7 Village

If it's fried, oozing chocolate or just sinfully indulgent in any way, I'm usually the first to be a fan. But one of the few things I absolutely love, and is still relatively healthy, it's koay teow th'ng (literal translation: flat rice noodles in soup).

There are some pretty awesome places you can get this in Penang; my favourites being the one in Sg. Nibong in the daytime, and the one at the Pulau Tikus market if you're looking for dinner. 

But on one of my recent trips back, I discovered this place at Abu Siti Lane.:

Unlike my usual favourites, this isn't a hawker stall type of thing. But let's face it, sometimes you're just not in the mood for the hot, crowded coffee shops. Or it's raining cats and dogs outside, and you're still craving this (or are on a short trip to Penang and want to eat everything in sight for fear of not having tried something). For those times, I love the fact that places such as this now exist. 

Not sure what the food might look like? The huge posters on the wall will give you a pretty good idea.

I had my doubts at first. Didn't help that they have this really annoying bell that the person preparing drinks rings every time they're done with an order.

But when the food came, I was feeling waaay more forgiving. Side dishes/snacks above were all pretty delicious. My particular favourites were the lor bak and the curry fish balls. 

Also, I have to make a point to mention this...don't be fooled by my dish of cili padi in the picture. What's really awesome here is the chili sauce thing they have in a container on the tables with all the other condiments. I had no idea at first and scooped my usual helping of cili padi. But that was left long forgotten the moment I tried their chili sauce. I kind of think it reminds me a little of the Nando's peri-peri sauce, but it totally works! 

And the main event, the koay teow th'ng. 

There's quite a fair bit more on their menu, and I still have my doubts that all of it is good.
I've got a long-held belief that any makan place with too extensive and diverse a menu means only a handful of those dishes are awesome and the rest are usually quite awful (or perpetually not available, or as I've been told many a time by some waiters "out of stock". I kid you not.).

Whether that rule applies to this place...I'll have to go back for seconds to find out.

A few more vegetarian places

Here are a couple more places around Penang that I tried out during my very short time as a vegetarian.
I should point out, though, that this was a conscious effort to try and find places that offered vegetarian options, but were still as convenient as walking into any 'ol place in the mall, the way I normally would if I weren't confined to vegetarian food only.

At Gurney Plaza

We searched high and low (literally) for any place that offered vegetarian options.While I love, love, love Lily's Vegetarian Kitchen, their stall at the food court in the basement only has a fraction of the options available at their restaurant, and I'm not even sure if it's still there anymore.
Anyways,  I was pretty surprised at what a creature of habit I am. I wasn't even sure if the places I usually frequent had vegetarian options. So, we went through most of the places we thought were likely, and finally ended up all the way at the top floor. And ended up here...

It's your average noodle/fried rice/supposedly Hong Kong style joint, with the typically average-tasting food one has come to expect of places such as this. Nothing particularly remarkable about this one.

At Queensbay Mall

This was another stab in the dark. Accustomed to shopping until we're hungry then just sitting down for a quick meal before shopping some more, we didn't really want to spend too much time looking for a vegetarian joint. So we went for the first one we saw - at the Queens Food Market.

As with many makan places (vegetarian or otherwise), the menus always look so promising...
-Look how extensive the menu is! And OMG finally light pastas or salads? Such a refreshing change to the typical economy rice-style stuff most vegetarian places offer-

        and then your food arrives...

and you wonder why you didn't just go home and whip up an even more awesome version of what's on your plate right now in the first place. 

Or why you don't have Michelin stars yourself. 

*shakes head*

 Random Snack - I have no idea where Mum got this

BUT fret not...the packaging came with a bakery name and a phone number. 

Do note, I didn't do the ordering/buying or whatever, so I have no idea how that bit works,or what other baked goods they have. I just took it out of the fridge and walloped it.

Not exactly the most uh-may-zing cake ever. But if you're one (like myself) who is willing to spend the weekends hanging out at chic cafes, eating some of the crap, uh I mean "cakes" they serve and charge you a bomb for it because they're chic, then you shouldn't have a problem with this, because it's better than some of those. And considering it's vegetarian (ergo, no eggs and whatnot?), I'd say it's pretty awesome! :)

Journey 2 Life

I was a vegetarian. For about a week. It was easier than I had expected, and by the end of the week, I considered becoming one for good. Needless to say I'm back to my omnivorous ways. Ah, the mention of the word omnivore reminds me of another story...which I should probably write about separately to avoid digressing too far.

Anyways, at the very least, it afforded me the opportunity to seek out a few more vegetarian food places around Penang, aside from the usual ones.

I found this particular one on a Google search. It's at Bay Avenue which, if you're not one who remembers the names of places and roads like myself, is down the street from Queensbay Mall, in the cluster of shops and offices where Berlin's Bier Houz is, not HSBC. 

The menu was pretty normal for any typical restaurant like this, with only one difference: the absence of meat, of course. Rice sets, steaks (that were actually mushroom - what a wonderful alternative to the whatever thing most meat-replacements in vegetarian dishes are made of) and tempting desserts - it really almost felt like any other restaurant.

My only complaint about the menu was that there was an additional pamphlet thingy, which the waitress who very kindly doubled up as translator explained were new dishes, was completely written in Chinese, unlike the actual menu which had an English translation. 

If there's one thing I'd totally recommend from the menu, it would be the hedgehog mushroom rice set. Yum!

And as always, I don't have a photo of this. Here's the thing: I, and all the people I surround myself with, love our food. Our food is typically the focus of our meals. Not photos of the food. 

Another shining example of how stopping to take pictures of our food  before we dig in  does not come naturally to us. The sushi was delicious, though. Cucumber, carrots, cheese, and I think...very thin bits of bread.

Anyways, the details of the place, which I remembered to take down, for once:
Journey 2 Life
C-3-1 Lorong Bayan Indah 3
Bay Avenue, 11900 Bayan Lepas
Penang
+604-6111184
Open 11.30am-10pm, Tuesdays to Sundays

facekara 7 and the punctuality conundrum

The last message read:
Ok guys, I've made the booking for 1pm. Don't be late.

That sounded pretty serious. Like most people around me, Joan has never been one of those people I considered a stickler for punctuality.
But I'd pulled an "On the way" on her the day before, when I was running 20 minutes late for badminton, and I was the one with the whole tube of shuttlecocks.
So, I didn't want to take the "Don't be late" too lightly.

It was another one of our little Groupon-bought adventures.

None of us had any idea where this place was, other than that it was in Sunway Pyramid. Their Facebook page wasn't very helpful, either. Here's a hint to businesses: you might want to give people easy access to information about how to really get to your doorstep. Directions so simple that people with no sense of direction can use would be good.
Mercifully, I bumped into another one of our little group somewhere along the way, who had also gotten lost. We eventually located it tucked away in a little corner past Italiannes and Teh Tarik Place.

At the top of a short escalator was the reception area which consisted of a fountain/pond thingy that joined the two sides - one with the counter and all the rooms, the other where the kitchen presumably was.
It was a half hour wait before the rest of our party arrived, during which said friend and I stood around the reception area, markedly void of chairs, hearing the muffled wails that were supposed to be renditions of Adele's music.
Note to self: people may hear my very syok sendiri version of Rolling in the Deep, too!

When we were shown to the room, it seemed decent enough. I was also kind of happy that they use a touch screen system - no more fiddling with remote controls that are labeled in Chinese! Even more entertaining was that you could add to your syok sendiri-ness by adding clapping and cheering sound effects. But then we were told that the system lags and we should allow it a couple of seconds each time after we click on something.

Well, it didn't just lag - which was a little annoying, because that meant the music lagged, too. But after a couple of tries, the whole system hung (hanged? I still haven't figured out what's the correct way to express this). We eventually had to move to another room. By this time, we were about half an hour into our three-hour session, which they very kindly let us extend.
During this time, we also had conclusive evidence that the walls were way thinner than they should be. In between songs, we found ourselves having a good laugh joining in on the rather amusing selection the people in the room next door had going on - Abba and Justin Bieber amongst them.

All that aside, we all left pretty satisfied, having spent the afternoon acting out our secret desires to be part of a boyband, a rock band, a diva and an indie songstress.
But I probably won't be rushing back for more lagging backup music, and screechy microphones that took a long time to calibrate or whatever you do with them to make them not screech.

Vino Vino Cafe at Bay Avenue

Me: I'll have a Mojito, please

Waitress: What??

Me: A Mojito.

Waitress: What??

Me: D, could you please?

D: A Mojito.

Waitress: Sorry, we don't have that on the menu.

Me: Huh? L, could you please point out the item for her?

After L does this she says, with a rather smug look on her face that makes me realise she heard us all long...she was just trying to make a point.

She goes on to tell us they don't have Mojitos. They're moh-JEE-tos.

Uh...okay whatever makes you happy.

After all that, it came out with a couple of measly mint leaves that were kind of brown at the edges. And didn't taste that good.

But anyways, the whole incident had our table quite amused for the evening.

On to the good stuff, though. The place is really lovely and welcoming. I'd give it an A for ambiance. The bar looks welcoming and the opposite wall is lined with bottles. The super cool dispensing system I read about looked pretty awesome, though we didn't feel like trying it out the other night.

The staff were also pretty pleasant. This is also one of those places where they'll dim the lights and sing along with you and your friends when they bring out the cake if you've come to celebrate a birthday..and have brought along cake.

Had the waitress been right as far as pronunciation was concerned, I would've said the whole experience was educational, too.

Food was just so-so. Rather pricey, with the below bowl of rice with flakes of Salmon and the salad costing RM29.

Would probably go back again...most likely just to try out that whiskey and wine dispensing system or for a coffee.

Rounding off the holiday season at Eastin

"Occupation?" my sister asks, the pencil hovering over that column on the feedback form she was filling in for me.

"Umm..."

I think it's time I come up with some humorous (and possibly more convincing) line to answer that question. My only inspiration at the moment is Barney Stinson's "Please..".

But yes, something to figure out before all the pesky family reunion dinners and visiting relatives during the next holiday season at the end of the month.

We do seem to have a lot of holidays, don't we?

Anyways, we were having the semi buffet dinner at Eastin hotel's Swez Brasserie, which according to their website starts at RM48++ per person. The price varies according to what you order for your main course. Choices include seafood marinara and chicken Cordon Bleu, which are the RM50++ options. The buffet portion of the meal are the starters and the desserts. Starters included a pretty nice selection of canapes, salads, two types of soups, various cold cuts, a modest selection of cheeses with Ritz-like (by that, I mean I'm not sure what brand, but you know..that type of) crackers.

The downside of the semi buffet was I already kind of full by the time I was done with starters. And honestly, I'm not really that big a fan of huge main course portions either, which is of course what you get when you actually have to order a main course at a semi buffet.

The desserts were just soso, with a huge selection of custard-y jelly like thingies, a few choices of cakes, and ice cream. The chocolate fondue was a little disappointing. Strawberries ran out pretty quickly and it was quite awhile before they were replenished. Marshmallows were huge making the marshmallow to chocolate ratio a bit to large. Other choices were dried mangoes and dates. Meh.

I did love the fact that they had a selection of tea, mostly Lipton variants, Boh tea (which were, strangely, not individually wrapped like the rest), and Genmaicha.

It was a fairly nice meal. Starters were good, main course pretty good but desserts left a little to be desired. I left feeling too full for comfort, and vowing once again that I shall avoid such indulgence. I'm sure I will...until the next holiday comes along.

Touristy stuff

So, as I was saying about taking my man's friends around.

It started off fine, I guess. They weren't those over-enthusiastic Iwannaseetheentireislandtoday kind of tourists. So that was a lot of pressure off. But then again, the just never seemed particularly enthusiastic about anything. Taking them out for breakfast was a bit weird. They didn't want to say they wanted something they were familiar with like I don't know...McDonald's breakfast or something. But neither did they seem to be particularly keen on trying local food.

Next, we headed to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. I'd been here once before with my friends, but we didn't take the guided tour that time. Admission to this place is RM10 for adults and RM5 for children below 12. The last time I came with my friends, we managed to ask for a student price but I think that has to be arranged beforehand. I absolutely enjoyed this place both times I'd been there. Although not everything is original to the house, the collections are quite authentic to the culture and era and the guides provide an entertaining commentary and explanation about the displays. Visitors are allowed to also walk around freely and take photos as they like.

Like anywhere else during the holidays, though, there are always horrible monsters called children-raised-by-lousy-parents. These are the ones you find stomping down the wooden staircases and jumping around the wooden upper floor while their parents ignore them until the rest of us scowl or the staff try to stop the kids. Then their parents just absently tell them "Stop it" which is doesn't actually stop them. Gosh I hate parents like that.

Next we went to the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. This was also on the list of places my friends and I wanted to visit on our own little heritage tour the last holidays but we always ended up not going. Why? First of all, the website it self already seemed a bit like those stuck up places that just aren't that great but seem to think they're awesome. This was even more confirmed by the fact that they did not want to give any form of student discount when we emailed them asking them about it, and they weren't very nice about it in their reply either. They also only have 3 tours a day and at other times, you can't go in. That made fitting it into our schedule a bit tough. Anyways, this time J, our friend from KL wanted to go. So we did. Everything about the place screams anal. There are like signs and people repeatedly reminding you that you're not allowed to take photos inside the building, once inside the waiting area, Emily and I went looking for someone who could tell us where we could buy some drinks...only to be shooed out by staff who didn't even bother being nice about it. I mean, it seriously felt so unwelcoming. They charged us RM2 for each bottle of water without any price signs or anything of that sort.

Tourists were repeatedly reminded not to take photos, and the staffs' light 'humour' that it would cost them RM250 to arrange a photo session to be able to take photos inside the building just became really annoying sales talk after like the third time. Seriously. Once the tour started, the annoying little tour guide who reminds me of a toad basically spent like a quarter of our 1 hour tour talking crap about the original owner of the place and painted what I thought wasn't a particularly flattering picture of his descendants who sold the place to the current owners who run this business.

We then moved to the screen dividing the waiting area from the rest of the house. One of the main carvings on it was that of Fuk Luk Sau who represent wealth, health and prosperity. The tour guide continues with her really misguided talk on Feng Shui, proclaiming that yin energy is BAD and yang is GOOD. (Anybody who knows anything knows that it's not a case of good or bad, it's A BALANCE OF BOTH!) But ok we shall not debate feng shui here. Point is..she was saying all sorts of crap like telling these tourists that to Chinese the most important kind of luck is wealth, that made me realise this it's morons like this that always puts all these weird ideas in foreigners' heads.

As we move along the tour which by now is already half over before we even enter the parts of the building that we're only allowed to enter if we pay RM12, she continues to give really twisted inaccurate nuggets of information, sometimes strangely telling stories about how awesome the original owner of the house was then dissing his descendants, and most annoyingly constantly reminding everyone that there are some rooms for rent and the place is available for rental for meetings, events...blah blah... At one point she was like "We don't cook for you. If you want caterers, we will only give you a list." First of all we were all tourists not interested in looking for a place to hold meetings, and second of all, if I were a person looking for a place to hold my corporate events and she spoke to me like I'm such a moron? I'd just cross the place off my list.

The upper floor was pretty bare. There were hardly any displays or furniture up there save for one room. The rest had been turned into what looked like conference rooms. The cut and paste porcelain work? She couldn't even explain to us what they depicted. All she kept going on about was how unique they were and how they had to hire people to restore them. She basically gave some crap answer to a tourists who asked her what the scenes depicted were about.

It was all just really annoying. There was nothing to see there, you can't take photos and they've basically removed anything worth taking a photo of anyway, the staff were all annoying vultures just waiting to tell you not to take photos or touch anything and to remind you that you can take photos for RM 250 and they have 16 expensive hotel rooms and the upstairs is for rent for corporate events. ugh.

For all the same kind of architecture and all, I would definitely go to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. We also visited the Khoo Kongsi which wasn't all that much but we were allowed to take our time to enjoy the displays and appreciate the intricate carvings and paintings. For similar stuff, you could also visith the Yap Kongsi and probably any of the other clan houses.

The weekend

So we did dress up that night. I think it went perfectly fine as far as kicking ourselves out of our wardrobe comfort zone was concerned. The party,however, was just a totally weird mashup of all sorts of themes though. We had the usual circle of people playing drinking games, though I thought starting right at the beginning of the party was a bit premature. We had the people sitting down to play Playstation...they brought the monitor and everything to the hotel. The host and her besties were all dressed up in tiny dresses, too, and yet we were asked to take part in a game of Twister. The host strangely didn't seem to want us to know she had a new boyfriend (who was around) and we ended up leaving fairly early after witnessing a bizarre downing of some JD and champagne straight from the bottle that lacked the ease of someone who's genuinely into doing these things every Saturday night. She just seemed a wee bit too determined to prove several different things to several different groups of friends.

The next day, without having fully gotten sufficient 'me time', I agreed to spend the day with my man showing his friends from uni around. I'll have to write about that next time. But rest assured, I have more to say. Most important of which is: The Cheong Fatt Tze mansion is a complete rip off. They suck. I totally don't recommend that place. There are lots of more awesome things to do on this island and many more things depicting the actual 'heritage' that are more worth seeing than that crummy place staffed by very anal people who are just trying to get more money from you at every turn and they're not even smooth about it..it was all just so crass and *shudder* Some of the things the tour guide said were even so twisted and unrepresentative of the rest of us locals that even our friend visiting from KL felt compelled to turn to the Eastern European couple next to us and tell them the stupid tour guide speaks for herself.

Time to go get dressed for what will probably be something for me to blog about next.

sometimes consumerism just rocks

Okay I debating consumerism is waaaay deeper than anything I'm going to say here. But just bear with me. Let me babble about it in one of my more bimbotic moments.

Recently my friends and I have been going to this coffee place, run by a sort of charitable foundation. They sell their merchandise there, where the profits, I assume, go to the running of the foundation and their cause, and they also provide a sort of cafe which is frequented mostly by students who spend the afternoon studying there. It's a nice place, with a nice ambiance, and the only thing lacking is really proper lighting I'd consider suitable for studying. But, you know, to keep the ambiance, I get it. But apparently, they can dictate where you sit, the volunteers who run the place. And apparently the tables nearer the window with lots of natural light is off limits to people who are there to study. It's only for 'guests'. Right. It was a bit of a turnoff for me. Especially when Gina and I had been sitting there for about 2hours - nobody had said anything to us when we came in, and the tables further in were all taken up anyway- and when a group of kids left, one of the volunteers actually asked us to move in there! Like, come on. I had a clear view of the entrance of the place and frankly, there weren't that many people coming in just for a drink, and those who did come definitely didn't have a problem with whatever seats were available.

The other thing that so totally annoyed me was that that same volunteer was pretty much bugging all the people who were just there for a drink. A couple came in shortly after Gina and I settled in to study. And he kept talking and talking and talking to the couple, pretty much selling their cause to them and being the kind of pushy that makes me want to run away from evangelists. It got to the point where he was trying to convince them that they should give him their address so that they needn't come all the way to give their donations - they could just have them collected every few months (Yes, I'm saying that in my head with a very cynical tone). Later after this couple had left, a teenage couple came and sat at that table. And this fella was bugging them, too! Asking how they were doing at school and what game the guy was playing on his cell phone. Urgh. I just wanted to tell the ass to just shut up. But you can't. Because he's some old guy who thinks he's making the world a better place by being a volunteer for a charitable organisation. And for that same reason, you feel bad about saying that it's hypocritical of them to provide a place for people to read and enjoy and yet insist that if you're there to study, you gotta take the crappier seats at the back.

But you see...when you go to a coffee shop... the kind where you pay about RM10 for a cup of coffee...they give you napkins made of recycled paper, unlimited drinking water, and the lovely coffee-scented environment with lots of natural light and comfy tables and chairs. Don't forget power points and WiFi. Don't forget the coffee that's actually really good and in larger quantities. Oh and yes, the staff there can't dictate where you sit. And even if they do, you can complain to management, bitch about it online and basically shut them down - and feel damn good about it. And right, they're more honest and up front about their intentions. I provide you this awesome package of product and experience in exchange for your money and continued patronage.

Blue Reef

Last night, we'd thought we were going to 75 degrees Celsius for dinner. First, we went to get a cake to surprise the birthday girl with. By the time we were headed to the restaurant, it was almost 7pm and pretty dark. So the first time we drove by, we wondered if we'd somehow missed the place. We only realised the place had closed down when we drove by a second time. Whoops.

Anyway, we ended up heading to Blue Reef. It's this nice little fish and chips place at Permai 32, No. 22 Lebuh Lembah Permai 4, Tanjung Bungah. To find this little business area it's located in, from the main road, turn in at this place with a sign that says F&B with a list of stuff below in print that was too small for me to read from the car.

It was Saturday night and the place was completely full! For a place that's comparatively out of the way, it's pretty popular. But we were in luck. A group of customers were just leaving and the table was big enough for the five of us. The staff were nice about having us wait a few minutes for the table to be cleared.

The food was pretty good. We had the soup of the day which was cream of tomato with garlic and basil. I had then the Fettucine with salmon (RM 21) which was great but might be a bit strong if you're not into the taste of salmon...or dairy products. The fish and chips were also lovely. It's great if you're someone like me who can't take dory (whatever that is) which is served by most places. Here, you can have a choice of three types of fish although I can't remember what the other two were. My friends had the Mahi Mahi. Gina had the pan seared salmon (RM19), which I'd also had on my first visit there. It's absolutely lovely, served with couscous. Finally the miso chicken was also pretty good.

The staff were all great: they were attentive and friendly. As usual, we'd bought the cake but hadn't thought about the fact that we had no lighter for the candle or that we hadn't been provided with a cake knife. Well, the restaurant did a lovely job of providing us both, and also paper plates and appropriate dessert spoons. They even dimmed the lights for us. When we'd arrived, I didn't even need to ask for them to keep the cake refrigerated for us. They noticed the bag and just told me they'll take care of it for me. It's a pleasant change from a few places I've been where they scowl at you, refuse to even provide you plates or stuff like that. Awesome.

Burger King, Penang

I finally went to the Burger King here. And frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. If you've never set foot out of Penang and therefore have not been able to try Burger King in other parts of the country, then okay, I can see why it's something you'd want to try. Otherwise, I fail to see why people are willing to queue all the way from the counter to the doors just for a burger. I only ended up there because we'd thought all the hype would've died down by now. But when we got there, the queue was still pretty long. But I was hungry and really didn't want drive anywhere else anymore.

It took about 20 to 30 minutes of waiting in line only to reach the counter and observe pretty erm...inexperienced workers behind the counters. I just couldn't stand the one who was refilling ice cubes at the drinks dispenser. It was just so messy and makes me worry about how clean the ice cubes that will end up in my drink are. The one at the cash register routinely forgot to give people napkins and several people in the queue ahead of me had to come back because there was some mistake or other.

The food was okay. No different from any other outlet I've been to. Except that I've now got a bit of an upset tummy...although I've got another suspect on my list for that. So I can't be sure if it was from lunch today.

My verdict: Could possibly go again eventually but I'm not in a hurry.

Mizi's Bistro

A few friends and I went out to dinner at Mizi's at New World Park recently. It wasn't my first time there, but if it HAD been, I would guarantee that I would not have wanted to go back there, ever. In fact, I don't think I ever want to as it is.

At first glance, it's a nice looking place. The theme is red and brown, with cozy looking tables and one of those cool looking counters with loads of glasses hanging overhead. The owner is usually pretty friendly, too. In the past, he used to go around making sure everything was in order and customers were satisfied. Tonight, no such luck. Even as we were being greeted while walking in, he seemed like he could do with a few less customers.

This time we were given one of the two long rows of tables at the back because we were a larger group. Unfortunately, there was a nother large group taking the other row which made the area a little bit too crowded. If there's anything a restaurant can do to really annoy me, it's to cram more tables than it can comfortably accommodate. So, we had the two rows full, the other group had some small band come in and sing a few songs for them, which was just too much for the already tiny, noisy and uncomfortable space. It also included me being at risk of being bludgeoned by their guitars as they squeezed past between the two rows to get to what little open space there was to perform. For the rest of the evening, I also had waiters perpetually squeeze past because it seemed to be where they had to go to send their dirty dishes. It was uncomfortable!

Ordering also seemed a pretty difficult task as most of the staff walk around with their heads down (Hey, I know we're supposed to be nice to waiters, but if the waiters don't want to take orders or bring the check, DON'T BE A DAMN WAITER!!!), ignored us and when they finally acknowledged us, they told us to wait even though some were clearly free. I guess I didn't get the memo that said customers make orders at the convenience of the staff. The first round of orders went fairly smoothly. As we were having our starters two more of our friends arrived. They, too, were told to wait to place their orders. At the same time, the waitress came back with our main courses and plonked them on the table. We'd barely started on our soup! While you could say that's pretty quick service, I'd just say we felt like we were being rushed.
Another well meaning waitress came to attempt to take my friends' orders. Except that Qing didn't want the regular set meal. She wanted the one where you add RM6 to the a'la carte price. The waitress didn't get it. She just stood there dumbfounded at the revelation that there was such a deal on the menu. Which was when the rest of the staff that were watching basically told us to wait. WTF.

The food was so-so. My usual favourite, pumpkin soup, was pretty watered down. I had some awesome pumpkin soup somewhere the other day....I can't remember where. But okay back to point. My canneloni was pretty good. My friends' chicken dishes weren't that great. To be honest I couldn't tell the difference between one or the other. They were just bland and dry.
Would I go back? No.
If there's any consolation, J. L. Gourmet, also run by the same family, at Prangin Mall would be a better bet. The place doesn't look like much. But the food and the service is much better.

Karaoke

In the spirit of trying things we've never bothered to try, my friends and I randomly decided to go to the karaoke the other day. Well, some of us have been but some of us haven't.
It was a fairly uncomfortable outing at first. We were meeting up with a friend we hadn't seen since we finished school, although we did keep up with her via Facebook. When she showed up, I have her a quick hug which she did not even reciprocate and even when we were all talking, she was still pretty quiet. I know there are shy people out there but seriously, we were pretty ok (translate: can hug if we haven't seen each other in a long time) in school, and we used to talk. But she was so quiet around us, didn't want to tell us much about what's been going on with her, nor did she really take part in the conversation or laugh at any of the jokes for that matter. I don't know how other people feel, but people like this always make me wonder if I'm talking too much or making them feel left out.
After lunch, we couldn't find any good movie at a suitable time. The idea of going for a karaoke session together had been floating around, and Neway was just in sight from where we were checking out movie times at the cinema in Queensbay, we decided to give it a go.
It was some kind of off peak hour so it cost us RM16 per person and there's some promotion there where if you have an 8 in your IC number. you get a discount. While I've seen some blog posts about this place charging excessively for the nuts and stuff, I don't really know what other places charge. At first we were a bit freaked out when the waiter told us it was RM44 for nuts. We initially thought he meant that price was per person. But then realised that was for all of us so it didn't seem so bad. It also included a drink and a plate of snacks for each of us. The snacks could be replaced with a second drink order. Pretty expensive, but it wasn't as bad as we'd initially thought. Ms Quiet was still making me uncomfortable, though. She refused to even open her mouth at all, let alone even hold a microphone! Even my other friend Gina, who's also pretty shy, ended up singing, though pretty softly. But at least she was still sporting enough to give it a go. It was definitely more fun that I'd initially expected. But don't think I'll be a regular anytime soon. Have probably stumbled on a good thing to do should any of my girlfriends suffer some terrible breakup or something, though.