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Thursday, 05 November 2009
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Jello
Please have some jello. Well, not exactly "Jell-O", but it's the closest thing they've got here. Many kids like to eat this J-Cup jelly. And I'm one of them. :P
And it's orange!
Thursday, 29 October 2009
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Eating Out: Shwe Kaung Hot Pot
Shwe Kaung Hot Pot
Nar Nat Taw Rd.,
Kamaryut Township, Yangon
Phone: +95 1 537 731
I’ve eaten at this hot pot restaurant two times already. So far, I have enjoyed my meals there. The only hot pot restaurants that I’ve been to are this restaurant and a buffet hot pot restaurant at Shwegondine. (which was pretty cheap, but it doesn’t have a lot of food to choose from).Both of the times, I’ve been there, I went with my co-workers. Since we were about 8 or 9 people, for both times, we rented a private room, which cost 8000 Ks. I think there were about 4 or 5 of those private rooms at the back of the restaurant. Ofcourse, you can also eat at the outside hall, where they have set many hot pot tables, but it can get quite noisy when the people pack in after 6pm. So if you’re planning to have a hot pot dinner with a large company, be sure to call them first for a reservation!
Near the entrance of the restaurant, you’ll see the refrigerators that have those small trays of hot pot food. Different types are put in their own sections, which has labels. So you just choose the trays that you want to eat. The prices vary depending on the type of food you choose, but luckily, the restaurant has marked the price according to the colors of the trays. So just look at the color of the trays and you can count how much you’ll be eating (and reduce if necessary ;P).
The prices of the trays are as followed:
Vegetable (White) - 350 Ks.
Vegetable - 400 Ks. (these were put in small dishes, I think)
White - 700 Ks.
Blue - 800 Ks.
Pink - 900 Ks.
Green - 1,000 Ks.
Red (actually green tray with red tape) - 1,300 Ks.You also have to pay for the broth that would be put in the hot pot. I don’t know how many variety of hot pot broth there are, but so far, I’ve eaten two types: broth with fish head (supposed to taste sweeter and better) which is called “Special Broth?,” which costs 2500 Ks., and hot & sour broth. I don’t know what type of meat the broth is made with, but I think it might be chicken. Not really sure.Probably because we ate in a special room, we got special treatment. :P There were waiters who put the food into the hot pot for you, and fill up the sauce whenever it was running out. For refreshments, you can order fruit juice or beer. A glass of beer (Tiger) costs 750 Ks, and fruit juices costs from 1200 Ks. To 1500 Ks. A bottle of H2O costs 400 Ks. The waiters kept filling the glasses with water whenever it became 3/4 empty so we had to pay for like 3 or 4 bottles of water. =D
Waiter Putting the Food in the Hot PotIf there were people who doesn’t eat a particular meat (like in my group, some didn’t eat pork), you can partition the hot pot with a separator, and eat from different sections. Afterward, just pour in the trays of food and wait a few minutes. Then enjoy! (Pork ears are very very good, btw :P)
The Right Side is Non-Pork, The Left Side is PorkThere are other hot pot places that I’ve heard of which are good. They are: Coca Suki (hot pot restaurant in Summit Parkview Hotel), where you can get a buffet hot pot meal, and Hot Pot at Fuji Coffeehouse on New University Rd. I’ve heard that many foreigners such as Koreans and Chinese likes eating at Fuji because they don’t use any MSG in preparing their food.
I’m thinking of going to eat at Coca Suki when a friend comes back in December. Since it’s a buffet meal, I don’t have to worry about getting carried away! =D I don't know how much it will cost though. Maybe less than $15? Hope that it's as good as Shwe Kaung :)
A few of the empty trays that we ate
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
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Eating Out: L'Opera Restaurant
These past few months, I've been going out to eat at some restaurants. Took some photos there, so just thought I'll share back here. :) And no, I'm not writing as advertorial for them. :P
L'Opera Restaurant
62D, U Tun Nyein St.
Mayangon Township,
Yangon, Myanmar
Ph: +951-665516
I went to eat at L'Opera Italian Restaurant last month. It's my first time going there actually, though I've heard about the restaurant before. It's the most expensive restaurant that I've been to in Yangon. :P
When I went there, it was around 7pm, and it was raining outside, so we didn't even looked around outside. Only when I looked for photos of it outside, I see that it was just by the lakeside. -_- A nice quaint place though. Hmm.. a nice place to go on a date ;)
In the menu, the name of the dishes were in Italian, but the description was in English. So I just ordered in Burmese. :P I tried to remember the Italian names for the courses I ordered, but they went out of my brain the moment I've just finished reading them. The prices were in US$.
I had a full course meal: vegetable soup ($5), salmon with lemon sauce ($16), and vanilla ice-cream ($2) as dessert. I also had watermelon juice. ($3)
Note to self: Never eat vanilla ice cream there again cos it just tasted like milk powders, just like *every* vanilla ice-cream flavors in Myanmar. Just because it cost $2, don't think it would be better. -_-
Salmon with Lemon Sauce
L: Candle Holder with "Padain Ngo" Flower R: Watermelon Juice
Painting on the door of the bathroom =P
The location of the restaurant is quite hard to get to. You have to go into the road that leads to Inya Lake Hotel, but turn left to another road just before you get to the hotel. (I forgot the name of the roads) When I went there, the road leading to the restaurant was quite bad, and full of pot holes.
The food is not bad, but for a person like me, it is not a place that I will frequent. I heard that spaghetti there is quite good though, so I'm thinking of going there again later. Spaghetti is around $8, btw.
There's also a 10% tax. So don't forget to bring extra money if you're going to be eating alot!
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I've been thinking about writing entries like this when a "friend" told me, "Hey.. since you always go out and eat at places, why don't you write like restaurant reviews?" Well, this is not really a restaurant review, but just thought that I will share my experience so that others will know how it's like. :)
I'm going to write about Shwe Kaung Hot Pot tomorrow (or the day after tomorrow ;)
Friday, 16 October 2009
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Currently
The Last Templar
By Raymond Khoury
see relatedA Man's Best Friend (Which Is Not A Dog)
I like to read. I've been reading since I learned how to read. I remember when I was little (maybe in 1st grade), I will be reading Shwe Thwe journal and asking my mother what those Pali words meant. My mom will sometimes buy text books for more advanced grades, and I will be reading all of those textbooks for the stories in there. I loved reading about Pyu Saw Htee and Kyan Sit Thar, and wondered if Alaungsithu was really a "Setgyar Min", who had this ability to travel to any place he wanted. (My mom ofcourse scolded me for not reading my own grade's textbooks cos I'll be reading those instead of studying!)
When I was in elementary school in Myanmar, the only sort of books I read (aside from those school text-books) were cartoon books. I liked reading Tutpi and Ayine. Tutpi is a cartoon about a hunter in Kyone Dine village, and about his wife and brother in law. He is characterized by his bald head with a little hat on it. Ayine is kind of like Mogali Mowgli from Jungle Book: he was left behind by parents in the jungle, and a female ape/monkey (?) raised him as her son.
Left: Tutpi Right: Ayine (photo taken from this blog)
I liked reading them because they were funny and there were little things to learn from the stories too. But I also read other books that came into hand. I remember that when I was either in 3rd or 4th grade, I read "1001 Night" stories (yes all 1001 of them) translated into Burmese by Thakhin Ba Thaung. They were very thick books (4 books in total, I think), which I borrowed from my father's friend. Yeah, they were not really children books, but then again, I didn't know anything much at that time, though I remember this story about this girl and guy being trapped in a tower to see who had the most virtue. :P I didn't touch Burmese romance novels at that time though cos my mom won't let me read them.
When I got to US, I became a bigger bookworm. My ESL teacher and a group of ESL students took a little walk down to the library, and registered for us. It was like being introduced to a whole new world. I loved that I can borrow up to 12 books? (my memory is abit hazy now) all free of charge! But I don't really remember what kind of books I read at that time. Maybe The Baby-sitter's Club. ;)
When I got to junior high, I needed to do book reports so I ventured into adult section to borrow books like Michael Crichton, but I couldn't remember what the stories were about when I think back about them later. :P Every summer, I tried to read at least 3 or 4 books off the summer reading list, but I was still pretty much in children section, occasionally also into young adult section. My junior high school and the library was quite close by, so after school, a group of us will walk there together. (I remember exchanging notes in the cafeteria making library dates with my friends :P) Back then, I was still reading The Baby-sitter's Club, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, etc.
Now, after having graduated from college, and working and everything, I still read books, but now, I can understand Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy better. Even though I am supposed to be an adult right now, now and then, I still read any kind of books that I get my hands on. I love Harry Potter & Twilight series. I still read The Babysitter's Club books sometimes (when I'm feeling too bored: I still saved a few books of them at home after donating about 30 of those books to Ice Youth library). My all-time favorite was: Logan Likes Mary Anne.
When I was teaching kids, I'll also read whatever books that they needed to read to do homework, and actually enjoyed reading them, like Junie B Jones. One of my student, Grace, loved reading it, so I eventually read along with her (with the original intention of teaching her vocabularies from there) and liked them too. Now and then, I will go to Myanmar Book Centre, and see Junie B Jones books, and it made me miss Grace. She looked abit like Junie B Jones too. =)
Junie B JonesNow and then, my sister borrows some children books from American Centre for the kids she teach, and I don't let them go without reading them too. For example, last week, I read this book by Avi called "Crispin: The Cross of Lead". It was a young adult historical fiction.
My reading habits sometimes makes me wonder about my psyche. Why do I still read children books? Why do I just "loved" reading Harry Potter / Twilight? Some people will scoff at me when I said, "I liked Twilight" and probably say, "Read books that are your age." No.. that's not the case really. I don't think it's really the case that just because I liked reading Junie B Jones that I am immature. (Ok.. me being immature is just another case :P) I just don't have an age discrimination on books. It's just that I liked reading. period. (:
And also, I have this dream of collecting all the books I liked reading over and over again for my kids to read someday. :)
Sunday, 11 October 2009
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Dancing Dream
Two people were dancing, swaying slightly to the soft playing music on the radio. It was the song by Eric Clapton: "Wonderful Tonight". My song.. our song, I corrected with a smile, since he and I both loved that song. His hands were around her waist, while her hands were around his neck. She looked deep into his eyes, taking in everything. His eyes, his nose, that little strands of hair that fell on his face, his lips... hmm.. his lips... He looked deep into her eyes, and she could see it all there: his love, his affection for her. As they danced around the room, he would nuzzle his nose against hers, sneaking kisses here and there, as she laughed at his playful flirting. In my dream, I couldn't see her face because I was looking at things through her eyes.
Then the point of view changed, and I was able to see the woman's face. I thought it would be my face, but it was not. It was another woman. She was beautiful: with pale porcelain face, bright eyes, and cherry lips. I should have noticed that she wasn't wearing any glasses. It was she that he was smiling at. It was she whom he was looking at with all this love in his eyes. It was she whom he said, "I love you." I saw her laugh merrily as he whispered sweet nothings into her ears. Then they kissed.... and I turned away, not being able to watch them anymore.
I thought, I would have given anything to be that woman, just for a minute, but then I think again, "No, probably not."
