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.
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.
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.
Mega 1 Cafe Wine Noodle @ Penang
Mega 1 Cafe, a shop by Burma road which is sorta hard to spot, served something sorta rare in Penang – Wine Noodle.
The design of the shop is very simple, and just few tables available. The same goes to find a parking space here, damned hard to find!
Honey Longan Wintermelon @ RM3.20.
Restaurant Floating @ Bukit Tambun
Bukit Tambun, a small town south of the mainland Penang, is famous for it’s fresh and extremely cheap seafood (in the past). Not only it do attracts many people travel all the way to dine there, but it also lead to many seafood restaurant operating there to crop with the crowd.
1 of my favorite restaurant here in Bukit Tambun will be Restaurant Floating.
Like all other seafood restaurant here, you can choose which seafood you want before you are seated. Don’t expect to find something like geoduck or snow crab here though.
The restaurant is not named as Restaurant Floating for nothing, it’s actually floating on the huge man made pond with loads of fish swimming underneath it.
Jiu Jiu Szechuan Restaurant @ Autocity Penang
Chinese cuisine, usually refers to food originates from China. However, as China extends to such a huge area in Asia, with twenty-two provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) in it, each provinces having different type of cultures and even climate since they are separated thousands of miles away, surely the people there will have different taste buds, and hence the birth of different type of cuisines in China.
The 4 Great Traditions of Chinese cuisines are Cantonese, Huaiyang, Shandong and Szechuan. Malaysia’s Chinese food are heavily influenced by the Cantonese cuisine, for example sweet and sour pork, Char Siew and Won Ton. Huaiyang and Shandong cuisine however are not as popular to Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine here in Malaysia,with representative such as Duck Egg and Pork Porridge, Yangzhou Fried Rice (both from Huaiyang) and Peiking duck (Shandong cuisine). For me myself, I love Szechuan cuisine, and it’s greatly influenced by the anime Cooking Master Boy!
Sek Yuen Restaurant @ Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur
I finally had a chance to dine in Sek Yuen restaurant, which I had heard so much good comments on them in the past. I actually thought it was nearby to Puduraya at first, turn out it’s nearby to Pudu Plaza instead. I am also quite amazed that I saw 2 Sek Yuen side by side, 1 with air corn and another 1 without, and since it’s such a hot day, of course I choose the one which is cooler inside!
Since it’s only 2 of us, and I really wanted to try their “pei pa duck“, so I still opted for it although the waiter told us the portion is quite big since it’s half of the duck. Nevertheless I and LY finish it as it’s good! Yea, some part of the duck might be quite hard to bite off, but the skin is really crispy and I love it. Yummy! 8.4/10
Bi Ah Dong (Mabrown) Restaurant @ Sungai Petani
Bi Ah Dong? Mabrown? I always find that this restaurant name is very funny. In Chinese the restaurant was read as “We Ye Tong”, or “Bi Ah Dong” in Hokkien, but in English it was known as Mabrown, and which I always read as “Mabolo” when I was still small, err….what? Well, in any case, this restaurant had started their business for a long time already, as long as Restaurant Sai Gao, and if not mistaken, they are 1 of the 1st restaurant in Sungai Petani that provide air-corn room for their customers.
However, in terms of customers, Sai Gao always had the upper hand. I had also notice most of the time Sai Gao is the first choice of most customers, and only if they can’t find a place there then they will only opt for Restaurant Bi Ah Dong. Besides, whenever Sai Gao is off, the business here will be tremendously good.
However, I still love both restaurant, and I find that both of them got their specialties that make me always come back to them.
They had a few ready cooked dishes, such as those you found in economy rice stall, and the beancurd below is 1 of them. Although it’s cold already (duh obviously) but it still taste nice. Even though the skin is not crispy, but the gravy is good. I take it as an appetizer before my meal. 7.5/10
The eggplant is another ready made dish. However, I find that it’s so-so only as it’s a bit tasteless. But still, ok la. 6.2/10
Red Pearl Restaurant @ Sungai Petani
Curry fish head, yea, many of my closer friends will link curry fish head to me, as I am such a huge curry fish head fan. The same goes to the owner and waiter of this particular shop – Red Pearl Restaurant in my hometown, Sungai Petani. Whenever I visit this shop, they will know for sure 1 of the dish I order will be curry fish head, and 99.9% of the time I never fail them. There is once I went and didn’t order it, and they were sorta shocked and asked again, you don’t want it?
Some might say I am crazy, for keep on repeating the same food at the same restaurant, well, can’t help it, as the curry fish head here is something I ate since I was small, and it’s definitely something I will keep on eating it until the shop close down or I no more longer live in this world, well, or at least until 1 day their quality dropped dramatically.
So here I am, AGAIN, sitting at the same table AGAIN. For the starters, we order Ice Green Tea and Chocolate Ice. Yea, the green tea is not green, neither it taste like Japanese green tea. Mainly because this restaurant is opened and operate by Taiwanese who had migrated to Malaysia. The owner of the shop is actually my ex-neighbor, but this is not an invited review, nor I get any special discount everytime I came here (and yes, food here ain’t that cheap).
My lovely curry fish head, it’s really yummy, and really awesome to go with rice. The curry is thick, the aroma makes me fly, ah…….yummy. Yes, the meat might be mostly fish meat only rather than giving you the whole big head, but still, it’s lovely, and each time I was there, the fish served is fresh.
Lao Di Fang Bah Kut Teh @ Sungai Petani
Bah Kut Teh….ahh….how I miss those days when I am staying in Petaling Jaya, where Puchong and Klang is so near to me, where above average Bah Kut Teh is easily to be found…ahhhh I really miss those days, as I am a huge Bah Kut Teh lover! But, once I am back in my hometown, gosh, everything change! Bah Kut Teh here is so sucks, and even the best one is just like drain water if compare to better ones in Central Region! I had rant before in my personal blog at Samlee860407.com before about how I hate them. GRrrrrrr!!!!!
I had not eaten Bah Kut Teh at all ever since my last rant (dated 8th March 2009) in Sungai Petani. Reason is I am worry about the more I had Bah Kut Teh here, I will one day become a Bah Kut Teh hater. Until recently, I had heard that there is this new restaurant serve not bad Bah Kut Teh, and they even had the dried version! Well, ok, since it’s been so long, I decided to give them another try.
Luckily, it was OK. NO, my OK is not OK for the standard of Central Region, but for the standard of my hometown. The soup is quite OK, meat is quite OK, taste OK, just everything is OK. Nothing spectacular. 4.5/10
Here comes the dry version. Well, it is the first dried Bah Kut Teh in Sungai Petani, and luckily, it was quite OK. The meat is quite tender, not too dried, but just not enough spicy. Still OK la if I don’t want to hiam too much. 5.5/10
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