chinese fast food

if you have not try chinese fast food before, i would advice that you try it. it is as fast as any western fast food and about the same price as most of the western fast food. this is my 3rd time taking chinese fast food, zhen gong Fu (真功夫) or real kongfu.

i had the stewed pork rib set. it come with a bowl of rice, a plate of green, a bowl of black chicken soup (this is not for those who get annoyed with chicken head, there is no chicken head in the soup but if you had not seen any black chicken before, avoid this soup) and of course the stewed pork rib. the meal was a good portion for me, not too salty and not too oily like most of the chinese food in china. it costs 23rmb and it was served real fast, within 3 minutes of ordering.

almost got conned

as my computer was not able to boot up, i brought it to the IT mall for verification and repair (if needed). i brought it to the 2nd floor and one of the shop helper was so willingly to help me to check what is the problem so i decided why not. i told him that i suspected either the motherboard or the power supply. without powering up the PC, he get his power supply and plug it into the motherboard and the same symptom occurred. he changed back to my power supply and also put some force on the CPU and check the RAM, and other connections and switched on the supply again. hurray, this time, the PC booted up and get into the Windows OS. I told him good, look like the computer has no problem but could be just some connection loose.

he then shutdown the PC, and switched it on again and trying to get into the BIOS setup by hitting the DEL key many times. this time it could not boot up anymore. i was wondering and ask him why, he claimed that the motherboard could be unstable. i went over and take a closer look and found that the RAM was sat properly and told him about it. he took out the RAM and plug it back and also plug a diagnostic card into the PCI slot. after which, he power up the system again and the card shows a C1, and i ask what does it stand for. he was unable to answer and told me the motherboard is unstable. i told him never mind as i suspected something i could do it at home. i also suspected that he is trying to kill the motherboard maybe and let me replace one at his shop. so, he put back everything, i thanked him and left the place.

my wife was with me and we decided we could get another shop to help to check if it is really the motherboard problem. this is like seeking a second opinion when your doctor told you that you need an operation. also, i am quite PC savvy so no one would be able to lie to me.

we went to the third floor, this guy is also very friendly and wanted to help check my PC. i told him the symptom and he opened the case and immediately removed the heatsink and get a new heatsink to install in. i told him i am not going to pay for that if i do not know the problem. he sensed that i was serious and use a used heatsink to try. this time it boot up again.

he said: "well, i told you this is the problem"

i know this is not the problem

i said: "well, let put back the original heatsink, i install the PC on my own, i know it is not the heaksink"

so, he swapped it back very unwilling and the PC boot up without any hesitation.

i said: "could you put it back everything and i help bring it home, if there is any problem, i will come back"

he was annoyed and said: "no, don't bring back here"

anyway, i thanked him and left. i was happy that i did not spend a single cent to have my PC fix other than the petrol use to travel to the IT mall. i am using the same PC that is supposing bad to write this blog entry.

the moral of the story are:
1. always check for loose connection on your PC before sending it for repair
2. always ask for second opinions
3. do not believe what they told you, always ask questions get to the bottom of the problem.

x'mas present

i left my computer power on yesterday night, this morning, i try to switch on but i was getting continuous short beeps. i checked it out from the motherboard website, look like my power supply is gone. i had myself a x'mas present. lucky me.

tomorrow, christmas day, i will need buy a power supply from the IT mall. maybe i could get myself a brand new PC for my x'mas present... hahaha...

eat eat eat eat

last week was a makan week for me, i had been having good meal for 2 days in a row, a total of 4 sumptuous meals with lot of calories and fats. haha... fortunately i rode 80km on saturday to get ride of those unwanted and unhealthy stuff.

thursday lunch at (吴地人家) wu di ren jia which served mainly suzhounese food. it is an engineering birthday celebration lunch for our boss. this is a regularly lunch that we would have whenever it is one of our engineering managers birthday. we had good meal.

on the same night, boss invited his staff and families to (美美) mei mei at rainbow walk for a dinner. the arrangement was good, kids were sat at their own place with pizza, fries and other stuff, while adults enjoy a good quality chinese food.


so, that was it for thursday, 2 chinese meals in a row.

friday was a shutdown day so the whole test group went for a annual dinner celebration. we had a lamb feast during lunch. i was told that lamb is very good for health during winter time specially because lamb is "heaty" food or high calories. we went to (藏书) cangshu which is another 5km west of (木渎) mudu. cangshu was a place where most of the lamb restaurant located. i counted like 10 restaurants with the character (羊) lamb on the sign board.


anyway, here were the food from various parts of the lamb. some of dishes tasted good while other were a little to my dislike.


after much food, it was time for beer. the chinese were really good at drinking. each (including the ladies in the group) could drink 5 bottles of (青岛) qingdao beer. back home in singapore, we seldom drink beer during lunch, it would be beer after dinner. here in china, beer can be served anytime. after breakfast, lunch or dinner and of course supper. drinking is a very important activity for social event here, usually one should not ever reject a toast from someone, it quite rude to do that.


before heading to our next destination for a afternoon tea and card games, we took a group picture outside the restaurant for remembrance.


after the test annual dinner during lunch time, i headed back home to pickup my family and we decided we should go for a japanese dinner. in suzhou, we had couple of japanese meal before but usually are the lower cost type (such as ajisen). this time, we went to a more posh restaurant. we had curry rice, terrayaki chicken set, western set kids meal, crispy tofu and chawamushi. every dishes were good other than the curry rice that had a lot of fat in the beef that the restaurant use. i had to separate the fat before i eat the dish. this was the best japanese meal i had in suzhou though it cost a little bit more, partially it is due to the ambience of the restaurant. the total damage was 167rmb (S$35).


by the way, jack neo's chinese new year movie is showing in singapore soon. usually the j-team shot commercial advising movies goers to switch off their phone before the start of the movie. here is the commercial "do not use the phone" that you must watch. very funny lah!!!

i am on china blog list

yesterday, my colleague david told me that my blog is on chinabloglist. i was very surprised, i mean i did not really expect that my blog would be on that list although i did submit it quite sometimes back and there was an error during the submission.

anyway, i am glad and happy. this indicate to me that my blog do have certain content that people are interested to read other than just friend or colleagues who are aware of my blog. i am going to write more and put more pictures on my blog.

thumbs up aik peng

心血来潮 - Dinner

心血来潮 炒米粉给家人吃

i am in a good mood today so i cook for my family. since we came to china, this is my second time that i cook. the first was the nasi-lemak and now the fried bee hoon. i would said it taste 6/10 but my wife loVE the bee hoon.

the ingredients are chinese sausage, ham, egg, lettuce (cai xin would be a better choice) and of course bee hoon (rice noodle)

here a picture

as hubby, sometime we would need to cook one or dish for the family instead of the wife who usually is the homemaker and the cook. if we cook, the wife usually would appreciate the effort.

bai tang garden

it was sunny although the weather in suzhou was cold ranging from 0C to 8C during day time. so i decided to visit the bai tang garden to take a few pictures. as i travel, the sun soon block by the cloud so the pictures taken today were not colorful.

suzhou has many constructions going on. especially in the SIP area where apartment and factories are build to cater for more workers.


while travelling to the garden, i pass by this abandoned bridge. suzhou has many bridges. i quite like this as it looks like very ancient and it stand out from the bare land. the bridge could be more than few hundreds year old. i did not manage to find anything that indicate it age but who knows.

a close up view of the bridge, it looks like it has gone through a few wars. the Chinese are clever, they advertised by painting their number on the bridge.

the garden was very empty and i feel rather sad or 凄凉.

i like this picture. it looked like the sun in the background but it was not. make a give what was that.

finally, before leaving the garden, took a picture of a loving couple strolling toward the exit.

i would be visiting this place again in spring time. i bet it will be more lively with more people and activities.

indian at the X

many are not spending in this economy situation but to me, this is probably the right time to spend. for example, i went to deep blue singapore seafood, my family is the only family and we were very well serve. yesterday, we went to indian at the X, the same happen. we were the only dinner till we left when there is another couple came for dinner. so, do it now, you will be serve very promptly and very politely.

alright, back to the food. we order roti, cheese naan to go with masala mushroom and a bowl of chicken biryan. my wife ordered a glass of ginger tea as well. after the food served, we find that maybe is not enough as the portion is relative small. so we ordered butter naan and garlic chicken curry. now, we ordered too much and we have to take away whatever left over.

the food were good especially the masala mushroom and the cheese naan. the garlic chicken curry is not really to our taste as the garlic and chicken chunk are too big a piece. we prefer smaller pieces of chicken chunk so that it can wrap in the naan.

our damage for the dinner was 226rmb (S$47), another money well spent. i would recommend anyone to this place to try the indian food in suzhou. it is located at the south-east of guan qian jie (walking street).