Friday, September 28, 2012

Penang Street Art

Some one send me an email with all the picture below, and I thought of sharing this with you. I have seen these pictures and read some news about it (largely because of vandalism), I really love that Penang now is showing the 'artistic' side of it. Sadly, these paintings are not drawn by the local but an Lithuanian artist. 
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In conjunction with Penang's Georgetown Festival, certain old walls within our dear capital has gained a new lease of life, thanks to the awesome efforts of Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic. 
Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic is leaving his mark with beautiful wall painting of children all across historical Georgetown. The artworks are funny, fascinating, and very much open to everyone's interpretations.

Ernest's neighbour, who is actually famous wooden clogs painter, Mr. Ng Chai Tiam, Armenian Street Art Cafe
"Little Girl in Blue" -- Mural, Muntri Street, George Town, Penang
"Children in a Boat" -- Mural, Chew Jetty, George Town, Penang
"Little Children on a Bicycle" -- Mural, Armenian Street, George Town, Penang
"Boy on a Bike" -- Mural, Ah Quee Street, George Town, Penang
"Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur" -- Mural, Ah Quee Street, George Town, Penang
"Reaching Up" -- Mural, Cannon Street, George Town, Penang
"The Awaiting Trishaw Paddler" -- Mural, Penang Road, George Town, Penang

Ernest Zacharevic's wall paintings in George Town, Penang

 
 
 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Google's underwater "street view"

With the new iPhone 5 release, Apple also release the new iOS6 with it. During the same 'upgrade', Apple ditched Google Maps and also YouTube. Google Maps has been replaced with the now infamous Apple Maps which miss the mark.

 Look at the Six Most Epic Fails and you will see that!

However, Google Maps is consistently improving themselves and having a larger catalogue of maps! On Google Maps, we can choose to have street view, which is cool when it was first release and still is cool now, but sometimes, is a bit outdated.

I know it's hard to curate and maintain the large data that they have. They have consistently challenge themselves too.

However, what many people doesn't know is that Google doesn't just have Google street view on their Google maps. If you go to their website, under gallery, you will find more street view collection.  You can choose to visit Isreal, or Amazon, Google have their street view collection there.


And if you are a businessman, there is also a business highlights! 

However, one of the things that blows me away is that Google recently have street view for ocean! At first, I am thinking, who want to look at that, and then it dawn on me, WOW! How cool is that?

I dive and love diving. However, diving is a very expensive hobby. You pay for your tank, for boat rides, for license to national parks, lodging and much more. But now, I can click on Google Maps and I will be at Great Barrier Reef!


Don't expect the same as diving, but it's really nice to be able to click on all these and take a lot at the pictures of famous dive sites around the world!
Then, suddenly, I realized I am working in the wrong field! How cool will it be to be able to work for Google and dive all around the work to map this for them! I would love to be one of their divers.

Anyway, I will leave you with one of the video of their ocean 'street view'!



Happy 'Diving" folks!

Friday, September 21, 2012

iPhone 5 madness!

Many peoples lined up for the new release of iPhone 5 around the world on Friday. Many of them actually camped out so that they can claim to be the first to lay their hand on the new iPhone.
These people are then celebrated with cheers and high five by the employees of Apple, to be a staunch supporter and lover of Apple products. 
iPhone 5 has been called the best best iPhone yet by Engadget and said to be slimmest smartphone by Apple. With more than two million pre-orders within 24 hours of the online launch of iPhone 5, it is on the way to be the bestseller. 

Many of these buyers are buying to us the phone and to be able to show it to people. However, iFixit has done it again. One they get a hold of this phone, they proceed to do a teardown for all of us to see the superiority of Apple design and how cleverly they place all their components together, to be the slimmest smartphone. 


I love the iPhone 5 but I still think it's too expensive to own when compare to an android and I don't want to be tied down with a contract!/ 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Georgetown Special: 10 Best Cheap Eats

10 of the best cheap eats in Penang

George Town in Penang, Malaysia, has the best street food in Asia, argues John Brunton. As the city gears up for the George Town Festival, which starts this Friday, he picks 10 stand-out places where you can eat fantastically well, and cheaply

Know a great place to eat in Penang? Add a comment

Streetfood, George Town, Penang 
Street food in George Town, Penang. All photographs by John Brunton

Nowhere in Asia can compare with Malaysia when it comes to street food, and although the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is a foodie paradise, ask Malaysians themselves where is the best place to eat, and the unanimous answer will be the tropical island of Penang, and in particular, George Town, a seething, authentic Chinatown. The stalls here are a gourmet kaleidoscope reflecting Malaysia's colourful ethnic mix – as well as offering delicious Malay and Indian cuisine, Penang is unparalleled for the diversity and quality of its regional cooking. You eat well and cheaply everywhere in Penang, but here are 10 places really worth discovering.

Char koay teow stall

Char koay teow stall

Char koay teow (stir-fried rice noodles) is the iconic Penang street food dish, copied all over Malaysia, but never tastes better than sitting at a low pavement table outside a hawker stall in one of George Town's narrow back streets. Lean Joo Sean has been setting up outside the Sin Guat Keong coffee shop at 5.30pm every day since 1954. You can't miss him with his tall white chef's hat and the clouds of smoke that billow up each time he fires his wok over a flaming charcoal fire. A plate costs 3.40 Malaysian ringgit (about 70p), and he cooks right through till midnight as a steady queue forms for these exquisite fried noodles, prepared to a secret recipe that includes fresh mantis prawns.
• 86 Kimberley Street

De Tai Tong cafe

De Tai Tong cafe, Penang

Dim sum is traditionally served for breakfast but at this historic teahouse, in the heritage shophouses of Chinatown, they open for lunch and dinner too. Tai Tong maintains the traditions of dim sum, not just with the variety of its menu, but still employing elderly ladies to push metal trolleys loaded with goodies around the tables. Many customers won't even wait for the trolley to arrive and crowd round the grumpy waitresses picking up plates (around 40p each) of har gow (shrimp dumplings) and chee cheong fun (rice flour rolls filled with barbecued pork). Don't miss the lor mai gai (glutinous rice cooked with chicken, black mushroom and savoury chinese sausage), and for anyone with a sweet tooth, end the meal with a sinful, bright yellow egg tart of creamy egg custard in crisp pastry.
45 Lebuh Cintra

Kedai Kopi Sin Hwa

Kedai Kopi Sin Hwa, Penang

The Sin Hwa coffee shop, within walking distance of one of Asia's longest reclining Buddha statues, is renowned for its claypot noodles and duck egg koay teow, but the stall with the longest line is for the 60p bowl of assam laksa. People come from all over the island for this delicious dish. Ask for laksa in most of Malaysia and you will be served a bowl of curry laksa, cooked with a rich coconut milk sauce. This classic Nyonya (Chinese-Malay cooking) dish is very different in Penang though, as the Straits Chinese developed their own fusion version called assam laksa, a tart, hot and sour interpretation. The base is an intense fish soup, flavoured with tamarind, ginger flower, galangal, pungent belacan prawn paste, refreshing sprigs of mint and sliced shallots.
329 Jalan Burma

Zealand Seafood

Zealand Seafood, Penang

Gurney Drive was once the preferred residence of Penang's Chinese millionaires, who built grandiose mansions for themselves with splendid views over the sea. Today, most of the mansions have been replaced with towering luxury condos, but this long waterside promenade remains one of the most popular places for Penangites to eat seafood, and at night the streets are jammed with traffic. But come in the morning when the joggers and tai chi enthusiasts are out, and try Malaysia's most unusual but delicious breakfast, bak-kut-teh. The chefs brew a rich pork and herbal broth for hours, then serve the soup with pork ribs, succulent mushrooms, tofu and fried dough; serious foodies can ask for intestines and offal to be added too. Accompanied by Chinese tea, a hearty portion is £3, with free extra soup.
• 62 Gurney Drive

New Lane satay stall

New Lane satay stall, Penang

Satay is the street dish most closely associated with Malaysia, and as it is usually cooked at Muslim Malay stalls, this automatically means beef or chicken satay. But the Chinese love pork satay, and although this is becoming increasingly rare in the rest of the country, Penang still has many hawkers. Ngiom Far Luan has been cooking satay for more than 30 years just outside the Maxim Cafe on New Lane. Her secret is in the way she fans the flames and uses charcoal, which gives the meat a unique smoky taste. A stick costs less than 20p, so order a dozen. New Lane is a street food paradise with about 50 stalls serving hokkien mee (stir-fried noodles), popiah (fresh spring rolls), ikan bakar (chargrilled fish, often stingray, on a banana leaf) and lots more.

Restoran Kassim Mustafa

Restoran Kassim Mustafa, Penang

Lebuh Chulia is the classic meeting point for backpackers passing through Penang, lined with bars, restaurants and budget hostels. Kassim Mustafa is an airy, family-run corner cafe, open 24 hours a day, which for 30 years has been serving classic mamak cuisine – Indian Muslim cooking with a strong Malaysian influence. For a first visit, try their nasi kandar, biryani rice with a couple of wickedly spicy curries – squid, chicken or beef – that will cost around £2. Then come back after midnight, when they start serving slowly roasted lamb shank, or for a different style of fusion cuisine, there is Thai-style moi sup (rice porridge soup) or tom yam campur (chicken and seafood soup).
12 Lebuh Chulia, penangnet.com/k-mustafa

Chee Cheong Jook Congee stall

Chee Cheong Jook Congee stall, Penang

Porridge in Penang has nothing to do with breakfast; it refers to congee, a milky rice porridge that can be eaten at any time of the day with an incredible variety of things – most commonly fish or pork, seasoned with tangy preserved vegetables, chives, Chinese vinegar and century eggs. But this tiny stall, just off the Chowrasta Street food market, is for serious fans of nose-to-tail cuisine, as the ingredients feature crispy pork intestines, innards from the stomach to the tongue, all hanging up on a neat line ready for chopping, and even pig-blood cakes. The friendly cook, who has been here 35 years, is always delighted when a tourist dares sit down, and at just 50p a bowl it is worth a try.
Outside 25 Jalan Kuala Kangsar

Weld Quay Restaurant

Weld Quay Restaurant, Penang

Eating seafood can be relatively expensive in Penang, but not if you discover this favourite local haunt hidden away on the busy harbour road, right by the ferry terminal. Also known as the Tree Shade restaurant, because a huge tree has been left growing in the middle of the entrance, this looks at first like a fishmongers, with trays of exotic fish, live crabs and prawns displayed on mounds of dripping ice, alongside an open kitchen lined with blazing woks. The idea is you choose what you want to eat, how you want it cooked and what the price will be, then head into the restaurant at the back. For around £5-£6 a head, you can try a main course of pomfret steamed with ginger, black pepper prawns or chilly crabs, accompanied by rice and a vegetable dish.
21 Pengkalan Weld

Townview Seafood Cafe

Townview Seafood Cafe, Penang

With its huge red neon crab outside, and the wriggling fish and strange-looking crustaceans swimming around huge aquariums, it's not hard to guess the speciality here. But in the open-air entrance is also a brilliant self-service buffet serving a Chinese version of the traditional Malay nasi campur ("mixed rice" topped with various meats, vegetables, peanuts, eggs and fried-shrimp) – you can choose from crispy pork belly, chilli lala clams, fish cakes, and kai-lan (a leaf vegetable) in oyster sauce. Expect to pay £2-£3 depending on how many dishes you choose. Worth noting that Townview stays open till 5am
11 Jalan Macalister

Sup Hameed

Sup Hameed, Penang

Open from the early morning till the early hours of the night, Hameed's is great to start the day with a freshly-made roti canai (Indian-influenced flatbread) dunked in a spicy fish curry or a thicker, doughy murtabak stuffed with chicken. At lunchtime the kitchen serves old planter specials such as homemade oxtail soup. Located near Penang's bar and club quarter, Hameed's hots up after midnight, where its comfort beef and mutton soups are popular – try a bowl of the supposedly aphrodisiac beef sup torpedo, popularised by Anthony Bourdain on his TV series – well worth it for around £1. 

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Penang: My beautiful world

One of the things about living at a foreign country is that it makes you think about your home country, and families and friends. I would think, sometimes, it made ones more patriotic too! You start to miss the cultures and sense of belonging. Here, we are called as resident alien or foreigners. 

In addition, being a Penangites, it's worst. We are so proud of our food and always think it's the best in the world. And also, we are very proud of our homestate. 

I saw this video online and I think it's amazing. A wonderful way to show the world about Penang! 



Take a look at this site for more scenery of Penang. 



Friday, September 7, 2012

Homemade

Homemade strawberry jam & bread with a good cup of coffee to start the day!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Gangnam Super Kampung Style

Recently, Gangnam style is taking the world by storm. Not a fan of K-pop, I don't really understand how the move became viral.

However, I find this video by FlyFM interesting!