Food | The Flaccid Mind

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

The Spoon Theory & Good Ol’ Time!

Friday, August 1st, 2008 51 views

A timeless lesson on how consultants can make a difference for an organization…

Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, ‘Why the spoon?’

‘Well,’ he explained, ‘the restaurant’s owners hired Andersen Consulting to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.’

As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it with his spare. ‘I’ll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now.’ I was impressed. I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter’s fly. Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So before he walked off, I asked the waiter, ‘Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?’

‘Oh, certainly!’ Then he lowered his voice. ‘Not everyone is so observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we can save time in the restroom. By tying this string to the tip of you know what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent.’

‘After you get it out, how do you put it back?’

‘Well,’ he whispered, ‘I don’t know about the others, but I use the spoon.’

I worked at restaurants and fast food joints before and you do not want to know what sort of things happening, ‘horror stories’ in the kitchen. My first working experience in the ‘food and beverage’ industry was in 1997. I was 14 at that time and during the long school holiday, I worked at this one Chinese coffee shop in Sarikei where I did things like washing the cups and glasses, take orders and deliver the food. Before I worked there I was very thin. I weighed 42-45kg and I was quite tall so I looked like ‘jerangkung’ at that time. You don’t believe me? :lol:

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Popularity: 18% [?]

Posted in Food, Friday's Post, Friends, Fun, Personal, Photos, Reminiscence | 30 Comments »

Breakfast with Will Chua & Kong Kay: Meatball Noodle @ Chin Chan Lee & Kompia

Saturday, July 19th, 2008 53 views

Just came back from breakfast with Will Chua and Kong Kay. Will Chua is in Kuching now, he called me last night asking whether I would like to join him and Kong Kay for breakfast which I happily agreed. I met up with Will Chua and his friends - Siti and Peter at Cold Storage near Green Height. I parked my car there and joined their car, being the clueless Kuching bloody tourist hahahaha! Then we drove up to Batu Kawa, where Kong Kay was waiting somewhere along the road

We reached our destination at Batu Kawa Bazaar and the moment I step out from the car, Kong Kay came to me, “Nah!! Your kompia!” Hahahaha! What a great meet up line!!! Thanks Kong Kay for treating me to a big plastic bag full of kompia, that’s so kind of you!!

A big plastic bag of kompia!! :XO: :XO:

We had our breakfast at this one coffee shop at Batu Kawa old town. I actually had no idea what is the coffee shop name because I didn’t pay attention to anything other than the food and ehem.. meeting new friends hehe.. but being the resourceful me (*brag brag.. gloat gloat*) I googled! True enough, Kong Kay blogged about it before here and here The coffee shop name is Chin Chan Lee, for direction to the place go read Kong Kay’s posts. :up:

In Kuching you always for either Sarawak Laksa or Kolo Mee for breakfast. We had Kolo Mee P’ang Ang (with Char Siew Oil) and 2 bowls of meatball and meat cake slices to be shared, and kompia!!

Kompia overdosed… :roll:

Kompia - A simple salted dough, baked in traditional open oven (quoting STP) best served hot because it tends to get hard and ‘chewy’ when it is cold. This is the original version, my favorite! :up:

Kolo Mee with Char Siew Oil - I must say the taste is heavenly.. really!! Very NOICE!!! 9.5/10 :up:

Old fashion soda - the venerable cream soda (Will Chua and Kong Kay had this), Teh C, 2 bowls of meat balls and meat cake slices soup, chili padi with limequart and soy sauce to down with the noodle and soup

Lastly, the obligatory group photo! I proudly present to you…. jeng jeng jeng…

Taa daa!! From left: Yours truly, Siti, Will Chua and Kong Kay. (Peter - the cameraman) Yes, I am aware they look very familiar.. you probably saw them somewhere before.. :wink:

Had a blast meeting you guys!! Thanks for the kompia and wonderful breakfast, Kong Kay! Looking forward to hang out with you people again! :arrow:

Anyone else up for another meet up?

ps: More meet up = more food = more roundness and chubbyness.. I am definitely on my way to dethrone Suituapui! Nyahahahahaha!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Posted in Blogosphere, Food, Friends, Kuching, Photos | 21 Comments »

Oh Chor Mee @ Lau Ya Keng

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 22 views

Last Sunday, I had a ‘makan’ session with some friends at Lau Ya Keng Food Court, Carpenter Street.

Lau Ya Keng Food Court is located opposite a Chinese temple along Carpenter Street . It is very easy to find, smack in the middle of Kuching city centre. A simple food court that has been around for decades and is very popular with locals - breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Chinese Temple opposite Lau Ya Keng

Since I am still considered as a noob in Kuching, a lady friend ordered for us. :oops: She was from Kuching, now residing in Petaling Jaya and was in Kuching here for leisure. :lol: Another friend with his partner from Penang - they were here for the Rainforest World Music Festival also joined us for the ‘makan’ session. We had Oh Chor Mee and Dry ‘Kiaw’. :up:

Dry ‘Kiaw’/'Pien Neek’/Wantan/Wanton/Wuntun

Kuching people called it ‘kiaw’ (Hokkien dialect) and if you go to Sibu or Sarikei they called it ‘Pien Neek’ (Foochow dialect) and in Peninsular, they just called it ‘wantan’ (Cantonese dialect). In Itali, they called it ‘ravioli’. Ok I bluff you on the Italian part You can have the wantan dry or with soup. I don’t think they serve it dry in Peninsular, they only have fried and soup wantan. Probably it is because, from what I noticed that, in Sarawak you get a generous meat filling for the wantan but in Peninsular they are pretty kiam-siap (stingy) so most of the time you end up having just the skin/wrappers-made from fresh dough with insignificant meat filling. Imagine a bowl of ‘dry wantan’ where you just eat the wrappers. Ughh…

Oh Chor Mee - Chinese Black Vinegar Mee.

It is basically Kolo Mee added with Chinese black vinegar according to my friend. I first thought it is just another Kolo Mee with extra ingredients. (Special Kolo Mee) The taste?? Awesome!! The vinegar gave the mee some extra flavor and aroma - slightly sweet and sourish, add that to the saltiness and sweetness of the Kolo Mee, it is a make-match made in heaven. Go satisfy your craving now!!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Posted in Food, Friends, Kuching, Photos, Sarawak | 20 Comments »

Stir Fried Chicken with Mushrooms & Green Beans with Eggs

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 14 views

Lately, I make it a habit for me to prepare and bring my own food to work Yes, I decided to take the matter into my own hands (literally) since my last post bitching about the lousy food and sucky service at my workplace’s canteen. Sorry but I will never ever spend another ringgit there.

I prepared this just now.. for my lunch tomorrow