Sebrinah Yeo

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Batik Boutique Unique Holiday Collection Malaysia

Sebrinah Yeo December 04, 2018 1

What do you know about Batik?

Ever thought about it before?

If you're like me, am sure you may have the same common understanding that Batik is a unique design by Asians, especially amongst the Malay community with their traditional Batik design and attires.

In fact, you're probably thinking, batik is a sarung or baju kurung or a cloth with nice pattern print design. But what if I tell you that, this post may change the way you see, think, imagine and feel about batik more than you can even imagine it's purpose for!

At The Batik Boutique, the story to how it began to it's solid footing here in Malaysia today, truly marks a gift that the founders and its creators really inspires and empowers more people with their humble beginnings.

Amy Blair, met her friend Ana, a single mother in 2009 and through her friend she actually met a few women who were living in PPR flats in a very poor and rundown condition with their family. It saddened her to see that they didn't have the opportunity that she had when she was growing up in the states. And settling here in Malaysia building her family here, after meeting these ladies, she were inspired to find ways to help these ladies and her friend Ana to have a better chance in Malaysia.

Ever since then, from a few ladies who had zero knowledge in sewing or batik, learned baby steps and finally, from sewing from home, to studios, into retail outlets and now into exporting across borders such as UK, US, Australia, Japan and abroad; The Batik Boutique truly made its humble mark in proving that you can do anything if you just don't give up!

The women who are involved can now earn a sustainable income to support their family unlike before, they can finally stand on their own two feet and be independent. You see, the Batik Boutique was created with the mission to teach women how to sew and to work with artisans in Malaysia.

They have just recently launched their 'Holiday Collection' a couple of weeks ago and the result was overwhelming as it was almost sold out.

I really love their display of the 'Holiday Collection', it's truly befitting for the upcoming festive season Christmas. What's even better, celebrating Christmas in Malaysia with the true art of the beautiful and unique Batik design.

If you noticed the pillow design that I am cuddling with, was actually inspired through the founder Amy, rummaging through some of the batik blocks from one of the artisan and she saw a tenung design weaved on the batik. That's how this pillow design was born for this 'Holiday Collection'.

I won the Instagram post during the day! A beautiful yellow batik, bag.

They also have 2 types of clutches, one in greyish white and another in vibrant colors; the colorful one is almost sold out as well by the way.

Everything that the Batik Boutique has to offer are all 100% handmade, including the tassels on some of the products.

It's really amazing to see women who started from scratch, they had nothing, everything from zero ground up, zero skills and no knowledge of sewing, even one of them couldn't read or write but they all needed one thing in their life, and that is money for their family. Through learning this skill set, they now make a decent living and continues to create these marvelous collection for the world.

I really love how the Batik Boutique does not just focus on selling batik cloths etc, but they offer you a wide array of variety in batik design, such as having modernise fashion but in batik styles.

Batik Boutique successfully expresses to the public that batik can be modern and be used for more than just apparels, yet, it can still be casual AND each piece is unique because they work with artisans. This makes their collection valuable for money as you can not only wear it at home but even outside as well.

And seeing as the season of gifting is near, what's even better than to gift these perfect gifts to your loved ones, here's a 20% code for you to enjoy online! (Valid till end Dec 2018)

HOLIDAY20

I really enjoyed the workshop here where they also organize workshops like these to the public too. These are perfect gift sets for kids too! I'm thinking to get a set for my kids to enjoy the beauty of batik at home.

My impromptu creation, I just simply paint only with 3 main color and just mix it away!

This is called "My Cincai Batik", beautiful piece right ahahahaha!

We also enjoyed some yummy snacks, I especially love the hummus and baked macaroni from PichaProject. The Quiche was delicious too!

Do drop by when you have time, and be mesmerized by their beautiful array of collection at :

Batik Boutique

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Address : No. 3 (Ground Floor), Jalan 26/70a, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Contact : +603-23036052

Email : info@thebatikboutique.com

Opening Days/Hours : Monday - Saturday, from 9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Makan The Best Malaysia Nasi Lemak Bamboo

Review

Sebrinah Yeo December 03, 2018 2

Am sure most of you have heard about the latest craze over Nasi Lemak Bamboo in Malaysia, but where to find the best?! We have heard of many version, locations and so on. Some even use this as a marketing gimmick by serving Nasi Lemak in a Bamboo!

Why Bamboo?

Because at the thought of Bamboo, is that it is unique and fragrant!

But do you know, there are some places who pre-made their Nasi Lemak in advance and just dump it in a Bamboo prior to serving customers? Some even lay it out on half a bamboo shell and serve it to customers. But it's not really cooked inside the Bamboo.

You get to see them prepare the Nasi Lemak Bamboo right at their entrance

Over here at Azfar Maju Corner in Kepong, you will get to enjoy the real Nasi Lemak Bamboo, because it does as it says, Nasi Lemak with Rendang Ayam Kampung homemade from scratch, steamed in the Bamboo for 40 minutes!

The process?

30 minutes of cooking the rice in each Bamboo will be done beforehand (to avoid customer waiting too long for 1 Nasi Lemak kan...), they will do 10 to 15 at a time and keep adding once it's about to sold out throughout the day to avoid wastage of leftovers.

When you order the Nasi Lemak Bamboo, you wait 10 to 15 minutes for them to cook the rice for another 10 minutes and then added in with their delicious Rendang Ayam Kampung.

The rendang (cooked 2 to 3 hours with their homemade fried coconut paste aka kerisik) is truly delicious their Rendang Ayam Kampung has a slight tinge of "kick" in its spices but it wasn't too overwhelming and the spicyness is tolerable. Safe to say even your kids can handle it, and if you love spicyness then this rendang will taste fragrant with a good mix of spice for you, it won't taste bland.

After that, the Sambal goes in with it's other condiments where you usually find in a Nasi Lemak dish in Malaysia. The crunchy cucumber that is soaked in ice first, the roasted nuts and ikan bilis (aka anchovies).

I must highlight that I am not a fan of SAMBAL because I have really sensitive tastebud (like a baby), so when it's not spicy to me, it will never be spicy to those who can tolerate and love spicy food. But this SAMBAL right here was a little spicy for me, because it made me sweat a little and had a little runny nose but it was tolerable! My friends love it and had an extra plate of sambal servings for their Nasi Lemak Bamboo.

And as mention, their food here including the sambal and the rendang are all made from scratch, not premix paste etc.

Am sure you're wondering now, why is the Nasi Lemak rice is GREEN in colour?
That's because, for their customers to enjoy the true fragrance of a Nasi Lemak dish cooked inside the Bamboo, pandan leaves is a MUST while cooking the rice, but if the rice is in the Bamboo, the pandan fragrance may not seap into the rice as much as the normal Nasi Lemak dish. So the owner actually extracts the pandan juice out from pandan leaves and add into the Nasi Lemak rice, hence it is green in colour! It's also cooked with halia/ginger for added fragrance and incase you don't know, halia/ginger helps dispel wind.

But the fragrant pandan of the Nasi Lemak when it is served out piping hot fresh from the Bamboo is truly a ONCE IN A LIFETIME experience you will NEVER find anywhere else in Malaysia!

Also, it is recommend to eat-in because if you order-to-go, the fragrance will disperse after awhile, it's only best served fresh. However, they did have customers ordering from them for catering and they wrap it in pandan leaves to try to keep the fragrance intact, but still it is different from eating at the outlet.

So if you'd like to come over and get your hands on some Nasi Lemak Bamboo at RM12.90,

just walk in to :

Azfar Maju Corner

Address : G1, Plaza Manjalara, No.1 Jalan Menjalara Idaman, Bandar Menjalara,

52200 Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If you have a big group coming it's best to call up half and hour to an hour in advance to ensure that there's enough Nasi Lemak Bamboo prepared for your group coming over.

Tel : Pn. Seema +6019-4446441

Note : Don't say I didn't warn you, they sell out pretty quick!

Their opening hours are : Daily (except they are Closed on Sundays) from 6pm till 11pm

They also have other food on their menu that you can order. During the day, you can actually enjoy Nasi Budget with Kuah Ikan and Ayam Seketul for RM3.90 only! That's really within anyone's budget! Their food are prepared and cooked fresh daily, so don't miss out on it!

Follow them for more updates :

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Farm In The City Malaysia School Holiday Activity

Year End

Sebrinah Yeo December 02, 2018 0

Over the weekend of the first week of school holidays, we took our kids to Farm In The City in Selangor. A place where we have heard many parents and even kids share their excitement about while visiting the venue.

And after a long wait, as it was on our bucket list on places to visit with the kids, we were glad that we could finally arrange a time to come and spend time together as a family.

It's actually not too far from where we live. In fact a mere 18 minutes away. It's definitely reachable with vehicle or public transportation like Grab.

Farm In The City is an eden of nature and animals that is now a pretty good know tourist attraction amongst the locals with its addition role in nature and wildlife research and conservation. Managed by a team of professionals, you will be amazed with its setting inside where you will be in touch upclose and personal with wildlife and nature.

The entrance was not too hard to spot, although parking was limited infront of the entrance but there was still spots outside that you can park or even along the road as guided by a parking road attendant at the gate. You can also park at the newly developed shoplots opposite Farm In The City.

At the entrance, infront of the souvenir store, there's a huge family photo board where you can pop your head over and snap a photo with your favourite animals. There's also some nice backdrop for some selfie moments and a cool car out at the yard with the "I love Farm In The City" expression painted on the body of the vehicle.

Incase you're wondering, you have to enter the souvenir shop first, only then you will be taken to another area where you can play games like hopscotch, bowling with coconuts, bubbles, kiddie rides or even sand art.

As you proceed further along the path, there's a bird house with all the birds hanging around the pathways and ledges.

And right before the entrance, there is an Mmbek House where you can see lambs and chickens.

Just as we entered the entrance, to the left is the ticket counter.

Right next to the ticket counter they have a pop up stall that sells a bucket of food for feeding the animals for RM10. You can get them there before entering or you can also enter and get them when you see it.

If you choose not to get it, they also have many dispensing machines all around the farm that charges you RM2 per box of one type of feed (eg. Hay, Seeds, etc).

At some areas when you don't have any feed on hand with you, you can also see if there's any staff nearby holding a bunch of green vegetable leaves for the animals that you can also feed with, but you'll probably only get 1 piece of feed just for the fun of it.

To enter, you must show your tickets at the staircase near the ticket counter, but if you brought a stroller (like me), we had to pass the food court to another pathway to enter the farm. So we decided to stop by for lunch. Their nasi goreng set for 4 pax is really yummy in generous portion!

Upon entering, you will see a beautiful array of Parrots on display. All alive and healthy and some pretty NAUGHTY! One of it allowed me to pat him for awhile before it tried to bite my fingers as I was stroking it. Then later on I found out, it was stalking me into the exhibition hall away from it's resting area.

As I was busy trying to figure out what animal is this because it was so cute and cuddly; My husband told me there's a bird following me...

I turned around to see this.........

It eventually walked back as some kids were amused by it and distracted it from me as I walked away from its sight.

There were a few animals at the Exhibition area, including petting a real snack. It was my first time and the skin was really smooth and hard. Not too scaly because the snake just had a new change of skin recently so it can't be picked up also (thankfully!!). The Fox was really cute too!

The exhibition area was right next to the Moon lake where my son got to see a real live Swan!

We then entered the Twilight creature area and I got to see a beautiful owl that was sleeping on the tree. After this area was another area where it is also closed up and had to enter/exit through the door. This second area, my son finally had the courage to walk in together with us. It was his favourite place I would say, because he fed a beautiful deer and saw some chickens walking past us. The porcupines were sleeping in their barks.

The next area we ventured together is the most fluffiest area ever! The bunnies and hamster were so fluffy! But they really put up a fight if you would want to carry them. A bunny scratched me in an attempt to escape. Been awhile since I last carried a bunny after taking care of these breed during my childhood days. But they were quite elated to continue feeding on the carrots we brought for them because everyone was feeding them. Just outside surrounding this area, your child can try to catch some longkang fish aka guppy fish but they had to put it back where it belong, it's just the enjoyment of it that's all.

The lake area is the best, you get to see all the Koi fish and feed them. It's truly a sight to be mesmerized at.

I really love how at most area, you will be able to find a place to wash your hands easily, especially after petting or feeding the animals in the farm.

We entered back into the exhibition area and manage to capture this video.

We thought it was the end of the journey inside Farm In The City, but it wasn't! We have only ventured on the right side of Farm In The City, so as we were headed back out, we realized we can venture to the left side too!

Along the way, we stopped at this area where we got to see the funny actions of the Meerkat! They kept looking up standing on two feet looking at us like we're some kinda alien or something. But it's a funny sight to see.

We then entered the Turtle & Tortoise Farm. And manage to grab a selfie with the tortoise who kinda followed me for awhile, and tried to come near my hair... Maybe he thought my hair is food (hay)...

After this farm it was the Reptile area that is kind of creepy and cold but luckily it's not completely open and glassed up.

We then entered this Bird Aviary area with all the birds walking around freely together, this shows birds can co-exist with humans.

This is definitely the most unforgettable experience in Farm In The City, that RM10 bucket of food would be a HIT over here! The 3 sheep followed me around, 1 of them attempted to jump on me to push me down so that he can grab all the food for himself. Even the deer had no chance for me to feed them. I did manage to feed the beautiful Alpaca too, and I bet if it was outside the gates, it will probably jumped on me too. So please don't let your child hold the food when you enter this area because the sheeps here will CHASE and do whatever it takes to get what they want. My shirt had 3 hooves print, no thanks to the sheep's here...

Upon leaving the Farm, you will have to exit the same entrance you can in from, where you can shop for souvenirs and gifts or memorabilia for your loved ones! There's also drinks, t-shirts, toys, portable fan, mosquito repellents of a variety and various animal toy figurines and more.

With that, I hope you've enjoyed reading this as I how I enjoyed sharing my experience in Farm In The City with my family! So do plan ahead to come by with your family this year end school holidays!

For more info visit :

Farm In The City

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