Pasar Ramadhan

This time of the year, it tended to rain in the afternoons. And when I meant rain, I meant pouring down! That made trips to pasar ramadhan tricky. In fact, coupled with the herrendous traffic, it was no fun!

The nearest pasar ramadhan to our place was at Kerinchi, which happened to be on my route home. I stopped there last weak to look for some goodies, and I ended up with these fried crabs! Not exactly healthy, but oh my, aren’t they delicious!

The food there were reasonable but parking was tricky even though I was there super early. The murtabak stall were just about to open when I arrived, but the queue was at least 20 long! I decided to give that a miss since it had already started to rain. Only the hardcore stood in line!

Might drop by there during weekends when the traffic would be better though ...

Great Company

I didn't go out for berbuka that much this year - at least compared to before. It was more convenient to break my fast at home, there wasn't a need to dash into traffic late on and then fight for food at the buffet tables. At home, things were more organised, plus I sometimes only reach home late after work and didn't have time to organise things.

Luckily our maid had been a great help, sorting out the berbuka and sahur for us and the boys.

But once a year, I would be joining the staffs at Cellsafe for their own berbuka event. This year it was at Park Royal, near Bukit Bintang At an outlet called Chatz Brasseries. Surprisingly driving in and out of there was easy for us coming from Bangsar - plus the fact that Anita insisted on us leaving early.

This should be borderline illegal!Gout-inducing I was sure ...Some fresh fishSatay. Straight from the grill.The food there was awesome! Definitely better than the meal I had at KL Hilton a few weeks back. And the crowd there - even though it was close to full house - was very civilised. It helped that the management did not fill the restaurant up to the brim!

The food choice was excellent and they were very generous when it came to drinks. I counted that there were at least 8 different kinds free for us to choose. And my favourite - the Chef Recommendation - was called "Janda Pulang". Now, don't get me wrong, although there was innuendo there, but it was basically a combination of coconut juice and "gula melaka", a special kind of sugar syrup. Dynamite!

This drink was gorgeousThey even have cencalok!For a more traditional selectionDone with dinner ....The grills were nice with plenty of fresh seafood. We had a great time chatting on until it was almost 10 pm with some teh tarik on hand of course. And was after numerous trips to the buffet table for top-ups. A place I would definitely recommend.

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.

Our Turn

This was 30 minutes before berbuka

Every year, we had an evening which contribute for the breaking fast, or berbuka in Malay. The pseudo-Arab among us preferred the term iftar. Last evening was our turn. We ordered the food in while the Surau prepared the venue and the drinks.

It turned out that yesterday evening being a Friday night, the Surau was packed. We only ordered food for 250 people. About 300 turned up. Nightmare.

The children killing time before berbuka by wading the small pool before heading to the surauWe managed to get more rice but still it could've been more. The same happened for the post-Tarawikh feast, or moreh. We indexed some laksa, but towards the end, there was hardly anything left.

Heading back homeBetter up the preparation when we do it again next year then ...‎

Give me the Mendy

Yesterday, Anita ordered in for Berbuka at the apartment and she asked for chicken mendy to be delivered. Unfortunately, it was disappointing. The rice was plane, and the chicken looked like it was cooked the night before. As for the salad? The less mentioned the better.

Naturally, she wanted the real deal today. And the best chicken mendy that was accessible easily was from Al Rawsha near Bulatan Pandan. We stopped by there on our way back from the apartment to Gombak.

The oven smelt real niceThe place was still emptyIt was just before 4 pm, but there was already people waiting for take-outs. Since the menu was pretty standard, we didn't have to wait for long as most of the items were pre-prepared.

The table was already laid-out for the berbuka buffet a bit later. Most if the table had already had stickers on them, indicating they were already reserved.

And the take-out was ready .....So, we ordered the chicken mendy, some kebabs and salad. And it cost less than what we paid fir the delivery the evening before.

I stuffed myself on the chicken and rice, and by the tins I was ready for tarawikh, I could even open my eyes anymore. Too much cholesterol I was sure. Can't have the mandy too often .....