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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Manglish gone salad

TMI - Deputy speaker regrets ‘Scissors Salad’ on Parliament dinner menu


 Malaysian Scissor Salad, wakakaka 


a modern version (with avocado & mushroom) of what Caesar Cardini was forced by lack of 'normal' kitchen supplies to create (in a rush) in 1924 in San Diego, USA, but which my patriotic duty urges me to declare would be no fight with our Scissor Salad, wakakaka

Aiyah, dinna ye fret Datuk Ronald Kiandee, and don't blame that poor bloke or sweetie who wrote the menu.


After all, he/she is probably a product of our much mangled education system which gives us our notorious Manglish.

Yes, our education system had been mangled kau kau by our succession of Education Ministers (including the 'Mentor' and his 'Mentee', wakakaka) who treated Malaysian children's education like a political football for their personal intraparty standing.

By the by, have you heard of Chateaubriand steak?


During Napoleon Bonaparte's time, Chef Montmireil prepared this by-now famous dish for the Vicomte François-René de Chateaubriand, an interesting bloke who served as an ambassador for his emperor, and who was also a writer and historian. Chateaubriand is considered as the founder of romanticism in French literature. The chef named the steak dish after the Viscount.

I love (still do) and used to eat Chateaubriand steak in KL at the Le Coq d'Or (The Golden Cockerel) located on Jalan Ampang. I heard with much sad nostalgia that the restaurant closed down for good in 2001 and the lovely stately-looking building (Bok House) was demolished much against the pleas of local heritage activists.


Le Coq d'Or (Bok House)

ample free parking for customers
wakakaka 

The problem with having a Chateaubriand steak was that it was quite a big cut of tenderloin beef which served two (though I was prepared to eat for both if my sweetie partner were to jaga badan, wakakaka). After the steak, we would have Bombe Alaska as desert, yummy. Oh, those wonderful KL days.

If Parliament House were to ever serve Chateaubriand steak, please please don't list it on the menu as Satu-Biryani steak, wakakaka.


Malaysian-styled Chateaubriand (Satu-Biryani) steak?

Wakakaka 

14 comments:

  1. maybe tis thread we shd skip politics.

    talking abt steak, i still prefer the ship, same shop at jalan bb, same seating, almost order the same everytime. the other day i went up the federal hotel revolving restaurant, see what change, the young waitress told me no mome the 80 n 90 ambiance, she hear it from her senior, n relatively less patron. i asked do they still serve the ice cream with fire, no more, now they have haagen dazs. but tis is not what i wan, thats the problem with us who r getting older. we naively imagine time will stay. n surprisingly i know nothing abt the steak kt wrote, n the bok house, perhaps i rarely go to ampang area.

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    1. yes The Ship was good - been to all three, I at BB as you mentioned - loved its seafood cocktail, 1 in PJ (can't remember which section) and 1 in Penang (Tanjung Bungah?)

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    2. The Ship has since opened up a few more branches. There is one across the road from BB on Jalan Sultan Ismail and another at Pertama Kompleks. The branch in PJ is in Uptown Damansara Utama and a brand new one in section 13 Jalan Kemajuan. The one in Penang is not situated atTanjung Bungah where I used to live my childhood days but at Batu Ferringhi and they have opened another near Chulia Street. I have been to all except the last one.
      FYI, even the one and only Coliseum at Jalan TAR has also opened branches at the Mega Mail, Sunway Pyramid and Jalan Semangat in PJ section 13. There is no business like food business.

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    3. coliseum western food is not that nice. their best is the mee goring hailam. i thot hokkien rarely eat beef, penang hokkien is diff?

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    4. tho' I'm not Hokkien (only Penang Teochew nang, wakakaka) I like to offer 2 possible reasons why southern Chinese like Hokkiens, Teochews and possibly Canto don't eat beef, these being (a) southern Chinese diet has traditionally (because of geographical-environmental consequences) been rice, fish, fowls and pork whilst northern Chinese diet would have been wheat, millet, maize (corn), beef, goats/sheep and of course fowls too, and (b) a consequence of particularly the Kuanyin sect of Buddhism which avoids beef (as a consequence of Kuanyin being reputably of Indian and originally Hindu origin)

      But with more modern outlook among the overseas Chinese (thus abandonment of traditional and strict religious dietary tho' voluntary constraint) and better movement of food around plus affluence, those traditional northern-southern divide of Chinese diet has been overtaken by more 'global' tastes.

      Part of the 'taste' of the Coliseum western food has been shored more by colonial reputation (perpetuated by British planter-customers), legends (did Somerset Maugham once dine there?) and VIP patronage (5 PMs of Malaya/Malaysia from Tunku to AAB dined there plus reputably many members of Malay royalty)

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    5. HY, Coliseum is famous for their Hainanese chicken chop. Their beef dishes are so so. I must try their mee goreng Hailam the next time I drop by.
      KT, you are right. My mother who believes in Kuan Yin, does not eat beef. I eat anything with their backs facing the sky with the exception of a hunchback. Cheers folks.

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    6. i am not too sure abt the southern northern chinese thingy on beef, as far as i know, hokkien or those pray to kuanyin dun take beef is a malaysia practice, who most probably influence by indian.

      i heard from one the reason the ship not venture into klang is because they believe klang hokkien would prefer bak kut teh n not beef, cant compete. i guess penang is more likely due to tourist.

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  2. I have been to the Bok House only once. Not much décor though. The inside was not so inviting as the façade. It was lofty and bare and the ambience was very Chinese. I struggled with the menu, as the food was not halal as far as I could remember.

    Perhaps, we have to accept the rojak language and manglish as an important part of our life even though it may be embarrassing. We have so many schools: No School; Malay School; Chinese School; Tamil School; Religious School; Private School; Home School; International School; dll…

    It took me some years before I really know where did ‘gohed’, ‘gostan’, ‘tombod’, ‘tongkonsol’; ‘pontenpen’; ‘penpeelot’, etc .. come from? But pardon me, ‘gohed’, ‘gostan’, ‘your head lah’, ‘where got hard’, ‘where got sick’, ‘finish la-sure die one’, and some others I still use them frequently today.

    I have come across a few sales offer – “Bed Shits (big & small)~ Buy 1 Free 1”; “Cheap Past Food”; “Fresh Porns & Craps”… They put a smile on my face and really make my day. Wakakaka…

    O yes… ‘tongkonsol’ is for town council and ‘tombod’ is for town board.

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    1. i realise that the moment i use la in any foreign forum, many reader would immediately ask if i am malaysian. where got embarrass, shd feel proud of it wakaka.

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    2. I've watched many Canto drama series (tho' not lately since my sweetheart Gigi Lai retired) and noticed that Canto language is full of 'lah'. Coincidentally Bahasa Melayu also possesses 'lah'. So what hope would there be for Malaysians to avoid 'lah-ing' wakakaka

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    3. ok i agree with you HY... where got embarrass... yea agree.. shd feel proud of it.. wakakaka

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  3. Actually....I had always thought it was named "Scissors Salad".....I'm sure I wasn't alone.....kakakakakakakaka...

    Who the fuck was Caesar anyway ?
    I'm quite sure was not named after Julius Caesar or any of the numerous pretenders to the title Caesar over the last 2,100 years.

    Then again I've never had the task of creating or editing any kind of printed Menu.

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    1. see caption for the real Caesar Salad photo above - Caesar Cardini was the chef who 'created' it in 1924 in San Diego, USA. Due to lack of food supplies and materials in his kitchen and an urgent need to serve his waiting customers he put together a few remaining ingredients and voila, we have the world famous Caesar Salad, named after him of course. The story is not unlike the West (USA) coming to love the Chop Suey, also a last-minute concoction of Chinese food leftovers served to a hungry group of Americans

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