A very interesting cafe

When in Ipoh, I finally managed to meet up with Win Nie after many years!

Doris didn’t know her (yet), but tagged along for the meal.

Win Nie took us to Chapter 6 Cafe, which is a very special cafe, as you will see ;)

There were teddy bears for a Christmas decoration.

Note the Doraemon on the mini-guitar!

sour mix (not mine) and matcha latte (mine)

spicy citronella chicken chop (mine)

big brunch (not mine)

For a meet-up, photos of people are important too!

After our food arrived, we could finally take a photo with our masks off.

That would have been the end of the post… but just before leaving the cafe, I requested to use the bathroom.

We couldn’t find it even after being given directions by the cashier, and finally an employee showed us where it was. (and opened the door for us, if I recall correctly)

See it yet? The doors slide to the left. It was no wonder we couldn't find it!

I still may not have taken a photo to post about it…but upon entering the restroom and closing the door, the first thing I did was to whip out my phone for a picture.

Because…

Where else would you see a restroom door like this? There are even instructions on how to lock the door, because otherwise anyone would have been stumped. (for a while at the very least!)

So when I went back out, I told my friends that I HAD to take a photo of the restroom doors from the outside. :P

Tong Sui Kai curry mee

Last month I went to Ipoh with Doris on a touristic trip. We visited no less than seven temples… but that is not for this post.

This post will be about food!

I had never properly eaten at Tong Sui Kai before, and this time we tried a few things. The only thing I liked was the curry mee.

My friend said that she said no to the pork skin and something else. I'm not sure how it would have looked like otherwise.

Additional ingredients picked out to go with with curry mee.

I never really liked this kind of chee cheong fun anyway. My friend liked it. I regret letting her choose between this and the curry chee cheong fun (there were five items on the menu, and these were the only two I felt I could eat); I should have chosen the curry one directly. But then maybe she would have found it hard to swallow… you’ll see why below below :P

The biscuit is too thick to be properly crispy, and the sotong kangkung is a bit…strange. It seems like the whole sauce is made with peanuts? And there are more peanuts sprinkled on top. I like peanuts (especially the sprinkled ones), but the creamy sauce is not for me… the same way I don’t really like creamy peanut butter, I guess. And the kangkung is all at the bottom.

So the only thing I would order again from these is the curry mee. However my friend didn’t like it…she says it was too spicy. (for her :P )

We have quite different tastes in this respect… we also went to Choong Kee for their yong tau foo. My family prefers Ah Peng’s yong tau foo (in the same area), but we didn’t go there because it’s only open till around noon, and we had other things to eat up to lunchtime :P So we went to Choong Kee for a late lunch/snack.

I asked for curry soup this time, since I didn’t recall that their soup (or yong tau foo, for that matter) tasted good. The curry soup was definitely better than the clear soup. And here my friend liked the curry, while I said that it was not spicy enough :P 

We had also gone to Moon de Moon earlier (where I didn’t take any photos because I had already done so before), and we ordered some of their fishball items. She disliked some of the fishballs because they were too bouncy (“kew”, or “Q”), while that is what we like about Ah Peng’s yong tau foo… So I think going to Choong Kee was a better choice for her! (and now I see why Choong Kee can be so famous :P )

Fear of the unknown

...inspired by this unknown green insect landing on my computer screen! 

I still don't know what it is, but I swatted it and threw it away. It could have lived if it tried to fly away (I wasn't going to chase after it), but it didn't.

Tortoises on a journey

This week's theme is journey.

Where are you guys journeying to? (yes, they were moving, which is why they're blurred in the photo)

When in Ipoh, we went to a few temples. In Sam Poh Tong, there was a tortoise pond in an enclosure. (with a lot more tortoises than these!)

Peeking into spaces

What do you see?

If you look closely, you can see not one, but two sacred praying altars! (Granted, the second one is facing away...)

Onion in low light

This week's theme was low light.

I had an onion that was starting to sprout, so I put it in water. It grew better than expected! (or maybe because I just haven't tried it with big onions before)

I actually tried snapping a photo from the top, but the leaves are all in disarray so I don't think it looks that good. :P And it's also less representative of low light.

Since I took these photos (almost a week ago when the theme came out), it has been partially harvested, then fully harvested when the bulb started rotting more and more.

People are stupid

Some time ago, I found this sharing on Facebook (it was on 20 October; I had to look for it again and saw the date I shared it). Here’s the link to the original photo that I saw on Facebook, but I don’t know whether it will be there forever, so I’m re-uploading the image here.

This actually made me recall something lots of people say to me. They tend to say, “Eat more, you are so thin” (liar, liar...but let’s let it go) or “Eat more, you are not fat” (I can better believe this one). But what they overlook is the fact that I am not fatter than I currently am, precisely because I don’t eat more than that! Idiots… *eye-roll*

The following is just a rough transcript of what’s in the image, because I had such a hard time finding it back since it was not typed -_- :

This person says they started using Head and Shoulders for their dandruff years ago, and one day they thought, "Why do I still use dandruff shampoo when I don't have dandruff any more?" And bam, the dandruff came back!

Then another person replies with a similar story, but a whole lot riskier: This person had a liver transplant and the doctor told them that they need to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of their life. He warned that they might be tempted to stop taking the medication if they feel fine, but if they do, their liver is going to start failing and they will need to look for another liver.

When asked why anyone would ever stop taking the medication, the doctor replied, "people are stupid".

Crooked imperfection

See it?

This week's theme was imperfection. I happened to go to the dentist...

Actually I think this crooked frame has been there for a few visits. :P

Toasted pop tarts

Months back, I wrote about finally trying pop tarts.

That was before I tried toasting them. Now that I have toasted them, here's an update.

Surprise! (or not) They taste better after toasting.

I'm not sure how people put them in pop-up toasters (or do they?) since the tarts are a lot slimmer than bread slices. I used an oven toaster.

I didn't flip them in the middle of toasting, because of the frosting. We can't really see much difference from the photos, but after toasting, the tarts are slightly browner, and most importantly, slightly crispy.

The filling is also more gooey (and warm).

Again, that's hard to see from the picture, so you'll just have to take my word for it. :P

So I'm toasting the rest of them.

Obsessions

The theme for this week is obsession.

I had a few ideas for this, and the first one (that I rejected) was taking a photo of multiple Pikachu. :P 

In the end, this one makes the best photo... books piled up high!

There's still too much empty space for it to look like an obsession...but I didn't feel like rearranging the books for a better "packed" look. :P

While I was at it, I took some photos of these butter rolls...it is a sort-of obsession as well...I can't even buy any other bread from this bakery any more, because every time I go there, I just want to have this.

See the buttery insides?

Some time ago I bought some similar rolls at the Aeon bakery (La Bohème), but even though they are also called butter rolls, they are a sham! The ingredient list doesn't have any butter in it either, only margarine. This one doesn't have any ingredients listed on the package, but the taste of butter is wonderful. :D