3 GREAT PLACES FOR SUNDAY BRUNCH

Antipodean
20 Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (03) 2282 0411
With the popularity of this Australian-inspired café in Bangsar Baru, the owners of Antipodean have opened two new branches at Mid Valley Megamall and Menara Tan & Tan. Their winning formula remains the same, though — wonderful coffee and a great range of delicious dishes like BLT on sourdough bread, shredded chicken salad, salmon fish cakes and other breakfast favourites for both children and adults. If you have kids and pets in tow, the Bangsar Baru branch remains your best bet.

Breadfruits
17 Jalan 26/70a, Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (03) 6201 0090
Part bakery, part fruit stall and part café, Breadfruits is a great brunch spot if you’re especially health-conscious. Enjoy juices made from fresh fruit and a delicious array of food made with ingredients like pure local honey, free-range eggs from Bukit Tinggi and steamed cannellini beans instead of tinned baked beans. The chefs are generous with the greens in all the dishes that have them, which also include pork.

Shook!
Starhill Gallery, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (03) 2782 3875
If you like your brunch served with some drama on the side, Shook! is the place to be — its thematic brunches are back, and this time celebrate the delightful whimsy of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Alongside this respected eatery’s Chinese, Japanese, western and Italian menu, expect to find whimsical teapots, stacked cakes and books, as well as a water fountain garden area with a giant storybook set that lets everyone enjoying the fun and other peculiar elements of the celebrated English novel. Priced at RM168++ per person for food and RM268++ per person with free flow of Moët & Chandon champagne.

2 SWINGIN’ LIVE MUSIC GIGS TO CATCH
 

Alexis Ampang
Great Eastern Mall, Jalan Ampang,
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (03) 4260 2288
Known as Malaysia’s King of Swing, Sharizan Borhan has entertained the local and international scenes with his trademark voice and unique interpretation of jazz and swing classics. He performs in Alexis Ampang tonight and tomorrow at 10pm, and admission is free.

No Black Tie
17 Jalan Mesui, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (03) 2142 3737
Arafar Edruce, also known as AraByrd, is a local hip hop singer that draws equal comparisons to MIA and Nicki Minaj for her pop appeal and eccentric sense of style. At just 23, AraByrd has opened for a number of major hip hop artists in Kuala Lumpur and is slowly making waves with her individual style of rap and music. She performs at 10pm tomorrow night. Cover charge is RM50.

2 SHOWS TO CATCH AT KLPac
Jalan Strachan, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (03) 4047 9000;
www.ticketpro.com.my

Speed the Plow
This fascinating play revolves around the choice between producing a box-office hit with a very big star and an enlightening, philosophical, intellectually rewarding movie. With a little sexual blackmail in the shape of an ambitious personal assistant, the crackling exchanges in Speed the Plow between two producers, Bobby and Charlie, are quick, witty, outrageous and very funny. Directed by Paul Loosley and starring Gavin Yap, Douglas Lim and Amelia Henderson, this hilarious and wicked tale about the battle between art and greed is set against the modern movie-making business and plays up the constant battle between commercial gain and artistic integrity.

Uda dan Dara
Written by national laureate Datuk Usman Awang in 1972, Uda dan Dara is a classic Malaysian story of two star-crossed lovers — Dara, a young woman from an affluent family, and Uda, a young man born into hardship, both equally shaped and driven by circumstance, yet equally in love with one another. In this modern retelling directed by Datuk Faridah Merican, Uda is Chinese and lives with his single mother in Kampung Sungai Penchala while Dara is from a rich family in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. This is a story of love, transcending notions of wealth, class, and — in this adaptation — culture and ethnicity. Featuring a young cast and set to original music by Basil Jayatilaka, Uda dan Dara has been adapted for a modern audience by Mark Beau D’Silva and Omar Ali. (See review of show on Page 30.)

2 MOVIES TO WATCH

The Cobbler
Sometimes, the weekend calls for movies with some light and easy humour — a standard offering in any Adam Sandler comedy. In The Cobbler, Sandler plays Max Simkin, who repairs shoes in the same New York shop that has been in his family for generations. Disenchanted with the grind of daily life, Max stumbles upon a magical heirloom that allows him to step into the lives of his customers and see the world in a new way. Funny and heart-warming, The Cobbler reminds us all that sometimes walking in another man’s shoes is the only way you can discover who you really are.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
If you loved the first movie, you are sure to be besotted with its sequel. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the expansionist dream of Sonny (Dev Patel), and it’s making more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to Sunaina (Tina Desai). Sonny has his eye on a promising property now that his first venture, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful, has only a single remaining vacancy — so Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Greig) have to fight it out. Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench and Bill Nighy) have now joined the Jaipur workforce, Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are negotiating the tricky waters of an exclusive relationship and Madge (Celia Imrie) juggles two eligible and very wealthy suitors. Perhaps the only one who may know the answers is newly installed co-manager of the hotel, Muriel (Maggie Smith), the keeper of everyone’s secrets. As the demands of a traditional Indian wedding threaten to engulf them all, an unexpected way forward presents itself.

1 GOOD READ
Set in the turbulent final years of the Yuan Dynasty, The Ten Thousand Things follows low-level bureaucrat Wang Meng, who is also a remarkably gifted artist. As Wang travels through an empire in turmoil, he encounters, among many memorable characters, other master painters of the period including the austere and eccentric Ni Zan, a fierce female warrior known as the White Tigress who will recruit him as a military strategist and an ugly young Buddhist monk who rises from beggary to extraordinary heights.

The Ten Thousand Things is rich with exquisite observations, and author John Spurling endows every description and detail with the precision and depth that the real-life Wang Meng brought to his painting. But it is also a novel of fated meetings, grand battles and riveting drama, and in its seamless fusion of the epic and the intimate, it achieves a truly singular beauty.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 10, 2015.