Ben's General Food Store, Bangsar Village

Coming straight off his Lego camp, Idlan was understandably hungry. He did not have lunch earlier, although he had a late breakfast. Straight away, he told us he wanted pizza. We were settled at The Loaf earlier, but since it did not offer pizza, Dina, our guest, suggested we head across to Bangsar Village and try Ben's.

Again, it was quite a find. We went there a couple of months ago, but could not get a seat, and had to settle for an alternative place. Now, we understood why the place was packed during lunch.

I did not have the chance to peruse through the menu, but they mainly offer Italian and fusion food. We went straight for pizza and milkshake. It was a ten inch, thin crust pizza, and Idlan finished them all on his own - with the help of sprinkling of parmesan of course.

I did managed to sample half a slice. It was very nice. Nice crisp base, tangy tomato topping and nice smooth mix of mozzarella and cheddar. Served piping hot, in a nice little place and a personal roll cutter.

Idlan and Anita did some groceries while I was with Idlan. Irfan joined us later and we ordered another pizza for take-out.

The pizza has arrivedIdlan working on themOne more to go

Since it was a quick stop, we would definitely be returning. It must be the Raya spirit, as I was kind to both restaurants - The Loaf being the other - I entered this afternoon.

The restaurant was located on the Ground Floor of Bangsar Village, right by the main foyer, directly opposite Village Grocers. I have to warn you that the place tended to be packed during weekends, especially lunchtime ….

P/S - we had a slightly different experience the next time we came here.

Coming to an End

Ramadhan was coming to an end. No more Tarawikh. No more Pasar Ramadhan and as usual, the city dwellers left for their kampung. And KL was practically empty. Traffic was going to be a breeze.

But I was sure the Raya break would also turn KL into another atmosphere all together. Where else could you get to visit Dhaka, Jakarta and Yangon within a space of a few minutes? Come to central KL during the holiday period and you would get to see that!

Selamat Hari Raya.

Tale of the Cranes

During my stop at Bangsar Village earlier, I found out a bit more about the paper cranes I have been fretting about recently. It was in memory of a celebrated girl, Sadako Sasaki, who died 10 years after the Hiroshima atom bomb, due to the effect of radiation. She died of leukemia. Before she died, she hoped to make 1000 origami paper cranes, motivated by an ancient belief that it would grant her her wish.

Her wish was to live, but unfortunately, at the time she died, she was a few hundred short, and her friends came along to help out and she was buried with the thousand cranes that she wished for. The problem then was not lack of time, but lack of papers.

The desk for origamiSo, in memory of the recent Japan tsunami victims, a charity drive was launched. Along with the paper cranes, came monetary donation. By May, visitors to Bangsar Village managed to origami - is that a verb? - together more than 6000 paper cranes, and donated over RM90,000 for the fund. The cranes were on display all around the shopping center, both, Bangsar Village and Village II, suspended from the ceiling on pieces of string.

An interesting read, and the story was told in a book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Crane written by Eleanor Coerr. That being written in 1977 meant that no audiobook version were available for me to listen to. I would fancy a copy though. Maybe I'd be lucky at Kinokuniya.

Bangsar Village Decor

Just returned from Bangsar Village and I was pleasantly surprised at how much the place was transformed in within a week. Both the Raya stalls - amongst the most expensive in KL, so enter at your peril - and the Raya decor were up.

I was rather confused with the overall theme there though, as it was more of a mash-up of colours rather than a coherent one. Or maybe I was just analyzing too much. After entering a couple of the stalls, I came up with the conclusion in the first paragraph. Things there were just damn expensive! A pair of sarongs for RM1700! Righto! I'll give that a miss.

Trying to figure out if those were snoflakes I think it wasCloser look at the stallsThe current trend seemed to be square boxesThe usual stuffings - cookies

The gift idea this time around was also not as creative as in previous years. They were pretty simple, and I noticed that the trend now is to give a hamper containing biscuits and drinks, rather than dates. Hmmm! Usually the trendier place would be Bangsar Shopping Center down the road. Maybe I'll give it a visit in the next few days.

Congratulations All Around

My Boss for the last seven years had just been made a full Professor. She took me and the rest of the crew out for lunch earlier today. The initial plan was to go to delicious, but judging from how they messed up our orders the last time we went over for lunch, we decided to give it a miss. After much deliberation we decided to go for Madam Kwan in Telawi. Fearing the place would be packed, we booked the table beforehand.

All was done .... burp!
We reached there in good time. All my previous tutors were present, which was nice. We caught up with news as some of them had retired. It was quite a long affair and it was way past 3 pm when we reached the ward. Then, the work piled in .......