http://www.cynthiachin.com Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:48:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I give up on the number of times where I tell outsiders that no, fried tomato noodles are NOT local spaghetti bolognese. Yes, there is such a thing as fried noodles in tomato sauce. Yes, tomato sauce. As in ketchup. And no, it is not weird. It's one of the ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/oodles-of-tomato-ey-noodles [caption id="attachment_806" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Eggplant Salad_wordsmith"][/caption] I used to hate eggplant. Brinjal, as we call it here. It was mushy and squishy, like a mashed up lizard or frog, or snail. And it was tasteless. And a yucky purple when cooked. Who eats yucky purple not-quite-vegetable thingies? So I ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/yucky-purple-delicious This is my Grid-It organizer system, entirely perfect for the messy organized scatterbrain *points at self* who: 1. Gets lost even with those girly organizer bag-inside-a-bag systems. 2. Prefers something that doesn't scream "YOU'RE SUCH A GIRL" 3. Prefers to have all her things stuck to a medium like Velcro so she can ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/my-grid-it I go to places like the Junk, Living Room, Bla Bla Bla, places that are plenty upmarket and really, places I don’t really care to frequent. I’d much prefer a good bowl of kolomee at Kim Joo or a good hearty down-to-earth sandwich at Elephant. No, the enjoyment of yuppie ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/why-i-go The first dog in my memory was Snoopy. He was a dachshund. I was four. Maybe three. Perhaps five. There was Bingo too. She was Snoopy’s daughter I think. Snoopy was such an old man dog. So mature. Like an uncle. He looked after me. I think he played with ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/dog-lover Henghua Pak Mee at Meng Kui. My favourite place for it. I’ve mentioned Meng Kui in so many places, from Going Places to Tiger Tales to dragging friends and family to the place. But, it’s not about Henghua Pake Mee today, though it centres around it. This was where I started ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/over-a-bowl-of-henghua-pak-mee On my way back from a meeting today, something caught my eye: a cluster of lonely pillars on a slab of barren land, remnants of a building that once was. Graffiti covered each pillar, many with haunting themes. At the back where a lonely wall still stood, an entire mural ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/street-art-in-kota-kinabalu Moseyed over to Kota Kinabalu, one of my favourite cities in Malaysia and where the Kinabalu squirrel got its name (love the Kinabalu squirrel too by the way. It's usually fat and rumpy). Packed the little Olympus and left it on my desk at home. D'oh! Been here a ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/where-the-squirrel-got-its-name Opened my email last night  and whaddaya know, got an invite from Kenny Sia to Level Up’s Relaunch, a celebration of their expansion after 17 months in the fitness business in Kuching. It was Kuching’s largest fitness centre. Now it’s even largerer than ever with brand new additions to their ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/level-up-relaunch When it’s been over 20 years since you leave high school, you tend not to keep in touch with most of your mates way back then. That’s true for me at least. Gratefully, the few that I do keep in close contact with keep in touch with the rest ... http://www.cynthiachin.com/railway-cottage-cafe-kuching