Tell Me A Story

Flaunt it and shine at Miss Jumbo

2011-12-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

The Miss Jumbo pageant is not only about celebrating beauty in different shapes and sizes, but also about being proud and confident.

IT took a fair bit of coaxing to get girls to join this beauty pageant, mainly because they didn’t believe they had the potential to be beauty queens. Most were afraid of being heckled on stage and being subjected to humiliation. It also didn’t help that the pageant winner will be crowned Jumbo Queen.

In this beauty contest, participants must weigh at least 80kg – and it’s open to all women regardless of their age and marital status.

Ong Kay Li belting out Born This Way. She was chosen first runner-up.

“If you look around at beauty pageants like Miss Malaysia, they only accept thin girls. What about the ones who are more generously endowed? Shouldn’t they be given a chance to do the catwalk and to show off that they are beautiful and talented as well?” said Sungei Wang Plaza’s senior manager of promotions and public relations Lim Kok Kheng.

He was inspired to organise the beauty pageant for plus-sized girls from a beauty contest he saw while holidaying in Thailand.

“That beauty contest was held to highlight the plight of elephants and the girls had to mirror the grace of the animals,” recounted Lim, who immediately saw the pageant’s crowd puller potential.

The first Jumbo Queen pageant, held in 2007, only attracted 20 applicants. When it was held again in 2010, it attracted more than 40 aspirants. This year, 30 joined the pageant.

Lim and his colleagues are committed to making the pageant a success, and they are always on the look out for potential contestants.

Purnisha Premchand, 31, who runs an online plus-sized clothes business called Curve Queenz, initially approached Sungei Wang with the intention of becoming a wardrobe sponsor for the beauty pageant. Instead, she was persuaded to participate in the pageant.

“I saw it as a good way to market Curve Queenz,” said Purnisha.

Crowned: Yoong Swee Moon danced her way into the judges’ hearts and won the Jumbo Queen title.

There were participants who recognised the opportunity for recognition that the pageant offered. The experience must not have been all bad as Nor Intan Julyana Yahaya, 33, who calls herself Pretty Diamond, has been trying her luck for the title since 2007.

Despite its title, pageant contestants are judged not on their weight, but on poise, grooming and personality which amount to 90% of the overall marks. The remaining 10% of the score is from crowd support, which tests the participants’ ability to market themselves. During the finals, the supporters cheered on the participants complete with a frenzy of colourful pom-poms, banners and whistles.

The reigning Miss Jumbo Yoong Swee Moon was happy she won because she wanted to debunk the notion that fat people are inactive. The basketball player and sports-mad make-up artist wowed the crowd with a cartwheel at the finals, and walked away with the crown.

Some people are fascinated by the pageant for its novelty appeal. But there are others who were supporting the participants because they saw a chance to change society’s treatment of those who do not conform to beauty stereotypes.

For the longest time, only thin girls could become air stewardesses or actresses. Even if plus-sized made it in the entertainment industry, it was always in the comedy genre.

But not all big girls are content to take things lying down; some joined the contest to prove that they are beautiful.

Mandy Ong, 33, who was first runner-up in last year’s pageant, recalls how she would always receive compliments about her Barbie doll looks, but they always came with the put down “but you are too big ...”

“Since so many people think fat women are ugly, I took matters into my own hands by joining this pageant. I knew that if I could stand up in front of the crowd and let my inner beauty shine through, I would have proven a point,” she says.

Another participant, Siti Zuraida Edham, 35, was in a defiant mood.

Huge support: The crowd in a frenzy over their favourite contestant.

“You can call me fat if you want. What do I care?” said the housekeeper who tips the scale at 121kg.

Another contestant Zamzarina Ahmad wanted the public to be more sensitive to the feelings of those who are overweight. Growing up, she was teased mercilessly for being fat.

The 30-year-old assistant director, who weighs 119 kg, says that because of the taunts, she became withdrawn. Maturity and family support helped her come to terms with her size.

“No matter what size you are, you must learn how to be comfortable with yourself. Be confident, be brave and most of all, take care of your appearance,” says Zamzarina.

The contestants also shared that they faced misconceptions that they are fat because they had let themselves go, or were too lazy to manage their weight. They are seen as weak-willed because they could not control their tendency to overeat.

Many do not realise that obesity can also be caused by genetics, hormonal imbalance and health problems.

Ong revealed that she started gaining weight seven years ago, on an average of eight kilos per year, due to job stress and eating irregularly.

Chin Swee Heang, the oldest contestant at 45, attributed her weight gain to a botched up operation. Even today, the mother of three has to undergo annual adjustment procedures to realign her intestines.

But the finalists this year are determined to not dwell on the downside of being called fat. “There is no point in getting angry,” said Goh Yea Min, 29, this year’s third runner-up.

“The crucial thing is to shed this perception that obesity is a barrier to having a good social life,” said Ong Kay Li, who weighs 95kg.

Yong who won the crown this year believes in the good life.

“As the Chinese say, the ability to enjoy one’s food is to experience what prosperity is about, so I am not going to feel guilty about being a foodie,” said Yoong, who weighs 94kg.

There were those who tried to lose weight. Lee Hui Leng, 33, last year’s second runner-up, reveals that she had lost 35kg once.

“I ate nothing but apples for three months but I regained the weight after two years,” recounted Lee who trimmed down from 120kg to 85kg.

The onus is on them to stop wallowing in self pity, added Lee.

She took charge of her social life by joining the Young Malaysians Movement, an organisation aimed at promoting national unity and integration, eight years ago.

“I learned how to be a confident public speaker and performer,” said Lee who loves dancing.

Another contestant Theresa Chin, 39, said that being overweight is no excuse for not enjoying life.

“I’ve climbed Mount Kinabalu twice. So my friends call me ‘Dunlop Pillow’ but I see this as a compliment because it means I am a cuddly and warm person,” she said.

Purnisha, who works as an HR executive, said she did not face discrimination at her workplace due to her weight because it’s her job performance that mattered most. “In the end, it’s about proving your worth through diligence and wisdom. For all that is said about fat people being this and that, I feel that most times, the discrimination is in one’s own mind,” said Purnitha.

> If you would like to participate in the next Jumbo Queen contest, please call 03-2142 6636 or e-mail: joanne@sungeiwang.com.

Making a living on Dead Man’s Street

2011-12-08T06:14:00.000-08:00

Jalan Masjid in Ipoh has earned the eerie moniker of Dead Man’s Street because of its many coffin shops and funeral parlours. Star2 takes a tour and finds a lively lot.

THIS is my honey,” says Ng Kam Wah, the owner of Kam Chiew Coffin Shop, as a way of introducing his wife, Yip Woh Teng, 66.

“In fact, all the girls on this street are my honey,” adds the 70-year-old with a mischievous grin.

The coffin wholesaler is not a rampant playboy but he is one undertaker with a sense of humour. His most appreciative fan is none other than Yip whom Ng has been married to for 44 years. According to Ng, it was she who made the first move while he was still an innocent youth back in his father’s old coffin shop in Buntong, Perak.

Cham Swee Hung says the real objective of the job is to console the living.

For Ng and his honey, it’s a partnership set for eternity. He has already bought their coffins and they are safely tucked away in the store. Ng paid RM25,000 for each, revealing that the oak caskets of modern elegant design had been imported from the US.

“These models have a built-in elevating base which allows you to raise the body for viewing and then lower it back before the lid is sealed,” says Ng, proud of his acquisition.

When the time comes for either one of them to go, he hopes that the send-off will be similar to the one that he had overseen for the late Lay Heng, a timber tycoon, in 2006. During the funeral procession, 200 of the deceased’s friends and relatives took turns to carry the casket from Jalan Bendahara to Jalan Gopeng, a 5km journey.

Like most of the funeral directors on this street, Ng inherited the coffin business from his late father. Jalan Masjid or Dead Man’s Street has been Ng’s home and workplace for 42 years. He and his wife live above their shop lot on the same row as eight other coffin shops. In the evenings, they sit in wicker chairs at their shopfront and talk about the day, serenaded by the tinkling bells and chants of Taoist priests from nearby funeral parlours. They are semi-retired now and their son, Chuan Wai, who is in his 30s, oversees the company’s business, taking the company into the third generation.

The screws devised by Ng Kam Wah. Note the grooves which allow the quiet turning action from a turnkey to lock in coffin lids minus the stressful sounds of hammering.

How Jalan Masjid evolved into a one-stop area for bereavement needs may have its answer in Chop Wing Hup, the first casket shop to open here. Lau Say Kee, 66, says that his grandfather, Chee Chong started the casket company in 1923 in what was then known as Hume Street.

“My grandfather, an immigrant from Kwantung, China, was the owner of a betting parlour. He became a coffin maker by circumstance when he had to make one for a close friend who had passed away. Word got around and he soon found a new business for himself,” says Lau.

Another company is believed to have opened at the same time as Chop Wing Hup but Lau recalls that it winded up soon after. This places Kwang Fook, a 60-year-old casket company, as the second oldest establishment on the street. It is run by Kooi Swee Keng, 64, who took over her father-in-law’s business when her husband Cheng Kok Kuan passed away suddenly from a heart attack at age 53.

True to the saying that birds of a feather flock together, others followed suit, giving the street its unique identity.

Riding on a celebrity’s popularity: A hearse rental service making use of Michael Jackson’s photo to illustrate how a deceased’s image will be displayed during an actual funeral procession. Where star power is needed, celebs like Leslie Cheung, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley are popular choices.

In touch with the times

At the street entrance, opposite the old Ipoh bus stop are the Phuan Yee and Foo Kwong Association buildings, the street’s busiest funeral parlours. How these buildings landed their roles dates back to the time when the upper floors were used as convalescent homes for the destitute 30 years ago. Cham Swee Hung, 36, of New Cham Fei Casket says that it made perfect sense to hold the wake downstairs when one of the residents passed on. The convalescent home has since closed but people still look at these associations as the ideal spot for wakes because all their funerary needs are nearby.

In terms of funerary services, this street would see many firsts as the industry evolved to accommodate the changing face of time. An old photograph shows that sometime in the 1920s and 1930s, the street would see its first motorised hearse in the form of a Bedford truck, rented by the Machinists Association (no longer in existence), for one of its members who had passed away in an accident.

In 1973, Kam Chiew made headlines in The Star. It read: “Here Comes The Coffin – In A Crane”. According to Ng, he had then constructed a large teakwood coffin measuring 1.829m by 1.524m to hold the remains of Yeong Chin Poh, a wealthy Chinese medicinal shop owner. As the weight would make the slippery slopes of the burial site too dangerous for it to be manoeuvred by hand, the Yeong family agreed to hire a crane to avoid a mishap.

A typical walkway in Dead Man’s Street.

One will also find traditional vestiges like the handmade Mui Fa Mak (shaped like a rose in Cantonese) coffins. One of these rests in Kam Chiew’s store, waiting for the owner to claim it as her eternal resting place. It is a symbol of a faithful husband’s vow to provide for his wife from beginning till end for its making was commissioned before the husband’s demise in 2006.

These coffins come with a special locking system which sees a series of nails being turned into ready-bored holes to secure the lid. No hammering is involved as the nails are fastened with a turnkey. They were invented by the old masters to shield grieving families and expectant mothers from loud sounds.

Despite the taboos that come with death and of public perception that this street was where things went bump in the night, business flourished. Most of the funeral directors here drive luxury cars and as for their fleet of hearses, the Toyota Alphards are the latest rides, going for a rental rate of RM800 a day. In terms of property value, rent for a ground floor shop lot was RM600 in the 1960s and 1970s. It has since ballooned in the past few years. The one and a half shop lot occupied by Kwang Fook cost Kooi RM400,000 to acquire.

Nothing to be afraid of

There is the perception that only casket shops can do well here. Ten years ago, when Kooi tried to diversify her business by opening a bookshop and an accessories boutique, she had to close down within a year due to poor sales.

Phuan Jun Hei, a 30-year-old sales executive from Fook Loke Sau which was part of the Eight Eleven group, does not fully agree. He points out that while the left row of the street has been conquered by casket and funeral services, there is one lone cushion maker on the right row that has been there for at least 20 years. In the end, it is all a matter of having a clear view of one’s target market.

“The dominant business here is in bereavement so a bookshop offering Buddhist prayer books and self-help titles on how to cope with loss may do well. For those who are inclined towards fashion, there is a market for shrouds and mourning clothes. So, it is important to have the right concept,” says Phuan.

The plus point of being unique has inadvertently thrust the street’s tenants into the spotlight. Cham proudly reveals that he had just been interviewed by Astro recently.

Ng also remembers how he had gone to a police station in Sungai Siput for the first time only to be told by an officer that he was famous. It turned out that an article on him had appeared in a popular Malay magazine subscribed by the policeman.

Chong Peng Wah, 50, who has the task of bathing the deceased at Kwang Fook personifies the camera-loving character. On hearing that his picture would be taken, he quickly donned his coat.

But not all crave the spotlight. A mourner who had just lost his father asked us to leave the funeral parlour while we were trying to snap some pictures of a paper house.

“Show us some respect. We are already overwhelmed as it is. We don’t need more hassle from you,” he says, the distress clearly showing in his voice.

Undampened by the mourner’s attitude, Chong quickly found another willing candidate in Kong Wah, 64, who happens to be from the Kam Chiew group.

Kong has been in the business for 30 years and we, it seems, are in luck. They are in the midst of preparing a wake for a former employee, Wong Yee Lam, who had passed away at 7am in an old folk’s home earlier. He was 73.

“Of course you can take pictures. The deceased used to supervise our workers here. I used to drink with him. We are friends and colleagues. He won’t mind,” assures Kong.

Meanwhile, one hears the constant hacks of dry coughs. Many undertakers in Jalan Masjid are heavy smokers. Being on call 24 hours, nicotine, they say, helps keep them awake.

“Organising a funeral is not easy,” says Kong.

“Bungle up at the onset and everything goes awry. Even as I am talking to you now, my mind is already thinking of other things,” he says.

Kong’s eyebrows shoot up immediately on the insinuation that undertakers can be made party to murder cover-ups.

“For us, the most crucial document is the death certificate. Without it, nothing moves. The only way to get a death certificate is from the police,” he asserts.

And don’t expect to hear any ghost stories from this lot.

Lau is the first to shake his head when asked about netherworld encounters.

“I blame the media for planting such thoughts in the public’s mind,” says Lau.

The drama, says Ng, is always from the living.

Of the most unforgettable was a doctor who performed an autopsy on his own mother. Ng, who was there to oversee the funeral arrangements, recalls how the man’s sister had berated him in front of the whole family when she found out what he had done.

“Not that my client was heartless but all he wanted to know was the cause of his mother’s death,” he shrugs.

On the other hand, Ng feels that the doctor should have been more accepting of his mother’s demise as she was already in her 80s.

The niggling question of whether Jalan Masjid will continue to retain its infamous reputation in the future remains to be seen. There is talk that authorities are planning to discontinue licences and move everyone to an industrial area in Fahlim. But feedback reveals that it is an exercise that will see plenty of discontent.

“The first time they actually talked about relocation was 20 years ago. After that, nothing was heard. I guess a suitable place has not been found yet. Anyway, I don’t see the point. It’s not that we are troubling anyone,” opines Lau.

Magic In A Can of Paint

2011-11-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Everyday life inspires colour trends. But to own a colour, you have to build a relationship with it first.

ASTOUNDING as it may seem, blacks and whites will be the latest colour trend for 2012. It is a prediction that makes even Heleen Van Gent, head of Akzo Nobel, a global paints and coatings company which produces Dulux, smile in disbelief.

“If I told my grandma that I was going to paint my room black, she would say, ‘Child, you can’t do that!’” says the 48-year-old mother of three, with a laugh.

Agreed that we have been raised to associate colour with symbolic meanings, but Van Gent reveals that everyone has an adventurous streak when it comes to colour. She recalls a presentation she did in China some time ago.

Heleen Van Gen says colours and world events go hand in hand, and each era has a signature shade.

Thinking that the Chinese would fall for reds, she presented a colour palette in the auspicious shade, anticipating that it would hit home. However, they were more interested in what was in fashion at that time!

But Van Gent assures that it will not be all grim and gloomy next season, where wall colours are concerned. Knowing the Asian mindset, the trend will definitely take on a more vibrant character.

As for colour predictions, what’s going to be in is not the result of crystal ball-gazing or a matter decreed by a select few. Although she has a panel of architects, professors and interior designers from around the globe presenting their findings, the decision on a season’s favourite colour ultimately stems from the man in the street.

It is everyday life that inspires designers and stylists, who in turn present their ideas in fashion magazines and design books, she explains. It is from here that the sprouts of a season’s trend will take root and spread. And colour, being such an integral component in our lives, will naturally find a place for itself.

Colour, Van Gent adds, is not just a shade on a pallete. It is life itself. Colours and world events go hand in hand. One example is the Go Green movement, which aims to raise environmental awareness, and the Think Pink campaign for breast cancer awareness. People also “see red” and “turn blue” in the face.

Each era also has its signature shade. In the 80s, there were neons. The 90s was dominated by earth colours, while metalics heralded the millennium.

Van Gent grew up in the 60s, when orange was the colour of the era; she remembers vividly receiving an orange table lamp.

But the colour that has had the most influence in her life, however, is the classical shade of dark blue found on jeans and sweaters worn by schoolgirls, with white shirts to match.

“I liked the colour scheme so much that I used it in my house,” she says.

For an inkling of how the black and white trend may be translated in Asia, we take a hint from Van Gent’s own home.

She brightens up her rooms with keelims, handwoven Indian rugs made by people who use colour instinctively. For example, a weaver may suddenly run out of thread. If the same colour thread is not available, she might just continue weaving with that of another shade. The result is an exciting and unexpected feel to the whole piece. Against the backdrop of black walls, the effect is stunning.

But no one should be a slave to trends, she adds. It is the onus of the homeowner to experiment and do a bit of soul-searching on what shade her walls should sport.

“My house is like a paint laboratory. If you touch the walls, you can feel that they’re soft because there are so many layers of paint underneath.” Well, Van Gent has painted her house no less than six times in two years.

This, she says, allows her to see how a colour will look like in real life. Take, for example, the Celestial Sun shade in the Dulux range. On the swatch, it is almost white. But once it’s on a wall, the brightness of this yellow is almost dazzling. Interestingly, instead of having a blinding effect, the colour is neutralised by surrounding elements.

“Yellow is like a prehistoric colour. It is found in nature in plants and greens. It is present in antiques and you’ll be surprised how this colour can really work in a roomful of classical furniture,” she enthuses.

For this colour expert, there is magic in a can of paint. An old grey building can be given new life with a fresh coat of colour – not necessarily yellow, of course. In a community project that Van Gent took part in to revive the surroundings of an economically-challenged area in the British Isles, the change in the children’s behaviour was apparent when their old school yard was repainted.

“It still gives me the goosebumps when I think of it. The children came to their newly repainted school and were so happy to see the transformation that they started jumping and running,” she recalls.

Closer to home, a can of paint is certainly cheaper than renovation work, and easier to use, provided one has the right tools and know-how. Van Gent recalls that her husband repainted their bedroom red in one night.

However, the first step is to build a relationship with colour.

If you need help on the best way to get acquainted with or how to “own” your own favourite shade, check out ownacolour.com, a charity website launched by Dulux to raise money for Unicef. Roger Moore, the actor who shot to fame as Ian Fleming’s James Bond, is the spokesperson for the charity.

Peaceful Parents Joyful Juniors

2011-11-02T17:08:00.001-07:00

Seeking peaceful resolution to problems

2 November 2011

For the workshop, communication is the first to be emphasised.

By GRACE CHEN

At the recent preview of a workshop with the enticing title, Peaceful Parents, Joyful Juniors, my boys, aged eight and four, got into a fight. It did not take long before the younger fella’s bawls turned the cosy room into a giant pressure cooker. At that moment I had the urge to give both a tight slap.

But wait, wasn’t I in a room with two experts? Now’s the time to find out if this programme is effective or quixotic, I thought.

“Take a deep breath,” advises Jin Yap and Carly Nair, the workshop facilitators.

I do. As I exhale the four-year-old extends his hand and asks Mummy to kiss the pain away. His brother unmasks the real perpetrator by showing me the fresh scratch marks on his arm. By the time both have had their say, the anger has evaporated. No slap equals no tears, and no more outbursts equals a happier mum.

Call it a little sample of what to expect at Nair and Yap’s workshop.

Nair, 29, who hails from Scotland, is a hypnotherapist. A mother to three-year-old twins, Nair was inspired by her school guidance counsellor back in Aberdeenshire to pursue a career in wellness.

Twenty-six-year-old Yap has eight years’ experience as a counsellor. At 18, he went to Dehyana Lee, a life coach specialising in addiction and breath work, to undergo a 12-step recovery programme. In addition to breath work, Yap also practises art therapy.

Both Yap and Nair advocate NLP (neurolinguistic programming) and EFT (emotional freedom techniques). In a nutshell, NLP teaches people how to build rapport and trust by active listening; EFT is a way of soothing energy disruption by tapping on the energy meridians to remove negative thinking and beliefs.

These, in addition to art and colour therapy, are the tools used in Nair and Yap’s workshop.

Yap and Nair use EFT and NLP to help children and parents understand the emotional aspects of a relationship better.

But back to my boxing champs, do I let it go? What if I do, will it mean that I am condoning physical violence?

“We don’t have all the answers. No doubt parenting is a challenging and exhausting task and that’s why we think that parents are heroes,” laughs Yap.

Truthfully, they state that their workshop on peaceful parenting does not come with guarantees. Instead, the aim of the day-long session, which involves parent-and-child (between ages seven and 12) participation, is focused on communication methods and exploring parent and child emotions.

There will be activities designed to understand the power of verbal and non-verbal communication, and parent and child will be taught how to use visualisation, a technique to create images in the mind for better confidence and performance. At the end of it, it is up to the parents to practise these methods with their children.

“The catchword here is active listening. The same way you listen to a business prospect is the way you should listen to a child. Don’t just focus on the words but read the body language too. It’s also about putting emotions into your daily communication with the children,” explains Nair.

But having started the programme two-and-a-half years ago under the banner of Rainbow Children, surely they would have something to share, I push on. What can a parent do on days when tantrums and patience are in opposition?

Nair suggests self-reflection.

“Ask why this is grating on you. Is it the noise that bothers you? Why? Are you irritated because you are tired? Or are you unhappy with your husband for not taking out the trash? Many times, parents take out their frustrations on their children,” says Nair.

Going deeper, she adds that parents are the ones with issues, not the child. Say, when a child makes noise, why is there a need to shush him up? Is he doing anything wrong? Or when you are in a family restaurant and your child does that, and a diner gives the kid the evil eye. In telling the child to keep quiet, you are actually trying to please the other person who has made you uncomfortable, she points out.

If it’s a lesson in consideration that you’re trying to drive home, explain why. Make it clear that the digestion process works best in a calm and soothing atmosphere. Explain that whooping noises do not contribute to sereneness.

Still, keeping junior happy does not mean an end to rules and conduct but instead of resorting to authoritarian methods, one can impart lessons in a fun way.

“Say, if you are in a library, you can engage a child in a little contest of who can talk more softly, for example, instead of going ‘sshhhsshhhsshhh’ all the time,” says Nair.

And Yap is all for sparing the rod. “Resorting to caning or adopting the ‘My Way Or The Highway’ stand is very damaging. A lot of social ills and problems come from there,” he notes.

He also reminds parents to lead by example.

“If parents want to have children who are sharp in following their own dreams, but they are not doing the same with theirs, then how can they expect their child to do so?” he asks, adding that his experience as a counsellor shows that children mirror their parents’ actions.

In an earlier workshop, Yap separated the children and parents in two different groups where they were asked to act out a tantrum.

It turned out that the children’s actions were identical to their parents’!

This means that it will be pointless to tell a child not to fight when the parents are constantly arguing or to expect them not to swear when every single sentence a parent utters is filled with expletives.

Yap also points out that when parents complain that their children have to be told a hundred times to brush their teeth, maybe it’s because the very basic practice of listening to each other is not carried out among the adults in the family.

For Yap and Nair, having happy children is largely dependent on the atmosphere at the home front. As such, the first step towards peaceful parenting is to take on a positive stand. This means ensuring that only practices which are in line with what is good and right are observed among the adults. That will pave the way for junior to have a joyful and meaningful childhood.

The Peaceful Parents, Joyful Juniors Workshop takes place next month at B2-05-03 Bukit Utama Condo 1, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. For details and to register call (010) 277-2950 / (03) 7713-2091 or e-mail info@ultimateperformancesolutions.com.

Emotion-filled performances at fest

2011-11-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

THE Collision Arts Asia Festival which took place at Publika in Solaris Dutamas recently also featured a 72-hour creation challenge for the artistic community to see if they can muster up a show within three days.

In an effort to raise money for underprivileged children in Cambo-dia, artistes from all walks of genres banded together to perform for free in a two-hour show which ended with a spectacular aerial and fire show from Viva Circus and Psycusix.

Spins: Hula hoop fire trick from Psycusix.

Opening the act was Hilton Lee, a male belly dancer who admitted that he had spent more time on his costume than worrying about rehearsals.

With six years of experience in his hips, Lee gave the ancient art of seduction a tribal fusion feel with his wicked gyrations.

Making a special appearance was Michelle Chang of Sutra Dance Theatre who showed her support for the arts by joining forces with four new dancers to present a whimsical piece on a love triangle.

From Olah Karma of KupuKupu Arts and Events, comes a haunting tale of infanticide told through dance. Titled Komulo Nimbus, it is a story of an insane young mother who murders her babies. But instead of being vengeful, the souls of her twin sons take pity in their mother’s suffering and refuse to go to heaven until she is healed.

Why so serious?: A dancer in Komulo Nimbus immerses himself among the audience and earns a candid camera moment with this playful fan.

This sad piece saw an unexpected lift when a member of the audience took the chance to snap a picture of himself with one of the twins midway through the show. Much to the dancer’s credit, he maintained a straight face.

Olah, who is the head of the AH! Project, which aims to raise awareness on social problems through the arts, is famed for his thought-provoking pieces.

His last performance, Medula Oblongata, at the Short and Sweet event at KLPac was about the story of how six glue sniffers came clean.

Rising from the dead to breathe life into the show was Reizo Zen, who has been impersonating Michael Jackson for the last 20 years.

Zen had started life as a clown before developing an interest in mime and later, impersonation.

A cry: An Iranian student dances the part of the insane mother in Olah Karma’s Komulo Nimbus.

Fans of MJ can reconnect with the Gloved One through Zen in Facebook.

As this was a charity show, Mr Banana, a clown from Canada, also did his bit to drum up donations by passing his hat around.

Unperturbed by the lukewarm response, he pleaded with one generous member of the audience who was watching the show at the upper floor to take out his wallet and throw him RM10. To watch more of Mr Banana’s antics, catch him on myspace.com/mrbananashow.

Closing the Collision Arts Festival was Viva Circus who performed a series of pole dances and aerial stunts.

At one point, hearts almost came to a stop when an aerialist went into a free fall only to be stopped at the last minute by a series of clever knots she had made in the folds of hanging silk.

Credit also goes to Psycusix, who had the crowd moving back to ensure that they would not be razed by the flames of their fire show extravaganza.

To warm up, they showed off their arsenal of tricks which included contact juggling, poi and wand levitation.

Viva Circus began humbly as a pole dancing outfit four years ago. Over time, Vivian Lea, the founder, expanded the group’s show repertoire to include aerial artistes and give budding local acrobats a platform to show off their talents.

Fantastic Faun

2011-11-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

A lithesome dancer commands the stage as a frolicsome forest creature.

WHEN L’apres Midi D’un Faune (The Afternoon Of A Faun) was staged in 1912, famed premièr danseur Vaslav Nijinsky nearly caused a riot. The editor of France’s venerable Le Figaro newspaper started a campaign against the ballet, calling it shameless and deeming Nijinsky’s choreography “too expressive”. Thanks to the furore, the dance was only performed another few years before it was shelved.

It was revived in the 1980s by two dance notation specialists who reconstructed it from Nijinsky’s notebooks and photographs taken shortly after that first performance. Since then, the piece has been performed by the great Rudolf Nureyev and later elements of it were used by Queen’s Freddie Mercury for the band’s I Want To Break Free music video in 1984. Coincidentally, it was in that same year that Ramli Ibrahim would perform his own version of the frisky, uninhibited faun in Malaysia when he returned from studying dance abroad and established the Sutra Dance Theatre.

And recently, Ramli reprised the choreography for Sean Scantlebury of New York’s Battery Dance Company.

Animal behaviour: Sean Scantlebury as the faun in Ramli’s choreography of L’apres Midi D’un Faune. — Photos by GRACE CHEN

This intriguing performance had its start in January, when the American troupe – working with the UNCHR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Aswara (National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage) and Sutra – held dance workshops for refugee children. The workshops were part of the Battery Dance Company’s Dancing to Connect programme, which exposes children from low income families to the arts.

The lithesome Scantlebury, 31, had been a visual treat on stage, and a bulb must have come on in Ramli’s head after the lights had dimmed at the Aswara auditorium in Kuala Lumpur back then....

So, did Ramli’s contemporary version of L’apres Midi D’un Faune cause a scandalous sensation at the DBKL Auditorium on Sept 22? Well, suffice to say that, though one could have heard a pin drop, there were no gasps of outrage. Today’s dance audiences are obviously well acquainted with the animal kingdom and animalistic movements, thanks no doubt to National Geographic and the Discovery Channel....

As the titular faun, Scantlebury was simply amazing, and not just because he managed to effect a sort of crazy calm while kicking his heels in the air, an action that may have made a less competent dancer look silly. It was his ability to appear masculine as he placed his palms together to endearingly rest his cheek on them. It was his underlying energy that commanded every eye. It was how he made Sutra dancer Divya Nair float like a feather when they danced together.

Of course, the stage was not Scantlebury’s alone to conquer, and there were three other performances in the Into The Center production that night.

In Karma, which featured actor Sandra Sodhy as Mistress Maya with Ramli and Sutra dancer Guna as her servants in the illusory web of Time and Death, it was the constant rasp of Valerie Ross’s musical score that set a rather unfortunate mood. A member of the audience remarked that the performance felt more like a tribute to a mosquito god. And thanks to her menacing presence, Sodhy too came across as a human-sized insect. Others thought the piece too much of a mish mash of classical Indian dance, ballet and contemporary dance.

The ‘faun’ with Divya Nair who becomes the object of his affection.

But the piece did tug at the heart strings when we saw how seamlessly Ramli and Guna came together despite their age differences.

Those who have followed the growth of Sutra from the days when it was an open-air ashram in Brickfields, KL, would know that Guna joined Sutra in 1989 at the age of 26 and is now Ramli’s right-hand man. What both have gone through to withstand the test of time revealed itself in this piece – and the moment when Guna lifted Ramli in his arms and spun the senior dancer took on a metaphoric significance.

Finally, we came to Layapriya, choreographed by Jonathan Hollander, the head of the Battery Dance Company, using a musical score from Finish composer Eero Hameenniemi.

The conventional practice has always been, fast tempo equals swift movement but Hollander seems to have broken this traditional rule. The 60-year-old choreographer would not only apply this to Layapriya but to another vignette for Into The Center, when Ramli moved like a snail despite the ascending tempo of tabla beats in the background.

When the same treatment was seen in Layapriya, there was a brief moment when this writer wondered if they were playing the wrong music. When the tempo rocked, the dancers glided. When there was the anticipation that the pace would finally pick up and move on, things still remained in slow motion.

What gives, we wondered at first. Then we recalled what the MC had said at the beginning of the show: Take a deep breath and relax. And that, in turn, reminded us of the snail.

A few days earlier, we had observed a snail in Ramli’s garden. Content in a pot and oblivious to the snarling 6pm traffic just outside his gate, the snail was rippling leisurely across a leaf no bigger than a palm, leaving a shiny coat of slime in its wake.

There were two ways of regarding the snail: As a pesky critter out to destroy or as a potential idea for a National Geographic documentary entitled Lessons On Taking Your Own Time, Starring The Snail. If one was of the second school of thought, one would have appreciated Layapriya and learned a lesson from it: Command your surroundings, don’t let them overwhelm you.

Malaysian Masala

2011-10-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

Although locally-made Indian movies are not a dime a dozen, there have been inroads made into the scene.

TO trace the colourful trail of Malaysian made Indian movies, we must go back to the 1960s. One could consider Rathapei (Bloody Lust) as the first Indian film made by a local production as it had been done by a dance troupe who recorded their performance on stage while touring India.

Two more projects would follow suit in the 1970s. One was by Felix Anthony, a producer from Ipoh with Thun Bangal Urangu Vathillai (Worries Don’t Stop) and Anbe En Anbe (My Love).

One was a disaster. The other two never saw light of day due to lack of funding.

He’s the man: M. Suurya, a newcomer to the silver screen, plays the quintessential Indian hero. The actor, who is director M. Subash’s cousin, helped to produce Pensil in 2005.

So, credit for the first locally-made Indian movie to become a success has to go to Panchacharam Nalliah, better known as Pansha, who directed Naan Oru Malaysian (I Am Malaysian) in 1991.

Pansha, an established film distributor who then shot to fame in Adutha Veedu, a TV3 Tamil drama about hostile neighbours in 1984, recalls what spurred him on.

“During the 80s, many production houses from India did their filming in Malaysia. Every time they came, there was a lot of talk about collaborations with Malaysian artistes to encourage the film industry. But as soon as they finished production, these people went back and nothing more was heard. So, I decided to do something about it by making my own film,” says Pansha who wrote, directed and played the hero in the movie.

Naan Oru Malaysian made its run in three locations and raked in RM150,000. Pansha recollects that it played to full house in Kuala Lumpur’s Federal Cinema during its week-long run and even reckoned that it would have done better if not for the turmoil between two bickering political parties who had forced the authorities to cordon off the town area which affected attendance at the Coliseum Theatre in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, KL. But in all, the man has no regrets.

Haani Shivraj and Gana Pragasam in Appalam, directed by Afdlin Shauki.

In 2005, Deepak Menon made Chemman Chaalai (The Gravel Road), a Tamil film with English subtitles. The film was shown at a number of film festivals across the world including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, San Francisco International Film Festival, Pusan International Film Festival, Korea, Nantes Festival 3 Continents, France and the Fukuoka International Film Festival in Japan. A few years later, he released another film, Chalanggai (Dancing Bells). These were not your average Tamil movies, but rather stories portraying the daily life of people as humanly and realistically as possible, and met with a promising reception. However because they were made in digital format (which is not yet a recognised medium), the movies were not classified as locally made films.

What made Naan Oru Malaysian different for Deepak’s films was that it was shot on 35mm film. According to Pansha, the director and producer of Naan Oru Malaysian from Berjaya Film Production, shooting on film is a giant step for the industry in terms of cost as it requires a huge budget. A can of film which has a screening time of five minutes can cost RM500. So, a full length movie spanning two and half hours can take up to 100 cans. In truth, this means that last year’s production of Appalam was indeed only the second Malaysian-made Indian movie after Naan Oru Malaysian to be shot on 35mm film.

Malay director Afdlin Shauki’s Appalam was produced by Tayangan Unggul, a sister company of Astro, and released with much hype from the media.

Pansha (middle) with well-known local actor Ramesh (right) in a scene from Naan Oru Malaysian.

Interestingly, Gana Pragasam, the actor who played the hero in this movie was also the first producer to come up with the Tamil VCD.

Hello, Yaare Peserathe (Who Is There?), a comedy about prank calls, was first released as an audio cassette in 1999, before it was adapted into a two-hour VCD movie.

“There was no Indian movie VCDs back then except for the Kollywood imports. I wanted to create a new market,” recalls Gana.

The start was not encouraging. When he bandied the idea to local producers, one told him point blank that no one would want to see his face.

Unperturbed, Gana went ahead. A stall at Batu Caves, Selangor, set up during the Thaipusam festival, became his first sales outlet. Eleven VCDs and RM2.5mil later, this prolific producer, director, script writer and actor is best known among Tamil movie fans as the local comedy king. His latest project, Budak Estet, an animation is due for release in 2012 as a 26-episode TV serial.

M. Subash in Pensil, about a disabled boy’s unconditional love for his drunkard father. The success of the film shows that an Indian movie can do without the song-and-dance formula.

Having forged his own path into showbiz, the former Toshiba copier technician is also the industry’s most fiery advocate.

In a letter to Astro in August this year, Gana who is also president of Malaysian Indian Art Activist Association, voiced that the current practice of the broadcasting station in producing local Indian content on an in-house basis was no help in encouraging the industry to progress.

“Allocations to produce documentaries and 26-episode dramas should be given to private production companies to help the industry expand. Local stations should have at least one Tamil channel airing 100% locally produced content,” he says.

The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas), he added, should also play its part by allocating grants to deserving companies.

So is the Indian movie scene in danger of extinction? A personal observation at a DVD store in Brickfields, KL, shows that it is still progressing at a healthy rate. This year alone sees two film releases.

One is Garuuda, directed by M. Subash. Released in August. It features actor M. Suurya in his first starring role. In this action-packed movie, the fight choreographer is none other than national taekwando champ, Selvamuthu Ramasamy, who made headlines in the 1989 and 1991 SEA Games with his gold medals.

Another is Anusthanaa a thriller starring Anaantha the THR Raaga DJ, and Haani Shivraj. Shot in Kampar (Perak), Fraser’s Hill (Pahang) and Kuala Lumpur, it promises plenty of suspense and drama and should be released at the end of the year.

Another new movie, anticipated for the Deepavali season according to Pancha, is Vilaiyaatu Pasanga (The Tuff Nuts) directed by Vimala Perumal

Being Malaysian-made, the local Indian movie naturally has a muhibbah feel.

For example, in Singakottai, a GV Media VCD production of a comedy about a royal court that has isolated itself from the modern world, the king receives a letter from the Kuala Lumpur City Hall! Audiences are quick to recognise the palace as the Sultan Abdul Samad building in front of Dataran Merdeka.

In Undercover Rascals, starring C. Kumaresan of Gerak Khas fame and Jasmine Micheal, the hero’s best friend falls for a Chinese girl, lending a unique touch to the song-and-dance routine.

So, since we are brewing our own productions would it be possible for an Indian movie to go without the song and dance for once?

Subash, who directed Pensil, a story of a disabled boy’s unconditional love for his drunkard father which was shown over Vaanavil in 2005, gives a ready nod.

However, he points out that one of the trials of making Pensil was a rejection slip by a station because there was no song and dance. But after sinking more than RM25,000 of his and his partner’s hard earned savings into the making of the film, they were not going to let go.

The perseverance paid off because when it finally made it on Vaanavil, the response from the media was huge.

“I got people calling to ask how they could help the boy in the movie and I had to tell them that it was a fictional character,” says Subash, who played the lead role. (In 2008, Pensil was made into a Malay film and screened at cinemas, with Subash reprising his role as the lead character.)

But one thing that no Indian movie can miss is the love story and one of my favourite love scenes is in Undercover Rascals.

This is where the hero enters into the line of fire with his Mitsubishi Evolution IV to rescue the damsel in distress. Seeing the baddie go for his gun, hero swings heroine to safety and in that split second, their eyes meet and they fall in love. How dramatic!

Meanwhile, plots continue to simmer and boil, enveloping everything in an aroma of drama and suspense.

Only this time, the cooking is happening right in our own backyard.

As for what’s in store for the future, trends show that the dream of “making it big in India” remains popular. But there are those who prefer to break away from the pack.

Currently, Gana is collaborating with partners from Bangladesh for Foreigner, a movie chronicling the life of a migrant worker abroad.

“Compare the Malaysian population of 28 million, Bangladesh has 180 million. You can do the math from here, I guess,” concludes Gana.

Published in The Star Monday 24 October 2011

A chef called Susur

2011-08-23T01:47:00.000-07:00

Susur Lee is riding the wave of culinary stardom that he himself created through sheer effort and determination.

THE mention of Chef Susur Lee not only evokes the flavours of lychee with foie gras mousse or roast lamb loin with Sichuan eggplant stew, it also brings up the interesting subject of nameology, a coined word meaning the science of names.

You see, Susur is not this super chef’s real name. It’s Steven, a name this 53-year-old readily admits that he had never liked. It has something to do with the way it was pronounced by his brethren back in Hong Kong, where he started his career as an apprentice at the Peninsula Hotel at the age of 16.

“You know how they have a way of making English names sound Cantonese?” says Lee wryly.

The decision to settle for Susur had come about when this Hong Kong native, who is now based in Toronto, was in his mid-teens.

“I liked Susur for the sound. It was neither masculine nor feminine,” he says.

Driven to succeed: Chef Susur Lee’s competitive spirit led to his rise from last place to tie for overall second place in the über competitive Top Chef Masters cooking show last year.

Interestingly, nameology is about vibrations, a wave phenomenon which is believed to have an electromagnetic effect. Indian ancient seers believed that if these vibrations connected well with one’s birth planet, it will make the individual highly successful, making all the difference between fortune and misfortune. For Lee, who currently owns five restaurants in Toronto, Washington, New York and Singapore, there is no doubt that the name “Susur” has seen to his phenomenal rise in the culinary world. Lee was in Kuala Lumpur recently to give us a hint of what he’ll be preparing for the Hennessy X.O.’s Appreciation Grows Gastronomy dinner event that will be held in Malaysia at the end of October.

The youngest of six siblings and the son of a tea lady, Lee was heralded as one of the “Ten Chefs of the Millennium” by Food And Wine magazine and was called an “improvisational artist” by Gourmet magazine in 2000. Shang, Lee’s New York restaurant, is a destination for the city’s A-list society and Zentan, his restaurant in Washington, has been graced by Michelle Obama. Nearer to local shores, there is Chinois in Singapore, a partnership with the Tung Lok Group which owns and manages over 40 restaurants in Singapore, Indonesia, China, Japan and India.

Of course Lee’s success does not simply rest on a name alone.

His is a character that does not take well to defeat.

Kelly Choi, the host of Top Chef Masters which airs over Bravo TV mentioned Lee in her blog (www.bravotv.com/bio/kelly-choi) when the chef made an appearance on the show’s second season last year. Choi had observed how the jovial Lee had suddenly turned “fiercely dark, almost tormented” when the results announced that he had only received two and a half stars and was placed last.

According to Choi, Lee’s anger lasted minutes and she could feel the heat from his rage emanating through his pores. Pride must have spurred Lee to go all out during the elimination round of the show and he roared back from the dead to clinch the second spot to move into the champion stage. The winner was Marcus Samuelsson; Lee tied for second place with Rick Moonen.

Later, Choi, who tasted the chef’s competition fare would describe his menu of slow-roasted curry chicken roulade stuffed with rich sausage and his creamy polenta and grits paired with sweet, chunky tomato jam as “utter ambrosia”.

Evidently, this brand of warrior spirit had been in him from day one.

“You ask me what has driven me to do well from the beginning? Back in the 1970s, there were plenty of aspiring cooks from China who would be more than eager to work in Hong Kong. So, if an apprentice was not up to mark, he could be easily replaced,” says Lee.

But ask him what has been his driving force and he mentions his mother.

“She worked until her hands were red and raw and she cried all the time,” recalls Lee who describes this period in his life as a difficult one.

Twenty-two restaurants and one culinary cookbook later, Lee can still recall his mother giving him a drumstick from a steamed chicken in a bid to chase his bothersome presence out of the kitchen. Back in the 1950s, when chicken drumsticks had not yet been subjected to mass production, getting such a choice piece was an indication that a child was much loved.

“My mother is my motivator and educator. She taught me how to stand up for myself,” he says.

Lee had, in fact, almost followed in his mother’s footsteps. His first post in the food and beverage industry was as a bartender; he recalls washing hundreds of glasses every day, the very same thing his mother did. Something must have clicked in his mind then or maybe it was because he had found a fun bunch of friends in the kitchen department. Either way, he worked up the nerve to approach the manager to request for a transfer.

Though Lee does not serve canapes in his restaurants, he could not resist adding the finishing touches to these Pacific oysters. They come with julienned pickled cucumber and yuzu dressing.

“I always had an ‘establishment’ in the kitchen. When I was in the bar, the kitchen would give me food and, in exchange, I’d give them drinks,” chuckles Lee mischievously.

It was in the kitchen that he became part of the brotherhood, a bunch of old-school Chinese chefs whose colourful characters could only be matched by their “flowery” vocabulary.

One name which Lee can still recall is a colleague who goes by the moniker “Phau Tak Fai” (the equivalent of Speedy Gonzales in Cantonese).

“He was one guy who could remain cool no matter how pressured the kitchen was,” recalls Lee.

It was in this tradition that Lee would hone his culinary skills and emerge as one of the first restaurateurs to marry Chinese cooking with French techniques when he opened Lotus, a 12-table diner in Toronto, Canada, in 1987. The restaurant lasted a decade before Lee decamped to Singapore to consult for the Tung Lok Group. He returned to Toronto in 2000.

But in all, Lee would credit serendipity and the spirit of adventure for some of his winning recipes. He shares an anecdote of how he managed to wheedle an authentic green curry recipe from some Thai cooks.

“When my son was just six months old (he is 21 now), my wife and I decided to holiday in Thailand. Being very particular about his food, I had packed his brown rice and seaweed in a box. So when we went out to eat, I had to borrow the restaurant’s kitchen to prepare his food. It was there that I met the cooks, a bunch of ladies who were preparing green curry at that time. When they found out I was a chef, they let me try their green curry and that was how I got this recipe. Today, you will find this recipe in my book Susur: A Culinary Life, co-written by Jacob Richler,” says Lee.

For Lee, cooking is likened to a journey of lifelong learning. He vacuum-packs ginger flowers when he is in Asia, carrying them home in his personal luggage to his Toronto restaurants just so that he can put them in his tamarind sauce. He constantly keeps himself on his toes with tasting menus, inspired by his finds in the marketplace.

“It is all about understanding the process. We articulate our expressions into our cooking. Chefs are a bit like rock stars. We love nothing more than to perform and please people,” concludes Lee.

Chef Susur Lee will be cooking at the Hennessy X.O.’s Appreciation Grows Gastronomy dinner from Oct 31 to Nov 6. For enquiries, call 03-2178 0230 or go to www.hennessyxo.com.my.

Published in The Star, Star 2, 23rd August 2011.

Home-grown cooks

2011-06-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

WHAT spurs people to cook at home?

Cost is one factor. Eating out is not cheap – not where quality is concerned.

A plate of mixed rice with vegetables and meat in the city can cost up to RM7. If you are feeding a family of three, then one meal alone can easily come up to RM30 with drinks thrown in.

Then, there are parental concerns.

The upper floor of Huck’s Cafe, a private kitchen started by Poh Huck Seng in his double-storey corner house in Gasing Indah. As Poh limits the number of diners to 20 per night, the waiting list is one-and-a-half months long.

Two years ago, Susan Beh, 40, discovered that her son, Aidan, now six, had eczema.

“We found out that this was caused by a food allergy, and triggered by oyster sauce, sesame oil and mushrooms, the very things which are often found in commercially prepared food,” says Beh.

As a full-time mother, Beh is lucky that she can supervise Aidan’s meals personally, something she could not do during the first two years of his life when she was working and cooked only on weekends.

Beh says it is love for her family that motivates her.

Poh Huck Seng

“When your loved ones request for a certain dish, it is hard to say, ‘no’. That was what sparked my interest.”

For Poh Huck Seng, a 47-year-old father-of-three, cooking at home was the last thing on his mind in his bachelor days.

But when his first child was born 19 years ago, he had a change of heart, simply because he wanted the best for his son.

“The first thing I made was apple juice. At that time my son was only three months old.”

Since then, this doting dad has used his kitchen skills to impress his children. Since it was Poh’s wife who did the daily cooking, this event organiser thought that he would provide some novelty to their diets.

“They learned how to count by watching me bake almond butter cookies. Each child would have their own shape and they’d recognise which one was theirs. They would gobble everything up before the cookies had time to cool!”

Home cooking eventually paid off for Poh. When he started posting everything he cooked on Facebook in an album called Huck’s Café, it attracted his friends’ attention and soon, they began to request for “sampling sessions”.

“It’s a popular trend in Europe where people will go to an individual’s house for a taste of home-cooking. I thought why not give it a try so I started taking reservations,” he says.

Today, Poh has taken to cooking as a full-time venture, opening his double-storey corner house in Gasing Indah in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, to diners who will either give him a menu to follow or surrender themselves to the surprises he comes up with.

As Poh only limits the nightly capacity to 20, the waiting list is one-and-a-half months long. For reservations, check out Huck’s Café on Facebook.

Published in The Star 28, June 2011.

Cook for comfort

2011-06-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

If you care about what you’re eating, preparing your own food is safer than eating out all the time.

ELAINE Ho is not telling anyone not to eat out. Nor is she turning her nose up at those who do. What she’s saying is: Cooking at home can be a good thing.

Ho, 28, lived and worked in Australia for 10 years before returning to Malaysia in 2009 when she got married. That was when she discovered that most of her friends and family members resorted to having all their meals outside. Ho, who has a degree in Food Science and Technology from Curtin University, Western Australia, found this alarming.

“Food may be cheap here but there is the question of what’s inside. The oil may have been reused many times and there is the hygiene issue, especially with hawker food.”

Eating well: Elaine Ho strongly advocates home cooking.

This planted the seed of an idea for her website www.chopstickdiner.com, which she works on full-time. She filled it with simple recipes and food tips, like how to stop vegetables from wilting, the correct way to wash mushrooms, and how to cut meat and store fresh fish. It has everything that a home cook would find handy, and on good days, the website sees up to 600 visitors.

Ho’s recipes may be too simple for advanced gourmet cooks, but they are intended more for the younger crowd, perhaps those who are living on their own for the first time.

“Cooking at home has its own appeal. Thanks to personalities like Nigella Lawson, people are beginning to embrace cooking at home. They see it as a ticket to popularity where the home of a good cook is always a favourite place for a gathering with friends.”

But is Ho realistic? Not every young adult can afford his own apartment. When all the space one has is a room and the landlady says that the kitchen is out of bounds, then what?

“Find another place. Obviously, she does not have your best interests at heart. A reasonable person will realise that in order to put in your best at work, you will need proper nutrition,” she says.

All that fuss over a meal, says Ho, will definitely pay off in the end.

“When you take charge of your own meals, the quality is there. Let’s say you fry your own noodles. You can throw in lots of vegetables and meat, adjust the salt level and hold back on the oil. Noodles cooked in a shop will either be too oily, salty or will not contain enough meat or vegetables.”

Nutrition is another crucial issue. A burger bought from a stall will contain too much fat. A plate of chee cheong fun is made up entirely of starch and sugar. If you include fish balls, there may be a little protein.

In the long term, a diet high in fat, carbohydrates and sugar is not going to bring good news.

“I am not saying, ‘Don’t eat out’. If you’re Malaysian that’s almost impossible because there are so many good food places here. What I am advocating is that eating out should be a treat, not something that is done for every meal.”

Ho has heard enough groans though – the two most common complaints are: no time, and too much hassle with the cleaning up later.

This is where Ho makes her entrance as the food scientist.

The first thing she asks is for the lazy cook to think green with spinach, green apples, kiwifruit, green pears, celery, cucumbers and broccoli. They are rich in nutrients that can support retinal health, and help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Green fruits and vegetables also contain chlorophyll, which has been proven to be effective against cancer.

The next thing is to wave the flag for things like tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, red apples, red onions and red grapes. They contain powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage.

So, can eating out offer the same deal?

“The thing here is to think of the end result, not the hassles,” says Ho.

Next is to set aside the notion of cooking as a chore.

“Think of quick meals. A baguette stuffed with minced chicken, a slice of fried egg and Chinese parsley is an example of a quick and easy meal. Egg sandwiches sprinkled with spring onions don’t take more than five minutes.”

As for the lack of space or appliances, well, there is always the rice cooker. Think of one-pot meals where carrots, beef and rice can be cooked at the same time. There is also the option of steaming fish and vegetables in the same pot while the rice cooks.

Ho suggests looking at cooking as therapy.

“The goal is not to achieve full marks for whatever you have cooked. Instead, look at it as a way to bond and communicate. At the end of the day, the aim is to bring your family or friends to the dinner table where you can eat and enjoy each other’s company.”

Published in The Star, Tuesday June 28, 2011

Living the Fabulous Life

2010-08-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

BETWEEN riding a horse and driving a car, there are no guesses as to which Datuk Anna Lim, 40, prefers.

"Most people can drive a car but not all can ride a horse! Though I will not deny that a car is an essential mode of transport, I must admit that driving a car is monotonous compared with riding a horse," says the two-time beauty queen who was crowned Miss Malaysia in 1990 and then Mrs Malaysia in 2004.

"With a car, as long as you have the basic driving skills, you are set to handle almost any car. A horse however, is different as you can never predict how it will behave every time you sit on its back. For the rider, this means being in a constant state of alertness and to me, that makes it challenging and satisfying."

As a dressage rider who has committed herself to the sport for the past four years, Anna speaks the fondest of Sorento, a 14-year-old chestnut thoroughbred Gelding owned by the Selangor Equestrian Club.

She also rides on Jimmy, a 16-year-old Warm Blood from New Zealand that had made an appearance at the SEA Games in 2001.

Riding, says Lim, is her way of beating stress and having gone as far as England and New Zealand to hack, it is a sport that runs deep in her blood as her cousin brother, Benny Woodworth, is a champion jockey while another one of her cousins, Joe Lau, is a horse trainer in Macau.

"Iím planning to buy a horse with a view of training it for the race tracks very soon but I'm still at the stage of talking to some breeders,"says Anna.

Despite her preference for horse riding, it has not stopped Anna and husband Datuk Jeffrey Lim, who is also the president of the Rolls Royce Enthusiasts' Club, from being proud owners of a fleet of luxury cars.

To begin with, the Lims have no less than seven Rolls Royces parked in various private garages which include classic beauties such as the Corniche, Wraith and the Cloud.

The couple's present favourite is a red Silver Spur, a 6.75l V8, which has a beautiful beige interior with a luxurious wood paneling finish. However, it is a golden Wraith which holds the fondest memories for Anna as it had been the Lims' wedding car when they wed in 1995.

"It was wonderful feeling to be sitting in a Rolls Royce at that time because it meant that Jeffrey wanted the best for me," recalls Anna.

Little has changed for this couple who now have three children. At the time of this interview, it was Jeffrey who came to Anna's rescue after she found that a nail had punctured a rear tyre of her Mercedes Sport CLK. Gamely switching his BMW 5 series with her, Jeffrey gamely proceeded to pump up the back tyre with a foot pump before proceeding to the nearest repair facility while Anna continued with the question and answer session.

Just like horses, Anna reveals that luxury cars have always been a predominant feature in her life. Both her grandfathers had a collection of Cadillacs and Mercedes in the 1950s.

Anna herself would own a BMW when she turned 21 while still working as a stewardess with MAS in 1986. After sustaining a fractured ankle during an emergency exercise, Anna then took on a safer but more challenging role as Miss Malaysia in 1990, after which she became a stockbroker, which put her smack in the middle of the 1993 bull run and made her a proud owner of a 2-door Mercedes Sports.

Later, she would go on to a 190E and subsequently, a chauffeur driven S-class.

ìI have always been an advocate of the fabulous life in terms of living well, eating well and looking well. I cannot stand the idea of poverty as it depresses me,î admits Anna, who does not smoke.

This is a philosophy that Anna, who practises yoga and swims no less than 55 laps a week, imbues into her work.

Her latest projects includes the launching of her book called Magical Moments which will take place this 10th of July at The Club Saujana with Casa Vino and Trinidad Tobacco as her sponsors.

An elegant coffee table hard copy which highlights the luxury resorts in Malaysia, it had taken Anna two years of hard travelling and research.

Before this, she has also authored two other books, Beauty and Beyond which details her experiences as a beauty queen and Children-The Future of Tomorrow, a book on parenting.

In line with her role as a former beauty queen, she is also the founder of Beauty and Fashion Studio with Amber Chia and come this August 7th and 8th, the pair will be presenting a grooming workshop in PJ Hilton. This star-studded event will be graced by the presence of Datin Josephine Fonseka, who was Miss Malaysia Universe 1970, and Miss Malaysia International 1979 Nancie Foo.

. For more information, call 012-331`6257 or visit www.beautyfashionstudio.info

Story and pictures by Grace Chen

The Abishegam Formula

2010-08-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

JUST what does it take to own a fleet of luxury cars? Andrew Abishegam, the proud owner of a Jaguar XJ V6, a Ferrari F1 Modena Spider and a fleet of Mercedes Benz motorcars which includes the S Class, SL, CE and a nine-seater Mercedes Vito Grand Luxury and the managing director of X2, which specialises in the management of international corporate launches and special events, gives us his take.

The first crucial ingredient is the ability to turn a "no" into a "yes".

"To me the question of 'no' does not even arise. I have banned the words "cannot", "I don't know" and "impossible" from my vocabulary," says Abishegam, who founded X2 on Aug 8 in 1988.

It is a simple principle and assures Abishegam, easily applicable as well. All one has to do is to ask nicely.

Of course, it pays to cultivate the art of effective communication to put the message across clearly and effectively.

For this seasoned launch master, it all boils to creating a first good impression.

"How you look, how you dress, how you look people in their eyes, the way you talk, your language, your accent and how you read the person in front of you is all part of the communication process," says Abishegam.

Definitely, having knowledge on what you can or canít do is also supremely important.

This father of four says that he would never dream of asking for the impossible or putting the service provider in a position where he would have to incur expense.

Another trait that one must have is the readiness to push everything to the extreme and to the very end until almost to breaking point because, according to Abishegam, that is the only way to achieve the best.

"The one phrase that is prevalent in my life is, ëTo give the best, to get the best and to be the bestí- nothing less, nothing more. As long as you're not stealing or hurting and upsetting anyone, do whatever pleases you. It's your life! You have one life. Don't waste it. Make your life an experience, the best experience ever," he says.

Naturally, one must also have a perfectionist attitude.

In Abishegam's case, he says that the only reason guests get to see a beautifully orchestrated event is because it is planned, rehearsed and executed exactly according to how he wants it to be.

One example was the simultaneous launch of the Proton Perdana V6 2.0 and the Proton Satria 1.8 GTi at the Bukit Jalil in-door stadium in 1998.

The logistics, he says, was one of the most complicated as it involved 3,000 Proton employees which had to be choreographed, fed, clothed and kept entertained for three days from nine to five.

Another event was for a Ferrari Club dinner earlier this year which entailed pushing (yes, you read me right) a Ferrari ENZO from the ground floor to the ballroom of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center of which the path had to be carpeted every step of the way.

"Nothing is left to chance. Absolutely nothing! I don't believe in luck or even hope for the best. As Confucius said, 'Preparation + Execution = Guaranteed Success'," says Abishegam.

The idea of celebrating life with a touch of fanfare is something that is not only confined to events organised by X2.

In one year, Abishegam bought his wife, Chris Liew, the creative genius behind X2, a red Mercedes SL convertible, wrapping the whole car in bows and ribbons before presenting it to her.

"When she saw it, the first thing she said was, "Can we afford it?" That's Chris, always the practical minded one," laughs Abishegam.

It also helps to abide by a life philosophy.

For Abishegam and Chris, both in their youthful 40s, it is the fairy-tale life for them and as Liew admits it, the love for the fabulous life.

This means running the gamut of hands on childcare with the fraternal twins, Alexa and Alia, both 10, Adam, 8 and Allegra, 5, and creating out-of-this-world experiences for their clients.

Once, they chartered a private jet from Malaysia Airlines to bring 130 passengers all on first class service, including private air hostesses, special meals, private check-in as a treat for a group of international VIPs.

Another time, it was a sail into the sunset among the 99 islands of Langkawi on a private yacht, Lily Marleen, with a band and dancing on board.

It is also important to remember one's humble beginnings.

For Abishegam, who recalled how he had to spend nights working in the office while his friends partied, the first car he owned was a Proton Saga 1.3 manual which he bought for RM26,000. Five years later, he sold it at RM27,000, at a time when Protons were highly sought after.

Lastly, one must have a strong desire to progress in life.

From a Proton Saga 1.3, Abishegam would jump to a Mercedes 300 CE Sports Coupe with electric seats, electric steering, remote robotic safety belt, sun roof, electric head rest.

ìI was 29 when I bought it. Everybody was very surprised when I moved from a Proton Saga to a Mercedes Sports. I enjoyed it so much because I knew that every part of that car was earned by my own hard work," he says.

"This is one car I will keep in my collection forever."

Story and Pictures by Grace Chen. Published in CBT

Carven the Couturier

2010-08-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

The BMW sedan motivated Ong to work hard. Model Esther Siaw is seen here modelling one of Ong's creations.

MENTION Carven Ong and the image of soft, fluid gowns come to mind.
As the couturier of choice for beauty queens, blushing brides and glamorous celebrities, it is no wonder that Ong was named Asian Top Fashion Designer 2009 by Fashion Asia in Hangzhou, China.
“Making a dress is not unlike making a car. It is a very technical affair,” says Ong, who does couture, pret-a-porte and runs an academy in Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur.
Some of the fascinating aspects of tailoring, reveals this fashion designer, is a formula that only requires the measurement of the back and bust line.
The accurate summation will provide the tailor with dimensions for the neck, arm hole, shoulder, waist and hip lines.
Of course this formula has seen a bit of tweaking from Ong who converted the original scale, which was formerly in centimetres, to work with the same accuracy in inches.
He also speaks of the seamless dress where not a stitch can be seen along the length of an entire gown.
This, says Ong, is attributed to the method of wrapping the fabric around the mannequin, a modus that is only reserved for the masters.
However, none of the above is even possible if a student does not know the character of his materials and it is a long process of introduction which can take no less than 1 1/2 years.
Having been in the line for two decades, Ong reveals that his love for fashion started from childhood in the small town of Taiping where he would watch his sisters dress up.
The youngest of six siblings, he fondly describes his sisters as the neighbourhood trendsetters. Coming from a financially challenged background was no obstacle as the girls tailored their own dresses.
“This was during the '70s and '80s, an iconic time where fashion revolution was concerned. My sisters were tall and beautiful, so whatever they wore looked good. I became the ‘unofficial’ fashion advisor and it was from them that I learned how to cut and sew,” says Ong.
The early years, as he describes it, were hard.
For one, Ong’s father, a lorry driver who drove one of those old Mercedes 10-wheelers with doorless wooden cabins and hard planks as seats, was not exactly happy about his son’s choice of profession in the beginning.
Two, the story of Ong’s first sojourn to the city, was one that had been fraught with one disaster after another.

As the story went, Ong was only 17 when he took a bus from Taiping to Kuala Lumpur as his family did not have a car. It was 9pm when the then naive small town boy arrived in Pudu with only RM50 in his pocket. As luck would have it, he was threatened by a thug while on his way to Kota Raya.
“Can you imagine? I had no choice but to bargain with the thug and at last he made off with RM5, which broke my heart,” says Ong.
That would not be the end. When he arrived at Kota Raya another bad hat stopped him and this time, there was no mercy. Ong was left without a dime.
“The next recourse was for me to take a cab to my former boss’ place, who ran a direct selling business in Taman Maju Jaya. Imagine, my first meeting with the boss and I had to ask him to pay for my cab fare,” says Ong.
But find his footing he did and after 1 1/2 years as a salesman, Ong finally persuaded a sister to sponsor his studies at an academy near Super Kinta in Ipoh, Perak. This was the time when the bosses of Pop Soda were still operating a little tailor’s shop in Yik Foong Complex.
Of this time, Ong would vividly remember wearing carrot cut trousers, the type where you could stuff in two hens down each leg. His fashion acumen soon caught the attention of the academy owners and they offered him a job as a part-time lecturer. In all, Ong took only a year to complete what normally would have been a three-year-course.
A man like Ong certainly suits the profile of a BMW driver and it is the 318i which has been his faithful companion for the last seven years. The Beemer, as expected, also comes with a story.
“On my second time to Kuala Lumpur to really start my own business, I drove a second-hand Mazda 323, which I bought from my brother for RM11,000. I was constantly honked at on the highway and at that time I thought, ‘Never mind, you can honk and overtake all you like. The next time, I’ll be the one overtaking you’. That was my motivation for working hard,” says Ong.
True enough, Ong was able to self finance his own Proton Iswara a year later. By this time, his academy in Jalan Panggong, Petaling Street, had 20 students and was only a modest 400 sq ft.
The Iswara finally made way for a Kia Sportage after five years. Ong’s academy had then grown to 1,500 sq ft and his pret-a-porte line had just begun making headway in departmental stores.

“It was only after I was convinced that I had established myself did I dare to think of buying a BMW. But let me tell you, it was a wonderful feeling when I got into the car for the very first time. That was when I knew that I had made it,” says Carven.

Story and pictures by Grace Chen

Mum’s the word

2010-08-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Three restaurateurs share their stories of how time spent in the kitchen with their mothers not only taught them how to cook for the family but also infused them with the passion to run their own food outlets.

SHE was merely five then but she remembers the scene vividly. She was in the kitchen watching her mother make the family’s favourite dish: braised duck flavoured with ginger. It was a for special occasion which also called for the black beans and oyster sauce gently simmered for hours over a charcoal fire.

And when Leong Lai Choo turned 11, her mother gave her the run of the kitchen.

“My mother had to be in Singapore for a week and I got to show off what I learned. That was the first time I cooked for so many people,” says Leong, 44, who runs The Nyonya One restaurant in Seri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur.

Aside from honing her culinary skills, the kitchen was the place for mother-daughter bonding. While she may have no difficulty being physically affectionate with or saying “I love you” to her two children, such outward displays of emotion were rarely forthcoming from her mother Low Siew Yoong, now 74.

“She came from a different era where people believed that it was best to keep the feelings of affection for one’s children in the heart instead of expressing them outwardly.

“However, because of the time I had with her, I know deep down that her love for me is as high as a mountain,” says the former beautician who traded her creams and potions for a nasi lemak business in the pasar malam with her husband five years ago before opening their 10-month-old restaurant.

As Leong grew older, the kitchen became their special nook where she would listen to her mother as the latter dished out advice on taboo foods, nutrition, boys and life, in that order.

She is undoubtedly the boss of her kitchen at home where she is very fond of boiling soups and cooking dishes that have been passed down from her mum.

Taking a cue from her own childhood, she is teaching her 13-year-old daughter, Brenda Anne, some kitchen basics, and this proud mum attests that her daughter can make very good bak kut teh.

With The Nyonya One, however, Leong is content to leave the running of the kitchen to her husband Simon St Maria while she takes care of the service side.

But that doesn’t mean she does not have a say in the menu. As it is, one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, the basil, mint and spring onion chicken (known as the B.M.O Chicken), is made according to her mother’s recipe.

Their nasi lemak, by the way, does not contain santan, thanks to Leong who insists on low-fat cooking in all her dishes wherever possible.

For May Miranda, 48, owner of May ‘n’ Mike’s in Petaling Gardens, the kitchen was where her mother Stella, now 84, taught her the importance of sharing.

The youngest of five siblings, May says she grew up at a time when the family was experiencing financial challenges.

The Mirandas could only afford to have meat on Sundays and even a simple dish like Hokkien noodles was considered a treat they looked forward to when their father got his monthly salary.

“We didn’t have money but we grew up with love and it was from the kitchen that my mother taught us how to share.

“On Sundays, for example, when we cooked mutton curry, she would set aside a portion for my brothers who could not make it for lunch so that they would be able to enjoy it later,” May recalls.

Another lesson that Stella would impart on May was one of generosity. As a child, May often wondered how her mother could be so generous with a neighbour when they barely had enough themselves.

One day, on seeing her mother giving a bowl of chicken curry filled with the choicest parts, May blurted out that she needn’t do that when all they got from the same neighbour were bones and chicken neck.

“My mother turned round and told me that my neighbour was expecting and that we should pity her because her own mother was not with her.

“She also said if the same thing were to happen to me, she hoped someone would treat me with the same kindness. That is how my mother impressed upon me the lesson that you should give only good things to people.”

Nevertheless, it wasn’t her mother who got her on the road to starting a restaurant. Instead, it was her late mother-in-law Lisa D’Cruz who shared with her the recipes for what are now May’s signature dishes like prawn toran and fish pottu.

At a time when the idea of being in the food business had yet to take form, Lisa enlisted the help of May, who had just married into the D’Cruz family, to help prepare the family meals. These were interesting sessions as May not only became familiar with her mother-in-law’s recipes but she also heard stories about the scrapes her husband, the late Michael D’Cruz, got into as a child.

Today, May’s three children, all girls, are keen on following in her footsteps in the food business.

Her eldest, Sharrolyn, 26, has her own place called The Ranch in Kota Kemuning, Selangor, which she opened a year ago. Among the items on the menu is Indian grilled chicken, a dish that was inspired by May.

The other two, Sherona, 22, and Shereen, 21, have big plans to promote their mother’s business which, they say, has an annual turnover of RM1 million.

Unlike Leong and May, Rose Weiss, 42, who goes by her husband’s surname, never spent time in the kitchen with her mother.

“We were forbidden to step into the kitchen!” says Weiss, who has been running Chez Rose (formerly known as Klimt’s) in Damansara Heights for the past 25 years.

The reason was that mum, Hasmah Pakir Mohamad, 65, wanted her to concentrate on her studies.

“We owned a rubber estate and there were three maids in the house – one to do the washing, another to clean and the third to cook. So, there was very little point or need for us to go into the kitchen,” says Weiss who is of Afghan and Thai descent and the eldest of four siblings.

So she studied, and by the time she got her degree in economics, mum had already groomed her for a diplomatic career.

There was one snag, however. Weiss did not like the life at all and so she became a management trainee at the Pan Pacific in Pangkor.

There, mum was not around to keep her away from the kitchen, which she found fascinating because she had been denied its entry as a child.

And was she in for an “enlightening” time.

“This was the era where chefs were a really rough lot, the type who would not hesitate to catch you by the scruff of your neck and throw you out of the back door if they caught you smoking in the kitchen!

“Nowadays you have people expressing their shock at how Chef Ramsay can cuss and swear in Hell’s Kitchen, but that was exactly how the atmosphere was back then,” Weiss says.

And, not surprisingly, one German chef would declare that her slender and petite frame would render her unsuitable for the heat and heavy work.

“When you are in an industrial kitchen, being a chef is more than just stirring. At Chez Rose, for instance, I can have 15kg of lamb shank in a pot and to handle that you need brawn,” says Weiss who heads seven staff in her kitchen.

However, her mother’s lesson on perseverance, industry and the need for perfection would not be lost on her. Now a mother of one, Weiss not only mans her own kitchen but supplies frozen soups to other outlets as well.

Another thing which was not lost on her was her mother’s sense of vanity. As such, Weiss ardently promotes low-fat food and eating plenty of vegetables at Chez Rose, which serves pork-free continental cuisine.

To date, Hasmah, who lives with Weiss, has yet to overcome her amazement at her daughter’s ability to whip up good European fare, but she has accepted that the kitchen is the place for Weiss after all. To show her support, she often comes for her favourite dish, the vegetable strudel which Weiss has created especially for her.

As a Mother’s Day treat, Leong, May and Weiss are sharing their favourite recipes with Sunday Metro readers.

Healthy eating: Leong Lai Choo showing off her santanless nasi lemak at The Nyonya One.

B.M.O Chicken (courtesy of The Nyonya One)

3 chicken thighs
Pinch of salt, black pepper and turmeric powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
5-6 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon Szechuan red pepper seeds
2 tablespoons hoi sin sauce
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons sugar dissolved in ½ cup water
Sprigs of fresh thai basil, mint and spring onions

Chop chicken thighs into small pieces and season with salt, black pepper and turmeric powder. Wait half an hour for marinade to seep in. The smaller the pieces, the easier it is for the flavour to penetrate the meat. To seal in the juices, half fry the chicken after marinating and set aside.

For the sauce, put Szechuan red pepper seeds in vegetable oil and fry over low fire till fragrant. Throw in smashed garlic cloves, followed by hoi sin sauce, dark soya sauce and oyster sauce. Stir briefly before pouring in sugar solution.

When sauce thickens, put in chicken and allow to cook until gravy is almost dry. Quickly throw in fresh thai basil, mint and spring onions and stir fry. Recipe serves three.

Indian Grilled Chicken (courtesy of The Ranch)

1 whole chicken leg
Pinch of salt and white pepper
¾ tablespoon chilli powder
¾ tablespoon powdered chicken stock
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon orange juice
Butter for basting
½ medium onion sliced
4-5 curry leaves
1 tablespoon ghee
¾ tablespoon cumin seeds

Debone chicken leg and marinate with salt, white pepper, chilli powder, powdered chicken stock, sesame oil and orange juice. Leave aside for an hour before grilling. Baste with butter to keep meat moist.

For the topping, fry sliced onions and a few curry leaves in ghee and cumin seeds until the onions turn soft and brown. Arrange on top of meat. Serve with steamed vegetables, fries or baked potato.

Vegetable Strudel (courtesy of Chez Rose)

A mixture of broccoli stalks,
julienne of carrots, button mushrooms and capsicums
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 cup vegetable stock
1 sheet filo pastry
2-3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon chopped basil

Pre-blanch broccoli stalks, julienne of carrots, button mushrooms and capsicums. Sauté in olive oil, adding salt and pepper to taste. Then reduce in vegetable stock until vegetables become soft. Wrap vegetables in filo pastry, put in the oven and bake.

For the sauce, sauté garlic and onion in olive oil, add in chopped tomatoes and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce in vegetable stock, thicken with cream and pour around baked vegetable strudel.

To finish, sprinkle chopped Italian parsley on top.

Published in The Star, Sunday Metro, May 9 2010.

Keeping ’em happy-The lengths that service providers go to, to keep their customers satisfied.

2010-08-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

TO what extent will service providers go to please their customers?

In the case of wedding planner Stephen Foong who has been in the business for 30 years, it can entail flying a bride via helicopter from Ipoh to Kuala Lumpur just so that she can appear fresh and rested for the wedding dinner.

There is the touching story of Kabab and Quarma, a Northern Indian restaurant in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng in Kuala Lumpur which has since ceased operation. When two customers showed up on the very day that the place was closing down and the kitchen cleared, the owner took the trouble to run to a nearby shop to fulfil his customers’ request for ice-cream and insisted that it be on the house as a thank you gesture for their support.

Service above self: Allen Teh (far right in grey T-shirt) during a teambuilding programme that stresses the importance of communication via activities like war games. Customers don’t care about your problems; they just want service, he says.

Then there is another about a Starbucks employee who sat with a customer after reading her latest status of glum on Facebook.

Ask him what customer service is and Allen Teh of Center for Customer Care (CCC), which conducts training workshops for organisations that aim to achieve maximum business profitability through service excellence, comes in with the science.

Emotional quotient

The root word, according to Teh, 47, who has been coaching others in the art of fulfilling customer expectations since 2003, is emotional quotient (EQ).

“In the service line, EQ is the understanding that attention, respect and the service provider’s time are what customers want at anytime,” he says.

Teh’s advice is a reminder that anyone who has signed up for a career in the hospitality industry will have to put service before self.

One example given by this self-styled service guru who is known for his mystery shopper masquerades is the character of Stevens, a butler, in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains Of The Day. In one chapter, Stevens continues to serve at his employer’s banquet despite the knowledge that his 72-year-old father has just suffered a severe stroke. By the time the banquet ended, Stevens father had passed away.

While there will be very few who can emulate Stevens’ example in real life, Ravie Naidu, 46, who started as a waiter in the hotel industry in 1982 and is now general manager of D’Tandoor that operates a chain of restaurants in Malaysia, is one example who comes close. He remembers his posting as the night manager in Puteri Pan Pacific in Johor Baru during the 1990s.

“At that time, my shift was from 11pm to 7am. Imagine! I had just got married and when I got back from work, my wife would have already left for work. When I was about to go to work, she would be sleeping. It lasted a year before I decided that there had to be some work and life balance as I was starting a family,” says Ravie, now a father of three.

It’s not about you: Ravie Naidu of D’Tandoor says service providers who don’t believe they should give in to the customers are in the wrong line of work.

Long hours, says Ravie, is something that those in the hospitality industry will have to endure and he truthfully admits that without the support of his wife, Para, 42, he would have kissed his career goodbye a long time ago.

Without question, for a job that extensively exposes one to the human element, there are days when one will have to handle the drama and idiosyncrasies that come with it. In a field where brickbats are more abundant than bouquets and rants more than raves, there are times when things can go very wrong and the service provider gets an earful even when he is not to be blamed.

Foong, 53, remembers one wedding when the mother-in-law had a stroke and fainted at the main table. Foong had to quietly engineer the transfer of the poor woman to hospital via the hotel’s back door so as not to upset the wedding guests.

In a separate incident, a power cut caused a ballroom of wedding guests to dine in candle light but due to the heat, the guests left before the ceremony got into full swing and the wedding ended in disaster.

Ravie recalls one incident when he found what looked like a bomb next to the ballroom of a hotel that he was then working for. After evacuating the hotel and calling in the bomb squad, he found out that the device was a dud and someone had played a hoax.

Summing it up, Foong, who does not hide the fact that his cholesterol levels have gone haywire due to the stresses of his job, says that at such times, there is nothing to do but be patient in which case, Ravie agrees that it is one virtue which a service staff must have in limitless abundance.

Difficult customers

The keyword here, according to Teh, is “emotion management”. In stressing the EQ point, Teh says the customer service staff should remember that they are like actors and actresses and their job is to please their audience which is the customer, no matter how they feel at that time.

Having a giving nature that is completely free of egoistic tendencies also goes a long way as service providers must realise that customers will have the tendency to be selfish.

“They don’t care what kind of problems you have. They just want to get the kind of treatment and service they have paid for ... that’s it,” states Teh frankly.

As for giving the fussy customer the boot, Ravie simply has this to say: “A waiter who is going to ignore a fussy diner will inadvertently lose him to the competitor.”

A smile to go: Starbucks marcom director Sydney Quays says the job requires cheerful types who are friendly with customers.

This is not to say that service providers are “yes men”, because there are times when the customer cannot be king.

Car racing champion Admi Sharul, 39, who is also a safety driving instructor admits that though politeness and tact is a de rigueur standard in his courses, he once had to order a driver out of a car after he repeatedly ignored safety instructions.

“I was not afraid of the repercussions because he was driving recklessly,” says Admi.

For this father of two, recklessness, even within the confines of the Sepang race track, is not a matter to be taken lightly, having survived a car crash in 1994 in which he suffered neck injuries as a passenger.

Another interesting observation in Teluk Batik, Perak, also reveals that not all customers can be placated by niceties. In a tense showdown between a banana boat operator and an irate customer, one of the operators’ team mates, in recognising the starting signs of a heated argument that was on the verge of becoming physical, promptly “attacked” his own colleague and shouted at his own man for being a trouble maker. The “attacker” then swiftly removed banana, boat and his entire team out of sight, putting a full stop to further trouble, an example of reverse psychology at work.

Later, when the situation had quietened down, the banana boat operator revealed that if the argument had gone on, it would be disastrous as he has suspicions that the customer had ulterior motives.

“If the customer had laid hands on me, the other beach boys would have gotten involved and that would be bad for business. Yeah, I’m a bit sore that I have lost revenue for the day but it’s better for all concerned,” says the operator who spoke on condition of anonymity.

At the end of the day, says Foong, it is crucial to preserve dignity. In his case, he had no choice but to call off a wedding just 10 minutes before the registration ceremony after the groom confessed to him that he was married before.

“I just couldn’t let the marriage go on until I was sure that the groom had the all-clear from the proper authorities. This is my reputation we are talking about because if anything happens in the future, I would be called up!” says Foong.

Right response

Teh does not think that mindsets will change. “Customers are more concerned about their bill of rights and not their code of conduct. In the end, we can’t change the customers. Service providers will just have to change the way they behave and react in response to different types of customers,” he says.

Of course, everyone is well aware that customers are equated to sales and in today’s competitive scene, keeping a customer happy is still top priority.

This is why Ravie stresses on the importance of intelligence and the innate nature to please on the service provider’s part. Those who harbour thoughts that they should not have to give in to the customer are obviously in the wrong line of work.

“Ultimately, what will make a customer return is the comfort he gets from a service provider. Another thing that can take a service provider very far is when your take the effort to surprise and delight the customer. A complimentary drink or a platter of fruits are gestures which will make him feel valued,” says Ravie.

“What we also want is a smart service provider who can read a customer’s mind. Let’s say if you notice that a customer has been looking at the menu for a long time, then you know it’s time to make suggestions. What we are also looking into is a manager who is able to lay down a standard operational procedure to ensure that there is communication between the kitchen and the service team. This rids the problem of waiters who do not know what an establishment has or does not have on the menu which can irritate the customer to no end.”

That is why, according to Sydney Quays, 41, director of marketing communication at Starbucks, it is important to choose the right people for the job – cheerful types who will not hesitate to greet every customer as soon as they walk in and who are not shy to engage in small talk.

In addition to personality, Quays also reveals that training is another essential aspect to maintaining service standards and all 1,500 employees working in this coffee chain have to go through weekly training sessions in product knowledge and service procedures. Classes are limited to no more than 14 people per session and are conducted in the U-shape formation for better attentiveness.

The subject of training service providers on the art of treating customers right has evidently become serious business as more organisations recognise its importance.

Telco giant Maxis, for example, has a two-floor, 1,500sqm, RM5.5mil learning facility in Plaza Sentral in Kuala Lumpur. In 2008, the Maxis Academy clocked a total of 187,000 training hours and close to RM10.5mil in training costs (excluding running costs).

Even Teh’s outfit, which includes war games and drumming circles into its training programmes to encourage better team rapport, is not doing too badly having recorded a revenue of RM200,000 in the last nine months from his corporate clients.

“In whatever field, there is always an element of customer service. When you look at it as a whole, each and every one of us is deemed as service providers. This is because, no matter what line one is in, we will inadvertently deal with customers albeit they are termed differently. A famous movie star, for example, will have her fans. A ruler will have his subjects. Employees will have their employers,” says Teh.

So ultimately, everyone will inadvertently have someone to please and this is where the importance of understanding the needs of a customer will work to the benefit of all, concludes Teh.

Published in The Star, Star Two, May 17 2010

Another side of Maple

2010-08-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

Many know Maple Loo as the stylish judge in Showdown 2010. But few are aware that this choreographer, dancer, actress and model is also a successful restaurateur.

IT is late morning and some terrapins have climbed onto a rock in the middle of a pond to bask in the sun. They are in the lush, green paradise of Tamarind Springs, a restaurant in Taman Tunku Abdul Rahman, Ampang, where fish wriggle in streams nearby and monkeys are free to jump among the trees.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m running an animal hotel,” remarks Maple Loo, emerging like a goddess from the cool, softly lit labyrinths of the restaurant.

Multi-tasker: Maple Loo may be busy with her restaurant business but she is still passionate about the performing arts, especially dance.

It is clear that she loves animals. The terrapins and fishes had been gifts from her guests and were released in the natural settings of the three-acre restaurant garden.

“A rustic oasis”, “an alluring and refreshing escape from the city” – these are some of the phrases used to describe Tamarind Springs, a restaurant that serves traditional Khmer, Laotian and Vietnamese cuisine.

Having entered the food and beverage scene seven years ago at the encouragement of her Italian husband, Federico Asaro, 42, Loo has evidently used her experience in the performing arts to inject a sense of dramatic charisma into the restaurant’s design.

The result is a place where one does not only eat but also experiences a heightening of the senses, soothed by the glow of flickering oil lamps and the sound of the gurgling fountain in the background. Understandably, the restaurant and its grounds have become the perfect setting for weddings and romantic twosomes.

Loo describes the concept as a destination restaurant where diners “would take the trouble to travel to the location for a meal”. “When we first started, the concept was still experimental but that was what made it so interesting because people had to look for us.”

She admits, however, that the beginning was hard. “We had to struggle but we believed in what we were doing and persevered.

“We did everything we could think of to market Tamarind Springs. One of the most powerful PR tools, I believe, is word-of-mouth and, true enough, after a while it took off.”

To date, Loo and Asaro have five restaurants under their name. Three of them, Tamarind Springs, Ii Tempio (an Italian restaurant), and Mandi-Mandi (a Thai-Malay outlet) are located within the same grounds in Taman Tunku Abdul Rahman. The other two are Tamarind Hill and Neo, both located in Jalan Sultan Ismail opposite Equatorial Hotel. The couple also own Japamala Resort, a 14-villa boutique resort in Tioman, and are in the midst of opening Villa Samadhi, a 21-room urban retreat in Jalan Madge off Jalan U Thant, Kuala Lumpur. “All our projects are inspired by Mother Nature. We use second-hand timber and all our properties are built around the natural landscape where we use the beauty of nature to create the ambience. The idea is to make our city restaurants feel like an escape. As it is, our company name, Samadhi, means ‘state of mind’ in Sanskrit,” Loo explains.

When Loo is not playing lady boss, she in-dulges in her favourite obsession, pole dancing. She is the owner of Bobbi’s Pole Studio, which is housed in a corner bungalow beside Sucasa Hotel right behind Ampwalk Mall.

Speaking of her foray into the entertainment industry, Loo says she started at the age of 19 with the Kit Kat Club and learned the theatrical elements of her art. From there, she went on to pursue a career in entertainment.

The self-trained dancer who also has an MBA from Edith Cowan University says her success has been about grasping opportunities as they came and making the best of them. “You have to multi task and be superb when it comes to time management. In my case, I make it a point to finish what I have to do that day because I know the next day will bring new tasks and new challenges.”

Even though the restaurant business takes up a lot of her time these days, Loo is still very serious about dance.

Dance is an art that should be taken seriously, she professes. And her passion for it shows. In one episode of Showdown 2010, she did what other judges have never done: she gave Wakaka, the eventual champion, a standing ovation.

Recalling that moment, Loo confesses that she was just blown away by their creativity.

“Dancers are made of passion, not technique. It is about performance skills, energy, stage presence and impact; magic that sometimes doesn’t come from merely applying dance techniques,” she says.

As for perceptions about dancing being a short-lived career, Loo is quick to point to herself as an example. “I am almost 40 and I am still pole dancing. Believe me, age is just an excuse, never a barrier!”

Where food is concerned, Loo’s philosophy is to live to eat, not eat to live. She likes home-cooked food like penne with tuna and tomatoes. When eating out, she prefers to go for Japanese, although for her, “actually nothing beats hawker food.”

She has asked Fat Zuli Sukran, executive chef of Il Tempio, to share a recipe with Sunday Metro. Chef Zul, as he is popularly known, is of Sumatran descent and has over 15 years of experience working for award-winning restaurants in Kuala Lumpur.

For reservations and enquiries, visit www.tamarindrestaurants.com and mapleloo.blogspot.com.

Lobster Linguine

THOUGH Italian by name, the ingredients are inspired by Chef Zul’s childhood days in Kuala Selangor wh ere there was an abundance of life in the rivers. When choosing a river lobster (udang galah), he recommends picking the ones with the brightest blue shells and to avoid those with blackish signs on the underside of the flesh.

1 river lobster (about 350g)
90g linguini (dry)
1 tablespoon chopped onions
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon Italian parsley
100ml tomato sauce
50ml olive oil
50ml prawn stock*
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Split river lobster in the middle taking care not to break it in two. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil. Throw in river lobster, prawn stock and Italian parsley. Season with salt and pepper. When cooked, remove river lobster and set aside. Boil linguini for 15 minutes. Strain linguini and toss in sauce for two minutes to let flavours seep in. Arrange on plate and top with river lobster. Garnish with tomato cubes and spring onions.

*To make prawn stock:
1kg prawn
1kg baby flower crabs
2 sticks celery stalks
1 carrot
2 onions
5 ripe tomatoes
10 litres vegetable stock

Bake prawn and crab shells until brown. In a pot, sauté vegetables (all roughly chopped) until fragrant and add in shells. Pour in 10 litres of vegetable stock (this can be made with any vegetable. Just boil an assortment in water for ½ hour and strain). Boil for eight hours over medium fire. The result should yield about 2 litres. Keep unused stock in freezer.

Published in The Star, Sunday Metro, 8 August 2010

Make up for self-expression

2010-08-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

THE new buzz word coming from the French cosmetics house Make Up For Ever is “beautinista”! The term descibes women who view make-up as a means of self expression. Thanks to its impressive range, the French maquillage house is a veritable playhouse for the drama queen.

The first Make Up For Ever boutique opened on rue la Boetie in Paris in 1984. But its real genesis can be traced back to the early 1960s when Danny Sanz, a Parisian painter, sculptor and artist decided to dabble in the chemistry of maquillage in her own kitchen. Her aim was to create a budge-proof make-up that could withstand the onslaught of perspiration.

In retelling the story of Make Up For Ever, Jennifer Nelson, the brand’s PR, reveals that Sanz, who is now in her 70s, started out as an artist in a French theatre. One day, a director had approached her to paint the actors’ bodies in a play to add a touch of surrealism. The ensuing result of seeing her work “come alive” inspired her to embark on a career as a make-up artist. While it was not immediately realised then, the concept probably made Sanz one of the world’s very first practitioners of body art.

A wonderful partnership: Alicia Chong and Theresa Ong both share the same passion for Make Up For Ever.

She strived to achieve a formulation that was not only waterproof but colours that would come true on the very first application. It makes perfect sense why the brand started out as the preferred choice of international make-up artists and performers before popping its head in the retail sector.

The secret of Make Up For Ever’s success stems from Sanz’s deep understanding of the use of cosmetics in the showbiz industry. Its academy started in 2002 in Paris, and to date, there are 10 Make Up For Ever Academies worldwide. Today, Sanz still remains the brand’s artistic director.

In its academy in Paris, make-up courses are given in French, Italian, Portugese, Spanish and English, and students are sent for internships to work on movie sets and fashion shows. For a realistic professional experience, photographers and established make-up artists fill the guest speaker lists during conferences.

“I was told that students would enquire if the academy that they were signing up with was using Make Up For Ever. If the answer was ‘no’, they’d go somewhere else,” says Theresa Ong of Hue Haven, the brand’s Malaysian principal company.

For the showgirl in you: Diamond dust and shimmery red striped faux eyelashes.

Having achieved its original intention of steadfastness and colour honesty, the progression from the pro circle to the ordinary but discerning woman came naturally.

“When you look at what it was originally intended for, there are numerous possibilities for ordinary women who want to look good in our humid weather be it at the gym or while taking a dip in the pool,” adds Ong, who teamed up with Singapore principal Alicia Chong in 2008 to establish the Malaysian office.

But, you wonder who would use the matte black shade or the ultra transparent iridescent ocean blue gloss in the lip colour range.

“The thing about make-up is, you never know what goes on in a ‘beautinista’s’ mind,” she explains.

Make Up For Ever offers close to 1,400 products in its catalogue, including 125 shades of eyeshadow and 95 lip shades.

Lip glosses come in pearl, chrome and shimmer form, not to mention the super and extreme shines. There is also a “magical” formula in this category which allows matte lipsticks to have a vinyl effect, living up to its “glossy full” promise. If matte is the texture of the day, there is a lip matifying cream for the lips.

The most dramatic elements lie with the eye and artistic range.

From ultra shimmery eye shadows to the metal and diamond powders, the brand has a brilliant collection of mattes, satins and iridescents. For falsies alone, there are 60 different patterns for lashes ranging from single implants to nudes, for every day use to dramatic appearances.

Aqua-Water proof cream eye colours to withstand the onslaught of sweat and water.

“The professional artist will find things like volume and length primers, and waterproof eyebrow kits in our catalogue. These are exactly the type of things you need in a make-up range,” says Chong.

Of note are the waterproof cream eye shadows from the Aqua range, specifically designed to withstand water submersions. The Aqua range, used by water ballerinas, has a sizeable range that encompasses waterproof eye shadows and eyeliner pencils. To safeguard the finished result, there’s a liquid waterproof eye seal.

The artistic and special effects range also carries accessories like cotton string underwear for body painting, glitter and strass-little bling bling to be placed on the face. In addition to the colour creams and powders for clown make-up and body art, Make Up For Ever also has special effects items like artificial blood and liquid latex for extreme theatrical makeovers.

In 1999, LVMH, the luxury brand leader which also handling other make-up brands like Dior, Kenzo, Guerlain and Givenchy, took Make Up For Ever under its wings. In the subsequent years however, there was a decision to drop Make Up For Ever from its line up as it was not such a well known name then and hard to market.

Enter Chong, then, a new mother battling the throes of post-natal depression who decided to turn to Robinsons (department store) in Singapore for a little retail therapy. The counter staff of Make Up Forever offered her the hand of friendship.

“One day, they told me that they were being retrenched. I felt I needed to do something to help them,” recalls Chong.

Her past experience as the division manager of Luxasia, which handled international prestige brands like Ferragamo, Bvlgari and Jean Paul Gaultier, came in handy. She approached LVMH and offered her business plan. Since the company was about to relinquish Make Up For Ever, there was no harm in giving Chong’s idea a go.

She was given the task to rebuild the brand in Singapore and Malaysia. Since 2002, the brand has gained a firm foothold in the island republic. Its headquarters is currently housed in Stamford House, a beautiful colonial building on Bras Basah Road in Singapore and it also has a make-up academy.

High definition make up

THE latest from Make Up For Ever is its HD line, launched in 2008 with foundation, powder and primer. A concealer, blush and a radiance-cum-hydration elixir joined this line-up two years later. Described as an extensive range, the foundation alone for the HD line sports 25 shades to suit the skin tones of Caucasians, Asians, Blacks and mixed races.

HD (which stands for high definition) is designed for the cinema industry and promises a faultless complexion under the lenses of HD cameras which optimises images up to six times of the standard camera. It is a formula which promises a natural look even under very close scrutiny, thanks to the advent of micro-sized ingredients.

The Moulin Rouge range for Fall 2010.

The formula is a combination of three powders, namely sericite, which reflects light and produces a satin finish; lauroyl lysine, a lamellar structured powder for a comfortable glide and blend; and microcrystalline cellulose, a matifying powder for a smooth touch.

For the fall trend of 2010, Make Up For Ever forms a union with Moulin Rouge, the famous French cabaret on Boulevard de Clichy. In mirroring the seductive can can dancers, it hails the coming of scarlet lips, faux eyelashes bordered with a glittery line of red and strass of Swarovski crystal in white, red and black for the flirty sideways look.

The Rouge easy-to-wear collection is reminiscent of the glamorous show girl who is not afraid to show her sexy, feminine self. The collection was unveiled recently at the Singapore Turf Club with live performances by can can dancers and free make overs for guests.

Make Up For Ever has a presence in 50 countries. It is available at Suria KLCC and Parkson at 1-Utama, Petaling Jaya. For details, log on to makeupforever.com.

Published in The Star, Star Two, Thursday August 5 2010

It's Tea Time

2010-07-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

The traditional tea time treats that used to be available mainly at market and roadside stalls and pasar malam are now going big time commercially.

THINK crisp hot fried bananas, savoury yam cakes, apom swimming in coconut milk, melt-in-your-mouth kuih and you can understand why Malaysians look forward to tea time.

Never mind if you don’t have time to make them yourself. There’s plenty of these yummy treats to tempt your palate (and ruin your diet) on sale in every nook and corner. The question of where to go really depends on whether you are looking for a relaxed sitdown with a teh tarik or a quick takeaway.

Thanks to commercialism, there is never a problem with choice. However, authenticity is a real bone of contention and nothing can be more irksome than a ketayap with a meagre coconut filling or a kuih talam that has been artificially flavoured.

Mum’s the expert: Wan (left) learnt to make melt-in-the-mouth kuih from his mother Mak Jah

So how are the best kuih supposed to taste? If you have sampled the kuih talam at the Mak Jah Café at Jalan Kolam Air, Ampang, you will want no other after that – the white tops of the kuih here are practically sagging from the weight of rich coconut cream.

Better known as Mak Jah, Halijah Karim, now 65, started the business at the end of a row of MPAJ stalls opposite an animal shelter some 20 years ago.

On closer inspection of her seri muka, you will also see a translucent layer between the glutinous rice and the green top. This, explains Wan Mahalel Wan Daud, 38, Mak Jah’s son, is due to the caramelising effect, a testament to the fact that they have not stinged on the amount of eggs and sugar. As a result, the kuih all have a luxurious melt-in-your-mouth feel.

“What I have learned from my mother is that you have to be a perfectionist when it comes to making kuih. My mother believes that a kuih should be rich in coconut milk and eggs. As it is, she uses no less than eight eggs for every tray of kuih,” says Wan.

Though Mak Jah is retired now, this grand dame is still head of quality control and is known to test every tray to make sure that all are in accordance with her stipulations. Those that don’t meet her QC standards will not be seen at her stall.

The issue of being “generous” is a sensitive one. The ones who are guilty of meagre ketayap fillings and airy curry puffs will give the standard excuse of inflation and compromises in profit. But old-timers like Sun Yoke Lan, 55, have different answers.

Going places: Malaysian kuih have the potential to be exported.

“One way to ensure return customers is to make their stomachs remember you,” says Sun who has been running her nyonya kuih stall in front of the Yit Seang coffee shop at Jalan Thambypillai in Brickfields for the past 30 years.

Sun’s strategy is simple. She gives away big portions, be it her trademark steamed pumpkin rice cake or her large deep fried prawn cucur.

Both Halijah and Sun will attest that their kuih business strategy has been tested and tried by time. As it is, Halijah’s kuih is also sold at the Daily Express in KLCC and the Warung in Mid Valley Megamall.

After having kept a roadside enterprise alive for three decades, the question of expansion is bound to pop up for these traditional tea time vendors. In most cases, it will involve relocation, which many believe will sound the death knell for their livelihoods instead.

Thus, most are staying faithful to their original spot, one case being the Mr Chiam Pisang Goreng stall at Jalan Tun Sambanthan 4, Brickfields.

Another is the vadai and curry puff mobile van situated between Jalan Telawi 6 and 7 in Bangsar, which is operated by Kanagaratnam Vengadasamy, who is in his 70s, and his wife Visalatchi Thanugodi, who is in her 60s. They have been there for the last 15 years and the simple reason for their decision to stay put is that everyone knows them.

It is a similar story with the Chiams. After 27 years, numerous mentions in foodie blogs and appearances in food programmes on TV, the most recent one being 1 Day Five Meals which airs over Astro Wah Lai Toi and is hosted by Angel Wong Chui Ling; the father and son team are content with their roadside spot. Never mind that there is no space for the duo to prepare their bananas and sesame balls for frying. The Chiams have opened a preparation room above the shophouse. A buzz from an intercom at the stall will see a basket of nien kao sandwiched between slices of tapioca or freshly rolled sesame balls being lowered in a plastic basket to an eager recipient below.

But modernisation has a way of changing mindsets and now that the current generation prefers the air-conditioned comforts of the supermarkets, it may be time to rethink the issue of location.

The Lim brothers of Homi Chicken Curry Puffs are an example. Having established a name for themselves at the Hock Seng Two coffee shop for almost 20 years in SS2/66, Petaling Jaya, they made a move to apply for a spot at The Gardens Mid Valley four years ago.

With a monthly rental rate of RM8,000, one wonders what gave the Lim brothers the courage to make the jump with nothing but curry puffs as their star product.

Lim Meng Kong, 54, the eldest of the three Lim brothers, reveals that they have had to set up a shop lot factory in Jalan Kuchai Lama, which now produces about 3,000 raw curry puffs daily.

“The decision to expand was like taking the big plunge. There was no business strategy. What we did instead was to take the opportunity as the situation presented itself. It began when my brother, Meng Lee, saw an existing curry puff chain prosper. He thought he could do something better and that was how we came to be here.”

Like the Lim brothers, Lady Luck also had a role to play with Wong How Yong, 54, a kuih supplier who started from a roadside stall at the PJ Old Town market 20 years ago. Eventually, she moved to a stall inside and one day, eight years ago, a Caucasian approached her and asked if she would like to supply Giant, the hypermarket. That opportunity gave her the courage to venture into the catering scene in addition to supplying local kuih to the hotels’ buffet lines.

“It just happened out of the blue and at that time I was still making kuih from my home kitchen,” recalls this former housewife.

Her chief worry then was how she would be able to supply the volume required, but she soon found the solution.

Of course, comfort, convenience and hygiene will come with a price and as Homi reveals, a slight change in pricing was necessary to cover costs. Puffs sold in The Gardens are between RM2.00 and RM2.50 each compared to the ones in their SS2 HQ, which are only RM1.40 each. Still, when one compares the posh contemporary settings of The Gardens to the hot stuffy surroundings of a roadside operation, what is an extra 60 sen?

And thanks to the constant demand for the different varieties of kuih, the makers have had to lean on each other. “It has become very normal for them to sell each other’s products because one factory just cannot handle the making of so many varieties,” says Wong.

This has led to another emerging trend such as that of Deli Delight. A nyonya kuih kiosk in Mid Valley’s basement right in front of Eu Yan Sang, it is run by Theresa Yoong, 60, who has been a familiar face here for the past eight years. Yoong runs a consignment style operation with other kuih and biscuit suppliers.

How far can one go in the kuih business? Nancy Lu, 52, of Lulu Nyonya Kueh believes it can even be exported. She is already looking into this aspect, with help from her brother Tony Lu, 48, whom she describes as “the one with the ideas”.

Since the business started in 2000, Lulu Nyonya Cakes has opened five outlets all running on the kiosk format in Sungai Wang Plaza, Mid Valley, Amcorp Mall, Great Eastern Mall and Jaya Jusco Taman Maluri. And they are also supplying kuih to hotels for the buffet lines.

In the future, says Lu, there are plans to take the kuih business into the gift market, which requires compact and attractive packaging for travellers to take home as presents for friends and family. In line with this, there are plans to work on freezing the kuih, Sara Lee-style, for export. The R&D remains to be done, however.

At such a rate, it will not be long before the kuih lapis becomes as international as the cheesecake. Already, as Lu reveals, there have been enquiries from as far away as Abu Dhabi.

A new touch to the traditional

IT is hard to imagine the popular ketayap as anything else but green in colour, flavoured with pandan and stuffed with a sweet filling of grated coconut and gula melaka. At Ibunda, a Malay fine diner on Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, patrons may well see some surprising changes, however.

Here is where you’ll find ketayap with Philadelphia cheese fillings or love letters dipped with roselle salsa all served in dainty portions.

“Malay desserts are traditionally very heavy and with the addition of coconut milk and glutinous rice, it can be very overwhelming after a starter and a main course. So, we decided on a serving that would not exceed 600g,” says Mohd Sofi, 35, the sous chef and spokesperson of Ibunda.

Glamorous twist: The banana pengat coated in sugar

The inspiration is still Malay in origin, he insists, taking Ibunda’s signature dessert, the Nangka Gulung, as a case in point. It was created after the chef and restaurant owner, Zabidi Ibrahim, saw a cempedak fritters stall.

“The whole idea is to be different, to push the boundaries on what is considered the norm in Malay tea time treats. In the end, it is all about culinary creativity,” says Sofi.

Dishing it out with a smile

2010-07-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes a dining experience more memorable than great service with a smile. Beauty queen Debbie Goh has it down pat at her new Indonesian restaurant.

SERVICE with a smile, no matter how irate the customer. With this motto in mind, beauty queen and restaurateur Debbie Goh has maintained the reputation of providing good service at her Indonesian food outlet.

The star of Age of Glory, which became the highest rated Chinese drama in 2008, is the new lady boss of a three-month-old Indonesian franchise. Sharing a recent encounter with a customer that had her on her toes all night, she says: “A distinguished-looking gentleman came in with a party of friends. From his manner, I could tell that he was a seasoned diner so I quickly signalled to the staff to be extra vigilant.

Debbie Goh offering her favourite dish, the Yellow Rice Combo, which comes with a mild beef rendang and crispy fried chicken.

“When the food arrived, he found fault with every single dish ordered and even after we replaced it with something else, he was still not satisfied.”

The former Miss Malaysia Chinese International 1998 and a Hong Kong TVB artiste was at her wits’ end and decided that dessert would be on the house.

When it was time for the diner to leave, Goh personally saw him to the door and apologised profusely, certain that she would never see him again.

“Boy, was I surprised to see him again! Later, I found out that he had been impressed by the service and that was when I patted myself at the back for having exercised patience,” says Goh.

As the owner of IR1968, she says that her patience is stretched every day but maturity has helped her keep a tight reign on her temper.

“The onus is on the restaurateur to be tactful and diplomatic. It is your job to find out your diners’ likes and dislikes and then use the knowledge to make sure they have a pleasant dining experience so that they will be back,” says Goh.

In deciding to embark on a career in food and beverage with IR1968, which stands for Indonesian Restaurant 1968, Goh (pic right) reveals that it was her business partner Hudson Chang, a 37-year-old Hong Kong native whom she had met while hosting a culinary programme with TVB, who convinced her to become a restaurateur.

Cosy: Soft red lights and blue porcelain for the table setting mirror Debbie’s artistic touches.

“IR1968 is a franchise and they were the first to offer Indonesian cuisine in Hong Kong in 1968. I was very taken by the concept and thought that it would be a good idea to bring it to Malaysia.

‘Coincidentally, I was also looking into other business opportunities apart from acting, so everything fell into place,” says the Ngee Ann Polytechnic graduate who believes in being hands on in her restaurant.

“One sure-fire way to lose money in business is to be constantly absent,” says Goh who has appointed her 21-year-old niece, Yvonne Chiew, to man the cash register because she is the only person Goh trusts.

She also sees the restaurant as a place to entertain and network, and as such, has taken great pains to make the 120-seater outlet into a cosy enclave with red Chinese lamps, multi-coloured cushions, authentic whitewashed wooden tables and blue porcelain.

Among the restaurant’s signature dishes is the Yellow Rice Combo (RM25), which comes with a very mild version of beef rendang and a piece of crisp fried chicken drummet. This hearty dish is best paired with the Assam Fish (RM38), a spicy and sour concoction laden with brinjal and capsicum.

The specialty of the house is none other than the tender and aromatic Braised Ox Tongue (RM32), which takes five hours to prepare. For those who fancy something light, there are the Shrimp and Corn Patties (RM15) and the Gado Gado, an Indonesian salad made up of bean curd, bean sprouts, cabbage, cucumber, lettuce, potatoes, boiled eggs, prawn crackers and thick peanut sauce.

The restaurant, which is just behind Hock Choon supermarket in Jalan Ampang, also does private catering for a minimum of 10 pax and home deliveries around the Ampang area. IR1968 is located at 241-B, Lorong Nibong, Off Jalan Ampang, 50450, Kuala Lumpur. For reservations, call 017-7883 2160.

Semur Lidah

1 whole ox tongue

For the sauce

3 large tomatoes

3 big onions

3 whole garlic bulbs, peeled and separated into cloves

400g aniseed

4 nutmegs

100ml of kicap manis

Boil ox tongue for five hours. Meanwhile, blend all the ingredients for the sauce with a little water. Heat the mixture in a pan and let it simmer until it thickens. Do not add water. Once ox tongue is ready, slice and sauté in butter. To serve, pour sauce over the tongue.

Let’s go to market

2010-04-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

The farmer’s market is a lively place full of colourful characters selling fresh produce and a whole lot of other things besides.

WHY make a beeline for a farmers’ market with their nose-wrinkling odours, humid conditions and noisy surroundings when you can shop in the air-conditioned comfort of a supermarket?

The answer, my friend, definitely blows in the wind. Unlike the sterile atmosphere of a hypermarket, the pasar tani gives one a sense of freedom with its open-air concept. Another magnetic attraction is that it throbs with life, thanks to the colourful personalities of the vendors and their wide choice of fresh produce, including petai just plucked from the tree and exotic jungle vegetables.

Going bananas: Bananas in the hundreds of bunches are found in abundance at Selayang.

Shopping aside, this is where you’d find hefty fishmongers and Wellington-booted greengrocers with superstar smiles – the types who will not hesitate to claim every passer-by, old or young, to be their “sweetheart” or “darling”.

It is very hard not to fall in love with this noisy, gregarious lot! You know, those easy-going types who will not think twice about hollering to another trader who is six stalls away if he’s got any lemongrass to spare for a “pretty auntie” who just must have some for her nasi ulam?

Not one to practise favouritism, everyone is either a liang lui or a leng chai. The surroundings may not be posh but it is easy to see why the pasar tani has become so popular in our culture.

Engaging smile: Jamaludin Ismail started selling keropok lekor under a tree. Today, he has two shops in the Selayang wholesale farmers’ market

The Malaysian pasar tani probably made its way into the local scene sometime in the early 70s. The whole idea of creating a temporary spot for the farmer to trade was to address the issue of the middleman. Back then, it was not uncommon to hear stories of some unscrupulous middlemen who would pay the poor village farmer a mere RM10 for a basket of durians, which were later sold in the city for RM10 per kg.

This effort to bring the farmers in direct contact with the consumer was initiated by Fama (Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority) which was formed in 1965. The main objective was to help the farmers, fishermen and livestock breeders eliminate the problem of the middleman.

Locations were selected based on market research carried out by Fama and consumer traffic; and the willingness of the district authorities to cooperate and the number of entrepreneurs who would find the area viable for trade were some of the prerequisites taken into consideration.

Training ground: The best salesmen can be found in a pasar tani, says Azizi, who is roasting chestnuts with his boss, Rezuan Baba.

In terms of commerce, the pasar tani would be a separate market from the wet, morning and night markets and were under the jurisdiction of Fama who would arrange for the basic facilities such as umbrellas and stall space for rent in each of these designated areas. Close to half a decade later, the humble pasar tani took off, and the wholesale farmers’ market in Selayang was one of the first to start.

Located by the side of the old wing of the Selayang wholesale market, with its existence traced back to 1987, it is perhaps the oldest pasar tani in Selangor, according to Kamar Kilau, 60, who is a regular shopper here.

“In those days there were only 34 lots and rent was only RM13 per lot,” reveals Kamar.

Fama support: Razlan Ismail, a keropok lekor vendor, standing in front of his colourful lorry. Painting of the vehicle was sponsored by Fama.

Today, the number of lots has doubled and, according to Shamsuddin Zainal, 30, who helps run the Fama produce stall here, rental rates have gone up to RM500 per unit.

While the business hours of the pasar tani were originally confined to the morning, the one in Selayang has extended operation hours to seven days from 7am to 6pm. Some stalls like Jamilah Hashim’s coconut stall, which sells fresh santan and kerisek, runs on a 24-hour basis.

Jamilah, 31, a mother of four, reveals that she had started in Selayang with a small stall under a tree selling cakes, crackers, pickles and steamed peanuts in 1999. She changed to selling coconut milk in 2000 when Fama offered her a stall after a former tenant lapsed in rental payments.

Enterprising: Jamilah with her sisters, Rahimah (in red) and Rohizan (in black), who are showing off the cendol and bakso noodles that are a hit with Selayang folk.

On estimate, no less than 1,000 coconuts go under the grating machine at Jamilah’s santan shop in one day.

In Jamilah’s case, the spirit of entrepreneurship runs in the family as her husband, Saiful Azam, 37, also has a poultry stall in the area.

Her elder sisters, Rahimah, who runs a nasi campur and roti canai concern, and Rohizan, who, in addition to a watermelon stall, also sells bakso and lontong, also have shops in the Selayang wholesale farmers’ market area.

Bite me: Sup gearbox, one of the many hundred types of food available at the Shah Alam Pasar Tani.

It is not unusual to find one boss managing a few stalls and keropok seller, Jamaludin Ismail, 48, is one of them. A keen biker who also has a health spa in Rawang, Jamaludin now has two shops to distribute his keropok lekor which comes from a factory in Rusila, Terengganu. Jamaludin, who started selling his keropok lekor from under a tree in 1996, says that he sells between 20 and 30 big bags a day.

The most popular pasar tani is none other than the one at the Shah Alam Stadium on Sundays from 7am to noon. What makes this market such a draw is that it is just next to the Bazaar Arena which operates in conjunction with the farmers’ market.

Catergorised as a pasar tani mega (mega farmers’ market) by Fama, this is a shopper’s heaven with over 800 stalls selling everything from fresh produce, meat and fish to bundle clothing, facial products and handicraft.

Showtime: Razali Jaafar got his 15 minutes of fame when he was featured in TV shows like Jalan Jalan Cari Makan.

One bargain hunter, Norashikin Sidek, 37, who is a regular, says that one of her favourite draws is the beef bone soup (sup gearbox) from Wak Jas and the array of fashion clothing from the bundle stalls. Where prices are concerned, hypermarkets can be cheaper, she admits, but the advantage of being able to bargain here is an added plus.

Competition is certainly keen and Azizi Alif Khalid, 26, a business management diploma student from UiTM who sells roasted chestnuts, says that working in a pasar tani is a test in PR, work discipline and marketing skills.

“The best salesmen are found in a pasar tani. You learn very quickly that charm and the ability to say the right things will win you customers,” say Azizi, who sells about 80kg of chestnuts every Sunday in Shah Alam.

Without the advantage of window dressing, one also learns to rely on creativity, and for salon owner Norhasni Muhammad, 42, that involves providing on-the-spot facials at her stall where she sells her beauty soap bars.

This is not to mean that Fama has taken a back seat with the promotional efforts. The agency will sponsor the painting of a vendor’s lorry, as in the case of Razlan Ismail, who had his done recently.

The 25-year-old keropok lekor seller who hails from Klang, Selangor, has been in the pasar tani circuit for 10 years.

Facial on the go: A marketing tactic used by Nor Hasni to promote her beauty soap bars

Ingenuity also helps to sell a product, as Jeffri Mohd, 26, found out when he changed the original cylindrical shape of the ice cream potong he sells to square shapes. This Kelantanese who has only been in the pasar tani circuit for a year is under the employ of Zaman Ice Cream which has two sales outlets at the Shah Alam market.

Incidentally, the pasar tani has also turned out to be a place where one can find fame. Razali Jaafar, 39, a former broadcasting man who gave up his job to open up his own enterprise called Uncle Jilli’s Jacket Potatoes two years ago, has attracted media interest. So far, he has appeared in Jalan Jalan Cari Makan, in a slot hosted by Maria Tunku Sabri, and in Sheila Rusly’s Ketuk Ketuk Ramadan, which were both aired over TV3.

Laden with petai and other jungle vegetables, Abdul Rahim Muhammad’s stall in Shah Alam is what the pasar tani business is all about – selling the freshest produce, whether they are harvested straight from nature or from the farmers’ plot, directly to the customer.

Rahim, who has been in the pasar tani trade for the past 25 years, says he is chairman-cum-treasurer of the Persatuan Peniaga Penjaja Negeri Selangor (Selangor Petty Traders Association), which aims to help the small entrepreneur. The motto of the PPNS is “Dari Gerai Ke Global (from stall to the world)”, he says. But it looks like their fight is still on the local ground for now.

One of the things that PPNS continuously strives for is the protection of the pasar tani traders from unscrupulous individuals who, after obtaining licences from the council, will try to sell the lots at a high price to newcomers, Rahim says, adding that at one point, PPNS even went as far as reporting the culprits to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. Thanks to their efforts, such incidents are becoming rarer but the underhanded practices still exist, he says.

> For more information on a pasar tani nearest to you, log on to www.famaxchange.org

Published in The Star, Sunday, 25th April, 2010

Food from the garden

2010-04-10T20:25:00.001-07:00

To be truly productive, grow your own food.

WHY take the trouble to grow your own food in an age when everything can be purchased from just a stone’s throw away?

For want of an answer, the best person to speak to is Haji Mohd Arif Rahmat, 79, who was only 10 when the Japanese army invaded Malaya in 1941. Though this retired headmaster has not divulged the details of his life during that period, it is a well known fact that folks from the “banana currency” era had to grow their own food to survive.

These days, what used to be known simply as plots for growing your own greens has taken on a fancy name: “edible garden”. But to Arif’s generation, the ability to grow one’s own food was a way of ensuring survival.

Haji Mohd Arif Rahmat needs only a pot with a bit of soil and he’s ready to plant.

Having grown up in an era which put a premium on thrift, Arif likes to share the fact that he has never had to buy a single leaf of ulam nor any of the local fruits like durian, langsat, mangosteen or cempedak.

As he puts it plainly, “I have always believed that to be truly productive, you must be able to grow your own food.” But thanks to modern abundance, it is no longer necessary for us to resort to growing food for the family. However, there is a legion of avid gardeners out there who will think nothing of sinking their hands into mulch, coaxing the soil to produce a harvest that they could confidently tuck into.

It is also common for growers of edible plants to share their passion as well as the fruit of their labours with their relatives and friends. When she has visitors, Eunice Quah, a freelance designer in her 30s, usually takes them to her herb garden to introduce them to her collection of plants. “Here, smell this. It’s lemon balm,” she would say. Or “You’ve got to taste this.

This is stevia, which is sweeter than sugar.” And it is!

Most times, growers of edible plants also rank quite highly in their friends’ and family’s popularity list.

Before Arif moved from Kedah to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to his three children, he had a 1.69ha orchard that was a favourite among his grandchildren and their parents especially during the fruit season. They would help themselves to the durians, mangosteens, cempedak and langsat in the orchard.

Tall order: Ong with her 1.829m-high kailan. It was grown from a cutting given to her by another gardener friend.

Six months after settling into his ground floor apartment in Wangsa Maju, Arif’s place is now bursting with greenery from the host of potted plants he has planted. They include limes, mint, turmeric, ginger, curry leaves, lemongrass, kesum (laksa leaves), sweet potato, cekur (sand ginger), kuchai (Chinese chives), coriander, screwpine and tulasi. His little garden is now a popular spot for his daughter-in-law, Yasmin Medeonus, 48, who is a great cook.

“All you need is a pot with a bit of soil and you’re ready to go,” he says. Quah agrees, as she is also growing her sage, rosemary, sweet basil, thyme, marjoram, mint and other herbs in pots and planter’s boxes in her Taman Tun Ismail home.

Ong Suan Huah, 65, who lectures on green architecture in UiTM, has been planting long beans, convolvulus, spinach, brinjal, bunga kantan and basil on the backyard plot of her Section 17 home in Petaling Jaya for some years now yet she still feels amazed by the sight of her growing plants. “It’s an awesome feeling when you see your own brinjals hanging from the vines. You feel like such a genius even though you know that it is all nature at work. I guess this is because you know that you have nurtured your plant from seed to bush.”

Ong started growing vegetables when her grandson, Anton Siew, now six, was born. Her main reason, she says, was that she did not want her grandson to ingest the harmful chemicals that came with the bought varieties.

She began with Chinese kale (kailan) grown from a cutting given to her by her husband’s relative in Ipoh.

“After the success with the kailan I went a bit mad and started to try my hand at mustard greens, French beans and mustard celery. But I was not successful with this lot.”

Still, it is thanks to Ong’s effort that Anton and his younger sister, Trinity, five, love to eat vegetables, which is not often the case with most tots.

“This is because home-grown vegetables are nothing like the ones bought from the market. Like my kailan, there is no bitter aftertaste. There was also a time when we had long beans and we chopped them up for omelettes. They were crunchier and sweeter than any of those I had ever bought,” says Ong.

Keen gardener: Partini prefers to potter in the garden rather than watch TV in her spare time.

Dispelling the idea that she has “green thumbs”, she says she wasn’t successful at gardening before. To explain, she goes back 15 years to the time when she went on a field trip to Cameron Highlands with her colleagues. There, they visited a nursery and she emerged from it with her arms full of potted plants. They eventually died from want of attention, she says.

These days, though, she will spend entire weekends tending her plants.

“The moral of the story is, only when you are passionate about your plants will they grow,” she says.

Initiative, agrees Partini Safrudin, 35, the Indonesian housekeeper of Alex Wong, a recording artiste and Elvis impersonator, is the important factor. Though her employer’s double-storey bungalow in Ara Damansara has only a small patch of land for gardening, she has managed to plant rows of screwpines, a papaya tree and daun salam (Indonesian bay leaf).

“In my case, it’s for want of something to do. I don’t like taking naps or watching soap operas all day. So I plant things, which in turn rewards me with a sense of satisfaction and helps me to relieve stress,” she says.

Herbs to the fore

Passion for herbs: Eunice Quah with her collection of herbs. She is surrounded by thyme, rosemary, marjoram, basil, mint, sage, parsley and coriander.

FOR those who are interested in beginning a herb garden, enthusiasts like Eunice Ouah, Ong Suan Huah and Haji Mohd Arif have a few suggestions on the types of plants to try.

> Dill flower: Dill is especially suited to containers and will produce wispy leaves growing on a single stem to about 75cm high. It can be harvested about eight weeks after sowing. At this stage the plant will begin to produce flowers, causing the leaf production to stop. Keep the plants on a sunny windowsill but out of direct sunlight.

> Lemon balm: The lovely lemony scent of this herb makes an excellent iced tea with honey. It is easy to grow and thrives well in loose, fairly fertile soil with little watering.

> Rosemary: The three fundamentals for successfully growing rosemary are sun, good drainage and good air circulation. Rosemary is usually propagated by cuttings as seeds can be difficult to germinate and often don’t grow true to their parent. For a good start, gardeners have recommended periodic spraying of liquid fertiliser on the leaves.

> Sage: Grown from cuttings, the best place for planting sage is in full sun. It should be put in well draining soil as it does not like its roots to remain wet. As it originates from hot, dry climates it will grow best in local conditions.

> Stevia: Non-toxic, insect repelling and sweeter than sugar, stevia plants do best in a rich, loamy soil. Since the feeder roots tend to be quite near the surface, it is a good idea to add compost for extra nutrients if the soil in your area is sandy. The roots can also be adversely affected by excessive levels of moisture, so take care not to overwater. Choose fertilisers with a low nitrogen content.

Starting out

IF you are planning to start your own vegetable or herb garden, start by saving the seeds and stalks from everyday staples like chillies, bitter gourds, basil or daun kesum. Soak the seeds overnight in water to speed up germination. If you’re using stalks, place them in a jam jar filled with 1cm water and let them sit for a few days until a substantial length of roots can be seen.

Soil should be loose, well drained and fine textured. To ensure that your pots do not become waterlogged, place a layer of gravel or charcoal at the bottom before sowing the seeds. To revitalise used soil, heap it in a corner or place it in a large container if you live in an apartment. Instead of throwing away dried leaves that have fallen off your plants, toss them into the soil heap and leave to mulch. You can also add in peeled skins of fruit, vegetables or the pulp from blended juices. Another type of soil which some gardeners prefer is worm compost which is said to require very little management.

Here are some home recipes for fertilisers. One is to tie up a bag of dried leaves, wetting them with a bit of water beforehand. Seal the bag tightly and let the contents disintegrate naturally before placing them on your plants. If you can get goat’s faeces, this is good manure for the plants.

Otherwise, there is the packed and sterilised variety of blood and bone meals which will have all the nutrients that a plant will need. Some gardeners also recommend rice husks and the husks of yellow peas which is purported to give excellent results.

The secret to every successful gardener lies in their willingness to experiment. This is especially so with Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme. The best way to start off with this lot is to buy ready-grown plants from the nursery. Otherwise, stick to easy-to-grow plants like daun kesum, basil, kailan or spinach which can be easily propagated from stems.

You can opt for chlorine-free water for your plants by collecting rain water. Watch out for dry spells, especially in fully concreted areas, which can make your plants wither. Device methods of shading with umbrellas when necessary.

If your garden is on landed property, you may eventually have a problem with pests. One gardener, who has experienced an attack of snails that destroyed her chilli and spinach plants, suggests sprinkling salt around the perimeter of the plants. Otherwise, arm yourself with a torchlight to remove the snails from your plot at night. The kids will find this fun!

Published in The Star March 14, 2010

Miniature venture

2010-04-10T20:23:00.001-07:00

A husband-and-wife team get down to the nitty-gritty of decal making.

startwo@thestar.com.my

HERE’S a sticky situation if ever there was one: Imagine a water slide decal no thicker than a strand of hair ending up in a tangle.

To Vernon Law, a decal producer and model maker, the best recourse is to throw the darned piece away. Sticking the decals to a model is already quite a job, taking a trained hand no less than one-and-a-half hours. In some instances, when the 46-year-old has worked on one micro scale decal too many, it is not uncommon for him to end up cross-eyed.

His wife and business partner, Zaidah Omar, 42, and the more patient of the two, prefers a salvation strategy which involves dunking the troubled plastic strand into a bowl of water to let the soaking action loosen the problem. This is then followed by long minutes of gently prying the mess apart with a pair of non-magnetic tweezers.

Matching: Law holding the decals for the Sukhoi SU-30 MKM.

Zaidah is no doubt an asset to Law as her steady hand, perfect vision and infinite patience makes her a natural for the task of sticking the decals on aircraft models. It is also easy to understand why Zaidah is reluctant to waste a decal unless it has been torn beyond repair.

The business of making decals, which this husband-and-wife team started in 2001 from a shop lot in Bandar Baru Ampang, Selangor, can take no less than six months to a year to complete, for a single collection. Having chosen to specialise in decals for the Royal Malaysian Air Force, the most extensive part of Law’s work is in research.

An example of the attention to detail is the decal set for the A-4 PTM Skyhawk used by the 6th and 9th Squadron of RMAF which comes with a fact sheet revealing the year the contract was awarded to Grumman Aerospace to refurbish the A-4s and the specification of work done. A recommendation of the modelling kit is also included with a colour chart guide for the different years of delivery plus modification notes on any additional antennas, avionics humps and weapon pylons made to the attack craft over the years. The images are then scanned into a computer and the printing is sent to the United States and Italy for quality control reasons. It isn’t that Law has no confidence with local printers but when they saw the micro scale specifications, the first thing they asked was if he was nuts.

What they didn’t realise was Law needed them to match the scale of his models ranging from 1:32 to 1:100.

Patience is a virtue: Zaidah sticking on the decals to an aircraft model.

In recalling how he got into this fix, Law, a former draughtsman and father of one, had in 1998 taken the plunge to pursue his childhood passion by joining Miniature Hobby, a famous model shop in Kuala Lumpur’s Mid Valley Megamall. Three years later, he struck out on his own and, by the end of 2003, he was ready to export his decals to Europe, the United States and Britain where there is keen interest among hobbyists for RMAF aircraft.

“One of the most fascinating aspects of the military aircraft is in the markings and manufacturers’ specifications. One example is the Sukhoi SU-30 which is used by the Malaysian and Indian air forces for aerial combat and ground attack. In Malaysia, where they are known as ‘Flankers’, the sensors are located at the chin. The Indian version will see an extra pair of canards at the front part of the fuselage,” says Law.

In tandem with producing his own decals, Law is also heavily involved in model making from ready-made kits; his finished products of model MiGs, Sukhois and the like have gone as far as Singapore, Hong Kong and Britain where they are presented as souvenirs to senior officers.

Precious: Law and Zaidah admiring their collection of World War II fighter plane models.

Law is also a regular at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (Lima) exhibition and Defence Ministry (Mindef) events.

“Being in the industry, what they are looking for is accuracy, where the displays, from the colour to the markings, have to be exact replicated scales of the actual aircraft. Again, this takes a lot of research time to make sure that nothing, from the serial numbers to the signs indicating the location of the fuel pumps and warning signs, are amiss,” says Law, who has a library full of references.

One of his favourite referrals is a local monthly defence magazine called Tempur.

Just like his decals, Law spares no effort to ensure the same attention to detail in his models. Drawing attention to the cockpit of a Sukhoi, for example, he shows that every detail, right from the safety belts in the pilot’s seat to the instrumentation panel, is done to resemble the actual aircraft that is currently in operation.

Before and after: The MiG 29N on the left is the original colour on delivery. The one on the right, painted grey, is the colour the RMAF opted for all its aircraft.

“In the model kits, most of the cockpits are still in analog format so what I do is to ensure that it is modified to resemble the latest digital features as found in current aircraft,” says Law.

To set the standard for the quality of his finished models, Law makes regular trips to museums around the world to check out the competition. He and Zaidah recently returned from a whirlwind tour of England where they visited war museums in Collindale, London and Duxford, to have a firsthand look at the British-made Hurricanes, Spitfires, Lightnings and Hawks.

“Look, there is no need to go as far. Just check out the Singapore Air Force Museum where every display is so highly polished, you can see your own reflection,” he says.

Law has gained many regular and loyal customers throughout the years and, according to Zaidah, one way he “entertains” them is by sharing his knowledge.

Nifty: A C130 Hercules, aka ‘Charlie’, in Law’s collection.

“Did you know that the CASA CN235, which is used for VIP and light military transport, was a barter made with Indonesia in exchange for Proton cars? Did you know that some pilots have broken their necks due to the extreme G force during dives or climbs in air manoeuvres? As for the MiGs, I’ll be sorry to see them being phased out as any pilot who has clocked in 1,000 hours in these fighter aircraft is really good,” offers Law.

In retrospect, though Law’s role is confined to making the miniatures of the actual aircraft owned by the RMAF, he does not forget the real reason for their existence – to be part of the country’s defence system.

“In a way, I see myself playing a small part in inspiring patriotism among the younger generation by encouraging them to join the RMAF. I know of one modeller who joined the air force and he is now a captain flying an F18D Hornet,” he says.

Vernon Law can be contacted at 012-661 3698 or thianngee1968@yahoo.com. Visit his workshop at 24C Jalan Wawasan 2/4, Bandar Baru Ampang, Selangor.

Published in The Star March 26, 2010

Queen of the Cosmos

2010-04-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

HERE'S an interesting insight on what was going on inside Carrie Lee Sze Kei’s mind when she was in the finals of the Miss Chinese Cosmos International beauty pageant in China in 2004.

“I was hoping to fall down a flight of stairs and hurt a leg. Then, I’d have a good excuse not to represent my country,” said Lee, 24.

There you have it. The real truth from the crown owner of Miss Chinese Cosmos International 2004.

It may sound odd to think that a winner could have such negative thoughts. After all, don’t all the self help gurus preach the power of positive thinking and the effect it has on the ultimate outcome?

“Of course, I wanted to win. Deep down in my heart there was this faint glimmer of hope but at that time, I dare not dream of the impossible,” said Lee, who eventually won over the judges’ hearts with her implacable charm.

Winning the Miss Chinese Cosmos International title was no mean feat for Lee who revealed that the contestants had to go for soldier training and rafting.

Many girls, she said, dropped out because they could not take the harsh training.

“One contestant had to be airlifted to hospital as she could not breathe due to the thin air in Luku Lake, Yunnan, where the altitude is higher,” said Lee.

Lee, who was 19 at that time, surmised that her perseverance was largely due to her athletic background.

She was a striker and centre in her school’s handball team and as a school runner, she has 120 gold medals to her name. Being fit had been a plus point for this former student of SMJK Segambut Jaya, not to mention a winner’s natural desire to triumph above all odds.

“It may seem to many that beauty queens are goddesses and true when they are on stage, they do have that aura. However, being a beauty queen requires stamina and strength. You have to be poised and confident at all times and I will tell you, it was not something that came naturally to me,” said Lee.

It is presumed that beauty queens are born and not made. Looking at Lee’s delicate features and slim 169cm frame, it is easy to believe that this Kuala Lumpur-born Sagittarian already has her name in the stars from the very beginning but what lies underneath her innocent baby-faced features is an ambitious and determined businesswoman.

At an age when other girls were busy pursuing their tertiary education, Lee had to work as she needed to support her family.

“I worked three part-time jobs, one of which included working night shift in a cybercafe. During the weekends, I’d take on the job of a sales promoter. This was when I’d get calling cards from the casting agencies,” said Lee.

It was a chance that she would not miss, thanks to the efforts of her friends and family members who egged her on into giving a go at the entertainment industry. By this time, however, her business acumen had kicked in and despite her tender age, she was already organising events for her clients.

“It started with a simple request to find more promoters and what I would do was to find 10 girls who could do the job and I’d make maybe about RM20 from each of them in terms of introduction fees. Things progressed from there and over time, I just did what came naturally,” said Lee, who has become a pro at event management.

Still, at the time of her first beauty contest, the Miss Tourism International in 2003, Lee admitted that she had not yet mustered enough confidence to take part in such a grand event.

“My initial philosophy was to have a steady footing as a businesswoman. Furthermore, I was the type to get stage fright and I was very scared of speaking out,” said Lee, who had once owned a boutique and a nail spa.

In came her ardent supporters who insisted that she gave the pageant a go and to cut a long story short, Lee emerged triumphant to eventually wear the coveted tiara as Miss Chinese Cosmos International.

It was a decision that the judges would not regret as Lee eventually took on the job of promoting the pageant in Malaysia and later on in South East Asia, under her company, White Fairy, which is situated in Bandar Sri Damansara.

In addition, Lee also clinched the lead role alongside Filipino actor Alfred Vargas in Muli, a hit Philippines drama series in 2006.

Detailing the rides that have accompanied her thus far, Lee who started off with a Gen 2 is proud to reveal that she will be awaiting the arrival of her Audi TT next month.

“What I wanted was a Nissan Fairlady but I thought that the Audi would stand out better because it was rare. This will be a personal treat for me,” said Lee.

Still, the Audi TT will not be Lee’s first thrill ride. Back in Hong Kong, she has her boyfriend’s Ferrari 430 waiting in the garage.

“After driving a Ferrari, there is nothing you can’t handle,” said Lee.

However, for the family oriented Lee who is the second of three siblings, a sports car would not be the end all for someone who likes to have her family members close by.

This is why she also has a Hyundai Grand Starex, a 11-seater family car where parents, brothers and cousins can fit in comfortably. In fact, big SUVs are quite a hit with Lee, who used to have a Nissan El Grande parked in her driveway. The Nissan eventually made way for the Hyundai when the numbers in her family grew.

“Big and spacious is what I like about the Starex,” said Lee.

For more information on Carrie Lee, check out her website at www.carrielee.com.my

Story and pictures by Grace Chen

Published in CBT

Steady Footing With The R350

2010-04-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

HERE'S an interesting tidbit from Datuk Michael Tio, the managing director and group chief executive officer of PKT Logistics Group.

According to this 41-year-old father of two who started life as a used car dealer at the age of 18, a car is very often an extension of one’s personality.

Say, if you drive a Mercedes, high chances are that you may be a stable, consistent and conservative character with a corporate outlook.

If you prefer a BMW, then you’re most probably one of those ambitious but fun-loving types.

To satisfy your curiosity, Tio has been driving a Mercedes R350 for the past three years and incidentally, the car that will ultimately turn him on is not the one which has the most kick or power but one that will offer value for money and good resale prospects.

It is such consistent traits that have put Tio at the helm of PKT Logistics which offers total transport solutions not only for fast moving consumer goods but for CKD vehicles and automotive parts for manufacturers and assemblers in the Asian region.

Another advice from Tio is to never buy a car from a smoker who has no qualms about lighting up at the wheel. People who smoke while driving, maintains this anti-nicotine crusader, is obviously not too particular about car care as evidenced by the burn marks and stinky interiors.

As for the best candidates to buy a second car from, it is the ladies who win hands down because they are most likely to send their cars in for service on time. In addition to being high scorers in the hygiene department, they are less likely to go into hard shoulders causing less wear and tear.

Tio is not blowing hot air here. Long before he started the automotive logistics division in PKT, a venture which he described as a "high volume game", Tio has been wheeling and dealing in luxury cars from his days as an accounting student in the University of Hull in Britain.

“The first car I bought while in college was a Mercedes 230E from an old couple. They were pretty worried because I had a baby face then and looked much younger than 18. When they asked me where I got the money, I had to tell them I was buying it for my father. Then when I got into the car, they had to teach me how to drive it because I didn’t know how to operate an auto transmission,” recalled Tio.

Being a car dealer made Tio a popular guy at school as at any one time, he’d have a Panther 3.6, BMW 735 or a Mercedes 300SE in the parking lot.

Delving into his past experience, Tio revealed that he has always found Mercedes cars durable while the most complaints came from the Jaguar owners. The BMWs, after a certain mileage, had electronic issues. This was during the 1980s and Tio recalled that this was a time when the British car dealers had yet to iron out their communication strategies with their Chinese buyers. In came Tio who argued for his brethren whenever there were complaints about imperfect gearboxes that made the cars jerk in the second and third gears, a common problem at that time.

“This was my form of customer service and most of the time we negotiated on repair bills with the buyers and bore the costs,” he said.

Ironically, the car dealing venture that would pave the way for his future nearly got him into trouble. The stress caused Tio to fall asleep at the wheel during a trip from Hull to London and he nearly collided head on with a lorry.

Though those used car dealer days are over, Tio still has a pressing dilemma concerning the current love of his life, his gold R350 (the other is his wife’s Peugeot 308 Turbo).

“I’ve had this MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) for the past three years now and it’s time for a change but I just don’t know what to settle for next. The R350 has such a strong presence and till today it is turning heads,” said Tio.

Man and machine found each other when this freight forwarder was looking for a mode of transport that could accommodate his two children, their comics, their minder, his father-in-law and husband and wife.

There was some fierce competition with an S-Class along the way but good old fashioned Teochew sensibility prevailed as Tio weighed the pros and cons.

“For a 3,500cc engine, the R-Series was definitely more value for money as it can seat more passengers. I also like the big front grille,” said Tio.

The only gripe that Tio has is on the lack of after sales service when it comes to his ride, namely in the spare parts department. A brush with faulty electronics in the auto door of the booth of his R350 saw Tio going back to the workshop not once but three times!

“They told me that they had no stock in hand and a replacement part would take a week to arrive,” he said.

Tio is one of those doting owners who will not hesitate to replace a driver the moment he suspects that they are trashing his car.

“I don’t like the drive-fast-and-then-brake style. It makes me feel very disturbed because I can feel the engine transmission suffering from all that work. At the end of the day, I can feel its exhaustion,” he said.

Tio’s driver, Mat Noor, who is in his mid-40s knows this well and both work to make each journey in the R350 a pleasant drive.

“We work as a team,” said Tio, who always makes it a point to sit in front with Mat Noor.

Story and pictures by Grace Chen

Published in CBT (Cars, Bikes and Trucks-NST)

Queen of Etiquette

2010-04-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

MANY will remember Aziah Jasmin Azizul as a former TV3 newscaster but to the legion of professional consultants, she is known as Ms Manners.

Making the shift from TV screen to the business of telling people how to dress, behave and act couldn’t have come more naturally for this Ipoh-born beauty who drives a black Perdana V6.

“I feel that the crux that makes manners so important in any culture is the need to take the feelings of others into consideration,” said Aziah, 38.

The realm of road motoring, according to this personal image and style consultant, is badly in need of etiquette awareness.

While it may seem difficult to say one’s Ps and Qs from the confines of an enclosed cabin, Aziah maintains that there are some things that motorists could observe.

One is to refrain from picking one’s nose when traffic comes to a standstill.

“No one should be caught in action doing this. The only place where you should pick your nose is in a toilet with the door closed and curtains drawn,” said Aziah.

Spitting out of windows is another no, no.

“Not only is this disgusting but it is also a health hazard as it spreads viruses and contributes to air pollution. From the pedestrian point of view, it’s like manoeuvring a mine field when you have to watch where you are stepping,” said Aziah.

This etiquette queen, who started driving at the age of 17 in her brother’s Proton Knight (later known as the Proton Aeroback), even has an answer for motorists who is facing the predicament of black or white smoke emitting from their vehicles.

“Apologise. While it is not possible to let every motorist know that it is not your intention to foul up their breathing air, you can at least apologise to the nearest driver. I remember stopping at a traffic light once and this biker who had white smoke coming out from his exhaust turned to say sorry to a driver who had its windows wound down,” she said.

Signalling is also another gesture of politeness. In Aziah’s etiquette book, nothing can be more irritating and dangerous for a driver who does not use her signal lights, especially when there are other motorists waiting to come out of a junction.

While she maintains that it is unforgivable to cut queues in traffic, should the inevitable happen, then it is only proper to raise a hand in a gesture to ask the other drivers for permission to cut into a lane before manoeuvring one’s vehicle into place.

"It is more forgivable for a driver to do this rather than to cut in abruptly and cause the cars behind to a sudden brake. Though there is an urgent need to save time in today’s hectic lifestyle, understand that others too have the same urgent need to reach a destination, so practice consideration,” said Aziah.

As for the horn, Aziah, who confesses to being a speed demon on straight, clear roads, said that it should only be used for two things - in emergencies and as a gesture of friendliness.

“You know how some drivers go ‘teet, teet’ and then wave? I’ve seen some drivers do that for big trailers when they give the all-clear signal for cars behind to overtake. To honk at a vehicle in irritation is likened to giving someone a scolding. I am sure that it is not in one’s best practice to go about scolding strangers,” she said.

Aziah is especially stern with those who park in lots reserved for the handicapped.

“The disabled already have enough problems with mobility. They don’t have to contend with inconsiderate drivers who deny them of easy entrance to shopping malls and other public buildings," she said.

Although Aziah’s Perdana V6 runs on automatic transmission, this former student of SMJK Main Convent, Ipoh, admits a preference for manual drives as it gives her a macho feel. It was the same reason for her choosing the sporty GTi Satria as her first car.

“Changing gears makes me feel active while driving,” said Aziah.

Talking of her dream car sees her eyes misting over as she whispers the hallowed name of the red Ferrari.

“Sometimes I am afraid of myself when I realise that I love speed," she said.

"I once drove from Penang to Kuala Lumpur in two hours. This was at night too but I have discovered throughout the years that I am a better driver at night than in the day as the glare makes me feel sleepy.”

For more etiquette advice from Aziah, visit Star Studio at 5-1, Jalan PJU 5/10, Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya.

By Grace Chen

Published in CBT (Cars, Bikes and Trucks-NST)

Mum In The Fast Lane

2010-04-10T20:07:00.001-07:00

WITH a toss of her lush curls, Gina Finanza, 35, looked at the trophies displayed in her comfortable living room and declared that for once, people should stop looking at gender especially in the field of motorsports.
“There’s no such thing as having an advantage just because you are male or female in rally driving. In the end, it’s the best person who will win the race,” said Gina, who clinched the championship in round one of the Rally Sprint and Rally X in Sepang last year.
To Gina, who credits her mother Morni ‘Ann’ Rahman, 61, for inspiring her to take up motorsports, the stand to maintain gender neutrality is also a standard that she imparts to other aspects of her life.

“This is not the Stone Age where brawn is needed to survive. Today, almost every aspect of our daily lives has been automated and tasks can be completed via a touch of the button. So, that puts men and women in an equal playing field where the excuse of not being able to perform most tasks due to one’s gender is no longer applicable,” said Gina.
This does not mean that this strong-headed lady has refused to acknowledge the male role in society.
It’s just that when it comes to living one’s dreams, she feels that the issue of gender should never be wielded to deter an individual from pursuing ambition.
“The only thing that will hold anyone back from doing anything they have set out to do is the willingness to learn. The next thing I suppose is the courage to get out of your own comfort zone,” said Gina.
Gina said that her attitude is largely influenced by her mother, who used to participate in motocross races on a Kawasaki ZZR 250 in the '80s with people like Sunny Ramalingam and Chow Kit Chong at the Batu Tiga tracks.
Like Gina, Morni or Ann as she is better known, is still a stunner for her age with perfectly coifed hair and impeccable make-up. The only thing that betrays the hidden speed devil in her serene smile is her penchant for cargo pants.
Still, the years have called for a slowdown of sorts and this meant having to sell the bike for a slower ride - a Proton Wira GSR Turbo 1.8 in matt black with orange lines!
“My mother always stressed that we should be independent. We had a strict but simple upbringing. By five, I could wash, fold and keep my own clothes. By age seven, cook for the whole family. Not that my brothers couldn’t do it but they made a mess every time and I couldn’t stand it,” said Gina, the youngest, the only girl and the only one who has followed in her mother’s footsteps, of four siblings.
Being independent from a young age has certainly worked to her advantage.
“I find that this sense of independence has been crucial to my success in rally driving. This is a sport where you have to watch out for yourself. Say, if you have a puncture, you’d have to fix the problem very quickly or lose time. Then, there is not only your own safety to consider but your co-pilot’s as well because once you become the person behind the wheel, you take on a certain responsibility,” she said.
In retrospect, she affirms that her upbringing has also honed her to become an organised multi-tasker which has enabled her to finance her own rally car, a Satria GTi 1800cc GSR, in addition to owning a Honda Accord 2.2 Vtec, a Wira GSR Turbo 1800cc and a Kancil 650cc L5 Turbo.
Due to her impressive record, Gina is also currently supported by Hypertuner, which gives back up as her service crew in rallies, MH Tuner, which does the repairs and tuning and Race, which sees to her car’s alignment.
“I am very calm under pressure. At times, when my co-pilot fumbles, I can make my own decisions without making it known that she has made a mistake. I think this is important where the safety aspect is concerned and also to alleviate unnecessary stress for both parties,” said Gina.
Talking of keeping her head, Gina recalled a time in 2008 when she was a participant in the Malaysian Rally Championship in Sepang.
During the flag off, her bonnet flipped open and cracked the windscreen while she and co-pilot Nur Rashidah Abdul Rahim were travelling 140km/h on the highway.
With their view suddenly blocked, Gina kept a cool head by peeping under the bonnet and steered her rally car to safety. Despite broken windscreen and all, Gina managed to clinch 3rd place in the P12 class of round 6 in the competition.
Gina, a mother of four who works as an occupational safety and health officer with a local telco giant, began her racing career on go karts in 2004, making her debut at the Pan Global F1 Driver Search at the Sunway Extreme Park.
By the next year, she had garnered enough experience to win the Maxis Inter-Department Go-Kart Competition.
The move to rally driving came about in 2007 when she took a Satria GTi for a spin around the Sepang track.
“With no disrespect to any party, I found it to be a boring affair after a while. After going round and round, I knew by heart what speed I should take for each corner,” recalled Gina.
When she discovered rally driving, thanks to friend and mentor Jagjeet Singh of Wheelspin, there was no looking back.
“There is nothing as exciting as tearing through a twisty, muddy gravel road! That is how I have adopted the tagline, ‘Let’s Skydive Horizontally’ as my motto,” said Gina.

By Grace Chen

Published in CBT (Car, Bikes and Trucks-NST) Sunday April 11 2010.

Meeting Bond’s M

2010-04-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

ON Joanna Chee’s business card, her position is simply stated as “M”. M, James Bond fans will tell you, is the secret agent’s lady boss.

This seems apt, for Chee, 40, director of nightclub Bond in Avenue K shopping complex in Jalan Ampang, certainly fits the bill of a strong but feminine character. Having been in the nightlife business for 13 years, Chee is one tough cookie.

Once when she was seven months pregnant and working for a newly opened club, Chee had to resort to standing in the doorway of the club to stop an over-enthusiastic crowd from barging in.

“I think they stopped the moment they saw me. I was huge! And I don’t think anyone would be so heartless as to push a pregnant woman aside so they can come into a club!” laughs Chee who, on numerous occasions, has had to step right into the middle of a fight to break it up.

(Second from left) Joanna Chee has vast experience in operating a nightclub. — Starpic by AZHAR MAHFOF

“I know most of these people so it’s easy for me. I feel that sending in the bouncers would just create more tension. I just go in and tell them not to do this in my place because it’s not cool. I normally get the respect. I’m lucky that I have this sort of ‘likeability’ with my guests,” she says.

Some may remember Chee from the 90s as the cute chick with boots in Echo, Bangsar. I, for one, will never forget her dancing on stage during The Right To Question Party at The Mines in 1998 – a beer in hand and a sticker in the form of a question mark stuck to her chest. If you have been to any of those island getaway parties these past eight years, chances are you have met Chee.

“I loved those parties because it had all the elements of fun and romance and hints of a ‘dirty’ weekend,” she recalls fondly.

A mother of three now, Chee used to bring her eldest child Ben, now 21, along for the island revelries. But she has stopped organising these parties because her two younger children, both under six, need her at home.

Today, she is still in the business of nocturnal parties but Chee says she doesn’t go clubbing anymore. She prefers to spend the time with her children, reading them stories and tucking them in at night. She’s done her fair share of partying, at any rate.

Hailing from Klang, Chee started her first club in 1993 in Atlanta, Georgia when the rave movement was just beginning. When she came home during the 90s, her first posting was in Penang in Novetel’s Shock Egypt club. Boom Boom Room opened in Kuantan and Chee worked with them for two years, then came to Kuala Lumpur to do the marketing for Wall Street, near KLCC.

Echo Jazz Bar, Twelve SI and Nouvo followed.

Experience, she has plenty. But Chee says the nightlife scene is not the easiest business to be in. Competition is keen.

“You can’t just open a club and hope people will come. You have to do a lot of marketing,” says Chee.

If she has to hire belly dancers to attract the crowd, then that’s what she will do. In fact, that’s precisely what she did – getting professional belly dancers to teach the ladies the moves for Wednesday’s Bond Ladies’ Night.

Chee says that in opening a club, one has to be clear about what one wants and meticulous in executing the plans.

“This includes details like the music, door reservation policies, and what type of people we want in the club. These tie in with the concept of the club. In choosing the sound, Bond has opted for old school, as in Modern Talking and Michael Jackson. It’s music that you can actually dance to and still look sophisticated,” she explains.

“Once they get the crowd in, the PR people have to go on the floor to ensure the evening works out well. Those who like to dance would be ushered to a place near the dance floor and those who just want to chill out will be put in a section where they can people watch.

“If you tell us that you are coming to see us on a particular day and you don’t show up, we make sure that you know that we noticed you did not show up. In this way, customers feel that they belong,” she says.

Chee says it’s important to create a relationship with the customer by putting in a bit of care and friendship.

“I feel that it is important to train my PR girls to be professional in the way they carry themselves with the clients. You can be in contact with your customer every one or two weeks, and you can do this either by an SMS or telemarketing.”

The business of selling fun also requires an outgoing personality. You must be willing to hit the dance floor when it is empty and walk up to total strangers and treat them like old buddies.

Chee says that at her club everyone is treated equally, whether they are buying a bottle of premium whisky or just a glass of juice.

“The question I always ask myself is: are we doing enough? To me, a customer is always right. If they complain, it means something is wrong, so we have to listen. That’s how we improve,” says Chee.

“There was a time when I had to do everything myself and it was very tiring. But I have since learned how to plan and delegate so that different people will do specific tasks. I still have sleepless nights, but I take time out to meditate and eat healthily,” says Chee.

And when she leaves for work, Chee has peace of mind because her husband is supportive.

“He is just wonderful with the children. Not only does he see to their needs but he is also their educator,” says Chee of her New Zealand Chinese husband

The Star, Saturday October 14, 2006

When we were party animals

2010-04-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

I HAD shied away from the nightlife scene three years when Dave Avran, editor of Smoove Pinch, said, “We are organising a succession of parties, called The Remember Series, to pay tribute to the popular clubs of the 1980s and 1990s, from April to December. Would you like to come?”

Of course!

Avran and I go back a long way, almost 10 years. This was when I was a cub reporter for a small publication called Movin’ KL. We’d badger the former manager of Roxy Club at Renaissance to allow us in to cover the VIP parties. And good ole Dave always gave in despite the complaints from his guests. How the memories are returning.

DJ Bernie

The Remember Series is what you’d get when an “uncle” decides that he is not ready to relinquish his Harley bike for the rocking chair just yet.

“The senior DJs and patrons told us crazy stories about the fun they had back then. They said it was missing in today’s clubbing scene and suggested it would be nice to bring it back,” says Avran. And that was how The Remember Series was born.

The first party was on April 8 at Bond in AvenueK. So far there have been eight Remember Series parties recalling the popular clubs of the 1990s, like Baze, Scandals, Saqs, Boom Boom Room, Heaven at Modesto’s Forum, Barbarran Bar and Dance Club, DV8, Viva Dance Club,

Bringing the past to the present is not easy since most of the old clubs no longer exist. Avran and his team had to track down former nightclub owners to get an accurate picture of how they did things back then.

“We needed a place that could fit the crowd and be flexible enough to cater to the various nuances of our tribute nights. Bond Lounge in AvenueK was very supportive of our needs and fitted the image we wanted.

“But the plan is not to stick to one place, as we also want the crowd to experience other venues. For example, the Betelnut and Brannigans tribute night was held at Sugar Club at Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel,” Avran says.

All the Remember parties, they decided, would be held on weekend nights.

“We knew our target market could only be persuaded to come out on a weekend night. This is so that they can recuperate after dancing and singing the night away. Understandably, most say they aren’t as energetic as they used to be,” admits Avran.

Getting the music right

Then came the little detail called the music. DJs from the old clubs, like Mr Q of Baze, Groovemaster of Viva, and Philippe de Souza (now spinning in Rum Jungle) of Betelnut were called in.

According to Avran, finding the DJs weren’t a problem but getting them to play the songs from the old days was. Some had sold off or given away their music collection. Others had retired and become rusty. And the vinyl of some of the old records had warped with the years.

One 31-year-old deejay, who only wants to be known as DJ JD, tells me that some rare club versions like After The Love Has Gone by Princess and JD Taylor’s Long Hot Summer Night had to be re-mastered and remixed again after being downloaded from the Internet.

“Altogether it was a long and tedious process of searching for the songs because they are no longer found in the record shops. And because we could only get 10% of the sound from the MP3 format, we had to bring the sound up to 100% again,” says JD. Jeremy Lee, aka Groovemaster, 30, says the Remember parties certainly bring back the old memories. Jeremy, who began deejaying at 15 in shopping malls, was only 25 when he played at Viva but by then he was already one of the most expensive DJs around, making around RM8,000 a month.

Groovemaster and DJ Royston at the Viva tribute night at Bond in avenueK.

“When we were in Viva, people had this perception that we were arrogant because we didn’t entertain requests. This was for work reasons because requests interrupt the flow of the music. The idea was to build the tempo slowly and then go to a high. We created an upmarket dance club with the brand of music that we played.

“We also played mambo jambo, which is mainstream R&B, and 1970s and 1980s music, where you’d get Kool and the Gang and Billy Joel. Then from 1am till closing time, it would be Happy House (disco type of beat),” recalls Lee, who now runs his own golf consulting business.”

The scene has changed, Lee observes.

“During the 1980s, people could go to clubs without worrying about raids. But now people are starting to rely on unnecessary substances. This, I think, started to happen in the 1990s when I had my first experience of being in the middle of a raid at a club in Bukit Bintang,” said Lee.

JD thinks the pill-popping trend does not contribute to the party atmosphere at all.

“Back in those days, we would be on a natural high and when people danced, you could feel a sense of camaraderie,” he remarks.

“Now,” chips in Lee, “there is a very cold and pretentious feeling with the people in the clubs.”JD also thinks people in those days had more class. They had a certain style because clubbing was an occasion to dress up. Nowadays, the crowd is not only unpolished but too hip-hop. Also many of today’s clubbers tend to go to a club alone compared to back then when people went in groups, which contributed to a better party atmosphere.

DJ Bernie, 36, whose real name is Bernard Charles, says there is little variety in the clubbing scene in terms of music. He reckons that the nightclub owners had better do something about this before the people start heading overseas to party for the weekend.

These deejays cannot help but miss the bygone days. What JD misses most of all is the music flow of today’s clubs.

“The new deejays seem to have taken the shortcut where everything sounds like it has been cut and pasted together. Back then, we would blend in and remix the songs so that it would not sound choppy,” he says. “Nowadays,” Lee adds, “I get the impression that the new deejays are either deaf or mute. You seldom hear them speak. In those days, we would build up the hype by doing things like turning the volume down so that the crowd could sing along.”

While the Remember parties are just the thing for nostalgic deejays, some were sceptical the parties would really take off. After all, the party animals of the previous decade have become the parents of this decade.

“They couldn’t believe that we managed to get these old regulars to come out of their family lives for just one night to celebrate their hey days,” explains Avran. “I think some of them got very sentimental about it and realised that all those years of being a DJ had a meaning after all.”

For the climax, watch out for the Remember Series bash in December called “Reunite – Class of 1980-2000”. Expecting close to 3000 people, Avran and his team from Smoove Pinch will be playing 25 years’ worth of music in one night.

Coming tribute parties in November and December are listed below. Cover charge: RM 30 with one free drink unless stated otherwise.

Remember: Tin Mine, Rumours & Club Oz
Remember: The Backroom KL Immaculate & Silhouette Sessions 1999-2000 Reunion
Remember: Movement
Remember: Echo, Ohm & White Room Bangsar
The Remember Series Finale – Reunite

For more information on dates and venues, visit: www.SmoovePinch.com or contact Dave Avran at 019-235 4775.

The Star, Saturday October 14, 2006

Having fun with music

2010-04-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

No thanks to the cheeky antics of The Abonation, a street band in Jalan Bukit Bintang, I experience the most embarrassing moment of my life right in the middle of a busy street in the Golden Triangle.

I try to beat a hasty retreat but Megat Shamsul, 30, the band leader persuades me to stay.

“Clap along and be part of the rhythm party,” he urges.

“Oh what the heck,” I think, giving in and finding myself having the time of my life.

It is quite an introduction to the world of interactive music, where the audience is invited to jam with the musicians! Everyone is invited, never mind if you don’t have a musical background, say the Tugu Drum Circle, another street band that encourages crowd participation.

Rosdi “Shady” Zahari, 27, of the Tugu Drum Circle, says it’s just a matter of feeling the rhythm and fitting in. All one needs is a good ear for music and a sporting spirit, adds Izzardzafli “Nicky” Fadzil, 27, of The Abonation.

The Abonation brings people together in their public jam sessions. --Starpic by SIA HONG KIAU

Shady, a self-taught percussionist, has been teaching drumming techniques to the group, free of charge, for three years.

“It’s very easy and anyone can do it. Once you can play, we’ll teach you how to improvise with different beats and that’s when you can learn to ‘sing’ with the drum,” says Shady.

You don’t have an instrument? No worries. The musicians will probably lend you theirs. In any case, you can always make your own, like Paul Lau, 45, the founder of Tugu Drum Circle, did. He makes percussion instruments out of broomstick handles with bottle caps nailed to them.

These interactive street groups sound nothing like a conventional band. Their music seems to come from the heart and soul. It’s tribal. Organic. Catchy. Very alive.

“It’s a form of community service,” says Shady, of the free music lessons they offer.

“Not everyone can afford music lessons and there is a saying that if you keep knowledge locked away, it will wither and die. Share it and it will grow.”

Nicky, for his part, thinks that public jam sessions may help youths on the streets who have neither the resources nor space to pass the time productively.

“When I started busking at Bintang Walk two years ago, I thought, ‘Why not teach these street youths to make music instead of sitting around and wasting time’?”

With this in mind, Nicky invited youths to join his new band. Today, they have five core members and their début album Birth will be out Aug 15.

Public response to jam sessions by The Abonation and Tugu Drum Circle are encouraging.

One retired 55-year-old TNB technician who calls himself Ramli Rock joins The Abonation in their sessions at least three times a week. A paraplegic, Ramli thinks the activity is a way for him to rejoin the mainstream.

He plays the harmonica, bird whistle and beats time using a comb handle and wooden block. These jam sessions always make Ramli’s day and is a great way for him to make new friends. W

For a copy of The Abonation’s album Birth, call Nicky at 016-3670 138. They play from 9pm to midnight every day in front of Maybank near BB Plaza

Drumming to foster unity

Life is full of funny turns. For example, if Paul Lau, 45, had not been working 12-15 hour days as a landscape designer three years ago, the Tugu Drum Circle may never have been formed.

Feeling “physically and mentally drained” from his hectic work schedule, Lau decided to look for an outlet for stress.

Drumming sounded like a good idea, so Lau decided to take up drum lessons with Lewis Pragasam. But he hardly had time to practise. Luckily, Pragasam did not forsake this “tardy” student of his. When he formed Beat Club, Pragasam invited Lau to tour the country with the drum and percussion band.

And that was how Lau became hooked on drumming and how the notion of creating a “drum circle” began to form in his mind.

Drum circles, explains Lau, are not new. It has its origins in the US when an African drummer, the late Babatunde Olatunji, started the practice of drumming as a form of community service. What makes drum circles unique is that there is no audience. Everyone is part of the performance. The goal is not precise rhythmic articulation or perfection of technique, but the ability to form a group mind, a state of “entrainment”.

“When everyone makes music together, their brainwaves are in sync. This is a primal form of communication that creates a non-vocal bond with all people regardless of gender, race or religion,” Lau says.

The Tugu Drum Circle jamming. --Starpic by SAMUEL ONG

“When everyone in the drum circle is in a state of total synchronicity, there is a special moment where everybody gets a natural high and their bodies feel light. I have felt this and even without thinking, my hands would move to the rhythm,” says Lau.

This drumming enthusiast says that when people come together to make “in the moment” music, it creates positive thoughts and feelings. It also fosters a sense of muhibbah as it brings people of all races together in an activity.

“As you can see, our country is very rich in drum culture with influences and traditions from various parts of the world. We have Chinese, Malay and Indian drums but they rarely come together in a jam session. Our aim is to bring people together from all walks of life and build a stronger community spirit by making music together,” he says.

Lau thinks drumming also allows people to “voice” their feelings.

“In the Tugu Drum Circle, anyone who starts a rhythm is the leader and the group will support that person. As the rhythm continues, it could metamorphose into another rhythm and everybody will support the player of that new rhythm.

“Everyone is a star whilst being supportive of each other, and, in the process, everyone gets to ‘speak’. As such young players will also get a ‘voice’ regardless of their age and this empowers them to ‘drum talk’ as young people are usually too shy to voice out their feelings”.

To take his drumming passion further, Lau attended a seven-day workshop – thanks to a provisional grant from the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage – in Hawaii on Aug 7, where Arthur Hull, a reknowned drum circle facilitator, conducted his Drum Circle Facilitator Playshop 2006.

Lau hopes the experience will enable him to take the Tugu drummers to a higher level. – By GRACE CHEN

The Tugu Drum Circle gathers every Sunday from 5.30pm to 8.30pm at the National Monument in Lake Gardens. To get in touch with Paul Lau, call 012-2663292.

The Star, Saturday August 19, 2006

A tribute to T-shirts

2010-04-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Figure Eight, a fashion and music event saw a hip crowd turning up in full force at their T-shirt bazaar and dancing to their line-up of local bands at the Central Market Annexe recently.

Though the flyer did not say it, there was no denying that this “do” was a tribute of sorts to the humble tee with the appearance of eight local bands wearing limited edition T-shirts.

Drummer and founder of Tugu Drum Circle, Paul Lau, 46, was the first to sing to his piece of cotton covering.

Hanging out in comfort: (From left) Shahir, Fyra and Ewan clad in to their favourite tees to suit the occasion.

“T-shirts are the easiest to wear when it comes to performances. Unlike sequined stage costumes that have to be dry-cleaned, you can just chuck a T-shirt into a washing machine. I’d rather wear them than anything else,” he said.

At the gig, Tugu Drum Circle wore white limited edition tees with colourful screen-printed figures designed by Kurasaraksaksa, a label that also carries a line of unusual jewellery, bleached and worn sneakers.

Otherwise, what makes a T-shirt cool, apart from the material, is definitely the design.

According to Norhayati Md. Noh, 3,1 of Dollhouse, the idea was to achieve authenticity with inspiration from everyday life.

“It is important to express oneself and the T-shirt is one way you can do that and be noticed,” she said.

And for a touch of radical self-expression, there is no better vehicle than the T-shirt.

DTG, an acronym for Don't Trust Girls, is one such label, a division of crazeecausa, a local line of skater related merchandise founded by a Mike Tan in 2004.

“Just like girls are always saying that boys are not to be trusted, here’s an insight to how boys feel about girls as well,” the stall operator said at the bazaar.

In what he terms as an effort to promote the local music and T-shirt art scene, Warren Chan, 29, organiser of Figure Eight, said it was inevitable for these two disciplines to complement each other.

Chicken Hotel: Norhayati of Dollhouse says this T-shirt is open to your interpretation.

“Musicians are like heroes and naturally, their fans would want to have a piece of them. One way to do this (in addition to buying the band’s music) is to wear a t-shirt with a picture of the band on it,” he said.

As for the objective of connecting T-shirts and music for the Figure Eight event, Chan said he had seen this as an opportunity to help the fledgling T-shirt design scene.

“It is a young but thriving market. This is largely due to the fact that T-shirt art is more accessible to the youth unlike art (say for example the work of a portrait artist) because they can wear it,” Chan said.

At this juncture, Reza Salleh, 24, Chan’s assistant said T-shirts were not only for the young but transcends across all generations.

“One of my favourite photographs is of my grandpa in a Batman T-shirt,” he said.

As for the negative image of the T-shirt wearer being a slovenly and unprofessional character, Reza said it was as a matter of perception.

“We are not here with the agenda to say that you should wear a T-shirt to the office though I know a lot of professionals who do. We are just giving the artists an outlet for creativity because we feel T-shirt art is a valid art form and it should be given the same amount of respect,” he said.

The Figure Eight event is organised by Junk, a music magazine that targets those aged 18 to 25.

For more details, visit www.junkonline.net

Published in The Star, Saturday June 23, 2007

Like the Middle East

2010-03-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

Arabian whiffs and northern Indian aromas are competing with the other flavours at the Golden Mile in Kuala Lumpur.

THE next time you think of having a meal at Jalan Bukit Bintang, prep your palate for a gastronomic adventure by checking out the Middle Eastern and north Indian restaurants there.

Conveniently located among the shops of Malaysia’s most famous shopping street are eateries offering some of these unique flavours at very affordable prices.

The Egypt Café, which serves a mixture of Arabian, Western and local fare, in Jalan Bulan 1, is first on the list. Here, you can find the typical Arab staples such as hummus (RM8) or mashed chickpeas with sesame, squeezes of lime juice and olive oil; and foul foul (RM10) or fava beans fried with garlic, onions and tomatoes. Both are served with bidara bread.

Also worthy of mention is the shawarma, which never fails to tempt as the aroma of the fragrant meats can easily make the mouth water. This is a delicious bidara wrap with grilled chicken (RM8) or lamb (RM9), shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, halved olives and lime pickles.

Unique flavours: Mohamed Mahmood Aly of Egypt Café sits down to a typical Arabian breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, salata, fava beans, cheese, pickles and bidara bread.

For lunch and dinner, there is the kabsah rice cooked with tomato paste, cinnamon and shallots. It comes with either lamb, chicken or salmon fillet (starting from RM25).

Most Arab tourists come here for breakfast, the most popular of which is the tomato and onion egg omelette (RM10) with white cheese made of buffalo’s milk, and a generous helping of bidara bread.

Cross the street, walk further down, and you’ll find UK Asia. Here is where you’ll see a buffet offering of typical northern Indian fare like achar gosht, lamb karai, mutton tripe (from RM5 for a single portion each) and the indispensable chicken briyani (RM10 per plate) authentically served in a degh, a traditional, specially insulated pot which the owner had brought in all the way from Pakistan.

UK Asia also serves the fluffiest chapatti (RM1.50); and girls, take note that stepping into this place is like walking onto a Bollywood set! The place is a mad house, especially on Fridays at lunchtime.

Next door is Paradise Restaurant, which is a little quieter. This is where the diner will actually get an unhindered whiff of lamb kebab and chicken tikka (both RM8) from the charcoal grill served with freshly baked naan hot off the tandoori. Do watch out for the chicken kofta too, as this is the restaurant’s speciality.

Interestingly, how did a once predominantly Chinese area become an exotic Eastern food stop?

Yeok Ah Yong, 62, the owner of Bukit Bintang’s famous Chee Meng Hainan chicken rice, offers an answer.

“It is my guess that after the terrorist attack of the World Trade Centre on 9/11 (2001), the cold treatment towards Middle Easterners by the West most likely made them look towards Asia as a tourist destination of choice.

Beanie goodness: Foul foul (pronounced ful ful) is a dish of fava beans cooked with onions, tomato and garlic.

“Still, the major wave which also brought in Pakistani and Bangladeshi influences to the Golden Mile came about in 2002. That was when our tourism ministry was promoting Malaysia as a holiday destination of choice and, at one point, the whole area was so inundated with Middle Eastern and Indian tourists that I sometimes had to remind myself that I was in Malaysia and not Dubai,” says Yeok who has been in Bukit Bintang for the past 23 years.

Ala Salih, 52, the Iraqi owner of Sahara Tent, an upmarket Middle Eastern restaurant in Jalan Berangan, which has seen the patronage of three Malaysian Prime Ministers, claims to be one of the very first to see the viability of setting up business on the Golden Mile. He says he made the decision to extend his restaurant chain in Malaysia in 2000. “There were three places that I had in mind – Bangsar, KLCC and Bukit Bintang. Bukit Bintang became the obvious choice when I saw the number of hotels and shopping complexes in the area.”

Nevertheless, the early days for the Middle Eastern restaurateur were far from easy. Ala, now married to a local Chinese and a proud father of a nine-month-old-boy, remembers a time when his diners constantly complained of unscrupulous taxi drivers who charged their passengers no less than RM20 to get from the Marriott Hotel to Sahara Tent, which is less than 1½ km away!

Even worse was the presence of child beggars who waited outside his restaurant to beg. The last straw for him was the presence of corrupt officials who constantly harassed his workers for identification papers. Disgruntled, he called the very people he could rely on for help – his regular clientele which boasted of big names from the government departments.

“When I had their attention, I said that the only way to ensure the success of the Visit Malaysia campaign to the Middle Eastern market was to make the environment safe for the tourists. I also said that adequate facilities, such as transport, food and other services must be easily available to make them feel welcome. After that, things became much better,” says Ala.

Of course, each restaurateur has his own story to tell on why they decided to set up shop on the Golden Mile, and stay.

“I found my heart here,” says Mohamed Mahmood Aly, 50, the loud, jovial and rotund owner of Egypt Café who came to Kuala Lumpur in 2001 from Cairo.

Describing himself as a cook with a travelling spirit, he says he has worked in Malta, Italy, Damascus and Thailand, and that he came to Bukit Bintang as a penniless foreigner.

Luck was on his side when Cupid’s arrow struck and he fell for and married a local, Zaleha Hashim, 44. The couple now have a son, Abdul Rahman. Life has been good to Mohamed and with 23 workers under him, he is due to open his third outlet in Cheras with the help of his brother-in-law.

Tempting: The aroma of chicken tikka and fresh naan wafting from Paradise Restaurant is a beacon for hungry food seekers.

Pakistani Adelel Qaisei, 32, of UK Asia, goes back to his tumultuous teenage years in Pakistan to relate how he ended up in the food business. His younger brother got burnt by acid and had to be sent to Britain for treatment, he says. His father had to go with him, leaving Adelel, then 17, in charge of the family’s fabric dyeing business. The business eventually went bankrupt and Adelel ended up working as a waiter in an uncle’s restaurant.

Adelel came to Malaysia two years ago, having gone first to the United Arab Emirates and then Singapore.

For those who have vocally opined that Northern Indian fare is no different from what we are used to at the mamak shops, Adelel is quick to point out that nothing can be further from the truth.

“Northern Indian food is not as hot as the food served in mamak shops. One reason why we have such a good crowd of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis here is they find the food in the mamak stalls too spicy for their liking,” he says.

The UK Asia chef, Feroz Din, 47, who hails from Kashmir, says that they use a special spice mix from Pakistan with freshly ground ingredients like tomatoes, garlic, ginger, red chillies and onions. Spices like saffron and fenugreek leaves are also used. The result is very close to a gravy that is slightly creamy and spicy with a slight sour tinge.

On the local front, acceptance of the Middle Eastern and Indian eateries and their patrons took a bit of time. Yeok himself confesses to feeling a bit unnerved at seeing veiled female diners slipping spoonfuls of food under their face coverings to eat. But, he says, they got used to it and now every one is relaxed.

Published in The Star 28, Feb 2010.

Meet the new Joanne

2010-02-22T00:32:00.000-08:00

Joanne Kam Poh Poh’s pared down image seems to have pushed her famous persona of the big, brash-mouthed diva to the background, or maybe not ...

THE message that slim is in and fat is out screams loud and clear. And the leader of the pack is none other than comedy queen Joanne Kam Poh Poh, currently the ambassadress of Unisense, now a svelte 66kg but who used to tip the scales at 89kg.

The new Joanne takes a bit of getting used to.

This outspoken diva comedienne has thrown her weight around unashamedly, verbally and literally during her Boom Boom Room days.

One could safely say that she was larger than life with her exaggeration of off-colour but also slightly true punch lines.

Today, Joanne’s pared down image seems to have pushed her famous persona of the big, brash-mouthed diva to the background, or so it seems.

“It doesn’t mean that if I lose weight, I lose my ability to entertain. My jokes are still funny,” insists this 34-year-old.

So is her new image the result of reinvention? Madonna and David Bowie are famous examples of entertainers who change their stage personas like chameleons. Is Joanne trying to pull the same stunt?

As it is, her new image has prompted Mamat Talib, the director of Kala Bulan Megambang (a comedy thriller due for release by the end of this year) to comment that she is ‘too pretty’ for the role in which she plays a masseuse who ends up outraging the modesty of the character played by actor Rosyam Nor.

“I’ve always been a big girl. When I took the weight loss programme with Unisense after giving birth, I was also planning for a lifestyle change.

“You know how every fat girl imagines herself to be smaller. I was curious to see if I could do it,” explains Joanne of her shrinking act.

The weight loss, she explains, is not the result of crash diet but a gradual process, which took two years with thrice-a-week visits of one-and-a-half-hour sessions to Unisense.

“I lost an average of one and a half kilo every two months which is a healthy rate,” says Joanne, who is under the Yummy Mummy package which also addresses the problem of water retention and stretch marks.

The process has also involved a change in her lifestyle and Joanne now stays away from rice and noodles. Nevertheless, she still keeps a wide berth where gym sessions are concerned using time constraints as an excuse.

“I know I’ll get faster results if I threw in a gym session or two, but tired lah,” she sighs.

Still, with someone of Joanne’s talent, it would seem that the issue of weight should not be something she should worry over but clearly she has a personal agenda.

“I’ve come to a point in life where I don’t just want to attract any guy. My friends have told me that in all aspects I would make the perfect wife or girlfriend but this is still Asia.

“First impressions count and losing weight has allowed me to experience the pleasure of wearing the right dresses, people telling me that I look hot and guys coming up to chat me up.

“I also feel that people are treating me more differently as in they are more cheeky – until they find out who I am, that is.”

But as for which side Joanne would take in the issue of fat versus thin, she would choose to address the misconception of fat people as lazy.

“Take, for example, a computer programmer who is at the top in her field but she is fat because she spends most of her time behind a desk. Do we just then say that a person is lazy because she is inactive? What about the mind? In the end, we must look at what a person has achieved.

“If she is at a high level, then she is not lazy,” opines Joanne, who started her career at age 19 in Haw Par Villa, Singapore, and is now boss of her own event management company.

And talking of change, one thing for certain is that this hot-looking momma is no longer the carefree bachelorette for she is now a single mother to Jade, her two-year-old daughter.

“My decisions now have to revolve around what’s good for us (Jade and her), not only what’s good for me. It’s not easy but I make it work as best as I can,” says Joanne.

One of the challenges is allocating quality time because she is constantly on the go.

“I don’t have a choice because of my line of work. Taking a break is not a good idea because in the entertainment line, it’s hard to get back into the scene if you have been away for too long.

“So, I find a balance. In the past, I would finish the night at 3am, then go to a friend’s house and not get home till 2pm in the afternoon.

“Now I make sure I get in so that Jade can see me when she wakes up. It’s a schedule I have established where she knows I will go but I will also be back,” says Joanne, who has a reliable maid to thank.

As for throwing her weight around with in her new slim form, Joanne says that 66kg will not be the end all.

“I plan to lose another 6kg in the next six to eight months,” she confirms. And aren’t we all waiting to see the results?

Published in The Star, Sunday Metro, Sept 2, 2007

Gastronomic bliss

2010-02-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

There is much to be gained from knowing how to cook, so says a chef who started frying keropok at the tender age of five.

CELEBRITY chef Zamzani Abdul Wahab has a knack for making the love for food and all things delectable a contagious affair. Those who suffer from poor appetites should consider lunching with this 38-year-old bachelor.

Watching him eat a simple bowl of beehoon soup is a gastronomic performance for the senses and it does not take long for the watcher’s salivary glands to twitch and hanker for a bite of what he’s having. But then, that is expected of a personality whose passion for food has turned him into a household celebrity.

For the uninitiated, Chef Zam, as he is popularly known, is the star of Seri Mas ... Selera Dunia, a food and lifestyle programme on TV2 which airs every Sunday at 5pm. The programme ended its first season last year and the second one will be scheduled for shooting once the sponsors have been confirmed.

“The second season will see us heading for Europe where we will be doing a travelogue on halal food in the region,” is all Chef Zam will reveal for the moment.

In his element: Chef Zam surrounded by the loves of his life, which he turns into culinary wonders.

Meanwhile, the celeb is content to settle into his daytime role as senior lecturer in KDU College’s School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts.

Not surprisingly, Sunday Metro would find him in his ‘teacher mode’ during a lunch cum interview at the Signature Kitchen outlet at Sunway Mentari, a kitchen fittings showroom. Where else would a chef feel more at home? But then, Zam is in no mood to reveal the A-Zs of his dream kitchen. Instead he would take the opportunity to wage a personal campaign of his own.

“Cooking is a basic life skill that must be taught to children,” is his manifesto.

The statement stems from what he feels is an unhealthy rising trend of instant noodles taking the place of healthy meals, especially so among young people who are living away from home for the first time. And horror of horrors, the chef would reveal his terrifying discovery that some adults have yet to learn how to cook rice!

“It’s a shame. Some parents tell me that their daughters or sons cannot cook and they seem proud of it. They say that these teenagers are more interested in reading or surfing the Internet. There is nothing wrong with that but there will come a time when they have to eat. What then?” he queries.

Cooking, unlike the presumptions of many who are not familiar with the kitchen, is not a difficult task at all, assures this chef who started frying keropok at the tender age of five by standing on a chair to reach the stove.

While this revelation would make many gasp at the safety issues brought on by exposing a child to fire and the possibility of painful and potentially fatal oil scalds, Chef Zam would counter that adult supervision will make the activity a safe one. In his case, it was his grandmother who played the role of watchdog.

And Chef Zam would agree that there is nothing wrong with starting them young. May it be peeling onions or baking crazy cookies, the life lessons learned will carry a child beyond the kitchen.

“There are multi skills to be learned. A child will know the danger of knives and fire. Cooking is also a little project on its own which requires the intelligence of organisation. Though I know Asian culture does not encourage boys to be in the kitchen, I feel this is wrong,” he says.

As for the excuse of lack of equipment, Zam, who speaks from 11 years of experience, insists that a wok, stove, spatula plus a chopping board and knife, would be more than sufficient to whip up a delicious meal.

“In the first place, understand how ingredients work. This is not hard because everyone has had the experience of eating. So, just delve into your library of experience and chances are you will be able to figure this part out,” he enthuses.

Tastes so good: Zam has the knack for making a simple plate of noodles look delicious.

And the rest, assures the chef, is up to an individual’s creativity.

As an example, assam boi and vinaigrette dressing for a mango and guava salad, roti canai stuffed with durian paste and deep-fried ‘lempuk’ balls (mashed durian rolled up like dodol) coated with quaker oats, are among some yummies Chef Zam discovered during his culinary experiments.

Lastly, here’s a word of advice from a seasoned chef on how to keep the kitchen a peaceful place.

“A home-cooked meal, especially from a loved one, should be very much appreciated. If it so happens that the food does not taste good, courtesy should prevail and the cook should be complimented anyway,” he says with a knowing smile.

For those keen on some quick cook notes or looking for an emcee to liven up an occasion, Zamzani can be contacted at 012-377 7603.

Published in The Star, March 16, 2008.

Motherly touch

2010-02-20T06:47:00.001-08:00

Shanti Kunchaloo pours her love to those in need of support and understanding.

INSTEAD of becoming bitter because of a painful past, Shanti Kunchaloo, 45, has opted to shake off the shackles of resentment and help others who are experiencing the mental anguish of life’s hardships. Today, they call Shanti, “Mathaji” – the divine light who touches the soul.

Her story began 11 years ago, when Shanti and her husband, Muthukumaran Velu, now 49, were on the verge of suicide.

Maternal affection: Shanti Kunchaloo, better known as Mathaji, reaches out to others via motivational talks and sharing sessions.

By all standards, Shanti had all the makings of a bright future. The third child of six siblings, Shanti grew up at 18th mile in Bagan Datoh where her father, Kunchaloo Engkana, now 73, worked as a taxi driver.

A former student of SMK Johari, a Telugu school in Sungai Sumun, Perak, Shanti was a popular figure in sports and the school’s debating team.

By the age of 17, she garnered the place of second runner-up in a beauty contest held at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre and had no less than five marriage proposals to consider.

But Shanti felt that she was too young for marriage and instead, opted to stay with her sister and her husband in Sabah where she taught at an elementary school and gave tutoring services to upper secondary students. It was there that she met and fell for Muthukumaran with whom she married in 1989.

“She was homely, well-mannered and a great cook. She made the best crab, fish and chicken curries, the softest chappatis and the sweetest chakera ponggals (sweetened brown rice) I had ever known. I put on 30 kilos after marrying her!” recalled Muthukumaran.

But alas, the happiness would not last. After 13 years of taking care of a cocoa plantation in Sabah, they lost their jobs after a verbal promise of employment in the Peninsula failed to materialise. To add to the pain of losing a steady income, Shanti had to deal with several miscarriages and her last baby, born in 1994, died three days after she delivered him via Caesarean-section.

“My father brought my baby to me and told me to kiss him. It was only after they put him in my arms did I realise that he had passed on,” recalled Shanti, tearing at the painful memory.

But in her book, Divine Light, which is a compilation of her spiritual experiences, there is a saying and it goes like this:

I asked the Almighty to give me happiness

and He said, ‘No’.

Instead He gave me his blessings

and said that happiness was up to me.

Through a cloud of emotional pain, Shanti sought to seek answers through prayers and meditation. What was her true role in life? Why was she here? Why had she been made to go through so much pain?

The turning point, she recalled, had come about in 1998 during a telephone conversation with Guru Mahan, the founder of Universal Peace Foundation, an institution for yoga, naturopathy and holistic science in Thirumurthi Hills, South India.

During the telephone conversation, which lasted 45 minutes, Shanti would hear Mahan utter these words: “To gain something, you must lose something.”

“Guruji told me that the most important thing was to condition my mind to accept all the life challenges that had come my way. It was not easy because I had a stubborn nature. I was insistent that for someone who had done no wrong in her life, she shouldn’t be made to go through so much pain,” recalled Shanti.

But eventually, Shanti realised that if she did not change her mindset, she would forever be trapped in the pits of despair. And so, with the support of her husband, Shanti began to reach out to others via motivational talks, seeking her listeners to sort out their problems with calm and understanding in spite of the adversities they may be facing

During her talks, Shanti is known for touching and hugging her audience with a maternal affection and addresses everyone with a warm sounding “Ma”, explaining that it’s the equivalent of calling someone “Dear” or “Love”.

In 2002, she was given the title of “Mathaji” by Datin Padmabathy, the wife of a Johor politician, during a seminar at the Muneswaran Temple in Tampoi, Johor. Thinking back, Shanti recalled seeking this “title” because she had felt odd that no one had ever addressed her as a mother despite the fact that she had had three babies.

“When I asked Guru Mahan, he said that I should let the world know me as ‘Mathaji’ (mother) and hence feel satisfied for being known as such. He said that though I have no children of my own, henceforth, all living beings on Earth shall be my children,” said Shanti.

Today, as Mathaji Shantiekumar, she is a regal sight in her yellow robes. It is the only colour that she wears, in public as well as at home, as she strongly believes in the rejuvenating energy of this vibrant shade. Black is one colour she eschews, insisting that it attracts negative vibes.

And though she admitted that she still finds it irksome when it comes to dealing with unpunctuality, she has come to accept that one can never be completely free from life’s frustrations.

“The best way to deal with frustration is to smile. Through experience, I have discovered the immediate effect of this simple gesture. The moment you smile, you experience a positive energy which will bring on a sense of gladness,” she said.

“And remember,” she said as a form of parting advice, “whatever that may happen in your life, accept it. If you don’t, the problem will continue to fester and become serious”.

To find out more about Mathaji Shantiekumar, call 016-651 7629 or visit her website at www.mathajivvv.com.

Published in The Star April 5 2009.

Meet Uncle Hussain at home

2010-02-20T06:40:00.000-08:00

IN THE cool of the morning rain, it was a sleepy-headed Mohd Fathi Mohd Darwi who opened the door to StarMetro. Smiling apologetically, the tousled-haired 29-year-old bassist of Meet Uncle Hussain, who is better known as Afat, explained his less-than-chirpy appearance was the result of a late-night gig.

A budding cartoonist who used to work as a sales assistant at an optician’s shop, Afat brought out a sketchbook of his doodlings for our flipping pleasure before hurrying into the next room to rouse a still-slumbering Nik Mustaza Nik Mustapha (better known as Taja to friends and f ans), the band’s 30-year-old mastermind and songwriter.

Meet Uncle Hussain upclose: (Clockwise from top) Afat, Taja and Lan.

By now, one can safely bet that at the very least, half the nation are able to sing along to his lines from the hit single, Lagu Untuk Mu. It goes like this: Tiada bintang dapat menerangkan hati yang telah dicelar… (roughly translated as ‘no star can ever light up a broken heart again’). But, lest Taja be mistaken for a misogynist, he is well into a healthy relationship with girlfriend Kimmy Nafisah, who is also the band’s manager and PR officer.

Within the neat and tastefully furnished interior of the apartment shared by the two men, Snowbee, Afat’s one-and-half-year-old tomcat, frolicked playfully with its playmate Chinonit, a seven-month-old tabby. Looking on from the shallow depths of a glass aquarium were some species of freshwater fish, also belonging to Afat. Earlier, the bassist had revealed that three turtles had to be moved out as they had grown too big. To ease the pain of departure, a goodbye ceremony had been held at the lake of the Taman Tun Dr Ismail playground where they were released.

Nearby, Taja’s hamsters, a Syrian named Hang Tuah and three dwarves, Kudung, Bakrina and Dicki, scurried around in their man-made habitats. Kudung was named thus for its missing front paw. According to Taja, Kudung had its front paw entangled in a twine of grass as a baby. The twine had cut off all circulation to the limb, which subsequently rotted and fell off.

Away from the bright lights and without their guitars, the two would fit the bill of aspiring zookeepers in the making.

It is a different case with the group’s 27-year-old enigmatic lead vocalist Norazlan Rosle.

The youngest of the three, this hyperactive charmer, who is known as Lan, had waltzed in, found a plastic snake on the floor and tried to scare his bandmates silly by waving it in their faces. His playful nature is a trait that has endeared him to his large brood of nephews and nieces – all 20 of them. Wrestling matches with the kids when he goes back to Ulu Langat, snooker games and eating out at restaurants, admitted Lan, were more his scene.

“You can catergorise Lan as ‘special’. As in the case of ‘special’ people, they have their quirks, but once he takes the stage, everything is forgiven. The guy really has charisma,” commented Taja with regard to Lan’s display of playfulness.

“What we have is a ‘mind’ connection,” affirmed Lan, referring to the sense of kinship with his bandmates, all self-taught musicians.

“One crucial aspect of ensuring the success of the band is to be able to see the logical side of things when it comes to dealing with important issues. There will be disagreements, stress and gossip to contend with, but in the end, we must know what we want and work towards a common goal,” added Lan, who used to work as a restaurant captain.

Up close and personal, raw and unplugged, this, affirmed Taja, was what real life was like for an indie rock band that had achieved overnight fame in 2007 when its debut single La La La…Kerja was chosen to be the opening soundtrack for Kami, a TV series produced by Lina Tan and aired over 8TV.

When asked if the three bachelors were living the high life as a popular rock band, the trio chorused out a loud ‘no’ in perfect unison.

“At the moment, we have a regulated monthly allowance of RM2,500 each, a measure that our manager has come up with to control cashflow,” revealed Taja.

It was a necessary move, he explained, to keep the band out of the red and to preserve longevity. So, no excesses for the time being, not until album sales have increased to a certain level and existing cheques cleared. But fame is certainly catching up with them.

“It has been rather trying for Lan. As the lead vocalist, he has been getting all the attention, and as a result, he gets mobbed on a regular basis when he comes out in public. As for Afat and me, we are still free to go wherever we please as we are always in the background,” grinned Taja.

In all honesty, Taja insisted, rest days were pretty scarce and far between, for the moment. In addition to singing engagements, Lan, for example, is still working for an events company. Afat, a talented cartoonist with the innate ability to sketch everything he sees, is currently working on a graphic biography which is targeted for publiscation by December this year.

Whatever free time that is left, inevitably goes to their menagerie which requires constant attention.

“But it’s worth it. When you come back tired from a gig and the cat comes and snuggles up to you, all the stress is gone. They give you a sense of fun because they are so hyperactive,” opined Afat.

So, for the love of their furry and fishy friends, one wonders if the men from Meet Uncle Hussain are contemplating vegetarianism?

“Nah! Not to that level. Some animals are meant to be eaten but we’ll certainly not resort to eating wildlife like monkey’s brains, for example,” concluded the three.

To listen to Meet Uncle Hussain’s songs, log on to http://www.myspace.com/meetunclehussain.

Published in The Star, Metro Central May 19 2009.

Ducky joint

2010-02-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

The food is Yummy-and it’s not all Duck.

THERE is nothing extraordinary about roast pork (siew yuk). Hung on hooks, these slabs of roasted pork flanks with their crackly orangey skin are a normal sight at any Chinese coffee shop with a chicken rice stall or at the morning markets. But finding good siew yuk is another matter altogether.

This is because roasting is a science. The fire has to be just right. Too hot and the skin will turn black. Not hot enough and the meat will smell like it has been exposed to burning joss sticks – the smoke has seeped into the meat.

Goose and duck talk: William Low holding up his crisp, golden skinned duck to show off a perfect roast.

For a sampling of how a premium roast should taste, head over to Yummy Duck, a roast house in Jalan Kuchai Maju, Kuala Lumpur.

Here is where you’ll experience a slice of heaven when you sink your teeth into the crackly skin and the rest just melts in your mouth. There is a beautiful balance in the layering of fat and lean meat, and the marinades are done just right, leaving a nice flavour and without an oily aftertaste.

The char siew (roasted pork shoulder) here is equally good, too. Lean, well done, slightly chewy and beautifully covered with a caramelised soya coating, what little bit of fat here has a translucent shade, a sign of the roaster’s skill.

It would be an injustice to leave out the roasted goose with its crisp, flavourful skin. This is quite a show stealer as it is ceremoniously brought from the kitchen to the front where it is expertly cut by the chef.

While many assume that the secret to a good roast is in the marinade – in Yummy Duck’s case, it includes salt (to make the skin crackle), five spice and garlic powder, and lam yue (red preserved bean curd) – the base ingredient, meat, is equally important.

Yummy Duck get their meats fresh, with the best cuts of pork belly for siew yuk (the hardest to source) costing them as much as RM17 per kg.

Ultimately, Yummy Duck, which was opened about three months ago, is a testament to the culinary skills of its director William Low, who is very fussy about quality.

Triple play: Noodles with a combination of siew yuk, char siew and roasted duck

To explain, Kang Moon, Low’s older brother, mentioned the springy egg noodles which are specially imported from Hong Kong. Despite constant urgings to order more to cut down on shipping costs, Low is steadfast about bringing in only enough for the restaurant, says Kang Moon.

Low’s reasoning is that ordering large batches will give the supplier the impression that they are doing a wholesale business, which might encourage them to offload their old stock on them. Low’s insistence seems to be paying off as the egg noodles have a wonderful springy texture.

Low, a 41-year-old father of two, began his career in the food business as a commis in Regent Kuala Lumpur’s Lai Ching Yuen (the present Grand Millenium). At that time, it was under the charge of Chef Mak Thong, who is now lecturing in Tunku Abdul Rahman College. Thong is well known for being a stickler for details and this, evidently, has rubbed off on Low.

After two years with Thong, Low left to open a chicken rice stall near the market in Sentul, KL, with a partner. Fifteen years later and pressured by six of his older siblings to move to somewhere safer and more permanent, Low set up Yummy Duck, so named because the original idea was to brand his restaurant as the place for roasted ducks. But as it turned out, it was the siew yuk that would become more popular.

Setting a contemporary tone with plenty of gold and woody notes, the interior of Low’s restaurant is definitely a far cry from the chicken rice stall in Sentul where diners had to make do with folding tables and plastic chairs and only a large tree for shade.

Thankfully, prices are still friendly. A plate of egg noodles with a combination of siew yuk, char siew and roast duck is only RM11.80 either dry or in a soup. The spicy version costs an extra RM1.

Added attraction: Yummy Duck has become popular for its delicious roast pork.

Considering the generous portions of meat, this is a pretty fair price. The siew yuk is RM18 per portion. The roasted goose is the most expensive item here at RM150 for a whole bird and RM80 for half. Again, Low justifies this with his insistence in using only fresh meat.

Apart from the roasted meats, Low also offers side dishes of deep fried silver fish (RM8) and soft shell crabs (RM12), and chicken wings stuffed with glutinous rice, char siew, sliced Chinese sausage and dried shrimp (RM12).

Do try the unique green coloured chili sauce which comes with the roast goose. Made up of finely-chopped green chillies and lime powder, this specially concocted dip is a surefire way to add some zing to your meal.

For dessert, try the tong yuen (glutinous rice balls) in either soya milk (RM5) or ginger syrup (RM3.80).

Yummy Duck is open from 11am to 10.30pm and is located at 9, Dinasti Sentral, Jalan Kuchai Maju 18, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, (03-7981 6299).

Published in The Star, Sunday Metro on Nov 15th 2010

Holding on to traditions

2010-02-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

Come Chinese New Year, many Chinese families usher in loads of new things but some choose to hold on to family traditions they grew up with.

THE Chinese New Year is a great time to remember – and practise – traditions that have been passed down the generations. As children, we looked eagerly to the festive season for so many reasons, partaking of practices that we didn’t quite understand but loved doing anyway.

Before the days of hampers and commercially-packed cookies, those celebrating the new year would send their children to the homes of their non-Chinese neighbours to deliver traditional homemade kuih and biscuits on a plate topped with mandarin oranges. And the plate would never be returned empty but filled with sugar or something sweet.

Power of prayer: Yap Kok Shan, 81, the temple treasurer, says that in remembering our ancestors, we are reminded of the lessons of hard work, perseverance and determination

Before children had new clothes just about every time their parents went shopping, a set of brand new home-sewn clothes, underclothes and even toothbrush and toys were highlights of the year.

Before reunion dinners were held at restaurants offering the same old fare, the womenfolk – and sometimes the men too – would toil for days over family recipes and delicacies that would only be served once a year.

Such lovely memories of the good old days.

Fortunately, in some households, these traditions still hold true.

Madam Y.H Lim labours every year over the reunion dinner. She has little choice as her family of four children and 12 grandchildren don’t want any restaurant fare but her once-a-year pork stewed with bamboo shoot, stewed duck, ham choy duck soup and other handed-down recipes.

All in the family: The Lims and their children (from front) Masni, 13, Razin, seven, Zulkamal, 12, and Ros, 18, cherish family togetherness and make it a point to ask forgiveness from their parents when they receive their ang pau.

Deep-frying the huge chunks of belly pork to be stewed with bamboo shoot is no mean feat. One year, recalls Lim, the wok cover flew up due to the pressure from the deep-frying; luckily no one was injured. This is one dish no one in the family wants to pick up!

“It takes me a few weeks of planning, marketing and cooking. It’s hard work as I have to do all by myself but it’s worth it when I see my family enjoying the food with such relish.

“My daughter says if the family loves these dishes, why can’t we have them more often instead of once a year? But then it wouldn’t be a New Year speciality any more, would it?” shares Lim, 68, who learnt most of these dishes from her mother-in-law who came from China.

Crockery that is only used once a year is taken out of storage and washed while chopsticks are brand new each year. Although meals are eaten daily on plates, rice is served in bowls at the reunion dinner.

And because everyone knows how much work goes into that feast, all are warned ahead that they should savour every bite and not rush through the reunion dinner.

After dinner, in keeping with the family tradition, all the grandchildren, dressed in brand new pyjamas, line up to receive their ang pau from the grandparents, with an exchange of salutations of “longevity, prosperity and good health” and “be good children, study hard”.

Modern take: Loh holding up the longevity peach buns which are symbolic of good health and plenty of offspring.

Food certainly plays an important part in Chinese homes, especially during the festive season. One family churns out pau in the shape of animals and other symbols for good luck and “ho yee thau”.

For Lee Kian Seong, 22, the Chinese New Year celebration is synonymous with novelty-shaped pau on the dessert table. His mother, Loh Mooi Kim, 43, explains that the longevity peach buns called yi shuen mun tong or”a garden full of grand children” in Cantonese is especially auspicious to the Chinese who put a premium on loads of offspring to ensure the preservation of one’s lineage. This is symbolised by the bigger peach being stuffed with smaller versions which altogether “make up” 19 in number. Again the number is another indication of long life.

Honouring the ancestors: Yap with his wife, Tan Siew Sin, 49, son Shang Feng and daughter Jyy Huey pay respects to their ancestors in the family temple

But Lee, a pastry chef, has innovated and added to the traditional longevity pau. He has introduced pink piggies, chocolate-eared puppies and prickly porcupines, to name a few; and his mum has creatively attributed to each an auspicious meaning. The pink piggies signify the Chinese saying of “chee long yap sui”, which, loosely translated, means “an influx of cash”. The porcupines, which are known as chin chee in Cantonese, signify the constant churn of activity which is necessary to bring in business. The puppies, as suggested by their homophone, aim to wish the diner long life and are also regarded as a sign of friendship as dogs are considered man’s best friend.

Recently, Lee added to his repertoire cat and leaf-shaped pau as the cat in Japanese culture is a symbol of welcome and leaves are synonymous with life and a fresh start to all of one’s endeavours.

To usher in the Chinese New Year, Haniff Lim, 46, a Seremban native of Hokkien descent, and his wife, Zulaila Damin, 43, will clean their aquarium and goldfish ponds by changing the filters and giving everything a good scrub.

His love for fish started as a boy but with financial independence as an adult, he started to take this hobby even more seriously and to a grander scale.

He now has no fewer than 70 goldfish of the ryukin and oranda varieties, to name a few. He also checks on his collection and replenishes his stock before Chinese New Year.

As a practice, he replaces every expired fish with at least three new members to make up for the loss.

“About a month or so before Chinese New Year, we’ll go to this aquarium called Fengshui Fish in Puchong and look at the latest breeds of fish available to add to our collection. The fact that the general manager is such a good salesman helps to make the decision easier,” says Haniff in jest.

The operations manager believes that his fishy friends’ state of health will reflect his personal happiness. If they do well, he and his family will be happy and thrive too, hence his conscientious care for his watery pets.

And needless to say, the fish are a great source of pride when visitors come to his home during Chinese New Year and marvel at his collection.

While some are very much into auspicious names and symbols, the Yap family prioritises an extensive get together at a family temple.

For Yap Seong Kon, 54, Chinese New Year would not be complete without paying respects to his forefathers in the Yap family temple Onn Kay Yeoh San Yap Ser Kah Chuk, off Jalan Ipoh, on the 14th day of the New Year.

“The practice of paying our respects to our forefathers is passed down through the generations. To date, there are 3,000 individuals bearing the Yap surname in Malaysia and come the festive season, you will find no fewer than 500 of our relatives gathering at the temple,” says the father of two.

He has been going to this temple since very young although it has been relocated several times. And he has kept the family tradition alive by bringing his children to the temple each year.

Temple treasurer Yap Kok Shan, 81, shares that in addition to seeking spiritual guidance, praying to the ancestors evokes the lessons of the past.

“Though our ancestors are no longer around, they were once individuals who strove to improve the lot of the younger generation. In remembering them, we are reminded of the lessons of hard work, perseverance and determination.”

Members of the Yap clan find the New Year gathering an ideal platform to network and be reacquainted with each other. At the same time, it is an opportunity to offer prayers and seek the blessing of their ancestors.

Yap, who runs a kindergarten, prayed for his young charges to be spared of the A(H1N1) outbreak last year and, he says, his prayers were answered. His daughter, Jyy Huey, 24, was granted her wishes for good grades in her CLP and a good career while her brother Shang Feng, 19, recalls that a simple wish he made as a nine-year-old for yee sang was granted.

Published in The Star, Sunday Metro, 7th February 2010

A time to be generous

2010-02-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

Is it better to give than to receive? During Chinese New Year, the act of giving and receiving gifts is an art form.

WHEN it comes to gift-giving or soong lai during the Chinese New year season, most of us take it for granted and don’t give it that much thought. As long as there are the customary kum or Mandarin oranges in addition to other goodies in the gift bag, all should be well.

But this is where we are wrong. The older generation would be the first to tell you that there is an art to soong lai. Careful consideration must be given to the the items that make up the gift hamper or bag. You must consider the status of the receiver, for example, if it is the mother-in-law or someone of the older generation. Ideally, you should also know the receiver’s likes and dislikes and the significance of each item based on its value, what it symbolises or simply how the words sound.

Retired teacher Ho Soon Theam, who is in her 50s, takes great pains in putting the items together for soong lai as the gift reflects the giver too.

Even the number of items is important: eight is a good number as it signifies luck, nine denotes long life while 10 implies perfection.

Prepack hampers at Carrefour: When packing for soong lai, consider having eight items as 8 is a number that signifies good luck. 9 is also looked at positively as it denotes long life, while 10 denotes perfection

“Never settle for a count of four as it sounds like sei, as in ‘die’. Likewise, bookworms beware and not bring along books during pai leen (visits during new year) as the Chinese word for book, shee, sounds like ‘lose’ and is therefore not a positive element,” says Ho.

What goes into a goodie bag should also reflect the auspicious occasion.

She adds that the best is the gift of a box of Mandarin oranges as it denotes a chest of gold, which is symbolic in wishing the recipient much wealth in the coming year.

For close relatives, Ho advises against skimping. “Give the best such as bird’s nest, abalone and Chinese mushrooms which symbolise the arrival of many good opportunities throughout the year,” she says.

In the old days, it was also not uncommon to receive gifts of live chickens from close family members to signify togetherness.

Ho also recalls how daughters would present their parents with brandy to show filial piety, the reason being that it is an expensive item.

In the end, the best practice is to have sound knowledge of the recipient’s favourite preferences to make up the ideal goodie bag.

What you put into the bag for soong lai can also reveal your character, she says. recalling an incident when she was mistakenly given a box of half eaten roast duck. It turned out that her friend had bought two boxes, one for her own family’s consumption. But in the bustle of the season she had grabbed the wrong box! Though Ho kept mum, her friend realised the mistake and insisted on giving her a replacement despite repeated pleas on Ho’s part that there was no need to.

“Let’s say you find a mouldy orange among the soong lai items; don’t make a fuss. After all how much does a Mandarin cost? If you do, you may just shame the giver and though she is obliged to apologise and give you a new one, it may give the impression that you are calculating and petty,” reasons Ho.

She is such a stickler for the art of soong lai that her daughter has found it hard not to follow in her footsteps, agonising over what to put into the gift bag for her mother-in-law.

“Once, I was falling asleep and suddenly I thought of something that I had forgotten to put in,” says Ho’s daughter, who declines to be named, with laugh.

For close relatives, Ho advises giving the best such as bird’s nest, abalone and Chinese mushrooms

Rose Lim, 80, is another person who says that to pai leen during Chinese New Year without a goodie bag in tow is abominable. It is an absolute no-no to this former ICI dealer who used to spend no less than RM10,000 on hampers for her clients and suppliers in the days when her business was running full swing.

“How can one think of not giving anything to family and friends during Chinese New Year? It shows that one has no idea how to sek chou (know the proper thing to do). If you have no sense of what is proper, then others may see you as uncaring and may not want to do business with you. It is about believing that what goes around comes around,” says Lim, a mother of three.

The rule of thumb on soong lai for business associates and staff, she shares, is dependent on the volume of transactions over the year.

As a rule, the client who has placed the most orders should be rewarded with the biggest hamper. It is also important to remember the people who have helped you even though their contributions may be small. In such cases, even a small monetary gesture in the form of an ang pau or even a few Mandarin oranges can speak volumes.

The last word on soong lai, says Kelly Toh, 52, a mother of four grown sons, is not just about the simple act of buying gifts.

“What is more important is the sense of filial piety, the sense of respect on the part of the younger generation towards the elders. If a son or daughter has not accorded his or her parents the proper respect, then even the biggest and most expensive hamper will not make amends for this wrong. In fact, you’d be lucky if it is not thrown back at you,” Toh says.

Published in The Star on the 7th of February 2010.

Why Angel flies home

2010-02-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

Come Chinese New Year, you won’t find Angel Wong in front of the cameras hosting any festive countdown shows. It is the time she finds her way home to mum’s cooking and bonding over the mahjong table.

HOME is where the heart is and that is where TV host Angel Wong insists on being every Chinese New Year. No matter what the expectations of her bosses or her work commitments are, she makes it a point to usher in the lunar New Year in Hong Kong with her parents and sisters.

While Malaysia is the work base for this host of the TV food programme 1 Day 5 Meals, which is currently in its third season on Astro Wah Lai Toi, Wong always makes it home to Causeway Bay for at least a week.

In her blood: Angel Wong, host of the TV food show 1 Day 5 Meals, which is currently in its third season on Astro Wah Lai Toi. This food critic gets her sensitive taste buds from her father, George, a former chef who used to cook for royalty.

“I spend about eight to 10 days in Hong Kong and my mother picks me up at the airport,” says Wong who tries to make it home at least two days before the reunion dinner.

There is, of course, some “gentle pressure” from her bosses to appear for countdown shows due to her popularity but Wong, who is in her mid 30s, remains firm. “I simply tell them: ‘Thank you, but I want to go home’,” says the actress and television personality.

Nothing will make her miss this occasion with her family, not even her three dogs whom she leaves under the care of a good friend. One emceeing job away from home on the eve of Chinese New Year was enough to put her off doing it again. “I felt terrible,” recalls this Taurean.

It is not so much a matter of missing her mother’s Shanghai-influenced cuisine or time with her family as she sees them four to five times a year. It is the significance which matters to Wong as she sees the occasion as the end of all things past and a fresh start.

Certainly, the food that her mum, Janet To, 59, prepares for New Year is worth making the trip home for. Her favourite dishes are chicken gizzard and pig’s tongue preserved with Chinese white wine (which is eaten as an appetizer) and drunken chicken, served cold, steeped in a mixture of Chinese herbs for a few days. Of course, there will be the traditional hot pot, too.

With her slim, toned figure Angel can certainly afford to indulge in all the festive goodies.

Wong’s timing is such that by the time she gets home, all the food preparation would be finished!

But Wong is not without her own culinary skills, too. Her forte is egg skin dumplings, a recipe she got from her mother.

“It looks like sui kow except that the skin is made from egg. To make the skin, beat some eggs and pour in a little oil. Heat the pan to medium and spoon the mixture into it with a tablespoon, turning it around to form a round skin. Then spoon in some mince meat as filling and quickly seal the edges before the skin is thoroughly cooked,” shares Wong.

With such delicacies on offer during the lunar New Year festivities, it is no wonder that Wong fears stepping on the scales after the feasting. Not that she needs to, weighing a mere 51kg.

Spending time with her mother and sisters, Anita, 30, and Anny, 37, is another treat for Wong who uses this time to bond with them – over the mahjong table!

All four will be earnestly pitting their skills against each other in the first four days of Chinese New Year.

This is the time when Wong’s father, George, 63, will pamper the ladies of the house by ensuring that they are well fed with all sorts of Chinese New Year snacks and delectables.

He was a chef who used to cook for royalty although it is Janet who takes charge of the kitchen. As Wong explains, there cannot be two CEOs in one company or tempers may flare.

Though her parents are originally from Shanghai, the family celebrates the New Year in Hong Kong as it can be daunting sharing the festive season with the large network of relatives in the mainland.

“Handing out so many ang pau will be a challenge!”

Wong shares that she would not be where she is today if not for her parents. Having graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, she was very aware of their concern when she decided to pursue a career in entertainment in Malaysia 12 years ago. But instead of kicking up a fuss, they let Wong pursue her dreams.

“I am who I am today because of my parents. During my growing years, they instilled in me a sense of independence and recognised me as an individual. They also let me make my own mistakes and when they do pitch in to help, it is done very quietly,” she says.

The biggest influence in her life is her mother, who has been appointed the family’s chief financial officer due to her prowess in the stock exchange.

“Though she is a housewife, my mum is always under pressure as she feels responsible for our investment portfolios. There are times when she will tell us not to give her any more money so that she does not have to worry about the outcome of our investments,” says Wong with a laugh.

Working on an extremely tight schedule for her TV shows and emceeing work in Malaysia, she is more than happy to be a couch potato when she is at home for the New Year. “That is what I mean by coming home. It wouldn’t make sense if I spent all my time going out when I am supposed to be spending time with my family, right?” she reasons.

The cue for her to return to Malaysia is when the Hong Kong Stock Exchange opens for business. Leaving Hong Kong after the New Year festivities is tough, though, and she has to will herself not to cry.

“This is why I choose to fly off on Sundays on the 2.30pm flight so that we can have a dim sum lunch before that. It is a good prelude to the ensuing farewell as everybody can just stand up, and then I wave goodbye and check in.

“You have no idea how much control I have to muster to keep the tears from flowing,” says Wong.

Though she is fortunate to be with her family every Chinese New Year, she feels that such privileges should never be taken for granted.

“I always believe that if you want to show your love to the elders in your family, do it now. Don’t wait. After all, how many years do they have left? That is why I always make time for them,” concludes Wong

Published in The Star, Sunday Metro, on 14th February 2010

Big ideas in little boxes

2010-02-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

How one man bridges technology with everyday life

IT IS raining cats and dogs and Damian Mycroft, the senior design manager at Nokia, knows he will not be going anywhere. He whips out his mobile phone and, before long, the 42-year-old is online looking at Lamborghinis, an item he is planning to add on to his shopping list when he gets his bonus.

Just then, a harried PR account manager pops into the room to announce that the Nokia Comes With Music launch would begin in a few minutes in the Berjaya Hall of Bukit Kiara Equestrian Park, Kuala Lumpur.

As a retort, the Brit cheekily snaps a picture of her with his phone. He later summons her by pressing on her image, showing off the touch-screen technology and memory recall interface within the little box that he and his team have designed.

Future forward: ‘It is about envisioning the future and, to do this, one cannot have a mindset that is stuck in the past,’ says Damian Mycroft.

This includes the Nokia X6, a handphone which can offer up to 35 hours of music, 32GB on-board memory, an 8cm touch screen and a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens.

It is an apt setting for Mycroft to demonstrate how far the mobile phone has evolved. From making calls and texts messages, it has become a little box of wonders for people to go online, manage mail, talk, share photos and play their favourite music.

It is also a case of sheer coincidence for the heavens to be pouring that day as this was exactly the same scenario that had inspired this Brit to put a mobile disco into a tiny box of a handphone some three years ago.

In recalling a walk on a busy street in India, Mycroft remembers the sounds of nature being drowned out by the jarring sound of metal works in the background. Then he spotted a young man wearing a pair of earphones, obviously trying his best to sort out the music amidst the surrounding din.

“My first thought was: ‘Why not make a louder phone?’” recalls Mycroft.

The idea, which has materialised into two strips of wafer-thin speakers by the side of the X6, also led to the creation of an advanced music player where songs can be downloaded into an 8GB microSD card. Feedback reveals that the X6 is an effective alarm clock, too.

The business of putting big ideas into little boxes is not alien to Mycroft who, as a boy, would cut out cereal boxes and paste the openings with clear plastic to make them look like computers.

To get on the same wavelength with this digital designer who is constantly looking at how he can change the way we see and interact, you’d have to imagine a mind that is able to bridge technology with everyday life.

“The first thing about making successful use of technology is to look into what’s natural and intuitive to its users,” says Mycroft.

Relevance the key

Using the slim speakers on the X6 as an example, he reveals that he could have opted to use sound bugs, which can turn any flat surface into a speaker. The drawback was, being the size of tea cups, they were not small enough.

“Here, making something intuitive for a mobile phone user, is to have something that he can put into his pocket and not to have to lug a lumpy object around. The day will come eventually, and this is where a close relationship with the innovative product groups comes in,” explains Mycroft.

Understanding human nature is a subject that is very close to Mycroft’s heart, having gone as far as sitting among the slum dwellers in Bombay just so that he could get a first-hand feel of how people from different walks of life live.

“I see how they go out, do business, arrange to meet their friends. I find out about things that are important to them. Then comes the part where these lifestyle habits can be related to the digital world, to bring about a more convenient way for people to live, so to speak. The keyword here is relevance. People must be able to use the technology easily,” says Mycroft.

And yes, even this boss – who studied industrial design at Manchester University, completed an MBA in design management at Harrow Business School, and has seven designers under his charge – has had his ideas shot down occasionally.

“I once thought I had a great idea about making a fashion phone, sporting different skins to match the seasons, like a handbag. It didn’t even pass the drawing board, chiefly because a phone is supposed to adapt to the user, not the other way around,” he smiles sheepishly.

Still, to have Mycroft’s way of thinking requires a bit of mind-bending, a skill he honed while pursuing a foundation course at the Chelsea School of Art in London.

“One of the first things that I learned to do was to see things as they are and not imagine them to be what I think they should look like.

“Take a covered chair, for example. If I asked you to describe the shape, you’d tell me that it has four legs, even without peeking under the covering. That’s looking at things as what’s already there. I had to break away from this mindset and look at the world without making assumptions,” says Mycroft.

Envisioning the future

Careerwise, Mycroft started on his first job at P13, a London-based design agency where he translated brands into tangible experiences. After that, he joined Frazer Design, an agency developing consumer electronics, and then, Philips in the Netherlands, where he was part of the consumer electronics design team. He joined Nokia in 2006, creating new concepts for lifestyle products.

In retrospect, while Mycroft could have opted to travel the path of an artist and run the circuit of gallery exhibitions, he admits that it is the very idea of technology that has pushed him to place his talents in a more relevant world.

Having fiddled with computers since the 1970s, thanks to easy access to the community library and being exposed to his mother’s architectural work in designing houses for Richard Rogers (a well-known architect in Britain), his entry into the world of digital design was a natural course.

In the end, the function of digital design, says Mycroft, who leads the team behind Nokia’s range of musical devices, is not only about aesthetics.

“It is about envisioning the future and, to do this, one cannot have a mindset that is stuck in the past. You’d go nowhere this way,” says Mycroft.

As for what is to come, Mycroft says that the day will arrive when mobile Internet becomes so advanced that a person in Bombay will be able to have meetings with someone from across the globe via video conference on his phone. This is when distance and time will become irrelevant.

His job will then be to present this software interface to the person on the street, and making it so user-friendly that even a five-year-old can use it.

Published in The Star, Star Two, on 18th February 2010.

Say Gong Xi! Gong Xi!

2010-02-18T21:40:00.000-08:00

It’s the Year of the Tiger and Sunday Metro goes on the prowl to find out how celebrities and personalities spend their new year.

CHINESE New Year is often associated with noise, the good kind, of course. The loud bursts of fire crackers (despite the fact that the practice is banned), the clash of cymbals and sonorous beat of the drums accompanying the lion dances, and everyone wishing each other “Gong Xi Fa Cai” all add up to the cacophony of sounds that is the celebration of the festive occasion.

Home boy: Michael Wong has never celebrated Chinese New Year anywhere except Ipoh .

Ipoh-born singer, composer and actor Michael Wong, who is based in Taiwan, sums up this yeet lau mood pretty well.

“It’s a fantastic time that I love because everything is so ‘happy’. Happy songs, happy colours, happy people everywhere.”

Wong, who is best known for his hit single, Tong Hua (Fairy Tale), has never celebrated Chinese New Year anywhere except Ipoh where he gets to be with his nephews and nieces and they help him to forget about work!

For Sino-Kadazan Roger Wang, a solo acoustic guitarist based in Kota Kinabalu, the important thing is to spend this auspicious occasion with loved ones.

Chinese New Year has always been about family and relatives for Wang. Hence, he wants his his three-year-old daughter to meet everyone in the extended family.

Of course, the new year is also synonymous with food and a time to tuck in his mother’s Hakka cuisine, especially her sumptious kau yook, which is steamed pork belly with yam.

As Wang was born in the year of the Tiger, he is confident that all his efforts will mirror the courage, power and authority of this animal. For celebrity cook Agnes Chang, “going home” means travelling from her base in Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to be with her 85-year-old mother, her three grown children and six grandchildren for 10 days.

To let her put up her feet and not slave over the stove, her children will be treating her to a grand reunion dinner in a restaurant. But there is no keeping this chef from her wok and the doting mum will endeavour to cook all her children’s favourite dishes during her stay in Singapore. Among her signature dishes are stuffed oysters and Chinese cabbage soup with abalone and seafood.

At home: Agnes Chang (top) will be with her 85-year-old mother, her three grown children and six grandchildren in Singapore.

She says during Chinese New Year, she always remembers her late mother-in-law, a Teochew.

“She never failed to say ‘sin chia ju yee’ (which means peace and success throughout the year) when I served her tea on the first day of Chinese New Year,” Chang recalls. “In reply, I would say ‘tang tang ju yee’ which reciprocates the greeting.”

However, not everyone will be joining their families for the reunion dinner.

Hannah Tan, singer-songwriter and TV personality, will be one of those who will be missing out on her ang pau collection. This year, Tan will be in Tokyo for work. As the Japanese Government does not recognise Chinese New Year as a public holiday, it will be a working day for her. But being the tech savvy chick that she is, Tan will be extending her Chinese New Year wishes to her family in Kuching via Skype.

Zhang Zhi Chen (Z-Chen), the Malaysian singer who is based in Taiwan, is not as upbeat as Tan when it comes to celebrating Chinese New Year away from home.

Recalling the time when he had to do a few shows in Taipei during Chinese New Year five years ago, he says: “It was weird because it was filled with emptiness and loneliness.”

For Zhang, who is Fish Leong’s cousin, there will be no joy without his mother’s special yong tau fu and mahjong with his family.

Victor Tseng, the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia, says he will not be going back to Taiwan and his two daughters will not be joining him for the reunion dinner here.

Staying put: Victor Tseng, the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia , will remain in KL this Chinese New Year.

But he will nevertheless be kept busy making his round of visits to official functions and open houses in Malaysia.

Due to the nature of his job as a diplomat, spending Chinese New Year away from home is common. Considering that Taiwan is just a short four-and-a-half-hour flight away from here, Tseng says that his trips home are frequent enough throughout the rest of the year.

Naturally, Tseng has plenty of interesting tales to tell of his Chinese New Year experiences in foreign lands. In New York, for example, he was asked to make a lion head “come alive”. This is done by dotting the lion’s head with red vermillion and saying “Tien Lei Ti Tung”, a prayer which seeks the favour of the God of Thunder to stabilise the earth. It was an elaborate ceremony which saw two lion dance schools pitting their skills against each other and the paper shreds from the exploding firecrackers formed an inch-thick carpet on the streets. Later, Tseng found out that the organiser was the head of a Chinese triad!

Danny New, the violinist for the band It’s An Honest Mistake, which won the Voize Independent Music Award 2010 for the Best College Act, remembers a childhood which had been largely spent overseas. While in the United States and Thailand, New, whose father is a banker, made many Asian friends and had a gala time watching lion dances in city parades, having lou sang house parties, lighting firecrackers and doing the usual round of visiting.

Double celebration: The band members of An Honest Mistake (from left: Danny New, Darren Teh, and Kevin and Leonard Chua ) are celebrating both CNY and Valentine’s Day.

As Chinese New Year also falls on Valentine’s day this year, some will be opting for a double celebration. Leonard Chuah, the lead guitarist of the band, says he plans to send his girlfriend Mandarin oranges shaped in a bouquet complete with an ang pau (from his parents, of course) in Seremban.

Malaccan-born Lim She Ting, the NTV 7 Mandarin news reader, will be expecting her fiancé to bring her a take-away of fried rice with abalone on New Year’s Eve as she will be working over Chinese New Year. This year will be extra poignant for her as it will be the last time she is receiving ang pau. To find out who the lucky beau is, catch her on The Breakfast Show tomorrow at 8.30am on 8TV.

In line with the festive mood and the Chinese tradition of uttering “auspicious words”, Danielle Dai, the host of Women’s Zone on NTV 7, is counting on her son’s ability to master a few choice phrases.

She hopes to get her 15-month-old son to wish the family “Gong Xi, Gong Xi” this year. He will be dressed in his new gold and red Chinese suit, she says, adding that she has been coaching him in preparation for visits to her friends’ homes in Kuala Lumpur.

For Kuala Pilah-born Fish Leong, who is the Queen of Love Songs to fans in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore, this will be her first Chinese New Year as a married woman.

Leong, who tied the knot with Tony Zhao on Feb 1 in the Philippines, has this message for her fans. “Let’s hope that the stars of luck will smile favourably upon all of you for continuous good fortune and luck. Everyone should remember to smile and to be brave in facing all challenges for the coming year.”

Published in The Star 14th February 2010

A Muscle Bike For a Muscle Hunk

2010-02-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

Story and Photos by Grace Chen

Ask Terry Gallyot, Mr Asia 1999, who the real love in his life is and he’ll tell you it’s none other than his Harley Softail Springer 92/93. Of course, there is a Penang girl in the picture, but we will not go there. CBT is not a gossip pullout.

Just for a bit of epiphany, the Harley is Gallyot’s second ‘wife’ and it was very much a case of love at first sight when this muscle hunk set eyes on the V-twin 1340 cc stunner at a friend’s workshop in 1998 and decided that it was time for him to part ways with his Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Classic which he had been riding on for the past six years.

Parting with the Vulcan, as Gallyot reveals, was one of those long goodbyes. After all, it was the Vulcan that got him initiated into Headhunters MC, a motorbike club. Man and machine were initiated into the club in Phuket and while Gallyot prefers to keep the details of his initiation rite private, he discloses that it is not uncommon for newcomers to have to walk around in a box or to have their eyes blindfolded as they are asked to drink a ‘mysterious’ concoction.

Still, the split was inevitable. Gallyot has no regrets however, as he reckons that the Kawasaki had been the closest thing he could afford at that time and any avid biker will tell you that having any bike was better than none.

“Just like wanting to be a bodybuilder has always been in me, it’s the same way with the Harley. When I saw it gleaming at me in the workshop, I knew that we were meant to be together and the first sign was in the Malaccan number plate, my hometown,” recalls Gallyot.

To show off his new ride, one of the very first things that Gallyot did was to make a grand entrance with his new metal bride at the Mr Commonwealth event Melaka in 1998.

“When I reached the check-in area, there was a mixed reaction when I walked in with my leather outfit and Headhunter vest. I must have looked like a character out of ‘Terminator’ which was a stark difference from the other competitors who were looking tense and nervous,” recalls Gallyot who earned a second place in the event.

Gallyot’s affair with his Harley was no doubt an intense one. In the early days of their courtship, it was quite the custom thing for Gallyot to do a disappearing act (even while his gym was running on full!) just so that he could take his bike out for a quickie- a ride round the block and back. These, insisted this 125kg owner of Ultimate Gym in Wangsa Maju, were orgasmic moments. The rumble, the response of the throttle, the very thrill of riding on a Harley-it is a subject that Gallyot could write a book on.

“The Harley is a sturdy construction of steel, not unlike the Japanese models which is full of plastic bits which can easily shatter into smithereens on impact. A Harley however, can cut right through a car. That’s how tough it is,” says Gallyot

For Gallyot and his iron horse, being hefty, tough and macho is what life should be about.

“Don’t even suggest the idea of having ‘Hello Kitty’ painted on my bike. I’d break it!” exclaims Gallyot.

Not the type who will shy away from intimate details, it does not take much for Gallyot to talk about the more personal aspects of his machine.

To increase performance power, a two into one Thunderheader exhaust was fitted to boost back pressure and compression. The original fuel tank was replaced with a bigger 5 gallon tank and at present is able to go to about 350km on a full tank. That works out to about RM30 for a ride from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. A high flow petcock and an S & S carburetor was also added on. As Gallyot describes it, an extra bit of surge would be a great help especially when it comes to moving a King Kong sized rider like him along.

For better braking, twin calipers have been installed on both sides.

“I thought a bit of added braking power would come in handy when it comes to stopping. After all my bike and I are pretty heavy,” says Gallyot.

He also opted for drag handle bars for aerodynamic purposes and a La Pera Gunfighter seat for a more streamlined look, just so that it would not look like he was sitting on an overstuffed pillow. For a touch of unique subtlety, a special kind of black on black wrinkle effect paint in the shape of flames was airbrushed on the front fender. To give the wheels a chunkier look, Gallyot opted for Fat Boy solid aluminium disc rims. The engine and the Softail rolling chassis remains untouched as Gallyot does not want to run the risk of ruining the bike’s soul.

Expectedly, man and machine had some wild days. In the past, before the running of Ultimate Gym took up most of his waking hours, Gallyot would ride down to Hard Rock Café on Fridays, wait till the place was near closing time, jam the front brakes and spin the back wheels and smoke the place out.

“On one side, the manager would be running up to me and telling me to stop because he was afraid that I would chase all his customers away. The customers, on the other hand, would be clapping and asking me to do more,” laughs Gallyot.

For someone who is prone to such crazy stunts, it is sobering to hear Gallyot’s reminder that at any time, a motorbike will only have 2.54 cm of tyre touching the ground. That’s not much traction to speak of and the risk of losing that balance is ever present.

“If you wipeout, you might kill an innocent bystander. Remember that this person may have family and children. Killing him will effect everybody around him. So just think of that the next time you decide to have a few seconds of thrill,” says Gallyot.

For more bike and muscle talk with Gallyot, he can be found at Ultimate Gym, 12-2, Jalan 1/27F, K.L.S.C. Wangsa Maju, 53300, KL. Tel: 03-41436214. Open from 12pm.

Pleasurable pursuit

2010-01-21T06:32:00.000-08:00

A childhood fascination has bloomed into serious business.

LOCAL celebrities can’t seem to get enough of Von Jolly.

The homegrown couture batik house has seen some well-known folks such as Jaclyn Victor, Asha Gill, Sazzy Falak, Betty Banafe, Noryn Aziz and Corinne Adrienne donning their myriad-hued creations.

But just how did Von Jolly threads end up on the back of these celebrities?

Dressing celebs: Designer Aaron Jolly at his gallery in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, showing off the signature batik fabrics of the Von Jolly house.

Label founder Aaron Jolly’s reply is simple: “They call us.”

Detailing the events leading to the dressing up of various stars, Jolly, 32, insists that there was no fervent chasing or arm twisting.

“For instance, dressing Betty Banafe started with a phone call from her manager, Sharizan Isa,” explains Jolly.

“She asked us to come up with 12 outfits for the Samrah Festival in July 2008. I think we were chosen because our work with batik was very much in line with the Malaysian theme which the organisers were looking to promote.”

Glamorous: Singer Betty Banafe in two of the 12 outfits created by Von Jolly for her concert at the Samrah Festival in July 2008.

Looking at their celebrity scorecard, it may seem incredulous that every name on their list had arrived there by such pleasant coincidence. According to Jolly, it had been simply a matter of making the right connections.

He quotes another example of dressing popular actress Sazzy Falak for the 16th Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) last May. Jolly recalls that it was the result of a brief handshake during the KL Fashion Week in 2006.

As for dressing Asha Gill for the TAG Heuer India Polo Event in 2006, again, it was TAG Heuer Malaysia who buzzed them as they had seen a Von Jolly dress on Wan Zaleha Radzi at another event.

As for actress Corinne Adrienne, the label’s muse, both had met during a photo shoot and had come to the amiable agreement for a “win-win” situation.

Striking: A short ‘train’ adds a hint of drama to this electric blue outfit.

“She had just returned from Singapore in 2006 and was trying to get into the movie industry in Malaysia. We were working on establishing our name so we thought we’d be able to work in tandem. In the end, it turned out well for both parties,” enthuses Jolly.

To put a fashion house on such an esteemed pedestal is no easy feat. Participating in competitions and a regular presence in fashion events run the gamut of Jolly’s itinerary.

“One crucial event that helped to shape the Von Jolly name was winning the grand prize in the Fashion category during the Piala Seri Endon in 2005. That opened many doors for us, including the requests from the celebrities,” says Jolly.

Having a celebrity wear one’s creations makes a good marketing tool because it attracts attention but, as Jolly points out, dressing a famous name is mostly on a sponsorship basis. As such, Jolly still has to look for customers who will buy his work.

Sublime: Jaclyn Victor wore this stunning gown to the Citrawarna event

“Overheads in the Von Jolly house come up to about RM30,000 per month, with a big chunk of it going towards raw materials and wages for staff which includes our 12 seamstresses. As such, we have to cover a wider scope of the fashion industry, not just couture,” explains Jolly who also designs uniforms for corporate companies.

Jolly made the decision to forego a career in architecture by making his foray into the fashion scene with his uncle, Raymond Jolly, now 56, in 2003. He points out the three crucial elements that helped the Von Jolly house to establish their clientele in Kuala Lumpur, Milan and London.

“The first one was passion. Raymond and I grew up in a family of very vain ladies!” exclaims Sarawak-born Jolly who is of Eurasian parentage.

“One example was my mother, Doris George (who is now 68), the former general manager of Sports Toto for East Malaysia. She never wore the same dress twice for all the events that she attended. Let’s say if the function is at 7pm, she would have started getting ready the night before. As a child, I watched all this with awe and it impressed on me that the business of dressing up was a very serious but beautiful and joyful pursuit,” recalls Jolly.

Elegant: Sexy Orientalinfluenced gown.

He also stresses the importance of having a thorough understanding of what one wants to do.

“As a fashion house, you must have your own signature style. In short, we don’t copy. At Von Jolly, our strength lies in our batik prints which carry sweeping brush strokes and abstract art.

“We have a very contemporary feel to our prêt-a-porter and couture lines. This is why we have described our work as ‘the defining authority of Malaysian contemporary batik’ in our business card,” adds Jolly.

Having a sound technical knowledge of tailoring is crucial and this has to be established in a fashion house before any form of marketing can be done.

Jolly says that he and his uncle learned the rudiments of tailoring from the women in their family. He points out that any designer who gives the nod for a chiffon skirt to be put on the rack without lining, for example, obviously does not know what he is doing.

Lastly comes persistence and consistency and it is in this area that Jolly reveals that he has often been chastised by friends for “not having a life”.

“In business, everything boils down to marketing and sales. While many assume that I have a team to do this, I will tell you now that the buck stops with me and my uncle. We brainstorm for new themes and design ideas, organise the literature and photo shoots for our brochures and establish the contacts to develop the business,” says Jolly.

From the very beginning, it had been Jolly’s plan to cater to an exclusive market.

“Let’s be realistic. Without the right customer to support your work, there will be no room for you to develop your creations,” he says.

The early days of establishing the Von Jolly house started within Jolly’s community in Kuching when he and his uncle made evening dresses for his mother’s friends.

Their customer base soon grew as their name spread by word of mouth. Being fortunate enough to have relatives who meet regularly with the well-heeled in society, Jolly did not have to wait long before he was invited to such gatherings.

“The first do I attended was thrown by the association of ministers’ wives in Sarawak and it was from there that I landed my first VIP customer, a lady senator who ordered five batik kurungs from me. I remember being over the moon on receiving our first cheque totalling about RM7,000,” recalls Jolly.

As for the issue of the fashion industry turning a guy “soft”, Jolly’s initial answer is a diplomatic smile.

For him, the task of having to completely alter a dress within a short span of four hours is certainly not for the faint-hearted. This is especially so if the dress is commissioned by a foreign embassy whose intention is to put it on an artiste who will be wearing it in the presence of other VIPs.

“We are creative people and, being in the fashion line, you need a certain degree of flamboyance. Or else, you’d be labelled as boring,” says Jolly.

In any case, Jolly jests that it is always best to adopt a “soft” approach, especially when it comes to advising a woman what will suit her and what will not.

“People assume that the biggest challenge for a male designer is to address bust and panty line issues but, let me tell you, the hardest part is convincing a client to accept your advice. This is especially so when they already have set ideas about what they think they will look good in.

“Some examples are clients who think they will look fabulous in pencil skirts when an A-line cut is more appropriate. The catch here is, though the customer isn’t always right, there is a need to adopt a ‘soft’ approach in explaining why without bruising any egos,” concludes Jolly.

> To find out more about Von Jolly, log on to www.shavalvonjolly.com.

Tell Me A Story

Flaunt it and shine at Miss Jumbo

Making a living on Dead Man’s Street

Magic In A Can of Paint

Peaceful Parents Joyful Juniors

Seeking peaceful resolution to problems

Emotion-filled performances at fest

Fantastic Faun

Malaysian Masala

A chef called Susur

Home-grown cooks

Cook for comfort

Published in The Star, Tuesday June 28, 2011

Living the Fabulous Life

The Abishegam Formula

Carven the Couturier

Mum’s the word

Keeping ’em happy-The lengths that service providers go to, to keep their customers satisfied.

Another side of Maple

Lobster Linguine

Make up for self-expression

It's Tea Time

A new touch to the traditional

Dishing it out with a smile

Let’s go to market

Food from the garden

Herbs to the fore

Starting out

Miniature venture

Published in The Star March 26, 2010

Queen of the Cosmos

Steady Footing With The R350

Queen of Etiquette

Mum In The Fast Lane

Meeting Bond’s M

The Star, Saturday October 14, 2006

When we were party animals

The Star, Saturday October 14, 2006

Having fun with music

Drumming to foster unity

The Star, Saturday August 19, 2006

A tribute to T-shirts

Published in The Star, Saturday June 23, 2007

Like the Middle East

Meet the new Joanne

Gastronomic bliss

Published in The Star, March 16, 2008.

Motherly touch

Meet Uncle Hussain at home

Ducky joint

Holding on to traditions

A time to be generous

Why Angel flies home

Big ideas in little boxes

Say Gong Xi! Gong Xi!

A Muscle Bike For a Muscle Hunk

Pleasurable pursuit

published in The Star, Star Two, Thursday December 31, 2009