Food File: Caffe 1920

Here's another place where I'm a regular- Caffe 1920, offering Italian style cuisine.

Aahh... this is one of the places to go for a flavourful cup of mushroom soup! But sometimes it could get a tad bitter due to some of the mushrooms used as ingredient.

I think that this cafe offers the best pasta dishes. Spaghetti in beef bolognaise sauce has ever been my favourite dish wherever I can find it. It's here that I learnt to add some chili flakes to the dish to give it that extra zing!

If one does not mind the cream, do try their carbonara sauce. Here I requested that it be served with spaghetti (again! Hehe... have you guessed yet that spaghetti is the pasta I like most?).

Here's where being a regular has its advantages. Free dessert out of the blue- some sort of coffee cake. Thanks Caffe 1920! Ada rezeki bagi lar lagi ek? Hehe...

There's all sorts of pasta dish available here so, unlike me, do be adventurous and try them out :)

Lakeside therapy...

I figured that it was about time I destressed so I took up a friends offer to go on holiday. Kenyir Lake- there I went!

We arrived really, really early in the morning. It was too dark to walk about and all the prime sleeping spots have been taken despite this being an off season! However, the view after Subuh allowed me to capture the cool image above.

A visit to a nearby fishery gave us a wondrous view of this school of tilapia swimming in their sangkar or fish cage.

By the waterfall- I think this sandy area could be a salt lick of sorts for insects. There were butterflies, bees and Lord knows what else swarming this particular spot.

As we were leaving the waterfall, I suddenly realized how refreshingly green and cool the lake looked from this angle. Do you see what I mean?

A hauntingly beautiful view of the great trees that were flooded when this lake was created. So few are left and most have gone the way of lumber to line some privileged sod's pocket :P The boatman let us in on this interesting fact:

Long ago when the flooded trees were many, numerous pictures of these interesting sights were taken to be put up on brochures and such. Only then were the trees cut down for lumber using submersible robots.

Pity... but people do have to make a living I guess.

Aahh... sunset by the floating deck swimming pool provided by the resort. It was lovely being able to actually swim in the lake surrounded by safety netting. You see, one of the favourite stories locals love to regale visitors with is the sighting of a toman the size of an oil barrel. Not very assuring for those who'd like to take a dip in the lake.

Our resort's small jetty in the foreground. Visitors walk up the hilly path to get to the reception area which cannot be seen from this angle. In the background to the right is the canoe storage area and the floating deck swimming pool.

A last view of sunset from the mainland before we set off for home. The trip to Kenyir was fun but the trip back was horrible.

Our bus had to make many detours to pick up passengers from another bus company who got their frigging license suspended due to a major accident!

Unbelievable! And our driver was driving at speeds that were accidents in the making to make up for time! But THAT is another story :P

Food File: Secret Recipe

Secret Recipe- pricey but comfy. Most of the dishes do appeal to my taste buds so I am a frequent visitor there.

Have tasted better mushroom soup elsewhere but it's as good a starter as any.

One of my favourites here is the Vietnam beef noodle. Very few classy dining places offer a noodle in broth dish.

In my humble opinion, their tomyam noodle offers the absolute best tomyam broth among all the places I have been to. But I pay for it lah the next day... spicy as hell man!!!

A dessert to finish off the meal... or should I say a slice of cake for starters. I usually eat the cake first because it's already there.

Shown above is not my usual selection though, I usually go for their Chocolate Indulgence. And that bun is not too shabby either- lovely and fluffy just the way I love it :P

By the way, the above pictures were NOT taken at one seating. I have my 'garbage bin' days but these were not some of them, hehehe...