It’s a cool Thursday morning. The weather looks good for a change. It rains almost everyday. It does not just rain, rain. It pours cats and dogs, together with the bathtub, kitchen sink… the works. It rains until several areas in metropolitan K.L., P.J., Subang Jaya, and other towns floods. So, today is a welcome change.

On my way back from Damansara Heights, my usual daily routine; I am meeting with D.D. this morning. D.D. who has an unusual occupation, is a very close friend. He is a researcher of sorts and advises his clients to go ahead with their human talent acquisitions (“or not”. This deciding factor alternative is very Malaysian. “yes or not?” or “can or not?” I hesitate to throw in this alternative. However, let’s just pep this essay up a notch or two [there we go again]) just to spice it up a bit.

D.D. asked me to accompany him to pick up the yellow canary since I was in with him on this “little project” from the start.
“But first, let’s have breakfast”, he said. “I know you like western. Let’s go to this place nearby here. I’ll direct you”. I was driving.

Less than 10 minutes on the road and we have arrived. Parking was easy, since it was still early in the morning, time being 8.30am. Early in the morning?

I followed him into this one shoplot-type cafe. I did not take notice of its signboard. Did it have a signboard? Probably it does, but it did not catch my attention. For sure it wasn’t the “bintang full of moolah” (1) catchy signboard type. I saw the word “EXTRACTION”, somewhere around.

A question flashed across my mind: “Is this a dentist & cafe or cafe & dentist?” Serious. But when I saw quite a few people, sitting at tables and enjoying their meals and drinks; I dropped the “dentist” idea. At first glance, this seemed a nice place, though I really did not take notice as I was more interested in spending time with D.D..

When the menu was given to us, I saw lots of interesting offerings, all looked big portions. It didn’t look like they had a breakfast menu. I ordered what looked the lightest: a…something chicken sandwich. D.D. went for a local noodles dish and tea. D.D. is a cool character. Likes to keep a low profile. So, you can rule out he being an entertainer as his occupation. 😉😁

I wanted to try something new. The coffees I chose on their menu were all not available. So, I went for what looked interesting on the menu: “Muscovado Sugar Latte”. I thought it looked like cendol, but without the green squiggly noodles. What a way to start the day: with a sugar rush.

They say (who are the “they”?) looks can be deceiving. The way the meal was presented on the plate, made it more inviting to eat. However, the chicken sandwich (I cannot remember the fancy name it is listed on the menu as) tasted as good, or even more; than what was pictured on the menu. I am not too much a fan of sourdough bread. The meat, prepared with the various ingredients and sauces that went into it, was good. I left the tortilla chips aside and went straight for the coffee after the main course meal.

The coffee was nice, a bit on the sweet side. I usually don’t have sugar added into the latte. This latte came with it. Again, it was more gula melaka – the same stuff they add as a main ingredient in cendol or “ice-ball”. Ice-ball was something Aunty Val Surin and my uncle Jeff (Aunty Val’s late husband) used to treat us when we stayed with them in Section 8, Petaling Jaya. This was in the mid-1960s when the Indian cendol man used to pass by their house on his three-wheeler tricycle. The “ice-ball” was either added with red syrup, liquid gula melaka sugar, or both.

The taste from the milk and gula melaka might have been a tad bit over-powering as I could hardly get the distinctness of the type of coffee, which was what I really wanted to try out. All the same this drink was really nice. I liked it.

Before long, we had to be on our way, where I would drop D.D. off to pick up the yellow canary. I was also rushing time as my day was quite packed with appointments.

It was a short 15 minute drive to our destination. D.D. would be re-united with the yellow canary, after having left it at this place for them to help sell it. It remained un-sold after a few months, so D.D. thought he would try to sell it directly, himself.

NOTES
1. “Bintang full of Moolah”: If you are local, you should be able to figure that one out.

After having left the cafe / restaurant and then went on their website to check their menu out; it looks like they have a pretty wide spread of meals, including breakfast, to offer. I will visit this “Extraction” again if time permits, bringing Jeannie with me. And I found out the name of the chicken sandwich which I had: “Pesto Chicken Sandwich”.