Damned it seems lately I really hung out a lot with Zane. A few of my blog posts also involves him. Well so happen hanging out with him last Sunday, we were bored thinking about where we should have our dinner. Then came this idea: Banana Leaf Indian Rice at Bangsar. And when thinking about Indian Rice, there’s automatically this person dropping into our minds: Shereen. After a call or two and a few detours, we managed to gather up and on we go to this place in Jalan Telawi, Bangsar.

As we arrived there, the place was fully packed and tables extend to the AmBank and stationary shop on both sides, some tables where already on the pavement right beside the roadside parking as well. After scattering and scouted for a while, we got this table by the roadside parking. Hehe well I was the only one who has been here before, hence it was my call to decide what to order :P.

But there’s this standard set of rice and side dishes which is already included once you order rice here. This is it.

The vegetables were freshly marinated, fried bitter gourd totally crunchy and not bitter at all, plus the standard mamak telur mata kerbau and exceptionally nice fish and chicken curry on the rice aroused our appetite successfully. We also ordered the following side dishes.

Fried squid rings. These are totally unforgiving on our taste buds. Thumbs up.

Fried ikan tenggiri (I don’t know what’s its English name, anybody help me out?) These are very big pieces and very devastating to the stomache, advisable to take half a piece per person.

Chilli chicken masala. Personally I’d prefer something else than this, but it was ordered for the variety of food.

There was this other dish, the curry mutton, that we ordered. Now I’d give a double thumbs up for that but too bad I couldn’t find a clearer photo for that. So I guess if you’re going there, you’ll just have to say "I want mutton"

Here’s the full set of everything in its absolutely tempting stage.

Now you get to see the "damage" we are capable of, especially Zane. He actually finished all the rice and the last pieces of all the extra dishes that we ordered. Shereen however managed to exceed her own limits by filling at least 150% of what she normally is capable of. My oh my, we definitely gonna need some serious workouts after this.

Now there are some consequences to suffer after doing so much damage. Dear readers, please don’t try this at home. Individuals doing the following stunts are trained and experienced professionals.

Place: Restoran Sri Nirvana Maju
Specialty: Banana Leaf Indian Rice
Coordinates: 3°7′51"N   101°40′14"E
You can find the map of the place here.

Now I’m not sure if you think it’s right for a guy dieting to put up a post like this, but I don’t care man… for years I’ve been hearing that they have this and damned I just can’t find nobody who thinks it’s worth going (or maybe plain they just don’t wanna go with me :P, who knows).

Well once again I’m putting myself on this ad again to draft whomever is willing to go with me. Now I know there are those "friends" out there who would say "Ok I’ll go with you, just as long as you’re buying……" :S I’m just gonna say that you are just a "very very very good friend".

Back to the event, well I saw it at this Häagen Dazs outlet in Bangsar Village II, Jalan Telawi Satu (now why was I there? and why didn’t I just take up the "challenge" at that time? That’s another post again :P) and the ice cream craving genes just got activated. For those of you who are interested to join me, please let me know. For those who are interested in going with someone else more, now I’m not that selfish either. Here are the details.

Event : Häagen Dazs Indulge! All You Can Eat Ice Cream Buffet
Date : 6 March 2008 to 30 April 2008
Time : Mon - Fri 12PM to 3PM and 6PM to 10PM
Location : Häagen-Dazs 1-Utama (Old Wing), Häagen-Dazs AEON Bukit Tinggi and Häagen-Dazs Bangsar Village II (Jalan Telawi Satu)
Price : 12PM to 3PM - Adult: RM33.90++, Child: RM29.90++
           6PM to 10PM - Adult: RM36.90++, Child: RM29.90++

Now let’s hope everybody gets to enjoy the longer lasting pleasure. There was once this research article I read long time ago, it says ice cream, when we feel it melting in our mouths, indulging into that sensation, our brain chemically creates this enzyme (now I just can’t remember what’s the name already) which makes us feel, happiness. That was the first time I heard happiness is quantifiable. Now you can try to quantify your happiness with this event.

Now I wouldn’t wanna arrogantly pronounce this as the best Pan Mee in the world, so it’d just has to stay as the best in MY WORLD. It’s actually located in a small alley in between shops in Desa Setapak, Wangsa Maju. It has been there way before my first year in TAR College and until today, its soup Pan Mee and dry Pan Mee still mesmerizes my taste buds. That was like almost 10 years ago, and yet it still tastes like it was yesterday.

Well on this particular Sunday after an exhausting ball game, me and Zane went to Desa Setapak to grab a brunch. After years of work, I’ve actually not set foot here for really quite a while. So scouting a while leads me to making the decision to stick with the "Side Alley Pan Mee". When we were finding a nice table, Zane noticed this.

Oh my god they were actually tagged by the famous 8TV Ho Chak series (well I’m not sure which season and which episode, don’t ask me). So me and Zane ordered a large bowl of soup Pan Mee each and a single bowl of the dry curry pork chop Pan Mee.

Soup Pan Mee - The soup is as delicious as it was 10 years ago with all the other stuffs they add, like anchovies, meat balls, chinese fungus, minced pork, vege, etc etc to make it even more splendid. In the end, we were just plain drinking soup only where we added soup twice.

Then there’s this dry curry pork chop Pan Mee where thick hot curry toppings are poured onto the pork chop and to be mixed with the dry Pan Mee as well.

Well both of us agreed to the fact that, you need to add more of the thick curry sauce to be mixed with the whole Mee and pork chop to superbly enhance its tasty effects on our taste buds. Now this is us and only us, try this at your own risk cos it caused Zane to "drip bocor" due to its "hotness".

Whole lot more of thick curry sauce added to the dry Pan Mee, ah that’s more like it.

Now don’t ask me what’s the address for the stall cos I’m not even sure if there’s an address for it. No contact number as well. It’s just in a side alley between 2 rows of shops. All I can do is to attach this simple map and hope it helps you :P. As long as you are able to get to Desa Setapak, Wangsa Maju, I’m sure you won’t be able to miss it.

We were like totally bloated but totally satisfied. Well maybe I’m just an easily satisfied person I guess :P.

One thing good about being single, is that you get to slot in anything, anytime with anybody, going anywhere. And this St. Patrick’s day celebration held in Plaza Mont Kiara last Saturday (2008-3-15) was one of them slotted into my schedule.

Zane called and said there’s this event going on there and asked if I wanted to go. I just made a call to Emily to invite her and I never looked back. It was actually first time I took interest in such events (yeah I know I’m a little bit too old for it but hey what the heck :P).

As we arrived there, the event’s promotional banners were easily visible and not much guidance is needed to bring us to the event grounds. It does seem to be a very happening event and we were determined to enjoy ourselves.

Upon registration, which is required to get vouchers to redeem for a free pint of the Guinness Draught and also chances to take part in the games and contests they have at the event grounds, you get "tagged" with this fake tattoo of a shamrock (a three-leaf clover). Well of course you get to choose where you want it to be "tagged" on. I’ve seen people "tagged" on lots of weird places such as back of the neck, forehead, under the chin, below the ear, on the chest, on the biceps, etc. Too bad I couldn’t get them to "co-operate" by letting me take shots of those weird "tagged" places.

There are really a lot of delicacies on sale there, they call it the Guinness dishes where it’s best served with a cold pint of Guinness Draught. Here are some of the scrumptious dishes that the four of us tried out.

Grilled chicken wings which tasted like barbecued sausages. I don’t know how they do it, but they did it. Amazingly delicious. Bought by Ivin and Zane, but I stole one :P. Simply couldn’t resist it.

Ham and cheese sandwich which is mouthwateringly filled with cheese and ham (hey come on, what is a "ham and cheese sandwich" if it’s not filled with ham and cheese? :P) This was my dish.

Nachos with toppings of pickles and some other stuffs (Hey where are those toppings? Clumsy Chris spilled it on the Secret Recipe table while moving the piece loh. Sorry Emily.)

Ivin and Zane second pick was this Korean pizza or so it was called. They just couldn’t remember what is the name of this piece but it tasted well when the sauce provided is nicely seeped into the piece that ya gonna put into your mouth :P.

And in the end, the star of the event (well, besides St Patrick and the shamrocks), the Guinness Draught.

It didn’t taste like the Guinness Stout I used to remember (are they different?). It’s relatively light, compared to the other beers that I am used to. I’d just say it’s not my taste, I guess. I’m still a Heineken-guy, or a whisky/vodka/tequila-guy :P.

Zane and Ivin boozing up (not sure if Guinness Draught can actually booze Zane up cos he’s like me, the bla-bla-bla guy mentioned above :P)

Emily with her pint of it. Really didn’t occur to me she could drink though.

Leftover mess after our feast, sorry to those Secret Recipe waiters

Musical acrobatic acts by Zimboyz

String musical + circus performance by Vamp

Well the event lasted into the night but due to unforeseen circumstances (now this is another story, I need to put it in another post, if possible so that I get more posts :D) we had to split around 10PM but it has really been an enjoyable experience being part of such an event. Shoulda called more friends to join prior to the event next year.

As I’m writing this post, I’m still watching this movie I downloaded yesterday. Its international release date was on October 5, 2007 while it was released in Malaysia on December 6, 2007. Talks about the issue of marriage commitment and the meeting of individuals after marriage which one might find more compatible with. It could really be that I’m actually at a publicly and generally acknowledged age where I should be married / planning for marriage that it really caught my attention.

The story starts with a 40-year old guy, Eddie, who just got cold feet with marriage in his relationships where he kept on wondering whether he got the right girl. He even attended the marriage of his ex-girlfriend where he really got stung real hard. He was even arranged to be seated at the Singles’ table where he sat with kids and widows. Then on his way home, he actually met up with this gorgeous girl , Lila, on one way or the other they bumped up, dated, fell in love (or so he thought) and, through the details, got married. As quoted by his best friend, "at some point, you’ll just have to close your eyes and jump". Well jump he did, though.

Well after he "jumped", then only he found out during the honeymoon trip in Cabo, Mexico that his newly wedded wife doesn’t seem to be very much compatible with him at all. And to him, this seems to be the total nightmare that he’s totally afraid of all these years for not marrying. Well adding to the nightmare, is actually that he found the girl whom he really am compatible, Miranda, and thinks she’s the one. Now he finds himself torn between Lila and Miranda. Eventually both women found out the truth and he sufferred the consequences. As his passport was burnt by his wife Lila, he got stuck and couldn’t return to America and during that time, Miranda got married. Facing disappointments, he moved on with his life, opening a sports equipment rental shack in Cabo, Mexico. A year later, he met back with Miranda, who had separated with her husband. Unfortunately, he sorta got married again but then at the end, he said he will be "sorting things out".

Well all and all, I don’t know how you guys and girls out there think about it. For me, this ain’t just an ordinary love comedy cutscene. It’s an exact reflection of life where things like these are happening everyday and everywhere. We keep on asking why divorce rates are high, why suicide rates are high, why lives get ruined. It’s solely because people "jumped" before they think clearly. I’m really not trying to complicate things, but shouldn’t we actually be concerned about this so as to avoid all those disappointments, frustrations and sadness? Maybe people just get too lonely that sometimes instead of waiting for that right person, they just "jumped". Loneliness and age factor has really been scaring people enough these days to make them "jump" as well. Guess I’ll just have to keep on reminding myself not to "close my eyes and jump".