Posted on 28 January 2007 @ 14:15 in Food
So I went back to the shop for lunch the day after the previous entry. First thing I did before entering the shop was to take a picture of the signboard:
If I’d only paid attention previously, I would’ve read the English name of the shop. Well, my excuse is I’ve only seen the shop while driving past on my way home in the evenings. And walking into the shop the first time last Sunday, my mind was on food so I didn’t pay attention to the signboard.
Today, I ordered the dark soy sauce version. And when the bowl of noodles was served, I realised what I’d so quickly forgotten - in addition to the sauce and minced meat, the noodles are also served with char siew (barbecued pork) and meat balls. How could I have forgotten, it’s only been a week since I last ate at “Face to Face” ? The answer is simple - the main ingredients overshadowed the secondary ones.
Last week, I’d ordered a bowl of wantan soup to go with the noodles but they had sold out of those, so I settled for suikau (larger variation of wantan). Today, I tried for the wantans again and they were available. For the same price, it’s 10 wantans or 5 suikaus. Even tho content wise, they are about the same - 1 suikau = 2 wantans - I found the 5 suikaus just nice, whereas the 10 wantans were enough for two people.
I like “Face to Face” . I’ll be back to try the other noodle dishes on the menu.
If you’re in Malaysia, and live in the PJ area, particularly around the booming Tesco - IKEA/Ikano - Curve area, “Face to Face” is just a little further up the road, in Damansara Perdana, same row as 7-Eleven.
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Posted on 27 January 2007 @ 10:38 in Food
Now you may be wondering what “face” has to do with “noodle” .
Well, nothing in the English language. But in spoken Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin dialects), the two words sound alike - “mien” . In written Chinese, they look alike, too.
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The Chinese character for “face” is what may be called a single character, whereas “noodle” is made up of two Chinese characters - “mak” (Cantonese) on the left, meaning “wheat”, and “mien” (Cantonese and Mandarin) on the right, meaning “face” .
So the owners of this noodle shop in my neighbourhood came up with the novel idea of calling the shop “Face to Face” . And the character used is the one for “face” , not the one for “noodle” .
Why?
I have no answer to that, unless I go by and ask them one of these days. But I would hazard a guess and say it might be because “face” is a simpler character to write than “noodle” . No, seriously, it’s probably because it just makes a good conversation starter. Plus, it probably gets people curious to go in and try the menu.
Which was what I did. I was curious about the shop’s name and went in to see what they had to offer. In fact, I didn’t relate the name to noodles, and thought it was the usual cafe offering a variety of dishes. I was wrong. The shop sells nothing but noodles. After I had a look at the menu, the meaning of the shop’s name became clear to me.
“Face to Face” noodle shop sells a variety of noodles, but its Chef’s Recommendation is Sarawak noodles - a dry noodle topped with soy sauce and minced meat. In addition, there are two variations - black soy sauce and chilli sauce.
I tried the original and it was good. And the serving large. Yummy …
In fact, writing about it now is making me hungry. Maybe I go there for lunch afterwards. And take some pictures, too.
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Posted on 25 January 2007 @ 23:29 in Stress Busters
News item:
Love giant pandas? Name them
(www.chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-01-25 13:55
From July to September 2006, 11 giant pandas gave birth to 18 cubs at the Research and Conservation Center for Giant Panda in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. As of February 10, 2007, all 18 cubs will no longer live with their mothers and will start an independent life. As usual, they will be given their own names. At the moment, the giant pandas are named from No.1 to No 18.
The Research and Conservation Center for Giant Pandas is launching a public solicitation for names for these cute animals. www.chinadaily.com.cn is authorized to collect the English names and you can post your choice here. The deadline for submitting the names is February 5, 2007.
Once the name is chosen, the Research and Conservation Center for Giant Pandas has the rights of ownership and use. A ceremony will be held on February 10, 2007 at the center to celebrate the cub’s moving out of the room into the nursery playground.
The panda cub I adopted last September is cub #10. Please help to suggest Yoong Ping so she is officially named Yoong Ping!
Her page with some pictures
Her name suggestion page
Yoong Ping and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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Posted on 21 January 2007 @ 12:19 in Writing
This one is from Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favourite authors:
Click on the image to go to the Vonnegut interview page.
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Posted on 17 January 2007 @ 17:03 in Reading, Writing
“Though it’s unlikely you’ll write something nobody has ever heard of, the way you have a chance to compete is in the way you say it.”
Amy Hempel
The Paris Review, Issue 166, Summer 2003
Although it only happened today, I cannot remember how I came upon Jonathan Raban’s review of The Paris Review Interviews Volume 1 in the 13 January 2007 issue of The Guardian. But from there, I went to The Paris Review’s web site, zoomed in on the Interviews section and came upon the above gem by Amy Hempel.
The Interview Index is impressive, going back more than half a century to the 1950s, and includes the likes of Chinua Achebe, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Joyce Cary, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Joseph Heller, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Beryl Bainbridge, Paul Auster and yes, Amy Hempel whose little gem above caught my eye in the short time I spent browsing that section.
Most of the interviews featured are excerpts of the originals printed in their respective issues, but there are some complete interviews available for download in PDF format. And - get this - images of manuscript pages. Priceless.
I will be going back for a longer read later on.
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