on the plate - Tepi Sawah Restaurant, Ubud, Bali

For some reason I decided to add a review on some overseas stuff as well. Let's start with something from last year. Went for a trip to Bali over the Easter holidays, stayed at this place called Tepi Sawah Resort. It's a small boutique resort in Ubud, a town near the middle of the island of Bali. It's quiet, peaceful, and far removed from the chaos that is Kuta (the tourist capital of Bali, and the place where the bombings took place)

One of the nights we just stayed at the resort and took in some of the resort food, as guests at the resort we got a discount on dining at the restaurant.

A platter of mixed rice, Balinese style. Sorry I didn't get a good picture and this is rather dark. It had rice, some satay, vegetables, tempe (Indonesian beancurd stuff) and some other stuff, I don't remember. It was good.

And the star of the show, one FULL LARGE rack of pork ribs. This was obviously while I was still learning how to use the camera to take pictures, especially in low light.

The pork ribs were, quite simple put, absolutely delicious. As you can see, the rack takes up pretty much the whole plate. They were succulent and tender, and simply basted with a bit of barbecue sauce and served with fries (not pictured). And the best part? The whole rack of ribs with fries only came up to a grand total of RM18-19 (or thereabouts, at the exchange rate of that time). Incredible.

cool orangey-green (or is it greenish orange?)

Spotted this really cool guy in my garden a while back. Quite a unique color for a dragonfly, eh?

on the plate - Coffee Ritual @ Section 14 PJ

yes, introducing Coffee Ritual, in Section 14, near the old Jaya and the Digital Mall. In fact, it's just down the road from TGI Friday's.

was picking up my violin one evening and we were hungry, and this was kinda opposite my friend's violin shop. So, we popped in as it looked decent.

the place is spacious and clean, with a pleasant atmosphere.

They have three options that you can choose from on the menu, firstly, you can choose anything ala carte from the menu, or, you can choose any main and turn it into a combo, which adds a drink; third, you can choose almost any main and turn it into a three course mail, with either soup and bun or salad, the drink, and dessert to go with it. Not a bad deal.

So, we had a black pepper chicken crepe, and a cajun chicken chop.

I had the three course meal, but was too hungry to snap pictures. The soup and roll went quickly. All I can tell you is that the tomato soup was creamy and very tasty, one of the better tomato soups I've had so far. The roll was soft and warm, and went superbly with the butter and dipped into the soup.

We had to wait quite a long time for the main courses to come, I think if not for the soup and roll, I might have been flat on the floor after a while :p

the black pepper chicken crepe was very peppery. It came with a side of salad. It was alright, nothing really special. The cream sauce was infused with a lot of peppery taste and it kinda permeated the entire dish. Not too bad but not something I'd really go for again.

Why is it that nobody here knows how to really do cajun chicken? Throwing on a few herbs and pouring gravy on it does NOT constitute calling it cajun chicken. Note to anybody attempting to make cajun chicken, use the internet and see how it's done right. Don't go passing off regular chicken chop with a few herbs sprinkled in as real cajun chicken.

/rant over

Anyway, the "cajun" chicken was actually decent, just that it wasn't cajun in any sense of the word. The baked potato that came with it was steaming hot and tasty, although didn't have quite enough sour cream. The vegetables were excellent, though and the chicken was tasty and nicely done.

All in, I wouldn't mind going to this place again, although the parking situation in Section 14 might put me off from attempting to go again. The food is decent, as are the drinks (iced honey ftw!) but the service, although friendly and good, can be slow (coming out from the kitchen... can't fault the front line waiters).

Alright, ratings

Food: 6.8/10

Drinks: 7.1/10

Service: 6.5/10 (I wanted to give two different ratings, but this is an average)

Where to go (for those with gps): 35 Jalan 14/20, Petaling Jaya

(03) 7956-1080

eager anticipation

"just a few more rounds"

30 turns later

"I'm almost done conquering these stupid Mongols. I'll stop when I get their capital city"

5 turns later

"What? Those darn Romans turned on me and conquered one of my cities. I'll show them"

8 turns later

"how the heck does a horseman defeat an armored gunship? it doesn't make sense"

20 turns later

"just a few more rounds"

CIVILIZATION 5 come quickly!!!

on the screen: How to Train Your Dragon 3D

urgh. Back at work, after a relaxing holiday in Krabi. Couldn't wake up this morning for work, but oh well. Managed to catch a flick last night at GSC Midvalley.

How to Train Your Dragon was one of those movies that didn't have much hype surrounding it, at least not here. Saw a large billboard for it near my house, but it wasn't promoted by the cinemas nearly as much as any of the other recent blockbusters.

After a few good reviews, though, we decided to give it a whirl and see if it really was any good. And it was. This is one of the few movies that actually seems like it does have a point in being in 3D, unlike some other movies that were all hyped up in 3D but just didn't really seem to be effective in that medium.

A heart-warming story and excellent graphics along with good voice acting make for a good experience, despite the corny title. I'll give it a 7/10

hanging in there

Wednesday is almost over, weekend is imminent. Whoop-dee-doo! : )

hates people cutting in, either in person or on the road

A common sight, especially at traffic lights, is cars blocking another lane while trying to jump queue and cut in front of a line of cars that are patiently waiting for their turn. Sometimes, it doesn't even need to be a traffic light, it could simply be a u-turn or some other place where people have to slow down.

It really gets me very mad at these people. Is their time more precious than mine? Do they have fewer hours in a day? Do they have their pants on fire or something? The thing is, it's easy to blame this on the 'bengs' but lots of people do it, young girls, older gents, even family men with their entire families in the car, all swoop in at the last minute and just cut in and cause even more traffic to build up with their selfish actions.

The worst of the lot, if you honk them, will simply slam on their brakes right at the intersection and not allow anybody else to pass for a minute or so. As if it's your fault that they're downright rude and have the manners of a Neanderthal. Actually that's an insult to Neanderthals, I'm sorry.

And sometimes, they will block an entire lane that's actually free to turn, simply because they want to get ahead of a few cars. The complete selfishness of these people astounds me. How can they actually go about their business and all and even sleep at night? Would they be angry if someone did it to them?

So, because of the actions of a few idiots, who can't wait, honest drivers who have been waiting for 5, 10, 15 minutes, get forced to wait longer, simply because some uneducated idiot can't wait a bit.

Meanwhile, I have the same peeves with people who try to check out baskets full of items at express lanes in supermarkets. I mean, can't they READ when the sign says 8/10/whatever items or less? If there were like 11 items or something I'd understand, but I don't understand how they are going to try to sneak like 102 items through the express lane.

The beauty of this is, when the cashier has the guts to stand up to them, they get upset. They either argue with the cashier, or sometimes they just leave in a huff and leave all their items behind. Yeah, way to go, getting all upset because someone had the temerity to stand up for what was right. They can go without their groceries, for all I care.