Took a car down to an old haunt, to Limapulo in Chow Kit, which was once a step away from my flat. I arrived just as it opened and placed my favourite order, a bowl of their nyonya laksa with barley water. There were were any number of other things I’d have liked to have ordered, but as usual, dining alone, one has to limit oneself. It was a tasty laksa though not quite as good as I remembered it, and sadly I think the reason may be that the old baba (after whom the restaurant was called ‘Limapulo – Baba Can Cook!’) had died. I remember him very well, a slender Peranakan, always cheerfully well-lubricated, seated outside with his buddies and sometimes coming inside to work a table or two.
The whole area, which had started gentrifying when we arrived, is now gentrified and hipsterified, with any number of shops and cafes, including an outpost of an old favourite from Petaling Street, Ali Muthu Ahock. There was a nice batik shop – normally Malaysian batik is not my thing, but I liked the patterns here – and I was tempted but then my car arrived.
Went off to the cafe cluster in TTDI, where the two I’d thought of going to were both closed, so ended at a third which was slightly less nice, but a good spot to work.
Then back, and continued work.