Discover Zoo Negara

Hi there kids! Do you remember the beautiful Master Tigress from the movie Kung Fu Panda or the cheeky Master Monkey who was a friend to Po, the Giant Panda? Well, these animals don’t actually wear traditional Chinese clothes or bust-out some cool kung fu moves like the ones you see in the movie. So, come by our Zoo Negara and get up and close to these animals, but not too close as they might bite!

 Animal characters from the movie Kung Fu Panda.

            With over 450 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, Zoo Negara is definitely the place to be for you to see these animals in real life. As you enter, don’t be alarmed when you hear trumpet-like sounds coming to greet you. This welcoming greeting comes from the huge Asian elephant that can weigh up to two tones! If you’re lucky, you might even get a chance to feed these elephants and see how they extend their muscular trunks to reach out to food and water. Amazingly enough, elephants can live as long as an average human being, and sometimes even longer.

 An elephant squirting water out of its trunk.

            You can also spot many brightly coloured giraffes there. These giraffes have long necks that can grow longer than two meters. The necks of giraffes help them to reach for food in the form of leaves, far up on the trees. Don’t be surprised when a giraffe stucks out its long, blue-black tongue at you. Their tongues can reach lengths up to 50 centimeters and is solid enough to withstand sharp thorns from leaves, which giraffes happen to eat in their diet.

 A friendly giraffe being fed by young tourists.

            Watch how the apes swing from tree to tree at Zoo Negara too. The baby Orang Utan is also friendly and likes to stick its lips out, just waiting for a cheeky kiss. Depending on the time and season, Zoo Negara would have regular animal shows where their animals like the sea lion, monkeys, elephants and many more showcase their interesting talents.

Front entrance of Zoo Negara.

            So kids, do drop by Zoo Negara during this school holiday and bring your parents around for a fun-filled family trip in our own national zoo!

By,

 Abdullah Izzudin, 

DMC09.

A really "rich" pizza.

Abdullah bin Izzudin

Round, square, thin and thick – yes, pizzas these days come in many different forms. The writer enjoys eating pizza and the very thought of it makes his mouth water. He is on a mission to taste the very best pizzas the world has to offer. In this three-part column, Abdullah shares his gastronomical experience on the ‘whats in’ and ‘whats out’ to ultimately find that perfect slice of pizza. On this third and last column, the writer shares his opinion on what he believes to be the granddaddy of all pizzas.

The Ultimate Pizza

So what is this Ultimate Pizza? What pizza could possibly be better than the cone and pie pizza featured before? There is, indeed, a pizza far more superior and in fact, the Ultimate Pizza one can almost never find or taste. Introducing the Nino Selimaj’s Bellissima Pizza located in Manhattan, New York City. Believe me when I say, not everyone will be able to get their hands on this pizza.

At $125 a slice, the Bellissima Pizza costs a whopping $1000 for a full fledged 12-inch pizza, and mind you, that is in U.S. Dollars. Topped with crème fraiche (delicious, thin French sour cream), fresh chives, eight ounces of four different kinds of Petrossian caviar, four ounces of thinly sliced Maine lobster tail, salmon roe and a little wasabi addition to complement all the fish, it is no wonder why this pizza is so exquisite and so expensive.

Nino Selimaj's Bellissima Pizza that contains expensive ingredients which makes it the $1000 pizza.

Even though you might have the cash for it, it does not mean you can just step into Nino’s and immediately order this luxurious pizza. Apparently, you need to order this pizza, 24 hours in advance to give Nino’s some time to prepare the expensive ingredients. After all, for the price you pay, you would definitely expect only the highest quality, ano nothing less.

Some may think that it is unfair to regard the most expensive pizza as the Ultimate Pizza. However, Nino’s Bellissima isn’t actually the most expensive pizza out there. The most expensive pizza to date is “Luis XIII” by Chef  Renato Viola in Agropoli, Italy. A pizza made for royalty, at 12 times the price of Nino’s Bellissima for just an 8-inch pizza. For quality over price, Bellissima still wins any day.

From Cone pizzas to pie pizzas and now to the magnificent Ultimate Pizza, there are simply too may pizzas out there that have yet to be uncovered by the public. Although this wraps up our pizza journey here, I will continue to seek the latest and best pizza out there. For now though, Nino Selimaj’s Bellissima Pizza, stands as the best pizza ever created and you should try it at least once in your lifetime! 

A slice of humble pie, anyone?

Abdullah bin Izzudin


Round, square, thin and thick – yes, pizzas these days come in many different forms. The writer enjoys eating pizza and the very thought of it makes his mouth water. He is on a mission to taste the very best pizzas the world has to offer. In this three-part column, Abdullah shares his gastronomical experience on the ‘whats in’ and ‘whats out’ to ultimately find that perfect slice of pizza. The pizza evolution continues once again – this time, with a pizza more popularly consumed at home.

Match made in Heaven – When pie meets pizza

Last week, we looked into the cone pizza which can be consumed, anywhere, any time. Today, allow me to introduce to you the Meat Pie Pizza from Dominoes. If you like pies and pizza, this Meat Pie Pizza is the marriage in heaven made just for you!

With gravy, mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and onions, peas, minced beef, shortcrust pastry for the top layer of the pizza, and a swirl of tomato sauce, this Meat Pie Pizza is certainly a winner in its own distinctive class. Now by the sound of this pizza, one might expect it to be too oily and messy, but the Meat Pie Pizza had proven all negative assumptions wrong as it is not oily at all, and even the cardboard box that contains this pizza had no traces of oil soaked into it.

Dominoes' Meat Pie Pizza as seen in their advertisement.

The base of the Meat Pie Pizza is not too thin to be easily cracked and the layer of mince beef was not too overwhelming for the taste buds. I figured Dominoes must have taken due consideration into making sure that this Meat Pie Pizza creates a whole “pie” look but at the same time, maintains the consistency, that it is still a pizza after all. Besides that, the thin shortcrust pastry that almost covers the whole top of the Meat Pie pizza was slightly buttery, yet flaky and delicious.

Although I really like the idea of this Meat Pie Pizza, I was not too keen with the presence of peas in the pizza. Sure enough, since it is a pie pizza, the availability of such an ingredient in this pizza is almost inevitable. Maybe it is just me, but I honestly felt that peas in pizza definitely do not mix well together. The Meat Pie Pizza would have tasted better without it.

So far, Dominoes’ Meat Pie Pizza has only been available in all Australian Dominoes outlets but the idea of getting this particular pizza to Malaysia is certainly on its way since Asian’s love eating pie and pizza too. For now, we should just wait and drool in anticipation for this pizza to reach our markets!

Next Week: We’ve seen cone and pie pizzas, so what could possibly be a more ingenious pizza creation? Check out my third and last column next week for the Ultimate Pizza, ever created!

Cone Pizza - Pizza on the Go

Abdullah bin Izzudin

Round, square, thin and thick – yes, pizza’s these days come in many different forms. The writer enjoys eating pizza and the very thought of it makes his mouth water. He is on a mission to taste the very best of pizza’s the world has to offer. In this three-part column, Abdullah will share his gastronomical experience in whats “in” and whats “out” to ultimately find that perfect piece of pizza.

Cone Pizza – Pizza on the Go

Pizzas around the world have come a long way in how they are made these days. Traditionally, they are prepared and served to be consumed in the restaurant or brought back at home.

Interestingly enough, I had the liberty of coming across a new breed of pizzas in Kota Damansara recently, at the Italian Cone Pizza. The idea of creating a pizza in the form of an ice-cream cone is simply ingenious.

The cone of the pizza is made out of the bread crust of a usual pizza while the toppings are added into the cone. Once sufficient toppings of meat and tomatoes are added into the cone crust, and overload of mozzarella cheese is just filled into the nocks and crannies of the insides of the crust. But don’t take a bite a bit too quickly as both the cheese and tomatoes are runny and piping hot!

A few minutes in the oven, and you would have gotten your fresh, hot pizza in the convenience of a cone and is readily edible anywhere and at anytime. As a pizza lover, I find this a work of art as I can now enjoy the mouth-watering taste of pizzas while being mobile to do everything else.

Italian Cone Pizza's Margherita, served simply with hot piping mozzarella cheese.

Italian Cone Pizza offers many different flavours for their pizzas and some of their popular one’s being Classic Chicken Pepperoni and Beef Supremo. However, Italian Cone Pizza tries to be more creative by making “sweet” pizzas like Chocolate Banana where they slice bananas and top it up with chocolate sauce. This idea kind of really makes the pizza literally be just another ice-cream and I would rather go to an ice-cream shop for that.

Overall, Cone pizza’s are definitely a breakthrough in the pizza-creating industry by making pizzas on the go. Cone pizza’s will definitely pave the way to many more pizza creations in the future, and I am pretty excited about that. A bit on the Italian Cone Pizza though, it can be considered to be quite costly for a small average-cone size pizza that cost about five times as much as an ordinary cone ice-cream. Believe me, once you’ve tried a Cone pizza, one will never be enough!

Next Week: Think Cone pizza was creative enough? Check out my next article on a delicious upcoming type of pizza that will surely stimulate your taste buds.

Three Ideas for the Column:
1. Cone Pizza
2. Pie Pizza
3. The Ultimate Pizza

Granny from Hell?

Have you ever wondered how your bedtime stories would end up if it was told by your bitter, disgruntled old grandmother? Wonder no more as this Oscar nominated short film titled Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, portrays exactly that when and old woman tells her own interpretation of a story to her granddaughter, with such strong emotions.

The scary potrayal of Granny O'Grimm

This short film definitely had graphics in a class of its own as the attention to detail was quite clear throughout this film. The drawing style in the story sequence had good colour composition to go with it and it made the viewing experience really pleasurable.

The colours used showed great depth in graphic details

However, the ending of this short film was rather disappointing, although it had an interesting catch phrase by the old grandmother in the end. Still, it was kind of a let down when compared to the whole bulk of the story.

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty would be a short film you would rather watch in between breaks of a cartoon. On the other hand, there is a potential of making more sequels to do with other bedtime stories Granny O’Grimm would tell to her terror-stricken granddaughter.

Rating: 6/10
Film: Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
Director: Nick Phelan

-Abdullah Izzudin-
DMC09

Horror House? Museum? No, Dormitory!

Located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Higashiyama and Kanoe Streets in Kyoto City, Yoshida-ryo dormitory has been in existence for almost a century.

A striking example of how bad the need of repairs in Yoshida-ryo.

This run down, tree-shrouded, sprawling dormitory built in 1913, houses many students affiliated with any Kyoto universities in that area. These students have almost been accustomed to living in such poor conditions as the amenities in Yoshida-ryo clearly are lacking.

This is where the students play mahjong.

So what exactly is the attraction of this dormitory to students in Japan? Well, the facilities of Yoshida-ryo might be sub-par by modern standards, but the unbelievably low rent of ￥2,500 (approximately RM85) per month makes is a suitable living place for financially challenged students there.

Although the plumbing works, it looks like a horror scene.

Though it is very cheap to stay in Yoshida-ryo, but I’m of the opinion that the basic facilities of this dormitory should be drastically improved as it could be a breeding ground for many diseases, due to the lack of hygiene there.

Food is left scattered on the floor.

Sources:

Berman, Rob (2010), Yoshida-ryo: Dilapidated, decrepit and downright dirty, CnnGo,http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/sleep/yoshidaryo-japans-most-famously-decrepit-dormitory-179885?hpt=C2 – last accessed 04/05/10

-Abdullah Izzudin-

DMC09