3 posts tagged “supermarket”
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!
Eighth of November was a public holiday. Deepavali, to be exact. JK and I collaborated again for a day of grocery-shopping. Obviously when we mean one thing, we end up doing many things. Such as having lunch at a very popular Chinese kopitiam called Yut Kee in Dang Wangi.
JK was there with his partner, Seaweeds. What they had was a plate of soupy noodles and a plate of black noodles. I don't know what it's made of, so I avoided it and had kaya toast and a glass of Sarsi instead.
All tables were full during tea-time. There was an old man playing a... um, a sort of Chinese wired musical instrument at the front that served as a background music for those who are having their Mee Suah and Roti Babi.
After that FOC meal, thanks to Seaweeds, JK and I went back to my car and on the way, we spotted a group of people making Kuih Kapit.
Kuih Kapit is made by smearing a flour mixture onto these big tongs, them snapped shut upon a grill for several seconds. When it is cooked, with bare hands one would peel off the wafer and fold it in quarters. They offered me a sample, which was still hot but has gone crispy.
Down the road of Jalan Kemunting sits Heritage Mansion, a new place for socialising, lepaking and just chilling out. It's a fairly new place, but the building is probably over 50 years old.
The first thing we saw when we entered the 'mansion' were golden-upholstered furniture with trendy black chandeliers. Deeper into the mansion was a bar and dining tables overlooking the outdoor water feature and a beautiful aquarium.
The front lawn was a little empty because the furniture was all stacked away. There is a fenced grass section where you get to see two rabbits chilling out in their cage.
Well, back to the car because JK was yearning to get this drape top from Bird, which he saw last week. We parked the car at Menara Standard Chartered for its cheap rates [RM 3.50 per entry on public holidays]. Nothing much to say about the time we spent at Bukit Bintang, just a heap of disappointment for JK because his desired top was sold out. We immediately got back to the car and headed to Mont Kiara to check out the shop Wondermomo.
Over there, we checked out some shirts, jeans and dresses because JK needs an outfit for MIFA [Malaysia International Fashion Week]. Apparently I am invited as well, but lucky for me, I already know what to wear. But one thing I would buy from Wondermomo, if I was given RM 500, is this beautiful tartan zip-up dress by Alexander McQueen. It covered my body perfectly, that it made the store girl go "It really shows your breasts". Yikes!
Well, we ended up buying nothing because the objective for the day was to shop for groceries at Bangsar Village, which we did right after checking out some shops at Jalan Telawi and having dinner at an organic food restaurant at Bangsar Village's lower ground floor..
I had this rice set called 'The Eggperience' with a glass of Viking Lover smoothie, while JK had a plate of deer Nasi Lemak and a mug of soy bean milk.
The food was nice, but it wasn't tasty to me because I don't like vegetables, but luckily JK took my long beans, carrots, tofu and fungus away.
After digesting all of those healthy food which I ate just because I was hungry, we headed straight to the supermarket and began to survey and pick instant coffee, cereal, milk, toiletries, mineral water, frozen foods and others.
Not much good-looking foreigners were seen shopping. Maybe because they prefer to do it on Saturday mornings.
JK and I spent about 10 minutes at the chilled herbs and salads section, sniffing out Rosemary, Thyme, Sage and a bunch of other leaves that smelled like grilled salmon and bug-repelling liquid. But we bought none because we just don't know how to cook them [Jamie Oliver should be useful for times like these].
After about an hour or so of shopping, we got to the cashier to pay for our purchases. Please refer to this post's title to know how much I paid for the 32 items I have bought. ARGH!
JK bought his favourite nutty muesli and green tea, which costs about RM 50. I feel bad for paying so much for these imported products..... so to balance it out, I practiced my no-plastic-bags policy and used my DIMPA shopper to fill in my groceries.
Crepes. All of that must be at least 10 kg heavy, not including the mineral water bottles.
Hm... for the coming days [weeks, I hope], I'm not spending any money buying food and just eat whatever I have bought. No more Mee Bandung, Nasi Lemak, Mickey Dees, Nasi Paprik and dried tomato garlic bread from The Loaf.
As I have expected, my first post for October is running 15 days late. Still keeping a low profile to respect the month of Ramadan. But this does not mean that I have been keeping myself away from the outside world. It's the time to go Raya shopping!
I'm not done lurking around Pavilion. Just last week on the third, I dropped by Pavilion to do my pre-Raya shopping survey. More shops were visited, more clothes were tried on and more areas have been covered. The first picture was taken at the double-leveled TANGS department store.
Hurrah, British cult shoe brand s***r is available here, waiting to be worn by local hipsters. I particularly enjoy the high-tops designed by Best One [seen at the top right of the picture]. Priced at about RM 300+, it's something I'd wear to add excitement my boring t-shirt and jeans get-up.
Later, I reached TOPSHOP to see if I'll get bored with the collection. I did, so I walked out from its outdoor entrance, which lead me to this little alley next to Regent Hotel [I think they are renaming it to Millenium Towers or something similar]. Other than a taxi stand, one can check out the street furniture, such as these lamp posts.
And here's a look of a section that's still under construction. I think it's going to be filled with restaurants because I saw some lots wrapped in restaurant-like names. Several coffee joints or kopitiam can be found here, too.
Anyway, back to the great indoors, where I checked out the spacious Times bookstore. Hm... the fittings and furnishings are pleasant, but the book selection are kind of boring.
At least they have a new iMac for you to find your favourite titles [don't even think of fooling about on Photobooth, the computer is set to run the book library database and nothing else].
I left after jotting down some comments in their guestbook, suggesting that they should bring in more art and design books.
The next picture I took is of the trendy, be-seen-at eatery called The Loaf [check out the site, it's very informative and filled with seductive pictures of the stuff they sell]. It is co-owned by the country's former prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, which makes it even more visitable.
The picture above shows the dining floor, where you can feast on lobsters and pasta. To get to the real loaf, please descend the staircase and be intrigued by the scent of freshly-baked goodies.
Herbs, garlic and dried tomatoes and aubergine dominate the savoury bread selection. That is why I immediately picked up my bread basket to get a slab of garlic bread topped with dried tomatoes, and a bun garnished with dried chilli and aubergine.
To trend yourself out, snack on your peach danish and an ice-filled glass of syrup-flavoured water with your gym buddies at the outdoor seating, facing the oncoming vehicle and human traffic in the busiest part of Bukit Bintang.
And just a leap away are these blocks of posters of fashion models, with the heading 'Sayangi Kuala Lumpur'. How fitting [sarcasm, of course]. I also spotted a DSLR-equipped man shooting his girl partner who was making a cheesy 'peace' sign in front of a poster.
Just before I decided to leave, I visited the disastrously lame 'gourmet supermarket' called Mercato. Please check out the patheticness of the cheapo marble tiles flooring [up close, they look like the tiles you find in some old-fashioned townhouse in the San Peng flats area, behind Pudu]. There weren't many people shopping, which made this particular Malay family featuring a tudung-clad woman, to think that it was a good idea to have a coffee at the bakery [it was a few hours before break-fast time]. Since that the man was staring at me to see if I was Malay, I ventured into the aisles to move my attention to the products that are sold.
The lighting was so bad that it made nothing stand out. It was hard to spot the products on the shelves, but I did find jars of jam from Norway...
On a different shelf, I spotted this hilarious packaging of bin liners. A bare-legged blonde model promoting the use of trash bags.
My Pavilion trip ends here. The next location is The Gardens. Not much is going to be talked about, because I just want to let you make a comparison between Mercato, and the supermarket here called Marketplace by Cold Storage.
Weirder things can be found here, such as this... thingie. Anyone care to explain?
There were more people a-shopping here, than the 7 people I saw at Mercato. I guess it's due to the curiousity of the MidValley crowd that tends to be noisy large families.
On that night, I broke my fast with my grandmother, cousins and mother at her place with a meal of fried rice and Bamya with baguette from a gathering that happened the night before [which I regretted for not attending]. Oh well.
The next day, Sunday the seventh, my mother and I began to hunt for my baju kurung to wear on the first day of Raya, at Bangsar Shopping Centre. My mother picked out a simple but lovely purple set, which was a bargain at RM 179. My mother also did some cookie-shopping at the outdoor stalls, and swept off a bundle of sagun [a type of coconut candy]. Here's a picture of the cookies my mother did not buy.
Soon after that, we headed to The Gardens and then to Pavilion, because she has never been to either malls. I did buy some clothes that aren't really exciting but that's what you end up with if you're on a budget.
The day soon got dark when we reached Starhill Gallery to break our fast. My mother suggested that we should have some tapas, but ended up eating at a dim sum place.
We didn't expect to get full so quickly, so I took home the rest of the dumplings.
Fast forward to the tenth. I was craving for some Kuih Jongkong at the Ramadan Bazaar in Bangsar Baru, but more than half of the stalls [and crowd] have disappeared! How disappointing. Looks like I have to wait for another year to get a taste of Kuih Jongkong.
I spent that afternoon at TMC to buy some instant porridge and honey cakes.
The next day, I had to run some errands for my mother. This was the day when I first reached Bukit Damansara, which led us to a van selling pomegranate. We decided to break our fast at Seri Melaka, TTDI. After ordering our food, we paid the nearby Ramadan Bazaar a visit to have a last look of the stalls. Enjoy this picture of juiced out sugar cane.
The next post will be about how I celebrated my Hari Raya. Not the best, but there were memorable moments. Keep on lurking.
