Lunching with friends

These are photos taken from a recent lunch gathering with my friends. Along with me, there were my sister, Elby and Mani. We missed Nita and Ufi this time, one was busy in school, learning to be a beautician, the latter was busy babysitting the toddler of our beautician to be haha. Oh well, i hope they will turn up on our next gathering ;)

I was wondering why Mani insisted to proceed with the luncheon on that particular day, or i should say date, even though she knows two of the six ladies in our group weren't able to make it. It turned out that it was the first  anniversary of Mani's dad passing. May his soul rest in peace.

That was why she needed us on that day. I am glad that we laughed a lot in that aftenoon, and hopefully our presence lifted up her spirit, somehow. 

Anyway, we went to Ananda Bhavan vegetarian restaurant at Tekka Market. The food was awesome! We had mini briyanni meal, a full briyanni meal, a garlic butter naan meal and mini poori meal.To be honest...I was very full by three quarter of the meal time...but there was still food on the table! I exceeded my lentils quota on that day...i ended up having very 'windy' tummy for the rest of the day...if you know what i mean :P

So much food went into my tummy!
I felt like a gluttony (facepalm).
Promised myself to go easy with dinner
But the guilt linger
Haha
No regret, after all
This...was for a good cause :P

Post lunch, we ventured Tekka Market. If you havent been to this market yet, then you should go now! You have been missing all good fresh vegetables...of all kinds. The market is located right in the heart of Little India. It is a very comprehensive market, where most people go if they want to find: tapioca leaves, petai (Parkia speciosa), jengkol (Archidendron pauciflorum), leunca (Solanum nigrum), all are Indonesian favourites! You can even buy brotowali (Tinospora crispa) which is known for its medicinal benefit, as well as its bitter taste haha! Oh btw...the second floor of this tekka market is dedicated for the apa and ama selling sarees, punjab dress, and all of its accessories! The experience of going to Tekka Market will last forever, the sight, the smell, they will definitely stick to your memory!

Elby wanted to get kemangi leaves. Kemangi is Indonesian version of basil leaves. This very aromatic leaves are usually added to various dishes, such as pepes ikan (steamed fish in banana leaves), or eaten raw as salad with very spicy sambal. Yum. She bought one bunch of the leaves and gave half of that to me, thank you Elby. So...I ended up buying banana leaves, for no apparent reason haha.

We then make a route to a shop selling Indian sweet desserts such as jalebi and barfi for my mum. Last stop of the day was a provision shop selling all kind of things from pooja flowers to shampoo. We were there because Mani wanted to buy a special shampoo which is actually somekind of haena. She claimed that the shampoo dye her hair black nicely. And since it is made of all natural ingredients, it is safe to use. Of course I bought one box of this shampoo for my hubby. He desperately needs it, been trying all sort of ways to make himself look 'younger' (read: no grey hair) haha. Sounds very vain eh? I don't know...well, to me he looks better with silvery hair though but lets make the man happy, okay? Hope this treatment works.

 

Okay...I will be coming back to little India, with a different friend, in two days time. Will bring her to this vegetarian restaurant. I hope she likes the food, keep my fingers crossed.