Charms Cafe

Charms Cafe is located along the linkway between the old & new wing of 1Utama. We like the Vietnamese decor of the eatery especially the quaint lampshades. Our choice for brunch today was the fried chee cheong fun. The cafe is noted for its novel approach towards everyday stuff. The Vietnamese coffee Daklak is our favourite, it has a strong & slightly bitter taste. The coffee is dripped from a special sieve perched on top of the cup. Another Charms outlet had just opened at The Curve in Mutiara Damansara. We'll be sure to drop by real soon!



Fried chee cheong fun



Daklak - Vietnamese coffee



Vietnamese lampshades

TT session at The Curve

Another meeting of PhotoMalaysia forummers was held in Starbucks at The Curve in Mutiara Damansara last night. Treated to some new toys like the Sigma 70-300mm F/4-5.6 APO DG Macro acquired by Shooter couple of days earlier. Awesome reach for sniping! Autofocus is slow in low light but usable. At around RM750-00, quite a reasonable performance. Of course, the highlight of the evening had to be Sunor's Nikon D2X mounted with the AF-S DX Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED. This had all the guys drooling over that set-up. Overall cost should be exceeding RM20K. Quite an eventful outing & met some new chaps from the forum. Kudos to DPNikon for initiating such meet-ups!

LR - logan, cheeshion, chuahlh, shooter, dpnikon, wasabi, timothyc, mydeuter, fahmie, mohamadfazli, elimch, stokie, kvct

Bee Coffee

My favourite kick-start in the morning. A 2-in-1 kopi-o in a convenient coffee bag that you can soak in hot water. Manufactured in Butterworth, I can hardly find it in KL. Have to resort to getting my sis from Penang to supply. Very aromatic & strong Hainanese type of black coffee. The kind you can still get in Taiping for RM0.70 a cup. Directions : Put sachet in a cup. Add 200ml boiling water. Stir after soaking for 2-3 minutes. But I have a better method. Put the water (room temperature) in a mug. Microwave on power high for 1.5 minutes. Add sachet into mug & nuke for another 30 secs. You get a stronger taste. Recently found out they have a website where you can order online too. Not bad for the humble kopi-o. Found its way to cyberspace.

Little Cravings

This outlet in 1Utama, opposite the Giant Hypermart, offers genuinely home-made nyonya kueh. We know that for a fact as the owner is my ex-colleague Mei Lean. Favourite item is the kueh talam, rich & creamy coconut milk topping, definitely worth several helpings!

Good Evening Bangkok

Located in the new wing of 1Utama, this is part of a chain of Thai restaurants in the Klang Valley. The others incude Bangkok Jam in Bukit Bintang, Bangkok Jazz in Chulan Square, Basil in Bangsar Village and another in 1Utama called Just Thai. Decked out in traditional Thai decor, they serve pretty much authentic Thai food. My sister, Beng Choo from Penang was in town and we had a quick lunch there before she hit the shopping trail...



Miang Kam - an appetiser



Clear seafood tom yam soup



Mango salad