Saturday Walk

It wasn't much of a Saturday today. I spent yesterday night sorting out my slides and despite cancelling the clinic this morning, I was in hospital all morning sorting out the few patients I had to see in the morning.

I didn't make the faculty lunch in time and got to the conference venue just before my session started.

Once my session was done, it was time to unwind. But it was raining cats and dogs outside. And the traffic? Atrocious!

Settling down for dinnerTime to orderThe main lobby was transformedNow, that's one giant monkeyThe main Bukit Bintang entranceAfter the rain stopped, I decided to take Anita out for dinner. For some reason, I felt like having Arab food. Off to Pavilion. Bad move! Bukit Bintang was packed and I only managed to park at Fahrenheit, walking across to Pavilion for our dinner, having a peek at the CNY decorations which were already being erected.

I wasn't really in the mood for photography at the time. Food was foremost on my mind, plus bed later ....

Weekend of Misadventures

Finally had a free weekend after my trips abroad. One of my colleague asked for a switch of calls, and I ended up with some free time.

We started with a nice dinner at The Curve on Friday, ending with sugar rush in my part.

I spent the Saturday afternoon at Bangsar Village looking at children and families going around in Halloween costumes, followed by planned visit to a photo exhibit. But Anita made me change my mind and we were off to Putrajaya for a bit of LAMPU, a light show there. It rained unfortunately.

Then came Sunday. Anita was keen to bring out her picnic mat, and reading about a food fest in town definitely excited her. Foodgasmfest 2015 entered the fray and we were there for lunch. With an empty stomach. Unfortunately our stomach stayed empty when we left ....

At least we had the chance to have some time to ourselves though ...

Dinner at Yeast

There were a couple of misconceptions about this chic little cafe, Yeast. First of all, the name sounded Oriental and I was expecting at most, a fusion menu. Second, that it serves bread and the likes exclusively.

I was so wrong!

We had a couple of visits to the outlet, the first a couple of weeks back at Telawi, Bangsar Baru and the second, last night at their outlet at Mid Valley. The experience was nice on both counts, cosy ambiance, attentive waiters and most of all, excellent food.

Started off with some fresh breadThat nice ambiance with French music in the background. All we need was some French waiters.

The menu was straight forward and some would say limited, especially if you avoid alcohol - which was clearly spelt out in the menu. We just picked what's available - either a la carte or as part of a set - and let the food do the talking.

The food was French. So was the main chef. They were freshly cooked and coupled witht he bright decor and French music in the background, the experience was soothing. The dinner starts at 6, and on both occasion, trying to avoind the crowd, we arrived just after they were opened. And we got the best seats in the house.

We started out with fresh bread - on the house - with nice French butter, followed by my order of salads - freshly prepared. The salmon on the first visit was excuisite. I tried something different yesterday and it did not disappoint either. Anita had some French onion soup an dshe finished her bowl straigth down.

I had some pasta last night with pesto sauce, parmesan and dried tomato, with strips of chicken as garnish. To be honest, I left the chicken as I felt they wer distractions. The pasta was just perfect, and the pesto sauce wa most definitely one of the best I have tasted.

My startersThen came the pastaAnd the dessert to shareAnita had a baked chicken pastry and she refused to share! This was topped up with some whipped cream in caramel sauce which was just superb.

As you can see, I ran out of superlative describing the dinner. Definitely would return again, and I was curious as to whether they cahnge their menu daily as the items were quite limited. All in all, it was a great dinner experience and the waiter was generously tipped!

The Annual Dinner

No, this isn't the usual formal annual dinner where everybody must attend and pretend to enjoy themselves. Where the Boss would give a speech and awards given to the best employee and the managers patting themselves on their collective backs saying how good they have done in the past year.

This was a ritual. Every Ramadan the Bosses from the Oncology team would organise a berbuka puasa event for the nurses and staffs of the Oncology team, and this year it was held last night. Last year, the hosts, Dr Matin Mellor and Dr Ahmad Kamal had it at Sime Darby Convention Centre, and even though the food was great, the grappling to get to the food and the fact that the venue were slow to prepare the dishes left a sour taste to the mouth quite literally.

This year it was more organised. And the fact that the venue, Holiday Villa was just around the corner from the hospital helped quite a bit. No more parking a mike away from the hall this time around. And if you felt like it, there was always the option walking to the hotel.

The venue was bigger than I thought. We were tabled at Victoria Hall, right at the very end but the food was aplenty and there was hardly any queue most of the time. The selection was also pretty decent as most of the Ramadan Buffet I attended before only paid a courtesy attention to the actual food. There were mainly local and Indian affair although there was a bit of Japanese, a grill and some pasta. Enough to keep everybody interested. But the Malay desserts were smashing.

The place was rather crowded however and it was not designed for privacy. No real room for chit chat across table. The place was too crowded to mingle around as well. Food, a bit of chit chat and we were done. Not before a group photo though. And as usual, I bought Puan Anita with me.

Low Key Birthday

Idlan turned 11 yesterday and this time we didn't prepare any real party for him. He wasn't really. Keen although he did ask for a cake when he woke up yesterday.

Luckily, a quick call to my sister sorted that out and in the afternoon, we set off to Kajang for dinner and of course the cakes, celebrating it with his cousins.

Nothing fancy. He already got his birthday present the evening before. Maybe we would have lunch with his grandparents later on Sunday...

As for the rest of the day, we didn't do much especially with the rain outside. He also preferred to stay in and play with his cousins.