Sunday

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe Puchong

So many things happened last week my head is still whirling from thinking and analysing. Mainly work-related so I refuse to allow it to govern my every thought and emotion. It's Sunday, the start of a new week. That horrible to-do-list still has the same number of things on them. I need to trim it a bit. By today hopefully.

I thought I would just review the Catholic Churches I've been to in KL.

1. When I started working in KL many years ago, my driving skills wasn't good. I only knew routes near the place I worked. There wasn't waze back then. And the church I attended every Saturday evening for sunset mass was St John's Cathedral. I got used to the haphazard parking in the church compound and the potential long wait after mass as you figure out whether the car in front of you is going to move soon.

2. Then the Car-free Sundays started in KL. every 1st and 3rd Sunday and as I'm a person who rarely reads the papers, I used to get caught often enough driving out at 7:45am to go for the 8:00am mass and not be able to drive through roads. And then pulling up at the side of the road to google the different churches and check the mass times and check how to get there. Frustrating when it happened. The first church I went to was Church of the Good Shepard in Setapak. Mass was at 0900. I remember driving there and waiting in the car until 0900 and feeling that the morning was wasted.

3. There was a Sunday when I woke up super late, and found myself at lost for church times. Again googling found me at Jesus Caritas Church in Kepong. I feel I have ties with this church. The parish priest who did a lot of work there Reverend  Fr. Pierre Decroocq, who was also the first Parish priest,was the father who gave me First Holy communion. Small world indeed. He has since passed on and the church has blossomed into a bigger church.

4. The problem was with the mass time of 0915. I like starting the mornings earlier so I googled and found a church nearer home. Church of the Risen Christ Jalan Ipoh. And the current Parish Priest Father Jean Claude used to be the parish priest in my church in my home town. This church is the one which most reminds me of my childhood church. And it is 10 minutes from home. How did I never find it before I'm not sure. So currently this is the church where I attend Sunday masses.

5. I forgot to mention another church I used to go to after St John's which was Church of St Joseph, Sentul. Going for mass there was possible during car-free Sundays in KL because the road leading to church does not go through the city centre.

6. As the years progressed, I started having some meetings on Sundays and Saturday evenings too which meant I couldn't on that particular weekend attend sunset mass and I had to find a church which had a very early morning mass. And I did.Church of our Lady of Fatima Brickfields. Their first mass on Sunday starts at 0700.

Frasier

Am re-watching Frasier. Can never get bored watching Frasier. Who is my favourite character in the sitcom? I can't decide. Some episodes I love Frasier. In some others, Eddie takes the cake. The person who writes the script and the director of Frasier is amazing.Eleven seasons.

Tossed salads and scrambled eggs is the theme song. Super addictive. And I can't believe Kelsey Grammer sang that song. He's pretty amazing. I wonder what he's like in real life. Just as witty?

Second Cup

Saturday afternoon coffee time

I had very nice Cafe Miel ( from this shop called Second Cup at Sunway Putra).Apparently it is low of fuss and big on taste. I tasted honey. Not not too sweet which is important to me. I don't like my coffee sweet. It makes the caffeine kick less. At least to me. This was certainly an improvement on last week's vanilla latte which was sickeningly sweet and a struggle to finish up. Same shop different coffee.

So here are the ingredients: coffee, milk, honey, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg. I missed the vanilla cinnamon and nutmeg taste. As I'm no coffee gourmet I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

How much sleep do we need?

Do you know there's an app on the iPhone which will inform you when its time to sleep to get enough sleep for the following day? It has a polite beep when its that time. And the alarm is nice. It isn't the traditional beeping sound which scares you from sleep to awake mode in 5 seconds or less. It's a non-intrusive tone played softly and crescendoing as the time goes on.

This week has been busy. I am officially sleep deprived and the mood is fragile. What I need is a good 8 hour sleep. Hope to catch up on sleep this weekend.

Photo taken in Munich a few years back.

House or apartment

I would like to live in a house. Having lived in an apartment for more than 10 years, the negative sides to this are the following:
1. the parking being a walk from the condo
2. if you forget something you need to think whether its worth the trouble to walk from the carpark to the block to the lift and to the apartment.
3. Waiting for the lift when you have either a full bladder or a bad tummy ache can feel like the worst thing ever
4. Sharing a lift with a smelly neighbour or having that smell linger when you enter the lift is terrible.

The plus points are:
1. You have access to the gym with no excuse not to exercise
2. you have access to the pool and can swim when you want to
3. You rarely feel scared coming home late from work because there are people about and the guards make you feel safe.
4. Should you choose, you may have the option of having your car washed regularly by this man serving the condo carparks.

Food tasting at Sunway Putra: review

Fried rice with mixed vegetables. 

Here's my review of the vegetarian food sampling we did yesterday evening at Sunway Putra. This wasn't served in the order the pictures are placed.  The fried rice was a poor clone of the non-vegetarian version of glutinous rice with yam and chicken. We got normal rice with mixed vegetables.

Mock nestum prawns

 The prawns were possibly the best dish of the evening. I enjoyed the mock prawns very much and the fried curry leaves were crispy and crunchy and a tad sweet due to the nestum lingering on top of some of them. The overall taste was pleasing. My neighbour pinched a few curry leaves for herself and her other neighbour to her right. ( Which goes to show it was yummy)

Mock fish with ginger sauce

 The ginger sauce was nice. I'm partial to anything ginger and this had a grainy texture which was nice. the mock fish was a bit tough. I had to ply it apart with my fork and spoon. So we asked the chef whether we could keep the sauce and substitute the mock fish for something softer like tofu.

A platter of cold dish

This was served first. I gave it a 4/5 for presentation.  But a 2/5 for taste.  The yogurt wasn't fresh and the panda chicken was bland and the black stuff was too salty.

The chef was pleasant and patient as we explained what we did like and what we wanted to swap and what we wanted not to have. All in all an experience and a good opportunity to spend a lovely evening in the company of lovely colleagues.

Pork noodles in Brickfields

This Saturday's breakfast menu features Peter's Pork Noodles in Brickfields. Once again a quick googling of breakfast places in kl showed amongst others Peter's Pork noodles. One review said it had cockroach smelling noodles while the other blogs were positive. Braving the possible truth of the cockroach comment we decided to have breakfast here.

It's a funny little foodcourt. If you park at a legal carpark it's RM4 per entry and you walk through a small lane before entering the foodcourt. A decent selection but most weren't opened yet. And this was at 10:00am. There was bionic meal ( not sure what they served Bionic man hadn't arrived to open his stall), Uncle Lim's fried key teow ( I saw a lady ordering this and she appeared to enjoy her meal when it arrived ), Hailam Chicken rice with about 5 chickens hanging which means they expect a good number of chicken-rice eating customers today, porridge stall, drinks stall and an Indian menu stall and of course Peter's Pork noodle stall.

As advised by a fellow blogger, I opted for an egg and stayed away from the mee suah. The minced pork was a generous portion. The overall taste was nice but not in a wow-sort-of-way. I don't think I would be craving this anytime soon. But I may return to Money's Corner ( the name of this food court) for the porridge.

Cleanliness: 4/5
Parking:4/5
Peter's pork noodles:3/5
Drinks:5/5

Beer

I never understood drinking beer. But after drinking very good beer I've changed my mind. Good beer is like drinking shandy but much better. And it does go well with a meal. Belching is a bonus. We got to sample beers from different beer houses in Munich a few years back. If you look carefully the glasses have "HB" on them which stands for Hofbräuhaus which is one of the oldest breweries in Germany.

It's tucked along a smaller street off the hustle and bustle of the crowd. So that's a bonus. Pretty crowded. But we managed to get a seat in a nice area and thoroughly enjoyed both the food and the beer. We did explore and find a different beer house a few days later. The beer gets better and better. We got lucky and was served a special beer brewed just for Oktoberfest. We missed it by coming one week earlier.

Sangria

The hunt for good Sangria in KL isn't easy. First you need a sensible friend to accompany, one who won't be too judgmental as he/she sees your eyes glean and spark as you order and nervous laughter as you take the oh-so-important first sip. Second there is a huge amount of luck involved. Blogs when it comes to Sangria reviews are scarce. It's not fashionable to write opinions on this drink so nobody cares much about it. Thirdly, one needs to ask where shall we start?

Here are the limited places I've had sangria in KL.
1. La Bodega in Bangsar Shopping Centre. Had it there twice. The first was with a group of friends so we ordered a jug each of both white and red sangria. The red was v nice. the white less so. The second time was recently with a friend and we had a glass each. This was after I raved about it and said we simply must order this and have it with our meal. Watered down more ice cubes than needed, a smaller potion than acceptable and simply very little alcohol. Making the overall taste bland and disappointing.

2. A pub in Publika the same level as Thai Tuk Tuk. I can't remember the name. Now this was good. Good service. They made it in front of us and the the sip made me happy and the entire drink was just about right.

3. Ante, publika. Sometimes when you least expect something, you finally get what you want. Good Sangria at a reasonable price at a place rather near home. ( Just in case you get sozzled) It was priced much cheaper than La Bodega. Definitely a nicer taste, And that hint of mint was gorgeous made that bit of difference. And the amount of alcohol was correct. ( Picture shown above)

4. The Daily Grind, Bangsar Village. We went there during our red velvet hunt in 2016. We ended up being happy not just with the red velvet. ( Blog reviews were accurate here, this place does serve a very nice red velvet) But we also found a rather nice sangria served here. I can't remember the price but when we complained it was too sweet, they adjusted it without any complain and the final product was gorgeous.

Site visit

Sunway Putra Hotel

The Malaysian Thoracic Society Annual Congress will be held at Hotel Sunway Putra this year. As part of the organizing committee we visited the site, which started with a brief meeting in a room where for some reason the air condition didn't not work. We were told they were working on this. After a bit, we then went walking about visiting the spots where the booths will be, where the registration will be and of course the grand ballroom. We were given the floor plan layout. Presumably so we won't get lost. Orientating oneself was challenging because a row of rooms were named in the wrong order.

We then continued with the meeting which was brief cos we had food tasting after. I volunteered for the vegetarian food tasting during the last meeting. 8 course meal mostly in mock meat was interesting.We rated them as low as 1 and as high as 3 out of four. The chef then came out and listened to our suggestions. Poor man, he looked a bit stressed.

But I think after little tweaks here and there, we should have a good menu for the night.

Inhalers

I hope nobody gets confuse between a proper inhaler device delivering short-acting bronchodilators, long acting bronchodilators or a combination long acting as well as steroids. A Vicks inhaler would presumably deliver Vicks right down the airway to the receptors with zero menthol affinity.

In the last few years it has been an exciting time from the respiratory world point of view, we saw new inhaler devices being developed as well as new bronchodilators with promising effects for our patients. It is also confusing. I find myself having to check the dosage and frequency or the new inhalers so I'm wondering how the patients will cope. 

Prince Restaurant

Salted fish and bread sprouts

This restaurant is on the 1st floor just to the left of the escalator near Coffee Club in 1Mount Kiara. Before you head there you need to know the entrance to the carpark is narrow. And it curves to the right just before the space opens out. As you drive you see long black multiple scratches on the wall a somber reminder that others have scratched their cars en route to the carpark. 

What makes it worth the trouble getting there, here's a few things.

1. Prince restaurant. It serves very nice food at a fairly reasonable price and decent potions. Food that tastes nice each and every time.

2. The Village Grocer is huge and stocks a wide selection of almost anything. I found this butter and macadamia oil spread just yesterday. See, stuff like that which you wouldn't find even in BIG. ( Which is the only other place which stocks weird and wonderful things)

3. There's a branch of H and M here. And it's nearly always empty so if you're a person who likes shopping in a quiet atmosphere. This may be the place for you. It scans two floors. The other quiet branch is at Sunway Putra.

Fried Aubergine

 The dish above is my favourite. Well it was until yesterday when it was surpassed by the long beans. ( see picture below).

Long beans and minced pork

The service here is good apart from the lag time from being seated to having your orders taken. Please make sure you're seated where you're visible otherwise getting someone to acknowledge your presence there will take time. The seats are comfortable enough the lighting if you are seated at the booths is good for taking photos of the food.

No.L1-03A, Level 1, 1 Mont Kiara Shopping Mall,, Jalan Kiara, Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia