Biting into the meaty stuff

In the days of secondary school, a few friends and I pooled some funds and went into part-time business of selling burgers and ABC (or ais kacang). We did it during one of the term breaks when our school had encouraged the students to set up stalls to sell stuff among ourselves. Part of early exposure to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship.

We sold a variety of burgers. Apart from the standard piece of beef or chicken patty sandwiched in a bun, we had other setups such as cheeseburger, egg burger, baby burger, mama burger and papa burger. I cannot now recall what makes up each of these burger variety but I'm sure papa burger was the whopper of the lot. It had two burger patties with two eggs plus a cheese slice topping. It was a hit among the students and overall, we made a tidy profit, even after splitting it 5-ways.

At that time I thought, if I ever not make it in my studies, I can always fall back to selling burgers... and I didn't think anybody could be as creative as us in inventing burger menus. Yesterday, I found one burger stall that has gone on with ideas way beyond what I had imagined more than 30 years ago.

I first read about Planetz Burger in a local food blog JB Food Club, a few weeks ago. From the review and the pics that were shown, I knew I had to give the place a try. As I was driving home from work yesterday evening, I passed the area where the stall is located and made a split-second decision to search for it.

Planetz Burger is a simple push-cart roadside stall located in front of a row of shophouses, somewhere in Taman Munsyi in Tampoi. It is just like any other burger stalls you find at roadside corners operating next to mamak restaurants or in front of 7-Elevens... except this one has variety. I wouldn't dare to try describe them all but you can have mayami burgers, mushroom burgers, combo burgers (double, triple or even quadruple!), fries and nuggets too. And the burgers themselves can either be chicken or beef or mutton or rabbit. Take your pick. Have a look at the photos in their Facebook page and you'll know what I mean. Generally, the burgers are meant to be bought as take-aways to be eaten at home but if you can't suppress your hunger and wait till you get home, you can sit at the simple folding table to chow on your meat. Planetz Burger also sell simple squash drinks to help you water down your meal.

Ok then, we are spoiled for choice... but what about taste, I hear you ask? Well, my first order from this stall was a mayami mutton special combo cheeseburger. It had the whole works : double mutton patties, egg, cheese, salad greens, onions and black pepper sauce. Real messy to eat but the taste was exquisite.

The simple burger stall. Pic from Planetz Burger FB.

Mayami combo poster. Pic from Planetz Burger FB.

Cholesterol-laden goodness

I am definitely stopping by this place again soon to try the other versions. You can really make a decent honest living selling burgers from a roadside stall, if you are creative enough.

April is a girl's name...

Goodness me! It is the end of April already... and I have not posted anything apart from the Pantun 4 Kerat item to mark my 4th anniversary of being a blogger. It has been a terribly busy month. Plenty of unfinished and overdue stuff. Luckily the Inland Revenue Board has an extended closing date for e-filing of tax returns, otherwise I'd be late on that one too.

While I do have a few ideas floating in my head on what to write, the mental and physical fatigue at the end of each working day is hampering efforts to put those ideas on screen. Even blog-hopping is becoming rare nowadays... but I do hope it does not last, because I really enjoy writing in this blog and reading the entries in other blogs.

So what shall I write about today? Nothing serious, just another one in my `merapu' category.

Of the 12 months in the Gregorian calendar, a few of these have been used as female names. April, May and June are the obvious examples. I have also previously seen January being used as a girl's name, although not often like the other three. Of the other months, only August (from Augustus Ceasar, the Roman emperor) is considered a male name, at least to the best of my knowledge. The word `august', as an adjective, carries a noble meaning as well.

Of the 7 days in the week, perhaps only Friday is used as a person's name... even so, only as a fictional character in Robinson Crusoe. Compare that to the Malay names for days of the week. Isnin, Jumaat and Sabtu are quite common Malay male names. Persons with these names are obviously born on the days their names represent. Similarly, a few of the name of months in the Muslim Hijrah calendar are adopted as individual names - Muharram, Rejab, Ramadan and Shawal being some examples.

Our eldest son was born on the first day of the first month of the Hijrah calender, 23 years ago. Some of our elder relatives suggested that we name him Ahmad Muharram, or something similar. Of course, we didn't... that would've been too easy and uninspiring.

Ok then, let's say goodnight to April and welcome May...

Pantun 4 Kerat

Anak punai anak merbah
Terbang turun buat sarang
Blog ditinggal terlalu lama sudah
Sampai penuh habuk dan sawang


Asal kapas jadi benang
Dari benang dibuat baju
Hal yang lepas jangan dikenang
Ayuh dibuka lembaran baru


Selat teduh lautan tenang
Banyak labuh perahu Aceh
Kerana pembaca yang sudi bertandang
Ku ucapkan berbanyak terima kasih


Kalau pinang masih muda
Rasanya kelat sudahlah pasti
Kalau hilang pembaca hamba
Rasanya sunyi di dalam hati


Empat rangkap pantun empat kerat yang telah saya modify dari lirik lagu yang pernah popular zaman 70an dulu, sebagai posting pertama pada bulan empat ini. Dengan kesibukan tugas serta perjalanan ke sana ke mari, terlepas saya untuk menulis sesuatu sebagai tanda blog Just Observations ini telah pun menjangkau usia 4 tahun.

Terima kasih saya ucapkan kepada semua rakan blogger serta pembaca (samada pembaca senyap mahupun yang bersuara) yang telah menemani saya sekitar pengembaraan saya di alam siber.

Indah budi kerna bahasa... ingatan saya kepada tuan sentiasa.

Tan Tin Tun

In the early 1980's, a local humour magazine called Gila-Gila was a huge best-seller. I was a regular customer and used to keep so many old copies of it. Among the popular cartoon series in that magazine was one done by the late Rejabhad called Tan Tin Tun. I cannot now recall what the story was about but it had to do with three characters carrying that names.

At that time, I believed that such names could only be found in a fictional creation... until one day, someone told me of a true-life example.

At my first workplace, I had a colleague named Atan. He married a pretty clerk who worked in the same organization called Zaiton. I was part of the groom's entourage for the wedding ceremony at the bride's kampung, somewhere in Kota Tinggi.

Some time after they were married, Zaiton became pregnant and later gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The name they gave their daughter was Fatin (actually a long name of Fatin something or other, sorry can't remember). At first I didn't realise it and I'm sure my friend Atan had not either... but the happy family inadvertently became a complete set. Tan, Tin, Tun... for Atan, Fatin and Eton. True story.

Fit for the job

It is standard procedure nowadays for prospective employers to require would-be employees to undergo medical checks, the results of which would determine whether the employee would be offered the job, or if already employed, to be confirmed in his post. I have worked at so many places and the requirement of each employer is different. No doubt, the most basic of such requirements is the standard chest x-ray, urine test and vision check. Many employers today also ask for a blood test.

I remember when I first got a job in 1984, I had to take the medical check-up at the government hospital. Those days, the hospitals aren't as well-equipped as now and we had to wait quite a long time to go through each of the tests. Chest x-ray images required a week or so to be developed. Same goes for urine samples. Forget about blood samples... it would've taken weeks to get a result.

Nowadays, many private hospitals and some private clinics have the full array of diagnostic equipment to carry out whatever tests the employer wish to check, with most results being made available within a single day. The more complicated blood tests may take a day or two longer.

Earlier today, I went to a private clinic to do a medical. I had to pee into a small container, had my body zapped with x-rays and my arm pricked with a needle to draw blood. The clinic could've given me the result by tomorrow except that my employer wants my blood to be HIV-tested. That would take a few more days. I guess they want to be sure that I am not immune-deficient, have not been taking illicit drugs and be as healthy as I can be while in their employment.