My Lower Back and Lunch...

AAARRRGGGHHH! My stupid back is out again. Those damn L4 and L5 discs are giving me major trouble. I was at Crossfit yesterday doing my workout when all of sudden - Boom! That stupid feeling of pain! Now, I'd like to say it occurred when I was doing an extremely heavy deadlift or perhaps during a record setting clean, but no...just came when I was finishing a toes to bar. (Seriously, it could happen if I bent down to pick up a feather...as my physical therapist told me. It doesn't matter!) So I finished the workout (which I shouldn't have, but there was only like 3 minutes left and I knew I could get through it - and it's hard for me to quit anything!) and then made my way back home. I didn't think it was too bad until last evening...and then I could barely walk. Needless to say, I've got the muscle relaxants going and lots of NSAIDs. I believe I will be spending most of the day in bed or on the couch in hopes that I can nip this in the bud before I need to go beg some Malaysian doctor for prednisone. (Trying to avoid the local doctor thing at all costs!)

Thankfully, I did make it to lunch yesterday with Sandra, Susan, Trang and Shannon. Yay for lunch! We met at PickNik over in Publika.

The chef (Nik) at PickNik is kind of a celebrity around here as he was a participant on MasterChef Malaysia - so the foodie in me was curious to try out his place and glad that Sandra threw out the invitation.

Open kitchen - That's Nik (bentover) doing some cooking

Partial view of kitchen and dining area

The kitchen at Picknik is open for all to see...you can even sit at the counter and watch all the action. (I appreciate a chef that isn't afraid to show off his kitchen - especially from a cleanliness standpoint.)

The menu has a wide variety of offerings - including a kids menu. (YAY!!!) I was not super hungry so I opted for the soup and salad. I had done my research and found out that PickNik is known for its stracciatella (think Italian egg drop soup.) It was yummy...very light and well seasoned. My lovely dining companions today had lamb, pasta olio with prawns, a salad, and the prix fixe lunch special which was local fried rice.

Our dishes...somehow I did not grab a pic of Shannon's salad!

Now, of course we saved room for a little dessert today. Trang and Sandra tried the pavlova and I could not resist the salted caramel brownie. After everyone tried both desserts, we decided that the brownie was the better of the two and a must have when we return.

Yumminess on a plate!

I really enjoyed the place. Love that when we left, Nik's dad spoke to us (my understanding is that he is also a pretty well-known chef) to make sure that we enjoyed our meal...as did Nik as we passed the kitchen area. It's the little touches like that that make me want to go back to a restaurant. So...I'll be sure to return with Blaine and my kiddos in the near future!