#taj

BETWEEN THE TAJ AND THE KING; WE CHOSE THE TAJ

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Morning came, then, afternoon, then early evening. We, the Batik Influencer, Jeannie; and I, the Hatted Writer, ques sera, sera-ed at Amcorp Shopping Mall.

Interesting (or at least, we thought it interesting) fun facts at the mall. We parked our car, in the basement, this time at a different location, not too far from where we used to park the last couple of weekends we were here. This time round, we parked nearer to a different lift (elevator, for some), what seems like the one used by most people. However (not in replacement for the word “but” this time), the lifts to the carpark from the first floor, did not seem to get me back to the carpark.

The basement carpark is divided by multiple walls, why, I don’t know; so much so that when you think you’ve got on to the same lift you came up with, and it turns up wrong; then you will need to hunt for your vehicle. When you do get to your vehicle, you will find out that there was a wall in between your vehicle and where you were at, when looking for your vehicle. These walls simply make no sense. So, take multiple pictures and create a trail, so that you can “connect the dots back to your vehicle” from where you are. This works for any circumstance.

The Batik Influencer was busy with her JEANNIE’S OWN label Batik Capes, talked to many new people, shared batik’s beauty with everyone and made many new friends.

The Hatted Writer made many new friends, too. I started being more assertive as to the aim of having my book published within six months from now (that is an estimated deadline). I am putting the manuscript together. It does look like it is going to take more than just “soon” to have the manuscript ready. I am happy It is moving in the right direction.

More details on our outing at Amcorp Shopping Mall is on the cards. Today, seemed to have sapped all the energy out of us that we were eager to pack and be on our way home.

It was nearing 6.00pm. Jeannie this morning suggested that we try out a new Korean restaurant in Puchong. “We can take a Grab there and then, back home after that, instead of you having to drive.” I liked the idea of not having to drive and was game for it. But now, that we are at the hour for dinner, we were not up to travelling too far from home just for dinner. We were more for a quick bite and chill the rest of the evening.

I was willing to settle for Burger King or local Indian cuisine at the Taj, which was a few doors away from Burger King. Our requirement was that the restaurant had to be air-conditioned. I was more inclined towards the Taj, as we had dinner at the Scottish restaurant yesterday. Jeannie was ok for the Taj, too.

Surprisingly, we managed to slot our car in a parking lot which became empty a few moments before us. Otherwise, we would have been doing the wild, wild west “wagon circle” (sort of) until we find a car park slot available.

Passing the food counter, the Indian style fried chicken, and egg omelet looked tempting. I told Jeannie we will order these two side dishes. I proceed to get a table in the aircon (local for air-conditioned) dining area. Harmann, the waitress; came to take my order. I ordered two roti canai and a Limau Ais (Iced Lime water) drink. I asked her how she was doing, she said “fine”. Jeannie came to the table, carrying her food order which was a rice set, with a couple of different vegetables and a little bowl of what was chicken curry gravy.

I took some pictures of the food (below) and got Harmann to take some pictures of Jeannie and I. I tried to persuade Harmann to include herself in the pictures, but she declined. I took a couple of shots of her, but she told me she didn’t want pictures of her taken, so I deleted them. Most likely she is shy. You can always go to the Taj Curry House in SS12, Subang Jaya, to meet her. She is a sweet looking lady. You can’t miss her, as she is the only female employee there (I think).😀

Jeannie’s rice set (above) and my roti canai with fish curry and dahl(the yellow gravy and beans).

Our meal came pretty fast. This is an example of what fast food should be in terms of time. One of the things we soon noticed was the room was quite warm. The air-conditioning was on. However, we think they lowered the temperature to 24ºC to counter the rising cost of electricity.

On the rice plate (on top), notice the egg omelet and the potato cutlet. The photo seems slightly blurry. I was trying out the “food” option on my Samsung S23 ultra.

The food today was pretty standard, a bit towards salty. The fried chicken, egg omelet and vegetables went well with the roti canai. Jeannie’s meal of long grain rice – cooked with some Indian spices, was good to eat on its own; according to Jeannie. She’s in the food business, she should know.

We soon finished our dinner (we were hungry), and made our way home, looking forward to a chill-out, relaxing, evening. Not quite the way we envisioned it to be: Jeannie is getting another of her JEANNIE’S OWN Batik Cape creations ready for tomorrow; and I, I’m working on this essay. This is our way of chilling out. Haha🤔😂

Picture taken by Harmann. Though I was holding the S-Pen, Harman took this shot. Our total meal cost is US$6.50.

NOTES:
1. At night, or when threatened during the day, the wagons would stop moving. The drivers then would line up all the carriages in a circle. This was a way of protecting the settlers from attack. They would keep their cattle and other animals within the circle.

CHICKEN IMPOSSIBLE AT THE TAJ

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

On the highway heading east…. Camera in front… Camera at the back. High speed chase. Not sure if that famous actor… The one that acted in “TOP BUN PAKCIK” Tom Clues, was acting.

The scene was a guy in a Proton Jawa cut in front of a mid-size Honda (car enthusiasts will call it B Segment or C segment… don’t know which) at high speed. It was trailing a long trailer ( is there a pun in this?) and decided to pull out from behind it at the very last moment, cutting right in front of the Honda. The trailer was at high speed, I guess.

As soon as they passed the trailer, the Honda powered up all its Japanese horses (though they could be more Thai or Indo than Japanese, as most of the Hondas in Malaysia come from Thailand or Indonesia), gave chase and overtook the Jawa. The Jawa gave chase, came level to the Honda, then side-swiped him to run him off the road. Here, it is proven to be a myth that the Jawas are made from milo tin cans because this car was strong. The Honda held its ground. Presumably, Tom Clues was driving the Honda.

The Jawa side-swiped the Honda… a word from our sponsors… Youtube… and tried to push the Honda off. It moved just ahead of the Honda and knocked into the car. Then, it moved left, then right, then ran off the road and hit a road barrier. Here, the Jawa, tossed in the air… Tom Clues stopped his car ahead of the car being tossed in the air. You would expect Tom Clues to reach out to the Jawa driver while the Jawa was still in the air, flipping at high speed. Bubble burst because nothing like that happened. That was a scene from a Bollywood movie.


~ The End ~

In a rush to get back home for the long weekend holidays; people tend to get edgy. They should relax, pull over as many rest bays along the highway to relax, chillax and have a coffee. No need to rush.
The above incident actually happened today. The characters and vehicles are fictional. I was having fun writing on the fly.

After dropping Laura off at the gym; Jeannie and I had that usual question pop up: “Dinner: What do you want to eat?”, I asked.
“Up to you”, she said.
I said, “I leave it to you”.
She said, “Anything is fine with me”.

Now, you know how tough a question that can be. Though there are literally hundreds of restaurants around the area, we, without saying it; want something fast, tasty, cheap, reliable and not too far away from home. So, I said, “Let’s go to the Taj”. Jeannie agreed.

We were there within 10 minutes, had to drive around the car parking lot area three or four times before we got a parking. This was one of the easier days.

As we walked into the restaurant, we walked past the counter where all the food for the evening was displayed. I knew I was going to order either chapati or roti canai. They did not have any potato dishes on display. Among the many varieties available, there were two seemingly similar fried chicken dishes. We asked one of the waiters what the difference was. He said one was fried chicken. ookaaayyy. The other was chicken impossible.

“Sorry, what was that?”, I asked. He said, “chicken impossible”. I kid you not. That was what he said. Or at least, that was what I thought he said. I told Jeannie that we will have the chicken impossible, and to pick the pieces with more flesh instead of bones.

Chicken impossible.

We chose a table in the air-condition dining room. Though the skies have been overcast the whole day with short spats of light – to – heavy drizzles; the weather was still humid. Jeannie went for rice with vegetable dishes. I went for chapati. My favourite waitress (the Taj only has 1 waitress; the rest are waiters), Harmann; took our drink orders. We both ordered lime juice, no sugar.

Jeannie’s rice and her choice of vegetables looked really good. The long grains of rice looked fluffy and would have tasted delicious. Jeannie said that it was delicious – her whole meal was delicious.

Harmann served my order of two chapati and the chicken impossible. I decided to have chapati because my weight was inching its way up on the weighing scales, so much so that I hit 76.7kg yesterday. I scaled back on eating since then. I skipped lunch and also holding off the sugar. I am aiming to get back to 67kg, the weight that I was at in March 2019.

The chapati was good. 2 pieces was a meal by itself. The chicken impossible was ok. Pieces were chunky meat, fried but without oil. I think that was the difference between this chicken dish and the fried chicken. The curry leaves that were with the chicken (as you can see in the picture) were more to add flavour.

I thought this dish was going to be spicy. It wasn’t at all. Overall, the chicken was nice, but I prefer the chicken to be fried in oil and for it to be spicy. The Taj is more popular especially for its spicy food, besides it being a convenient place for fast and relatively moderate priced food. When I say “fast food”; it actually is fast served food compared to the fast food restaurants. You order your food on those large screens, make a payment and then wait. They are not as fast as The Taj or Star Bhavan and places like that.

If you want fast and reliably tasty food, this is the place to come to. Except, that the limited parking available can at times be a “hair-pulling” experience.

As for why the chicken dish is called “chicken impossible”, I think the waiter may have mispronounced it. I don’t know, but “chicken impossible” definitely sounds inviting; like something you must try.

DINNER AT THE TAJ

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

After a quick 10,000 step brisk walk between 2.30pm to 4.00pm; I had a refreshing cooling, shower. Though the sun was not blazing hot due to some fairly cloudy skies; the weather was still very hot. I had to go for my walk at this time because I had a busy morning and the evening was going to be busy, as well.

I left the house as soon as I got ready after the shower and headed to P.J. (Petaling Jaya), as it is more popularly known as.

An hour and a half later, we were on our way back to Subang Jaya. I had just picked Jeannie up from her office; then drove another 6.3km (kilometres) to Damansara Heights to pick Laura up from her office.

The traffic was pretty smooth flowing both ways. In fact, we arrived 10 minutes before Laura’s work ended for the day.

As we were about to get on the ramp towards Subang Jaya from the Federal Highway, the usual question popped up: “What are we having for dinner?” I immediately thought of Taj Curry House which was near where we were at that time.

Laura said, “Taj”. I said that was where I thought of going too.

So, Taj Curry House it was then. My mouth began to water thinking of the chicken varuvel dish. Super hot and spicy dish. Super delicious.

As we sat at a table, the waitress came to take our order. It is worth mentioning that at most Indian restaurants, there are only waiters to take and serve your orders. This waitress, who has been at Taj for a few months now, can take pride of being the one and only waitress at an Indian restaurant; at least in Subang Jaya, And she is good at her work.

The waitress knows our regular orders. However, she asked if we wanted to add other dishes, too.

Laura ordered rice with chicken varuvel and fish curry gravy. Simple meal, super delicious!

Laura’s meal at the forefront of the picture – rice, fish curry gravy and chicken varuvel.
Jeannie and I ordered roti canai (I ordered 2 pieces) which came with fish curry, dhall and sambal.

Jeannie and I ordered the same meal – roti canai. I asked for 2 pieces. The roti canai in most places have shrunk in size yet has seen several price increases. It is still amongst the cheapest meals you can get. With our roti canai came fish curry gravy, dhall and sambal as a set. The fish curry and dhall here, at Taj’s Curry House; has always been good. Warning about the sambal: It is extremely spicy yet delicious. The way to eat this (or the way I eat this) is to add a very little bit to each spoon portion you eat. Yes, we generally eat this meal with fork and spoon. Unlike the traditionalists who tear pieces of the bread (roti canai) and dip it into one or two or all 3 condiments including the sambal (like me) and eat it.

A side note: You can order this meal in a slightly different way. You can ask for “roti banjir” -literally translated from Bahasa Malaysia into English as “bread flood”. This means your roti canai will come with the fish curry and dhall poured together onto the roti canai. They pour lots of the fish curry and dhall until the roti canai looks somewhat submerged. Hence the word “banjir” or “flooded”.😂

Here the additional side order of chicken varuvel is seen as an extra to our meal.

For drinks, Jeannie and I had “Limau ais”, Bahasa Malaysia for “cold Lime juice”.

Our meal was satisfying – tasty and reasonably priced, too. Sitting in the comforts of air-conditioning. The environment was good.

We met Suzan Manen and Timothy Lam dining there, at the restaurant. We were all in the church choir some years back. Suzan and Timothy were just sharing some of their stories and experiences about Greece, especially Santorini. They had a wonderful time. They just returned back to Malaysia and were rekindling themselves to the taste of Malaysian food – which they missed very much. It was good meeting with them after a long time.

Sitting: Jeannie and Laura.
Standing: Me, Suzan and Timothy.

Roti canai. tosai, or rice with the various curries and sambals, the Taj Curry House in SS12, Subang Jaya; is worth checking out. Prices are reasonable.