Jasmine Restaurant Revisited

Ah, it is nice to meet up with old friends, Mr Foong's black pepper steak was great. It was medium done, juicy, and very popular with guests. They even have thicker version for special order case. Good beef comes from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Argentina. I didn't know about the latter two but they sure taste real great!

Now that they have renovated the place and open up the front, I would say that greatly improves their 'fung sui' a lot more as more walk by customers can walk in!

Green Tea Polyphenols and Catechine

Came up this discussion about the downside of drinking too much Green Tea. Although drinking Green Tea Polyphenols and Catechine has the good benefit of anti-oxidants which helps to prevent cancer and fighting against free radicals. Drinking too much has side effects that are no good for the body.

 

Also to note that Catechine can be found in fruits and vegetables too.

 

In everything, there should be moderation. Neither too much nor too little. This world is in a state of equilibrium and so is your bodily function. Just like too much sugar is no good and too little is no good either.

 

Here is what they said if too much Polyphenols and Catechine is taken:

1. It will harm the liver and kidney: Liver is the main organ for our body to "detoxify" most chemicals, and kidney helps us to "release" partial wastes. Too much catechine would be toxic to liver and kidney and create burden to them.

2. It is hard to bowel: it slows down the bowel movement if too much/strong. However, strong tea can help people who have some diarrhoea issues. Try some concentrated pomegranate juice to help out this ailment. So it depend on each situation. When the wastes stay in the body for too long, it will become toxic. (This probably refers to black tea, coz strong Green Tea causes irritable bowel for me!)

3. Kidney stone.

4. Interacts with iron thus reducing the absorption, but if drank properly, it can be avoided.

(I wonder if it will affect the absorption of calcium too, since too much coffee would reduce the ability for calcium absorption.)

 

But I wonder how much is too much. I heard there are situations where they could get concentrated Green Tea to obtain the good antioxidant effects of Polyphenols and Catechine.

 

Anyhow, in just about anything moderation is key. We should neither abstain nor overly infuse ourselves with Green tea. Just like we should eat all kinds of vegetables to obtain the benefits of the bioflavonoid anti-oxidants and vegetable fibre and yet should not be completely vegetarian.  

Black tea for diabetics

Interesting. Black tea has another plus point for treating diabetes. It seems the researchers at Tianjin Key Laboratory in China found the polysaccharides (a kind of carbohydrate) in black tea helps inhibit the absorbtion of glucose. They also studied the other teas, green tea, oolong tea. All three have polysaccharides but the black tea inhibition ability is the best.

So drink up more black teas! And yes the tea varieties in Cameron Highlands are of course black tea.

Cheers!

Yong Teng Cafe - Pancakes

I like pancakes. And you could find some cafes here and there in Cameron Highlands serving them. Here's one bit of info that I found in The Star, pancakes from Yong Teng Cafe. Will try them out next if I ever go up Cameron Highlands. Looks reall yummy too!

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Yong Teng Cafe Pancakes

Stall No 4 at the Majlis Daerah stalls (diagonally opposite Bank Pertanian Malaysia), Tanah Rata. Open 8am-5pm.

Head to this stall for a quick meal, which is one of the cheapest places in Tanah Rata for a simple, hearty fare. The place is run by Teng See Poh and his wife, Yong Oi Kim, who are both hearing-impaired. Communication with the friendly couple isn't a problem, however, as diners are given a piece of paper to write their orders on. There is also a full-length menu with items listed in both Chinese and English, so just point to what you want.



The food is simple but well prepared, and the pancakes are particularly good. Fruit toppings such as banana or strawberry accompany the crepes, and for an additional 50 sen, you can have a scoop of ice-cream as well. The stall also serves nasi lemak, burgers, hot dogs, toast and half-boiled eggs.