[FOOD REVIEW] Dream Cafe @ Taman Mount Austin, JB

Do you ever feel like you are too afraid to live your dream? We would all love to live our dream but sometimes we allow our fear of failure to limit our ability to achieve them. But there's this one young man who follows his heart and strives to make his culinary dream into reality. He owns a cafe of his own only at the age of 28, and what's a better name for the cafe other than ''Dream Cafe''?

Patrick is the proud owner and chef of Dream Cafe. His passion for cooking has taken him to work in kitchens at hotels in Singapore and also restaurants in JB before starting his own business. Starting a cafe from scratch is not easy, especially with so much competition these days. He shared with us his determination to change the cafe atmosphere in Malaysia where there are not many cafes serving good and authentic western food.

''I put in effort in every food I serve to ensure the quality.'' Patrick said, with determined look in his eyes.

It must be a wonderful feeling to see how your cooking made people happy.

Thai Style Salmon Salad RM15.90

A colourful and healthy start for the night. Bits of almonds were sprinkled on top to add crunchy taste to the salad. Be surprised by the chunks of salmon you will find in between the greens.

Cauliflower with Spicy Sour Cream RM8.90

I love cauliflower, but have never eaten cauliflower soup - I know I must give this a try. At first glance I thought it was a pumpkin soup, but it was actually the carrots which give it a bright orange colour. The sweet taste of the carrots and creamy texture of the cooked cauliflower, I swear there's nothing more comforting than this.

Fried Oyster with Homemade Tartar Sauce RM 13.90

Dream Cafe's fried oyster is crispy outside and tender inside. A great starter with homemade tartar sauce for dipping. The sauce had a tinge of spiciness to it which totally spiced up the dish. My favourite of the night!

Herb Butter Dory with Raisin Rice RM15.90

The main courses Dream Cafe served were equally impressive as well. Herb Butter Dory with Raisin Rice has dory fillet which was drizzled with melted butter and a squeeze of lemon juice before serving. The fragrant rice was sure to please the tastebuds and leave you yearning for more.

Beef Bolognaise Pasta RM22.90

Patrick proudly recommended his Beef Bolognaise Pasta, in which he spends four and a half hour daily to make the sauce all by himself. He revealed to us his recipe which contains onion, celery, carrot and tomatoes. I am not a big meat lover, but I love every bit of it because it was a dish cooked with sincerity.

Salmon Steak with Herb Crush RM32.90

Who doesn't love salmon? Rich in omega-3 fatty acids and protein, salmon is a healthy option for many people nowadays. This salmon steak was cooked to perfection with fresh herb and bread crumbs on top to add extra flavour to it.

Milk Pudding with a Scoop of Ice Cream RM11.90

..........not forgetting a perfect dessert to end the night. :)

Patrick reminded me of my dream. I always find it hard to free myself from destructive fears and doubts about my ability to achieve my dream. But you know what, life starts with a dream. Add faith, it becomes a belief. Add action, it becomes a part of life. Add patience, hope and time, it ends with a dream come true. Thank you Patrick, for showing me how lucky it is to live my dreams doing what I love and loving what I am doing. To waking up each day with excitement at what the day may bring. I will hold on to my dream.

''Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die. Life is a broken-winged bird. That cannot fly. 

Hold fast to dreams, for when they go. Life is a barren field, frozen with snow.'' 

Langston Hughes

What is your dream?

p/s: Check in on fb next time when you visit Dream Cafe to enjoy a 10 percent discount!
(promotion ends at the end of June)

Dream Cafe

Address: 

No.27, Jalan Austin Heights,

Taman Mount Austin,

81100 JB.

Tel: 07-3641052

Operating hours: 12pm - 11pm (Mon-Thurs)
                      12pm - 12am (Fri-Sun)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamcafeaustin

Life as a medical student #11 The end is the beginning of all things

It's only the beginning now

A pathway yet unknown

At times the sound of other steps

Sometimes we walk alone

The best beginnings of our lives

May sometimes end in sorrow

But even on our darkest days

The sun will shine tomorrow.

So we must do our very best

Whatever life may bring

And look beyond the winter chill

To smell the breath of spring.

Into each life will always come

A time to start anew

A new beginning for each heart

As fresh as morning dew.

Although the cares of life are great

And hands are bowed so low

The storms of life will leave behind

The wonder of a rainbow.

The years will never take away

Our chance to start anew

It's only the beginning now

So dreams can still come true.

Another year of medical school has come to an end. 

Thank you Group C1, I am going to miss all of you. 

Let's ace the exam together, shall we?

Blog hibernate mode turns on.

记我与慈济的一段缘 #4 双溪毛糯麻风病院送愛之旅

距离吉隆坡市中心约一小时车程，有一个叫希望之谷的地方。在70年代，共有逾2000名麻风病人被隔离居住在这里。随着岁月的流逝，目前只剩下200位年龄60岁以上的病人。这里是双溪毛糯麻风病院 (Sungai Buloh Leprosy Settlement)，是时代的产物，是人类基于对疾病的恐惧制造出来的隔离场所。

当时，具有高度传染性的麻风病，没有药物能医。病人一被诊断患上麻风，便被强制性的隔离。病人的身体，受到麻风菌的侵害，面容变形，四肢残缺不全。但他们却说，身体上的痛算不了什么，人们鄙视的眼光才是他们最大的痛。他们远离人群，受到社会的唾弃，身心受到极大的煎熬。文明与教育，并没有让人们摆脱对麻风病的恐惧和焦虑；反之将受尽摧残的麻风病康复者隔离在人们的世界之外，假装他们不存在，任由他们随着时间流逝与历史一起埋葬和遗忘。因此，双溪毛糯麻风病院成了阿公阿嫲命运的交集点。它一度代表了绝望，但是后来，它成了阿公阿嫲的家，一个他们再也离不开，不愿意离开的地方。

四月的一个星期天，一群年轻人选择走出优渥的环境，把爱和关怀，带到这与世隔绝的孤园。

起初大家有点不知所措，不知道该如何接近他们。但是凭着大家友善的笑脸，这里的阿公阿嫲，从起初的怀疑，到后来的信任，在短短一个早晨的时间，大家与这里的阿公阿嫲有了良好的互动，建立了深厚的友情。在进入病院之前，他们有着各自的人生经历，他们也有他们的年少轻狂。只是后来，他们患病，遭歧视，最后进入病院。虽然大家能做的很少，只是简单地唱唱歌，聆听他们的故事，可是阿公阿嫲们却笑得好开心。他们虽然身体残缺，可是他们没有一句怨言。他们勇敢，坚强，乐观，知足。

没有见苦，焉知自己多有福。愿这份感动能持久弥新。

Life as a medical student #10 About inferiority complex

I just feel incompetent.

I remember how I was always the top of my class in high school. I knew I had to do well in SPM to get the college admission I desired and the scholarship I needed. So I scored 9A+ in SPM, enrolled in matriculation - the fastest way to degrees, and when everyone was complaining of not being able to study medicine, I was awarded the highly sought after JPA scholarship to study medicine in Perdana University. It's all been smooth sailing; everything has gone exactly according to plan. I thought I was a blessed child. As soon as I entered medical school, I realized that this kind of success is everywhere. I was surrounded by geniuses. It no longer makes me special or stand out. I don't think I am smart, in any way.

I struggled, a lot. I feel inferior compared to the others in the hospital who always seem to know more than me. I still have to look up things when I don't understand during the ward rounds and flipping my books like crazy for things I have already studied. I get frustrated and just feel like I shouldn't be there. Every two weeks we move on to a new posting and new environment. So just when I feel like I know what's going on, I am back to square one. Incompetent, clueless, and most importantly, being doubtful of my ability. Sometimes, it makes me wonder, whether I would make it, to be a good and competent doctor. Some days my best is just not good enough.

After three years in medical school, I am still struggling to learn how to be good at medicine. But in order to be the person I have always envisioned myself to be, I will continue to find my way.

Life as a medical student #9 About Death

Every doctor will experience the loss of a patient at some point of time. Some of the patients will fade peacefully. Others will fight until their last breath. Some plan their funerals, others plan a future they won't have. However, nothing in medical school prepares us for dealing with death. In my third year of medical school, I experienced my first patient death. 

On the last day of my surgery rotation in HKL, I met a lady with both of her legs amputated. Yes it was her. I wrote about her story on my blog few weeks back (You can read about it here). I fulfilled my promise and went back to her on Monday, but she was too tired and weak to have much to say to me. The amount of analgesics used on her was so huge that it made her drowsy. And for the rest of the week, other than sitting by her bed and waited, I couldn't do anything else. When I returned to the hospital after another weekend, she was not doing well. Her condition deteriorated. More and more infection. She could no longer undergo dialysis. The nurses told me her wound was not going to heal. The doctors told me her prognosis was bad. My heart sank. 

On that day, I had a long talk with her mother. Her mother told me how her daughter struggled with her health despite her young age, and she showed me a video of her daughter happily spending time with her family just few months ago. Then everything just happened, so fast and unexpected. She told me how much she didn't want to lose her precious daughter. I was on the verge of tears as I held her hands and said: ''Aunty, remember to stay strong and take good care of yourself.'' 

When I went to find the lady on the next morning, she was no longer there. A nurse told me that she had died last night.

I stood there, realizing that this was supposed to be a meaningful moment, yet I didn't feel anything. I didn't cry. I don't know why but it was not as emotionally difficult as I anticipated. I was pretty calm, maybe because the outcome was expected. Or maybe, I had no right to mourn a patient that I'd only met for weeks. I was merely a passer-by in her life. It was short, but I am glad that our paths crossed.

Does increased exposure to death as a doctor going to ease the pain, does death ever get easier? I don't know. But doctors are human too. We are frail. We should be allowed to feel.

I said my goodbye to her in my head as I left the ward. 

''I hope you had a wonderful life.''

Life as a medical student #8 My First Oncall Experience

For many housemen, on call is daunting. The rest of the world is asleep - their consultants, most of their peers, and in many cases even their supervising medical officers will be asleep. But not them. They need to stay up and be alert at the time when they are physiologically programmed to be asleep. They are responsible for admitting new patients and managing emergency cases in the middle of night. I've always wondered how it's like to be on call. So to take self-torture to another level, I volunteered to be the only medical student who was on call in Ward 18B last Thursday night. It was an impromptu one - I didn't even have enough sleep the night before, or at least had some preparation - I was working in the ward and soon when I realised it was already 10 o'clock at night so I thought I would just stay in the ward. Truth to be told, medical students are not obliged to on call, but to have a taste of it, I stayed.

Hospitals have a different character at night, so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. I was lucky to have Dr Chan and Dr Wong together with me for the night. They are the most dedicated housemen I have seen. Starting from 8 o'clock at night phone calls kept coming in. A lot of new patients were admitted and both of them were on haywire. Hence I offered my help to clerk some of the new patients. It was exciting - to assess patients first hand - because normally when we clerk patients, we would have already know what the patients were presented with by looking at their charts. (Yes we play cheat like that) Clerking new patients give me a chance to implement my own management plans and deciding my differential diagnosis. Also good for me to practise my history taking skills. 

I also got to perform procedures I might not otherwise get to do during day time, for instance, blood taking. Now this is one of the things I have mastered in these few weeks. ....Okay la maybe not 100%. Success rate 80% la kay. Still need more practice. There were so much else in the ward to learn and do. The big shock was that the majority of the job was administrative rather than practical and academic. I learnt where the lab forms were kept, how to label the blood samples, and how to send bloods I had taken. Nonetheless, I enjoyed being the housemen's assistant by helping them in and out. Well, all because I would be happy to have medical students to help me out one day when I am a houseman? :)

It was about four or five in the morning when I started to get tired. I had been up all day. I opened my patient's charts and tried to read and digest the information in it. But my eyelids felt as though they were attached to lead weights. My body went into shutdown mode. Weren't there moments when you said to yourself, what have I got myself into here?

The next morning, ward rounds with the specialists and consultants started at 8 o'clock as usual in the morning. I cleaned myself up a little and contiued to join the rounds. After having my early morning caffeine fixed, I tried hard to pull myself together until the end of the day. So this was how my first on call experience was like - I was in the hospital for a total of 30 hours.

I was so tired that all I wanted to do was to crawl into my comfortable pyjamas, plopped into my bed and hit the sack.

花。语

花样年华指间过。
不再是懵懂的年纪，也不再是做梦的花季。
如梭的岁月写下了流离的往昔。
潺潺的生命之河，花开花谢的旅途。
风风雨雨。
点点滴滴。
在心湖里开出了一片涟漪。
逆流而上的思绪，
随风飘起。
在这个花花世界里，
看见了蹉跎的脚印，看见了斑驳的伤疤。
一点一滴，迷乱了眼眶里晶莹的泪花。

明明只是沧海一粟，为什么非得承载那么多的情非得已？