just a few notes about round two of the Jalan-jalan Cari Makan roadtrip to KL we went on two weeks ago.
remember, it was all about the food, the whole food and nothing but the food.
so ok, let’s go. first stop, breakfast on a saturday morning across the border. some had roti canai, some had nasi lemak. some had kaya toast. and a side of sausage. (which is what i call that juicy meat with the bald head. ie. “hey Sausage. Sauu-sageee.” coz she really feels like one. cheese-filled.)
we reached our destination in good time, but our hotel rooms weren’t ready. in fact, they weren’t ready for a few hours more. this resulted in a Singaporean female lioness unleashing her wrath of fury to the hapless hotel staff. wah seh. you don’t play play with Singapura lionesses, ok. they are not all docile, purring Kucintas, hor?
we bunked in with lyd & mr boy, the latter whom Sausage is smitten with, for some reason. she calls out to him every time she sees him from afar, and has absolutely no objection to him carrying her. why ah, Sausage, why? why do you like mr boy so much? is it his magic mole that holds the charm? coz mummy also has a mole and you like her very much too.
[insert obligatory family picture. see hot Sausage in stroller.]
anyway, the hotel we stayed in was the heart of damansara, perfectly located with malls and shops all around, and too many restaurants we didn’t know where to begin with.
ok ok, i know where we tried to begin with. it was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
i said tried, coz we somehow didn’t end up eating there although i think most of us wanted to. see, we happened to be there on a valentines weekend, and well, malaysians are not immune to the pull of the valentines dollar, or rather, ringgit. a few places had projected that valentine couples would readily open up their petaling street wallets on this special weekend, and priced their set meals and buffets at exploitative costs. unfortunately for us non-valentine tourists, bubba gump was one of them. so we gave it a miss, and headed to marche instead.
what did we eat? i don’t know! i think aniq had spaghetti, i had rosti, auni had mushroom soup (and bits of bread, baby bites and anything else she could grab within her reach), izad had turkey ham something (that looked like Spam to me), and grilled chicken. should have ordered the crepe, which thankfully rin & naz did. the calamaris farah & naz had were not as good as the calamari you find in SG. and i wanted my bundaberg root beer but got ginger ale instead, grr.
we settled in our rooms for a bit, naps for the drivers and some of the kids, and then we got ready for our reservation at Rebung restaurant. which we were an hour late for coz we got decidedly lost. lol.
(well, at least i almost wished we had, so we could go to T.G.I. Fridays instead. shhh.)
but found it we did. we had to lah, the last time we came to KL, we cancelled our reservation coz we decided to do tony roma’s or something. :p
this famous restaurant is owned by chef ismail and dr sheikh muszaphar. yes, THAT one. the pride and joy of the nation. the handsome-tak-boleh-carry astronaut. the manager of the restaurant told us that we should have informed him of our, ahem, ‘interest’ to have him present that evening coz apparently, he makes guest appearances lah, ok! but nevermind, he said, next time sure boleh. because, malaysia boleh.
so what did we eat at rebung? err…
i don’t know either! lol.
the dishes are mainly traditional. think hajah maimunah to the power of three. with all the ulams and asam pedas and sambals and siput seduts galore, i’m very sure our parents would lurrrve this place. the rest of the gang did too, actually, since they all wanted to try out this place. izad, don’t say lah, he’s one of those appreciative of malay foods. (unfortunately, the fella had a seriously bad case of ulcers this time round, so his palate was a little wonky. nonetheless, he valiantly attempted all the dishes that came his way despite their threats to assault his wounds.)
i think i had my rice with whatever i was familiar with, ie. asam pedas, kicap ikan… ok, i’m sorry, all i can remember was feeding auni with rice and sup daging. lol. and pisang goreng. i know, i’m like the absolutely worst person to bring to a buffet, i swear. hopeless like anything.
anyway, the manager took us around the place, took some pictures, and we left, with our butt marks imprinted on the red sofa as a memo for mr astronaut that the Kucintas had come, preened and poised, ready to pounce on him. meoowr. next time lah.
the next morning was hotel breakfast, the usual fare. i was delighted to find porridge amidst this, and proceeded to stuff auni with as much of it as i could. can you tell i’m obsessed with stuffing her, like a turkey?
with all the restaurants around our hotel, it was a bit of a puzzle how we somehow ended up going all the way to KL central for lunch. some had chicken rice, some had bubur ayam (which again, i managed to stuff the little Sausage with). the fella, despite his frazzled ulcered tongue, could still taste how bad his mee bakso was. which was why i held out on local fare – i wanted my westerns and i wanted my meats, dammit!
BUT! to keropok lekor, i concede.
coz, malaysia has the best lekors lor! they have soft ones, thick ones, crispy ones, thin ones.
i like the piping hot chewy ones. mmm mm.
next up was PS Boutique. that’s Petaling Street Boutique, to you.
the lure of this place is, of course, the search for the Almost Genuine-looking Fake Goods. attempt only if you are already familiar with the real stuff, know your goochis and el-vees and praduhs well. also your tissohs and omegahs. :p now, we will not disclose what have been collectively acquired at PS Boutique by the gang, as we are sworn to secrecy of the highest order. (now, pls girls, tuck in those blue boxes away…)
but i will tell you this – izad’s favourite stall in all of PS. this is real stuff, cannot bluff. with the heat beating down on us, we had at least three cups between us.
my perseverance finally paid off when we reached pavillion – carl’s jr.! :D and this time, no wussy chicken burgers (coz the last time we came, the beef broiler machine thingy was out of action). good ol’ double hunka meats for me. and this time my turn to stuff my face, with the yummilicious chilli cheese fries. and free flow of drinks!
they (the burgers) were so huge, i shared one with izad on the spot, and took away another one, of which i devoured half of at the hotel later that night, and the other half… back home in singapore, shhh. lol.
speaking of that night, we decided not to follow the rest to farah’s friend’s house coz it was late and we wanted to get the kids bathed and in bed after a long day out. he was kind enough to pack some of the satay kajang he’d served, though.
and so much for getting into bed – us and aniq ended up sprawled on the hotel room sofa watching a ‘friendly’ Wall-E dvd we’d gotten from PS Boutique earlier.
on our last day, our Bubba Gump plan was once again thwarted (why ah??), coz we decided to push on to KL central again. eh, we didn’t even get to eat those swedish meatballs at ikea again. and TGIFridays was out of the window as well, lol. so much for damansara.
we got to KLCC and headed for Chilli’s instead. nachos, fajitas, all good. even auni had her free kid’s meal of mac & cheese. now i know what to buy for her next time. gooey, disgusting mac & cheese. lol.
and that, i THINK, concluded our Jalan-jalan Cari Makan trip. well, give or take a few snacks in between.
travelling with a bunch of friends is always good. give and take is a must, and miscommunication inevitably happens, but surviving it only makes the bonds stronger, no? well, i hope so. :)
travelling with kids – what can i say? the joy and the fatigue come with the package.
my parents, they aren’t exactly, ahem, the wild party animals that you think they are. (hurhur.) what more with abang aniq and me in the picture, they will take whatever morsels of ‘excitement’ that come their way, even if it’s a small party at a friend’s house, with greasy home-delivered fast food and a cringe-worthy countdown show on tv.
coz taking care of us at home alone is hard work, you know. so whenever an opportunity for a celebration presents itself, they’ll jump at it.
we babies work very hard too… bottoms up!
i was snoozing when 2009 arrived, but i believe abang aniq and all disturbed my slumber with loud poopers poppers and blowers and silly string.
then they played some games called ‘charades’ and ‘truth or dare’, and thank gawd i can’t talk yet, coz they’d have to pay me to keep my mouth shut for the things they said and did! ;p
abang aniq and i may have been kept out till late more than once because of my parents, ahem, ‘irresponsible’ behaviour, but one day – maybe not in 2009, seeing that i’ll probably be busy with other more important things – one day, i’ll try to remember to thank them for showing us that it’s okay to have fun, despite having little children to run and clean up after.
that it’s possible to still be themselves, despite being old farts.
that it’s important to surround themselves with what makes them happy, not just family, but invaluable friends who open up their homes, arms and hearts to you.
i’m too young to have a new year’s resolution (unless you can count growing more hair as a resolution?), but i’d say – here’s to another year of great celebrations, mum & dad and all my lovely aunties and uncles! :D
it was really hard getting the twins in the same picture – either one was asleep while the other was awake.
so we had fun watching the older kids instead. boy-chasing starts early for some girls, apparently! so much for our warning on aniq zohan’s t-shirt – lock up your daughters. ;p
we had the rare occasion of a willing babysitter for the night, dinner reservations were made, outfits picked out, but as i’d written in the previous entry, plans sometimes go awry…
so we were a few couples short, and scaled down our own celebration in respect to a dear friend who’d just lost a beloved family member.
our initial dinner reservation at hotel intercontinental was cancelled, but we still had that table at 3 Monkeys for later that night, so seeing that birthday presents still needed exchanging and tummies still needed filling, we braved the traffic into town on a saturday night for that couples’ night out we needed so much.
all the ‘single’ ladies…
we’d never been to the now-defunct boom boom room, so this was the first time seeing kumar’s show (i hear he’s singapore’s only real national institution, hurhur), and omfg – the things he gets away with!
what a drag!
no holds barred, risque and irreverent, raunchy and bawdy, he basically entertained only our table and another’s next to us, both filled with, yes, melayus, lol! because, erm, we were like the most boisterous and ‘appreciative’ ones in the room, and got his (mostly dirty and/or racist) jokes. he loves us melayus lah.
and oh, what’s a birthday without being duly humiliated in public, right?
THANKS EH KORANG FOR SABO-ING. macam siak i tell you. but nevermind, because you give me cake and present, i still loves you. next time i give each of you a lapdance… NOT!!!
now, my fellow birthday girl lydia on the other hand…
i think she’s secretly a professional laptop lapdancer, can??
aside from that, thank you once again for the wonderful time, and for getting me to break into that LBD… which i’d probably never find the chance to wear again. :D
ps: and happy birthday to another december babe, ayu, who is busy slogging away with flour and eggs all the way in perth. you are sorely missed by the 77clan, whose AGM should be right about this time of the year. xoxo.
i know i’ve said it before – twice actually, after the past two birthdays – that i wouldn’t plan anymore parties, but… it would seem that i have a sick addiction to it. coupled with my masochistic tendencies, the birthday party monster reared its ugly head yet again for the third year.
(they tried to make me go to rehab, but i said no, no, no…)
so The Plan was to hold a soccer party for the boy at the futsal pitch where his daddy and friends, aka Footsie FC, usually convene for their weekly soccer.
everything was set – barely a few days before the event, seeing how i thrive on deadlines and adrenaline – but, as the scottish poet robert burns wrote, ‘the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley’.
or in other un-cheem language, you can plan swee swee, but something sure go wrong one lah!
i’d naively hoped that it wouldn’t rain, but as nature has proved time and again, december is indeed a month fraught with uncertain weather.
it’d been nice and toasty all week, so my heart sank when i woke up to a wet and chilly sunday morning. don’t worry, it’ll clear up, the ever-optimistic husband said, looking up at the grey heavens.
an hour before the party, the clouds still refused to budge and continued to relentlessly drizzle its contents, literally taking the piss out of the harried party organiser underneath.
so an executive decision was made for a change in venue, caterer and guests redirected, and well… we ended up at the same, boring ol’ multipurpose hall nearby. there goes the photo ops with a nice backdrop and change in scenery for my – err, i mean, his party!
and of course, soon after the call was made and guests streamed in, the sun sneaked peeks behind its cumulus curtains. yeah, play games with my heart, why doncha.
anyway, i’d engaged Socatots to organise the games and activities for the kids, in line with the soccer theme (i’m big on themes, if you haven’t noticed), and i think that was definitely fun, especially watching the little ones follow instructions from the soccer coaches and run around in a (somewhat) orderly manner. age 3 is great for these things, and i think, my favourite age.
the Team
boys with balls
cake!
sing-along
“i loves mummy, i loves daddy, i loves baby auni” – aniq
stuffing the poor baby with cake. not that she’s complaining.
so that was that. never mind that we didn’t have a nice sunny romp on the synthetic grasses of the futsal field. we had lovely company, and the kids were happy.
and i shall now head to birthday party rehab.
wait, would it count if i did for auni’s 1st birthday…?
as you can probably tell, the lack of updates by hana is a sign of profound malaise. clearly, the switch to non-sahm mode has not been the most joyful of event for her.
which made her question as to who in heck created the work week to stretch for five days and not contain it to just, say, four, or maybe three days?
to which she received a reply from her ever-sensible husband that it was all in the name of a healthy economy and The Big Picture. longer weekends mean longer downtimes, he says. less productivity and lower standards of living. worse still, he came up with the ‘less effective gahmen’ trump card. and in his usual gadget-centric logic, if his handphone is spoilt and requires servicing, a longer weekend would mean a longer time to get it repaired. hmph, the consumerist.
so apparently, long long ago, people, especially in the industrial era, used to work really long hours with really poor working conditions (boo hoo). then in the 1800s, some fella began demanding for shorter work hours, starting some kind of workers’ union, and went around with a catchy phrase, “Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest”. that took quite a while to catch on, but it eventually did for most parts of the world, and May Day or Labour Day had something to do with that, you know, to commemorate the achievement of the labour movement, yadda yadda.
ok, so what’s the point of all this again?
ahh right, i’m *supposed* to be thankful that the work week has been greatly reduced from ancient times when workers were greatly exploited, especially women. but it’s hard to console myself when the fact is that most of the “eight hours of recreation” and “eight hours of rest” is sapped up by the demands of motherhood, leaving little for the self. (yes, i am after all part of Generation Me.)
labour is indeed a great pain for many women – the one experienced in the hospital to expel their offsprings from their wombs, and the one that takes them away from those offsprings eight hours a day, five times a week. the latter being more prolonged and painful for some, like me.
our respite – the forty-eight hours called The Weekend. where family, friends and food are the bonus and remuneration. <3
ok, digressing a little, i cheated (as usual) for the potluck picnic and bought a tray of shepherd’s pie from The Shepherd’s Pie, located at the second floor of Bedok Market Place, just next to our ever-favourite makan haunt, simpang bedok. we could have had it delivered for free, but since we were there for dinner the night before, we dropped by to pick up a frozen tray so we could bake it ourselves on the morning of the picnic.
what can i say, everyone approved, even the husband, the foodie! needless to say, the whole tray was polished off within minutes (as you can see in the picture). definitely tasty, with just the right amount of meat and potatoes. yes, i’m a carb person, i am. i love my potatoes. next time we’ll try the spicier stuff, ok idayana! ;)
the two G.I. janes, aka botak janes. “kakak mia, don’t pull my hair!”
happy 30th! omg we’re old. hurhur.
and that reminds me – aniq’s birthday is coming, AGAIN! ha ha. of course there’s the question of should there or should there not be yet another party this time round.
to which the reply is that it would greatly depend on the economy. namely, the mother and father’s. which means, mummy would have to keep working to sustain that economy, baby. just so you can keep enjoying your birthdays.
crap.
aunty farah, can you save those three candles for him?
maybe i’ll just order a shepherd’s pie and plonk them on it.
we had our first official friendly match of the season at the tampines safra astroturf pitch last night. although we just break fast 2 hours prior to the match, the guys really showed their mettle against a much younger opponents (at least for the first half, hehe)
the team gelled well even though this was the first time that we played. kudos to the team coach, powerdol for his shrewd first half tactics. we were indeed surprised to be 3-1 up by halftime. goals scored by loki and jon in the first half plus a gift goal from the opponent gave us a commanding 2 goals advantage.
but in the second half, it was a different story. the opponent team perhaps shellshocked by footsie, regrouped and came up stronger. maybe its our lack of fitness that let us down. they came up eventual 4-3 winners
credit has to be given to the younger opponents with their never say die attitude, they kept running while we, mostly daddies with buncit tummies, content to just take it easy. but overall it was a commendable performance by footsie fc. i can see the potential of the team. with more matches and training, we can indeed be a force to be reckoned with :)
ps: thanks to the WAGs that supported us throughout the match.
it was a heartwarming iftar + birthday celebration at the orphanage, and i couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness despite their smiley faces as they salam each and every one of us, a whole trail of them, earnestly saying their goodbyes to us.
but when i stepped into their dormitory to look for my little one who’d wandered off with his newfound friends, i knew they were safe in the comforts of camaraderie, the big ones looking out for the small ones. in fact, we found one of the older boys carrying my prodigal son out while others swarmed around me, calling out his name, telling me where he was, asking about the baby in my arms, not squeamish to touch her face despite it being sloshed with drool.
back home, i put forth to my little one the idea of how blessed his life is.
me: “you know, the abang-abang just now, they have no mummy, no daddy…”
A: “where mummy? where daddy? the mummy die?” (i suppose two recent deaths in our family has pretty much entered his psyche.)
me: “yes, the mummy die, the daddy die… or the mummy don’t want them, so they put them in that house… kesian tak?”
A: “ohh… kesian…”
me: “see, aniq got mummy, got daddy…”
A: “got baby auni, got oma, got mummy…”
me: “ahh, abang-abang got no PSP, you know, no power ranger…”
A: “no ironman, no PSP…”
me: “yaaa, (here’s where i milk it for what it’s worth) abang-abang got no mummy to bathe them, make them milk, read to them books… so if mummy say ‘aniq! mandi!’ you must say ‘ok, mummy’. can or not?? you must sayang mummy you know!”
A: “mummy tak die?”
me: “err, no lah.”
A: hehahehe! *hugs me but almost crushes me to death me while doing so*
the latest and last installment of our 2 days trip to KL which we all agreed was way too SHORT!
i’m really amazed that the videos really create a lot of buzz in the websphere with each episode hitting more than 500 views EACH! wow! (if one person just pay 10 cent to watch each video, gua kaya, haha!!)
so, its either there are really 500 viewers to the blog or the same people keep viewing the videos 500 times!
anyway, since this is the last of the KL videos, we really like to thank lennyrendra for organising the trip and nazrini for finding such great accomodation. and the rest of the roadtrippers, you guys rawk!! (we should organise more of these type of trips)
btw, the dvd is near completion, and since it seems that the videos are really popular, i’m taking orders of the dvd for the rest of the viewers who wants a copy for a low price of $29.99 with autographs from the roadtrippers and a personalise cd cover! (no lah, joking only) :)
ok, i don’t want to waste anymore time, since i got an assignment to complete also, enjoy the video and selamat berpuasa!
the official premier screening was held at rendra’s & lenny’s residence last night. (power chilli crabs, i must add!)
it was shown to a full house audience with full stomach. :) many of them actors and actresses in the video.
anyway, let me present you the first of a 4 part series. sit back and enjoy!!
in a few hours time, we’ll be lugging down a huge suitcase and two kids, like refugees in the dark, and off we go!
unfortunately, not somewhere which requires us to go to the airport and take a flight. just a really, REALLY short road trip over the weekend. a gorge-fest before monday comes.
the itinerary is set, or rather, a FOOD itinerary.
but for one person, only one thing mattered. his quest… for Carl’s Jr!
it better taste as good as he imagines, lol. :p
byebye and selamat bersahur in advance, everybodeee.
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