Cashew Shoots (Pucuk Gajus)

The cashew tree originated from Brazil, was brought over by the Portuguese immigrants to Malaysia. Its botanical name is anacardium occidentale. It’s a low shady tree about 15 meters high which is normally planted at the sides of padi fields for shade. The bark gives out the a type of sap that gives a burning sensation to the skin where it touches. The fruit shaped like a pear with its kidney shaped seed on the outside.


The locals normally eat the young shoots with sambal belacan or cencaluk as an ulam. My wife showed me this tree when we were working in Cherating, I have never seen this tree or fruit. The only cashew nut I’ve seen came out from a tin.

Health Benefits

The young cashew shoots when eaten raw as ulam is believed to prevent and control diabetes. The Malaysian Forest Research Institute has done research to prove this point. The young shoots contain anti oxide properties that can neutralize and fight toxins in the body. From a research done by the Institute of Bioscience in the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), the other benefit of cashew shoots is that it lowers the sign of aging.

Health Benefits of eating Ulam-Ulaman

Time Tunnel Cameron Highlands

The Time Tunnel in Cameron Highland is also known as the Local Museum. But instead of displaying the usual historical items that most museums have you will


find 1,000 artifacts on display that bring you a sense of nostalgia. You will have a wonderful time there, reminiscing and laughing at the things you used to play and use when you were small. The name suits it, its really a Time Tunnel to the past. There are tin toys and even old money boxes which were given out by banks in the od days. It was nice to show my wife some of the things we used before like the refillable aerosol spraycans. She haven't one like that before. If you think it is like a normal museum then you will be disappointed, but I certainly liked it. It is only a RM5 entrance fee.

Time Tunnel Gallery is between Brinchang and Tanah Rata, at a place called Kok Lim Strawberry Farm.
Time Tunnel

Kueh Lapis



Kuih Lapis is a visually delightful and tasteful dessert. Kuih Lapis when translated to English means "Layered Cake" because of many different colours layers. The traditional colours are  yellow, pink and white but nowadays you will see other colours to make it beautiful. When I was a kid I used to love to eat this kuih by peeling off the individual layers. To make it you need to put in a layer of the batter in a tray and baked. After its cooked, add another layer and bake. Continue adding layers until you reach your desired height.  Making the creation of a kueh lapis an extremely laborious and time-consuming process.

A Layman’s Guide to Malaysian Cakes

The importance of good customer relationship

The other day on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah was a introducing a new reality show called "The Undercover CEO". This new reality show is about CEOs of multinational companies going on undercover missions that will place them within the lowest ranks of their own company. By working as a rank and file staff, they will get a closer look at both the good and the bad as the result of their decision as the big boss. They will also learn what the downline feel about the company while discovering the unsung heroes who make their companies run.


One of her guest was Joe DePinto the CEO of 7 Eleven who went to work at few of his stores. Apart from finding out some not too good store policies like throwing away doughnuts after a certain hour, he found two gem in his employees. A particular employee is Dolores Bisangni in the Southampton store, N.Y. DePinto commented that he had always wondered why the Southampton store sold a higher amount of coffee than his other stores. After working at the store he found out that it was not because of the coffee used as all 7 Eleven stores use the same product. It was the service and friendliness provided by Bisangni that got people coming back for more. Bisangni has worked for 7-Eleven for 18 years, has only one kidney and undergoes dialysis treatments twice weekly. She was a real gem on knowing everyone that came in by name. This is another good example of good customer service bringing in repeat business.
Customer Service Ideas- Building happy customers

Kuih Cara Berlauk

Kuih cara berlauk is made up of flour, egg, coconut milk and turmeric. The mixture is mixed thoroughly before being cooked in a special mould until it hardens. They normally use the same mould as the one for baking bahulu. Before it hardens, a filling made up either spiced beef or chicken is added. This kuih is very popular during the month of Ramadhan. The sweeter version is called Kuih Cara Manis. The method and ingredients are the same but instead of the meat filling they add sugar. The modern version is the kayaballs found in most majorshopping malls in Malaysia.

A Layman's Guide to Malaysian Kuih

PDAMedia SIP Keyboard Light V1.0

When I lost my stylus, I found out the hard way that the default keypad on Windows Mobile is not at all finger friendly and there is no way you can use it with your fingers. So I search the web for a large on screen keyboard that would fit my fingers. I found this simple program. It looks like the default windows keyboard but when you hit the blue button it goes into fullscreen mode, a large keyboard fills your screen. Then you can use both your hands for typing. The only problem that you will face is that every time you need to see what you have written, you need press the input button. But this is a great program if you need to quickly type in a note or a quick sms.


To know more about other software that's in my Palm PC, please click  What’s in my Pocket Pc

Changing your employees mindset on how they see difficult customers

We need to change the mindset of the employees who think dissatisfied customers are a problem. I have read in his newsletter sometime ago, that Ron Kaufman highlighted that the words you use to your employees about your customers is very important. He gives one example that in Disney World, they call customers that are complaining "Customers" and others "Guest". So if there is a problem customer, the staff will call the manager saying "a customer wants to see the manager". When your employees gets nervous, defensive, and confused when they are managing a difficult customers, this is partly because of their mindset that the customer is a nuisance or problem. So if we change their thinking they will treat difficult customers better and in most cases that I have noticed, the difficult customer will become your loyal customer. That is why I refer to customer complaints as "comments". Because comments is something for us to improve. Therefore each company needs to set clear and concise company does have and don’ts, and also clear organizational training and discussions to help employees interact with customers to enhance the customer experience. What I do in my daily preshift briefing is to let the staff highlight what issues they have encountered. If they have solved it, how they have done it. If not, I will open the situation for discussion and later choose the best solution and also give some of mine. By doing this your staff will be able to deal with different human conditions when the situation arises again.

Delivering Great Customer Service