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Lunch was at this restaurant. Not really a restaurant but a stall in a coffee shop with outdoor sitting. Not air conditioned. But a Michelin bib gourmand restaurant. Famous for the crispy pork belly and char siew.

It was packed. You have to queue to pay first. Then you get a number and the food will be brought to you. A fair number of tourists were there trying the food. And they are only open from 12 pm to 3 pm!

No ambience just good food. I found the roasted pork only so so. It was a bit salty for my liking. The roasted chicken was much better. For the four of us, with char siew, roasted pork, roasted chicken and 4 lemon juices the price came up to RM 205.

We just started our 3 day kl road trip this morning. This is supposed to be a eating trip. We have the driver with us throughout the journey and he is supposed to recommend good places to us.

We were picked up from our homes. My pick up was at 550 am. We entered JB via Tuas. The Singapore side was clear but there was a bit of a traffic jam on the Malaysian side. We cleared the immigration within 30 minutes.

Someone was hungry early in the morning and so we stopped for breakfast. We went to this place about 10 minutes from the checkpoint near the Iskandar side. It opens at 730 am and it was already packed early in the morning.

Very good service and decent food. Nasi lemak, toast, eggs and coffee. Good start to the trip!

Tonight was this dinner at the Orchid Country Club. This is an annual event, organized by the NWCDC, to raise funds for Club100 and this year, more than $750,000 was raised through this golf event to help needy residents in the NW district. This is in addition to the 750 plus members who contribute a monthly sum of at least $100 a month, some of whom have been contributing since 2008, the year this initiative started.

When this event first started many years ago, the fundraising target used to be $250,000. Last year we hit $600,000, which I already thought was a big wow but now even that amount has been surpassed.

It is good to see so many people opening up their wallets for worthwhile causes in this country.

Tonight I was invited to a graduation dinner by students from this school.

So Malaysia has an outpost of this famous Paris based culinary school, Le Corden Blue. It is part of the Sunway campus and the school conducts full time and part time classes and many people from around the region attend this school.

Tonight’s dinner was by the graduating class. A simple occasion and I was also given a feedback form to evaluate the food. Felt a bit like a MasterChef judge!

It was a 3 course dinner. Decent dinner but I didn’t think it was outstanding. Would have rated all the dishes a B. I just felt the food, although cooked adequately, lacked imagination. Anyway just another experience to be able to rate food cooked by full time students from an outstanding institution.

As I was walking in KLCC, TRX and Pavilion, I realized there are just so many more Chinese visitors to KL now. There always used to be Middle Easterners at this time of the year, fleeing from the heat in the ME at this time of the year. But now they are so few and far between. They are overwhelmed by the Chinese.

Especially at Pavilion. Possibly because that shopping complex is bigger and also because there are so many good hotels within walking distance.

And they are buying things. Not just the branded goods but also the mid tier brands and pharmacy products. They also fill up the snack and dessert shops. So far I see them confined to the shopping centers. And that could be because of the language barrier because at the shopping centers, the sales staff can speak to them in Chinese. But it must be a huge boost to the Malaysian economy to have so many of them coming here and supporting the local economy.

I don’t think they are into sightseeing or local food yet. And apart from the Oriental Kopi, which is always packed, I don’t see them at the local food shops eating nasi lemak or Indian food. But a lot of Chinese restaurants, especially those serving mala and spicy fish dishes have opened to cater to them.

I met a Chinese lady with her children at the optician at Avenue K. I found out that during the summer months, they bring their children to KL for a month or two to learn English. Apparently that is getting very popular now amongst the Chinese now. And of course, she wanted to know where to get good durians at an affordable price! Malaysian durians are a big draw for the Chinese tourists.

Culina has set up a supermarket and a restaurant in KL at the Four Seasons.

The supermarket is top class as they fly in produce from all over the world. You can buy meats, fish or vegetables from the supermarket and the restaurant will cook it for you in any style you want.

The food quality at the restaurant is of course top class. But more importantly, their service is very good. It is a pity that it’s has been quiet everytime I have been there. I do hope it picks up. They deserve a much wider audience.

I had my lunch there. Spaghetti spanner crab meat with spicy tomato sauce and a side dish of crab cakes. Both dishes were delicious and it was topped off with a soft serve ice cream!

I visited Anyara Hills again this morning.

One to make final call on whether to buy it. Two to meet up with the lawyers on how to structure it and three to see if there were any other alternative units I would want other than the one I had booked.

The third reason became moot very shortly as I realized all the remaining units were much more expensive and so there were no alternatives to look at.

The meeting with the lawyers went well and I told them how I wanted it and they agreed with my structure.

After one more look at the lot I had booked the last time, I decided that I will proceed.

Its about 70% sold already. They do have another phase that they will launch next year but that’s supposed to be more expensive by about another 30%.

The wealthy Chinese in Malaysia are the biggest buyers of this project and some have purchased up to 3 lots.

There is a time frame of up to 5 years to build the house on your lot, after which the developer has the right to buy it back from you at your purchase price with interest.

With all the amenities they have planned, it should be a beautiful project. Full facilities and full concierge service. Armed guards. Butler and gardening services. Natural hot springs. In house chef to cook for you at your house.

For now, they have swans from Holland swimming in the lakes and deer from Australia roaming the parks.

Following the visit, I went with the agent and the managers for a simple lunch at a restaurant at the nearby village. Very simple place but with really good and fresh food. We had steamed fish, yam ring, braised bitter gourd, tofu and curry vegetables. Yummy.

With this purchase I also get 4 acres of a Mao Shang Wang durian planation in Raub, Pahang. I will start seeing the financial fruits of my 4 acres in 2027 with the first harvest due then.

I took delivery of this collection from Purple Cane Malaysia. They call it the Ultimate Tea Collection. It comprises of 7 raw puer tea cakes, one from each year 2001 to 2007. The leaves used to make this tea were collected from primitive organic trees over 500 years.

This collection came about as result of a collaboration between Purple Cane Tea in Malaysia and Shuangjiang Mengku Tea in Yunnan, a famous tea producing company in China. The collaboration started just about the time when puer tea from China started getting a world wide audience. These 2 companies decided to produce 1000 cakes for each year. The collaboration ended in 2007 when the Chinese government prohibited tea plucking from these very old trees.

I have had tea from ancient trees, which receive this designation when they are more than 100 years old. But I have not seen tea from trees aged more than 500 years. And of course after 2007 it was no longer possible to pick leaves from these trees.

Each set is numbered and nicely packaged in a pretty wooden box. Should I open this set and drink it? Would be a shame to break the collection. But the tea is ready for drinking after having been stored for about 20 years after it hasbeen picked. And if I don’t drink it, why did I even buy it? Keep as an investment?

I am sitting in the plane waiting to take off to go to KL.

I was intending to drive but have not been sleeping well since my Germany trip. Jet lag and age. Sigh. So I decided not such a great idea to drive at 530 am in the morning.

So last minute switch to a flight.

A few things to do there. Collect my puer tea picked from tea trees which are more than 500 years old and another visit to Anyara Hills to make a final call on whether to buy..

Have arrived in KL!

An early morning breakfast with one of my favorite Ministers at Burnt Ends, Dempsey.

The place was his choice. I have never been there before. So when I arrived slightly earlier I saw that there was no air conditioned sitting area. I was actually thinking of suggesting a different venue. Luckily they had good fans and so it was bearable. Besides he was enjoying the pastries so I don’t think he would have wanted to move locations!

The place was popular and many people were either buying pastries to take away or to eat there. Constant stream of people that early in the morning.

We had great conversation on many topics. It was good to know that some of the serious challenges facing Singapore with an ageing population are being looked at holistically and thoroughly.

I told him about the book that I was currently reading “The Party’s Interests Come First”. He suggested ” A Year of No Significance”. I shall look for that book.