Dining With Jewelle

Anjappar is one of the “new” Indian restaurant in downtown Kota Kinabalu which I only managed to check out yesterday.

This restaurant is located on the ground floor of Kompleks Asia City, more popularly known as KAC and you can’t miss the tusk like structure that decorated the front entrance.

On my trip back to KK, I brought two of my new books, one of which I am halfway through and another which I have not yet started.

On Sunday, my friend and I drove to Tuaran town to meet another friend and dropped by the town for the famous local fare, Tuaran Mee.

This coffee shop that we went to was at this block of old wooden shoplots which despite being slightly rundown, looks more interesting than rest of the new concrete shoplots around it.

My friend told me that this outlet is supposedly where Tuaran Mee originated from.

As you know, this thin and flat noodle known as Tuaran mee is available throughout the state although to be honest, I’m not sure what is so special about it besides the unique shape of the noodle.

When we reached the place at 11 am, it was quite full and although I was not too enthusiastic about the condition inside the shop, I was keen to find out the taste of the original Tuaran Mee.

My friend commented that she tasted better Tuaran Mee elsewhere. I actually prefer this as the taste is not too strong and much like the Seria ko lo mee which to the unseasoned tongue will taste bland. Besides you know that most things that tasted especially well are usually because they are heavily seasoned with MSG.

So in short, I like this Tuaran Mee.

A friend from Beijing once told me that the typical look of the people from a certain country are nowhere as good as those from this country who are in the entertainment industry.

This friend confided that those high cheekbones or sharp chins that has made the rest of the world mad for these superstars are most often than not, achieved not from their genes but from one of the most sought professionals in their country right now : cosmetic surgeons.

In fact, this country is apparently marketing itself as the top notch provider of plastic surgery for this region and judging from the gorgeously-natural-looking faces of many of their celebrities, they are certainly living up to this promise.

So while the Beverly Hills facelift of the anti-gravity kind is famous in the States, you now know that if California is too far, there is always this country who has proven that with money and courage, there are specialists who can turn most ugly ducklings into swans - if you really believe that an ordinary face will get you nowhere and a beautiful face albeit artificial will get you everywhere.

Anyway, going back to my friend’s claim, now you know why they look so good.

There is an old man in my neighbourhood who retired when my father in law, who is now retired himself, had just started working.

So can you imagine how old this man is?

The interesting thing about this old uncle is that he regularly walks the approximately 500m from his house to the bus station, rides the bus that takes him to Seria town and spends half of his day walking around town and meeting his friends. In his very smart attire, complete with a hat!

I know that there are no other folks of his age in his household and being such a sociable man, perhaps this is why he made the effort to go to town to meet friends. Of the several times that we do see him in town, he mostly walks around, feeds the pigeons or chats with other old folks.

I wonder if he would perhaps welcome some organized activities for folks his age where they can properly get together and socialise in a better environment like those offered at those exclusive nursing homes we see in televisions and movies.

In fact, I certainly hope that better senior care homes such as those nursing homes in Queens (USA) will be one of my options when the time comes for me to decide on where to spend my old age.

Because we here held up at the border and again at the Limbang-Temburong ferry point, we had to stop for lunch at Temburong town.

This is not our usual stop point so looking for a place to eat in this quiet town was a bit of an “adventure”.

When my husband used to work in Bandar many years ago and had to go to Temburong for some of his projects, there was an Indian place which he used to frequent which when we started driving from Brunei-Sabah, became our regular pitstop too.

However, this place was no longer there but we did discover a better place and Eu promptly gave her stamp of approval the moment we stepped inside.

“I LOVE this place because it has air-con!“

Trust her to attract everyone’s attention and being a small restaurant, I just know that even the kitchen staffs heard her.

For such a small town, it looked like this restaurant has a steady flow of customers because they also offer buffet lunch for $5, which we didn’t take.

Instead, we had fried mee, tuna sandwiches and nasi lemak.

Despite being 80% full, Eu and Qi continued to dominate the place with all sorts of exclamations and questions that I sometimes wondered if we are letting them be too “chatty”?

Anyway, this is the only air-conditioned restaurant on the old Temburong block and if you found yourself having to stop by Temburong, this place is recommended.

Seeing a website on cosmetic surgery New Jersey, I am reminded of someone who will surely indulge himself in that plastic surgery show in Discovery Health channel.

Without me demanding for my turn for some tube time.

In a way, it also a welcome break for me from having to constantly stop myself from accidently looking at the TV when that show is on air because unless you don’t mind the sight of knife running across someone’s flesh, this is a seriously gory show.

Actually to be honest, seeing the before and after differences on patients achieved by the featured surgeons in this show are very interesting and although I do not have any intention of ever letting myself go under the knife - unless it’s for health reasons - it is amazing to see the transformation of what a little nip, tuck or enhancement can do to someone’s appearance.

Since, I too know the average cost of such cosmetic surgeries - expensive - thanks to his interest in this kind of “educational” shows, it is no wonder that such a culture is not as commonly accepted or expected as in the western countries.

Of course, this is not to say that cosmetic surgery is not big here in our region because isn’t it an open secret that some of that double eye lids, almond shaped eyes or sharp noses that we see on those beautiful faces on TV are achieved under some specialists knives?

Tomorrow I plan to hit the town and get my Christmas shopping list done and over with.

I know my sister is not looking forward to chauffeuring me around with the kind of traffic jams that plagued KK these days and I just know what Eu will say when I tell her that I am going out, again.

“AGAIN?! I thought you already went out yesterday?!“

But if my sister is reading this, just think of the possibilities of lunch that we can explore tomorrow - Italian, Indian, (please no) Japanese or Western - I’ll leave it to you to choose as long as you do not complain when I need to go on every floors of every mall in town.

If only I am not so particular about shopping online (think exchange rate, think credit card safety, think delivery issues, think taxes..) because there are two persons in my list who I know will love something funky and fabulous from juicy, an online boutique that offers handbags, clothes and footwear.

Besides, presents for these two persons are done anyway so the funky and fabulous from online boutiques has to be KIV for next Christmas.

It’s the other 70% in my list whom I now have to dream for some inspirations tonight.

On our way to Tuaran today, my friend told me of her recent Manila trip.

Of the agony of being stuck in a jam for 3 hours as their van inched through throngs of Filipinos at the first day of a special Christmas day market. Of the eye opening experience of seeing what a truly crowded city is like with side walks filled with the unfortunate and the homeless. Of the experience of being in that mall where there was a bomb explosion.

But there were some highlights too.

Of seeing Imelda Marcos in the flesh, being impressed with her elegance, her commanding posture, the security surrounding her and most especially, her never ageing complexion. As my friend puts it, she looks just like her pictures 20 years ago.

Of course, there are some women who through careful dieting and lifestyles, have maintained their looks. There are even luckier ones, like an old lady that I met this afternoon, who is in her late 60s yet have fewer lines than some women in their 40s and you can rest assure that it was naturally achieved.

I’d sure like to know what their secrets are because I am not particular with my diets and judging from the older generations in my family, wrinkles are in my genes.

And those of you who are like me, need not accept a less than perfect face - if that is what you want - because you only need to watch a show on plastic surgery on Discovery Health channel to know that with the right surgeon and enough money, a lot of physical enhancements are possible such as one rhinoplasty Toronto surgeon, Dr. David Ellis, explains in his site.

Since it’s a Saturday, I thought I’d let you in on our Saturday family ritual.

As with most of our neighbours, it is my parents in law’s weekly ritual to go to the Saturday “tamu” (open market) at the Seria market ground. Of course it doesn’t only involve shopping for fresh produce but perhaps, most importantly, it’s an opportunity for these old folks to exchange news with their friends.

In fact, we often get news of faraway friend’s courtesy of their parents sharing the news with my parents in law as well as other community news - all from the Saturday “tamu”!

After the “tamu”, most of these shoppers would either have their Saturday morning breakfast in town. My parents in law however would buy take-away packets of noodle and these are our expected breakfast for nearly every Saturdays.

Last month, I got to know from an indignant Nonnie that the price of this noodle has increased by 30¢.

This to me is only fair since the last price hike was more than 10 years ago and besides, since the Seria mee stall operaters moved to the new building, they had to pay a higher rental fee.

Well, Seria folks who are overseas, that well known Seria mee is now selling for $1.80.