Wandering Thoughts

One of the things that i'm very exited about being back in KL for the holidays is the amount of cafes that one could drop by at any given time! jb, where i am based for studies, has a lack of cafes and restaurants to check out, which is pretty sad, really. i'm just so happy with the amount of choices that you could drop by in kl! so fun reading articles on cafes to try out and plotting out time to visit them. so we've decided to visit acme bar and coffee, mainly because 1, they have ample parking space, which is sort of essential when you're located in the heart of the city. bangsar is a nightmare when you're searching for a space to park. and 2. it is located in the troika. it's a pretty hyped up condominium among my architecture peers because from what i heard architects ooh and aah about how awesome the building is, mainly because of how creative they use gfrc ( glass fiber reinforce concrete) i was imagining the whole building looking like solid concrete but in a really creative way.

but it turn out the building wasn't exactly how i pictured it in my mind. but anyway, we managed to find it *didn't use waze!! score!! * and parking was ample and affordable ( rm7 for 3 hours). when we arrived i thought it was closed! just look at the picture above. we didn't make a reservation, but i guess you should make one if you're coming for dinner/ peak hours. there wasn't anyone manning the receptionist, which adds up to us thinking whether they're open. but anyways a waitress greeted us soon enough, and i must add that the decor is really nice! i appreciate the rusty, vintage, loft kind of vibe they have, and realise how in trend this is right now as most of the cafes are sporting this kind of style.

would you look at the tiles!! plus i imagine it would be really fun dining here with friend or family at the long table.

le bar. very minimalist chic. filled with essential items. neatly arranged, no clutter.

cake place. incomparable to the impressive cake display at china house in penang. but sometimes i wonder shouldn't they be served chilled? the cakes wouldn't dry out being expose like that? but it's definitely pretty to look at.

*sorry for the blur picture* we ordered vegetable root fries with truffle oil to try. lightly dipped in flour and fried modestly *crunchy on the outside but still soft on the inside, to retain it's flavor i guess* it was a nice change to the usual potato fries. i was halfway munching on a sweet potato that i realise i didn't taste any of the truffle oil at all. or maybe it was my taste buds. nice option to try though.

sizzling brownie and ice cream! classic dessert. read so many reviews about it, and it was delish! i was aware of the burnt taste of the chocolate syrup as it sizzle at the bottom, but of course it would burn in that heat! it's good for gimmick with the sizzle and all but one wonders why pour chocolate syrup when you end up with 90% of them getting burnt and sticking to the pan and you looking at it trying to scrape some to try but end up eating burnt syrup. apart from that this brownie here is worth putting that diet plan on hold.

flat white. before i start making a fool of myself for not knowing the difference between a flat white and a latte, i find this kind of similar to a latte. similar. i'm not a coffee expert nor a coffee lover, but this cup of flat white is smooth and that sad looking biscuit there should at least be replaced by a decent size biscotti. yes i'm talking to you, acme bar and coffee people.

would i come back for a second visit? no. there's so many options for cool cafe's out there and till i finish cafe hopping this place will be on the back of my list. didn't try out any of their meals, so can't comment on that. price point: coffee from rm 13-15, desserts from rm 13-19 and meals for rm 25- and beyond. plus their washroom is worth checking out.

ps: lately there are a lot of cafe's that spent so much on the decor, most of the time the food would taste just ok. can't we all have the best of both world? or one would think you could compensate a lack of taste on your meal with an awesome ambiance huh?

toddles!

note: spoilers ahead, if you haven't watch the movies please don't read it first. you have been warned.

is the poster scary enough for you?

just watched black swan yesterday night. the movie has garnered so many awards and nominations that i had to see it for myself. the good thing is, the movie didn't disappoint.

and natalie portman's portrayal as nina sayers, the naive, confuse, insecure, and talented ballet dancer was really outstanding. it's been a really long time since i watch any of her movies (the last being star wars ( i know!i know!), so for me it felt like, wow, her acting skills are way better than how it had been.

the movie is not bad under the psychological thriller category because, believe me, my heart was racing in fear when i watch it. i highly recommend the movie.

here are some scene where i think really gave the movie some extra oomph:

1. there's a part where nina was trying to pull some of the excess skin near the nail out but ends up peeling up almost a quarter of her skin. that is just visual torture for me. but later it turns out to be just a hallucination. ( one of the many hallucinations that nina will be facing).

2.there's a night when she stayed up late to practice and saw thomas and lily making out and thomas turning into the demon and trying to grab hold of nina. that scene gave me goosebumps. nina freak out, went to her room and grab all the stuff that she took from beth and went to the hospital to return it to her. it turns out beth became one of her hallucinations too, and took the knife and stuck it in her own face repeatedly. gross, all the blood!

3. when nina got really upset one day and saw the rash at her back getting worst, and when she tried to pull out the prick it turns out to be a black feather, she went all crazy and tried to stop her mum from coming into her room, and her mum used her hands to stop her from closing the door, nina didn't care and banged the door closed even though her mother's fingers are there. imagine all four of her mom's fingers got banged really hard twice. initially i thought all of the fingers might just fall of and there will be blood everywhere. i declare this as scary scene number 3.

4. oh yeah, i forgot to mention the part where all the paintings that her mum painted of her started to become real and became ala scream ( the painting). that's eerie too. i mean, what's wrong with her mom? i was suspecting that she has some kind of disorder too. who paints their daughter's portrait over and over again and cries at the painting?

5. the part where nina's legs bend and contoured into a swan's one, that's scary too. the way the leg bends is so unnatural that it's just impossible for a human leg to do so.

6. the finale, the day of nina's performance shows her having a fight with lily, who she thinks wanna steal her part, wearing her black swan costume where she was to perform. she shoved lily to the mirror and thus breaking it into little pieces and took a piece of it and push it into her abdomen, and thinking that she was dead, left her to bleed to death.

nina only realized when it was a hallucination when lily went and congratulate her on her performance as black swan. only then did she realized that the blood on the floor is imaginary, and only when she pulled out part of the shredded mirror out from her abdomen that she realized that the person that she fight with just now was herself.

the film ended with nina dancing the last part of the performance, jumping down to the mattress, and bleeding to death (i'm not sure if she died). her final words was: i was perfect.
'
here's a confession: i've never watch a horror movie because there's ghost in it. however, i would describe black swan as a horror movie, just that it doesn't have ghost in it. don't get me wrong, it's not just a horror movie. it's a awesome to the max horror movie.

but, i wouldn't compare it with the likes of inception, because both are totally in a different genre.

black swan will be airing in malaysia on 24 february( i am very surprised that it would even hit our shores, and i question the amount of parts that they will be censoring) , so, don't get your hopes up so high if you want to watch that steamy scene where lily and nina do it.

or you can wait fot the blu-ray version of it, or even faster, get your friends to download it for you. i am eternally grateful for them to download all this exceptional movies for me.

:)

Acme Bar & Coffee, The Troika review

black swan : a review

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