No new food places this week. Just three old stalwarts.

First, The Barn, where we -- unlike others -- didn't celebrate Hallowe'en.



Why? Because Hallowe'en is SO not the real deal. For that you need Hop-tu-Naa...

On the Isle of Man, Hop-tu-Naa marks the last day of the Celtic year. (It always made sense to me that the Celtic winter ran from November to January. This is the really dark, dead time of the year in the northern hemisphere. Come February, it's still cold, but the light is flooding back, and early flowers and lambs are appearing. So the first day of February marks the beginning of spring.)

Hop-tu-Naa is the day when you -- or rather your longsuffering parents -- hollow out swedes (which we call turnips, pronounced tinnups) to make glow-in-the-dark lanterns. Tinnups, much more so than pumpkins, are solid little things. So the carving process is hard yakka.

You then take them up to school for a bit of a celebration, and of course you sing the song: "Hop-tu-Naa, put in the pot; Hop-tu-Naa, put in the pan; Hop-tu-Naa, I met an old woman; Hop-tu-Naa, she was baking bonnag..." etc, etc, etc (it goes on for quite a while). Then in the evening you go round the houses, again with your lantern and your song, which ends: "Won't you give me a penny before I run away by the light of the MOOOOON?" And people give you money. Except I wasn't allowed to do the going-round-the-houses bit, as Dad said it was begging.

This week, we also went back to Noodle Shack at Avenue K. This time I had the "Hakka Pounded Tea Pan Mee", which was really delicious. Exceptionally toothsome noodles, topped with a variety of veges, peanuts, tofu, and sesame seeds, and served with a bowl of tea soup. Apparently the dish derives from lei cha, or "thunder tea rice", so called because of the noise made by pounding the ingredients.



And, we discovered, Jamaica Blue does not only good coffee, but also interesting breakfasts. This one was a sort of Turkish twist on poached eggs, and was very tasty.



The celebration of light is everywhere at the moment, of course, because Deepavali is just round the corner. More on that later in the week.

But there's a new digital art exhibition on at the Petronas Gallery, which produces some interesting effects.







City lights never stop, as my evening walks home make clear.



And there's an interesting light-catching installation in front of the old clock tower, as part of the Urbanscapes Festival.







Good old KL. Keep the food and light coming.