5 posts tagged “section 14”

Due to the majority of the visitors of this Notebook coming from Google searches on 'Cold Storage Jaya One', this post will be all about it. I was there today. The official opening is on this coming Thursday, 16th of April. On to the report...

There are two ways of accessing the supermarket [that I know of]. One is from the basement parking lot [if you're from B1, there's a travelator to lead you to the main floor], and one is from Jalan 13/6, along Wai Sek Kai.

Odd choice of colour [red] for the panel, because Cold Storage's colours are green and blue. The corridors in this side of the building are filled with small shop lots, a current trend in shopping centres where there are many food outlets, convenience and service shops located nearby the supermarket floor.

Just like how it was in Jaya Supermarket, there is a Guardian pharmacy; very good for getting antiseptic cream, cough lozenges, hairspray and vaginal douche.

The supermarket itself is sealed so I didn't get to wander about. It looks bigger than its Section 14 predecessor, has a special deli-looking section, live seafood tanks and organic produce.

By now the security guard was trying to chase me out of the floor, so that's it for now. I may update this post when I visit this place when it's officially open, and compare it to the nearby Jaya Grocer [where I usually shop my groceries at].

There is one more thing missing from this setting. A bookstore! Seriously, there is not one bookstore in the neighbourhood, unlike back in the day when there were two MPHs and one Popular in Section 14 alone. Borders would be a nice addition [so I don't need to travel so far to browse my favourite imported conceptual magazines].

Extra info: The Cold Storage in Section 14 was the finest supermarket around back in the day, and where even our late Tunku Abdul Rahman bought his groceries [my mother told me this]! There is an article on The Star Online about the Tunku launching his book there. Haha!

I patrolled the most of the important parts in Section 14 for about 1.7 hours. It was a really sunny day, and my skin probably turned one shade darker. I lurked about Dataran Tiga Dua, the playground nearby the rukun tetangga hall and other non-busy roads. I hung out with a cat while I ate some bread;

So. On the other day I paid Jaya Supermarket one last visit before the entire complex closes down on the seventh of February. It's probably my most-visited retail complex in my life. There was a time when it had Marks & Spencer! I mostly wanted to buy several cans of these 'exotic' sodas which I have not seen anywhere else, not even at Village Grocer.

Once I got to Cold Storage, I got a little sad looking at empty shelves. It looked like the place was looted. Fresh items was no longer in stock, along with some biscuits, boxed fruit juices, instant noodles.

There were some stuff that were on sale like canned food, junk food, tea and old Christmas stock. I bought a bag of potato skins for RM 3.

Ah, no more grocery-shopping in Section 14. Of course, I can always go visit Jaya Grocer but I'd have to cross the busy Jalan Semangat to get there, using an overhead bridge, so it's a little inconvenient.

On the very same day, I visited Jaya One, a newly-opened commercial centre [the one where PJ Live Arts are going to be at]. It's not a hundred percent complete, but some cafes and restaurants are flooded with mostly students from the TAR college next door.

There are Starbucks [they just have to be all over the place, don't they?], Secret Recipe, Overseas, Jaya Noodle House and Duck King among these blocks.

How do you like its architecture so far? It's an ideal place to open some Scandinavian home accessories shop, or a niche bookstore and stationers. But what that is more likely to appear are boring boutiques that go by the name of 'Pretty Fairy Collections' and Kian furniture.

First day of Ramadan; it rained for the first half of the day, then remained humid and cloudy the rest. Great way to start the month of fasting, right? After I visited my dentist for my overdue check-up, I walked to the most familiar Ramadan Bazaar, to me, which is the one beside The Right Angle at Section 14.

I used to walk to this bazaar almost everyday in Ramadan back when I lived on 14/28. As I came nearer to the bazaar, I spotted a number of luxury cars double-parking along 14/20. This particular bazaar attracts many VIPs, probably coming from Section 16 nearby...

One of the specialty of this bazaar is the popiah basah stall that sits right by the main road [I am sure everyone knows about this]. The line is forever long, which is ridiculous because in other months, the stall owner has his own shop at the Section 14 food court, and he never get queues this long. It's sort of like the situation with Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa at Kampung Baru. Long queues, but nothing outstanding about the food [actually I haven't tried it, because I am not the kind who would queue for so long just for food, unless you're talking about the IKEA buffet, which I MUST visit by the end of Ramadan].

Deeper into the bazaar are more stalls, selling every known dish in Malay cuisine, and more. Not to mention, cakes and jellies and desserts in many colours.

Cold drinks with excessive use of food colouring, such as sirap bandung, sugarcane, orange cordial, lime, cincau, watermelon etc. can be found here, too. Usually they cost RM 1 for a packet [serves four].

Other stalls include the mandatory grilled fish, tomato rice, nasi lemak, a range of soups made from cow's bones, chicken rice, creme caramel and roti jala. Anyone remember the stall that sells baked macaroni several years back? Odd thing that I see no stalls selling that nowayears.

Er, that's all about the Section 14 Ramadan Bazaar that I'll be writing, because from here, I'll be bringing you to better, crazier bazaars!

On the seventh day of Ramadan, we visit Bangsar, home of expats, yuppies and... everything else that I have mentioned before. A good place to 'cuci mata' and celeb-spotting. Just across the mosque is Lorong Maarof, where the bazaar is happening.

I arrived at about 15 minutes before 5 p.m. and the crowd is satisfyingly multi-racial. I am lucky to find a couple of stalls that were just about to begin operations. One stall arrived in a beat-up van; check out the goodies at the back!

I think Bangsar specialises in cakes and desserts, judging by the variety. Some of the popular types are kuih pelita [known as tako to me], currypuffs, bingka ubi, kuih bakar, cucur udang, apam and a riot of others.

I also spotted another newly-arrived stall that specialises in decorative jelly [seen in yesterday's Star newspaper]. I first saw them last year, and they ALWAYS arrive at 5 p.m. [stalls are open as early as 3 p.m.]. Let's check out what's in their boot.

There were a team of promoters giving out free samples of toothpaste to the crowd. I didn't get any, though =(

One of the 'in' items in Ramadan Bazaars, or any sort of pasar, is spiced fried chicken. A little story : two years ago I bought some steamed rice and spiced fried chicken at a particular stall at Section 14's bazaar, and it was the best-tasting fried chicken in the world. I don't know what happened to that stall, because on the following year, spiced fried chicken was found everywhere! I couldn't remember the stall's name or owner, but oh well.

Anyway, back to Bangsar! I am giving this stall some free publicity, simply because they used the word 'world' in their promo.

We come back to the decorative jelly stall. It's enjoying good business, apparently.

Time to say goodbye to the Bangsar. I didn't buy anything because I only had a few cents with me. But I have forgotten that I am able to buy some of the cakes, because the prices have been the same for at least five years, 3 pieces for RM 1. In the end I broke my fast with wheat pillows.

Let's check out the bazaar in Kelana Jaya. Apparently it has nearly 200 stalls! One good idea to have in mind when you can't decide what to buy - walk the whole bazaar and take note of the good stalls, then make your choice. That way, you don't end up buying a whole car-full of food. Ramadan's not the month to be wasteful!

Other than the food I have mentioned, it's impossible to not spot the fried seafood balls, ayam percik, putu piring, fried koay teow, nasi dagang / kerabu and laksa stalls.

If you didn't know, I am a fan of prawns. Fried or grilled, in chilli or curry, shelled or de-shelled, I eat them all, as long as they are cooked. These looked intriguing to me.

In every Ramadan bazaar, there is at least one stall selling dates, figs and other dried fruits. Such as this one.

Looking at all these delicacies, one can't avoid wondering how they can all be sold out by 7 p.m. That is a lot of food!

Grilled fish are not spared; here's a stall that cooking up my favourite, the sting ray.

The price of chicken is rising, so how do they make sure that these fire-roasted chickens sell out?

Kelana Jaya's bazaar specialises in blue drinks. I saw three stalls selling these attractive blue drinks, but here are two that I've manage to capture.

And would you like to eat a rainbow?

The most recent Ramadan bazaar I visited was the one at Section 17, where the Tuesday pasar malam is situated. This bazaar isn't too flashy; pretty average and most of the customers come from the nearby Universiti Islam Antarabanngsa and Universiti Malaya.

As you can see, it was a very hot and sunny Thursday. In the shade are some cakes for you to buy.

With a vast selection of Malay dishes.

Not to mention, MBPJ officers checking out the stalls' licence.

And boy, this pot of ketam masak lemak looked [and smelled] really good.

Jellies for dessert?

OK, I have covered four Ramadan bazaars in this post. Expect the next post to be more exciting, because I plan to visit the ones in the city centre. Among them are Jalan TAR, Kampung Baru, Putrajaya, Shah Alam and Ampang area. So many bazaars, such a short month.

And for everyone's convenience, here's a list of Ramadan Bazaars you can check out, taken from the Star newspaper's website. Happy hunting!

I was at the post office earlier today to send a postcard to Lance and after that I bought an ice lolly and walked around the commercial district and watched MBPJ officers issuing fines to illegally-parked cars, secondary school boys going into cyber cafes and a stray cat meowing. I went into several stores and was appalled by people who don't hold the door for me, who's just behind them. Yeah, everyone's getting ruder and ruder by the year.