While driving in Banting town with my wife looking for something to eat we stumbled upon a restaurant selling chicken rice.
Restoran Sin Loong Foong occupies a double storey corner shop lot located beside Jalan Bunga Pekan. It is also accessible from the side via a side road branching perpendicularly off the main road. With black coloured wooden tables and red plastic stools the interior decor was quite basic, otherwise it is clean and comfortable.
While chicken rice seems to be its main offering the shop also serves plain and curry noodle soup dishes. We ordered steamed chicken rice which was served in two plates, one for the rice and the other for the white steamed chicken meat.
Unlike the familiar chicken rice that I have eaten elsewhere, the chicken meat here is not flavoured with oil and light soya source. The steamed chicken meat here is seasoned with a beige colored creamy source with bits of goji berries (wolfberries) mixed into the source. Goji berries are a common ingredient used in the preparation of Chinese style herbal soups. Hence the presence of the red goji berries in the source give the chicken dish a subtle herbal flavour.
This restaurant appears to be popular with the locals. After stepping inside we found all the tables occupied except for one when the lone customer was waiting to settle the bill after finishing his meal. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for the waiter to clear the table.
Since most of the people in this town are Hokkien speaking I asked the wife to do the ordering in the Hokkien dialect.
The service was prompt and efficient as we didn't have to wait long for our lunch meal to be served. The chicken rice meal was quite delicious and for RM11.50 for two persons, including a hot barley drink the price is not exorbitant.
Do you know that you can renew your Malaysian international passport with the minimum of hassle?
Got my wife's and mine done at the immigration department in Putrajaya within 1-1/2 hours. We went to the immigration office located on the third floor of a government building when it opened its door at 7.30am. and left the premises at 9.00am.
All you are required to bring along are your Mykad, cash to pay for the service and your expired passport.
The application process is simple and straightforward.
First you tell the officer at the reception the nature of your application and you will be given a ticket with a specific number for the type of application. After getting a number you sit down at the waiting area for your number to be flashed at the electronic score board.
When you see your number in the score board you go to the counter assigned to your number. At the counter you hand over your Mykad to the officer who will then insert it in a card reader to extract the relevant information stored in the card's chip. The officer will also scan your left and right hand thumbs to verify that the thumb scans match the thumb prints stored in the MyKad's chip.
When everything is in order the officer will ask you to pose for a digital snap shot of your face using a camera mounted beside the counter and operated by the officer. You will be asked to put on a black coat and remove your glasses, if you are wearing one before taking the snap shot. The black coat is provided free of charge, courtesy of the immigration department.
After the photo session the officer will take away your MyKad and also the expired old passport for further processing. After that you are required to stamp your right thumb print on a sheet of paper document. With the ticket counterfoil the officer will direct you to Counter 23 or 24 where you are required to pay the processing fee.
At the payment counter you pay the processing fee when your ticket number is flashed on the electronic scoreboard. Upon paying the fee you will get an official receipt and will be directed to wait for the passport to be issued at another counter. As a senior citizen I paid RM150 which is half the normal price for a 5-year passport.
At the collection counter, after signing an acknowledgment form you will be issued with the new passport. You will also be given back your Mykad and the cancelled expired passport with notches cut out at the edge of the document.
Today's menu for the homeless, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, and any disadvantaged person in need of a free meal, and also my humble lunch pack for the day.
Simple food consisting of cooked white rice and three types of vegetables ie long bean, canned red bean and radish packed in a plastic lunch box and one bottle of drinking water. Though the unappetizing food tastes bland, for this disadvantaged group of people it is their day's nourishment and sustainment. It fills their stomachs, enables them to stay out of hunger and help them get through the day.
When I think of TV images of hungry, skin and bones refugee children in war-torn and drought-hit countries eg Africa I realise that the free food that this NGO is offering is a incomparable luxury compared to what the refugees are getting in their countries.
With this realisation in mind I ate the humble vegetarian lunch pack filled with enormous gratitude and happiness.
Pushing hands in the park
Glad to be back in the park grappling with the guys after being out of action for about a month.
September was indeed a busy month for me. Illness, injury, rain, wedding dinners, outstation trips and attending to social functions and obligations that took up all the Saturdays and Sundays of last month kept me away from the sport.
Although I lost all the matches this morning to my more younger, heavier, experienced and stronger opponents nevertheless I was quite happy with the results. I felt that gradually I was giving them a harder time to pushing, uprooting and taking me down than before, probably because as time goes bye I gain more and more experience in handling the opposition with more "Yi" rather than reliance on muscular strength.
Thanks to wearing knee guards, other than general fatigue of the body and hands and some soreness and stiffness of my legs my weak knees were holding up well against all the power pushings and shovings.
