Le Passione, Plaza Damas

For lunch on our outing to Plaza Damas the other day, we had lunch at a French cafe, called Le Passione, on the top floor of the plaza, next to Toys'r'us. The menu looked appetizing especially the tuna melt. We ordered a couple of them, plus sone drinks. The boys had some pizza.

The setup was pretty laid back, with comfy sofas as well as proper dining table. We decided to plonk ourselves on the sofas for our lunch and we soon realized that the table was rather too small for our orders. The drinks came first, and my mocha was heavenly. The boys enjoyed their hot chocolate as well. It was no surprise as the dunks were prepared by a couple of Frenchmen behind the counter.

My mocha. It tasted as good as it looked.Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the food. My tuna melt were basically tuna on toasted bread with hardly any cheese, which was rather disappointing. They put too much tuna as well, making the toast rather soggy by the end of the meal. The pizza was a standard affair, nothing special, but the boys finished them. No complaints. We did not order dessert however.

The cafe was located right next to the exceedingly cute Moo Cow FroYo!.... with its cute decorI think the place was better suited for an afternoon tea rather than a heavy meal. The drinks were OK - my mocha was delightful, but a soggy toast was rather disappointing. I'd probably give the place another go before I pass my judgment.

Tea Republic, BSC

Naturally one has tea at Tea Republic, but I was reliably informed that they serve note than that. I had the chance to visit the outlet earlier in the week. We held the KLickr discussion for the upcoming Urbanscape there, and one of my friend actually worked there.

The outlet was located on the second floor of the newly refurbished Bangsar Shopping Center. it was part of the new wing, right at the back if you come through the main entrance. Of you were unfamiliar with the place, a quick glance at floor plan or ask one of the friendly staffs, and you would be pointed towards the back of the building. A couple of escalator rides up, and you're there.

If was certainly quiet corner, next to Tutti Frutti which tended to be heaving with children. The menu was rather complicated if you were not familiar with the variety of tea brew on offer. They also offer main courses and light snacks, as well as cookies and cakes. I was not sure if they do any coffee ....

My far-too-sweet Red Velvet cakeI ordered one of the ice tea - it was infused with mint and lemon, light to the taste and zesty from the lemon. It needed some sugar syrup to balance things out, but refreshing none the less. I also ordered a red velvet cake, hoping that the cake came from Gourmet downstairs. To cut a long story short, it wasn't. One of my fellow KLickr ordered nasi biryani. He said that it was OK. Mind you, he has not had lunch, and it was close to 5pm.

More discussionTo sum up, it was cosy little place to meet friends and had a quiet down time. Food was OK, staffs was friendly and the ambiance was relaxing. There was also wifi provided for free for those interested.

KLickrs for Urbanscape

Later on the Tuesday, after our outing to Plaza Damas, I went to join my fellow KLickrs to discuss our activities in the upcoming Urbanscape. It was scheduled for the 17th July - a Saturday of course. The
Sad news was, it would no longer be at KLPAC. Instead, ironically, the event, organised by KLUE, would be held outside KL. It would be at Padang Astaka, in PJ, on a rugby field.

Can't imagine what it would be like as as far as I can remember, it has always been at KLPAC. One wondered if over time, the event itself would fade away, which was a shame really. As a regular, KLickr would be taking part again this year. The event was only a couple of months away and we were still unclear as to the concept from the organiser, not even the layout of the area.

We had a few ideas being discussed. A themed photo walk or two of course, may be a photo critique session, some sort of competition. What I was keen to do, is a themed photo competition which the photos would be uploaded and tagged via twitter. Once uploaded, it would then be voted upon to select a winner. But that might exclude those dSLR slingers about. Therefore, we had to plan diverse range of activities for all, and for that, we would need numbers on the day.

It looked like I would need to invest on a twitter client which can read and parse hashtags with twitpics, and automatically download the attached photos. We may then reupload them onto another site for the competition. I'll work that one out eventually.

La Bodega for Breakfast

As I took today off, after sorting out the boys in school, we took off to Bangsar for a quick breakfast. Out usual joint there was La Bodega, a happening breakfast place. Everytime I have an off day during weekdays, this was the place I prefer to be as the food was nice and the ambiance was cooling. Shane that the meal was jot cheap.

This morning, the place seemed fuller than usual. Full of those business type clinching out deals. A few lady of leisure types as well meeting up with their posh girlfriends - the place is surrounded with apartments where the ex-pat stays, hence you'd expect a few of these types around.

The couple of guys next to our table were busy talking about a TV deal they were about to clinch with TV3. They had a clever plan B though as if the deal did not go through - because apparently they did not pay up a certain politician - they would pitch the idea to a station in Singapore. To quote - they were referring it as 'drama bersiri' - and they were a couple of Chinese guys! Truly 1Malaysia this!

After murdering my Egg Benedict, me and Anita went to do some groceries right next door at Village II. How we wishes we live d the corner from there.

Getting out of the House

Finally Irfan was almost back to his usual self. My God, he was driving us up the wall. As today was public holiday - Happy Birthday Buddha! - we went out in time for lunch. This time to Plaza Damas, so that the boys can get some exercise at the playgym there.

On the top floor of the plaza, they have the "Kidz Zone", designed so that parents can leave their kids at the playground and go out to shop or dine. A pretty safe area with plenty of climbing area for the kids, although we preferred the gym at Great Eastern Mall - they had proper slides over there. Here, they have squishy ball cannons. It did not really matter since as long as they can play, my boys were happy.

After lunch - at Le Passione, which I would blog later - we left them at the play area for a couple of hours. We initially thought we wanted to do some groceries shopping but after 5 minutes, we just slumped back at the parents waiting area, and waited for the boys to tire out. The problem was, that may take the whole afternoon!