It happened again. We had a blast of a time at the #lambtwtup this time around with old and new Twitter friends. The first Al-Rawsha tweetup was done sometime last year during the fasting month with just about 9 of us. But this time around, the #lambtwtup was even bigger and more friends showed up…about 25+- of us. It was an awesome feeling meeting up with new friends (though we may know some for quite a while already virtually on Twitter, but most of us met for the first time in reality last night).

Some of the familiar faces at the tweetup.

This was what I ordered. Roasted whole chicken with bread. Definitely one of the best roast chicken I have ever tasted.

And this was how it looked like, about 1 hour later. I usually eat quite fast, but I did lots of photo taking and chit-chatting with the guys in between munching.

I certainly had a great time dining on the food there, so did everyone else. As usual, Lebanese food always comes in HUGE portions. So for one person to finish a meal, would usually take a while. Hence why we all stayed on till late.

What more and you ask for? Good food, great company. We all left the place with good warm feeling and full tummy.

So, what tweetup shall it be next? Someone suggested SalsaTwtup at @ronny1976’s dance studio. Yes, Salsa, as in the dance, not the food dipping. What say you?

- More photos on my Facebook –> Al-Rawsha #lambtwtup 2010 Album

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Last night was one of the nights that I stopped at Uptown. And this time I wanna blog about it.

I work in the heart of KL, Petaling Street to be exact. It is also known as China Town, simply because most of the traders there are Chinese and the place is famous for imitation stuffs.

Anyway, I usually got off work around 6pm or 7pm, depending on my mood. I would take the bus from the station near Central Market and hop on the Rapid bus U88 heading towards Kota Damansara. Along the way, it crosses Bangsar and Kerinchi and onto the Federal Highway from the University exit.

Some 20 minutes later, I would arrive near Damansara Utama area, again, that depends on the traffic. If it is badly jammed, then it would take about 40 minutes to reach Damansara Utama. I got off at Uptown, just in-front of TM Point which is behind Starbucks. I chose to get off there because it is somewhat safer, and more people walking about. I don’t want to get mugged while walking through some dark alley at the other end. So Starbucks area is comfortable enough.

Then I head on to the “new” Uptown hawker centre, and the crowd is not like how it used to be. Back then when it was newly opened, it was the “in” place to be. Usually it would be very packed at night with people rushing in for dinner or supper. Some would have to wait a while just to get a place to sit. I remember it being packed with oceans of people. They even had that bundle stalls along the road. And yes, the road would be very badly jammed up at night.

But nowadays, it is no longer packed.

I used to remember Uptown hawkers back in the late 1990’s. They were all stalls, lined up by the road side opposite of Hong Leong Bank, right from the beginning of the road until the end towards Starbucks. They were famous for their awesome food like Tony’s Char Kuey Teow, Western foods made by Steven’s corner, Ah Fatt’s Chee Cheong Fun, tauhu bakar, fried oyster, nasi lemak panas and even the basic mamak food such as roti canai and thosai. Some of those hawkers are still there, some have gone somewhere else. I used to hangout at the stalls until late night, past midnight and sometimes until wee hours of the morning. Even when the “new” Uptown was established and “happening”, I went there almost everyday.

Those were the glory days. The glory days of Damansara Uptown.

But having said all that, I’d like to say a big thank you to Steven’s western corner for still being part of Uptown hawkers. I just love his western food dishes. And also to the ever so awesome Fish Head Curry stall, next to Sulaiman’s corner (now changed name, and I forgot the name), your fish head curry is still THE best.

Although Uptown is not that popular anymore, it will always be one of my choices for simple dining, especially it being along my daily traveling route nowadays.

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When I say tiring, I really mean tiring becoz I have to rely on public transportation for now. So imagine me in the morning waking up late and still half asleep, walking for about 1km to the bus station, and then trying to keep my eyes open for the whole day in the office and when it’s time to go home, waited for the bus at Pasar Seni for half hour, hop on the bus and the bus ride took about 1 and a half hour to reach PJ area. The bus driver was driving like a mad man, that kept me awake but at the same time, got me dizzy in the bus plus it’s hot and stuffy. Upon reaching Damansara Uptown area, I really feel like throwing up so I decided to get off in Uptown for a quick dinner. It was about 7pm-ish so it was a good timing for dinner.

I had Tony’s char kuey teow which I haven’t had for the longest time. It was good. The bus-ride-dizzyness was gone and I hop on the next bus home. Thank goodness the other bus is nicely air-conditioned and the driver was driving smoothly. I’m glad I stopped in Uptown for dinner. When I reached home and without delay, I took a shower and sleep!

The next morning was rather pleasant. Woke up late from a very comfortable sleep, it felt good. Then I received an SMS from Lina asking me where is a good malay food to eat on a Sunday afternoon. The first place that came to mind was Restoran Baloh in Damansara Perdana so she came over and pick me up for lunch. Head towards Baloh but the restaurant was closed. We had to rethink of a nice place to eat after that. So we decided to venture into Kg Sg Penchala and really do a Jalan-jalan Cari Makan style.

And guess what, in Kg Sg Penchala, we found a restaurant, or gerai, …wait…it’s too big to be called a gerai (stall) and it’s too small to be called a restaurant, so let’s call it “getoran” just for the fun of it. Hehehe. Fine. I think that “getoran” has to most selection / variety of lauk I have ever seen this year. If I were to count how many varieties, I think there’s easily more than 50 types of lauk there.

I should have taken some photos of the place, but I was too hungry and excited seeing the food there that I forgot about taking the photos. The best thing you can have there is the Ikan Bakar (grilled fish-taken by Lina). It was really good…especially the sauce. Even the stuffing for the fish is excellent. Other than the ikan bakar, there is a green chili sambal which taste really good too. It is mixed together with petai and a little bit of belacan. All and all, my lauk with rice was curry chicken, pucuk paku, green chili sambal and lemak jantung pisang. Like I said, Lina had the ikan bakar so I “curi” some from her.

For the price? It was reasonable. I remember having extra rice and lots of lauk, and it cost me only RM6 plus my soya bean drink. Whaa?! That’s cheap considering that I took a lot of stuffs, ok, only 4 varieties of lauk but in large portions each. Not bad, I don’t mind having lunch there again.

Too bad I can’t remember the name of that “getoran” but the direction is pretty simple. If you’re from Taman Tun Dr Ismail, head towards Kg Sg Penchala / Penchala link highway. At the traffic light with the new Rasta place on your left, go straight into Kg Sg Penchala, reach another traffic light turn left and immediately you’ll see a Masjid on your right. The “getoran” is the one right next to the Masjid.

Easy.

After lunch I went home and do nothing else but watch DivX movies that I’ve downloaded, which was AVP and Austin Powers’ Goldmember. Wanted to watch Heroes season 3 but I think I’ll wait till I’ve downloaded all the episodes, that goes for Supernatural too. Maybe tonight I’ll watch Lord of The Ring again. Hmmm…

Update: I found out the restaurant’s name, it’s called Restoran Sambal Hijau (so that was what I had) and you can view its location in Wikimapia, click here to see the map.

p/s: I’ll do my best to remember to take photos when I go to places like this…promise.

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Oh, and not forgetting the HUGE portions as well.

A friend of Geena, Purdey and her sis Lyna came for a visit from Sarawak last weekend and we went to a nice Balinese style restaurant in Bandar Puteri Puchong. I’m sure this place is already well known for its reputation as one of the best Balinese style dishes. But I’m gonna blog about it anyway.

It was my first time dining there, and no objection for the choice of restaurant there. The ambiance was exactly how I imagined, Balinese style (duh). I’ve always been a fan of Balinese home decor, so I felt comfortable as soon as I stepped in the restaurant.

The restaurant is not only for dining, but they also sell some of the Bali style home decor as well.

But it’s not the decor I’m excited about, it’s the food. The food there is worth every penny. Why? Becoz of its HUGE portions. One person cannot finish a single dish alone. So I knew I had to share with Geena. So did Purdey and her sis Lyna. Well, actually, I can finish the dish alone but I’m trying to jaga badan la. (yeah, right). But even when I shared it with Geena, I was totally stuffed after that. Like I said, worth every penny.

Nasi Campur Bali. Consists of grilled squids, grilled prawns, beef rendang, grilled fish, grilled meat on lemon-grass sticks, kangkong belacan and some fruits and other vege. The portion may look small here in the picture, but trust me, the “plate” was huge.

Tiga Rasa (I think. What is this called again, Dee?). Basically its a combination of three things, fried squid, grilled chicken wings with belacan and grilled meat on lemon-grass sticks. Totally awesome.

All three dishes in total. I forgot what Purdey and Lyna ordered. But it has petai with squids in it. Nice.

To wash it down, a nice glass of “Es Campur” as a dessert right after that. This is really good.

Geena obviously enjoyed the Es Campur, I did too.

Although the price of each dishes, say, the nasi campur is around RM25–ish bucks, I really don’t mind paying that much for the awesome dish. To me, it’s the quality that matters. But in this case, I’m happy with the quantity as well coz the portion is very huge and generous.

If you’re thinking of getting your stomach filled up to the max and forget about your diet, Bumbu Bali is definitely the place. I can’t remember when was the last time I indulge on such a huge and awesome meal. Oh wait, had that during my Korean BBQ dinner. Heh heh. But Bumbu Bali is now on my top 5 places to eat.

Details:

Bumbu Bali
18 & 18-1, Jalan Persiaran Puteri 1, Bandar Puteri, Puchong
47100 Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 03-8061 8699
Fax: 03-8062 6698

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