Night Walk

The boys have been fussing about staying at home all week now that they were on their second week of holidays. We planned to stay at the apartment next week, during my on call period. But this week, they had mostly been staying at home. And they were bored.

So, we decided to take them out to KLCC for a nice walk after berbuka. KLCC was crowded, mainly with shoppers planning for an early Raya bargain. The decorations at the foyer was already up, mainly stalls. But there was a main stage there as well. Nothing was playing tonight.

We then settled for a quick drink at Chinoz, while enjoying the water fountain at KLCC park. Cool weather tonight.

We plan for an early night tonight before waking up for sahur early to catch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Looking forward to that.

Chinoz for the Roast

After the morning ward round today, I had to head out to get the boys haircuts. The choices were pretty clear - it was either The Curve, Great Eastern Mall or KLCC. Since we wanted to have some lunch, plus I needed to head for the currency exchange, I thought the best bet was KLCC. There was Saw Hair Saloon there as well - which I mentioned in another entry.

For lunch today, we headed for Chinoz at the Park, on the Ground Floor of Suria. They do serve a mean pizza there. After being sat, the waiter mentioned that on every Sunday Lunch, the do a roast buffet. I wouldn't mention the price, but I thought Puan Anita deserved a treat with me flying off to London in a couple of days for a conference. Roast buffet it was, and I must say, it was gorgeous.

The buffet was actually very simple. You pick up your starters from the buffet spread, then the mains - a choice of lamb, chicken or beef - I went for chicken, never really into lamb of beef if I can help it, unless it was cut as a sirloin. And grilled well done. Then you finish things off with desert and either coffee or tea. As usual, the boys had their pizza.

Even though the starter spread was simple, it did offered what I wanted. You can have a couple of choices of pre-prepared salad, plus other entree such as roasted asparagus, smoked salmon, and my favourite, sashimi. I was almost done by the time I finished my starters. My roast chicken was succulent and the gravy was rich. Anita's roast beef was really soft, tender and very well cooked. No raw bits, and you can also have a Yorkshire pudding with that should you wish.

To finish things off, I had bread and butter pudding - with custard sauce of course, taking me back during my A level days when pudding was the highlight of the meal. Anita had apple crumbles instead. the boys had some brownies, which sent their sugar level through the roof. They were running around the foyer to burn it off after that.

At the end of the day, it was a very enjoyable lunch. Everything on the buffet spread was nice, and you certainly get your money's worth. I gather that they only offer this buffet on Sunday afternoon, from noon to about 3 pm - there was always afternoon tea after that. The choices when you get in, in terms of food on the buffet table was pretty straight forward. It also came with a complimentary cup of tea or coffee as well. Since it was a hot barmy afternoon, I ordered some extra fruit juice to go with it.

Non-typical Sunday

It wasn't a typical Sunday in a sense that I had meetings to attend to, followed by a sumptuous buffet lunch at an eatery that is was fast becoming my favourite, Latest Recipe at Le Meridien, KL Sentral. Following the meeting and paperwork, I had the time to bring my boys out to the park. Oh boy! Did they enjoy that. So much so that the were fast asleep in the car on the way home, and went reached home just before 6.30 pm!

I remember the park at KLCC used to be full during weekends. It was almost empty today. Maybe it was the overcast weather threatening to rain. Which ever way, it was not the first Sunday it was like this. A couple of months ago, before Ramadhan, I had the same feeling. In fact, web the parents and children I saw were mainly Indonesian. I kid you not. It seems that KLCC and the park is turning into foreign worker's land during Saturday and Sunday. I better stop here for fear of getting my site spammed by our friendly neighbours.

After the run around the park, jumping and skipping, it was time to take an early dinner. It seemed like the most convenient stop would be Chinoz by The Park. Mind you, it has been a while seen we stopped after an unsavory incident with a waiter gave us second-rate service because we were Malaysian - they prefer the Mat Salleh there of course, but what would I know. The boys had their pizza and I decided to order some Japanese. The miso the was gorgeous, although a bit expensive. Seeing my temaki, Idlan wanted to try one as well. My God, that was messy.

As I mentioned, the boys were fast asleep on the drive home. Idlan has since woken up but it wouldn't be long before he heads for the bed again while Irfan was still sleeping. I was hoping that he will sleep through to the morning. Fingers crossed!

Chinoz for Tea

After my trip the KL Design Week, I took the boys out to Tasik Perdana for a spot of fresh air. Unfortunately, it started to rain soon after, and we had to scramble off. Since it was still early, we decided to get ourselves some tea. The easiest to get to was KLCC with its convenient parking and easy exit via the elevated highway. So off to KLCC we went. We decided to have the bite at Chinoz.

Candle-litPizza .... hmmmmm!Trying out the nachosSince it was raining heavily outside, the waitress was kind enough to seat us at the dinner table, away from the smoking area. Both Idlan and Irfan love the food there, especially the tea and pizza. However, over the years, the place has been suffering from its own hype. It used and still is a place of celebrity hang-out, but with the opening of ‘Apartments’ and other new joints around the area and to a certain extend the Mandarin Oriental, the place seemed to have lost some of its exclusivity. The quality of the food has certainly came down a notch compared to a couple of years back. The menu has evolved, and it was still the place to get sushi in KLCC - Sakae Sushi is nothing compared to here - but if the management was not careful, they will start to lose customer. Where do I prefer to have dinner in KLCC? Top of the list was Spice of India, then the Chinese nearby - can’t quite remember the name. Soon, Harrod’s will beat the both of them, if not for the cost to dine there. If not for the pizza and sushi, I might go there less frequently.

Top if off with some iced chocolate .... with a lump of ice-cream on topSo we had our tea there yesterday. We had our pizza, and I tried the nachos. Not bad, although I wished that the nacho crackers were a bit fresher.

Back to Kuala Lumpur now

Hey! What's so funny?We finally made our way back to Kuala Lumpur at around 11.30. Initially we wanted to wait for the laksa shops to open, but the boys were getting restless. They have to go to school tomorrow anyhow. Would be better of making an early start. We stopped for food in Tapah, had lunch there, and I as usually got a supply of pau and jambu batu. We reached Kuala Lumpur by 3.30, picked up the maids and returned to our house at Taman Cemerlang.

Idlan running down the hallwaySince it was kind of early, Anita wanted to go out to KLCC to get her eyeglasses fixed. The day before, Irfan accidentally stepped on them and it was kinda crooked. A quick visit to the shops and things were fixed. We then went on to have dinner at Chinoz. However I was disappointed with the dinner tonight. I ordered the wrong stuff.

My ultra-dry chicken pie!The salad was good as usual. For the mains, I asked for chicken pie. Little that I realised, there were no gravy or cream as when I imagined from my usual order.The boys enjoyed their pizza which was the main thing. I was starving when I went home, and ended up having some noodles! Note to self - ask the waitress to describe a new dish should you about to try one .... Tired now. Time for bed!

I also just uploaded the slide for the Kuala Kangsar trip here.