Garden Lifestyle Store and Cafe

As we crossed the connecting bridge between The Gardens and Mid Valley Megamall, we noticed a new cafe occupying the spot where Little Penang used to be.

My attention was further attracted by the live singing that was coming out of a 'piano cage'.

We made a mental note of the place and returned later to give them a try.

I really liked the ambience of the place. Holding true to their garden concept, there were plants, both flowering and non-flowering, everywhere. Perhaps I have the influence of my parents - I seem to prefer places with greenery.

We wondered if the food would be of the same standard as its set up. As our orders were served, we progressively became impressed with not just the food, but also the service of its staff.

While waiting for our mains to be served, we enjoyed a pot of mixed fruit tea (RM12.90).

It tasted a little like sour plum tea and we found out that the most tasteful bit was the bit at the bottom of the pot.

The spaghetti marinara (RM18.90) arrived first. I was impressed with its presentation, and even more so with the fresh tomato and basil sauce. The clams, prawns and mussels were also fresh.

It made me look forward to the Peking duck pasta (RM23.90). When it arrived, my good friend looked at me and asked, "Why did you order pan mee at an Italian restaurant?"

I nearly choked on my tea. "Excuse me, this 'pan mee' here is called linguine, okay?" What I had was linguine cooked in brown sauce with wild spinach and shredded duck slices. Although the duck could have been more tender, it was still a dish that I would not mind having again.

Both of us chocolate maniacs could not resist the temptation of dessert with some amount of chocolate, which led us to decide on a slice of harmony cake (RM8.90).

The blend of hazelnut with orange was refreshing. We thought it went down well with all the other flavours.

How did we feel with our impromptu decision to dine here? All our positive feedback and encouragement were recorded in their feedback form. We left feeling very satisfied.

Garden Lifestyle Store and Cafe
Lot F-001, First Floor, Mid Valley Megamall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +60 3 2282 0271, Fax: +60 3 2282 0418
Open 10:00am to 10:00pm daily

My birthday in 2011

This year, for the first time in my life, I received a birthday present way in advanced. And it was a really pretty present - a Swarovski snowflake, all thanks to my lovely student. Okay, ex-student/friend.

Then, back home, on the night before the actual day, my Kembangsari girls gave me a surprise disguised in a yumcha session at Little Star Cafe.

I was both happy and embarrassed at the same time, as Miss Teoh's entire extended in-law family was there and helped sing the birthday song! Aiyo, paiseh la but thank you all so much!

After working hard during the first half of my birthday, I spent the rest of the day enjoying myself. Perhaps it was my lucky day, we managed to get a parking spot right after we passed the boom gate. We quickly went up to the cinema to grab our tickets for the current Taiwanese blockbuster, You Are The Apple Of My Eye (那些年, 我們一起追的女孩).

As only single seats were available, we had to settle for Gold Class seats that were side-by-side. Not that I was complaining. It was my first Gold Class experience and it was great. It was worth every fifty-five ringgit spent (because I did not know how comfortable the seats and blanket were!). Will be sharing my thoughts on this movie in a later post.

To fill up our hungry tummies, we dined at Garden Lifestyle Store and Cafe, which now occupies the lot which Little Penang used to occupy. Initially attracted by just their environment, we were later impressed by their food and service, too. More on that soon.

How would my birthday be complete without ice-cream? We went to none other than Häagen-Dazs.

It did not stop there. After I got back to Sydney, I had something cute from a cute person.

Seriously, am just glad that I have all of you in my life.

Mamak Village

Seems like the Malaysian food scene in Sydney is really growing. Relatively new on the scene is Mamak Village in Glebe, which will turn one in January.

At first, we thought it was a branch of Mamak. But wait, they only have a branch in Chatswood and Glebe is too near to their main branch in Chinatown. So, this must be an entirely different one.

I ordered a signature dish of theirs, a plate of nasi lemak with chicken curry ($10.00 during lunch time).

The acar was really spicy and was the best component on the entire plate. The curry could have used a little more santan. Xin Wen had mee goreng ($13.90), which translates into wok fried yellow noodles, normally in mamak style.

She felt that it lacked the wok taste. Just like how good char kuey teow has some wok taste. I am unable to recall who ordered the plate of roti kaya ($5.50). Too hard, too little kaya.

Hm... but we all agreed that Mamak makes better rotis. Michael had dessert, too. He had a serving of sago gula melaka ($5.00).

Too sweet, even for the sweet-toothed Michael. Boey had a glass of iced More More Tea ($3.50), which essentially is just triple layered tea.

Hm, maybe we had our hopes too high, which had us leaving in a tad of a disappointment. At least, they had good service.

Unfortunately, for us it is a case of been there, done that.

Mamak Village
25 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, NSW 2037
Tel: +61 414 675 880, +61 433 074 299
Monday to Friday: 11:15am to 3:00pm, 5:30pm to 9:45pm
Friday to Saturday: 11:15am to 10:00pm
Sunday: 11:15am to 9:30pm

The Boathouse Palm Beach

Well-known to the locals of the Northern Beaches, especially Palm Beach, is The Boathouse Palm Beach, a funky little cafe that is housed in the original Barrenjoey Boathouse on the edge of Station Beach.

Flanked by tall and grand pine trees in the front, we were welcomed by baskets of fresh flowers and fruits at the entrance. The light breeze also carried a whiff of caffeine, which made us think more of brekkie.

The interior design, as well as landscape design and horticultural backgrounds of both owners sure came in handy in making the place this inviting.

They used clear glass window shutters to compliment the simple and clean design of the place.

Not only does this allow the interior to look more spacious, it also allows more light to enter the building.

After deciding long and hard on what we were having for brekkie, we placed our orders at the counter with the many attractive sweets.

An old chap who was behind Xin Wen in the line saw me taking this photo and said to me, "Oh, come on, don't just take a picture of 'em, you know you want to have some! Order one and he'll give you two!"

We chose to sit outside on the large wooden deck. Who could resist the lovely weather?

They serve good coffee. Good enough for Xin Wen to order a mocha (she is so not a coffee person). I, on the other hand, enjoyed a cup of soy chai latte.

Xin Wen chose to have the mushroom toast, which is a dish of sautéed mushrooms, haloumi, rocket and chilli jam on sourdough toast ($18.50). She loved it.

As I hardly have anything fishy at home, I ordered a dish of smoked salmon eggs.

My plate had poached eggs, spinach wrapped in smoked salmon topped with goats cheese and balsamic glaze on a piece of soy and linseed sourdough ($18.50). This was so worth its price, as the salmon was so fresh.

Michael ordered something out of the ordinary. You see, Michael and fresh produce normally do not go hand in hand. But on this morning, he ordered himself a large bowl of breakfast muesli (S $8.50, M $10.50, L $12.50).

An individual selection of bircher muesli, granola, naturally sweetened yoghurt, rhubarb compote and/or berry coulis tastefully presented on a Boathouse serving board, we had to help him finish it! We loved the generous serving of fresh fruits, yum!

Boey loves pork so he had fried eggs with grilled bacon and roasted roma tomatoes on thick cut crusty sourdough ($16.50).

Yup, the sourdough was thick, alright.

A place with great ambience run by people who looked like the love what they are doing, I would say that this is the place I would bring visitors to for that all important positive first impression of Sydney's cafe culture. But I think, the next time I pay them a visit, I would not be as lucky as this time to grab a table so quickly!





The Boathouse Palm Beach
Barrenjoey Boathouse, Governor Phillip Park, Palm Beach, NSW 2108
Tel: +61 2 9974 3868
E-mail: mail@theboathousepb.com.au
For weddings and functions, contact Rhiannon Swan at rhiannon@theboathousepb.com.au
Open daily for Breakfast (7:30am - 12:00pm) and Lunch (12:00pm - 3:00pm)
Note: They do not take reservations.

There's an artist in the house!

This might sound silly but one reason why we chose to go to The Boathouse was because we thought it would live up to an artist's expectations. We are glad that we did not let him down. More on this funky place soon.

To digest our hearty brekkies, we went for a stroll on Palm Beach. The combination of bright sunshine and clear blue skies with cooling sea breeze was just perfect for a day out on the beach for families.

Ah, of course, how can the young lads miss out on a good stand up paddle surf?

Mister traveling artist, Boey, took his time to stroll.

And he really enjoyed his beach-combing.

He was in search of 'stars and stripes'. "They have to be perfect", he said to Xin Wen and I. To him, everything has to be perfect, just like him. *smirk*

As we headed back to the car, he found a gigantic emergency phone. Well, you know what it is from the photo so, yea.

From the beach, we went to the colourful Glebe Markets, where we met another world traveller. Unlike Boey, Alvaro travels using his trusted bicycle and is a biciclown. Read all about his meaningful work here.

Lunch was calling out to us and so we headed over to Mamak Village. Boey complained that we spoiled it for him, as he was heading back to Malaysia after this stop, where he could have the REAL thing. Oops, sorry.

After a fun day out and a meal of student-style steamboat, it was crunch time. We got to watch the artist in full action, from his draft to the actual template to scanning and uploading onto his blog.

I got to keep the draft *yes!* of the blog post. It has his signature at the bottom so maybe I could sell it for a good price when he makes it really big.


I enjoyed myself heaps that weekend. A feeling that I have not had in a long time. The egoistic and sarcastic part of him definitely left an impression in all of us, but not as much as the serious part of him, which I managed to capture for a bit.

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