Lunch at Al Halabi

It was not often that a restaurant which looked good on the outside, served good food. At least not often here in Kuala Lumpur. So, Anita and I decided to be a bit more adventurous this Sunday lunchtime and for some reason, I fancied some Arab food. I passed by this particular restaurant on a newly opened section of Pavilion recently but it was too late for lunch then.

So, I decided to give this one a go. It was called Al Halabi, located on the seventh floor, through the escalator near Times Bookstore. It was part of a new section called Dining Loft.

It was spacious with a separate seating area in filled with natural light right at the back. A lot of shisha smoker back there, so we decided to take one of the seats in the main area. Very nice setting, true to Middle Eastern theme, with some of the waiters who were actually Arabic.

The cooks were definitely from the Middle East and they have a butcher there preparing fresh meat and ingredients, plus a baker who actually baked the puffs and bread traditionally. The grilling was also done in-house as well and the produce were displayed by the main counter as if you were sitting in a market. It was reminiscent of Marche.

What did we order? I started with some hummus with sliced grilled meat, and for the mains I had grilled pomfret while Anita had chicken tikka. We had some rice with them and I had some Arabic mint tea in the end.

I was impressed. I could feel the succulent fish melting in my mouth and the dips were amazing. Even the mint sauce tasted authentic - and made from real mint - while the rice was a joy. The mint in the tea was a touch to light to be honest and it finished up tasting rather bitter.

We gave up on desserts since we were just too full.

The seats were very comfortable as we were on a sofa, and I now understood why the patron seemed to sit down there for hours! We ended up sitting there for nearly a couple of hours, nibbling away at our food, before finally leaving the place. The staff were OK, although the Arabs struggled somewhat with their English. The other staffs who spoke English were Filipino or Bangladeshi. How I wished that the locals would work there, as I could see that most of the patron were locals.

Highly recommended although I hope that they could maintain their standard in the future. The place was still rather new when we visited.

Happy Sunday

I just can't help it. I woke up early after sleeping in front of the TV last night. The intention was to watch the ManYoo- West Brom game, but I guessed the lull of the pillow was too strong! I ended up being woken up by Anita after the game finished. 2 nil to United she said before I stumbled back to sleep in the bedroom.

So, I woke up just after Subuh this morning, at around the usual time I woke up during work days. ANd I just couldn't get back to sleep. I ended watching YouTube reviews and was quite interested in the latest offering from BlackBerry. The Android-powered Priv. It retained both the physical and the excellent software keyboards from the Z series. If the tide is ride, it could be a winner! It's not yet available in Malaysia. Maybe when it was released, I'd have a look.

It was still too early to get to the hospital for the morning rounds. But maybe I just have a shower and see what was for breakfast .... Good Sunday all!

Foodgasm Fest 2015

The weather proved to be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the rain washed away what was left of the haze which had been blighted us lately. The sun was shining and the sunblock were off the cupboard for the first time in weeks - not for me of course! It was a feel good weather. Even a small ray of sunshine could lift the mood, coupled with it the promise of garden party with food galore in the middle of town, it seemed perfect! It sounded so good that it seemed like the whole of KL congregated at Dataran Petaling Jaya, opposite AmCorp Mall last Sunday for Foodgasm Fest 2015.

And with that, came the traffic horror story of almost epic proportion. With the traffic warden turning up well past their due in time to issue summons. It was gridlocked, but more on that later.

The rain also proved to be the architect for trouble at this festival. The grass field was filled with mud and one couldn't avoid them since the queue was so long and the terraces of food stalls sat right in the middle of the quagmire! It was slowly turning into a mudfest.

Back to the traffic! We should have turned back the moment we saw the line of cars stretching a couple of kilometers along the Federal Highway leading into Jalan Timur. We persevered and was rewarded with a one hour crawl. And even then we didn't manage to get a parking spot. People were parking their cars at their fancy and before long the whole of Jalan Timur turned into one giant parking lot! And there were no traffic warden in sight.

Anita and I decided to escape via Jalan Gasing, back towards our apartment and took the LRT for a couple of stops landing right next to Dataran PJ.

Looking at the length of the queue, we decided to have a quick bite at the A&W restaurant nearby. No such joy. The queue there stretched right out of the joint. We soldiered on onto the field. The wait for each stall was at least 30 minutes and some of them had run out of items and having problem replenishing them as their supply car were caught in the jam!

We circled around and the only place without a queue were the vape tents. They were the craze at the moment! There were mud everywhere and Anita scrapped the idea of opening her picnic mat. Journey ended!

Back to the LRT station, onto the car and onwards to the nearest restaurant for lunch. It was past 2pm by then ....

So, it was a missed opportunity firstly from the traffic point of view, and secondly the state of the field.

There were plenty of area at the edge of the field which were covered, but you still have to get your feet dirty to get to the food stalls. And to add to that, there was no guarantee that you would get what you wanted due to sheer number of people turning up! It was a great idea but the organiser should have encouraged the punters to use the LRT and have the traffic wardens on hand to prevent congestion.

Hopefully no more muddy field in next year's chapter because I would definitely be coming again - on an LRT that time of course! And preferably early in the morning. Great idea, but suspect execution!

Morning Walk in Bangkok

It wouldn't be right if I do not have my morning walk during my travels. Since I was only here for one night, this morning was the only time for me to take my camera out and start exploring.

Time was tight since I was due to attend a talk before lunch. Then my talk proper later in the afternoon before catching my flight home, arriving in JK at around midnight.

Tight schedule.

Weather was kind and it was quite fun walking around in polite crowd, mainly on their was to the markets and temples on this Sunday morning. A quick stop for coffee, before tracking back to the hotel.

Let's go!

The Flowers

The next part of the farm, by the exit went through some gorgeous garden. Anita spent the most amount of time here while the children was sitting down, with me being the designated photographer.
The flowers were fresh and the air was a tonic from the haze we were having in town in the past few weeks. I ended up sitting at one of the benches and if it was not for the children yearning for ice cream, I would have sat there for another hour. It was Sunday afternoon after all.

Surprisingly the place was not as crowded as I was feared and we had some time to kill. Again, the place was really clean and the staff were really friendly. Very well-maintained and would definitely be recommending it to friends.

After around half an hour of taking photos, it was time to go. It was a shame that I did not bring my macro lens. It would have been a nice opportunity to try it out with the new A7R mark II. Well, I had to cope with just the Summicron-M 50. It did the job nicely although the bokeh was rather harsh …