Posts tagged Food

The Bee, Jaya One

Food

One early Saturday morning, we found ourselves near the vicinity of Jalan University. Needing breakfast, we made our decision to head to Jaya One. We arrived at the Bee about 9:45am in the morning. It seems that on weekends, they only have their brunch menu which excludes their burgers. So much for that. The Kitchen is also not open till 10am.

Oh, well, it’s only another fifteen minutes. Ordered a latte which came in decent time. The latte was done reasonably well. Probably the beans weren’t as fresh but still pretty decent. Starbucks can pull a decent latte too but their beans are weeks to a month old. Would I expect a cafe like the Bee to have fresher beans? Possibly, but I don’t know the traffic pattern or output to judge.

The waitstaff seem to be rather disorganized and are unable to keep up with even four tables occupied. Our food arrived after a fairly long while – like twenty-five minutes. It’s not like they were full but I’d hate to be sitting there when the place is overflowing with people. Taste wise, nothing to shout about but overall good filling meals. The banana-peanut butter toast was pretty unique and flavorful.

Done with our breakfast (or brunch), we called for the bill. That took another ten minutes and we decided to put it on the card. The nice thing about my Citibank Visa is that the points can be used to buy anything. Of course, the rate isn’t fantastic — they’re a bank and they’re out to make money from you but if you gotta use the money anyway, might as well build up the points to get something… like a new lens or refrigerator, etc. Back to the Bee. The credit slip took them another fifteen minutes to produce for us to sign. Overall, waiting for service, waiting for food and waiting to sign the credit card slip took longer than our entire meal.

Bottom line (NPS-like) is I don’t think I’d recommend friends to the Bee, or at least I’d be neutral which means “negative” in NPS-speak. Food-wise ok but I’d need to try the burgers so means I’d be going back, at least one more time. If the service-delays persist, it’ll be my last.





Lil’ BBQ at number forty…

Food

Sometimes, it’s nice to have a little BBQ party at home versus going out to a fancy (or even not so fancy) place to dine. There’s a feel and sense of casual-ness and perhaps, more relaxed atmosphere. Parking is a lot easier of course and there’s not opening time or closing time. You’re free to dress-up as much as you want or dress-down. The only downside is probably for the hosts who has to cleanup. I guess I don’t mind that so much as the amount of time we spend with each other. Relationships need time and if you don’t invest time, you can watch them shrivel up and break.

Anyways, here are some photos.

Who says you can make pizzas on a BBQ?







Cupcakes by Audrey

Food 1 Comment

During my brother’s Birthday last weekend, we had a nice surprise for him (no, not talking about the LX5) in the form of cupcakes as a birthday cake. Cupcakes are getting to be the in-thing nowadays and the good thing is that you don’t need to cut them and they come with their own little plates! Of course if you’re anal about some traditions such as cutting the cake, you’ll be disappointed. Actually, who says you can’t cut a cupcake? You might look silly though.

Anyways, since he’s in the financial industry, we’d get an appropriately themed cake with stuff like bulls, bears, charts and so on but we decided to throw in a few funky things like fishes, boobs and bums. I must say that Audrey does bake some lovely cupcakes and they were nice and moist. A bit of the sweet side but I guess that can be custom tweaked on request (I didn’t order them so I didn’t make that request). Of course the fondant designs were the nicest compared to the regular cream and icing decorations but they come at an added cost.

Time for me to stop talking and the photos to salivate you!







A delightful bakery in KL

Food

LeVain Boulangerie Patisserie… yup. Even Google translator stumbled. Google says “Levain Bakery & Patisserie” while Babelfish gives me “Leaven Bakery & Pastry making” and Paralink gives me “Sourdough Bakery and Patisserie“. Whatever it is in English, they sure know their pastry and baking! I’m rather fond of breads and am not really a “rice” kind of person although rice has been in my diet since, well, as far back as I can remember.

Interestingly, I stumbled upon this place while doing a recce for a wedding shoot. The dinner location was nearby and I decided to drive around to check for ideal outdoor locations a minute or two away. This old part of KL has a lot of charming old bungalows that have been converted to commercial premises and the old rain trees form a lovely backdrop. Some time later, my wife told me about an unpronounceable bakery and immediately I know where and what she was trying to tell me.

The place gets really packed right till about 2pm when the crowd seems to taper down. For such a classy looking place, you’d expect two things: it’ll be filled with expats, especially the Europeans who probably can’t get used to our local breads (I sympathize cos our local bread, well, enough said) and secondly, pricing that only the rather well heeled can afford. Surprisingly, this assumption is proved false which is good. There are some expats buying bread but up to 90% of the people eating and dining were local Chinese! Whoever said that the Chinese need to eat their rice need to be brought here. I mean people were having breakfast, brunch, lunch, whatever with nary a bowl of rice or noodles (unless pasta counts) in sight. The prices were very reasonable, in fact, some items were priced almost the same as some local chain bakeries. This is amazing value considering these items are made with quality ingredients and hence, taste better and are invariably fresher which I’ll explain later. For brunch, we had a couple of pastry items, soup and pizzas which totaled up to only RM29 without drinks. Drinks range from about RM6 onwards but looking at the way they hand-crafted my latte and the use of quality Australian (farm house) milk, I’d say the price is still good.

The breakfast items are nice, especially the pancake stack. I think we’ve tasted most of the pastry items and considering that we kept reloading our table with items meant that they were good. The only thing about being in such a full place is that the top pastry items such as their mashed potato bun, chocolate coronet, pizzas, etc get depleted quickly. Not to worry though as the kitchen is in full production and they get replenished quickly. This high turnover rate means that what you get is as close as you can to baking them yourselves!

There’s free wi-fi available, making it a good place to meet but parking can be difficult if you have a 5-meter long truck and your other vehicle is a CR-V. That said, we’ll be back again as I love their sweet desserts and lovely breads — especially their maple log loaf! So time to stop talking and let the photos do you in!

















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Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie
No 7, Jalan Delima,
Off Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.

Back in OMF, Camerons

Travel 1 Comment

A lot of my life seems to revolve around Cameron Highlands. No reason why but it’s been the place for a lot of interesting and life-changing events in my life. One reason could be that I’m kind of a winter person. Anything above twenty-one degrees celcius is warm and I think the sweet spot is a lovely fifteen. Camerons, being at an altitude of 5,500 feet above sea level makes for a more pleasant temperature for me.

Anyways, this time round, we returned to my favorite place to stay, the OMF bungalow just outside Tanah Rata (flat-ground in Malay). OMF trumps every hotel I’ve stayed in Camerons mainly due to it’s lovely caretaker and surrounds. The old bungalow still has charm and Mrs Chye, the current caretaker serves up good old plain home cooking and unbeatable scones. Don’t waste your money on those pathetic scones at Ye Olde Smokehouse. This one’s made with love and freshly baked. The only other scone worth spending money for in Camerons (my opinion anyways) is at T-Cafe in Tanah Rata. T-Cafe is going to be renamed to Lord’s Cafe soon. All the best Terese!

Secondly, this is a great place to unwind from the hustle and bustle of any city. There’s only 8 rooms and the nearest neighbor is about two miles down the road. Being on an isolated outcrop, it does get windy and cold but get yourself a mug of steaming hot chocolate, a good book and you can enjoy the great outdoors.

It was a good getaway and as usual, was filled with quite a lot of good food. Probably overdid it but don’t you always overeat on holiday anyways? The Sungai Palas Tea plantation has now been upgraded and it looks fantastic. It looks awesome but I didn’t take any photos of the exterior because the excitement has now been spoiled by stupid drivers who don’t know how to drive on single lane roads. I mean if you see an approaching car and you’re at a section which permits passing, stop the car and let the incoming car pass. Seems like all the good drivers are long gone and we have city folk who think that giving way is a weakness. Pure stupidity which results in a fifteen minute journey taking over half-an-hour. Not recommended if you’re not a good driver! Looks like all that off-road driving on even narrower trails had some benefit after all!

That’s it for now, more photos to come…








{edit}
Since this posting, I’ve received a dozen inquiries on the OMF Bungalow… I guess my blog’s pretty heavily indexed by Google 🙂
Anyways, here’s a low-down on the bungalow if you’re keen…

OMF BUNGALOW, CAMERON HIGHLANDS

This Bungalow is a place of rest, refreshment, fellowship and spiritual renewal for Members of OMF (OMFers) as well as local pastors, leaders and other cross-cultural full-time workers/missionaries from other Christian organisations. It is not a guest-house nor is it a business enterprise. It is a self-financed ministry and pretty booked out well in advanced.

Meal times are fixed and guests are asked to vacate the dining room as soon as they finish their meals to allow the helpers to clean up. Meal times are: Breakfast: 8.00-9.00 am; Lunch: 12.30 pm; Dinner: 6.30 pm