Monday, March 2, 2026

再会啦,幽默潇洒的爸爸。以后再跟你说Good Morning。

On the final day of his funeral, during the funeral service, pastor suddenly asked my brother and I to say a few words about my dad. Here's my piece, said mainly in chinese (english translation below):

我哥哥已经说了很多我想说的对大家的感谢,所以我想在这里分享我父亲在他人生的最后两个星期的点点滴滴。

我父亲是在2月9号星期一离开我们。

就在上两周,我发了一个美食博主的视频给他。他看了有兴趣,就跑去试试,不料咖啡店没开。我以为就这样没下文了,想不到几天后 (1月30号)他又回去,而且还发了他一生中的第一个food review。

“ conclusion - 炒面和炒煮面加了很多味精 and also not so good, 大鱼大肉就不知道。”

还有

"Poor service plus expensive price for food and drink. Too few workers, very busy."

他在用他的方式跟我说他不会带我去吃。

2月7号星期六,他在群里问我们过年谁要爆竹,烟花的。

我哥哥回答说,小型的可以。

"小型的不如看别人放的。"

爸爸就是这样,要做就要做大的。

我爸爸跟大家的爸爸一样,he is a man of few words. 特别是在几次中风之后,说话更困难,就索性不说了。他跟大家的问候,就是每天早上发的老人good morning 图。他不只发给家人,也发给朋友,甚至我在新加坡的老板也收到。有趣的是,他在whatsapp 和在wechat发的早安图都不一样,有时看到不同的图,一天还发好几张不一样的。

他在2月9号早上6点15分离开我们。那天早上6点零3分,他发了最后一张早安图,就走了, 多么痛快,潇洒。

  
他的最后一张早安图


最后,我要感谢我的妈妈。

我爸爸对她有时不可爱,但是她还是守在他身边,不离不弃。刚才我哥哥说,爸爸最后也处理了很多事情,也跟很多朋友见了面。如果不是我妈妈在旁边,让他在身体受挫后一次一次恢復健康,他也没办法好好的办好他想要的。如果我妈妈到这个世界上的使命就是把我爸爸照顾好,我觉得她已经mission accomplished.

我希望大家以后来古晋,不要忘了我妈妈,要常常打电话给她,陪她聊天,带她出去喝茶,好吗?

最后,我希望我们不要记得我爸爸的不可爱,反而要记得他是多么的爱我们,和他的幽默和潇洒。谢谢。


My brother has already expressed his gratitude to everyone, so I want to share some snippets of my father's last two weeks.

My father passed away on Monday, February 9th.

Just two weeks ago, I sent him a review video from a food blogger. He was interested and went to try it out, but the coffee shop was closed. I thought that was the end of it, but a few days later (January 30th), he went back and posted his first-ever detailed food review.

"Conclusion - the fried noodles and stir-fried boiled noodles had a lot of MSG and weren't very good; I don't know about the more expensive meat and seafood dishes."

There's more,

"Poor service plus expensive prices for food and drinks. Too few workers, very busy."

He was telling me in his own way that he would never take me there.

On Saturday, February 7th, he asked in the family group chat whether we wanted firecrackers and fireworks for Chinese New Year.

My brother replied, "Small ones are fine."

"Small ones, might as well watch the others'."

That's just how Dad was; if he was going to do something, he will do it big.

Like how many of you would describe your dads, my dad was also a man of few words. Especially after suffering several strokes, speaking became even more difficult, so he sometimes simply stopped talking. His greetings were a daily "Good morning" picture. He sent it not only to family but also to friends, and even my boss in Singapore received it. Interestingly, the "Good morning" pictures he sent on WhatsApp and WeChat were different; he might even send several different "Good morning" pictures in a single day.

He left us at 6:15 AM on 9th February. That morning at 6:03 AM, he sent his last "Good morning" picture and left—how swift and graceful.


His last "Good Morning" Picture.


Finally, I want to thank my mum.

My dad wasn't always kind to her, but she stayed by his side, never abandoning him. My brother mentioned that Dad managed to settle many important issues and met with many friends. If it weren't for her, repeatedly nursing him back to health from multiple setbacks, he wouldn't have been able to accomplish what he wanted. If my mother's mission in this world is to take good care of my father, then she has accomplished her mission handsomely.

I hope that when you visit Kuching in the future, you will not forget my mother. Call her often, chat with her, and take her out for tea, okay?

Finally, I hope we will not remember my father's less-than-lovable qualities, but rather how much he loved us, and his humor and charm. Thank you.


再会啦,幽默潇洒的爸爸。以后再跟你说Good Morning。






Thursday, November 20, 2025

Learning life through hopelessly supporting Tottenham Hotspur and Phoenix Suns for 30 years

I've been a lifelong fan of perennial underdogs in both football (English Premier League) and basketball (NBA) - Tottenham Hotspur and Phoenix Suns.

They are both pretty sound as business entities, sustainable long term, and are usually one of the better teams in their leagues, tried their best within their means, got really really close but never successfully broke through😔.
Over the last 5 years, I saw both teams change their approach dramatically to take the next step.
Tottenham, still with Harry Kane and Son Heung Min dragging them along, hired serial winners Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte to lead them to titles.
Phoenix, with Devin Booker in (and still in) his prime, blew up their short-term draft potential and traded for one of the top 10 players to ever grace the NBA, Kevin Durant and maximum-salaried "Robin" Bradley Beal, hiring ex-championship winning coaches Frank Vogel (champion with LA Lakers) and Mike Buldenhozer (champion with Milwaukee Bucks) to win.
They both proved that radically changing their DNA would fail miserably. Stacking star power with A-list coaches might lead to humiliating failure, not success. Phoenix, especially, played toxic your-turn my-turn isolation ball without any form of team unity nor fight, and became the joke🤡 of the league last season.
Then again, I would like to think that both Tottenham and Phoenix have learnt their lessons by now and are proving it with their actions.
Spurs won🏆 the Europa League last year with Kane long gone and Son as a bit-part contributor in the final run-in, and are trudging along more consistently this season under up-and-coming manager Thomas Frank, no clear stars, just like how they did well under similar conditions with Mauricio Pochettino.
Suns have moved on from Beal, KD and the disinterested😑 championship coaches and pushed the reset button with just one bona fide star Devin Booker and first time head coach Jordan Ott.
They are both playing team ball, staying low-profile but are effectively punching above their weight💪, even if it's still a big unknown if these new iterations will result in tangible trophy wins.
Nonetheless, it's a welcome new dawn for me in terms of being a sports fan. I think I have my teams back😁.
And if you are still reading, never forget your DNA or force yourself to dramatically change to get better. The best way to get better, is to also be true to yourself in the process.
Finally, it is very hard to win. There is only one, or very few winners. Real victory is to become a better version of yourself.
Good luck (final word in the caption below⮟).

May the Son be with you. Photo Credit: TalkSport.com


Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Dear Noah the Teen

Dear Noah

You told me recently that my last post here was in 2023, and I remember replying that I do plan to post something here in 2024, what did you did not know is that this one and only post of the year will be specially dedicated to you.

Over the years, I have been trying my best to be there holding your hand through every milestone big or small, and with immense pride, I witnessed your graduation from Primary School in July this year.


Then again, I must remind you that the most carefree part of your life is also over. With increased lankiness comes with greater complications and responsibilities. What I am satisfied with though, is that Dad, Mum and Ellie have walked with you through your childhood and hopefully you will look back at it fondly - at the trips and eating adventures we did together, and treasure the close bonds you fostered with your friends and extended family.

The wicked media has portrayed the Terrible Teens to be darker than the Terrible Twos - where you will lock yourself for hours in the room, refuse to go out with us and see us no better than dinosaurs stuck in ancient times. I am hopeful though, that for us, it will not be, as it does not have to be like that.

Just be yourself. Be the jolly good fellow interested to engage in conversation with everyone at the table. Be the lanky handsome kid pushing out delicious meals with Dad, making chocolate bombs with mum, playing lively piano duets with your sister, and of course, figuring out how to become a legendary tag team with me on FC25 (hint: Passing angles!).

The world is getting murkier by the day, and the lines between good and evil are no longer clear. You will soon realise, if you haven’t already, that life will be about making choices, about making more right choices than wrong ones. If there is anything I can advise you, is to always do what you think is right, make decisions that will make you sleep well at night.

And if you are sure the right thing is to give someone a punch on his face, make sure it hurts, then make sure you sleep well that night.


Finally, have an open mind. Stay curious. Eat everything Daddy recommends.

Love you,
Daddy










Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Why I choose to cook at home - the evolution

Deep into my 2nd decade of intensive cooking for my family, I realise how much I have changed since I began. While I used to focus more on how good the food tasted, I have slowly but surely pivoted more to the quality of the ingredients (resulting in even better-tasting food😂👌👌).

There are many reasons for my natural evolution. Living in an agricultural country and being semi-active in the F&B world, I am lucky to access to premium produce (local and imported) from farms and suppliers. I have kids with growing appetites - making nutritious home-made meals more cost-efficient and also increasingly worth the time and effort.

Let me break it down simply. 

If you order a dish priced at $10 at a good restaurant, as a safe rule of thumb, the ingredients will cost approximately $3. The other $7 will be used to pay for overheads (set up costs, manpower, rental which contribute to the preparation/presentation, service, cleanliness, air-conditioning, marketing etc.), government taxes, service charge and (hopefully) some profit margin for the owners.

Obviously, the restaurant will have economies of scale ordering ingredients from their suppliers. What they get for $3, we might get the same for $6.

Then comes even more analysis. Firstly, $6 is already less than $10. Secondly, depending on your habits, there is an opportunity this $6 can be stretched into 2, 3, 4, 5 meals. How does that start to sound? 

I would like to think that the basic principle behind my current style is the focus on ingredient and giving it the respect it deserves. 

Take an 'expensive', premium quality free range chicken for example:

1. You can separate the meaty parts from the carcass and use the parts as the centrepiece of your champion dish, be it a roast/braise/curry.... 

2. The carcass can be used to make the most wonderful pot of chicken stock (using frozen leek tops, parsley stalks etc, you get the idea😏, other accumulated chicken 'spare parts') that will be the base of your cooking (soups, braises, sauces) for meals to come. 

3. Innards can be accumulated for a future stir-fry or pate. 

Just 1 good chicken can grace your dining table in different forms for days. 

If I buy a slab of good grass-fed beef for the BBQ, I will save the precious fat for a subsequent meal of heavenly beef fat fried rice, and the grilled bones to add delicious smoky beefiness to my next pot of Ragu. 

If you are still reading, I believe you get the drift. I just hope you can reconsider the pros and cons of cooking at home. The key is to get your hands on ingredients you can trust, and have no hesitation feeding your family with, and give it the greatest form of respect it deserves. This is the basis of a lifestyle of wholesome home-cooked family meals. Bless you! 

PS. If you are worried about your cooking skills, just know that like any other activity, you can only get better. Just do it! 



Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Ultimate Hong Kong Guide 2023 - Where to eat Dim Sum (Yum Cha), Seafood and Roast Goose!

Hong Kong has been through a lot since my last visit in 2016. 7 years, the longest interval I remember having between 2 Hong Kong trips, as Hong Kong had always been one of my favourite places to visit, mainly because of the tip-top quality of food, be it fine-dining or straightforward everyday Cantonese fare (ie. cha chan tengs, dim sum houses, wanton noodles, roast etc). 

Hong Kong in a nutshell (to me anyway)

Then again, a lot has changed. Obvious geo-political issues have resulted in severe talent drain, further alleviated by the pandemic. Hong Kong has remained expensive without getting better. One though, can take comfort that it might be slightly less crowded (but still crowded nonetheless), and the notorious impolite service staff have become more accommodating, or been replaced by seamless online ordering platforms. 

Take my words with a pinch of salt, as I only went for 4D3N, and did not touch the exclusive realms of fine dining, which may well still be Asia's pinnacle. I am here to help, not dissuade you from visiting Hong Kong, by plucking out the best of what I enjoyed:

1. Life-changing Roast Goose (and it's not Kam's)



 2. The best seafood and sunset view



3. Affordable Dim Sum with Michelin Star (need to queue)
 


4. Dim Sum with a view (and no queue)
 


5. Dim Sum to be enjoyed like royalty having high tea


So there you go, and like my Taiwan guide, hopefully this becomes a running post that is constantly updated with every visit. Enjoy Hong Kong! 

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

How I get my kids to try new food

Ok, I have to clarify, I am not an established parenting blogger or child educator, so please read on and take my advice with a pinch of salt. What I can offer here is only a regurgitation of my thoughts after making at least 4-5,000 meals (if not more) for my family since we had kids (my son is 11 and daughter is turning 9). I also had a good chat with the little ones and gathered their personal tips, which I will share below as well.


First, I want to share my mentality towards food. We eat an average of 3 times a day, each and every day. Civilizations can be defined by or easily recognizable simply from the cuisine their people grow up eating. Food is, therefore, to me, one of the most important forms of general knowledge you can impart your kids, whether it's understanding the sources of food, differentiating good ingredients from bad, knowing exactly what they put in their mouths, or learning how to prepare their own meals.

I am also not going to tell you to reward/punish your kids for trying new food. I tried it before, to limited success, but it goes against everything I believe eating should be. If they learn to enjoy a new kind of food, it is the best reward they can get, not anything you give them after.

If you are still reading, thank you, it means you might benefit from this, so here goes:

  1. Don't be picky

    By that, I don't only mean picking the kinds of food you eat, I also mean the time you eat. I made it a point for the family to sit at the table to eat together as much as possible. If you start telling your kids frequently you are skipping meals  or eating later, you will have no  comeback line when they do the same to you in the future. To the next point....

  2. Don't be a picky eater and expect them to like what you dislike!

    If you do not like vegetables, it's not reasonable to expect them to like it. If you are drinking coke, it is a weak excuse telling them coke is not good for them. Kids know. They model, so set a good example. At the very least, if they eat exactly the same things as you, don't complain that they are not eating more variety, or eating unhealthy. Look into the mirror first.

  3. Don't stop trying.

    In my parental experience, I kind of feel that liking vegetables is not intuitive to human nature in general, but maybe it's just my kids. However, the only way to beat it is to keep trying. Just because your kids like chicken and hate vegetables doesn't mean you should only put chicken on the table and make less dishes for convenience. You will end up with kids who only eat chicken!

    In fact, you should still cook vegetables and put them on the table regardless. One day, the switch in their brains will flip and they will ask to try. Trust me. It works. Just don't stop.

  4. Make them jealous (from my soon-to-be 9-yr-old daughter)

    An extension to the previous point, she explained that she started eating many things because she saw us enjoying some dishes repeatedly and got 'jealous'. For example, curry chicken (spicy) and braised bittergourd (bitter). So yes, keep cooking the things (you thought) they don't like!

  5. Mix new ingredients into old favourites (from my 11-yr-old son)

    This is an old 'trick', like how I keep adding a lot of chopped parsley into my pasta, because I know if they get tired of removing them one by one and just pop a piece in their mouths, they will learn that parsley is actually acceptable.

  6. Know your food

    This is very, very helpful. Knowing Nutella is made of hazelnuts (*smirk) can help you convince the kids to try hazelnuts. Knowing Ribena is made of blackcurrants might help you encourage them to eat blackcurrants. Use every morsel of knowledge you have, and educate them all about food in the process.
I hope these 6 short pointers can inspire you to push on in your quest to lay a foundation to get the kids to eat a healthy variety, doing them a world of good as they live their own lives in the future as parents to your grandchildren. It's actually more a mindset that what you do, isn't it?


Wednesday, April 19, 2023

From 13 to 42: Celebrating 30 Years of Brotherhood in Taipei #from13to42

 30 years man. 3 decades. 

That's how long we've known each other. 

For better or worse, the 3 years lost to Covid meant that we could only make a trip together 5 years after our previous one, but this time, instead of 3, 4 out of 5 of us could make it (for most of the trip anyway)!

Under the bright lights of Taipei. Photo credit: Jeek's Foodmaze

Even though we do not live in the same country, with most of our correspondences limited to an active WhatsApp chatgroup, our friendship and mutual understanding just got stronger over the years. I loved how we used "Oh-Peh-Som" (#iykyk) to decide our roommates for the trip, confirming how we loved each other equally and would enjoy any companion without preferences.

It's also interesting how we chose to reminisce in Taiwan again, albeit adding Tainan as a new destination to freshen things up, and had little to no comments to whatever we decided to do on the day, as long as we were together. We ended up walking 15-20km per day in between countless meals, trying to burn the calories we consumed, even though we consciously reduced the portions we ordered throughout the trip. 

I guess I will keep this simple and let these precious pictures tell the rest of the story.

The 3 of us shot to Tainan straight after arrival, still wide-eyed and excited over our late night supper.

It was street food mania, left-right-centre in Tainan. We ate and ate.

Not forgetting to explore the little alleys of Tainan.

Of course the big ones too.

During some rare down-time where we couldn't eat anymore, we visited the Confucius Temple.

Till we hobbled back to Taipei to complete the Fearsome 4some aka F4.

And things started to get a bit more interesting. Photo credit: Jeek's Foodmaze


Though some things remained the same - we walked.

And ate. Photo credit: Jeek's Foodmaze

And ate.


Threw in a hike up Elephant Mountain.

In order to eat again. Photo credit: Jeek's Foodmaze

Woke early to hit the gym.

To enjoy our one and only bubble tea (less ice less sweet).

But the most important thing.

Was obviously (not my shirt). Photo credit: Jeek's Foodmaze

That we were hanging out together. Photo credit: Jeek's Foodmaze


Through our last 2 trips in Taiwan, aside of us, there was 1 other constant, Jeek, whose showed us true Taiwanese spirit and hospitality by bringing us to the best places in Taipei, taking the best pictures of us in the process, leaving us with the best memories. Thank you Jeek, it was tough on you, we promise to come bother you again in the future.

The last word, as usual, has to go to our better halves, who held the fort at home with the little ones while the 4 musketeers had the time of our lives. It would not have been possible without your generous blessings.

So thank you, Li Li, Grace, Zhimin and Regine. Now that you know we are such good boys, when can we do it again?

PS. To complete the archives of our travel series, look here.


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