Last Friday, I experienced my first emotional breakdown in ages when I was caught in a traffic jam heading towards the KL Convention Centre for Babyface‘s concert. After sitting in the car for 2 1/2 hours in KL’s rush hour traffic, the air conditioner in my car suddenly stopped working. Things went downhill from there. Unable to wind down my window in the Smart Tunnel, I persevered in the heat, sweat dripping down my back, and my body feverish from a bout of flu. Within minutes, a loud clanging sound emanated from the engine. I panicked. Don’t die on me now, don’t die on me, I prayed. In my stationery position, I glanced at my side view mirror, and *gasp*, I could see smoke billowing up from the undercarriage, diffusing the light from the car behind me. OMG, the car’s going to explode, my eyes widened with apprehension. I had obviously been watching too many car chase scenes on TV which end in a fiery blast. I called Bald Eagle on the mobile phone, sobbing and saying my goodbyes.

As I approached the open air carpark where a long queue had already formed, my car rattling louder than a construction site, I gestured to the driver in front of me to let me through first. I circled my arms in a big O with a whoosh at the end, my eyes showing the terror that I felt, as I acted out an exploding car scene (mushroom…kabooom!) to the driver so that he would take pity on me. The fella was obviously lacking in compassion or imagination (c’mon dude…it’s a universal exploding car gesture!) and ignored me. Bugger. To cut a long story short, I made it to the carpark in one piece with no explosion in sight. Babyface should realise that I almost gave up my life for him.

The concert helped calm my nerves; I’m a sucker for soppy love songs from the 80s, so when Babyface sang Gone Too Soon as a tribute to Michael Jackson (many years back, a tribute by Michael Jackson to Diana, Princess of Wales), I let go of my angst, wept a bit and generously allowed Bald Eagle to hold my hand. The similarities were startling. If my car had exploded that night, Gone Too Soon would have been Bald Eagle’s tribute to me. Like a comet blazing across the evening sky, gone too soon…..

Hehe.

There’s a reason why I’m an accountant and my brothers are engineers; upon inspecting the next day, my brother pointed out to me that the compressor for my air conditioner had konked out (ta-da…the source of the loud engine sound), and it would cost me RM1,500 to replace it. Like Bald Eagle, he laughed at my exploding car theory. (My brother has no imagination either.)

I’m poorer by RM1,500, but I’m alive. Everytime I close my eyes, I thank the Lord that I’ve got you, and you’ve got me too…..

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Golden Sauce Noodles

This post is about love. My love for 80s love songs, my love for Bald Eagle and my love for noodles.

Originally supposed to be called Canoodling (or at least, that’s what the sign on the scaffolding indicated before it was removed), It’s A Noodle Bar finally opened its doors after overcoming its teething problems. The decor is very much industrial with a hint of quirkiness in the form of suspended table lamps from the ceiling. The menu is extensive enough with its main servings consisting of a variety of Asian style noodles. From familiar dishes like assam laksa and pan mee, to foreign sounding names like golden sauce noodles and Indonesian baba noodles, the only type of noodles missing would probably be Western pastas.

Raw Salmon with Relish

Fried Eggplant with Chicken Floss

The Raw Salmon served with diced onions, cucumber, pomegranate and pineapple relish and basil leaf was an interesting concoction but lacked a slight saltiness that would have made it more enjoyable. I’ve always liked deep fried eggplant with spicy chicken floss (the first time I tried this was at Robson Heights Seafood Restaurant in Seputeh and I was bowled over by this dish); the version served here was less crisp but still tasty. At RM5, I thought it was very reasonably priced.

Indonesian Baba Noodles

Fish Fillet Vermicelli

The Golden Sauce Noodles came in a bowl of yellow, mildly sour and very milky curry (thanks to a generous helping of coconut cream) which was further thickened with shredded kembong fish, and garnished with pineapple, cucumber and keropok. I preferred this over the Indonesian Baba Noodles, which came in a spicier gravy together with chicken, potatoes and eggplant. The flavour of the curry lacked depth and didn’t seem to be dominated by any particular ingredient (eg. chicken or fish or prawn). My favourite for the evening was undoubtedly the Fish Fillet Vermicelli, which was served with snapper fish slices in a murky white broth of soybean soup. Quite unusual but it was a combination that worked well.

Tong Sui

Several types of tong sui are available to sweeten the palate and mitigate the spiciness of the meal. We went with the snow fungus, gingko and egg tong sui which was pretty good. The tong sui here are priced between RM4 and RM5.50, quite affordable for shopping mall prices.

Ice Blended Apple, Elderflower and Lychee (in foreground) and Ice Blended Green Tea Soy Milk with Vanilla Ice Cream

Shochu – Kaikouzu (Sweet Potato) & Ko-tamba (Chestnut)

A good variety of salads are also available for those who do not want to consume too many carbs. If they are anything like Delicious‘ salads, I reckon I’ll be a fan soon. (Note: It’s a Noodle Bar and it’s neighbour, For Goodness Sake are part of the Ms Read group)

It’s A Noodle Bar
2F-29, Bangsar Village II,
No. 2, Jalan Telawi 1, Bangsar Baru, KL.