Great Start to the Day

Such nice weather to start the day off. But I wouldn't be holding my breath since the past few days ended with flash flood around town and Shah Alam. Luckily for us, we had a meeting yesterday until late. And I have another long afternoon today, so should the rain come, I would not be complaining.

While doing my rounds this morning, Anita called to say that she had to dash to the MyEG Office in 1Utama after our maid's permit was sent to the Gombak House when nobody was in. Since they couldn't get it to us, we had to pick them up from their office, and only the employer - myself - could pick the permit up.

It was a bit of a headache since I was at work, and since I might have a free hour, I decided to drive there to meet up with Anita. Being held up by a case, Anita reached there first and for some reason, she was allowed to pick the documents up. I was already halfway there then.

So, a detour for early lunch ensued ..... more about that later .....

The KL Tower

The last time we had a meal at the revolving restaurant must have been a couple of years back. It was under a different management and the food then was better than when we visited recently.
On the plus side, there was a few new attractions - the old Blue Coral aquarium and F1 simulator were still there - including a new mini-zoo. There was also a new platform opened with shops and space for cultural dances and activities, dubber the 1Malaysia Cultural Village. There was also a crane pulling up a table for dinner should you wished to have your dinner dangled up in the air. Not my cup of tea however!

The Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve had now been reopened and one can walk down the hill via a jungle trail from the tower. Certainly the tower had plenty of things going for it at the moment.

Not much of a view unfortunately with the haze ...There are a few taller ones ....But, the management would have to be more slick. There was the perennial issue with parking which was a pain. Luckily this time around Julia booked a spot with the valet. And booking our table at Atmosphere 360 was a bit of an ordeal. I had to personally turn up there to finalise the booking as initially the management insisted on me paying the 50% deposit. I wouldn't mind paying the deposit but I had to either bank in the money into their account and email them the receipts, or alternatively give them my credit card details, which included a photocopy of the card front and back! That would be silly don't you think.

So, I might as well turn up there and pay up front. And then there was the surcharges for the window seatings and the fact that they could only accommodate up to 10 on a single table. We were in a party of 11! So we had to book 2 tables, and had to pay the surcharges twice!

Do not look at the sun!My Dad having a peekCoupled with a limited selection of food and lack of a la carte menu, bringing kids would not be much fun. The lunch buffet package cost around RM90, and dinner package cost twice that. I guess you would be paying for the novelty factor.

I wished that the management could get their activity streamlined fitting with their status as one of the premier destination in Kuala Lumpur. And another thing, I could see that although the locals made the majority of the front line staff members, there were plenty of foreigners about. What impression would this give to our visitors?

Midnight Road Block

After a long day, and night, I was making my way back home for bed when I spotted a queue in front of me. It was 1 am and the Police decided to have a roadblock in the middle of the highway!

I understood policing and all, but 1 am on a Friday night? Even the crooks would be in the pub having a good time at this ungodly hour. It took an extra half an hour to reach home and the moment I got into the car park, the phone rang again. Luckily I didn't have to return. Imagine if it was the Resus room or the labour ward meaning that I had to rush back. Can I get to the front of the queue if there was a life needed saving?

Well, something I would have to ponder while I enjoy this Sunday morning sunshine. Good weekend all!

Lunch at F.EAST

Again, I had some time this afternoon to sort out some family stuff and at the end, decided to have lunch with Anita. Anita picked the spot, a new fusion cafe on the second floor of Bangsar Village II called F.EAST.

Initially I thought it was going to be one of those typical western cafe. But it turned out that the majority of the menu items had local flavour in them. The menu read "asam laksa", "mee sup", "nasi ayam" etc. But looking at the restaurant at first glance, you would not have guessed it.

Lover the decor!So 70sGorgeous lightingI just loved the chairs and tablesThe decor was also different. It had a definite 70's styling to it. Furniture-wise at least. I especially loved the lighting. Very reminiscent of my childhood.

The food was not half bad either. I had the asam laksa. Not perfect, but good enough. Mine could do with some boiled eggs and better laksa, although the "otak udang" was a nice touch. The soup was faultless however.

Anita's koey teow soupThe "otak udang" was a nice touchThe pandan chiffon cake. Terbaek!I would definitely go there again, and compared to other more established cafe at the mall, the place was still empty. Hopefully the business would pick up in the next few months because the cafe offered something different.

P/S: Try the pandan chiffon cake. It was dynamite!

Lunch at Al Halabi

It was not often that a restaurant which looked good on the outside, served good food. At least not often here in Kuala Lumpur. So, Anita and I decided to be a bit more adventurous this Sunday lunchtime and for some reason, I fancied some Arab food. I passed by this particular restaurant on a newly opened section of Pavilion recently but it was too late for lunch then.

So, I decided to give this one a go. It was called Al Halabi, located on the seventh floor, through the escalator near Times Bookstore. It was part of a new section called Dining Loft.

It was spacious with a separate seating area in filled with natural light right at the back. A lot of shisha smoker back there, so we decided to take one of the seats in the main area. Very nice setting, true to Middle Eastern theme, with some of the waiters who were actually Arabic.

The cooks were definitely from the Middle East and they have a butcher there preparing fresh meat and ingredients, plus a baker who actually baked the puffs and bread traditionally. The grilling was also done in-house as well and the produce were displayed by the main counter as if you were sitting in a market. It was reminiscent of Marche.

What did we order? I started with some hummus with sliced grilled meat, and for the mains I had grilled pomfret while Anita had chicken tikka. We had some rice with them and I had some Arabic mint tea in the end.

I was impressed. I could feel the succulent fish melting in my mouth and the dips were amazing. Even the mint sauce tasted authentic - and made from real mint - while the rice was a joy. The mint in the tea was a touch to light to be honest and it finished up tasting rather bitter.

We gave up on desserts since we were just too full.

The seats were very comfortable as we were on a sofa, and I now understood why the patron seemed to sit down there for hours! We ended up sitting there for nearly a couple of hours, nibbling away at our food, before finally leaving the place. The staff were OK, although the Arabs struggled somewhat with their English. The other staffs who spoke English were Filipino or Bangladeshi. How I wished that the locals would work there, as I could see that most of the patron were locals.

Highly recommended although I hope that they could maintain their standard in the future. The place was still rather new when we visited.