...guess who dropped in...

After months of hunting, since seeing mysterious footprints on the pipes almost every outside the hospital, finally, we caught one of the culprits...he is simply adorable...cuteness personified...but behind all those cuteness, he hissed and bared fangs!!! This civet cat has the aroma of pandan...you can smell it even your are standing a few away. Regardless, we have to set him free...back in the wild...but far far away from the hospital....

...wong chau jun in rangoon road...

Way down to the end of Rangoon Road, there is a nice place where you can enjoy nice food. Wong Chau Jun is located behind the Sin Kin Snua Coffee Shop.

It serves good food. It is open in morning until late afternoons. The place is usually full of patrons.

The famous signature dish is the "beehoon snooi luak" (vermicelli in sour spicy soup). There is a choice of fried fillet, fried fish head or simply fish meat. This soup is appertizing as it is both sour and spicy. You will find pieces of bird's eye (cabai burung) in the soup, but it is sure worth the try.

They also have the hor fun steamed with fish. The hor fun is not as smooth as the one we had at Highway Seafood Restaurant, but one of the better ones in the island. It comes in plain hor fun with some pieces of steamed fish fillet by the side.

The fried bee hoon with fried fish fillet is nice when eaten hot, tend to be a little oily when it is warm. This restaurant seems to be quite generous with their fillet.

The pork ribs noodles it something different, not exactly nice but just unusual. It is either cooked in fermented bean curds (tau joo) or the "ang chau" (red wine). Serve with chunks of tender pork ribs and chai sim with hefty pieces of chinese mushrooms.

Next, was the honey chicken. It tasted like Marmite Chicken but it is well glazed with honey and has the sweet taste of the bee produce.

The tau foo (everywhere you go in Penang, they have their own signature tau foo). The tau foo here is a little different from the signature tau foo elsewhere, as it has nice thick gravy with a little dried shrimp.

It's a good place to go when you are in town if you happened to be there and wanting to try something different, but make sure you have lots of time in your hand as the waiting time is a little long.

Ratings : 8/10

...barbara bel geddes - the plain miss ellie ewing...

Although she was the well-known matriarch on the popular nighttime soap opera, "Dallas" on television for thirteen years, as Miss Ellie Ewing Farlow, little known that the plain Barbara Bel Geddes was also an Academy Award nominee. Barbara had earlier scored success on stage and screen long before gaining more lasting fame on television.

Barbara (31st October 1922 - 8th August 2005) was born in New York, the daughter of noted theatrical and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes, who staged more than 200 plays. After growing up amidst the theatre, Bel Geddes began acting on stage at age 18 and soon moved on to Broadway in 1942 and had her first major hit with "Deep Are The Roots" in 1944, winning a Theatre World Award.

She made her silver screen debut as the plain girl trying to convince fugitive Henry Fonda to surrender in "The Long Night" (1947). She was then Oscar nominated for her beautiful portrayal of the aspiring young Norwegian girl, Katrin whose life is chronicled in "I Remember Mama" (1948). She was then cast as the girl in love with Robert Mitchum in the western "Blood On The Moon" (1948) and the story of a desperate girl marrying into riches in "Caught" (1949).

"Panic In The Street" (1950) gave her not much of a screen time in a this good movie about a killer (the ever evil Jack Palance) infected with a deadly plague, playing hero Richard Widmark's wife and in "Fourteen Hours" (1951), trying to talk suicidal Richard Basehart out of jumping from a window ledge.

Though she achieved immediate success in films, Bel Geddes also continued to tread the boards on Broadway, since theatre was her first love. In 1952, she received the prestigious Woman of the Year Award by Hasty Pudding Theatricals USA, America's oldest theater company. She was also nominated for Tony Awardss as best dramatic actress for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1956 and for the lead in Mary, Mary in 1961.

She returned to movies in a supporting role in Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (1958) with James Stewart and Kim Novak, playing the plain-jane Midge. She was Danny Kaye's (as musician Red Nichols) wife in the moving "The Five Pennies" (though her singing voice was dubbed). She was one of the "5 Branded Women" (1960) a war melodrama; as Elfrem Zimbalist Jr.'s patient wife, watching him having an affair with the more sultry Lana Turner in "By Love Possessed" (1961). Barbara was seen in two 1971 films - "Summertree" and "The Todd Killings", in supporting roles.

Her greatest television role came as Miss Ellie Ewing Farlow on "Dallas" (1978), which enjoyed a run of thirteen years (1978-1991). She won the Emmy Award for best actress in 1980 and was nominated in the same category in 1979 and 1981. Bel Geddes left the show for health reasons during the 1984-85 season, with the more glamourous Donna Reed taking over the role of Miss Ellie. Barbara Bel Geddes returned for the 1985-86 season and continued on "Dallas" (1978) until 1990, when she effectively retired from acting. She did not appear in either of the two Dallas TV reunion movies.

On August 8, 2005, she died following a long battle with lung cancer.

...continental goes oriental...

Almost everyone in Penang knows how good (and expensive) the breads in Continental Bakery are, but there is something new that ought to be checked out - it's wolfberry and longan bread. Who would ever thought of the combination of these two make such a sweet and tasty bread. The sweetness of the bread comes from the wolfberries better known as "kee chi" which is known for its nutritional value for eyesight improvement and dried longan that is used in many chinese soups and sweets and you can trust the bakery, they give you a generous amount of both in one bread. The bread is moist and fresh and has a unique taste and fragrance.

Ratings : 7/10

...my wonderful lunch...

One of the best Koay Teow Tng up in Tanjung Bungah, is the one in Tanjung Bungah Cafe. Tanjung Bungah Cafe is along the main road of Valle of Tempe, at the junction of TAR college.

The coffee shop has a few nice hawker food...namely, the Koay Teow Tng, the Chicken Rice, the Sar Hor Fun and the Kopi Peng (iced milk coffee).

My favourite is definately the Koay Teow Tng. It has duck meat (it's hard to comeby Koay Teow Tng with duck meat these days), mince meat, fish balls and slices of fish cakes. My usual lunch over there is a bowl of the Koay Teow and bless the auntie's heart, she always gives me a bowl of duck legs, neck and sometimes...errr....butt...for free!!!

To top that off, a plate of chicken from the Chicken Rice stall. The pek cham keh is smooth and the roasted bird smells good. The rice is fragrant...and all this writing is making my mouth water!!!

Ratings for Koay Teow Tng : 8/10

Ratings for Chicken Rice : 7/10

Ratings for Sar Hor Fun with eggs : 7/10

Ratings for Kopi Peng : 7/10

...mamma mia!!!...

It's ABBA-mania all over again!!! Relive the songs from the disco 70s!!!

I was so curious about this movie musical. So much fanfare from so many people, I dragged myself to watch the most talk-about movie musical of the year..."Mamma Mia" (2008)!!!

It is actually a very simple movie, beautiful Greek sceneries, some big names in the movies and a large collection of ABBA songs and...walla...the movie that everyone talks about these days.

It's not a bad movie - light and frothy but nothing spectacular. A little over-rated but why the success??? Well, the ever popular ABBA songs are well associated with many who grew up from that era. I am sure the same success would be garnered if they make a musical with songs from Bee Gees or Bonnie M (except ABBA songs are catchier). This is not a big budget and not a stagy musical (unlike "Sweeney Todd : The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street" (2007) or "Phantom Of The Opera (2004) or even "Moulin Rouge" (2001) which meant strictly for the stage). This is a fun-filled, sunflowery musical so who cares about the flaws. Some musicals are better left on Broadway.

The leading cast is not known for their musical talents, but who cares...it's a fun musical and they carried the songs well!!! I have to admit, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski almost ran away with the movie.

So, if you wanna stand up, sing along and shake your booty...watch this movie!!!

...edie adams - she worked the hard way...

The versatile Edie Adams who was adept to musicals, comedies and dramas died of pneumonia on 15th October 2008.

She was born Elizabeth Edith Enke on April 16, 1927, in the relatively small town of Kingston, Pennsylvania, but moved while fairly young to Grove City. Her family relocated again, this time to Tenafly, New Jersey, where she grew up. Following her graduation from high school, Edie aspired to become an opera singer and studied voice and piano at New York's Juilliard School of Music. She then went on to take acting classes at the Columbia School of Drama.

The winner of such contests as Miss US TV, Adams was hired to sing on Ernie Kovacs's variety series, "Ernie In Kovacsland" in 1951. After appearing together in the offbeat comedian's follow-up series, the two got married in 1955.

Subsequently she found fame on Broadway, billed as Edith Adams, winning a Theatre World Award for "Wonderful Town" and a Tony Awards in 1956 for playing Daisy Mae in the musical "Li'l Abner". Following that were more musical and dramatic ventures on the stage including "The Merry Widow" (1957), a show she would return to more than once, "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1960) and "Free as a Bird" (1960).

One of Edie's last pairings with Kovacs was in 1960 when they appeared as guests on the very last episode of "The Luci-Desi Comedy Hour." The pair appeared as themselves with one of the highlights having Edie crooning the lovely ballad "That's All". Kovacs' sudden 1962 death was a terrible reversal of fortunes for Edie. An inveterate gambler, he left her owing much money to the IRS. Instead of filing bankruptcy, however, she worked her way out of debt. In the process, her career received a second wind. Perhaps it didn't hurt that the public adored Edie and that she was a genuinely sympathetic figure in the wake of her private tragedy.

When she was ready for film she made an impressive debut as Fred MacMurray's vengeful secretary in the Oscar-winning "The Apartment" (1960). She had a good role in the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy, "Lover Come Back" (1961). Thereafter, she played off such comedy pros as Bob Hope in "Call Me Bwana" (1963); Sid Caesar in "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (1963); and Jack Lemmon in "Under The Yum Yum Tree" (1963) and had a showy bit as a stripper in "Love With A Proper Stranger" (1963).

Adams had her own short-lived vareity series, "The Edie Adams Show" (1963 - 1964). She showed up as one of Rex Harrison's greedy mistress, a fading star, in the ensemble piece "The Honey Pot" (1967).

While growing noticeably heavier in later years, she never lost her trademark humor and sex appeal. Edie could still be seen from time to time on the stage in such shows as "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," the female version of "The Odd Couple," "Hello, Dolly!" and "Nunsense". She remained committed to the end to restoring/preserving her late husband's videotapes and kinescopes of his ground-breaking 50s TV work. She also recalled her offbeat life with Kovacs in the book Sing a Pretty Song, which was published in 1990.

Edie remarried in 1964 to photographer Marty Mills, with whom she had a son, Josh. That union ended in divorce in 1971. The following year Edie married jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli. She and Candoli, who died in January of 2008, divorced in 1989. In another eerie, tragic circumstance, daughter Mia was killed in a 1982 Los Angeles auto accident at age 22 -- exactly 20 years after her father's similar demise. Suffering from cancer and losing weight in recent years, the beloved Edie died of complications from pneumonia at age 81 in Los Angeles.