Antipodean @ Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar

Nothing spruces up the weekend morning breakfast session with a fresh bouquet of flowers placed on the table top of Antipodean Cafe.

So Refreshing

The Big Breakfast well worth the price of RM18. The scrambled eggs were fluffy and I think there were two eggs in there (I believe the eggs are pretty big ;). The toast was a little to hard for my liking though. The sauteed button mushrooms was lovely and so was the pork sausage. There was this tiny piece of hash brown which tasted more like mashed potatoes shaped into a rectangle and fried.

Big Breakfast

Croissant Scrambled Eggs with Bacon was generously topped with the bacon pieces. However, the croissant was a little on the tough side. There were loads of rocket leaves as well as scrambled eggs. Nice and light but the portion a little big for small eaters.

Croissant Scrambled Eggs with Bacon

Their Cafe Latte was just alright for me. However, I just like the two four leaf clover design floating at the top instead of the usual heart shape. I feel lucky :)

Cafe Latte

The place can be a bit packed on lazy weekends as the breakfast here is really good. If it was not so packed, it would be a very nice place to chill out.

Address:

20 Jalan Telawi 2,

Bangsar Baru,

59100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel No: +603 2282 0411

Chat Masala @ Brickfields

One thing that always fascinates me about the Indian culture is always the use of beautiful and bright colours and how clever they are in using spices to flavour their food. After a fruitful shopping adventure with the help of a friend who is familiar with the place, we head off to Chat Masala to fill up our tummies :) The food here is all vegetarian.

Loved the spiciness and sourish taste of rasam. The ones here are pretty good. Rasam is known as comfort food and is believed to help with digestion and sinus. My sinus did feel better after taking this.

Rasam

Had a first taste paneer somewhere last year and liked it. This time instead of having it with pureed spinach, we had it with butter masala. The sauce is pretty thick and would go well with bread or rice but will be overwhelming if eaten by its own.

Panner Makhani

The Vegetarian Mutton Briyani was just alright for me. They did not stinge on the briyani ingredients as the rice was well flavoured and there were visible amounts of cashew nuts, raisins and mock mutton. The portion was pretty big as well.

Vegetarian Mutton Briyani

The highlight of this dinner is this Panipuri. It is a little snack that consists of a very small puri stuffed with potatoes, peanuts, muruku and some herb paste. Just dip it into lightly flavoured tamarind liquid and pop it into the mouth. It was bursting with flavours coming from the peanuts, muruku and curried potatoes.

Panipuri

Aerial View

Noticed one of the tables ordered this fishball look a like in spicy soup. Turns out that this is Sambhar Idli. Idli is made from rice and black lentils. The sambhar here is excellent, thick and full of flavour.

Sambhar Idli

Mango lassi was rich, smooth and thick here. Well worth ordering :)

Mango Lassi

Brickfields is a hidden gem in the city. There are plentiful shops selling beautiful sarees and punjabi suits, jippas for men and a lot of beautiful accessories like bangles. A surprising thing about buying punjabi suits is that they only have it in large sizes and only in one size. It needs to be tailored to suit your size. It took me less than five minutes for alteration and it only cost RM10. Workmanship is excellent as it fits just nicely at the first time!

Address:

No 259, G, Jalan Tun Sambanthan,

Brickfields, 50470,

Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia

Tel No: +603-2260 3244

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant @ One Utama

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant is the latest addition of Japanese restaurant in One Utama. Absolutely loved the Watami Salad (RM18.90). It was fully of ingredients like crab stick, tuna mayo, prawns (which were really well marinated) and loads of greens. The dressing was like some creamy sesame dressing. It is pretty substantial on its own.

Watami Salad

Shio Chanko (RM24.50) or also known as Sumo Wrestler's hot pot which I thought looks really plain but the soup was really tasty. Was quite surprised by how much it could fill us up as it really looked a little small at first. Then again, probably it was the salad that actually filled us up earlier. The hot pot is filled with scallop, chicken pieces, mushrooms, cabbage, tofu, carrots, tofu puff, clams, leeks and squid.

Raw Shio Chanko

Shio Chanko Boiling Hot!

Yasai Itame (RM14.90) was stir fried vegetables with beef strips which would go very well with a bowl of rice as it was really salty! Too salty to eat by its own.

Yasai Itame

Unagi K'meshi (RM19.90) was steamed rice with unagi. The rice was cooked until the little burner burns out and add the unagi pieces to heat them up a little. The rice was a little too soft for my liking but was pretty flavourful. The unagi was just ok as I prefer the unagi served in Pasta Zanmai.

The Steamed Rice

Unagi and Seaweed Poured Over

Personally, I find the food tasty but is not really authentic traditional Japanese food where it is very simple and focus on fresh ingredients and taste. The price is a little on the expensive side as well.

Address:

1st Floor, Rainforest,

1 Utama Shopping Centre,

1 Lebuh Bandar Utama,

47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Tel No: +603-7727 1399

Langkawi in a Whim

Langkawi, Jewel of Kedah

A last minute decision to go on a short vacation in a short time frame and in a short budget :p Well Langkawi was chosen because Air Asia had a promotion to fly for two at RM 258 and that translates to RM 129 per person! We had about like less than two weeks to plan our trip including accommodation. This is what cheap thrills do to people :p

After deliberating a while, we decided to book the place called Casa Fina which was great except that it was not right next to the beach. It was clean and pretty comfortable and Wifi signal in every cabin! It was just across the road to Pantai Cenang and needed about 5 to 10 minutes walk to the beach. The good thing about staying in Pantai Cenang is that it is the most happening places and you can get most things within walking distance. It has bars, restaurants, souvenir shops, shops selling clothes and knick knack stalls. Here you can watch sunset at the beach.

The Room

However, I did spot a roach on one of the nights and thankfully it wasn't the the flying type and didn't see it thereafter. Moreover, the price was really reasonable which was RM 138 per weekday nights and RM 158 for weekends. The staff was friendly and helpful too. Was glad that we managed to get the cabin room as we could get good sleep as I heard another guest who spent the night at one of the rooms above the shop units complaining that he couldn't sleep as it was too noisy!

View of the Sun on Pantai Cenang

However, Pantai Cenang can be a little dangerous as they had all these vehicles on the beach, speedboats and jet skis skimming over the water where people actually swim as well. Also, the beach was a little busy.

Some Iron Rods

Prints of the Waves and Foot

Pantai Pasir Hitam literally translated to Black Sand Beach was not really black. There are only spots of it. There were some stalls that actually sold key chains that contain the black sand. I guess the black sand is getting lesser and lesser as it gets harvested for this :(

Fishing Boats Moored by the Beach

There is something unique about Pantai Pasir Hitam as there are fishing boats nearby and a wooden bridge. I even saw a makeshift hut that guts fish.

Wooden Bridge

The cable car ride to the top of Gunung Mancincang gave us a panoramic view of Langkawi Island. Along the way to the top of the mountain, you can see the texture and wonderful rock formations, greenery, the Telaga Tujuh waterfall, parts of the Straits of Malacca and parts of the Indian Ocean :) The view is so breathtaking and so well worth our RM 15. Foreigners get charged RM 30 instead. There is also a hanging bridge to walk on near the top of the cable car station.

Supporting Beams of the Bridge

Nearby the cable car station, there is the Telaga Tujuh trail to go up to three different waterfalls. Only went to the first fall which was a 10 minute walk as my sprained ankle has not healed yet. The path consists of steps but is pretty steep. Even then, the waterfall looks good.

First Fall

The Loaf is such an excellent place to chill in. Great bread, great food, great service and best of all, get view. The view of yachts and the blue sea couple with cozy environment was really relaxing. Another plus point that the restaurant is not too busy. Thus, we enjoyed our time there slowly and went there twice! Yes, it was that good :)

Jalur Gemilang

Enjoying a Cuppa

Quiche, Matcha Almond Bread and Galete

Overall, Langkawi is quite a nice place to just relax and hang out. The beaches are not superb but reasonably clean. It's easy to get around in rented car as traffic is pretty free and the road systems are simple. Saw quite a number of tourist renting motorbikes and scooters to get around but be prepared with loads of sunblock!