Drunken Leaf Bird

A few weeks ago I was on my way up the staircase to the garden at GTE when I stumbled upon a seemingly drunk Blue-winged Leaf Bird, Chloropsis cochinchinensis. It must have been unwell (never touch any sicken bird if anything we have learnt from all the transmissible diseases ) or in a stupor (for example having consumed too much over-ripen fruits) but as I got near, it did not make any effort to move until I started using flash from my camera: it started to "wake up" and in a few instances flew away into the bushes...

The freshest Lala dish ever

Back in December in Taiping, the lala dish (there are about 4 to 5 ways cooked offered by the restaurant New Bee Guan) turned out to be the freshest we have ever tasted anywhere in Malaysia. Can't say we tasted that many but it was outstanding here....Locally known as lala, it is actually a type of clam found in Malaysian waters. 

The first order was surprisingly good that we ordered a second helping...

The "kam heong" meaning sauteed with curry powder was savoury but kinda mask the freshness of the clams. 

 The deep fried squid was equally good...

The best and sweetest - in superior soup base and claypoot. 

Biscuits frenzy in Taiping

En route home from the North, we usually drop by Taiping for some nostalgic old fashioned fare and just right opposite our hotel, a row of small shops were selling all kinds of things when the biscuits on display suddenly reminded me of the biscuits we had in our childhood days. These days, they actually taste a bit different (or updated) but I bought a few to share with my tea drinking friends over the weekend...

still popular, these sticky filling buns

 The Chinese version of butter cookies known as hap tau so in Cantonese

 Fried scissored pastry

 A soft biscuit usually used for dunking - now in smaller pack

 The Chinese mah tong, a sugar coated fried pastry

 Dried coconut biscuits

 grilled sugar-coated bread

 kueh kapit

 An array of biscuits in tins - now only found in a few surviving neighbourhood grocery stores

Dried roti kok - used to hate them like no tomorrow. Apparently they are still being consumed today. taste like terrible fish food for aquarium.