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College life has been keeping me occupied with a lot of work. I remembered that I was complaining of boredom when I was waiting for college to start but now I am pretty occupied with a lot of work especially assignments. I believe that college life is indeed much more fun than secondary school but it is just the work and assignments that I need to cope with. Computer graphics class is quite pressuring at times given that the assignments only have a one week deadline and I suppose it will go on every week since there are no theory tests for computer graphics. Until then, I hope all of you are doing fine and take care alright.

I’m sure many of us love prawn mee very much. In Petaling Jaya, Mee Yoke Lim in SS2 Cheow Yang is one of the famous ones known for the good taste in it. During my visit to Singapore last year, I happened to bump in to this stall in Hong Lim Food Centre that sells Hokkien prawn mee. It is really difficult to hunt down some good food in another place that you’re not familiar with without the locals bringing you around so I was actually quite lucky to be able to bump into this stall.

The Old Stall Hokkien Street Famous Hokkien Prawn Mee is located in Hong Lim food centre and in my opinion it isn’t that difficult to find it, locals should be able to find it without any problems while tourists could just ask around and you’ll be there in no time. There’s also a MRT station near this place but I can’t recall which station is it, perhaps someone could enlighten me on this ?

Prawn Mee (dry)

Now most of us actually have eaten prawn mee with soup so this stall offers it in a dry version and is one of the favourites among the regulars here. The prawns were fresh too when I tried it. Now I really couldn’t ask for more.

Prawn Mee (with soup)

Now this is the one people are more familiar with, however it does not look the same because the soup is not as thick as the rest. Well there is a reason behind this which will be explained later on. According to the owner Michael, the soup will be boiled early in the morning together with lots of ingredients to have the best possible soup for the prawn mee.

Now I said that there were reasons for the soup not being thick, the owner said that the chili powder provided should be put in to the soup to add more “oomph” in it. The chili powder is also for sale but I am not too sure of the price though.

Me with the owner Michael

Overall I think that this stall offers a really good and satisfying prawn mee. I dare not compare this stall with the rest because I’ve not tried others yet but I dare say that the prawn mee here is good and many celebrities from other country do come to this stall for the prawn mee too as said by the owner. I have also read many other comments on this stall in other blogs and most of it are giving good comments so you can be rest assured that the quality of the prawn mee here is good.

The Old Stall Famous Hokkien Prawn Mee
Hong Lim Food Centre
531A Upper Cross Street #02-68
NOTE : Closed on Thursdays

As I posted out in one of my earlier post, I have been selected for the National Service program in June. I then submitted an application form for postponement because my Diploma course will be starting before the date I have to report in to the camp. So I submitted the form on the 28th of March 2008 and was just hoping that it would be approved because if the application isn’t approved by them then I would be wasting my time since I would then have to wait for January 2009 to start college. I then called the postponement department to check on the status of my application, one lady then told me to wait for a postcard. I waited and waited and have not seen any postcard in my letter box. I received the notice letter notifying me of the camp I’m in and the date to report in on this week’s Tuesday (27th of May 2008), I was disappointed because there weren’t anything about the postponement. I called up the department to check knowing that something is not right, I was then told that there were no information or should I say no records of me submitting an application for postponement, to me it indirectly means that they have probably misplaced or lost the form I submitted because if they did received the form then I would at least know the status of it even if it was rejected. I went to their office the next day to double check if there really was no record of me submitting it and yes there really was no record of it. I then had to resubmit another form for postponement. I am really disappointed with the way they handle this, how could there be no records of me submitting it when I went to their office on the 28th of March 2008 and passed the form to them with my hands ? It was a lot of hassle taking public transports down to their office just to resubmit another application form. To all of you who wish to submit an application to postpone your National Service program, I advice you to always check on the status of your application or else you might be the next victim just like me.

Today I’ll be introducing a place where the nasi lemak is good, as far as I know good for all races be it Malay, Chinese or Indian. After all we live in a multi racial country right ? I’m sure food can bring all three races together.

Madam Kwan’s is actually famous and established now. I first tried out Madam Kwan’s in Suria KLCC, their first branch if I’m not mistaken so please correct me if I’m wrong. However, Suria KLCC was quite far from my place and after Madam Kwan’s opened in Mid Valley Megamall, I’m quite a frequent visitor of this restaurant because they offer simple, fast and yet good food.

Nasi Lemak

The nasi lemak is one of the trademark food here in this restaurant. It is also one of the commonly ordered ones in most tables. I like to order their nasi lemak because they serve it really fast, I assume they have already pack ready the nasi lemak and will just heat it up if there’s an order. Of course the deciding factor is always because it is good. This nasi lemak is priced at RM14.20 and yes it does seem to be a little expensive but considering the taste of it, I’m pretty sure people won’t mind paying for it once in a while.

I have also tried their dishes long time ago and it was good as well. The price might be slightly expensive but like I said, some people won’t mind paying a slightly higher price tag for good food. With that, I can say Madam Kwan’s offers a variety of good food in a shopping mall with a slightly higher price tag but it isn’t ridiculously priced.

Madam Kwan’s Restaurant
F-052, First Floor
Mid Valley Megamall
Tel : 03-22972297

So finally I am able to check which camp I’ll be going to, it is at Beranang, Selangor. Well of course I do not really want to skip it all but since this is the third batch for 2008, if I choose to go then I’ll miss out my college studies for this year and will only start next year. That is too much time to waste. Hopefully I’ll receive the approval letter for my postponement.

So how was Wesak Day for you if you are a Buddhist ? Wesak Day or also known as Vesak is to commemorate events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions which are the birth, enlightenment and the passing away of the Buddha. I woke up quite early to head down the nearest temple with my dad which is the Thai Buddhist Wat Chetawan Temple at Jalan Gasing.

The crowd at this temple is considered a lot especially when it was only about 7.30am. Well, it is still one of the biggest if not the biggest temple around Petaling Jaya. Moreover, parking here is quite convenient. The weather was good too yesterday morning.

The joss sticks had to be removed quite frequently because there were so many of it until there isn’t any space left for others to put their joss sticks there. It was so smoky that it irritates the eyes, well after all it is just once a year.

The main hall where the Buddha is was packed too especially the blessing area. Even when there are notices outside the hall stating that joss sticks aren’t allowed to be brought into the hall, still there were people bringing joss sticks in. There was a man kept on announcing not to bring in but still people couldn’t bother to listen to him. I wonder if they do not understand what he was saying or just simply inconsiderate ?

So donations have been improved in such a way that you could donate some money to exchange for coins and put it in the box provided as shown in the above photo.

In this Wat Chetawan Temple, there is this area where you get to exchange for coins and then going one round ringing the bells. Well it is always nice to ring the bell, the sound of the bell kick starts a beautiful morning.

This lady pointed out to ring the bell and so should everybody who came to this temple. I happened to snapped this and didn’t realized that it looks as though she was pointing at the bell.

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Wesak Day although it is already over. I hope you had a great time visiting temples yesterday to celebrate Vesak. May God bless you always.