Had a tiring but totally fun weekend in PJ, meeting up with old friends, checking out the food and of course, shopping at my two favourite places – Daiso (at The Curve) and IKEA.
Daiso was one of those lovely discoveries because CC bought me some excellent and practical household items from this shop where everything goes for RM5. Which is cheap but then again, one always blows one’s budget because one loses count of the number of items! Our brain is wired to think, aiyah, it’s only RM5. But when the basket is full of items, errrrrgh!
When I was in HK, I ended up at Jusco’s version of Daiso too (HK$10 store). And to think we only found this section in Jusco HK on our LAST day! Still we grabbed quite a bit of items which I still can’t find here. That includes lugging home a chopping board holder!
Anyway, after that I got terribly hooked on Daiso. So when I was in PJ, I visited Daiso at The Curve 3 times in 3 days. And each time, embarrassingly I bought something and even introduced my best friend to Daiso! She’s now as addicted as I am, as she found some hard to find toys for her children. CC told me there’s a new Daiso at One Utama but she concluded that branch was too small to be of interest to me. This Daiso was bigger and better and had lots more interesting items.
Example, how about a ladle holder? I always don’t know where to put my soup ladles but this gadget solves the issue. The ladle stands happily with this holder.
Or how about a silicone pastry brush? Easy to clean and you don’t lose hair over losing bristles from your pastry brush.
Or a very clever way of disposing cooking oil? There’s this substance which you stir into your used cooking oil and it hardens the oil, allowing you to lift it out of your pot and dispose of it. This beats pouring the oil down your sink. (Actually you can re-use your cooking oil to make soap. I learnt it’s very easy. I am going to learn it from a friend soon!)
And finally on our last day in PJ, I managed to get my friends (the ones who drove us down to KL) to visit Daiso.
And how could one go to The Curve without going to IKEA?
Oh yes, what a lot of stuff we bought. I keep wishing IKEA comes to Penang but I last heard that we in the Northern region don’t have buying clout. Which is strange because almost all Penangites I talk to are happy to drive down to PJ and cart home boot-loads of flat-packed furniture!
I think I love IKEA because the solutions are so smart and practical. They make decorating one’s home so easy and so convenient and so well-thought out!
IKEA is also about food – I sometimes think they make pots of money from their food too (beside the furniture). Their 99 sen breakfast specials are always a big draw (with free coffee from 9am to 9.30am). When we were there yesterday, they served fried spring rolls and char kueh teow. CC told me the breakfast specials are always changing so it’s quite fun to try different offerings each time.
For lunch, I always enjoy the Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce and french fries. Somehow I cannot be tempted to try other dishes. I fall back on this over and over!
But the best has to be their curry puffs. Best eaten when they’re fresh and hot!
