Confessions of a City Slicker

This trip to KL was particularly busy so there wasn’t much time to explore or hunt for delicious food. We were introduced to 2 must go places near our hotel, Istana - a place that serves champagne for breakfast and another place with a very unique signature dish.

It as during our last night in KL that the boss suggested we have something special for dinner and we decided to go to the second place, El Cerno along Jalan Bukit Bintang.

This is a section of Jalan Bukit Bintang I’ve never been to before, a short walk from Istana Hotel. It reminds me of a more happening version of Lorong Selamat. There are pubs, bistros and restaurants on both sides of the road.

The sign at the main entrance says, “Porkielicious” which tells you what their main dishes comprise of. Heck, even their menu has pictures of pigs on them.

The signature dish of this place is a baby piglet dish made from a 150 year old recipe that leaves the finished product with a very crispy skin and flesh so tender you can cut it with a plate. It’s called Cochinillo Al Estilo Segoviano and costs RM118 for half a piglet (2 persons) and 219 for a whole piglet (4 persons).

Not gonna put pics here because it takes forever to upload a pic in FS blogs unless you already uploaded them elsewhere and embed the link here, so you can check out the pics in my FB account.

Along with the baby piglet dish, we also ordered an apetiser. Our biggest surprise was when they threw in soup and an after dinner drink for us for free!

Our baby piglet came along soon after that and Lisa, our waitress walked us through the process. With one swift fell, she showed us that you really can cut the piglet with your plate. Customers get their chance to cut the piglet after that.

Then, came the fun part. After cutting the pig, they brought out this bucket with a stone mortar inside. Lisa explained that after cutting the pig, you must break the plate for good luck and you get to choose one of 2 wishes - love or money.

If you choose love, you hold your plate at 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock. If you choose money, you hold your plate at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. Then you drop your plate into the bucket. The plate will break when it hits the mortar so you don’t have to worry about shards of glass flying everywhere.

It didn’t occur to me to video tape the whole process. Damn, what a wasted opportunity :p

The dish came with accompanying side dishes that includes salad, potato wedges and the most heavenly, out of this world gravy. As expected, the skin of the baby piglet was crispy and fragrant but there were lots of fat underneath. Baby piglets normally don’t have a lot of flesh but we were told that because the animal was still young, the fat is not really that unhealthy.

Really? For me, fat is fat, no matter how you put it.

Lisa told us that eating the dish with our hands makes it more fun and tasty but I passed because then I’ll have to dig stuff from under my nails when washing my hands. They did provide each of us a bowl with water and lemon for this purpose, though.

Half a baby piglet shared amongst 3 persons is quite a lot, especially with the fat, it made us full real quickly.

The other dishes were just as good.

The soup was this very thick and smooth stew. Can’t tell was was inside because they were all very well mashed up but whatever it was, the combination was just superb.

Our appetiser was called Baquerones which are bacons stuffed with white wine marinated anchovies. It was recommended by the staff so we thought the anchovies were salmon. Only after reading the menu did we realize they were anchovies. The bacon were really crispy and fragrant as well.

I enjoyed my meal there, mostly because of the experience. I did feel a little guity about eating the baby piglet. After all, it looked so adorable on the platter and it is a young animal that hasn’t even had a taste of life.

Then I came home and read this in the papers which piled on the guilt :p

We didn’t get to go to the other place for breakfast, though. We were exhausted and slept till noon only to have to rush to the airport. Next time, maybe.

I’ve been hearing a good deal about the beef noodle from Jalan Alor for quite some time now, so this trip to KL, I convinced a very hot local to take me to the place

Apparently he also has never tried the beef noodles, so we both got our “beef noodle cherries” popped that night.

There is really just one stall that we could fine there - Ngau Kee - which also came highly recommended by several floggers. It’s not really located in Jalan Alor per se, more like another road parallel to it.

Ngau Kee is not a shop but a stall that serves customer on the five foot way.

I promptly ordered my bowl of noodle with soup, as usual and being quite proud of myself that KL people understood my Cantonese. My date had the dried koay teow.

So here is my bowl of noodle with a few balls, bits of beef and shredded beef mixed inside. On first tasting the soup, there is definitely the unmistakable aroma of beef somewhere in there but by the end of the meal, it started to feel like I’m eating lor mee instead of beef noodles. Too much use of star anise, I guess, understandably to mask the smell of beef, since most locals don’t care for it.

My date did let me have a taste the soup that comes with his dried koay teow. There is very strong hint of ginger in there, obviously to mask the smell of beef as well.

It’s a shame really, since we are eating beef noodles, there shouldn’t be this need to mask the smell of beef, which really isn’t that terrible.

So when it comes to ranking for beef noodles in the country, the one in Beach Street, Penang still rules

PS. It took me days to get this post published because I couldn’t insert the picture of the beef noodles. In the end, I had to be content with just inserting the tumbnail. Grrr…

But don’t worry, just click on the image to view the full size.

Friendster Team, *hint, hint* here’s something else you need to fix :p

I’ve often see this dog food commercial when I log into my Yahoo! email account. It’s so touching and sweet and ever fails to bring a tear to my eye. What an aww… moment.

If I get to wake up every single day and see that beautiful sight, my days will always start perfectly. I will be in heaven and everything will be right with the world.

Aren’t dogs wonderful?

It was quite a change from The Ritz to my little isolation room in Penang GH but all in all, I can’t complain. They have been taking very good care of me while I’m here. Heck, I hardly have to get out of bed for anything other than to go to the bathroom.

Speaking of which, I have my own private bathroom right here so there is no need to go share the public one. From what I can see, this floor is being kept very empty so that the regular patients are kept far away from us. Can’t say for sure what’s it like outside because I haven’t set one foot outside my door since I got here.

I’m pretty much left on my own because the doctors and nurses only come in to serve my meals and for my daily check up. That’s fine because the medication left me pretty drowsy anyway. If I can’t sleep, there’s always Facebook and my little pets there to keep my amused.

Meal times, now this is an eye opener. I was resigned to having oatmeal and porridge for the duration but they surprised me by asking if I wanted Western Food or Asian Food. I opted for Western food and have been gorging myself for the past few days. One thing’s for sure, I’m going home a few pounds heavier since I’m going without my Herbalife. Seriously folks, the food might not be up to restaurant standards, but they ain’t half bad either.

I get to leave after breakfast tomorrow morning, once I’ve had my 6th dose of Tamiflu. Can’t wait to get home to my own bed.

My roommate told me that some of her friends who also caught the virus have been discharged and guess what? The whole stay here is 100% FOC!

Can you believe that? Staying in a private air-conditioned room and fed stuff like fish & chips, 1/4 chicken with mashed potatoes, mac & cheese and French toast and it’s all for FREE!

I can only imagine how much a private hospital will charge for this. I remember staying not even one night in a private hospital when I had food poisoning and they charged me a bomb.

To the team at Penang GH, thank you so much for your hospitality. You guys have been great. Also to the Action Team, for following up with me and checking up on the parents while they are being quarantined at home.

Sei Lou is coming back, World. Did you miss me?

I can’t believe this is happening to me. I read the reports in the papers all the time but never thought I would be one of those “lucky” ones who caught the Swine Flu.

Guess it’s a good thing that E had the foresight to get us tested as soon as we came back from KL. Granted, I had been working very hard that week in KL, so probably my immune system took a beating.

I was already feeling under the weather the day we left KL. Since I exhibited the symptoms, they had me tested and put under house quarantine pending the results.

Believe me, it’s no fun being treated like contaminated material. The folks from the hospital all came out in their Hazmat suits to swipe my throat. Before that, they wouldn’t even come out and see me, instead took my history over the phone.

Two days later, this afternoon to be precise, my results were in. Two health inspectors showed up at my frontdoor and told me that I had to get myself admitted to the hospital for treatment. Depending on how much I respond to treatment, I could be here for around 3 days then spend another few days on home quarantine.

At least they allowed me to bring my laptop and since I had the little broadband USB with me, I can still go check my Facebook. God, I’m really pathetic. Can’t live without my Facebook LOL.

When I came to get myself checked in, there was already a receiving line waiting for me. Yet, nobody wanted to come within 5 feet of me, it seems. The guy at the entrance yelled my name from across the room then directed me to the waiting area.

“Great,” I thought. “Now everyone within earshot knows that Sheryl Lee has H1N1.”

Then another guy in a hazmat suit came to escort me up to my room. It was like a VIP escort as he directed people out of the way. When we came to a busy corridor, he had me wait while he cleared the traffic. I’ll actually think it’s funny if I wasn’t sick.

He left me at the elevator with instructions to go to the 3rd floor. When the door opens again, I’m confronted with a cage. Man, these guys are serious. A nurse also fully wrapped up in a hazmat suit came and escorted me to my room.

Well, at least I won’t feel like I’m sleeping in a five-foot way when I’m here. I have a roommate, who also got checked in today.

They have already taken my blood and chest X-rays so it’s the long wait to see how well I respond. At the moment, their action unit is retracing all my steps during my trip to KL, including people I made contact with and the people on my flight.

Unfortunately, my roommates from KL have already left the country by the time my results came out.

I’m gonna have a lot of time on my hands the next few days, so folks, feel free to drop by for a chat on MSN or Facebook, k? Update me on what’s going on in the outside world because I don’t think we are allowed to leave this room.

And oh yeah, who would have thought that GH offers Western Food to its patients as well. Not bad, huh? At least I won’t puke from a daily diet of porridge.