Travel Series: Maasai Village, Maasai Mara, Kenya, Africa.

I am SO behind on my blogging. Looking through my pictures folder we've got restaurants in Kay-El that we ate at more than a month ago. I should really get around to blogging before I forget about they tasted like.

I think I've got something better though. Continuing my travel series, today I'll take you to the Maasai Mara game reserve in central Kenya for a sneak peek into the lives of the most photographed ethnic group in the world - the Maasai. Mammoth post below!



When going into a Maasai camp, it's customary to meet up with the chief (or his representative), and offer an 'offering' as an 'entrance fee' of sorts. For us, it was 1000 KES (rm36) per person, which buys entry to the village, the freedom to take photographs, and to watch the men do their traditional 'jumping' dance. The dance, accompanied by loud rhythmic chanting, is done to:

(i) celebrate the slaying of a lion, and
(ii) to entertain fair-skinned, wide-eyed tourists.



While I fail to see how entertaining visitors is a worthwhile replacement for the thrill of defeating the king of the jungle, I'm not complaining. And the men get some jumping practice. Which is useful, because apparently if you can jump really high, you get a discount on the dowry you pay when 'buying' a wife. I didn't really ask in detail, but I'd imagine as a man you'd go meet your prospective future wife's in-laws, and the conversation would go something like this:

You: How much for your daughter?
The In-Laws: 10 cows.
You: ** start to jump as high as you can **
The In-Laws: You have good genes. OK I give you discount ... 7 cows.

Easiest negotiation ever.


Anyway, this is the son of the chief. His dad was off somewhere attending an inter-village tribal meeting - you know, doing the important stuff - leaving him behind to entertain. You can't really tell from the photo, but that's a hat made from the head of a lion. It probably belongs to his dad. I mean you can just tell from his face that he's thinking "yay, dad's not here so I get to wear the lion hat!"


I kid, I kid. The women are up next, to perform their traditional dance, which is infinitely less interesting than the male dance. The dance, which involves chanting/singing and swaying their hands back and forth, is done to:

(i) celebrate a marriage, and
(ii) to entertain fair-skinned, wide-eyed tourists.


Just like in Western society, you can easily tell a married woman from a single one - the married woman has anklets on.




You might have noticed one of my pictures above has two lumps of fresh cow droppings. And you might be inclined to go 'ewwwwwwwwwww.' But the Maasai wouldn't eww at all - they mix cow dung with soil and use it to build the walls of their huts/homes. You wouldn't hold a brick and say eww, would you?

Anyway the entire village will only stay in one location for 9 years - because termites eat away at the soil/dung mixture and the walls sort of start crumbling. So 9 years in one spot, then they pack up and move to a new spot where it takes 5 months for the women to re-build their huts.




Those of you who are sharper-eyed might have noticed that all the children in my pics are girls. Where are the guys? From 7-9 years old they go to school to learn Swahili (the Kenyan national language). Then they tend to the goats, sheep and cows, bringing them to faraway pastures to graze and drink.

At nine years old. Our kids at 9 aren't even allowed to look at anything remotely sharp. Maasai kids are handed the family's entire livestock. You know, cos what better way to teach your kids responsibility than to give them a stick and a few dozen goats, say 'here, take the goats and make sure they stay alive, cos if you screw up and lose them our entire family will starve and die' ... right? No pressure.


Oh, and you know those survival shows you see on the telly about some Westerner survival expert taking forever to start a fire? The son of the chief demonstrated starting his fire in the rain - and didn't even need 5 minutes to do it.


Back to the huts, though - they're maybe 100 sq ft tops, and fit an entire family of 4-6, a store room, a dining room cum kitchen and a room to house the baby goats/cows. The entire house has one 'window' (which is really just a 3-inch hole in the wall), and a small wood fire that's used for cooking, boiling water, and providing heat and light. Naturally the lack of ventilation makes the entire house smell sort of like a pub/club in Kay-El. But smokier. And darker.

(And you thought your 2,000 sq ft apartment was cramped)



Before I finish, just a slight bit of a 'reality check.' If you're thinking "well hey their life isn't that bad," this particular camp is possibly the richest, most modern and clean camp in all of Kenya - reason being is that it's right next to the main camp grounds area of the Maasai Mara. Practically everyone here on safari will stop by this village - and pay the 1000 shillings entrance fee - so they're like the Berkshire Hathaway of the Maasai world.

I'll cover the Maasai Mara safari in a future post, hope you've enjoyed the tour!

Open Recipe @ Carrefour, Puchong Utama

It has been a dream for me to actually have my own bakery shop to so all of you can actually drop by my Bistro Bakery too, so all of you can enjoy my recipes off the racks and order for your party. Being extremely amazed that my college friend has opened "Open Recipe" Bakery shop early this year, I personally decided that i should pop by to check it out their signature Mille Crêpes cake. Do not worry as I will not be bias just to attract you all there. True sharing are promoted in this Look-See-Eat blog so you all can have the best out of the best and make no mistakes. ^_^

What are Crêpes? It originate from France. It's actually very thin pancake tossed in a pan, click here to read more about Crêpe. Mille Crêpes here you can imagine layers after layers of Crêpes sandwich with whipped cream and in different selected flavors that can be found here in Open Recipe.

Headed there for tea-time with my little brother to be able to sample 3 of their signature Mille Crêpes cakes.

The friendly & simple decorated cafe style has limited sofas for people who would like to sit and chill out while enjoying their free wifi and also enjoy their current offer of add RM0.10 for either Coffee or Tea (Hot or Cold) with any purchase of a slice of Mille Crêpes! Great place for husbands or boyfriends who would like to Chill Out while waiting for your ladies to do their groceries shopping at Carrefour.


My little bro and my favorite also Open Recipe HOT SELLING Item is "Mille Crepes Milky Caramel". The sweet sweet nice Caramel blends will with the Milky Whipping Cream. Surprisingly, once you take your first mouthful you'll fall in love with it as it is not sweet at all and you just keep going on. Not only us but a few customers that pop by also ordered. MYR7.50.

Second in line is the Mille Crêpes Oreo Cappuccino. It's freshing and decently flavored with Oreo crunch along with the fresh oreo mixed whipping cream. Worth trying out too. However, the name mentioned Cappuccino but there was no Cappuccino taste in any bite. Good for Oreo lover, go get it! MYR8.50

Since I am a Chocoholic, listening to this name I immediately decided to order it, "Mille Crepes Belgium Chocolate Velvet". Feeling disappointed with it actually as it was not chocolaty enough for neither me nor my little brother. We describe it as eggy cream chocolate Mille Crepes. The taste does not live up to the Belgium Chocolate. We look forward for the improved version :). MYR8.50

We were actually given their NEW RECIPE BUN fresh from oven, no names given both are delicious can be compared to Berry's Bakery who has something similar but with different topping.

Just received name from Open Recipe Boss:
Left is Mayo Sausage Bun
Right is Island Crab Bun


There are other assorted buns on the rack where some looks pretty interesting.

Not only cakes there are other Set offers:
Tea Talk Set at RM5.90 available at 3pm-10pm
Set Pizza available all day at MYR9.90
Sandwich Set at RM8.90 available all day too.
Not forgetting cookies D'Amour, 100g at MYR4.50 are also sold there.
Like all bakeries, there are actually full whole cake sold too. Pre-order are also available with just a call to ensure the freshness of your Mille Crêpes.

Wondering how their full cakes looks like & need to get to know more about Open Recipe check out their webpage and facebook page.

Open Recipe is located at
F02, First Floor, Carrefour Shopping Centre Puchong Utama
Lot 4029, Persiaran Puchong Utama, 47100, Selangor.

Telephone: 03-80605370 (Cafe Manager: Fairah)
Mobile: 012-2611045 (for wholesale order and whole cakes order)

Travel Series: Dubai International Airport

So I'm starting a new mini-series! Gonna be somewhat similar to the Mauritius and Kenya posts I've had up a few months ago. And what better place to start than at an airport - to be exact, the Dubai International Airport - which is possibly the busiest transit airport in the world. I mean, I know a lot of people who transit in Dubai on their way to Europe, or to the States, or to the Africa region, but none who actually get out of the airport (other than the handful of you who actually work there).


Anyway this is my 5th transit in the last few months - and since I only had about an hour's layover this time (i.e. not enough time to find a place to sit, get comfy and sleep), I thought I'd walk around and see if it was possible to snap interesting photos ... at an airport!










I thought these were decent shots - but you be the judge! And oh, since this is still supposed to be primarily a foodie blog, I did stop for some tea (or supper, depending which time zone you measure by) at Paul pâtisserie.


They've got a delightful selection of pastries, bread and assorted cake.


I have no idea if this Paul is related to that apparently très awesome French pastry maker of the same name, or if it's just some remarkably similar looking knock-off.


In any case, my regular cappucino was average in every way. The anglaise apple, while tasting decently good, was as cold as your windows on a rainy morning. Yuck. And before you point out that I could have asked them to heat it, I'll point out that for AED 32 (RM27) for a slice of pie and a miserable coffee, there shouldn't have been any need to ask in the first place.

Boo Paul, boo. I sure hope you aren't the real Pareesian Paul.

Thai Chi - Africanized Thai cuisine in The Sarova Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya.

So anyway I've suddenly realized that since the birth of Look See Eat, we've never blogged about any sort of Thai food. Possibly because even though Thailand is our neighbor, there aren't really that many Thai restaurants in KL. So naturally, in order to rectify the obvious lack of Thai food on the blog, there is no other choice than to travel to Nairobi in the heart of Kenya to get some Thai food going, in the Thai Chi restaurant in the Sarova Stanley!


The Thai Chi restaurant is actually pretty small. I don't have exact figures but it would probably only seat 50 diners at the most. It's also pretty popular, so much so that without a reservation you pretty much get turned away like we did - twice - even on a weeknight.


Decorations are ... well ... I don't actually know if they're authentic, but the restaurant does feel quite nice and cozy.


On to the food, though, and we start off with an appetizer of Poh Pai Jee (Thai vegetable rolls with carrot relish). I have to say that it was just mediocre - nothing different from any other spring roll / popiah.


The Tom Yum Gai was better. Fragrant and tasty, with just the right amount of sour-ness. Could have used a bit more on the spice/chili though.


We had two curry dishes. The first one being the Gang Kiew Wan (Fragrant green curry dressed vegetables with coconut cream and basil):


And the second was the Gai Gang Ped (Traditional Thai red curry with basil). Both curries smelled great and were very tasty. But both curries were also flat. Despite being marked on the menu as "moderate hot," neither curry had the slightest hint of any chili at all. Naturally this was a huge disappointment, as eating Thai food that isn't spicy is like eating a vegetarian burger. What's the point?


Rounding up the main course was Phad Thai (Wok tossed noodles with shrimp, tofu, spring onions, palm sugar and eggs with tamarind sauce, fresh bean sprouts and peanuts). The shrimp were actually very fresh, which was a pleasant surprise. The texture of the noodles were pretty good, but taste-wise again they were a little bland.


Dessert was just a simple deep-fried vanilla ice cream. Because I was eating with colleagues I had to control macho (ha ha), but I'm always amazed at how ice cream can be deep fried and not melt. Yes I could probably wikipedia to find out, but then the magic would be lost!


Well, while I don't doubt that the Thai Chi is probably one of the better Thai joints in Nairobi, the food has very obviously been adapted for non-Thai tastes. It's actually decently good, fragrant and tasty, just missing the 'kick' that Chili gives. If you ever do find yourself here, make sure you tell your waitress to up the chili level.

The Thai Chi is in the Sarova Stanley hotel in the middle of Nairobi's Central Business District. Dinner above for 3 persons plus some non-alcoholic beverages was about 6,500 Sh (RM 232.05).