The Best Roti Canai and Nasi Biryani in Kuching: Azreen Cafe

I'm glad that all the Jedis arrived on time at slightly later than 8 a.m. this morning for the street shooting at the Satok Sunday Market. As according to tradition, our outing ended with a food ritual. Out of recommendation from all the Jedis, we went to the cafe nearby our shooting location, Azreen Cafe off Jalan Rubber.

This cafe looks similar to any other Muslim food cafe in Kuching, with a roti canai station at one corner of the entrance and the cashier occupying the other.

Azreen Cafe has a typical setup of a Muslim food outlet in Kuching.

The master of roti canai!

It takes months, probably years to learn how to spin that dough into paper-thin sheet.

They are about to be served on our table after a few minutes of lying on that hot plate.

Finally, the roti canai is ready for my gastronomic journey!

Another part of the gastronomy, the nasi biryani with stewed lamb in lots of spices and black sauce.

Hmmm... Which one should I start with?

In fact it doesn't matter which to start with first, the Jedis gobbled up all the food and licked the plates clean anyway!

Need directions? Let Google Earth™ guide you through. Please click on the map to enlarge if you can't see it clearly.

The roti canai and the nasi biryani are amongst the best that I've tasted in Kuching so far. Very highly recommended from me. If you do know of any other places for good roti canai and nasi biryani, please do drop me some lines. :)

When the Fairy Godmother Sings... Mary Black

I knew about this Celtic folk singer Mary Black back in 1989 with her release of the hit album called No Frontiers in the fraternity of high-end audio. This CD was almost a 'must listen' disc in any hi-fi shop in Singapore or Hong Kong then. If any pair of speakers; a CD player; or an amplifier could not produce the sweet voice of Mary Black, that piece of equipment would be stroke of the list of an audiophile looking for an upgrade. I wasn't looking for any equipment upgrade when I was listening to No Frontiers, but I was attracted by her mesmerising voice and the Celtic mood that she portrayed. The music in this disc is just so out of this world, especially the main track and the other two named 'Columbus' and 'Vanities.'

The follow-up album riding on her success of No Frontiers was the 1991 album of Babes in the Wood with the same style of music.

Since I was so impressed by her music which can be categorised as Celtic traditional, folk or world genre, I immediately acquired her 1994 album The Holy Ground. I love the song 'Paper Friends' for the tune and the lyrics in this album.

She changed her direction from Celtic traditional music to pop music in her 1995 release of The Circus. Although I was not as impressed as I was with the three earlier albums, I still pulled out the banknotes from my wallet to pay the girl at the cashier and walked out of the CD shop with this album in my haversack; as an attempt for my devotion to her music. There is still a more traditional song in this album called 'Free as Stone.'

Her evolution from traditional music to pop music was complete in the 1997 release of Shine. As I was not so pleased with her pop music, I still appreciated her and bought the CD. I'm not saying that her pop music is not good, it is still a notch or two above the average pop singers. But I was so mesmerised in her Celtic mood earlier that it was hard for me to adept to her pop music.

I think she realised that she's losing some of her audience in her traditional music. So she threw back some traditional elements into her 1999 album Speaking with the Angel. Since then, she turned inactive in the music scene, with just some releases of 'The Best of...' and 'The Collection of...' albums thereafter.

After years of collecting her albums, I managed to trace back her music older than No Frontiers. This is the tune from her 1987 album By the Time It Gets Dark.

This is yet another older album of her released back in 1985, Without the Fanfare. All the songs are great, especially this track called 'The Crow on the Cradle.'

In fact, all her albums come with top notch recording and sound quality. Her music has accompanied me through the years and I'll continue to play these albums in my collection over the many months and moons to come in my life. It has been part of my life.