Flowers from Cameron Highland

Cameron Highland is famous for their fresh vegetable, tea, strawberry, honey and last but not least, flowers... As you know, I like flowers, when we were in the market, they sell lilies, sunflowers, roses... wah, I was so tempted to buy them all, but, I can't be that greedy right? So, end up, I bought this... I don't know what flower is that, but because the one who sell me this was a little girl, she has 4 bunches, she said if I take all 4, she will give me a discount... emmm, I was thinking, she is so sweet and although she was only 10 years old or younger, she is really a good businesslady... moreover, this flower is very unique, it is a real flower, but look like plastic, you can keep it fresh for 1 week and when the stem and leaves dry up, it can be kept as dried flower for 2 years. At the end, of course I took all 4.

Boh Tea Plantation

This isn't my first trip to tea plantation, last time I went there with my college friends, we only visited the tea factory and had our tea there. This time, when we were there, the factory was closed on that day. But this time we did something different, we climbed up to the hill and walked in to the tea plantation.

The tea house

Marvelous view!


Climbing up to the hill


A cottage in the middle of plantation, so peaceful and poetic


The tea factory (view from the hill)


An old tea tree in an abundant area

I like this picture very much, greenish tea plantation with no end


Tea? or me?


Soo, what were you doing there? Hope you are not xu xu-ing there, the tea has their special fertilizer.

Lady in pink in the green green plantation, nice huh?

Silly boys posing in the plantation


A river in the plantation

Of course, besides the tea, there are many beautiful flowers as well


Mini roses


Unknown flower with tissue-like petal, soft and beautiful


My favorite, cala lily

Unknown flower, but it is a very big flower

Another unknown flower, attracted by it's color and it's shyness


Unknown tiny plant


Mint


See closely... they were flies... geli-nya
One thing I don't understand, how come there are so many flies at highland?
Can see people trapping flies almost everywhere using this method (glue on brown paper)

p/s: Driving up there is pretty dangerous as most part of the road is one lane road. Also, they closed early, if I'm not mistaken, they closed at 4pm.

When we on the way back to our apartment, we stopped by a small bee farm too.

So many bees in the glass box... yer...

Bees flying freely outside, but they don't simply attack people

T-Cafe at Cameron Highland

Okay, as I promised earlier, will post up my trip to the tea plantation. But before that, would like to share about this cafe.
Before heading to the tea plantation, we stopped by the town to eat our lunch. And from the internet, we found that this T-Cafe is highly recommended (under food recommendation, T-Cafe is ranked No. 1) by they travelers, they even said scone is a must try.
It's actually a small cafe, located at the 1st floor of the shop, run by an Indian family, I think. The food and bakery and dessert there, I can say are something like home-cook, so, it's kind of warm, simple and nice, can't say the food is delicious, cause it's not like world class chef designing special dishes for customer, but it's a good place to chill out.

The cafe logo

A lot of travelers (mostly foreigners) were chilling out in the cafe

This is special, it's sate chicken chop rice
Eating the marinated chicken chop with sate sauce, wow, this is my first time
Quite special, worth trying

I wouldn't want a big meal, because I was looking forward to trying their dessert and scone
So, I order a chicken burger

The strawberry scone
Nice...

Apple pie with vanilla ice-cream
Anything goes with ice-cream will be my recommendation

Look at it!!! Such a beautiful black moist chocolate cake, yum

Strawberry cheesecake
Okay, I admit, I'm a weirdo, I like to eat dessert but I don't eat cheese

After the battle of food

Strawberry Picking

Lately been really busy and bad things kept coming (although my colleague told me we should look at them in a positive way, with positive thinking and energy within ourselves, then only good thing will happen to us, but I, the devil Sam, still has super low EQ). And that's the reason why I have nearly forgotten to post up my Cameron Highland trip (21st - 22nd March) photos.
This post, I'm going to share my strawberry picking experience.
My friend who worked in Singapore was planning to bring his colleagues to Cameron Highland, so, he invited me to go with them. When he introduced his colleagues to me, wah, a real international gang, we have an Indonesian girl, Mega, an Indian guy, Subbu, a Singaporean girl, Ivy, a Singaporean guy, Chris, 2 Malaysian girls, Li Kai's gf and me, and 2 Malaysian guys, Soo and Li Kai... amazing right?

Li Kai and I were the drivers, we drove up using the new Tapah way. I was actually quite excited, cause that is my first time driving up.
Actually on the way up, the 1st stop was a strawberry farm. We all got super excited because we have never been seeing such a big strawberry farm before and usually we can only buy strawberry from supermarket or fruit stalls, this time, we can pick the strawberry from plant and eat it on spot!
For me, I didn't really pick a lot, because I don't know how to differentiate the raw and ripe fruit, so, I took photos instead.

Strawberry flower
(white, pure and innocent)

Flower petals fall off and pistil growing to the fruit

The raw and the ripe fruits

The raw strawberry is white and slightly greenish in color and ripe fruit is hot red in color

OMG, see, these 3 beautiful "ladies" look so sweet and gorgeous

In the strawberry farm, the plants are either planted in pot or long tube (just like the photo below)

Some poor berries for whatever reason can't be able to stay and ripen on the plant, just like this poor berry, fell on the soil, and those tiny coconut tree-like creature are a type of fern.

This strawberry is still attached to the plant but maybe she is like me, too fat, heavy and lazy, so she is just resting on the soil
I have no idea what they use to plant the strawberry, but it seems like some recycle organic stuff

hehe, a basket-full of strawberry we picked that day!
Secretly tell you, they look nice and sweet, but most of them quite sour

Coming up next are photos of Tea Plantation that we visited during the trip...

Bloody Con Man

I always wonder how people get conned by those phone call or sms telling them they won big money, then they bank in money for them for administration fees or whatever non-sense la... sometimes, those who get conned maybe a lawyer or those highly educated people. Finally I got the "chance" to experience that... na na na, don't worry, I didn't lost anything, just got an experience to talk to those people.
Story started with this...
3 weeks ago, a lady called me (with very strong China Chinese accent), she said she is from China Press, she wanted to do a survey with me. I didn't believe her because Malaysian Chinese doesn't speak like that, but anyway, I was driving, and I was using hand-free, I was also interested to know what she want to say next, so, I agreed to do the survey. She asked me what Chinese newspaper we subscribe, and asked me if I heard of a company called Venice, this company is planning to build another theme park or resort similar to Genting. Of course no la, ok, I admit, I don't read newspaper everyday, but really never heard of this before. Then she continue with her "interesting story", I listened quietly. After that she said survey finished d, she wanted to get my name. Then I said (with my cold tone), if you can be able to get my contact number, you should have known my name d, but she said the number was random picked la, this and that, then ok lo, I told her, my name is 张慧心, and I describe to her how to write my name, she suspected I gave her fake name and trying to correct me, of course I was pissed off, cause I'm sure other than my parents, nobody will be as sure as me how to write my name lo... nvm, she know I was getting impatient and she said Venice (the company) will call me soon to give me a token of appreciation for participating in this survey.
So, after a week, a man called me (also with very strong China Chinese accent), he said he is from Venice (the company), and he would like to invite me to their exhibition in Midvalley Mall on 15/4, Tuesday, 4pm-6pm (what an odd day and hour). He asked me to take down my registration number and asked me must go there to take a look because I might win myself a "Grand Prize" and Astro (the tv station) will report on the event too. Common, who cares? I told my friend, I might go to take a look since Midvalley also close to my house and I really want to see what they are trying to sell. I thought maybe is those direct selling or multilevel marketing thingy la.
So, yesterday I was very lazy la, and I have totally forgotten about that "date". The same guy called me again at 5pm. The background was very noisy, seems like really having a big event. He said why I didn't go to their exhibition, so, I told him I was busy, I'm not interested... then he said actually I won a prize... but I already know this is a con case ma, so I said no lar, I can't be able to go... then he quickly said, congratulation Ms. Cheong, please come now and put down the phone. I was still didn't take it seriously... and ignore it.
This morning (16/4), when I was having my team weekly meeting, the same guy called again. I told him that I was in a meeting, I can't talk and I'm not interested in whatever he is trying to say. Then he sound as if he was being offended and raise his voice, kept asking why I'm not interested and said he will explained whatever I'm not clear... and he insisted want to make an appointment with me and explained to me in details... I got very very irritated and I told him, ok, called me in another half an hour. I was thinking in my heart, ok, you want to play this, I'll see what next.
After half an hour, he really called me, I asked him, what prize I won, he said I won 250K USD... wah, tempting amount, but this made the whole thing sounds even faker and he insisted that I CAN'T (not shouldn't) give this opportunity up (because I asked them to give the prize to another winner). Then I said this can't be true, his company is conning people. Wah, he raise his voice, said how can I accuse his company like that, why I don't believe this is true, he even gave me his number and website of his company, asked me to check it out... then he said the 250k is shared among 5 winners, each of the winners get 50k USD... bla bla bla... I told him, ok, since I won, you send me cheque la. Wah, then he started saying non-sense, as if I'm very stupid, he said how come I didn't know cheque can't be sent by post... bla bla bla... and if winner won a prize, there must be a lawyer witness the claiming, and the winner must come to claim the prize, can't be given to anybody else... bull shit... then I asked him, what he want me to do... he said I need to give him my name, I/C number, and bank account number... he said I can open an empty bank account and I don't have to pay anything... another bull shit... So, I told him, ok, give me some time, I'm going to open an account now, called me another 2 hours.
Right after I put down the phone, I called China Press, they said they received such calls and clarify to public that this is a con case already. Then I called Astro (the tv station), they said they have no idea about that. After that, I called Midvalley, they said didn't have any exhibition yesterday... and each of them, I urged the customer service personnels to report this to their management, so, they will take note on that. Then I even call a police to report this case. But, the officer said I need to go to a police station to report that personally.
I was thinking to go during lunch time because I still need to work and meet my customer. When I was meeting my customer, we discussed that as well, because I remember when I paid him a visit last time, he showed me a letter saying he won some prizes too, he discourage me to report to police because he said police won't border that also. Before I left, he was checking his mail, then he found another similar con letter again, both of us laughed.
Immediate I left his place, the guy called me, I don't want to tell him f*ck off straight, I told him politely, "maybe you don't know what your company is trying to do, but I think your company is trying to con people, please do some investigation", then he scolded me back, said that I have no right or proof to say so. OMG, he is so helpless, I told him I will report this to police if he still keep on bugging me. You know what he said? He scolded me, asked me to report to police if I want and slammed down the phone. OK, peace of mind now. Do you think I should report this to the police? Anyway, I don't lose anything.
Please la, people out there, will you still believe in this kind of "story"? Why are there still a lot of people being conned?

Pastis

Pastis
Lot KG-2, Ground Level
Tel: 03-22881559
Serving up French cafe food in American portions, with specialties such as crepes and gourmet sandwiches. Try what is possibly Malaysia's first molecular coffee, that is coffee you can eat upside down, developed by our baristas with Lavazza Coffee. Be wowed by its pastry counter and share the delightful afternoon tea set with family and friends.
[Copy from The Garden Mall - A Guide on Food to Crave for]

Yesterday I was meeting my god-sister, was bringing her to The Garden for tea. Since both of us also not very familiar with the restaurants and cafe there, so, we checked out their directory and came across something which attracted us - EAT coffee UPSIDE DOWN? How?

Beautiful logo

Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla Ice-cream
But the brownie is special, the texture is as soft and fluffy as cake... with crunchy walnut, yum yum

Chocolate Moist Cake
Normal one, but taste good. But ho, got fruit fly in the strawberry... but we didn't care la...

Here come the interesting part...
Molecular Xpresso Cappuccino
The coffee is not in liquid form, it's in foam form and it was served in espresso size, we were so "sua gu" (kampung), asked the waiter how to eat it... wahahahaha
Then he said use the tea spoon to scoop the foam and eat...

See, this is why they say, EAT coffee UPSIDE DOWN!!

Cake with Honey Cream

Wow, it's already 2nd quarter of 2008, this month, April I'll be extremely busy. I only has the first weekend free for myself, the rest of the weekends are all occupied with work... bohoho...
Last Saturday, 5/4, we had a surprise party for our beloved ji mui, Siow Hui. A month ago, her husband secretly contacted us, said that he wanted to invite all of us to a surprise party for his wife. Initially, he was planning to go to Cameron or Genting Highland, but, his wife aka our ji mui already in her 3rd trimester, so, I didn't agree with his plan. So, end up we went to Jogoya (continue reading to the next post, JOGOYA pissed me off badly). And I also volunteered to bake a cake for her. And, Cake with Honey Cream was the one I chose from my mom's recepi book - Yum Yum, recepi provided by William Tan.

Cake:
Ingredients A:
150g honey
140g water
100g soft brown sugar
220g plain flour
120g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250g melted butter

Ingredient B:
60g chocolate chips

Honey Cream:
100g water
1 tbsp honey
80g sugar
125g unsalted butter

Garnish:
60g chocolate curls

Method:
1. Combine all ingredients A in a mixing bowl, beat at low speed until well combined. Then use high speed and continue to beat until mixture light and fluffy. Lastly mix in chocolate chips.
2. Pour mixture into a 8" round tin with greaseproof paper. Bake into a preheated oven at 180C for 1 hour or until cooked. Remove the cake and stand for 1 hour until cold.
3. Honey cream: Combine water, sugar and honey in a saucepan and cook (without boiling) until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Beat butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add in syrup and mix well.
4. Spread honey cream on the surface of cold cake and decorate with chocolate curls.

I bought the chocolate block and scraped the edge with sharp knife, then the chocolate will curl up like this

See, this is my finish product... but...

Look nice right? But not tasty at all... bohoho... project failed AGAIN!

The cake was as hard as rock, I think the oven that I use is not suitable to bake cake, cause after an hour of baking, outer layer of the cake was ok, but inside still not fully cooked. So, I have to put the cake in again for a few times. Then another mistake I made is, I wasn't patient enough to wait until the cake was cold, I used the short cut way :p, I put it in the fridge to cool it down. That's why you see, impatient people like me can never be a good baker.