Degustation at Barat and other Birthday Shenanigans

And so I made my 38th trip around the Sun two Fridays ago.

    

I took the day off and had a wonderfully long weekend as a result, thanks to two public holidays, Maulidur Rasul (Monday) and the Sultan of Selangor's Birthday (Tuesday).

 

    

Started off my birthday by sleeping in and having an artichoke for breakfast... at 1 p.m. Ah, I am very much the life of the party, as you can see.

 

I recently took in another rescued kitten and named her Harriet, after my hero, Harriet Tubman. Harriet is a feisty, beautiful, active little thing and fostering her is a pleasure.

 

My senior cats seem to think that fostering Harriet is a pleasure, too. My cats make each of my days a celebration.   

 

 

 

2 p.m. saw me stopping by The Honest Treat for some raw vegan cake and almond milk, just for me! You wouldn't have thought plant-based raw cakes to be so dense and rich, but they are. They were incredibly delicious and flavoursome too.

 

This is the Minty Chocolate raw cake. Not as minty as I would have liked it to be, but still delicious.

A slice of Berry Banana -- dense, smooth, fruity goodness.

 

 

Banoffee -- again, the toffee flavor isn't as distinctive as I would have liked it to be. It tastes of banana and mild chocolate. Very filling and yummy, just not very distinctive-tasting.

 

 

 

This is my favourite of the lot -- Tropical Surprise. This one really hits the spot with its fruity, tangy, zesty and sweet notes.

 

 

 

Then it was off to the National Blood Bank to keep an annual tradition alive.

   

The nurses wished me a happy birthday, which was nice! 237 of my friends wished me a happy birthday on Facebook, and I received approximately 80 private messages filled with good wishes. I feel very loved, indeed!

  

 

Portion control is out the window at the Blood Bank. This is what they are feeding us vegetarian donors these days. Pile on the fried noodles, Crane Driver! How about another ton of carbs? Thank you most kindly for your generosity, National Blood Bank, but I assure you that we are quite unlikely to die of starvation while in the middle of blood extraction.

 

 

 

And what's a birthday party without treats? I celebrated with my furry friends at the SPCA, with treats galore.

 

 

I had a simple birthday dinner that night at Pine3 Vegetarian Restaurant with Nicole, as I had to be up early the following morning to conduct the Pet Care Programme / Basic Animal Welfare Warrior Workshop at the SPCA. Nic made me a gift of these edgy typography steel posters. Aren't they delightful? Aren't they so 'me'? When your bestie knows your decor style and tastes so well, you might as well give her a free rein in creating a gallery wall in your bedroom for you.

 

 

Conducted the Pet Care Programme (PCP) at the SPCA on the day after my birthday and incorporated a basic Animal Welfare Warrior component. You may recognise this as Rafferty, the stuffed shar pei that lives in my bedroom. He's helping me teach the workshop participants how to collect evidence for an animal cruelty report now.

 

 

 

I taught the workshop participants how to pick up, handle and play with cats, apply Frontline flea spray and clean cat ears without being mauled.

 

 

And then I showed the workshop participants how to clean cat cages and litter trays and got them to help out with some cleaning at the shelter.

 

 

Then it was time for my second round of celebrations with Nic. We went to The Strand Mall for dinner out of food trucks and watched "Underworld: Blood Wars."

 

 

As it was a long weekend, my birthday festivities extended over 4 days. My good friends Angela, Rudhra, Baby Ava and Hari took me out to dinner and for a spot of ice skating. Hari's sons Goutham and Jay and nephew Dinesh joined us for the outing. They made me a gift of a new football to replace my old football, which exploded two months ago due to overinflation. We had dinner at Beyond Veggie and followed this up with shakes at Johnny Rockets.

 

 

 

Ice skating with my squad. Rudhra was pretty amazing for a first-time skater. Dinesh did pretty well too for someone who had never skated before. Jay and I spent much of our 2.5 hours on ice chasing each other down and playing tag. Poor Hari had to sit out due to an injured ankle.

 

The need for speed!

 

 

 

My good friend and mentor Lin Idrus invited me out for a birthday dinner the day after, and since both of us have long expressed the intention of trying out the degustation menu at Barat Mediterranean Vegetarian Restaurant, we took the opportunity to have a long, leisurely and wonderful dinner there on Tuesday night.

  

What I like best about Barat is its service and atmosphere, and how it makes customers feel welcome and relaxed. There is no pretension about this place. Just good food, friendly faces and exemplary service in a clean and welcoming environment. The staff are helpful, attentive and knowledgeable. Hot dishes are served hot and cold dishes are deliciously chilled. You can tell they take a lot of pride in their food and care about making your dining experience one to remember.

 

 

Towards the end of the dinner, right before serving us dessert, they even brought out a slice of birthday cake for me and sang me the birthday song. What a treat. The cake was a slice of red velvet with berry sauce and edible flowers. Barat really goes out of its way to make us feel good about dining there.

 

Dégustation Dinner at Barat Mediterranean Vegetarian Restaurant: A short review

 

 

1st course: Roasted Pumpkin Soup with ginger infusion and air-dried ginger, served with homebaked bread with apple cider vinegar and olive oil. We start off with a hot soup, and it is creamy and flavourful without being too rich. The bread has the right density and 'chew' to it. Looking forward to a vegan version soon (most dishes here are lacto-vegetarian).

 

 

 

2nd course: Salad of baby arugula, rocket, chard, sweet basil, dragon fruit, radish, dehydrated blueberries and tempura mandarin orange slices with roasted sesame dressing and blood orange press with olive oil. To others, this is the salad. To me, this is the pièce de résistance. The crunchy exterior and juicy tart interior of the tempura orange slices added a dynamic contrast to the cold crispness of the different fruits and vegetables, while the roasted sesame dressing provided a hint of umami. A definite winner, this salad. I could eat this all day, every day.

 

 

 

3rd course: Roasted Romano with pitted prune and cranberry (left), Patatas Bravas with tomato sauce (centre) and grilled sweet pepper with blue cheese and olive oil. The contrast between the savoury romano and sweet prune and cranberry made for an interesting combination, although I enjoyed it more than Lin did (she found it too sweet). The patatas bravas came with burning sprigs of rosemary and was quite mild-tasting even with the dipping sauce slathered on, so maybe it should have been named 'Patatas Dulce' instead. The sweet pepper was roasted a little too long and was a little too soft for my liking but paired very well with the blue cheese and olive oil, flavour-wise.

 

 

 

4th course: Mushroom zucchini aglio olio with grilled lemon. Easily one of the best pastas I have ever had, and it still struck me with its novel and piquant blend of flavours and textures although this was the second time I had it. The grilled lemon slice complemented the pasta and mushroom perfectly and everything about this dish is just really mellow.

 

 

 

5th course: Red endive with blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, mulberry with rose press and chia seeds (left) and golden fried tri-cheese with apricot and pineapple spiced jam (right). Again, I am trying to give up cheese and dairy products but made an exception for this special dinner. The cheese balls disappointed nothing but my conscience. You bite into the slightly crispy exterior to reveal the soft, ripe. full-flavoured cheese within. The pineapple and apricot spiced jam took away some of the cloying richness of the cheese.

The sweet berries, soaked in a fragrant rose-flavoured dressing, and served on the mildly bitter, sharp and crisp endive (if you haven't had endive before -- it tastes a lot like radicchio) was the ideal accompaniment to the savoury, viscous cheese.   

 

 

 

6th course: Basil pesto on fried aubergine and micro greens (left), sundried tomato pesto with ricotta cheese on japanese cucumber (centre) and capsicum pesto on wafer (right). Lin and I are both very partial to pesto, and this trio of pesto was quite delightful. The sweet mintiness of the basil really shone on the slice of fried aubergine, although Lin found the aubergine a little too greasy for her liking. The tomato and ricotta pesto was refreshing and delicious without actually standing out in my mind as being something truly remarkable. The capsicum pesto is zesty and full-flavoured and easily our favourite of the trio.

 

 

 

7th course: Spiced couscous with grilled asparagus, baby carrot and pomegranate dressing. Ah, the versatile couscous! Usually a little on the bland side, but fancied up with spices here at Barat. Grilled vegetables makes this wholesome dish livelier.

 

 

 

8th course: Watermelon gazpacho with a japanese cucumber stirrer and edible flowers. Lin and I decided that we will return to Barat soon just for the soups! If the roasted pumpkin soup were the warm, hearty sibling, the watermelon gazpacho is its trendy, sparkling, blinged-out sister. Refreshing, light, and flavoursome, this gazpacho simply sparkles.

 

 

 

Dessert: Poached peach with red currant, coconut ice cream and chocolate cake, served with balsamic reduction. Lin and I were too stuffed for the final pasta and jumped straight to dessert. Of course, like all women, we have special Dessert Stomachs which can hold prodigious quantities of sweets. This dessert trio made us want to stand up and applaud. The chocolate cake was in itself nice without being exceptional, but it paired very well with the balsamic reduction (I eat pretty much everything with balsamic reduction) and poached peach and red currant. The peach is still firm and warm, not squishy and soggy with syrup as with the canned variety. The smooth and fragrant coconut ice cream is light enough to stop a little short of being sinful, and is the perfect foil to the chocolate cake. I confess I licked the ice cream dish clean.

 

This meal is something that has been on my list of things to try for a long time, and I highly recommend it to everyone, vegetarian and non-vegetarians alike.

 

It has been another amazing birthday week and I am continually surprised and delighted by the friends who took time out of their busy days to make my birthday so memorable and lovely. So many things to be thankful for in this troubled world of ours.

 

 

37th Solar Return

I celebrated my 37th Solar Return two weeks ago by taking the day off work. For around a month, I had been carrying out a private little project I call Project 370, to give away RM370 in cash to various beneficiaries (which does not include my usual causes and projects). Among those I gave to were two animal rescuers, a single mother who sells tapioca and plantain chips outside the neighbourhood Maybank, the elderly differently-abled man who sells vadai and idiyappam outside the SPCA gates and to the workmen repairing the rubbish disposal area at my apartment. RM370 is not much, but then again, I am no Zuckerberg. I have parents to support, bills to pay and vet fees to settle. I will continue to give as often as I can, to as many beneficiaries as I can, but for now, I can mostly afford to only volunteer my time and energy.

My friends from the Yellow House KL Volunteer Hostel joined me in Ikea for a game of hide-and-seek that I had been planning for weeks. The rules are that participants are not allowed to hide inside furniture, damage or deface any property, scare other customers or do anything to alert non-participants to the fact that there is a hide-and-seek game going on. It turned out fantastic. I elected myself Seeker and went in search of the 5 Hiders. Babaq and Gibran were the first to be found, but Gibran ran away and continued to hide. Babaq assisted me in seeking the others out. We found Shyam and Gibran next, hidden behind a barricade of sofa cushions. Migle was found behind a curtain in a bedroom. Suntheran was the last to be found, since he shifted positions each time I passed by an area. It was a great game. I had circled Ikea at least 4 times by then and knew practically all the names, prices and specifications of everything by the end of 2 hours.

We had a late tea at the Ikea Cafe. It was raining heavily outside by then and we warmed ourselves out with vegan 'meatballs', cake and coffee. I thanked my friends for being such good sports and making my day for coming out to play with me.

It was soon evening. I picked up several cartons of juice and 24 doughnuts and headed over to the sports centre in University Malaya where I volunteer every Wednesday night with Care2Mentor. It didn't seem like anybody knew it was my birthday, and that was just fine with me. I didn't explain what occasion the doughnuts and juice was for.

We ran relay races around the track and I am glad I have not lost my ability to sprint 400 metres. Our games master Rudhra, an exceptional volunteer, came up with challenges in which our mentees had to relay tongue-twisters to the subsequent runners and the last runner has to deliver the message to the group, as in a game of Chinese Whispers / Broken Telephone.

After the final lap, all of us mentors and mentees formed a circle for the final message. I was the last in the circle, and imagine my surprise when the message turned out to be "It is Ee Lynn's birthday today. Sing her the birthday song." They did, and our group leader / founder Prem Kumar ran up to the middle of the circle with a homemade birthday cake for me. This means a lot to me as I think the world of this group of mentors. It felt really wonderful. We ended the session with a supper of cake, doughnuts, juice and bananas and I drove my teenage charges home.

I had another little celebration with my family on the weekend, and my team at work bought me a cake as well, so it has been quite a special week.

Come to think of it, every week is special, with its own projects and causes and special things to look forward to. Life is good. It really is.

December Birthdays Are The Best

So I had a birthday three days ago. And I took the day off work, despite the fact that I am entitled to so few vacation days here at the new office, because heck, birthdays are worth it even if you're going to spend it at home doing chores.

I did spend a good part of my day doing chores, but I also received hundreds of birthday messages from thoughtful friends, which made me feel very loved, and I managed to carry on my birthday tradition of donating blood.

My 45th whole blood donation at the National Blood Bank. Service was excellent, as usual.

The vegetarian meal set for herbivorous blood donors. The only difference from the non-veg version is that our fried noodles are vegan. Mine has tempeh and tofu in it. Thank you, National Blood Bank!

The lobby area of the National Blood Bank is all prettied up for Christmas.

I went out with 6 of my best friends -- Serina, Shalan, Nicole, Sonu, Karen and Aravind -- for dinner and post-dinner entertainment that night. There was no drinking because Aravind and I had just donated blood and the following day was a workday.

A shallow but happy thought occurred to me on the night of my birthday: December birthdays are the best! When you go out to celebrate, it looks as though all the shops and streets made themselves pretty, sparkly, jingly and festive in your honour!

 

 We (or rather, I) had a pre-dinner cupcake and macarons at Cupcake Chic while waiting for the others to arrive.

 



The whole centre court of The Curve was transformed into a winter wonderland.

 

 

 

Serina suggested dinner at Johnny Rockets and I agreed. We've been curious about trying the food there for some time.

 

 





  



Serina, Nic and I fell in love with the retro American diner ambience of Johnny Rockets almost immediately. It reminded me of the many roadside diner meals I had in the States.





 

There was even a little old-timey jukebox playing rock-and-roll numbers.

 

So good to have my best friends around me for dinner on my birthday.

 

As you can see, we were pretty enthusiastic about the food. I went for their vegan entree, the aglia olio pasta.

 

 

 

 

Then, as with Johnny Rocket outlets all over the world, the service staff came out to perform a cute little song-and-dance number.

 

 

When the staff came out to perform the second time around, I thought they were going to sing Christmas songs, but nooooo......

 

 

It was to sing me the birthday song! Serina and Aravind had informed them that it was my birthday, so they came out bearing a birthday sundae with a candle in it, and a plate with a birthday message written on it in ketchup.

 

Serina had informed them of the correct way to spell my name but they still got it jumbled up, which amused us no end.

 

I had a task to complete before I could enjoy my birthday sundae. I had to blow out the candle from about 1 - 1.5 metres away using a straw. I nailed it at the first try. Thank you, Johnny Rockets, for a fun and memorable birthday dinner!

After dinner we walked towards the games arcade through the promenade and shopping mall. Everything looked so pretty and magical during the holiday season.

 

On our way to the arcade, we passed by the ice skating rink, which we love, and Serina and I made plans to return next week to skate.

 

 

The arcade is one of my favourite wastes of money! Look at all of us crowding round the basketball hoops! We were all shouting with laughter at one point!

 

 

 

Here is Lan laughing as he watched Aravind and I play the pirate shooting game.

 

Will ya look at the concentration on our faces!

 

Of course I had to try the K-Pop dance machine. Even if I do suck at it. If I sucked any harder, I could sell off my vacuum cleaner.

 

Serina and Lan raced against each other, and Serina won! Attagirl!

 

Meanwhile, I engaged in a car race of my own. There was nobody around but Serina and me, but  I waved to the non-existent crowds anyway.

Throwing in one final round of Street Basketball before we parted ways for the night to get ready for work the following morning.

 

We had a state holiday two days after my birthday, on account of it being the Sultan's birthday. So in the Sultan's honour, I woke up early, weeded the whole garden, cleaned the house, took Katniss to the vet, met up with my conveyancing lawyer, visited my former colleagues, volunteered at the SPCA shelter and went to help out at the SPCA booth at a Christmas fair.

 

 

Frontline treatment for the SPCA cats and kittens, especially the rescues and strays. Poor baby doesn't look very happy, does she?

 

 

And then I was off to help out at the SPCA booth at the Christmas Fair at Midvalley. Kelvin was there with another volunteer and sales were brisk! We sold out on so many items that Kelvin had to email the office to deliver fresh stocks.

 

Our dog-and-cat coin box has been given a fresh coat of paint and Santa hats. Don't they look life-like and adorable?

The woodland Christmas theme at Midvalley this year is positively darling. It definitely is the most wonderful time of the year!

Thank you all for being there for me as I made another trip around the Sun! It's been quite a ride!