A Date with My Brother at Black Kettle Cafe, Georgetown Penang

Cafes come, cafes go. Good cafes with characters and good coffee stick around; Bad ones (or unlucky ones) got kicked out from the game.

We have our favourites (mine will be Cozy in the Rocket), but sometimes we like to try some new ones. After dropping off our eldest sister at the airport, we decided to head to Georgetown. The weather is too hot nowadays, the only criteria I set is to have air conditioned cafe.

Black Kettle is relatively new, both of us have never tried before. And we knew it's air conditioned. Good for us.

As we stepped into the cafe, we were surprised. We never knew the cafe is SO spacious!

The counter

The bakery

One of the nicest corner in the cafe, but you can be a little too close to the people at the next table, so we decided to sit somewhere else. 

Suitable for people watching

Posters in the cafe suggesting that this is a 4000 sq feet area. One of the biggest cafe I've been to in Georgetown. You can even book the place for events, I wonder at what price.

We have already had our light lunch at home so we didn't order any mains. We've got an affogato, a flat white, a slice of chocolate and cheese cake (called black and white), and a plate of fries with truffled mayo. The bill came at RM55.95. The coffee were both great, the cake was rich and not too sweet. But the fries are totally over priced at RM14, and not a tinge of truffle taste in the mayo at all. No more fries for me next time.

My affogato

The cafe is adequately lit. As usual, we took our turns to walk around the cafe and took some photos. And this, my affogato, was my favourite. (Note: I was pouring my espresso with my right hand, holding my phone with my left and took this with timer)

Maybe, next time I will try the pancake.

Address:
105, Beach Street, 10300, Georgetown, Penang

I'm Fasting, Intermittently

Long time ago, when we still spent time in front of TV after dinner together (you got it, that's pre-baby time), we learned about intermittent fasting on BBC channel, from a doctor named Dr. Michael Mosley.

After that, The Man had tried this diet, and it helped him to lose a fair bit of weight. At that time I didn't bother to try. My food is more important!

After baby, we've all put this diet thing behind and never talked about it. Needless to say, we both gained some baby-weight. And recently, The Man wanted to go back to the diet again. There were also some sharing on Facebook, with menus for Asian diet.

This time, I went on board to the diet with The Man.

So what's 5:2 diet? If reading the lengthy article is not your thing, you can chose any two days of the week to go on fasting. But you don't have to go totally food-less, just lesser food. How little? Well, for men you are allowed 600 calories a day, while for women, it's 500 calories a day. That means, you're spreading calories of one meal from your normal day, and stretch it out for 24 hours. The rest of the five days, just eat normally. As simple as this.

This is my second week now. We chose Tuesday and Thursday as fast days, yes together because I'm preparing breakfast for the two of us everyday so having the same diet makes it easier for me.

On my first day, last Tuesday, I felt terrible. I kept thinking about food. Sometimes I thought of them when I felt hungry but most times, I was thinking about the sinfully delicious food for no reason. It's simply craving! But with some determination, I managed to survive. The next day, I ate normally.

And on the second day, Thursday, surprisingly the fasting went on pretty easily. No craving, no hunger! I think my body has got used to it. And after a weekend of eating and feasting, my second week of fasting still went on smoothly.

So come to think about it, we actually do not need so much food. We are simply craving!

So here, I just want to share what I eat on my fast day. These are my three meals yesterday.

Breakfast: Steamed sweet potato, baked egg with cherry tomatoes (I added a bit of mozzarella cheese for myself but not for The Man), a bit of grapes. And a cup of black coffee, without milk and sugar.

Breakfast 

Lunch: Cherry apple

Lunch

Dinner: A bowl of oat in milk, with some walnuts and raisins, and some steamed broccoli.

Dinner

In between, if I got really hungry, I munch a bit of walnuts. And also drink lots of water.

I am not super duper strict on sticking to 500 calories I think I ate about 500-600, closer to 600 I would say. But if you want to find out how much calories for each type of food you want to take, you can try this website. 

Some menu recommends boiled chicken breast for dinner. I think that's terrible, it makes me feel very sad to fast. I'd rather eat oat than boiled chicken breast seriously. If you want more Asian menu, you can try google 5：2轻断食.

To clarify things up, I'm not looking into losing a lot of weight (in case you're going to say anything :P), I'm just looking into losing some tummy fat from pregnancy. And hey, Dr Mosley said this helps in longevity!

Let see how long I will stay in this diet, with my typical 3 minutes enthu!

轰轰烈烈以后

五个女人的美腿

搁着搁着，部落就这样被搁着一段时间。回家过年，一过就过了三个星期；还没有平伏过年的气氛，再去一趟台湾。

时间就在一场又一场的轰轰烈烈中度过。

现在，一切恢复平静。孩子睡了，整间家里，只有电脑和电风扇的声音。

这趟台湾之旅，来的不容易，要配合五个女人忙碌的时间真不简单。况且，抛夫弃子都得做适当的安排。一个下午通了700多封简讯以后，才得到一个大家可以出游的日子。



















旅行之时，我们都在幻想下一次该一起到哪儿去？不过，也不知道究竟下一次是几时？明年？后年？还是庆祝25周年之时？

时间到了，自然有答案。就等天时地利人和！

当时在外澳，我稍稍落后看着这一幕。心里有点抽着的感动，这感觉和以前简直是一模一样。这样的友谊，二十年了，还各分东西了这么久，原来感觉是不会变的。以后我们老了，也是一样这样旅行吧！