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.
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.
Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant @ Penang
Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant is 1 of my favorite restaurant to go whenever I had the cravings for Korean food (and also BBQ stuff), simply because the quality of food here is usually higher than those normal Korean restaurant.
In Daorae, besides those normal sitting area, they usually have a dining area with tatami style, and obviously you will need to take off your shoe before entering the area. Notice the white long exhaust chute on top of each table? It can be pull down to be as close as possible to the BBQ area to suck out all the smoke from it.
Like most authentic Korean restaurant, our table is invariably laid with a sumptuous array of panchan. They are given complimentary for every table if you order their BBQ dishes. Most of them taste nice, and you can always ask for free refilling. I especially love their salad.
Rung Reang Thai Restaurant @ Jitra
Jitra, the 4th largest town in Kedah after Alor Setar, Sungai Petani and Kulim do have few famous restaurant selling Thai food, and due to the close proximity to the Thai border, the Thai food served is authentic and good.
One of the most famous restaurant is Rung Reang, a restaurant even known by few of my friends from Kuala Lumpur.
The crowd here is amazing. We reach there around at 9 PM, and almost all table were full. We were also told that we need to wait quite long for our food.
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