Pun Heong Dim Sum Restaurant - 品香点心包点茶室 at Kulai Main Road, Kulaijaya - Johor.

Kedai Pun Heong 品香点心包点茶室 (N1.64570 E103.61609) is the local Malaysia name of the restaurant and if you notice there's a smaller signage before you walk in the restaurant stated 'Chop Pun Heong'. With the name of "Chop", it means the shop or restaurant is having a long history since the 60s or 70s, because during that era and most of the Chinese shop have the word "Chop". Pun Heong Dim Sum Restaurant had started their business since 60 years ago and this was the first dim sum restaurant I came across that operating in the evening session...

Pun Heong Dim Sum Restaurant at Kulaijaya

The restaurant is situated along the Kulaijaya town Main Road (Jalan Besar) which is quite easy to locate. As the local called that area is 19 miles of Kulai. It has the rustic ambience and we felt like walking into a time machine...simple and typical 'shop' with no different from the others in year 70s...I believe Pun Heong (品香) must be one of the pioneer Dim Sum restaurant running their business in Kulaijaya.

Typical Chinese type of restaurant

There was only another table occupied while we stepped in (around 7pm), that gave me a chance to had a little chat to the owner who is the grandson of the founder of the shop, he told me that all their dim sum and bao (stuffed bun) are make and process in their shop...that means all are freshly prepare and steam within the same area. And he politely recommended their popular big bao 大包 (pork bun), char siew bao 叉烧包 (bbq pork bun), plate of siew mai 烧卖 and pai-kuat 排骨 (ribs) to us.

My first grabbed was the Da Bao (big stuffed bun), reason was strongly recommended by friends!

Da bao 大包 from Pun Heong

The bao was juicy and tasty! It generously stuffed with plenty of pork, chicken and eggs. The outer flour skin was soft and not thick like others. I like it very much!

The Da Bao was generously stuffed with the ingredients

And surprisingly, the char siew bao 叉烧包 equally good! Filled with gravy and won't feel the dryness of it! Especially the flour skin was tender. Excellent!

Char siew bao 叉烧包 from Pun Heong Dim Sum Restaurant

Tasty pork in the bun

Beside the nice bao, we did tried out their siew mai 烧卖 (pork dumplings). It doesn't had the colourful deco as others but it was nice and not porky...

Siew mai 烧卖 from Pun Heong Restaurant

The pork ribs was above average and I remember that it was really hot when served on our table.

Small plate of pork ribs

Overall we were satisfied with the dim sum and the bao. The price of above were really reasonable and we can't enjoy the nice dim sum like this with their price at Johor Bahru at all.
Before we left the restaurant, I noticed the shop was full house! Well, realized that the customers mostly are regular here...

I'll definitely drop by again if I'm happen around Kulaijaya.

Pun Heong Dim Sum Restaurant 品香点心包点茶室

681-6, Jalan Raya Kulai Besar, 

81000 Kulaijaya, Johor

Tel : +607-6631279

Business hour : 6pm-10pm

Rest day : Sunday and first day of the month in Chinese Lunar calender

GPS Coordinates : N1.64570 E103.61609

Location map of Pun Heong Dim Sum Restaurant at Kulaijaya, Johor.

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Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar in Residence fellowship -- call for applications

Candlesticks hands in blessing mark women's gravestones in Gura Humorului, Romania. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University  has issued its call for applications for the summer or fall 2014 Scholar in Residence program.

It's a wonderful opportunity -- I was the Scholar in Residence at the HBI in early 2011, when I worked on my Candlesticks on Stone project about the visual representation of women in Jewish tombstone art.

In addition to the creation of the project web site, I present a paper about my project, which has been posted online as part of the Donna Sudarsky Memorial Working Paper Series.

You can view my paper HERE -- unfortunately it does not include the pictures, but you can see those on the Candlesticks on Stone web site.


Here are the details about the Residency and call for applications. 

The HBI Scholar-in-Residence programs provide scholars, artists, writers and communal professionals the opportunity to be in residence at Brandeis University while working on significant projects in the field of Jewish women’s and gender studies. 

Scholars-in-Residence receive a monthly stipend and office space at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. Applicants living outside the U.S. and those whose work has an international dimension are especially encouraged to apply. 

Helen Gartner Hammer Scholars-in-Residence Program – Summer or Fall 2014 

Scholars are invited to apply for residency at the HBI to carry out significant research and artistic projects in the field of Jewish women’s and gender studies. Papers written while at the HBI are included in the Donna Sudarsky Memorial Working Paper Series. 

Residencies range from one month to the full academic semester. Scholars may begin the residency in August but should note that not all members of the Brandeis community will be available until the start of the academic year in September. 

Application deadline: January 30, 2014 

A decision will be announced by April 17, 2014 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, SEE 

http://www.brandeis.edu/hbi/residencies/scholar.html

How to mark the Kristallnacht anniversary? With glorious synagogues

Entryway, Jubilee synagogue, Prague. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This weekend marks the 75th anniversary of what we call Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, the night of violent coordinated Nazi attacks against Jews, Jewish property, and Jewish places of worship which saw some 7,000 Jewish businesses trashed and more than 1,000 synagogues put to the torch all over Germany and German-occupied lands. Some 30,000 Jews were imprisoned and more than 90 were killed.

The destruction wrought on the night of November 9-10, 1938 foreshadowed the mass destruction of the Holocaust that followed a few years later.

To mark this anniversary, rather than dwell on the destruction, I thought I would focus on rebirth and survival, in particular the survival of synagogues whose restoration over the past two decades has been a symbol of Jewish rebirth in Germany and elsewhere in central and eastern Europe.

Here, then, just a few photographs of synagogues, still used by Jewish communities, that stand now as enduring monuments to the glory of what was destroyed -- and offer hope that the still somewhat fragile renewal of Jewish life in Europe may continue to strengthen. This is only a very small sample of the synagogue buildings that have been restored in Europe (most of them now used for cultural or other purposes).

Tempel synagogue, Krakow. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Interior, Tempel Synagogue, Krakow. Photo © JCC Krakow

Facade, Pilsen synagogue, Czech Republic. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Dohany st. Synagogue, Budapest. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Dohany st. Synagogue, Budapest. Restored in the 1990s

Dohany st. Synagogue, Budapest. Restored in the 1990s

Kazinczy st synagogue, Budapest

Ceiling, Kazinczy st synagogue, Budapest

Ark, Kazinczy st. Synagogue, Budapest

Orthodox synagogue, Presov, Slovakia. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Orthodox synagogue, Presov, Slovakia. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

And here are a couple of synagogues built in recent years. The use of glass is a real answer to Kristallnacht, no?:

Ohel Jakob synagogue , Munich (l) built 2004-2006

Synagogue in Graz, Austria, dedicated in 2000 on the site of the magnificent synagogue destroyed on Kristallnacht. Notice how the upper part of this synagogue is a glass dome. A real answer to the Night of Broken Glass. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Glass dome of the new synagogue in Graz. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Florence synagogue highlighted at Cafe Balagan this past summer

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Almost every week last summer, from early June through the end of August, the palm-shaded garden of the Florence synagogue was the scene of "Cafe Balagan" -- a sort of mini-Jewish culture and food festival aimed at opening up the Jewish community to the city -- and encouraging the city to recognize and embrace its Jewish history.

I took part in the last edition, at the end of August, engaging in a public conversation about Jewish culture and mainstream society, with Enrico Fink, the musician (and director of cultural affairs for the Florence Jewish community) who devised the event.

I wrote about it all for The Forward, in an article published this past week:

Putting Florence's Jewish History into the Spotlight 

By Ruth Ellen Gruber 

Nov. 5, 2013 

If you look out over Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo, high above the Arno, two domes catch your eye. One is Filipo Brunelleschi’s masterpiece, the immense ribbed dome of the Duomo. The other, off to the right, is much smaller but in its way also distinctive: It is the tall, bright green copper dome of the Florence synagogue. 

“Anyone who looks at the Florence skyline sees the Duomo and the synagogue,” said Enrico Fink, a musician and actor who last December took up the post of cultural affairs director of the Florence Jewish community. 

Dedicated in 1882, the synagogue is a monument to 19th century Jewish emancipation and a grand example of Moorish style architecture, with a soaring arched façade and two slim side towers. 

But while the Duomo is one of the most famous attractions in Italy, visited by millions, the synagogue and the Jewish history of the city remain largely unknown to most Florence residents as well as to the vast majority of tourists. 

Fink and other recently installed leaders of the 800- to 900-member Jewish community want to change this. Breaking with past policy, they have embarked on a plan to actively engage with mainstream Florence. They endeavor to make the Jewish community more visible and accessible, demystifying Jews and Jewishness for local non-Jews, while putting Jewish heritage on the local tourist map. 

“We want people in Florence to understand who we are, and to understand that the Jewish community belongs to the city, that we are part of the fabric of the city,” community president Sara Cividali, an energetic woman with a mass of silver hair, told me over lunch at Ruth’s, a kosher vegetarian restaurant next door to the synagogue. “It isn’t assimilation; it’s different, it’s participation,” she said. 

This new strategy was launched this summer with the Balagan Café, an unprecedented experiment in outreach that turned the synagogue’s palm-shaded garden into a mini-Jewish culture festival almost every Thursday night from June through August. Balagan, more or less, means “chaos” — and, said Fink, the idea behind calling the summer’s experiment “Balagan” was “an acceptance of confusion that’s not easy to define.” 

Each Café featured music, lectures, discussions, performances and other events. There were free guided tours of the synagogue and stands selling books, CDs, Judaica and Balagan Café T-shirts depicting a full moon over the synagogue dome. Performers and featured participants included nationally known figures such as the rock singer Raiz, the Tzadik label klezmer jazz clarinetist Gabriele Coen, and the architect Massimiliano Fuksas, who designed, among other things, the Peres Peace House in Israel. 

Meanwhile, food stands sold kosher meals and kosher wine to crowds eager to sample couscous, baked eggplant, beans with cumin and harissa, spicy chickpeas, Roman-style sweet and sour zucchini and other specialties. One evening saw a “competition” between Sephardic and Ashkenazic cooking; another featured a lesson in challah-making.


Read more: http://forward.com/articles/186528/putting-florences-jewish-history-into-the-spotligh/?p=all#ixzz2k8wSvZGS

New series of Western Cuisine at Lazio Italian Restaurant and Bar, Danga Bay - Johor Bahru

There are new series of Western Cuisine available at Lazio Italian Restaurant (N1.47423 E103.72441) since months ago and we decided to try out on one of the evening. Lazio Restaurant is located at Danga Bay of Johor Bahru, you can relax and enjoy the meal along with the beautiful scenery of Straits of Johor. You can read through my previous blog post about the restaurant here.

Lazio Italian Restaurant of Danga Bay

The decoration of the restaurant still remain the same as we visited a year ago...

The new Exeutive Chef - Mr Stanley Yim from the restaurant had launched the new series of delightful dishes which provide a different dining experience to their customers. At first he humbly presented 3 different type of pasta for us before the main dish...

Pesto Di Funghi

The pasta above was served with mushroom and pesto sauce in spinach basil linguine pasta. It was tasty and special.

Aragosta

The dish was served with half lobster, herbs tomato sauce in Fettuchini pasta. It was rich tomato flavor and went well with the cheese and lobster.

Capesante

The dark colour pasta above was delicious! The squid ink fettuccine pasta was served with scallops on fetta cheese cream sauce. I like the taste very much!

Before we can finish the pastas on the table, the Main Attraction of the day - The Aussie Wagyu Tomahawk Chop Rip-eye Steak served on our table!
The weight was 2.11kg.

The Grilled Wagyu Tomahawk Chop Rip-eye Steak from Lazio Italian Restaurant

"A tomahawk (also referred to as a hawk) is a type of axe from North America, traditionally resembling a hatchet with a straight shaft. You can read more here."

The Tomahawk Steak is a Bone-In Rib Steak with the entire rib bone intact. This long bone is frenched (trimmed of meat and fat), leaving a beautiful presentation piece. The Tomahawk, being a Rib Steak, has the largest amount of intermuscular fat, making it the most flavorful steak. The Tomahawk is cut based on the thickness of the bone and is typically two inches thick. One Tomahawk can easily feed two people. The Tomahawk is cut from the rib section. The primary muscle of the Tomahawk is the longissimus dorsi, which is also the primary muscle in the Porterhouse. Source from here.

The Tomahawk was served together with mushroom sauce, steak sauce and garlic sauce.

The rip-eye steak that we had was about 2-3 inches thick and serve up to 4 persons.

The Tomahawk steak had everyone full attention once it nicely presented on the table. Mr Stanley and his assistant gently cut the prime steak and served to each of us....

Mr Stanley and his assistant

The big 2.11kg weight of Rib Eye Steak was cut into 7-8 pieces and it was about 200-250g each...

The steak was grilled to perfect with a little of char on the outside...the medium rare doneness is a Must for a prime steak.

The bone with the tender flesh and fat

The flesh was succulent together with the precious fat and meat juice. The steak was so nice untill we felt it really melt in our mouth!

The slice of Wagyu Tomahawk Ribeye Steak

I like my steak with the original taste which is without any sauce, but I did tried out the 3 types of sauces provided. Among all, I like the garlic sauce very much (strongly recommended by Mr Stanley).

This was a total different dining experience enjoying the steak in Johor Bahru. And It was also my great pleasure to enjoyed this wonderful dinner together with Mr Tony from Johorkaki.

Thanks to Mr Stanley and his team who presented such a Fabulous dish from Lazio Restaurant.

The Executive Chef of Lazio Restaurant - Mr Stanley Yim

For steak lover in JB, you must try out (at least once) this extraordinary steak from Lazio Italian Restaurant with your family and friends, I bet you will not regret! And I believe they are the Only restaurant serve the Aussie Wagyu Tomahawk Chop Ripeye Steak for the moment.

*  The Aussie Wagyu Tomahawk Chop Ripeye Steak above was 2.11kg with the cost of RM850++. Every Tomahawk steak serve with the minimum weight of 2kg. Please make your reservation for the particular dish in one week advance with the 50% deposit.

Lazio Italian Restaurant and Bar
Danga Bay, Johor Bahru.
Tel : +607-2217988/+607-2215688
Business hour : 12pm - 1am, 12pm - 2am for Fri, Sat & holiday eve

https://www.facebook.com/groups/laziodangabay/

GPS coordinates : N1.47423 E103.72441

Location map of Lazio Italian Restaurant and Bar at Danga Bay

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