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The Battle of the Yu Sheng
This year of the Dragon, I’ve had 6 Yu Shengs. Surprisingly, the Yu Shengs at the well-known restaurants like Wah Lok (Carlton Hotel) tasted weird and plasticky, while the ones at the coffee shops tasted so much better. If you don’t know what a Yu Sheng is, it’s a Chinese New Year dish popular only in Singapore and Malaysia, invented by local chefs who wanted a dish that people can get together to toss and wish luck for the new year.
The salad-like dish is typically made of shredded carrots and mixed together with peanuts, pomelo, green and yellow stuff. I never pay attention because by the time you’re done tossing, you can’t quite tell what is in it. pepper and sauces are served separately. The server is supposed to throw these ingredients in while saying a few words of well wishes that goes with the said ingredient. Sweet plum sauce signifies a sweet year ahead. Raw fish, usually salmon, means a prosperous year. the orange crackers symbolises the gold ingot of ancient China, so that means great wealth. once the ingredients are thrown in, everyone at the table sticks their chopsticks in and tosses the salad way up high. At one dinner toss, everyone was so enthusiastic that my chopstick flew to the other end of the table.
Some tables I’ve watched toss the Yu Sheng in a discreet civilised manner. The proper way to toss Yu Sheng is to toss it high, make a hella mess and a lot of noise. Having been with the sales team for 3 years, every Yu Sheng that I’ve had with them starts off with a resounding HUAT AHH!!! shouted by 25 sales people. then everyone starts shouting their wishes. It is believed that the higher you toss, the more likely the chance of getting what you wish. Most people wish for money, good health. some people want to strike lottery (Toto or 4D). Others wish for marriage. some wish for babies. a few years ago when someone shouted MORE BABIES AH! another colleague and myself quickly backed off with our chopsticks so we don’t get “hit” with the baby wish.
I’ve never celebrated Chinese New Year in Malaysia before so i’m not sure if the Yu Sheng I had in Malacca was a Malaysian variety, a Malaccan one or just a restaurant special. Instead of the usual shredded orange and vegetables, they’ve replaced it all with fruit. Instead of the sweet sauce, they replaced it with mayonnaise. So it felt more like a fruit salad than anything else, which was the strangest thing I’ve ever eaten. we couldn’t toss high anything so instead we overturned the fruits on the platter with our spoons. very weird.
Happy Birthday Mong!
Mong celebrated her big 4-OH! at Cookyn Inc at Garden Hub (Margaret Drive). I didn’t realise it was where Cookyn with Mervyn has moved to until I saw his wife wandering around us keeping us fed. The theme was Back To School so we all had to scramble to get our uniforms. It would have been a miracle for me to fit into my 16 year old outfit.
Unfortunately the uniform shop we went to didn’t have my school uniform so I had to make do with a sister school. Tricia and I borrowed pink school bags from Adele and I insisted on Strawberry Shortcake school bag, carrying it with me the entire night. Other people at the party thought I was really 16. Either the bag was too successful or I really look that age, even with make-up on. Funny how I cannot fit into what I used to wear when I was 16 but I can still look 16.
I thought it was really cool that all of Mong’s friends made the effort and turned up in uniforms, some of them borrowing ties and badges from their children. We had two 24 year old DJs playing 80s music, which was a laugh when they were dumbfounded at Mong’s request for Locomotion. Wassat?
The rest of the party was aptly 80s decorated although I was half expecting the bag on the top of the cake to be Sonia Rykiel.
The Good Wife
What is there not to like about The Good Wife? This is a story about Alicia, a wife of a District Attorney Peter Florrick, who had to suffer the embarrassment of her husband’s infidelity, and joins a law firm (after years of being a DA’s wife) to support her family while her husband battles his predators. There is the main plot where they uncover what went on behind her husband’s fall from grace, while each episode focuses on a certain case she’s fighting and the methods they used to help their client win. But nevermind the plot line, what kept me going were the secondary characters in the show.
Eli Gold
Eli Gold is Peter’s campaign manager. He is cunning, charming and he gets things done. I love all his one-liners in the show.
Eli: Now I may not seem like the warm understanding type, but this is my warm and understanding face.
his exchanges with Becca, some teenager thorn in his side:
ELI: Well, look who we have here today.
BECCA: Hello, Mr. Gold. I come in peace.
ELI: Mm-hmm. Like Yasser Arafat? Are you maybe confusing my office with the free clinic down the street?
This is my favourite, where he threatens her. His threats are so… imaginative:
Eli: See, I have a lot of friends. I’m sure you do too, but the difference is my friends are not in homeroom. So I want you to listen to me. Stop tweeting! If you tweet, I will know you tweet and I will — Have you seen ‘Drag Me To Hell’? It will be just like that.
What’s there not to love about Eli Gold?
Diane Lockhart
The other partner of the firm, she’s the image of the strong ambitious career woman. I love her style, her confidence, and her ability to strut out of an argument with such flair. I love watching the expression on her haughty face change from a knowing smirk to an all out laugh.
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Kalinda Sharma
The investigator at the firm, who has no qualms using her feminine wiles to charm her way into any place that would give her the answers to cases. What really struck me about Kalinda that no matter what she doesn’t allow herself to show any expression that would reveal her true feelings. She stalks around the screen oozing sexual confidence and a nonplussed attitude. You could stab her in the back but she won’t react, and you won’t realise what hit you until you see the same knife planted in between your eyes.
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Carey Agos
I’m two minds about Carey. I loved him as Logan in Gilmore Girls because he’s smooth, charming, witty and good-looking. But in this show, he’s this annoying little preppy boy who pops up from time to time to annoy everyone. He went from charming to being smarmy.
Eating Malacca: Restoran Tong Sheng
From our weekend Malacca trip:
Just around the bend from Restoran Keng-Dom is Restoran Tong Sheng. This restaurant is known for its seafood, most importantly Malacca’s well-known baked crab and cheese beehoon. I’ve heard a lot about cheese bee hoon but I’ve never had it till today.
The restaurant was packed with locals, a sure sign that this is a good place with good food.
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The famous cheese bee hoon served with prawns. this is the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. The only comparison I can find is the crab bee hoon they have in Singapore, but while the crab dish uses condensed milk and perhaps butter, this prawn bee hoon uses cheese. the gravy is watery but very tasty. Bryan and I were tempted to pour the leftover gravy into a bottle and bring home.
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As it was still Chinese New Year, like most chinese restaurants, this one still carried their chinese new year menu, which was rather limited. They didn’t have the baked crab (sadness) but instead they had SALTED EGG CRAB. i was so happy. Lucky me, my table had 4 children and 8 adults, and the others were stuffed so I was left to polish the rest of the crabs. All these years of crab eating training has finally paid off.
Malaysia hands down has the best Chinese food in this region. Now I have to wait for some Singaporean to copy the cheese bee hoon dish and bring it over.
