Fall 2005 in Paris...a pictorial

A view of the River Seine

Rows of shops and apartment in Montparnasse

Under la tour Eiffel

Roadside treasures: From Gap to Raub

The serpentine road from Raub to the Gap to Kuala Kubu Baru always never fails to make a fine promenade on a quiet Sunday afternoon. There's always the beautiful mountainscapes of the Main Range, greens everywhere and loads of fresh air to cleanse those clogged up lungs from living in the city -with condition you're lucky enough not to trail any lorries or trucks sometimes plying this route. Or worse, hordes of weekend tourists who had the same brilliant ideas like you...Back when I was still a boy, we were not tuned to moving vehicles like children today (they are practically nursed in cars these days). Since we visited quite often our relatives in Kerling and KKB, we were obliged to use this incredibly winding road -one can actually perceive the next turn and the next from the windshield ahead!
Well, my father had to make sure that we kids don't puke at the back of the car and so he deviced a stop every now and then to let us walk our feet a little, smell the fresh air and even pluck a few nice plants here and there. In between, he even chipped in stories of the British army, the communists known to this part of the country, the wild animals, especially his experience with tigers, the mawas, the plants and their use in hunting and medicine etc, etc and I was totally captivated by this. If one ever wonders how I got to be so observant of plants on the kerbs of the road, there you have it...also, those days were really quite different: less cars, less heat, less pollution, more flowering plants (wild), more animals - especially insects like butterflies and of course, less worries like today. Everything just felt simpler and clearer. Maybe it was the simple vision of a child enraptured by the simple pleasures of the world around him.

Flowering Bauhinias spp. This clump is particularly pale in shade as it was growing in a less exposed area under the shades of a tall tree. Otherwise, they usually display a bright yellow-orange bicolour bouquet perceivable from quite a distance.

Tiny fig fruits on a shrub

A terrestrial wild ginger with pink flowering bracts.

Elegant leaf of the Dipteris fern.

Almost an iconic flowering plant previously found almost everywhere throughout this road, it is now reduced to a few favourable locations. The Bamboo orchid with its cattleya-like flowers.

Leaf whorl of a fern, the Paku Resam.

A flowering vine dangling over branches in the open.

Luscious wild rasberries ressembling a cross between the rasberry and the blackberry.

Fragile yellow flower of the daffodil orchid. Used to be very common growing on grass patches along the roadside rest area but now quite rare.

A bunch of unusually coloured berries of a creeper found in the open grassland.

Flowers of a common terrestrial orchid.

Ripe figs dangling from a branch...

A view of Fraser's Hills from the road to the Gap

On the jungle trails of Fraser's Hills...21 September 2009

Big letters announcing Fraser's Hills, once a mountain retreat for the British to escape the tropical heat

The bamboo orchid, a handsome plant found in the more exposed area

A beautiful lilac colored bloom of the Senduduk Gunung, melanostoma spp.

The lacy leaves of the peacock fern

A colorful bird perched on the branches of a tree

Snowy white flowers of a tiny plant commonly found along the trails

Beautiful velvet leaves of the jewel orchid, punctuated with golden veins

A translucent fern among the mossy forest floor

A wild ginger, Costus globosus

A strange mushroom

A tiny white flower

Flower bracts of the Giant Spindle Ginger, a bizarre wild ginger with aerial roots

Sonerila Rudis, a common senduduk on the trails

Tiny orange blossom of a Hoya species

Beautiful blooms of yet another senduduk

The delicate blooms of another jewel orchid

The jewel orchid in bloom

A beautiful cousin of the African violet

An unopened cup of a Nepenthes spp., the Monkey cup

A Nepenthes spp. nestled among the ferns

Road to nowhere...

Since I was a boy, my father instilled the love for leisurely promenades in car or in bikes in me and now, it has become a 'need' when I have some free time to spare. I remember accompanying my father on his trips along the country roads whenever he needed to see his friends or his potential clients (my father made traditional houses for the kampung folks, aka a carpenter ). My wife, in return, acquired it from me as we made it our 'must do' activity whenever possible. Well, I must admit in these times of global climatic concerns that it is not a very 'green' practice but until I can afford greener solutions, the wanderer in me still needs to do his own bits.

The northern part of Raub- direction Kuala Medang was once an isolated and inaccessible backwater of this part of the country until the tarmac rolled in together with development. I won't argue that development is not good for the people but the almost always sorry part is the way that development has to arrive. In those days, this area was heavily covered by thick pristine jungles of the Main Range and a trip to Pos Sindirut (an Orang Asli encampment) will need 2 days' trekking. When the need for timber and agricultural land surpass the need to keep these natural environment, along came the tarmac so that lorries can transport oil palm and timber. And so, the once inaccessible Betau valley opened up to mundane local travellers like myself. My memories of the early days of the Sungai Koyan Felda Scheme is still vivid: my father made some of the settlers' wooden houses as prescribed by the scheme. I remembered playing in a tiny stream behind the rows of houses that my father was working on and what still strike me was that I could scoop out tiny spanner barbs (a jungle fish) with my bare palms - and I was only a 7 year old gamin! I remembered too, the hordes and hordes of kepiat, spanner barbs and rasboras in the tiny cryptocoryne-covered stream. Those days are definitely gone; now and forever as I have never in my whole life as an adult rediscover any streams with the same natural richess...and yeah, in those days, upon reaching Batu Talam, one has to mind the way as there were risks of elephants crossing and you don't want to be on their way when they are around!

Back to the story of the road trip...from Sungai Koyan direction Kuala Medang, one only has to take a left turn towards Pos Betau and keep driving. This road will take you to the edge of the Main Range through the Betau valley and right to the doorsteps of the Cameron Highlands. What is most insane about the whole thing is the fact that we have the need for yet another road to the already environmentally challenged highlands through this part of the country. The good news is, people from the East coast need no longer travel through the East-West highway and then through the North-South highway to get to the highlands. Until now, this highway stops abruptly, short of around 11 kilometers before reaching the highlands but by my last count the works has started again to finally connect the missing links.

Here's a pictorial of the recent trip:

A road sign announcing homestay at Kuala Medang

The serpentine Sungai Belida traversing the Betau Valley, one of the main tributary of the Ulu Jelai River.

Swatches of bamboo forests are common on the Main Range especially areas once used for cultivation by the Orang Asli. The bamboo is one of the main raw building material for the Orang Asli.

A huge Tualang tree growing from the valley floor.

Signs to remind the travellers of dangers lurking around the seemingly calm road.

An aerial view of a cascade from a bridge

Winged seeds, like wings af an angel found on the grass

The buck stops here - this is the end of the highway. Some time back, there wasn't even any construction at the back - just a puzzling full stop amid the jungle.

Gathering rainclouds in the sky on a hot sunny afternoon, a sign of tumultuous times to come from Mother nature.

The Betau valley punctuated by patches of agricultural activities.

An uncommon raodsign on Malaysian roads...

A bridge that encircles the slopes of the mountain with breathtaking views.

Colours of Autumn...the farmers' market in Poitiers, 2006

The onset of autumn may see leaves yellowing and dropping en masse but at the farmers' market, it is the beginning of new tastes and colours for the cuisine-adventurers. Tomatoes of all shades that reds and oranges can give in the spectrum of light fire up the stalls selling vegetables. Ripe pepper bells in orange, yellow and reds; squashes of all colours, sizes and textures; radishes and parsnips - whites, fuchsias, violets, buttery yellows and even black; chrysanthemums of all shades, shapes and sizes; mushrooms with names and exotic parfum that screams 'taste-me!'; cabbages and artichokes; charcuterie; games; nuts of all kinds, etc, etc...the list goes on and on.

If one likes food, this is bonanza time. Fresh seafood, called fruit de mer (litterally fruits of the sea) are bountiful at the Atlantic coast of France where I used to live. There is a bewildering choice of oysters to choose from and what better way to discover French cuisine by starting with learning how to open an oyster yourself from the fishmonger himself (who will willingly teach you if you ask politely), digging into the mysterious French gastronomy - by starting with one of the most eaten hors-d'ouvre for Christmas: oysters. To discover that oysters have a wide range of subtle flavours and textures is in itself an eye-opener. But beware! Oysters must NEVER be eaten 'dead' as you may end up with a very nasty case of food poisoning. If they are not freshly opened and have been chilled for awhile on a salad tray in a buffet, don't go for it. A simple tap on the edge of its shell will easily show if the opened oyster's still alive -it can actually retract its muscle to react to your probing. If not, open it yourself! Below is a simple recipe for a sauce that I have adapted for eating with raw oyster so do enjoy!

Wine sauce for fresh oysters:
1 cup of chilled rose wine
a teaspoon of honey
a squeeze of lemon
one finely chopped shallots
finely cut juliens of young ginger
finely chopped coriander leaves
a pinch of salt for taste

Mix the ingredients well and serve with freshly opened oysters

colourful squashes for sale

These are not for Halloween. The nutty flavour of this pumpkin, called potimarron in French is good in pancakes, baking and soups.

Small red radishes are best eaten raw as salad or like the French, with a good salted butter and freshly baked baguette as an appetizer! They are most delicious using the simplest and unpretentious approach. The leaves attached to the radishes may be used for a soup and are seldom wasted. The French has incredible ingenuity when it comes to food as they have use for almost anything edible under the sun, a bit like Chinese...

Beautiful shades of pink to fuchsia radishes...

parsnips of divers shades...

Chrysanthemums - a Chinese cultural import that turned commercial and IS the flower used for Toussaint (1st November) to decorate tombs and cemeteries. Beautiful as they are, NEVER offer your hostess these stunners less you want to be mistaken for insulting them.

Noisettes, or hazels in a basket

Chou de milan, the Savoy cabbage, makes a fantastic wrapping for a baked potato dish, called a gratin in French: Blanch a few dark green leaves in boiling water to soften the leaves. Use them to line a greased baking tray.

For the potato filling:
boiled potatoes, roughly diced, enough to fill the size of the baking tray
roughly chopped heart of the Savoy cabbage
2 cloves of garlic with skin, smashed
1 shallot -chopped
1 cup of fresh cream
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

In a large casserole, melt a cube of butter and sweat the shallots and the garlic. Throw in the cabbage, stir well and saute until the cabbage it soften a bit. Remove and mix in the boiled potatoes, cream, eggs and the salt and pepper to taste. Fill the cabbage leaf-lined baking tray with this mixture, grate in emmenthal cheese and bake for about 25 minutes in medium heat in an oven until the mixture is well set.

Serve the gratin with butter sauce or simply au naturel.

Small violet artichokes are delicious and simple to cook. They are preferred over the large globe artichokes from Bretagne (Brittany) and here's an adapted Provencal recipe:

Serves 4

8 heads of violet artichoke, stem cut at the base of the artichoke. These need not be opened to remove the inner filaments called foin in French as their diminutive sizes made them easier to cook.
Lamb, diced (around 400 grams)
2 tablespoon smoked bacon pieces (called lardon in French)
1/2 cup black olives, unpitted
1 cup sieved tomato puree, easily obtained prefab from supermarkets, sometimes sold under italian name as passata
2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
1 large white onion, diced
3 gloves of garlic, simply smashed with the back of a cleaver, skin intact
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
bay leaves, rosemary and thyme
sea salt

In a cast metal casserole, sweat the garlic and shallots with the olive oil. Infuse this mixture with the bacon and herbs. Throw in the the diced lamb. Coat the meat well. Add the tomatoes and the puree, the artichoke, the olives and the wine. Add 1 cup of water, cover and bring to boil. Make sure that the artichokes are well coated and put the whole casserole in the oven and bake in low to medium heat for about 45 minutes. Serve with fresh pain campagnard or foccacia.

The cepes, called sometimes porcini (in italian) is a very aromatic autumnal bounty and it is extremely delicious in omelettes, stews or simply saute.

Trays of mushrooms

Musseron, one of the less aromatic, so less expensive variety. I remembered one day during the first frosts of 2004, I went mushroom hunting with my sister's friends at Soosay in the department of Haute-Vienne but it was really off season. Anyhow, we went, paniers at hand but we did not find much - a few chantrelles, one miserable pied de mouton and a bunch of half-frozen mousserons. Well, so much for bragging to us about their superb harvest in the woods but really, any real Frenchman would NEVER lead you to his real treasure cove as they guard their collecting sites like the secrets of a sunken treasure ship. Well, the story ends happily with a perfect mushroom ommelette made with musserons.

Here's my adapted version for the supermarket :

Serves 2 persons

4 fresh eggs: beaten in a bowl separately
Smoked bacon pieces
4 large fresh button mushroom - thinly sliced (called champignon de Paris)
1 medium sized leek, sliced thinly. Better still if you can find spring garlic (they look like baby leeks)
fresh herbs: thyme and finely chopped chives
fresh cream
Finely chopped clove of garlic and shallot (omit the garlic if you use the spring garlic in lieu of the leek)
salt and pepper

In a large non-stick frying pan, pour in some olive oil and stir in the chopped leek, garlic and shallot. When fragrant, mix in the bacon, stir well and distribute evenly over the frying pan. Pour in the beaten eggs evenly to make sure you have an even omelette. Next, place the sliced mushroom over this and sprinkle the herbs, salt and pepper over this. Cook only one side of the omelette. When the omelette shows sign of browning on one side, quickly pour the cream over the still moist and mushy side of the omelette, fold and serve hot with freshly baked bread and garden greens.

Pied de mouton

Trompettes de mort, litterally translated as 'death trumpets' but they are not poisonous despite their colours. They are delicious cooked in rabbit stew and mustard. Mushrooms must be eaten cooked but one mushroom, the button mushroom (champignon de Paris) can be eaten raw like a salad;

250 g fresh button mushroom, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup of fresh cream
fine sea salt
finely chopped chives

In a salad bowl, mix the cream, mushroom and cucumber together. Sprinkle with fine sea salt and serve at once, as the salt can cause the cucumber to leach liquid. This is a traditional dish that is often eaten in summer as it is refreshing.