December 28, 2008

[Part II] My Affairs... with Penang Hawker Food

The time has come when KW begins to complain about how he couldn't start eating any food until I am totally satisfied taking pictures of them - no matter where we go! :P Sorry dear! And thanks for always being such a good assistant helping me with the food posing hehe....

Nevertheless..... I'm still determined to continue on with my fave hawker food galore!

Lebuh Presgrave Hokkien Mee

This is the famous 'Sa Tiao Lor' (Hokkien : the 3rd street) Hokkien Mee (or Har Mee as KL folks call it)


When we reached the place it was already past 10pm and there were heappssss of people queueing up with either take away or dine in orders!

One thing both KW and I are always impressed is the efficiency and the powerful memory of this hawker - they can literally remember each and every single order no matter how complicated they are, regardless how large or small the orders are.

There are just so many things that can go wrong with the orders 'round here - e.g. one can order Hokkien Mee with either the standard mee, bihun, mix or maggi; and one can also choose to order normal Hokkien Mee or normal Lor Mee, or 'cham' - mixed with half Hokkien Mee soup and half 'Lor'.

Apart from that, there are many extras that one can opt for as well - like Seo Bak (BBQ Pork), Pai Kut (Pork Ribs), fish balls (square ones), Hun Cheang (Pork intestines) and Pork Skin.

Here are our orders:-

KW's small Hokkien Mee (maggi) - RM 2.60


My small Hokkien Mee (bihun mee) with added fish balls - RM 3.20



While waiting for our Hokkien Mee, we ordered Or Chien (Fried Oyster) from a neighbouring coffee shop with lotsa varieties of hawker affairs as well:-

Or Chien (RM 5)


We had cooling Chrysanthemum teas after our late dinner

And the crowd just kept going and going and going even after we left!

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Gurney Drive Hawker Center

Went this place for Tau Hua (soya bean curd) at Gurney Drive Hawker Center and it was pretty packed even when it was already 11pm - prolly due to the long holidays, school holidays and also being a Saturday night

Rows and rows of hawker stalls in between crowds and crowds of people seated, eating, walking, chatting, standing.....


We ordered our Tau Hua from this stall (coz we were seated at their table) - do note that all the tables here are 'territorial' - meaning where you sit determines which stall you MUST order drinks from


Tau Hua


The Lok Lok stall


We didn't take any Lok Loks since we were pretty full from the Hokkien Mees

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Goh Thew Chik Hainan Chicken Rice

There are a few places we frequent for chicken rice but this is the one we always go for - it used to operate from one pretty run-down and tiny shop lot and now it has expanded into 2 adjoining shoplots with ample seating spaces along Chulia Street, with 2 'stalls' that just churns out non-stop of chopped chickens!

We were there for brunch pretty early at about 1130am and the place is already relatively full - with just a few empty tables left - we sat right behind the 'stall':-


KW ordered a chicken thigh and the portion right behind the thigh..


He also ordered some chicken intestines (according to him these normally run out very quickly!)


The complimentary soup


Hainanese chilli sauce to go with the chicken


The rice - they do it right everytime - fragrant, flavourful, soft and always warm


Cost of the whole meal for 2 : RM 11.20

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New World Park (yes! again!)

My parents and my grandma have just came back from visiting my newly-born nephew so after picking them up at 3pm, I drove them to New World Park (yeah, again!) for some makan...

This time, they are free to order whatever they wanted to eat, and my dad usually likes to order lotsa food (like father like daughter)

We had...

Cucur Udang


That's right! Finally I took a pic of it - but my dad doesn't really know which ones to order hence this plate wasn't as nice compared to the one KW ordered - always go for the cucur udang and tau kua

Char Kuey Teow - with egg (there ya go Huai Bin - hope this is authentic 'nuff for ya)


Char Kuey Teow - without egg


My mom was commenting how silly I was taking pics of everything we ordered so she couldn't be bothered to wait til I'm done :P

Ice Kacang - with ice cream


Ice Kacang - without ice cream


My grandma had Curry Mee and I thought I took a pic of it! Grrrr happens that I didn't :( The Curry Mee is a damn good one as well - my ah ma also liked it despite her being very particular when it comes to Curry Mee

Very happy to have 90% of hawker's food with KW this long weekend - thanks dear! (^ v ^)

NB : Read Part I here for more good makan!


December 27, 2008

My affairs... with Penang Hawker Food~

Alright.. So I've blogged a teeeneee bit too much bout KL food so far and Cody started to question how come I don't blog more on Penang food since I'm a Penangite? To do some justice to myself and also to prove that I'm indeed THE Penang Makan Queen, I shall introduce a variety of hawker food and makan places in a go!

New World Park

We had an early brunch so we went for some afternoon tea - Penang style at New World Park food court..

We ordered Or Kueh (yam cake) (RM 2.00) and chee cheong fun (RM 1.80)


This is one nice Or Kueh, soft and both the chilli and sweet sauce compliments the kueh perfectly! And I must mention the dried shrimps... it's super crunchy and I whallop-ed all of 'em! *-)

This was the stall we ordered from, and it's famous for its Bak Chang (Pork Dumpling) as well:-


We also ordered Cucur Udang (RM 2.40) but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the Cucur Udang coz waited too long for it and I straight away got my hands on it :P

See this post for Cucur Udang pic

Freakin' good stuff~~! and I meant all of 'em!

If you are looking for good char kuey teow in the afternoon at New World Park, please do not get duped with many 'fakes' within the vicinity of the food court (there are altogether 3 stalls of char kuey teow here), this is the 'genuine' one
(beside the fried oyster stall) since the days where all the hawkers were just by the roadside of Swatow Lane :-


See this post for Char Kuey Teow pics

Koay Teow Th'ng @ Kimberley Street

We then had a late dinner at Kimberley Street's Kuey Teow Th'ng stall.. and were delighted to find a mobile Yong Tau Fu motorbike selling there as well :D


So we quickly found ourselves a table and ordered Yong Tau Fu, Kuey Teow Th'ng and Chicken Feet!

Yong Tau Fu (RM 5)


Check out the fried garlic onion generously scattered on top of the yong tau fus!! Yummmmyyy~!

Despite having to wait for the busy hawker to bring us the soup, we enjoyed every piece of yong tau fu there is together with the chilli and sweet sauce

I hafta tell ya, the mobile Yong Tau Fu is famous for 2 things :

1. Its nice soup base and fish balls

2. Expensiveness

Move on to the Kuey Teow Th'ng (RM 2.50)


I love its smooth kuey teow, but forgot to ask KW to order kuey teow + mee for me..

Very flavorful and tender Chicken Legs (RM 3)


This goes perfectly well with chilli sauce provided

And we also had thong sui as dessert (the stall's right beside the Kuey Teow Th'ng's)

KW's Almond Soup (RM 1.40)


My Ginkgo and Dried Longan Thong Sui (RM 2)


Famous Ah Leng Char Kuey Teow

Being a huge sucker for char kuey teow, I don't simply take my char kuey teow anywhere... this has got to be among the top of my list as far as taste is concerned..

Ah Leng Char Kuey Teow used to be located near Lorong Kulit but have since moved to this location at Dato' Keramat Road (opposite Federal Place) since few years back.


This place is famous for 4 things:-

1. Mantis Prawn - you can opt to have your plate with Mantis Prawn if you like

2. Duck egg - you can also opt to have your plate with Duck's egg instead of the usual chicken egg

3. Huge Prawns - Ah Leng seems to be very particular with his huge prawns - he normally stir-fries them lightly first, line them up nicely on a big tray for use when he fries his Kuey Teow later.. the prawns themselves are therefore very flavorful because of this.

4. The LOOOOOONG wait time - Like any other famous hawkers, Ah Leng takes his time to fry his kuey teow - not sure whether is it to live up to the 'standard' of it; to ensure consistency in his wait time over the years, or he just wants to make sure every plate of his Char Kuey Teow is every bit as good quality.

So KW wanted me to convey this to anyone who wants to sample Ah Leng's Char Kuey Teow : please make sure you have plenty of PATIENCE as the wait time can be pretty long. For the records, we waited appx. 20 minutes for ours this morning :P (KW added that he waited for his for 30 minutes)

I always liked my Char Kuey Teow without eggs, no cockles and no turnips - coz I somehow felt that adding eggs seem to spoil the whole texture of the char kuey teow (check out the huge prawns)


My plate cost RM 4

KW, on the other hand, likes his the 'standard' style - with eggs and cockles (see how's it's mushy and all? :P)


KW's cost RM 5

In all, it's a pretty steep price to pay, but nevertheless, we don't mind paying a bit more for a plate of good 'ol Char Kuey Teow, which not only is Penang's pride, it is also my favourite food

Rojak (local mixed fruits 'salad') take-away from Swatow Lane coffee shop

This is from the famous Rojak stall within a coffee shop along Swatow Lane, and we bought it yesterday, chucked it in the fridge and only had it today:-

Rojak pack (RM 4)


top : the Rojak paste; bottom : the Rojak ingredients

First, pour the ingredients into a plate


Next, check out the famous Rojak paste - only available from this stall - the uniqueness lies in the malt sugar thick liquid used to make it, and it is layered with a generous amount of peanut crumbs on top...


Its GooooOooeeyyyy-ness...


After that, dig out whole chunks of rojak paste and let it sit on top of the ingredients for further mixing...

The Rojak ingredients consist of red guava, bangkuang (sweet turnip), raw mangoes, cucumber, cuttlefish and pineapple


Start eating!

Red Guava..


Cuttlefish...

Bangkuang (sweet turnip)


Rojak makes a marvellous dessert indeed!

And..... I can't say this enough : PENANG FOOD ROCKS ANYTIME~!! :D


December 22, 2008

Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant @ First World Hotel, Genting Highlands

Went Genting Highlands with KW a couple of months ago and being 'casual' gamblers as usual, we played a fair bit and it was coincidentally almost dinner time when KW's luck striked, so he decided to treat me to Ah Yat Abalone (before the probability of contributing the $ back to Uncle Lim's son anyways!)

It has always been our 'goal' to dine at Ah Yat Abalone whenever we set foot in Genting, and we were thrilled to finally realise it! :D

The exterior...


Very refined deco of flowers in glass encasing..


Interior...


Our table setting.. with chopstick stand adorning Ah Yat Abalone's name


Hand towels..


We ordered juices (L-R) Orange and Honey Dew


And we were provided chilli paste and salted peanuts as well

After checking out its Abalone set and the menus and the waitress' recommendation, we decided to order 1 Abalone set (RM 99++) together with other dishes consisting of : Ee Fu noodle with crab meat and Chinese spinach in superior stock

The Abalone set is made up of:

1. Shark's Fin Soup


The best of all the dishes - the stock was flavorful and braised to perfection - very generous amount of shark's fin - we gulped down til the last drop!

2. Goose Web and Abalone


This was our first time sampling goose web - it's very similar to chicken feet, but slightly longer and more tender.
The Abalone was way too small to tell if it's a good abalone or otherwise :|
But we lurvveeeed the sauce though!

3. Bacon wrapped in Yam


Quite hard and served pretty cold - nothing to write home about

4. Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf


The only upside of this is the big portion of it, other than that, it tasted just like any other glutinous rice

5. Bird's Nest Egg Tart


We felt kinda duped when this was served - not only the size of this is ridiculously small - about 50 cents' coin only; the so-called bird's nest was scattered in a thin layer on top of the egg tart only!

6. Almond Thong Sui (soup)


A very normal almond soup you can get anywhere, nothing fabulous

The side dishes..

Chinese Spinach in Superior Stock


The spinach was a bit too hard to my liking.. as though not well cooked enough. I usually like this dish where the spinach is pretty soft, so that it goes well with the superior stock. The superior stock was pretty good however.

But I forgot to take a picture of the Ee Fu Noodles with crab meat (too busy sampling all the goodies! ^.^ )

The Ee Fu noodles with crab meat was full of crab meat and the noodles were pretty springy - I liked it

The bill came up to about RM 203+, quite pricey judging by the portion of most of the items in the Abalone set


In all, we were pretty impressed with the Shark's Fin soup but the rest of the dishes in the Abalone set were way too small, given the price - namely the Abalone and Bird's Nest Egg Tart.

The waitress did recommend that we 'upgrade' the abalone to a slightly 'superior' Mexico abalone for about RM 35+ (I think) but we declined - with hindsight, we wouldn't have 'upgraded' anyways since the set itself was pretty pricey already

Another point to mention was the other dishes that we ordered - the portions were way too big! We were struggling to finish the Chinese Spinach and Ee Fu noodles...
If given smaller portions, we would have been able to enjoy them better as they tasted pretty good.

When we enquired one of the waitress as to why the portions were so big when we have asked for the smallest, we were told that those are the smallest portion already, so KW sarcastically told the waitress that no one can come in and dine alone in this restaurant then? Since the portions are 'fixed' to be so huge?

Ah Yat Abalone Forum Restaurant - a place we would most probably dine in if Uncle Lim's son were to shed some generosity at the gaming tables for us :P