...

A very oddly-name Casual Market. I have no idea how it was named. Hm, a dress code, I suppose. It houses some of the best hawker foods in town. Not forgetting the best and not-so-fruity's Ais Kacang.

Uh oh, that guy with a pink shirt didn't obey the dress code!

Stall No.48 serves one of the best desserts in town...

...'Leng Chee Kang'.