Friday, October 30, 2009

The White Tiger.....

If you enjoy the comedy of Instant Cafe Theatre at KLPac or the few Mumbai plays brought in by Actors Studio to KL before, this book will be an interesting read. This book made pakdokter laughed all the way through the reading. Indian politics, Indian police, Indian beaureaucracy - the whole lot in a 'comedy'.


This book won the Man Booker Prize 2008. Another talented Indian writer!








The Diving Pool....

A little book with 3 short novellas. The style very much like Harukami. The observations were detailed and sensitive yet with very few words. Very Japanese.....and easy to read.


Pakdokter's first introduction to Yoko Ogawa was from her book the Housekeeper and the Professor. This book is an equally interesting read.






Wednesday, October 28, 2009

South of the Border and After Dark...

This is one short but beautiful 'love story' written by Haruki Murayama. "Intensely romantic and weepily beautiful" - wrote the Guardian. Hajime grew up as an only child and had as his close friend, Shimamoto, who was also an only child. They lost contact when, at age 12, their families moved away, only to be reunited in their thirties when Hajime was already happily married with 2 daughters and ran a successful jazz bar. The reunion rekindled old memories and feelings that led to an affair written into this story with such eloquence and beauty....
'This book aches.... with the irrational powers of love and desire'.....wrote the Independent on Sunday.



'After Dark' is another fascinating short story by Murakami. Mari, a university student, met up with an old school-friend at around midnight in an almost empty diner. The young man was a jazz musician who practised with his band at a nearby location. Later, a Chinese prostitute at a nearby 'love-hotel' was abused by her client and Mari was asked to help out as she could understand and speak some Chinese. Mari was recommended to the hotel operator by the jazz musician.....


Meanwhile, at home, Mari's beautiful sister, Eri, has been asleep for the past 2 months???? And the young musician was a secret admirer of Mari's sister.....
This little and strange story is almost like a dream...a rather confusing one at times. But it was still an interesting read!



Pakdokter cannot help but at times felt like these two books were based on Harukami's own personal experiences...

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Eating Out in Tokyo...

Tokyo has always been an exciting place for a 'foodie' experience. The Japan Michelin Guide 2009/2010 was just out in Tokyo bookstores when pakdokter was there. However the book was in Japanese.....
The first night in Tokyo, pakdokter's partner had arranged dinner with Sabine and Micheal, a German couple who has been in Tokyo about a year now. Micheal is the Director for Japan/Korea of the Lufthansa cargo. Fareeda met Sabine at a 'hanami' party last spring. Sabine attended the same Japanese language school where Rastam attended his ' Japanese for Business' lessons. Micheal had booked a table for the 5 of us at a nice Mexican Rsetaurant in Harajuku. Pakdokter's dish of 'Arroz con mariscos' - 'sea-food nasi goreng' ala Mexico was out of this world.....
The following Thursday, Sabine cooked and had us over for dinner at their posh apartment near the Roppongi Hills. She prepared typical German autumn dishes which went down well with the bottle of Reisling.
Rastam took us to a 'Goth'-ic Restaurant one day, which was located in downtown Shinjuku. The Japanese is very fond of thematic restaurants like this. The decor of the eatery was like inside a church and the staff dressed up to match the atmosphere of the day. The food served at this place was a tad fusion....


without a booking, we had to wait until a table was available...

the interior of the 'Christon Restaurant..'






the menu came in a book that looked like a bible...




steamed mussels to be followed by a seafood pasta...


a generous portion of lobster sushi...


pakdokter with the 'halloween' waitress...


pakdokter's partner with another waitress in her "Goth'-ic costume...



lunch at the Dutch warehouse in Yokohama...


and a chocolate crepe for tea...



a Sichuan restaurant in Yokohama...
very spicy food....


a hip 'gyoza' outlet in Yokohama..
'gyoza' is like steamed dim-sums....
Peruvian cuisine is the 'in' and current rage. We trekked up a street in Ebisu and discovered the Peruvian Restaurant named ' the Miraflores'. Rastam feasted on a 9-course degustation menu. Pakdokter settled for a plate of grilled prawns to be followed by a plate of sea-food Paella. And this was the first time pakdokter had the chance to try out a glass of 'pisco sour' - the traditional Peruvian drink. It is a cocktail of rum, lime, Canadian gin and egg white. It was easy to drink but must be quite dangerous if one were to get carried away with too much of it. Pakdokter also tried out a bottle of Cruz Cerveza - a light and sweet Peruvian beer.
a bowl of 'thumb size' fried salty corn seeds to accompany the drinks...



one fo the 9 dishes in Rastam's degustation menu...
sea-food salad and a mussel with lemony tomato and onion chunks..



3 types of chilli sauces to dip in...
the right-most red one is hotter than our chili padi...


grilled fillet of king-fish with garlic.......



sea-food paella...as good as in Sevilla, Spain...


We decided to go for an Indian dinner one night and was pleasantly surprised to find one in a northern suburb of Tokyo where the serving staff was a friendly guy from Pokhara, Nepal. The Japanese chef's Indian dishes can match any of KL's top Mughlai restaurants. In fact the 'rotis' were finer and easier to eat. Must be the type of flour that they used...




fish tandoori....



vegetable samosas....

butter chicken curry and prawn palak paneer to go with
garlic roti, cheese roti and plain naan...


plain naan and the garlic naan...


Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Yokohama Chinatown...

The Yokohama Chinatown is reputedly the second biggest Chinatown in the world. And it is one of the tourist attractions of Yokohama. Being a port, naturally there are many shops and boutiques trading in artifacts, crafts, fashion and designs from all over the world. The Yokohama Chinatown is also where you can find Chinese restaurants of all types.....






















A Day in Yokohama...

Yokohama City is the port city of Tokyo. Travelling by the train leaving Shibuya, it took not more than 30 minutes to reach the port. The well-planned expansive and clean waterfront, fringed by parks overlooking the port, was indeed impressive! And Yokohama is also equipped to host major conferences and exhibitions by having built an impressive International Conference and Trade Exhibition Centre.


modern high-rise as we got out of the train station...

the Yokohama Trade Exhibition Centre...


the building on the left is the tallest building in Japan...



the building on the right is the Pan Pacific where
the Yokohama International Conference Centre is...







The old Dutch Warehouse has been given a new life and is now an interesting mall with many craft and food outlets. Droves of domestic tourists came in buses to shop and eat at the Dutch Warehouse. And pakdokter could not help but also noticed busloads of disabled elderlies, recovering from 'strokes' ,being escorted by attendants, if they were on wheel-chairs, or helping each other out if they were ambulant, slowly walking and making their way around at the Dutch Warehouse. It was interesting to see how patient and polite the attendants, the bus drivers and the car-park attendants were to these members of the community. This is a perfect example of a 'Caring Society'.






enjoying a chocolate crepe....




The waterfront facing the port is lined by a long stretch of greenery and and scores of people walk their dogs, or jogged to keep fit in clean and fresh surroundings.






the Yokohoma Customs Complex...




part of the Yokohama Port...


the water fountain was donated by the Indian community
in memory of their fellows who died in
the Great Kanto earthquake....



school-children on an outing at the water-front park..


Rastam joined pakdokter and partner
after the third round of a job interview
( and he was offerred the job to start in November..)

Yokohama towards late afternoon..


the Goddess of Water Fountain at the waterfront...


the Yokohama marine Tower....

How pakdokter wished that those folks in Penang or in Port Klang could have had even if only a fraction of these ideas to make our ports as attractive as Yokohama!