2-in-1 proposal&birthday dinner@Alexis Bistro, Gardens Midvalley

 My bestie was in town, with a group of her doctor workmates from Kuantan to celebrate her 29th birthday. We met at Alexis in Midvalley for dinner, as they were staying in Boulevard Hotel and had also booked a table at the Vertigo for the after-dinner partie.

My last meal in Alexis was several years ago during a business lunch appointment. This was my second. I was craving for something spicy and decided to go ala local. Salted fish fried rice with fried chicken. RM 25++. When the serving came, my first impression was... ,"errrrr....". I held back my comments, in case the fried rice tasted super powerful. Beep, NOT. Just a normal fried rice, with skinny fried chicken pieces. Even Mee Jawa's fried rice with fried chicken tasted 10 times better than this, with a larger portion too.. all for RM10 a plate.

I'm banning this dish from here.

 Duck confit mantaos. Fairly decent tastewise, a little too sweet, but neutralised by the fragrant spring onion slices. Nothing special about the mantaos...quite bland and texturewise nothing unique either. The duck confit's good taste managed to cover up the other flaws. RM 18++, for 3. Worth it? Hmmmm...

Turns out, her bf intended to also propose to her on her birthday! My second time witnessing a proposal! My first was at the beach, at night... but... the couple did not last. Oops.
He bought her a huge bouquet of lilies and I bought her a red velvet cake, from Just Heavenly. RM 68.
The cake had a generous coating of cream cheese, quite enjoyable to eat, I must say but still, the cake could not match up to Patisserie Rui's rendition of her red velvet cake. Hers is by far the best red velvet to me till this day.

Putting aside the lousy food, it was a truly happy and JOY-ous occasion for my bestie and she got plastered at Vertigo later on. She got the super duper cool birthday blast she wanted all these years, and possibly the biggest birthday gift ever.. a husband! Haha.

Brunch@Food Bazaar,Publika,Solaris Dutamas

After Sunday service, we all grabbed a quick bite before heading to IKEA - furniture shopping for our new church site. Publika's really getting the crowd in, with weekend bazaars, exhibits and events. It's quite nice how they also blocked off a section of the road within Publika for families, especially those living at the condo above, to do out-door cycling activities.

We spotted these 3 Caucasians, sweating away like suckling pigs, while shouting, smiling and promoting 'Andy's BBQ'. I was sorta' impressed by the amount of effort they put in for a weekend bazaar type of selling. They brought their own BBQ grill set, grilling em' beef and chicken patties away. Heck, they even had custom made doggie bags and serviettes.

A shredded spicy chicken patty burger, with a cuppa' home made coleslaw, deep fried SWEET potato sticks and a chocolate cupcake... all for RM 9.90. Honestly speaking, everything tasted really delicious! Except the cupcake. Thumbs up for efforts and taste! On subsequent Sundays, I no longer see them tho'. Hmmm....

Super spicy nasi lemak ayam. Quite a huge serving alright. While the makcik was packing my nasi lemak, a chinese girl came over asking for a pack of meehoon and she asked for discount just because she ordered TWO packets. Sweats. I don't think she would make much taking into consideration the rental, cost of ingredients, the amount of food she was selling on the table, and having two kids with her. Makcik was so generous that she really did give discount, and since I was standing there as well, she also gave me a RM 0.50 discount too, thus my nasi lemak cost RM 4.50. Cheap!

Beer food after a Glorious Golden Day

The sun shone as brightly on these yellow fellow Malaysians, gathered for a united purpose. Duduk Bantah! Clean Election! Chinatown stall owners were gleaming with pride: both as Malaysians and the overwhelming business, especially mata kuching drink sellers. Hey, even foreign Pakistani / Bangladeshi workers joined in the parade, selling mineral water bottles to make a quick profit.

I really respect em' guys, putting in all their time and efforts, making these banners. Mind you, the age group ranges from teenagers to old uncles and aunties. What a great day indeed!

Ain't no crappy mainstream newspaper gonna quote this as "few thousand people only -LAH". I was one of them in that crowd. Having to body-to-body my way from Burger King to Masjid Jamek LRT station, I'm pretty confident that the crowd comprised of a few thousand people X many thousands more.

Some posters are humorously creative! Even Angry Birds came to support this cause. It really felt like a yellow themed carnival. People were mingling around, regardless of race. Balloons and flags everywhere. People singing, chanting, cheering. I also caught glimpses of a Shrek chic, Scream guy, Masquerade girls, and a yellow power ranger. Hahaha. The scene was definitely different from Bersih 2.0.

Little did I know, when I left Masjid Jamek, soon after tear gases were fired right at where I was minutes ago. On the train, we passed by the Liberation Square and fiery red tanks and black suited armed men were lined up like soldiers gearing up for battle.

Until today I just could not understand, why the gathering was not allowed in Dataran Merdeka, yet 100,000 (apparently) UMNO members in RED gathered in the Stadium Bkt Jalil. Is this the smelly stench of .... fear?

Mainstream media in the next couple of days definitely got me to roll my eyes out of irritation. Youtube probably painted a more holistic pictures of what happened on 0428.

Whatever happens, let us carry out our duty as Malaysians fight for a clean election!

All hard work comes sweet with a icey cool pint of Konig. After a real sweaty hot day, AHHHHH!

Beer food platter to commemorate the Yellow. The bacon strips with tomatos were delicious! Oh yea, the lamb meatballs too. The colour of the sauce may put you off a bit, but the taste was goooood. RM 50

Chicken wings RM 20. Um, so so chicken wings. 3 sets of chicken wings. Quite steep for such a portion. Taste wise, nothing great. Anyway, it never goes wrong with beer + chicken wings.

Next stop, Bersih 4.0? Election? Shytty news on the paper?

Let's continue on reading the updates on FB and Youtube.

Weekend breakfast meals@Chawan & BEN';s grocer bakery, Publika SolarisDutamas

Publika's really becoming more and more happening, especially having flea market stalls here on weekends.

Bought a red bean bun and curry chicken bun for breakfast (rm6), coupled with home brewed coffee.. Accompanied by final episodes of Revenge season 1.

After Sunday service, i had a quick brunch with my church friends at Chawan. Kopi muar 434 and toast bread, rm10. Phew.

My church friend who happens to be a muarian who happens to live few houses away from the original muar434 coffee says that indeed the coffee is super famous there. But chawan's rendition, was only so so. Toastbread so so too.

This area is becoming my 2nd home. Damn, i should have bought an apartment up here. It is just too pricey now :(