INTRA PARTY FACTIONS in PERAK

I once sat in a mamak stall with some very seasoned DAP member uncles and aunties having breakfast, discussing Malaysian Politics. And one reason or another led the conversation to discussing INTRA-party struggle, especially during times or austerity, or during periods of post defeat wound licking. There’s no denying that the loss of rule of Perak and the current cuts of subsidies and rise in commodity prices is anything other than just that.

The crux of the conversation boils down to this: Intra Party leadership struggles are more often than not, more ruthlessly executed, and more importantly causes more collateral damage that inter-party politics. Let me elaborate on this.

To put it in the simplest terms, a fight between two parties are centred around the respective parties’ vision of the future, policies in which they want to introduce and implement, and what change they propose they see fit for the people. So it’s essentially, the very different idealogical and political boundaries that are being challenged. On the other hand, the fight between so called ‘factions’ between leaders of the same party, who already share the same ideologies and policies, turns the fight into a fight bound and fuelled by emotions, allegiances, and worst still ruthless ambition to step up to the next level. It is unfortunately, a school yard fight about who’s your best friend at the time and who’s style is the most ‘in’ and pleases the most people. We all, as human beings know the consequences of

One can argue that’s the nature of politics and democracy. And it indeed it’s right. Anyone who pretends that elections, whether they be inter or intra party should be calm collective discussions and wholely civilised, are either living in denial or not very clear about the objectives of a democratic system. Furthermore, it’s only natural that factions are formed pre elections. After all, election, best compared with motor racing, contrary to popular belief, is very much so a team sport.

Let’s look at the two camps in question. And since it’s two different styles of politics, I will describe Kula being the driver of a Formula 1 team, and the Ngeh and Nga cousins being the drivers of a high performance Rally driving team.

Kula has been in Parliament now for a while and is well known for his firebrand no-nonsense approach. His oratorical skills is one of a naturally strong projection and but flows smoothly like palm syrup onto nyonya kueh’s. His charisma on a one to one basis, contrarily is overwhelmingly attractive, and has an adorable nature to it. He can sembang kopi with you in a kopitiam as well as talk about the importance of recycling and it’s long term ecological, economical and impacts if not addressed right now. To summarise, he’s an all roundl versatile smooth operator who knows his tracks. And once he’s familiar with the track, he can gain some high speeds as long as his well experienced team that he’s spent his entire career assembling slowly but surely, does him proud, and track conditions are good.

The Cousins on the other had are very different in their approach. To me, they are the driver and co-driver of a rough mountain and jungle terrain rally team with some very talented fast thinking team of young mechanics. Ngeh is the disciplined, calm and technically perfect main driver whose exacting standards has earnt him support and a long lasting leadership with the party. Armed with lethal oratorical skills, Nga is the ‘grown up’ cheeky chappy who loves taking very well calculated risks and had made a commercial and political success for himself, just by being inspirational and calling for the right gears on the right corner at the right time. It is no surprise that they dominate in any arena they are a contender in, as they are a truly amazing partnership. They have navigated, completed and succeeded in terrains never thought possible by their predecessors, and they’ve also done so by keeping their integrity intact.

I am in no position to say which is the better camp. Neither will I voice my opinions on who should. But I will cast a vote like any other active participants in a democratic process are bound by their duty as a citizen will do.

At the end of the day... it really depends on which one you prefer... Rally or F1

Dinner & Andy & Pav's

Dinner @ Pavlica & Andy's

A lovely evening was had by all last night.

Terrine of lemon-verbena, scented chicken, Shiitake mushroom and leek; leek and mushroom stir fry; Sesame infused ginger purée

Fish n chips salt n vinegar crusted river cobbler; lemongrass dauphinoise; coriander & pea pesto

Salad of orange confit duck leg; pan roasted duck breast; maché & rocket; orange duck glaze; orange & duck fat bread stick

seared & pink poached pork fillet; apple glazed vegetables; sweetcorn & thyme purée; crackling

coconut infused rice, pea and bean pudding; raspberry & mint pickled beetroot and orange ta!rt tatin!

there was no plate-scraping needed though some ate more than other!!! Andy....

By the way, What an amazing house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And thanks Felicia for doing the invitations!

Lemgrass scented curried cos cheeks, rice & split peas salad, papaya & passionfruit yoghurt, powdered coriander & mango

Wrote the recipe and lost it to a crashed computer!... will post later!!! DOH!

GIGA Synergy of Meat & Two Veg, & Tasteful Marriage of Flavours or Flavourful Marriage of Tastes 24th Feb 2010

http://iodnorfolk.com/2010/03/experimental-asian-cooking-with-howard-lee/

God, nature, natural selection depending on your religiosity or spiritual belief has equipped us with the necessary tools and organs to perceive the five senses.

gestation, olfaction, vision, audition, tactition.

To go further and deeper, one can even look at the senses of

proprioception and kineastheis, thermoception, magnetoception, and equilibrioception.

With this vast array of tools, powered by the CPU that is the brain, we are able to receive, process, interpret, analyse and enjoy the experiences that we get bombarded with on a mililisecond by millisecond basis that this world has to throw at us. During this meal and lecture, I will endeavour to explore all of the five sense and maybe even touching on some of the deeper ones, but through the looking glass of a chef using stimuli that can be ingested………

Through this lecture and the food tonight, I’d like to achieve the following:

• Give you a sneak preview into the way a chef’s mind work when composing a menu, when the sole purpose of the exercise is to provide a multisensory experience led by the gustatory and olfactorial sense.


• To demonstrate the employment of perception; conventional and unconventional combination of ingredient to achieve tastes and aromas; and consequentially the combination of those factors, to achieve flavours.


• Outline to you, the joys and pains of a chef’s search for Glutamate, Inosonate, Guanylate Associative Synergy… or how to make things taste good!!

• What good is all of the above to YOU!

Andrea is the lovely but naive new editorial assistant at Runway, the Vogue-like fashion magazine edited by the steely Miranda. In the movie, the word "naive" is tossed at Andy by coworkers as a way of belittling her fashion sense. But there is a deep and more interestingly naiveté that surfaces when she fails to stifle a chuckle about the intense debate about belts and other items of fashion during a designer-preview. Specifically, Andrea harbors a naive assumption about her own power of choice in the face of what she considers to be overblown "stuff" filling the offices of this fashion magazine.
Miranda hears Andrea's chuckle and catches her ill-advised description of the racks of clothes as "stuff." She jumps on Andrea's words with catlike speed and precision. In a blue streak, she cuts Andrea's assumption to ribbons:
Stuff? Oh, okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet, and you select, I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that sweater is not just blue. It's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002 Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was St. Laurent, wasn't it, who showed a selection of cerulean military jackets. And then cerulean quickly showed up in collections of eight different designers. It filtered down through the department stores, and then trickled down into some tragic Casual Corner where you undoubtedly fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs. It's sort of comical how you think you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry, when in fact, you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room... from "a pile of stuff."
Though not always so, through the ages, ideas and products and in the case of the gastronomic world; flavour combinations and preparation techniques were ‘selected’ and found to be ‘favoured’ by the elite, or trendsetters (royalty and gentry, foreign dignitaries, celebrated chefs, public figures). Said favoured trends, ingredients and combinations have more often than not ‘trickled down through the filter that is society, and inadvertently finding their ways on to the dinner tables of people from all sector of society… admittedly more often than not a lesser (bastardised) incarnations of the original. They may not be objectively what we enjoy but have inadvertently learnt to accept, or not to repel.
The point of this clip is neither to patronize folk about your fashion sense, or in my case lack of; neither is it an elaborate way of me saying everyone should embrace the en-vogue most current, upto date food trend of the three Michelin star establishments… beacsue it will eventually become the norm. The point that I’m trying to encourage folk to consider, is that each and every single one of us in this room have a memory bank of flavours, tastes, food memories and things of the like within us that either restricts us in someway, or heightens us in other, the way we enjoy certain ingredient combination and food preparations.
By asking the question how would you fancy curried anchovies with coconut and pandan steamed rice with a biltong-esque curried buffalo……

or

A dried shrimp and pork rib infused rice porridge, frog ovarian fat, potash and smoked salt cured sea urchin and sea cucumber, thousand year egg, pork intestine crisps and deep fried 24 day open air fermented bean curd….

Some of you may find the above almost acceptable and would not immediately hide behind a screen when these are announced to you to be on your menu…. But your reactions would be rightfully reluctant (or worse) if these were presented to you for breakfast….
By freeing our minds of certain pre-conceptions and loosening certain associations, and hence lowering certain guards against some counter intuitive prospective food experience, (eg pork loin and sweetcorn purée…)… or indeed the traditional Malay Breakfast of Nasi Lemak dan Rendang Kerbau breakfast . The associations we form of food experiences are also heavily associated with occasions and emotional states.

Pre conceived ideas and pre-indoctrinated cultural/flavour association.
Consider

crisps, nan’s casserole; mums roast dinners; sandwich fillings, pizza toppings

Beef: Carrots, Onion, Beetroot, Cabbage
Chicken: Mushroom, Sweetcorn, Ginger, Parmesan
Turkey: Coriander, Cranberry, curry, Cornichon
Duck Tomato, Aubergine, Orange, Apple

Lock and Key mechanism:
Goats cheese, Picalili Parmesan, Shropshire Blue, Red Onion Marmalade




Pearl Barley Risotto of Shiitake Mushroom & Anchovy paste

Thanks Mandy!

a humbling testimonial from Mandy Farrow.

Biscotti; Kopi O Kelly; Limoncello sorbet

another recipe I found from the my vault of recipes.....

This was a recipe that I refined... over the course of 5-6 attempts (mainly the biscotti). My sister Ary, after watching some Hong Kong TV drama where the female lead decided to 'win the heart' of the male lead 'through his stomach' by presenting him with a jar of biscotti.... naturally, she asked me for a recipe and I ended up making the damn things for her..... Whether or not hearts were won through my bisocttis, I;d never know but I would've certainly been happy to receive them.

Salad of Flaked white fish, roasted sweet pepper; sweet soy, ginger and tarragon dressing; soy vinegar sautéed baby Pak choy & cabbage.

There are certain dishes that are unassuming by how it sounds, tastes or looks. There's not even a back story to it that can paint the picture of 'strength in mediocrity'. They simply do the job of giving you just enough stimulation to not dislike it, but really didn't make enough of an imprint in your mind that you'd even remember ever having it.

So why am I putting it my first ever posting of a recipe online, and possibly in my first ever book? WHY????

BECAUSE:

• the same reason why extras are needed on a film set...
• frames are used to adorn a masterpiece...
• humans are born with eyebrows, tail bones, appendixes and men with nipples...
• etc etc etc...

they serve a purpose however small, insignificant, pointless and dull that may be.

This dish most certainly ain't dull but leaves a great deal for imagination. It requires very little skill or finesse in it's preparation; and it most definitely won't change your life when presented to you. But somehow.... I like it.

Ingredients

Stir fry

quarter of a small white cabbage (shredded to 2 mm thick chiffonade)
4 baby pak choys washed
1 clove of garlic peeled and green shoot in the centre removed, and slived thinly
1 whole small red onion finely sliced
1 tbspoon of sesame seed oil
5 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
5 tbsp of light soya sauce
175 ml of mirin
1 inch of root ginger

Salad

1 red pepper
1yellow pepper roasted, skinned and thinly sliced
100g mixed rocket, baby spinach, lollo rosso and frisée... ( or any salad leaved really)
2 heaped tbsp of sesame seeds toasted

1 head of fennel shaved thinly and marinated in the juice of 2 oranges (or just enough to cover the lot

Onion crisps

Dressing

10g dill
20g tarragon finely chopped

1 tbsp ginger oil

3 heaped tbsp of sweet soya sauce

4 tbsp olive oil

Fish and steaming liquer

600 g cos

175 ml mirin

1 bay leaf

2 curry leaves

4 peppercorn