It's A Pie Thing

So it's been over a year since I wrote my last food review. I think it shows.

Opinions of the place seem divided; some liked it, others didn't. I wasn't too enthusiastic about the pie place initially. Then the pulled lamb happened. Give. It. A. Go. I'd return for the meat pies, and I think they have a limited-edition special at the moment.

Sorry about the odd photo dimensions; they were taken with a Samsung Grand smartphone.

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Pie thing, you make my gut sing...

first published in The Malay Mail Online, 09 July 2014


Reading about pies in a Terry Pratchett novel (which isn't about pies) made me want to try something similar, but I was hard-pressed to think of a suitable pie place.

However, after a long caffeine-soaked afternoon with Melody's friends, that choice was made for me. "Let's give A Pie Thing a whirl," one of them suggested. "Maybe in a couple of weeks?"

Interior of A Pie Thing, Damansara Uptown

Since then, I've heard a thing or two about this pie place, all of which from makan kaki Melody. Seems pies are the hottest new thing in town and Klang Valley-dwellers have begun to take note.

So one Sunday evening, off we went to A Pie Thing at Damansara Uptown for dinner. Currently, this new kid on the block (only launched this May) only opens from four in the afternoon and closes at 11pm — or until all pies are sold out, says the chalkboard outside.

Savoury pies appear to be the focus, with several dessert pies like lemon curd, peanut butter and chocolate, and a flavour called "The Elvis" (peanut butter, chocolate and banana) to round up their offerings.

Among the savoury offerings are chicken and mushroom, "pulled lamb", chilli and cheese, and creamy spinach, tucked into coffee cup-sized casings of shortcrust pastry.

Aside from the rich brown gravy, patrons have the option of capping their pies with either mashed potatoes or mashed peas — or a combination of both, called "The Mashacre", which can also be paired with a soda or hot beverage to form a combo.

Beverages? Choose from a list of coffees, teas, and something called the Leonidas Dark Choc Latte, which sang to Melody: "Take me off the shelf, I'll show you a good time."

Left: Choose to crown your pies with mashed peas (foreground) or
good old mashed potatoes; Centre: Oh, succulent, saliva-pumping
savoury goodness; Right: Surprisingly, the Peanut Butter Brownie
was nice and not as filling as the savoury meat pies

Neither of us wanted to be "mashacred" this evening, and Melody's two friends haven't shown up yet. So we picked a pie each, with gravy and one topping. "Let's try these and see if we can recommend these to them later," she said.

I know you're famished, Mel. You told me so — twice — on the way here. No need to cover it up.

Melody's creamy spinach was subtly flavoured, so it needed the gravy — not just because the crust can be dry. The champions are undoubtedly the meat pies. The pulled lamb, for one, was sublime. Even the pastry itself was good, after it soaked up a good amount of gravy.

♪ ...pie thing, I ... think you move me... ♫

By the time the other half of the pie party arrived and started ordering, we were almost done. So I decided on a chilli and cheese, which also had minced beef that was gamier compared to the lamb, said Melody. The flavour suited me fine, though they could have cut down on the salt.

The Dark Choc Latte was another odd thing. It came in two parts: a bottle of heated milk and a dark chocolate "lollipop." You unwrap the "lollipop", swirl it into the milk while it's still hot until almost nothing's left on the stick, and savour.

The flavour's pretty good, but the novelty of it doesn't last. If you're still not satisfied, a whole counter of other Leonidas products is available.

For me, it's the meat pies, hands down. Though they could re-think the use of the paper lining, which, despite being able to drink as much gravy as the pie crust, is hardly as appetising.

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A Pie Thing

128G, Jalan SS21/35
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor

Pork-free

CLOSED FOR GOOD; MOVING ELSEWHERE?

Twitter | Facebook page | BFM89.9 Interview

Still Honking After All These Years

Though it has been over seven years since Lydia Teh "honked" her way into the hearts of readers through her best-selling Honk! If You're Malaysian, it appears things haven't changed much since it was published. Yes, she is still honking. And she still is the typical Malaysian next door.

In Still Honking: More Scenes from Malaysian Life, Teh continues to hold up a mirror to the Malaysian psyche and way of life. Her light-hearted and whimsical tales and essays, which capture the essence of being Malaysian, take the form of personal anecdotes, how-tos, newspaper-style columns, and hybrids of two or more of the aforementioned - all tinged with her (at times) fiery, sharp, straight-to-the-point wit and homespun wisdom.

Follow the chronology of a typical piece of world-class infrastructure via a series of acronyms. Pick up some ideas on how to deal with pesky sparrows, handling garbage-can theft, saving electricity, and promoting your book - should you decide to write one. Find out what you can use instead of a warning triangle when - heavens forbid - your car breaks down.

Get acquainted with some common archetypes of salespeople, queue-jumpers, "actors" and people who stare into mirrors - have you encountered one or more of these? Also, learn how to get your fussy children to take their medicine, brush their teeth, or eat their vegetables - maybe.

Closer to home, learn why a beloved pet's demise made her swear off roti canai for a while, laugh at her anxiety over her teens taking the wheel, and gawk at what happened when Phua Chu Kang aka Gurmit Singh and company arrived at her sister's place for a location shoot.

True-blue Malaysians and foreigners alike will still recognise the characters and situations in these snippets of what happens in the average (and not-so-average) Malaysian backyard and laugh (or maybe cry) at memories of something similar.

Some might be sad at the realisation that little has changed in this multicultural melting pot of a nation, but many others, perhaps, wouldn't want it any other way.


Lydia Teh hung up her well-worn apron after 17 years of staying home with her four children. She now runs an English-language centre in Klang. She writes a weekly column, "Family Teh Time", for The Sun newspaper on family life in general. She's the best-selling author of Life's Like That: Scenes from Malaysian Life, Honk! If You're Malaysian and Do You Wear Suspenders? The Wordy Tales of Eh Poh Nim. She can be reached through her web site at www.lydiateh.com.

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Still Honking

More Scenes from Malaysian Life

Lydia Teh
MPH Group Publishing (July 2013)
194 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-208-6

Buy from MPHOnline.com

From Kampung Kenang To Kasoa

When the manuscript arrived over two years ago, I'd felt that the book project, though interesting and well-intentioned, wouldn't make much of a splash.

From what I'd heard about it since, it did.

Compiled into a blook, the adventures of a new teacher who was posted to the interior gained quite a following, and the blog itself won the Malaysia Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance Award in 2011.

From Kampung Kenang in Perak to Kasoa, Ghana ... that's over 11,000km (or
more than 7,000 miles) - quite a distance between two books

I guess the emergence of a Book Two would not have been a surprise.

I was more involved with this project than the previous one, from editing and fact-checking to the initial selection and sequencing of the photos. This, along with the other book projects, took up quite a bit of my time, leaving me too tired to blog and stuff.

But looks like it was all worth it.

After several years of teaching maths at Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampung Kenang in Perak, Muhamad Hafiz Ismail, author of Life Through My Eyes: A Teacher's Little Steps Towards Perfection, left to embark upon a year-long programme for a Master in Education (MEd) in International Development and Education at Newcastle University in the UK.

As part of his studies, he ventured into the West African country of Ghana with a group of fellow students, to study the reflective practices of teachers in the country. Specifically, that of several schools run by Omega Schools, a social enterprise that aims to provide quality education at the lowest possible cost to the poor, located in the district of Kasoa in southern Ghana.

Quite a huge leap.

Sample pages from Life Through My Eyes 2; the design concept is similar
with the previous book, but both can be read as individual volumes

"I chose to study International Development and Education mainly because I wanted to learn about social entrepreneurship, which is still new in Malaysia," Hafiz writes. "Every child deserves the best education. I wanted to find out how I could make a difference by being a teacher and social entrepreneur."

A continuation of his blogged-about adventures in teaching and education, Life Through My Eyes 2: From Kampung Kenang to Kasoa mostly chronicles his time in Ghana and compares his experiences in Malaysia and the UK, with some personal musings in between.

Hafiz has chosen to immerse himself in a world where, despite poverty and lack of what many of us take for granted, people still put a premium on education. "In Ghana, advertisements for private and public schools are present at every road corner, market stall, or bus stop," he notes.

Sample two-page spread from Life Through My Eyes 2: a neighbourhood
somewhere in Kasoa, Ghana

Follow him as he bids goodbye to the teachers and pupils of Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampung Kenang and flies off to Newcastle, where he returns to the life of a student, to the hot dusty streets of Kasoa in Ghana, where the Omega Schools headquarters is located.

He witnesses first hand the spirit of learning within the students, most of whom come from poor families; learns about the culture: the language, traditional games and food and so on; explores some of the country's rural areas, historial sites and visits a national park; and gets a better grasp about another developing country's education system. To better teach the Ghanaian students traditional Malay games, he even learns a local song.

In the end, he comes away with new perspectives of his chosen field and the realisation that he still has more to learn and do as an educator.

I learnt quite a bit about Ghana from working on this book, and I think readers will, too. More of our young people should look for new opportunities and experiences beyond our borders. To know that he was apparently criticised for his decision to study overseas and undertake his posting to Ghana was a bit sad.

But he's not letting that get him down.

"Still, I want to make my own choice, even though it might be the worst choice ever in other people's minds," he writes. "I want to make the biggest contribution that I can to other people, to education, to society. That is what drives my decision, my choice, my life. Better to regret doing it, rather than to regret not doing it at all."

Hafiz is now a consultant with Frogasia, a YTL initiative to "connect an entire nation through a single, cloud-based learning platform". Follow his further adventures at his blog or the book's Facebook page.

01/09/2014  Listen to the podcast of Hafiz's interview on BFM89.9 about the book.

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Life Through My Eyes 2

From Kampung Kenang to Kasoa

Muhamad Hafiz bin Ismail
MPH Group Publishing
214 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-210-9

Buy from MPHOnline.com

When Wild Ain't Real

Like many on that day, I was stunned to learn of Steve Irwin's death. Back when I still had an Astro subscription, the "Crocodile Hunter" was a welcome distraction, as were his other fellow wildlife-championing daredevils.

Years later, comes this point of view, which would change my perceptions of the Crocodile Hunters of TV forever.

King cobra: "I'm a celebrity?
Get me outta here!" Photo
from here.

"Five years on, the pet-and-pester approach he pioneered has become the standard way for nature programs to produce cheap dramatic footage — reality TV with claws," writes Andrew Marshall in that piece. "Turn on any channel and you'll see Irwin lookalikes hassling animals. They declaim their love of nature, while unwittingly recording our dysfunctional relationship with it, teaching our children to both fear and subjugate creatures already pushed to the brink of extinction."


Dancing with death
Anybody remember Austin Stevens? The "snakeman, herpetologist, adventurer, photographer, filmmaker" and "author"? I do. But not Andrew Marshall, apparently. The shift in thought I'd just mentioned was reinforced when watching him again one day.

In an episode of Austin Steven's Most Dangerous, he was looking for a king cobra. At one point he voiced his frustrations at not being able to find one. Then, by the law of the last 15 minutes - huzzah! - they found a wild specimen. Watching him sweatily dance around a snake that just wanted to get the hell out of there was excruciating. Not content to get his photos, he also wanted to pet the snake, something he "wanted to do" for years. And when he does, oh boy, does he sound ever so elated.

If you'd seen it, you'd be rooting for the snake, too.

Even before Steve-O's untimely demise, the nature show machine was already becoming more and more mass-market. It's good television, provided that the core messages were also being sent. Now, I'm no longer sure that's the case.

Well... maybe these wildlife experts are experts. Maybe they do love nature enough to know they shouldn't molest potentially lethal species for television. Maybe there are times when they would advise against all these stunts.

But TV demands an audience, one that's developing an appetite for mindless action and gore nurtured by the entertainment and games industry. And so, even experts have to bend over and violate a few moral tenets for exposure and a living. Kind of like the chefs in those reality and travels shows.


Sending (and receiving) the wrong signals
While the proliferation of celebrity chefs would do relatively little harm, I feel that the nature show industrial complex played a role in the mess caused by the exotic pet industry. A few TV shows and an Internet-enabled device and somebody's an "expert" on Burmese pythons and monitor lizards.

Did they miss the part about Burmese pythons being able to grow up to 7 feet long within a year, if cared for properly? Or that a 10-footer can easily kill a child? Or the massive sizes they can achieve if kept alive for years?

Exotic pet industry advocates say the trade creates jobs, fosters understanding about wildlife and the environment, and so on. Well, the firearms industry creates jobs too. But people can't be counted on to be responsible with their pets or guns all the time.

These exotic pet traders expect their customers to be knowledgeable and responsible pet keepers. The Burmese and African rock python invasion of Florida's Everglades is the result, possibly due to the negligence of a few irresponsible individuals. The snakehead "invasion" in Maryland was reportedly caused by one fellow.

And how does taking a Burmese python out of Burma help in understanding nature and the environment? Or help in conservation, even? Why should little Timmy have a bearded dragon, just because it's cool to have one and "Mark down in Shepford Avenue has one too and oh, his dad keeps a Gaboon viper"?

"Muskingum... oh G*d, that was awful.
I close my eyes and I can still see it...
Photo from here.

The so-called wild creatures can't demonstrate their roles in their natural habitat when they're not in their natural habitat. Nor can they speak for themselves, which is why we need real animal experts. I don't think the commercial exotic pet trade helps with this at all.

Those traded animals that didn't come from a factory farm were likely caught illegally from habitats that may not afford the loss of these species. The National Geographic article on the Asian wildlife trade still fills me with shame and fury, as does the extermination of the animals in Muskingum, Ohio.

And how can these wild creatures be compared to other domesticated animals such as dogs and cats? A pet shop is not a Toys-R-Us. Kids will get bored with their toys, just as they will with pets. And there are no recycle bins for unwanted African rock pythons or Indian star turtles.


Coming home to roost - or nest
We often fail to understand that many of this planet's creatures evolved to perform certain duties necessary to keep the circle of life going. The effects of any unnatural tampering of this circle may not be known for years and by the time they're felt, it's often to late.

With regards to pythons in the Everglades, nobody knows exactly how these snakes react when placed in a foreign habitat. Will they be eventually killed by the climate, or will they evolve to fill the niche they're placed in?

Wildlife experts now fear the possibility of the latter, a worst-case scenario where these pythons would spread beyond Florida or, worse, breed a hybrid Burmese-African super python.

Sceptics argue that snakes won't survive the winters outside Florida and, hell, we ain't seen a super snake yet. That's because the twain hath never met - Burma, Africa, you know. But now that both species are sharing the same neighbourhood, it may only be a matter of time.


Keep it real
Not to denigrate the good work these wildlife warriors do off-camera, but I don't really feel the action-adventure circuit does much good for wildlife conservation or the reputation of the related professions in the long run.

Not when the nature channels appear to be pandering more and more to the action-adventure- and blood-and-guts-loving demographic, distilling their subjects down to tiny yummy, bloody bites for an increasingly attention-deficient dumbed-down audience.

I'm not sure they dance with crocs or wrestle great white sharks onto boats for tagging, measuring and DNA sampling for the glam. It's hard work, more a labour of love or a duty to inform. Cliché, perhaps, but that's what I'd like to believe.

(I've not heard of researchers who treat field work as a "job", but I'm sure they exist).

Just as these shows reduce these dedicated men and women to Crocodile Hunters, Snake Busters or Shark Men, these wild animals and their roles in their exclusive ecological niches are similarly reduced to just stripes, spots, fins, scales and sharp teeth, to be gawked at, feared or admired, and perhaps owned. Trophies, trinkets, ornaments. Status symbols.

These people and the wildlife they work with are more than that. And it's time we all learn how much.


I wrote this back in 2012, partly in response to an article that commemorated Steve Irwin, a few years after his death. Things are hectic at the company, which is why there are more pictures than prose around here these days, and only when I can be bothered - not even enough time to compile the space-filling listicles I used to be fond of.

Zan Does Afghanistan

After covering and chronicling the South Thailand insurgency in the book titled Operation Nasi Kerabu: Finding Patani in an Islamic Insurgency, journalist and filmmaker Zan Azlee turned his lens towards a conflict zone much further afield: Afghanistan.

A "KL-ite journalist who has lived all his life in non-conflict zones", Zan travelled there "to see if he can come up with the best travel guide for the country. With no idea what he is getting himself into, he dodges suicide bombers and IEDs, and even gets embedded with the army, to plan out the best tourist route in Afghanistan." Okay....

Upon his safe return to Malaysia, Zan has gone on to write articles and produce photo essays and video clips on his trip to Afghanistan. As part of his various Afghanistan-related multimedia projects, Zan, together with creative director Arif Rafhan, brings us his Afghan adventures in a black-and-white graphic novel.

Zan and his fixer's first meeting (as Zan imagined it, I believe)

The monochromatic textures and shades manage to convey the mood of the characters and scenes, bringing home the reality of the Afghan conflict (it's not like Rambo III at all) and its impact on the long-suffering populace. The results are more National Geographic than Lonely Planet, though I felt the book was a bit short.

As I said before, Adventures of a KL-ite in Afghanistan (I suggested a title change, but no) follows Zan the "macho" solo-journalist (he says) on his romp around the war-torn country in his attempt to put together said tourist guide.

Going to the ground with his fixer, Ahmad Bilal Raghbat, Zan sees first-hand the plight of the Afghan people and the efforts of those who are contributing towards rebuilding the country and returning some semblance of normality to Afghan society.

Our intrepid protagonist also talks to (allegedly) the last Jew living in Afghanistan; witnesses an orderly, police-assisted march in honour of Ahmad Shah Massoud; meets Oliver Percovich, founder of NGO Skateistan; looks up the empty gigantic cavities that once housed the Buddhas of Bamiyan—the fulfilment of a years-long dream; briefly accompanies Malcom ISAF 2, Malaysia's military contingent, on a humanitarian mission in the war-torn country's Bamiyan province; and more.

Plus, a cameo by a mat salleh who looks like Dave Grohl. Awesome stuff overall - what's not to like?


Zan Azlee is a TV/film director, producer, videographer and writer who's involved in journalism both for broadcast and print, a content developer for new media/Internet, and a content consultant. He also runs Fat Bidin Media. You might have seen some of his scribblings on the online news portal The Malaysian Insider.

Arif Rafhan is a Malaysian creative director of web design agency who loves to draw on anything – from dead-tree media to his computer monitor and his son's bedroom wall. He is also the illustrator for Imaginary Friends: 26 Fables for the Kid in Us by Melanie Lee.

12/08/2014  Listen to the podcast of Zan and Arif's interview on BFM89.9 about the book.

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Adventures of a KL-ite in Afghanistan

Zan Azlee
illustrated by Arif Rafhan

MPH Group Publishing
136 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-196-6

Buy from MPHOnline.com

Musings Of A "Zebra Mom"

"Zebra" is a medical term for a surprising or unexpected diagnosis. In medical school, physicians are taught to think of a horse, not a zebra when they "hear a gallop and hoofbeats". The analogy means that the simplest and most straightforward explanation is often the answer.

Which is perhaps why, during a routine check-up for a bad bout of flu, Patsy Kam and maybe her doctor were caught off-guard when the latter found something else entirely, which marked her a "zebra".

Galloping into bookstores nationwide: I Am a Zebra! by Patsy Kam

Kam learnt that she has paraganglioma, a rare condition. Estimates say that one out of 300,000 people in the general population are diagnosed with it every year. Though not debilitating in itself, the condition can lead to something worse if left untreated.

Overnight, her world changed, as she prepared for a future fraught with doctors, medical exams and surgeries, while trying to balance her roles as a journalist and mother of three.

This is the story of a woman who discovers her inner strength and resolve as she battles this disease while muddling her way through motherhood. Plenty of drama here as Kam braves painful medical procedures and the side effects of her treatments - on top of the antics of her three sons, who keep proving to be a handful and a half (each) as they grew up.

And hers wasn't a smooth transition to being a mother.

"For starters, I was not one of those women who glowed and beamed as their stomachs grew progressively larger," Kam writes. "Some of them claim they never suffered a day of morning sickness in their lives, and giving birth was as easy as 'pushing out an egg'."

But perhaps it was motherhood that lent her much of the strength she needed to battle her condition.

By sharing her experiences as a patient in this book as well as stories of some people like her (a handy glossary and resource section is provided at the end of the book), Kam hopes more people will learn about the disease and its effects, and spur more research towards finding a cure.

"When I first discovered my medical tragedy, my world came crashing down. There seemed no respite from the surgeries and the drama that unfolded, and there were many, many times when I wanted to call it quits," she says. "But it’s not all bad as I’ve since learnt how to cope with paraganglioma."

"Hopefully, someone, somewhere, will glean something from my experience," she adds, "and be aware of this rare disease and be able to do something about the tumours that come with it before it’s too late."


Patsy Kam is a mother of three and a journalist with Malaysia’s leading English daily The Star. Follow her further adventures beyond this book at her blog Me and My Lumps.

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I Am a Zebra!

Making Sense of a Rare Disorder

Patsy Kam
MPH Group Publishing
160 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-200-0

Buy from MPHOnline.com

Coming This Way Soon

I felt it was appropriate to release this sneak peek on Teacher's Day. Guess which teacher wrote this?

Yes, the adventures of the "teacher in the interior" continues.

And also, this:

This one you have to guess (or Google) - not hard, really.

I'll have more to say when both come off the presses. Stay tuned.

And good weekend.