Movie Review 32: On His Majesty's Secret Service

Title: On His Majesty's Secret Service (大内密探灵灵狗)

Director: Wong Jing

Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Normally, I would not be watching such a movie, but it was a long weekend and there were no interesting movies that I like to watch... I was weighing between District 9 and this movie and finally go for a comedic movie just to have some laughs. Surprisingly, there were still more than 10 people watching this movie in the cinema,,, I was really afraid of watching this movie all alone... some spooky films come to my mind as I ponder this :P.

This movie is about a plot to assassinate the Emperor and it is the job of the 12 Royal Guards to protect him as they fend of various attempts and plots to overthrow the Emperor. Heading the 12 Royal Guards is the Royal Dog (Louis Koo)( the rest of the Guardians are named according to the 12 Chinese animal zodiac) and he is the only one who doesn't know martial arts. However, his scientific discoveries is more than enough to garner him as one of the Royal Guardians.

As you all know, a movie by Wong Jing is mostly comedic, B-grade comedy, to be exact. I had to admit that it is a really funny movie but it is the same kind of gross and meaningless (mou lei tau) comedy as with his other movies. You would be saying a lot of 'duh' throughout the movie. I think it would have gotten more favourable reception if it came during Chinese New Year.

This movie has a lot of cast members and a lot of them are veterans in the film industry. However, it is obvious that a lot of the non so familiar faces are from China as they were speaking in Mandarin (dubbed in Cantonese) throughout the movie and you can see the difference in lips movement compared to the dubbed Cantonese.

At first I thought that it would be similar to Stephen Chow's '008', but apart from the concept, it is in not that similar... I mean, in '008' Stephen Chow actually managed to learn one martial arts move while Louis Koo is totally non-martial type throughout the movie.

Anyway, this movie while funny, is not really worth the RM10 ticket price. Try to catch it in Astro or TV during Chinese New Year to have a good laugh.

Observation: The martial arts skill of Faithful (Barbie Hsu) throughout the movie is non-consistent... at one time she was on par with the main villain of the movie and at another time she was defeated by the main villain's underling

Bottomline: Funny but not worth the ticket price

Bamboo Ranking: 2.5 / 5.0

Game by Olay

Well, my friend the Witch challenged me to an online game... challenged me... ME!!! Of course, being a really competitive person, I responded immediately. There were some minor problems with registration, but after registering twice, I managed to get in.

It is actually a flash game by Olay... for marketing purposes, of course. Also, Nuffnang held a competition where there're prizes. I for one, is too lazy to tag five different people and challenge them to the game... actually, come to think of it, I don't think I have 5 friends who write blogs. Besides, I never win any competition anyway and the deadline is so near (by 31st August 2009)... so I'm not taking part of the competition. I'm not sure what's the criteria to win the prize but my marks are definitely not high enough to be winning material. And my writing style is not interesting enough to win too... so why bother? :P I'm actually being very accomodating by registering before playing the games... I hate registration process, not to mention that my mailbox is gonna to be bomb by junk mails in the future!

I'm posting the online scores just to show the Witch that I have higher scores than hers:P. Of course, she should have got higher scores than this by the time I posted this but I'm comparing my scores with her scores that she posted in her blog.

Anyway, if you're interested in this competition, visit her blog and follow the instructions there.

Bamboo (1099) vs the Witch (912)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (638) vs the Witch (530)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (1313) vs the Witch (947)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (571) vs the Witch (532)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (1192) vs the Witch (998)

Bamboo Wins!

Bamboo (560) vs the Witch (1274)

the Witch wins loh :P

Okay, I'm pretty sure that the Witch cheated in the final game one. There's no way one can get that high marks... okay fine, I'm terrible at searching stuff... I'm wearing specs with 1000+ power okay... still, I won 5 out of 6 games! Hurrah!

Misfortune With My Car

Sigh, don't know what happen with me and my car lately... a series of misfortune events befell me due to my car.

Few weeks ago, a motorist like the butt of my car so much that she just rammed into it. No, it's definitely not my fault. I was waiting at the traffic lights and the colour was definitely red! Of course, even though it was plainly not my fault, bystanders would think that I'm the one at fault since I'm driving a car and the other is riding a motorcycle. And also, I'm a guy and the one on the floor is a woman. So, I had to get down from my car and ask if she's okay. Strangely though, she apologized. My car had been hit by a vehicle four times in the past four years (of which three of them is not my fault) and none of them has ever apologized to me! Well, even though my bumper has dropped down (still attaching to the car though), I took pity in her since the front wheel of the bike was totally off angle. Luckily for her, I'm not one of those people who would kill for just getting a scratch in their cars. I don't care about the exterior of the car... what matters to me is the interior of the car, eg. engine, brakes and stuff.

Then, a few days later, I couldn't turn my alarm off with my car key button. Apparently, the battery of my car key is dead. The problem is, I have never bothered to find out where the button to turn off the alarm is in my car. Since my car was initially locked with alarm on, while I can open the door by using the car key, I need to find the button in my car to turn off the wailing alarm. And I was so afraid that someone would accuse me of stealing a car since the alarm was wailing like mad with me groping in the car to find the button. After several minutes of groping and failing to find the button, I was lucky enough to still managed to squeeze one final juice from the car key battery and I managed to turn off the alarm using the car key. Now, I still have no idea where is the button in the car that will turn off the alarm :P.

Another few days later, I found that the car plate of my car is missing! I don't know exactly when it was gone since I rarely do reverse parking and so, I rarely look at the front of my car (only the front plate is missing). Well, looking at another side of my situation, I could say that I was lucky. This is because, my car plate dropped off once two years ago. That time, a friendly McDonalds drive-thru cashier notified me that only one corner of my car plate is still attached to the car. So, I got off the car and slam the car plate back to it's position. And that actually lasted for two years! I'm not sure for other cars, but my car's car plate is attached to the car by using only glue (put by car manufacturer, not by me :P). So, I think it's pretty unsafe loh. I went to the shop and ask them to make two holes in my new car plate and ask them to bolt it down into my car... now, it's definitely safe!

For the next thing that would occur to my car, I would predict my car battery being dead. It has been more than 2 years since I last change my car battery, so I would expect it to be dead anytime now. The first 3 misfortunes that happened to my car was resolved with only minimal amount of money. The bumper was corrected with only RM8, while the car key battery costs RM6 and the car plate costs RM13. The car battery however, is another matter. I wonder if the price increased much since two years ago. Must start saving now!

Movie Review 31: Up

Title: Up

Director: Bob Peterson

Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes

Genre: Animation, Comedy

Carl Fredrickson (Edward Asner) in his last ditch attempt to fulfill his wife's dream to live in the Paradise Falls, modified his house into a flying house. Unfortunately, Russell (Jordan Nagai) was inadvertently caught in the middle of Carl's plans and was forced to follow Carl's journey into the depths of South Africa.

Really, by watching the previews, I knew that this movie is gonna suck. It has its funny moments, but mostly I think that it is one of the worst animation films that I have ever watched.

First, there's no super cute characters. Animals, humans, villains are all just dull and to be frank, it actually looked like claymation to me :P. The storyline might be suitable for kids but definitely not suitable for adults. It just doesn't make any sense at all!

Let's just say that it's possible for a person to attach so much balloon into his house so that it makes it float, there is no way the house would be able to handle the stress exerted by the balloons. Since his balloons are tied to several points in his chimney, that means the floor of the chimney must be strong enough to support the weight of the house or else, it's only the floor of the chimney that will float away from the house!

Also, the balloons miraculously survive a thunderstorm but will actually pop by just scratching some stone surface? Not to mention by flying up, the sun will be stronger and should pop the balloons like crazy.

Aside from the nonsensical concept, the story itself isn't much to shout about. The adventures started in South America but it doesn't really have the adrenaline driving kind of adventures. Even the climax was sort of anti climatic.

But of course, if I one do not look at the big picture, there are quite a lot of laughs here and there. And since the characters are not cute, they can't really use cute expressions to induce laughs in the audiences, that means the writers are very good in writing the jokes... just not good enough to write a decent storyline.

Really, if you go and watch the movie, after 24 hours, try to remember the characters in the movie and you'll find yourself not remembering any names... except maybe Doug for the dog :P.

It's only a movie that children might be interested in but definitely won't be successful enough to be able to market toys and gadgets of the characters.

Trivia: Carl uses sails to propel and steer his house. Sails don't work on a balloon. The sails and the balloon are both moving at the same speed as the air mass.

Bottomline: Funny but not cute

Bamboo Ranking: 2.8 / 5.0

There Are No Miracles!

There was a man who heard that if you wish and think for something hard enough, you will get it. Thus, he goes to the church and prayed to God, "Lord, please let me win a grand prize in the lottery ticket." He did so everyday and though his prayers went unanswered, he continued to do so without fail. Finally, after a long, long time, God answered his prayers and His reply was "Oh, for God's sake, will you just go and buy a lottery ticket already?" (based on a story from Jack Canfield)

Seven Sins of a Child

Seven Sins Depicted in America's Next Top Model

Okay, before the bombing starts, please know that this is just an observation. There is no malice from my part... I just consider it to be an interesting observation. I am not writing this to discredit all children. In fact, I love children and besides, I was a child too! The following article is applicable only for children under the age of seven.

I have always heard people saying that children are pure, innocent, good, little angels, etc. However, in actuality, they are the embodiment of the seven sins. In case you did not know it, the seven sins are gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, lust and pride.

Gluttony

Gluttony is derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, which meant over-indulgence and over-consumption of food and drinks. Saint Thomas Aquinas categorized six ways of committing gluttony as eating too soon, eating too expensively, eating too much, eating too eagerly, eating too daintily and eating wildly. (from Wikipedia)

Surely, you don’t need me to explain much to prove that children are the embodiment of gluttony. They commit five of the six ways to commit gluttony as described by St. Thomas Aquinas explained above. Children will demand for food no matter what the time, always demand for delicacies like sweets, ice-creams, cookies and cakes and will gobble up everything when your back is turned... provided it’s the food they like, of course. They are just never full... only for food that they like of course :P.

Greed

Greed in psychology is an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves. (from Wikipedia)

Well, it is again obvious that children are greedy. They will want to hoard all the food they like, want to have lots of toys, gadgets, attention, etc. They will be unwilling to share but will not accept the fact that others have the right not to share their toys/food too.

Sloth

Sloth is defined as putting off what someone asks you to do or not doing it or anything at all.

For those who are parents, how often is it that you have to threaten your child to do their homework and housework? Children would rather spend their time glued to the TV or just sitting around doing nothing rather than doing something they are told to such as cleaning their room. Babies sleep all the time too… of course, they need the rest, but sleeping whole day doing nothing fits the description of sloth too :P.

Wrath

Wrath is an emotional state that may range from minor irritation to intense rage. In Buddhism is also defined as “being unable to bear the object, or the intention to cause harm to the object.” (from Wikipedia)

Ever heard a child’s scream? The probability is that the child’s parents refused to buy something that the child wants. They would throw tantrums, scream wildly and in some cases, would even utter words that a person should never know at such young age. Some more bold ones would actually start to throw things around in their attempt in exacting vengeance on their parents.

Envy

Envy may be defined as an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement or possession and either desires it or wishes the other lacked it. The Book of Exodus (20:17) states: " You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour."

Well, don’t you remember when you’re little that you were green-eyed when the other child has a brick game or a Gameboy or a beautiful Barbie doll? Don’t you ever wished that your parents would be as generous as the other child’s parents? Didn’t it ever cross your mind to wish to see that beautiful Gameboy that child is playing will break down or maybe you even thought of stealing it? Remember when the teacher praised the others instead of you? Enough said!

Lust

Lust is an inordinate craving for flesh of another to the point of assuming self-indulgent and sometimes violent character.

Okay, this is only one of the seven sins that is in the grey area… meaning, that this is the only sin that children did not commit the full meaning of the sin. The sin of Lust is primarily used for sex. And of course, thankfully, we are not in an era when this thing is common for those who are related through first blood.

However, in a lesser level, lust is also the feeling of love to the extremities. Examples are, loving someone so much that you would do something that would hurt him/her just to get their love and attention. And that is something that children would do. In order for you to continuously love them, they would just do almost anything to get your attention. Children would cry whenever you leave the room or when you leave them in the care of another. They would be screaming and flailing wildly at you so that you would not leave them and would be at their side forever. Of course, it is amusing to note that this feeling will wear off once they have gotten used to the idea of you leaving them and once they got to know friends. Just remember, whenever you think that your teenager child is not loving you as much now, it was you who convinced them that they could survive without your presence!

Pride

Pride is, depending upon context, either a high sense of the worth of one's self or one's own or a pleasure taken in the contemplation of these things. One definition of pride in the first sense comes from Augustine: "the love of one's own excellence. (from Wikipedia)

Pride is also known as the root of all sins as mentioned by St. Thomas Aquinas and seconded by Pope Gregory I… although I do not possess the wisdom to connect pride to the rest of the sins… I mean I can connect pride with wrath, envy, greed and lust, but I have no idea how to connect it to gluttony and sloth.

Children are obviously proud creatures. They would lie and steal just to not be humiliated by others. A great example would be in claiming that they possess certain things that would make others envy even though they did not possess them. Other examples would be claiming their parents to be someone that they are not, lying about toys, gadgets, etc. In Cantonese, we call them "ying lek", if translated directly would be "admitting own's cleverness".

So there, here they are, the Seven Sins. It is horrifying to know that most of us have committed some or even all of the Seven Sins since we were young… at a lesser scale, but nonetheless, it’s still the Seven Sins. No wonder the adults are even worse!

I must say that I have committed all of it since I was a child… except for the last one, pride. Strangely, it never did occur to me to show off when I was a child... I never hide the fact that I am from a poor family, besides, in my time, the stuff that makes us happy doesn't cost lots of money unlike children nowadays, phones, PSP, DSi, computers, etc. Of course, now that I'm an adult, it's an entirely different matter! Now, I am committing all except for one too, guess what is it :P. So, the big question is, are the Seven Sins overrated? Meaning that they are not as bad as they sounds? Or are we just too blind (or unwilling) to see the evil in a child. Afterall, if children are evil, there can be no hope for adults!

Blood Donation - My First

Yes, it's true. I have never donated a single drop of blood... except to Mother Earth when I fell down... in the last 2 plus decades of my life. Well, I'm not exactly an uncaring person... I'm just someone who would not go out of my way to do it. There were lots of blood donation drives in university, shopping complexes and even in my previous companies. But fate has it that my time slot just doesn't meet their requirements. I could have still make it if I try, but I didn't do it because I believe in giving only when it doesn't make me uncomfortable.

Anyway, finally, this year, when my company is having a blood donation drive, I manage to secure a friend who is eager to donate blood too. Most of my university friends doesn't donate blood and that is another reason I have not donated blood previously.

We made plans to donate blood after lunch with the theory being we'll be more energetic after lunch. We were give some forms to fill up, consisting of mainly our particulars and also some health questions. Basically, if you want to donate blood, you'd need to be in the prime of your health for at least a week. My friend, who had some sniffles some days ago was disqualified immediately.

So, I was left alone, but since I have already fill up the forms and everything, I carry on with my mission. First, I was told to weigh myself... which turn out to be 81kg! Hey, it's inclusive of shoes and it's after lunch, okay! Besides, my weigh half a year ago was 85kg and it was early in the morning and I weigh myself in naked form. So, there's an improvement... it's just slow in progress :P.

After that, he punctured my middle finger with a needle like thing and use a syringe to suck some blood out mainly to test the amount of red blood cells and also the blood type kua. After that I was referred to someone else who check the stuff I filled up and took my blood pressure. Did you know that you can't donate blood if you're a male and have sex with another male? Not that I'm doing that but the chances of getting STD (sexually transmitted disease) when a male is having sex with a male should be the same as a male having sex with a female... so why the need to differentiate?

After that, I was led into a room filled with beds and I passed my forms to the person in charge who gave me my first booklet (Hurray!). For those who did not know, this booklet will track the number of times you donated blood and you'll get free medical services based on the number of times you donated blood... which I think is pretty cool, though I would have to say that most people would not be needing those services since nowadays all working people should have insurances covered by their companies... so the only useful thing would most probably be the last one, which is free outpatient services , free admission into first class ward for 10 years and free second class ward for rest of your life... this is available only after you have donated more than 50 times (for whole blood).

My little red book...

The benefits of dontating blood...

I was then given a basket that is filled with the stuff that will be needed for blood donation... empty blood packs, syringe, etc. The blood packs were laced with some medicine to ensure that the blood doesn't coagulate. I was then led to an empty bed and the blood donation process began.

Everyone I have talked to previously who had donated blood said that it is a pretty much pain free process. And I'm going to hunt them down one by one for lying to me! Of course, the pain is similiar to when you test your blood... but try imagining the needle staying in your arm for 20 minutes! I'm not saying this to discourage blood donation... I just want to be frank about what I experienced. I was then given a sponge in which I have to squeeze frequently so as to pump my blood out. I'm not sure which is the correct way but I did the steady and deep squeeze while some others do fast squeezing.

Five minutes into my donation, my arms started to tingle and became numb... my squeezing slowed down and I swear I can feel the room rotating around. I have always feel faint even after the doctor taking my blood for blood test... so this is several times more blood than that... so I supposed it's normal for me to feel faint. 10 minutes into that, everything started to turn for the better. My arm wasn't numb and I don't feel the need to puke anymore.

However, 15 minutes after the needle entered my arm, the nurse came and adjusted my needle. I'm unsure if it's because my blood isn't coming out as fast as she had hoped or what, but OMG that was downright painful! Now, even when I'm not squeezing the sponge, the pain was almost unbearable. And since I need to squeeze the sponge if I were to complete the blood donation, I was almost to my tears! Really, excruciating pain would aptly describe my condition.

Finally, another 5 minutes and the blood donation is done! The nurse took out the needle and put a cotton onto my arm and instructed me to bend my arm. Now, another problem presented itself to me. I know that we are supposed to rest on the bed after the blood donation. However, I'm unsure if I'm supposed to rest until the nurse tell me to leave or when I feel well enough to leave. So, after 10 minutes of staring into the white ceiling, I asked the nurse if I can leave and she told me that I can't yet. So, I guess this means that I have to rest until the nurse tell me to leave.

So, after 15 minutes of really boring resting, I was finally let go. Whew! The whole process to 35 minutes! And the pain is still throbbing in my arm. I did not even take some snacks on my way out :(. However, I do feel kind of good in knowing that I have done a good thing. Of course, chances are that my blood would never be used and would be thrown out after it's expiry date but I'll convince myself that my blood would be pumping around someone's else body, giving him/her life! Will I donate blood again? Yes, I think so. Will I still go out of my way just to donate blood? Sorry, nope... I'll be donating blood only when location and time is suitable for me and will not make a dent into my structured life. But that's just me... you, on the other hand, should go and donate blood, wherever and whenever it is... go do it NOW!

Movie Review 30: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Title: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Director: Stephen Sommers

Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

You know, I did not realise that G.I. Joe refers to a group of people rather than one person. I have always thought G.I. Joe similiar to Rambo... where there's only one person shooting at the bad guys. The reason I thought of that is because I did not watch/read anything related to G.I Joe, but I did watch the film G.I. Jane and it was just one woman going on shooting rampage... so, I thought G.I. Joe would be a male version of G.I. Jane... that is until my friend pointed this error to me in one of our mindless lunch conversations.

So, you must forgive me if I gave any wrong info regarding G.I. Joe since I have no knowledge on its history... so I'm just going to comment on what I observed.

So, this story is about selling weapons... well, no real surprise there... any military related plots has something to do with weapons. This time, it's an unstoppable 'will eat anything' nanomites. It will continue to eat and eat until nothing is there to eat or if you hit the kill switch. But it isn't clear on what the nanomites will actually eat... it is confirmed to eat metal... but I'm unsure if it will eat plastics, humans, plants or anything else... anyway, a group of soldiers were ambushed while they were on their way to deliver the weapons to the government. These enemies were using very high-tech weapons and the 'normal' soldiers were quickly disposed of, except for Conrad Hauser/Duke (Channing Tatum) and Wallace Weems/Ripcord (Marlon Wayans). They were saved by the G.I. Joes and soon it became a war of stealing, counter stealing the weapons!

My impression of this movie is good. It is really action-packed and there is rarely a dull moment. Also, the characters portrayed are very interesting as each is unique on its own... very much like X-Men... without their super powers of course. There's Scarlet (Rachel Nichols) a female shooter, Snake Eyes (Ray Park) sword wielding ninja, Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) an ordinance expert and Breaker (Said Taghmaoui), a hacker.

Also, as with X-Men too, since there are so many characters, some of the relatively 'unimportant' characters were left out... but the director managed to focus on three to four characters, which is really more than one could ask for in such a big cast.

Of course, there are love scenes in the movie... which I must say is the one part that is 'not so nice' in the movie. There are some twists in the movie too... although I managed to see through most of the plot before half of the movie... though I really did not manage to guess The Doctor's identity and most certainly did not expect him to become the Cobra Commander (oooppss spoiler :P). Apart from that, I pretty much expect everything else including Zartan's mission when I saw him changing his looks :P.

Tech gadgets is also another focus point of the movie. You'll see a whole slew of pretty cool gadgets. I must however, say that there are certain loopholes in the movie. For example, even though it is established that Ripcord is a capable pilot, I don't think it is believable for one to be able to drive (and very good at it too) a prototype jet without any experience before... for God's sake, he doesn't even know how to fire the missiles!

Also, I'm not sure if Snake Eyes is supposed to be half naked or wearing suit. I mean the real actor is of course wearing a suit... but I think the Snake Eyes character is supposed to be half naked, which means he has black skin... but his childhood memories shows that he has white skin. How the heck did that happen?

Still I would say that this movie is worth the time and money to watch in the cinema. I have expected the cinemas to be packed with people... I thought that the G.I. Joe fame would be on par with the Transformers... after all, it's all guys stuff :P. Maybe it's due to the H1N1 fear, perhaps?

Trivia: G.I. stands for Government Issue... and oh, Brendan Fraser makes a cameo!

Bottomline: It's worth the time and money.

Bamboo Ranking: 3.8 / 5.0

Food at Tanjung Tualang, Perak

I know I'm gonna to get bombed when I say that this is the first time that I actually visited Tanjung Tualang. Being a Perakian... a Kamparian for that matter, it would be unthinkable for most people that I have never visited Tanjung Tualang in the past.

For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with this place, it is famous for fresh seafood... but then again, I'm not sure if the term is correct or not... because these 'seafood' that they are famous for are not raised in seawater :P but rather in freshwater. See the contradiction there? :P

Anyway, if you ever go there, it is filled (supposedly, though I don't think so) with rows and rows of seafood restaurant and is a famous for both tourists and locals (again, I didn't notice that since the restaurant we ate in is rather quiet).

In a celebration for my sister in graduating (finally!), and getting a car, we decided to go to Tanjung Tualang for dinner (and to determine if she is fit to drive a car in KL :P). Nevertheless, it is a very pressured journey, with me always keeping an eye on basically all directions as she drove her brand new Proton Iswara Gen. 2... which is actually cheaper than my smaller, mini Kelisa! No fair one ler... but if given a choice again, I'll still choose my beloved mini :P... no reason to get a big car when the passenger in the car is almost always myself only.

And I still don't know why would one drive from Kampar over to Tanjung Tualang to have dinner. It's soooo far away! I think it took us almost 45 minutes to reach there (might be due to my sister's (pretended)careful driving).

Anyway, my uncle recommended the restaurant called Sin Mee Fong... since he's friends with the boss lady of the restaurant... mainly due to his frequent visits. There is another more famous restaurant, which I forgot what's the name already... it's supposed to be located at the end of the road... whatever that meant :P. Anyway, he didn't bring us there because the owner of the restaurant (well, I think it's the waiters ler) offended him. Apparently, he was there one weekend with his daughter and the restaurant refuse to take his order because there's only two people... meaning they think that his business is too small.

So, now he's the loyal customer to this Sin Mee Fong.

Sin Mee Foong

Fried rice

One of the must try dish here is the fried rice. Yup, fried rice in a seafood restaurant... nope, it's not seafood fried rice... it's more like kampung fried rice. The fried rice is super fragrant... really delicious... only thing I don't like is the overloaded anchovies. It might be because the rice is so fragrant is due to the anchovies, but with the anchovies, I was unable to fully enjoy in savouring the rice because it's extremely sharp!

Plain steamed prawns

Next dish we (or rather, my uncle) ordered is the plain steamed prawns. My uncle, being in his fifties is watching his diet and thus, he ordered a mid size prawns without the roe... which is fine by me since even though I'm not a healthy eater, I dislike roe. Anyway, the prawns are super nice... super fresh... super succulent... Tanjung Tualang is definitely living up to the name being famous for freshwater seafood restaurants!

Fried prawns...

Next, is the fried prawns... still the same prawns but of different cooking style... and it still is heavenly... it's just plain fried prawns with soy sauce... the soy sauce was a little bit too salty, but it makes the dish even more appealing... seriously, the prawns are to die for... and yes, I ate the shells too :P.

Vegetables...

Sorrylah, I'm not very good at translating Chinese to English... so I have no idea what to call this vege in English, but I presume it would be identifiable with my super clear picture which was taken by a super powerful camera :P. And it is amazing that even such a simple dish can be made so nice... crunchy vege, nice salty taste... good.

Fried oyster

Really, this restaurant never ceased to amaze me... think you've had eaten the best fried oyster? Think again! This one is a little bit different from the ones I ate... this is crispier albeit drier... and anyone who knows me, know that I absolutely deep fried stuff. And this fried oyster is fried with excessive butter... or maybe Planta :P... but the main thing is that is soooo nice! Crispy and salty... what could anyone else ask for? :P Though I must say that I don't really feel the oysters loh... it's more like fried egg... mainly because the oysters are tasteless and the margarine's taste covered the oysters freshness.

Spicy crabs

The supposedly star of the day is unfortunately a great letdown... but it might be because I don't like crabs anyway... basically I don't like anything that I can't immediately put into my mouth after acquiring it from the plate... that's why I don't like prawns too and that's why I was praising the restaurant so much since I actually like something I usually don't like! However, the crabs are another matter. The so-called spicy sauce is not spicy at all... in fact, it tastes sweet! A mix up perhaps? But there were only two tables with customers... and they'll have to be idiots to mix that up with so little customers. Apart from the really bad sauce, the crabs seemed to be not so fresh too... but then again, I really am not sure since the biggest bite that I can take at one time is one tiny sliver of crab meat that I have to work for 5 minutes to get. It's soft and it's crappy.

Some of the prawns that is overloaded with roe

I must say that this restaurant is not bad at all... and if it is located near to my house I would be a frequent customer too... for the fried rice and fried oysters ler... prawns are for rare occasions only. Unfortunately, it soooo far away... and to me no food will ever be great enough for me to drive so far away to taste it.

So, if you don't mind driving over there, it will not disappoint!