Posted on 30 March 2008 @ 10:33 in Food, Writing
Hoxe’s Cafe, one of my two favourite writing places, is under new management.
The cafe had been rather unpredictable recently when there would be days it wasn’t opened for business. So yesterday evening, after a good time out (visiting mother and attending a reading at Silverfishbooks in Bangsar), I headed on home, keeping my eyes on the cafe as I drove past to see if the lights were on. They were. Altho that was not guarantee it was opened; I once went by only to find it was opened, but closed for a private function.
Anyways, it was opened yesterday evening. Same menu, but in a laminated sheet rather than in a booklet. Same items. Unfamiliar person serving, tho. I ordered my usual, and settled back to read my purchases from Silverfishbooks.
There was a group of young women huddled over the computer. Soon they were screaming over what turned out to be a Japanese pop concert playing on the computer. Granted the cafe was not crowded for a Saturday night, but it was still unusual for customers to be behaving in such a manner.
I noticed one of the servers going up to another customer with a cupcake. From the look on the customer’s face, he’d not ordered the dessert. Later, after I’d finished my dinner, I was served with a slice of walnut carrot cake, “compliments of the chef”.
When I eventually left - I stayed to read and write a while - one of the women detached herself from the group and walked up to the cash register. “Is this place under new management?” I asked and received a yes in reply.
Oh, that’s why those young women were behaving like they owned the place. They do own the place, but continue to maintain the same menu and prices.
Good idea on the menu and prices. With it, they’ve maintained at least one regular customer. Me.
Yay, girl power!
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Posted on 9 March 2008 @ 11:33 in Food, Memories, News
Last night, amidst the quiet celebration as I stayed up waiting for the results (thanks to the Malaysiakini site), I heard rumours of riots in Klang. My first reaction was curfew? And then … oh no, I have no food in the house! I was online with a friend, and told him we didn’t have a problem with food during the May 13 curfew because our shop (we lived upstairs) was between two sundry shops (as they were called in those days) and got supplies from them. That was one of the better memories from that time.
Speaking of Malaysiakini, I’d called my sister to tell her the good news each time I saw them on Malaysiakini, and her reaction was “are you sure or not?” She had a point. The results on Malaysiakini were mostly unofficial. But it took the longest time for the TV stations to post the official results. And it seemed to me they were only posting BN victories.
If it weren’t for Malaysiakini, we would’ve been kept waiting for the results much longer. Thank goodness for alternative news sources.
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Posted on 29 July 2007 @ 22:09 in Food, Friends
After a day of almost non-stop eating with Anne, one of my bestest friends (we go way back before some of my young friends were even born), and her hubby, Dale (IKEA breakfast and lunch at Face to Face that Anne read about from an earlier blog entry), I was telling myself I really didn’t have space in my stomach for dinner. But I had to eat and at times like this, my mind turned to something really light and really yummy and totally reminiscent of childhood …
Plain porridge with a selection of accompanying dishes.
This is comfort food at its best. Well, almost best. Better than this would be a bowl of plain porridge with Marmite (during times of childhood illness).
The porridge shop also sells duck rice, which I will try another day. I don’t know the name of the shop, but it’s located in the row behind Face to Face.
Oh, the dishes in the picture with the porridge - (left to right) half salted duck’s egg, fuchuk (beancurd skins) in gravy, boiled peanuts in gravy and muichoy (marinated vegetables). Just writing about them is making me drool …
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Posted on 24 July 2007 @ 13:20 in Food
I’d first heard about IKEA breakfasts from the old grey poet’s site, but didn’t find anything similar at our local IKEA. The closest was the RM2.99 breakfast I had with Eliza a while back on a Sunday, comprising sausages, baked beans and humongous buns called pillow buns (so humongous a lot of the customers couldn’t finish their portion and there was a lot of wasted buns, which prompted Eliza and I to wonder why IKEA didn’t offer smaller ones, but I digress).
When Anne and family showed up from Toronto, we arranged to meet up for breakfast at IKEA, and that was when I discovered the IKEA 99 sen breakfast. The day we ate there (a Wednesday), the breakfast offerings were fried soohoon and french toast with jam. The next time I went, on my own and on a Monday morning, there was nasi lemak and cereal with milk. This morning, I was there again and ordered both items available today:
Meehoon goreng and set of three mini dumplings (red bean, pandan and custard fillings). Coffee or tea is free before 10:00 a.m. 99 sen per item, RM1.04 after tax. Including parking - total of RM3.08.
I try to sit at the same place each time, near the entrance, to watch the people coming in. They’re mostly elderly Chinese, retired, but there are also younger, athletic-looking ones, in Ts and shorts and sneakers, looking like they’ve just come from their morning walks or jogs. There are also other young ones all dressed up ready for work but there for breakfast and maybe a business meeting, too. Me? Not too elderly, not retired (yet), and definitely not younger athletic-looking or all dressed up ready for work! Altho I did find myself thinking the IKEA cafe would actually make a good place for meetings. The only thing missing is free wifi.
And yes, I’ve made it a personal eating mission to check out the weekday breakfast menus at IKEA, altho not on consecutive days, but one day a week. Let’s see I’ve done Wednesday with Anne and family, and Monday and Tuesday on my own. Next week, I’ll know if they serve the same breakfasts according to the day of the week. Yah, it’s kind of complicated … but at least it gets me out of the apartment early in the day … like I said, it’s complicated.
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Posted on 3 April 2007 @ 22:25 in Being Silly, Food
^_^
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