The weekend I got off my ass and blew my diet

Don’t know about you but I think I had a productive weekend (well, anything that gets my ass off the couch is considered productive...even if it’s to drive my car from outside the house compound into the porch).

Went out with Mi Mujer on Saturday afternoon (well, by right it should have been morning...since I thought that was our ‘usual time’ but Mi Mujer was being Lil’ Miss Late (not that I’m complaining coz it gave me more quality time to spend with my TV).

We had lunch at a vegetarian place which I was eager to try a restaurant called Annalakshmi coz I thought the concept sounded cool, i.e “Eat-and-Pay-As-You-Wish” Swayamvara Buffet (yupp, you read it right….there is no fixed price for their buffet! So you just take what you like and pay what you think is appropriate for the meal you had). We got lost looking for the place (previously I think it was in Mid Valley but has now relocated to Brickfields) and drove around in circles because Mi Mujer refused to stop and ask for directions (we even tried google map but that didn’t help) until she finally stopped the car long enough for me to jump out and ask someone for directions. Found out that Annalakshmi is inside the Temple of Fine Arts (no wonder we couldn’t find it, we were driving around looking for a stand alone restaurant!)

Now if you’re anything like Mi Amor, who thinks that veggie dishes are boring and bland, I say “don’t knock it till you’ve tried it”. The Swayamvara Buffet is a blend of North and South Indian dishes consisting of a variety of rice, bread, sambar, resam, and kulambu as well as delectable vegetable dishes and yoghurt delights. They also offer side dishes like snacks, pickles, chutneys, crisps, desserts and fruits. As for drinks, you have a choice of lassi or fruit juice.

No fixed price? It all sounds too good to be true right? You’re prolly thinking…"what’s the catch/what’s in it for them?” Well, according to them, their principle motive is service and not profit. The place is run largely by volunteer staff (yupp, from the chefs to the servers, cleaners, transporters, etc., they’re all volunteers!) who dedicate their time because they find joy in the philosophy of serving, loving and giving to people. They believe that the practice of selfless service to others will benefit themselves as well as those that they serve because when there is harmony, selflessness, joy and cheer in the kitchen, the food prepared and served has the power to reach to the very depths and nourish the entire being and in time, a sense of peace and harmony will prevail. Most (if not all) of the contributions from the restaurant go towards supporting the cultural and artistic endeavours of the Temple of Fine Arts and the Siva Santa Medical Centre. 

All these and what do they ask for in return? Simply that we provide them with more opportunities to serve by spreading the word to family and friends about dining there (OK, I’ll consider writing this post as doing my part). Oh and also if one does dine there, to only take what one can consume and avoid wastage.

The sign at the buffet table

Since neither of us have had a lot of experience eating Indian food, we couldn’t really tell the difference between the sweet and savoury dishes (eventhough they had labels it didn’t help as we couldn’t understand the labels) and I ended up piling everything on my plate of rice (even something that later turned to be some sweet fruit yoghurt thingy which I think was suppose to be dessert). But hey, it was all good! Those who know me know that I’m a member of the clean-plate-club (against Oprah’s dieting advice!) so I didn’t really have a problem with finishing off my food but I am sooooooooooooo proud of Mi Mujer coz she actually finished hers! (the many times I’ve eaten out with Mi Mujer, I can prolly count on one hand how many times she has actually cleaned her plate). It was touching though to see her struggle to finish off her food (oh who am I kidding, it was hilarious!). Heck, she was so stressed out and worried that she wouldn’t be able to finish her food (at one point she asked me if she should eat the stalk of some veggie she took coz she wasn't use to eating stalks!hahahah) that I prolly think it took the fun out of eating for her. I was so tempted to order a mango lassi drink (coz I believe that eating Indian food is not complete without drinking lassi) but I was too full to take another bite or sip of anything.

Me being greedy and waving bye-bye to my diet

Just had to catch this on film...Mi Mujer's clean plate (minus the veggie stalk)

Anyway, I would highly recommend this place because not only is the food good and wallet friendly thanks to the pay as you wish concept (but please don’t abuse the trust and faith that they’re putting on the fairness of the diners) but the ambiance is really nice and cosy and the people working there are friendly. In fact, this lady who attended to us was so friendly that it started to make Mujer feel uncomfortable ( please excuse her; she’s just not use to nice people...heh). Unfortunately I couldn’t get more pics of the place coz I felt self conscious snapping away. There was a nice mix of crowd there (very 1 Malaysia..heh) and there was also a group of hippie (for lack of a better word) mat sallehs all dressed in t-shirt and genie pants, complete with dreadlocks (or some kind of hairstyle which I don’t know whatchamacallit). Mi Mujer found one of em' cute so I told her to use the ‘come-I-take-a-pic- of-you-but-with-em’-in-the-background’ trick but if you think I’m self conscious, she's worse! So sadly, no pic :(

After our well worth it lunch, we decided to exercise the way most girls prefer to exercise......by going shopping. We were prolly only into the 2^nd or 3^rd store when Mujer said she was hungry again (I swear she has worms!) so we popped into some cafe and she ordered dessert. I watched her eat while I contemplated which of the two tops I had seen earlier that I should buy.

Mujer's Rasberry Creme Brulee

Dessert over, we continued shopping till the next thing we realized, it was dinner time (time flies when you’re shopping). Now with Mujer, no lunch or dinner is complete without dessert (you’ve prolly realized that by now) so after dinner at Devi’s we went to Tutti Frutti for dessert. Now Mi Amor knows how much I’ve been craving to try the Tutti Frutti Red Velvet flavoured froyo (like months ago, ever since I found out there was such a flavour) and we have made occasional random trips to the shop just to check if the flavour was there (because apparently according to the shop person, they change their flavours regularly) and every single time I was disappointed. Hell, I was even tempted to leave my phone number with the shop person to call when they carry the flavour!

Imagine my delight that night when I saw that they actually had the RV flavour (cue the happy dance). In fact, I was so excited that I got carried away with the machine ( "gimme more.....More...MORE!!!! " *evil laughter*) and ended up paying RM20 sumthing bucks for my froyo!

So was the 5 months wait worth it? HELL........................NO!!!! It didn’t taste anything like RV! (or at least how I feel RV should taste like). In fact, it tasted like plain old chocolate. So much so that I was pretty sure they got the label wrong so I went up to the store person to complain, saying I’m sure there must have been a mix up or something coz RV tastes exactly like chocolate. That’s when he told me “It is chocolate...we mixed chocolate with strawberry and vanilla”. WHAT THE HELL?!?!? (Yes, I’m so mad just thinking about it, I’m gonna spell it out instead of abbreviate!). If I wanted that, I would have just picked those 3 flavours (and btw, isn’t a mixture of those 3 flavours called Neapolitan?). Plus I couldn’t taste the vanilla or strawberry....it tasted 100% like chocolate!! (and I'm not a big fan of chocolate ice cream).

I AM SO GOING TO BOYCOTT TUTTI FRUTTI FOR THIS! (In case you think I’m joking, ask Mi Amor.....there are a few places which I use to like but due to certain unforgiveable mistakes, I have placed them on my boycott list). Suffice to say, my dessert was ruined....tried to force myself to finish it off but couldn’t. Surprise surprise, Mujer finished her dessert!! (Mujer must have been on a roll that day....she finished EVERYTHING she ate!)

My cup with the disappointing froyo...the fact that I managed to get that far is good enough!

Mujer's cup

By the time we were ready to head home...the parking lot was EMPTY (no joke!)

The lone car. And to think when we arrived the car park was freaking full (yes, we were there THAT long)

So you must be thinking what’s the damage like after spending all that time shopping? Drum roll please.................NADA!! Yupp, didn’t buy a single thing (oh I’m getting better at this practicing self-control thingy *pats self on back*). After all, I’m gonna need all the money I can save before being jobless for 7 months! (Mi Amor, you better bayar nafkah ye, and I want it in CASH!)

Ps... I tried cooking lunch on Sunday (under the watchful eye of Mi Madre).....nothing much, just mixed veggie and prawns with some oyster sauce and ayam masak kicap merah (well, initially it was ayam masak merah....then halfway through cooking the dish, realized we ran out of cili boh so Mi Madre told me to add some soy sauce). Regardless, it tasted good (either that or I was really hungry). I know the dishes are no biggie to those who can cook, but trust me; it is a biggie for me! So now u know what Mi Amor will be eating once I get there...brace yourself Mi Amor! :P

Pps....Mi Amor, in no way does this exempt you from learning how to cook!