T Hotel @ Alor Setar
Just another food blog reviewing a hotel eh? Well, this is also a travel blog ma, so I decide that in the future, I will review some of the hotels I stay when I travel around, either in Malaysia or outside. Hope this will help a bit to my dear dear readers who love to travel eh?
It was my 1 day trip to Alor Setar, and without having any idea where to stay, I just drive around and saw T Hotel. From the looks and the lobby, the hotel seems quite nice and clean.
Walk in and ask, RM80 for their normal room with a Queen Size bed. Seems that the price and cleanliness all suits my need, hence I pay and check in.
Security wise it seems OK as you need to use the card to swipe before you can enter the room area. While for the room, normal key is given.
And yeap, the room is with real simple design, but clean.
Lao Fang Zi @ Penang
Lao Fang Zi aka Old House Cafe, read it from newspaper, read it from blogs about this place, and now it’s time for me to actually visit this place.
As the name says so, it’s an cafe with a theme of traditional design, antique style table and chair, with air conditioner on the ceiling, resembles the feeling of modern vs traditional.
All these with the quiet environment certainly makes this place a good cafe to hang around, chit chatting with friends and such, but how will the food fares?
Chrysanthemum tea and Dragon fruit juice.
Ped’s Restaurant @ Bukit Kayu Hitam (Ban Dan Nok)
After walking under the hot sun around the town of Ban Dan Nok, it’s lunch time before we head back to Malaysia.
Since both me and LY are extremely thirsty, we order 1 big bottle of fresh sugar cane water to share among. It’s extremely refreshing, and we finish the whole bottle even before our dish came. Hence, 2 person 2 bottle, fair right?
Some vegetables to go with some Thai sambal, which taste very good and spicy. Yummy…I love it.
Street Food @ Bukit Kayu Hitam (Ban Dan Nok)
One of the advantages staying in my hometown – Sungai Petani is that it’s very close to the border of Thailand and Malaysia. Folks here can just spend a little and are able to travel out of Malaysia already. How great is that huh?
And yea, Bukit Kayu Hitam is the place always being mentioned by folks here. People always say, let’s go to Bukit Kayu Hitam for some little shopping, and have some really authentic Thai food. However, little to be known by folks here, Bukit Kayu Hitam is still under Malaysia, as it is Kedah’s main border town on the Malaysia-Thailand Border.You don’t need to pass the border, or use your passport to visit Bukit Kayu Hitam.
However, since Bukit Kayu Hitam is not their main destination, passport is needed to enter the town of Ban Dan Nok in the district of Sadao, Songkhla province in Southern Thailand.
Like in almost every border, the immigration area is always packed and full with people queuing up. We queue up for more than 30 minutes, and since it’s open air border, there ain’t any air-conditional to cool us down. So once we pass the border, the 1st thing that came to my mind is to have some coconut jelly!
Ice cooled coconut jelly @ RM2.50 is really superbly refreshing for us.
Zakaria Laksa Teluk Kechai @ Alor Setar
Alor Setar, the capital of Kedah, is very very famous of it’s laksa. No, not the Asam Laksa you find it Penang, but rather a variant of it, known as Laksa Kedah.
The most famous Kedah Laksa is Laksa Teluk Kechai, and Zakaria Laksa is the best according to many people.
According to what I understand, Kedah Laksa is supposed to be very similar to Asam Laksa in Penang, and the only difference is the garnishing used.
Zai’s Char Koay Teow @ Sungai Petani
Due to the fact that my love in Char Koay Teow, not only Chinese one, but Malay one too, I was introduced to Zai Char Koay Teow in my hometown.
As for my experience, this is by far the tidiest Malay version Char Koay Teow that I ever had.
The Royal Kedah International Hot Air Balloon Festival @ Alor Setar, Kedah
When I first heard that there’s going to have a Hot Air Balloon Festival so near to the place I stay, I say, I MUST GO! Moreover, I also read from newspaper that you only need to pay RM10 for a ride on the balloon. Amazing ain’t it?
It was held for 3 days, starting from 28th May 2010. Each day it was divide into 2 session, 6.30am to 9am and 5.30pm to 7.30pm. The event was held at Taman Jubli Emas, Alor Setar.
However, the organizer had done a poor poor job. Taman Jubli Emas is a huge park, but we are not allowed to drive our car and park inside, while inside there’s still loads of place for parking. The police told us that only VIP can drive in, and others had to park their car on the road side. We were lucky as we reach early at around 3 PM while others who came late had to park their car as far as 2km from the entrance of the park.
Xian Ding Way @ Queensbay, Penang
Xian Ding Wei, yet another newly opened franchised Taiwanese cuisine here in Queensbay Mall, Penang. Since it’s mother’s day when I visit here, we reached early, at around 11 AM and I am quite surprise the restaurant is half fulled already.
Since it’s Taiwan cuisine, here are the pearl milk tea. From left to right it’s yam, original and champagne, costing RM4.90 each.
Wah Meng Coffee Shop Koay Chap @ Penang
Wet market is always a good place to search for good food, and due to the fact that most stalls nearby wet market are not commercialize yet, most of these stalls are able to maintain the quality of their food for a long time.
Being said so, Air Itam wet market is also 1 of the most famous market in Penang, and also 1 of the most crowded one. The crowd here every morning is incredible, and with it located nearby to the entrance of Kek Lok Si temple doesn’t help too.
Many times I had heard about the Koay Chap at Air Itam market, and some had said the Koay Chap here are consider 1 of the best in Penang. Like most other , the ingredients include duck meat, coagulated pork blood, egg and innards. Although the ingredients are good, but I am not a huge fan of dark black soup Koay Chap, as I prefer this and this more. 7.0/10
Tho Yuen Restaurant @ Penang
Tho Yuen, an old restaurant which are famous for their Dim Sum at Campbell Street, Penang. If I am not mistaken, they did featured in HoChak quite some time ago. However, since it’s already lunch time, I came here not for their Dim Sum, but some other stuff.
Although the restaurant was just newly repainted, but it still gives me an old old feeling when I am here.
Since we are in a chicken rice restaurant, ordering chicken is a must right? So here are the chickens, both the roasted and the steamed one.
However, the chicken is sorta disappointment. When you dine in a restaurant named as XXX chicken rice restaurant, you will definitely expect the chicken will be good, as it is definitely their signature dish. However, this does not apply to Tho Yuen here. No, I am not complaining that their chicken is bad, just that it’s too normal and average, nothing special to shout about. Maybe the chicken RICE is good, but we didn’t try it though. 7.0/10
Forget the chicken, this is what I came here for.
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