Life For Intermediates.....The Next Step After Beginners

The plan originally was to all simultaneously post on this day, the 23rd day of the 1st month of the solar year, in a writing style emulating him. The more I tried to copy his style, the blanker my mind became. Us mortals are destined to be the Antonio Salieris, juxtaposed against the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, cursed to a life of mediocrity. But unlike Antonio, one accepts this fact, and does not shake one's fist at the Almighty for unfairness.

But yeah, I digress. Fellow bloggers, Hairy Berry, A LilFatMonkey and AWOL have already beaten me to posting their tributes. I shall not even attempt to match their wit and gorgeous prose. However, it does come from the heart.

I was thrilled to receive an invite via Facebook, a few weeks back to be part of this wonderful event. Actually, the original plan was to attend the Macaroons class at The Cooking House, but Kenny Mah's 30th would trump any baking class any day of course. A bit too eagerly accepting the invite, like a zitty teenager who never gets any invitations to the school prom, I cancelled all other plans. The original venue, Palate Palette, was apparently going to be the venue for a junkyard sale, so not very appropriate, and Kenny frantically asked for recommendations, in a separate email thread that spawned a whole new slew of comments, from stalkers to support staff. You know its gonna be a good party, when even conversations of facebook with strangers, who are also invited, take on the tone of friends you've known for years.

I arrived at Dua Annexe, much like a "Rusa masuk kampung"... rather lost, and proceeded to Delicious Ingredients, the gourmet shop, thinking they and Delicious were one and the same, and asked the guy where Kenny Mah's table was.

He replies, "Datuk Kenny Mah"?
I say, "No, Encik only, as far as I know"

About half the guest were there, in a very well sunlit room. Very intimidating, for a shy person like me to be assailed by so many new faces. Luckily, AWOL and Hairy were there. However, everyone was VERY friendly, and conversations ranged from circumcision to boob size to cheese...all very unabashedly. Yeah, I like Kenny Mah's friends.




The Youthful Looking Lad of THIRTY.


The baby blue background of the collages are meant to complement the Delicious theme..... in case anyone was wondering.


Look at all the happy looking people in the pics. All basking in the warmth of the friendship that was overflowing.....



An English lesson here? Past tense, present tense, past participle and what have you?

And since this is ostensibly a food blog, I guess I should mention something about the food. The menu is the standard Delicious menu. What sets this particular venue apart is the location and ambience. Foodwise, ....

The mushroom soup, which was very mushroomy, and still had chunks of mushroom. Very good, I wouldn't mind having it again. The garlic bread was okay too.


AWOL's Thai Beef Salad. How very healthy. Looked good, but since she was ill, I didnt want to risk any contagious disease, and didn't ask to try.


Hairy Berry's Salmon Pasta.... read his review if you want to know how it tasted.


The spicy crab linguine doesn't look as spicy as the one in Bangsar Village. In fact, it looked rather pale. And apparently wasn't as spicy either.


My nasi kerabu....the curry chicken was good, the rice was plain white rice, unlike the nasi kerabus elsewhere which are infused with herbs etc. There was a helping of ulam type vegetables on the side, which I quite enjoyed, but would have gone better with some sambal belacan. Shannon, the naughty boy, didn't eat his vegetables, I noticed. Had we been more familiar, I would've gasaked his veggies la.


In Cod they trust. Apparently Alilfatmonkey enjoyed this tremendously.


Duck confit pasta...again, not as vibrantly colorful as the BV branch, though they were rather generous with the duck, whereas in BV, you only get microscopic slivers ....almost fibres with a hint of duck....but this one looked generous.



Fish & Chips. Love the way they served the chips, in the paper and all. There was a unanimous decision that fat fries are preferred over thin fries, unless they're fries from MacDonalds.

But yeah, it was a wonderful afternoon. I love the candour with which Kenny treats his friends, revealing everything from a woman's age to their cup size. On many occasions, conversations were worthy of sitcoms....

Anyway, since today is the real day, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNY MAH, thanks for the good reading, and thanks for the lovely invite.