Still Running

Some may have concerns about recycling old stuff for articles, but I think it's fine in some cases, like highlighting good books, for instance.

Since I wrote this unabashedly pimpin' review, little has changed for the book and the author. And the magazine needed some stuff. So here it is. Meant every damn word, too.

...Never expected it to turn out better than the original review.

Cool running

Jeremy Chin tells Alan Wong that believing in what you do despite the odds is the most important ingredient towards becoming a great writer

first published in the annual issue (2012) of MPH Quill


2010. The Annexe, Central Market. A curious sight, one of many: Who was this bald, dopey-looking, self-effacing Chinese fellow, selling copies of his début novel, Fuel? I bought a copy with some degree of trepidation.

Several days afterwards, a friend borrowed the book and finished it before I could turn to page one. The language in Fuel held her spellbound; its ending made her weep.


Born to run
Fuel’s protagonist, Timothy Malcolm Smith, is the creative whiz at London ad agency Cream. He’s friendly, charitable, deeply spiritual, philosophical, good with the ladies, and keeps virtually no vices. He doesn’t pray to Christ, he chats with Him, calling him “Jezza” or “Jez”.

There’s this British coffee franchise, Common Grounds, which is older than penicillin, tea bags, even sliced bread. Like bread, however, the brand has gone stale. With his capable and charming assistant Cambria, Timmy swoops in with a plan. The campaign is paradigm-changing. The video ad goes viral. Common Grounds is rescued. One can almost visualise the headlines: “CREAM SAVES COFFEE”.

More ad campaigns follow, including a poem for a charity organisation’s ad that blows everyone away. Rival agencies soon come a-courting, including New York creative powerhouse Oddinary. But, for the time being, he stays put.

And there’s this other dream of his: training in secret since his childhood, Timmy wants to run and win the New York Marathon, taking the entire race by surprise as a dark horse of a champion. No small feat, considering that it means defeating the Ethiopian long-distance running champion, Haile Gebrselassie.

Every phrase, every paragraph has purpose, is strung together well and polished to a showroom sheen.

Did I mention that he’s rich? His self-designed Balinese-style four-bedroom pad, Ankhura, crowns a 18-floor luxury apartment building on the edge of London’s Canary Wharf. It has a garden and fish-filled rock pools, and a sound system that plays ambient sounds of nature: forests, seaside, rivers and so on. His “elephantine mahogany bed”, larger than king-size, has sheets of 1,500-threadcount Egyptian cotton...

...Whoa. Can such a Mary Sue – whose ads everyone wants to copy, whose artistry can bend the fabric of reality so that Brits would start switching from tea to coffee possibly exist? Character, charisma, career, creative chops, cojones, and cash. Timothy Malcolm Smith has it all. Except love, but that’s going to change.

All that was the first 60-odd pages of Fuel, a dark horse of a Malaysian-authored novel. Even before we enter the posh Balinese home of Timmy Smith, it passed the 50-page test with soaring colours.

What follows is perhaps among the most beautiful love stories ever told. Timmy would share his marathon dreams with Cambria, whom he eventually grows close to. They would train together, go to New York and exchange pleasantries with Gebrselassie. And they would, as the novel promises, do the unexpected. What drives Timmy – the “fuel” for his creativity and his dreams – is passion, hence the title.

Despite the reality-warping powers of Timmy Smith’s creativity and charm, the initial contact, courtship and the clincher is well-scripted and believable, albeit a little rainbow-hued. And the true scope of the Common Grounds ad campaign’s power is left to the reader’s imagination. If the atmosphere of a creative agency feels too true-to-life, it’s because Jeremy Chin himself worked in a similar industry in London for a number of years.

But it’s not just the cover’s simple but impactful design. Every phrase, every paragraph has purpose, is strung together well and polished to a showroom sheen. Timmy’s big empty mahogany bed practically screams, “Lonely heart, space available, enquire within.” No need to guess what the 1,500-threadcount Egyptian cotton sheets imply.

“When you take on a dream this big, it is crucial that you know why you are pursuing it.”—Jeremy Chin

The only minor bumps in Timmy’s racetrack to glory are his intermittent narratives in the first person and the prologue featuring lionesses hunting a gazelle. It makes no sense at first, until one realises that Gebrselassie’s native Ethiopia is home to a number of national parks.

Even before the conclusion of Fuel, you’re already cheering for Timmy and Cambria. You’ll want to believe that someone like Timmy can exist, that Timmy and Cambria’s love story can be real, that Timmy can win, that he can move mountains. That you can move mountains, and the fairy-tale Timmy-Cambria romance can be yours.

Yichalal, as they say in Ethiopia’s Amharic language, a word that summed up Gebrselassie’s gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, despite being injured. “It is possible.”


Tough track
Jeremy had high hopes for the book: he wants it to become an international best-seller. “When you take on a dream this big, it is crucial that you know why you are pursuing it. And those reasons have to be good reasons, reasons you will hold close to your heart till the day you die,” he told the audience at a special talk and book-reading session for the hearing impaired in 2011. “Fuel’s success would buy me a golden ticket to continue doing that which I have come to love, which is to write, to share with the world the best that I am capable of. Believing in what you do. That is the most important ingredient towards becoming a great writer.”

He’d quit his job at an ad agency and spent a year to write it, but ran into a number of problems. For one, selling English fiction can be difficult in Malaysia. Also, bookstores worldwide are competing with other forms of entertainment; why read the whole Lord of the Rings when you can watch or even play it? Kind of funny, when you learn that Fuel was originally a movie idea. He approached several publishers with the synopsis and three chapters from the manuscript, but was turned down.

Did readers find it hard to relate to the book, which was set in London and New York? For Chin, it was natural; he’d worked for 10 years in the US and two in the UK. Setting the novel in London was important, and the character was supposed to run in the New York City Marathon. “To give Fuel a Malaysian setting would have been alien,” he stated.

Given the kind of work that went into it, the self-published route was, perhaps, astute. Every word, every phrase was chosen for effect. Each section of the book: characters, milestones, plot, premise and so on, was meticulously mapped out, storyboarded. Chin approached the writing and marketing of Fuel like an ad campaign.

Sadly, his perfectionist streak and dedication to the book didn’t quite pay off. Not all his supporters bought the book. Glowing reviews of Fuel did little to spur sales.

“My journey as a writer, as enjoyable as it was, has become extremely difficult now that I’ve gotten to the stage of promoting Fuel,” said Chin to his audience as he wrapped up the book-reading session. “I’ve walked alone for a year and a half, and it is my sincere hope that each of you here would join me for the next leg of my journey.”

One year later, Chin is still on that journey. He has also released a line of merchandise based on the book’s theme (www.fuelrunning.com). It appears he’s in it for the long run, and still telling naysayers, “Yichalal”.

It’s hard not to cheer that spirit on.

Caffeine Fix(i)

I admit I'm a sucker for certain marketing gimmicks, particularly those with the keywords "limited", "(about to be) banned", "pulped" and "coffee".

A certain marketing gimmick combining two of the above keywords is what drove me to this year's KL International Book Fair. After the last one I'd been to (in 2008), my expectations for this year's Fair were low.

I only stayed longer than I did because they spread the booths across more areas and levels this year, and I got lost. And the crowds were there, including schoolchildren who were bussed to the venue.


Waterfish bait
So, what made me endure the crowds at PWTC on Bersih 3.0 Day?

Kopi at Mukha Café, TTDI, KL

A collection of Malay short stories called Kopi by Fixi. And a mug.

Like the Fair, both looked nice on the Internet. The book was small, and the mug didn't feel hefty enough for holding boiling hot liquids.

The book is pretty, though, inside and out. Like a mini-coffee table book without pictures.

Apparently, Kopi (Coffee) was published to raise funds for a series of short films. Limited to a 1,500-copy print run, this limited-edition short story anthology will only be sold online through Fixi's portal and Amazon, and at events such as book fairs. There will be no reprints once the book is sold out.

Also, it seems the publisher was told that short story anthologies weren't moving off the shelves, so he's not making Kopi available at bookstores. But with this publisher, you never know.

Amir Muhammad should be a fisherman. He knows how to bait a line and get waterfish (suckers) like me chasing after it.


A complex brew

Kopi at Artisan Roast TTDI, KL

All the short stories revolve around, are inspired by or includes coffee and are written either by Fixi's authors or contributors who have worked with it at some point. Funny, melancholy, surreal or just scary, the stories conjure up emotions or mental images one might or might not experience when one's brain stem is being shaken by caffeine.

Several stories - some scary, some touching - offer plot twists that are quite inventive, until one realises that it's been done before. But it seems so fresh in these pages. Maybe it's the language - some shorts are buoyed by the rhythm of urban contemporary Malaysian Malay that also has elements of colloquial Chinese, Indonesian and English speech, the lingo of the country's new generation.

In Shaz Johar's "Kopi 3 Rasa" ("Three Flavours of Coffee"), a maid is a witness to the misery and dysfunction in the affluent family she serves. We follow the antics of a skirt-chaser through accounts of his exploits to the female narrator at various cafés in Dayang Noor's "Bersaksi Kopi" ("Witnessed by Coffee").

"Kau Kopikoku" ("You're My [Coffee Candy]") by Dheepan Pranthaman sharply conveys the pain of a young man whose long-held crush for a girl is eventually shattered. Similarly poignant is Nadia Khan's "Kopi Kola" ("Coffee/Cola"), a sad tale of first and unrequited love.

The unexpected plot twists in Amal Hamsan's "Kopi Percik" ("Splattered Coffee") and Gina Yap Lai Yoong's "Cinta Kopi" ("Coffee Love" - boy, translating is hard) bring to mind M Night Shyamalan, which is already saying too much.

In "Ritual" (no need to translate, right?), Luc Abdullah takes us on an exploration of the turmoil faced by two lovers with a really big problem. Meanwhile, Redza Minhat's "Venti" (ditto) manages to tickle with its vulgarity and the "flat what" ending.

Like the caffeine that keeps some awake at night, Faizal Sulaiman's "Kopi Julia" ("Julia's Coffee") and "Tangan Berulat" ("Maggotty Hands") by Fadli Al-Akiti provide potent nightmare fuel. Ridhwan Saidi's "Luwak and Kretek" ("Civet Coffee and Clove Cigarette") is a surreal and shameless piece of self-promotion that's kind of genius.

Oh yes... there are pictures, courtesy of Nik Adam Ahmad's pictorial essay "Kopi Jantan Kaw" ("Strong 'Man' (ahem) Coffee").

The rest of the stories are good, too. It's hard to pick out the best of the best, or even the best. Heck, why bother?

Sweet, sour, bitter at turns and bursting with complex, local flavours, Kopi is a pretty decent blend from a new generation of writers.

---

Kopi

edited by Amir Muhammad
Fixi (March 2012)
180 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 978-967-0374-05-5

OUT OF PRINT

Late News: DRM, Publishing and Books

It's the tail-end of Labour Day and my long weekend. Didn't enjoy the latter half as soon as I realised that, gosh, I need a routine.

Dashing this off before bedtime because, well, this has also become routine.


Tor junks DRM
Sci-fi/fantasy imprint Tor junked digital rights management (DRM) for its e-books. How big will the ripples be? At least one author seems happy about it.

And here's a case against DRM in e-books, and a publishing exec's experience in jailbreaking e-books.


Book publishing vibes
The KL International Book Fair, which ends on 6 May, is sending out positive vibes, from the tone of this report. Earlier, somebody at The Star sees good times for e-publishing and scary times for traditional publishing.

Also: It seems book publishers are following call centre operators to India. China and Singapore sign four publishing agreements on the first day of the China-Singapore Publishing Symposium.

Meanwhile, Egypt's publishing industry looks bleak.


Other news

• Textbook publishing houses in Kathmandu are allegedly fixing prices. Too bad the US Department of Justice is busy right now.
• Several weeks ago, a publisher wanted me to review a Jeremy Lin book. I said I was interested, but wondered whether Linsanity was on its way out. Now, it looks like it is.
• An edition of "Mein Kampf", annotated by historians, a gets (cautious) nod from German Jews. Yes, Germany will soon publish Hitler's "boring and unreadable" manifesto.
• The tortured history of the book review.
• Here's why reversion clauses in book contracts are important.
• News about Fifty Shades of Grey: All three books in the trilogy - OMG it's a trilogy? - took the first three places in the New York Times best-seller list. All three books are also available at MPH @ Publika, Solaris Dutamas. DON'T get it now.
• Fate of badgers in the UK linked to their portrayals in literature. Well, they started killing more sharks after Jaws came out....
• Apparently, Barry Eisley wants Amazon to end an old, existing monopoly - one established by legacy publishers.
• Over a third of the winners of Australia's most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, are now out of print.
• In praise of (good) editors - the kind I want to be.
• Bram Stoker, Dracula author, was once with the Daily Telegraph's books department?

"Z" Marks The Spot

Could this book hold clues to the location of a lost city?

Spain was the first world power back in the day to arrive in the Americas. Its conquistadors had left quite an impression on the land and its natives, and gave the rest of us chilli, chocolate, Che Guevara, Ricky Martin, Shakira, Hugo Chavez, the FARC, Shining Path and Latin American telenovelas.

The image of the conquistador as a savage, greedy and hubristic prick with little to no knowledge, empathy or respect for foreign cultures is a familiar stereotype. The impact of such an image deepens when one sees similar traits in some modern armies. Today, they invade, fight and kill for oil or diamonds. Back then, they did it all for gold.

In some accounts the contrast between the New World and the Old is made deliberately stark: the armoured, bearded white man, versus the barely clothed cinnamon-skinned native who can't understand the former's obsession for the shiny yellow metal the latter finds on occasion.

Thus, the absurdity of measuring an object's worth by how it glistens in the sun and imagination is brought into focus.


A jungle mirage
From what they saw at places such as Tenochtitlan, and maybe because of fevers contracted from the jungle, the conquistadors believed many other such cities existed within the green hell that is the Amazon. Nobody is certain who was responsible for the old chestnut called El Dorado, a king so rich he covered himself with gold dust. The fever, however, has spread and persisted for centuries afterwards.

Former British soldier Percy Fawcett became convinced of the existence of one such mythical city, which he dubbed "Z", and set out to find it in 1925. His fate, like that of El Dorado, became a matter of speculation. Scores have failed, died or gone missing while looking for him and his lost city.

I'd first learned about Z from a Reader's Digest publication, Great Mysteries of the Past (1991). You pick up some amazing things from their books, pre-Wikipedia. With so much out there, a book can be a stable starting point for a paper chase. The book was also where I'd learnt how Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanished during a reconnaissance flight in World War II.

How fascinating, I thought. But would I ever see the closing chapters?

In 2008, de Saint-Exupéry's disappearance was apparently answered when a German pilot claimed he may have shot down the French author's plane, but that claim is disputed. But between the two, the story of Z was more compelling.

And one day, the sequel - and a possible ending - stumbled in like an unexpected guest.


Lost no more?
Literary journalist David Grann, author of the well-spoken-of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, wrote what looks like a dispatch from the Amazon where, he says, the lost city might have existed upon a time. It's an enlightening, revelatory piece that makes sense in the light of other discoveries and theories about several other lost civilisations. The Lost City of Z was named Barnes and Noble's single best non-fiction book of 2009 and received good reviews.

Percy Fawcett, explorer at large

Earlier, I'd read a similarly intriguing National Geographic article of the rise and fall of the Maya. Around the time the piece was written, climate change was emerging as a hot topic, and experts contend that the weather, together with overdevelopment, deforestation and, perhaps, the unsustainable luxurious lifestyles of the elite contributed to the decline or collapse of some old civilisations, including the Maya and Khmer.

One report suggested that, where the Maya was concerned, prolonged, minor reductions in rainfall were enough to push the civilisation closer to the brink. Makes you wonder just how screwed up the water management system had to be.

But if Grann is correct, the Maya and Aztec weren't the only city-builders in the continent. Some of the native tribes that now live in the Amazon jungle, he suggests, may have once been a metropolitan bunch. In his dispatch, he meets archaeologist Michael Heckenberger at a dig site in the Amazon.

"I want to show you something," Heckenberger said at one point.

... After walking for a mile or so, we reached an area where the forest thinned. Heckenberger pointed to the ground with his machete. "See how the land dips?" he asked.

Indeed, the ground seemed to slope downward for a long stretch, then tilt upward again, as if someone had carved out an enormous ditch.

"It's a moat," Heckenberger said.

"What do you mean, a moat?"

"A moat. A defensive ditch." He added, "From nearly nine hundred years ago."

... Heckenberger said that the moat had originally been between a dozen and sixteen feet deep, and about fifty feet wide. It was nearly a mile in diameter. I thought of "the long, deep ditches" that the spirit Fitsi-fitsi was said to have built around settlements. "The Kuikuros knew they existed, but they didn't realize that their own ancestors had built them," Heckenberger said.

Heckenberger also pointed out several other features of what he says used to be a vast ancient settlement: walls, plazas, canals, causeways, and possibly roads to other similar settlements. He'd also found broken pottery at the site.

It was understandable why Fawcett wouldn't have been able to see it, Heckenberger went on. "There isn't a lot of stone in the jungle, and most of the settlement was built with organic materials—wood and palms and earth mounds—which decompose," he said. "But once you begin to map out the area and excavate it you are blown away by what you see."

So there may have been cities in the Amazon once, just not the gigantic gilt Xanadus dreamed up by malarial conquistadors and legend-seeking white explorers. So what? Why is it so hard to accept that ancients humans used to be capable of a lot of things, without the aid of gods or aliens?

Besides, these ancients didn't really vanish. After surviving what Heckenberger calls "a holocaust from European contact", the formerly settlement-dwelling Indians gradually adopted a more low-key lifestyle - like how some dinosaurs apparently shrunk and learned to fly. "That's why the first Europeans in the Amazon described such massive settlements that, later, no one could ever find," he concludes.

"Poor Fawcett—he was so close," said Grann's local guide, Paolo Pinage.


The past can return
What Heckenberger found so far, in my opinion, lends weight to the fragility of what we refer to as 'modern civilisation'.

For instance: Radio interviews a while back suggest that Selangor doesn't have a proper contingency plan that would prevent what happened in 1998 when taps ran dry in parts of the Klang Valley. What would happen if a similar drought repeats itself?

We can't say much about people thousands of years ago, but with our science and technology, surely it's a cop-out to blame the climate for everything and not take some responsibility for how we're trashing our environment with our wild ways.

Before we know it, we could be on the verge of a similar cataclysm that ended civilisations symbolised by Fawcett's lost city of Z. Bereft of all that our modern, fast-paced civilisation depends upon, would we see or learn to accept the wilderness we once scorned as our salvation?

Apple Trouble, Pulitzer Snub, And Seeing Red At LBF

Apple Lawsuit News Round-up
Are we all sick of "Apple vs DoJ" and "Amazon wins"? I am. I'm following the developments but I can't be bothered to comment at length about each stage or revelation that surfaces. So here's a list of links.

Last week, publishers Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon &Schuster were reportedly seeking a settlement with the US Department of Justice regarding allegations of them colluding with Apple to fix prices of e-books.

What does Apple say about it? "See you in court." But not in Europe, apparently, where it and most of the named publishers have reportedly decided to settle with the EU competition commission. Now, it seems Canada wants to sue Apple for e-book price-fixing, too.

Some others also wonder who's the real price fixer: Apple or Amazon? For one, the indie book publishers feel it's Amazon that's the 800lb gorilla. There's also the opinion that book publishing is staring at a dilemma similar to that faced by the music industry back when music started going digital.

While speculation has begun over what the Apple lawsuit will mean for readers, somebody asks: Who was the stool pigeon in the case?


Meanwhile, in the Amazon jungle...
Jeff Bezos speaks to Amazon's shareholders in a written annual addresss. "...even well-meaning gatekeepers slow innovation," he said at one point. Care to guess who these "gatekeepers" might be?

Amazon also bought the US licensing rights for Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, allowing it to republish the titles. The time limit is ten years.


Pulitzer fiction flap
The decision to not award a Pulitzer for fiction this year outraged the publishing industry, as well as the Prize's jurors who worked hard to pick the finalists.

Peeved over the snub, some publishers offered their 'winning' picks. Said Ann Patchett of the decision, "This was the year we all lost."

It seems that the rules say that a title must obtain a clear majority vote to win. The three shortlisted titles: Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, Karen Russell's Swamplandia! and the unfinished The Pale King by the late David Foster Wallace did not get the required number of votes.

The ...kerfuffle? ...has sparked some calls for the rules to be changed. But just how significant are such prizes in the era of the million-dollar fanfic?


Seeing red at the 2012 London Book Fair
Chinese author Ma Jian's protest paints London Book Fair red.

Also at the Fair, a reporter's encounters with China's book censors, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP)... were not pretty. One instance:

At the information desk, staffed by young Chinese women studying in the UK, I asked whether Gao Xingjian, the Nobel Laureate, would be speaking. None had heard of him. I said he lived just over the Channel in Paris. One of the young women said: "Then he's not a Chinese, right?" I said he was indeed, had lived most of his life there, and had resigned from the Party. They looked embarrassed.

...When [a lackey] asked [her boss] in Chinese if they had Gao's books he said, in English, that Gao wasn't a Chinese and that, like all foreigners, "he lied about China." I asked him what sort of lies. He said in Chinese to his young assistant, "Don’t talk to this foreigner." I told him in Chinese I could understand every word he had said, whereupon he told me, in English, "You're a shit." I replied, Bici, bici, ... the feeling is mutual.

Read the whole thing. Online and offline, it looks like the China's censors can't operate without being standoffish.


Other news

• Our National Library is targetting to have 28,000 new book titles by 2015. Would that number include e-books? If it does, easy-peasy. Will the potential tsunami of local e-books give rise to our own 50 Tona Kelabu?
• How (some) book publishers decide what to publish. Can be instructional.
• More writing tips: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. From the Los Angeles Festival of Books, three pieces of writing advice from "great" non-fiction writers Tom Bissell, Mark Dery and David Bellos.
• Lauren Myracle responds to being on US library association's list of most frequently challenged books of 2011.
• The activity that dare not speak its name: a guy's mom's secret writing life.
• Has Kindle killed the book cover industry? Some may argue "yes". To emphasise the point, Booktango introduces a free feature for designing e-book covers.
• The story behind Germany's low e-book sales. Maybe it explains the culture that gives the EU competition commission its teeth.
• "Would you blurb my book, Mr Mansbach?" Adam Mansbach, in short: "Go the f— to sleep."

Ah, and there's the KL International Book Fair 2012 from 27 April to 6 May at PWTC. Going there this Saturday might be a bit tough, though....

MPH Quill Annual Issue 2012

Cover story for the Quill Annual issue 2012: Tan Sri Dato' Dr David Lai, CEO of housing developer Bandacaya Group.

Phillip Matthews asks whether great editors are born or evolved; Ellen Whyte talks about her obsession with book placement.

Kashini Krishnamurthy delves into the lair of the sleeping giant that is the Malay publishing industry; we catch up with Jeremy Chin, author of Fuel, one year on.

We also have Lau Siew May (Playing Madame Mao and The Dispeller of Worries) talks about the art of writing fiction; Shantini Suntharajah waxes lyrical (almost) over bookshops.

Mary Schneider introduces the old Penang through an old soldier's postcard collection; Tom Sykes explores the genius of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Third World literature of protest.

The Quill April-June 2012 issue is also out, too. Get them both now.

A Roast To Toast

This article was originally a blog post that languished in the drafts pool since the end of March. Which may explain the minute omissions of one or two details, such as the actual business hours (listed at the bottom) and that it costs RM1 to swap the milk with Bonsoy.

---

A roast to toast

The welcoming vibes at this neighbourhood café keep 'em coming back

first published in The Star, 21 April 2012


"Starbucks with sarongs" is not how I would describe Artisan Roast TTDI. But it's satisfactory enough as an introduction. I'm not even sure the staff wear sarongs all the time these days.

Two things to note when entering: ambience and aroma.
Welcome to Artisan Roast TTDI.

My first visit to Artisan Roast was an adventure. I almost got lost.

Part of a café concept founded in Scotland, Artisan Roast KL is owned by Michael Wilson and Amirah Mohd. Artisan Roast (AR) sources, roasts and packs its own beans and, back at its old place at Yayasan Seni Berdaftar (along Persiaran Jalan Ritchie in KL), none of their beverages were priced above RM10.

Talking to a customer are (at left) Michael Wilson and Amirah
who run Artisan Roast

The fresh, fragrant brews, made from freshly ground Brazilian Carmo beans, needed no sweetening, either. Even after the coffee had cooled way down, the thick lines of latte art and the foam they sat on held firm.

The coffee was good. The atmosphere was good. But we never went back. Nor could we.

As it's often the case these days, the news came from Facebook.

Artisan Roast was moving.

Its new digs at Taman Tun Dr Ismail are bigger, better equipped and more comfortable, being air conditioned and all. With a proper kitchen, meals and other stuff can be made from scratch as advertised. Located next to the big Maybank branch on Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, TTDI's well-known nightspot strip, it was easy to find - unlike parking.

Light reading at Artisan Roast TTDI

And unlike the old days when it was in YSB, Artisan Roast TTDI has a larger, steadier clientèle. Good, because the place needs the business.

However, gone are the serenity, open spaces and clean air. Will it become a victim of its own success as the crowd swells?

In keeping with the artisanal vibe of the brand, AR's interior has fewer polished lines and surfaces than most modern cafés. Tall benches and chairs and tables that are more like wooden beams emanate a bar-like feel. A nook of low tables and cushions at the back provides more space for family gatherings and meetings.

...Hmm. Definitely not Starbucks, then

Most of the walls are bare brick, save for some surfaces decorated with murals, some of which are half-finished. When the baristas get to work, expect half the room to smell real good.

Drinking coffee or tea here feels more natural. AR is essentially a bar for teetotallers. I was also told that some bar-goers in the area drop by for a caffeine jolt to help stretch their nights.

AR serves its own cakes, pastries, sandwiches and savoury muffins. But the a la carte menu is limited. At the moment, you can choose either eggs on toast or pancakes with caramelised bananas and whipped cream, sprinkled with cinnamon, both cooked from scratch. It's worth the wait. The menu is also evolving, bringing the promise of more scratch-kitchen yummies in the future.

Killer pancakes with ambrosial caramelised bananas.
Too much whipped cream, though.

Everything in the display chiller comes out from the kitchen as well. The Sicilian Apple Cake seems popular; one night I was there, they sold five slices within an hour.

Each rustic-looking slice looks like a cluster of apple cubes and sunflower or pumpkin seeds held together by a bit of cake sponge. I bet one slice of their Carrot Cake can improve your night vision straight away.

Other tasty treats include the Cheeeeeeeeese Cake which is worth every "E" and every sen you pay. I've found that The Zesty Lemon Slice goes particularly well with hot coffees. The Millionaire Shortbread was nice with its layer of chocolate and all, but my preferences lean towards hoi polloi shortbread.

See? "Cheeeeeeeeese Cake!" Count the "Es".

I shan't say much about their coffees. Crowds don't lie, they say. If you're curious about what they're serving, ask the barista. Beans that have had their turns in the hopper include Sumatra Mandheling, Rwandan Musasa, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, El Salvadorean La Guachoca and those from Fazenda Lagoa do Morro in Brazil.

AR also serves Red Espresso, rooiboos tea that's prepared like espresso. The Red Latte is a great pick for caffeine-free nights - simply the most luxurious, sublime teh C kosong I've had. Another non-caffeine diversion is the Smoovie, AR's special concoction of banana, yoghurt and cinnamon. Those were the only ingredients I could taste.

Baristas at work

Nowadays, I spend at least a night or a weekend afternoon at AR, nursing one of their beverages for a while before washing it down with free filtered water. Prices are also reasonable: Most of their beverages go for between RM5 and RM10 and cakes/pastries are between RM2 to RM10. One can also pay a little more to go lactose-free with Bonsoy. Plus, the benefit of a (supposedly) cooler crowd.

But I miss the quiet. And playlist needs more tunes.

---

Artisan Roast TTDI

4, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14,
Taman Tun Dr Ismail

Daily, 7:30am (weekdays) or 8am (weekends) to midnight

+603-7733 6397

amirah@artisanroast.co.uk

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