Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2018 (SCKLM)

• 8 April 2018
• Dataran Merdeka for Full and Half Marathon and Sogo for 10 and 5 km
• Flagged off at 7.45a.m. for 10 km (Leisure). Different times for different categories
• My category – 10 km (Leisure). Must finish in 2 hours.
• Price – RM70.00
• Race Pack – Green T-Shirt, registration bib and Salonpas
• Goodies – Medal, a bottle of mineral water and isotonic drink and banana

This was my 1^st time signing up for SCKLM. I managed to sign up on the 1^st day itself at around 3pm and thereafter it was sold out around 6pm on the 1^st day that registration was opene to the public. I was curious, why was it such a hit every year?   

We were advised by the organiser to take the train to the venue. I took the LRT at 6.40am and arrived at the venue around 7am. The trains were flooded with green as that’s the colour of the t-shirt for this year’s marathon.

Check out the runners, all queuing to start

We were flagged off at 7.45a.m. sharp. Of course, there were runners who signed up for 10km (Cruise) that were late and as they must complete the run within 1 hour 30 minutes, we had to give way to them (their flag off was before ours).

We ran from Sogo – Jalan Sultan Ismail – Jalan Kuching – Taman Botani Perdana – Dataran Merdeka. There were 3 water stations; at 4km, 6km and 9km serving mineral water and isotonic drinks. There were portable toilets during the run. Also, there were bands playing music and the volunteers who cheered for you while you were running.

When we arrived at the finishing point, we were given our medals and a bottle of mineral water, isotonic and a banana. There was a long queue to collect the medals and not many goodies were given out.

I saw the finishing line but it's taking too long to arrive

Passed the finishing line. It was not 10 km, it was 11.8 km. 

The queue to pick up your medal, banana and mineral water

Conclusion, Dataran Merdeka was super crowded after everyone finished. The hardcore marathon runners were definitely eyeing for the top and consolation prizes.  The organiser did a good job at organising such a big event. However, I still don’t know what’s the craze about this marathon that a lot of people want to join. It’s just like any other marathon and in terms of goodies, other organisers do provide more things compared to Standard Chartered. Also, there were no food trucks :-(. 

Check out the pictures below:-

The line reception was so bad due to so many humans

A place for you to get leg massage

Showing off our medals

Our rotating medals

Check out the queue at the Masjid Jamek Putra LRT station

Old Spice Café at M City – 10 March 2018

We were passing by the main entrance at M City and saw this café. We checked out the menu and decided to give it a try since it’s new. 

The café was quite quiet at the time (and on another occasion I visited since). It was quite easy to get a table. They serve fusion food, i.e. local Malaysian, Western and World cuisines. 

The menu:-

We ordered the following:-

Breakfast set – RM19.80, comes with 2 hash browns, 2 small roasted tomatoes, baked beans, 1 fried egg, fried mushrooms, 2 sausages, 2 stripes of beef bacon and 4 triangle toasts with butter. It’s very normal meal, but tasted good. The best will be the crispy hash browns.

Singapore Fried Meehon (Seafood) – RM14.90, the portion was huge when it came and I thought I would not be able to finish it. There were small prawns (not like in the picture of the menu), squibs, cut celery, spring onions, carrot and slice red chilly fried with the meehoon. It was actually quite good and I finished it all. It's not spicy but you can request for cut chillies.  

Roti Jala and Curry Chicken - RM8.90. As you can see, 5 roti jala and not many pieces of chicken and only 1 potato. The curry was not too spicy. It tasted alright. 

Nasi with Ayam Masak Merah set dinner – RM18.90, comes with acar, iced lemon tea and 1 scoop of ice cream. The Ayam Masak Merah was not spicy although it looked very red and spicy. It was quite good dish. Again, not enough of chicken for you to finish that mountain rice!

The service of this restaurant is good. Perhaps as there were not many customers. When I was looking around the café, I was told that if you order from an apartment within M City, they will deliver the food to your doorstep for free.

Not many tables, just imagine if it's a full house

The ambience of the café was good and it was nicely decorated with lots of things from the UK. They even have a huge projector on their wall for you to watch shows (no sound though). The price is on the slightly high side but overall, I will come back here again as the food was not too bad.

The details of the restauarant:

Old Spice Café, M City

R05-G Old Spice Café

326 Jalan Ampang

50430 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03- 2715 8123

Mobile: 019-691 2815

Email: info@oldspicecafe.my

Opens everyday from 9am-2am

Banana Bro (Banana Leaf Restaurant) – 5 March 2018

This restaurant just opened at Berjaya Times Square this month. The best thing is, it’s the only banana leaf restaurant /modern “mamak” store in the shopping mall. The concept is similar to Macha & Co at the Curve shopping mall.

We were there at 12.45pm for lunch and there was a queue to get in. Luckily the wait was not long and we got ourselves a table.

The menu below:

We ordered the following: -

Banana Leaf Set Meal – RM12.90 per set, comes with either white or Indian rice, 3 types of vegetables, papadam and 8 types of curries to choose from (need to find the appropriate person holding the bucket of curries) you want on your rice.

They even have their own "stamp" on the banana leaf

Chicken Masala – RM7.50. The portion is just enough for 1 person. The curry was alright but if you were to compare it with those chicken masalas from the proper Indian restaurants in Lebuh Ampang, it doesn’t really taste that nice but still edible.

Fried Chicken – RM7.50. The portion is just enough for 1 person. I do recommend this as it’s crispy and nice.

Butter Chicken – RM7.50. The portion is just enough for 1 person. It's not spicy at all and it's quite creamy. The chicken was quite tender.  

The service of this restaurant is ok. However, the waiters may not understand you really well. Their English is below average so we ended up repeating our orders to them. The price was expensive for the Banana Leaf Set Meal. As for the individual chicken / lamb dishes, the price of a small plate was reasonable. However, you can’t compare the curries that are served at this restaurant and Lebuh Ampang; the curries at Lebuh Ampang are much better and tastier compared to this restaurant.

Overall, we paid RM48.05, inclusive of GST 6% and service charge 10%.

The details of the restauarant:

Banana Bro Times Square

LG-59B, Berjaya Times Square

Jalan Imbi

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Opens daily

Restoran Loong Foong Seafood – 19 February 2018

This restaurant is forever crowded and it is well known for it’s famous roast duck. Almost everyday, you can see a long queue of people waiting for its roast duck. Since it’s been a long time since I had duck meat, I decided to have a Chinese New Year (CNY) gathering here.

Roasted duck hanging to be eaten and check out the price

We knew that you can’t walk in and get a table so we decided to make a reservation before CNY. We made reservation via whatapps. Upon our arrival, we were told that there was no such reservation. We showed the whatapps message and in the end, the management shuffled things around and managed to get us a table based on our whatapps message.

Since it’s CNY, you can order its CNY set menu for 10 persons or a la carte. We decided on a la carte and we ordered:-

Full portion of Yee Sang with jelly fish.  

Whole roast duck RM63.00. Seriously, I must say it's the best duck I’ve tasted. It’s equally the same taste as the roast duck you can get at PJ State. The duck meat is succulent, juicy and tender and goes well with the plum sauce (which tasted just nice and not sweet).

Yau Mak Stir Fry with Garlic. A very simple dish with tasty fresh lettuce.

Pumpkin Seafood Treasure, also known as their specialty. They served you the whole small pumpkin and you can dig in to find fish maw, scallops, abalones and Chinese black mushroom, with its creamy pumpkin sauce.

Guinness Pork. The pork meat is very tender with its thick sauce.

Jiu Pai Tofu (Specialty Tofu). Squarish tofu with creamy sauce. It’s very nice and best to eat it with rice, otherwise too salty on its own.

Yong Chow Fried Rice. A very colourful fried rice, i.e. lots of ingredients inside the fried rice.

Unfortunately, they have the traditional way of calculating your bill and they do not issue any itemized bill for the dishes you ordered. We were told to pay the bills separately:

RM63 for the whole roast duck to the duck store owner;

RM78 for drinks, i.e. big bottles of Tiger beer, Chinese tea and 100+ isotonic drinks to the drinks owner; and

RM 292 for the dishes to the owner of the restaurant.

The price above was for 6 adults and 2 kids. The restaurant is small and basically extremely noisy. You are unable to talk in the restaurant but only scream.

Pretty small restaurant. If outside, it will be open air. 

It is advisable to give them a call to make a reservation for your table and roast duck to avoid disappointment. Do not expect to be treated nicely.

Overall, the food was tasty and price was reasonable.

The details of the restaurant:

Restoran Loong Foong Seafood

No.1, Jalan 20/13

Taman Paramount

46300 Petaling Jaya

Selangor Darul Ehsan

Tel : 012-660 8654 (don’t bother calling the land line as it’s already out of service)

Opens from 6.00pm – 10.00p.m. (please call to make reservation, book your roast duck and find out which day they are closed for business as they can be unpredictable)