5 posts tagged “section 17”

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!

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!

Tuesday found me very empty. I woke up, took a shower and remembered that there is a pasar malam every Tuesday at Section 17. I have done a tour of it late last year but wasn't conscious enough to document it on VOX, so I'm posting this to let everyone know how awesome pasar malams can be.

I got to the Section 17 pasar malam at around ten past six in the evening. The sun was abnormally bright at that time, and it casted long shadows of people who were heading to the pasar malam, including mine.

Now, I know all of you are familiar with pasar malams, thanks to my endless coverage and photographs.... and since that they are not good enough for my Flickr, I'll just dump them all here. Click on a picture you find intriguing for its description.

Hello. This post is going to be a little different than others because... I've got a guest editor writing in! Identify yourself, guest editor [his comments are in green]!

Hello I am JK and I think I am a bad influence for Aina for being such a homo.

First I shall write about my tea snack at Food Foundry.

I came across a blue leaflet among stacks of old newspaper in the kitchen. I've heard of this place several times before, and apparently, Section 17 PJ is the new 'in' place to eat. This particular cafe, Food Foundry, has a specialty with Mille Crepe cakes. They are like a thousand [actually about two dozens] of super-thin pancakes stacked above one another. The one I had was the Strawberry Mille Crepe and it had strawberry jam and cream in between the slices.

I enjoyed it with a glass of delicious icy soda flavoured with Green Apple Monin Syrup, which is spot-on for the blazing temperatures we've been experiencing nowadays.

Even in hot weather, the epicurean-in-training Aina could be seen wearing fashionable layers of "fall" clothing—well, sometimes, like if she has to go for Datin-esque events.

This cafe is located within a block of beige apartments, which looks like a Singaporean boarding school built back in the 1970s.

The drying rug is the same IKEA rug I have sitting on my hall's floor.

Alright, I got home at half-past five and had a wonderful idea of cleaning my car interior. I got rid of all the sand and mineral water bottles and leaflets and loose particles and stashed my school work at the boot. Now, it's back to being a four-seater.

I took my second shower for the day and got dressed for my little outing with JK. Then I received an e-mail from him, saying that he'll be out of work late. To be precise, an extra hour late. 'Luckily' I was stuck in a jam en route to his place, because it was the time when everyone's on the road from their workplace. I finally got myself to JK's residence when it was dark and waited for him by the burger stall in front of 7-Eleven.

The vision of her standing in my neighbourhood is always very surreal and interesting. There amongst groups of sweaty sport-kids, mat motors, straight haired denim clad women or burmese waiters, she conspicuously appears—poised with her signature asymmetrical haircut and a sort of impudent, non-trendy way of matching clothes. The sight never ceases to make the spirits soar. YES I AM SO LAME.

If you're in any 7-Eleven outlet in Malaysia, you can't miss these Ramly burger stalls. They can't exist without one another. Many people think that their burgers are way better than the ones from fast food outlets, and that made them [fast food outlets] open their eateries until 3 a.m. [some are 24-hours].

Finally JK appeared down the staircase and we were prepared to go to Mini Genting, even though we were supposed to go there to watch the sun set. But then we got lost [again] and passed by the eerie-looking Desa Waterpark and ended up on the opposite side of the highway that goes to Cheras. We gave up and headed to Bangsar. There was a exhibition / show / gathering / socialising session going on at the Valentine Willie art space that JK wants me to go to. According to him, it shall be an interesting way to get to know the local artsy people and how they mingle and 'network'.

Actually the truth is I just wanted weekend companionship :(

We parked the car at Bangsar Village and walked to the new extension of the mall to have a light dinner at Marmalade cafe.

We got a table near the window and sat upon these... skinny beanbags that didn't give much padding to our bottoms. I had a plate of kiddie bangers & mash and kiddie banana shake while JK had his healthy carrot cake and cucumber smoothie-ish drink. We reserved some space in our guts to make way for the "Alexis / La Bodega food that will be served at Valentine Willie".

We got there at 9 p.m. and boy was it packed with people. We stood about for awhile, watching people talking and enjoying their free satay, currypuffs and beer [definitely not the tapas and hors d'oeuvre we expected]. A lady from the theclickproject identified herself with JK. I went "Oh, so you must know Ena. I was her student", and then she informed me that Ena's pregnant and doesn't go out to hang out as often as before.

While JK and the lady chatted, I took several pictures of the crowd.

Then I spotted my ex-lecturer Laura Fan within the crowd and said hi to her. She said hi back, but with a blank and faked delighted face, probably because she forgot who I was. And in less than ten seconds, she went off to chat with other people, and JK commented that she was quite rude for shaking me off without a little conversation. Well, I was a bit glad that she decided to leave me because I didn't need to talk to her anyway.

We continued our little observation and spotted some 'famous people' like Bernard Chauly [of Gol & Gincu], an editor of Kakiseni, theatre people, and of course, the artists of the works on display.

One of them, local Sharon Chin has this sort-of interactive thing where the visitors can SMS to a number, telling a secret, and let it end up on a wall. JK and I SMSed our dirty secrets, which did end up on the wall.

Aina's secret was rather gay. She claimed the thing she mentioned started even before I introduced her to any download. Too bad Sharon placed hers in between two panels of glass—it was not very clear (if not Aina would have posted it for scandalous aspects). The Secrets session seemed sort of like a live Post-Secret (or SMS-Secret in this case), so mysteriously 'performed' out by the red-dressed artist. The bearer and shower of secrets.

We did some more people-watching, looking at the art work and eating some cupcakes and drinking Ribena. We were in the resource room when we saw a bag that looks like a Freitag ripoff. It had a sticker that went "Garbage From Jogja" which JK concluded "it must be the Indonesian artist's bag".

We went up to him and I asked about his bag, then he laughed "Haha she's interested in my bag!" and the three of us went to his bag to talk about it a little. He told me that it's a brand from Korea. Then we started to talk about the garbage sticker, his art [it is a wall full of nostalgic black-and-white photographs of anonymous people. Makes me wonder where they are now] and what he does for a living. Oh, by the way, his name is Angki Purbandono [refer to the right photo at the picture bar above - he's the guy with horn-rimmed glasses, holding a can of beer]. He's a really friendly guy also.

It was about 10.10 p.m. when we decided to leave the gallery. I can't believe I spent more than an hour at a place like that. Ridiculous! Anyways, when we got back to the car, I decided to check out this little upper-middle-class, affluent yuppies restaurant / bar run by a team of gay men called The Attic. It was situated on the upper floor in a row of shophouses, on a hill called Bukit Bandaraya [also where the posh bungalows and condominiums are].

We climbed up the stairs and found ourselves at this 80% occupied room of people, some were foreigners, having their dinner, drinking Sangria and chatting away. JK told me that the food here is dead expensive - RM 24 for a bread pudding. We checked out the balcony which had a view of the posh houses up the hill and the tip of KL Tower and KLCC.

Just when we were ready to leave, someone took on the piano and a lady started to sing some jazz song. What all yuppies enjoy hearing. Makes them somewhat classy and have high taste. Well, jazz is played at Starbucks also, and even trash people go there to have a drink.

I sent JK back to his HQ and drove back home. I think I'm getting quite familiar with Old Klang Road and the way to go back to PJ without using the Federal Highway. The roads are still new and smooth, so driving on them at night is quite comfortable. As I was about to reach home, my father called me to express his anger towards my disappearance late at night. =(

JK, more daytime activities, please!