Eats: Affordable Japanese set lunches at Boci-Boci

How we stumble across this Japanese restaurant is purely by chance. After our visit to Papaya Japanese grocer, Hubs and I decided to talk a walk around Blok M to explore and search for good Japanese restaurants. Who else to rely on but Google and a blind search term of "good Japanese restaurant in Blok M." A list came up but not Boci-Boci.

So we went looking for the first one that came up which was Ajihara if i'm not mistaken. We asked a security guard of the Golden Boutique Hotel exactly where is Ajihara. As he was pointing out to us where it is, he also mentioned that along the row of shops where we were, just two doorsteps away (if I'm not mistaken) from the hotel is Boci-Boci. He also mentioned that it is very popular among the Japanese.

We decided to take a gamble on this new lead and walked cautiously further down to look for Boci-Boci. When we were finally at what we think was Boci-Boci doorstep, there was no signage that indicate it was and it looked more like somebody's heavily tinted office. We looked back at the guard for confirmation. He just gestured us "Go on in, it's inside" Felt a bit like stepping into Alice's rabbit hole. LOL!

As we pushed open the glass door, the restaurant signboard appears. We approached the restaurant's hostess and was quickly ushered to a table. I reckoned we were still early, as it wasn't fully occupied. But the 3-4 tables that were occupied, they largely made up of Japanese clientele. We have come to the right place! :)

After taking our drinks order, we were presented the lunch menu below. The promotion was for Rp 79 000, we get to choose one of 6 types of rice, followed by our choice of 3 main dishes, which comes together with a bowl of miso soup and a plate of Japanese pickles. WOW!

There were 44 choices for our main. Definitely spoilt for choices!

And this was Hub's selection. Salmon sashimi, teppanyaki beef and grilled sanma with some dried-shrimp flavoured rice. The beef was tender and yummy! And the salmon were fresh too!

This was what i chose. Grilled sanma, agedashi tofu and tuna sashimi. Again, it was wholesome and yummy for the price we were paying!

In our miso soup, they had little clams too. Like it a lot, instead of just plain miso with cubes of tofu.

Hubs's friend and wife joined us as we were finishing up. The friend ordered a plate of gyoza for sharing and this was really good. The fillings were generous and the skin was thin. I liked it a lot!

I took a visit to the toilet and found the amenities provided to be very considerate for its customers. There were sanitary napkins provided (very thoughtful!) as well as cotton buds. Well, if you get an itchy ear halfway eating, you know where just to go! LOL!

Service was a bit slow. Personally I think they could beef up their service crew especially during peak hours. However, food quality wise vs the price that we paid, no complains because getting nice Japanese meal in Jakarta has been pretty much a miss. They are ok but the prices can get pretty steep. I guess in Boci-Boci, it's where both of them meet. :)

Papaya Japanese Grocer @ Jln Melawai, Blok M

I have heard so much of Blok M, specifically Jl. Melawai being the "Little Tokyo" of Jakarta. We decided to pop over for a look-see when I found out that a friend of Hubs was running a sample booth for Huon Salmon at Papaya, a Japanese grocer located at the corner of Jl. Melawai.

The moment I step into Papaya, I felt like I was in Japan. Everything is neatly displayed, fresh food items hygienically packed in white styrofoam and wrapped with cling film, and rows after rows of imported Japanese groceries and household items. And the place was packed in Japanese expats, stocking up their weekly groceries.

And little wonder, because the quality of the fresh food is really one of the better ones I've seen, besides Ranch Market in Pondok Indah and Lotte Mart in Gandaria City.

Papaya also has a selection of cooked Japanese food items and salad, which seems to be very popular with the local Japanese community.

And they have a bakery as well, which smell and look ABSOLUTELY DIVINE! When I saw the selection of breads and buns, I half-jokingly asked Hubs if I can load myself up with tonnes of antihistamines and oral prednisolone to keep my wheat allergy at bay to savour some of these wheat-y goodness.

And judging from the queue to pay for the bakery items, I reckon it would have been worth it! LOL!

Eats: Unforgettable Ni Hao @ Jl. KH Samanhudi

This is a super-duper overdue post. Although overdue, I still recall the nice stuffs that we had here. If I recall correctly, this is one of the restaurant which Hubs came with a friend and ordered too many soupy-based dishes. We repeated those dishes when we were here, but they are pretty yummy.

This is one of my favourite coz I'm such a sucker for chinese herb-based soups. This is live prawns cooked in herbal soup. The prawns were fresh and succulent. If I have to comment on something, it would be the soup, coz I think it's a tad too light for my taste. Otherwise it would have been perfect.

And here's a bit of demonstration by the waitress who prepared this dish for us at our table-side. Prawns goes into a tupperware, in goes some chinese wine, shake-shake shake and off them go in the boiling soup stock. After a couple of minutes, the waitress dished out the prawns onto a plate and the soup goes into a separate bowl for us.

This was Hub's favourite. Garoupa cooked in superior soup. Again, another yummy dish only so because the fish was fresh and the flesh was firm.

And this is what I meant as the unforgettable dish. When it was first served up, I was peering at them quizzically and wondered aloud  "are those endless strips of pork belly fats?" Well apparently they were mushrooms. But the Chef had cleverly soaked/soften/stewed/braised/pressure-cooked (I don't know) them in such a way that they are soft-to-the-bite and almost almost melt in my mouth. Almost like a vegetarian stewed pork-belly if there's such a thing. Really amazing.

****
Ni Hao Restaurant
Jl. KH. Samanhudi No. 57, Jakarta

Eats: Finally! Decent curry meehoon @ Tabona

Being in Jakarta certainly brings back memories of student days in Glasgow - absolute delight when we find food that's similar in taste to KL, can't complain when we have nothing to compare against and it's the next best thing. LOL!

And so Hubs delightfully texted me when he and my friend's husband (then fiance) went to somewhere in Pluit to try this curry meehoon that's pretty similar to what we have in KL. I managed to try this couple of weeks ago.

I've since found out that this particular street i.e. Jl Pluit Sakti Raya is one of the places to go to for Medanese Chinese food. According to friend's husband, the original outlet is in Medan and this is the Jakarta branch that is managed by the brother. You can choose to have your curry with either meehoon or rice, and we chose meehoon.

The curry was slightly runny but flavourful. Each bowl is served up with a chicken drumstick, few pieces of gizzard and a potato. And of course, being away from home, this is really the next best thing. I was almost disappointed when I finished slurping up the curry. If it had just been me and Hubs, my powers of persuasion would have convinced him to order another bowl to share! :)

Trying out Blue Bird Group Apps

I finally tried out the Blue Bird apps today, to order a taxi for a friend and myself for our little excursion to Plaza Grand Indonesia, with a little bit of hints from Hubs. Hubs had to take a taxi to work this morning and decided to order a Blue Bird last night. When he got into the taxi this morning, he messaged me that the apps worked fine and told me to try it out.

The apps only work if you have a local Indonesian number and they inform you as well, once you have downloaded the apps. There were a few preliminary steps that I had to go through, which involves setting up my account with them, key in my mobile number to which they sent a verification code to and I'm ready to go.

As you can see at the bottom left hand corner, there's an "Order" icon to order my taxi. Once I keyed in the necessary address, date and time of pick-up, a confirmation notice was sent instantaneously to my phone.  When I pressed the "Tracking" icon, I saw my order status as "In The Queue"

Just about half an hour before pick-up time, another notification (below) was sent to my phone, informing that the taxi and its ID has been dispatched.

As you can see below, the status has changed to "On The Way" and a little car icon has appeared next to the designated pick-up location. 

At about 15 minutes to 11am, I went down to the lobby but didn't see my taxi. I called Hubs to cross-check what he did this morning, and he told me to ask the lobby receptionist if my taxi has arrived. A phone call to the security post revealed that my taxi has arrived and was waiting outside. Finally, taxi came into the compound and we got into the taxi alright! And oh yeah, I also saw that the ID of the taxi was also visibly pasted on the dashboard above the glove compartment so that passengers can cross-check that they got into the correct taxi. Awesome!

Eats: Say that again? Fook Yew?!

I gotta acknowledge this. The Ismaya group really have some pretty interesting ideas for concept-based F&B outlets. And Fook Yew is one of them. Vocally, Fook Yew sounds quite offending, especially if one were to say it with a British accent, but heck! it sure does make you do a double take and look at this restaurant with curiosity. Well this cat got slain and went to check it out.

Menu-wise, it's a bit of a mix and match. I can't really make out what is it. There's no theme here - some Cantonese, some Shanghainese and with a little bit of bubble tea thrown into the mix to throw one off the tracks. I ordered the stir-fry hor fun with beef in XO sauce, as well as Shanghainese "Sheng Jian Man Tou".

The stir-fry hor fun is surprisingly good. Got "wok hei" which literally means "spirit of the wok" which is the essence of Chinese stir-fry. And on the theme of throwing one of the tracks, it came served up in American Chinese take-out box. LOL!

I didn't care much for this i.e. the Shanghainese "Sheng Jian Man Tou." To start off with, I've stop eating wheat-based food due to my allergy, but I ordered this anyway to find out what is this about. I only ate the fillings without the wheaty bun bits. So can't really comment if the texture of the buns were up to mark. But so far my experience of Chinese food in Jakarta tells me that they still cannot grasp texture really nice bun pastries like the ones you can get in KL, Singapore or Hong Kong. Perhaps it was my choice of fillings as well, which was crab meat and some tomato-based sauce. Maybe it would have been better if it was a meat-based fillings.

Decor-wise, Fook Yew is a very visually attractive restaurant. A mix of modern and old, very well played out by the colours and the many decorative pieces found in the restaurant. Maybe that's the idea behind Fook Yew, IMHO. Just an eclectic mix that doesn't make sense.

A pair of his and hers cheong-sam salt and pepper shaker, set on a table top made of tiles.

Surely this reminds you of "Raise The Red Lattern" that made Gong Li an international fame. 

With visual statement like this on its feature wall, one can't help but to really look at Fook Yew which means "Luck" and "Friendship"

Chinese cooking philosophies?! Your guess is as good as mine... LOL!

And perhaps the most interesting of all...

Buying live prawns in Jakarta (Warning ahead: TMI)

Whenever I go to the wet market in Mayestik, I'm always fascinated by the fishmongers who have live prawns for sale. Of course these are pretty small prawns. We are talking about a cooked size of between 2 - 2.5 cm in diameter, but I love to have them in stir-fry dishes with vegetables for instance. So last week when I was there, I decided to buy 1kg which cost me IDR 60k.

When I got home, I gave them a rinse (and they are still alive!) and begin to peel off their heads. Took awhile to get over my own initial awkwardness of "beheading" them (and thinking that they must be saying "Don't peel my head off"), but kinda got used to it. One thing I noticed that with live prawns, their heads is surprisingly very strongly attached to their bodies. A very different tension compared to "beheading" dead prawns. And of course, there were a couple of them walking and swimming legs that were still twitching out of involuntary reflexes after they have been beheaded!

Well you can't get any fresher than these...

Before:

The aftermath: 

The Birds of Jakarta

A very reliable way to get around Jakarta is via the Blue Bird Taxi Group. With Blue Bird, one hardly goes wrong. Drivers are courteous, they apologize if they accidentally took a wrong turn and had to make a longer route (happened to me!) and all major shopping malls in Jakarta usually have a dedicated queue for Blue Bird taxis.

For economy prices, go for the blue color taxis. I remembered once I decided to fly into Jakarta quietly without telling Hubs, with the intention to surprise him. That was really my first time of taking a public transport over here. As soon as I exited the airport, I feverishly searched for the turquoise blue bird logo. At the airport, hailing a taxi can be chaotic. And if you don't keep your wits around you, you may end up with a less reliable taxi service. I nearly got touted but stood my ground and insisted my blue bird. Phew! Close call...

If you have a bit more cash to spare, there's the executive class called Silver Bird. These taxis are almost exclusively Mercedes Benz. And they go back black colour with white "Silver Bird" wording. Pretty executive I would say. Price-wise, slightly more premium, but I don't think it's a lot. Maybe after USD, it's probably few bucks more premium that the blue ones. Personally, I have not sit in any of these, but I heard some of the drivers can speak some English. So not too bad a way to travel, if you need some local commentary. 

I have also found out pretty recently that Blue Bird group have apps supported by iPhone and Android for you to order your taxi. I have since downloaded it for just-in-case, but have not personally experience its reliability. But from what I heard, it was quite ok.

And this is one sure way to travel.  What happens when you need a big people carrier? Well fret not, coz Blue Bird has just the solution. Say Hello to Big Bird! :))

Kopi Luwak Reeducated

Last Thursday, I was lucky enough to tag along Hubs to meet up with his friend to understand more about kopi luwak supply here in Indonesia. This friend i.e. Pak B. was the same person whom we bought our first packet of kopi luwak from.

After braving the usual traffic congestion (what else?!) we finally made it to the meeting point, which was Pak's office-cum-cafe for potential business contacts to taste coffee samples. After the usual pleasantries, we finally got down to some kopi luwak tasting session. Me likey! :)

And so here they are. First up is kopi luwak robusta beans. I didn't realise that they classify them to this extent. My previous understanding of kopi luwak was just well.. kopi luwak - where coffee beans are just fed to the civet for them to be "processed" by the digestive juices of the civet to get that special taste that is kopi luwak. Personally I didn't quite like this. It had a kinda flat/neutral with a slight burnt taste to it. In fact, it reminded me of the Vietnamese weasel coffee that Hubs bought previously, which unfortunately we still have 4 packets sitting in the kitchen and nobody knows what to do with it. So probably the Vietnamese ones were produced using robusta beans.

And since we have kopi luwak robusta, we definitely must have kopi luwak arabica right? So here it is, and it had a very contrasting difference in taste compared to the robusta brew. It's difficult to describe exactly how it taste like but the arabica brew had a rounded taste that's both rich and delicate and definitely smooth and mellow. I took out my camera to snap both cups of coffee with flash just for fun and noted a difference in the colour of the brew. With the arabica - it was a clear brown liquid while with the robusta i was almost black. You can see it at the edge of the coffee cup, indicated by the yellow arrows.

Pak B also showed a few samples of the dried up kopi luwak beans. Ta-da...

It definitely looked a lot more processed compared to the ones I've seen in the farm in Bali. According to Pak, the civets are very picky eaters. Of course, these days we are talking about farmed kopi luwak for hygienic processing purposes. Once the berries are picked, they have to be served up fresh to the civets. And these peculiar animals will only eat the freshest (maybe in their taste buds, the highest quality) berries. If the berries are set aside overnight or even a couple of hours - sorry, it's reject goods.

I reckon this is probably the novelty surrounding kopi luwak - that these cats"pick" out the freshest beans that produce what is probably known as the most expensive coffee in the world.

Our IVF journey - Results day...

"Have you ever loved somebody so much, It makes you cry"
"Have you ever needed something so bad, You can't sleep at night"

Well the last line of this song sang by Brandy described me exactly the night before we were due to go to the clinic for our beta hCG test. I couldn't sleep at all, and can't help but to think how the day would be. Hubs had arrived from Jakarta that night to be with me when we go to the clinic the next day. I had some mild spotting that night but didn't think much of it since we were going to the clinic already.

On the morning of results day, things didn't look good. The spotting has progressed to mild bleeding. I informed Hubs immediately and begin to cry. After calming myself down, we went to the clinic anyway for my test. A visit to the toilet after the test revealed more bleeding. We went back to the clinic and informed the nurses. They gave me another progesterone injection and we begin our 2 hours wait for the lab results. I didn't even dare to go to the toilet because it meant that I have to face up to what I feared most in my heart. But I had to go anyway, and it just didn't look good.

I told Hubs that the bleeding has progressed to what I usually experience on Day 1 of menstruation. We even joked that probably it's best to know our fate like this, rather than hear it from the doctor. I just can't help tearing again.

Finally we heard my name being called. And it's a confirmatory no when we finally saw Dr Wong. He explained that probably the genetic makeup of the embryos may have been defective. Unfortunately, we won't really know that because we did not have enough quality embryos to start with. If we had more, the clinic could wait two more days and perform Day-5 transfer where for almost certainty, these Day-5 embryos would have better chance of implantation. Since we only had two viable embryos, the clinic couldn't risk waiting another 2 more days.

I've always thought that gynaecology clinics are such happy and joyful places, filled with beaming proud parents who are eagerly looking forward to that first confirmation of pregnancy, the first glimpse of the tiny beating heart on the ultrasound, the first visual confirmation of a baby boy or a girl, and so forth... However, this joy is not ours to bask in. Not yet anyway. 

Our IVF journey - The 2 weeks wait

I left the clinic with more ventolin tablets, progesterone pessaries and progesterone oily injections to ensure the uterus is conducive to support implantation and pregnancy. Our 2 weeks wait has started.

For the first 2 days after the transfer, I did not do anything heavy. My mom continued to stay with me to help me out at home with cooking and household work. On a daily basis, I had to take my ventolin tablets and progesterone pessaries. And every three days, I drove to a nearby clinic to get a doctor to administer the oily injections on my buttocks. Now that is one really painful injection. But Dr Ho, the lady doctor who did my injections was really nice, careful and gentle throughout the injection.

The nurses at the fertility clinic told me to eat normally, don't overstress myself and no heavy work. They also told me not to eat four types of fruits i.e. bananas, papayas, watermelons and pineapples. Apparently, these fruits have high level of serotonin that may cause uterine contractions.

Other than that, I begin to write from home, and try not to think too much or even reading too much into every symptoms or the lack of it that is indicative of pregnancy. But still I can't prevent the gamut of feelings that I went through - hope, anticipation, excitement, anxious, wondering and at times doubtful whether we would be successful.

Our IVF journey - Embryo transfer

Before we left the clinic after the eggs collection, there were more medicines to take. Specifically, they were Ventolin tablets to control uterine contraction, progesterone pessaries and progesterone oily injection to prime the body with lots of progesterone that is essential to support successful implantation and pregnancy.

My embryo transfer was scheduled 2 days from the eggs collection day, and in the meantime I had to start taking these medication to prep my uterus. As explained by the clinic, they will perform a routine Day-3 embryo transfer and if let's say there are a few fertilised eggs to select from, the clinic may do a Day-5 transfer where the embryos are more mature. Unless the clinic call me over the next few days to inform of a change, they will proceed with the routine transfer.

I had a Day-3 transfer. On the day of transfer, no prior fasting was required and since Hubs can't extend his stay, I had my parents came up to KL and to help me out during this period. Just before it was my turn to go into the procedure room, the embryologist explained to me that the clinic will transfer two Day-3 embryos.

We only had these two viable embryos because out of the 6 eggs initially collected, two of them were not mature enough and only 4 made it to ICSI fertilisation. After fertilisation, two of them did not get fertilised while the remaining two did and have already developed into 4-cells embryos of grades 8/10 and 9/10. I can't help to feel disappointed that we only had two but the embryologist explained that they were good grades embryos, so hopefully they will stick to the uterus.

About 45 minutes before the procedure, I had to drink 500ml of water. Apparently the reason for this is to ensure that the bladder is full enough (but not too full) so that when I lie down, the full bladder will help "straighten" out the uterus for ease of transfer. No anesthesia was required for the transfer and I was able to observe the whole procedure through the ultrasound. First the nurses showed me my embryos. And they were beautiful! Like in medical textbook. I was hopeful.

Then Dr Wong arrived for the procedure. When he saw the ultrasound scan, he had a "oh man" look on his face. He then explained to me what the procedure involves and that my uterus was a bit S-shaped and would be a bit tricky to maneuver. And then the procedure started. One of the nurses pointed out to me a blinking light on the ultrasound which is the transfer catheter containing my two embryos. And I watched them slowly making their way through the cervix and finally into the uterus where two small 'x' appear on the ultrasound, marking where Dr Wong finally deposited the embryos. I was overjoyed! We made it!

Our IVF journey - Eggs collection day

About a week before the scheduled eggs collection date, the ultrasound scan revealed that I had about 8 egg follicles of various sizes. Some were at about the right sizes already, although there were a few that were a little bit small. Hence Dr Wong up my dose of Gonal-F for all the eggs to reach the right sizes.

Hubs had to fly into KL for eggs collection because that was the day that the clinic had to collect his semen sample for fertilisation as well. The eggs collection procedure is almost like a mini-surgery, which meant that the night before I had to take some meds to completely empty my bowel and no liquids after 12am and no breakfast on the day itself. In the procedure room, the nurse helped me up onto a bed with an attached stirrup, which after that they tilted the bed to a certain angle until my legs were at a higher level than my head. As soon as the Dr arrived for the procedure, the nurses put me under gas anesthesia and that was the last thing I remembered.

The next thing I knew when I woke up was the end of the procedure where they have taken away the anesthesia. The nurses helped me onto another bed before pushinge into a recovery room where I promptly fell asleep again. I don't think I slept for long because I woke up suddenly, remembered that Hubs had to catch a flight later that day, promptly got dressed and made my way to the reception area to meet Hubs. In the end, the clinic collected 6 eggs that were of good sizes for fertilisation.

A small compliment

Well, I just couldn't resist putting this up, after such a long and hard day of work that also saw me meeting the ultimo CLIENTZILLA!

A small complimentary note for an article well-written by moi! :)

Our IVF journey - Finally it's IVF!

The Zoladex injection caused me not to experience any mestruation close to four months and this is really to temporarily stop any hormonal stimulation which is basically what endometriosis feeds on. When I finally got my period, I was so happy, and immediately called up the clinic to schedule an appointment.

After some explanation from Dr Wong about the protocol that he was going to use on me, and some discussion with Hubs, we decided to start our first IVF in September. Dr Wong put me on the long protocol which involved down-regulation of the ovaries first using a combination of oral contraceptives pills followed by daily injection of buserelin. After one month of this, I started another injection i.e. Gonal-F which is to stimulate the ovaries to produce more eggs. In a normal unstimulated cycle, a woman typically produces one to two eggs only.

I had to learn to administer these injections by myself. After the first few attempts, I kinda got used to it, although the Gonal-F injections were slightly more painful to administer. Hubs was supportive all the way because I had to take these injections in the early morning. He tries to wake himself up every now and then to be an observer most of of the time. LOL! The only down bit with these injections is that I have very sensitive skin, which resulted in a lot of scarring at the injection sites.

Roughly about 2 weeks into the egg stimulation phase, I had to go into the clinic for scans just to check that everything is going as planned. These visits became more frequent as egg collection day approaches, so that Dr Wong can adjust the dosages of the injections which he did in order for us to harvest more eggs.

Our IVF journey - Recovery from a very thorough laparoscopy

After some adjustment of schedules and such, I went for my second laparoscopy in May. And Dr Wong did a very thorough job. So thorough that 2 hours later when Hubs came to see me, the nurses told him that I was still in surgery and according to the nurses, "Dr Wong's surgery can take awhile coz he's very thorough."

Physically, I felt the thoroughness of the surgery because it felt like someone took a blunt knife and gutted and scraped my insides. During my first laparoscopy, my parents who came and visited for the weekend, saw that I was still independent. However, for this second one, my mom decided to stay with me during the recovery period and noted that I was a lot more immobilised.

Anyway, 2 weeks later, I went back to the hospital for the post-surgery follow-up and was presented a video recording of the entire surgery. Dr Wong explained that during the surgery itself, he found that I actually had stage 4 endometriosis. On top of the 4 cysts in my ovaries which he removed, he also had to surgically snip of endometrial tissues that have caused my uterus to stick to my bowels.

So I'm pretty happy that he did a good job, but we couldn't start our IVF process immediately. In order to ensure that the endometriosis has less chance to recur at the next menstual cycle, Dr Wong started me on first, a one-month zoladex injection, followed by a second dose which lasted close to 3 months. So more waiting...

Our IVF journey - Getting to the bottom of things

Our journey into IVF started sometime between Oct/Nov of last year, when I had my first laparoscopy to remove a cyst in one of my ovaries which my first gynae thought could be the reason of unexplained infertility. After the surgery, we were given green light to try naturally again but no pregnancy. At my next cycle, even after ovulation induction with Clomid, we just couldn't get pregnant. And that was when in February of this year, we decided to see a IVF specialist to really find out what is wrong.

Dr Wong came highly recommended through a friend of Hubs who works in the pharmaceutical industry. We also did some internet scouting of our own and after comparing some rates between fertility centers, we decided to pay Dr Wong a visit. Through that connection, we managed to squeeze ourselves in 2 weeks earlier than my original appointment. Dr Wong sure runs a very busy clinic!

At our first visit, the news we received weren't good. Ultrasound scan showed that despite my earlier laparoscopy, I still have 2 cysts each in both my ovaries. Because of the cysts, Dr Wong strongly advised us against going ahead with the IVF treatment, and instead recommended me to go through another laparoscopy.

We were kinda disappointed because we just didn't want to wait anymore. However, according to Dr Wong, the presence of cysts greatly reduces the IVF success rate from 50% to 30%, and it would be pretty pointless. In the end, we decided to go for another laparoscopy.

Of emails laden with pork lard.

There's a saying that goes 'beware of Greeks bearing gifts'.  I guess in today's electronic age, one gotta be careful also, of emails that butters/polish or 'pork-lard' a person up..

I received two of such emails recently, regarding work. I mean, I first gotta acknowledge this for myself. Counting this year, I have been involved in sales and marketing in the medical field for like 9 years already. Hence when I write a medically related article, I think like a sales and marketing person and look for points to highlight the benefits of the products. The key point here is to do it subtlely. Because an over-promoting article may be deemed unethical. And so far, I have not encountered much issues regarding the content from my clients. Except of these two. And frustratingly, anally, geram-ly, both email arrived in my Inbox on the same day! And sounding exactly like a carbon copy of each other!!


Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 2: 

Sometimes I really wish that I'm like Doraemon with his magical pouch. That I have a magical computer that magically churns out article before one can even finish saying Voila! But it isn't like that in reality. A lot of research and time goes behind each article. The most important thing here is that every data that is mentioned in these articles are valid and properly referenced. It's not a simple "with your writing expertise" or even skills for that matter.

Deciphered: Weasel Coffee (?!) vs. Kopi Luwak

Disclaimer: I'm no coffee connoisseur. Hence whatever that I expressed here is purely based on my experience and personal taste. I believe coffee, like wine is as personal as underwear. Just as one man's meat is another man's poison.

When Hubs came back from his buddy's bachelor trip in Ho Chi Minh recently, he bought back like 4 packets of the Vietnamese version of Kopi Luwak i.e. Weasel Coffee. When I first saw the name, my first thought was "Who in the world name this as weasel coffee?!" Personally, I think it's like taking a mickey out of it.

According to Hubs, they were pretty good when he had them in the many cafes in HCM and found a place that sold the coffee powder at an affordable price. Anyway my interest piqued and decided to read more about it on the net. What I found out is that mostly the ones sold in Vietnam are so-called chemically simulated versions i.e. using various chemical ingredients to mimic digestive juices of the luwak to process the beans. Taste-wise when I made myself a cuppa, wasn't any different from a typical Vietnamese coffee that you would order from a Vietnamese restaurant. In fact there's a buttery taste to it which is rather overwhelming and more suited if the coffee is sweetened with condensed milk as how a Vietnamese restaurant normally prepare theirs. My conclusion is that this is no different from any mainstream Vietnamese coffee.

And as you can see from the packaging, the printing was also rather badly done that when I remove the many cellophane tapes, the brewing instruction was lifted off! I suspect Hubs may have got conned.

Over to Kopi Luwak. My first experience of this was at a dingy-looking coffee plantation in Bali. It's one of those tourist trap that my girlfriend and me signed up for. That trip itself was fine until we had to endure this coffee plantation visit. I half-suspect that it's probably somebody's small acre of land that they planted a few coffee plants and other Indonesian herbs, built a quaint souvenir shop and little cafe and with a trapped luwak, voila! a kopi luwak destination is born! Since we were there, for the heck of it, each of us bought a cup to taste. And it was disappointing. All I can taste was just bitterness that didn't get any better after adding sugar.

Spurred by all these experiences, I told Hubs, "Let's one day make a visit to the kopi luwak cafe in Grand Indo and buy ourselves a cuppa to solve the taste once and for all!" Well, before we made our way to Grand Indo, kopi luwak found its way to our doorstep instead! Through a friend, Hubs managed to get his hands on a few packets of kopi luwak from Sumatra i.e. those made of export.

And of course, with it, comes the hullaballoo of trying to find the elusive french press. Seriously, when we weren't looking for it, I see the coffee pot everywhere and when we were, it's so hard to find. Anyway, the day of reckoning was upon us when we made it a few weeks ago. It was lovely! The coffee is "kau" but without the bitterness that comes with earthy and full body coffee. I read somewhere the full flavour of the coffee comes out when served cold. The second time I made it, I deliberately allow it to cool down several degrees before taking a sip. And true enough, it tasted even better.

Let's just say I'm sold!

Eeek! Beginning to look like a junkie...

This is how my tummy looks like, after 26 days of injecting myself with hormones. And it's all because of sensitive skin. It's really itchy especially after I perspire or at night. Been trying my best not to scratch. Grrr...

Apparently I'm the only one having this kinda reaction. Most other women tended to have bruising. :( The good thing is everything is going smoothly. According to my gynae, I'm responding to treatment well and in his own words "The uterus lining is looking beautiful!" It tickles me everytime I hear him say that. LOL!