Serai at Empire, Subang Jaya

I was taken out for lunch earlier, but we did not go far. We had a quick bite over at Empire Subang. There were plenty of choice as far as food was concerned. We were recommended Serai, on the Ground Floor, and that was where we settled at.

It was a fusion restaurant, blending East and West. We were talking rendang pasta here. I went for the more traditional choice in nasi kerabu. It came with piece of roast chicken, something not commonly seen.

The chicken and the condiments were good, but the actual rice did not taste authentic. The drinks however were superb. I ordered calamansi soda. In hot weather, it tasted really nice. My host ordered the rendang pasta, but it came late. Apparently, the waiter - who was a fusion person, Bosnian we thought - messed the order up. Him being Singaporean was not impressed LOL! The Chief Supervisor did cone over to apologise. No, we did not get a discount.

The calamansi soda comes with a healthy dose of mint .... nice and coolingMy nasi kerabu which came with roast chickenWe raced through the rest of lunch. Service was quite fast, and it would have been faster if the order was not messed with. The nasi kerabu was not bad at all. My conclusion was, it was more a venue for snacking than actual heavy meal. The pavlova apparently was a hit, according to FourSquare.

Would I come again? Maybe for a quick drink, yes. But not for another round of nasi kerabu I don't think.

Bad Experience at Ben's

We finally had the chance to sit down for lunch at Ben's General Food Store. I was meaning to do this after the visit when I accompanied Idlan for some pizza. Today, I sampled some food, and the service there first hand.

On the previous visit, the restaurant was only half full, and I commented on how good the staffs were. It was packed today, with queue outside, and the service definitely eroded. Not only that some of our orders were messed, the waiters had the cheeks to come over and explained what we did wrong. Apparently, since we ordered mains which included salad, the starter salad we ordered would come together. But the problem was, the orders for starters and accompanying salad were completely different, and still the waiter insisted that we ordered wrong.

Playing spot the foreigners ....The food preparation area ....Anita was hungry at the time, and was rather mad at the waiter, and we had to explain again what we ordered and how we insisted our orders to be prepared. It was finally rectified when the shift manager came to speak to us.

The pizza for Irfan was fine, but apparently, we had to pay for the the extra parmesan - something we did not have to do three weeks ago. Hmm! Odd. Maybe in three weeks time, we should be forewarned to bring along an oxygen tank just in case we would be charged for the air we breath. You never know!

Irfan went hyper after all the fizzy drinks ...The pizza has arrived ....Told you I was not into green peas .....I think, the problem was not so much the food, but the "we know best" attitude of the staffs there. Anita thought it was more to do with the fact the majority of the patron that afternoon were foreigners, and hence we were treated as second-rate customers. To be honest, I kind of agree with her. Unfortunately, this was still true in many of the more affluent areas and hotels in the capital. I guess, all of us have the urge to please the foreigners more than our own people ……

As a result, I had to reduce the rating for this outlet, and warn that it may be best not to visit it during busy hours ….. unless that you are a foreigner ….

Away at Stoke

De Gea was definitely finding his feet last night, with the most testing of matches at Stoke. He made at least three crucial saves despite the physical intimidation of the Stoke line-up. It was Delap against De Gea, and the conclusion was, De Gea is here!

The opening exchange was cagey and physical. Nani broke the deadlock with another mazy run cutting inside from the right wing berth, exchanging a quick one-two with Fletcher, and shooting a low drive in the middle of the first half.

Stoke played a lot better in the second half, and after Peter Crouch leaped above the otherwise excellent Phil Jones, the game was wide opened. Unfortunately, United failed to capitalized, partly because of the lack of movement in the strikers - Berbatov and Owen - reducing the options for through balls despite Stoke playing a high line. It was obvious that United would be struggling with crosses with the size of the Stoke defensive line-up.

Michael Owen clearly showed that he had lost the pace and composure he was known for, and his play was best described as static. Some newspapers in England even went on to report that United were playing with ten men ever since Owen was introduced on the 11th minute, for the injured and unlucky Chicarito.

Yes, we dropped points, but in the scheme of things, it was a fair results in the end …..

The Return of Hilfiger

We spend the best part of the afternoon doing some clothes shopping at KLCC. After stops at Marks and Spencer among others, I finally bought some shirts at Tommy Hilfiger at Parkson.

When I was in the UK, Tommy had been my favourite brand. However, in the last 5 years, the quality of its product had deteriorated badly. Even the outlet abroad did not have good enough selection.

I was pleasantly surprised by the new selection, that I ended up buying more than I should. It was so much, that I was enrolled into their VIP club for discounts and free alterations. Nice!

It looked like I have used up my clothing provision for the next three months ......

The Positives of The New Central Market

There had been plenty of changes at Central Market over the last few years. I have mentioned the negatives in my previous posts, mainly on how the place had become commercialised. But, on the other side of the coin, the commercialisation also contributed to a more organized and more presentable venue.

I noticed a couple of things this time around, from spending around half an hour there. The tiles and the restaurants.

Some creative gift shops around here. This one sells novelty postcards.The sidewalks were themed. This one was self-explanatory.Nice outdoor motifs, indoors.Trying them for sizeStill in Hari Raya mode

I didn't know why, but I found the tiles on the floors there fascinating. Maybe I should Google a bit more details about that. The restaurants were rather more obvious. Actually, I wouldn't mind bringing over a few friends from abroad hanging around there for a couple of hours or so, enjoying the ambiance, do a bit of shopping and then have something to eat.

Apparently, you can get free wifi from the shops there as well, making it quite interesting to spend some time looking at people. Might try that in the future.

The main food court on the upper floorNice neat rows of seatingHow it looked from the lower floors.The main entrance on the daySince I was alone, and I had to rush to Kajang for lunch, I left early. Would love to come back soon and have another feel of the place.

For more stories about this photowalk around Central Market, please click here.