restaurants

NIGEL AND COUSINS RENDEZVOUS – GOOD TIMES!

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

It was Nigel’s birthday today. I remembered how he and our cousins, Christopher and Ronald: with their wives, Shirley, Evalina and Debbie; would meet every week – a cousins weekly get together. They would mostly rendezvous at ‘Q’ Bistro restaurant restaurant in SS15, Subang Jaya. My wife, Jeannie; and I; had the opportunity of joining them once. This was before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted everything for everyone all over the world.

No one would have guessed that it would have been the last time that Nigel, Christopher and Ronald would meet. Nigel passed away due to a vaguely described hospital reason / illness (the jury is still out on that) in August 2021.

L to R: Christopher, Nigel, Ronald. This picture was taken in 2020 / 2021.

When Christopher and I were leaving “Le Bread Days” cafe today; I made a suggestion that he, Dato Ronald and I, together with our wives; meet for dinner today at ‘Q’ Bistro, in remembrance of Nigel. Chris thought it was a capital idea and got on the phone to Ronald, told him of our dinner meet up plans and asked him and his wife Datin Debbie, to join us for dinner. Ronald was game and our dinner plans set.

Jeannie and I arrived at the restaurant about 20 to 8. As we were about to enter the restaurant, we met an old friend, Pel Poh and his wife, coming out of the restaurant. It was good to catch up with them after a long time. Pel said the food at the restaurant was good, more so, today. They enjoyed their dinner.

Jeannie’s meal, roti Naan (a sort of a plain puffed up bread), with tandoori chicken.

Christopher and his wife, Evelina, arrived soon after. We proceeded to order our dinner as Ronald informed Christopher that he and his wife, Debbie; were going to be late.

Jeannie and Evelina both ordered roti naan and tandoori chicken. Christopher would have his dinner later with Ronald and Debbie. I ordered rojak. Pel was right. The food was good. Their drinks on the other hand, not so, well, at least mine. The iced coffee I ordered was awful. Even Jeannie agreed. So, I ordered an banana split ice-cream to make up for the awful iced-coffee.

The banana split ice-cream was like a banana split ice-cream you would expect. The banana was not overly ripe, just how I like it. Generally, the ice-cream was ok.

A different type of naan bread, with tandoori chicken.
This iced-coffee didn’t taste good at all.
Masala tea

The banana-split ice-cream.

Ronald and Debbie joined us about an hour later. He, Debbie, Chris and Evelina brought up stories of the past, where Nigel was very much a part of it. Nigel loved his local food, so did Shirley. Their meet ups centred mostly on family. They also talked a lot about tv shows they watch. Nigel loved comedy shows, especially, “The Jeffersons”. He would “relive” comedy scenes and laugh heartily about them.

He did have a great sense of humour. He talked about the local “Halle Bailey”. It was the first that Jeannie and I heard of it. I thought that was the best joke I’ve heard for the day. Trust Nigel to come up with something like this.

It was close to midnight when we called it a night. We all agreed we had great fun. We also agreed that we revive this cousin meet up, at least once a month. Our next meet up will be to celebrate dad’s birthday in two weeks time. He will be 92.

L to R: Me, the Hatted Writer; Christopher Nellaiah, Dato Ronald Gomes and his wife, Datin Debbie Gomes; Evelina (Christopher’s wife); Jeannie, the Batik Influencer.

ALWAYS YOUR CHOICE

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Friday – morning before the afternoon. Jeannie and Laura are on leave from work for the lunar new year (known as Chinese New Year [C.N.Y.]) holidays in Malaysia. The traffic was somewhat more than half, yesterday; meaning that many people have already left for their hometowns just to beat the expected long traffic jams, on the highways.

That is the “secret”. People leave a day or two earlier to avoid the jams and aim at coming back a day or two earlier. Picture this: they quietly leave home to get on the highway. Why is it a secret? It is because everyone thinks they are getting an upper hand on the next person to beat the jam. The only thing is that when get on the highway (“freeway” for the Americans), the traffic is at near crawling speeds – everyone else had privy to that “secret”, too.

back to the “Friday, morning before noon”. Breakfast. Laura is out already. Which left Jeannie and I with the question, “What do you want to eat?” But before that question was asked, I decided that we go to A.Y.C., an Indian restaurant, near our house. A. Y. C.’s tagline is “Always Your Choice” – catchy. Jeannie just noticed their tagline a few days ago. This tagline has always been there, however we never took notice of it until recently. Now, whenever we past the restaurant, the tagline will almost always be the first thing we notice on their signboard.

Parking our car is relatively easy around A.Y.C. and its neighbouring shops in the mornings. As we walk in to the restaurant, the food is lined up on either side of the passage. I saw the “doughnut” (donut for those unsure of the spelling) vadai and the bean vadai, both favourites of mine; on the right row of food. I told Jeannie I wanted one of each. I saw this fluffed up bread called “puri” on the left and wanted that, too. It was the last one on their tray. It was already nearing 11.00am so it is understandable that the breakfast offerings was almost all cleared. The restaurant would start preparing for the lunch crowd. From the dishes they had just laid out, it looked like it was going to be a vegetarian affair. The food looked good.

Jeannie chose a currypuff for her bites. A.Y.C.’s currypuffs are really tasty. The fillings are made from potatoes, marinated in spices, which does make the potatoes spicy, but not too spicy.

We both ordered iced coffees, Jeannie’s was with milk and sugar; mine was black, without sugar.

Simple breakfast. The doughnut vadai (vadai with the hole in the centre [polo?]), bean vadai, currypuff and puri which came with a sort of potato side condiment.

Our breakfast was good. We were relaxed, sitting at a table towards the rear of the restaurant, facing outwards. We always like to face out and watch the world go along with its activities.

I did get quite a few side glances and quick stares. People don’t seem to get to see other people wearing hats, let alone tartan flat hats out to breakfast. I maybe starting a trend for others to follow, who knows.

We were soon back home, as Jeannie then had to go to her mother’s place to help cook the CNY reunion dinner for this evening. At the time this article was getting done, Laura was already at Jeannie’s mother’s place.

Happy Chinese New Year’s eve and reunion dinner to all those celebrating the lunar new year festivities.

ITALIAN COFFEE AT BENSON BREW

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

The other day, while I was strolling down the street, singing, “do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do”, “I came across a cafe, it look good, it look fine, thought I had to try the coffee some other time”.

While walking towards the photo shop or “studio”, as it is sometimes known as; to get some passport size photographs done; I came across this tiny (very, very small) cafe just next to the studio. It shared the shoplot space with the photo studio meaning half the width x the length was the cafe and the other half was the photo studio. Have a coffee while waiting for your photos to be processed or developed. I thought it as a nifty idea. Though these days, it only takes a few minutes to get your photographs done. Even then, get a coffee to go.

“Benson Brew” – that is the name of this coffee joint. It has such a nice ring to it.

First thing you will notice, is that you may just pass this cafe by without noticing (pun? intended?) it because of it’s size… if not for its signboard, which looks bigger than the shop. The front entrance width is not much wider that a single panel wide door. Open the door, and it will lead you through a short passage to the opening of the shop.

As you come up to the bar-like counter, you will notice it has 3 bar stool type of chairs at the counter. At hand, is Arian; the barista; to greet you.

A pleasant chap, he is quick to ask attend to your order. At the side of the counter, there is a large enough space for a small round table with 4 chairs. Very cosy. Great for meetings with clients or quiet chit chats with friends and family, without the disturbance, interruption or / and distraction of other people. Multi-million dollar deals can be signed here.

Arian says their business has been pretty good since their opening about 9 months ago. I would think so that it should be good. The coffee culture has gown or evolved dramatically over the last 10 years or so, that it would only be natural for the yuppies to be seen with a coffee in one hand, and a laptop, files and charts in the other.

Benson Brew is located in the heart of USJ Taipan city. Their immediate customers would be from the business and bank offices surrounding it.

Their prices when compared to the big name cafes (these are the guys they have to compete with), are about between 20% to 30% cheaper.

The treat that you will get about having your coffee at Benson Brew is that they serve Lavazza coffee. Lavazza is a well known Italian brand renowned for its coffee. What I found out is that Benson Cafe sells some Lavazza coffee beans that is not brought in to Malaysia by the Lavazza distributor itself. Benson Cafe imports these packets of coffee beans directly from Italy. Since they carry limited quantities, it fast sells out and one would have to wait for sometime before the next orders come on their shelves.

When I am in Taipan and have the time, I will drop in at Benson Brew for a coffee and some quiet time, where I can explore new ideas, concepts and stories for new articles and my book which is in a work-in-progress stage now.

NOTE: Taipan USJ is located in Subang Jaya, a city in the state of selangor, Malaysia.