Korean Pancake Auckland

"Corner pancake" is a little Korean pancake hut which is so synonym to downtown Aucklanders. Heaps of people are queuing for their pancake everyday. The lunch time crowd particular can be insane as the whole corridor will be lined up by people waiting for their pancake. Their customers are mostly office workers, students and curious tourists attracted by the queue.    

 It is this brilliant business minded idea that transform a rather simple pancake into various flavours. They have the savoury version of beef, chicken and pork with or without cheese as well as the sweet one such as red beans, chocolate and sweet. The price varies from NZD2 to NZD3. It forms a rather economic quick lunch. 

This is how their pancake will look like except with a bite from me ^^. I have tried chicken and cheese(NZD3), pork (NZD2.50), red bean (NZD2.50) and beef cheese (NZD2.50). I find beef cheese to be their best. The filling are flavourful. While the combination of the melted cheese and crispy dough reminds me of thin crust Pizza.

 Newspaper coverage often bring in curious potential customers. They are another fine example of successful story in the culinary world. It shows that with a little bit of twist and turn, anything can be a great business idea. There is no restriction nor limitation. We are only limited by our own imagination.

"Corner Pancake" on the NZ Herald.

 

A Lifetime Casino

Greed lead to disastrous ending. But often it was greed that brought victory. Some people prefer to call that an "adventurous winning" or rather a winning blessed by lady luck. Whatever it is. Living is gambling We pray to wish that the lady luck will be on our side this time when come to decision making, We invest, we gamble for our future. This is like you are on one of those casino machine betting on hoping for a bonus. Often your next bet might transform you to be the next legend or just the guy next door.

Reality Bites

Life has never been the easiest. We are allow to have the down time, to feel the sadness and to sense the cruelness of reality. But we always need to stay strong, stay tough. As of the saying goes "Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” Be Tough.

Haera Mai @ Nando's NZ

If my memory served me right, Nando's was one of the restaurant that I frequent back in Sunderland. Nando's isn't any particularly new to Malaysian. As their outlets are serving Malaysian in almost every shopping mall back home. In Auckland, I noticed two so far. One right in the CBD (Central Business District) while the other in the highly fashionable Newmarket.

As far as fast food chain concern, this South African chain are meant to be serving healthier food with their frame-grilled chicken instead of KFC's deep fried. But I guess by choosing peri-peri chips and a 600ml Coke as sides does not do your health any favour. A half chicken Grande meal is priced @ NZD16.90.

You get a New Zealand Natural ice cream of your choice for NZD2(Usually NZD3.50) by ordering any Grande meal. I just can't have enough oof cookies and cream. This one served dark chocolate cookies which goes perfectly with the rather sweet vanilla ice cream.

The Nando's is famous for their peri-peri sauce ranges. They are selling it in most of the major supermarkets. They claimed it to be addictive. But I reckon good old Maggi chilli sauce or even any sweet thai chilli suace can easily beat the hell out.

I came across this later on during the day when I was doing my grocery shopping in one of this Asian mart. "STINK" is the word. Our beloved "Belacan" have been placed together with "stinky taofu" as the smelly one. Hmm............"Kangkong Belacan" if only I can have it here......

Step Up

Dreams....If only you have dreams. The path that you step on right now may not be forever as you may always crossover. It is not the final destination. Just a part of your journey instead.

The Whisper of Aotearoa

The evil side of me tends to complain that New Zealand does not have much to offer apart from their naturally gifted  landscape and their extreme crazy interest on adrenaline rush sports . Always. Even after half a year in the land of the long white cloud. The pakeha "the non-indigenous" of New Zealand  namely the European has dominated big part of their presented culture. Dunedin as a Scottish town,  Christchurch as a English town, and there is this French town in the North island. Needless to mention the Asian conquered Auckland. Fair enough that New Zealand is a migration country. 

John Key and the crew emphasized on not to lose the genuine identity of the Maori culture every now and then. But I guess Rotorua is the only place that you don't feel like you are just in another English town. Forgive me for not being traveling enough, to see enough to make the judgement. I hope New Zealand can prove me wrong at the later stage of my journey.

Aging ?? Chill Out !!!

At the age of 28, I felt so insecure with what I'm doing now. I, for once used to wish that travelling can form a major part of my life style. I, for once wished that I can backpack through different nations for months. That was the reason why I took up working holiday in New Zealand.

Often now and then, the sense of insecureness strike me. Left me doubting what I'm doing and I no longer enjoy what I'm doing. I feel like this is perhaps the time to really settle down, to kick off my career, to have a stable relationship. Is that the sense of ealier mid-life crisis ?

I do not know. Was chatting to a friend, she commented that I'm doing what most working professions miss the most to "enjoy life". Yet my heart is so not with what I'm praticing right now. I guess I just need to enjoy what I'm doing and leave the future to the future.