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It has been a wet morning not the same morning that I woke up to. At 7.30 am the sun was out and at the time it appeared we would be blessed with a good day. How wrong was that first impression considering the morning glow got me thinking about a swim but the sudden downpour at around 10 am pretty much dampened that plan. How ironic that rain would ruin my swimming plans! Trapped at home, I slowly worked up an appetite for Fried Salmon Skins and Salmon Sashimi, two of my favourite items at our local Japanese eatery, Excapade. 

Fried Salmon Skins & Salmon Sahimi © Jan Shim Photography

And fried salmon skins and salmon sahimi I had. Preparing for this shoot was, how shall I put it, torturous. I really wanted to eat instead of fumble with camera equipment and presentation that you see here. Up until the moment I discovered fried salmon skins this idea of additional revenue from discarded components of the salmon sashimi never crossed my mind but it turned out to be a good one and has become something of a delicacy to me.

The actual name of this building escapes me but when its architecture is  a landmark noted for its culinary delights, reputation precedes its name. Located in the town I grew up in Kuala Belait the noodle house as it’s affectionately referred to, has fed generations and is feeding generations more with different kinds of yellow noodles ranging from thin to thick and cooked in more ways than you can count the number of operators. I present these images in B/W to heighten the sense of reminiscing the good old days.

© Jan Shim Photography

As far as I recall, the government undertook restoration works a while back and I’m glad no physical changes were made to alter the rather interesting design that resembles ancient Roman architecture. Quite a surprise indeed.

© Jan Shim Photography

^ This is my all time favourite and personal recommendation–the fried wet noodles with extra toppings and an egg to top it off (pardon the pun) and to wash it all down, a glass of hot local coffee with milk ying-yang style (concoction of fresh and condensed milk). To get your taste buds into this plate, make a beeline to the end when you make it upstairs, tell the nice owners there you recognise them on the web and order the SHIM special! Seriously! (for non-Muslims only).

Note: The entire ground floor of the noodle house is also a wet market.

Soi Hing Coffee Shop © Jan Shim Photography

There are four districts (daerah) that make up Brunei Darussalam. Of the four, Belait is the largest district where oil was first discovered and deemed commercially viable by then British Malayan Petroleum Company in a town called Seria in 1929. Brunei Shell Petroleum Co. is the present day company that carries that legacy for many more decades to come.

Which brings me to another piece of Seria history that holds its very own—Soi Hing Coffee Shop. Located at a vantage point right next door to Standard Chartered Bank and at the entrance to Seria town, Soi Hing is in its third location after having moved twice from a stone’s throw away. In the 78 years that Seria enjoyed the ‘oil town’ opulence, the Soi Hing coffee shop business was born roughly in the middle of that period 45 years ago, according to one of the owners I spoke with. That’s an awfully long time for a business to have come this far though it’s often joked by patrons that coffee shops are perhaps the only business that makes sense in today’s roller-coaster economy and much publicised bankruptcies.

I moved to Seria from Kuala Belait four years ago and did not discover what I like about Soi Hing until fairly recently. Like most people, we tend to hop from one joint to another in search of interesting places to have a meal. I’m happy to have just a couple of places that I can frequent and have a predictable meal. Soi Hing is one of such places in Seria and the one thing that have me going back week after week is their delicious fried kway teow. Soi Hing serves theirs with a small but killer teaser serving of sambal chilli that hits the right spot!

This has to be the first time I talk about food succulence without backing it up with a wow photo. Thing is, I have done a number of food photography both leisurely and commercially and I’ve found kway teow incredibly difficult to photogaph. I’ve yet to see one that can successfully convey its succulence to the audience. For that reason and that reason alone, I’m not even going to waste my time! That said, you shouldn’t waste your time either trying but instead head down to Soi Hing the next time you’re in town. Don’t hold back, when you pay, let them know you read about them here—Enjoy! SW

p.s. Notice the two signages with two different spelling? The one outside of the shop (top pic) is spelt Heng while the one inside is spelt Hing. Sometimes typos happen during business registration renewals but I’ll have you know that the signage on the kitchen wall is the real deal—the original SOI HING sign board since day one, some 45 years back!

OSHINO Steamer © Jan Shim Photography

OSHINO Steamer © Jan Shim Photography

When my sister-in-law bought this, I took it right off her car to have it photographed with a promise to have it returned, of course. Well, photography is done but it’s still with me. Shall I give it a test drive, see how well it fares against its traditional cousin, the bamboo steamer? I don’t see why not except I haven’t got a bamboo steamer. It is just the coolest steamer I’ve seen to date and will complement a modern kitchen very well. I’m not familiar with the name OSHINO, it sounds Japanese but the tagline “Home Applicances for 21st Century” seems appropriate.

© Jan Shim Photography

What I set out to cook for dinner today “Sup Tulang” which is Beef Bone Soup, a popular local Bruneian favourite, I got sidetracked and ended up with another dish, Japanese Beef Udon. The red bowl is a mini portion for Jewel, daughter and loyal patron of Jan’s Kitchen :).

My version of the Sup Tulang is a peppery hot one with black pepper, garlic, ginger among other ingredients such as ox tail, fried shallots and onions. The beef used in the udon is first marinated with light soy sauce and stir fried with shallots and garlic.

© Jan Shim Photography

There are inventions that make life easier and there’s OTTOware, an ingenius idea that makes making half-boiled eggs a no-brainer, especially useful in the early hours of the day when the body is awake but brain activity is still in bed .

The OTTOware has been with us for at least 10 years, maybe longer than I care to know. Perfection may be a subjective matter but as far as I’m concerned, the eggs always turn out just right! I like mine with a sprinkle of black pepper and a touch of dark soya sauce.

© Jan Shim Photography    [Gallery]

This whole week I seem to have been bitten by an Italian food bug and it all started because my wife has a craving for salad. Seeing how I’m on a roll and that my wife and daughter loves Italian food, Bruschetta seems the obvious choice for pre-dinner finger food. A previous attempt at this didn’t yield quite as much satisfaction as this evening’s and that’s coz today’s ingredients were close to the real thing~basil, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, etc.

© Jan Shim Photography   [Gallery]

This morning as I had my regular Alfalfa Sprouts sandwich for breakfast, the TV was tuned to  Kylie Kwong  on Travel & Living where she had some very delicate tofu prepared to be deep fried. Hers was a very simple recipe of covering the tofu pieces with corn flour and then deep frying in vegetable oil. I got inspired and took the idea further. I had the tofu pieces dipped in egg white then corn starch and also crispy tempura flakes. Then I got carried away and decided the deep fried tofu would be great caesar salad supplement.

My version of home-made caesar salad included Anchovy fillets, black pepper, hard-boiled egg, baby tomoatoes, onion, purple cabbage and added Balsamic Vinegar and Japanese Kikkoman Soy Sauce. I bought a can of croutons but completely forgotten about them. This is another one of my attempts to introduce new food to my kids and my daughter had taken a liking to the baby tomatoes she had never tried before.

© 2004 Jan Shim Photography   [Gallery]

Between December 8 and 16, 2004 Freme Travel Services offered  me a travel assignment I just could not say no to! An opportunity to visit China for the very first time in Dec 2004 and the itinerary took me to Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou. Our 9-day visit remained quite cold as we were at the end of autumn and Dec 22 marked the beginning of winter. It was reportedly snowing a week after we had returned to our tropical heat.

The photograph shown here may look familar to you. It’s not apparent at first but there is a running scene in Mission Impossible III shot in the streets of Shanghai, it occured to me that the shop houses featured in the scenes were from this very location.

Highlights of the trip:
Suzhou Silk Factory, Teapot Factory, World’s Largest Teapot “Dongpo Pot”, Louis Vuitton Building in Hangzhou, The Bund

On her way back from work and with an appetite for salad, inspired by a recent meal we had at an Italian restaurant, my wife picked up some greens from our regular supermarket. The difference this time we added fragrant basil in the mix along with slightly baked fresh mushroom and alfalfa sprouts.

The secret in making a great tasting vegetable salad, as I recently discovered, lies in its simplicity. Instead of sprinkling salt, I used a generous helping of anchovy fillets and mixing extra virgin olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar in moderate proportions.

 
© Dec 2005, Jan Shim Photography  [Gallery]

This was our biggest holiday that involved a group of 10 family members and two Radio Brunei radio personalities who are close family friends. Many thanks to niece Pau Lin who did an outstanding job of organizing the trip including accommodation at an Australian home in Fremantle and also a minibus big enough to take all of us in one ride.

On a personal note, this was the first trip back to Perth in 13 years after I fulfilled my academic endeavours. Naturally, I was excited to see if much had changed and an attempt to relive the memories from my four years there, an opportunity to visit places I never had the chance. In the gallery, you’ll see images from our many stop-overs including strawberry farm, Margaret River, Burswood Casino, Kings Park etc.

Chocolate lovers in Brunei and around the world, listen up! If you have not yet heard about or discovered these delightful Empire Chocolates, get over to the hotel lobby and check out the assortment of exquisitely packaged gift boxes. I picked up the 49-piece box and the 11.5″x 11.5″ makes a great collectible long after the chocolates are gone.

Tonight, we had our second Teppanyaki dinner this year at home with a guest (the first one was Valentine’s dinner). Our guest brought crabs from the fresh market and we had them cooked in black pepper seasoning, and shoved right into the freezer. Here’s a portrait of a couple of great claws after they’re cold enough to dig in~eating them cold the first time was quite an experience in Singapore many years ago and since then, I have only eaten crabs this way! 

It’s about time I featured some of our local delicacies and all time favourites and pictured here is Satay. Satay is a shish kebab style dish that is said to have originated from Indonesia (apparently food historians aren’t sure of this either) and made from cubes of beef, chicken or lamb and eaten with peanut relish or sauce. Once in a bluemoon, we would have satay take-out which is usually on a Friday~it’s the day my kids have swimming lessons at our local club and there’s a satay seller right next to the pool. It takes a lot of discipline to fight off temptation if you’re swimming to keep fit coz the breeze quickly covers the entire pool area with satay aroma!

Potatoes are such versatile vegetables. They have a high nutritional value, high in fibre and are fat-free and a good substitute for rice, pasta or bread. Having recently bought a fantastic book called POTATO I now have a 12″x 9″ illustrated reference with 150 recipe ideas. I improvised one idea and threw in baby carrots in the pot of boiling water. Typically, we would peel the skins off as we do so with nearly everything we cook but this time I kept the skins and they were tasty. I then stir-fried the potatoes and carrots with garlic, red onion and black pepper to finish it off. Sprinkled parsley flakes and dinner is served.

Welcome to my Japan Spring 2007 blog and photo gallery. If you’ve come here looking for a ideas for your next holiday destination, you’ve come to right place. Japan is like no other countries I’ve visited, and very little has changed since my last two visits (10-15 years ago). By that I mean its culture is built on such strong foundation of tradition, discipline and heritage. This is, of course, a good thing as I particularly like visiting places that are safe and predictable, much like our neighbour Singapore.

In the photo gallery you’ll find 444 images taking you from our transit in Singapore Changi Airport to our itinerary in Japan starting with a city tour of Tokyo. I’ll proceed with my synopsis in the present tense so none of this wonderful experience becomes yesterday’s memories . I brought with me my favourite EOS 20D, 580EX Flash, EF10-22mm, EF24-70mm and EF50mm lenses along with four batteries and 12 rechargeable 2700mAh AA’s adding up to a hefty 9kgs of gear and 9GB of CF storage!

On with the tour. We walk out of Narita Airport to be greeted with a thermometer that reads 5.6 Deg C – this is going to be an interesting journey, 5 days in Japan covering Tokyo, Hakone, Toyohashi, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka and places of interests here are (links to Wikipedia entries):

• Ginza District 
• Tokyo Disneyland
• Mount Fuji
• Shinkansen Bullet Train
• Kyoto Heian Jingu Shrine
• Osaka Castle Park
• Universal Studios Japan

Shinsaibashi a 5km shopping street that’s more intense than Shanghai’s Nanjing Road. Shinsaibashi features everything you can imagine include the immensely popular and infectious Pachinko and famous King crab legs (Dotombori Arcade) pictured from inside Star Bucks cafe.

A trip to Japan wouldn’t be complete without a taste of world’s finest Kobe Beef pictured here and here at ¥7,000 per 200 grams. Pictured below is a certificate of authenticity from Kobe~serious beef, serious taste, serious business!

p.s. Photo gallery starts with 8 images from Changi Airport, one of my favourite venues and which incidentally lives up to its slogan “Shopping City”. They have something for everyone including free broadband terminals all over the airport, foot massagers from Osim and Otto, “My Foot” massage centre, Game Zone to keep the kids well behaved and a great Japanese eatery called GENKI SUSHI. What I found interesting is each gets piped hot water to the table where you make your own green tea.

Group photo published by Halim Tours & Travel Sdn. Bhd. in United Daily newspaper, a Chinese newspaper with the highest circulation in Brunei and which invariably gets my name spelt wrong.

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Tonight’s dinner was supposed to be a simple chicken in ABC Sweet Soy Sauce the way our maid does it and instead of doing the same and taking the easy way out, I ended up elaborating dinner and ended up with an unnecessarily complex dinner. With that, I present to you an oven baked chicken chunks with lots of onions, potatoes, garlic, baby carrots and mushrooms. The kids seemed to enjoy the chicken, which is little surprising considering statistics show kids in general will pick chicken over vegies. [Gallery]

It’s that time of the year and the inevitable has happened-an overdue annual cholesterol and glucose check and the results came back to haunt me, reminiscing the days when I was younger and careless with my diet. I had been IT professional for 13 consecutive years working long and odd hours and eating irregularly until middle of 2004 when I decided to end this insanity. Three years on I’m enjoying life as I rediscover myself and the people around me and in general, the meaning of life.

When was the last time you had your cholesterol tested? A high level of cholesterol in the blood doesn’t have obvious symptoms, but it can increase your risk for conditions that do have symptoms, including angina (chest pain caused by heart disease), high blood pressure, stroke, and other circulatory ailments

You may have come across the term “Alkalising” recently and more over, you’ve had Iced Lemon for years and wonder why it’s such a popular thirst quencher. Recent drive to alkalize our diets has put me in touch with my food on a more intimate level. There are pages and pages of information on the web on the the subject of food groups and their pH levels but I use this one. The human body is very acidic for a simple reason-if you look at the chart you can easily understand the large selection of food we eat are acidic. Too much acid and the body’s organ goes into overdrive in an attempt to maintain a balanced pH levels. Rather than depending on the body, we can do our bit by switching to alkaline foods. Let me just say this .. a balanced diet is not a matter of following this chat (if only life were this easy!). The food equation is so complex that most of what we hear and learn barely scratch the surface of what is possibly mind boggling. Take Olive Oil for instance, chart says it’s Acidifying yet research shows the health benefits from the Extra Virgin variety. Like anything in life, do your due diligence before make a decision that could threaten your life.