What's Cooking, Chef Wan?

If you grew up in the late 80s or 90s like me, chances are, you grew up watching Chef Wan. Who else remembers plonking themselves before the television at 1pm on weekdays (or was it just me?) to watch him whip up delicious-looking local cuisines peppered with his unique and bubbly personality. As cooking shows come and go, Datuk Chef Wan is our very own chef personality that made a name for himself that actually stuck through the years. Even until now, he is still very much in demand. Recently, he was in town at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel as part of his cooking tour to promote the best of his versions of the Malaysian cuisine and I jumped at the chance to attend! It was actually my colleague Kathleen's assignment to cover him and though I was on leave to complete my university papers, I did some turbo typing to complete the 2,500-word essays just to go out that evening. Talk about determination. And boy, was it worth it!

I was kinda starstrucked seeing him before my eyes (imagine what it would be like seeing Jamie Oliver). How he is on the telly, how he is in person! Every the bubbly and funny guy, it was a nice surprise to see that he made sure to say hello and shook hands with everybody in the room. Even after he started his cooking demonstrations and some of the audience came in late, he made it a point to say hi and even snapped photos of the guests haha! He cooked 3 dishes: Kari Laksa Bibik Neo, Nasi Ulam Diraja and Ayam Panggang Madura.

Here we were all complaining of hunger and he cheekily grabbed a cloth and fanned more of the smoke our way. "Ha, lapar? Nahhh bagi you all!"


Ayam Panggang Madura. Tastes like yam perk but 26x better.


Nasi Ulam Diraja

All I can say is, the moment the mixture of spices hit the wok, the room was instantly filled with wafts of hunger-inducing fragrance. He shared nostalgic snippets of his childhood, growing up with baba-nyonya heritage and his journey as a chef in Malaysia and abroad over the years. After a good few hours, the food was ready and my, oh my the smell was just crazy. After the demonstration, while all the excited (and I mean super excited) makciks and kakaks rushed to snap photos with the chef, Kathleen and I headed straight to the food for a sample. BOY WAS IT DELICIOUS. Probably because we were all starving by then but I mean, I knew it was going to be delicious, but whoa it was so delicious. Totally didn't take photos of the laksa because it was gobbled up before I even had the chance to do so!

In the end we managed to sneak a photo with him, even got a selfie out of it! The hotel instantly printed out the photos for us, which we got him to sign! Now it's attached to my fridge whee!

I feel that he is such an accommodating person, honestly. Because one of the many kakaks AKA Super Fan, took group photos with him, single-person shots and then whipped out a friggin monopod for selfies. A smiling and joking Chef Wan was a good sport throughout and just layan je. I guess he is used to all the attention after countless shows and interaction with these women over the years right? Later, he even uploaded a photo with me and Kathleen in it on his Instagram (ma, I made it lol)!

He was very chatty throughout the whole event as he is on his shows and watching his antics while he cooked was a joy. He had the room in stitches the moment he came in, right until the end, and more. Despite his obligations, he sat down for some Q & As with us reporters and he gave us all the answers that we didn't even need to ask questions for. :D Definitely an event to remember.

And just because I am missing his nasi ulam so badly today, here's a photo of him tasting the food before serving.. as he should.

Signed,
Your Super Fan.
♥

Mossy Cameron

green terrains of tea | more tea plantations | first Boh stop | always behind you, never far :) | Sungai Palas glass teahouse | brunch | smart boy is smart | tea and scones for every meal | making our way up | mossy trail | towering trees | must we leave? | with our new Canadian friend Jenna

If you've never driven up to Cameron Highlands on a broken car radiator, your argument is invalid.

Back then, my car tends to overheat because of what we assumed was a leaking radiator. So I was used to refilling the radiator every morning before heading out. Despite that, we decided to wing it and drive from JB to Cameron Highlands for a getaway. Guess what? The car overheated three or four times on the way up. Major claps to ourselves. Thank god it didn't overheat until we were almost at the top where the weather was already cool and it wasn't too frustrating. We made it up there and returned to lower ground with a few stops to refill the car before going to Ipoh to finally fix the damn radiator (that's a story for another day).

Our initial plan for Cameron was to head up to Mossy Forest but with a heavy heart we had to let it go cos no way are we gonna make it up there with a damaged radiator right? The day before we left Cameron, we had brunch at the Sungai Palas tea house because I wanted to see the glass teahouse. As we left, we passed by a signboard that says "Mossy Forest --->>>>" and we turned and gave each other the "are you crazy or not? smile" and without saying anything, he made a u-turn. Two stops and refills later, we were there! No one else was around as we made our way into the forest because it was about to rain. Grey skies hovering above, threading the damp and mossy trail, the air was crisp.. what's not to love? Alas, we had to quickly leave the forest as it began to rain and met a backpacker (legit backpacker from Canada not the twt_backpacker type lul) who was somewhat lost so we gave her a lift down. But not before stopping for some fresh strawberries with cream!

Spontaneous with snippets of memorable moments, as usual. He had work to do when we were up there but we still made the best out of it. More soon? :)

♥

Homesick Alien

Hotel Fort Canning, Singapore

"The breath of the morning
I keep forgetting
The smell of the warm summer air

I live in a town
Where you can't smell a thing
You watch your feet
For cracks in the pavement..."

, sings Thom Yorke.

Currently homebound for a month. Right now I can only reminisce the days of frolicking in the sunset, going places, eating whatever I like, holding his hand.

♥

Medan 1.0 - Water Baby

1^st- 4^th picture: views of lake toba | sipiso-piso, which literally means ‘like knives’ | sign says no shortcuts but we say fuck it | mid way down with adit | Beny said like knives, the waterfall will peel the skin off your back if you stand directly under it | view from the top is too mainstream (geddit? lol) | gushing waters | wet and happy | climbed to the highest rock at the bottom and felt the cool splashes of water from the waterfall on my entire body | all was forgotten at the sight of this | greeted by an unexpected friendly face called Beny who served us hot coffee and sang us songs | and these two sang along | ‘til we meet again

I've always felt one with the water. One of my favourite things to watch is the ripples made by the slow, calm currents. The feeling when I'm near a large body of water is both relaxing and scary at the same time. You know how you look out into the ocean and feel slightly afraid that a sudden wave would come and wash you away - yet you feel somewhat relieved at the sight of the never-ending horizon? You are both anticipative and afraid of what's to come. That's just life in general isn't it? You are either welcoming it with open arms or you're scared of the unknown.

♥

Georgetown III

Georgetown/Bukit Bendera/Batu Ferringhi

Third time in Georgetown, Penang in a year and each time is a different experience. With the air of excitement out of the way this time, I felt that Georgetown is increasingly overrated and too commercialised for my liking. Maybe because this time we went off track a bit by going against our ways of not conforming to the touristy stuff. Spoke lots to the locals too because what is the purpose of travel without talking to the locals right? I learned that Georgetown, despite the political differences, is more alike to Johor Baru (Especially Iskandar Malaysia ) than I thought. The locals there face similar plights as the people here and listening to their grouses came to me as a surprise. I guess you have to live in a place to truly get the real picture of the situation there.

Serious stuff aside, I went on a jet ski for the first time and it was gratifying. Being on the water makes me feel free yet slightly terrified, a feeling I can't quite describe. Next time I'll try to steer that thing.

One of the nights we went to a super mainstream spot called Nasi Kandar Beratur for supper and boy, was that a terrible choice. The restaurant (more like an eatery with an open kitchen) is located next to a ditch on lowered ground so we have to stand on the elevated curb to order. As I was picking out my dishes, I looked down and I was actually stepping on a piece of plank and a bunch of cockroaches (I'm talking about more than 30, imagine ants crawling out of a hole type of situation) started crawling out from underneath. The next thing I know, one of the roaches climbed up the pants of the man before me. The workers then started to kick the roaches back into the drain underneath the plank while those working behind the food counter just watched without batting even an eyelid (?!!?!). I looked back and my bf (who's super afraid of cockroaches) had began backing away.. I just gave him an assuring smile cos I was trying to keep it together for him but inside I was !!!!!!!!!!!!! freaking out screaming and kicking my feet!! Thinking about it now makes me feel like puking. I always knew street food and eateries are dirty but not like this! God. Never again.

We also rented a Vespa, which was the best decision of the entire trip because we could zoom everywhere and anywhere we wished, stop as soon as we spotted something we wanted to eat/drink. On the last night, we decided to get some hot cocoa for supper and it started raining. Out came the raincoats that came with the motorcycle and we went riding in the cold. YOLO right. That was definitely one for the memory log. That and the roaches.

♥