Penang Food Excursion Part 4

Well, it was Sunday evening before I leave Penang. Not gonna miss some good old Penang food. So came to this hawker centre at Batu Ferringhi. Full with tourist.

Got to have Nasi Kandar. Plenty of different curries (that makes Nasi Kandar taste so good). Off course, without lady fingers, the Nasi Kandar is a complete meal.

Look at the Or Chien(fried oysters), it's starchy yet the oysters is huge and juicy.

Hokkien Mee(generally KL folks would called it Har Mee or Prawn Mee). The sweetness from the prawn and pork tenderloin with chillies would give a shiver in your spine. It's so good.

Ahhh ..... one drinks I never miss in Penang - "Gu Ning Ping"(direct translation is iced mik). Usually, it is served with the rose syrup at the bottom, then top with condensed milked and finished with shaked ice. It tasted like Sirap Bandung but I like this better coz it has more milky taste.

After this, I got to rush back to KL after a wonderful food rendezvour at Penang. Penang, I'll be back!

Penang Food Excursion Part 3 - Restoran NZ

Second day, we sort of lazy and decided to come out for brunch(actaully we skip breakfast coz I was watching F1). BB took me to Rostoran NZ at Gurnet Drive. We ordered pickled vegetable with toufu soup, fried tougay with salted fish, touchew lala, fried yam noodle and deep fried fish.

This deep fried fish(they called it here jiam chui, which mean sharp mouth) is crunchy in the outside but sweet and tender in the inside. We enjoy the fish so much that we used our hand to peel the fish, and diners at neighbouring table was watching with awe. He he he ...

This fried yam noodle is rather unique. The texture is kind of rough and chewy, but tasty.

Oh wow .... this lala dish really brought lots of memories ... My mom used to by this lala which is rather samll(probably about 3 mm) but extremely sweet and fresh. The shell is still crunchy but of course you only eat the tiny meat. I really like this lala coz the texture is so smooth compare with the bigger version. It's rather hard to find this type of lala in the restaurant anymore.

Penang Food Excursion Part 2 - Ikan Bakar Telok Tempoyak

After much waiting, BB finally pick me up from Gurney Drive about 5:30 pm. Immediately we head toward Batu Maung, passing the Bukit Jambul. Before we reached End of the World(only local know this place for good Chinese seafood), we make a left turn towards kampong right after the traffic light. As we drove in, a skyview of a beautiful sea side greeting us. Awesome view! Immediately, we bump into a signboard saying "Kampong Telok Tempoyak". Very interesting name as "Tempoyak" is actually a Malay dish where they frement durina for a week or two before the Malay used for cooking. It has a very pungent smell to it and it really a acquired taste to enjoy tempoyak. Anyway, we were there about 6 pm, bit Kia Su ....
As we walked in, there were already few customer looking for the fishes. BB said we got to be there early as crowds started to flow in after 7 pm, and we have to wait for hours before our foods comes.

There were many types of fishes, prwan and crabs.

BB was standing there wondering which fish to choose. We end up with 2 fishes, bit greedy and glutton. Anyway, who care! We are here for good food. Usually, Malays will only take flower crabs but here they sell mud crab. Hmmm ... very interesting !!

So many types of fishes to choose. All are fairly fresh ....

Another item not to be missed is the coconut drinks there, i guess they just pluck them from the trees from the back of the house.


While waiting for the food(almost an hour later), we has to be amused ourself with this sunset view. Well, afterall we are here for the food, nice view just another bonus .... Soak yourself in the sunset doesn't seem to be the right thing to do with another guy, right?

The owner preparing the fishes for grilling.

The seafood is grilled under slow fire with charcoal. Now wonder it takes so long to get to our table. I was famished by then. Where is my food??????

Finally the Ikan Bakar is here. Look at the colour, we knew it's gonna be spicy. There is a layer of slightly sweet chillies paste on top of the fish. The falvour of the chillies and souce really simmer into the meat.

There are 2 souces to choose that goes well with the fish. But for me, the paste is more than enough. The fish taste delicious, it's so juicy and tender. It's really worth the wait!!! 2 tumbs up for the grilled fish.

Drum rolll......... the finale is here .. the Ketam Baker or grilled crabs .. when I was choosing the crabs, i thought they were fairly small and I did not even have much faith on the taste ......

Oh mine ..... I was so wrong... look at the roe in the crab, almost a quater of the crabs is filled with succelent crab roe ..... sooooooo sinfully good ...... the meat is sweet too even though not as much meat as the meat crab we usually consumed at Chinese seafood restaurant. I really enjoy the Ikan Baker & off course the Ketam Bakar ..... As we finished our meals, there were like more than 100 people already crowded the warong .... definately a good choice BB!

Penang Food Excursion Part 1

Decided to drive up to Penang for another food excursion. Off course also to meet up with my best friend, BB. Arrive in Penang about 2 pm, but BB has an appointment. So I decided to go on my own exploration. Actually, I have no problem going around Penang Island. Been here numerous time.

Ok, 1st stop! Sister's Chao Koay Teow.

The Chao Koay Teow comes with huge prawns and some minced crab meat. Hmmm ... the taste however is really disappointing .... lacked of charcoal fragrant and it is just so so in flavour ... did not live up to the reputation ... RM 3.50 for a rather small portion, not quite price for the money ....the otak otak however, compensate for my disappointment ....

2nd Stop
Gurney Drive

After a small portion of Chao Koay Teow, got to hunt down another delicacies, so got to drive down to find the Crab Bee Hoon I has always craved for many months. It is this Kedai Kopi Public we came last time for the delicious Crab Bee Hon.

Kind of upset when I found out the Crab Bee Hon stall did not open that day, so got to go for second choice, seafood mee suah.

When I saw there is roe isn the Ikan Senagin, immediately opted for the Ikan Senangin Mee Suah. Mee Suah is like angle hair pasta but with softer texture as it is made of rice flour. The mee suah is really a savour after the disappointment on the Chao Koay Teow. The soup is so sweet because of the the fish is extremely fresh. With the right touch of sesame oil and few slice of ginger, the mee suah taste so heavenly as the mee suah has absorb the essence of the juice of the fish into its texture. It's really a pleasant surprise.

There is more to come on this Penang Food Excursion, stay tuned!

Food Foundry

Decided to go Food Foundry with Mee Lin, Lee, Shannon & Ken after church service to have a quick bite. It was very crowded. However, was bit dissapointed with the quality of the food there. May be too many people or just plain qulaity drop .... The menu has changed quite a fair bit. Some of the yummy items were just suddenly missing.

Food Foundry is quite a cozy place to dine in.

Roasted egg plant anti pasta is just OK for me. They used to have excellent anti pasta.

Lee has her Chicken dish(can't recall now). She complain it's too dry.

"No taste" That's what Ken was commenting. It's vegetable lagsana. Don't see he is enjoying it. Well, it's too small portion for him. He wanted something filling, yet the waiter can't recomend any. They really to train their waiters.

Tomato Vongole is Food Foundry's signature dish. So, Shannon and I ordered the Vongole. It is very dry compare to what I had few months ago. The sauce is not as thick and tomato is not as fresh. Fairly dissapointed. However, Shannon still wallop 2 servings(she order another one after that, is too small of protion for her)

Generally, I felt they FF needs to beef up their cooking to lift up thier reputation they earned last year. watch out for consistency too. I hope the food would be better next time I am there.

Shooting Top Chinese Chef @ Xuan Xin, Sri Pacific

At the kitchen at Xuan Xin Restaurant, Sri Pacific(previously Pan Pacific KL). Host, Pei Le, was preparing for the shoot while Chef Desmon Lui talking to me on the shoot. I was directing the shoot.

Stuffed Crab with Golden Sauce. The crab shells are stuffed with mixture of crab meat, minced prawn, onion and flavouring. The Golden sauce is made of stocks and pumpkin to create the golden colour. It is a perfect combination.

Baked Oyster with Black Sesame sauce. Never thought black sesame would go so well with oyster. The sauce gives bit of sweetness to the juicy oysters. Something to die for.

Chef Lui's Szechuan Kitchen is another dish to look out for. The 'pedasness'(hot spicy level) is just nice, yet it allows the favour of peppercorn complement the chicken so well that I couldn't help but to have another serving.

Generally, the shoot at Xuan Xin was very smooth with the help of friendly General Manager, Jean(Mat Salleh that sounds exactly like Malaysian), Manager, Joe(very gentle yet dedicated manager) and friendly MarComm team, Marina & Kenn.

Chef Desmon Lui is certainly a chef of its own class, and he won numerous award in foreign land.

Look out for "Top Chinese Chefs" on RTM 2 soon.

Yee Kei stew chicken feet, steam fish head and pork trotter

I thought gonna be a boring Saturday. Asked Ian out for another quest, but he had a wedding to attend. Then met Tze Foong and Coral at their office, and the next thing we know, we all decided to go for dinner. As usual, I has to recommend new places, and it daunted to me on Yee Kee at Happy Garden. Soo Lynn brought me there once. Their stew chicken feet was simmered for at least 2 hours, so it is very soft. The soy sauce they used is high grade soy sauce for the simmering chicken feet.



I love the steam fish head too. No muddy taste. With plenty of ginger and a dash of Chinese wine, it really brings out the actual flavour of the fish head. Really, succulent good.

The pork trotter was excellent, with equal portion of fat and lean meat, it has to be eaten hot. Or else the fat and skin would be tough when it was cold. It's so tender, and when you bite into the skin and fat mixed with lean meat, oh wow, it taste heavenly.

This is Yee Kei. Located at Happy Garden main road, you won't miss it. Open from 7 pm onward. In good day, the fish out sold out at about 8 pm. We were lucky to grabs the last fish head.
Yee Kei also sell Bak Kuk Teh, but nothing to shout about. The cook is a very humble but nice guy. Unfortunately, I forget to take the photo on the dishes because it was to tempting till we all just dig in and wallop everything. We had 1 steam fish head, 1 steam talapia, 2 pork trotter, 12 stew chicken feet, 2 pots of Bak Kuk Teh and 2 plates of vegie among 8 adults and 2 kids.

The bill came out to be RM 103. Pretty good deal. Will go again to take the photo. Soo Lynn try to get the cook to stew duck feet with same recipe. I love stew duck feet.