I have been told that Brickfields has lots of good food. So I decided to drop in on my friend, Don, who's an expert on finding the best culinary experience in that area. While I wanted to savour the food, catching up with Don is always great. He was one of two persons who had alerted me to the CKT in Brickfields and to date it remains one the best CKT in Klang Valley.

Don mentioned that there was another CKT that I should try out at the New Lay Sin coffee shop on Jalan Brickfields/ Jalan Tun Sambanthan. It's opposite the Sri Kota supermarket. So OK I said. I mean it's a terrible job, this food reviewing thing, but someone's got to do it.

After the first few bites into the CKT, I knew something was terribly wrong. What do I now, I was wondering. This is really bad CKT, do I stop eating and offend my friend. What's happened to Don's tastebuds?  This was going on in my mind for a few minutes but it felt like hours and finally I decided, I couldn't stomach this CKT anymore. I stopped eating it and put it aside. Don couldn't believe it that it was bad as he said his plate of CKT was good until he took a bite out of my plate. He agreed that it was bad. Phew! Here I thought that his tastebuds had gone the way of the dodo. Surprisingly his plate turned out OK. The only difference between our two plates was that I asked for extra chilli and his was the standard fare. Inconsistency, that's what it is. That's bad. I am not going back here.

To make up for this, Don brought me next door to Restoran Sri Paandi, a place that he considers to have one of the best Indian dining experience in Brickfields. "It's on me," said Don - he felt guilty for subjecting the foremost expert on CKT in the world to such a gruesome experience earlier.

I had banana leaf rice (in Malaysia this is known as the BLR. in fact it's the predominant understanding for most Malaysians that BLR is Banana Leaf Rice and not Base Lending Rate) ) with fish curry and a dry curry chicken. The dry curry chicken was outstanding. Dry without being overly so, with the curry spices marinated deep inside the chicken meat as well. The fish curry was yummy. And they had papadam which I always like and their special weapon, their very own fried potato chips. If you haven't tried potato chips with rice and curry, you are missing out an experience here. It's not only different but it tastes good as well. I am always one for strange concoctions and this concoction works.

At the end of the meal I told him that all had been forgiven and he had fully restored my faith in him. Sri Paandi is open in the afternoons and if you don't like rice, you can have it with capati as well. However there's something I need to warn you about, after having lunch there you will leave with not just a hearty meal but a somewhat strong lingering curry fragrance on your clothes as well. A more authentic Indian dining experience will be hard to find.

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